‘I’m Nothing.’

Namjoon barely dodges the stranger on time.

An odd weapon of sorts stabs at him but he manages to dodge it. He feels the heat of it on his skin- hears a distinct sound from the core of the weapon. This wasn’t like anything Namjoon has personally seen, the description of it is not like anything he’s read.

From the corner of his eyes he sees Hoseok and Nineti sliding down the ripples that were forming under the surface of the ground, stretching and bending the very structure of the grounds they stood on without breaking it.

‘Namjoon-!’

He can’t find Hoseok or Nineti- the ground beneath their feet blocking his view.

Instead the stranger before him, uncaring of the turbulence beneath their feet, lunges for him again. Namjoon doesn’t know if this weapon will effect him and he doesn’t want to find out either. He dodges to the best of his abilities with the floor shifting and rolling at every step. He’s thrown off for a moment, strangely afloat as the ground rolls and tosses him and yet immediately drops. The stranger seamlessly moves over the ripples, tensing to stab him.

The stranger is tackled heavily to the ground by Amic who appeared over a mound, his shoulder wounded but otherwise he looked all right. Namjoon rolls more than he wishes to before he’s able to right himself. Amic is thrown off and the stranger quickly turns heel and runs off just as a horrible deep rumbling sound fills the air. It’s coming from beneath them, far deep but travelling up fast and-

The ground suddenly levels and flattens, causing Amic to slip in the distance.

No sign of the stranger, no one is standing at the roofs in the city either.

Hoseok is there, eyes wide and his stance tensed and ready.

‘All units report!’ Namjoon yells, looking around to find any possible place they could go hide in. They were too exposed here and the sound below them was approaching too fast. He picks up his pace, glancing back noticing that Amic and Saykahn were also rounding around back towards him before pausing at Nineti’s orders. They needed to step away from the city-

A horrible and odd sound, as though something was breaking, resonates deep below them and up through the air, through every single ligament and joint in Namjoon’s body. He slows his pace for a moment, out of instinctual caution, staring down at the ground. When he looks up, Hoseok and Nineti are no longer there.

Instead a massive crack, deepening in an unnaturally fast pace, widening just as fast, spreads over where Hoseok had previously been standing.

‘Hoseok-!’

Namjoon leans back on the wall of the Bridge, looking out of the massive window down outside. Sk’jin was pacing about the dark ground, pale robes fluttering in the strange orange-twilight that was apparently Ch’dra’s night light. 

Unable to sleep, Namjoon had the idea of maybe walking outside- he always felt better being in-planet. Felt a lot more stable and, no pun intended, grounded. But Sk’jin had claimed territory outside, pacing about here and there. Sometimes he would stand still for long periods of time, sometimes he would make short burst of pacing. Other times he’d just crouch.

What was he thinking? What was he even doing?

In the strange twilight, Namjoon randomly catches glimpses of neon red eyes. It’s a little frightening, but from this distance, Namjoon pays little mind to it. He had then decided to maybe work on the rest of the Bridge, but all that was left to do was to wait for the systems to finish installing.

He pulls himself off of the wall and turns his back to the window, away from Sk’jin’s pacing. It wouldn’t do him good if he was caught. Sk’jin might accuse him of spying or something else and another argument would ensue.

Making his way out, Namjoon nearly trips over Taeh’yung on the stairs, catching himself just in time.

A horrible screaming like klaxon rings out into the air as he takes a step forward, coming from past the forest, past the waterfall- from deep within the dark tear in the sky. Another pulse shoots up into the sky.

Something detonates close to him- some low-grade explosive aimed at him. Namjoon rolls away before stretching up into a fast sprint. He spies Amic and Saykahn running in a similar direction. Amic gestures briefly and quickly forward towards the edge of Udāvana. There’s a rain of detonations around him and-

He was being lead on. He was being lead towards a specific direction. . What could he do in this situation?

Namjoon skids to a stop just before reaching the edge of Udāvana and with a sharp whistle, calls the attention of the other 2 GI. They immediately follow him as he makes a sharp right turn away from the direction he was being lead and crashes in through a door.

There’s dust and bits of building material that falls around him as more detonations spark off. Amic and Saykahn roll in much more elegantly but don’t pause, instead crawling at a mighty speed towards him and for a couple of seconds, literally drag him across the floor before Namjoon’s able to gain momentum to right himself and he follows after the two. Amic drops a step and brings up the rear instead, they’re all keeping low, swooping through this crumbling dusty abode. Saykahn turns sharply towards the left down a dimly lit hallway and Namjoon follows him up some stairs and out through a balcony, leaping a wide gap into another window below. He glances back, worried Amic might clip himself considering he was very tall but the lanky GI easily folds himself, catapulting in, barely making a sound. Namjoon’s not sure where they’re even going, but he knows they’re trying to throw off their stalkers.

Namjoon hears the occasional pulse, the ground rumbling- and maybe in a way this was advantageous because their sounds were somewhat masked.

Saykahn is quietly leading them down some steep stairs when he pauses and Namjoon ducks down at once, crouched over the landing as Amic positions himself behind him, TeorSer ready.

It’s strangely comical, but also somewhat jarring, when one of the strangers, dressed similarly to the ones who attacked them outside, casually walks by, sneezing violently. Before Namjoon can say anything, Saykahn leaps gracefully, with no sound, a blade as dark as night momentarily gleaming before it sinks down the side of the strangers neck.

There’s no blood, no sound, as Saykahn quietly and almost gently guides the stranger to lay down on the ground, holding out another hand to prevent them from twitching before grinding in the blade deeper and the stranger lays still. And then, before Namjoon can even realize what’s happening or even hear it, Saykahn pulls out the knife and throws it fast.

This time there’s a sound and Amic taps his shoulder once before almost lifting him up to take him down, following after Saykahn though not before shooting his TeorSer in the opposite direction, breaking through a boarded window. Namjoon and Amic barely fit in with a much more petite Saykahn in what could only be some sort of storage closet.

They pause a moment, listening intently and the faintest footsteps down the hallway can be heard. A pair runs past their door clearly to check before running past again. Amic lightly taps his shoulder before gesturing up. In the gloom of the closet, Namjoon realizes this was probably also an access point to the attic, or crawlspace or even a rooftop.

With ease, Amic reaches up and after a moment of carefully feeling the indents on the roof, pushes up and slides the covering away. Using Namjoon and Amic as climbing poles, Saykahn easily makes his way up through the narrow space. After a moment, his head appears and with a completely neutral face, gives them a very purposeful thumb’s up. As quietly as he could, Namjoon hoists himself up, wincing at the faint creak caused by his weight as he pulls himself up.

He nearly loses his grip though. For a moment he thinks that maybe Saykahn hadn’t scouted the place properly- or maybe he was seeing ghosts.

Dusty, perfectly preserved bodies lean up against the low walls, huddled together. They look like children.

Namjoon tears his gaze away and follows after Saykahn as Amic quietly places the cover back down again. Namjoon notices how he pauses too, looking at the mummified remains of the lost and forgotten children of Megibīya. He waits for him to return, and as though noticing what Namjoon was doing, also gives him a quiet thumb’s up as though to say he was all right.

They follow the pipes that track across, ancient water stains and damage stretched across the floor still visible under the thick layer of dust that cushions the sound of their feet- well, mostly Namjoon’s feet. There’s an even smaller crawl space, to the side of which are several other mummified bodies of children. Namjoon does his best not to look. Swallowing thickly as he pushes his own memories aside. Carefully, they push into the crawl space. It’s not a long stretch of space but due its size, takes a considerable amount of time to get through to a small opening. There’s a large and empty tank of water, gathered around the tiny rooftop. The sun is gleaming on it, a rosy sheen buffers the eroded metal, almost appearing gold as Namjoon carefully pulls himself out.

From somewhere above them, maybe behind them, a low humming builds up. Namjoon immediately drops down, crawling under the great water tanks as Saykahn does the same and Amic pushes himself back into the crawl space.

A ship slowly hovers past, Namjoon tucks his feet in even closer. The metal has gaps of erosion and Namjoon catches glimpses of a sleek Transporter- the built a strange hybrid of what he had seen Lim bring with him, and of the more traditional Yisheng-styled vehicles.

The water tanks creak ominously, one of them collapsing a little and thudding against the tank Saykahn was hidden under. Namjoon watches with baited breath as the whole structure creaks ominously but doesn’t move beyond that. Saykahn expresses no fear or anxiety, instead holding up a hand, slowly counting down his 7 seven fingers.

The Transporter drifts away, its shadow moving away and Amic is now joining Namjoon under the water tank. When Saykahn counts down to 7, they all move. Saykahn briefly gestures to the Transporter and Namjoon immediately understands.

