A/N: hey, before anything, i want to say something very important. I think we've all heard about what's happened in France. my thoughts and love to the family and friends of the 129 people who were killed, i can't begin to understand how much pain they're feeling. my love and support to the people of France who are probably really scared after what's happened. what happened was.....it was beyond horrible and i hope all those who are to blame for this burn in hell. #prayforfrance #prayforparis

“Sori?” Suho called out softly, unsure of what to do now.

Baekhyun watched, silently praying that Suho would be able to snap Sori out of this……this state she’d fallen into when he informed her that Hyuna was…….was……

When he told her that Hyuna was gone.

Sori had paused, clearly trying to process the news. Once it sunk in, Baekhyun had watched Sori’s eyes turn black. Then she was upon their attackers, ripping and slashing them with a level of violence Baekhyun never thought her able. Even back when he first met Sori, back when she was still pretty cold, he’d never thought she could do something like…..like that.

Once the ones attacking them were dead, Sori had paused. Realizing that there was nothing left to slaughter, she reverted to her human form and fell to her knees. She had just sat there, looking blankly at the wall before her. Looking anywhere but at the carnage she’d committed.

She hadn’t moved an inch since.

“Sori?” Suho tried again, “Sori are……can you hear me?”

“She’s in shock,” Baekhyun finally found his voice, “she……”

“I know,” Suho sighed, dropping down beside their friend, “I know.”

“Do you…..?” Baekhyun wasn’t sure what he wanted to say, what he wanted to ask.

Maybe he wanted to ask if Suho thought Sori would be ok in time. Maybe he wanted to know what Suho thought of their situation. Or maybe…..maybe Baekhyun wanted to ask about their other friends. What kind of condition were they in? And anyone else……..had anyone else died?

Baekhyun had known that not all of them would live. He wasn’t a fool, he wasn’t naive. He’d known since that blasted mission that some of them would die. That stupid mission had removed any fantasies he’d had about them winning this battle without losing anyone.

But knowing the truth of the situation and seeing the truth were two very different things.

“We need to move,” Suho sighed, “we can’t stay here. They….they’re probably going to send backup soon.”

“Yeah,” Baekhyun nodded.

But neither moved.

“Hey,” both looked up to find Jaesun just entering the room, Luhan close behind him, “what…….oh no.”

“Sori?” Luhan cried, rushing to her side once he saw her on the floor, “Sori, hey. It’s me, it’s Luhan. Are you hurt? Where are you hurt?”

“Hyuna’s dead,” Jaesun sighed, “so yeah, she’s hurt. Her heart is hurting.”

“Oh,” Luhan looked over and saw Hyuna’s limp form, “oh god. Is…oh my god.”

“Luhan!” Suho snapped, finally regaining enough of himself to be able to take back his leadership position, “you can’t sink into grief. Not right now. Not when we need you to help Sori. We can’t do this without her and the only people who can bring her back to herself are you, Ravi, and Kris.”

“Kris can’t bring her back,” Jaesun said, voice just above a whisper, “he needs to be brought back to himself too.”

“What?” Suho panicked, “what happened?”

“Lay,” Luhan said, “Lay was shot. I don’t know if he’s alright. I…I saw Hongbin heading over to him, but….but I was following Jaesun. I had to follow Jaesun. So I didn’t see what happened.”

Suho was already running for the entrance hall.

“See if you can help Sori,” Jaesun said after a moment, “we need her if we’re going to do this.”

“R-right,” Luhan nodded, grabbing Sori’s hands and trying focus on what he needed to do.

“What are we going to do?” Baekhyun asked, looking over at Hyuna’s body before forcing himself to look at Jaesun.

Suho couldn’t be their leader. He was gone to check on Kris. And even if he brought Kris back to himself, that would be his main priority; keeping Kris focused.

By the sounds of it, Kris had lost control of himself. And when Kris lost control……..well, they couldn’t send Luhan in to calm him down. And even if Suho brought him back, he still couldn’t be counted on to lead.

Even with Luhan’s help, they couldn’t really, truly count on Sori to lead. Her mind and emotions couldn’t be counted on right now.

Baekhyun didn’t trust himself to lead. And Luhan had never wanted to lead, never felt himself suited to it. Hongbin needed to be away from the front lines, so he couldn’t lead. Lay would be to hurt to lead if…………if he was still alive.

This left Jaesun the only one who could lead.

The only one who wanted to lead.

“We need to get moving,” Jaesun said, “where is everyone else supposed to be? We need to find them and regroup.”

“He’s right,” Sori whispered, mind slowly returning thanks to Luhan, “we….we need to know who’s still here……..who we’ve lost.”

“Right,” Baekhyun nodded, “right. We’ll find everyone.”

--

“Oh god,” Suho whispered, watching as Kris destroyed the room in his full dragon form.

Normally, seeing his friend and partner in this form was breath taking. From his red scales to his wings, Kris’ dragon form was something to behold. And behold Suho did.

But now……

Now things were different.

“Suho!” Jihu ordered, “take Hongbin and get out of here!”

“No,” Suho replied, “I can help. You take Hongbin and find the others.”

“Fine,” Jihu sighed, quickly realizing that Suho was not about to change his mind about this, “be safe.”

Suho waited until Jihu and Hongbin had left before shifting into his own dragon form.

A/N: oh dear. Poor Hyuna. And poor Sori not being able to deal with it. Not that Suho or Baekhyun are handling it very well either.