Creepy woods were never her favourite place. Overgrown vines hung from above and the tall trees blocked out most of the sunlight, making it slightly dark near the ground.  

'What the hell even dragged me here?' Mina grumbled and whacked a vine out of her face.

She had marked the trees by scorching a small strike on the bark whenever she walked by as a way to keep track of her location. After walking around for ten minutes, she had somehow arrived back to the first tree she marked.

'Are you kidding me?' Mina groaned in frustration. She took her phone out of her pocket but there was no signal and she scoffed. What was she expecting anyway, being stuck in a spiritual forest with mobile signal? Rubbish. 

Kicking the dead leaves on the floor she sighed. Maybe she could just burn down this entire forest to find a clear path out. But then again, the others might be somewhere around. Better not risk them getting hurt. 

It had been ten minutes but nothing had happened to her yet. No hallucinations no nothing. Not that she was complaining. Even the mysterious fog from earlier had disappeared, leaving her slightly disoriented. 

'Mina!' A familiar, strangled scream echoed from further in the forest.

'Sana?' Mina perked up, heart thumping in her chest. Was that really her? Or was it the hallucinations that are starting to kick in?

'Mina save me!' Sana yelled and Mina began to look around. She'd rather play it safe than take the risk. As untrustable as this forest is, she has to do something.

'Where are you?' Mina shouted back.

'Here!' Came the reply but it seemed to come from every direction.

'Where?' 

'Here god damn it!'

'Well that's helpful.' Mina grimaced and began to break into a run. 

She could hear Sana pleading and pleading but she never seemed to find the girl. 

Seconds ticked by and Mina was starting to panic. Her partner was in trouble and yet she couldn't save her. The more she looked around the dizzier she felt. The trees seemed to move around, making her lose her sense of direction. 

She could hear her ragged breathing and the rapid beating of her heart. Whatever hope that was left in her heart was slowly slipping away as she continued to run around, desperately looking for Sana. 

'Sana!' She yelled, frustrated at herself and how huge the forest was. Her sanity and rational thinking was slowly slipping away and once again, she found herself to be in the same situation as when she was being chased by the mutt; out of time, out of options. 

Every minute that slips away could put Sana in more danger. Mina was this close to losing all hope of ever finding her friends or even Sana for that fact in this forest that never seems to end. She couldn't understand how was it possible that after running for so long, she hasn't even bumped into any of her friends. Was the forest really that huge?

'Giving up so soon?' A penetrating voice asked with a hint of amusement. 

'Zafir? Where are you? Show yourself!' 

The rebel leader materialized a few feet away. 

'You. Where is Sana?' Mina demanded but the man simply chuckled as if something was very amusing.

He had his hands behind his back and was standing in a relaxed manner. A black chasable with gold orphery covered his torso and a royal purple stole hung around his neck and reached down to the knees of his black jeans. A gold badge was pinned at the middle of the chasable, between the collarbones. 

'So demanding. What happened to the formalities?'

'You look like the world's most magnificent satanic cult leader with your snazzy outfit.' The girl deadpanned. 'Now, where is she?' 

'Feisty are we?' He snapped his fingers and two rebels appeared out of seemingly nowhere, dragging Sana whose wrists and ankles were bound in chains. 

'Mina.' Sana whispered, eyes wide with plea and fear.

'Let her go you sick bastard.'

'She was hard to catch. Do you really think I'll let her go so easily?' He laughed. 

She looked back at Sana who was sweating despite the cold winter air, dark hair plastered to the sides of her face and she looked absolutely helpless. 

'If you want her, fight for her.' He smirked, grabbing Sana and disappearing into thin air. Dual baton wielding rebels began to appear from the treetops, jumping down to ambush her. 

They had masks pulled over their face and were all wearing an identical outfit, royal purple robes with gold cuffs and a gold hunter's badge on their chest. 

They surrounded her and held their weapons up, circling her like how a predator would corner its prey. 

One of them rushed up and aimed a kick at Mina's stomach which the girl easily deflected and returned a roundhouse kick to the temple. Her fight or flight instinct kicked in and everything became a blur. 

It was like she was programmed to fight; dodge, dodge, hit. Dodge, roll, hit. 

