It’s been almost a week since they got to Portland and after that failed capture, the banshee decided to stay low for a while. It frustrated the team to a whole different level and what’s more the potion had already worn off.

            “we need to capture her as soon as possible or 3 more will be added to her target list.” Myungsoo told Suho.

Suho sat on the couch massaging his aching head. It annoyed him that Gina wasn’t being much of help as she clearly said she wouldn’t help them catching whoever it is, as it would be a betrayal to her kind.

            “Gina really didn’t want to help?” Sehun looked up to Jieun who shook her head.

            “no, she said whatever that banshee’s reason for doing all of this is probably reasonable.”

            “yes, but just because it’s reasonable doesn’t mean it’s justifiable. As much as I hate to say this but as much as those guys are big bullies they are innocent.” Sungjong commented leaning by the window.

            “we should’ve already caught her by this time. She didn’t obviously move on to other targets and I know she won’t until she finishes off the other 3.” Suho leaned his head back in frustration.

            “we should’ve just cut her arm off instead of just injuring her that we’d get this much closer to her.” Myungsoo unconsciously muttered from under his breath.

Sulli’s head snapped up and looked at the vampire.

            “what do you mean injuring her arm?” she asked eyes wide.

            “I meant it like I said it, I injured her arm; slashed it with my sword.” Myungsoo raised an eyebrow. “why?”

            “was this injury along the forearm? like a vertical line?”

Jieun and Myungsoo sat up and looked intently at Sulli, Suho and Sehun now paid close attention.

            “I am not really sure about this but…” she glanced at Sungjong before she started to talk again. “remember Christina? That brunette we had class with and the one who stood up to those bullies?”

Sungjong stared at Sulli. He knew her of course. She was the first one to be friendly with him not that he responded to the gesture but he did appreciate it. It made him feel that there’s hope in this world.

            “what about her?”

Sulli now started to pace around the room flicking her hands in thought and nervousness.

            “I had phys.ed with her today and I saw her changing the bandage on her arm I asked her about it and she just said she had an accident in the kitchen. I had my suspicions but just didn’t mind it.”

Suho stood up and approached Sulli.

            “are you sure about this?” he asked and she just nodded in reply.

Suho turned to Sungjong who was standing there, surprise written all over his face.

            “Sungjong, I need you to find out where she lives now.” then she turned to Myungsoo and Jieun. “we need to make sure if she really is the banshee that you’ve fought with. After Sungjong finds out the address, go there and Myungsoo can detect her scent.”

Sungjong left the room to look for a phonebook.

            “her scent as a human and as a banshee is very different, if you must know.” Myungsoo said a bit resentfully. He still wasn’t over that the banshee got away.

Suho tapped his chin in thought.

            “wait, do you still remember everything that you’ve smelled that night?” Sehun asked. Myungsoo stared at the vampire with a raised eyebrow.

            “you’re also a mage, Sehun, so you should know the answer to that.” He snapped which made Sehun roll his eyes. Myungsoo sounded like a woman pms-ing.

            “no need for hostility, Myungsoo.” Jieun said putting a hand on Myungsoo’s shoulder. She then looked towards Sehun. “do you have a point, Sehun?”

            “yes, he could try to distinguish human scents and if he could remember  Christina’s, if she really was there, then we can be sure she is our banshee.”

Suho smiled widely and patted his team member’s back.

            “good thinking! Truly a Yang right here.” He announced proudly. Sehun turned red and shoved Suho away in embarrassment. Myungsoo just rolled his eyes as Jieun and Sulli started to laugh.

            “can we just get on with this so that we can go home?” Myungsoo said unamused.

They all shuffled for their coats but at that moment Sungjong ran back to the room looking alarmed.

            “turn on the tv now.” he said imperatively.

Sulli waved a hand and the television switched on. It was breaking news about another victim of the banshee.

            “another victim again? And here we thought she’s laying low!” Sehun clenched his fist staring at the tv.

            “she must’ve figured out that Sulli might piece together everything. She knew it was us.” Suho growled turning away and took the address Sungjong found.

