"What do you mean back then? Suho will die if Chanyeol does?"

Jimin turned to Kai, everyone else also looked tensed. Jimin let out a small sighed and begin to explain:

Of all the elements, Suho, who is representing water, was chosen to become the leader of the twelve elements, Exo. Many question this decision as Chanyeol's fire and Kris's flight ability with Fire Dragon spirit is considered way superior to Suho's water ability. But there's one thing that separate him from others; his compassionate and the way he blends with the nature, all like the water flows.

But being the leader of Exo is no game. In fact, it comes with a great price. All the twelve elements are one with him, and he is one with each of them. If one of the elements become corrupted, he will pay the price for failing to keep them safe and united. And now with Chanyeol overcome with darkness and went against the rest of the elements, Suho is paying the price.

This is when Jimin's role comes in. With all the twelve "brothers" holding all the twelve elements together, she is the sole female member of Exo who did not belong to the twelve elements. But rather, her existence is to balance them and everything she possessed are oppose of the twelve brothers;

While all the twelve brothers possessed an element each, their powers are very powerful and the can use them limitless

while she possessed all the twelve elements but they are very weak and she can only use them for limited amount before become exhausted

All the brothers was born without the understanding how the universe works with their elements and they have to discover them by themselves, she had possessed all the knowledge on the day she was born

The brothers went through years to find each other while she had each found them from the beginning through her knowledge

While all the twelve brothers bond together, she meant to be alone

All the twelve elements each possessed by a brother, while she, a sister, possessed all the twelve elements

The only power she possessed which is her own is Space Manipulation, which is only allowed to use when the twelve elements become disarray, as long as they are still part of Exo.

And Jimin knows better that Chanyeol is no longer one with Exo. Her heart begin to thump fast.

"Xiumin" 

Xiumin looked at Jimin nervously. "You should know here this whole thing effects you as well. Without Suho's water, you are unable to use your frost power effectively"

Xiumin looked down. Despite his power is known as Cyrokinesis, he is not like the other offensive members; he couldn't generate ice, but rather he  manipulate the molecules in water to turn them into ice. Without Suho, he will be nothing. He can still use his Cyrokinesis if there’s a water source nearby, but like Jimin had said, it would not be as effective as with Suho’s Hydrokinesis around. Almost as much Lay needed Baekhyun's light power to recharge his healing power whenever he had used them in large amount.

But Baekhyun is rather special. He is the core of the members as his light power recharge everyone's energy. it just Lay needs him more often since the healing ability used up all his energy.

“But” D.O begin, “If based what you had said earlier, back then when Chanyeol was killed, how come Suho was not effected?”

Jimin turned to D.O. He had good question there. “Suho’s duty is to look after the elements, not the life of the element guardian. But if one of the guardian killed the other, meaning using the element to destroy the other, that’s mean Suho had failed to keep the elements unite as one as they had went against each other. That is why…”

Jimin turned to Sehun and gave him a sharp stare, “If Chanyeol was killed by Sehun’s wind, then Suho will instantly die”

Sehun looked down, speechless. Jimin continued, “Now no matter what happened, we cannot simply go against Chanyeol with our elements, if we accidentally kill him, it’s a death sentence to Suho”

Jimin left the sofa. “With Kai not listening to Suho’s order to evacuate, Sehun’s anger management and Chanyeol’s corruption, Suho needs to discipline his team better like Kris”  murmured Jimin as she headed to Suho's room to check on him. Lay and Baekyun followed. Much to Jimin's fear, Suhon had lapsed into coma. Lay is clearly upset as he failed to heal Suho. Jimin knows she now had only one option left. It might be dangerous to her but it's the only option left to save Suho's life.

"Guys" Jimin gently called out. "Stay back. Things going to get hot"

Jimin suddenly let out a large burst of energy. The energy then slowly turned into flame and in an instant, Jimin appeared to be consumed by the flame. Lay and Baekhyun screamed  for Jimin, causing the rest to rushed in. The flame then make a shape of phoenix.

