Chapter Thirty Four

 

A wave of determination washed over Ileana. The previous test put her so off-kilter that she conluded the way she reacted was pathetic. She couldn’t falter again, she had to finish this. There was no turning back now and if she was to keep going, she would continue on and succeed.

When the elevator doors opened for the 7^th time, she walked out with her back straight and her eyes sharp. The room was large and dark, with only a frosted glass ceiling that was tilted, allowing small amounts of light in. She immediately stiffened at the scene before her.

There stood Tao, fighting off three masked men. Not one of them turned around to face her when she entered the room, they seemed rather preoccupied with themselves.

So, she was confused. She looked around, waiting for something to happen but the only action in the room was Tao fighting off the three men.

As if hearing her thoughts, two of the masked men turned around and ran to her and that in turn caught Tao’s attention.  With one swift kick, Tao kicked the lone man still attacking him down to the ground and leap over him as he began bolting toward her.

Ah, She thought, I knew it was too good to be true.  She braced herself as the two masked men and Tao approached her.  Tao caught up to the men in no time and she was taken aback by his next actions.

Tao reached up and grabbed one of the running man and pulled him back. He kneed the man in the stomach and threw him to the ground quickly. He whipped his leg across the floor and tripped the other man who was just a meter away from her. Tao shot back up and ran to her.

“Why are you here?” He hissed with his eyes enflamed with anger. She blinked at him; was he not like the others? Was he not zombified and about to attack her?

“Uh…” She intelligently replied. One of the men got up off the ground and launched themselves at Tao, “Look out!” She pointed. Tao rolled his eyes and did a classic roundhouse kick and easily took the guy down.  Tao quickly turned to face her and stared her down.

“Heh heh, would you believe me if I said I was looking for the bathroom?” She awkwardly smiled and rubbed the back of her head.  She looked over Tao’s shoulder and saw that the three men were slowly getting up and forming a line.

Tao noticing her attention was directed elsewhere, he turned around and set his body into a defensive position in front of her. She wasn’t sure if he was doing so in order to protect her or for some other reason.  Two of the man lurched forward and the fight between them and Tao commenced. What happened with the third man. Well, he managed to get pass Tao and was heading toward her with a large black flag.

She wasn’t sure what he planned on doing with it but she figured whatever it was, it wouldn’t be good. She made a run for it, but he saw her intention. He quickly swung the flag down and swiped it under her feet. She luckily jumped in time to miss the mast of the flag. On the other hand, she didn’t get enough height with her jump and she landed on the material of the flag. Like a carpet being pulled under her, she fell to the ground hard. She flipped onto her back and saw the back of the pole heading straight for her head.

She felt a quick and hard tug on her feet and she was pulled out of the way of the pole. Tao put out his hand and she quickly grabbed onto it. He effortless pulled her up and they both turned around to face two man. She looked over to the side and saw that third man was out cold, most likely due to Tao. One down, two to go.

“Do as I say.” Tao told her as he glared at the approaching opponents. She shot him a look of confusion.

“Do what-“ Tao quickly wrapped an arm around her waist and swung her.

“Kick!”

Before she could process anything, her body complied with his order. Her foot instantly connected with one of the men’s faces. Tao took her momentum and swung her legs around his waist. She was turned around and she forced to back flip over his arm. Another hit.

He then linked one arm with hers, wrapped an arm around her waist and swung her again. She automatically raised her legs and kicked the same man across the face.  Down he went.  Tao finally dropped her and stepped forward to the last man. He swiftly sprung his leg out and kicked forward, driving an unimaginable strong force straight into the man’s stomach. The man coughed up blood on impact. Tao did one last scissor kick to the man’s head and he was down for the count.

She on the other hand, was trying hard to get rid of her dizziness from being spun around so forcibly. She felt her world instantly stable when Tao faced her with his classic beast like stare.

“Now that’s done with. Why are you here?” Tao questioned her, looking down at her as if he wasn’t intimidating enough.

She bit her lip as she looked up at him. Here was Tao, fully conscious of his thoughts and actions. That didn’t seem to make much sense to her. Then, it clicked. He was part of the crime group, did that mean… she had caught up? Was Tao the one who was going to retrieve the crystal?

“I imagine it’s the same reason why you’re here.” She replied, trying to make sure her stance was steady and straight, so she could show Tao she wouldn’t back down. 

Her reply made Tao raise an eyebrow and then smirk with amusement, “Is that so?” He said, “And what makes you think you’ll get it?” She knew then she was right, and Tao now knew she wanted the same thing as he did. That wasn’t good.

“I’ve gotten this far, thought I could continue trying my luck.” She glared at him.

