[Hi guys.... I'm sorry about last chapter.... judging by the comments after that one I left it hanging a bit, there was a tiny uproar... ^-^ hahahahahah! suffer from my wrath!]

Sehun

I was still asleep when I was teleported to the infirmary. Kai said no words, he just shook me awake and I was in the sick bay. As soon as my bare feet felt the black puddle of goo I curled my toes, suddenly awake.

“Geez, Kai, you could’ve dropped me out of this wet stuff.” But he was gone, collecting the others from their beds.

Yixing was beside the only occupied bed, checking Baekhyun’s pulse with one hand, his second, glowing hand scanning up and down his pale torso.

Xiumin sat on another bed, holding onto his knees and shaking in terror. Cold pulsed out of him, shooting waves of goosebumps up my bare arms.

Suho was also already in the room, crouching down and observing the wet stuff on the floor beside the bed, the stuff I was standing in. He had his phone out, using the light of the screen to check it out.

It was now that I realised I was stepping in what seemed to be slimer flesh.

“Eugh! What is this? Is this dead slimer ? Oh god what’s happened to Baekhyun? Is he okay?”

Gradually Kai brought all of us into the infirmary. He was a bit embarrassed when he teleported both Kris and Tao at the same time, Tao’s buttons connected wrongly in a rush to put on his shirt, Kris missing a sock. The Tree Of Life still clutched her sick bucket, as well as a stuffed wolf toy. Chanyeol was wearing his pyjama pants and no shirt, clearly still sleepy. Luhan had his feet in fluffy bunny slippers; his un-styled hair covering his eyes with a dark shadow. Chen was the last to arrive, and when his feet found the floor his knees buckled. The sound of Chen’s snoring echoed around the room.

“Chen’s not waking up, and he snores really loud.” Kai said, lying him down in a spare bed near Baekhyun.

“Baekhyun has a pulse,” Yixing said, “whatever happened to him, he’s getting better pretty rapidly.”

“What happened?” Kris asked, smoothing out the mess his hair was. Tao reached up and started fixing his hair for him.

“I… I came in here a few minutes ago,” Xiumin said, his voice shaking “and he was shaking and jolting, and he grabbed onto me and then threw up everywhere… I… I couldn’t…”

Ew… so this black stuff is his vomit? I thought. Usually I would speak my mind, but with one of our members traumatised, the other deathly sick and one more of us still snoring on a nearby bed, I thought it wasn’t the time.

“We think he’s been infected by the slimers, or something-” Suho started.

“What if it’s me?” Xiumin interjected. “What if the Dark did something to me while I was frozen?”

“Xiumin, there’s nothing wrong with you,” Luhan started, reaching out to Xiumin’s arms. “You just-“

“Don’t touch me!” Xiumin yelled, slapping away Luhan’s hand.

We’re all shocked by Xiumin’s aggressive outburst.

“Its just…” Xiumin shyly hugged his arms to himself. “What if I’m infected or something, and all this is a hallucination. Or worse, what if I did this to Baekhyun and I didn’t know I was doing it? I could be a time bomb…”

“Xiumin hyung,” Kai said softly “I’m certain there’s nothing wrong with you, but if it helps we can have someone always watching you.”

“I’ll volunteer to watch him” Said Luhan.

“Actually, I’d rather Kai watch me,” Xiumin said quietly “It’s just, he can teleport, so he can be anywhere really easily.”

Luhan looked hurt, rejected by his boyfriend. I shot a questioning look at Kyungsoo, confused about the obvious tension between the two oldest. Later, he mouthed back, telling me he’ll explain the relationship between the two.

“The thing is, we don’t know what did this to Baekhyun,” Suho said, addressing us all “I think we should all keep our distance until he’s healed enough to speak.”

“Tie him up,” Luhan said. We all looked to him puzzled, but he was dead serious. “In case he is possessed, or sick. What if he wakes up and attacks us? Tie him up.”

Unwillingly, Chanyeol tied each of Baekhyun’s arms and legs to the bedposts with loose sheets from the beds.

