[ Luna ]

Luna was silent, staring at the stranger for a few long seconds.

"Well, it was nice meeting you, but you're crazy, and I'm out," Luna declared, turning to sprint away. She was met with another blank wall, similar to the one behind her.

And to her left.

And to her right.

And she was basically trapped.

"You can't go out. One, you're in a dream, so you can't leave physically exactly. And two, I'm your mother. You're not allowed to go out unless I say you can," the woman noted, obviously failing to make a joke out of their situation.

"Sure, Mom. You're my mother. Let's say that. Does that mean you're also the woman who left me to the government when I was barely walking?" Luna spat. She watched as pain flashed through the stranger's eyes, and she couldn't help but feel a little bit bad for her remark.

"You don't understand, Sunyoung-ah. Your father and I-"

"It's Luna. They gave me the name Luna while I was stuck with them," Luna said coldly, glaring. She couldn't help but notice the similarities between her and the woman. The corners of the eyes, the roundness of the cheeks, and mostly . . . the depth in the gaze.

"We didn't give you up, Suny-" Her 'mother' broke off. "Luna. Your father and I never left you. You have to understand. I'm a dream manipulator, and your father is a blood manipulator. One of the last of our kinds, and Level Nines. We managed to escape the government, but they found us while I was pregnant with you. We were settled, and I couldn't be on the run much then . . . They took you in exchange for not killing us. The three of us."

"Two Specials of high power and their baby. Of course they would take me," Luna snapped, crossing her arms. "How do I know you're not lying?"

"Your dream catcher? I'm a dream manipulator? Come on, I thought my daughter would have more common sense."

"Thanks."

"Once the chain broke, the charm I placed inside was triggered," her mother informed her smugly. When she snapped her fingers, Luna's vision went hazy purple before going back into focus. "Whoops, sorry. I haven't had practice on anyone but your father. They locked us up in this prison and have been throwing food in from somewhere we can't access. In other words, our powers are useless." Her mother's hand dropped to her side and she sighed, eyes glowing. "I wish I could hug you, but . . ." Her mother shook her head.

Luna had a feeling she should have been more emotional, but she really had no attached feelings to her parents.

"What does Dad look like?" she wondered. Her mother waved her hand across the air and stood, staring into space. "Um . . ."

"Oh, right. I forgot to do the whole power thing. Still a bit rusty." Her mother waved her hand over again, and a liquid-like color of gray burst in front of Luna before fading into a fog. She saw a smiling man, still as a picture, hovering in the air. He had Luna's smile. "Listen, Sunyo-" Her mother froze and cleared . "I mean, Luna, I know I haven't seen you in a while, but it was nice to see my daughter once in her l-"

"I'm escaping," Luna announced flatly. Her mother was silent immediately. "My friends and I. We're leaving this prison they put us in. I'm going to find you."

She hadn't planned on it, but as she said it, she knew her words were true. She had to find her parents. It was a step to whatever goal they were trying to pursue.

"What . . . exactly . . . did you and your friends plan on doing other than saving your father and I?"

"Overthrow the government. Let the public know about the Specials and that we're - generally - safe," Luna answered dully. She was astonished when a mischevious glint sparked in her mother's eyes, and she figured that was where she got her feisty side.

"I want you to remember all this information. I can feel you starting to wake up soon, so listen quick and catch it all, got it?" her mother ordered, excitement flashing in her grin.

"What? I don't want to wake up!"

"I can't control that as much as you can, sweetie. I don't know exactly where we're at, but . . . the problem is, we're in . . . the U.S.," her mother said miserably. Luna's eye twitched slightly. She'd been stuck in an empty room for most of her life, but she knew enough about the States to know that it wasn't something to look forward to.

"The States?" she said. Her mother nodded.

The United States was where the main threat to the Specials were. Once the Specials existed, the U.S. became one of the highest customers and sellers of superhumans. Luna winced as she felt her consciousness being drawn away.

Which was funny, since her consciousness was failing while she was unconscious. So she could be conscious in reality, but unconscious in her dream.

It was all too confusing, honestly.

"I think I'm waking up . . . Mom," Luna informed the woman, the word foreign on her tongue.

"Go to Seoul."

Luna's eyes narrowed. "The forbidden city." Seoul had been closed off from the public years ago, mostly because that's where many of the Specials "spawned." The people still had that ridiculous theory that their "mutations" were contagious. It was probably a barren dessert now; none of the Normals even bothered guarding it. No one was within its perimeter. "Seoul has been abandoned for years now. It's probably run-down, and if there was anyone inhabiting it, the Normals would have taken care of them."

