Warning: this chapter is pretty intense and there's a graphic, violent moment. Read cautiously.
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Yixing punches a ghoul in the face, barely managing to avoid getting slashed by her long, venom-covered claws. The monster sways on her feet after he punches her, and he uses that moment to kick her on the shin, hard enough to break her bones.

The ghoul drops to the ground, her leg bending away, her knee falling out of the socket. She howls in pain, hitting the ground.

Seon shows up at Yixing’s side, holding a pair of silver handcuffs.

“Where the hell are you getting all this stuff?” Yixing asks her, a bit out of breath. He’s covered in sweat. The ghoul howls, trashes around, and tries to slash Seon when she bends towards it; Seon knocks it out with a blow close to its nose. Yixing raises his brows at that.

“Seon!” someone shouts. A hunter shows up behind them. They both look at him. He’s wearing a black mask; all the hunters seem to have matching ones. Even Seon does. They look pretty badass. “There’re four witches right there.”

“Witches?” Yixing asks, freaked out.

“We have them at gunpoint, but the police are approaching. What do we do?”

“Trap them,” Seon says. “Do we have any iron nets?”

They hear an explosion in the distance. Then police sirens. The ground shakes a little.

“I swear, they’re going to destroy the city,” Yixing says, running towards where the explosion was heard.

“Get iron nets, trap them, and make sure the police don’t get to them!” Seon says to the hunter. “They might be under hypnosis. They’re not necessarily evil, remember!”

She runs after Yixing. They reach the place where they heard an explosion, and they both cringe when they see the psychopath guy from before. The one that escaped, the one that told his companions to kill the humans.

When Yixing sees him, he doesn’t control his actions. He growls, his claws extend, and he throws himself at the guy.

And the dude throws a mini bomb at him.

“Lay wait!” Seon screams, her voice high-pitched.

She sees a flutter of movement and the bomb blows up in the air. She gets hit by hot air, she sees flames and light, and drops onto the street, the air getting knocked out of her. For a short second, panic fills her, but when she looks up, she sees Yixing lying on the left, Chen pinning him onto the ground. And the psychopath is trapped in Kris’s grip.

Seon breaths out with relief. And then a guy flies above her head with a yell, lands on the street next to her, grunting, and she gets very weirded out. She looks to the direction the dude came from and raises her brows when she sees Min smacking her hands together, like she’s just done some dirty work and is dusting herself off.

Well.

“You guys good?” she asks.

“Perfect,” Kris says right before he punches the psychopath in the back of his head, successfully knocking him out.

“It’s scary how good we all are at knocking people out,” Chen grunts from the ground. Yixing lets out a moan from under him. Chen slaps him on the head. “And you’re dumb. I’m not surprised Seon kissed you; she was probably scared she’s not going to get another chance, given the probability of you jumping into grave danger the first chance you get.”

“Chen, I will regret my words later on, but you see right through me,” Seon says.

*

“Facebook is going crazy,” Amber mutters under her breath as she types away on the keyboard. “I hate livestream.”

“As long as it doesn’t get out,” Baekhyun says, looking out the window. It’s a sunny day, and there’re not that many people outside, since it’s still early; Baekhyun can see smoke in a few places, and when he listens in hard enough, people’s scream reach his ears. He’s holding his phone, almost breaking it. Amber and Minjoon are typing. Their hands are restless on the keyboards as they delete footages of people flashing their eyes blue at the cameras, of pale people who look dead throwing themselves at civilians, of werewolves and werecoyotes punching holes through buildings.

“Baekhyun, look,” Amber says. “Chanyeol.”

Baekhyun runs to her and looks at the screen. He sees Chanyeol being badass with a silver dagger; he’s fighting a ghoul, and the only way to kill a ghoul is by cutting off their heads. Chanyeol plays with his weapon, punches the ghoul in the face, and then decapitates it in one swift move. The monsters drops to the ground, and its body turns into black goo.

Chanyeol runs to somewhere, away from the camera’s lenses.

Baekhyun breathes out in relief. He hears someone approaching the door and he looks up, alert; the door opens and he sees a bunch of hunters.

Baekhyun hesitates.

“Baek, go,” Amber says, not looking away from the screen. “The pack needs you. Nobody’s going to attack us.”

The hunter that opened the door nods. Baekhyun falters again, looks outside the window, and clenches his jaw.

“Yeah,” he mutters. “Yeah.”

He takes two swift steps towards Amber, kisses her on the head, and then opens the window to jump out of it. Nobody looks twice.

God, the amount of explanations the police are going to demand.

*

Saburo is sitting on a big rock when they all show up in front of him. His whole body is covered with gashes, and he’s holding a katana. He’s not wearing much clothes – just a pair of black trousers and a very torn t-shirt. His boots look like he’s walked through hell and back, and his hair is all over his face.

His cheeks are smeared with blood, his forearms and biceps trickling with blood, and his eyes are bloodshot.

And Sung did it to him.

In comparison to him, Saburo looks half-dead.

“Hello,” Saburo says. His katana flashes when he moves his wrist a little. Sulli looks around and realizes that they’re standing on a mountain ledge. The wind is blowing hard from every direction, and if she decided to take twenty steps back, she’d fall off a cliff. Saburo is sitting in front of them, and there’s a cave behind him, grooved in the mountain.

Feels a bit cliché.

“Didn’t take you long,” Saburo points out, his eyes snapping to Sulli. Sehun immediately steps in front of her, shielding her from Saburo’s sight; Sulli can’t see anything. “As I’d have expected of my kin.”

Kin?

Saburo stands up. His legs are shaking, but he looks even more murderous than he has before. His red eyes make him look rabid. His tattoos become pitch black when he lets his magic ooze from his skin. He smirks, taking the group in – Sung, Sehun, Sulli, Luhan, Iseul, and Taemin.

Six ninjas show up at his side. Taemin scoffs.

“Let’s begin, then,” Saburo says. “I hate family meetings.”

He raises his hands and thousands of tiny, pin-like lights show up around him, in the air. One small move of his wrist and they all fly at them. Sung raises his arms, forming a barrier in front of all of them, and the pins begin to bombard it.

Sehun thinks that it’s weird that they don’t bounce off. Instead, the pins pierce the barrier and stand there. He can even see the barrier cracking.

And then it truly cracks.

