(for at1stsight) Retrograde Motion [1/7]

[forkadionly]

 For: at1stsight

Title: Retrograde Motion 
Genre: MAMA!au, Fantasy, Action, Adventure, Romance
Rating: NC-17
Side Pairings (if any): unknown yet
Warnings: graphic depictions of violence, light breathplay, frottage
Word Count: 52k
Summary: The earth smells wrong when he wakes up.

Author's Note: Writing this fic was fun and extremely challenging. I went through a lot to get to the finish line but let me tell you I loved every second of it. And it’s finally here! But this monster of a story wouldn’t have materialized without all of these people who held my hand and encouraged me all the way. To the NC, to my earliest beta readers N and J, to the legendary Justice League (J, E, L) thank you for your invaluable input, for reminding me of plot holes and assuring me that my writing is halfway decent. To the mods, thank you for organizing this fic exchange for KaiSoo’s birthday, and for being extremely patient and understanding with me. Without your kindness, I would have given up finishing this fic a long time ago. To my beta buddy and best friend I, thank you so much for being there the entire journey, from start to finish; from the birth of this idea to the crippling moments of trying to finish it in time, thank you. Without you, this fic wouldn’t be the way it is. To my recipient, at1stsoo, I’m sorry it took so long for your fic to arrive. But hopefully it’s at least worth the wait! I hope you enjoy! To anyone else who chances this a read, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

 

Retrograde Motion: The phenomenon where a celestial body appears to slow down, stop, then move in the opposite direction.


ANTUMBRA

PROLOGUE

The clouds drift away slowly, carefully, as the moon ascends to its rightful place in front of the sun.

The world is wide awake when the eclipse happens, intrigued yet unaffected, sans six souls who are connected to it by a blue string of responsibility.

Six souls, scattered across the land; the Guardians of this new world, keepers of the tree of life.

Six otherworldly beings: the protectors of MAMA.


Kyungsoo watches with mild disinterest as the moon inches its way closer to the burning sun, its shadow steadily creeping over the star’s brightness. Its movement causes a shadow to fall upon the earth as well, temporarily enveloping it in a night-like atmosphere.

The shade filters even through his translucent window, gradually masking his face in the same darkness. He turns the other way irritably, planning to sleep this eclipse away as he did the many others before it, not wanting to be conscious when it happens.

He dislikes the disorienting feeling of displacement he gets whenever the eclipse happens; never quite knowing whether it is night or day when it’s over, the uncertainty throwing him off a mile. So he sleeps it away to spare himself the agonizing wait, opting to keep his mood neutral (for the safety of the earth and all its inhabitants, too), lest he finds himself grumpy and unknowingly reactivating the Ring of Fire a decade too early.

As his eyelids slowly fall shut, encasing his world in darkness very much like the shadow thrown over the earth like an endless blanket, he fails to register the light pitter-patter of rainfall, gentle against his windowsill. 


Kai watches with bated breath as the moon throws a shadow over the earth, covering the sun in a selfish attempt to gather his power. He watches, entranced for a few seconds, as the two celestial bodies engage in a dance to channel power from one to the other, the sky behind them glowing in statics of blue and red.

He feels the pull of power from within him, attracted to the eclipse above like tides are to the moon, like people are to the ground. 

Mesmerized, he teleports to one of the tallest trees around; wanting to get a closer look at the exchange in the sky as if he hasn’t seen this a hundred times before. Kai has a strange affinity to all things beautiful yet dangerous, a habit he hasn’t quite shaken yet as he teleports once more (this time without thinking), and finds himself in the sky.

It really is beautiful, he notes, as he teleports here and there in lightning speed to keep himself afloat, watching the fiery orb contrast against the cold face of the moon.

They balance each other out, he notes wistfully, right before the first drop of rain falls on his nose.

Startled, he loses his focus and falls; down in a pretty little spiral of limbs as if he were in a race against the raindrops towards the earth.

He regains footing halfway down though, thoroughly soaked now, looking up in disbelief at the rain pouring out of the cloudless sky.

He closes his eyes once water gets inside, cursing under his breath, teleporting to what he thinks is the nearest shelter. 

When he opens them again, he sees the moon slowly descending the sky, back to its usual place in the universe, the sun quickly resuming its brightness. The rain left as if it was never there in the first place.

The cloak of darkness is removed and light quickly floods back, bathing the world in its brightness once more. People resume walking, life goes on as usual.

But as Kai looks down at his drenched clothes, and up at the time zone that had remained the same, he briefly wonders if something might have gone terribly wrong.


A low buzz brings him back to consciousness, steady and persistent against his ears. It turns into a flat ringing sound when he’s more awake, taking the entirety of his hearing and letting nothing else pass through.

At this Sehun sits up in alarm, covering his ears with both of his hands just to make the sound stop, stop, stop.

His eyes are still closed; pinched shut in discomfort as he waits for the sound to dissipate. It does, eventually, after what seems like hours to him, leaving his ears and granting him back his hearing.

He opens his eyes and glances around after, putting his hands down and coming into contact with—sand? He scoops it up by the handful and lets it leisurely fall through his fingers, distracted, as he comes into terms with where he is.

Just recovering from waking up disoriented and confused, he notices for the first time that the sky is dark and already glittered with stars. And that he is alone in the midnight desert, the soft wind blowing across the arid land his only companion.

He looks up again, trying to remember parts of his Guardian training so he could use the stars to navigate his way home. He’s looking for Polaris when something else catches his eyes—stars that are moving on their own and deliberately arranging themselves into some kind of formation. Sehun squints, strong brows meeting in the middle and then he’s gasping when he realizes what it is, up on his feet in no time.

The glinting red stars up in the vast cosmos have arranged themselves to form the EXO symbol: the standard distress call for all Guardians.

The wind follows behind Sehun in small gusts as he runs and runs, through the endless desert, up until he disappears past the horizon.



The earth smells wrong when he wakes up.

Kyungsoo throws the heavy comforter away as if it weighed nothing at all, feet planted on the floor once he gets up. He stands, walks to the window and pries it open. A light burst of wind enters his apartment as he does so, warm like the weather outside.

