A/N: A lot of talking, a lot of info! Answer the poll at the end, just for fun AND 

SORRY FOR THE DELAY. 

                                             I froze but a part of me knew better than to panic. I smiled at the man in front of me, grabbing his hand and pressing my pinky against his as he smiled back, his eyes empty and hollow unlike Sehun’s. His hand reached out to press against my face and he dipped down for another kiss when I moved away to tell him I was hot when the door flew open and Kyungsoo stood there, out of breath. He didn’t say anything, but his vines spoke for him—flying out and grabbing the man in front of me by the arms. Wooseung and Seungwoo appeared behind him, looking alert.

“You are not real Master! MIC DROP!” Kyungsoo yelled out as I cowered on the mattress, the man getting lifted up against the wall. I saw Kyungsoo look hopefully at Wooseung who gave him a firm nod. What was my brother teaching Kyungsoo?

“Say what I taught you!” Wooseung urged, his eyes still focused on the struggling man in front of him, Kyungsoo exclaiming out.

“Kyungsoo savage!” Kyungsoo then looked at me in question with his hand raised in an "OK" sign. “Ong Harin, you gucci?”

“Uh…” I stammered as Kyungsoo growled at the man who was supposed to be Sehun. To my surprise, the man began to change in front of our eyes. His clothes stayed the same but his skin became a tone darker as opposed to Sehun's pale skin. His eyes turned intense and he became someone I didn’t recognize.

“Young Royal Keeper…,” he sneered and Kyungsoo kept growling, the vines tightening around the man. “I should have known that you have a sharp eye.”

A thud sounded and I saw Sehun appear behind Kyungsoo, his eyebrows furrowing at the situation. Was he back? Sehun pushed past Kyungsoo, people beginning to gather around our little shack and when my eyes traveled to him, I looked for his missing pinky. There it was and I found myself scampering away from the man elevated against the wall and towards his arms that felt like home. Sehun grabbed me, his arms feeling my body protectively when he saw that my button was ed and suddenly it was a wave of rage.

“Did he touch you?” He asked and I opened my mouth to speak, but he cut me off. “Prepare a place to lock him up,” he said to Seungwoo who nodded. I could feel Sehun’s skin burn and his heart race with anger and even I knew better not to piss him off even more. I reached up to button my clothes and watched as Sehun stood in front of the man.

“U-Know Yunho,” he said. So he knew who it was. “I can’t believe you finally came back after all these years just to work for my father. So it was you who let Taeyong out.”

Yunho smirked, his eyes darkening. “You’re fighting a losing battle, young one.”

“What do you know?” Sehun asked and I watched as he removed the worn-out belt he had worn since the engagement party. My eyes widened as Sehun wrapped the belt around his fists, tightening it silently. “Take Harin out of here.”

“Harin,” Wooseung said, grabbing my arm and I didn’t want to budge. “I don’t think you want to see this.”

“What are you going to do to him?” I asked Sehun who didn’t say anything, his eyes on his fists. Even Kyungsoo seemed slightly afraid. “Sehun—”

“Go.”

 I didn’t need to be told twice, Wooseung dragging me out of the shack as I heard Sehun’s fists slam against the man. Sehun wasn’t one for violence, but when he was; he was scary.

A few hours later, Sehun had come out with his expression grim. Suga had spent time with him and I didn’t know what was going on, the two men talking in hushed voices. My hand hurt from whatever Sehun had done but I didn’t say anything knowing he already was pissed off. They had moved him to one of the shacks made as a jail and Kyungsoo was stationed to guard him with Tao and the small leprechauns that didn’t seem to want to leave the base just yet. I walked towards Sehun the moment I saw him and he immediately quieted down, making me wonder what he was keeping from me.

“What?” I asked Sehun who sighed. “What’s wrong?”

“He knows something.” Suga was the one who spoke. “He wasn’t lying when he said that The Royal Headmaster was talking to him. We tried to use V’s power on him, but V’s power only shows the origin and where it has been so we do know he was at the Royal Castle before he followed Taeyong here. The thing is, we don’t know what The Royal Headmaster has told him. He refuses to talk.”

“Your brother came and tried to use his powers on him, but the guy almost died,” Sehun told me. “He isn’t even afraid of pain. He was writhing and smiling like he enjoyed it. I have no idea how to extract information from him.”

