“What’s wrong with you? Why can’t you concentrate?” Kangin snapped in annoyance and Kyuhyun mentally slapped himself. A gatekeeper’s guardian has just been killed, erm correction, destroyed, the helpful voice in his mind inserted; leaving one of his friends vulnerable and here he was, daydreaming about a certain dragon.

But try as he might, he just couldn’t concentrate after what Kangin had just revealed to him. Siwon knew him since he was a baby and yet they’ve never met until Amber was killed. Bianca had told him that Siwon didn’t go back to Pendarak often and Kangin had told him that while he had met the dragon a few times over the centuries in other worlds, that day he was born was the first and last time he saw Siwon in this particular world. 

So that meant Siwon never went back to Pendarak after that, didn’t it? He had stayed here. Of course, twenty five years wasn’t exactly that long in dragon years. After all, when he had asked, Kangin had told him quite unconcernedly that Siwon was about a hundred years older than Donghae. So basically, he was almost two hundred years older than Kyuhyun. If Kyuhyun had been more indifferent, he would have joked about it and said that Siwon must be a dragon e if he had ever thought about dating humans. 

Humans, basically meaning himself.

But Kyuhyun couldn’t dare ask, even hypothetically but turns out, he didn’t need to because Kangin supplied him with the computed answer. Siwon was about 31 years old in Earth years while Donghae was only 15.

So technically, it wasn’t Siwon who was the e, it was Kyuhyun.

“Again!” the Labrador growled and Kyuhyun told himself to focus, he could wonder about Siwon’s staying on Earth and what it meant at a later time and to remind himself to view Donghae beginning today as a kid brother. Now if only his traitorous mind cooperated, there wouldn’t be any problems. Suuuure.

“Repeat to me the first Law of Etagk,” Kangin ordered and Kyuhyun struggled to remember what he had just been told only a few minutes ago about the principles of Etagk, the Nibiru word meaning “gatekeeping.”

“The first law states, everything goes somewhere,” Kyuhyun recited the memorized lines. 

“Alright, without opening a gate, tell me the words to get to Pendarak.”

“Mu ugti Gaia ilkuchi ti Derkomai”

“Good, now if one wants to go Hielo?”

“Mu ugti Gaia ilkuchi ti Isaz. Is this a quiz or what?”

Kangin frowned and ignored the question, “Well, do you actually know what those words mean?”

“Of course, it’s in the Gatekeeper’s manual. Basically, it translates to plain Korean as From Earth, open the gate to Derkomai which is the ancient name for Pendarak and Isaz is Hielo’s old name.”

Kangin nodded in satisfaction, “Exactly and Gaia as you already know is Earth’s ancient name. The words you use to open those gates come from Nibiru’s oldest language so you can only open the gates to this one and other worlds if you know their ancient names that’s why there are Nine Known Worlds.”

“Yeah, I get it. They’re known because we know their ancient names.”

“Exactly and gatekeepers can’t open paths to other worlds they don’t know the ancient names of.”

Kyuhyun just raised an eyebrow questioningly since he didn’t get what Kangin was leading to or what exactly was the connection of these ancient laws with him being able to shoot bullets or lightning from his hand. Surprisingly for someone as smart and a game freak as Kyuhyun, he was also unimaginative in thinking that plasma or psionic blasts coming out from his hand was the pinnacle of awesomeness in supernatural powers. 

But Kangin had told him that this would help Kyuhyun to defend himself so he expected at the very least, laser beams, darnit.

“Now what’s the second law?” Kangin demanded, snapping Kyuhyun out of his reverie.

“The second law states, entrances are limited, exits are limitless,” then before Kangin could explain, Kyuhyun continued smugly, “It simply means that while we gatekeepers can open portals anywhere in the world we’re in, the gates only open in certain locations in the worlds we open.” He was glad that he actually paid attention to those boring Gatekeeper meetings. 

His guardian just grunted and asked, “And the third law?”

“The third law states, the path is the shortest one; the time is the longest one,” Kyuhyun said slowly. This was the only one to which he didn’t have a clue on what it could mean because it sounded too cryptic.

“It’s somehow connected to the second law,” Kangin explained as if he read the gatekeeper’s mind. “Once you open a gate here to, say Nibiru, the portal that opens there is the one which is nearest to Earth at that particular time. That’s what’s meant by the shortest path. The longest time on the other hand means that any being must follow the temporal flow of the world he’s currently in provided that it’s longer than the one where he is originally from. Out of all the known worlds, Earth has the shortest time so if you or any human go to the other worlds, time will move more slowly for you because you have to follow the time there. It means you won’t age as fast as you would normally do when you’re here. It’s different for other world beings who come here. They are untouched by the relatively fast flow of time here.”