They could follow after the movement of the Transporter- it would be the safest route for them.

Another pulse renders through the air and Namjoon glances back towards where the strange crater had formed. He doesn’t have a good view from here, too many houses and homes blocking his view. But he can’t help but vividly see the crater opening and swallowing Hoseok whole. The shock of it makes Namjoon feel as though he left his mind back there. Saykahn abruptly pauses right at a high wall, turning around and kneeling, knee jutting out at an angle. Amic takes over easily, and using Saykahn’s propped knee, jumps up. Something tells Namjoon neither of the GI would need any help propelling themselves up but were simply doing this to demonstrate quickly to Namjoon what to do. Amic easily grabs onto the protruding edge of the next building, hoisting himself up silently. Namjoon prepares, picking up more speed before he too leaps up. He nearly misses the ledge, but Amic shoots out a hand, helping him grip the sturdy stone edge. Saykahn is by his side and by means of practical demonstration helps him hoist himself up with just a little effort. Namjoon makes it a point to mentally note down that method for (hopefully not needed) future use. They’re in a small balcony area, rather high up, but weirdly exposed without any awnings or tanks to shield them. Namjoon can still hear the low-humming of the Transporter above and ahead so he ducks down, following Saykahn across the balcony into the house. Saykahn however, holds his hand up, making Namjoon stop as abruptly as he could.

The house they were entering had clearly taken some sort of hit- the front walls are still crumbling, and stairs leading down end midway, high above a strange crater below. Broken pipes cut across at random far below, and beyond the debris, Namjoon spots a tunnel like hole. Were these the sewers?

Then something clicks.

Ahead before them, a whole area of the buildings were cleared, falling down into their own craters. From this point, Namjoon has a clear view of the grounds they had just escaped from.

Yoongi’s old ship is still there, strangely unmoved from its location despite the intense rolls that overtook the whole city. Namjoon doesn’t have all of it just yet, but he’s starting to connect it. The large cracks and gaping deep hole that unnervingly connected straight into the interconnected tunnels of the charge system creates an almost comically unreal gash across the grounds.

There’s another ripple in the sky, light fluctuating in the oddest manner.

Both Amic and Saykahn flinch, looking away from the tunnel below.

‘What’s wrong?’ he asks at once.

Amic points downwards.

‘We are found.’ He says simply.

‘Captain!’ Taeh’yung grins in greeting. ‘Whatcha doing?’

‘Just…just thinking,’ Namjoon replies and internally adds trying not to get killed falling down the stairs. ‘Thought I’d go for a walk but outside is currently occupied.’

‘Ah- I saw Jin walking around,’ Taeh’yung nods as he takes a seat next to Namjoon. ‘I’ve been wondering- for the Beings born on moons- do they consider the planet they’re orbiting at their moon or are they aware of the fact that they are a moon?’

Namjoon chuckles, glancing down at the Zhak’gri.

‘I don’t know- ask someone from a moon next time?’

‘I should.’ Taeh’yung nods seriously, like he was really serious about doing it.

Namjoon stares down into the tunnel. He doesn’t remember there being charges here or in any of the minor cities and establishments across the crescent. Jimin had been very thorough with where the charges would be, confident in his memory as he had regularly visited the planet to make sure its protection policies and systems were performing correctly. Jimin wouldn’t have missed these, could he?

Besides, these didn’t look like the aftermath of whatever was going on, these looked like massive drills or maybe even mining charges. The hollow beneath echoes dully, an emptiness that seemed vast and filled to the brim with something Namjoon cannot comprehend.

‘It’s loud,’ Amic adds.

Namjoon strains his ears but there’s nothing other than what he’s been hearing. There’s nothing strange or unusual- at least for their current situation.

‘Captain.’

Amic points to the left.

Namjoon follows his direction and finds that most of the strange transporters were headed away from where they were trying to turn back around to. They were headed roughly south, and they were trying to head east. Okay, their plan was working. Somehow.

The Transporter they were using as cover also turns and slowly drifts off after the others.

‘Captain I suggest we scale down from the back, our movements will be hidden.’

Namjoon nods, still thinking hard. Something wasn’t adding up.

As usual, Saykahn moves first, leading their small unit. There’s a line of broken window ledges to the side, a strange formation of broken windows and floors that somehow managed to create a way to go down. Namjoon nearly slips down when the stone floors crumble under his feet but Amic catches him, easily pulling to him a sturdier area. They pause, listening to hear if this small accident may have raised any alarms. But there’s nothing.

When they reach the bottom, Namjoon’s radiation detector lets out a faint humming sound, a soft yellow-green light glowing. Namjoon frowns, staring at the device and then back where they came down from, beyond which the crater lay.

‘Captain.’

‘Wait.’ Namjoon points back, ‘Stay here, I need to check on something.’

Neither of the GI respond, not that Namjoon’s expecting it. He makes his way around, the device still glowing a steady yellow-green. It’s not lethal, but Namjoon would rather not risk the GI at this time. Hoseok’s warning about the GI and exposing them to the strange events in the planet rings loud in his mind.

He pushes a crumbling door carefully before he’s in what was once a kitchen though most of it was now crumbling away into a crater. The light on his device switches to a more yellow colour. There was radiation leaking from this area.

Was this an accident? What was going on?

He looks into the tunnel, eyes trying to adjust to the dust and dark but he can’t see anything. He knows he can’t waste time here. They needed to get the ship, and they needed to try and take down the magnetic pulses so that they could at the very least, send out a warning to Ilya.

Gritting his teeth, Namjoon turns his back and exits the kitchen area. Amic and Saykahn are exactly where Namjoon left them.

‘The last Transporter followed the rest south.’

‘As far as we could tell.’ Amic clarifies before adding, ‘We might be clear to go ahead to board the Rs’wa.’

Namjoon does a double take.

‘Rs’wa?’

But Amic offers no further explanation. He was starting to remember certain things- the same way Yoongi had at first. Namjoon wants to ask Amic if he’s experiencing any pain or discomfort, but his experience with Yoongi has taught him that this will be futile. So he doesn’t say anything and instead nods.

Saykahn leads again, moving swiftly, quietly.

The buildings and homes are quiet again, though the unnerving knowledge that bodies lay within, preserved and still in ages past makes Namjoon nervous. As though they were walking through a graveyard. Kutsoglerin never buried their dead; they believed that trapping the body was trapping the heart- trapping their souls.

Namjoon can finally place and point out why he’s uncomfortable here.

There were too many trapped souls, entombed deep into these stone walls, far beneath the ground, their bones turning to dust, hearts breaking down to motes vanishing into the air, untied to memory or recollection.

He shakes himself a little, following after Saykahn as they exit the area and quietly make their way through another home. This home is uncannily preserved- unaffected and perfectly maintained. Only the thick dust is an indicator of the time lapsed. Saykahn slips through what could only be the dining room before turning to make way towards the front door. The locks are still there, a wooden beam set across for reinforcement. Saykahn easily lifts it up from the hooks holding it in place, sticking a foot out swiftly to catch a bit of stone that chipped off, cushioning the sound. The door opens with a faint dry squeak. They all pause a moment, backs to the wall before Saykahn opens the door just enough for Amic to peek over the high door frame.

They’re out in a narrow but still open gulley. Scattered and fragile looking remains of vines stretch over- ages and ages of the plant building up and fading and growing and decomposing up in between two homes.

An overwhelming sorrow suddenly fills Namjoon.

‘Captain. There is a singular patrol around the clearing.’ Amic reports when they pause 2 houses before the clearing starts. Namjoon follows Amic’s line of sight and indeed notices a smaller but similar Transporter making careful rounds. It didn’t seem to be exactly patrolling the border around the clearing, but rather the crater that had formed through which Hoseok and Nineti had fallen through. There’s also a large cargo-freight like transporter to the side.

‘Probability of success by using that Transporter to fly us to the mission target is higher,’ Amic declares.

‘Well, if that’s so, we take their Transporter. How many Beings are on board?’

There’s a short pause.

‘Two.’

Namjoon is only a little taken aback but he nods.

‘We use the Rs’wa as a cover and head straight for-‘

‘Captain, I can shoot,’ Saykahn declares, holding up a small TeorSer.

‘I-…well, that would cause noise-?’

‘To cause a distraction.’ He explains.

‘Wouldn’t they alert the others, causing them to come?’

There’s a slightly longer pause.

‘Slip of mind. I apologize.’

Namjoon holds both his hands up, placing them on very contrasting heights as he gently holds both GI back by their shoulders.

‘You need to tell me if you’re not feeling well.’

He’s met with silence which he’s not surprised about in all honesty.

‘I think, like Yoongi, I am experiencing some memories.’ Amic tells him. ‘It’s almost as though, I fall asleep, and a Dream reveals itself to me.’

