[EXO] [Fanfiction] Electric Inferno
Title: Electric Inferno
Pairing: Baekhyun/Chanyeol; side Kai/Kyungsoo
Rating: R
Length: 5,250 words
Summary: The year is 2659 and those who are discovered with the Hex gene are terminated at birth. The Hexes have stayed quiet for a long time in the shadows, but it's time to fight back, especially when they discover that there's a whole facility of Hexes who have not been terminated, but who are in fact, very much alive and being experimented on.
A/N: This was originally posted at the runandgun comm for the Summer 2012 challenge. I totally forgot about adding in author's notes when I submitted, so let me just elaborate a little bit about it.
The story and concepts this universe is based in is from the Hex trilogy written by Rhiannon Lassiter. It is probably one of the lesser known cyberpunk dystopia series out there but it is absolutely fantastic. I really recommend it. Anyway, this oneshot is based on the first book, Hex, and is more Baekhyun-centric than anything. I've been toying with the idea of continuing it, but maybe with other characters, but we'll see how it goes.
Electric Inferno
Baekhyun chances a look behind himself as he runs, breathing harsh, as the fear and the adrenaline push him onwards and into narrow alleyways, twisting this way and that when he hears the voices of his pursuers barking out orders for his capture. He curses himself inside as he stops for a moment to catch his breath, You really should have known better, Byun Baekhyun, but it’s a bit too late now for regrets, and he’s lucky that he managed to sneak off so many parts and get out of the system before they could discover his identity. His trusty backpack is full to bursting, and he shifts, trying to get some of the sharper corners to not dig into his back.
He barely holds back the yelp that would have most certainly given away his hiding place when long limbs reach out from behind him and suddenly there’s a hand covering his face. Baekhyun nearly gets a crick in his neck when he twists abruptly to see who it is that’s caught him, but relaxes in relief when he sees that it’s Sehun, with a pale finger to his lips in a silent gesture to keep his mouth shut. The younger boy pulls his hand away from Baekhyun’s face and gestures to the dark doorway behind him with an incline of his head, and Baekhyun nods his acquiescence before he steps into the darkness.
----
It’s a good thing that it is Sehun who found him, and not someone else, like Chanyeol or Suho, because they really would have taken his head off.
Baekhyun wishes that he could still see the once cheerful Chanyeol, who used to be so bright and chipper, who used to thrill Baekhyun with his booming laugh and smile at practically anything and everything, but all of that changed once the Security took his sister away after alleging that she had the Hex gene. Since then, Chanyeol smiles little, and laughs even less. It is only in these past few years that he seems to smile a bit more.
The Hex gene was first discovered in 2325, a series of genetic experiments that was designed to make sure that the entire population as a whole could be more in touch, more wired to technology. The genes had been grafted onto random members of the public, but in 2359, legislation was put into place that anyone who was found to be a Hex would be exterminated.
It was worse when Baekhyun’s abilities manifested. He had tried his very hardest to hide it from his best friend, not wanting to worry him. Baekhyun will never forget the day when Chanyeol had burst into his room, breathless. When he’d seen what he was doing, the look on his face had been stricken with shock, worry, and the bitterness tinged with resignation and sorrow; the image is forever burned into Baekhyun’s mind.
Baekhyun had frozen in shock, face pale at his sudden entrance, and hands on either side of the terminal instead of on the keyboard where they should be, but it had been too late for him to place his hands back onto the black plastic, even while lines of text continued to appear on the terminal’s screen. He bites his lip as he stands, slowly pushing his chair away from the table, and looking everywhere else but Chanyeol’s face.
The taller boy stands there in silence with a knowing look on his face. To Baekhyun, it feels too much like he’s being judged, but there are no words he can say at that moment to tell Chanyeol how sorry he is. He can’t even meet Chanyeol’s eyes, and he is so sure that the taller boy will just turn and walk out the door and out of his life, so he is surprised when warm, long fingers grip his pale bony wrist firmly instead. He looks up, meeting Chanyeol’s serious gaze.
“Pack your things. We’ve got to go.” Chanyeol intones in a low voice, and Baekhyun nods silently in reply. He doesn’t have to add that Baekhyun will never be able to return to his own life. His fingers leave Baekhyun’s skin, but he can still feel the imprint of Chanyeol’s fingers etched there.
Baekhyun grabs his favourite shirts and hoodies, the jeans that are too long for him, the ones that had been hand-me-downs from his older brothers, and is about to stuff his laptop into his knapsack, but Chanyeol’s hand on his shoulder stops him from doing so. The taller boy just shakes his head no, and mouths the words, “They’ll be able to trace it.” Baekhyun sighs inaudibly; it is the only thing that he really values, that he had scrapped and saved to buy, but leaves it nonetheless, grabbing a few other essential items, before looking around his room one more time, silently bidding this life goodbye.
He’s not sure what lies ahead, but it’s a lot better than being a sitting duck and never knowing when the Seccies might burst into his home to catch him and drag him off to be executed.
It isn’t as if he has much to say goodbye to anyway. His father died when he was three, his eldest brother had been killed in one of the territory wars the gangers had, and his second brother had left them a long time ago. His mother was always gone three sheets to the wind; no matter how much he tried his best to keep her clean, when he returned from work, he always found her eyes glazed over, staring at nothing, withering away. One of his neighbours offered to look after her due to his haphazard hours, and he hurriedly scribbles a note to that neighbour, leaves some creds behind while he chews his lip, hoping that it will tide them over for a while at least.
There is nothing Baekhyun hasn’t already left behind, and he pulls the door closed behind him, the click of the door shutting behind him the only farewell to his former life.
-----
Suho looks up from the vidscreen in greeting when both Sehun and Baekhyun emerge from behind the giant door after a series of electronic beeps and whirs. Their hideout has a million exits that only their group knows about; you can never be too careful when you’re a Hex, or affiliated with them. They’ve all had their own run-ins with the Seccies, and their obsessive-compulsive eye to detail with regards to the security of their hideout has paid off more than once.
The oldest boy in the room gives Baekhyun a disapproving stare and a sigh, which he returns with a sheepish grin. Sehun waves and then disappears down another corridor, heading back to the control room where he was supposedly on watch for his shift.
“That was really cutting it close back there, Baekhyun.” Suho has eyes everywhere, senses tapped into a zillion different security cameras across the city that lets him monitor everything from a bird’s eye view without even having to leave their hideout.
