|Chen|

We are losing it.

We are seriously losing our ing minds.

We’ve already lost our sanity. I guess our minds are the last thing to go. Maybe.

Or maybe we’ve already lost our minds, and we’re just running on...nothing, I guess.

We started losing it in the Amazon. I was probably first - and I can admit that freely and shamelessly. Because what have you got to lose (pun intended) when you’re shipped from your planet onto an alien one, and then one of the crazy bastards you were shipped with decides to start entertaining your food source?

And he drags you along with it. Like seriously.

It’s like - in human terms - trying to entertain your pot roast, or that bowl of rice. Only the pot roast and rice respond to your attempts by screaming like crazy and stalking you, without any idea that you have every intention to eat them.

Okay, so it’s not like I was exactly angelic (pun intended again - get it, I’m an Angel...haha, I’m a riot I know) in the first place, but give a guy a break. He murders a couple of people. So what. And then you deem him a Killer and give him the worst life there is to give?

To be honest, I’m pretty sure I did much worse than just murder a couple of Angels. They erase that part of your memory, though. But they can’t erase the fact that you know they erased something, because then they’d have to clear your entire brain and start from scratch. And that’d be much too much work for them.

They obviously would rather go out and party with their friends than around with trying to fix hopeless Killer Angels’ minds, just about the most dangerous anythings anywhere.

But I don’t blame them. I’d rather go party too.

I guess they have human parties, on Earth.

Except I don’t exactly blend in with humans. I’d go crazy mingling with humans at nightclubs, trying to restrain myself from going all out and devouring every last soul in the place.

I’m sure even Joonmyeon won’t have that sort of self-control - to have human bodies pressed up against you and you can’t even eat them.

Again, if you’re human, imagine you haven’t eaten for three months. And that pot roast I mentioned earlier is all yours. Except you’re simply not “allowed” to eat it.

ing pot roast.

I called Joonmyeon Joonmyeon, instead of Suho. Yifan would kill me if he knew. But I’m in my thoughts right now. I’m free, mostly, except Luhan’s always listening in.

ing Luhan.

Worst part is, I don’t even remember our real Angel names anymore. Hardly. It’s like it’s there, in my mind, not exactly erased like some of my memories but just faded. I can’t reach them but I know they’re there, and it’s the worst sort of feeling when you know something but it’s too far in the back of your mind.

Yifan’s made us like this. Joonmyeon’s just helped.

ing Yifan. ing Joonmyeon.

them all.

Chapter 2: Killer War

“Get ready. Show starts in half an hour,” Kris growled.

Sehun pulled on the baggy pinstriped shorts and the crazy oversized graphic EXO t-shirt, hurriedly running a hand through his hair before fitting a black snapback cap onto his head. This was the outfit the stylists had picked out for him for the concert, not that he’d wear it out of his own choice on any given day.

With Luhan’s...“skills,” they had managed to clear the entire dressing room of any staff or stylists. The staff had already done their makeup and picked out the outfits, but Kris had decided they needed some peace, and ordered Luhan to do a little mind-tweaking. There was no one else there at the moment except for the twelve EXO members. And when you have exhausted, hormonal, and very hungry Angels with special powers alone in one room, Sehun had learned (the hard way) that it was best to just avoid everyone and get the hell out of there.

Kris looked the most tired and snappish. He always had a short fuse, but he was the worst at dealing with the hunger pangs - and it wasn’t helping that Suho had put them all on a human-free diet. It had only been two months since they’d last had mortal flesh, but surviving solely on human food since then was clearly taking its toll on the duizhang’s complexion, and (naturally) his temper.

Sehun himself was definitely feeling the effects of the human-free diet, although maybe not as much as the Wolves, and especially not as much as their Alpha. Of course Suho meant well, they all knew, but he was the one that craved humans as sustenance the least. With his decreasing need for the creatures as well as his amazing self-control, Suho could probably follow along with his diet for as long as seven months. The rest of them, especially the Wolves...it was surprising they’d already lasted these two months without going crazy.

But Chen, Sehun decided, was the one that would explode first. The EXO-M member was just as angelic and cheerful and funny as anyone else onstage, but behind the scenes he had a sort of unpredictable, violent nature. He already deeply despised Kris as the leader, and Kris’s plan to entertain the humans, and the countless restrictions he was suppressed under. All of this, combined with Chen’s growling stomach, was going to cause one thing and only one thing.

