He had awoken that night to find CL curled on her side next to him, slightly open and her hand curled actually fallen asleep. It was still dark in the distance, so he supposed only a few hours had passed since then. He stared out for a while, then knelt down beside CL and scooped her up in his arms.

She was surprisingly light in contrast to the strong image she always presented, and as he bounced her a little to adjust her weight she mumbled something unintelligible and patted him on the chest.

Sungkyu stiffened for a second, but then her hand dropped and her breathing grew even again. Heaving a small sigh of relief, he got her through the window with little difficulty. Standing in the middle of the room he wondered where to place her. His bed? The window seat? Or back in her own room? He decided on the last option; it meant a lot less questions in the morning.

Making his way to her room (his arms were growing tired at that point) she jerked again, and when he looked down at her he was shocked to find her looking back. He froze.

“I know what you’re doing.” Her voice was lower, rougher, but her eyes were open and flashed slightly in the dim light.

“Yeah, I’m getting you back to your room,” he said curtly despite the banging of his heart against his ribcage. He hoped she wouldn’t feel it.

“I know you’re trying to stop the invasions. But you can’t stop raccoons, you know.”

At that, Sungkyu realized that she was just talking in her sleep. He stifled a smile and kept walking. “Maybe I’m trying to save the raccoons from themselves. This place won’t be nice for them.”

CL was silent, her head bent, and he wondered if she had fallen back asleep. But then she raised her head. “Maybe the raccoons don’t want to be saved.” Sungkyu was in her room now, taking in the bed clothes in disarray, the clothes strewn on the back of chairs and on the floor. He almost sighed; neatness had never been a strong point of CL’s.

“Yeah,” he replied distractedly, taking a careful step over a knife that lay on the floor. Just a few more steps to her bed; she was getting heavier by the minute.

“Yeah,” CL nodded, then her head lolled backwards and she was instantly asleep again.

He managed to get her on to the bed without having her “wake up” again, and after pulling the unkempt covers out from under her and throwing them over her, he sat down on the edge of her bed and rested his chin in his hands.

“One more mission,” he said aloud. “That’s what she said. One more mission, and I’ll be free. I’m sorry CL,” he turned to look at her. Her hair was strewn around her, mouth slightly open. Her expression was devoid of worries, and he wondered if that was what he looked like in his sleep. He hoped so. “I’m going to have to lie to you one more time.”

Lying on his own bed a minute later, he thought how she sounded when she was sleep-talking to him, how her eyes looked. Clear as day, he thought, but there something deadened behind that gleam. It was almost like talking to a corpse. He shivered and turned to his side. It wasn’t something he particularly wanted to think about.

-

Sungkyu would remember the next few weeks as the best days of his life.

He should have seen it as an omen, he should have known better. He should have known that he was destined to always have contentment snatched away from him, to always know only despair and darkness. He should have seen it all coming. He should have.

But he didn’t.

Later on he would remember the way Min began to act more like a normal human being around them, how at times the corners of Jepp’s mouth would take on a grimness that never used to be there. He would remember how CL never seemed to stop smiling in those days, those days that seems to be bathed in golden light.

He knew now that that was all a lie. In a place like the Precinct there was no light, golden or otherwise.

-

He couldn't believe the profiles that lay strewn around the bedroom. There were a number of them, about fifteen in all, all with a photo clipped to the left side and details running down the left. All had large, violent red letters stamped under their photo. All were labelled [EXTERMINATE]. At a glance the profiles contained people who would have been inconsequential, but he couldn’t ignore the stabbing in his chest when a handful jumped out at him.

There they were, five profile pictures. Blonde hair, black hair, gray eyes, silver eyes. All younger versions of themselves, all younger versions of the people that Sungkyu saw every day.

CL.

Jepp.

Min.

Key.

Zico.

Aboveground wanted a total cleansing, and it seemed that the deserters of Deepground would not be left out of the onslaught.

