Hi this chapter is very gory! Please be warned! Graphic depiction of corpses and lots of blood and generally kinda gross stuff!

‘Sometimes in life, you are mislead under the guidance of those who think what they know or understand is the best. Your growth, your thoughts, your heart, is lead almost entirely by the design they set out,’ Taeh’yung explains as he continues to walk around. ‘And I have always wanted to do that. Even though breaking from that design is confusing, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes fatal. But,’ he pauses to lift a hand, palm glowing green, the copper lines on his skin gleaming in shifting patterns. ‘-but sometimes- oh Kookie, sometimes it’s beautiful.’

There’s a strange flicker of light- like something exploded far away. And Jungkook isn’t sure if he imagined it or not.

‘Did you see that?’ he asks, stopping in his tracks as he looks to the side.

‘No one’s left Axudar?!’ Sk’jin is asking incredulously.

Taeh’yung seems to have noticed it too, though he doesn’t say anything. The movement around him is suddenly frenzied again- their whispers pitched like screams yet Jungkook can’t quite hear it.

The hair on the back of his neck stands on end and he can feel a tenseness coiling in his muscles, preparing for something he cannot predict.

‘We saw no one- none of our scans saw a thing I don’t understand. Namjoon I think you need to double back and get out of there at once.’ Jungkook hadn’t realized Ilya had joined in on the call.

‘Is something wrong?’ Jungkook asks at once, scanning the place immediately and looking back to where Amad’la and Sk’jin were still visible. They didn’t seem to have noticed anything though Sk’jin is frowning down at his screen.

‘Hey did you guys notice anything weird?’ Taeh’yung calls loudly, waving his arms in wide arcs. The movement around him is chaotic now. But Sk’jin is distracted and he’s not looking over at them.

‘Taeh’yung-.’

‘Right- right, absolutely-…-Ilya I also need your help contacting the Yisheng Amme if you can-.’

‘Taeh’yung I think we should go back down-,’ he tries to say.

‘Maybe it was the sun winking,’ Taeh’yung suggests to Jungkook.

‘Taeh’yung!’ Jungkook gets out in frustration. ‘I think something is wrong! So stop ing around!!’

‘-we’re going to have to go through with Plan G at this point, Jimin, Yoongi could you two-.’

Taeh’yung looks around with an amused look on his face, opening his mouth to laugh when suddenly instead, a dribble of blood bursts out of his mouth, and a small stain appears immediately around a strange protrusion piercing through his chest.

Jungkook cannot move fast enough.

His vision narrows, edges blurred and sharp at the same time, colour fading yet centered on so much red- the red of Taeh’yung’s foliage crown, it’s leaves falling off of it’s hold, the deep red of the blood pouring from the sides of his mouth, red blossoming like some treacherous flower in his chest.

Movement flickers behind Taeh’yung as he slowly slumps down like some hazy mirage but Jungkook does not care for it. The whispered screams he’s been hearing around Taeh’yung shutting down immediately.

Taeh’yung’s eyes meet his and for a moment, for a strangely lucid moment, the Zhak’gri smiles at him before his eyes roll back.

Jungkook screams.

He catches Taeh’yung before he hits the ground, the motion of their fall causing Taeh’yung’s body to jerk horribly, blood spurting out of his mouth in an uncontrolled manner.

But Jungkook is given no time to try and help the Zhak’gri, whose vibrant and all-knowing eyes were glassy and dull, dim and reflective. Something hits him with great force across the face and he falls over. But before he has time to react when a horrendous sound fills the air.

It comes from deep within the planet, and from far beyond the sky. The force of it renders Jungkook momentarily paralyzed. The sound has barely settled, just loosening its hold on him when the shock waves hit him.

The force of it pushes him, rolling on the ground hopelessly before he collides against the trunk of a tree. He can barely breathe from the force of it, his vision won’t focus, everything around him a blur. Nausea hits him hard, momentarily feeling as though he was being thrown into the air, his bearing giving way to nothing.

A strange purple flash of light momentarily blossoms before sinking beyond his vision, a shocking breath of fresh air suddenly wraps around him, and Jungkook feels himself gliding away quite pleasantly. The contrast of his immediate happenings around him is enough to send him reeling despite the soft care with which he’s stopping on the top of some strange ledge.

Something massive crashes down on the ground- what it was, Jungkook’s not sure. But suddenly, in the sky to his side, a massive void appears, occupying the spaces once occupied by real living matter.

Something strange grows inside of him.

A fear he’s never quite felt before. A fear unlike anything he’s experienced.

They have to leave.

Sk’jin was close by he needed to get to him. He had to get Taeh’yung, and he had to get back to Sk’jin. They had to regroup, they had to get out.

With a groaned yell, Jungkook manages to sit up.

He was not where he was less than a minute ago.

The woods he was in, where he and Taeh’yung were randomly dawdling around in, where Taeh’yung made a wreath of colourful leaves, was gone. At least, some parts of it were gone.

There’s something unusual about this newly made crater. Sunken in in a strange convoluted form, the strangest and yet elegant and wild shape blossoms out of this new landscape.

It’s deep, and it’s large. And somehow, Jungkook was at the very edge of it.

He stands, looking around in worry and fright.

Was this related to that void? But no- something in him tells him it’s not. And instead, this was- this had something to do with Taeh’yung. But Taeh’yung is nowhere to be seen.

‘No-,’ he gasps out just as something crashes behind him, the shock of it sending him falling down the strange land formation. He manages to stop himself midway down to the center. That’s when he notices it.

