Mission Status - Interrogation
“Jongup, does Himchan still wear his identifier?”
Yongguk had arrived back at his apartment after stopping by a nearby Chinese restaurant to order some food for dinner. Upon arrival at home, he breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of everything in its place.
Zelo, accompanied by Daehyun, had locked himself in his room in an attempt to finish a school report. Youngjae was sleeping in the guest room, and Yongguk had found Jongup playing with the computers and systems in Yongguk’s office. He took a seat next to his focused comrade and ran his fingers through his hair. When Yongguk asked the question, Jongup didn’t answer.
“Hello? Earth to Jongup?” Yongguk called out once more, poking the other’s cheeks.
In turn, Jongup flinched away and narrowed his eyes. “Hyung, stop that,” he replied before going silent once more, thinking. “I think so… He always has it with him as far as I know.”
Yongguk nodded and smiled. An identifier is something similar to what humans in this era know as a military dog tag, a small metal tag with brief information concerning the personnel wearing it, and he was the one who gave it to Himchan when they were put together in a team during training ages ago as a birthday present. Himchan was one of Yongguk’s close friends who have known him since they both were young. He remembered teasing Himchan about always wearing the identifier everywhere, about how Yongguk could find Himchan by asking about a kid with an identifier…
“That’s it!!” Yongguk shouted in realization, surprising Jongup, who nearly fell out of his seat.
“What’s it?”
“Himchan’s identifier!” Yongguk replied, sitting back down and starting his tracking system, entering codes into the screen. “That’s how we’re getting him back.”
“His identifier?”
Yongguk nodded. “Before I gave him his identifier for his birthday, I took it to my mother’s lab and had a tracking chip planted into the metal plate. Mother didn’t know, so when she found out, she yelled at me, but she let it slide because she knows that Himchan and I are very close.”
“Will it work though?” Jongup asked. “If you gave chipped it way back then, Earth won’t be in the systems yet.”
“It’s worth a try,” the elder simply replied, inputting the final bits of information into the computer before hitting enter.
“He still hasn’t said anything, Kris. Be patient,” Lu Han said through the communicator. “We can’t go anywhere, and we’d rather not resort to medieval options or Chinese tortures or anything of the like.”
“Lu Han, it’s been three days. Three days,” the frustrated Chinese replied. “Three days of him keeping his mouth shut, three days of no useful information.”
“We got his name…”
“And it’s not enough!” Kris shouted. The line from the other side was silent; even the apartment in Hong Kong that was faintly buzzing with the others talking quiet down at Kris’ sudden outburst.
“Kris, we still have time-”
“How long, Lu Han? Two days? Three months!? Lu Han, for all we know, we might not even have a tomorrow!”
“We’re doing everything we can without looking inhumane, Kris.”
“But it’s not good enough-!!”
The door to the office room was slammed open, revealing Lay, who stood there with his arms crossed, obviously unhappy in Kris’ state of mind. Behind him was Chanyeol, an expression of worry painted across his face. Lay cleared his throat before speaking, voice level steady with a slight pinch of threatening. “Wu Fan, you will step away from that communicator this instant, or I will paralyze you for the next 48 hours.”
“You wouldn’t, Lay,” Kris growled out. But he knew Lay would; Lay was the only one who still calls him by his old Chinese name off and on, but especially when he’s serious.
“I can, I will, and you know that I will,” Lay stepped into the room, closer to Kris. “I want you out of this room and outside. You haven’t had a breath of fresh air in three days, and you obviously need it more than any of us. I’ll handle things with Lu Han. And don’t you even try to use your ‘maybe next time’ excuse because, like you just said, we might not have a next time.”
Kris groaned, but nevertheless, he went out of the apartment. Chanyeol made a move to follow him, but Lay caught his wrist. “Let him go alone. And that goes to you, too, Tao. Leave him be so he can have this time to clear his mind. He doesn’t need any of our companies any more that he already has.” Lay sat down on the swivel chair and put on the headphones before dialing out to Lu Han, patiently waiting until his signal was received. “Lu Han? It’s Lay. Listen, if you can get Kai to pick me and Chanyeol up, we might be able to help you guys."