The pins fly right through it. He turns away, so that he can hide his face and envelop Sulli, to protect her; and then he feels the pins piercing the skin on his back, and he howls in pain, losing all the strength in his knees and almost collapsing on top of Sulli. She holds him up as best as she can.

There’s a rustle. The ninjas come for them. Sung steps out of the group, focusing on Saburo alone, and Saburo laughs out loud when he sees the pack squirming in pain as his pin-like magic make it hard for them to even move. It feels like needles stuck in their skin.

Sehun can only think about getting Sulli out of the way.

“Cover me!” he yells. Luhan is the one to jump in front of him when a ninja attacks him; Sehun picks Sulli up and runs for his life. He jumps off the cliff, making Sulli yell.

They fall and fall and fall. They land on a shelf a few meters down the cliff; the stone cracks under Sehun’s feet when he lands swiftly, his knees aching a little at the impact. Sulli is shaking in his arms. He puts her down and steps away.

“Sorry,” he whispers, looking away from her. “Stay here.”

“Sehun,” she chokes out.

He looks at her. Her eyes are open, worried, and scared; her eyes shiny. In a wave of affection, he pulls her into a hug and breaths out in relief. He hasn’t hugged her in a long time.

“Wait for me,” he says. “And—I’m sorry. And I want to try. And—“

“Are you seriously telling me this now?” Sulli gasps out, her voice shaky.

“I might not get another chance,” Sehun reminds her. He pulls away from her, but he keeps his hands on her shoulders. His eyes are sharp and intent, and Sulli feels like she’s shrinking under his gaze. She doesn’t know when it happens, but Sehun pushes her against the wall. He doesn’t use any force to do it, they just sort of end up by the wall.

Sehun places his forehead on hers.

“Stay here,” he commands sharply. Then he takes a few steps back, looks up to calculate the distance to the cliff, and jumps, disappearing from Sulli’s sight.

He lands on the cliff to see Iseul and Taemin fighting side-by-side, taking on three ninjas at the same time, and Luhan taking on another three. He rushes to help Luhan out.

There’re flames flying around as Saburo and Sung fight. At this point, Sehun is one hundred percent sure they’re family. What if Sung is Saburo’s father?

But then what does that make Zinn, the spirit?

He pulls out a sword Seon gave him, and he attacks one of the ninjas, taking their attention away from Luhan. Their swords meet, clanking, and since Sehun is stronger, he pushes the ninjas away. It sways on its feet. Sehun tries to pierce it with his sword, but the ninja turns on his heels, blocks the sword with his katana, and almost wrecks it out of Sehun’s grip.

The object that keeps Zinn alive is in the cave. When it’s gone, Zinn will die. When Saburo dies, whoever he’s controlling – the Mabeob members that he needed, who didn’t want to join him voluntarily, so he used mind control on them – will be free.

It’s their job to get to that damn object.

*

Kris gets slashed by a wraith.

He feels blood filling his insides, and he sways to the side. That allows the wraith to punch him, and he falls onto the ground, his blood dripping down onto the pavement. He can hear gunshots; the police has swarmed the place. Someone calls out his name. The wraith pulls his up by his collar.

“Don’t shoot, or I will kill him!” she shouts, putting the spike that grows out of her wrist to Kris’s neck. Kris can feel himself growing dizzy.

“Hey!” he hears someone shout. A second later, something swishes through the air; there’s a loud clank, and the wraith holding him drops onto the ground like a sack of potatoes. Kris drops with it, and notices a literal brick lying right next to the monster.

What the hell.

Changmin runs up to him, looking freaked out. He moves a bit like he’s afraid he’s gonna get stained with blood. He looks down at Kris’s gash, and cringes.

“That looks awful,” he points out.

“Thanks, Sherlock,” Kris replies, choking on his blood. Changmin helps him sit down.

“Call an ambulance!” someone shouts. Kris realizes there’re some cops from his own station swarming around him, surprised to see him here, and freaked out by the state he’s in. Changmin pulls Kris’s mask away from his face.

“Don’t,” he says to the cop that proposed an ambulance. “He’s gonna be fine.”

The wraith stirs next to them.

“Why did you hit it with a brick?” Kris asks dumbly.

“Normal bullets don’t work on these,” Changmin says. “Head trauma does.”

“Silver,” Kris points out. “Silver bullets.”

“Silver bullets, okay. Where can we get those?” Changmin asks. Kris looks around, spotting a hunter hanging around. He points at him.

“Ask that guy.”

*
 

Nothing works on Zinn.

You can’t touch him. You can’t even scratch his robe. He’s too quick, too strong, too—resistant. You’re getting tired, you’re covered in bruises and small cuts, and your magic can’t even keep up with healing your skin. And Zinn is there. He doesn’t speak, he doesn’t make sounds, he barely moves, and yet, he manages to get away from your attacks.

What is Sung doing?

Approach this differently, you think. Old school.

You grab at the handle of your baseball bat and pull it out with a whoosh. You put your magic into it. You try to punch Zinn in the face, so he pays attention to your fist, and when he blocks it, you swing your bat at his head.

That gets him.

You manage to hit him in the mask. It cracks a little. But then he reacts more violently than he has up until now; he uses telekinesis, and he pushes you away with more force than before. You cling to your bat, bracing for impact, but someone catches you mid-air.

Kyungsoo puts you down onto the ground, and you gasp out.

“How can we help?” he asks, nodding at Myungsoo to come closer.

“Distract him,” you grunt out, teleporting.

You show up right next to Zinn again. You take a swing of your bat, and as he braces for another impact, you teleport again, showing up on his right. You’re fast enough. He uses magic on thin air, where you used to be, and you hit him on the shoulder, putting as much magic into your bat as you can. He actually sways on his feet, tilting forward, and you’re about to fix him with another blow in the back of his knees, but then he disappears.

God damn it. Just when you sorta learnt how to teleport and surprise the bad guys, you meet a bad guy who can teleport just as well as you do.

He shows up behind you. You know that because he hits you in the back of your neck, and you drop to your knees, feeling as if your spine has just been punched out of you.

But while Zinn was focused on you, Kyungsoo and Myungsoo managed to lurk towards him. And when you drop onto the ground in front of him, he looks at you, not noticing Kyungsoo attacking him from the air, and Myungsoo aiming his guns at him.

