The sun was setting as I cautiously moved about this ruined city. I quietly walked alongside the broken down sidewalks and looked at what was once Seoul. The great capital of South Korea. Cars were left on what was once a highway to burn. To give this isolated place a bit of light. To give this place warmth.

I stopped to admire the setting sun in the bright orange sky and bit my lip in frustration. I shoved my right hand into the pocket of my jacket and pulled out a pocket watch.

"So Li, if anything was to happen to the heir of the Shin Group, leave this place with him, immediately." My father placed the rusty golden pocket watch in my hand his warm brown colored eyes, turned dark blue.

The sun created light ripples in the river next to me as I stared at my reflection. My light brown eyes resembled the dark blue colors of my father's. I touched the black tattoo trailing from the right side of my neck to my shoulder. I got it from my father. When I turned twelve and he decided to pass the family power to me.

It was rather painful to feel the transfer of the power. From his large, warm hands to my timid, small ones. The tattoo formed on my body when I woke up the next morning and unlike the transfer, it was painless.

Fourteen. I was to turn fourteen at midnight. But after my twelfth birthday, I stopped celebrating. That's when this dark place turned darker. Two years have passed and it was funny to see how much could change since then. I don't even think he remembers my birthday. Ever since the name has been etched into this world, my father and I stopped talking. Our talks concerned the safety of the Shins. My father stayed up, taking on nightly shifts to protect the Shins. I took on the day shifts and speaking of which, my shift was to end soon.

I was hurrying home to hopefully catch a glimpse of what used to be, my proud father before he left for his shift. As I approached the worn down house, my heightened hearing senses came to life and I knew my dark blue eyes betrayed me.

"This is your last chance." I heard his voice. Not my father's, but that... bastard's. The Founder of the Lee Group. The uprising group, known for their immense power and strategy.

"I will have to respond to it the same way I responded to it the last few times. I'm rejecting your offer. Now if you'll excuse me-" My father's strong and proud voice reached my ears. The father I had known my own life wasn't dead. Somewhere inside that body, he was still alive.

"Mr. Kim, I'm only offering you this because you've been there with me ever since I was a child." I crept closer to my house and peeked through the dust covered window to see bits of my father and the Founder of the Lee Group. "Your daughter, I would like her to join us as well-"

"I only looked after you then because you were a sweet young boy. But looking at you now, it hurts my eyes. There's no need to be formal with me." My father replied without wavering. "Regarding my daughter... I would like her to have nothing to do with you. Even if I left it up to her, she would never join you. So scram." The Founder let a smirk cross his face.

"Scram? If you aren't well aware of your surroundings, you're surrounded by my men. Needless to say, they're armed. If I were you, I wouldn't be too sure of your choices. Did you forget?" The Founder held onto his sword, dragging it across the old floorboards. "You've already transferred your power to your daughter. In other words, as of right now... you're powerless."

"Then why don't you kill me?" My father sneered at him, mockingly. It didn't have much of an effect on the Founder considering the fact that the Founder smiled as he said that.

"Mr. Kim, I respect you too much to do so. After all, you are So Li's father. I wish to-"

"I don't get why you're like this. Your parents didn't raise you to be like-"

"Don't talk about my past too lightly." He glowered and his face darkened. "Well, I'm only asking you this one last time. I understand that you know the benefits of joining us is greater than staying with the Shins."

"I've already told you my answer. No." Something dropped from the inside of my room and I froze.

No. 

The heir of Shin was hiding in my room. The Founder... there was no doubt that he knew. He narrrowed his eyes and made his way to my room, leading my father surrounded by his men in the living room. He gripped his custom made silver sword as I crept alongside the worn house and close to the back door where two men, were standing on guard at the back door. With my new found speed, I was able to knock them out and sneak in through the back door, keeping myself extremely quiet. I hid behind the frail wooden bathroom door, at an angle that I was able to see everything except for my father.

The heir to the Shin Group was tossed out into the well spaced hallway and crashed into the dirty gray wall, stumbling. The Founder smirked at the sight of the vulnerable heir.

"Well, how nice of you to join us." He approached the heir and smirked. The heir's eyes were wandering around the house crazily as he spotted me behind the bathroom door.

"Remember what you..." I shot a nervous look at the mirror hanging over the sink in the bathroom to see the dark blue color of my eyes had died down. Which meant... my power stopped. Which also meant... I couldn't hear the rest of what the heir was saying. All I could tell was that the heir was responding equally as strong and powerful as the Founder. And the Founder didn't like it. He twitched and as the heir finished his sentence, he was slammed against the wall. 

The Founder had a spark of anger flash across his eyes as his knuckles turned white from the tight grip he had on the collar of the heir's once carefully made cotton shirt. I wanted to run out and fulfill my duty of keeping the heir safe, but I was clearly outnumbered. Even with the help of my father. If I ran out now, the possibilities of being slain was much larger than the possibility of actually getting out here safe, with my father and the heir.

No matter how hard I tried, my power wouldn't activate itself and I regretted my decision of slacking off rather than learning to control my power. The sound of a sword being drawn out caused me to lose focus and pay attention to what the Founder was about to do. My eyes widened as I saw the Founder's sword aimed at the heir.

