(for ceruleanlight) Edge of You and Me - Part 1 of 2
Title: Edge of You and Me
For: ceruleanlight
Pairings: Kai/D.O, EXO
Rating: PG-15
Word Count: 16k
Warnings: Cussing and discussion of sex/sexual activities
Summary: Kyungsoo is a badass soldier who can sense mimics and will lead them all to the omega. Kai is the new soldier who doesn't want powers, and certainly doesn’t want to be part of XO Squad and their suicidal mission.
Author's Note: I kept the main idea of the original prompt (MAMA powers + top and awesome Kyungsoo + newbie Kai) and placed it in another setting because this movie just gave me so many feels and it’s all I’ve been able to think about asdfghjkl I hope the prompter loves it as much as I do!
10:00 Welcome to XO.
It all begins when he wakes up on a gurney in the med tent on a morning some days before Operation Deliverance…
Kai sits up fast and is surprised to find that nothing hurts. His memory is blurry, but he’s pretty sure he died the night before. The mimic had cornered him against a fallen transporter. He’d run to the fiery metal carcass hoping to use it as cover, but instead it had served as his end. Kai fired his entire magazine into the alien being, but the mimic had still lashed out with one of its ever-moving tentacles, catching him across the chest. His metal suit had broken and shut down, leaving him immobile. He’d closed his eyes and awaited death as the beast hovered closer, gaping maw wide.
Yet he is alive.
How on Earth is he still alive?
“About time you were up,” a deep, smooth voice says. A soldier with raven-black hair stands at the tent opening. He’s small by army standards, with narrow shoulders and a short torso, but he strides forward like he owns the world. Most captains walk like that. Very few deliver the implied threat. But by the gaze this man levels at him-hard and cold as steel-Kai doesn’t doubt he can deliver any offer of pain that comes out of his lush mouth.
Kai musters a quick salute after checking the man’s insignia and tag. Captain D.O. The name doesn’t ring any bells and Kai frowns. He thought he knew all the higher ups stationed on base.
“I have orders from General Wu himself,” D.O. says. “You’ll be serving time with XO squad from now on, soldier. So, if you’re done with your beauty sleep, put on some boots and follow me.”
The man about faces and is ready to go, but he looks over his shoulder once more before striding away. There’s something familiar about his wide brown eyes that Kai can’t pin-point right at the moment. His brain is too busy trying to figure out what the hell happened-is happening. He finds boots underneath the gurney, puts them on, and tightens the laces. Kai figures that whatever is about to happen will be better faced with sharply tightened boots.
Outside the tent is a flurry of activity. Kai shields his eyes against the sunlight and tries to make a sense of the chaos-trucks rolling noisily along, troops marching to a strict military beat, official higher ups shouting commands every which way, and endless instructions being given through the intercom system. The Jeju International Airport base has always been like this, but Kai feels an extra tension in the air which can only mean they’re getting ready for a big mission. What day is it? How long was he out exactly?
Kai jogs up to the captain who waits for him by a Jeep. “Sir, what’s happening?”
“Operation Deliverance in forty-eight hours.”
The last time he remembers, there had been a month left until mission day. He’d been asleep for four weeks? “But I…How?”
“All questions will be answered soon,” the captain says and hauls himself onto the driver seat.
“But, sir-”
D.O. puts on a pair of sunglasses. “Get in.”
Kai isn’t particularly happy about not getting answers, but that’s how it usually goes in the military. It’s been six long years since the mimics invaded Earth and Kai joined the army. In his experience, it’s always better to go along with what his superiors’ demand of him. That is, until he gets to the battlefield and then he does what he wants.
For now, he jumps into the passenger seat and holds on tight as the captain drives like a lunatic away from the base. They head down the main runway and out, towards the coast. The area, previously filled with houses and businesses, was cleared up to make space for more military hangars, warehouses, and barracks. Their destination is one of the smaller structures by the shore.
The unmarked building does nothing to calm Kai’s nervousness. But he breathes deep and follows the captain inside. They walk down a long and empty hallway, and enter a wide office space at the end. Captain D.O. motions him to take a seat and so he does, waiting for further instructions. There’s still that feeling of familiarity whenever he looks at the captain, but his mind shies away from the answer.
It’s not long until the door opens again and nine other soldiers walk in. They each take their seats in silence and wait, just as he had done. Kai tries really hard not to stare at the others, but he’s hoping to recognize someone, anyone that can tell him what the heck is happening.
“Do you remember what happened to you, soldier?” Kyungsoo asks him suddenly, while turning on the table screen.
Kai removes his hands from the table. “Yes, sir. I was in the Busan evacuation,” he says. “A storm was approaching and we had to move fast, but there were too many people. We were told to hold the perimeter while everyone boarded the ships. But in the horizon…sir, it wasn’t a storm. It was mimics. By the thousands. They overran us. Only two of the ships made it out of the harbor. I fought a mimic and lost.” I lost…. Kai shakes his head trying not to let the memories affect him. He was reporting to a higher-ranking officer and it wouldn’t do to show emotions. His troop had fought as hard as they could, for as long as they could. Their only goal had been to take down as many of the mimics, knowing there was no salvation for themselves.
There’s a question he needs answered and answered now. Kai looks up at the captain. “Sir, how did I survive?”
Captain D.O., serious as ever, says, “You didn’t.”
Kai leans forward and places his elbows on the table, causing it to beep an error when too many buttons are pressed. He mutters a quick apology and straightens himself. “I don’t understand.”
The captain types quickly on the table. A medical report comes up showing Kai’s name and rank at the top and the time of death. “You died. And came back to life.”
Kai reads the report. Cold washes over him and he has to swallow twice before he can speak. “That’s…impossible.”
“Impossible. Hmm. It’s what they said when the first reports came that aliens had invaded Earth. And it’s what they said when they built the first metal exoskeletons to help us fight mimics.” Captain D.O.’s smile is hard and humorless. “Is it really hard to believe you came back to life?”
Yes, it fucking is. Not only that, but he clearly sees the stamp on the report marking him as deceased when he clearly is not. Kai clenches his jaw. “How?”
His question goes ignored.
“I suppose it is hard to believe,” D.O says. He stands and clasps his hands behind his back. “Do you know the story of Operation Downfall and the omega?”
“Yes, sir.” He’d seen the news and read the reports. An omega was a bigger alien beast that controlled all the smaller mimics in one area. Kill it and all the mimics would drop dead.
The captain nods. “After the Paris omega was eliminated by Major Cage and Sergeant Vrataski two years ago, and the secret of how they did it was revealed, the nations began experimenting with mimic blood to see if they could replicate the time reset phenomenon that allowed them to win against the omegas own time control capabilities. Unfortunately, the experiments weren’t successful, but they found out other skills could be acquired.” He opens his arms wide. “We are special unit XO, designed and equipped with skills acquired from mimic blood that will help us win this war.”
Kai glances around. The others are staring at him as if waiting for an answer. “Sir, what exactly am I doing here? I didn’t sign up for this…special program.”
“Oh no. You already have an ability.” The soft voice comes from a dark haired soldier with bright eyes and delicate fingers. His tag reads Baekhyun. “You died by mimic blood. It not only resurrected you, but it gave you power.”
The battle. The mimic hovering over him. He’d closed his eyes, but…an explosion? Burning liquid on his arms and face? Kai runs a hand through his hair. “Mimic blood is acid. How am I alive?”
“I can reset time back by five minutes,” a young man with the name tag Tao says. “It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing. It helped us get to you before your body decomposed too much.”
Kai’s laugh is met by silence. “This is crazy. You’re saying that you turned back time, somehow healed mimic-acid wounds, and saved me. Wouldn’t that erase the fact that alien blood got into me?”
“Mimic blood is timeless,” Tao says. “Once it’s in you, it’s in you forever.”
There’s a slight pressure building at his right temple. If things don’t start to make sense soon he’s going to need some aspirin or alcohol. “So, I too have an ability now? What is it then? Because I don’t feel different at all. Do I have super strength? Am I going to Hulk-out? Is it like a Spider-Man thing?”
The captain waits a beat and Kai doesn’t know if he’s trying to control anger or just giving him time to not freak out. “After Tao reset back and they lured the Alpha away, your body wasn’t by the crashed transporter. It was inside.”
Kai blinks. “I must have dragged myself in. But I don’t remember-”
“When I went to heal you,” an ash blond man with the tag Lay says, “your body kept fading in and out. It was almost as if you could…teleport.”
“Teleport?” Kai notices no one is smiling, so he stops. “You guys seriously think I can just…poof, teleport?”
Ten pairs of eyes stare back at him. No one cracks a smile; no one says it’s all a big joke, nothing. Fuck. They aren’t kidding. He has…superpowers? What the hell? Okay okay. It isn’t time to freak out. This is the military, and he is the Hero of Seoul. Surely he can talk to someone higher in rank that will help him. Yes, that’s what he will do.
Kai stands. “Thank you, sir. I’m sure your unit is efficient at what they do, but I don’t belong here. I belong out there fighting with the people.” Normal people he wants to say. “So, if you could excuse me now, I need to get back to my unit and get ready for Operation Deliverance.”
He heads for the door and just when he reaches for the handle, his body freezes. All his muscles lock up painfully and he can’t move an inch.
“Bring him over, Luhan,” the captain says.
Kai is ready to growl at whoever this Luhan guy is. He outranks everyone in the room except for Kyungsoo and he’s not about to let himself be manhandled, even on the captain’s orders. But no one lays a hand on him. Instead, his body lifts off the ground, turns slowly, and moves forward until it settles back down in front of Captain D.O.
The captain takes a step until his boots are pressing against Kai’s own. He tilts his head up and whispers his next words. “Your unit is here, soldier,” he says. “And if you try to leave again, worse things than being trapped in a telekinesis field will happen.”
“Let me go,” Kai growls. He knows he’s breaking proper protocol by addressing the man informally, but being restrained and humiliated is going too far already.
The captain opens his mouth to say something else, but then looks over Kai’s shoulder. “Yes, Lieutenant?”
Out of the corner of his eye, Kai sees one of the soldiers stand. By his pale skin and extra clean appearance, Kai guesses the guy has never been outside of an office, much less seen a battlefield. The lieutenant’s voice is polite and demure when he says, “Perhaps the soldier here could do with a demonstration, sir, to ease his mind into the idea.”
Kai feels as if Kyungsoo’s big eyes are drilling holes into his soul. It’s a familiar feeling, but his mind still refuses to answer from where.
“Good idea, Suho. Yeol, Sehun, and you can take Kai and show him what we do,” the captain says. “Luhan, go with them and make sure he doesn’t try to escape again. The rest of you stay here. We need to go over the new plans.”
With that, Kai’s muscles unlock and he almost crumples to the ground, but catches himself on the edge of the table. He straightens when he hears a chuckle. He could’ve sworn it came from Captain D.O., but when he checks, the man has turned around to talk to his other soldiers.
11:00 Best Laid Plans.
The second Kai leaves the room, Kyungsoo shakes in a full body shiver and finally relaxes. When he was sent to retrieve another recruit for XO, the last thing on his mind had been that he would recognize the soldier. The day his team had rescued Kai at the failed Busan evacuation, he’d chosen to pilot their chopper, allowing Tao to help down in the field. If he had been there, he wouldn’t be freaking out now.
