Tree of Life

Kai bit his lip out of oblivion. The two trees of life were literally five meters apart. They were way too close for comfort, but Kai couldn’t do anything about it. It’s not like he can just push the trees.

Kai’s stress seemed to have an effect on the other two. Kyungsoo stood there playing with his fingers and Luhan just stood impatiently. But none of them did anything.

Finally, the trees were one meter apart from the other. They were so close that Kai cracked.

“HOLY CRAP HURRY UP TAAAAO!!” he cried, clenching fists in his hair. “Ah, I seriously can’t watch this anymore.” He declared, sitting down in fetal position. Luhan rolled his eyes and looked to the side.

Kyungsoo stared at Kai’s body for a while, thinking. Then he looked up at the trees, as he made up his mind.

Luhan looked back at the trees, not expecting the sudden surprise. “K-Kyungsoo-ssi! What are you doing?!”

Kai jerked his head up, his eyes widening. Kyungsoo had wedged himself between the two trees. The barks from both were pressing against his body. Kyungsoo had his back to one tree and he was attempting to push the other with his hands.

“H-Hyung! What are you doing, s-stop!” Kai demanded.

“I-I’m… Trying to help, of course!” Kyungsoo struggled as the trees got closer and closer.

“You’re insane! Get out of there, right now!”

“It’s better than doing nothing!”

Kyungsoo’s words echoed in Kai’s head. He was right. Kai had been doing nothing to prevent the trees from touching for the last ten minutes, so Kyungsoo decided to do so. But this… This was reckless. There was no way this was going to work. There was absolutely no way the trees were going to move under Kyungsoo’s strength. And yet, Kai did nothing again. He didn’t stop Kyungsoo from doing what he wanted. Somewhere inside, Kai believed it would work. After all, Kyungsoo was the guardian of Earth; there was the small possibility that it could work. Kai put his faith in him and clenched his fists on the ground.

“God, this is just—” Luhan stopped himself, and then sighed. He raised his hands and focused his energy. He focused on moving the two trees so that Kyungsoo wouldn’t be squished.

Kai swallowed, mentally slapping himself for not being able to do anything other than watch Kyungsoo and Luhan risk themselves.

He watched as sweat dripped down Luhan’s temple.

He watched as Kyungsoo’s hands shook against the tree trunk.

He watched as the trees got closer.

He watched as the trees pressed against Kyungsoo.

He watched as the trees combined, eating him alive.

He watched as the now single tree of life’s leaves turn orange.

An ugly, repulsive orange.

Chen’s Beach

Chen cautiously opened his eyes. He waited for the next wave of pain to hit him, but it never did. All the hurt drained from his body. Color returned back to his face, sweat drying from his skin. He looked at his chest to see the curse markings stop glowing.

“It’s over…?” Chen thought to himself. He still felt the same, he was still himself. And yet, he couldn’t get rid of this itching feeling in his gut. It took him a few minutes to realize what it was.

He looked out to the ocean and sighed. “So my parallel’s been sacrificed instead of me…? I see.”

He watched as the waves pushed against the shore, without a care in the world. The lighting in the distance resumed their habitual flickering again, as well as the thunder that accompanied it. Chen sighed again. “What a sad life we lead…”

Tree of Life

“KAI, STOP!” Luhan urged, holding Kai back.

“KYUNGSOO! DAMMIT KYUNGSOO!” Kai screamed, pounding against the tree. “KYUNGSOO!”

“KAI YOU HEAD!” Luhan roughly yanked the boy and shoved him to the ground. “YOU CAN’T HIT THE TREE OF LIFE, !”

“I DON’T CARE! JUST GIVE ME KYUNGSOO BACK!”

“You don’t care—” The older huffed. He glanced at the tree, silently cursing at its evilness. It practically ate Kyungsoo, and now it thinks it has the right to stand tall with those orange leaves. Luhan felt kicking at it himself. He turned back to Kai, who was sobbing on the ground like a pathetic . “Look, Kai, I get that you’re upset, but Kyungsoo-ssi had good intentions. He tried, okay? You need to—” Luhan lightly kicked the other’s thigh to regain his attention. “You need to focus. Now that the trees are together, Lucifer could come at any moment now.”

“Lucifer’s dead."

Suho’s comment startled Luhan and even made Kai stop sobbing for a second or two. The eldest walked up to them, raising an eyebrow at Kai and blankly staring at the tree. “Lucifer’s dead,” he repeated. “Baekhyun killed him.”

Kai sat up this time, his eyes still slightly red. “B-Baek-hyung is awake? And alive?”

“He has to be alive to be awake,” Suho retorted. “Baekhyun is alive, but we lost Chanyeol.”

Kai stared at his hyung, not wanting to accept the truth. Xiumin, Chanyeol, Kyungsoo and Sehun were all gone. Lucifer’s death couldn’t even compensate for theirs.

"...So what now?" Luhan interrupted. "The trees are..."

Suho pouted. "I really have no idea—"

At that moment, the three of them heard a low rumbling noise. The ground vibrated, as well as the tree, or trees.

Luhan pointed as the two trees became separate structures again, both with their respective red and yellow leaf colors. As the trees moved away from each other, so did the buildings from the other asylum. But no matter how hard Kai looked, Kyungsoo was nowhere to be seen.

Luhan fell into kneeling position. "Damn, Tao's a saint!" 

"You mean the guardian of time reversed, uh, time?" Suho remarked, looking amused. "Amazing."

Luhan nodded eagerly. He was still cautious around Kai though. "Um, Kai? Let's go to Tao and thank him. Maybe... Maybe he can reverse Kyungsoo-ssi's death too." He patted the boy's shoulder comfortingly.

Kai looked at his parallel with hopeful eyes. He wiped his tear stains and nodded. The image of his precious hallway suddenly came flooding back to him, like a lost memory. He remembered everything from how it looked, felt and smelled like; especially the smell. 

Hey guys, remember in chapter 16 where Taemin said: “That’s why in order for this to work, half of the guardians need to be sacrificed"?

I hope you don't think I'm killing them off because I want to LOL

So, thanks to Tao, the trees of life are seperate again, making the asylums seperate too. Because of this, the guardians have less of a chance meeting each other and lesser of a chance dying. 

But now we're wondering, where did Kyungsoo go? Hm... 

I know, I know, I'm killing you with all this angst. BUT. Don't worry, you're going to enjoy the next chapter. :D