duality ➵ an ateez superhero au

𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐫: forever

FOREVER

.

.

.

.

"hongjoong we just lost seonghwa, we are not about to lose you too." yeosang was on the verge of tears, his lithe body cradled in jongho's strong hands, looking down at the ground because he couldn't bare lay eyes on seonghwa's lifeless corpse. but fate seemed to have a different idea when the wooden floor he had fixated his gaze on was slowly starting to bleed red. yeosang's inside twisted themselves into a knot that made him want to throw up.

"i've thought about this plan. it'll work."

"that's what seonghwa said."

"seonghwa wasn't in a right state of mind!"

"and you are?"

they all spare fleeting glances among themselves, the discomfort that welled in their guts, having just lost 2 people that they'd learned to love so deeply in so little time. the pain that they felt, emotionally and physically, was something no one wanted to go through again.

"even if it doesn't work," he tugs his fingers through fistfuls of black hair on the head that laid on his lap, attempting to slow his own painfully palpitating heart. "we're all going to die anyways. we might as well die trying."

hongjoong purses his lips, looking down at the eyes that stared blankly up at him, glassed over but he couldn't bare close them. the dazzling gold colour that they kept from copying yunho's powers stopped him from pushing down the eyelids. "i need to do what i have to." he whispers, voice shaking like a leaf in the strong breeze. "i need to do whatever it takes to protect them because i couldn't save you."

"i love you so much," he leans down and presses a kiss to the cold forehead, a chill eating away at his core and an almost incapacitating level of anxiety building in his body. "we will meet again. i will make sure of it."

and with that he sends seonghwa's body away to the elite, to the same place that he had sent san's. his lap felt empty without the body, his whole being felt so alone, as though without another half. he just hoped that he'd bare witness to their send aways, and not join the wrong side of the funeral.

he looks up at the rest of his members, eyes glistening and sparkling with pride. "don't ever forget. 8 makes 1 team." he tells them.

no one can stop him when he disappears into thin air.

the spot that seonghwa and hongjoong had left from, felt incredibly bare at that moment. the four remaining people in the room were shoved into the most uncomfortable silence known to man. so awkward, the frustration and exhaustion all climaxing in the silence, they wanted to scream until their throats were hoarse. but the nervousness stitched their mouths shut.

it was to the point that yeosang almost considered surrendering to wooyoung, just so that they could all die together instead of having to experience the pain of each murder individually. and even if it hurt, none of them knew if life after the apocalypse would be worth it. perhaps it would be better to die peacefully to the mercy of wooyoung than suffer through a post apocalyptic society that was hanging on by a thread.

"yeosang i don't like those thoughts going through your head right now." yunho sneers from his own protective embrace in mingi, breaking the quiet like a hammer smashes through a wineglass. "you have to stay strong and you have to believe in hongjoong. life will find a way and if fate decides that he dies then we go from there."