“And the mouth. We don’t want to take any chances.”

Chanyeol obeyed Luhan, opening Baekhyun’s black-stained mouth and gagging him with a pillowcase.

Yixing stepped forward and continued healing him, his hands hovering above Baekhyun’s torso, fingertips glancing off his skin like the touch of a ghost.

“Terraforming!” Chen sat up from his bed abruptly, apparently awake.

“Terrible what?” I ask

“Terraforming! It’s going to happen soon!”

“What are you even talking about? We’ve got enough crazy in this team at the moment.” I say flatly.

“Did you see them again in your dreams?” Suho asks, walking across the room from one bed to the other. Chen nods in reply.

“He sees the slimers or the Dark sometimes, like when Kris and I talk with the Tree in our dreams.” Suho explained.

“I saw them, in a factory, or a lab or something. The Dark wasn’t there, but the slimers were all pouring in, and joining in the middle to create this big, blob of the stuff. I heard the higher ones talking, they’re creating a machine. They’re going to terraform the entire Earth!”

“What’s terraforming?” Chanyeol asks.

“Don’t you watch any Sci-fi?” Kyungsoo replies “It is changing a planet’s environment to suit new habitants. Like, if we went to Mars and terraformed it by adding our atmosphere and enough water and all the necessities of life.”

“The Dark needs a longer night time to thrive,” The Tree piped up, “And warmth, humidity, but not much water unless it’s in the air. Then they change the ground’s composition, eventually they can basically grow slimers from boiling puddles in the ground.”

“I vote we stop the terraforming,” I raise my hand “I like my puddles slimer-free and my water in liquid form.”

“The thing is, they’ve almost finished. We need to act now!” Chen informed us.

The sudden struggling can be heard from Baekhyun’s bed.

“Great, now everyone’s waking up. More drama.” I grumble

“Nobody free him!” Luhan warns us, “I just saw his eyes flash black. Like slimer goo. Didn’t any of you see that? He’s infected, he’s gotta be.”

Suho looked flustered. So much was happening at once I was surprised all his hair didn’t fall out from stress. Luhan pulled another pillow case over Baekhyun’s face, hiding his facial expression.

“Uh, Chen, how much time do we have?”

“Hours at the most.”

“. Do you know where it is?”

“Exactly, centre of Seoul, I could point it out on GPS if you want.”

“Look it up on Kai’s phone. Chanyeol, is Baekhyun tied up well? Good. Okay we’re all going to go stop the terraforming, minus Baekhyun.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, we have no plan.” Luhan said, worried. “We should stay back a little longer and figure it all out. Maybe Kai could map out the scene?”

“No, I have it in my head,” Chen said. “Most of the slimers are already absorbed into the terraforming machine, so there won’t be as many enemies as last time. There are four entrances and large windows as well as a glass roof high up above. There’s a sprinkler system for Suho and plenty of access to earth for Kyungsoo, seeing as it’s on the ground floor.”

“Umm, what about Xiumin, he hasn’t trained with us; he’ll just get in the way.”

“Luhan, stop looking for exits. If you don’t think you’re man enough to go on another mission, just don’t do it!” Tao says, his voice laced with frustration. “We have to go now or the earth is dead to us!”

“I’ll go.” Luhan said, defeated.

“Right, are we all done?” Suho said, scanning each of us with his eyes. “Tree, you stay here again with Baekhyun? Keep checking on his restraints. Kai, do you think you could teleport all of us at the same time? Good, you have three minutes to get ready.”

In about five minutes, we were all assembled in the infirmary again, dressed in our various combat attires. We had strapped on our weapons, flight goggles and pouches of water and were anxious to leave.   

Suho grabbed my hand, and I reached out and held Chanyeol’s sweaty palm. We all linked together in a circle. Kai closed his eyes, focusing on the destination.

Chanyeol looked over longingly at the sick bed which Baekhyun was tied to. In the circle we formed, Chanyeol and I had a perfect view of our comrade-turned-prisoner. I followed Chanyeol’s gaze, imagining how it would feel to watch your boyfriend be possessed and tied up (in a not-so-y way) by your very own friends.

