He did not know whether she was alive. He could not see her chest rise - she wasn’t breathing because Kris had been on her, punching her over and over again though she couldn’t even defend herself.

 

He had prepared himself for these moments. Tao had told him what would happen, and he tried not to let it get to him. Moreover, he tried to see Kris as two separate persons: Wu Yi Fan, one of his oldest brothers who had helped him control his powers and bandaged his scraped knees when the power took over, and Kris, a lunatic who was tricked by an evil witch and made to do evil things.

 

But Lamiya’s face was a mess. Her left arcade had snapped and blood was streaming down her face, pooling in her slick hair. The eye below the bloody eyebrow was swollen and purple. Her lips were bloody. He did not dare even wonder what was below her clothes, since Kris was kicking her in the ribs before he’d managed to get him off her and give him a taste of his own medicine.

 

He could not understand Kris. He did not understand why he had to go this far in his savageness, when he could’ve just swept her off his way and continued towards whatever cringe-worthy goal the siren had made him seek.

 

And to think she would be his woman someday…

 

Sehun struggled not to go to that place, pushing his thoughts as far down as they’d go, but he would’ve lost the battle had she not shattered his thoughts with a whimper.

 

“Sehun… I love you.” He heard her faint voice and he finally gathered the courage to touch the body that was not his to have - he felt as if he was violating her, still unable to understand that he’d get a few moments with her before the time to save Kris’ life came.

 

His mind was already trying to let her go, but for the moment, he let his heart’s wishes prevail. “I know, beautiful,” he said, his hands shaking as they felt for her pulse, barely able to find it. “Just hold on.”

 

He looked around them as he pulled her into his arms - only bare concrete and blood was around them. How would he bring her back to consciousness? “Tao, bring me some water!” he shouted.

 

Then he saw a stray bottle of water in the distance. It was open and there was barely any liquid inside, but it was better than nothing, so he tried to put Lamiya back down as gently as he could while he quickly went over for the bottle. He thought he saw something moving in the rubbles from the corner of his eyes, but he didn’t even bother looking towards the place, because he couldn’t focus on anything except saving her life.

 

Tao hadn’t told him if he’d have to play a role in saving her life, so he tried to ensure that nothing happened differently than the first time. That’s why Tao refrained from telling them any details; it would enhance the possibility that something would change, and they couldn’t let that happen.

 

Especially when it came to his role in saving Kris. He still did not know if he had the courage to do what Tao had told him he needed to do, but he’d try. Even when Kris was like this.

 

Even when Lamiya slowly opened her eyes after he spilled what water was left in the bottle over her face and the smile breaking out on his face betrayed his true feelings.

 

He didn’t have time to think things through. He was too caught up on watching the future he’d never live to see, with Lamiya and Kris and their beautiful daughter who’d called him uncle though she’d never seen him before. She was the strongest guardian of them all, he knew - she would become someone who could protect them all from threats that would surface after SM was beaten.

 

But that was not why he wanted to protect Sehanna’s existence. He had fallen in love with her the moment he saw her, and as badly as he wanted for her to be his daughter, somehow, it was enough for him that she was Lamiya’s child.

 

So he’d decided to let go of Lamiya immediately, and in theory, he was alright with everything. He would go and save Kris, help the two of them fall in love and end up together and die in the process. He could do that.

 

But as she blinked, he noticed how different she was from the person she’d become, and his heart started beating rapidly once again. All he could do was breathe, “Hey,” as he tried to assess the damage and wonder how much opening that swollen eye hurt. He tried to wipe the blood off her brow and face but ended up just making it worse because there was no water left for him to be able to clean her.

 

She took a deep breath and looked at him intently. There was something wrong with her movements, as if she wasn’t quite herself, and he shivered as he thought back to the time when that voice had addressed him as Oh Se Hun.

 

But she almost sounded as herself as she whispered, “Sehunnie?”

 

He nodded at her. “I’m here, beautiful. How badly does it hurt?” Sehun’s hands were still shaking as he slowly took her hands in his, reminding himself that he had a right to these last touches, as selfish as it was.

 

Lamiya’s eyebrows furrowed, and she winced, shutting her eyes tightly again. “Everything hurts…” Then she suddenly sat up, and he felt uneasy again, because her movements were almost mechanical as she turned her head towards the sides, still blinking fast and her face displeased. “Sehunnie, where is Taemin?”

 

Taemin? He’d never heard of someone with that name. He was about to say the same but she got up, seemingly unfazed by all of her injuries despite her own confirmation that everything hurt a couple of seconds ago, and Sehun did not know what to do again. “Lamiya?” he asked uncertainly, not even sure it was her he was talking to, but it did not quite feel like someone else either.

