***

Baekhyun was not looking forward to this day. He had spent most of the night practicing to himself on how he was going to gently tell Jae the news of the passing of Jingwei, and how he had truly not meant to deceive her, but that he had panicked, and didn’t know what to do. He would tell her that he honestly tried fixing his mistake, but that it was simply not possible to bring Jingwei back.

He imagined that if he just fell down to his knees to ask for forgiveness and let her throw whatever she wanted at him would be the right approach, as long as she knew that it was truly an accident and that he hoped she could find it in her heart to forgive him.

“Okay, Baekhyun, you can do it. After all, in the end, Jingwei was just a bird. The Jade Emperor can just make a new one, probably,” he sighed and tried his best to smile. “New day, new chances–just try not to kill any more animals when flying through the sky,” he muttered to himself and confidently woke up to the new morning.

He walked towards the stable, preparing the chariot and horses to pull up the sun again, when he noticed that it was particularly cloudy outside today. Was it even necessary for him to pull up the sun? He had to, didn’t he? In case the clouds would disperse, the sun would be there to shine again.

It was a strange coincidence though, to see how dark and cloudy it was today. This couldn’t be a foreboding or sign, could it?

Baekhyun flinched when the thunder roared and the lightning struck, but he wholly screamed when a deep, commanding voice yelled out his name through the stormy sky.

“Baekhyun! Report to me, immediately!”

Startled out of his mind, he stared at his horses. “If I dressed one of you up as me, do you think that would work too?” the horses neighed and nudged him out of the stable as he huffed and walked back into the palace.

Once there, his eyes had widened at seeing all of his brothers present, sitting in a circle with Kris in the middle of it all. He wore a necklace with a lightning bolt on it and each time when he rubbed it, the lightning struck outside. Kris was Zeus? Really?

“Uh, hi, what’s going on?” he greeted with an uncomfortable grin, as he looked around at the faces of his brothers.

“You tell us,” Suho answered instead, fidgeting with a trident, looking anxious and nervous. “What did you do?”

“Uh…” Baekhyun murmured dumbly, exchanging a look with Chanyeol who looked like he had no idea what was going on either.

“Please tell me that you are not responsible for the death of the beloved bird of the Jade Emperor,” Kris spoke as Baekhyun’s eyes widened in shock and he pointed accusingly at Tao.

“Yah! You told everyone?” he scoffed.

“Hey! I wasn’t the one that told him, hyung!” Tao protested, absolutely peeved that Baekhyun would accuse him so easily.

“Well, then, how did he find out?” Baekhyun retaliated when from the corner of his eye, Xiumin lazily and plainly lifted his hand with a smirk. Baekhyun gawked at him. “Oh, that’s cold, hyung, so cold.”

“Do you realize what it could mean if the Jade Emperor found out that you murdered his favorite bird?!” Suho continued his scolding as Kris soothed him.

“Calm down, I’m sure Baekhyun didn’t mean to kill it,” he said, but his face stood grave.

“Of course not! I didn’t even know the bird belonged to someone! It was an honest accident, I swear!” Baekhyun argued, already feeling bad enough that he had to confess the accident to Jae. This wasn’t making him feel any better.

“How could you have been so careless?!” Suho still piped up, the rushing of the ocean ringing through the sounds of thunder and lightning.

“I must confess that Baekhyunnie isn’t the only to fully blame for this unfortunate incident,” Luhan suddenly piped up, a casual smile on his lips. As the brothers gazed at him in confusion, it was Lay that seemed to realize what he meant.

“Lu-ge, you didn’t,” he scolded.

“I do what I do best, and you know that I can never see where or whom I shoot,” Luhan placed his hands behind his head while shrugging. “The Jade Princess is a true beauty. I would have lied about killing her father’s bird as well to stay in her good graces.”

“All this talk of love is making me sick. When can I start preparing my army to wage war with the Jade Emperor?” D.O. suddenly interjected, holding a shield and sword near his seat, looking far too anxious to go start a fight. Baekhyun didn’t need to guess what God he was. He shuddered.

“Whoa, hold on, war? There’s no need for that, honestly! I was going to explain everything to the Jade Princess just now. I’m sure she’ll understand, it was just a bird for god’s sake,” Baekhyun explained.

