It took a while for Zitao to realize it, but Yifan had gone missing. At first he had thought that the elder had went off to be by himself for a short amount of time, but when that short amount of time stretched into a day, Zitao knew something was wrong. He had suspected it when Yifan had first gotten back, since Yifan had once told them that his planet Malthor was actually a few weeks away by flight. He had brushed it off at first, since he was grateful for Yifan's reappearance, but as time went on it became more obvious that Yifan wasn't okay.

It had started during their battle. While battling the thousands of them that had charged at the camp EXO had decided to stay at, Yifan had suddenly swooped down from the sky in his dragon form. The others hadn't thought much of it, but Zitao knew that the longer Yifan spent in that form on a planet other than his own, the more dangerous it would be for his health. The battle lasted hours. There were casualties on both sides, though thankfully no one lost their life on the mages' side. They had eventually pulled back after they had suffered significant loss. Due to their sudden retreat, the mages weren't even close to being able to find the three sorceresses.

Yifan staggered his way off of the battlefield, unlike his usual confident steps full of authority. Zitao noticed it, and some of the others had as well, but no one said a thing. Instead of worrying about Yifan, who would immediately shut them all out if they questioned him, everyone let it go and did what they could to watch over Yifan without making it obvious they were worried. He had remained silent, as well, which was certainly unusual for the second leader. When the other elder mages questioned him after the battle, Yifan smiled and waved them off.

The others had no time to run after him, however, since they had to go right back to saving the town again. Yun Seung had been under the care of BAP, since the warlocks spent so much time with her already. No one argued, since they all knew BAP could keep her safe in their absence. So they worked on the town for days while Yifan distanced himself and Yun Seung was sent off to recover.

When Zitao realized Yifan had disappeared, it was already well into the third day of their project. Yifan had woken him up with a light shove and once Zitao sat up, Yifan turned and walked out of their room. He didn't say a thing, and though sometimes Zitao wished for him to be quiet, Yifan being this quiet for so long was not a good thing. Zitao lost track of him eventually, though his gaze had followed Yifan closely throughout the morning. They ate, and he was quiet. They visited Yun Seung, and he was quiet. They split up to start working, and that was the last Zitao had seen Yifan that day.

It was the next day that everyone noticed, Zitao being the first. Since they slept in the same room, Zitao usually waited for Yifan to go to sleep first before he let his mind wander. When he opened his eyes in the morning, however, Yifan's bed remained untouched and the air didn't smell like Yifan at all. Could he have just woken up earlier and went off to meet with the elders? 

Zitao wasn't as curious as he thought he would be and slowly got himself ready. Twenty minutes later when he found the other mages that had already started breakfast, he noticed with a frown that Yifan wasn't there.

"Zitao, you're up?" Zitao's gaze flickered over to Joonmyun, who had held out a bowl of some strange stew for him.

"Where's Yifan?"

"You don't know where he is?" That's when the surprise finally sunk in and his heart constricted in fear.

"You don't know where he is?" Baekhyun as he spoke and grinned, leaning up to ruffle the taller male's hair.

"We wouldn't ask you if we knew, Zi."

"He didn't come back at all last night." Zitao was stuttering and he could feel tears welling in his eyes. He wanted them to comfort him, but when he saw his fear mirrored on their faces, he realized that no one knew where Yifan was and that something had gone wrong with him.

"Maybe he went out to fly. He does that sometimes." Luhan spat out, but though Yifan liked to take random trips around the globe, he never did so without alerting the others first.

The others stared at each other for moments. Some were wondering if they should go out and look for the second leader while others just wanted the day to end and go back to sleep. Zitao was amongst the latter group.

"I'm sure he'll pop up eventually." The others were grateful for Kyungsoo's optimistic words, even if he himself didn't look optimistic.

"I don't know if we can take that chance." Yixing muttered, and Zitao swallowed thickly before turning to the mage of healing. Yixing was watching their reactions and then looking away in thought.

"His presence has been unstable lately."

"So I wasn't the only one who felt it." Minseok grumbled, running his fingers through his hair and turning to a silent Joonmyun.

