Chapter ~2~

-LiNa P.O.V-

“Li…. I don’t like this…” mutter JinSu as her grip on my arm tightened.

To be completely honest, I didn’t either.

After the word had come out of the boys mouth my whole being seemed uncertain of what to do next. Should I laugh? Run?

Neither of those options seemed suitable for the situation so I did what I could think of to avoid the confrontation now… who knew it would turn out the way it did…

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I said in a not at all suspicious tone… of course I didn’t know what he was talking about but that sentence was not entirely true either, I’ve heard that word before…

“We know… believe us we did not expect you to be the ones either…” said Kai with a soft smile.

“Wait… ones? As in plural?” I questioned looking down at the terrified JinSu.

I wouldn’t mind facing what ever it is that was going on alone but having my best friend involved in this was something that terrified me…

“The prophecy requires two…” said a boy with an oddly deep voice that did not match the frame of his body.

At the mention of prophecy it felt like the whole world went still… and ironically enough it has already been standing still for quite some time… if you can call it time… since time it self was kind of standing still… I think… kind of.. - -“ Mind…

At this thought my eyes trailed, again, to the boy who appeared to me the most prominent with dark hair and eyes. He continued to avoid my gaze and could still have sworn I’ve seen him at school…

“Mama we-“ began Kai but I interrupted. My very being seemed to pulse at the title and I couldn’t stop it.

I let my body go at it’s first reflex which was to grab onto the wrist of the dark looking boy my fingers wrapping around his unusually strong wrist.

 Startled by my move his hand twisted in my grasp and turned so that he too was hanging on to me. A self-defense move I was familiar with but did not resist. Instead I proceeded to glare directly at him.

“Make the time work again…” I said before even thinking. Then something weird happened.

A strange warmth flooded my hand where I held him. I realized that previously cold skin in a specific are on his wrist was now warm and responsive to the pulse in my own body. It was as though both of our beings werefully under my command.

His eyes widened and the whole group seemed to have turned to stare at me. His eyes traveled from me to his wrist and then back up at my face. Did he feel it too?

I felt a soft breeze on my skin that informed me that time was again moving and I could release him.

“What just…” muttered someone within the group

“Tao…” said another.

“JinSu let’s go.” I said and with a quick move grabbed my friend and pushed past the group, who did not resist and let us pass. What just happened?

-EXO-

“Tao what did you do that for!” Exclaimed Se Hun.

Some members watched the two girls leave in a hurry and automatically positioned themselves into their two sub units (Exo M and Exo K) and face off each other.

“Well we know which one of them responds to Exo M now…” muttered Sun Ho and folded his arms over his chest with a little bit of disappointment.

“What are we going to do now? One of them seems terrified of us while the other is completely defensive! There is no way they would agree to even spend time with two of us at a time not to mentioned all twelve! What do you think they will say if we say that we want to split them up!” Baek Hyun exclaimed throwing his arms in the air.

“Baek be quiet…” Muttered Chan Yeol and rolled his eyes.

“We’ll figure out something.” Said Lu Han and patted Tao’s back ,who stood there stunned.

“Why’d you let them go anyway Tao? Did she scare you or something?” laughed Chen giving his friend a playful shove. Tao turned and shot him a dangerous look.

“I didn’t do it… she did.”

“Wait… she… what?” Lay asked as though finally falling into the trail of the conversation.

“So she is definitely compatible with you guys then.” Sun Ho commented tapping his chin.

“Greaaaat….” He added and turned to leave.

As though on cue all 10 followed except one.

Tao remained on the spot thinking.

“Tao, you coming?” Chan Yeol asked pausing.

“No… I want to figure this out first…” was all Tao said before turning and heading the same direction the girls disappeared into.

-LiNa P.O.V-

“Don’t worry JinSu…we can deal with them tomorrow… I’m sure it’s just all a big joke anyway…”

That’s what I had said to my friend when I walked her home today… this… lie…

I had no idea what we would do tomorrow…

I took one last look at the peaceful house that JinSu lived in. It’s exterior matched her personality perfectly with the trees surrounding it ready to be immersed in green as the small buds of leaves looked like they were about to burst open any second and it’s white fence…

With a deep sigh I turned from the house and headed down the street to pick up the sword I ordered from a weapons shop a week ago and then go train with it for a little bit. The thought of training made me relax and I proceeded with my plan. I have been training in Tae Kwon Do for about 5 years now and when I first started I have instantly fallen in love with the sport. I have now started training with a sword that my master lent to me and after getting my hands on some money I was successful in ordering one of my own.

