"Welcome soldiers, to Nishimura Riki's school of the gifted."

Niki walked in front of the line of his friends, who were watching him intently.

"Today, in this here backyard of an abandoned house, we train."

"I'm so excited.", Taehyun said.

"First off, let's do basic control. If we can control our powers, manipulating them in a fight will be easy."

The others agreed.

"So go ahead. Everyone try and summon your powers."

The boys did as they were told.

A ring of water formed around Taehyun as his arms were at his sides.

Small flames circled Jungwon, shooting out like embers flying from a large flame.

Jay used his power to create a spirit double. A semi-permanent ghost body double of himself.

"That's so cool...", Niki said.

His own powers caused the ground to light up around him.

Kai and Sunoo didn't know what to do.

On one hand, Kai was scared to use his power at all.

On the other, Sunoo had no idea how to control his visions.

He closed his eyes, trying to summon a vision.

To his shock, quick images flashed in his mind. Pictures of people trapped in an unending dark void. Voices calling for help. Someone calling his name.

He reached out for them as the pictures flashed by.

"Seonwoo!", the voice yelled.

He opened his eyes, breathing heavily.

Looking around, he noticed everything had just...stopped.

The other boys stared at him with admiration.

"What did I do?", he asked.

"You did something amazing. Seonwoo, you stopped time...", Niki said.

Seonwoo looked up.

The birds were in one place in the sky.

The trees didn't move, they just stiffly swung to one side.

"That's amazing!", Taehyun yelled.

Seonwoo held up his hand again, and took a deep breath before snapping his fingers.

When he did, the wind instantly reappeared, the birds flew again, and the trees moved swiftly in the air.

"Didn't know I could do that.", Seonwoo said to himself.

"This is progress!", Niki stated, "One step closer to saving our friends."

"I hope they're okay. I can't imagine what they're going through...wherever they are.", Kai said.

"I hope so too."
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

"When can we stop walking?", Soobin asked.

"Let's just call it a night.", Heeseung said, sitting down.

Jake sat down next to him, massaging his own legs.

It was dark, it always was.

Daytime was a rarity, and the only lights really came from the streetlamps that littered the roadways.

The Darkness.

A world where nothing but the memory of light remained.

They were alone there. Alone in their own thoughts, trying to find any way to get home.

Yeonjun carefully put down the boy he was carrying. He checked him for a fever, and still felt the same hot temperature from hours ago.

"He's not getting any better.", Yeonjun said.

"What can we do?", Heeseung asked.

"I don't know."

Yeonjun carefully brushed aside the hair in Beomgyu's face.

"He's been sleeping a long time.", Soobin noted.

"It's his body trying to fight off his sickness. It does its best job when sleeping.", Jake replied.

Yeonjun sat down next to the other four.

He used his powers to form a blanket of leaves around Beomgyu, who turned on his side, still fast asleep.

"I wonder what they're doing back home.", Soobin said.

"Probably trying to get to us.", Jake said.

"For sure. I bet they haven't spent a single moment not trying to get here. But I hope we can get home before they get here. I don't want them to be stuck as well.", Heeseung sighed.

Soobin laid on the ground.

Using his powers, he formed a mini tornado above him. It pulled in a few of the leaves from Beomgyu's leaf blanket.

"At least we've has time to practice our powers.", Soobin laughed.

"Forcefully. We've spent hours fighting dark creatures. We better be good.", Jake said.

Yeonjun looked around them.

It wasn't much, but it was the place they had become used to in recent months.

"I hope we don't have to deal with anymore creatures today.", Soobin sighed.

"I'd rather uno reverse myself off a cliff.", Jake said.

"Guys let's not get ourselves down. We will get out of here and not have to deal with any monsters anymore."

Heeseung was looking up at the sky.

"You hear that?"

"Hear what?", Soobin asked.

"A voice. It called my name."

Jake looked up.

"I don't hear or see anything but dark skies."

Heeseung stood up, still looking at the sky.

Yeonjun did the same, trying to see what Heeseung was seeing.

Suddenly, Heeseung loudly gasped.

For a split second, his eyes went white, before turning back to their normal color.

"Oh holy shit-", Jake said.

"Heeseung are you okay?", Yeonjun asked.

Heeseung looked at them.

"I saw something."

"What did you see?", Soobin wondered.

"I saw Niki."

"Niki?"

"Yeah. Hugging a girl. And she looked a hell of a lot like Lily."

"Oh please don't bring that bitch' name up.", Yeonjun said, already mentally checking out.

"I'm serious Yeonjun. Except, she was younger."

"That's weird.", Soobin said, "A younger Lily? Hugging Niki? Did he look younger?"

"No. Same age he is now."

Jake thought to himself.

Beomgyu started moving, slowly waking up.

Jake was the first to notice.

"Gyu?"

"Hmm? What happened?"

All the others heard him, and sat back down to check on him.

"We got into a fight with a creature. And you collapsed when it was over.", Jake said.

Beomgyu rolled over on his back.

"Am I sick?", he asked.

"You are.", Yeonjun said, "I'm worried."

"Hm, I'm sure I'll be fine. Right now, I'm hungry."

Jake took off his backpack.

If there was one thing the darkness had plenty of, it was seemingly abandoned shops with lots of food in them.

Uncharacteristically fresh food at that.

Yeonjun helped Beomgyu sit up while Jake got something for him.

Soobin looked at Heeseung, who seemed lost in his own world.

"Heeseung. Can I talk to you?", he asked.

"Yeah...sure..."

The pair got up and walked a few feet away from the others.

"Are you having visions?", Soobin asked.

"Excuse me?"

"Are you. Having. Visions?"

"I don't know. But it seems like I'm not seeing reality."

"How can you not see reality?"

"Like the image of Niki earlier. Why would he be hugging a teenage Lily?"

"To hell if I know why."

"Listen Soobin, I think this place is just more than a dark void."

"Well I could have said that. There are abandoned buildings. Abandoned shops. Abandoned towns. Everything here is forgotten."

"Almost like a forgotten reality?"

Soobin looked at Heeseung. He had his eyebrow raised in a questioning way.

"What do you mean?"

"I have a theory. It might explain why Lily kept coming back, and why the others came back, even if they died."

"Explain."

"Think about this Soobin. In school, I was told a theory by my science professor. She said that everytime we make a decision, an alternate reality is created in which we made a different decision."

"Okay..."

"What if the darkness...is a bridge between those realities. What if what I'm seeing is not what's happening to our Niki..."

"But a Niki from another reality?"

"Exactly!"

"So what you're saying is...we are stuck in an abandoned reality. A place where nothing exists?"

"We were sent here in the middle of all realities. Everytime they came back to us, they came from here. It's them from a different timeline."

"Wow...Heeseung you're a genius!"

"I know, thanks."

"I take it back."

The pair laughed at each other.

"What are you weirdos laughing about?", Jake asked, walking up to them.

Heeseung smiled at him, glancing to Soobin before walking closer to Jake.

"What if I told you...we are in a different dimension?"

Jake stared at Heeseung directly in his eyes.

"I would call you crazy."

"Well I'm about to he the most insane person you've ever met."