Yixing

Imagine not being able to hear your own breath, knowing that not far for you your friends are screaming, screaming like you are but you can’t hear them. Imagine not being able to see, not being able to force your eyes open because you’re afraid if you do, a sticky black substance will seep under your eyelids and blind you. Imagine your eyes screwed up for so long so tightly that you see coloured specks form on the inside of your eyelids, until you don’t really know what colour is what.

Imagine that you thought the only thing keeping you sane is your heartbeat. As long as you can hear it, pulsing up your neck rapidly, pounding your skull like a headache amongst complete silence, you would be fine. Imagine that eventually, the heartbeat is the sound that makes you insane. The heart usually calms me; if there is a heartbeat there is a life, and if there is life it can be healed. Now, the heartbeat is the only thing I can hear. I think its making me go insane.

Imagine all of that, and maybe, just maybe, you have an idea what I was experiencing,

I can’t hear. I can’t see. I forgot what clean air smelt like, what non-toxic materials tasted like, which colour is black and which is white, and the feel of human skin.

My head, up to my nose, is covered in slimer goo. Just like an overly large, sloppy, sticky, suctioning helmet, I was trapped. Of course, I was also restrained. My hands were covered in the goo, unable to move my wrists apart from each other. I felt a strong jab poking into my back, drawing a bead of blood, and I keep walking.

I found that the more I healed my back the more stabs I would receive, so eventually I walked with the back of my shirt splattered with blood. I lost my jacket sometime back at the lab, I can’t remember whether it was gone in the fight with Luhan, or the one with the slimers after Kai left or if it was just taken when we were captured. Either way, my arms still shiver with Goosebumps even though the snow stopped crunching under my feet at least an hour ago.

I picture my blade, still lying somewhere in the grass or snow… or maybe even in the rubble. I honestly don’t know where it’s gone, but I had grown accustomed to the familiar weight around my belt.

I had even tried ‘healing’ the evil out of my captors, but when I discovered they had no life in them, it was a lost cause.

Eventually, after many stumbles across pavement, rocks and grass, a ride in the back of a truck and a long hike down a set of dirt stairs, we came to a halt. I came to a halt, I had no idea if the others were still with me or not. It was impossible to tell; for all I knew they were taken other places.

I was pushed up against a cold metal board, my hands cuffed tightly to it above my head. As I felt the metal slide against my back, I let out a sigh of relief and closed up the small gash from being poked forward in the back.

With my hands held up high above me, my feet would barely touch the ground. I rested on just the tips of my toes, the metal cuffs on my wrist cutting into my skin.

The black goo on my head was lifted. I blinked apart my eyes, forcing myself to look around in the bright light, not that there were much.

The walls of my prison were dark and gloomy, seemingly dug out of a cave. I recalled the downward steps into the room, so I figure that we must be underground. From the small portion of the room that I can see, I see benches and benches of electronic equipment, just like at the laboratory. I crane my head to look to the side, searching for the others, but I can’t see past the edge of my metal board.

A few seconds later I hear the intense gasping as someone behind me loses their black goo helmet.

“Suho, is that you?” I call out to the empty space ahead of me. “Are you oka- AAAAHH“

My body convulses as a heavy electric shock runs through my arms and body, coursing down my muscles. Instinctively I push my wrists closer together, and I feel blood running down my forearm as the metal cuffs break through my skin. I quickly start healing, but the blood already starts to drip down onto my face. I can’t wipe it away from my eyes.

The electric shock stops after an entire minute. I hear screams continue behind me as other members continue to receive a punishment. I can hear D.O’s loud yelling of pain, and the muffled sounds of someone who sounds like they are gagged. I figure the second person must be Luhan or Xiumin, someone who can use their power through their breath.

When the torture subsides, we stand in silence. I listen to the sounds of the others’ breaths, singling each inhale and exhale from the rest and identifying who it belongs to. I can’t figure out who breathes like whom, but I manage to count eight different breath patterns.

Eight. One of us is the Dark. It’s not me, I’m sure of it, although the others don’t know that for certain. The Dark is inside one of us, and is still pretending to be with us. I guess that’s an advantage of not being able to see each other. I wonder who it is, lying in wait for Kai to bring the others and rescue us. I wonder if they are tied up like us, feeling the same pain we are, or if they are only pretending. Maybe their cuffs aren’t as tight, or they have a small box to stand on to release a bit of the pressure of hanging from your wrists.