Baekhyun shrugs acting unaffected, hanging up his coat and unloading his bag by upturning it on the empty table next to Suho. Mechanical parts clank and clatter out of the bag onto the table.
“Well, you know how much Kai wants to get in touch with that other rebel group that has been all over the place. I might’ve just managed to get in touch with one of their hackers.” He says with a grin, and writes down a long series of numbers that detail a cred account and an encrypted number on a wrinkled piece of paper that has seen better days, holding it out to Suho. Being a Hex means that he has an eidetic memory and he writes it out without even having to think about it.
Suho snags the paper from him, smoothing it out with deft fingers as he eyes it dubiously. “How sure are you that it’s not one of the guard dogs on the Net that the Seccies set up to catch you?” Suho is quite the worrywart, for all that he’s the leader of their ragtag group, but Baekhyun figures that he’s entitled, being the older sibling to Kai - one of the most, if not the most talented Hex that Baekhyun knows - must be pretty nerve-wracking, especially since Kai is oft times reckless, and does his own thing without consulting anyone else a lot of the time.
(Baekhyun is sometimes surprised that Suho’s hair hasn’t turned completely white yet with the way the older sibling worries about the younger one. It isn’t lost on him that Kai knows this well, and milks it for all he’s worth at times, the brat. Baekhyun wonders if there’s a good reason why Suho almost always gives into Kai’s temper and whims.)
Baekhyun rolls his eyes before sitting around on the sofa that has seen better days as it sinks under his weight. “Give me some credit, hyung. I did my research before I went tripping around the Net. Besides, I don’t think a guard dog program would be able to simulate real life images pulled from coding along, and you know the feel of the programs are different from what another Hex feels like.” He points out.
Suho gives him an unreadable look. “That may be the case but that doesn’t mean that they couldn’t have learnt to do something similar to that effect.” Kai chooses that moment to enter the room, still in his pajamas and rubbing at his eyes sleepily. “Hyung, you worry too much. Baekhyun knows what he’s doing. I should know since I trained him.” He waves tiredly at the other boy; these past few days have been hard on Kai as evidenced by the dark circles that stand out against his dark skin. It looks as if he’s been trying to singlehandedly do one of his very secret projects once again.
The oldest boy sighs. “You know I worry because we don’t want a repeat of what happened with-” The slit-eye look that Kai gives Suho is so full of animosity that it practically crackles within the room. Suho doesn’t back down from that look, and Baekhyun gulps inaudibly at the charged tension between the brothers. He is only able to breathe easily when Kai looks away, anguish on his face.
“Don’t, hyung, just don’t.” The younger boy pads away from the room; the door sliding open with a hiss, then jerking shut the only evidence that he’s more affected than he lets on by that short confrontation with his brother.
Baekhyun licks his lips nervously. “Dare I ask what that was about?”
Suho is busy knocking his head on the desk, muttering “You idiot, idiot, idiot!” under his breath a few times before he looks up to regard Baekhyun. He doesn’t think that he’s ever seen Suho look this tired since he first joined them. Now, now the older boy just looks he belongs in a graveyard instead with his haunted eyes and pale skin.
Finally, when it seems that Suho has had enough of pounding his head into the table, he gives Baekhyun a weak smile, and proceeds to tell him the story of Do Kyungsoo.
----
In another building, far away from Kai and Suho and Baekhyun, Do Kyungsoo stares up at the plaster ceiling as the scientists murmur around him, taking measurements from the electrical equipment they have hooked up to him. He stares, because it is better than acknowledging the pain that floods his body when they zap him with electric pulses that would have killed a lesser person. A male scientist lets out an annoyed ‘tsk’ when he doesn’t react, and they crank up the current. This time, his left hand twitches involuntarily. Inwardly, Kyungsoo scoffs at them. He has no idea what exactly his abilities are, and from the experiments that they conduct on all of the other people here, neither do they.
Three years he has been stuck in this hell hole, and the things that he has seen sometimes give him nightmares. He is no longer the wide-eyed, terrified boy who was brought in with tears streaking down his face, snatched away from his friends and family because he was suspected of being a Hex. They’d told his shell-shocked parents that if he was confirmed to be a Hex, he would be executed that evening, and if he wasn’t, then he would be returned safely to his family.
What a lie. The longer the time he spent in the facility, the more he found out from the more lucid…experiments (because that was exactly what each and every one of them were - experiments for these scientists that called themselves human beings. If the United Nations had still existed perhaps they might have stopped this from happening. But there was no UN anymore, not in 2359. Not for those who were born with the Hex gene and deemed to be dangerous to society).
Jongdae had been here two years prior to Kyungsoo’s being brought in and had told the younger boy that everyone who was brought in never left again - unless it was in a body bag. Kyungsoo sees this for himself several times when some of the younger children are unable to take the severity of the experiments - sometimes he wishes he was in their place. The only way out of the facility seems to be through death. He has yet to see any computer terminals - of course, the scientists would never risk letting their precious test subjects have any outside connection with the world, let alone let them near any of the terminals. It frustrates him to no end, but it doesn’t stop Kyungsoo from calling out that one name that anchors him to his sanity, to the happy memories when he is being experimented on.
JonginJonginJonginJonginJongin, his mind repeats over and over again until they turn the voltage so high that his eyes roll up in his head and he passes out.
He keeps chanting Jongin’s name in his mind in the hopes that it might reach the other Hex one day, a futile effort, but it is the only thing he can cling on to because he absolutelyrefuses to die in this place. One day he’ll get out of here. One day, Jongin will be able to hear him if he reaches out far enough.
And one day, his voice is indeed, heard.
----
Baekhyun sinks back into the sofa, rather breathless after hearing Suho’s tale about Do Kyungsoo. At least now Baekhyun has a rough idea why Kai is always so driven, so impatient and why he finds the need to take everything onto himself. Two years down the road and Kai has still not given up on finding his friend, does not believe that he’s dead, although the Seccies would certainly say otherwise.
Suho smiles wryly at Baekhyun. “And now you know. Kai will probably kill me for telling you, but I believe that you need to know it too, considering that you’re part of our group. I worry about him every day and it is really difficult to see him do this to himself. I know that you’re careful but if there’s ever the possibility that you might get caught and you need to choose between your life and the mission, then choose life.”