Chaos.

Chen’s power just might as well have been chaos.

Chanyeol and Baekhyun were sitting slumped together in a corner, bickering quietly. Lay had his head leaned against Suho’s shoulder, his eyes closed. Luhan paced around the room tossing his fluffy soft hair, a worried expression on his usually bubbly face. Tao shouldered into a moto jacket lined with gold studs and watched Luhan with a humorless smirk, the circles under his eyes darker and more prominent than ever. Chen sat by himself, furious and brooding, by a dressing table.

Luhan suddenly frowned, turning toward Chen and opening his mouth. Uh oh. By Lu’s expression, Sehun knew there was definitely a fight coming - although he really had to give it to Luhan, how could the hyung know when Chen was going to fight and when he was at peace? Chen’s thoughts, he was sure, were always as brooding and stormy as the guy himself.

“Again, Krissy? Again?” Chen drawled before Lu could say anything. Sehun flinched at the venom in his tone.

Everyone tensed, knowing what would happen next. Tao stood up, his fists clenching as he cracked his neck. Suho roused Lay and they got up with a deep sigh, stepping near Tao with their hands ready. Sehun scrambled to his feet, too; he hated when a fight started, because the fighting members usually found a way to include everyone else.

And it was usually Chen against Kris, the EXO-M members constantly at each other’s necks. Sehun still wondered why Kris included Chen in his own group when he divided the twelve of them up into two subgroups.

“I don’t want to trick the humans anymore than we should,” Kris grunted. “And so Lu here doesn’t kill himself from mind-warping thousands of fans and the entire SM company. You want that?”

Chen stepped towards the leader aggressively, his eyes already starting to glow. His irises reflected an eerie golden light. His hands started to build up power. “What’s the loss of one Angel, Kris? Tell me why you have to make everyone happy, including the ing mortals.”

Kris turned slowly around to face him, his lips already pulled back in a monstrous snarl to reveal long sharp fangs. His own irises had changed to a deep blood-red and Sehun, standing on the other side of the room, pressed himself into the wall a little. Kris was the fastest morpher of the twelve - he easily changed from human to Wolf Angel, back and forth. If he was changing this fast, it probably meant he was really hungry. Even the hairs on his head and the back of his neck seemed to come alive, standing up with a static electricity. Sehun prayed Suho wasn’t this thickheaded as to ban human flesh any longer - even though they all had powers, Kris was arguably one of the most dangerous Killers of the twelve.

“What the hell do you think our mission here is?” the leader was growling, automatically levitating a few feet off the ground. Sehun looked around in alarm- none of the other members seemed to care, except for Suho, who stepped forward in between them with a stern expression on his face.

“Really, guys-” he started.

“Not to entertain humans, that’s for sure!” Chen yelled back at Kris, completely ignoring Suho. Sehun noticed the light starting to glow from his palms. The power was building. It would be explosive - quite literally - if no one stopped him. “That’s not our purpose here, and you know that! This is just some idiotic cover and it’s making our Angel lives worse! We’re supposed to eat them, not entertain! Look at us! Look around! Do you think we’re happy?”

Kris paused, some human entering his eyes again as he looked at the other EXO members standing by. They said nothing, they just stared and waited for the argument to be over. But everything Chen said was true. The duizhang’s blood-red orbs landed on Sehun, and Sehun tried not to cringe away, breathing out a small sigh when they left him. “We were never Angels anyway,” Kris muttered in a low voice, almost to himself. “We were never Angels. We have never led Angel lives.”

“We’re always ing tired as !” Chen continued to rage, blocking out Kris’s comment, his eyes flashing a sickly yellow. They were changing along with Chen’s appearance, the black soulless pupils dilating to become long and thin and almost nonexistent in a sea of thick yellow; they were changing to become wolf eyes, and blonde streaks glowed through his short spiky hair. “I don’t even know how everyone else handles show business, and they’re mortals! We’re not human, we’re aliens on Earth and we should be stronger than them. But we weren’t ing made to entertain female teenagers! We have to juggle that amongst finding food that doesn’t taste like complete ; and it’s harder now that we have fangirls to chase us around. Why did you choose this for us? Why don’t you open your eyes and see how we’re dying because of you, and our purpose here isn’t even being fulfilled?”

