It’s hard to focus on Kwon Henry’s words because his scar takes all the attention. He must’ve received a massive acid blow as half of his face is unrecognizable. After he went out, saying dramatically It’s time, even though we were shocked to see him, we had the reaction to call YG out. As soon as he sees Kwon Henry, he called the other CEOs. Now, the control room is crowded with people from all the agencies, all drinking hot chocolate as we watch a professional doctor check on Kwon Henry as he sits on top of the dining table. His wounds had healed over time but they wanted to know if they are infected.

“They healed over time.” She manages after touching his scar lightly with her index finger. “Nothing out of normal. He needs all the nutrients he needs since he looks malnourished. And he’s pale. One of the Paxes need to transfuse blood to him to regulate the count of his RBC.” Then she points at his eyes. “Bloodshot. He needs rest too.”

“We’ll do as you say.” YG replies, crossing his arms. “Thank you.”

The doctor smiles. “Then I’ll be going back to the ward. If anyone needs help, I’m tending on Monsta X’s Minhyuk.”

He’s the one I got the Esurient off while we were saving Seungri. He hasn’t woken up yet.

All of us bow at her as she makes her way out, and then stare back at Henry. “So,” YG starts, since he’s the one who can tolerate him more than us. And he understands the man on a higher level than the others. “As you were saying, Hen?”

Kwon Henry takes a good look at all of us then laughs, looking down, his shoulders shaking, and when he looks up again, I felt goosebumps all over my body. His eyes were…weird? Or more like, it pulls you to his soul, to see what he had experienced for the past twenty three years. “As I was saying, it’s nice seeing you all again after twenty? Twenty, right?” He laughs again as Chanhyuk raises both 2 and 3 fingers using both of his hands. “Twenty three years.”

“What’s the point?” Psy says, crossing his arms. He doesn’t sound so pleased. “You’ve been dead all those years. You left your son barely living. Living in scraps of love and care and having nothing but himself.”

Henry quickly argues, “It was for his safety—“

“I know about safety more than you do, Henry.” Psy cuts him off and there is something in his sentence that provokes and says something. “And the way I see things now, your son isn’t near to safe at all. If Dara hadn’t been in his life, we will have no hope that he’s surviving. He is a carrier, Henry. If they continue to do venesection on him, then it might lessen the chance of your own bloodline having Paxes.”

YG sighs. “Psy there is no need to tell Henry the new research—“

Psy looks petrified and offended. “We need to make this er realize that he is nothing like a father that he thinks he is to be. Who knows what they might be doing to his son, and here we are giving him the benefit of our doubts.”

“Psy—“ Lee Soo Man starts but the man in question has stormed out of the room, angry. The door almost broke, even though it’s specifically made for monsters with brutal strength. Psy must be really angry. I am angry at Kwon Henry too, leaving his son to suffer like that and having GD doubt love, but there must have been important reasons why he left his family and lived incognito.

Henry beams as if nothing happened. “Well, Psy didn’t like me even when he was a trainee.”

I snarl inwardly in disgust. CL, who was beside me, whispers, “I wish I shouldn’t have wasted time finding his works.” She’s right. Who wouldn’t have known that Kwon Henry is too nonchalant.

Hearing us, Sean, who knew Henry since he was a trainee when he’s already working for the president, walks toward us in haste as the different CEOs verbally berate Henry with questions. “I heard what you two were talking about.” He says, crossing his arms. I swallow. CL rolls her eyes and comments, “Yeah, I forgot you have supersonic hearing.”

Sean turns towards Henry, who was laid back as much as a lazy person considering his son’s life and the world is about to end anytime, and says, “I wouldn’t care more if the both of you think that Kwon Henry is a bad person since when I was a trainee, he’s pretty much both hated and liked by the trainees. But we can’t judge him too early just because he won’t say anything about what happened before quickly. He’s a genius. Every move and step must be calculated carefully for him before doing it.”

“Well,” CL shrugs. “Why does Psy Oppa hates him so much then?”

Sean laughs silently. “Psy liked your mother.” When CL’s eyes widen, Sean continues, “But that was in the past. She’s liked by everyone anyways. And Psy was partly responsible for GD when he was still a trainee, as his family proxy, so affection grew. And then Henry appears acting nonchalant after twenty three years, which would have made Psy’s fuse break.”