Kyungsoo’s punch comes first and almost knocks Zinn off his feet. He might be a spirit, but for some reason, his body is palpable. When he turns away from Kyungsoo, his head shooting to the side under his blow, Myungsoo pulls the trigger.

The bullets get Zinn in the head and in the heart. The mask on his face cracks as a hole shows up on his forehead. No blood comes out. He doesn’t drop like he should. Kyungsoo snatches you off the ground, getting you away from Zinn; behind him, Kai defeats the last ninja with Suho’s and Tao’s help.

Zinn is not moving. He’s not reacting, but the bullet must’ve done something to him, because he’s not acting like he has before.

You watch him carefully, ready for him to attack, and then you see Kai’s ears twitching.

You glance to your left just in time to see Siwon.

*
 

Sung yells. Saburo blocks his fist easily, but isn’t able to block Sehun’s. Sehun punches him in the back, and Saburo finally drops to one knee, in pain. His fingers are still clenched around Sung’s fist, and Sung thinks he might be trying to break it.

“Is that how it’s going to be, brother?” Saburo asks, looking up at him. Sehun nods at Luhan and Iseul, motioning them to go to the cave. They run past him, Saburo, and Sung. Taemin takes his position next to Sehun, putting his riffle to the back of Saburo’s head, and holding his finger on the trigger.

“Brother, huh?” he asks, glancing up at Sung. Sung doesn’t react. His eyes are fixed on Saburo, his brother.

“He hasn’t told you, huh?” Saburo asks, smirking. He sounds sincerely amused. Luhan and Iseul run out of the cave, carrying a red box covered in gold symbols and Japanese drawings.

Sehun does a double take when he hears a heartbeat coming out of the box. He pales when Luhan sets the box next to his foot. Sung’s eyes snap down at it.

Saburo smiles, but his whole body strains, and his expression quickly turns desperate.

“I was just trying to make his wish come true,” Saburo whispers to Sung. Sung is staring at the box. “Listen to me, brother. Don’t do it. You want him to live. I know you do.”

“You and him are equally mad,” Sung says, his voice cold as ever. He snatches his hand away from Saburo’s grip; the man’s arms drop to the ground. Then he just sits on the floor, his hands bloodied. “What you were trying to do would change our world. And we wouldn’t win a war with humans.”

Saburo laughs, but there’re tears in his eyes. He looks defeated; he doesn’t have any more strength to fight, nor does Sung.

“You don’t know if you don’t try,” he says. “Imagine a world of magical creatures. Imagine a world without humans that destroy the very force that keeps them alive. Imagine being in charge, not being afraid of—“

Sung moves so quickly that nothing notices. One second, he’s not moving; the next, his hand swishes through the air, and he bends down, aiming for Saburo’s heart.

He pierces his chest with his bare hand, magic gathering around his fingers, and then Saburo’s entire body shines. Illuminates. His skin goes white, he looks up, and he opens his mouth in a silent gasp as his magic seems to just fly out of his body. Sehun, Taemin, Iseul and Luhan watch in completely shock as Sung’s arm goes white. It looks as if he’s taking Saburo’s magic.

And the more he takes, the worse his skin starts to look.

New wrinkles show up on his face. The skin on his neck becomes more grey, his muscles seem to deflate a little, and his grey hair turns a shade lighter. He pulls his hand away from Saburo’s chest just as quickly as he’s pierced it, and his fingers are covered in blood. Saburo’s skin stops shining, and the second it does, his face constricts with pain, and he lets out a desperate, painful cry. He opens his eyes, and they’re filled with tears and shock; he looks up at the sky, and it’s the last thing he sees before dropping onto the ground.

Sung doesn’t catch his body. He steps away and looks down at him like he’s just killed a worm.

Then he looks at the box, reaches out towards it, and the box flies right into his hand. He crouches down, placing it on the ground. There’s some kind of a protective spell on it, so he waves his hand above it a few times, and uses his magic.

He doesn’t look tired anymore. Not at all.

When he opens the box, the heartbeat Sehun heard before gets louder. He feels his lungs collapsing weirdly; he looks into the box and sees a human heart. Unmistakably.

It’s beating, like it’s still pumping blood.

“Is that Zinn’s?” Taemin asks, breathless. Sung doesn’t reply. He takes the heart into his hands, lifts it up so that he can see it close up, and lets out a shaky gasp.

“Yes,” he says.

“Can you kill him with it?” Iseul asks shakily. They’re all in some sort of shock. None of them have ever seen anything similar to what he did to the guy. To his own brother. By his heartbeat and wounds, Sehun guesses he doesn’t have much time to live.

He took Saburo’s powers, and he aged because of that.

“Yes.”

*

Baekhyun watches as the person he’s fighting – a teenage witch – goes from fierce and energetic to completely lost and panicked. They were in the middle of a fight, punching each other like it’s Fight Club, and then she goes completely lost.

She jumps away from him with a squeal. She looks around, her head snapping around, her eyes wide. She lets out a shaky scream when she looks down at her bloodied hands, and then goes into a full-body panic attack that leaves her breathless. She stares at Baekhyun, and he reaches out to her, but she’s too scared to react correctly to that, so she just tries to run away.

“Calm down,” he pleads.

All around the city, random Mabeob members come to their senses. One second Seon is wrapping a werecoyote in a wolfsbane-laced rope, the next the guy starts to shake and turns towards her with his eyes teary, asking him where he is and what the hell is going on.

Xiumin is about to knock a guy out with a baseball bat when he raises his hands at him, pleading him to stop and looking scared.

A wraith punches Chen, and then starts apologizing to him, and crying.

Whoever was under Saburo’s controlling spell is now free.

*

Siwon is wearing a mage robe. You’ve never seen him have it. It’s not your dad’s. It’s burgundy, and the patterns on it seem Japanese. There’s a weird aura around him. His eyes are sharp and focused on Zinn, and Zinn alone.

You don’t know why, but you take a step back from Zinn, as if to give Siwon more space. It’s not a conscious move. You don’t even realize you’re doing it.

“Hello, dad,” Siwon says in Japanese.

You feel like someone has just thrown you into ice-cold water.

You breathe heavily, your chest heaving. This doesn’t feel right. How is it possible? How is Zinn Siwon’s father? How does he know Japanese?

“Remember me?” Siwon asks, taking a step towards Zinn. “It’s me, your son. Your eldest.”

