…history I make…

The Prophecy, written in the ancient tomes of temples, a reminder of the time when they were one, was something they'd all memorized and could recite, even in their sleep. After all, they were the Legends, living in Shadow Planets.

When the skies and the grounds were one, the Legends, through their twelve forces, nurtured the Tree of Life. But Eye of Red Force created the Evil which coveted the Heart of Tree of Life and the Heart slowly grew dry. To tend and embrace the Heart of Tree of Life, the Legends hereby divide the Tree in half and hide each side. Hence, Time is overturned and Space turns askew.

The twelve forces divide into two and create two suns that look alike, into two worlds that seem alike. The Legends travel apart. The Legends shall now see the same sky but stand on different grounds, shall stand on the same ground but shall see different skies.

The day the grounds beget a single file before one sun, in two worlds that seem alike, the Legends will greet each other. The day the Red Forces purify and the twelve Forces reunite, into one perfect root, a new world shall open up.

The planet, these days, was nothing more than a huge desert, completely devoid of people. Sure, they'd managed to secure the wildlife, native flora and fauna – and in fact, that was a great achievement, but it was hard to enjoy all of these blessings with no one to appreciate it alongside with them. The six of them were the only intelligent creatures on the planet, apparently – and with the Evil of Red Force nowhere in sight, it seemed useless to continue living here. The creatures of this world were pure, unsullied by the greed and destruction civilization so often brought with it. They'd protected it all they could but in truth, they were just idling away their time here – waiting, per the prophecy, for the day they could unify with their brethren and reunite the Tree of Life.

Each of the Legends carried one aspect of Natural Elements, their powers modifications of the basic six: earth, air, water, fire, space and time. The Legends – spirits who'd nurtured the tree of life before them – had divided the powers in such a way that each of the guardians got one half of it. So, while one could manipulate water in movement, the other could manipulate it in form. That was done to prevent the Legends from falling into corruption too much power begets.

Truth be told, their powers were still too strong, this close to the home planet. The roots of Tree of Life, still embedded in the core of Exo-planet, were active enough to give them a constant source of energy – making them more powerful than even the Evil. However, the Heart was slowly dying and they needed to replant it at a place where it could regrow – find it a new home, in other words.

A new home… Luhan repeated the words in his head, as he concentrated on lifting the stone block to the very top of his house. It was new project, done in an effort to relieve the sheer boredom due to lack of intelligent conversation. For months now, the only things he'd talked to were these blocks of stone – heavy enough to crush anyone but being used as gigantic Lego bricks. He'd cleaned up the landslides that were blocking the forest pathways but now that was done – and he was stuck here until Lay returned from the forest where he'd gone to heal all creatures in need of help.

Must be having fun, Luhan thought sourly.  At least animals were alive!

Ah, how much longer do I have to keep this up? His house was now fifty stories high and built into a fancy castle and he was running out of strategic places to put the stones in. He could pile them all up and hold them there with his power but that would be a waste of energy… although at this point, he was willing to try anything.

'Gah, talk to me!!!' he yelled at his castle, which glinted innocently in the bright sunlight. No reply. Angrily, Luhan picked a rock in his hand and threw it at the castle. With nothing better to do, he started bombarding it with rocks.

It was then that he saw the bright flash of lightning, followed by the loud thunderous crack. He let go of the rock in happiness – although it was dampened when it fell on his toe. He fell to his knees, rubbing it; he stood up to see Chen giving him a huge grin. 'Nice greeting.'

'Whatever.' He wanted to say that sourly but was too happy to feel any regrets about sounding chipper. 'Where've you been all this time?'

'Huh? Oh, I was wandering around and stuff.' Chen never gave a straight answer if he could help it. 'Lay back yet?'

'Nope. He was supposed by here yesterday but he still hasn't come back…'

'He's probably lost, you know.' Chen leaned against a rock. 'Want to go check on him?'

'Yes please – any place away from here.'

'Okay, let's go then.'

………………………

Lay bumped into a tree – again – and stood back to apologize – again – for hurting it. He bowed deeply.

'I'm so sorry, didn't mean to hurt you. Here, let me heal you.' He placed a hand at the place he'd struck and sent out a small drift of healing energy. The tree leaves, yellowed and ready to fall, sprung into full bloom. Lay looked around in confusion. He was sure there hadn't been any snow on his way into the forest – but there was a nice dusting of it over the ground around here and the mountains rising in the distance were definitely covered in snow.

'Crap!' he sighed heavily and sat down, leaning against the tree trunk. He was lost, he knew and had no way of contacting anyone. He could go back, follow the path he came from and maybe get back… but knowing his sense of direction, he'd probably come out at the wrong place, even more lost than he was now.

