“What is it, Heechul?” he asked, that smile the only thing the woman could focus on. “Did you figure it out, finally?”

“What did you do to Leeteuk?” she asked, backing up, her hand moving towards the gun against her back.

“Sorry, sweetheart. He won’t be joining us any time soon I’m afraid. And don’t even think about touching that gun.” He had his own out in hardly a moment and pointed towards her. She slowly moved her hands so that they could be seen. “Don’t think I’m falling for that, honey. Put it on the ground and back away.”

Heechul ground her teeth and did as she was told, not taking her eyes off of the man in front of her. Taking a few steps back was not the most comforting thing she’d done that day. He began walking towards the gun and she took another step back with every one that he took forward until her back was against a rack of iron rods and piping. The structure shook violently causing a few items to fall and the ringing to echo through the alley.

“Now, take out the ear piece.” Once again, she did as she was told.

“Throw it this way.” Once she did, Hangeng threw it onto the ground and stepped on it, breaking it into tiny irreparable pieces. Heechul winced. That was her favorite piece of technology that she had been given. But more important matters were at stake. Matters like her life.

“Where’s Donghae? What did you do to her?”

“She met the same fate as your little lover boy.” Heechul’s heart dropped to her toes. “We caught them running out of the building. I made sure they were taken care of.”

It took every bit of strength for Heechul not to break down into tears. Now was not the time to do that. She had to find a way to escape and get back to everyone else. She had to protect them. Then she remembered the promise she had made herself. She would do anything that she could to protect the rest of her unit, even if it meant giving her own life.

“If I give in now, will you leave everyone else alone?” she asked. Hangeng looked at her confused.

“What makes you ask that?”

“It’s me and Leeteuk you’re after isn’t it?” Heechul inquired. “If so, why would you need to hurt anyone else? You got rid of Leeteuk. Now get rid of me and leave the rest of them alone. They have nothing to do with this.”

“You don’t even know what this is about!” Hangeng shouted. His voice was filled with anger. Anger that he had held in for years.

“You’re right. I don’t.”

“All those years ago, there was a branch that went off the map. No one could get in touch with them. It became near impossible to even find their headquarters. There was a reason for that. The leaders within the main branch had decided to rid themselves of that branch. So they began killing off the agents one by one. A few of them managed to escape and were able to find solace within the main branch, not realizing that the very thing they were seeking refuge from was what was destroying them. My family was part of that branch: my father, mother, sister and brother. They were killed in the fire that was the main branch’s final checkmate on the section. There were only two other survivors from that fire. One of them was a young woman by the name of Kim Heechul and another man named Park Jungsoo.

“I finally got enough strength up from having been injured in the fire to come find a new job within the main branch to look for those that killed my family. Everything that I read and followed led me back to the two of you who were sitting there protecting those that had destroyed my life!

“Well, I couldn’t have that, now could I? I found my way into your trust as your liaison to the main branch when you were on assignments. It wasn’t much longer before another branch started showing the same patterns that my home branch showed before it was destroyed. I tried to get you all to pay attention to the signs. I even gave you the records from the cover unit that detailed the previous disappearances, hoping you would see the similarities.

“But I did a little more research and found out that not only were you two survivors of the first extermination, you were also involved in it. After I found that out, there was no way I could let you live. So I made sure to turn your records on you. Even now, there’s a price on your head for war crimes against the state. I made sure I was the agent that was put on your files. But I’ll have more than just the monetary satisfaction of seeing you and him dead.”

Heechul’s face was pale white and it was taking everything in her not to throw up as the reality of what he was saying caught up with her. She never thought that the fire would come back to haunt her. She had punished herself enough for it; was still punishing herself. She guessed death is what she deserved. But something in her told her to keep going and not to give herself up quite yet. So she asked another question.

“You never answered my question. What about the others?” she asked, stalling for time until she could come up with a plan to escape.

“They’ll be fine. They had nothing to do with any of what happened. In fact, I bet you anything they don’t even know that it happened. Wouldn’t it be a nice surprise for them to suddenly receive that interesting bit of information?” Hangeng threatened. The gun in his hand didn’t budge.

