“Tao,” Xiumin said, voice barely above a whisper. “Don’t hesitate. Take them out the second you’re sure they’re clear of Luhan.”

The headlights of the adjacent vehicle were blinding, but Xiumin was sure beyond a shadow of a doubt that these two men standing in front of him were cohorts of the monster who’d stolen Luhan from them.

It was maybe a fluke that Xiumin had spotted the vehicle moving along the horizon, and it was even luckier that he’d been able to make out the unconscious form of Luhan in the passenger seat. It didn’t matter where they’d been taking him. Xiumin wasn’t about to let them get a foot further away.

“Why’re you in the way?” one of the men demanded, and he was clear of the vehicle a second later. Xiumin paid him no attention. He was young and likely not a threat.

The man by the driver’s side door called out, “Who are you? Why did you block us? What do you want?”

Xiumin’s gaze slid over to Tao a second later. It took a great amount of energy from Tao for him to harness his ability, and it wasn’t easy to draw up quickly. Xiumin knew he had to buy them some time, especially if Tao was going to extend his abilities to both the occupants, and not just one of them.

“You have something that belongs to us,” Tao called out. “And you’re going to pay for taking it in the first place.”

There was shuffling in the car as the driver’s side man took a deliberate foot forward. “I don’t know who you are, or what you think you’re doing, but you don’t know what you’re messing with.” Fire sparked along his hands, and it was clear to Xiumin in that second that he was about to face off against someone with Mama’s gift. There was also a chance the other, younger man was gifted as well.

“What’s going on?” Luhan called out, pulling himself from the vehicle.

“Luhan!” Xiumin called out.

The fire wielder turned back to Luhan and Xiumin made his move. With a running start he jetted forward, hurling ice at his opponent.

The man gave a fierce cry, bringing up his own ability, fire destroying Xiumin’s ice within seconds. “You don’t know what you’re messing with!” the man called out, more fire busting out and lighting up the area around them.

From the corner of Xiumin’s eye he could see Tao’s sword at the ready, the second man from the vehicle on a collision course with him, wind gusting around them, kicking up dust.

“He’s a wind manipulator, Tao!” Xiumin called back. “Watch out!” But it was too late, Tao was flipping head over heels, caught up in something more powerful than his center of gravity.

A strong yell had Xiumin ducking to the side, rolling away from the searing heat. Instinctively he brought his hands up, doubling his efforts to impale his attacker with ice shards. He felt the moisture in the air a second later and pulled at it, pelting ice fragments down on the fiery man.

“Tao! Xiumin!” Luahn called out, clutching at the door handle to the vehicle, swaying on his feet. “Chanyeol! Sehun! All of you, stop it now!”

The fire user gave a strained cry of pain and lost his footing, one of Xiumin’s shards making contact. It was enough of an opening for Xiumin to go in for the kill.

Xiumin didn’t like to think of himself as a monster. He had killed before, both to protect others and to protect himself. He’d killed because his king ordered him to, and because he thought it was the only option he had left. Killing was something he did. But he didn’t do it lightly and he always paid his resect to the life he’d taken.

There was, however, no doubt in his mind that he would kill to protect Luhan, and to recover him. He’d kill the fire user out of principle alone, to ensure that no other K soldier thought that Luhan was worth the risk.

Some of the fire that was jumping from the man to the barren land around them, and the fringe was starting to catch fire. For an ice wielder like Xiumin, it was a kind of situation that was promising disastrous consequences.

“Sehun!”

The fire user ducked away from Xiumin’s latest assault seconds before death, conjuring up a wall of flames, and then unpredictably, shooting them towards Tao.

Then Xiumin saw why.

Tao had obviously caught the wind user in his time grip. He’d probably had just enough energy to hold one person out of time, and was winding his sword down in a move that would end the fight right then and there.

But the fire wielder was faster, and his arc of flames caught Tao off guard, sending him spinning to the side, losing his grip on time and bringing the wind user back to the present.

“Stop it now!”

Everything lurched to the side.

Xiumin found himself on his back, breath knocked from his chest, and something akin to a heavy weight pressing down on him. He couldn’t sit up, no matter how hard he tried, and he glanced around for Tao, wondering if the man was okay, and if this was some kind of secondary ability that one of these men had.

