Taking place in the aftermath of the Minute War, EXO Planet follows the journey of 12 boys, the last survivors of the Capitol and the only ones left to take on the responsibility of Legends. Their stories are a collection of fond memories made bittersweet by the pain of loss as they struggle to continue living in a world made unrecognizable by the parasite that’s infected it. Warning: This story contains mass amounts of character death, sexual situations, child abuse, suicide, violence, fatal disease, explicit language, dismemberment/loss of limbs, characters suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, and death of family members.
Even after a year, Suho was finding dust-collected books and trinkets from the ruins in town. With so few people left in the world, it was back-breaking, tedious work to rebuild their once extravagant, colorful town. Still, it was nice to look around and see the budding flowers in the trellises and planter boxes, new, jade-green paint on what was now Lay’s medic shop, and a blue sky looking over it all.
Minhyun had taken the liberty of reworking the library, organizing the books and restoring what was still in good shape. He, Lay, and Suho were among the few who stayed in town more often than not. Ren was making work of scouting around Ruk, hoping to find more survivors who stayed hidden like he and his brother. Most often he returned with resources or materials to help rebuild the Capitol.
Walking through the open door, Sehun dropped a heavy box of textbooks and glass jars down on a nearby table. “Found some more for ya. And some stuff that I think Lay could use.”
“Thanks, I’ll sort through them later.” Suho clapped his hands together, wiping away the dust and sweat. “I got a letter from Suju.”
“Yeah? How’re things going over there?” Sehun walked around the room--it was hot with the sun coming in through the floor-to-ceiling windows. This place used to be one of the many lounges the Grand Master would hide away in. Before everything changed.
Suho leaned against a built-in counter, crossing his arms. “Things have been going pretty well, sounds like. Jessica had a baby.”
“Oh, really?” That was surprising. I guess a lot could happen in a year.
“Yeah, you should read.” Suho grabbed the letter from its place on a shelf across the room before handing it over to Sehun.
Sehun quickly scanned it over.
Suho,
I hope everything’s going well. Sometimes I can still hardly believe it’s all over. Minho and Amber won’t let me forget, though. They say they always knew this day would come. I’m glad they were right. I really wish Krystal were here to see it. I miss her so much.
Actually, I’m a mother now. My little one is almost six months old and every day she reminds me of her aunt. I suppose it’s my fault, since I named her Krys for her. And for her father, too.
And for her father, too. Sehun’s heart stopped. Of course. It matched up perfectly. He kept on reading, hoping she would have some news of his brother. Maybe he had run back to Suju after everything happened. Instead, his disappointment was mirrored back to him in Jessica’s words.
Have you heard from him yet? Your last letter said you were hoping to find out where he went. I have to believe he’s still out there. I hope we can get the phone lines working by then, so you can call me right away when you do. I can’t raise this little one all on my own. I don’t want her to grow up not knowing what happened to her daddy.
“Well, I guess I’d better go track him down, then.”
Suho raised a brow, a smile barely concealed in the crook of his mouth. “Yeah?”
Sehun nodded. “Yeah. He’s been a deadbeat low-life for as long as I’ve known him, but he doesn’t get to get out of this.” He sighed, not even really sure where to start. While he wracked his brain, the realization that he was an uncle struck him. What an odd feeling.
“Might be worth trying close to Ruk. Revelle is where we lost him. I can’t imagine he’s gone too far from there.” Suho crossed one leg over the other, thinking. Part of him had always thought of Kris as one of their dead. Not consciously of course. Consciously he believed he was still out there somewhere. He needed to believe that. They couldn’t afford to lose anyone else. They had a world worth living in again.
Sehun gave a nod. “Yeah, guess I’ll start there. Thanks.” They said a quick goodbye as the younger of the two dipped out of the open door. The humidity was pouring in now even as the sun was falling lower in the sky.
The world was just too big for all of them now. When one person left, it felt like everything would echo. Like an empty apartment. It was a lonesome feeling. But Suho knew he didn’t have to worry so much anymore.
Baekhyun had ventured off to Soushii like he said he would. He missed home terribly and was fortunate enough to find a few folks living there, waiting out the worst of everything that had come. Better news included Aron, a young man Baekhyun’s age. They hit it off swimmingly. There came a time Baekhyun had brought him to the Capitol to meet everyone. Aron was on the quieter side but you could tell how much he loved Baekhyun’s sass and clowning around. Finally, someone that met him beat for beat and loved him just as much in return. A couple of puppies in love. It was nice to see the light return to his face, stars in his eyes. Suho had been terrified it was gone forever after what happened to Chanyeol. Remembering Chanyeol was hard.
Where the old Tree’s body rested, they erected a monument. A memorial to those they lost. For all the Legends who came before. For their friends. Suho made a habit of visiting once a week, to give thanks to everyone who helped them fight the Reaper and to tell everyone that they were loved by greater margins every day.
Stella sent flowers to be planted at the base of the old Tree and the monument. She wrote to Suho often, reassuring him that Chen was doing better every day. Slowly forgiving himself for all the things he couldn’t know and couldn’t do. He’d become a reliable big brother to Lulu and Stella hoped in time he’d be open to meeting someone he could fall in love with. More time certainly had to pass, but she was hopeful he’d be like the boy Lully always described him as again someday soon.
In the center of town where festivals used to be held, the stone pathways had been broken up, revealing the ground beneath. In just a day or so after Sehun killed the Reaper and the Tree, what was left of their group came to this spot and planted the new Tree. Lay used the remaining crystals, Taeyong called on the consciousness of their world, and together they created their new world in the ashes of the old one.
“We won’t gate it off this time,” Suho said.
Lay looked to him, his expression asking him to explain.
“Before… we separated ourselves from the Tree like it was a god. Like it were above us. But that’s wrong. We were wrong for that. The Tree is us. It’s everything that breathes and loves and dreams.”
Suho didn’t have to say more, Lay understood.
Eventually, friends from Soushii and Suju would come to visit. A dark-skinned woman from Caschaea had made a long journey to find others and found herself in their budding village. Taeyong and her got along well, sharing stories of the island. Her name was Tamika and she carried an old guitar with her. Suppertime around a fire now came with music she wrote, Taeyong having learned the lyrics to sing along with her.
There weren’t many people to put it to a vote but everyone agreed it was Suho who would be their new Grand Master. He was a natural-born leader. He cried when it was a unanimous decision.
And Suho had kept his promise. Jaejoong and his brothers were given a full pardon by him--not that it mattered much now, but he wanted to put it on the record. That, and their titles would have to be changed. After the events of everything that had occurred, it became clear they weren’t bringing the dead to life or convening with the dead. What the Reaper said was right, returning to the Tree wasn’t death. It was rest awaiting a rebirth. Jaejoong and his brothers and his son were something divinely special. He’d have to think of a better name later. Until then, they would live every day knowing the future belonged to them, and they would build something worth returning to in every life to come.
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Wrathful, wailing wind ripped through the endless ether around them. Like drowning in a crowd of desperate and clawing people--souls. Lay’s body was vibrating, the electric heat of life weaving in and out of his body like breathing in and out. A sensation like being burned and frozen over and over again. Teeth clenched, he struggled to keep his thoughts steady. Counting one, two three, he opened his eyes and took in the surreal and nonsense landscape in front of him.
This world--this place?--was made up of different times that melted into each other. Some agonizing and others euphoric. Seeing Irene’s face again was like needles pricked directly into his heart. Her tired smile that barely touched her sunken eyes.
He saw memories that weren’t his own, too. A small child cuddling a white cat in the arms of a man he recognized as Donghae. Taeyeon sobbing over a bathroom sink while Luna brushed her hair away from her face. Kai and Taemin playing chicken. Chanyeol going up in a blaze of fire.
Lay counted again, still trying to regain control of his overwhelmed senses. There was a weight at the end of one of his arms. Chen, lying limp besides him in the overflowing void of consciousness. Somewhere ahead of them was Teayong, shoulders up to his ears with his hands desperately gripped to his head as if trying to shut out the noise. All of this, it was far too much for either of them. But now Lay understood what it was.
Inside the Tree of Life was everything that ever was. Every moment of a person’s life flowed here in perpetuity. This was the source of their power, their strength. What Lay was seeing now, this must be what Legend Donghae experienced all the time. Seeing the memories of everyone play out like his own. He thought of Li and her headaches. The endless noise of everyone’s thoughts. This was its own kind of hell.
He lifted Chen up, pulling his arm over his shoulder so he could drag him more easily toward Taeyong. The cacophony of voices was almost like drums out of sync and Lay could hardly hear his own voice among them. “What do we do now?” Taeyong kept his eyes clamped shut, hands over his ears. Lay had to shove his shoulder to get his attention. “Where do we go!?” He shouted as loudly as he could.