"You have to search deeper. You'll find your sister there."

Luna's eyes dilated. "Sister?"

"Park Jinyoung," her mother explained frantically, her image and her voice fading. "She'll know what to do. She's been out in the real world longer than you; I managed to contact her before. She has connections. Have her help you."

"What if I had never broken the necklace?!" Luna shouted, panicked. Her mother was fading. Her only family she had access to was disappearing. She didn't quite know the woman, but she needed her.

She was so lost.

"I don't know," her mother admitted. Her words were barely audible as Luna felt herself slipping away, and slipping awake. "But Luna. Sunyoung. Trust me. You're going to make this all right."

Luna jerked awake in the next second.

The light rapping on her door was what finally got Luna out of bed. She'd been laying there for the past half hour, glancing at her alarm clock and then back at the ceiling. Calculating. Imagining.

A sister. Older? Most likely older, since her mother was supposedly imprisoned after her birth. Why was this sister out in the real world while she was stuck . . . here? Had she escaped? Did she have a necklace that broke before Luna's, which was why she had gotten to contact her mother first? Then her parents. She had to find her parents after she found her sister.

No. She had to get to Seoul first.

No. She needed to escape first.

She had to tell the others.

The knocking on the door became louder, impatient, and Luna groaned. She expected it to be Onew for some reason, but she was surprised to find Taemin standing awkwardly outside her door. Luna noticed that when Taemin was present, the air suddenly got a bit cooler. Breezy, even.

"Uh, hey, Luna. It's your first training day."

Luna blinked. "Wait - what?"

Taemin scratched the back of his neck and jerked his head towards the end of the hall. "We need to go behind the building; wait, that sounded weird. We're going to take turns seeing what you can do with your powers. Since you can't work on the force field, Bom will come by later. I was voted to wake up earliest since I was the youngest, and I had to be a gentleman." Taemin obviously did not care about being a gentleman. "The rest will come by later."

"Great. I have something I need to tell them," Luna said nervously. Her eyes darted to the side. She wondered if the others would go to the forbidden city with her. Not only that, but they had to fly to the States. Either way, that was how they would overthrow the government, right? So . . . it was okay, right?

Taemin nodded, only half listening, and yawned while he rubbed his eyes.

"I'm sorry," Luna apologized guiltily, bowing slightly.

"'S okay. Just promise not to kill me with your energy stuff," Taemin mumbled, walking out through the back door.

Luna kept silent. She wasn't making promises she couldn't keep. Taemin seemed to notice her avoidance of the statement, because he glanced at her with a slightly worried stare. She smiled pitifully in response.

Taemin took in their surroundings; it was a rather empty lot. The sun was blocked out by the building on one side and trees on the other, so only a few sad looking plants littered the dirt ground. His hand flew out, and a small tornado of soil whisked the grains to the side, forming a generous hill. Taemin stood atop the mound and put his hands on his hips. A smug smile tugged at his lips.

"I don't know how you're going to use my power. My ability is air. There's not really energy in air, right?"

Luna raised one eyebrow. Did he really just say that?

"No? Well, I'm a pretty strong fighter anyways. Lizzy wasn't much of a challenge; a higher level might be more difficult."

The thought of Lizzy, the traumatized girl who had left the room in a daze after Luna's power exploded, made Luna feel a sudden crash of weight on her shoulders. She shook away the feeling and returned Taemin's smile with a smirk of her own. Her fingers tingled, and she watched as silver waves of energy appeared around Taemin's lean figure. Luna eyed their smooth motions, wisping around the boy as if they were gusts of wind. It suited him.

It felt so good to be able to test her powers freely. Being open about her abilites gave Luna much more relief - but not too much, she reminded herself.

"Go on," Luna prodded. "I can't do much unless you do something." That was a lie. She made sure Taemin knew that by twisting her hand upward. A strand of his silver winds pulled towards her hand, dragging him along as well.

"What the h-" Taemin lurched forward before catching himself midair. He hovered for a second before lowering himself slowly. His eyes narrowed, and a large grin graced his face. He put his hands up in a surrendering gesture. "Go ahead. Come at me."

Luna could see a shine of energy in front of Taemin, how his bangs moved slightly. He had a defensive wall of air gusting around him. Luna eyes twinkled slightly as the gears in her mind turned. Maybe this would help her practice for the force field.

"Don't move, 'kay?" Luna snorted. She sprinted forward, headfirst. She saw Taemin's eyes widen comically, and she knew what he was thinking. "Don't even try to weaken your shield of wind because-!" Luna dove towards Taemin. He let out a high-pitched scream, and she wasn't even going to try to convince herself that it was even a little bit manly. For a second, Luna could feel the way the air fought against her. The force pushed in on her, and it felt painful for just a split moment.

