The year 2865 will always be the year that started what would be known in history as the darkest times the world has ever seen. It started with a young scientist named Kim Taeyoung. He had spent most of his life trying to perfect the droids that had been sold since before his parents existed. He'd spent years in a miniscule workshop and he had a revolutionary idea for better, more efficient droids that would be made to protect all of Humankind whilst still fitting in with humans themselves. They were stronger, faster and much less intimidating than the other metal droids because of their human-like appearance. They emitted vocal patterns that sounded less mechanical and they required less maintenance than the others ever had. They would protect humans from any type of threat and still be worthy companions to have. They were supposed to be the best things ever invented by a human and everyone else thought so too. The laws were passed for the droids to be sold to anyone and everyone who wanted one and, for years, droids lived harmoniously with the humans surrounding them. Then, in the year 2898 when the droids have been sold all around the world, Kang Minjoo takes presidential office and everything changes for the worst.

On the day of September 23^rd, six months after she takes office, President Kang Minjoo makes a law that droids can no longer be tied to their owners and should be under the control of the government. She forces the makers to take the binding chips out of them and to take away anything that ties them to their loyalty of the human race. It takes less than a month for the droids to start malfunctioning. It takes an even shorter time than that for them to become self-aware. It takes a very, very small fraction of time for them to start killing their owners and other people around them. To this day, no one knows if this was what President Kang wanted all along or if it was simply an accident and, since she went into hiding, no one would ever find out. Slowly but surely, the droids started to take over.

President Kang, like most every other government official, went into hiding leaving the regular civilians to fend for their selves. Since the very beginning of the android take-over, people had been trained to fight to survive. Many had become great warriors, but some hadn't quite learned what they needed to in order to protect their selves and get to safety. That’s where Rangers like Yoongi came in; they were the best of the best warriors and they were sent to collect unwitting humans and bring them to the main camp. The job is simple and Yoongi is trained for it so the Sargent has no problem sending him out on his own to gather more humans that would otherwise be obliterated by the droids and bring them home.

When Yoongi first met Namjoon, he was saving him from one of the droids in the area. Namjoon, for whatever reason, was one of the only few people still left in his tiny mountainside village and Yoongi was sent to clear the area. Just before the droid could aim his laser at the back of Namjoon's head, Yoongi shot a round of bullets into its core processor and it fell to the ground with a metallic thud. Yoongi looks at the boy unimpressed and the boy blushes with a sheepish smile. Yoongi goes over to help him up and shakes his head.

“What are you still doing out here kid?” Yoongi asks him looking the tall boy up and down to examine for any damage.

“I was looking for something.” The boy says without further explanation and Yoongi scoffs.

“It's dangerous out here. Why aren't you in a sealed village or at the main camp?” Yoongi asks him.

“Because I was looking for something. I'm Namjoon, by the way.” Namjoon holds out his hand to shake but Yoongi brushes it off.

“The nearest camp is miles from here and it'll take at least four days to get there. That's if we don't run into anymore droids or other humans.” Yoongi turns to look at Namjoon. “Do you have any sort of weapon at all?” Namjoon shakes his head and Yoongi sighs. Of course he has to take an amateur out into one of the most dangerous parts in all of Korea without a weapon. Yoongi curses his bad luck and also his boss in his head.

“So, what's your name?” Namjoon tries again and Yoongi scoffs.

“I'm the guy who's going to have to keep saving your for the next four days.” Yoongi grumbles to him.

“You know, it might just be me, but I don't think that's your name.” Namjoon says with a dimpled smile and Yoongi sighs. Great, this is just what he needs, a smart . This is going to be a long trip.

“You have five minutes to find whatever it is you were looking for. You can either come with me willingly or I can drag you by your teeth. Doesn't matter to me.” Yoongi tells him with a shrug. Namjoon's eyes go a little wide before a -eating grin appears on his face.

“You care that much about me already?! How sweet!” Namjoon coos and Yoongi sighs. Sometimes he really hates his job.

It takes Namjoon four and a half minutes to find some crumpled up piece of paper and, when he does, Yoongi thinks he hears him sniffle, but that's none of his business. His business is to get this guy somewhere safe and that's all he's focused on.

“You ready to go?” Yoongi asks and Namjoon nods silently. Yoongi leads the way and steps over the recently demolished droid to walk on the path he made for himself. The journey to get to Namjoon's village took two days with no sleep, but the journey back is going to take even longer because he has to take another route and he has an untrained amateur with him.

