Two more days had passed, and it finally came to an hour before the big anniversary party.

During those two days, barely anyone notices Mark's odd behavior. The only ones to notice were Nora, Minkyu, Xinrei, and Renjun.

The first time they confronted him about his odd behavior, Mark simply said that he was tired from fighting. The second time, he changed his response to him being anxious about the party.

Nora and Renjun brushed it off, since Mark does get anxious about things like that. However, Xinrei and Minkyu still weren't buying it.

Jonah and his team listened in and watched everything that happened in their home, taking notes on every little thing. They heard everything about the party, and proceeded to plan their attack afterwards.

It wasn't until a couple hours before the party that Donghyuck became worried about Mark. He could tell that something was off about him, but he tried to ignore it for his sake.

But it soon came to the point where it was unbearable for him to ignore it any longer. He finds Mark getting ready in the bathroom, casually fixing his hair as his gaze is fixated into the mirror.

Donghyuck then comes to notice two things he didn't notice before. He first noticed the earring that he somehow failed to notice before. He then locks eyes with Mark's in the mirror, and notices something completely off.

His eyes in the mirror were green, and resembled those of a snake. But when Mark turned to look at him, his eyes were their normal brown.

"What's wrong Hyuck?"

Mark questioned him.

"O-Oh, nothing. I'm fine. But, are you alright??"

"I'm fine. I'm just-"

"Anxious about the party?"

"..."

Mark didn't have a response after Donghyuck finished his excuse for him.

"I'm worried about you hyung. We all are. You haven't been the same since you came back from your mission. Why won't you just tell us what's wrong...?"

Donghyuck pouted.

For a split second, Mark had escaped the earring's control and he became sad. Seeing Donghyuck upset was enough to snap him out of it, even if only for a split second.

But even when he fell back under the earring's control, he stepped away from the mirror and suddenly gave Donghyuck a hug.

"I'm sorry Hyuck. I didn't mean to make you all worry. I especially didn't want to make you worry. I'm just tired of all of this fighting. We still have no idea who these guys are, and every time we back them into a corner, they always escape our grasp. It's just so exhausting, you know?"

"...Yeah. I know exactly what you mean..."

Donghyuck immediately hugged him back, feeling comforted while being in Mark's warm embrace.

"Tell you what. I was going to wait to give you this later, but I guess now's as good a time as ever"

Mark let go of him and reached into his pocket, pulling out the earring that The Boss gave him.

"I got these earrings for us to match. One for you, and one for me"

"Oh hyung... You shouldn't have..."

Donghyuck was very flattered, instantly caught off guard.

"It's really no problem at all. Here. I'll put it in for you"

Mark smiled and gently put the earring in one of Donghyuck's ears.

Donghyuck admired it in the mirror, but then he started feeling dizzy as he started falling under a trance.

He tried shaking his head a bit to snap out of it, but to no avail. Unable to keep his balance, he fell to the floor, slowly starting to lose himself.

Mark got down to his level, and rested his hand on his shoulder as to try and comfort him.

"Don't try to fight it Hyuck. Just let it happen"

Donghyuck was confused, and raised his head up to look at him.

He became scared when he saw that Mark's eyes were green, just like they were in the mirror. He realized that something really did happen to Mark on his last mission, and that he had just screwed up by taking the earring.

Donghyuck tried fighting it and tried to remove the earring from his ear, but he inevitably fell under the trance and completely fell victim to the earring's power. His eyes changed just like Mark's, and he immediately stood himself up.
Mark used his power to hide the earrings and the color of their eyes, and they left to join the others.

-

It soon came time for everyone to leave for the party.

The Dreamies would leave for the party with their kids, while their wives agreed to stay put to take care of things around the house.

They all ventured to the lab, and they all gave their kisses and goodbyes before teleporting to their old home at Force 127's HQ.

The party was being held outside of the home, since it had been held inside the year before. All of their teammates were there, including every member from BTS.

The party immediately commenced, and everyone spread out to different areas of the party, not so much near the food tables.

Not even thirty minutes into the party, multiple members started noticing that something was off with Mark and Donghyuck.

They were standing together like they usually would, but they just seemed off, and no one could understand why. Everyone decided to ignore the feeling and continue with the party, but Renjun still kept and eye out.

Soon enough, Chenle decided to help himself to some of the food, and made his way to one of the far off tables. Mark took note of this, and followed him, seeing that there was no one near that table.

He slowly walked up behind him, and created an ice dagger to attack him with. He soon made it to Chenle, and he finally noticed Mark's presence. When he realized what Mark was about to do, it was already too late for him to react.

He attempted to stab him, but Renjun abruptly appeared in front of Chenle and roughly smacked the dagger out of Mark's hands. They were both alarmed by Renjun's sudden appearance, but neither one of them said anything.

