They say your whole life flashes in front of your eyes when you are in mortal danger. They say that but you can only know as the last few

seconds of your life seem to be staring at you, preparing you for an eternity in either complete nothingness or a mysterious afterlife. Taeyeon

felt as if she would die at that moment and that it wouldn't be a bad way to go, together with her eternal soulmate. But this was only one

possibility in a myriad of futures her eyes were gifted to see. This had been her blessing and her curse. As darkness turned to light and light

turned back to darkness, she saw everything that had brought her and Baekhyun to this moment where their lives lingered like a descending

raindrop caught in a spider web. They could either hold on or fall together. Like a flash, everything came back.

Four hundred and seventy light years away from Planet Earth, a small rocky planet is orbiting around a pale orange dwarf star, bathing it in

extreme heat. The planet is 12% bigger than Planet Earth but small in comparison to the giants around it. For billions of years no creature or

human could even perceive this exoplanet. Finally, they have seen it and call it Kepler 438b. They assume this planet could harbor life having

similar conditions to their own. Its inhabitans have been aware of Earthlings and other civilizations for centuries, having superior technology

and knowledge. A year here passes as ten years do on Earth and yet its inhabitants stay as young as a human would in 1 year. There are oceans

and mountains, rivers and canyons, there are icebergs and deserts and all that Earth possesses. However, some of these have been artificially

created and reside in giant greenhouse cities, encapsulated in unperceivable glass walls, with temperatures perfectly calculated to maintain

proper life for its various flora and fauna. A big portion of the planet is devoid of life and whatever is left is well preserved for

generations to come.

Most of the planet is covered in rocks who used to bare chaotic shapes. As eras and dynasties rose and fell, as emperors and kings changed the

planet over and over, the rocks were given shapes. Things became mechanized, things became steam-powered, they became automated, electrical,

precise, containted, digital, advanced. Life was made easier. Man's happiness was made more attainable, lives grew longer. This civilization

arose and developed because of a mysterious glorious past. Its first settlers whether genetically developed or brought to the planet from

somewhere else, were born with what humans would call "magical powers" being able to wield the power of different elements which made certain

inventions appear much sooner than they did on Earth, of course most of them by accident. There were those who could control fire ever since

they were born and thus, they could provide heat in the cold seasons, they could incinerate, shape and mold things using heat. They

could melt ice and create water. There were those who were born able to create ice or wield ice, there were those who could control the winds

and the oceans, who could master thunder, conduct electricity and bring rain, there were Healers who could heal those in pain and save lives.

There were those who could move objects with their mind, some could take flight and discover new lands. Chosen ones could feel the Earth and

everything on it, they were used as hunters and seekers, they could find people scattered across the land. Those worked best with the gifted men

and women who could teleport wherever they pleased in a blink of an eye. All you had to do was hold their hand and they could make you disappear

and appear on the other side of the planet, from spring to winter, from night to day, from a hemisphere to another, from burning sands to frosty

paths. And some could even bend time, they could travel to the past or future, they could temporarily stop time. Some were only born with

superhuman strength. There were nuances in terms of how strong one could be and some were born with no powers or their powers were more subdued.

By far the most rare and sought-after power was that of the Oracles. The Oracles' main strength was seeing the future or possible futures. They

usually acted as counselors for a ruler, they could change the tide in times of war, they could save the entire planet by predicting and

preventing disasters from occuring. These individuals were extremely rare and born sometimes only once every century. If they were not born as a

royalty, they were adopted by one and used as strategic pawns. They most often than not could also wield other elements on top of having their

prophetic ability.

The planet had seen as much peace as it had seen war and almost self-destructed several times, losing entire civilizations and countries, entire

continents going extinct until one ruler decided to stop war and bring the planet together towards its own salvation. All was to become devoid

of egotistical, political reasons for war, all would become more strict, mathematical, the purpose was to make the world into an orderly,

aesthetic place where each individual used their power and creativity to benefit the entire life of a city, a country and ultimately the entire

planet. The planet had to work together and preserve its resources and if that didn't work it would have to seek resources elsewhere and invade

other planets. For milennia, there had been peace and a rejuvenation in science and arts. The planet's inhabitants were mostly very talented,

gifted people with brilliant minds.

Taeyeon had the bad luck of being born an Oracle.

