Lay sprinted down the hall, not bothering to change out of the sweatpants and t-shirt he was wearing as he slept peacefully just seconds ago. Seconds before Luhan called out to him, listing off to him a sector and a street name that he was fully acquainted with. He woke with a start and left his room without hesitating as he disregarded the need to put on shoes. He didn’t understand it at first but he didn’t need to. He had somewhere to be.

Somewhere outside of the Hall of the Guardians.

And that alone gave him a subtle hint as to what he was looking for in Sector A on Main street. A hint as to who he was looking for.

As he ran towards the entrance to the Hall, he passed by two people who were coming down a hallway to his right. He didn’t stop to explain as he continued on, ignoring the looks of confusion on their faces. One of the said two sighed and looked up towards the ceiling as he called out to someone, his voice dripping with suspicion, “Luhan.”

The answer he got back was immediate, “Chen, D.O., assemble in the Main Hall.”

“Luhan,” Chen called him again, not wanting to remain clueless as to the reason why Lay just ran past him and D.O. in his pajamas without shoes or socks on. Luhan did not respond this time, causing Chen to have to breath out to calm himself. The fact that D.O. was there to lead him to the Main Hall helped immensely in deterring him from going after Lay right then and there.

I was running. Running as fast as my legs would carry me. Not that fast I might add but considering my usual speed, it was considerably faster. I almost stumbled over my own two feet on multiple occasions. But I kept going. I kept going because I had a reason to.

The vision I had moments ago was in no way good. If anything, it was the complete opposite. And it had to do with a guardian. A guardian named Xiumin. The only one whom I had yet to meet.

There was no way I was going to let something happen to him before I got to.

It wasn’t long until I got there. Until we got there. We being Suho, Sehun, and I. I hadn’t stopped to explain what I saw and I was grateful that they didn’t make me. That would have given us less time. Time we preciously needed because the current time was a mere few minutes before eleven and the sign of a shop on Main street was turned off in my vision. A shop that sold old watches. A shop I remember visiting every now and then just due to my simple fascination with what was inside. A shop that closed at eleven every night.

And here we were, standing in front of the small business as people walked by, going about their everyday activities. Even so late at night, Sector A of the city still buzzed with life. And this was Main street, the most popular street in Sector A. I breathed out roughly as I attempted to catch my breath, not being able to hear Suho’s words over a hissing sound that invaded my eardrums. It didn’t make sense, the peace and quiet now. The calm that everyone seemed to have. And in the vision I had, it was raining.

I turned away from the store and looked up to the sky, the hissing noise still blocking out all other sound from my eardrums, as I searched the night sky for clouds. There were none which only further fueled my confusion. As I let my eyes fall, my range of sight taking in what was in front of me, I saw it. I saw him. Him in that familiar black cloak.

He was on the sidewalk right across the street from me. Just as he was when I saw him before through that fleeting image in my vision. Xiumin was there, just across the street, and I was here, the hissing sound in my ears growing louder. For one single second, the sound stopped and I realized something. I realized what my vision meant. I realized what was going to happen now.

Then, like clockwork, what I had seen happened.

The building to my adjacent right, situated right beside the antique clock store that had been closed for over a minute now, in one simple word, blew. It blew up as plume of fire escaped its windows, shattering the glass that was unable to contain the explosion. People screamed. People ran. The once calm and bustling street turned chaotic within a single millisecond.

I felt a pair of arms wrap around me, tugging me back. Away from the glass that went flying like projectiles through the air. Away from the smoke that engulfed the building as it continued to burn with a fierce intensity that, from this close, seemed to rival that of Chanyeol’s fire wall that threatened to burn me just yesterday.

And the hissing sound, as I had realized not even a second before the blast, was the sound of gas. Gas leaking through a pipe in the building that had erupted into flames. But I had been hearing it even before we had gotten to Main street. I had heard it as I ran all the way here. I had even heard it throughout my vision, unable to at the time realize that it was there. It was the warning sign. The warning sign that what I had seen would begin.

But, this explosion wasn’t the end. This is not where my vision had ended. I knew what was going to happen. I knew that after the building blew, a startled young man in his car would swerve and end up crashing his car into one in the opposite lane. That the young man would escape the car, and so would the older woman in the other, both tumbling out of their respective car doors. That a piece of flaming metal debris from the blast, what used to be the front door of the building, would pierce into the side of his car, rupturing his fuel tank and sending his and the other woman’s car ablaze. Then, not even a second later, both cars would explode, the pieces that once made them up sent shooting outwards. And one of these pieces, only one, would hit someone.