"Lele. Are you alright?"

He questioned him with concern.

"Y-Yeah. I'm fine. Thank you hyung"

Renjun smiled, but it immediately faded when he faced Mark again.

"Dude! What the hell has gotten into you?!"

Mark didn't answer, which only enraged Renjun even more.

But that's when Renjun finally realized what was off about him. Mark made eye contact with him as he deactivated his power, and Renjun saw the change in his eyes, as well as the earring.

In that same instance, he suddenly hears Minkyu screaming. He immediately finds Donghyuck about to attack him and the rest of the kids with his flames.

He quickly grabs Chenle's hand, and used his power to quickly run over to them. Once they got close enough, he let go of Chenle's hand, and despite how much he didn't want to, he punched Donghyuck across the face to get him away from the kids.

While Donghyuck tried to pull himself together, Renjun noticed the same earring that Mark had, as well as the same eyes.

"They're being controlled...?"

He mumbled to himself, trying to piece together when this could've happened.

"Renjun! What's going on?!"

Taeyong questioned him, as he and the other began to worry.

"I don't know hyung! But Mark-hyung and Donghyuck are under someone's control! They just tried to attack Chenle and the kids!"

Before Taeyong or any of the others could respond to this information, sunflowers suddenly started blooming out of nowhere, surrounding all of them.

Thick clouds of pollen soon escaped from the flowers, rendering any of them from being able to see anything.

Renjun immediately became alarmed by the sudden sounds of the others yelling out in pain from within the clouds. Not knowing enough information to assess the situation, Renjun kept Chenle and the kids close, trying to keep them calm and collected.

"Sungmin. I need you to use your power to see what's going on within these pollen clouds for me. Can you do that?"

Renjun asked and she immediately nodded, fixating her gaze to the clouds.

"I can see who's attacking us! There's eight of them in total! But, one of them looks like dad??"

Jeongho is alarmed by this, remembering that their fathers were fighting enemies that resembled them.

He immediately used his power to blast away the clouds that surrounded the eleven of them, to be prepared for incoming attacks.

Surprisingly, when he did this, he uncovered both Shotaro and Sungchan. They were both unharmed, and immediately joined them to stay safe.

Soon, the entire area went silent, too silent. But suddenly, from within the clouds, a huge spike flew towards them at a frightening speed.

Jeongho acted fast and used his sword to block it, but the spike shattered it and impaled him, making him fall to the ground.

Renjun acted fast and used his Stand to heal him by imbuing the spike with life, replacing his damaged blood vessels and tissue.

Once Jeongho was healed, Renjun used his power to blow away the remaining pollen clouds, revealing a terrible sight.

The eleven of them found their allies with the same earrings as Mark and Donghyuck, and had the same green colored as too. Renjun immediately realized that they were all being controlled now.

Not long after, all eight members of The Gang Stars, including The Boss, emerged from the crowd.

"It's them..."

Renjun immediately recognized seven of them as the ones that they've been fighting, but he didn't recognize their leader.

"Damn it...!"

Chenle left the group, and proceeded to try and attack Marshall and his wolf dogs.

But Marshall easily used his power to tame him, since he's a hybrid. Despite Chenle trying to fight back, he inevitably falls under Marshall's control.

Renjun assessed the situation that they were currently in, and concluded that in order to ensure that the kids were safe, he couldn't fight here and now.

He acted fast and pulled out a turtle from his bag behind his back.

The turtle itself is a Stand user by the name of Coco Jumbo. Its Stand is a key that's imbedded into its shell, that acts as a safe room.

"All of you, except for Xinrei and Xinya, touch this turtle's shell. Everything will be clear later on, but do as I say and quickly"

Renjun calmly ordered.

Everyone except for his two children touched the shell and were instantly transported into the safe room within the key.

He put the turtle back into his bag, and grabbed his children's hands. He quickly uses his Meta Teleportation to teleport them indoors into the lab instantly. Xinrei immediately welded the door shut with his laser vision, and returned to his sister and father.

He held Xinya's hand, watching as Renjun fumbles with the teleportation pad's control unit.

They watched as Renjun puts in coordinates for a far off location, but still on Ethora. He still hadn't said a word to the two of them, and this infuriated Xinrei more than he already was.

"Damn it! Why didn't you do anything to save them?! How can we just leave everyone behind the way that they are?! I thought you were supposed to be a hero, but you're nothing but a coward!!"

He yelled at his father, hatred laced in his voice.

Despite Xinrei's anger, Renjun was completely unfazed and kept his cool. This surprised Xinrei, causing him to calm down a bit and realize what he'd just said.

"Don't worry. This is for the best, trust me. I'm not leaving them behind, but you two are"