You would expect for a mage with total control over time to be able to change the past to whatever he wanted it to be, but Tao knows just how tricky dealing with time can be. There were obviously a few things he would change if he could; the fact that Yuna found them and forced their new lives upon them, the fact that his friends were all trapped in a life they could never walk away from, and the fact that Yun Seung left.

But he couldn't.

When he had first gotten his power over time, Tao had turned back time and stopped his original meeting with Yuna after he'd won a Martial Arts competition and failed to save himself from her and her sisters. The thing with time is that if something's destined to happen, it'll happen no matter how many times he tries to alter time, and because of it, Tao refused to even try and alter it again.

It didn't mean he didn't want to, though, because there were too many regrets he and the rest of the mages held in the past that they just wished to have another chance at fixing.

One morning as Tao and Sehun cleared out the third town of civilians and brought them to the underground in preparation for Chanyeol and Chen's demolition to begin, Sehun nudged his shoulder and pointed to the sky. When Tao looked, he let out a light sigh because rain was falling in the center of town where Joonmyun and Yifan were plotting their next move

The rain falling meant they were starting to pack up and head over to the next town, but Tao wasn’t ready to move on; no one really was. They had to work quickly in order to make good time against the sorceresses, who were undeniably forming their own legions to take the mages down, but they were starting to wear themselves down.

They might not be humans, but after hundreds of years of being chained up, working constantly wasn’t doing any good for any of the twelve mages, and especially not for Tao. His ability to control time was linked to his physical state; so being fatigued meant he slipped up a lot and allowed for time to repeat sometimes.

That’s why he wasn’t alarmed as he watched Sehun point to sky thrice and only lightly pat his own face to stop himself from messing with time any longer without meaning to. But of course, that was when Chen walked over to them, and seeing that Tao had altered time without meaning to, laughed, pointed a finger, and ran to where Yifan was to watch the younger mage get in trouble for his actions.

When Sehun recovered and made a puzzled face in reaction to Tao’s absolutely done expression, Tao let out a grunt and dragged his feet to follow after Chen.

“Zi?! Where are you going?” Sehun sounded absolutely confused as he ran after the mage of time, and Tao almost glared over at him before catching himself and remembering that he only wanted to freeze Chen in time for the rest of eternity.

Sehun was grabbed and shielded away from Tao as soon as Luhan saw him, and the normally innocent blonde haired mage sent a death glare that almost scared Tao as much as Yifan’s glares did.

Okay, nothing scared him more than Yifan’s glare, and Tao felt himself shrink under their second leader’s gaze. It wasn’t the first time he’d messed with time, but the other mages didn’t understand the dangers of being able to control time, and he had no idea how to explain to them that it really wasn’t his fault that his body refused to acknowledge his commands.

“Do you want to explain why you were using your powers against Sehun?” Yifan was hardly ever angry at Tao because Tao was an innocent kid that never did anything wrong- unless he was really asking for trouble.

The other mages had gathered at this point, the majority of them holding grins on their faces as they hadn’t expected for Tao to have gotten into trouble with the leader that usually babied him. The only mage that looked slightly worried about Tao was Yixing, as it was obvious to him that there was something physically bothering Tao.

“I-”

“Were you trying to play a game?” Joonmyun wasn’t as angry as Yifan, of course, but the look the first leader gave him had Tao shrink further into himself, his head now pulsing in exhaustion.

“I-”

“You tried to use magic on me?” Sehun sounded so betrayed that Tao almost believed he actually had been messing with the younger mage.

“Tao, what are you doing?” D.O.’s voice was almost quiet as he asked but Tao could hardly focus on his voice. All he knew was that the clouds hanging over them were pausing from their showers and starting again.

“Stop it, Tao.” Yifan’s voice had gone a little stricter as he spoke, but Tao couldn’t do anything to stop while he was fighting to keep himself awake.

And though he wanted to sleep right there and then, sleeping would only allow for time to be out of balance completely with no one to keep it on track.

“Sorry.” That was all he could say, then gritting his teeth together because he suddenly felt like a bucket of ice had been poured over him.

The other mages glanced over at each other and then Chen took a slow step forward, “Are you okay, Zi? It wasn’t that big of a deal, you don’t have to shake so hard.”