Number two tried to stab her with the baton but Mina caught him by the wrist and snapped his elbow with her knee, earning a scream of agony as he collapsed to the floor. 

Another had swung his batons but she kicked it out of his hands. Pulling him closer by his sleeves, she looped his arms around his neck and pulled them all the way back before giving him a teep kick into another goon. 

Mina was on a blind rampage; electrocuting the fourth, stabbing a fifth in the back with his own dagger, two concussion strikes, a hard kick to the ribs and she threw the fifth over her shoulder. 

It was a like a routine, a bloody routine. She had no idea how many she had taken down after the first ten but they seemed to keep coming. Endless waves of them swarmed her. 

A lasso had caught her by the wrist when she tried to shove a fireball down someone's throat but she twisted the rope and pulled the girl closer with strength she didn't even know she possessed. Mina's knee met with her jaw in mid-air and they went crashing into a pile of rocks. A snap was heard and it was a tell-tale sign of a broken spine.

Another had tried to attack from behind but was sent flying with a back kick. 

'Release. Sana.' Mina growled furiously. She could feel the heat rising in her body from all the anger. 

'N-never!' The girl screeched, struggling under Mina's strong hold. She was petrified of the pyrokinetic. Not because her life might end right there and then but because of how the girl looked. 

Mina's eyes had somehow became pitch black, like empty sockets but there was a flame burning within them. Her gaze was quite literally, burning. 

'You bastards!' Mina flung her into another charging rebel and they fell to the ground. 

From the top of the pile of rocks she had a clear view of her surroundings. For as far as her eyes could see, there were the same people dressed in the royal purple robes that she was completely sick of seeing. 

That was it for her. She was completely done with this stupid cult organization. Sick of their games. Sick of their stupid leader with his stupid face. Sick of feeling helpless. 

Mina erupted into a ball of flames, causing a few rebels to step back. A fiery tornado blazed around her lower body as she rose a few feet into the air. Heat empowerment kicked in and she began shooting flames so hot it disintegrated the disgusting purple figures on the spot. Piles of bones replaced the spot where they once stood and with her last ounce of strength, she spread the fire in a wave throughout the forest, setting the trees ablaze and killing every last one of the rebels.

Collapsing to her knees, she looked around at the forest that now looked like hell. Everything was burning and bones littered the floor. 

Mina felt even angrier at the sight. Angry that she let herself lose control. Angry that she unconsciously caused mass destruction like how she did at the warehouse. 

She reached out and smoothly rotated her hands in a circle, extinguishing the flames. 

The forest was once again engulfed by silence but this time, the sun was shining brightly on the charred floor now that the leaves were all turned to ash. 

Mina looked around to see if she could see the end of the forest but there were fresh trees that stood tall and healthy outside of the 1km radius that she ravaged to the grounds. 

'As destructive as that was, I have to say it was quite magnificent.' A voice said from behind the girl, startling her. 

Mina whipped around with a ball of fire in her hand but the man snuffed the flame out. 

'Relax. Sorry for startling you.' The ginger head smiled. 'The name's Pyralis.'

'Pyralis?' Mina furrowed her brows in question. 

'The first pyrokinetic? I'm sure there are some books about me.' 

'Wait. You're a dude? I thought it was a lady.' Mina raised an eyebrow.

'It's a uni name for lord's sake.' He rolled his eyes and pushed his ginger hair up. 

'Sorry. I never heard of that name before.'

'During my time, I was born in Greece. Hence the Greek name.' Pyralis explained. 'You could call me Py for short.' 

'So Py. What are you doing here? And more importantly, where is my.. Friend?' Mina asked. 

'Let's take a walk and I'll tell you everything you need to know. Again, relax. What you saw was just a trick the forest played on your mind. Your friend is perfectly fine but she is fighting her own fears too.' He beckoned at Mina for her to follow. 

'So it was all a vision?'

'A test to be specific. It shows you your worst fears to push you to your breaking point and make you conquer them to become a stronger and better person. It's what this place is all about.'

'So my greatest fear is losing Sana?' Mina asked, slightly puzzled. 'I thought my greatest fear was losing control of myself.'

'The forest is never wrong. It doesn't give you the thoughts; it pulls the thoughts from your own mind and shows it to you.' 

'But..' 

