Chanyeol flew above Lina, wishing that he could fly closer to her. Heck, he’d love being able to fly side by side with her, holding hands through the whole flight. However their massive wings required a fair bit of room, so it was a wish that he could never have.

“I could always let you carry me,” Lina suggested for the hundredth time, “then we can fly like you want.”

“But then we aren’t really flying together,” Chanyeol pouted, well aware of how difficult he was being, “it’s just m flying while holding you.”

“This never used to bother you,” Lina said, “what’s going on?”

“I just….” Chanyeol trailed off before signaling for them to land. This was something he would much rather say while holding his beloved girlfriend.

“What’s wrong?” Lina asked again once they were both on the ground and Chanyeol was quick to hug her tightly to him.

“What if this is the last time we get to be together like this?” he asked, “the final battle…..it’s gonna be soon. And we both know people are going to die. What if…….I don’t want to lose you, not when I just got you.”

Lina hugged him back just as tightly, knowing that there was nothing that she could say to make him feel better. Chanyeol’s fear were very founded after all, they could very well be dead this time next week.

From high up in the trees, Baekhyun watched his best friend hugging Lina tightly like he feared she would vanish right then and there.

“Not going to happen,” Baekhyun sighed, mind quickly recalling those things he’d crossed paths with on his first ISBIP mission, “those things will never hurt the people I care about. I’ll die before that happens.”

--

Sori watched Lito playing with his friends, a soft smile on her face. He’d been a bit upset that he’d be missing out on the big meeting, but thankfully his friends were keeping his mind off of it. It didn’t hurt that he had no idea about what was really going on with the meeting. If he did, he wouldn’t be half as ok with not going.

“Hey,” Ravi said, wrapping his arms tightly around Sori’s hips, “everything will be alright. I’m not going to let anything bad happen to you?”

“And what if something bad happens to you?” Sori asked, “what if I can’t stop something bad from happening to you?”

“You will,” Ravi assured her, “I know you will. We’ll both be alright.”

Sori didn’t say anything else, she just turned around and kissed Ravi. The two shifters both had a horrible feeling in their guts, a feeling that told them that things would not be ok. But they wanted to ignore that feeling, even if just for a moment.

--

“Don’t sulk,” N assured Ken, “you’re doing great.”

“But I can only change Leo into a lamp for twenty minutes,” Ken argued, “meaning I can only turn one of our enemies into something for twenty minutes. If we’re going against multiple enemies at a time, we might not have twenty minutes to smash ‘em or something.”

“You worry too much,” Leo assured the younger, “it’s twenty minutes where we have one less enemy to fight. That could save a life or two.”

The room fell silent at that, the words striking a cord.

“We could all be dead by next week,” N finally said.

“We could be,” Leo nodded, “and…….i think I’m ok with that.”

“What?” the changeling and spell caster hissed, “What the hell are you talking about?”

“I don’t want to die,” Leo assured them, “but……but if I end up in a position where my death could save one of our friends…….I’m ok with that.”

The room feel silent once more, the words sinking in.

“You know,” Ken finally said, “I think I’d be ok with that, too.”

“Yeah,” N nodded, “but just so we’re clear, if either of you don’t try your hardest, I’ll bring you back and kill you all over again. I can do that, you know.”

“Sehun can do that,” Leo corrected, “you can’t yet.”

--

“We’re dead,” Luhan sighed, falling onto the grass between Tao and D.O.

“Such confidence,” D.O scoffed, “good thing you’re a fae, you can carry that confidence over to us.”

“Sorry,” Luhan sighed, “I just……everyone is so worried and I can feel all of it and…..it gets to me sometimes.”

“Then it’s good that you’re with us,” Tao grinned brightly, “because we’re both confident.”

“Overly so,” D.O nodded.

“How do you do it?” Xiumin spoke up from Tao’s other side, “I’m ting myself with worry.” Everyone gave him mock disgusted looks, “not literally, it’s a figure of speech.”