Saykahn nods as well.

‘Leaving this planet is our priority,’ Namjoon says firmly, looking at the GI carefully. He thinks of Lowet, thinks of the small community there, of the dark sandy shores, the smell of salt, the quiet lives of those who hid there. ‘We do everything we can to get out of here alive.’

The GI nod.

‘Understood, Captain.’

Taking a quiet but purposeful breath, Namjoon readies himself. He was right at the edge now. But it’s funny how he’s always been at the edge.

And maybe that was why this was scarier. Maybe that was why this was even bigger than anything Namjoon has had to balance himself on. Because he can see the end of the narrow knife-like edge.

There was a finality to this.

If he slips and falls, that would be the end.

There was a finality to this and it paralyzes Namjoon.

Saykahn leads them once more, out here in the open, Namjoon feels exposed, but there is nothing. No barrage of shots, no sprinting figures coming out after them. It does nothing to make Namjoon feel better.

They use Yoongi’s old ship, the Rs’wa, as cover, running at an angled arc from the gulley opening. There’s another pulse that ripples through the sky and for a moment, Saykahn’s steps seem to falter but he rights himself almost as quickly as he had paused. They push on forward, down this narrow edge- tethering and balancing.

Because this time, Namjoon thinks, he’s not alone anymore. And he wouldn’t allow them to be alone anymore either. He couldn’t.

Right up against the Rs’wa, Namjoon leans back as flat as he can while Amic, without much of a pause, sprints past, picking up speed at a terrifying rate, shoots straight for the Transporter now slowly drifting past.

Amic spans the distance in less than 3 seconds, a hint of dust trailing behind him, as though surprised to be disturbed. Namjoon hasn’t done much research on Amic’s origin species, but he’s not really surprised at their speed.

Or strength.

Amic bodily shoves the Transporter, causing it to literally tilt where it was hovering past and just then Saykahn neatly fires exactly 3 shots. The first to break the protective sheath on the window, and the following straight at the Beings inside.

Namjoon tries not to think about that too much.

‘We’re clear.’ Saykahn announces calmly. ‘I will pilot the Transporter.’

Namjoon gestures vaguely before he mumbles, ‘Have at it.’

Amic bodily rights the Transporter which, sure wasn’t very large, but it wasn’t such an ordinary size that it could be easily adjusted around so simply. Namjoon simply chooses not to think about it. Saykahn heads straight inside and Namjoon would rather not be there for the body removal and instead makes his way to the crater. He takes out his short-radio device and he’s not surprised to not hear any feedback.

Namjoon steps carefully around the crater. There’s no radiation here. Just a strange…an eeriness Namjoon cannot explain. He can’t stop himself from looking down at the strange sight below.

‘It feels dead.’

Hoseok hadn’t been all right. Something major had shook him up- something the Ngfy’widan himself didn’t know how to explain it seemed. And somewhere deep in there, Hoseok was there.

There’s another pulse that ripples through the sky, and for a moment, voices murmur at him from the crater. Namjoon takes a step back, his breath stuck in his throat.

He has the wild urge to call down. To ask who was there.

But he’s afraid of the answer he knows he will receive.

‘What are you doing here?’ Namjoon asks in turn.

‘I kinda got stuck here,’ Taeh’yung grins. ‘Yoongi is in the Lobby downstairs and you were here- I didn’t want to disturb the two of you, you see. So I just sat here, listening and sightseeing.’

‘What’s Yoongi doing?’ Namjoon asks, taking a seat next to the Zhak’gri though he could guess what the Human was doing.

‘He’s watching over my baby,’ Taeh’yung bounces his knees about as though flapping them.

‘Is that…I mean, he’s been there for a really long time,’ Namjoon says with some concern, glancing down at the staircase. He had seen Yoongi sitting next to the OrTank, staring deep into the tube at the floating Being inside. It was strange, as though sensing someone else beyond the tube, the Being inside was angled facing Yoongi, not shifting around as Namjoon has seen him do so as he floats via surveillance. Seeing him smile earlier had been disarming.

Namjoon sighs out heavily.

‘Don’t worry,’ Taeh’yung says with a smile, leaning against him. ‘They’re just dreaming now.’

‘Captain, there is no connection.’

Namjoon looks away from the crater back to Amic. He’s holding the Comm Device for short radio channels. Hoseok still had his on with him when he had fallen. So did Nineti.

The Transporter hums to life and from inside, Saykahn gives him a thumb’s up.

Namjoon takes a heavy step back away from the crater, away from where he last saw Hoseok.

There’s another pulse through the sky and this time it’s clearer.

The voices aren’t murmuring randomly- they were singing.

The Transporter interior is like a combination of what he had seen in Sanctuary as well as a Yisheng Transporter. It makes Namjoon grimace as he sits down behind Saykahn. Namjoon doesn’t recognize the language stamped onto the interior, but he guesses that out of instinct, Saykahn can pilot the thing.

Or at least he hopes.

Both Saykahn and Amic sit still for nearly a minute, simply staring at the dashboard before much to Namjoon’s relief, they begin flying the ship.

‘Everything okay?’

‘Yes.’ Amic replies before belatedly adding, ‘We were looking for shields.’

‘…did you find it?’

‘No.’

Great.

‘As Communications Manager Sk’jin would say, we are going in without protection.’ Saykahn says calmly.

Namjoon feels a myriad of emotions.

He’s first inclined to change orders, to fly them back down, find Hoseok and Nineti, fly them back out to where Sk’jin was last seen (sit him down to talk about how he needs to stop influencing the GI), probably looking for Jungkook and then-

Something shoots past them, barely missing them.

‘Time to avoid the ually transmitted disease,’ Amic adds in a toneless voice.

Namjoon cannot stop the hysterical giggling fit that seizes him as all of the Transporters that were patrolling Udāvana come speeding towards them. His giggling is very quickly cut short when Saykahn apparently finds the acceleration and Namjoon jerks back in his seat as they very quickly fly past the Udāvana area.

Unsurprisingly their speed is matched.

‘Shouldn’t this ship also have some sort of defense system?’ Namjoon inquires, wincing as something shoots past them, erupting in a cloud of flame and smoke by a large dense clump of trees. Saykahn drives them straight through it before sharply and very dangerously making an incredibly reckless (at least in Namjoon’s opinion) u-turn before firing through the smoke as he pilots them backwards.

‘There are, but only from the front.’

‘That’s-,’ Namjoon gulps, watching as one of the ships flying after them literally explode out of the smoke of the scorched trees. ‘That seems like a faulty design.’

‘It is,’ Amic remarks, seemingly completely at ease as he handles the weapons.

‘Not to rush but can we go higher?’ Namjoon grits out as Saykahn tilts the ship dangerously, still flying backwards, piercing through the dense high forests.

‘Evasive maneuvers first.’ Saykahn explains.

‘I think-.’

Amic suddenly lets out a whole barrage of fire straight at the trees, causing them to crumble into thick dust, creating a huge cloud of a nearly viscous barrier.

‘But-.’

‘Due to the magnetic pulsing, all forms of advanced scanning systems are down. Only the basic tracking function is functional.’ Amic tells him. It takes him a moment before he understands what the GI meant. While they could track each other, their precise location within the space of their coordinate would be unknown. And while this wasn’t exactly a margin of camouflage Namjoon was comfortable with, he trusts the GI to be able to use this narrow sliver of cover to their benefit.

So Namjoon decides to simply not say a word and just secure himself onto his seat as best as he could.

The ship drops drastically- maybe too quickly and sharply to Namjoon’s liking and his previous understanding of how low they were and they also dramatically slow down before Amic sets up another barrage of fire at an angle.

Through the dusty plumes of ash and dust, bright lights erupt, followed belatedly by massive explosive sounds. Ash like waves of the ocean crash down on them with more weight than Namjoon anticipated. There’s a quiet but urgent alarm that rings inside the ship. Namjoon glances at the two GI, hoping for an answer but he gets none. Nearly a minute more of this and Amic has shot down nearly all of the pursuing ships when he clears his throat.

‘So, uh, what’s this alarm?’

They’re suddenly out of the ash and dust, flying over the lower regions of the crescent, closer to frozen and barren wastelands.

‘Overheating due to blockage in the turbines.’ Saykahn explains.

The sun is still shedding a faint light around them, rosy gold highlights catching on the curves of the metallic edges of the windows when the glass suddenly mists over.

‘These ships are not meant for higher altitudes,’ Saykahn tells him, ‘The flight upwards will not be stable.’

‘Just get me up there before more of them come after us,’ Namjoon leans forward to glance out of the windows. Nothing was approaching them yet and honestly that was unsettling to Namjoon.