“Yongguk hyung, it’s been three days,” Youngjae said, handing Yongguk another cup of coffee. “Earth isn’t inputted in the system yet. I know it hasn’t because most of the things you do in the monitors here, especially something as big and important as inputting coordinates, one of us can see it over at home.”
When Yongguk didn’t reply, Youngjae sighed. Zelo walked up and pat his back, offering a small smile in return. “He gets obsessive like this from time to time, hyung,” the youngest reassured. “Sometimes he succeeds, sometimes he doesn’t. Most of the time, if given enough time, he’ll be fine. Worst case scenario is that he passes out in front of the monitors. Rarely happens though, so it’s alright.”
“I guess so, Z-1…”
“I told you, it’s Zelo, didn’t I?”
“Fine, fine.”
Youngjae and Zelo left Yongguk alone once more, hoping that sooner or later, their missing co-commander will be found so that Yongguk could rest before their real mission begins.
“Fill me in the details,” Lay said almost as soon as he arrived in Suho’s location.
Kai had arrived and teleported him and Chanyeol into the US, and he was currently leading them underground to where they were holding the alien for questioning. “Well, like you’ve heard. We’ve only got his name. Lu Han told me he said something about a supernova and a planet dying, but they were just whispers of unclear words. He’s slightly hostile towards Suho and me. Lu Han has never interrogated him; he has only been an observer to whenever we want to get something out of him. On the other hand, though, he seems better-mannered whenever D.O. pays a visit, and when I say better-mannered, I meant not talking at all, maybe a slight nod or two.”
“Well, D.O. does have that effect on people… and aliens, apparently…” Chanyeol commented, remembering how the younger protector had taken care of his burns and cuts when he and Kris got into a fight that burned down their residence in Greece that Lay was so proud of.
“Who’s down there now?” Lay asked.
“There’s no one. Since we can’t get anything out of him, we wired cameras and made sure to equip extra security on him. D.O. normally monitors the cams, sometimes he switches out with Lu Han.”
“Hold on,” Chanyeol said, slowing his walking pace, “I’ve only heard Kris say that you got this alien’s name, but I’ve never heard him say what the actual name was. Did you guys tell him-?”
“At first, we got what we could assume was his alias. It was Tatsmato, but with a little more force, we got Pink Bunny, as strange as it is. D.O. though… that guy is really made out of fairy dust or something because he got the alien’s Earth name, and it’s Himchan. Did Kris not tell you that? Suho relays all the information he gets, and we thought that you, Tao, and Chanyeol already knew.”
“No, and Kris is doing that often now, hiding information,” Lay replied, gritting his teeth. “It’s like he’s suddenly on edge and everything that he cares about is about to disappear.”
Kai merely hummed a response, leading Lay and Chanyeol to the far end of the endless maze of corridors. “He’s behind this door,” he finally said, stopping in front of a simple metal door. After a scan of the cornea, fingerprints, and voice analyzer, the doors unlocked. “I’ll be in the room over, monitoring. I know you two can handle yourselves if anything happens, but this is standard precautions, or Suho will have my head.”
Both Lay and Chanyeol nodded before they entered the room, door closing and locking behind them. Chanyeol took a seat near the door, sticking to just watching Lay do his miracle work until the elder needed a helping hand. Lay, on the other hand, carefully approached the stranger strapped into a metal chair on the other end of the room.
The alien, Himchan, looked battered and bruised. His head was bent down, but Chanyeol could see the ghost of a new bruise and the small blood clot at the edge of his lips. His short, dark hair was a mess, matted with dirt and god knows what else. He wore a military-style set of clothes, dark green and black, but they were partially torn and disheveled. Chanyeol didn’t know what Kai and Suho did to get this result, and he didn’t really want to find out.
Lay cleared his throat, and the alien’s eyes slowly opened, though he didn’t move from his slumped position. “Can you look up?” Lay gently asked.
