Chen could’ve kissed Angel for insisting they keep Rose with them. If things worked out, he wouldn’t have to sneak off just to check on Star. And he’d be able to monitor her movements, maybe coordinate with her, so the suspicion didn’t fall on them.

Mostly though, he was just relieved. Having her in its territory was extremely soothing to the beast and calmed it down considerably.

Sehun was still grumbling about it when their impromptu meeting adjourned but Tiffany dragged him away with promises of loads of kissing and cuddling. His mood lightened considerably as he followed her to their shared room, catching her around the waist and swinging her inside.

Mei and Luhan stayed cuddled on the sofa, Mei smiling sleepily up at Luhan who was chatting quietly with Xiumin, probably convincing him that Angel’s idea held merit, the Legend nodding along morosely.

Tao and Raina had sneaked off not so discreetly the moment their meeting had let out, giggling like the schoolgirls they were and Chanyeol had cornered Suho before he could disappear with his wife, discussing how to relay the news to Nara and whether to include her two best friends in it as well. Chen thought it was a good idea – in fact, it would be a great idea if all the mates’ families were made aware of the situation because that way, they were less likely to be caught off guard.

If his plan worked, though, they might be saved the necessity anyway but it didn’t hurt to err on the side of caution.

‘Penny for your thoughts?’ A mellow voice interrupted his musings. He smiled, turning around and coming face to face with their healer. Lay’s face looked much better now that he’d been fed.

‘Where’s Baekhyun?’ Chen asked instead of answering, peering over his shoulder.

‘With Chanyeol; they’re harassing Suho.’ Lay smiled back, looking angelic with the dimple poking in his cheek. Chen had learned early on not to trust him when he looked like this. ‘You seemed a bit distressed tonight; everything okay?’

Chen nodded, not meeting his eyes. It was very tempting to spill out his secrets to Lay; he would keep them safe, just like he’d held on to the secret of Chen’s untimely demise. Not that Chen blamed him – as he’d told the healer long ago, he preferred the bliss of ignorance and that was still true.

But he couldn’t risk anyone becoming aware of his plans; not D.O., not Star, not Lay or anyone else. No, this was something he had to do, absolutely, completely, on his own and if that made him lonely, so be it. He’d rather have them safe, if mad at him, then to risk failing this one shot he had at getting them rid of… well. Even in his own thoughts, he couldn’t risk it. 

He’d been too lost in his own head to pay heed to the healer in front of him, who took advantage of his distraction, placing a hand on his neck. The pain shooting down his spine made his knees buckle, especially since it was unexpected; and he would’ve ended on the floor had Lay not caught him.

Chen blinked, the colors around him seeming vivid, almost neon, and he cursed, burying his head into Lay’s chest. To any onlooker, they were hugging but it gave him the chance to bring himself under control. He pushed the darkness he now carried within away and wrapped it up like Star had taught him.

The brightness receded and his vision returned to normal. He looked up, face sweaty from effort.

Lay had a peculiar look on his face; like he was both repulsed yet fascinated. Chen supposed it made sense; darkness would repulse light. He was tainted and while he’d learned to accept it, expecting the same from others would be silly.

Lay seemed to read his mind, putting a hand on his shoulder and pulling him into an actual hug this time. ‘I’m sorry, I was just surprised.’

Chen had no idea what to say, not that Lay waited for him to speak. ‘You’re our brother and no matter happened, that won’t change.’

Virtually the same words Angel had said to them. No wonder these two were best friends. He couldn’t deny that it felt nice being told that, even though he didn’t particularly need that reassurance.

‘I know that…’ he laughed out, resisting the urge to wriggle out of the hug.  He knew it wasn’t meant to restrain him but his body was having nightmarish flashbacks of when he’d been unable to move, unable to do anything but suffer. His breath came in harsh pants and the moment Lay loosened his arms, he pushed away.

He tried to keep calm but his heart was racing. Lay looked regretful. ‘Sorry, I forgot…’

He shook his head, trying to smile. It felt like grimace but he did it anyway. ‘It’s okay.’

Lay sighed. ‘You don’t have to do everything alone, you know. Angel said this to Xiumin but it’s for you too.’

Chen his lip nervously. It was tempting and if nothing else, he’d get a lot off his chest. He opened his mouth, then snapped it shut. He had a mission and he couldn’t compromise it.

Lay tilted his head thoughtfully. ‘You don’t have to say anything,’ he said abruptly. ‘Just hear me out. Can you do that?’

Chen wondered – with Lay, one often had to – just how much he knew. He wouldn’t put it past the healer to have already figured it out. He nodded slowly. ‘Fine, I’ll…’

‘What’re you guys talking about?’ Baekhyun interrupted them cheerfully, clinging on Lay’s shoulder. He smiled, not at all surprised by his Shadow’s appearance. ‘Just saying goodnight,’ he lied smoothly, turning around. ‘Goodnight Chen, see you in the morning.’ He waved over his shoulder, heading to his room.

