He was falling, falling, falling. The space around him was pitch black, yet it seemed to swirl and twist in the darkness. Luhan was afraid. This wasn’t like all the other times they’d been sent to Earth before. Slowly the darkness began to break. Thin red lines spread out around him, floating in mid-air, strung taught at the ends by something far out of reach. Suddenly, he seemed to be slowing down and the emptiness under his feet seemed to slowly be filled by sparkling black and red sand that swirled together to form a circle under his feet. The circle seemed to push against the red strings until they formed a cone around him.

He reached out to one of the strings, it was sparkling so prettily-

“You’re not gonna want to touch that.”

Luhan jumped and turned around.

“I was wondering when you were gonna show up,” Kai smirked as he came over to give him a hug.

“What’s going on?” Luhan asked. “Where are we? What happened to the others?”

“This is somewhere they can’t reach. At least, not yet,” Kai explained, sitting down on the floor.

“Oh,” Luhan said, frowning. Then a look of understanding crossed his face. “Oh.”

The Tree of Life had gathered them together once, long ago, before they’d been sent on their first mission to Earth. It had explained that one day, a time would come when each of them would reach a level in their abilities that they’d never dreamed of before. But when they reached that level, their abilities would be bound by the other members. So far, the only one who had breached that barrier was Kai.

“So, what can I do now?” Luhan asked, tilting his head.

“I don’t know, it’s different for all of us,” Kai shrugged. “Remember how I used to only be able to get from one end of the room to the other?”

Luhan nodded. “And now you can teleport wherever you want.”

“Only if all of you are with me in the same…. space,” Kai corrected.

“Hmm,” Luhan frowned and began to move the little sand particles with his mind, forming them into shapes then tearing them apart and forming them again. “So how do I figure it out?”

“It should be something that you already feel,” Kai explained. “Something that’s already within you.”

Luhan sighed and set about trying to think. What could he possibly already have that would be this new power? The sand swirled as he thought forming a little ball hovering in front of his face. The ball began to spin round in circles getting faster and faster and faster until it seemed to glow with a light of its own.

“Luhan,” Kai said, trying to shake him out of his thoughts. “Uhm, that ball thing is getting kind of annoying.”

Luhan stared into the light of the ball. Where could all the others have gone? Come to think of it, he hadn’t even asked Kai where he was right-

The light suddenly parted and the ball seemed to turn into a little window looking into a room. Luhan raised his eyebrows at the sight. Kai was in bed, asleep. He was also and had his arms wrapped tightly around a girl.

“HEY!” Kai screamed and finally broke Luhan’s concentration. The sand wobbled for a moment then fell to the ground.

“You’re on earth now?” Luhan asked.

“Y-yes,” Kai replied, blushing furiously.

“And you’ve kept busy,” Luhan giggled as Kai turned around and refused to look at him.

“I-I’m going to go back now,” Kai stood up, dusting off his pants.

“What?! Wait, you can’t leave me here!” Luhan stood up and followed as he headed to a little opening in the red strings around them.

“Sorry, hyung, you’ve gotta figure his one out on your own,” he shrugged, stepping through the strings into the blackness.

“But when can I get out?” Luhan asked.

“Once you’ve mastered whatever new… thing that was, everything should be back to normal,” Kai shrugged.

“But how long…” Luhan trailed off. Kai had already snapped his fingers and disappeared. Luhan fell to the floor in a puff of sand. He let the sand swirl in the nothingness for a while before forming it  into a ball again. He might as well get started.