Leo went to the Capitol of Sanctuary, located at the very center of the place. It was where Jae Ren had settled the documents with Onew. The documents that had all caused this- whatever what was happening.

He never expected he would ever find himself waltzing inside the place. Much less completely alone.

The place looked round from the outside so it almost surprised him to see the inside look so different. It still had the curves, except there were hallways where the walls should have ended. It was far larger on the inside.

"In the south wing. Room 21." He said to the woman in front. She looked like a woman, anyway.

"Are you meeting an outsider?" Her voice sounded like she was gurgling. Small wonder since she did look like she lived in the waters. Her scaly, green-ish skin told him so. "That part of the capitol is mainly used for that." She explained.

Normally, he wouldn't care for small talk. But he found himself replying. "Yes. I think. Are you...?"

She laughed, “I am. You must be new if you haven’t seen one of my kind before. Though we are most usually in the underground part of the city. Do you need directions?" She asked as she handed him his pass. "The guards who would be searching you would help. Thank you."

“Thanks...” Leo did need the directions. The capitols walls were painted an almost blinding white and no matter how he looked at them, they made him feel nauseous.

The walk was long, since the room was rather far away and on the fourth floor. From the outside, he would never have guessed it was such a large place.

"Step inside. You two will have a mediator with you to help settle the documents." The guard posted outside said.

Quietly, he went inside.

He expected a room just for talking. A table and chairs inside a small room like the one he'd seen in interrogations from TV series' about criminals. The shock of finding a large, beautiful room behind that plain door almost made him stop on his tracks.

"My, you haven't changed."

Leo stiffened.

Seohae was sitting on one of the cushioned seats. There was a coffee table that went in the middle of hers and another chair.

"Sit. The mediator will come after an hour of our meeting or so..." She watched him sit down as if he'd disappear if she took her eyes of off him. "Your silence hasn't changed at all either." She observed. "I'm sure you're wondering about my... changes. And also this whole mess I created."  She dryly laughed.

Her hair was the silver of an old woman's, not her normal brown. But even with that flashy change, Leo couldn't stop staring at the empty wheelchair beside her.

"I created my own immortality elixir. I admit I used Jaekyuns' as a base, but I've altered it to better accommodate me since it didn't really work on me that well originally." She touched her hair subconsciously. "I lost my ability to walk a long time ago. I'm sure you can guess who had a hand on it."

He did. He could guess what happened

"She didn't kill me that night like everyone, including me, expected." Seohae smiled emptily. It was a trademark of hers. "She crippled me instead. It was a kindness I don't think I deserved."

"... How?"

She blinked, seemingly surprised to hear his voice. "She controlled the air that circulated inside my body and ruptured the nerves responsible for moving my legs. I have to admit," She sighed with the same smile on. It almost looked like she was happy. "It was genius. I could never do the things she could. I understand that now. I was a child back then. I'm hoping you can find it in yourself to look at who I am now. After all, we'll be spending a lot of time with each other from now on. I would have claimed you sooner, since you are still my guardian, but I had to make... preparations."

She told him all the missing years. The time she had spent in vain of trying to look for a healer who could help her walk again. The years of building her own place in solitude and earning the means when Sanctuary gave her the exchange of promising to keep her identity in secrecy for valuable minerals.

"Sanctuary found me and, well, looked through my background. As you can see, they weren’t very pleased. I am under strict observation and house-arrest, but I am under their protection." As she talked more and more, Leo started to believe her smile more, too. "Honestly, Leo, you'll absolutely love what I've done with the place."

He froze. "Does that mean I won't be coming back here?"

Her smile fell off her face. "Yes. You won't. With my reputation, I can't. And since you're my guardian..." She frowned. "I'm sorry, Leo. I didn't... I'm sorry." She sighed. "You must like it here."

He couldn’t wrap it around his head. He was truly going to be separated from the others. “I do.”

“Maybe you’ll like it with me, too. You can’t know unless you’ve tried, right?” She hoped. Her hope crushed his.

“I understand.” He found himself saying. “Go on.”

Her face lit up as she continued to tell him about her accomplishments.

Of course, in truth, it wasn't fine. He was coming to realize that. His brothers were here. VIXX was here. Wasn't he still a part of that?

Jae Ren was here, too.

"... I tried to create other guardians, you know." She said, catching his attention. "Of course, they could never compare to you and N. They were fine. Strong and capable. But they lacked the same warmth and mentality you and N both had." She sighed. "You’re something else, Leo. She made both of you so perfectly. Even as decades past without me seeing or hearing from her, I've come to idolize her more and more..." She smiled dreamily. "She was making a new one before I left. How is he?"

"There are six of us." He couldn’t tell her that there were hundreds of other guardians in Sanctuary who were on par, if not greater, than they were. Seohae lived in seclusion, from what she had told him. He didn’t want to make her feel even more so.

She lifted her head, her expression a mixture of surprise and confusion. "Six?"

"After me, there's Ken. Then Ravi, Hongbin and Hyuk. She made us all have unique abilities."

"N could use a small amount of magic... You have great strength and attack-defence capabilities. The others?" Her interest was clear.

"Ken has a good nose. Ravi could sense anyone a mile away. Hongbin's eyesight is the best. Hyuk is the fastest and he can breathe underwater." He ignored the discomfort he was feeling. He felt like he was betraying them, maybe that was why he told as little as possible.

For some reason, he felt like he should omit Hongbin's healing abilities. Though he did care for the fact Seohae was confined in a wheelchair, he didn't think it would be right to give her false hope. He doubted Hongbin could undo something Jaekyun did.

"Interesting." She hummed. "Maybe one day, they can visit us. Along with Jae Ren, of course." She added.

Something pinched Leo's gut.

It had felt like a dream. All of it. A nightmare, sort of.

Seohae was sitting right in front of him. Sure, she was a little different, but she was still the same.

She smiled at him, like before. He felt his head was spinning in all directions just looking at her.

Yet a part of him yelled this wasn't real. Not the situation- but what he was feeling.

Jaekyun implanted these emotions for Seohae inside him. More than once, the former had tried to remove them after but she told him it was no longer possible.

He couldn't say if he wanted to believe her.

All that time that he had been with Jae Ren, he could not let himself believe that he wasn’t loyal to her. He couldn’t tell himself that he was loyal to Seohae.

“Is it true? You...” He couldn’t finish what he was saying.

The smile on Seohae’s face dimmed, if not disappeared. No, she looked as if the age showed in her face with the way she was smiling so sadly. “I did. They were powerless against someone who could stop the air from flowing into their lungs.” Her hands were shaking, but Leo couldn’t find it in himself to pity her. At least, that emotion was his, he knew.

The grief for people he hadn’t even met. And the spark of hate for the person who sat in front of him.

“She can never forgive me.” She said. “Not even if I begged on my knees for it.”

He stayed quiet, not denying her.

“But you can.”

It was that hope in her face again. It crushed him. What was worse was he couldn’t tell if she was right or not.

He couldn't even say no.

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