“N didn’t answer,” Hyorin reported, trying to not sound as scared as she felt, “and Hyuk isn’t picking up either.”

“We need to find them,” Hongbin said, “give me your phone. I’ll call everything and give them the update.”

Hyorin handed over the phone as Hongbin walked to the other side of the room while he called the others.

“We could find them,” BamBam said, “and we’d be more useful than most of them.”

“What do you mean?” Hyorin asked.

“Well, Mark, Yugyeom, and Youngjae are accounted for,” BamBam explained, “so that means that N and Hyuk had to have met up with Jr.”

“So?” Hyorin still wasn’t sure where BamBam was going with this.

“His power is plants,” the demon explained, “well, he can control trees, but trees are plants so….”

“Trees burn,” Hyorin said, finally catching on to where BamBam was going with that train of thought, “and your explosions and my fire are, well, fire.”

“We can help them,” BamBam smiled, “so do you want to go now, or wait for everyone else?”

“Now,” Hyorin said, grabbing BamBam’s hand and teleporting then to the floor below before teleporting outside, “less time.”

The pair ran, teleporting whenever Hyorin was able. At one point, she could have sworn she heard Ken yelling for her but they didn’t slow down to check. They just kept running, not knowing where the leader and maknae could be. Honestly, Hyorin was starting to question the plan. All they were doing was running around draining their energy. For all they knew, the others had already found N and Hyuk.

“Hyorin,” BamBam pulled her to a stop, “look!” Hyorin followed where BamBam was pointing and saw a tree standing tall a few streets away. The tree just looked so unnatural that she instantly knew that it had been put there by a demon.

“Let’s go,” Hyorin changed course and ran in the direction of the tree, BamBam close behind.

Soon, them found themselves at the base of the tree. From inside, they could hear the Hyuk crying out in pain and N cursing at whoever it was that was causing his youngest brother such pain. Hyorin’s heart froze at those sounds and BamBam had to lightly smack her shoulder to bring her back to the task at hand; burning the tree to the ground.

“Put a hole in it,” Hyorin said before BamBam could set off an explosion, “just big enough for us to fit through. We can’t do anything to bring the tree down.”

“Right,” BamBam nodded in understanding after a moment, “too much damage.”

Hyorin created a ball of fire in her hand and through it at the tree at the same time BamBam through one of his explosive balls at the trunk. There was a huge bang and lofts of fire and smoke for a few seconds before Hyorin calmed the flames.

“What the hell?” Jr yelled, rushing out with a hand over his mouth as if he expected that to keep the smoke out of his lungs.

“Hey, hyung,” BamBam called and Jr froze.

“BamBam,” Jr smiled sadly, “looks like you’re free.”

“Yeah,” the younger nodded, “are you going to run, or fight?”

“Orders were to fight VIXX,” Jr explained, “and I did.”

Jr turned his attention to the tree and waved his hand. Hyorin and BamBam watched as the tree shrunk until there was nothing left but a small tree resting in a metal cage on the sidewalk. They both turned to Jr, only to find him gone.

“Dang,” BamBam sighed, “he’s gone.”

“Yeah,” she nodded, “but at least you don’t have to fight your brother, right?”

“Right,” BamBam started to smile, but then he spotted N and Hyuk, “.”

“N!” Hyorin gasped when she turned around and saw her demons, “Hyuk!”

She rushed to them and immediately started to heal them. BamBam stood behind her, watching since he couldn’t do anything else. Hyuk was out cold, bleeding and bruised from head to toe. N looked even worse, probably because he’d stayed conscious longer than the dream demon. However, he’d recently passed out thanks to the blow Jr had delivered moments before Hyorin and BamBam burned a hole in the tree.

“Stop,” Hyorin jumped when she felt Leo pulling her back.

“Leo!” she gasped, “when did you get here?”

“Just now,” he explained, already pulling out his phone so that he could text the others and let them know that he found Hyorin and BamBam, “I saw the tree and the smoke from a few blocks away. Figured something was going on.”

“N and Hyuk,” Hyorin turned back to the unconscious demons, “they’re hurt really bad. Please let me heal them.”

“No,” Leo frowned, “you’ll drain yourself.”

“But,” she tried to argue, but one small glare from Leo shut her right up.

“Hyung!” Ravi yelled moments later, closely followed by Ken and Jackson, “how are N and Hyuk?”

“They’ll be fine,” Leo replied, lifting Hyorin up and carrying her bridal style like he expected her to be unable to walk, “Hyorin healed them a little, but they’ll need to be properly bandaged once we get home.”

“I’ll carry N,” Ken offered, “Ravi, do you want to carry Hyukkie?”

“Sure,” the illusion demon nodded before picking up the maknae. Hyuk let out a small, pained groan that caused Ravi to freeze.

“Jr went all out,” Jackson frowned, “no holding back.”

“At least she won’t punish him for failing,” BamBam said, trying to make light of the situation, “so that’s something.”

“Yeah,” Jackson nodded, looking even more upset, “how pathetic is it that this is the silver lining, though?”

“Don’t feel so bad,” Ravi advised, “it’s not your fault that this happened, that you’re happy your brother isn’t going to suffer even though it means N and Hyuk are hurt.”

“Can’t help it,” Jackson replied, “it just……it feels so wrong to be looking for something good about this.”

“Worry about that later,” Leo said, passing Jackson his phone, “call the others and tell them that we’re going home. Tell Hongbin to get home extra fast, he’d the best at treating wounds so we’ll need him to be there.”

“Alright,” Jackson nodded and did as told before everyone started for home as quickly as they could.”

A/N: poor N and Hyuk. Bright side is that I didn’t have Ken get beaten up this time. Still feel awful about N and Hyukkie though.