To be honest, the dragon spirit wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. I’d been prepared to face an old man with bushy eyebrows, not a barefoot girl in a pretty dress. I felt almost bad shoving her over the railing.

Outside, the rain had stopped as soon as the dragon girl hit the ground and vanished. All around me, everyone seemed to be shaking off a daze. Children scampered outside, followed at a more leisurely pace by their parents. Couples walked hand in hand, and groups of friends laughed as they went by chattering. As if nothing had happened.

“That was the weirdest dream,” Taemin muttered as he came over to me, rubbing his head. “There was rain, and there were monsters in armor-”

“Were they fish and crabs in your dream, too?” Key asked. “Because I’m thinking that I’ve probably eaten too much sushi and so it’s starting to fight back in my dreams-”

“Yeah, that’s exactly right-”

“Where’s Jonghyun?” I interrupted.

Taemin and Key both stopped and frowned at me. “Who?” asked Taemin.

“Jonghyun? You know, our con man?”

“You’re our con man, Onew,” Key replied, raising an eyebrow. “Are you feeling okay?”

No, I was not. “This isn’t funny, you guys,” I snapped. “The five of us have always been there for each other and now, Jonghyun needs-”

“Whoa, wait.” Key held up his hands. “The five of us?”

“Onew, it’s always been just the three of us,” Taemin said, peering at me worriedly. “Who are you talking about?”

My blood ran cold. For some reason, the dragon girl’s disappearance hadn’t turned things back to the way they were supposed to be. It had somehow changed reality. Jonghyun didn’t exist anymore, and Minho probably didn’t either.

I reached back and touched my pocket. The gun Minho gave me was still there. My friends did exist. I wasn’t hallucinating. I just needed to figure out how to bring them back.

I put on my brightest smile. “Yeah, you know I was just joking around. Let’s get out of here.”

I’m sure they were exchanging looks with each other behind my back, but I didn’t even care.

Outside, the ground was completely dry, and the sky was clear, as if there had never been a storm. As if it had all been in my mind.

No, I wasn’t crazy. The dragon girl was just still messing with me.

The ground began to tremble as people all around us began screaming. With a cry of horror, Taemin turned and pointed towards the center of the plaza.

The cement was cracking open, waves of fire pouring out from the center. Key yelped a curse that was drowned out by the screams as all around us, people pushed and shoved each other to get away. The fissures grew, snaking down through the cement and twisting around in lines.

“Get up on the bridge!” I called. We made a dash for the stairs, pounding up the steps, which trembled under the weight of the crowd. “Look!” The flames were spelling out a charcter, burning the word deep in the cement.

“What does that say?” Taemin asked.

“Dragon,” I replied. “We have to get out of here before she gets back.”

“Who?” Key frowned.

“Never mind. Let’s just go.” I pulled on his sleeve, but he tore away from my grasp.

"Onew, stop this. You’re scaring both of us. What’s going on?” Key demanded.

As I opened my mouth, the screaming below intensified. Magma oozed out from all the cracks, as if the earthquake had cracked through the crust down to the earth’s mantle. As I stared, a long snaky creature slipped up through the cracks, coiling up towards the sky. Its red scales gleamed as a bolt of lightning split the sky and as I looked up, a second one flashed across my vision.

The first one slithered back down to earth and I stared at it, catching sight of horns and a beard and claws.

“What is that thing?” Taemin gasped, recoiling as the ground began trembling even further.

“I have no idea,” I whispered. “But we should probably run.”

We barely made it two steps before the creature in the sky caught glimpse of us. Lightning flashed all around us as we sprinted through the streets, the crowds screaming and diving out of our way as we ran. I glanced over my shoulder to see the plaza splitting in two behind us, waves of lava pursuing us as we ran.

“Why is it chasing us?” Key called.

“Dragon girl found backup,” I replied. “Keep going!”

A red car skidded to a halt in front of us, forcing us to stop running as the driver rolled down the window. “Get in if you want to live,” he ordered. I hesitated only a moment before flinging the door open and piling in after Key and Taemin. Before I even closed the door, the driver had started the car again. I swear, sparks were flying from his wheels as he drove off.

“Are you alright?” He glanced in the rearview mirror as he made a particularly sharp turn down a narrow alley. I shoved Taemin off my shoulder and opened my mouth to reply, but Key beat me to it.

“What the hell is going on?” he demanded.

"You’ve pissed off some very powerful mystical creatures,” the driver replied. “It’s usually smart not to pick a fight with something you can’t outrun.”

“How did we piss them off?” Key asked.

“We stole this.” I pulled the pearl out of my pocket.

“Put that away!” the driver said sharply. “Are you stupid? They’re drawn to the energy that thing gives off. Hide it as deep in your pocket as you can.”