Taeyong’s pained expression stared back at him, slowly registering the words he made out from Lay’s lips. He looked around, searching for any kind of lead. His father had to be there somewhere waiting for them. It was his idea in the first place.
He saw a glint of something like a spider’s web caught in a ray of light. Thread like veins dripping with a rot like oozy tar on a wire. It weaved in and out of every memory, the veins growing thicker like branches as they moved in toward the trunk of a tree. Taeyong moved toward it like being led by a rope and Lay followed, dragging Chen close behind. The ether around them grew dark, the memories that played growing distorted. A tape damaged with dust, missing frames, warped sound. The people in them were distorted, and though it was frightening on the outside, Lay thought they were more like prisoners, trapped in deteriorating, dying and immortal bodies.
There were only eerie sounds periodically now and the ether around them was a bleeding darkness. Neither Lay or Taeyong dared to speak and Chen was still unconscious.
It was Jaejoong’s voice that pierced the endless silence between them. “You made it.” His voice was in echo--doubles, maybe. Taeyong rushed to his father’s side, a little boy frightened by the world around him. Finally, something familiar and safe.
“What is this place?” Taeyong asked. It likely had an obvious answer, but somehow he needed to ask anyway.
Jaejoong looked around the great empty expanse they had arrived at. “You’ve found the heart of the planet. It’s sick and it’s dying. What you crossed to get here was what is still in early infection from the virus.”
“Virus?” Lay asked, thinking of the bloody “threads” they followed to what Jaejoong was calling the heart.
The ghost nodded. “The Red Force. It’s here, alive and feasting on the Tree. Feasting on all of us slowly. A Reaper come to enjoy its harvest among crops in the cosmos.” He pointed to Lay. “Those crystals. They have an essence of Life untouched yet by the Red Force. You can’t save the Tree with it now, though. It’s far too gone.”
Lay felt a rage very unlike himself. “Then what are we doing here?”
“How can you rebuild the world when you don’t understand what makes it? And regardless, you have to pluck the Red Force from out of the heart if there will be anything left to rebuild on.” Jaejoong paused, giving Lay a moment to compose his emotions. Chen was slowly coming to.
Taeyong’s brows furrowed. “What am I here for?” he thought aloud, “I can’t heal anything and you said the Red Force is alive so there goes taking control of it.” Besides, you could have done that if it were possible, he thought.
Jaejoong’s expression was hard but patient. “You know what you saw on your way here, Tae. Not just memories. Consciousness.”
So Lay had been right, it was people. People trapped in dying, immortal bodies. If this is what death was, he was more afraid of it now than ever. This is what his friends, all of his loved ones, were being subjected to without end. An existence without end being fed upon over and over and over again. Is this what it always had been?
“So I should speak to them?” Taeyong cautiously thought aloud.
Jaejoong nodded. “You’ll need their help if you’re to suck out the Red Force.”
“What is this place?” Chen whispered. Lay caught him up quickly, and as the realization reflected in his eyes, Lay worried if the Lightning Force could handle the predicament they were in. He was barely stable even outside of a nightmare looking glass where his childhood friend was in an unimaginable torture machine.
“Why haven’t you been speaking to them?” Taeyong asked, feeling frustrated.
Jaejoong frowned. “You think I haven’t tried? What is a dead necromancer? A ghost among ghosts. I’m only strong enough to show you my form beyond the confines of this place. That’s all that’s left of me, Tae. You’re the only necromancer left. You’re the only one left to work the surgery from this side.”
A surgery--a strange way to put it but apt nonetheless. Of course he and Lay would make the perfect team. A necromancer and a healer at the heart of the diseased Tree, the thing that gave and nurtured life on their marble in the endless expanse. He only hoped that they could make headway before the Reaper noticed.
✩‧₊˚─────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆─────˚₊‧✩
They stood stock still, eyes focused on the now lightning-split Tree that their friends had just fallen into. There was a strange quiet that followed. Strange and unsettling. But it wasn’t an empty quiet--there were things lurking deep and unseen inside of it. Wraiths, probably, waiting to pounce on them.
Suho’s heart was beating in his ears. There wasn’t a drip of water around them. Minhyun stood close to Ren whose form was like a glitching mirage. Kai, Xiumin, and Baekhyun were nearly shoulder-to-shoulder. D.O. and Sehun were the only ones among them who had any real access to their powers. Kai could manage to flee, but what good was light at a time like this? Let alone ice without water.
They had slowly closed a gap together, no direction out of their eyesight, standing close enough to each link arms. The silence was threatening them. The quiet before the storm. A darkening sky made for the cue to his entrance.
Standing somewhere just in front of the base of the dying Tree, the Wraiths gathered around him like a pack of wolves, was some kind of man. A creature, of sorts. He was the very image of death. Made of jagged bones and mouths in mouths. The smell of rot hung in the air as if his breath were the wind in this desolate, ruinous place.
“Your wriggling in my gut is an annoyance.” Its voice wasn’t coming from his gnashing jaws, but somewhere deep inside their minds. Like it were their own head voice, echoing against their skulls and behind their eyes. “Like eating the arms of a squid.”
Suho glared back at the vile thing, trying not to show his own terror and disgust. “Why would anything sit back and be eaten? Why not eat something that’s already dead?”
“I don’t eat dead things,” it said.
“Then why are you here? What do you want with them!?” Lay cried back, this image of Irene still burned in his memory.
Its saliva-coated teeth stank, grinning back at him. “Don’t you know? This isn’t death. Not until I’ve come to feed and then shit you out. Your life is the life of everyone who ever lived before you and will live after you. Your veins are filled with a delectable knowledge spanning millennia.”
✩‧₊˚─────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆─────˚₊‧✩
Sehun’s jaw was set so tight he felt he could shatter his own teeth any moment. “What the fuck do you want with us? What if we aren’t ready to die?”
“I am the Reaper and the stars are promised to me. You were merely next on a long journey to the ends of this realm.”
Merely next. Simply in the way. A pit stop. How cruel and unfair. An act of revenge or punishment would have been less enraging. Less insulting.
✩‧₊˚─────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆─────˚₊‧✩
Somehow, the Reaper’s speech about life and death was reassuring. Taeyong spoke to the consciousness around him. Not dead or alive but something else entirely bigger and more intimate than that. Speaking to them like this, with this knowledge, it was like reaching back in time to clasp the hands of every version of himself that lived in every time. A knowing and a love that healed. If he hadn’t been so engulfed by the memories of everything that lived around him, he would probably cry. A cry that filled you with warmth and relief and hope.
With Chen clinging to him, Lay reached into his pocket to clasp onto one of the last remaining crystals. He couldn’t use them all, especially not if they managed to get out of this alive, if their plan worked, but an amplifier in a moment like this could only be beneficial.
The Reaper had managed to back them up toward the drowning, tortured souls outside of the heart. But he had followed them out too. Lay allowed his hands to brush against whomever they passed by, praying to offer relief to the consciousness of lives being fed upon by this monster.
✩‧₊˚─────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆─────˚₊‧✩
“How dare you,” Sehun spoke. His rage was palpable and the wraiths moved toward him accordingly. It was just as well, given that Sehun’s utterance was more an invitation. If he’d been living in grief and denial and bargaining up until this point, rage had now fully ignited him.
A tremor rattled the ground--a stomp from D.O. to keep the wraiths off their footing. Kai managed to wrap his one arm around both Suho and Xiumin, holding them tightly to his side while he snapped them away to a safer distance. Beakhyun did his best to create a shield from his light, Ren having multiplied himself in an attempt to create his own illusory shield.
Sehun, however, charged forward. He ignored the shadow-mutts and rushed straight toward the Reaper, fists clenched tight, hardly blinking with his eyes locked on his target. The wind was beginning to pick up, the clouds twisting and turning overhead. There was a static in the air that he knew Chen could use if only they hadn’t lost him to the belly of the Tree. He had to wonder if their friends were still alive in there. Something told him they were.
Fuck using his powers, Sehun wanted to rip this thing apart with his bare hands. Rip its face open by prying apart its mouths over its tunneled eyes. Every violent, disgusting thing he could imagine. Anything Sehun could do to it would still be too good a death. After everything they had suffered at its hands, he wanted to become something even more vicious and evil.
The fact he had even been able to grab hold of the Reaper was actually a surprise. It was a weak, light thing. A sack of bones. No fat, only muscle pulled over its skeleton. Sehun felt its slimy, bony hands clawing up his arms, its rotting stomach creating a stench that was like an acid in his eyes and nose. He didn’t care, though. Sehun couldn’t even hear the others calling out to him, terrified he’d just rushed to his death.
Its teeth punctured his hands as he reached into his mouth, grabbing hold of its jaws. Something that could be described as laughter bubbled up from its diaphragm. A hysterical, enraging sound. In a matter of moments Sehun realized it was pulling him in, like a tight, constricting embrace. Trying to pull him inside. A sack of bones with the strength of a machine. He felt a panic well up inside of him. He wriggled and fought against the creature, his mind overcome with images of Luhan, Kris… Sydney.
