Coldness. I remember this.

Numbness. I remember this, too.

I'm sitting on the floor and I can't feel the stone under my legs. I can't feel my arms or my hands, for that matter. The only thing different this time is that I can't feel the other strands either. There is nothing to feel. I'm empty in that space that was always full with them. I don't feel my connection to them. I don't even feel my feelings for them. The pull to be with them is gone. The urge to be bound to them is absent. There is not even the feel of the magic that lit us all up.

I don't feel anything.

I can't feel my breath as my lungs try to suck in air. I can't feel my heartbeat. My eyes roam the room and I see the men who had become my everything chained to a wall and their eyes are not on me, but on her. As one they stand facing her.

Now that we're disconnected will they want us again? Will the sealed bonds that she took make them forget me? My mating marks are gone. The infinity symbol is gone. Everything that connected us through this curse is gone. What are we now? Will they remember?

As time passes, and the numbness spreads, the noise in the cavern becomes muffled, like I'm trying to hear underwater. I can see the Witch laughing and strutting around. Happy in her triumph. I see Jin and Namjoon, Yoongi, and the others all standing at attention facing her. None of them are fighting their chains. They stand as one, facing the new owner of their bonds.

Please don't give in. Please remember.

Remember what? I ask myself...I don't...

My eyes close just as my hair is grabbed and I'm dragged across the platform, my chains falling away from my now useless limbs. She shoves me forward to face my former mates.

"See," She points to the men standing at attention, facing her. Their expressions were blank but attentive. "They are mine now. The marks are mine." She shoves one of my missing mate marks now ghosting on her arm under my nose. "Without my magic, you would have never met or mated with them." She crows in triumph.

I look at each man, trying to feel what we have shared. I can't feel anything though. I'm bereft of any emotion towards them. I can no longer feel them pulsing through me like energy in my body and along the strands. I can't feel anything because the strands are gone. I look at each man and feel empty.

The witch relishes in her new power, "I knew they would never come to me and that I would need a conduit. Bait. To force their hand and seal the bonds that they refused to complete with me. You have worked better than I could have dreamed. Your use is now over. I have no further need of you." And she pushes me off the dais.

I roll down the stone steps of the platform till I rest on the stone floor. That probably should have hurt, but I don't feel anything. I pull myself up until I'm laying with my back against the stone platform, facing my men.

Their red gem-like eyes are blank of all emotion and they stare at the witch. What did she do to them? Do they feel the numbness like I do? Are they forgetting like I am?

BTS POV

The wrenching feeling of the strands moving location shocked each member of Bangtan. Their hearts stuttered. They felt their mating marks melt off Y/N and reappear on the witch's body. They felt the pull change. What they didn't feel? Was any love.

There was no passion. There was no excitement. The bonds were secured to the witch, but it came with none of the excitement, joy, or light that existed when they were bound to Y/N.

They didn't feel a thing.

Thank god.

Each member of Bangtan has been secretly horrified that somehow they would be forced to have loving feelings for the witch. An idea that repulsed every single one of them. They exchanged glances but pulled them forward when the witch faced them.

Does anyone feel anything for the witch? Namjoon asks as they watched the witch strut around crowing in her glory at finally winning.

Not a thing. Jungkook confirms.

Same. Jimin and Taehyung add.

How we could feel anything for that reptile is beyond me. Yoongi growls.

Jin? Hobi? Namjoon checks.

We're fine, but are you watching Y/N? She's starting to fail, just like last time. Hobi warns

We need to finish this, we don't have much time. Jin agrees.

They follow the witch with blank faces, not giving away that while she may hold their strands and their mate marks, she has no hold over their hearts. The love didn't transfer over.

They loved Y/N. Truly and deeply loved her and they now had a weapon that could maybe free them all.

Yuri walked up to Jin and slid her hands up his shoulders and around his neck, running her fingers through his black hair. She grinned when he didn't pull away. "Can't get away now," she purred.

Jin turned his ruby-red eyes to her, "Get away from me, witch." he growled, venom dripping from his fangs.

