The hallways were silent, the light footsteps of the twelve boys echoing as they make their way to… Well, nobody knew. They were just following their leaders who seem compelled to go wherever their feet led them to. Whenever anyone tried asking them where they were heading, they received no response, Kris’ and Suho’s eyes glazed over as if possessed by something. But no-one dared to interrupt their trance. It was probably the heart’s doing… They could feel it beating from inside the boxes, although they were firmly shut. The mere proximity of the heart gave the boys a sense of warmth, familiarity; something they embraced to counter the fear in their souls.

Finally, Suho and Kris stopped walking. The other members furrowed their eyebrows in confusion for where they had stopped did not seem to be the place that they had expected. What they had expected was somewhere outside of HQ, somewhere in the countryside where a huge tree could go unnoticed – or more like overlooked – in a grassy meadow with nothing around for miles. Instead, they had stopped in front of the master’s old office, their given symbols decorating the aged wood. Just like the last time that they were here, all twelve members felt apprehensive at what was behind the door. However, the fear they felt before was magnified ten-fold when they saw their logos glowing softly, getting brighter and brighter under their piercing stares. With simultaneous coughs, the two leaders snapped out of their stupor, frantically looking around, trying to remember the last few minutes.

“What- How- Where-” Suho stuttered, unable to recall anything whilst Kris just stared blankly at the light radiating from the door.

“You’re back!” Tao hugged Kris in a crushing embrace, the latter not being able to do nothing but pat the younger’s back. Confused, he looked over to Lay for an explanation.

“You kept walking somewhere but whenever we tried asking you about it, we would get no response…” explained Lay, at the same time, searching Suho’s face for any signs of harm. The leaders shared an unreadable gaze, nodding in agreement.

“What?” All the members looked nervously at Suho and Kris, interested at the furtive exchange between them.

“What we’re looking for is behind there,” said Suho, turning to face the door, running his hands over the splintering wood.

“The two halves of the heart were leading us, showing us the way to the Tree of Life,” added Kris.

“So what are we waiting for?” whispered D.O, his wide eyes giving away the apprehension that he felt. Kris shrugged, considering the options that they had.

“Nothing I guess…” Suho reached out for the doorknob, turning it slowly and led the others to what was waiting for them on the other side.

-

With staggered gasps, the members of EXO gawked at the sight in front of them. Instead of the office that they had been expecting, they had walked into a grassy meadow, the wind – where did that even come from… Sehun just shrugged when everyone else turned to him, saying that it wasn’t him – tugging on the hems of their shirts and ruffling their hair. But what caught their attention the most was the huge tree towering above their heads, the gnarled trunk reaching high up into the sky, at least five times Kris’ height. Its branches were sheltering them from the blazing sun above – again, where it came from no-one knew… Baekhyun and Chanyeol both denied being the cause of it – and swayed slightly in the breeze. Kris and Suho stepped closer, the rest of the members following behind closely.

“D.O. Open up the ground slightly,” ordered Suho, motioning to the ground in front of them. The younger nodded, closing his eyes in concentration as a small pit formed. When the hole was deep enough, Suho and Kris placed the heart, which they had joined together, into it and D.O allowed the earth to swallow it up. Suddenly, they wind picked up and pinky-white cherry blossoms bloomed on the tree, the boys marveling at the strange miracle. Each member could feel a surge of power flowing through their veins, a sense of wholeness taking over their minds. But before they could make sense of what was happening, they were interrupted by a voice of an acquaintance; not any random person but someone that they thought that they could trust.

“Hello there, boys.” All of the members whirled around, breathless when they caught sight of Leeteuk in front of him. He was not alone. In front of them, twelve men stood in a line, smirking at the surprised – and slightly betrayed – faces of the EXO members. “I’m sure you have a lot of questions for me-”

“A lot? You said we could trust you!” Xiumin was glaring at the men in front of them, his protective older brother instincts kicking in.

“And you can. We are the current Guardians of the Tree, Super Junior,” clarified Leeteuk. “We need to make sure that the new Guardians – you – are capable of defending the sacred tree.”

“Then why didn’t you just tell us?” asked Sehun, still suspicious.

“It wasn’t something you needed to know,” mumbled Leeteuk, smoothing down the front of his shirt. He cleared his throat, and continued speaking.  “To pass your test, each EXO member will take on the Super Junior with the same ability as them.” Their eyes widened. Others had the same ability as them? But before any questions could be asked, Leeteuk began talking once more. “The pairings will go like this:

Leeteuk – Suho

Siwon – Kris

Kyuhyun – Chen

Ryeowook – D.O.

Henry – Sehun

Zhoumi – Luhan

Donghae – Lay

Kangin – Xiumin

Yesung – Tao

Sungmin – Baekhyun

Shindong – Chanyeol

Eunhyuk – Kai

Every single member must defeat their opponent for it to be considered a pass. Does anyone have any questions?” Each of the Super Junior members made their way to their respective opponents as Leeteuk finished speaking, eyeing each other. “Be warned, we are very strong individuals, honing our skills for the past twenty years…” Leeteuk seems to be stalling, waiting for something to happen but whatever it was, it never came. With a resigned sigh, he lifted his hands up to the skies.

“May the best guardians succeed…”

~

A longer chapter as promised ^^ It's the second last chapter =O This feels so surreal >< 

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A huge thank you for readin and I hope you enjoyed this chapter <3