One of its arms was ripped from his body as if the ripped had been snapped apart. A new pair of hands grabbed him. “Come on!” D.O. said, grabbing him by his shirt. Kai had been close by, D.O. putting an arm around his waist, still holding tight to Sehun, as Kai snapped them several yards away.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Baekhyun’s voice cracked.
Sehun looked around and everyone was somewhere between rage and devastation. It wasn’t just him. Something was happening. Something that felt like their insides were going to spill over.
They didn’t have time to question anything right now. This was their chance and Sehun had every intention of taking it. He felt more powerful than he ever had before. The storm churned and he felt it coming from his fingertips. That’s what he had to do. He had to pluck the Reaper out like a thorn under his skin.
He’d never even drawn one down before--never had the ability to--but suddenly it felt like the most natural thing. One, two, three, four, he stopped counting. Twisters emerged from the storm clouds, violent and screaming. Tremors began to rumble, though D.O. had nothing to do with them.
The wraiths scattered and his friends huddled together. The rip-tide winds didn’t bother him though. There was something refreshing in it. Refreshing and reassuring. It rushed around him like endless flashbacks. Every twister someone he loved. They were here again. Luhan, Kris, Sydney… Tao, Chanyeol, Li, Nana, Taemin, Lully, Sulli, Krystal, everyone. He felt them all. Inside of him and all around him.
Huge and righteous, the sky stretched up and the twisters churned and dug their paths through the Tree’s bed, surrounding the Reaper and his shadow-dogs. The land was bloody, decayed, screeching in pain. He bid them dig deeper, the Reaper’s skeleton coming undone in a grave of his own making. Ripped apart, and with him, up came the Tree, dragging its roots and pulling up dirt for nearly a mile around them. Sehun fell onto his backside, the others stumbling in the near distance. The dust was starting to choke them.
In the air, the Tree hung like a corpse. Weakness overcame him. The twisters faded into the clouds that had now lightened. A cold rush went over Sehun’s head and he passed out. The corpse of the Tree plummeted to the ground.
Even after a year, Suho was finding dust-collected books and trinkets from the ruins in town. With so few people left in the world, it was back-breaking, tedious work to rebuild their once extravagant, colorful town. Still, it was nice to look around and see the budding flowers in the trellises and planter boxes, new, jade-green paint on what was now Lay’s medic shop, and a blue sky looking over it all.
Minhyun had taken the liberty of reworking the library, organizing the books and restoring what was still in good shape. He, Lay, and Suho were among the few who stayed in town more often than not. Ren was making work of scouting around Ruk, hoping to find more survivors who stayed hidden like he and his brother. Most often he returned with resources or materials to help rebuild the Capitol.
Walking through the open door, Sehun dropped a heavy box of textbooks and glass jars down on a nearby table. “Found some more for ya. And some stuff that I think Lay could use.”
“Thanks, I’ll sort through them later.” Suho clapped his hands together, wiping away the dust and sweat. “I got a letter from Suju.”
“Yeah? How’re things going over there?” Sehun walked around the room--it was hot with the sun coming in through the floor-to-ceiling windows. This place used to be one of the many lounges the Grand Master would hide away in. Before everything changed.
Suho leaned against a built-in counter, crossing his arms. “Things have been going pretty well, sounds like. Jessica had a baby.”
“Oh, really?” That was surprising. I guess a lot could happen in a year.
“Yeah, you should read.” Suho grabbed the letter from its place on a shelf across the room before handing it over to Sehun.
Sehun quickly scanned it over.
Suho,
I hope everything’s going well. Sometimes I can still hardly believe it’s all over. Minho and Amber won’t let me forget, though. They say they always knew this day would come. I’m glad they were right. I really wish Krystal were here to see it. I miss her so much.
Actually, I’m a mother now. My little one is almost six months old and every day she reminds me of her aunt. I suppose it’s my fault, since I named her Krys for her. And for her father, too.
And for her father, too. Sehun’s heart stopped. Of course. It matched up perfectly. He kept on reading, hoping she would have some news of his brother. Maybe he had run back to Suju after everything happened. Instead, his disappointment was mirrored back to him in Jessica’s words.
Have you heard from him yet? Your last letter said you were hoping to find out where he went. I have to believe he’s still out there. I hope we can get the phone lines working by then, so you can call me right away when you do. I can’t raise this little one all on my own. I don’t want her to grow up not knowing what happened to her daddy.
“Well, I guess I’d better go track him down, then.”
Suho raised a brow, a smile barely concealed in the crook of his mouth. “Yeah?”
Sehun nodded. “Yeah. He’s been a deadbeat low-life for as long as I’ve known him, but he doesn’t get to get out of this.” He sighed, not even really sure where to start. While he wracked his brain, the realization that he was an uncle struck him. What an odd feeling.
“Might be worth trying close to Ruk. Revelle is where we lost him. I can’t imagine he’s gone too far from there.” Suho crossed one leg over the other, thinking. Part of him had always thought of Kris as one of their dead. Not consciously of course. Consciously he believed he was still out there somewhere. He needed to believe that. They couldn’t afford to lose anyone else. They had a world worth living in again.
Sehun gave a nod. “Yeah, guess I’ll start there. Thanks.” They said a quick goodbye as the younger of the two dipped out of the open door. The humidity was pouring in now even as the sun was falling lower in the sky.
The world was just too big for all of them now. When one person left, it felt like everything would echo. Like an empty apartment. It was a lonesome feeling. But Suho knew he didn’t have to worry so much anymore.
Baekhyun had ventured off to Soushii like he said he would. He missed home terribly and was fortunate enough to find a few folks living there, waiting out the worst of everything that had come. Better news included Aron, a young man Baekhyun’s age. They hit it off swimmingly. There came a time Baekhyun had brought him to the Capitol to meet everyone. Aron was on the quieter side but you could tell how much he loved Baekhyun’s sass and clowning around. Finally, someone that met him beat for beat and loved him just as much in return. A couple of puppies in love. It was nice to see the light return to his face, stars in his eyes. Suho had been terrified it was gone forever after what happened to Chanyeol. Remembering Chanyeol was hard.
Where the old Tree’s body rested, they erected a monument. A memorial to those they lost. For all the Legends who came before. For their friends. Suho made a habit of visiting once a week, to give thanks to everyone who helped them fight the Reaper and to tell everyone that they were loved by greater margins every day.
Stella sent flowers to be planted at the base of the old Tree and the monument. She wrote to Suho often, reassuring him that Chen was doing better every day. Slowly forgiving himself for all the things he couldn’t know and couldn’t do. He’d become a reliable big brother to Lulu and Stella hoped in time he’d be open to meeting someone he could fall in love with. More time certainly had to pass, but she was hopeful he’d be like the boy Lully always described him as again someday soon.
In the center of town where festivals used to be held, the stone pathways had been broken up, revealing the ground beneath. In just a day or so after Sehun killed the Reaper and the Tree, what was left of their group came to this spot and planted the new Tree. Lay used the remaining crystals, Taeyong called on the consciousness of their world, and together they created their new world in the ashes of the old one.
“We won’t gate it off this time,” Suho said.
Lay looked to him, his expression asking him to explain.
“Before… we separated ourselves from the Tree like it was a god. Like it were above us. But that’s wrong. We were wrong for that. The Tree is us. It’s everything that breathes and loves and dreams.”
Suho didn’t have to say more, Lay understood.
Eventually, friends from Soushii and Suju would come to visit. A dark-skinned woman from Caschaea had made a long journey to find others and found herself in their budding village. Taeyong and her got along well, sharing stories of the island. Her name was Tamika and she carried an old guitar with her. Suppertime around a fire now came with music she wrote, Taeyong having learned the lyrics to sing along with her.
There weren’t many people to put it to a vote but everyone agreed it was Suho who would be their new Grand Master. He was a natural-born leader. He cried when it was a unanimous decision.
And Suho had kept his promise. Jaejoong and his brothers were given a full pardon by him--not that it mattered much now, but he wanted to put it on the record. That, and their titles would have to be changed. After the events of everything that had occurred, it became clear they weren’t bringing the dead to life or convening with the dead. What the Reaper said was right, returning to the Tree wasn’t death. It was rest awaiting a rebirth. Jaejoong and his brothers and his son were something divinely special. He’d have to think of a better name later. Until then, they would live every day knowing the future belonged to them, and they would build something worth returning to in every life to come.
Wrathful, wailing wind ripped through the endless ether around them. Like drowning in a crowd of desperate and clawing people--souls. Lay’s body was vibrating, the electric heat of life weaving in and out of his body like breathing in and out. A sensation like being burned and frozen over and over again. Teeth clenched, he struggled to keep his thoughts steady. Counting one, two three, he opened his eyes and took in the surreal and nonsense landscape in front of him.
