Archive of Our Own

Sunoo’s chest feels tight, his body stiff. His lungs burn as he tries to pull in air, but that makes the weight on his chest only more apparent.

His ears ring as he drags his eyes open, only to be met with a face full of soft hair, and some confusingly dim, claustrophobic surroundings.

It’s quickly obvious that the body on top of him is Riki—the dark hair, his earthy scent, and most importantly, the intense weight of his body is unmistakable, his vibranium skeleton like a deadweight keeping Sunoo pinned. He’s unmoving, but breathing, warm puffs of air against Sunoo’s neck.

Sunoo tries to move his hands, but one is pinned under Riki’s body, and when he moves the other their surroundings shift, so he immediately stops.

He suddenly feels very awake.

They’re surrounded, in very close quarters, by rock debris. Trapped under something that looks to have exploded or collapsed around them. Riki must have covered him to protect him.

It’s as touching as it is terrifying. If Riki doesn’t wake up, he’s going to crush Sunoo anyway. It’s getting harder and harder to pull in air as the weight of Riki and the debris around them press down on him.

“Riki,” he wheezes, moving his hand slightly to touch Riki’s side, too afraid to jostle him in case of injury. All he can do is prod, but Riki doesn’t rouse at all.

His head hurts, and every drag of air into his lungs burns. They need to get out of here—Riki is strong, but he’s not indestructible. He could well be suffocating too.

It’s Sunoo’s turn to save them.

He twitches his fingertips, summoning his magic. Though he has the most unpredictable power of all of them, he also has the most versatile. Pushing off the debris should be easy, if he can only gather enough energy to power the push.

Only… there’s nothing. As unruly as his ability might be, it’s never not come to him when he calls it.

His stomach drops, and he tries again, feeling sick. But his magic is simply not there. He’s completely empty.

Panic washes over him.

“Riki,” he tries again, forcing the word out as loud as he can, but it’s choked, and he’s left struggling for air. Riki doesn’t move.

Something has happened—his brain feels scrambled, he can’t remember how they got here, has no idea how his ability could just be gone like this—and whatever has happened, it might just kill them both.

He grabs Riki’s side, digging his fingers in as hard as he can. He needs to wake up. He could get them out of here. Where are the others? They must be close by—

Sunghoon! he cries out in his mind. He’s always listening, will always respond when they need him. Hyung, you need to help us, please, bring the others. We’re going to die here.

A long pause. Sunoo can hear his heartbeat in his ears. No reply.

Something is really wrong.

Sunghoon! Please!

He tries to lift his leg to see if he can kick Riki, but it only results in the debris shifting around them, and he’s petrified it will bring everything down on them. Riki is already hurt, he could be seriously injured. If Sunoo brings the rubble further down on them, he could be impaled, they could be crushed quicker—

Willing desperately for his magic to come to him, for Sunghoon to hear him, he tries to summon his ability and cry out in his mind at the same time. Something has to work—they can’t be abandoned here—without his team, his power, he doesn’t know what to do, he’s helpless here, and they’re going to die—

They’re coming. Stay calm. Sunghoon’s mind-voice cuts through his panic, and Sunoo could cry for relief. They’re coming.

Hyung! We haven’t got long! I can’t get us out! My power—I don’t know, it’s gone—

His head pulses with pain. There’s no response. What the hell is going on?

Overhead, there’s movement, and Sunoo turns his face into Riki’s hair. He feels so vulnerable without his magic—it’s been a part of him for so long that the world suddenly seems much more deadly without it.

“Sunoo?” Heeseung’s voice calls. A chunk of rock is slowly pulled away, and it lets in a little light above them. “Riki?”

Of their team, Heeseung is the strongest after Riki. He’s also meticulous—he’s not about to let them get crushed under here if he can help it. But this sort of thing isn’t typically his role. He’s a fighter by nature, can take on ten men at once in a bare-fisted fight, could mow down a hundred with weapons.

The typical members called to deal with a collapse like this would be himself, Riki, or Sunghoon. Another wave of anxiety washes over him—what has happened to Sunghoon? Where is he?

“We’re nearly through to you!” Jungwon shouts. “Are you okay?”

He tries to call back, but his vision is swimming, and he’s pretty sure he’s about to pass out. He focuses on taking in as much air as he can. Sunghoon? Are you there?

Nothing.

He’s pretty sure he’s in and out of consciousness by the time Jungwon and Heeseung get through to them, because he can’t pinpoint the exact moment they’re freed from the collapsed rock. He can pinpoint the moment they roll Riki off him, because it’s like breathing for the first time. He forgot his lungs could be so full, and he takes in so much air at once he chokes on it.

“Take it easy,” Jungwon says, rubbing his shoulder. “Breathe with me, okay? In, slowly—and out—yeah, good. Are you hurt anywhere?”

“Riki? Riki,” Heeseung is saying beside them, feeling his pulse, trying to shake him awake.

“I’m fine,” Sunoo gasps, sitting up to look at Riki. “Is he hurt?”

“Doesn’t look like it. Just knocked out by the impact,” Heeseung says. “Can you give him a bit of help?”

Sunoo swallows. His magic usually extends to things like basic healing, emotional soothing, and in situations like this, the equivalent of smelling salts. Again, he tries to pull his ability through his fingertips, but it feels like there is a cavern within him where his power used to sit.

“I can’t.”

Heeseung looks at him sharply. “Why?”

“It’s gone,” he says helplessly. “I couldn’t move the debris, I can’t do anything. It’s like my power is just… gone.”

“It can’t be gone,” Jungwon says, frowning. “Abilities don’t just disappear like that.”

“What happened in here?” Heeseung asks. “Did you destroy the stone?”

Sunoo shuts his eyes. The least he can do is try to remember. But his mind is still fragmented, pulsing with pain—it’s hard to think straight.

All he remembers is that they came to this series of caverns to destroy the reality stone, before a dangerous alien, the symbiote, could get to it first and claim its power. The mission was to get Sunoo and Sunghoon to the final cavern room—between his magic and Sunghoon’s telekinesis, they were the only ones with a chance of destroying the stone.

He remembers there were tricks and traps along the way—things they could handle, but that split up the team as they progressed.

In the end, it was only himself and Sunghoon in the final cavern, which is where they’re sitting now, part of the ceiling above them gaping and broken.