She could remember her childhood when other kids had learned what their strengths were and she was still unaware of hers, being afraid of just

being one of the "commons" or commoners who had no power at all. She used to be teased and called a weakling. She would spend nights staring at

the sky, at the stars and wondering what her purpose was in this world where you only seemed to matter if you had some kind of magical power. If

you didn't, you would have a pretty rough life, practicing one of the few manual labor jobs that still existed and hadn't been replaced with

robots or machines. Her bedroom was simple but she could change it at the touch of a few buttons. Everything was spotless and cleaner than a

sterile science laboratory, you could almost believe there was no dust floating in the air and that you lived in a hermatically sealed ziploc

bag where nothing dirty could enter and touch you. But you also felt like you were suffocating. And that is what Taeyeon felt even at the tender age of

10. She felt as if she were suffocating in this world and just wanted some freedom. She wanted to run outside and get her elbows and her knees

dirty, have her feet feel the icy cold spring water and the touch of the grass. But children were restricted from spending too much time outside, as if nature was a

dangerous thing.

Even prisons were a labirynth that made you feel suffocated and hopelessly stuck, but it was one you could not escape, one

that would make you believe there was an exit when there wasn't, one that drove you mad. Those who committed crimes were not exiled or locked up

somewhere and fed for the rest of their lives. They were merely placed in such a prison until they starved to death or committed suicide. This

is why there were very few crimes in these lands, very few delinquents, very few murders. The horror of such deaths was enough to keep people in

check. As long as you obeyed the rules and didn't question your reality too much, all seemed very utopic, what more could you want than world

peace? But then again, it all had been attained after multiple world wars that almost caused the extinction of the whole planet. There were

bountiful metropolises where everyone lived a cozy, luxurious, healthy life but then there were the remote parts of the world where there was

nothing but death and decay. But those in command tried to brainwash all of that away and make you believe your life was perfect.

But Taeyeon's life was not perfect. She was alone and devoid of power, an embarassment for her strict renowned parents. Her mother controlled

water and her father controlled the winds. However, her great-great grandmother was said to have been an Oracle, so her family was well-

respected. Apart from studying at the astronomical observatory and in her normal school classes, there was not much for Taeyeon to do. One day

as she was reading and daydreaming staring out the window, she saw this little boy running around outside, he seemed to be around the same age

as her.

"Pfft, so immature, look at him!" she kept saying to herself. And day by day he was always there, playing outside her window. He always went

further and further out, as if he wanted to discover what laid beyond the forest nearby. Taeyeon kept telling herself he was a nuissance,

distracting her reading. She would press a button and the window went black. She would press another and the chair would move across the room.

She would watch films appear on her walls and try to immerse herself in another reality. But then she would hear his childish laugh outside. Day

by day. Nuissance, nuissance, nuissance. Then one day she found herself smiling thinking of him as she closed her eyes, falling asleep. But she

had barely closed them when she had a vision, like a dream but in a lucid state, she saw the boy running towards a cliff, with his face

turned the other way, tripping and plummeting to his death. She jumped up startled, panting and feeling tears run down her cheek. She knew it

was probably just a day dream and yet it felt so real she had to go find the boy right away.

"Where do you think you're going Taeyeon?"

Her father stood in front of her, stern and imposing, towering over her with his great height.

"I have to go help a boy! He is in danger!"

"What do you mean? How do you know?" her father suddenly changed his expression, his features softening up and his eyebrows raising worriedly.

Before he could stop her, she slid right by him and ran out the door that opened automatically.

The vision was still in her head and her mind told her body what direction to run in to reach the precipice. And there he was, playing with some

kind of dog and running backwards towards his fall, just like in her vision. He was so blissfully ignorant, it almost made her mad. She didn't

realize she was running faster than she ever had, almost stepping on her dress and losing her shoes in the process, finally getting her feet

dirty like she had always wanted. Baekhyun, the boy, saw her and stopped right as his heel touched the end of the platform and was hanging in

thin air. His eyes got big and his laughter turned into a scream as he lost balance. Right as he was about to fall, the little girl he saw

running towards him grabbed him by the sleeve and pulled him towards her, making him fall safely on the grass, next to her.

She could hear him panting and choking and he was trying to be a big boy and not cry in front of this girl who had just saved his life.

"Are you an angel? the little boy asked, realizing he had not meant for that thought to actually be verbalized, but there it was and now he felt

stupid and wanted to bury a hole underground and hide in it.

"No, I am just someone smarter than you! What are you doing out here? You are asking for it! Clumsy stupid boy! Sheesh!" she was acting mad but

was actually happy she had managed to save him and she was also confused as to why something she had imagined came true.

"Byun Baekhyun is the name! And yours?"

"That doesn't answer my question..."

"Neither does what you just said!", Baekhyun laughed with a high-pitched tone that suddenly changed into a deep tone that almost made him sound

evil. He looked like a prankster and she felt like she wanted to punch him. She was expecting gratitude not annoying playfulness. And yet his

laugh made her laugh without even realizing it. She felt like it had been a while since she had done that.