Kris’s lip curled, red flooding back into his irises with a vengeance. “We don’t have a ing purpose! Tell me, Chen, what’s our purpose here?”

Chen gritted his teeth and broke the eye contact for a few bitter seconds, but Kris caught everything. “Not to entertain humans,” he repeated.

“Entertaining humans is the sacrifice we must make in order to survive on Earth. If you have a better idea, tell us now. If you have nothing, you can get out.”

“But your beloved fans will miss me,” Chen shot back. “And none of us will be able to go back to EXOPlanet. The situation will be worse for all of us - then let’s see if Krissy has any real leadership skills.”

Kris just snarled, a bloodcurdling, gut-wrenching sound that made Sehun’s nerves twist in anxiety.

Luhan, he pleaded. I swear, if they keep going like this for centuries I think I’m going to-

Relax, Luhan’s soothing voice replied immediately. They’ll get over it. Just give them time.

Suho tried to step in again. “We have a show to run-”

“SHUT UP!” Chen and Kris yelled at the same time, still shooting death glares at each other. Suho frowned and opened his mouth again, but Luhan quickly stepped forward and grabbed his arm, shaking his head. They maintained eye contact for a few long seconds, and then Suho nodded reluctantly and backed away, having heard Luhan’s thought warnings and relenting.

When the Angels were furious, their true forms came out of their human bodies, beyond their control. The two Wolves were always easily set off, as if their forms bubbled right underneath their human disguise. Others like Suho and Sehun himself barely got to the point of that sort of fury; he couldn’t even remember when he’d last morphed into Angel form on Earth. And Suho was always so gentle and carefree hardly anything could anger him. He was always more worried about all the other members.

“And why are you the leader, eh?” Chen continued, a long mocking smile on his glowing face. “Why not someone worthy of the position - someone who can keep their head?”

“Don’t anger me, Chen.”

“I dunno - Suho’s always calm, unlike you. Xiumin’s the oldest and he’s obviously more experienced. Even Chanyeol’s a better bet than you, with his uncontrollable powers. At least he can control his temper.”

“Kim Jongdae.”

“I really think you should stop thinking you’re the leader. You’re really not worth it.”

Everyone knew Kris’s strongest point was also his weakest: leadership. He wasn’t a bad leader considering the circumstances, and ideally the only leader good enough for the twelve Killers. Yet he hated being criticized about it, because taking care of them was definitely tough and he was the kind of guy that always wondered if he was doing it right.

With flames practically spewing out his eyes, he growled, “Don’t forget, it was I who saved your worthless hide from Hell. Don’t forget, it was I who found this handsome body for you to take. Because you didn’t even have a body at the time; you were just a soul. A Dark Soul, lost and dumb with nowhere to go. I brought you from Hell to EXOPlanet, where you got us all into trouble.”

“Wu Yifan,” Luhan hissed aloud, his palms facing Kris and his face red with strain. Obviously Kris was blocking Luhan out of his mind. And no one but Kris knew much about Chen; from Chen’s red ears and fiercely glowing yellow eyes, Sehun sensed this was a past the Wolf despised to be reminded of. The maknae had heard about Dark Souls - he didn’t know much about them, though.

“Really, no worries,” Kris continued, almost casually. “I suspect we should feel sorry for you rather than be mad at you, for getting us in this situation. Because, at least most of us were born with bodies and we’ve had lives, not some fabrication of a life in a body you never had.

But you don’t seem to be all that grateful for what I did for you, or what I’ve given you. This is why they put you in Hell, Kim Jongdae.”

Chen’s eyes flashed. And then suddenly, before Sehun could even register the hand flipping up to the ceiling, a burst of lightning struck from the roof. There was no sound except for the plaster of the building sizzling, and the walls and floors crumbling above. Kris yelped and howled in pain as a burning black hole appeared in the ground where his foot had been.

He jerked his head up, his red eyes blazing. With a savage cry, the duizhang rose a few feet in the air, his hands directed below him, and he flew towards Chen with blinding speed. He grabbed a chair in midair and clipped his opponent on the side of his head before Chen could even register the blow. Chen collapsed in a heap, but not before blasting a ray of deadly lightning that seared through Kris’s calf and straight through the next wall.