Poor Luhan, he must be tired of waiting. Lay slapped a hand against his forehead. They were supposed to meet two days ago. Well, nothing could be done right now. He was tired of walking continuously, and now was as a good a time to rest as any. He laid back and closed his eyes.

A world of colors and hues opened up and he could literally see the sounds floating around him. The whistle of wind, the playful rhubarb of forest dwellers, the sweet rustle of grass. Playfully, he plucked at the waves, pleased by their harmony. Such beautiful music, he thought as he let himself become one with it. His eyes, open now, stared vacantly into space as he chased after the tune he could see in the distance.

A cold hand touching his neck had him sitting up in a hurry, his daze broken. Glancing around, he saw Xiumin grinning as he crystalized the air around him into snow. 'What're you doing so far north?' He asked. 'Got lost again, huh?'

Lay shook his head to focus – lost in the world only he could see, it took him some time to ground into reality. 'Xiumin? Why are you here?'

'Never mind that. Get up, we have to move.' He pulled him up with one hefty tug. The started moving away from the mountains, walking side by side, Lay concentrating on capturing the melody, Xiumin simply enjoying the silence.  They walked for who knew how long before night began to fall.

………………………

Kris stared at into the spheres that connected him with Suho and rest of the Legends. He was frowning at the news Suho was relaying, looking brooding and fearsome. Tao jumped high once again, kicking the stones that he'd stopped from falling and one of the smaller ones hit the back of Kris's head.

He growled. 'Tao, for the last time, quit jumping. I'm trying to concentrate here.'

'But… I've nothing else to do… all of the others are away and there's no one to play with me.' Tao pouted, stamping his feet. 'And you're always talking with them.'

Kris rubbed the bridge of his nose, wondering how a grown up body could house a child. Sighing, he glanced at the other spheres, which showed all the other Legends. Luhan and Chen were pranking each other somewhere near the southern borders while Xiumin and Lay were near the northern ones – and he didn't even want to wonder how Lay ended up North or what the hell Chen was doing South when he was supposed to be West. And now, Suho was giving him news that would change their world – literally. They needed to move, fast.

As soon as Suho finished talking, he nodded. 'I'll gather them at once – you gather yours, and we'll meet at the relay base.'

Nodding, Suho went away. The sphere out and Kris turned to Tao. 'Yo Tao, wanna play a game?'

Tao looked up excitedly, stopping midway in his kick. 'Yes!'

'We'll play a game to see who's the fastest – I'll fly south to get Chen and Luhan, you go north and pick Xiumin and Lay. Whoever gets back first wins.'

Tao was already picking up his stuff, getting ready to leave. Kris may have power of flight, able to fly faster than sound, but Tao could stop time – it literally didn't matter how long it took him, he'd still get back here first.

'But what does the winner get?' Tao's competitive streak wouldn't let him rest just yet.

'Hmm… the loser will have to do whatever the winner asks.' He realized it was a bad idea soon as the words left his mouth. Tao would make outrageous demands. 'Wait…'

'Too late!' Tao vanished in the blink on an eye, the falling stones a sign that he'd used his power yet again.

'Dammit!' Kris muttered under his breath as he flew towards the two pranksters he was supposed to bring back.

………………………

The six of them gathered under the stars for the fateful meeting. Kris spoke, telling them what Suho had relayed to him.

'The planets in this nearby galaxy are aligning – have been for years now – and it's almost complete. All the signs… tell us that this is the begetting of single file the prophecy talks about. For centuries now, our planets have kept a steady cycle, always keeping them right above us – ' Kris pointed towards the sky where the curved rim of their Shadow planet could be seen. ' And our planet is constantly moving towards that file – in two days' time, we should be able to open up the portal that will help us reunite with our brothers and save the Tree of Life.'

'We'll be able to join them? Without any draining of our powers???' Chen asked.

'We'll be able to meet them face to face?' Tao jumped up excitedly.

'Yes and yes…' Kris replied and stopped while they all cheered loudly. He lifted a hand and they all fell silent. 'But we're not sure where we will end up if we enter the portal – or even if we will end up in the same place.'

Their faces fell. 'So what's the point?'

'We… Suho and I are hopeful that it won't happen. And even it does, we'll always find each other – our powers call out to the other Legends, so it won't be too difficult.' Hopefully, he added in his mind. 'Besides, it might be our only defense against losing the Tree of Life to Red Forces forever.'