Or third. Because Xiumin now knew who the fire user was. It was Chanyeol, the man whom there’d been a capture or kill order out on for a little under a week. He was impressively powerful, and if Xiumin had been fighting to keep up with his fire, it was a miracle the phoenix hadn’t already been called up and decimated him.

“I told you all to stop it.” Luhan was bent forward, gasping for breath, the only one of the five still standing. He was ashen looking, not that his pale complexion was something new, and his hands shook. “Stop fighting like animals. Stop trying to kill each other.”

“Luhan,” Xiumin groaned out. “Let me up.”

Luhan toppled forward, his hands barely catching him from landing completely against the ground. On his knees, with his head bowed down, he called to Xiumin, “I won’t. I won’t let any of you up until you promise to stop fighting.”

“Luhan!” Xiumin heard Tao call out. “His highness sent us.”

Something was obviously very wrong. Mama’s visions and communications left Luhan weak, sometimes severely so, but his telekinesis was another story altogether. Luhan had mastered his ability years ago and could use it freely for long periods of time before he felt any kind of strain. He shouldn’t have looked so close to fainting now, not exerting it over a scant four people.

Xiumin used a burst of strength to flip onto his stomach and reached out for Luhan. “Are you okay? Luhan, let me up. Let me help you.”

Chanyeol looked to be viciously fighting against Luhan’s invisible hold, but it was the other boy, the unnamed one, that surprised Xiumin by calling out, “It’s because he’s so far away from Mama’s spirit. From her life tree! He told me she’s trying to communicate with him, but he’s too far away. It’s making him sick.”

“I’m fine,” Luhan snapped. “And none of you are getting up until I think you’re going to be able to control yourselves.”

On his side, Tao reasoned, “These people kidnapped you, Luhan. Or at the very least, they’re cohorts with the person who did. We’ve been sent here on a rescue mission. Let us up and we can take you home to his highness. We can take you home to the prince.”

Luhan’s bangs were sweaty, pressing to his forehead and his lips were colorless as he demanded, “Give me your word. Tao. Xiumin. Both of you. Give it to me and I’ll let you up.”

A sworn word … Xiumin could take nothing more serious, and knew that if he did give it, he couldn’t break it. He’d never have Luhan’s trust again if he did, and some things weren’t worth that. Most weren’t.

Tao looked obstinate at the prerequisite, but Xiumin could feel his own resolve crumbling until finally he said, “As long as I’m not attacked first, and required to defend myself, I won’t act as an aggressor. I won’t be the first to attack. You have my sworn word.”

Begrudgingly, as Xiumin was able to sit up, a little dazed, Tao offered his own oath.

Making a mad dash to Luhan’s side, Xiumin’s feet slid across the tiny rocks littering the ground around them. He almost crashed into Luhan in his attempt to get to him, and then wrapped his arms around him in a tight hug. He bent to Luhan’s ear and said, “I was so scared I’d lost you forever. I’m sorry.”

Luhan reached an arm up to hook around Xiumin. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”

“I almost killed you,” Xiumin protested, shame flushing through him.

“Hey!” Chanyeol snapped. “What about me and Sehun? Let us up!”

Tao looked unimpressed as he kept his sword at the ready. “You aren’t from M. You have no idea what a sworn promise from one person to another means. Unlike you and your kind who break oaths all the time, the people of M value the trust placed in a promise. Xiumin and I have given our word to Luhan we won’t attack you first, and he understands the impact of that. Your word would mean nothing.”

The wind user kicked out angrily. “I never make promises I don’t plan to keep. You listen to me, , you don’t get to think you’re better than us by standing there and sprouting off all your elitist bull. Chanyeol and I are just as trustworthy as you.”

“Then promise me,” Luhan said wearily, leaning on Xiumin. “Give me your word and then prove your honor by keeping it.”

“Fine,” Chanyeol grit out. “For right now, if you let Sehun and I up, we agree to a temporary truce.”

“Luhan,” Xiumin breathed out, petting a hand along the back of his head, watching with careful eyes as Chanyeol and Sehun sat up slowly. “What’s this about your connection with Mama?”

The rest of them stood around Xiumin and Luhan awkwardly as the elder boy explained, “I’ve never been this far from the life tree. I’ve never been this far from Mama’s spirit. She’s been trying to talk to me. She’s been trying to tell me something, but the distance is getting in the way. It’s … taxing. She’s straining herself, and me, by trying.”