Kyuhyun’s face just remained impassive. He still didn’t know how this knowledge could be of use to him or to him protecting Donghae.

“So now do you see why Gatekeepers can’t be easily killed or die?”

“Um, no?” 

Kangin’s head drooped to the floor for a moment and Kyuhyun wondered if that was a dog’s way of facepalming. 

“And here I thought you actually got it when you tried to open a gate when Jonghyun came here,” the daemon muttered. He snapped his head back up to explain with a try at patience, “The first law states that everything must go somewhere. You’ve been opening portals for other world beings, correct? Well obviously, you can also open portals to protect yourself from harm. If someone tries to shoot you, what do you do?”

Kyuhyun raised both eyebrows, “Scream and run?”

“No!” Kangin almost shouts, “You’re a gatekeeper, your first instinct should always be to open a gate! Here let me show you,” Kyuhyun was intrigued as the Labrador suddenly crouched low on all fours and he could swear he could hear Kangin muttering words he’d never heard before. But then, just as suddenly, as if his guardian remembered something, he quickly straightened up and looked around the room hurriedly. “Do you have anything here, you won’t miss? Like something you can dispose of?”

Kyuhyun was now really intrigued and he was about to go and get the things from his trash bin when Kangin snapped fiercely that no way was he going to put those in his mouth. Then getting impatient at the gatekeeper, the Labrador went to Kyuhyun’s pile of discarded jewel CD cases and got one.

“Okay, I’ll throw this to you. Pretend it’s something dangerous like an arrow or a jetrumizeg,” Kangin explained but before Kyuhyun could ask what the heck was a jetrumizeg and why did he need to sacrifice his jewel cases as he might need them later, his guardian continued, “Open a gate to Oubli and make it disappear there.”

The gatekeeper was a little bit surprised since it was actually the first time he was going to open a portal to Oubli. He had never met an other-world being from there and he was quite curious about the people who lived there. It was true that he should have met someone from Oubli, their gatekeeper for one but surprisingly, it was someone from Nibiru who was put in charge of it.

“What on blazing Abaddon are you doing?” Kangin snarled as he saw Kyuhyun half-kneeling.

“You said to open a gate,” Kyuhyun calmly replied. He didn’t know why his guardian was annoyed and boy was Kangin annoyed considering that he only usually referred to his home world Abaddon when he was cursing.

Suffice to say that it took more than a dozen times before Kyuhyun was able to send the plastic projectiles Kangin kept throwing at him into Oubli. Kangin alternated between growling and biting into a jewel case to throw at Kyuhyun who was still struggling to open a portal in mid-air. Yes, that was the reason why Kyuhyun was initially unsuccessful, he was used to opening gates on floors and now his guardian had just told him that he can actually open a gate in mid-air or actually, on anywhere he wanted to. 

Not only that but that long-ish chant he had to memorize when opening gates? Kangin had told him that it was actually only a formality for the gatekeeper and the person he was transporting. It was a rule that Gatekeepers had to say the name of the worlds that he was opening the gates to as protection for the other-world beings so that they knew where they were going to. But the words weren’t actually needed for the gate to open, it was all just dependent on the will of the gatekeeper. But of course, if a gatekeeper says the name of the world out loud, he could not will the gate to open into another world. It was a clever trick discovered by the Annunaki of Nibiru and ensured the safety of anyone who was travelling inter-worlds.

So basically, here was Kyuhyun being trained to open gates at almost the speed of thought. 

“Alright, that’s enough,” Kangin declared as he his paws or probably trying to clean his tongue with his paws. Kyuhyun however almost whined, he had been begun to enjoy himself so much. He felt a momentary pang of regret that he had not been “birthed” as a gatekeeper sooner. Imagine the fun he would have had sending some of his annoying classmates’ precious items in high school to-…

“Hey Kangin, where exactly is Oubli? Who lives there?” Kyuhyun was now really curious.

Kangin, unexpectedly, looked at him quite seriously then he gave a sigh as he said, “No one lives there. Well, to be more precise, no one is from there. There are beings there but they were put there for various reasons. It’s actually the prison of the Nine Known Worlds,” Kyuhyun was a bit shocked at what he had heard but what was said next shocked him even more. “You actually know what Oubli is. In this world, you refer to is as Limbo.” 

