The steam of the hot water felt calming as Yuta rested in it. He was laying down in the tub, far enough that the waterline reaches his neck. His legs were bent, knees sticking out above the water whilst he just held his eyes closed.

Doyoung told him he needed to get cleaned up. The new King couldn't be dirty. No one would want to follow the orders from someone who looked as though they had been random let selected from the streets.Yuta still has several bruises and cuts on his face which the raven haired male was now working hard to remove. He had even gone as far as to provide the light haired male with one of the female carers to help bathe him.

Yet Yuta had politely declined the offer as he knew exactly what this 'carer' would try to do. He had made that mistake once before and he wouldn't be fooled into doing so again.

It had been so long since Yuta had been provided with an opportunity to merely soak in a bath and relax. Yes, it wasn't exactly the prime conditions which he would've hoped for, but it was better then nothing.

The others had escaped only at the cost of his own capture. Whilst his father and Doyoung could take a lot from him, this time in the bath, time within his own thoughts could not he touched by anyone.

At least that's what he had thought.

He was proved wrong when the door to the bathroom suddenly opened, revealing Doyoung standing before the bath. Yuta moved to cover himself, eyes widening in shock as he sees the raven haired male before him.

"It's time to get out and prepare yourself to introduce yourself to the public prior to your coronation in two days" He speaks firmly, a tight smile covering his features.

"Could I just have more time?" Yuta attempts to ask.

He is shut down immediately as the male before him just shakes his head. He says no more as he steps out of the room once more.

Sighing in frustration, Yuta runs his hand through his hair before standing in the tub. He reaches to grab his towel, tying it around his waist as he steps out onto the floor. He begins to dry himself off, only exiting once he's mostly dry.

He is slightly startled to see Hyuna waiting in his room, seated on the end of his bed. She stands instantly, bowing her head as she sees him.

"Your Majesty, I've been sent to assist you with appropriate dress wear for your interview" She explains quietly.

Yuta looks down at the towel which is the only thing covering him from the low waist down before looking back at the woman who stands in his room.

"If you would care to turn around, I need to get decent" He tells her, a blush forming on his cheeks.

"I know you're gay, my King" Hyuna remarks as she turns around. "If it makes you feel any better I also have a boyfriend. I'm merely here to help you pick out the right outfit."

"Don't call me your King. I'm no one's King" Yuta says harshly. He doesn't like the title, not one bit. Being King means he loses Sicheng. Being King means his father wins.

Hyuna turns around without waiting for him to give her notice. Her timing seems to be fine as he has managed to slip into a pair of briefs.

"You'll be everyone's King within 48 hours" She states simply as she moves toward his closet. From here she pulls out a black suit, one which resembles the one that Doyoung wears to each of his meetings on the news.

No words are spoken between the two as Yuta puts on the suit. He gets Hyuna to assist with the tie, she manages to complete it quickly and neatly before stepping back from him.

"You miss him" She mutters suddenly.

Yuta pauses in his own thoughts as he stares at her, eyes widened slightly by her words.

"I know a way which you can talk to him again."

"What?!" Yuta exclaims in a slightly hushed tone as he steps closer to Hyuna once more, hoping to be able to hear her more clearly.

"All phone lines were destroyed upon the beginning of the apocalypse all those years ago. Yet your father kept one working and only one" She explains to him. "There is a phone in his office which can only make one call to the phone which is in your bedroom...In your safe house."

Yuta could faintly remember overhearing his father speaking to Taeil and Doyoung about a single phone line a while ago. Yet at the time he thought he was hearing things due to all the news of Mr Nakamoto destroying all phones.

"Why are you telling me this?" The light haired male can't help but ask this question. Him and Hyuna hadn't spoken too much over the years, only on official matters.

"I want you to be a good King" She raises her gaze to meet his. "A good King who will save us all."

Without speaking another word she turns on her heel and makes her way to the door. She halts after wrapping her hand around the handle, looking back toward Yuta once more.

"You have 30 minutes before Doyoung will get impatient and come looking for you." Smiling softly, she opens the door and leaves.

Yuta stands in the same spot for a few moments as he processes what he was just told. He has to get to that phone and make that call before he gets caught.

Surely they've reached the safe house by now.

Rushing to the door, Yuta checks the hallway is clear before running in the direction of his father's office. The door is locked which doesn't surprise him at all. Making sure no one is watching, he stands back and kicks beside the handle. This bursts the lock as the door swings open, crashing against the wall behind it.

