Jimin wanted to say it was a race against time because it sounded cool then. But now, he wonders if there is actually time to race against. Without question, his Guardians run after him as they enter the green city of Guadosalam, and a few Guados run up to welcome them into the city. Nothing seems out of order. 

"Good evening, travellers. What brings you to our humble abode amongst the trees?" the Guado who greets them drawls, apparently taking pride in his legato voice. "I am Tromell, who serves Lord Jyscal." 

"Lord Jyscal?" Namjoon questions.

"Why yes. That's Lord Jyscal's sacred palace. None may enter," Tromell is glowing with pride as he gestures towards a large and grand building. "Would you like a room for the night?" 

"Yeah, but wait. I have a question," Jimin pauses, scared of his answer. "Did you see a...you know, Guado run past here just now? He has a rucksack on his left shoulder and...uh...wears brown? No, no! Green shirt with brown pants!" 

Tromell seems to consider this question awhile before stating, "Can't say I have seen this Guado you speak of." 

Did Hoseok abandon them? Jimin looks back at his Guardians, and they look confused too. 

"We'll take a room for the night," Seokjin steps up. "Three rooms, thank you." 

"Of course," Tromell bows low and leads the group towards the inn in Guadosalam. 

Jimin knows it. That Tromell guy is lying thorugh his teeth. He did see Hoseok, and Jimin bets the older Guado knows where Hoseok has gotten to. But why...Hoseok was so against coming to Guadosalam, and yet he volunteered to go book rooms. Jimin has to sneak out tonight. There's no telling what will happen to Hoseok come tomorrow.

And he plans to go alone.

*************************************************************

"Where have you come from, rogue Guado?" 

Hoseok shuffles his feet as he is facing the back of the most revered Guado in the history of the Guados. The Guado that had spread the teachings of Yevon to the entire Guado race. 

"Five hundred years ago." 

"You shouldn't belong on this plane. Go back to where you belong." 

"No, I won't." 

Jyscal now turns to face Hoseok. The younger-looking Guado shifts uncomfortably. "I've been roaming Spira for five hundred years. I'm not going to go back just yet. Besides, I have a mission now." 

"Oh? And what would that be?" Jyscal's tone is challenging.

"To Lord Jimin to Zanarkand." 

"Become a Guardian, have you?" Jyscal chuckles before his voice turns serious. "Begone, Guado. Leave the holy ground of Guadosalam and taint not this blessed settlement." 

"I'll come back eventually. Just not yet," Hoseok states flatly. "Not until after I complete my mission." 

"Say, you haven't seen Seymour yet, have you?" 

"Today? No. I can't say I have." 

"He usually keeps to himself, with his mother, in his room," Jyscal sighs. "He rarely talks to me, but for a five-year-old, he's very well-read." 

"I see," Hoseok leans against the wall. "I'm going to go now. Back to my Guardians." 

"Back to your Guardians?" Jyscal suddenly laughs, the piercing voice cutting through the air. "You're not going anywhere." 

Hoseok's eyes widen as Jyscal's figure suddenly morphs into that of a younger man's, his hair suddenly turning into a white colour and lengthening until it reaches his . Jyscal's clothes change into that of a warrior's dress. Hoseok found the guy good-looking, although he's a guy himself. 

"What did you to do Jyscal?" Hoseok already is gathering mana in his hands, fingers sparking with electricity.

"He's in no harm. Just caught up in a meeting with the Maesters," the young man says. "How'd you do? Irvirian's the name." He holds up a hand mockingly, as if wanting to shake hands with Hoseok. 

"No thanks," Hoseok spits. "I want to know what the h*ll you're doing here and who are you and what's your hidden agenda. Not exactly in that order." 

"Ah, I'm hurt," Irvirian smiles, retracting his hand. "Well, I'll only answer one of of three questions. I'm Irvirian, master of disguise, protector of Lesca." 

"Lesca?" 

"My mistress," he says. "Her wish is my command." 

Lesca...it sounds familiar, Hoseok thinks to himself. It as if...Hoseok's thoughts shift from Lesca to a scent he picked up when he sniffs the air. He suspected it, but only confirmed it now. "You're an unsent too." 

"You could say that," Irvirian nods. "I've lived five hundred years ago, as you did, and so did Lesca. But Lesca passed on--she accepted her death even before she died--and went to the Farplane." He snaps his fingers. "Enough talk, Guado." 