But there’s no power stone here. And no Sunghoon.

“I’m sorry,” he says quietly. “I can’t remember.”

“You must have destroyed it,” Jungwon says. “Something huge happened, something powerful enough to bring the ceiling down on you, and there’s no stone here now.”

“Where is Sunghoon?” he asks, fear suddenly returning. He’s nowhere to be seen. “He should know, he was with me.”

“He was here?” Heeseung asks, eyebrows raised.

“He was, I saw them enter together,” Jungwon says. “I was hoping you would know, Sunoo. He’s not here.”

Sunoo gets shaky legs under him, standing to look around the cavern properly. But there’s nowhere he could possibly be hidden—the debris has been cleared, and the rest of the room is an empty circle, no doors, no way out but the gap in the cavern wall where they entered.

“What about Jake, Jay? Are they okay?” he asks, voice wobbling.

“Jake got knocked down pretty bad, Jay is staying with him. They’re in the cavern with the trap doors.”

“And you’re sure you didn’t see Sunghoon leave?”

“He wouldn’t leave you here alone,” Jungwon says, assured.

Beside Heeseung, Riki groans, head lolling to one side as his eyes slide open.

“Hey, kid. You’re back with us?” Heeseung asks, squeezing his arm.

“Hyung,” he grunts. “Why do I feel like shit?”

“You saved my life,” Sunoo says softly. “Do you remember?”

Riki blinks at him, then looks over at the pile of rubble. “The ceiling… it was coming down on you.”

“You ran to cover me, didn’t you?”

Riki only nods. “I knew you wouldn’t stop it in time.”

Sunoo gets to his knees and hugs him, overcome. He would’ve died without Riki.

“Riki, did you see what caused the ceiling to fall?” Heeseung asks. “Did you see if Sunghoon was here?”

Sunoo pulls away to watch Riki’s response.

“Yeah, he was in here. I was trying to get to both of them, I thought the cavern was going to come down on them both. Sunoo-hyung was destroying the stone, and it was so strong…” He looks around. “Where is he? Sunghoon-hyung—did he—”

“We cleared all the rubble, he didn’t get trapped,” Jungwon reassures him.

“Then where is he?” he presses, standing even as Heeseung puts a hand on his arm. “He was here, I saw him. He wouldn’t have left us under there.”

“We don’t know,” Heeseung says, and his voice is heavy. “I was calling out to him in my mind when we were clearing the rubble, it could’ve been done ten times quicker with his help. But he didn’t respond. It’s not like him—I don’t know what happened, but I don’t think he’s here.”

“He responded to me,” Sunoo says, and they all look at him. “Just once. I was calling for him telepathically too, but he spoke back. He said, they’re coming, stay calm.”

“Are you sure it was him, and you weren’t just oxygen deprived?” Jungwon asks. “I don’t think he’s here.”

“I know what his mind-voice is like, it was him.”

“Then why wouldn’t he come and help? Why wouldn’t he respond to anything else?”

Sunoo shrugs helplessly. “Maybe he’s in trouble.”

“But where could he be?” Riki asks again, and they all look around the cavern as if it will give them answers.

“Maybe the stone did something to him before it was destroyed,” Heeseung says, like it pains him to say. “Took him somewhere, or changed him—it has the power of all reality…”

“Sunoo’s power is gone too,” Jungwon says, and Riki looks at him with wide eyes. “That’s not a coincidence.”

“Let’s get out of here so we can think clearly,” Heeseung says. “He’s not here, we can see that. Maybe he’s in one of the other caverns, somehow. You’re both injured, maybe something will come back to you after some rest.”

It feels wrong to leave the last place anyone saw him alive. Sunghoon can’t be far—Sunoo heard him, he’s sure of it. His telepathy only works up to a few miles.

Heeseung is right. Something must’ve happened with the stone. It can alter reality at will, and something that powerful could’ve easily been putting up a fight before it was destroyed, especially if Sunghoon was further in the cavern as Riki described, closer to the stone.

But the stone is destroyed now. So where could Sunghoon possibly be?

He follows after Heeseung, reluctant to admit he’s right. There’s no point waiting here for more of the cavern to come in on them, with no stone, no clues to work from, and several of them injured.

Their safe house isn’t far from here. They need to regroup and make a plan.

💎

Riki carries Jake all the way back to their safe house, a black cloud over the group the whole way—metaphorically, not thanks to Jay’s power.

Again, Sunoo feels useless without his magic, unable to help Jake wake up or ease his pain. He’s got a wound to the head that has spilt blood down one side of his face, and Jungwon is adamant that if he doesn’t wake up in the next few hours, they’ll fly him back to headquarters to get patched up.

As a shapeshifter, Jake can’t heal serious wounds, but he’s more resilient to them than most. He’s come back from wounds they were sure would kill him before—but that only makes him more reckless on the field. The real test will be how lucid he is when he wakes up.

The safe house is large enough for all of them, and remote enough that they don’t see anyone else on their trudge through the woods, thankfully. Sunoo is no longer capable of making strangers look the other way from the bleeding man over Riki’s shoulder.

As soon as Riki places Jake on a bed, Heeseung whisks Riki away to give him a check over, and Jungwon stays only long enough to help clean the blood off Jake before he goes to clean himself up too. Jay gently insists he checks over Sunoo, but neither of them particularly want to leave Jake alone, so Jay inspects his eyes, tests his memory, and cleans his cuts and scrapes from the wooden chairs in Jake’s room.

“Jungwon told me about your power,” Jay says after a while, and Sunoo swallows.

“What do you make of it?”

Jay shrugs. “I’ve never heard of that before—your mutant gene can’t just disappear, or turn off. I’ve heard of people getting burnout with their powers, though, when they find it really hard to use them for a while if they’ve overdone it. It’s probably just that. You must’ve put a lot of power into destroying the stone.”

“I would’ve died under that rubble if the others weren’t there. Riki too, probably. How could my own ability abandon me in a situation like that?”

“But the team was there for you. You did your part of the mission, and the others came for you. That’s always how it is, always how it will be.”

“But Sunghoon,” he says, because sitting here and waiting for Jake to wake up while Sunghoon remains missing is making him antsier with every passing minute. They have no idea where to begin finding him, especially when they’re all out of sorts themselves. “It’s weird he disappeared at the same time as my powers, isn’t it?”