And then she had tackled Taemin to the ground.

As he lay there, spluttering and choking while Luna brushed her hands off on her jeans, two pairs of hands clapped appreciatively. Luna glanced up and smiled sheepishly at Bom, who was leaning against T.O.P.

"Do it again!" Bom insisted.

"Encore," the tall boy next to her agreed.

Taemin, on the other hand, was still coughing exaggeratedly. "How did you do that?!"

"I, uh, moved. The, um. Air. I moved the air out of the way," Luna explained. Taemin stopped his choking to stare at her blankly.

"Yeah. That made sense. Now I want to try," Bom declared eagerly. T.O.P. put a hand on her shoulder, frowning slightly.

"What if she hurts you? No offense, Luna, but you just made a fool out of Tae." Taemin grunted indignantly.

"Then why don't you go against her?" Bom offered. T.O.P. was silent as he pondered this. "Exactly." Bom smiled cutely as she bounded forward, pausing a bit before she jumped on the hill Taemin had made. Taemin's feet were still resting on the edge of the pile, so she kicked it away with a slight grimace.

"Thanks," Taemin groaned, picking himself up off the ground. He rubbed his chest painfully and sat on the edge of the wall. "I should've gotten one of the others to come out first . . ."

Luna watched with admiration as a beautiful shade of magenta materialized around Bom. The latter gave Luna a bright smile as the color made a perfect sphere around her.

"This is a pretty simple force field. I heard about the plan and everything from CL, so I'm going to teach you how to work through them. The one around this area is probably about a hundred times stronger than what is my best, but we'll start out small." Bom raised her index finger and curled it towards herself twice. Luna got the message, reaching out her hand gradually. It was easy to slip past the barrier. "Okay. Shoo, shoo." Luna withdrew her arm, the energy tingling over her skin. Bom closed her eyes, concentrating with all her might. Her teeth clenched with effort, and Luna didn't have to ask to know that she was putting all her power into the force field.

The color grew bolder, and the shield pulsed slightly before expanding. Luna stepped back, slightly intimidated. When she reached forward again, it wasn't as simple. Her palm made contact with a solid barrier rather than going through it. She focused on her hand, but it was still a bit painful. Finally, Luna grunted and pressed forward with all her might. She fell through the shield, accidentally headbutting Bom in the process.

However, the girl laughed, clutching her stomach with the giggles - or maybe with pain.

"Wow, that was pretty good. Crap, look at me. I'm sweating." Bom pressed the back of her hand to her temple and pulled it back to examine the beads of persperation. "Hey, alien! Check this out! I'm actually exercising!" T.O.P. chuckled in approval, startled when G-Dragon suddenly jumped up from behind him.

"Bom's exercising? Who's the miracle worker?" GD eyed Luna, who was standing awkwardly beside Bom. "Ah. Of course."

As if that was the cue, everyone else began appearing. Soon, all the high-level dorms were standing in a circle around the dirt mound Taemin had made. Luna looked away anxiously when Onew arrived, hair slightly mussed up from sleep and lidded eyes curving with his smile. She cleared when she remembered everything her mother had told her.

Luna began explaining to everyone else, and she waited warily as she saw the light in their eyes slowly flicker to dimness. She hadn't told them about her sister yet. First of all, she wasn't even sure of the girl was real. Second, she wasn't sure if she wanted them to know. And she didn't know why.

"You want us to go to the forbidden city?" Taeyang said.

"And then the U.S.? As in the United States? The United States of America? The States?"

"Would you shut up, Jonghyun?" Victoria griped.

Luna hadn't understood why Bom was sweating before when she stood in one place the whole time, but now she understood. Her whole face was literally glowing as she waited for their answers.

"I can't go there," Daesung muttered. "To the States. I can take you guys to the edge of Seoul, but after that, I'm out. I love you guys, but my parents were murdered there for trying to protect me. I'm going to find a safe place to stay." Seungri and Minzy nodded slowly, staring at their feet.

"I . . . can't let CL go there, either. The two of us will go with you up until the city, then we'll split with you guys and go with Daesung," G-Dragon sighed.

"Don't put the blame on me, you wimp," CL snapped, although she did seem a little bit relieved. The forbidden city was a dangerous area.

"We're staying," Bom announced proudly, hooking her arms with her boyfriend. T.O.P. shrugged, looking like he could care less. "I want to be in the battle where I fight those Normal bastards, Seoul, America, or not."