“And how is a God of Light going to prevent the Jade Emperor from going to war? He’s more fickle than Suho and D.O. combined,” Kris noted, quickly silencing the protesting men.

“I’ll…find a way. Let me explain to the Jade Princess first, this will be solved, I promise!” Baekhyun swore.

“The winds are gentle today, if you don’t take into account the storm of Kris-hyung,” Sehun mentioned, “I don’t think they bring war with them.”

D.O. scoffed at this and even looked to be sulking. “Kai, go tell my army not to plan an attack yet, they may are may not have already started the march towards the Jade Palace,” he muttered, shocking Suho into a near stupor as Kai tapped his winged boots with a smirk and flitted off with the blink of an eye. He came back almost a second later, sitting casually on his seat.

“Done.”

Suho groaned and rubbed his temple, looking at Kris expectantly. The leader of the Gods and ruler of the Heavens scraped his throat and directed himself at Baekhyun once more.

“Fix this, Baekhyun,” Kris pressed. “You’re a God of the Sun, so fix it.”

Baekhyun knew Kris was trying to be encouraging, but thinking back on everything, it only seemed as if him being a God of the Sun only brought him into trouble.

“I’ll fix it, hyung, don’t worry,” he said quickly, giving a short wave which only Chen really returned by lifting a gold cup his way, and he ran off to his chariot.

It was a of luck that his horses still seemed to remember where he had crashed before and met Jae. He landed the chariot out of sight from the village nearby, in the woods where he hoped he could meet her again. He carefully lifted Jingwei in his golden cape and looked around. Should he pray to Jae, or something? Would she have known that he came to see her? He hoped this dead bird and his own stupidity wouldn’t bring him into further trouble.

“Baekhyun, is that you?”

The gentle voice still made his heart leap and plummet at the same time. He managed to smile brightly at her when she emerged from the woods, but her smile faded when she caught sight of what he was carrying in his arms.

“It’s good to see you, but what are you doing here?” she asked, looking concerned.

“Hello, Jae,” he started, scraping his throat and ever so gently placing Jingwei on the ground. “There’s something that I have to tell you, and I should’ve told you before, but everything is going wrong and nothing is making sense and I was scared and I panicked and then I saw you and I just forgot everything, and–”

“Baekhyun, slow down,” she interrupted his rambling with a chuckle. “I appreciate that you’re trying to tell me something, but I’m afraid that I don’t have much time to speak at the moment. JIngwei is still missing and father is furious. He believes the villagers might have killed her, since there were some that have always envied her beauty, and now he means to destroy the village with everyone in it,” she spoke helplessly as Baekhyun felt like sinking through the ground.

All of this because of a bird?!

“Your father wants to destroy the village?” he gulped.
Jae nodded. “I tried to reason with him. There was no way that the villagers would suddenly do something so cruel to JIngwei. Everyone loved her. I don’t know what to do now,” she sat on a fallen tree trunk, gnawing on her bottom lip. “If I don’t find Jingwei soon, father will send his wrath to the village and kill all of those innocent people.”

Baekhyun’s heart broke in a million pieces when he saw the desperation in his noona’s eyes while he nearly had a nervous breakdown himself. He really needed to set this straight before all hell would break lose. Gathering his courage, Baekhyun knelt before Jae and gently grabbed his hand.

“Princess, there is something that you should know,” he started as he carefully wiped a tear from her face. “You have to know firstly, that it truly was just an accident,” he continued as she blinked questioningly at him. Baekhyun sighed softly, groaning inwardly and fervently wishing that things could have gone differently. He removed his golden cape from Jingwei as Jae gasped out loud.

“Jingwei? W-what happened?” she knelt down on the dirt next to the bird, carefully the animal with the gentility of a mother.

“I was following her through the sky because I had never seen a bird so beautiful before, and I don’t know what happened but Jingwei started flying lower and lower, maybe my light scared her off, but then I lost control of the reigns and…” he sighed ruefully. “It was an accident, I swear. I’m so sorry, Jae,” he pleaded, afraid of her reaction as she was still staring at the bird.

“Oh, Jingwei…” she mused, looking up at Baekhyun with tears in her eyes. His own eyes started prickling as well, wishing that he could reverse all of this mess.

“It was an accident?” she asked him again, still the creature’s brightly colored feathers.