“Well,” Tao shrugged, “I’m not worried because I know we’re going to win.”

“Exactly,” D.O nodded, “we have so many people on our side. Good is gonna win at the end of the day, bad is gonna lose. What’s there to worry about?”

“I was just saying that!” Taeyang cried, “but Sooyoung said I was an idiot.”

“You’re misquoting me,” the young spell caster huffed, “I said you were an idiot for saying that to Taeyeon when she’s clearly worried. You know she’s been locked up training since you went stupid, right?”

“Sorry,” the young vampire sighed, “but I’m not wrong so……”

“Dying,” Sehun told them, “I mean, I’m not worried since I’m, well, me. I know what to expect better than any of you, so what do I have to be worried about. But, well, the point is you guys should be worried about that.”

“I already kind of died,” D.O shrugged, “so, yeah. Why should I worry about dying again?”

“Same here,” Taeyang smiled, earning an eye roll from Sooyoung.

“I’m just not worried,” Tao shrugged, “I know I should be, but I’m just……not. Weird, right?”

“Weird,” the others nodded, but then again Tao wasn’t much for worrying anyway. It was actually pretty refreshing to see he hadn’t changed through everything that had happened this year.

--

“Hard to believe it,” Kris smiled slightly.

“Huh?” Suho asked, “Hard to believe what?”

“That things have turned out like this,” Kris smiled slightly, “when they started out so……normal.”

“I know what ya mean,” Lay nodded, “I keep thinking back to my first days at Dark Lake and how different things were. Now…..this could be my last days here and…..so much has changed.”

“You’re right,” Suho nodded, “I remember how scare you were when we first met.”

“I’d only ever know the shifters in my hometown,” Lay defended himself, “I had no idea how to deal with so many new people.”

“Got no problems with it now,” Kris said, clearly proud for his friend.

“What about you two?” Lay said, “for the longest time, I thought you two were gonna hate each other forever.”

“We didn’t hate each other,” Suho rolled his eyes, “we just weren’t very friendly with each other.”

“Still,” Lay waved to the best friends, “look at you now. Never one without the other, always knowing what’s up with the other. Whoever would have thought.”

“Very true,” Kris nodded before turning to Suho, “remind me to thank Jihu for making you my babysitter.”

“I’m not a babysitter,” Suho playfully huffed, “he just wanted you to have a partner you could trust.”

“Babysitter,” Kris and Lay replied and the three soon burst out laughing.

--

“You worried?” Hongbin asked, running his fingers through Hyuk’s hair as the younger napped on his lap, “of course you are. You’re probably having nightmare after nightmare at night about losing anyone.”

“He’ll be fine,” Jessica said, startling Hongbin. He’d thought she fell asleep the same time her sister and Hyuk did.

“How do you know?” Hongbin asked once he recovered his wits.

“Because you’ll be looking after him,” Jessica shrugged, “and so will the others. No one is going to let Hyuk die. Hurt…..hurt can’t be helped, dead can be.”

“Not that I’m not worried about that,” Hongbin sighed, “it’s that I’m also worried about how he’ll take someone dying and…..well, someone is gonna die.”

“Hmmm,” Jessica nodded.

“What if it’s me?” Hongbin asked, knowing that Jessica couldn’t give him a response, “what if I die out there? How would…..Hyuk wouldn’t take it. It would destroy him. I……..I can’t let that happen. But I can’t control that. What of the others die? N and Leo? Ravi? Ken? Hyuk would be all alone and…….and what would happen to him?”

Jessica couldn’t respond, didn’t know what to say.

Hyuk fought the urge to open his eyes and yell at Hongbin for even thinking something like that. There was no way Hongbin and the others would die. Hyuk would die to protect them, he’d die before even one of them died.

--

“Chen?” Kai asked, curling up tighter to his brother’s side.

“Yeah?” the older Kim brother asked, eyes locked on the ceiling of his room.