This world--this place?--was made up of different times that melted into each other. Some agonizing and others euphoric. Seeing Irene’s face again was like needles pricked directly into his heart. Her tired smile that barely touched her sunken eyes.
He saw memories that weren’t his own, too. A small child cuddling a white cat in the arms of a man he recognized as Donghae. Taeyeon sobbing over a bathroom sink while Luna brushed her hair away from her face. Kai and Taemin playing chicken. Chanyeol going up in a blaze of fire.
Lay counted again, still trying to regain control of his overwhelmed senses. There was a weight at the end of one of his arms. Chen, lying limp besides him in the overflowing void of consciousness. Somewhere ahead of them was Teayong, shoulders up to his ears with his hands desperately gripped to his head as if trying to shut out the noise. All of this, it was far too much for either of them. But now Lay understood what it was.
Inside the Tree of Life was everything that ever was. Every moment of a person’s life flowed here in perpetuity. This was the source of their power, their strength. What Lay was seeing now, this must be what Legend Donghae experienced all the time. Seeing the memories of everyone play out like his own. He thought of Li and her headaches. The endless noise of everyone’s thoughts. This was its own kind of hell.
He lifted Chen up, pulling his arm over his shoulder so he could drag him more easily toward Taeyong. The cacophony of voices was almost like drums out of sync and Lay could hardly hear his own voice among them. “What do we do now?” Taeyong kept his eyes clamped shut, hands over his ears. Lay had to shove his shoulder to get his attention. “Where do we go!?” He shouted as loudly as he could.
Taeyong’s pained expression stared back at him, slowly registering the words he made out from Lay’s lips. He looked around, searching for any kind of lead. His father had to be there somewhere waiting for them. It was his idea in the first place.
He saw a glint of something like a spider’s web caught in a ray of light. Thread like veins dripping with a rot like oozy tar on a wire. It weaved in and out of every memory, the veins growing thicker like branches as they moved in toward the trunk of a tree. Taeyong moved toward it like being led by a rope and Lay followed, dragging Chen close behind. The ether around them grew dark, the memories that played growing distorted. A tape damaged with dust, missing frames, warped sound. The people in them were distorted, and though it was frightening on the outside, Lay thought they were more like prisoners, trapped in deteriorating, dying and immortal bodies.
There were only eerie sounds periodically now and the ether around them was a bleeding darkness. Neither Lay or Taeyong dared to speak and Chen was still unconscious.
It was Jaejoong’s voice that pierced the endless silence between them. “You made it.” His voice was in echo--doubles, maybe. Taeyong rushed to his father’s side, a little boy frightened by the world around him. Finally, something familiar and safe.
“What is this place?” Taeyong asked. It likely had an obvious answer, but somehow he needed to ask anyway.
Jaejoong looked around the great empty expanse they had arrived at. “You’ve found the heart of the planet. It’s sick and it’s dying. What you crossed to get here was what is still in early infection from the virus.”
“Virus?” Lay asked, thinking of the bloody “threads” they followed to what Jaejoong was calling the heart.
The ghost nodded. “The Red Force. It’s here, alive and feasting on the Tree. Feasting on all of us slowly. A Reaper come to enjoy its harvest among crops in the cosmos.” He pointed to Lay. “Those crystals. They have an essence of Life untouched yet by the Red Force. You can’t save the Tree with it now, though. It’s far too gone.”
Lay felt a rage very unlike himself. “Then what are we doing here?”
“How can you rebuild the world when you don’t understand what makes it? And regardless, you have to pluck the Red Force from out of the heart if there will be anything left to rebuild on.” Jaejoong paused, giving Lay a moment to compose his emotions. Chen was slowly coming to.
Taeyong’s brows furrowed. “What am I here for?” he thought aloud, “I can’t heal anything and you said the Red Force is alive so there goes taking control of it.” Besides, you could have done that if it were possible, he thought.
Jaejoong’s expression was hard but patient. “You know what you saw on your way here, Tae. Not just memories. Consciousness.”
So Lay had been right, it was people. People trapped in dying, immortal bodies. If this is what death was, he was more afraid of it now than ever. This is what his friends, all of his loved ones, were being subjected to without end. An existence without end being fed upon over and over and over again. Is this what it always had been?
“So I should speak to them?” Taeyong cautiously thought aloud.
Jaejoong nodded. “You’ll need their help if you’re to suck out the Red Force.”
“What is this place?” Chen whispered. Lay caught him up quickly, and as the realization reflected in his eyes, Lay worried if the Lightning Force could handle the predicament they were in. He was barely stable even outside of a nightmare looking glass where his childhood friend was in an unimaginable torture machine.
“Why haven’t you been speaking to them?” Taeyong asked, feeling frustrated.
Jaejoong frowned. “You think I haven’t tried? What is a dead necromancer? A ghost among ghosts. I’m only strong enough to show you my form beyond the confines of this place. That’s all that’s left of me, Tae. You’re the only necromancer left. You’re the only one left to work the surgery from this side.”
A surgery--a strange way to put it but apt nonetheless. Of course he and Lay would make the perfect team. A necromancer and a healer at the heart of the diseased Tree, the thing that gave and nurtured life on their marble in the endless expanse. He only hoped that they could make headway before the Reaper noticed.
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They stood stock still, eyes focused on the now lightning-split Tree that their friends had just fallen into. There was a strange quiet that followed. Strange and unsettling. But it wasn’t an empty quiet--there were things lurking deep and unseen inside of it. Wraiths, probably, waiting to pounce on them.
Suho’s heart was beating in his ears. There wasn’t a drip of water around them. Minhyun stood close to Ren whose form was like a glitching mirage. Kai, Xiumin, and Baekhyun were nearly shoulder-to-shoulder. D.O. and Sehun were the only ones among them who had any real access to their powers. Kai could manage to flee, but what good was light at a time like this? Let alone ice without water.
They had slowly closed a gap together, no direction out of their eyesight, standing close enough to each link arms. The silence was threatening them. The quiet before the storm. A darkening sky made for the cue to his entrance.
Standing somewhere just in front of the base of the dying Tree, the Wraiths gathered around him like a pack of wolves, was some kind of man. A creature, of sorts. He was the very image of death. Made of jagged bones and mouths in mouths. The smell of rot hung in the air as if his breath were the wind in this desolate, ruinous place.
“Your wriggling in my gut is an annoyance.” Its voice wasn’t coming from his gnashing jaws, but somewhere deep inside their minds. Like it were their own head voice, echoing against their skulls and behind their eyes. “Like eating the arms of a squid.”
Suho glared back at the vile thing, trying not to show his own terror and disgust. “Why would anything sit back and be eaten? Why not eat something that’s already dead?”
“I don’t eat dead things,” it said.
“Then why are you here? What do you want with them!?” Lay cried back, this image of Irene still burned in his memory.
Its saliva-coated teeth stank, grinning back at him. “Don’t you know? This isn’t death. Not until I’ve come to feed and then shit you out. Your life is the life of everyone who ever lived before you and will live after you. Your veins are filled with a delectable knowledge spanning millennia.”
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Sehun’s jaw was set so tight he felt he could shatter his own teeth any moment. “What the fuck do you want with us? What if we aren’t ready to die?”
“I am the Reaper and the stars are promised to me. You were merely next on a long journey to the ends of this realm.”
Merely next. Simply in the way. A pit stop. How cruel and unfair. An act of revenge or punishment would have been less enraging. Less insulting.
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Somehow, the Reaper’s speech about life and death was reassuring. Taeyong spoke to the consciousness around him. Not dead or alive but something else entirely bigger and more intimate than that. Speaking to them like this, with this knowledge, it was like reaching back in time to clasp the hands of every version of himself that lived in every time. A knowing and a love that healed. If he hadn’t been so engulfed by the memories of everything that lived around him, he would probably cry. A cry that filled you with warmth and relief and hope.
With Chen clinging to him, Lay reached into his pocket to clasp onto one of the last remaining crystals. He couldn’t use them all, especially not if they managed to get out of this alive, if their plan worked, but an amplifier in a moment like this could only be beneficial.
The Reaper had managed to back them up toward the drowning, tortured souls outside of the heart. But he had followed them out too. Lay allowed his hands to brush against whomever they passed by, praying to offer relief to the consciousness of lives being fed upon by this monster.
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“How dare you,” Sehun spoke. His rage was palpable and the wraiths moved toward him accordingly. It was just as well, given that Sehun’s utterance was more an invitation. If he’d been living in grief and denial and bargaining up until this point, rage had now fully ignited him.
A tremor rattled the ground--a stomp from D.O. to keep the wraiths off their footing. Kai managed to wrap his one arm around both Suho and Xiumin, holding them tightly to his side while he snapped them away to a safer distance. Beakhyun did his best to create a shield from his light, Ren having multiplied himself in an attempt to create his own illusory shield.