Finally, Tao knelt down next to them. “The prince sent us here to recover you. We’re going to take you right back, straight to the life tree if that’s what you want. You don’t have to suffer anymore.”

“I wasn’t kidnapped,” Luhan offered, his voice cracking. “It was an accident.”

Xiumin was loathed to admit it, but the teleporter had saved Luhan. The accidental loss of Luhan had rectified Xiumin’s mistake, but at a heavy cost. He barely trusted himself with Luhan anymore.

“Hey. Baozi.”

A finger poked at Xiumin’s cheek and he blushed. “Don’t call me that.” Especially not in front of other people who were both his peers and his enemies. The cute nickname that Luhan had called him as a child was fine between them in private, but Luhan knew how embarrassing it was for him when other people heard it. Xiumin certainly didn’t call Luhan Lulu anymore. They weren’t kids now.

“Baozi?” Chanyeol laughed out.

Ice clung to Xiumin’s bangs. “You’re lucky my word means something.”

Luhan ignored Xiumin’s request and poked him again, saying, “Baozi. Stop blaming yourself.”

Xiumin squeezed his hand. “I almost killed you.”

“I got in the way,” Luhan explained away. “You weren’t purposely aiming for me, and I won’t sit here and let you feel sorry for something that isn’t your fault.”

“I should have been able to control my ability,” Xiumin protested. “It’s unacceptable that I wasn’t able to.”

Tao put a reassuring hand on Xiumin’s shoulder and offered, “From all accounts you had just woken. No one is in complete control of their ability seconds after waking. I don’t blame you. Luhan doesn’t blame you. The prince doesn’t blame you, either. So don’t blame yourself.”

Luhan cautioned, “There’s nothing attractive about you, baozi, when you’re being self deprecating. Stop it.”

Xiumin took a claming breath. “Okay.” He nodded over to Chanyeol and Sehun. “How did you end up with them? What happened to the guy who kidnapped you?”

Slowly, and with some help from Xiumin, Luahn stood. “I told you already, I wasn’t kidnapped. Let me tell you what happened.”

It was the abridged version, that was for sure, but each word Luhan said seemed less and less believable. Luhan in a relationship with a soldier from K? M’s sworn enemy? That wasn’t something that Luhan would do. Luhan was loyal to M.

When Xiumin told him his feelings, Luhan said angrily, “My love for Kai has nothing to do with my loyalty to M. I never told him anything important. I never divulged our secrets or gave him priority information. Furthermore, he never asked. He understood that what we had was separate from what was going on around us.”

“What about these two clowns?” Tao asked, pointing at Chanyeol and then Sehun.

“You’re right,” Sehun said, looking angrily at Tao. “Maybe you are better than us at keeping your word, because I’m about to blow you so far away from us that it’ll take days for you to crawl your way back.”

Luhan jabbed his own finger at Sehun. “You don’t even think about it, or you’ll be eating dirt. No one is attacking anyone.”

“Luhan,” Xiumin sighed out. “I know you like to make friends with everyone, but this is crossing the line.”

Defiantly, Luhan took a full step away from Xiumin. “You should be ashamed of yourself, Xiumin. Letting prejudices get in the way of your appreciation. If it wasn’t for Sehun I could be anywhere right now. Someone with less than pure intentions found me. Sehun rescued me, and he’s the one who convinced Chanyeol to get us transportation. Without either of them we wouldn’t be reunited and I could be in real trouble.”

“We are at war,” Xiumin said plainly. “I have a right to be discriminatory towards a people that consistently use underhanded tactics to strike out at M and her citizens.”

“Oh, please,” Sehun snorted. “We’re not the ones attacking innocent civilians. Children and the elderly, specifically. Why don’t you try pointing those underhanded fingers at yourselves. K fights fairly and cleanly. Don’t be petty or I might be willing to risk Luhan -slapping me with his ability just so I can get a clean hit in on you.”

Pressing a wary hand to his forehead, Luhan snapped, “Go take a walk, Sehun. And don’t come back until you’re calm.”

Sehun muttered darkly, “You might be waiting a while,” then spun on heel and headed off.

In response to being left alone, Xiumin saw Chanyeol’s feet slide a bit more apart into a defensive position.

“Xiumin,” Luhan said, reaching out for him and pressing their bodies so close that Xiumin was sure no one else could hear them. “I was alone and vulnerable when Sehun found me. He didn’t have to save me, or try to help me by brining me home. He chose to do it of his volition, fully understanding the dangers. I think he and a certain someone else are very firm proof that people from K are not inherently bad like the M propaganda machine would have everyone believe.”