“Are you worried?” Kai asked, “about what’s gonna happen? About……fighting dad?”

“I’d be lying if I said no,” Chen sighed after a moment of thought, “but at the same time, it’s not that troubling a thought. Fighting dad I mean. I…….I guess I’ve made my peace with it. Kind of easy to do when he’s never really been a father to me.”

“Hmmmm,” Kai nodded, not really liking hearing that from his brother. Yeah, their dad was a piece of , but he was still their father. Like it or not, he was ‘dad’.

“I just hope it’s not me who has to end him,” Chen finally said, “I don’t mind fighting him, that’s not a problem. Killing him? I…….I’m not sure if I could do that no matter what he’s done to us and mom.”

Kai nodded, kind of grateful to hear the older werewolf say that.

“If he hurts you, though,” Chen was quick to say, “I’ll rip out his throat in a heartbeat.”

“Same,” Kai replied. He didn’t have to think about that, couldn’t feel bad saying that. It was the truth. If his father hurt Chen, Kai would kill him.

--

“Keep going,” Heesun told Hyoyeon who’d paused in her attack.

“No,” the shifter replied, “you need to catch your breath.”

“We don’t have time for me to catch my breath,” the werewolf huffed, “we need to keep going.”

“We don’t need you to get hurt because of your carelessness,” Hyoyeon scoffed, “so sit your down and rest.”

“Whatever,” Heesun did as told with a roll of her eyes, but Hyoyeon could see the hint of thankfulness in her eyes. Heesun desperately needed a breather before she got herself hurt.

“I know your worried,” Hyoyeon said, “but you shouldn’t let that blind you to taking care of your body. Your health.”

“I know,” Heesun huffed, “but shouldn’t we be even more worried about being able to fight? Being able to keep our friends alive?”

“You won’t be able to do that if you’ve beaten yourself up,” Hyoyeon countered, shutting the y werewolf up.

--

“Your feelings,” Hyuna frowned, “they’re all messed up and mixed.”

“Of course they’re like that,” Jaesun huffed, “my whole gang was killed only a few days ago and in a few more days I’m going to be fighting their killers.”

“You’ve missing the point,” Hyuna huffed, “your thoughts are all mess up like your feelings and that……that isn’t something I want to see out on the battle field. It will put everyone in danger.”

“I’ll be fine,” Jaesun scoffed, “I’m not gonna put anyone at risk.”

“You’re being blinded by revenge,” Hyuna said even though she knew he wasn’t really paying attention to what she was saying, “and it’s going to get you killed. Maybe some of us, too.”

“Everything will be fine,” Jaesun assured her, mouth on autopilot since his mind was miles away, “don’t worry.”

--

“Are my kids going to be coming home?” was all Minji asked when Jihu entered her office.

“Honestly,” he sighed, “I have no idea. I hope they all do, but I know that isn’t going to happen. I…..I don’t even know if some of them are going to be coming home.”

“Just try to keep them safe,” Minji finally said after a long moment of silence, “try to bring all of them home.”

--

Yuri looked out across the school grounds, trying her best to silence the thoughts of those she cared about. All of them were so worried, even if they didn’t want to let on about their fears regarding what was to come.

But Yuri knew,

She always knew what everyone was thinking, what they were really feeling.

Sometimes, people could block her from their thoughts. Some of them anyway. But the stronger the feeling attached to the thought was, the harder it was to hide from her. It all made for one killer headache for the poor young fae. But it was a headache she didn’t want to get rid of. Each voice that was echoing in her mind…..she feared losing even a single one.

Everything will be fine.

 That thought, those four words, kept echoing in her mind the loudest. This lie was what everyone was telling themselves.

Nothing would be fine, Yuri knew this without a doubt.

A/N:so, now you know where everyone stands! And now for the horrible to begin!!! Bring on the death and blood. ……..oh, I am so getting yelled at for that last comment.