[ Onew ]

It was the second time that Onew woke up to see Luna beside him, but it wasn't quite the way he'd wanted. His head was throbbing, his body was in agonizing pain, and he couldn't hear anything except for a faint ringing in the back of his head. He coughed violently, wincing at the flare of pain the action caused in his chest.

His eyes traveled from Luna's twitching fingers to the cut on her head. The blood had seeped through a patch of her hair, several strands sticking to her cheek along with the dried maroon blood that had slid down her face. Her eyelids fluttered now and then, but they never opened.

Onew blinked groggily as his mind refocused on the real world. His arms were still in agony, but a light tingling sensation in them was making it feel less painful. He raised his head, still listening to the echoing rings, and was met with more billows of smoke surrounding the two. None of the others were in sight. How had the explosion not hurt them, he wondered. Then he saw the way Luna's fingers would twitch, the smoke consequently pushing out and away.

"You put up a shield?" Onew whispered. Luna's eyelids twitched.

"Energy," she managed. She sounded horrible. "Manuvered. Around. Easy."

"Sure it was," Onew chuckled, straining to hear her every word. Luna clutched his shirt, pulling him closer. He felt her breath tickle his ear as she spoke.

"Victoria's coming." Luna's hand shook as she removed it, head falling to the side again. Her hand stopped moving, and the smoke suddenly fell over them. Choking, Onew waved it away. He tucked his arm under Luna's neck and helped her up, hissing when he realized that his arms were severely burned.

"ONEW!" Victoria's voice. Onew's head jerked up, and he almost sobbed with relief when he saw the figure walking smoothly through the smoke. The darkness parted smoothly before Victoria appeared, gaping at the lifeless figure Onew held in his arms. "Is she-?"

"I don't know. I can't tell. Just a few seconds ago, she was breathing, but now . . ." Onew trailed off as he forced himself to lift Luna up. He leaned towards her and listened silently for her breaths. "Barely there. I think she used up all of her powers." Victoria nodded, her hand flashing forward to clear a trail for them. The path shot out like a bullet, and Onew could make out the silhouettes of the other Specials farther down. Victoria glanced at Onew uncertainly.

"Your arms-"

"No matter what, Amber is healing Luna first," Onew snapped, staring straight ahead as they began walking. His hearing was beginning to clear up and seemed to only make his pain more evident, which caused his irritation.Victoria didn't even bother arguing, which was wise on her part. Onew was grateful that Amber ran to him, rather than waiting for him to get to her.

"Dude, you got burned badly," she began, but Onew held up a hand to stop her. He jerked his chin towards Luna's lifeless figure in his arms. "Got it." She let Onew drop Luna into her arms, the transfer happening swiftly before she began murmuring under her breath. Her words seemed to have a power as well, Luna's chest rising and falling in a more pronounced fashion. "Damn, she's completely out. It must have taken a lot of life force from her to stay conscious for so long. I think she was trying to heal her body for a while, too, but it's not fully healed." Amber raced back to the bushes where everyone was sitting nervously. She set Luna down next to Sulli, who immediately began helping her clean the wounds.

"Did she run out of time?" Onew asked tiredly, stumbling towards the rest of the group.

"Hyung!" Jonghyun shouted, racing forward and catching the older man from falling.

"No," Amber answered slowly, eyes darting towards Onew's burned arms. "I think she was healing someone else."

Now, Onew dared to glance down at his burns; he had been too scared to look at the damage for fear of throwing up while carrying Luna.  He blinked several times. The skin was disgustingly raw, and it was obvious that layers had been burned off. It looked as if someone had clawed and riped at his arms, creating random, uneven patches of pink flesh. However, some areas had been smoothed over, as if the burn was already in the process of being covered up, and the pink flesh looked amazingly clean and healthy.

She was too busy trying to help me before she saved herself? Onew shuddered, knees buckling.

"Onew!" Key yelped, helping his friend to the ground slowly. Onew kneeled and rested his elbows on his knees, staring at his forearms.

"Why do things have to be so difficult for us, damn it?" he hissed. Everyone fell silent, and all that was heard was the faint, chiming sound of Amber's powers working. He shook his head. "Scratch that. Life for everyone." He laughed, and it sounded cold and empty even to him. "We just see more of it." Quiet followed the bitter truth, and everyone avoided each other's gazes uncomfortably. Onew winced, feeling sorry for creating such a bad feeling. His scowl worsened when he glanced over at Amber and saw Luna's blood staining her hands.

Someone's arm draped over his shoulders, and Onew turned to stare at G-Dragon. "Hey. happens. But sometimes, we've got to just clean our shoes."