Zinn is looking at him. His body is turned towards you, but his head is turned towards Siwon. And Siwon keeps on walking, getting closer and closer. His steps are light and soft.

Eldest son.

His words play out in your mind like a mantra. If Zinn was a mage when he was alive just as he’s a mage now, and Siwon was his eldest son, then it means that at one point in his life, Siwon was a mage.

And he must’ve lost his powers somehow.

Suddenly you understand why he was so hurt and offended when you gave your magic for Kai’s life. Why he knew so much about your techniques and how to use them, how he knew all the spells. But how did he lose his powers?

You realize that you’ve been standing around doing nothing for too long. If you don’t use magic anytime soon, the pain will come and paralyze you; probably knock you off your feet. So you move your hand, creating a ball of fire inside your palm just to make sure the pain doesn’t come just yet.

You don’t intend to attack Zinn with it, but he takes it as a threat.

His head snaps at you. You can see that he’s about to attack, and your eyes widen in surprise.

And then Siwon pulls out the most ridiculous stunt ever.

He suddenly throws his robes away, revealing a literal armory hidden beneath it. There’s a katana by his belt, a set of daggers (each different size), a pouch probably filled with charms or runic stones hanging off his belt as well, he has weapons strapped to his thighs and calves. But the weirdest of it all is a magical scroll he pulls out of his freaking sleeve.

Zinn gets distracted by his sudden movement, and he’s right to pay attention to Siwon instead to you.

Siwon opens the scroll in the air. The second he does, red smoke erupts from it, flooding Siwon; he disappears in it. Kai uses that moment to push you away from the battlefield. You’re too frozen and surprised to do anything, so he throws you over his huge snout and puts you away, in a safe distance.

You watch as Zinn takes a fighting stance, preparing himself for an incoming attack. The smoke around Siwon is thick and magic-laced; you can feel it pulsing. You can barely see Siwon inside, but you can see that he makes some gestures, that his sleeves fly around. There’s a clap. The smoke changes its form. Strands of it jump out like whips. Zinn raises a barrier in front of himself, but the whips shoot right through it, and curl around Zinn’s wrists and ankles. The smoke falls, revealing Siwon holding the endings of the said whips in his own hands. He tugs at the ones wrapped around Zinn’s ankles, and the spirit falls onto the ground, hitting it with his head. His mask turns a little bit.

“Remember this?” Siwon asks, tugging at the ropes again. You have no idea how he does it, but the ropes listen to him. They begin to shrink, dragging Zinn along, on the ground, towards Siwon. Zinn doesn’t react; he lets himself get dragged, or maybe he can’t move.

Siwon lets Zinn get close, then tugs at the ropes that are wrapped around his wrists, and pulls Zinn up.

Now they’re standing inches away from each other, eye to eye. They’re the exact height.

“You taught me this,” Siwon says, and punches Zinn in the face.

He punches him again, this time from the other side, then again, and again, and again, until his father is swaying on his feet.

You don’t know why, but it looks like he’s not capable of really attacking Siwon.

Which means that Zinn remembers Siwon, remembers that he used to love him.

“This is not you,” Siwon says, punching harder this time. You didn’t know he could punch this hard. Zinn falls onto the ground. He looks ridiculous; his mask is all angry and threatening, and yet, he looks like a little kid that got pushed onto the floor by some mean bullies. Siwon pulls another scroll from under his robe; it’s placed by the belt on his pack. He opens it, magic oozing from it, and a single rope falls out of the paper, materializing the second it feels some wind. Siwon catches it between his fingers. It’s gold.

He throws the ropes around Zinn, and then he reaches out for him, as if to take his mask off.

The second his fingers touch the mask, Zinn’s magic hits him full-force and pushes him away.

Siwon flies. Kai moves to catch him. The golden rope that’s been wrapped around Zinn falls onto the ground with a single twitch of his finger, and he’s free again.

“We need to get his mask,” Siwon says angrily. “Destroy it.”

You look at him over your shoulder.

“How do we do that?” you ask. “It looks like it’s cursed!”

Zinn moves his hands in circles, flames appearing around his fingers and forming into tigers before you. Three of them pounce at you. You scream out a spell, your tongue tying because of how fast you’re trying to do it. The tigers roar as they jump at you, and Kai jumps over your head, just to stop one of them from getting to you.

You throw your hands out and water forms from thin air around you, taking shape of lions. Your tattoos are glistening so bright that they hurt your skin. Water and fire collide, and hot steam hits your face. You hear Kai’s wild snarls, scent some burned fur, and when the fog falls down enough for you to see, you notice Zinn with his arms outstretched to the sides. Slowly, out of air, two katanas appear in his hands.

He s them towards you, and wind – as sharp as blades – hits you.

You scream when a whip of it gets you in the arm. Blood splatters back, and your skin literally tears. Kyungsoo yells when the wind gets him in the stomach, but you’re fast enough to reach out and shield Kai, Siwon and Myungsoo with your magic before the same can happen to them.

You’re in the middle of thinking of a plan when you sense your pack coming from the opposite direction.

“I can do it,” Myungsoo says, appearing at your side. “I can take his mask off. Whatever curse is on it, it won’t affect me. I’m resistant.”

Your eyes cross. Sudden fear envelops you. Myungsoo nods eagerly.

“I can do it,” he assures you. He looks confident and determined. 

You nod at him. “Be careful.” 

That’s when your pack runs out from the forest behind Zinn.

Knowing that he’s going to attack the rest with the same wind-blades, you take off to get closer and form a barrier in front of him that’d bounce them off. Kai takes off at the same second, to cover you, and you circle Zinn from his left. Kyungsoo and Tao run to circle Zinn from the other side.

Myungsoo runs straight at him.

Zinn attacks. You throw your hand out and a pinkish barrier appears in front of him. His blades bounce off of it, hitting him in the arms and legs, but not doing any harm to him besides tearing his clothes apart a little. He turns to look at you, and aims his blades at you, but then Myungsoo, who’s been running this whole time, appears right behind his back.

Myungsoo jumps. He leaps in the air, flying upside-down for a short moment. You see his every movement as if it was in slow motion; how he appears right above Zinn, how he reaches out for his mask, and how Zinn notices him and throws his katanas up.