The guys shivered at that reminder – the Red Forces created the Evil who had the ability to not only kill them, in the physical sense, but also completely annihilate them – as if they never were. It defied that basic law that upheld the structure of the universe – energy couldn’t be created or destroyed, merely transferred. The Evil, however, made no such distinctions. Whatever soul came into his path would be annihilated. The Tree of Life, which grew on the balanced flow of elemental energy would die out – heralding the death of their universe. They'd been tasked to save the Tree of Life and this was something they must do – or the sacrifices of their race would have been in vain.

'The Evil…' Xiumin brought up the topic. 'Can we be sure he won't follow us?'

A shadow fell across Kris's face. 'I don't know. I certainly hope it won't follow us – there hasn't been a sign or sight since we last faced him.' They'd damn nearly lost their lives in that encounter.

'But the Tree is getting weaker –' It was Tao who spoke up.  'You mightn't be feeling it right now but our powers are diminishing, every second and we are really short on time. Even if there is a chance of him following us, we can't let it stop us from reuniting the Tree. We have to face them eventually… it will be better if we're united and have our powers at maximum.'

Everyone stared at him in surprise. 'What?' He asked indignantly. 'Why're you looking at me like that?'

'Nothing – you're absolutely right!' Luhan thumped his back.

'Absolutely!' Chen intoned, then stage-whispered. 'I keep forgetting he's a warrior.'

Tao ignored him, looking at Kris who looked rather uncomfortable. 'Our powers…'

'What?'

'Well… we'll be quite far away from our home planet, no matter where we land – there's a possibility that our powers will be weakened… as in, barely there…'

'Seriously?' Chen sounded horrified at the prospect. Luhan's face said all that needed to be said on such a statement, a mix of disgruntlement and anger.

'But we won't be the only ones losing our powers, will we?' Lay spoke up. Everyone looked at him. 'The Red Forces needs the Tree of Life to thrive as well – otherwise they wouldn't have coveted the heart in the first place, right? And if they follow us, won't they face the same diminishing? We'll still be on equal levels, I think.'

'Right…' Kris blinked as if this hadn't occurred to him. 'However, this is all assumption. What I'm trying to tell you guys is that we don't have much of a choice here. We have to leave this place and find a new home for the Tree before it's too late. I wanted you guys to know what's going on and that's all. We will be leaving in two days. So pack your bags, say your goodbyes and do whatever, because this is likely the last time you'll be seeing this ground.'

'Bah, what goodbyes? I can't wait to get out of here and meet up with Baekhyun and Chanyeol and D.O. and the rest – we have so much catching up to do!!!' Chen whistled happily, getting up to dust off his pants.

'Oh and Kai and Sehun!!! And Suho!' Tao jumped around excitedly.

'Whatever.' Kris looked towards the sky and muttered. 'I've done my part, Suho. You do yours!'

………………………

The day the portal opened dawned exceptionally bright. They were happy but nervous at the same time because it might not work. Tonight, the planets would come into a straight line in front of the sun and their Shadow planets would be in place in three hours. They were ready.

Although this was their home planet – since the Shadows were created by splitting the Exo-planet in two and creating shadows, just as it was like for each of the Legends: each of them had a Shadow – a member who shared a link with them and whose powers balanced theirs – if in dire need, their powers could be transferred through the link they shared; this was something they'd only heard about, though, since the ancient tomes were now lost.

But even though it was their home planet, there was no feeling of regret or farewell as they gathered at the last hour to see the portal opening. Having lived with nothing but wilderness for such a long time, it was a relief to go – even if they landed on deserted planets, it would still be new and break the boredom that had engulfed them for years now.

It was with a great sense of excitement that they watched the sky as an eclipse occurred. With all the planets aligning in a single file, a chain of eclipses was forming and this chain would take them where they needed to be.

As the sky turned dark untimely, they watched in wonderment. The sky turned dark like night and then, an eye opened up in the sky, a tunnel that started them in. Holding hands in a chain that connected each to the other, they rose with the help of Kris's power, his huge wings expanding to provide the . Once in the air, the portal started them in on its own and they let go.

The speed increased incredibly and it felt like they were moving at the speed of light – they lost track of each other, watching everything pass by in an undefined blur. And then, the spinning got even faster, everything blurring into white light and they passed out.

They were too lost in the excitement of finally moving on, of finally finding a new home to notice the darkness that chased after them. A huge black silhouette, with lifeless red eyes quietly followed them into the portal but none of them noticed anything at all.

As soon as the eye in the sky closed and the sky resealed itself, the Shadow planets rushed towards each other at infinite speed and with a huge crash, merged. There was a forceful wave that echoed into space, propelling the twelve Legends faster. When the dust of merging settled down, a new world had been constructed, a reflection of the beauty described in the ancient tomes. Everything was as it used to be, except there was no Tree of Life and no Legends to protect it. They had left and taken the Red Forces with them.

