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Jessica sat on the bed in Yuri's guest room, leaning against the headboard. Too many things were on her mind - Gyuri, Hyungsik, Silver Rebels, Silver Guardians. Oh yes, Krystal. She lifelessly picked up her phone atop the bedside drawer before she sent a brief message to her younger sister that she might not be home for a while to deal with something "urgent".

The last thing that could be on her mind was work, and perhaps sadly, Taeyeon too. Jessica's state of mind had been thrown completely off balance, but it wasn't so for Taeyeon. The girl immediately noticed that Jessica was missing the moment she stepped into her office. Thinking that Jessica might be late for some reason, she decided to let it be. However, when it was nearing eleven and Jessica was still nowhere in sight, Taeyeon started worrying. She wanted to send Jessica a message, but she thought that Jessica might not like it. But... I'm her boss. With that, Taeyeon picked up her phone.

However, the reply never came. Taeyeon found it hard to keep herself focused at work that day. Thoughts regarding Jessica kept popping up in her head, making her completely restless. Once the day at work ended, Taeyeon found herself driving at full speed to Jessica's house.

Upon arriving, Taeyeon found her heart beating unusually fast. What's wrong with me? She wondered. Taking a deep breath, she pushed herself to knock on the door. She shuffled nervously until she heard footsteps approaching and she stood there frozen. She readied herself to see Jessica but her expectation only dropped her to a greater depth of disappointment. It wasn't Jessica who answered her at the door. Yet, it was someone who strangely reminded her of the same icy feeling that Jessica sometimes possessed.

"Oh hi. You're looking for?" The almost similar nasal voice caught Taeyeon offguard for a second or two.

"Hey. Uh. I... I'm looking for Jessica," Taeyeon replied with uncertainty.

"You are...?"

"I'm Kim Taeyeon, her boss actually."

"Ah... My sister told me this morning that she's not gonna be home for a while actually."

"Oh." It was all Taeyeon could say at that moment.

"Do you want me to give her a call and tell her that you're here?" Jessica's younger sister politely offered.

"Ah, no, it's okay. Sorry for turning up out of the blue."

"No worries!" The girl smiled and all of a sudden, Taeyeon realised how much she missed seeing Jessica smile.

***

Jessica hadn't eaten much since morning. All she had was a pathetic slice of bread that Yuri tried so hard to convince her to eat and she had eaten it only so that Yuri would stop bothering her. It was eight in the night and Yuri figured that she shouldn't just let Jessica fall further into the depths of despair. She got up from her couch and was about to make her way to the guest room where Jessica was in when her phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Yuri?" It was Taeyeon.

"Hey babe what's up?"

"Do you...actually know where Jessica is?"

Yuri automatically turned to look towards the guest room. She hesitated for a moment, before she answered, "She's...at my house."

The call continued for a while longer and then Yuri hung up. Letting out a breath, she walked towards the guest room and knocked gently on the door. Not hearing any response, she turned the doorknob. Jessica was exactly where Yuri had expected her to be - sitting on her bed looking as lifeless as ever.

"Sica, I'm gonna go meet my friend to get something. I'll drop by the grocery store to buy some stuffs later on. If you want something, call me. Okay?" Yuri was slightly glad when Jessica nodded to acknowledge her words. At least she was responding. Yuri thought. "If you get hungry, there's some cheesecake in the fridge. Don't starve yourself." Jessica only nodded again, but Yuri was contented enough.

Yuri was gone for barely thirty minutes when Jessica heard the sound of keys turning in the lock. She thought that Yuri might have forgotten something, and she didn't mind it at all. However, she jumped when the door of the guest room opened without anyone knocking beforehand. She almost readied herself to send her most powerful Trail she could when Taeyeon's face appeared behind that door.

"Jessica..."

"Why are you here?" Jessica's words came off in the most hostile way ever.

"You didn't turn up for work. I tried looking you up at your house but your sister said that you wouldn't be in for a while so... I called Yuri and—"

"Why are you here?" Jessica asked again and Taeyeon frowned. Wasn't she trying to explain to her? "Why are you here? Why are you here?!" The frown disappeared from Taeyeon's face and fear was starting to creep up inside her instead. Something was wrong with Jessica.

She swallowed her saliva. "I—"

"I'm gonna get all of you killed. You're all gonna die! So leave me. Leave me so that you can live!" Jessica was starting to scream and Taeyeon couldn't miss the tears that were welling up in Jessica's eyes.

