Minho held the tiny hands of the baby, gently encouraging the child to attempt standing on her stubby and chubby legs.

  “Aw, come on,” Minho quietly chuckled, “Don’t give up already,” he started hoisting her up a little.

The baby defiantly sat herself with a bothered look on her face, clearly not wanting to listen to him. Minho pulled her up to her feet again, shaking her hands a little.

  “Don’t be as lazy as Taemin,” he looked at her seriously, “Then you wouldn’t be walking ever in your life.”

The look never left her face as she began to wimper, trying to force herself back to sitting.

Minho sighed and swooped her up, giving her sloppy kisses on her little cheek in attempt from keeping her from crying again. When she cried, she didn’t stop; and the neighbors weren’t exactly appreciative of her massive power of disturbance.

The baby made less of a ruckus, but didn’t exactly show the same affection back. She tried pushing away Minho from her face, able to settle in his arms when he let off of her.

  “God, you’re exactly like him,” Minho groaned, looking at the clock on the wall before he walked over to grab her high chair, “I guess it runs in the family. I’ve never seen your mother so cranky, so it can’t be her.”

He settled the girl in her high chair and went for the kitchen, looking for the baby food stored in the cabinet. Grabbing a random one, he took a spoon before leaving, taking a chair from the dining table and seating himself in front of her. Opening the cap, he dug the spoon in, “To think you’d be a sweet little girl, you sass monster.”

The baby giggled at what to her were almost meaningless words and opened , welcoming what Minho was giving her. She ate it quickly and thoughtlessly, eyes on the jar as she waited for him to feed her again.

  “Ravenous, too,” Minho chuckled and fed her again, “You have the appetite of a creature.”

She grabbed the spoon this time and kept it in , on the silverware until she got it clean. Minho would roll his eyes and continue feeding her in quiet. She wasn’t always a very sassy child, but when it came to getting what she wanted, she’d let it show. Or she’d get cranky.

  “Feeding you was supposed to be your reward for at least walking one step,” Minho raised his brows, making conversation with almost himself, “And I doubt you’ll listen to me after this, too. Spoiled. So spoiled, and it’s all my fault.”

The baby neared to finishing the jar before pushing the last spoonful away, looking at Minho in the eyes and one of her arms slightly flailing, “Da!”

  “He’ll be back soon,” he casually stuck the spoon in before she protested, now closing the jar to throw away, “A few minutes tops.”

  “Da!” she persisted, smacking the high chair with her hands.

Minho threw away the jar and put the spoon in the dishwasher, returning to remove her from the high chair and settled on the couch with her, “You’re incredibly impatient for a baby.”

  “Da!” she repeated, hitting Minho’s chest.

Minho took her hands and sternly looked at her, “No hitting.”

He let her go and she took one of his hands back in her tiny one, one of her fingers trailing over the Daegrent mark she knew nothing about, but certainly knew existed on Minho since she was born. Naturally to amuse her, Minho forced the creature inside him to make the mark glow white. The baby smiled with the glow in her eyes. She traced over the marking again and excitedly cooed out, her eyesmile completely like her father’s.

She settled on his chest and Minho kept his wrist up as she continuously traced over the mark until she got bored of it. Minho played with her her short dirty blonde hair as she fell asleep under his touch. She still felt so new to Minho—it was only four months with the baby. But it still felt like it was yesterday where she was brand new in the world.

The door knocked and carefully Minho situated the sleeping baby in his arms as he got up. He opened the door with a welcoming smile, “Hey. Come on in for a bit.”

Sun Young walked through the door, staring at the baby as she naturally took her from Minho’s arms and situated her in her own. Rocking the baby slightly, she greeted Minho then, and sat on the couch.

  “Has she been a handful?” Jinki asked as he bumped shoulders with the younger, Minho seeing age catching up to his features just a little bit.

Minho closed the door behind him and pointed to the under of his eyes, “Can you tell? She was up all night.”

  “Well, you offered to take her,” Sun Young looked up with a smug look on her face, “I told you I could get the in laws to take her.”

Minho rubbed his eyes and sat down next to her with Jinki following, “I didn’t mind.”

Despite being asleep, Sun Young took her tiny hands and played around with her. Cooing here and there gently, “Naeun, Naeun, Naeun.”

Minho chuckled. Sun Young was the happiest mother he’d ever seen. Even throughout her pregnancy—throughout the occasional mood swings—at the end of the day she was the happiest of people. She wasn’t even fazed about the leftover baby weight she still had because all she could really see was Naeun.

  “She’s really lazy with your name, still,” Minho talked to Jinki, “She still won’t fully say it.”

