╰─➤ like a starship speeding into the night
you and i get lost in the infinite light

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the two criminals didn't come any closer, and donghyuck took that as a good sign. either they had no idea what his level was and hadn't been told much about him, or they knew he was trained to a degree and were concerned he might've been good. so if they were going to play the long game, the 'see what he does' tactic, then donghyuck would poke them too.

killing them? probably not. he had yet to roll out that kink in the plan.

the lights still bothered him from above, and he was hoping like hell the oversensitivity he was feeling could be accredited to his heightened nerves and stress hormones, not a heat on its way. he wouldn't have inflicted his heat rages on anyone, not even these law-benders.

his gaze faltered from their fight stances to their weapons, which were rather similar to his own. they must've been kitted out to match him in a fair fight, but with garnet's tools as well. if hyuck felt trapped in this mansion like this, then he couldn't even imagine what the stolen inmates felt. what had they done to deserve ending up as garnet's toys and evading legal punishment? he dreaded to imagine what they'd have done to him on the streets even last year.

pushing all doubts away, donghyuck leapt forward and triggered their immediate responses. the woman dashed to his left and the man to his right like streaks of silver in his periphery. his own black attire made him easy to spot in such a bright space and that alone gave them the advantage if they were going to dance about each other. the man went first, pivoting from his outward sprint and lunging forward towards donghyuck.

the omega braced for impact, smelling the bloodlust. this man wanted to live. he wanted to get out of here.

but so did hyuck.

he clashed is dagger against his opponent's and kept his ears sharp for what the woman was up to. so far she seemed to be observing, but that wouldn't last long. in the distance, the faint smell of renjun and jeno's pheromones tainted the air and he held onto those scents like lifelines as he focused with all the attention he had.

the blades slid along each other and hyuck won the battle of strength this time, catching the guy's wrist and cutting a deep laceration before they leapt apart and regathered their bearings. the woman joined his opponent, whispering to him, planning things the omega couldn't hear. he was stressed about the unfair numbers, but in life he knew not to expect things to be fair. if he wanted to go on missions and dance at parties, maybe two or three enemies really would challenge him, and he would rise to that.

"that was good," chenle said from the sidelines, pacing like a wolf with his hackles raised. "they're placing you in their expectations, and the only way to win a game like that is doing things that are unexpected."

donghyuck couldn't find a response for him. his focus was solely on the pair circling him again and he was already feeling his adrenaline calming down. he needed to feel more scared, or something. this lifestyle was desensitising him to the stress of impending peril.

this time the two worked together and the woman flew at him with lightening speed, clearly built for agility, and scuffed up dirt as she skidded to his side and landed a hard kick against his hip. he reeled from it a bit, knocked off kilter and stumbling back to regain his balance. he was ready when the man tried to jab at his throat from his left, promptly seizing his arm and pushing him back. but when the girl tried yet another kick — this one aimed at his chest — his dodge wasn't very strong and he shouldered into the man without direction.

whoops, he cringed, backing away quickly and holding up his weapons as he caught his breath. chenle was probably pissed after seeing that, so he made a mental note not to look at him. instead he rolled out his shoulders and took the offensive this time, putting one blade between his teeth and taking out three throwing knives, preparing one in his dominant hand.

the other two seemed unsure, and it made the blonde consider whether they had long-range weapons or not. he breathed through his nose and sprinted once again, trailblazing a circle around them before launching one blade at the girl, who screamed when it skinned her cheek and he threw another in quick succession at the man trying to follow him with his gaze. it missed him narrowly, but did embed itself hard into the sandy floor. while they took in the sight of it, and wrapped their heads around the velocity of which it had to have been going to sink that deep, donghyuck loomed over their backs in an instant and cut a hard line down the woman's calf.

she collapsed to the door, blood spilling quickly where there had only been beige earth before. the omega didn't spare a moment to celebrate the win before backing up once again and standing on guard against the man whose eyes were unfocused, flickering between the girl crying in pain on the ground and the pretty boy who'd done it.

"surrender," donghyuck pleaded in a tone only the three of them could hear. if he stole a glance at chenle now, it'd garner the doll's attention, so he kept up the pretense of fighting. "say you want to back down."

'"they'll kill me," he sneered and spat onto the dirt by his feet.

"they'll make me kill you if you keep this up. c'mon, don't make me a murderer." as if sensing the irony, they both peered at the girl who'd since fainted and was left to bleed out. neither knew her name or her crime, but there she was. the man furrowed his brows.

