[OP: "Free"-- Rumi, Jinu]

"Oh-oh, so take my hand, it's open (free, free)
What if we heal what's broken? (Free, free) I tried to hide, but something broke
I couldn't sing, but you give me hope
We can't fix it if we never face it
Let the past be the past 'til it's weightless."

After Rumi closed out the song, she and Jinu had been floating in the air, but they came to a rest.

Somehow this didn't seem weird in context to the mutants--they were too lost in thought.

Jinu put his hand near his ear with a strange look.

"I...don't hear his voice," he said.

Rumi put her hand near her throat.

Then Jinu looked up. "I'll make sure we lose tomorrow."

"Then we both win," Rumi said.

They said something else, but Morph and Raven were snapped back to reality by the song ending, and both moved before they could get spotted (for they'd moved towards the skyline to see what was happening, but neither of the humans had noticed them).

They hastily walked away.

So they didn't see Jinu's patterns reappear and him get dragged back down to Gwi-Ma.

(Rumi left without seeing also.)

Instead, they were both thoughtful.

"So that's the power of the hunters," Morph said finally. "I think I'm starting to understand it. It brings out your true self...the best of you."

Mystique put her hand over her chest thoughtfully. "Was it magic? Or...what was that?"

"I think we might also be more aware of it..." Morph mused. "Just like we were more aware of Gwi-Ma--because I don't think their fans would have seen it like that, but...it wasn't a bad feeling. I felt like I remembered all the good things..."

He took her hand.

Mystique slowly squeezed his in return.

"You know, I think we've been forgetting what brought us this far to begin with," Morph then went on. "We overcame a lot to get to this point... That's why we're even here. Maybe it's been getting to us too, the pressure and the fear of failure. But didn't all this happen for a reason?"

"I hope so." Mystique was not her usual cynical self right now.

She had had her moments of hope, perhaps, in the last year, but hope was fleeting for her. Often, day by day, she didn't feel like a different person. She felt like she had the same fears as before.

Maybe her head had cleared slightly now, though.

They found they'd walked back to the train station somehow, without thinking about it.

It hadn't been as far away from the other spot as expected.

"Still..." Morph couldn't help but think of the people.

"How does Gwi-Ma just take them anyway?" Mystique wondered. "Those holes looked like tears...like when the dimensions nearly merged and things went haywire in our world. Things mixing people up...but really it was tearing them apart also."

"Shine and Wally said they could heal that. Maybe we should be able to also," Morph said. "I felt pretty bad before, but...I feel calmer now."

They stopped under the spot where the hole had been.

No train was coming right now.

"But only the Huntrix can fix this Honmoon thing." Morph peered up at the spot.

Then he touched the nearest part of the bridge, curiously.

Red lines appeared... The cracked Honmoon was clearly visible overhead.

Mystique leaned on the edge, out of the path of the tracks, just in case. 

She and Morph had once nearly gotten hit by a train in a tunnel at home. No wish to replay that experience.

She still felt energized... If the singing of one Hunter was that powerful, what did all three of them together do?

It was something else...

Could they win after all? Would Jinu consider the plan? Had he been honest back there?

Perhaps they were never needed after all...though that wouldn't make a lot of sense.

Something still didn't add up, but Rumi's idea might not be as crazy as it had sounded before.

"Let the past be the past till it's weightless," she repeated quietly to herself.

Mystique, despite not really being one to sing, could sing fairly well, thanks to being able to adjust her voice any way she wanted. Her natural voice was also quite deep, but it was not unpleasant, if she chose to use it non-harshly.

So when she tried to imitate Rumi's way of singing, she hit the notes just fine, without having to think about it.

Morph didn't think much of it. The song was still stuck in his head too, and he was still pondering the effects of it. Shine had never fully explained the way it worked to them, when she did something similar, and he didn't know if was exactly the same thing, but it had to be like it... Was it something they should have known more about?

Was it in the book? He didn't think so.

Mystique's mind wandered to a different song, one Shine had taught to her ages ago. It reminded her of the one Rumi had just used...though it was a bit more somber in tone.

