"JESUS CHRIST YOU'RE GONNA KILL US!!!" 

Eunhyuk's maniacal holler was lost in the rush of wind and the roar of the engine as they sped through the district. They had been going at this speed for what seemed like hours but in reality was only ten minutes or something. But the feeling still made it seem like his heart had been forced out his back and left behind on the street somewhere. He was clutching desperately and the bar beside him and Zhou Mi's arm, literally praying to live. While Zhou Mi was holding on to his arm and the front head rest for dear life, the poor guy had gone white and his eyes were flaring a deep reddish-orange, like two 'stop' lights. Ryeowook in the front was spluttering incoherent wails of mercy while strangling the seatbelt across his chest. 

Leeteuk, however, seemed unfazed by the way they were all screaming their lungs out and he certainly didn't notice how atrociously he was driving either.

"DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW TO DRIVE?!" Ryeowook struggled to shout out. 

"No, but it's simple enough though," Leeteuk answered calmly, frivolous as ever. "This one is move, this one is stop, and this thing to steer. Pretty easy if you ask me."

"Oh my God," Zhou Mi managed to gasp out. "Please stop!"

From his left, Ryeowook was just able to make out the sound of another engine above the gale rushing past them. He turned to see Han Geng and his passengers whizzing by, Heechul, Sungmin and Siwon all white-faced and fearing for their lives.

Well, at least they weren't alone in suffering.

"Okay! We should stop here!" Leeteuk announced, honking his horn a few times. 

"NEVER LETTING YOU DRIVE AGAIN!" Eunhyuk yelled at him.

The jeep skidded to a stop, balancing on its side wheels for a moment before flopping back down to earth, wobbling a bit as it gradually stilled. Han Geng skidded to a halt next to them, the members of his drive slowly regaining their composure.

"Haha, Geng, looks like I won!"

"Yeah right, plant-brain."

"Don't call me that!"

Leeteuk hopped out happily, stepping with a bounce in his step towards Han Geng, who had gotten himself out of his cart too. Eunhyuk released his grip on the bar beside him and went to free Zhou Mi's arm, but found the other was frozen, muscles paralysed and expression stuck petrified. 

"... Hey..." He panted, gasping in the air that his lungs had been rid of. He shook Zhou Mi reassuringly. "C'mon... It's over now..."

"... I c-can't move my f-fingers..." Zhou Mi croaked out hoarsely. 

Eunhyuk then took his time gently wrenching Zhou Mi's stiff fingers from the death grip on his elbow. Whispering soothing words to quell his tremors and rubbing his shoulder soothingly to ease the hardened lines of shock and fear from his face. He did this until his eyes faded and his body relaxed slightly. Zhou Mi calmed, but he was still clearly a bit shocked. Eunhyuk guessed he was a little bit more used to Leeteuk's insanity than Zhou Mi and Ryeowook. After all, they'd known each other for a while now. Speaking of the Light element, he hadn't checked on him. 

"You okay Wook?" 

"Yeah, fine, yeah," Ryeowook sounded dazed and out of breath. "Jesus Christ, Leeteuk is crazy..." 

"Hahaha... Yeah... Probably shoulda warned you about that before I dragged you in to this..." Eunhyuk smiled sheepishly. "Don't worry; I've just drawn Zhou Mi from petrification. I can do the same for you if you want."

"I think I'm fine," Ryeowook replied shakily. "Yeah, I'll be good... Just need to stay out for a while..."

"Hey, where's Jongwoon?" Leeteuk called out unsurely. "He was behind us right?"

"I saw him following us," Sungmin recalled finally having gotten his voice back. "He cut off somewhere, probably looking for a shortcut..."

"Do you know where?" Han Geng asked looking down the road they'd just come from.

"No, lost him while you were trying to travel at the speed of light," Sungmin sighed and stared at Han Geng exasperatedly. "Scariest moment of my life... Surprising not at the hands of a soldier, but at a nineteen-year-old who doesn't know how to drive, driving a jeep." 

"Sorry," Han Geng grinned sheepishly. "It was fun though."

