#73:Go Wherever You Go Part 2

“What’s a Guardian?” Amber asked.

Everyone froze. They hadn’t thought this far ahead—how were they to explain to this child who they were and what their job was? What her job was going to be? It had been so different on their home planet, where everyone had known about the Guardians and the Tree—Amber knew nothing of that yet.

Lu Han quickly stopped crying and wiped his face. “Oh, I’m sorry, Amber,” He said, “I should have explained that first.” He laughed. “I should also apologize for crying like that. I hope I didn’t scare you.”

Amber shook her head. “No, I know you were happy. I can feel that, you know.”

Lu Han nodded. “I suspected you could. You’re a very smart kid, aren’t you?”

Amber smiled proudly and puffed out her chest. “I’m the smartest five year old in the group,” she bragged. “I can do times tables already, up to eighteen!”

Lu Han looked shocked. “Wow, up to eighteen? That’s amazing! And you talk very well, too. You sound much older than five.”

“I feel like I’m not five,” Amber said. “I know I am, but I feel like I should be older. It’s not fair, everybody tries to push me to stay with the little kids, but I don’t get along with them.”

It hit them then, what she was implying—there were more people.

“Amber,” Suho said, kneeling next to her, “Where do you live?”

Amber pointed behind herself. “Beyond the tunnel, with everyone else.”

Suho nodded, “I see. And who is everyone else?”

“My mommy, daddy, and the other people.”

“Do you know how many people?” Suho pressed.

Amber thought for a minute. “Two hundred and eighty three.”

There was a collective gasp. “That many?” Sehun whispered. “But…we never…”

“We’ve never been here before,” Kyungsoo said suddenly. “We’ve never explored this part of the land, it’s entirely possible that all this time…they were just out of reach.”

“All what time?” Amber asked petulantly. “You’re not making sense.”

“Sorry, sweetie,” Lu Han said quickly, “We’ll explain everything to you later, I promise. But for now, we would very much like to meet your family. Could you take us to them?”

Amber smiled at him. “Sure, I bet they want to meet you, too. You guys made the fire, right?”

“What fire?” Kris asked.

Amber pointed west. “We all saw the smoke. We were wondering who caused it. We knew it wasn’t from lightning since there wasn’t a storm. It could only have been from other people.”

“The research center,” Tao said, “That’s what she’s talking about.”

“You could see that?” Sehun asks in shock. “I didn’t realize we were so close.”

“It’s hard not to see,” Amber said, “There’s nothing around here.”

And she was right, the land was mostly bare. It was one of the reasons they had never come this way before, they figured there was nothing. But if there was nothing, then where were the other people?

“Amber, let’s go meet everyone, okay?” Suho suggested. “Then we can talk some more.”

“Okay,” Amber said happily. “Come with me.”

They left the dogs above ground, figuring it would be better not to take them into some place so unfamiliar. Amber then lead them away, holding Lu Han’s hand tightly, and they walked a good few minutes before they started to see something—there was a large hole in the ground that seemed to slope downwards.

“It goes really far down,” Kyungsoo said. “And I can feel that there are a lot of people moving around down there.”

Amber let go of Lu Han’s hand and scampered over to the hole. “Come on,” she said, gesturing for them to follow her. “It’s really dark, so be careful.”

“Wait,” Kris said, stopping her, “Baekhyun can light it up for us. Let him go first.”

Amber squealed when Baekhyun formed a ball of light in his hand. “So pretty!” she cried. “Come on, come on! Let’s show everyone!”

The tunnel was longer than anyone had expected—except maybe Kyungsoo. They walked for a long time, all of them excited to meet new people, but also very nervous. It was so hard to believe that there were people, real humans, alive on the earth after all this time! Everyone was wondering where they had come from, if it was the Tree’s doing or something else’s. it didn’t help that the tunnel was narrow and damp, and just overall creepy.

“You came through here all by yourself?” Lu Han asked Amber, wincing as his voice echoed.

“Yep,” Amber said. “I do it all the time.”

“Without a light?” Minseok asked.

“I don’t need a light,” Amber explained, “I can feel my way around, but without using my hands. It’s hard to explain, but it’s like how I move the rocks. I don’t know how I do it, I just do.” She tugged on Lu Han’s arm. “Do you know how you do it?”

“I do,” Lu Han answered. “And I would be happy to teach you all about it, and how to do more, but first we should talk to your family about it.”