"going around preaching about your sense of justice makes you worse than them, y'know," he nodded towards the bleachers to where the others sat quietly. it sent a chill down hyuck's spine to hear that and he shook his head.

"no. at least i can still grieve for a life. how can i be worse than them?"

the other grunted and didn't deign to respond, but donghyuck knew he hadn't really won, not when the statement kept running laps around his head. he wasn't worse than them, was he? he couldn't be. they were a mafia, and he was a...

well, what was he now? did people like him even have names for their situations?

the man dragged him back out of his daydream and nearly managed to catch his neck with his dagger. hyuck barely dodged in time and skidded to the side, balancing his last throwing knife in his grip. he noticed his opponent had to switch to his nondominant hand as the other one had a festering, open wound. his own stomach was lurching from the smell of blood off the woman and the lights were still so blinding. he loosed an uncertain breath and tried to stay steady on is tired legs.

his enemy took his own tactic and tried it against him, dashing around donghyuck like a slower hurricane, thanks to his larger size. against what the omega had come to believe, something hard, cold and metal skimmed right by his head and sliced a long cut across his jaw and partway down his neck before it skittered off course and made a dull thump against the floor.

donghyuck was stockstill, eyes widened in surprise.

"move it!" chenle hissed, clapping his hands to get his attention and looking red hot from stress or rage. it was hard to tell with that boy.

their five quiet spectators with their blurred faces didn't move, but something was amiss in the air. was he really going to succeed this time? he simply didn't have the personality for this. donghyuck was feeling terror settle into bones again for the first time since settling in here.

"can you hear me?! fuck's sake," chenle was yelling, but it nearly sounded underwater from where the blonde was ducking and diving through a barrage of knife swipes. one past his hair. duck. another by his shoulder. dodge. a hard fist against his open wound. hit. he fell back, crying out when the man descended upon him with what could've been a great final blow but the fear seizing donghyuck made him pull himself to the side, scramble up on one arm while the other guy was off-balance above and beside him, and he took his last throwing knife to hand and plunged it deep into his opponent's wide-open shoulder.

his breath left his lungs.

the giant man fell forward and clutched his fresh wound. blood was once again shed across the arena.

donghyuck was about lay down to stare at the ceiling until bile rose from his stomach and joined the red dying the sand. his terror was squeezing his gut, mixed with the smell and sounds of pain and bleeding. some of it was his own.

"not over yet, hyuck. get up!" chenle called from somewhere far, far away. the blonde's eyes were blinking back blurriness and he was sure he'd be sick again.

"next wave," renjun said from above. impassive, unconcerned. this really didn't feel like the time to have faith in his good luck, hyuck thought miserably and tried his best to get up. the man and the woman were down, but the former was awake and sore and lamenting the freedom he wouldn't have. it was almost too hard to watch.

"i'm done!" donghyuck called out to them. chenle narrowed his eyes. "i don't want to keep going. i won't go to the reception. please!"

"you're not done," the beta in the arena with him remarked. "you've just had your confidence knocked, is all. one scratch on your face isn't enough to kill you—"

"i'm tired and sore."

"or," chenle folded his arms, "you still don't think you can kill somebody. was this your little escape plan, angel? bat your pretty eyes and plead innocent?" he was clearly annoyed. "are we really such monsters to you? can't you see what's at stake if we don't teach you?"

"i'm not a murderer."

"everyone's a murderer, idiot," he snapped. "everyone has that little something that makes them rotten on the inside. if you think you're a clean, white apple all the way through, you've got a very hard reckoning coming your way."

donghyuck gritted his teeth and cupped the side of his face that kept bleeding still. the other tests, although stressful, had been so much easier than this. couldn't they just accept he wasn't lethal like them and let it go? did getting his hands dirty really accomplish so much? he hated to think about what pieces of themselves the six of them had lost to become this way, and to have watched each other fall apart in the process. what had they been like before that part of their soul that told them there was still good out there and to be patient was torn out and crushed?

"whether you keep going now or take this exam later, the rules will remain the same. and," chenle nodded to the pair bleeding on the floor, "you'll have made their pain pointless, wouldn't you? but, i'm sure you can sleep with that, right? after all, you didn't kill them."