Jongwoon's jeep came flying out of mid-air, along with the yells of all the passengers in the vehicle. It landed straight in front of the two others, the shock absorbers dissipating a fair amount of the landing. He drifted around until his car was facing the front of the others. Kyuhyun, Donghae and Henry were all sitting in the car wide-eyed, either too shocked to scream or wondering how they weren't dead. 

"That... Was... Awesome!" Kyuhyun slowly said, exclaiming the words one at a time. "Jongwoon I didn't know you could drive!"

"I can't," Jongwoon shrugged getting out of the car and opening the doors to let the other out. "Leeteuk said use a pedal to go, a pedal to stop and the wheel to steer. The only reason that you aren't as frozen with fear like the others is because I was driving at a slightly more considerable pace."

"Jongwoon, how'd you end up on a roof?" Leeteuk asked, genuinely curious.

"He smashed into a wall," Donghae said, voice airy and disbelieving. "How did we live smashing into a wall...?"

"Shadow teleportation," Kyuhyun answered.

"Yes Master," Jongwoon pointed in his direction. "Exactly right."

"What is it?" Henry asked, popping his head out from the back. 

"I simply used shadows to move through to get from one place to another," Jongwoon explained briefly. "Right... I'd say it would be best to move location from here, soldiers might be on our trail, and we don't know if they have tracking devices on those jeeps."

"Um... We have a problem..." Ryeowook called over from the jeep at Zhou Mi's side, he having recovered from the shock. "Zhou Mi won't move..."

Zhou Mi wouldn't budge. No matter how much Ryeowook had tried to talk to him or coax him out of his state, his eyes had started to glow more intensely than before. The others seemed to notice as time went on and most of them started to surround the car, assisting in helping the paralysed Fire element. Henry, Siwon, Leeteuk and Heechul stayed behind.

"Hey, what's up Zhou Mi...?" Kyuhyun asked unsurely approached. 

"I've tried talking," Ryeowook said worriedly. "He won't respond, to anything."

"Is he still shocked?" Eunhyuk asked the Light element.

"It would seem," Ryeowook shrugged in reply. "But he was trembling and able of little bits if speech."

"Let's see..." Kyuhyun lowered himself so he was level with Zhou Mi. "Hey buddy... Can you talk to us...?"

Eunhyuk was prying his fingers from the edge of the car door when as Kyuhyun was asking this. He didn't reply.

"And nothing... Again," Ryeowook shook his head. "Talking has shown it won't get us anywhere..."

"Oh dear, this could be his version of a panic attack," Jongwoon suggested observing Zhou Mi's facial features. "Instead of flailing and yelling, he goes into a state of shutdown."

"Do you think?" Donghae frowned waving a hand in front of the Fire element's shining eyes. 

"I'm positive sir," Jongwoon mused thoughtfully. "It would seem logical, the feeling or the fear his body was and most likely still is experiencing may have only registered in his brain a few moments ago. Most probably caused a trigger in his mind."

"What do you think caused it?" Kyuhyun looked at his bodyguard, who was pressing different points on Zhou Mi's face. "If anything, I thought it would be swimming."

Zhou Mi's hands curled into fists again when Kyuhyun said that, Eunhyuk glared at him and Jongwoon went to help.

"Sorry!"

"Hm, I think it was something to do with the car ride. Not the actual vehicle, because he wouldn't gotten in the jeep if that were the case," Jongwoon took over Eunhyuk's job of freeing Zhou Mi's fingers. "So I'd say the speed, but that wouldn't really affect him.. That only leaves the feeling of it. Sir, what did it feel like driving that fast?"

"Hm?" Eunhyuk asked lazily as Jongwoon took Zhou Mi's pulse. "Oh... Um, well for me it felt like my heart had been forced backwards out of my chest and fallen on the ground."

"... So, like being pushed against something..." Jongwoon concluded softly. His hand left Zhou Mi's wrist, and he supported himself against the door. "Technically, he should be hyperventilating, but his breathing a perfectly stable. Sir, could you make a draft to make sure he's breathing?"

