WARNING: This chapter contains torture scenes. If you don't want to read things like that, please skip it.

Junmyeon woke up with a fading, but stinging pain in his neck and a weird feeling spreading through his body.

"He can take more. Raise the voltage."

The cold, indifferent voice was followed by the same feeling he had woken up to, only this time, it was so intense that it actually hurt.

Confused, Junmyeon opened his eyes.

He closed them again almost immediately due to the intense light that stung in his eyes. Even with his eyes closed, he could still see it.

"Oh, he's awake." Contrary to her words, the woman didn't sound fazed.

Junmyeon opened his eyes again, slowly, to get used to the bright light above his head. He had seen Baekhyun create artificial light, but it had always faded away quickly. It took his eyes a while to take in his surroundings.

The room he was in was dark, there were no windows, the only light source being the blinding light above him. He didn't dare to look at it again. Slowly, he was also able to make out the profile of the person who had spoken.

Her hair was in a firm bun, in her hands were a small board and a pencil. Her attire consisted purely of white clothing, a long, light coat on top of it. She seemed to be around 40 years old, Junmyeon wasn't sure about that. Her expression gave him an unsettling feeling. Her eyes didn't show a single sign of gentleness or even just interest.

"Raise it."

This time, Junmyeon screamed. Now he knew what it was. This feeling as if something hot shot through his veins at an unbelievable pace, leaving a sensation as if thousand needles had punctured his body. Jongdae had once accidentally touched him after using his power. Only, back then, it had just been a part of what he was feeling now. This was lightning. Electricity. The thing which Baekhyun had told them was used for energy in the city. He hadn't told them that it was a torture method.

Junmyeon wanted to say something, but his body didn't listen to him. He had nothing to compare this pain to, nothing he had ever felt had been this excruciating.

"Do you know where you are?" the woman asked. Even Luhan's voice showed more emotions.

He carefully shook his head. But there weren't many possible answers. Her next words, even though he had expected them, made his heart drop low.

"You're in the city. In our practical research facility."

"Practical research?" The anger that shot through him brought back his voice. "You're experimenting on human beings."

The woman gave him a smile. If anything, it made her appear even more cruel. "I guess you could phrase it like that."

He ignored her answer. He already knew that, if she wasn't lying about his whereabouts, there was no use to argue about things like ethics. "Where are the others?"

He had seen Luhan go down as well, so even if some of them had managed to flee, more than a few of the others had to be here, too. There was no use in acting as if he didn't remember anything. The woman's expression didn't change. "There's only us in here. Only you, me and our technician."

Junmyeon figured that technician was a nice word for his torturer. But that person and whatever was creating this pain were out of his sight. He guessed they were behind him, but he couldn't stand up. Now that he thought about it, he couldn't even raise a finger.

Panicking, Junmyeon took in his state for the first time. There were some kinds of metallic straps around his arms and legs, fixing him to what felt like a mix between an uncomfortable bed and a chair.

He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate. Before he was even close to using his power, another shock tore through his body. When he was done screaming, the woman scribbled something on the board.

"That's worthless, by the way," she said without looking up. "You can't use them anymore. And every time you try..."

This time, he was prepared for the shock. That didn't mean it hurt less. The constant pain made black dots appear everywhere. They were dancing around wildly and made him feel nauseous. He didn't even try to stay conscious as the woman's voice faded and he was covered in darkness again.

The next time he woke up, he was just laying on the ground. Without the numbness that spread through every part of his body, he would have even thought of it as a dream. A terrible dream. A dream so horrible that his mind couldn't have possibly caused it.

He didn't want to open his eyes. As long as he could lay on the ground, without any pain inflicted upon him, it was fine.

"Don't act as if you were still asleep." This wasn't the voice of the cold woman.

When Junmyeon opened his eyes, he was met with a guy around his age. His hair stood from his head in short spikes and he smiled while talking to him. Junmyeon tried not to get his hopes up, though. There were all kinds of monsters in this world.

The man stretched out his hand to help him up. Hesitantly, Junmyeon reached for it with his own. His knees were wobbling, and he nearly fell down again.

"Woah, careful." The man patted his shoulder. "I guess you need someone to help you walking."

Without any further warning, hands grabbed him from behind. He was dragged to the end of the room, where some kind of bathing tub was waiting. It was made out of grey stone and filled with water, through which he could make out a faint, dark shimmer on the ground.

Before his mind could process what he was seeing, the people who had grabbed him shoved him down in front of it. The impact was so harsh it made his knees hurt and he had to grab the rim of the tub to prevent his head from crashing against it. A hand grabbed his hair and pushed his head under water.

Automatically, Junmyeon breathed in like how he had practiced. Sehun had bugged him to try to breathe under water, and it had actually worked with a bit of training.

But now, the only thing that he inhaled was water, and he coughed and squirmed at the burning sensation. He tried to get back up, but the hand holding his head didn't budge. He tried to move so the person would lose the grip on him, but was only harshly pulled back into place.

When he was sure he would die like this, drowning in his own element, his head was yanked up again.

The hand shoved his head to the ground and Junmyeon stayed there, coughing and trying to get the water out of his body.

This was painfully different from every other experience he had made with water. Coming from a dry, hot place near the desert, water had always been a friendly element to Junmyeon. Even more so since he had discovered it to be his power. But now, stripped of his power, it could kill him, and there was nothing he could do to defend himself.

The young man knelt down in front of him and studied his face, the smile still on his face. Only this time, it seemed rather as if he were watching his pet, and not another person. He was killing the pet, and having fun while doing so.

"There are a few things I'm curious about, Junmyeon," he said. His smile didn't fade. "Will you answer me?"

Knowing that he didn't have another choice if he didn't want to go through this again, he nodded.