It is bright and sunny, the exact same weather before he fell asleep.

Kyungsoo stares out of his window, squinting against the sun’s rays, trying to figure out what it is that seems amiss in a perfectly normal environment. He looks at the ground too, frowning.

“Huh,” he breathes, eyebrows pushed together in confusion, the curtain ruffling a little at his exhale.

He looks back up again after a while, face impassive, as the blue EXO symbol paints itself against the clouds. The sight is breathtaking despite it being a bit extravagant for his taste; the Council is notorious for always going the extra mile during the rare times they call for emergency meetings. This one was no exception, looking like the clouds parted to display the letters E-X-O.

Kyungsoo frowns. He didn’t really have time to appreciate aesthetics right now; there were more important things running on his mind, all of which required answers. Turning on his heel in one swift move, he aims for the door, the carpet shifting a little underneath his feet.

He’s out of the building in seconds, the soles of his boots grazing the concrete with each step he takes toward his car. Dust, twigs and a few leaves tumble about when he pulls out of the small parking lot, creating little dust clouds that become insignificant against the wide expanse of the street.


EXO

CHAPTER ONE

There are six seats in the council room, one for each guardian. The biggest chair, furnished with swirls that resemble waves, belong to the Council’s Leader and water-wielder, Suho. He is one of the oldest guardians in existence, one of the first to discover his powers, and inevitably, the Council’s founder. Second in command is Chanyeol, who controls fire and the legendary Phoenix, his chair designed to look like the majestic beast. They met when the Earth experienced extreme drought decades ago, Suho, being the only guardian, having been forced to look for the root cause and solve the problem for Mankind.

Though polar opposites, fire and water, they managed to work together, helping the world survive with what they could offer. Through this a bond stronger than any force in the world formed between them: two Guardians trusting each other enough to begin their own Council.

Kyungsoo appeared not long after this, fixing the drought problem all on his own. He’s one of the strongest guardians, literally, and takes the seat at the high end of the Council round table, his chair sturdy like his power and personality. He’s the only one whose chair is sparsely decorated, black but still immensely intimidating in its simple elegance. 

He sits on it now, as the room slowly fills with Guardians from all around. Suho and Chanyeol, naturally, are already there, discussing in hushed tones what could only be the anomaly he detected but couldn’t see from before.

Baekhyun shows up next, eyes blank as he sits to his left, lacking the usual radiance he carries around with him wherever he went. Kyungsoo glances at him questioningly, but doesn’t say anything.

Sehun bursts through the doors almost an hour later, looking (quite ironically) winded, and a little lost. His eyes relax only after recognition flashes through them in visible relief, shaky legs and wobbly knees taking him immediately into his chair to Kyungsoo’s right. The narrow, silver-plated metal chair accommodates Sehun’s tired body slumping back against it, the only indication of a struggle the light squeak against the marble floors.

Kyungsoo stares at Sehun a little too intensely, questions hanging on the tip of his tongue, words that won’t form cluttering around his mind like a dark rain cloud; heavy and ominous.

Sehun merely looks back, his usual bored expression giving nothing away. They stare at each other for a few seconds, attempting to communicate with only their eyes, it seems, when Suho’s commanding voice snaps them out of their silent conversation.

“Where is Kai?” he had said, worry lines etched on his face as he looks around and confirms Kai’s absence; his antique chair hauntingly vacant in its place opposite Chanyeol. “He’s usually the first one to arrive, earlier than even myself, and I hold the Council’s keys.”

Kyungsoo slides his eyes from Suho to the vacant chair to his left, trying to imagine Kai sitting in it, and then failing, because among all of them, Kai was the only one who wouldn’t sit still. He was constantly teleporting; from his chair to Chanyeol’s side and then to the window, like a little child high on the rush of glucose. He frowns then, intrigued even more, because, isn’t Kai’s power Teleportation?

As if on cue, the doors burst open the second time that day, even more dramatic than Sehun’s entrance because the walls actually shake from the force, which Suho frowns at in disapproval.

Kyungsoo’s breath hitch the slightest, lost in a room full of anxious guardians.

“Kai,” Suho greets, voice level. “We were just worrying about you; glad to see you’ve decided to grace us your presence after all.”

Kai dismisses his quip with an urgent shake of his head. His hair is in disarray and he looks unkempt all over; his clothes are rumpled and torn, and he appears to have just come from a fight with how his chest is still heaving. Kyungsoo’s eyes skim over him and immediately notices how there are bruises on the man’s naked arms, a smattering of purplish-blacks against the tan of his skin.

Kyungsoo gulps, the uneasy feeling slipping down the pit of his stomach again, refusing to be ignored. He inhales, holding in a breath, when Kai speaks.

“I—I can’t teleport, Suho.”

A hush falls among the Council members, the inconspicuous truth revealed, just like that.
Suho inhales, and then, despite being a Guardian gifted with eternal youth, his age shows; the lines and creases apparent on his otherwise ageless face. 

“We know, Kai. We know.”



The We, Kyungsoo learns a little while later, only refers to Suho and Chanyeol, them being the first ones to discuss the weird phenomena in the open. He personally didn’t want to voice it out, scared that talking about it would only make it more real, when Kyungsoo already has a hard time believing all this has really happened. 

He listens to Chanyeol talk about it now, eyes wide and tone disbelieving as he recounts what had happened before and after the eclipse.

“It was…unlike anything I have ever experienced; I was severely caught off guard. One moment I was watching the sky get dark with my Phoenix right next to me, our flames out and illuminating our figures under the Eclipse’s overwhelming shadow. And then the next, it just—it just rains. My Phoenix, understandably startled, outright flies away in a frenzy; remaining confused and angry as the droplets refuse to cease touching his feathers. He wouldn’t turn around no matter how much I called for him, and I could only watch, helpless, as he disappeared past the clouds getting farther and farther away from me.