This is not happening. This is insane. Kyungsoo resists the urge to launch into laughter.
Kai. Kim Jongin.
Five years had aged him a little, but the young man is as handsome as the first day Kyungsoo laid eyes on him. The same olive skin with a few more lines, the same lean but strong body, the same easy smile that always managed to stall Kyungsoo’s breath.
They’d met before battle some two years ago. Kai had been second in command of their unit. Kyungsoo had been part of the fresh meat they’d brought in to fill in the ranks. Most of them hadn’t even been training for long before being shoved into an exosuit and told that they would be battling mimics in less than twelve-hours. Inevitably, all hell broke loose when they reached the battlefield.
A mimic destroyed Kyungsoo’s metal suit, leaving him completely defenseless. He kept his eyes open, glaring at the alien beast, accepting his death but unwilling to show fear. Then Kai descended from above like an avenging angel and jumped onto the beast, slicing clean through the mimic’s head with a military issued broadsword. Blood splattered high and wide, and onto Kyungsoo himself.
The last thing he remembers is unbearable pain as the alien blood seeped into his skin, and Kai’s concerned face hovering over him, asking him to hold on and stay alive.
He’d lived.
He’d been changed.
And he hadn’t seen his savior until this day.
“Captain?” Chen asks, breaking into his reverie. “We’re ready.”
Kyungsoo shakes his head and looks at his team. He needs to focus. No matter how much his heart accelerates and his mind wanders at the thought of Kai, this is no time to be distracted. “Yes, sorry. Tao, you said you had a new vision.”
“Last night.” Tao is one of the youngest soldiers in the team, but also one of the most skilled. His time power is the biggest asset in XO, but it’s his visions which have saved them countless times. “I didn’t understand it though. I think the omega was messing with me again.”
Kyungsoo nods. “What did you see?”
“It took me over the mountains first, lingered in the forests, and then down into Seoul. A rush of streets…then Gyeongbokgung Palace. But then it all went dark and I was somewhere underground, like a cave. A huge cave and the omega was there.”
“So, is it under the mountains or under the palace?” Lay asks. He’s sitting on the table, lotus style, munching on some cookies. Kyungsoo stopped trying to make him behave a long time ago. As long as the man got serious when it was time to heal, his eccentricities could be overlooked.
“There shouldn’t be anything under the palace.” Xiumin works the table screen and brings up a 3D map of the palace and the surrounding areas. Kyungsoo still hasn’t gotten used to the lavender hair, so he stares openly until Min flips him the bird. “Seoul doesn’t have underground tunnels or caves. Unless you count the metro.”
“The cave looked bigger than the metro tunnels,” Tao says, focused on the map. “It wasn’t man made. It was just…a big hole.”
“Guys, think about it,” Baek moves closer to the table and works the screen, his lithe finger typing and scrolling fast. He brings up a satellite map of the city, what was left of it anyways. “They bombed Seoul when the mimics reached the East. What if the beasts used one of the craters to reach deeper underground? They might have found a cave or created one.”
It makes sense, but Soo really hopes that’s not the case. A cave would be hard to reach and who knew how many mimics would be inside. He knew going after the omega would be difficult, but not this level of suicidal.
Baek zooms in on the site where the palace should be, only now all the map shows are remains of the palace. But there is a crater nearby. Rubble, cars, and bigger chunks of buildings seem to have been pushed onto part of it. “See.”
Kyungsoo clenches his fists as he looks at the image. Fuck. “It’s a fucking nest.”
“Shit.” Chen leans closer and moves the map around. “How the fuck are we getting in there? There must be thousands of mimics waiting inside and around the area.”
No shit, Sherlock,Kyungsoo thinks.
“Can’t land in the city proper,” Xiumin says, running a hand though his hair, messing up the lavender strands. “Mimics would be on our asses before we even touched ground.”
“The mountains,” Lay says.
Tao nods. “Bukhansan. We drop there.”
Chen groans. “And hike all the way to the city?”
“Mimics stay away from rocky areas,” Tao explains. “If we drop near Insubong Peak and trek down the mountain walls-”
“That’s a great idea,” Kyungsoo says.
“No. Bad idea.” Chen shakes his head like a kid throwing a tantrum. “This is insane. Please tell wushu-time boy he is insane. There must be mimics buried all over the bottom of the mountains. We might land fine, but as soon as we step anywhere near civilization, we are done for.”
Tao smacks his hand on the table. “We can do this. We’ve done worse before.”
And they have done riskier things in the past, but it was right alongside the main army. Like the time they dropped into ocean waters outside of Hong Kong and used Suho’s power to push the waters around them, creating an air bubble, so they could infiltrate the city. Or the time they let Xiumin freeze the entire bay just so they could run out of Shanghai to the waiting boats. Or the time he’d cracked the earth and created an earthquake to flood Quindao and eliminate all the mimics there.
XO was good at what they did. Good but dangerous. After their first year as a unit, the army had decided for XO to become an unknown entity within the ranks, and assigned General Wu to oversee their division as more and more soldiers got infected with mimic blood. For anyone outside, XO didn’t exist. That way if they screwed up, the army could clean their hands of the whole mess.
“You mean better. We’ve done better.” Lay eats another cookie.
“We have,” Baek says. “But now we’re taking a new soldier with us.”
Xiumin nods. “Not only is he untrained, but as we all saw, he doesn’t want to be here. How is he going to learn to control his power in time?”
Chen grins and turns to Kyungsoo. “Unless you’re going to teach him.”
Chanyeol opens the door and leans against it. “Sir.”
Kyungsoo rolls his eyes at the suggestion even as his heart skips a beat at the thought of working one on one with Kai. “Do I have to do everything myself? I thought being a master sergeant meant that I could order people to do stuff for me.”
Chanyeol clears his throat. “Permission to speak, sir.”
“Are you finished with the demonstration?” Kyungsoo asks.
“No-”
Kyungsoo points away. “Then get back to it.”
“Thing about it, captain,” Lay says. “You take no BS from anyone and everyone is helpless against your stare. You’re the only one who could him and get anywhere.”
“You had me control the lightning in less than a week,” Chen says. “I mean, there is no greatest achievement than that.”
“Sad, but true,” Tao says and Chen sticks out his tongue.
Kyungsoo would do it, but he needs to focus on leading XO on this crazy ass mission. And he won’t be able to do that if he needs to keep a constant eye on Kai. “I think Sehun should take over Kai’s training,” he says.
Tao crosses his arms. “Hunhun can’t even control his power when he sneezes! I had to make him sleep on the floor since the last time he flipped our bunk beds.”
Chanyeol moves closer to the table. “Sir, you really need to-”
Baek laughs. “That was hilarious. Yeol and I thought you had finally broken the bed.”
Tao rolls his eyes.
Lay crumples up his empty cookie bag. “I’m sure that was an accident. Otherwise, Sehunnie has excellent control. After all, he learned from General Wu himself.”
“Pft. General Wu,” Tao makes a face. “What does he know about mastering powers? All he does is sit behind his desk and give orders.”
Baek nods. “Agree.”
“No insulting higher ups in front of,” Kyungsoo points to himself, “higher ups.”
Tao looks away. “You know it’s true!”
Chanyeol raises his voice. “Sir, if you could just-”
Lay frowns. “Are you bitter because he pushed you away when you tried to kiss him during the last victory party?”
Tao growls. “He did not push me away! I stopped kissing him on my own! I was drunk and didn’t know what I was doing. Besides, Sehun and I are in an open relationship.”
Chen laughs. “That’s not what I heard.”
Kyungsoo massages his temples. Fights are common enough in XO, but he so does not need one now. “Guys….”
Tao puts both hands on the table and narrows his eyes. “Who has been talking about me?”
“Sehun,” Chen says.
“What? What did he say?” Tao seems taken aback by the revelation and Kyungsoo wants to hit Chen because, why would he open this particularly nasty can of relationship issues now?
“Oh nothing serious.” Chen checks his fingernails and rubs them against his jacket.
“Tell me!” Tao yells.
“Calm down, Taozi,” Kyungsoo says. “He’s just messing with you, aren’t you Chen?”
“No, he’s not,” Baek cuts in. “Sehun did say that he hates having nothing serious in his life.”
Tao looks like he’s about to cry and Kyungsoo wants to knock all their heads together and leave them unconscious.
Chanyeol stomps his foot. “Sir!”
“WHAT?” Kyungsoo barks.
“It’s the new soldier,” Yeol says through gritted teeth. “He escaped.”
12:00 Trapped.
Kai had been ready to go along with whatever demonstration they wanted to show him. After, he would’ve politely declined the offer to join again and gone back to his own squad. But the moment fire sprouted from Chanyeol’s hands and water gathered around Suho’s outstretched arms, Kai panicked.
He didn’t scream or take off running. He was better trained than that. He simply thought ‘fuck this’ and suddenly he was outside the warehouse, the sun beating down on him.
He had teleported outside.
Teleported.
As in gone from one place and landed in another place in the blink of an eye.
“Shit!” Kai slams his hand on the Jeep’s steering wheel and tries not to think of what he did fifteen minutes ago. He pushes harder on the pedal and races back to base. He needs to speak to General Wu. If what the captain said is true and the military has been experimenting with mimic blood, then they must have a cure for this…whatever it is that he has.
Kai signed up to be a soldier, not a mutant superhero. He likes to be in the field with hundreds of others, knowing he’s insignificant, but powerful at the same time. He can rally others in the field, he saves lives and protects those around him. But if he’s in XO, he’ll have to leave all of that behind. They’re basically ghost assassins who work to eliminate a single target-the omega-and while Kai understands their mission, he doesn’t think it’s his mission.
He’s so troubled by the last hour’s events that he doesn’t notice the soldier standing in the middle of the road until the last second. Kai grabs the wheel and swerves hard to the side. He checks the rearview mirror but the road is empty.
“What the fuck was that?”
In front of him, dust and debris start to circle and spin. Thin funnels drop from the sky right in the middle of his path.
“What the fuck is that!”
There’s no way to avoid the twisters. The Jeep slides hard and stops in a screech of breaks and gravel. He grabs the stick and puts it in reverse, but before he presses the pedal, a strong gust of wind crashes against the Jeep’s side.
Kai holds on tight to the wheel as the Jeep is battered from all sides, even lifting up on two wheels with a particularly hard buffet of wind. As soon as it starts, the whole thing stops, the funnels disappearing into the sky.
He unbuckles and presses a hand against his chest where the belt dug in. “Ugh. What the-”
“Hello.”
Kai jumps.
The soldier named Sehun leans on the Jeep’s door. His bored expression seems to be the norm, but Kai can hear the glee in his next words, “Going somewhere?”
“H-how did you-”
“-get here so fast?” Sehun asks. “If you’d stayed around to see my power, you would know.”
Kai keeps his face blank and reaches for the ignition, but as his fingers brush the keys, a gust of wind throws him across the front seats. The driver-side door opens with a blast of air and he’s pulled out by his boots. He hits the ground with a huff, but recovers quickly by rolling around and rising to a defensive crouch.