In the end, it seemed like everyone from the other buildings would stick together besides Bom and T.O.P. The members in Luna's dorm all exchanged glances, nodding silently, and Onew spoke for everyone firmly.

"We're staying with you."

Everyone knew what he meant.

Luna was going to practice for a long time, and everyone knew the had to as well. They had to discreetly spread out their times visiting the battle rooms, so it didn't seem obvious that they were planning something. Luna stayed behind the building, sulking a bit, but the company of the other person assigned to her was always pleasant.

She felt bad sometimes when she accidentally electrocuted Jonghyun, drenched Sulli with icy water, wrapped Onew in his own vines, or turn any of the others' powers against themselves. Still, they always gave her that briefly amazed and impressed grin of adrenaline after they were trumped, and it gave Luna a thrill.

She was using her abilities openly, and she wasn't being judged. She was being admired for once.

Luna found it especially enjoyable when Onew trained her. She'd had five sessions that day, and she was tired. Onew must've seen that, because he smiled gently at her and sat on the ground.

"Can we wait a bit before we start? I want to charge myself up. At least let me put up a fight before you beat me to a pulp," he joked. Luna grinned, grateful as she collapsed next to Onew. "How are you doing?"

"Better," Luna answered.

"Not power-wise. Healthwise."

Luna was taken aback, but she answered with a nonchalant, "Fine."

"That's good. The date you're set to leave is in five more days."

Luna stared up at the sky, her mind going blank for several seconds. "My sister is in Seoul." Her lips moved involuntarily. She hadn't meant for her voice to betray her like that, and she wasn't aware of why it did. She sensed Onew glancing at her sharply, but she didn't tear her gaze away from the blue sky. In the distance, she could make out the gentle glow of the force field. Perhaps only she could see it.

"Your sister? Is she a Special?" Onew whispered, turning away from Luna again. She shrugged.

"I don't even know if she's actually my sister. I only know her name. My dream mom told me."

Onew snorted. "It sounds like you're talking about a woman who you wished your mother was like. Not a woman who's your mother that showed up in your dreams." He shook his head, grinning as if he made the funniest joke in the world.

"I used to imagine what my mother was like, but I stopped after a while." They fell into silence again, and Luna cursed herself for being so pessimistic. And yet again, she spoke without wanting to speak. Why did she always have something to say when Onew was here? Why was she always letting him know things about her that she didn't let anyone know? "Do you think . . . that I can get us out of here?"

"With the help of us, of course you can," Onew said bluntly. It wasn't in a way that made him sound narcissistic or defensive. It was encouraging, as if he thought it was obvious that Luna could succeed. Maybe he did.

"I want to meet my sister. I want to find my parents. It's all different from what you guys want," Luna murmured, doubtful.

"We want to find ourselves, as cheesy as it sounds. Find a place for ourselves in this world." Onew's signature smile appeared again as he faced Luna, and this time, she faced him, too. "We have different goals, but it's all the same race to a very big finish line."

Luna stared back at Onew, examining the varying shades of brown in his irises. She wasn't sure how long they stayed like that before she spoke again.

"That didn't make any sense. You know, you're a lot more idiotic than I expected you to be."

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Err, towards the end of this chapter, I felt like it got too abstract and fluffy?

So I had to put in a sarcastic remark to sign it off.

Hehe.

Korean names, like SUPER confuse me because it will look okay like this

"Park Sunyoung"

But then it will look better for this name

"Park So Young"

Am I right?

Anyways, I HAD to update today because it's KIM KIBUM'S BIRTHDAY

YEEEEEHEHHEHEHEHEHEHEEEEEEEEEEE....T

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEY YOU BEAUTIFUL DIVA BALL OF SASS AND AND DIVA AND AND GIRL GROUP DANCES AND YAAAAAHHHHH

I literally freaked out in the middle of class when I saw all his IG updates

It was his birthday yesterday in Korea but today in America so.

My classmate was just like...bruh.

They don't understand the fangirl life.

Anyways, sorry that I had to cancel out the other 2NE1/Big Bang members

It would be WAY too confusing if I put them all in one plot

Plus EXO and SNSD are showing up soon

Too many people: the main focus is SHINee and f(x) anyways, okay!

Let me know if you guys want the other members of Big Bang and 2NE1 showing up in the plot again!

They probably will be, anyways~

/sighs/ Fanfics are my escape from the stress of reality.

Thank you, guys! Don't be afraid to give feedback!

P.S. my internet is really slow right now because I'm not using my own laptop

This . Save me.