Baekhyun coughs in an attempt to clear his throat of the lump of trepidation there.
“Thank you for telling me hyung.” He leans forward, closer to the older boy. “But, what about you, hyung? Do you believe that Kyungsoo is alive?”
Suho’s lips are pressed into a thin line. “If he is where we think he is, then he would probably be better off dead.”
Baekhyun thinks he doesn’t much like the untold darkness behind those words.
----
“Hey.” Chanyeol walks into the control room during the wee hours of morning when Baekhyun has relieved Sehun of his shift. The much taller former ganger takes off his trench coat and lays it on the seat next to Baekhyun, gracing the Hex with a kiss on the cheek. Baekhyun looks at him momentarily with a small smile before turning his attention back to the screens.
“Hey yourself.” Baekhyun greets his boyfriend. “Did you find anything interesting out there?” Chanyeol shakes his head as he stretches out his long limbs, yawning widely. “I managed to get in charge with the Earl to set up some artillery for us but there’s been no change in the other aspects. How was your day?” He musses Baekhyun’s hair fondly with a smile, something the other boy frowns at him for.
“Stop that. I’m trying to concentrate here.” Chanyeol grins, knowing that Baekhyun doesn’t really need to keep his eyes on the screen all the time to monitor any changes. Kai’s training is relentless and only when he felt that he’d trained the other Hex to a standard that he deemed appropriate would he have let Baekhyun loose to go out on missions and to handle the control room by himself.
At any other time, the control room would be handled by at least five other operatives who are non-Hexes. With Baekhyun, both Suho and Kai know that even if his eyes are not glued to the screen, any changes would be made known to Baekhyun immediately because of his Hex abilities. His range may not be as wide as Kai’s - but then again, no one can come near Kai’s abilities because even as a Hex, he’s still an anomaly amongst them; that’s why although Suho is the de facto leader, Kai is the shadow leader who wields the power in this operation - but he is good enough that he would be alerted to even the smallest change.
Chanyeol bodily hauls Baekhyun into his own lap with a smirk and the younger boy lets out a frustrated noise at being distracted from his work but doesn’t protest when their lips meet. The former ganger kisses him languidly at first, as if he’s got all the time in the world to just kiss Baekhyun, but then the pace changes, and Chanyeol kisses Baekhyun as if he’s drowning and Baekhyun is the air he needs to survive. Baekhyun adjusts to the change easily; fingers interlocking around Chanyeol’s neck then shifting into the taller boys’ hair as he grinds his hip into the other boy’s and gives as good as he gets.
Baekhyun feels as if Chanyeol is a force of nature. Chanyeol reminds him of the fire in those documentaries he used to watch, of documentaries from centuries ago that documented ‘forest fires’ and how a fire could start from a tiny spark, building slowly at first, then leaping into a raging inferno in a matter of minutes. If Chanyeol is the fire, then Baekhyun will happily be his kindling and he’ll let himself be burnt up until there’s nothing left. Moments like these, Baekhyun can block out the rest of the world and the silent war that goes on between the Hexes and the rest of the government; moments like these in Chanyeol’s arms he can just forget it all.
Just when their makeout session is starting to get more hot and heavy than it already is, a ping against Baekhyun’s consciousness makes him look up at the screens again. He stills in Chanyeol’s lap as the taller boy gives his neck one more lingering kiss before his attention joins Baekhyun’s on the large vidscreen. The taller boy sighs in resignation as Baekhyun scrambles out of his lap and back into the chair, lines of information flying across the screen and pop-up windows appearing as Baekhyun works on finding the signal. Chanyeol may be used to seeing Baekhyun work without his fingers flying across the keypad at all, but it never gets less unsettling to see it; he thinks he’s probably be more freaked out if he ever got the chance to see Kai work properly, and winces at the thought.
A few minutes later, Kai is barrelling into the control room, eyes shining and determined, excited, but exhausted. “Did you find it? The signal?” It comes as no surprise that Kai would know even though he wasn’t in the control room at that time. The younger boy doesn’t wait for an answer before sitting in the chair next to Baekhyun, and the information seems to fly faster even before his hands touch the terminal. From the looks of it, Kai has barely slept at all. Suho enters the room quietly moments later, eyes following the text and information on the screen.
With their combined efforts, they manage to pinpoint the signal on what looks like an unchartered part on the map. There are no buildings, no roads, and it looks like the middle of nowhere. Baekhyun gulps. Could this be the rumoured facility that Suho had mentioned earlier that day?
Kai all but leaps out of his seat, gesturing wildly at the vidscreen.
“It’s Kyungsoo, hyung! He’s still alive. He’s still alive!” The older sibling comes forward to embrace Kai’s shaking figure. Suho hugs Kai tightly before grinning, albeit a bit wryly.
“What are we waiting for? Let’s go and get him.” The grin that Kai gives them in response is probably the happiest expression that Baekhyun has ever seen him have.
----
Kyungsoo reaches out as far as he can with his mind, pushing through the pain that wracks his body as he grabs onto the electric currents, following the pathway and shouting out into the inky darkness that he knows is out there, where Jongin is.
Moments before he passes out because of the strain on his body, he thinks he hears Jongin’s voice and he smiles, something the scientists would have been disturbed to see, but no one is looking at him and they are busy analysing the results instead.
Jongin’s voice is fierce and determined in Kyungsoo’s mind before he gives himself over to the darkness of unconsciousness.
I’m coming, Kyungsoo. Hang in there. I’m coming.
----
Everything after that is a blur of motion in Baekhyun’s mind as Suho and Kai bark out orders to the rest of the group in preparation for Do Kyungsoo’s retrieval mission. Chanyeol gets in touch with the Earl and the heavy artillery arrives in less than an hour, and three gangers who are supposed to help out with the operation. Kris, Tao and Minseok look fierce and if looks could kill, Baekhyun thinks he would have been buried way further than six feet already.
They go through plans and blueprints and everything just goes so fast that Baekhyun finds that if not for his Hex abilities, he would have a hard time keeping up with all of it. Kai is more tightly wound than normal and snaps at everything and everyone but they finally leave for the facility in two days. Baekhyun feels vaguely disappointed that he’s been asked to sit out of this major operation, but Suho pulls him aside and tells him in no uncertain words that if the operation fails, he’s the one who’ll be in charge of the group. Baekhyun feels rather faint, but he memorises everything that Suho tells him and gets all the fail safes ready.
