:)

Each member of the EXO Family sat along the oval shaped table made of strong oak and bits of metal to help combat any vicious fireballs, flooding, wind resistance, and general movement. Only two seats lay vacant, one for the missing member no one dare speak of and the other having always been empty; it separated Xiumin and Luhan, his beautiful little brother whose face helped hide his actual age. Suho sat at the head of the table with Lay sitting to his left, their hands clasped on top of the cool glass, and Kyungsoo sitting to his right next to Xiumin, occupying his time with sticking his tongue back out at Kai in a war of facial expressions.

"For everyone who stayed behind, the few days that we were away, we met with Grandmother and Grandfather." The silly chatter came to a close, the deathly silence spreading effectively.

"But. . . Why?"

"Well, to put it simply, we have another brother, and he's the reason the weathers been so dangerous. Grandmother said in a few days he'll be here and we need to leave as soon as possible."

"But, if he's our brother, shouldn’t we stay? Maybe he's been looking for us for a long time," Baekhyun protested. Suho shook his head and sighed. He had also looked at that prospect.

"We can't risk it, I can't let any of you get hurt or else I'd never be able to forgive myself. We need to leave soon, but-" Suho stopped and looked to Xiumin, his eyes revealing his worry, his fear, "Xiumin said he'll stay to look after the humans."

"You can't!"

"No!"

"He's joking!" The table gave a creak before a large crack etched its way down the middle; Kyungsoo had slammed his fist on the table.

"Don't worry," Xiumin smiled and lied through his teeth as best he could, "I'll be fine." I'll always put you all before me. I could never separate one of you from the other.

"But Min-"

"Xiumin you can't!" Luhan cried, tears already dribbling from his big doe eyes, "You have to come too!" But you don't need me. Just look after Sehun.

"When are you leaving," Xiumin turned his head away from his crying brother and looked in Suho's direction.

"Tonight would be best. I'm going to take us to the Tree of Life to stay. But you have to promise me something."

"What?"

"Just-Just don't do anything reckless."

Self-sacrifice was what made Xiumin the person he was. He gave and gave and never once did he decide to take; even now, as he watched the portal blossom into a vast dark hole did he realize how much he wanted to give to his family. Suho and Lay stood hand in hand and ushered them inside of the dimensional portal two at a time, the awkward pairings and a solo Luhan unsettling the couple as they groaned in annoyance. Baekhyun led Sehun by the wrist into the dark nothingness, telling the younger male to pay attention though all he could do was look back at Luhan with the pout only a child could produce. Luhan followed, his small fingers trembling as he turned back and destroyed the line, running with his arms open to grapple onto his older brother. The taller telekinetic held onto Xiumin, who sighed and hugged him back, Tao and Chanyeol leaving out of his peripheral.

"You act like you'll never see me again," Xiumin muttered playfully, the back of Luhan's honey brown locks as a form of comfort, "Now hurry and go with the others."

"C-Cant I stay with you?" As much as Xiumin wished he could be selfish, full of greed, besides a short temper, he was unable. He couldn’t take Luhan away from Sehun and his conscious knew this.

"No. Take care of Sehun, okay? And take care of yourself. I'll let you know when everything is over." Still Luhan stayed attached to his older brother as everyone entered the portal besides Suho, who stared at them with regrettable eyes. Sometimes, most times, he liked to forget that he was not the oldest, he liked to take care of everyone as if they were his own, including Xiumin and Luhan. But the truth of the matter dawned on him, that he could not protect everyone as much as he wanted, that Xiumin was older and could do whatever he wanted, just like him.

Just like his brother Kris.

The house lay empty, vacant of noise and massive forces of energy residing from different bodies, the house cried with loneliness and longing as rain thudded against his roof, splattered across his windows, left him wet and full of sadness. The life had completely deteriorated, and for the first time, Xiumin felt the cold penetrate his flesh and sting his skin from the inside out. He sat against the thin sheets in his white room, snow gently caressing his shoulders and melting against his light brown hair, dampening it. He reached a small hand into the increasingly emptying bucket of ice and scratched along the bottom until he came to a piece, easily crushing the ice in the palm of his hand and taking it from the pail. He brought the ice to his lips and bit into the freezing goodness. The air filled with ice crystals as his breath hit the air, snowflakes falling gently against his light clothing, blending in with the white of his pants and thin V-neck shirt.

