NOTE : Oopsies~! Seems like I've miscalculated the number of chapters I have left haha... So yeah, what I'm trying to say is that this isn't the final chapter haha. The next one, Chapter 16 will only officially be the final chapter. And once again, there will be an epilogue after the final chapter~ Thanks for reading all the way here, everyone~! Hope you loved this chapter too and do leave a comment on what you think~

 

CHAPTER 15 : Childhood

 

 

Jennie opened her eyes to find that she was in the middle of a war zone. “Wha-? What’s going on??” The last time she remembered, she was thrown into the black hole.

 

“BOOM!!!” There were explosions all over the place and people were dying one by one in this warzone. To be exact, it wasn’t even a warzone. It was a destruction of a certain village.

 

“No!!!” A young girl screamed her lungs out as she held onto their lifeless bodies desperately.

 

The young girl was no older than 7 and she was wearing an over-sized helmet, with a knife strapped on her waist. She was desperately pulling her dead parents to the side. Jennie squinted her eyes and slowly walked towards her with a confused expression. “Wait a minute… This girl…”

 

Just then, she saw a silhouette of a lady at a distance. She couldn’t tell who that was since the flames in the back were too bright. As the lady turned her head over to the young girl, she started walking closer towards her. It turned out to be a lady wearing a captain coat. The young girl’s eyes shot wide open and immediately pointed her knife at the captain’s direction. “Stay away! I will kill you!!”

 

Jennie’s eyes widened. “CL!? What’s going here!?” None of them seem to be able to see Jennie at all. It was as if she didn’t exist.

 

The captain merely ignored the young girl’s statement and stood in front of her, looking down at her. “What if I don’t? Are you going to stab me?”

 

“…” The young girl gulped and ed her knife towards the captain but to no avail as her wrist was grabbed almost immediately.

 

“You’re a young girl. What makes you think you can hurt me with a knife? What’s your name?” CL asked.

 

“You killed everyone in my village!” The young girl screamed. “I’m not telling you anything!”

 

CL increased the strength of her grip and caused the young girl a lot of pain. “What is your name, girl?”

 

“Hey, that was uncalled for!” Jennie tried to grab CL’s hand but it merely phased through it. “Wha-?”

 

“Ouch ouch ouch ouch!!” The young girl screamed in pain and finally released the knife. “I’m Jennie! Let go!!”

 

“Jennie?” Just then, Jennie’s eyes widened from the realization. That young girl was her. No wonder she felt that the young girl looked awfully familiar. Traveling through the black hole must have forced her consciousness to revisit the memory that she had lost. “This……is the memory of my childhood? This is…my hometown? Just what is going on!?”

 

The captain finally released the young girl from her grip. “…”

 

Without any moment of hesitation, young Jennie grabbed onto the knife once again and attempted to stab the captain. With a single slap on her hand, the knife flew far away, causing even Jennie to tumble onto the ground. “Ouch!”

 

A soldier then came by and saluted. “Captain CL, we’ve gotten rid of everyone who was involved in the plan.”

 

Jennie’s eyes widened. “Plan? What kind of bizarre plan was going on in this village that the World Government was needed to wipe out everyone here!?”

 

“Good.” CL said. “Tell everyone to scavenge the whole area and see what you can find.”

 

“…” Young Jennie was still laying on the ground, grabbing her hand in pain.

 

CL looked at the motionless man and woman laying on the ground. “Are those your parents?”

 

Jennie too shifted her eyes towards the man and the woman. “Those…are my parents…”

 

“SHUT UP!! SHUT UP!!!!” Young Jennie screamed at CL and cried.

 

“What do we do with her, captain? She seem very young. Do you think she’s involved too?” The soldier asked.

 

“Her parents were the ones who started it all. She has to know something too.” CL said.

 

“Should we kill her now then?” The soldier suggested.

 

“No. Bring her back to the World Government headquarters.” CL ordered. “I’ll interrogate her myself.”

 

Young Jennie spit at CL’s face. “I will never tell you anything, stupid!”

 

Jennie frowned. “I was involved too? What happened actually?”