Baekhyun’s hand lit up and started to flash, and I felt Chanyeol’s grip tighten. Three short bursts of white light, followed by three longer ones, then three shorter flashes. Repeat. I racked my brains, trying to remember my limited knowledge of Morse code.

Baekhyun stopped trying when my brain clicked. S.O.S. Save our souls. What souls are we saving though? I was a bit confused, but then Baekhyun tried another light trick with his hands.

His hands let out a soft orange glow, melding with shades of red and flickering yellow. It looked just like Chanyeol’s fire, the soft fire that lights a candle or roasts a marshmallow late at night.

“Baekhyun!” Chanyeol exclaimed, and let go of my hand, breaking the chain and running to the bed where Baekhyun was left.

We disappeared, leaving Chanyeol behind.

-------------------------

We landed a few meters away from the laboratory, a large building almost as big as our warehouse. We were behind the short end of the warehouse, the four doors located on the longer sides. The laboratory is as tall as three stories, made from ugly bricks shoddily painted white. The sky is a deep purple, showing the imminent and almost present sunrise.

Suho cursed and stamped his feet in frustration.

“!” Suho exclaimed “Where’d Chanyeol go?”

“I don’t know, I should’ve teleported everyone…” Kai was equally as confused, scratching his blonde hair.

“I saw him,” I said “Baekhyun was giving off light distress signals, Chanyeol let go of my hand to get to him.”

“I saw it too, but it was a little different,” Luhan said “It was like, strobe lights. I think they hypnotised Chanyeol or something. The Tree Of Life could be in danger! We have to go back and help him!”

It was now that it all became clear to me. Luhan wasn’t Luhan. I could see it in his eyes, his voice, his posture and his clothes.

For one, Luhan’s posture is usually strong, his neck slightly tilted forward and his spine straight. Now, his neck is as straight as his spine, his chest puffed out with the air of importance. Luhan’s eyes seemed darker, more secretive. In the past, Luhan had the gaze of uncertainty and playfulness, his expression changing between joking and getting in the way and being unsure of his actions, timid and shy. Now his eyes were strong, powerful and certain.

Luhan had been desperate to keep us back at the headquarters. He argued that Xiumin wasn’t trained, that we hadn’t mapped out the place enough.

I knew something was wrong. Badly wrong. Luhan had been infected, or possessed by a slimer, and had tried to pin it on Baekhyun.

I acted quickly, no time to waste. I summoned a heavy gust of wind and pushed Luhan up against the wall. He hit the wall with a heavy thud then slid down onto the floor. I followed my attack with a swipe in the air again, pinning Luhan onto the floor.

“Stop it Sehun!” Chen yells, and I feel strong arms pinning me down, forcing me onto my knees.

“He’s the infected! He just attacked me!” Luhan yells, his shrill cry shaking in false fear.

“No, it’s him! He is the slimer!” I free one of my hands to shake an accusing finger, accidentally summoning another wind to push Luhan up the wall.

Kyungsoo locks Luhan’s feet into the dirt.

“I believe Sehun,” he states, “Luhan has been acting weird lately.”

“No it has to be Baekhyun who is affected,” Tao said “It makes sense, during the Xiumin-rescue mission Baekhyun and I found the Dark, and that must be when he got infected.”

“In that case, I saw Baekhyun kissing Luhan last night,” Xiumin said, his voice cracking in nervousness. “I didn’t want to say anything… I just…”

Xiumin was cut off as he was ripped into the air by an invisible force, choking on his collar. I felt a similar force lift me into the air, much like my own air powers but without the momentum. My voice caught in the sudden rise, unable to scream for help. To the side I can see the others lifted into the air or thrown against the hard wall, blood pouring from Suho’s nose as he faceplanted into the brickwork.

Luhan remained on the ground, his hands splayed above his head as he held us all in the air.

