0144 hours

 

Luhan was just a few meters away from the fence when a huge chunk of concrete was thrown into the sky. He heard the deafening cries of agony and pain as lightning struck and fire burned. The mix of orange and white were blinding him so he moved on.

He moved cautiously pass the stampede of doctors in lab coats and geeky specs screeching and screaming out the main entrance. Moving through them was never an option. Luhan hurried to the exit where the four of them had escaped earlier with Soojung’s help.

There was a large gap where the door once stood. He heard screams of terror as patients backed away from the space separating them from the other side of the building. Bits of concrete fell when he saw a familiar figure rising up from the ashes, eyes red and glowing with menace. The malevolent features were clear as day itself. He was too late.

“Bow before me for I am Eris, your new God,” she spoke, her voice deep and intimidating. She lifted her finger and the ceiling of the fourth floor collapsed on its tenants. The remaining patients ran for their life as the goddess of chaos set her eyes on them.

Luhan was frantically searching for a solution. But the acrid smell of burnt flesh and the charred remains of the company of guards in front of him kept him glued to where he was standing. Soojung's mental influence upon the guards didn't matter now when all of them were burnt to the bone. It was a reminder of all things gone wrong. He never planned for anyone to get hurt.

Swallowing the nausea, he forced himself to think. Luhan had memorized the entire outline of the facility so he knew the designers had installed a fail-safe system if any threat were imposed on the safety of the staff or the information they had stored. There were bombs installed everywhere, ready to detonate once the said threat was recognized. And Sulli was more than a threat. She was chaos. She was Eris.

 

“Luhan, down here!”

He looked down to see Chanyeol and Sehun, wide-eyed and panic-stricken, one floor beneath him. Luhan jumped, landing right in front of them.

“Thank God, you’re alright,” Luhan said, relieved to see them alive and breathing.

“That’s not Sulli…” said Chanyeol, kneeling weakly on the floor. He looked terrible, shaken up by everything he had seen. Fire burned quietly in some parts of the room. Luhan turned cold.

“Did you use your powers to calm her down?” Chanyeol nodded curtly.

“The guards were burned. Every last one of them…” he continued, eyes distant. Luhan took it as his confirmation. He turned to Sehun who was a little shaken but otherwise stable.

“Tell me.”

“We didn’t see everything. She was burning the guards with the fire Chanyeol made. But then it burned brighter and the next thing we knew, the ceiling was gone and-“

“Sehun, listen to me,” said Luhan, clasping urgently at his shoulders, “That is not Sulli. That’s Eris, the goddess of chaos. She was the one who destroyed the town, the one you saw the other night. She’s been with her all along. You need to get her out, let Sulli fight her and return to her normal self. Can you do that?”

Sehun nodded slowly, hesitating. “I think so…”

“You’ve done it once, you can do it again. Believe in yourself, Sehun.”

Luhan gave him one last look, hoping it’ll give him strength. He crouched down and wrapped Chanyeol’s arms around his neck. Chanyeol held the spatiometers securely in his arms but his mind was still trying to grasp what happened.

“We’ll wait near the fence. Now go!”

Luhan left with Chanyeol in his arms as Sehun ordered the air to lift him higher and meet the source of all destruction.

 

 

0152 hours

 

Eris was at the third floor, destroying everything in her peripheral view. Their screams and cries were music to her ears. It felt sweeter than the time she burned the town into nothing but ashes. She could destroy the whole thing in a matter of seconds but she decided to savor the moment and enjoy the music.

“Eris!”

She was caught off guard, causing the two patients to run from her grasp. Eris groaned before causing the floor beneath them to collapse.

“Who dared disturb my reign of terror?” she snapped.

Sehun fought his desire to cower and hide, steeling himself. This is all for Sulli.

“Stop what you’re doing at once!”

Eris laughed before looking at him patronizingly.

“Do you think you can defeat me, puny boy? I can easily crush you between my hands if I want to.”

Sehun bit his lip. “Then do it. Crush me.” Eris rolled her eyes.

“I’d love to reduce you to dust but I’m busy with destroying them for now. Wait at the back of the line and I’ll get back to you,” she winked teasingly.

