Ignis 22/?
Title: Ignis/Chapter 22 - "Time Travel Pt.1"
Author: kaybee38
Rating: PG-15 (character death)
Word count: 2,`493
Pairings: friendship!Jonghyun/Onew, Minho/Onew, Taemin/Sulli, eventual!JongKey, broken!Minho/Yuri
Genre: fantasy, sci-fi
Disclaimer: SHINee, Super Junior, DBSK and f(x) are owned by SM Entertainment only, B.E.G. owned by Nega Network
Summary: Teneo are humans that live among us that have a genetic mutation that gives them the ability to live on indefinitely. They each have unique abilities and they don't physically age past 25. They all lead double lives since their "gifts" are a secret, some not even realizing that there are others like them. But someone has found a way to kill them. Jonghyun, with the help of a covert society has been secretly trying to warn and protect as many of his kind as he can before it's too late. Onew, Minho, Taemin and Sulli all end up joining forces with him to try to track down the killer before they can strike again. The bonds that grow between them along with their powers might be enough to save them, but the killer is closer to them than they realize.
A/N: Onew read the journal and decides to take certain matters into his own hands.
Prologue [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21]
Chapter 22- "Time Travel Pt.1"
Onew knew that the cloak and large hat he had donned might make him stand out a bit, so he moved through the crowd quickly, trying to ignore the pain in his feet from his dress shoes, as he was used to wearing sneakers on a daily basis.
He didn’t have much time.
He followed the tightly packed crowd until it opened up a bit and he could maneuver enough to see that he was in a large square. It was probably the center of the town, and from what Onew could gather, the majority of the village residents were in attendance. Onew heard a child behind him whimper and he whirled around glaring at a small boy no older than 3 or 4 years old grasping at his father’s pants leg, obviously frustrated that he couldn’t see what was gong on.
Oh my God. Who would bring a child to something like this?
Onew glanced at the boy’s father briefly, before tipping his hat and trying to figure out a way to move closer to the center of the crowd, which was now assembled in a semi circle around a large post. As he moved closer, Onew could see that four equally large men were carrying lumber and dry timber back and forth from 3 large wheelbarrows over to the base of the pole. He could also smell the pungent odor of kerosene as he approached. So as to not call attention to himself, Onew turned suddenly to his right and made for the edge of the crowd. He walked out past the perimeter a bit, looking down a dirt road as his vision focused on what appeared to be an inn a ways down on his left. From where he stood, Onew could see a small wooden sign that read “vacancy” propped in a window on the second floor. He reached under his cloak and pulled the small leather bound journal from the back waistband of his pants, flipping quickly to the page that he needed. He glanced back towards the inn again, and then shut the book quickly.
Satisfied, he disappeared back into the crowd to wait.
After what felt like an eternity, but was probably only a few minutes, two men entered the square with large torches as a woman in her early 30’s was roughly brought in behind them. Her arms were bound with sisal rope and her long dress, once pretty, was dirty and torn at the hem a bit. Her face was barely seen as her long black hair, that had once been neatly styled in a long black braid, had come undone and was hanging loosely in her face. She was thin, and tired, and stumbled a bit as a man nearly twice her size dragged her frail frame to the dais as the crowd of mostly men hissed and jeered at her. A priest, a thin man, in a fitted black suit, who appeared to be in his early 50’s entered the area not long after, raising his hand at the roaring crowd, which dropped to a murmur.
“Ladies and gentlmen! As you all know there has been an influx of evil and demon-possessed in these parts recently.”
The crowd shouted affirmations of anticipation in response.
“The foreign element that has come upon us has spawned a new breed of evil. This woman…” he gestured to the captive, while the burly man yanked her head up by her hair. Onew gasped as he caught a glimpse of her face, a face that looked familiar, as if he’d seen her in a dream.
“….this woman, is a fortune-teller, one who’s demon posseses her by telling others the future!”
A gasp and shouts were heard form the crowd then.
“I am not talking about the GOD-given gift of prophecy, but an evil possessed form that forces her to profess to know the past, present and future lives of those she comes in contact with. For those of you who have not seen her possession, I warn you it was one of the most disturbing visages I have ever witnessed! Her eyes, white like the blind, her face twisted like the devil himself!”
