SIBLINGS
 

Min walks towards you quickly, heels clicking on the pavement. She's the Korean version of Carrie Bradshaw - she walks in heels like it's sneakers, and she does it fabulously. You look at her hopefully, eyes shining, but she shakes her head.

"Nothing this far," she informs. "Nothing out of ordinary, that is. We're guessing that the mage hid for the time being. And your friends are nowhere in sight."

"They're not our friends just yet," you say with a sigh, wondering if the Jungs are gonna turn out to be good in this dimension. "Thanks, Min."

"Sure," Mina replies. Then, upon seeing you frowning, she puts an arm around your waist and pulls you into a half-hug. "We'll find them. We're good at it."

You smile a little at her and hug her back.

"I'm just glad our pack is so big now," you admit quietly. "It feels so much safer."

"Yeah," Min nods. You stand there, hands on each other's waists. "But I'll never get used to the you guys say. 'So listen Min, some time ago we traveled to another universe and totally befriended some really awesome magical siblings. Now an evil mage is here and he wants to kill their equivalents in this universe, so we gotta help'. This is not even something Buffy would say."

You pat her on the and wink at her. "Keep your mind open." 

Min snorts. Then your phone buzzes and you let go of her to pull it out quickly. 

"Yes?" you ask before the phone is even on your ear. 

"So the police found a body," Kris says without a beat on the other side. "Male, around his twenties, bruised. They found him in a river."

"Wait, a body?" your heart rate picks up and you almost throw up. 

"Oh my God, no, no, he's alive," Kris says quickly, probably waving his hands around like a crazy person. If he were there with you, you'd slap him. "He's alive. He's at the hospital. Heechul is one of the men guarding him, and your mom is apparently on him, too, as he has wounds similar to Krystal's." 

"You think that's Daehyun?" you whisper. "What room?" 

"Three hundred fifteen."

"On it," you say, nodding. "You coming?" you ask Min, disconnecting. She nods and you quickly head to your jeep. 

*
 

There's two cops plus Heechul outside the room and your mom is nowhere in sight. You're about to approach the cops when Min grabs your wrist, pulling you back around the corner. "You can't just ask them to let you in," she says. "Sure, we know Heechul, but we're already implausible in the police force's eyes, don't you think? You're gonna make Heechul look like he's breaking the law if you just stroll in ignoring him." 

"I wanted to ask nicely," you admit. Min raises her brows at you.

"Cutie," she says in her motherly voice, "you want to go to the Police Academy. You've learned the rules." 

You want to roll your eyes at you. You do a half-roll, knowing that she's right, and lean over the wall. You peek around it to see Heechul yawning around his coffee. 

"What do we do then?"

"You call the expert, duh," a voice says on your right. You tilt your head. Amber grins at you. "I love it when you're focused on something else and you can't feel your tattoo warming up when I'm approaching." 

"Maybe my tattoo doesn't feel you," you say, quirking a brow. Amber's face falls and she stares at you, puppy-eyed. 

"Wait, seriously?" 

"Oh my gosh," you laugh, pulling her towards yourself. "You're an idiot. Of course it feels you. What are you even doing here, though?"

"Kris called me," Amber explains. "Said you might need my help." She looks at the policemen. You watch as she squints, then moves her hands a little where they're hanging loosely by her sides. A whiff of magic makes you a bit dizzy; you realize that Amber's eyes shine white for a short moment. You stare at her, surprised. 

"Okay," Amber says, completely out of it, staring at the cops. "Go for it." 

You and Min go out onto the corridor. Nobody notices you, even as you near the room. You walk past Heechul and he yawns again; you feel like knocking his coffee out of his hands just because you can, and then realize that a) it's stupid, b) it's rude. You shake your head, blinking, and Min pushes you forward until you open door number 315 and walk inside.

Your heart stutters to a halt when you see Daehyun lying on the bed, under a white duvet. There's an IV next to him, connected to the vein on his right forearm, and there's a machine beeping out his steady heartbeat on his left; his face is bruised, but these are not fresh wounds. The bruises are yellow, not exactly healed, but not invisible, either. 

"He smells of antiseptic," Min says, covering her nose with her hand and making a face. "Lots of it." 

You walk closer to the bed. He looks the same he did back in the other universe; plump lips, soft features, fluffy, black hair. You wonder what the hell happened to him. You reach out to him to place your hand on the top of his forehead; you find it quite warm. 

"What did they do to you?" you ask in a whisper.

