Chanyeol knew something was wrong the moment he landed. Firstly, it was more of a fall than a landing. Secondly, he landed alone some distance away from the van where Lay and Luhan waited. Thirdly, and lastly, Kai and D.O was glitching in and out of teleportation a few feet away of him before stumbling to a stop. Kai was swaying a little where he stood and Chanyeol took a step towards him just as Luhan jumped out of the van and started running towards them. Chanyeol wanted to run as well, but his legs wasn’t obeying him.

He hadn’t know it was that bad. He hadn’t know Kai actually got hit. But neither the glitching nor the distance could hide the blood oozing out from his shoulder, coloring his shirt a vivid red. How Kai was still carrying D.O Chanyeol didn’t know, but when he got closer he saw that Kai wasn’t only swaying, he was shaking. Mostly by willpower, Chanyeol guessed. And probably also because of the fact that they supposedly were some sort of superpower wielding aliens.

As soon as Luhan took D.O from Kai he collapsed and it was only luck that Chanyeol was close enough to be able to catch him before he hit the ground. Supporting each other, they slowly managed to get to the car where Lay was waiting for them, prepared to leave as soon as they arrived.

~ * ~

That had been two weeks ago and the energy in the house was as solemn as ever. At least Kai was all healed by now. He had lost consciousness in the car when they’d tried to get the bullet out of his shoulder. The overexertion of his powers as well as his injury had taken a toll on him. He’d been asleep for two whole days before finally waking up and demanding to see D.O not caring that he’d pulled his wound open again. Even Chanyeol hadn’t seen D.O since the day of their rescue mission.

Lay had basically locked himself and D.O up in one of the bedrooms as soon as they got to the house. The only time he left the room was when he went to heal and check on Kai during the first two days back. He hadn’t allowed either Chanyeol or Luhan in to see D.O, giving them the explanation that he didn’t want a lot of people in the room if D.O were to wake up. That was the excuse that Chanyeol could accept. Lay had also said something about the energy being better for healing when he was alone. Chanyeol called bull on that one. The energy was crappy everywhere in the house right now and he knew for a fact that it couldn’t be better in a room housing a seriously injured and unconscious man. However he hadn’t had the energy to argue, just hoping that D.O would wake up quickly so he could check on him then.

Kai, on the other hand, would have none of that.

As soon as he woke up he was out of the room and towards the only other place he knew they could have placed D.O. Luhan, who’d been sleeping right next to Kai, was scared awake when the other accidentally walked into the doorframe on his way out and he was soon up and after Kai to try to convince him to take it easy and to go and lay down again. Chanyeol had witnessed all of this as he, as usual, was sitting in the living room trying to decipher the weird antique book he got before their first meeting with Lay. With Kai obviously not listening Luhan soon gave up and tiredly sat down beside Chanyeol. One look at Chanyeol and then he let his head fall to the table. Chanyeol winced at the loud thump however Luhan seemingly didn’t care as kept his head in the same place, forehead to table, shoulders slumped, showing all the signs of having given up on life.

“This won’t be pretty.” Was the quiet mumble that came from Luhan before he slowly started to bang his head against the table. Chanyeol didn’t have to ask what Luhan meant, he already knew it himself so he just slowly closed his book and clasped his hands, ready for what was to unfold. He couldn’t see Kai anymore but he heard how he knocked on the door to D.O’s room.

It was quiet for a while so Chanyeol guessed that Lay hadn’t denied Kai access to the room yet. Maybe he wouldn’t deny him, Chanyeol thought as the house still had yet to explode.

“That’s bull!” Came the sudden shout to prove Chanyeol wrong. “You can’t tell me not to see him! He’s my boyfriend!” Kai’s voice was slightly breaking, showcasing just how upset he was. Lay’s answer was too quiet to hear but apparently it didn’t calm Kai down, sure he was slightly quieter but he sounded even angrier than before.

“We’ve been together for three years and I’ve known him even longer, and this ‘energy disturbance’ you’re talking about have never been a problem before when he’s been too sick to move. So please, let me in.”

