Seokjin knew he had to get serious about hunting the generals, each day they were free, they had more time to mount their opposition and strengthen their defenses, every minute he wasn't out there tracking them down, the more dangerous they became. He just couldn't get his mind off what Yoosun was up to, and Yoosun needed Seokjin to be distracted to carry out whatever sinister plans he had, namely making Jihoon some sort of omnipotent being and resurrecting Cato so he could the life out of him. He was at a crossroads, and it didn't look like either direction he took would be a good one.

     Yoongi walked into the library and sat down, followed by Taehyung and Jimin. Seokjin looked over at them as Yoongi propped his feet up on the table, perplexed by the sudden intrusion.

     "Pack meeting," Jimin seemed to sense the confusion in Seokjin's brain, he set his bag down and pulled out a seat.

     "About?" Seokjin joined them at the table as the brothers took their seats across from each other, Taehyung settling next to Yoongi.

     "Strategy," Taehyung smirked. "Where's Jungkook?"

     "Working out," Seokjin pulled out a chair and slumped down.

     Namjoon and Harley walked in together, followed by a freshly showered Jungkook. Seokjin smiled as the younger sat down next to him and planted a kiss on his lips. Hoseok walked in seconds later, wiping his hands on his filthy apron that was tarnished with black and red stains, Seokjin didn't know if the stains were another Charlie meeting his demise or he had been making lunch, he decided it was best not to know.

     Jimin set Jihoon's laptop down in the middle of the table as they all took seats.

     "We have some issues we need to talk through," Namjoon's tone was serious, which did nothing to ease Seokjin's nerves, "Jimin has found some things-"

     "What's he planning?" Yoongi interrupted, sitting up, his eyes boring into Jimin.

     "He's a bit sloppy, probably didn't think anyone would find, let alone steal his laptop," Jimin's face was grim, "We think Yoosun is planning to use an extremely powerful dark spell called sanguinem et virtute, rough translation, the power of blood. The only place you can find it is in the grimoire."

     "It's important we get that back asap," Namjoon glanced at Seokjin, who just nodded in agreement.

      "All of this is off Facebook messages they had-" Taehyung started.

      "I don't picture Yoosun on Facebook," Jungkook quipped, "Thumbs up to all the dark lord posts."

     Seokjin stifled a laugh, the rest of them just looked at him like he was insane.

     "The spell is a form of bloodlust, except it doesn't turn a vampire into a blood- death trap, it harnesses the victim's blood into power," Taehyung informed them, "The more victims Jihoon claims, the more powerful he becomes."

     "Kind of like how an onyx can consume essence to make them stronger," Jimin added.

     "Somehow Yoosun's grandmother knew how to rewrite the laws of magic and she wasn't the only one, there were four of them total-"

     "Hence the four spellbooks," Jimin threw in again.

     "Four of what?" Harley asked. Taehyung looked at all their faces, realizing they probably had no clue what he was talking about.

     "Four Apostles of Magic, of which the goddess of magic herself is a part of, or at least was. She disbanded the group and had placed a spell on her book, making it unable to be read," Taehyung huffed, "It now sits in the god realm."

     "A grim part of their history," Jimin interjected.

    "The grimoire Yoosun has is like an abomination, the goddess forbid any of the spellbooks to remain, but somehow this one book was kept active..."

     "So in other words, I come from a long line of power-hungry rule-breakers," Seokjin sighed.

     "In short, yeah," Jimin nodded.

     "According to Abram, the spell he used to escape death by Jacker that day was in that book," Taehyung pointed out, "He was in contact with Misae more than he led on."

     "That doesn't even surprise me anymore," Seokjin shook his head, "I don't believe anything that comes out of his mouth."

     "Abram was able to trace your family genealogy with the help of Skotadi," Namjoon threw a file down on the table in front of Seokjin, ignoring the 'WTF' looks everyone but Taehyung was giving him, "Why he's being helpful, I shudder to think."

