Frowning at the men sitting around the table with him, Yifan clenched his fists within his lap. “You all heard the same rumors that I did. I say we go check it out.”

                Yixing kept his face void of emotion as he sat in the meeting with the others. This wasn’t the first time that they’d sat around their table to discuss their future. He knew it wouldn’t be the last. “This is different, Yifan. You’re asking us to confront the man who killed everyone we loved.”

                Kyungsoo glared down at the table. He kept one hand firmly wrapped around Jongin’s wrist. “I don’t want anything to do with him. Why can’t we just keep living like we are?”

                “Because!” Yifan all but shouted. He cleared his throat and forced himself to take a breath before speaking again. “Because. Whatever he has, it belongs to us. He stole it from us. And if the legends of our people are true, then the thing he has might just be the one thing we need to fix this.”

                “Fix what,” Sehun asked quietly. “There’s nothing that can bring them back.”

                Luhan wrapped his arm around Sehun’s waist as he leaned his head against Sehun’s arm. “You cannot undo the past.”

                “There are legends-“

                “Name one legend,” Minseok cut in. “Name one of our legends that could possibly be true and help us fix what has been done. There isn’t one.”

                “Black Pearl.”

                The men around the table fell silent as they all stared at Yifan.

                Baekhyun shook his head as he tore his gaze away from the man they’d made their captain. “That’s just a story. It has never been true.”

                “The King stole something,” Yifan argued. “He attacked and slaughtered everyone to steal something. He got something that day. And now we know where he’s keeping it. I say we go in and get it back.”

                “We’d risk all of us,” Chanyeol pointed out. “We’re all that’s left of our people and we’d be risking our lives. We’re better off just living our lives as we have been.”

                “This isn’t living,” Yifan snapped.

                Yixing sighed as he raised one of his hands to stop the others from arguing further. “When we found each other in the ruins of our people, we swore to stick together and survive. This isn’t the life that any of us wanted but it is the life that we have. I don’t want to risk our freedom or our safety for a what-if. I vote no.”

                Yifan dug his nails into his palm as one by one, the others agreed with Yixing. “You’re all making a big mistake. This is our chance. We’re only a few days from the castle. We wouldn’t even have to bring our ship in that close to the harbor. With our combined powers, we could wreak havoc and steal back what rightly belongs to us.”

                “We voted no,” Chen said quietly without raising his gaze from the table. “You can make all the arguments that you want but we won’t agree with you.”

                With a growl, Yifan pushed away from the table and stormed out of the galley.

                Yixing ran a hand down his face with a sigh. “I’ll talk to him. He might be our defacto captain, but that doesn’t mean that he controls us. We are all equals here. Don’t ever forget that.”

                “There are so few of us left,” Jongin said with a shudder. “I don’t want to lose Yifan, too.”

                Kyungsoo rubbed his hand up and down Jongin’s back. “I hope it never comes to that.”

                Yixing pushed away from the table. He didn’t say anything further as he got up and made his way to the deck of the ship. Yifan was only frustrated with their decision. He was sure he wouldn’t do anything foolish even if he was sometimes hotheaded.

                The island they were moored off of offered them protection while also being a potential trap. Yixing took a second to scan the horizon of the sea before he did anything else. They could not become pinned against the reef. They could not risk a fight with another ship.

                With the horizon free of any signs of life, Yixing made his way across the deck to where Yifan was leaning against the railing. “Don’t be angry with us.”

                Yifan snorted out an ugly sound. He did not lift his gaze from the water. “Whatever.”

                Yixing rested his forearms against the railing as he leaned his weight there. “This life might not be like the one we led so long ago, Yifan, but it’s not a bad one. We have our freedom and our lives. We can travel anywhere we want to go on the seas and we have little to fear.”

                “But we could have so much more,” Yifan ground out. “You know what the legend says the Pearl can do.”

                “I also know the part of the story where things do not turn out the way the people using the Pearl thought they would.”

                “We’re smarter than those fools.”

                “Are we? You’re trying to make the same decisions they did.”

                “No,” Yifan snapped. “I’m making better ones.”

                “We voted no.”

                Yifan hit the top of the railing with his fist. “Then you are all fools, too!”

                Sighing, Yixing turned away from the angry man. “Cool off, Yifan. Come to terms with our decision. The risk is too great. We don’t want to do it.”

                “Fine,” Yifan all but snarled as he placed one foot on the railing of the ship. “I’m going ashore. We agreed to be moored here for a week. I suggest the lot of you leave me alone for at least half of it.”

