It was late at night, and the girls had been in their rooms for quite a while now. However, none of them could sleep knowing that their friends, old and new, could be in danger while they're snuggled under warm shelter.

"Where do you think the others are right now?" Mi Cha asked, laying on her bed and staring up at the ceiling. "I hope they're safe." 

"I'm sure they're fine. They're all very tough after all," Sora told her. She looked over at Kyunglim, who was studying one of the scrolls hanging on the wall. "We should get some sleep before we go looking for the others tomorrow." 

"Yeah," Kyunglim said, and ripped her eyes off the pretty writing. She walked over to her soft bed and sat down. "There's so much I can learn from this place." Sora and Mi Cha nodded in agreement.  

Suddenly, lightning flashed outside, and Kyunglim stiffened. She slapped her hands over her ears as thunder boomed outside and rain began pouring down in buckets. Kyunglim pulled her blanket over her head when another bolt of lightning lit up the sky. 

"What's wrong, Lim?" Sora asked. 

"Are you afraid of thunderstorms?" Mi Cha asked. 

"W-well..." Kyunglim's mumbled voice came from under her blanket. 

"Don't worry. It's nothing unusual. There's nothing wrong with that." Mi Cha went to sit down beside her while Sora went to close the windows. 

"Thanks." 

A thumping louder and slightly different from the clapping thunder echoed through the room. Surprised, Sora peeked out the window she was about to close to check who it was. Her eyes widened at what she saw, and she quickly pushed the door open. A group of soaked guys greeted them.

"You're safe!" was the first thing Mi Cha yelled. She ran up to them happily, and hurried scanned them with her eyes for any serious injuries. "What happened?"

"Can we talk tomorrow? My head is spinning right now." Hoya groaned. 

"The guys that were with us are sharing a room, why don't you go share a room with them?" Kyunglim asked. 

"Where?" Dongwoo asked. He was answered by silence from the girls. 

"Er... Good question," Mi Cha said. "Wait-- how did you know where our room is?"

"The guards told us." 

Before Mi Cha could ask more, JR just walked into the room and randomly flopped onto a bed, his eyes closing immediately when his head hit the pillow. "Hey! That's my bed!" Mi Cha complained. 

"Just let them sleep," Kyunglim said. 

Dongwoo and Hoya sat down at the table in their room and put their head on their arms as they settled down for the night. Him Chan went to join them. With all the chairs taken up, Myungsoo and Taemin just found a place next to the wall to sleep. Soon, they were all unconscious.

"Aren't they going to get sick like that?" Mi Cha asked, her nurse instincts kicking in again. "Shouldn't they get changed first?" Kyunglim went to try and wake them, but none of them budged at all.

Sora went to the closet at the back of the room and pulled out some blankets, and she draped one of them on each of the newcomers. However, she was one blanket short, and the person left out was the black haired boy, Myungsoo. Sora looked at the others, silent asking what she should do. 

"He's going to freeze if he's left in the open like that." Mi Cha said. 

"There aren't any more blankets?" Kyunglim asked, and Sora shook her head. Kyunglim went and yanked the blanket that was on Taemin until the two boys sleeping on the floor were sharing it. 

"I'll go light the fireplace," Sora offered. She nervously fed wood to the dancing flames. 

"Here, let me do it. I know you don't like fire." Kyunglim said, taking Sora's place. The younger of the two gave the other a grateful glance. 

Mi Cha was going around the room checking if anyone had a fever. "Not yet," she told the others. The storm outside continued to rage. Sora thought she heard another noise under the cover of the splashing rain and loud thunder. 

Another knock on the door. The three girls were surprised to have yet another visitor. Sora looked at it with suspicion. The knock came again. Kyunglim stood up to answer it, but Sora stopped her. "What's wrong?" Kyunglim asked her friend. 

"I'm not sure... but I have a bad feeling." Sora said quietly. Kyunglim nodded slowly. After years of hanging around Sora, Kyunglim has come to accept the fact that her friend's 'gut feelings' were usually accurate. 

Mi Cha looked towards the door nervously. "Maybe we should wake up the guys?" 

Sora shook her head. "Sorry. I'm probably just over-reacting. This is a castle, there probably won't be any intruders." She walked to the door and pulled it open. 

Out of nowhere, a knife's blade was suddenly at , the tip threatening to break the skin. "Don't move." the owner of the dagger commanded. 

"Sora--!" Kyunglim sprung towards her to help, and another dagger flew right by her head, barely missing by a millimeter. 

"I said, don't move!" the man yelled. "I won't miss on purpose next time!" 

"I'm fine, Lim. Just stay where you are." Sora said, trying to keep on a brave face. 

"But--" 

"Just don't, Kyunglim. It won't do any of us any good." Mi Cha added. 

By now, some of the guys were awake, and they all stared at the intruder in shock. Under the cover of the dark, moonless night and the thunderstorm, the palace was being attacked. 