Sehun stands some feet in front of him, arms crossed, lips quirked down into a turtle frown. A second Jeep rumbles to a stop nearby and the young man looks away, frown disappearing. Captain D.O. and Luhan jump out.
“Good job, Sehunnie,” Luhan says clapping Sehun on the shoulder.
The captain stares down at Kai, dark eyes unreadable. “I hope you got it all out of your system.”
Not quite, Kai wants to say, but keeps his mouth shut. It wouldn’t do to test the man. Who knew what power the man wielded and if it was just as dangerous as the others. He doesn’t belong here. Kai is certain of that. There must be a mistake somewhere because he refuses to believe he has powers. Teleporting earlier had been a fluke. It had to be.
He doesn’t know how it happens. One moment he’s in a crouch in front of the captain, the next he’s five feet away. Ok, so it isn’t a fluke.
“Lulu!” D.O. yells.
Kai’s body locks up like it had in the conference room. Even when he tries teleporting-he’s not quite sure how it happens, but he figures that just thinking and wanting to be elsewhere should work-nothing happens.
The captain kneels in front of him. “Let me make something very clear, soldier. Recklessness is what got you into this mess, but I will not tolerate any more misbehavior. We are hours away from a mission into enemy territory and I do not have time to coddle your panicked ass. Now get up and pull yourself together.”
“I can’t when you keep restraining me like this, sir,” Kai says, knowing he shouldn’t sass his new captain like that, but doing it anyways.
D.O. lifts a single brow and his lips twitch. “We’ve all gone through this. None of us chose to be this way, to have these powers, but we’ve made peace with it.” He rises and nods to Luhan who releases the hold. “You need to do the same and do it quick. XO needs you.”
Kai gets to his feet and dusts his pants. “Sir, I respectfully disagree. I have no control over my…my-”
“Power,” Luhan says, followed by Sehun who adds, “The word you’re looking for is power.”
He glares at the two soldiers who are leaning against each other, before glancing back at the captain. He has to convince the man, somehow, that he doesn’t belong with them. “I have no control over my power. I’m a liability. It would be best if I returned to base so they can undo whatever this…this whole thing is.”
The look in the captain’s eyes has Kai’s stomach dropping somewhere around his feet. “There is no cure.”
“But you said…the experiments…there must be-” His body starts to blink in and out. He wants to be gone. He wants to be far, far away from all this madness.
Captain D.O. grips his uniform and shakes him. “Stop that. There is no cure. This is not a disease. This is who you are now. Embrace this chance at a new life.”
Kai pulls back. He is very glad to have survived, but this is not who or what he wants to be. “I’m a national hero. I save people. People look up to me. I can’t just disappear.”
“You already did,” D.O. says. “The news of your death made world news last week. Your military record reads deceased and has been closed. You are no longer Full Metal Kai or the Hero of Seoul. You’re just Kim Kai now, new soldier of XO.”
Kai shakes his head. His entire life has been upturned yet again; the first time when mimics took over his city and killed his family. He’d survived the grief by immersing himself in the war, by making reckless moves, yes, but at least it had been his choice. Only this time people are making all the decisions for him. And he doesn’t like it. At all.
The captain narrows his eyes. “Luhan.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’ve got-”
Kai teleports again before they can trap him. But it goes wrong and he lands on top of Captain D.O.. They topple onto the ground and grapple around.
As they fight, he looks down at D.O. and the image overlaps with a memory in his head, something he’d forgotten or that his mind had shut away. Years ago, on a rainy day in the middle of a battle. He’d just killed a mimic and noticed the body lying nearby. The soldier was small, his body covered in blue alien blood that had eaten away at his torso like acid. Blood that wouldn’t have sprayed onto him if Kai had been more careful.
The young man was still alive, his big, round eyes pleading. Kai had knelt by him and held his hand, told him to hang on even though he’d known it was a lost cause. But it hadn’t been, because that soldier was beneath him right now.
That soldier was Captain D.O.. As in Do Kyungsoo.
“It…it’s you,” Kai breathes out.
Kyungsoo’s fist connects with his jaw and he blacks out.
03:00, Day 2. Mission time.
“Good morning, ladies,” Sehun’s voice comes over the speakers. “Make sure you are buckled in tight, because my co-pilot today is Handsome Tao and he is not happy with being woken up at this hour.”
“You asshole,” Tao grumbles. “Just shut up and put this thing in the air.”
Sehun laughs. “Roger that. We’ll be at the mountains in forty-five minutes.”
“If all goes well,” Baek mutters at Kyungsoo’s side.
“It’ll be fine!” Chanyeol yells. “We are the best, remember?”
Baek grins. “We are!”
XO team responds with a resounding. “One!”
A corner of Kyungsoo’s lips draws up. Then he props his chin on his chest and lowers his black cap, letting his teammates chatter lull him.
~
The change in altitude wakes Kyungsoo up. They must be reaching the mountains. He stretches his arms up and shrugs the sleep off him, before checking what XO is up to. The chatter has gone down, the others speaking in low voices between them, or simply sitting calmly in silence.
Their newest member though, isn’t that calm. Kai shifts in his seat again and again, no doubt trying to get comfortable, but the rope securing him to the plane’s seat is too tight and doesn’t afford much movement. Soo knows, because he knotted it himself while trying not to get all flustered and red at being so close to the younger man. He might’ve tightened it a bit too much. “Save your energy,” he says.
Kai pulls, grunts, and then stills. There’s a wicked pleasure in having Kai follow his command so fast. The thought shocks Kyungsoo and he looks away. His admiration for the young man who saved his life is getting out of hand. This is no time to be having those kinds of thoughts.
He turns to the side only to see Suho is frowning again, deep lines marring his pale forehead. He hadn’t been on board with treating Kai like a prisoner. But after Kai tried to escape a second and third time, there was no other way. They’d tried showing him their powers again, tried talking to him, and tried to get him to practice. But nothing had changed his mind about XO.
It was mission time and they couldn’t keep waiting for him to get a grip and behave. So, he’d bound Kai in ropes and set Luhan keep an eye on him at all times. Kyungsoo will start training him as soon as they land, by force if need be. He finds it very disappointing that the other hasn’t recognized him, but it’s no surprise. Back then he was no one; just another lowly soldier thrown into battle too early.
Of course Kai wouldn’t remember him.
“You’ll need to release me before landing, sir,” Kai says. “Otherwise, I don’t think I’ll be able to move. Lack of blood to the limbs will do that.”
“Oh, we’re not landing,” Chen says helpfully. He’s sitting beside Kai, legs swinging back and forth like an overexcited kid.
Kai frowns. “What?”
At Kyungsoo’s right, Lay laughs. “We’re jumping off and crashing the plane!”
Kai stares at them with wide eyes before he struggles once again, but it’s futile. However, his body starts to fade in and out.
Kyungsoo sighs. “Luhan….”
But Luhan is already on it. He reaches over Chen and grasps Kai’s thigh. Touch isn’t necessary for his power to work, but when he does, the stop effect lasts longer.
The glare in Kai’s chocolate eyes is deadly. “You are all insane!”
Baek stops chatting with Yeol and turns to his side to get a good look at Kai. “No. We are geniuses!”
Chen crosses his arms and arches a brow. “Excuse me? Why are you taking credit for my and Xiumin’s plan?”
But Baek is not paying attention to Chen, he’s animatedly telling Kai the plan. “We’ll jump off near the peak and let the plane crash kilometers away. The explosion will no doubt draw the mimics and our landing area should be pretty much clear. See? Genius.”
It wasn’t exactly genius, but it was a great plan; one that General Wu would never have approved of if he’d known they planned to crash one of his precious transport planes. Kyungsoo had conveniently left that part out.
“Mimics burrow into the earth,” Kai says. “Do you really think that one little distraction will draw them all away?”
“Of course not,” Chanyeol says over Baek’s shoulder.
“That’s why he said pretty much not completely clear,” Chen says.
Kai opens his mouth, no doubt to retort something back, but it gets cut off when the plane lurches hard.
Suho’s head smacks hard against the back and he curses out loud, then blushes. He’s as foul mouthed as the rest, but it’s rare to hear him like that as he prefers to be way too proper all the time.
Lay reaches over behind Kyungsoo and brushes his fingers against Suho’s nape. “Better?”
“Thanks.”
Another hard swerve and then Tao’s voice is yelling over the com. “Captain, we’re getting heat from below.”
“They weren’t supposed to notice us so soon,” Xiumin says, eyes wide.
“So much for your plan!” Kai’s face goes red as he no doubt tries to break Luhan’s hold.
“Headsets on!” Kyungsoo says and reaches for the button at his ear. “Tao, how far are we from the peaks?”
“ETA is ten minutes, but we-” Static interrupts his words. “Sir, we’re still too high. And before you ask why, let me just say it’s Sehun’s fault.”
“Don’t you dare blame me! You were distracting me!”
“I don’t care whose fault is it! Fix it now,” Kyungsoo snaps. A dual chorus of ‘yes, sir’ and his stomach swoops as the plane changes altitude fast. He unbuckles and stands, grabbing onto the net on the wall to keep steady. Making a jump at night from so high is dangerous, but staying on the plane while mimics shoot them down is suicide. They’ll have to take the risk. “Get ready!”
Everyone takes time to unbuckle, stand, adjust their packs, tighten their parachutes, and get in line to await the order. Is at moments like these that Kyungsoo feels proud. He remembers how disorganized they’d been during the first missions, everyone trying to do their own thing instead of working as a team. But not now. Now they are one. And as one, they conquer. His only hope is that Kai can see that too and stop trying to play his one-man campaign.
A blinding light. Heat flashing across his face. The acrid smell of ozone and burning. Then wind blasting it all away. When Kyungsoo regains his senses, his heart races impossibly fast.
Over the sudden roar in the atmosphere he hears Tao. “We’re hit! We’re hit!”
“Yes, we can see the fucking hole, Tao!” Chen screams.
Half of the loading-bay door is gone. All but three of the exosuits they’d brought had fallen out. The electric goo the mimics shot clings to the jagged edges. There’s no way they can jump out that way now. Kyungsoo takes a moment to asses. Time for Plan B.
He waits for the plane to stabilize a bit and then jumps across the space. He knocks onto Yeol who quickly rights him up. “Help me with this.”
The side door is locked tight. Even with Chanyeol’s strong arms, it’s impossible. All the moving and lurching and swaying of the plane just makes things harder. Kyungsoo grabs onto the net on the wall again and focuses his power. “Stand back!”
The kick sends the door flying out onto the land below.
His team whoops and claps. Not even in dire situations do the idiots take anything serious.
“Tao! Distance?”
“Three minutes!”
“All right! Let’s go people! Jump!”
One by one the members of XO walk up to the door and then jump. Baek and Yeol go first giving a cheeky salute before disappearing, followed by Suho, who closes his eyes, and Lay, who jumps backwards. He will smack some sense into those two soon enough. Xiumin and Chen go next, diving expertly. Last ones to go are Luhan and Kai. But Lu is having trouble getting the younger man out of the ropes.
Kyungsoo moves forward. “I’ve got this. Make the jump.”