“So, again, what's your name? Like, your real name?” Namjoon asks a couple of hours later after walking in complete silence and Yoongi sighs.

“Yoongi. Come on.” Yoongi tells him turning to the right and Namjoon smiles.

“Yoongi. I like it. Very gender fluid.” Yoongi rolls his eyes but says nothing as they start making their way through the route that he'd made and remembered earlier. Yoongi was thorough in everything he ever did, including finding and remembering new paths. Yoongi had a photographic memory, which served him well in the battlefield because if something wasn't the way he remembered it to be, he knew something was up. Like now, for instance; Yoongi remembers a bush with poisonous blue berries on it to his right when he'd come this way, so it should be on his left but the bush was nowhere to be found. Yoongi turned around to survey his surroundings once more just as a deformed droid leaped at Namjoon and tried to attack. Yoongi shot the thing in its head and it hit the ground not even a full inch away from Namjoon's feet.

“Watch where you're going, you could have been killed.” Yoongi tells him.

“How was I supposed to know that a droid was right behind me?!” Namjoon asks with a defensive pout on his face.

“Turn around.” Yoongi instructs and Namjoon does as he was told. “Look to your left. A bush was supposed to be there which I’m sure you know about because this is your village.” Namjoon follows instructions again and sees the bush that Yoongi knew shouldn't have been in that particular spot. “Always pay attention to what's going on around you. Even if something looks like it belongs, it probably doesn't.” Yoongi tells him as he turns him to face forward again.

“You know, you are a very grumpy man.” Namjoon tells him speeding up to catch up with him. Yoongi gives him a sidelong-unimpressed look before turning back around to make sure everything is where it's supposed to be. Everything seems to be in order, so it comes as a surprise when a droid hits him in the side of the head with something solid and hard. He falls to the ground unceremoniously and tries to will his ears to stop ringing when he hears shots being fired. Fantastic, now he has to report that he's responsible for this idiot's death. He thinks of his boss tearing him a new before he hears an excited shout that is most definitely Namjoon's. “Woo hoo! I did it! Oh my God did you see that? I just killed a droid!” Namjoon turns to Yoongi looking far too excited for Yoongi's taste.

“Whoop-dee-freakin'-do you figured out how to protect yourself. Gold star for you.” Yoongi says with a sarcastic smile sent Namjoon's way as he stands and his hearing starts to come back. Namjoon frowns at him and goes to hand him his rifle back. “Keep it. You'll need it.” Yoongi tells him with a nod because, even though is a sarcastic , he is glad that Namjoon has some type of hand-eye coordination.

“No need to be rude about it.” Namjoon grumbles and Yoongi rolls his eyes.

“Look, can you just not talk please? I have to make sure everything is ok before we head out through the clearing and you talking is very distracting.” Yoongi shushes him and Namjoon grumbles indignantly but he stops talking nonetheless. That lasts for all of two minutes before Namjoon sighs and starts making random noises with his mouth. Yoongi turns to glare at him and Namjoon looks at him like he’s clueless.

“What?” Namjoon asks and Yoongi realizes he actually may be clueless.

“Stop making noises.” Yoongi says as he turns back to check his surroundings again. Namjoon continues to make random noises with his mouth and clap his hands to an imaginary beat and Yoongi is frustrated. “Oh my God, are you serious?” Yoongi asks looking at Namjoon incredulously.

“What are you talking about?” Namjoon asks him tilting his head in confusion.

“The noises. Stop with the noises.” Yoongi groans out at him and Namjoon rolls his eyes but clasps his hands together and purses his lips.

“Well excuse me for trying to entertain myself.” Namjoon says and Yoongi rolls his eyes at Namjoon’s petulance. The silence lasts for about ten minutes when there’s an explosion and a shout heard in the distance.

“Jimin, what did you do? We were supposed to be quiet.” Yoongi hears someone try to rage whisper and he follows the sound. They walk towards some bushes and see three guys standing there covered in ash and Yoongi rolls his eyes. Of course there’s more idiots to take with him.

“Who are you?” One of the guys asks with wide eyes as another points something that looks like a gun at the two.

“Hoseok?” Namjoon asks and the guy with wide eyes smiles and runs up to hug Namjoon. Yoongi stops him though with his gun pointed at his chest.

“Who are you and what are you doing out here?” Yoongi asks stepping between Namjoon and the man apparently named Hoseok.

“I’m Jung Hoseok and I’m here with my friends Jeon Jeongguk and Park Jimin. We were trying to make a bomb.” Hoseok says and the guy holding the “gun” scoffs and rolls his eyes.