Sehun, however, charged forward. He ignored the shadow-mutts and rushed straight toward the Reaper, fists clenched tight, hardly blinking with his eyes locked on his target. The wind was beginning to pick up, the clouds twisting and turning overhead. There was a static in the air that he knew Chen could use if only they hadn’t lost him to the belly of the Tree. He had to wonder if their friends were still alive in there. Something told him they were.
Fuck using his powers, Sehun wanted to rip this thing apart with his bare hands. Rip its face open by prying apart its mouths over its tunneled eyes. Every violent, disgusting thing he could imagine. Anything Sehun could do to it would still be too good a death. After everything they had suffered at its hands, he wanted to become something even more vicious and evil.
The fact he had even been able to grab hold of the Reaper was actually a surprise. It was a weak, light thing. A sack of bones. No fat, only muscle pulled over its skeleton. Sehun felt its slimy, bony hands clawing up his arms, its rotting stomach creating a stench that was like an acid in his eyes and nose. He didn’t care, though. Sehun couldn’t even hear the others calling out to him, terrified he’d just rushed to his death.
Its teeth punctured his hands as he reached into his mouth, grabbing hold of its jaws. Something that could be described as laughter bubbled up from its diaphragm. A hysterical, enraging sound. In a matter of moments Sehun realized it was pulling him in, like a tight, constricting embrace. Trying to pull him inside. A sack of bones with the strength of a machine. He felt a panic well up inside of him. He wriggled and fought against the creature, his mind overcome with images of Luhan, Kris… Sydney.
One of its arms was ripped from his body as if the ripped had been snapped apart. A new pair of hands grabbed him. “Come on!” D.O. said, grabbing him by his shirt. Kai had been close by, D.O. putting an arm around his waist, still holding tight to Sehun, as Kai snapped them several yards away.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Baekhyun’s voice cracked.
Sehun looked around and everyone was somewhere between rage and devastation. It wasn’t just him. Something was happening. Something that felt like their insides were going to spill over.
They didn’t have time to question anything right now. This was their chance and Sehun had every intention of taking it. He felt more powerful than he ever had before. The storm churned and he felt it coming from his fingertips. That’s what he had to do. He had to pluck the Reaper out like a thorn under his skin.
He’d never even drawn one down before--never had the ability to--but suddenly it felt like the most natural thing. One, two, three, four, he stopped counting. Twisters emerged from the storm clouds, violent and screaming. Tremors began to rumble, though D.O. had nothing to do with them.
The wraiths scattered and his friends huddled together. The rip-tide winds didn’t bother him though. There was something refreshing in it. Refreshing and reassuring. It rushed around him like endless flashbacks. Every twister someone he loved. They were here again. Luhan, Kris, Sydney… Tao, Chanyeol, Li, Nana, Taemin, Lully, Sulli, Krystal, everyone. He felt them all. Inside of him and all around him.
Huge and righteous, the sky stretched up and the twisters churned and dug their paths through the Tree’s bed, surrounding the Reaper and his shadow-dogs. The land was bloody, decayed, screeching in pain. He bid them dig deeper, the Reaper’s skeleton coming undone in a grave of his own making. Ripped apart, and with him, up came the Tree, dragging its roots and pulling up dirt for nearly a mile around them. Sehun fell onto his backside, the others stumbling in the near distance. The dust was starting to choke them.
In the air, the Tree hung like a corpse. Weakness overcame him. The twisters faded into the clouds that had now lightened. A cold rush went over Sehun’s head and he passed out. The corpse of the Tree plummeted to the ground.
Even after a year, Suho was finding dust-collected books and trinkets from the ruins in town. With so few people left in the world, it was back-breaking, tedious work to rebuild their once extravagant, colorful town. Still, it was nice to look around and see the budding flowers in the trellises and planter boxes, new, jade-green paint on what was now Lay’s medic shop, and a blue sky looking over it all.
Minhyun had taken the liberty of reworking the library, organizing the books and restoring what was still in good shape. He, Lay, and Suho were among the few who stayed in town more often than not. Ren was making work of scouting around Ruk, hoping to find more survivors who stayed hidden like he and his brother. Most often he returned with resources or materials to help rebuild the Capitol.
Walking through the open door, Sehun dropped a heavy box of textbooks and glass jars down on a nearby table. “Found some more for ya. And some stuff that I think Lay could use.”
“Thanks, I’ll sort through them later.” Suho clapped his hands together, wiping away the dust and sweat. “I got a letter from Suju.”
“Yeah? How’re things going over there?” Sehun walked around the room--it was hot with the sun coming in through the floor-to-ceiling windows. This place used to be one of the many lounges the Grand Master would hide away in. Before everything changed.
Suho leaned against a built-in counter, crossing his arms. “Things have been going pretty well, sounds like. Jessica had a baby.”
“Oh, really?” That was surprising. I guess a lot could happen in a year.
“Yeah, you should read.” Suho grabbed the letter from its place on a shelf across the room before handing it over to Sehun.
Sehun quickly scanned it over.
Suho,
I hope everything’s going well. Sometimes I can still hardly believe it’s all over. Minho and Amber won’t let me forget, though. They say they always knew this day would come. I’m glad they were right. I really wish Krystal were here to see it. I miss her so much.
Actually, I’m a mother now. My little one is almost six months old and every day she reminds me of her aunt. I suppose it’s my fault, since I named her Krys for her. And for her father, too.
And for her father, too. Sehun’s heart stopped. Of course. It matched up perfectly. He kept on reading, hoping she would have some news of his brother. Maybe he had run back to Suju after everything happened. Instead, his disappointment was mirrored back to him in Jessica’s words.
Have you heard from him yet? Your last letter said you were hoping to find out where he went. I have to believe he’s still out there. I hope we can get the phone lines working by then, so you can call me right away when you do. I can’t raise this little one all on my own. I don’t want her to grow up not knowing what happened to her daddy.
“Well, I guess I’d better go track him down, then.”
Suho raised a brow, a smile barely concealed in the crook of his mouth. “Yeah?”
Sehun nodded. “Yeah. He’s been a deadbeat low-life for as long as I’ve known him, but he doesn’t get to get out of this.” He sighed, not even really sure where to start. While he wracked his brain, the realization that he was an uncle struck him. What an odd feeling.
“Might be worth trying close to Ruk. Revelle is where we lost him. I can’t imagine he’s gone too far from there.” Suho crossed one leg over the other, thinking. Part of him had always thought of Kris as one of their dead. Not consciously of course. Consciously he believed he was still out there somewhere. He needed to believe that. They couldn’t afford to lose anyone else. They had a world worth living in again.
Sehun gave a nod. “Yeah, guess I’ll start there. Thanks.” They said a quick goodbye as the younger of the two dipped out of the open door. The humidity was pouring in now even as the sun was falling lower in the sky.
The world was just too big for all of them now. When one person left, it felt like everything would echo. Like an empty apartment. It was a lonesome feeling. But Suho knew he didn’t have to worry so much anymore.
Baekhyun had ventured off to Soushii like he said he would. He missed home terribly and was fortunate enough to find a few folks living there, waiting out the worst of everything that had come. Better news included Aron, a young man Baekhyun’s age. They hit it off swimmingly. There came a time Baekhyun had brought him to the Capitol to meet everyone. Aron was on the quieter side but you could tell how much he loved Baekhyun’s sass and clowning around. Finally, someone that met him beat for beat and loved him just as much in return. A couple of puppies in love. It was nice to see the light return to his face, stars in his eyes. Suho had been terrified it was gone forever after what happened to Chanyeol. Remembering Chanyeol was hard.
Where the old Tree’s body rested, they erected a monument. A memorial to those they lost. For all the Legends who came before. For their friends. Suho made a habit of visiting once a week, to give thanks to everyone who helped them fight the Reaper and to tell everyone that they were loved by greater margins every day.
Stella sent flowers to be planted at the base of the old Tree and the monument. She wrote to Suho often, reassuring him that Chen was doing better every day. Slowly forgiving himself for all the things he couldn’t know and couldn’t do. He’d become a reliable big brother to Lulu and Stella hoped in time he’d be open to meeting someone he could fall in love with. More time certainly had to pass, but she was hopeful he’d be like the boy Lully always described him as again someday soon.
In the center of town where festivals used to be held, the stone pathways had been broken up, revealing the ground beneath. In just a day or so after Sehun killed the Reaper and the Tree, what was left of their group came to this spot and planted the new Tree. Lay used the remaining crystals, Taeyong called on the consciousness of their world, and together they created their new world in the ashes of the old one.
“We won’t gate it off this time,” Suho said.
Lay looked to him, his expression asking him to explain.
“Before… we separated ourselves from the Tree like it was a god. Like it were above us. But that’s wrong. We were wrong for that. The Tree is us. It’s everything that breathes and loves and dreams.”
Suho didn’t have to say more, Lay understood.