“Maybe you were both affected by the power of the stone,” Jay says quietly. “But I don’t want to go down that route yet. I don’t think we’ll find any answers we like there.”

Sunoo doesn’t get a chance to consider this before Jake jerks on the bed in front of them, and Jay stands to attention immediately. Unfortunately, that only puts him directly in the line of fire when Jake rolls over and vomits off the side of the mattress.

“Oh!” Sunoo exclaims, backing up immediately to grab the trash can from the corner and shove it at Jake.

He shakes his head in refusal, brow furrowed—he’s coughing now, but looks like he only had the one sick-up in him.

“Go, I got him,” Sunoo says, gesturing for Jay to get cleaned up. “Jakey, just hold on a minute while I get this cleaned up.”

Jake lies back down as Sunoo goes through the house for a basin and cloth. Even if it’s not the nicest job, he’s glad he can finally do something of value.

“What happened?” Jake asks blearily as Sunoo is finishing off wiping the floor.

“What do you remember?” he asks lightly.

“We went into the caverns, right? I don’t know, after that.”

“Yeah, you took a nasty fall through a false floor, I heard. We’d been split up, traversing the caverns. Your cut is pretty deep, and you’ve been unconscious for over an hour, we were getting worried. How do you feel?”

“My head really hurts. I think my vision is kinda blurry, too.”

Sunoo hums. “You should stay in bed for a little while, I can get you some painkillers.”

“I’ll be okay,” he says, going to sit up, but Sunoo puts a hand on his shoulder.

“Please, try to get better. I think Jungwon might ask me to take you back to headquarters if your symptoms keep up.”

“Why would he ask you? Did you destroy the stone already?”

“Umm…” he chuckles without mirth. “We think so. I don’t really remember what happened. But Jake… Sunghoon is missing. So is my power, along with my memory from the final cavern.”

Jake stares at him, mouth agape. “Sunghoon is missing? What do you mean?”

“He’s just… gone. Riki and I got trapped under some rubble, and by the time Heeseung and Jungwon got us free, we didn’t know where he was or what to make of it. I don’t want to leave yet, not without him.”

“At least a few of us will have to stay,” Jay’s voice says from the door, and they both turn to look at him, now clean of vomit. “We still have to find the symbiote. We’re expecting it to come through here at any time.”

He’s right—their mission did not end at simply finding the stone. It would only be done once they catch the symbiote that is after it. That’s probably where Jungwon had gone already—his super speed makes him the best candidate to patrol the forest around the caverns without being seen.

The tricky part of catching the symbiote is that it is a parasite—an entity jumping between different host bodies to survive—so it could look like anything or anyone. It wanted the stone in the first place to build a body of its own. The remote hiding place of the stone is the only thing working in their favour of catching this thing.

“If Sunghoon is missing, we can’t split up,” Jake says, though his emphasis is dulled by the way he slightly lists to one side, words a little slurred. “And if Sunoo’s power is gone, we can’t leave on our own. We’ll be fine until the mission is done.”

“If you’re arguing with me, you can’t be hit too badly,” Jay agrees, and Sunoo smiles a little. “But that won’t be up to me. It’s up to Jungwon.”

“Well, I’ll tell him,” Jake says, and Sunoo reaches out to brush his hair out of his eyes. It’s a relief to see Jake full of spirit, even if he’s still in pain.

“Yeah, you tell him,” he says softly. “I’m sorry I can’t help you feel better, Jakey.”

“Don’t be sorry. I can take care of myself. Let’s see what info we have on the stone, and see if we can make any guesses about where Sunghoon might be, and your power.”

“After you’ve rested,” Jay says sternly. “Take an hour to lie down first. Tell us if your symptoms get worse, either of you.”

Sunoo feels a little watery-eyed. His team always knows what to do.

“Yes, Dad.”

“I’m serious, Jake!”

💎

“Come on,” Sunghoon says, taking Sunoo by the wrist to hurry him along towards the cavern.

Jungwon and Riki have just broken off from the two of them to take on the stone gargoyles that have come to life around the large cavern space.

Sunoo can only hope this is the final cavern in the string they’ve come through—it’s just him and Sunghoon left, now. While they can take care of themselves, they’ve already split up too much of the team to get here.

Sunghoon releases his hand to step through the narrow gap, and Sunoo follows after him.

Only when he steps through the cavern entrance, he’s in Jake’s room back at the safe house. It’s dim, only lit by the moonlight through the half-open window. There are two figures sleeping on the bed.

One is Jake. The other is Sunoo himself, curled up towards the edge of the bed. In his hand, there is a glowing red… something.

Sunghoon is no longer standing in front of him, but sitting cross-legged on the floor beside the bed, watching him sleep.

Sunoo, his mind voice says. I don’t understand why I’m here.

Sunoo. Please hear me. I don’t know what to do.

“Where are you?” he asks, and Sunghoon’s head whips around to look at him, other him, standing in the bedroom doorway.

“Sunoo,” he says aloud, as if surprised it actually worked. “I’m here.”

“Where?”

Sunghoon gestures around them. “Here. But not here. I don’t know. But you’ve done it, I’m sure.”

His heart stutters. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

“I don’t know why, though. I think it’s still alive.”

“What?”

“Look.” Sunghoon points at the glowing red thing cradled in the sleeping Sunoo’s hand. Now that he looks properly, he realises it’s the reality stone. “Remember?”

Sunoo steps closer to himself, reaching out to touch the stone. The power of it is still very much alive, thrumming through him, warm to the touch.

“I don’t think you should trust anyone else too much right now,” Sunghoon says, and that’s what makes Sunoo look at him sharply.

“What?”

“It’s still alive,” Sunghoon says.

Sunoo wakes up, disoriented. He’s standing at the door to Jungwon’s bedroom. With a start, he becomes aware Riki is standing in the bathroom doorway across the hall, watching him.

“Are you awake?” he asks, and Sunoo pinches himself.

“I think so.”

“I didn’t know you sleepwalked.”

Sunoo looks back at Jungwon’s closed door. “Neither did I.”

💎

The next day, everyone sits around their kitchen table and pores over all the notes they have on the reality stone, as well as the symbiote and the area of South America they have found themselves, the remote middle of nowhere the stone has been hidden for thousands of years.