“Blasphemer!” “Witch!” “Devil incarnate!”
The crowd was getting rowdy now, the men who had been hauling wood, now worked as guards to control the masses. The priest stepped in front of the woman now, blocking her from the crowds view. Tilting her head up to him gently by the chin with a bony finger, he smirked at her.
“Do you, Narsha Park Lee, admit to being a witch, committing blasphemy, and to trying to possess others with your evil spirit?”
Onew moved off to the side more, finally getting a glimpse of the woman’s large brown eyes, filled with intensity and calmness.
“I do not.” She said quietly.
The crowd roared to life again, screaming for her immediate demise, not a soul spoke up in her defense, even Onew stood paralyzed, filled to the brim with a fear that the captive woman didn’t seem to possess.
“Unfortunately for you then, you will die a slow and painful death in order to cleanse your body of the demon within. If you were to confess your crimes, you would die quickly. Do you understand?”
“Do what needs to be done.”
She replied in almost a whisper. Again, the woman called Narsha stared at the priest, unblinking, glaring, fixed and sure. The look was so intense, that even the priest looked frightened for a moment.
“May God have mercy on whatever is left of your poor tormented soul.”
The priest feverishly crossed his hand in front of himself 3 times quickly, clearing his throat, shaking his head and backing away from her. The men with the long handled torches moved forward then, and the crowd erupted into chants of “BURN WITCH BURN!” as the fire was lowered towards the kindling. Onew snapped out of his daze and moved closer to the edge of the mob then, lowering his hat a bit on his head before starting to move towards his target. Suddenly a voice jolted him back to his spot.
“NO! How can you do this? How can you do this in the name of God HOW?!” a man screamed sobbing. Onew froze in his tracks, his back going ramrod straight before he slowly turned around to see a man being restrained behind him, tears flowing down his face.
Dad?!
Onew’s eyes grew wide as he recognized his father’s tortured and twisted face, a younger version he’d only seen in pictures. The man was desperately screaming for someone, anyone to save the life of his wife. Onew felt as if he was caught in some horrible nightmare suddenly, unable to move his arms or legs or even blink. It was as if he was being held in place by some invisible puppet master for a moment. His hearing went silent, and his vision tunneled for a few seconds as his brain tried to process what was happening.
Onew was brought back to reality when the strong smell of smoke and burning fabric wafted into his lungs and he whirled around only to see the woman now bound by her hands and feet to the pole. The fire from the kindling below her slowly approaching. She didn’t yell, scream, or struggle.
She was looking directly at him.
Onew moved swiftly then, strong arms wrapping around her small frame as she closed her eyes. His movements so quick that even as he and the woman disappeared, his cloak was still floating in the smoky air behind him.
Onew and Narsha both stumbled onto the wooden floor of the room on the second floor of the inn. He half caught her as she lost her balance, trying to break her fall. She blinked up at him with large brown eyes again, lovingly stroking his cheek.
“I knew you’d come.”
She spoke softly, smiling, Onew could see the fatigue and stress on her face. His years of EMT training also told him that she was malnourished and probably dehydrated.
“L-let me get you some water…” Onew shifted to get up and move towards the glass he saw on the bedside table.
“No!” She said, louder than she intended, firmly grabbing his bicep and holding him in place. Onew looked back at Narsha again, gently tucking a stray hair behind her ears.
“A-Are you…are you really?”
“Your mother Onew?” Narsha smiled at him again, continuing to stroke his cheek lovingly. “Yes, sweetheart I am.”
Yells and screams from the crowd could be heard again and a clamor could be heard downstairs. They both looked from the door of the room back to each other, and Narsha gathered her dress around her, taking note of the charred hem as she did so. Onew helped her to her feet, and quickly pushed a chair beneath the door’s handle. It wasn’t much, but it would have to do. Small fingers reached out and gripped his arm.
“Quickly now son, you must stop time in order for me to tell you what you need to hear.”
Onew squeezed her hand as tightly as he squeezed is eyes shut, willing the movements around him to stop. When he felt the familiar pop of his ears, and the loud, rapid sound of his heart beating in his chest, he opened his eyes to gaze upon his mother’s face once again.
