[ Luna ]

His lips were soft, hers pliant, as they met. Luna couldn't hold back her smile as Onew kissed her. When they pulled apart, she opened her eyes and realized his fingers had carded through her hair and he held her face delicately, as if she were a porcelain vase that would break if she dropped. The familiar smile that curved like the reflection of the sunset had graced his lips, adoring yet laced with an unavoidable sadness. 

"Luna?"

"Yes."

"So you're conscious."

" . . . Shouldn't I be?"

This time, Luna really opened her eyes. She sighed; she had expected it, but she was automatically disappointed when her eyes met Key's instead of Onew's. Still, she returned the soft smile he gave her. Her eyes wandered around the storage room she had lost her consciousness in just before. She was laying on a bed made of a couple scratchy towels and a stiff pillow, likely taken from one of the rooms - how long had it been?

"Good. I thought you would be out for a whole week, but it was only a few days," Key mused, dipping a towel she hadn't noticed before into a tub of water. He was about to press it to her forehead before he stopped and pressed the back of his hand to her skin. "Damn!" He tossed the rag aside like - well, a wet rag. "You're already almost at normal temperature. You've had a high fever."

"When I was gone," Luna mumbled, her parched lips, "did I say anything?" Key pondered this.

"Hm, not for the first several hours after you passed out. We all felt pretty drained by the time your body became stable." At her wince of guilt, Key snorted. "Don't worry, no one got hurt. You were mostly muttering; I guess you were too fatigued too say anything clearly in the real world. You cried once. We knew you came back when you stopped writhing in your sleep."

Luna shuddered. "I sound like some possessed person."

"That's basically what it was like."

Just then, the door opened, and they both tensed.

"Hey, Key, we can change shifts now, go get dinner - LUN-!" Key sprinted forward and clapped a hand over Amber's mouth. Jinyoung followed behind Amber, shaking her head. When Key let her go, she ran - tip-toeing - to Luna's side, plopping beside the discarded rag and water bucket. "You're awake, energy bunny~!"

Luna felt her eyes go up in an involuntary roll. Amber tugged at her cheeks cheerfully.

"Should I call the others?" she quipped. Key shook his head.

"Let them sleep; it's late and who knows what it'll be like once we dock. We'll gather tomorrow morning."

It was Amber's turn to roll her eyes. She looked at Luna exasperatedly. "Blame Mother here for you having to sleep on wooden flooring. He's been nagging us this whole time. We managed to score some rooms with other Specials on the boat, but he said hiding you would be hard since we couldn't move you whenever a Normal  came to check the room."

Luna grinned. "How are the others hiding?"

"Behind their name," Key answered, glaring at Amber. "There are still some rich, successful Specials that can keep their identity hidden from the world, and it gets them by a lot. Luckily, they're still proud of their species."

"We're all human," Amber harrumphed. She looked at Luna for approval, who only let her smile falter.

"I don't know . . . when you saw what they did with Onew . . . you wouldn't believe those people are human." The room grew cold, all three of them shivering slightly at the thought.

"Is he okay?" Jinyoung asked softly. She approached her twin sister and her hair gently.

Luna shook her head, forcing herself up on slightly shaky elbows. Amber helped her to sit up before sitting back as well. "For the most part, he's still sane. I think he has a plan, and he wants us to keep going to America."

Key scowled. "What if they're using Specials to brainwash him? What if they''re leading us into a trap, using him to trick us?" Luna thought quietly, about the dream she had caught Onew having and the expressions that flitted across his face as they had spoken. She shook her head, sure of herself - of him. Key sighed, but it was obvious that he was still trusting, too. "Let's go; you must be hungry. We were starting to get worried about whether we could feed you if you didn't wake up."

Luna's stomach growled at the mere thought of eating, and she eagerly stood up (only wobbling a bit). By the time she had gobbled down a late dinner, hidden away from the guests who might recognize the Specials' profiles, Taemin had joined them. They all gathered in the room Luna would share with Sulli and Krystal; the owner of the suite wasn't back yet, but she was apparently an insanely rich telekinetic. Sulli and Taemin looked absolutely exhausted, nearly unconscious while they listened to Luna briefly explain what she saw.

