[ 12: MERCY ]
[ CA-23 ](A/N: It's going to be complicated, so read on.)
[16.03.2015]
"No," the woman said. "impossible."
"Kim Jaekyung, maybe it's best if—" Jookyung gritted his teeth, sensing the movements of Hani. Her irises turned black, and black wisps started circling around them.
Not long after that, the ice shards break, allowing Hani to break free, and the dark mists quickly soldified into tentacles that surrounded her. Out from those tentacles came out blades, which were directed at the remaining members. By sheer luck, Jaekyung and the older man had shielded them with ice, but even they knew it'll not last long.
"Direct her around the river, it'll be easier to hold her off." the older man shouted, pointing towards a river north of them.
"Right." Jisung said. He made eye contact with Jaekyung, who carried a blob of water with her. They both nodded, and Jaekyung stealthily moved to Jisung.
"Hey nuna! Over here!" At that, the shards turned to the two's direction, with Jaekyung turning the water blob into ice. They both ran, and at the corner of his eye, he could see the other three ran to the opposite direction.
He hoped.
♦
"Seriously? You're Kim Rohee?" Hani asked, sitting down with with Rohee. The latter hesitantly nodded.
"What made you disappear from your parents?"
"I was with a friend, but then..." Rohee paused for a while, bowing her head down. Hani winced, but silently expected for an answer.
"...dad's ex took me with her new boyfriend." she said, her voice soft. Rohee wasn't really sure why she'd have trusted the person, but the fact that she's trapped and this woman claimed to have searched for her made it just a bit convincing, if not terrifying.
Hani sighed deeply, breaking eye contact from her. The new information had confirmed the team's suspicions, so what's left is only to locate everything else. It made sense for someone to even get them.
So now, she need to get the girl out of there.
"Where did you get the light?" Rohee asked.
"I imagined it would come, so it's here," Hani shrugged. "you're in my mind now, if you're still puzzled."
"Oh." The voice now made a lot more sense. Still, she felt a lot of fear, and being with someone that had all the rights to claim her life definitely made it a lot more awful.
Hani sighed. The only thing clear was that it did came to her when she felt a little more spiteful, but even then, she'd felt worse and nothing happened.
Hani slumped on the land. When everything had went dark and she couldn't even recognize her own mind, it made her feel like hope was lost.
"Wait," Rohee said. "maybe you have to get over the thing that caused this."
Hani mulled over it. She got under attack at her 'bad' moment, and the few times she broke out of her conciousness, she'd been pretty hurt. She'd seen Hyerin before she slept.
Do Hyerin.
"No. Not her. She's been real pain the past few days, and I'm n—" The thought about the person who had been so spiteful to her made her blood boil.
She closed her eyes, and inhaled deeply. It's still not completely Hyerin's fault, considering that even she hadn't been open about it, but anyone still sane would've guessed it that she'd been very apprehensive about just anyone with powers. The side-eyes and the rude ignorance made it real hard to like. Especially when normal people like Wooyoung, Iseul, and Jookyung got bit of a much better treatment than the rest.
Hani balled her fists. She's sure part of her never liked the discrimination, but part of her also wondered if her anger came from something else. It wasn't that she demanded acceptance from everyone, but when the other six had been more or less just average with her, rejection did make it hard.
Maybe it's the woes of a mission.
She thought of it for a while, until the ground shook below her. At the corner of her eye, she saw a figure with a black cape.
"Good evening, Hecate."
♦
Hani stood up, and saw that Rohee had cowered in fear of the figure. She asked, "What are you?"
The figure doesn't answer, but something struck her. The fact that Rohee scooted away from the figure meant that the former had a bit about her, and she couldn't have come on her own.
"Rohee, who's this?"
"The voice," Rohee gulped. "that told me to come here."
"You brat, don't think of escaping here." the figure screamed. It resembled the noise of nails scratching the chalkboard, which made Hani cringe.
But then, dark roots started holding Rohee up, tying her tightly. Hani could see that the figure had let its hand out. It was grotesque, some parts of her fingers had fallen off, exposing bits of flesh and bone. But seeing how Rohee had almost turned blue at the tight grip, Hani ran towards it.
However, the moment she almost had it at her hands, the figure let out its other hand, and Hani felt a large force harshly pushed her back. Hani fell harshly to the ground, and when she lifted her head up, they both disappeared.
♦
Hani slumped down to the ground. She never felt so emotional before, but losing their lead and being risked of being trapped forever seemed to be terrifying.