"What the hell does that even mean?" Bom snorted.

"I think I get it. Wait - nevermind, I lied," Krystal mumbled under her breath. Onew grinned along with everyone else, grateful for the excuse to ease the atmosphere. His expression fell a bit when he surveyed everyone's condition. A few Specials had scratches littering their limbs and faces, while others had bruised skin and looked completely exhausted.

"What happened . . . what happened to our pod?" Minzy whispered. Onew closed his eyes and tried not to lash out at her. He kept thinking, had she not dragged Luna into the pod, she would have been safe.

But everyone else could have been even more hurt, he reminded himself, trying to regain his sanity.

"There was something fired at you," Jonghyun informed them, crossing his arms. His eyes glowed with an angry liquid gold. "Normals, most likely, but the weapon seemed much stronger than what they usually used."

"Word of our escape has gotten out," Amber retorted, looking up from Luna. "They must have called some reinforcements from the government. Stronger ones. Since we have this little lady right here"- she patted Luna's bloody forehead affectionately -"we've probably got our faces up everywhere. Ransom or something." Everyone shuddered at the reality of her words.

"We have to be on guard, then," Victoria muttered.

"They'll be looking out for us more than any other Specials." Seungri frowned at the ground as he rubbed his shoulder with the opposite hand.

Luna's eyes suddenly snapped open, and Onew could see that her irises were still a frighteningly bright white. She convulsed, mouth gaping open, and sat up with a violent jerk. Onew knelt down beside her quickly before listening to the jumble of words that left . He caught a few of them, such as "continue" and "Seoul." Luna froze as her eyes slowly faded back to their normal hue; she collapsed back onto Amber's lap.

"I slowed it down a bit towards the end," T.O.P. announced proudly. "She was saying something about how we should keep heading towards where the something does something and then Seoul."

"Thank you very much for that useful piece of information, idiot," GD snorted.

"Towards where the sun shines but never touches, and escapes from the North's clutches," Taeyang spoke up. Everyone looked at him. "Sound manipulation - I have pretty good hearing. You said we move South, right? That's what she meant. South Korea. It was some sort of riddle. Does energy manipulation give you fortune telling powers?"

Onew shrugged and stared at Luna's resting figure. This girl was full of surprises. Sulli wiped off the last of the dried blood on Luna's face, and Amber fell back with a relieved sigh.

"She's probably going to be out for a while. She is seriously wasted. Like, literally," she muttered.

Onew nodded, kneeling down and moving Luna onto his back. Everyone stared at him with curiosity.

"We can't waste anymore time. We'll keep walking. Unless anyone needs any more healing," he monotoned. The others exchanged questioning glances, as if daring each other to step up and admit their weaknesses. No one did. "Alright. Let's go."

[ Luna ]

It had been a weird dream, but Luna had heard her mother's voice giving her vague directions to Seoul. She wasn't sure why her mother had spoken in odd, poetic lines, but she remembered her mother saying something about ears around her, so couldn't be straightforward about it. Luna whimpered when she felt a light throb against her left temple. She remembered very slightly about hitting her head against a rock when the pod had crashed and her body had been thrown to the side.

"Are you okay?" Onew's smooth voice reached Luna's ears, low and comforting. It reminded her of rich honey mixed with a pleasant hum. Slowly, her eyelids lifted. She was being piggybacked by him; the rocking from side to side was quite comfortable as he walked. Her cheek was pressed against his right shoulder, and she could feel his hair tickling the back of her neck when she was swayed a bit to the side. The forest had disappeared, and the path they were walking on was sandy and barren besides a single civilization in the distance. She could see the others walking ahead slowly as well.

Luna opened to speak, but her lips and throat were dry. She cleared it and her lips quickly before answering with a brief "yes." Onew's head lowered, the rising sun shining pleasantly onto the side of his face.

"Good."

Luna's eyes automatically traveled to Onew's forearms, and a relieved smile graced her lips when she saw that the skin was perfectly fine.

"Amber healed me right after you," Onew explained, and Luna was startled. She relaxed and stared at the milky skin of his arms contently. "Or rather, after you had tried healing me, right?" Luna's gaze lowered guiltily. "Why did you put me before yourself?"

Luna answered him with silence, wishing she could bury her face into the fabric of his shirt and hide there.

"Luna?"

"I don't know," she finally replied. It was an honest response; she didn't know. She had been barely surviving inside the fire, trapped between jagged sheets of metal and bleeding unendingly; but when she had felt the pain Onew was suffering as he carried her, she had automatically transferred her energy to assist him.

