The ground shook once more, so violently it was as if it was threatening to engulf the entire land that was above it. Tiffany’s initial assumptions about disabling the defence mechanism would render the traps in the compound useless had been a fatal flawed one. It now dawned upon Tiffany that Black Mamba could have entrusted the defence system of this particular level to another place. 

“Taeyeon, get out at once,” Tiffany said to her leader more determinedly and authoritatively this time. The researcher knows she was wasting precious moments by trying to persuade the leader when she should have been relaying information to Seohyun. Selfishness had taken over and Tiffany could damn herself in the seven hells for all she cared. All that mattered was Taeyeon’s life.

“No way am I doing that, you have protected me the last time. This time, I need to be the one to protect you,” Taeyeon argued back, gripping tightly onto Tiffany’s wheelchair.  

Tiffany’s body froze as realisation struck upon her. She knows.

Taeyeon had been wondering why their relationship had changed so much ever since Tiffany became handicapped. Little had she known the burden that Tiffany had been bearing, trying to keep the secret of having killed her own squad and saving Taeyeon all to herself. Taeyeon had been angry that she stumbled upon this secret only because Hyomin had been kind enough to tell her. But beyond feeling anger, the girl had been even more saddened by it. Despite her dismay at discovering the truth, the girl had decided that if that was how Tiffany wanted it, she could keep mum about knowing it.

“This time, I will face it together with you. You know I love you, don’t you? How could you ignore those feelings of mine for you all these time?” Taeyeon berated, hot, wet tears stung her eyes as she did so. Through her blurry, tear-stained vision, Taeyeon saw the same wetness in Tiffany’s eyes. Realising that this could have been their last moments, she wiped those unbidden tears with the back of her hand and produced a smile, she knew the smile must have seemed forced but she had to smile. They had to go down smiling, knowing that they had no escape, the leader mustered up her courage to speak the much-needed words. “But all these won’t matter now right? Tiffany, I love you and we will go down together this time.” 

Tiffany did not resist. Instead, the researcher gave the leader those eye smiles which she had used to give others so frequently and offered a hand to the leader. The leader took it. The researcher’s sense of duty then sank bank into her mind as she lifted the other wrist with the communication bracelet attached to it.

“Seohyun, can you hear me?! Black Mamba’s has shifted part of its systems’ control to elsewhere! Work on it!” It had pained her to say those last words but she had to. “Report to the other that Taeyeon and I have been incapacitated.”

A reply came back, a panicked one, “Hello, hello, Tiffany and Taeyeon, what happened? Where are you guys?! I will ask the others to get you out.”

Tiffany gave no reply and there was a pause from Seohyun’s side before words interlaced with sniffles came back.

“I can’t, I can’t do all of these alone without you Tiffany.”

Seohyun was beginning to cry and that made it hard for the lead researcher to use her voice as she choked back her own tears. A thunderous boom sounded and hairline cracks appeared on all four walls around them. There was no time left.

“Seohyun, don’t be afraid, you are amazingly talented and can handle things by yourself. Find out the source of control, my best guess is Thanatos’ former compounds and you must warn the others,” The lead researcher encouraged.

Tiffany looked at Taeyeon’s pained face which was levelled with hers and brought the leader’s face to her chest. The wet from the leader’s tears had spread over Tiffany’s chest quickly as she sobbed helplessly.

Feeling as if a barrage had been broken, the lead researcher also released the tears that had been kept within herself all these time before she uttered the last sentence, it was almost a whisper, “Be safe, TaeNy loves you all.” 

With one hand tightly interlaced with the leader’s, Tiffany lifted Taeyeon’s face with her other and pressed her lips deeply into that of Taeyeon’s.

The ground shook one last time as debris fell all about them plunging their world into darkness.

**

Terror gripped the pink-haired captain as she heard the deafening crash that suggested the collapse of an entire building. Please be safe, all of you guys.

Yet, the captain could not stop, she had her own job to fulfil. Fights had erupted everywhere in the main compound and it was an obvious victory for the G7 forces.

However, the leader of Black Mamba was nowhere to be found when they had stormed into her room. Instincts led Hyomin to the highest point of Black Mamba’s building, the helipad. Knowing that she must end her twin’s life all alone, the pink-haired captain veered away from the skirmishes and fights within the buildings and took herself up to where her twin might be. Her heart palpitated wildly as she went up the stairs, taking two steps at a time but the palpitation was not from tiredness but it was from fear. What was she to do if she really were to face her twin sister on the helipad? The warrior did not know if it was a blessing that she was forced to take the stairs which allowed her more time to think. The sword in her hands seemed to grow heavier with each step she took.

The door leading to the open space had been left open. Her heart thumped faster as the opening loomed closer into view. She became vaguely aware of how cold the weather had become. An icy chill that swept over her when she reached the helipad made her feel as if she was bursting forth from a warm cocoon. The iciness of the wind stung the skin on her face and the mist was all about her. However, what made her shudder was the silhouette of a figure that had emerged from a distance.

“I knew you would come up here, I felt you. I regret to say this but we’re truly twins, aren’t we?” the leader of the Black Mamba’s voice sounded truly regretful.

The twin that stood before her was almost the same as that from her memory. The differences were that her hair was now dyed jet black, like that of a Black Mamba’s scale. Her eyes too seemed to have drank the colour from her hair. If her old appearance could instil fear in others, her new one could possibly paralyse others with fear. But Hyomin was not afraid, she could not afford to be afraid right now.

