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“Leaders act with visions; they don't react with emotions.
Maturity is when you don't allow your bad feelings to direct your good dealings.”
― Israelmore Ayivor, Leaders' Ladder

Soohyuk stared at the monitor and when his eye began to twitch in irritation, he turned away to let out a few breaths. After a while, he turned his attention back to the screen and he narrowed his eyes.

He stared at the moving red dot on the map of the island. It was currently showing the location of the vehicle the five members were in.

Namjoon had connected a call with him earlier explaining their new discovery and their intentions to find Jungkook. However, because he was out of the office at the time, all he heard was the message that Namjoon had left him.

Without so much as a second guess, he knew Taehyung and Jungkook were with Nari at the moment. She had already begun to rebuild her team and if the others were to see her, he wasn’t so sure even the pills would be able to prevent them from remembering their memories.

It took him all these years to prevent them from getting back to her but here she was, destroying everything he had worked so hard to create and perfect.

Admittedly, it was his mistake in the first place for putting her into a team with the seven of them but at the time, all he could see was the potential the eight of them had together. Their boons and banes complemented one another and every mission they were sent on was a success.

They had become his new favourite group after the last one disappointed him.

Losing her was something he didn’t expect would happen but years ago meant that was when the perimeter had not been fully patrolled and searched for. He had tried searching for her but when he realized she had deliberately kept herself on a low, he began to grow angry.

Something that he had created was so easily lost and after everything he had done for her, she had gone and left him without any remorse.

It was almost a miracle when he found her grouped up with Baekhyun but the one thing that surprised him the most was how strong she had become. To fight off all of his soldiers guarding the Innermost and his office, she was able to waltz into there without so much as a scratch on her body.

As much as he would want her back by his side where he could keep an eye on her, letting her run off on her own was the best choice. Having her stay on the Surface where she would be far away from the things he needed to complete and research would be most beneficial.

Yet, it didn’t seem like that was what she wanted to do. At this point, he figured she would want to get all her members back but he was confused when she didn’t just come back into the Cover and get them out herself.

All he knew was that she was trying to create an antidote for the Erratics on the Surface but losing her research partner meant she had to spend more time collecting the data with her new partners. He also couldn’t quite figure out where her next route of action was going to be and it didn’t make it any easier that she was smart enough to remove the trackers on her members.

He pressed a button down on his mic and spoke into it.

“Kim Namjoon, do you hear me?”

He waited but heard no reply. He frowned and repeated the same words into the mic. When there was still no reply, he swiveled in his chair back to his computer and typed in a few words.

His eyes ran through the past audio logs and he replayed the most recent ones from the members. His eyes widened with each word and he tilted his head.

“A jammed signal?” he whispered to himself. His brain went blank for a second as he thought about it and then his eyes narrowed. He moved his finger around on the screen to pull up Taehyung’s profile and he quickly read through the list outlining his skills and areas of strength.

It was no surprise when he saw the words ‘TECHNICIAN’ amidst the rest and he put the two pieces of the puzzle together.

He slammed his fists onto the table and then ran them through his hair. He didn't want them to catch up to her because if they did, he wasn't confident he'd still have those soldiers in his control.

“Hey, you.”

Taehyung looked back at the voice and when he saw Nari standing on the dock, he turned back to the water in front of him. He felt the boat dip with her added weight and he turned around again to see her standing there with her lips jutted out.

“What?” he asked.

“I’m sorry. I promise I won’t do anything reckless again but this time it was justified, was it not?” she said. He rolled his eyes. “As justified as it was, it’s not right that you think your life is so easily expandable.”

“Is that why you’re mad?”

When he didn’t reply, she took his silence as the answer to her question.

“Then, I’m sorry for that too. I guess I just thought I owed it to you guys.”

Taehyung let out a sigh and he stood up, walking over to the edge of the boat. He leaned his arms against the metal railing and his eyes looked over the rippling waters.

“You don’t owe us anything, Nari. Are we not a team?” he asked. “We took an oath the day we were put together to always keep each other in sight and to have each other’s back.”

She nodded but then realized he wouldn’t be able to see her so she quickly muttered out a small ‘yes’ in reply.

He turned around and when she looked up, she saw that he had a gentle smile on his face.

“Then, apology accepted. As much as we look out for each other, our main priority is protecting ourselves. It baffles me sometimes how selfless you are.”

Her shoulders finally eased and she let out a small chuckle.

“It’s just my nature.”

They looked up when the heard the wooden floorboards of the dock creak to see Jungkook walking over.

“You guys good now?” he asked, stopping in front of the boat. Taehyung cast Nari a quick glance before turning to Jungkook and nodding.

Jungkook grinned and looked at Nari. “Then I’m glad.”

For some time, the three of them sat together around the seats on the small motorboat, catching up with one another until the sun began to dip below the horizon.

