[OP: "I Need You To Be Wrong"--Switchfoot]

Well...that was not a fun phone call.

To keep anyone from finding out that Huntrix of all people had a member going to the hospital, Bobby had to make lot more calls and pay off some people.

Once they arrived, Morph and Raven both disguised themselves as medical professionals in order to sneak everyone in through the back of the hospital they went to (just the nearest one).

Inside, Morph was distracted by the technology being so advanced. Of course the X-men's was also, but this was way shinier than theirs.

"Morph, can we focus?" Rumi was tired by now. "This is bad enough already, but can you sneak us back to the office also...? I mean, you don't know how to do X-rays, do you?"

"Of course I do," Morph said. "I've helped Hank with stuff plenty of times. I do have a degree, remember."

"In computers," Raven reminded him.

"And what do you think they use to run this hospital?" Morph retorted.

Raven had no response to that. She just nodded to concede the point.

"This is so unnecessary." Mira was starting to get very crabby about this...and the adrenaline rush was gone, and her arm was killing her now full time. "It's not broken!"

"You want to test that theory in the next demon fight and find out you're wrong in the middle of swinging that spear?" Raven said.

"It's a Gok-do," Mira retorted.

"I do not care," Raven replied.

"Both of you stop it," Morph said. "I know you're upset, but we need to stay calm. And anyone have an idea how to explain how Mira injured her arm when she's a pop star?"

"I got nothing," Rumi said blankly. "Usually we cover our injuries with makeup."

"That...can't be good for you." Morph really underestimated how important makeup was to Koreans.

"Hunters are crazy," Romance complained. "You realize we just had a traumatic experience? If we got injured, I'd want to get checked out too."

"Did Baby ever tell you anything?" Raven asked him, more pragmatic.

"No," Romance said. "Just deflected, again."

He had.

Mira hadn't had the energy to press him for answers, and the Saja Boys seemed to have lost the will to do something once the moment was over. Maybe they were too used to him sullenly refusing to answer them to think it was worth it.

Rumi wanted to push him, but she had to think about other stuff right now.

Finally, they got Mira into the right area without a mob noticing them, and then the rest of them had to sit in the waiting area.

No one noticed them. Sick people often don't really take much interest in strangers at the hospital.

"I've never actually had to visit a hospital after any fight." Zoey was not liking it. It was too sterilized and bland.

Plus they had the news on, which she never watched.

Since it was in Korean, Morph didn't get much out of it either, and no one else was remotely interested in the TV, so it was pretty boring.

Rumi wanted to analyze the fight once they were sitting down. She put her head in her hands. "We have to figure out why the Honmoon is so weak. It's not just them..." She nodded at the Saja Boys. "That's not an explanation. They've been doing less than they did before, and it wasn't as bad for us then. These attacks all appear targeted, they're stronger than usual, but they aren't widespread. There has to be some kind of explanation for how that's possible."

"There's still the battering ram explanation," Zoey said. "They're concentrated attacks, so they're harder but smaller."

"Maybe you should all share what the demons said to you before Mira showed up to stop them," Raven addressed Abby, Romance, and Baby.

Abby and Romance admitted to it, though Baby never said anything at all.

They explained that the demons had told them to surrender.

"And you were considering doing it?" Zoey was in disbelief. "After everything we've all gone through to get this far, you would do that?"

"Easy for you to say that," Romance said. "It wasn't right in front of you... Gwi-Ma is too powerful for us. Pushed, I doubt any of us could resist him, really...not if he was really close. It seemed like it was pointless to try."

"Look, I get it," Morph said. "He's scary and you panicked... I can't even blame you for wondering if you should just give up. He has sway over you...but now that it's over, it's clear it was a lie. Though, maybe he was serious about wanting to know their weaknesses, but he would probably just destroy you as soon as you told him... You proved that you can be influenced by Hunters--he won't risk sending you out again once he gets you back in there. You'd be trapped forever and probably burned to ashes."

