Chapter Text
The craft is going to crash. Nose dive right into the ground. The atmosphere of the planet is sucking the spacecraft into its orbit as expected, all that is left to do right now is take all the luggage and shut off the engine before escaping the hell into the capsule.
Taehyung is about to pull the brakes to glide across the space but the lever gets stuck halfway. What a fucking trash, this ship. The oxygen levels were barely enough for this sudden one-way trip when Taehyung had bought this wrecked ship from the black market. The ceiling was falling off, one of the wings kept screeching the whole journey because of the rust and the clanging fibres and metals made his head ache all the time he had been aboard.
But there was no other way out from his home planet. There was only one option though, and it would have meant his death had he stayed back. Just this once, Taehyung thought, just this once I will be selfish.
He hauls a few crates of essentials to the other side of the ship, stacking them onto one another in the capsule that already looked tiny for any activity. Since the brakes are jammed, he thinks he should set the auto destruct on and escape from the capsule in the sky itself. At least this trashy ship had a newly installed escape pod aka capsule. He was getting the fuck out of this.
He went back to click into the panel and set a timer before the ship auto destructs, and then carried the only, singular bag he had escaped terra 3AR7H with. The bag, slung across his back, was the only piece of home he allowed himself to keep.
The warning beep resonated along the walls, thrumming through his ears as he walked towards the capsule. There was no time. He shuffled into the tight space, the crates digging into his back as he adjusted into the remaining space.
This is it.
He closed the door of the capsule, wore the helmet hanging along the wall and launched into the atmosphere with a boom. The ship got further and further away as the capsule hustled towards the gravity of the Old Cyph.
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There was a blunt thud, the sound similar to what he felt in the little heart muscle against his ribcage. The door to their little apartment broke in a few kicks from the intruder. Taehyung was sitting at the low table, frozen in fear. The day was good, Taehyung remembered, the day started good, there was a cake on the table. They never had cake on regular days, maybe once a few years. So it was definitely a day to celebrate since there was cake on the table.
The intruder that leaned down to enter the room was green, a spiky tail swirled behind it as it roamed its beady yellow eyes across the room, landing on Taehyung at the table. Taehyung whimpered, and the zard came closer. Taehyung knew to not trust the green, ugly creatures but he was too terrified of it to speak a word.
He was alone at home, a little dwelling more into the ground than it was above. Gisung had told him to stay put. And not eat the cake until he got back. He was a good boy, he didn’t even taste the cake, he didn’t leave the house.
Why was this scary zard at his house? Where was hyung?
The creature hissed as he stepped towards him, he looked angry. His little nose was like those chimneys Taehyung had memory of. They were releasing smoke. He came closer and stopped as Taehyung covered his eyes with his palms.
“Little human.” the green creature hissed. “Where is your brother?” It sniffed the air, rounded back on Taehyung after looking around the main hall again.
Its screechy voice was scary, Taehyung gulped.
“It appears that scum fled and left you to pay the debt, huh?” Its croaky voice echoed horribly around the little room and the zard made its way in front of now shivering Taehyung. It was hard to register the scaly face, all Taehyung saw was a blur of yellow-green imposing over him and behind it, the slightly tilted cake on the table.
A rough hand gripped his head and moved it up, up, up until he looked into those terrifyingly translucent yellow eyes. They were sharp and unfamiliar. A short breath later he moved his eyes back to that familiar table, back to that rare cake that was melting off one side.
The creature was not happy at that, he snarled and then all there was left in the silent room was a loud splatter and a wrangled cry. The cake, his hyung’s cake, the special cake on the table became a crushed ugly debris of what it was a moment ago. In some way, so was Taehyung.
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The soft, almost cushy ground greets Taehyung as he steps out of the inclined slope his capsule falls to. He’s sure he can get a few feet up in the air if he jumps really hard on the grey soil.
Ah. So he’s really reached the Old Cyph. His shady dealer at least didn’t sham him out of a reliable navigation map. He hauled the couple of crates out in the open clearing he crashed at. Hah. he can’t believe he really travelled all the way to the other side of the galaxy and managed to land alive and breathing. The most he’d hoped was to get lost in the unregistered wormhole and get caught either by the pirates or the patrol. But it felt surreal to land on the planet he’d only heard about through the system, hushed warnings issued of its dwellers and its no-man’s land policy. The Old Cyph was, afterall, a criminal hub of the galaxy, the trash bin of the universe. The worst of the species lived here, and thrived.