And then as fast as it had come the rain stops, the eclipse is over, and the world is glaringly bright again. I…I didn’t know what to do after that, and could only concentrate on drying myself. But then, I realized a couple of futile attempts later, I couldn’t achieve even that.” Chanyeol finishes with a sad sigh, eyes downcast as he fiddles with his bony fingers.

Kyungsoo looks away when Suho and Baekhyun fawn over him, hushed words of comfort exchanged as they mutter empty “I know how it feels,” and “I’m sorry”. He feels Sehun looking at him then, glancing at the other to check, only to be met by Kai’s midnight black eyes. He hasn’t even noticed them exchanging seats, Kyungsoo’s normally observant air failing him for a moment.

He maintains eye contact with Kai after the initial surprise has worn off, waiting for the other to say something. But they never get a word out nor get any other action done aside from the intense staring; Baekhyun’s voice already drifting above their consciousness in a pleasant tinkle that’s hard not to listen to. They break the eye contact and lend him their ears.

“I’ve lost my powers too; it’s like being blinded. Held stock-still somewhere light doesn’t exist against my will. I don’t like this—I don’t like it at all.”

“No one wanted this to happen, Baekhyun.” Suho answers, rubbing his temple with his fingers. “And so far, from what everyone has shared, no one even really knows what happened either. All we can do is lie low, and wait. I have a few connections outside the City, I’ll ask around and see what I can do to fix this.”

“What can I help you with, Suho?’ Kyungsoo’s voice abruptly floats out in the open, sense of responsibility stifling as it flows through every vein he has in his body, spurring him into action.

Suho looks at him with kindness in his eyes at the offer, shaking his head. “Just lie low, Kyungsoo. Considering that all of MAMA’s guardians are suddenly left powerless, we’re prone to enemy attacks of every kind—Red Eye induced or not.” The older Guardian explains, a frown marring his face. 

“We need to deflect attention from us and what had happened. I need everyone to be on their guard but off the radar as well, as long as this issue is unresolved, we can’t go around being careless. There are lives at stake, not just ours.” Suho warns sternly, discretely imposing the seniority and authority he had over each and every one of them whenever ultimatums such as this one are laid out.

All the guardians nod solemnly in understanding, chairs simultaneously scraping against the marble floors as they rise from their seats once the meeting is adjourned. 

Dread continues to fill Kyungsoo’s insides as he walks towards where he had parked, questions still left unanswered as he had expected them to be. He spots Sehun walking a few steps ahead of him with a severely uncharacteristic slump, his curved shoulders out of place against his vertically upright body. He promptly recalls something he was meaning to ask the other a while ago, using this opportunity now to talk to him.

“Sehun!” he calls, shorter legs making it difficult to catch up to the others’ lengthy strides. “Sehun, wait!”

The other finally turns, not at all looking surprised, as if he had expected Kyungsoo to come after him precisely at that moment.

Kyungsoo inhales. 

“We need to talk.”



Kai watches the two of them from where he’s leaning against a century old stone pillar by the building’s facade, the object’s smooth surface pleasantly warm against his bruised and cold skin. Suho brushes past him, offering a warm pat on the shoulder which he returns with a stiff nod.

He continues observing the two Guardians, wondering if…his thoughts get cut off abruptly when Sehun looks up and stares straight at him, Kyungsoo following suit, eyes unreadable before they walk away together, same strides, and never once look back.



He splashes the cool water against his face, running his palms under the open faucet over and over as he tries to wash the sleep away from his system. It’s nearly not enough; and he only gets wet in the process as the water does nothing but cool his sleep-woken skin. His eyes barely open, he belatedly notices that his shirt is sticking onto him in ways other than the damp patch growing on his collar.

It’s hot, stiflingly so, as Kai squints at the tiny window he has in his bathroom. The sun is out, glaring its rays directly at anyone who would look, and Kai so badly wants to be anywhere but here. 

He groans in frustration, having half a mind to punch the wall next to his mirror when out of nowhere the entire building shakes, little tremors causing him to clutch the sink in a desperate attempt to stay upright. As suddenly as it has come the tremors are gone, leaving Kai to stare wide-eyed at his reflection in the mirror that has turned askew.

He briefly thinks of teleporting to the Earth-wielder Kyungsoo, just to see if the other has gotten his powers back when, stupid—stupid, he remembers that he’s still incapable of doing that; his own special abilities absent.

He turns the tap off, a little angrier than he was seconds ago, unaccustomed to not having powers—of being forced to be trapped in a situation he could have easily escaped from in the past. Very much like an animal in a steel cage, there is no escape for him. The realization hits him like a tidal wave.

Kai suddenly feels the bathroom closing in on him, all four walls threatening to smother him with their intimidating sturdiness and he struggles to get out, almost slipping on the water puddles he made under the sink in his haste. With heaving breaths he falls to his knees in front of his unmade bed, choking on his own spit.

Slowly coming back to his senses, he moves into a sitting position, squatting against the cold tiled floor, his side pressed against the bed. With tired eyes he watches a passing butterfly ride the wind outside of his window, its orange wings startling against the bright blue backdrop of the sky.



He’s spent the entirety of the day fleeing from one scene to the other, resting on the safety of his bed one minute, and then the other waking up in the middle of a busy intersection. He’s escaped death one too many times today, and so he thinks he couldn’t possibly stay lucky for so long.

For the nth time he closes his eyes and attempt a peaceful sleep, forcing tranquil images of his boring four cornered room, wishing against all odds that he stays in place this time.

It works for a while, Sehun loving the soft feel of his sheets against his weary back, the fluff of his pillows under his head, the stinging sensation of ice digging into his lower spine—

He sits up immediately, just in time to see a large ship coming straight at him; and he’s done, he’s so done. He can’t do this anymore.

Sehun curses in all the languages he knows under his breath, concentrating hard after so he wouldn’t get hit by the—SS MARIE ANTOINETTE—and possibly die. He closes his eyes extra tight, hands balled into fists as he chants “away, away, away,” over and over in his mind until he hears a harsh crack against his ears. Then his body contorts weirdly against nothing for a mere second, the sharp pain climbing up his spine gone as he feels his feet land on something a little soft but thankfully solid.