"I'm at a loss for words," she sang thoughtfully, trying to think of it more clearly in her head, to see why it seemed significant here. "There's nothing to say... I sit in silence, wondering what led me to this place. How did my heart become so lifeless and cold? Where did the passion go?"

https://youtu.be/UnfapqiQyTs

[Resurrection- Nicole Sponberg]

Shine did have a knack for picking songs that summed up people's lives... It was an annoying habit of hers, if you didn't like anyone to know that much about it.

After a while, though, it was reassuring to know that someone understood you well enough for that. It was both.

"Here I am, at the end. I'm in need of resurrection. Only You can take this empty shell and raise it from the dead. What I've lost to the world, what seems far beyond redemption, You can take the prices in Your hands and make me whole again..." she went on.

Yes...it was kind of a perfect way to describe the demonized people... That must be it.

How much did their experiences mirror each other after all? And why did it feel like she was missing why that was significant?

Why were they here? What were they supposed to do?

"Raven..." Morph had been looking up till suddenly he tugged her arm. "Do you see those too?"

She looked up.

The red lines had turned white.

When Rumi had sung, they'd turned blue... Was it...because she was just a different person?

"They changed..." Raven said strangely.

"Yeah, when you started singing," Morph said. "I think the hole was there..."

The hole was visible... It was still huge.

Morph reached up a hand toward it, extending his arm.

"Morph, don't!" Mystique said.

"It's okay... I just want to see if it's open." Morph squinted at it.

His hand went inside.

Mystique thought it would get bitten off by one of the other demons inside, but that didn't happen.

Morph could feel something pulsing inside it...like fire. Was it Gwi-Ma? Was this a portal to his realm? Was that how they took the hapless people in the train to him?

"It'd be nice if there was some way to get them to come back through," he said to Mystique. "We could possibly reverse some of the damage."

"He has their souls," Mystique said.

"He does...but doesn't it seem like there should be a way to reverse that process?" Morph wondered. "If it could happen. I mean, how can he just claim their souls without them letting him? It's like there's some kind of cheat code he's using."

"It's not a video game."

"Hmm, try singing again. I want to see if it looks different when you do."

Mystique thought it was odd, but she went ahead and started up again:

"You speak and all creation falls to its knees. You raise Your hand and calm the waves of the raging sea..."

Morph hummed along himself.

What followed was very weird for them to watch, and, if they'd had time to process it, would have been horrifying.

Out of the hole poured a host of the monsters, but rather than attack them, they all screeched at them like banshees, as if they'd been exposed.

And there was fire...but the fire was not close to them. It was like seeing through a telescope--it was farther, up...much farther...

Morph later thought that the dimension wasn't the same way as you would see in the real world; the distance and space of it were messed up and illogical to them.

He never had a clear picture of how it had happened later, as if his mortal brain couldn't fit into it--which happened often when caught between dimensions, and the DJs had warned them never to try to figure it out too much. Would drive you mad.

But the demons were not the oddest thing that happened.

A lot of blueish light came shooting out of the hole, as if it had been released from a cage.

Mystique looked up, and it shot over their heads and then formed into people and fell onto the train tracks.

The people looked up, utterly confused.

The demons then snarled at Morph and Mystique even more and then ran back into the hole with what sounded like cursing but without words.

And then a yell, but that one sounded more like a voice.

A voice that hissed into their minds, and Mystique already knew it felt like Gwi-Ma's voice.

"I'll get them back," the words finally came with it. "Tomorrow, you'll see... They won't escape for long."

Mystique sank to her knees at the weight of it.

But then white lights criss-crossed over the hole and seemed to sew it shut the way you might sew a cross stitch pattern.

Then it was gone.

Morph gasped.

Then they heard a train coming.

Morph wasted no time in grabbing the people and scooping them up off the train tracks and dropping them at the depot.

They didn't ask him what he was doing--they didn't fully snap out of it till the train had passed, and then they started saying that it had been late... That it had been 2 hours at least only confused them, but they all walked away.

Mystique, following more feebly, looked at him strangely.

"Did we...just snatch them back?" Morph said.

Mystique nodded strangely. "It's possible."

"But...is it only for us?" Morph said. "Or only for a short time...? Will he just steal them again?"

