Chapter 21

Only Time Will Tell

With the passing of Atlas, the room became filled with utter sorrow. Katrina lay utterly broken down on his body as she muttered words no one could understand through her sobs. Shindong and Ryeowook crouched beside her, doing their best to calm her down while trying to hold themselves together. Ryeowook was especially sorrowful, which was unlike him even in the face of death. He knew that death was a new beginning for the spirit; a wonderful, beautiful new beginning. It was something to be happy about, not sad. This is why he never cried when someone died; he didn’t even cry at his own mother’s death bed. But at that moment, Ryeowook couldn’t help but shed a few tears for Atlas. After all, he had saved him. If it weren’t for him, Ryeowook, and everyone else for that matter, could have taken in his place.

“If only I had known about that evil spirit sooner.” He muttered, “I could have destroyed her before she attacked Atlas.” This statement was only heard by Katrina however, as her screams drowned out everything else.

When they heard Katrina’s cries, Yesung, Kyuhyun, Eunhyuk, and Donghae abandoned the still unconscious Valkyries’ sides and came over to the scene of grief. As they saw their ally’s corpse, their eyes became wet as well. Eunhyuk and Donghae hugged Katrina, attempting to comfort her, but she continued in her fit of sorrow. Yesung and Kyuhyun however just stood there, shocked. Yesung looked into the clouded eyes of Atlas. The words of the prophesy rang mockingly in his ears:

But the one who holds the Earth will bear the burden once again.

Kyuhyun glanced at Yesung, reading his mind. “Atlas,” Kyuhyun mused. “In Greek literature, he was the man who was forced to hold the Earth on his shoulders. He bore the ultimate burden.” He looked Yesung in the face. “Just like our Atlas. He took death, the ultimate price, in exchange for Ryeowook’s life.”

Yesung nodded slowly in return, saddened by the way events had unfolded. He was afraid this would happen; he had guessed that Atlas would lose his life tonight. And he couldn’t do anything but watch it happen. That was the horrible thing about being an oracle: you can know the future, but you can’t change it.

It was then that the room vibrated with another scream of sorrow; a scream that seemed to blend with Katrina’s perfectly. It came from Leeteuk, who was now clutching the lifeless body of Onew.

“No Onew! No!” He cried, his sobs shaking his body with violent force. Christine just sat there beside them with her head down, crestfallen at what had happened. Onew was gone. She had tried to bring him back, but the hag’s spirit had drained too much life from him while he was possessed.

Hearing their leader’s cries, everyone except Katrina and Yesung went to his aid and tried to comfort him, just as they did with Katrina. However, Leeteuk’s cried persisted.

“He’s gone,” he muttered, his head buried in Onew’s light brown hair. “And it’s all my fault.”

“No.” Christine head suddenly shot up, meeting Leeteuk’s eyes with her own. “It is my fault. Completely my fault. If I hadn’t fooled around with that stupid book,” she spat, pointing to the spell book that had been flung in the corner out of panic. “None of this would have happened. Onew wouldn’t have been possessed, the Phantom clan wouldn’t be in danger, and lives wouldn’t have been lost.”

“What are you talking about Madame?” Siwon asked, his face filled with confusion like the others. Christine took a deep breath before continuing.

“It all started when I met Charles. We met at the theater during the performance of Phantom of the Opera. He was handsome, charming, and a perfect gentleman. We fell in love instantly and decided to start dating. However, I knew it wouldn’t last because of our curse as Phantoms. A human can never truly love a Phantom for long. He would stay with me until our child was born, and then he would grow to hate me and push me away. This is the norm for the Phantoms. But I didn’t want that for us. I wanted to stay with Charles forever because I just knew he was my true love.

“We had been together for 6 months when he proposed to me. Of course, I said yes, but I became increasingly worried. We would be married in 3 months, and we were already planning to have a baby. That left me with a year or two until I would be separated from him forever. One day, I wandered through the forest near the Haven with these thoughts racing through my head, when I suddenly found a leather bound book in the bramble, the same book we used tonight. It contained all sorts of spells, including one I found most interesting: a spell that could lift the effects of any curse.

“I thought this was the answer to my problems; to the Phantom clan’s problems. I performed the spell right away, thinking that I was smart enough to use it properly. I was wrong. As soon as I finished the spell, black fog billowed out of the book and took form in the shape of a woman, the same woman you saw just minutes ago. She cackled as she was freed from the book, and all I could do was look on in horror. I thought she was going to kill me for sure, but she just smiled cruelly.

“’Thank you for releasing me, child.’ She sneered as I backed up in fear. “Now I can create a more… fitting living hell for you and your precious clan.’