“I’m afraid you’re too late. Kris has already gone ahead ages ago.” He just laughed cynically. “And why does a girl like you want to play around with the crystal? Add it to your jewelry collection?”

“Funny. Try I want to stop you and Kris from making the biggest mistake of your lives and cause a disaster that EXO won’t be able to bounce back from.”

“It’s called retribution.”

“It’s called a massacre.” She shot back. Tao didn’t seem pleased.

“Either way, you won’t get passed me.”

She bit back her impulse for a snappy comeback and just starred at Tao. Tao caught onto her defiance and sent her a challenging look. But then he paused and ecxchange the expression for fascination.

“What?” She asked, “why are you looking at me like that?”

“I just realized... how are you resisting the crystal’s power?” Tao eyed her up and down as if searching for something.  Crystal? What does the crystal- Suddenly, it started to make sense to her. Was the reason everyone was acting so strange in these tests due to the crystal? It must be. The crystal must be controlling them.  Although not all her questions were answered with this hypothesis, she felt a little bit relieved to know that the people she knew were not actually attacking her out of their free will. 

Tao reached up and tugged at his ear, which draw her attention to one particular earring. It was a bright blue colour and it looked as if it was glowing. Although the people of EXO were ornate with everything they did, the piercing looked out of place and it certainly did not look like something that would go with Tao’s fashion sense.

“Um, “ She thought up quickly, “I have something in my bag that counteracts it.” Tao nodded as he eyed her satchel.

“What is it? Isn’t it supposed to be attached to you physically?” He didn’t fully believe her story, but now she knew her suspicions were confirmed. That earring, whatever it was made out of, must be why Tao wasn’t under control.

She didn’t have to give him a reply when the elevator’s doors opened on the other side of the room. They both looked between the elevator and each other.

“Like I said, you won’t get passed me. We’ve been waiting a long time in order to do this.” Tao challenged her. She tried hard not to leap forward and claw at his dark eyes.

“Fine.” She sighed, faking her defeat. “Go ahead, it’s not like I can really take you on.” Tao scoffed at her response.

“Pity, I was hoping for a little more from you.” Tao looked down at her with traces of disappointment in his eyes, “I thought more from a girl that Kris is so fixated on.”

“Sorry to let you down.” She mumbled, “And, before you go, you have something in your hair.” She pointed to the side of his head where the glowing earring was.  He looked up and ruffled his hair.

“No no.” She tsked, “You’re completely missing it.”

“What is it?” He asked, irritated.

“I don’t know, it’s just stuck on there.” She replied, “Come on, bow down. I’ll get it out.” She motioned her hand downward. Tao rolled his eyes and crouched down to her level, leaving his face very close to hers. She nearly jumped back at the promixity.

“Aren’t you going to get it out?” His voice dropped a few notches as he taunted her. She fumed a little. Just you wait. She thought.

“Getting on it.” She faked a smile as she rummaged her hand through his hair. She looked through it and then plucked out a hair. “There, got it. Wait a- Ohhh!” She grabbed his ear and pulled it close. “what a nice earring.”

Tao tried to pulled back, but she kept his head in place, “Just gimme a second to look at it.” She whined. Tao stopped moving but he was still very stiff. Now or never.

“You know what?” She said, leaning back and meeting with Tao’s eyes.

“What’s that?”

“This would look nice in my jewelry collection.”

Before Tao could process her words, she tugged hard on the piercing. Tao fought with her for a second before completely becoming still.  He straightened up and took a step back from her. She saw the same dull eyes she seen in the tests before and knew Tao wasn’t conscious of his surroundings anymore.

She slowly took a step away from Tao and then broke into a sprint. She ran to the elevator and nearly crashed into the other side of it. She whipped around and saw that Tao was still positioned where she left him. He remained there until the doors slid shut.

Her heart was calming down now. She knew she was taking a risk with taking on Tao like that, but she couldn’t think of anything else. She just thanked her lucky stars that it worked.

She looked down to the earring in her hand and started to observe it more closely as thoughts consumed her.  She thought of Tao’s question about her resisting the crystal. How was she able to resist it? She didn’t prepare anything like Tao and probably Kris did.

She of course wasn’t gifted with enough time to think further about it when the elevator’s doors opened for the 8^th time. She quickly shoved the earring in her satchel and walked out of the elevator in order to enter a blindingly white room.

She stepped further in and saw both Kai and Sehun standing there. She slowly approached them but was stopped by a familiar electric force field. She hissed when her foot made contact and could only hopelessly stare at the frozen Sehun and Kai.

She took a few steps back and in a matter of seconds, Sehun and Kai came to life. She watched them puzzled as they analyzed her. Kai then pulled his fist back and made a motion as if he was punching someone in the stomach.

