He couldn’t grab hold of the words on the pages, reading and rereading until they weren’t in his language anymore. Even the most trivial things were major distractions; the smell of the books, the dust dancing in the sunrays that bled through the windows, even the sound of the blue bees buzzing from flower to flower. Tao’s jaw clenched, letting the book close on the table, tapping on the hardcover as his eyes looked someplace faraway.

One of the blue bees came buzzing to his table, drunk with pollen. It could barely keep itself airborne, tumbling about in front of him. The sound of its unsteady buzzing vibrated in Tao’s head like a child banging on pots and pans. With one swing, he smacked the book into its path, sending it flying to the other end of the table with a broken leg and shriveled wing.

“You look like you’re fighting with yourself.” Lay appeared at the other end of the table without Tao noticing, his hand hovering over the blue bee. Tao watched as it sprang back up in full health, unbroken and sober.

The healer sat down across from him, his expression peaceful, almost monk-like. “Normally, you eat these books right up. Like you’re starving for the knowledge in them.” He paused, his head tilting and eyes squinting. “But something’s bothering you, isn’t it?”

Tao didn’t answer. Just continued to stare at Lay, unmoving.

“You’re such a mystery, Tao. Why are you always so distant? It makes everyone incredibly curious, you know.”

He sighed. “Well, that’s incredibly frustrating. I don’t want anyone near me and I definitely don’t want anyone asking questions.”

“If you become a Legend, you’ll have to talk to at least eleven of us on a regular basis. Don’t you think it’s in your best interest to, maybe, get to know some of the other Forces?” Lay folded his hands on the table, brows raised and lips in a crooked smile.

“That’s the only thing about being a Legend that I’m not fond of. I don’t like people. I have no desire to be close to anyone.”

Lay fell silent, Tao staring at him from behind furrowed brows. He was challenging Lay to counter him. Challenging him to try and break through and figure out what it was he was hiding.

The healer moved in, keeping his voice low. “Look, I know what happened to you.” Tao’s eyes grew wide, yet he remained frozen in place. “But do you really think that’ll happen again? You have control now.”

“That doesn’t mean anything. I, to this day, don’t know how or why it happened. It could happen again, Lay.” He stood, eyes still focused on Lay’s. “Don’t pry. Don’t go poking your nose where it doesn’t belong.” He left him at the table, marching out of the library without another word.

~  ~

Assorted giggles and splashes echoed off the golden rocks, the breeze blowing them through the lush vines that hung overhead. The water was a violet champagne sprinkled with a variety of wildflowers.

Chanyeol stood at the other end of the little quarry, his nose wrinkled up in disgust. “You don’t want to make yourself vulnerable, Channie?” a girl stood beside him, hair a long, wavy brown, her smile sympathetic. “They’re all too noisy for me. I’d love to join them, otherwise.”

“You don’t want to leave? I can take you back home, Li. Won’t be much fun for me to stay, anyways,” he laughed weakly.

Li shook her head, watching the others in the glittering pool. “No, I think I’m fine here. My head might hurt, but I enjoy the company.”

Chanyeol nodded, leaning back on the rock wall behind him.

A bleach-blonde young man shot up from the water, a pleased smile on his face. “How long was I under that time? It felt longer, did I stay under longer?”

“I counted a little over a minute that time,” a boy with sable hair answered. He had the look of someone about to cause trouble. “I think you’re getting worse, Suho.”

The blonde stood over him, ready to issue a warning.

“It was almost two minutes. Don’t let Baekhyun get you so riled up, Suho, geez,” Nana said, splashing Baekhyun beside her. “So, when did you learn how to breathe underwater? Did one of the Masters teach you?”

Suho sat back down into the water, pulling his hair back. “I just tried it the other day. Wasn’t sure if it would work, but I guess it does. At this rate, I’ll be able to reach the bottom of the Sea of Stars. Won’t you all be jealous,” he grinned.

“What sort of things do you think will be down there?” Li called.

A crooked smile crept on Baekhyun’s face, “Monsters, probably.” Nana splashed him again, lips pursed and brows furrowed into a warning.

