Prologue: A Gathering

Out of the Darkness

You waited a long time for this, didn't you? Well I'm not sure when the next update will be, but since I've finally written something I like, I'll share it.

 

Prologue: A Gathering

The Guardians expected that it would be a while before they found the next members of the tenth Generation. For a while, Amber was the center of attention at the new Sanctuary. She could have very easily become a little spoiled from it, but it seemed as though she was incorruptible. Besides, most of the attention that was focused on her was the older Guardians trying to help with her education. Amber grew up speaking three languages, attending daily meditations, and understanding what it meant to control her gift, rather than having her gift control her. The last one was probably the most important lesson she could have learned.

Amber called all the Guardians “Uncle,” and when she wasn’t learning from them she was playing with them. Lu Han was easily her favorite, but that was understandable. Sehun came second—also understandable. Lu Han and Sehun loved her like she was their own daughter, and in a way she was. Lu Han and Sehun were the first ones Amber went to when she was happy or when she had problems, and over the years the two of them found themselves having many conversations that they probably weren’t equipped to have, but they did their best and Amber came out of it alright.

Amber also grew up knowing that someday she would have eleven sisters, she just didn’t know when her sisters would arrive.

 

The second Guardian to be found was Song Qian. Her father brought her to the Sanctuary from a settlement several miles away, walking the whole way. Amber was fourteen, Qian was five. The was concerning, but Amber was the perfect older sister. She took Qian under her wing, explaining that the reason she could bring plants and insects back to life was because of a great being called the Tree of Life. Yixing watched with tears in his eyes, too stunned for words. Much like Lu Han had with Amber, Yixing stared at Qian like she had the power to make the sun rise in the sky. He worried that she would someday struggle with the same burden he had, the power over life and death, but he was mostly in awe of this perfect little creature, so pure and innocent, happy to show everyone how she could make a dying rosebush bloom again.

After Qian came Luna. That wasn’t her real name, but she started calling herself “Luna” after the moon. Her parents brought her to the Sanctuary when she was three, because of the mark on her chest, and her habit of talking about the moon. They never saw Luna’s gift in person, but when she met Amber and Qian the first thing she did was form a perfect little ball of light in her hands.

“Just like the moon!” She said, “That’s why I’m Luna!”

For days, Baekhyun couldn’t look at her without bursting into tears of joy.

“She’s so beautiful!” He would sob, usually while clinging to Chanyeol. “I can’t believe how beautiful she is, and so perfect, and…mine!”

It was the same reaction Lu Han and Yixing had upon meeting Amber and Qian. After being alone for so long, it was always a shock to meet the person who would succeed their gift. Lu Han, Yixing, and Baekhyun frequently said that they couldn’t believe the first Generation of Guardians had felt jealous of the second Generation. After the first Generation had spent so many years believing that they were alone, how could they not have felt lonely?

“We’re really not alone anymore,” Suho said one day, as they watched Amber play with Qian and Luna in the Tree’s garden. “I always wondered how it would feel to meet the tenth Generation. I never could have imagined how wonderful it would be.”

 

 

A week after Amber reached Maturity at age 20, Sooyoung and Jinri came to the Sanctuary. They had walked to the Sanctuary by themselves, with Sooyoung leading the way. Sooyoung was seven, and Jinri was three.

“I found her,” Sooyoung explained, pointing to Jinri. “She has the same last name as me. She was alone, too. Except her mama left and never came home, I just don’t know where mine is. I can do this,” and she showed the Guardians how she could pull water out of the air.

“Jinri says she can do stuff too,” Sooyoung said to the audience of stunned Guardians, “But I don’t know what it is.”

“She can stop time,” Tao said. He was off to the side, staring at Jinri with tears in his eyes. “She’s done it twice since she got here.”

Jinri grinned and toddled over to Tao, her arms outstretched. “Up,” she commanded, jumping on her toes. “Up, up!”

Tao lifted her into his arms and hugged her tightly. “Precious little thing,” he murmured.

Sooyoung frowned. “How do you know she can stop time?”

Suho answered, “Because Tao can stop time, too.” He knelt next to Sooyoung, “And just like you, I can control water.” He held up his hand, a sphere of water circling in his palm.

Sooyoung stared at him with wide eyes. “How are you doing that?” She demanded, “How are you keeping it together? I can’t do that!”

“I’ll show you how,” Suho promised, “But later. Right now I’m sure you’re tired and hungry, you walked a very long way.”

Sooyoung pouted. “I did walk a long way, and my feet hurt.” She stomped her foot. “Carry me, too! I walked longer than Jinri did!”

