Luhan had finally shown up. His hands were clumsily wrapped in a makeshift bandage but it was easy to see he couldn't use them. He dropped the spoon Lily had placed with his late – really late – breakfast and he winced but determinedly ignored her worried looks and picked it up again to dig in his food.

'This is really good.' He mumbled, not tasting anything.

'You shouldn’t be doing that!' Lily told him, worried as the spoon dropped again. 'Let me…'

'No thanks.' He told her, hurriedly backing up when she leaned closer. 'Aren't you busy?'

Lily backed off, wondering if he was deliberately trying to keep his distance from her. He hadn't come to the counter, as he usually did, instead sitting in one corner. He'd also asked Xiumin for food instead of directly telling it to her. Well, she wouldn't impose herself where she was obviously unwelcome.

Shrugging, she busied herself with the other customers. When she saw Xiumin, she slipped next to him. 'Hey, I think you should take him to a doctor.' She whispered, glancing at Luhan. He wasn’t even trying to pick his food anymore, just staring at it. The spoon had fallen to the floor now.

Xiumin nodded and was moving towards him when the doorbell jingled and a large group of guys entered. Xiumin's brothers.

'Hey pretty lady!' The guy with the infectious smile – Baekhyun, was it? – winked at her. 'How're you today?'

'I'm good.' She smiled.

Despite their general rowdiness, she sensed they were rather serious. There weren't many loud laughs or pushing around as they entered, their faces more somber and somewhat gloomy. Especially Kai, who looked about as well as Luhan. He placed himself away from everyone, lounging moodily in one corner; the others spread out in groups, some heading for the counter and others gathering around the tables.

Suho and Lay went to Luhan, slipping into seats beside him. At one point, Luhan let out a pained howl – Lily saw Kai glance at him but he quickly turned away as if he didn't want to be caught. Xiumin tapped her shoulder, smiling apologetically when she turned.

'You'll have to take your break early today.' He told her. 'As soon as the customers leave…'

'Okay.' She nodded. She didn't know what 'family business' Xiumin had, only that he was very secretive about it.

The doorbell jingled again and another tall guy entered. He had about the coldest aura around him as he stood, looking around the room. Everyone stared at him and he stared coldly back.

'Kris!' Xiumin called, moving towards him. 'That was quick!'

Kris only nodded. Xiumin gestured her to hurry up and clear the customers. She nodded, then got busy.

……………………. 

Suho didn't know whether to feel angry or sad for Luhan.

The guy was obviously in a bad shape and that had nothing to do with the condition of his hands.

'Why?' He asked again as he examined the torn skin and broken knuckles.

Luhan didn't reply. Again. He just stared sadly at his cold food while Suho checked him.

Suho shook his head. He was really happy – he'd come into his full powers and had a mate who loved him. It was hard to feel sad but seeing Luhan like this – and Kai, by association – was putting a damper on things.

'I thought you were going to settle this finally.' He spoke to Luhan's hands, forcing them into a fist and didn't notice the grimace of pain that twisted his features. 'Look, I know it seems bad right now but I'm sure it'll all turn out okay.' Maybe his own happiness was making him too optimistic but he couldn't help it.      

He straightened the hands again. 'This is going to hurt.' He told him, then applied pressure to Luhan's fingers, using his own to adjust the knuckles back in place. Lay could heal them, yes, but bones needed to be aligned before they healed or they'd be more a mess than anything else.

Luhan let out a yowl, the pain finally enough to drag him out of his misery. 'Aaargh!'

Kai looked up at this but quickly looked away as if he didn't want to be caught having sympathy for his rival.

'Just one minute…' Suho told him, continuing his painful administrations. Beside him, Lay was constantly patting Luhan's back and murmuring encouraging words to him. When he was sure all the knuckles were in place, he started probing the hand, trying to feel if anything else needed to be fixed.

Satisfied that it way okay, he nodded to Lay. 'Do your magic.' He told him and Lay did just that.

