What have you done...

What have you done...?

"What have I done...?"

Luhan stared at the gemstone, expecting it to curse him, to poison him, to at least knock him out as he'd seen it do before. He hadn't really thought this through. He only knew that Minseok could not be asked to sacrifice his life. He, Luhan, would not allow it. Disrupting the power spell building around the well had been instinctual, but this... 

"We're in the Fade." 

Luhan looked up, shocked. When had everybody gathered?! He saw Kris and Jongdae who were merely dazed. They sat together until the assassin spotted Suho, at which he promptly crawled towards him. 

"Are you okay?"

The dwarf nodded. Behind him crouched Chanyeol who was already on his knees and fighting the distortion of planes. He tripped and stumbled, then tried again. Closer to Minseok was Jongin and Baekhyun. The elf cradled his own head in pain. Jongin held him while leaned over and wretched into the grass. Neither looked great but they were alive. 

"Sehun," Luhan gasped, seeing the boy still laying unconscious. Only Kyungsoo matched him in fear and intensity. Before Luhan had even time to compute what he'd done, where they were, and what was happening, Kyungsoo was scrambling towards him. The power of the well arced wherever he went, bending through space but holding strong. Kyungsoo ignored it. 

"He's still like this? What exactly happened to him?! Is he alright?" He pulled the sleeping boy into his lap, eyes large with worry. Across the well he saught out the maleficar and shouted, "what did you do to him!?" 

Xiumin moaned but did not move. "Maker, will you chill out? He's fine."

"He's clearly not fine," Kyungsoo accused. 

"He's sleeping," said another voice, the same one who'd said they were in the Veil. 

"Yixing?" asked Kyungsoo, lips trembling and precariously close to crying. Fury raged out of both eyes. 

"He'll be fine. It's just a little magic," he replied. The elf dragon mage looked terrible. His skin was a mottled mess of burnt ash and frost magic. Blood flowed freely from several wounds. He was, however, the only one who seemed completely mobile. He walked as one not troubled by the Veil. "Get up," he said to Luhan. "Give me the gemstone." 

"What?" said Luhan. 

Behind Yixing, Minseok's eyes grew wide in concern. It was enough that Luhan suddenly didn't want to relinquish it. 

"No. Why?" 

Yixing sighed. "Because you've already caused enough problems. Give me the stone and we can fix it."

Minseok was shaking his head like he didn't understand. Luhan pocketed the stone and began crawling backwards away. Yixing did not insist upon it, nor did he move  close enough to snatch it away. He stood instead with the confidence of an elf who knew he'd eventually get his way. But for the first time Luhan thought he looked old, and tired, and maybe just a little bit greedy. Echoes of snatches of an earlier conversation drifted back to him from when he'd been fighting his way down the path to the well. Something Xiumin had said, something Minseok hadn't answered.

"Why do you need to fix it. Tell us where we are," Luhan demanded. "What happened? What is this place?"

"The Fade of course," said Yixing. "You messed with its magic. You drew us all here, Luhan, all of us, into this place. But look... its power is still unbounded."

Not far from Xiumin, Tao sat up and shook out his head. He glanced up, and Luhan followed his gaze to the circular power structure ringing the well. It was still intrisically linked to the three who'd set up the gemstones, glowing brightly around Minseok, Xiumin, and Kyungsoo. Except a few strands of it extended outwards, clinging to the stone in Luhan's pocket, and some of it clung to Luhan himself. 

What exaclty had he been thinking? Had he brought everyone here? Even Alistair whined pitifully as his paws dug into the earth, his sharp little barks the only hint that the animal was confused and disoriented. And Luhan had done this? Was he really so intangibly connected to this circle of friends, this group of travelers, that even here at the end... through a mishandling of the well's magic, he'd summoned them all together. 

"I did this. So I'll finish it," said Luhan with a confidence he wasn't entirely sure he could back up. 

"You don't even know what this," the elf replied. 

Luhan refused to flush, though unfortunately, that was true. "Explain it then."

Incredibly, Yixing stepped back. He walked towards the well and waved his hand towards the power circle, as if sampling its magic. Nothing happened. He frowned, seeming almost disappointed. "Minseok can explain it."

All eyes turned upon the other mage. Luhan didn't miss Minseok's continuing confusion over Yixing's reaction, but soon enough he pulled himself together and faced each of the group in turn before settling on his brother, and then the well. 

"It grants wishes. That much should be obvious."

"Whose wishes?" asked Luhan. "At what price?" He already knew, or at least he thought he knew. Everything now hinged on Minseok's answer. 