            “there’s more bad news.” They all looked at Jieun who was watching the news. She turned towards the other, her expression looked grim. “there were two victims. She’s finishing them all tonight.”

----

After hearing the news of the attack of his two other friends Mike got truly petrified. The news of the other attacks around the west coast kept coming back to his head. He was scared out of his wits after the police stated the common denominator of the victims. They were all bullies. Knowing that he was a bully himself and after the attack on his friends, Mike knew that he would be next.

He shut every window in his house and room and left only the lamp on his bedside table lit. He sat in the middle of his bed with a baseball bat in hand to protect himself of any attack on him.

Shadows suddenly flew past his window making him jolt upright on his bed holding up the bat in front of him. Two more shadows past by the other window and he pointed the bat to that direction. He was pathetically whimpering now, like all bullies their cowards underneath their swagger.

He slowly walked towards the window to lift the blind. He poked the bat and lifted the blind with it; nothing was out of the ordinary. He still did not feel secure; he was sure he didn’t just imagine those shadows and knew there was someone or something out there.

He quivered back to his bed and took a drink from the bottled water he had set there.

            “oh look at him pathetically shivering like a cat in winter.” A voice suddenly resonated in his quiet room making Mike yell in genuine fright and tumbled back to the edge of his bed.

His eyes narrowed at the shadowed figure of a man by his bathroom. Mike started to lift his bat again but his hands were shaking so badly he couldn’t hold it up properly.

            “wh…who…who are you!” his voice hitched and he started sweating profusely.

            “seriously, if he wouldn’t meet his demise by the one who wants him he’ll die from fright from you.” This time a girl’s voice said and Mike whirled around to find the tall, slender figure of Jieun by the window.

            “you…you’re that intern!” Mike yelled accusingly.

            “tell us something we don’t know.” Suho appeared beside Jieun as he nimbled into the room from the bathroom then stood beside the maja.

            “Don’t you come near me! I’ll call the police!” he raised his phone and started dialing 911, but his hands shook too much that he failed miserably.

            “is this how you greet your savior, ?” the figure from the bathroom said again. Mike then found the voice familiar and squinted.

Sungjong didn’t dawdle and walked into the light. He straightened up and showed the air of a Yin warrior. Mike’s jaw dropped. Sungjong’s fragile appearance changed drastically with the aura he emitted now. if he did this at school Mike wouldn’t have tried to bully him at all.

            “you!” he pointed accusingly at Sungjong then at Suho and Jieun. “all of you did all this, didn’t you? You attacked my friends!”

Sungjong looked at his two companions with a pissed expression.

            “can we just leave him here for that banshee to get him please?” he said in Korean. Jieun rolled her eyes.

            “as much as I want to, we can’t, we have responsibilities.” Jieun said and smiled wearily at Sungjong.

Suho looked at Mike who stood terrified with his bat still held up. Sunjong also fixed his eyes at him and gave him a scathing look.

            “I don’t know what all of you are, I want you out of my house now!” Mike started to swing the bat aimlessly moving forward.

Sungjong caught the bat as it swung towards Jieun. Mike stared both terror and amazement in his eyes when Sungjong didn’t even flinch at the force of the hit. The mage glared fiercely at him before easily crushing the bat with his hand.

Mike’s jaw dropped and he quickly stumbled backwards and planted his back on the wall.

            “you.” Suho pointed at him. “you better be thankful we’re still here to save your .”

            “I don’t need saving I can save myself! I don’t need your help!” he snapped. Jieun just shook her head at his pretense at bravery.

At that moment the yellow marble Jieun had in her hand suddenly glowed brightly almost illuminating the room.

            “! She’s here.” Jieun cursed and walked towards the bathroom with Sungjong.

            “who’s here!?” Mike yelled in panic again. Suho looked at him before hiding in the closet.

            “don’t trust anyone that comes through that door. You’re dead if you do. We will do what we can to save your sorry .” He said and closed the door.

Mike thought of Suho’s words carefully and jumped again when there was a knock on his door. His mom suddenly appeared and looked concernedly at him.

            “what do you want, mom?” he said snappishly.