Him. Luhan was referencing him, eluding to something Xiumin never tried to recognize. Xiumin had been born in the southern part of Exo, and had been a K citizen for some time when the war began. He hadn’t always been loyal to the king and it was a blemish on his record as far as he was concerned. The kind of blemish that no one needed to know ever.

Luhan only knew these kinds of things because Luhan ended up knowing everything all the time.

“Fine,” Xiumin ground out. “Sehun can be your friend.”

“I hardly think I need your permission to make friends with Sehun, baozi.”

Xiumin hooked an arm around Luhan’s waist as his knees started to give out.

“We should go,” Tao said, his fingers cupping Luhan’s jaw. “Xiumin, he looks pretty bad. We need to get him back to the life tree, or at least to Lay.”

“Luhan,” Chanyeol broached, taking a cautious step forward. “These guys are your friends? You’ll be safe with them?”

Luhan gave a shallow nod. “Tao is my cousin’s fiercest protector, and Xiumin is my best friend. I trust them with my life.”

Chanyeol gave a look over his shoulder to where Sehun was slowly making his way back. The sun was completely gone and only the lights from the vehicles were lighting them at that point.

“Then,” Chanyeol said, “if you’re safe, I’m going to take Sehun and go back. Your friend isn’t wrong about us being at war. We might be being civil to each other right now out of necessity, but a week from now we could be fighting each other again. We could be killing each other. I’m part of the military, Luhan. I’ve risked a lot bringing you out here, and so has Sehun as a civilian. We have to go back, and we can do that now with a clear conscience.”

“No,” Luhan said, surprising them all with the force of his voice. “You can’t go, Chanyeol.”

Xiumin mumbled into Luhan’s ear, “Don’t get yourself worked up. You’re shaking again.”

“You can’t go,” Luhan told Chanyeol firmly. “That’s not an option.”

Sehun wandered his way back to them, asking, “Where isn’t Chanyeol going?”

Chanyeol shrugged. “I’m not going home, I guess? Luhan, I have to go. I’m a member of the K military. I am the enemy of your country. I was never going to follow you all the way back to your palace and drop you off on the doorstep. Sehun and I were always going to take you to the edge of your territory, find you transportation further inland, and then leave.”

“You don’t understand,” Luhan stressed out.

“No. You don’t understand. There is a shoot on sight policy for anyone of K’s military who’s spotted on M soil. I like you, Luhan. You’re a nice guy, not at all what I expected from someone from M, but you’re not worth getting shot over.

“I hate to agree with him about anything,” Xiumin offered, “but we can’t bring him back with us, Luhan. Unless you want to him straight to his death, and then face an inquiry as to why we didn’t take him down on the spot. It’d be nothing but trouble for us all.”

“Listen.” Luhan put his hand down on the ground next to him, spreading his fingers out. “Every time I’ve been unconscious while in K, Mama has tried to talk to me. She’s tried to tell me something important since even before that. But especially while I’ve been here, she’s been trying to communicate.”

Xiumin cut in right away, “It’s a damn good thing she can’t. You used to have fits and seizures once in a while, and now it’s practically every time. You’re hurt by her. And if that happened here, I’m not sure any of K’s doctors would be enough. We know Lay is invaluable and this is not the time to test that.”

“I still don’t get why you want Chanyeol to go with you,” Sehun said.

“You know why, Chanyeol,” Luhan said, bypassing Sehun altogether.

“I really don’t,” Chanyeol said, moving to kneel next to Luhan. It took all of Xiumin’s willpower not to push the man away. “Clue me in, Luhan.”

Luhan gestured down to the ground. “Put your hand down.”

Slowly Chanyeol complied, stretching his own fingers out next to Luhan’s, asking, “Why exactly am I doing this?”

Luhan turned to Xiumin. “Now you do it. The rest of you, too.”

Pretty soon they all were, most of them feeling foolish for the action.

“What do you all feel?” Luhan asked. “Sehun?”

“The ground?” the youngest of them offered a bit smartly. “A dirty ground that we should not be touching.”

Tao agreed, saying, “It’s warm from the sun, but that’s it. Dirty and warm.”

Xiumin didn’t have much to add either. He asked instead, “What are you trying to prove, Luhan?”