Hearing it that way, both of them couldn't deny it had to be true.

Baby couldn't either, so he was quiet.

"And, oh, the part where Baby was just willing to do that." Rumi was livid. "Really? You'd just sell us out."

"Jinu did it." Baby had a habit of throwing Jinu under the bus as soon as he was pushed.

Jinu was getting fed up with it. He wasn't nearly altruistic enough yet to just take this from someone else who was demon controlled.

"At least I didn't do it after knowing there was a way out at the time," he said. "I'm...I mean, I was wrong, yes, but I was hopeless. You know there's a chance now--that's different. That's working for him when you know it's possible to escape."

"And if it's not?" Baby said. "If you're just the exception because of some strange turn of events?"

"That excuse isn't good anymore." Abby was surprisingly the one who said. "All of us have been able to resist Gwi-Ma a little. If we could do that, then why couldn't we be like Jinu?"

"So you would die to get free?" Baby said.

"Starting to sound better than the alternative," Abby grumbled. "Either way you die. At least if you die to get free your soul isn't in eternal torment."

"Wow, you're getting close to the core of Christianity with that statement." Morph was impressed. "That's the whole premise. Dying to your flesh, to sin, and alive to God. You die before you die, in other words. It sounds weird, right?"

"Weird, but it's a good description of what it would have to be like." Raven folded her hands around her knees. "When I first heard it, I thought it sounded extreme...crazy, even...but after a while I came to see that you have to hate the parts of yourself that are evil...weak to evil...but not hate yourself. You have to hate the evil and want it to die but not want your own soul to die. You must be both selfish enough to want to live and realistic enough to know that you don't deserve to live as long as you have that evil in you. I could never tell the difference between those things, but... the faith explained it to me. I hated myself...but I always saved myself in the end. Not that I would do the right thing but always do the wrong thing and just sink deeper into self hatred... But I didn't care about myself enough to ever wish for better. It was both self love and self hatred to live that way... Caring about my safety less but my soul more was the only answer."

"You're right," Morph said. "And it's the same for me. It did sound crazy, but then I saw how much I hated the man Sinister had made me into...the worst of myself...but it was still me, in a way. The humor, the skills, they were there...twisted, and that had to die. But I wanted to live. Self sacrifice is great, if you have to do it, but you can't sacrifice your soul for something."

"Hmm, Shine once said that, in one mission she was on, people gave their souls up in the name of saving the world or their people," Raven recalled. "She and Wally told them that they could give their lives for something, if they wanted, but no one should give up their souls. Things get more clear all the time." With a look at Jinu.

Jinu was tired of being the example here...though he had signed up for it.

"I see," Rumi said, looking at her hand. "Like my patterns... I hated them, but I hated myself too. I couldn't accept them as part of me, but I just did more things I was ashamed of because of that... It's the shame you have to lose... You have to kill its power over you, I guessm by facing it...and then you get your life back. Is that the way you mean?"

"It's another way to say the same thing," Morph said. "Like you turned the patterns white, right? They died to Gwi-Ma, so he can't use them anymore, but now they're something new... Maybe so you have a reminder of what it takes to be free."

Zoey suddenly snapped her fingers. "Oh, I got it!"

"Got what?" Raven looked at her strangely.

"Duh, the Honmoon, the thing we were talking about." Zoey's brain sounded like she was thinking too fast to speak in rhythm with it.

"We were talking about sacrifice, I thought," Romance said.

"No, before, about how things keep happening this way," Zoey said. "I think I have an idea... We're not using any of our songs."

"We don't have a lot that really would work right now," Rumi said. "The songs always work better if they're on theme, but what we're really doing right now trying to free people, and that's not a theme we have in song."

"Exactly, Rumi." Zoey tapped her nose the way people do when they play charades. "That's my point."

Rumi frowned then she slowly understood. "Oh..."

"I didn't get it," Morph said.