Someone whose blood had stained my vision in red. Someone who now stood across the street from me as he wore a black, ceremonial robe that belonged to the Guardians.

Xiumin.

At least, that’s what would have happened.

That’s what would have happened if as I felt a pair of arms I knew were Suho’s pull me back from the explosion had I not yelled the name of the young boy beside who, in that moment, overcame his shock quickly as he sidestepped from behind Suho and I and stood in front of us. That’s what would have happened if I had not called out for Sehun and he had not understood that that was his call to action. That’s what would have happened if Sehun, as the cars combusted too quickly for any of us to act, had not shifted the wind. Had he not sent those flying shards to the right, redirecting their course. Had they not instead impaled the ground harmlessly instead.

And, as what I had seen was avoided and people continued to scream, yell, and panic down the street and in the buildings surrounding us, I whispered. I whispered to Suho who still had his arms wrapped around me protectively.

“Make it rain, Suho.” I let out a light laugh, my eyes blurring out on me as I slumped over, giving into his hold. Within a mere matter of seconds, a fire hydrant that lined the street blew its top, sending water shooting upwards before gravity brought it back down, causing it to pelt the ground hard, as though hail were falling instead.

There. Now it was over. It was over and as I felt Suho behind me, the one thing still keeping me upright, I heard a voice enter my head. A rather cocky sounding voice.

Well, while you’re not what I expected, you’re not bad.

“You’re not so bad yourself.” I responded and when I let my eyes flutter open again, I came face to face with Sehun. It was like I had gotten his approval. Approval to be his Seeress. Or maybe I was just thinking too much into that hint of a smile I saw on his face. I couldn’t exactly read his thoughts for that answer.

It wasn’t because I had suddenly lost the ability to do so.  It was because I found it hard to do now. I found it hard to even respond to Sehun to all. To even keep my eyes open. All I saw before I gave in, letting my eyelids meet, was the face of someone I had never seen before. At least, from so close. The same person who was across the street moments ago.

Xiumin.

I wanted to say “nice to meet you.” I wanted to greet him. I did. But, Suho’s grip on me felt so soothing, so comforting, that I gave into the darkness that spread across my eyes as my eyelids finally fluttered closed.

“How is she?”

The question was shot at Chen as soon as he entered the circular room. The Main Hall of the guardians. Those occupying the room now were Kris, Luhan, Tao, Suho, Kai, Sehun, Chanyeol, and Baekhyun, the one who had posed to him the quarry on everyone’s minds.

He raised his head, massaging the back of his neck before he answered, “She’s sleeping now. Lay is with her.”

“And the others?” Kris asked as his arms crossed stiffly against his chest.

“Xiumin wanted to stay with her. D.O. as well.” Chen thought back to how moments before, the two of them watched as Lay checked her pulse. D.O. was a bundle or worries, as he usually was. Xiumin felt guilty. He hadn’t said as much but Chen could tell from the look on his face.

Silence passed between them as Chen was given a chance to take his place in front of his pillar, one of the twelve in the room. A low hum erupted from it as he neared and died down once he turned to face the rest of the Guardians.

“I was able to blur out the footage from the street cameras on Main street. That should keep the Council off of us for a while.” Luhan spoke, changing the subject. He was able to make it seem like the explosion had distorted the view of the cameras. It was difficult to do on the spot, but he was able to make it happen.

“Are you really more worried about what the Council would do to us than about her?” Kai’s outburst irked Luhan once more.

Thus, Luhan’s words came out with stinging brutality, “Do not talk to me about keeping the Seeress safe. Keeping her out of the Council’s eyes is what will keep her safe. If you have a problem with what I did then I welcome you to beg the Council to protect her. I’m sure they will look favorably upon her and assure her safety in their own facility.” He was being sarcastic, heavily so.

Kai regretted his comment and bit back his words, mumbling an, “I didn’t mean it like that,” beneath his breath.

“She had a vision about Xiumin when I grabbed onto her hands,” Suho broke the tension, bringing the conversation back to its intended topic of discussion, “but even before that her blood was flowing irregularly.” That was why he had asked her how she felt. Her heartbeat was irregular. He could feel it faintly through the water that made up most of her body.

