Chapter Text
Astronomy wasn't Seokjin's strongest subject.
Sure, he had always liked the idea of other planets and the possibility of aliens. But it wasn't like he followed every article out there about human space discoveries and aliens. He barely had time to finish his homework in time. He was a full-time worker and part-time student ever since he was a teen. He was neither aware of anything beyond his solar system, nor was he informed farther than their names and that maybe - and he thought of this with some doubt - one of them had rings on it. And sadly, the only reason he could remember that last part was because a friend of his could not stop relating Saturn with a popular American pop song. Saturn wasn’t a single lady according to Taehyung.
He wonders if he had known more than that, the person in front of him would have believed him from the start.
"-I'm telling you, my name is Kim Seokjin-" He insisted with exasperation. "-and not Im Seokjun."
The man with multiple dangling earrings scoffed with skepticism, crossing his arms.
"Snap out of it, Jun." He clicked his tongue. "I don't know why you chose to leave. I would have thought of you less of the type to hide, especially after securing Meridian."
Seokjin wanted to scream.
He was certain of only two things, so far;
1. According to the stranger, which he decided to label "piercings" for simplicity purposes, as he imagines that with his delirious expectations placed on him, he'll meet more strangers later unless he proves his identity: Seokjin is, in fact, not Kim Seokjin but Im Seokjun; a type of explorer or war hero that for whatever reason, ran away not long after "securing the meridian." Whatever "the meridian" is.
2. He's not on earth. If the man's clothing and his surroundings are anything to go by.
Piercings, aside from sporting a rather curious armor to nylon-like mesh of clothing that molded to his body like a second skin, had three distinctive stripes that ran across his face; seemingly impossibly black, these tattoos were a static contrast against his pale skin. It wasn't until he expressed his dissatisfaction after Seokjin explained - reasonably, may he add - that he wasn't the person he was looking for, when his pupil stretched to an almost a fine line that made him do a double take. It was with sheepish tardiness that he noticed the shifting colors of his iris, too. Seokjin swore they were brown a second ago. Now they looked blue.
"Listen-" Seokjin cleared his throat. "-you." He paused. When piercings failed to provide his name, narrowing his eyes instead, Seokjin continued.
"I'm sure there's something I can do to prove it. I mean, isn't there anything only this Jun guy- I dont know- knows?"
Piercings hissed. "Fuck you."
Seokjin groaned. "I'm just trying to-" An alarm started blasting inside the room. Seokjin scanned his surroundings - walls of metal and chair of cold glass - trying to figure out where it came from. The place was empty, not a vent in sight, and no windows. Just the outline that highlighted what he hoped to be a door at the end. If he could somehow remove what kept him strapped to his chair...
Piercings rolled his eyes.
"Don't move." He ordered as he stood up from his seat to confirm Seokjin's suspicion. He waved a hand to the floor, causing the wall with the frame to disintegrate. It left an opening where he passed through with ease. The wall materialized back as soon as he disappeared.
"Shit." Seokjin sighed.
-
The alarm ceased to make Yoongi’s head pound.
"What's was that?" Yoongi complained with annoyance, rushing into the cockpit with his gun on his hand. At the center, a map of the entire galaxy hovered over a platform. Yoongi pocketed his pistol and skimmed through it to survey the area outside the ship. The surrounding space seemed bare, safe for neighborhood planets and stars alike, indicating nothing out of place.
From the side, navigating the ark, was his second in command and squadmate, Hoseok, looking at him with an all-too innocent grin. Yoongi narrowed his eyes with suspicion.
"Nothing! Just, you know, the usual." said Hoseok nonchalantly, barely acknowledging his captain with a faint nod of his own. Yoongi counted heads. Namjoon, the historian and technology expert, was at his booth next to Hoseok reading his tablet. "Joon?" called out Yoongi.
The half-salarian didn't blink. "Captain." He replied monotonously without peeling his eyes off the damned thing. Yoongi shook his head in dismissal and watched through the side-lines as Jimin and Taehyung, both bounty hunters and mercenaries personally hand-picked by Jun, wrestled playfully on the floor, grunting expletives as Taehyung appeared to catch Jimin in a headlock while the other grappled himself free. Neither of them stopped at his arrival.