"We need new songs," Zoey said. "We've been trying to fight with the same stuff as before, but,  it's not in sync with our goals. We need songs about this...freedom, or something."

"That... could work," Rumi said, slowly getting more enthusiastic about it. "Yeah... that's probably the reason. We should have thought of that before."

"You mean it was that easy?" Raven was incredulous. "You have to be joking."

"It might make sense," Jinu said. "The...one song...you remember? About freedom?"

Rumi looked a little red. "Uh...yeah... sure that would back up Zoey's theory."

"See?" Zoey said. "Wait, what are you talking about though?"

"Just this song idea I had," Rumi said hastily. "About being free. It was just... one of those improvised things though, not for the show."

"Oh gosh, Rumi, you never do improv anymore," Zoey was thrilled. "That's great. Can I hear it?"

"Uh...not sure I remember most of it," Rumi could have if she tried, but there were certain lines she didn't want to repeat.

"Hm, well I remember it," Morph said.

"You...do?" Rumi glanced at him warily.

"Well, just a few lines," Morph said quickly. "Something about the past being weightless? I really liked that line. And the one about not fixing it if we never face it."

"Though it turned out that fighting it wasn't the answer either," Rumi reflected.

"Fighting the shame, no," Raven leaned on her arm rest. "But fighting the fear, and the urge to lie? That's closer. The song was good... Zoey is probably correct. You'll have to aim your music directly at the problem. That is how it works? Come to think of it, it's how it worked for us when we managed to use the same method. Shine has her special playlists too... this was really staring us in the face the whole time."

"It's weird we didn't think of that, did we have some kind of mental block?" Zoey asked.

"I have another question, though," Jinu said. "Raven, did you learn anything before the attack happened?"

"Well, a lot happened while I was still spying," Raven said. "And I wondered when one of you would think to ask me."

She smiled smugly.

"So, you did," Romance said.

"At least all that wasn't for nothing," Abby was still miffed about it... not the attack itself but Baby's part in it more.

"I figured you'd tell us," Morph said. "Had to be dramatic about it, didn't you?"

Raven raised an eyebrow at him.

But it wasn't like her to be overly dramatic about her work.

Morph was all for it, being dramatic gave him life.

"I applaud it," he said, with a smirk.

Raven smiled.

"Stop doing that," Romance said. "Honestly, you two are so strange."

"Single guy says what?" Morph said.

"That's a low blow when you know perfectly well that demons can't date," Romance said.

"I mean... can't or shouldn't?" Abby said. "I mean, clearly, they can."

With a glance at Rumi.

Rumi leaned away from him. "Don't even go there."

"I think your mom is the one who went there," Abby said.

"Stop that," Jinu said.

"I'm not sure why she's embarrassed about it, we literally all already know," Abby shrugged.

"How can you be having this kind of conversation after what happened?" Romance asked him.

"You brought it up, not me," Abby countered.

Since this was true, Romance had nothing to say.

"Well, I'm not going to talk about it till Mira is back," Raven said. "I'm not explaining the whole thing twice just for one person. And it's better to talk at the tower anyway, not here."

No one objected to that, though they were dying to hear it.

Well, except Mystery, who didn't want to hear it at all.

Zoey noticed.

"Maybe you should just tell us privately," she said in a low voice. "What if he freaks out again?"

"I'm sure he will," Raven said meaningfully.

"Ooh what do you mean by that?" Zoey began but then remembered herself. "No, don't tell me yet. I'll wait."

"That's some impressive self control you have there, Zoey," Morph had to tease her slightly.

"Hey!" Zoey pretended to be offended.

Mira appeared only a few minutes later, still looking nonplussed. Her shoulder was in a sling now.

"Good news," the doctor said. "It's not fractured. Just badly bruised, a dog bite, and a few pulled muscles...and...she said that one of you adjusted it after it got dislocated?"

Raven put her hand up dryly.

"Good job,"the doctor was impressed. "You did it right...and she needs to rest it for few weeks at least. No more lifting furniture...don't you have people you can ask to do that anyway?"