“Oh wow, three whole years.” Lay had gotten slightly louder too so they could hear the whole conversation now. “I’ve known him since his birth,” At that statement Luhan’s head shot up, eyes wide and lips slightly parted. Chanyeol mouthed a “What?” to him, not understanding in the slightest. Lay had lived in China while D.O had lived in the U.K, how had he known him since birth? Luhan only shook his head and mouthed back a “Later.”. Chanyeol would hold him to that, he needed  some explanation to everything.

“and I’m a healer so I should know about this.” Lay continued, voice still slightly raised. “Just because you don’t know your boyfriend well enough to know wh-” He was interrupted by a loud slapping noise and both Chanyeol and Luhan instantly stood up and ran to the other two.

Lay was standing with his hand against his left cheek a few feet across from Kai who had his right hand lifted, as if caught in action. The two of them looked equally as shocked as to what had just went down between them. There was a few seconds of stunned silence where nobody moved, and then Kai and Lay simultaneously started apologizing, effectively managing to headbutt each other while bowing.

Chanyeol and Luhan felt completely superfluous as the others solved the argument without any help. Lay apologized for being a disrespectful and actually asked Kai if maybe they could take turns being with D.O so Lay could get some sleep at times. Kai agreed and then continued to apologize for slapping him. Lay just shrugged it off and said that he probably needed it as it made him realize how tired he actually was. He then proceeded to walk off towards his room as Kai walked in to D.O, closing and locking the door after himself. It took a while for either Luhan and Chanyeol to move, still confused about what just had happened.

~ * ~

The agreement still stood and at the time being Lay was the one who was with D.O. Chanyeol, as usual, was sitting at the round table in the living room trying to decipher the mysterious book. He was starting to get frustrated by it. He understood some of it yes, being lucky that it was written in hangul (or his alien genes just made him understand whatever language it was written in) but some parts was completely incomprehensive, looking as if the author gave up halfway through each character making it altogether impossible to interpret. And then there were some parts, sometimes whole pages, that were empty. Nothing there. Looking as if it was supposed to be either pictures or text there but the author didn’t have time or energy to complete it. So even if Chanyeol could understand some parts they made next to no sense when read together. He really couldn’t figure out what this book was about except that it probably had something to do with them and their powers.

Releasing a loud groan he closed the book and collapsed on top of it. He had for the third time in about 2 minutes come across one of the weird half written parts and he really just wanted to throw the book in the wall and give up. Luhan, who was sitting across from him reading The Fellowship of the Ring, raised an eyebrow at him but didn’t ask him to elaborate. He didn’t need to as Chanyeol had been complaining to anyone in a 10 foot radius from him for the past week about how much he hated the book and never would try to read it again. He always continued to trying though.

Just as Luhan was about to start reading again (the fellowship was just about to leave Rivendell and Luhan couldn’t wait to see what would happen next) when a hand shot down in front of him and placed a ring on top of his book.

“I finally found it.” Kai said as he sat down at the table too. Chanyeol sat up straight at the sound of his voice, having a beautiful read mark on his forehead from laying face down on the table.

Luhan took up the ring and studied it. It was the shape of the symbol they’d seen on the door where D.O had been held captive, Chanyeol noticed. It was made out of silver and the symbol was covered in small white stones, maybe brilliants although how Kai would have the money for that Chanyeol didn’t know.

“I knew it looked familiar when you sent us that picture but I couldn’t place where I’d seen it before.” He finished as Luhan looked up from the ring with wide eyes.

“Why do you have this?” He asked. It wasn’t the question Chanyeol had expected and deeming from Kai’s facial expression he didn’t either.

“It’s mine.” He answered sounding slightly offended.

“No, it’s not.” Luhan continued. Chanyeol felt slightly lost. Why did Luhan sound like this was incredibly important and why didn’t he believe Kai?

“Yes it is. I got it as a present. It’s mine.”

“Who gave it to you and why?” Luhan pressed on.

“Soo gave it to me. It was an anniversary gift.” If Chanyeol wasn’t wrong Kai was actually blushing slightly. “Couple rings he called them.” The last part he mumbled, apparently embarrassed. About it being couple rings or him not remembering the appearance of  his anniversary gift Chanyeol didn’t know.

