Not proofread

Jeongin was entirely focused on maintaining the illusion he and his aunt had created to distract the hunters as well as Zendala and Shiela. To say Jeongin had felt betrayed when he had spotted Shiela behind enemy lines didn't come even close to the feelings swirling in the kitsune's chest. He had gritted his teeth and willed his magic to intensify to get rid of his anger. His magic was a burning orange, fixing the holes Zendala and Shiela kept creating in the illusion again and again. Felix was close by his side, eyes scanning for possible attacks that could hit Jeongin.

In the corner of his eyes Jeongin saw his aunt rejoining his side. The mixed blood had disappeared from his side for a short moment, telling the young kitsune to keep doing what he was doing. Maybe, the kitsune would have worried if he wasn't so focused to hold his ground against Shiela and Zendala. He wanted to win against them in some way or another.

"Jeongin, we are gonna fall back," Ms. Hwang spoke up beside Jeongin, letting her magic slip into Jeongin's to support the younger magic user. Deep blue and burning orange magic mixed with Jeongin's bright orange one, making the young kitsune almost sigh in relief. He hadn't noticed how much magic he had used until his aunt came to help him. It gave him enough time to glance at the mixed blood, whose mismatched eyes were focused on the little battlefield before them.

"I will take over alone now. You and Felix get through the portal Byungho created and to safety. I will come after you with the others," Ms. Hwang explained, making Jeongin's head snap to her. Was she seriously proposing that Jeongin would leave her behind? Just like that?

"Auntie-," Jeongin began.

"No buts, Innie," Ms. Hwang interrupted the other, her mismatched eyes meeting his bright orange ones, "I will come after you, promise."

Jeongin gulped down his doubt, but he didn't move one inch until he felt a warm hand slip into his own. He turned his head to come face to face with Felix. The cat hybrid's ice blue cat eyes looked at him with sympathy before the ginger began to tug the blond back a bit.

The kitsune bit his tongue, turning his head back to his aunt. He didn't want to leave her behind but he knew that arguing with her wouldn't do any good. And didn't he own it to her follow her lead after making her teleport them her along with Hyunjin? To the gods, he did own her.

"Make sure you keep your promise," Jeongin mumbled more to himself than to his aunt before he let Felix drag him away, his magic slipping out of the one of his aunt, leaving her alone to keep up the illusion.

Jeongin bit his lips when he forced himself to look ahead and not back. Felix was right there beside him and not far before him stood Byungho, who kept a golden-reddish portal open, and Chan in his wolf form. Jeongin's brain could barely comprehend that seeing Byungho with gigantic black wings on his back wasn't normal when the passed the brunet and Chan to get through the portal.

It was almost a relief to feel the familiar magic of Byungho and Seungmin around him. Still, he couldn't help but grip Felix's hand a bit tighter when the two emerged from the portal. The conflicted look on Seungmin was the thing that almost calmed the kitsune because everything else was just in chaos. Everyone was running around to some destination Jeongin probably wouldn't know since unlike all of them he did not specifically prepare for this mission for weeks.

The blond almost yelped when Felix dragged him back and out of the way of a little group of shifted werewolves that speeded past them and then disappeared into the forest. Everything was just so hectic, he could barely focus. His tired mind screamed at him to just use the last bits of his powers to teleport him and Felix away from all of this. He didn't plan on ever doing that, it was cowardly.

"Do I even need to ask how many things went wrong?," the voice of Seungmin ripped Jeongin out of his thoughts. He looked towards the redhead only now noticing the barely hidden distress in the voice of the other. Seungmin stood in front of the portal, his hands raised into the air and covered in his deep red magic. If the kitsune would squint hard enough he would even see the little tremble in the usually calm and steady hands of the red haired magic user. Yet, the things that caught Jeongin's attention the most was the red glow, that was coming from the necklace around Seungmin's neck.

"We'll explain later. Just keep the portal open until Byungho-hyung closes it. We need to get the others out," Felix quickly said, squeezing Jeongin's hand. Seungmin looked at the ginger cat hybrid in mild disbelief, the red glow from the necklace got a tiny bit stronger, but before Jeongin could ask about it a howl rippled through the silent night.