He opens his eyes then—and sees—another Guardian; Kyungsoo gawking at him.

“What-“ Kyungsoo begins, looking understandably lost as he places the roots in his hand down. “Sehun?” he tries again, a little more incredulously this time.

He grins sheepishly, discretely shrinking into himself as he steps away from the plant bed he just murdered with his shoes. “Sorry,” he mumbles, scratching at the tip of his nose with a blunt fingertip. “But um, hello Kyungsoo.” He amends with a hesitant smile, hoping to alleviate the other’s anger by being cute.

Kyungsoo doesn’t return his smile; doesn’t even acknowledge it. The other merely glances at his flattened plant bed before walking closer, inspecting him as if he had suddenly grown extra limbs.

“Did you just teleport?” is what comes after minutes of uncomfortable scrutiny, Kyungsoo’s eyebrows nearly meeting in one bushy arch from how much confusion he was in. Sehun coughs.

“I guess I did.”

“Holy shit,” the other breathes. “So my assumptions were right after all.” 

To prove his point Kyungsoo lifts a hand up, glaring at his palm in fierce concentration until a ball of air forms. 

“Wow, okay.” It’s his turn to be speechless. It was certainly smaller than what Sehun could do, but a manifestation of his power nonetheless.

“I guess we have to tell him now, huh?” he adds as an afterthought. Kyungsoo looks up at him at that, the ball of air in his palm disappearing after one small distraction. He smiles, slightly lopsided, after doing a carefree lift of his shoulders. 

“You tell him, Sehun. I can’t teleport.”



This proves, in fact, to be one of the stupidest ideas Kyungsoo had ever come up with. They’ve been sitting around in his living room the entire afternoon, trying to get Sehun to teleport.

It was amusing in the beginning, watching Sehun look like he’s going to defecate with all the concentration he’s been doing. But the fun in that has long passed and now Kyungsoo’s mostly bored and annoyed, the restlessness in his blood thrumming as he wants to get things done right away.

But Sehun prevents him from doing that right now, stubbornly insisting on teleporting over to Kai’s place to ‘prove his point’. 

Honestly, Kyungsoo just wants to go now, dramatic entrances be damned, since they’re wasting precious time sitting around and testing unstable powers when they could have been driving all the way to Kai’s place at this minute.

“For the last time,” Kyungsoo pleads. “I have a car, we can take it, and you can show him your powers there.” He stands up, grabbing for his thick black coat hanging on the rack, waiting for Sehun to follow him.

The other refuses to stand but is forced to do so when a gust of wind quite literally pushes him out of his chair, sending him toppling over in an ungraceful heap on the floor. Kyungsoo receives the filthiest of glares from him, which he only responds to with a sly smirk.

“Using my own powers against me…I ought to sue you, Do Kyungsoo.” Sehun mutters as he storms past him. Caught in a whirlwind of emotion Sehun unconsciously teleports, finding himself in the front seat of Kyungsoo’s car in the blink of an eye.

Kyungsoo catches up to him in no time, pulling the car door open with a wink directed at him. “I knew you could do it.”



Flashes of blue and red mingle in his vision, shooting up like fireworks in the blood-orange sky. Except they aren’t majestic, no. They are by-products of centuries old wars, stemming from the greed that is to covet the tree of life. It is sinister, hideous. 

He looks around to see the chaos unfolding around him like toppled dominos; nature crumbling on its own, people fighting, and death. Lots and lots of death. Corpses spread out around him in every position imaginable: burnt, mangled, decapitated. In heaps or piece by piece. Unrecognizable and dehumanized. It was awful, and it was all his fault.

The Red Eye looks at him then, a shapeless scarlet, wrapping around his bones in a slow ribbon-like grace. It is unadulterated evil, pure in its desire to destroy humanity, almost succeeding in overthrowing MAMA.

The edges of his consciousness are blurred and blackened after that, an inevitable side-effect of standing on the frayed edges of death; merely waiting to finally be tipped over the cliff so he could join the many other souls swimming in the depths of the Underworld. 

But it never comes; and instead he sees magma splitting the world open, burning everything in its path.

He remembers fleeing and hitting his head against an offending rock, drifting off into nothing but inky-black darkness.



There’s a pounding in his head, right in the middle of his temple, jostling him awake.

He wakes up to the same position he had slept in yesterday, on the floor, leaning against his bed. He stretches his sore right side, hissing and gritting his teeth when he realizes that he’s developed a stiff neck. Great, he thinks. What a way to start a day.

The pounding returns and so does his headache, only noticing now that the sound was actually coming from his door in forceful knocks.

“I’m coming!” he says loud enough, passing by the bathroom to at least wash his mouth. He runs his fingers through his hair in a sorry attempt at making himself look presentable, giving up halfway when the cowlick at the back of his head just won’t stay down.

He yanks the door open without even checking on who might be standing outside, too grumpy to care. He isn’t a morning person.

Kyungsoo and Sehun’s matching innocent faces welcome him from the other side, causing his mood to drop and make way for downright rudeness. “What do you want,” he asks with a tiny glare.

He sees a frown forming on the edges of Kyungsoo’s mouth and the surprise painting Sehun’s calm features at his not-so friendly greeting. Whatever. Kai really can’t be bothered right now; not with the weird dream he just had, or with body sores attacking him, and, of course, having visitors so early when he isn’t even a morning person makes everything about this situation a whole lot worse. He just wants to go back to sleep, and preferably lie his sore body on his perfectly soft bed than do anything else. He eagerly waits for the opportunity to do just that.

The seconds tick by without anyone saying anything though, and Kai almost, almost shuts the door in their faces when Sehun opens his mouth to speak. “I can teleport,” is what comes out, and Kai’s brain promptly empties itself.

“You—what?”

Sehun looks at him dead in the eye and repeats what he had just said. “I can teleport.”

Kyungsoo clears his throat from behind him, lifting a palm up to show the little ball of air in it. “And I can suddenly control the wind. I’m guessing you have my strength and the power to wield the earth?”