[I suppose I should put here that it can be dangerous to fix a dislocated arm yourself, because the tissue can be damaged. I trust Raven would know enough about it because of her experience, but it is much safer to let a doctor do it. I doubt anyone was going to question that, though.]

"Lifting furniture?" Rumi couldn't believe that was the cover story Mira had picked.

Mira shot her a warning look.

"Oh yeah, a couch was way too heavy for us," Zoey went with it.

"Yes, women shouldn't lift that kind of thing by themselves," Abby said.

That got him a death glare from Mira.

Morph thought he wasn't serious, though.

"Are all of you friends?" the doctor looked them over. "Yeah, you probably should be more careful. You know, 90% of all accidents happen at home. Anyway, I prescribed some pain meds and a few exercises to help keep it from locking up too much. Good thing you're still on hiatus, it should be fine by the time you need to perform again."

"We'd better get her home before someone notices us," Morph got up. "Thanks doc." He bowed awkwardly.

"That was so bad," Zoey was amused.

"Well, at least he's tying," Rumi said philosophically. "And you're not one to talk, Zoey, you didn't even do that when you first moved here."

"Hey, I learned fast," Zoey protested.

* * *

"That was the most painful experience of my life," Mira complained as soon as they were in the limo.

"Getting your arm hurt?" Morph said.

"No... the doctor was so nosy," Mira rolled her eyes. "'Why did you try to lift that by yourself, Mira?' imitating his voice. "I can't believe that cover story was the one I had to go with. Like, I couldn't lift a couch easily!"

"Well, you can't right now," Baby said.

Mira kicked him in the shin and he winced.

"You're responsible for that," Raven said to him. "And keep your mouth shut. You're lucky we didn't feed you to those demons earlier."

"Raven," Morph said. "Come on. That's too far."

"Fine, maybe that is," she admitted. "But he's still being a brat."

"Anyway, did I miss anything important?" Mira then asked.

"Raven did learn something at the office." Rumi said. "Somehow."

"She's very good," Morph said.

"It was pathetically easy," Raven said.

***

After she'd slipped into the back office, she'd found the CEO just by finding the right name on the door.

And there was a picture of him in the hallway.

Disguised as the assistant, she grabbed some papers to look more busy and passed into the office.

The CEO had looked up.

"Oh," he said. "Did they leave?"

"Still in the waiting room," Raven said, in a cool professional tone. "They want to meet with you."

"Well, I'm not available now," the CEO said.

"Sir, would it be better to just tell them whatever they want to know, they might not give up." Raven hoped that this assistant was the type to make suggestions like this or it was going to sound odd coming from her.

Either she was, or the CEO was too distracted by the situation to notice, because he sighed in a very impatient way.

"Look, it's best not to stir things up," he said. "Let dead dogs lie. That scandal made all of us look bad who were involved...that and the Sunlight Sister's connection to it... everyone wanted to avoid associating with anything problematic... It's been years, but if people start stirring it up, who knows? It could affect business again. Artists can be a bit superstitious at times..."

"I see," Raven said. "Yes... a scandal like that might upset some people. Especially since it was so unclear who was truly at fault."

"Less unclear to the company," the CEO said, and Raven knew he was dumber than she'd hoped. "But that's why it should stay with the company."

"But why do we need to protect former kpop stars, if it's their own fault?" Raven had taken a wild guess, but based on the Saja Boys reactions she thought it had to be one of them who was at fault.

"That's a naive perspective," the CEO said to her very condescendingly. "Yes, technically, it's their own fault for getting involved with the wrong people in the industry, but, one thing leads to another, if we were to let it come up again, they might ask if we associate with people like that."

"Hmm... Sir, just out of curiosity though, I forget which member was it who made the mistake?" Raven shuffled the papers like she was merely curious. "It might be helpful to know, if I need to avoid letting the information slip out to them, if they asked me about it directly."

