Everything was dark, pitch black. I can’t see anything. I can’t feel anything. He stretched his hand out, but he could not even see it as he waved it in front of his face. A sudden jab of pain in the back of his neck had him crying out, though no sound emerged from his throat. Ow, that hurt! A small speck of light appeared in his vision. Someone was screaming, but it was dull and faint and almost seemed like it was coming from miles away. He could feel himself walking towards the speck, and it grew brighter and brighter until he stepped right through it and everything around him burned white.

“JEPP!” someone was crying, screaming, sobs choking the word. “JEPP, STOP, STOP!”

He opened his eyes and everything was red. Jepp… Someone was scrabbling at his arms, at his back, at his skin, and he kept shoving them away. The figure in his hands was floppy like a doll, covered in a dark sticky substance with deep wounds all over that were already healing as he watches. He was sure he could see an arm over by the corner, but his vision was so bleary that he couldn’t quite tell.

, why don’t you die already? Was that his voice? It sounded like him but it seemed rougher, less human.

“JEPP!” Jepp…? It sounded so familiar…

You’re not Jepp the voice growled. You’ve never been Jepp. You’ll always be Yongguk. Always.

He raised his arm again and everything returned to darkness.

He’s going to kill her. I have to do something. I have to stop him! Min, clothes torn and bloodied, skidded backwards from where Jepp had thrown her. As he strangled CL she had watched as his hair turned completely white and his pupils shrank to vertical slits. He had then raised a hand and promptly tore through the skin of CL’s shoulder. “JEPP!” she cried out again, past caring that she hardly sounded like the silent, indifferent person she had portrayed for so long. None of the people in the room would remember her acting like this anyway, and if they did she could simply pretend that she didn’t remember. She could get away with it. Min never lies.

Gritting her teeth, she ran at Jepp and jumped on to his back, nails digging into his face as she tried again and again to pull him off. She winced as her injured arm twinged with pain. Why couldn’t they give me regenerative abilities too? “CL!” she cried out, instead. “CL, WAKE UP! RUN!” I don’t understand. If CL is a Hunter why didn’t she kill Jepp a long time ago? Why didn’t I see it before? She knows Zico, and Zico used to know L. How could I be so stupid? How could I have not seen this one coming? Then, Sungkyu must never find out about this.

“Damn!” she yelled. “How did I let this happen?”

There was no response.

Min was left alone in a room with a bloodthirsty beast and a half-dead Hunter. She didn’t know which was worse.

“Jepp, I know you’re in there, I know you are,” she whispered into his ear as he struck CL again and again in an enraged frenzy, splattering her blood all over the walls and floor only to have her heal right back. “Jepp, it’s Min, it’s me, you can stop now. You can stop.” There was a slight pause, and then he threw her off and flew at her, pinning her against the wall opposite. CL crumpled to the ground, hair completely stained crimson and limbs unmoving.

“Jepp,” Min gasped, and his hands wind itself around . “JEPP!” she wheezed, scrabbling at his hands as he choked the air out of her. He was stronger, so much stronger than L, and this time she felt that she really was going to die here. She wound her hands through his white hair as his eyes bore unseeingly into hers. His irises were clear and rimmed with red, and she spotted no semblance to the Jepp she knew in them, nor in the beastly, manical expression he wore on his face. “I know you’re in there,” she choked instead. Her vision was going blurry. “I know you are, I know you can hear me.” She couldn’t feel anymore. She managed to drape her arms around his neck, using every inch of her strength to pull him into a hug. “You’re my brother, Jepp, you’ll always be my brother.”

It was true; even though her bonds with L wer obviously stronger, Jepp had been the person to get her out of trouble, to make sure he was there to protect her. He was always ready to help her on her way to "becoming human", even though it really only made her feel bad for lying to him. He was the one she had come to depend on more than anything, and she knew that if she died here, that if he killed her, that it was not his doing.

She could forgive him for killing her.

"It's okay..." she breathed as her mind blanked out and she could feel herself flying. But suddenly the pressure on her neck released, and the fog in her mind eased up, just a little. She breathed in a little. The air flooding into her lungs was sweet and she gulped in more and more until her she could think properly again. I’m alive. Everything swam into focus.