On the inside, Sunoo is losing hope the longer they research. As soon as he heard that Heeseung has read through every word of this already, he knew that their eldest and wisest teammate would’ve been able to summon any relevant information in an instant. The more Sunoo reads, the more he knows it’s useless. It’s not going to get them any closer to finding Sunghoon.

But it’s the only lead they have.

He doesn’t talk about the dream from last night, but his mind does restlessly fixate on it. It means something—he knows it does. It was too… specific. Too real. And he never sleepwalks.

But Sunghoon’s words ring in his mind, telling him not to mention it, not to trust anyone too much. Sunghoon’s message is for him to figure out for now, even if the pounding headache he’s had since the cavern collapse makes it hard for him to think straight.

They’re there for hardly an hour before Riki stands from his seat abruptly, scraping it back on the hard floor.

“I’m going to look for him.”

“He’s not out there,” Jungwon says, raising his head. “Trust me, I’m patrolling every inch of this forest, the surrounding towns, everything. If he was there, I would’ve found him.”

“I don’t care,” Riki says, going over for his leather jacket and shoes. “I need to do something.”

“Researching is helping,” Jay insists. “There’s something else at play here, and we need all hands on deck to figure it out.”

“Come and sit down,” Heeseung says placatingly. “We need to stick together. Jungwon is right, he would’ve found something if Sunghoon was nearby.”

“Maybe I can sniff him out,” Riki says, stomping his shoes into place. “It’s worth a try.”

“You’re not going back to the caverns,” Jungwon says, leader voice on. “Not without the team, it’s too dangerous.”

Riki stops at the door, turning back to look at Jungwon.

Sunoo watches, swallowing. Riki is never one to disobey an order—he trusts the team more than anything. But he looks like he’s straining with the need to go—and Sunoo thinks he knows why.

“It’s not your fault,” he says gently. “You know that, right? You already saved my life in there, you couldn’t have reached us both.”

Riki freezes, whole body tense. His eyes bore into Sunoo, as the rest of the room remains quiet.

“I thought you would save him,” he says eventually. “I thought that’s what you were doing, why you couldn’t protect yourself—”

He cuts himself off, searching Sunoo’s face. Sunoo feels like he’s been gutted, and every second they spend looking at each other twists the knife further.

He leaves the house and slams the door behind him.

“I’ll talk to him,” Jungwon says, standing, glancing over at Sunoo. “He didn’t mean that. That’s just his own guilt talking. He’s taking it hard.” Then he’s gone in a whoosh of air.

Someone is reaching out to pat his hand. Belatedly, he realises it’s Jake, who shouldn’t even be out of bed, but he had insisted on helping out. Sunoo’s mouth twists as he tries not to cry.

“Don’t mind him, Sunoo,” Heeseung says gently. “He’ll come around.”

“You know it wasn’t your fault either, right?” Jake says, hesitantly. “Whatever happened…”

“How can you know that?” Sunoo asks quietly. “A magical boy enters a cave with a telepathic teammate and a magical stone, and comes out with no stone, no magic, and no teammate. The fact that I’m the only thing that survived and I don’t have any memory of it should make you all a lot more suspicious of me right now.”

“You’d never do anything to hurt Sunghoon,” Jay says, and there’s no trace of doubt in his voice. “If something happened, it happened to both of you. You don’t have your memories either—something tried to scrape that whole room of life, but you got out. You’ll be the one to figure it out, I’m sure of it.”

Sunoo wipes his eyes and sighs. He considers, again, telling the others about his dream. He can’t make sense of it, and he feels awfully like time is running out…

“Actually,” Heeseung says, clearing his throat. “I heard this myth about the stone from an Asgardian when I was doing mission prep.”

Sunoo raises his head, watches Heeseung’s face go through a few different emotions. “What?”

“That it requires a sacrifice,” he says quietly. “To destroy it, or use it, something must be sacrificed.”

The room goes deadly still. “Don’t you think you should’ve mentioned that before we went to destroy it?” Jake says, voice caught between shock and horror.

“I asked multiple others about that myth, they hadn’t heard of it. I thought it was a—a distillation of the core myths, a family variant, it just became a footnote on the main research…”

Sunoo screws his eyes shut, clasping his hands together. “No.”

They go quiet again, before Heeseung says, “I’m only saying it so you know that—if, if somehow that is true…”

“It’s not,” he says, standing now as abruptly as Riki did before. “You would never have let us go if you believed that was true.”

Heeseung’s eyes look round and sad. “We didn’t have a choice.”

Sunoo turns away, leaving the table. He doesn’t want to hear this anymore.

💎

He steps over dewy grass. It must be dawn, because the sky is a pale pink.

“Hyung?” he calls out. The forest is strangely alive, trees rustling like they’re whispering.

He feels as though someone is following him, but when he turns around, no one is there. The forest seems to go on endlessly.

“Sunoo,” Sunghoon’s voice whispers, and Sunoo whips his head around, searching for him.

“Hyung, where are you?”

“He’s following you,” Sunghoon says, and the trees rustle agitatedly, and the sky grows dark. Sunoo feels so powerless, and so lost. Wherever he looks, he can’t see Sunghoon, and he can’t see anyone following him.

“There’s no one!” he cries, but gets no response. “How do I find you?” If Sunghoon won’t come to him, there must be something he can do.           

“I think it wants me dead first,” Sunghoon says, and there’s the snap of a twig behind him.

Sunoo blinks, and his brain takes a few seconds to understand where he is. The forest is pale with early morning light, but the trees are still.

Someone is walking up to him, and Sunoo startles.

“It’s just me,” Jungwon says, hands up, and Sunoo breathes out. “You were sleepwalking. I wanted to make sure you didn’t hurt yourself.”

He rubs a hand down his face. His persistent headache hasn’t lessened with time or painkillers, and his lack of sleep isn’t helping. “I’m sorry for waking you up.”

Jungwon shakes his head. “You didn’t. Were you dreaming of Sunghoon?”

He nods, scratching the back of his head. “Jungwon… we can’t leave yet. Please give us more time here. There’s something going on I don’t understand yet, but I’m getting closer.”

Jungwon studies him. “We can’t stay here forever.”

“I’m not asking for forever. Just long enough for us to pull ourselves together.”

Jungwon nods. “If Jake gets worse, he needs a doctor. If he gets better, we can stay until he’s properly on his feet again.”