“I heard one of the Masters talking about important stones being down there. Minerals and stuff they could use to make potions and stuff,” Chanyeol added, eyes still in disapproval.

“They don’t know, though,” Suho replied, though it sounded more like a question.

The red-head shrugged. “I’m just saying what I heard.”

“Well,” Baekhyun started, “we’ll sure know now that Suho’s officially become a water-breather.” He stood up out of the pool, grinning Suho’s way, who rolled his eyes and splashed water directly into his face.

~  ~

Still, Sehun hadn’t moved, his body now on the bed Luhan found himself in only hours before. The sheets had become filthy with dirt and blood. The room hardly looked the same as it was before, now packed with battered boys and things cluttered everywhere to make room for them.

Luhan had a chair up to the edge of the bed, eyes fixed on his baby brother. He wanted to close his eyes, let him rest. Yet, he was afraid if he did it would be the same as laying him to rest forever. It would have been too much like closing the eyes of a dead man. He just couldn’t bring himself to do it.

On the floor, his back against the end of the bed, Kris glared into nothing. Focused, eyes puffy and red. He was still a mess just as he was before, barely keeping himself together. The sound of Sehun’s struggled breaths did nothing to calm him, either.

Downstairs, Tao sat in the dark, cat-eyes staring as always. He couldn’t stop replaying it in his head; the moment Sehun collapsed in the wasteland. Without meaning to, he had stopped time before he hit the ground. It was just long enough for the image to be burned into his mind forever.

The door burst open, Suho stumbling in and falling into the table. He was caught in a coughing fit, water dripping from his clothes as he began crawling up the stairs. Tao stood, watching Kai come running after. “Suho, stop!”

The three met Suho halfway up the stairs, Kai pulling one of his arms around his shoulders and helping him the rest of the way up. At the top of the steps, Xiumin, Lay and the two brothers waited for their unexpected company.

“What happened?” Xiumin asked, getting out of his chair and offering it to Suho who was still struggling to breathe.

The blonde shook his head.

“He’s lucky I went to the Sea, he would have died out there. Almost drowned,” Kai explained quickly.

“What were you doing out there?” Lay’s voice sounded demanding like a mother’s, grabbing something—anything—to dry Suho off with.

Suho finally found some air to breathe, hunched over his knees. “I was looking for something… for Sehun.”

“Looking for what?” Luhan’s voice was nearly a whisper.

“Whatever I could find,” he paused to breathe some more. “Do you remember what the Masters used to say about sap from a glow root? It has purifying qualities,” a short gasp, “and if you get enough of it you can make a medicine with it.” Suho looked up at Lay. “I’m not all that great with alchemy but you are.” He pulled the glow root from out of his pocket; a large, scaly thing.

Lay took the root from his hands. “I’ve never worked with glow root before, I don’t know if I’ll be able to… I can try.” He cleared the desk, instructing Kai to bring him bowls and other utensils up from the kitchen.

“It might not get rid of the infection, but it might fight it off enough to keep him alive until we figure out how to stop the Red Force.” Suho stopped, looking into the other room past Luhan and at Sehun, his eyes growing wide. “What happened, is he unconscious?”

“He collapsed in the wasteland when we were fighting Reaping Wraiths,” Xiumin explained, watching Lay shuffle through pages in the alchemy books scattered across the room.

Kris was standing now, eyes on the floor. “I shouldn’t have let him fight. He used too much of his energy. Fighting only made him worse.”

“Sehun refused to stand and be protected while we did everything, you know that. Stop blaming yourself, you couldn’t have stopped him even if you wanted to.” Xiumin was almost annoyed with Kris and his guilt.

“I know, but—”

“But nothing. He isn’t gone yet, so stop acting like he is. We can’t afford to be killing ourselves off prematurely, here.”

Lay’s voice sounded like a laugh, “You really are an Ice Prince, aren’t you?”

Xiumin’s face contorted. “What?”

“That’s what Sydney always used to say about you.”

The room fell silent as Lay conjured up an anti-biotic for Sehun, Luhan and Kris keeping their eyes on their brother. The air was thick with tension and anticipation. Luhan thought if he looked long and hard enough, Sehun might spring up from the bed like nothing was wrong at all. Back to his old self again, whining about whatever there was to whine about. He always used to complain about it, but now he missed it more than anything.