“Then why did Siwon and Ryeowook have to die?” Heechul asked. Her confidence was building more out of fear for her life than actual bravery. She was acting on pure adrenaline now.

“Ryeowook’s death was an accident.” Hangeng started. “I thought it was you coming back to the apartment. I had to have Siwon killed to throw you and your little pet off my trail. Now can we get on with this? I’ve been ready to kill you for years.” He adjusted the position of the weapon slightly. Heechul’s heart pounded.

“So why didn’t you kill me when we lived together? You had plenty of chances.”

“I wanted to get to know the person that had a hand in my family’s death. I wanted to make her fall for me so that it would hurt even worse when I would betray her.” Hangeng lowered the gun as he took a step forward, slowly closing the distance between them until he was looking down into her face. His eyes were the eyes of the man that had hidden behind the mask that was Hangeng.

“So tell me Chullie. How does it feel to know that all of your secrets are out? That the man you fell in love with was really always out to kill you?” He asked, a wicked smile covering his face. Heechul began to tremble. Hangeng laughed at her reaction and the fear that filled her eyes. He took a piece of her hair and twirled it around his finger.

“And this is the brave agent that vied for the first rank spot in the unit. You’ve lasted longer than that sissy leader of yours. He begged for death. The little girl too. Oh Donghae. Such a pretty girl.”

In a sudden burst of bravery Heechul spit in the man’s face. He turned his face away and glared at her out of the corner of his eye, his jaw tense.

“Is that as much as you can do?” he chuckled after a moment. “A little bit of spit in my face. Oh sweetheart, I can do so much worse. You’re going to wish you were dead when I’m finished with you.” Heechul felt a thick hand wrap around , blocking her air ways. There was enough space for her to get a little bit of air but it wasn’t enough to last for much longer. She struggled in vain to free herself but with a gun to her stomach and a strong hand around , there wasn’t much she could do. She was nearly ready to give up. Leeteuk was already dead. There was nothing more she could do.

The hand around her neck dropped at the first sound of a gunshot and a pained shout. Heechul fell to the ground gasping for air while she looked for the source of the shot. The oxygen burned as it filled her drying lungs and she became dizzy with a sense of vertigo overtaking her. There was blood on her but it was not her own. She looked up and saw Hangeng grasping his arm, blood seeping through his fingers. His was jerking his head around, trying to find the person that wounded him. At the other end of the alley way there were shouts coming from a small group of people that were keeping guard of the scene. Heechul hadn’t noticed them before. But now that she thought about it, their presence seemed almost implied. There had been a reason they had gotten through the building without much trouble, if any.

The shot that had hit Hangeng had been a stray bullet that had also been badly aimed. There was another figure among the three gunmen. It was walking towards the alley at a steady pace. As it got closer, Heechul recognized the figure as Leeteuk. He wasn’t dead. Tears came to her eyes as relief washed over her. That also meant that Donghae was okay. Leeteuk wouldn’t let anything happen to her. Hangeng and Heechul watched as Leeteuk took on the three gunmen at the same time.

Taking a step towards one, he hit him across the face with the barrel of his gun. The man fell backwards, blood spurting from his nose. The next one came at him from the side. Leeteuk saw him out of the corner of his eye and turned just in time to shoot him. The bullet landed right between his eyes. Nope, he hadn’t lost his touch. After he shot the single bullet, he swung his arm around behind him putting the full weight of his body behind it, landing the side of the gun against the third man’s neck, giving off a sickening crack as he fell to the ground, his head in an unnatural position. Leeteuk turned back around just in time to see the first man that he had hit reaching for his gun. By the time, he was able to react though, Leeteuk had him in a choke hold, the man’s own gun held against him.

“Where is she?” He asked. His voice held no mercy for its hearer. His eyes held a fire that hadn’t been present within him for years. He had almost been sure that it no longer existed.

The man pointed into the alleyway. Leeteuk looked in that direction and dropped his hold on the man. He spun on his heel and started in that direction. A slight movement alerted him to the gunman reaching for his spare gun. Leeteuk hardly turned and squeezed the trigger. The man fell to his face in his own blood.