'It makes you realize the things that you have been unconsciously supressing. You obviously care about Sana. A lot. So tell me, what did you feel when you saw her chained up and in that pathetic state?'

'I.. I felt angry. I had to save her but I couldn't. She was so.. So vulnerable that it made me want to just protect her. Keep her safe. I wanted to smash Zafir's face inside out and cram it into-'

'Okay! I meant how you feel about Sana! Not what you want to do with that psycho.' Pyralis waved his hands to stop Mina from going on. 'Well, think about what you just said.'

Mina looked down to her feet.

'You wanted to save her. Protect her. You felt helpless didn't you?' 

The pyrokinetic nodded. 

'You didn't care about your own safety, your priority was her, was it?'

'Yeah..'

'And how was your heart when you heard her scream?'

'It was thumping so hard and fast I probably could have got a heart attack.'

'Don't you see? She means more to you than anything else. You're protective of her. You treasure her in a way beyond just platonic friendships.'

'Are you saying.. I'm in love with her?' 

'Yes!'

'But I told myself not to! It's too risky! It could jeopardize the missions because I’ll be too focused on her if she got hurt! My mind won't be fully on the battle and things could get bad.'

'But your members are dating aren't they? Nayeon and Jihyo? Jeongyeon and Momo? Dahyun and Chaeyoung? Don't you think they too would be worrying?'

'But they can prioritize their feelings.'

'So why can't you?' Pyralis said and it shut Mina up. 'The key is to have balance and not let your emotions get the better of you like how you incinerated this place. If you can balance love and life you're doing something right. They all worry about their significant other too, Mina. It's a natural thing to do. I did too. I had a wife. But when we were dating, I was constantly worried about her. Us mutants have never been warmly welcomed into the society I'm sure you know that so every day, we lived in fear.' Pyralis sighed and sat down on a tree stump, gesturing for Mina to take a seat as well. 

'Back then people were unaccepting. They saw us as weirdos and freaks for being able to move things without mind or start fires by pointing at something. It was a strange concept to them you know? But that isn't the point. My point to you, is to stop worrying so much. You never know if today is going to be your last, you get what I'm saying?' He asked and the younger pyrokinetic nodded slowly. 

'It's okay to take risks sometimes. Treasure the present moments and live everyday like it's your last because it will be too late for regrets. Since you have each other now, just go for it. Make memories now. Let yourself relax for once.'

'I.. I guess I could try.' 

'You can. I know you can. Remember, just balance things. Good things are best in moderation.' He tapped his temple and Mina smiled. 

'Do you feel wiser?' 

'Yes, I think so.'

'Good. At least I'm doing my job right. I'm supposed to be your guardian. All your friends will meet the first of their kind to receive knowledge and enlightenment so when you regroup, maybe some things will change you know?' He waved his hands. 'The way they handle things and the way they think. But nothing major. Everyone will just be wiser.'

'That sounds.. Pretty cool actually.'

'There is also something that I want you to know. I'm not sure if you heard of it but an oracle who passed recently gave out a prophecy.'

'Oracle? They still exist?'

'Of course they do! If mutants exist then so will oracles. Anyway, the prophecy says.. Give me a moment.' Pyralis dug around his brown coat and pulled out a small roll of parchment. He cleared his throat and read: He who turns the sun dark will bring forth a new era of chaos and destruction.

Mina looked at Pyralis and blinked. 

'That's it?' 

'How long did you expect a prophecy to be? Here, take this and share it with your friends.' He placed the roll into Mina's hand.

'Wait is that man Zafir? How would be turn the sun dark?'

'I don't know but please, be safe. He's a unpredictable and crazy man.'

'I will. One last question.'

'Yes?'

'How is it that I ran for so long but I haven't seen any of my friends?' 

'Oh. Each of you are in a different realm. Think of the forest you fell into like a house. The fog pulled you into separate rooms but the scenery is the same.'

'That's a helpful analogy. Thank you Py.' 

'It's my pleasure. Now go, some of your friends might be waiting for you.'

'Where do I go? This forest is endless.' 

'Not anymore.' He nodded towards an opening in the trees a few hundred meters away.

'Finally.' Mina groaned. She tucked the parchment into her pocket and gave the guardian one last wave before dashing towards the exit.