When the tunnel did end, it ended at a large metal door that looked very strong and very imposing. Amber walked up to it and felt along the crevice between the door and the wall.

“There’s a switch here, which opens a panel.” She must have found the switch, because on the other side of the tunnel a panel opened up, revealing an illuminated screen. Amber ran to it and placed her palm flat on the screen. It beeped a few time, then lit up green, and the door squeaked open. What was inside was absolutely shocking.

They were in a large room, devoid of people, but filled with all kinds of vehicles both small and large. The floor had been polished to reveal a beautiful stone, and it gleamed in the gentle light from the fixtures along the walls—walls which were covered in the same stone. At the other side of the room was another door.

“This is the garage,” Amber said, starting to walk. The guardians snapped to attention and rushed to keep up with her. “All the cars have to stay here when nobody is using them. there are a lot of places that are far away, it’s hard to get to if you have an old person or a baby, but most everyone walks since the cars take up a lot of electricity.”

“This is incredible,” Jongdae said. “Amber, do you know how long it’s been here?”

Amber nodded. “Since before the great migration.”

“The what?” Several of them asked.

“The Great Migration,” Amber repeated. “When everybody left.”

Suho gasped. “The ships! The ones that took everyone away!”

Amber whirled around and stared at him in surprise. “You know about that?”

“We saw it,” Chanyeol blurted. Then he clapped his hands over his mouth. “Oops.”

“You…you saw it?” Amber repeated. “Oh my god.” She ran to the door and threw it open. “PRESIDENT!” She screamed, now speaking a language they had come to recognize as Korean, “YOU HAVE TO COME HERE AND MEET MY NEW FRIENDS!”

The Guardians all looked at each other, identical expressions of hesitation on their faces.

“It’s now or never,” Baekhyun said, squaring his shoulders. The twelve of them walked through the door together.

The door opened on to a large outcropping, which was about two stories above a large underground lake, and around the lake several more people were working, or playing. The outcropping was very wide, about the same as the width of a family house. A road extended from either side of the outcropping and wound around and down to the lake. Nobody down by the lake seemed to care very much about what was going on up on the landing. There was about twenty people standing around on the other side of the door. Some seemed to be security personnel, some were ordinary people, and one woman was seated at a desk overlooking the lake, but she had turned around in her chair and was staring wide-eyed at Amber and the Guardians. Everyone was staring at them, actually. One man seemed to have dropped a large stack of papers in his shock.

The woman stood up. She was older, with greying hair. It had been so long since the Guardians had seen an elderly person. “Hello,” the woman said in Korean. She hesitated. “Can you understand me?”

“We can,” Suho answered, stepping forwards. “We can understand Korean, we can also understand some dialects of Chinese, and English.”

The woman smiled, but she still looked shocked. “We have people among us who can speak all of those languages.” She hesitated. “My name is Park Jooyeon, I’m the acting president of the population. May I ask…are you…one of us?”

“Are you gods?” One of the other women asked.

They all smiled and relaxed. “We’re not gods,” Suho answered. He looked around, eyeing Chanyeol and Kris in particular. “But by the definition of various religions of this planet, we could be mistaken for them. And we’re…not of this planet. We arrived here almost four hundred years ago.”

There were gasps. “Four hundred years,” the president repeated. “My…you all look so young.” Now several people looked wary.

“We’re Guardians of a being known as the Tree of Life,” Kris said, moving to stand next to Suho. “We have special gifts which we use in service to the Tree. On our world, the Tree is what gives life to our people. It…well it’s not really a Tree, it’s a highly intelligent being which created our world and took on a physical form that just happened to be a Tree. It sounds a little strange, I know, but I’m not quite sure of how to explain it.”

The president nodded. “It does sound strange but…we know there is other life besides that on this world. Our ancestors saw them, but choose not to leave.”

Now the Guardians gasped.

“Then, you’re natives of this planet!” Suho said. “How…we saw the airships come, we thought the entire population had left!”

The president looked confused. “You aren’t from those people?”

They all shook their heads. “No, we don’t know who those peoples are. We arrived on your world a few years before those first ships came.”

The president nodded. “I see,” she said, though she still sounded confused. “And why did you come here?”

Kris and Suho glanced at each other. Suho answered, “It’s a long story, it would be nice if we could tell it once. May we address the population?”

The President considered it for a moment, then nodded. “Yes, I think that would be for the best.”

The entire population of 283 people gathered around the lake, and the twelve Guardians stood on a platform overlooking them. many people open stared and pointed, some refused to make eye contact. The children looked very much like all they wanted to do was get their hands on Chanyeol and Kris’ wings.