I stand for hours on my toes, unable to do much. Slimers walk in and out of the room, sometimes they attempt to take my blood, sometimes they cut off some of my hair and leave. I say ‘attempt’ because they can’t get the needle inside my skin, it heals too fast for them. Of course, this earns me many new tortures, electric zaps and a claw raking across my face, buts the endurance of the pain shows me that I am still alive, my pain receptors are working and I have the opportunity to practice my power.

Where is Kai? I think to myself. I hope he’s coming soon. I hope he brings Chanyeol, and Baekhyun, and Luhan, and we are all freed and kick as we get out of here. I wish I had Tao’s power, and I sped up time to when Kai appears and saves the day.

It takes a further hour for any actual action to take place, if you want to call it action. It was a glimpse, a few seconds of eye contact with Kai. He appears a few meters away from me, his back against the uncovered dirt wall. Our eyes lock for a few seconds, his mouth slightly opened in shock before he registers the security program starting up.

Kai teleports moments before his position is struck by what seems to be Chen’s power, but I know that the electricity comes from the small turret mounted onto the roof. Kai is gone once again.

I wait a long half hour, but Kai doesn’t make another appearance. I’ve almost given up when I feel something cold and shaking press against my forehead, then my heart.

My eyes dart around wildly, searching for any sign of help. Is that dust rising from some disturbance in the air? Was that pebble in exactly the same spot as it was before? My questions are answered when I see black smoke residue dissipate into the air a few meters away. Kai was here, if only for a nanosecond.

Five minutes later, I feel a hand open my jaw. This time I’m not imagining it, I definitely feel something invisible. Is there a thirteenth member, an invisible one? My open mouth is stuffed with material, and I fight the urge to spit it out.

“Forgive me. Bite down.” Came a voice in my ear. My heart wants to analyse the voice in my head, figure out who it was and if they sounded hurt, but my mind obeyed.

For a brief second, Baekhyun blinked into view. His arms were raised above his head, holding a small hammer in his hand.

A hammer? That’s not going to do much damage. These cuffs are made from metal, and you just want to bash it around with a small hamme-

The pain hits me at the same time I realise Baekhyun’s plan. Baekhyun hits again with the hammer for a second time. I scream out in pain, biting down on the ball of cloth between my teeth. I feel Baekhyun’s invisible hand cover my mouth, attempting to stifle what murmurs of scream manage to escape my lips.

I start to heal whatever is left of my broken hands, feeling the bones move around in my bloodied mangled mess as they reform. The entire bone at the bottom of my hand is shattered, leaving my bloodied hands as limp as a dead piece of meat.

Baekhyun’s hand clamps down gently on my broken hands, telling me to stop. I start to question Baekhyun’s orders when he starts to feet my shattered wrists back down the cuffs.

I see now. Through all this pain, I can now get my hands free. I wriggle myself out of the cuffs and start to heal my hands, still screaming from the staggering pain.

When my hands are free, Baekhyun holds my wrists up above my head as if I was still confined by my cuffs.

Standing on two solid feet, I watch Baekhyun’s movements as his boots make dust rise from the floor. He makes his way over to a control panel, his footsteps slowly moving down the computers until he finds the right plug. I watch as a long instrument appears out of thin air and inserts itself into a thick square plug, and the turret on the roof goes to sleep like a tired guard dog.

Shortly after, Kai appears once again, holding the Tree by the hand. The Tree is dressed in all black, just like the rest of us, her face painted with smoky black camouflage paint to blend in. Baekhyun quickly picks up the little girl and they both disappear. Kai gives me a small salute before leaving again.

Five minutes later, after giving the Tree back to Kai, leaving Baekhyun the only rescuer in the room, Baekhyun approaches me again, invisibly.

“I need you to take a few steps to the side. Don’t let any of the other members see you, only Kris. We need you to heal him.”

I slowly creep around the edge of my metal board. I find the second metal board directly attached to the edge of mine, on a slight angle. I fit the pieces together and realise that our prisons are probably set in a large circle, facing outwards so we can’t see each other. Kris is tied up like I was, except he has cuffs around his ankles as well. The ankle cuffs are joined together by a small length of chain, which is in turn chained to the floor. My guess is that this is to stop Kris floating up high to let the pressure of his hand-cuffs go.

Baekhyun has already smashed the small chain between Kris’s feet. The remains of a small electrical explosive device lie on the floor along with broken segments of chain links. Kris has lifted his feet up in the air, floating to relieve his wrists of the pain. I have bad news for him.

