9:08 PM. Basilica de Fourviere, Lyon, France. December 8th. Fête des Lumières

Light. An ocean of light. Streams of bright silver and twinkling golden fireflies shine bright as seen from above a solitary plane navigating its

way through the icy skies to get to a warm destination. The plane is flying above France and foreign passengers wonder why Lyon seems so bright

tonight. Paris is called the City of light and yet Lyon is blinding as seen from above. It is no surprise, considering between December 6th and

9th, the Lyonnais celebrate The Festival of Lights, turning Lyon into the Capital of Lights. The streets and squares look like a brightly-adorned

Christmas tree, the closer the plane gets the more colors twinkle and catch the passengers' eyes.

Christmas is soon to come and the city is drowned by tourists, enjoying the brightly-lit streets, the ferris wheels and hot cinnamon wine sold by

the vendors on the street, the hot chocolate and warm croissants in the specialty shops that draw you in, sheltering you from the cold. The

tourists' icy breaths ignite the darkness with a muffled foggy white. Everyone is wrapped in shawls, scarves, comforters, heavy overcoats,

wearing wooly mittens and padded furry boots. "Frozen noses, frozen toes, the frozen city starts to glow!" a little girl with rosy cheeks sings

as she ice skates between shivering bodies trying not to fall. Her sharp melodic laugh echoes through the crowd.

A large group of tourists is visiting the Notre Dame de Fouvriere at night to enjoy the light spectacle around them. They have seen rainbow

colored stain glassed candles perched on window sills with flames dancing in the wind, they have seen camp fires and torch acrobats and laser

shows cast upon old buildings, trading their bland brown and gray colors for neon blues and purples, fiery reds and blinding yellows. Now they

quietly sit around the tour guide who is telling them about the history of the tall basilica they are facing.

The tour guide is a young-looking man, around 23 years old and 1.70 m tall, he is dressed casual, wearing jeans, a grungy dark green sweater and a

leather jacket adorned by many functionless zippers. Thick black-rimmed glasses sit atop his nose but they look like they are there as a fashion

statement and not as an aid for impaired vision. The young man looks like he was supposed to be on stage at a rock show but somehow ended up

preaching in the middle of curious thawing tourists instead. At least that is what one of the teenage girls sitting next to her family thinks.

This tour guide is making her feel all sorts of ways. And he talks really fast. He seems to enjoy talking. Soon she realizes she hasn't even

heard a word he has said because she is distracted by his good looks so she makes an effort to listen, there is a quiz at school and she might

fail if she doesn't remember anything on her trip.

"The Fourvière basilica is dedicated to the Mary, as you all know. She saved our city from the bubonic plague known as the Black Death,

that swept Europe in 1643. As a thank you, on this day you have seen candles throughout the city lit up in her honor. The French also credit her

for saving them from the Cholera epidemic of 1832 and the Prusians in 1870. So basically, any natural or man-made catastrophe, you name it, she

saved us from it! That is one badass lady!". Byun Baekhyun giggles at his attempt of keeping the tourists interested and amused. He does not get

the desired response so he goes back to being serious, pushing his glasses up with his finger and sheltering his palms in his pockets. His soft

features and cheeky smile make kim look like a kid trying to act like an adult and the gathering finds this quite charming.

"The design of the basilica draws from Romanesque and Byzantine architecture, Baekhyun continues with a straight face, an unusual non-Gothic

style. It has four main towers, and a belltower upon which you can see the golden statue of the Mary. It features fine mosaics, impressive

stained glass and the crypt of St. Joseph. Fourvière contains two churches, one on top of the other. The upper sanctuary is very ornate, while

the lower has a simpler design. Work on the basilica started in 1872 and finished in 1884. The locals have nicknamed this church the "upside-down

elephant" because its body looks like an elephant and the four towers appear to be legs".

"Fun fact! (Byun Baekhyun's face lights up, getting ready to offer a juicy piece of information). This is unrelated to the church or even

France but I thought I would tell you lovely folks about it! Have you heard about the 1923 Gold Coast Survey elephant? A bunch of humorous

Bristish cartographers on an expedition to discover and chart unknown territories in tropical West Africa were one hill away from being finished.

But it was hot. Too hot for their old British rain-soaked bones. So what did they do? They decided to call it a day and pack their bags and just

doodle something on the map! One of them had a magazine and they doodled an elephant shape! They figured nobody would travel to that remote part

of Ghana, nobody would bother, so voila! An elephant with a 300 elevation mark on its back that nobody would have noticed and I would certainly

not have known about it, were it not for Mr. Stephen Fry telling me about it on the show QI! Brilliant stuff, eh?" Baekhyun is gleeming with the

pride of knowing this little known fact. In the meantime the teenage girl facepalms herself wondering why this hot young guy sounds like her

awkward dad with his cheesy jokes all of a sudden.

