I open my eyes slowly to a soft green glow. My head hurts but it's nothing compared to my right arm. I try to flex my fingers but sharp, shooting pain runs like wildfire up every nerve in my arm and I swear quietly. Someone has me over their shoulders, holding tightly to my left leg and wrist to keep me steady.

"You're awake?"

I nod slowly, not wanting to worsen my headache, but hearing Yongguk's voice is a comfort. Zelo is walking ahead of us, his flare casting the green glow that I woke up to. The air of the tunnel is more than a little cool but I'm too distracted care. For whatever reason, my brain has gone from focusing on my arm to noticing Yongguk. Little things.

"You can put me down now," I mumble, afraid speaking too loud or moving too much will only cause more pain.

"What?"

"You can put me down."

Refusing to put me down, his grip on my wrist and leg tighten and I can feel my face heat up when he pulls me a little closer, the muscles of his shoulders flexing and sending a shiver up my spine.

"I don't know the extent of the damage done but it's by sheer luck that the tunnel ceiling fell at an angle – at least one bone is broken and you hit your head pretty hard when you were knocked into the wall. Better than a crushed skull, though." Yongguk turned to look over his shoulder at me. "I could put you down, but then you'd have to walk and you need more rest than any of us right now."

"I'm fine."

"You almost died, now shut up and try to go back to sleep."

I rest my forehead against his back and closing my eyes with a bored sigh, the sound of his footsteps slowly fading away as the world around me slips away.

*****

"Bree. Wake up."

"Wha–?" Careful to not bump my arm, Yongguk lets me down and stands up to stretch. I look around noticing the green cast to the stone has been replaced by a familiar yellowish glow and I am horrified to find myself in an all too familiar tunnel; there before me is the cart I had taken only a month ago, Zelo already standing it and waiting patiently. "This is the main tunnel… Why are we here? This is dangerous! Ow!"

My head throbs at the volume of my own voice.

"We're here because the tunnel that saved our asses brought us here. Come on, we need to keep going." Crouching down with his fingers laced together, Yongguk gestures for me to step up. Unsteady, with only my left hand to help me balance, I am grateful when Zelo reaches out and pulls me in carefully.

We all take a seat after Yongguk sets the cart in motion and curl up for warmth. This is never a particularly easy journey to make, even when you're at full strength and right now none of us are. As the fact that we are actually making it begins to sink in, so too does the realization of what all has been set in motion. It's only a matter of time before everything comes to light. What we have right now – a rebel faction running around in the underground, men and women creating machines to help in an inevitable war – will it all be for naught? If I hadn't killed him I would be dead myself, but he's someone who will be missed. How long until they come across the rabbit holes and the tunnel in my office? How long until they go after Himchan and Youngjae? The entire trek to VIXX has me drowning in questions that are crushing my heart slowly. My little brother Daehyun – is he okay? What about his new friend, Taylor? She's only just gotten involved in all of this and it seems like being associated with us will already have her running for her life. I know full well the men she has grown so close to will help her stay safe but regardless…

Speaking of keeping people safe, Yongguk has kept close to me the entire time and during the walk between the rail cars he even tried to carry me again but I wasn't having it. I really don't mind the idea of being carried places right now – I have at least one broken bone, I'm cut up, bloody, and I'm certain the whole ordeal left at least a couple of my stitches ripped out. What I do mind is the fact that Yongguk would be the one carrying me. The boys are curled up beside me in the cart and they manage to sleep for a while during the ride in the second cart but with everything I have going on in my head, I can't seem to sleep any longer. Not right now at least.

After almost falling out of the cart for the final leg of our journey though, I am forced to reconsider and I find myself back on his shoulders. I am, or rather was, the leader of the Matoki. I'm physically powerful, a dependable leader, and have a strong sense of pride in my ability to support my family. Yet here I am feeling about as useful as a sack of wet laundry and being left to my more depressing thought processes. A voice eventually snaps me out of the daze that I have been in since I woke up again though, and I realize we're standing in front of the door.

Zelo opens it slowly, careful to not blind himself or anyone else, but as soon as he has the door wide open he's shouting for help. Yongguk puts me down gently, sitting me back against the wall and making sure I don't hit my already injured head. They both look down at me and I smile weakly; the fact that we've finally reached a safe place gives me a great sense of relief, and that relief is what finally lets my exhaustion catch up to me. I just want to close my eyes. I lean against Yongguk and breathe deeply. I may not be able to go home to my office anymore, to the blankets and the pillows, and to the love and stupidity of my family, but having Yongguk beside me to lean on and his familiar scent is about all the comfort I'm going to have from now on. Yongguk has Zelo run off to find someone but no sooner has he left when Hyuk and Ken come running up the stairs; they are only there long enough to take half a look at me before running down the hall Zelo just disappeared down, shouting for Hongbin.

I don't want to admit it to anyone, least of all my second in command, but for once in our lives I don't know what we're going to do.