Kris makes eye contact with me, and I see his confusion as he wonders how I got free. Whilst he is confused, Baekhyun shoves his bundle of cloth into his mouth and hammers away. I wince as I hear the bones crunch under the merciless pounding of Baekhyun’s hammer, and I count myself lucky as he has to smash again and again, not able to smash the bones completely with one swing each hand.

I can’t watch as Kris’s hands are smashed apart by the invisible boy, so I focus on Kris’s face, bright red and crying as he struggles to keep in his cries and screams. I finally pull Kris’s hands from their cuffs and gently cup them in my hands, emitting the soft, kind glow of my powers. I pull the cloth from Kris’s mouth and he gives a small whimper as I wipe the tears from his face with it.

Baekhyun reappears again, holding the bloodied hammer. There are tears running down his face too, more than Kris and I, and I realise that smashing apart his own friends is not something that he takes any pleasure in.

Baekhyun guides Kris to stay where he is and pushes a small green button on his jacket. Moments later, Kai appears in the same spot as before, holding the hand of the courageous Tree.

We take this long process for a while; Baekhyun would take the Tree to check if the next person is free of the Dark, then he would smash through their hands, and I would heal them once they are out. It’s a painful experience for all of us: Baekhyun has to do serious damage on the people he cares about, and I cover the victim’s mouth, refusing to heal them until they are free.

As more people are freed, Chen, Suho, our chances of finding the Dark grows bigger. Kai starts to teleport in weapons and gear, preparing us for an attack at any moment. I’m given a new blade, it’s heavier and old, but it fits on my belt and it works. I wear heat-vision goggles, and I can see better in the dark. It’s much easier to work with an invisible Baekhyun when I can see his heat patterns.

The others receive new gear too; and I wonder where it all came from. EMP’s, flash grenades, military-grade weapons are passed around like a game of pass-the-parcel, and between Chen, Suho, Kris and I we are armed to the teeth.

I’m also informed by Baekhyun that Chanyeol and Luhan lie in wait, ready to move in as soon as he pushes the red button on his jacket.

With my heat-vision goggles, I can finally see Baekhyun when he’s invisible. I see Baekhyun lift the Tree up as they are both invisible and allow her to touch Sehun’s forehead and chest, checking his soul for the Dark. Satisfied that Sehun is Dark-free, the Tree is passed back to Kai and to a safer location, and I was called to help Baekhyun.

Through heat-vison goggles, I watch as Sehun squirms away from the imminent pain, and Baekhyun shivers as he lifts the hammer above his head. As I help Sehun post his broken hands from the cuffs, I watch out of the corner of my eyes as Baekhyun drops a puddle of invisible vomit in the edge of the room. Baekhyun pulls at his hair in self-torture, silent screaming in frustration of his task.

With all this going on, I saw the others struggling with the experience. Chen refused to give up his bundle of cloth, leaving it in his mouth so he could keep crying, and Suho kept rubbing his hands as if it was his last day with them, mumbling sweet nothings and apologies into his hands as they were clasped together.

I guess for some people, losing the use of their hands is a bigger deal than what it is for me.

Three left. Tao, Kyungsoo, Xiumin. I had my suspicion that it would come down to these three; out of all of us they have shown the most power out of us all. I couldn’t picture Xiumin with the Dark’s ferocity and control, or what potential the Dark could unlock within Kyungsoo or Tao.

Of the three left, Xiumin and Kyungsoo were the only ones accessible. Tao was located in the middle, and there would be no way for me to get to him without going through the line of sight of one of the others. After a quick consideration, we decided to test Kyungsoo for the Dark first. Xiumin had labelled himself as the most dangerous and was more likely to be the Dark, still waiting for the rescue team to make an appearance.

I watched through my goggles as the Tree of Life reached an invisible arm up to touch Kyungsoo’s forehead, then his heart. After a quick pause, she reached up to re-test his forehead.

Before Kyungsoo even moved, I could tell that he was the Dark. I ripped off the goggles, running to protect the Tree. Kyungsoo’s eyes shot open, his eyes completely out. The Tree gave a tiny scream then threw herself at Kyungsoo’s body in a tackle. It seemed that she appeared out of thin air as she lost Baekhyun’s touch.

Kyungsoo stepped out of his manacles, they opened easily for him. The room rumbled, chunks of earth falling from the ceiling.