Suddenly, the air turns serious and we all turn to Henry again. The chaos has been broken and all eyes were on him. Henry was wearing a very serious, stoic face. “A lot of you have probably wondered why I took into hiding. What YG said was true: it was to save my children.” He pauses to sigh heavily. “Before the Sanguinem Anno, I worked as a researcher for the president in his hope for me to find a powerful tool that can eradicate all Paxes at once or turn them into either monsters or mundane. Since I am a Pax myself, I researched about what makes someone a Pax as the facilities provide me the best time to make researches and decided to just give the president a fake solution. But all I can find was that our blood is thicker than others, it’s red and we gain tattoos when our powers are activated, which is when we are provoked either drinking a monster’s blood, holding an activated Esurient or giving out or own blood.”

“So you’re saying that your research was a failure?” YG asks, his voice subdued by his disappointment. I would too.

Henry shakes his head. “More of, I only knew that the president and some of his subjugates were immortals in the process of research, as they add what they call Immortalis to their blood. Their reason is unidentified. After they learned of what I knew, they asked me to join them but I refused and ran away. That was the start of the Sanguinem Anno. The president only presumed I was a Pax but then my DNA samples, which I left deliberately in the lab proved his guesses.”

“We waited for twenty three years but the answer is not with him.” Lee Soo Man says, clearly disappointed. “All we knew was that our enemy is immortal. Great.”

“And the only one can kill him is a Pax.” Henry supplies.

“How? He regenerates better than most of us. We only regenerate if it’s Esurient-inflicted wounds.”

Henry shrugs. “A guess.”

“And what now?” Another chides, mockingly. The Pioneer has no answer all these years and the world is in danger. We are losing time. My legs feel restless and I start to fidget.

“I know his real intelligence underground bases and camps. It’s not in the Capitol but at Opimae Forest—underground and can be determined with the tree marked by the symbol Pi.” Henry adds. “That’s all I can say for now.”

“Pie?” Another asks rather loudly. “The symbol is pie? Well that’s rather odd.”

Henry narrows his eyes. “Pi. The Greek letter Pi in capital.” Then he crosses his arms. “And I think that Seungri is used as a bait. Why would his Esurient fail to hold him off? He’s not a Pax.”

“Well,” Chanhyuk suddenly talks, his voice small and shaky. “We thought it was because of his memories. He won’t stop crying CL’s name.”

Henry scoffs, looking offended. “You think that his dopamine and endorphin are responsible for this as secreted by his pituitary gland?”

CL whispers beside me, “I hate the medical talk.”

Suddenly, the emergency alarm goes off, filling the room with flashing red lights. It means the emergency is happening within the YG base.

“This is bull. Just call me, Yangoon if anything useful happens.” JYP says, and together with the other agencies, went off to their bases. The doctor appears from the ward and breathlessly says, “I was the one who pushed it. After the fifth dextrose, Lee Seungri is finally awake.”

Henry smugly shrugs. “Well, see for yourself.”

We all run towards the ward but Kwon Henry stops me almost immediately. “Park Sandara, right?” He asks. Now I notice the similarity of him and the voice. The perky, intriguing vocal that always put me to the edge.

I nod. “Yeah.”

“The reason why I wrote those letters was because a friend of mine told me that fate brings everything together.” He starts, looking up at me momentarily, before looking back down again. “There is a reason why you’re the one who got it instead of another Pax.”

“My mother tells me that too. About fate, I mean. She’s a shaman.” I inform him.

“Now, let’s get straight to the point.” He looks at me straight in the eye. His molten gaze putting me now to the edge rather than his voice. He’s making me too nervous. “You’re the vital point of this war. Everything started with the attack in EXO’s Haunted House. And with that, I don’t like you for my son.”

“But I—“

“Look,” He cuts me off, crossing his arms. “You being a Pax won’t help him at all. Most definitely your emotions. Cut it off. I just let it slide in the house but never here. My son’s life is in danger and he’d die if you’re involved. The president can play with both of your feelings and I don’t want any of you to get hurt.”