“With that, she disappeared as quickly as she had appeared, leaving no sign that she had been there at all. When I collected my thoughts, I decided that I had just merely experienced a hallucination created from my own mind and hurried back to my apartment that I shared with Charles, the book still in hand.

“A year passed, and Charles and I were married and already expecting a child. Another year passed, and Katrina was born. I grew nervous, anticipating the moment when the curse would activate, but I saw no signs of resentment or anything of the sort in Charles. When our daughter’s 1^st birthday came around, I was sure that the curse had been broken. No Phantom had ever been in a relationship with a human for that long before the curse took its effect, but Charles still loved me with all of his heart. I became filled with joy. I had finally fulfilled my dream; to rid our kind of the curse forever. We could love and be loved and not worry about our relationships being cut short. Little did I know that this gift came with a horrible price.

“Katrina was 18 months old, and Charles and I had just come back from seeing the Phantom of the Opera once again. I was singing Katrina to sleep when Leeteuk, Siwon, Sungmin, and Yesung, the little ones of the clan at the time, suddenly came to me with terrifying news: Onew had killed all of the Phantoms. I tried not to panic as I told them to meet me in the forest, but I knew that this had to do with that woman from the book. When the kids left, I dug out the book from my closet. It only took me a second after I looked at the cover to realize my horrible mistake: the book was written by… Her.”

This revelation made everyone gasp in shock.

“Yo-you mean,” Sungmin stuttered as he suddenly lowered his voice. “Morgana LeVan-“

“SHHH!” Siwon quieted his apprentice before he could finish. “No one must speak of the evil witch who cursed us.”

“But,” Donghae piped, “I thought that she died a long time ago.”

“She did.” Eunhyuk answered, “But obviously her spirit still lived on.”

Ryeowook nodded. “Yes, she had been dead for a long time. She was an ancient dark spirit, the worst evil entity you can encounter.”

“That’s right,” Christine continued. “And the reason her spirit had survived so long was became she merged with the book. She rested inside it, waiting for-“

“Waiting for someone to open the book and release her spirit.” Leeteuk interrupted, staring into Christine’s eyes with a mix of disappointment and understanding. “When you tried to erase our curse, she was freed, leaving her to merge with a living being: Onew.” He bowed his head, his precious brother’s hair. Christine nodded.

“I’m so sorry Leeteuk. I was foolish. I should have consulted the rest of the clan before I tried to use the book. I should have been there for the clan instead of getting caught up in my little romance with Charles. I-“

Christine’s speech ended abruptly when Leeteuk suddenly hugged her in a loving embrace. “Stop beating yourself up Christine.” He whispered, giving her a sad smile. “You can’t change the past. Honestly, I probably would have done the same thing if I was in your position. I would love to have our curse removed for good.”

Leeteuk was soon joined by the others, hugging Christine and creating a huge group hug.

“Besides,” Kyuhyun added with a smile. “We still have each other, right? That’s all that really matters.”

“Aw!” Shindong exclaimed, pinching Kyuhyun’s cheeks. “Our little boy is being all sentimental! So cute!”

“Would you cut it out?!” Kyuhyun exploded. “And what do you mean “little boy”? I’m seventeen!”

All this while, Katrina had been listening in, though she was still right by Atlas’s side mourning his friend. However, something she had heard them say gave her an idea.

“Wait!” she shouted, standing up and turning to face the group. “What did you just say?”

Everyone jumped, surprised that Katrina had suddenly become animated, and broke their hug.

“Um,” Kyuhyun replied. “I’m seventeen?”

“No, the other thing.”

“That Kyuhyun’s cute when he’s being senti-“

“NO! What Leeteuk said.” Katrina shouted. Leeteuk thought for a moment before realizing what Katrina was getting at.

“That you can’t change the past?” he offered. Katrina nodded as she glanced at the clock on the wall, the last line of the prophesy replaying in her mind.

And only time will ever tell

If his doom can be avoided as well.

“Well, I think I can.” Katrina smiled, looking to Yesung for confirmation. His eyes widened as he realized what she was planning to do.

It might work. He thought as he nodded encouragingly. At least, he hoped it would work.

“What are you talking about?” Eunhyuk demanded as Katrina situated herself directly in front of the clock.

“I’m talking about my power. I can slow time, I can speed it up, but who says I can’t reverse it?” she explained. Donghae’s face lit up at the suggestion.

“Like time traveling? That’s so cool!” he exclaimed.

“Wait a minute!” Siwon yelled. “You can’t attempt something like that. You could alter the space time continuum!”

“Let her do it.” Christine demanded, causing everyone to turn their heads.