He is beyond caring when he kisses Chanyeol desperately in front of all of them, drawing catcalls and hoots from the borrowed gangers and the rest of their group. Suho smiles indulgently and even Kai gives them a half-smile. Chanyeol kisses him back just as fiercely and gives him a rakish grin, touching Baekhyun’s jaw lightly with his fingers before the flitter lifts off and speeds away under the expert piloting of Kai’s mind.
Baekhyun notices that Chanyeol didn’t promise he would return and for once in his life, prays hard for whatever gods there may be to hear him and bring him back safely.
----
Baekhyun is apprehensive, waiting for any signal from Kai or Suho or Sehun that they’re on the way back. His anxious vigil is broken when the vidscreens are flooded with images and lines and lines of text that seems to detail the experiments that have gone on in the facility that is not so secret anymore. All the media channels are playing the footage that seems to be fed to them by an outside channel. Baekhyun knows at once that it must be Kai who is doing it. He stares at the images that scroll across the screens, horrified at some of the pictures that are shown and thinks that what Suho said was right. If there was a choice between execution and being in that facility, one was better off dead.
Chanyeol’s voice crackles to life on the transceiver affixed to Baekhyun’s ear and he breathes a sigh of relief when he hears his boyfriend’s voice. The former ganger’s voice is grim rather than overjoyed, and Baekhyun wonders why he doesn’t sound elated like he thought they would be.
“We’re on our way, but get the Earl to send over some first rate medics. We’ve got a few who need medical attention fast. See you soon.” It sounds ominous to Baekhyun, who hurriedly gives the orders to the rest of the group who were left behind in the hideout, and contacts the Earl quickly, who agrees to send over medics quickly.
The Government regains control of the media channels almost twenty minutes after the horrific images has been shown and alleges that it is the actions of a terrorist group, who have also singlehandedly blown up a government facility. Baekhyun freezes at the footage of the burning facility but urges himself to calm down.
A tugging on his consciousness alerts him to the medics who have arrived and Baekhyun greets the head medic, Yixing and shows him where they can set up before they settle down to wait for the return of the others.
The two flitters return to the hangar and Baekhyun finds himself at the entrance in front of the rest of their group nervously, afraid of the condition that his friends will emerge. Kai is the first one to emerge, clutching tightly to a pale boy who seems unconscious. The way that Kai looks at him as he entrusts him into Yixing’s care, Baekhyun knows this must be none other than Do Kyungsoo. Suho comes out next, supporting a boy who seems to have metal embedded into his limbs; it makes Baekhyun wince, and his heart goes out to the boy.
Sehun and Kris call out for a stretcher as they support another boy who is staring vacantly into space. Baekhyun tries to hide a shudder because it looks more like he’s seeing the living dead rather than someone who might be in shock. The thinness of his body suggest otherwise, and Baekhyun deducts that he is probably another boy who was experimented on, and although there are no physical marks on him, it seems that his mind might be what was damaged.
When Chanyeol emerges from the flitter relatively unscathed except for a few cuts here and there, Baekhyun runs to him immediately, wrapping the taller boy in a tight hug. Chanyeol returns the hug a bit stiffly, as if his limbs are made of lead and is silent. The others file out of the flitter and into the hideout while Baekhyun and Chanyeol stay there, wrapped in each other’s arms. Baekhyun vaguely registers nodding when Suho telling him that there’ll be a debriefing in an hour’s time, and Tao and Minseok quirking their eyebrows at him before they enter the hideout.
“How horrible was it?” Baekhyun finally whispers when Chanyeol doesn’t make any move to speak.
“Jin-ah was there.” The taller boy whispers brokenly and Baekhyun’s eyes widen. That Chanyeol’s sister had been at the facility didn’t bode well, and with the way Chanyeol was reacting, Baekhyun didn’t need to be able to read minds to know that it must have been bad, especially if they hadn’t brought Jin-Ah back.
“Her body was there, but she was already gone. The number of machines they had her wired up to. It was horrendous. Jongdae, Jongdae told me that she was already like that when he’d been brought in.” Baekhyun pats Chanyeol’s back soothingly, hoping that it comforts the taller boy somewhat as he continues speaking. Jongdae must be one of the boys that they managed to bring back with them. “Apparently she was part of one of the memory experiments, and she was one of those that survived.” Chanyeol’s bark of harsh laughter is frightening, but Baekhyun tightens his grip on his boyfriend.
“Luhan, that boy we brought in, the one with the vacant eyes was part of it too. He’s Kris’ cousin you know? He called out Kris’ name when he saw us, but Jin-Ah.” Chanyeol swallows convulsively before he continues. “Jin-Ah just lay there. I had that split second to bring her back with us, but that one moment, that one moment when I touched her hand, you know what I heard in my mind? I heard her voice and she-“
“She asked me to kill her.” Chanyeol’s voice is deep with suppressed grief and self-loathing. “My own sister, asked me to put a bullet in her brain. And I did.” He sinks to the ground, clutching at Baekhyun as he finally sobs uncontrollably into Baekhyun’s shoulder.
Baekhyun stays with him, tears running down his face silently as he holds Chanyeol.
----
Chanyeol and Baekhyun walk into the control room an hour later, eyes red but dry and if Suho notices the death grip their hands have on each other, he doesn’t say a word. Kai is missing from the meeting, and Baekhyun thinks that he must be with Kyungsoo.
Suho addresses everyone there, Hexes and gangers alike.
“We’ve destroyed the facility where the experiments were held, and in addition to that, we are being blamed by the Government and have been tagged with the label of being terrorists. We don’t know if there are other facilities out there where this type of experimentation is being done, but now that we know, we are going to bring it all down around their ears and make them pay. We will make them give us our damn rights, as human beings, as people, who live, who bleed, the same as any other person out there.”
He takes a deep breath.
“Are you with me?!” The whole room bellows back a resounding “YES!!!!!!!” in reply.
The grin that Suho has on his face is electric.
“I said, ARE YOU WITH ME?!” Chanyeol and Baekhyun roar back in reply with the rest of the room. “YES!!!!”
Baekhyun’s grip tightens around Chanyeol’s fingers, and the former ganger grins roguishly, a weak grin from his other grins, but the fire is in his eyes.
It’s about time they stood up for their rights, and the Government will never know what hit them.