“What’s your problem with love, huh? What’s your fu—“

“It’s not love.” He says, standing up and narrows his eyes at me. “It’s pity for GD’s ing sake. It’s pity for the both of you. Stop being so selfish.”

“I’m warning you.” I retort, equally glaring at him. “Don’t mess with my feelings. And you don’t know anything about selfless as well.”

Seungri is perfectly still on the bed and CL was the first one to get to him. He’s really thin and frail, almost just skin and bones. My hair stands on one end as I near him. What if GD’s like him too?

Frailly, Seungri croaks, “CR?” He manages with a smile. My heart shines into a new perspective of hope.

CL smiles and holds his hand. It’s warm. “It’s now CL.”

Seungri laughs, the ends of his eyes stretching too much. “Yeah. You look great.” CL rubs his hand against her cheek and murmurs, “Thanks.”

“Seungri.” YG says as he steps into the moment, his hands inside his pockets. He doesn’t really understand moments like this. He just steps in and puts it down almost instantly as it was created. “How are you?”

“Grand.” Seungri replies with a grin.  I can tell he always reply to his boss like that. “I thought I’ll never get out of there alive.”

YG gestures for him to go on.

Laughing heartily, as if what he went through was all a part of a big joke, Seungri narrates, “I never knew what happened during the first few hours my Esurient was activated but when I got my consciousness back, I saw that the four of us were inside a room I hardly recognize. I tried waking the others up, but they were perfectly still. I think their eyes were dull and obsidian. No life. I whispered and called the others, especially Daesung who was beside me standing upright but he doesn’t respond.”

“Then I noticed that we were a bigger crowd, almost all groups of monsters guarding haunted houses, but only the four of us were at the center. GD was right beside the president himself. The president was instructing then the others to go to their assigned places and with a simple wave of a hand, they went out. The three of us remained.” Seungri shudders. “I was originally assigned to the real headquarters along with the others. I knew I have to be there but I knew more than I should inside the room and I need to get the information to YG. It’s something my brain thinks I should do. So I ran away from the line, giving them awareness that I’m conscious. The president found out that the Esurient with bigger electricity charge will keep me in place and after that assigned me to the Capitol, where all of you can see me. I became a bait. I thought I was not going back to my true self until I regained consciousness at midday. I was confused at first. But when I tried getting out again while screaming in agony as I fight with my Esurient, monsters came out of a car and changed my Esurient. It happens every day. Different charges, increasing every change. It hurts.”

“But what had kept you conscious?” I ask, out of the blue. “I mean if you can—“

“I don’t know for the others but when I’m under the Esurient’s power, my consciousness is divided in half. Half of it commands me to do this or that. Half tries to wake me up. And I guess the latter wins over always because aside from it showed through my consciousness coming, it’s CL calling me.” Seungri answers, smiling.

Chanhyuk shrieks from behind. He’s operating the computer. “Oh! His brain activity is increasing.”

“Wake up. I miss you. That’s what I always hear.” Seungri recalls, smiling. “And I know I have to wake up. Even though I was used as a bait, thank you for saving me.”

CL hugs him tightly. Chanhyuk says, “It’s really the emotions controlling Seungri over. We have hope over the Esurients.”

“But that power is only limited.” YG says, watering down the hope. “Monsters are naturally aloof, depressed, lone creatures. They don’t depends on anyone aside from themselves. If this overpowers their emotions, watering down the hope of consciousness, then there is no fifty percent chance that we will see more of Seungri’s case.”

Seungri adds, “The president is considering to get the other creatures in his side and murder all the Paxes left, including Pax-carriers and Paxes in different worlds too. And if that happens, the trip to Opimae is not going to be easy as there’d be creatures blocking your path. The tattoos will give all of you away either.”

“As long as the wizards and elves don’t side with him it’s fine. Vampires and Werewolves would divide themselves evenly between the two opposing forces in the monster world. Nymphs and fauns will go against wizards and elves unless the cist between them is done. Mundane will just keep their mouth shut, out of our businesses as they always do.” YG says. “I’m thinking of having five to travel to Opimae. When they have successfully crossed all boarders, that’s when we back up. They make sure that the other worlds are safe. And then plant security cameras around the area to give us foreground.”

