Chapter Text
In the coming times of trouble, the world will need a force of good nature to work against the forces of darkness, against those that will try to pull person from person. They will be a force like none other.
So many times, in the past it was supposed to happen, over and over these seven were destined to have met but always something stopped it from happening. The forces of darkness working against the natural order…not wanting to lose their power over the lives of those below them.
This time though it will not be stopped. This time Fate has stepped in and she is not someone you should mess with when she really wants something done. In the end the eldest was born in 1992, the others followed over the next five years, one in 1993, two in 1994, two in 1995, and the last in 1997. Their message of love and self-acceptance will change millions of lives…This is Fate’s design.
The First Intervention…
It was a cold night for the middle of April, though in the middle of the northern Atlantic Ocean spring never really comes. The fields of ice sheets and bergs float year-round in the freezing water. They had been underway for several days by that point, halfway to their destination in New York Harbor.
Two young men stood at the stern of the ship; arms wrapped around each other and the railing as the ship continued to tilt further and further from the water. Their eyes searched the darkness around them, hoping against hope that they would see the lights of another ship on the horizon. They had managed to save at least one person that night even when so many were still around them just waiting.
Close by they could both hear the wail of a violin playing in the silence of the dark evening. If it hadn’t been for the terror encroaching on everything the two men would have thought that they were simply enjoying a moonlit walk. They had had several similar walks over the last couple nights before heading back to their bunk room for the evening. It wasn’t the case though; nothing could ever be the same again. The black specter of death mingled among the crowd of half-dressed panicked passengers.
The two stood near the group of other officers, none of them had even tried to get to the lifeboats, they knew that there wasn’t enough room for everyone. They saved them for the women and children onboard. They simply had to hope that a ship would come for them before they met with the icy depths beneath them.
They had joined the ship as stewards, both had luckily been assigned to the same area. The two of them had been together for years and being separated would have been terrible on such a large ship. They had been on their rounds in the first-class cabins, attending to the needs of their passengers when the news came. It had been half an hour since the accident and finally they were told to wake everyone up and get them topside with their life preservers on. Both had been shocked but had done their jobs over the next half hour finding the stragglers and getting them up to the main decks.
It had been when the Captain finally ordered that they start breaking out the lifeboats that they both realized something was very wrong. They made sure there were no other first-class passengers left before they left the now abandoned hall and ran for their room on the deck below.
Upon entering the room both nearly cried finding their young cabin mate still sleeping and really, they shouldn’t have been surprised the boy could sleep through almost anything. The three of them had been assigned the room when the younger boy had joined the crew. Their cabin was small, only having two narrow beds and a cot shoved into the back of the room. The elder two nearly laughed, as it seemed Koo had decided to curl up in Joon’s bed, his body cocooned, and his nose scrunched up as he dreamed. They quickly woke the younger boy up, threw a life jacket over his head and ushered him out of the room headed for the upper decks.
All of them were terrified…and the slight tilting of the deck told both the older boys that time was running very short. Upon reaching the grand staircase they practically dragged the younger boy up the red velvet covered stairs. It was difficult as the stairs listed badly the further they went up them.
They reached the deck and found one of the other officers standing next to a lifeboat. It had been lowered off the side near the edge of the deck. A bridge had been set up using deck chairs and a few women and small children were working their way across the far end of the bridge with the help of the officers.
Both men were scared for a moment when some of the older male teens began moving back to stand with the men gathered around. They all seemed to be about their age or slightly older, deep down they had known this would be the case. A quick look between them assured them both that only their young charge mattered; they would be staying, and they both agreed that it would be that way.
The crowd upon seeing them moved slightly to let them through and they rushed forward dragging Koo with them. The officer standing next to the chair bridge grabbed the eldest arm as the two of them lifted the younger boy onto the first chair in the path.
“Passengers first, you should know that Mr. Kim,” he barked his voice as cold as the night around them, “both of you should.”
“Not us sir,” Joon motioned to himself and Jin, “Just Koo, he’s only 13. Please let him go with the others. He’s small and he won’t take up much space.”
They both held their breath as the Lieutenant looked at them, then the lifeboat, and then the passengers waiting around them. He looked for a moment like he wanted to tell them to leave but stopped himself. A man stepped out of the crowd around them with a pipe hanging from the left side of his mouth and saved the lieutenant from making the decision. The boys recognized him from the first-class lounge where they had worked a portion of the past several days. They had been told that the man was some hotel bigwig from New York.
