Hoseok was standing on the steps that led to the front walk, taking in the sunrise like it was a cure-all pill. It felt so good to feel the warmth of the early morning sun and hear the birds singing their cheerful choruses. The hell that had taken over in his brain was still trying to keep him wrapped up in misery. A spare hallucination would invade his vision and make him question if he was still in his perpetual nightmare. Yes, this splendor was the only thing making reality... real.

     "A feculent? Like in Brahms' stories?" Yuta's voice sounded and Hoseok turned to witness him and Taehyung coming around the side of the house.

     "A god-damned feculent, the house was... holy ," Taehyung gasped, grabbing his stomach like he was reliving the smell, "The carpets were so squishy from all the body fluids, I had to burn my shoes."

      "That's disgusting," Yuta grimaced, "Did they find Nero?" 

     Yuta and Taehyung stopped in front of Hoseok.

     "No Nero," Taehyung glanced up at the still pale witch who was staring back at him, "Hobi, you're out of bed?"

     "No, it's a hologram," Hoseok smirked. 

     "Are you sure it's a good idea for you to be up and about?" Taehyung lectured.

     "I don't want to be cooped up in the lab anymore, plus this sunset..." Hoseok declared, holding his hands out to the horizon, to the glorious gift that nature had bestowed upon him, "Pure medicine."

     They all took a gander out at the far end of the property, admiring the yellow color wheel exploding into brilliant life.

     "Well, I won't argue that," Taehyung took a deep breath, it truly was a glorious morning.

     "You feeling better?" Yuta asked.

     "Yeah, mostly," Hoseok answered, "Still seeing things."

     "That's normal, probably will for a few more days," Yuta looked up at the door as it opened, "Woh, death walking-" 

     Jimin stepped out, the dark bags under his eyes suggested he'd pulled a caffeine-induced, all-nighter.

     Hoseok turned around, "Holy crap, did you even sleep?"

     Jimin shook his head, "But with what I found out, it was worth it... I hope."

     "What did you find out?" Taehyung was worried for his brother.

     "Ever heard of the deep web?"

     "I lurk there often, good place to buy banned herbs," Yuta declared, "And keep abreast of any joke hoaxes."

     "Eldwood is there," Jimin shuddered, "Seokjin's mind might be more fragile than we think."

     "How so?" Taehyung wondered.

     "I understand why Misae erased his memories, I wouldn't want to remember this either," Jimin shook his head, "But, good news, I figured out who Ned Akiyama was."

     "The doctor?"

     "I heard the name before and I realized that he's one of the head researchers at the Iceland facility that Seokjin inherited," Jimin leaned against the wall, rotating his neck to pop it, "I'm calling a pack meeting, easier to update everyone at once."

     "When?" Hoseok inquired.

     "As soon as Namjoon wakes up," Jimin informed them.

     "Now that Hoseok is awake, I suppose it's time for me to head back to Japan," Yuta seemed sad about the notion.

     "You should stay," Taehyung put his hand on Yuta's shoulder and squeezed, "Unless someone back in Japan is missing you?"

     Yuta shook his head, "Just me."

     Jimin perked up watching Yuta and Taehyung, maybe this guy was what his brother needed to get his mind off Yoongi. That, though, was a worry for another day.

     Jimin and Taehyung were already in the library, Taehyung was leaned over watching Jimin play some first-person shooter game, cringing at his lack of instincts and trying to offer friendly advice on how to use special attacks and when to teleport, which only made Jimin play just that much worse. Yuta and Hoseok came in shortly after, sitting across from them.

     "Namjoon will be here in like 15 minutes," Taehyung informed them, not taking his eyes off the computer screen, "Jesus, have you heard of crouching?"

     "Have you heard of off?" Jimin snapped.

     Harley was next to come in, looking like she had just rolled out of bed, still clad in her fluffy yellow ducky pajamas. She yawned as she plopped down in the seat on the other side of Jimin, "That game again?" she mumbled out, leaning her head back to try to catch a few zzz's before the rest of them came.

     Jimin only smirked, immersed in the game, he didn't want to break his concentration.

     "You  at this," Taehyung jibed him and Jimin missed dodging a rocket launcher to the face, subsequently perishing. He smacked his brother's arm for cursing his pixeled player.

     "So what's on today's agenda?" Namjoon walked into the room, stopping behind Harley's chair.

     "The usual dark circumstances," Jimin grinned.

     "Where are Seokjin and Jungkook?"

      Yoongi, who had popped in five minutes before Namjoon, answered, "Behind you."

     Namjoon turned to see Jungkook and Seokjin entering the room, the two of them all smiles, "Jungkook, please have a seat."

     Jungkook and Seokjin exchanged glances as Jungkook took a seat next to Yoongi.

     "What's this all about?" Seokjin thought he was in trouble, but couldn't imagine why.

     Namjoon took a deep breath, placing his hands on the hybrid's shoulders, "Whatever you hear today is probably going to be disturbing-"

     "Namjoon?" Seokjin didn't know if he should be panicked, Namjoon's ominous warning and the sudden pack meeting meant something was up and it probably had to do with him... and maybe even his fault.