Kris’s grunt of pain echoed across the room, and he dropped his hands, settling himself on the ground. Both Wolves were panting hard and lowering their heads in defeat.

And just like that, the fight was over.

Sehun noticed that the Angels were too weak and exhausted to carry on to the full-out battles they used to have in the Amazon.

Cleaning up was the worst part.

The blood hadn’t even started drastically flowing out of Kris’s foot and calf when Lay sighed and strode over, resting his healing hands on the wounds. Chen was half-knocked out, his powers withdrawing back inside him, but a weak finger could still wreak major havoc. Luhan, with his telepathy powers, read what Chen was going to do before he could, and took control immediately.

“Tao, slow down time outside so we can clean up after these idiots,” he ordered. “Sehun, keep Kris and Chen away from each other and make sure they don’t do anything stupid.”

“You mean, stupider,” Tao scoffed dryly, but he raised his hands and created an invisible time dome, keeping the time in the dressing room running at normal speed but everything outside much slower.

Sehun peeled himself from his corner where he had huddled. If Chen could control lightning and Kris used his flight powers to his advantage, Sehun was a god of wind. He raised his hands and directed one for each of the mentioned Angels, releasing gentle but firm blasts of wind at their chests. Chen groaned as the concentrated wind slammed him into an undamaged wall.

“Sorry,” Sehun muttered, not really meaning it.

Kris lifted his head, his eyes still targeting Chen and redder than anything Sehun had ever seen. His leg had transformed from burnt flesh to smooth, perfect skin in seconds with Lay’s magic, but it was obvious he still wanted to fight.

“Don’t you dare, duizhang,” Luhan threatened with clenched teeth, reading his mind. “You try anything like that and I’ll send Xiumin and Chanyeol on you. With the pain of fire and ice and without Lay’s help, I doubt it would feel too pleasant.”

“Who’s the leader here, huh?” Kris snarled when Lay moved to Chen, dusting himself off angrily despite the channel of wind still concentrated on his chest.

“Not just you, Yifan,” Suho snapped, water bubbling from his cupped hands as he washed out the blood from the floor and carpets.

“We’ve got a show to run,” D.O. reminded them from where he was patching the wall with his earth powers. His hands flitted over the plaster and it melded back together automatically, looking even newer than before. He glanced towards Sehun and jerked his head at Chen and Kris, both still peeled against the wall by his forceful breezes. Kris looked annoyed and Chen wiped blood from his mouth resentfully with his hand. “You can release them now. Kai, come over here and give me a lift with the ceiling.”

Sehun cut off the power in his hands and dropped them to his sides, feeling even more tired than he had been already. He hadn’t practiced with his power in a while.

“Thanks for starting this up, Chen,” Chanyeol managed to grunt as he fought to control his power. That was the thing with Chanyeol; even if he wasn’t directly affected, if there was any sort of conflict or sudden burst of emotion near him, flames would start his fingers. Luckily, it was usually only the reactions from Angels that triggered these responses, and flames hadn’t suddenly appeared in public - yet. It was strange because he was an Elemental Angel - they supposedly had the most control over their powers - but Chanyeol hadn’t quite mastered his power of fire.

Lay had just finished with Chen’s wounds. He slumped against the chair Kris had used to hit the back of Chen’s head. Sehun looked around, exhausted, for someone to sleep on. Kai was gone.

“Went to check out what’s up onstage,” Luhan reported, a finger in the direction of the dressing room door. He looked up, as if receiving more thoughts. “Oh, wait -”

Kai popped in suddenly, just at that moment and right in front of Chanyeol. Chanyeol squeaked and blasted a startled ball of flame sideways, in the direction of D.O. D.O wasn’t quick enough and the fireball went straight through the wall, but not before scorching half the hair off his head. He gritted his teeth against the pain as Lay groaned and stood up slowly towards D.O, his healing hands outstretched. Chanyeol winced an apology while Tao laughed his cruel, heartless laugh.

Sehun watched the sequence of events. It would’ve been funny if the EXO Killers weren’t turning against each other already.