They had already played straight into their hands. They had already delivered Jimin straight where they wanted him- despite all of their planning, all of their attempts- the only one constant that remained throughout this cursed mission was the fact that they all knew, ever since Pompa, nothing was truly under their control.

They are immersed in the dark of night, the windows clearing more as the ship stabilizes, attempting to cope with the changes in temperature and increasing altitude.

‘Captain Namjoon.’

‘Yes?’

‘Thank you.’

‘…for what?’ Namjoon asks in absolutely bewilderment.

‘You have helped us complete our mission.’

‘What is your mission statement?’

It’s quiet for a long while, during which Namjoon is sure his question has been ignored. Grisial was getting closer now, Namjoon spies a lone port over the top of the asteroid they were headed for.

‘To be found.’

They don’t answer but they don’t need to.

As they ascend, the horizon shifting colours with each layer of dense cloud they fly through, the vastness of space swallowing everything behind them. But before that, a now clearer view of the ship transmitting the magnetic pulse draws closer and closer. To no ones surprise, 3 ships fly out towards them from beyond the frozen expanse of Megibīya. However, Namjoon is still disturbed by the fact that only 3 were flying out to attempt to defend the ship before them.

He can’t help but think there’s more to the lack of numbers. It couldn’t just be that they underestimated them and didn’t think they would need to send out such less numbers. It also couldn’t just be that they simply lacked the numbers. Namjoon can’t help but shift in discomfort at the anticipation that something else would drop- that something else would devastate this barely held together attempt at rescue and warning to the point where he would not be able to do anything but simply be a witness once more.

‘Namjoon, child and survivor of Kutsoglera, help us, children of nowhere, and teach us to survive.’  

‘3 ships approaching,’ Amic announces, as though in second thought, ‘We will still head forward-‘

‘-it’s not just enough to survive.’ Namjoon finds himself saying.

If either of the GI are surprised, they don’t show it.

He stares ahead at the large strange disc-like ship ahead of them. His hands grip the sides of his seat. He can smell that room again- can feel how every inch of him is taken apart, put together, taken apart again, and put together again. He had survived. He had survived day after day after day but day after day after day he had died over and over and over again.

And even after he left that room, even after he was healed and he could somehow process all of what had happened to him, all he ever did was survive.

‘It’s not enough,’ Namjoon tells them, ‘You need to live.’

Something loud detonates behind them.

They sit in silence for a while.

‘By the way- it’s not like…it’s not that I don’t believe in what you can do…’ Namjoon starts off hesitantly. Taeh’yung look up at him from where he’s leaning on his shoulder with wide eyes.

‘I just…- everything that’s happening doesn’t…doesn’t make any sense to me.’ Namjoon explains, feeling a little lame. ‘I don’t know what to think.’

‘Then don’t think!’ Taeh’yung says enthusiastically. ‘Be like me! Just let things flow the way it’s supposed to!’

‘That’s the most reckless advice I’ve ever heard,’ Namjoon chortles.

‘But I’m still here.’

‘They’re firing at us. I cannot fly us backwards this high up.’

‘Just get us up there in one piece.’ Namjoon orders, ‘Don’t think about landing, get us close enough I’ll jump on.’

Amic looks back at him and if Namjoon didn’t know any better, he’d think Amic was giving him a look of incredulity.

‘I’ve done this before,’ he says defensively as Saykahn suddenly swerves, avoiding something that explodes in a bright overwhelming light.

‘Air is thinning.’ Saykahn tells him as though in warning.

Namjoon thinks its somewhat endearing.

‘Not a problem,’ he tells them.

Amic hands him a TeorSer and a small slim Heliord.

‘We will draw all personnel to the back of the ship, away from the Bridge,’ he tells Namjoon.

Namjoon nods, pocketing and securing his additional weapons. His hand nudges the NaviLet still secured in his pocket. He grimaces, looking up at the approaching ship and back into his pocket. He takes out the NaviLet and hands it to Amic.

‘I need you to make sure you get this to Hoseok if things go bad,’ Namjoon tells the GI, ‘If for whatever reason I am compromised aboard that ship, do not come for me. Return to Hoseok, give him this- I officially bequeath my title to him as Captain.’

Amic stares at him for an unnerving 6 seconds before he takes the NaviLet.

‘Understood.’

Namjoon removes the safety straps from around himself (took a moment because the mechanism was strange and Namjoon struggled for a good 10 seconds before Amic reached over to help) and makes his way to the doorway. He notes the safety latch on the door and readies himself on the landing, balancing himself with the handles.

The ship starts to groan as they climb higher and higher, no clouds hover around them, the colour of the sky darkening beyond that of night, a faint sheen breaking just beyond the distant horizon far below. Light now shines from below them, an overlay of gold over the cold of space ahead.

Namjoon stands firm as they’re met with more fire and explosives but Saykahn takes them forward relentlessly, making tight and speedy dodges every now and then, the turbines making worrisome sounds, increasing in volume exponentially.

The ship is large- a strange disc shape with large indents on the side structure. Namjoon swallows the uneasiness in his throat, automatically picturing something larger that would have placed this ship here rather than it flying out into the atmosphere on itself. This almost appeared to be more of a satellite rather than an actual ship- purposefully placed there. But something that large- they would have seen it. But Lim’s ships appearing out of nowhere comes back to mind and Namjoon has to take a moment to just not think.

‘Approaching ship in 10 seconds.’ Saykahn tells him.

Namjoon opens his eyes and slams down on the safety latch before sliding the door open with a loud groaning jerk.

Wind whips around him a frenzied flurry, the chilling cold setting down immediately inside the ship. Louder alarms ring out over the previous one.

Below him Megibīya’s crescent is a line of rosy gold and icy silver- a perfect thin eclipsed ring of life and at the very center- like some bizarre iris, the large strange dark stain ever expanding. Namjoon can see the startling line of connection better now- between this strange void of darkness unexplainable straight out into the almost familiar expanse of space.

‘Flying past the ship.’

There’s a sharp sound, the whole ship lights up abruptly, even setting off sparks and a sharp ringing takes over the Comm Device in Namjoon’s ear that had previously been useless. He hears a series of confusing sounds- he hears Yoongi’s voice, hears Hoseok speaking, hears loud explosions, hears roaring, and- and silence.

‘Captain,’ Amic says calmly, ‘I will use the last of our missiles to create an opening for you.’

The sound vanishes almost as quickly as it had come and just as Saykahn twists the ship to its side, Amic starts firing. From the window in the cockpit, Namjoon watches as the curved top area of the disc-like ship erupts as Amic fires at it. Saykahn slows down as they fly past and he gives Namjoon a thumb’s up as they sail over the large surface of the floating disc-ship.

‘Don’t forget to update us on the short-wave.’

With a quick nod, Namjoon jumps down.

For a moment, it’s only the sky- the sunrise staining the clouds gold and cream far below him and -

He rights himself just as he lands, leaving huge deep indents on the surface of the massive disc-ship. Something loud detonates over him but despite the sound and waves of pressure that ripple over him, Namjoon is able to steady himself. He starts running, a strange airlessness this high up, a faint tingling pressure right at his nape signaling to him of the lack of breathable air and altitude. The ship is humming, the surface ice-cold as bits of frost form and evaporate at random all over the surface. The tear over the side of the ship is no longer smoking so Namjoon doesn’t hesitate to lower himself mid-run, sliding over the slippery cold metal, stretching out his hand to balance himself before sliding down the curve of the of the hull straight into the tear.

He crashes heavily into a wall and for a second he’s a little dazed but he rights himself quickly.

‘I’m in,’ he reports.

‘Understood.’

There’s no one there to manage the tear in the ship. No maintenance, no C-Bots, nothing. Namjoon swallows down the swell of discomfort attempting to push out of his chest once more.

He finds himself in what can only be the maintenance sub-section of the disc-ship. Outer regions of ships larger than a basic transporter normally encased themselves in sub-sections like this, to act as secondary protection outside of the defense shields. The Užkulisai had it, but it wasn’t nearly as spacious as this one- just enough to allow C-Bots to roll in for cleaning and scanning. Here, Namjoon can comfortably stand and walk. And here, normally, during an attack like the one Amic inflicted onto the disc-ship, these sub-sections would automatically shut down, sending back all life-support back into the main interior of the ship. And the fact that air still whips out from around him, escaping rapidly, makes Namjoon question every step he takes forward.

There’s loud thundering explosions above and around him, the faint but distinct sound of Transporters whizzing past. Namjoon increases his pace, fingers trailing over the ice-cold metal surface as he scans the walls for an entry port. The whole ship shudders worryingly and Namjoon expects to hear alarms but nothing is set off. He finally finds an entry port as the ship stops shuddering. It takes a moment before he’s able to get around how it opened before realizing it was a sliding panel. Cautious, Namjoon steps out into a lightly lit engine room.