"It grants life, or some form of it. Hard to say exactly what kind. Kyungsoo's studied it more than me." Kyungsoo shook his head, as if to deflect answering. So Minseok continued. Luhan could not tell if MInseok had learned this from somewhere or if he'd only recently acquired the knowledge from someone, but he spoke as if the subject was distasteful to him. "For the ones who activate it, it searches their hearts and finds the wish. Then it grants it. The true wish, and not just what a person says aloud, or thinks in his head. We probably won't know until afterwards, what exactly it did." He turns and stares directly at Xiumin. "And that is why it shouldn't be messed with. Because who knows the consequences!" 

"Too late now," echoed his brother, and he was completely without remorse. 

Luhan interrupted them. "I asked about its price."

"Its price?" Minseok smiled wryly. "Also unknown."

Someone gasped. Luhan heard it, agreed with the sound. But then he turned and saw it. Rising from the center of the pool was a cup, no bigger than a hand's width, utterly ordinary by itself. Some of the strands of magic from broke free from their circle, seeking it out, connecting and intertwining. The cup crackled with energy but remained intact. Luhan's heart nearly dropped from his chest when he saw Minseok flinch.

This, this was the cup from which someone must drink from the well.

"You can't do it," he told the mage again. "Please, please don't do it..."

Yixing spoke again. "Someone has to though."

"No, no please," Luhan begged him. "We can just leave. We don't have to--"

"You don't understand, Luhan," said Minseok sadly. "It's too late. The magic is already building. We... I, one of us has to drink. The well demands it."

From his little corner of the Veil, Sehun awoke. His eyelids felt heavy, his stomach churned. He thought he'd heard everything, he thought he understood everything... Unless that was all a dream?

"Sehun? Sehun?! Wait, he's awake. He's awake." Someone pulled him up. His knees were like jelly. Kyungsoo's face swam before his eyes. Someone was propping him up from behind, a pair of long legs encasing his own and he thought the person smelled like Tao. 

"I'm... okay, yeah," said Sehun, still working on his voice. He looked around. "So... this wasn't just a dream."

Gently, Kyungsoo held his hand. "We're in the Veil, Sehun. I'm so sorry." 

Sehun tried to smile. "Why are you sorry? Isn't this what was always going to happen?"

No one responded, least of all Kyungsoo who shook his and looked away. 

From across the well, Xiumin was the only person who look meet him in the eye. Fear shot through Sehun's body, but he refused to flinch. He was beyond that now, he decided. Whatever happened would happen. 

"Someone needs to drink..." Yixing repeated. 

Suho nudged Jongdae on the shoulder. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking," asked the dwarf.

"No, I'm not. And don't even think about it," replied the assassin. 

"I can do it, if no one else wants to?" Yixing offered, oh so casually it made Minseok's skin actually crawl. When had his mentor, his friend, become like this, he wondered. Or had Yixing always been that way?

"Luhan, I have to do it, you know I do," said the mage.

Luhan cringed, and somewhere else Xiumin was softly laughing at them. 

"No, you don't actually."

Xiumin whined. "Someone do it soon, okay?!" 

"How about you drink then," said Kyungsoo. 

The maleficar scoffed, but even he could not hide his fears.

Yixing eyed him stonily and smirked. "What, do you not trust me to take the sacrifice?" 

"I'm still not even sure how it works," said Baekhyun. He leaned out of Jongin's arms, his face a shade less green than before. "Seriously, no one knows what'll happen to the person who drinks it?"

"No," said Jongin quickly. "We don't know, they don't know, so let them deal with it. Sehun, come over here now though, please."

Sehun bristled at being told what to do. Then again, these were the people who had kept him relatively safe... Relative at least, as they were all now stuck somewhere dangerous, surrounding a most ancient of ruins, and an ancient, evil power. 

"No one?" asked Yixing again. 

More silence settled around the well, as each of the considered the magic whose power was building, crackling with unspent energy. The colors of its rays wove together, the entire pool itself now seemed to glow. The person who drank from it would need to wade into the well itself, and take the cup. 

"I'll do it."

~ ~ ~ READER PLEASE STOP AND READ THE INSTRUCTIONS ~ ~ ~ ~

This fic is coming to a close. But now you will have your pick of the endings.

Who. Will. Drink???

Please click on the links here, or on the sidebar.  At the end of each alternate ending there will be a link to direct you to the final epilogue. Do Not Click Next! Unless you just want to, hey I can't stop you if you want to sample all the endings, have your cake and eat it too ;)

Thank you all for reading. Please, CHOOSE YOUR HERO!

- Luhan

- Minseok

- Sehun

- Suho

- Yixing

- Baekhyun

Good luck.