After Sooyoung and Jinri had been put to bed, Suho ran to Kris and cried on his shoulder. “That poor little girl,” he sobbed. “She’s being so brave but she must be so hurt…who knows how long she was alone for, and she came all this way all by herself, oh Kris what do I do? How do I make this better?”

“You love her,” Kris said. “The same way you did for Kai.”

Since Sooyoung was to be mentored by Suho, and Jinri by Tao, and Suho and Tao spent much of their time together, it followed naturally that the two girls would spend a lot of time with each other. For a while it seemed as though Sooyoung was rather indifferent to Jinri, though Jinri followed her around the way a duckling follows it’s mother. But once Sooyoung realized that she had a home, and people who would care for her, she became much more open, not just to Jinri but to Amber, Qian and Luna as well. Sooyoung would often care for Jinri the way Amber cared for Qian and Luna, to the point where she sometimes pushed Tao out of the way in order to get to Jinri first. Tao found it adorable and commented that the two would be like sisters one day, and he wasn’t far off.

“You know who they remind me of?” Tao commented one day as he, Suho and Kris watched Sooyoung feed Jinri. “Me and you, Kris. Remember at first, you didn’t like me all that much?”

Kris put his arm around Tao’s shoulders. “Yeah. I didn’t want to be a babysitter, I didn’t know how to take care of a younger kid. And…my mom was pregnant when I left. I was so jealous, because I knew she and my dad love that kid more than they ever loved me, and seeing you…reminded me of that.”

Tao kissed his cheek. “Yeah, but once you realized I could take care of myself, that changed. It’s just like what’s happened to Sooyoung—she doesn’t have to take care of Jinri alone, so now she doesn’t mind it as much.”

But the Guardians were starting to get anxious. The s between the girls were concerning, Amber had reached maturity, Qian was eleven and Luna was turning ten soon. Though they got along well with Sooyoung and Jinri, it was clear that the youngest girls needed someone their own age.

Once the human population had moved above ground, there had been an increased birth rate. Couples no longer needed to worry about their children being born with adaptations that made it harder for them to live above ground, and the Guardians could only hope that this would mean they would soon have twelve new Guardians among their ranks.

 

Six months after Sooyoung and Jinri showed up, a letter arrived from a father who thought his young daughter might have been a Guardian. Kyungsoo and Xiumin went to investigate, and came back with Jinah, a tiny little girl with a loud personality, and just Sooyoung’s age.

“I’ve never seen anyone run as fast as her,” Kyungsoo said, staring at Jinah with wide eyes. “Sometimes you can’t even see her when she runs. I can’t tell you how many times we nearly lost her!”

The last Guardian to have incredible speed was born in the fourth Generation, and after consideration it was decided that Kai should mentor Jinah. Nobody knew more about getting from point A to point B in the blink of an eye than he did, after all.

Jinah became fast friends with Sooyoung, and followed after the older girls with stars in her eyes, and told everyone that Jinri was her baby, since their names sounded similar. Sometimes Jinah and Sooyoung would have mock fights over who loved Jinri more.

Once when Tao was teaching Jinri about her gift, she said that she wanted to show Sooyoung and Nana what she could do.

“Who is Nana?” Tao asked.

“Nana is my sister!” Jinri said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Tao gaped at her. As far as he knew, Jinri didn’t have a sister.

“Where is she?” He asked.

Jinri huffed and crossed her arms. “With Sooyoung, of course!”

“Oh,” Tao said, understanding at once, “Do you mean Jinah?”

“Yes!” Jinri said, “Nana, my Nana and my Sooyoung!”

It was so peculiar. Jinri didn’t have a hard time pronouncing Jinah’s name, why would she all of a sudden start calling her Nana?

Tao asked Jinah about it after Jinri’s lesson. “Do you know why Jinri calls you Nana?”

Jinah shrugged. “No idea. She used to call me Jinah-na, then shortened it to Nana. Now Sooyoung calls me Nana too. So do Amber and Luna.” She grinned. “I like it, it’s cute like me!”

A few days later while the girls were all playing outside, Kai asked the others, “Does anyone know why Jinah isn’t answering to her name any more?”

“Jinri calls her Nana,” Tao said, “So do the other girls, apparently.”

Kai looked surprised. “Has she changed her name? Are we going to allow that?”

Everyone looked at Yixing.

“What?” He asked.

“Well,” Lu Han said, “After what happened to you when you got your name changed…what’s your opinion?”

Yixing shrugged. “I guess if they’re picking their new names, then what’s the harm? But we should wait until they get older to make it official, in case they change their minds. And so that they don’t pick something they’ll regret later in life.”