     "I think Skotadi chose this woman to birth his child for a reason," Taehyung speculated, "Shortly after she gave birth to Cato she went and got herself banished, Abram thought it might be because she kept practicing with that spellbook and got caught."

     Seokjin stared at the folder a moment before he reached out and opened it, "What does it matter if I know her name, what it comes down to is, I need to stop him."

     "Seokjin, Seong Kang, you don't recall that name?" Namjoon asked him, but he shook his head, he had no clue what Namjoon was talking about, "She was your high school science teacher."

     "She's still alive?" Jungkook gasped, "I thought witches didn't live that long."

     "She was 156 when she died," Namjoon informed him, then turned his attention back to Seokjin, "She must have been keeping her eye on you."

     "Why?" Seokjin leaned up and pushed the folder back.

     "I don't know that," Namjoon took a deep breath, "Do you remember her?"

     Seokjin shrugged,  "Ms. Kang was always inquiring about my father," He scoffed, "Now I know why."

     "What was she asking?" Hoseok's curiosity peaked.

     "She wanted a conference, it never made sense to me, I did great in that class, but somehow I was always failing... I questioned her about it and she told me she would need to see my father-"

     "Did he ever go?" Namjoon asked.

     "No, he flat out refused, told me to do better and left it at that," Seokjin looked over at Namjoon, "If she was his grandmother, why didn't she just go see him?"

     "Thing is, coming back after being banished from the world is near impossible without the consent of a god or with a very advanced dark magic spell, she found a way to come back partially, but she needed Yoosun to acknowledge her for her to fully gain her powers back," Taehyung informed them, "He most likely had a spell placed on his home and she couldn't get through."

     "How the hell do you come back partially?" Seokjin crossed his arms, feeling his face begin to flush.

     "Like the spell that Yoosun plans to perform to bring Cato back?" Yoongi asked.

      "Close," Taehyung raised his eyebrows, staring up at Hoseok, "Care to explain?"

     "Sometimes when a witch is that powerful, she can project her spirit into a human, kind of like a symbiont," Hoseok filled him in on the sordid workings of the witch world, "Yoosun would have to willingly offer up his blood to complete the spell to restore Seong to her original state."

     "So why didn't she use my blood?" Seokjin wondered.

     "You're not magical, you can't say incantations and bring people back, she would have needed him," Hoseok was perplexed, "But it makes no sense as to why he wouldn't join forces with her."

     "Because Yoosun is a selfish prick, he doesn't want to share his powers or his glory," Seokjin frowned, "That's pretty obvious."

    Hoseok was offended; first, because Seokjin mocked him and second because he hadn't worked that out himself.

     "He must have known she didn't have the grimoire, so he didn't care, she was useless to him." Seokjin rubbed his temples, his head felt like it was splitting in two. "Meanwhile, any clue where Yoosun could be hiding?"

     "That's what I wanted to talk to you about," Namjoon took a deep breath, he didn't like having to suggest this, "I would like for Hoseok to read you, we might be able to access some repressed memories, maybe give us an idea of where he might be."

     Seokjin stared out the window, thinking that notion over. He hated the whole ordeal, but it had to be done, "Sure."

     "Now, if you're not busy," Namjoon threw in.

     Seokjin took a deep breath, standing, "Let's just get it over with."

     Namjoon stood and looked to the rest of them, "We'll continue the meeting afterward."

     The lab table felt cold against Seokjin's back, he squirmed for a moment trying to get comfortable but gave up realizing it was probably his nerves and not the temperature. He turned to watch as Hoseok cracked his neck, Hoseok appeared just as uneasy about the situation as he did. The thought of having Hoseok poke around in his mind, lurking in the murky depths of his brain, scared the hell out of him. He didn't know what mess Cato had left behind. What if something sinister was buried within him? What if Hoseok awakened some depraved version of himself?

