Chapter 19

Timeline: 6th October 2012

It took a few days for everyone to be reached and gathered at their home again. Xiumin had sent an urgent private message which ordered everyone to take the first flight back as soon as possible before hacking into the system to clear off any traces of information that might enable their house to be tracked down by the Red Forces.

Once everyone had gathered in the dining hall with Xiumin sitting at the head of the table, the eldest in the group cleared his throat to capture the rest of the occupants' attention. A deep frown settled on his youngish face, thinking about the clue D.O had relayed to him immediately after Kai and him had safely stepped into the house. The clue given to the round-faced male was vague as D.O could not remember the message (or a song, he would rather call it as, gifted to him from his friend in the form of a tree, a child of the Tree of Life) word-for-word.

Every single member of the house including Tao turned to look at Xiumin, waiting for him to tell them what was so urgent that they had to come back and abandon their search for the Tree of Life, their tree of hope. Xiumin breathed in deeply before looking at Luhan.

"Luhan, please touch D.O's forehead, he'll push forward a certain memory and relay to us what the tree said to him. Meanwhile, I'll write them down on a piece of paper."

Luhan looked puzzled at their eldest's request but nodded, moving towards the said boy and then mouthing, "sorry for intruding" before placing his palm gently on D.O's forehead. The other shut his eyes, concentrating on a specific memory of a scene which occurred five days ago, giving it a little nudge. When it wouldn't budge (stubborn as it is), he pushed it forcefully to the front for Luhan to invade. Fortunately, he was trained to do this or he would be writhing in pain right now if he was not properly trained to do so.

Luhan's sparkly doe eyes were glazed as he dived into the memory in an elegant manner. He saw a warg and almost recoiled backwards, gasping in shock. Nevertheless, he recognised the warg as a friendly creature rather than those evil wargs he had read from story books in the past. It told D.O to concentrate and then he heard it, as if he was in D.O's body.

"If your heart truly desires to meet me,

Let the Childe of the Future be aided by the Childe of Teleportation.

Let Him open the pathway to an alternate universe which the Childe of Future himself knows not of.

Give Him the support and love that he needs and he shall create a path.

Walk down the path of both space and time he built.

You shall find an oaken door decorated with silver and gold at the end of the journey.

Say the magic words found only in the power of twelve chosen forces.

And the door shall open and lead you to me."

He was pulled back to reality with a hint of a blush to the tip of his ears, causing Sehun to be suspicious as to what the elder had seen. He was determined to find out later at night.

Xiumin stared at the paper with his scribbling, his eyebrows drawn nearer to the middle of his face. The rest of them looked like they were deep in thought as well, trying to decipher the riddle passed to them. He spread the paper in the middle of the table, signalling everyone to get closer.

"Well, it can't be that hard to figure out, right?" Chanyeol said, throwing his hands in the air while beaming after deciding that the silence had stretched far too long for him to stay quiet.

"Right. We should discuss, throw in any ideas instead of trying to solve this riddle by ourselves," Suho agreed.

"We could start by trying to figure out who is this Childe of the Future she speaks of? The first line is pretty straightforward. Of course, each and every one of us desire, no, scratch that, need to meet her."

Cracking their brains, they tossed in multiple suggestions, even those which did not make sense at all.

"It probably meant someone with the name future in it."

"Or it could be their name meant future in other languages."

"Maybe someone who could read the future?"

"We're going nowhere with this," someone howls in frustration.

"Or just maybe... It's someone of the future? Does it mean, we have to wait a few years for a certain someone to be born?" Tao spoke thoughtfully, his eyes never leaving the ground as if trying to catch an ant in sight while his fingers unconsciously went to his hair, running through it, making it messier than it originally was.

Every single person stared at him as if he grew a second head. Finally realising that eyes were on him, he looked up. "What?" He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.

"That's right! Childe of the Future. Child from the future! You are one smart kid, Tao." Kris slung his long arm over the younger boy's shoulders, hugging him close with a smile directed specially towards him.

Tao felt his insides jump for joy. He was ready to do a silly dance but managed to refrain himself. Hey, who would not be happy if you were praised by your Daddy, especially when it was the first praise he had gotten from him throughout his life? He had a stupid grin plastered on his face that rivalled Chanyeol's, showing his rows of white teeth.

Lay watched both of his family members bonding and he felt proud. His family. One he could call his own. Of course, the others were very much like family to him too but this... this is different.

"Childe of the Future must be Tao alright. I'm sure everyone has figured out by now that Childe of Teleportation would be..." Suho said but was interrupted by a 'that would be me' from Kai.

"So, we're done solving the first sentence. Let's look at the second one. Let Him open the pathway to an alternate universe which the Childe of Future himself knows not of. Now, that, my dear friends would be even more difficult to guess."

"I'm hungry," Tao perked up. His stomach grumbled in answer, his grin not faltering. Okay, so now everyone was staring at him as if he grew a third head. Seriously, what is with these people? Is it not normal to be hungry at this hour? It was nearing lunch. All these serious thinking was using up a lot of his energy and he demanded a two-person portion for himself.

"Right. I'll go call takeout. Chinese, anyone?" A few chorused a 'me' while the rest opted for pizza.

