Arms sore, legs on fire, back aching, stomach throbbing, but the muscles were absolutely beautiful. Among all the workers in the domes, Jaejoong had always had the best muscles body, but among the workers only. In comparison to the richer folk like Yunho or Siwon who had better health, Jaejoong’s scrawny arms and legs made him look disgustingly skinny, disgustingly sickly, disgustingly ugly. His new stomach firm, arms starting to show defined and healthy muscles, legs finally toning up, Jaejoong’s heart swelled with pride and happiness.

“Yuri, I’m a real man right now aren’t I?” Yuri just laughed and shifted through the notes Changmin had left her and Jaejoong. An answer on the tip of her tongue, ‘you have always been a real man to me, Jaejoong,’ but she couldn’t say it, their relationship hadn’t reached that point quite yet.

Their previous intimacy forced by fear of death, their previous love faked solely for survival, their previous friendship built due to their broken hearts and failed parenthood, their previous detachment due to their sudden freedom, lies now not needed. After a month of ‘Hey, I don’t need to love you anymore, why bother?’ they came back to their original stand. ‘Hey, I think you are a good person, probably the only one I trust not to betray me.’ Because despite how broken their relationship had been, they knew each other better than themselves and understood deep down the love was still there. Only when not thinking did they express any such emotion freely, but not when drawn out.

Yuri bit her tongue, the question dragging out the awkward atmosphere. “Oh –yeah, Jae,” the shuffling of papers not enough to hide her discomfort. Two months of confusion and questions piled onto the coffee table. Two months of ‘He does this, we do this, our goal is this,’ dug through those papers and onto the once smooth surface. Two months of reported enlisted soldiers growing and food storages dropping while people in the colony disappeared and the flow of meals on the table remained constant. Two months of fist banging, head slamming pressure to understand everything in time for the end.

Jaejoong flashed a smoldering grin at his wife, eager to show off to Changmin, sure to arrive shortly for another pointless lesson. Indifferent to the smothering silence, he waited happily, foot tapping to a beat in his head, growing hair flipping with his head bobs. Halfway through a self-thought symphony, a knock on the door alerted them of the blind man’s arrival. It was sort of funny to have a man without sight pointing out different pages in their little text books, telling them they had to highlight different sections or they would definitely forget, as if he could read the letters anyway.

The guest entered with an arm full of books, each one a heavier version of the one before, filled with words and words about corruption and a fate Jaejoong didn’t quite remember completely. One chapter marked his history as a defilation of freedom, another told of a successful survival to be the most outstanding feat possible, like Jaejoong’s life was actually important. But damn, he loved his muscles.

“We’ll cover chapter fifteen today, the Kibum legacy. I’m sure you know of it, but I probably know more anyway.” Changmin tossed two copies of the informative books down in front of Jaejoong, who passed one to his Yuri. They exchanged looks of comfort, ‘let’s get through this together’ and cracked the books open without protest.

The Kibum legacy was a tricky subject. They knew of it from first hand experience, seeing the effect of the King’s affection on people. Junsu. Yunho. Yoochun. How did those outside the domes see the King’s hierarchy? Did they even know? How could they? Most of them had lived their entire lives just knowing of the evils locked away within. They didn’t.

Jaejoong sneered at the book as if it was a full of rotten meat and the insects that munched on it. He’d play it off as hate for Key, but Yuri knew; she knew how much he hated their lessons, hated up and pretending to actually want this war.

Knowing they were both on the right page, Changmin started reciting the words on the page like they were a bible verse he had memorized to heart. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t reading the chapter from the book; he knew it and believed it like an ignorant baby raised to only like his mother and not his father. Every vowel he spoke sounded nothing more than accusing and false, casting a suspicious shadow of doubt over the past the two understood before. They laced fingers under the coffee table, having to remind the other that what they knew was the truth.

“… And Key represses the need to learn new information. Younger citizens in the domes don’t have the skill to read or do basic mathematics. Science and social studies were dropped, making it easier to prevent weapons from being developed and for anyone to even question how things ran. The King said ‘no’ and his followers listened, reversing all the advances our species have made since our evolution from simple humans. Most, if not all of those living in the domes are ignorant…” then he stopped, pausing to stare blankly where Jaejoong and Yuri sat.

“What?” They asked in near unison, uneasy in their own apartment.

“Just wondering how you two can read and why you aren’t so obviously brainwashed. I’ve been curious since you first came in, really. ‘Why were these two almost healthy beings exiled? Why don’t they have children?’ Now that I think about it, you two are living contradictions.”

If they could have laughed, they would have.