Hangeng reached down and yanked Heechul up by her hair. He held her in front of him, gun to the side of her head while they watched Leeteuk walk the rest of the way down the path. He had his gun raised and pointed directly at Hangeng.

“Let her go, Hangeng.” He demanded. He tried to close the distance between them. Hangeng only backed up, pulling Heechul with him.

“Take one more step, Leeteuk, and you get to watch her die.” He pushed the gun closer to her head. Heechul felt the end of it press into her temple. The fear in her eyes was evident when she looked at Leeteuk, who tried to take another slow step, testing the boundary.

“I thought I’d killed you.” Hangeng said. He only had a hint of surprise in his voice.

“Well, sorry to disappoint. Now let the girl go, Hangeng.” Leeteuk tried again.

“Not until you feel the same pain I felt all of those years ago. You two were the ones that killed my family and my friends. I can’t let that go unpunished.”

“You don’t think we haven’t punished ourselves enough over that. It was years ago, Hangeng. Let it go. There’s nothing you can do. None of this is going to bring them back. We were young and didn’t know what we were doing. We didn’t realize that we were working for the wrong guys at the time. Why do you think we left when we did?” Leeteuk tried to reason with the hostage taker.

“Leaving doesn’t bring anyone back. It doesn’t save anyone. If you were going to do it, you should have done it earlier than you did.” Heechul winced with pain when Hangeng’s hand tightened on her hair. Leeteuk’s eyes moved from Hangeng’s face to Heechul’s. There was a sense of relief in her eyes mixed with fear. He was doing what he could to get her to safety but there wasn’t much left other than to go the psych route with the younger man. Whatever he could do to save her life would be worth it.

“And neither does revenge. So why do it?” Hangeng’s hand that was on the gun faltered slightly. “We all lost people in that fire. You’re not the only one. But that’s no reason to kill anyone else. Now do yourself a favor and put the gun down and let her go.” Hangeng allowed the gun to drop by his side, held loosely in his hand. He looked back and forth between Heechul and Leeteuk for a moment. A flash of what could be called sympathy came across his face but was quickly replaced with a deeper hatred.

“I’ll let her go, Jungsoo.” Hangeng smirked. “But you’ll have to make a choice: me or her. Have fun.” With that, he threw all of his weight into shoving Heechul backwards, deeper into the alley. She fell to the ground in front of a wall of iron rods and other materials. The force of her fall caused them to fall, building what could only be described as a mountain of clanging and vibrating metal that blocked her from Leeteuk’s vision. The only indication that he received that she was even on the other side was the high pitched scream that rang with the metal in a kind of sickening harmony. One that slowly fell into pitched sobs.

Leeteuk jumped towards the mound of materials in horror at the sound.

“HEECHUL!” He shouted. He tried to move a few of the items in the may only resulting in sharper louder screams from the woman buried underneath them. Leeteuk felt a rage fill him that matched no other. He spun around and saw Hangeng moving as quickly out of the alleyway as he could. Without a thought, Leeteuk pulled the trigger on the gun in his hand. The bullet landed in the back of Hangeng’s leg, sending him falling headlong into the ground.

“You will not move.” Leeteuk said as he closed the distance between the two of them. Hangeng was rocking back and forth, holding his leg close to him, trying to stop the bleeding. The expression that covered his face was nothing short of fear. Leeteuk held the gun down towards the man’s face, the fire in his eyes indicating that he would not hesitate to squeeze the trigger one more time.

“Leeteuk!” He looked up at his name to see his brother come running around the corner.

“What took you so long?” He said, hurriedly replacing his gun and making his way back to the mountain of materials. “Take him back to the headquarters. Let them take care of him. And call an ambulance. Heechul’s hurt.”

Kangin did as he was told. It had taken him longer than expected to get to the main headquarters. Leeteuk had called him earlier that week and asked him to start making his way to the city. He did as he was asked and had just arrived, meeting them in the spot he was told to. Apparently, he was a little late.

Leeteuk ran around the building in the opposite direction, trying to find another way to get to the other side of the alleyway. Trying to get to Heechul. He ended up climbing up the fire escape on the opposite side of the building beside the alley, running across the roof then scaling down the other side by the drain pipes.