*************************************************************

Jimin lay awake on his bed, restless. He looks over at the bed on his right. Jungkook is sleeping peacefully, his face relaxed and hair in a mess, hand under his head like a little boy. The Summoner then glances to the left of his bed, where there is a tiny clock, saying: 11:58pm. Carefully, as not to wake Jungkook up, Jimin throws back the covers and crawls out of bed, glancing towards the Ronso every few seconds to make sure his friend is still sleeping soundly. Jimin opens the window, quietly, and he's greeted with the magnificent sight of green tree bark. 

Jimin puts a foot out of the window, tentatively, and considered summoning V, his Ifrit, to help him out, but summoning will wake Jungkook up. Nothing like a big fire demon standing in your room to wake you up in the middle of the night.

Jimin makes sure he stands steadily on the ledge outside his window, before clinging onto a vine dangling from the tree that is the inn he's staying in. Jimin hugs the vine in a death grip as he carefully slides down. When he reaches the ground, Jimin breathes a sigh of relief as he looks around him. The whole town seems to be asleep--there are no noises save for some owls and probably rats. Even the trees seem to be in dreamland. 

The only building...or tree, that seems to have a little bit of life is the large mansion that that man, Tromell, had said belonged to Lord Jyscal, and that not just anyone could enter. 

And besides, that's the most likely place that Hoseok can be.

Mustering some courage, Jimin murmurs the incantation for his new Aeon, Ixion, and watches as the black-and-white unicorn bursting through a hole surrounded by electric sparks. Jimin pats the unicorn as it lands next to him, neighing softly, the red jewel dangling from its horn flashing. 

"Come on, Minnie," Jimin coos. "We gotta break into that place."

******************************************************

It isn't until about 12:10am in the morning that Yoongi realizes he's never going to get any sleep. He gets out of bed, quietly, throwing a glance over his shoulder at his sleeping roommate, that snores like there's no tomorrow. Since Seokjin didn't want to room with an Al Bhed (basically Taehyung) and Jimin was hugging onto Jungkook like there's no tomorrow and so Yoongi was left with Taehyung. Not to mention they were both from Besaid...in a sense.

Yoongi walks over to the bathroom and looks at himself through the mirror. His green eyes stare back at him, and Yoongi runs a hand through his white blonde hair. Yoongi puts on his contact lenses, and looks at himself, with his blue eyes now, in the mirror. 

"Fa'mm ryhtma drehkc rana. Oui ku du Mi'ihen Rekrnuyt! Drana yna rujanc fyedehk!" 

"I'm sorry, I don't understand..." 

"Zicd ku!" 

Yoongi pretended not to know. But he actually did. "We'll handle things here. You go to Mi'ihen Highroad! There are hovers waiting!" He understood it all.

"Drec cilgc," he mutters. "E cruimt kad y kmycc uv fydan." 

Yoongi walks over to the tiny kitchenette and pours himself a glass of water, drinking from it. Deciding to go out for a late night walk, Yoongi heads out of the room and locks the door behind him, leaving Taehyung sleeping in the room. Yoongi walks into the tiny town of Guadosalam, enjoying the night view of the place. That is, until he sees flashes of light coming from that big, grand mansion. 

Scrunching up his nose, Yoongi decides to investigate it. 

But not before he bumps into someone walking the same way.

"Oyr, fryd dra r*lg?!" Yoongi rubs his head, and catches himself as he looks at whoever he bumped into. Or...what he bumped into. 

A big unicorn is standing in front of him, hooves planted in the ground and having no intention to move. Yoongi sighs in silent relief, realizing a mop of red hair at the unicorn's side.

"Ah! I'm so--Yoongi?" Jimin peeks out from beside Ixion's body.

"Yah, what are you doing out here?" Yoongi half-yells, half-whispers.

"Shhh! Keep it down!" Jimin presses a finger to his lips. "Look, don't tell anyone, alright?" 

"What makes you think I won't do that?" Yoongi asks, blitzball still clutched to his side.

"Because I said so," Jimin says. "Look, I know something bad's happening there. And I know you know it too. So...do you wanna go check it out? But I don't want to wake the others..." 

Yoongi shrugs, "Fine by me. Let's go." 

*************************************************************

Jimin settles for entering through the front door, to Yoongi's disapproval. Ixion pushes the door open with its horn, and neighs to signal the coast is clear. Jimin kind of expected guards to be around at this time, but surprisingly, the mansion is quiet. 

