Lee Jaehwan watched as Wonshik pulled out the Ragnarök file and Hakyeon's experiment file. He handed them to Hongbin, probably to keep him from murdering their tan leader. Jaehwan was confused, wondering what Hyuk had meant about Hakyeon dying? Looking over at his companion in curiously, he noted that the other did look a little exhausted.

"Apparently Hakyeon's father was a real crazy ." Wonshik continued to explain and Jaehwan noticed that Hakyeon wasn't looking at any of them. Instead, he looked terrified. "The day Hakyeon was born, his dad infected his mom with Ragnarök. But he was born without any sign of the virus. So his dad started testing stages of the virus on him. Having infected animals and people bite him and injecting him with the virus itself. This started when he was three and ended when he came to us."

"Wonshik, stop." Jaehwan grabbed the man's arm and pointed at their scared friend, who was pale and had slowly sat down on the fountain bench, tears stained his oddly pale cheeks.

"Hakyeon?" Taekwoon turned to their leader and quickly pulled him to his feet. "Don't do that. Don't sit down."

~~~

Kim Wonshik wondered what was wrong with their usually hyper companion? Had he forced him to remember his painful past? Why was Taekwoon so angry with him for just sitting down? Whatever the answers, Wonshik felt regret for telling them something Hakyeon hadn't been comfortable with them knowing yet.

"Don't..." Hakyeon pulled away from Taekwoon, causing everyone to stare in shock. In the whole history of their time together, Hakyeon had never once done that, had never showed any kind of dissatisfaction with his lover. What was going on?

"Hakyeon..." Taekwoon looked ready to cry. Did Wonshik do something so wrong it was ruining their relationship? He should have thought about Hakyeon's feelings, but it wasn't like Hakyeon had done anything awful to begin with. He had been abused his whole life and Wonshik just wanted to shed light on his pain. Especially if it kept Hongbin from killing his friend.

"Stop... Taekwoon, I'm a monster... I'm sorry..." Hakyeon covered his face. How could he honestly believe he was a monster? He was the biggest victim of the whole Ragnarök virus.

"I could never believe that." Taekwoon kissed Hakyeon as Hongbin handed the files to Hyuk, moving quickly to pull the tan man away from the other.

~~~

Lee Hongbin had been reading the file as Wonshik spoke. The things Hakeyon had endured at the hands of his father were brutal. He couldn't hold on to his anger toward the other anymore. He just couldn't.

Pulling Hakeyon to him suddenly, he could feel the eyes of his friends watching him nervously. Before Taekwoon could beat him to death for threatening Hakyeon, he hugged him, doing his best to be mindful of his injuries.

"I'm so sorry. So sorry." Hongbin kept hugging the older man who was shaking in his arms.

"Okay. We're all here. We're all up to date. Let's go." Hyuk pulled Hongbin away from Hakyeon so Taekwoon could take care of his boyfriend.

"Right. We have to hurry to get Hakyeon to the base doctor." Hongbin agreed. Hyuk was right. If Hongbin was running out of time, then their friend probably had even less of it. After finding out everything he had been through, Hongbin wanted Hakyeon to live through this and finally have a happy life.

~~~

"Wait..." Jung Taekwoon took the files from Hyuk and started to read them. He needs to know what Hakyeon went through before they continued their mission. The man watched him helplessly, hugging himself, showing more insecurity than Taekwoon had ever seen from him.

It wasn't hard to tell that his lover didn't want him to read the papers, but he needed to. Watching Hakyeon sobbing quietly as he trembled in fear make his stomach turn. He wished he could stop reading and comfort him, but to Taekwoon, the best way to help him was to know what broke him. Finishing reading as quickly as he could, he pulled Hakyeon into a gentle kiss.

His Hakyeon had been through so much, too much. Really. Taekwoon considered himself lucky that Hakyeon had survived long enough to be in his life. With the exception of the virus cure file, Taekwoon took the other paperwork from his teammates. He was going to start helping Hakyeon heal.

"What are you going to do?" Wonshik asked as Hongbin went back to trying to comfort their shattered leader.

"The easiest way to ensure these files don't end up in the wrong hands is to make sure they no longer exist to do so..." Taking out his lighter, Taekwoon dropped the files in the dry fountain, lighting them on fire.

"Taekwoon..." Hakyeon was watching the fire and the way the light of the flames caught on the tear streaks on his cheeks was so heartbreakingly sad. How long had he known about his past and had just been too scared to tell Taekwoon? It hurt for him to think that his lover didn't trust him with this.

"Hakyeon, you know I could never hate you, right?" He pulled the tan man against his chest and kissed the top of his head. "Even if you had purposefully fed my grandmother to zombies I would still love you. I'm hopelessly attached to you. Besides. If anyone hated you for being tortured like you were... I would kill them for being so heartless." Hakyeon sniffled but nodded a little against Taekwoon's chest. He wasn't lying, no matter what, nothing could ever make him stop loving Hakyeon.

