I woke up and stirred, feeling uneasy, something felt wrong. My stomach churned and I instantly felt a pang in my chest. Sehun was knocked awake; he was holding his chest and screaming his heart out. “Make it stop!” Sehun sobbed loudly and Yixing woke up, curling up in a ball and groaning. “What’s going on with them?” Yongguk screamed as Daehyun ped our tent and screamed ‘here too!’ It’s like my heart was aching, the pain was blinding. Tears fell down my face and I grabbed my shirt, twisting it in my hand. “What the is going on?” Yongguk cursed, looking around frantically. I heard Tao and Jongin sob from the tent next to ours; all 12 of us were in pain. Henry came into our tent, his face scrunched in pain, “it’s okay,” he reassured us and collapsed. “Hyung!” Sehun cried, trying to get up but instead fell right back and screamed in agony. All of a sudden it stopped, everything was silent and we were panting, sweat dripping off our faces. All the aching was gone, but it still felt like a piece of me had been chopped off, I felt sort of empty.

“Why now? They aren’t ready,” Henry cried to himself. Once we calmed down we went outside to comfort each other. “What was that?” Joonmyun asked no one in particular.

“We need to go back, they can stay at my place; I live in a mansion. Just for a few days, okay?” Henry rushed. “Now go pack, everyone, just say you felt like coming back because Tao is scared of bugs or whatever, or someone scared of the sea or got homesick, we need to leave and fast.”

“That was weird,” I heard Youngjae say to Daehyun as they walked back to pack. It was, but Henry seemed to be the only one who understood what happened therefore we followed his orders without questions. 7 of us went with Henry and the other 5 went with Yongguk, Zelo and Daehyun. I narrowed my eyes at them when we got into the car. Why did all three of them have to be here? The other car only had 3 people now while ours had 8. “Stay cautious, we can’t trust anyone,” I spoke to the rest through telepathy. Since Kris was someone I could really trust, I told him about what I heard in the car, during the hike so he told us to that the most powerful of us were the ones to go with Yongguk. It was me, Chanyeol, Tao, Sehun and Kyungsoo.

I noticed the uneasy looks Yongguk gave us when we entered the car and Daehyun shook his head to him and mouthed something I couldn’t understand. Right before Henry started to drive he said one thing to me and that was “you have to by any means get a hold of Yongguk’s phone, okay?” And once I asked why he told me he’d explain as soon as we were together again, hence Kris sent Tao instead of Jongdae. However he was very reluctant to letting him go where he can’t watch over him, but nonetheless he had to let him go.

Yongguk started up the engine and drove behind Henry while the others went back home. It was silent, not like the previous time. There was no bickering and the atmosphere wasn’t as pleasant as before. I kept my eye on Henry’s car as we were driving behind them but when we were at a stop light Yongguk went right while Henry went straight. “What do you think you’re doing?” I snapped. “I’m sorry, I can’t risk their lives for you, they’re like my brothers, go, Zelo,” Yongguk said desperately as we stopped in a dark alley. We jumped out the car quickly and they did the same. “You do know we can kill you right now right?” I raised my eyebrows. “Will he even have time to get to our necks?” I said, amused. “I told you it was useless, they got their most powerful ones to come with us, please, we can fight for ourselves, if we join them we’ll all be much stronger and they will have information, just please Yongguk,” Daehyun pleaded. Now, I was lost.

“It’s too late now, they won’t trust us and he’ll kill us all! Zelo!” he shrieked and Zelo moved and grabbed Tao’s neck. “I’m so so sorry,” he said miserably, looked at our faces and then retreated. “I can’t do this, I’m sorry hyung.” A bit of Tao’s energy was already drained so he stumbled back as soon as Zelo let go. “Do you mind explaining to us what exactly are you so afraid of first?” Kyungsoo said calmly. “We can’t tell you, we can’t. Our families are in danger if we do,” Zelo dropped his head and walked back to Yongguk and Daehyun.