“Let her do it?” Siwon questioned. “You mean, you’d let your own daughter risk her life to save Onew and Atlas.”

“I think,” Chistine started as she made her way to Katrina, “That if Katrina feels that this is what she must do, then she needs to do it.” She kissed her daughter’s forehead as Katrina smiled. She nodded to her mother, assuring her that she would not let her down. With that, Christine went to the side of the room and motioned the others to do the same. Katrina readied herself for what she knew would be a tasking feat. Just before she was ready to go, Katrina looked to Ryeowook.

“Ryeowook, you said that you could have killed Morgana’s spirit before she killed Atlas if you had been warned right?” she asked. Ryeowook nodded, concern covering his face. “Good. See you in a minute.”

At that, she began. Katrina stared at the black second hand as it slowly ticked around clockwise. She began imagining that the hand was slowing down gradually, and in a few seconds, it did just that. The hand became sluggish in its movements until it was almost motionless. With more concentration, she forced the clock to stop ticking all together. She didn’t dare to look completely away, but she could she in her peripheral vision that time had completely stopped; no one moved a muscle. Her confidence grew as she started the next step: she pictured the hand slowly starting again, but this time in counter-clockwise direction. It took a few tries, but in no time, the clock starting ticking at regular speed, only moving the other way. She started to pick up movement in the room again, but this time everyone was moving backwards. They gathered back into their group hug, they separated into their positions before Onew died. Atlas’s eyes flew back open, his body changing back into wolf form. The floor ripped back open, spitting out the hag spirit, and closed back again. All of the events that transpired were now being rewinded, so to speak, and Katrina found it quite amusing. However, she immediately returned back to the matter at hand and waited for the opportune moment to restart the last ten minutes of Atlas’s life. She observed her past self as she walked backwards, holding the book. This was it. As soon as the past image teleported itself to the Haven, she immediately stopped the hands of time, causing the image to screech to a halt before resuming in forward motion. She did it; she traveled through time. Atlas and Onew were alive again!

She had little time to celebrate though, because at that moment, Ryeowook was thrown out of the fight that they were in with the possessed Valkyrie and almost ran into Katrina.

“Oh,” he exclaimed. “There you are Katrina! Aren’t you supposed to be-“

“No time!” Katrina interrupted. “Just listen. Onew isn’t being possessed by just the butterfly spirits. He’s also being used as a host by a really old hag named Morgana Le… something.”

Ryeowook gasped. “You mean Morgana LeVan-?“

“Shhhhh!” Katrina covered his mouth before he could continue. “She’ll hear you! Listen, you can defeat her using your spirit form, but you have to be ready to do it as soon as Mom and I finish the spell. Otherwise… well, bad things will happen.” Katrina explained. She tried to run to her mother in order to start the incantation, but she was stopped by Ryeowook who grabbed her arm.

“Katrina, how do you know this?” he asked, concern in his eyes “And what do you mean by bad things?”

Katrina looked back into Ryeowook’s eyes. “Trust me.” She said simply as she smiled and made her way to the front of the room.

To describe exactly what happened next would be redundant: Katrina and Christine began the spell, causing the butterfly spirits to be destroyed one by one once again. However, this time Ryeowook was ready. He sat down on the tile floor and transformed into his spirit form. Once he felt that he was fully separated from his body, he began to gather his energy around him and prepare for the attack against Morgana. He knew that he could just throw her spirit into Hell, but this was only used as a last resort because if the dark entity is powerful enough, and he had a feeling Morgana was, it could simply escape. It may take a while, but the spirit would eventually find its way back to Earth and cause havoc again. So, since he had a few minutes before the spell ended, he opted for the other option: To destroy Morgana completely. He had learned this technique from the forest spirit, Luna. It took a little longer than the other method, but it was more effective. He called upon the light energy around him, and after a couple of seconds, his hand tingled as a golden form started to take shape around it. As this was taking place, Ryeowook couldn’t help but stare deeply into Onew’s aura. He found that directly at his heart, a black shadow was the little light Ryeowook could see in Onew’s being. The orb of darkness seemed to be growing at a rapid rate, increasing with every word uttered from the spell. It was like a ticking time bomb, waiting to explode and kill its host as soon as the incantation was finished.

Realizing that the two women were at the second to last line, he refocused on his energy. In a flash of light, a sword that seemed to be made of pure gold shimmered in Ryeowook’s hand. It was beautiful, yes, but he knew from experience that it was deadly. Very deadly. Christine and Katrina were now on the last line, and without another moment to spare, Ryeowook sped to Onew’s now crumpled form and took his position. With a yell of fury, he stabbed the orb of darkness with such accuracy that it was almost scary.