"No...." muttered Chen. "She can't possibly mean...!"

Indeed, that's what exactly Jimin is doing. With Chanyeol gone, the only elements that is gone now is the Fire. Although it's dangerous, Jimin concentrate all the twelve elements within her and unite them to become one; the Fire. For now she will replace Chanyeol as the fire element within Exo. But she does not have much time. They need to get Chanyeol back before she also will die.

The flame eventually disappeared and Jimin stumbled on the floor, panting hard. Tao and D.O rushed to her side.

At that very moment Suho opened his eyes.

"You shouldn't done that"

"Shut up Suho..."

Both Jimin and Suho sitting on the bed with their back leaned on the wall. Both of them appeared very sick and their voice almost rendered to whispers. Jimin leaned her head on Suho's shoulder. "....you know this is my duty"

Suho's eyes widened. He knows too well her meaning. Being the Balancer, Jimin's duty is to protect the harmony of the twelve elements, even at the cost of her life. This is something Suho wanted to avoid the most as he believes the sacrifice is unnecessary if he manage to unite the elements.

But now he wondered if he able to do so.

And time is running out.

Tao suddenly poked his head at the door before he slowly entered the room with his hand behind his back. "Are you two ok?" he asked with his Chinese accent. Jimin and Suho gently nodded and gave Tao a small smile. "I got something for you Jimin". Tao showed her a cute panda plushie.

"Awww Tao! This is so cute!" Jimin's voice is slightly louder with excitement. She happily cuddled it. Suho is  also happy to see Jimin being cheerful. Suho looked at Suho and gave a thank you gesture to Tao. Tao slightly bow as respond.

Tao, the Time Controller, he have the scariest face among the twelve brothers. Even other people is also actually scared of him, often mistaken him as an evil man. But the truth is far different than other people's perspective. Tao not only have a gentle and kind heart, he is also full aegyo, in fact he have the most aegyo of all the twelve brothers and he is also very fond of cute things, particularly panda plushies.

Suho slumped his back to the wall. “You ok Suho?” concerned Jimin. “Yea I’m fine” Suho gently answered as he stared blankly on the ceiling. “I’m a bit sleepy”

“Have a rest then Suho oppa” Jimin gently slide off the bed. Suho smiled. It’s not often he can hear Jimin calling him oppa. Most of the time she would informally call him with his Exo’s name. Although Suho could never tell Jimin’s exact age, he somehow like whenever Jimin calling him oppa.

Suho lay on the bed and within seconds he had fallen asleep. Jimin let out a small sigh as she smiled watching Suho sleeping. Still clutching the panda plushie Jimin headed to the living room, with Tao by her side, to help her in case she become to tire to walk. The atmosphere in the living room were solemn. Words had failed to the boys as they tried to figure out the whole situation. Tao lead Jimin to the most comfortable sofa, and as she sat she gave Tao a warm thank you smile.

D.O is the most obvious being upset with the whole incident. For him, after being alone going through hardship (see Exo: Prelude),  and to finally found people who have powers like him and gone through hardships together, the breaking of the team is hurting him. D.O lowered his body and placed his face in his palm, trying hard not to let others see him sobbing.

“How could this happened?” Lay broke the silent. “How could Chanyeol become corrupted?”. Kris stared at Lay. He believed he might have an explanation but he is unsure. Kris looked down. Hoping an answer as well. Everyone does. Jimin sensed the rising tension in the room.

“Listen guys” Jimin began. The boys all turned their attention to her. Jimin continued, “"You know when they say nobody remain the same after come back from death? This is because whenever a person dies, their soul will gone to the void for judging before headed to afterlife. Within the void are all the horrors and darkness. If a soul somehow managed to return to its body, it usually dragged along an essence/fragment of the darkness and horror with them. That's the price to pay for cheating death"

Everyone gulped at Jimin'e explanation. Although they do understand the concept of judgment after death, they would had never thought there’s a consequences for coming back from dead. Jimin continued:

"What happened to the resurrected person is variant. The darkness will always remain as part of them and will always take any chances to corrupted them by spreading their negative emotions. The lesser the person with negative emotions the lower the risk of the person become corrupted, and vice-versa"

"And it's obvious the darkness had use Chanyeol's jealousy to corrupt him" Tao looked down, "If only I was..." Tao hold back his words, feeling sorrow.

