Andromeda

XIV.

 As soon as the echoes of the door clanging faded into nothingness, Andromeda turned to the remaining boys. "I am not taking him with me," she said. "It'll kill him. You guys have to convince him of that. He won't listen to me."

"You didn't make it easy," Yoongi accused. "You didn't have to tell him that he's supposed to be dead."

"I didn't mean to!"

"What?" I yelled, very confused.

Andromeda looked to me with relief, as if I would certainly take her side. "I have to go back to my star, and I have to leave Earth. And," she sighed heavily, some of the fire leaving her eyes, "I won't be able to come back. Not for a long time, even in my terms of time."

"Kookie wants to go with her," Namjoon said.

"Wants to go into space?" I said. "But he's human."

"Exactly!" Andromeda said. "Why is everyone ignoring this fact?"

"We're not," Taehyung muttered. "It's just him."

"See, this is why you're my favorite, Tae."

Taehyung beamed, while the boys closest to him protested loudly.

"Anyway," Namjoon said, "Kookie thinks that because Andromeda saved him when he was younger, it doesn't matter if being in space will kill him."

"That's ridiculous," I said.

"Indeed," Andromeda agreed. "He thinks I can keep him safe. But I can't. He'll get what you humans call 'eaten alive'."

"So why do you need him to understand that to leave?" Seokjin asked.

Half of us gave him horrified looks.

"What?" he complained. "I get that it's cruel, but either way he's going to be separated from Annie. It's just a matter of how he feels about her when she leaves."

Andromeda sighed. "It's something my mother told me. When I was there, she helped me understand why my powers have faded so quickly and gone so haywire in the last two decades. Apparently, when I changed fate, I thought I had used a substantial part of my power. But what really happened was I gave him some of my own life."

"You can do that?" I asked.

She sighed, crossing her arms and looking down. I noticed that her skin wasn't glowing nearly as much as it had been. She looked... sad. "I didn't know I could." Andromeda walked to the closest marble wall, her footsteps silent. She rested a hand on the wall, and brilliant white crystalline fractals shot out of where her hand was. It was ice, I realized. We all watched as the sparkling white substance crackled and grew as it spread across the walls and columns of the building, creating perfectly imperfect designs that brought goose pimples to my arms. Finally, she brought her hand away from the stone.

"I thought I could do anything," she whispered. I don't think she was speaking to any of us in particular. "I didn't know I had limits." She laughed breathlessly, her eyes closed gently. "I've lived for millions upon millions of years and the only thing that ever brought me down was a young human boy."

She turned back to us. A small drop of water fell from above, and I looked up to see that the ice was already starting to melt. Andromeda's concentration had broken, and she was looking at something behind all of us.

I followed her gaze and saw Jeongguk. Only one of those two beings was supernatural, yet the air between them felt electric, the way the air feels before a storm. My instincts wanted me to back away to avoid the storm.

"I have met billions of species in my lifetime, but I have never met a species that confused me as much as humans."

This was said barely louder than a whisper, but it echoed off the marble walls like thunder. Her voice was dark and her eyes alight.

My heart was beating fast. I suddenly only then realized just how dangerous it was to be by this living and breathing star. Sure, I had understood that she was dangerous and powerful. Ancient peoples had believed her to be a god. But this was the first time I realized that I could be on the receiving end of her wrath if she wished it. I did not want to be on the receiving end of her anger.

But then the darkness in her eyes faded and the temperature in the room rose a bit, but the beautiful designs of ice became thicker. She smiled just a bit, looking at Jeongguk. "And even though you might be the death of me, I guess I still love your species for making me think so much."