Taehyung took in all of the scenic awe the Cyph offered. Its faded purple sky was filled with uncountable floating cities, way up above his head. They were littered near and far, and he had no doubt that the dwellers on the Cyph liked to live on those rocks rather than the actual planet itself. The way the rubbery soil made him skip might be one of the first reasons.
Taehyung kept his helmet on, dragged all his supplies and crates through the wobbly mud that kept making him jump on its rubbery surface. The upright silicone structures that surrounded the area were akin to trees, but instead of leaves their branches grew fur. It all looked better than any grainy pictures they’d shown on the feed back home. It was comfortable enough to his eyes, Taehyung was in no state to be picky, his ship would have probably become a scrape of metalloid right about now.
The edge of a dwelled-in city was nearly in sight when he was abruptly blinded by sudden light shining at his eyes. What?
In the next second there was a commotion around him and he found himself restrained. Around him stood three weird looking humans in off-green overalls. The colour was honestly hurting Taehyung’s eyes. He felt his arms bound to his sides by the creatures that stood with strange glowing ropes around his arms. The one in front of him had a strange sneer set on his face, looking down at Taehyung by his sharp nose. He was oddly human looking, same sheen to his skin, two eyes at the front, one upturned nose, a mouth frowning at Taehyung. Looking at him like he was just dirt beneath his shoes. The odd-human opened his mouth to say something, and it took a second to register that Taehyung’s helmet was filtering the unknown language, vacuum in its space whooshed around his ears.
The fuck, how was he supposed to take off his helmet when those other odd-humans were restraining his arms. He tried wiggling to try and free one hand when he realized there was no need. The ropes that were glowing a moment ago around his wrists fell off like wilted petals, like someone turned their switch off.
The morons were as baffled at the limp ropes as Taehyung was, still he brought up a hand to slide the glass of his helmet and face the one that was sneering at him. The odd-man also scrambled to compose himself before he spoke again.
“What- What did you do?”
Huh? The species here on Cyph spoke his native language? That was not something he was aware of. It was surprising to hear the lilt and vowels of his mother tongue after spending weeks on the spaceship alone, especially when it came from someone who didn’t even know what Taehyung’s language was.
At his lack of response, the man sobered and said in a strict tone, “You are arrested for trespassing the Old orbit without registration. We are the Cyph Patrol.”
Oh? Wasn’t Old Cyph a vile and ill-equipped exoplanet? It was a no-man’s land, as far as the reports said back at the Terra, that this run down planet was filled with nothing but sleazy dealers, war criminals, rich overlords, gambling species? Was all that not true? Did Taehyung make a mistake by choosing this hellhole?
But, to be honest, these people that apparently were from an organisation, this supposed Cyph patrol, they didn’t seem all that genuine. Cause really, a planet that had a Patrol supposedly, would wait till the unregistered intruder(Taehyung in this case) would crash and then let them take their sweet time stacking up their boxes and then, these supposed officers would catch them and ask for credentials? How dumb were these dacoits?
It was hilarious, what was about to happen.
Taehyung put some space between himself and the other menacing Officer who looked like he was about to grab Taehyung by the hair and drag him all the way to his office. Taehyung pulled out a bundle of microchips from his front pocket. He knew this was going to happen. He was prepared.
“Unregistered, you say?” He scoffed.” Look for yourselves, officers.” He handed out one of the chips and scanned his forefinger once over the surface. Blue lights came to life and the hologram floated right near the Officer’s face. Taehyung’s face popped up on the left of the blue panel with his basic details in neat little rows on the right. His approved ‘ticket’ shining bright green mocked the odd-man right in his face.
“And your licence, Kim Taehyung?” He asked, without even scanning over the whole panel.
For a planet that was infamous for crime and its criminals, this planet certainly had too many formalities. Ah yes, fake formalities
As he was about to hold out his hand with another chip, there was a clearing of throat. The three officers(stupid robbers) were as startled by the sound as Taehyung. He looked at the new stranger that suddenly showed up. Did they fucking spawn out of thin air?
(Considering the atmosphere here, it didn’t seem too surprising)
The new stranger was a tall and well dressed man, big arms, big chest, looked like one of those humanoids that came once a year to inspect the dens where Taehyung was just a nobody. The zards used to call them Primes and bowed to them, and cussed them, called them fucking humanoids in private. There was no doubt the man in front of him was a Prime.