Sunoo exhales. “Thank you.” He goes to walk back up the forest to the house, but Jungwon doesn’t move, watching him.

“Is there something you want to tell me about?”

Sunoo feels cold, out in the forest in his pyjamas. He shivers as Jungwon looks at him with all the intensity of a leader.

“You know I’ll tell the group as soon as I have anything.”

Jungwon studies him. Sunoo meets his gaze, and after a couple of seconds, Jungown nods. “We should get back inside.”

💎

He decides to confide in Jake while he’s in the process of changing his bandages. It seems like a good idea at the time, encouraging him to strike the right balance of unwell in front of Jungwon to help them bide their time, and also getting his weird dream situation off his chest.

That’s before Jake opens his big mouth.

“What if you killed him back in the cavern?”

Sunoo stares at him, and Jake goes a little pale.

“Wait, I didn’t mean to say it like that. What I meant was, maybe something happened to him in the cavern explosion, and you’ve like, repressed the memory. Can you be sure these visits are connected to your power? His power? Both?”

“How could I be sure of that?”

“Can you feel it?”

“I can’t feel anything, they’re dreams.”

“Well, if they’re dreams, how do we know they’re not trauma dreams?”

“This is not helpful.”

“Right,” Jake agrees, slumping. “Sorry. I don’t really get how your powers work, so…”

Sunoo’s mouth twists. He’d been hoping bringing his weird visions to one of the others might help him understand why he’s been having them, but the person most likely to understand something like that would be Sunghoon. Nobody else deals in matters of the mind, the meta-physical.

“I think they are connected to my powers, somehow,” he says slowly. “When I’m in the dreams, everything feels… charged. Real. Not like a proper dream.”

“Maybe your magic is trying to tell you something? Or help you remember what happened? Or maybe it’s helping you reach out to Sunghoon from further away, and he’s been, like… zapped somewhere else…”

“Zapped,” Sunoo sighs, finishing off securing his bandage as Jake squares up.

“We’ve seen weirder.”

“Anything is possible,” he admits.

Heeseung enters the room then, and they both look up at him.

“Ah, here you are. Can you guys come to the kitchen? Jay thinks he’s found something.”

Sunoo stands, following Heeseung without another word. Jake trails after them, looking adequately pitiful for the sake of extending their stay as long as possible.

“What have you found?” Sunoo asks as soon as they enter, coming to stand behind Jay at the kitchen table. He has papers spread out all over it, sticky notes peppering the files.

“It’s not about the reality stone,” he starts, apologetic. “I’ve been focusing on the symbiote, I think it must have something to do with this. Maybe it was hiding in the cavern, and it took Sunghoon, something like that? We only know so much how it works, and we’ve still seen no sign of it since arriving. So I was looking into what we have about this thing. The only encounters HQ have ever had with it, they couldn’t find any method to extract it from a host, except for one. If it doesn’t want to come out, it won’t. But—did you know this, Sunoo?—Sunghoon was the only one who was able to identify the symbiote in a host body and extract it. It blends in so well with the personality of its host, it can hide away indefinitely. Sunghoon’s ability allows him to identify it when nothing else can, short of a brain scan, and is the only way we know of to draw it out from a host.”

“Why wouldn’t they tell us this?” Jungwon says, frowning. “HQ or Sunghoon?”

“It makes sense,” Heeseung says. “If we have that knowledge and then the symbiote possessed one of us, it would make Sunghoon an instant target. Keeping us in the dark allows Sunghoon to be a more effective weapon against the symbiote.”

“Yes,” Jay says slowly. “Maybe I shouldn’t have announced it then.”

“No, that’s good knowledge,” Sunoo says, fingers tracing over the file. “That could explain what happened to him. What if there was something in the cavern with us?”

“If we can figure out what happened to the reality stone, we have a chance of piecing things together,” Jungwon says.

“The symbiote could’ve totally run off with it and Sunghoon,” Jake says. “And we’re all just clueless.”

“No, I saw him in the cavern,” Riki says. “Right before the roof collapse, he was there.”

“And then he was gone,” Heeseung says. “It should be impossible, but we don’t know what this thing is capable of.”

“What could’ve happened in those few seconds?” Jay asks, pained.

No one speaks, and Sunoo slumps into a chair.

💎

“Sunoo. Sunoo, I’m here.”

He peers around the house, but Sunghoon’s voice sounds further into the forest.

It’s hard to say if it’s night or day. The sky is a strange sort of husky red that could be dawn or dusk or a strange meteorological event. There is dew on the grass between his bare toes.

He steps carefully between the rustling trees, looking behind him for any sign of someone watching him, then to the sweeping the forest ahead for any sign of Sunghoon.

“Hyung, please talk to me. I need you.”

“I think I’ve figured it out now,” his voice says, and Sunoo steps around a large old oak to find Sunghoon sitting against it, looking up at Sunoo. “And I don’t think we have much time left to act.”

“Tell me,” he urges, kneeling down beside him. “Tell me how to get to you.”

“It’s not me you should be worried about,” Sunghoon says. “I think it wants you.”

“Explain to me,” he says, desperate. “From the start.”

Sunghoon studies him for a moment. “In the cavern, we discovered the stone. But the symbiote got to it first.”

Sunoo’s heart stills, but deep inside, he’s not shocked. This fear has been just below the surface all along.

“We could see it was in the process of merging with the stone. Maybe it had already absorbed its power, but it was occupied with building a body for itself… we had to act fast, while it was distracted.”

The memory comes back to Sunoo in a crash.

“I can pry it apart from the stone,” Sunghoon says, clutching him as they watch the red-black pulse and swirl of energy that is the symbiote soaking up the power of the stone. “It’s all mind, no body, I can control it with my telepathy. But you have to destroy the stone while I have it, okay?”

Sunoo snaps his head to him. “Can you contain that thing alone?”

Sunghoon nods. “I need to.”

He’s right. They have no other choice.

Sunghoon moves swiftly, raising his hand to channel his ability.

The impact is instant. The symbiote writhes, and an awful, inhuman noise rings out as the black mass is prised away from the red, pulsing glow hovering in the centre of the room.

Sunghoon is grunting and straining to contain this thing with a combination of telekinesis and telepathy, but he’s slowly tearing the red and black apart, until they’re completely separate.