"Jessica you—"

Jessica got out of bed and appeared by Taeyeon's side almost in a split second. The Jessica before her eyes was scaring Taeyeon and Jessica didn't realise it. Even if she did, she probably didn't care, or couldn't care at that moment. "Go. Go!" Jessica pushed Taeyeon out of her room.

"No wait Jessica! Calm down!" Jessica ignored Taeyeon's words as she kept pushing her towards the door even when they had reached the living room. Jessica was incredibly strong and Taeyeon was using all her strength just to resist her.

When Taeyeon wouldn't stop struggling, Jessica suddenly stopped. Even the abrupt stop scared Taeyeon. Something was off about this Jessica and Taeyeon didn't like that a single bit. Jessica's eyes met Taeyeon's, and Taeyeon froze. "You're not leaving are you? Then I will."

"No Jessica I—" Before Taeyeon could complete her sentence, Jessica had already dashed out of the house, barefooted. "Jessica!" Taeyeon gave chase immediately but Jessica was so fast that Taeyeon wondered if it was even humanly possible for anyone to run that fast. She lost sight of Jessica in just a while but she still kept running in that direction hoping to catch up with the girl.

Jessica lost it. She didn't care if people knew about Silver Guardians any more. All she knew was that she had to shake Taeyeon off, or the girl would be the next to die. She didn't want her to die. She didn't want anyone else to die. She kept running, and running, and running.

Then, she stopped. Jiyong and Seunghyun. Her body couldn't help but to tremble at the suffocating energy which was starting to surround her.

"Gotcha." Jiyong smirked.

"Let's see who's gonna save you this time," Seunghyun's low husky voice already meant death to Jessica. She knew that she wouldn't survive this time and tears began filling up her eyes.

However, a slight smile suddenly showed up on her face together with those teary eyes, because she knew that she had at least managed to save someone from dying - Taeyeon. Seunghyun held up his palm where his Trail started to gather and take form. Jessica swallowed her saliva as she stood frozen, completely rooted to the ground. A smirk graced Jiyong's face once more before his hand hovered above Seunghyun's palm. Jiyong alone was enough to kill Jessica. If Seunghyun was going to get involved as well, Jessica figured that she would probably die twice if it was possible. A massive power was building up, and Jessica was finding it hard to breathe as seconds passed with an unknown strength slowly pressing down on her chest.

"The last goodbye, Jessica." Jessica closed her eyes at Jiyong's words. This was going to be it. All that fight, all that resistance. All those years. Gyuri. Krystal. Yoona. Hyoyeon. Yuri. Hyungsik. And...Taeyeon.

"Goodbye..." Jessica mumbled under her breath, her tears falling uncontrollably.

The massive build-up of power struck and Jessica squeezed her eyes shut. Ominous, dark energy was all around if it was visible to the human eye. Jessica passed out almost immediately. But that was exactly what shouldn't have happened. She passed out, instead of disintegrating into ashes. Because there was someone in front of her who wasn't there before Jiyong and Seunghyun's combined Trail struck her, or at least, before Jessica thought it struck her.

A blinding flash resulted from the resistance from someone, or something. That collision of massive powers sent Jiyong and Seunghyun flying backwards before they eventually passed out. It was fortunately a quiet place, where no one else was around. All of them at the scene were unconscious - Jiyong, Seunghyun and Jessica, but one.

The arm that countered Jiyong and Seunghyun's Trail was slowly lowered, joining the other arm which was wrapped around Jessica tightly. The petite figure was shaking badly. A broken anklet was on the floor. Eyes finally opened, and in those eyes shone a dangerous silver. On that neck, dark Pulse was flashing with threat. The human was long gone in that soul which recognised nothing but the Silver Rebel counterpart of its owner.

Anyone else who dared to lay a finger on that girl in those arms would be considered dead. Anyone who dared to hurt that girl any more, Taeyeon would kill.

[A/N] 13/10/2014

So... It's time you readers stop asking me who/what/when/where/why/how Taeyeon is. I'm kidding. The last scene though... I was imagining it in my head and I almost fell in love with the imaginary Taeyeon, the Silver Rebel. Anyone wanted to be Jessica for that split second? ;) I loved the way Taeyeon was so protective without herself knowing it, anyway. Write me something?

Oh and, you can now follow me at twitter.com/hwang_carmen if you'd like to have some updates from me. Teasers maybe? ;) I don't know. I'll see you there if I see you. :)

The Broken Puzzle readers, I'm actually working on the PDF version of it right now and I'm amending certain parts of the story. I'm wondering if anyone will be interested in the PDF version?

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