“Aren’t you going to tell us to throw it away?” I asked.

“Hell, no.” He turned around and grinned at me with boyish mischievousness. He was much younger than I’d thought, no older than eight or nine, and his hair was tied up in twin buns. But only after he’d turned around did I realize…he had three heads and was gripping the steering wheel with one of his three sets of arms. “I’m no stranger to screwing with dragons.”

“The name’s Nezha,” the boy explained after he’d parked the car far away from the plaza and began leading us down a mostly empty street. Taemin couldn’t stop staring, not that I could blame him. But then the head on the left shot him a glare and he quickly averted his eyes. “You don’t need to bother introducing yourselves. We’ve been watching your show all night.”

“Who’s ‘we’?” Key asked.

Nezha raised an eyebrow and gestured up towards the sky. “You know, the Jade Emperor and his court.” At our blank looks, all six eyes rolled in exasperation. “Oh, you foreigners. Forget it.”

“So what exactly are you doing here?” I asked.

“The dragons and I aren’t exactly good friends,” Nezha explained with a grin. “I snuck down here to help you guys out.”

“You?” Taemin snorted. “You’re a kid! What can you do?”

In response, Nezha cupped a hand around his mouth and blew a stream of fire into Taemin’s face, which my thief just barely ducked. “I killed one of their kids once, and I kicked their asses after I got resurrected. Someone even made a cartoon out of it. If you don’t want my help, good luck taking on all four Dragon Kings at once.”

“Wait, four?” I swallowed, hard. Maybe I should start reading mythology. It was definitely proving to be useful tonight.

“Yeah, the dragon girl you met is D, the zodiac spirit,” Nezha replied. “She’s a spoiled little princess. It’s her uncles who are a bigger headache. The kings of the four seas. She always goes running to them when she needs help. I placed a bet on you guys though, saying that you’d have the pearl by the end of the night so I came down to even the odds.”

“Isn’t that cheating?” I heard myself asking. Isn’t that cheating? Was it really the time to be asking that question? Two of my friends were missing, and the rest of us were being hunted by non-existent creatures!

“It’s only cheating if I fight for you, which I can’t do anyways,” Nezha replied. “There’s only so much us deities can do to affect the lives of mortals. Take these.” He handed a spear to Key, and a golden hula hoop and red sash to Taemin. As he turned to me, he reached down and pulled a pair of flaming wheels out from under his feet. “Go on, they won’t burn you,” he explained and the wheels slowly rolled through the air, hovering just above my palm. “Make sure you leave them in the doorway of the City God Temple when you’re done with them.”

“What am I supposed to do with this?” Taemin demanded, holding up the sash and the hoop.

I swear, the little brat grinned at him. “Oh, I can’t tell you that. Then it would be cheating. Careful with my ring, though. That’s one of my favorites.” He squinted up at the sky. “It looks like North and East are on their way. They usually take a bit of persuading, but they’ll always come to help family.”

I glanced up, but couldn’t see anything. “Listen-”

But he was already gone.

“Found them.” The ground rumbled as something landed behind us. We turned around and I was nearly blown backwards by a fierce gust of wind. Squinting my eyes through the sheet of rain that suddenly came pouring down, I made out four robed figures approaching us, hands tucked inside their long, floppy sleeves. From a distance, they looked like old, bearded men, but as they neared, I could make out distinctly reptilian features.

“Stay back,” Key growled, the shake in his voice betraying his nervousness. “I’m warning you!” His hands gripped the spear tightly, his knuckles turning white.

The apparent leader, a green dragon with yellow eyes, laughed as he moved forward. “Amusing that such young mortals would have the nerve to challenge the kings of the sea.”

“We didn’t challenge you!” Taemin protested. “Your crazy niece-”

The red dragon behind him released a stream of fire and Taemin yelped as he dodged it. “You will watch how you speak about our family,” he growled, the rumble seeming to shake the earth.

“This is not a night for fighting, young man, as I’m sure you are aware,” the green dragon said. “It would be better for all if we could resolve this conflict peacefully.” He stretched out one clawed hand.

I pulled out the pearl and bounced it once in my palm. “Where are my other two friends?”

“You will see them as soon as you hand over the pearl,” the green dragon said smoothly.

“It’s not happening!” Key snapped. “I told you to back off! Are you deaf or something?”

The green dragon sighed and nodded. “So be it.” Before I could blink, they transformed, changing back into their dragon forms and slipping out of their robes. Rain began pouring around us, flattening my hair into my eyes.

A bolt of lightning flashed right in front of us, but to my surprise, it seemed to get trapped on the tip of the spear in Key’s hands. The green dragon let out an irritated hiss as lightning flashed again. This time, he seemed to be aiming for Taemin, but the spear again seemed to draw the lightning straight to it.