The door open suddenly and you whip your head around. Min freezes in her spot. Heechul looks inside the room and looks like he's seen a ghost when he notices you. 

"God damnit," he hisses, momentarily tilting his head away in frustration, disappearing outside. The he strolls into the room, closes the door behind himself, and places his hands on his hips, his holster coming into view. "Mind telling me what you're doing here?"

"He's a friend of ours," you say, your panic slowly dying down. Your heart is still hammering in your chest at the prospect of getting caught. "We're just checking on him."

"How did you get in?" Heechul asks, frowning deeply. He doesn't look angry anymore. That's Heechul for you. 

"Amber," you say. When Heechul gives you a blank look, you shrug. "She made us invisible." 

"She can do that?" Heechul gasps. 

You hear Daehyun stir next to you and then the beeping on his heart monitor goes crazy. You look down at him to find him staring at you wide-eyed, panicked, and shaken. He lets out a weird, wheezing sound, tries to sit up, and groans at the pain. You watch as he takes in Heechul, and a second later, there's a gun pointed at your head. 

You swear everything around you goes completely still. 

Heechul pats his holster down, looking for his gun, and realizes that it's now in Daehyun's hand. Min lets out a threatening growl and moves a little, placing her feet and her whole body in a fighting stance. Daehyun groans in pain, but you can't see him, because he's pointing a gun at you. 

Oh, right, you think. He can make objects appear in his hands. You forgot about that.

"Easy," you say. Daehyun's hand is shaking, but you're sure it's because of exhaustion, and not because he wouldn't actually shoot you. He tries to reach the gun with his right hand and you then realize that the safety is on and he's trying to click it.

Your arm shoots up. You grab the gun into your own hand and snatch out of of his grip, which isn't hard; he's too tired to hold it tightly. You know that the second it's out of his palm, he'll try to get it back, so you flip the ejection port open and let all the bullets fall down onto the floor.

You stare at Daehyun. He's staring at the bullets, the sound of them hitting the floor echoing in your ears. He looks up at you very slowly, his mouth slightly open, and swallows hard once he takes in your posture. 

"We want to help," you say. 

"I thought you said he's your friend," Heechul chokes out. You don't dare to look away from Daehyun; he could as well use that flowerpot in the corner of the room and throw it at you when you aren't looking. He could make anything appear in his hand, as long as he sees it, and you wouldn't want that.

"Well, technically, I met another universe him, so," you explain, shrugging a little. Daehyun frowns while his mouth is still hanging open, which makes him look ridiculous. He's probably wondering if he's high on some kind of drugs. The moment you think that, the door to the room open again and you get another minor heart attack before you see that it's Kai.

And he now looks five.

Heechul does a double-take as Kai shuts the door behind himself. Then he looks up at you, back at Kai, and awkwardly moves from the door and towards Min, practically hiding behind her back. Kai looks at you curiously, then at Daehyun, and squints. 

"He's awake," he states. 

"Holy ing hell, am I in a movie?" Daehyun gasps out, his voice hoarse. He sits up and stares at Kai like he's an alien. "Is he some kind of a child prophet that's gonna tell me that I awoke from the Matrix?"

Your brain doesn't seem to be able to catch up at first. Then you frown, legit wondering if that's something that could ever happen, and look at Daehyun in awe. 

"I can't believe how similar you are to us," you gasp. 

Heechul breaks out in laughter. He tries to stiffle it with his hand as he doubles over. Min looks down at him like he's lost his mind, a bit disgusted with the sounds he's making, and Kai rolls his eyes, as per usual. 

"No," he says angrily. You look at him with raised brows. "You're not the Chosen One." 

"Such shame," Daehyun whispers, still staring at Kai, confused. "Who are you?" 

"Is he okay?" Kai asks, ignoring him, and trots towards you. You look down at him, pursuing your lips so that you don't laugh. He's wearing some old jeans, sneakers that are too big for him, and a blue blouse. 

"He is here and he can hear you," Daehyun says. 

"Where did you get these clothes?" you ask, not able to keep your curiosity from speaking up. 

"Kyungsoo's mom keeps literally everything in their attic," Kai explains with a sigh, looking at you a bit begrudingly. His voice is so young and so sweet, even as he's annoyed, that you can't help but make puppy eyes at him. "Stop it." 

"Stop what?" 

"You have butter eyes." 

"That's not a thing." 

"I'll never have enough of your antics, guys," Heechul says, wiping a tear off his face. "Did Amber let you in?" he asks Kai, stiffling a laugh. "And why are you a baby? Is it permanent?" 

