Red Writer’s Note: Hey guys, I would like to thank the current 27 subscribers for my first story. It has been fun writing this and I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I did. There will be a few more after this chapter. Tell me what you think of this one.

All eleven guardians have woken up before the sun has risen. After years of hazy memories, they are finally ready to hear the truth of what happened five years ago. Suho knew that it would probably take most of the day so he woke them up at dawn. While the others were rather calm about it, a few of the Animas were cranky about waking up so early in the morning. Baekhyun, Sehun, and Chen were currently sitting on the floor; frowns were clearly etched in their faces. Kyungsoo walked in with slightly warmed milk and handed them to the two. Luhan walked in from the kitchen, with a stiltedness that did not went unnoticed by everyone but the youngest guardian. Handing Sehun a pearl milk tea, he kissed his forehead and Sehun’s frown became a big smile. He hugged Luhan before drinking himself awake.

“Ok, now that everyone’s settled, I am going to tell you guys about the past.” Suho said as Kris, Tao, Luhan, Chanyeol, Kyungsoo, and Chen nodded. They were the ones who have fully regained their memories and were ready to assist Suho in telling the story.

“It all started in the World of Anima…”          

                Many cycles ago, twelve guardians were created. No one really knew where they came from or how they came to earth. It was something unfathomable. But somehow, when the guardians stepped on the land, it all made sense. Their sole purpose was to keep peace in the land and doing so would give them their sole wish: to become human and leave their lonely, unending lives. During a cycle, the guardians have 365 years before they turn into humans. But something went wrong. The red force seeped through a crack in the sky and wreaked the land. It caused chaos and wickedness in the villages and destroyed the life of the people. Although the guardians have successfully rid the world of wickedness, they couldn’t achieve their wish. In the process of fixing the world, not all the guardians have been bonded since one of them died. Fortunately, once a guardian dies, they are all reincarnated. It was called a cycle, which was 365 years in time. Thus, the guardians were put to sleep by the Ice guardian, waiting to be awakened once the Telekinesis guardian has been reborn.

                In the middle of a cycle, the guardians were still small children. Their human parents knew of the prophecy and took them to the Xi kingdom where every one of the guardians was to go in their own room and awaken their beasts’ souls. It was planned to have them all bonded at a young age so that they could just focus on regaining their souls back and living as human kids with their soul mates.

“So, like, how old are we?”

“Does it really matter?”

“I don’t know, I mean, maybe in the future we’ll have something called age.” Kai shudders.

“You and your crazy ideas…” Kyungsoo sighed.

“I’m just saying.”

“We’ll worry about that later, if someone asks just say, really old.”

“Putting that aside, we all had different memories from the kingdom right?” Everyone nodded.

“Then doesn’t that mean–?” Baekhyun pointed out.

“We all have different sides to the story.” Suho confirmed.

“Hey, isn’t Chen able to see the past events with you glass-thingy?” Chanyeol stated.

“Yes, but I can only use it to see in the current century.” Jeong raised his claws, as if saying, “That’s right!” at the happy virus who glared at it. He would’ve grabbed it from the Lighting guardian if it weren’t for Baekhyun tugging him back to his seat.

“Now, what do we do?”

“I have an idea.” Suho said as he got up, disappearing into the kitchen.  When he got back, he placed a huge bowl and poured some water in it from a pail.

“Hyung, you are the water guardian right?”

“Yes, why do you ask?”

“Why must you take the water from the kitchen when you could’ve just used it from the air around us?”

“Hm… I guess you’re right. …Must’ve been a habit from living with Kai for too long.”

“Hyung, how could you say that?”

“Enough of that, what is the water bowl for?”

“Tao, use your powers. We may be able to create a mirror back to the past.” Tao nodded. In a few seconds, the water glowed slightly.

“Okay, show us what happened five years ago. Show us the Day of Great Destruction.”

The water glowed and an image appeared. In it, the land was still united .The Dragon Temple, the Xi Kingdom, the Earth Village. All of a sudden, there was a red cloud all over the place. They watched in surprise as it tore the land into three separate islands. But then, the water mirror showed a map, where the guardians were highlighted.

“This was how we found the others. It took us a while too.”

