---

After Chen and Chanyeol put up their hands to fight, Suho quickly intervenes (much to Qian's disappointment). And as the ship passes by more planets, a few of the others decide to fall asleep while the rest stay awake and chat.

In what seems like no time at all, the space-ship finally reaches their home-planet and everyone who's awake becomes silent at the sight of it. Tears get shed for various reasons as they look at the clouds and the lands of various colors that paint the surface of their home-planet. Then, Boa announces via the ship's intercom that she's going in, and everyone who's awake braces themselves as the ship descends into their home-planet's atmosphere. The space-ship's still invisible for now and so they get to watch the passing scenery without raising any eyebrows as they descend right into a field a few miles away from the palace.

The sky's a bright shade of blue and everything else seems so bright too--with fairy wisps flying this way and that, and colorful animal-shaped kites flying in one area. As the others gaze about, Qian contacts a palace-worker via the mirror and leaves a message saying that they'll all be there in roughly a few hours time. Kai furrows his eyebrows and turns to ask why they couldn't just land somewhere closer to the palace and both Qian and Suho just give him withering looks. Kyungsoo then gently explains to him why they didn't (because they'd probably get shot out of the sky) and Kai lets out an Ah in understanding.

Once they exit the space-ship with all of their things, they all begin the journey towards the royal palace with the black garb-wearing crew at the front and eleven of the friends at the back. (Luhan's being carried on Qian's shoulder for now since she popped another sleeper on him when they were just outside their home-planet's atmosphere.) As they walk (or in Kris' case float), only short green grass and open sky surrounds them and Baekhyun can hear Suho blissfully sigh in front of him.

He crinkles his nose at the sound while looking at Suho's back before angling his head to look at the tall spires and finials of the royal palace that looms in the distance. Thing is, Baekhyun actually gets his blissful sighing since everything just feels so calm here. And being back home made Baekhyun marvel at just how much energy they all learned to do without back on Earth. Because as soon as they all touched the ground, it's like a surge ran through all of their bodies (which probably has to do with them being closer to the Tree of Life now than they were back on Earth).

A slight breeze suddenly blows past them all and Baekhyun shivers and asks Suho if he can get his blue jacket from his duffel bag. Suho turns his head to look at him and gives a nod before opening up his bag to search for the jacket among other items. When he finds it, he grabs it and hands it to Baekhyun before reaching to zip back up his bag and lifting his head up as a blue snake-like dragon lets out a roar and flies past the clouds. Baekhyun murmurs a Thanks to him and looks up in awe too while putting on his jacket.

As they all walk out of the field into a small village, Lay's eyes take in the beautiful scenery of rural houses made of magical caramel-colored wood and vines that line the ground in some places. People are just going about their daily lives and surprisingly don't pay much attention to them as they pass by besides an eyebrow raise here and there. Lay then looks around at his friends next and notices that some of them are looking around in awe while some of them look lost in thought. When he looks forward at the black garb-wearing crew, he notices with a frown how dejected they seem.

Then, he remembers that while they're leading him and his friends to their home(s), they're also leading themselves towards their own inevitable punishments. Suho notices his growing frown and points to a unicorn on top of a hill to try and cheer him up.

It doesn't work.

---

They finally reach the palace a few hours later (and Suho had to summon water for them all at certain times while Luhan woke up around the time when they got out of the first small village). Once they see the tall doors of the palace, a lot of them sigh in relief and Chanyeol lets out a breathless, Thank gosh.

Then as they walk closer to the doors, a few guards at the entrance look at them in surprise before ordering other guards to tell the King and Queen of their arrival. The guards then tell them to wait there and so they all awkwardly stand around and wait while a few of the guards gape at Kris and Luhan, and bow when they make eye contact with them.

Not even two minutes later, the Queen bounds out of the palace with her arms outstretched and Luhan bursts into tears. The Queen's crying as well now and Luhan rushes towards her while Kris follows behind--looking down at the ground (otherwise he'll probably cry too, seeing his aunt up close). The Queen and her son hug first and she swings her son around with a huge smile on her face, getting him to chuckle even while tears flow out of both of their eyes.

A few seconds later, the King rushes out from the palace towards them too and Kris' aunt looks at Kris once she sets Luhan down and tells him to join in on the hug. She then takes in the sight of the others and gestures for the other ten friends to come closer for the hug too, and so they do as the King joins in.

The thirteen people in black look on, and time suddenly freezes for the twelve friends as a few guards walk up to the thirteen and bind their hands with magical rope. The guards then guide them away and some of them take a look back as a portal appears in front of them all. Luna locks teary eyes with an equally sad Qian as they enter the portal together and after the last person enters and it closes, the guards walk back to their posts and time unfreezes.

---

Once everyone breaks out of the group hug, Kris is the first of his friends to turn to where he last saw the crew, only to see that they're gone. His eyes widen and he lets out a What the in English while swivelling his head around to see where they could've even gone. The others turn around too after hearing his outburst and look around incredulously--wondering the same thing. The King and Queen let out sounds of befuddlement at hearing them speak in English, and Luhan asks them in their birth-language where the crew went.