“Are you guys hungry?” Taehyung asked. Jungkook patted his flat stomach and nodded. “I am, yeah.” Taehyung turned to Nari and was going to ask her but shook his head and stood up.

“I don’t even have to ask. You haven’t gotten anything in your stomach aside from the little bit of meat earlier. I’ll go check on the snares.”

Nari scrunched up her face at him as he walked away and Jungkook laughed.

The two of them sat there for a while, talking to one another until they heard running footsteps behind them. They stood up in alarm when they saw Taehyung, with his rifle out.

“I was out by the edge of the forest and I heard gunshots in the distance.”

Nari stepped out of the boat and back onto the dock. She raised an eyebrow in question.

“A gunshot?” Jungkook asked, stepping out behind her. Taehyung nodded and his eyes fell onto Jungkook’s confused expression and his mouth fell open.

“His tracker.”

Nari’s eyes widened in realization and she turned to Jungkook at once. The boy stood there, his eyes darting between the two people staring him down.

“What’s going on?”

“We need to take out your tracker. Or, in this case, it may already be too late,” Nari said. Jungkook’s eyes rounded. “You mean they found us?”

Taehyung shook his head. “I put up a signal jammer earlier but I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them was able to bypass it by now.”

“Then where is it? How do I take it out?” Jungkook asked. Nari stood there for a second as she tried to remember where his tracker was.

She had just remembered where it was located when Jungkook let out a groan of pain and dropped to his knees. Taehyung’s eyes widened when he saw his knees buckle and Jungkook was clutching onto his shoulder with his eyes squeezed shut in pain.

She crouched down beside him and put her hand on his shoulder. She ducked her head down to search his face.

“Jungkook? What’s going on?”

He opened his mouth to reply but when another wave of pain shot through his arm, all he could do was let out another cry.

She frowned and stared at him and after a quick second of figuring out what was going on and her eyes fell onto the area of his shoulder where his fingers had begun to turn white because he was clutching at it so hard.

“Soohyuk’s done something to his tracker. He has control over what goes on and he must be doing something to it right now.”

She took out the knife on her thigh holster and lightly pried his fingers off his arm and she had to pull down his shirt until she could see the area where his tracker was. She in a breath when she saw the bruising that had already begun to happen and the swelling was growing worse by the second.

“I didn’t know our trackers could do that,” Taehyung whispered, his eyes stuck on what was going on in front of him.

“If you heard a gunshot, that must mean someone’s close. Pack everything onto the boat because we need to get moving as soon as possible,” she ordered. She wiped the blade of her knife onto her sweater and then looked back at Jungkook.

“It’s going to hurt and I don’t know what he did exactly but bite onto your sleeve,” she said. He managed out a quick nod as he brought the sleeve up to his mouth and he bite down onto it.

She took in a deep breath to prepare herself for the sight she would have to see.

His eyes went wide and he choked when he felt the knife dig into his burning skin. He could hear her whisper things to him to calm him down but his mind was so fixated on the pain that he couldn’t make out what she was saying.

He bit down hard on the fabric of his sweater and when the first tear rolled down his cheek, he no longer felt the knife in his arm and he turned to look at her through his watery eyes.

She smiled at him and tossed the metal contraption she had in her hands into the water and when Taehyung returned with the bags, she cleaned out his wound with antiseptic and then bandaged it.

“So what happened?” Taehyung asked. She shrugged. “The chip was hot. Way hotter than usual and the coating around it was sharper than before. When I touched it, there were shocks that went through my fingers.”

Taehyung frowned as he helped Jungkook to his feet. “That bastard. What has he put into us?”
 

“He must’ve known someone was coming and wanted to slow us down. Maybe it was him who sent them but if it's the other members, we have to get out before the get any closer,” she said.

She looked behind him and saw the empty truck. “Did you get everything?” He nodded as he tossed a bag onto the boat and then the other.

“How long will it take to circle the island? I don’t know if we’ll have enough food.” he asked. She hummed. “It’ll take less than a day if we don’t experience any bad weather. That’s the one thing I’m worried about.”

“And if we do encounter bad weather?” Jungkook asked, taking a seat.

She bit her lip as she watched Taehyung start the motor. “Let’s just hope we can all swim long enough to not drown.”

Taehyung started the engine and he turned back to her for a signal. She was about to tell him to start when she stopped. She turned around and squinted her eyes. In the distance, she could see a vehicle coming down the hill and she sat there.

"What is she doing? Are we not going to go?" Taehyung asked, looking at Jungkook quickly before looking at the back of her head.

She turned back to them and locked her jaw. "Something's not right. Soohyuk wouldn't willingly let them come and find us after losing two of his best soldiers because they remembered who I was."

Jungkook stared at her. "What do you mean?"

She turned and locked eyes with him.

"I want to speak with them."

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

  I have a slight idea of what I want to happen when they meet but we'll see!

  See you all in the next chapter!