 

She did not even turn her face towards him as she dismissed him by waving a hand at him. “Go take care of Tao, Sehunnie. I have some business to take care of.”

 

Was she hallucinating again? Was that Taemin person even real? Sehun wanted to protest, to tell her that she was too weak to go anywhere and that she was still in danger, but then she rose into the air with her powers and he was left speechless.

 

Since he wasn’t able to follow her, he decided not to feel too hurt because he hadn’t even managed to tell her a proper goodbye yet. He also tried not to feel angry because she’d dismissed him with such a stupid excuse, but it wasn’t really his pride he was worried about. He did not know what she was capable of or what she was about to do and whether Taemin was even one of the good guys, but she was right: he had to help Tao first, because he couldn’t be objective when it came to Kris and Sehun wouldn’t risk losing him, too.

 

History had to be repeated, whether any of them liked it or not, so Sehun turned around and started walking towards where Tao and Kris were standing, seemingly just talking - thankfully, they weren’t trying to kill each other, which was a good sign.

 

“Stand down, or I will not hesitate to hurt you,” Kris growled at him, not shifting his focus from Tao. What was Tao even trying to achieve - have him surrender and give up this crazy mission of helping the bad guys?

 

Why had he even asked Sehun not to tell him who Papaya truly was? Seriously? Papaya? That name never striked him as fake?

 

But Sehun remembered how devastated Kris looked when they came to Jessica’s home planet - or at least, what they’d thought was her home planet. He also understood that Tao knew more about Kris and his feelings than Sehun ever would, though some time ago they were also pretty close, so he decided to respect his wishes.

 

It was damn hard not to just scream at him that he was a pathetic fool who’d let an SM agent pull him by the nose all this time, though, but he tried to endure it somehow. This whole thing was so ridiculous, so he couldn’t help but laugh. “You couldn’t hurt me even if you tried.”

 

A part of him knew that none of this was about Kris being stupid and manipulated, not even about Lamiya’s injuries when she was mentally unstable, for God’s sake, though it could’ve been a small part of the reason. But no, this was almost entirely him being a selfish bastard and not being able to get over his pride, seeing the image of Kris flying Lamiya into the air and taking what was his to have, his girl and having a daughter with her when he was the person who’d molested her, who didn’t even deserve her and who’d now even almost killed her.

 

Oh, he could lie all he could, but the poisonous feeling that was driving him to hurt his brother whom he knew wasn’t even doing any of these things because he’d wanted to...

 

A part of him wanted to kill Kris.

 

That feeling made him start running towards Kris, his brother meeting him halfway as they clashed, their heads bumping and their bodies falling onto the ground, rolling as they punched each other wherever they could. He thought he saw Tao’s shocked face in the background, but right now he did not care about such things.

 

He didn’t have time, but Jessica still hadn’t arrived to the rooftop, so he could afford a second of beating Kris’ handsome face into the ground.

 

“I hate you,” he said through gritted teeth while Kris got the upper hand and slammed his head into the hard concrete, making his world spin for a moment. Kris might’ve been stronger than Sehun, but Sehun was driven by the blinding rage and jealousy that was taking over his whole mind, making him see nothing but everything Kris would get that he didn’t even deserve.

 

So he put both of his hands on Kris’ neck and squeezed, knowing he wouldn’t be able to kill him but deciding to try anyway.

 

“Why?” Kris asked with difficulty, his voice strangely calm as he put his hands around Sehun’s wrists, though his neck was within Yifan’s reach.

 

Sehun used the moment of Kris’ weakness to turn them around, his hands now blindly squeezing as hard as they could, making Kris gasp. Why wouldn’t he try to do the same to him? Yifan knew he was stronger than Sehun. “Because you don’t deserve her,” he growled, not able to recognize his own voice. It was full of hatred, hatred he hadn’t let himself feel towards his brother, who was a victim of the whole ordeal the same way he was. “Because you don’t deserve to have it all.”

 

Kris closed his eyes, seemingly letting go because his hands went limp against his wrists, but opened them again quickly when someone called from the distance, “Fan-Fan! Tao had gone crazy and is trying to kill me!”

 

Yifan’s eyes were no longer soft, as if assessing his youngest brother and trying to understand him, like he’d failed to do. Something changed in them, as if he’d made a decision he didn’t want to make, but was forced to in the end.

 

Now it was Sehun who was experiencing a moment of weakness, and Kris used his chance immediately, nudging his weakened hands off his neck and punching him straight into the nose.

 

The whole world spun and Sehun couldn’t help but make a distressed sound as he was hauled off and onto the floor while Kris rushed towards the voice that sounded distinctly like Aya’s.

