[sorry if this one is small/rushed, i was going to forget about this part of the story and just go from the point of view of someone who got captured, but I really wanted to add in more Kai and his apartment scenes, and prepare you all for the big next few chapters.]

Kai

I missed my target for the first time. We landed three streets away, almost appearing halfway inside the wall of one of the unused warehouses. Luhan was still sobbing, only recently freed from his possession. I stumbled as my feet landed once again on different terrain, my knees buckle and my right knee collapses and meets gravel.

I give up trying to teleport us the rest of the distance. I’m tired, exhausted, and Luhan is not in the mood for speaking. I’m not entirely sure if I helped Luhan to stand or if he was helping me, but we hobble together towards our home.

I can’t help but think of the pain the others are going through. I want to stop my mind making up different scenarios but I can’t. I imagine Chen and Suho standing up straight and proud, swallowing a lump in his throat as he accepts the capture. I imagine Yixing struggling to run around, his heart willing him to heal his injured and possibly dying friends but his mind telling him to be wary of the Dark, hidden inside one of them.

It’s too difficult, and I force tears back in my eyes as we keep walking in silence. Eventually, we reach the house. I knock on the door before opening, announcing our arrival.

We step indoors to find the place almost exactly how we left it; our shoes piled in a heap in front of the door, jackets falling off the coat hanger in our mad rush to get ready to leave. Luhan shrugs off his ripped jacket and meticulously hangs it on the hanger, then reaches down to pick up a half-drunk can of soda up the floor, placing it on a bench.

“Hello?” I call out, my voice echoing around the large room. There’s no response. The light switch doesn’t work either.

I see a light flicker in the adjacent bedrooms and then turn off through the crack in the doorframe.  I start to walk over to the door, my boots clacking against the cold floor.

A knife from the kitchen starts to float up, glinting in unseen light and catching my attention. It wavers around at chest height, before slowly making its way over near us.

“Luhan?” I ask quietly, my attention focusing on the knife.

“It’s… it’s not me.” Comes the squeaky reply.

Now I’m scared. What does Luhan mean? It’s not him.Is the Dark still inside him? Did the Dark ever leave, and I just led the Dark over to the Tree of Life?

I slowly draw my knife from my belt, mirroring the floating weapon before me. I hear a small click behind me, then a muffled shriek of Luhan as he is startled behind me. I swivel on the balls of my feet, ready to throw my knife to protect Luhan.

“Don’t move,” says the attacker. He has a black gloved hand over Luhan’south and a heavy balaclava over his face. His other hand holds a small golden lighter under Luhan’s neck.

“Chanyeol?” I say, recognising the attacker immediately. I feel a blade slip under my own neck as Baekhyun creeps up behind me and holds me in a similar position.

“Luhan is the Dark, Kai. Baekhyun is safe, but-”

“I know, I know. The Dark is in someone else. We don’t know who. We are the only ones who got out.”

Baekhyun’s grip on me loosened and I felt the knife clatter to the floor.

“The others, they’re…. they’re not-”

“Not dead,” I reassure him “just captured. And one of them is probably the Dark, we don’t know who.”

“We have to save them. The Tree Of Life says that now she knows it’s the Dark possessing us all she could go to them and-“

“No! That’s what it wants! It’s using the others as bait. We can’t let them get to her.” Luhan struggles, still held under Chanyeols arm. “Look, can you let me go? I’ve had a really long day and I want to have a nap.”

Chanyeol releases his hold, flipping the lighter off and back into his pocket. Baekhyun steps over to Luhan quickly and brushes the hair out of his eyes, cooing over Luhan, muttering apologies and checking to see if he is alright.

“So how much do you know?” Chanyeol said, leaving the other two to fuss over one another.

“Enough. Baekhyun transferred the Dark over to Luhan, and then when we went to attack, Sehun discovered Luhan had the Dark in him. It was horrible. Luhan, he was ferocious. We were powerless, almost. I managed to get Chen free, and then when Luhan was electrocuted, we all were freed. Xiumin, you should’ve seen him. He’s as strong as the Dark. He took out Luhan and the entire terraforming project, but at the end Luhan threw a grenade at us. We were totally unprepared for it, only I escaped the blast. All we knew is that in the blast the Dark was transferred on again, we don’t know who to. I took Luhan and escaped; the others willingly got captured.”

Chanyeol ran his hands through his hair, unsettled by the recount of the story.

“Oh geez, we’re in trouble.”

The Tree Of life walked out from the bedroom near us. She was wearing denim overalls over a white shirt, brandishing a baseball bat cautiously.

“It’s fine, Tree, they’re safe.”

“How can you be sure?” she walks over with an air of importance in her stride as she touches Luhan’s forehead and chest, then mine. “They’re safe” she concludes.

“Hey Baekhyun,” I ask, my curiosity getting the better of me. “What was that, when we walked in? The knife was floating, but Luhan said it wasn’t me.”

“Oh… uh…” Baekhyun struggled to find his words. “When I was possessed, I think the Dark was mapping out my potential. When it left, he left my potential mapped out, I felt…”

“Enlightened,” Luhan finishes his sentence “Like all your power used to be wasted, but now… you know exactly how to use it.” He stares at his own hands as if he was expecting them to explode, remembering the feel of power as he lifted us all into the air.

“Not exactly how to use it, though. The Dark never actually used my powers.” Baekhyun continued. “I learned I could bend light around me, become invisible, I guess. I think with a little more work I could manage to do more, create visions, or black outs, but I’m still taking baby steps.”