Once everyone had gathered, President Park introduced them as ‘Amber’s new friends,’ and then invited them to tell their story.

Suho was the one who started to explain, basically reciting the creation story that all children heard on their home planet.

“We come from a planet that really has no name. We just call it ‘home.’ Our planet was formed, as most planets are, from the remains of a great explosion in space. Over thousands of years a kind of consciousness floated over a chaotic mass of land. Inside the land was tons and tons of power, later called…cosmic energy.” The other Guardians all silently thanked Suho for not using the word ‘magic.’

“The consciousness decided to form the land mass into something less chaotic and to consolidate the great power, but in order to do that the consciousness needed a form. The land mass was kind of evolving on its own, and while there were no animals or people, there was water and plant life. So the consciousness took the form of one of the most stable life forms on the planet—that of a tree. This consciousness became known as The Tree of Life for that reason. It concentrated its most basic self inside of a single central area—its heart. It spread the other parts of itself out in its roots, which grew to cover the entire planet, and it formed the land into one solid mass and trapped the great power under it.

“The Tree then caused human beings to evolve from more primitive life forms, and as they evolved it realized that the humans would need some kind of powerful leader, or some ruling body that could create order for them. The Tree also realized that it would not be able to control these people because it could not speak to them; their own consciousness was not strong or stable enough to establish contact with. That is one reason why the Tree created the Guardians—what we are. The second reason was that the great power, the cosmic energy, was getting to be too massive to contain underground. The Tree released the power from the ground in small spurts in a bunch of different locations, and the power latched onto a person it found to be suitable to handle it. This is how the first Guardians were created, and the power is what gives us our Affinities or Gifts.”

Here Suho directed everyone to show what they could do. The people of the planet were riveted, and they hung on Suho’s every word.

“At first twelve young men received this energy and gathered together to protect and serve the Tree of Life. But the Tree soon realized that the energy of the world, which the world was made of and which gave these Guardians their powers, continued to grow. It realized that this energy was a byproduct of its own thoughts, like how a car, when running, emits exhaust gas.”

There were smiles from the people, and it was a relief to see that they seemed to understand.

“It took a lot of energy to create the first Generation, so the Tree managed to get away with not releasing the magic again for a long time. Following that, however, there had to be a new Generation about once every two hundred years, give or take. The thing about the energy in the planet is that it keeps building up on itself—think of cancer cells, they grow and divide at an unregulated pace and sometimes build up into tumors, the magic is the same. At certain points the pressure under the planet needs to be alleviated, and then the Tree will release the energy in short spurts and a new Generation of Guardians will be created.”

Kris jumped in, “But the thing is, that energy was there for anyone to control. And early on in the planets history, two people tried to harness the energy  and use it for themselves to over power the Guardians. They used sacrifices and created a darker kind of energy that eventually overpowered and corrupted the two people themselves. it turned them into a dark, formless mass of malignant energy that became known as ‘Mama.’ The first generation of Guardians tried to fight this force and eventually sealed it away, but didn’t destroy it. and when we were children, the dark energy began to break free of its seal and take over the minds and heart of the people of our world, including the other Generations of Guardians. That’s why we came here. We took the heart of the Tree of life and…and left our planet, because by ourselves we weren’t strong enough to defeat it. We came here because your planet and your people are most similar to our own. We used space technology like what you have and we…we nearly made it without incident but as it turns out, our technology had been corrupted, probably by one of our own Guardians. We ended up crash landing in escape pods and it took us a long time to find out way back together. By the time we did, the other ships—which were not of our own planet, that much we know—had come and taken the world’s population away. Or, so we thought.”

They all looked around at the people.

“We thought everyone was gone,” Kyungsoo said. “I…as you saw I can move the earth, and I can also feel life inside of it. This whole planet felt so dead, I was sure that there was no life at all.”

There were murmurs from the crowd, which quieted when President Park held up her hand.

“Your story is like nothing we’ve ever heard,” she said. “But then, I suppose we could say the same for our story. You were right,” She said, nodding towards Kyungsoo, “This world was dead. Almost four hundred and fifty years ago many people began to realize that the world was becoming uninhabitable, so they decided to do something. They couldn’t clean the world up alone but knew that eventually, the world could heal itself. They just needed to wait it out. So they decided to go underground, so far under that the pollution wouldn’t affect them. many people thought they were crazy, but nobody really cared enough to stop them. There were enough people on board with the idea that they managed to get representations from hundreds of professions and many different ethnicities. When the pace ships came, many people left, but our ancestors decided to stay here and see if they could someday return to the life they once lived. We have been here, waiting for that day.” She stared at the Guardians in wonder. “Have you truly lived above ground all this time?”