“You ing idots.” He laughed, his voice darker than usual. “I’m not a ing slimer. I’m the ing Dark!” His arms jolted, slamming each of us on the ground hard with each curse word. Tao hit the ground, followed by Kris, then me. The wind was out of my lungs as I hit the uneven earth, and I heard Chen’s cry of pain as his ribs cracked a few seconds after me.

“You know, I was going to just stall you, let the ‘slimers’ up your planet, but I guess you’ve all forced me to have a little fun of my own.”

The earth split apart once again as Kyungsoo jumped from a crevice in the ground, using the same hidden trick he used on Tao during the training period. Lifting a mighty chunk of earth from the ground, he shapes it into a fearsome rock-rhinoceros, charging at the possessed Luhan.

Dark-Luhan side steps the charging rhino easily, swivelling on his heels. He turns to face the rhino’s backside then locks his power onto the animated rock formation, smashing the creature into splinters of rocks shards against the wall. My hands were locked by my sides, and I could not shield my eyes from the flying fragments. My chest and legs were battered by rock shards, and I felt warm blood begin to trickle down my brow and down the side of my cheek.

Dark-Luhan doesn’t stop there, he continues running towards Kyungsoo, dodging flying rocks as they are flung towards him, deflecting a few with a flick of his wrist. As they collide with hand to hand combat, he shifts his centre of gravity, balancing himself on a single hand and kicking upwards with his foot. His boot connects with the soft skin under Kyungsoo’s chin, stopping his breathing. His other boot wraps around the back of Kyungsoo’s neck, squeezing his collar between his feet. Dark-Luhan bends his knees with a snap, pulling Kyungsoo face first into the hard earth.

“Surprised?” Dark-Luhan taunts, lifting Kyungsoo up into the air with the rest of us. “I’m not talking about your little attack there; I’m talking about my power. You see, Luhan hasn’t been using his power right,” he gestures to us all hovering in the air around him like spectators at a stadium. “See all this here? And what I did just there? So much wasted potential went into that kid. The Tree really scraped the bottom of the barrel with that toddler. Even his looks are pathetic, like a ing Disney character! I preferred being the Tree!”

He slowly lifted Kyungsoo down onto the ground, forcing him to kneel in the dirt. Kyungsoo’s face was grimy and smeared with dirt, still holding his brave expression as it was forced downwards into a bowing position on the floor.

“Now, I think that little stunt has just volunteered yourself as first victim.” He says, lifting Kyungsoo’s position so he is kneeling on the ground with his torso straight up. He opens his hand, outstretched from his body and Yixing’s long blade was pulled into his grip like a move out of Star Wars.

Dark-Luhan raised the blade above Kyungsoo’s neck, preparing to stab all the way through his body, when Kyungsoo disappeared.

“…” Luhan muttered, kicking the dirt where Kyungsoo was kneeling moments before. “Come out, Kai! I was in the middle of something you .”

“Stop it!” Xiumin screamed, feet still raised meters of the ground, his arms bound to his sides. His usually adorable face is contorted in anger, dark creases forming over his eyes.

“Sorry, stop what?” Luhan said, still turning around, preoccupied with searching for Kai and Kyungsoo.

“The language! It’s too much! You’re tainting Luhan’s mouth!”

“I’m ing tainting it?” Dark-Luhan raised his eyebrows and faced Xiumin with a threatening gaze. “With my words, making it… impure?”

Xiumin was lowered so he was held only twenty centimetres from the ground. Dark-Luhan stared directly into his eyes, unblinking.

“You’re not thinking that perhapse… I made it impure without my words?” He blew Xiumin a kiss, taunting him “You know, Luhan is a good kisser. Not enough tongue though. Between you and me,” he lowered his voice, still obviously projecting it so we could all hear “I probably don’t even need a kiss to transfer between people anymore.”

Xiumin spat in Dark-Luhan’s direction, but received the same spit deflected back onto his own face, running down his chin. Dark Luhan giggled and walked back to the centre of the circle.