Yuri jumped back in shock, "What?! You can't mean that. I own you. You're forever mine."

The others growled their muscles flexing against the leather restraints. No longer standing there passive, they pulled and jerked against the magic holding the chains to the wall.

"We have never loved you. We will never love you and no matter how long you hold onto us, we will ALWAYS choose Y/N!" Jin says with deadly finality.

Yuri screams her fury and disappointment. "NO! You're mine! You are bonded to me. You HAVE to choose me!"

"I choose Y/N!" Jin declares and his chains break from the wall, the magic losing its power over him. It doesn't take long for the rest of Bangtan to make their declaration.

"I choose Y/N!" says Namjoon.

"I choose Y/N!" repeats Yoongi.

"I choose Y/N!" says Jimin.

"My choice is Y/N" Hobi declares.

"I choose Y/N!" Taehyung growls.

"Y/N is mine" Jungkook declares and with those final words, all their chains collapse against their strength and they pull free from the stone wall. The magic no longer held any power over them.

The witch screams as she watches her power fail to hold Bantan back and they rush to Y/N who is lying limp against the edge of the stone dais in the center. As they rushed to her, the magic started to fade from them, they transformed out of their monster forms, returning them to normal, slowly.

"Come on, baby, wake up," Jimin calls, pulling her into his arms, trying to get her attention, but she is unresponsive. His hair slowly started to lose its pink tone.

"Kissing her worked last time," Yoongi remind them. His sandy blond hair started to darken.

They each take turns kissing her, passing her between them, but nothing works to pull her out of the numb stupor she was in. Nothing seemed to work and their hearts were breaking, hoping they were not too late. Their choice had been made, it was now time for Y/N to make hers so they could end this. None of them noticed that their eyes were losing their red gemlike appearance.

The witch pulled and scratched to get them to let Y/N go but they never gave her up. They just ignored the witch and in turn, her magic didn't work against them. She howled in fury at being denied what was rightfully hers.

Jin pulled her into his arms, and kissed her again on the lips to get her attention and he saw her eyes twitch and move just a bit. He wanted to weep with relief that she finally responded.

"My love, you have to remember us. You have to remember all the good times we had. It's your turn to make a choice now." Jin cried as he held her. He kissed her again as his tears started to fall from his darker eyes.

Y/N POV

The numbness was almost complete when I heard a muffled sound like stone breaking and chains clanking. I looked up and saw that Bangtan had pulled themselves free from the wall.

I should probably feel amazed at that, but right now, I can't feel much of anything. I have worked so hard to not let the numbness take over but it's getting harder. I'm fighting so hard to not give in to the cold that fills me up and makes my heart want to stop.

It's not like last time when I still had the other strands to hold me in place, this time, I'm all alone. Nobody is holding onto me. Nobody to miss me if I'm gone. They've all been taken from me and I'm left in this cold numb place.

I know I'm supposed to remember to do something but I can't think of what it is.

As I struggle to remember to fight against the numbness, faces start to fill my vision. I see the faces of men before me but I can't quite recognize them. There is somebody who looks like Jimin but he is missing his pink hair. More faces come into my view but they are all wrong somehow. Where are the ruby eyes? Where is the white and blond hair? Weren't they dripping venom from their fangs earlier? I don't even see fangs now.

They keep yelling at me, but these men are both familiar and not at the same time. Who are these men?

"Kissing her worked last time," I hear one of them say. Kissing?!! What...

Before I can even think about that statement warm lips fall on my cold ones. Who? Wait? What?

Then I'm passed to the next set of arms and a kiss is laid upon my lips. I'm passed from one dark-eyed man to the next and yet, they all seem familiar to me. This seems familiar to me. I wrack my brain to remember. Oh, right. Yoongi kissed me last time to bring me back from the nothingness. Is that what they're trying to do? But where is my blond grouchy mate?

I see a woman screaming in the background, trying to break their hold on me. I feel a tug of something on my body but can't respond to it, don't know if it's the woman or the men pulling on me.

