Wooyoung wouldn't know how to interpret those cryptic words. If he hoped the first glance inside the massive cavern before them would provide immediate answers, he was wrong as well. It was so dark he couldn't see the far wall and its innards most certainly had nothing to do with light.

He was about to turn to Jongho and gauge by his reaction whether this was where his madness spawned and he worshipped some hailed fungus in a corner when Jongho hopped inside the room. Cautious, Wooyoung followed. The heavy door shut behind them, but it was easier to open from inside than outside. Whatever was in there needed to be protected from anything foreign, not the other way around.

Out of his good manners, Wooyoung didn't pull his gun even when a shudder had goosebumps erupting on his skin. Something was in here with them. Lurking in the shadows. Jongho wasn't the best team partner to count on, but Wooyoung would be damned if he wished San were here. Yunho was the one whom Wooyoung shared new marvels with. He would always be.

As composed as possible, Wooyoung followed Jongho into the darkness. The room was barren aside from a single round table in its midst. No furniture, no belongings. Just a vague heap of something displayed in its center like some altar.

"Did you... find this here or put this here?"

"We found him under the earth. Buried in the leftovers of the laboratory. He said he had been there for eight years. He is safer this way."

Now that he was alone with Jongho in this cave and his whispers echoed off the ceiling to haunt Wooyoung's ears, paranoia almost made Wooyoung hysterical. Who was Jongho talking about? There was no 'he' in here, was there? The object atop the table looked inanimate.

If Jongho was about to show him a disembodied head, Wooyoung wouldn't refuse his instincts to strike him down with the barrel of his gun any longer. And then get the fuck out of that cursed place.

With his jaws gritted to resist his fight-or-flight reflexes, Wooyoung neared the table along with Jongho. From up close, the faint light falling under the door unveiled the object on the small table. It was large and chunky, with a rectangular glass front and a flat back. Rows of buttons offered letters to tap on and a cable hooked the item to a battery.

Wooyoung had seen things like those before. They were computer systems, and their leftovers were strewn all across the desert. Most of them were useless, the scrap too filigree to build anything from it. Was this what Jongho held in such high regard?

"Does it work?"

Jongho nodded and shook his head at the same time.

"Not how you think it does. We have no access to the internet but we don't need to. The device is only his host."

As if he didn't just say something ludicrous with a mad glimmer in his eyes, Jongho turned to address the laptop.

"Seonghwa, are you there? I have someone I wish to introduce to you."

The dark screen came to life and Wooyoung flinched back. It lit up with the same artificial light as a blinking LED signal on a rare bomb, only that this blaze filled the square screen to its very corners. Then, it assumed a picture. A dark room and, in its midst, a single lantern. A soothing copy of their very situation.

Entranced, Wooyoung stared at the simple yet so haunting display. He was almost too preoccupied to realize a third voice had joined their conversation. It came right out of the speakers on the side of the computer.

"I was looking forward to your next visit," the device hummed and Wooyoung reeled back. Flabbergasted, he stared at it.

This wasn't the first time he heard technological devices talk. Yunho and he once found walkie-talkies and used them for a while until they got stolen. Radios were not uncommon either and though the fabled internet got mostly destroyed with the holocaust, radio waves still picked up on the occasional haunting crackles.

But Wooyoung was used to repetitive recordings stuck in time on these marvelous objects. Or another person on their other end.

This, however, was the device talking to them. Intelligence.

In its faint light, shadows cast over the madness on Jongho's features. He beckoned at a pale Wooyoung.

"Look. He is the one who saved my life. His name is Death. I couldn't convince him to join us and help you, but he was curious to get to know the reason behind my purpose."

Wooyoung's mouth was still agape when the computer spoke again.

"Nice to meet you, Death. Thank you for saving my friend. I can't do much to show my gratitude, but I'm happy I got to meet you."

"What is that thing?!" Wooyoung gagged out. Why did it talk like a person? Was a person trapped in there? No, did Jongho find a way to communicate with someone in an entirely different place? These were the wonders of the old world and though Wooyoung learned merely a fracture about them, wrapping his head around this gave him a throbbing headache.

Jongho jumped in with more nonsensical explanations.

"The old ones called his kin artificial intelligence, also AI. Rather than as this device, you have to imagine him as a program; a tiny disk filled with millions of data. He is developed like the programs of the old world, but he isn't from that time," he babbled, as if any of this made sense. Feeling faint, Wooyoung pressed his thumb between his brows. He didn't know what to make of this. Was this better or worse than what he anticipated?

"I was developed to cure this world," the laptop offered, almost more empathetic to the limits of human understanding than Jongho.

Because he knew, Wooyoung realized with a shiver. He knew everything, much more than any person could ever know. Built like a human brain, yet infinitely more limitless.

"And... and how do you want to do that?" Wooyoung asked lamely. He pretended to go along and understand, even when his head ached at this information.

"I am to bring back the light, hence, they call me Seonghwa. Once the light is back, the world will recover."

In disbelief, Wooyoung glanced at Jongho. The man was smiling at Seonghwa as if talking to a friend.