“Tao!”

He didn’t know what was going on, but he knew that he was shaking and that a moment later, he had been falling- only to be caught in Minseok’s arms as the eldest mage brought him to the ground carefully.

“He’s freezing.” Minseok’s voice was confused and horrified, as if he didn’t know what was going on with Tao’s body, and neither did Tao.

A moment later, Yixing was checking his body for injuries or any irregularities on his body. As the only one that had seen something happening to Tao, he had been one of the first to lunge forward when the mage collapsed.

“Zi, why didn’t you tell us earlier?” Yixing asked, and though Tao wanted to reassure the others that he’d be okay, he knew he wouldn’t be able to.

“D-don’t let me fall asleep.” He clutched onto Yixing’s sleeve because he was the closest and because Yunseng wasn’t there to keep him company now while he was terrified.

“Zi…” The other mages had gotten down onto the ground with him, with Chanyeol rubbing his hands over Tao’s arms to try and keep him warm.

“You need to rest, Zi.” Baekhyun scolded him gently, though he made no move to bring him to a bed, because they were unsure if it would be safe to move him.

“I can’t sleep. I can never sleep.” Tao shook his head as best as he could, and quickly pulled his body closer to himself because it was just that close.

Hearing that, Joonmyun and Yifan shared a look before nodding and Joonmyun cleared his throat, “I think this makes it pretty obvious that we need a day to rest. Return to your bunkers, Yifan will remain with Zitao.”

No one could disagree, since Yifan often babied Zitao, so the two waited for the rest of the mages to leave before Yifan lifted the young mage off the ground and brought him to their shared room in the bunker and tucked him into his bed.

“Don’t-”

“-let you go to sleep. I heard.” Yifan sat on the edge of Tao’s bed, his long legs straight in front of him as he watched Tao slowly relax in bed, “Why not?”

“I can never sleep the way everyone else does.” Tao whispered as his arms now clutched at the blanket covering him, and when Yifan turned back to him, Tao his lips to continue, “When I was given these powers, things changed. When I close my eyes, I’m journeying through time- things I’ve seen, things I haven’t seen, things that will come to pass. I get pictures in my head sometimes or voices, much like your dreams, but for me they’re fleeting. If I don’t keep myself focused, I could slip, I could stop living, and time could be destroyed as it is.”

“It takes a lot longer for me to get to that state, whereas it takes a lot less time and energy to fall asleep. So while the rest of you are able to work after just a few hours of sleep, I need the time to allow my mind to rest. If I strain my mind too much, it’s easier to slip.”

After he finished explaining, he looked up at Yifan and took note of the understanding and guilty smile he wore. Yifan slowly brought his fingers to the younger mage’s hair and sifted his fingers through it, and Tao remembered how much Yifan loved him even if he was stricter on him than to the other mages.

“No wonder why you always look so tired.” Yifan was trying to joke around, but neither of them found him very funny, so they just shook their heads as Yifan pulled his fingers back, “Get some rest, Zi. You deserve it.”

“I know I do. I put up with your brooding , don’t I?” Okay, so maybe Tao also wasn’t very funny, but he was glad he could bring a grin to his second leader’s lips.

“Shut it.” But despite saying that, Yi Fan slept on the ground right beside Tao’s bed in case the younger mage needed something from him.

 Begging himself to stay focused and rest while not falling asleep, Tao shut his eyes and let out a deep breath.

When he opened his eyes again, he was alone in a black space, but that black space brightened as if reels of pictures were flying past him. It always took him some time to adjust to all of the lights, but when he did, he was glad to know he was being allowed to rest properly.

He never explored the memories of the extreme past, such as the formation of the planet or the appearance of mankind, but he did see his own past often. He found comfort in the things he knew happened to him, no matter how twisted those things were.

But that night, the comfort he usually felt when going through his memories was gone, and there was only one reason as to why that comfort disappeared. It was his first memory after being locked in his ring for many years, only to be found once in a while by masters that were only after the influence his powers could bring them.

To him, there was nothing more frightening and exhilarating than that moment- when he first met Yunseung. He was afraid she’d be the same as all the masters before her, but he was excited to meet another master nonetheless. Now that he saw that memory, and followed every memory since then, he was glad he met Yunseung.