He glances around for any surveillance cameras and is greatly disturbed to find none. Or maybe they just weren’t visible- after all, these ships were no under GLA jurisdiction of placing all surveillance cameras in visible areas so as to not violate privacy laws.

He steps out carefully, feeling exposed and vulnerable. He arms himself with the TeorSer first, setting the safety lock off. After a strained second of just listening, his own anxiety pushes him forward.

Nothing is set off- no alarms, no alert, no rigged explosives. There’s nothing.

It’s just empty.

Unnerved, Namjoon exits the engine room with nothing happening.

He cautiously steps into the atrium between the engine room and the main hull. Still nothing. Here in the atrium, he can’t hear anything happening outside. Only the hum of the ship, electric buzz of machines, and an apparent lack of continued air supply.

‘There’s no life support in the ship,’ Namjoon reports back, the stale and thick air is dry and yet heavy on his tongue. But it’s not too bad- not for 30 minutes at least. This spurs him on forward.

The doors slide open for him- and from what Namjoon can remember before jumping onto the ship, he needed to head upwards. Pushing out of the atrium he finds himself at a Hangar of sorts. Except it’s completely empty.

His footsteps echo loudly despite his best attempts at being quiet. He passes through with nothing happening to his ever increasing discomfort before he finds the lift. Structurally it was very similar to how Yisheng ships were laid out. the lifts are large, clearly to allow for transportation of patients of every possible species possible. Inside the lift, he squints at the screen to the side that lights up. It’s in a language he doesn’t understand- not at all like what Jimin had been reading in the Sanctuary, but Namjoon guesses it’s some form of text from Axudar. He taps on the highest tab and hopes it will take him up to the Bridge.

To his immense disquiet.

It does.

The lift doors open to a wide arched Bridge- the Captains helm at the top, forming a literal bridge over the cockpit. Behind the cockpit is the Navigation Table. It’s a massive layout- with numerous dashboards lining up the wide windows that overlook Megibīya. From here, Namjoon can see the strange void that was still pulsing upwards, straight into Sanctuary.

Holding his TeorSer up to his chest, Namjoon takes a quiet step forward before coming to a pause. He studies the Bridge carefully- scans the dashboards, most of them inactive- only a few lit up in the dim space inside the Bridge.

The Navigation Table, or at least what Namjoon thinks is the Navigation Table still has a projection lit up in it.

This was definitely staged.

None of this could be some accidental occurrence or mistake or slip-up. This had to be preplanned.

Namjoon carefully approaches the projection.

And for a moment, he doesn’t understand what he’s looking at. It’s definitely a projection of Megibīya- he would know the planet anytime anywhere with the extend of how much he had studied it. As he approaches it slowly, realization dawns on him and Namjoon wonders why he hadn’t thought of it before.

This whole disc-ship was under some form of auto-operation. That’s why there was no one on board.

Pocking his TeorSer, Namjoon dashes past the Navigation Table. The Communications Manager was normally situated close to the Table or sometimes they even shared the same space. If this ship followed the layout of a Yisheng ship then the Communications Dashboard should be-

‘I found the Comms,’ Namjoon says out loud, unsticking his tongue from the roof of his mouth.

Despite the language barrier, Namjoon manages to stop the magnetic pulse with more ease than he had been anticipating. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he somehow thought he would need to blow the whole ship up to stop the magnetic pulse but he was able to do it within a span of 20 seconds while guessing.

His Comm Device bursts sharply with white noise and Namjoon takes out the smaller screen inside his pocket. The channels were all a mess, he can’t hear anything particularly discernable coming from Megibīya but he wasn’t here for that. He needed to get a signal- a message anything to Ilya.

Scrambling, Namjoon ignores the flood of missed communication signals and recordings and messages and goes straight for Ilya’s network. He could be compromising them greatly right now but something tells him that they most likely already were.

The line connects immediately though it’s weak and broke off every other second.

‘Ilya!’ Namjoon yells desperately, hoping that Ožkan’s network would please not screen his attempt to connect with them through an unknown signal source.

‘-mjoon?!’

A rush of exhilaration fills him and as he inhales to speak, his chest tightens at the action. Right- he needed to stay calm.

‘Do not approach the planet!’ Namjoon says in his best loud and clear tone. ‘Something is wrong here- DO NOT COME-!’

‘-oon there’s an approa-…ingals are unable to-…-…-ith the GIU they’re not-…’

The line gives out completely once more as the ship momentarily completely starts up- all of the dashboards lighting up- the ambience of the ship collectively sighing in a rush of signals and network connection before it quiets out almost as quickly as it had started.

There’s a tiny blip of connection and-

‘Ilya!’ Namjoon repeats, yelling in frustration as the line unscrambles and goes out again. That didn’t make sense- what was happening? Namjoon reaches for the Communication Dashboard again only to find the screen running its own simulation.  

The controls all seem to be automated- or at least controlled remotely. If there was another source linked to this ship and Namjoon is able to find it then- well, there was nothing he could do about it. But if there was, maybe he could disconnect them from the main source for a moment- just enough to get a clear line out to Ilya.

He hastens for the Navigation Table- if there was any place he could access of the network this ship could have with any other system or source, this would be it.

‘I’m going to try and find the primary network link,’ Namjoon says shortly, ‘Ilya was online- but the channels collapsed again.’

He doesn’t get a response but he’s not surprised. He pauses at the large oval table, wondering how to shut down the ongoing projection of Megibīya when he realizes it’s not a still rendering of the planet.

The projection changes to geographic wireframes, forming layers to show the structure of Megibīya and the denseness of each layer that made up the tidally locked planet. The core is an opaque circle, gleaming and swirling, all around it tiny flares erupt and Namjoon doesn’t understand what he’s seeing.

There’s a strange pulsing, from these tiny points, into the core, and back out through the crust, following a pattern- a pattern that stretches out and-

This was radiation- this was the radiation from Yino that all of the planets in Menigišiti harvested to fuel their systems and lives. And Namjoon is 100% sure it was not supposed to drain down back under the crust into the core of the still and locked planet. This was all radiation from Yino, built up and unused for centuries- maybe even longer. Unchecked, unrelenting- tainted.

He swallows painfully, looking around the Table in hopes of understanding how to operate it, trying to remember what Jimin had done in the Sanctuary when another projection appears. Automatically shrinking Megibīya’s form.

It’s Sanctuary. Namjoon is sure of it.

A current of light ripples over the web of charges ignited along the projected surface of Megibīya’s softly glowing form and collects around the projected atmosphere of Megibīya in a strangely familiar pattern before pulsing into a concentrated thin light straight up to the Sanctuary. After a second, Sanctuary ignites, and a vast network of light emits from it. The projection seemingly collapses before the network of light is back, stretching out from a smaller orb-like representation of Megibīya and its Sanctuary.

The light spreads- alarmingly fast, igniting other orbs shaped like Sanctuary and for a moment it looks beautiful- it looks beautiful and all planets under the Menigišiti system alight- trails of asteroid belts glimmer like glitter and Yino gleams, two tails spiraling gently before the light expands until it all centers back straight into the pulsar.

Light rapidly pulses back into the star, an ominous suspended darkness remaining as light is robbed and-

A darkness so deep- timeless and eternal spread out. Namjoon’s legs give out, causing him to fall over backwards onto the floor. The shock of falling shakes him out of the nearly hypnotic darkness of the rapidly expanding blackhole projected on the Navigation Table- consuming what was once Menigišiti- a speedy accretion disc of black matter stretches forth outwards and Namjoon doesn’t need to watch any further to understand the magnitude of a calamity like this.

He doesn’t need to try and figure out any of this anymore. It was laid out clearly before him.

Hadn’t they said it before- that this mission was meant to fail. That all the Beings selected to be in this mission were simply loose ends?   

The projection simply shuts off for a few seconds before it starts up again. A loop. It was playing on a loop.

Namjoon carefully stands, reaching over to switch off the projection to try and reach out to Ilya again when he pauses once more but this time it’s at the strange intro to the projection.

It was an OrTank- more specifically it was the OrTank that held the eggs. Namjoon briefly thinks about shutting off the projection- after all they knew that these OrTanks were definitely involved. But something stays Namjoon’s hand as the projection multiplies and grows, forming paths of OrTanks, twisting and forming a familiar layout of a network of charges deep under the surface of Megibīya.

Alongside these specific tunnels connected to the charges, he sees other similar tunnels but they’re empty and illuminated.

These were the working charges- charges that were functional.

The Kutsoglerin freezes, unsure what to do. Taeh’yung squeezes his face a little, smiling in delight.