"Awesome!" The guy stood up abruptly. Junmyeon was too weak to raise his head, the only things he could see were his shoes, slowly pacing around the room. "You know, what I'm really curious about is... When did you notice this power for the first time?"

There could be nothing bad in answering this question. Besides, if he didn't...

"About... two or three months ago," Junmyeon answered weakly, his voice cracking between his words and he started coughing again.

"Where were you when that happened?"

"At home."

For his answer, he received a blow to the head. Clutching the aching spot, he pulled his head and knees to his chest, making himself as small as possible.

The guy decided to let the question slide. "Where is the tree?"

Junmyeon hesitated. They already knew where it was. Another blow.

"What did you leave there to protect it?" The guy had stopped pacing and crouched back down to look at Junmyeon's face.

He didn't answer. If these people didn't know Mr. Zhang was still there, if he had managed to keep the fact that he himself had a power from them...

"If you let me see the others, I will tell you."

His head was yanked up again and forced over the tub. He braced himself for the impact, but it didn't come.

"I'm afraid you're not in the position to propose deals like this. You'll only see me and my friends, until I decide you deserve otherwise... Don't you think you should try to help me? I'm only curious, that's everything."

The mention of seeing the others brought up a spark of hope... Until he remembered where he was. This guy would tell him everything if he thought he could get his answers this way. The others could be facing the same he did at the moment. Or they were already...

"What is protecting the tree?"

Junmyeon didn't answer. He had finally figured out the dark spot beneath the water. The dark colour varied under the movements of the clear liquid, but one reflection of the faint light above him sent a cold shiver down his spine. It was blood. Dried blood.

His head was pressed under water again. Every thought was cast away, the only thing he could think about was how he had used water to help his friends. And now, it would make him betray them.

When he woke up for the third time, he was in the first room again. Only this time, he was alone. He didn't remember what they had done to him after the question about the tree. He was convinced they had continued pressing his head under water without asking any questions, just for fun. But on the other hand, that could have just been a dream.

His limbs weren't restrained this time, so he reluctantly sat up to study his surroundings.

Almost immediately, he had to lay down again. He couldn't take deep breaths anymore, his lungs and throat hurt so much that he curled down on the seat and pressed his eyes shut. There was no way the others could have fled in time. Now that he thought about what had happened, it was likely that the Red Force had positioned people in the woods and in the village. With - whatever it had been that had hit them - they must have succeeded in taking Luhan and Jongin down quickly. And after Luhan couldn't warn them anymore, the attack had started.

Junmyeon couldn't help wondering about the others. Where were they? Had someone managed to get away? Were they going through the same in this moment? Had they told them everything immediately or had they stayed silent, choosing the pain above betraying their friends?

When he noticed the hot tears that started flowing, he wiped them away angrily. He was in no position to pity himself. All of this had happened because of his stupid decisions. He could have proposed to negotiate with the Red Force. He could have decided to go directly to the tunnel instead of visiting Chanyeol's village because he was afraid of disappointing the gentle guy. He should have seen the danger he was putting the others in.

But he hadn't even thought about negotiating. He hadn't listened to his own gut feeling that had warned him and he hadn't been careful enough.

The others had chosen him as their leader. They had trusted him and Junmyeon had betrayed them.

He was shivering now, failing to hold back his sobs as he wished he had never been elected as the leader. He wished he had never agreed to leave the tree. He wished... he wished he had stayed at home, letting his parents sell him to the Red Force. The result would have been the same, only now he had condemned eleven other guys to share his fate. The guys he had sworn to himself to take care of.

His stomach was grumbling continuously and his lungs were aching as he sent himself into a black - spotted downward spiral that ended, again, in complete darkness.

Junmyeon didn't know how much time had passed. His life now consisted of sleeping and torture, then torture and sleeping. They had recently started depriving him of his sleep, too. They kept him awake with shocks or whatever else they were able to think of. Then, when he was completely broken, his mind only taking in half of the questions he was asked, he told them whatever he thought they wanted to hear, only to be able to escape back into sleep again.

Another thing they had started doing were the experiments. He had noticed the reason for him not being able to use his power was a metal cuff around his wrist. They would take it off for the experiments, which was why they only took place directly after the torture, when he was too weak to even open his eyes. They would attach wires to his head, his chest and his hands. Sometimes, they used electric shocks, too, to trigger his power. In his state, everything he managed to create were single, tiny drops of water. But apparently that was enough for them.

There were times when they would just push him into a narrow, metallic tube. Junmyeon, who had never been in a place this cramped before, quickly started fearing this procedure even more than the shocks. They would leave him in there for a long time, before pulling him out again to talk about his brain structure, as far as he understood, heads buried in a bunch of papers.

He barely got any food, and when he did, it was difficult to even describe it as such. Usually, it was a bowl filled with a grey, slimy substance. Occasionally, they threw in water bottles as well. Junmyeon had started suspecting that they had no fixed plan when to do that, they just sometimes remembered that he was a living being, too.

Shortly after his seventh time in the tube, it felt as if he had only been asleep for ten minutes, there was a clacking sound at the door.

The room he was sleeping in was usually the second, dark one. The bathing tub was standing at the end like an unspoken threat, and Junmyeon had not once dared to look at it.

Not being able to fully open his eyes, he raised himself up with the help of his arms that were still burning from the last shock - session. He didn't even care whether it were the next hours of torture, experiments or the tube again that were expecting him. He just wanted to die. If they just killed him, he could finally have peace. But the scientists and torturers kept laughing at him whenever he begged them to kill him. He doubted he would be any luckier today.

But when the door opened, it weren't scientists and it weren't his torturers who had come for him.

It was the Patrol.