♫  click the music note for music !

A/N: it's a double update so if you haven't read 'off the radar' click back to read it first! [6/26/2017]

“Courage doesn’t happen when you have all the answers.
It happens when you are ready to face the questions you have been avoiding your whole life.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“The entrance to the museum was clearly covered when we left. Why does it look cleared?” Jin whispered, staring into the dark hole in the midst of the rocks.

Namjoon narrowed his eyes and he his headlight. He led the way into the museum and with every step he took, he couldn’t help but feel that something was off.

“Maybe Jungkook got out himself,” Jimin suggested. Hoseok turned to him with a dead look. “If we couldn’t dig him out, how do you think he would have been able to?”

Jimin shrugged and held up his hands defensively. “It was just an idea. Maybe the rocks loosened up and he made it out fine.”

“I’d like to hope so,” Yoongi said.

They hopped over the rocks and rubble and when Namjoon held up a hand to stop, they halted in their steps. They walked up behind him to see what he was looking at.

“Is that…?” Hoseok trailed off.

Jin began to shake. “That’s Jungkook’s badge. And there’s dried blood on these rocks.” He walked over to pick up the metal plate with Jungkook’s name and he turned back to the others.

“He’s okay, right?” he asked. Hoseok’s face fell and he wrapped an arm around him as they began walking down what used to be stairs.

Namjoon tilted his head as he walked past the doorway. He stopped in his tracks and did a double-take at the wall. He raised an eyebrow when he saw what appeared to be finger marks along the rocks.

Yoongi noticed his gaze and followed his eyes to see what he was looking at. His eyes widened at the unusual sight.

“Those rocks look like they were crushed by someone’s hands,” he pointed out. Namjoon walked closer and ran his fingers over the dents in the rocks.

“Was it done by an Erratic?” Jimin asked.

Namjoon shook his head. “There’s no way an Erratic is strong enough to rip these rocks apart. They’re at least a metre thick.”

“Then how do we explain these finger marks along the edges?” Hoseok asked.

Namjoon lifted his hand and pointed up ahead of him. “We can worry about this later. Let’s see where Jungkook’s last location was logged at.”

They followed him deeper into the halls, careful of the rocks that seemed like they would fall onto them at any moment.

They hit a dead end and Namjoon looked down at the hole in the ground and his body stilled..

“He was here,” he whispered, gazing down at the bloodied rocks at the bottom of the hole. He looked back up and down the cleared pathway to this particular hole and it finally dawned on him.

“Someone, or something, got him out.”

Taehyung had to thank Jungkook for keeping him awake the entire drive and when the familiar scent of the water wafted under his nose, he knew they were getting close to their camp spot.

“Where are we going again?” Jungkook asked. He had taken another nap after talking with Taehyung and was able to eat some of the dried meat that Taehyung tossed to him.

“We’re heading towards the edge of this island.”

Jungkook’s eyes rounded at the new information and he sat up. “What do you mean? This is an island?” Taehyung nodded. “Nari said there was a radio transmission from the island beside us. That’s where we’re trying to go.”

“And do we have a water vehicle to get us there?” Jungkook asked. Taehyung chuckled, casting a smirk as he looked up into the mirror.

“What kind of soldier do you take me for if I can’t even get an old motorboat running?”

Jungkook grinned at the comment and faced the back again. He looked up at the sky and let out a wistful sigh.

“I can’t believe he got us thinking the air up here was so toxic to the point we had to be in full body armour to avoid any sort of contact with it.”

Taehyung scoffed. “Yeah, well, there’s a lot more that he’s lied to us about.”

“Has Nari been sleeping this whole time?” Jungkook asked suddenly. Taehyung turned his head to glance at Nari for the first time in a few hours. He cursed under his breath when he saw the sweat lining her face and the pale colour from her lips.

Jungkook let out a small gasp of surprise when the vehicle suddenly stopped and he turned around to see what was going on.

Taehyung grabbed Nari and put her into an upright position. He lightly tapped the back of his hand against her cheek but there was no response from her. He held his fingers under her nose and he was shocked to see how faint her breathing was.

“What’s wrong? Is she sick?” Jungkook asked in concern. The way Taehyung’s eyes were frantically roaming around worried him.

“She is. She exerted herself getting you out and-” he stopped and let out a sigh, “it’s a long story but she’s not doing well right now. I should’ve checked on her sooner but I was so occupied with keeping an eye on the road that I forgot.”

Jungkook fell silent at Taehyung’s words and the guilt settled on top of him when he was able to get a better glimpse at the state she was in. His eyes zeroed down onto the red veins on her skin and he looked at Taehyung in horror.