“Like Nana?” Chen muttered, then he yelped when Kai elbowed him in the ribs.

When the girls came inside, the older Guardians brought them to the library and said they had something they needed to tell them. They explained that when they were children, some of their names had been changed without their consent, and they didn’t want to do that to anyone else. They would let the girls change their names if they wanted to, but only when they were older.

Immediately Qian demanded to know how old she had to be. “I want to be Victoria,” she said. She looked at Yixing. “Uncle Yixing, I’m old enough, right? I can change my name if I want to!”

Yixing sputtered, “Victoria? You mean after the Queen that you keep reading about?”

“Yeah, that and it literally means Victory!” She said. “That’s a nice word, and I like Victoria better than Qian. Jinri can’t even pronounce my name half the time, I need an easier one!”

“How is Victoria any easier?” Sooyoung asked. “Can I change my name to Princess?”

“No,” Suho said firmly. “Sooyoung, you’re too young.”

Sooyoung made a face.

“I’m old enough, right?” Qian said again, tugging on Yixing’s sleeve. “I’m almost twelve, I can change my name if I want to.”

Yixing looked conflicted. “I’ll call you Victoria if that’s what you want, but let’s wait a while before we make it official, okay?”

Qian squealed and hugged him tightly. “Thank you, Uncle Yixing!”

Amber stood up. “I think it’s time you all went and did your homework,” she said. The girls whined, but Amber glared at them. “Don’t argue,” she snapped.

The girls scurried out of the library.

“What was that about?” Kris asked once the younger girls were gone.

Amber turned her glare on them. “I thought you were bringing them in here to tell them about Mama.”

There was silence in the library. Tao and Kai looked away, each thinking about the young Guardian they were mentoring. They were around Sooyoung and Nana’s age when Mama had taken over their minds and nearly killed them.

“It’s too early,” Kai said. “I can’t do that to Nana and Sooyoung.”

“Then you should at least tell Qian and Luna,” Amber insisted. “They’re old enough to know.”

Baekhyun paled. “No,” he said. “No, not Luna.”

“I agree with Kai,” Yixing said. “It’s too early. We didn’t even tell you until you were—”

“Fourteen,” Amber finished. “I know, and I remember the conversation.” She looked confused. “Why are you all shying away from this? You’ll have to tell them sometime.”

“They’re children,” Baekhyun said quietly. “They don’t need this hanging over their heads. They don’t need to…to know everything just yet.”

Amber gasped. “Oh,” she said, “You’re…afraid.” She looked around the room. “All of you? Are all of you afraid to talk about it?”

She took their silence as confirmation.

“But why?” She asked. “Were you afraid to tell me?”

“Of course we were,” Lu Han said. “We have always been afraid to talk about what happened. After we left…after we ran, and we came here, we were so broken. That thing took our home, it won. And we don’t know how we’re going to face it.”

Amber frowned. “But you told me all of this. You told me everything.”

Lu Han looked like he might faint. “No,” he said quietly. “We didn’t.” He sank into a chair and looked at the floor. “We told you that we discovered the darkness was coming back to our world, and that we took the Tree and ran. We told you what we think it’s done to our world but we…we didn’t tell you about what it did to Kai and Tao. And what it made our people do to me.”

Amber went to Lu Han and knelt by his side. “What do you mean? What happened to you?”

Tao stepped forward. “No, we should start at the beginning.”

It took hours, because at some point every one of them started crying. Tao and Kai told Amber what had happened on the mountain, and Kris told her about the ceremony in which he had been made leader of the South, and how the cup he should have drank from had been poisoned, that Tao saved his life. The Guardians told her about what happened when they had all reached Maturity, and gone to the Sanctuary to live with the other Guardians.

“They watched us all the time,” Chanyeol said hollowly. “We heard them whispering about us, saying that we were the Tree’s new pets, but we would soon fall out of favor just like they had. They never helped us, or taught us anything.”

“We couldn’t turn our backs on them,” Baekhyun said. “We never got any rest. We couldn’t even look at some of them without being reminded of horrible things. When I was taken to the Northern sanctuary I…” he stopped and covered his face. “No I can’t,” he groaned.

Chanyeol ran to his side and held him. “You’re not there anymore,” he said. “That monster won’t hurt you again.”

Amber looked horrified. “What happened?” She asked, but she knew she wasn’t going to get an answer.

Lu Han touched her shoulder. “Why don’t you come for a walk with me? I should tell you something about myself.”

Sehun stood up, but Lu Han shook his head. “It’s okay, I can do this.”