            “you have a visitor. She said she’s a friend of yours.” His mother opened the door wider for Christina to enter. She gave his mother a warm smile before her mother left and closed the door.

Relief washed over Mike’s face and he was finally able to breathe normally again.

            “I saw what happened to your friends on the news, I was worried so I came to see you.” Christina walked over to him with a look of genuine concern.

As she came closer, the words of his room invader suddenly made him stiffen but that didn’t make him stop Christina from giving him a hug.

            “I’m ok, Christina. Thanks for your concern.”

            “you look pale. Have you even eaten?” she asked touching his cheek and he tried his best not to flinch. “I think you need to sit down.”

Christina turned her back away from him and slightly blew air out. The room’s temperature slowly went down a few degrees.

            “I think you need to close your windows it’s getting really cold.” She said rubbing her hands over her arms.

Mike nodded and walked to the window to close it. But before he could even get his hands on it Myungsoo slid lithely inside with a sword at his side. Mike jumped aside with a yell.

            “and I think you should cut the flirty, innocent act before you make us all barf.” He smirked menacingly.

She returned the smirk and her innocent demeanor vanished, her eyes glowed bright yellow, veins started to appear all over her neck and face. Fangs appeared in and her nails elongated to dangerous sharp claws.

Myungsoo immediately turned to his fighting stance and faced his opponent with great determination. She lunged directly at him and he started to move his legs and sword fluidly hitting her sharp indestructible claws. Suho burst out of the closet at this moment and went on to fight with the banshee with 2 short swords in hand.

Mike was yelling like mad calling over and over for his mother. Sulli came in from the window and gave him a patronizing look.

            “I’ve sealed this entire room. Your mother or anyone from this neighborhood won’t be able to hear you.” She said walking towards him and yanked him up.

Sulli glanced at Sehun who just came in from the bathroom with Sungjong and Jieun and she handed Mike to him. Jieun started casting a spell to contain the banshee but she sensed the spell and rounded on Jieun. Almost immediately Sulli cast a shield in front of Jieun and Christina bounced from it. She hissed angrily at Suho and Myungsoo who both angrily hissed back baring their fangs.

Mike went into a fool blown panic mode when he saw this pissing Sehun off. Mike looked up at his protector and Sehun’s eyes glowed red and bared his fangs at Mike who turned deadly pale and fainted.

            “pathetic coward.” He muttered before letting him down on the ground.

Christina suddenly straightened up and opened in preparation for her deadly lethal scream. Thinking fast, Sungjong loosened the whips on his belt and lashed it aiming for the banshee’s neck. Both whips with sharp bladed tips wrapped around the banshee’s neck compressing her vocal chords.

Christina started choking but Sungjong kept it tight but left enough for her to breathe. She fell on the floor with a thump and Jieun continued with her spell. When Christina no longer fought to move Suho put her arms behind her and put the cuffs with a dampening spell around her wrists preventing her from transforming or using any sort of her powers. Sungjong unwrapped his whips as soon as he heard the faint click of the cuffs locking.

Christina glared up at them all.

            “all of you are fools. You catch me but you let away the real monsters.” She spat. “bullies like him is what made my bestfriend to commit suicide.”

Jieun walked in front of her beside Suho. She knew how she felt and could feel sympathy for her.

            “even so, taking matters into your own hands is never the right thing to do. Now what makes you so different to those bullies? You attacked innocent teenagers.” Suho said in a low voice. he was always nice and tried to be understanding and somehow Christina felt it but she just scoffed.

            “innocent? Tell me, Suho…” she said putting a great deal of mocking emphasis to his name. “how do you define innocent? Those people I’ve attacked crippled the confidence of so many people, making them think they are weak and are nothing.”

            “but they did not kill anyone, Christina.”

            “really? Damon certainly killed my bestfriend.” She glared scathingly at the Yang leader then looked away. “forget it. you’ll never understand anyway.”

Suho was about to argue back but Jieun held a hand on his shoulder. She bent over to Christina’s eye level. The banshee looked at her and was about to glare when Jieun smiled kindly catching her off guard.

            “would you believe me if I say I understand how you felt completely and maybe even more?”