 

“Hey shut up!” The soldier saluted and grabbed young Jennie.

 

“Let me go!!” Young Jennie screamed and resisted strongly. “I will break your nose in half!”

 

“Stop moving around!” The soldier scolded.

 

“Get off!!” Young Jennie threw her head back and knocked the soldier’s nose, causing it to bleed upon impact. As she was about to escape, she was knocked out cold by CL who smacked the back of her neck.

 

Everywhere went black all of a sudden, stunning Jennie. “What!?” Only echoes of her own voice were heard.

 

After a few seconds, Jennie could see again. It was in the interrogation room this time. Jennie slowly walked to the front and took a look at her younger self. Young Jennie was strapped in the chair opposite CL. Her hair was all messy and her face were smudged in dirt completely. “…”

 

“Do you know why I didn’t kill you back then, Jennie?” CL asked.

 

“…” Young Jennie ignored the question.

 

“You’re still a young girl. You still have a long way ahead of you. You can still change.” CL said.

 

“…”

 

“I only need to know some things from you, Jennie. I need your help to do that. I’m not going to hurt you.”

 

“…” Young Jennie slowly tilted her head up and finally locking her eyes with CL. She was glaring into CL’s eyes.

 

Jennie could see the indescribable rage within her younger self, she just didn’t know why. “…”

 

CL showed young Jennie a photo of a golden coloured crystal the size of a fist. “We got this crystal from your village, Jennie. Look at it. Doesn’t seem like an ordinary power crystal, doesn’t it? It looks like this one was a combined power crystal. What were the people in your village planning, Jennie?”

 

Jennie was shocked. The golden crystal in the photo looked almost exactly like the super weapon back in the World Government. Only thing was that it’s extremely small in size compared to the one in World Government. “Wait a minute… Wasn’t this the super weapon!? How was it found in the village!?”

 

“…” Young Jennie was still glaring into CL’s eyes silently.

 

“You’re still not going to answer me? You still think what the people in your village did was right? Do you realize whatever they did were actually against the law?” CL told.

 

“We’re not wrong……” Young Jennie finally spoke. “The weak should perish from this earth……”

 

Hearing that from her younger self made Jennie speechless. “W-What was I talking about? Weak people should perish from this earth!? What the hell was wrong with me back then!?”

 

“…” CL remained silent for a few seconds before voicing out. “Why do you think the weak should perish?”

 

“This world has no place for weaklings…” Young Jennie let out a small chuckle. Hearing that from a 7 year old girl was pretty disturbing. “We were going to destroy the weak people who reside this earth. Only the strong should survive…”

 

“Destroy the weak? Why am I talking like CL?” Jennie was still so confused about what happened last time.

 

CL then stood up from her seat. “Lock her up for now.”

 

“Yes captain.” One of the soldier then grabbed her back to her cell.

 

“What is wrong with that girl, captain?” A soldier asked.

 

“It’s all because of that combined crystal. The report just came out. That crystal we brought back to the lab is constantly releasing an aura that triggers the lust for destruction and despise the weak, like a parasite that alters the human activity. Chances are, her parents were already overexposed by the aura given out by that crystal when Jennie was conceived. So Jennie was basically born with evil thoughts in her head. All these happened when her parents tried to create a new crystal by combining smaller and existing power crystals probably in attempt to make a new discovery. What they failed to foresee was that the combined crystal slowly consumed them with the destructive thought. Slowly, the entire village was affected with this lust for destruction and they started plotting this plan to wipe out the weak people of this earth. This is what happens when you try to combine power crystals.”

 

“But didn’t the power crystals originate from the same meteorite? Why can’t they be combined again?” The soldier asked.

 

“The meteorite had no powers at all until it came into earth and shattered into pieces. The shattering of the meteorite activated the powers of each shard separately. It’s probably because the chemical composition changed when the power crystals were activated. Combining them back will create a completely new crystal that might be very dangerous.”

 

“That sounds dangerous. Should we destroy it then?” The soldier asked.

 

“No.” CL answered immediately. “I want to study it. I’m gonna expose myself to the crystal to understand how it works better. If I can somehow figure out a way to convert its powers to make it beneficial for us in the future, we will never need to lose a soldier ever again.”