"Luna's awake!" Krystal exclaimed, running back to greet the girl on Onew's back. She tilted her head curiously, examining Luna's eyes. "You're normal. Well - at least as normal as we can get."

"Yeah, you were spouting some deep stuff back there," Taeyang called back. Key glanced at Onew sharply all of a sudden and halted, letting the others pass. He gave Krystal the hint to go on ahead, which she obeyed reluctantly.

"What's wrong?" Onew asked warily. He was used to Key randomly - sometimes accidentally, sometimes purposefully - poking into his brain. "What was I thinking about?" Key ignored his inquiries and eyed Luna suspiciously. She narrowed her eyes in return.

"Say," he huffed. "When were you planning on telling us about your sister?" Onew coughed loudly, and Luna avoided the mind reader's gaze. "I might not be able to read your mind, but I'm not stupid." He punched Onew's arm. "I read his." Luna cleared , guilty.

"I didn't want the others to know because . . . well . . . it wasn't personal, but it seemed ridiculous. Going to Seoul just to meet a girl that could possibly help us? That could possibly not exist? It was better for them to believe that Seoul had actual answers waiting for us, not an imaginary sibling."

"Luna, we're not going to be pissed at you because your parents popped out another kid besides you," Key snorted. He crossed his arms. "But I am slightly pissed that you didn't tell us at first. Very slightly."

"He is very pissed," Onew whispered to Luna. She rolled her eyes; she didn't need to be a mind reader to know that.

"Don't be afraid to share your feelings or fears with us. We've all had our share of those," Key insisted. "It'll make us closer, too. Trust me. Trust us." Onew didn't say anything, but Luna could still hear his silent approval of what his friend had said. Luna hesitated before nodding once, causing a smirk to pull one corner of Key's lips up. "Guys, Luna has a sister in Seoul waiting for us!" He then sprinted ahead to catch up with the others.

Everyone whirled around and stared at Onew and Luna, a questionitive glint in all their eyes. Luna looked at the ground and sighed, trusting Key and his gossip-sharing mouth to explain everything to them.

"Did you not want to tell them?" Onew asked, sounding a bit apologetic and disappointed.

"No, it's not like that," Luna assured him quickly. She felt like she should push herself off his back and start walking on her own. However, her head was still reeling, and she wasn't sure if she could even stand, much more take steps. Plus, Onew was warm and reassuring. "I just didn't want to make myself any weirder to them."

"Are you really going to be worried about us thinking you're weird? The Specials are the definition of weird in the humans' eyes, Luna," Onew laughed, and she marveled at the sound. "Anyways, we'll be taking refuge in the town up ahead. From my previous knowledge, this place should be rather remote. We should be able to rest there for the night."

"You're familiar with the area?"

"Well - barely," Onew admitted.

"How long have I been asleep for us to travel so far?" Luna gasped. She glanced behind her, and there was no forest in sight.

"About two days. Don't worry; we got far because of our powers. We didn't want to tire ourselves out, but you weren't waking up and we needed a place to rest. Our Specials can recharge in town tonight."

Luna was sorry that she hadn't been of any help for the past two days, but she was also worried. The town had people, and weren't they looking for her everywhere? What if her face put the others in danger? She gripped onto Onew's shirt tighter, frowning at the plot of houses in the distance.

"Don't worry," Onew assured her again, sensing her concern. Luna curled her lips back over her teeth in distaste, pulling back so Onew could turn and see her glaring at him. "What? Trust me! I know that we'll make it to wherever we need to go." He paused. "Because we have you on our team!" He smiled cheekily, obviously satisfied that he had caused a faint blush to dust Luna's cheeks.

"It's more likely I'll get you killed," she mumbled, slumping forward. Onew chuckled, shaking his head.

"Then you're worth dying for?" he stated it as if it were a question, but it still gave Luna enough reason to hit him across the head. Onew lost balance, and the two collapsed in the sand in a fit of coughs and laughter.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

DIBIDIBIDIS IT'S MINHO DAY

MINHO

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

MINHOOOOOOOOOO

MIN TO THE HO

FLAMING CHAAAAARISMAAAAAAAAA

MINHO MINHO MINHO MINHO MINHO MINHO

MANHO

MIIIIIIIIIIIN MINNIE MIN

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

MINHO OMG

And thus, that concludes today's author's note.

P.S. I realized that Hoya wasn't in the drama that I thought he was in. It was just someone who looked like him. After I've watched Infinite a bit more, I've realized that it is indeed not him. Apologies.

BUT WOOHYUN AND SUNGYEOL ARE STILL ADORABLE IN THAT DRAMA

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MINHO

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ANY READERS WITH BIRTHDAYS RIGHT NOW

I LOVE YOU ALL