Christina gave her a skeptical look. Jieun reached up and pulled her hair from covering the left side of her face and tucked it behind her ear revealing her scar. Christina’s eyes widened a little; she stared at the scar then to Jieun.

            “I didn’t grow up having a real family. I was bullied all my life, from my adoptive mother and from the people from my school. I understand your hatred. But experiencing what I have just made me stronger and made me want to prove them all wrong. I hope you don’t take this the wrong way and feel offended but bullies can make or break someone it is only a matter of how that person takes it. Will it be a driving factor for him or her to strive harder and prove all of them wrong or will they succumb to the pressure and just give up?”

            “so you’re saying my bestfriend was weak because she gave up is that it?” she growled angrily.

Jieun stayed silent for a moment.

            “why don’t you tell me, Christina? You’re her bestfriend, you should know her better than I do. Was she really weak?”

Christina looked at Jieun tears now fell from her eyes and she vehemently shook her head. She started sobbing hard and Sungjong let her lean on the bed.

            “I think it’s time for us to leave.” Myungsoo muttered looking up at his watch then out the window.

Sulli immediately turned towards Mike who was still slumped on the floor unconscious. She put her hands on either side of his head and started to cast a spell. She couldn’t perfect the spell to erase memories yet but she could modify memories slightly and that’s what she did. She put him in a deep sleep and when he wakes up he will think that everything that just happened was all a dream. She also made sure to instill a bit of fear if he tried bullying people again.

As soon as Sulli finished, the door suddenly opened and all of them tensed only to be confused by the appearance of Gina.

            “Christina!” she gasped and ran towards the crying girl and hugged her.

The magi and majae in the room stood shocked at the sight. Suho then pulled Gina away.

            “what are you doing here, Gina?” he demanded. The older banshee looked at him with pleading eyes.

            “let her go, Suho, I’m begging you. Please let my sister go.” Jaws dropped at the news except for Myungsoo who didn’t know Gina personally.

            “sister?” Jieun gasped looking back and forth at the two.

Gina nodded.

            “I am sorry that I didn’t tell you before. Honestly, I really didn’t want for her to be involve in this mess even if she started doing all of this.”

Suho shook his head.           

            “I am sorry, Gina, I have to take her. She caused so much trouble and people are starting to ask questions.”

            “if I say I know how to fix this will you let her go?” Gina said boldly.

            “How?” Sehun raised a skeptical brow.

            “my…my blood.” Christina choked from her tears but she looked up to Jieun. “if you put a drop of my blood on both the eyes and ears of those I’ve attacked they will gradually heal.”

            “how long exactly?” Sehun asked walking slightly forward.

            “a month or two.”

 Jieun looked at Suho and both of them went on a silent mental debate. Both of them really didn’t want to take Christina, as much as she had to pay for what she did both of them knew she couldn’t control these urges at this age. Suho looked at his other comrades.

            “what do you guys think?”

Sungjong looked over Jieun’s shoulder to Christina’s crumpled figure.

            “how sure are we that the victims will really recover?” Myungsoo asked.

            “we don’t know but I will stay to make sure they do if I have to.” Sungjong volunteered. Sulli also stepped forward.

            “I will stay with Sungjong. I need to modify their memories as well anyway.”

The rest looked at each other and Suho gave out a defeated sigh.

            “how are we supposed to explain this to the Council?”

            “the truth.” Jieun glanced at the sisters and a sad smile appeared on her face. “I bet they would understand just as they did with my mother.”

Suho gave a slight nod and crouched down in front of his friend.

            “we will leave the healing of the other victims to you. Make sure you’re safe and won’t be seen, ok? Sungjong and Sulli will be here to stay with you.”

Gina looked up at him and smiled before she nodded.

            “now that’s over with, we need to get home. My dad called and said we needed to get back as soon as we can.” Myungsoo said sheathing his sword. The rest of them nodded, they also received similar orders.

Jieun laid Mike on his bed and put a blanket over him, Sulli carefully went out of the room to modify Mike’s mother’s memories. Jieun now raised her hands and opened up a portal to Mt.Shia. Myungsoo gave a satisfactory grin and hurriedly went through followed quickly by Sehun.