--------------------------

"How is Min Hi?" Minhyun asked, her voice thick with worry. 

"She should be as good as new in a few days. It takes a while to get the poison out of her system." Soori explained. Sungjong and Minhyun let out a relieved sigh in union. 

"So will you take us to meet our friends?" Minhyun was eager to see the other girls again, and get on with their adventure. 

Soori nodded. "I can take you right now, but I'm not sure if Min Hi will be able to walk." 

"I can," a weak, quiet voice said. 

The three looked down at the bed and saw that Min Hi was awake. 

"Are you sure? It's not a short walk." Soori warned. 

"I'll be fine." the sick girl said, pushing herself into a sitting position with some help from Minhyun. 

Soori sighed, but nodded again. "I've prepared all the things we need for the trip. We'll head out in an hour. Please get yourselves ready." 

Later that night, the four of them headed out towards the palace their friends were at, not knowing the danger that waited for them. 

--------------------------

"Who are you? Where are you taking us?" Deul Lae demanded from the guard next to her. He was tall, and didn't look Korean. 

"I'm Dongwoo. Emperor Junhyung wants to see you." he said in a expressionless voice. "Hurry up." The girls were rushed through a huge door, the frames of it decorated with elaborate patterns and flaked with gold. Yerin paused for a moment to look at the shiny material before getting pushed through. Sookyung shot the guard who shoved Yerin a cold glare. 

Inside, on a tall, fancy chair, sat a man dressed in a beautiful material. He had a smirk on his face that told all the girls that something bad was happening. 

"So, this is the group from the prophecy, eh? Well, I must say that... I was expecting something a bit more... powerful looking." Junhyung laughed after looking at the five girls in front of him. "You don't seem like the type to be able to survive in the wild for more than two days." 

The girls stayed silent. 

"Do you know why you're here?"

Silence. 

"Then I will tell you. There is a prophecy, told a long, long time ago. It was around a group of girls who are suppose to come here from a different place, time, and world. They are to find jewels, and it will bring peace to the world. That's a summary." the Emperor said. 

His audience still didn't say anything. 

"How dare you ignore the Emperor!" one of the guards hisses, and hit Minah on the arm with his spear pole. 

"Hey!" Chun Hee began to protest, and Yerin quickly slapped her hand over Chun Hee's mouth. 

Junhyung watched the whole exchange with an amused expression. "You girls seem close with each other," he said. 

All the girls tried to ignore his existence again. It only made Junhyung laugh.

"I like girls with attitude! Good, good! This is wonderful!" his laugh echoed through the large room. Sookyung, Minah, Deul Lae, Chun Hee and Yerin exchanged cautious glances. 

"What are you keeping us here for? Can't you just let us go?" Yerin asked bluntly. 

"Why are you here? Of course I would be curious to see the girls of legend. Let you go? Of course. You can leave in just a minute." Emperor Junhyung said as if it were a simple question. 

The girls looked at him and each other in surprise that he let them off so easily. "You're not going to kill us?"

"Me? Kill you? Of course not. Where did you get such an idea?"

The girls sighed in relief, a faint smile reach their lips as the tension in their body lifted. However, it instantly returned when a evil grin appeared on Junhyung's face. 

"I said I wouldn't kill you, doesn't mean you won't die. Just because I said I would let you go doesn't mean there won't be special conditions that needs to be met." he said. 

The group of five flinched. "What do you want?" Chun Hee asked. 

"There are ten of you, aren't there? An even number." 

"Yeah, what about it?" Deul Lae was getting impatient at the pace of the conversation. Sookyung had an annoyed look on her face as she waited for the answers. 

"And five of you are here." 

They waited for the rest of it in silence. 

"Each of you, choose another girl." 

The group looked at each other in confusion. Where was this going?

First up was Deul Lae. "Min Hyun."

"Kyungmin." Minah said. 

"Sora." Yerin said, choosing her other friend. 

"Min Hi." Chun Hee chose. 

Sookyung, who refused to speak, was left with the choice of Mi Cha. 

"Everyone has chosen someone?" Junhyung asked, and the girls nodded. "Good, now I want you to go and kill them." 

Silence. 

"What?!" outraged cries were yelled. 

"What what? I said, kill them." 

"No way!" 

A smirk on the Emperor's face. "I knew you would say that." 

Each of the girls felt a sharp prick on their arm. The guards stepped back, and small metal needle in their hand. 

"That was poison, and only I have the antidote. You have five days left to live. As each day passes, you'll find that your strength and energy will lessen. If you complete your mission and somehow prove it, you will live." The evil glint in Junhyung's eyes gave shivers to all the girls. 

The next sentence they heard was eerily familiar to a popular book back in their world. 

"May the odds be ever in your favor."

- - - - -

Sorry, is this too much information to take in? @__@ I think I just made like two major events... Sorry if I got somebody's personality wrong (or anything else).