A few people back, a tall, slender woman, wearing a thick dark brown winter coat over a white cashmere sweater and a long hippie skirt, her face

covered by a large-brimmed cotton hat and an over-sized umbrella, is smiling wide at Baekhyun, unseen by him. It is a different smile than the

others around. A knowing smile. A smile that says she knows this man and knows him well, a smile triggered by how familiar his words and demeanor

are. The woman has blonde wavy curls trickling down her open coat. Her face is pale and fragile, her eyes are a dark blue and they look both

happy and sad. She knows both her and him will be back at this spot three months from now. She knows she will have to be here to save him. She

wishes she could just walk up to him right now and tell him all this. But she can't. Now is not the time. Looking at him one more time, she turns

on her heels and walks the opposite way as tiny snowflakes fall on her shoulders and melt on her face. Tiny droplets of water make their way down

her cheeks and chin, as soft as kisses on her pink lips. Baekhyun senses something and he looks up. But it's too late. The woman is gone.

"Is it true this particular church has an official choir? one of the older gentlemen around asks.

Baekhyun wakes back up to reality, almost startled by the question.

"Yes, Les Petits Chanteurs de Saint-Marc, The Children Choir of Saint Mark. I have actually sung with them before for Sunday sermons. They are

wonderful and their voices really echo beautifully, this place has great acoustics!"

"Oh, you can sing? the teenage girl is suddenly interested in him again. Sing for us a little? I will tip well, haha!"

"Alright, for a generous tip I might", Baekhyun replies with a cocky, confident smile.

Baekhyun closes his eyes and starts singing Journey's "Open Arms" quite loudly, not shy of the busy surroundings.

"Living without you, living alone
This empty house seems so cold
Wanting to hold you, wanting you near
How much I wanted you home"

His voice is soulful and deep, it touches those around him because it seems to come from a deep place, a buried sorrow and a feeling of loss.

Some of the older couples around get teary-eyed but blame it on the falling snow glistening on their faces. A few meters away, two feet have

stopped. Two eyes have looked back, two ears have heard the melody and the emotional voice and a heart started beating faster. It is snowing

harder now, the flakes form a curtain that makes everything barely visible. Nobody sees the woman crying.

6:20 PM, March 18th. Basilica de Fourviere, Lyon, France

Three months have passed. The snow is gone. The tourists have long departed. Lyon is not as bright as seen from above. There is word of meteor

showers and an unprecedented eclipse, the winds are too strong, the oceans are wild, the skies rage thunder at mankind. Something has been off

with the world lately. Baekhyun wants things to go back to normal. On March 16th, in Almaty, Kazakhstan, a professor fell down surrounded by

electric shocks and lightning. On March 17th, a Wushu master vanished from Barcelona, Spain, during a championship. On March 1st a tea house

owner was killed in Lijiang, China. On this very day, a college student in Berlin went out partying, came home drunk, stumbling on the stairs and

saw something he wasn't supposed to see. A glass froze in his hand. The silver tap started spinning. Things are in motion. Somewhere a forest

burned down to the ground for no apparent reason and a flood swallowed a sea port village only 320 kilometers South, in Marseilles.

6:21 PM.

"There he is! The one who controls light! I can finally get my hands bloody and crack some skull!" a menacing shadow speaks in a husky voice,

like an ogre on the prowl.

"Yes, there is nobody around, this should be an easy kill but I still think the Master wants you to bring them all back alive".

"I will do as I want! This annoying traitor will be mine! I have known him since we were little and I have always despised him! Now I have the

chance to set him straight!"

6:22 PM in Lyon, 10:22 AM in Denver, Colorado

"I can't find him, Jongin, but I feel he is in danger! If I knew where he was, I could have you teleport there! Damn it, I am useless!

"It's okay, just focus, we have Yixing with us now too, if he gets hurt he can heal him! You have found the rest, you can find him too!"

"I almost found the rest...I haven't found Luhan and Yifan"

"It's okay, we will find them, calm down" Jongin whispers reassuringly, wrapping his arms around Kyungsoo.

6:23 PM in Lyon, 6:23 in Berlin, Germany.

"Why is this happening to me?" Minseok is panting, on his knees on the green lawn of the park near his house, ice forming near his fingers and

knees, winter underneath him, spring around him. His fingers hurt, he feels cold and shivers, barely holding up. He prays nobody will see him. It

starts snowing around him, first just in the park, then on the whole street, then through all of Berlin, people stopping in their tracks with

mouths wide open, bewildered at this suden change in climate.