"I doubt they'd know to ask that much," the CEO said. "And again, it's too long ago to matter and no one should start asking again if there really was some kind of jinx on the industry at the time... Well I suppose if it does come up, it's better to be prepared..."

He then opened a folder and took out a photo of the band. "The one not to talk about at all costs is this one," he pointed at the one that looked the most like Mystery to Raven. "The story was he caused the accident."

"Was he driving or something?"

"Might have been, or possibly he caused the driver to make a mistake,"  the CEO said. "The manager tried to keep it vague who was at fault. You know though..." sitting back. "It was too bad for the others. Two of them got seriously injured in that accident. Amazing that they were able to keep going at all after that, but it set them back. Missing shows and performances after that. Cost the label money too... That's why going the wrong direction in your career is never harmless. You should keep that in mind."

Raven found that very patronizing, but since it wasn't her job, she didn't need to take offense--and the assistant herself wouldn't have shown any annoyance.

"Yes, sir," she said, with a sweet smile.

She glanced at the one who was probably Baby. "What about the other one? He wasn't hurt?"

"No, the story I heard from the former label was that one of them basically shielded the other two from getting hurt, but one went through the windshield." The CEO seemed to be one of those who liked to talk about gossip if they ever get an excuse to.

"How terrible," Raven said, on cue.

"Hhm." He nodded.

"But they still made a comeback after that," Raven noted.

"Yes, remarkable, right? They could maybe even have recovered...but they fell apart. I heard the music changed too... didn't have the same feel to it or something...  Fans don't like any change in their artists.. .that, or fame was just too much." Then he shrugged. "Happens to rising stars, pardon the pun, not big time yet. But since the Sunlight Sisters disbanded, it just seemed that people assumed that we were jinxed... Took years for people to forget about that. And it should stay forgotten."

"I agree," Raven said. "I will do my utmost to keep it that way."

"Good. You can go now." The CEO seemed to remember he wasn't supposed to be talking to her anyway.

She nodded and left.

 That's when she'd seen the red wave.

She wanted to poke around more than that, but she knew her time was up.

But when she went to the front room, she found Rumi had left already.

Then she thought she heard something outside.

She turned and ran to the windows, hoping there might be a fire escape or something she could use to get down. However, there was none.

She did finally find an open window though, and then she saw the fight happening below--and not a second too soon for her to intervene.

* * *

Raven didn't tell them all this while Mystery was there though. She only said that CEO had said some things to her and she'd explain once they got to the tower...but she knew a lot more about what happened now.

By now, even the Saja Boys were worried about the truth.

The girls had another ordeal because they found Bobby was waiting.

He was furious--for him--which meant he sounded mildly irritated/panicked.

"What did you do?" he said. "Mira, how could you do something risky enough to get hurt like that? Do you know I almost had a heart attack when you called me?"

Mira frowned. "It was just an accident."

"What if you had been hurt bad enough and not been able to dance anymore?" Bobby sounded like he was about to have a break down. "What if the fans hear about it? Can you imagine the scandal?"

The word scandal made everyone flinch.

"Okay, that's enough, Bobby," Morph spoke up. "The girls have been through a lot today, okay? And I'm sorry. As their security, we should have been watching them more closely."

Bobby calmed down a little. "Oh...yeah, yeah, of course. I'm sorry... You all should get time to recover."

"Yeah...thanks, Bobby," Rumi said. "And...we're sorry for making you worry. We didn't think it would happen."

"Yeah, really sorry." Zoey gave the cute face. "Can you forgive us?"

Bobby was easily persuaded.

"Oh, of course," he said. "I shouldn't have gone off like that. Is there anything else you need?"

"We're good now," Rumi said.

Bobby left.

"I still think you should tell him," Raven remarked. "And he seriously thinks you just moved furniture?"