“Yunho was a warrior before,” Suga told me. “He’s a shapeshifter. One of his kind. However, a few years back he angered a few noblemen by impregnating their wives and had a bounty put on his head.”

“That bastard,” Sehun fumed and I saw that his fists were bloody and red. “Maybe we should ask Chen to electrocute him.”

“Chen will kill him, cousin,” Suga pointed out and I nodded. Chen was being able to control his powers these days but he hasn’t been using them. He might end up burning U-Know Yunho into crisps of electrocution and we wouldn’t get any information. I was about to tell Sehun to just hold him hostage and wear him down when a voice came up.

“Or you can always ask someone who's skilled in extraction,” Eunhyuk said, walking towards us. He was wiping his hands off and it seemed like he was cooking. “I know just the people. Though you may have to pay those bastards.”

“Who do you have in mind?” Sehun asked and Eunhyuk shrugged.

“Shinee.”

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[U-Know Yunho]

                                                             It was easy to contact them and I watched as Eunhyuk used the Sier, Taemin’s voice ringing out happily. The Sier was Eunhyuk’s and he had gifted it to them along with his men, the fortress, and all the horses for information of where Sehun was. Shinee was living the life. It didn’t take long for them to say that they’d come and we sent out for Rumpelstiltskin and Haechan, Suho volunteering to go to make sure everything would go smoothly. I trusted Shinee and knew there wouldn’t be any problems and before we knew it, they were at the base, Haechan dragging each and every one of them out of his pouch. He had a weird fixation on Key, and it almost reminded me of the time when he would obsess over Wooseung. He followed Key around, beaming at him and it occurred to me that Haechan liked Key because he thought Key was rich with his fortress.

“Harin!” Taemin bounded to me and I smiled, taking a liking to the boy who never failed to amuse me. “Guess what… We have a fortress of our own! We have made it in life!”

“That’s my fortress,” Eunhyuk butted in and I could feel as if he was still salty about giving them all his assets. I chuckled, moving towards Sehun and Key who were in deep conversation, and could hear a few sentences.

“He followed Taeyong,” Sehun was saying and Key nodded. “I was thinking that maybe you could extract information from him. Suga couldn’t get much.”

At the sound of Suga’s name, Key’s eyebrow raised before he looked around. “Suga is here?”

“Yeah, he was actually an informant. He pretended to be by my Uncle's side and he saved the young mages,” Sehun said and Key didn’t look surprised, but he did look bothered. Sehun just kept talking, not noticing Key’s expression. “Of course, if you aren’t up for it—”

“Oh, of course we’re up for it. Taemin, come and give our client the menu,” Key said, moving his hands to Taemin who bounded towards Sehun proudly. He shoved a piece of parchment towards Sehun and I chuckled.

“What happened the board? And where’s your tracker? O…Onew?” I asked.

“Onew is back at the fortress. He doesn’t like all this gory stuff. And Minho said the banner was too big to bring so I had to write it down on parchment instead,” Taemin told me, Minho grunting. “That’s why we took so long,” He whispered to me.

“You guys have a menu….” Sehun’s voice trailed and his reaction was just like how I reacted when I first saw it. “How interesting….”

“How about just Torture and Extract?” I asked simply, knowing that we wouldn’t be able to pay them until later since we were short on money with no revenue flow. “Do your job and we’ll pay you.”

“Of course,” Key said smoothly. “Take me to the man.”

I moved to Sehun, grabbing his hand when he looked at me. I knew he didn’t want me to see Yunho, in whatever state he was put in after Sehun’s lash of violence but I wanted to be involved. He didn’t say anything and kept by my side before we both brought all of Shinee towards the shack that had Tao, Kyungsoo, and Kai surrounding it. They were all taking turns guarding the place when Shinee pushed the door to enter it and I gasped at the amount of blood.

But Shinee didn’t seem bothered, Key humming to himself.

“Yunho, we meet again,” Key chirped. Did they know each other? “I told you after last time that I really didn’t want to see you again after I let you go.”

I watched in awe as Yunho, who seemed unbothered with all the pounding and pain from Sehun and Wooseung, now looked up with fear in his eyes. He suddenly whimpered, blood pouring from the side of his lip when the door opened behind us and Suga walked in, humming to himself. He stopped when he saw the men in front of him, suddenly bowing slightly.

“Oh, you must be Shinee,” Suga said, reaching out to grip Key’s hand who accepted the handshake gingerly. “I heard so much about you.”