                The day the young guardians were brought together was the day before the end of the second cycle. When the newly reincarnated guardians were not altogether, the red force remained dormant. Their parents decided to let the guardians gather at the end of the cycle. However, a great disruption caused the cycles to go into a loop. Someone has honed the power of the red force and created a huge earthquake. Upon doing so, the guardians were once again separated. Because the guardians have not bonded and gathered together, time has been overturned. The 365 cycle was postponed. Therefore, the entire world is currently trapped in a warp. Fortunately, the Water guardian woke up in the floor of a room in the Xi Kingdom. Wandering around, he tried to look for his betrothed.  Using his soul, the Water guardian was able to locate his partner, the Healing guardian. Finally, they were able to bond and teamed up to look for the others.

“We have found everyone already. All is needed is for us to gather and bond the rest of you. Then, we will become human.”

“That is nice to know, but who used the power of the enemy?”

“I believe it was–”

“It was my father.” All eyes turned to the owner of the voice. It was Xiumin who looked out of breath. He stood by the door of the inn.

“Xiumin, you’re back! What do you mean father?! It was Pal Gam, the Xi Kingdom’s advisor before the destruction.” Luhan asked.

“Is that his name?” Xiumin was able to gasp out before he nearly collapsed to the floor, thanks to Chen catching him.

“How’d he get there? I swear he just appears out of nowhere.” Kai asked.

“Watch out, Kai. He might replace you. And now, there’ll only be eleven guardians.” Chanyeol said, with Jeong in his head, messing his hair around.

“Shut up.”

“Chen…” Xiumin opened his eyes and saw the one who had been in his mind.

“What happened?”

“I found this.” He hands Chen a crystal, who handed it to Kris.

“I was in my room in the ice cave. My father had just left me alone and I was crying because of the pain. Then, all of a sudden, a crystal falls from one of the ice stalks in my room. It was the only one in the room where the sun touched and yet has not melted. ”

“What is it?”

“It is the Prophecy Crystal. I saw everything. I have remembered everything. My father, no, that man had me believing that hurting you guys was part of the prophecy. I am sorry everyone. I shouldn’t have believed him.”

“Nonsense, Xiumin. We are all guardians. Even if you’ve caused us harm, you made one choice that makes us think otherwise.”

“What do you mean?”

“You saved me.” Chen answered, still looking into Xiumin’s eyes.

“You protected my room. Inside you, in your heart, you knew that it was me.” He reached out and removed Xiumin’s ear plugs. He carried Xiumin in his arms and brought them up to their room.

“Well that went well… Sehun let me tell you the story of how we met before.”Luhan echoes.

***Xiumin’s Room***

“Don’t stop talking. Let me hear your voice.”

“I won’t shut up even if you freeze the world.” Xiumin laughed weakly.

“We’re finally together.”

“Hyung, I love you.”

“I love you too, Chen. Very much.” They lay on the bed. Xiumin rested while Chen looked over him before resting alongside his beloved.

***Back Downstairs***

“Hyung, I thought you weren’t allowed to help me remember.”

“I’m not helping you remember, I’m telling you a story.” Luhan looked over at Suho, who smiled as Luhan found a way around the rules.

“Fine…” Suho said he raised his hands up in defeat.

“We’re making dinner.” With that, Kyungsoo and Kai left shortly followed by Suho and Tao;  leaving only Chanyeol, Jeong, Baekhyun, Sehun, Luhan, Yixing, and Kris, in the room.

“Here I go. It was rather sweet, now that I think about it…”

“Just get on with the story.” Baekhyun said.

                Once the young guardians were brought to their rooms, they found that there were two doors on the other side. There were symbols at the center and it shone brightly in their rather well-lit room. Luhan looked at the door and touched the symbol of wind. All of a sudden, his sister comes in. Before Luhan could open the door, his little sister was grabbing his arm and making him wear a dress, saying it was her last wish before he gets married. For some odd reason, Luhan had decided to wear the plain silk dress and as soon as his sister left, Luhan didn’t wear his traditional clothes back. Instead, he just walked through the door with the wind symbol. It led his to another room similar to his own, only difference is that another boy is in it. He tapped the boy’s shoulder.

“Are you my betrothed? What’s your name?”

“I am Thehun.”