“Did you bring the tobacco leaves?”
“Yes..” Onew fished around his pocket for the small tin. “But I don’t understand why…”
His mother quickly ripped off a piece of leaf, rolled it up and pressed it between her gum and jaw, taking a deep breath as she did so.
“It helps with the nausea.” Onew smiled at her then.
Of course
Narsha chewed on the tobacco as she moved to the window to see a crowd of men in the street still like a picture, water being poured for a horse frozen mid-air and leaves from a tree floating in the air, disrupted on their decent to the ground.
“I’m so lucky to have had a son with such a wonderful gift.” The worn woman looked back at her son proudly.
“Knowing that you will grow up to be such a strong and handsome young man means more than you could ever realize.” Her big brown eyes filled with tears then, as she unsuccessfully tried to blink them away, Onew’s thumb caught one as it rolled sown her face.
“Now that I’m here, we don’t ever have to be apart again.” Onew said, pulling her into an embrace.
He smiled broadly then, thinking about all of the times he wondered what his real mother was like, realizing that the image that he had created of her in his head was nothing compared to the beautiful little woman standing before him.
But Narsha was no longer smiling, as she pushed at his chest, breaking the embrace.
“Onew sit down.” She guided him towards the bed as she spoke, smoothing out her worn dress before folding her hands in her lap and speaking again.
“We cannot be together. You know that, because I know you read my journal.”
Onew knew it, but he refused to believe it.
“Mother tell me what to do, I can change time, I can fix things, I know it’s risky, but believe me when I tell you I’d time-travel a million times righting what we’ve wronged if you’d come back with me. Or I can stay here even…” Onew bounced a little on the bed as he spoke quickly and excitedly.
His mother’s small fingers flew to his plump lips, stilling them to silence.
“Onew stop. You can’t do that, you already exist here, in this time, as a baby. You know that the same soul cannot exist in the same place for long, one or both of you would have to die in order for time to continue moving along it’s course. And I will not let that happen.
It was Onew’s turn to cry now, he couldn’t bear the thought of leaving the woman that he’d dreamt about for years. A woman who also had special powers like himself, he had so many questions, about her, his family… and now here she was telling him that he’d never have most of them answered. He sobbed into his mother’s shoulder.
“No…no…NO! I just found you, I can’t let you go like this, it can’t happen! I won’t let it!” Onew bawled as they held each other for a few minutes.
“Why?! Why didn’t they ever tell me mother why? Do you have any idea how lonely I’ve been? To live a hundred years thinking that I was the only one…”
“Shhhh. Sweetheart, listen to me.” Tears were streaming down her face as well as she pushed him up off of her shoulder, wiping his tears away with her thumbs. When she leaned up and kissed his forehead Onew whimpered and grasped her hands in his.
“They never told you because I made them swear not to. I knew you’d come looking for me, that you’d try to come back for me, and I couldn’t let that happen, it would have changed things, altered the fabric of time and I couldn’t let that happen. Too much was at stake.”
Onew stared at his mother for a moment, as a realization swept over him that he’d never considered.
“You knew. My whole life you knew didn’t you?”
Narsha smiled and stroked his face then, looking him over as if she was trying to imprint every detail into her memory.
“I had visions when I was pregnant with you what your future was, your destiny as it were.” Narsha stood then and walked back to the window, placing her hand on the glass as she took in the scene below.
“I also had visions of my life as well.” She said quietly.
“What are you saying?” Onew asked, holding his breath. He silently prayed that her answer would be different than what he had read in the journal. His mother turned back to him with sadness in her eyes, knowing that her next words would stay with him for the rest of his very long life. She walked back to the bed and caressed his face with her hands.
“Onew. I must die here, today.”
A/N: I deliberately didn’t want to identify the place that Onew time travelled back to because I felt that it would take so long to describe that it would pull you too far out of the story. So what ever you imagined that little dusty town to be, you’re right. I always envisioned Narsha as Onew’s young mother in this for some reason, I hope you guys were able to make that leap with me. More questions will be answered in the next chapter. Plus! You'll get to meet some new characters!