No one moved for a moment until Jongwoon looked at Han Geng expectedly. The Air element gave him a bewildered look before shaking his head.

"You really have to say people's names when you want their attention," Han Geng sighed exasperatedly as he started blowing a current of air at Zhou Mi's face. "There's about seven of us here. You can't call every one 'sir' you know."

"Well, he calls me 'Master' so technically it's six-" Kyuhyun said knowingly.

"Not the problem right now," Sungmin glared at him before looking at Zhou Mi with concern. "How do we snap him out of it? We can't do sedation again. That would mean we would need to carry him."

"We just need to ease him out of it," Jongwoon answered. "My knowledge on this subject is limited, but perhaps it's like snapping someone out of a hypnotic trance?"

"How? We don't even know what set him into this state," Donghae pointed out. "How would we know what would get him out of it?"

"Is he okay?" Leeteuk called over, looking around warily.

"He's gone into a panic state," Han Geng answered immediately. "We're trying to snap him out of it."

"What? Oh my God! I'm sorry!" Leeteuk looked shocked and guilty. "Tell him I'm sorry!"

"Leeteuk says he's sorry," Ryeowook told the frozen male. "... If you can hear me... That is... Do you think he can hear me? Or anything for that matter?"

"Wouldn't know," Jongwoon murmured softly, eyes scanning Zhou Mi's. "Haven't had one."

"I guess it depends on who you are," Eunhyuk shrugged, a hint of uncomfortableness in his voice. "With you, it took me a while of talking, but eventually you could hear me. With Han Geng, we couldn't get through to him at all. Leeteuk can hear people clearly, but he can't really reply, usually he's wailing too much. Donghae hears some things, and disregards some things, he can only process certain words. And with me... Well, let's not go there... I'm guessing Zhou Mi's like Han Geng in terms of 'hearing during a panic attack'..."

"Yeah, when I have one, I can only hear fragments of speech," Kyuhyun agreed with a hum. "If you were to say something, I'd probably only hear about 35% of the words..."

"He reacted when you said swimming though." Han Geng pointed out.

"Back to getting him out of a panic attack," Sungmin interrupted. "How do we come about this...?"

"Strong emotion," Eunhyuk replied lazily. "I don't know what kind he's react to, but giving him a glimpse of something he feels strongly about will affect his conscience."

They all just stared at each other for a while, unsure about what do.

"... Henry-nari...?" Jongwoon called out cautiously. "Do you think you could come here?"

The Water element looked scared but nodded unsurely and approached the taller. He frowned at the Fire element with confused eyes, but looked back to Jongwoon sceptically.

"Yeah...?"

"Do you think you could do something that would irritate Zhou Mi-nari?" Jongwoon requested politely. "It would really help if you did. Nothing big, just enough for him to feel annoyance."

"I think he'd be annoyed at anything I did," Henry sighed with a shake of his head. "Okay, fine. What do I do?"

"What usually annoys him?" Han Geng questioned. "Do that. Just nothing like a massive tidal wave, we're still here and I wouldn't like to be washed away..."

Henry pondered for a bit, then nodded slowly and grabbed out his water bottle. He opened the lid and drew out a small amount of the substance, hovering it above his palm like it was a fragile thing. Handing Jongwoon the bottle, he flicked a tiny amount of water on the Fire element's face. Again and again until the bubble of liquid was gone.

"Well, that worked..." Ryeowook stated sarcastically. "Now what?"

Jongwoon's eyes followed the droplets of water trickle off Zhou Mi's face, trailing under the curve of his jaw and down the long column of his neck. His skin steamed, and his eyes shot in Jongwoon's direction, as if he were trying to tell him something. Zhou Mi's eyes looked more rabid than desperate, the orange flickered in his eyes like fire. 

Fire...

Oh...

Oh...

Fire...

"Hopefully, it's not as hard as learning to not make myself spontaneously combust."

That's what Zhou Mi was trying to tell him. That he was going to self combust any moment now.

"Back." He stated firmly to the others, handing Henry the water bottle.

