His eyes were faraway, skin gray. The blood on his suit had dried; it must’ve been hours since it happened. They looked down at Tao’s body, speechless. Sehun stood stiff and still, and then his expression became very serious.

“Of course we find him dead after he runs off by himself. ing idiot.”

Taeyong and Lay knelt down close to his body. Lay traced his hands over his torso, just to be sure he was gone. He shook his head, still keeping his gaze on the empty shell lying in front of him.

“There’s something in his hand,” Taeyong said.

Lay reached over, forced Tao’s hand open. A small collection of crystals fell out. Suho stepped forward and knelt down next to Taeyong, taking a few of the crystals from Lay’s hands. “Did he leave specifically to get these?”

Taeyong stared someplace faraway, as though his consciousness was somewhere else entirely. “It’s for Sehun.” He looked upright, normal again. “There were folk-tales around the island that these healing crystals existed. That they could heal anything if you could crack the liquid out of them.”

Suho stood upright, turning the crystal around in his hands. “It’s very strange. Like a liquid and a solid all at once. Like mercury.” He raised a brow, turning to Taeyong. “How do you know it’s for Sehun?”

“Tao said they were. Well… he didn’t say but… it’s hard to explain the way I connect with the Spirit Realm and all that. I don’t know if it’ll work, but Tao died trying to get them, so it’s worth a shot isn’t it?”

Sehun turned away. “He risked his life for a fairy-tale, and here I thought he was supposed to be intelligent. I think your Force still needs some training.”

“It does seem strange that Tao would do something so selfless,” Baekhyun added. “He’s never been close to a single one of us, let alone Sehun.”

Lay closed Tao’s eyes before standing. “Maybe it’s time I told you guys about Tao. He never wanted anyone to know but I suppose it doesn’t matter now.”

“What do you mean?” Suho asked.

“He never hated anybody. He thought by making everyone think that, he’d protect everyone.”

“Protect us from what?” Sehun scoffed.

“Himself. I figured it out from Jonghyun and Donghae, the Legends that found him. Your brother knew, too, Sehun. They told Luhan and I what happened, how one day Tao’s Force went beyond his control, reversed the timelines of his parents until they didn’t exist. He was terrified it might happen again,” Lay explained, taking the crystal back from Suho.

“What?” Sehun’s voice was quiet.

“That doesn’t make any sense, though. Whether we hated him or not, we had to work in close proximity to him. There was still that chance, regardless.” D.O.’s brows furrowed, looking down at Tao’s body, mouth agape.

“You don’t think I tried explaining that to him? It was his worst nightmare, he acted illogically whenever it came to it. He had the most brains of all of us, but he was terrified every day. Every single moment. I wondered if you all would take notice, his mask was starting to slip pretty quickly here towards the end, the way he huddled over Chen constantly, and now this. Dying for Sehun’s sake. Looking at him like this now, it’s so sad. Even in death, he’ll be all alone. There’s no one waiting for him there,” Lay trailed off, then took a breath, bringing the crystals up to his view. “These crystals have a really strong energy in them and their make-up is almost exactly like the Tree’s. I promised your brother I would give you a cure. Come here.”

Sehun stepped slowly towards Lay, gaze still on Tao’s body. Lay took Sehun’s arm, pushed back the sleeve of his cloak to reveal the infected bite mark. His flesh was gray and bruised. His arm so skinny. “As it is, I can use it as an amplifier.” Lay placed the crystal against the bite on Sehun’s arm, then closed his eyes, and began to heal him.

Lay threw the last of the dirt onto the grave, marked with a large stone and the lifeless crystals that had been used to cure Sehun. Only Sehun and Lay remained standing over the grave, the others having gone back towards camp at the shore after the ashes had been placed into the ground.

“You’ve hardly said a word since we healed you,” Lay started, leaning into the rusty shovel he’d staked into the ground.

Sehun stared at the grave. “If I’m being honest, I still feel like I’m dying.”

Lay raised a brow.

“I’m so tired of being wrong about everyone and everything. I’ve always been naive, dependant, and in all honesty, I’ve always been cruel.”

“You’re being hard on yourself.”

Sehun shook his head, eyes shut tight. “Don’t do that to me, Lay. Don’t ing sugar coat it when you know it’s true. I was even an to my own brother, that’s probably why he ran off. Everyone has always bent over backwards for me so I would never have to suffer and look at where it gets them. People die or disappear around me, Lay. I’m a goddamn parasite. Had I not been so stubborn and self-absorbed maybe I would’ve realized the truth about Tao. No, I definitely would have. Luhan tried to tell me once before, way back when Sydney was still alive, and I didn’t listen then. Because I was so sure, because I was so stubborn.”

“Okay then, you’re right. You’ve always been naive, stubborn, dependant, and even cruel, Sehun. You really are a little head.”

“, I know, Lay, I ing know!” His voice cracked, lip quivering.

“So you have to change. You can’t keep being that way.”

Sehun bit down on his lip.

“You have to give all that death and suffering a purpose. For Luhan, you have to keep living. For Kris, you have to be patient. For Tao, you have to have compassion.” Lay put a hand on Sehun’s shoulder. “Imagine all those flaws died with the infection, that should make the changes easier.”

Lay took the shovel and walked back towards the camp, a bonfire now lit with the others huddled around it. Darkness was falling over the island and a cold wind began to wail across the shore.

Sehun took a deep breath, jaw set tight. “I’m sorry, Tao.” Then after a moment, he turned and went to join the others.

Baekhyun pulled his cloak tight around his body, heat from the flames beating hot against his face. He shook , leaning more and more into Chen, whose shaking seemed more like nervous twitches.