After a lengthy discussion over Baekhyun’s potential powers, we eventually all sit down and try to figure out our predicament.

“We can’t stay here,” The Tree says. “They’re not just going to wait for us to go save them, they know we’re here now, and they’ll be here pretty soon.”

“We can’t just blindly go in,” Chanyeol argues, “We need an organised plan, or something will happen like the last time.”

“We can’t do what we usually do,” Baekhyun says, “The Dark could be in anyone, someone who has watched and trained with us. It’ll know what to expect.”

“What else do we have? In that case the Dark knows exactly what we could do!”

“We were pretty taken aback by the grenade, maybe we could do something like that?” I suggest.

“I like that idea,” The Tree says, jotting it down on a piece of paper. “We could not use our powers, and try doing the rescue in a human fashion.”

“That’s good, what else does the Dark not know of us?”

“My invisibility,” Baekhyun said. “And that the Tree is surprisingly amazing at Mario Kart, especially for someone who has had fingers for only a couple of weeks.”

I raise my eyebrow to the Tree. She shrugs her shoulders in acceptance.

“I can steal a bunch of high tech stuff, I’ve done it before.” I suggest “It’ll give us an edge, like, proper agent gear you see in movies.”

“That stuff doesn’t exist.” Luhan guffawed “It’s just made up by TV to keep it interesting.”

“I’m not talking about explosive toothpaste and electric yo-yo’s,” I say “I’ve been places. I’m talking taser guns, grappling hooks, infrared goggles. That stuff exists.”

“How are we going to find the others?” Baekhyun said. In the past, we’ve known where to go. We can’t just call them up and ask them to text their locations to us.

“I have that covered.” I say.

“You know where they are?”

“I know where one of them is.” I let the others imagine their own explanation.

The truth is, I don’t have a tracking device planted in Kyungsoo’s phone, or ankle, or any other sick assumption you may have. I can feel him. I guess all my worry over him has made my conscious lock onto his position. I’m 100 percent certain that I could teleport to him whenever he needs me, or in this case, whenever the team needs us.

“I’m coming.” The Tree states. Before we could argue, she shushes us with a raise of her hand. “If the Dark is there, then I should be there to stop it. Also, I’m small, so I could do something like crawl in air vents if we’re looking for any clichés. I think you guys keep forgetting I’m older than time. I’m not actually seven.”

“You spent thirteen hours on the Wii.” Baekhyun says.

“Hey, I may not be seven but I haven’t had opposable fingers for ever.” She argues, crossing her arms over her chest grumpily. “You guys are going to need me to kick the Dark out of whoever it’s in. Especially if Frost is as talented as you all say, and how the Dark unlocks your full potential.”

“Can’t you tell us our full potential?” Chanyeol asks. “I want to be that powerful. And if you made us, then surely you would know what we could do.”

“Honestly, I didn’t know what your powers would be.” The Tree confesses “I chose you for your personalities. You are all brave, hardworking, committed people. Something about you twelve stood out among others. Inspirations, you are. I just gave you a portion of my power each, and I let the fire in your heart become your own power. It could’ve been shapeshifting, or metal manipulation , telepathy or environment control. I honestly had no idea. For you, Chanyeol, the fire in your heart burned brightest, so your fire became you.”

It was decided. A group of four protectors and a small girl, armed with human tools, saving eight superhuman boys from the embodiment of evil.

I collected a large overnight bag full of gear; grappling hooks, Bluetooth headsets, infrared goggles and other gadgets. Together we split up the zip lines, blades and various tools amongst us, buckling them to the numerous belts and straps on our gear.

We looked prepared. It was a nice change, for once. The Tree looked up at me from a blackened face, smeared with dark Smokey paint to hide her bright pale skin.

I looked around apartment. I hope we can come back later. I basically lived here. I shared that room with Sehun, I introduced Kyungsoo on that couch. I pinned up our photos on that wall, I burnt Sehun’s noodles on that stove. I argued with Suho as he invited himself into our home, and I argued again as he tried to rearrange the furniture. I began to love the larger TV, the wide couch and the long dining table. I played UNO with Baekhyun and the Tree on the coffee table, and I spilt coke on the UNO cards, angering the god of order and good.

It was difficult to say goodbye. I really connected with this place. I’d lived many places before, always being on the run, but this place was the one that felt like home, finally living somewhere with a family.

I take in a last breath of the building, inhaling the dust left from Kyungsoo's powers, the smell of burnt cooking and spilt sticky soda, unfinished popcorn and doritos on the carpet in front of the television area. I remember the sound of the echoes as footsteps walk through the unpadded floor, soundwaves richocheting off the cement walls, and the clatter of lighters hitting the floor as someone would accidentally knock one from it's hiding place, quickly replacing it before Chanyeol realised it was missing.

“Hey,” Luhan says, taking my hand in his “Lets go.”

I wipe my cheek, smearing the smoky paint onto my fingers. I check that we are all linked up, holding hands, and then I leave.

We arrive on a grassy hill. There’s nothing special about the hill. It’s dark. You can’t see much, not that there is anything to see. Chanyeol and Luhan take a seat on the grass; their moment isn’t due for at least a while.

“You ready?” The Tree addresses me and Baekhyun.

Baekhyun nods before disappearing from sight, bending light around his body. I feel his invisible hand slip into my own, and I link my fingers in between his invisible ones, squeezing them for courage.

We teleport.