"He's been too distant since he got back. It's not normal, not for Yifan at least."

"Yun Seung?" Jongin's voice was quiet, but everyone still snapped their heads over to him with narrowed eyes. While talking about a missing Yifan why was he suddenly bringing up Yun Seung?

Jongin wasn't looking at them, so eventually, everyone looked over in the direction he had been staring at where Yun Seung was stumbling over to them. Just a few days ago she had been unconscious and unresponsive to their attempts to wake her, but she was there in front of them now with Yongguk holding his arms out from behind should she fall over.

"What is she doing out of bed?" Baekhyun's voice was hard as he walked over to them, but Yun Seung waved her arm to stop him, as she was stubborn and convinced she could stand on her own.

"Yun Seung, do you know something we don't?" Chanyeol was mumbling, but his voice was loud and clear. They stared at him for a moment before turning to Yun Seung. Her head had dropped and her body was stiff, indicating that she indeed knew something they didn't.

"In the middle of the night, Yifan- he came into the sick bay. He said he needed my help-"

"Help with what?" Sehun interrupted, and Yun Seung looked up at him before swallowing and nervously fidgeting with her hands.

"I don't know! He just took my pistols and left."

"Your pistols?" Yixing asked in surprise, and the mages looked between each other again before Luhan cleared his throat.

"Those pistols came from Yifan's home planet. I don't know what he's doing but..."

"All we can do is wait." Joonmyun said, and though everyone knew Joonmyun was hurting, the mages chose to remain quiet.

"Joonmyun, wait." Just as Joonmyun turned to walk away, Yun Seung stumbled forward and caught him by the sleeve.

"Something's happened to him. I don't know what, but when I was asleep I saw pictures of him in pain. We need to find him now."

The alarm that had temporarily fled from the mages' expressions returned and the eleven of them turned to each other in a mix of confusion, anger, and worry.

"How do we find him? We can't even sense his presence." Chanyeol sputtered, his eyes going wide and his hands nervously shaking at his sides like they do every time he feels tensed after his time spent with the sorceresses.

"It'll take too long if we're together. We should split up." Minseok suggested, and after the other mages nodded, he pointed up towards the sky.

"He'll be somewhere close to the sky. That's where he gets more power."

"Someone should go with Zitao." Zitao felt himself flush because he didn't need to be babysat, but nothing could change Joonmyun's mind once it was set.

The elders looked to each other to decide who would go, but before anyone could volunteer themselves, Zitao shook his head and stepped away. He was grateful for their worry, but he wanted to be able to find Yifan on his own. He was the younger mage's best friend, after all. 

"I'll be fine on my own." 

But he wasn't. As soon as he was out of everyone's view, he started to cry. Zitao was already labeled the baby of the group, but he knew that if they saw him crying then, they really wouldn't leave him alone. Yifan had a strong sense of pride, so Zitao knew that he wouldn't tell anyone if he was hurt. For the same reason, he knew Yifan wouldn't want anyone to see him hurt. Yifan would much rather suffer on his own, because that's what he had done his entire life. 

Eventually, Zitao did find the elder mage. He had taken Minseok's advice of finding a tall peak, and knowing that Yifan wouldn't drift off too far on his own, he ventured up a nearby mountain. Now, normally, it would probably take a week or longer to get up a mountain, but since he had control over time, he took advantage of his powers and found himself in a cave at the top of the mountain.

He didn't like being in a cave again after finding out that was where he had been hidden, but when he saw Yifan's body slumped against the cave wall, his thoughts were forgotten and he ran to Yifan like he was on fire. 

Yifan wasn't unconscious, but his gaze was focused on something distant. His body looked uncomfortable in the angle it was in, but when Zitao attempted to move him, it was as if Yifan suddenly gained a thousand pounds and was unable to shift even a little bit. His skin was glowing, as well, though the swirls and letters that usually glowed brightly were slowly growing dim.

What was he supposed to do? His powers were limited, so how could he alert the other mages of his position? How was he supposed to take care of Yifan while the elder was in such a state? He was beginning to cry in frustration, because now that he was alone he wished he could have brought someone along with him.