Key cleared his throat awkwardly and I frowned at how his facial feature changed. Was there something going on between Suga and him? But Suga just met them today, hence the introduction. Key mumbled something under his breath when Taemin took out what seemed like a small bag.

“Now, let’s see what we should use. A big knife? A little knife? Oh, we should see how he talks without teeth!” Taemin squealed and for the first time, I saw a proud smile on Key’s features. Wow, imagine being skilled in the art of hurting people.

“I’ll be here to give you my service. I can tell if—” Suga began and Key ended his sentence for him, his face unreadable.

“If people lie. I know,” Key said and I watched as Taemin and Minho hustled over the knives. They laid it in front of them and Key turned to us, telling us that it was best if we left them to do their thing. Taemin whooped and Minho brandished what looked like an ice pick—his eyes shining.

“Come, Suga. It’s time to work,” Key told Suga who looked a bit shocked at Key’s action of putting his arm around the male's shoulder. “Now, tell me. What have you been up to?”

“Why are you interested in him?” I heard Taemin ask, Key telling Taemin to shut up. Suga stammered at the sudden closeness of the hired hitman when Sehun told me it was time to go. Right, when I was about to leave I heard Key call my name.

“Ong Harin,” he said and I turned to look at him, raising an eyebrow. “What if he doesn’t tell us anything?”

“Then Key,” I found myself saying. “You deny his last words.”

“Finally someone is using it!” Taemin cheered.

"Got it. And don't worry about payment. It's on the house," Key said, crackling his knuckles and getting ready to do what he does best. 

Sehun pushing me out of the shack as Yunho’s screams filled the camp.

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[Hwasa, Youngest of the League]

Oh Shin was with the Eurenic League. He had promised them shared power and reign and that was how he was able to concoct a plan between the war of Exodus and Euren but now they stood before him—very pissed. Eurenic people, he found himself thinking. How very impatient just like their world. Hotheaded and rocky, the girls stood before him; fuming. To top that off, he had to speak in Euri-- a language that was similar to Exodian but it wasn't his forte. 

“You said your plan was to go to Earth and yet you haven’t done anything yet. We don’t care about your savior .” Solar was spitting out. She was the oldest member of Mamamoo, and her firm grip on politics was something Oh Shin very widely admired. “You promised us and that was why we helped you, yet here you are… going on a tangent.”

“You’re being impatient,” Oh Shin drawled at the women. Thank god, his wife was charmed. He couldn’t handle hot-headed women. “We’re planning on attacking Earth soon to get the rings. We just need a few more people and make sure my son is dead. The prophecy--”

“You lack planning. Do you think we care about your prophecy?” Solar asked, throwing her hand over her shoulder. “Why do you need your son dead? All you have been doing is terrorizing your own city and filling it with death over someone who is your son. You’re being emotional and taking things personally. Our goal is to strike Earth and you’re putting that on hold because he’s your son?”

Oh Shin paused and as much as he hated to admit it, she was right. He had been so cooped up in trying to make sure the prophecy wasn’t going to be fulfilled and focused on killing his son and kidnapping Harin when it should be the last thing he gave attention to. The Eurenic weren’t like the Exodes. They didn’t believe in prophecies and they didn’t go to the Seers. They focused on their goals and were quick to strike—both an asset and an -like trait to have.

“I think it’s good that your son is nowhere to be found. Because of that, he won’t know when we’ll go to Earth. With that, he won’t be able to stop you,” Moonbyul said and Oh Shin found himself running a tongue over his teeth.

How he hated when they were right.

“Now, tell me. What are you going to do once you get the rings? Do you even know how to merge them?” One of them asked him and Oh Shin closed his eyes. He was being everything other than meticulous and he hated it. “Are what you said about the rings even true?”

Oh Shin listened to them chatter. “If we strike now, the portal to Earth, who would lead the dragons? We don’t have Chanyeol with us anymore—”

“Me,” a voice said and he looked up to see it was the youngest. Hwasa had always trained with the dragons and she knew she had the upper hand. Chanyeol’s blood spoke of histories of dragon taming, but she was the one who had worked with the dragons for years and they would surely listen to her over him. Even in the war, she had helped Chanyeol make sure the dragon’s stood down by the sidelines. They went to war knowing Euren would lose and Exodus would take over. Even if Euren would have won, the League would have killed G-dragon with their own hands anyway. The war was simply orchestrated as a dramatic effect.