"My name is Taeyeon..."

"Aaaa! Taeyeon! Beautiful Taeyeon! My savior! You want to join me on my quest?"

"What quest?" Taeyeon was trying to resist the boy's charm but she was fighting a losing battle. Her elbows and knees were covered in dirt and

she was happy and she didn't care her dress was probably ruined.

"I want to find the glass wall surrounding us. I am old enough to know this isn't all real but I want to see it for myself. I want to touch the

edge of this snowglobe. If you can even call it an edge! He smirked and got up, ruffling his hair and shaking the dirt off his pants as he

extended a hand for her to get up.

So here was another lost soul living in a fish bowl just like her. Before she could try to talk herself out of it, she took his warm soft hand

and stood up.

"Sure! Let's go!"

And so they walked through dewey forests and golden corn fields, old stone paths and jumped atop rocks over rivers every day in every direction

trying to find the end. It was funny to think your world can just come to an end and you can touch it. Weeks passed and then months and still,

every day, they could not find the end. Their feet trailed through fine red sands and got scratched in thorns and nettles, and still they did

not give up. One day they realized they couldn't trace their path back home and they just kept walking, scared to even go home and be scolded.

And just when they were about to give up, here it was.

There was grass and sky, there were mountains beyond and even snow-covered peaks. But here it stood, a giant glass wall almost giving off the

illusion it wasn't even there if it weren't for the sun's rays reflecting on it, making it look like the thick glass they had seen on a

telescope or an old librarian's glasses. Their feet could touch the edge of their world. They were touching sky, they were touching thin air and

leaving fingerprints on it. They could blow on the glass and make it foggy and write on it. It was a surreal feeling. Looking up you couldn't

see the wall ending because it wasn't really a finite wall, it was an all-encompassing crystal ball with clouds hanging up above as well as

inside, artificial clouds with artificial rain. Everything had been created in a lab from remnants of the planet that used to be fully alive.

They were inside a mausoleum. They were inside the coffin of a civilization that had brought itself to the brink of extinction. Holding hands

together, they looked up and felt so small and powerless. None of them uttered a single word. They both were thinking they had known this as the

truth and yet seeing it was disheartening, heartbreaking and also frightening. Before they knew it, it had gotten dark again.

"I will make some light for us! Baekhyun smiled and rubbed his hands together creating a large globe of light, turning night to day. His light

also gave off warmth. And Taeyeon realized he was the only thing keeping her mind sane and keeping her heart warm.

"So you never told me what your power is? What element can you control? Or what can you do?"

"I...I don't really know if I have one. The only special thing I have ever done was dream about you falling and then catching you in time".

"Oh....Oh!....You can see the future? Are you an Oracle?" Baekhyun's face was filled with excitement and bewilderment. "I think you are!

Wow! I have never met an oracle before!"

"No..I don't know. I don't think so. I am just a normal, useless girl. I love your power though, it is a beautiful thing to possess, the power

of light. You can brighten up this pathetic, sad little world.

"As long as I can brighten yours a bit! Ha Ha!" there was his half low half high cackling laugh again. How could he be so happy after seeing the

state of their home planet with his own eyes?

"You saved my life, I don't know how to repay you. Hmmm...I can stay with you forever?"

"That seems like a reward for yourself, not for me!"

"I can introduce you to two of my best friends when we go back! Sadly, we should go back...Especially since you are an Oracle! They need you!

Tell me my future! Do you know it? No wait! Don't tell me if you know! Ahhh...no, tell me!" and so he kept going until he wore himself out and

they fell asleep holding each other under the stars.

Taeyeon decided to keep her power a secret from her parents and everyone else. She knew if she told anyone she would be taken away from her

family and used by the rulers. Baekhyun was the only one who knew. And now his two best friends, Do Kyungsoo whom they called D.O and Kim Jongin

whom they nicknamed Kai. The four of them became inseparable and grew up together, hoping for a better future for their planet, hoping to

rebuild the world as it once was. Kyungsoo and Jongin were inseparable as they should have been, because people who had their powers were always

put together. Kyungsoo was the seeker and Jongin helped him get to the places he envisioned using his teleportation power, they gave each other

strength and sometimes it was almost as if they read each other's minds. Baekhyun, being the prankster that he was, would like to poke fun at

Kyungsoo and play tricks on him or immitate him but it was always in good fun to try and cheer him up because he always looked so serious,

mature beyond his age. Jongin was always there to defend Kyungsoo and sometimes to gang up with him against Baekhyun and prank the prankster.