Suddenly, Yifan twitched. He didn't react to Zitao's touch or anything, but the glow on his body had almost completely faded. Zitao hurriedly gripped onto his arm, his gaze on Yifan's hands. In his hands were his pistols, but they were red. Why were they red? Zitao reached out to pull the pistols in Yifan's grip, since that was what seemed to be hurting him, but when his hands had gotten burned, Zitao jumped away from the elder.

"We found you." From behind him, Jongin's voice sounded a mix between relieved and annoyed.

"Yifan?" Yixing's voice was hesitant, but when no answer came from Yifan, he hurriedly crouched down beside the elder and placed his hand on the elder's forehead.

"Was he like this when you got here?" Minseok asked, noticing the red pistols in Yifan's grip. A moment later, his eyes found Zitao's burned hands and he pulled the younger mage's hands into his own to cool them down.

Zitao nodded silently, and the mages turned to watch Yifan and Yixing. After shaking his head in dejection, even Yixing had stepped back to join their group, his arms crossed over his chest in frustration.

"It's weird, his vitals are getting strong but he's remaining unresponsive."

"What could it be?" Kyungsoo asked, his eyes glancing between the other mages reluctantly. 

"He's turning himself into a human." Joonmyun's quiet voice informed them. He looked down at himself and sighed, his shoulders trembling slightly.

"Did you already know about this?" Baekhyun's voice was slightly suspicious as he eyed the first leader.

"I figured it out when Yun Seung said he'd gone to her for the pistols. I don't know much about it. We've only talked about it once."

Sehun walked over to the first leader and put a gentle hand on his shoulder, although his eyebrows were furrowed in confusion.

"He's turning himself into a human? How is that-"

"Malthorians are shifters." Zitao cut in, and the others turned to him in surprise, but the younger mage was watching Yifan's body continue to convulge in pain.

"It's the image of the shape that is hard to contain. In order to seal away his Malthorian powers, he had brought those guns here. That also explains how Yun Seung was able to absorb our powers. Each one of us had gotten into contact with those guns and those pistols store our powers."

"So he's sealing himself away? Why would he do that?" Jongdae questioned them, but when no one answered, he figured it out himself and left the cave. Zitao already figured it was so he could go scream where no one else would listen.

By sealing himself away, Yifan was ensuring that he could stay with the others even if years passed. Without the need to go back to his planet, Yifan would be just fine on their planet like every other mage. There was only one problem that Zitao found in this. Yifan's markings made him special, his cold aura and his tough exterior all came from who he had been. Doing this was bad because Yifan had already been suffering by himself for so long.

Sealing himself away would only add onto his suffering.

Sorry for such a late reply, you guys. I've been wanting to update since I got the last chapter but I've gotten really distracted. I have another story if you guys want to check it out. It's not anywhere near as good as I'd like it to be but I've gotten some good ideas for it and it also follows the MAMA-verse. The story isn't the only thing keeping me distracted, however.

I am now completely caught up on almost all things EXO. I have watched a couple of their new things but I've spent all this time watching their Showtime and listening to their old albums and almost crying because though I'm not an EXO-L, my three favorites were the ones to have left. Oops. However, when I got caught up with EXO stuff I remembered SNSD. I don't admit this easily but SNSD was the first group I listened to that got me into K-Pop. It was an accident that changed my life so now that Jessica is gone I kind of got really messed up.

The past few days have been full of listening to old stuff and seeing their new stuff and I'm really messed up right now, guys. Help me.

On the bright side, I've also been catching up on Infinite. Infinite is one of my bias groups, so it's because of them that I don't feel as horrible right now as I did yesterday and the day before.

Wow, I rant a lot. Speaking of rants, thanks guys for ranting and stuff. If you didn't rant, that's fine. I'm really honored to have written this story and met such amazing fans and non-fans. There's a lot of the artists are getting but you guys are all so supportive of EXO and stuff. I hate EXO less now because of you all. 

Let's all continue to support EXO, okay? EXO saranghaja!

Please enjoy this chapter and support this story as well! Have a brilliant day!