Jeongin snapped his head into the direction of the howl. His orange eyes scanned the forest for any kind of danger, his fox ears were perked up and twitching around in order to detect threats in hearing range.

The kitsune's stomach dropped when he picked up the faint sound of wolves growling and shots being fire followed by loud whines or pained howls.

"The hunters are coming through the forest! We need to evacuate now!," the voice of a werewolf boomed over the clearing, making Jeongin almost freeze. Everything was going downhill, the plan was failing. The hunters had too much time to react to the attack. No, no, they simply reacted too quickly.

Jeongin would have been run over yet again if Felix wouldn't have pulled him aside, but this time no stranger almost crashed into him. No, it was Minho, Chan and Byungho that stumbled out of the swirl of gold and red. Behind them the portal closed, sending cold panic through Jeongin's whole system. Where was his aunt? Was Hyunjin already out? What about Changbin?

"Is everyone here now?" Chan said, after he had shifted back into his wolf form. His dark brown eyes quickly scanned over everyone, probably making a quick head count. Jeongin wanted to yell that, no, they were not 'everyone'. His aunt still wasn't here and he no clue where Hyunjin and Changbin were! He wanted to yell that, but his mouth remained shut. Everything was just too much to take in to do anything. He had no clue what he could do. Someone just tell what he could do to get his loved ones out of this mess!

"Innie," Felix soft voice made Jeongin look towards the ginger. His ice blue cat eyes were still there instead of the ginger's deep chocolate brown orbs.

"Could you take a breath for me?," the cat hybrid gently requested. At first, Jeongin wanted to retort, but then he inhaled a little and felt a bit of relief washing trough his body at the intake of breath. Had he just stoped to breath at one point?

"Thank you," Felix whispered, giving Jeongin's hand yet another squeeze. "Just follow my lead now. We will be alright, okay?," the cat hybrid said, showing Jeongin a tiny smile. The kitsune nodded, glancing at the other members of his group. Chan and Byungho seemed worried, Minho was currently out his sight and Seungmin's expression was ... surprisingly neutral.

"Seungmin get over here!," someone called for Seungmin. The voice was at first unfamiliar to Jeongin until he saw Seungmin take off towards an older male that the kitsune knew was Wonpil, the redhead's older brother.

"Come on," Chan urged the little group before shifting back into his wolf form and taking after Seungmin. Byungho followed the grey wolf without questioning. Jeongin halted for a moment, taking in his surroundings, he could still hear faint fighting noises in the distance, he saw Minho standing near someone who had dark blue hair.

For a short moment, Jeongin grew tense before he realized that it was just Jisung. He had never realized how similar Zendala and Jisung looked until he had faced her himself.

Felix tugged Jeongin with him towards the two Kim brothers. Both Wonpil and Seungmin were now both using their magic to hold up a portal that was the color of white and cherry red. It was bigger than the average one, which had to mean something.

Byungho suddenly turned and ran towards Jisung, confusing the kitsune a bit until he remembered that Byungho was the one of Stray Kids with the mind link.

"Felix, Chan, Jeongin. I could use your help," the voice of Taeil reached the blond's ears. The group of three looked over to the guardian, who was standing near a little building of barriers. It seemed to serve some kind of purpose since Jeongin could sense the protection spells even from here.

Without really thinking Felix and Chan quickly made their way over to the guardian, dragging a mildly distracted Jeongin along. The guardian quickly gathered the three young males and quickly lead them into the little magic barrier house. The whole thing was simply buzzing with magic, but it was also filled with badly injured and unconscious cat hybrids and vampires.

Jeongin let his gaze wander over the people, suppressing a shudder when he couldn't even name the amount of bandaged injuries some people had on their bodies. The room was lined with make-shift beds and in the corner to the right the kitsune could see loads of magical supplies, some of which were floating in the air.

On the far end of the room, Jeongin also spotted Renjun and the maknae of NCT, Park Jisung, who were helping people to move off their resting place. Yet, they were only two people in a room full of people, who needed help to evacuate the scene.