“Kyungsoo gave you this?” Luhan asked and Kai nodded. “But it’s his?” He said it like a question, like he couldn’t believe the fact that D.O would give the ring to Kai.

“Excuse me?”

“It’s his, I don’t know how to explain this… Power source.” Luhan explained. When he got no other answer than two very wide eyed looks he continued. “We all have an object, or well you have two, Chanyeol, that in a way helps us with our task. This object is usually shaped as an accessory so that we can wear it because when we’re near it our powers grow stronger. We don’t have to wear it but the nearer to it you are the more your powers grow, so you see how that helps. And this ring is Kyungsoo’s.”

“Then why do I have it?” Kai asked, eyes still as wide as ever and eyebrows raised.

“I don’t know. I would guess that he gave it to you before we even got to this planet and then your brains simply came up with the best solution to why you would have this ring and why you shouldn’t throw it away. May I ask what Kyungsoo’s ring looks like? Since you said he gave you this as one half of two rings.”

“Sure. He probably brought it with him, if you want I can go look for it.” Kai pointed towards his bedroom, half standing half sitting, ready to move if Luhan wanted him to.

“No, it’s okay.” Luhan assured him with a smile. “Just describe it.”

“Well, they don’t really look anything alike, but Soo claimed that they were couple rings so I believed him and since they’re made from the same material they do go well together. His ring has the shape of a triangle with a circle in it. I think the pattern in the circle makes it look like a flower but he says it’s a vortex.” During the explanation Luhan’s smile visibly softened and he actually cooed at the end.

“That’s so cute.” He murmured. “You exchanged rings.”

“What?”

“That’s totally your ring you just described. You must’ve exchanged rings before we went here, for safekeeping. And that’s just so cu-”

Longer than that Luhan didn’t get as there suddenly came a loud crash and a shout from the room where D.O and Lay was. Kai was gone from his spot before Chanyeol even had managed to stand up but it didn’t take long for him and Luhan to reach the bedroom.

Lay was sitting on the floor in the corner of the room and Luhan immediately went there whereas Chanyeol went to Kai who was standing and looking at D.O. Or, more accurate, at the earth walls most likely surrounding D.O. The small bed he had been sleeping on was completely broken as large slabs of earth and rock had seemingly shot out from the ground that high a speed to go right through both floor and bed. The earth had formed some sort of capsule around the corner furthest from Lay, it went from floor to ceiling, and if D.O hadn’t made a hole through the wall too and had fled he was inside that capsule.

“What happened?” Luhan asked as he helped Lay up on a chair. The man didn’t seem to be hurt just shocked.

“He was waking up.” Lay began, grabbing onto the bottom of the chair with both hands as if scared that he would somehow fall off. He was mostly looking at Luhan, Chanyeol noticed “And I didn’t want to scare him so I didn’t say anything. I wanted him to see me in his own time so I then could explain what had happened.” He continued and Luhan nodded.

“But as soon as he saw me he crawled away from me. He said something about that I couldn’t die again and before I could ask what he meant this happened.” Lay gestured to the earth cage.

“Die? Why would you die?” Chanyeol asked.

“They do some horrible stuff to you inside those headquarters, you don’t want to know.” Luhan answered darkly.

“But that’s not the important part.” Lay continued, interrupting Chanyeol’s question to Luhan.

“He called me by name. He called me Lay. He remembers.”

AN:

And the plot thickens... or smth.

I thought I would have so much free time this summer to write and do other stuffs but nooooo this is one of the few summers that I've actually been doing things, like what's up with that?? Not that I'm complaining though. I've also realized that one of my biggest problems with writing is that I want to write, yes, but I want to write stuff that's so much in the future that I don't dare to write that before I write what's happening now and then I don't write at all instead... great solution!! Not... But like... I'm really looking forward to some scenes with Sehun!! And Kris!! But that's so far in the future uhuhuhu... I should just write more, then I would get there faster ahahaha

I'm sorry for making y'all wait for so freaking long again.......