Then what caused those flashes of lights? 

Jimin and Yoongi creep into the room on their tip-toes, careful to make as little noise as possible. Jimin dismisses Ixion, promising to Summon it later when they will be in battle. At least, Yoongi is sure that with Jimin's rashness, they're going to encounter a few guards or something. Jimin catches sight of eight portraits hanging on the walls, in ascending order to align with the two staircases, both leading to a high platform with a single doorway. 

Yoongi is suddenly glad there's a carpet on the ground to absorb whatever noise Jimin makes whenever he almost trips over nothing. Jimin always looks over apologetically at Yoongi, and Yoongi always rolls his eyes as the two continue to make their way to the staircase. Yoongi winces as he hears the first step that Jimin steps on creak.

Jimin grits his teeth as he continues climbing, avoiding the middle of the steps.

He comes to the top of the room and... 

Comes face to face with a guard.

Jimin opens his mouth to scream but Yoongi clamps a hand over the younger's mouth. He's not going to let them get caught, not here. Keeping his blitzball perfectly balanced on his shoulder, Yoongi mutters, "He's asleep." 

Jimin's eyes shrink from its widened state as relief washes over him. The guard is leaning against the wall, standing up, asleep. Jimin is close enough to the Guado Guard to see dark circles under his eyes, and his fingers curled. Jimin, with Yoongi, creep into the room.

The room is large, with a king-sized bed in the middle of it, red curtains closed around it. All Yoongi sees are two silhouettes lying on the bed, one evidently smaller than the other. No, the smaller one isn't lying down. He's sitting up.

And that means he's awake.

"Sh*t, run!" Yoongi grasps Jimin's wrist.

But Jimin stays rooted to the spot as he watches the small figure get off the bed, and walk out from behind the curtain. Fear of getting caught washes over Yoongi, energy like adrenaline rushing through him. 

The little boy, who looks no older than five, walks over to them, his blue hair in spikes, and the veins on his forehead are very obvious. He looks over at them, "What are you doing here?" 

"W-We're..." Yoongi falters.

"We're your replacement guards! Hired yesterday!" Jimin gives the little boy an eye-smile as he stomps lightly on Yoongi's toes. 

"Oh really? I didn't know..." the little boy yawns and rubs his eyes.

"It's way past your bedtime, kiddo," Jimin continues. "You should go to sleep." 

"I don't wanna sleep," the boy mutters. "I wanna play. I'm Seymour. What's your name?" 

"Seymour?" Jimin looks surprised, as much as Yoongi felt. "You mean Lord Jyscal's son?" 

"Yeah," Seymour nods. "Though I'd really appreciate it if you didn't call me Lord Jyscal's son, y'know." 

"Ah, right, sorry," Jimin rubs the nape of his neck. 

"C'mon, I'll show you my secret hideout," Seymour grins, taking Jimin's hand runs down the steps, careful to avoid the middle. Yoongi has no choice but to follow.

Seymour leads Jimin and Yoongi to their dining hall, where the tables are devoid of food but are decorated with fruits. Everything looks mouth-wateringly good. Seymour runs to the back of the room, and flicks a switch in the wall. He pushes against the wall beside the switch and the wall opens up, showing a passage into the underground depths of the manor.

"There," Seymour points down. "Come on, let's go!" 

Jimin, naively, enters the small cavern, Yoongi following closely behind him. Jimin marvels at the bright red of the brick walls. It's only when Yoongi doesn't see Seymour following them down does he realize that something is wrong. Whipping his head up, Yoongi sees Seymour smiling at them. 

"Father told me to bring them down here to deal with intruders," Seymour says.

"W-Wait!" Jimin calls out, realizing they've been tricked.

"Nice knowing you," Seymour gives them a curt nod, before turning his back and the passageway closed up.

*************************************************************

Hoseok wakes up with a gasp, as he surveys the room around him. White dons the walls, and everything else. He looks down at himself--he's still dressed in whatever he was...Hoseok chuckles. The unsent don't need to take baths, don't need to change clothes, don't need to eat, to drink, to go to the toilet. Hoseok sits up on the bed he's in.

