For the first time in a long time, Baekhyun was fully, purely angry.

He had set out inside the mansion-slash-asylum feeling more purposeful and hopeful than he had through the duration of the entire mission—which was kind of ironic, seeing as they were literally on the brink of burning out. No situation the group had been in up till now had ever seemed so impossible to get out of, but when he walked into what had once been the foyer for a mental asylum, Baekhyun had felt like he knew what to do.

That hadn't lasted long, naturally.

To begin with, the first in the list of Things That Had Gone Wrong Almost Immediately was that the communication system barely worked, and even when it did, all he got was bits of words and static. It wasn't that surprising, honestly, since it never worked. The Four obviously had some kind of disabling system set up that worked wherever they went—maybe one of them had powers relating to sound or frequency, like the screamer girl Taeyong had told him about. Baekhyun didn't know why they even bothered with comms at this point. It was just extra weight.

The next was the fire, which had only gotten worse. It was spreading fast, and part of him had expected to walk into the ground floor while it was on fire, but apparently Ten's promise had come through. The fire was getting worse, yes, sections of the floor falling through, apparently, but whatever Ten did had managed to curb its spreading. That didn't mean it was going to work for long.

The third, unfortunately, was Shao.

"I'm going to have to ask you to step aside," Baekhyun said frostily, staring down the girl who had appeared in the middle of the hallway like a specter. She looked exactly how he remembered her—the scar shining on her shadowed face as if someone had outlined it in glow-in-the-dark paint, but her expression was different. More closed off, more morose, reminding him of the time he had first found her in the room of the Cirque Hotel.

"I'm afraid I can't do that," she replied, not quite as frostily. She sounded numb, like she had been injected with morphine or a powerful suppressive drug, but her eyes were alive with emotion. Her eyes were a kaleidoscope of feelings, the pattern changing every time they flicked, from sadness to doubt to apology to nothing.

Baekhyun's jaw clenched. He had cared about her once, considered her a person and a friend, but there was nothing there now instead of anger and pain. This was the person who had broken up his team, his family, without a second thought. Had led them on to believe that they were doing something good for once. He recalled how she'd told him she couldn't stay out of the fight because there were people getting hurt whom she cared about—he now knew she meant the Four.

"I won't hesitate to hurt you," he said calmly, but his temper was flaring. Baekhyun raised his arms slightly and let his eyes flash silvery-gray, turning his veins to the color of metal. Distantly, he heard the sound of thunder booming.

"I know you won't," she murmured, and he knew he hadn't imagined the anguish in his eyes. Her hand rested on the knob at the end of a staircase, where he presumed she had come from. "But you can't use your powers without bringing down everyone inside this building. It's very old, and it won't last the lightning. You can't hurt everyone inside."

"No," he agreed, and the tips of his fingers crackled audibly with electricity, "but I never said I needed to bring down lightning from the sky."

Then she raised her hand, and closed it into a fist. Instantly, the crackle in his veins died down, the silver clearing from his eyes and veins. Baekhyun gritted his teeth, trying to bring his powers back from whatever void they had disappeared too, but deep down he knew it wouldn't work. This had happened to him before, in the office building.

"You do have powers," he murmured, amazed and angry all in the same breath. "You can stop Supers from using their powers. That's why the test didn't pick them up," he breathed, talking to himself rather than her. "That's why you were out of breath."

"I didn't mean to hurt anyone," Shao said, as if she hadn't heard him speak. Her teeth were clenched, face pinched in pain. "Not you, not Taeyong, not anyone. I still don't want to hurt you—I never would." She pursed her lips, sounding choked. "Please believe me."

"Oh, yeah?" he asked bitterly. "Would you let me go right now, or let me burn if it threw a wrench in your plans?"

Her face fell, but her fist didn't loosen. Baekhyun was beginning to feel as if he was the being restrained, not his powers. Antsy and fidgety, as if someone had physically tied him up. "Walk away now, Baekhyun. That's all I'm asking you to do."