“Die evil one!” He screamed as the dark form began emitting a noise so high pitched, that it caught everyone’s attention.

“You can’t do this! You can’t do this to Morgana LeVange!” The shadow screamed as it began dwindling in size from the sword of light’s attack. “You may be able to destroy me, but the others will avenge me! They will destroy you in my name! This is not over Phantoms!” With one last screech, the darkness completely vanished, leaving Onew’s still breathing body empty of all darkness. Ryeowook jerked the sword out of Onew’s spirit and let it go. The sword hovered in the air for a second before slowly levitating upwards back into the spirit realm where it belonged. Ryeowook sighed in relief as he returned to his body. His work was done.

As his body’s consciousness returned, he realized that everyone was now staring at him in astonishment. Katrina and Christine had just finished the spell, so there was no evil present at all in the room. The Valkyrie and Onew were still knocked out, though occasionally one would moan softly in pain. Everyone was silent until Leeteuk finally spoke up.

“Ryeowook, how did you know to-?”

“Woo hoo! It worked!” Katrina interrupted as she hurried to the unhurt Atlas, who had just changed back into human form again, and almost crushed him in a Donghae-like bear hug. “I’m so glad you’re alright! You have no idea how sad I was when you died, but now you’re-“

“Whoa, whoa, wait!” Atlas exclaimed, trying hard to breathe under Katrina’s iron grip. “One, you’re crushing me, and two, what do you mean I died? The closest I came to being dead is when Phillip nearly chewed my face off.”

Katrina blinked as she slowly let go of Atlas. He didn’t remember? She looked around to find that everyone was just as thoroughly confused. Everyone except Yesung that is. He was the only one that could recall what had happened since he knew the prophesy. He had hoped Katrina would figure out how to set things right. He gave her a knowing wink, and Katrina returned it with a smile. She looked back to Atlas as she shrugged.

“Ah, never mind.” She said as she walked over to Ryeowook, who was still wondering how Katrina had known that Morgana even existed. When Katrina was next to him, she did something that he never thought she’d do: she kissed him. It only lasted a couple of seconds, but to Ryeowook, the whole world seemed to stop. He kissed back, reveling in the precious moment that he had secretly wanted since he had first met Katrina. It was over far too soon, however, as Katrina pulled away abruptly.

“See?” she chimed as she gave him her devilish smile. “Good things happen when you trust me.” She hugged him as she quickly whispered “And thanks. A lot.”

Ryeowook couldn’t respond because he just couldn’t stop smiling. He had been kissed. By a girl. That was ALIVE! He couldn’t be happier.

However, the joyous moment was ruined as a loud sound came from the crumpled form of Onew, who was still passed out by the wall. His eyes started to open, revealing not black orbs, but beautiful, light brown eyes that were struggling to focus as he started to come to.

“Leeteuk?” he muttered as he tried to sit up, only to cry out in pain and flop back down on the hard floor. Realizing his brother needed him, Leeteuk rushed to Onew’s side. He almost cried in happiness; Onew was alive.

“It’s ok Onew. I’m here. Leeteuk’s here.” Leeteuk cooed as he gathered his brother in his arms. Christine smiled, relieved that her mistake didn’t cost Onew his life. Everyone gathered around the two as Onew tried to speak.

“Leeteuk, it hurts.” He cried as he started to cough violently, his body shaking with pain. Eunhyuk felt Onew’s forehead; he was burning up. He let the coldness from his body flow onto Onew, causing him to sigh in relief. Eunhyuk proceeded to do this all over Onew’s body, hoping to help him with the pain, but that was all he could do at the moment: control the pain. They needed to completely heal him.

“How are we going to help him?” Sungmin asked as he used his power to control the body’s nerves, dulling the pain even further. “None of us can heal.”

“Maybe you can’t.” A voice suddenly spoke, causing everyone to turn in alarm. It was Jonghyun, who was just standing up, gingerly rubbing his head as the other Valkyrie, including Phillip, were doing the same. “But we can.”

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Yay! I finally updated after who knows how many days! :D Haha. Anyway, sorry about the delay guys. Something came up, and I became a babysitter unexpectedly for a couple of weeks. But, no matter, I'm back now ^^ I hope you liked this chapter, and I will tell you right now, we only have 1 or 2 more chapters left. And then the backstories begin! :)

BTW: does anyone know of a good poster designer? I would like to get a professional poster for this story and my future ones. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them ^^

Anyhoo, thanks for all of your comments and subscriptions and support, and if you haven't commented and subscribed or supported, I encourage you to do so :)

~Justjoking <3