‘You have cute dimples,’ he states before kissing said dimples.

‘Uh-‘

‘You think too much. Four used to think too much too- he still does,’ Taeh’yung doesn’t let go of his face and honestly Namjoon thinks he might start sweating soon because he’s so not used to this. If he still had intestines, he guesses they would be coiling about the way he’s read in books.

‘Your Life-force is super strong- and so are you. So is your mind. Strong- a little dense,’ he adds.

Namjoon tries not to feel offended.

A horrible wave of understanding crushes down on him. Without meaning to, he glances out of the Bridge, and out into Megibīya. His feet take him to the wide windows and he watches, all along the rosy crescent of this graveyard of a planet, eruptions disrupting the landscape in what Namjoon now knows for sure was not random.

Jimin had told them that the networks automatically shut down when it detected even the smallest presence of life within it as a means for safety.

The charge networks they had analyzed and checked weren’t damaged due to age or any other matter.

They housed the eggs.

The Axudarians- the Verktaë, they didn’t take back the eggs into Axudar. They weren’t trying to take them back- not in the way Jn’young thought they were. Not in the way Camil had explained to them.

Camil’s involvement was more than a coincidence- it was more than just a chance or an attempt to plant a spy within the most powerful pirating network in the Known Universe and the Underverse.

They had to get out.

They had to get out immediately.

Namjoon makes to take a step back, to maybe attempt to pilot this disc-ship or hopefully disconnect it from its primary source when something catches his eyes in the far deepening horizon.

The distance between the edge of Megibīya’s atmosphere and space seems to ripple- a strange warped light like shallow water. And the shallow wave fluctuates upwards, forming low but great waves in this strange light and suddenly Namjoon can see it.  

In the distance, from this height, Namjoon sees another similar shape- another similar form in the stretch of atmosphere that bordered Megibīya’s sky and space beyond.

It was another disc-ship. His feet move before his mind can catch up. On the opposite side of Bridge, Namjoon concentrates, squinting as he looks over the bright golden arc of light cutting up straight over the curvature of the planet.

Another disc-ship.

They had the whole planet surrounded. This wasn’t a singular magnetic pulse- this was a whole network.

That’s why there weren’t any guards, that’s why they didn’t have pursuers. Because it didn’t matter.

Namjoon wasn’t meant to find all of this in some laughable villainous turn of events to show him the disparity of his actions. He wasn’t even considered enough to be thought about in the grand scale of what was happening.

After all, what could he do.

This was a network of magnetic pulses- probably already here from the beginning, just waiting for them.

But no. Namjoon shakes his head to himself. He would disconnect this ship from the primary source. He swallows thickly, tightness growing in his chest. He makes his way up to the Captains hull- causing a system error seemed to reset the whole ship so Namjoon can use those few seconds to override the automatic response from the ship’s system. Okay. Great.

For a moment he can’t move, can’t think- a deep desire in him to simply give in floods through his body, tiring him in a way he’s never experienced before. Or actually. He has.

He has before. A fatigue so ingrained into his bones, into his heart- of admittance into a power he had no chance of escaping.

But it was different now. It must be different now.

It would be different now than before. This would not become Kutsoglera again- this won’t happen to him again. He wouldn’t allow it.

‘Namjoon, child and survivor of Kutsoglera, help us, children of nowhere, and teach us to survive.’ 

He needed to live.

Namjoon stops the magnetic pulse once more and ignoring the burst of frequency and channels opening, he opens up a tab on the side of the Table at random. The projection at the center of the table clears out to be replaced with what was clearly the turbine system. Incorrect tab.

He only manages to go through a second and incorrect system tab when the whole ship restarts again.

Namjoon goes through 6 separate tabs before he finds the main operating system tab. He’s not sure what he’s looking at but hazards that turning all of the open settings to the opposite of where they were set up would be a good first step. After all, unlike what most people thought, operating systems were funnily easier than they appeared, especially when attempting to disconnect or shut something down.

He’s not surprised when the ship restarts again. And to his relief, the communication channel stays switched on and no restart is implemented.

All right, now he can talk to Ilya. Namjoon finally allows himself to pay attention to the white noise and choppy frequency bombarding his ear.

‘Ilya!’ he calls out. Just because this singular ship wasn’t connected to the primary system control source didn’t mean the other global magnetic pulse network didn’t apply or effect this region.

‘Do not come here. Keep your distance. I will now-.’

The whole ship powers out.

The darkness is as stifling as the silence that suddenly engulfs Namjoon. Barely any light filters through the deactivated HUD windows and Namjoon is even more aware of the thinning air, his own controlled breaths thunderous to his ears.

‘Amic? Saykahn?’ he calls out tentatively.

But there’s nothing. No response, no white noise. Nothing.

With tremendous effort, Namjoon moves his body and heads towards the windows again. To the end of the Bridge was an actual window- not an HUD covering. His footsteps are loud in the stillness, yet muffled as though walking through a dream.

The window is tiny- no bigger than the span of Namjoon’s hand. He cautiously looks out, squinting a little to allow his eyes to focus in the sudden shift of light.

Below, the crescent gleams at him, long shadows forming from clouds formed over the blinding sun-light expanse to the east. Namjoon looks away from the heated sunlit lands and over to the other side. He’s about to step away when movement catches his eye from the depths of darkness.

From their height, from this angle, Namjoon can see the strange large crater left behind by the Red Evil when they came to Megibīya. But there’s something different with it.

Namjoon presses into the cold surface of the window, trying to see more. Was it just the angle? Or was it a strange cloud? But it was far too solid for a cloud, it’s form physically moving; it was moving too fast.

It rises, a strange mountain like shape pushing past the dark crater that seemingly extended deep into Megibīya’s core. It pulses.

There is no volume to it, yet it is the loudest sound Namjoon has ever heard.

It’s massive.

The shape reminds him of Yisheng ships, yet there’s a distinct re-shaping to it that aligned with the ships Yisheng Lim had brought with him. It’s strangely elongated, a curve to it that seems impractical. Disengaging from it are massive rings, unfurling from around the whole body of the ship, rotating at great speed. It catches the light of Yino as it rises higher, massive clouds appear miniscule against the body of this bizarre ship. More details are illuminated and Namjoon studies it breathlessly, his breath fogging up the increasingly cold Bridge. On the body of this gargantuan ship are disc-like protrusions- just like the disc-ship Namjoon was currently inside of.

Its size scales the height of Megibīya’s atmosphere with ease, the dark shape emerging into Yino’s rosy-gold light, glimmering in a way that reflected a myriad of liquid colour.

The sky ripples again, a distortion of their reality, rendering it into some strange simulation Namjoon cannot wrap his mind around. 

Everything was planned. Everything was calculated and measured. They knew they would try to break the magnetic pulse holding down communications. And here they were, walking once again, straight into another trap.

Bright light erupts from the massive ship and it’s comical, how slow the missiles seem to approach considering how far and how large the ship was. Like meteors falling through the atmosphere, the missiles are white-hot and they overwhelm the horizon as they head straight for the disc-ship.

‘Captain Namjoon.’ Amic’s voice is clear over the short-radio.

‘Get to the ground now,’ Namjoon orders tersely, refusing to take a step back from the small window. ‘Try and get them out- try- get Jungkook out. He was last in 53-H, scan the area, take him away- take him to Lowet and-‘

‘Captain Namjoon-‘

Namjoon literally jumps, head swiveling around so fast he swears he hears his neck make a small popping sound.

Amic and Saykahn are just feet from him.

‘For ’s sake-‘

Amic points ahead and Namjoon finds himself turning to look back.

The missiles are bright and close and-

They detonate into a plume of white light that later stains into a murky grey-brown. Something fast and dark whizzes past, and before Namjoon can say anything else, several more whizz past in this narrow frame of visibility.

There’s a hand on his shoulder, pulling him back quickly but with surprising gentleness.

‘They have come.’

‘What-?!’ Namjoon asks breathlessly as he’s pulled away from the Navigation Table. The whole Bridge was frigid.

‘They have come,’ Amic repeats, still dragging him ahead. ‘We can now fulfil a complete rescue mission of Head Pilot Hoseok, Communications Manager Sk’jin, Weapons Specialist Yoongi, Jimin, Taeh’yung, and Jungkook.’

‘Who-?!’ Namjoon tries to look back but he’s being dragged out and comes face to face with a dark matte helmeted head.

The GI.

The GI were here.

‘How-?!’

‘We operate on Yisheng technology.’ Amic reminds him.

Of course- increased travelling speed and-

‘Did they track us here because of the poisoning.’

‘Yes.’

‘No.’

Namjoon is unable to control his hysterical giggle at the two answers he receives.