"You know I can't do that," he snapped. "Do you know how badly wrecked everyone was after you did that? How distraught Taeyong was?" She flinched, as if hit, but he was relentless. "He trusted you, traitor. He believed in you, believed he could rely on you even though he had never relied on anyone before, not in his entire life. How does that make you feel, knowing you let him down? On purpose? I bet it feels really good, I bet that's why you did what you—"

"Stop," Shao breathed. She was trembling, looking weaker in that moment than she ever had. The light in her eyes was dim and vulnerable; a candle flame. "Please."

Baekhyun was about to continue when a shadow fell over her features, making him stop short. A physical shadow, long and dark and obviously human. Shao frowned, looking confused about why he had stopped. Baekhyun blinked back—he had thought it was backup, someone she had called for help, but she looked just as confused.

Then she glanced up the stairs, following his line of sight, and her eyes widened.

|

Lucas's eyes widened when he saw the state of the floor.

Mark had told him through the broken comm piece to get to the upper floors, but the rest of his words had been too mangled by the crap connection for Lucas to understand. He had been glad to hear Mark's voice, but there had been no time to get in any other details, so he'd expected to find some kind of emergency when he reached the appointed floor. And an emergency he'd gotten, though not the kind he's expected.

The whole floor looked like it had undergone a flash freeze.

"What the hell happened here?" Lucas asked, stumped, and Ten's head poked out from behind a column.

"Oh, yeah, Jeonghan here helped me out," the slight raven-haired male said, using his thumb to point at someone behind him. The tall spire in the middle which Lucas had assumed to be an ice spire turned, revealing the Ice Angel, and Lucas froze. Not literally, but I see how that would be confusing.

"This is your great plan?" Lucas asked incredulously. His fingers ached to get at the weapon at the sight of the enemy, but Ten seemed to trust the man, and he trusted Ten's judgement. To a limit. "Fraternizing with the enemy?"

"Not quite the phrase I would use, but yes," Ten said. "Jeonghan's not the enemy here. Are you, Jeonghan?"

'Jeonghan' looked amused, or at least as amused as a statue could look. "I am not here to cause you harm," he said, turning his frosty blue eyes to Lucas, who felt the man's gaze like a cube of ice sliding over his skin.

"Why?" Lucas asked softly, knitting his brows together.

"Hey, man, come on," Ten interjected. "I asked him to help me stop the spread of the fire, and he froze the floor below so it's going to hold—it'll melt, and the water will put most of the fire out if it spreads downstairs, and there'll be plenty of ice available. Good for burns." He put his hands on his hips. "Not good enough for you?"

"The reason you don't have any records of me is that I was a government project," Jeonghan answered, and Lucas mentally chided Ten for giving away team secrets so recklessly. "I joined Irene's plan so there would be less people ignored and disregarded like I was, but clearly the plan has deviated much from what it used to be." His tone turned bitter. "What was happening to these children is too much like what happened to me. I cannot keep condoning this anymore."

"Forgive me for saying this," Lucas started, narrowing his eyes, "but I find it a little hard to believe you. This is a very convenient time for you to switch, and I have gone through one too many betrayals to buy your story so easily."

"Lucas," Ten started, but Jeonghan waved him off.

"I understand," he said shortly. "But tell me this: do you know what it is like to have your entire life mapped out by a program? A simple experiment to turn you into a killing machine against your will?"

His voice was sharp. Lucas felt suddenly uncertain. "Irene wants to make this world equal, but what she does not realize is that all of this is against their will. Some are born great, some have greatness thrust upon them—is that how it goes?" He chuckled dryly. "I can't remember. But I do know that not everyone wants to be great. Not everyone wants a life of no control, of being nothing but a tool in another person's great plan without even having a say." He looked at his hands, long and thin and pale, and an instinctive chill went down Lucas's spine. "I will help you, for now. But after that, I cannot say that I will stay."

||

me: i promise i'll finish this before july

also me: now how the fuck do i do that

(seems like this is gonna continue into july too, but there are only like five or so chapters left so...i'm sorry for breaking the promise :') but hey, i get to write this longer so that's one good thing. not ready to let go of these characters just yet.)