Stepping inside, he is quick to close it as best as he can before hurrying over to the desk. The phone doesn't stand out to him straight away, yet as soon as he takes a seat in his father's chair he is quick to see the handset which has been placed on the bottom of the desk.

He'll have to find the file which contains the phone number. Where would his father contain a document of such importance?

Think Yuta. Think.

When he was a child, Mr Nakamoto tended to tell his son stories of people who would hide away important objects within secret locations like bits of wood on a desk which would move if pushed from the right place.

Crouching on the floor, Yuta brushes his hands on the smooth, wooden surface, trying to find a loose bit. It isn't long before he manages to find a section which budges slightly. Pushing on it more harshly, the entire slab moves backward, allowing for two files to fall onto the floor.

Yuta grabs them both before moving to be seated in the chair once more. He moves quickly to open the file on top. It isn't the one which he was searching for yet the title catches his eye.

Cloning

What on earth could his father have possibly done in regards to cloning? It was always a theme used in horror movies and mentioned within novels. No one had ever considered it working in real life.

Delaying precious time, Yuta can't help but flick through the pages, halting on one which holds the picture of someone who is very familiar.

He reads it under his breath, softly in a whisper.

"People are going to die and there's no doubt about it. However there are some people who are key to Plan 100 which we can't afford to lose. Times will come where they will be faced with death and I need to stand in the way of this. I need to find out how to duplicate these people and send the clones alone into death."

Yuta furrows his brows together as he starts to process what he is reading.

"These dead clones turn into someone ungodly. Monsters would be what the children refer to them as. That's a suitable ending for the said clones. I've managed to make them work. The clone has the same memories as the real person. The first individual to be successfully cloned is my top fighter, Moon Taeil."

A pause as Yuta rereads this like at least 10 times. Taeil has been cloned...Taeil is still alive? That can't be, Mr Nakamoto is insane but surely he wouldn't be that crazy.

Clones? That would be insane.

Yet it makes sense. Mr Nakamoto was so nonchalant when Taeil had supposedly been shot during the attempt to get the escapees back to the institute. Even for a man who feels little to no empathy, one would've thought he felt a little more for his most prized fighter.

Realising he has just thrown away 15 minutes of his time, Yuta pushes this file away, deciding to focus on it later and bring his attention back to the possibility of speaking to his love one last time.

He opens the file beneath it which contains a phone number with no label beside it. Assuming it's the right one, Yuta picks up the phone, pressing it to his ear as he dials the number.

The phone rings again and again, the light haired male, biting his tongue hoping someone will answer it. He only has one chance for this to work. He can't even begin to think what will happen if it doesn't.

"Hello?" The phone is answered by none other than Sicheng on the final ring.

Yuta brings his spare hand to cover his mouth, blocking his broken sob as he hears the younger's soothing voice.

"Sicheng ah, it's me" He whispers, voice wavering like crazy.

"Yuta?! How?" Sicheng's tone immediately grows to one which is not only happy but panicked at the same time as he realised who he is speaking to.

"I don't have time to explain. But please, I love you, even once I'm King, I'm not going to leave you" The light haired male informs the other, tears streaming down his cheeks.

"We are going to come for you, Yuta. We aren't going to let them have you" Sicheng's voice wavers slightly as he says this.

"Don't cry, love" Yuta sniffs.

He gazed down at the ground, eyes flickering over the file about the clones. Taking a deep breath, he starts to explain the concept to his boyfriend. Just in case something goes wrong, he needs to make sure the others know about it.

"Do you reckon he cloned you..?" Sicheng asks the inevitable.

"I..." Yuta goes quiet as he takes this into consideration. He saw nothing which suggested that he had been cloned as well. Yet according to his father's logic, he was included as one of the most important people to this whole plan.

However Yuta doesn't have a chance to respond in full as the door to his father's office is kicked off its hinges, sending it crashing onto the floor. Doyoung stands in the archway, two y'all and heavily armed men a step behind him.

He doesn't even have a chance to tell Sicheng how much he loves him as Doyoung withdraws a dagger from his pocket, throwing it at the cord, severing it on his first throw.

"I thought you were smarter than this, Yuta" Doyoung frowns, shaking his head slowly. He gestured with his left hand and the men behind him immediately move toward the light haired male.