“Limbo?” Kyuhyun said slowly, “You mean that place where souls which can’t go to heaven yet but can’t be put in hell are found?”

Kangin sat on his hind legs, “You know it as that but yes, you were taught that Limbo is like that because in a sense, it is. Nothing is there, just a wide, empty space. We use it as a holding cell for suspected criminals while their cases are heard by the High Council. For Gatekeepers, it has become a handy world to open in case of emergencies like this.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure that those stuck there are quite happy with the new supply of empty jewel cases I sent,” Kyuhyun said wryly then he asked seriously, “What happens if I actually sent something really deadly, like a bullet perhaps? Like if I actually managed to keep my head and open a gate when someone shoots me instead of running for cover like any other sane person?”

Kangin pursed his lips, which was actually quite a feat since his Labrador fangs were quite long as well as his tongue, “Oubli is like a vast vacuum. You send a speeding bullet in? It just appears there and probably stops all movement the moment it gets there.”

“So you mean no one is actually from there? Then how was it known in the first place?”

Curiously, his guardian couldn’t meet him in the eyes as he explained, “Someone discovered it eons ago. Someone from my world. The High Council went and sent star interpreters and available gatekeepers there and found out it was just vast, empty space. From then on, it became a holding cell for the Interpol. It was quite ideal since no one can get out from there unless you’re a gatekeeper. As it is, there are always two gatekeepers from Nibiru, one is for Nibiru itself, the other acts as the jailor for Oubli.”

“And what happens when a suspect is found to be innocent after all?”

This time, the Labrador grimaced, “He gets to stay in Nibiru if he wants to as compensation,” Kyuhyun just look confused considering that he didn’t know what a stay in Nibiru would mean. It was the First Known World and yes, he had also heard that it was superior in every way to all the other worlds but he had scoffed at that. Give him a permanent lease to Gangnam’s most expensive penthouse suite, an unlimited supply of red wine and getting paid to play his favorite video game all day; and those would be the equivalent of paradise on Earth.

Of course, the intruding visions of a certain tall and handsome dragon somewhere in those dreams, either beside him or just with him, were just his mind playing tricks on him, especially the parts where he was on top of him. He slapped himself out of it…

And the sudden pain in his cheek and Kangin’s surprised stare told Kyuhyun that he had actually slapped himself for real.Ouch!

“A mosquito bit me,” Kyuhyun muttered in explanation.

Kangin just grunted and eyed him suspiciously but he continued in an almost bored tone, “Nibiru can be thought of as heaven. At least, that’s what they say. You can almost live forever there. No sickness, no conflicts, everyone’s equal, you don’t even need to work for a living. Really, it’s Paradise.”

“Yeah, I can hear the enthusiasm in your voice,” Kyuhyun said mockingly, an eyebrow raised.

The daemon cleared his throat, “Yeah, well. Anyway, if he’s found guilty, he gets sent to Abaddon.” And this time, Kangin grinned while almost gushing in his description, “He’ll be forced to work almost non-stop, food is plentiful but bad, everyone is suspicious and jealous of one another and the only things you get to keep are what you’ve stolen. It’s a pretty chaotic place.” 

“Wow, don’t make it sound so safe and protected. I might just actually want to live there,” Kyuhyun said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. But before his guardian could utter a retort, he continued, “So basically, it’s like Nibiru as you said is Paradise, like heaven. And Abaddon is what? The proverbial hell?” he chuckled.

Kangin tilted his head to one side and said in surprised tones, “Huh? Well what did you think Abaddon was? And I’m a daemon remember?”

Kyuhyun’s eyes widened, “You mean-… Wait, daemon-…de-…demon? That means you're a demon but ho-…oh my God!”

“Yeah, yeah. Surprise, surprise,” Kangin snorted and shook his head, “You know, I would have thought you would have already figured it out much sooner.”

Kyuhyun was still eyeing the daemon like he had never seen him before, “I thought it just sounded almost the same! And your world being called Abaddon was just a concidence!” Kangin looked at him with an are-you-for-real expression, “Well then, how come you look like that?” he demanded. 