"And how did we do it?" Mystique asked. "All we did was sing a song that I just happened to think of, and...whatever you did."

Morph suddenly snapped his fingers. "Shine said to play by the world rules in her letter. She didn't mean we should just let them do their thing--she meant knowing the rules of the world's spiritual power, right? How does it work here? Music. That's how they do everything. The Saja Boys use it for evil, the Hunters use it for good...so when we used it, however we were doing it, we were doing it with the same laws... Our power activated in this world by using it. Just fighting wasn't enough--that was only a small amount of the power before. The girls fight, but they really get their power from singing."

Mystique's eyes widened. "So...we have to sing to have any effect on it? That's...awkward and unusual."

"Well, we didn't make the world rules. But we are here... I guess they must work on us...and Rumi, her singing also had an effect on us. But it's funny, I never noticed that Soda Pop song having any effect on us."

"Hmm, but we'd only just arrived at that point." Mystique remembered something else Shine had mentioned. "You adjust to the world's powers after a while, she said that. It just never made a difference for them because their powers were already enough like ours to blend in. Wally is not mutant, but his speed is like a mutation, so we never could tell if it adapted...but, here, the power isn't mutation...so maybe, now that it's been a week, we're adapting to it and that's why we can access it."

"Brilliant," Morph said. "You're so smart."

"Actually, you did most of the figuring out," Mystique said, nicely enough. "So...we can fight back."

"Better, we can reverse some of the damage..." Morph looked around. "But...it won't be that easy for everyone else, I think... That had only just happened. I think they weren't that far up in that hole...and maybe time doesn't pass the same there. Could have been seconds for them."

"Likely, that was the reason," Mystique said. "Because Jinu doesn't look 400, that means that one minute of time in Gwi-Ma's realm is like hours or days of time for us. So they could have gone in that hole only mere milliseconds ago when we opened it and snatched them back. Gwi-Ma had not had time to fully absorb their souls...but, anyone else--like that old man, no doubt--he has eaten by now."

"You're probably right about that," Morph said. "The time schism thing makes sense. It happens in our world too...but the bright side is we could at least reverse this for someone who only just got eaten...or taken? I think only Gwi-Ma eats them. The others just stole them, that's what the girls told us... We have to talk about this."

They were both so relieved to finally have some progress that they didn't stop to think if the girls would want to hear this or not...

* * *

Zoey and Mira were not in a good mood when they returned to the tower.

"Where the heck were you two?" Mira was ready to take it out on them.

Rumi was nowhere to be seen. Maybe she was in her room.

"Walking around," Morph said.

"Oh, great. See any demons?" Mira was not to be put off.

"You need to take it down a peg," Morph told her. "We actually have good news."

"It would have to be pretty good news to make me feel better," Zoey said sadly. "We just lost a whole bunch of people on the train."

Now, notably they did not say it was Rumi's fault... They were better than that, but they both looked pretty upset.

"Actually, I think the news might help you with that," Morph said. "Raven and I went back to that station and...we opened that hole again--"

"What?" Mira jumped up angrily.

"Wait, just let me finish," Morph said.

"You opened the hole again!" Mira lunged at him--not to attack, but to get closer and more personal. "Are you crazy?!"

"Wait, how did you even do that?" Zoey asked.

Mystique, not liking their reaction, grabbed Mira by her shoulder before Mira could move again and pulled her away from Morph.

"Back off," she said sternly.

Mira stared at her like she couldn't believe Mystique had just had the nerve to touch her.

"Mira, it's not like that." Morph hastened to say before anyone else could get aggressive. "The demons didn't attack us--they just freaked out, like they were just sitting in the hole hiding from the world, and then all those souls just came out and reshaped into their bodies again."

"That's not possible," Mira said, not even hesitating to disbelieve them.

"I thought you would say that," Morph said. He held up his phone. "I thought to take a pic of them..."

He showed it to her.

Mira had not gotten a good look at the people on the train, but...perhaps she did recognize one or two of them.

"How...?" She moved to peer at it more closely. "How did...? This shouldn't be possible."

"We have a theory about how it happened," Morph said.

He explained about the time lapse.