They grab Yuta from each side as they pull him out of the seat, roughly holding him on his fight. He struggles against them yet they manage to hold onto him firmly.

"You can't harm me" He scowls harshly at Doyoung. "The King mustn't be harmed."

"You are correct" Doyoung agrees as he walks up to the younger. He leans in slowly as he seems to be examining the healing cuts and bruises on the other's head.

"Your face is required to stay intact. No one will be seeing what is taking place beneath the clothes."

Yuta can't help but feel a sense of fear as he hears this.

"Your father never approved of the use of whips against prisoners. He always said it was too harsh. Yet he is no longer in power to make those choices." The raven haired male smirks. "I say you should receive 40 lashes to your back. The interview can wait."

"No" Yuta mutters. He makes another attempt to break out of his captor's grasp yet is easily held still as they drag him from the room.

Doyoung goes to follow them down to the prison space where the whips are stored yet he is brought to a stop as another guard steps before him.

"We have an issue" The male reports.

"What kind?" Doyoung asks, impatiently.

"Mr Nakamoto has escaped."

— — — —

"Yuta?! Yuta!" Sicheng yells into the phone even after he can hears the tones which suggest the phone has been disconnected. 

He is still trying to figure out how a phone line was still intact. It makes no sense at all. It had been a tale told for many years that the start of the apocalypse had initiated the loss of all functioning phone lines.

"Is everything okay?" Lucas asks as he rushes into the master bedroom which would've been Yuta's.
Sicheng puts down the phone, tears still glistening on his cheeks as he turns to gaze at the taller.

"We have to get him back" He mutters, afraid that if he speaks to loud, he will fall apart. The pain claws at his heart, and at his throat, begging to be released in sobs and cries yet Sicheng keeps pushing it away.

"We will. Taeyong will come up with something. He always does" Lucas does his best to sound reassuring as he walks over to his friend, gently wrapping his arms around the older.

— — — —

Jaehyun gently unwraps the bandage around Taeyong's shoulder, doing his best to not cause the older any pain. The bandage hasn't been changed for a while now.

The silver haired male can't help but since as the younger fully removes the dirtied material. He sits before the brown haired male in only his pants and shoes. His weapons belt and shirt discarded to the side on the floor.

Jaehyun's gaze doesn't wander at all as he focuses on cleaning out the wound as best as he can with the supplies from the first aid kit. He manages to quickly and efficiently disinfect the wound which is slightly open still before wrapping it in the bandage once more.

"Once this is all over, you really need to rest. Otherwise your arm is going to continue ripping apart and it will never heal" The younger advises the older who can't take his gaze off his lips.

He grabs the collar of Jaehyun's shirt, pulling him closer as he crashes his lips against the younger's. It doesn't take long for him to respond as Jaehyun moves to be crouched before Taeyong who is seated on the edge of the bathtub.

The kiss is heated and filled with need for the other. Feeling the silver haired males hands roaming beneath his shirt, Jaehyun pulls away from the kiss, staring him in the eye.

"I'd take you here and now if I could" He states lowly, voice hoarse.

"Then why don't you?" Taeyong challenges, leaning forward to kiss him again. Yet Jaehyun pushes him away again, chuckling softly as he looks at the older's disappointed expression.

"Because we have to figure out how we will kidnap the newly crowned King" The brown haired male states, standing once more.

Taeyong moves to be standing as well, pouting as he works on putting his shirt over his thin yet well sculpted frame once more.

"How are we going to do that?"

The pair are interrupted from their conversation as Lucas bursts into the bathroom. "You guys have to see this. Yuta is on TV."

There is not a moments hesitation as they all rush out into the living room where the familiar light haired male can be seen on screen.

He looks as though he were in a level of discomfort as he remains seated on the chair. He doesn't lean against the backing, instead opting to be in the edge of his seat as he does his best to not since each time he breathes.

"What are your plans as King?" The reporter asks him.

"My plans are to simply bring the ruins we call home back to the peaceful environment we once knew" Yuta responds with a smile, he seems pained as he makes this expression.

"They've hurt him" Sicheng sounds horrified. "Bastards."

Taeyong can't help but frown as he views the state of his friend on the screen. They need to come up with a way to save him and come up with it quickly.

The coronation will not wait.

A/N - just whipped up a chapter after being on the phone for nearly 4 hours omG

there's like 2 chapters left of this story so enjoy it while you can :")

thanks for reading!!