The revolution is just beginning.
Pairing: Baekhyun/Chanyeol; side Kai/Kyungsoo
Rating: R
Length: 5,250 words
Summary: The year is 2659 and those who are discovered with the Hex gene are terminated at birth. The Hexes have stayed quiet for a long time in the shadows, but it's time to fight back, especially when they discover that there's a whole facility of Hexes who have not been terminated, but who are in fact, very much alive and being experimented on.
A/N: This was originally posted at the runandgun comm for the Summer 2012 challenge. I totally forgot about adding in author's notes when I submitted, so let me just elaborate a little bit about it.
The story and concepts this universe is based in is from the Hex trilogy written by Rhiannon Lassiter. It is probably one of the lesser known cyberpunk dystopia series out there but it is absolutely fantastic. I really recommend it. Anyway, this oneshot is based on the first book, Hex, and is more Baekhyun-centric than anything. I've been toying with the idea of continuing it, but maybe with other characters, but we'll see how it goes.
Electric Inferno
Baekhyun chances a look behind himself as he runs, breathing harsh, as the fear and the adrenaline push him onwards and into narrow alleyways, twisting this way and that when he hears the voices of his pursuers barking out orders for his capture. He curses himself inside as he stops for a moment to catch his breath, You really should have known better, Byun Baekhyun, but it’s a bit too late now for regrets, and he’s lucky that he managed to sneak off so many parts and get out of the system before they could discover his identity. His trusty backpack is full to bursting, and he shifts, trying to get some of the sharper corners to not dig into his back.
He barely holds back the yelp that would have most certainly given away his hiding place when long limbs reach out from behind him and suddenly there’s a hand covering his face. Baekhyun nearly gets a crick in his neck when he twists abruptly to see who it is that’s caught him, but relaxes in relief when he sees that it’s Sehun, with a pale finger to his lips in a silent gesture to keep his mouth shut. The younger boy pulls his hand away from Baekhyun’s face and gestures to the dark doorway behind him with an incline of his head, and Baekhyun nods his acquiescence before he steps into the darkness.
----
It’s a good thing that it is Sehun who found him, and not someone else, like Chanyeol or Suho, because they really would have taken his head off.
Baekhyun wishes that he could still see the once cheerful Chanyeol, who used to be so bright and chipper, who used to thrill Baekhyun with his booming laugh and smile at practically anything and everything, but all of that changed once the Security took his sister away after alleging that she had the Hex gene. Since then, Chanyeol smiles little, and laughs even less. It is only in these past few years that he seems to smile a bit more.
The Hex gene was first discovered in 2325, a series of genetic experiments that was designed to make sure that the entire population as a whole could be more in touch, more wired to technology. The genes had been grafted onto random members of the public, but in 2359, legislation was put into place that anyone who was found to be a Hex would be exterminated.
It was worse when Baekhyun’s abilities manifested. He had tried his very hardest to hide it from his best friend, not wanting to worry him. Baekhyun will never forget the day when Chanyeol had burst into his room, breathless. When he’d seen what he was doing, the look on his face had been stricken with shock, worry, and the bitterness tinged with resignation and sorrow; the image is forever burned into Baekhyun’s mind.
Baekhyun had frozen in shock, face pale at his sudden entrance, and hands on either side of the terminal instead of on the keyboard where they should be, but it had been too late for him to place his hands back onto the black plastic, even while lines of text continued to appear on the terminal’s screen. He bites his lip as he stands, slowly pushing his chair away from the table, and looking everywhere else but Chanyeol’s face.
The taller boy stands there in silence with a knowing look on his face. To Baekhyun, it feels too much like he’s being judged, but there are no words he can say at that moment to tell Chanyeol how sorry he is. He can’t even meet Chanyeol’s eyes, and he is so sure that the taller boy will just turn and walk out the door and out of his life, so he is surprised when warm, long fingers grip his pale bony wrist firmly instead. He looks up, meeting Chanyeol’s serious gaze.
“Pack your things. We’ve got to go.” Chanyeol intones in a low voice, and Baekhyun nods silently in reply. He doesn’t have to add that Baekhyun will never be able to return to his own life. His fingers leave Baekhyun’s skin, but he can still feel the imprint of Chanyeol’s fingers etched there.
Baekhyun grabs his favourite shirts and hoodies, the jeans that are too long for him, the ones that had been hand-me-downs from his older brothers, and is about to stuff his laptop into his knapsack, but Chanyeol’s hand on his shoulder stops him from doing so. The taller boy just shakes his head no, and mouths the words, “They’ll be able to trace it.” Baekhyun sighs inaudibly; it is the only thing that he really values, that he had scrapped and saved to buy, but leaves it nonetheless, grabbing a few other essential items, before looking around his room one more time, silently bidding this life goodbye.
He’s not sure what lies ahead, but it’s a lot better than being a sitting duck and never knowing when the Seccies might burst into his home to catch him and drag him off to be executed.
It isn’t as if he has much to say goodbye to anyway. His father died when he was three, his eldest brother had been killed in one of the territory wars the gangers had, and his second brother had left them a long time ago. His mother was always gone three sheets to the wind; no matter how much he tried his best to keep her clean, when he returned from work, he always found her eyes glazed over, staring at nothing, withering away. One of his neighbours offered to look after her due to his haphazard hours, and he hurriedly scribbles a note to that neighbour, leaves some creds behind while he chews his lip, hoping that it will tide them over for a while at least.
There is nothing Baekhyun hasn’t already left behind, and he pulls the door closed behind him, the click of the door shutting behind him the only farewell to his former life.
-----
Suho looks up from the vidscreen in greeting when both Sehun and Baekhyun emerge from behind the giant door after a series of electronic beeps and whirs. Their hideout has a million exits that only their group knows about; you can never be too careful when you’re a Hex, or affiliated with them. They’ve all had their own run-ins with the Seccies, and their obsessive-compulsive eye to detail with regards to the security of their hideout has paid off more than once.
The oldest boy in the room gives Baekhyun a disapproving stare and a sigh, which he returns with a sheepish grin. Sehun waves and then disappears down another corridor, heading back to the control room where he was supposedly on watch for his shift.
“That was really cutting it close back there, Baekhyun.” Suho has eyes everywhere, senses tapped into a zillion different security cameras across the city that lets him monitor everything from a bird’s eye view without even having to leave their hideout.
