Dream Is A Killer

Chapter Four

Across the Eagle Nebula, where the Pillars of Creation reflect on empty black eyes, the gas and dust collected are combined with the souls extracted inside one small syringe. The woman sitting down is motionless, chest slowly rising and falling can be the only indication that she's still alive. Her heavy eyelids have fallen down slightly, and the needle is pushed through the skin to empty its substance. The woman's heartbeat stops, and those empty eyes reflect a figure instead, standing above her with a smile. When her heart responds again, the black eyes turn to a beautiful shade of brown with specks of gold. A new creation inside of her begins its birth.

"Well now, my queen," hands caress her current flat stomach. "You shall give me what I've waited for all those centuries."

🪐

It's not surprising that he's back to the same empty white room with Jaeho, but this time, the old man had brought with him a crystal ball. An empty one as far as Taemin can see as he turns it around in his hands.

"There was a shift in Pluto's core," he informs him, and Taemin's head picks up. "From what we were able to gather, it seems that you don't need a direct connection at all. It explains what you did to Earth." Taemin mentally winces at the memory even if he doesn't remember much. "As long as any part of your body connects to a physical element that is connected to another physical element that leads you to a source of energy, you're able to manipulate it," he raises a finger when Taemin opens his mouth to speak. "Which is what you are. You're a manipulator, Taemin. You can manipulate matter, not just control a planet's core. The only reason that you reach for a core is probably because it's the greatest source of energy you could grasp," he points at the clear ball he has in his hands. "What you're holding contains only two atoms which you'll use."

Taemin furrows his brows at the ball. "Two atoms of what? Oxygen? Nitrogen?"

"If you focus enough, you'll know."

"You must be kidding me."

"Manipulating matter means that you can turn stable atoms to radionuclide, and you can only do so through decaying neutrons, electrons, or protons to create and emit a new particle from the nucleus." He looks at Taemin. "You wanted a source of energy to spur your abilities when in fact you're able to create such energy." Jaeho taps on the ball in his hands and turns to leave. "When you're able to focus on how to control a single atom, that's when you'll be able to control your abilities."

"But in reality, you can never find a single atom!" Taemin turns to him.

"Exactly." Jaeho replies casually, and Taemin is stunned as the doors slide shut behind him.

"For fuck's sake," he curses at the clear ball he has in his hands, and since he has nowhere else to go, he sits down and tries to recall what Jaeho said about atoms. Maybe he should've paid more attention during Chemistry classes. With a loud groan, he closes his eyes and inhales deeply before looking back at the ball. "Okay, I did on a larger scale, this should be easier," he tries to feel any sort of energy radiating from the ball but he gets absolutely nothing. Where are they even placed? At the bottom? At the top? Floating in the middle? They must be a gas substance if he cannot see them, but again, they're just two atoms, so there's no way he'll be able to see them even if they're a physical material. He shuts his eyes again and hits the ball with his forehead a couple of times. There's no way he'd be able to do this.

🪐

At night –he guesses, because he cannot actually see the night sky– Jinki joins him at last, making all of his grumpiness at his continuous failure in finding the atoms disappear.

"Do they keep you here all the time?" He frowns. "You're not a prisoner, are you?"

"Sort of, I dunno," Taemin shrugs. "They're not treating me badly. I got to wake up inside a decent room twice." He looks around him. "They're very secretive about everything, so I'm not really blaming them for keeping me here. It's the first time for Choi to keep foreigners on their land for so long," he turns to Jinki again. "Where did they keep you?"