They did not stop Taemin from leaving with Yuki and their quest to create 1000 cranes. Onew and Key knew the cost of making the cranes and they wondered whether the mortal would be able to see it through. The circumstances surrounding their newest member had been explained to Onew upon Key's arrival. He remembered Key's grim haunted face when they had first met. GD was hovering in the background, a mad look in his eyes. Onew felt that they were withholding something from him but he kept quiet. Time would tell him when it was necessary for him to know. And so he also kept Key's secret from the others.

"Onew!!!" A young girl voice was heard down the hospital hallways. Onew glanced towards the door. The ticking sound of a clock became more audible. “Onew! Where are you?!" The girl's sobbing voice continued to echo down the halls. Minho muttered under his breath about hating being around the gods; they were too dangerous.

"Onew! There you are!" A ten year old girl with pigtails skidded to a stop in front of the open doorway. She looked panicked and desperate, her freckled nose scrunched up in an attempt to hold back tears of frustration. Onew stood up and gave a bow to the goddess of Time.

Time ran towards him and dealt him a er punch into his belly. Onew fell down onto a knee, winded, but without complaint. One did not disagree with the gods in their faces, even one that looked like someone's little sister. And according to their rules, he probably deserved it. Somehow.

Time sat on his knee, wrapping her arms around his neck. She proceeded to wail out a story about how hard it was to do actual work. She did not want to concentrate and turn back the flow of time. She just wanted to play and let things roll forward. Time complained about how hard her sister was treating her.

Onew listened with patience and made soothing noises where he judged appropriate; because one did not want to upset a god from not listening. Minho and Jonghyun stayed quiet and well away from the two. But Key was growing restless from the noise that Time was making. The ticking clock that followed her as her own theme song was only reminding him of the race he had to make the 1000 cranes. He hated Time. It was Time who offered him the final conditions of the granting of his wish to save Yuki. It was Time who gave him the joke that was the photo album.

And so Key scoffed at her story telling. Minho immediately clamped Key's mouth shut with his hands, an alarmed look shot across towards Onew's own panicked, wide eyes.

Time stopped her chattering and quietly slid off Onew's knee. She turned around to face Key on his bed, knocking Onew's walking stick off the ground and causing their leader to fall onto his bottom from the sudden lack of support. Time's eyes were dark and serious, her presence no longer child-like. Rather, her presence filled the room, electric and potent.

"Key, you should know better," she told him. "This is entirely your fault. If you weren't here, I would not be so hard-pressed to unravel my own hard work." Time sat up onto his bed. "There are so many strings of time out there to travel down. I must not confuse them and reverse events that aren't meant to be touched. I must not stop the wrong timeline." And she snapped her fingers at their window. Everyone’s eyes had travelled with her outstretched hand and saw the passing bird drop dead to the ground.

"I just have to stop yours, Time whispered to Key.

Key looked back into the goddess' eyes. She was serious. But he did not care for her task because he had his wish granted. Time herself had granted his 1000 cranes wish. And Time saw these sentiments flash across his face.

"You are an anomaly," she told Key, "And your son was not meant to live into his adulthood. Both problems are being rectified."

"What do you mean?" Key's anger with Time pushed him to demand answers from her. And because she knew that it would hurt him to know, she answered Key.

Yuki was allowed to live to a respectable old age and have his own family. A young son was gifted to him; a son who was afflicted with the same childhood illness. And Yuki would be driven to save his son, like Key had. Like father, like son. But Yuki would fail in his quest for the 1000 cranes and cease to exist. Because Fate was twisted like that.

"And you, my dear Key, will return to your last moment as a mortal and fail. And you will watch your son die as he should have." Time leant forward into his face. "Your arrogance needs to be checked, boy."

Key was having an attack. He could feel the energies course through him and painfully build up, blocked and without any chance for release. He had not gone through that chase with GD and his group, nor live as Time's servant for so many years, for it to be brought back down because the gods did not like it any more. And his Yuki ... not again!

Time could sense Key's panic and laughed. She laughed as if it was the funniest thing she had ever seen. It certainly put her back into a happier mood and she slid off Key's bed.

"Sister, dear." Another female voice sounded from the door. Fate was leaning against the frame and beckoned Time towards her. Time went to follow Fate. She stopped by Onew, still sitting on the floor and smiled her childish grin as she kicked him again. Onew paled and grunted, but made no other movement.

"Don't disappoint me, Onew," she told him as she skipped out of the room. "I don't want to punish you for making me work harder. I work hard enough as it is."