I walked down the calm Soul Street that, as the day was coming to a close, slowly began to breathe back to life. The Soul night life was nothing to be compared to it’s quiet day life with only people that were rushing to work to prove that the city was not as empty as it appeared.

People emerged and soon the streets were filled with hums of voices and footsteps, a set of which seemed extremely prominent behind me.

I knew by instinct that this same pattern of steps has been behind me the whole time form I turned the corner to leave JinSu’s house. I listened carefully to the patter, making out the rough breathing of a male. The steps were careful, thought out and silenced. I could tell that my pursuer was making an effort to conceal his footsteps and with that effort failed to hide another important factor; the skill in them was louder than his muffled breathing. He was a fighter.

I fought the muscles in my back from tensing, knowing that soon I would reach the shop, as soon as I turned the corner ahead. When I did I’d be able to get a glimpse of him and know what I was up against.

As I turned the sharp corner  through my peripheral vision examined my opponent. What I saw stunned me with familiarity and curiosity. Same dark hair…

The guy from earlier was following behind me… coincidence or not I didn’t know but I turned into the weapon shop.

Sure enough he followed…

I approached the counter and felt the pair of dark eyes on the back of my head. He was curious as to why I walked in here…

“LiNa! Good evening! You’re just in time! Your sword came in and it looks beautiful!” exclaimed an old familiar voice of a middle-aged man who stood behind the counter. He greeted me with a familiar smile and squinted eyes as I gave him a full, deep bow.

“I took the liberty of sharpening it too! It is such a magnificent weapon that couldn’t help but polish it!” the man, Mr. Choe, gushed over the weapon as I approached the counter while rummage around my bag for money.

What prolonged my search was the fact that out of the corner of my eye I watched him… his eyes searching the shop in fascination and admiration, which made me sure he was a fighter. I could see it in his eye; the way he assessed every peace of fighting equipment, every swords blade, every inch with expertise and knowledge.

My fingers finally finding the rough surface of my wallet I tore my attention away from the boy and spread the money on the counter.

Mr. Choe has also noticed the boy and was now carefully examining him. After years of selling the man has become not only an expert in weapons but also the masters wielding them. He once told me that every weapon says something about the man holding it, for it, as we do, had a character of his own.

“How much do I owe you for everything?” I asked as the man reached under the counter and pulled out a white sheet of silk. Enfolded in it was the blade of my weapon, it’s white hilt showing through the smooth fabric.

Seeing my excitement the man pushed the weapon towards me and allowed me to examine it.

I carefully unwrapped the sword and let light of the setting sun bounce off it’s blade, sending rainbows in every which direction of the room.

The engraved tiger stood strong and prominent under my fingers as I slid them along the blades cool, flat surface.

“It is a magnificent peace of work.” Said Mr. Choe, with a strange venom in his voice making me look up. Then his eyes spoke.

He cautiously motioned his eyes in the direction I assumed the boy was.

Do you know him, his eyes spoke and I gave my head a barely noticeable shake.

He followed me… I mouthed and watched Mr. Choe raise an eyebrow.

His hands found the edge of the fabric and wrapped my sword.

“I think I will give you a discount, you come to help out a lot after all.” Said his mouth, with his eyes however, Mr. Choe motioned towards the door.

Leave, I’ll keep him occupied.

“Alright,” I said out loud and placed the unknown sum of money on the counter, tightly wrapping the weapon.

With a small nod Mr. Choe left the counter and headed towards my stalker.

-Tao P.O.V-

I couldn’t focus on the girl anymore. The weapons and the familiar smell of the polish for the swords had distracted me and taken me to a whole entire place. I continued to look around curiously, occasionally glancing the direction of the girl I knew was named LiNa to make sure she was still there. And she was… before…

My eyes widened as they registered the absence of the slim female figure that was previously at the counter and I began to panic.

“Can I help you young man?” Said the shop owner approaching me, getting in my field of vision. I looked around the shop catching a glimpse of light brown hair slipping out of the shop door. I later saw it zoom by the window to the left.

