That night, we slept in the underground bunkers. With the sorceresses looking for us and them everywhere, there was nowhere else for us to go. Youngjae was kind enough to make separate rooms for us, though my mages decided to stay in one room with the last mage's ring so they could spend one last night together.

As I laid down in the bed I was given in a room shared with SHINee, I couldn't help but sigh at my mages' reactions and how dejected they sounded when they told me they wanted just one more night with Kris. I understood it completely, so I let them spend their last night together, but part of me was still hoping it wouldn't be their last night together.

I might have been the only one awake when it got deeper in the night, though I was fighting to keep my eyelids open. I didn't want to sleep, in case we were being attacked some time during the night. Yongguk had gone on night guard duty, and was pacing through the underground bunkers, but I wasn't at ease. Eventually, I did give up on staying awake, but as my eyes closed, I could swear a small shiny metal flew into my hand.

I was in my bedroom... but not. It was bright in the room, but I could see lab equipment lining up the entire room, like I'd seen in one of my nightmares. In the center of the room, instead of a ring box, stood a man- the last mage. He was easily the tallest of the mages with blonde hair that grew past his ears, piercings in both ears, and a glare so heavy I thought I was going to die.

But I didn't, and that was because the last mage turned away from me in order to look at the lab equipment in disdain. I walked over to the lab equipment and started poking around at it, but I had no idea what any of it was for or what it had to do with me or the last mage. I didn't know how I could see him in my dream if I had found him broken, and I didn't know what he was trying to show me. 

"What is this place?" I asked him, scowling at a screen that looked much like the screen of a computer.

"Several decades before your town switched to using other magical energy, they used me to power the entire town." He explained, and in shock, I turned to him only to see anger had crossed into his expression, "They used my powers until my ring box fell apart and my ring split in two. Knowing I was then useless, they hid me away and switched to other sources of magic."

I looked down at the ground where the cupboard should have been, but my room looked far too innocent now, despite all the equipment. This mage had answers the questions I had, but I didn't know what to ask him and what to keep to myself.

"Just ask." His voice sounded dull for a moment as he stared at me, but when I stared back at him in surprise, his lips curled upward in amusement, "I can see it on your face. The curiosity is burning inside of you."

I wished he was wrong, but there were things I wanted to ask him, "Why were you hidden here and not where the map said you were?"

His eyebrows furrowed in confusion for a moment, and then he shook his head, "I know I was placed somewhere in the desert, but someone had brought me here in order to take my powers."

But no one had changed anything on the map? How current was that map, then?

"But why you? What makes you so special?" I covered my mouth as soon as I said that, since I didn't want to offend him, but Kris chuckled and shrugged his shoulders.

"I happen to be the strongest mage on our team," I stared at him in disbelief, because I wasn't sure if that was possible, "because I'm not from this planet."

Before I could question him on that, he continued.

"I was born on a planet called Malthor, in another galaxy on the far side of the universe. Our planet is composed of shape shifters and magic; we were known as the only planet that could sustain strong dosages of magic for long periods of time. One day, our planet was alerted that another planet was starting to output high levels of magic- which could be bad for the planet- so I was sent out to find out what happened. Because I was a magical being, however, it was easy for them to find me and they grew curious enough to capture me."

"So you were never human?" I asked him to make sure, and surely enough, he shook his head again.

"I take up the form of a human, but I was never born on this planet. They wanted to see if they could transfer the tree's power onto me; because if it didn't kill me, I could be a strong asset." With a sigh, he pulled his hands to his face, "And it worked."

"They trapped you here." I finished off, and when his head nodded just slightly, I found myself sighing, "I want to free you all, but you... your ring..."

Kris looked back at me with a grin playing his lips, and then my bedroom faded away and the two of us were in some place far away, "You need to have more confidence in yourself."

When I looked around, I couldn't recognize the trees or the houses or the lake in the middle, but I could recognize that children were running around town happily, as if no one was chasing them, "What are you showing me now?"

"Because the sorceresses are too busy running after you, there's no one to cause chaos in other parts of our world. These children are already thanking you and they don't even know why."

I wasn't sure if that was entirely a good thing, but I let him have it. However, Kris cleared his throat, and when I looked over at him, he was giving me a sheepish grin.

"The others are trying to wake you up now. I might have gotten you into trouble."

Right as I was about to ask him what he meant, everything I was looking at faded away, and I was left in a room that was pitch black.

"Yun Seung!" I snapped my eyes open to see an a frantic Sehun hovering over my bed, "The ring's missing!"

"Shut up and keep looking, Sehun!" Jongin called from another room, and as Sehun ran out of the room to answer Jongin's call, I looked down at my hand and gasped.