Her mind played back to the image of a bewildered Hyosung, and glass shards that hurt her physical body. She covered her face in shame, knowing that Hyosung was possibly one of the kindest people in the team, yet she got injured.
Back again, it came to her arguing with Jookyung. Things had never been difficult between the two of them, but she felt something snap inside of her when she knew well he tried defending Hyerin. He meant well, but she's too out of it to feel the same way.
She didn't even want to know what currently happened to her body. She just wished she wasn't dead, or anyone shouldn't be.
Realizing these things, maybe it wasn't really Hyerin that they really shouldn't have chosen.
Maybe it was her.
But when she looked up, she was no longer surrounded by darkness, but a white orb that shone brightly in front of her.
♦
"What are you now?" Hani asked.
The orb didn't respond to her, but flew towards another door. It was a door at the left side, and looked very new. When she grabbed the door, the handle wouldn't move. She made a questioning look to the orb, as if it had been waiting for her.
"I can't open the door." She sighed. The orb seemed to fly a bit lower this time, as if it drooped its own head.
"Look, I'm sorry to disappoint you, I—did that to my friends too." At that word, the orb flew closer towards her. The orb looked big, almost like a basketball, and it was bright, but it didn't feel hot.
The orb didn't move for a moment, but then flew straight into the door.
"Hey! Come back!" Hani shouted. It felt so long, but the orb flew back to her side. Without thinking about it, she grabbed the orb, when she saw it.
She saw her own friends being attacked.
She saw Hyosung being injured.
She saw that Wooyoung had to save someone from her.
"No... stop." Without even realizing it, hot tears started falling from her eyes. The orb gently flew back, and stayed very still mid-air. It waited for her to stop crying, and gently flew near her.
"Were those my memories?" Hani asked. The orb didn't respond, but the answer came obvious to her. It's her recent memories, one when she hurt them.
"I... I'm so sorry," Hani said, slumping against the door. "maybe they shouldn't have chosen me, after all."
The orb stopped moving. After a while, Hani heard a small, but warm voice, "No, it's still not your fault."
Hani went quiet. She knew this voice. It's a girl, that she knew. t's not clear like Hyosung, or mumbled like Iseul, or loud like Jaekyung, so it left her with one person.
"Do Hyerin?"
♦
The orb went silent. Hani just buried her face, piling on so many questions (like why is there an orb there, was that Hyerin, how is she going to get out of there, and why is she so hungry, etc.), but that could go later on. She needed to get out of there.
"If you're Hyerin," she said, harshly sighing. "we need to talk, if you want me to get out of here."
No response. Not taking her chances either.
"Was it really necessary to avoid me?"
"Maybe." she felt like facepalming. With the current situation at hand, it's not unreasonable.
"What I mean is, why do you hate on Ens so much?"
"Because they were the one that ruined my family." silence. That answer felt so forceful, and took so long of her time to answer. The older rubbed her temples. She didn't want to know how the story went, but she knew something else.
"Hyerin," she tried to soften her voice as much as possible. "many Ens didn't even know about you. Many of us won't even dare to harm someone."
"It still happens." Hani noted the bitterness in it. The orb started to flicker, and the former knew that her time to talk wouldn't be long.
"I'm sorry," she shouted. She's not sure if saying sorry had feel painful, but it came without her thinking. "you didn't have very pleasant encounters with many Ens. I understood that. I'm pretty sure I'm one in that list of people, and I'm sorry if I had hurt you. Hyerin, forgive me."
The orb flickered again, but instead of getting dimmer, it flickered back to light.
"I'm sorry too. I was the one who hurt you until you got to this situation, and I'm partly responsible for it. Forgive me?" Hani almost reeled in shock when she heard of Hyerin's voice. It sounded genuine for a moment, and she felt like something heavy got off from her back.
"Yes."
And slowly, the darkness around her started to crumble. She saw the orange tiles she'd seen, the doors, and finally, the directions. However, this time, she saw a light source at one end of the corridor.
Without any further thought, she ran towards it, and as she got closer, the blinding light got over her vision.
When she woke up, she saw Wooyoung's dark eyes making contact with her. She felt tired, but she could feel the warmth of his hands in her head.
"You're awake?"
"Yeah."
notes: i... ugh. this chapter is pretty... hard to make, not lying. to summarize: hani got inception-ed and the team actually got her out. which one got her out, you have to read it.
question of the day: what are the OTP and NOTP of CA-23 in your opinion?
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