“Books are the only way that people can learn, Changmin, other than with firsthand experience. I couldn’t just become a nurse by listening to doctors give us the answers to qualification tests, it would have been counterproductive. I had to read.” Changmin wanted to ask more, how she was even able to understand the dancing ants on the page, how she came across such learning material, but he held his tongue to hear Jaejoong’s reply.

“I had a rich friend with a library to enjoy.” Jaejoong pondered a moment, deciding exactly how he would explain the famous Jung family Library. “He was spoiled rotten and he knew it too, but he wouldn’t admit it to us. ‘In the past man used to live like this, the books say so,’ but he couldn’t see that the past is the past and we need to live like the present. Brainless, following what he says because he is always right, live life happily, have , do what you want. But because he liked to live in the past, he kept the library that his family had been building up for a millennia, and I had free access to it as his one accepting friend.” Accepting of his crazy obsession with his cyborg girlfriend/maid.

Loneliness swept over him. Here he was sitting next to his wife with a newly renewed love and a man he could have been great friends with under better circumstances, and he remembered his best friend back in the domes. The only man whom he could run to in order to escape the struggles of being a married man and having to constantly please his angered leader. Yunho was his oasis for when he couldn’t stand seeing his wife suffering and his job became too difficult.

“I miss Yunho, a lot,” Jaejoong whispered, too embarrassed to admit it boldly to Yuri.

Changmin slapped Jaejoong on the back and grinned just to the left of his gaze. “I guess you have perfect luck then! The invasion date is set. You might have the chance to see Yunho when we enter.” Jaejoong perked up with interest. He gently held Changmin’s hand, encouraging him to explain more. “Last I heard the troops from Sector 7455 had invaded the nearest domes and were killing Key’s followers and recruiting those that hated him.” At this news, Yuri ran her hand over Jaejoong’s thigh and gave it a tight squeeze.

“How long ago was it that you heard this?” Jaejoong inquired hungry for details.

“Hmm,” Changmin pondered, reaching for a peeled fruit on the counter. “Awhile back. We haven’t had contact with them for a long time. Jonghyun plans on making one final check with them before we depart. Get ready, won’t be too long.”

With this news, Jaejoong’s mind drifted off to the days when he lounged in the Jung Library and discussed safe topics with Yunho. Never did they mention dangerous politics or flawed religions, nor Yunho and Jaejoong’s vast difference in wealth. Their friendship had been without many strings, Jaejoong cherished this. His memories and emotions distracted him from even pretending to listen to the lesson properly, and Changmin left grumpier than usual and with a snarky comment about illiterate people from the domes.

Within the hour, Yuri came outside to where Jaejoong was and gasped appalled at the sight before her. There the books lied in a fair pile, burning. The pages fluttered and the words screamed their lies, trying one last time to convince of their fake truths. The smell of the evaporating glue made him nauseous and Jaejoong had to sit down a few times as the fire built. The spine of the hardback books sunk in then crumpled away, the paperbacks peeled and fell off completely in broken pieces of ash. Holes burned through the spots of kerosene on the sentences of justice and equality. Words of tyranny blended together as the inks melted and ran down each line and seeped into the pages before and after.

Yuri did not stop the fire and allowed the grass darken to a charcoal color, the pads of Jaejoong’s feet blistering from stepping on the embers and turning black with the soot. She let him burn their books because they were ‘illiterate’ and didn’t understand the importance of these certain documents. She hated them too and wanted to see the books suffer for the pain they seemed to cause the couple. The guides deserved to die.

The invasion was set for twenty-six days from then.

******************

He looked old. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, the war had taken its toll on his body, making his eyes sag and fats to build up in his face and limbs. His milky white skin tanned from the sun it had seen only a few times before, his hair dry and splitting for the same reasons. Clothes stuck to body, sweat mixed with tears, an odor not quite pleasant. Ricky had been kind enough to allow him a bath before he literally crawled out the way he came in and sat abandoned on the outside of the palace, listening through the cracks termites created for any piece of useful information. He repeated his process of hiding under the flooring of an older section in the palace, keeping safe from watchful guards and the sharp servants to the King. Key hadn’t come out of his palace much in the previous month and a half, only greeting his people briefly for an hour or so every week. On those days, the filthy man stayed with the insects and snakes. Any discovery and he’d be killed for sure.

The bug that bit him this time made his hand swell into one giant fist. He knew he needed help, an antidote of some sort or some ointment to at least the pain. Revealing himself was dangerous, he, Heechul, knew the risks. And it just happened to be Sunday, Lord Key’s day.

Heechul, with his hand red and throbbing, crawled out from under the floorboards and rolled into the light of the morning. Key had left half an hour earlier and the servants were preparing the inside of the palace for his return. A few strayed out to launder cloths and chase out the dust, but most avoided his area due to the age and ugliness of the building. Hearing no sounds nearby to be worried about, Heechul pulled his body upright, nursing the inured appendage, and started towards the tunnel he knew would get him inside.