"It'll be okay." My eyebrows shot up and I look over at Yongguk, surprised as he wraps an arm carefully around me. "Your awesome poker face isn't as awesome as it really could be sometimes. I don't know if everything will be okay in the end – at this point I can't even say I know that things will be okay a week from now – but being here with people we can trust means that it'll be okay, even if it's just for now."

Hongbin is running towards us, the sound of his heavy foot falls reverberating off the walls and making my headache worse. Everything that is happening is a blur now, partly because I'm passing out but mostly because there's so much shouting going on that I'm not really sure whose voice to focus on. Much to Hongbin's displeasure, by the time we reach the medical wing we've gained a crowd and even N has made his way down. My overalls are lying on the floor, destroyed and caked with dirt and dried blood in places where I bled through my bandages and where my stitches tore – they have to be removed and entirely redone. Unfortunately for me, the stitches are the least of my worries right now; my right ulna is almost shattered, the radius broken and clavicle fractured from protecting my head, my left is scapula fractured from hitting the wall so hard and I have a minor concussion. The fact that technology exists to help knit bones back together is a comfort, but I'm vaguely nauseated by the knowledge that it leaves me receiving three sessions of shots per day and pins in my arm for a week, until the bones are stable enough to remove them.

By the time I'm finished bleeding all over Hongbin's exam table and he's ready to knock me out to set my bones, Yongguk and Zelo have finally succumbed to their own exhaustion and collapsed in the corner. Everyone else who had come in with us has been kicked out by N, though he himself has stayed. Hongbin hands him a mask and he places it gently over my nose and mouth.

"I have to give you the first round of shots tonight, Bree. I'm sorry, I know you're already in a lot of pain, but the first round is a double dose which will kick-start the healing process." He turns around and starts the gas. He keeps talking but within seconds everything is just white noise and eventually everything just seems to disappear.

*****

When I wake up, I feel like I've been stepped on by one of Youngjae's creations, though the splitting headache is thankfully absent. My arm is throbbing and I look down to see small pieces of metal sticking out from my forearm, but when I flex my fingers I'm relieved to find that it doesn't feel like it's being ripped apart.

"How does it feel?"

I nearly jump out of my skin at the sound of N's voice. I look around and find him slumped back in Hongbin's chair; sitting up, he brings his feet down off the desk slowly and arches backwards to stretch out his spine. I can't help but notice as his shirt rises up to show off his abdomen when he raises his arms up with a sleepy, satisfied groan.

"Do you need any pain killers?"

I blink rapidly and look away, feeling my cheeks heat up. "N-no, I think I'm okay for now."

Sitting up is a much harder task than I would normally anticipate, and I let out a hiss of pain when my shoulder and collarbone protest. A warm, broad hand settles behind my shoulders to help me up, stacking pillows against my back once I'm sitting straight; when he flicks a lamp on I see that the others are completely passed out in the corner, Zelo having fallen over in his chair to sleep across Yongguk's lap, who has wedged himself in to the corner and is snoring softly.

"It may be a couple of days before you can move normally, but at least your arm is back in one piece right? Well… Sort of. What I mean is your arm has pins in it now and you're all stitched up… But… It's – it's not… I'm not helping my point, am I?"

I couldn't help but laugh. "You're so awkward."

His cheeks flush pink. "What? W-why? Why?"

As he sits there almost floundering for words, I can't help but laugh at him again. I'm not sure what it is about him that makes me so comfortable, especially considering how we aren't intimately familiar, but I know instinctively he's someone I will be close to.

I hear Yongguk shift in his seat and Zelo grumbles in his sleep when he gets shoved around a bit, but both of them seem to remain asleep; I look over at them and frown to myself, still worried. N looks over at them then back at me. His hand finds mine, his thumb running over my knuckles absentmindedly, and oddly enough it's quite calming.

"Hey, I know you just got up – sat up? – something like that… but you should really go back to sleep. The serum helps you heal but it uses up a lot of your own energy; please eat lots and sleep whenever you feel tired while you're healing, okay? In the meantime, I should really head back to my own room since it's the middle of the night and Ravi's probably wondering what the hell happened to me by now."

I nod quietly and try to shift positions but it's no less painful than trying to sit up; N helps me lie back down, making sure my blanket is pulled up and the lamp has been shut off before he stands up again, his hand on my forearm.

"If you need anything, your friends will probably be more than happy to help you. When you guys get up tomorrow and if you're feeling up to it, come and find me. I have a few things that I think we really need to discuss, the least of all being where you're going to be staying around here."

A tired sigh escapes my lips and I promise to look for him when I'm awake. "G'night, N."

"Sleep well," he smiles, letting his hand trail down my arm and over my hand as he leaves.

I can't help but smile a little bit that N and I get along, though I get a sneaking suspicion that N and Yongguk are probably going to end up in opposition now and again. Closing my eyes, I settle back in the pillows.

"G'night, Zelo, Yongguk."

"Goodnight," answers a deep voice.