Jinki looked back at Minho and sighed, “I hope she does, soon. I’m not gonna let her grow up with me known as ‘Da.’”

  “And Mommy gets called Mom!” Sun Young cooed, but rubbed it in her husband’s face.

Jinki gently nudged Sun Young’s shoulder, “Don’t be so mean already. We just had a nice night.”

  “Thank you,” Sun Young said to Minho as she walked out the door, “I’ll be sure to never give her to you for an overnight stay.”

Minho complained, leaning on the door, “I’m not saying I don’t want her overnight!”

  “Your dark circles do,” Jinki teased, earning a hit on the shoulder from the attacked.

  “Get out of here,” Minho narrowed his eyes at Jinki.

Jinki rolled his eyes and eyesmiled, small wrinkles at the sides of his eyes. Despite telling him to leave, Minho caught on to his shirt and stopped him.

  “What?” Jinki stopped joking and looked at him seriously.

  “Are you sure?” he asked, staring at the very small aging signs around his face, “Are you sure you want to be . . . normal?”

Jinki sympathetically smiled and pat Minho’s shoulder, “We want our normal lives, Minho. Start wrapping your head around it, okay? We’re not dying tomorrow.”

Minho nodded quietly.

The three of them bid farewell for the day and Minho resulted in sitting on the couch waiting for time to pass. Naeun was his key to a boredom-free day until he realized his shift wasn’t a long one. Taemin was going to be out for a full day of his job and it left Minho with nothing to do—and he didn’t really feel like doing anything either.

Minho’s wrist glowed and he stretched, his form snapping into Daegrent. He felt a little less suffocated.

Lately, keeping away his natural form was a bit more difficult. Something inside of his always wanted to snap him back into a Daegrent. He didn’t exactly know what it was about him that wanted to blow his cover so badly, but his only relief was changing. Money wasn’t an issue to him anymore, so he’d quit his job. It relieved most of the stress of hiding away from the public and gave him all the free time in the world. At first, it was a great thing until he realized Taemin still had a job he never wanted to quit.

Minho sat up and shagged his short hair, staring at the notebook on the coffee table.

Taking it into his hands, he flipped through half of the book, filled with different things varying from drawings, writing, and symbols. For the while the Daegrent side wanted to be freed, he started dreaming things, or finding the urge to put something he’s experienced down on paper.

A familiar strange rush of energy uplifted in Minho, and it almost felt like an overwhelming anxiety attack. Desperate to keep it away, he picked up the pencil on the table and leaned over on it, his hand doing things on its own to satisfy the need.

The image was in his head and as clear as the moment he saw it.

He sloppily drew and erased here and there. He wasn’t a great artist, and his drawings were poor interpretations of what he saw, but he was doing decent with this one.

He was drawing the image as if it were a dramatic scene in a movie. The sight casted beyond what he was drawing.

The feeling fell, and Minho put down the pencil, almost frustrated it was forcing him to do this. He’d be angry, but then alright with it in the end because sometimes, whatever was put down was something he didn’t really know and therefore could appreciate.

Minho stared at the drawing of The Prophecy. He had even drawn the entrance where the five of them had come from—each of them a stick figure but Bom was drawn with poor anatomy.

The reminder of Bom made Minho feel slightly sad. He hadn’t heard from her in a long while and each time he contacted her, he never gained a response. She wasn’t in any trouble, but she was rather busy. She was never one to deny the King of a response, but something was clearly bigger than this.

And yet he didn’t know about it.

He debated on returning to the land where the Empire was. He didn’t even know if it were done. Minho just didn’t know if he wanted to see it in progress or get a huge surprise and wait for the result.

He felt like he was very neglecting as a King. Even being an equal to everyone, he still felt he had these duties he never even took on. And yet no one yelled at him yet. He hadn’t seen many creatures in a long time. He felt almost lonely because of it.

He flipped through the pages again, stopping himself at a very rough sketch of Jonghyun.

Minho’s sadness over Jonghyun had passed long ago. He didn’t think much of it anymore. All he knew was Jonghyun was happy by now and probably ignoring the hell out of Minho because everything seemed normal.

It was still haunting thinking about memories with him. He felt like Jonghyun was alive and just very far away. The thought kept Minho happy, but sometimes it brought him down. If only there were the power to bring the dead back into the living, he would try it.

He just hoped the couple was alright.

Minho brought the book to a close and rubbed his face with his hands. He had everything he wanted and life was as great as it could get.

And yet something still felt like it was missing.

Minho got up and went into the kitchen for a can of soda. Opening it, he peeked his head out the balcony to see if anyone was out there or could see him. Safe, he went out and leaned on the rail, drinking from his can.