I volunteered. CL and Top too. In the end, the five who are chosen to go as volunteers are me, CL, Top and two other guys named Mino and Seunghoon. They were chosen from a crowd of volunteers (from YG) after classifying their powers. Mino can hypnotize anyone and make them do anything he orders. Seunghoon can control your body through your shadows.

CL lies the map of the world on the table. The lands are color coded, forming a circle around a dark moss green land at the center. The outer part is colored white, followed by black, bright light green and then the lush green at the center. “So this is the mundane world.” She points at the farthest right and left, and then points the section highlighted by black next to the mundane world. “This is the monster world whose only mode of transportation to the mundane world is through portals. Being next to the mundane the most, portals can be safely used in the monster world to travel to the mundane world. The mundane world is separated from the other worlds, marking them as the lowest out of all beings, as they are deemed powerless. This is why they constructed haunted houses to guide over the mundane, who lack the sense of power and discipline.”

“Monster world is also divided to the creatures belonging to it. That’s us, the prime monsters, vampires, werewolves and goblins. After that is the magical world.” CL points at the part of the world where it’s transparent. “We can travel to the magical world through their magical portals but only if we gain permission. The other mode of transportation is the Exprimere. It’s a train that is located at the border between the Monster world and Magical world. But, you don’t see the magical creatures at all since they only choose the guests they will welcome. So the ride can be either crowded or empty. They are divided into wizards, elves, nymphs, and fauns. I was specifically told that the side of the fauns is especially noisy.” She points then to the lush green center. “This is Opimae Forest. This is where, they believed, everything began. This is common ground. History flows in the land.”

“So you mean, we’re going to cross all borders—worlds, for the matter, to get to Opimae Forest?” Top asks.

“Yes.” CL replies almost instantly.

“But why would the president choose the forest specifically as his hideout?” I ask, pointing at Opimae Forest. “It’s common ground and it’s far from the monster world.”

“The forest is very sacred.” YG suddenly appears from behind, handing over our bags. “It is forbidden to have war on its ground. It explains why the hideout is underground. In case of war, it is not directly above the land but below the land. And they’re safe. You can’t bomb them because you have to destroy the above ground, nor we can bomb the inside to destroy the base because it will destroy the forest. The only way is inside. And then, another disadvantage is that we don’t know how big is the base is nor its interior. That’s how he planned everything.”

Chanhyuk suddenly shrieks from his seat, a high pitched sound coming from his throat, and we all walk towards him after being alarmed. “I saw GD Hyung!” He reports, typing something quickly in his computer. I grip the back of his chair tightly as my heart contracts. It shows the camera installed near the president’s mansion. A black carriage appears, stopping in front. The first one to get off made my heart stop beating.

Chanhyuk pauses the video. “It’s GD Hyung! What’s he doing there?”

“He’s officially the right-hand of the damn prick.” YG says, earning our attention. “And it’s a tactic the prick used to make us believe he’s the best prick among prick. Focus on saving GD rather than what he’s doing. It’s an attempt to shake you. The Esurient is controlling him. Don’t worry too much.”

At 12 noon, the clock signals our departure. Roaring instead of beeping, like the tiger clock back home.

Home.

“What’s wrong, Dara?” CL asks. “You look surprised.”

I laugh and shake my head. “No. It’s nothing.”

“Well, take your bag. We’re going to leave.” She orders, slinging hers to her bag and walking off. The other three have already gotten outside.

“I’m going to save you, GD.” I whisper under my breath, his face with molten anger burning at the back of my mind. I will replace the glare with a smile. Promise. I’ll save you.

Because I love you.

A/N: The image is the map of the whole world if divided by the worlds. 
The dark green part is the Opimae Forest. The black one is the monster world. The white one is mundane world. And lastly, the light green one is the magical world. I can't do transparent (It's supposed to be transparent). But feel free to assume it is TRANSPARENT.

On the side note, I'm in the mundane world. HAHAHAHA.

Disclaimer: Everything is distorted to assume the dystopian and fantasy genre of the story. Facts are also distorted. I don't own anything aside from the story itself!

Happy Holidays!