Chen waved back, avoided being tackled into Baekhyun’s hug and ran to his room. D.O was already inside, settling in for his nightly routine. ‘I can keep an eye on the cameras,’ Chen offered, pulling out a chair beside him. ‘If you wanna sleep.’

D.O stared at him, blinking owlishly before shaking his head. ‘No, I’m good.’

Chen nodded, slipping under the covers. It wasn’t like he’d expected anything else… but it didn’t make it any easier.  

He knew D.O suspected him. He’d made sure to leave enough clues for that to be the case.

He was playing a dangerous game, he knew. But with his family, his brothers and his mate on the line, there was no choice.

…………………………………………  

Chen had gotten used to his non-existence in the Abyss… more or less. He'd gotten used to having no body, he'd gotten used to just thinking sassily instead of talking back and he'd gotten used to the attempts on his soul – he'd say life but that, in his dictionary, implied having a body so... – but the one thing he had not gotten used to was the contradiction that was Star.

Yup, Star, his newfound best friend and the reason he'd survived this long. He was proud of himself for making friends in such an unfriendly place as the Abyss but you had to know the right way and let love do the rest. Gosh, he sounded cheesy.

So, Star was his savior. She… at least, he was pretty sure it was a she, but who knew? They were souls, so gender was kind of hard to determine and she had this tendency to refer to herself in third person but he'd decided that she was a girl. A little kid, to be honest but she insisted she was almost as old as he was, so he hadn't pushed it.

See, when Evil had thrown him out of his body – or rather, had beaten him to a pulp until he had no choice but to leave – Chen had been sure that this was the end. He'd pulled one last prank on Evil – it still gave him satisfaction, just thinking about it – and pushed his powers out, closing the Shadow's link and saving his brothers. All in all, he was pretty satisfied with the way his life had ended and he'd been resigned to spending the rest of eternity – unless some Abyss resident ate him and ended his misery – in the darkness of Abyss.

The thought of attempting to escape hadn't actually crossed his mind because frankly, he didn't even know that was possible. Which was kind of stupid, now that he thought about it because Evil. Duh.

In his defense, he'd been too busy staving off the numerous attempts to consume his soul to think about much else. He was a creature of light – geez, he felt like an angel, saying that – and naturally, a feast for the dark dwellers. They were attracted to his light like moths to flame. Or Romeo to Juliet, if he was being romantic.

He'd spent who knew how long, trying to dart this way and that and barely managed to lose one trail before another caught up with him and even though he had no body, he'd been panting and breathless. Can you even imagine what that felt like? Having no nose or lungs to speak of and still being breathless? That's how traumatic it was and he was sure he'd need proper therapy to get over it or something. But whatever.

So, he'd been running away – his soul could dart around fast, he'd found, which was pretty handy because damn, those creatures were persistent – and then, he'd somehow managed to get himself entrapped on all sides.

Yeah, even abbies – he called them abbies because calling them Abyss residents, creatures, minions etc. was kind of hard and it twisted his non-existent mouth in weird ways – couldn’t leave him alone because he had such a cute . Star insisted it was because of that and since she came here first, he deferred to her opinion.

Anyway, he'd been sure he was done for when this tiny little fluffball had dropped out of nowhere and then, speared everything in a mile-long radius with spikes of black flecked with gold. And then, the fluffball had engulfed him and he'd prayed his last – because apparently fluffballs were evil down in the Abyss, who knew?

Instead, a strange sort of cold warmth had cocooned him and a childish voice had spoken inside his head. Was it weird that he kept referring to body parts when he had none to speak of?

But that's how he'd met Star. He thought it was very apt because other than himself, she was the only creature in the Abyss who had any gold in her.

He had a theory about it: the gold represented their soul and the creatures of Abyss had none. Star was an outsider like himself – she'd confirmed as much – and she'd managed to preserve bits of her soul by tainting most herself in darkness.

From what he had gathered – Star wasn't the most coherent person to talk to – she had been a little kid when she'd been taken into the Abyss but she'd promised her elder brother – Choomin, she called him – that she would hide and wait for him.

Anyway, with his haven inside Star – she rarely let him out for fear that his light would attract abbies again – he had time to calm down and think. And he'd thought a lot and had tried to figure out what to do. Little by little, gathering small bits of information about the 'Bad Place' and the 'Bad Person' – Star's way of saying Abyss and Evil – he'd figured out that he could escape. There was this little legend about the early king who'd exiled the Red Forces and how he'd lived in the Abyss before coming back and Chen was sure that it was not just a story. It gave him hope and he started planning.