 

“Shouldn’t the leader be informed of this too?” The soldier asked.

 

“Nobody should know this thing exists other than us. Do you understand?” CL ordered.

 

“Yes, captain… But what if you’re consumed by it too?” The soldier asked.

 

“Well then that’s just my luck. Nobody else should suffer the same fate but me. It’s my own choice.” CL told. “Keep it in the lab and triple reinforce the steel doors and walls. I don’t want the aura to be detected from even an inch away from the lab.”

 

“Yes captain!”

 

“Wait…” Jennie was starting to understand the situation after seeing this. “So… CL kept this crystal locked tight on purpose so nobody else will be influenced by it? Maybe CL was never really bad after all. She was just affected by the crystal herself.”

 

Jennie’s entire surroundings suddenly flipped to another scene where she saw CL visiting young Jennie daily and trying to convince her to be a better person. Jennie was still young and she still had time to learn what’s good and what’s bad. Sadly, none of them worked. Young Jennie would rather die than to take CL’s advises. She would just sit in her cell and starve herself till the point she faints. CL couldn’t stand young Jennie hurting herself like this anymore so there was only an option left for her to do. “Her memory needs to go.”

 

“What!?” Young Jennie was shocked.

 

“But captain, she’s a little girl. Are you sure about this?” The soldier voiced out in a concerned tone.

 

“She doesn’t need all these hatred and destructive thoughts at this age. It was never her choice. I don’t know how long more she can take with all these hatred within her. It’s all for her own good. Bring her to me once she wakes up.”

 

“Yes captain!”

 

“No! No!!!” Young Jennie resisted like an insane beast, screaming and injuring everyone who tried to hold her. She even bit off one of the soldier’s ear in the scuffle. Despite being a mere 7 year old girl, she needed 3 full grown men to hold her down in place.

 

The three of them dragged young Jennie into the next room as screams were heard. Jennie’s eyes were full of tears watching the scene of her younger self being dragged out of the room to get her memory wiped off because CL wanted her to live a peaceful life. “…”

 

The scene changed again.

 

“Rise and shine.” CL’s voice echoed as she smiled a little.

 

Young Jennie blinked for a while before frowning. “Who are you?”

 

“I’m CL, the captain of the World Government. Do you remember your name?” CL asked.

 

“My name is…” Jennie started grabbing her head in pain. “Wha-? Why can’t I remember anything!?”

 

“It’s alright. I’ll tell you who you are. Your name is Jennie and you’re a soldier in the World Government.”

 

And that was the earliest memory that Jennie remembered. Everything before that were wiped clean off her mind. CL wanted her to live her life peacefully in the World Government headquarters as she had nowhere else to go. CL personally trained Jennie and even treated her like a younger sister. Jennie really looked up to her that time and even wished to be like her.

 

After a few years, CL was promoted to become the next leader when the previous leader went into retirement. Throughout the years, she spent a lot of time exposed to the combined crystal and without her own knowledge, slowly became more and more heartless. She became obsessed with power and even attempted to combine other power crystals together to form a new one.

 

Jennie too noticed her slow change in behavior. CL used to talk to her very often in the past but recently, she didn’t even bother to greet her. Jennie merely thought that CL was stressed with being the new leader but obviously that wasn’t the case here. Being overly obsessed and unsatisfied with how little power crystal she could work on, CL started enforcing a new rule whereby all the power crystals are to be branded as government property. Any power crystals found must be handed over to the government as soon as possible and those who had a crystal bonded in them must surrender themselves to get the crystals extracted from them. That was the point where CL started to disregard other people’s lives. The crystal had affected her badly over the years. It seemed like she had even forgotten about her original purpose of using the combined crystal for the greater good.

 

Since then, the soldiers and captains became more active in retrieving the power crystals from all over the world. They even resorted to opening a few World Government branches in different parts of the world to get the job done faster. One day, a huge discovery was made. One of the rumored BlackPink Crystals, the Red Rose Crystal was found at the bottom of the ocean in the form of an earring and was brought back to the World Government headquarters. Its chemical composition was tested to grant the user super strength and a body of steel.