Luhan nods, takes a running start, and dives.
Kai stares back at him, face serious, but there’s fear in his eyes and in the way his hands cling onto Kyungsoo’s arm.
Kyungsoo grabs the big hunting knife from his belt and makes short work of the ropes around Kai’s legs. He massages the calves when he sees Kai cringing. Yeah, he shouldn’t have tightened them so much. When he starts sawing through the ones around Kai’s chest, the plane jumps and the knife almost embeds into the young man’s chest.
“Fuck!” Kai looks really afraid now. “Watch where you stick that thing!”
Kyungsoo puts the knife away and grabs hold of the ropes. “Hold on.”
The ropes part with a resounding rip, but so do the straps of Kai’s parachute.
They stare at each other for a second too long and then Kyungsoo is standing up. Plan C. “Take mine.”
He helps Kai stand when he wobbles on his feet, and then straps him into the parachute. They go to the open side door. Kai looks down and swallows hard. “Sir, what about you?”
“There’s a spare one up front! Now go!”
“But-”
Another direct hit, this time to the plane’s left wing. She’s going down.
“Jump, dammit!” Kyungsoo roars.
Kai stands a second longer and then flings himself out the door.
Kyungsoo tumbles his way back into the cockpit. Sehun has the control wheel in a tight grip, while Tao is struggling to put on his chute. Kyungsoo helps him with it. The plane lurches to the side, almost throwing him and Tao onto the floor.
Sehun curses long and loud, but stabilizes the plane. “I can’t keep her up any longer, sir!”
“Set course over the peaks and then jump!”
Tao steadies himself by grabbing the pilot’s seat. “Yes, sir!”
“We’ve got this, sir,” Sehun yells.
Kyungsoo grips his shoulder. “I’ll see you below.”
He grabs the spare parachute from underneath the pilot seat and moves away. The wind is blasting with enough force that Kyungsoo can’t even walk upright. The cargo door is now completely gone, and even more electric acid drips and eats away at the entire backspace. Kyungsoo grabs onto the net on the wall and pulls himself to the open side-door. He looks down and swallows. Nothing but darkness below.
As he steps to the edge to make the jump, the plane lurches again. Blinding pain shoots along his forehead when it connects to the edge of the open doorway, and then he’s free falling. He’s weightless.
It’s cold.
It is so cold.
He can’t see anything. There’s darkness below and darkness above.
A comet of fire speeds by and a part of him panics because the plane wasn’t supposed to catch fire yet. Did Sehun and Tao make it out?
The wind whistles in his ears and Kyungsoo vaguely thinks he’s forgetting something. It hurts to think. Shouldn’t there be a Plan D? Or is it Plan E? His head feels full of cotton, and there’s no space to form his thoughts.
Something tightens around his chest and he’s yanked back, hard. “I’ve got you,” a voice screams right into his ear. “Hold on!”
Kyungsoo doesn’t know what happens next. But the wind stops and there are things brushing all over him, scratching at his face. There’s a swinging motion and he feels sick. His head bobs from side to side. The smell of blood hits him and he wonders if he got shot or stabbed. What?
“Captain…captain….”
Silence. And then his body relaxes against solid ground. Something soft is propped underneath his head.
“You’ve got to hold on, okay…”
He hisses at the sudden pressure against his temple.
“Stay awake…Kyungsoo, stay alive…don’t do this to me…not again….”
Kyungsoo smiles as he recognizes the voice. He wants to do what it says, but like the last time, he can’t.
05:00, Day 2. Insubong’s Shadow.
Cold drops pit-patter in front of him, lifting tiny bits of dirt that cling to the edges of his boots. The cluster of oak trees is the best shelter he could find nearby as he was reluctant to move the hurt captain too much.
Kyungsoo was the first soldier he ever saw die up close. The image of his decaying and melting body is as fresh in Kai’s mind as it was all those years ago. He’d suppressed all thoughts of that first battle, but seeing Kyungsoo all bloodied and hurt again, brought back the guilt he’d felt that day at not being able to save the man’s life. The way Kyungsoo’s hand had tightened around his before relaxing and letting go completely is something he’ll never forget.
A raindrop lands on his nose and he shakes his head. He brushes the water off with the sleeve of his jacket and then twists back to look down at the unconscious captain. After checking the man didn’t have a concussion, Kai let him sleep with the rule that he would wake him up every hour to check on his condition. Kyungsoo sleeps soundly, pillowy lips parted, letting small whimpers escape every once in a while. It makes him look younger, inexperienced and lost, like that day in battle. It doesn’t matter that he’s older; Kai feels a renewed impulse of protecting him.
Maybe this time he could actually do it.
Kai leans closer. How could he have forgotten this face? He’d stared for long minutes after Kyungsoo had died that day, memorizing every single detail. There are new lines now and tiny battle scars on Kyungsoo’s skin. His hair is cut different too, close to his head, showing off his angular jaw, thick brows and wide eyes.
Wide eyes looking back at him.
Kai jerks back and clears his throat.
“Stop staring, soldier,” Kyungsoo’s faint voice breaks the silence of the forest.
Shit! “I-I wasn’t. How are you feeling?” The captain doesn’t answer and instead struggles to sit up. Kai helps. He keeps a hand hovering at Kyungsoo’s back just in case.
“Report.”
Kai rolls his eyes. Of course, those would be the first words out of the captain’s lips. “We’re halfway down the mountains. A couple of hours walk should get us to lower ground where the temples are.”
Kyungsoo sways. Kai grabs him by the shoulders and is surprised when the other doesn’t push him away, but instead holds on tight. “We need to find one of the temples and wait there,” he says. “Or if we can make it to the fortress.”
Kai doesn’t think the captain can make the hike up to the fortress, not in the condition he’s in. “Shouldn’t we try to locate the others first? I tried the headpieces and either they got damaged or the others lost theirs.”
“Damn. We’ll just have to-” Kyungsoo touches his forehead and flinches. After cleaning the blood, Kai had held pressure down on the wound until it sealed up. Now there’s only a nasty dark purple bump with a red line across. “I can find them. I just…need to rest a bit more. Maybe they’ll even find us along the way.”
Rest? What he needs is a medic. “That’s not a very good plan, captain,” Kai says.
“It’s the only one I can think of right now.” The captain looks way too tired and weak, so Kai shuts up. But being semi-lost in the middle of Bukhansan National Park with a hardass injured captain who keeps his mind unfocused and his heart skipping beats with just a look is not ideal.
After much discussion, Kyungsoo decides they should at least try to find one of the temples. He is able to walk with the help of a sturdy broken branch, but Kai still keeps an eye on him just in case the other swoons in a dizzy spell or trips. Navigating the forest is difficult enough in broad daylight, much more so in the weak light of dawn with a light drizzle of rain. At least walking keeps some of the cold away. But he keeps hitting rocks and stuff he doesn’t see in his path. It’s a miracle Kyungsoo hasn’t fallen yet.
“Are you okay? We can stop if-”
“I’m fine,” Kyungsoo says. “Keep going.”
Kai bites his lip and frowns. The man is so damn stubborn, even when he’s clearly in pain and exhausted.
Kyungsoo narrows his eyes. “Move.”
Clenching his side, he groans. “Oh man, I’m so out of breath. I think I need to sit for a moment.”
Kyungsoo heaves a big sigh. “Fine. But if we’re stopping for completely unnecessary reasons, then you are training.”
“Wait, what?”
“Use your power to scout ahead.”
“I don’t…know how.” And he really isn’t that eager to find out. The last three times he’s used this strange power it leaves behind the weird feeling of his body not being completely part of this world.
Kyungsoo blinks his big eyes slowly. “You teleported mid-air and caught me while I was freefalling at speed, and you don’t know how?”
“Um, I got lucky?” They both had been lucky. After he’d grabbed onto Kyungsoo, the parachute hadn’t worked that well because of the extra weight. Unable to even glide it to direct their landing, they’d crashed into the dark canopy of trees below. Only Kai’s quick reflexes and teleportation had gotten them safely down on the ground. But if he told the captain that, he would be expected to actually use the power in this crazy ass mission.
A big sigh. “How did it feel to use it before?”
Kai thinks back to when he’s done the disappearing trick. “It was like I didn’t want to be in the place? I wanted to be elsewhere and…suddenly I was.”
“Perfect.” Kyungsoo searches around for a moment. Not finding whatever he’s looking for, he kicks the ground. A mound of rock and dirt springs up in front of him and he takes a seat. Kai gapes at him. “Get over it. Now, think you don’t want to be here, think you want to be over there by that fallen tree.”
Kai shakes his head. He really should stop being surprised at the powers. He’d survived the worst shock yet. Nothing was scarier than seeing Chanyeol light up like a human torch. “I thought we we’re resting, sir.”
“And I thought we’d talked about this,” Kyungsoo snaps. “You need to take control of this power now if you hope to survive. There’s no going back from this.”
Kai clenches his jaw. He can feel the buzz of his power along his skin as he thinks over and over how he doesn’t want to be here, doesn’t want to be part of any of this. He fades in and out, until a swooping sensation overtakes him.
He’s five feet in the air on the opposite direction of the fallen tree. And then he falls. “Shit.”
Kyungsoo calls him over with his hand. “You can use it that’s for sure. But you need to think ahead. Don’t just wish to move forward or backward. Know where you want to go, where you want to land. Our powers come from the blood of mimics. Their accelerated synapses make it hard for our slower bodies and minds to adjust.” He touches his temple. “You have to think smart and think fast. Try again.”
So he does. Again and again and again. Because though he doesn’t like this new twist in his life and having this power, he can’t deny the rush of adrenaline at getting this teleportation thing right. Kyungsoo’s praises when he gets it right, are even more rewarding.
They spend some time practicing until, fooling around, he ends up hanging upside-down from a branch. Kyungsoo decides it’s time to continue moving.
It’s only by chance that Kai finds one of the trails. Overgrown by years of disuse, it’s still a better path to walk than going through the forest itself. Their pace increases when the skies grow darker and heavier grey clouds roll in overhead.
“We should be getting close to the temples,” Kyungsoo says, a little out of breath. The captain wipes sweat from his temple and winces.
If he asks for another rest time, Kyungsoo will probably whack him over the head with his walking stick. But the captain shouldn’t be exerting himself so much. Not after that nasty bump to the head.
“Come on.” Kyungsoo walks past him.
Unable to come up with an excuse to stop, Kai follows. But this time, he sticks close to Kyungsoo’s side.
As luck would have it, they come across a stream shortly after that. Kai stops to drink both to make Kyungsoo rest and to quench his thirst. He splashes his face and neck with the cold water, too, and it revives him a little bit. The captain curses and Kai looks to the side to see him struggling. Kyungsoo’s hands shake too much as he cups the water to drink.
Kai goes over and kneels in front of him, getting his pants soaked but not caring. He cups his hands into the river, raises them, and offers the water to Kyungsoo.
Naturally big eyes open up even more and a faint rosy tint spreads across Kyungsoo’s cheeks. His gaze lowers and he hesitantly moves forward to drink out of Kai’s hands.
“Thank you,” Kyungsoo says. And the softness of his voice, brushes against Kai, making his chest ache in a good way.