He could remember the first time he made a snowflake. He had been five at the time, and there had been no sign of his powers, scaring his parents since Luhan could already lift books and small objects, Kris could blow fire, and Suho could bend small quantities of water. The small male had been jealous, not only did his brothers have amazing powers already, but they were taller. Everything was just wrong to Xiumin, he was supposed to be the tallest, and his power was supposed to be amazing. Their parents had been afraid he would never find his ability, when they took a trip to a secluded beach. At the time, their mother's family members was pregnant with Lay.

Suho had been playing along the edge of the beach where the sea roared ferociously and sputtered everywhere, drenching the giggling boy again and again. Kris stayed back with their parents, basking in the sun and trying to get a good tan. Luhan was actively building a sand castle via lifting the sand with his thoughts. Xiumin sat just above the tide with his knees pressed to his chest and watched four year old Suho wave his hands around and push a bit of the water back and forth, envious that the youngest had his affinity for water when he had nothing. It was easy to smile and wave when Suho waved happily from afar, but it was hard to feel a part of something when one is so different.

"Suho? Suho!" Xiumin zoned in to see Suho disappear under a harsh tide, the blob of water swallowing him whole. They all knew that Suho couldn't control that large body of water and as the closest, Xiumin shot to his feet, dashing with his little feet to where his brother had disappeared. There was nothing Xiumin could physically do, but he was determined to save Suho. His bare toes splashed in the cold sea water littered with seaweed and he dove into the water. Through squinted eyes, he could make out Suho's form, thrashing around just above the surface. He swam to the top and called out to his brother, screaming over the gelatin shifting of the ocean.

"SUSU! REACH FOR MY HAND!" Suho reached his hand out, but he couldn't swim and his energy had driven the sea mad. Xiumin kicked his legs and propelled himself closer, swimming until he touched Suho's hand and locked their fingers together so as not to lose the younger. He closed his eyes and heaved a deep breath, exhaling against the rippling water, unaware of the small snowflakes leaving his mouth to sit atop the water. Suho held onto Xiumin's side and saw the ice spreading everywhere quickly.

"Min, looky!" Xiumin opened his eyes to see the entire body of water frozen besides the small circle they kicked their legs in. Their parents had gone to the edge of the frozen beach, utterly speechless.

"Frosty," Suho squeaked cutely, prodding the frozen block of ice with his index finger. Xiumin still couldn't believe what had happened as his father took him and Suho into his arms, having walked across the sturdy ice. He held them close and praised Xiumin for helping his brother, nuzzling Xiumin's plump cheek with his nose and kissing his forehead.

"I'm so proud of you."

"Stupid memories," Xiumin muttered as he chewed and swallowed the ice. The rain had escalated, but Xiumin had gone unfazed. The small box in his cold heart where he filled himself with the warmth of his family had fallen empty. Left in its place was a frost bitten heart, beaten from the cold. A small cloud of air had formed in a whispery halo above the boy's head, and light tufts of snow fell to decorate his bed. He laid back against his pillows and into the snowy mush, immune to the temperature as it dropped below zero.

The blood still clung to his shirt from the day before, patches still wet and drying in the stale air he had created. The scarlet wine still drenched his fingers even after washing his hands until they stung sore. His body jerked with an electric spark, and his face scrunched up with hurt. It wasn't the first time his own power caused him pain, physically and mentally ate away at his sanity until he wanted to die. It was an accident that offset the series of thunderstorms. He never meant to hurt anyone, and when they realized he was different, not the same, they cast him out like all of the other cities and his tears offset the storm. The people who died were all innocent, men, women, a child who had barely brushed the age of three. It was cruel, his uncontrollable power that no one cared to stay and explain. He had simply woken up one day and caused a mass electricity loss just by flicking up a light switch. Electricity swarmed to his body in a twist of blue sparks ticklish to the touch. It was the beginning of a sick loneliness.

"I don't want to be this way," he whispered to the howling wind, curled in as tight a ball he could create and the bottom portion of his form caked with mud from the rainy storm he unintentionally invoked. The sky continued to darken to an almost pitch black, his energy buzzing through him and shocking the tree his chest lay back against, burning the wood through and the smell of burnt wood stung his nose. Why did he have to be born this way, to a family that left him in the arms of another, tossed him away to sleep among the trash, a mere baby recycled to another with nothing but a gleaming silver ring that glowed unnaturally?