“She was having trouble before that.” Baekhyun added, “She was losing strength by the time we were leaving her apartment and she couldn’t even lift up her own suitcase. She had a vision before then as well.”

“Two visions in one day.” Kris was impressed by their Seeress but, more than that, he disliked it. He disliked the idea of her pushing herself, most likely without even realizing it, “Her body couldn’t take it.”

“But, Lay said she’d be fine, right?” Tao looked to Chen for an answer, his eyes coated with desperation, “He did, right?” The answer to his question was obvious though. Lay had the ability to heal her. He wouldn’t let her simply endure her pain. He would take it away. She would be fine. But, Chen had a feeling that’s not what Tao wanted to hear. He wanted an affirmation. He wanted complete and utter assurance that she would be okay.

“Tomorrow morning she’ll be as good as new. Not a single hair on her head out of place.”

Chen’s response garnered an audible sigh of relief from Tao. However, before that relieved breath, Tao locked eyes with him and Chen knew he had seen through his optimistic answer. His answer that was simply speculation. Lay could help her fall asleep without having to feel the burden of her own body’s weakness but whether or not she'd be the same when she woke up tomorrow was something he didn’t know.

And Tao wasn’t the only one to see through it. They all did. Yet, it comforted them to believe that everything would be fine when the sun rose on EXO planet tomorrow.

“You had something to tell us, right Luhan?” Sehun broke the silence between all of them. Luhan flinched slightly as he was lost in his thoughts as everyone else had been. Luhan sent an appreciative nod towards him before addressing the other Guardians once more.

“As much as it is best not to get ahead of ourselves, the appearance of our Seeress at this late moment seems to have been due to the Council.”

“Seems to have been?” Chanyeol clenched his teeth, feeling his fingers twitch as small flickers of flame, sparks of light, danced from one finger to the next.

“As I said, getting ahead of ourselves is not a good idea. There is more at stake here now than just us.” Luhan calmly replied with the full knowledge that while Kai acted quickly, Chanyeol acted aggressively. He did not want Chanyeol to go on a rampage through the hall, setting everything aflame as he had not even two months ago. Two months ago when the Council last tried to extinguish his flame. To end him. To kill him. Just as they had tried to do to Xiumin through the explosion which occurred today.

“We stand to lose more now than before.” Suho took in a deep breath before exhaling, his eyes drawing downwards to the dark gray floor. “Exotians stand a chance now against the Council. We can reverse the odds back in our favor now that her highness is here.”

“Which is why we stand to lose so much more if we rush into things, her highness being the one person we cannot lose.” Kris shot Chanyeol a glance and in an instant, his fists unclenched and the sparks that had flickered at the end of his fingertips died down.

“Is that it though?” Baekhyun’s question was short and sweet and was once more posed to the one in charge of telekinetic communication within the Guardians, Luhan. Luhan was not the type to report such a small thing. And just as he thought, Luhan did have more. Much more.

“According to her birth records, she was born in the year 4812. Her mother was reported to have passed during childbirth. Her father was a politician who was involved in the scandal that took place between those who supported the Council and those who did not. He was shot and killed in the crossfire between the Council’s police force and the civilian Exotians when she was two years old in the year 4814 during the “People’s Riot” which took place in the People’s Court. The very riot that, as we all know already, deemed the Council the ones fit to bring peace and stability to EXO and is what caused us and those before us to become a living memory within the minds of all Exotians.

“After the death of her father, she was put into the care of her aunt and remained in her care until two years ago when she passed away in a car accident. Apparently, her aunt did not have the same connections her father had, and she was stream-lined into Rank 3: where she has lived a quiet existence until the incident with Kai on the subway train two days ago. But, there lies an inconsistency within her personal records.”

Luhan didn’t need to catch his breath as he continued on, a look of composure remaining on his face as he told them the one flaw he had discovered, “There is a period of time in which the information on her is generic. Generic to the point of obvious falsity as it matches the information of a woman who lived over two hundred years ago on EXO. And that would be the information recorded from when she was age two to age ten. This leaves an eight year long window in which she was an enigma, seeming to exist yet not at the same time.“

“Eight years? Eight years in which we don’t even know where she was? What she was doing?” Kai was astonished and he had a right to be, none of them would argue that he didn’t.