Baekhyun shrugs acting unaffected, hanging up his coat and unloading his bag by upturning it on the empty table next to Suho. Mechanical parts clank and clatter out of the bag onto the table.
“Well, you know how much Kai wants to get in touch with that other rebel group that has been all over the place. I might’ve just managed to get in touch with one of their hackers.” He says with a grin, and writes down a long series of numbers that detail a cred account and an encrypted number on a wrinkled piece of paper that has seen better days, holding it out to Suho. Being a Hex means that he has an eidetic memory and he writes it out without even having to think about it.
Suho snags the paper from him, smoothing it out with deft fingers as he eyes it dubiously. “How sure are you that it’s not one of the guard dogs on the Net that the Seccies set up to catch you?” Suho is quite the worrywart, for all that he’s the leader of their ragtag group, but Baekhyun figures that he’s entitled, being the older sibling to Kai - one of the most, if not the most talented Hex that Baekhyun knows - must be pretty nerve-wracking, especially since Kai is oft times reckless, and does his own thing without consulting anyone else a lot of the time.
(Baekhyun is sometimes surprised that Suho’s hair hasn’t turned completely white yet with the way the older sibling worries about the younger one. It isn’t lost on him that Kai knows this well, and milks it for all he’s worth at times, the brat. Baekhyun wonders if there’s a good reason why Suho almost always gives into Kai’s temper and whims.)
Baekhyun rolls his eyes before sitting around on the sofa that has seen better days as it sinks under his weight. “Give me some credit, hyung. I did my research before I went tripping around the Net. Besides, I don’t think a guard dog program would be able to simulate real life images pulled from coding along, and you know the feel of the programs are different from what another Hex feels like.” He points out.
Suho gives him an unreadable look. “That may be the case but that doesn’t mean that they couldn’t have learnt to do something similar to that effect.” Kai chooses that moment to enter the room, still in his pajamas and rubbing at his eyes sleepily. “Hyung, you worry too much. Baekhyun knows what he’s doing. I should know since I trained him.” He waves tiredly at the other boy; these past few days have been hard on Kai as evidenced by the dark circles that stand out against his dark skin. It looks as if he’s been trying to singlehandedly do one of his very secret projects once again.
The oldest boy sighs. “You know I worry because we don’t want a repeat of what happened with-” The slit-eye look that Kai gives Suho is so full of animosity that it practically crackles within the room. Suho doesn’t back down from that look, and Baekhyun gulps inaudibly at the charged tension between the brothers. He is only able to breathe easily when Kai looks away, anguish on his face.
“Don’t, hyung, just don’t.” The younger boy pads away from the room; the door sliding open with a hiss, then jerking shut the only evidence that he’s more affected than he lets on by that short confrontation with his brother.
Baekhyun licks his lips nervously. “Dare I ask what that was about?”
Suho is busy knocking his head on the desk, muttering “You idiot, idiot, idiot!” under his breath a few times before he looks up to regard Baekhyun. He doesn’t think that he’s ever seen Suho look this tired since he first joined them. Now, now the older boy just looks he belongs in a graveyard instead with his haunted eyes and pale skin.
Finally, when it seems that Suho has had enough of pounding his head into the table, he gives Baekhyun a weak smile, and proceeds to tell him the story of Do Kyungsoo.
----
In another building, far away from Kai and Suho and Baekhyun, Do Kyungsoo stares up at the plaster ceiling as the scientists murmur around him, taking measurements from the electrical equipment they have hooked up to him. He stares, because it is better than acknowledging the pain that floods his body when they zap him with electric pulses that would have killed a lesser person. A male scientist lets out an annoyed ‘tsk’ when he doesn’t react, and they crank up the current. This time, his left hand twitches involuntarily. Inwardly, Kyungsoo scoffs at them. He has no idea what exactly his abilities are, and from the experiments that they conduct on all of the other people here, neither do they.
Three years he has been stuck in this hell hole, and the things that he has seen sometimes give him nightmares. He is no longer the wide-eyed, terrified boy who was brought in with tears streaking down his face, snatched away from his friends and family because he was suspected of being a Hex. They’d told his shell-shocked parents that if he was confirmed to be a Hex, he would be executed that evening, and if he wasn’t, then he would be returned safely to his family.
What a lie. The longer the time he spent in the facility, the more he found out from the more lucid…experiments (because that was exactly what each and every one of them were - experiments for these scientists that called themselves human beings. If the United Nations had still existed perhaps they might have stopped this from happening. But there was no UN anymore, not in 2359. Not for those who were born with the Hex gene and deemed to be dangerous to society).
Jongdae had been here two years prior to Kyungsoo’s being brought in and had told the younger boy that everyone who was brought in never left again - unless it was in a body bag. Kyungsoo sees this for himself several times when some of the younger children are unable to take the severity of the experiments - sometimes he wishes he was in their place. The only way out of the facility seems to be through death. He has yet to see any computer terminals - of course, the scientists would never risk letting their precious test subjects have any outside connection with the world, let alone let them near any of the terminals. It frustrates him to no end, but it doesn’t stop Kyungsoo from calling out that one name that anchors him to his sanity, to the happy memories when he is being experimented on.
JonginJonginJonginJonginJongin, his mind repeats over and over again until they turn the voltage so high that his eyes roll up in his head and he passes out.
He keeps chanting Jongin’s name in his mind in the hopes that it might reach the other Hex one day, a futile effort, but it is the only thing he can cling on to because he absolutelyrefuses to die in this place. One day he’ll get out of here. One day, Jongin will be able to hear him if he reaches out far enough.
And one day, his voice is indeed, heard.
----
Baekhyun sinks back into the sofa, rather breathless after hearing Suho’s tale about Do Kyungsoo. At least now Baekhyun has a rough idea why Kai is always so driven, so impatient and why he finds the need to take everything onto himself. Two years down the road and Kai has still not given up on finding his friend, does not believe that he’s dead, although the Seccies would certainly say otherwise.
Suho smiles wryly at Baekhyun. “And now you know. Kai will probably kill me for telling you, but I believe that you need to know it too, considering that you’re part of our group. I worry about him every day and it is really difficult to see him do this to himself. I know that you’re careful but if there’s ever the possibility that you might get caught and you need to choose between your life and the mission, then choose life.”
Baekhyun coughs in an attempt to clear his throat of the lump of trepidation there.