"," Sungkyu muttered, shoving the papers back into the file and trying hard not to look at the faces of his friends. He slammed the cover shut and threw the whole bundle under his mattress, his heart hammering wildly in his chest. "They've got to be kidding me." He ran his fingers roughly through his hair, trying to force away the images from his memory. But already there were painful flashbacks of opening a gray file to find Jiyoon's smiling face greeting him, of seeing her lying dead on the ground, of feeling her warm blood on his hands – warm, so warm – and he suddenly couldn't breathe.

"I-I'm not doing this," he whispered, staggering jerkily to his feet. “N… Not again.” Bile was rising in his throat. He needed to get out, he needed to get away. This was the only place where he could feel safe, but now the air in his room had condensed and was suffocating him. He stumbled to the door of his room, snatching up his jacket from the floor. His breathing was exaggerated in an attempt to calm himself down. His head was spinning...

"Sungkyu?" a horribly familiar voice wound its way through the blank darkness of his mind, and Min caught him as he stumbled fell to his knees. He wrenched himself out of her grip almost immediately, skin burning where she had touched him.

"Don't," he gasped, clambering to his feet. “Don’t touch me.” He couldn't look at her, couldn't bear to be subject to her kindness when he had been ordered to take her life away. He flinched as she lifted a hand towards him, her eyes wide and confused. CL and Jepp appeared from the kitchen, alerted by the commotion. "Don't!"

"Sungkyu!" she cried out as he fled from her and down the stairs. "Where are you going? Sungkyu!" She scrambled to her feet and took after him in a flash. CL and Jepp exchanged glances, then followed after them.

"Hey, you guys!" Jepp called out as he and CL thundered down the stairs and down the aisle of the empty church. "Gyu! Min!"

“Jepp!” CL breathed, catching the sleeve of his jacket when they had thrown the heavy wooden doors open and realized exactly what they were looking at.

Sungkyu was astride his bike, gun cocked and aimed at Min's head. His body was shaking violently, and CL caught sight of the horror in his eyes as he glanced at her and then looked back at Min.

“Sungkyu,” Min was saying gently, hands held out in front of her. “You don’t need to run away from us. You don’t need to run away from yourself. You can tell us. Any of us. Just… please don’t go.” Her expression was pleading, but Sungkyu didn’t move.

"Stop!" CL cried out, leaping forward and shielding Min with her own body. "Are you crazy?!" she screamed at him. "She's mortal like you, she'll die if you shoot her! Skyu!” She could feel Jepp moving behind her, and knew that somehow they would be okay.

"Put the gun down, Gyu," he said calmly, deep voice contrast greatly with CL's shrill cry. He put a hand on Min’s shoulder reassuringly. “Are you alright?” he asked her quietly.

“I’m fine,” she insisted. “Guys, don’t interfere, please, just leave me alone with him and I’ll sort him out -.”

“He’s aiming a gun at you!” CL cried out, suddenly remembering the number of times he had done that to her. And yet the way he was pointing that same gun at Min was different. She could see it in the very way he held it in both hands to keep it steady. Sungkyu, who hardly ever missed a target, was scared stiff. Something was very wrong. She could feel it in her bones.

"Gyu,” Jepp stepped forward. “Calm down. You don't want to shoot any of us."

"No, shoot me," CL cut in, her hand pressed against her chest. "I'll be alright, I'll -."

"Shut up!" Sungkyu cried, and fired a round into the air. The sound echoed in the stunned silence as CL and Jepp froze. Min took the sudden opportunity to break out of their grasp and run towards him, hand outstretched towards him.

"Don't Sungkyu, don't," she pleaded as her fingers clenched the sleeve of his jacket. "Talk to us, don't run away!"

He cast her a long anguished look, then silently stowed away his gun and kick-started his bike. “I’m sorry Min,” he looked up, and she saw the moment of clarity in his eyes. “I’ll make this right. I promise.” He took off down the street, kicking up the dust and leaving Min to stare after him with the feel of his jacket still clinging to her fingers.