Eventually, friends from Soushii and Suju would come to visit. A dark-skinned woman from Caschaea had made a long journey to find others and found herself in their budding village. Taeyong and her got along well, sharing stories of the island. Her name was Tamika and she carried an old guitar with her. Suppertime around a fire now came with music she wrote, Taeyong having learned the lyrics to sing along with her.
There weren’t many people to put it to a vote but everyone agreed it was Suho who would be their new Grand Master. He was a natural-born leader. He cried when it was a unanimous decision.
And Suho had kept his promise. Jaejoong and his brothers were given a full pardon by him--not that it mattered much now, but he wanted to put it on the record. That, and their titles would have to be changed. After the events of everything that had occurred, it became clear they weren’t bringing the dead to life or convening with the dead. What the Reaper said was right, returning to the Tree wasn’t death. It was rest awaiting a rebirth. Jaejoong and his brothers and his son were something divinely special. He’d have to think of a better name later. Until then, they would live every day knowing the future belonged to them, and they would build something worth returning to in every life to come.
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Wrathful, wailing wind ripped through the endless ether around them. Like drowning in a crowd of desperate and clawing people--souls. Lay’s body was vibrating, the electric heat of life weaving in and out of his body like breathing in and out. A sensation like being burned and frozen over and over again. Teeth clenched, he struggled to keep his thoughts steady. Counting one, two three, he opened his eyes and took in the surreal and nonsense landscape in front of him.
This world--this place?--was made up of different times that melted into each other. Some agonizing and others euphoric. Seeing Irene’s face again was like needles pricked directly into his heart. Her tired smile that barely touched her sunken eyes.
He saw memories that weren’t his own, too. A small child cuddling a white cat in the arms of a man he recognized as Donghae. Taeyeon sobbing over a bathroom sink while Luna brushed her hair away from her face. Kai and Taemin playing chicken. Chanyeol going up in a blaze of fire.
Lay counted again, still trying to regain control of his overwhelmed senses. There was a weight at the end of one of his arms. Chen, lying limp besides him in the overflowing void of consciousness. Somewhere ahead of them was Teayong, shoulders up to his ears with his hands desperately gripped to his head as if trying to shut out the noise. All of this, it was far too much for either of them. But now Lay understood what it was.
Inside the Tree of Life was everything that ever was. Every moment of a person’s life flowed here in perpetuity. This was the source of their power, their strength. What Lay was seeing now, this must be what Legend Donghae experienced all the time. Seeing the memories of everyone play out like his own. He thought of Li and her headaches. The endless noise of everyone’s thoughts. This was its own kind of hell.
He lifted Chen up, pulling his arm over his shoulder so he could drag him more easily toward Taeyong. The cacophony of voices was almost like drums out of sync and Lay could hardly hear his own voice among them. “What do we do now?” Taeyong kept his eyes clamped shut, hands over his ears. Lay had to shove his shoulder to get his attention. “Where do we go!?” He shouted as loudly as he could.
Taeyong’s pained expression stared back at him, slowly registering the words he made out from Lay’s lips. He looked around, searching for any kind of lead. His father had to be there somewhere waiting for them. It was his idea in the first place.
He saw a glint of something like a spider’s web caught in a ray of light. Thread like veins dripping with a rot like oozy tar on a wire. It weaved in and out of every memory, the veins growing thicker like branches as they moved in toward the trunk of a tree. Taeyong moved toward it like being led by a rope and Lay followed, dragging Chen close behind. The ether around them grew dark, the memories that played growing distorted. A tape damaged with dust, missing frames, warped sound. The people in them were distorted, and though it was frightening on the outside, Lay thought they were more like prisoners, trapped in deteriorating, dying and immortal bodies.
There were only eerie sounds periodically now and the ether around them was a bleeding darkness. Neither Lay or Taeyong dared to speak and Chen was still unconscious.
It was Jaejoong’s voice that pierced the endless silence between them. “You made it.” His voice was in echo--doubles, maybe. Taeyong rushed to his father’s side, a little boy frightened by the world around him. Finally, something familiar and safe.
“What is this place?” Taeyong asked. It likely had an obvious answer, but somehow he needed to ask anyway.
Jaejoong looked around the great empty expanse they had arrived at. “You’ve found the heart of the planet. It’s sick and it’s dying. What you crossed to get here was what is still in early infection from the virus.”
“Virus?” Lay asked, thinking of the bloody “threads” they followed to what Jaejoong was calling the heart.
The ghost nodded. “The Red Force. It’s here, alive and feasting on the Tree. Feasting on all of us slowly. A Reaper come to enjoy its harvest among crops in the cosmos.” He pointed to Lay. “Those crystals. They have an essence of Life untouched yet by the Red Force. You can’t save the Tree with it now, though. It’s far too gone.”
Lay felt a rage very unlike himself. “Then what are we doing here?”
“How can you rebuild the world when you don’t understand what makes it? And regardless, you have to pluck the Red Force from out of the heart if there will be anything left to rebuild on.” Jaejoong paused, giving Lay a moment to compose his emotions. Chen was slowly coming to.
Taeyong’s brows furrowed. “What am I here for?” he thought aloud, “I can’t heal anything and you said the Red Force is alive so there goes taking control of it.” Besides, you could have done that if it were possible, he thought.
Jaejoong’s expression was hard but patient. “You know what you saw on your way here, Tae. Not just memories. Consciousness.”
So Lay had been right, it was people. People trapped in dying, immortal bodies. If this is what death was, he was more afraid of it now than ever. This is what his friends, all of his loved ones, were being subjected to without end. An existence without end being fed upon over and over and over again. Is this what it always had been?
“So I should speak to them?” Taeyong cautiously thought aloud.
Jaejoong nodded. “You’ll need their help if you’re to suck out the Red Force.”
“What is this place?” Chen whispered. Lay caught him up quickly, and as the realization reflected in his eyes, Lay worried if the Lightning Force could handle the predicament they were in. He was barely stable even outside of a nightmare looking glass where his childhood friend was in an unimaginable torture machine.
“Why haven’t you been speaking to them?” Taeyong asked, feeling frustrated.
Jaejoong frowned. “You think I haven’t tried? What is a dead necromancer? A ghost among ghosts. I’m only strong enough to show you my form beyond the confines of this place. That’s all that’s left of me, Tae. You’re the only necromancer left. You’re the only one left to work the surgery from this side.”
A surgery--a strange way to put it but apt nonetheless. Of course he and Lay would make the perfect team. A necromancer and a healer at the heart of the diseased Tree, the thing that gave and nurtured life on their marble in the endless expanse. He only hoped that they could make headway before the Reaper noticed.
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They stood stock still, eyes focused on the now lightning-split Tree that their friends had just fallen into. There was a strange quiet that followed. Strange and unsettling. But it wasn’t an empty quiet--there were things lurking deep and unseen inside of it. Wraiths, probably, waiting to pounce on them.
Suho’s heart was beating in his ears. There wasn’t a drip of water around them. Minhyun stood close to Ren whose form was like a glitching mirage. Kai, Xiumin, and Baekhyun were nearly shoulder-to-shoulder. D.O. and Sehun were the only ones among them who had any real access to their powers. Kai could manage to flee, but what good was light at a time like this? Let alone ice without water.
They had slowly closed a gap together, no direction out of their eyesight, standing close enough to each link arms. The silence was threatening them. The quiet before the storm. A darkening sky made for the cue to his entrance.
Standing somewhere just in front of the base of the dying Tree, the Wraiths gathered around him like a pack of wolves, was some kind of man. A creature, of sorts. He was the very image of death. Made of jagged bones and mouths in mouths. The smell of rot hung in the air as if his breath were the wind in this desolate, ruinous place.
“Your wriggling in my gut is an annoyance.” Its voice wasn’t coming from his gnashing jaws, but somewhere deep inside their minds. Like it were their own head voice, echoing against their skulls and behind their eyes. “Like eating the arms of a squid.”
Suho glared back at the vile thing, trying not to show his own terror and disgust. “Why would anything sit back and be eaten? Why not eat something that’s already dead?”
“I don’t eat dead things,” it said.
“Then why are you here? What do you want with them!?” Lay cried back, this image of Irene still burned in his memory.
Its saliva-coated teeth stank, grinning back at him. “Don’t you know? This isn’t death. Not until I’ve come to feed and then shit you out. Your life is the life of everyone who ever lived before you and will live after you. Your veins are filled with a delectable knowledge spanning millennia.”
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Sehun’s jaw was set so tight he felt he could shatter his own teeth any moment. “What the fuck do you want with us? What if we aren’t ready to die?”
“I am the Reaper and the stars are promised to me. You were merely next on a long journey to the ends of this realm.”
Merely next. Simply in the way. A pit stop. How cruel and unfair. An act of revenge or punishment would have been less enraging. Less insulting.