Other than the door on his left, there doesn't seem to be any other apparant way to get out. He walks over to the wall and taps on it. That's when he notices the jangling bangles on his wrists. Just like handcuffs. Except...these aren't just any handcuffs. These are handcuffs to negate all magic--very effective on a Guado, seeing as Guados rely mainly on magic.

Sighing, Hoseok walks back to his bed and sits down, groaning and feeling the bed sinking under his weight. He'll find some way out, when the guard comes down to give him food or something...

Will anyone ever drop by? They have to, right? They won't leave him here...? 

But then again, Hoseok has almost never eaten anything in the past five hundred years, always taking advantage of the fact that people didn't know much about Guados and that he blamed it on the fact that Guados needn't eat anything until they feel hungry. He looks around the room, eyes scanning each crack in the wall, each dent in the ceiling (mind you, there are lots). 

Hoseok will be driven to insanity from boredom if he doesn't get out soon. 

That's when he suddenly hears voices.

"Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!" 

*********************************************************
"Yaaaaaaaaaaahhh!" Jimin screams, footsteps making pit-patting noises against the brick floor as Yoongi manages to land another hit on the creature that's pursuing them through the corridors. The fiend crumples, only to be replaced by another fiend chasing them. 

"Can't you summon Ixion or something?!"  

"It's Minnie!" 

"Does it matter?" Yoongi growls, gritting his teeth together and almost tripping over a slab of brick in his way. Jimin manages to catch the elder in time, and the two continue running, until Jimin sees a red door up ahead and sharp turn to their left. 

"We're not going to make it if we head for the door!" Yoongi shouts over the roaring of the fiend behind them, and he plants his foot on the ground, making a skidding noise, managing to slow down enough to make the sharp turn, grabbing Jimin's collar and pulling the latter along with him. There are a few ledges, and Yoongi and Jimin scramble up those ledges, finding themselves finally out of the claws of the pursuing fiend. 

Yoongi and Jimin collapse on the floor, but Yoongi is still tense, hand still clasped onto his ball as he leans against a wall. Jimin, meanwhile, is way more relaxed, and becomes even more relaxed when the scratching sound against the wall is gone. The fiend most probably has lost interest in them. Yoongi glances towards in the other direction, towards the numerous ledges: there are two white buttons. 

"What does that do...?" Jimin walks over. "Maybe it'll get us out of here." 

"W-Wait, Jimin!" Yoongi scrambles to his feet, but he's too late. Jimin has already pushed the button.

"Security system overrode."

"What the h*ll did you do, Jimin?!" Yoongi hisses.

"Uh..." Jimin grins. "At least I overrode the system, right?"

Yoongi mumbles something incomprehensible, even to himself. Jimin's right. Perhaps the fiends attacking them were part of the security system?

"It says number 3 there," Yoongi points to a spot near the button, where there is a big number "3" scrawled in white against the red brick wall. He looks up to the next ledge, and sees another white button.

"There's more," Yoongi says. "You wanna go find more? If it says it's number three, there's probably a two and a one." 

"If we override the whole system, you think that we can get out?" Jimin glances over to Yoongi. 

"It's better than not trying," Yoongi says, already climbing to the next ledge.

Jimin whole-heartedly agrees, but he wonders what Hoseok is doing, what Namjoon is doing, what Taehyung is doing, what Jungkook is doing, what Seokjin is doing. Is Hoseok alright? Are the other four worrying about them and possibly questioning the whole Guado population? He hopes Seokjin and Jungkook don't do anything ridiculous and rash, though he's pretty sure Namjoon, being the more intellectual and mature one, would discipline them...

Jimin chuckles to himself. He'd best find a way out of this place first.

*********************************************************

Hoseok hears the voices fade. He desperately wants to scream out to whoever it was that he is here, but he isn't even sure if the people can hear him through these walls. Perhaps these walls are soundproof? Besides, what if he ends up calling an enemy? Hoseok laughs as he plops down on the bed. He's stuck here--possibly for eternity--and he's scared of accidentally calling an enemy over. 

Hoseok looks up at the ceiling and notices something there that he hadn't noticed. He stands on his bed, and aims a water spell straight at the object. The water hits the shining red sphere and it falls to the ground, revealing a red dent in the wall. It's as if the red sphere was stuck in the cement. It's amazing the sphere hasn't cracked yet. He picks up the red sphere that has hit the ground rather hard. 

Maybe this will provide him with a way to get out? 

Hoseok settles back down on his bed and plays the sphere.

**********************************************************