“Look, let’s pretend this didn’t happen okay? I’m sorry, we’ll just say we couldn’t do it at this time, we’ll take you back to Henry’s,” Yongguk muttered and rubbed his face. “Do what?” I said, frustrated. “Bring you back to SM.”

Silence.

“You wanted to- you wanted to take us back?” Sehun said, his eyes filled with hurt and his tone laced with anger. “Wanted to? We’re being threatened! And if we don’t do this he’ll just send someone else to get you back! That first night I risked everyone’s lives and lied! I said we didn’t find you! He got someone to check during the night and he threatened to kill us if we don’t take you back, if he can’t find us he’ll find our families,” Yongguk broke down in tears. “I don’t want to do this; I want to be a normal guy. I want to be going to college, not being sent to do this.”

I watched him sadly, looks like we weren’t the only ones who had it hard. “You.. You should do that. Go back and tell him you couldn’t,” Chanyeol said slowly. I looked at Tao and pointed at my wrist. Everything froze but me and him. I reached into Yongguk’s pocket and grabbed his phone, putting it in my pocket instead. I walked back to where I was and gave Tao a thumbs up and everything was put into motion again. “Seriously Gguk hyung, we can’t do anything to them, I’d feel bad using their powers against them,” Daehyun confessed. Oh. I forgot about that. If he had used Tao’s power everything would have gone wrong. “Please let’s just take them back and say we couldn’t, come back to our house though okay? There’s a lot of stuff you don’t know that you probably should.”

Just then a car screeched behind us and Kris and Joonmyun came running out. “What the is going on here?” Henry hollered. “We’ll explain later, let’s just get going,” I waved my hand dismissively and shot Yongguk a pointed look. “Or should we just take a cab?”

“It’s okay, we’ll take you,” Yongguk looked down guiltily.

We reached the destination safely so I went to Yongguk’s door once we got out. He rolled the windows down and I said that if he ever really does feel threatened or if he thinks something’s going to happen to us, he should call. He nodded solemnly and gave me a small, sad smile. “But really, I am sorry. But you have to understand, wouldn’t you do it for your bunch?” he looked towards where they all were. “I’d think of a way out,” I smiled and wished him good luck. Henry did speak the truth, he did in fact live in a mansion, but the thing is, it looked modern on the outside but looked ancient on the inside. So when someone was extremely rich back then, they’d have a house like that. The floors were marble and the couches were leather. “Take a seat.”

We all sat in the living room as Henry went to get something from his library. Yep, a library in his house. He came back down with a scroll in hand. May I repeat, he came back with a scroll. He sat down on the couch and we all observed him. “Oh god if this doesn’t work it would be really awkward,” he breathed and unrolled the scroll. We all crowded around it, it read:

‘When the skies and the grounds were one, the legends, with their twelve forces, nurtured the tree of life. An eye of red force created the evil that coveted the heart of tree of life and the heart slowly grew dry. To tend and embrace the heart of tree of life, the legends hereby divide the tree in half and hide each side. Hence, time is over-turned and space turns a skew. The twelve forces divide into two and create two suns that look alike into two worlds that seem alike. The legends travel apart. The legends shall now see the same sky but shall stand on different grounds, shall stand on the same ground but shall see different skies. The day the grounds be kept a single file before one sky in two worlds that seem alike, the legends will greet each other. The day the red force is purified, the twelve forces will reunite into one perfect root, a new world shall open up.’

The writing then started glowing a bright red and Henry sighed of relief. I all of a sudden felt a burning pain on my wrist and it looked like something was being carved onto my skin. It lasted for about 10 seconds before the pain was gone. I now had a sign on my wrist; it was basically 7 circles and lines. “What the hell?” Jongin muttered, in awe. “What’s going on?” I asked Henry.