But it was news to Zoey and Mira that there was a time lapse at all.

Of course, Mira didn't buy it.

Zoey, though, was a bit more willing to allow for it.

"That would be so interesting, like an alternate reality," she said. "That would explain a lot. How are they always one step ahead of us to arrive anywhere?"

"Well...maybe..." Mira said uncertainly. "But for 2 hours to be only 2 seconds? If Gwi-Ma had that kind of control, why wouldn't he attack more often?"

"It doesn't follow that just because he has less time to wait than you, he can do more," Mystique said. "If anything, that means that he is seeing attacks in closer waves compared to you. You have time to recover...but, as demons do not need rest, perhaps he can afford it. This would more of explain why you Hunters haven't been worn down with endless attacks in the first place. Your time expands more."

She was falling back on some of Shine's analogies she always had for it, but it was hard for Mira to wrap her head around.

But...since that would account for how the Hunters kept up with Gwi-Ma when his army was limitless and they were three people, she couldn't argue that it made sense.

"Okay...so...but how did you do it?" she reverted back to the original problem.

"Not quite sure, but Raven tried singing this song we know," Morph said. "And it did something... Probably it had to do with matching your powers."

"Wait, can you imitate our powers too?" Zoey said.

"Uh...we didn't think of it that way, but...could that be it?" Morph glanced at Mystique. "Our whole thing is matching people... Is that what we did?"

"I doubt that's it," Mystique said. "But if it made it easier for us to, I don't know. I think anyone like us could have done it, but we have an advantage in that we can be like anyone, to a point."

"Huh?" Zoey didn't find that sentence super coherent.

"So you just copied our powers?!" Mira was offended. "Wow...thanks a lot. I feel super unique right now."

"Are...you mad that we saved people?" Morph said blankly.

"No..." Mira looked away.

"She's mad that we did instead of them." Mystique could translate jealousy easily enough where Morph could not. Morph never was jealous of anyone. It was one of the most uncanny things about him. Mystique was all the time. "They failed, and we succeeded. Not only are they less special than they thought, but they were struggling while we are finding our footing."

"Wow...that was...deep," Zoey said. "But it's not really what's bothering Mira..." She looked at her uncertainly.

Mira's face said it was pretty much on point.

"I see," Morph said. "We're stealing your thing, you mean? But no worries about that... I don't think we're going to be able to do what you do. I think...it's more that we're borrowing it, for a short time, to be able to do whatever we need to do. I'm not sure we're doing it the same way anyway, not inspiring people or making any soul gates. It's more like we could manipulate it somehow... Authority...I don't know. This is new to me."

"It won't matter. We won't be here for long." Mystique folded her arms. "So you can go back to being the only ones soon enough. Maybe after tomorrow, even... We simply reversed some damage. Is that such a crime?"

"Okay, okay, time out." Zoey held up her hands. "No one is saying it was a crime. This is actually great because we really felt bad about them all dying. It's just a lot to take in that you can do this when you said you couldn't."

"I don't think we said that, but it's true, we didn't know we could till today," Morph pondered. "Rumi helped us figure it out, I think."

Mystique shot him a dirty look.

"Rumi?" Mira frowned. "How?"

"Oh...uh, we heard her sing." Morph realized he shouldn't have said that.

"When? On the train?" Zoey said.

"Yeah, we heard that," Morph said. "And...uh, she was singing a little, later, but just not while anyone was around, but we heard her, and it...affected us. It was like it inspired us somehow."

"That's what we do," Zoey said. "I guess that means her voice is still working... Maybe the train thing was just a fluke."

You could tell that Mira didn't really believe this, but she was trying to in order not to lose her sanity.

"Yeah, maybe," she said, very unconvincingly. "Well...I guess, we should just not use 'Take Down' then."

"Huh?" Zoey looked a little crestfallen.

"Think about it, if they heard her singing--it wasn't 'Take Down', right?" Mira looked at them.

"No." Morph shook his head.

"Right, then maybe she's right. That song just isn't working for her," Mira said. "So we should pick a different one, 'Golden', maybe. I guess we don't need the specific song anyway. We need to be united...so if this is stressing Rumi out, we'd better just pick one we already know."