~~~

Cha Hakyeon's past had been exposed and his friends still seemed to care about him... They maybe even seemed to care more now than they had before. He didn't understand it but he was grateful. They were all like a family to him and if they had hated him... Well at least he'd be happy to die even if he wouldn't have died happy.

His stomach cramped and he turned, vomitting out some more blood. Falling slightly, he found himself being held up by Taekwoon. Jaehwan shrieked in fear and Hakyeon received a sudden bought of dizziness. Managing to make himself stand, his legs were shakey and he felt like he may fall again.

"I'm okay." He wiped his lips off with the back of his hand. It was starting to get a little difficult to breathe.

"I thought he said he was okay!" Wonshik was yelling, causing Hakyeon flinch away from the loud voice, Taekwoon wrapping his arms around him to help him support himself and to shield him from Wonshik's wrath.

"He didn't want to worry any of us." Hongbin stepped in to defend Hakyeon. "Hyuk and I didn't know until we caught him throwing up either."

"So why didn't one of you tell us?" Wonshik's voice sounded strained. Hakyeon hid his face against Taekwoon's neck as the man rubbed his back gently. He was nothing but a mess up, a failure, and he had only wanted to do the best thing for the group and get them home safely.

"Who are we to tell when Hakyeon's working so hard to be strong for us?" Hyuk shrugged as Hakyeon's head finally stopped spinning and he stood on his own, turning to his friends.

"Okay. Let's get ready. And now that my condition is out of the bag..." He took the paper and ID key cards from Taekwoon's bag, handing a paper and card to each team leader. "These are in case I don't make it into the labs with you... You shouldn't run into any zombies in there. The lab had a safety device rigged to destroy any infected flesh inside once all the locks were activated." He bit his lip.

"And... If I don't make it... The gates out of the compound... Both the one by the labs and the one we came through... They have a special panel. The code for them is 749 and a red button will appear. Push it on your way out." He explained urgently. "You'll have 15 minutes to get as far away as possible before this entire compound is engulfed in flames and burns to the ground. It's the only way to get rid of everything here that could be used to create Ragnarök again. The fire kills the virus so it wont further spread as well. No matter what, remember to push that button."

"You're not going to die." Taekwoon shook his head stubbornly. Hakyeon wished he could shake some sense into him but he was happy his lover didn't want to give up on him. His heart may have broken if Taekwoon decided he didn't want Hakyeon to live anymore.

"I know." He managed to make himself smile and grabbed his bag and gun, reloading it. "Okay. Everyone ready?"

Everyone made sure their weapons were full of ammo before Hakyeon unlocked the gate to the back parking lot that led to the labs. They walked through, checking under abandoned cars as they made a straight line toward the lab doors. Halfway to their destination, their leader vomited again and, as he stood back up, they heard a sound behind them. Something had circled around them.

Hakyeon looked up and his heart felt like it was being squeezed in a vice. He could have handled anything, anything at all, better than he could handle this. The form in front of him had barely even began to decay in the three years since he had faced this person last. He couldn't keep the tears from falling as he watched the figure advancing on them.

"Hello again... Byoungjun..."