Luhan wasn’t paying attention to any of them but Chanyeol, whom he asked, “Tell me what you feel. Ignore all of them. Just look at me and be honest.”

There was something there. Xiumin watched the looks fly between Chanyeol and Luhan with increasing intensity. The two of them were clearly in on something that the rest of them weren’t.

“There’s a buzz.”

“Right.” Luahn’s head bobbed. “Under your fingers, right? It travels up your arm, hits your heart and it makes you feel stronger. It happens in the blink of an eye and makes you feel invincible the second you know it’s there.”

Chanyeol’s eyes narrowed. “How do you know?” He raised his hand and turned it over to look at it, then shook it. “The buzz is still there.”

“If you were in M, it would be stronger,” Luhan said. “You’re feeling Mama.”

“Mama,” Chanyeol said blankly.

Luhan didn’t raise his own hand from the ground. “There are some people in this world who are more in tune with Mama. She can’t communicate with all of them, and her strength lies in her life tree, but she’s always trying. Mama’s spirit leeches up from the ground from time to time, or down from the sky when it rains. You’ve been able to feel it just now because you’re special, Chanyeol. You’re like me. You’re in tune.”

Chanyeol reeled backwards. “But you have visions. You’re precognitive sometimes. I’ve never experienced any of that before. Not even once.”

“Luhan,” Xiumin said, “we know that everyone with an ability has a connection to Mama, but there are only a handful who have even a fraction of the link that you do. It’s completely unlikely that someone from K would be in that selective few.”

“Because we’re not as good as you?” Sehun demanded.

Tao shook his head, cutting in for Xiumin, “No. Because Mama works through proximity. Luhan is the perfect example of this, and her life tree is based at the heart of M. M’s palace and capital were built up around the life tree.” A second later, he said, “Xiumin, we really need to get going. We can’t be caught here. We’re still in K territory and we’ve seen enough patrols near us to warrant moving sooner rather than later.”

Luhan reached over to grip Chanyeol’s wrist. “You don’t have visions, but like Tao said, it’s got a lot to do with how far away you are with Mama’s life tree. So there are no visions, but you do have dreams. You admitted having dreams, and I bet they’re coming all the time now, stronger than ever.”

“Everyone has dreams.” Chanyeol climbed right to his feet.

“The kind that don’t feel like dreams?” Luhan asked. “Don’t pretend you can differentiate the feelings.”

Curiously, Xiumin asked, “What kind of dreams?” Could it be possible that they’d found the first example of someone with a third ability?

“Not prophetic!” Chanyeol denied loudly. “I dream about stuff that doesn’t make sense. It’s just my mind trying to work out issues. It’s just me dreaming.”

“I don’t think so.” Luhan released him.

Xiumin ventured, “So you think Chanyeol is precognitive?”

“Maybe not in the traditional sense,” Luhan supposed.

Tao interrupted suddenly, “I see lights.”

It seemed like they collectively held their breath as both Tao and Chanyeol raced to shut the lights off their respective vehicles.

Xiuim all but pulled Luhan up to his feet, supporting the taller boy’s weight, but ready to make a stand if necessary. “Tell me how bad you really are right now,” Xiumin whispered to him in the pitch darkness of the night. There were twin moons that circled their planet, and usually provided more than enough light to see in the dark, but lately they’d seemed less bright.

Xiumin didn’t know how it was possible for a moon or two to lose its shine, but it was another thing on a long list of worries.

Xiumin felt Luhan’s lips brush against his jaw as he said, “I’m okay. Really. I swear it. I’ll get better when I’m closer to home.”

That was clearly Luhan-speak for how poorly he was off, and how quickly they needed to move. He rarely admitted to needing things.

And thankfully, mercifully, as they stood in the darkness and waited, the lights in the distance veered off to the side, and began to head away from them.

“I will say this to you all once, and only once,” Luhan said, his voice carrying. “Mama is calling to me. I was close to figuring out what she was saying when I was accidentally brought here.” If by close, Luhan meant that Mama was nearly killing him with the seizures as a result of his visions, then Xiumin thought Luhan had it nailed down. “Now she’s calling me back, and she wants me to bring Chanyeol with me. That’s why you have to come, Chanyeol. Mama wants you for some purpose, an important one, and she’s tasking me with bringing you.”

“You can’t be serious,” Chanyeol said flatly.