Taeyeon just sat behind and enjoyed the show, laughing at her dorky best friends who gave her hope in mankind.

Kyungsoo spent most of his time at the Astronomical Observatory. He was now eighteen years old and Jongin just a year younger. Baekhyun was a

year older than Kyungsoo and yet acted like he was the youngest. Taeyeon could only speak with Kyungsoo on the same level of maturity, her being

older than all of them. She learned about this planet Kyungsoo kept observing, this tiny blue planet who also harboured life and seemed to be in

a much better shape than their own.

"What have you learned so far about Earthlings? Taeyeon would ask Kyungsoo who was always enthusiastic and happy to answer.

"I can see that technologically they are far behind us but their planet is full of life, there are no glass walls, nature is nature, everything

is beaming with healthy organisms, plants and wildlife, it has not become corrupted with greed like ours yet although I think that humans might

get there if they are not careful. But it seems like such a lovely place, I would love to go see it and study it and maybe even help the Earth

people! Kyungsoo smiled sweetly, showing all his teeth and his nose crinkling up as his eyes disappeared. He kept his fists clenched together

atop his knees, a sign of his shyness and awkwardness he felt at times.

"That sounds nice...But our Ruler would probably want to just invade it and steal its resources if he paid more attention to it. You might want

to be cautious and keep this to yourself, I don't know how you could get there, Kai is limited in his ability to teleport, I don't think he can

do an inter-planetary teleportation yet...maybe one day but not yet..."

"I know...I just love this planet. It gives me hope! I would just love for us to go there and learn from them and re-build our own! We have so

much technology and yet it is hard to bring a planet back to life, something built within milennia and destroyed in a couple of years. I wonder

if they would be happy knowing we exist! Or would they fear us? Would they banish us?"

And so Kyungsoo would philosophize and wonder and the rest would tell him to stop worrying like an old man and they would drag him out from his

study, out in the fields, out on walks and picnics by the man-made shores and the test-tube fish, the hybrid fruit trees and fabricated canopy.

They would sit together and play guitar and sing and daydream together. Kyungsoo and Jongin would nod and smile looking at the love-birds

sitting next to them. Taeyeon had denied it as much as she could but she had fallen in love with Baekhyun. Baekhyun would always boast it was

love at first sight and she would deny it and punch his arm and he would act like it hurt. One night Kyungsoo and Jongin found them giggling and

kissing, holding each other and staring at the distant pink moon. They had never seen any of them look so happy before, their faces bathing in

moonlight and their smiles lighting up the darkness.  Jongin pressed his finger on Kyungsoo's lips beckoning him to be quiet and give them some

privacy although Kyungsoo seemed to want to be a creep and stare. They didn't know at the time how precious these moments of happiness and

togetherness would be. Their imprisonment and exodus were imminent. Their lives were about to forever change.

7:05 PM, March 18th. Somewhere in Marseilles, France.

Darkness surrounds the two bodies laying on what feels like a cold, steel floor.

"You saved me again, angel...." he whispers, whimpering from a wound he feels on his arm but doesn't remember receiving.

"Taeyeon! Are you okay?"

She doesn't answer.

Where is the shadow figure who was taking her away from me? How did I get wounded? Where are we? Why can't I use my power?

Baekhyun whimpers and moans as he is trying to move his body and find hers in the darkness. His whole body hurts and he can taste blood on his

tongue. He knows he was in a fight but can't remember it. He just wants to know she is alive.

"She is okay", a voice breaks the silence and replies as if reading his mind. "We saved you for now but we are all still kind of in great danger."

The deep voice echoes through what he imagines as a large empty room. He is usually good at seeing in the darkness but it is pitch

black, as black as tar and he can barely hear anything, on top of not seeing a thing.

He now vaguely remembers what happened. The shadow giant hit him and grabbed Taeyeon. There was a loud thump, an earthquake, the ground below

his feet crumbling and cracking like the shell of an egg, arms around him lifting him and pulling him away, the sound of water coming down in

waves (But how? They were not anywhere near water in Lyon!), thunder flashing and zapping his enemy, causing Taeyeon to fall, another pair of

arms grabbing her, then more thumps and screams and then darkness again. Stillness. As if time had stopped after fast-forwarding.

There is finally light.

Jongin, Kyungsoo, Tao, Yixing and Jongdae stand before him with relieved smiles as he opens his eyes and sees Taeyeon opening hers too. Sitting across

the room, the owner of the deep voice he heard earlier stands smiling like a proud father. That explains the water and the waves, Baekhyun

thinks to himself before he blacks out again from the overwhelming feelings he can no longer contain.

"What a nuissance..." Taeyeon whispers, smiling.