“Thank you for telling me hyung.” He leans forward, closer to the older boy. “But, what about you, hyung? Do you believe that Kyungsoo is alive?”
Suho’s lips are pressed into a thin line. “If he is where we think he is, then he would probably be better off dead.”
Baekhyun thinks he doesn’t much like the untold darkness behind those words.
----
“Hey.” Chanyeol walks into the control room during the wee hours of morning when Baekhyun has relieved Sehun of his shift. The much taller former ganger takes off his trench coat and lays it on the seat next to Baekhyun, gracing the Hex with a kiss on the cheek. Baekhyun looks at him momentarily with a small smile before turning his attention back to the screens.
“Hey yourself.” Baekhyun greets his boyfriend. “Did you find anything interesting out there?” Chanyeol shakes his head as he stretches out his long limbs, yawning widely. “I managed to get in charge with the Earl to set up some artillery for us but there’s been no change in the other aspects. How was your day?” He musses Baekhyun’s hair fondly with a smile, something the other boy frowns at him for.
“Stop that. I’m trying to concentrate here.” Chanyeol grins, knowing that Baekhyun doesn’t really need to keep his eyes on the screen all the time to monitor any changes. Kai’s training is relentless and only when he felt that he’d trained the other Hex to a standard that he deemed appropriate would he have let Baekhyun loose to go out on missions and to handle the control room by himself.
At any other time, the control room would be handled by at least five other operatives who are non-Hexes. With Baekhyun, both Suho and Kai know that even if his eyes are not glued to the screen, any changes would be made known to Baekhyun immediately because of his Hex abilities. His range may not be as wide as Kai’s - but then again, no one can come near Kai’s abilities because even as a Hex, he’s still an anomaly amongst them; that’s why although Suho is the de facto leader, Kai is the shadow leader who wields the power in this operation - but he is good enough that he would be alerted to even the smallest change.
Chanyeol bodily hauls Baekhyun into his own lap with a smirk and the younger boy lets out a frustrated noise at being distracted from his work but doesn’t protest when their lips meet. The former ganger kisses him languidly at first, as if he’s got all the time in the world to just kiss Baekhyun, but then the pace changes, and Chanyeol kisses Baekhyun as if he’s drowning and Baekhyun is the air he needs to survive. Baekhyun adjusts to the change easily; fingers interlocking around Chanyeol’s neck then shifting into the taller boys’ hair as he grinds his hip into the other boy’s and gives as good as he gets.
Baekhyun feels as if Chanyeol is a force of nature. Chanyeol reminds him of the fire in those documentaries he used to watch, of documentaries from centuries ago that documented ‘forest fires’ and how a fire could start from a tiny spark, building slowly at first, then leaping into a raging inferno in a matter of minutes. If Chanyeol is the fire, then Baekhyun will happily be his kindling and he’ll let himself be burnt up until there’s nothing left. Moments like these, Baekhyun can block out the rest of the world and the silent war that goes on between the Hexes and the rest of the government; moments like these in Chanyeol’s arms he can just forget it all.
Just when their makeout session is starting to get more hot and heavy than it already is, a ping against Baekhyun’s consciousness makes him look up at the screens again. He stills in Chanyeol’s lap as the taller boy gives his neck one more lingering kiss before his attention joins Baekhyun’s on the large vidscreen. The taller boy sighs in resignation as Baekhyun scrambles out of his lap and back into the chair, lines of information flying across the screen and pop-up windows appearing as Baekhyun works on finding the signal. Chanyeol may be used to seeing Baekhyun work without his fingers flying across the keypad at all, but it never gets less unsettling to see it; he thinks he’s probably be more freaked out if he ever got the chance to see Kai work properly, and winces at the thought.
A few minutes later, Kai is barrelling into the control room, eyes shining and determined, excited, but exhausted. “Did you find it? The signal?” It comes as no surprise that Kai would know even though he wasn’t in the control room at that time. The younger boy doesn’t wait for an answer before sitting in the chair next to Baekhyun, and the information seems to fly faster even before his hands touch the terminal. From the looks of it, Kai has barely slept at all. Suho enters the room quietly moments later, eyes following the text and information on the screen.
With their combined efforts, they manage to pinpoint the signal on what looks like an unchartered part on the map. There are no buildings, no roads, and it looks like the middle of nowhere. Baekhyun gulps. Could this be the rumoured facility that Suho had mentioned earlier that day?
Kai all but leaps out of his seat, gesturing wildly at the vidscreen.
“It’s Kyungsoo, hyung! He’s still alive. He’s still alive!” The older sibling comes forward to embrace Kai’s shaking figure. Suho hugs Kai tightly before grinning, albeit a bit wryly.
“What are we waiting for? Let’s go and get him.” The grin that Kai gives them in response is probably the happiest expression that Baekhyun has ever seen him have.
----
Kyungsoo reaches out as far as he can with his mind, pushing through the pain that wracks his body as he grabs onto the electric currents, following the pathway and shouting out into the inky darkness that he knows is out there, where Jongin is.
Moments before he passes out because of the strain on his body, he thinks he hears Jongin’s voice and he smiles, something the scientists would have been disturbed to see, but no one is looking at him and they are busy analysing the results instead.
Jongin’s voice is fierce and determined in Kyungsoo’s mind before he gives himself over to the darkness of unconsciousness.
I’m coming, Kyungsoo. Hang in there. I’m coming.
----
Everything after that is a blur of motion in Baekhyun’s mind as Suho and Kai bark out orders to the rest of the group in preparation for Do Kyungsoo’s retrieval mission. Chanyeol gets in touch with the Earl and the heavy artillery arrives in less than an hour, and three gangers who are supposed to help out with the operation. Kris, Tao and Minseok look fierce and if looks could kill, Baekhyun thinks he would have been buried way further than six feet already.
They go through plans and blueprints and everything just goes so fast that Baekhyun finds that if not for his Hex abilities, he would have a hard time keeping up with all of it. Kai is more tightly wound than normal and snaps at everything and everyone but they finally leave for the facility in two days. Baekhyun feels vaguely disappointed that he’s been asked to sit out of this major operation, but Suho pulls him aside and tells him in no uncertain words that if the operation fails, he’s the one who’ll be in charge of the group. Baekhyun feels rather faint, but he memorises everything that Suho tells him and gets all the fail safes ready.
