They lined the five bodies onto different tables. Yixing put on his gloves with Minho by his side, clearly just as fascinated and excited. I stood near the door, pretending that the rotten smell of flesh did not bother me at the very least. Ironically, this was possibly the only thing humane about these Shadow fighters – a sign of what they once had been.

These fighters were exactly as I remembered – cloaked from head-to-toe. I could not even see their tip of their shoes until Yixing slowly – and really, very slowly – unravelled the horror behind the red cloak that covered their bodies. He was breathless, his face pale, and even with years of experience, he was still nervous of what he was about to find out. Beneath that cloak was a male body. Strong and fit, but without his male intromittent organ.

The fighter’s skin was grey, like steel, in contrast to how normal human’s skin was supposed to look like. It was like a layer of silver poured over his skin to make a mask of such perfection there was literally not one crease or marks on that body – well, except for his sculpted six-pack, t’was. It was perfect, and yet it was sickening in every sense. Yixing poked his body gently and was very much relieved to find that it still bounced back like normal human’s skin elasticity.

After the cloak was opened, there was only his mask to be taken off. I heard from Sehun of the horror behind that mask and thought of the kind of impossibly ugly faces I would see. It didn’t take long before I found out. I had lived with nightmares all my life, especially since Jongin left – I was sure one more horrid image would not kill. Three of us surrounded the table with pent-up anticipation and gasped loudly at the same time.

It was flat. Sickeningly, horrifyingly, tragically flat. The eyes were horizontal without the usual curves. The nose was Voldemort-esque, which looked utterly disgusting and scary, and worst yet, he didn’t have a mouth. No lips, no labium, to say it scientifically. Instead there were neat stiches that matched the grey colour of his skin. So this was it – Byun Baekhyun’s prideful creations, the deadly assassins whose features had been altered to bring terror, whose mind functioned solely to kill.

I was not the first to vomit and shrink. Minho was. He choked, held a hand over his mouth and quickly ran to the sink. I almost lost the strength on my knees if I hadn’t been clinging tightly onto Yixing, as if my whole life depended on him. He, on the other hand, became very solemn. His lips thinned, and the crease between his brows smoothened as he drew a sigh – quiet but not unnoticeable.

“Sena, would you like to step back or continue be my assistant?”

Be your assistant, but I doubted the sincerity in my voice. My curiosity eclipsed the rising fear and I planted my feet firm on the ground, daring myself to even move an inch before I shot myself on the head – not literally, of course. I let him take charge as I handed him the tools he needed to cut the skin open. Minho slowly came back with an ashen face, as if he had just seen ghost. I finally felt a little calmer.

 Yixing’s rules in the laboratories was number one, don’t make noises. It would wake up the dead. I didn’t know how he made that up, but Yixing wasn’t usually a liar. He told me in a very serious tone that the rules he made were life-and-death. Either you listened, or you died. He was a totally different person inside the white room, with his gloves on. What he said, goes.

Rule number two: never drop your blood on the patient – no matter what happen. And I supposed that was somehow linked back to our ancestries and the legend. Perhaps our blood – especially mine – could really wake up the dead, though scientifically speaking, it was not possible. Not everyone was Lazarus, saved by the grace of God. But my blood was especially gifted by Gods, and that meant something.

Rule number three: respect the bodies. That sounded more personal more than anything else, but Yixing strongly believed in the spiritual world, much more than anyone else. Part of it had to do with where he grew up. He said he’d seen too many cases where the spirits came back to haunt the living as revenge of their past deeds, and he didn’t want that to happen to any of us.

The rules sounded easy enough, but they were impractical. It was thirty-something minutes into the surgery that my phone rang, thus breaking the law of silence. Yixing was originally very calm. There were sweats forming on his forehead, and a gentle, almost patient smile on his face when he examined the body carefully. He was so close to finding something, believing that Byun Baekhyun must have planted something in the bones – a chip, perhaps – to make them obedient and mindless. All was well. Until my phone rang.

That broke his concentration. Yixing whipped around, and with the small knife in his hand, he pointed at the door with an unhappy frown. I wanted to apologise for the sudden disruption, but remembered that I was not supposed to talk at all, so I quickly muttered a soft ‘sorry’ and muffled the sound of my ringtone in my jacket until I got out of the lab. I stood in front of the door and fished out my phone in annoyance.