“What? You’re expecting horns and a pronged tail?” Kangin retorted, “Those are just your humans’ fairy tale stories to scare your little kiddies. Anyway, our forms are almost just like you guys…” he paused as he sized up Kyuhyun. “Ah well, not exactly. We’re much taller and bigger.” At Kyuhyun’s surprised stare, he had to add, “We daemons, ever since we were assigned to be guardians for gatekeepers, have to assume forms that are considered to be less, but still useful, than the dominant species in that particular world. So as your guardian, I assumed the form of a Labrador.”

Kyuhyun wasn’t sure but did he detect a note of resentment in Kangin’s voice? He must have just imagined it because why would someone like Kangin voluntarily assume the form of a dog if he didn’t want to? Although yes, Kangin didn’t seem to be that much dependable when it came to actually making sure that Kyuhyun get out of trouble but at least, with these lessons and other information that Kangin remembered to tell him, he could say that Kangin knew his job. Now if only Kangin also remembered that since he was supposedly a guardian, he would also need to display a certain more amount of bravery than him…because he sure as heck didn’t know what to do if someone more dangerous than Hielan poisoners, lecherous dragons or dying dwarves came his way.

Of course, he could always disappear by opening a gate, thus he could avoid would-be assassins. Or over-enthusiastic dragons really. Then he grinned, remembering what Kangin said about Oubli. The daemon who discovered it must have been a genius. Imagine, he was able to guess the ancient name of Limbo and…

“Kangin…”Kyuhyun said slowly, trying to calm his suddenly overactive imagination. He just realized something and if he was correct…

“Hmm?”

“The daemon who discovered Oubli, he-… he had to register the name of that world right? I mean, tell it to the High Council so all the other gatekeepers would know?”

“Yeeees…” Kangin said slowly, he was beginning to suspect where Kyuhyun was going with this.

“Because if he didn’t, he would be the only one who knew the name of that world. So if say, if for some reason or another, he accidentally sends someone there, he’s the only one who can get that person back. I mean, even if that other person was a gatekeeper, he couldn’t get out of that world because in opening gates, we gatekeepers need to will two things. We need to will the gate of the world we’re going to to open of course but we also need to open the gate of the world we’re exiting to make that connecting path.”

If Kyuhyun hadn’t been sure of Kangin seemingly hiding something before, now he was now certain of it. Kangin suddenly froze and for one brief moment, Kyuhyun was sure he had seen an odd light in Kangin’s eyes. But then it was gone again in an instant. 

“Yes, you’re right and that’s why all Gatekeepers were given Guardians. To make sure that whatever knowledge you gain is transmitted properly to the High Council,” Kangin said in quite even tones, looking steadily into the gatekeeper’s eyes. It was as if the Labrador was telling him to go on and make that connection, say out loud the conclusion that was presently swirling around Kyuhyun’s mind.

“So that time-…” Kyuhyun began slowly, trying to form the words that his brain screamed at him to say, “That time you told me that two gatekeepers just suddenly died and no one was birthed to take their places, it…it wasn’t really true, was it? Because only one gatekeeper in each world can be awakened, no one has any control over it, it just happens. So that could only mean they didn’t die, did they?” Kyuhyun asked, afraid of the answer.

Kangin was still just carefully and steadfastly looking at him but he nodded and Kyuhyun in his breath harshly. He then whispered, “They didn’t die, they vanished into another world. A world they couldn’t come back from because they couldn’t get out of it. They didn’t know the name of that world so that could only mean they were sent there by another gatekeeper.”

Again, Kangin just nodded but Kyuhyun could now see sadness in the daemon’s eyes. 

“But this happened, you told me, over a thousand years ago. That means, they’re still stuck there?”

“Yes and no,” Kangin finally spoke, his voice gruff, “Yes, they’re there but they’re not stuck there anymore. That is, their respective gatekeeper replacements awakened after a hundred years or so.”

For a few moments, Kyuhyun didn’t speak. The horrible implication of what Kangin said made him speechless in shock. “So they died in that world they were cast into, never to return home,” Kyuhyun said almost angrily, this was something… “Who did this monstrous thing?!”

Kangin just looked at him with that same expression before he shook his head as if to clear his thoughts and spoke harshly, “You don’t need to know his name now. His name has been erased from the Gatekeepers’ list. He was destroyed by the High Council. No amount of bribery, trickery, even torture could make him reveal where he sent them or why he did it.”

Kyuhyun was shocked. He might not have welcomed whatever cosmic joke that was played on him and made him a Gatekeeper, but secretly, he had thought all along that his job had been important, even noble, on the side of angels if there was one. And now this… 

“Now you know why you’re given guardians. The true reason why all you Gatekeepers have daemon Guardians isn’t because we have to protect you. No, far from it,” Kangin shook his head and laughed bitterly, “We don’t protect you, we protect others from you.” 

