Hongjoong hated this. He hated that San had sent him out here, that he wasn't with Seonghwa, and that the feeling of running into his certain doom intensified with every step he took. His mind kept flashing with the image of the leviathan in the ice and tried to give him the exact view on what it would look like moving. With his panic this overwhelming, all his brain did was scream at him to go back, not to test his luck and to crawl under his covers to wait it out. Yet, he kept going.

This wasn't about him or his fear.

This was about their team, and every other team or living being in Sector Zero. If the beast managed to break out of its containment, they all would be in grave danger. And with the comms disabled, there was nowhere to run.

Shuddering, Hongjoong hyperfocused on Seungyoun, so he wouldn't lose the man. The scientist's expression had settled into a grim frown, and Hongjoong nearly would have believed him to be confident if he hadn't seen his hands shake earlier.

They were a mess. A mess with no clear thought in neither of their simple brains and no way to contact their androids.

Hongjoong had never before swam so jerkily in his life. The Sea Monkey they passed giggled as it stole some unimportant object from Hongjoong's pockets, but they just passed it with ashen faces. Even its playful and happy skips around them seemed hollow and eerie like a clown in a horror carnival.

The water looked dull today. No light hit the surface, and the usual shining and shimmering plants and creatures seemed grey and bored. It all looked like death, and Hongjoong was afraid. So very afraid.

The way to the site seemed endless and way too short at the same time. While they had hurried, Hongjoong now didn't know how much time had even passed. It had felt like an eternity.

When they first poked their heads over the water in the little lake in the Glacial Basin, Hongjoong was faced with a wall of white. The fog was so thick here that he barely saw the ladder until Seungyoun carefully grabbed onto his fingers to pull him over blindly. They made their way up onto the ice, only to immediately find themselves swallowed by the raging storm. It seemed less intense here in the basin, but Hongjoong could imagine it was even worse on Delta Island where there were no ice cliffs around to protect the area.

Still, he wisely kept his helmet on and jogged hand in hand with Seungyoun over the ice. At least they wouldn't get lost, even if Hongjoong even doubted their skill to find the entrance with their sight obscured like this.

The smallest of all luck they had was at least not encountering any predator on the way there. They had all hidden from the storm, just how they should.

However, by the time they reached the large rip in the cliff that led to the cave, Hongjoong found it increasingly harder to walk. His feet felt as if made of clay, and it slowed him down greatly. His heart was beating so erratically that he feared it might jump out of his chest.

Seungyoun hesitated when he noticed Hongjoong coming to a slow halt. His eyes were wide as he uselessly pulled at the still human's hand.

"Hongjoong- Please, don't."

Shaking like a leaf in the wind all over his body, Hongjoong shook his head. His mind was playing tricks on him, was telling him that the roaring of the wind was actually the noise of the Frozen leviathan. That he could feel the earth quake with its powerful leaps as it travelled through the ice to pounce on them.

"I can't. Seungyoun, I feel so sick, I really can't... can't go in there."

Petrified, he stared into the dark tunnel. He doubted that the lights here would still work. They had to face the monster in the dark.

Seungyoun worriedly looked around them before turning to face Hongjoong fully. Just how San did earlier, he grasped the man's shoulders, albeit far more gently.

"Hongjoong... There is nothing to fear. The emergency call said pressure, no signs of escape. We will go there and make sure nothing will escape, alright? If we do that now, there won't be any more trouble, and we can leave right away."

"Seungyoun..."

The man leaned in more; his eyes were honest.

"Maybe we are wrong, too. Maybe there was a landslide somewhere; maybe the pressure comes from outside. Whatever it is, we should check. And keep anything bad from happening. We should be safe, I promise you. The leviathan is as dead as it gets, so really... Please, Hongjoong. I'm also terrified."

Empathy struck a chord in Hongjoong. Right. This wasn't about him. It had never been. Seungyoun was right here, and he needed his help. If anybody were to fend off the worst, it would be the two of them. And if they didn't, they would probably get caught up in the mess anyway since they were so close.

With a gulp, Hongjoong nodded.

Seungyoun smiled distortedly; then he grabbed Hongjoong's hand again. He barely felt the warm touch against the biting cold.

"Alright, let's go. We can do this. I'm right here."

His trembling voice sounded less than convincing, but Hongjoong had nothing to complain about. He merely followed Seungyoun into the cave.

The storm was as if cut off as soon as they entered. All noise and wind and fog stayed outside, leaving just the two of them. The cave was chilly, maybe a bit more so than usual, but Hongjoong wasn't able to differentiate the shivers caused by the cold from the ones out of fear anymore.

They sneaked through the tunnels quietly and with bated breath. Their shoes sounded painfully loud on the floor, and soon, they heard a faint peeping of an alarm in the distance. It grew louder as they came closer, and soon, its blaring was the only thing that echoed from the icy walls.

Upon the last few steps, Seungyoun hurried up, pulling Hongjoong along impatiently. He stumbled behind the other man; his eyes fixed on the huge wall and the thing behind it. By the time they reached the table with equipment, Hongjoong held his breath to turn on his flashlight. Seungyoun hit something on the table, and abruptly, everything was silent.

Hongjoong could hear Seungyoun breathe in the dark.

Everything was as always.