"We need to get everyone out of here and to safety. I created a portal just on the side of the barrier. It is a bit hidden, so keep your eyes open. Hyunjin and Changbin are helping with the evacuation too, but keep an eyes on both of them. Hyunjin went through a mild sensory overload when he arrive and I believe Changbin is only able to walk because for some reason his regeneration ability is incredibly fast," Taeil explained quickly. Jeongin needed a moment to comprehend what the guardian had said because of he didn't seem to have taken one breath while thrown word after word at the three Stray Kids members.

"Are my parents already out? I can't see them," Felix spoke up, voice calm but he his grip on Jeongin's hand tightened a bit. The kitsune almost automatically began rubbing his thumb over the back of the ginger's hand to calm him.

"They are. Renjun and Jisung got them out," Taeil answered and gave the young cat hybrid a small, encouraging nod. Felix sighed in relief, his hand relaxing in Jeongin's hold.

"Now get to work," Taeil added before turning and walking to the next unconscious person. Chan, who had already shifted back into his human form, was already heading to a patient to get them out of here.

"Felix? Mind helping me with this one?," Renjun suddenly called for the ginger. The young warlock was sitting in front of two very young cat hybrids. From what Jeongin could see, they were highly agitated. Their tails were puffed up and despite not being able to see their faces, Jeongin knew Renjun was faced with two pair of cat eyes that were confused, scared and generally mistrusting.

Felix looked at Jeongin for a moment, give the kitsune one last squeeze of his hand before reluctantly letting go and heading to Renjun. The kitsune felt cold and lost the second Felix had let go of his hand.

Willing himself out of his slowly spiraling thoughts, Jeongin focused on the task at hand, or at least he tried to before a familiar voice called his name from behind him. The kitsune was turned around and was immediately pulled into a tight embrace by his cousin.

"I was worried something happened to you when I realized you and the others hadn't followed us through the portal," the siren mumbled into the kitsune's shoulder. Jeongin let himself relax a bit in his cousin's arms and patted his back, not admitting how anxious and scared he had felt when he hadn't seen the siren when he and the rest of Stray Kids arrived at the clearing. In the corner of his eye, Jeongin saw Changbin move past him, probably to get another injured creature to the portal as fast as possible.

Hyunjin pulled away from the embrace, his brown eyes swiftly scanning over the area behind Jeongin. He most definitely spotted Chan and Felix by the way his shoulders dropped a bit in relief. The siren's eyes wandered back to the kitsune, a bit of concern still in the brown orbs.

"Where is the rest? And mum?," the siren asked. Jeongin felt like someone hit him in the stomach, hard. He knew all of Stray Kids was at the clearing, helping to get people out of the hunters' headquarter or assisting the evacuation of this place, but he had no clue how Hyunjin's mother and his aunt was doing or if she even made it out.

Hyunjin's eyes widen slightly when he didn't receive an answer from the blond. More fear and concern slipped into his brown eyes, clouding the usually beautiful dark color with dread. The siren averted his gaze, gulping, before bringing his eyes back to focus on the one's of his cousin.

"Do you know if mum's fine?," the siren asked in merely a whisper. Jeongin looked at his cousin helplessly. He opened his mouth to explain, but no words left his tongue, not even a single sound came out of his throat. The emotions in Hyunjin's eyes became excruciating rare to the point that the kitsune had to look away.

A suffocation feeling was raising in the kitsune's rib cage. It felt like it was making everything tighter to the point where he couldn't breath. He should have stayed with his aunt, he should have never agreed to leave her behind. After all, alongside with Hyunjin she was the only family he had left. She was the person, who had raised him despite having a hard time, who had taught him the basics of his abilities, which served as foundations for his later improvements. He had so much he should thank her for, but never did because she simply provided everything without batting an eye, without wanting recognition for it.

This was the worst moment to realize how much he owned to the woman, who biologically was his aunt on his father's side of the family, but who he grew up to think of as his mother.

Jeongin did realize he was crying until he felt the hot tears drip off his chin. He would never admit it out loud, but for once he truly felt like his age. He was a child, lost in the middle of chaos, craving for the person, who he thought of as mother.