“This is a legend, a very old one. I would know, I’m 658 years old,” he chuckled dryly. “You’re what?” Suho asked in disbelief. “Nevermind me, I know you’re probably all confused so I’ll explain, this scroll is sacred. This legend is about 12 forces living on exoplanet, about one hundred thousand years ago. They were the guardians of the tree of life, and they were in grave danger because of the red force. They took the heart and divided it in two, one in this world and one in the other. I know what you’re al thinking, don’t worry. You aren’t those legends, you won’t be split apart. This legend is about the 12 before you whom sprits chose your bodies to land into. They only ever met during the eclipse, and that was for a short while. Thankfully, all spirits landed into bodies on earth. The reason the spirits are now in your bodies is because the previous owners have failed in succeeding to completely destroy the red force. The ending of the legend never happened, the red force wasn’t purified and its darkness is lurking in this planet’s shadows, looking for you twelve and using its powers for evil. All those wars, those deaths, those crimes, it’s all because of the red force.’

‘I wasn’t sure at first that the spirits landed in your bodies so I kept a close eye on you, for 5 years, ever since little Sehun was thrown into that place. I couldn’t do much about it, but I did help get you all to be treated better. Dara, she’s like me too. We knew each other for about 400 hundred years. She knows one of you more than the rest but that’s not my story to tell. You were misled; it isn’t true that you’re experiments. Everyone, put your hands on the scroll.”

And we did.

It glowed brightly and when we removed our hands from it, the text was changed.

‘Once the spirits shall land in those whom eyes are open to the world and wise since birth, there shall be a selfish creature, taking their powers as his own. Once the last of the twelve reunites with the spirits he shall have upmost power. Taking lead and destroying the selfish being, they shall show the world a new meaning. Hard times shall come, but the twelve must be one. Live as one. Give the world a new beginning.’

I gaped and looked over to Kyungsoo, his mouth was hanging open and his eyes were wide. “This only happens if you are the 12 spirits, wah it took me a long time to find you. There is another scroll that has this written down but this one only changes from the legends to the spirits if it is touched by them.”

“You’re not experiments, you see, the red force can sometimes take a human form. Therefore, Kim Youngmin was taken over by that force 25 years ago. It’s true that Soo Man had the lab and wanted to be a known scientist and everything but Youngmin tricked him into thinking that Sehun was an experiment and that the credit would be handed to him. He was planning on making you his subjects and finding the only thing that can destroy him, the tree of life.”

We all had to take this in. “What now? We’re found, what do we do now?” I asked in a small voice. “We find the other half of the heart, since the beings on exoplanet aren’t as ignorant to the truth as humans are, they searched for the half of the heart on the other planet and found it years ago, now we need to get it from Youngmin. He found the other half of the heart and it’s kept with him now.  My master told me that the spirits can feel the heart’s heartbeat, so since you never felt anything in SM I don’t think it’s there.”

“What about that whole heart attack in the morning today?” Joonmyun asked.

“That’s the heart getting weaker, when it’s hurt, we’re hurt. All exoplanet living beings must have suffered from it too just not as much as us, you see, I’m a guardian but I don’t have that powerful spirit, they didn’t choose me. But the tree of life did choose me to find you, that was my mission in life. So we all get a pang in our hearts because it gave us part of its powers. Also why it would be easier for you guys to find it,” he sat back on the sofa, his eyes closed. “It never hurt as much as this, so we really need to find it quick.”

 “That explains why I can’t use my powers on you and you can talk to me though telepathy!” I suddenly blurted. “Huh, you guys are more connected than I thought,” Henry smiled a bit. “Now, let’s see that phone and see what exactly Youngman is making those guys do,” he sighed. I gave him the phone and he opened the phone, it had so password so he immediately went to the texts. We explained everything that Yongguk told us and he nodded. “We should help those guys out too, before the red force engulfs them too.”

It wasn’t easy taking all of that in. I brushed the tip of my fingers along the sign on my wrist.

“What’s this?” I showed him it. “You all have that; it’s a sign of a guardian. The tree accepted you.”

I’m a guardian.

We all are.

This is so not happening.

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Ohohohoo. I’m changing the description because I thought of the story differently at first but then I got bored of the plot so I changed it. I originally thought of most of the things but like, I was going to make it more fun and happy. But if I find it boring to write, readers must find it boring to read so yeah. Please comment what you think and stuff because it makes me happy and constructive criticism and advice is welcome too<3

In case anyone was wondering how the signs look like--V