There was a moment of dead silence before Himchan looked up, showing the bruise and cuts that littered his face. “You’re not going to get any information out of me no matter how much you try,” he whispered coldly. “If I die because of this, then I die.”
“We’re not trying to get anything out of you,” Lay replied calmly. “I, along with him over there,” he pointed at Chanyeol, who gave a small salute, “am only here to see you physically.”
“Why? Haven’t your friends given you all the data they got?”
“We’re having a little problem about that,” Chanyeol responded.
“Good.”
“Anyways,” Lay said, giving Chanyeol a look, “it should only be fair for you to know our names since we know yours. I’m named Sanitatum, and he’s Incendio.”
“Sanitatum,” Himchan repeated, “Latin for the human word ‘healing.’ And Incendio… Italian from the word ‘fire.’”
Lay smiled softly. “I’m surprised you know.”
“You’ll be surprised at the things I know,” Himchan growled out in Chinese.
So he knows Chinese, too, Chanyeol thought to himself. But how?
“As our names stand for their meaning, I am a healer, and he bears fire.”
“So you’re here to heal me, befriend me, and get the information you need before you double-cross me and stab me in my back, maybe quite literally? I don’t think so, pal.”
“I knew you were going to say and think that way,” Lay said, pulling a chair and sitting in front of Himchan, keeping a distance of an arm’s reach away. “It’s not entirely false, but it’s not entirely true either. I’m only here to heal you because you look like you need it. I don’t do interrogations; they’re not my thing.”
“So why did you bring your friend over there?”
“For safety purposes. I only know you based on what little information you’ve let out, so better safe than sorry.”
Himchan was quiet. “Why should I trust you?”
“Because if I don’t do anything and leave you like this, you will die soon, whether in the hands of Aqua or Transporto, or maybe even Fuga. Don’t get me wrong; I can kill you if I want to as well. The power I have means I can repair or give even more damage to a body, whether it is a human’s or an alien’s. It takes me seconds to understand how your body system works and only half of a millisecond to paralyze you or destroy your important organs into pieces. But like you’ve stated before, you’re obviously not afraid of death, so you won’t be dead today.”
“Is that supposed to be a good thing, because I’d rather die in the hands of a fighter than a pacifist?”
“Whether it’s good or bad, it’s up to you to decide. It’s also up to you to decide whether you want to be healed or not. This is your only chance, because no one else will be able to patch you up the way I do. You’re lucky Fortitudo’s been nice to you. I see he brought you water and some food.”
“Fortitudo… he’s-?”
“Wide eyes, kind of motherly, sometimes looking like a lost child,” Chanyeol replied. “The one who got your Earth name out.”
Himchan nodded once, remembering the male who had helped him drink several hours ago. “And what do you mean ‘lucky’?”
“Fortitudo is Latin for strength. He also happens to be our resident master chef. A slip of poison, the snap of the neck… anything could’ve happened,” Lay explained.
“So I was pitied by that human?” Himchan said, frustration starting to boil.
“You say human like we’re pests you’ve been sent to exterminate,” Lay responded. “Back to the point in hand: do you want to be healed or not? I only offer things to strangers once.”
“Why offer things to a stranger in a first place?”
Lay shrugged, another small smile forming on his lips. “Personal reasons.”
Himchan weighed his options. His body was sore and aching, tired from the travel and the lack of rest. These cuts, if not treated, will be bad for him in the future, and he could practically feel the bruises that were painted across his face throb every now and then. He might’ve twisted his ankle as well, for it was dully throbbing after three nights going unattended. This Sanitatum character seemed harmless at the moment, despite of what he could do in the case of a fight. But what options does Himchan truly have?
“Fine,” he finally said, “but don’t you dare do anything that can render me hopeless in the long run. I have a feeling that once I get out of here, we’ll be seeing each other again under a much different circumstance.”
Lay smiled, placing his hand over Himchan’s and letting his powers do their job. “I wish you a good luck in trying to escape, then.”
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