Without thinking too much of it, he switched to the asari; the navy officer Sana and the marine Momo, who seemed completely engrossed in a conversation of their own.
For their crew, the environment was a little too... quiet. Yoongi didn't know what to make of it.
"Alright.” said Yoongi after a pause. “Tap if you need anything." He rocked on his heel, shutter clicking as he exited the room.
"Will do!" shouted Hoseok behind his back.
-
Seokjin only had a few minutes to exact his plan. Part one of it was to, one way or another, make himself close enough to Piercings. He'd considered talking his way out of it, but he'd already tried that for several hours and it had only made his cell buddy more angry, and prone to leave him alone in that room (which wasn't exactly the best route to take in order to question someone on say, a key to get the hell out of there). Therefore, the proximity had to be on the physical sense and not the emotional one. The problem was, he was strapped to a chair by some invisible energy circling his wrists. Seokjin would have been flexible enough to wiggle himself out of a rope, but it was a field that rendered him, quite literally, glued to the surface of his seat.
Seokjin studied art, film arts in specific. But if he had learned anything from physics, is that there had to be a way to counteract it. Unless those laws didn't apply here, but he didn't want to think of it negatively. He was so focused on the idea of hurling himself against Piercings, ignoring the flaw that if he couldn't use his own strength to lift himself, he'd go nowhere near him. Seokjin didn't even realize the moment his captor returned.
"Hey, stop that.” Berated Piercings, catching Seokjin off guard.”You'll hurt yourself."
Seokjin froze."Stop what? I was just... uh." He looked over him. "wanted to get some gum."
Piercings blinked. "Gum?"
"Yeah. You know, gum? That thing you chew with candy flavor?"
Piercings looked at Seokjin like he grew a second head. Seokjin jut out his lower lip. This had to work. "My friend..." He started. "It's just candy. Could you reach it for me? Please?” He bats his eyelashes, not quite knowing if it would have the same effect as it did on earth. But he had to try. “It's right on my left pocket. I can't do it myself." He gestured to his back, making himself seem as impaled and harmless as he could.
Piercings stared at him at first. Seokjin could feel his resolve faltering, but it was hard to tell with his tattoos covering some of his features. It was at least a minute before Piercings decided to humor him, and Seokjin struggled to hold back a shit-eating grin. The human-like alien leaned on him, and it was with great effort Seokjin had to stay still long enough to assure himself his plan would work.
Piercings dug through his pockets hesitantly. Delicately, he slid a hand to pat through Seokjin’s jeans. Up close, Seokjin could smell…
Chicken?
“I know what you’re planning.” Seokjin shook his disbelief off, playing it cool. He only needed him to come closer, just a little bit more... “What do you mean?’
“I can see you’ve been trying to come free.” Piercings said smoothly to his ear. The sound of his voice, at that distance, possessed a dual quality that was nothing like he had ever heard before; both coarse and clear as a bell. Seokjin swallowed dry as a shudder passed through his body. As piercings held himself at arms length from him; Seokjin felt the reality of his situation at the core.
The being in front of him didn’t smile. He simply looked at him with such cold, deep seated calculation and curiosity with a blue, tentative glare; as if Seokjin was not a human but an animal of some kind or funny, brainless pet. It made him feel defenseless, weak, and a lot like crawling out of his skin.
He wasn’t on earth.
He wasn’t human.
Seokjin had to get out of there. Soon. Now.
Completely unaware of Seokjin’s urge to flee, Piercings frowned to himself. “Something isn’t right.” Seokjin chuckled ironically and yet sounding more like a nervous, fear-induced, panicky laugh. He was trying not to lose it. Undeterred, piercings hurried behind Seokjin and in no less than five seconds, he released him from his invisible binds.