✩‧₊˚─────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆─────˚₊‧✩
Somehow, the Reaper’s speech about life and death was reassuring. Taeyong spoke to the consciousness around him. Not dead or alive but something else entirely bigger and more intimate than that. Speaking to them like this, with this knowledge, it was like reaching back in time to clasp the hands of every version of himself that lived in every time. A knowing and a love that healed. If he hadn’t been so engulfed by the memories of everything that lived around him, he would probably cry. A cry that filled you with warmth and relief and hope.
With Chen clinging to him, Lay reached into his pocket to clasp onto one of the last remaining crystals. He couldn’t use them all, especially not if they managed to get out of this alive, if their plan worked, but an amplifier in a moment like this could only be beneficial.
The Reaper had managed to back them up toward the drowning, tortured souls outside of the heart. But he had followed them out too. Lay allowed his hands to brush against whomever they passed by, praying to offer relief to the consciousness of lives being fed upon by this monster.
✩‧₊˚─────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆─────˚₊‧✩
“How dare you,” Sehun spoke. His rage was palpable and the wraiths moved toward him accordingly. It was just as well, given that Sehun’s utterance was more an invitation. If he’d been living in grief and denial and bargaining up until this point, rage had now fully ignited him.
A tremor rattled the ground--a stomp from D.O. to keep the wraiths off their footing. Kai managed to wrap his one arm around both Suho and Xiumin, holding them tightly to his side while he snapped them away to a safer distance. Beakhyun did his best to create a shield from his light, Ren having multiplied himself in an attempt to create his own illusory shield.
Sehun, however, charged forward. He ignored the shadow-mutts and rushed straight toward the Reaper, fists clenched tight, hardly blinking with his eyes locked on his target. The wind was beginning to pick up, the clouds twisting and turning overhead. There was a static in the air that he knew Chen could use if only they hadn’t lost him to the belly of the Tree. He had to wonder if their friends were still alive in there. Something told him they were.
Fuck using his powers, Sehun wanted to rip this thing apart with his bare hands. Rip its face open by prying apart its mouths over its tunneled eyes. Every violent, disgusting thing he could imagine. Anything Sehun could do to it would still be too good a death. After everything they had suffered at its hands, he wanted to become something even more vicious and evil.
The fact he had even been able to grab hold of the Reaper was actually a surprise. It was a weak, light thing. A sack of bones. No fat, only muscle pulled over its skeleton. Sehun felt its slimy, bony hands clawing up his arms, its rotting stomach creating a stench that was like an acid in his eyes and nose. He didn’t care, though. Sehun couldn’t even hear the others calling out to him, terrified he’d just rushed to his death.
Its teeth punctured his hands as he reached into his mouth, grabbing hold of its jaws. Something that could be described as laughter bubbled up from its diaphragm. A hysterical, enraging sound. In a matter of moments Sehun realized it was pulling him in, like a tight, constricting embrace. Trying to pull him inside. A sack of bones with the strength of a machine. He felt a panic well up inside of him. He wriggled and fought against the creature, his mind overcome with images of Luhan, Kris… Sydney.
One of its arms was ripped from his body as if the ripped had been snapped apart. A new pair of hands grabbed him. “Come on!” D.O. said, grabbing him by his shirt. Kai had been close by, D.O. putting an arm around his waist, still holding tight to Sehun, as Kai snapped them several yards away.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Baekhyun’s voice cracked.
Sehun looked around and everyone was somewhere between rage and devastation. It wasn’t just him. Something was happening. Something that felt like their insides were going to spill over.
They didn’t have time to question anything right now. This was their chance and Sehun had every intention of taking it. He felt more powerful than he ever had before. The storm churned and he felt it coming from his fingertips. That’s what he had to do. He had to pluck the Reaper out like a thorn under his skin.
He’d never even drawn one down before--never had the ability to--but suddenly it felt like the most natural thing. One, two, three, four, he stopped counting. Twisters emerged from the storm clouds, violent and screaming. Tremors began to rumble, though D.O. had nothing to do with them.
The wraiths scattered and his friends huddled together. The rip-tide winds didn’t bother him though. There was something refreshing in it. Refreshing and reassuring. It rushed around him like endless flashbacks. Every twister someone he loved. They were here again. Luhan, Kris, Sydney… Tao, Chanyeol, Li, Nana, Taemin, Lully, Sulli, Krystal, everyone. He felt them all. Inside of him and all around him.
Huge and righteous, the sky stretched up and the twisters churned and dug their paths through the Tree’s bed, surrounding the Reaper and his shadow-dogs. The land was bloody, decayed, screeching in pain. He bid them dig deeper, the Reaper’s skeleton coming undone in a grave of his own making. Ripped apart, and with him, up came the Tree, dragging its roots and pulling up dirt for nearly a mile around them. Sehun fell onto his backside, the others stumbling in the near distance. The dust was starting to choke them.
In the air, the Tree hung like a corpse. Weakness overcame him. The twisters faded into the clouds that had now lightened. A cold rush went over Sehun’s head and he passed out. The corpse of the Tree plummeted to the ground.
Still one of my favourite fics ever. I always come back to it.
Oh wow, thank you so much! There’s been a few times I’ve considered coming back. I really need to finish the last two chapters and I’ve also considered redoing it entirely now that I’m better at writing than I used to be.
This ask really made my morning though, thank you so much <3
His eyes were faraway, skin gray. The blood on his suit had dried; it must’ve been hours since it happened. They looked down at Tao’s body, speechless. Sehun stood stiff and still, and then his expression became very serious.
“Of course we find him dead after he runs off by himself. Fucking idiot.”
Taeyong and Lay knelt down close to his body. Lay traced his hands over his torso, just to be sure he was gone. He shook his head, still keeping his gaze on the empty shell lying in front of him.
“There’s something in his hand,” Taeyong said.
Lay reached over, forced Tao’s hand open. A small collection of crystals fell out. Suho stepped forward and knelt down next to Taeyong, taking a few of the crystals from Lay’s hands. “Did he leave specifically to get these?”
Taeyong stared someplace faraway, as though his consciousness was somewhere else entirely. “It’s for Sehun.” He looked upright, normal again. “There were folk-tales around the island that these healing crystals existed. That they could heal anything if you could crack the liquid out of them.”
Suho stood upright, turning the crystal around in his hands. “It’s very strange. Like a liquid and a solid all at once. Like mercury.” He raised a brow, turning to Taeyong. “How do you know it’s for Sehun?”
“Tao said they were. Well… he didn’t say but… it’s hard to explain the way I connect with the Spirit Realm and all that. I don’t know if it’ll work, but Tao died trying to get them, so it’s worth a shot isn’t it?”
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His eyes were faraway, skin gray. The blood on his suit had dried; it must’ve been hours since it happened. They looked down at Tao’s body, speechless. Sehun stood stiff and still, and then his expression became very serious.
“Of course we find him dead after he runs off by himself. Fucking idiot.”
Taeyong and Lay knelt down close to his body. Lay traced his hands over his torso, just to be sure he was gone. He shook his head, still keeping his gaze on the empty shell lying in front of him.
“There’s something in his hand,” Taeyong said.
Lay reached over, forced Tao’s hand open. A small collection of crystals fell out. Suho stepped forward and knelt down next to Taeyong, taking a few of the crystals from Lay’s hands. “Did he leave specifically to get these?”
Taeyong stared someplace faraway, as though his consciousness was somewhere else entirely. “It’s for Sehun.” He looked upright, normal again. “There were folk-tales around the island that these healing crystals existed. That they could heal anything if you could crack the liquid out of them.”
Suho stood upright, turning the crystal around in his hands. “It’s very strange. Like a liquid and a solid all at once. Like mercury.” He raised a brow, turning to Taeyong. “How do you know it’s for Sehun?”
“Tao said they were. Well… he didn’t say but… it’s hard to explain the way I connect with the Spirit Realm and all that. I don’t know if it’ll work, but Tao died trying to get them, so it’s worth a shot isn’t it?”
Sehun turned away. “He risked his life for a fairy-tale, and here I thought he was supposed to be intelligent. I think your Force still needs some training.”
“It does seem strange that Tao would do something so selfless,” Baekhyun added. “He’s never been close to a single one of us, let alone Sehun.”
Lay closed Tao’s eyes before standing. “Maybe it’s time I told you guys about Tao. He never wanted anyone to know but I suppose it doesn’t matter now.”
“What do you mean?” Suho asked.
“He never hated anybody. He thought by making everyone think that, he’d protect everyone.”
“Protect us from what?” Sehun scoffed.
“Himself. I figured it out from Jonghyun and Donghae, the Legends that found him. Your brother knew, too, Sehun. They told Luhan and I what happened, how one day Tao’s Force went beyond his control, reversed the timelines of his parents until they didn’t exist. He was terrified it might happen again,” Lay explained, taking the crystal back from Suho.
“What?” Sehun’s voice was quiet.