Taemin wouldn’t be home for a while and this was a part of the routine while waiting for him to come back. Just lean and stare and procrastinate being on the computer for classes.

It wasn’t that he was bored of Namwon. It just seemed like, after everything happened, he had grown used to doing something every day. To feel some tension. To be busy. And not even his old job provided that. There had to be more than this. . . Maybe he would take Taemin on vacation somewhere out of Korea. Maybe that would bring something to the both of them.

Looking over the town, Minho smiled, for some reason always loving to watch people walk around below him. It was a weird thing to like, but it felt satisfying to see freedom. With his power, Minho could even clearly see who the people were.

Some of the people and beings from the prison had also settled into Namwon and would usually look up to Minho’s apartment to see he was looking back at him. They’d wave and move on with their business. Sometimes they’d visit, but usually they went on.

Minho continued to sip from his can, head leaning on his palm as he just watched daylight go by.

His eyes had set to a faraway place: the outside of the town—the entrance to the trees, to be exact. He didn’t think anything of the sight until he saw something emerge from a tree up the hill.

His gaze tried zooming in on the figure as best as he could. The figure he wanted it to be didn’t have pale orange or black hair. It was bright red. Matching a deep rouge attire—attire he had once drawn from a memory of Minji’s past—the day of the establishment of the Second Empire.

Royal.

Bom.

Come here. We need to talk.

( New Beginnings )

Minho dropped his can on the ground of the balcony and raced inside and out his door. Right then and there, he wanted to fly, but it would cause chaos.

So he snapped into human and dashed out the building, slowing his pace near humans’ sight, but quickening to insane speed with no one around.

He passed the entrance and up the hill, meeting with two eye colors he missed completely.

  “Too long,” Minho shook his head and embraced her, “Too long and avoiding me.”

  “You could’ve vistited,” Bom chuckled, “I was busy despite your calls.”

Minho let go and took a look at her, “You’ve taken the whole Queen thing seriously.”

  “It’s time that I need to,” she raised her brows, taking Minho’s hand and leading them away from Namwon, “Which is why I want to talk.”

The two of them walked away at a pace faster than human, but relatively slow by creature. Bom went on to say a few things about the building and what she’d been doing. There was a lot of struggle and conflict between the creatures while building and most of them ended in resolution.

   “It’s finished, nonetheless. For a few weeks, actually,” she went on, “And so I need you to know something.”

Minho said nothing and waited for her to go on, not exactly sure what she was going to say.

  “I feel it from you,” Bom looked at him, “I feel this . . . pushing inside of me. This anxiousness to breathe,” she stopped walking, “And I know what this is.”

  “Then what is it?” Minho asked, “Because it’s almost killing me.”

Bom rubbed her arm, her face wincing for a second, “When the Empire was nearly done being rebuilt, there was a reawakening of the Royal and their power. All the duties and responsibilities have returned as nature should be. I started feeling like I was suffocating and I didn’t know what was happening . . .” she sat on a nearby boulder, “I felt you have the same problem. Until that one night you nearly combusted into a Daegrent a long while ago, I was able to breathe again. I had the Daegrent marks around me, the sign was glowing, and my hair, well,” she pointed to her curly hair, “Turned to this.”

Minho walked up to her in confusion. He got that they had a connection and something like this could happen, but he still didn’t understand why, “And this is happening because . . .?”

  “The Daegrent in you doesn’t want to be hidden anymore,” she slowly said, “It doesn’t want to be shown as human any longer.”

Minho furrowed his brows and tried to speak but nothing was spoken.

He didn’t like this. If the Daegrent body didn’t want to be hidden any longer, then that meant one day it would never want to back to it again. Everyone in Namwon would be petrified and chaos would ensue. But even if he couldn’t hide, he couldn’t just . . . run away.

  “You’ve been concealing the form since you were born, Minho,” Bom slowly explained, “Over twenty three years of it and with recognition of your title, the nature inside you is ready to be permenant. That’s why you’ve been writing and drawing. Your memories, the past, pictures and all that revolve around being a Daegrent. It’s hard to tell that your own body was telling you to keep your form natural, but that’s exactly what it was doing.”

Minho looked out into the trees, shaking his head, “So I’ll never change back.”

  “No, you can,” Bom assured him, “But not for as long as you’d want to. After a while passes with your body comfortable, you’ll be able to change easily once again.

  “But that’s not exactly what I wanted to talk about either. That was just the introduction,” she sighed, rubbing her face. She got up and took his hand again, forcing the Daegrent form out of him easily, her own matching set of marks on her skin.