I'm finally in the arms of a broad-shouldered man with familiar black hair and warm brown eyes. The hair and plump lips are familiar but where are his ruby eyes? Why are they now brown?

He lowers his head and the feel of his plump lips against mine sparks something in me. Just a fleeting moment, but that was different enough to catch my attention. My eyes finally move and flicker as I focus on the man who holds me.

His warm brown eyes fill with tears as he cries over me, mouthing words I can barely understand. As I focus, the numbness seems to stutter for a moment, and sound returns.

"My love, you have to remember us. You have to remember all the good times we had. It's your turn to make a choice now." the beautiful man was crying. He shouldn't cry. Nobody that beautiful should ever have to be sad.

"Please remember us," he sobs.

Remember?

"Remember how you rode on my back to the treehouse?" Another man with warm brown eyes and deep dimples filled my view. My eyes flick for a moment as the memory returns. Me flying in the sky with a great bird between my legs. If I could move m lips, I might have smirked at the memory.

"Remember dancing under the trees?" A man with bright tears in his eyes but a wide teary smile said. I focused on him for a moment and then I remembered. They sang to me by firelight among the trees.

"Remember when I swept you away from your friends to go dancing?" Another mentioned. Oh yeah, the first time I met him, another was harassing me, but didn't he have white hair before?

"Remember the boat ride," Another reminds me. Oh yeah, when he was a dog and he was getting naughty on the river... Why is his hair now black?

They each give me a memory of my time with them. My memories started to slowly fill in but why did these men look so different from the exotic men in my memory?

"Remember when we said I do," A man with a serious face reminded me. Then it clicks. Yoongi! The bubble after we said I do where all the magic washed away our illusions and we were just normal people. They all had black-brown hair and warm brown eyes.

Remember and Choose. A familiar voice whispers to me in the back of my mind. Images fill my mind in an onslaught of memories so precious.

My mates!! I remember. Oh, I remember them. Jin, Namjoon, Hobi, Yoongi, Jimin, Jungkook, and my precious heartbroken Taehyung who cried in my arms in the kitchen, telling me his life story.

I remember their love. I remember how much I loved them!

And all at once, it felt like warmth filled me. Filled me till I was flush with emotion and warmth. I moved and shuddered and gasped as I could finally feel the air filling my lungs.

"Oh, thank god, she's moving!" I hear Hobi exclaim.

With the return of my awareness also came the knowledge that there was a very angry witch screaming behind them. I watched as she destroyed anything in the cave since she couldn't seem to touch us. Then I noticed that we were once again encased in a purple shield again, joined, connected by the love we held for each other.

I finally remember what I was supposed to do.

"I choose you," I whisper to them. I'm amazed as they kneel before me. No longer with red eyes and fangs, dripping venom, but as themselves in all their human glory.

And with those words, I feel my body unlock from whatever held it in stasis. My mind filled with all I had started to forget and Jin pulled me to my feet and wrapped me in his protective embrace. I wrapped my arms around him, never to let him go again.

"I love you," He whispers to me and I smile. I know for surety now that their love is real. I had always wondered if they did or if it was just the curse. But with our bonds taken away, only love could remain if it was real.

And it was.

"NO!" a voice howls and something shatters against the purple shield and it fades away. I pull away from Jin to look at Yuri, the witch who had ruined countless lives, seeth with fury at the loss of control over us. She points at each man. "You are mine! She is a worthless piece of bait that I created to trap you. None of it was real. None of it mattered. She is a fake and I will throw her away."

The witch goes to grab me with her magic but I swipe it away negligently. Her magic would never control us again. I stand my ground and face the madwoman I would never EVER call mother.

"I should thank you," I tell her. I feel hands touch me, some on my shoulder, some on my arms, and one even had my waist. We were one and we were standing as one. I had their love and their support.

"What are you thanking me for, brat!" she snarls.

"If you hadn't taken the strands away, I would have always wondered if they loved me. Now I know. They are truly mine. They love me and I love them and we will never be your slaves ever again."