“Thehun, what an odd name...”

“Not Thehun, Thehun.”The boy called ‘Thehun’ wrote in Luhan’s smaller hands.

“Ah, Sehun is your name.”

“I have a lisp. I know, and I understand if you don’t like me anymore. You can go away now.”

“What do you mean? It’s cute on you.”

“I don’t want to be cute.” Sehun pouted.

“What do you want to be?”

“I want to be strong and protect someone like you.”

“Like me? Why?”

“Because you didn’t laugh at me. By the way, why are you in a dress?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I totally forgot.” Luhan grinned at Sehun.

“I like you.”

“I like you too.” Luhan replied.

“Should we get married now?”

“How does it go?” Sehun asked.

“Don’t we say something and then kiss.”

“Kiss? What is that?”

“I’ll show you two types of kisses then.” Luhan stood on his tiptoes and placed a small kiss on Sehun’s cheek. His face turned a light shade of red. Then, Luhan put both of his hands on Sehun’s cheek.

“This is what I see my parents do.” Sehun says.

“Now close your eyes.” Their young hearts beat fast as the distance between them was gone. It was a soft, innocent kiss like the first one.

“We’re officially married now!” Sehun smiled as Luhan twirled in his small dress. They stared into each other’s eyes when all of a sudden, Luhan saw Sehun’s eyes turn blue. Sehun stepped backwards, his head was facing down.

“Are you okay, Sehun-ah?” Luhan touched Sehun’s arm. Instantly, Sehun looks up, his eyes were mismatched.

“What is it?” Luhan watched in fear as Sehun clutched his head.

“Run away.”

“No!” Luhan stood his ground.

“Luhan, I don’t want to hurt you.” Sehun tried scaring Luhan and pushed him to the bed in the room.

“You won’t.”

“Luhan…” Sehun said, weakly.

“No.” With that, Luhan’s eyes flashed red and he made Sehun look at him.

“You’ll be fine. Calm down, Sehun.” Miraculously, Sehun closed his eyes and upon opening them, they were back to normal.

“You…How were you able to do that?”

“Simple. It’s because I love you.”

By the time Luhan finished his story, Sehun was looking at him with huge eyes.

“Did that really happen?”

“Pfft. That sounds like a fairytale, you know?” Baekhyun said.

“Well, it happened.”

“Aren’t we supposed to be bonded then?” Luhan shook his head.

“No. There are three phases. The first is the Contact.” He held up his wrist to show their mark and pointed to Sehun’s shoulder blade.

“Then, there is the Connection, and finally the Soul-Bind.”

“But isn’t our souls bound already?”

“It is partially. But it is limited to our ability to find each other.”

“Let’s eat guys, Dinner’s ready!” With that, everyone got up and ate dinner. Afterwards, they all rested for the night.

However, in the middle of the night, there were two figures in their room. One was taller and another slightly shorter. The wind blew through the open window. The white curtains moved as if to create a night of sweet, blissful illusion. And although, the moon illuminated the room, she didn’t see who they were. In the darkness, there were two pairs of eyes: red and blue; two marks glowed: on the taller man’s back and on the other’s wrist.  One of them moved, pushing the other on the bed.

“I can feel something great is going to happen tomorrow.”

“I know.”

“I must connect our souls today.”

“So many years, and yet it is only till now we are able to complete the second phase.”

“Why must there be three phases to the soul-binding ritual?!” He said angrily.

“Our connection will make it so we find each other again once the cycle repeats again.”

“I’m sorry. It’s because of me that you will...”A kiss stopped the sentence.

“Don’t worry. You will find me. When the time comes, I will always be waiting for you.”

The moon covered her eyes as she witnessed the two figures moved together as one. They touched each other that night and were uncaring of the other primal noises echoing through the inn. Trapped in their one night of passion, they spent it like it slowly. Kisses were placed here and there. Intense, intimate passion was felt through the night. Each of them two released animalistic moans after another. Touching each other’s bare body was repeated as the hours of darkness went on. Their minds mingled in each other’s presence and finally, a union of their bodies. After a while, they both went lax on the bed. One was on top of another. Moving to the side, he gave him one final kiss on his forehead and another on his lips. In silence, the figures closed their eyes and their breathing evened out.