Chapter Text
When Changbin was first thrown into the room, he didn’t notice the boy curled up in the corner, bruised arms hugging thin knees to his chest, mournful brown eyes peering out from a mop of dark brown hair.
The room itself was plain, gray concrete walls and a metal door with bars over the window and a small slot on the bottom for food. Against one wall there was a small cot that looked to be about as comfortable as the floor. On the same wall as the bed, there was a hole in the corner with a small water spigot above it.
It wasn’t until Changbin was done pounding on the metal door that didn’t budge under his fists that he turned around and saw the small figure huddled in the corner. “Damn, I didn’t see you there at first, with you being so quiet and all. I’m Changbin. What’s your name?”
The boy didn’t respond, didn’t even twitch at Changbin’s words.
“Hello?” Changbin waved his hand. “Are you deaf or something?”
The boy still didn’t move. If it wasn’t for the blinking of his eyes, Changbin would have thought him a statue.
“You know, you’re supposed to respond when people talk to you.”
The boy still said nothing, but Changbin was expecting that at this point. It was clear that he didn’t want to speak to Changbin. It was okay, the guards who had chucked Changbin in this cell had said that he was here to rot, so apparently there was going to be plenty of time for Changbin to get to know his new cellmate.
Changbin sat down with his back against the wall opposite of the silent boy. He wondered if the boy had gotten a trial. Probably not, ever since the coup trials were only for the high profile convicts and even then, they were just for show; people like him and this boy were undeserving of the due process of the law.
It’s how they kept the people under control, a high military presence and strict laws that kept people under control. Any infringement upon those laws was punished quickly and brutally. Changbin couldn’t count how many people he knew who had just disappeared off the streets, never to be seen again. If people were too scared to break the law, or step even a foot out of line, they were too scared to protest the new military regime that overthrew the government overnight.
They claimed that they brought order to the changing world, they would take control over the divide between the Powered and Unpowered better than the previous government had. And so far, they had. The Powered who were deemed “dangerous” were taken away from their families and put in camps where the military could keep a closer eye on them. Now there were virtually no fights between the Powered and Unpowered, but families were being ripped apart, children disappearing and never coming back.
They had peace. There were no longer constant fights in the streets, Powered blowing up entire city blocks in fits of rage, or accidently killing people when they lost control. But what was the cost? Were the benefits worth it?
Changbin didn’t think so.
His brother was taken away from his family when he accidentally lit one of his school papers on fire during class. He was 13 and had only just gotten his Powers. The next day, a white van pulled up while Changbin and his brother were walking to school and grabbed Changbin’s brother right off the street. Changbin never saw his younger brother again.
The metal slot on the bottom of the cell door screeched open and two bowls filled with a questionable substance slid through the gap, along with two spoons.
Changbin grabbed his portion and slid the other bowl and spoon across the room to where the boy was curled up in the corner, the bowl tapped against his foot as it came to a stop, but the boy made no move to grab the food.
Changbin shrugged, and dug into his own meal. It somewhat resembled oatmeal, but had no taste and more of a mushy texture. But it was food and Changbin was hungry, he hadn’t had something to eat in almost a full day.
When Changbin looked up from his bowl, the boy had the other in his hand and was slowly scooping the gray mush into his mouth, chewing carefully. Now that the boy’s face wasn’t hidden by his knees, Changbin could see the purpling bruise on his jaw, and the slightly older, yellowing bruise right under his eye.
The boy was also painfully skinny. His knees and elbows stuck out way too far and his orange prison uniform hung off his frame. It made Changbin almost wish that he had given his bowl of food to the boy instead of eating it himself, he could afford to skip a couple of meals while this boy looked like he was already halfway to the grave.
When the boy was done, he set his bowl and spoon down the side, not a single speck of food left on either, and curled back up and buried his face in his knees.
Some time later--Changbin wasn't sure how much because his watch had been confiscated when he was given his prison uniform to change into--the lights in their cell turned off, the only light source coming through the small window in the door that illuminated just enough to see shadowing shapes in the room.
“Do you want to take the bed?” Changbin asked.
The boy didn’t move from his huddled up ball in the corner, so Changbin took that as permission for him to climb onto the cot. It was pretty uncomfortable, but slightly better than the floor, so Changbin took that as a win.