 

Sehun was barely fighting against the feeling of wanting to close his eyes and sleep for a little while, but his hazy mind remembered that Aya seemed to be the identical twin of Papaya, or if they excluded the whole mirage meant for Kris’ poor heart, Jessica.

 

And that meant he had to get up. Now. He didn’t know when exactly she’d strike, but he had to get himself into the position where he’d be between her and Kris as soon as possible.

 

“Sehunnie?” he heard another voice say and he blinked, trying to focus on the figure in front of him. “What happened to your face?”

 

He sat up, unable to focus on everything at once - Kris and Tao and Jessica shouting from behind them, his mission to protect Kris, wanting to say goodbye to Lamiya, his whole face hurting, the blood on his hand after he wiped his nose, having to make Lamiya swear she’d give Kris a chance, Lamiya.

 

He couldn’t focus on anything but her. “Promise me,” he said out of nowhere, reaching for her hands as he tried to get up - the whole world was still spinning.

 

He felt as if a clock was ticking above his head, and suddenly there was no time for anything. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, but listen - I have a plan and I need your help-”

 

“Promise me, Lamiya!” he shouted, desperate to finish this in time, but it was too late.

 

Kris was threatening Tao, which meant his guard was down and he needed to go. She seemed shocked because he’d raised his voice, but he had no time to do anything but give her one last look as he turned and ran, running straight into Kris and making him shift his focus onto Sehun and Sehun only as they fell onto the ground again and rolled away from Jessica, away from Sehun’s certain death.

 

Kris wasn’t joking around anymore, though; the look in his eyes was feral as he punched him again, making him see stars. “Stop interfering, Sehun!” he shouted while Sehun tried not to lose consciousness.

 

Thankfully, Yifan let him go for now, but it only meant that the end was nearing. “Sehunnie, are you okay?” Lamiya said as she ran over to him, again helping him focus on her voice and not fall asleep, ruining the whole world in the process.

 

There was no time for this - no time for him to kiss her or hug her or just touch her again, giving himself that one more selfish moment which he could carry with himself into the void of death. There was no time even for a brief goodbye, but he had to make sure Sehanna would come to exist someday.

 

For some reason, he felt more compelled to sacrifice himself for that little girl than for his whole home world, his heart being more sure about Sehanna than the whole ideology of The Tree of Life and SM being pure evil.

 

“Promise me you’ll give him a chance,” he almost sobbed, trying to sit up again while her flushed, bloody face revealed no signs of understanding. Perhaps he was asking too much of her - she was still mentally unstable so she probably wasn’t even entirely aware of the situation. But he had to keep trying.

 

At least she didn’t try to tell him any more of her plans, instead falling silent as she waited for him to elaborate. “Beautiful,” he tried again, letting his hand touch hers for the last time. “Promise me you won’t hate Kris after today. Deep inside, he loves you and you will come to see that he isn’t such a bad person through time.”

 

“What are you even saying-” she began in a voice full of disbelief, as if he was mocking her at a time like this.

 

“Promise me!” he shouted again, knowing time was up.

 

He could wait no longer.

 

The image of her was still in front of his eyes as he ran back towards the place where Tao was kneeling and Kris was holding him, Jessica behind them, probably just forming the plan of killing Kris in her head.

 

He wouldn’t let her.

 

His whole body was shaking as he arrived, placing himself behind Kris and his hands instinctively landing on Tao’s back, not quite sure why he was kneeling but knowing it wasn’t anything good.

 

He closed his eyes. She would strike now, not having expected for Sehun to come between them, and then they’d beat her and bring peace into their world, who’d been desperately seeking for it and which they had to ensure or die trying.

 

But the strike never came. There was no blade cutting through his back, no blood gushing out of him, no pain, no death.

 

Instead Kris was mourning, and Jessica was laughing.

 

“Taozi,” Yifan whispered brokenly and Sehun opened his eyes, already knowing what he’d see, already knowing who’d pushed him out of the way.

 

He could do nothing but wonder Why? over and over again while he watched Tao closing his eyes, his face pale and chest bloody, Kris embracing him in the meantime as if he was a child. “Please don’t go, Taozi,” he whispered.

 

But he said the future can’t be changed without consequences. What would happen to them now? Was this a part of the plan, too? And what about Aya arriving with the others and giving her powers to Lamiya, her ending up having to make Kris fall asleep by touching the back of his neck and falling in love with him in the process? Would that still happen?

 

Yifan’s broken sob shattered all his thoughts. He was whispering things in Chinese now, but Sehun could’ve guessed what they were.

 

He kneeled next to Tao, the image of the red on his white shirt making him feel sick to the stomach. It should’ve been him who was dying right now; it should’ve been him making that sacrifice.