( Part Two )
For: ceruleanlight
Pairings: Kai/D.O, EXO
Rating: PG-15
Word Count: 16k
Warnings: Cussing and discussion of sex/sexual activities
Summary: Kyungsoo is a badass soldier who can sense mimics and will lead them all to the omega. Kai is the new soldier who doesn't want powers, and certainly doesn’t want to be part of XO Squad and their suicidal mission.
Author's Note: I kept the main idea of the original prompt (MAMA powers + top and awesome Kyungsoo + newbie Kai) and placed it in another setting because this movie just gave me so many feels and it’s all I’ve been able to think about asdfghjkl I hope the prompter loves it as much as I do!
10:00 Welcome to XO.
It all begins when he wakes up on a gurney in the med tent on a morning some days before Operation Deliverance…
Kai sits up fast and is surprised to find that nothing hurts. His memory is blurry, but he’s pretty sure he died the night before. The mimic had cornered him against a fallen transporter. He’d run to the fiery metal carcass hoping to use it as cover, but instead it had served as his end. Kai fired his entire magazine into the alien being, but the mimic had still lashed out with one of its ever-moving tentacles, catching him across the chest. His metal suit had broken and shut down, leaving him immobile. He’d closed his eyes and awaited death as the beast hovered closer, gaping maw wide.
Yet he is alive.
How on Earth is he still alive?
“About time you were up,” a deep, smooth voice says. A soldier with raven-black hair stands at the tent opening. He’s small by army standards, with narrow shoulders and a short torso, but he strides forward like he owns the world. Most captains walk like that. Very few deliver the implied threat. But by the gaze this man levels at him-hard and cold as steel-Kai doesn’t doubt he can deliver any offer of pain that comes out of his lush mouth.
Kai musters a quick salute after checking the man’s insignia and tag. Captain D.O. The name doesn’t ring any bells and Kai frowns. He thought he knew all the higher ups stationed on base.
“I have orders from General Wu himself,” D.O. says. “You’ll be serving time with XO squad from now on, soldier. So, if you’re done with your beauty sleep, put on some boots and follow me.”
The man about faces and is ready to go, but he looks over his shoulder once more before striding away. There’s something familiar about his wide brown eyes that Kai can’t pin-point right at the moment. His brain is too busy trying to figure out what the hell happened-is happening. He finds boots underneath the gurney, puts them on, and tightens the laces. Kai figures that whatever is about to happen will be better faced with sharply tightened boots.
Outside the tent is a flurry of activity. Kai shields his eyes against the sunlight and tries to make a sense of the chaos-trucks rolling noisily along, troops marching to a strict military beat, official higher ups shouting commands every which way, and endless instructions being given through the intercom system. The Jeju International Airport base has always been like this, but Kai feels an extra tension in the air which can only mean they’re getting ready for a big mission. What day is it? How long was he out exactly?
Kai jogs up to the captain who waits for him by a Jeep. “Sir, what’s happening?”
“Operation Deliverance in forty-eight hours.”
The last time he remembers, there had been a month left until mission day. He’d been asleep for four weeks? “But I…How?”
“All questions will be answered soon,” the captain says and hauls himself onto the driver seat.
“But, sir-”
D.O. puts on a pair of sunglasses. “Get in.”
Kai isn’t particularly happy about not getting answers, but that’s how it usually goes in the military. It’s been six long years since the mimics invaded Earth and Kai joined the army. In his experience, it’s always better to go along with what his superiors’ demand of him. That is, until he gets to the battlefield and then he does what he wants.
For now, he jumps into the passenger seat and holds on tight as the captain drives like a lunatic away from the base. They head down the main runway and out, towards the coast. The area, previously filled with houses and businesses, was cleared up to make space for more military hangars, warehouses, and barracks. Their destination is one of the smaller structures by the shore.
The unmarked building does nothing to calm Kai’s nervousness. But he breathes deep and follows the captain inside. They walk down a long and empty hallway, and enter a wide office space at the end. Captain D.O. motions him to take a seat and so he does, waiting for further instructions. There’s still that feeling of familiarity whenever he looks at the captain, but his mind shies away from the answer.
It’s not long until the door opens again and nine other soldiers walk in. They each take their seats in silence and wait, just as he had done. Kai tries really hard not to stare at the others, but he’s hoping to recognize someone, anyone that can tell him what the heck is happening.
“Do you remember what happened to you, soldier?” Kyungsoo asks him suddenly, while turning on the table screen.
Kai removes his hands from the table. “Yes, sir. I was in the Busan evacuation,” he says. “A storm was approaching and we had to move fast, but there were too many people. We were told to hold the perimeter while everyone boarded the ships. But in the horizon…sir, it wasn’t a storm. It was mimics. By the thousands. They overran us. Only two of the ships made it out of the harbor. I fought a mimic and lost.” I lost…. Kai shakes his head trying not to let the memories affect him. He was reporting to a higher-ranking officer and it wouldn’t do to show emotions. His troop had fought as hard as they could, for as long as they could. Their only goal had been to take down as many of the mimics, knowing there was no salvation for themselves.
There’s a question he needs answered and answered now. Kai looks up at the captain. “Sir, how did I survive?”
Captain D.O., serious as ever, says, “You didn’t.”
Kai leans forward and places his elbows on the table, causing it to beep an error when too many buttons are pressed. He mutters a quick apology and straightens himself. “I don’t understand.”
The captain types quickly on the table. A medical report comes up showing Kai’s name and rank at the top and the time of death. “You died. And came back to life.”
Kai reads the report. Cold washes over him and he has to swallow twice before he can speak. “That’s…impossible.”
“Impossible. Hmm. It’s what they said when the first reports came that aliens had invaded Earth. And it’s what they said when they built the first metal exoskeletons to help us fight mimics.” Captain D.O.’s smile is hard and humorless. “Is it really hard to believe you came back to life?”
Yes, it fucking is. Not only that, but he clearly sees the stamp on the report marking him as deceased when he clearly is not. Kai clenches his jaw. “How?”
His question goes ignored.
“I suppose it is hard to believe,” D.O says. He stands and clasps his hands behind his back. “Do you know the story of Operation Downfall and the omega?”
“Yes, sir.” He’d seen the news and read the reports. An omega was a bigger alien beast that controlled all the smaller mimics in one area. Kill it and all the mimics would drop dead.
The captain nods. “After the Paris omega was eliminated by Major Cage and Sergeant Vrataski two years ago, and the secret of how they did it was revealed, the nations began experimenting with mimic blood to see if they could replicate the time reset phenomenon that allowed them to win against the omegas own time control capabilities. Unfortunately, the experiments weren’t successful, but they found out other skills could be acquired.” He opens his arms wide. “We are special unit XO, designed and equipped with skills acquired from mimic blood that will help us win this war.”
Kai glances around. The others are staring at him as if waiting for an answer. “Sir, what exactly am I doing here? I didn’t sign up for this…special program.”
“Oh no. You already have an ability.” The soft voice comes from a dark haired soldier with bright eyes and delicate fingers. His tag reads Baekhyun. “You died by mimic blood. It not only resurrected you, but it gave you power.”
The battle. The mimic hovering over him. He’d closed his eyes, but…an explosion? Burning liquid on his arms and face? Kai runs a hand through his hair. “Mimic blood is acid. How am I alive?”
“I can reset time back by five minutes,” a young man with the name tag Tao says. “It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing. It helped us get to you before your body decomposed too much.”
Kai’s laugh is met by silence. “This is crazy. You’re saying that you turned back time, somehow healed mimic-acid wounds, and saved me. Wouldn’t that erase the fact that alien blood got into me?”
“Mimic blood is timeless,” Tao says. “Once it’s in you, it’s in you forever.”
There’s a slight pressure building at his right temple. If things don’t start to make sense soon he’s going to need some aspirin or alcohol. “So, I too have an ability now? What is it then? Because I don’t feel different at all. Do I have super strength? Am I going to Hulk-out? Is it like a Spider-Man thing?”
The captain waits a beat and Kai doesn’t know if he’s trying to control anger or just giving him time to not freak out. “After Tao reset back and they lured the Alpha away, your body wasn’t by the crashed transporter. It was inside.”
Kai blinks. “I must have dragged myself in. But I don’t remember-”
“When I went to heal you,” an ash blond man with the tag Lay says, “your body kept fading in and out. It was almost as if you could…teleport.”
“Teleport?” Kai notices no one is smiling, so he stops. “You guys seriously think I can just…poof, teleport?”
Ten pairs of eyes stare back at him. No one cracks a smile; no one says it’s all a big joke, nothing. Fuck. They aren’t kidding. He has…superpowers? What the hell? Okay okay. It isn’t time to freak out. This is the military, and he is the Hero of Seoul. Surely he can talk to someone higher in rank that will help him. Yes, that’s what he will do.
Kai stands. “Thank you, sir. I’m sure your unit is efficient at what they do, but I don’t belong here. I belong out there fighting with the people.” Normal people he wants to say. “So, if you could excuse me now, I need to get back to my unit and get ready for Operation Deliverance.”
He heads for the door and just when he reaches for the handle, his body freezes. All his muscles lock up painfully and he can’t move an inch.
“Bring him over, Luhan,” the captain says.
Kai is ready to growl at whoever this Luhan guy is. He outranks everyone in the room except for Kyungsoo and he’s not about to let himself be manhandled, even on the captain’s orders. But no one lays a hand on him. Instead, his body lifts off the ground, turns slowly, and moves forward until it settles back down in front of Captain D.O.
The captain takes a step until his boots are pressing against Kai’s own. He tilts his head up and whispers his next words. “Your unit is here, soldier,” he says. “And if you try to leave again, worse things than being trapped in a telekinesis field will happen.”
“Let me go,” Kai growls. He knows he’s breaking proper protocol by addressing the man informally, but being restrained and humiliated is going too far already.
The captain opens his mouth to say something else, but then looks over Kai’s shoulder. “Yes, Lieutenant?”
Out of the corner of his eye, Kai sees one of the soldiers stand. By his pale skin and extra clean appearance, Kai guesses the guy has never been outside of an office, much less seen a battlefield. The lieutenant’s voice is polite and demure when he says, “Perhaps the soldier here could do with a demonstration, sir, to ease his mind into the idea.”
Kai feels as if Kyungsoo’s big eyes are drilling holes into his soul. It’s a familiar feeling, but his mind still refuses to answer from where.
“Good idea, Suho. Yeol, Sehun, and you can take Kai and show him what we do,” the captain says. “Luhan, go with them and make sure he doesn’t try to escape again. The rest of you stay here. We need to go over the new plans.”
With that, Kai’s muscles unlock and he almost crumples to the ground, but catches himself on the edge of the table. He straightens when he hears a chuckle. He could’ve sworn it came from Captain D.O., but when he checks, the man has turned around to talk to his other soldiers.
11:00 Best Laid Plans.
The second Kai leaves the room, Kyungsoo shakes in a full body shiver and finally relaxes. When he was sent to retrieve another recruit for XO, the last thing on his mind had been that he would recognize the soldier. The day his team had rescued Kai at the failed Busan evacuation, he’d chosen to pilot their chopper, allowing Tao to help down in the field. If he had been there, he wouldn’t be freaking out now.