Myungsoo grabs Zinn’s mask with his left hand while he’s still mid-air. Magic sizzles on its surface, but it doesn’t hit Myungsoo, doesn’t affect him in any way. Zinn’s katana pierces the air, catches around Myungsoo’s bicep, and his other katana catches up to the first, coming from Myungsoo’s other side.

Myungsoo’s arm – the same one that holds the mask – gets chopped off mid-air.

There’s a few tense seconds where you feel like the time has stopped. The image of Myungsoo’s blood sputtering around, of Zinn’s bloodied blades glistening in the air, of his mask hovering above the ground gets inscribed inside your head. You feel like it’s never going to end, this moment.

Like this moment alone is the end.

Myungsoo drops in front of Zinn. His eyes are wide when he looks up at him. Shock is seeping deep inside his veins, and he doesn’t scream at first. Doesn’t fully react.

Not when Zinn is looking down at him.

Well, not exactly looking. Zinn doesn’t have a face.

A pool of blood is forming below Myungsoo, and he seems to be realizing that. The silence around you is deafening; your skin prickles with panic, shock, and fear.

Myungsoo looks at his arm, the arm he doesn’t have anymore, and at all the blood that’s restlessly dripping down from it—

And he looks up at Zinn again, his eyes filled with tears and his mouth suddenly open in a cut-off, surprised yell.

“Dad!” someone shouts. With the remnants of senses you have, you notice Sung on Zinn’s right. When Zinn sees him, he teleports, shows up right beside him, and attacks.

There’s rage behind his every movement. They engage in a fight that leaves the ground shaking and the sky lit up with thunder and fire.

And you and your pack run towards Myungsoo.

He’s lying in a pool of his own blood, bleeding out. He’s pale, shaking, and covered in a thick layer of sweat. Seon is the first one to get to him, and she’s shaking just as hard as he is. She pulls his head up onto her lap, tears streaming down her cheeks, and she places Myungsoo’s head between her palms. She shakes him.

“Myungsoo,” she says. “Stay with me. Stay with me!”

She slaps him on the cheek a few times, trying to make his eyes focus on her face while Taemin crouches down next to him and rips a piece of his shirt off to wrap above Myungsoo’s wound.

You all know it’s useless.

His arm got cut off way too close to his heart. He’s going to bleed out in the next three minutes, maybe less, and you can’t do anything about it, because he’s magic resistant. Junsu can’t help him. You can’t help him. Cauterizing the wound wouldn’t stop the bleeding; it’d put him through a shock, he’d probably get a heart attack from all the pain, and he’d die just as he’s going to die now.

“You can’t die,” Seon is saying. “God, you can’t. You can’t, Myungsoo. Not yet. Not yet. Please. I beg you,” she sobs. “I—the gun I keep by my bed, the one I aim at you every morning? It’s never loaded, Myungsoo. You hear me? It’s never loaded.”

Myungsoo’s hand is wrapped tightly around her shoulder as he shakes. His eyes are half-lidded, his skin completely white, and Seon’s knees and calves are covered in his blood. He nods at her. 

“Tell my parents I love them,” he wheezes out. He doesn't sound like himself. You crouch down next to him and Seon looks up at you full of hope and pleading; like she things you might help him somehow. Truth is, you can't, but you still try. You put your hands over what's left of his arm and you try to ease the pain, but your magic bounces right off. You let out a hopeless sob after the third try. “Tell Krystal—tell Krystal that I'm sorry. I didn't—” 

“No, no, nono,” Seon whispers, like she's stopping a child from doing something stupid. “You can't. I love you,” she whispers, crying. She pulls him even closer, kissing him on the forehead and on his cheek, and embracing him as hard as she can. “Please, don’t go. I need you. Krystal needs you. You’re—please, don’t die. Myungsoo—“

“Myungsoo,” Taemin tries. His name echoes around the pack as each one of you goes through their private tragedy. 

Your head spins and you drop onto your , your arms not catching up to the fall. You drop back onto the ground, feeling a panic attack coming in as your breathing gets shallow and your palms get cold and sweaty.

“I'm so sorry,” you whisper, shaking. “Forgive me, Myungsoo.”

He looks at you. Pale, bloodied, tired, in pain and shock.

“I chose this,” he whispers, looking around the pack, making sure he looks everyone in the eyes. He's dying. He's weaker with every single word. “I wanted to do it, it was my choice. I'm glad I'm dying for something important.”

“We gotta do something,” one of the boys says. 

“Dal,” you hear. Someone pulls you up, heaving you off the ground. You cry out in protest, your legs weak. “Dal, get yourself together.”

You turn to look at Siwon. “Come help me,” he says, placing your head between his hands. He your cheek with his thumb, trying to calm you down. “You need to help me. We need to stop Zinn. Come help me, Dal.”

You want to cry. You want to curl on the ground and cry. You feel your pack’s sadness; you feel as Myungsoo’s soul is fading away.

“Zinn is a spirit, and his heart might’ve been the thing that kept him here until now, but it’s not anymore,” Siwon is telling you. “He’s connected to this world again. He’s neither dead nor alive, but we can’t make him any more dead.”

“What are you saying?” you ask, your voice quiet and almost incoherent.

“Saburo brought him here by breaking a taboo. But he didn’t get punished for it, because he didn’t bring him fully. He brought his spirit, but not his mind. We can only kill Zinn by bringing him back to life,” Siwon explains. He’s shaking, too, but not as hard as you are. “If we finish what Saburo started, the universe will balance itself out.”

You stare at him. Into his warm eyes. You know these eyes, have known them your whole life.

You see some movement on your right and left. You look around to see some stray Mabeob members emerge from between the trees. They're all as bruised and battered as your pack.

When the boys notice the newest guests, they all straighten up. Yixing, Seon and Taemin stay with Myungsoo. Seon is holding him while he bleeds out. Taemin stands in a fighting stance next to them both, his eyes red, puffy, and wet. Yixing stands on the other side. 

The rest of the pack spreads. The boys all walk past you, shielding you from Mabeob members that look like they're about to pounce at you. 

“Go do your thing,” Kris tells you. “We've got your back.” 

“And your front,” Xiumin adds.

You look at them all, with their torn clothes, weapons in their hands, with eyes filled with tears and absolute anger visible in their eyes. You nod, and you look at Siwon, who's patiently waiting for you.

