“We need to get to the others,” Xiumin finally said, not expecting a response from either Ken or Sori as he got up and moved to pull them to their feet as well.

He’d only just gotten them both up when he heard the sound of several pairs of feet coming their way.

“What’s that?” Ken managed to ask and the fact that he heard the sound of footsteps meant that whoever was coming was way closer then Xiumin wanted.

“Someone is coming,” Xiumin hissed, dragging everyone closer to the wreckage and looking for a hole they could slip through, “a lot of someones.”

Ken let out a small cry of fear, realizing very quickly how bad this was. That they were probably about to die unless they got out of there. Unless they found a hole large enough for all of them to fit through. The magic user hugged Lito a little bit tighter, drawing a small whimper of pain from the young boy.

Sori…..she just let out a growl.

Not a normal one either. It was the kind of growl Xiumin expected to hear from some kind of animal after their mate had been killed right before them. He guessed…….he guessed that this was kind of……fitting. Sori and Ravi might not have done the whole mating thing yet, but…….well, they’d sure been on that path.

And now it sure looked like Ravi was dead. Xiumin sure couldn’t imagine a way he’d survived under all of that wreckage. He wished Ravi had but……but the realist in him had already seen the bodies of three of his friends. His hope was……it was dead.

Sure seemed like Sori’s hope was gone because by that look in her eyes……

“Sori,” Xiumin hissed, hoping that the authority in his tone would be enough to make the shifter listen, “No. We can’t fight them. Sori, think about this. I know you’re hurting right now, but we have to play this smart.” He wasn’t sure if he should keep going, tell her that Ravi wouldn’t want her to do what she was clearly thinking of doing.

Sori’s eyes flashed to Xiumin for a moment before she turned her attention back to the open hallway. She didn’t growl anymore, so Xiumin assumed that she was listening.

--

“Did everyone else hear that?” N asked, looking more than a little alarmed.

“Yeah,” Kris scowled, “something’s going on.”

“Do you think it’s Ravi and Ken?” Suho asked, glancing at N carefully to make sure his question didn’t send the changeling into a fit of despair they couldn’t pull him out of.

“That first sound,” Kris replied, “yeah. I can see them having something to do with….with whatever that was.”

“But that cry?” Heesun frowned, “that was to……to female for either of them.”

“It had to be Sori,” Chen nodded in agreement, “maybe something happened to her and Xiumin. I mean, she sounded……she sounded like she was in pain.”

“Then we need to go help her,” Tao spoke up, “her and Xiumin probably need us.”

“Or it could be a trap,” Jaesun argued, “maybe they were caught and Jihoo made her cry like that to draw the rest of us out of hiding.”

“Regardless,” Suho said, “we need to save her. It’s Sori. We’ll need her strength if we expect to win this fight.”

“I know,” Jaesun snapped, “I know we can’t just leave her there. But we can’t all go an save her either.”

“Ravi and Ken are out there too,” Jessica added, “and Lito.”

“Jihu needs help too,” Hyoyeon reminded everyone, “so…..what are we going to do.”

“We’ll split up,” Kris sighed, “not…..not the best plan, but……we need to find everyone. Help them if need be.”

“Some of us should stay here,” Suho added his own ideas to the……plan. Assuming you could even call it that.

“N should be part of the group who stays,” Baekhyun suggested, “If things go wrong with the other groups…..he’s out ace.”

“Fine,” N nodded after a moment, realizing that fighting this idea wasn’t worth his time.

Kris, Suho, and Jaesun each split the rest of the group up before heading out with their small teams.

--

Ravi let out a small groan, shifting slightly. He felt like a building had been dropped on him which…..wasn’t too far from the truth he realized.

Which begged the question of how had he survived.

Looking around, Ravi found himself between a couple of beams and a large chunk of what was either floor or ceiling.  Seemed like his luck had been running high and he’d gotten trapped in an air pocket.

Down side?

He had no idea how to get himself free. Not without brining something down on top of him and finishing the job that dragon had started.

“Crap,” Ravi hissed, trying to figure out what the hell he was going to do now.

A/N: honestly, I wanted to draw out the ‘oh my god, is Ravi dead’ thing. Not for too long, just until next chapter. But *shrug* this was the right time to do it.