Despite the hardness of the cot, exhaustion took over and Changbin was asleep within minutes.
The door banged open and Changbin shot up, instantly awake. The lights were back on in the room and three guards were entering the space, holding two pairs of handcuffs and their tasers.
“It’s showertime,” one of them announced. “Now we can do this the easy way or the hard way, that’s up to you.”
The boy obediently held out his hands as one of the guards approached him and fastened the handcuffs around his wrists and hauled him to his feet, none too gently.
“I see Jisung wants to cooperate. What about you Changbin?”
Changbin swung at the guard approaching him in response. Immediately, he heard a choked sound from across the cell. The guard holding Jisung had shoved his taser into his side and he was now limp in his grip, shaking and shivering.
Changbin’s moment of distraction was all the guard needed and then there was a bolt of electricity running through Changbin’s body, searing his nerves and locking up his muscles, leaving him feeling weak and shaky afterwards. His hands were in handcuffs, and pulled tight;y around his back seconds later.
The guard pushed Changbin to move and he stumbled, muscles still refusing to work properly. The third guard was then at Changbin’s side and hauling him out of the room, following Jisung and his guard. Jisung was walking, but his steps were shaky and he kept losing his balance. The guard hauling him along didn’t seem to care though, and kept marching forward even when Jisung almost fell and was half-dragged down the hall before he regained his balance and was back on his feet.
“If you try any more funny business both you and Jisung will regret it.” One of the guards hissed into Changbin’s ear.
That was enough to make Changbin behave for the time being. He was fine if his stupid actions hurt himself, but Jisung couldn’t be more than 16 and looked as if he had one foot in the grave. Changbin didn’t want the kid to hurt anymore than he did already.
It was a short trip to the showers and by the time they reached them, Changbin was feeling more steady on his feet, almost fully recovered from being tased.
The shower’s themselves had a bench on one side of the long, skinny room and showerheads lining the other. It looked like a shitty public pool restroom.
The minute they entered, Jisung started stripping off his clothes and held out his wrists so the guard could unlock his handcuffs just long enough for him to take off his shirt before locking them once again.
Changbin couldn’t hold back his gasp when the guard steered Jisung to the showers, baring his back for Changbin to see. Jisung’s torso was a myriad of scars and fresh bruises and welts. He looked as if he had been whipped or caned multiple times
“A work of art, isn’t he?” one of the guards remarked. “He’s the general’s favorite.”
Changbin didn’t have a chance to ask what the guard meant by that before he was being pushed towards the showers.
“Don’t I get to take off my clothes?”
The guard scoffed. “You’re a fool if you think I’m taking off your handcuffs, you’re just going to have to deal with being wet.”
Changbin was shoved against the wall and his hands were clipped to something on the wall behind his back. That’s when the water turned on. It was freezing. The frigid water cut through his clothes and skin, chilling his bones and causing his lungs to spasm and gasp for air.
Changbin turned his head to see Jisung with his cuffed hands hooked over the showerhead, feet barely even touching the ground. His whole body was shaking as he stood in the flow, head hanging down on his chest that was heaving with the effort it took to breathe.
The water only stopped when Changbin was thoroughly soaked and his extremities were starting to feel numb. He could barely even feel it as one of the guards unhooked his handcuffs from the hook behind his back and pushed him forward.
Changbin stumbled on his frozen legs and glanced over to see Jisung struggling to put back on his pants with frozen fingers that refused to work.
“If you don’t get those pants on in the next 30 seconds, I’m going to tell the general that you’ve been a very bad boy,” one of the guards taunted.
Jisung sped up, trying his best to shove shaking, wet legs into the orange fabric and pull the pants up over hips with hands that cuffed together and trembling.
“Damn,” the guard said once Jisung had his pants on. “It only took you 20 seconds. What a shame, the general always makes you cry in the prettiest ways.”
Jisung went still at the guard’s words while one of the guards at Changbin’s side laughed. “You can hear his begging from all the way down the hall. It’s such a shame I’m not working this Friday.”
Before Changbin could work out what the hell that meant, he was being yanked out of the room and guided down the hallway.
“How did you like your shower?” his guard asked.