It was Kim Minseok, because who else would call me in such a dire time. It hadn’t even been a week and he was already impatient about everything. Of course he would. If I were put in his position, I would probably do the same. And before this call, Joonmyun had texted me of a warning. I was already aware beforehand. This call should not take long, so I could hurriedly go back to watch the surgery process.

“Good afternoon, you are speaking to a non-existent number. Please don’t call back anymore,” I sarcastically answered the moment I picked up the call.

I heard a small whimper – not just a prideful sigh or a helpless ‘hi’ – but a whimper. I pictured Kim Minseok weeping in agony and was not entirely sure how I was supposed to feel about that. It didn’t make me happy as much as I had expected to, but there was no guilt or pity in me now. At least, none for him. He should know. But a man at his wit’s end would bargain for just about anything to keep himself safe and sound.

“Sena, please. We are friends, aren’t we? Please tell the Genbu’s Council you are not declaring a war to me,” Minseok begged. He had lost all the arrogance he always put on and instead, sounded hopeless. His misery was inconsolable, and I was so very close from achieving another milestone. Perhaps I was deserving of the heartless title they always called me with, for I felt no sympathy for the comfortless Minseok.

“And? Why should this matter to me? Since when are you calling me a ‘friend’, Kim Minseok? Let me think about this for a second,” I tapped my feet impatiently and halted for a while, pretentiously weighing the consequences of my behaviour. To hell with that. I gave zero to people like him. These were trashes of society. “Oh!” I gasped dramatically for the effect, “Right! I know why. Have you come to beg me for mercy because you’re about to be stripped away from the title?”

“Sena, no matter what happens, I helped you once,” He reminded. “For the sake of my father, please help me through this. I do not wish to be stripped away from my title and be banished somewhere else. Byun Baekhyun would kill me. Wu Yi Fan would hunt me down. I’ve got nowhere to go and no one else to beg. Please consider this a favour for me. I would do anything to repay you. Anything!”

“Tempting, but not good enough. Remember what happened when you helped me?” I looked at my nails and mustered the sweetest voice I could speak with. This Sena was the Sena Luhan despised and Sehun questioned. This Sena knew no mercy, had no limit and boundary. This Sena wanted blood and revenge. I was this kind of despicable person now, no matter what others said behind my back. If what I did kept the clan together and brought a greater glory, I could do worse.

“Perhaps you’ve forgotten what you did to me, Kim Minseok, after all it’s a long, long time ago. Two years has passed right?” I reminded him with a sickening grin. Kim Minseok took me in as a Seiryuu guest for Joonmyun and thrashed me away because of Yoon Sohee. Ironic, I knew, but I would never forget the bitterness of that betrayal. I would repay all the debt I owed ten-times fold.

“Genbu was once a great clan, Kim Minseok. Under your great-grandfather, it flourished to the top, competing at the same level of Byakko. Then each generation after that got worse. Tell me, what would your father say if he was watching you somewhere from heaven? You, the son he loved most, the one he placed all his hopes in, the only child he had from his first love.”

There was a long silence after that, and I could tell that by the time he was ready to reply, Kim Minseok had gone through a torment of his own, unspeakably and cruelly, “You know.”

I knew. It might be kept a secret by the Genbu, but I checked through Kyungsoo to make sure. The three sons of Genbu were born from different mothers – only Jongdae was born through the womb of the legitimate wife. Joonmyun’s birth mother was a lowly mistress who died soon after she gave birth. Kim Yong Ha never did love her much, so he did not put much love to his second-born son.

Minseok, however, was doted on because of his close resemblance to Yong Ha and the reminder of his first love. It was a very tender piece of information – one that I obtained after months of searching. Initially, I didn’t plan on telling anyone about it, but my mouth was loose enough to let it slip today. Well, I supposed that was a fatal blow to Minseok. After this he would be no more.

“You can’t do this to me, Sena, you can’t! If I perish, then Genbu shall perish with me, and the balance of the world would be disturbed. You would bring upon the wrath of God. I swear, Sena –“ He cursed, but I chuckled. The sound of my mockery must have stunned him, such that he blanked out and turned quiet instantly. It wasn’t that hard to imagine what disappointment could do to the weak-hearted fool.

“Kim Minseok, the world does not revolve around you. Remember that.”

I hanged up on him. I didn’t feel the need to talk that much anyway. I wanted to go back in, but duty called for me. When I walked, the steps were lighter than before. After two years of careful planning and cruel scheming, Seiryuu could finally see the light again. This, I would make sure of, no matter what kind of person I would become.