She was slumped against the wall; Jepp slouched in front of her, his head bent as he stared at his hands. They were covered in blood – whether her blood or CL’s no one could tell anymore. As she watched, he buried his face in them and lets out a low whine that grew louder and louder until he was screaming, rocking back and forth. “Jepp,” she whimpered a little, crawling forward and laying a tentative hand on his shoulder. He didn’t respond, so she deemed it safe to move behind him and wrap her arms around his shoulders, pressing her cheek to his back. “It’s okay,” she muttered. “It’s okay. It’s okay.” She figured that if she kept repeating it, she might start to believe it herself. Before her eyes the tips of his white hair changed into a darker tone, travelling all over his head until it once again that familiar bleached blonde. His screams grww lower and lower until he sounded human again, until he sounded like Jepp.

“Jepp?” she tried.

“Min,” his voice was hoarse but nevertheless familiar, and she closed her eyes in relief. He clutched at her arms desperately as his voice broke, and she hugged him tighter. “What have I done? What have I done?”

Behind them CL stirred ever so slightly before her body became still.

-

Sungkyu still couldn’t believe that it was Jiyoon standing before him. In the beginning he simply accepted that she was back, that she was here to kill him, and he was fine with it. He accepted it even if there was no logical explanation for it, but now that he found that the Facility was involved, that she was really after CL and Jepp, that she had modified arms that could transform into chainsaws… now that he had had some time to digest it all it only left him with more questions. Like why was Jiyoon targeting CL and Jepp? And what the hell really happened in the Facility?

The moments of bewilderment were costing him. He was caught so many times by her attacks simply because he was too preoccupied to defend himself. You’re just asking to be killed.

“You don’t have to do this,” Sungkyu staggered to one side, swiping at the blood trickling from the fresh cut on his cheek. He was bleeding from several places, but they were light wounds compared to what he was expecting. It was almost as if she were simply playing with him. Jiyoon, a smirk playing on her face, landed lightly on her feet a few meters away from him. He hadn’t even managed to She inspects her blades.

“If I recall, I said the exact same thing to you, three years ago,” she ran a finger almost lovingly along the edge, and it came away red. “And yet you still pulled the trigger.” She offered him her finger. “Your blood. Just like how you spilt mine.”

“You’re disgusting,” Sungkyu spat, new resolve running through his veins. Dead or undead, he didn’t care anymore; he would not let her take away what he cared about most. Dashing towards her, his fingers curled around the triggers. However before he could reach her she met him halfway, close enough to land a kiss on his cheek, a deep cut on his right arm, and a bullet through the side of his calve. In the split second he reacted, twisting around and shooting at her, she leaped lightly away. The smirk is still there, and one again he had failed to touch her.

“Still as hasty as ever, I see,” she shook her head, hands on her hips as he clutched his arm, pain searing through his knees gave way beneath him. “I’m disappointed Gyu, I really am.”

“Don’t call me that,” he snarled. He tried to move his fingers and found with horror that she had sliced through his nerves. He could feel his body going into shock, turning cold and shaky. . He attempted to stand but stumbled to one side, his head spinning. , don’t do this to me now, you stupid weak body. His breath formed little puffs of moisture in the cold temperature, and he fell on to his side, gasping for air.

You’re going to die out here, and no one is going to help you.

“I’m not going to die,” he muttered, teeth clenched. He still held Nero in his limp hand; he had dropped Weiss a few centimeters away.

You are. Look at you. You’ve given up. Just succumb and let her have her revenge.

“I’m not going to give up.”

You killed her. At least let her have the courtesy of killing you.

“ you,” he growled. “ you.” He choked. His body was going cold. He could hear footsteps approaching, but the Sungkyu in his head was still talking.

You’re pathetic. You’re going to die and no one is going to remember you. You loved Soyu and she left you. You loved Jiyoon and you killed her. Just give up already.

