Hyukjae and Sungmin had parted ways as soon as they had arrived at the Headquarters, determined about their very own little mission, they talked to several lawyers, sitting in libraries to flip through books of law and jury till late into the night.

The situation had changed, that was for sure. They had asked Kyuhyun and Henry to return to The Black Widow, keep up the façade of trying to hunt down Donghae as well while subtly trying to find out just how many men actually wanted Donghae dead. Kyuhyun had agreed that if he and Henry did not entirely agree with the Captain’s plan, there was a possibility there were more crew members who could even fight the Captain to defend Donghae.

The stress level was not as high, Hyukjae actually smiled in anticipation to see Donghae’s reaction when he would go back to tell him how Kyuhyun and Henry just might be creating Donghae’s own personal army.

“Hyuk! It’s not as worse as we thought” Hyukjae glanced up and Sungmin quietly pulled out a chair in the almost empty library, he cast a look at the bored librarian who looked like he would fall asleep any second. His eyes darted back to sungmin flipped a few pages and pointed in at several sentences “See, according to all this Donghae does not simply evade getting hanged but it’s not even a life sentence since he will be acting an unofficial member of The Force itself, kind of like a reformed human being already, provided he contributes and cooperates fully with The Force, in that case it’s a matter of five years in prison, his property will be apprehended, so naturally the ship goes along with whatever treasures he looted.”

Hyukjae nodded slowly, taking it all in “ Can the years in prison be reduced with community service?”

Sungmin flipped to another page “It says here, well it won’t be reduced but instead of being looked up all the day and night behind bars and feeling the days drag by, he would be able to spend time doing chores outside, for him spending time will become easier.”

Hyukjae didn’t want to raise any false hopes within himself or Donghae, this was almost too good to be true! But still, Donghae would ultimately need to sacrifice his freedom and they would remain separated for a long time. It was easier said than done.

“That is, if Donghae decides to go with it.” Hyukjae reminded him in a hushed tone.

“Hyukjae, this will be a better decision” Sungmin peered at him earnestly, being able to see how it pained Hyukjae “It is a tough one, a very very tough one, but a better one. Aside from this, the only other way is to run and even if we don’t want to face it we have to, that running away is only asking for more trouble.”

Hyukjae nodded all sorts of nervous about Donghae’s decision. All of their planning would go to waste, it would mean nothing if Donghae said no.

“Unlike your case” Sungmin paused to cast a look around, noting how they should really be going “Atleast donghae has the two of us in his defense, we will be looking after him throughout and then there are Henry and Kyuhyun who agreed to follow Donghae’s footsteps, please try to make him see things like this. Unlike you, he won’t be just blindly walking into prison, he has us.”

“I did mention to him, how I was all on my own, not knowing what future had in store for me, huh, and now look at me.”

Sungmin fondly patted Hyukjae’s back, now all could do was hope for everything to go smoothly.

Meanwhile, moving through the dark Jungle, several figures heaved, hammering down the ground that they had found out to be covered up openings to underground caves. The Captain stood there, his long curly white hair blowing with the wind. He kept a small torch trained onto the incomplete piece of paper.

He was desperate, things were delayed as it is, and that wretched nephew of his was missing. He was not going to foolishly hope the boisterous boy was dead, he would allow himself to relax only when he would get to see Donghae’s dead body. So while half of his crew was out hunting for Donghae, the rest were sweating away as they searched and searched for a certain something the Captain desired badly.

“Cap’n, what’cha gonna do if we dun find any of them blue stones.” One of the exhausted, older crew members asked warily. Frankly, his limbs were going to fall off with all the exertion. The Captain’s face morphed into the most fearful grin as he hissed “I’ll have yer head! Now get back to work you freeloading scallywag!”

He could sense it, his crew was nearing its limits. He remembered boasting about having gotten to know of a land with plenty of magic stored underground. The magic those underground caves held within was said to be amazingly strong and diverse. Instead of having limited attributes the mgic moulded itself in accordance to the user’s will. Captain knew very well what he aimed for, he was to take over several pieces of land for himself, conquering nations one by one and he was going to start with Boala. So he was bloody keen to see just how that magic would help him do this, he was agitated and apprehensive, having had enough due to all the ty delays.

At some distance Kyuhyun and Henry were taking a break, chests heaving as they cast looks around. The crew was spread all around, some seemed to be hating their lives at the moment while the rest worked with vigor. A man of a solid built with an eye patch came to a stop in between them, they peered up at him inquisitively. The big guy stared down at them for a while before he muttered lowly “Ye were close with Donghae right? Is he really dead?”

Henry sighed while Kyuhyun put up the most forlorn frown “Yea we were, but that rat betrayed the Cap’n, we don’t know anything…why are ye so concerned?”

“I don’t care what you think but I don’t want him to be dead!”

Kyuhyun and Henry shared a discreet look, Henry clapped the big guy’s shoulder “’Ey, what’s yer name? Do ye think yer the only one who feels this?”

“Kangin” He grumbled “And no, I know some of the crew I’m close with also feel the Captain’s just being-“ he paused to warily look around leaned in and whispered “Just being evil, he’s got his own plans and old Jungsu told the lot of us that the ship’s actually Donghae’s to take. The Cap’n just jealous his brother didn’t give the rights of ship to him so he wants Donghae gone to take over the ship.”

“I like ye.” Kyuhyun claimed with a smirk “Ye got interesting stories, what ye say, we meet up down in the storage room, the whole lot of yers?”

Kangin peered at them closely, took his time and nodded “Fine, but if ye two set some sort of trap, I promise I’ll chop ye into tiny bits.”

A shout from the Captain to get back to work had them scrambling to hammer away at the ground, the grins on Henry’s and Kyuhyun’s faces were wide, suddenly the idea about creating a little army of their own didn’t seem as farfetched anymore.