"shut up," donghyuck growled, and the sound of it coming from him and being aimed at chenle nearly made him sick again. he'd never spoken to him that way. "you want to keep watching me suffer? fine. next wave. a hundred more waves. i'm not killing anybody."

the siren went off again above them and hyuck jumped, looking over his shoulder to the same door as earlier sliding open. taking one last look at the beta he could see his all-knowing smirk and felt it pinch his insides like an insult. it was as though chenle could see something hyuck couldn't in the mirror. he wanted to prove him wrong.

this time five people emerged in grey prison suits. three girls, two guys, five very determined faces. donghyuck knew not to make the same mistake twice, which was to assume they weren't kitted out the same as him. he knew to expect long-range as well as short and also not to let them confer too much with each other.

"to die or not to die," he whispered to himself and wiped some blood off his jaw with his hand. "that is the question."

"i heard he's new," one of them murmured lowly, and the omega shot his attention to chenle. he gave nothing away with his expression, only keeping an icy calm. hyuck knew he wanted him to win, and that they were being hard on him to reap the best results from his talents, but at times he just wanted them to be the family he'd never had and just hug him. let him off with a warning. cuddle up in a big pile of warm blankets and read or chat. normal families didn't do this sort of thing.

perhaps he didn't deserve and would never have a 'normal family'.

refocusing his attention on the group of assailants, donghyuck relaxed his shoulders once more and pressed all the thoughts plaguing him to the edges of his imagination. the more he thought about the others, the further he fell into a spiral of despair and longing. he didn't need those emotions right now. no, now he needed to be angry, and scared, and desperate.

"split!" one of the men yelled and the group parted ways down the middle and had three lunge at hyuck's left and two at his right. he braced his legs and crouched, waiting for them to get close enough before springing up and kicking against two chests before arcing through the air and landing perfectly in a squat in front of the reunited gang.

"i suppose me being 'new' means i've not got tried and trusted information on my skills circulating," he tried to smile, attempting an uncaring and disarming approach rather than playing innocent to get out of this. "how awful for you...guinea pigs."

a girl scoffed and darted at him alone, extending a long polearm from her belt and swiping it downward. hyuck danced on the balls of his feet, swerving to the side it missed, ducking low to land a punch to her stomach and spinning a little to make way when she clumsily tried to swipe at him again with a pain in her side.

he stilled when she righted herself, and conveniently from behind he felt one of the boys attempt to grab him. all it took was clutching the hands on his collar, pulling that body forward with all his strength and sending it and the girl colliding off into the floor a few feet in front of him. he remained low, watching briefly to make sure they were down.

"not bad," the remaining boy complimented him and played with a long dagger in his hand. he had scars marring his neck and hyuck tried not to think about the stories behind them. or the fact that these people had stories at all.

"why thank you," he mumbled, slowly standing and feeling a muscle in his thigh give out. it ached, pulsing from strain and he wasn't sure he could hide it for long. "i guess you're next?"

the two girls were young. maybe his own age while the boy was possibly a little older. mid twenties? did it matter?

"you're very pretty," one of the ladies spoke up for the first time and started to circle him. all three did. "shame. that big ugly cut's gonna leave a nasty scar. why would you compromise your looks?"

"a brilliant question indeed," he responded. not giving anything away. he didn't follow them with his gaze and remained neutral, ready to fight if they moved but relying on his reflexes for when that happened. "say, what are a group of twenty-somethings doing in prison? and more-over, how did you end up here?"

"why ask?" the boy smiled dryly and they stopped walking, now preparing to launch themselves. "will it save us if you knew?"

i guess not, hyuck thought, getting his knives ready and immediately bending his knees to support himself as they came at him from all sides. without thinking too hard about it he closed his eyes as jisung had once told him and took in the smells first. sweat, cooked meat from their recent lunch, stressed signals. he then slid to one side and felt something brush past him.

the sounds, he urged himself, dodging the sound of metal cutting through air to his left. the heavy, exhilarated breathing behind him alerted him to a strike coming for his shoulder. dodge. no pheromones, only betas. his own breathing stayed forcefully calm in his throat as he kept dodging and waiting for an opening.

chenle, to his credit, was not yelling about his closed eyes now. perhaps this method was something that could work for him. the instincts he never used ordinarily.

one, he counted, latching onto a leg that came for a head kick, two, his other arm reached for for a hand he felt whizzing to his chest, but it had a knife, and he'd unfortunately grabbed that with bare bare hands instead. the warm blood felt sticky. three, the third assailant's face near his back. he leaned forward, trying to dodge them while simultaneously ripping the knife free from one of their hands and slashing it out in one large arc, hitting something.

warmth sprayed his face, and he opened his eyes briefly before feeling teeth in his neck. the pain could've been described as white.

white-hot, all encompassing and numbing.

the girl behind him let go and pushed him forward, sending him stumbling over the bodies that were incapacitated and bleeding from their chests. but not dead. he still hadn't killed anyone yet.

