She looked at her watch. 02:54. Weird. No strange attackers this hour. Still, she put her hoodie on and covered her face with her long bangs. She didn't plan to go back to her flat because confronting those weird assassins would be harder in a small place. She just walked and walked, trusting her feet to bring the rest of her wherever they wanted.

She took a random turn to the left. The street was dark, a very minimum ray of light brightened up the way, but she liked it just like that. She somehow felt a different aura lingering around her air and her eyes dimmed. This was a new person she hadn't met yet and this was not just a regular (what her kind called 'normal') person. She looked at her feet and the only light on that corner turned off. She only needed to blink her eyes to invite the dark.

"Is she Baekhyun's counterpart? She brings darkness all the way,"

"No, she's not,"

"Don't talk so loud, you two. I haven't known her power yet,"

She didn't hear their loud not-so-whispers. Not that she had to. She quickly her heels to take another turn and as soon as she left, the light back to normal. She knew four forces were following her, she could feel the aura coming from them, but she didn't bother to find out. She'd prefer going solo than to live a group life.

"Red Rose,"

A familiar voice called out and she knew it was directed to her. She looked up and a tall lad was sitting on a big tree as if it was a regular park bench. He sat with legs crossed and his hands were holding a shiny silver blade.

"You again," she said monotonously

He jumped down the tree and effortlessly landed on his feet right in front of her. His flight power was worth to envy ―to her.

"Didn't I tell you my name is Kris?"

"You're annoying. Go back to your friends,"

She took her turn and left him there. She'd had enough meeting Kris and his stupid silver blades. If he had an infinite power, just like she did, why would he need those weapons? She was never amused at all.

She grumbled on her way and kept her head down as she walked. She didn't even know where she was going but she just kept walking. She had to avoid small alleys because those assassins were probably just a bit late. She needed a wide space.

She just walked and walked, taking random turns on her way and cared less if she could get lost. And those seven forces were still following her tail, this time including Kris. She already passed this alley before but she still turned anyway. But then, she stopped walking when she heard faded clangs and muffled mumbles. She sensed something, aside of those forces. She stopped in front of a park. The place was too bright to her liking, but it was quite wide and she had no choice. She balled her fist, expecting a random dagger aiming her.

There. A couple of weirdoes showed up right at 03:53. Han saw the Dark Chasers running to her and he was ready to help her, but Joonmyeon and Xiumin stopped him to.

"Joonmyeon, we should help her―"

"Just watch, Han Ge. You said you haven't known her power," Joonmyeon said, "Trust me. She can handle them,"

Six Dark Chasers ran to her and they all had platinum daggers in their hands. She had no time for this. Her irises changed from light blue to dark indigo. She saw the lights on the park and quickly focused her hands there. She converted the heat of the lights into fireballs, she made some bigger ones this time, and threw them to the Dark Chaser before her eyes. His mask was burned and she surely burned his whole face. She grabbed his dagger before he fell and stabbed the Dark Chaser behind her at his back. He was still moving, so she waved her hands to the lights and this time she converted the energy into lightning bolts to strike the stronger Dark Chaser right at his chest. She then jabbed him at the same spot, took the dagger from his hand, and he fell as well.

","

There were still four Dark Chasers to go. Weird. Usually they only sent a couple every hour. Was that because she wasn't attacked an hour ago, so more assassins came this hour? She had two daggers in her hands and she didn't doubt to use them. She threw the daggers to them, one stabbed one Dark Chaser's leg and one stabbed the other one's chest. Too bad the two others were still untouched.

She ran.

"Joonmyeon! You seriously want me to watch and sit around?" Han barked at Joonmyeon, "There are six of them! Six!"