“Kai! Where are you?” he calls in a sing-song voice. He lifts Yixing’s blade “I have a surprise for you! It’s… It’s long, and sharp, and if you don’t come down here it’ll be inside one of your-“

Dark-Luhan is cut off as Kai reappears, snatching Chen out of the air. Luhan swings around, trying to lock onto Kai with his power again but Kai has disappeared. Lightning signals their next appearance on the opposite side of the circle, and Chen shoots his electricity at Dark-Luhan, electrocuting his back.

Luhan gives a momentary cry of pain as his concentration is snapped. I feel my feet hit the ground roughly as his hold on me is gone, and the other’s all pick themselves off the ground.

I move into action, slowly levitating off the ground as the air whips around me, forming a vicious tornado. My jacket billows in the wind and the others shield their eyes from flying debris. Specks of white swirl in my tornado, but I quickly dismiss them as harmless.

I’m stopped by a calm hand reaching up and taking my own. It’s Yixing, telling me to stop. My tornado subsides, leaving the air motionless around us, eerily quiet, and Yixing whispers into my ear “I think you’d want to see this”

It’s snowing. Gently, the ground is turning white as the flakes hit the ground. The snow is light but thick, falling at a rapid pace so that the dirt and grass is soon replaced by a thick blanket of white.

I pull my jacket tighter around my body and shiver, looking towards the centre of the circle. Dark-Luhan looks terrified, pushing the snow away from himself with his powers, creating a small circumference around him where the dirt is still visible. Yixing doesn’t seem worried, and neither do any of the original members of the team: Suho and Kris, so I figure that I could relax and catch my breath. The only person who is still acting terrified is the Dark.

He acts like the snow is poison, stopping every three seconds to brush the build-up from his shoulders and out of his brown hair. He does his best to deflect the snowflakes as they fall in his direction, but there are too many for him to focus on. Eventually he gives up, holding a defensive stance aimed at Xiumin.

Xiumin has his hands spread out, palms up towards the sky at waist-height. His eyes are open, but completely white. The snow picks up pace, falling around our feet until the level of snow reaches mid-calf.

Kyungsoo tentatively reaches down with a bare finger and tastes the snow.

The snow stops falling, leaving the atmosphere in an eerie quiet tone. There is no sound, no wind. The sun is beginning to rise, casting a bright orange glow on Xiumin’s face. I soak up the heat of the sun as my legs freeze.

It’s similar to a bad cowboy movie, where the two men face each other in a dusty road, hands hovering over their hips before drawing their gun to shoot.

The Dark makes the first move, reaching under the snow for a stray boulder and flinging it at Xiumin with impressive speed that Luhan has never shown. Xiumin doesn’t flinch, and out of the snow around him a solid wall of ice rises and blocks the rock. The rock is stopped, but the ice smashes, sending sharp shards of ice into the air. Another wall of ice rises to block a second attack, then Dark-Luhan realised that his methods of attack are futile.

“See, Xiumin hyung doesn’t like showing off” Yixing said to me, “He’s the oldest and most powerful member. He barely ever shows the full extent of his powers, even when it was just the six of us.”

“You kissed my boyfriend!” Xiumin states, his voice layered with power.

Ice formations begin to grow out of the snow, clear and unblemished, almost perfectly translucent. Large spikes like giant teeth form out of the ground like deathly trees, and a thick block of ice punches out of the snow, knocking Luhan into the laboratory wall.

Xiumin doesn’t stop. Again and again Luhan is attacked, thick blocks of ice pummel him into the bricks, and swarms of snowflakes attack his skin like tiny razorblades. Xiumin walks forward, his brown hair changing colour into a bright silver.

Xiumin changes his stance, summoning all the snow around us and pushing it forward like a frozen tsunami. The snow-wave breaks through the frozen brickworks, pushing Dark-Luhan through the wall and into the laboratory.

Xiumin continues walking, calmly stepping over loose bricks strewn around the floor. Through the large gaping hole in the wall, I can see the inside of the lab; around the edges, walls of computers and technical implements sit in various states of power, some or off. The room doesn’t have many slimers left inside it, only about fifteen in all.

