She carefully treads through the forest, looking around to make sure there aren't any threats. 

The scent of damp leaves and decomposing wood filled her nostrils and the faint sound of whispers could still be heard.

'You will not fall prey to their rubbish. You're a telekinetic. You can block out their thoughts.' She chanted to herself. 

'Jihyo.' 

'You failure.'

'No. No I'm not. I've been leading them fine.' The telekinetic's eyes darted around the fog. Dark apparitions were shifting around, some were staring right at her while others whispered. The more she looked around the worst it got. 

They were judging her. Looking down on her. 

She began to break out in cold sweat. Her pupils dilated and she felt extremely shifty under their cold and unfeeling eyes. 

Pairs of eyes that screamed disappointment and anger glowered at her. 

'You can do better.' 

'Why did you lose them so easily?'

'You can't even keep them together.'

'Useless.'

'They were taken by the fog! It wasn't me! You took them away from me!' She screamed, lips quivering.

'You couldn't fight back?'

'You have the power to control us.'

'You are weak after all.'

'No. I lead them fine. They didn't doubt me. They looked up to me.' She clenched her jaw.

'You think they really do? For all you know, deep down they think they can do much better than you.' 

'Then they would have said so. They can speak their mind.'

'So as to not crush your ten year pride, they won't speak up.' 

'Whatever. You're playing with my mind. You're not real.' She scoffed, fists curling into a tight ball. She could feel the little hairs on the back of her neck rising but she couldn't show fear. 

They feed on fear.

'Oh really?' Momo stepped through the fog. 

'Momo? Momo!' Jihyo shouted and ran up to hug the taller girl, relieved to find her friend. 

Before she could wrap her arms around the Japanese girl, she was harshly shoved back by a blast of air. 

'Do you really think you are worthy of the leader title?'

'Momo wha-'

'You have been controlling us. Forcing us to train to no end!' The aerokinetic growled, bearing her teeth and eyebrows lowered. Her eyes were dark with anger and a purplish mist was surrounding her feet. 

'I didn't force you at all! Anyway it was for your good! It was to prepare all of you future battles! There wasn't even a schedule!'

'But in the end? You couldn't even sense an ambush at the cabin.'

'I- That was unexpected! We were all taken by surprise!'

'Unworthy!' Momo lunged at Jihyo who rolled to the side to dodge the girl's attack. Fear coursed through her veins as she scrambled to her feet and began running through the dense forest. She could hear the spirits stirring, the whispers growing louder and more agitated. 

'Why did you lose us?' Chaeyoung appeared in front of her and she screeched to a stop, taking a few steps back. 

'I didn't m-'

'You could have got us out of this forest in the first place!' Sana appeared behind her and she screamed, stumbling away.

'The fog had-'

'Excuses! Look! Now we're all lost!' Jeongyeon stepped out from behind Sana. 

'It's all on you.' Tzuyu said, monotonous and eerily calm.

'So much for being our leader.' Dahyun's disembodied voice rang throughout the forest. 

'I tried my best! I really did!' Jihyo wheezed as tears freely ran down her cheeks. 

'Did you really?' Nayeon snarled. 

'Yes!'

'Well it's not enough!' Mina yelled and a sudden burst of flame was shot in Jihyo's face which made her plough to the ground, covering her head. 

'Shouldn't you be brave and fight?' Zafir's taunting voice resounded in her head. 

She swung her arm and raked the leaves up, giving her some cover to start running. 

'Why are you running?'

'Scared?'

'I don't want to hurt you!' Jihyo yelled without turning back. 

A tentacle of water wrapped around her ankle and pulled her up into the air, suspending her upside down.

'Let go of me!' She thrashed about wildly. 

'You're the all-powerful one here. Let yourself go.'

'I can't! I'm just a telekinetic!' Jihyo yelled. She could feel burning and her chest felt like it was being squeezed to the point it hurt. 

The grip around her ankle loosened and she fell to the ground, rolling to break her fall. 

'Get up.' A gentle but firm voice ordered. 

'I can't. I'm too weak. I'm a failure.' Jihyo let her head fall to the soil, covered in dead leaves and twigs. 

'You told yourself you wouldn't listen to these voices. So why are you letting them affect you?'

'Because they're true!' She cried. 'I'm a failure that can't lead!' Jihyo pressed her bare palms on the floor to push herself up into a seating position.

'So what if I trained for ten years? I never lead anyone except you guys! Time doesn't equal to experience.' 

'But you have the heart to. You are patient and willing to guide us.' The voice said in a appealing voice. 

'If I had guided you properly, we wouldn't be here. Lost. Stranded.' Jihyo spat bitterly.

'Look at what you are doing to yourself.' 

Jihyo looked around to see the spirits stirring, wailing and laughing at her misery.

'I'm not doing that. I'm not a masochist.'

'You are letting them affect you. You have let them drain your self-confidence.'

'But what they said is right! That's what I've been trying to say all this time!'

'So you will forget every achievement that you got just because they state the negative points?' 

'Isn't that what is meant to happen?'

'No. People always forget about all the good things you have done when you make one small mistake. It's not supposed to be this way. Even if you make a mistake, you learn. It's your mistakes that make you a better person.'

'I've been making mistakes since I began training. I don't feel like a better person. I'm not as successful as the past leaders! They achieved great things! Me? I did nothing.'

'Remember the time you helped Jeongyeon lift a pebble into the air for the first time?' 

'That was because of her hard work. Not mine.'