“No,” he panted. His hand twitched. He was so close to Weiss, so close… “No.” Jiyoon crouched down in front of him, smoothing back his hair just like she always used to do. “Oh Gyu, it’s useless to struggle. Just let it come slowly.” Her eyes gleamed and he struggled to focus, his gaze bleary. “Savour the time you have left.” I’m not going to die. Not today.

The voice in his head sharpened. Then show me.

“Jiyoon,” he managed, wishing that he was really faking how weak he sounded. He lifted a shaky hand and tucked her hair behind her ear like he always used to do. She smiled down at him, but it was too cold, too arrogant, too triumphant, too wrong. “I… I’m sorry.” It was a lie and he knew it, but he hoped it didn’t show. The smile didn’t leave her face; if anything, it only grew wider.

“I’m not going to forgive you,” she whispered. “But it was nice to see you one more time, to be honest.” She leaned in closer and her breath tickled his cheek. “Goodbye, Gyu.” Her lips pressed against his, cold and unfeeling, and just what he wanted her to do. Show me. In a split second he snatched up Weiss and pressed it against her temple, his body jerking away slightly as he pulls the trigger.

A little blood spattered over his face, but nothing excessive; being an assassin had taught him to make quick, clean kills. Jiyoon’s face was a mixture of surprise and bewilderment as she fell to the ground, and he struggled himself to his feet, as he watched her twitch, a puddle of darkness growing around her head. “I’m sorry,” he said again, staggering backwards. “I was sorry. But you’re dead Jiyoon. You’re dead.”

He sighed and stowed both guns, limping away, the wound in his arm throbbing and pain shooting up his leg with each step. I need a doctor. By now the ashes had all disappeared, leaving behind a still, unnatural silence in its wake but as he rounded the corner a fresh gray fleck landed at his feet. A loud giggle pierced through his heart and rendered his blood cold.

No.

“Gyu~,” Jiyoon sing-songed, her voice gleeful in the distance. Run, Sungkyu told himself, but he was paralyzed by fear and the bullet in his leg. Run, before she kills you. “Gyu~ where are you~?” Desperate, he ducked into the first house he saw, pressing a finger to his lips when the people inside – a mother and her two small children – jumped and open their mouths to scream. He recognized the youngest boy – he saved him from being Snatched just the other day. He dragged himself to the window, standing straight up beside it. The storm outside had picked up the pace, and he knew the ashes would absorb whatever blood he dripped behind him. They were useful like that. “GYU!” came a scream. “GYU, HELP ME! HELP ME!”

He watched her stride past the window, a dark shadow amongst the swirling gray, and pressed further into the wall, holding his breath even though she couldn’t hear him. He couldn’t be too sure though; This new Jiyoon, with her sudden bloodlust and enhanced speed, seemed to be super human. Beyond human, he mused. Because even though her appearance suggested otherwise, there was nothing human left in her.

And just as the storm came, it disappeared. Sungkyu risked a peek through the glass and heaved a shaky sigh of relief; she was gone. A jolt of pain shot up his leg and he slid down the wall, clutching at his arm, his eyes closed. A touch to his knee had him jumping and drawing his gun, pressing the barrel against a skull. There was a scream. He opened his eyes to wide-eyed inoocent ones; the little boy he saved the other day was clasping the torn fabric of his trouser leg, his mother reaching forward to yank him back. Sungkyu realized what he was about to do with a jolt and dropped the weapon in horror. It landed with a clatter on the ground, but the little boy hadn’t even flinched.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to,” Sungkyu whispered, hanging his head. It was true; he really was pathetic. Aiming a gun at an innocent child’s head, killing his girlfriend… maybe he really was better off dead. There was a sudden weight on his chest and stomach, and someone’s arms were warm around his neck.

“Don’t be sad, onii-chan,” said the little childish voice by his right ear. And Sungkyu was reminded that he was the reason that this small, warm body was pressed to his right now. He was the reason that this living being was still breathing.

Looks like you’re not so pathetic after all, said the Sungkyu in his head with a satisfied smirk, crossing his arms and disappearing. Sungkyu buried his head in the child’s shoulder and hugged him close, and for a moment he let himself forget that his body and soul were bruised and broken and more or less irreparable.