This is not happening. This is insane. Kyungsoo resists the urge to launch into laughter.
Kai. Kim Jongin.
Five years had aged him a little, but the young man is as handsome as the first day Kyungsoo laid eyes on him. The same olive skin with a few more lines, the same lean but strong body, the same easy smile that always managed to stall Kyungsoo’s breath.
They’d met before battle some two years ago. Kai had been second in command of their unit. Kyungsoo had been part of the fresh meat they’d brought in to fill in the ranks. Most of them hadn’t even been training for long before being shoved into an exosuit and told that they would be battling mimics in less than twelve-hours. Inevitably, all hell broke loose when they reached the battlefield.
A mimic destroyed Kyungsoo’s metal suit, leaving him completely defenseless. He kept his eyes open, glaring at the alien beast, accepting his death but unwilling to show fear. Then Kai descended from above like an avenging angel and jumped onto the beast, slicing clean through the mimic’s head with a military issued broadsword. Blood splattered high and wide, and onto Kyungsoo himself.
The last thing he remembers is unbearable pain as the alien blood seeped into his skin, and Kai’s concerned face hovering over him, asking him to hold on and stay alive.
He’d lived.
He’d been changed.
And he hadn’t seen his savior until this day.
“Captain?” Chen asks, breaking into his reverie. “We’re ready.”
Kyungsoo shakes his head and looks at his team. He needs to focus. No matter how much his heart accelerates and his mind wanders at the thought of Kai, this is no time to be distracted. “Yes, sorry. Tao, you said you had a new vision.”
“Last night.” Tao is one of the youngest soldiers in the team, but also one of the most skilled. His time power is the biggest asset in XO, but it’s his visions which have saved them countless times. “I didn’t understand it though. I think the omega was messing with me again.”
Kyungsoo nods. “What did you see?”
“It took me over the mountains first, lingered in the forests, and then down into Seoul. A rush of streets…then Gyeongbokgung Palace. But then it all went dark and I was somewhere underground, like a cave. A huge cave and the omega was there.”
“So, is it under the mountains or under the palace?” Lay asks. He’s sitting on the table, lotus style, munching on some cookies. Kyungsoo stopped trying to make him behave a long time ago. As long as the man got serious when it was time to heal, his eccentricities could be overlooked.
“There shouldn’t be anything under the palace.” Xiumin works the table screen and brings up a 3D map of the palace and the surrounding areas. Kyungsoo still hasn’t gotten used to the lavender hair, so he stares openly until Min flips him the bird. “Seoul doesn’t have underground tunnels or caves. Unless you count the metro.”
“The cave looked bigger than the metro tunnels,” Tao says, focused on the map. “It wasn’t man made. It was just…a big hole.”
“Guys, think about it,” Baek moves closer to the table and works the screen, his lithe finger typing and scrolling fast. He brings up a satellite map of the city, what was left of it anyways. “They bombed Seoul when the mimics reached the East. What if the beasts used one of the craters to reach deeper underground? They might have found a cave or created one.”
It makes sense, but Soo really hopes that’s not the case. A cave would be hard to reach and who knew how many mimics would be inside. He knew going after the omega would be difficult, but not this level of suicidal.
Baek zooms in on the site where the palace should be, only now all the map shows are remains of the palace. But there is a crater nearby. Rubble, cars, and bigger chunks of buildings seem to have been pushed onto part of it. “See.”
Kyungsoo clenches his fists as he looks at the image. Fuck. “It’s a fucking nest.”
“Shit.” Chen leans closer and moves the map around. “How the fuck are we getting in there? There must be thousands of mimics waiting inside and around the area.”
No shit, Sherlock,Kyungsoo thinks.
“Can’t land in the city proper,” Xiumin says, running a hand though his hair, messing up the lavender strands. “Mimics would be on our asses before we even touched ground.”
“The mountains,” Lay says.
Tao nods. “Bukhansan. We drop there.”
Chen groans. “And hike all the way to the city?”
“Mimics stay away from rocky areas,” Tao explains. “If we drop near Insubong Peak and trek down the mountain walls-”
“That’s a great idea,” Kyungsoo says.
“No. Bad idea.” Chen shakes his head like a kid throwing a tantrum. “This is insane. Please tell wushu-time boy he is insane. There must be mimics buried all over the bottom of the mountains. We might land fine, but as soon as we step anywhere near civilization, we are done for.”
Tao smacks his hand on the table. “We can do this. We’ve done worse before.”
And they have done riskier things in the past, but it was right alongside the main army. Like the time they dropped into ocean waters outside of Hong Kong and used Suho’s power to push the waters around them, creating an air bubble, so they could infiltrate the city. Or the time they let Xiumin freeze the entire bay just so they could run out of Shanghai to the waiting boats. Or the time he’d cracked the earth and created an earthquake to flood Quindao and eliminate all the mimics there.
XO was good at what they did. Good but dangerous. After their first year as a unit, the army had decided for XO to become an unknown entity within the ranks, and assigned General Wu to oversee their division as more and more soldiers got infected with mimic blood. For anyone outside, XO didn’t exist. That way if they screwed up, the army could clean their hands of the whole mess.
“You mean better. We’ve done better.” Lay eats another cookie.
“We have,” Baek says. “But now we’re taking a new soldier with us.”
Xiumin nods. “Not only is he untrained, but as we all saw, he doesn’t want to be here. How is he going to learn to control his power in time?”
Chen grins and turns to Kyungsoo. “Unless you’re going to teach him.”
Chanyeol opens the door and leans against it. “Sir.”
Kyungsoo rolls his eyes at the suggestion even as his heart skips a beat at the thought of working one on one with Kai. “Do I have to do everything myself? I thought being a master sergeant meant that I could order people to do stuff for me.”
Chanyeol clears his throat. “Permission to speak, sir.”
“Are you finished with the demonstration?” Kyungsoo asks.
“No-”
Kyungsoo points away. “Then get back to it.”
“Thing about it, captain,” Lay says. “You take no BS from anyone and everyone is helpless against your stare. You’re the only one who could him and get anywhere.”
“You had me control the lightning in less than a week,” Chen says. “I mean, there is no greatest achievement than that.”
“Sad, but true,” Tao says and Chen sticks out his tongue.
Kyungsoo would do it, but he needs to focus on leading XO on this crazy ass mission. And he won’t be able to do that if he needs to keep a constant eye on Kai. “I think Sehun should take over Kai’s training,” he says.
Tao crosses his arms. “Hunhun can’t even control his power when he sneezes! I had to make him sleep on the floor since the last time he flipped our bunk beds.”
Chanyeol moves closer to the table. “Sir, you really need to-”
Baek laughs. “That was hilarious. Yeol and I thought you had finally broken the bed.”
Tao rolls his eyes.
Lay crumples up his empty cookie bag. “I’m sure that was an accident. Otherwise, Sehunnie has excellent control. After all, he learned from General Wu himself.”
“Pft. General Wu,” Tao makes a face. “What does he know about mastering powers? All he does is sit behind his desk and give orders.”
Baek nods. “Agree.”
“No insulting higher ups in front of,” Kyungsoo points to himself, “higher ups.”
Tao looks away. “You know it’s true!”
Chanyeol raises his voice. “Sir, if you could just-”
Lay frowns. “Are you bitter because he pushed you away when you tried to kiss him during the last victory party?”
Tao growls. “He did not push me away! I stopped kissing him on my own! I was drunk and didn’t know what I was doing. Besides, Sehun and I are in an open relationship.”
Chen laughs. “That’s not what I heard.”
Kyungsoo massages his temples. Fights are common enough in XO, but he so does not need one now. “Guys….”
Tao puts both hands on the table and narrows his eyes. “Who has been talking about me?”
“Sehun,” Chen says.
“What? What did he say?” Tao seems taken aback by the revelation and Kyungsoo wants to hit Chen because, why would he open this particularly nasty can of relationship issues now?
“Oh nothing serious.” Chen checks his fingernails and rubs them against his jacket.
“Tell me!” Tao yells.
“Calm down, Taozi,” Kyungsoo says. “He’s just messing with you, aren’t you Chen?”
“No, he’s not,” Baek cuts in. “Sehun did say that he hates having nothing serious in his life.”
Tao looks like he’s about to cry and Kyungsoo wants to knock all their heads together and leave them unconscious.
Chanyeol stomps his foot. “Sir!”
“WHAT?” Kyungsoo barks.
“It’s the new soldier,” Yeol says through gritted teeth. “He escaped.”
12:00 Trapped.
Kai had been ready to go along with whatever demonstration they wanted to show him. After, he would’ve politely declined the offer to join again and gone back to his own squad. But the moment fire sprouted from Chanyeol’s hands and water gathered around Suho’s outstretched arms, Kai panicked.
He didn’t scream or take off running. He was better trained than that. He simply thought ‘fuck this’ and suddenly he was outside the warehouse, the sun beating down on him.
He had teleported outside.
Teleported.
As in gone from one place and landed in another place in the blink of an eye.
“Shit!” Kai slams his hand on the Jeep’s steering wheel and tries not to think of what he did fifteen minutes ago. He pushes harder on the pedal and races back to base. He needs to speak to General Wu. If what the captain said is true and the military has been experimenting with mimic blood, then they must have a cure for this…whatever it is that he has.
Kai signed up to be a soldier, not a mutant superhero. He likes to be in the field with hundreds of others, knowing he’s insignificant, but powerful at the same time. He can rally others in the field, he saves lives and protects those around him. But if he’s in XO, he’ll have to leave all of that behind. They’re basically ghost assassins who work to eliminate a single target-the omega-and while Kai understands their mission, he doesn’t think it’s his mission.
He’s so troubled by the last hour’s events that he doesn’t notice the soldier standing in the middle of the road until the last second. Kai grabs the wheel and swerves hard to the side. He checks the rearview mirror but the road is empty.
“What the fuck was that?”
In front of him, dust and debris start to circle and spin. Thin funnels drop from the sky right in the middle of his path.
“What the fuck is that!”
There’s no way to avoid the twisters. The Jeep slides hard and stops in a screech of breaks and gravel. He grabs the stick and puts it in reverse, but before he presses the pedal, a strong gust of wind crashes against the Jeep’s side.
Kai holds on tight to the wheel as the Jeep is battered from all sides, even lifting up on two wheels with a particularly hard buffet of wind. As soon as it starts, the whole thing stops, the funnels disappearing into the sky.
He unbuckles and presses a hand against his chest where the belt dug in. “Ugh. What the-”
“Hello.”
Kai jumps.
The soldier named Sehun leans on the Jeep’s door. His bored expression seems to be the norm, but Kai can hear the glee in his next words, “Going somewhere?”
“H-how did you-”
“-get here so fast?” Sehun asks. “If you’d stayed around to see my power, you would know.”
Kai keeps his face blank and reaches for the ignition, but as his fingers brush the keys, a gust of wind throws him across the front seats. The driver-side door opens with a blast of air and he’s pulled out by his boots. He hits the ground with a huff, but recovers quickly by rolling around and rising to a defensive crouch.