“I still don’t understand,” Kai says, flexing his fingers. “We’ve all obviously switched powers, but I doubt I have yours,” he gestures at Kyungsoo. “And I was asleep for the most part yesterday.”

Kyungsoo listens and then presses his lips into a thin line, eyes roaming over Kai’s apartment in one long glance. “Have you tried lifting your cabinet over there?” He gets up and walks over to Kai’s dish cabinet in the far right of the living room next to the kitchen, old and heavy-looking.

Kai furrows his eyebrows. “No…? I don’t exactly have a reason to.”

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes, while Sehun watches on with amusement from his place on the couch.

“Then I’m saying you should try it now. Your reason is to check whether you have my powers or not.”

Kai stands up despite being skeptic, walking over to where Kyungsoo is. Kyungsoo steps back and gestures to the cabinet with both hands, as if saying, go on.

Kai extends his arms, shakes them out and then holds on to the cabinet’s jutting edges, trying to lift it up.

“Oof,” he exhales, and he feels rather than sees silent laughter behind him.

“Very funny,” he grits out, dropping the cabinet back down after lifting it a centimeter off the ground.

“I’m sorry, that was rude.” Kyungsoo admits, trying to hide the smile threatening to take over his lips. He clears his throat before walking towards the sofa again, taking his seat back next to Sehun.

“So you don’t have my strength yet, but…” he pauses, wracking his brain for all the other times his power manifested itself in different ways. He hears Kai taking a seat on the chair opposite him, the other’s sneakers entering his periphery from where he was staring at the floor. Kai’s sneakers are black and white, with cracked lines for designs, and Kyungsoo promptly gets an idea.

“Have you experienced earthquakes or tremors lately? Anything at all? I can assure you that isn’t Nature’s work by the way; we aren’t scheduled for another real earthquake in five more years.”

Kai frowns, his lower lip jutting out as he thinks. Kyungsoo regards him curiously, watches the emotions passing through his face in quick flashes. Suddenly Kai looks up, locks gazes with him, and opens his mouth.

“There is one incident yesterday—I felt tremors after I got a little mad in the bathroom. It was morning, too, and everything around me just shook.”

“Got a little mad in the bathroom…” Sehun murmurs from beside him, and Kyungsoo turns around to glare. “Sehun,” he chides. Sehun closes his mouth.

Kyungsoo turns his attention back to Kai, who still looks doubtful at the acknowledgment of his newly acquired powers. “That settles it, Kai. Our powers have definitely interchanged.”



Another meeting occurs, but this time no distress signal is needed to assemble them. The other five guardians go to the council on their own accord bright and early the next day, their faces a grim mixture of disbelief and worry.

Suho immediately asks questions, whose powers have gone to whom, and he gets these answers: Kai has Earth (but no Strength yet), Kyungsoo has Wind, Sehun has Teleportation, and just this morning Chanyeol discovered he could heal. Suho reveals he has gotten Ice, and once they all absorb the information they turn to Baekhyun, who still hasn’t said anything from the moment he entered the Council Room.

“I—I still don’t have my powers, or anything else, actually.” He admits, voice small.

At this Chanyeol speaks up, looking confused. “What does all of this mean? It’s obvious that Kyungsoo, Sehun, and Kai have interchanged powers but what about the two of us? And Baekhyun who has lost his completely?” He pauses, catching his breath. “And why, did you ask us about power switching like you knew this would happen?”

Everyone turns to look at Suho, curious eyes watching him carefully as they wait for him to answer. With a resigned sigh he pushes off the table and walks towards one of the large charmed file cabinets to their left near the door. He pulls it open and takes a silver ball out, bouncing it lightly on his palm so it would float.

The orb floats right into the middle of the broad obsidian Council table, casting an eerie light on all of their faces as it glows.



Kai holds his breath as the glowing argentine ball opens and splits into halves, revealing a blurry gray cloud in its wake.

He blinks, a little dazed and mesmerized at the object. He briefly glances to his right and catches a glimpse of Kyungsoo’s glassy eyes and midnight hair reflecting the light coming from the orb. He flicks his gaze somewhere else when he senses the other about to glance his way. Someone coughs and he side eyes the perpetrator, Sehun, with a lift of his eyebrow. The other shakes his head and he goes back to looking at the floating cloud.

The clouds clear up and a face emerges from the mist. The face has hair the color of toasted chestnuts and eyes that resemble a doe’s. He speaks and its tone is pleasant, lovely, just like the rest of him. Kai sways a little in his seat.

“Hello, EXO K.” The man greets, smiling afterward. “I am Lu Han, from the Guardians of the Other Side: EXO M. I bring bad news; a disturbance has been felt within MAMA. Unfortunately, we fear this might have to do with the possible awakening of the Red Force.”

“Suho?” Kai hears Chanyeol ask, a hint of mild panic palpable in his tone. “What the hell is going on?”

To his surprise, the man in the mist rears its head to look at Suho, who had just taken his seat back in the council table, his doe eyes glinting red with understanding. “I think it’s time for them to know.”

Kai turns to look at Suho, gauging his reaction. The man sighs for the umpteenth time that day before pulling a worn out notebook from the inside of his coat.

He lays it flat against the table, turning the cover over to see the first page.

“There are Twelve Guardians,” he reads, “protectors of the two worlds that are MAMA one and the same. Twelve will become Six; one for each side. One side will be known as EXO K and the other as EXO M. They will guard MAMA like the stars do the skies regardless of the circumstance of Night or Day.” He pauses, taking a deep breath before reading again. “The Twelve Guardians are gifted each with powers they will use to protect MAMA and guard the Tree Of Life; to defeat the Red Force, and bring peace to Mankind. EXO K is gifted with Earth and Light, Water and Fire, Air and Teleportation, while EXO M is gifted with Lightning and Healing, Ice and Flight, Time Control and Telekinesis. They are one and the same, all begotten from the Tree of Life, the sons of MAMA. The Red Force will crumble under the weight of their combined powers, bringing forth a New World from the ashes and dust of its demise.”

