It wasn't what Kibum would call pleasant, but for now it would have to do.

"Why did I have to help you again?" came the grumble from Hyukjae entering the two-bedroom apartment carrying a box laden with books. Each book was as thick as a DVD case, with the odd one or two being as thick as three. The lightning wielder placed the box down near the doorway to the hall, shaking out hyperstretched arm muscles and sighing both in relief and protest.

"Sungmin asked you to." the Turquoise said finally, Hyukjae rolled his eyes and crackled a few volts through his hair to show his displeasure.

"Of course he did. You know you're only here until you find the Jade General, though." Kibum nodded a silent affirmative and began sorting through the books Hyukjaae had just brought in. The lightning wielder himself had left to grab more of the Turquoise's things, so give or take some time he had a few minutes to himself.

As Kibum's hand closed around a royal blue-bound book it tingled with a feeling he thought long forgotten since getting his Black Arcane. Gingerly he lifted the book from the box and examined the cover, looped silver writing on the front spelling out his name in handwriting he hadn't seen in years. A simple silver border ran the edges of the covers, thicker silver in the corners protecting it from maltreatment.

"I thought I'd lost this..." Kibum whispered to himself, opening the book to its very first page. Images and words immediately began to swim about on the blank paper, the Arcane trapped between the sheets still as fresh as the day he received the book...

~~

"Kibummie?" The eight-year-old voice brought Kibum's attention away from the book he was reading and onto the nervous girl standing half a metre away from him. She shifted from foot to foot in her nerves, her hands hiding something with difficulty behind her back.

"Are you okay, Tora?" he asked, turning his whole body to face her. She nodded, orange hair bouncing with her head movements.

"Daddy said you didn't have your Chronicle yet-" Kibum hid the pang of hurt in his heart when those words tumbled from Tora's lips, "-s-so I made you one instead." From behind her back the little girl pulled a blue book with silver decorations gleaming like moonlight shining from a full moon. The whole book still glowed with the fresh Arcane recently injected between its pages, and as Kibum hesitantly took it the Arcane recognition spell made his hands tingle.

"Did I do the enchantments right?" Tora's golden eyes widened with hope, "It took me forever to find out how to make a Chronicle, let alone enchant it, so I hope that - ack!" Whatever the eight-year-old hoped for died on her lips as Kibum stood up and enveloped her in a tight hug. The ten-year-old pressed himself as close as he could to Tora without choking her, choking himself on his happiness instead.

"Thank yo so much, Tora." he whispered as loud as he could without crying. The little girl grinned and hugged him back.

"Happy birthday, brother."

~~

"That's the last of it." Hyukjae shook out his sore arms for the nth time that day and straightened up, his spine gratefully popping back into place, "The rest is all you."

"I kind of got that." Kibum said, fiddling with a small tiger keychain attached to his phone.

"So now what are you going to do?"

"Take a walk, maybe, see what's in the neighbourhood to-" A faint beeping came from the Turquoise's phone, "...or I could see what Sungmin wants." Opening the text message, Kibum suddenly turned serious.

Burned Quarter.

"I'm in trouble too," Hyukjae pocketed his own phone with a heavy sigh, "I'll see you later." As the lightning wielder disappeared, Kibum stood pondering Sungmin's message. All he knew was that he had to head to the location he was sent, but Sungmin never contacted him like that unless...

"Chasers." With a low growl, the Turquoise grabbed his coat and fled the apartment.

~~

"What will you do with your Gemstone, son?"

Twelve-year-old Kibum stared at his father blankly, processing the question asked of him. The expectant stare he was receiving did nothing for his nerves; they were already in tatters since Tora had told him that their father wished to see him in the living room.

"I-I hadn't really thought about it, Dad." he replied honestly. A smile quirked at his father's lips.

"I was expecting such an answer. Don't look so upset, Kibum; I'm not disappointed," Kibum immediatley perked up, "To be honest, I'm glad you said that." T\welve-year-old eyes blinked owlishly.

"Huh?"

"Being a Gemstone is more than having your Arcane. It's about what you do with it that makes your Gemstone yours." His father patted the couch cushion beside him, and Kibum moved automatically to sit down, "Let me see if I can clear things up for you. You love your sister, don't you?"

Kibum nodded. "I do! I'd protect her with my everything!"

"Even if it meant giving up your Arcane?"