"Sorry . . . we've been working on speeding up the cruise ship," Sulli mumbled, face pressed against her pillow on the floor.

"Modern technology and motors are great and all, but it shouldn't take this long to get across the ocean," whined Taemin.

"The ocean is pretty big, Tae," Key sighed.

"Not as big as your ego," he rebutted. He instantly regretted it and hid behind Luna before Key could strangle him. The laughter was short-lived as the room fell into a quiet hush, the reality of their situation weighing on all of their soldiers. The silence was broken by the sound of the suite room door being unlocked. Involuntarily, all the Specials scrambled to cram into the closet or bathroom in fear of the staff neglecting to care for the "Do Not Disturb" sign.

Luna, squeezed somewhere behind the bed's headboard between Krystal and Amber, relaxed at the pulsing energy of a fairly powerful Special as she entered the room. There was an amused chuckle and the sound of heels muffled against the carpet.

"Calm down, it's just me."

"Ah, Wendy's here!" Amber chirped in flawless English.

"What?" Luna uttered in not-as-flawless English.

Krystal snorted as everyone crawled out of their hiding places. "Amber and I came from America. Wendy here is the owner of a highly successful cupcake brand from Canada, Red Velvet."

"Oh, so Luna has awoken!" To Luna's surprise, Wendy was actually very young, around their age. In fact, the only thing that suggested she was old enough to be close to their age was her outfit; high heels, black pencil skirt, white blouse, and simple jewelry - all neat and orderly.

The whole image was ruined, of course, when she collapsed on the bed and let out a bellowing yawn. "HURGH, you woke up just in time. You only have to deal with a little bit more of this rocky boat and we dock. You didn't have to deal with trying not to throw up at formal meetings this whole week." Wendy rolled over onto her stomach and wagged her finger in the air. "Then again, I heard what you had to go through, so I take it back!"

She stood up and kicked her heels off before tottering over to the bathroom, where she nudged Taemin away from the door (since he had been hiding in the bathtub). When she came out, she was dressed comfortably in a sweat suit and fell on the bed again. Everyone watched her with somewhat awe and confusion as she sprawled on the mattress.

"So what's the situation?" Wendy pointed at Amber and snapped her fingers towards the closet. "Remember the bodyguard outfit I let you try on the other day? We have tons more. Ridiculous, those people. They always wear the same outfit, but my parents buy them multiple to take up space. Do I need ten bodyguards on this cruise? N-" She paused and glanced around the room at the other Specials taking up her suite. "Well, thanks to you guys - yes, my parents' overprotectiveness is much needed this time."

Key quickly bounded towards the walk-in closet and came out with a handful of formal suits. "It's not my style, but it's a style. I accept."

"Those aren't all for you, are they?" Krystal harrumphed. She flicked her hand upwards, and all the suits - save for one - flew back into the closet. Key narrowed his eyes at her. "Thanks, Wendy; we'll hand out all the disguises tomorrow."

"We need to find out where Onew is!" Luna blurted. "Or where he's going. When the Normals capture a Special important enough to take to America, where would they go?"

"Oh? I thought you guys knew; you're on your way to the west coast after all. California used to be crawling with Specials when they were first discovered, and the government evacuated all the humans from there. The Golden State practically became a Golden Prison for Specials. The 110th president of the United States is especially cracking down on collecting powerful Specials everywhere." Wendy tapped her bottom lip thoughtfully. "I'm surprised all these countries are complying - who knows what sort of weapons they'd try to cook up with all these Specials!"

Luna shuddered in disgust. "I did notice that not many people were on this big of a ship . . . why are they heading towards a state full of Specials then?"

"A lot of these people are like me; important figures who are attending a huge meeting in one of the biggest Special labs of America. These project proposals usually introduce something that utilizes some of our kind's abilities to benefit the human race - the operative word being "benefit". I'm coming in place of my parents; they figured it was time I had to deal with the reality firsthand now that I'm taking over our business."

"What do cupcakes have to do with Special trafficking?"

"It's complicated. There's a lot of people with big names here, okay? Watch out for them; that means there's a lot of humans who think they're above people like you." Wendy paused. "As for the Specials on this boat, some of them are like me; they've got no choice. I've met some of the others, and there has been a system of undercover Specials helping the ones that were caught. The rest of the humans here just work for the labs."