Suho started towards it before Gina grabbed his wrists and held him back.

            “thank you, Suho, for doing this.” She gave him a teary smile then at Jieun. “to the both of you.”

Jieun smiled and gave her a comforting hug and so did Suho.

            “bye, Gina. Till we meet again.” He gave a slight bow and disappeared through the portal.

            “bye, Gina. It was a pleasure to meet you even under such…circumstances.” Jieun smiled which Gina returned before the maja disappeared through the portal which vanished as soon as she did.

---

It was midnight in Mt.Shia and Jieun just felt exhausted. She could clearly the lights going on in the main square and made a mental note to go down and visit there soon. Sehun and Myungsoo had already disappeared somewhere, which left her with Suho to report to the Council.

They walked towards the familiar hallway to the council room but was met by a huge white tiger.

            “the Council is not here. They are all at the training grounds.” The tiger growled.

Suho and Jieun gave each other a look of confusion.

            “why would they all be there?” Suho asked. it was very uncommon for all of the members to be there at once most of the time it would only be a couple or two.

            “you’d better head on over there to see for yourself.” It gave both warriors a toothy grin before it sauntered off somewhere.

They both turned around and walked towards the training grounds.

            “what do you reckon is going on?” Jieun asked. but before Suho could answer another voice responded to their right.

            “I could ask the same thing.” They both looked at the direction where the voice came from and saw Lay coming out with Kris and Xiumin right behind him.

Seeing Jieun made Kris feel lighter and at ease now but that he didn’t show on his face.

            “hey guys.” Jieun smiled.

            “missed us?” Lay gave a grin and gave Jieun a short hug.

            “a little.” She laughed. The edges of Kris’ mouth fought back a smile.

Jieun looked at him and cocked her head a bit. She was honestly happy to her team, and a part of her say she was happy to see Kris just as soon as she got back. She ignored the tingling on her fingers and concentrated at the matter at hand.

            “you guys don’t know what’s going on either?”

            “no, we just got back as well.” Xiumin answered shaking his head.

            “they said they’re all at the training grounds so let’s just all head there.” Suho suggest and the rest nodded.

Jieun noticed Kris lagging back and looked like he was deep in thought. Letting the others ahead of she slowed her steps for Kris to catch up.

            “what’s gotten you so serious more than you usually are?” Jieun asked when the other 3 was far from hearing distance. She saw Kris’ expression and she knew something was up. “did something happen in your mission?”

            “sort of.”

Kris didn’t want to tell her before he reported it to the Council, but he also didn’t want to have to lie to her and say there was nothing wrong. He wasn’t slightly surprised that Jieun could read him so well now even if she knew him for only 7 years.

            “and?” she asked as they both started walking again.

            “I will tell you later.”

She just looked at him and knowing Kris she just decided to let it go.

They walked past the first training ground and were halfway through the second when loud shuffling noises from ahead of them made them stop in their tracks.

Onew’s team with Jonghoon’s team and a group of majae wobbled out of the 3^rd training grounds aka the war room. They all look exhausted, sweating profusely and beaten up. They all had various cuts and bruises all over their bodies.

A yell from behind Hongki made everyone’s attention focus on MinHwan whose arm just got repositioned by JaeJin.

            “what happened to you guys?” Jieun asked walking towards Taemin who had blood trickling down his forehead.

            “that looks nasty, Onew.” Suho commented when he saw the huge bite on the other leader’s leg. Onew grimaced when he took a glanced at his injury.

            “tell me about it.” he groaned. Jieun went over to Sunhwa who was supported by Zinger, her leg obviously broken.

            “anyway, you and your teams better be prepared.” Jonghoon told the other 2 leaders in front of him.

            “why?” Xiumin asked.

            “because…” Jonghyun said before hissing in pain putting a hand over his broken ribs. “…the Council started a brand new training.”

            “what brand new training?” Lay asked surprised.

            “They said it’s a preparation for the future.” Soyu said making air quotation gestures.

            “and they’re calling it Hell Training.” Minhwan groaned.

The 5 newcomers looked at each other and all of their faces painted the look of utter confusion.