It’s suspended in the air between them, and Sunoo knows he needs to act fast before it can break free.

Only…

The possibility that they would be able to destroy the stone had been a long shot in the first place. No one is sure what can destroy it—but Sunoo’s magic is versatile and powerful enough it was their best bet.

Now, reaching out his ability to touch the stone and gauge its power, he knows he’s far from capable of destroying something like this.

In fact, he doesn’t think anything could destroy the stone—other than the stone itself.

“What is it?” Sunghoon calls, sensing his apprehension, even as his pinkish tendrils of his magic fill the room.

The symbiote attempts to leap at Sunghoon. He’s able to contain it, but barely, as it thrashes in a frenzy. It knows its chances of reaching the stone are slipping away—there’s no time to discuss this. He can’t let this thing touch his team.

“Trust me on this!” he calls out, and Sunghoon nods without hesitation.

Sunoo draws all his power around the stone, and pulls.

He needs to take just enough power to destroy this thing. He knows that—but he doesn’t expect the lure of the stone to be so strong.

It whispers to him as he begins to draw the power into himself. Shows him visions of his future and past with the power of the reality stone at his fingertips.

Sunoo could eradicate any dictatorship with the click of his fingers. He could provide food and healthcare to every corner of the planet. He could bring his sister back from the dead. He could make it so other mutants like him never face hatred for being born differently.

He briefly wonders what the stone showed to the symbiote.

Meeting Sunghoon’s eye through the mist of red swallowing the room brings him back to reality. There’s concern as he watches Sunoo closely, while never taking an eye off the symbiote, keeping it trapped in his telekinetic embrace. But there’s trust, too. He isn’t shouting for help because he knows Sunoo would never become the very thing they’ve formed to protect the planet from.

No one person should have all that power. This is what they came here to stop.

Sunoo needs only enough to destroy this thing.

He releases the stone all at once, testing the build-up of new power in him. It’s heady, the potential it has.

More importantly, it’s enough.

He lashes out, striking right through the stone. It shatters into two, and the symbiote makes that inhuman sound again. The power ricochets out of the stone in every direction, knocking them off their feet.

The next part is a confusing rush.

The power of the stone exploding crashes into the ceiling and walls, cracking the rock. It begins to shift and crumble above them, the start of the rockfall that had buried him.

As this happens, the symbiote breaks free, Sunghoon’s focus knocked askew with the rest of him.

Sunoo realises this—reaches out for Sunghoon with his magic—as the symbiote flits around, moving in a way that’s not quite walking and not quite flying, desperate for a new host.

Sunghoon disappears.

The rocks above them begin to fall, and from the side, Sunoo is grabbed by Riki and pushed to the floor.

He blinks back into the dewy, red forest, where Sunghoon is watching him. Sunoo is frozen still, staring back.

“I—I don’t understand. What happened to you?”

“You protected me from the symbiote. You still are. I think you have… hidden me in the folds of reality, somehow.”

“What?”

“You still have the power of the reality stone in you, Sunoo. Your powers aren’t gone. They’re simply in use, subconsciously. You never wanted to stop protecting me, even when you couldn’t remember what happened.”

His mouth drops open, and he stands slowly, looking up at the red sky around them. “This place… where… is this my magic?”

“I don’t know. But I’ve been here all along, watching you guys. Not close enough to interact, not close enough to speak in your minds. Why do you think you’ve had such a headache all this time? You’ve worked hard.”

He laughs, touching his forehead. He can’t say he’s not relieved—Sunghoon isn’t in some afterlife, he’s not been taken somewhere they can’t follow. He’s been with Sunoo all along.

“How do I get you out if I don’t even know how I’ve got you in here?”

“We have another problem before we can do that.”

Sunoo’s heart sinks. “The symbiote.”

“It’s still here. It’s taken one of our teammates as a new host.”

“No… surely we would be able to tell?”

“I think it’s in hiding. Think about it. It knows that you have the power of the stone. You’re the perfect host, now—you’re powerful enough for it to live inside of you, and it would be able to wield that power through you. It also knows I am powerful enough to separate it from you. It needs to get rid of me before it can take you. But it doesn’t know what happened to me, because you guys don’t know what happened to me. It’s being clever, biding its time to strike, waiting in whoever it managed to possess as the cavern was collapsing.”

His mind spins. That’s something he didn’t consider when absorbing the power of the stone—he would be left with the last remnants of it, and the symbiote was still tracking it down, hungry for it.

One of his team has been held hostage by that thing all this time because of him, and he didn’t even know it…

“We have to find it. It could kill them. It will kill them, if it stays too long.”

“It knows that too. It will be restless. That’s why we need to make a move, soon.”

“Who do you think it is?”

Sunghoon hesitates. “We know that the two in the next room were Jungwon and Riki. They were the closest options, once you were buried under the rubble.”

“But Riki was buried with me. I saw him, I don’t think the symbiote had time to reach him.”

“So much happened in that time. We can’t be sure.”

“Jungwon has been the one doing all the patrols,” he points out. “He’s had the perfect opportunity to look for you. He’s been probing each of us, trying to understand what happened. He’s the one talking about sending Jake home, splitting us up.”

“I don’t know. That’s all typical of Jungwon. We can’t account for where Heeseung was at that moment either, or the other two.”

“It can’t be Jake or Jay, they were several caverns over. It would have gone for the easiest, closest target. It must be Jungwon.”

Sunghoon nods slowly. “We have to act first. Make it reveal itself before it knows where I am. Between us, I can separate it from Jungwon, and you can destroy it.”

Sunoo nods, and it’s like he’s breathing properly for the first time since the cavern. Sunghoon is here, his power is here, and the enemy is within sight. Suddenly, everything that was wrong is close to being right, and this will all be over soon. “We’ll get you back. We can end this.”

“Be careful,” Sunghoon urges him. “This thing is after you, and this power is still new to you. It’s so strong, Sunoo. You’ve always been our strongest, but now even all six of us together wouldn’t stand a chance against you.”

“I’m not going to let this thing hurt us anymore, Hyung.”

Sunghoon nods. “Me neither.”

💎

The memory Sunghoon helped him uncover makes everything slot into place.

Now that he knows where to look, he can feel the tug of his magic in constant motion, hiding Sunghoon in plain sight. He knows just how to pull the curtain at the right moment, unleash him as their secret weapon against the symbiote.