…………………

Xiumin ushered Lily out of the door, handing her the backpack.

'I'm really sorry, I'll…' he began.

'It's okay.' She stopped him, smiling. 'I know you'll compensate. Besides, I'll be back in the evening - now go back, things are obviously serious.'

'Kay. Be safe.' He watched her go away, then closed the door and put up the closed sign so no one else would enter.

'Alright.' Suho clapped his hands. 'Gather around, everyone.'

They dragged their chairs around in a rough circle, chattering among themselves, saying hello to Kris who only nodded back. Luhan sat next to him, the farthest he could be from Kai; Kai kept his chair slightly behind D.O's so they wouldn't exactly face each other – depressed or not, it was not a good idea to put two rival beasts together.

 Although, Luhan glanced at Kai once or twice thoughtfully but then looked away. Kai kept his face firmly turned away. Yes, he had helped Luhan. No, he did not want to acknowledge that. He was still regretting it.

Suho cleared his throat but no one paid attention, too busy with the tension between those two. Kris turned to him. 'Heard you claimed your mate.' He forced a painful smile. 'Congratulations.'

'Thank you.' Suho replied, sincerely touched. All attention was now focused on both of them – everyone knew Kris's aversion to anything mating oriented and well, this seemed more interesting. Kris nodded in welcome, looking uncomfortable. Suho blinked, still touched – then glanced around at all the faces turned towards him. Seriously, thank you.

'Kris, should we listen to them first?' he asked, nodding at D.O and Chanyeol.

Kris nodded, his cold mask back in place; he leaned back, stretching out his long legs and stared at them.

'Um…' D.O began. He wasn't the most eloquent person around and Kris's unwavering cold stare was making him uncomfortable.

Chanyeol, who didn't let anything affect him let alone a measly stare, spoke instead. 'We went around to the barn. The place was reeking of Evil – like, never-taken-a-shower-in-life kinda reeking, you feel me?' He looked around for support. Baekhyun and Chen nodded faithfully.

'I had to hold my nose so I could even step in – although, I think part of it was all the cow dung and horse – the place was so dirty, why'd anyone choose that for a hideout?'

'Can we get to the point?' Suho muttered.

'I'm getting there.' Chanyeol assured him, then addressed the audience, completely absorbed in the story. 'So anyway, we didn't find any signs of the Evil there – except the stink, of course. Then, we went to the morgue – they let us in because D.O looked like the undertaker – ouch!' D.O punched him hard, then twisted his fingers in a painful wrist lock.

'Ow, ow, oww!' Chanyeol tried to get his fingers free but D.O kept his hold firm and continued.

'The bodies were terribly decayed – too much for such a short span of time; the doctors weren't sure about the cause but I suggested it could be because of the excessive fertilizers in the area. They thought it was a possibility. The postmortem didn't specify any cause for the death although there were teeth marks in several places, suggesting he might've tried to eat them….' He lost steam now that the facts were related. Chanyeol took over again.

'Even those teenagers, the ones who'd called the police – those poor kids.' He looked saddened. 'They think it might've been some sort of really fast acting chemical because they were so quickly… decayed…' he shook his head, grimacing. 'Decay' was too mild a word to convey the complete consumption of all their flesh, the skin barely left. 'It's twisted.' He finished.

'That was Evil's doing… there's no mistaking that sort of thing.' Suho shook his head, then looked at Kris. 'What do you think?'

'I agree.' Kris spoke, rubbing his chin. 'Killer's work is somewhat different. There are only some bodies in all his victims that have Evil's trademark over them. It's like Killer is acting more or less on his own but Evil's definitely influencing him. Maybe he's joined his side or simply providing him with sustenance. The bodies I checked were definitely Evil's victims but I'm pretty sure Killer killed them first. He left his calling card over them.'

'So what? Evil is possessing Killer? Wouldn't that kill him?' They all knew Evil couldn't maintain a host body because he devoured it from the inside.

