A/N: oh, you guys are gonna hate me after this. Heck, I am me and I hate myself a fair bit after this. This chapter…..it’s gonna be a to write. I do not wanna do it. I…….am stalling so hard right now. *deep sigh* well, here she goes…….

Leo fell to his knees shortly after entering the entrance hall. His eyes burned with tears and he tightened his grip on Hyuk, hoping that his stumble hadn’t hurt the poor wolf more. He’d almost fallen down the stairs on the way here and he’d lost his grip on Hyuk for a second because of it. He couldn’t risk any more damage to the younger.

“Suho!” Leo cried, trying to make his way over to the dragons and tripping all over himself, “Kris!”

“Leo?” Kris looked up, “what’s…….oh god, no.”

“Hyuk,” Leo sobbed, legs finally giving out as he fell to the ground, “he stopped breathing. He….he needs Hongbin. Hongbin can fix him, right? I know he can. He can heal Hyuk up and….and he’ll be fine.”

“Oh, Leo,” Suho didn’t know what to say, so instead he moved to hug the other.

“He’ll be alright,” Leo sobbed into Suho’s shoulder, “he’ll be alright.”

Kris just sat back, at a complete loss for what to do anymore. He didn’t even feel the anger he’d felt when Lay died or the blinding grief he’d felt when Suho alerted him to Hyuna’s fate. He just felt……cold. So very, very cold.

He also felt scared.

He…..he needed to know how the rest of their friends were. But then he looked at Hyuk….…..at the young pup’s…..body…..he saw all of the blood. The crimson liquid had stained Hyuk’s shirt completely, had smeared all over his neck and jaw and leaked into Leo’s cloths as well. The nightmare’s hands were almost dripping with the stuff and bloody prints could be seen on both of their faces.

“Leo?” Kris and Suho glanced up to find Hongbin entering the room, Krystal, Tao, and Taeyang close behind.

Leo erupted into a new round of sobs and Hongbin’s blood ran cold. It froze in his veins when he noticed all the blood. And his heart? That stopped beating when he noticed a familiar head of hair in Leo’s arms, realized that the shirt the person was wearing was the same thing Hyuk had put on that morning.

“Hyuk!” Hongbin cried, rushing over as fast as he could go. He fell a couple of times, feet catching on rubble or bodies, but he still made it to Hyuk’s side.

“He’s gone,” Leo whispered, hanging his head, “I……..I couldn’t keep him safe.”

“No,” Hongbin snapped, tears running like a river, “no! He’s fine! I can fix him!”

Hongbin yanked Hyuk from Leo’s arms, pressing his hand against the younger’s bloody wound. He felt his power flowing, felt the warmth he normally felt when healing. In the back ground, he could hear other people entering the room. He could hear what he thought was N crying out and running over. But he couldn’t pay attention to that, he had to focus on fixing his baby brother.

Leo was wrong.

Hyuk wasn’t gone.

He could fix him. He could fix this.

“Hyukkie,” Hongbin sobbed, shoulders shaking as he tried to force the younger to heal, “please. Please heal. Please.”

“Hongbin,” N cried, reaching out for the fae, “he…..”

“He’s not gone!” Hongbin yelled, yanking Hyuk into his arms and trying to back away from the older, “get away from me! Get away from us! He’s not gone!” Hongbin’s body started to tremble as he started crying even harder, “he……he can’t be gone. He can’t.”

Hongbin hugged Hyuk’s limp form tightly, crying into his baby brother’s hair.

“We,” Sori grabbed Jaesun’s arm, shaking her head at him as a way to tell him no. They could worry about getting moving later. Right now, Leo and N were a mess and Hongbin…….Hongbin was worse.

“No,” Hongbin cried, “no. Hyukkie, come back. Please don’t go. Please. I need you. Please don’t go. Don’t leave me alone. Don’t go.”

A/N: …….yeah. This…..this wasn’t a fun chapter to write. Maybe it’s ‘cuz I’m Hyuk-biased that this was so hard to write. Killing Hyuk was never in my plan, so this turning out…….like this…….not something I wanted. I……I’m gonna take next week off, gather my thoughts about what to do next, ya know? ‘cuz……I think things are just gonna get harder from here. More death and painful moments and……I need to be ready to write that.

And the week after that? It’s the 26, aka the day after x-mas. I’m gonna do a special little holiday themed chapter (boost the spirits after I’ve ripped ‘em down, ya know?). depending on how the week of Christmas goes, the chapter might end up posted on the 27^th, so…….i’m gonna try for the 26^th, but just be warned it could get pushed back a day.