Author: kaybee38
Rating: PG-15 (character death)
Word count: 2,`493
Pairings: friendship!Jonghyun/Onew, Minho/Onew, Taemin/Sulli, eventual!JongKey, broken!Minho/Yuri
Genre: fantasy, sci-fi
Disclaimer: SHINee, Super Junior, DBSK and f(x) are owned by SM Entertainment only, B.E.G. owned by Nega Network
Summary: Teneo are humans that live among us that have a genetic mutation that gives them the ability to live on indefinitely. They each have unique abilities and they don't physically age past 25. They all lead double lives since their "gifts" are a secret, some not even realizing that there are others like them. But someone has found a way to kill them. Jonghyun, with the help of a covert society has been secretly trying to warn and protect as many of his kind as he can before it's too late. Onew, Minho, Taemin and Sulli all end up joining forces with him to try to track down the killer before they can strike again. The bonds that grow between them along with their powers might be enough to save them, but the killer is closer to them than they realize.
A/N: Onew read the journal and decides to take certain matters into his own hands.
Prologue [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21]
Chapter 22- "Time Travel Pt.1"
Onew knew that the cloak and large hat he had donned might make him stand out a bit, so he moved through the crowd quickly, trying to ignore the pain in his feet from his dress shoes, as he was used to wearing sneakers on a daily basis.
He didn’t have much time.
He followed the tightly packed crowd until it opened up a bit and he could maneuver enough to see that he was in a large square. It was probably the center of the town, and from what Onew could gather, the majority of the village residents were in attendance. Onew heard a child behind him whimper and he whirled around glaring at a small boy no older than 3 or 4 years old grasping at his father’s pants leg, obviously frustrated that he couldn’t see what was gong on.
Oh my God. Who would bring a child to something like this?
Onew glanced at the boy’s father briefly, before tipping his hat and trying to figure out a way to move closer to the center of the crowd, which was now assembled in a semi circle around a large post. As he moved closer, Onew could see that four equally large men were carrying lumber and dry timber back and forth from 3 large wheelbarrows over to the base of the pole. He could also smell the pungent odor of kerosene as he approached. So as to not call attention to himself, Onew turned suddenly to his right and made for the edge of the crowd. He walked out past the perimeter a bit, looking down a dirt road as his vision focused on what appeared to be an inn a ways down on his left. From where he stood, Onew could see a small wooden sign that read “vacancy” propped in a window on the second floor. He reached under his cloak and pulled the small leather bound journal from the back waistband of his pants, flipping quickly to the page that he needed. He glanced back towards the inn again, and then shut the book quickly.
Satisfied, he disappeared back into the crowd to wait.
After what felt like an eternity, but was probably only a few minutes, two men entered the square with large torches as a woman in her early 30’s was roughly brought in behind them. Her arms were bound with sisal rope and her long dress, once pretty, was dirty and torn at the hem a bit. Her face was barely seen as her long black hair, that had once been neatly styled in a long black braid, had come undone and was hanging loosely in her face. She was thin, and tired, and stumbled a bit as a man nearly twice her size dragged her frail frame to the dais as the crowd of mostly men hissed and jeered at her. A priest, a thin man, in a fitted black suit, who appeared to be in his early 50’s entered the area not long after, raising his hand at the roaring crowd, which dropped to a murmur.
“Ladies and gentlmen! As you all know there has been an influx of evil and demon-possessed in these parts recently.”
The crowd shouted affirmations of anticipation in response.
“The foreign element that has come upon us has spawned a new breed of evil. This woman…” he gestured to the captive, while the burly man yanked her head up by her hair. Onew gasped as he caught a glimpse of her face, a face that looked familiar, as if he’d seen her in a dream.
“….this woman, is a fortune-teller, one who’s demon posseses her by telling others the future!”
A gasp and shouts were heard form the crowd then.
“I am not talking about the GOD-given gift of prophecy, but an evil possessed form that forces her to profess to know the past, present and future lives of those she comes in contact with. For those of you who have not seen her possession, I warn you it was one of the most disturbing visages I have ever witnessed! Her eyes, white like the blind, her face twisted like the devil himself!”