In the centre of the room there is a small planet of black slime. It shifts and melds itself, constantly moving, constantly awake. This must be what will terraform the earth. The planet is at least the size of a small house, and I’m guessing by the lack of slimers running up to join it, it is almost finished, prepared to blow.

Xiumin stands in the laboratory, taking in the view. He lifts his hands and the snow billows inside, crunching under his boots. With a surge of power from his arms, ice is shot from his palms, acting like a freeze ray. Soon, the entire building is coated in sharp, dangerous looking ice. Icicles hang precariously from the ceiling, and frost grows on the walls and misted windows.

Xiumin skates around the terraforming machine, dancing with snowflakes as they follow him. He halts after taking a complete circuit, facing the goo once again. The planet has stopped shifting, as if it were frozen. With a thunderous cracking sound, giant icicles protrude from the snow on the ground once again, piercing the machine in different places in different angles. Echoing around the room, the terraforming device falls to pieces.

For a moment we stand in the hole in the wall, jaws dropping at this amazing feat by Xiumin. Kai takes out his phone and I hear the shutter-click sound as he takes a photo. When Xiumin finally drops his arms, exhausted, we all cheer. I run to Xiumin and pick him up, swinging him around my body.

“Luhan, where’s Luhan?” I hear someone ask

As if on que, Luhan crawls out of the snow, clutching something in his hand. We barely have time to register the simple grenade as it is thrown through us, landing in the centre of the room.

The explosion hits us all. We fly to the edge of the room, thrown back by the force of the grenade. I hit someone hard midair, then I land again on someone’s stomach. I feel Kris’s hands pull me up from the ground, and then in turn I help Suho stand again.

My ears ring, I can’t hear. My head is still shaking, trying to keep up with my eyes, still vibrating in their sockets. I can see Luhan sitting up, tears streaming down his face, begging to me, but I can’t hear words. Eventually, my ears clear and Luhan’s voice reaches my ears.

“It’s gone, I swear it! Help me, help me, help me, I’m sorry, it’s gone now. It could be anyone. I hit someone in the explosion and it transferred over. We’re all in danger! There’s more coming here right now! Their plan is to use you as bait to get the Tree of Life. Help me, help me, help me!”

I hit someone in the explosion... and landed on another person… I thought to myself. Then Kris picked me up… and then I helped Suho up again… There’s been too much physical contact in the past thirty seconds. I exchange weary glances with my teammates. The Dark could really be in anyone at the moment.

The doors to the laboratory open, and in pour seven giant slimer beasts, standing on large octopus-like tendrils as thick as tree trunks. Their entire body mass opens up and shows their sticky black fangs, glinting in the new sunlight. Around the beasts storm in the foot soldiers, filling the room.

“Don’t touch anyone!” Suho orders, keeping his distance from everybody “The Dark could be in any one of us.”

“Not me,” Kai yells appearing a few meters away. “I teleported before the explosion. I know for certain it didn’t hit me. I happened to take Kyungsoo with me, he can vouch for me.

“It’s true,” Kyungsoo said, a few meters away again. “But I helped Yixing stand up. For all you guys know I’m the Dark.”

Suho made a quick sacrifice. “Kai, take Luhan and leave us-“

“But-“

“No buts. For all you know, we are all the Dark. Assume we are all evil. Just go back to Baekhyun and Chanyeol, and find us, and save us.”

“But you guys are going to be killed!”

“No, we’ll be bait for the Tree, according to Luhan. Trust Luhan, he’s shared a mind with the Dark.”

“Just go!” I screamed. Tears were welling up in my eyes.

“I love you,” Luhan said to Xiumin, tears rolling down his cheeks. “Be safe, and be strong.”

Kai gave a sorrowful look at us all, his eyes lingering on his partner in crime Kyungsoo. I held his gaze for a while, his oldest friend on the team. He locked eyes with Suho and gave a nod. Grabbing Luhan’s hand, he disappeared, gone.