They began walking again and she spoke, “Dangers have arised once more. We’ve found out there are more prisons across the planet. Creatures have been coming to the Empire to spread the news and ask for aid. We’ve already sent many out and we’ve already had successes, so don’t fret too much of it.”

  “More prisons?” Minho sharply input, “More SangJungs?”

  “Listen to me,” Bom calmly interjected, “Besides that, some creatures went out on their own, and many of them have turned to ravenous lifestyles. That is beyond my control, but not yours.”

  “Siwon and Jessica?” Minho stared at her.

She shook her head, “They’ve actually been helping the build—Look.”

The familiar parting of the trees on the hill brought Minho the memories of him and Taemin standing there, staring at the ashen land.

But now the land was completely covered in structures that looked old but still modern in some way. The Empire was completely larger than Minho even imagined. It looked like it would fit all of Korea.

The Royals’ home in the Empire towered over all of the building with a grand structure. It looked as if it were made out of pure gold, and yet, Minho knew it wasn’t. All he was glad was that it didn’t look like a prison. It was no longer the shape of it either; it was completely reconstructed.

  “This is our home, Minho,” Bom proudly smiled, “This is all creatures’ pride and joy.”

The two of them blitzed down the hill and into what Minho wanted to call the city.  There were so many creatures around—almost all of them not even close to having the structure of a human. They walked, waddled, or flew so easily down the streets.

And upon their arrival, all of them bowed when the Royals passed them. Minho even felt his face get red as he kept asking them to stand.

Everything was so grand—even the concrete streets . . .

  “I was able to reconnect with Daesung and Minji,” Bom stared at the streets, too. Her bare foot running over inscriptions when they stopped, “We still wanted to honor all of our lost creatures. So I had Daesung show me where he placed his crosses and stones and the Second Empire creatures tell me their names. Because of the reconstruction, many of them were moved to different places, but still in the general area. But we’ve got every name down and what creature they were. Daesung told me they were all happy.”

Minho’s wings suddenly grew out and stretched. Shocked, Minho looked behind him, completely confused. But still, he knew it was because he fell at ease. He felt normal.

He felt at home.

  “Come,” Bom guided him again, claps all around at Minho’s wings, “Let’s go into the Royal home.”

He let everything sink in as Bom led him into the entrance of the Royal home. It was a wide entrance, but had no doors—it was an arch. The inside was a familiar structure to a memory that wasn’t his own. The entire interior was built in a white fine stone. Banners of marks displayed around. A fountain made out of the same stone in the middle and very elegant.

  “I know you saw Minji’s memory—of Hyunja in her arms. His sister had laid dead against this very edge of the fountain,” Bom sadly input, “And even though it isn’t a fond memory, the structure was very important to us, so like many other parts of this building, we made it like the original. Come.”

She led them further into the building, entering through the magic walls Minho thought felt foreign to go through. He even needed to stop walking because he felt a little off balance.

 He was greeted by the creatures than inhabited the building—none of them were Daegrents, as Minho still remained the last one out there.

Many creatures bowed, smiled, greeted him. Even shook his hand or hugged him.

He felt even better when he saw children running about.

  “Oh—Sun Young. She—”

  “I visited them, don’t worry. I was sure to be there, but my schedule differed from yours and I didn’t bother contact with you. I’ve met Naeun.”

Minho rolled his eyes, “Didn’t bother to contact me. You got that right.”

  “Does Taemin still want that thing to happen?” she asked as they removed themselves from another wall.

  “Yep,” Minho sighed, “But I still think it’s wrong.”

  “Well, Minho, as much as I’m okay with it, Daesung is as well—”

Minho held a hand over , “I don’t want to hear that right now.”

She slapped his hand away and grunted, “Minho, you wouldn’t be betraying Taemin. He’s the one that keeps suggesting it. I hear it when you don’t because he shuts you out.”

Taemin had gotten the bright idea that he and Minho didn’t need to adopt. Taemin thought it would be even better if the child were born from Minho and Bom. Not just for the sake of trying to repopulate the Daegrent creatures or to have another blood-line Daegrent. None of that mattered. Taemin thought there was a great opportunity with this born child. Of course, he was trying to be considerate of what that meant for the two Royals. And Bom hadn’t minded the idea.

But clearly, Minho minded.

  “We’ll talk about it some other time. Clearly, having a kid isn’t the best situation right now after these problems that need to be taken care of.”

  “Actually, true,” Bom sighed, “Naeun has the spotlight for a long while, don’t worry. Besides, I don’t think you can spoil two kids at once.”

After a few more walls, Minho saw out the windows that they were far, far up into the building where the rest of the city was very small. Minho would say they were at the top.