                Yixing closed his eyes as Yifan threw himself from the deck of the ship. He could only hope that a flight and some time alone would calm him.

                “He left?”

                Tilting his head, Yixing looked back as Luhan joined him at the railing. “He’s going to blow off some steam.”

                “He’s always been passionate and determined.”

                Yixing shook his head as he looked back at the island. “It wasn’t that many years ago that we thought those were good qualities.”

                Luhan chuckled as he took Yifan’s abandoned place at Yixing’s side to lean against the railing and look at the island. “We voted him captain when we have to deal with other people because no one else wanted to do it, not because he’s stubborn.”

                “His stubbornness has served us well in the past.”

                “Choosing a route or whether to fight or flee is not the same as what he’s proposing now. Do not defend him, Yixing. There is no need to. We all know why he wants revenge. If things were different, we’d want that revenge, too.”

                Sighing again, Yixing turned away from the island to face Luhan. “Our future does not lie in the past. He’ll see that soon.”

                Luhan didn’t bother to express his doubts. He knew that Yixing was mostly trying to convince himself.

XXX

                Yifan snarled as he stomped his way across the beach. He wanted to turn and scream at the ship that held all that was left of his people. They were wrong. They were frightened. Their fear was making them cowards.

                What was the point of living if they were not willing to right the wrongs done to them? What was the point of having the abilities that they did if they weren’t willing to use them to bring justice to the one responsible for the annihilation of so many people?

                If they were so afraid of the castle and the threat that the King posed then they didn’t need to go.

                Yifan stilled in his movements. He turned to look across the sand and the water of the small bay to where the ship was moored. He could see some of his crewmates milling around on the deck. They were slowly getting ready to come ashore.

                Turning back to the island, Yifan studied the trees and the cliffs above him. The island was the largest one they’d been able to find that had animals but no people. And they were going to be there for a week at least.

                Yifan bent his knees before pressing up off the ground. He shot up into the air well above the island. He stopped when he had a good view of it from above. He’d already flown around to check to make sure that there wasn’t anyone else stopping there. Kyungsoo had also used his powers to feel through the earth to make certain they’d be alone.

                They were only a few days from the castle by ship.

                He could fly faster than a ship.

                Yifan studied the cove that The Dragon was tucked safely in. His crewmates would be fine without him for a few days. He’d already told Yixing to leave him alone. He could do it. He would do it.

                Yifan clenched his fists before shooting over to the other side of the island. He didn’t want to raise anyone’s suspicion. Let them think he was sulking somewhere else on the island. He’d be back before they ever knew he was gone.

                And once he had the Pearl, he’d fix everything. He’d make those responsible pay for what they’d done.

XXX

                Humming to himself, Tao lifted his new little kitten from the bed he’d been sleeping on to cradle him in his arms. He rocked the kitten as he purred against his chest. “Little baby ZiZi,” Tao sang softly. “Such a cute little kitty. I get to love you so you have to love me.”

                Joonmyeon rolled his eyes from behind his book. He couldn’t help but smile. He loved it when Tao acted cute. “Don’t forget about the deal you had to make to get that kitten, Tao.”

                Tao shot a glare over his shoulder at Joonmyeon. “I haven’t forgotten. Besides, you never let me forget anything.”

                With a lift of one of his eyebrows, Joonmyeon turned the page in his book. “I merely make sure you understand that nothing the King gives us is free.”

                Pouting down at his still-purring kitten, Tao turned to the large window. Their room at the top of the tower allowed them a spectacular view of the ocean. Not that they would ever be allowed to leave the castle grounds. “Making an appearance at one of his feasts to impress some visitors that he has isn’t that big of a hardship. We don’t have to do anything but sit there.”

                In response, Joonmyeon turned another page of his book.

                Tao pressed a kiss to his kitten’s head before putting him back on the bed. “Finding excuses to leave the tower is never a bad thing.”

                “What’s the matter? You don’t like our humble little home? We have a bookcase with about twenty books.”

                “We have twenty-two and you know it.”

                Joonmyeon chuckled as he put his book down beside him on his bed. “I am not telling you that you can’t ask for things, Tao. You are not the only one that has asked for things.”

                Tao crossed the small distance between the window and Joonmyeon’s bed before throwing himself down next to the other boy. “He’s never going to let us out of here, is he?”

                “You know what you’d have to do for him to let us out of the tower.”

                “I can’t.”

                “I know,” Joonmyeon said softly as he a hand down Tao’s back. “He’s tried bribery before, Tao.”