“It was fine, but I would’ve liked it better if the water was just a tad warmer,” Changbin shot back with a smile, almost managing to keep the chattering of his teeth from interrupting his speech.
“We made it extra cold for you. Normally we keep it a little warmer because Jisung got hypothermia once.”
And with that, Changbin was shoved back into the cell and his handcuffs unlocked, followed shortly by a stumbling Jisung.
“Are you okay?” Changbin asked, his teeth clacking together from the cold that seemed to cling to his bones, his freezing and wet clothes sticking uncomfortably to his skin.
Jisung didn’t respond to Changbin’s question and just curled back up into the corner, knees hugged to his chest, his entire body shaking.
If Changbin and Jisung huddled together, they would both be warmer, but Changbin knew better than to suggest that to Jisung. Instead, he just worked on stripping his wet clothes from his body, they were doing more harm than good at this point.
Once Changbin was standing in just his underwear, he laid his clothes out on the floor to dry and hugged his knees to his chest in a similar way that Jisung was, trying his best to conserve warmth. Their cell wasn’t cold, but it also wasn’t warm enough to warm up Changbin’s frozen limbs and judging by the shaking, Jisung wasn’t doing much better either.
That water had just been so cold. Any colder and Changbin was pretty sure clumps of ice would have been coming out of the showerhead. It had shocked Changbin’s lungs to the point that it was physically hard to draw in a breath of air. At least now, with his wet clothes off, and knees hugged to his chest, Changbin could feel warmth slowly seep back into his bones and his body slowly stopped shaking as he warmed up.
When Changbin was starting to feel warmer, he looked up to see that Jisung was also no longer shaking and had his head resting on his knees with his eyes closed. Changbin didn’t think that it could be comfortable to sit curled up for so long, but Jisung didn’t seem to mind.
By the time the slot on the bottom of the door opened and two bowls of mush slid through, Changbin was fully warmed up and his clothes had dried enough to put back on. He wasn’t quite sure how Jisung was doing, but his lips were no longer blue and his entire body had stopped shaking, so Changbin assumed he was alright.
The next two days passed without incident, two bowls of mush were passed through the door once a day and beyond that, Jisung and Changbin were not bothered. The single bowl of mush a day was definitely not enough to sustain Changbin and he spent the two days hungry and increasingly irritable.
On the third day, the door creaked open and three guards entered. One female who was almost as tall as Changbin and two guys, one with blonde hair, the other brown.
The two guys walked over to Changbin who obediently held out his wrists for them to handcuff while Jisung did the same across the room.
When Changbin was hauled to his feet, he swayed for a couple of seconds, the lack of food hitting him harder than he had realized. The blonde guard smirked. “One bowl of food a day not enough for you?”
Changbin grit his teeth and didn’t respond.
They took a twisting path through the hallways, walking for much longer than they did going to the showers. With every step Jisung seemed to tense, but he kept moving forward.
Finally, they stopped in front of a door that was labeled “General”. Changbin could hear Jisung’s panicked breaths from where he stood a couple feet away. The door opened to reveal a tall man with salt and pepper hair at the door. There was not a crease on his uniform out of place and he stood as if he had all the power in the complex, which Changbin supposed that he did.
“Hello, Jisung, it’s so good to see you again. And look at this, you brought your friend with you. You know when we put him in the cell with you, part of me thought that he wouldn’t last a day, yet here he is, still standing in front of me. Maybe you have finally learned control after all of these years.”
Changbin had no clue what the general was talking about. Jisung was probably 110 lbs soaking wet. He didn’t stand a chance against Changbin’s muscular frame.
The general must have noticed Changbin’s confusion because he turned to speak to Changbin next. “Oh? Did Jisung not tell you? He’s the one responsible for Union Square.”
Changbin froze. Union Square was a tragedy and was the reason that the military had started being more strict with rounding up the Powered. However, several people speculated that the government had set it up as an excuse. It was crazy to think that one person could just destroy an entire building and kill over a hundred people and injure many more.
If it was someone Powered, most people thought it was a deliberate attack, maybe a move by the Resistance. When people gained their Power they were prone to uncontrollable outbursts, but they were weak. Powers developed as people got older. If Jisung could do that four years ago, how strong was his Power now?