“The only reason why the dragons bowed down to the fire mage was that it was him and Hwasa against the word of G-dragon,” one of them said. “This time, it’d be Chanyeol against her and we have been taming our dragons for years when G-dragon was alive. He wasn’t the god of dragons, we were.”

Their hate for G-dragon ran deep, Oh Shin could tell and he nodded.

“What you have to do now, is find a way to merge the rings together. The ritual should be hidden somewhere and when you do, we attack Earth. We are tired of waiting.”

The girls gave him a glare and Oh Shin stayed quiet, the man dismissing them as they stomped out of his room. Oh Shin hated this—he was being driven by emotion and his greed, he had forgotten details. In the end, he was working on rumored legends and tales but then again he was still human.

Letting out a huff, he leaned back against his chair, his eyes on his ceiling when he called for Siwon and Leeteuk, the two people he ended up trusting with his life. They stood before him and he gave them instructions.

“Find out about how to merge the rings together, I want every scholar working on it,” Oh Shin told them, narrowing his eyes together.

“What if they refuse to work for us?” Siwon asked, knowing the divided loyalties of the scholars would now be between Sehun and his father.

“Then we strike the City of Libros next. We will pay Sensei Nakamoto a visit.” 

­­­­__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

[Taemin]

“That was weirdly amazing,” Suga told us when he exited the shack. He looked shook and I blinked at him, Key coming out with Minho and Taemin. “Also, he’s dead.”

“I didn’t even do much,” Key complained. “Guy died of shock.”

“Did you get something at least?” I asked Key who nodded, wiping his hand that was stained with drying blood. It had taken a few hours and he motioned for all of us to go gather. All it took was Mark’s SOS signal scream and all the mages were now surrounding the meeting table. From EXO to NCT to Suga and V who came scampering over.

“This is what he said,” Suga laid out. “He came with a cuff so he could kidnap Harin and The Royal Headmaster just wanted to keep her there. Apparently, he’s worried over some prophecy.”

“Prophecy?” I frowned. I knew that my prophecy may have been to protect Earth from being overtaken by Oh Shin. Also, I knew he wanted to kill me before because I was a danger to his son but now that Sehun was well and alive after I killed him, didn’t that mean the first part of the prophecy was fulfilled?

“Yunho didn’t say anything,” Suga said. “And he wasn’t lying when he said he didn’t know more.”

“Was that the only thing he said?” Kris asked and I heard the disappointment in his voice. It was something that was so vague. Suga pressed his lips together.

“He had told the shapeshifter that once he got Harin, he’d strike the portal to Earth,” Key interjected, his arms folded across his chest. “The plan to take over Earth is coming.”

“How are we going to stop them from going to Earth?” I asked suddenly, realizing that there were two portals on Earth that I know of. “And how many portals are there to Earth? How about the orbs?”

“The Order always has orbs to Earth,” Suho told me. “And there are many portals on Earth, but there is only one in Exodus. There is one in your backyard, another one where me, Kris, and Lay came down on when we first came because we got the wrong orb. And a couple of others scattered over Earth.”

“China, to be exact,” Lay said. “The one in England broke down ages ago. There are some other places that we don’t know of so we didn’t go down there. Your father traveled only from your backyard to Exodus so we only thought to do the same.”

“The problem is that we don’t have enough people to fight in a second war. We don’t know when he’ll strike so we need people on the clock by the portal,” Sehun said.

“We don’t have time to recruit the giants,” Johnny added. “Last time, they got a two-week notice and they walked over. If they come over, it might give away our base. The ground shakes every time Uncle Bean walks.”

“You think the Rock giants will fight for us?” Baekhyun asked and I found that his demeanor has changed since the loss of his parents. He was much more mature. More calm and logical unlike his usual happy self. 

“The question isn’t how we’ll fight. We can ask Jaehyun and Tao to get the water dragons again but that’s hardly enough. We don’t have enough peacemakers and I don’t want us to resort to asking women and civilians to fight.” Sehun said softly and I could tell he was stressed out by it. The burden of being a leader.

“They’ll for sure use the dragons again,” Chanyeol said. “I can try to control them again but even then, I have no idea if it’ll work. Dragon’s are complicated creatures.”

“Have faith in yourself,” Baekhyun whispered to Chanyeol, smiling up at the taller male when I realized something. Jisung spoke of a scepter and I looked up as a light bulb lit up on the top of my head.