"To start their sentence," the King states, as if that's the most obvious thing.

And the thing is, they all expected something like that would happen. But, now that the time has come--well first, they never even got to say goodbye to them. And second, none of them know what punishments the thirteen would even get.

"But Uncle...they--" Kris starts to say.

"They didn't even do anything!" Tao interrupts.

Instantly, they all turn to look at Tao who's glaring right at the King and Queen. Suho sputters and a few end up gaping at Tao in disbelief.

"What," the Queen says in a flat tone.

"I mean--" Tao shifts awkwardly under her intimidating gaze. "--sure, they did some iffy things...but they brought us back home!"

"Tao..." Kyungsoo says and Tao turns to him. "They probably did that because they got ordered to."

"But then...why tell us everything that they did? Why tell anyone?" Tao asks with desperate-looking eyes.

"Maybe it was just guilt," Baekhyun murmurs.

"But..." Tao lowers his eyes. "Doesn't that mean they're good people then?"

"What the do you mean by 'good people'?" Chen counters in English. "They kidnapped, hacked us, stalked us. One of the ers even in'--in' messed with my ability to control my own body. them all, man."

The King and Queen watch as they argue amongst themselves and turn to look at each other.

Should I interrupt? the King mouths, in an unsure tone to the Queen. The Queen shakes her head and mouths back, No, let them work it out and the King sighs and nods his head.

"What I'm saying is, they didn't have to own up to it!" Tao exclaims. Sehun places a hand on his shoulder and Tao looks at him with almost-pleading eyes. "That makes them...that makes them good people, right?"

"It's not a matter of good or bad, Tao," Lay replies in a soft tone. "It's just what is."

Tears start rolling down Tao's cheeks at that. "But they--they didn't even..."

Sehun wraps his arms around Tao as he cries and Xiumin watches them--not knowing what to say. He's been neutral this whole time and still is. He's not so mad at the crew that he could never forgive them for what they've done, but he's not so adamant to befriend them either because they've learned the 'error of their ways' or whatever. He's just in the middle.

The King awkwardly scratches at the back of his neck and the Queen grits her teeth and finally decides to step in, both figuratively and literally. She looks at Tao and asks him if he really thinks that the thirteen are good people. Tao just nods while still crying. Then, the Queen looks at the others to ask what they think.

"I think..." Kyungsoo trails off as all eyes are now on him. He nervously in his bottom lip and continues talking in their birth-language. "I think they should get a lighter sentence, ma'am."

Kai looks at him before looking at the King and Queen. "Wait, what is their sentence anyway?"

"Well, after all that we've gathered over what happened..." the King says. "They would be getting one year of community service."

The twelve friends look at the King and Queen with surprised expressions on their faces. "Wait...what?" Luhan asks, scrunching up his face as he feels a sudden headache coming on from all the crying he just did.

"One year tending to the dragons, helping out in soup kitchens, eateries, that sort of thing," the Queen responds, with a twirl of her right hand.

"But--I thought--you--what?" Tao blabbers, no longer crying.

"What about your advisor?" Chanyeol asks, confused.

The King and Queen's eyes glint with anger at the mention of their advisor and the Queen gives a wry smile. "Oh, they'll be getting something much worse."

---

At some point after that, the twelve friends all get offered to live at Tao's family home (a big wooden structure that's actually in a province near the palace). And they happily accept the offer, much to the King and Queen's surprise. When asked why they wouldn't want to stay at the palace, Tao says that he wants to spend time in his old family home, and Sehun and the others voice that they want to stay together. The King and Queen reluctantly Okay'ed their decision and so the agreement is for them all to visit them at least thrice a week.

Tao's father apparently retired from being a general some months ago and so now he's no longer known as General Huang but as Papa Huang. Anyway, the twelve friends quickly find it hard to adjust right away to really being back on their home-planet and so they find it easy to get mad or annoyed at each other over the simplest things. Papa Huang ends up yelling at them to stop arguing and fighting at least once every day while Tao's mother calms everyone down with a happiness-induced joke or two.

One day, the majority of the twelve agree to visit the 'pirates crew' (as Chanyeol dubs them) to see how they're doing. On a random sunny day, Kai and Kyungsoo decide to visit Taemin at a local dragon's nursery school.

When they get there, they walk in to the sight of Taemin trying to feed a baby ice-dragon a fish that keeps slipping out of his hands. Kai laughs at the sight and takes a few pictures to send to Sehun with his month-old mirror-phone, and Taemin scowls and drops the fish to chase after a guffawing Kai--both of them porting in and out of reality. Kyungsoo just shakes his head while watching them before he goes over to the baby dragon and steps over the fish that's lying on its side.

"Aww, look at you," he coos as he bends down to the dragon's height. The baby dragon looks up at him with wide, innocent eyes and scrunches up its face as it snorts out a tiny flurry of frost--causing him to smile. "So cute."

Taemin manages to get the mirror-phone at last but only after Kai sends the pictures and Sehun types back a reply a few seconds later, saying that they're the best pics he's ever seen--ending his message with symbols that resemble a