Super

44. Taeyong times two

Most of the reason he was doing this was because the others could be in danger, but he couldn't say that he wasn't in the least bit excited. After being left out of the first fight and knocked out before the beginning of the other, he needed a reason to feel like an actual part of the team again.

"Eros?" he spoke into his mic. "The others aren't responding. Try to work your way up the levels to check up on them; if you find anyone, tell me." He took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly. "I'm going in."

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"Go," Taeyong breathed as he looked at the—the thing that had just broken through the window, a hulking mass of onyx and flesh that stirred ever-so-slightly from its position on the floor. Baekhyun was stepped back slowly, but Shao seemed to be staring at it, unmoving, as if the sight had paralyzed her. "Go."

The thing was obviously living, and massive, at least twice the size of a human being. The darkness and the creature's shape together made it impossible for Taeyong to make out its features or physique, but it shifted a little as he watched it, moving in a familiar way, almost fluttering, like curtains in the wind or wings in the air. Bits of broken glass slipped off from the cloth-like surface and hit the ground, shards glinting in the sparse moonlight around the huddled figure.

"Both of you," Taeyong breathed, not daring to lift his voice above a whisper, "need to go. Right now."

"What?" Shao demanded, but her voice was weak. "And leave you behind?"

Baekhyun had backed up to them, and now rested a calming hand on her arm, shooting her a quelling look. The figure was beginning to rise—it was human, definitely human under all those drape-like things, Taeyong decided, catching a glimpse of the line of a wrist or an ankle in the shrouding darkness. But there was something wrong about it, some additional feature that seemed to weigh down its movements and shifted like fabric being swept back, disjointed and broken and unfurling—

"Wings," Baekhyun whispered, his voice a mixture of awe and horror. "Those are wings."

"You need to leave now," Taeyong said, more urgently this time, as the human-hybrid raised his head and rolled his neck, claw-like fingers curling in and out, the sound of tiny bones snapping sounding from his shaken-out joints. "Both of you. Go. Now. Before he gets to his feet."

"You can't fight him alone," Shao said, but Baekhyun was already pulling her back down the stairs.

"I won't be alone," Taeyong said, rising to his full height and exposing himself to the creature as it knelt on one knee, pulling itself up to stand. Give him a target. "One of me is like two of you."

If, a voice at the back of his mind taunted, your powers work.

Baekhyun and Shao began to retreat just as the creature rose to his feet. He was shockingly human, Taeyong thought, with a face that looked like it had been carved from marble. Sculpted cheekbones and hollow cheeks, piercing eyes lined with what looked like kohl, and skin the color of gold and honey. All human, except for the massive wings that rose from his back, a drawing in ink and oil. Angel, Taeyong thought again, almost dazedly, fallen angel.

But there was nothing angelic about the boy's eyes. He fixed his poisonous glare on Taeyong, fisting his hands. There was something different in the boy's eyes, different from the Ice Angel and the screaming girl; he looked like he was in agony. Somehow, that was familiar to Taeyong. Too familiar. He stepped back, as if in a daze, remembering the night at the diner and the look in the werewolf's eyes as Taeyong had crashed into him...

And the winged boy flew towards Taeyong, almost literally, charging at him with the added force and speed of his beating wings. Taeyong barely had time to clone himself as the boy crashed into him, his momentum broken from the combined force of Taeyong times two, but it was enough to jar both of them.

Taeyong was pushed off his feet, skidding backwards a few feet before the boy charged at him again, clawed hands extended. He didn't even have time to be relieved that his powers worked before the wicked-edged claws swiped at him. Taeyong threw his head back, missing the initial attack, but the second swipe caught his cheek, drawing four parallel lines of blood.

"What are you?" Taeyong whispered, and something awful crept into the boy's expression. Something about the boy's eyes, his unhinged way of fighting, made Taeyong not want to hurt him. Because the attacks were more like swings, the ones you got during bouts of anger that filled you so much that it couldn't be contained within you. Anger. Rage. Self-hatred.

The boy roared, a guttural sound, and leaped at him, but Taeyong caught his arms and held him back. Not particularly strong, either. "Why—" Taeyong cut himself off, staring into his eyes with a newfound realization, something too absurd to even consider.

And yet.

The boy didn't put up a fight, even as Taeyong pinned him to the wall. His eyes were reddened, hands shaking, and the fury on his face was dissolving into anguish. He looked...afraid. But not of Taeyong.

"What did they do to you?" Taeyong whispered.