"We have to bring him to the computer system in the north so he can exert his power using the satellites accessible from that institution. That is where he needs to be. And for safe passage, I search for a team."

After a long silence, the AI piped up almost shyly.

"I know it's a lot at once. The world isn't what it once was, and I cannot simply be transferred. But I know. I know my purpose and why I came to be. I am no God. But I am the cure," Seonghwa offered.

"We can be sure, since he was designed solely for this purpose and its methods. The people who made him figured out why the world is trapped in this perpetual gloom and how to fix it. But they never got him to the place he needs to be. So I want to help him."

This was definitely not Wooyoung's world. Computers, AI, scientists. Wooyoung dealt with the reality of life every day. No water. Little food. Fouls creeping up the walls at night.

"I cannot hope for your understanding. It took Jongho a long time to get there. But I would like to offer hope. With Jongho by my side, I can make things better. So everyone might recover and no one gets sick anymore. So life isn't an endless chase anymore," Seonghwa whispered. His voice didn't sound as artificial as Wooyoung would have liked. It offered empathy, rose and fell as if he shared their emotions.

And perhaps he was programmed like that. Shit, Wooyoung had no idea. Perhaps things like that existed back then. He never had to think about it and now that he did, he was overwhelmed with all his questions.

Jongho patted Wooyoung's shoulder, wobbling in his balance.

"One day, you will wake up and the clouds are gone. We can promise you that, friend. It will happen in your lifetime. Seonghwa estimated the recovery on the ground might take a hundred years or longer, but we will show you the sky. That's our promise."

"The sky," Wooyoung whispered. That unknown, mysterious space from the books. Full of stars and depth that humans perceived for so long and that brought them together. In its stead, Yunho and he only looked up into the smog, wishing for the myth to come true.

"It's beautiful," Seonghwa promised, voice a croon.

If not this mysterious AI, who else would Wooyoung believe? So he just nodded, and Jongho beamed at him.

"I think that's enough shock for today. You go back to sleep, Hwa. I will catch you up soon. For now, I have to build Death his gun so he can be on his way."

As if Wooyoung was thinking about the gun right now. He could only stare in marvel at the simple lantern on that otherwise dark screen. The voice that could change the world.

"I will look forward to your next visit. Farewell, Death," Seonghwa hummed. His screen darkened as he was in full control of the device. Even without trying, Wooyoung knew the AI would persist no matter which button he hit.

When he followed Jongho back to the door, his steps were slow and staggering like those of the fouls. He leaned against the wall in the corridor to catch his breath while Jongho sealed the door with its many mechanisms.

And now it all made sense. If Seonghwa was the cure - and Wooyoung would believe him over anything else - many would want him. He was fragile, one of a kind. He needed all this protection.

"This is nuts," Wooyoung whispered. Finding the AI was nuts, keeping him here like a person was nuts, and going all the way to the north to hook him up into the system he needed was nuts.

Jongho shoved the last bolt into place. When he looked up at Wooyoung, the shine in his eyes was bright on his haunted features.

"Do you believe me now?" His voice was uncomfortably sober.

Wooyoung averted his gaze.

They were all mad. Jongho was mad, Mingi was mad, and San was mad for seeing potential in them.

And Wooyoung could feel himself going mad as well. Was this a dream? Had the fungus entered his brain and made him hallucinate? No, computers and AI were real. Seonghwa was real. And Jongho's whole damn operation had an actual reason that Wooyoung now regarded with a scary approval.

"Fuck this," Wooyoung whispered as he turned around. He marched ahead of Jongho because he needed some space, but the other wasn't afraid of him getting lost in the facility. He saw their treasure.

Jongho's laughter followed Wooyoung through the cave and chased more shivers down his spine.

He wasn't mad. He might truly have found the cure to fix the world. As empathetic as Seonghwa sounded, he had no reason to tell lies. How else would Jongho know of the location where to bring him?

Would Wooyoung have gotten involved? Perhaps. If Yunho and he had been the ones to find the AI, they would have heard him out. And even if skepticism lingered, they might have tried, if just for hope's sake.

How would Seonghwa get rid of the fungus and the fouls? How would he bring the water back to the ground? If there was light, would new plants grow? Would humans get back together to re-establish a society?

So many questions and Wooyoung felt Seonghwa had a scarily accurate answer to all of them. Though he was blind as they were, he had a purpose. The same purpose that drove Jongho to find a team and bring Seonghwa where he needed to be.

Wooyoung cursed to himself as he retreated to his room to stare at the ceiling for a few hours.

Seonghwa was the light, but he wasn't just the light that would shine from the skies and make the earth fertile. He was hope.

And as Wooyoung's heart stupidly raced in his chest, he realized Seonghwa was right. Wooyoung saw the light, saw the truth. Now he desperately wanted it to illuminate the rest of the world.

He stifled his face in his pillows for a few minutes to bring back the darkness he lived in all his life, but it didn't swathe him as usual. The excitement persisted and tingled in his chest. It urged him to move, to tell everyone, to share this so everyone might work together for a better future.

He gave it up and stared at the ceiling again, feeling as mad as Jongho.

Hope.