Suho finishes, closing the book with a small thud. 

Kai drowns in his thoughts amidst the deafening silence that follows Suho’s words. This was a little too much for him to take in, for all of them to take in— if the other Guardian’s prolonged silences is any indication. And then Kai notices Chanyeol glaring at Suho with betrayal in his eyes, the aura surrounding him fiery red despite the absence of his former power.

He looks away from them, focusing his gaze on the soothing black of their obsidian table instead, heart beat going a mile per minute. He breathes; inhales and exhales to calm his nerves down, the situation dawning on him making him want to crawl out of his skin again. 

There are more of them, his brain repeats unhelpfully. There are other Guardians. Five more, besides the floating head in front of me.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

His internal struggle is interrupted by Kyungsoo’s voice, low and modulated as he asks a question directed at Lu Han.

“From what Suho has read, I understand you’re in possession of a Time-wielder?”

Lu Han nods, the action looking weird from how his head is suspended mid-air. 

“We are—or rather, we were, as he’s disappeared. He vanished a day after the eclipse, when the rest of us have learned that our powers have been switched. We have yet to find him. And as far as his powers are concerned, we have yet to learn if he still has Time Control or if he’d lost it too, the same way I lost mine.” Lu Han finishes sadly.

At this, from beside him Baekhyun perks up, almost leaning fully across the table to stare into Lu Han’s eyes. “You’ve lost yours too?” he asks hopefully, Kai noticing the slight tremble in his outstretched arms.

“I have.”

Baekhyun returns to his seat after Lu Han answers, relief apparent as his shoulders sag comfortably against the back of his chair. He sends Kai a tired smile, to which he returns with an awkward quirk of his upper lip.

Just as the table quiets down, wrapped in their own thoughts, Lu Han says one more thing. “Among the five of us remaining we have Fire and Light, but no Time Control.”

His face blurs right after that, red static appearing within the mist, just as the entire table erupts in chaotic confusion.



“How dare you keep this a secret from us for so long, Suho. What kind of Council Leader are you? Do you still even deserve to be called that?” Chanyeol spits venom at him, eyes menacing. He immediately pelted angry questions in Suho’s way once Lu Han disappeared, impatient and feeling entitled to getting his answers from him. From where Kyungsoo is sitting he can clearly see the former shaking in anger, knuckles stretched white from how they’re gripping against the edge of the table tightly.

Suho glares back, the tips of his russet colored hair flashing white in anger. He doesn’t take kindly to getting talked down on; there were stories Kyungsoo heard from before, but this was really the first time he’s seeing it in the flesh.

“I did what I could to protect all of you, Chanyeol. You wouldn’t understand.”

Chanyeol stands up at this, positively seething. “What do you take me for, a child? I’m centuries old, just like you, in case you forgot. I deserved to know; we all deserved to know about this.”

Suho slams his fist against the table, frost immediately spreading out on the area his hand had touched. “If I had told all of you before the Red Force would have long been after us, killing us off one by one. Don’t you understand that keeping the Guardians separate was the only way?”

“It’s always Red Force this, Red Force that for you, huh?” Chanyeol turns, his back facing all of them as he moves out of his space in the Council table. “If I knew better, this was probably just some sorry excuse to cover for your selfishness. But whatever, I’m done here for now. Call me when you get your head out of your ass for once. Baekhyun!” he hollers, already walking towards the ancient doors.

Kyungsoo flinches as Baekhyun almost flies out of his chair, bowing once before walking behind Chanyeol as they get out.

The temperature around them drops immediately after the doors close, frost covering the walls in a thin veil.

“Suho,” Kyungsoo warns, looking at the other’s trembling figure with stern eyes. Council Leader or not, childish behavior isn’t tolerated; they weren’t children and therefore shouldn’t act like them. And if he needed to be reminded of this, Kyungsoo would be more than glad to fill in the shoes.

Suho sighs, anger deflating. The frost disappears and the room temperature spikes back up to normal. “Sorry about that,” he breathes, looking old and wary as he leans back in his high Council chair. He suddenly looks so small sitting in that chair, Kyungsoo notes, their entire situation probably affecting him more than he’s letting on.

His hands itch to do something, anything, to help.

He glances at the remaining guardians seated around the table to distract himself, and sees it’s just the four of them; Suho, Kai, Sehun and him. He finds Sehun and Kai looking at him with questions in their eyes, as if asking ‘what was all that?’. He shrugs, because he doesn’t know how and what to respond. They’re the youngest of the Council members, at least a few decades younger than him too, and so they have the least knowledge about their fellow Guardians. He was at least old enough to have witnessed Suho and Chanyeol arguing, but even that fails in comparison to what had transpired earlier.

The atmosphere around them is still tense, with no one doing or saying anything. Kyungsoo swallows the dry feeling heavy on his tongue, his Adams apple bobbing in his throat. It makes him cough, which makes everyone else look at him. Suddenly put on the spot, he has no other choice but to talk.

“I…propose going over to the other side and meeting the other Guardians, if you aren’t against that. We need to learn more about them, ask them what they know. And, like they said, they have a Time Wielder. This might be our only chance in regaining our powers, Suho.”

Suho actually considers this for a few seconds, and then shakes his head. “There are borders for both sides of the world, Kyungsoo. These borders are impenetrable by Guardians from the opposite side, and can only really be passed freely through Teleportation.” Suho’s eyes glide over to where Sehun is, and he follows his gaze.

From his periphery he can see Kai stiffening; the ground under his feet suffering through another minute tremble. He glances at him in a mixture of warning and concern, and the tremors immediately stop.

Sehun sits up straighter, chin held a little high as the attention suddenly shifts to him. His eyes are alert, Kyungsoo notes, like he’s ready to do something dangerous, if asked. He doesn’t know how to feel about this, but he’s ready to step in and stop anything if it gets too intense for a relatively newer Guardian to handle.