"Dad, I'd turn purple to keep the both of you safe."

~~~~~~

"Give it back~!" Henry half-whined, half-shouted up to the silhouette standing atop the charredd husk of a building, holding onto the violin she'd taken from him minutes ago during their small scuffle. Beside him stood Zhou Mi, holding onto a heated ball of water with his left hand, ready to throw it in case the negotiations decided to go against their favour. The young woman merely twirled the violin about in her hand, her dark sunglasses glinting in the sunlight.

"Not until I get what I want~" she sang to annoy them, plucking at the strings of the violin, "Uh oh Strings, your instrument needs tuning." The ball of water Zhou Mi once held missed its mark as she leapt down to land gracefully only three metres away from the two lackeys of Sungmin.

"Where's Kibum?" she asked sternly.

"He's been sent on a mission from Sungmin. We don't know the details." replied the water wielder. A single eyebrow was raised in disbelief.

"Okay then." From a pocket inside her jacket, the young woman produced a small glass vial filled to the stopper with a deep purple liquid that bubbled thickly with intent of escape. Both men watched as she uncorked the vial then threw the whole thing onto the dusty ground in front of her, the glass shattering upon impact. The liquid continued to bubble, slightly smoking around the edges as it slowly spread beyond the fragmented container that it once was held in.

Henry's eyes widened. "Where'd you get that?" he breathed.

"I have a dealer." Zhou Mi readied another water ball, "Kidding, I pulled it from the last Chaser I killed. Now where's-" Before she finished her question, the man she asked after appeared in front of Zhou Mi and Henry in a burst of greenish-blue Arcane. Kibum narrowed his eyes slightly at the one holding Henry's violin, shifting almost uncomfortably on his feet.

"Zhou Mi, take Henry back to Ryeowook. I need to speak with your friend alone." The Turquoise's voice left no room for argument. The water wielder nodded and tugged on the wind wielder's arm, urging him to move.

"Not until I get my violin back." he pouted, the air bubble he sat on beginning to cut into Zhou Mi's pants. Sighing in mock defeat, the young woman tossed him the musical instrument, which he caught with glee.

Once the two were gone, Kibum faced the young woman, expressionless. "Using Chaser blood as a type of beacon...I expected no less from your clever mind." he said.

"It's a defining trait of mine. But I suppose you'd know that, though." the young woman replied, a smirk making her jaw scars twitch.

"I suppose I would. Now take of your sunglasses and show yourself."

"As if I could say no to you, even though you're all...purple." Heaving a heavy sigh, the young woman made sure her eyes were closed before removing the offending plastic from her face. Kibum watched as a hazy wave of brownish-red Arcane washed over the short black hair atop her head, lengthening it to her hips and turning it orange, thinning out the black until they formed sporadic stripes from root to tip. The jacket was removed and thrown to the wind as it dissolved into nothing, revealing a simple black tank top emblazoned up the right side with a swirling pattern of green sequins. More of the earthen Arcane washed over her skin, turning it a weather-beaten shade of pale olive. The only feature that remained was the jaw scars, and it could've been Kibum's imagination, but the Arcane almost avoided them altogether.

"Sungmin didn't lie to me. You really did survive the fire..." The Turquoise felt his heart speed up as serpentine golden eyes opened and looked at him for the first time in ten years, "...Tora."

~~~~~~

Neither of them trusted themselves to speak for a while, all the things they wanted to say to the other building up behind their lips like a dam bursting with too much water. Years of knowing nothing about the other - if they were alive, what had happened to them that night - had culminated to this point from the moment Kibum arrived to investigate a suspected Chaser sighting.

"Kibummie..." Tora swallowed a whimper as she worried her lower lip between her teeth, fighting off the urge to run forward and hug the flesh she'd missed for a long time.

"You haven't called me that in years..." replied the Turquoise, swallowing his own tears, "How did you know I was here?"

"I have my ways. Why are you here? What does Sungmin want to know about that he's got you Prospecting?"

"It's none of your business."

"It is, since Donghae's injury and the fact that Hyukjae would've told him about Father and I interrogating him and about Jungsu's Sapphire abilities." Kibum allowed his eyes to widen.

"Father's alive, too?"

"Didn't Sungmin tell you?"

"No, he showed me instead. What do you know about the Jade General?" Before Tora could answer a grey blur jumped at Kibum from atop a broken wall, narrowly missing him thanks to some quick evasion on his part. The grey blur turned out to be a spectral cat, summoned from somewhere nearby. Kibum quickly got to his feet and gave his sister a look of apology before dodging the bits of debris thrown at him by snow white Arcane.

"Kibum!" Tora yelled at his retreating back, but before she could move to follow him hands settled themselves on her shoulders, "He was right there...my brother was right in front of me for the first time in years and you scared him away!" She turned angry golden eyes to Heechul, the cat sitting beside his feet swishing its tail in time with Siwon carefully putting down all the debris he'd picked up.

"And you, Doctor Diamond..." The tall man flinched at the hissing tone, "have some Arcane explaining to do."

Author's Note: So, we have an introduction to my OC Tora, a little insight into a family situation, and Heechul summoning Heebum. I regret nothing.

- Whose Arcane is brownish-red?

- What has Siwon got to answer for?

- Who is Kibum and Tora's father?

Answers later in the story~!

-GuardianOfTheDawn