"i could tell you were one of those," the woman said and spat blood onto the sand. his blood. donghyuck pressed his hand to the wound and felt on the verge of crying. it was so painful and such an intimate place. only one alpha could ever bite there, and he felt violated. "an omega," she reiterated.

"why...would you do that?" he felt dizzy.

"because i want to win. i want to get out of here," she said and got ready to go again. between hyuck's sore leg, his sore face and hand and his excruciating neck, he wasn't sure he had enough to go on.

but she went for it. she threw a hit to his cheek, and he couldn't catch it, then one to his stomach, his sore thigh. everything felt heavy and impossible to move, and so he took these relentless punches.

"what the fuck is happening?!" chenle cried out, and when hyuck was on the verge of collapse, he looked up to see renjun standing amidst the sitting bodies in the light. still faceless, but smelling so strongly of vanilla.

is he worried...? the omega wondered in a bit of a daze, wincing when he felt his lip split under a another hit. he groaned, giving her a solid shove and knocking her off kilter. she steadied herself, breathing as hard as he was with wild eyes and shaking hands. what did any of it mean though? who deserved to win in the end?

"donghyuck. snap out of it. keep going!" chenle was insisting. he sounded so panicked. when was he allowed to intervene? could he hear jeno? was there a line hyuck had to cross to be saved?

the girl spat another mouthful of blood onto the sand and ran once more. she looked like she had just one more battle in her and that was one more than hyuck had. he didn't often say or feel dramatic things, but the life he hadn't yet lived was flashing in the harsh floodlights of the arena around him and he knew he had to see if it got better. this couldn't be where he admitted defeat.

she sprang at him, hands wrapping around his sore throat, face near his face.

cold metal slipped inside her stomach, and her brown eyes widened in surprise...and then horror. and then they were closed, from the white-hot pain donghyuck knew was spreading across her abdomen. she keeled over and fell off the blade onto the sand, clutching her stomach and barely being able to breathe through the blood coming up her pipes.

"oh my god," hyuck whispered hoarsely, falling to kneel beside her but not touching her. no, instead holding the back of his neck which was pulsing. "what's happening?"

the other dolls and jeno were remaining eerily quiet, possibly waiting to see what he would do. what would their unpredictable, unruly omega try next? he wanted to scream.

"there's one other wave," renjun's gentle voice cut through the tension. he didn't even need to project it, somehow he was loud enough. the sound wasn't comforting when donghyuck felt about as close to death as this girl beside him. "can you handle it?"

"no."

"you've already exceeded my expectations. but you haven't done one thing."

"that, i won't do," donghyuck huffed out, coughing at the dryness of his throat and taking his hand away from his neck to find so much blood drying to his fingers. the stickiness and sickly smell of iron was making him ill again.

"i will pass you if you do. you can come to the reception."

"then i suppose i've failed."

"you're so fucking stubborn," chenle chided and covered his face with his hands frustratedly. "one thing. and they're already bad guys. need i explain their crimes to you?"

"a life is a life," donghyuck insisted. "please, just this one thing."

"what about the people who took you?" jaemin said from above beside renjun. "they'd have given you a fate worse than death, you know?"

"this feels worse than death!" hyuck yelled, sucking in a breath from the exertion and falling into a coughing fit. the girl beside him was stilling, her eyes fluttering open and closed from the lights but it didn't even look like she could see them. "i'm sorry..."

if she heard him, she didn't let on.

a shadow passed over the two of them, blocking those unnatural rays and a hand touched donghyuck gently on the head. he peered up and hadn't realised he'd been crying until it was hard to see the person looking down at him without wiping his eyes.

jeno. in all his beauty with blue hair and tight clothes. in a way he felt like a demon of some kind — the type that are too hard to resist, but you know you should've never struck a deal with them. of course, you realise you've made a mistake when you're knee-deep in their contract.

"we can do this one of two ways," he said carefully, crouching down to be level with him but avoiding a lot of the blood everywhere. "these people you've incapacitated will die like this, if a couple of them aren't dead already. we can wait it out and that'll meet renjun's condition—"

"that's not what i—"

"or," he pressed his finger to his own lips to encourage hyuck to listen, "you can try the third round. however, i fear it'll kill you at this rate. and this," he slowly and gently touched the back of donghyuck's neck which made the boy flinch. "this pissed me off. if you don't finish her, i will."