To everyone’s surprise Sehun initiates the dangerous task, volunteering to go through the other side. At this Kai shoots out of his seat, agility innate despite his lack of Teleportation at the moment, and volunteers too, to train him. Without even thinking twice Kyungsoo raises his hand, also volunteering to help in the training process. He reasons that they’re the ones who have interchanged powers in the first place, and are logically the most suited to work together.

Suho gives them all the go-signal after one worried twitch of his brow, reminding them over and over as they leave that he’s literally one summon away if they ever need any help.
Just like that the meeting is over, and Kyungsoo’s hands are suddenly full with Guardians younger than him, in-charge of closely supervising their training.

With a terse roll of his shoulders, Kyungsoo readies himself.

“Right. Training immediately begins tomorrow, seven am sharp. Meet me in front of the abandoned Town Square near the City’s outskirts. Your asses better be there or I’m dragging them out forcefully for you.”



The space just in front of the abandoned Town Square is wide and vast, the outskirts mostly deserted this early in the day. The sun is high up despite his low spirits, fittingly more excited than he will ever be about training Oh Sehun to use the powers he once had. He grumbles under his breath at the thought, the irritated scrape of his rubber shoes on dry soil and withered grass following after it.

As he walks through the open, almost sandy planes, thirty minutes earlier than the agreed time, his mind wanders. 

Kai bitterly thinks back to the meeting yesterday and how he wouldn’t have had to go to all this trouble if he hadn’t lost his powers in the first place. Kicking at the ground absentmindedly with the edge of his left sneaker, a patch of dry land actually flies out.

With bulging eyes, Kai curses. “What the fuck.”

“You’re here early,” a voice notes from behind him, making him whirl around so fast his head spins. “Double what the fuck,” he curses again, face scrunching in mild annoyance.
Kyungsoo chuckles, the sound a low rumble against his throat. “Interesting choice of words, Kai.”

For some unknown reason he feels his cheeks heat up, immediately looking away from the other in the hopes that he wouldn’t notice; staring intently at the patch of ground that had flown. He mumbles incoherently under his breath, head still tilted the other way as his hair ruffles slightly from the soft breeze going through the mostly open plains. After a while he glances back down at Kyungsoo, who has taken refuge on a dry patch of wood next to him while he was busy trying not to be embarrassed. He’s sitting cross-legged, fiddling with twigs he had picked up from the ground.

“Why are you here so early?” he throws the question back instead of answering, a little curious himself. The wind ruffles Kyungsoo’s hair too, when he looks up, but only a little.

“I always go here.” He says, flicking the twig up before putting both of his hands in his lap. “I used to train here a lot, when I still had my earth-wielding powers.”

“You say that as if you lost them a long time ago,” he murmurs as he look around, noticing just then that he isn’t just surrounded by plains; but rather, mounds of earth in odd clumps all around, too.

“It feels like a long time to me,” Kyungsoo answers softly, so low in fact that Kai misses it. He’s too busy observing the landscape with a new perspective to notice anything else. With wide eyes he spots a pit from somewhere to his far right, covered poorly in dried straw and hay. He walks towards it, unbelieving.

“Did you make this?” he asks loudly, the open area making it hard to maintain normal-toned conversations.

With a little grin Kyungsoo sends a thumbs up his way, eyes curving into half moons as he does so, and Kai’s so unprepared for the sight that it almost causes his foot to slide in. “The fuck,” he mutters, looking away after flailing, embarrassed for the second time that day. He hears Kyungsoo chuckle again from somewhere behind him, making him want to flash him a rude hand gesture. He settles with a withering glare.

Sehun arrives a few minutes past seven, still asleep actually, as he teleports into the patch next to Kyungsoo, his subconscious probably at work. With a grin, Kai marches over and starts poking him to wake him up.

Sehun groans and swats his hands away, only to teleport a little farther away when he’s had enough. Kyungsoo watches this unfold with a toothy grin, head shaking in a way that mixes disbelief and amusement. Sehun still doesn’t wake up even after ten pokes, and Kai is running out of patience. It stopped being fun after the first five pokes, and now this guy is just getting on his nerves.

“Oi Sehun. Sehun-ah, wake up. Wake the fuck up—“ he kicks his shin.

With a jolt Sehun sits up, eyes bloodshot and wide with his hands posed as if he’s ready to fight. Kai is unamused as he looks at the other’s ridiculous stance, arm already reaching forward so he could flick his chin. “It’s about goddamn time. Now get your ass up; we have to train.”



Kyungsoo doesn’t really help with the actual training process, choosing instead to sit somewhere behind them as he watches him try and train Sehun. He acts more as a buffer and damage-control when things get too heated, coming in between them with a polite warning, his voice tinted with the slightest edge.

It works the first few times, his temper lowering as he begins thinking rationally again. Sehun’s temper also simmers down and they immediately resume training. It’s all good and going smooth until Sehun’s stubbornness takes over, causing him to keep messing the routines up. Kai’s patience, already stretched thin, snaps.

“What the hell man, I told you to bend your legs likes this,” he demonstrates, “like you would in a dance! What the hell is this supposed to be,” he exclaims, flailing a leg to exaggerate what Sehun was doing. “I already told you, for the third time in a row, that that’s not how it goes!”

Sehun’s cheeks burn at getting mocked, and he moves so fast after being humiliated that Kai’s eyes cross when he suddenly appears right in his personal space.

“You are an asshole,” Sehun spits at him, and promptly disappears.

A few seconds of stunned silence pass and then Kyungsoo sighs from behind him; the sound of leaves crunching and his feet dragging on the sandy terrain telling him that the other has started walking towards him.

He’s still a little worked up, hands balled into fists at his sides. 

“You were an asshole to him, you know.” Kyungsoo says from beside him, stuffing his hands into his front coat pockets.

He turns his head sharply to him, the little pebbles on the ground vibrating from the intensity of his annoyance. “Oh, so you’re picking sides now?”

Kyungsoo glances back at him, eyebrows pushed together in mild irritation. “Don’t take this out on me. And no, I’m not picking sides. I said that objectively as an outside observer. But yes, you were, simply because that’s not how you train someone who’s totally new at something. You don’t go around expecting them to know the basic skills associated with the power, and then pressuring them to be as good as the original wielder when they’re barely even acquainted with the foreign sensations themselves.” Kyungsoo shakes his head.

