“May the best guardians succeed…”

-

Suho may have been imagining things, but as Leeteuk said those words, he swears that a look of disappointment flickers in his counterpart’s eyes.

“Wait!” Instinctively, Suho reached out to Leeteuk, calling for a stop to the individual battles that he’d rather the members avoid. His thoughts were of Kai and Kris, both of whom had just suffered through imprisonment; no matter how much they tried to convince the others – and themselves – that they were perfectly fine, it could not be true. They had just experienced something that wasn’t only physically draining, but the incident had probably taken a toll on their mental strength as well. Not to mention that no-one else had slept in the last day, too worried about the injured ones. “I’d like to suggest a compromise…” Suho said tentatively, keeping his tight grip on Leeteuk’s arm. Leeteuk was still facing away from them and it seemed as if he would reject them – Suho’s grip on his arm was loosening after a few minutes of silence and he was about to retreat in resignation.

“What are you suggesting?” Leeteuk’s voice was a careful undertone, still facing the Super Junior members with his back to EXO.

“Let us fight as a team.” Everyone’s eyes widened, including their seniors as they processed what Suho was saying. “We are a family. Family sticks together, not matter what.”

“Are you sure?” asks Leeteuk, although there was a hint of a smile on the edge of his lips that only Super Junior noticed. “I have warned you that we are strong individuals; we are definitely stronger as a team.”

“But so are we.” The EXO members felt their hearts swell with emotion, the unexplainable feeling of brotherly love proven by their tight connection to one another. Looking at one another, they reached out for a brother’s hand, creating an unbreakable chain. Leeteuk turned to s, looking to them for confirmation. The others just shrugged, leaving the final decision to their leader.

“Have it your way.”

The EXO members got into position, Lay and Luhan behind the rest. They had decided that the two needed more protection as their powers could be used from a further distance. The worry – or fear in some cases – was evident on the young boys’ faces. A few (mainly D.O) had wide, petrified eyes while others were biting their lips nervously. After all, Super Junior had the exact same powers as them… If two powers that were opposites clashed – like fire and water – things could get ugly pretty quickly. And to add to that, everyone now knows who has which power; this could work to their advantage or lead them to their ultimate doom. Despite their dread, they remained poised, believing in each other, believing in their teamwork, believing in love.

“We are one!” With a final battle cry for motivation, the EXO members confronted their senior guardians with serious faces.

-

Unexpectedly, and to their surprise, the Super Junior members began clapping, sincere smiles adorning their faces. Leeteuk looked the happiest – and relieved – a fatherly smile stretching his lips. “Congratulations,” applauded the beaming Super Junior members, much to the confusion of the younger boys.

“Wh- What’s going on?” stuttered Luhan, rapidly blinking his doe eyes in amazement; D.O, on the other hand, kept his bulging eyes wide open, frozen. Everyone else was in a similar state, their jaws dropping in shock. Well, everyone except for Suho who merely sighed in relief.

“I’m glad you remembered my words, Suho,” praised Leeteuk, his eye-smile clearly visible.

“’Stick together, no matter what. You are stronger as a team than you are alone. Do not separate under any circumstances, even if you feel you have no other choice’" recounted Suho, thinking back to the time before they separated. “I can’t believe that we almost forgot that…” he mumbled, shaking his head slightly.

“It’s okay,” comforted Ryewook, patting D.O – who he seemed to take a liking to - on the back. “The important thing is that you guys remembered.”

“And not a moment too soon,” added Eunhyuk. “You guys would have gotten trashed if you dared to go against each of us individually,” he teased, playfully punching Kai beside him.

“We have been trolled…” murmured Chen, nodding his head in approval. He looked up to see Kyuhyun offering his closed fist for a fist bump.

“It was all my idea,” the elder said, grinning mischievously. It seems that a new troll alliance has been born… The two leaders glanced at Chen and Kyuhyun, who had begun to laugh maniacally, with worry – who knows how much trouble they’ll cause together…

“Which you came up with a few decades ago,” groaned Yesung, the dark eyebags under his eyes not unlike Tao’s. “You keep mentioning how genius your plan was, but we ended up having to wait for so long since we couldn’t help them during training…”

“But we are Super Junior,” said Donghae, with an innocent expression. “It’s not like we’re getting any older.” Even when everyone stared at him in wonder, his expression did not falter.

With a deliberate cough, Leeteuk called for everyone’s attention.

“We can talk more once this is over, but we should get the inauguration process done now.” He started to describe the procedure to the twelve eager members of EXO. Astonishingly, there was not much to do; after placing them in a circle around the Tree of Life, the only instructions they received were to close their eyes and open their hearts.

“Once you have calmed down, and opened your hearts fully, the inauguration process will begin,” whispered Leeteuk, noting that the boys had already begun to slip away; slip away to the other world.

-

Welcome EXO. I’m the Tree of Life, the source of your powers. I’m sure you have many questions for me, my children, but I will answer those another time. The only one that I will answer for now is the most pressing, as I’m sure you’ll agree. Why did I choose you and what’s going to happen next? I know that you are all curious, especially since I made you suffer through many trials and tribulations. But please understand, I never meant for you to go through all of this, however necessary it was. I needed people that were pure and good, untainted by evil – and that is how you were all chosen. There is no hidden agenda of any sort. As for what happens next, well, that is your choice. You may choose to leave behind the life at the agency, you may choose to stay. Nonetheless, be aware that the responsibility of protecting my heart has been passed down onto you. I am forever grateful to you, my precious ones, and we will always have a special connection. With that said, it is time for you to return to your world. Remember to visit me sometime; an ancient tree like me gets lonely very easily…

-

The twelve boys blinked in unison, waking up from… From whatever just happened? It wasn’t a dream but surely it wasn’t really happening either…

“Wow,” exhaled Baekhyun with a fascinated look on his face, the others much the same.

“MAMA is amazing isn’t she?” said Henry, running his hands over the bark of the trunk, gazing up nostalgically at the tree. “Promise us that you’ll take care of her…” There were nods all around and the Super Junior members relaxed at the readiness of their dongsaengs.

“Are you going somewhere?” asked Chanyeol, looking around at the suddenly maturing Super Junior members. “Wait, what’s going on?” he repeated, more frantic than before. The others noticed as well, and panic was evident in their eyes.

“Our job is over.”

“It’s time for us to return to MAMA.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.”

“Thank you.”

With teary eyes, the Super Junior members started glowing and fading away, waving at the sobbing EXO boys.

“Goodbye.”

-

And that's the end of 'EXO Division' =) I am actually feeling quite sad right now =( This is the first chaptered fic that I've finished so yeah...

I hope you enjoyed this chapter although I know that many of you were expecting actual fighting scenes xD Sorry about that but I never said that there will be one =P

Thank you for all the readers that have stuck with me since the beginning, sticking with EXO Division for the last 79 days <3 Thank you for the 7 votes, 77 subscribers and 3000+ views <3

And to any new readers, I hope you've enjoyed the fic, even though you haven't been reading from the start xD

Feel free to leave a comment, even after this has been completed as I will continue to check for and reply to any messages ^^

Farewell for now~