How had the ring gotten into my hand? Also, who repaired the ring?! Instead of two halves of a ring, in my hand sat one ring in a perfect condition. I remembered last night, and how I thought I saw something silver flying towards me. Was it this ring? What was Kris trying to show me?

As I sat up in bed, I watched as Minseok walked into my room and started searching under my bed, "It's not here, either. Have you seen the ring, Yun Seung?"

I held the ring out to him, but he never noticed. Instead, he grumbled under his breath and went off into another room. I stared at him in disbelief and went to go and find Tao instead, since I knew he'd want the ring.

"Yun Seung. Help us find the ring! Please!" There were tears streaming down his face as he spoke, and he was desperately throwing things around. I was partially glad nothing was broken, but I was more focused on everyone's expressions.

"I have the ring." As soon as I spoke, I dropped my head, because I didn't like the narrow-eyed glares I was receiving.

Chanyeol was the first to walk up to me and put a hand on my shoulder, "Why would you have the ring?"

I shook my head slowly, though I was scared of their reactions, "I just woke up and it was in my hand."

"The ring can't move on its own, Yun Seung." Chen's voice took on a sharp edge as he spoke, and though I know what I saw, I also knew no one would believe me.

Joonmyun was the second to walk up to me, and after leaning down just slightly in order to look at me, he spoke, "What happened, Yun Seung?"

But when I tried to tell him, I was cut off by Yongguk as he burst into the room, "We've been found out. Hurry, we'll have to go to the bunkers where the civilians are hidden."

"Go. Now. We'll talk about this later." Yixing started pushing people in the way Yongguk had come from, but they had all refused to talk to me.

I was left alone with Baekhyun, who waited at the entrance before taking another step away from me, "I want to believe you, Yun Seung, but his powers are gone."

"He's gone."

He wasn't, though, and I was the only one who knew he wasn't. How was I supposed to tell the mages he was still there when they obviously didn't believe me or even ask to see the ring? Did they think I did something to the ring, even after I promised to free them all? 

I found myself walking behind everyone else, though some of them glanced at me from over their shoulders to make sure I was still there. The silence was tense and I was trying not to cry, but what more could I say or do?

"There's no reason to cry." When I looked up, I saw D.O. standing in front of me, and though he usually didn't like me, he held out a tissue for me to dry my eyes, "They're all just confused as to how the ring ended up with you. We were all watching it last night, but it never moved."

"Even when it's broken, the ring had to search for its master."

I didn't answer. I didn't know how to. I had no idea what Kris wanted or why he chose me that night when eleven of his friends sat around him, but he chose me and now I was paying for it.

"Yun Seung?" Beyond D.O., where the rest of the group was standing, Luhan stopped walking and turned towards us. Because of this, the other mages stopped where they were and looked over to us as well, "Can I see the ring?"

The ring was held tightly in my hand so I couldn't drop it. I didn't want to walk over to them since most of them were giving me evil eyes, but I did it anyway. I held out my hand and opened it, and I heard the gasps that came along with it.

"You fixed it!" Tao shoved everyone else away and took the ring into his own hands, his eyes tearing and his lips curling into a relieved grin so wide that I ended up smiling a little as well.

"How did you fix it?" Joonmyun asked, and when I looked over at him, his eyes were full of confusion and doubt.

I told them everything that happened and I watched as guilt covered their expressions. They felt bad for getting angry at me and they apologized profusely, but I had already forgiven them because I knew how important it was to them; having their twelfth mage with them.

"There's just one problem." Minseok stated, and everyone turned to him as he spoke, "How are we so sure he's still in there?"

They all fell silent for a moment, and then they turned to me and Tao held the ring out to me.

I knew what it meant, and I smiled as I took the fragile silver ring and put it on my thumb. It glowed for a moment and then as the bright light appeared and disappeared, I found myself smiling even wider; because the mage from my dream was standing there right in front of me.

"It took you long enough."

This is the earliest I've ever updated a chapter. Seriously. I woke up at 8:30, got onto my computer, and typed this entire thing in less than three hours. Can you believe it? It's because I felt so bad for you know, destroying Kris' ring and all. But have no fear, Kris is here! This wasn't exactly as I planned for it to go in the beginning, but I'm glad it went this way. Look it! All twelve are together again.

I want to ask you guys a question, but truthfully, I don't have a question to ask! *insert frowny face here*. So you guys just ask yourselves a question and answer it. 

As always, thanks for reading, subscribing, commenting, and upvoting this story! Your support is great and I love each and every one of you. We're done with the first part of the story now, yay! I hope the next two parts are also parts of the story you enjoy, and that this chapter mends your broken hearts from the last chapter. Have a brilliant day!