The only thing left is the perfect setting for a confrontation, to free Jungwon from the monster posing under his skin without anyone getting hurt.

He makes the decision to confide in Jake and Jay, the two he’s most certain can’t be possessed by the symbiote. He needs backup to help contain the situation, should the symbiote lash out. It already has Jungwon hostage—they need every advantage possible.

“You’re saying Sunghoon is stuck in your head?” Jay hisses.

“And Jungwon is possessed?” Jake says, louder than Sunoo would like, so he puts a hand over Jake’s mouth.

They’re only standing cramped in the bathroom together. He doesn’t know what sort of super-hearing this thing might have—but desperate times call for desperate measures.

“Not for much longer. Sunghoon is going to get that thing out of him, but it’s bound to fight back. You’ll help me, right?”

“Of course,” Jay says immediately. “But are we sure the symbiote is still alive? What if it was crushed in the rockfall too?”

“We’ll know for sure when Sunghoon gets here to remove that thing from his mind. But we need to be in a strong position for that, right? I need you guys to hold him so he doesn’t run. If he runs, it’s over for us, none of us can stop him.”

Jake and Jay agree to the plan quickly, and it’s a relief. After that, it’s a waiting game.

Jungwon is out to patrol all morning, and they stay waiting for him in the kitchen, the first room inside the house. When Heeseung wanders in to make some lunch, he looks between them scrutinisingly. Riki trails behind him, apparently waiting for someone else to take action on cooking first. He also catches the weird energy in the room, but doesn’t let it pass by like Heeseung.

“What are you guys waiting for?”

“Jungwon,” Jay answers, and Sunoo catches his eye.

“Just wait with us, both of you,” he says, as Heeseung glances between them. “You’ll see.” It’s better to have them all here in case things go south.

It doesn’t take long for Jungwon to appear in their kitchen in a flash, rattling the cutlery in the drawers with his speed, because it doesn’t take long for Jungwon to do anything. Jake and Jay, hardly ever capable of subtlety, stand to attention almost immediately.

Along with all eyes in the room on him, this of course alerts Jungwon straight away.

“What’s going on?” he asks, looking between them. “Did you find something?”

“Yes,” Sunoo says, standing from his chair carefully, reaching out for the edges of the magical curtain keeping Sunghoon from danger. Now is the moment of truth. “You’ll have to trust us for a minute, okay?”

He nods at Jake and Jay, who each move to grip one of Jungwon’s arms, pulling them behind him. It’s the only way to stop him from running, clamping him in place. He looks back at them like they’ve gone crazy, but doesn’t pull away.

“What’s this? Sunoo?”

“Don’t fight this, okay? We’re gonna get it out of you.”

“Sunoo—” Heeseung starts, and Sunoo tugs on that magical curtain, feels his power rush back into him as Sunghoon steps back into the world.

Sunghoon’s right—he is more powerful than before. His skin feels hot with the flush of new power. He forces himself to focus on the present moment, on the surprise of everyone in the room as Sunghoon reaches a hand out towards Jungwon.

It takes him hardly a second to snap his head around to the others. “It’s not him.”

“What?”

Before he can finish the word, Riki lunges for Sunghoon.

Sunghoon, head already turned his way, sees it coming in enough time to throw himself out of the way, towards Sunoo. Sunoo hits the floor, rolls, and scrambles to his knees.

Riki has caught himself deftly, one knee on the floor, about to leap up and after them again. His long claws are out, glinting under the light.

His eyes are pure black.

Riki is the deadliest creature of them all, even without a parasite inside him. When it comes to brute force, he’s the best option to kill someone quickly and effectively.

And he’s after Sunghoon, the last person they’d put out on the field as a fighter.

Thankfully, everyone picks up on the situation quickly. Sunoo rushes to cover Sunghoon with his body—Sunoo is the last person the symbiote will want to kill, if their theory withstands—while Jungwon zips in to knock Riki off his feet before he can lunge for them again.

Riki growls like an animal, swiping out at Jungwon, who thankfully keeps his distance this time. Riki is fast—maybe fast enough to hurt Jungwon, if he really wanted to.

“Sunghoon,” Sunoo says, because he’s their only chance here. Even with all of them, it will be hard to keep Riki at bay for long without hurting him. Sunghoon needs to separate the symbiote from him, fast. “Heeseung, can you interfere?”

Sunoo summons his magic, but fumbles for the right move to make. The new power in him is overwhelming, and he feels like a beginner again, manifesting his ability for the first time.

He doesn’t want to hurt Riki.

“He’ll shred me,” Heeseung says, wide-eyed as Riki gets to his feet, seeming to tower over them all of a sudden. He hasn’t physically changed beside his eyes, but his stance somehow seems more monstrous now. He’s usually slumping, pouting, lying, lolling, gentle despite his build… seeing him so full of tension, of bloodthirst, is so wrong.

Riki runs for them, and Sunoo reaches out with a rush of power. Just something to contain, restrain.

But it’s too powerful, and too far off—it crashes into the wall of the kitchen, bursting it open. Riki is still approaching, claws out, and Sunoo shoves himself and Sunghoon back, who is still reaching out to reach Riki’s mind.

Heeseung jumps in to knock Riki off-course, but only just in time—Sunoo sees the tips of Riki’s claws reach Sunghoon’s arm, swiping three shallow wounds into his skin.

Heeseung and Riki exchange blows at a speed Sunoo can’t keep up with. Sunghoon staggers away, clamping his hand over his wound as he lifts his hand again towards Riki.

Riki—the symbiote—sees, and slashes out with his claws as if to gut Heeseung, who only just jumps back in time. They’re on unequal ground here—while the symbiote is striking to kill, all they can do is try to contain Riki.

Jungwon dashes for Riki again in a blur of movement, and comes away gasping, clutching his side. Three claw wounds are gaping from his stomach.

Riki grits his teeth, and his veins run black, as finally Sunghoon’s ability looks to make an impact. The black form of the alien comes to the surface, Riki’s face twisted in pain, but—

He’s too close. The symbiote simply jumps away from Riki, and Sunoo holds up a hand to stop him…

The symbiote latches onto him, and snaps back into Sunoo’s body.

The sensation is horrifying. The alien slips under his skin, and all at once his brain is crowded with the base instincts and frantic greed of the thing, merging with him, forcing its way inside him, infecting his mind with its desires and violence.