Lu Han took Amber to the lake, and told her about the technology that a previous Generation had borrowed from this very planet, and the spacecraft they had built. He told her that the ship had been tampered with, and the navigational system should have been able to avoid the asteroid belt that surrounded this planet, but instead the ship went right through it, and they were nearly killed. He told Amber that he had used his gift to save everyone from the asteroids, but he paid a terrible price for it.

“I’ve been…less, since then,” he said. “My memory came back, and so did my gift, but it hasn’t been the same. I’m not as strong as I once was, for a while I didn’t even know if I would be able to mentor a Guardian. I thought I could never be good enough.”

Amber started to cry. “You have been the best mentor I could have ever asked for,” she said fiercely. “You are strong, you are even stronger for what you went through. You have nothing to be ashamed of!” She wiped her eyes, but continued to cry. “You had nightmares, didn’t you?” she asked suddenly. “I remember, I heard you crying sometimes, but I was always too tired to stay awake for long, and in the morning I thought I had imagined it.”

Lu Han nodded. “It happens more than you think.” He was crying, too. “I tried to hide it from you because I didn’t want to scare you.”

“I’m not scared,” Amber said immediately. She wiped her eyes again and took a deep breath, and stopped crying. “I’m not scared,” she repeated.

Lu Han sighed. “Oh, darling. Don’t try to lie to me.”

Amber faltered. Her face fell slightly. “Maybe I’m a little scared,” she admitted.

Lu Han took her hands. “And it’s alright to be scared. The Tree knows, we all are. And that’s why we…we can’t say anything to the little ones just yet. There are more things we could tell you, and that we probably should tell you, but…it’s hard to go through it again. We have been battling these demons for so long, several times we nearly lost ourselves.”

“But you have to tell them some day,” Amber said. “It’s not fair to them to keep these things hidden. They have a right to know.”

“We know that,” Lu Han said. “Someday we will tell them, you have to trust us on that. Fourteen seems to be a good age, we’ll do it then. And we’ll tell them one by one, so we can give them our undivided attention.”

“And plan exactly what you’re going to tell them too,” Amber said, “So you don’t get mixed up and say something to one girl but not another.”

“That’s a good plan,” Lu Han said. “Amber, will you help us tell them?”

“You have to ask? Of course I will. You know I’m like their cool aunt, the one who’s always there for them. I’ll help you and them through this.”

Lu Han hugged her. “You have good leadership qualities.”

“Too bad I don’t think I’m going to be a leader. It’s not in my nature to tell people what to do when it’s down to that line. I think our leader hasn’t arrived yet.”

Lu Han shrugged. “Well, we’re only halfway through. You might be right about that.”

 

 

There was a four year gap between the arrival of the next Guardians, and when they came, they came in groups. Three girls arrived in the same week—Sunny, Tiffany, and Hyoyeon. Sunny and Tiffany had grown up in neighboring cities, and both spoke more English than Korean. Hyoyeon’s family lived in a coastal town where she was the only child in the area, and grew up knowing only ten other adults. Sunny was the youngest of three girls, Tiffany the youngest daughter of a wealthy family. Hyoyeon barely spoke in the first week, mostly she just stared at everyone. Sunny walked around and made sure that everyone knew she was older than Tiffany and Hyoyeon. Tiffany cried nonstop for three days until Amber let her sleep in her room.

Sunny’s gift was lightning, Hyoyeon’s was fire, and Tiffany’s was strength. Kyungsoo trained Tiffany, since his ability to lift heavy mounds of earth made him a close fit to Tiffany’s gift. The Guardians would often forget just how strong Tiffany was and they would get a shock when a heavy table would lift into the air, courtesy of Tiffany.

Kai told anyone who would listen that Sunny had to have been Chen’s daughter, they were so much alike—mischievous, bossy, and identical innocent smiles. But Sunny had a habit of accidentally shocking anyone she touched. Not a harmful shock, more like a little jolt of static electricity, but she quickly discovered that she could use her gift to make people’s hair stand on end, and eventually locks had to be installed on the insides of all the doors, because Sunny would sneak in at night and make everyone’s hair stand up.

Hyoyeon’s fire power wasn’t quite as intense as Chanyeol’s was, but Sooyoung followed her around a good deal of the time just in case, as the structure they lived in was mostly wood. Everyone worried that Hyoyeon would resent the attention, but actually she didn’t seem to mind, and Sooyoung was the first person Hyoyeon started talking to. Once she opened up, she proved to be quite playful.