He flinched at every dangerous thing she did for them, and frowned every time she hurt herself or had gotten upset, and he smiled every time her smile found him through his memories of her. He remembered how openly she welcomed each of the mages even without knowing them well, and the look of relief that crossed her expression each time she found one of his brothers. He owed her his life, because she kept her promise while he broke her heart.

Though he remembered what happened the last day they had been together, he wanted to see it again, because he wanted to feel what they had done to her, even if she was the one who was hurt and not him or his brothers. That was why he stood and watched as she ran out of the supplies cabin, defended the twelve of them to her ancestors even while they were on a rampage, was stabbed by Minseok, refused to be treated by them, and disappeared.

“Where did she go?” He muttered to himself, knowing that was what the rest of his brothers were also trying to decipher, but as he replayed that memory, he paused time and stepped into the memory so he could tap into Yunseung’s memories.

Being someone who could alter time and control it, seeing someone’s memories was a perk that made his powers just that much cooler and that much more terrifying as well.

His eyebrows furrowed as he pulled out of her memories and stood back in the formerly black space. What did that picture have to do with anything? Children running around in a field? It was war time, would there even be a place as calm and peaceful as that one? How did she learn of that place, anyway? Jongin always had to have the picture of a place in his head before teleporting to a place, so how did she know of that place or if it even existed?

How could he go to that place, anyway? He was only able to travel through time, not through dimensions or planes like Jongin could.

When he opened his eyes, not only did he feel well rested, but a grin played his lips as he shook his head, baffled at the fact that he hadn’t thought of such a brilliant plan earlier. Stepping over Yifan’s muttering and obviously asleep body, Tao ran out of his room and through the bunker to find the mage of teleportation.

“I take it you’re well?” It was D.O. who opened the door when he knocked, and Tao looked over him to see Jongin was still fast asleep and half like he always was.

“Better than ever.” Tao smiled widely, and after raising an eyebrow of reluctance, D.O. shook his head and walked past him, saying something about needing coffee in order to keep up with his level of excitement.

As soon as D.O. disappeared down the hall, Tao plopped onto Jongin’s bed and shook Jongin, and eventually beating the sleeping male with a pillow because he was so excited.

“Tao!” Jongin was not only half asleep, but aggravated to the point of pushing Tao onto the ground and glaring at him from over the side of his bed, “What are you doing? Can’t you go bug Yifan?”

“I could, but I thought you’d want to know how to find Yunseung.” Tao knew it would catch Jongin’s attention, and it did. Jongin joined him on the ground in the most graceless of ways and grabbed his shoulders with his eyes barely held back in their sockets.

So, Tao explained the memories he’d seen and Jongin nodded as he imagined what Tao could have seen in his memory. At first, the two had wanted to go together in case Tao was the only one to know where Yunseung was after all, but in the end, they realized that the two of them going together would be dangerous. Especially if the leaders found out.

When he got his powers, Tao was into a world of responsibilities too great for his comprehension. He wanted to use it to change his past, to make it one that never happened at all. He wanted to save himself, and to save his brothers, and he wanted to run from something he knew he couldn’t run from. But now he felt at peace with his powers and the great stress they gave him, because with it, he was able to meet eleven great boys and a girl that changed his life forever.

He was able to fix his biggest regret of letting her go.

So, I start this by asking that you not disown me as an author just yet. Ah, we started college again a couple of weeks ago and it's been crazy for a while. It's not an excuse, I know, but I will try to get back on top of updates again.

Special shout out to my co-author who is probably also very disappointed in me. Sorry, I didn't mean to leave you hanging. (I'm not disappointed in you, chicky. I understand very well since I'm busy too. And thanks for updating despite your busy schedule, darling! I loved it and I'm sure our darling readers will too! Here, accept all my love ♥♥ - Dal)

I'm not making this author's note too long for two reasons; one, I'm at a library and it's almost time for them to close up. Two, I think it's more important that you guys catch up with the mages than with me. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter! And please, continue to subscribe, upvote, comment, and read, because I will try to be a more active author. ;a;