“It’s fine up there,” Kai reported as if nothing had happened. “They don’t know any better, thanks to Tao.”

“My arms are hurting,” Tao complained. Typical Tao.

“Maybe they should know,” D.O said sarcastically with an angry glance at quiet, doe-eyed Chanyeol trying to fold his tall, clumsy self in a corner. “Maybe they have someone who can not only train Angels to sing and dance, but train them to control their powers, too.”

“Or maybe they have a therapist for Killers with anger issues,” Chen added hoarsely, shooting a sidelong glance at Kris.

“Just shut up.” Luhan shook his head tiredly.

“Maybe if you weren’t so nosy, worming into everyone’s brains, then we would!” Kris suddenly screamed. His handsome face was twisted into a monstrous combination of sweat, fury, and pain. His eyes were red and wild and rolling around in his head - he had obviously gone a little crazy. “You damned bastards! Why couldn’t we all just have stayed on EXOPlanet?”

Something in Sehun finally snapped. Kris was always terrifying when he raged, but Sehun had had enough. “We all ed up, or did you forget? We didn’t come here willingly.”

Kris him, his blood-colored eyes animalistic and emotionless. “You stay out of this. Nothing but the weasel maknae of the Killer Angels, the worst sort of Angels there ever could be.”

Blood rushed up Sehun’s head, and the next thing he knew, Kris was pinned against the wall that D.O. had patched up just minutes ago. Even with the strong earth reinforcements, Sehun’s uncontrolled wind was stronger, and Kris was close to breaking through the plaster. Both D.O. and Lay moaned. No one seemed particularly concerned with Kris’s fate, only with patching up walls and wounds. Besides, Angels were hard to kill.

“You didn’t have enough of THIS!?” Sehun screamed with insane fury.

Suddenly, a sharp, unbearable pain slashed through Sehun’s head like knives piercing into his skull. A loud ringing in his ears followed, and something was pressing against his brain, pressing down on it. He clutched his head and dropped to the ground, squeezing his eyes shut. The immense pressure was numbing his head and his neck, but at the same time he felt as if there was a hammer slamming repeatedly down against his head. He couldn’t move it. He couldn’t move a muscle, let alone continue releasing his powers.

It hurt so much, but he couldn’t even scream. He used all his strength to lift his eyelids, pain stabbing behind his eyes, and realized that all the EXO members suffered the same sort of fate he had. All but Luhan.

Luhan.

He looked concentrated, sweat rolling down his face, but he wasn’t in agony like the others. Sehun barely processed the thought. The more he tried to resist the staggering force, the harder and more painful it stabbed at him.

Luhan’s clear yet distraught voice rang in Sehun’s head. Stop it. ALL of you.

The pain was subsiding, the force slipping out of his skull. Tao sighed and collapsed against the wall as Luhan released him first to keep EXO in the time bubble. Affecting all of the members at once was hard work, almost too much for Luhan.

The pain was removed so quickly, Sehun’s brain still hurt until it adjusted to the absence of Luhan’s powers. There was a collective sigh from the members, and a heavy, tense silence followed.

Sehun tried to remember what life was like on the EXOPlanet, before they came to Earth. His memories were blurry and dull; they’d been on Earth for thirty plus years already. It had been Kris’s idea to become famous and even release the idea of having powers for the fans. It made their secret also their alibi.

In the beginning, despite the hard endless work of finding food that would satiate him in the Amazon and learning as much as he could to transform from Killer to human, everything intrigued Sehun. Being with twelve other Killers in the same situation, alone in a foreign world. It had almost been fun. But now…

Sehun had already forgotten who had made up the “We Are One” chant. Maybe it was one EXO member, maybe it was all of them. But it had stuck and become part of their official introduction.

Yet right now, looking around at the exhausted, sweaty, hormonal “Angels” glaring at each other and sitting on opposite corners of the half-destroyed room like toddlers that had gotten into a fight, EXO didn’t look ready for their concert.

They didn’t look as if they’d be chanting “We Are One” anytime soon.

Still.

Baekhyun broke the silence, his voice cracking uncomfortably as eleven pairs of eyes him. He looked down, his lips nervously as he realized that he was about to voice the original problem that had gotten them into this mess in the first place.

But he said it anyway: “Don’t we have a show to run?”