"Han Ge, she doesn't like being around us," Jongdae said, "She knows that we're here all along, but she'll definitely kick your if you ever show up in front of her,"

She seriously wanted to waste no time on this. She needed to focus on her senses because those weird assassins were being irrational lately. They really wanted to hunt her down like a doe in the midnight forest. She ran, ran, ran. Thank God she was skinny and it wasn't exhausting for her to run faster than her chasers. She ran and looked back, she left them far. She ran and looked back, she left them farther. She ran and looked back, they were even farther. She ran and looked back―

"I'll definitely make them― ouch!"

She wasn't careful on her way and she bumped into someone. She fell on her knees and looked up, a manly hand reached out to help her stand up.

"I'm sorry― You again?" Sehun recognized the last face he saw in the club

That's when she realized she was heading back to Phoenix Club. To see him. She could feel her irises changing. This time, they were pink glitters.

"Hi,"

A platinum dagger flied to their direction but Sehun noticed so he twirled the air to create an invincible shield to protect them. The dagger couldn't fly through and it fell on the ground, not too far from her reach.

"I knew it. You should've told me earlier,"

Sehun furrowed his eyebrows, "Tell you what?"

She threw a fireball to one Dark Chaser and one lightning to another.

"Tell me that we're the same," she finished, "Sehun, I beg you, don't follow me and run. They're only after me,"

She grabbed the abandoned dagger and patted Sehun's back for the last time before she ran away with long strides. The only Dark Chaser left held his dagger high and Sehun tried to block him to buy her some time.

Sehun was busy enough with one Dark Chaser but thirteen other Dark Chasers came out of nowhere. One was right behind Sehun's back, but Kris came just in time to slit the Dark Chaser's throat with his silver blade. Sehun was too late.

"So you're Twelve," Kris pierced his gaze through Sehun's skull

Sehun saw how Kris flied and he finally believed.

"So he was right," Sehun stared back at Kris, "That Kai guy tried to tell me but I refused to believe,"

"You know now,"

"You two!" Kai shouted from afar after he tackled one Dark Chaser down, "Make yourself useful, please!"

"I've got one down!" Kris shouted back, "I'll run after her!"

Kris stomped his feet on the ground and as soon as he defied the gravity, he flied away to follow her suit. Another Dark Chaser came to Sehun but he quickly spun a whirlwind and the assassin was blown away.

Yixing took a silver knife from his pocket and jabbed a Dark Chaser with it. The cut was open and Yixing took the chance to dry out his blood. He knew it was partially cruel, but he could only control the elements of living creatures and that included blood. The Dark Chaser was groaning in pain but Yixing only stopped once his enemy stopped moving. A pool of crimson blood painted the sideway. He took two more knives from his pocket and handed them to Kai.

Kai received the knives with a nod and disappeared from his sight in a matter of second. A Dark Chaser ran after him, ready to attack, but Kai teleported to his back and jabbed the Dark Chaser's neck. He pulled out his knife as soon as his enemy fell and snatched the platinum dagger away. Kai saw Han throwing a wooden bench to his attacker. The Dark Chaser was tackled down but he managed to throw his platinum dagger to Han. Kai automatically teleported and caught it just in time, then threw it to Han to catch. Han threw it to his chaser and blood splashed out of the cut.

Joonmyeon and Xiumin worked together as always and they took down two Dark Chasers in a round. Joonmyeon splashed water to them and Xiumin froze them, then the two kicked the two ice blocks to break them to thousand pieces. Kyungsoo cracked the ground and let two chasers fell to the hole before he threw huge rocks to the trapped enemies. Baekhyun was literally killing one Dark Chaser with his self-created lightsaber in a hand and providing energy in the form of light to Chanyeol and Jongdae with another hand. Chanyeol and Jongdae successfully burned down a whole Dark Chaser to death. There were still five Dark Chasers to go and so far, Sehun was the only one who hadn't gone down to the killing ―and Zitao.

Zitao had tried to stop the time but he seemed to lose his ability again. Out of all the forces, why did he have to be the only one troubling with his power? What a perfect timing. A Dark Chaser with a couple of daggers in both hands came from Zitao's back but he kicked the assassin straight in his stomach. Zitao kicked the Dark Chaser's chest and leaned down to twist his neck. Still unsatisfied, Zitao took the daggers from the ground and used one to jab his neck. He was fierce, indeed.