'Maybe he has more control over it now?' Tao suggested.

'Or maybe it's different when the host is willing…' Xiumin put in.

'I think it's most likely that Killer is acting in his own stead. Because there's no doubt that homeless guy was possessed – no one has seen Killer per se, so we can't know anything about that. But from what we know…

'Yeah…'

'In either case, Evil has entered the country. And his double play is making sense.' Suho rubbed a hand over his face. 'Dividing our attention so we'll be caught off guard and separate, scrambling around to catch him.'

'So he can pick us off one by one…'

There was grave silence as they all contemplated about this. Evil was cunning – that, they already knew. Looked like he'd spent his time in the Abyss planning quite the coup. It was worrisome that he'd managed to stay under the radar for so long. They all felt some level of guilt for not locating him sooner, because that was their job. But now that they knew, they had to prevent him from taking any more innocent lives.

'We have to find him.' Kris stated. 'The sooner, the better. We have to send him back.'

Sadly, until the roots of the Tree of Life took hold on Earth, Evil would keep coming back. When, per the prophecy, the new world opened courtesy to the roots, Evil would be forced into the Abyss. They, on the other hand, would still have the powers, but not hold them in themselves as they did now but draw it from the Tree and thus restore the flow of energy to its natural balance. And once that happened, things would be like they were on the Exoplanet before the Red Forces decided to take is powers and forced the Legends to divide.

'Agreed.'

'But I'm still not sure about how he's doing it – he can't transverse such long distances instantaneously.' Suho worried. Evil had a fraction of their powers – he couldn't teleport virtually unlimited distances like Kai or fly for as fast or as far as Kris, not do a lot of things they did – but he was a genius at improvising how to use them.

'Maybe he's taking a shortcut.' Baekhyun, the expert at shortcuts, put in.

'Could be.' They agreed.

'When can we expect the next strike?'

'If he follows the pattern…' Kris spoke.  'We have about two months to figure out where he'll go next – more or less'

Suho bit his lips, then looked at them. 'When are you guys getting off?' He asked Tao.

'Two months, give or take.' Tao looked at the others for confirmation and nodded. He nodded as well.

'That's good.' He looked at Kris. 'You're most acquainted with Killer's territory, so I'll leave that part to you.' Kris nodded. 

'I'll take D.O and Chanyeol; we'll explore Heifer Forecourt and try to find his hideout. You take Chen and Baekhyun.'

Chen and Baekhyun groaned but he ignored them and continued.

'Xiumin, I'll leave you in-charge while I'm gone. You'll have to manage the shifts and the security measures around here. If he's moving from the next country to ---, it's not unlikely that he'll try to invade our territory.' His eyes flashed at the thought.  'So you guys have to spread out and explore the surrounding areas as well. Soon as any party finds him, we'll call the others in and beat his back to Abyss.'

'Okay, that's it!'

There were creaks and groans as they stood up and stretched, spreading out leisurely around Xiumin's shop. Suho looked at Kris. 'I'm sorry to ask this but will you please stay a bit this time? We need to go over the plan and I could use some help.'

Kris nodded, not meeting his eyes. Suho felt his heart go out to him – now that he had Angel, he knew – well, he didn't but he could imagine how he would feel if anything ever happened to Angel – what Kris was going through. It was a surprise the man was living at all; Suho didn't think he could have survived the same situation.

In fact, even thinking about the possibility was making his heart clench with pain and worry twist his insides. He took out his cellphone, intending to call her – just hear her voice to make sure she was alright.

His phone beeped before he could, though and he smiled as he read the name – Angel. He opened the message, curious. She'd had his number for some time now but this was the first time she was texting him.

Will you go to the funfair with me? It read.

Well, wasn’t his mate getting bold? He smiled proudly – even Luhan's girl had waited for him to ask her out and here was Angel, taking the matters in her own hands. Soon, she'd be ordering him about.

Since she'd asked, how could he say no? Smiling he replied.

Of course.

……………………..