“Further details on her aunt revealed her to be a researcher working at one of the Council’s facilities. The exact specifics of her job are classified and I cannot access it without arousing suspicion. However, whether or not her aunt was truly related to her or not seems to be less of an issue than the fact that for some reason, her aunt was listed officially as being Rank 3 despite her job dictating her as Rank 1.” Luhan revealed the information he had worked so hard to acquire. And it was basic. It was surface level intelligence. He couldn’t help but feel as though he should have dug deeper until he found something more. This was the reason he had first described it to them as finding “nothing.” All he had gained was speculation. Guesses. Hypotheses. No clear answer was provided.

“The Council may or may not have had something to do with her disappearance after her father died. That’s why you said we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves.” Kris nodded slowly as he took in all of what Luhan had just said to them. It wasn’t as much as he usually had to report so while it seemed as though he found out a considerable amount of information on their Seeress, to Kris and the other Guardians, it was much less than they ever had to take in whenever he reported in the past.

However, the implied question that Luhan had posed to them was much more thought provoking. The implied question that Kai had stated out loud moments before. The implied question of what happened to their Seeress for the eight years in which she had disappeared and how they could possibly make up for the eighteen year time period in which they were not by her side. 

The rock door to the Hall opened slowly, revealing from behind it a rather content looking Lay. All nine heads in the room turned towards him, awaiting what he had to say.

“She woke up.”

My head hurt.

That’s the first thing my mind registered as I laid here, in what seemed like the room I had seen earlier today. The Seeress’s room. Or I assume, my room now, right? Because I had seen it twice now. I had seen the future through my physical contact with Baekhyun and Suho. According to everything I had heard from the Guardians before this, now that I could read their minds and see the future, I was over qualified for the position of Seeress of EXO.

There was no point in resisting it anymore, was there? There was no more pretending this was a temporary problem with a simple solution. No more pretending I would get an answer to what that memory of that white room meant so easily.

I am the Seeress of  EXO.

Even thinking that sounds egotistical. It’s as though I’m saying that I’m the savior of the planet. Isn’t that who the Seeress of EXO was? The planet’s hope. Her guiding light?

All of this was too much. I don’t want to think about it anymore. And thankfully, I didn’t have to. As my vision cleared, the blurry face by my side became clear.

It was Xiumin.

I had only seen his face for a moment, a single second, but I knew it was him.

And I felt as though a weight was lifted off of my chest as my body and mind relaxed immediately. I was saying my next words without even registering them, “Are you okay?”

He stared back at me for a moment. I was much too tired to read his mind and definitely too tired to yell at him to hurry up and tell me. Why would I yell at him in the first place though? Oddly, I felt a sense of urgency in knowing his answer. When he finally did, I felt a hand slip into mine. It was cold and my body trembled from the contact. But, it felt good. The coolness felt good against my heated skin.

I blinked once, slowly, as I felt my body start to fail on me. Despite my urge to stay awake, sleep was tugging at me, lulling me to give into it. I was able to see Xiumin nod his head once though before my eyes shut, “Yes, your highness. I’m okay.”

My lips parted as I sighed, giving him a reply that once more came to me as though it were second nature, “Good.” I couldn’t open my eyes now. My eyelids felt heavy. And this bed felt oh so comfortable. I had to remember to thank Lay for taking care of this room when I woke up. “I’m going to go back to sleep, okay?” I asked Xiumin for permission. Why? I’m not exactly sure. My mind was a foggy mess right now.

I heard him answer softly as though if he raised his voice then he would somehow physically injure me, “Okay.”

Sleep well.

I heard a voice enter my mind. It was faint, but it wasn't Xiumin's voice. It was D.O.’s. He must have been here, in the room somewhere I couldn’t see. My lips curved upwards slightly as I murmured a reply before giving into the temptation that was sleep, letting my eyes close once more, “You got it.”

A/N:

I apologize for updating this so late. Especially when I had been updating it steadily before. But, you guys are so wonderful! Thank you for the comments! I'm glad you guys are enjoying the story, especially when you can find similar plots all over aff.

Regarding this chapter, it's long. Oh so very long. Think of it as a way to make up for not updating since last year (technically Dec. 21 was in 2012). 

Oh, by the way, the year the Seeress was born, 4812, is EXO's debut date as per when they released their debut single. April 8th, 2012. Yay for references. 

See you all on the next chapter!