     "I just want you to know I am here if you need to talk," Namjoon squeezed, nodding.

     "Great." Seokjin was confused now, worried that whatever Jimin had found out was going to change his life, the pack's life forever. He watched Namjoon head over towards the window and sit in the chair at the far end of the table.

     "Eldwood Asylum, meaning elder wood, meaning the dryads. Take it back 4000 years, circa the 1600s when species had more freedom, the lands were kept in check by the ents..."

     "Walking trees?" Jungkook asked, brow raised to protest.

     "Not walking trees, not like your video game folklore. Actual spirits born of dead trees, powerful beings that controlled how the species progressed."

     "The gods put them in place to maintain order," Namjoon explained briefly.

     "But what exactly happens when you try to control things that weren't meant to be controlled?" Jimin questioned.

     "Chaos," Taehyung commented.

     "Chaos. The freedom war of 1640," Jimin drew up a webpage, "The dark web, our area of the deep web that the councils of today would like to keep buried."

     "What does this have to do with me?" Seokjin inquired.

     "Eldwood was a place built on the principle of that theory of control. The dryads ultimately were reduced from their deity status to live amongst those they tried to control. Obviously, that didn't bode well for the other species. They fled and kept to themselves mostly, hiding out in forests as guardians of nature."

     "Are you saying I was in an asylum?" Seokjin was skeptical, "I think I would remember that?"

     "No, actually, you wouldn't," Jimin persisted, "Misae seen to that."

     "An asylum for what?" Jungkook asked, leaning up.

     "Control. It's a place that specializes in helping younglings to control their powers, more specifically dangerous species," Jimin pressed play on a video in the player on his laptop, and they all leaned in to view it. It was recorded in a large white room where there was no furniture, nothing at all but a looming emptiness that even the video was able to convey. The walls were clawed so deep, that patches of concrete showed through the dirty white paint. In the middle of the room stood a doctor and a kneeled down lump of a child, a long-haired boy that had his hands secured behind him and was chained to the floor like an animal. "Seokjin was ten here."

    ++++++++++++++++++++

     "Seokjin, you're losing control again," Dr. Akiyama scolded him, taunting him just out of reach as young Seokjin lunged at him, gnashing his fanged teeth, "You cannot let the beast consume you."

     "Come closer, I'll show you control," Young Seokjin hissed.

     They all watched as the doctor took a shock stick and zapped Seokjin with it, making him convulse for a good twenty seconds. The action only seemed to fuel his anger, he transformed immediately, stretching the chains to their limits so they snapped. He lunged at the doctor only to be sent flying backward by a spell the doctor recited.

    ++++++++++++++++++++

     "No!" Seokjin paused the video, "That is not me. I would remember that."

     "There are four other videos of you, two at age 10, one at age 6, and the last one at age 14," Jimin closed out the video. "I downloaded them all."

     Seokjin shook his head, refusing to believe the validity of anything coming out of this hell house, "Why was I there?"

     "Your mom didn't disclose your full story, she didn't want them to know you were an onyx hybrid or that you were the grandson of Cato, at the moment I am not sure why," Jimin opened a word document, "Yoosun only told us a partial version of what he did behind her back. He was secretly pushing you towards violent behavior, trying to break you of this bubble wrap she had you encased in. He wanted a killing machine."

     "Why?" Seokjin demanded, "What would he gain from that?"

     "The doctor found out who you were and what Yoosun's intentions were. Everything in this file, everything they knew about you came from a soothsayer named Thortor Johansson, a famous Swedish oracle. Eight years' worth of therapy is all in this file."

     "What was Yoosun thinking?" Namjoon said rhetorically, staring out the window as if it would give him answers.

     "Honestly, I think he planned to take Seokjin's power on his 18th birthday, he wanted Seokjin at his peak. Jacker had other plans obviously, so he never got to follow through with it," Jimin looked over at Seokjin, "Yoosun had no clue Amari had Seokjin at this place. She also had Misae wipe a lot of his memories, leaving only a cookie-cutter vision of his past," Jimin surmised, "In fact, I don't think she told anyone about the asylum other than Misae."

     "Why would she send me there?"

     "I wondered that too, seeing as Eldwood isn't exactly a congenial place," Jimin cleared his throat, trying to think of an easy way to tell him what he learned, "Yoosun had you pitted up against other kids your age, a junior fight club if you will. From what I can put together, he started you at age 4 and it continued until you were 10. You always had an instinct for fighting and you were good apparently."

      Seokjin just stared at him, not sure what that all meant.

     "She found out when you were six because... you-" Jimin glanced at Namjoon, then back at Seokjin, "You killed a werewolf child when you couldn't control one of your transformations."

     Seokjin shrugged, somehow the notion didn't surprise him, "Okay?"

     "You drained him afterward, you shouldn't even have known how to do that," Jimin informed him. "I think that's when Yoosun realized how dangerous you were for his plans. For whatever reasons, Cato didn't show his son how to drain."

     "Because Yoosun isn't about following the rules," Seokjin pointed out, "He'll only ever be about himself."