"Oh..." Zoey said. "Well...okay, yeah...you're right. The most important thing is that we're united."

And the days of her life spent writing the song would just go out the window, Morph could see her thinking.

"Wow...you girls are awesome." He was touched. "You're willing to be that understanding of Rumi?"

"What else can we do?" Mira waved off the praise--as she usually did, they were noticing.

"But if you two can...reverse the demons stealing souls, at least if it's fast," Zoey said, "you could definitely be helpful at the Idol Awards tomorrow, backstage, even, just in case Gwi-Ma tries something. That way, nothing could go wrong."

Mystique was still wondering if Jinu had been serious about losing.

If he was, Gwi-Ma might very well send a horde of demons to try to stop the girls directly, rather then let his chance slip away.

Zoey had a point.

"Okay," Morph said. "We'll do that... We'll actually be security, I guess."

"I'd still like to know how you can do this stuff," Mira said. "What are you anyway? I'm not buying the mutants thing."

Mystique looked down.

Morph thought. "How about this? If we make it through the Idol Awards, we'll tell you the rest of our story."

"Why not tell us now?" Zoey asked.

"Because you two have enough on your plate, and you need to focus," Morph said. "You might not believe this, but we want you to win as much as anyone else does because Gwi-Ma really bothers both of us. So it's best if you focus on doing your thing. Our whole ugly backstory would only get in the way of that."

Mystique glanced at him and then sighed and nodded. "He's right... Why complicate things further? Our stories really have nothing to do with winning this fight, so they take second place to that."

"But you will tell us after that?" Mira frowned.

"If you still want to know, sure," Morph said. "The crisis will be over by then."

At least that was what the Talis has said.

"I guess that's just one more day. It won't kill us to wait that long," Zoey said. "But I do have a ton of theories about what you two are, so...like, if it's not one of them, I'm going to get a little mad."

"You have more theories?" Mystique said.

"Yeah, about 50 now," Zoey said.

"Fifty?" Morph said.

"Once I got going, I just kept thinking of new ones..." Zoey said sheepishly.

"And I thought I hyper-fixated," Morph remarked to himself.

"One more question," Mira said. "Does Rumi know what you two really are?"

Loaded question.

Yet they shook their heads.

"We haven't told her either," Mystique said. "She's not going to keep asking us though. Too focused on the Awards."

And on the part where they'd said they would tell her only if she told them her secret, but she hadn't done that willingly, so they really didn't have an obligation to explain themselves.

"Speaking of Rumi, should we tell her the good news?" Zoey said.

"It's late, and I'm going to bed," Mira said unceremoniously. "We have a long day tomorrow. We'll talk in the morning."

She walked away.

"She's not as scary as she seems at first," Morph observed. "She acts tough, but she cares."

"Of course she does," Zoey said. "Mira is always looking out for our team's best interests... Uh, but I guess, you don't see that side of her as strangers. She doesn't feel comfortable around new people."

"We noticed," Mystique said.

Morph glanced at her. "And we're not making it the easiest thing to accept us either, Raven."

"No," Raven admitted. "I haven't especially."

"In fact, I think we owe you an apology," Morph said to Zoey. "We have been weird and a little rude at times. Honestly, I've had no idea what I'm doing, and it makes me act a little insensitive because I keep blundering. But, we added to your stress."

"Oh...uh, well, thanks for the apology, but I was more thinking that we were not very nice to you," Zoey said. "We never have guests...or outside...people...around, so I think we had no idea  how to handle it. I mean, you were a little rude at first...but so were we."

"Especially Mira," Mystique said.

"You say that, but isn't she kind of like you?" Morph said. "Standoff-ish, but if she likes you, she'll fight hard?"

"Is that what you think I'm like?" Mystique said.

"Uh...well, based on Rogue's stories of what you were like, yeah, kind of," Morph said.

"So Raven is just the same?" Zoey said. "They do say like forces repel. That would make a lot of sense. You have a similar vibe to Mira."

"Why do you keep saying vibes?" Mystique said. "What does that even mean?"

"Short for vibrations," Zoey said. "You know...impressions of people? You two sure are Boomers sometimes."