"No!" Kai barks, crossing his arms on his chest. "And yes, Amber let me in." 

"Gotta ask her if she could make Maeng see me at work when I'm in fact taking a secret day off," Heechul says with a sigh, shaking his shoulders up and down a little, apparently letting the tension out of them. "Can I get my gun back now?" 

"I have never been this confused in my life," Daehyun pipes up, looking up at you with a hopeless expression. 

"Oh, this is just the beginning," Min says, scrunching her nose when he looks at her. "Believe me." 

You pick up the bullets from the floor, then you raise them in your clenched fist, looking pointedly at Daehyun. "Truce?" you ask. He looks baffled. "We're here to help, not hurt you." 

"She's telling the truth," Kai says. You smile. Honestly, every time he speaks up, you want to laugh out loud. It's adorable. And weird. But Kai probably hopes to gain Daehyun's trust, seeing as children are often humans that come off as the most innocent and trustworthy, so you try not to react to his honesty with a bark of laughter.

Heechul gets his gun back, waves an accusing finger at Daehyun (who bows sheepishly, weired-out), and leaves the room, telling you all to behave and not destroy anything and tell him when you're done so that he can call a nurse to check up on Dae. Then you look down at Daehyun and Min joins you on the other side of the bed. 

"Who did this to you?" you ask, making a vague motion towards Daehyun's whole body. He bites his lower lip and looks away pointedly, unsure. "We saved your sister." 

At that, he whips his head around and squints. He looks hopeful, then curious, then suspicious. "Which one?" 

"Krystal," you explain. 

"How do you know her name?" 

"I know yours, too," you say, nodding at him. "Daehyun. I know that you have four siblings. Krystal, Jessica, Junsu and Yunho. I know that you're all gifted." 

Daehyun seems to shrink in size. He plasters his back over the bed, hands clenching around the duvet, knuckles going white. "How?" he asks. "They knew it too. They knew it and they came for us." 

"Who did?" Min asks, frowning. You exchange glances. Daehyun shakes his head. 

"How do you know me? Who are you?" he demands, panicked. 

"Calm down," Kai says, probably hearing his heart hammering in his chest. "We're not gonna hurt you." 

"We're all part of a werewolf pack," you say quickly. "We're in charge of this city. We protect it, and that includes any magic creature that decides to stay here, or that comes looking for help. I'm Dal. This is Kai, and that's Min," you  say, pointing at your pack members. "We found Krystal when we fought a witch and a trickster. We managed to defeat them, but they ran away. A mage helped them out." 

"Is she okay?" Daehyun gasps out. His fists unclench. "Is Krystal okay?" 

"She's fine," Kai assures. "She's in a coma, but she's stable. And there's police keeping an eye on her, and a couple of our friends."

Daehyun seems to relax even further at that. He leans back, his eyes jumping from one person to the next, back and forth between you three. Then he seems to realize something and he closes his mouth, swallowing. 

"Are you possibly..." he says quietly, "...the Moon Pack?"

That question is a surprise. You blink rapidly at him. Then, as no one answers (you're all really dumbfounded), you roll up the sleeve of your jacket, revealing your tattoos. Including the moon one. Daehyun's eyes widen. Kai s his blouse and exposes the skin on his chest, where his own crescent moon tattoo is visible. You find it curious that it didn't disappear with his whole body de-aging. Daehyun takes it in and looks a tiny bit disturbed by the image of a five-year-old with a tattoo, but he already has some kind of a weird idea about Kai's whole existence, so he doesn't question it. When he looks at Min, she's raising her right hand in an 'ok' sign, her wrist turned, so that the tiny crescent moon tattoo on the side of her finger is visible to him. 

"How do you know about us?" you question. You notice a chair by the wall and you grab it to sit down next to the bed, getting in the same eye-level with him. Daehyun looks at you, then at Kai, then back at you before answering.

"There were people looking for us," he says slowly. "They asked us if we want to join them." 

"Join them," Kai deadpans. "As who?" 

"As companions," Daehyun says, shrugging. "They said that they're gathering people that can do magic. That they're building a group."

"A group? Like a gang, or something?" Min asks. 

"They looked more like soldiers," Daehyun whispers. "We all said no. We didn't want to get involved into anything weird. We already have a lot on our plates. We grew up in an orphanage, nobody ever wanted us. They were all scared of what we could do." 

You feel the bottom of your stomach drop. 