“I got it,” you whisper. You let your magic out again. “I got it.”

You turn on your heel, pulling a dagger out of the strap on your calf. Then you it into the ground right there, after taking a big swing. Once the blade is halfway in the soil, you pull.

Siwon joins you. He takes a dagger of his own. Zinn and Sung are fighting in the distance. The ground is rumbling, the sky is flashing red, blue and white, and your pack is fighting again. They've created a circle around you, Siwon, and Myungsoo, and they keep Mabeob from getting to you. All your senses are getting bombarded, and everything you do, you do on autopilot. You don’t even realize that you’re creating a Japanese tranation circle in the ground until you actually finish it.

“Bring Saburo over here,” Siwon commands.

This is ed up. This is so ed up.

A shuriken flies past your head. Then another almost gets you, but you don't even duck - you trust the boys to protect you, and they do. Chanyeol blocks the weapon from getting to you by throwing a dagger at it. 

You go to get Saburo. He's unconscious, and he looks like he’s been through hell and back. You can barely see, but you know that you have to finish what you started. You take Saburo off the ground, heaving him onto your back, when you feel someone take him from you.

It’s Iseul.

She brings Saburo over to the circle Siwon’s in.

When Siwon takes Saburo from Iseul’s hands, he does it gently. He wraps an arm around Saburo’s shoulder, making sure his head doesn’t fall by placing it over his chest. He looks down at the boy and he blinks a few times, tears gathering in his eyes. Your heart aches. You’re not sure what’s happening.

Siwon caresses Saburo’s face. His hand lands on the top of his head. That’s when Saburo opens his eyes.

He looks up at Siwon, dazed. Then his eyebrows twitch.

“Siwon,” Saburo whispers. It’s barely hearable.

Siwon takes Saburo’s hand and pulls out a dagger. He places the blade over Saburo’s palm, and makes him clench his fingers around it. Then he looks up at you pleadingly.

“Lure Zinn over here,” he commands you. You exchange a long, hard look. Then you nod once, and turn to where Zinn and Sung are fighting. “And Dal?”

You turn to glance at him. Siwon nods at something behind you.

“Take my robe,” he says.

Tears fill your eyes. You feel heavy, burdened, painful. Your heart aches for him. You see how dearly he holds Saburo. You understand now that they’re all somehow related – Zinn, Sung, Siwon, and Saburo. That once upon a time, they may have been important to each other. And even now, when Saburo has turned into an evil, cruel black mage, Siwon is still gentle towards him. Still sad when he sees him dying.

You walk over to Siwon’s robe, the one he tried to throw over Zinn, and you put it on. It’s too long, too big for you, but it’s soaked with magic you’ve never known. Magic you’ve never felt. Kind, strong, and fierce. You allow it to envelop you, allow your own magic to get to know it. In the same moment, you feel the last piece of Myungsoo die, and it’s like you’re there with him. Dying.

The air whirrs around you. You teleport.

It’s never come as easy as it does now. You show up behind Zinn, in the middle of his battle with Sung. Their mixed magic hits you, burns your skin, but you almost can’t feel the pain. The robe you’re wearing protects you. It’s like nothing you’ve ever felt.

Instead of attacking Zinn, you embrace him from behind.

And Zinn goes completely still.

You let your magic flow. It envelops you both, you can feel it burning in your veins. Sung is still attacking Zinn, even when he notices you behind him. Your forearms get slashed with his magic, blood drips down your skin, but he’s still attacking. Focusing your entire self on Siwon, you teleport, for the first time, with someone else.

You take Zinn with you.

You show up inside the circle. Siwon slashes Saburo’s palm, and his blood hits the grass. The tranation circle’s lines shine white. Beams of light erupt from the ground.

You pull away from Zinn. Siwon places Saburo on the ground, gently.

You get a horrible flashback to when your evil self tried to resurrect her pack. Back then, she created a similar tranation circle. Saburo only used a spell halfway - he didn’t use any lives. He didn’t make any sacrifices. He created a body for Zinn, for his spirit to settle in, and he managed to bring him back to life in that body. But not fully.

You take off Siwon’s robe. The gate above your head opens wider. Small, black hands begin to slither out of it. The same hands once tried to take your soul away from you, together with your magic. The same hands punished you for bringing Kai back to life.

You’ve paid your price for breaking a taboo. Saburo hasn’t.

You throw Siwon’s robe over Zinn’s shoulders. The spirit sees Saburo’s body, and he drops onto his knees next to him. He takes Saburo’s body, pulls it close to his chest.

Siwon takes your hand and you walk out of the circle. You stop in front of it to see what’s happening inside. Siwon wraps his arm around you protectively. Kai stands next to you, Zinn’s mask sticking out of his mouth.

He bites down at it, cracking it into pieces.

Thousands, maybe millions of tiny, shadow-like hands begin to gather around Zinn’s and Saburo’s body. Zinn is holding Saburo, embracing him, and next to you, Siwon is shaking.

Right before disappearing in bright, white light that blinds you all, Zinn looks up with his non-existent face, and focuses his attention on Siwon.

Then they’re gone. They disappear in that beam of light, disperse in it, and the circle is gone with them. You slowly turn to look at the battlefield, your eyes swollen, and you clench your fists, anger filling you to the brim. 

You take off to fight the rest of the people who are trying to hurt your pack.

*

Someone’s petting your hair. That’s the first thing you feel after waking up.

You open your eyes to a bright room. You recognize Kai’s touch and scent, and you recognize the ceiling in his bedroom. Kai brushes your cheek with his nose; it’s shortly followed by a butterfly-like kiss on your cheek, then on your eyelid, then on your nose. You blindly try to find his hand, and your fingers soon curl together.

You lay there for a few long minutes, without a single word, as you let the memories fly back to you. You go through anger, to sadness, to relief, to curiosity and anxiousness, to sadness again. You tilt your head slightly to look at Kai’s face. He has some bruises that still haven’t healed, and a tiny cut on his lip. He looks tired, but not exhausted, and his eyes are soft.

You want to say Myungsoo’s name out loud, but you can’t. Kai’s lips wobble and he pulls you into a hug, both to comfort you and hide his face from you.

*
 

The news about the ‘biggest gang fight this city has seen’ spread around the country as fast as lightning. There’s some casualties none of you wanted. There’s a few buildings that went down due to fires or someone just punching their way through the bricks.

