Everything around them was swallowed by the darkness. The trees, sky, and the ground disappeared and was replaced by a pitch black canvas. There was absolutely nothing in their surroundings, only the two pairs of twins left glowing with the light that was only enough for them to see each other.

For what seemed like an eternity, nobody said a word, as if breaking the silence was a sin. They just stood there, staring at the nothingness with thousands of thoughts swimming inside of their head.

It was awkward, confusing, and saddening even for them. They just witnessed a horrible war, one that clearly did not end well because everybody knew that a war never ended with happiness. There’s the joy of winning the battle but even the winning side had to deal with its ugly aftermath.

“I do not know what had happened, nor do I have the answers for all of your questions.” Sehun announced. His voice sounded soft but not timid, with a hint of sadness and regret in them. He had turned around, now facing the fraternal twins who were watching him with wide eyes, because Sehun was speaking as if he had read their overcrowded minds.

“Our memories of what had happened after the war were very limited.” Luhan clarified. “We only have pieces of them, ones that could barely explain why we are still alive, or why Cleora no longer exists.”

“I can only remember the pain, the scars it left me when the darkness engulfed us. It felt like they were ripping my soul apart. Every patch of my skin felt like they had been cut, as if someone had taken a knife and cut me open, again and again.” Sehun's voice echoed in the dark. There was terror in his voice, and Kai thought he heard the Musterion trembled a little, as if recalling the memories tortured his soul again.

“There was no blood, only excruciating pain and regret, regret of all the flaws of Cleora, of why we have to die in a war, of why we were killing each other, of why the pain and agony would not stop.” Luhan breathed out. His breath was ragged and harsh, and Kyungsoo caught a glimpse of crystal drop from the older twin’s eyes as he looked away from them.

“We heard nothing, and we saw nothing,” Sehun said as he glanced at his older twin. “It must have been days, maybe weeks or months, I couldn’t really tell. Everything was black, pitch black. I didn’t know how many days had passed, how many sunsets have we missed. I couldn’t count the days."

“We called those times as the Silent period. We did and said nothing but we thought about a lot of things. Every single thing that we regret about in our lives, about Cleora, came one by one like we were meant to think about all the flaws of Cleora and the good we will get if things have been different.”

“The reason why we are still alive when our clan is dead is still a mystery to us. We do not have the explanation nor the memories of how it happened, but we can tell you one thing that we are sure of.”

Luhan glanced at his twin, and Sehun bit his lower lip before he said, “Tamara was created from the regret of what Cleora could have been.”  

“Tamara is the reincarnation of Cleora, albeit in a much, much better state.”

And at once, the war, the battles and the images of the now deceased world filled the fraternal twins’ line of sight. Everything was repeating again and again in a cycle, like a broken film, and both of them took one wobbly step back as they clutched their head hard.

“Arghhh…” The twins groaned in unison.

Luhan and Sehun watched the twins with worried eyes, but they did nothing as they waited for them to return to themselves, to hold back the pain of knowing the past.

“Why...” Kyungsoo uttered with a shaky voice as he tried to open his left eye, with the other one buried under his palm. “Why are you showing us all of these? What d-do these have to do with our curse?”

“…Because whatever happened in Tamara in its early years,” Luhan paused, “was the result of the desire, the need to ensure that Tamara will be a better world than Cleora.”

Both of them stared at both Luhan and Sehun with glassy eyes, with their quivering hand still secured on their head. They could still feel the pain lingering inside, and they knew that it will stay there for as long as it wants. It was the price of seeing things that they weren't supposed to see, for intruding the memories of the dead when they are supposed to rest in peace, if they ever did.

“You are saying t-that you both have something to do with the curse? Is that it?” Kai did not sound furious. If anything, he sounded hurt and confused.

“Everything that Tamara is since day one was everything that we pictured Cleora could have been.”

“Just... who are you? I don’t get this at all!” He shouted in frustration. He glanced briefly to his back when he felt a hand squeezing his shoulder from behind. Kyungsoo was standing behind him in silence, and his hand remained on Kai’s shoulder even when the younger one’s breathing has calmed down a bit.

“We are just like you, Kai.” Luhan stated.

“No, you are not!” The youngest of them four snarled. “You have lived for thousand years. That alone says something about you.”

“We are not immortal, Kai. We are just not dead yet.” Luhan added. “Trust me, we tried our best to guard your world but it had been proven that the burden was too much for us to carry.”

 “You’re not answering our question.” Kai stood steadily in front of the Musterion twins. His fingers trembled beneath his fist.

“We just want you to know,” Luhan was looking straight into the younger twin’s eyes as his hand sneaked into his left sleeve, “that no world is perfect. Remember, the perfection itself is the imperfection.” He took out a glowing symbol from his sleeve and the symbol danced above them before the light grew bigger and swallowed them whole.

--

The black canvas was gone. They were standing on the ground now, surrounded by numerous trees. The flowers were blooming, the grass was green, the color of the flowers were like a splash of rainbow on a green canvas. Everything felt so alive and the fraternal twins knew instantly that they were no longer in Cleora. This wasn’t Cleora anymore—because the ground was n