"So we said no. But they kept on coming, telling us that we're going to be stronger, that we can do amazing things together. Sort of like Magneto recruiting his X-Men, honestly. Junsu and Jessica were actually considering it, and then the bad guys saw that they're interested, they told them that they want to get rid of humans." 

"Okay, hold up," Min interrupts, scoffing loudly. You look up at her. She looks out-raged. "They're gathering an army and they want to get rid of humans? This is literally like the plot of the X-Men movies."

Kai looks pissed when you look at him and you panic a little. You can barely deal with Kyuhyun throwing a tantrum. Then you remember that Kai is an adult! What are you doing brain! and you go back to the task at hand. 

"How do they call themselves?" Kai asks.

"Mabeob," Daehyun says. "Just...Mabeob."

Your skin prickles with nerves. It's the same name Amber found when she fought off the hacking attacks.

"And who came asking you to join them?"

"Two girls, one woman, one guy. One of the girls was a witch. I didn't know what the other three were." 

"You said you grew up in an orphanage," you point out. "How do you know about the supernatural? Except for your powers, you didn't have access to any magical knowledge, did you?" 

"There was an old man at the orphanage," Daehyun explains. "He taught us everything, including how to control our powers." 

You squint at that. You glance at Kai to see him staring at you knowingly. Could it be possible...?

Heechul bursts into the room suddenly. 

"Guys," he says, "you might want to leave. More cops coming, and they're gonna enter the room." 

", what do I say?" Daehyun asks, panicked. You stand up from the chair, kicking it at the wall in a haste to get out. Min is already opening the window. 

"Sorry," you say to Daehyun, and snap your fingers right in front of his face. His head lolls back and he goes unconscious again. You grab Kai's hand. You hear some scuffle outside the room; Min waves at you to hurry up. You feel pain spreading all over your head. It feels exactly like brain freeze and you shake all over, letting out a disattisfied grunt. 

You're on the first floor, so it's not that far down. Min and Kai jump out easily, but you need a second longer to get over the brain freeze sensation, and then you brace your magic for an impact. You land on the grass with a yelp, your knees bend, and roll two times before stopping. You're sitting on your , your legs stretched out in front of you. When you look up, Kai is standing in-between your knees, staring at you adorably.

"You okay?" he asks in his little boy voice. You grin at him and pull him into a hug, finding that sitting is the perfect position for cuddling him. Kai lets out a grunt that sounds just like an adult Kai's grunt and you end up grinning even wider. He's warm and soft, and he embraces you easily. 

"Yup," you say. "You're adorable." 

"I'm always adorable." 

"Uh-huh." 

"We should probably go," Min says. "I got a text from Xiumin. He says something weird is going on in the forest. Kris is gonna come keep an eye on Daehyun."

"Oops," you say, scrambling up and taking Kai with you as you go. He seems super surpised when you pick him up and he turns out to be way heavier than you originally thought. "Gotta go." 

"I'm not actually a kid, Dal," he says. 

"Right now you are," Min sing-songs as you make your way towards the parking lot. 

*

You rush through the forest, your lovely jeep shaking all over. Kai is jumping (well, bouncing) all around the backseat, even as he has his seatbelts on, and you really feel sorry to both him and your car, but you're in quite a rush, really. Especially since you're beginning to pick up magic that you haven't felt before. Xiumin's text was vague enough to make Min super worried about his well-being, but you're really hoping that all the Magic 101 lectures you've given the pack were enough to keep them alive while you were getting there.

You seriously need to work on teleporting. Or get Father's number - if he has one - and use him as a teleport, just like Jaejoong does. 

You finally reach your destination. You know because there's magic pooling out onto the road like blue clouds, and it's definitely something bad. 

"Don't touch the blue stuff," you say. "Kai, you stay in the car." 

"What? No!" he screams. You know that locking the door would be both cruel and dangerous, so you don't, but the thought does cross your mind. Kai jumps out of the car and follows you on his short legs, surprisingly fast for a kid, and when you look back at him, you notice his eyes glowing red. 

"You're not in control yet," you bark at him. "Stay out of it." 

"Dal—"

​"I mean it!" you throw over your shoulder. "Trust us this once!"

Kai stops running after you, but he looks miserable. You try to send him a reassuring smile, but it comes out looking like a grimace. Min outruns you, probably hearing something she doesn't like, and you watch as her eyes glow scared blue and her canines grow visibly. She throws her arms out, her claws extending. 

She outruns you, but it doesn't take long before you're on the battlefield. And by battlefield, you mean a battlefield. 