“Unless we break the portal,” I told them. “That would assure Oh Shin will never go to Earth. What happens if we defeat him once? He might come the second time. Yunho is right, it’s a losing battle. It’s best if we break it.”

“How do we break it?” Sehun asked, turning to me.

“Portals are energy accumulated energy. When Elves made portals, it would take a lot of them to just stand there and accumulate energy and combined all of that energy to make a portal,” Tao said, his eyes on me. “But with your powers…”

“Her powers are of destruction. You out souls and souls are energy too,” Seungwoo whispered and he frowned. “But you can’t do it now because you don’t have most of your powers yet but the young Dreamweaver talked about a scepter. If you go and get your powers it would mean your power will be ultimate destruction. You might be able to break the portal.”

I nodded, realizing that whatever the young Dreamweaver said was true. Jisung really was a talented young boy.

“Ahjumma—” I began but Ahjumma shook her head.

“I don’t where the sceptor is, child. Last time it was given to me, it came from the sky. I can try praying for it once more but I’m not sure if it’ll work here on Exodian grounds. But I’ll try and we shall see.”

“Jisung said we have to go to Earth,” I told her and Ahjumma paused. “Maybe you try it tonight and if we can’t, we should leave for Earth. How about the orbs?”

We had no orbs and I was beginning to worry that there was a flaw in our plan when Tao spoke up, reminding me that we still had the leprechauns.

“We have the leprechauns. They’ll create the orbs for us. I’ll tell them to do it tonight,” Tao reassured me and I nodded, chewing on my bottom lip. Sehun looked trouble and when I turned to him, he simply smiled at me.

“I have a bad feeling of you going alone,” he told me and I shook my head.

“You have to stay here to make sure everyone is going to be okay. Besides, I think Rumpelstiltskin and Haechan can us to the portal if it really comes to it. If we go to Earth, I’ll bring my brothers so Ahjumma can try to pray in the backyard and see if the sceptor comes down.”

Sehun didn’t say much. Ahjumma said she’ll tell us in the morning when Heechul piped up in his sing-a-song voice.

“If you go back to Earth, can you tell Alice I said hi?” He asked, smiling loopily and I blinked. Did he think that I knew everyone on Earth?

“Who's Alice?” I asked, frowning, Heechul excitedly telling me that it was his friend.

“A friend. Her real name was Ai-Li and she was Chinese. She followed a messenger and came through the portal but since her name was hard to say, I just called her Alice,” Heechul beamed at me. “She used to call me Mr. Madhatter and taught me Chinese.”

I blinked.

Madhatter? This was coming close to Alice and Wonderland when she followed a bunny through a hole and met the crazy Madhatter. I could totally imagine Heechul as the Madhatter though, with his love for tea and his crazy laugh and his top hat perched on his head sometimes.

“We have a story like that on Earth, called ‘Alice in Wonderland',” I told Heechul who listened to me. “She followed a rabbit down a hole and met the Madhatter. But then it was a war with the Red Queen who had a really big head.”

“Oh no! But Momo does not have a big head!” Heechul gasped. I was about to ask who Momo was but he continued without missing a beat. “She’s the fairy queen who guards the portal. No, no. Alice and Momo got along very well! They had this game where they would say “Off with your head!” to each other and play this Gaian sport called golf with the squonks.”

The “Off with your head!” was definitely something I heard in the movie and I didn’t know why I let it surprise me. Arielle, Eric, Erzula, and Suho’s story was enough to make me realize that a lot of the fairytales on Earth had just happened on Exodus. How did that work?

When I walked back into the shack with Sehun, my heart suddenly going heavy with realization. I tried to mask it as I brushed my hair and Sehun blew out the lights, my body fitting by him. He my hair and his breathing calmed me down when I heard him ask me what’s wrong. I blinked back the tears that were threatening to come out, a hand going up to press against his chest.

“If we break the portal to Earth,” I told him softly. “I have to leave life on Earth behind. All my friends, my house.”

He was silent and I knew there was no way to comfort me. Sehun knew that it was a sacrifice I had to make and I my lips, closing my eyes when his lips found my forehead.

“But you’ll still be with me,” Sehun whispered back, hugging me close. “You’ll still have me right next to you and I may not be able to give you what Earth can give you, but I’ll try to be your home.”

“You already feel like home,” I told him, and he nodded. “I’d choose to be with you over anywhere else.”

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[Portal fro