Jisoo had tried everything to get the injured Warrior to speak one more time but he had remained quiet and it frustrated the Wielder to no end. They sat in silence, the only sound the buzzing of the old heating system, and he raked his brain for a solution. What had it been that had made the other talk almost an hour ago? He tried once again.

"Mingyu? How are your injuries? Do the scratches hurt?" The Wielder had disinfected them and had also tried to wrap gauze around Mingyu's wrists, but the other had struggled once again and Jisoo had given up, hoping that the disinfectant would at least prevent infection until Seokmin had rested enough to take care of the problem. "Are you hungry?"

The Warrior stared straight ahead, no muscle moving in the bruised face.

Jisoo groaned and ruffled his hair. "Oh, come on! Look at me while I'm talking!"

The reaction was instantaneous and the Wielder froze when Mingyu faced him, eye to eye. "Uhm... I-I just wanted to know if you're hungry?" he asked meekly - sighing when the Warrior remained silent. "Urgh, why are you-" Jisoo stopped. A thought had popped up and he eyed the Warrior with an appraising look.

"How old are you?" He knew that no reaction would come and was proven right immediately. "Tell me your age." If his guess was correct, the other would-

"Twenty one." The low voice filled the room for the second time that night.

A cold fist seemed to clench around Jisoo's heart as he examined the empty eyes of the Warrior. It hurt to think that the male was almost two years younger than he was. What kind of miserable life would turn a human into a puppet that only reacted to direct commands?

"Tell me your full name."

"Kim Mingyu." The reply came without the slightest hesitation.

The Wielder frowned at the prospect of using orders to get the answers he wanted; he had never been a particularly forceful person and he had absolutely no intention to change anytime soon. After a few minutes of contemplative silence, he tried a different approach. "Mingyu, I'll ask you some questions now and you will answer them." He forced his voice to sound more confident than he felt.

"Yes."

Jisoo's shoulders relaxed slightly and several questions wanted to tumble out of his mouth at once, but he forced them back down. First things first. "Are you in pain?"

"Yes." Mingyu's toneless voice didn't change; he showed no signs of pain whatsoever but Jisoo didn't doubt him.

"What hurts the most?"

"The bruises."

That didn't sound too bad. At least Seokmin seemed to have healed all bones correctly. He decided that he could dare to ask his other questions now. "Who put you in that state?" Jisoo held his breath.

"Wonwoo."

"Huh? Who's that?" Mingyu remained silent and Jisoo scolded himself for losing focus, worried that the other would stop answering eventually. He once again tried to sound as authoritative as he could. "Mingyu, why did he hurt you?"

"I betrayed them." He said it so blankly that the Wielder felt a a shiver run down his spine.

"W-was Wonwoo your Wielder?"

"No."

"Who was your Wielder?"

"Jiyong."

The name rang no bells for Jisoo but he made a mental note to ask Chan later. If the younger also didn't know any Wielders called Jiyong, maybe he could contact Jeonghan... He shook his head to get rid of the thought. "How did you betray them?"

"I helped outsiders."

The Wielder rubbed his temples in irritation at the curt answers before he kept asking. "With what?"

"Killing Daesung."

Jisoo stopped at the familiar name and silence filled the room for several long seconds before he finally broke it, his voice shaky. "D-Daesung, as in the Wielder of Taeyang?"

"Yes."

Hands clenching in his lap, Jisoo's thoughts were racing at lightning speed. "Did you s-succeed in killing him?"

"Yes."

The Wielder's heart sped up even more but he forced his voice to stay calm. "What did you do exactly?"

"We prepared a trap. Taeyang went in first. He died. Daesung got injured. He died later. I got caught."

Another cold shiver ran down Jisoo's spine. Not even the smallest hint of either triumph or regret was detectable in the toneless voice and empty eyes of the man in front of him. He had remained completely emotionless throughout the conversation, as if taking the lives of two people was nothing worth mentioning. The thought horrified the Wielder. "And Wonwoo p-punished you for that?"

"Yes."

"Is he also one of Jiyong's Forcebearers?"

"Yes."

Jisoo hesitated for a long moment but then he dared to ask the most important question. "W-were you part of the gang called 'the Organisation'?"

When the Wielder left the storage room, the sky visible through the windows had already turned bright, but he felt absolutely no desire to sleep at that particular moment. Minghao was lying stretched out on the couch, one arm dangling from the cushion and mouth gaping wide open. Although the conversation with Mingyu was weighing heavily on Jisoo's heart, he smiled at the goofy sight and went over to cover his Bonded with the blanket that had slipped onto the floor. At his light touch, the Warrior mumbled something incoherent and turned in his direction, the corners of his lips twitching into a small, satisfied smile. Jisoo ran his fingers through the silky red strands and absentmindedly played with them for a few minutes while mentally going over the information he had just received. At the end of their conversation, he had told Mingyu to sleep and even that order had been followed immediately. It hurt to see a human being without any free will.

Jisoo got up and peeked into the bedroom to find Chan and Seokmin curled into each other under dark red sheets. It was too early to wake them up, therefore he decided to make breakfast to take his mind off the situation at hand. As soon as he had turned back towards the door, Seokmin's tired groan stopped him.

The Guardian had opened his eyes and was sleepily watching him, one hand hiding a yawn. "Jisoo, are-" he cleared his throat to get rid of the huskiness but the Wielder shushed him and pointed towards Chan. Seokmin smiled at the sight of the younger and carefully wriggled out of his tight hold. When he had freed himself, he got up and followed Jisoo outside.

"You can keep sleeping longer, you know? It's not even six," Jisoo said as soon as they had closed the bedroom door and had sneaked past the living room into the kitchen.

"Why are you hurt?" Seokmin completely ignored his suggestion and eyed the sleeve that hid the scratch on the Wielder's arm. "Let me heal you."

He had already reached out before Jisoo could reply but the Wielder took a step back and avoided his hand. "Save your energy for Mingyu's bruises; it's just a scratch anyway."

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