He is beyond caring when he kisses Chanyeol desperately in front of all of them, drawing catcalls and hoots from the borrowed gangers and the rest of their group. Suho smiles indulgently and even Kai gives them a half-smile. Chanyeol kisses him back just as fiercely and gives him a rakish grin, touching Baekhyun’s jaw lightly with his fingers before the flitter lifts off and speeds away under the expert piloting of Kai’s mind.
Baekhyun notices that Chanyeol didn’t promise he would return and for once in his life, prays hard for whatever gods there may be to hear him and bring him back safely.
----
Baekhyun is apprehensive, waiting for any signal from Kai or Suho or Sehun that they’re on the way back. His anxious vigil is broken when the vidscreens are flooded with images and lines and lines of text that seems to detail the experiments that have gone on in the facility that is not so secret anymore. All the media channels are playing the footage that seems to be fed to them by an outside channel. Baekhyun knows at once that it must be Kai who is doing it. He stares at the images that scroll across the screens, horrified at some of the pictures that are shown and thinks that what Suho said was right. If there was a choice between execution and being in that facility, one was better off dead.
Chanyeol’s voice crackles to life on the transceiver affixed to Baekhyun’s ear and he breathes a sigh of relief when he hears his boyfriend’s voice. The former ganger’s voice is grim rather than overjoyed, and Baekhyun wonders why he doesn’t sound elated like he thought they would be.
“We’re on our way, but get the Earl to send over some first rate medics. We’ve got a few who need medical attention fast. See you soon.” It sounds ominous to Baekhyun, who hurriedly gives the orders to the rest of the group who were left behind in the hideout, and contacts the Earl quickly, who agrees to send over medics quickly.
The Government regains control of the media channels almost twenty minutes after the horrific images has been shown and alleges that it is the actions of a terrorist group, who have also singlehandedly blown up a government facility. Baekhyun freezes at the footage of the burning facility but urges himself to calm down.
A tugging on his consciousness alerts him to the medics who have arrived and Baekhyun greets the head medic, Yixing and shows him where they can set up before they settle down to wait for the return of the others.
The two flitters return to the hangar and Baekhyun finds himself at the entrance in front of the rest of their group nervously, afraid of the condition that his friends will emerge. Kai is the first one to emerge, clutching tightly to a pale boy who seems unconscious. The way that Kai looks at him as he entrusts him into Yixing’s care, Baekhyun knows this must be none other than Do Kyungsoo. Suho comes out next, supporting a boy who seems to have metal embedded into his limbs; it makes Baekhyun wince, and his heart goes out to the boy.
Sehun and Kris call out for a stretcher as they support another boy who is staring vacantly into space. Baekhyun tries to hide a shudder because it looks more like he’s seeing the living dead rather than someone who might be in shock. The thinness of his body suggest otherwise, and Baekhyun deducts that he is probably another boy who was experimented on, and although there are no physical marks on him, it seems that his mind might be what was damaged.
When Chanyeol emerges from the flitter relatively unscathed except for a few cuts here and there, Baekhyun runs to him immediately, wrapping the taller boy in a tight hug. Chanyeol returns the hug a bit stiffly, as if his limbs are made of lead and is silent. The others file out of the flitter and into the hideout while Baekhyun and Chanyeol stay there, wrapped in each other’s arms. Baekhyun vaguely registers nodding when Suho telling him that there’ll be a debriefing in an hour’s time, and Tao and Minseok quirking their eyebrows at him before they enter the hideout.
“How horrible was it?” Baekhyun finally whispers when Chanyeol doesn’t make any move to speak.
“Jin-ah was there.” The taller boy whispers brokenly and Baekhyun’s eyes widen. That Chanyeol’s sister had been at the facility didn’t bode well, and with the way Chanyeol was reacting, Baekhyun didn’t need to be able to read minds to know that it must have been bad, especially if they hadn’t brought Jin-Ah back.
“Her body was there, but she was already gone. The number of machines they had her wired up to. It was horrendous. Jongdae, Jongdae told me that she was already like that when he’d been brought in.” Baekhyun pats Chanyeol’s back soothingly, hoping that it comforts the taller boy somewhat as he continues speaking. Jongdae must be one of the boys that they managed to bring back with them. “Apparently she was part of one of the memory experiments, and she was one of those that survived.” Chanyeol’s bark of harsh laughter is frightening, but Baekhyun tightens his grip on his boyfriend.
“Luhan, that boy we brought in, the one with the vacant eyes was part of it too. He’s Kris’ cousin you know? He called out Kris’ name when he saw us, but Jin-Ah.” Chanyeol swallows convulsively before he continues. “Jin-Ah just lay there. I had that split second to bring her back with us, but that one moment, that one moment when I touched her hand, you know what I heard in my mind? I heard her voice and she-“
“She asked me to kill her.” Chanyeol’s voice is deep with suppressed grief and self-loathing. “My own sister, asked me to put a bullet in her brain. And I did.” He sinks to the ground, clutching at Baekhyun as he finally sobs uncontrollably into Baekhyun’s shoulder.
Baekhyun stays with him, tears running down his face silently as he holds Chanyeol.
----
Chanyeol and Baekhyun walk into the control room an hour later, eyes red but dry and if Suho notices the death grip their hands have on each other, he doesn’t say a word. Kai is missing from the meeting, and Baekhyun thinks that he must be with Kyungsoo.
Suho addresses everyone there, Hexes and gangers alike.
“We’ve destroyed the facility where the experiments were held, and in addition to that, we are being blamed by the Government and have been tagged with the label of being terrorists. We don’t know if there are other facilities out there where this type of experimentation is being done, but now that we know, we are going to bring it all down around their ears and make them pay. We will make them give us our damn rights, as human beings, as people, who live, who bleed, the same as any other person out there.”
He takes a deep breath.
“Are you with me?!” The whole room bellows back a resounding “YES!!!!!!!” in reply.
The grin that Suho has on his face is electric.
“I said, ARE YOU WITH ME?!” Chanyeol and Baekhyun roar back in reply with the rest of the room. “YES!!!!”
Baekhyun’s grip tightens around Chanyeol’s fingers, and the former ganger grins roguishly, a weak grin from his other grins, but the fire is in his eyes.
It’s about time they stood up for their rights, and the Government will never know what hit them.
The revolution is just beginning.