“What’s going on?” I hear Tao calling out, unable to move.

Baekhyun reaches up to push the red button on his jacket collar, but his arm is trapped under a large rock, rolling over the top of him.

The others are lost, trying to figure out what to do, trapped behind falling rocks. The Tree continues to wrestle with Kyungsoo, favouring fighting him hand-to hand rather than letting him use his powers.

I rush over to Baekhyun and try to lift the rock off his hand, healing his arm at the same time.

“Button,” he croaks, nodding to the red circle on his lapel.

I quickly reach down and push the button, hard until it clicks.

Seconds later, Kai appears, hand-in-hand with Chanyeol and Luhan.

Luhan gets started on raising the rock off of Baekhyun while Chanyeol tries to melt through Tao and Xiumin’s manacles, taking the less subtle approach than what we have done.

It takes only thirty seconds until Tao is free; his restraints simple hand manacles like mine. Xiumin’s is a bit more difficult, his feet restrained and his mouth gagged. Chanyeol quickly rips off the gag before attempting to melt through the manacles on his wrists.

“Duck!” Xiumin yells before blowing an icy breath at Kyungsoo, momentarily freezing his feet solid.

Kyungsoo quickly smashes through the ice, hurling rocks at Sehun and Suho, all while battling the tiny Tree on his back. He dives his hand into a nearby wall, pulling out a small blade made from the Earth.

I quickly run up to him, channelling my healing power to my arms, and struck out my forearm to block his blade from removing the Tree’s head. The blade doesn’t cut my skin; I am healing at a faster rate than the blade can cut. For a fleeting moment my arms are invincible, I am immortal, so I knee Kyungsoo in the balls and run away.

“I got this!” The Tree yells, before hopping off Kyungsoo and starting a run up. She builds up speed as she approaches the winded boy, and jumps through his body, exiting the other side while wrestling with a pile of black goo.

The goo takes no breath or rest; it wraps in on itself and forms many tendrils.  The tendrils fold in on itself until a tree is formed, roots billowing out of it like octopus tentacles. The roots keep growing, continuously, until it starts to take up the entire room.

“Kyungsoo! Take the roof off this place!” The Tree shouts a command.

Kyungsoo nods, barely able to stay on his feet after being possessed, but he punches upwards into the air, and the ground before him rips upwards, like watching a landmine explode from underneath. Luhan quickly takes over by moving away falling rocks and debris. With a move similar to what he performed while possessed, Luhan lifted us all into the air, above ground level where the rising sun could be seen.

The black Tree is still growing, exploding out of the ground like a growing balloon. The roots have now completely immersed the trunk of the tree, forming a solid ball, writing as various tendrils still s along its surface, growing bigger every second.

The ground rips apart from the Dark’s growth. Chanyeol’s fire takes form of a large bird, buffeting the dark slime, and Suho pummels and slices with the water from a burst water pipe, but it only slows down the progress.

Xiumin has both his hands outstretched in front of him, ice billowing from his palms. The black slime freezes as it grows, but more piles on over it, smashing through the frozen goo to replace it with even more black slime.

The wind picks up, forming a dark threatening hurricane as Sehun slowly floats into the air, barely controlling the cyclone as cars are lifted off the street and pieces of houses are thrown into the air. Luhan locks on to these flying objects and throws them directly at the Dark, using his power to force more power into the attacks. Kris flies among the airborne fray, shouting commands and directions through the headsets.  

The clouds swirl in the skies, forming a dark grey colour, and heavy lighting strikes the surface of the Dark. It creates a deep crater, which the Dark quickly moves to repair. Chen attacks again, lightning thundering down on the Dark as Chen stands with his head to the skies, arms outstretched.

Kai teleports to me, carrying Tao like a new bride. Tao’s legs are broken. He plonks Tao unceremoniously on the ground, and Tao winces.

“Tree!” I shout, my arms on Tao’s broken legs. “We can’t win this! What do we do? When will it stop growing?”

The Tree shakes her head in fear.

“It’s not going to stop unless it wants to. It has my body back. It can do whatever it wants.”

He rocks herself on the ground, mouth chattering in fear.

“We have to stop it!” I scream into my headset. “It’s not going to stop growing and there are people nearby!”

“We can’t stop it!” Kris yells back “We need to do something else!”

I start to see everything in slow motion. I realise its due to me holding onto Tao’s leg. I look into his face, his face scrunched up in pain as his broken legs are mending.