‘They were able to track us through our poison.’ Amic clarifies. ‘Not of Weapon Specialist Yoongi.’

Same difference, really.

Practically carried out, Namjoon literally defrosts the closer he gets to the exit point- not the one he came through, but rather a new opening neatly carved out over the Hangar area.

‘Wait- what about the uh-,’ Namjoon turns around, wondering where the other GI he had seen earlier went.

‘We will attempt to pilot this ship as a distraction method.’ Amic informs him as an ingenious folding ladder is lowered down. ‘After you, Captain.’

‘I-…okay.’ Namjoon climbs up the metal rungs, air whipping around him in starkly contrasting temperatures.

A sleek transporter awaits them, landing on top of the disc-ship quite casually. Namjoon spies several other GI ships whipping past and in the far distance into the night, something erupts into a bright light.

‘What’s going on?!’ Namjoon yells, noticing how the frequency in his Comm Device was starting to clear just a little bit more.

‘We’re taking down the immediate pulses around the area,’ Saykahn replies. ‘If we take out 10, we can have some communication down on the grounds as well as have basic system function.’

Namjoon nods in understanding as they climb into the sleep transporter.

‘What is our new mission, Captain?’ Amic hands him back the NaviLet.

Namjoon takes back the NaviLet, thinking hard and fast, gripping the cool smooth surface of the NaviLet. The ship immediately sets off, moving away from the disc-ship and they now hovered to its side.

‘Rescue.’ He states, ‘First Hoseok- we need the tracker to find the others.’

‘Understood.’

Namjoon barely reacts as they free-fall down through the atmosphere, sharp white light igniting around the frame of the ship, temporarily blocking their view. There’s a quiet countdown in Namjoon’s mind, hands gripping tightly around his seats arm-rests as his breath locks in his throat as they suddenly activate the ship and the engines ignite, the turbines start up and they spin through the air, mountains on either side out of nowhere.

To his amusement he hears Amic suppress a small burp that sounded very much like a retch.

There is no one pursuing them, no shots fired after them. However, there is a new shape in the night sky to the west- like a new moon, barely visible yet its presence known and felt.

They land in an area further out than where they had previously landed themselves but they’re travelling at high speeds.

‘How many are here?’ Namjoon asks.

He waits 5 seconds before he gets a response from the GI piloting the transporter.

‘152.’

Namjoon balks at the number. It’s nothing compared to most military units, but most military units were not GI.

‘We get to Hoseok, find him, and we start tracking the others, bring them back as quickly as possible.’

It sounded simple enough and Namjoon prays that it’s enough.

In a span of seconds they arrive at Udāvana, the new moon in the sky starts to wax into the light- an ominous presence counting down to a deadline Namjoon is not aware of.

‘The crater-‘ Namjoon begins but there’s no need to. Hoseok and Nineti are climbing out, dusty and tired even from this height.

‘Head Pilot Hoseok.’ Amic points out uselessly.  

They slow to a hover, and Namjoon is vaguely aware of 9 other transporters landing down near them. But all he can see is Hoseok’s wide grin is visible even from here and Namjoon swallows the knot in his throat. By some miracle, Hoseok was here. He was well, he was all right.

‘A lot like metal,’ Taeh’yung clarifies unnecessarily. ‘Metal is nice- it’s smooth and strong, and it can be malleable too. But metal can rust, it can break, it can wear off- you’re wearing a little. Don’t wear down. Okay?’

‘I uh- I’ll try-?’

‘Good,’ Taeh’yung finally lets go of his face and smiles even more brightly and gets up.

‘If I’m metal, what are you?’ Namjoon finds himself asking as Taeh’yung makes his way down the stairs with uncharacteristic quietness.

He can hear his breathless laughter of shock and amazement crackle over their now connected short-radio channel.

Namjoon all but throws himself out of the transporter as soon as they land, running straight towards the Ngfy’widan who was also jogging towards him.

‘Namjoon-!’ he gasps out, eyes wide in disbelief as he looks at the GI and their transporters.

‘You- you’re okay?!’ Namjoon gasps out, breathless for reasons he can’t place but seeing Hoseok before him like this, with the GI around them – Namjoon can’t help to hope.

‘Yeah,’ Hoseok seems a little taken aback by Namjoon’s oddly placed delight but he’s still smiling too. ‘Nineti’s injured-‘

‘-now you remember me,’ the GI mumbles.

‘Namjoon-‘

‘-Hoseok-‘

They both stop, gawking at who can speak first but something catches Hoseok’s eye.

‘What’s that?!’

The mountainous ship is higher and more of its shape pushes through from the dusky sky to to the west.

‘It was in the crater,’ Namjoon explains hurriedly before adding, ‘It’s not just one ship with a pulse- there’s a whole network blocking us out- there’s always been one. It’s not just that-‘

Hoseok points behind him towards the craters, eyes wide as he realizes that Namjoon now knows too. They both knew now.

‘They’re going to jumpstart the quasar.’ Namjoon blurts out.

Hoseok’s eyes nearly pop out of his head.

‘What-?!’

‘We have taken down 3 of the pulses,’ one of the GI suddenly states. ‘We will have communications back on the ground. What is our next step forward Captain?’

‘Head Pilot Hoseok, is the scanner still functional?’ Amic inquires, pushing their priorities back to the main mission.

Rescue.

Right. Okay.

‘It’s been damaged, I’m not sure if it’s still functional,’ Hoseok frowns as he hands it over to the tall GI. Amic quickly makes work of the device, attaching it to a screen a GI Namjoon hadn’t noticed behind them hands over to him.

‘Namjoon were you able to contact Ilya?’

‘I think so,’ Namjoon replies honestly, quickly adding, ‘The channels were scrambled, I could barely hang onto any frequency. I heard him speak – he mentioned the GIU-‘

‘-the GIU?!’ Hoseok repeats, eyebrows furrowed as he mindlessly takes all of the weapons being handed to him by one of the GI.

‘We’re hearing a report from the aerial patrol that all hostile parties are moving out back towards the primary ship.’ Saykahn tells them from the side, pointing to the mountainous ship.

‘The scanner is fixed,’ Amic adds, before any of them have time to say anything more.

‘Okay-,’ Hoseok quickly takes the layered scanner carefully. ‘They’re-,’ he lets out an uncontrolled gasp of an exhale, ‘They’re okay- Sk’jin- Sk’jin is still with Amad’la- they-…’ he frowns, ‘Sk’jin hasn’t moved from the last time I saw him.’

‘What?’ Namjoon peeks to look into the screen. Sk’jin was in the same region- unmoved. Only Amad’la’s dot had changed location, seemingly moving around the Khol’isa in circles.

‘I don’t see Jimin or- or Taeh’yung,’ Hoseok says through grit teeth.

‘Then what about-,’ Namjoon starts when they both stop.

‘Yoongi is-.’ Hoseok’s eyes widen as they both spot the white dot right at the border of Udāvana only some short way from where they were-

There’s a stray TeorSer fire that flies high above their heads- alerting them just in time as a battle erupts out of the woods to their left. The familiar blue flare of Yoongi’s TeorSer illuminates the crumbling trees around them. The falling ash billows out, creating soften blossoms of white light as whatever weapons the Verktaë were using ignites through the nearly opaque barrier.

Another figure, Nineti, grabs Yoongi, dragging him out as the forest erupts in more of the Verktaë. Then the two GI immediately fall and roll to the ground just as Hoseok yells:

‘FIRE!’

Clear and easy shots span the distance in quiet white-hot speed- each hitting their assigned mark. Hoseok is already running forward and Namjoon follows after him. He glances back at the mountainous ship, spotting small light dots retreating back into it. What was going on?

Urgency pushes him forward and he arrives a step behind Hoseok as Yoongi and Nineti stumble forward. They both look terrible.

‘We have to leave-!’ Yoongi gasps, nursing a heavily bleeding arm.

Nineti is also nodding, looking worse for wear but not too bad considering the right side of his body had an immense gash that seemed to have been cauterized at one point.

‘We’re going to get everyone out now-,’ Hoseok is saying, hands not quite touching the GI, afraid of potentially hurting him or something but Namjoon can tell there’s something terribly wrong with the Human.

He’s grown used to the emotions that soon grew and blossomed in the Human GI- expressions subtle but loud, eyes dark but expressive- so this stark contrast clearly tells Namjoon that something-

‘-where’s Jimin?’ Hoseok asks, now taking hold of the Human by his arms just before his knees give way. ‘Medical kit now!’ he roars behind him as Namjoon hurries to the Human’s side as Hoseok carefully balances him.

The forest behind them seems to explode as a shocking number of Transporters shoot out, ignoring them completely, heading straight for the mountainous ship now fully appearing in the sky above them- a heavy weight looming over them.