Sehun was still too engrossed in playing around with his attacker by twirling whirlwinds or drawing invisible air-shields and Zitao was sick of it. Sehun's attacker was reaching out to a last platinum blade in his pocket but Zitao was faster. Zitao ran to the back of the assassin and stabbed him with two daggers at once. Sehun blew the Dark Chaser with a big whirlwind and threw him away harshly. He fell to the ground and the platinum dagger slipped off his hand. Zitao caught the weapon.

"You better have the heart to start killing," Zitao turned to throw the dagger to Sehun, "Don't pity them. They wanna kill you too,"

Zitao saw Kai troubling with one Dark Chaser so he threw one of his daggers to the younger. Kai teleported to catch the dagger and successfully defeated another Dark Chaser. Zitao felt frustrated for not being able to use his power so he took his leave.

"Where the hell are you going, Zitao?" Han called out

"My power's not working again. I'll just go get her," Zitao answered, "There's only one left for you guys anyway. That's easy to kill,"

"Red Rose,"

She tiredly sighed and turned around to see Kris standing ten feet away from her. She surely left them all far enough but why the hell was Kris here― hell, right, he could just fly and that saved much more energy and time.

"What?"

She raised an eyebrow and looked down to his hands but... those silver blades she expected to see, they weren't there.

"Where's your pretty shining blade? You need no weapons anymore?"

Well, Kris might finally have enough confidence to get rid of those.

"You want me to impress you again?"

She wiggled her index finger to him, "You never impressed me. Not even once. Excuse you but I have to go,"

She turned his back to him to leave but suddenly a blade flied and stabbed the back of her leg. It was planted so deep and she started feeling unbearable pain all over her system. She weakly fell to the ground.

Platinum blade.

She opened her eyes and blinked rapidly to adjust with the sudden brightness. She looked around and found herself in an abandoned bedroom ―or what was a bedroom. She also saw her hoodie lied lifelessly on the floor. This place did look like it was untouched for years but why were red petals scattered all over the floor?

Forget that.

What happened? How long have I been here? What time is it? What if they got me? Those assassins might come any time.

She wanted to look at her watch and that was the time she realized her hands and feet were cuffed to the chair she was sitting on. She recalled the very last memory stocked in her brain. She looked at her wounded leg but the pain was no longer that painful. Her leg was wrapped by a cloth woven out of golden thread. Yes, her father told her us that their kind could heal a surface cut with some cloth made out of gold.

But wait up. Who brought her here? Who cuffed her? Who put that cloth there?

She tried to yank her hand off the cuffs but she couldn't. She wasn't a metal-bender. There were no light, fire, or electricity around. Dead end. She needed to get out, she needed to get ou―

"Where are you going, Red Rose?"

Kris stood in front of the door, switched the light on, and dragged a wooden chair along with him as he walked in. He put his chair in a safe distance from her and calmly sat with arms and legs crossed.

"You should be thankful I healed the wound I made myself,"

She nearly stopped breathing when she felt Kris' familiar dull blue aura changed to completely dark black. She wished she could control his aura. Too bad, she couldn't control any people her kind.

"Go away,"

"That hurts, Dear. Why would you shoo away a man who adores you?"

Kris reached out to touch her face but she turned her head away.

"There's nothing to adore from me,"

She glared angrily at him but he ignored the sharp icy daggers from her orbs and replied her with a sweet loving gaze.

"Really? But you got the whole package,"

Kris dragged his chair closer to her so they were sitting nose-to-nose. She felt her heart pounding in her chest, not due to embarrassment but because of irritation mixed with anxiety.

Her father said that she could only trust her kind ―it turned to be a bull, although she did believe once. Kris was her kind but... this? Why would he ever do this to someone his kind?