Something heavy lodged inside Kyuhyun’s chest as he searched his guardian’s face. It was not just because he was shocked at knowing that it was someone like him, who had powers like him, who was responsible for doing something so atrocious, so terrible. He also now seemed to be looking at a stranger. He had smelled Kangin’s anger when he found out about Bianca’s daemon but now there was this anger again. 

For a fleeting, despairing moment, he thought Kangin was angry at him, because of what he represented. But then Kyuhyun just as quickly realized that his guardian’s palpable anger wasn’t directed at him. No, it was as if he was angry at himself. But surely, that couldn’t be right because why would Kangin… 

There was a sudden knock at the door.

“Kuixian? Kangin?” It was Zhou Mi.

Kyuhyun glanced at the daemon who gave him a nod and sighed, “We’ll talk about it another time.”

“What is it, Mi?” the gatekeeper asked as he opened the door.

“Aide-…Donghae has visitors. I think you need to meet them,” the tall man explained, then he leaned forward to whisper to Kyuhyun and Kangin. “I think they’re dragons with high positions. They have that lordly look and did some sort of greeting with much arm actions and grunting. It was fun to watch.”

Kyuhyun had to bit back a grin at Zhou Mi’s excitement and wondered what had made him conclude that the visitors were “lordly”, then he groaned. Wait, could they be clan-lords? Oh no, was he going to be sniffed at again? He tightly clutched his gold pendant. He wondered if he should maybe buy some more gold jewelry and cover himself up with it. Maybe buy a crown too. 

“Let’s go,” Kangin said, “If they’re clan-lords that would mean they now know Donghae’s decoys have failed. I wonder who-…”

“Kyuhyun! Kyuhyun, come quick!” Donghae bounded up to them, that wide smile of his lighting up his face as he went over and took Kyuhyun’s hand. “My kin have visited me, they’re two of my favourite people and I want them to know you.”

Kyuhyun smiled and subtly tried to take his hand away but Donghae just linked his fingers into his, locking their hands more. He was very suspicious and the “I want them to know you” bit that Donghae talked about was making him apprehensive. Please, please don’t let Donghae introduce me as his mate or something dumb like that. He looked at his guardian with pleading eyes. Quite expectedly, Kangin just snorted and looked away with what was suspiciously, a grin on his face.

Then Kyuhyun remembered something, “Who-…who are the visitors?” Because how could he forget that a certain dragon was a clan-lord and actually looked lordly.

“Oh, one is Leeteuk. He’s the clan-lord of the White Dragons,” Donghae smiled up at him and Kyuhyun had to stop himself from leaning away because seriously, Donghae did not need to lean so close to him like that, surely. “”And the other one is my half-brother. Do you remember I mentioned him to you?”

Kyuhyun nodded in relief, “He’s the one who told you to hide here,” he recalled as he tried again to extricate his hand to no avail but at least he lost some of his nervousness. He didn’t think he could face Siwon right after learning that he had also planned to meet Bianca. He had to get over this irrational emotion called “non-jealousy” first before that happened.Non-jealousy. Yes, that was the word because of course, he wasn’t jealous.

After tugging his hand a few more times and Donghae finally looking at up him in confusion, he sighed and gave up. “Alright, let’s meet them.” He was rewarded with a beaming Donghae who led him to the living room where he supposed the dragons were waiting for them. “By the way, what’s your brother’s nam-…”

Oh, of course!

Kyuhyun mentally cursed everyone in the Nine Known Worlds and the powers that be who gave him this fate. It was bad enough that he had to be a gatekeeper, a dragon’s mate and mixed up with more than one murder of the inter-world kind. Of course, they also had to give him the topping on the cake.

Because here he was, holding hands with Donghae who proudly introduced him to a handsome, smiling man, dressed all in white and who he assumed to be Leeteuk and now he had no choice but to face the grim and unsmiling man who was Donghae’s half-brother.

Siwon.

-----TBC

A/N: *wipes sweat* Finally finished importing everything I have of this fic from LJ lolol. Anyway, thank you for subscribing, reading and commenting on my fics.♥♥♥ I'll try to update and finish my fics one by one and this is probably the longest one I have.  ^.^

A/N2: Gawd, why does aff give an auto-M rating to the chap when I didn't even tick the box??? >.<