"she did what she had to to win."

"you're my omega," he scowled and both of them reeled a little from that statement. as though they hadn't quite established that yet, but it rather made sense. hyuck blushed and looked down at his hands which were turning dark brown from the liquid.

"i'll just fight another round. i don't want to wait around for them to die. i can't watch that."

"you're being foolish."

"i'm being myself," he looked up to him again and tried not to feel his heart break at jeno's own pained expression. they all really wanted him to conform to their standards, but he wasn't ready. he couldn't do it yet.

"very well. any more injuries you sustain are your own fault, understood? this next round..." he paused and stood up, looking a bit pensive. "i don't like this." he wandered off to stand with chenle and wrapped an around around the beta's shoulder. chenle looked genuinely quite shaken and the omega believed they were all ready for this to end so they could put it behind them.

he needed to stand by his decisions, no matter how badly they worked against him.

but the remainder of his wind had been knocked from his sails, and only one person emerged with the siren from that door. his heart sank into his stomach when he saw the size of this guy, and how easy it would've been for him to just pick donghyuck up and throw him at a wall.

he'd already admitted defeat inside. he'd give it a shot, hopefully land a hit or two, but there was no way in his state he was going to make it without intervention.

and so they began. donghyuck used his agility to the best of his abilities, but he was significantly slower and weaker. his punches impacted with the same force as a bitch slap and he could tell his opponent was very confused how his weak, pathetic performance had gotten him through the first two groups.

by the ten minute mark the omega was barely able to intake air into his lungs and the headache from hell was squeezing his temples relentlessly. he faltered, skidding against the sand with a single shove.

"hyuck!" chenle tried, but it was pointless. the boy was fighting a losing battle and his energy was spent. one kick to his already sore thigh sent him collapsing onto the ground and he felt panic seize his gut again.

the man loomed over him, leaning down to wrap his fingers around the omega's neck and starting to apply pressure. hyuck kicked his legs hopelessly, holding onto the hard hands strangling him.

"s-top—" he wheezed, patches of darkness dotting his vision.

"jen..." chenle begged his leader, squeezing his bicep and begging with his eyes. "let me go save him now, he'll die—" but there was no need to be concerned, for the giant criminal barely made another sound when a hand covered in light metal pierced through his back and grabbed his heart, crushing it.

donghyuck felt the tight fists around his neck loosen and he hacked and spluttered to no end as the body dropped on top of him. the person who had killed him and pulled him off was none other than renjun, dressed in a now blood-soaked white t-shirt with one of his hands dressed in metal. like claws.

"your decision to continue was pure stupidity," the other omega sneered, pressing something on his wrist which made the claws retract back into a bracelet.

had he always worn that? scary.

hyuck wanted to thank him and scream at him and hold him and tear him apart. his heart was in pieces, not dissimilar to the man who was nothing more than a corpse beside him now. they had just put him through hell, and yet he was alive. did they love him or hate him? it was so hard to know.

"donghyuck," renjun crouched down and knitted his brows together. the blonde was falling, the light making his headache worse and the smell of blood making his stomach churn. "—hyuck. donghyuck, can you hear me?" hands reached under his head and held him up, and the feeling of lightness was all there was before he gave out. his body limp.

jeno held him in his arms and gave the other five a look. "are we all happy? impressed with this result?" he sounded pissed.

"i didn't think he'd take it this far. just to stay innocent..." jisung admitted. "but i suppose that's why you drove this, huh renjun?"

the raven-haired adult looked as pale as a ghost and quite distressed. "take him to sungchan, for god's sake. what are we all playing the blame game for?"

"say he can come with us," chenle insisted. "he fought harder out there than any of us could've expected. say that he passed."

"he never killed anyone."

"well he's dead," mark pointed to one of the first guys hyuck fought on the arena floor, "and she's definitely dead. call it a back door, but we can teach him to kill properly when he's ready. forcing him isn't working."

renjun nodded tightly, feelings on this matter all mixed up and hard to follow. he just wanted the boy to be safe. why was that making this harder? "fine. he can come."

"finally," jeno gushed and started marching to the staircase that would lead them out of the underground. "you lot annoy the fuck out of me sometimes."

they couldn't even muster the energy to disagree.

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...to be continued