"Long hair, short skirts, definitely the assets women should have," Kris trailed his finger from her cheek down to her tattooed neck, "Oh, I forgot. You're just a little girl. Or are you now a lady already? Red lipstick might help you with that,"

Kris playfully ed the first two buttons of her top, revealing her collarbones and the top of her s. He looked straight into her eyes and since he removed her fake lens, he could see her irises changing red.

"To be honest, I love your natural hair," Kris played with a strain of her dyed hair, "You were born with beautiful red hair. As red as your blood. As red as your eyes now,"

She refused to look back at him but Kris would always tilt her chin up whenever she looked away.

"Pretty face... y curves... Strong personality... On top of that, powerful mind..... And the long list keeps going on. You can really make a sweet wife,"

Kris took his hand away from her only to take something from his pocket. It was a very beautifully-carved blade adorned with small beads of black jade. She had never seen any weapon as astonishing as that, but she realized it was made of platinum and she gasped. He carefully held the blade in his hands and his saccharine-sweet smile scared the hell out of her.

She closed her eyes and silently wished this all wasn't real. She met Kris a lot of times before but he usually fooled around and only showed off his silver blades before he left, only to chase after her again and again. Who was this guy with darkness wrapping him in?

"What... what do you want from me?"

This time, the Kris she knew with his dull aura was gone. This lad in front of her, whoever he was, looked dead serious and she knew her life was at stake. She felt like standing at the edge of a cliff because he'd be ready to push her to death anytime. Or literally, he'd stab her with his new platinum blade. Platinum didn't kill her kind like titanium, but sure she would be dead if he stabbed her deep enough (through her flesh, up to her bones) and no one came to heal her. Even the way it shined gave her the sight of death already.

"Let's..." a teardrop innocently fell down her eye, "Let's do whatever you want then let me go,"

A teardrop. Another teardrop. And another teardrop. She wasn't crying, not even whimpering, but sure she was scared of losing her neck to him. She didn't want to die yet. All the effort she had been through to strengthen her power would be useless and she didn't want to visit Hades' homeland yet.

"I really wanna let you go, too bad I can't," Kris kissed her tears away, "Because out of all the children of Zinan, you're the only one who has the secret code of the Huangs. Not even your half-sister, not even your brother, but you alone,"

Kris' smile grew wider and it scared her even more. Her irises changed dark brown in a matter of second.

"Nobody was supposed to give birth to two forces, especially a female one. They thought it'd be the Huangs' last child―"

"Don't you dare to touch Ziyi!!"

"―but I was right. You're the 13th. Not your fierce brother, not your powerless half-sister, but you are. You're the danger... at least to me..."

Kris slowly slit the skin of her arm with his blade and red blood started flowing out of the shallow cut. She had always been beautiful to him and red was the color that suited her best. If this wasn't because of the stupid mission, he would've kept the girl for himself. He'd dress her in a beautiful red gown with red roses in her hands, down the red aisle. Red and red only, for him only.

Her irises were dancing in fear when she saw the red tainting her skin. The familiar yet hated pain tortured her and it burned inside. Kris slowly trailed his fingers following the trace of her blood. She couldn't help but finally shivered and she was so close to breaking down. When could the world be fair to her? Nothing was ever easy for her and even a beautiful creature like this guy in front of her treated her this way.

Kris leaned closer to peck her lips and he knew he was her first kiss. He trailed down and peppered her with butterfly kisses on her jawline but she could only cringe.

"...Zihua,"

[A/N] Sooooo did the plot twist amuse you guys? ._. I'm really feeling like a failure T~T

I actually wanted to post this chapter but what if those who don't subscribe stop following the storyline ;~; anyway two days ago was my 18th birthday so here's my double update ^^

There was actually a prologue and an epilogue to this but let's see if there are enough readers who wants that ^^ or maybe, if anyone can guess what's the secret of her clan (okay, you know now she's a Huang) that she has under her skin (I gave a lot of hints), I'll put up the prologue and the epilogue later ^^