“If this works,” Lay started, finishing up the anti-biotic, “do you think a substantial amount could do anything for the Tree?”

Suho shook his head. “I’m not sure. The Tree is different. I think it’ll take more than glow root sap to heal it. And the Red Force is more than just a virus…”

“It’s a force of nature,” Tao finished Suho’s thought. “I can only expect it’ll take something crippling to destroy it. Or maybe I should say appease it?”

“What do you mean by that?” Kris asked.

“I’m not sure, honestly.”

~  ~

“Something’s coming.”

Li was frozen, eyes in the back of her head. She looked as though something had possessed her, something terrible and ominous.

“What are you talking about?” a boy asked, hair staticky. He slowly made his way to her side, cautious and confused.

She remained still besides her twitching lips, desperately trying to utter whatever words she could. There was an aura of urgency in her strained voice. “I don’t know.” Li reached out to grab his arm, trying to pull herself from the grasp of whatever entity had captured her.

Another girl stood by, rushing over to Li’s side. “What’s going on, Li? What are you seeing?” She looked at the boy. “Chen, what do we…?”

He shook his head, eyes still in confusion. “I dunno.”

They both gave her support, watching her struggle for control again.

With a loud gasp for air, Li’s eyes finally focused on her surroundings again, Chen and the other girl still holding her up.

“What was that?” Chen asked, mouth agape.

She didn’t respond at first, eyes in a panic. Fearful.

“I… I really don’t know. It’s some… dark force—”

“I’m an expert on dark forces.”

“That’s not what I mean, Sydney. It’s… something else. Something else entirely,” Li left their grasp, eyes up at the sky now. “Whatever it is, it’s a living entity. It had to be, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to see... “ she trailed off.

“What did you see?” Chen prodded, gaze going back and forth from Li to the sky.

“It looked like death. An apocalypse?” she shook her head. “Something awful.”

“You’re sure it’s coming from the sky?” Sydney asked, pulling her fingers through her hair a little nervously.

Li nodded. “It’s an alien force… I’ve never seen—never imagined something so sinister before. We need to tell the others. We can probably stop it, whatever it is.”

Chen nodded. “Probably. The Tree has always been safe in the hands of the Legends. I wouldn’t worry about it so much.” He tried to be as reassuring as possible, despite his nerves on edge after what he’d just witnessed only a few moments prior.

Li sighed, letting her arms fall down to her sides. “You’re right. Everything’ll be okay.”

~  ~

The cracks in his knuckles were starting to look like the ruins scattered around him. Blood had dried in them and his fingertips were bruised. He looked like a reptile now, and Baekhyun could swear he had the temperament of one, too.

“Anything?” Baekhyun called from the other side of the stone ruins, an orb of light hovering over his head in the darkness.

The boy shook his head, his voice hoarse. “No.”

Baekhyun sighed, throwing an arm from a shattered statue aside. “What exactly are we expecting to find?” his voice became low, hardly audible. Lost in the back of his throat. “Alive… dead? It was raining.”

“Does it really matter what we’re expecting to find? We can’t know until he’s found. If he’s alive… we need to get to him before a Wraith does.”

It was silent.

Baekhyun let out a half-hearted laugh. “He always said he was like a phoenix. Maybe he’ll burst into flames for us so we can find him. Or his ashes.”

“You sound so sad,” the boy replied, voice monotone. “If he’s a phoenix then he’ll rise again, won’t he?”

“D.O.”

He sighed. “We all keep talking as if we’re all dead already. The girls are gone. Why are we so quick to add ourselves to the list? It’s draining. Come on, give me some light, I can’t see .”

The raven-haired boy nodded, sending an orb D.O.’s way. He punched his way through more of the rubble, the cracks in his hands growing deeper and deeper. “Li would really come in handy right now. She could hear that es thoughts from miles away.”

Baekhyun laughed. “Yeah, Channie’s always been loud as hell. I can only imagine his thoughts are just as bad.”

If he’s still thinking.