With a huff Kai crosses his arms over his chest, face still scrunched up in displeasure. “Whatever. I still think he was being stubborn on purpose. He kept doing routines wrong.”

At this Kyungsoo starts walking away, but says something loud enough for him to hear without stopping in his tracks. “Not everyone is a natural at every little thing, Kai.”

Kai sniffs, reacts to what Kyungsoo has said long after he had left.

“What’s that supposed to mean,” he whispers, voice small and uncertain, at the passing breeze.



The next day they try again.

Sehun showed up early today, arriving seconds after Kai had. He’s silent and his face is blank; Kai can’t read anything from there and so he squirms silently in guilt, not knowing if he should even apologize about yesterday even though he feels bad about how it had gone down. He glances at Sehun every five seconds, as if checking to see if he’s still really there, willing to train again.

Kai gulps, and at the fourth glance Sehun actually turns his head at him, eyebrow raised. “What?” he asks, voice level.

He jolts in his surprise at being addressed directly, not really used to confrontations like this. He normally just bails—which he almost does, but then he remembers he can’t do that anymore. But Sehun can, and yet he isn’t bailing, just staring at him with curious eyes and a pursed mouth, the little quirk of his brow bordering on mild annoyance. And so he takes a deep breath, and mans up.

“I just—I’m sorry about exploding on you yesterday,” he mutters, eyes focused on the wreckage near Sehun’s feet. “I admit I was a little hard on you, which was unfair.” Kyungsoo’s words echoed throughout his mind the entire time he was lying awake that night, guilt eating him up as every repeat of the phrase makes more and more sense to him. Kyungsoo was right, he was an asshole; the coach no newbie wanted. 

He was determined to fix that today though, and he knows that couldn’t happen unless a proper apology was made. So here he is now, forcing himself into an awkward confrontation which is against everything he stands for in the past.

The apology seems to have worked, because when he finally gets the courage to look Sehun in the eye the other is smiling, more comfortable than he looked when he first arrived, and is already making his way towards the center of the open field. “What are you talking about? Anyway, I’m ready for action; let’s practice.”

With a grin he bounds up to him, grateful the other didn’t have to make him squeeze out the rest of his feelings. 

“Let’s start with stretches first. Pulling a muscle while Teleporting is extremely dangerous; you could end up somewhere else or worse, become disembodied.” Kai says this so casually, like its normal to be at risk of dismemberment. 

Sehun chuckles, already stretching his gangly arms above his head. “Gee, thanks for giving me the heads up. I’ll try not to lose a limb when I finally go over the Other Side.”
With a laugh and a light crack of his joints, he winks at him.



Kyungsoo arrives in the middle of their training, silently walking to where he was observing them from yesterday. He purposely showed up late today in hopes that the two younger Guardians would iron out their differences without him doing it for them. Like what Kyungsoo expects from the much older, more experienced Guardians, both Kai and Sehun aren’t allowed to act like children either. 

With a sigh and a take away coffee cup in his hands, he begins his new daily Guardian duty of supervising their Teleportation training.



“Kai,” Sehun whines after finishing up the second chocolate bar Kai asked him to eat that day. “Why aren’t you asking me to go places yet? It’s been three days; and all we’ve done so far is stretches and weird leg movements. When are we actually going to practice Teleportation?”

Kyungsoo’s chugging his water bottle down as Sehun asks this, eyes slowly sliding over to where Kai’s hunched over his phone, thumb gliding over the screen. He looks up when he’s addressed, immediately sliding his phone back in his inner coat pocket. Kyungsoo puts his water bottle down on his lap, the same hand coming up to brush the excess water on his lips. Kai glances at him briefly, and then his eyes are back on Sehun.

“Like I said, Teleportation is a tricky and dangerous process. I don’t think you’re ready to start practicing space-warping anytime soon.”

“I’m—what? Space-warping?” Sehun asks, voice high. Kyungsoo smiles at this, but remains silent.

“Yes, space-warping. That’s what Teleportation really is. You reach into the fabric of space-time and warp and bend space to your will. It’s really hard and exhausting at first, but once you get a hang of it it get’s relatively easier.”

Kyungsoo watches Sehun’s eyebrows knit together in confusion. “But I’ve actually begun Teleporting though? Both voluntary and involuntary. That has got to mean something about my readiness, right?”

Kai shrugs a little, stretching his legs out from under him. “Sure, I guess. Teleporting voluntarily within a fifty to a hundred mile radius is doable. And Teleporting involuntarily to places you don’t even know about is just the universe’s way of bullying you before you fully master your powers and in turn bully It. But you’ve got to keep in mind that what we’re actually training for isn’t going to be a walk in the park.” He pauses, flits his eyes over to Kyungsoo, and then towards the general direction of the city.

“You’re basically going to Teleport to another dimension, past a border. And not just any border, but a charmed one, that’s put there to keep the other Guardians out. It’s going to be difficult by default; which is why we’re covering the basics first above anything else.”

Sehun whines again, clearly still not happy about his ‘too basic’ training. “But aren’t we on a tight schedule? How we fix all this,” he waves his hand around, “depends on the three of us now. The sooner I learn about Teleportation or space-warping or whatever you call it, the easier it is for me to try entering that place. And hopefully locate the Time-wielder. I really want this all fixed.”

Kyungsoo crosses his hands over his chest, mouth set in a grim line. “I get your point Sehun, and I’m also aware that there’s a ticking clock hanging over our heads. But we can’t afford to be rash and lose anyone just because we weren’t patient enough to train properly.”

He looks over to Kai for supplementary rebuttals as to why they should keep taking things slow. But to his surprise Kai counters him instead, holding a hand up. “I think…there are a few decently heavy exercises Sehun can try which are close enough to the real thing, but definitely not as dangerous to actually put his life at stake.”

He raises an eyebrow, curious, but unimpressed. “Oh yeah? And what’s that?”


part ii