“Uh no sorry, I’m about to go.” I said and rushed out the door.

Where had she gone!?

Damn it Tao! You need to focus! First in front of the school you let them leave and now you lose her! Great! This is just not my day!

I headed to the left of the shop after exiting the door and stared. The street was dead end with only one turn to the left again. Assuming that being the path LiNa took I followed into the ally.

It was narrow and somewhat stuffy as it lead to three back alleys of the shops of the street I had left. So I have one in three chances of finding her unless she magically disappeared into thin air.

I walked down the ally looking into the sharp left turns lined along it. For a small street… that’s a lot of lefts…

First empty… two more to go…

I approached the second one and peering over the end of it something shining caught my eye. I headed into the dead end and found myself trapped.

“Why are you following me…” LiNa hissed. I heard a sliding of metal against a sheath and knew that the new, sharpened sword she just purchased was now snugly against the back of my neck.

“Turn around” she ordered and I obeyed.

“I wanted to talk to you.” I said simply with both of my hands up in defense. Not like it would help. It would take only a few seconds for the sword in her hand to be pushed through my throat… but somehow I knew she wouldn’t do it.

“Yeah well usually people that want to talk to me don’t follow me home.” She said and narrowed her eyes.

I looked her up and down, finally getting a good look at her body structure.

She wore black leggings over top of which she wore a red long-sleeved shirt that was too large for her and had fallen off her shoulder, underneath it she wore a black tank top.

Her collarbone was prominent and the toned muscles on the arm that was showing form under the shirt. She was strong despite her slender figure but wouldn’t be hard to overpower.

“How did you know I was following you?” I said focusing my eyes on the weapon again.

“You breath really loud and your steps were some what too obvious. I can tell you’re a fighter by the way you walked and by the way you’re feet are in a fighting position right now. You’re right foot is your dominant foot and your left is more flexible.” She ranted off, her gray eyes focusing on my face. I have to admit I was impressed.

“You’re good.” I said with a small smile.

I then threw up my left leg kicking the blade of the sword to the side, lunging my body forwards.

Seeing my attack LiNa had flipped the sword, hilt facing my throat and as I backed her into the wall opposite of me she had pressed her elbow to my neck, keeping a small distance between us, swords hilt as though a baled in my side.

“Very good…” I said shortly staring into her wide eyes.

“what did you want to talk to me about?” she asked after catching her breath. I could feel her heart hammering against my chest and decided to let her go.

“I don’t think this is a good place to talk about this… but I wanted to talk to you about what happened before… with the time…”

I felt my stomach turn and that was later followed by a loud growl that made my face turn red. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was.

LiNa let out a small laugh and grinned, pushing the sword into it’s sheath.

“Let’s go then.”

She lead the way out of the ally and I followed.

-LiNa P.O.V-

We reached my home, which also was my training club and walked in through the back door.  No one was there so the house was silent and empty.

We took off our shoes and walked across the hardwood floors to the small kitchen. There I flipped on the light and prepared a quick meal.

Setting it on the table I went up to change and came back down in an under armor dark blue sleeveless shirt and black kung fu pants that were tight from the top of my calves down to my ankles and baggy around my thy area.

The boy watched me enter the room and having not touched his food waited until I sat down.

“You can eat you know, I made you food to eat not to stare at.” I said firmly and untied my hair, putting it into a messy bun.

“I haven’t poisoned it don’t worry.”

“I’m not worried about that… aren’t you going to eat?” he asked and for once his dark eyes seemed gentle.

“Nah, it’s all yours”

a strange happiness crossed his eyes as he looked at the food. With a small bow towards me he began eating and I watched him fascinated. Who knew food made people so happy.

“You cook well!” he commented and slurped up the last bits of the meal.

“Thanks… what’s your name anyways?”

“I’m Tao… I’m in a grade above you so we have never meat officially.” He responded and pushed the plate away from himself.

“I’m LiNa but you can call me Li if you want.”

We shook hands and then silence fell.

“You wanted to talk?” I said finally breaking the silence.

“Yeah… how did you do that?” he said not holding back on the surprise question factor.

“Do what?”

“How did you control my power?” his dark eyes examined my face.