Taehyung could hear dull thuds of his heart against his ribs, even under the helmet he could feel his ears ringing. What was a Prime doing in a place like Old Cyph? They were one of the ruling species of the galaxy, every other creature that didn’t fall to any Ascender species was basically a roach in front of the Primes. It seemed so out of place, imagining a Prime on Cyph, that Taehyung, for a second thought he was still on his home Terra, still in a dark corner, still on a hallucinogen. High and delusional.
It took one of the officer’s shrieks to pull Taehyung back from his mind, where he was still tethered to a chain in the dark.
What stood in front of him now was definitely a Prime, now glaring at the imposter and downright melting off his ugly yellow-green overall. The shrieking creature now appeared less like a human and more like a slimy jelly creature in a man’s proportion. It tugged a strand of fear in Taehyung, but he was surprised that the prime only glared with his glowing eyes at the other creatures, coming in between them and Taehyung to stand in front of him.
“What did I warn you imbeciles about loitering here?” The prime spoke, his voice deep and rich, flowing over the air and making the creatures cower. One of them, probably the mean one(it was hard to recognize them since they all had jelly faces), opened its jelly-dripping mouth to speak but one growl from the prime made him shut up.
“I don’t want your slimy asses anywhere near my turf, or I’ll put all of you and your fermented colony in the cryo. Understood?” The prime’s back was to Taehyung but even he was compelled to nod. There was an unwavering command in his velvet-smooth voice.
Then the wide(thought-infecting wide) back started to turn around as soon as the slimy creatures ran off, leaving Taehyung with this towering prime.
The eyes that regarded him were sharp and calculating, immeasurable intelligence brewing behind them, and the Prime was a good few inches taller. The fear returned to Taehyung like a kick in the gut, he staggered a few steps back but kept his eyes pointedly on the prime.
Silver.
Swirling molten mercury.
That's how the prime's eyes looked in the dim lights of the open sky. Silver piercing eyes, like sharp tools that had the ability to poke and prod at Taehyung and know everything about him with a single glance.
And it wasn't merely the fear of what he just witnessed the prime standing in front of him did to those imposters. There were countless stories about primes and why exactly they were called the apex beings in this side of the galaxy. They were sentient beings, and had been evolved strategically to be deadly, ruthless and expert weapons.
Over the centuries, Taehyung remembers an old Nymph once telling him in hushed whispers, they learned to think for themselves, those sentients got the old men by the balls, he winked, overthrew them and started running the shitshow.
It was true that it's been a good few centuries since the primes came to power and have been running the so-called administration. Taehyung's opinion of the primes starts and ends with one word: fear. Immense, bone chilling fear since the primes had a big role in all his suffering.
Fleeing right now in front of this prime that was assessing him would be impossible, his little boxes couldn't be afforded to leave behind. And where would he run to hide? He was already on the run from one planet, he so not wanted to extend that list.
Before he could decide his next step, the prime stepped closer, just a bit. This close Taehyung had to look up at the man, in his mercurial eyes that were already trained on him.
Taehyung gulped.
"How did you do that?" The prime tilted his head a little, the question addressed to Taehyung in a deep, deep voice.
It was so surprising that a Prime was addressing him. Him! A human from Terra, a runaway. How surreal. But what did he mean, what did Taehyung do?
Blinking, stuttering and trying his hardest not to squeak in fear, Taehyung asked back, "Do…what?"
The prime's brow furrowed, lips down turning in a confused scowl. "How did you escape their binding?"
Taehyung blinked again. "By… um, by twisting my hands?"
Taehyung absolutely had no idea that he would be interrogated like this when he'd land down the Cyph, first from those slimeys and then from this prime.
The answer was apparently not satisfactory for the prime, his scowl only deepening. And then he raised his hands and took those chips from Taehyung's hand. The prime's big, thick fingers pinching the microcards straight off his hand.
Taehyung gasped. He knew primes were entitled assholes but now getting things snatched straight from his hand without permission was some fucking experience.
"Listen I don't-"
"Oh." The prime cut him off in a quiet whisper. "You're a human."
Taehyung was afraid of the prime, yes. It was something that was hard-wired into him, ever since he was a kid. It was not even the fear of just primes, Taehyung was wary of every other predator species, and the ascenders as well. but it was dampened by the annoyance he felt right now.
"Yeah. Oh." He replied dryly, making a face. Taehyung reached back for his (fake) IDs and snatched them back from the very mannerless prime. He turned back to gather his little mount of belongings and pointedly ignored the dumbfounded prime now standing with a gaping mouth. At least that's what Taehyung caught from his periphery, turned away and all.