“Think quick!” Tao pants, “I can’t give you time forever!”

I see Chanyeol’s fire grow, the bird inside it expanding as its wings buffet the gigantic dark planet. I watch as each blast of ice hits the Dark, and how Suho’s water is so sharp it cuts chunks off the Dark with each swipe. I see Kyungsoo walk slow motion on weak legs, using his ‘enlightened’ views on his power to attempt to create a wall around the Dark to stop it expanding, but only to see it smash apart. I see Lightning dart down, striking the top of the Dark mass, and Kris weaving in through the storm, guided by Sehun’s hurricane. Luhan follows Baekhyun’s spotlights as targets, trying to force his projectiles as for into the blob of Dark as possible.

We’re losing.

“Take it up,” I speak into the headset. “Lift it to the skies. Get it out of civilian territory.”

“Do it!” Kris commands.

Chanyeol’s phoenix locks its claws into the Dark, pulling upwards with a mighty beat of its wings. Suho channels his water spout, shooting the Dark upwards with a thick heavy jet of water. Xiumin channels thick ice blocks under the Dark, pushing it out of the ground, and Kyungsoo does the same, raising the ground underneath it like a platform to start momentum.

As the Dark reaches above-ground level, it is picked up by Sehun’s tornado, spinning in it’s ascent to the skies. Suho and Kyungsoo still channel their powers upwards, forcing the Dark further up. Luhan locks onto the Dark, raising it with his mind while Chanyeol’s bird keep flapping, a bright orange spot on the black ball of death.

Eventually the ball is out of Kyungsoo’s range. Then it is out of Suho’s range. The fire-bird dissipates from lack of oxygen to fuel the fire, and Luhan’s mind stretches too far for it to stay in the air. The ball hovers in the air, supported only by Sehun’s intense tornado.

The Dark black ball is the same size as the moon, although closer in perspective. With the sun behind it and the setting moon in front, the Dark blots out the moon entirely like an eclipse.

I can’t help but think it’s a metaphor of the dark overcoming the light.

Unable to do much else, most of the members gather around the Tree, save for Sehun and Luhan, still attempting to push the Dark away with his mind.

“Tree,” Kris gasps, landing heavily on the uneven ground. “We can’t win. Can you defeat it?”

“I can’t, I don’t have the power! It’s just going to keep growing until it overtakes the Earth, then the planets, then the sun and then-“

“Take mine,” Kris says.

“Take your what?” I ask.

“You gave this power as a gift, take it back. You can defeat the Dark.”

“I can’t do that its not possib-“

“Anything’s possible!” Kris exclaimed “you’re the god of light! You’re seven years old, but you’re a million-billion years old! You created superheroes! You are singlehandedly responsible for every single good thing in the world! I know you can do this. I trust you. Take power and take a stand.”

The Tree considers it for a moment. Tao attempts to speak out, to tell Kris not to do it, but he stops himself, looking at the two moons in the sky.

The Tree reaches out with a small, pale hand, and Kris takes her hand in his own. He guides her hand up over his heart, bending down so she can reach, then her arm sinks into his chest midway up her forearm.

Kris gasps as the Tree pulls out her arm, holding in it a white light not unlike Baekhyun’s. Hugging her arms to her and closing her eyes, the light is absorbed into the Tree.

Kris reaches up to his hand and slips off his flying goggles, tightening the strap and slipping them over the Tree’s face. The goggles dwarf her face, slipping off her nose, but they will stay. The Tree looks at us all, and addresses us, her voice cracking from nerves.

“Teleport, Frost, Earth, Electricity, Fire, Health, Wind, Time, Water, Telekinesis, Light… Kris. I chose you well.”

Without any more words she left, shooting off into the air like a torpedo. She passes through the wind, the tornado, surprising Luhan on her ascent to the skies.

We watch as her tiny speck grows tinier and tinier, insignificant in comparison to the Dark’s planet-sized mass. With a final spark, like a glint in the teeth of a bad western movie, there’s impact.

The Tree disappears, engulfed by the Dark. She shoots forward, piercing through to the core like radiation killing cancer.

Then, like a dying heartbeat, it’s all gone.

The real moon shines through, slowly disappearing as the sun finishes its rise, the bottom of the star leaving the touch of the horizon. 

Eclipse over.

finis

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I am so sorry for that painful chapter guys.... don't worry, I'm just going to finish my exams (four days tops) and then write an epilogue. I hope I didnt create too much drama in your lives ^-^