[JR’s PoV]

We stumbled forward in exhaustion, finding our way into yet another abandoned town on the outskirts of the vast meadow home to countless others.

“They are here,” confirmed Minhyun, “I hid them here.”

I hummed and bit my lip, feeling the ominous feeling growing in my stomach as we continued to advance forward.

“He’s here as well…” whispered Minhyun, “He’s too close to them…”

I nodded, “Don’t worry about it, we’ll get them.”

“How are we going to get there before him?” questioned Minhyun doubtfully, “It’s not like we could teleport or anything…”

He looked at me as I smirked at him, stating, “That’s not necessarily true.”

“What are you thinking?” questioned Minhyun, trembling slightly as we advanced forwards.

“This may hurt a bit, but when I have my hands on your temples, envision the location of the books,” I whispered in response, smiling slightly, “We can’t let him get his hands on them that easily…”

He nodded, closing his eyes and focusing on envisioning said location as I propped him against a wall gently, placing my hands on his temples and closing my eyes – focusing on retrieving the image from his thoughts, with much difficulty and pain, I had somehow managed to manipulate the bond between us to get into his head – to see the image. As soon as I retrieved the image, I pulled my hands away from him – as if he had burnt me – and peered at him as he opened up his eyes. He looked as if he was pained and I was sure I did as well.

“What now?” whispered Minhyun as I helped him back up again.

“I get us to that place…” I responded cheekily, trying hard to be positive, knowing that there was no one else here with us to do so.

“How?”

I smirked, “Magic.”

He rolled his eyes, shaking his head, however he fell silent again as I closed my eyes and a big gust of wind circled us, the strength of the gust forcing him to close his eyes tightly. When we both opened up our eyes, we both smiled upon seeing our location.

I stumbled a bit whispering, “We were obviously not too far away, huh?”

He nodded, smiling gently towards me, “They are over there on the desk…go fetch them…”

I nodded and set him down in one of the chairs near us before stumbling forwards towards the books sitting on the desk near the window. As I moved forward, I felt the room growing colder – I could feel the prodding feeling return to my mind as I picked up both of the books, storing them in my rucksack with the book of fire.

“So, you possess them all now?” questioned a gruff voice, one that I had come to know all too well. The deep voice echoed through the otherwise silent halls of the house and caused me to jump, to spin on my heel to face my brother to see him standing on his own two feet, an evil expression on his face and the purple tendrils back under his skin.

“So what if I do?” I growled.

“Then there is no reason to keep this one living,” responded the gruff voice of my teacher, of my uncle, “After all, you possess all I need now…the books, the powers…the will…”

I growled, feeling the surge of power arise up within me as I glared at the possessed form of my twin, “I will never bend to your will.”

“That is the same thing many have said before you,” responded the man, it really creeped me out, seeing my brother’s form talking but hearing my uncle’s voice, “They all buckled under the probing, the pressure placed on them…”

I growled, “I’m not like them.”

“That is exactly what hyung said, before I possessed him just like this…” stated the man rather cheekily.

I froze in shock, “What?”

“You didn’t know? You don’t remember?” questioned the man, “I’ve possessed your father countless times, and how else do you think I got away with being your teacher despite not being one of the book’s keepers? How do you think that I convinced your father and my siblings to give up their lives – to take the king’s with them to create a temporary barrier rather than a permenate one?”

I looked at him in shock as he paced around smugly, confessing all the doings to me, “How else do you think I took the books from their new temples?”

I shivered as he suddenly appeared before me, finally leaving his shell known as Minhyun’s body – which once again fell into a helpless pile of limbs. He stared straight into my eyes, a smirk playing on his lips as he whispered.

“How else do you think I got away with reopening the tear?” questioned the male, “How do you think I got away with all of this?”

He smirked as he leaned forwards a bit, staring straight into my eyes – I returned his gaze defiantly.

“Why did you do all of this?” I questioned.