He hears someone shout. Vaguely sees Riki slump to the floor.

He’s too busy looking inside.

The symbiote is frantic. It knows it still has to stop Sunghoon. They have to stop Sunghoon. Sunghoon will separate them.

It scrambles for his power, Sunoo’s magic, the reality stone’s magic.

His body is moving before he really thinks about it. The symbiote has a hold on him, searching for the way to access his magic—Sunoo is doing all he can to stop it, to protect that part of him, but it’s becoming difficult to remember why he should be doing that—as it takes Sunoo’s physical hands and places them around Sunghoon’s neck.

The force of it knocks them both to the floor, Sunghoon on his back, Sunoo squeezing tight around his neck. Sunghoon scrambles for his hands, looking up at him with wide eyes. He could fling him away in a second using his telekinesis—but he’ll be focused on his telepathy, trying to prise this thing out of Sunoo—they can’t be separated, they can’t—and someone else bodily lifts him away and off Sunghoon. Jay.

Finally, his desires and the symbiote’s are truly aligned. They don’t want to be pulled away from Sunghoon. His magic lashes out, hitting everyone else in the room, pinning them to various walls and surfaces. Jay’s hands are ripped from him.

“Sunoo!” Jake shouts, but Sunoo has no interest in him. He can already feel the grip of Sunghoon’s mental hands at the edges of his mind.

Help me. Push it out, I’ll pull. I know you can hear me, Sunoo.

Sunoo stands, chest heaving, looking down on Sunghoon, still lying on the floor. He reaches out a hand, glowing red.

He could crack his skull open with one flick of the wrist.

I’m not going to fight you. I’m going to fight this thing, and you’re going to help me. On three, push.

He squeezes his fist. Sunghoon’s air stops in his chest, but he stays resolutely looking up at Sunoo.

One.

All it would take is one twist of his hand to stop his heart.

Two.

That’s what we want!

Three.

He can feel Sunghoon pull at the symbiote. Sunoo stays frozen in place, and he watches as his veins run black.

You should’ve run, he tells the creature. You could’ve convinced me of that. But you could never make me kill him.

Sunoo pushes.

The symbiote bursts from him, that inhuman sound filling the kitchen, and Sunoo reaches out to finally contain, restrain, suppress.

A glowing red box of magic begins to squash the creature, further and further, and Sunoo strains and strains, trying not to burn out before he can seal it. The creature fights back, thrashing at the constraints, but then Sunghoon begins to push it down with him.

They seal the magical container together, and it drops to the floor, a solid black box, exactly square, glinting like marble.

The red magic buzzing through the room cuts out all at once. It’s all the warning he gets before he sways to the side—familiar hands catch him—and he slumps against a safe hold, consciousness leaving him.

💎

He wakes up with great effort, head pounding. The room is dark, and he belatedly realises he’s in his bedroom. Someone—Jay? Is sitting in the seat beside his bed, but it looks like he’d nodded off at some point, head lolling on his chest.

He sits up slowly, body aching, but nothing feels seriously injured. It’s dark outside—how long was he asleep?

It comes back all at once. Riki—the thing inside him—Sunghoon on the floor…

He stands, wobbles in place, but pushes through the slight dizziness to step towards the door, Jay remaining asleep.

The house is quiet. He opens up Riki’s door, and finds him laying on his bed too, deeply asleep.

“What are you doing up?” Sunghoon’s voice says quietly, and for a moment, Sunoo thinks he’s back in one of his dreams.

Then he sees him, shifting where he’s sitting under the window, next to the head of Riki’s bed. They must’ve been on watch in case the symbiote wasn’t all out, or their bodies were about to react badly and give up like so many of the other symbiote’s hosts.

“I wanted to check on him. And you.”

Sunoo will be fine—the symbiote was in him for hardly a minute. It’s gone, he knows that. But Riki had it for days.

Riki is stronger than most, though. Sunoo knows he won’t keel over and die over something like an alien possession. But that doesn’t change the fact he’s been hurting.

And Sunghoon…

“I’m fine,” he says, watching Sunoo as he comes to sit in front of Sunghoon, within reaching distance of both him and Riki.

“Did you eat?” Sunoo asks. “In the days you were under my spell? Did you drink? Did you sleep?”

Sunghoon stays silent, and Sunoo’s stomach turns over.

“I didn’t even know I was doing that to you. I have a lot to learn about my new powers.”

“You didn’t hurt me,” Sunghoon says quietly. “It was like living in a dream. I didn’t need any of that.”

Sunoo rests his head against the bed. “I put you and Riki in danger by not being in control. Jungwon, Heeseung…”

“They’re okay. You know Jungwon heals fast. None of this was your fault. Give us a check over, you’ll see.”

He bites his lip. “I can’t. What if I do something wrong?”

Sunghoon reaches out, pulls Sunoo’s hand out of his lap, and brings it to his cheek.

“You won’t,” he says, steadfast. “Look.”

Tentatively, Sunoo reaches out with a curl of magic.

He feels for injuries in Sunghoon, anomalies in his body or mind. Though he’s tired, everything else feels right.

He’s back. Really back. Sunoo’s not sure he believed it until now.

He retracts his hand, swallows as he squeezes Sunghoon’s knee instead. Then he reaches a hand out towards Riki, and does the same.

Riki will take some time to feel whole again. The symbiote inside him carved out space for itself, left the equivalent of a gaping wound in Riki’s mind and soul.

But he will recover. And he will live.

When he retracts his magic, he realises there are tears on his face, and he hiccups. Sunghoon reaches out to wipe them away, and Sunoo reaches his arms around him, curling into his body.

Sunghoon isn’t the most tactile among them, but he doesn’t resist it. He puts his arms around Sunoo too, and allows him to curl against his chest.

“We’ll be fine,” he says quietly. “We’re all okay.”

“Thank you,” he says softly, and exhales a long breath. “You saved us.”

“We did it together. We’ll figure out your magic as a team, too, make sure you’ll be okay with all that power inside you.”

“I’ll always be okay as long as I’m with all of you.”

A kiss presses into his hair. “We’ll be together for a long time. We can only do this together.”

“Don’t go missing again, then.”

There’s a smile in his voice as he rests his cheek against Sunoo’s hair. “You’ll always find me if I do.”