Seokjin surged to his feet, grasping at his perfectly smooth limbs in wonder. He watched as piercings dashed at a panel on a corner in confusion. The alien typed like a mad man on a mission, completely focused on a panel of glass that had morphed into a screen out of nowhere.
He gaped at him “Why?” asked Seokjin, bewildered. “Why did you free me?”
Piercings did not spare him a glance. Once his typing ceased, the room dimmed. Unfazed by the lack of lighting, his captor sprinted to the door and gestured Seokjin to follow, crouching on the floor. Hesitantly, Seokjin joined him.
“We’ve been invaded." hushed Piercings. "The ship isn’t safe. We need to move.” he said as a matter of fact. He tapped on his earring, static echoing through. He scrambled to rearrange his suit and dislodged a part of his armor at once. With a flick on the air, the plate he’d dissembled broke in half and shifted into two crafty-looking pistols. Piercings caught the end products mid-air and handed the simpler looking one to him. Seokjin shook his head.
“I don’t know anything about-” The alien shoved the handgun to his chest. “Learn or die, Seokjin.” he ordered plainly.
Before Seokjin could complain and register the fact he’d been finally called by his own name, Piercings raised his arm and dissolved the wall closest to them so fast, it startled the words out of his mouth. Seokjin wasn’t sure if he’d get used to that any time soon.
“Come on.” urged the alien. "I'm not getting fooled twice."
-
Namjoon wasn’t sure how he managed to stay awake. One minute, he was reading about the possibility of wormholes creating a metaphorical entrance to another universe; and the next one, he was induced into a somnolence that fogged up his intercom, rendering his communication useless as well as his body. It came without a warning, but he’d been somewhat aware of being carried to another room and then tossed into the ground without any finesse. His ass was still sore about that.
However, If his research had brought him anything fruitful at all; he’d suspected they had an infiltration at play the moment they arrived somewhere between the Zheng He and Pytheas systems. Better known as the Pfeiffer; it was a system that bridged the nexus - the space station that currently served as an operational network for travelers - and the colony of Eos, a desert world with significant resources; which had the best vantage point to study the black hole at the center of the heleus cluster, as well as the fame of being infested with fugitives, bandits and con artists to name a few.
To make matters less confusing; the black hole was the only reason why Namjoon so eagerly had tagged along with the crew. He was meant to accompany them in their trip as a source of knowledge but don’t get him wrong; Pathfinder Im Seokjun and him hadn’t been exactly best friends prior to his disappearance. Namjoon had been part of the squad initially chosen by their queen, and later on modified by decree of the Quarian King himself, Jon’Han vas Jeon. The king had been adamant in including more qualified experts on universal history, science and technology than man power and muscle. A stark contrast with the human queen, Im Chungha, whose sole interest was in conquering any habitable planet in their path, regardless of the means. Therefore, the best soldiers and strategists were chosen and amongst them, the smartest scholars.
That was five starlight years ago.
“We need to leave before the angarian finds out.” A hooded figure approached. Namjoon closed his eyes again and stood still, trailing the movements of his captors.
“He’s a hybrid.” Another accomplice spit. “What can he do? Kill us with kindness?”
“Don’t underestimate them.” A different voice joined, his step heavier than the others. Namjoon was certain with the way a hush and tension descended the room, this individual was their leader. “The angarians were enslaved in the past. They may be liberal with their emotions, but they do not trust any other alien race but their own.”
Namjoon found himself especially keen on this. His words rang true among the crew, and to him; Yoongi was, despite his mixed heritage, the moodiest out of the bunch. Not to mention the one who took the longest to adapt when dealing with a crew made out of a variety of races and cultures unlike his.
Considering that they were careful enough to bypass their security as well as their staff without the captain’s knowledge - someone they already believed paranoid and distrustful enough to have sensors and firewalls up his sleeve - and fool him all at once; Namjoon concluded this wasn’t a mere passing criminal that they were dealing with.
A shutter opened, and more footsteps followed after their leader. “We’ve secured the perimeter, Commander.” a voice with robotic inflection interrupted.”The angarian doesn’t register on our coordinates. But he has not left the premises. Would you like us to proceed with the plan?”