Upon reaching the bricks hiding the small tunnel, he took a calming breath, preparing for the lift of heavy boulders. With difficulty, he removed three different blocks from the wall only to cry out, the tunnel was cemented over. An angry reaction, he slammed his inured hand into the covered passage if only to prove to himself of the helpless state he was in. His hand broke and tore the skin, but he couldn’t seem to feel the pain.

A movement sounded behind him, and Heechul ducked behind a pillar.

“New boy, these fruit need to be delivered to young master Kibum’s study, not bedchambers.” A young man bowed reluctantly to a servant woman carrying a load of linens in her arms to the washroom.

New Boy.

Heechul acted on instinct, falling out from his hiding spot and clutching his hand as if he had been attacked by wild rebels. “Help,” and he reached out only to grab the attention of the young boy.

The new servant dropped his basket of fruit in surprise, ripe smelling durian leaking onto the tiles. Like the good and innocent lad he was, he immediately took Heechul to their palace hospital, not even thinking twice as to whether he really was a guard or a spy. He healed Heechul’s hand without question and even left him there on a cot to rest and recover, not once thinking that this man had all the information of the rebellion stored in his beautiful little head.

Hours passed pleasantly for Heechul. He drifted in and out a tiring state, sometimes dreaming of a world without war, sometimes dreaming that the world was drowning in a sea of blood and he was the Legendary Noah, guiding families of two onto his boat to survive. Once he denied Key and his past lover onto the boat, and they sank into the deepest depths of tyranny.

When finally he felt energized enough to rise, he kept his eyes closed only to sense the presence of others in the room. There were two, one right beside his bed in a commanding demeanor and one kneeling at the foot with a sorry apology wrapped around his tongue. He dared not move in case they wanted to kill him as soon as he awoke. Instead, he listened to the flow of their breaths to see how relaxed each was. The one at the foot was nervous and kept edging farther away from the other person, the man beside him was stiff and cautious. The entire situation seemed hopeless, especially when he discovered his hands had been tied together with a cloth smelling very similar to urine. Any old rag could have done, Heechul scoffed mentally.

The stillness in the room lasted for several more long droning minutes, the male at the end of the bed whimpering only slightly when his legs cramped up and could do nothing to ease the pain. Heechul himself was feeling the pain of joints locking and body needing to move, his arms throbbed painfully on his stomach, but at least his hand was no longer a swollen ball. He could feel it, the tension growing stronger and stronger.

“Get up!” And the man beside him smacked the side of his head in a pointless effort to wake him. Not even pretending anymore, Heechul glared at his attacker, trying not to gag at the smell of his binds as he rubbed his head gingerly.

“Well , you got my attention.” The two men stared at each other, not blinking, needing no introduction. “I could use another bath Ricky.”

Ricky stood imperiously from his seat, eyes never leaving Heechul’s. Articulating each word clearly, he rejected him with all the seriousness a sixteen year old could portray. “Not this time. You’ll see Lord Key as the filth you are now.”

Those words a death sentence, and even the young servant, Alexander, cried out. His punishment for allowing the spy in was twenty lashings and a week without meals, water on every other night. Ricky, on the other hand, would be rewarded with a new district to run in the near future.

By nightfall, Heechul had disappeared from the world of rebels and spies. Alive? Possibly in the bottom of a cellar with rats to run blindly over his legs. Dead? Head chopped off because he had even thought of revolution. All information he knew was useless except for what he knew of the rebel troops. Alive? A feast being held by Key to welcome him illicitly into his clan to learn all the secrets he could. Dead? Turns out that hadn’t been an antidote after all. Alexander was the unlucky one to be tricked by his schemes. Alive? He already escaped at ran away to find Yoochun. Dead? Lord Key gave no mercy to traitors. All possibilities aside, Ricky never heard of Heechul again and never did receive his reward, but Xander did receive his punishments.

***************

Burn the town hall down, and the governor’s mansion fell the ground, the greenhouse erupted in flames, heads rolling without bodies. Nobody needed to be told twice, if you don’t join them you die, and the army grew larger without anyone to fight back. One sector massacred, the people forced to move on. Exploding glass and solar panels, the domes collapsed successively, some streamed out into the wild colonies. Yesung and his team brought them back; Jonghyun welcomed them and allowed each newcomer to mock Junsu for once serving under Key; Changmin persuaded them to join the army soon to invade the home they just left.

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Someone asked about the relationship between Yuri and Jaejoong and I hoped I was able to demonstrate it better instead of leaving a long A/N. I'll explain things properly when I finally finish it. Yup, the end is coming.

Comments are motivation but I actually want to know what you think of the fic more~♥