………………………

When Luhan opened his eyes again, he was floating in a mixture of hot and cold. His back was quite warm but his front was freezing – his face and limbs were stiff and his entire body was aching like he'd been beaten up. He hadn't felt this sort of pain in years. Trying to turn around, he found he was actually stuck in some sort of really cold ditch.

Aching and groaning, he tucked his legs in and used his arms to push himself into a sitting position. The change in position made him dizzy and he nearly crashed back again. After a few moments, he felt able to move again, so he slowly opened his eyes to look around.

The piercing white light went like laser through his head and he put it in his hands, trying to stop the throbbing. There were sounds around him but he was in too much pain to do anything. Finally, he put his hands on his eyes, created a very small opening through his fingers and slowly opened his eyes.

 It was still too bright but now he could see why. He had landed, face first, into snow, on the top of a mountain apparently. There was nothing but bright white around him and the glare was enough to make his head throb again. He forced himself up and look around, still using his hand as a sun shield. From where he was standing, all he could see were more mountains around him.

Crap, I hope the others are okay… he could feel the tug near his heart that indicated that his Shadow, Kai, was alive and well. Their connection was still strong, so that meant Kai had landed safely. And somewhere in the back of his head was the slight pressure – like a magnetic force – that told him that the other ten were alive too. Letting out a sigh of relief, he sat down in the snow and stretched. His back had been warm because this high, the sun was too bright. In a few moments, he felt well enough to move and he got up.

They'd all landed safely but now, they had to find each other. He started with Kai – since they were Shadows, they could find each other the easiest. In fact, Kai could probably…

Szzzippp!

Luhan turned around, a grin lighting up his face. 'I was wondering how long it'd take you.' He bumped shoulders with Kai who was grinning happily. It had been over a century since they'd last met face to face and Luhan felt an overwhelming flow of brotherly love for Kai.

'I've missed you, brat!' He ruffled Kai's hair, a gesture that normally annoyed him but today, he was too happy to be bothered. 'Me too, me too.' Kai slung an arm around Luhan, rubbing in his taller height and Luhan poked his elbow into his stomach, making him double over. 'I'm still the stronger one, never forget…' he fake growled.

Pain forgotten, they were busy snow fighting and went on for quite some time before they collapsed, laughing but utterly exhausted. 'Do you think the others have found each other???' Luhan wondered aloud.

'I don't know… but I don't think it'd take them that long… it took me a couple of minutes…' Kai muttered. 'Ouch!' Luhan had hit him on the arm. 'Idiot, you're the only one who can teleport… the rest of us walk… or fly, like normal people.'

'Well…' Kai grinned sheepishly. 'I guess…'

'Aish… you're still a cub, aren't you?' Luhan shook his head in pity. 'And here I thought you'd be all grown up and we'd have man to man talks…'

'I am grown up!' Kai insisted, sitting up but the whine in his voice belied his statement.

'Sure you are!' Luhan teased, getting up. 'C'mon, we've gotta move before night falls.'

'Where're we going?' Kai eagerly strode beside him.

'Away from here, in any case…' Luhan looked around, wondering which direction to take. All he could see were mountains. 'Which direction did you come from?'

Kai pointed to the right. 'There.'

'What's there???'

'A place called Sakardu… K2 Base Camp, was it? I think that was it… they didn't think it was smart to come up here…'

'Wait, you met with PEOPLE??' Luhan asked in wonderment.

'Oh, yeah… it's pretty cool…' Kai nodded eagerly.

'Wow…' Luhan looked around in amazement. 'There really are people here… we finally did it!'

'Yup!' Kai smiled. 'But I really think we should move… it's really cold here.'

'Oh, yeah. Okay, help me find the others, alright? We'll move in whichever direction they are.'

Saying that, Luhan concentrated on the magnetic tickle on the nape of his neck and tried to figure out where it was pointing. All the Legends were connected in this way and could sense each other's presence. It was also a sort of innate compass to help them find each other. Finally, he started moving in one direction. 'C'mon Kai, let's go.'

They started making their way down, towards their brothers, towards their final destiny. They'd landed on this planet called Earth and it was here that the Tree of Life would find its new home, where they would find theirs. They walked and their shadows grew taller, as the sun set and they vanished into the night.   

………………………

…in this planet called earth…

The twelve Legends, only survivors of the mysterious planet known as Exo-planet and bearing the enormous responsibility to revive the Tree of Life landed in various parts of the world. It took them days and even weeks to find each other, Shadow to Shadow and then, an even longer time to find all the others and join up with them. All in all, it was more than six months before they were able to contact and confirm that all of them had arrived safely.