Luhan turned to Sehun an said, “I’ve got it figured out now. That’s what Mama was trying to tell me earlier when I was with you in your home. She’s sent Chanyeol to us for a reason, and we can’t ignore his purpose. He has to come to M.”

“Mama is not sentient,” Sehun argued right away. “Whatever she is, whatever that life tree is, Mama is not actually assessing the situation around her and thinking or speaking. That’s just something mothers tell their children to keep them in line. And I called Chanyeol, not Mama. I got him into this.”

“Mama talks to me,” Luhan defended. “Don’t think that it isn’t true just because you can’t hear her.”

Tao flipped the lights on from his vehicle and started up the engine. “We need to go now.”

“Chanyeol,” Luhan implored.

Xiumin had never seen such desperation on Luhan’s face.

“I’m telling you, you’re important to me figuring out what Mama is trying to say about the danger in our future. If you can feel her, all the way out here, you have a very strong connection to her. Your dreams aren’t just dreams, and being closer to her will answer whatever questions you might have. It might answer the questions I have. I know I’m supposed to keep you near me because you’re important. And since I have to go to Mama’s life tree, that means you have to come with me.”

Chanyeol seemed uncertain. “I will be killed if I’m discovered in M. Figuring out why I’m one of the few connected to Mama, or what my dreams mean, isn’t worth getting killed. And you know that’s what’ll happen.”

Oh, Xiumin realized. Luhan was about to do something very stupid. The look on Tao’s face said he realized the same thing.

Luhan told Chanyeol, “I’m the crown prince’s cousin, I have political sway over the king’s council, I am extremely powerful, and my word is powerful. If you come with me, Chanyeol, I give you my word that I will protect you. I won’t let anyone hurt you. The second you cross over the boarder from K to M you will be my guest and my responsibility.” He took a deep breath. “I swear to you, Chanyeol. I won’t let anything happen to you. You protected me here in K, so trust me to protect you in M.”

Tao protested right away, “The prince won’t go for this, Luhan. Not even for you. Look, we all know how much pull you have over his highness. We know what he’s willing to do for you. We know you’re the only person he’s never been able to say no to.”

Xiumin really hoped that wasn’t jealousy he was detecting.

“But he will not stand for you bringing a military officer of K, with two abilities I might add, into M without his permission first. No matter what you say to him, he isn’t going to go for this.”

Luhan bit his lip thoughtfully, then said, “What if we don’t tell him?”

Tao looked against the idea right away, and Xiumin inquired, “How would we do that?”

“Are you seriously considering this Xiumin?” Tao demanded.

“I’m curious?” Xiumin said honestly. “You know you remember back when we were younger. Luhan always had all the best plans. I distinctly remember you trailing after us, begging to be allowed to play, promising to keep our secrets.”

Tao scowled fiercely but said nothing.

Luhan said to the group, “I’m going directly to the life tree, not to the palace. And if I don’t see Kris, I won’t have the opportunity to tell him who I have with me. Xiumin, you’ll contact him to tell him I’m safe and on my way, but you don’t need to say anything about Chanyeol either.”

Chanyeol reminded, “I’m pretty sure my face is plastered around M. I’ll be spotted.”

“You’re only wanted by the military,” Luhan dismissed. “And M doesn’t think for one second that you would willingly cross the boarder, so the civilian population has no idea what you look like. If we change your clothes, and give you some glasses, style your hair a little different, and if you don’t wander onto any M military bases, you’ll be fine. We’ll go directly to the tree, and then I’ll take you back to the boarder and get you on your way home.”

Tao said bluntly, “This is a stupid plan.”

Luhan sagged further against Xiumin who said, “There’s no way you’re taking him back to the boarder, Luhan. You need to spend a lot of time near the life tree. Putting distance between yourself and the tree if only to go back to the boarder, isn’t going to happen.”

“Xiumin,” Luhan whined.

Xiumin groaned, “Stop making those noises. If we decide to go for this plan, and I agree with Tao, it isn’t as strong as I think it needs to be. I’ll be the one to bring Chanyeol back.”

Chanyeol said, “Or dump my body in a ditch somewhere.”

Xiumin cut him a dark look. “I have top clearance. If we get caught by someone who recognizes you, I can pull rank long enough to get us clear to the boarder.”

“I feel so loved,” Chanyeol said facetiously.

