Jael’s POV

“Kyungsoo!” Kai slammed his fist against the container. The entire thing shook dangerously and Kyungsoo shifted from left to right. He wasn’t flinching at all but a warning signal irrupted the place. “Kyungsoo! Can you hear me? Yah! Kyungsoo!” Kai was still banging his fist against the container.

“Kai! Stop it! You’ll kill him!” I said, pulling him away from the container. Water swooshed out from it, spilling it on the ground and onto my attire.

“Then what do you think we’ll do?! Stay here and wait?!” Kai’s voice rose over the wailing sounds and this is not a good idea at all. There are too many people here to rescue and even if we try, we’ll barely rescue less than half. Apparently the Commander decided to merge Estrovians and Humans together. I supposed he did this experiments quite some time back because I remember having mutilated Estrovians attacking me during my Guard test.

“Relax, Kai. Breathe.” I patted his head. I was at the verge of breaking down seeing my own friend like this but I controlled better than Kai. “L – are they any people coming over?”

“Wait, I’m checking it.” He made several clicks on his communicator and hacked into the security system in the Commander’s office. “All right – an army of Guards are heading to our way. But they are still quite a distance apart.”

“Got it,” I replied, pursing my lips and biting on my nails to think of a plan. “L, do you think they’ll die if we just take them out of this water thing?”

“It’ll be painful for them but it’s worth a shot. The syncing of Humans and Estrovians only takes place in the ‘icing room’. I supposed all of them here are either already merged or waiting to be merged.” L explained, etching his brows. “I once overhear Commander Park talking about this – I didn’t know its already taking place.”

I nodded along when L talked. Kai’s composure returned and he was busy thinking of a plan too after hearing that they won’t die after being taken out from this container. This is our chance then. To save all – or none.

“Is it possible if we open up a portal here? I will bring along the best of my soldiers and we’ll rescue them all.” Kai suggested.

“You can’t open it here, what if the Guards managed to sneak in?” I said, rejecting his idea but Kai shook his head.

“They won’t know how to use the portal. I will customize it in a way that if non Estrovians passed through it, they’ll end up in someplace else.” Kai said, his voice monotonous. He’s serious on this idea and I have a feeling that he’ll just go ahead and do it even if we rejected it.

“Are you sure it’ll work your way?” L asked. “How long will it take?”

“As fast as I can. You may want to help me stall as much time as possible before the Guards come.” Kai instructed, pulling off the protective bracelet and bringing up his hands to summon the portal. The summoning of his portal took longer than the usual but he still managed to bring up the bright, white liquid portal up.

L closed his communicator and took out his own gun from his holster and is eyes gleamed brightly. “I guess that’d be our mission for now. Are you ready, Jael?” I did the same, taking out my new revolver.

“Good luck guys,” Kai said but he walked over to me first before heading towards the portal. He leaned in to my ear and whispered something that wasn’t so like him. “You can do it, Jael. I love you,” Frightened was replaced with comfort and warmth and my insides fluttered in glee. He briefly pulled my waist nearer to him and kissed me softly on my lips. “I’ll be back.”

“All right, love-birds,” L came in between us and flicked his fingers, gesturing me to move aside for a moment. “My turn to tell his iness something. Excuse us please.” L said, smiling. I stepped aside reluctantly, desperately want to hear what L told Kai. When L pulled back from Kai’s ear, Kai had no expression on. His eyes glinted when he looked at me but other than that – nothing.

“I’ll go first,” Kai said and without turning back, he stepped into his portal. Just nice the alarm stopped ringing and L’s own communicator rang.

“Ooh, it’s time for us to act. The Guards are coming in…”

BAM!

That door swung opened violently, slamming against the wall. “Freeze!” one of the Guards yelled, their own guns pointing dangerously in our direction. L stood in front of me, blocking my view. “S-sir L!” the Guard called.

“Weapons down, now.” L commanded.

“Sorry to defy you, sir. But you’re no longer one of us.”

L is trying to stall them before we exchange crossfire. Two against more than twenty: a super risk. “Who says I’m not? I’m here to lead you all to Estrovia.” L said, slowly lowering his own gun.

“We don’t believe you, Sir.”

“Well, how can you don’t believe me when I’ve captured the Princess of Estrovia?” L spun around and his gaze changed. I could almost read his mind saying ‘play along with me’. I nodded briefly and snapped my bracelet apart so that I could change right in front of them. To really fool the Guards, L grabbed me by my neck and pointed his gun on my head. I faked a struggle but turned out really struggling when L squeezed too hard.

The Guards immediately lowered their guns and saluted L. “I’m sorry, Sir. Please pardon us.”

L mouthed the words: I’m sorry before tossing me violently across the room. I landed against somebody’s container, heading spinning wildly. Man, that was really ruthless but at least the Guards aren’t paying attention to me. I pretended to faint.

“Where’s Commander Park?” L questioned.

“He’s coming over.”

“I’ve had that girl opened a portal for me and will be directly transported to Estrovia. I want you all to follow me along and bring some more Estrovians back.” L instructed. It was a gamble for the both of us. It’ll depend if the Guards are dumb enough to believe L. I hear somebody coming over.

“Assign yourselves into groups of four. We’ll go in group by groups.” L said. The Guards shuffled into the positions, obediently listening to whatever L say. “All right, first group go ahead first.”

Without any hesitation, the first group of Guards slipped into the portal. I heard the ‘swish’ sound and then they are gone. The next group went and then the next. The plan is proceeding well – until a loud voice resonated the room, stopping the last group of Guards from going into the portal.

“L! You piece of ! Capture him!” the Commander barged into the room, booming instructions. The Guards were hysterical, not sure what was happening but they listened to the Commander. The four of them grabbed L in a vice-like grip, making him lose his grip on his own gun.

“I thought you’re dead. What are you doing here?” the Commander hissed. He then averted his gaze to my direction. I stiffened – what should I say? Hi? I brought up my Aether Core, readying myself to fight back if something happened here.

“Oh… Kyung Mi…” the Commander mused. “What are you doing here?”

“To destroy your plans.” I snapped without thinking. The Commander raised a brow, amusement flickered across his eyes.

“Destroy my plans?” he padded over to me, taking out his own gun from his holster. “How are you going to ‘destroy my plans’?”

“I am, right now – destroying your plans.” I can’t wait any longer. Can’t wait for Kai to come save my . L was helpless on his own, being pinned down by four strong Guards. I came up with a plan – do or die plan. I flipped my Aether Core colour to blue and lifted my palms up. Taking the advantage of the waters surrounding the room, I imagined myself controlling those waters and applied pressure to it.

The second I did that, water started gushing out from the containers, the one behind me hitting straight on the Commander’s face. Bingo! The glass containers broke and the bodies of both Humans and Estrovians slipped out. I was about to head over to Daehyun’s side but somebody grabbed me from the back and flung me across the room again. My back screamed in pain and I winced.

“You little ! I shouldn’t have brought you over here knowing you’ll betray me!” the Commander shouted, pointing his gun at my direction.

A shot was blasted.

Red blossomed out from my chest, staining my dark jacket. Pain flared from inside out and soon turned to numb. Black dots danced in front of me and I for a moment I couldn’t breathe.

White light chased away my black dots, blinding me. Then the vision cleared a little and  I pictured a tall, lean figure standing over me – it was Kai.

Thank goodness.

My eyeballs rolled back; darkness.