Chapter 18 
At the Fire Palace 
Author’s POV

“ They kidnapped my parents??? ” YoonA’s voice rang through the entire palace. She was currently grabbing Taeyeon’s collar as her eyes burning with the color red. The other guards in the room bowed their head down too scare to look at their vice general getting grilled by their soon to be ruler.  
“ Please calm down your highness ” Seohyun said out of concern, this is not the time for internal fight. 
“ Tell me, why didn’t you do your job, vice general? Busy running around chasing your little girlfriend. ” girlfriend… speaking of girlfriend… 
“ Yoong please ” Seohyun whispered 
“ Cat got your tongue or have you gone deaf? ” Taeyeon sighed tiredly. Her head was still burning and so did her broken heart. 
“ Yoong stop, she looked very ill. ” Seohyun tried to calm YoonA down once again 
“ You useless piece of !!! ” YoonA screamed as she threw Taeyeon across the room. 
“ Your Majesty !!! ” Seohyun screamed 
“ You shut up ! And you people get the out of my face !!! ” YoonA screamed at Seohyun and the others in the room. Everyone bowed and ran as fast as they can. 
“ One job, you got one job and you can’t even do it? If you are going to be this useless, you should have gotten kidnapped instead of them. ” YoonA said as she walked toward Taeyeon, while Seohyun could only look at her in pity. 
“ Yes, your highness. You’re right, I’m useless. I don’t deserve your forgiveness. Please just kill me. ” Taeyeon said as she cried. 
“ It… it’s hurt. I can never forgive myself for what happened to Tiffany, Sunny and my father. ” she begged before she fainted. 
“ Unnie !!! ” Seohyun ran to her. 
“ Leave her be, she said she want to die. ” YoonA said and walked away. Seohyun looked at her before she carried Taeyeon body out through the door. 

At the ICE’s Palace  

Hyoyeon’s POV
I walked into the palace as soon as I heard the news of the 2 new prisoners. I arrived at the icy cold throne room which four figures were sitting and laughing while enjoying tea. 
“ Oh there you are, Hyoyeon. Mother! Father! This is the young talented princess of the sand, Kim Hyoyeon. ” Yonghwa said and gestured me to greet the ex ruler and his wife. I bowed at them. 
“ Greeting you majesty, I have heard a lot about you from my parents. ”   
“ You heard only great things I hope. ” the ex ruler said, wow he is as arrogant as his son. 
“ We heard how much you help Yonghwa with his operation. You will be rewarded handsomely. ” 
“ I don’t … ” I was about to deny that they misunderstood my intention but 
“ She will accept your generosity. ” My father in law cut me off. Okay they need to get one fact straight. I’m not here because I want their generosity or in need of their support. I’m a princess and my kingdom is doing just fine. I’m here for the purpose of my interest toward another form of life called the halfer. 
“ Hyoyeon let me talk with you for a second. Excuse me, your highness. ” My father in law said as he gestured me to follow him. 
“ Take you time, uncle. ” Yonghwa said and walked out of the room. Where is he going?  
“ Don’t take anything seriously, Hyoyeon. We are here for the future of our research. This is important to me as it is to you, bow down for the greater good. ” He advices me 
“ I understand, Master. ” I said 
“ Good, so where is my two daughter? They should come to give me a hug. ”
“ They are resting right now, since I told them that you were busy. ”
“ Well I’ll go to them later. Why are you here for anyway? ”
“ I want to know why is the Fire ruler and his wife in our prison? ” 
“ They are essential to our research. ”
“ What? We’ve been over this, Master. You promised me that we won’t do stuffs like that. This could cause wars. ” I said panicking, I would never want to hurt anyone. 
“ Relax, I assured you that if everything goes according to our plan. We don’t need to worry about war because then no one can beat us. ” He said as he made way toward his family. I sighed now I need to warn Jessica and the others.