Sehun stands some feet in front of him, arms crossed, lips quirked down into a turtle frown. A second Jeep rumbles to a stop nearby and the young man looks away, frown disappearing. Captain D.O. and Luhan jump out.
“Good job, Sehunnie,” Luhan says clapping Sehun on the shoulder.
The captain stares down at Kai, dark eyes unreadable. “I hope you got it all out of your system.”
Not quite, Kai wants to say, but keeps his mouth shut. It wouldn’t do to test the man. Who knew what power the man wielded and if it was just as dangerous as the others. He doesn’t belong here. Kai is certain of that. There must be a mistake somewhere because he refuses to believe he has powers. Teleporting earlier had been a fluke. It had to be.
He doesn’t know how it happens. One moment he’s in a crouch in front of the captain, the next he’s five feet away. Ok, so it isn’t a fluke.
“Lulu!” D.O. yells.
Kai’s body locks up like it had in the conference room. Even when he tries teleporting-he’s not quite sure how it happens, but he figures that just thinking and wanting to be elsewhere should work-nothing happens.
The captain kneels in front of him. “Let me make something very clear, soldier. Recklessness is what got you into this mess, but I will not tolerate any more misbehavior. We are hours away from a mission into enemy territory and I do not have time to coddle your panicked ass. Now get up and pull yourself together.”
“I can’t when you keep restraining me like this, sir,” Kai says, knowing he shouldn’t sass his new captain like that, but doing it anyways.
D.O. lifts a single brow and his lips twitch. “We’ve all gone through this. None of us chose to be this way, to have these powers, but we’ve made peace with it.” He rises and nods to Luhan who releases the hold. “You need to do the same and do it quick. XO needs you.”
Kai gets to his feet and dusts his pants. “Sir, I respectfully disagree. I have no control over my…my-”
“Power,” Luhan says, followed by Sehun who adds, “The word you’re looking for is power.”
He glares at the two soldiers who are leaning against each other, before glancing back at the captain. He has to convince the man, somehow, that he doesn’t belong with them. “I have no control over my power. I’m a liability. It would be best if I returned to base so they can undo whatever this…this whole thing is.”
The look in the captain’s eyes has Kai’s stomach dropping somewhere around his feet. “There is no cure.”
“But you said…the experiments…there must be-” His body starts to blink in and out. He wants to be gone. He wants to be far, far away from all this madness.
Captain D.O. grips his uniform and shakes him. “Stop that. There is no cure. This is not a disease. This is who you are now. Embrace this chance at a new life.”
Kai pulls back. He is very glad to have survived, but this is not who or what he wants to be. “I’m a national hero. I save people. People look up to me. I can’t just disappear.”
“You already did,” D.O. says. “The news of your death made world news last week. Your military record reads deceased and has been closed. You are no longer Full Metal Kai or the Hero of Seoul. You’re just Kim Kai now, new soldier of XO.”
Kai shakes his head. His entire life has been upturned yet again; the first time when mimics took over his city and killed his family. He’d survived the grief by immersing himself in the war, by making reckless moves, yes, but at least it had been his choice. Only this time people are making all the decisions for him. And he doesn’t like it. At all.
The captain narrows his eyes. “Luhan.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’ve got-”
Kai teleports again before they can trap him. But it goes wrong and he lands on top of Captain D.O.. They topple onto the ground and grapple around.
As they fight, he looks down at D.O. and the image overlaps with a memory in his head, something he’d forgotten or that his mind had shut away. Years ago, on a rainy day in the middle of a battle. He’d just killed a mimic and noticed the body lying nearby. The soldier was small, his body covered in blue alien blood that had eaten away at his torso like acid. Blood that wouldn’t have sprayed onto him if Kai had been more careful.
The young man was still alive, his big, round eyes pleading. Kai had knelt by him and held his hand, told him to hang on even though he’d known it was a lost cause. But it hadn’t been, because that soldier was beneath him right now.
That soldier was Captain D.O.. As in Do Kyungsoo.
“It…it’s you,” Kai breathes out.
Kyungsoo’s fist connects with his jaw and he blacks out.
03:00, Day 2. Mission time.
“Good morning, ladies,” Sehun’s voice comes over the speakers. “Make sure you are buckled in tight, because my co-pilot today is Handsome Tao and he is not happy with being woken up at this hour.”
“You asshole,” Tao grumbles. “Just shut up and put this thing in the air.”
Sehun laughs. “Roger that. We’ll be at the mountains in forty-five minutes.”
“If all goes well,” Baek mutters at Kyungsoo’s side.
“It’ll be fine!” Chanyeol yells. “We are the best, remember?”
Baek grins. “We are!”
XO team responds with a resounding. “One!”
A corner of Kyungsoo’s lips draws up. Then he props his chin on his chest and lowers his black cap, letting his teammates chatter lull him.
~
The change in altitude wakes Kyungsoo up. They must be reaching the mountains. He stretches his arms up and shrugs the sleep off him, before checking what XO is up to. The chatter has gone down, the others speaking in low voices between them, or simply sitting calmly in silence.
Their newest member though, isn’t that calm. Kai shifts in his seat again and again, no doubt trying to get comfortable, but the rope securing him to the plane’s seat is too tight and doesn’t afford much movement. Soo knows, because he knotted it himself while trying not to get all flustered and red at being so close to the younger man. He might’ve tightened it a bit too much. “Save your energy,” he says.
Kai pulls, grunts, and then stills. There’s a wicked pleasure in having Kai follow his command so fast. The thought shocks Kyungsoo and he looks away. His admiration for the young man who saved his life is getting out of hand. This is no time to be having those kinds of thoughts.
He turns to the side only to see Suho is frowning again, deep lines marring his pale forehead. He hadn’t been on board with treating Kai like a prisoner. But after Kai tried to escape a second and third time, there was no other way. They’d tried showing him their powers again, tried talking to him, and tried to get him to practice. But nothing had changed his mind about XO.
It was mission time and they couldn’t keep waiting for him to get a grip and behave. So, he’d bound Kai in ropes and set Luhan keep an eye on him at all times. Kyungsoo will start training him as soon as they land, by force if need be. He finds it very disappointing that the other hasn’t recognized him, but it’s no surprise. Back then he was no one; just another lowly soldier thrown into battle too early.
Of course Kai wouldn’t remember him.
“You’ll need to release me before landing, sir,” Kai says. “Otherwise, I don’t think I’ll be able to move. Lack of blood to the limbs will do that.”
“Oh, we’re not landing,” Chen says helpfully. He’s sitting beside Kai, legs swinging back and forth like an overexcited kid.
Kai frowns. “What?”
At Kyungsoo’s right, Lay laughs. “We’re jumping off and crashing the plane!”
Kai stares at them with wide eyes before he struggles once again, but it’s futile. However, his body starts to fade in and out.
Kyungsoo sighs. “Luhan….”
But Luhan is already on it. He reaches over Chen and grasps Kai’s thigh. Touch isn’t necessary for his power to work, but when he does, the stop effect lasts longer.
The glare in Kai’s chocolate eyes is deadly. “You are all insane!”
Baek stops chatting with Yeol and turns to his side to get a good look at Kai. “No. We are geniuses!”
Chen crosses his arms and arches a brow. “Excuse me? Why are you taking credit for my and Xiumin’s plan?”
But Baek is not paying attention to Chen, he’s animatedly telling Kai the plan. “We’ll jump off near the peak and let the plane crash kilometers away. The explosion will no doubt draw the mimics and our landing area should be pretty much clear. See? Genius.”
It wasn’t exactly genius, but it was a great plan; one that General Wu would never have approved of if he’d known they planned to crash one of his precious transport planes. Kyungsoo had conveniently left that part out.
“Mimics burrow into the earth,” Kai says. “Do you really think that one little distraction will draw them all away?”
“Of course not,” Chanyeol says over Baek’s shoulder.
“That’s why he said pretty much not completely clear,” Chen says.
Kai opens his mouth, no doubt to retort something back, but it gets cut off when the plane lurches hard.
Suho’s head smacks hard against the back and he curses out loud, then blushes. He’s as foul mouthed as the rest, but it’s rare to hear him like that as he prefers to be way too proper all the time.
Lay reaches over behind Kyungsoo and brushes his fingers against Suho’s nape. “Better?”
“Thanks.”
Another hard swerve and then Tao’s voice is yelling over the com. “Captain, we’re getting heat from below.”
“They weren’t supposed to notice us so soon,” Xiumin says, eyes wide.
“So much for your plan!” Kai’s face goes red as he no doubt tries to break Luhan’s hold.
“Headsets on!” Kyungsoo says and reaches for the button at his ear. “Tao, how far are we from the peaks?”
“ETA is ten minutes, but we-” Static interrupts his words. “Sir, we’re still too high. And before you ask why, let me just say it’s Sehun’s fault.”
“Don’t you dare blame me! You were distracting me!”
“I don’t care whose fault is it! Fix it now,” Kyungsoo snaps. A dual chorus of ‘yes, sir’ and his stomach swoops as the plane changes altitude fast. He unbuckles and stands, grabbing onto the net on the wall to keep steady. Making a jump at night from so high is dangerous, but staying on the plane while mimics shoot them down is suicide. They’ll have to take the risk. “Get ready!”
Everyone takes time to unbuckle, stand, adjust their packs, tighten their parachutes, and get in line to await the order. Is at moments like these that Kyungsoo feels proud. He remembers how disorganized they’d been during the first missions, everyone trying to do their own thing instead of working as a team. But not now. Now they are one. And as one, they conquer. His only hope is that Kai can see that too and stop trying to play his one-man campaign.
A blinding light. Heat flashing across his face. The acrid smell of ozone and burning. Then wind blasting it all away. When Kyungsoo regains his senses, his heart races impossibly fast.
Over the sudden roar in the atmosphere he hears Tao. “We’re hit! We’re hit!”
“Yes, we can see the fucking hole, Tao!” Chen screams.
Half of the loading-bay door is gone. All but three of the exosuits they’d brought had fallen out. The electric goo the mimics shot clings to the jagged edges. There’s no way they can jump out that way now. Kyungsoo takes a moment to asses. Time for Plan B.
He waits for the plane to stabilize a bit and then jumps across the space. He knocks onto Yeol who quickly rights him up. “Help me with this.”
The side door is locked tight. Even with Chanyeol’s strong arms, it’s impossible. All the moving and lurching and swaying of the plane just makes things harder. Kyungsoo grabs onto the net on the wall again and focuses his power. “Stand back!”
The kick sends the door flying out onto the land below.
His team whoops and claps. Not even in dire situations do the idiots take anything serious.
“Tao! Distance?”
“Three minutes!”
“All right! Let’s go people! Jump!”
One by one the members of XO walk up to the door and then jump. Baek and Yeol go first giving a cheeky salute before disappearing, followed by Suho, who closes his eyes, and Lay, who jumps backwards. He will smack some sense into those two soon enough. Xiumin and Chen go next, diving expertly. Last ones to go are Luhan and Kai. But Lu is having trouble getting the younger man out of the ropes.
Kyungsoo moves forward. “I’ve got this. Make the jump.”
Luhan nods, takes a running start, and dives.