A sudden yell for help let both the kitsune and siren snap their heads around. A breathless Minho stumbled into the medical station.

"The hunters reached the clearing," the cat hybrid panted. 

—————————

Seungmin felt more than ready to burst despite him putting a lot of magical energy into the portal in front of him. He did not know why Wonpil had requested his help until he had linked his magic with the one of his older brother. Something was tugging heavily on the portal and it was difficult to maintain because of that.

One by one, members of various groups had stumbled out of the portal, all looking a bit beat up just like Hyunjin and Changbin had looked when they had come through his portal not too long ago. The only difference was that Changbin and Hyunjin had been dripping wet when they arrived at the clearing while the others seemed to be completely dry.

Seungmin had hated the fact that he could not help Changbin or Hyunjin because he had been maintaining the portal. Luckily, Taeil had reacted quickly. The guardian had dried them off with a heat spell and then taken them to the medical station because neither of them had looked fine. Hyunjin had been clinging onto Changbin like a life line and the vampire himself had a small limp in his steps and a bit of a pained expression on his face despite his strongly glowing eyes.

They both had looked so vulnerable, it had made Seungmin almost go nuts and the two constantly bickering voices in his head didn't help. One had told him to go after them and to protect them like he promised and one had reminded him of his part in the rescue mission and how he shouldn't abandon the other members of his group, who relied on him to keep the portal stable.

Those two voice only had gotten worse when Jeongin and the rest of Stray Kids had come through the portal a bit after Changbin and Hyunjin. First had been Jeongin and Felix, who had stayed with him long enough to ask a question. Admittedly he could have phrased his question differently, but when you had two voices in your head, whose bickering got louder and louder the messier the situation around him got, wording wasn't the primary thing you had in your mind.

Even now, the two voices bickered and argued. The only thing keeping them from completely distraction Seungmin was the necklace around the young demon's neck. It was a mystery what the necklace really did, but it seemed to work good enough to at least keep the two voices in Seungmin's head at bay.

The redhead was convinced that the two voices represented his screwed up moral compass, hence the bickering about his every moral decision. One voice, the one Seungmin was alway was tempted to follow, was probably his selfishness and inherited demonic morals and the other voice, who tried to keep Seungmin on the right path, was most likely reason and his experiences. 

Both voices were a part of Seungmin yet they did not control him. They only told him what he should do. What he really did was up to him, and that was the only thing keeping the young demon sane right now.

A sudden tug at his magic had Seungmin focus back on reality and onto the portal in front of him. Byungho, who still had his wings on full display which was a really bad sign all over, had said that Taeyong gave the order to let the main forces of the creatures fighting in the headquarter return through the portal of BM and Wonpil or Jiwoo and J.Seph because it was safer that way.

Seungmin agreed with Taeyong in that regard. As much as he could deduct from the bits of information he had received, most of the creatures, who were still in the hunters' headquarter, were in the same place with Zendala not far away. It would be a lot riskier to let every group escape to their previously assigned portals than to just use one or two that were considered to be safe.

"How much more are in there?," Wonpil asked, ripping Seungmin out of his thoughts. Dowoon had just slipped through the portal when the older redhead had asked the question. For once the reunion between the vampire and his older brother couldn't be described as sappy. It was rather the opposite, Wonpil was clearly getting tired of keeping the portal safe and open, which Seungmin could understand more than anyone because some other force had the portal on fire, and Dowoon was wide eyed, clearly exhausted and he had a bit of blood dripping from his arm and thigh, staining his black cloths.

"Not too many. My vampire group, BM, the mixed blood that joined at one point and Taeyong, Yuta and Johnny. BTS should be out now," Dowoon answered a bit out of breath, while holding onto his shoulder. At the last part Seungmin looked over to Jisung. The warlock was still standing at his spot with Minho beside him, but there was no portal open.

The redhead looked around a bit more in the dark and saw another portal not too far. If he squinted hard enough he could see people come out of it. He guessed that it was J.Seph's portal, but he couldn't be too sure. The other groups seemed to have come to together on the clearing again. Some of the more combat oriented ones headed towards the forest to fend off the hunters there.