"I told him she tripped over something and caught herself wrong," Zoey said. "Which...is hard to believe...at least if you don't know how tough we are, but Bobby thinks we're just professional stunt artists...and even that is hard to believe, but he's so trusting, I don't think he'll doubt us."

"He's a gem," Morph said. "I really do feel kind of responsible for this, actually. We should have been watching more closely."

"Whatever, I'm hungry." Mira hadn't eaten in hours.

None of them had.

"Me too," Zoey said. "Snacks first and then we'll talk."

"Can I just go back to our level?" Mystery sounded tired.

"Yeah...go ahead," Morph said soberly.

Mystery walked away.

"Derpy, can you go with him?" Jinu patted the tiger. "Make sure nothing happens..."

Derpy grinned and went down the hall after Mystery.

"Derpy was MVP today for sure," Rumi said, smiling faintly. "How did we ever do without a guardian tiger?"

"I know, right?" Zoey already had a tray of food.

"Hey,  are you all sure you want to hear this?" Morph asked them. "I mean, it could be upsetting... Is it upsetting?" He glanced at Raven.

She nodded.

"I don't care, I still want to hear it," Abby said.

Baby frowned but shrugged like he wasn't going to leave.

"Might as well know the worst, I guess." Romance sounded way more hopeless about it.

Now that they had spent so much time around humans, the girls had noticed they were getting more distinct from each other.

Baby was always either just indifferent or outright hostile, so not that different.

Abby was somewhat more easygoing but could be a little touchy at times. Perhaps that was just a result of being bound in shame; at times, they all they were touchy.

Romance was high strung and sometimes acted the most like he was a normal human, and he was melodramatic.

But they might have had those traits before...though very muted...perhaps the slightest trace of their own personalities still left inside the demonic personas.

Rumi thought Jinu was the least like his persona. At least, he was a little more dorky and awkward than he'd tried to come off as.

The others didn't see it as much, but he didn't seem as smarmy as before, which was good.

They all sat down finally, and Raven then proceeded to tell what she'd learned.

"Real chatty Kathy that guy was," Morph commented part way through.

"Most of us are if you find a topic that's problematic enough." Raven shrugged.

When they'd heard the tale, they all looked somber.

"So they were behind the accident," Rumi said. "Basically, what we suspected already, but I'm surprised almost that Mystery was the one who did what caused the accident... One of the others tried to protect two of them, and that had to be Mystery and Baby, I'm guessing, since they didn't end up as hurt... I'm guessing that Romance is the other one who got hurt, since he seemed to react to that idea earlier."

"I have no memory of this," Romance said uneasily. "But I don't like hospitals... That might mean something."

Mira was icing her injured arm at the moment--it was starting to swell a little.

"If I had to guess," she said, "Abby is the one who tried to shield the other two... Would match his actions so far."

Abby wasn't sure if that was a compliment or not from her, but decided to take it in the best possible light.

"It could be," he said with a tight smile.

"But why would that lead to making a deal with Gwi-Ma?" Rumi asked. 

"I wonder if we could find the hospital they went to," Morph said. "We could sneak in, hack their records and go back until we find the details."

"Isn't that...some violation of medical confidentiality?" Zoey said.

"That's why we don't tell anyone we're doing it," Raven said.

"Your moral system is so confusing." Rumi gestured at her forehead.

"But this is mostly what we knew already," Morph said. "I was hoping they'd remember something finally... but I guess this didn't do anything for that?"

"No," Romance said. "How can we not remember any of this? There's so much to it...and it's our shame... How could we forget that?"

"Maybe we should ask Baby." Raven looked at him. "I'm sure he knows something."

Everyone turned to him.

"About earlier," Jinu said, "I remember what you said before. I think they have the right to know what happened... if you remember anything, Baby... Even if it's just the deal you made with Gwi-Ma, you have to say."

"They're your friends," Zoey added. "They tried to save you. How could you keep them in the dark about this?"

"To protect them." Baby was on the edge now. "It's not good to remember this... Now you've made it so much worse."