"What?" Han Geng asked curiously at the sudden exclamation.

"Back!" Jongwoon pushed the ones closest to him away as far as he could, the others immediately getting the message. 

"I'm sorry..." Zhou Mi's voice was crackled and full of fear.

Jongwoon didn't have time to turn back to look at him, or for him to stop apologising. 

A fiery cloud of orange enveloped him and he just remembered to vaporise himself. 

---

I’m back! ^^

Sorry I haven’t been updating. I’ve been a bit unorganised with… Everything.

But, I do have a character analysis for you guys!

It’s not Siwon, sorry, as someone in the comments wanted, his thoughts are actually quite interesting, so I want to keep them for later.

For now, you can have an Eunhyuk.

Quick reminder if you didn’t memorise what was written in the previous chapter (Don’t worry, I haven’t either, just using the copy and paste technique and adding a few alternations, haha): Each sentence has a person’s name next to it. The person whose name is there, is the person that Eunhyuk is ‘talking’ about (He’s talking in a way that it sounds like he’s immediately talking to them, but he actually would never say these word to them). RED means a hostile relationship, BLUE means a positive one, and GREEN means an unsure or unsteady one. Underlined means Cognate (Friend, similar element) and bold & italicised means opposite (completely contrasting, opposite powers, e.g. Water and Fire). Any name that's got both colours in it means the relationship between those two people is kind of teetering between the two statuses. Parentheses (Brackets) with any text in them are what a person thinks about them, but doesn't directly express (e.g. Sungmin -> Kyuhyun: "One step closer, and I'll gut you like a fish, sew you back together, and do it again. (You killed my brother you... You... You demon... Why?!)" <- This bracketed part is what Sungmin doesn't clearly express towards Kyuhyun. If there are a set of parentheses (brackets) that have "..." like this -> (...) or have incoherent words (... You... why... I can... No...) <- like that, then the person has hidden or obscure thoughts about the other person (basically, if I didn't make them dots or random words, I'd be giving huge spoilers)

Eunhyuk:

-> Donghae: "(Okay, now listen up, just because Ryeowook helped me doesn’t mean that we’re on good terms yeah? I just am/have very little desire to argue or fight with you anymore. Mainly because of the war, and because I have other problems, but we aren’t ‘good’, got it?)”

 -> Kyuhyun: "I have the vague feeling I can trust you. But sometimes I can’t help but get the niggling feeling that you’re right behind me, ready to slice my head clean off my neck. But I guess that’s because you’re Death. But other than that, we’re good.”

-> Jongwoon: "... What the are you...?"

-> Ryeowook: "I wonder why I even listen to you, mainly because I can’t tell if you’re trying to help me, or just see me embarrassed.  Whatever reason, just please stop making me or attempting to make me make a fool of myself.”

-> Sungmin: "(You remind me of Kyuhyun) Sometimes I feel like you want to kill me. Like an instinctual hunch… But hey, I know I can trust you, you’re my cognate. One of my friends in this hellhole, yeah?

-> Zhou Mi: "... How's the weather...?"

-> Henry: "You know, you can actually be scary when you wanna be. Let’s just try stay on you’re good side yeah?

-> Han Geng: “Geng! Geng! Geng! Help meeee! Even though you’re a goddamned idiot! You left us for ten years to fight on our own! Hell, you didn’t even leave a ing note! Do you know how much you hurt me? Hurt us? Hurt him?! I love you Geng but really, even you can’t say you leaving was reasonable *rant rant* (Don’t leave. Don’t leave. Don’t leave).”

-> Leeteuk: “Stop treating me like a baby! (Please don’t leave me, please don’t leave… I’ll… I’ll do anything just… Stay by my side. I need you. I always need you. You can never leave me!!!)”

-> Siwon “… (Nada. Can’t get anything from you can we?)”

-> Heechul: “… Hey… So…*Slowly backs away…* Um, nice to meet you…”

So, that’s how many done now? I think it’s five… Seven more to go!

See you soon (hopefully)

I love you all!