The man quickly stepped up to the chair bridge and looked at Koo for a moment before smiling. He surprised them when he quickly stripped out of the thick wool pea-coat that had been wrapped around his frame. He dropped it over the younger boys shivering shoulders and pulled it closed over top of the life vest. The man called out to someone in the lifeboat and motioned for the woman to take the young boy into the boat to sit with her.
Koo seemed to realize that they weren’t coming with him and jumped down from the chair and rushed over to them. He burrowed his way into Namjoon’s arms holding on tight to his stomach. Both men took a moment to hug him just as tightly before Jin pulled him away and led him back over to the chairs.
“Kookie please get in the boat. You can’t stay here with us. We will see you in a couple days. I’m sure another ship is on the way, but we will feel better knowing you are safe. Go on now,” the eldest said, trying not to let his anxiety show on his face or Koo would never leave their side.
The two of them hugged him again before lifting him back up onto the chair bridge. They watched as the officer in the boat reached out and grabbed Jungkook’s hand helping him into the lifeboat. Both smiled as a young woman pulled him to sit next to her on the bench, beside her sat a heavily pregnant woman. They watched for a moment as Koo smiled at the pregnant woman and took her hand trying to comfort her. Jungkook had always been the most compassionate person they knew. She gave him a watery smile and wrapped her arm around Koo cuddling him safely into her side.
Jin and Namjoon quickly melted into the crowd and disappeared before the young boy could realize that they weren’t going to stay to watch over him. They had done their part in getting him to safety and now they would go find somewhere to wait for either rescue or the end to come.
The end did come what seemed like hours later, but was really only another hour or so, in the cold murky depths of the freezing Atlantic Ocean. In the darkness, after the lights went out, they were together floating in the cold waves. The great ship slid under the surface taking so many with it on its descent to the ocean floor below. They knew that their friend would live and that was all that mattered to them because they were at least together.
They would not see their young friend for many many years, until the day he showed up in their little white room waiting for their next incarnation, their next chance to follow their fate.
End First Intervention
Joon woke from his dream and sat up blinking blurry images from the back of his eyes. He shivered involuntarily even in the relative warmth of the room. Looking over to the other side of the bed he smiled, as a face from his dream flickered across his vision, a face he had seen almost every day for years now. Jin had always caused him déjà vu and Namjoon had never been able to explain it before but maybe now he had his answer. The dream had been so real, he could still feel Jin’s arms around him and the crushing emptiness of that dark evening.
He crawled out of the bed and moved out of the room as quietly as he could. The hallway was dark but still he was able to find the door he was looking for. He knew the whole apartment even in the dark, if they had been anywhere but at home, he surely would have woken someone.
Namjoon opened the door and tiptoed into the room, stopping at the foot of the huge bed in the middle of the room. He nearly chuckled before he remembered that he didn’t want to wake up those sleeping in the room.
Another image flashed at him from the remnants of his dream. A younger version of the teen sleeping in the bed he stood over. Still Jungkook slept, his body burrowed into the blankets, his nose scrunched up at whatever he was dreaming, his arm thrown across Jimin’s body. Namjoon sighed when he realized that Kookie was wrapped in a very familiar blanket, one that Joon is pretty sure the man stole from his bed. Everyone always wondered why Kookie preferred to steal his blankets, but they had gotten used to it over the years and had stopped trying to figure it out. Namjoon didn’t mind so it wasn’t a big deal but maybe it was something else.
Namjoon doesn’t understand why he feels so out of place suddenly. Like he should have woken up in the early 1900’s instead of 2019, wondering why he remembers such events like they happened yesterday. Why the dream was so clear, more a memory than a dream. A quick look over the other two assures him that the youngest three of their group are still sleeping before he leaves the room and heads back to his own.
Instead of crawling back into his side of the now assuredly cold bed he decides to sit on the edge of Jin’s side watching the eldest of the group sleep for a moment. He’s so caught up in his own thoughts that he misses Jin waking up.
“Joonie what’s wrong?” he asks, his voice thick with sleep, but his eyes filled with concern as he looked up.
“Just a dream, I felt the need to go check on Kookie,” Joon explained
“He’s sleeping and you should be too, we have a long day tomorrow,” Jin says and doesn’t ask any more questions. He just reaches out, pulling Namjoon down to lie next to him again. The younger doesn’t object and buries his head into Jin’s shoulder feeling the arms lock around his body cradling him to the warm body holding him.
He drifts there in the darkness, in Jin’s arms, wondering why under the smell of sleep warmed skin all he can smell is salt water and fear. It’s a long time before he falls back asleep, hoping that he will forget by morning the sadness of his dream. The memory is haunting, images of the man holding him dying is devastating, something that Namjoon never wants to think about again.