Archive of Our Own

It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.
Neil Armstrong

“Don’t you touch me with your filthy hands.”

Yaebin holds her gloved hands up, “Ok. I have them where you can see them. Not going to touch you. You, me, touching, nah. They’re not dirty though, I swear. I just washed them.”

The prisoner growls, flips a wave of red hair that had fallen over her face to reveal sharp eyes and teeth bared in a snarl. Yaebin knows she said she was not going to touch her but by the god are her hands tingling and it has just been so long, so long that she has spoken to someone else, she just kind of wants to shake this stranger by the shoulders to know that she is still here, still alive.

But Yaebin is a woman of her word so instead she sits down directly in front of the prisoner, puts her hands together.

“Do you know who I am?”

The prisoner rolls her eyes, “What is this, Twenty Questions? A movie? Whoever wrote this script sucks.”

Yaebin shrugs, “Ok.”

The prisoner eyes her warily, tugs again at the chains that hold her hands apart. They jangle merrily and she snarls again.

Yaebin waits.

It takes them a while but then they see her. They always do.

She watches the prisoner’s eyes trace her, watches her gaze travel up from Yaebin’s boots to the hems of her sleeves, then upwards to her epaulettes and finally as they land on Yaebin’s tie and collar. Yaebin waits.

“You’re a general,” the prisoner says.

Yaebin nods, “Sorta.”

She sees the flicker of recognition, then the look of sheer panic and the shaking of the chains that accompanies them. Yaebin waits for the prisoner to tire or give up. She wonders if this particular prisoner is going to try to actually spit on her. Sometimes they try.

She does not.

“Why,” the prisoner says, “why are you here?”

“In this room, on this ship, or orbiting this planet?”

Yaebin pauses and looks up at the prisoner from where she is seated on the floor, cocks her head to one side.

“Why are you doing this?”

“I haven’t spoken to anyone in three months,” Yaebin says, “don’t mind if I try-”

“Three months,” the voice is low and threatening, “who was it that you-”

“I liked them,” Yaebin says, “I liked her. She was a cool person even if she didn’t want to talk all that much. Really did surprise me with her strength but I mean, there’s really not all that much point to trying to kill me. It’s really not very useful. They’d just find someone else who likes to talk less and drain more and really, where would we be then?”

“You said she,” the prisoner says.

Yaebin nods, “Nayoung was a cool person.”

The chains still.

“N-Nayoung?”

Yaebin nods again.

“Was?”

“Oh,” Yaebin says, “she’s still alive. Past tense in the sense that I have not seen her in a while but I don’t really do the killing thing. You people are far more useful alive. I think they set her to work somewhere else. I don’t know where though, so don’t try asking me. People don’t tell me things because I talk too much. Or that’s what they said five years ago over the comlink.”

“Where is she? What did you do with her?”

Yaebin sighs, “Can you pay attention for a moment? Didn’t you hear what I just said? I don’t know. She’s not dead though. I didn’t kill her, at least. I didn’t drain everything either. I told you, I said liked her. She’s cool so I left her with just enough to know it’s still there but not enough to well, kill me. Then they took her back down out of orbit and I don’t know anything anymore.”

“You.”

Yaebin shrugs, “I know, I know, short little old me. Sue me for wanting to stay alive.”

“Is that why?”

Yaebin stops.

“Is that why you do this?”

“Ah,” says Yaebin, “yes. I’ve heard this one before. Yes. I like staying alive. It’s kind of nice.”

“But you-”

“I have also heard this one before,” Yaebin says, “and I happen to be relatively comfortable here.”

“What about-”

“The people? Man, and here I thought you might be different.”

The prisoner scoffs, “People? Who cares about the people.”

“Ooh,” says Yaebin, “you have my attention. Not that you didn’t already have it, but you certainly have it now. I like this. Keep going.”

“The people fend for themselves just fine, one dictatorship to another, what’s the difference - no, there’s nothing interesting there. It’s not about protecting or helping or anything. Think about the money. There’s a ton of money out there for various jobs and with your skills and talents I can’t imagine you wouldn’t be able to rack up whatever you need to be comfortable again in less than a week, Angel of Death.”

“You know,” Yaebin says, “that would all be very believable if I didn’t know who you were. Also, I really haven’t heard that name in a long time. Didn’t realize people still used it. It’s really not accurate though. I don’t kill people. Also I kind of just go by Rena now so you should really get them to stop using it when you get back down there. That’d be nice.”

The prisoner stops, eyes narrowing, “What do you mean?”

“I’m so bored,” Yaebin says, “so, so, so bored. You have no idea. Watching the news is so incredibly boring if there isn’t anyone to discuss it with. Do you know that I once counted how many buttons there were on every piece of clothing shown on the news headlines? I had no idea people sometimes put buttons on the insides of things. Like why?”

The prisoner, rather wisely, does not interrupt. Yaebin decides she likes her. Well, that is a lie. Yaebin had already decided she liked her when she walked into the room earlier but that is another matter for another time.

“But yes, as I was saying, you should go back and tell them to stop using that nickname.”

“You’re going to let me out,” the prisoner says flatly.

“Mmhm,” Yaebin says, scoots a little closer to the prisoner’s feet, looks up, “man, you’re kinda tall. This is going to be a pain.”

“What?”

“I said,” Yaebin enunciates each word clearly, “You. Are. Kind. Of. Tall. And. This. Is. Going. To. Be. A. Pain.”

“No, I heard that part,” the prisoner says.

Yaebin beams, “Oh you’re just like her. I like you already.”

“Her?”

“Nayoung,” Yaebin says, “have you been paying attention?”

