There were sounds, panicked, grief-laden, horrifyingly familiar sounds around him.

It was like he'd travelled back in time – gone back to the early centuries of their beginning, when Evil had first taken over Exo-planet, before they'd managed to push him away enough to gain the respite and hide the Tree of Life in the Legends, before they'd separated as Shadows, carted off to Shadow planets.

Screams like these had been commonplace back then. Every single day, in fact – each evening when they returned from the battlefield, cartering the injured and dead back to their villages. Women crying, mourning the loss of their men, panicking over some fatal injury, desperately struggling to save the dying. He'd heard it all before and had foolishly hoped he'd never to hear those sounds again.

But now here he was, in almost the same condition – carrying the dead and the dying in his arms, surrounded by nothing but bloodshed and grief. The living room seemed to have turned into a morgue of sorts, blood staining the carpets and even the walls.

Mei was frantically scrabbling at the door, trying to break it down and he wondered, with a sense of detachment – the same numb detachment he'd been sporting since he'd seen Lay… fall – that she would hurt herself if she continued like this but he couldn't find it in himself to speak.

What could he say? That he was sorry? That he knew Luhan was gone, knew it just like he knew Lay was dying and still trying, like a ing idiot, to push his powers into Baekhyun so he could stay strong while his Shadow bled out? That the last hit Tao had taken had actually knocked the cub out, so all of the people he'd been holding in time-freeze were now unfrozen and dying? While he sat here, unscathed, the one person who shouldn't have survived – what were the odds even???

How could he justify sitting here, safe, sporting nothing more serious than an injured shoulder while his brothers were dying around him? He wasn't even mated, it all. If anyone had to die, should've fallen, it was him. Useless ing piece of that he was, he should've taken that claw to his heart. Not Lay, who could heal them. Not Tao, who could freeze them. Not Kris, who could save them and definitely not Luhan, who'd been fighting like crazy just to get them to safety.

He didn't comprehend it when his vision blurred but then he blinked and a droplet fell on his blood-stained hands – Xiumin was beginning to bleed all over him now that Tao wasn't holding him frozen and turning alarmingly pale and Lily, panic written all over her face, had just dropped to her knees in front of him.

'Xiumin?' Her voice was barely above a whisper but it was filled with so much pain, so much terror, it tore at Baekhyun's heart.

'Ya, wake up!' Raina's voice was soft and shaky as she prodded Tao's side. His head lolled lifelessly to the side and she paled before swallowing and taking hold of his face. 'Wake up, you have to wake up Tao, please, please wake up…'

Tiffany and Angel were with Sehun and Suho and both girls were crying silently and he didn't know how much more of this grief he could take. His heart was still beating, a stark reminder that he'd survived at the cost of his brothers' life and it was beginning to get too much.

It felt like he couldn't drag in enough breath into his lungs, like his heart was suddenly beating too fast, feeling like it'd jump out of his chest and he felt a moment of triumph – maybe he'd die too and then he wouldn't have to live with this guilt…

It was Mei's cry that broke him out of his trance.

She'd been struggling desperately against the door, trying to drag it open, her nails torn and fingers bleeding with the effort but she'd been fighting with such conviction, calling Luhan over and over, telling him to just let her come out.

Then abruptly, the door she'd been yanking at so frantically, swung open. Easily. And a pressure they hadn't felt until now, suddenly lifted. Vanished.

Mei's legs gave out and she collapsed right there in the doorway, heedless of the fact that abbies had crowded inside the driveway and were fast coming towards her.

Baekhyun's eyes met the open, glazed, dead ones of Luhan, his body mere feet from the doorway and suddenly all the sounds in the area vanished, everything ceased to exist. No, no, no no no

Denial rose like bile through him and a scream tore out of his throat.

'NNNOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!'

He didn't see the look of surprise on Lily's face – or that Tiffany, Angel, Raina and even Mei turned to look at him at the inhuman sound. There was a ripping sensation inside of him – he literally felt like he was tearing apart, like his chest was about to burst open, that his rapidly beating heart was actually going to jump right out of his chest and then…

There was a blinding flash of light.

…………………………....

Inside the room, Chen opened his eyes.

…………………………....

A/N

In my defense, I did say that things will fall down like a house of cards. Please don't hate me (;_;)