As timely as it was, rain began to descend upon them. Some froze into small pellets and pricked their skins as it pelted on them. The two fighters kept their heads down.

“It was just like four years ago you know, except it had been snowing instead… When Sunny came at me and I drove that dagger into her. We were right at this place back then too… It was such a pathetic attack you know… I had expected her to be better but perhaps she did not care about her life… or she might perhaps even be thinking of throwing it away. Why was that I wonder… for you?” Despite her looks as a cold-blooded creature, Jessica’s breath would still mist before her in this cold. Hyomin could not understand how a person that looked so human could be so inhumane. 

Then without warning, the sword that had been sheathed by Jessica’s side was drawn and she brought it down upon her twin. Caught unawares, the pink-haired twin did not even have the time to draw out her sword from her sheath. Hyomin barely managed to avoid the attack but had taken injury to her right shoulder, a slash that bit deep enough to slice her flesh but not reach her bones. She huffed in shock. An injury that would doubtlessly hamper her movements.

“I had no plans to end my life here and so I shall do away with duelling formalities.” The black-haired twin said coldly as she brandished her sword and this time her twin barely deflected the blow but had gotten her communication device torn off from her wrist.

“You still talk too much.” Hyomin growled as she launched at her twin. Too slow. The Black Mamba was quicker than her blows. 

“Do I? Then perhaps I shall let another fighter who does not talk do the fighting for me.”

A sense of foreboding washed over Hyomin. That was when the pink-haired captain spotted the silhouette that stood as still as a mountain cat in the misty night. Yet, her short stature had not compromise her menace, not even slightly. Hyomin’s heart hammered even more violently in her chest with each step her new opponent took.

“Sunny, you are alive,” Hyomin gasped. The captain felt the world blurring and only the short warrior with boyish blonde haircut was in focus, everything else no longer mattered. How many nights had Hyomin spent thinking and dreaming about her? Countless. How many times had she cried till her eyes became swollen? Innumerable. How long had she promised to love this warrior before her? Forever.

Yet, the person whom she had addressed as Sunny gave no reply and only stared ahead before her, at Jessica. The pink-haired captain had long forgotten about the duel at the sight of her former lover. Hyomin later realised that she was not breathing as she stared into Sunny’s eyes. They were void of emotions, void of love for her and that pained Hyomin so much so that she felt as if her heart was being sliced to shreds.

Completely forgetting her own teachings, Hyomin had her back turned against Jessica as disbelief clouded her senses with this new opponent standing before her and completely in view. The pink-haired captain did not even hear the oncoming assault from her twin and took the slash to her back in its entirety, cutting through her leather jerkin and slicing into the flesh beneath. The pink-haired warrior let out a cry as she felt her flesh split. The pain seared with such intensity that it had almost crippled the captain and she had only managed to support herself with help of her sword.

A shrilly laughter rang in the air as the bemused Black Mamba scooted nearer to her warrior. “I will let S301 finish you. Not such a bad idea dying by your ex-lover’s hands right?”

Project S301. Project S301. Those words rang in her mind as Seohyun explained her speculations. Jessica’s experiment probably was to create an army of human beings who know only to take instructions from their creators. The first stages of project S301 was to drug her experiment subjects to completely control their minds.

“No!” A wealth of emotions engulfed her as Seohyun’s words crossed her minds. She could not believe that the Sunny whom she knew was now a property of Jessica’s. The captain could not take this lying down, not when she had been thinking of her lover so fondly for the past-four-years. She could not allow Jessica to turn Sunny into her minion and besmirch those loving memories she had with Sunny.

She staggered to her feet with all the strength she could muster and charged at Jessica with her swords raised. The captain feinted a hack from the top but actually was attempting a slash from below. Steel bit into steel as the girl whirled around to see Sunny’s cold, dead eyes bore into her own. That was when Hyomin knew that that person who had blocked her blow and shielded Jessica was not Sunny.

“Sunny… I am Hyomin. Don’t you remember?” When no answers came, the captain knew that Sunny was really gone, the minion, the warrior S301 had taken over her senses. “Please remember… We kissed under the great oak tree when we were sixteen,” Hyomin pleaded, her vision obscuring as tears of desperation had finally made their appearance.

Just as Hyomin thought she saw a flicker of emotion in S301’s eyes, a sideways blow had come for her from the warrior but the captain had managed to parry it away. “I do not remember, not you nor the great oak tree,” her reply was so emotionless that Hyomin could not recognise them as Sunny’s voice.

S301 came at her again and again, faster and harder. Joined by her commander, it took all of Hyomin’s concentration and strength to keep up with their simultaneous attacks. With her teeth gritted, she could only focus on defending herself from their savage blows.

“Sunny please remember me,” Hyomin begged once more as tears stung her eyes.

**

A/N:

Hey guys, 2nd last chapter here :) 

Okay... well let's start off with TaeNy with a mega heavy heart. The sequence was pretty fast isn't it? Mortal Peril. Love Confessions. And poof...

I shan't comment too much about them after the very end of the series >< 

So now let's move on to the long-awaited Sunbyung couple, who was the main couple in the first series. orz... they finally reunited as husband and wife. I mean... as enemies... really?

Well... actually there is supposed to only be 8 chapters but the last chapter got too long and so i broke it off in the middle. it then became a cliffhanger as you guys can see xD 

it is damn hard for me to write my author's note without giving too much away so i shall say... i will leave a longer comment for the next chapter all right? xD

Seeya guys until then. :D

Thank you for all the subs and comments :)