"I don't want this!!" Make it stop! Damn it!

6:24 PM in Lyon, 11:24 PM in Almaty, Kazahstan

Two hours and thirty minutes prior, Kim Jongdae witnessed an eclipse that wasn't supposed to happen. An eclipse with no scientific reasoning or

explanation. That was not the sun. That was something else swallowing the sun's light. Sitting on the upper level of the university building, he

laid down on a bench, surrounded by his books, feeling that nothing could help him now. He stared at the sun, swallowed by darkness. He thought of  

Baekhyun and knew he was in danger. A bell echoed in the distance, a cry of impending doom, a death march symphony. Lightning ruptered the sky.

Loud thunder rolled down like boulders in a dark cave with no light. Baekhyun was in danger of being killed, Chen felt this and sent a bolt of

energy out, using it as a flare gun for whoever might be there to hear it or see it.

"Kyungsoo, Jongin, someone, anyone, please see this! I know where he is! Please help him!"

Jongdae focused all his energy in one spot as lightning flew from his body upwards in a massive laser bolt, piercing the clouds above. It made

unbearable noise and Almaty's residents all covered their ears and wondered what on Earth could have triggered it.

6:25 PM in Lyon, 10:25 AM in Denver, Colorado

"Oh my God! I see Jongdae's location, he knows where Baekhyun is! Jongin, Tao, are you ready?" Kyungsoo's eyes look terrified. He drops 12

metal marbles on the floor, one of them represents Jongdae. Jongin hugs him excitedly yelling out: "You did it! Now we have to get there in

time!"

"I am ready to kick all their asses!" Tao stretches and cracks his knuckles, ready to showcase his martial arts skills in battle.

6:26 PM.

Baekhyun is walking down the dark narrow marbled streets, up the steps towards the basilica. He felt drawn to the building even though he didn't

have to work that night as a tour guide. Plus he just wanted to clear his head and think rationally about everything that had been happening with the

world and what he thought might have been the cause.

6:27 PM.

Listening to music, Baekhyun walks up the dark steps, surrounded by bleak stone walls and a lot of darkness, only dimly lit lampposts guide his

way. He sees his shadow on the ground. Reaching the church, he circles around to get to the panoramic view on top of the hill. The lights start to

flicker. His eyes could be closed and he would still sense that. He can see really well in the dark though so he doesn't mind. But the lights

flicker again and the song he was listening to gets cut off, all he hears is static. All of a sudden a deep, muffled, scary robot voice is heard

through his headphones. He is not sure if he heard each word correctly but it sends shivers down his spine.

"Someone is following you...."

The voice cuts off.

Behind him, each of the night city lights dies out in sequence, like dominoes, one lightbulb after the next turns off, the streets getting

darker, the narrow tunnels and passageways becoming scary. Baekhyun starts running away towards the remaining lit streets but as his feet touch

the pavement, with them they swallow the light, where he threads shadows follow, as if he is bringing night with him. He runs and runs. He can

hear his heart beating. Sweat drops down his forehead and he can feel goosebumps on his neck and back. He has only felt this scared once before.

He perceives a strong and overwhelming feeling of deja-vu. Unbeknownst to him, the entire city of Lyon, the Capital of Light, is becoming dark.

Inside and outside all the houses, the electricity goes out, churches, museums, parks, stadiums, squares, cars, everything becomes pitch black.

There are no more silver streams and dancing golden fireflies. Baekhyun runs and runs until he reaches a dead end, a massive steel gate he hits

and shakes trying to open. The last lights around him go out. He pants loudly, his body shaking, thinking this is how it is all going to end. He

doesn't know who is chasing him or why but he feels like he is going to die.

Suddenly, beams of light shine behind him. Tiny incandescent globes open up and stare at him like irises, butterflies made of snow. He turns to

look at them, knowing he did not create them, his powers long having dwindled. As he faces away, he feels a hand touching his. He turns around

scared and hesitant, wide-eyed and in shock. He sees an angel standing in front of him, an angel surrounded by light. The particles of light

dance around the figure who seems to be surrounded by a halo. He can't hold it in anymore and he starts crying.

"I missed you, Baek....."

"Taeyeon....."

His trembling lips can barely move to utter her name outloud. He wraps his arms around her, holding on to her for dear life, his right cheek

touching her soft skin and his nose buried in her golden hair.  And before he can say another word, he sees a giant in a long black robe grab her

away from him. The darkness swallows everything as he drifts into nothingness and everything fades to black.