     Jungkook sat down on the counter behind Seokjin's head, looking down at him, worried. He didn't know who was more anxious, him or the elder.

     "Don't worry, he's never killed anyone doing this," Jungkook kidded, noticing Seokjin's face now wore a scornful grimace. Jungkook shrugged, maybe this wasn't the best time to joke around, "Nevermind."

     Namjoon walked in and nodded to Hoseok, consenting for him to start.

     "Ready whenever you are," Seokjin took a deep breath, adjusting his body slightly as he closed his eyes.

     Hoseok gazed down at him, dreading being inside Seokjin's brain, terrified of what he would find in there. He wearily put his hands over Seokjin's eyes and closed his own. The familiar tunnel vision made Seokjin dizzy, speeding through the blurry lights that shot toward him was uncomfortable, he tensed up.

     "Relax your mind, Seokjin," Hoseok warned.

     "You're inside my head, that's not relaxing," Seokjin jibbed.

     "Don't talk," Hoseok chastized, about to pull his hands away. He was afraid Seokjin's inability to relax might cause the issue of their minds getting melded together, but he cleared his throat and continued against his better judgment. 

     Seokjin's mind was like weaving your way around in an enormous, dense spider web; layers upon layers entangled his psyche, like the aftermath of an explosion frozen in time, scattering pieces of suppressed memories throughout, ", it's like a maze in here."

     "Can you see anything?" Namjoon inquired.

      "Time to delve down deep," Hoseok smirked. It took several minutes for him to figure out which clump of the web he should try to push through. It wasn't long before Hoseok started to make sense of the pictures in his head. He found Seokjin's early memories stored in a tight little corner, stagnant. Usually, memories came about in chronological order, but it seemed like everything inside his head was scrambled. Cato's presence had left an imprint, he could see things that happened in Cato's life twisted about with Seokjin's. This was a mess. "Cato left a trace."

      "How much of a trace?" Namjoon inquired, hoping there wouldn't be any irrevocable damage.

     "I dunno yet, some random memories," Hoseok took a deep breath, gasping suddenly as a force him through a dark passage, images whirring past him as he sailed through the haze that surrounded him. A flickering blue light came into focus moments later, growing brighter the closer he got to the end. A sonic boom vibrated the air and Hoseok found himself in the middle of a royal blue, tiled room; floor to ceiling covered with an obscene amount of tiny little fleshy growths that resembled scales. It reminded him of the inside of a whale, not that he had ever been in one before. Water was pooling on the ground into tiny puddles at his feet as he stepped down, only to evaporate again when he raised his foot. It was peculiar, he couldn't imagine what this place was... it looked like an underwater room you would see in some strange children's story. He half-expected a sea monster to pop up in the corner and offer him some sage advice... or swallow him whole. This couldn't be an actual memory.

     "It's a metaphor, his mind is full of this ," A husky voice sounded, alarming Hoseok. He turned around in a circle but there was no one present, just the echoing plinks of water drops hitting the puddles, "You can't see me, so don't dare try."

     "Who are you?" Hoseok's voice cracked, "A metaphor for what?"

     "He's troubled, somewhere between wanting to destroy everything and wanting to save humanity from the torture that is the supernatural."

     "Okay?"

     "If you're trying to find the Yoosun memories, you're looking in the wrong spot," The voice cackled, deranged.

    "I'll keep that in mind," Hoseok smirked, closing his eyes. He was flying back through a black void seconds later, stopping abruptly when he reached a cramped brick room about the size of a coat closet. The room came into focus as colors flooded into the black-and-white vision. Words covered the walls, short insults like 'stupid' and commands like 'control' repeated in different shades of black and red. Hoseok figured this was an authentic memory, as it possessed a tangible quality, unlike the fantastical nature of the "whale" room.

     A child was crouched in the corner bound by chains that were latched to the wall. His long black hair covered his face but Hoseok could see lacerations on the child's hands and scratch marks where something had gouged grooves into