“Really Hobi hyung? You can’t just tell Rangers that you idiot!” The guy says and Hoseok shrugs.

“The guy has a gun pointed to my chest Jeongguk, what did you want me to do?” Hoseok says and Jeongguk sighs. The last man, who has to be Jimin, steps up with a smile and greets the two and Yoongi lowers his gun.

“Park Jimin, how are you doing? The bomb, since I know that’s what you want to know about, is to protect us from droids. We figured out that there was a way to get to the main base camp and we figured we needed heavy artillery so I was trying to build a bomb.” Jimin says and he’s smiling and Yoongi feels like his brain is going to explode.

“That bomb would never have worked because you didn’t put near enough c4 and, even if you had, the mechanics of it are all messed up. The only thing you would have done was blown your faces off.” Yoongi tells them looking over the makeshift bomb with a raised brow. “You were an engineer student, correct?” Yoongi asks Jimin who nods with a wide smile.

“How could you tell?” Jimin asks and Yoongi scoffs.

“It’s not hard to guess with the way this bomb is too over complicated to work without weeks and maybe even months of work.” Yoongi says before honing in on the “gun” in Jeongguk’s hand. He smirks and tilts his head at the man. “It’s cute that you have that. It’s not a real gun but it does look that way. Good idea to try to be deceptive, but it wouldn’t have fooled the droids just like it didn’t fool me. I like where your head is at though, kid.” Yoongi says with the first genuine smile Namjoon’s seen Yoongi have in the few hours that he’s known him. He’ll admit he’s a little jealous.

“So, since you’re obviously a Ranger and you have Namjoon with you, I’m guessing you’re out collecting clueless humans and taking them back to camp?” Hoseok asks and Namjoon glares at him.

“I’m not clueless you . Not any more clueless than you are anyway. And I have a gun.” Namjoon says pointing the shotgun in the air and accidentally pulling the trigger. A loud shot rings through the air and Yoongi rolls his eyes.

“Not clueless my . Alright, sorry to cut this meeting short but since this genius just shot his gun, the droids will be here soon so we need to move.” Yoongi tells them sending Namjoon an unimpressed stare. Namjoon at least has the decency to look sheepish so Yoongi lets it slide. Everyone stands and starts to walk behind him as he looks around to make sure nothing is out of place. Just as he turns the corner, two figures jump out from behind a bush wielding guns and pointing them at them. The others behind Yoongi raise their hands up in terror and Yoongi just glares at the two men.

“Are you guys actual humans, or do you just look like us?” One of the guys asks and his voice is deep and gravely despite his boyish looks.

“Yeah, we’re all humans here.” Namjoon says a little wide-eyed because if Yoongi gets shot the rest of them are done for.

“Prove it.” The guy says and Yoongi scoffs.

“How the hell are we supposed to prove that we’re human exactly?” Jeongguk asks and the guy smirks as he and his partner put down their guns.

“If you were droids, you would have tried to prove that you were humans. I’m Taehyung and this is Seokjin.” The man – Taehyung – introduces and Yoongi lowers his M16 and nods.

“I’m Yoongi and these are the idiots I have to take back to camp with me. I recognize you two though. Weren’t you already at the camp?” Yoongi asks and Taehyung nods.

“Yeah, we were, but we started to get restless and we knew there had to be others out here so we decided to take a little trip.” Seokjin tells them and Yoongi chuckles a little.

“That seems ill-advised but welcome to the team.” Yoongi tells them shaking Taehyung and Seokjin’s hands.

“Good thing there’s more of you, we have more weapons that were a little hard to carry.” Seokjin says grabbing the duffle bag he’d been carrying and opening it to revel a plethora of weapons. There’s enough for all of them to have two guns and a blade of some sort and Yoongi feels like someone (Namjoon) might accidentally hurt himself so he takes the blade from him.

“You’ll get it when you need it.” Yoongi tells him ignoring his pout and turning his attention back to the rest of the guys in front of him. “We need to start getting ready to leave. We have to find somewhere safe to set up camp and there should be droids on their way here any second thanks to this idiot.” Yoongi says pointing to Namjoon who huffs at him.

“I didn’t mean to fire the gun ok?” Namjoon says but his words fall on deaf ears as they start to walk out of the clearing they’re in. Yoongi will have to report back to his boss and tell him about the six others he has joining him later but, for now, he needs to work on finding all of them shelter. It’s going to be a long night.