Eris turned her back from him and continued demolishing everything she saw.

“SULLI!”

She froze as dread began to take her. She shook her head, refusing to let her know of what she’s feeling. She was dying anyway so there was nothing she could do.

“Sulli, please come back to me.”

Eris ignored his voice and snapped her fingers, ordering the walls to crumple to the ground. To her horror, nothing happened. She repeated her actions a few more times before the walls finally caved in.

It meant nothing, she convinced herself, she’s weak and dying.

“Sulli, I love you.”

Those three words became her undoing.

 

 

 

This is it, she thought weakly, this is where I die.

Sulli was trapped in the darkness. She was disintegrating faster as she felt weaker. She saw nothing, heard nothing and was grateful. At least, she didn’t have to hear the cries of terror Eris was causing with her powers in her final moments. The only thing she did hear during her imprisonment in her own mind was Eris’ taunts and screeching laughter as she said her name again and again in arrogance.

Sulli wanted to fight. It shouldn’t end like this. Eris cannot win.  But what was left of her was just her head to her waist. There was no trace of strength left inside her.

She closed her eyes, preparing for her end.

Sulli.

She snapped her eyes open. That voice…

Sulli, please…come back to me.

Sehun?

Sulli, I love you.

His words lit something inside her. She remembered the way he made her felt. The way he loved her and she loved him. Memories of Sehun and the friends they’ve made drenched her with ecstasy. She couldn’t stop now. Her friends needed her. Sehun needed her.

His face suddenly became clearer and Sulli realized she was seeing him through her own eyes. She was gaining control again.

Eris failed to notice her small victory as she destroyed everything in her path. Sulli could see clearly the destruction she caused. Anger surged through her in a blinding flash as she felt her strength returning. She charged forward and began her fight for what was rightfully hers.

 

 

Sehun watched her struggle before his eyes. Eris writhed and screamed. She shouted words of denial and Sehun knew Sulli was doing it. She was fighting her once again. He had to continue.

“I love you, Ssul. I knew I would ever since I saw you that first night.”

Eris’ screams rose a pitch higher, telling him to stop as curses upon curses were thrown at him. Sehun refused to relent.

“I love your smile. I love the way they brighten up my days. I love the fact that you gave me hope in this dreadful place. You’re everything to me, Sulli, so please come back. I love you.”

She roared loudly. Her once glowing eyes were now bleak as her pupils constricted and the original white returned.

“This is not over!”

Eris managed to tear down the whole block before disappearing altogether. She began to fall at an increasing speed as her powers waned. Sehun moved to catch her before she plummet down to the ground.

Sulli was back but she was weak.

Sehun held her as tight as possible, chanting her name again and again, relieved to have her in his arms once more.

“Sehun…” she called. Her voice was frail as she fluttered her eyes open. “I love you too.”

Her smile was weak and she could barely keep her eyes open but she finally said it. Sulli finally said she loved him.  The last remaining strength she gathered finally subsided and she returned to the darkness, feeling whole and complete.

 

 

Sehun was barely there when Luhan called him. Did he hear it right? Did Sulli actually say she loves him too?

“Sehun, we have to get out of here now. The bombs could be detonated at any minute.”

“Bombs? What bombs?”

Sehun looked around him, seeing blinking lights everywhere along with the ticking sound of the bombs. Luhan’s words finally sank in as he stood with Sulli in his arms. They were about to run when a marching sound stopped them.

Luhan and Sehun eyed each other. There was supposed to be no one left but the four of them. The doctors had all fled at the first signs of chaos, the guards were all burned to death and Eris spared none of the patients in the short hour of her reign. So who could it be?

Their answer came in the form of lasers and gun shots. Sehun turned to see a group of people in uniforms with helmets covering their faces, coming from the far end of the basement. They marched towards the four of them in perfect sync, almost robotically.

“Run.”

 

 

 

0205 hours

 

Sehun was running up front with Sulli in his arms. Chanyeol, who finally got a grip of himself, was at the back with Luhan, helping him to ward off the relentless guards. But every time they gain a step, the companies of guards were two steps closer.