The ICE’s prison 
Yuri’s POV

“ My daughter what have they done to you? ” My mother said as she held my face. It’s been a long time since I fell this warm. I miss her. I miss sleeping in her arm, kissing her when I woke up, listening to her stories before bed and eating food that she cooked for me. 
“ Mom ” I whispered silently, too scare to say it out loud. What if she reject me? 
“ That’s right baby, your mom is here. ” She said as she hugged me. 
“ Mom, I miss you. ” I cried as I rested my head on her shoulder. 
“ I miss you too. Baby I’m sorry for everything you’ve gone through. I want you to know that I love you. ”
“ It’s okay, it seems like prison is my kingdom. I can never run away from it. ”
“ Don’t say something like that. You are a princess and will always be. ” My father who had been quiet all along said.
“ Yuri I love you as your father but as a ruler even if I can turn back time, I will still do the same thing that I did. ” He said as he patted my head. 
“ I love you too, Father. ” I said as I enjoy this warm feeling for as long as I could. 
“ What a beautiful family reunion. ” Yonghwa
“ Guards !!! separate them. ” The guards grabbed my parents and chained them to the wall. How can someone be so evil? 
“ I know what you’re thinking. Think I’m evil huh? Well then I hope you won’t be surprise for what I’m about to do next. ”
“ Don’t you dare do anything stupid. ” I screamed at him 
“ Oh how scary, what are you going to do to me? Now that you and your parents are at my mercy, you should talk softly. ” he said as he patted my face. I shook my head to get his dirty hand away.
“ You know at first I wanted to find the way to kill you by using all of these poisonous potions. Eventhough some of them hurt you, none of them was strong enough to hurt you. So now I’ve got a better idea. ” He smiled evilly. What is he planning? 
“ Whatever you planning, you won’t be succeed. Stop hurting our daughter. ” My mother said
“ Oh lady, you dare to call her daughter after you abandoned to dead? You sure are good at acting. ” 
“ You little… ” I screamed 
“ You don’t deserve to be a ruler, Yonghwa. You will never be one. A ruler will always rule the kingdom wisely. A power hungry selfish bastard like you don’t deserve to be one. ” My father said angrily at him.  
“ I will after all I have got the best weapon right here. ” He said as he looked at me. 
“ Now Yuri why don’t you show us your greatest halfer power? ” I looked at him in disgust. 
“ Oh I forgot, you always need an inspiration to be angry. ” He said as he grabbed my Father’s neck. No way !!! My eyes widen. 
“ What are you doing? Stop !!! ” I screamed 
“ Don’t !!! ” My mom’s voice rang through my ear as my eyes started clouding with darkness. The power started taken over me, as I looked at the lifeless form of my Father’s body. Fire was burning through my body. I heard my mom screaming, begging me to stop and Yonghwa’s evil laughing echo through the cell. Why does our reunion have to be this painful? 

Jessica’s hideout 
Hyoyeon POV

I drove my car as fast as I can to deliver the disturbing news to Jessica. I parked my car in front of the house as soon as I arrived. I walked in the house to see Jessica, the tall girl and kid gathering around in the living room. 
“ Hyoyeon, why did you call us for a meeting? What happened? ” Jessica asked me as she handed me a cup of coffee. 
“ I think my father in law and Yonghwa are planning to turn Yuri into a weapon. ” 
“ Weapon !!! ” they screamed in shock 
“ Yes, it seem that all those poisonous potions can’t kill Yuri… ”
“ Wait, you’ve been feeding poisonous potions to Yuri? You evil little… ” Jessica grabbed my collar so tightly that I have a hard time swallowing my saliva. 
“ Well it was kind of an experiment… ” 
“ You ” the tall girl stood up and ready to jump on me too. 
“ Unnies please, let her finish her story ” thank to the kid’s help, I cleared my throat before continuing  
“ Like I was saying, since they couldn’t kill her. They will take advantage of her uncontrollable power to use her instead. ”
“ How will they proceed with that plan? ” 

Ring Ring 

“ Let me take this for a moment. ” I said as I picked up my phone 
“ Hello Seolhyun ”
“ What? Okay okay I’ll be there soon. ” I said as I hung up. I turned to the other three people in the room.
“ Guys bad news, Yonghwa killed Yuri’s father. He had unleased her power. ” 
“ My brother k…killed her father? ” Jessica said in disbelief 
“ How is Yuri now? What should we do? ” the tall girl asked 
“ There is only one choice. You will need to go to the sand nation and retrieve the crystal of colors. ”
“ Crystal of colors? What is that? ” she asked 
“ Crystal of colors is the stone that hold all the four nations’ powers. The legend said that the stone can be dangerous if fallen into the wrong hand. The sand nation held onto it because it was the most peaceful nation. ” the kid said 
“ Yes you’re right. You guys must retrieve it before it’s too late. The stone is the only thing that save Yuri at this point. ” 
“ How are we going to get there? ” Jessica said 
“ I know exactly where. My friends are in charge of guarding it. ” 
“ Tell me the place and I will be on my way. ”
“ We will go with you. ”
“ No, it will be too dangerous for Amber. Also Sooyoung you should be here. I feel at ease if you two are here to look after each other. ”
“ I will go with you. ” A voice came out behind me. I turned to find two figures standing by the door. 
“ Tiff ” Jessica ran to the taller one and hugged her. 
“ Don’t worry, I’ll be here to look after these two. ” the shorter one walked toward Amber and smiled at Sooyoung who simply ignoring her. 
“ Thank you Sunny. ” 
“ Okay now that everything settle. Here is the map to find the crystal. We will contact each other regarding further notice. ” 
 “ Yuri wait for me, I’ll do everything I can to save you. ” I smiled as I heard those words coming out of Jessica’s mouth. I will also do my part in keeping her alive.