                Tao rolled over onto his back so he could look up at Joonmyeon. “He’s going to get angry again soon when he realizes that his gifts aren’t going to make me agree.”

                “He is.”

                “What are we going to do?”

                Joonmyeon combed his fingers through Tao’s hair as he did his best to smile down at the boy practically in his lap. “We’ll do the same as we have before. We’ll weather the storm and make it to the other side. He won’t hurt us.”

                “He won’t hurt us directly,” Tao mumbled as he turned his head to look at his precious little kitten napping on his bed. “I think I know why you were telling me to be careful.”

                Joonmyeon felt his heart hurting within his chest for not the first time. “We’ll give ZiZi the best life we can while we can, Tao. That’s all we can do.”

                Tao huffed as he turned again to bury his head into Joonmyeon’s lap. “I wish we could escape this place.”

                “I do, too.”

                Tao peeked up at Joonmyeon through one eye. “You could go. I know you could. The ocean is right there. You could use your powers and slip away.”

                Joonmyeon frowned down at the boy in his lap. “I won’t leave you, Tao.”

                “Never?”

                “I would like to see someone try and keep us apart.”

                Tao grinned as he pressed his face back into the top of Joonmyeon’s thigh. “That’s why you’re Suho, Joonmyeon.”

                “Come on, Little Treasure, no more pouting. There’s a storm building. Go look out at the ocean and tell me how long you think we have until we have to shut those heavy shutters.”

                Laughing, Tao rolled away from Joonmyeon’s tickling fingers to make his way back to the window. The clouds were beginning to gather. Joonmyeon was never wrong when it came to predicting storms. “I think we have a couple of hours yet. Is it building quickly?”

                Letting his eyes fall closed, Joonmyeon let his other senses reach out with his magic. “Not too quickly, but it feels like it’s going to be a rough one. I fear that we’ll be alone up here for a few days.”

                “The maid left us plenty of food and water.”

                Joonmyeon nodded at that as he opened his eyes. He blinked several times as he turned his head to take in the sight of Tao watching him from by the window. “Don’t forget that we have an extra mouth to feed this time.”

                Tao turned his head to watch the little cat still dozing on his bed. “I don’t think he eats that much, yet.”

                Joonmyeon stretched his arms over his head with a sigh before picking his book back up. “I think he might surprise you.”

                Tao grinned at his cat as he took a step away from the window and toward his bed. He didn’t make it far before a large gust of wind swept into their small room at the top of the tower, shifting most of their possessions. “Joonmyeon!”

                Not wasting a moment, Joonmyeon pushed himself out of his bed and to the large wooden doors that opened into their tower. “Come on, Tao! Push that side. Let’s get these closed before the wind steals what little we have.”

                Grunting, Tao heaved one of the shutters while Joonmyeon shut the other one. He hated having to close them. The little room they lived in only felt smaller with the shutters closed. “Stupid wind!”

                Joonmyeon laughed as they got the shutters closed and the board to hold them that way in place. “Go snuggle with ZiZi, Tao. I’m sure the storm will pass quickly enough.”

XXX

                Yifan flew above the storm for as long as he dared. He didn’t want to risk flying through it, but he couldn’t miss the castle. He dropped down into the worst of it when he thought he was in about the right place.

                The winds were brutal. He had to actively dodge the lightning streaking through the sky. The rain did not help his mood as he flew on. Twice, he had to double back to avoid a particularly violent cloud.

                Yifan was soaked and frustrated by the time he managed to make out the shoreline and the King’s castle looming in the distance.

                “Finally,” he muttered as he pushed against the wind.

                The only good thing about the storm was that it gave him cover to approach the tower. The chances of anyone seeing him were rather slim in such terrible weather.

                Yifan circled the tower once he reached it. There was only one opening at the top, though it was blocked by huge wooden doors. There was a slight ledge to the window that he landed on. The wind beat against him relentlessly as he held himself on the ledge with his powers of flight.

                The treasure was supposed to be in the tower. All treasure was guarded. There had to be someone in the tower even if there was a storm raging outside. The King would not be so foolish as to leave his treasure unprotected. And even if there wasn’t anyone inside, Yifan could fly down until he found another window or a door and force his way inside that way.

                With his mind made up, Yifan braced himself before pounding his fist against the great wooden shutter.

XXX

                Tao jerked up from where he’d been lying with ZiZi. He turned his wide eyes over to where Joonmyeon was also sitting up alert. “Was that?”

                The pounding sounded again.

                Joonmyeon was quick to get to his feet. “Knocking.”

A/N: I hope you like the new first chapter!! I know that I do!

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