After a month, another letter arrived. From the same city as Tiffany came Jessica, the little ice princess. Never before had the Guardians met a child who put up such a fight when she had to leave—she adamantly refused to leave without her younger sister, who likewise refused to allow Jessica to leave without her. Kris pulled Krystal aside and told her that if she ended up having a gift like Jessica’s, they would come back for her. Privately Kris confessed to his fellow Guardians that he felt a pull when he looked at Krystal, and he wouldn’t be surprised if she did turn out to be a Guardians.

Jessica was very unhappy for a while. She made herself sick when she refused to eat, and she didn’t speak to anyone, nor allow anyone to touch her. Xiumin finally got through to her when he went into her room and covered the walls and floor in a layer of ice, and spent the day teaching her how to skate. After that Jessica opened up, especially to Tiffany. The girls had never met before, despite growing up in the same city, but they bonded over memories of where they grew up.

The second to last Guardian to arrive was Yoona. She arrived by herself, covered in dirt and skinny as a rail. She confessed to running away from home and “following the wind” to the Sanctuary. They brought her right to Sehun, and everyone agreed that of all the mentor-mentee relationships, Sehun and Yoona developed the strongest bond the fastest. After being a foster mentor to Amber for nearly forty years, Sehun was thrilled to finally have the full responsibility of raising a Guardian. Yoona also became very close to Hyoyeon when the two discovered that they shared a love of physical activity and games.

The tenth Generation of Guardians was nearly complete. It seemed like everyone was treading carefully around Kris, trying not to make it obvious that they were worried about him, but he never betrayed any jealousy or worry, not even to Tao or Suho. He said that he knew the time would come when he would mentor a young Guardian, and he wasn’t worried.

 

 

 

 

 

This all-girl lineup has gone through sooooo many changes, up until two nights ago it was still under construction. There used to be a more diverse company representation, but ultimately I decided to keep this SM Town centric for now, with the inclusion of Nana because she is a GODDESS and idk if she and Sooyoung are friends but I feel like they should be.

Please let me know what you think so far!

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Zizzlebug #1
Chapter 10: You created such a wonderful world with these stories, thank you for sharing it with the rest of us.
peacemaker18 #2
Good story!!
LOVEloveKIMminSEOK
#3
Chapter 10: I just re read both stories, and yup, i still love them as the first day. I really can't wait to know what's going to happen in the next instalment =D
luhandeer149aha
#4
I HAVE RESURFACED AND WILL RE-READ THIS! THANK YOU!
tokki24
#5
Chapter 10: Oh goodness what a story you write..!!!!!!!! This is awesome n I can't seem to let this go, I'm not ready.. ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ n yes, I'm still curious with the next generation who seems to makes Kyungsoo get that headache, n the curiosity getting worse with Jinki's shown up.. Gooooodddd... This story totally wrecked me up. Tbh, I'm actually lil bit uncomfortable with the thingy n ot3 whatsoever, but your story somehow makes me feel like it's more like a bromance than a lover n I just can't put this down until I swallowed all those chapters, lol
Do you have a plan to write the story or maybe drabbles bout the eleventh gen?? My inner geek n fangirl soul seems can't settle down until I can read more bout those, lol
Anw, thank you for writing these books (yes, I prefer to call it books, kk) it's amazing..!!
PrimoUmano #6
Chapter 10: Thank you author-nim,the story was an adventure
EmberYouth
#7
Chapter 10: Oh. My. God.
I remember that I started reading AWE some months ago, and I was totally in love with it. I think I had finished reading it in a few days at the most (my favourite part was the God Gene, especially Yixing's contribution to it all). Then I began reading OOTD right after finishing AWE.
Sadly, I wasn't a member of the site at that time, so I hadn't subscribed to both of them. I had just bookmarked chapter 6 of this one, and had kinda forgotten about it. And today, I had a sudden urge to read Mama AU fics, and remembered this one just to reread a few chapters, and I was greeted by this!
WHOA. That was so amazing, I almost cried when they reunited with the unicorns, and at the end with Yixing and Jinki.
Both of these stories made me laugh, cry, upset, angry and every other emotion that I could have felt. It was almost as if I was there, in the story, WITH all of them, watching them grow into such wonderful beings.
I was kind of skeptical at first when the girls were introduced as the Tenth Generation, since I don't usually read girl-centred fics, but I totally did not regret reading it.

Can't believe it's over, though, and I would love to see what happens with the next Generation. Wish you all the luck in the world for writing it, and thank you so much for such amazing pieces of fiction! <3
pleaseletthiswork #8
Chapter 10: Yay!!! This is great. I wonder who that special boy is for kyungsoo.