Jimin realized Tao's guiltiness and kneed to him, She gently placed her hands on Tao's cheeks. "Do not blame yourself Tao. There was nothing do can do..". She then turned to others, "As I suspect Chanyeol's death was no accident"

Silent.Tao broke the silent, with cold sweat dripping from his face. "You mean Chanyeol was murdered?"

"More likely he was targeted. Because between the Exo, Chnayeol is the one who have the strongest negative emotions. And the most ideal part for them, those negative emotions are on the Exo members themselves"

"They plan to destroy us, from within" mumured Baekhyun.

"They most likely targeting Suho right now" Jimin clutched her fist. "And probably me as well"

Jimin felt sudden exhaustion and slumped on the floor. Tao reached her and took her the sofa, while Sehun passed her a glass of water. Jimin took a sip.

"The world is balance between Light and Darkness, it's the same concept with Yin and Yang. They exist within other realm as thier energy flows into ours, creating all this changes like day and night. Honestly this concept is rather hard for me to explain. I'm sure The Oracles can give better explaination"

Jimin took another sip. "However, there will be times the Darkness manage to penetrate into our world, creating imbalance in the forces of nature. This is when the Light awaken all the 13 chosen people to fight the Darkness, the Exo"

Another sip. "The 13th one is always the elusive one, the back-up person. For most of the time, it had lways been only the Leader aware the prescence of the 13th member. This is for the 13th member protection because the 13th member's role is (PIVOTAL); the 13th member must maintain the balance and protects the Exo even at the cost of her life. the 13th member will only comes when the other 12 had failed, especially if the Leader had fallen. That is why, Suho knows he is in danger when I showed up. "

Kris backed off and lean on the back of the wall, feeling completely disbelief. "With Suho as one with forces, what will happend if he dies? Will our powers gone?"

"Good question" Jimin took another sip. "If Suho dies, all of you will still retain your power, one of you will took over Suho's duty as the Leader, BUT!" Jimin's tone changed. "Here's the catch, in order to balance the twelve elements, the twelve must exist. The new leader will not only become guardian to his original power, but to Suho's water as well. Now not only his duty is to be one with the twelve elements, but also as the guardians of the two elements"

Jimin sighed, "Unfortunately.."

"Unfortunately what?" urged D.O. Everything too much for D.O already. He felt as if his mind will collapsed soon. D.O slumped himself on the sofa as he waited further explaination from Jimin.

"Only the the Leader that was selected by The Oracles can withstand to be the guardians of the twelve elements. For the rest, two is already big burden, and by the time the third one, your body most likely could not accept it. You most likely will be destroyed in the process".

Jimin begin to sweat, "That's is why they targeted Suho's first. Suho cannot be last one to stay alive, because he can withstand all the tweleve elements. But for the rest, as the leadership changes, with mounting amount of elemets each time, it will begin to kill all the members; like a domino effect. They targeted me as well right now because they know I will do anything to prevent that from happening"

Jimin raised her head, staring straight to Kris.

"We don't have much time. We need to get Chanyeol back!"

Within the darkest of the night, a figure slowly made steps into the ruin of the abandoned factory. As the figure entered the ruin, he lifted his hand and flames emerged from it, lighting the whole building.

Chanyeol gazed at a corner of the building and walked towards it. He stopped. He raised his hand and with the flames, reveals behind the burn on the wall a door. Chanyeol opened the door. Within the room, a large of black smokes moves around. Then, a deep, coarse, echoing voice can be heard within the room.

“Welcome back Chanyeol”