The soil under his feet made it hard to push the crates along, it felt like he was waddling through a puddle of slime and goo. He needed to find a wagon or portal or whatever they used for transportation in these trenches. No wonder most of the population lived up in those carefully crafted floating cities.
As he strained to tug the luggage along, the tall, (beautiful, handsome too but Taehyung would never admit) prime caught up to him, hovering along smoothly in his gliders. They were really just shoes with silent nanotech thrusters, zero fumes and no fuel. They were still mostly useless to Taehyung who only had to walk a handful of paces and was almost always at one place. Never needed those tacky inventions cause he had no means to buy and nowhere to go.
"Taehyung Kim, I apologise if I offended you. It's my first time meeting one of your kind." There was that baritone again, velvet and so smooth Taehyung could taste the texture of it in his mouth. His voice was tinged with something like unbelievability. Was the prime surprised because how a mere human landed here, out of all places? Well, Taehyung was surprised too, unpleasantly, about finding a Prime that claimed this area as their turf.
Taehyung scoffed. Now the Prime knew his name too. “Prime, I just came here to live in peace. And don't worry, I won’t step foot in your Turf.” And I don’t wanna be frozen in a cryo, he muttered.
The prime blinked a few times and pushed his hair back, which now that Taehyung noticed, was not at all how those Primes visiting terra looked like. They had clean cut hair, not flowy tresses down to the shoulders like this Prime here. Weirdly, this prime didn’t wake a course of fear in him, like those marching Primes did. Maybe this one was a biracial prime? Was it possible that after taking up the reins of the administration, the primes moved on to mix their heritage with other species?
The prime exhaled, in a soft voice he said, “ We, I- well I have never been face to face with a human before. Let me introduce myself. I am Namjoon.” Namjoon smiled, his tanned cheeks popping out a dimple and Taehyung’s guard was knocked a few pegs down.
A Prime with a dimple. The thought pulled at Taehyung's lips, but he forced them to remain pressed.
Namjoon bowed, bent his tall legs at the knees and no. No one has ever bowed before Taehyung. Not him, never him, the little roughed up boy who had no one to even call him by his name. He stepped back a little, horrified by the gesture and knocked back his luggage.
And there went tumbling his precious goods.
He watched as the toppled boxes bounced on the damned rubber of the soil, and slipped further away. Shit. Shit. Before he could run after them like the farmers ran after their screeching kens, a hand took hold of his wrist. Pulled him back to stay put. The prime, Namjoon, floated ahead and splayed a hand out in the direction of his rogue crates.
They stopped like something invisible was holding them back, and it was just one of the powers of the Prime. Namjoon looked back at him amused beyond belief, as the crates hauled themselves back to their pile. Ah yes. Primes and their genetically-evolved abilities.
“Need help with these?” Namjoon beamed. His eyes flashed, bright silver for a heartbeat, and then a hoverpad appeared before them, crystal-cut and delicate looking. A flick of Namjoon’s wrist and all of Taehyung’s luggage sat perfectly on the board. All he could do was look up at the tall prime and notice how deep those dimples were, almost drilled into his flawless skin.
When Taehyung didn’t respond, Namjoon cleared his throat and offered, “I can get you to your destination, human. I will even help with the seedlings in those boxes of yours.”
There was no malintention behind those words, Taehyung could sense the genuine help offered but he still spluttered.
“Wha-what, How? Why do you know what’s inside my crates?” Taehyung demanded, doubt and mistrust dripping through his voice. Prime Namjoon blinked again, that was all he seemed to do around Taehyung. Huh.
“I am a Prime?” Taehyung wasn’t sure if Namjoon was asking or answering. None of them made sense. “ I can see through metals and non-metals?” He still sounded confused, if primes had a set of ears atop their head, Namjoon’s would have been twitching.
That made sense, ofcourse. Primes could scan through things and gather whatever information they needed. Stupid Primes. Stupid Tae for not covering his precious flower seeds in a more secure, anti-prime material.
Namjoon flashed a grin again, like that would make Taehyung forget how invasive a prime’s ability could be. It worked, Taehyung scowled when he realised just how attractive a smiling Namjoon was.
An open palm bloomed in front of Taehyung, the prime standing closer than a second ago. He whispered, “ Hold on,” He pointed at his offered palm, eyes swirling with humour. “ I will take you to the address on your fake, totally illegal ID.” The cheeky Prime would have seen Taehyung’s red red ears had he not worn the capsule’s helmet.