“I don’t love you,” Xiumin said, starting to pull Luhan towards the vehicle that he and Tao had been driving. “I love Luhan. I love him enough to do something like this for you. Keep that in mind.”

“Chanyeol?” Luhan called. “Please believe me when I say it’s very important that Mama is able to clearly communicate with you. There is something severely wrong with her. And what hurts Mama, will hurts the rest of us. It won’t matter if we’re from K or M, if something happens to Mama. Please, please believe me. Trust me.”

Chanyeol reminded, “If I agree, I’ll be putting my life in your hands.”

“My capable hands,” Luhan said, hooking onto the vehicle’s door and refusing to budge even as Xiumin pushed at him.

It was impossible to tell if Chanyeol was going to go for it, and equally as impossible for Xiumin to figure out if he even wanted Chanyeol to. By all rights the prince would be viciously furious when he eventually found out, and he certainly would, that Xiumin had gone along with Luhan’s plan. There’d be serious repercussions for sure, but Xiumin had always been a er for Luhan, and the prince would know that as well.

“I better not regret this,” Chanyeol said, pulling at the buttons on the cuffs of his military uniform. “Seriously, Luhan.” He stripped the jacket off a second later and tossed it to the ground, leaving himself in a white undershirt.

“What about me?”

Xiumin had just started to make some progress in getting Luhan in the cab of the vehicle when Sehun spoke up. Xiumin was willing to bet most of them had forgotten about the young wind user.

Before Xiumin could dismiss him, Chanyeol said, “It’ll be a lot safer if you go back. Take the vehicle, go home, and wait for me to contact you. Don’t say anything to anyone about what happened, and don’t try to return the vehicle to the base by yourself. They’ll start asking you questions and it won’t be good.”

Sehun looked every bit as young as he was as he nearly stamped his foot, protesting, “I’m a part of this too!”

Tao asked him, eyebrow raised, “Do you think Chanyeol is the only one they’ll shoot on sight if caught?”

“No,” Sehun said dismissively, ignoring Tao and catching Luhan’s gaze. “But I have nothing to go back to. I’m not in the military. I don’t plan on fighting, and I don’t care about who’s from M and who’s from K. I grew up in the neutral area. Those of us who do, don’t ever really get the divide. We don’t care about old prejudices. In fact, the only thing I care about is sticking to Luhan like glue and seeing this through to the end. I don’t care about the risk. I don’t care about anything but this.”

It was true that the children who aged out of the neutral area were far less likely to take sides in the war, and most of them were quite comfortable in the presence of the other side. But Sehun was young, maybe still a minor, and even if he didn’t have anything to go back to, like he claimed, that wasn’t a valid reason for continuing on.

“Sehun,” Luhan said with a sigh of sympathy. “I don’t want to see you get hurt. This is risky. I’m only begging Chanyeol to come because I truly believe he’s important to finding out what’s happening to Mama. I don’t want to risk you.”

Sehun frowned. “I can speak the M dialect flawlessly. And I have an ability, so I’d be added protection if something happened. Plus, no matter what you say, I’m not a child. I can make my own choices, and I understand the consequences of those choices. If you try to stop me from coming with you, Luhan, I’ll just follow on my own, and that could put us all in danger.”

Xiumin felt his skin itch as the seconds ticked by, Sehun and Luhan staring each other down.

Surprisingly it was Tao who spoke up, commanding, “All of you, yes, all of you, get in the vehicle. We need to go now and I will not hesitate to throw any stragglers into the trunk and hit the pedal as hard as I can.”

Sehun shot forward to duck under Xiumin’s arm and sit next to Luhan comfortably, Chanyeol taking Luhan’s other side.

“We’re going to get destroyed for this,” Xiumin said to Tao, sliding into the front passenger seat. “Destroyed.”

Luhan leaned forward and kissed the back of Xiumin’s head. “You’re the best, baozi.”

“Then you’d better be ready to protect me from one pissed off dragon.”

Lowly, Tao cut back, “You think you’re in trouble? Try being in my shoes. His highness is going to take this personally with me.”

Xiumin leaned back in his seat and sunk down. Luhan was safe. That was what he tried to keep at the forefront of his mind. Luhan was coming home, he was going to be well again, and if there was something wrong with Mama, Luhan was going to figure it out. Nothing else was important. Things would work themselves out.

Maybe if he repeated it enough in his head, he’d start to believe that last part.