Seungmin lightly bit onto his lip. He had known that something was wrong the minute J.Seph had gotten nervous, but he hated that he had been right. The minor inconvenience he had hoped for had turned into a full blown fight on every front and the hunters outmanned them by far.

A large werewolf was running up to Jisung just as the redhead focus back onto the magic he was putting into the portal. He paid it no mind until he heard his best friend's voice not too far from him.

"Need anymore help here?," the warlock asked as he approached with Minho following behind him. Seungmin didn't blame the older cat hybrid for sticking to Jisung's side, because if he could he would have gone to look for Changbin and Hyunjin long ago.

"Help is always appreciated," Wonpil said, his eyes trained on the portal in front of him. Jisung nodded lightly and positioned himself next to Seungmin before letting his magic seep into the portal. The blue color mixed itself with the two different shades of red that represented the magic of the Kim brothers and the white of BM's magic.

The second Jisung's magic properly settled with the other three, the force that had been pushing and trying to intrude the portal was gone. Seungmin frown, pushing more of his magic into the portal to see if something would push back, but the only result was a short wavering of the portal and a stern look from Wonpil before everything was back in order.

"The intruding magic is gone," Seungmin said lowly, looking over to his older brother. Wonpil met his gaze and blinked in surprise before he focused back onto the portal. A short moment passed before he seemed to come to the same realization.

"That's weird," the older redhead mumbled to himself and then he looked to Byungho, who was the only one with a mind link here. The brunet only shook his head, his brows frowned in confusion.

"Maybe the intruding magic pulled back because they knew they couldn't win against three magic user?," Seungmin thought to himself in silence until another idea, whispered to the redhead by one of the voices, came into his mind. What if it had been Zendala and she had pulled back because she felt Jisung's magic? Nonono, that was not an option. Zendala was fighting with the creatures that were still in the headquarter. There was no way she could fight them and try to disturb the portal. Maybe it had been the other magical creature he had briefly heard about in fleeting conversations. And they couldn't have connections to Jisung, could they?

Seungmin looked over to his best friend for a brief moment. The warlock looked concentrated and focused on the portal, his determination unwavering despite knowing that at one point he could see his mother on the other side of the battlefield. The demon knew where Jisung had his loyalties. They were with Minho and Stray Kids and not with his mother. Nothing connected the young warlock to his mother expect blood. Why did he even question this?

"Incoming!," someone yelled from the other side of the clearing. Seungmin snapped his head around, seeing two hunters falling out of the nearby trees and onto the clearing with two werewolves hot on their tails.

In the corner of his eye, Seungmin saw Minho dash for the medical station and Byungho's hands getting covered in weak golden glow. The brunet was still exhausted from his previous battle and Seungmin feared that the other might run out of magic to fight for himself. He didn't even know if his theory about Byungho and the hunters' crystals had been correct or not. If it was correct then Byungho was their best defense, but right now they may have to cover him and keep the portal opened.

Seungmin knew this battle was going to be a mess before it even started. He could only hope that he could keep the promises he made, otherwise he didn't know what he would do and if he could even control it.

Author's Note:
Hello my lovelies. I have returned with a new chapter! It turned out fine I would say though I have to admit that I struggled a bit with it, so if you find parts that seem out of place or do not make sense to you, let me know in the comments and I will look over the chapter again to fix or rewrite those parts!
To other matters, I am really trying hard to get back into writing  but it does not work as smoothly as I wanted it to be, but I will hopefully get back to weekly updates at one point! After all, I want to finish this story more than anything (though I have to admit I took little detours to get more motivation and inspiration, which is why the Baby Boom Series exists) and we are slowly getting there (remember when I said that like ... 30 or so chapters ago? Ahhhh yes the good old days, but I am serious this time!)
But enough of the blabbering!
I hope you are doing fine, that feel at least halfway okay. Remember to drink enough water (it is super hot where I live so stay hydrated everybody) and take care of yourself!
Remember that I love you a lot <3
Stay safe and happy <3
With lots of love,
Akeminii