Jihu smiled ever so slightly as he watched Suho working with N. he was happy to see that N was doing so well with his training. The changeling in question had managed to turn his skin into scales in a matter of a few weeks. Maybe it was his changeling blood, but something like that took dragons several months to master once they started to train.

“Sir?” one of Jihu’s fellow agents asked, “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure,” Jihu nodded, glancing away from the two teens, “what’s up?”

“Why are we just watching them?” the agent asked.

“Because,” Jihu sighed, “I need to make sure that they’re ready for what’s coming.”

“Then why can’t we help them?” another agent, a female fae, spoke up, “wouldn’t that help them be ready?”

“But someone would notice that,” Jihu replied, “agents helping to train students isn’t something that goes unnoticed for long.”

“Right,” the female agent, a male vampire, nodded, “and we still don’t know who we can trust.”

“We can trust those kids,” the first agent said, “but I don’t feel right about letting them get involved in all of this.”

“I don’t either,” Jihu admitted, “but I don’t think our enemy cares too much about not involving children.” He turned to the female agent, “any info about how deep they are into the ISBIP?”

“No,” she frowned, “and I don’t feel safe asking around, either.”

“Same here,” the male agent agreed, “if you’re right about Agent Biho’s disappearance, this goes too deep into the ISBIP ranks then we can handle.”

“Darn it,” Jihu hissed, “how could this have happened right under my nose?”

“Easily,” the fae shrugged, “these creeps are evil and sneaky. They’ll do whatever they can to achieve their goals. Kill anyone, hurt anyone. It’s easy for people like that to get away with a lot of because people are too scared to go against them.”

“But we’re the good guys,” Jihu sighed, “We’re supposed to stop them.”

“We will,” the vampire patted his shoulder, “don’t worry, Jihu.”

“I wish those kids didn’t have to be involved,” the female agent frowned, returning her attention to the two teen training, “They’re so young, so innocent. They are ready for what’s going to come.”

“Is anyone ever ready for what evil does?” the male agent asked.

“We need to get our own people ready,” Jihu frowned slightly, “we can’t stop everything for attacking these kids, but we can try to shield them from at least some of it.”

“Right,” the other two agents nodded before leaving.

Jihu remained, watching the pair training.

He knew that deep down, none of them were ready for what was to come. There was no way for them to escape from this fight without taking major losses. It was a bit selfish of him to think it, but Jihu would rather Sori, Kris, Hyuna, and Yuri were the ones to survive. If anyone was going to die, he wanted it to be anyone but them.

“I can’t protect them, can I?” Jihu asked the silence around him, “what’s going to happen is going to happen no matter what I do, right?”

Jihu could feel the death in the air, he knew it meant more than a ghost was around. It meant someone was going to die. Well, more than just someone. He knew that by the time the battle was over, many would be dead on both sides of the conflict.

--

Biho sat, watching those who had killed him walking around their base.

“You missed a spot,” he said, pointing to a place on the floor that the janitor had missed. Not that the other could hear him, not with Biho being dead and all.

Since the bad guys had figured out he was going to the school to warn them, they’d started doing…….things to keep him there. They’d brought in a witch the day before to cast a spell that would keep him attached to the location of his body. Before that, they had used herbs and charms. The witch had warned them that her spell wasn’t going to be permanent, that nothing could hold a ghost in one place forever.

She’d gotten shot in the head for that.

“Biho,” the ghost of the witch, Mina, called, “you shouldn’t keep watch like that. It will do you no good.”

“It might,” he shrugged, “you never know what the underlings hear and talk about.”

“You might be right,” she nodded, “but they have issued strict warnings that anyone who talks about anything in this hall will be shot on sight. They know you’re here, watching and listening for anything you can use.”

“Dang it,” he hissed, glaring at the floor.

He knew that there was a new plan. He knew that there was going to be another attack on Dark Lake. The only difference between this attack and the last was that he wasn’t confused. He could give N a clear message now.

However, he didn’t have anything solid to go on. Last time, he knew the target of the attack. This time, he knew nothing. He couldn’t go running to N like that. He needed a date, an idea of what kind of attack it would be, and information about who the intended target was.

“You heard anything?” he asked Mina, “They haven’t got you locked up in a hallway.”

“No,” she frowned, “they have spells to keep ghost out of meeting rooms and no one is talking outside of those rooms.”

“Damn it!” Biho cursed.

“Oh Agent Biho,” called a man, walking down the hallway, “are you there?”

“Like you’d know,” Biho muttered, “you can’t see me.”

“I’ll assume you are,” the man continued, “I thought I’d let you know, you’re dear little reject children are going to die. I’d much rather be the one putting a bullet in their heads, but what I have planned is much better. It’s a much more painful way to die.”

“What?” Biho gasped, suddenly terrified for the lives of those he cared about.

“I wish I could see your face when dear, little Sori shows up here, dead like you,” the man laughed, “I wish I could see her face as she dies. You know, she’s been quite the pain in the . Her little boyfriend, the ghost whisperer boy, has been a real pain, too. I think I’ll enjoy seeing their dead bodies.”

“Dang it,” Biho cursed, fighting the urge to try to run to N.

The changeling had to know what was going on, what he had heard. But he couldn’t leave. If he tried…….the pain was beyond imagine. As it was, ghosts could only stay in the world of the living for a short period of time. Biho had been there for several months and his power was slowly beginning to drain away. Fighting the tie keeping him there would drain too much energy and he’d end up being forced to go to the afterlife. If he did that…….who would warn N of coming danger?

“I’ll go,” Mina suddenly said, “Sori needs to know of what’s going on.”

“Go to N,” Biho told her, “He can see ghosts. He’ll know how to help.”

“Alright,” she nodded before vanishing.

“Please, N,” Biho silently wished, “please get Mina’s message before something happens. Please be alright. Please let everyone be alright.”

--

“Dang,” N sighed, dropping onto his bed, “that really wore me out.”

“I know the feeling,” Hyuk laughed, sitting down beside the older on his bed, “Chen hyung works me really hard in training, too.”

“I think we can all say that,” Ken added, “we’re being trained by monsters.”

“You’d think Lay wouldn’t be that tough,” Ravi spoke up, “but even half asleep he still leaves you half dead.” Leo nodded and Hongbin muttered something in agreement, dropping down onto the bed beside N and using the other’s stomach as a pillow.

“Hey,” Hyuk suddenly straightened, “does anyone else smell……death?”

“Yeah,” Ravi straightened himself, looking troubled.

“I don’t smell anything,” Leo said, “but I feel cold.”

“Ghost,” N told them, opening his eyes and getting up. he expected to see Biho, but instead there was a young woman standing by his door.

“Please,” she said, looking scared, “they’re planning another attack. Biho can’t come tell you, so he asked me. Please believe me. We don’t know what they’re planning, but I think you need to leave here. Please flee. Something really bad is going to happen.”

“What’s going to happen?” N asked, but he never got a verbal answer.

Instead, a huge explosion went off, shaking both dorms.

A/N: oh dear. Umm, I just wanna say, no one is going to die yet. I don’t plan to kill anyone in this explosion.