“That doesn’t make any sense, though. Whether we hated him or not, we had to work in close proximity to him. There was still that chance, regardless.” D.O.’s brows furrowed, looking down at Tao’s body, mouth agape.
“You don’t think I tried explaining that to him? It was his worst nightmare, he acted illogically whenever it came to it. He had the most brains of all of us, but he was terrified every day. Every single moment. I wondered if you all would take notice, his mask was starting to slip pretty quickly here towards the end, the way he huddled over Chen constantly, and now this. Dying for Sehun’s sake. Looking at him like this now, it’s so sad. Even in death, he’ll be all alone. There’s no one waiting for him there,” Lay trailed off, then took a breath, bringing the crystals up to his view. “These crystals have a really strong energy in them and their make-up is almost exactly like the Tree’s. I promised your brother I would give you a cure. Come here.”
Sehun stepped slowly towards Lay, gaze still on Tao’s body. Lay took Sehun’s arm, pushed back the sleeve of his cloak to reveal the infected bite mark. His flesh was gray and bruised. His arm so skinny. “As it is, I can use it as an amplifier.” Lay placed the crystal against the bite on Sehun’s arm, then closed his eyes, and began to heal him.
Lay threw the last of the dirt onto the grave, marked with a large stone and the lifeless crystals that had been used to cure Sehun. Only Sehun and Lay remained standing over the grave, the others having gone back towards camp at the shore after the ashes had been placed into the ground.
“You’ve hardly said a word since we healed you,” Lay started, leaning into the rusty shovel he’d staked into the ground.
Sehun stared at the grave. “If I’m being honest, I still feel like I’m dying.”
Lay raised a brow.
“I’m so tired of being wrong about everyone and everything. I’ve always been naive, dependant, and in all honesty, I’ve always been cruel.”
“You’re being hard on yourself.”
Sehun shook his head, eyes shut tight. “Don’t do that to me, Lay. Don’t fucking sugar coat it when you know it’s true. I was even an asshole to my own brother, that’s probably why he ran off. Everyone has always bent over backwards for me so I would never have to suffer and look at where it gets them. People die or disappear around me, Lay. I’m a goddamn parasite. Had I not been so stubborn and self-absorbed maybe I would’ve realized the truth about Tao. No, I definitely would have. Luhan tried to tell me once before, way back when Sydney was still alive, and I didn’t listen then. Because I was so sure, because I was so stubborn.”
“Okay then, you’re right. You’ve always been naive, stubborn, dependant, and even cruel, Sehun. You really are a little shithead.”
“Fuck, I know, Lay, I fucking know!” His voice cracked, lip quivering.
“So you have to change. You can’t keep being that way.”
Sehun bit down on his lip.
“You have to give all that death and suffering a purpose. For Luhan, you have to keep living. For Kris, you have to be patient. For Tao, you have to have compassion.” Lay put a hand on Sehun’s shoulder. “Imagine all those flaws died with the infection, that should make the changes easier.”
Lay took the shovel and walked back towards the camp, a bonfire now lit with the others huddled around it. Darkness was falling over the island and a cold wind began to wail across the shore.
Sehun took a deep breath, jaw set tight. “I’m sorry, Tao.” Then after a moment, he turned and went to join the others.
Baekhyun pulled his cloak tight around his body, heat from the flames beating hot against his face. He shook , leaning more and more into Chen, whose shaking seemed more like nervous twitches.
“Why are we here, again?”Baekhyun nearly whispered to Chen.
Chen shook his head. “To be honest, I don’t really know.”
“Answers,” Suho said, “We’re looking for answers related to the Red Force. The connection between the Capitol kidnapping and killing Necromancers and Mediums and the Red Force. We need to know what was going on here.”
“What for?” Xiumin mumbled. “Knowing why they killed Necromancers and Mediums won’t make the Red Force go away.”
“I wanna go home,” Baekhyun said quickly, still shaking.
“To the mainland?” Minhyun asked.
“To Soushii. I don’t even know if anyone survived there”
Taeyong threw a stick into the fire. “I have to be honest, I doubt we’d find answers here. Even if we knew what the Capitol was up to, they clearly had no idea this Red Force was coming. We’re better off on the mainland.”
Lay turned his head back towards where they found Tao earlier. “Actually, we might be able to save the planet afterall. This might not have been a wasted trip.”
“You’re referring to the crystals?” Suho asked.
“You saw what it did for Sehun. I still have some leftover. We could go back to the Tree and I could try to heal it.”
“You’d have to heal it from the inside. And there’s no guarantee you could pull it back. Not to mention all the Wraiths that are probably gathered around,” Taeyong added.
Ren kept his eyes on the flames. “I’d make a good distraction.”
“There’s plenty of us to fight whatevers there,” D.O. said.
Taeyong looked among the remaining Legends, Mihyun and his brother. Then he took a deep breath through the nose. “I’ll have to go on the inside with you. It’ll be easier to contact Father there. But there’s something I need.”
“What?” Suho asked.
“An apology. A formal apology and I expect to live comfortably the rest of my goddamn life if we make it out alive.”
“Done.”
“You go back on your word and I’ll fuck you up.” The Necromancer stared Suho down, fire reflecting in his eyes.
Suho stared back. “I don’t doubt you for a moment.”
“So we’re going back?” Sehun spoke up from the edge of the group.
All eyes turned to him, fire crackling. “In the morning, I assume,” Suho answered.
“Do you expect this Red Force to show themselves?”
“I’d be shocked if they didn’t with a small army of smaller Forces attempting to remove it from its host planet,” Taeyong replied.
Sehun stood up, holding his cloak tight around him. “Good.” Then he disappeared into the darkness back into shelter.
“So much has happened,” Xiumin mumbled.
Baekhyun’s eyes drooped, skin dull and body heavy. “Too much has happened.”
The ferry trip back to the mainland had been a quiet one. Even docking on the shore was eerily quiet. Not a one of them had the energy to speak. Only Sehun seemed to have any life in him, charging on ahead of the group towards the Capitol.
Kai turned to Chen whose posture had grown worse and worse. “Will you be okay for this?”
A shaky breath. “I have to. It’s only right. I need to be there and fix everything. I need to protect what she has left.”
Kai frowned, then turned his gaze to the far horizon. “Having something to fight for would make this all a lot easier.” He reached for the nub at his left side. “I’ve only become a coward in the end. Speaking honestly, I’m terrified.”
“You do have something to fight for,” Suho joined Kai and Chen. “A future that you deserve. A life with freedom from the fear of imminent, unjust death.”
“We haven’t even saved the planet yet and you’re already talking like the new Grand Master,” Kai smiled weakly.
Suho smirked. “Gotta get my practice in.”
“Except you’ve been practising all your life,” Baekhyun spoke up from behind, voice soft. Tired. Yet smiling.
Suho turned towards the ground. “I have dreams that I’m not willing to give up. I’ve been fighting for them my whole life, and the end of the world won’t stop me.”
“You’re so noble,” Lay chuckled.
The laughter faded quickly when the ruins of the Capitol came into view in the distance. The dying branches of the Tree of Life could be seen reaching high towards the sky over the crumbling walls, like hands reaching up from the depths of Hell.
Ren stepped closer to Minhyun. “I’ve never actually seen the Tree before,” Minhyun said under his breath.
“Unfortunate. It was so much more beautiful before the Red Force,” Suho said, heart heavy, eyes stuck on the decaying Tree.
They pushed their way past the ruins of the walls which surrounded the Tree of Life, the grass crunching beneath their feet. The Tree’s Hold was huge, stretching for nearly a mile across. At the center stood the Tree, its bark black as shadows and oozing something like a tar. It stretched high into the heavens, smothered in thick clouds overhead. A choking, dying God.
“Well, what now?”Baekhyun asked, mouth agape, wide, watery eyes stuck on the Tree.
“We have to get inside somehow,” Taeyong said, voice flat.
Kai looked over his shoulder, then the other. Eyes twitched and shoulders shaking.
Chen felt the hairs on his arms building up, then looked at the decaying body of the Tree. Then up at the clouds. “I could probably do something.”
“You really think you’re up for it?” Lay asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.
Chen nodded. “I think I can manage.”
He stepped forward, Lay’s hand dropping from his shoulder as he stepped closer and closer to the Tree. He closed his eyes, standing as near to the Tree as he could, the others stepping back, Lay and Taeyong close to one another. The static in the air grew stronger and stronger. Chen raised his arms slowly at each side. One finger at a time, he closed his hands into fists. Tighter and tighter. Then, with all which he had let in him, he pulled his arms close to his sides again with the force of a falling rock, the screams from his body meshing with the crack of lightning that shot down from the sky and struck the center of the Tree. The force of it cracked the trunk of the Tree in half, and Chen fell into it.
“Chen!” Lay called after, he and Taeyong running into the Tree together, disappearing as quickly as Chen did.