“Have a few of you stay here.” he ordered.”the rest will come with me and our hosts over here.”
It didn’t take a genius to know that for hosts, he referred to them.
“Noted.”
The bandits shuffled around. Despairingly, Namjoon felt his body become lifted off the ground again. And then, silence.
A shooting could be heard from the distance. The bandits bolted for their guns, Namjoon could hear their ragged breathing and cursing after an explosion blasted through the room, and the salarian was propelled to the floor once more.
Namjoon groaned at the hit, pain coursing through his body. He allowed himself to open up his eyes anew, coughing up the smoke. He seeked a weapon of any kind, dragging his body with as much stealth as he could in the dark. He bumped into what he correctly inferred as a leg and stopped in his tracks with his heart on his throat.
“Bet you didn’t think I was alive, eh?” said the voice that belonged to the limb. Namjoon recognized it at once.
“Yoongi?” a hoarse Namjoon asked.
The angarian chuckled to himself and kneeled, wrapping an arm under his shoulders, he helped Namjoon up. The salarian couldn’t distinguish Yoongi properly through the shadows, but he was positive it was him and someone else.
“Are we done, or is there more people?” His companion said, tensing Namjoon on the spot. It sounded eerily like someone he used to know…
“Who’s that?” Namjoon dared to ask.
Yoongi didn’t respond and instead, he pushed Namjoon onto this person’s hold. He wasn’t taller than Namjoon, and yet of similar build. Maybe he wasn’t who he thought he was, Namjoon contemplated. There was something about them that didn’t feel right. “Don’t let him out of your sight. We need to leave before the others wake. Are you the only one conscious, Joon?” inquired Yoongi in a rush.
“Yes.” coughed Namjoon, rubbing his eyes. “I’m not sure if the others are here or not, I wasn’t really able to tell.”
“We’ll get them later.” pressed Yoongi. “Let’s go. We don’t have a lot of time-”
Amidst the mist, a clatter bounced off the ground. It trudged until it reached Yoongi’s feet, prompting the alien to look down. “What the-”
A hatch opened, and a burst of white energy lit up the place, driving Namjoon once more to the wall. It obliterated the mist of shadow and smoke that Yoongi’s detonator had created, allowing them a clearer view.
If it wasn’t because he’d cushioned his fall on Yoongi’s companion, Namjoon would have had a concussion by now.
He was getting tired of this.
“Well, that was exciting.”
Namjoon looked up, and got reminded of all of the things he had to go through before he became a member of the hyperion, the ark ultimately assembled by the one and only influential leader of the human race, whose disappearance had become the mystery of the galaxy for longer than a century.
He was merely a scholar, interested in the present, the past and the future of generations; an engineer, a scientist and an inventor that dedicated his entire life in investigating the possibility of altering reality and navigating alternate universes parallel to his own. He’d been made a fool by his peers, believed as mad and naive to even research the impossible through theories brought upon their ancestors. He’d made discoveries of other galaxies, created technology beyond anyone’s imagination that made dozens of breakthroughs in the production, transmission and application of energy. He became recognized, awarded as the pioneer of science and advocate of transformation energy. No longer looked down upon, and most definitely, recognized across Andromeda. All because one person; a mere anonymous donor, funded his dreams.
And he was standing right in front of him.
Namjoon sucked a breath.“Your highness?”
The veiled figure removed his hood, revealing a quarian helmet. Under normal circumstances, the helmet wouldn’t have come off. However, the prince was a half, and therefore had a higher immunity than those of his race with unaltered genetics. Their dressing, which included their helmet and a highly sophisticated cybernetically augmented suit, protected them against pathogens and microbes; serving both as a barrier and an enhancement of the biological traits they lacked.
The opaque crystal parted, and dark, long locks framed humanoid, boy-ish smile and crinkled, ink eyes that Namjoon couldn’t have mistaken as anyone else’s but their royalty’s.
“Does it surprise you that much, Namjoon?” Jungkook waved a hand against Namjoon’s starstruck, paling face.