“Blasphemer!” “Witch!” “Devil incarnate!”
The crowd was getting rowdy now, the men who had been hauling wood, now worked as guards to control the masses. The priest stepped in front of the woman now, blocking her from the crowds view. Tilting her head up to him gently by the chin with a bony finger, he smirked at her.
“Do you, Narsha Park Lee, admit to being a witch, committing blasphemy, and to trying to possess others with your evil spirit?”
Onew moved off to the side more, finally getting a glimpse of the woman’s large brown eyes, filled with intensity and calmness.
“I do not.” She said quietly.
The crowd roared to life again, screaming for her immediate demise, not a soul spoke up in her defense, even Onew stood paralyzed, filled to the brim with a fear that the captive woman didn’t seem to possess.
“Unfortunately for you then, you will die a slow and painful death in order to cleanse your body of the demon within. If you were to confess your crimes, you would die quickly. Do you understand?”
“Do what needs to be done.”
She replied in almost a whisper. Again, the woman called Narsha stared at the priest, unblinking, glaring, fixed and sure. The look was so intense, that even the priest looked frightened for a moment.
“May God have mercy on whatever is left of your poor tormented soul.”
The priest feverishly crossed his hand in front of himself 3 times quickly, clearing his throat, shaking his head and backing away from her. The men with the long handled torches moved forward then, and the crowd erupted into chants of “BURN WITCH BURN!” as the fire was lowered towards the kindling. Onew snapped out of his daze and moved closer to the edge of the mob then, lowering his hat a bit on his head before starting to move towards his target. Suddenly a voice jolted him back to his spot.
“NO! How can you do this? How can you do this in the name of God HOW?!” a man screamed sobbing. Onew froze in his tracks, his back going ramrod straight before he slowly turned around to see a man being restrained behind him, tears flowing down his face.
Dad?!
Onew’s eyes grew wide as he recognized his father’s tortured and twisted face, a younger version he’d only seen in pictures. The man was desperately screaming for someone, anyone to save the life of his wife. Onew felt as if he was caught in some horrible nightmare suddenly, unable to move his arms or legs or even blink. It was as if he was being held in place by some invisible puppet master for a moment. His hearing went silent, and his vision tunneled for a few seconds as his brain tried to process what was happening.
Onew was brought back to reality when the strong smell of smoke and burning fabric wafted into his lungs and he whirled around only to see the woman now bound by her hands and feet to the pole. The fire from the kindling below her slowly approaching. She didn’t yell, scream, or struggle.
She was looking directly at him.
Onew moved swiftly then, strong arms wrapping around her small frame as she closed her eyes. His movements so quick that even as he and the woman disappeared, his cloak was still floating in the smoky air behind him.
Onew and Narsha both stumbled onto the wooden floor of the room on the second floor of the inn. He half caught her as she lost her balance, trying to break her fall. She blinked up at him with large brown eyes again, lovingly stroking his cheek.
“I knew you’d come.”
She spoke softly, smiling, Onew could see the fatigue and stress on her face. His years of EMT training also told him that she was malnourished and probably dehydrated.
“L-let me get you some water…” Onew shifted to get up and move towards the glass he saw on the bedside table.
“No!” She said, louder than she intended, firmly grabbing his bicep and holding him in place. Onew looked back at Narsha again, gently tucking a stray hair behind her ears.
“A-Are you…are you really?”
“Your mother Onew?” Narsha smiled at him again, continuing to stroke his cheek lovingly. “Yes, sweetheart I am.”
Yells and screams from the crowd could be heard again and a clamor could be heard downstairs. They both looked from the door of the room back to each other, and Narsha gathered her dress around her, taking note of the charred hem as she did so. Onew helped her to her feet, and quickly pushed a chair beneath the door’s handle. It wasn’t much, but it would have to do. Small fingers reached out and gripped his arm.
“Quickly now son, you must stop time in order for me to tell you what you need to hear.”
Onew squeezed her hand as tightly as he squeezed is eyes shut, willing the movements around him to stop. When he felt the familiar pop of his ears, and the loud, rapid sound of his heart beating in his chest, he opened his eyes to gaze upon his mother’s face once again.