The room they were heading into had a large archway and inside was a gigantic, light blue stone room filled with elegant wall structures, pillars, and banners painted of past ancestors, Minji, and Daesung. There was a long, black and white sparkling carpet leading to the back of the room that was completely grand.

There were six elegant thrones. The third and fourth thrones—the middle ones—were designed with white and black materal as three remained a dark red and one completely golden.

  “There’s six.” Minho said.

  “You and me,” she pointed to the white and black ones, “Sun Young, Jinki, Taemin, and the gold one—that one is reserved for Jonghyun’s spirit.”

Minho was in awe with how amazing everything was thought out so well. How something as simple as a chair was there to represent someone important.

  “On the serious note, we’ve also been under stress about new arrivals,” Bom said, her voice bouncing off the walls as they walked down the carpet, “Creatures from many other worlds have heard of our story—mind you we didn’t even know these creatures existed. But many have migrated the earth. Many are not a problem and neither is population, but some don’t understand the lifestyle and threaten an unbalance to our secrecy. We also know little to no information about their home universes.

  “We need more guidance than just me. Sure, it comes a little naturally to me because, well, I was there when—well, you know the story. But it’s just incomplete when it can be complete. The Empire is nothing without all the Royals they need.”

Minho was taking it all in and he could feel the responsibilities suit him up. It no longer felt like a pressure, but something rather normal and something he needed and wanted to do. It was like every word she spoke, he matured into a creature he needed and wanted to be. Minho was understanding it.

They stopped at the stairs that lead up to the thrones and Bom took both of Minho’s hands, “Stay here. Stay with your creatures. We’ll figure out about Namwon. We can figure out about the rest of our friends—figure out Taemin. There is a calling for you here, Minho,” she slightly shook him, the curls of her hair bouncing, “An eternal calling here, Minho.”

Minho didn’t need to think much of it, but as he was still not feeling the pressure, he still felt overwhelmed. As he wanted to do this, he wanted otherwise. Things were going to be different that he was almost defiant towards change.

But he was bored in Namwon. There was nothing for him there. There was so much more here.

And there’d be so much work and negotiating with Taemin.

  “We need you, Minho,” she let go of him and gestured to the throne.

Minho walked up the stairs and stared the the seat he knew was for the Royal.

It was odd. He was meant to come to this point, but thinking about the beginning of his life, he would’ve never known what this was or could be. He would be a normal person in Namwon, scraping by for money and living with Taemin. Watching Taemin grow old and ending up leaving him due to his eternity.

But there was confinement, solitude, conflict, information, friendships, understanding, escaping, and redeeming. And it all led to this. This very place. This very building. This very time. This very throne. The feeling of it so right.

  “It’s natural, Minho,” Bom said, getting to her knees and preparing to bow even though Minho wasn’t watching her, “It is right.”

It was right. Everything had happened and he was the hero. He was the recreated authority among the creatures.

He was ready.

He accepted it.

He was King.

Minho turned, seeing Bom prepared to bow. Also seeing a few being peeking into the room in anticipation of his words.

Minho felt himself age right there. The wisdom of many years passing through and into him. The nature of it feeling so right.

  “I need the King,” Bom bowed, the lurkers outside bowing.

Minho backed himself to the throne and sat down on it, claiming his decision and silent words. Bom looked up, the anticipation clearing to a smile on her face as she stood.

Minho leaned back on the throne and felt a power wield inside of him like the time he had taken Daesung’s wings. His vision flashed black and white and his wings outstretched. His marks whipped around and his sign glowed brightly. And Minho only had one thing to say.

  “The King has returned.”

----Note~----

This took me a long long while to do and I'm sorry.

But here we are. Escape to Redemption is finally over. No sequels to those problems. No little oneshots (...no promises). Nada. This is the final chapter.

Thank you thank you thank you to everybody who has come and stayed or just paid a visit.

I enjoyed all of your company and I think I'll be TRYING to write another fic soon.

That aside.

I came back on the computer after a month.

And I see AFF has a new layout. 

And I hate it mucho mucho much.

CAN I CHANGE THIS.

Ehem.

But yeah. I love you guys lots o' lots. You guys are my complete everything and I'm glad to complete my first fic+ with you guys!

Subscribe to me generally for other works!

(Btw, you can find Bom's attire picture in chapter 18, highlighted in red Ceremonial. Also, Minho's drawing... the original I drew in June and his actual notebook one. I've drawn this three times now. xD Right HERE. I know it's a bad picture. But anyway. Minho on left, original on right. BYEEEE )

I ALSO have returned to tumblr a little SO TALK TO ME CUZ DESPERATO.

And an ask.fm SO DO YEAH.

BYEE

~FlaMinhoe