“What’s wrong with her?” he asked. Taehyung shook his head, looking hopeless as he rummaged through his bag for any type of medication to stop her fever.

“I don’t know, Jungkook. Long story short, she uses a serum to get stronger but every time she uses it, it takes a huge toll on her body. She hadn’t healed yet from the time she used it to save Baekhyun and I honestly don’t know how to help her.”

Jungkook frowned and he tapped against the window. Taehyung looked up.

“Pass me the bag. I’ll make something to stop her fever with what we have.”

Taehyung tossed back whatever supplies he had sitting in the backseat and he collapsed against his seat in slight relief.

He had forgot that Jungkook specialized in medicine during training.

“How would anyone be able to go through the rocks and create a path like this? And how would they know where he would be so specifically?” Yoongi asked.

They had regrouped outside of the museum and Namjoon had stepped aside to contact the Forerunner on their discovery.

“Those rocks were ripped apart and tossed aside. That’s not humanly possible,” Hoseok said. Jin looked up. “What if it wasn’t done by a human?”

Jimin turned to him in confusion. “What do you mean?” Jin shrugged. “I don’t know but I’ve got a bad feeling about all of this.”

Yoongi stared ahead. “They must have known we were going to come back and get him.” Hoseok frowned. “But how would they know he was stuck in the first place? And to know where his exact location was is unsettling.”

“Maybe this person was able to hack into our system,” Jin suggested. Hoseok shook his head at the possibility. “That’s not even possible. The only devices that are able to see our locations are-”

The others turned to him when he stopped talking and they seemed to have understood where he was trying to get at.

“It couldn’t have been him,” Jimin quickly said. Yoongi turned to him. “Then what explanation do you have?”

Jimin stared back at him. “Taehyung has been missing for at least two weeks and there’s no way he was able to dig Jungkook out of this museum the way we just saw it.”

“And what if he wasn’t alone?” Hoseok added in. “When we lost him, the people closest in radius were the two traitors we were after, wasn’t it?“

“You don’t think they captured Taehyung and went out to get Jungkook too, do you?” Jin asked, eyes wide.

“But what’s their motive behind all this? What are they getting out of it?” Hoseok asked. Jimin let out a sigh. “This is so confusing. What if this isn’t even what really happened?”

They stopped talking and looked up when Namjoon returned and they frowned upon seeing his expression.

“The Forerunner’s given us the order to return back to the Cover. This was all an orchestrated act and he found out who’s behind all of this.”

“Her fever has gone down but she still isn’t waking up,” Taehyung said worriedly.

They had made it to the docks and Taehyung parked the truck along the shore. Together with Jungkook’s help, they made a makeshift bed at the back of the truck and placed Nari on it.

“You should get some rest, Taehyung. You’ve been driving for a long time,” Jungkook said. Taehyung looked at him and then back to Nari. “Yeah, but I’m worried. I’m not sleepy right now, it’s fine.”

“Yeah but in my state, how will I be able to fend off any of the manmade Erratics you told me about if I’m alone? Just get some rest for a few hours. I’ll keep watch for now.”

Taehyung thought about it for a second before he let out a yawn. He nodded and crawled back into the driver’s seat to lay against the car seats.

Jungkook hopped up onto the truck and was careful not to hit his legs against anything. He sat down beside Nari, who was curled up in her sleep. He pulled Taehyung’s jacket up for her so that her shoulder wasn’t exposed to the cold air.

He reached for his bag and grabbed the bow sticking out. He smiled as he ran his fingers over the polished metal.

All these years, he had wondered why he had a bow in his possession when he was never a fan of the weapon. After regaining his memories of Nari, he remembered this was her bow and he had picked it up after her when she had gone missing.

He set it back down and leaned his head against the window of the truck. He stared off into the darkness of the forest in front of him and he had unconsciously reached for his gun.

Taehyung did manage to catch him up on a few things, like the man made Erratics and some of Nari’s backstory but he knew there was a lot more that he had to learn at a later time.

He looked down at Nari and then glanced back at the seats where Taehyung was currently sleeping.

His chest felt tight at the thought of all these years where Nari had spent up on the Surface while living with the fact that the seven people closest to her had forgotten her. The amount of pain she must have felt when she saw them again in the farmhouse that day would never be something he could imagine.

He had so many questions to ask but he would have to wait until either Taehyung or Nari woke up to answer them.

a u t h o r ' s n o t e

         I'm actually struggling so hard with this story because I've been watching a lot of EXO videos lately and Byun Baekhyun has really been messing up my bias list. On one hand I'm sad that I used him in the story for such a short period but at the same time, I feel like that was enough to get the message across to you guys of his bond with Nari. Either way, I miss writing about him a lot.

        As always, thanks for reading and commenting!