The leviathan was still behind its wall where it belonged and had not moved an inch, as far as Hongjoong could say. Its huge lilac mass was still frozen as ever, and no creaking of ice under pressure could be heard.

Confused, Hongjoong turned to the pannels. Seungyoun did, too.

For a second, they just checked the stats of everything, finding it all stable. Then, they looked at each other, dumbfounded.

"What?"

Hongjoong breathed again, his heart slowly calming down at finding everything secure. There was no raging leviathan, no breaking ice, and no other danger in sight.

"I'm sorry, have I gone insane, or do you also see nothing unusual?" Hongjoong confusedly looked between the equipment and the leviathan.

"Everything is as we left it two days ago. But the report clearly said hydraulic pressure. Wait, let me scan it again." He bent over the table to tap away at a tablet, having to put in multiple passwords. After that, he confusedly looked between the tablet and the controls, trying to figure out which button would do what.

It was clear that he had no idea what he was doing, and Hongjoong could sympathise an awful lot. He tried to ignore the pressure of the thought that the leviathan in the ice was staring at them and maybe doing something as he leaned in to peek around Seungyoun's shoulder at the tablet.

He rarely remembered that the man was so much taller than him.

"What are those buttons? Do you know them?"

Seungyoun gave a pensive hum, his lips thinning at the challenge. He pointed at something without taking his eyes off the tablet.

"Yes, so that one is, uh, for the lights. I think." Slowly, he flicked the switch, looking around. Nothing happened.

Hongjoong giggled quietly at the obvious distress that showed in the man's frown.

"It has probably short-circuited because of the storm. No need to worry about that. We can find our way around." Proudly, Hongjoong patted his chest with the flashlight attached to it. Seungyoun's eyes lingered a second too long on it before he cleared his throat and focused on his tablet again. Hongjoong scratched his neck embarrassedly.

Seungyoun pointed again, at a bigger button this time.

"And this is for something labelled Ice Drill. We don't need that."

"Aye, we don't need that." Hongjoong was quick to agree.

Another beat passed. When again, nothing happened, Hongjoong calmed further down.

"What else... The elevator, the platforms, more light adjustments... oh, this button is literally for melting the ice." Amused, he showed it to Hongjoong.

The man's eyes immediately went wide, and he scrambled to reach out for Seungyoun's hand. He didn't like having it still floating there while the man was laughing and having his fun. One wrong jerk and he could get them killed, after all.

"We don't need that, either. Is there nothing out of order? I-" Hongjoong interrupted himself, surprised when Seungyoun was suddenly the one catching his wrist. He had just pushed him away anxiously, had he accidentally touched something?

However, Seungyoun was just holding him in a gentle grip, not moving. As Hongjoong rose his head, he found the man grinning brightly and with his cute teeth on display.

"Oh, but we do."

Hongjoong blinked.

"We do?"

Seungyoun nodded, putting the tablet down next to the control board. He turned Hongjoong towards him using his hand and comfortably leant against the table as they stared at each other. Hongjoong squirmed under those intense eyes.

"Seungyoun, if this is you having that crush on me again, then-"

Seungyoun gently hushed him.

"Shh, it's not. I swear it's not."

Even more confused, Hongjoong just stared at him. Seungyoun rose his hand to take his helmet off and push his sweaty hair back. The dark strands falling into his eyes gave him something fierce, something even more fox-like than his eyes already did.

As if hypnotised, Hongjoong watched his left hand come down again. It dropped lower, over the console and the button he had labelled as the melting one.

Without a hurry in the world, he pushed it.

Hongjoong remained rooted on the spot, not getting a word out. He heard the machines behind him whirring to life, even believed to feel a rush of warmth coming from them as they made to melting down that wall.

Seungyoun was still standing there and holding onto him loosely.

"Is this a joke?"

It was the first thing he could come up with. It had to be. Just some stupid play of his, nothing important. His humour would fit well in making fun of Hongjoong's panic.

However, it got all the more creepy when Seungyoun remained passive and patient. His smile began to appear creepy to Hongjoong. His heart was clenching again, and he felt cold inside, a cold that had nothing to do with the weather once again.

Nervously, he tried to free his hand, but Seungyoun tightened his grip exactly at that moment, holding on firmly. Hongjoong winced at the pain that shot through his wrist, giving up quickly.

"It isn't."

His voice was too calm, too collected. Too sincere. An icy shiver ran down Hongjoong's spine, making goosebumps erupt on his skin.

"It has to be. Please tell me it is. Seungyoun-"

Again, he got interrupted, growing more agitated by the second. It was a sick joke; it had to be. Seungyoun was a good guy; he had helped them so much. He wouldn't just randomly put them in possibly grave danger.

"I know that you guys like to think it's dead. But I think I can reanimate it. It can roam free, Hongjoong. It can return to its planet. To the place, it belongs."

With a gasp that bordered hysteria, Hongjoong tried to wrench his hand away. He didn't make it, only causing Seungyoun to step in closer and crowd him against the part of the table where there was no desk. His free hand came up to pull Hongjoong's helmet off cautiously.

Hongjoong scowled at him as soon as it was gone. Their bodies were pressed against each other, and Hongjoong had yet to try to push him off.

"It can also get rid of anything that doesn't belong here. Anything Alterra."

With his cute dimples, Seungyoun grinned at Hongjoong.

Behind him, the ice cracked.