“Did you bring the tobacco leaves?”
“Yes..” Onew fished around his pocket for the small tin. “But I don’t understand why…”
His mother quickly ripped off a piece of leaf, rolled it up and pressed it between her gum and jaw, taking a deep breath as she did so.
“It helps with the nausea.” Onew smiled at her then.
Of course
Narsha chewed on the tobacco as she moved to the window to see a crowd of men in the street still like a picture, water being poured for a horse frozen mid-air and leaves from a tree floating in the air, disrupted on their decent to the ground.
“I’m so lucky to have had a son with such a wonderful gift.” The worn woman looked back at her son proudly.
“Knowing that you will grow up to be such a strong and handsome young man means more than you could ever realize.” Her big brown eyes filled with tears then, as she unsuccessfully tried to blink them away, Onew’s thumb caught one as it rolled sown her face.
“Now that I’m here, we don’t ever have to be apart again.” Onew said, pulling her into an embrace.
He smiled broadly then, thinking about all of the times he wondered what his real mother was like, realizing that the image that he had created of her in his head was nothing compared to the beautiful little woman standing before him.
But Narsha was no longer smiling, as she pushed at his chest, breaking the embrace.
“Onew sit down.” She guided him towards the bed as she spoke, smoothing out her worn dress before folding her hands in her lap and speaking again.
“We cannot be together. You know that, because I know you read my journal.”
Onew knew it, but he refused to believe it.
“Mother tell me what to do, I can change time, I can fix things, I know it’s risky, but believe me when I tell you I’d time-travel a million times righting what we’ve wronged if you’d come back with me. Or I can stay here even…” Onew bounced a little on the bed as he spoke quickly and excitedly.
His mother’s small fingers flew to his plump lips, stilling them to silence.
“Onew stop. You can’t do that, you already exist here, in this time, as a baby. You know that the same soul cannot exist in the same place for long, one or both of you would have to die in order for time to continue moving along it’s course. And I will not let that happen.
It was Onew’s turn to cry now, he couldn’t bear the thought of leaving the woman that he’d dreamt about for years. A woman who also had special powers like himself, he had so many questions, about her, his family… and now here she was telling him that he’d never have most of them answered. He sobbed into his mother’s shoulder.
“No…no…NO! I just found you, I can’t let you go like this, it can’t happen! I won’t let it!” Onew bawled as they held each other for a few minutes.
“Why?! Why didn’t they ever tell me mother why? Do you have any idea how lonely I’ve been? To live a hundred years thinking that I was the only one…”
“Shhhh. Sweetheart, listen to me.” Tears were streaming down her face as well as she pushed him up off of her shoulder, wiping his tears away with her thumbs. When she leaned up and kissed his forehead Onew whimpered and grasped her hands in his.
“They never told you because I made them swear not to. I knew you’d come looking for me, that you’d try to come back for me, and I couldn’t let that happen, it would have changed things, altered the fabric of time and I couldn’t let that happen. Too much was at stake.”
Onew stared at his mother for a moment, as a realization swept over him that he’d never considered.
“You knew. My whole life you knew didn’t you?”
Narsha smiled and stroked his face then, looking him over as if she was trying to imprint every detail into her memory.
“I had visions when I was pregnant with you what your future was, your destiny as it were.” Narsha stood then and walked back to the window, placing her hand on the glass as she took in the scene below.
“I also had visions of my life as well.” She said quietly.
“What are you saying?” Onew asked, holding his breath. He silently prayed that her answer would be different than what he had read in the journal. His mother turned back to him with sadness in her eyes, knowing that her next words would stay with him for the rest of his very long life. She walked back to the bed and caressed his face with her hands.
“Onew. I must die here, today.”
A/N: I deliberately didn’t want to identify the place that Onew time travelled back to because I felt that it would take so long to describe that it would pull you too far out of the story. So what ever you imagined that little dusty town to be, you’re right. I always envisioned Narsha as Onew’s young mother in this for some reason, I hope you guys were able to make that leap with me. More questions will be answered in the next chapter. Plus! You'll get to meet some new characters!