To The Last (Book 7 of the "K-pop Chronicles")

Down to the Wire (Andrew's POV)

Dami: ANDREW?!

I smile at everyone, so glad they are safe.

Jamie: Andrew, what happened?! We thought you were captured!
Me: I was, but not by the enemy. I know all of this is a lot to take in. It was for me too, at least at first. BoA here was a massive help in understanding everything, and I must say her acting skills are quite unexpectedly impressive as well.
Ben: What do you mean?

I chuckle.

Me: I'm not her master. She said that as a favor to me. I have just finished finding out quite a lot about myself, along with all of you with powers. BoA knows a very shocking amount of information about our powers, where they come from, and why we have them. Also, there are special aspects about each of us that y'all need to awaken fast if we are to survive.
Ben: Wait a second, slow down and rewind! Three questions. Can we be privy to this information that BoA has? What are these "special aspects" that you spoke of? And why the hell did we not know about this earlier?!
Me: It's our history, so after we're done in here, BoA and I will take y'all to her library. These aspects are different for each of us because they are at the core of our beings. And none of us were ready to learn this information before now, and I still worry about some of you.

Alex: Hold up! Not even the almighty Andrew was ready?! This is rich!

He laughs.

Me: No, Alex, I'm not almighty. And no, I wasn't even ready. There were things I had to learn, experience, and grow from as well. In fact, It may surprise y'all that I've been terrified this entire time. These last almost three years have been some of the scariest years of my life.
Alex: Why didn't you tell us this?!

Jiu laughs, causing Alex to glare at her.

Alex: What?!
Me: Jiu asked the same exact question when I first told her about my fears.
Alex: And what was the answer?
Me: Jiu?
Jiu: Because we might not have followed him.
Alex: Pfft! Please, Andrew, you know that's not true.
Jiu: Alex, think about it. If you would've known before about his fears, would you really have followed him still?
Alex: Of course! We all have fears!
Me: Alex, you would've tried to take over the lead if you would've known my biggest fear.
Alex: There you go assuming again!
Me: No, I'm not assuming. My biggest fear was that I wouldn't be able to lead everyone the right way. I was afraid that my leadership would get y'all killed.

Alex's jaw dropped.

Alex: What?! All this time, you thought your leadership could get us killed?! That would've been nice to know!
Me: And what would you have done if I had told you of that fear initially?
Alex: I would've tried to find a confident leader in the group!

Me: Exactly. See? You wouldn't have followed my leadership. I didn't tell y'all because I was trying to give y'all courage while trying to build my own. That's why I acted so confident in my leadership. And that's why I got so mad at you when you wanted to leave. I felt like I was failing my duties as a leader.

He deflated like a balloon.

Alex: Damn.

Me: Also, why do you think each betrayal hit me so hard? Every time someone left, I felt like a piece of crap failure. That's why I left for Sacramento for two years. I wanted to do something that could make me stop feeling like a failure.

This makes him absolutely speechless.

Me: Now do you finally understand?

Nodding silently, he bows his head in shame.

Alex: I'm sorry.

Me: It's okay. Now, enough about this. It's time for y'all to learn about our powers...

I gesture to Jamie.

Me: ...or  lack thereof, and fully awaken our innermost powers. BoA, if you would please lead this to the library and give them what they need?

BoA bows to me and leads the way to the library, and I follow in the back.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An hour later, everyone, including me, is still poring over books upon books of research. Getting up to stretch my legs, I decide to walk around and see how everyone's research is going. As I reach him, Ben stops me.

Me: What is it, Ben?

Ben: This is so much information. How can we possibly digest all of it?
Me: You can't digest everything right away. Just focus on digesting what speaks to you.
Ben: Okay, will do. I have another question.
Me: Yes?

Ben: What is this "down to the wire" that I'm reading about?

He turns the book for me to be able to read the page, so I sit down and read it.

"We're down to the wire. We are in a fight for our lives,
and we have no way out. There's no end in sight. No
end to this nightmare of a war. Our powers are so weak
from this long war that we can't even go into our pure
state anymore. Even if, by some miracle, we win, we can
only hope to lock away the enemy. We can't possibly
destroy them. And their descendants are too young to
destroy with a clear conscience. We just have to hope

that if this war starts again, our descendants can
awaken their pure state. Without that, I'm afraid they
will not survive their war, and the entire world will

be done for. We're down to the wire, and our only hope
is our descendants.

I let out a heavy sigh as I finish reading.

Me: It means that we must win this war. We have to achieve something that our ancestors weren't able to. This war will also be down to the wire, and we have to be stronger than our ancestors were.
Ben: But what about these... pure states? What are those?
Me: Those are the "special aspects" that I told y'all about. We have to destroy the enemy while in our pure states.
Ben: And if we can't?
Me: Then this entire world is doomed...