"I guess we are a little old for our age," Morph joked. "But, I still look good."

"Can't you look any way you want?" Zoey said.

"Yeah, that's the joke." Morph turned into a model from a commercial.

Zoey snickered. "If I had your power, I'd be pranking people with it every single day."

"I do that," Morph said. "It's a lot of fun being a shape-shifter."

Mystique winced.

Even after all this time, she still didn't think of it as very fun.

Unwittingly, she thought of Gwi-Ma's taunt: "Outcast..."

But no, they needed to block that out. They had finally won some points today. They couldn't just lose their confidence now.

* * *

Rumi only got to hear about their surprise victory the next morning, and that was after she talked to Zoey and Mira and discussed the song more candidly.

But, to her surprise, they agreed with her, and both of them admitted to their insecurities also around it.

Once they were finished and had chosen "Golden" instead of "Take Down", they mentioned that Morph and Mystique seemed to have unveiled new powers.

Rumi was as shocked as they were about it.

"So...you just figured out you could do it?" she said.

They didn't want to mention they'd spied on her, so they left out that part.

"Yeah, it was strange," Morph said. "It's good... We can help."

"No, it's wonderful. We have a fall back in case Gwi-Ma tries anything sneaky," Rumi said. "But, good news...Jinu is going to help us."

"That is good news," Morph said, pretending to act surprised. "How?"

"They're going to lose on purpose," Rumi said.

"That's not a very good plan." Mystique had thought it over and had some issues with it.

"What do you mean? It's a great plan." Rumi was offended.

"No...even if Jinu tried that, the other Saja Boys could still go ahead," Mystique mused. "They all have to agree."

"Maybe he can make them agree..." Rumi faltered.

"Even if they all did, Gwi-Ma could still use different demons, or, failing that, just attack you anyway," Mystique said.

"But that's why you're going to watch backstage while we're performing," Rumi said. "It's a great idea because we never have anyone else around who can watch out for demons, and it's better for us to not to have to focus on the Honmoon and that at the same time. Maybe you two are a blessing after all."

"Flattering, but Mystique has a point," Morph said. "There's plenty ways this could still go wrong. We need a backup plan."

"I don't see how we could have one though..." Rumi mused. "Either we win this or we don't... Our voices are the only thing that could do it. Even if you can do something, neither of you can make the Honmoon stronger?"

"Again, it's more like we repaired it or manipulated it than we actually made it stronger," Morph said. "I don't see how we could do that. That's your thing. And even if we could, how would we reach that many people? So no, it's down to you three."

"That's what it always was, but you would still help if you just kept Gwi-Ma from doing anything else," Rumi said. "I'm doing a solo anyway, so Mira and Zoey will be able to step in if you need to signal them, just in case. That way, two of us can be available to help at least."

Mystique wondered.

Jinu...what if he changed his mind?

He'd seemed like he meant it, but...it had been several hours--Gwi-Ma could have done anything to him in that time.

Or...worse, he could replace Jinu with someone else, if he thought Jinu was backing out... Didn't he spy on all his minions?

Had Rumi thought of that?

It didn't seem like it.

Was it possible that Jinu could still make a free choice anyway? Or was Gwi-Ma able to forcibly stop it?

She told Morph her doubts.

"That's all true," Morph said. "We'll have to make sure it's the real Jinu when we get there."

* * *

That night, the place was packed.

The venue was huge. Thousands of fans were out there.

Backstage, they passed the Saja Boys, as smug as ever.

"Look at that smug face," Mira even said. "I'm gonna freaking smash it."

"Save it for the stage, Mira," Rumi said, not wanting to focus on this when Jinu was helping them.

Morph and Mystique waited, and then slipped away to find the Saja Boys' dressing room.

Since they never had security guards (unless they were demons, perhaps), this was easy to do.

Morph knocked on the door.

Abby opened it, looking confused but then striking his disguised pose of being charming instead of dead eyed.

"What is it?" he said.

"Out of my way." Mystique shoved him aside with more strength than her disguise would have led him to believe she had.

Abby was surprised.

But when she touched him, his patterns suddenly flickered.