As our love blooms in my chest, I feel the connection to them spring back into place. I can feel them again, but now, it's not the overwhelming pull of mated animals. It's no longer the driving force of mated monsters. It's the love of a human. The choice to love brings people together.

The magic finally breaks and the witch screams in utter agony as it rebounds on her. The stone platform we stand next to starts to absorb all the magic that the witch used to contain and control her curse. We back away from the object and watch, fascinated and horrified as the witch ages as the price of the magic must now be paid.

We shudder as we watch her slowly get sucked dry, her skin cracking, her bones becoming prominent until she nothing but a husk and she crumbles into nothing on the cavern floor. The stone pillar glows purple for one moment and then goes dark. Silent.

I gasp and turn around to face my men, afraid for a moment that their age would now be returned to them and see them standing next to me, healthy, looking like their normal selves. Just...as humans.

Jin takes a deep breath. "Finally, it's over".

I jump into his arms and kiss him deeply. So happy they are still with me. I press kisses all over his face while he laughs. I then jump from one man to the next, placing kisses everywhere I can reach. They, in turn, give me just as many kisses.

"You guys look so normal now," I exclaim once I can break free from frantic kisses and hugs. 

"This will take some getting used to,"  Namjoon says. 

Jin gives me a once over, "You still look different."

I look down and see that I still look Korean.  I look up at them, "I guess this is my real form."  I shrug.  I'll just have to get used to my face looking different in the mirror.  Although, I don't want to be reminded that I come from that psycho."  I shudder at the idea that a piece of her will live on in my face every day. 

"I no longer feel my rabbit, does that mean the curse is truly over?"  Jungkook asks while patting his own body to make sure it was okay.

The others concentrate for a moment, checking themselves, but nothing seems to happen.

"I can't feel my wolf, " Jin confirms.  The others murmur the same with their shifted animals.

"I guess we're finally human again,"  Hobi says. "I'm glad we didn't super age as Yuri did."   He visibly shudders at the memory.  Yeah, that wasn't pleasant to watch.

"Are you going to be okay looking like Yuri instead of your adoptive parents?"  Namjoon asks me.

"That woman was never my parent.  My parents are still waiting for us and I know they'll accept me however I look."  I tell them.  I think of the two amazing people who raised me.  That accept me no matter how much their freaky baby kept changing her appearance.  Who treated me with love and supported me in every adventure I wanted to have.  Their love was everything I could ask for in loving parents and I was just sad that I wasn't their real daughter in every way. 

You were always their daughter. Choose.  I hear that voice say that helped me remember.  I realize that this is the voice of the magic.  Choose?  Did I get one last chance to make things right?

"The magic is asking me if I want to be my parents' real daughter,"  I tell my mates.

"Like this is a question?"  Yoongi asks me.

"Point,"  I reply.  I close my eyes and speak to that voice within.  "I choose to be my parents' real daughter."

The magic moves one last time. I'm wrapped in a purple glow and I feel myself transform, my skin changing tone, my hair changing texture, and getting shorter.  My face became rounder; my body became taller.  When the glow fades, I'm once again in the body I'm familiar with. 

I feel the last of the magic dissipate and it's finally over. I take a deep breath and grab Jin who stands next to me.  I smile at him and he smiles back. 

It's finally over.

We're free.

We can finally start to live the life that we always were meant to.

Together.

A/N:  The curse is finally finished.  I just have one last little epilogue to wrap up our happily ever after and then we will say goodbye to this amazing story.   So keep reading. We reached 200,000 views today.  This is so amazing and I couldn't have gotten here without each and every one of you amazing readers who stuck with my story the whole way.   I have loved every comment and enjoyed all the discussion over who exactly was the witch and how did Y/N become attached to the curse.  I hope I gave you the ending that you wanted.  Not that I would have changed anything because I let stories tell themselves, but I hope you enjoyed where we went. 

Thank you for walking on this story journey with me. I love you guys and purple you all.