"Shouldn't we be the judge of that?" Romance said. "They were our lives! Baby, what did you hide from us?"

"Again, I don't remember all the details either," Baby said.

"But you know something," Mira said. "Listen, you little twerp, I nearly got killed, again, today because of you and your stupid secrets...and you almost got your own friends reclaimed by Gwi-Ma and burned to ashes. Why don't you start talking and stop acting like such a immature brat?"

"I don't care if you get killed," Baby said.

"Stop that," Abby said. "You can't keep threatening other people over this, Baby. And it's us too. Now, you tell the truth, or...I swear our friendship is over."

"What?" Baby actually sounded surprised. "How can you even say that?"

"I think he's got a point," Romance said. "I thought we were friends at least, even if we were... well, brain dead zombies about it...but we were always together, even in the demon realm. Maybe we felt safer, in a way, though we didn't know we were doing it... We thought it went all 4 ways, but it sounds like you were actually trying to keep us all back the whole time."

"That's not what I was trying to do," Baby said. "Listen, Gwi-Ma's whole offer was dependent on them not remembering the truth--" He stopped as he realized he'd just revealed something.

Everyone stared at him.

"Gwi-Ma's whole offer?" Rumi repeated.

"So..." Mira said in a dark tone, "you do remember your deal with him."

Baby saw he was in trouble now, and everyone was glaring at him.

"Okay, fine." He folded his hands like a pouty child for real. "I do kinda remember it... I mean, I don't remember all the reasons for it, but I know they were important ones..."

"What was it?" Jinu was also glaring at him right now.

Baby looked resentful, but finally he gave in.

"Becoming demons...or whatever you call it," he said slowly, "takes peoples souls away... All three of the others made their choices before I did... I can't remember why they did it, now, and I don't care to know...  Only know that I made it last because that makes sense. When I did, the deal was that we wouldn't disband...break up... They were going to do it. I figured that would be the end of all of our careers...and of our lives, really... That's when I heard Gwi-Ma offer me a way to keep it from happening."

"You...bound them together?" Rumi was shocked. "That's a thing you can do?"

"Not sure how it works." Baby looked up finally. "I just know that was the deal. You all wouldn't understand it. The rest of them didn't care as much about losing the group. I can see why now... I knew I was going to end up in a bad situation if we broke up. So I made the deal. Of course, I didn't know what would happen... Gwi-ma never gives the details to anyone." With a gesture at Jinu. "But I think it was only a year or so later that all of us turned fully into demons and went to his realm. And then it got very hazy until Jinu started looking around for people to pose as a K-pop group. I assumed that was why Gwi-Ma offered the deal to me. He had use for us...and I've never cared what side I'm on. I made the deal for my own interests."

"Clearly," Raven said.

"After hearing that, I might have been kind of sympathetic," Zoey said. "Like, you didn't want to lose the group because they're like your family, and I could understand that... I mean, it's terrible to do that to them, but maybe anyone would be tempted to make a deal to keep the people we care about together."

Mira would have been, but she didn't want to see herself in Baby at all. She glared at him.

"But going that far is still bad. Why would you even think it sounded okay?" Zoey added.

"I don't recall my reasons now," Baby said. "Jinu could tell you that it fades after a while... The important part is that you made a choice that cost your soul. Call it shame if you want, but going back in time, I think it was better not to remember anyway."

"That's crazy," Rumi said, "that all of you would sell out to Gwi-Ma."

"It was a dark time," Baby said. "I can't remember the details of it, but, based on what you all found out, it had to be bleak for us... Would we have done any better? A lot of artists kill themselves anyway after things fail like that. Would that have been better?"

"No," Raven said. "It would not have because sending yourself early to the devil is just as stupid as selling yourself to him early is."

Baby didn't respond to her statement.

Nor did he really seem sorry for anything he'd just said. He was more anticipating them getting angry about it.

[What do you think of the lore? We're not done yet, but my sister and I were proud of this when we came up with it.]