 

But there was something wrong. The crystal didn’t react to anybody at all. Literally nobody could activate its powers, not even CL herself. She even attempted to break the earring but to no avail. Nothing could even scratch it or melt it. It had been like that for days until one day it suddenly started glowing in red. Everybody was stunned at the sight of it reacting for the first time. CL looked at the glowing earring and then looked in front of her. Jennie was standing there staring back at her with a confused expression. The Red Rose Crystal reacted only to Jennie.

 

“Come here, Jennie.” CL gestured in a cold tone.

 

“Uhm… Okay…” Jennie slowly walked towards CL with everyone watching.

 

CL placed the earring on Jennie’s hand. “Wear it.”

 

“But this is the Red Rose Crystal. I can-”

 

“I said wear it.” CL repeated once again in a cold tone.

 

“Okay.” Not wanting to offend CL anymore, Jennie wore the earring on her right ear. As soon as she wore it, her body released a burst of red energy that pushed everybody back. “W-Wha-?”

 

“Just as I thought…” CL scoffed before looking back at Jennie. “Jennie. You are now the new captain of the World Government.”

 

“Huh!? Just like that!?”

 

That was the story of how Jennie obtained the Red Rose Crystal. Looking back at her memories with her own eyes made Jennie understood something about her own power in relation to the Red Rose Crystal. The Red Rose Crystal’s trigger was the desire to destroy. It reacted only to Jennie because she was born as an embodiment of hatred, strength and destruction. Even though she lost her memories of that, it was still a fact that Jennie was born with the thoughts of destruction in her mind. All the hatred and destruction was passed on to CL who was willing to sacrifice herself to study the combined crystal.

 

Jennie fell on her knees and grabbed her head. “I…I’m an embodiment of destruction… I was born evil… The thoughts of wiping out the weak species… That didn’t come from the World Government or CL… It came from me…and my parents… I never should have been allowed to live… It was all because of me…”

 

Slowly, the darkness started to consume Jennie from her legs. Lisa’s voice was then heard. “So all these time, you’ve been a bad person. It was never the World Government who was evil… You’re the one…”

 

Jennie looked up and saw Lisa staring at her with a disgusted expression. “Lisa, no!” Jennie reached out.

 

“I should have just killed you the first time we met. Now, drown in your own darkness… You will never be a good person…” Lisa said as she disappeared into the darkness.

 

This time, Rosé was the one standing in front of her. “Even I can’t save you from this sin, Jennie.”

 

“I…” Jennie didn’t know what to say.

 

“No light in this world will ever shine in your path…” Rosé shook her head. “I really wish you will die right now so this world will be free from someone as evil and bad as you. As long as someone as sinful as you exist in this earth, no light will shine on it ever.”

 

“Please don’t say that!! I beg you!!” Jennie tried to reach out to Rosé but the latter just disappeared into the darkness.

 

“I can’t believe it…” Jisoo’s voice was suddenly heard. “Y-You’re evil…”

 

Jennie turned around and saw Jisoo looking at her with a horrified expression. Jennie tried to reach out to her. “No… Jisoo please!”

 

“Stay away, fiend!” Jisoo screamed as tears welled up in her eyes. “You’re a monster!! Do not come near me!”

 

“Jisoo…”

 

“You hate weak people don’t you?” Jisoo took a gun and pointed at her own head.

 

Jennie’s eyes widened in shock. “Jisoo, what are you doing!?”

 

“Making your wish come true.” And then Jisoo released a shot and fell onto the ground motionless.

 

“NOO!!!!!!!” Jennie ran over and held Jisoo in her arms. “No no no no no!!!!”

 

“You will never be a good person… You were born evil…” A voice echoed all over the place, messing with her mind badly.

 

“…” Jennie started grabbing her head in pain. Being in the black hole brought all her nightmares to life. “Argh!!!”

 

“Well well, what do we have here?” A voice suddenly called out.