Chen squeezed his body together an inch tighter, shivering as the rain began to pelt his sensitive skin, drenching his dirtily matted hair and soaking his bloody clothes once again. The beautiful boy, underneath all of that dirt, sneezed; his cold had been worsening for the past few days he spent in the woods after leaving the last town almost destroyed. He hadn't been inside of a warm house since 6 months prior, when he began shocking his family members unintentionally. Then he had to go and get angry at his older brother for taking some of his things and he was punched, a lightning strike ejecting from Chen's fist in retaliation after he missed and rendering the older boy unconscious. His parents locked him outside after, jeering at him for being a freak they adopted out of the kindness of their hearts, calling him a monster. They threatened to call the police if he didn't leave, and so, Chen vanished in the eye of a thunderstorm that left the town devastated.

The electricity in the air continued to vibrate, the storm overhead beginning to concentrate over the woods Chen called ‘frightening,’ and beginning to pick up speed, brushing along trees and causing smoke to rise with the brief touch. He couldn’t stay there much longer, Chen knew that a forest fire was inevitable even with the rain.

And a voice kept whispering to him to keep moving forward,

You have places to be.

Someone to find.

A home.

Chen untangled his body and brushed his wet hair clinging to his cheeks and forehead away from his face, effectively stopping his bangs from disrupting his eyesight and allowing the rain to gently sweep against his dirty cheeks.

His insides clenched painfully, but Chen ignored it, pushing himself off of the ground with weak hands and leaning against the tree. He had carelessly used his energy, knowing no way to stop the storm brewing inside of himself and projecting its way into the human world.

"No," Chen whispered, feeling the harsh wind tug at his weathered bones, pulling all of his body into the air with a shock jolting the ground in his place. Chen flung his hands for the nearest branch; his fingers brushed against the bark centimeters from his hold and he dug the blunt edge of his once perfect nails into the sodden wood and screamed. His fingertips began to bleeds. Lightning rained down from above a portal of darkest black spreading briefly to show bright light, letting the energy surge through, before swallowing the sunshine back up again. It delved down through the air and met the tree with a cackle as it struck; the wood snapped in half and caught fire, the rain quickly killing the flame with liquid and giving Chen nothing to hold onto.

He was gone with the wind, his arms flinging around wildly, his body swinging passed trees and getting caught on pieces of branches before they snapped and he was sent flying again. The wind around the Korean male worsened and he closed his eyes, curling into the feral position, protecting his head from injury as his back slammed against a tree. He shuddered as the rain fell, his back would definitely bruise after this, and his shirt ripped along his course, revealing soft, pale flesh. Twigs scrapped his skin, thorns leaving his alabaster flesh ruby red. Electrical pulses jolted through him every second as the tornado worsened. Chen didn't know how much more of the torture he could take as down below, the screaming began.

Xiumin awoke to the soundtrack of rain, the storm so majestic the entire mansion howled with the noise. If he sat back and closed his eyes, he could feel the subtle trembling of his bed, the snow dropping to the floor in tufts of perfectly untouched white. His stomach gurgled with water and he tossed the light sheets covering his cold body away. He took a deep breath to combat the sleepiness still found in his eyes and stretched to his heart's content. He looked towards the door, half expecting Luhan to break the door using one of the priceless busts they had copies of using his thoughts alone or Kyungsoo breaking his door by accident. It wouldn't be the first time, even with a power crest activated. But when nothing happened, Xiumin patted his cheek in disappointment; no one was here but him. They're home, their true home. Not that Earth wasn't as every bit interesting as Xiumin had read about long ago, but the Tree of Life was where they were born, where they draw their powers and how they keep in the form of a human.

"I bet Sehun and Tao are having fun," The small boy mused, knowing the twins were definitely having the time of their lives practicing with their powers unrestricted. Xiumin shuffled off of his bed and onto the ground building into a winter wonder land before walking through the angle deep snow to his room door. He pressed a hand against the old stone and mumbled the word snow. An energy field seemed to retract from the very walls, a frosty blue color crawling down the walls and to his hand, leaving the room vulnerable and allowing the screaming to reach Xiumin's keen ears. The sound was wretched and terrible, as if the vilest forms of torture were being administrated to the humans outside. He must be here, but so soon?

Xiumin tugged his room door open; the wood was much heavier than it looked and needed at least three human males at their prime to move it, but Xiumin wasn’t human after all. He ran out into the darkness and down the hall, his only aid the sound of his own breathing and the tapping of his feet against warm tile. The humans screaming from the outside only seemed to grow the closer Xiumin got the front door, anguish tearing their voices to shreds. Xiumin dashed passed the living room and kitchen and into the massive foyer where they kept their shoes, hundreds of them. He reached his hand out and flicked his wrist, the door swung open with a burst of icy gale and the rain poured just outside the entrance. The screaming never stopped.

Part 2 :)