“The darkness is very tempting,” responded the man, pacing around me – eyeing me closely, prepared to dodge if I suddenly struck out at him and vice versa, “With the darkness, in the void, there is no other living thing – there is no need for living things…” He smirked as he looked at my pale face, “There is no need for things such as those books – those things that make some people more important than others.”

I looked at him in slight shock.

“You didn’t know? I was the only one not connected to one of those books, thus making your grandfather completely ignore me,” stated the man, “Thus making the man believe that I was worthless…that my birth was pointless. It made him feel very disappointed…it angered him to have a worthless son like myself, a weak son like myself.”

“So you did this?”

“This is wonderful is it not?” questioned my uncle, spreading his arms as he spun around to face the window, to look out the window at the world he had begun to create with the power of the shadows, “In this world, there is no need for people like you, like the others…there is no need to misery…there is no body that is worthless.”

I looked at him angrily, “So, just because of your father’s words, you believe your choice to destroy the realm of the light is justifiable?”

My uncle nodded, “Yes, also, it’s not only my choice, but your own – your brothers…after all, you are both pawns in my big plan. You both will be discarded when you are no longer needed – like your father…like my own.”

I stared at him in aggravation, in determination, “I will not bow. I will not permit you to succeed with this plan. I will not let you destroy the world over such a petty reason.”

“Then I should’ve killed you when I had the chance,” stated the man, pausing before me right again, staring straight into my eyes, “However, if I had done that, you wouldn’t have been able to prove your worth – you wouldn’t been able to prove that you are not completely worthless unlike your brother who was incapable of obeying any of my orders.”

“I didn’t obey any of your orders either,” I responded.

“However, you did collect all four of the books and I know that somewhere in the recesses of you memories you know where the original temples are located,” stated my uncle, a smirk playing on his facial features, “So even with how much I want to end your story here and now, I cannot do so…I have to wait for those memories to awaken in your mind because I’m positive that they will not awaken in Minhyun’s…”

At the mention of my twin, my attention snapped towards the limp form of my brothers, gasping as I saw the purple that used to form tendrils spreading over his skin, making it turn discolored and take on the appearance of a large bruise.

“What did you do to him?” I growled in anger, glaring towards the man known as my uncle.

“I told you, he is worthless to me now that you possess all four of the books,” he smirked and stepped closer to me with a bright smile playing on his lips, “Plus, that is not anything I can stop even if I wanted to.”

I looked at him in confusion and he stated.

“That’s what happens upon you have your first encounter with the shadows of the opened tear and its seed is planted…of course the only way to make the tendrils bloom from the seed is by its host entering the void,” stated the man, a smirk playing on his lips as he went back to circling me like a lion circled its prey,  “His seed was planted fifteen years ago when I first kidnapped him and slaughtered your mother like the dog she was…it bloomed upon his first visit to the void just two months ago – only a couple of weeks before the barrier went down.” I felt a throb in my head at the mention of the tear’s seed and flinched. “His fate is your very own…that is unless you somehow manage to close the void…”

I glared at him, “I already know how to close it…”

“Do you really?” whispered the man, a smirk playing on his lips.

“All I have to do is place the books back into their hidden temples, their original temples and upon doing that the tear will close,” I responded.

“If only that was true,” stated my uncle, “Your seed blooming is inevitable…because the only way to close the void is by doing so on the inside…”

I kept my expression emotionless, not wanting him to see how his words were affecting me.

“So, go ahead, take the books and return them to their original temples…” stated my uncle, “Go ahead and leave, take him back to the tower and see your approaching fate...”

I looked at him in slight shocked, a little anxious about the fact that he was permitting me to walk away without any harm done to me.

“For I will see you in the final battle within the void – in the heart of the void, where our battle will be viewed by the past generations of our bloodline that had the same exact happen to them before – however, unlike the countless times before us, we will be the last of or blood line…we will either bring an end to this common reoccurrence – or more likely, we will let the dark realm consume the light realm…”

I stared at him defiantly for the umpteenth time as he continued on.