No. No. No. No!

The Founder pulled his sword back and I was prepared to lunge forward despite the fact that I could be sliced into two, but my father beat me to it.

My eyes snapped shut as I prepared myself for the worst, frozen in the middle of my path to the heir. The sound of the sword going through flesh- human flesh was clear as i held my breath. I could feel the presence of swords surrounding me as my heart stopped beating. I didn't want to open my eyes. I was so afraid of what I would see.

"So... Li....?" My father's raspy voice reached my ears as I allowed myself to breathe again. My eyes slowly opened upon hearing his voice and my heart ached.

In front of the heir was my father, falling to the dirty, loose, wooden floorboards. Dark red liquid soaked his makeshift dirty white shirt and seeped into the floorboards. A large gash was seen at the side of his hip. I wanted to scream, say something, or at least do something. I just stood there. I caught a glimpse of myself in the bathroom mirror from where I stood in the hallway. My short black hair and my side swept bangs were messy as always and I felt my anger fuel myself. My blue eyes turned to a darker, yet brighter blue. I turned to look back at my father who was starting to cough up blood.

"So... Li..." My father called. The Founder was completely frozen and dropped his blood stained sword.

Run...

My father's dark brown eyes were pleading me to run. But I couldn't leave him. His eyes urged me on, but I was paralyzed by my thoughts.

"Hap..py B...irthd..ay." So many thoughts ran through my head in that single moment. He remembered my birthday. I was so happy, but this wasn't the circumstances I wanted to hear it in. Should I run? But what about dad?

Run! I'll be okay. Run... I won't forgive you if anything happens to you. Go! Protect the heir of Shin. Use the item I gave you.

His eyes darted to the distracted Founder and the front and back door.

"S-So Li... I didn't mean to." The Founder approached me and I drew my sword out.

"Don't come any closer." My eyes glowed dangerously blue and the heir of Shin crouched down next to my father to make sure he was okay. My father was gasping for air as he stared at me, pleadingly to leave.

When my decision was made, my grip on the sword tightened and the mirror in the bathroom shattered from my aura and I took the opportunity to kill the men surrounding me and escape the suffocating house with the heir.

"So Li- have you thought through things carefully?" The Founder's voice called after me as I ran. "You only have two choices and-" I whipped around and sneered at him.

"I've already decided the moment you started making this place hell." The heir stood next to me clutching the book, close to his heart. The Founder watched us as his remaining men caught up with him and ran towards us. He stopped them by raising his hand.

"I'm doing everything for you-"

"Shut up." I turned to the heir. "Run. Go ahead first." His large brown eyes were filled with fear as he tried hard to conceal it.

"He's the reason why your father died. that bastard. The heir of the Shin Group. That piece of garbage." He spat, growing frustrated at my growing anger.

"Shut it." I growled, my sword pointed at him. His men drew their swords out for safety precautions though I was two meters away from him. "He's not the reason to why my father's dead."

"He's exactly the reason why you're father's dead. So Li, can't you just listen to me? I care about-" His voice softened as I clenched my teeth.

"If you cared about me, I wouldn't be like this right now. Enough of this bull." I turned and started to run after the heir as he scoffed.

"I tried to play nice. You're going to regret this, Kim So Li." I caught up with heir faster than I thought and pulled him into an alleyway as I heard the Founder's command. "Catch them at all costs. Shin Dong Ho has to go and Kim So Li will stay." 

There was no way in hell I would join him. His words caused me to run faster with the heir and sent me down twisted and dirty alleyways.

"You can't run forever."

His voice called out mockingly as I ran through the dark, smelly alleys. I didn't care. Not about the cut on my arm, how tired I was from running, or even his mocking voice. Not even death.

"He's right. We can't keep running forever."

"That's because I don't plan to." I pulled him into an abandoned building, locking the lobby door securely, before dragging him into an dark and dirt filled room. I locked the door securely once again, hoping it'd buy us some time.

He stumbled further inside the room and tripped, falling to the floor with the book.

"Why are we even here? Why did you lock us in our death bed?" Anger was evident in his voice and so was fear. "They'll catch us here. We're done for."

The muffled bits of moonlight that came from the cloudy and dirty window of the building allowed me to see a few drops of tears rolling down his dirty cheeks. I knew I resembled him just as much. 

I knelt down in front of him, pushing my side bangs out of my face as my short black hair swayed with my movements. I dropped my sword and used my thumbs to wipe the tears off his face, trembling.

"Everything will be okay. We're not going to die." My voice wavered and water filled my eyes at the sight of him letting tears roll down his face soundlessly.

I took my pocket watch out as I heard the lobby door slam open.

"Hold onto this." He quickly recognized the device and placed his left hand on the side of the pocket watch as I moved the time back.

"From 3024 to 2014." I moved the time back on the pocket watch as the sound of footsteps were getting closer.

"2014? Will we be okay there?" His right hand grasped the book and brought it close to his heart.

"We'll be better there than here." I answered, giving him a tired smile as the door to the room we were in slammed open. I got a hold of my sword and everything slowly faded away....