The other boys all sat up straighter.

"Who is it?" Mystery asked.

Jinu looked up at them, and they saw he guessed who they were before they even spoke.

"What's up?" Morph shifted into his usual form.

Mystique dropped her disguise also, turning blue.

She hoped the cameras around the place were disabled.

"You look sort of familiar," Romance said. "Have we met?"

"Still brain dead, I see," Mystique said.

"Are you two back here for some reason?" Jinu looked nervous. "Everything is going according to plan, right?"

"Is it?" Morph asked. "Can we talk?"

"Uh...no, sorry, I think we need to focus on the show," Jinu looked away.

Mystique frowned, and then she shifted into him. "How fast do you think I can go and cancel your performance for you?"

The boys all looked horrified.

"You can't do that--Gwi-Ma will eat us!" Baby cried.

That was the first time he'd displayed any emotion around them.

So the fear of Gwi-Ma ran deep, no matter how spaced out they were.

"Okay, okay, fine." Jinu caved, since he didn't have another option.

He stepped out of the room with them. "What is it?"

"Can Gwi-Ma hear us right now?" Morph asked.

"What do you think?" Jinu said.

Morph formed his hands into a blade, and then he drew a line on the floor.

Jinu stared at it. "What are you doing?"

"An idea we had, just had to try." Morph drew the line around all of them.

The line then glowed.

"It works," Mystique said, relieved. "Right...now we don't need to worry about Gwi-Ma hearing us."

"You two are full of surprises." Jinu was bitter more than happy about this. "Well, what is it?"

"Everything going a-okay with the plan?" Morph asked. "Rumi told us that you agreed to throw the show."

"Yep, I did," Jinu said, but he didn't look them in the eye.

"I wondered how soon Gwi-Ma would threaten you after you agreed to that," Mystique said.

Jinu frowned. "Uh...what?"

"If I were him," she went on, "I would have as soon as possible...and if he always knows what you're hearing...then..."

Jinu flinched.

"I guess that means he did," Morph said. "What is he going to do to you? Is he going to try to kill you? Maybe we could help then... We found out some stuff we can do yesterday. We might be able to keep him from taking you back to his realm...or to just take you back if he did."

"Nice, but that won't solve anything," Jinu said, turning away from them. "I know what I have to do, though."

"That's a vague answer," Mystique said. "Jinu...don't do anything stupid."

"I'm not," Jinu said. "I'm doing the smart thing."

"You might not believe this, but we do care about what happens to you," Morph said.

"Why?" Jinu muttered.

"Why? Because you're a prisoner, and we feel sorry for people who suffer," Morph said. "And 400 years of regret...it's a long time to suffer... We want to find what will set you free from that, that's all. And...you know, not doom the world."

"What if the world didn't matter to me?" Jinu asked, bitterly. "Would you still want to help me? What if I was as selfish as that?"

Pause.

"I've been there," Mystique said quietly. "But us...shaming you for that wouldn't make it any less likely for you to choose that...so, leaving that aside, we would still try to help."

"You two are saints then," Jinu said. "And, for the record, I appreciate that you thought you could help, but I think it's down to us and Huntrix, so...and we need to get ready. Can you go back to your pets now?"

"That's very offensive," Morph said. "If anything, we live in their house, so we're their pets, but I don't like that term... I've been too many animals to feel right about it."

Jinu, as usual, did not laugh at his joke.

"Whatever. You need to go. I have to talk to the boys," he said.

"Do they know yet?" Mystique asked.

"They know the basic plan, yes," Jinu said. "I doubt they could comprehend the rest of it anyway... We need to stage a fight, so if you don't mind."

"All right." Morph backed up. "Let us know if anything goes wrong...or if you start to feel Gwi-Ma call you... We're going to be backstage. We can step in and try to stop him. I think we know how to now."

For a half second, Mystique thought she saw Jinu's confidence flicker.

As if he was also wondering if they could do it...if he could be wrong to think that there was no helping him.

And she was sure at this moment that Jinu was not planning to actually help Rumi here...because why would he be wavering on it if he was going to help? 

She frowned.

But Jinu just turned and went back to the dressing room.