Maeng holds a special meeting for some of his cops, and you take part in it. It's due time they find out what's been going on in this city and why. You and Kris are the ones talking most. And they’re the ones that saw magic. That saw claws, blue smoke, and super strong monsters who could heal their wounds in seconds.

It’s not a fun day.

The city grieves after that, and you grieve most of all. There’re whispers, rumors, and fear. Amber and Minjoon are trying to control the information you don’t want to spread from getting out, but some of them still do.

Some Mabeob members – the ones that were actually evil – run away. You don’t think they’ll stop doing what they’ve been doing, but you know for sure that you’ll be waiting for them when they return.

Some of them just give up. After Saburo is dead, he can’t blackmail them. He can’t threaten their loved ones’ lives anymore, so they go home after apologizing.

Some of the fighters didn’t even know they were fighting. So they go back home, after having been mind-controlled for the past few months, if not longer, in hopes of finding their families alive and well.

With Sulli’s help, you look for people who have gotten especially hurt in the battles. You visit them, you take the memories of the monsters away from them, and leave them alone, at peace. You visit the ones that got physically hurt at the hospital; your mom tells them who got hurt and how much. Junsu sits next to them and heals them.

In the end, only few people mention monsters. Only few speak up about monsters, and only few believe in monsters. And the ones that do, you try to seek out, and help them out – either by fully explaining to them what has happened, or by taking their memories, if you deem them too heavy for them to bear.

You spend every single day with the pack. Neither Krystal nor Seon turn away when you offer help; you thought that they might shut themselves in. Especially Seon. But no - she stays with the pack, keeps close to Yixing, and forms an unlikely friendship with the very girl that reminds her of her dead best friend the most. 

Seeing them together makes your heart ache. And you know that the boys feel the same. Taemin is devastated - he grew close to Myungsoo over the past few months, treated him with respect and friendliness. Yixing doesn't go to the shooting range for a while, because it reminds him of Myungsoo. 

His name is spoken out loud a lot these days, and each time is more hurtful. Another name that's spoked out loud a lot lately is Siwon's, but he doesn't return your calls, nor open the door for you. He sends you a text one day, just to tell you he's fine, and you know that he's coping with everything that's happened in his own way. You just hope that he'll open up to you soon. 

Sung disappears. Not even Jaejoong knows where he is. But after what the boys told you - about him taking Saburo's mage magic away - you don't really feel like seeing him. He's helped you a lot, but when you think back to him, you feel like punching him in the face the first chance you get. 

*

 

“I knew I’d find you here,” Siwon hears. He doesn’t turn to look at you when you sit down next to him on the bench.

A bench in front of your dad’s grave.

“It’s a good spot to think,” Siwon admits. It’s the first time you’ve heard his voice since the battle. “It’s quiet.”

“Mhm,” you mutter.

You sit in silence for the next few minutes. It’s not tense, nor awkward. It actually feels nice to be able to sit down with him again, even if it’s just for a short moment.

His presence reminds you of his red robe, and of how it felt on your skin. How it gave you strength.

“Zinn was my father,” Siwon says. You try not to make a single sound. You’re even breathing quieter now. “His real name was…well, it doesn’t matter. He was a mage, and an oracle. I was born as his first son, therefore inheriting his mage powers, and some of his oracle talents. Three years later Sung came along.”

You’ve figured out as much, but it’s still weird to hear it from Siwon’s lips.

“He was born without abilities. We were all surprised because of that. My father was a mage and an oracle, and my mom was a medium. It seemed weird for him to be born completely human. He grew up feeling worse because of who he was. He started hating himself for being human.”

Siwon takes a deep breath.

“At some point, Sung realized that he’s very sensitive to magic. He was affected by magic and energy, and he could tell all the nuances in someone's magic. Eventually, he began to…absorb it. It happened one day, suddenly, without anyone but him noticing. I didn’t even realize he was doing it. I was too busy training. Our family was an old and respected one. We grew up in a very strict environment. All attention was focused on me, since I was eldest, and also the one with powers.”

He looks down at his hands. He bites his bottom lip.

“Our mother died one day. Sung took it…poorly. She loved him more than she loved me. While our father favored me, our mother favored him. He was devastated. Even more so when our father remarried. He took a Japanese wife, and she soon bore him a child. Since he was another one of his firstborns, he was born a mage. My father and my stepmother called him Saburo. It means ‘the third son’. By choosing that name they wanted to bring the three of us together. Wanted to show us that Saburo is our brother, and that it doesn’t matter that we have different mothers. It worked for me, but it didn’t work for Sung. He became bitter, lonely, and angry. Me and Saburo—we got along. We trained together. We had people looking out for us. We were young and stupid, coming from a rich family of long-lasting magic users. We saw him as a nuisance. The way he acted didn’t help.”

You nod, feeling your stomach getting heavier.

“And he didn’t approve of how we used our powers,” Siwon continues. “He’d often point out that if he had our magic, he’d do this or that differently. Or that we shouldn’t use it for tricks, or pranks. That we shouldn’t take it for granted. He hated us both. Saburo grew up being loved by his parents and by me, but hated by Sung. Needless to say, Sung was slowly starting to get on everyone’s nerves. He blamed dad for everything. Accused him of not loving him, of killing our mother – which is a lie – and of loving Saburo more than he loves him just because Saburo had powers and Sung didn’t.”

You know that something went down. Sung was born human, but now he was a mage. It’s not normal. The suspension is killing you, but at the same time, you’re not sure you want to know.

“I decided to talk to him one day. Try to talk some sense into him, try to fix things,” Siwon says, his voice shaking a little. You can see his eyes getting blurry with memories. “We got into an argument. I got very angry. I had magic oozing off of me, and he—he just took it. He absorbed it. I started realizing when he was halfway done. I was standing there, screaming, exposing my feelings to him, and all this time, he was just smirking and slowly taking my magic away from me. I tried to fight. I tried to get it back, but I couldn’t.”

“God,” you whisper, looking away from him. “You were an actual mage. That’s why your tattoos—and your ways of teaching me…”

“My anger made it easier for Sung to absorb my magic, and he did. In a fit of anger, he did. He didn’t think twice. He always wanted that power. And when we’re born…when mages are born, the magic is woven into your every cell. When someone takes it from us, our bodies don’t work the way they should.”