“Why aren’t they backing down?” Chanyeol groaned as another fire ball left his hand. It was difficult to fight with only one arm available as the other was clutching desperately to the spatiometers.

Luhan threw the guards out of their formation, row by row but they reassembled faster than he could replenish his energy. He was getting frustrated as well.

“Chanyeol, I need you to run with Sehun and protect the spatiometers. Get to the barriers and Jongin will teleport you out.”

“But what about you?” Chanyeol asked, refusing to believe his incredulous demand.

Luhan was drenched in sweat and was breathing hard. Fatigue would have slowed him down if it wasn’t for the adrenaline rushing through him. “I’ll hold them off until you guys are safely out,” he said, sternly.

Chanyeol refused to listen to him so Luhan pushed them as far as he could, taking his attention off the guards for awhile. His actions caused the guards to put less distance between him and them.

He threw punches here and there but it did nothing to slow the guards down. Knowing his physical strength lacked compared to his mental abilities, he hurled the nearing guards that were nearing him but it proved useless. They were still too close. Almost at once, he was surrounded.

“Luhan!” He heard Sehun screamed. He gathered his strength and pushed them away, hindering them from coming closer. He had to stop the guards and keep them away from his friends. He hoped Sehun, Chanyeol and the rest of them were able to escape even if he could not.

The brief distraction caused him to be seized by one of the guards. He punched his face, causing his helmet to drop to the ground. He felt as if time had stopped when the guard’s face became apparent to him. He’d recognize those cheekbones anywhere.

Luhan was baffled. Surely his eyes were playing tricks on him. He couldn’t be…

“Xiumin?”

The guard remained impassive. His eyes were vacant and desolate as he stayed rigid. Luhan was too caught up with what was in front of him, forgetting the guards that were surrounding him as he stood, perplexed. The distant ticking sound grew louder and faster.

He shut his eyes tight as the first blow hit his abdomen.

 

 

~*~

 

 

“Luhan!”

Sehun struggled against the invisible force pushing him back from coming closer to its perpetrator. The three of them were already at the barrier when Sehun realized Luhan wasn’t with them. Chanyeol banged tirelessly against the hard steel, hoping to catch the other side’s attention.

“C’mon Sehun, we have to go.”

“We can’t just leave him behind!”

Sehun tried once again but he was too tired, too fatigued to break the force. He watched helplessly as Luhan fought the guards on his own. He felt disgusted towards himself.

Chanyeol groaned, trying not to think about his comrade fighting on his own. The steel was too thick for the other side to hear. He ran his hands through his hair in a frustrated manner.  Think Chanyeol, think!

He was pretty much useless at anything related to science but he cracked his brain, trying to remember one of the theories Luhan had taught them in the past few weeks. The walls were made of metal which means… Heat!

He wasted no time and began to heat the barriers. It seemed fruitless at first so he cranked up the temperature until the material began to soften and a hole was made. He saw the faces of his teammates and was relieved to no end.

“Jongin, get us out!”

“No, we have to go and save Luhan.”

“Damn it Sehun, he won’t let us!”

“But the bombs-“

The first explosion happened far from where they were standing, the ticking sounds intensified. Sehun watched in horror as the bombs began to detonate, exemplifying the domino effect.

“LUHAN!”

Chanyeol wasn’t brave enough to look at the catastrophe so he took Sehun’s hands by force and yelled at Jongin to get them out. They evaporated into thin air before the third and fourth explosion happened.

 

 

 

Luna ran and took Chanyeol in her embrace as soon as he materialized in front of them. The five of them shared a brief hug with Sulli in the middle, still unconscious. They quickly broke apart when the deafening sound of bombs exploding filled them with terror and confusion.

Luna searched frantically but she didn’t see him.

“Where’s Luhan?” she asked Chanyeol but he stayed mum and refused to look her in the eyes. He shook his head slowly and Luna burst into tears.

Behind them, the barriers began to collapse as the bombs set off. The walls fell, slow and hard, with a loud thud against the ground like a domino.

“We need to go,” Sehun urged.

“But where?”

BOOM. THUD. CRASH.

“Anywhere but here.”

They bolted from the vicinity and into the unknown as the world they once knew obliterated in the background.