Luna gritted her teeth. That meant there were basically two classes of people on the boat: ones who were like them, and ones who didn't like them. Either way, they would have to do their best to avoid everyone until the boat docked in America. Either way, they would have to face them all - and more - when they docked in America.

"I never realized how itchy wearing formal suits feels," Chanyeol gasped, tugging at his necktie.

"Tell me about it," Wendy grumbled. Luna watched with admiration as Wendy's fingers danced in the air, everyone's ties tying themselves. "I can't believe none of you guys know how to tie them. I mean, haven't some of you lived out in the real world before you got arrested?"

"Maybe it's because you're rich, but I don't think I would ever have to learn how to tie a tie until I'm married," Minho griped. "Don't girls wear dresses to these sort of events?"

Wendy rolled her eyes. "You act like seeing a woman in a suit is a phenomenon. Anyways, remember what I said - glasses down, straight faces, only speak when spoken to - even to me. If you need to say something, lean down and whisper it in my ear as if you've gotten a message from my parents. Follow every single instruction I give you, okay? You need to figure out where they bring in the Specials and hope your friend arrives soon."

Jinyoung seemed to notice when Luna grew wary and wrapped a comforting arm around her. They were sporting matching black suits now, so the only real difference was their hair color. It was still so weird to Luna, having a twin sister.

Once everyone gave the okay, Wendy straightened her dress and sighed, opening her door. The group was joined by even more men and women in black suits, who didn't seem phased by the additional recruits. One of the women, a blonde with her hair drawn into a tight bun, nodded at the others before turning to Wendy.

"Ma'am, the president of JYP is asking for you. Most of them have left the boat already."

Wendy made a sound of utter disgust before she covered her face with her hands. When she moved her hand away, she had a bright smile plastered on, turning left and right so everyone could see her. "How do I look?"

"Fake," Jonghyun admitted.

"But polite fake? Or I want to throw myself over the boat fake?"

"Compared to that, I guess you could say it's polite."

She nodded, continuing with her stiff smile. "Let's go! I've got to deal with a load of rich bastards talking my own kind to my face today."

"Oh, we get that all the time," Luna quipped. Taeyeon snorted and then quickly returned to her straight-faced facade.

Tense shoulders and awkward gaits, the impressively-numbered group shuffled around Wendy, down the walkway, and onto land. Sulli exhaled heavily.

"I'm a water manipulator, but sweet, sweet land!"

Wendy whipped her head around and eyed her sharply. "I said don't speak unless spoken to!"

"Wendy?"

Luna tried not to jerk in shock as Wendy's expression switched from murderous witch to fake, polite witch. She easily engaged in reserved conversation with the nameless man. Her heart skipped a beat whenever people made humorous comments about Wendy's parents assigning too many bodyguards. The cruise ship passengers were boarding into large, luxurious looking buses.

"It seems that you need a bus all to yourself, Miss Wendy," one middle-aged woman noted. Her tone wasn't that playful, and her eyebros drew together in an unpleasant expression, Luna noticed through her slightly tinted sunglasses. Wendy's smile stretched wider - Luna thought her face would rip.

"Nonsense. Half of them will be trailing us by foot, just in case, as my parents decided is safe. This is also for your benefit, Mrs. Cunnings. It seems that you don't have any assistance today - husband still out for . . . business?"

Ouch. Note to self: don't get on Wendy's bad side. Luna quickly straightened up when she noticed Wendy pointing at her.

" . . . you, you, and you - may join me on the bus. The rest, please follow Lana's instructions accordingly. She's been given strict orders and will communicate them accurately, correct?"

The blonde from before nodded her head once. "Yes, ma'am.".

Luna followed a few of the bodyguards onto the bus, along with Chanyeol, Jonghyun, Taemin, Jinyoung, and Victoria. She noticed that her friends were careful to shield her from the eyes of others; they had gotten more protective of her, and she appreciated it. Then again, it made her feel like more of a burden.

"Your friends will join us soon. My guards are going with them to scope the area and get familiar with other routes in case of . . . emergencies," Wendy whispered to her. "Stick close to me until I tell you where to go. The meeting is long, but your time is still precious - and limited."