 

The words started getting out of him like an avalanche he couldn’t stop. “No, brother,” he began brokenly as he went over to where Kris was sobbing openly, now clutching his brother’s wounded form to his chest. “No. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I was supposed to, die, Tao! Why did you have to go be selfless and interfere?”

 

He felt as if the accusations and shouts would make anything better. They didn’t. “What happens now?”

 

He did not know. He hadn’t thought past the moment where Jessica stabs him instead of Kris. He hadn’t thought he would have to, even in the wildest of dreams where he somehow managed to survive the whole ordeal.

 

“Sehunnie,” Lamiya called for him from somewhere, but he couldn’t deal with anything anymore as he put his head in his hands and started sobbing, too. Kris was murmuring something in Chinese and he had no idea where Jessica was - a part of him hoped she’d stab them all because he wouldn’t live without Tao. He wouldn’t live if it meant Tao had to take the blow instead of him.

 

“Sehun,” her voice was now angry, and he got angry, too - couldn’t she at least let him mourn for one damn second?

 

“What?” he snapped, opening his eyes to see that crazy look in her eyes once again as she blinked rapidly.

 

“We don’t have much time,” she said impatiently, now biting her lip, and he struggled to even understand her words, let alone the meaning behind them - if there even was any. “I can help him - I can make him fall into a comatose state while we get him to a doctor.”

 

“What?” he echoed his previous words from a moment ago, completely unable to understand the meaning behind the words o his girlfriend, who was now obviously completely crazy. Comatose? Doctor? What was she even talking about? Tao was dying, not comatose, and no doctor would be able to help him when he bled out in a couple of minutes.

 

“Sehun, I know this is a shock for you and that you can’t function properly, but can you please just move out of the way so that I can help your brother.”

 

He couldn’t listen to her anymore. He couldn’t deal with her craziness right now, so he just put his head in his hands again and started rocking, not moving an inch from his place next to Kris and Tao, where he belonged.

 

He heard her sigh, and then a strong wind hit him straight-on, literally blowing him away and making place for whatever craziness she was about to do.

 

He felt annoyed, but more than that, he felt so very tired because this was too much, everything was too much, he was the one who was supposed to die and now the him who was alive was of no use at all. How surprising. Tao could still use his time-shifting abilities, thanks to the power-boost from his older self - he could beat Jessica single-handedly.

 

No power boost would help Sehun be less of a failure than he felt he was, though. He should’ve expected Tao’s move, should’ve prevented him from making him, but he just froze instead and now he would carry his brother’s blood on his hands.

 

Then he heard Lamiya speaking in their native language, which she shouldn’t have known or been so fluent in, and he put his hands down, watching the scene with interest.

 

Lamiya’s hand was on Tao’s forehead as she chanted the words whose meanings Sehun mostly didn’t know, and he wondered if she really was crazy or if this was something else.

 

Tao was still alive, if anything, and he sighed shallowly as she worked her magic. She turned towards Kris. “Yifan, you need to take him to the closest doctor you can find right now. They just need to keep him alive - I’ll give Lay an energy boost later so that he can heal him, but for now we have more pressing matters at hand.”

 

They’d all forgotten about Jessica, who was watching the scene with interest, playing with the bloody dagger in her hands. “Hello, Lamiya,” she said with a wicked smile on her face, waving at her with the dagger. Sehun wanted to kill her right then and there. “Or should I say, Na Eun?”

 

Na Eun?

 

“I am neither of them,” Lamiya answered, slowly getting up while Kris didn’t waste a moment, flying away with a still-alive Tao in his arms. “And both of them at the same time. But you know what that feels like, Papaya… or should I say, Jessica?”

 

“Where’s Tae?” Jessica asked, all playfulness disappearing from her voice. “If you even touched him, I swear…”

 

Lamiya laughed. “He told me to send you a gift,” she said in a sweet voice, as if she was talking to an old friend instead of the leader of SM.

 

Lamiya flexed her hands, and a ball of wind hit Jessica immediately, making her stumble and nearly fall. Sehun felt so very proud of her, though he was still worried and not understanding who Na Eun or Taemin were.

 

So instead of staying unresponsive, Sehun chanted Tao will live in his head over and over again as he did the only logical thing he could.

 

He began helping Lamiya bring an end to the evil being that had stabbed his brother and manipulated his other brother, having tortured his third brother and did God knew what else to make the guardians fall into her traps so that she could get their powers.

 

Oh, he held a personal grudge against this harpy.

 

And as he and Lamiya began working on a tornado they’d trap her in, both having a lot of energy they wanted to use mostly in a destructive way, he knew she held one, too.