He stops then. You look at him questioningly.

“What do you mean?” you ask quietly.

Siwon opens his mouth, closes it, then opens it again. He combs a hand through his hair.

“I—I stopped aging,” he admits. “When Sung took my magic, I stopped aging. My cells just didn’t—they couldn’t age. I was no longer whole. I’ll never be whole again. I’m not even sure I’m capable of dying.”

His voice breaks at that. Again.

“My cells transformed,” he continues, breathing out a shaky breath. “Instead of a mage, I became a sort of a druid. I had the knowledge, the skills, and sometimes I can make things happen with the power of my will. But I also don’t age. That’s why I always look the same. That’s why I’ve been here forever.”

You tilt your head back to look at the sky, taking it all in.

“Sung killed our father,” Siwon admits. “In cold blood. He got drunk on the magic he got from me. I was useless. I went unconscious for a few days. I didn’t see or hear or feel anything. When I came to, Dad was dead, and so was my stepmother. Saburo disappeared. I thought he was dead. I sincerely thought he was dead.”

You know that he’s crying now, but you don’t dare to look at him. Instead, you’re looking up at the sky, your own eyes welling with tears.

“I looked for Saburo, but I came up empty. Years passed without hearing from him. Years passed before Sung decided to show up. I was ready to die back then. He apologized; said that he realizes now what he’s done, and that he wants to fix this. That he’ll help humans, help magical creatures, try to make this world whole again. I never truly believed that. You can’t be truly good if you think that the end justifies the means.”

“He often dropped by here, but never for long. He’d sometimes send me letters, tell me about all the good things he’s done, like that could bring my family back. Then I met your father, and I started to live again. I felt needed, and I felt loved, and Sung stopped contacting me in any way. But he was always close by. I knew that. Jaejoong just proves it.”

“All that because of jealousy?” you gasp out. “Because he wanted power?”

“He made Saburo into a black mage,” Siwon says angrily. “Made him hate all humans, see them as threats. Made him want to bring dad back from the dead. He’s sorry now, and he did try to fix his mistakes, but he can never really do that. And I don’t think he really cares.”

He moves. He wipes the tears away from his face and sniffles.

“I hate him,” he admits. “I know he realizes his mistakes, but I still hate him. But I also hate myself. For not being there for him when I should’ve. For not loving him enough. I could’ve prevented it all from happening, if I only paid him more attention. If I was a better brother to him.”

That’s the last straw for you. You throw an arm over his shoulders, pulling him into a half-hug. Siwon sort of collapses into it, his head ending up in the crook of your neck. You can hear his unsteady breathing. His cheek is wet on your skin.

You place a hand on his head, combing your fingers through it gently.

“I’m so sorry,” you whisper, a tear rolling down your cheek and ending up in his hair. You kiss the top of his head, then rub your cheek into it. “I’m so sorry.”

Siwon shivers in your embrace, and lets out a single, quiet sob. It’s the most heartbreaking thing you’ve heard your whole life.

*

You sit up on Kai’s bed, feeling that something’s off. You look over to see if Kai is still asleep (of course he is) and then you sniff at the air, because apparently you turned into a werewolf.

You get out of the bed and feel your triangle tattoo warming up.

You go downstairs to find Kyungsoo, Jieun and Heejin occupying the kitchen. You stop in your tracks to frown at them.

They’re making pancakes. Heejin is making the batter, Kyungsoo is operating the frying pan, and Jieun is doing a great job at distracting him from it with her presence alone.

“Hey guys,” you greet. They don’t have time to reply, because someone barges through the door. Choco begins to bark and loud voices bombard your ears. You hear Taemin and Tao arguing about something, Chen runs past you to get to the bathroom on time, Luhan embraces you and starts peppering you with kisses, Kris wordlessly hands you four bags of some food, Sehun and Xiumin fall into the kitchen wrestling, and Yixing is singing on the top of his lungs, seemingly to stop Daehyun from talking. Because Daehyun is trying to talk to him by screaming louder than Yixing is singing.

“We come bearing gifts,” Krystal informs you as she places a cowboy hat on your head. Jessica walks past the two of you, winking at you. Min stands next to Krystal and you raise your brows when she levels you with a look.

“Yeah, it suits you,” she judges.

“Uh,” you mutter. “Sorry, what—what’s going on? I thought the party is gonna be around five?”

“Yeah, but we need to prepare the place,” Eun says, coming into the apartment as well. She and Chanyeol are carrying some boxes, and there’re decorations sticking out of them. You frown down at them like they’re offensive. “Don’t make that face. You know how much Minjoon loves silly decorations,” Eun says, giving you one of the boxes. You struggle a little, and you let out a huff when Chanyeol places another two on top of the one you’re already holding.

“He does?” you ask, squinting.

“He does!” Heejin yells.

You stand by the wall, holding three huge boxes with decorations, four bags of food, with a hat on your head that’s tipped to the side, and you can barely see the room.

Then Kai appears on your left. You glance at him, he glances at you, and you stare at each other in silence for a few seconds. Then he snorts, hard, and looks away.

“Ha, ha,” you say. “I would kick you if I had my hands free. Wait, that didn’t make sense.”

Kai laughs at you.

Hello cinnamon donut muffins.
As you can see, RALF has reached 100 chapters. It's insane, and I never thought it'd end up this long.
When it comes to words I've written, it didn't beat RWW, but it's still loads of words.

Now, all the truth about Father, Zinn, and Siwon is out. Sorta. Their relation, at least. WolfieGrowler was the first person, ever, to guess that Siwon, Saburo and Sung are brothers! She did it back around chapter 93, I was super proud :) Other people who've guessed right were _dancingyixing (chapter 94), absofreakinglutely (chapter 95) and deadrey (chapter 96). I hope I'm not forgetting anyone XD

There's an epilogue waiting for you guys, so get ready for that. Until then, thank you for sticking around for this impossibly long ride.

Also, has any of you seen this music video? Because there's a guy in it that runs around in a backpack, and there's a baseball bat shoved inside it. WHAT A RIP OFF. Seriously tho, when was it when I needed chapter images? I mean

Unfair.

Edit: I have been informed that this is, in fact, a tennis racket, not a baseball bat. Therefore I'm an idiot.

I love you the most! Come drop by my ask.fm :)