“Yes, I swear it,” Baekhyun promised, holding her hand and feeling a flicker of hope when she didn’t flinch away from him. “I would never hurt a beautiful animal like that for sport, Jae. I lost control and crashed.”

“I believe you,” she smiled, wiping her tears and Jingwei one last time before covering her up with the golden cape. “But, my father…he still thinks the village is to blame,” she said as Baekhyun winced.

“I can go to the Jade Palace with you and explain what happened,” he stated bravely, tightening his grip on her hand.

“Are you mad? If my father found out that you were responsible for the death of Jingwei he would declare a heavenly war which won’t be good for either deities nor mortals,” Jae exclaimed.

“But if we don’t tell the truth, all those innocent villagers will die,” Baekhyun replied.

“I’ll I can do is warn the villagers of my father’s wrath. Perhaps there is a way for them to leave before his army gets here,” she said, getting to her feet.

“Then I’ll go with you. I’m responsible anyway, so I’ll help you,” Baekhyun said as Jae nodded at him, still holding his hand.

“We’ll have to hurry. Come nightfall my father’s army will have arrived.”

“Then we have to leave now,” Baekhyun nodded, helping the surprised princess get on his chariot and they soared towards the village with haste. Baekyhun felt the pressure on his shoulders, knew what his stupid mistake could possibly cost and he regretted it all. As soon as the village came into sight, he steered his horses to land, making sure to keep Jae safe considering his disastrous track record with getting to the ground safely and looked around the quaint surroundings.

The village was small, but peaceful, simple and ancient. The atmosphere here was so serene that its people appeared to be just as tranquil. How could the Jade Emperor even consider wiping away a village like this?

The moment Jae and Baekhyun stepped into the village, the inhabitants gasped and gawked, falling to their knees and uttering their praises and prayers. It made him feel self-conscious, but Jae handled the situation with refined elegance.

“Everyone, please, listen closely to what I have to say,” she urged, her gentle voice being carried by the wind, silencing the villagers.

“Have you found precious Jingwei, Princess?” a child asked her and Jae nodded ruefully.

“I fear so. Jingwei has passed on from this life,” she announced as the villagers all gasped in horror and grief.

“But, how is this possible? Who could ever hurt a creature as beautiful and pure as Jingwei?” one of the men called out, making Baekhyun feel small.

“It was me–”

“An accident,” Jae interrupted him, giving him a quick, reassuring smile. “It was an unfortunate accident, nothing anyone could have done to prevent it,” she explained as Baekhyun watched her in awe.

“This is terrible! How will you tell your father, Princess?”

“All of you know that my father is as benevolent as he can be cruel,” she started, taking a deep breath. “We have come here to warn you. For some reason, my father believes that you were the ones responsible for the disappearance of Jingwei. I know this to be false, but I also know that it would be futile to try to convince the Jade Emperor. He plans to destroy this village and everyone in it, so you must take your most important belongings and leave before his army gets here.”

Baekhyun cringed when the villagers heard the news and started speaking in panic through one another. It was impossible to hear what they were saying, but he didn’t need to hear them to know that they were scared.

“But, Princess, where do we go? Will we be safe?” one of the men asked as Jae worriedly looked at the villagers.

“You’ll have a better chance if you left. My father’s army will be here come nightfall,” she said, exchanging a look with Baekhyun as the people grew more anxious.

Baekhyun himself had looked up at the sun and saw how it started to set. He felt his brothers’ eyes on him, waiting for him to fix this situation, all the while the Jade Army was probably preparing to ascend from heaven to demolish this town.

“Jae, I don’t mean to intervene, but I think they have a point about being worried about this,” Baekhyun started.

“You think? My father is about to destroy them all, wouldn’t you be a little worried as well?” Jae quipped, looking at him as if he just lost his mind.

“No, that’s not what I mean, I know they’re worried and scared, but what I meant was that maybe evacuating the village won’t do much good,” he explained.

Jae frowned. “How do you mean? It might be the only chance they have, Baekhyun.”

“Maybe not,” he mused, his mind spinning and figuring out another way. “Think about it, Jae. If the villagers leave, and your father’s army finds an empty village, don’t you think they’d still hunt them down? All these people won’t have a place to turn to.”

“Then what do you suggest?”

Baekhyun looked at the sun and calculated how long they had left until the Jade Army would arrive. He determinedly nodded to himself and looked at her.

"I have an idea."