 

Jennie slowly looked up and saw CL wearing a captain coat instead of her leader costume. It was CL from Jennie’s memory before she turned evil, taking a physical form before her very eyes. “CL?”

 

“Why are you on the ground screaming like a coward, Jennie?” Captain CL asked. “That’s not who I trained you to be.”

 

“I…I’m a bad person…” Jennie looked down. “I was born from evil itself.”

 

“Ah, yes… That combined crystal. I remember that.” Captain CL nodded. “You were born from the essence of evil from the crystal. So are you gonna go and destroy the world or not?”

 

“No…”

 

“Exactly. Because you know that it’s bad. I didn’t wipe out your memories for nothing, Jennie.” Captain CL placed a hand on Jennie’s shoulder. “I did it so that you can leave your past behind and move forward with a peaceful life. Why the hell are you even bothered by your evil past?”

 

“Because it’s who I was born as. Do you understand? It’s a fact that I was born evil. I’m afraid…that I might go back to my original evil thoughts in the future!” Jennie argued. “And I…I’ve been living most of my life to fight against evil… How ironic.”

 

“So you’re just going to sit here and let it happen?” Captain CL pulled Jennie up by her collar and punched her face hard. “If that is the case then you’re not Jennie. You’re an imposter. The Jennie I knew doesn’t have a will this weak. The Jennie I knew would stand up again and again to face whatever is thrown at her!”

 

Jennie tumbled back a little. “…”

 

“You know what?” Captain CL spit on the ground and showed Jennie an unamused expression. “Maybe you’re evil after all. So I’m just going to destroy you before you destroy yourself.”

 

“…”

 

“No reaction… Hmph!” Captain CL scoffed. “You disappoint me so much, Jennie.”

 

Just then, a memory flashed into Jennie’s head. It was a conversation she once had with Jisoo.

 

 

Jennie noticed Jisoo staring at her. “What? I got something on my face?”

 

“Nah… I’m just thinking…”

 

“About what?”

 

“About you saying that you’re a bad person.” Jisoo answered.

 

Jennie looked a little down. “I helped the World Government gather the innocent people to get their crystals extracted. I literally led them to their death.”

 

Jisoo grabbed Jennie’s hand suddenly, shocking the latter. “No matter what you think of yourself, I don’t believe that you’re a bad person, Jennie.”

 

Jennie looked away in guilt. “…”

 

Jisoo pulled Jennie’s face back to her direction gently. “Jennie, look at me. You may have done some bad things in the past but that doesn’t define you as bad. Whether you’re a bad person or a good person, it all depends on your intentions. If what you did was with the intention for the greater good, then there’s nothing bad about you. Remember that.”

 

 

“I’m going to beat you up!” Captain CL leaped towards Jennie and released a punch. To her surprise, her fist met with Jennie’s palm.

 

“…” Jennie just blocked Captain CL’s punch. “I’m…not evil…” Jennie said softly.

 

“Say it louder, damn it!!” CL shouted.

 

“I said I’m not bad!!” Jennie knocked CL’s arm away and replied with a punch that sent her flying a few feet back. “I will not let my past ruin my future!”

 

Captain CL finally smiled at Jennie’s burst of will. “…”

 

“I will not let the darkness win over me. Desire to destroy?” Jennie scoffed. “If I have any desire to destroy, it’s the desire to destroy the evil in me and move forward!” Jennie screamed as a burst of red energy blasted out of her body.

 

“AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!” Jennie raised her fist in the air and slammed it down on the ground, sending a burst of violent red energy and forming a crack in the darkness.

 

Captain CL nodded and smiled in satisfaction. “Accept the truth and the truth will set you free. You’re a strong girl, Jennie. It’s time to move forward. I have faith in you.” She then disappeared into thin air.

 

Finally calming herself down and accepting who she is, Jennie slowly walked towards the crack in the darkness. There was a light shining through from the crack. “Lisa… Chaeyoung… Jisoo… Please hang in there… I will come to save the three of you. We’re going to get out of this place together.” With that, Jennie placed her hand through the crack in the darkness and slowly ripped it open as a bright light shone brightly on her entire body.

 

CHAPTER 15 : Childhood

END