“Not exactly sure what your poser is but… I don’t know.. I just… I don’t know…”

“My power is time control and when you touched me somehow you commanded my power and it did as you told it to… I’m just wondering… did you know you had powers before?” he rubbed the back of his head. He was quite blunt…

“No I did not know I had powers before, I still don’t think I do… it’s just when I touched your wrist something on it seemed really warm to me… and then I kind of knew I could control it.”

“How did you know it was me?” he asked suddenly. He was watching as I fidgeted with his chopsticks and I instantly put them down.

“Because you didn’t look me directly in the eye… somehow you stood out.”

He looked away and rand his fingers through his dark messy hair.

“Now my turn to ask. What is this whole thing about?”

“My friends and I are what we call ourselves the 12 legends… for several hundred years we have been “gifted” with these abilities… they’re not really gifts though. You see originally they were passed down from generation to generation until my generation messed up… not naming names… Kai… but that’s beside the point. We were reckless with out abilities and to teach us a lesson the treat of life… our source of power… has split itself into to giving us the mission to find it. The two parts are called Mama… our salvation… when we find it, it is said that we will finally be able to get rid of the powers and live a normal life. The two parts will take them from us and we will be free.”

“and you think we are those parts?”

“I know you are one of them for sure…” he said and looked at me again.

“Okay… but why do you want to get rid of them? Isn’t it cool to have powers?”

“Not if you feel out of place for over 500 years… everyone who knows about your power even loved ones shun you…” Tao looked down and I suddenly felt pity for him… I knew how he felt and couldn’t believe what I was gonna do…

“How do I take there powers from you?” I asked standing up. I walked around the table and stopped in front of him. Tao rose and rolled up his sleeve revealing a tattoo on his arm.

I almost laughed. It was an hour glass.

“ I have no idea… we are supiose to show you the prohesy. We are supose to make some kind of bond.” Tao said looking at his tatoo.

“cool… I like bond fires.” I said and he shot me a glare.

“I’m kidding geez.”

Before I could stop myself I had reached out, my fingers tracing the outline of the tattoo.

It happened again.

The warm feeling travled from his tatoo into my hand and up my right arm where something warm almost burned into my bicept.

“Oh my god…” Tao muttered and stared at my arm. Finally I turned to it and saw what he was staring at.

The same replica of his black tatoo has formed on my arm only in deep blue.

“What the…” before I could finish my sentence light sprung from it’s outline and we were both englufed in it.

When I opened my eyes again I was laying in some kind of grass. Slowly I sat up and looked aorund. Befor me stood an enormous tree with it’s roots dipped in some kind of lake that separated the side of the bank on which I was on form the other. Mist covered the top of the grass and I stood up to look around more.

“LiNa! LiNa where are you!” yelled a male voice I recognised.

“Tao?! You’re here too?”

I looked over to the other side of the river to see a… ok now I wish I never looked there…

A and lost looking Tao was turning aorund himself frantically looking for me. Wait if he’s then I’m…

I glanced down at myself and instantly shrunk backto the ground into the grass.

“Tao don’t look to the other side of the lake… I’m here but I’m not…. exactly …. presentable…”

“What?” he looked down at himself. “Oh !” then he too shrunk to the ground.

“where are we?” he called

“No idea…”

Welcome…

Okay did the tree just speak?

We both stared at the tree that had separated us

“Hi?” I said a little confused and rose again. This got to be a dream right?

I walked closer to the tree and realised Tao was doing the same with a puch of grass covering his… yeah … that…

Congratulations… you have formed a bond with each other… you now share the power of time control…

Siad the shoothing voice and me and Tao exchanged a confused look.

“Who are you?” I asked

I am the tree of knowledge… by forming the bond you have now restored one of my roots… use this connection wisely… the rest of the 12 forces will show you and your other half the prophesy… why will figure out the rest from there.. good luck… be ware of the red force…

The earth beneeth my feet moved and a root spring forward cnnecting my side of the lake to Tao’s.

The light got brighter again and next i opened my eyes I was in my kitchen with my fingers interlaced with that of Tao.

Using his other hand Tao touched my arm again and then looked at me with a kind of horror in his eyes.

“We formed a bond….” He whispered.

“I guess no going back now.” I said shortly and shurgged.

“I guess so…” Tao responded as I rubbed my arm…

Now how to break this to JinSu….

And also… what is the red force?