     "You spent enough time with Cato that the oracle was able to get a pretty decent idea of Yoosun's and Cato's intent. Seems they argued a few times over your training."

     "What about Mortuus?" Yoongi asked, he was kind of curious why his mother owned half of this place, he wasn't aware that she knew Seokjin's great-grandmother. "What did my mother have to do with that place?"

     "Mortuus is an old vampire burial ground, she inherited it from her family when the last member died. Seong had somehow also had that member sign over half of the property many years earlier," Jimin opened a webpage, "I don't think Junghee ever knew about it."

     "Is the cabin still there?" Seokjin asked, just one shred of hope that his father would be hiding there awaited Jimin's confirmation.

     "Yes, satellite images show the cabin is still there," Jimin glanced over at Namjoon, "Halloween is a super blood moon-"

      "I am aware," Namjoon nodded, "The councils are on full alert."

     "Perfect night to murder your son as a sacrifice to bring back a demigod-"

     "Agreed."

     "Perfect night for a costume party," Jimin raised his eyebrows, suggesting the idea Harley had to have a party to unite the packs would also be the perfect opportunity to catch one crazed Onyx.

     "Won't Yoosun realize it's all just a trap?" Seokjin suggested.

     "It won't matter, he has no choice on which day it must be done," Namjoon surmised, he stood and leaned his palms against the table, "There are two weeks until Halloween."

     "Ample time to prepare," Yoongi smirked, he was more than ready to take Yoosun down.

     "I can have the invites out by tomorrow," Namjoon stood back up straight, "We need to make sure nothing goes wrong."

     "Leave security issues to us," Hoseok motioned towards Yuta, and Yuta nodded.

     Harley looked alert for the first time since she arrived in the room, "So the costume party is a go?"

     Namjoon nodded, "Sky's the limit."

     Harley was ecstatic, a bubbly little shriek escaped , "Oh yes, thank you."

     Jimin squeezed her hand.

     "That will conclude our meeting for now," Namjoon walked towards the door, "We'll reconvene for specifics soon."

     "Will do boss man," Taehyung saluted him and turned to Jimin, "Ready?"

     "Yoongi, before I forget..." Jimin fought with himself all morning on whether or not he should say anything to Yoongi about something he had found out about Junghee, deciding that keeping it from him would have been spiteful and would just make Taehyung at him. Yoongi looked over at him, "Your mom left you something."

     "What?" Yoongi questioned, standing.

     "A journal, it's in a safe box in Castleton," Jimin slid a piece of paper with an address and a key, "The key was hidden in a book in this library before she died."

     Yoongi looked down at the key, picking it up slowly, he stared at it for a moment before palming it and grabbing the piece of paper, "Thanks."

     Jimin nodded and grabbed up his laptop, turning to walk over to Seokjin who was now standing at the window staring out, "If you need to see the other videos, you can come by later." 

     Seokjin only nodded, he wasn't exactly sure if he wanted to see those videos.

     Seokjin wasn't good with patience, he knew Yoosun's hiding place, but he had to wait until Halloween to do anything. He felt a preemptive strike would be the best, his bastard of a father wouldn't suspect them to have found out where he was, let alone them showing up and catching him off guard. He grabbed his coffee cup, sighing.

     "Waiting is going to drive me crazy," Seokjin sulked.

     Jungkook smirked, "We can train, that will take your mind off doing anything half-assed."

     "Why would we wait until his knowledge of the spell is at the perfect time?" Seokjin poured himself some coffee and turned to Jungkook, taking a sip of the black liquid.

     "He's a powerful witch in his element, what do you think you'd accomplish?" Jungkook grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl and sat down, "At least here, we can prepare fully, and the party will be a huge distraction-"

     "I just have a bad feeling," Seokjin took another sip of his coffee.

     "Any way you look at this is not ideal, but trust Namjoon," Jungkook assured him. He took a big bite of the apple and smiled a food-filled grin.

     Seokjin snickered, "We should do something tonight."

     "Really?" Jungkook exclaimed, muffled between chewing his apple, "Legit hangout?"

     "Yeah, without some looming crisis threatening us," Seokjin set his coffee down and walked over, leaning his forearms on the table, face to face with the younger. "I miss you."

     Jungkook gulped down the apple and planted a peck on the elder's mouth, unable to contain the -eating grin that swallowed up half his face, "What did you have in mind?"

     Seokjin grabbed the back of Jungkook's neck and pulled him in for a better kiss, locking lips with the younger, "Mmm, I miss that taste."

    Jungkook was not about to complain at the complete turn-around of Seokjin's mood, if the elder wanted to spend time with him, then Jungkook was more than willing. He stood and reached out for Seokjin's hand, "I know what we should do."

     Seokjin smirked, he took the younger's hand in his, clasping their fingers. He stared into Jungkook's dark brown eyes, "Lead the way."

     Jungkook leaned in and kissed Seokjin tenderly. He missed this closeness, the feeling that being in love filled him with. He also missed the physical intimacy and was half tempted to just have Seokjin right here on the kitchen table and fought against himself