'But you guided her. You were patient with her and encouraged her to keep trying even when she wanted to give up.' 

Jihyo pursed her lips and rubbed her eyes with the inside of her sleeve. 

'How about the time where you saved Dahyun from falling when she couldn't fly in mid-air from her shock?'

'It's what anyone would do. Who could watch someone die infront of their own eyes?'

'But you didn't panic. You handled things cool and calmly. And the time during our mission to help the disaster struck area? You lifted the entire collapsed building to free all the innocent lives that were trapped beneath the rubble. They could have died in there by the time rescue workers reached them but you saved them all!' 

'I guess I did..' Jihyo frowned. The whispers around her began to grow quiet. The shadows no longer looked as menacing as before too. 

'The special quality that you have that makes you so special is your heart. You always put people before yourself and you never want someone to be below you. You want to make your members shine no matter what it takes. People overlook your hard work but you remain humble anyway. Don't you see? These are the qualities of a leader. You have every single one of it.'

'I'm a great leader?' Jihyo said, doubt lacing her small voice. 

'More confidence.'

'I'm a great leader.' She repeated, sounding more sure of herself.

'And?' The voice prompted, sounding slightly proud. 

'I'll fight these spirits. I'll slaughter every one of them that doubts me and my abilities.' Jihyo slowly climbed to her feet, dusting the dirt off her clothes.

'I'm Park Jihyo and I'll take on every one of you.' She said firmly and raised her hands, lifting the rocks into the air. 

The ghouls took no mercy and lunged at her. She slowed them down and turned several of them towards each other, making them slam into one another and disintegrate. 

Using the rocks as bullets, she shot several of them in the head, making them explode into dust. Moving her hands swiftly, she managed to get a grip on the pesky undead hellhounds and controlled their movements. They howled in protest but were quickly silenced by the telekinetic and with one fluid motion, tossed back into the fog. 

The members began to morph into the spirits and used the elements to attack her. A blast of freezing cold air hit her but instead of crippling her, she somehow felt stronger. 

'Energy absorption?' Her eyes widened and she redirected the blast back at her assailant who froze into a block and crumbled. 

'Holy !' She breathed. 'But that's on a master level..' 

She jumped up and pulled herself onto a tree branch. The telekinetic closed her eyes and focused on the huge boulders that were littered around the forest, some 1000 miles away and mentally pulled them towards her location as fast as she could.

A deafening bang was heard and she opened her eyes to look down in a mix of astonishment and disbelief; the boulders that she had seen with spatial sense from afar were now in a cluster at the bottom of the tree. 

The ground was sprinkled with grey dust from the hellish apparitions that she had just absolutely obliterated. 

'I did this?' Jihyo asked, still gob-smacked. 

'Congratulations, you are a master of telekinesis.' The same gentle voice sounded out. 

'W-who are you?' The newly crowned master looked around to find the source of the voice. 

'I'm Xander. The first telekinetic.' A male figure appeared in front of Jihyo.

He had short, silver hair that hung over a amiable face. His azure orbs looked straight into Jihyo's dark brown ones. 

'F-first? How are you here? Aren't you.. Y'know.. Dead?' 

'Yes I am indeed dead.' He chuckled. 'But I am here to guide you.'

'Guide me?'

'Yes. Don't you want to get out of this place?' He asked, slightly amused. 

'Ah yes. Sorry, I'm a little out of my mind. After all that happened..' 

'No worries.' He waved his hands and the trees parted.

'Woah.' Jihyo's eyes became even bigger at what she just saw. 

'You see, the mind is a powerful thing. You can either control it or let it control you. If you let it consume you, you would end up like how you did earlier. But if you know how to manage it, you can be one of the most powerful beings on this world.'

'But isn't fire the most powerful and rare?' Jihyo asked as they walked down the freshly created path. 

'All the powers are. Every affinity has its own strength and weakness. Fire is powerful and can cause great damage but when it's too cold, it will be rendered useless. Right?'

'Yeah.'

'So there is no such thing as 'the strongest mutant' because everyone is powerful in their own ways. It just boils down to how they control it.' 

'But what about dual wielding mutants?'

'You mean that crazy man? No, he is not the most powerful. He can manipulate two elements but in the end, he still possesses the same power as a normal mutant. The stamina of us mutants have yet to evolve to accommodate to two different powers. With two separate entities to control, he will tire twice as fast.'

'But won't those.. Stamina boosting brews help balance it?' 

'It does but it is made for a regular mutant. So like his stamina and energy, it will wear off twice as fast. He could consume more but it won't really benefit him either because like everything you ingest, it becomes harmful if it's overdosed.'

'How about the counter potion? Is there any other way to stop him other than using the potion?'

'With raw power. As tough as he may seem, he is not any godly being. He is still susceptible to mind control and whatnot. You could try these sneak attacks on him.'

'I see.. Thank you Xander, you've been great help.' 

'It's only but my duty to guide my successors. I don't know if you have noticed, but you have definitely changed in some way after your encounter back there. Farewell Jihyo, we'll meet again some time.' The man nodded and faded into the sunlight. 

'Changed?' Jihyo mumbled. She took a deep breath and looked around. He was right. She felt more confident. More empowered. More.. Leader-like. Not that she was any less than before but she felt as though she had aged mentally a few years. 

'Change is good they said.' The master shrugged. She could see the outside world waiting for her straight ahead down the path that Xander had paved. 

Now that her ordeal was over, it was time to reassemble and kick some .