Kai stares back at him, face serious, but there’s fear in his eyes and in the way his hands cling onto Kyungsoo’s arm.
Kyungsoo grabs the big hunting knife from his belt and makes short work of the ropes around Kai’s legs. He massages the calves when he sees Kai cringing. Yeah, he shouldn’t have tightened them so much. When he starts sawing through the ones around Kai’s chest, the plane jumps and the knife almost embeds into the young man’s chest.
“Fuck!” Kai looks really afraid now. “Watch where you stick that thing!”
Kyungsoo puts the knife away and grabs hold of the ropes. “Hold on.”
The ropes part with a resounding rip, but so do the straps of Kai’s parachute.
They stare at each other for a second too long and then Kyungsoo is standing up. Plan C. “Take mine.”
He helps Kai stand when he wobbles on his feet, and then straps him into the parachute. They go to the open side door. Kai looks down and swallows hard. “Sir, what about you?”
“There’s a spare one up front! Now go!”
“But-”
Another direct hit, this time to the plane’s left wing. She’s going down.
“Jump, dammit!” Kyungsoo roars.
Kai stands a second longer and then flings himself out the door.
Kyungsoo tumbles his way back into the cockpit. Sehun has the control wheel in a tight grip, while Tao is struggling to put on his chute. Kyungsoo helps him with it. The plane lurches to the side, almost throwing him and Tao onto the floor.
Sehun curses long and loud, but stabilizes the plane. “I can’t keep her up any longer, sir!”
“Set course over the peaks and then jump!”
Tao steadies himself by grabbing the pilot’s seat. “Yes, sir!”
“We’ve got this, sir,” Sehun yells.
Kyungsoo grips his shoulder. “I’ll see you below.”
He grabs the spare parachute from underneath the pilot seat and moves away. The wind is blasting with enough force that Kyungsoo can’t even walk upright. The cargo door is now completely gone, and even more electric acid drips and eats away at the entire backspace. Kyungsoo grabs onto the net on the wall and pulls himself to the open side-door. He looks down and swallows. Nothing but darkness below.
As he steps to the edge to make the jump, the plane lurches again. Blinding pain shoots along his forehead when it connects to the edge of the open doorway, and then he’s free falling. He’s weightless.
It’s cold.
It is so cold.
He can’t see anything. There’s darkness below and darkness above.
A comet of fire speeds by and a part of him panics because the plane wasn’t supposed to catch fire yet. Did Sehun and Tao make it out?
The wind whistles in his ears and Kyungsoo vaguely thinks he’s forgetting something. It hurts to think. Shouldn’t there be a Plan D? Or is it Plan E? His head feels full of cotton, and there’s no space to form his thoughts.
Something tightens around his chest and he’s yanked back, hard. “I’ve got you,” a voice screams right into his ear. “Hold on!”
Kyungsoo doesn’t know what happens next. But the wind stops and there are things brushing all over him, scratching at his face. There’s a swinging motion and he feels sick. His head bobs from side to side. The smell of blood hits him and he wonders if he got shot or stabbed. What?
“Captain…captain….”
Silence. And then his body relaxes against solid ground. Something soft is propped underneath his head.
“You’ve got to hold on, okay…”
He hisses at the sudden pressure against his temple.
“Stay awake…Kyungsoo, stay alive…don’t do this to me…not again….”
Kyungsoo smiles as he recognizes the voice. He wants to do what it says, but like the last time, he can’t.
05:00, Day 2. Insubong’s Shadow.
Cold drops pit-patter in front of him, lifting tiny bits of dirt that cling to the edges of his boots. The cluster of oak trees is the best shelter he could find nearby as he was reluctant to move the hurt captain too much.
Kyungsoo was the first soldier he ever saw die up close. The image of his decaying and melting body is as fresh in Kai’s mind as it was all those years ago. He’d suppressed all thoughts of that first battle, but seeing Kyungsoo all bloodied and hurt again, brought back the guilt he’d felt that day at not being able to save the man’s life. The way Kyungsoo’s hand had tightened around his before relaxing and letting go completely is something he’ll never forget.
A raindrop lands on his nose and he shakes his head. He brushes the water off with the sleeve of his jacket and then twists back to look down at the unconscious captain. After checking the man didn’t have a concussion, Kai let him sleep with the rule that he would wake him up every hour to check on his condition. Kyungsoo sleeps soundly, pillowy lips parted, letting small whimpers escape every once in a while. It makes him look younger, inexperienced and lost, like that day in battle. It doesn’t matter that he’s older; Kai feels a renewed impulse of protecting him.
Maybe this time he could actually do it.
Kai leans closer. How could he have forgotten this face? He’d stared for long minutes after Kyungsoo had died that day, memorizing every single detail. There are new lines now and tiny battle scars on Kyungsoo’s skin. His hair is cut different too, close to his head, showing off his angular jaw, thick brows and wide eyes.
Wide eyes looking back at him.
Kai jerks back and clears his throat.
“Stop staring, soldier,” Kyungsoo’s faint voice breaks the silence of the forest.
Shit! “I-I wasn’t. How are you feeling?” The captain doesn’t answer and instead struggles to sit up. Kai helps. He keeps a hand hovering at Kyungsoo’s back just in case.
“Report.”
Kai rolls his eyes. Of course, those would be the first words out of the captain’s lips. “We’re halfway down the mountains. A couple of hours walk should get us to lower ground where the temples are.”
Kyungsoo sways. Kai grabs him by the shoulders and is surprised when the other doesn’t push him away, but instead holds on tight. “We need to find one of the temples and wait there,” he says. “Or if we can make it to the fortress.”
Kai doesn’t think the captain can make the hike up to the fortress, not in the condition he’s in. “Shouldn’t we try to locate the others first? I tried the headpieces and either they got damaged or the others lost theirs.”
“Damn. We’ll just have to-” Kyungsoo touches his forehead and flinches. After cleaning the blood, Kai had held pressure down on the wound until it sealed up. Now there’s only a nasty dark purple bump with a red line across. “I can find them. I just…need to rest a bit more. Maybe they’ll even find us along the way.”
Rest? What he needs is a medic. “That’s not a very good plan, captain,” Kai says.
“It’s the only one I can think of right now.” The captain looks way too tired and weak, so Kai shuts up. But being semi-lost in the middle of Bukhansan National Park with a hardass injured captain who keeps his mind unfocused and his heart skipping beats with just a look is not ideal.
After much discussion, Kyungsoo decides they should at least try to find one of the temples. He is able to walk with the help of a sturdy broken branch, but Kai still keeps an eye on him just in case the other swoons in a dizzy spell or trips. Navigating the forest is difficult enough in broad daylight, much more so in the weak light of dawn with a light drizzle of rain. At least walking keeps some of the cold away. But he keeps hitting rocks and stuff he doesn’t see in his path. It’s a miracle Kyungsoo hasn’t fallen yet.
“Are you okay? We can stop if-”
“I’m fine,” Kyungsoo says. “Keep going.”
Kai bites his lip and frowns. The man is so damn stubborn, even when he’s clearly in pain and exhausted.
Kyungsoo narrows his eyes. “Move.”
Clenching his side, he groans. “Oh man, I’m so out of breath. I think I need to sit for a moment.”
Kyungsoo heaves a big sigh. “Fine. But if we’re stopping for completely unnecessary reasons, then you are training.”
“Wait, what?”
“Use your power to scout ahead.”
“I don’t…know how.” And he really isn’t that eager to find out. The last three times he’s used this strange power it leaves behind the weird feeling of his body not being completely part of this world.
Kyungsoo blinks his big eyes slowly. “You teleported mid-air and caught me while I was freefalling at speed, and you don’t know how?”
“Um, I got lucky?” They both had been lucky. After he’d grabbed onto Kyungsoo, the parachute hadn’t worked that well because of the extra weight. Unable to even glide it to direct their landing, they’d crashed into the dark canopy of trees below. Only Kai’s quick reflexes and teleportation had gotten them safely down on the ground. But if he told the captain that, he would be expected to actually use the power in this crazy ass mission.
A big sigh. “How did it feel to use it before?”
Kai thinks back to when he’s done the disappearing trick. “It was like I didn’t want to be in the place? I wanted to be elsewhere and…suddenly I was.”
“Perfect.” Kyungsoo searches around for a moment. Not finding whatever he’s looking for, he kicks the ground. A mound of rock and dirt springs up in front of him and he takes a seat. Kai gapes at him. “Get over it. Now, think you don’t want to be here, think you want to be over there by that fallen tree.”
Kai shakes his head. He really should stop being surprised at the powers. He’d survived the worst shock yet. Nothing was scarier than seeing Chanyeol light up like a human torch. “I thought we we’re resting, sir.”
“And I thought we’d talked about this,” Kyungsoo snaps. “You need to take control of this power now if you hope to survive. There’s no going back from this.”
Kai clenches his jaw. He can feel the buzz of his power along his skin as he thinks over and over how he doesn’t want to be here, doesn’t want to be part of any of this. He fades in and out, until a swooping sensation overtakes him.
He’s five feet in the air on the opposite direction of the fallen tree. And then he falls. “Shit.”
Kyungsoo calls him over with his hand. “You can use it that’s for sure. But you need to think ahead. Don’t just wish to move forward or backward. Know where you want to go, where you want to land. Our powers come from the blood of mimics. Their accelerated synapses make it hard for our slower bodies and minds to adjust.” He touches his temple. “You have to think smart and think fast. Try again.”
So he does. Again and again and again. Because though he doesn’t like this new twist in his life and having this power, he can’t deny the rush of adrenaline at getting this teleportation thing right. Kyungsoo’s praises when he gets it right, are even more rewarding.
They spend some time practicing until, fooling around, he ends up hanging upside-down from a branch. Kyungsoo decides it’s time to continue moving.
It’s only by chance that Kai finds one of the trails. Overgrown by years of disuse, it’s still a better path to walk than going through the forest itself. Their pace increases when the skies grow darker and heavier grey clouds roll in overhead.
“We should be getting close to the temples,” Kyungsoo says, a little out of breath. The captain wipes sweat from his temple and winces.
If he asks for another rest time, Kyungsoo will probably whack him over the head with his walking stick. But the captain shouldn’t be exerting himself so much. Not after that nasty bump to the head.
“Come on.” Kyungsoo walks past him.
Unable to come up with an excuse to stop, Kai follows. But this time, he sticks close to Kyungsoo’s side.
As luck would have it, they come across a stream shortly after that. Kai stops to drink both to make Kyungsoo rest and to quench his thirst. He splashes his face and neck with the cold water, too, and it revives him a little bit. The captain curses and Kai looks to the side to see him struggling. Kyungsoo’s hands shake too much as he cups the water to drink.
Kai goes over and kneels in front of him, getting his pants soaked but not caring. He cups his hands into the river, raises them, and offers the water to Kyungsoo.
Naturally big eyes open up even more and a faint rosy tint spreads across Kyungsoo’s cheeks. His gaze lowers and he hesitantly moves forward to drink out of Kai’s hands.
“Thank you,” Kyungsoo says. And the softness of his voice, brushes against Kai, making his chest ache in a good way.
( Part Two )