In the new world they had landed, there was plenty they needed to adjust to. Their bodies, not yet habituated to the new environment, caused them the most problems, perhaps. One thing that surprised all of them was their appearance. Even though they'd been quite similar to these humans that inhabited Earth, they had been very different as well.

The main difference, of course, lay in their size. The things around here were positively tiny, people and animals and trees and even mountains. They'd been quite surprised by their sizes. Kris, who'd been a giant even on Exoplanet was still the tallest among them but he complained he didn't feel big enough.

'Everything feels so different.' He claimed, staring down at the members around him. 'You guys are way too close to my face….' He pointed at D.O. 'You… why are you so tall???'

D.O., who was now the tiniest among them, glared at Kris. 'What did you say?' He inquired quietly. Bad-tempered and with a painful methods of administering punishments, they all avoided angering him – with the exception of Baekhyun, Chen and Chanyeol who took immense pleasure in driving him crazy. D.O. was already quite sensitive about his height because he'd been taller in his original body.

'I mean, you're like… here.' Kris put a hand below his shoulder. 'You should be… around here…' he patted his stomach. Then bent over as D.O. mock punched him. 'You're still too tall!' He declared.

It was an ongoing fight between those two – Kris had always loomed over D.O. and liked to about it. Since he was an elder, D.O. didn't hit him but that didn't stop him from glaring and he did that as he backed away.

Their powers were quite diminished here, as Suho had predicted. They were still too strong, compared to other humans – but to them, it was just a fraction of their original ability. That did not, however, diminish the innate wildness of their spirit. The first few weeks, they had been constantly in trouble because the beast inside them kept coming to the surface at the slightest provocation. Given their instinctive need for living and moving around as a pack, led by one group alpha, the closest they could be described in human terms was as wolves – wild canines who lived and hunted in packs. Most of them didn't find the resemblance interesting or even adequate but Tao was quite impressed – apparently, wolves were fearsome and wild, qualities he admired.

Their bodies also adjusted slowly to the varying climate on earth but now, they felt the hot and cold on almost the same level as humans. Their physical characteristics had adapted rapidly to merge with the humans and their eyes, red-gold and glowing, were now brown – most prevalent color found in human eyes.

All this happened while they looked for each other, explored the human world to acquire better knowledge about it and basically settled into the planet called Earth and made it their new home. Whatever happened, they would protect it as their own.

………………………

…with murderous intent…

The twelve Legends landed on the surface of Earth at the same time the Evil did. He landed in the middle of the Artic, right in the snow filled area with nothing but wilderness spread around for miles.

The Evil, created by the greed of Red Forces, couldn't exist all alone – because he was an entity that consumed, a parasite that devoured. A parasite needs a host to survive but finding one in this veritable desert was difficult.

That, however, did not mean that he couldn't bide his time – he had been doing so for more than a century now, recovering in silence from the wound the Legends had inflicted on him. The Evil, his eyes a dim red that never glowed, hid himself underneath the snows that covered the land, biding his time once again.

Four weeks after his arrival, the Evil captured his first victim – a polar bear that had somehow found its way into his clutches. He devoured its spirit with all the eagerness of a starving lion and left only the body – an empty cage he could now possess and control. There was enough spirit left in the bear to make it easier for him to move it around and help do his bidding.

Two weeks after that, a team of researchers exploring the Arctic system were attacked by a crazed polar bear. Majority of the people were injured severely and a couple completely devoured before it could be shot down. As the bear lay in a puddle of its blood, the onlookers could've sworn they saw its eyes turn from red to black.

But of course that was because of the adrenaline, making them see things. It wasn’t something anyone cared to comment on. When the news was broadcasted across national and international media, the Legends were too busy finding each other and dealing with the dynamics of the human world and either missed the news or didn't pay attention to it. And thus, this first incident went unnoticed.

The Evil was more than happy to keep it this way. From the polar bear, he took over one of the surviving researchers who was arrested three months later for a brutal chain of murders. Sadly, there were enough crazy people around to make this event one among many.

He slowly moved on with his plans. He would regain his strength – strength he had lost, hiding in the Abyss – and once he was strong enough, he would look for the Tree of Life and consume it. And if the Legends got in his way, he would give them a taste of their own medicine and throw them into the Abyss.

Ignorant of his murderous intent, the Legends moved on with their lives in the human world, never knowing that their war was far from over.

………………………

P.S - Its rather longish but I don't want anyone to read through this terrible chapter more than once. In my defense, it was the beginning and I was still expanding on the idea. Trust me, things get better after this.

P.P.S - K2... know where that is?