Half of your pack is there, including Amber, who has five men wearing black trapped in an illusion, apparently. You wonder when she's gotten here; she must've left the hospital even before you got that text from Xiumin. Kris and Suho stand by her sides, taking down anyone who tries to stop her from using her magic, and boy, they have lots of people to tackle. There's around twenty men all around them and they're all tall, lanky, and skinny, and their bodies are wrapped in some kind of black bandages. A tiny bit like ninjas, but more like they got their whole bodies burned. The odd thing is that their eyes are covered by the black material, too. 

They don't attack based on their eyes. Someone is controlling them. 

In the middle of things - of these weird black humanoids fighting with your pack - stands the witch, and a woman you haven't seen before. The skin on her arms and neck is blue, there's a patch of that color running up her left cheek, too, and her eyes are glowing white as indigo smoke falls out of her twitching fingers and pools at the ground. You see Sehun, Luhan and Xiumin lying on the ground, unconscious, and then you see the smoke curling around Kyungsoo's leg. The boy doesn't even see it. 

The smoke reaches his nose and he falls down like a bag of potatoes, the creatures he's been fighting losing interest in him and attacking the person closest to them - Chen. 

Min pounces. You take in the scene one more time, noticing someone hiding behind the trees in the background. No, not a someone, two someones. And one of them must be Jessica. 

You take a deep breath, steading your heartbeat, and then you crouch down, letting your magic flow from inside your bones and into your open palms. You look up at the black humanoids, make sure you've aimed well, and let the magic flow together with a with simple words.

"Crescere, solum, oppugnatio," you whisper tenderly.

The ground shakes, throwing everyone off the loop. The boys wobble on their feet, some of the monsters fall down, and the witch grabs at the woman to stop herself from dropping onto the grass. She looks up at you and notices you; fear flashes in her eyes. 

You smirk at her. 

Tree roots shoot up from under the ground. Soil sputters around. The roots hit all the weird, bandage-wrapped things, curling around them in a murderous hold; the blue woman and the witch look at you with shock and fear, and the woman clenches her jaw.

She points her hands at you, the blue smoke emerging from them. 

You make a big 'x' sign in front of your head and chest using your hands, and you once again let your magic work its ways. The runic signs on your forearms shine sensing danger, and all the protecting symbols come to life, emitting force. The smoke hits an invisible barrier. It's a thing you only learned recently (it being the courtesy of Father, naturally) and you're glad to find it this useful. You feel more than badass.

The smoke comes and comes, hitting you full force, and it's not just regular, thick air; it's something heavy and burning. Just when you think you won't be able to hold it any longer, it stops abruptly, and you look up to see—

Kai. 

He's sneaked behind the woman - you're now pretty sure that she's a Djinn - and somehow managed to jump at her back, curling his hands around her neck. She fell down and before she could react, Kris approached her and punched her in the throat.

"Wow, move!" Amber comments as the Djinn begins coughing and desperately trying to catch her breath. "That's just plain cruel." 

"Amber, please shut it," Luhan says, breathing heavily, coming to his senses. 

"Hey!" someone shouts. You turn your head to see Jessica, Jessica, waving at you like crazy. You look to where she's pointing and see that the witch is trying to run away. 

"Oh, I forgot about her," you say. "Jess, catch!" 

And with that, you snap your fingers, a huge fire ball appearing above your open palm. Jessica looks surprised and totally unprepared as you throw the fire ball at her, but she yelps and makes a quick motion at the fire ball.

It listens to her. Just like the other universe Jessica, she can control it, and she can control it well; the fire flies towards the witch, hitting her and engulfing her in flames. The fire isn't mean to burn her, though, you made sure it'd just scare her and you hoped that she'd be one of the people who, upon set on fire, would roll around on the ground instead of starting to run around in panic.

You're relieved to see that the witch drops to the ground, panicking, but rolling around and trying to put the fire out. Jessica looks shocked and panicked, and Junsu jumps out from between the trees, all of a sudden, pulling at the handfuls of his hair.

"Oh, what a day! What a lovely day!" Chanyeol screams creepily. The siblings look at him wide-eyed, getting pale. 

"You'd make an awful War Boy," Min informs him.

You look at Jessica. "Looks like you found me first," you say quietly.

Hope you're satisfied! Also, who watched Mad Max: Fury Road and loved it as much as I did?
Happy holidays raspberry cream cakes, I love you <3

(also, go listen to this song, it's freaking amazing, just wait for that beat drop ajdgl)