‘Yoongi- where’s Jimin?’ Hoseok asks again as he glances down at the scanner. Namjoon glances back at Nineti, hoping for an answer, but the GI gives no response.

‘Jimin-,’ Yoongi pauses, eyes bewildered, his body twitching violently. ‘He said- he said go to Sanctuary, contact- contact Yisheng Lim.

He said to find the others- he said to leave he said to-.’

Hoseok and Namjoon share a worried look.

Namjoon hadn’t thought about that. What would all of this mean for Yisheng Lim and the Beings left in Menigišiti? Did they know? They essentially drew them out- exposed them to the Verktaë who had them surrounded from the beginning.

Yoongi falls heavily from their grasp just as they reach one of the GI transporters.

‘I can’t-,’ Yoongi sobs out, ‘I can’t leave him- I can’t leave him again I-‘

‘Yoongi,’ Namjoon tries but Hoseok shakes his head.

‘I got him,’ he tells him as he kneels beside the Human, ‘Go get the others.’

He hands him the scanner.

‘We meet back here-.’

‘Do not enter the darkness.’ Yoongi suddenly tells them. ‘Do not stray into the darkness.’

Namjoon pauses, staring down at the Human’s strangely vacant eye. A glimmer of the eclipse shines through at him for a moment.

‘Did…did Jimin send you away.’

Yoongi’s blank expression doesn’t change as a singular tear drop makes it way down his cheek.

‘I will always love him.’

Hoseok looks at Namjoon with some akin to horror in his expression. Jimin sent Yoongi away in hopes of saving him, in hopes of saving them all.

‘Sk’jin and Jungkook are in the same general area,’ Namjoon announces to no one in particular. ‘Where are we with the pulses?’

‘2 more have been removed,’ Amic tells him, his focus entirely on the Human on the ground before he says quietly, ‘Are we falling again?’

Yoongi squints at him, his expression shifting continuously before he whispers, ‘Hi Mickey.’

Amic seems to snap out of whatever memory was presenting itself to him and he looks up at Namjoon instead.

‘We can reach Sk’jin and Jungkook in 8 minutes.’

‘Okay. Get Yoongi and Nineti patched up- I need 4 teams with me, let’s go and get-‘

The huge black void past the high mountains pulses but it’s different this time. There’s something wrong, something was happening and-

Yoongi falls over, hands pressed over his ears in clear agony as Nineti, Dehin, Amic, Saykahn, and a few others do the same. Namjoon can’t hear it, but he feels it. Something surges under their feet, deep below. And just as the mountainous ship rises fully, its rings spinning nauseatingly, the sky ripples once more but this time, when the warp waves settle, it shows them something else entirely. Structures similar to Sanctuary, yet somehow lacking in the same beauty and the same majesty it had appear like moons in the rosy sky. There’s hundred of them just within what Namjoon can immediately see.

‘Yoongi-!’

The Human was bleeding from his nose and ears, the other GI were experiencing more or less similar reactions with Nineti actually throwing up blood all over the floor.

‘Namjoon you need to go now.’ Hoseok says quickly.

The huge black void pulses once more and suddenly it vanishes.

The sky clears, even the mountainous ship isn’t there anymore. For a moment, everything is normal- strangely so, unfathomably so.

No one says a word as they all move as quickly as they can. But before they can take 2 steps, the void erupts violently, bigger than before- touching the sky above which ripples and breaks revealing a sky full of mock-Sanctuaries and at least a dozen more of the mountainous ships, their rings spinning in a blur.

But what’s most worrying is Yino.

The quasar pulses in time to the void as a pathway is illuminated all the way to the star- distant and hidden Sanctuaries flaring high and bright and-

The ground rumbles, shaking violently causing the forests to crumble, the buildings in Udāvana to fall and the mountains shake, their faces chipping off.

The crater howls- voices no longer singing but screaming-

The sky forms cracked like network of light between the mock-Sanctuaries and Namjoon is yelling as his feet carry him towards the crumbling forests.

‘RUN! EVERYONE RUN-!’

Bright beams of light, strangely slow yet incomprehensibly fast shoot down from the mock-Sanctuaries straight down into the faulty charges, straight down into the crater Hoseok and Nineti had just crawled out of minutes ago.

Heat and cold wash over Namjoon as he’s sent flying, engulfed in white hot light and the ashes of Time and Memory.

The Zhak’gri turns around, face strangely void of expression as he looks up at Namjoon.

Half of his face is bathed in the dim emergency light switched on around the ship, and the rest is in shadow. His eyes gleam a strangely ominous green as he states in a voice that sounded strangely layered.

‘I’m Nothing.’

*

Author’s Notes

So fellas
I am back and there are now 9 more chapters left to go
Yes
Nine
We are closing in on the end now and I just wanna say to all the people still reading this
Thank you
Thank you so much you have no idea what it means to me
I will do my best to update every two weeks from now. Writing this has brought back so much joy for me, and (yes even though its like, all gloom and doom atm) idk, I feel better now that I’ve been able to get this out. 
Once again, thank you to everyone who has read adegu 
Also thank you to everyone’s comment from my ious post
It means a lot to me ^_^

So, are we all smooth like butter? Criminal undercover?
Or do we need permission to dance? Because I sure don’t!
Lol
The discourse around PTD is so funny to me because I see ppl saying they miss the authentic bts like???????? What does that even mean?????????? If bts make something, isn’t that, by logic, authentically bts? They’re talking about ptd like it’s some cheap rip-off. Personally did I like ptd? It’s not exactly my vibe and I like butter much better, just personal preference at this point. Just because it’s not my vibe doesn’t mean im going to?? Call it not-bts??? Un-stan bts???? Like how do you un-stan a musician for ONE song???? Liking EVERY song put out by an artist is????????? Impossible?!?!?
I also seem to be seeing this opinion from a lot of, um, white fans, bluntly put. 
Personally I kinda see it this way:
You know how in general, fans (mostly female) of musicians (mostly boygroups) are generally viewed with lots of stereotyping/misogyny and disregard? So I think as fans we are well aware of this stereotype and we try and justify our love for (for example in this case) bts in a lot of ways. Many of them including things like, it’s not just teenage girls who are their fans (not that there’s anything wrong??? With that???) we have working age fans even parents even grandparents who are fans. Or that there are lesbians/ace/aro who love bts exist we’re not here because we’re (again, nothing wrong with liking y celebs and wanting to jump them, I say as a whole ace), etc. 
but there’s also the “bts are not like other boybands, they produce music of S U B S T A N C E” therefore, as their fan, that makes me more unique, and it gives merit to me liking BTS because they don’t just sing about falling in love with a girl, they make P O L I T I C A L songs and songs about M E N T A L H E A L T H therefore me liking them means I am superior.
That kinda mentally.
Which is then sadly negated by wonderful songs like dynamite, butter, and ptd because these are inherently feel good songs to vibe to because my dudes, there’s ENOUGH in the world. at this point are you a fan of bts or are you just trying to make youself seem "better" than "those other fans of stupid generic artists out there" 
Like, you can have personal taste and not vibe with songs, that happens to me all the time. I didn’t vibe with DNA or Fake Love but I know a lot of ppl did. Does it mean I think DNA and fake love are not authentically bts? 
Also I think bts can sing whatever the they want in whatever language they want lmao, saying bts can only/should only sing in korean kinda smells to me like exoticism 

also bts have sung in japanese before no one has said a WORD on that????
I think it’s been made VERY CLEAR that bts most definitely have a LOT OF SAY in what they produce and what they create and what they put out. they have been so vocal in talking about how much they loved ptd? 
Like I get it, its not my vibe but dudes, it’s such a happy song!?!? It came up on shuffle while I was walking to the grocery store and I just?!?!? Perked up immediately.
Artists, and in this case specialy BTS do not need to produce songs that YOU think justify your superiority complex by using them as a way/means of justifying something you like but you’re secretly somewhat embarrassed about. Songs do NOT have to be deep and lyrically poetic for them to be worthy of being loved and praised and enjoyed.
Though this reminds me a lot of when coldplay released a head full of dreams and ppl were like cOlDPlaY hAVe LOsT thEIr rOOtS im like bros calm down artists, like real people! Expand and explore and do NOT stay stagnant! Creativity is not set in stone, it changes all the time, sometimes you might not like it, which is fine honestly I don’t think BTS expects EVERYONE to unanimously like their work especially fans, but damn, if you miss the old style bts music, to quote tyler the creator ‘its not gone it’s still there.’

also im not saying that MY opinion is the right one, again, it's just my opinion on the matter and you are very welcome to disagree with it
Okay that was a long rant sorry guess I AM back for real lol