"Understood, ma'am," Luna murmured monotonously. Wendy sat down on a cushioned seat while they stood randomly throughout the bus. Chanyeol and Victoria stayed beside her, calm yet charismatic energies brushing at Luna's shoulders. She felt faint as the bus drove past various closed down buildings. Some newer buildings that were still being used glowed faintly, like a firefly trapped in a dusty jar.

Like trapped souls.

I'll free you all as soon as we find Onew. I don't know how we're doing any of this just yet but . . . we have numbers. And plenty of supporters. Right? Luna wrung her hands nervously but quickly let them return to her sides when she realized how unprofessional that must have looked. She peeked around through her sunglasses, feeling sweaty when the judgemental eyes of the strangers lingered too long.

The bus slowed to a stop in front of a large column-decorated building. It was about half as tall as the buildings around it, but it was obviously important. Sure enough, the bus driver announced that they had arrived at the location for their meeting.

"This building is plenty far from the laboratories, should any mutants escape - which is highly unlikely," he continued.

Jokes on you, er, Luna thought smugly.

"After your business, it has been offered for you to stay with free housing and luxuries at a grand hotel, a request from the President himself. He arrives soon and would like you all to join him tomorrow at The Arena. It's a new concept he and other members have proposed - much like the gladiators of history, you can safely watch the mutants battle to the death in the stadium we have built several miles away from here."

Interested murmurs quickly filled the bus. Luna lowered her head, suddenly nauseous. The doors opened and the passengers filed out quite orderly - scientists, business people, and assistants parted ways. Luna didn't feel any familiar energies nearby, so she assumed the others were still taking care of what needed to be taken care of elsewhere.

The inside of the grand building was as impressive as its appearance, if not more so. The meeting hall wasn't far from the entrance and was quickly crowded despite its colossal availability of space.

"As the President has yet to arrive, we encourage you to head to the Dining Hall a few doors down or socialize here and the hall. Thank you for your patience," a man spoke into the microphone at the end of the room. Wendy stood up in a calm manner, briefly smiling at the people around her as she left the room.

"Bathroom, please. Only women, if you can't read," she sang, heels click-clacking from the carpet to tiles. Once inside, she checked all the stalls and snapped her fingers at one of the male bodyguards outside. Without hesitation, he slid over to blockade the entrance along with his fellow bodyguards. Minho, Jonghyun, and Chanyeol awkwardly followed. Wendy shut the door, loudly complaining, "You can't even stop bothering me when I use the toilet!"

"I can't stand listening to these people," Victoria immediately snapped, taking off her sunglasses. Her eyes glowed bright green for a brief second before calming down. "Gladiators? Who do they think we are?"

"Try not to let that temper get to you," Jinyoung sighed. "I can't understand personally, but we can't risk them seeing you flash green lights like a disco ball during the meeting."

"Oh, you guys aren't staying for the meeting. That's ridiculous," Wendy snorted. "I'm going to, very obviously, send you all out to watch the building. My dear parents noticed that some men have been out for me and are worried about stalkers of all sorts." Her tone was both sarcastic and yet quite believable. "Be careful; there are plenty of Normals milling about, and I don't know what sort of technology they have in this sort of high-tech area. This sort of place was made to be Special-proof."

"That seemed to work well," Victoria said cheekily. Luna had to smirk.

"Sure, whatever - I'll say I told you so when you get caught up with a Normal with a too-good scanner. Anyways, I wish you all the best of luck. To be honest, the safest bet you have is to head towards the arena. Specials that have been here awhile are all over this building, but it seems the more important ones should be around that stadium of death these geniuses thought up. Your friend is fairly powerful, correct?"

"Yes. And an essential ticket for them to get to you, right, Luna?" Jinyoung brought up. Luna nodded slowly. "Alright. To the stadium of death it is."

"Oh, and also - your other friends will meet you there as well. I told Lana to lead them to the most dangerous place she could figure out."

They trailed behind Luna, since she could sense which Specials were more powerful. It was also obvious that the buildings got larger and had more security. The amount of Normals guarding the buildings gradually increased as they continued walking. Thankfully, it wasn't only Wendy's bodyguards that were observing the area. It seemed that the other important figures had sent out helpers and bodyguards to take note of the surrounding area. But that only meant more humans to turn on them if they were suspicious.