And it felt as if it was her. At the exact moment Kai threw the punch, Ileana felt a strong hit to her stomach and the wind was knocked out of her. The thing was there was nothing that visibly hit her. It made no sense. Sehun then crouched down to the ground and swung his leg around.

She felt a pressure hit her legs and she fell to the floor. She groaned as she sat up and looked at the wall behind her. There were large shadows and to be more exact, all three of their shadows. She saw Kai’s shadow lifted up his leg and prepare to stomp down on her shadow’s stomach. She quickly moved and dodged Kai’s kick.

She looked behind her quickly before facing the back wall again. Sehun’s shadow threw a punch to her face but she pulled her head far back enough so that she wouldn’t be hit. She quickly scrambled to stand up and back away.

How the heck was she supposed to fight off shadows? She didn’t really have the time to continue running amuck and avoid all their hits. Plus, she couldn’t actually get to Kai and Sehun who were controlling the shadows. She was at a loss. She looked down to her satchel and silently prayed. Anything, just anything that will help me.

She opened her satchel as she made sure her shadow self avoided and ran from Sehun and Kai’s shadows. She shoved her hand in and quickly rummaged through it until she hit something. She quickly pulled it out and …was disappointed.

In her hand appeared to be a small flashlight.  Great, she thought, I’ll blind them with this flashlight. That’ll help. Still, she turned the flashlight on and was taken aback by its bright luminosity. Looking to the wall, she gaped when she saw that the shadows has disappeared.

Of course! She realized, If you shine a light on a shadow, it’ll vanish! Oh thank you god of magical satchels! She heard the elevator’s doors open and smiled. She placed the flashlight on the floor, making sure it remained bright on the wall so she wouldn’t run into any trouble when she ran to the elevator.

She quickly booked it and entered the elevator. She waved lightly to Sehun and Kai who were frowning at her from their spots in the room.

That was easier than expected. She thought to herself while sighing.

 Only two more to go now. Only two more. 

______________________________________________________________________

Warning: A LOT OF PHOTOS AHEAD. You've been warned.

Yellow!
Orange you glad I updated? 

/Instantly feels embarassment from self-lameness. 

So, this chapter is kind of directed to Tao biased people. But seriously guys, its so hard to characterise him this way. Frig Tao why so cute in real life?

So yeah. Teasers featured in this chapter were teaser #15 with Tao and teaser #7 with Sehun and Kai. Hopefully they were to your liking! Tao's teaser section came out better than I expected, while Kai's and Sehun's could be better. But I want her to hurry and get through these tests, TRUST ME GUYS! YOU AREN'T ALONE! I want to writtttee it. 

And thus, we move on.
So, I was looking through AFF and then I saw I had some new subscribers. Then...it hit me.

I HAVE 100 subscribers! OMG, OMG /spazz dance spazz dance

OMG PARTY TIME!

Okay, that done.

THANKKKKK YOU! EVERYONE! SO AMAZING, YOU ARE. JUST SO HSIOFHDSOFODHS <3<3<3 ...love you.  Really I love you all. Of course, commenters cannot be forgotten! You know I love you guys too, right!?

LOVE YOUU

Anyways, there's alot that has happened since I last updated with EXO. One, the traffic song. FML, no EXO. It doesn't work that way. You can't have Chanyeol as a police officer. There will be more accidents...(maybe mostly caused by me). 

Two, Happy Camp with EXO-M. So frigging excited like omg. Dead. 

(I thought this was a funny macro/gif, Chen is such a troll guys. I swear)
Uhhhh, I can't remember anything else. It'll hit me eventually. Oh well!

Lastly, in response to the poster questions. Oh my goodness, you guys are BAMFs. I seriously imagine you guys being all:

"You...don't need a poster."

Seriously guys. I love you. Thanks for all your honest opinions. But, I think there might have been a slight mix up. If I did get a poster, I would put it in the foreword and that's all. I wouldn't get rid of the little teaser pics in each chapter. I love those <3 I work hard to find them! I'll be damn if I'd throw away my past work over one poster. I mostly thought I could go for a poster to attract new viewers in the foreword (Although I am completely fine with you guys alone, you're so amazing afterall). You know, set the feeling of the story? Dunno. Anyways. THANK YOUuuuuuu!!<3

Now, I'll be going. But before!
Giveaway of the day: *Throws cookies* Cause there might be crack in them if Chanyeol gets so friggin excited about them

Kay, photo bomb done and bye <3

ps: Chanyeol was apparently excited about the cookies because a fan posted a picture of him on the front? Apparently? Seems legit to me >>