“I-”

“I know it’s confusing, but do try to keep up,” Yaebin says, “I’m going to release you. In a bit. So you can go back down there and tell them to stop using that name.”

“I can’t believe I’m saying this,” the prisoner looks like she wants to laugh at Yaebin, “but are you really serious right now?”

Yaebin runs her gloved hand over the cuff at the prisoner’s right ankle. It snaps open. She looks up. The prisoner looks back down at her.

Yaebin waits to be kicked.

They just look at each other for what must be a solid ten seconds. Yaebin is not kicked.

Good.

“Well, fuck me,” the prisoner says, “and fuck my inability to keep my mouth shut for my own damn good, but are you actually going to do this?”

Yaebin’s smile grows.

She releases the prisoner’s other ankle and it is wiggled experimentally. Still, Yaebin is not kicked.

“So,” the prisoner says, “you said you know who I am.”

“They send files up,” Yaebin says, “with the food, and the prisoners, of course, so yes, I do know who you are.”

She grins.

“Electricity, right, Kim Minkyung? Oh, how I’ve been waiting for you ever since Nayoung mentioned your powers.”

---

Minkyung rubs her wrists.

“That’s it? That’s all? All you wanted me to do was change the TV channel?”

The Angel of Death, no, Rena, shrugs, “Yeah. That one was really boring. At least now I can watch animals.”

“Watch animals,” Minkyung says flatly.

Rena pats the spot next to her on the bed, then turns to the shelf next to her and pulls a towel out, “They won’t be coming for you for a few days, you might as well get comfy for now. You can have the bed for now, but for sleeping there is another one on the other end of the pod that you can have. I like this one.”

She leaves the room, bathrobe and towel in hands, then sticks her head back in, “Oh, and please don’t try to crash this thing. It won’t be pleasant for either of us, trust me. Someone tried. It was not fun at all and you will not believe how hard it is to get stains out without bleach.”

Minkyung sits down on military regulation sheets, watches an old rerun of Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter and waits for the Angel of Death to come back from her shower. Oh, Kyungwon and the others will never hear the end of this.

But Nayoung is alive.

Nayoung is alive. Knowing that Nayoung is alive somewhere on the planet, even if she has not returned to them yet gives her a new surge of hope. Minkyung puts her head in her hands, feels her hair beneath her fingers and the warmth of her own skin, lets herself break down just a little. This might just be possible. Even if Nayoung could not do it.

But now it makes sense why Nayoung could not do it, why Nayoung, the most powerful of them all, could not, and why Minkyung is the only one who can.

Oh Nayoung, beautiful, brilliant Nayoung who knew that Minkyung would be the one to try next.

A hand rests on her shoulder and by reflex she reaches back and throws a rather damp Angel of Death over her shoulder onto the small twin bed.

“Uh,” says the Angel of Death, “hi.”

Oh shit, thinks Minkyung. Now she’s dead.

“Right,” says the Angel of Death, sitting up, wet hair wrapped up in the towel, “Military personnel. Right. I always forget. Sorry I spooked you.”

Minkyung tries to stop her jaw from falling open.

“I told you,” she says, “they really don’t send people up here very often. Oh, has anyone told you you’re beautiful?”

Minkyung fails.

---

Yaebin knocks on the door, knowing fully well that the inhabitant is still asleep, then slides it upon and marches straight up to the bed, fully dressed in her military uniform, the same outfit they had first met in.

“They’re here for you,” Yaebin says, “You’re going to go back down so I’m going to have to do what they sent you up here to have done.”

She watches the sleep clear instantly from Roa’s eyes.

“Hold out your hands,” Yaebin says.

Minkyung does not move.

“I said,” Yaebin says, “hold out your hands.”

Minkyung gathers the blankets around her.

Yaebin sighs, “You don’t have to make this any harder for yourself. Just hold out your hands and it will be over in a flash, no pun intended.”

Minkyung’s grip tightens on the blankets.

“Like I said,” Yaebin says, “I don’t kill people. Also, don’t you have a movement to get back to or something? Even without your powers, you’ll still be useful.”

A small spark flies across the woolen surface.

“I’ll let you spark,” Yaebin says, “I won’t take it all away. That’s evil. I’m not evil.”

“You’re cruel,” Minkyung says, “to leave just a little, just a smidgen of a reminder of what we used to have, I know now why no one has ever come back. They’ve probably all gone insane.”

Yaebin’s face falls a little, then she shrugs, “So I’ve been told, but I’m not responsible for your mental health. I’m just doing what I was sent here to do.”

“You don’t have to,” Minkyung says, “you don’t. You could just send me back down and no one has to ever know.”

Yaebin shrugs, “If no one ever finds out because you never use it, how is it different from taking it away?”

“I-”

Yaebin smiles, “I told you, I like living.”

“This isn’t living,” Minkyung says, gestures to the small pod in orbit around Earth, sealed away from the rest of the world, away from the rest of human civilisation, connected by a single comlink that now only plays animal documentaries, and will likely only play animal documentaries forever, “this isn’t living.”

Yaebin shrugs but Minkyung watches the smaller person flinch.

“Hold out your hands,” Yaebin says more firmly, “don’t make me do it from a distance. We both won’t like it.”

“I’m your last chance,” Minkyung says, “aren’t I, Yaebin-ah?”

Yaebin freezes.

“Who-”

“You’re not the only one who has done their research,” Minkyung shrugs, “and you know I can. You’ve known ever since I changed the channel, haven’t you?”

Yaebin swallows.

Minkyung watches the lump in her throat, then drags her eyes back up, a soft smile on her face.

“I’ll hold out my hands, Kang Yaebin, but only if you’ll take them and come back down to Earth with me.”