When they were approached, Luna got especially nervous, but Jinyoung was quick and calm to ward them off. Soon, they could see just how tall the rumored Arena was. Luna was starting to get a headache from the constant pounding of Special energy against the walls around her. From the Arena, it was much more silent. Then again, it hadn't been opened to the real viewers yet.

"Let's wait at the base for everyone else," Minho muttered. Silently agreeing, they continued closer.

Suddenly, a major explosion of energy burst from the Arena; Luna could see a bright violet light spread like ripples away from its walls, causing her to stumble back against the force.

"Luna?!" Jinyoung hissed. They looked around for anyone who had noticed and discreetly shuffled to a more secluded area. They were close enough to the Arena for Luna to cringe against the constant energy escaping it. "What's wrong?"

"You didn't feel that?" Taemin inquired. "I felt something too. but not as badly. Something shook in their - enough for me to sense the air . . . quake."

"It keeps going . . . what are they doing?" Luna moaned, holding her hands to her head. "It feels like the weight of as many Specials as there used to be at our prison . . . except all their power is flowing out at once."

"They shouldn't be battling now. No one's there to watch, unless we have other guests," Jonghyun panicked. He glanced up and squinted towards the Arena. "Oh! There's the rest of us, at the entrance." Luna did her best to ignore her growing headache and squinted up, where she saw Key turn around and notice them. He nodded his head towards the entrance.

They made their way over to join the group, who were being confronted by a few Normals.

"Excuse me; you shouldn't be here. The first showing will start tomorrow."

"My master told me to check on all suspicious activity," Lana spoke up. "I believe this is it? Why are Specials out in the open?"

"We assure you that the Arena is well sealed, and what you are witnessing is professionally restrained Specials joining the subjects for lab research," one Normal officer argued.

"I demand that you allow us into this area, since it's so protected and doesn't require you to close the entrance."

The Normals exchanged looks (somehow) through their masks before the one who had spoken nodded.

"Very well - we must ask which of our guests of today you are servicing?"

"JYP . . . Red Velet . . . Infinite - this group varies. We have all been ordered to scope your so-called "safe" location." Luna admired Lana's professionalism and confidence. If she didn't have sunglasses hiding her eyes, she would have been quivering from head to toe. The Normals stepped away from the entrance and gestured for them to enter the Arena.

Luna immediately could see through into the center of the Arena, where all that pulsing energy was coming from. New energy would suddenly appear within the huge pool of power, she realized, and then people would appear, looking quite normal, albeit a bit frazzled.

"Explain this - my president was never aware of this sort of technology!" Lana demanded. One Normal sighed, shaking his head.

"This is just one of the things the President's got in store for everyone tonight. We've got plenty of goodies for your masters to check out. Are you satisfied?"

"Hey, Matt . . . why are they using that now anyway?" the other Normal muttered. He was promptly elbowed in the ribcage. "Oof!"

As they continued discussing, Luna continued to squint into the whirlpool of violet energy. A foreboding feeling crept up her back and tickled at her neck until she saw it - a soft, green figure of energy that appeared within the violet, subdued and weak, but she knew.

Onew!

[ AUTHOR'S NOTE ]

The horribly delayed updater is back. BOOM BANG BOOM U GUYS HAVE NO IDEA HOW BAD I FELT WHEN I SEE THE COMMENTS ASKING FOR AN UPDATE I KNOW I'M A SIN BUT I DID IT. IT'S SO LATE RN BUT WHO CARES

I missed so many important SHINee days and comeback stuff, but hey, happy birthday Taemin!

I'm still hella bitter since I wrote a good thousand words or so and then it all got deleted. So this chapter was on draft for a while and all I left was "[Luna]" and DIBIDIBIDIS

So, yeah, you can imagine the writer's block I had when I opened this up after exams and saw that. Also, there's no such thing as a cruise from Japan to America as far as I know, but I figured it would be better than a plane, and I've already gone too far. (or rather, they have. on the ship. haha)


(What is Onew even doing in this gif lol)

Over 4k words, baby. Hopefully the next one gets up a lot sooner than this one did.

Again, a miracle that I still have readers. Thank you & I hope you MVP's enjoyed!