“How are you doing that?” I called over the roar of thunder.

“I don’t know!” Key yelped, looking as terrified as I probably was.

“Well, don’t stop doing it!” My voice was drowned out by the growl of the green dragon as he turned to focus his attentions on the hacker.

The black dragon disappeared into the clouds and moments later, a tornado came bearing down on us, ripping shingles off the roofs above us and splitting the ground open in its wake. Or maybe that was the work of the red dragon, swimming through the trail of lava pouring from the crack.

Taemin wound up and threw the ring, apparently hoping to knock one of them out. He scowled as the red dragon simply ducked his head, flying straight through the middle of the ring.

“Damn it.” Taemin clenched his fist.

The red dragon gagged, eyes bulging as it rolled out of the magma. My jaw fell open as I spotted the ring, now no bigger than my wrist, was constricting the dragon’s middle as he writhed on the concrete.

“Brother!” called the black dragon, abandoning the tornado as he flew down towards the red one. Taemin stared at the sash for a moment before grabbing one end and twirling it in the air like a lasso. He whipped it forward and the moment the red fabric touched the tornado, it vanished. He flicked the sash forward again as the black dragon zoomed by, catching it around the tail. The more the dragon struggled to get free, the more deeply tangled he became.

I shivered slightly as the flaming wheels in my hand began spinning faster. Was it me, or was it getting colder? I ran my fingers through my sopping hair, wincing as ice crystals scraped the skin. Squinting through the rain, I saw the white dragon, the only one who hadn’t turned into his reptile form, floating cross-legged in the air, his claws in his lap. The rain became more like sleet with each second and I could see Key’s lips turning blue. Taemin was shaking, his underarmor soaked through.

Without thinking, I raised the wheels high into the air and they spun, flying straight up into the air. Flames shot from the spokes until the entire street seemed to be enveloped in light. I stopped shivering as I felt the warmth emanating from the wheels ease the numbness from my fingers.

A thrill shot through me as I saw the white dragon tumble out of the sky, reverting to its reptilian form to catch itself before it hit the ground- we were winning. We might actually survive the night!

I caught a glimpse of red and gold further down the street and sure enough, there stood the dragon girl, glaring at us. I smirked and, not able to resist, raised my fingers and waved at her slightly.

And then a giant black tail whipped me across the face, as I turned to see the black dragon tear apart the sash to free itself. The red threads were hastily stitching back together on their own as the sash tried to mend itself, but it was too late. I landed on my back, stars flashing across my eyes as my head bounced off the concrete. The wheels dropped to the ground next to me, skittering to a stop as the flames died out.

“West! Now!” hollered the green dragon and the red one shrunk to the size of a snake, easily slipping through the ring. He twisted his body in midair, growing back to full size. As he tossed back his head, inhaling deeply, he flicked his tail, tossing the ring over Taemin’s head. The gold band immediately tightened around my thief’s arms, binding them to his sides and constricting him so tightly that I thought I heard something crack. Flames shot from the red dragon’s mouth, enveloping Key, who dropped the spear and threw up his arms to shield his face reflexively.

“No!” I yelled, scrambling to my feet, head still throbbing and diving towards the flames. The heat scorched my face and then-

Nothing.

No fire. No Key.

I looked up in horror at the four dragons, again in their humanoid forms. “We will return him with your other friends when you give us our niece’s objective. What is the price of their lives, Onew?”

They knew my name. I had never told it to any of them.

“Think about it and give her your answer. But not too long. You only have nineteen minutes left.” With a mockingly formal bow, they vanished into thin air.

I rushed to Taemin, digging my fingers under the gold ring and pulling as hard as I could to remove it. I heard a scraping noise on the rooftop above us and looked up as a tile smashed on the ground, narrowly missing Taemin’s head.

The dragon girl was perched on the edge of the roof, one hand resting against a beam for support. She smirked as she met my eyes.

Then she raised her fingers and waved them slightly, before disappearing into thin air.

A/N: Sorry for such a long wait, guys! I hope it was worth it. ><

For those of you who aren't familiar with Chinese mythology, Nezha is a deity who serves as a general to the Jade Emperor. He is forever in the form of a little boy. When he was a child, he killed the son of one of the Dragon Kings of the Four Seas. In retaliation, the Dragon Kings threatened to floor his hometown, so Nezha committed suicide to appease them. He was later resurrected and given a number of awesome weapons: the Wind Fire Wheels, which allow him to fly through the sky; the Fire-tipped Spear; the Universe Ring; and the Red Armillary Sash, the items I had him give Onew, Key, and Taemin in this chapter. He also gained the ability to turn into a form with three heads and six arms. He came back and defeated the Dragon Kings.

In other words, he's a seriously awesome kid.

Thanks for being so patient! Hope you enjoy it!