“This will not end like the countless times before where the light realm remains separated from the dark realm,” continued my uncle, “You will not survive like those in the past. I will guarantee it; you will fall to the shadows like all of those before you – like your brother and father. You will become a puppet of the void – you will become one of those lousy and worthless Guardians…no – you are unlike the rest – you are far stronger…you will become the new vessel for the heart of the shadows, you will be a puppet unlike the rest…you will be my puppet that is unlike any of the others in my collection, you will guarantee the void remains…you will guarantee the death of the prince and the rest of the resistance…”

I looked at him in shock, “I will not!”

“Deny it as you want, but you will,” stated my uncle, “and you will see so when we meet for the final time within the void…”

With that the man vanished and I felt the feelings within my gut vanish along with the prodding in my brain, I shook my head in shock, trying hard to get rid of the presence that lingered in my mind. However, as soon as I heard a groan from Minhyun, my attention turned towards his prone form, worry consuming me.

I ran over to him, the adrenaline causing me to ignore how exhausted I was, to ignore how faint I felt from the tension in my muscles I had not even realized was there.

“Minhyun,” I whispered in concern as I kneeled by his side.

He looked at me sadly, weakly swatting away my hands as I tried to heal him, “D-don’t bother…”

I looked at him sorrowfully, “Minhyun, I can prevent this…I can protect you…”

“You can’t,” responded Minhyun.

“I can.”

“You can’t,” whispered Minhyun, “It’s too far along…I knew it was coming…I just never thought it would be this soon.”

“I can help you,” I whispered, “You can’t just give up like this, we just met up again…we just now realized the truth about each other…we just discovered who is behind all this…who we need to get over to end this once and for all – for good.”

“You can’t help me anymore,” responded Minhyun, “There is not enough time…each time he took over me, the longer he possessed me the more the darkness consumed me, just like the dark realm consuming the light…it’s is currently inevitable and the longer the void is open, the faster it’ll happen.”

“You can’t give up like this,” I whispered, “There has to be something.”

“Don’t worry for me Jonghyun, this is what I deserve for all that I’ve done up until now…” whispered Minhyun, “just focus on training the others in your party, focus on closing the void before it’s too late – before the light realm is consumed for good…Also, do not worry too much…I will be with you – I will be watching you…”

I looked at him, trying hard to hold back the tears that welled up in my eyes, not wanting him to see me cry. I know, it’s odd, we pretty much just met, but I was already feeling the brotherly bond with him and I could feel it fading.

“I will be your guardian in this void…” whispered Minhyun, “I will find a way to make it so that you do not end up like me…like abeoji…”

I looked at him as he shivered slightly, “I-I…”

“No more words, alright?” whispered Minhyun, “Just return to the tower…let’s return to the others…I want to spend my final hours with you and the others – despite them never actually trusting me…maybe this will prove to them that they have nothing other than the final battle with uncle to worry about. Jonghyun-hyung, I want to die where father and the others did…”

I nodded, “Just go ahead to sleep, alright?”

He nodded and closed his eyes as I picked him up bridal style, within seconds, he was asleep – slumbering heavily and causing me to look down at his chest to make sure that it was still moving up and down steadily. With one last glance towards him, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, grasping on my brother tightly as the wind took us away.

I collapsed to my knees as we appeared in the tower, nearly dropping Minhyun.

I heard Mi Young gasp and Ren whisper, “What happened?”

However, before I could answer I felt myself fainting, being sure to fall back onto my back so that Minhyun landed on me rather than me landing on his frail form in my last moments of conciousness. 

I know that the events of this chapter were a little unpredicable and random but rather than following a plan, I just wrote and hopefully I tied up some of the lose ends, anyhow, we've reached the beginning of the of the story...hopefully it wasn't too bad and hopefully it wasn't too confusing. ^^ 

Anyhoo, I hoped you all enjoyed the chapter - if you do have any questions feel free to ask them in the comments below, I'll try to answer them ASAP. ^^

Oh, and I really meant to post this the other day, when the other chapter went up, but I kind of forgot...