“Why are we here, again?”Baekhyun nearly whispered to Chen.

Chen shook his head. “To be honest, I don’t really know.”

“Answers,” Suho said, “We’re looking for answers related to the Red Force. The connection between the Capitol kidnapping and killing Necromancers and Mediums and the Red Force. We need to know what was going on here.”

“What for?” Xiumin mumbled. “Knowing why they killed Necromancers and Mediums won’t make the Red Force go away.”

“I wanna go home,” Baekhyun said quickly, still shaking.

“To the mainland?” Minhyun asked.

“To Soushii. I don’t even know if anyone survived there.”

Taeyong threw a stick into the fire. “I have to be honest, I doubt we’d find answers here. Even if we knew what the Capitol was up to, they clearly had no idea this Red Force was coming. We’re better off on the mainland.”

Lay turned his head back towards where they found Tao earlier. “Actually, we might be able to save the planet afterall. This might not have been a wasted trip.”

“You’re referring to the crystals?” Suho asked.

“You saw what it did for Sehun. I still have some leftover. We could go back to the Tree and I could try to heal it.”

“You’d have to heal it from the inside. And there’s no guarantee you could pull it back. Not to mention all the Wraiths that are probably gathered around,” Taeyong added.

Ren kept his eyes on the flames. “I’d make a good distraction.”

“There’s plenty of us to fight whatevers there,” D.O. said.

Taeyong looked among the remaining Legends, Mihyun and his brother. Then he took a deep breath through the nose. “I’ll have to go on the inside with you. It’ll be easier to contact Father there. But there’s something I need.”

“What?” Suho asked.

“An apology. A formal apology and I expect to live comfortably the rest of my goddamn life if we make it out alive.”

“Done.”

“You go back on your word and I’ll you up.” The Necromancer stared Suho down, fire reflecting in his eyes.

Suho stared back. “I don’t doubt you for a moment.”

“So we’re going back?” Sehun spoke up from the edge of the group.

All eyes turned to him, fire crackling. “In the morning, I assume,” Suho answered.

“Do you expect this Red Force to show themselves?”

“I’d be shocked if they didn’t with a small army of smaller Forces attempting to remove it from its host planet,” Taeyong replied.

Sehun stood up, holding his cloak tight around him. “Good.” Then he disappeared into the darkness back into shelter.

“So much has happened,” Xiumin mumbled.

Baekhyun’s eyes drooped, skin dull and body heavy. “Too much has happened.”

The ferry trip back to the mainland had been a quiet one. Even docking on the shore was eerily quiet. Not a one of them had the energy to speak. Only Sehun seemed to have any life in him, charging on ahead of the group towards the Capitol.

Kai turned to Chen whose posture had grown worse and worse. “Will you be okay for this?”

A shaky breath. “I have to. It’s only right. I need to be there and fix everything. I need to protect what she has left.”

Kai frowned, then turned his gaze to the far horizon. “Having something to fight for would make this all a lot easier.” He reached for the nub at his left side. “I’ve only become a coward in the end. Speaking honestly, I’m terrified.”

“You do have something to fight for,” Suho joined Kai and Chen. “A future that you deserve. A life with freedom from the fear of imminent, unjust death.”

“We haven’t even saved the planet yet and you’re already talking like the new Grand Master,” Kai smiled weakly.

Suho smirked. “Gotta get my practice in.”

“Except you’ve been practising all your life,” Baekhyun spoke up from behind, voice soft. Tired. Yet smiling.

Suho turned towards the ground. “I have dreams that I’m not willing to give up. I’ve been fighting for them my whole life, and the end of the world won’t stop me.”

“You’re so noble,” Lay chuckled.

The laughter faded quickly when the ruins of the Capitol came into view in the distance. The dying branches of the Tree of Life could be seen reaching high towards the sky over the crumbling walls, like hands reaching up from the depths of Hell.

Ren stepped closer to Minhyun. “I’ve never actually seen the Tree before,” Minhyun said under his breath.

“Unfortunate. It was so much more beautiful before the Red Force,” Suho said, heart heavy, eyes stuck on the decaying Tree.

They pushed their way past the ruins of the walls which surrounded the Tree of Life, the grass crunching beneath their feet. The Tree’s Hold was huge, stretching for nearly a mile across. At the center stood the Tree, its bark black as shadows and oozing something like a tar. It stretched high into the heavens, smothered in thick clouds overhead. A choking, dying God.

“Well, what now?”Baekhyun asked, mouth agape, wide, watery eyes stuck on the Tree.

“We have to get inside somehow,” Taeyong said, voice flat.

Kai looked over his shoulder, then the other. Eyes twitched and shoulders shaking.

Chen felt the hairs on his arms building up, then looked at the decaying body of the Tree. Then up at the clouds. “I could probably do something.”

“You really think you’re up for it?” Lay asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

Chen nodded. “I think I can manage.”

He stepped forward, Lay’s hand dropping from his shoulder as he stepped closer and closer to the Tree. He closed his eyes, standing as near to the Tree as he could, the others stepping back, Lay and Taeyong close to one another. The static in the air grew stronger and stronger. Chen raised his arms slowly at each side. One finger at a time, he closed his hands into fists. Tighter and tighter. Then, with all which he had let in him, he pulled his arms close to his sides again with the force of a falling rock, the screams from his body meshing with the crack of lightning that shot down from the sky and struck the center of the Tree. The force of it cracked the trunk of the Tree in half, and Chen fell into it.

“Chen!”Lay called after, he and Taeyong running into the Tree together, disappearing as quickly as Chen did.