"He’ll come back, won’t he?” she asked quietly when Jepp looped an arm around her shoulders comfortingly and led her back into the church. CL had collapsed into a pew, shoulders hunched and staring blankly into space. Jepp sat down beside her and wrapped an arm around her, rubbing her on the arm as Min sat on her other side and laid her head in her lap. “He’ll come back, won’t he?” she repeated.

“He’s… he’s not coming back,” CL said blankly. She heaved a huge sigh and leaned her head on Jepp’s shoulder. “Not this time.”

“But he promised,” Min whispered. “He promised.”

-

Min gave it til the next day before making her decision. It was a plan that had been turning in her head ever since L’s death, and with Sungkyu gone it was one less person to hold her back. She ran her fingers along her bookshelf, remembering the way L had placed his hands over hers at this very spot, and the pain stabbed at her so violently that she had to clench her fist tight to drive it away.

Her fingers trailed along the wood until she caught sight of the white corner shoved between the pages of her favourite book. She pulled the book out and stared at the cover in the pale moonlight, knowing immediately that she would never read this book to anyone or herself ever again. Not when the memory of L’s head on her shoulder was coupled so clearly with the turning of the pages.

Gritting her teeth, Min pulled out the bookmark and pushed it into the pocket of her dress without looking at it.

She reached beneath her pillow and pulled out the hilt of L’s sword, with its broken blade still attached. She had pulled it out from the head of L’s grave a few hours ago, when she was first sure that she was going to do what she was about to do. Grasping her hair in one hand, she raised L’s sword to her head and in one deft movement, sliced through the thick braid at the base of her neck. Her hair swung free, grazing her chin, and for a few seconds Min stared at the braid in her hand with a sense of freedom growing in her chest.

There was no going back.

She left the braid on her pillow. It was her way of telling Jepp and CL when they found it in the morning that this was her own decision. She hoped they wouldn’t follow her. This was her own mission.

Sheathing L’s katana beside the sealed scythe hanging at her waist, she silently climbed out her window and treaded along the roof, dropping silently to the ground. She made her way to L’s grave and knelt beside it, staring at the head of his grave. The earth had begun to settle, and it terrified her that if one day she managed to come back, she might not be able to find it.

“I’m going now, L,” she murmured. “Watch over the others for me while I’m gone. I’ll be with you soon.”

A slight wind rustled her newly cut hair and swirled around her ankles, but Min didn’t turn back.

-

“Mother,”Junhyung appeared in the doorway, looking bemused. “There’s someone here to see you.”

Yuri turned around in her chair, looking expectantly at one of her many “children”. “Who is it?”

Junhyung stepped to the side, and in the white starkness of the Facility, the girl stood out like a sore thumb with her dark hair and eyes and her black dress. Her eyes were dull and deadened, and her expression blank. Yuri got to her feet slowly, her eyes wide.

“Did BoA bring her?” she addressed Junhyung, but her eyes never left the girl. "I didn't see her go anywhere near the Precinct."

“No,” Junhyung scratched her head. “She came on her own accord.”

“Oh, Min,” Yuri made her way around her desk, putting her hand on the girl’s head. The girl didn’t flinch, but neither did she smile. “You came back.”

“I realized what a mistake I made,” Min raised her eyes to Yuri’s, her voice lacking any expression whatsoever. “I’ll never leave you again, mother.”

Yuri smiled, drawing the girl in for a hug. “I’m so glad,” she whispered, Min’s hair. “I’m so glad that you decided to come back to me.” She glanced at Junhyung, who nodded and cleared his throat.

“If you’ll follow me, I’ll show you to your room.”

Clutched against Yuri’s chest, Min clenched her fist so tightly she was sure that she drew blood. Tread carefully, she told herself, trying to quell the murderous rage rising inside her. You’re on your own now.

a/n: hello everyone, it's been a long time, no? apologies for the delay, i was busy with uni and then planning fics that don't seem to be able to get off the ground. anyway, please leave your feedback as i'm a little very rusty and would love to hear your opinion on how this story is progressing ! :3