As they were busy digging into lunch or in Tao's case, stuffing as much food as he can into his oral cavity with Lay at his side, telling him to slow down and no one is going to steal his food, Xiumin wandered to his thoughts, taking a small bite from his Chinese food.

The pathway to an alternate universe which the Childe of Future himself knows not of, huh? There is more than one universe besides earth? No, more than earth, heaven and hell. Does she mean, a passage through time? But all these while, Tao has never travelled with anyone before. He has always been travelling alone. He might not be strong enough to open a portal through time for everyone. But when you consider, an alternate universe only, it may be true, that the only way there would be through time but a pathway which Tao knows not of? What other pathway or universe could there be? Could there be somewhere Tao doesn't know but we, perhaps know? Is there? This is truly frustrating. A few stabs into the innocent chicken as though it had angered him in some way before he stopped, gazing at the holes he had made into the piece of meat.

It did say with the aid of a child with teleportation. But what is Kai's role in this? What has he got to do to help Tao open a portal? Kai does not travel through portals as well, does he?

"Kai, how do you teleport?" The addressed kid turned to look at him, tilting his head cutely to the side.

"Well, I just imagine where I want to be and poof! There I am."

"How does it feel whenever you travel this way?"

"Like being pulled? Like getting from where I'm standing and then thrown to the desired place. But that feeling fades with time. I don't feel that way anymore. I got used to it. But of course, the first few times, I teleport, I couldn't even land properly. It was only with practice and experience...” The rest of his words were drowned out.

The way Kai described it to him seemed to answer his question. It was like Kai had to travel through a dimension to get to places.

"With the aid of the child of teleportation, the child of the future would open up a path to a different universe..." He whispered to himself.

"Hey, are you even listening?" Kai's voice snapped him out of his reverie.

"I am, I am." He convinced the younger even though the words from Kai's lips never did get processed in his brain. They entered into one ear and left through another.

With the aid of Kai, Tao would open up a pathway. A pathway or a universe that he knows not of. Maybe it's a pathway which he himself had never created before? Does an alternate universe indicate where the Tree of Light may be? Is that why they needed a portal to travel there?

"I have got it!" Xiumin shouted to the room whereas Kai looked displeased because clearly, the other was not even listening to him.

"What have you got?" Baekhyun questioned eagerly.

"The third line! I finally understood Kai and Tao's role in this. Basically, Tao has to open up a passage through time but Kai has the power to teleport people along. So if they work together, the pathway created could hold all twelve of us. I think, a pathway Tao knows not of meant if they work together, the portal would be different when compared to the usual he opened up. And an alternate universe might be where the Tree of Life resided." He may have spoken a little too quickly because he was excited for finally working out the first half of the riddle.

"But how?" Kai yelled. "I barely know him. I had never worked with anyone else before regarding my ability besides Luhan. And that's because his power matches mine. I don't know if I could work well with Tao. His is Time and mine is Teleportation. There is nothing similar between our abilities."

"Well, it would be worth a try. It's time we start practising our abilities with others who are not compatible with us before. So, when the time comes, we could depend more on each other. Our teamwork would be stronger than before," Suho, ever the leader, decided.

"The time has come where we would need each other's help if we get separated from our partner, our partner is injured or worst come to worst, dead, though I pray none of us would fall to that fate. Because we need all twelve of us, as a whole, when we reach the Twelve Stones. Together, we stand. Together, we fall. For we are one as a whole. Rain or shine, we shall stand to see this war come to an end with victory on our side. Together, we shall fight the Red Forces from taking over the Earth. Together, we shall bring peace to this world."

Everyone nodded. We are one. Truly, they are one.

"As much as I would like to go train now, there is still this part we need to figure out." Trust Chen to be the one pulling them back to what they originally intended to do. "Say the magic words found only in the power of twelve chosen forces. That would be the most essential part of the message if we want this mission to be successful."

"Magic words. The key to the oaken door. The key to the door which separates us from the Tree of Life. Somehow, this is making me really excited." Happy Virus Chanyeol could barely sit down calmly anymore. His fingers itched to grab a weapon and train immediately.

A hand on his shoulder stopped him from doing so. It was Baekhyun's. He gave a squeeze to the taller male, oblivious to the fact that he just made Chanyeol even more excited than previously. The lanky kid could feel butterflies in his stomach while his heart seemed to be racing against an athlete in a marathon.

"Please and thank you?" Tao suggested. That made some of them laughed till tears could be seen in their eyes.

"What? My Papa said those are magic words," He said in defence.

"Well, they are magic words in a way but I doubt that would be the key to the oaken door," Lay said with a smile, taking his son's hands in his smaller ones and drawing soothing circles on them.

Xiumin hummed and answered, "We could try. We should list down words or sentences which could possibly open the door and then try them when we get there."

"Good idea. Start cooking up ideas, everyone. No one's leaving for training until each and every one of us has contributed to the list."

Some of them groaned in protest but they knew that they would have to obey Suho's orders.

To be continued...

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Try and make a guess as to what the magic words are. *winks* ;D

I am really sorry for taking such a long hiatus once again without giving any notice to anyone. I'll bet some of you must be really frustrated with me by now for the on and off updates. But fear not, my readers, I have not abandoned this fiction because it is my baby even though I own nothing but the plot. :)

Anyway, thank you so much for reading, subscribing, reviewing and upvoting. You guys rock! And Happy New Year!