“We have,” Suho answered. “And the world is healing. We’re able to grow things, farm animals, fish in the oceans…”

There was a murmur of excitement.

“We have been venturing above ground,” President Park said. “We were wondering if the time had come for us to go back to the world.”

A woman in the crowd stood up. “What does any of this have to do with Amber?” She asked.

Lu Han explained. “We told you before that the darkness overtook our world. We came here because we were hoping that someday…humans would evolve again, that the Tree of Life or some other force would bring them back, and new guardians would be born, who could help us reclaim our world.” His eyes found Amber, lingering with the other children. “We believe that…there’s a reason we met Amber today, and that she lead us to you. She’s the start of a new Generation of guardians.”

“How do you know?” The woman asked. “Is it because…of the rocks?”

Many people looked confused and began to whisper. Lu Han beckoned Amber forward.

“There are many ways to recognize a Guardian,” he explained as Amber made her way forward. “They are highly intelligent from a young age and very eloquent. They don’t usually get along well with their peers, or their own parents, sometimes. They also have special abilities, and have a mark of their gift somewhere on their body.”

Amber had made her way to the platform, and she froze. “I have a mark,” she said, “It’s on my wrist.” She pulled up her sleeve to reveal a birthmark exactly like the one Lu Han had. Lu Han grinned and pulled down the collar of his shirt so that he could show Amber his own mark.

“They’re the same!” Amber yelled, jumping up and down, “They’re exactly the same, I’m just like you!”

Suho stepped forward again. “I know that this is a lot for you to take in, we weren’t expecting to find people here, so I’m not sure how good of a job we did explaining this. But…if you would like, we can take you to the Tree of Life. It’s here, on this planet, and if we can show it to you then maybe…it can find a way to make contact with you.”

President Park quickly directed everyone’s attention towards herself. “We all participate in this government,” she said, “I would like everyone to take some time to think this over. In the meantime, I would like to give these Guardians a tour of our home and tell them more about our past. Please, discuss in a group or privately among your families what you would like to do with this information.”

The crowd began to disperse, and the woman who had asked about Amber’s role approached the platform. It was now easy to see that she was Amber’s mother. She came up to the platform and knelt in front of her daughter, gazing at her curiously.

“Did you know about any of this?” She asked. “This tree, or the guardians?”

Amber shook her head.

“Do you believe it?” Her mother asked.

Amber looked between Lu Han and the mark on her own wrist. “He feels like me, mama,” she said. “They all do. I want to go with them, I want to see the Tree.”

Her mother nodded and stood up, looking Lu Han square in the eye. “She never felt like she was mine. I carried her, and gave birth to her, and I cared for her…but something never felt right.”

“It was like that for all of our mothers,” Lu Han said. “It’s because…she was meant to leave.”

“I see that now,” the woman said. “I can see that…even though she just met you, she responds to you. She always was a smart little girl, and she’s right, she’s just like you.” The woman took a deep breath. “Will you take care of her? Will you love her?”

Lu Han nodded. “As if she was my own.”

The woman smiled. “Then we will both go with you to see this Tree of Life. And if she wants to be a Guardian, then who am I to stop her?”

Lu Han took the woman’s hands. “Your daughter is going to be a powerful young woman one day, she’s going to help generations of people live the best lives that they can. And I will do everything I can to train her and help her realize her full potential.”

Amber’s mother squeezed his hands. “Thank you.” Then she held out her arms for Amber. “Come on dear, we should pack for the trip.”

They all watched the two of them leave, then President Park lead them off for a tour.

What’s this??? Another update only two days later?!?! Well yes, because I want this done and out of the way and I got such a positive response from the last chapter that I realized I couldn’t reply to everyone and the best way to thank you all for your comments is with a new update! I don’t know if I can wrap this all up with just one more chapter, so we’ll see how it goes.

There will be even more answers in the next update!!!

PS I'm giving myself the creeps with this part of the story. It's ridiculous because I know there's nothing creepy about it, but I see how it can be taken as creepy and that alone is enough to creep me out.

PPS The bit about the history of the Tree and the planet can be found in the FYI, chapter 16