Evil sometimes opened portals in the Abyss and when he could convince Star to get close enough, he could peek outside and see the familiar streets of Oulphesden, the roads leading to HQs. He was sure Star could climb out of these portals and then…

Here, he was stumped. Who knew if he could survive outside of Abyss without a body? And if Star was like him, a soul – he suspected that she might be – then she faced a similar problem. Her body was long lost to the dusts of Exo-planet and his own must be decaying in some grave – he hoped they'd put in him a nice coffin and put loads and loads of those preservative thingies so his body wouldn’t be in a bad condition but who knew? Maybe they had him cremated in which case he was royally screwed.

There didn't appear to be any way out of this particular dilemma but he'd decided that he'd risk disintegrating into nothingness rather than silently wallowing away in the Abyss.

Then, Star had brought him some news which made escape possible.

Sometimes she went off to hunt on her own – because she got hungry, since she'd taken parts of Abyss's darkness inside herself and it made her crave – and in those times, she left Chen in a safe place she'd carved for herself.

Someone is trying to come inside the Bad Place.

He imagined her eyes, if she had them, would be wide. As it was, the dull red orbs liberally speckled with golden, rounded even more as she told him, her black tendrils connecting to his golden ones. That's how they communicated.

Chen stood up straighter, alert (oh the irony!). Who?

Don't know but Star thinks it's your brother.

Chen had told her about his brothers, especially D.O and what he had done. She'd been quite fascinated and really, with nothing else to do, all they had were stories. Truthfully, Chen kind of understood why Evil had started planning world domination – he literally had nothing else to do.

Are you sure?

Abbies go to eat him, she informed him seriously, shiny like you.

Cute … she added thoughtfully.

That sounds like D.O.

But what was D.O doing here? Knowing his Shadow… he'd probably come in, invading the Abyss, to save Chen.

Idiot, Chen muttered fondly. Well, that certainly made things easier for him.

Everyone is trying to eat him! Star sounded like a kid at the carnival – all excited impatience. Star wants to eat him too!

No!

Why? She sounded so petulant.

Because he's my brother. Chen reasoned. Besides, if he's inside the Abyss, this means there's a portal open nearby and we can get out. Don't you want to get out?

Star was silent for a few moments… or maybe endless minutes. It was kind of hard to determine, what with having no biological clock and Abyss being timeless.

I'm scared, she finally muttered. If she had a body, Chen was sure she would've been ducking her head and shuffling her feet. She prided herself for being 'brave' and 'naughty' and 'smart' – all praises Choomin apparently bestowed on her – so of course, admitting she was scared was a huge deal.

Why?

Bad Person is out there. And Star promised Choomin to hide and wait.

Choomin is outside, you know. Chen hoped he could convince her to leave because quite apart from being his only way out, Abyss was no place for kids. We can find him when we get out.

Promise?

She was so easily satisfied. Chen did his best to smile sincerely even though he felt really guilty for playing with her like this. How could he find someone who'd probably died along with the rest of their race?

Promise. Now, where is D.O?

Come on!

It was a good thing they went when they did or D.O would have been dead.

Chen felt the call of his Beast inside his heart… soul… whatever. And he felt himself tear up a bit because the fact that his Beast was still calling to him meant that D.O hadn't accepted it, hadn't claimed ownership. His Shadow really was the best, for not giving up on him like that.

Well, time to repay the favor.

Star rushed at D.O, colliding into his back and racing away with him. D.O was thrown out as Star pulled back to fight off the abbies giving chase and then, they slipped outside. Chen didn't have time to do much but register that things weren't good – Evil was there, abbies as well and D.O had just lost his , apparently. Then Star was darting away.

What are you doing?

He felt like he was being pulled apart, yanked away from his safe place inside Star. She sounded panicked when she replied. I don't know!

It appeared that she was in no better control of herself and then, he was yanked completely out and dragged away towards something.

It was like being by a vacuum and he had the vague registration of passing colors and voices before everything swirled into a kaleidoscope and then, there was darkness.

His eyes opened to the brightest light he’d ever seen.

……………………………………

In the grey-green light of their room, Chen stared at the back of D.O’s head.

His Shadow had literally invaded the Abyss to drag him out. He hadn’t accepted his beast when he’d had no reason to believe that Chen was ever coming back. He’d held on and fought tooth and nail to get him out.

His brothers had put their mates in danger, put their lives at risk for the sake of opening the portal to bring him out.

Chen couldn’t let their efforts go to waste. Determined, he breathed out and closed his eyes.

………………………………………

A/N

Finally, some much needed explanations regarding Chen and Star... I hope it made sense. There'll be more later but for now, I hope this gives some answers to you guys. Also, any theories? I'd love to hear :)