The wreath of leaves Taeh’yung had been wearing.

Right at the very center, at the very bottom of this strange landscape.

‘Taeh’yung?!’ Jungkook calls as loudly as he could, uncaring that he could be exposing his position to unknown enemies. Something else explodes outside of this landscape. He rushes downwards on the strangely hard earth, barely any dust trailing behind him. Sliding down the last few meters he manages to stop right in front of the wreath.

There’s no blood, no trace of Taeh’yung except for the wreath.

Jungkook pats the ground a few times before he attempts to claw at it. But he barely manages to scratch the strange dirt.

‘NO!’ he roars in frustration, ‘GIVE HIM BACK!’

As though in response, something pushes through the sides of the dirt around him- it’s a strange Being, clad in normal nondescript clothing. Jungkook cannot place where they’re from- who they were, but all of his senses were telling him this was their fault. They were doing this.

He leaps forward, noticing how the stranger was gasping, coughing out bits of dirt. They notice Jungkook and try to shake the dirt off of them but it’s not enough.

Jungkook leaps, pushing them back into the dirt, restraining the stranger in the way Yoongi taught him how to. They try to shrug him off but Jungkook is too strong, too desperate, too worried-

‘WHERE IS HE?’ he screams. ‘WHERE IS HE-?!’

That’s when Jungkook notices their eyes.

Eclipse.

He recoils, unable to help himself.

They take full advantage of that and kick Jungkook off, hitting him square in the chest. He stumbles, the shock of what he saw more jarring than the assault. He heard about it from the others, during their discussions, when Jimin explained what he saw when he looked into Jn’young’s mind with Sk’jin.

But somehow Jungkook didn’t think it was possible. It couldn’t be.

This was wrong.

He turns, spotting the stranger, the Verktaë, as Jn’young called them, running up the sunken area they were in. The sky above seems to ripple, but Jungkook doesn’t quite have time to really care much for it. The Verktaë were here, somehow, their plans were ruined. They had to leave.

Jimin said they had to leave.

He needs to get back- he needs to find Sk’jin, tell him what happened. But he also needed to capture the Verktaë somehow. They would have the answers. Surely.

He gives chase. The strange hardness of the ground is actually useful, allowing Jungkook to not just run, but climb up steeper inclines, boosting him higher a lot faster than the Verktaë who notices him and tries to pick up their pace. They push over the edge, and Jungkook is seconds behind them, swinging himself over the ledge, tensing to prepare to give chase when something powerful explodes in the air above him, knocking him down over the ledge uncontrollably. He crashes into a tree twice in a span of a few minutes. A transporter of some sort appears above him, it was firing at something beyond this place- somewhere past the rising knolls to his right- where Sk’jin was.

Jungkook spots a jagged chipped rock to his side. Picking it up he hurls it hard and true at the transporter. It’s not anywhere enough to cause any damage- but maybe if Jungkook could just hit the turbines. He picks up another rock when a strange whipping crashing noise behind him makes him whip around.

Something tightens around him and suddenly he’s up in the air, his breath knocking out of him in one forceful rush, his bearings completely gone and terror seizes him to his very core.

There’s something wrapped around him- instinctively he struggles against the bonds around his chest, clawing at it. But it tightens even more and Jungkook immediately stills, his breaths coming out in choked pants. His body rights himself- he’s being dragged through the air.

He’s above the trees- not too high. But then strange things start to appear far below him from this position.

Like the void, but smaller, have erupted all over the place.

It reminds Jungkook of the strange tar wells that randomly sunk into the barren lands in Ynqaba. They were horrible- smelt horrible- but they were worth a lot of units, once they were emptied. Because they would find valuable deposits of minerals the Collectors paid a lot for. It was dangerous work, because even if some tar pits were emptied, they never truly lost any of the dangers they posed. And though valuable, Jungkook’s mothers never allowed them to ever try and mine the pits even if children were frequently used to access the tight and narrow wells.

They were allowed to look though. And it gave Jungkook nightmares for several weeks, shaken by the unrelenting unknown darkness, like corrupted veins appearing under the skin of Ynqaba, appearing within the heart of his home.

And here it was- black veins, connected with that strange pulsing void at the very edge of the mountains, like some corrupted heart.

The triangles Taeh’yung traditionally formed twist in their shape. Behind him, hazy forms and shapes twist and warp, their whispered screams protesting and yelling but it’s all just in Jungkook’s head.

The old nearly entirely gone wound on his scalp tingles.

The triangles twist to a shape that glitches into a malformed flower of sorts. It’s wild, strange- the lines on his skin suddenly seem to snap, as though the straight angular lines pulled taut were suddenly released and now chaos reigned. The air particles seem to practically boil until the flower abruptly vanishes.

Jungkook hadn’t realized he’d been leaning in heavily, drawn to the strange flower without realizing it. He takes a few steps back.

‘Beautiful isn’t it?’ Taeh’yung asks, closing his palm.

Jungkook doesn’t know what to say.

‘Why Hoseok?’ he asks instead.

Taeh’yung just gives him a wide grin before skipping forward and taking his arm and looping it with his.

‘I think it’s inspiring,’ Taeh’yung tells him before dropping his voice to a whisper, ‘And inspiration, with patience, with the right timing, is the best way to achieve what you want. Remember that Kookie.’

He struggles against his bonds, glaring up against the strange light that pulses around him and the sharp dusty wind. Some sort of Transporter had literally lassoed him up, dragging him away. The rope around him, well, it couldn’t really be described as a rope. One look and a momentary struggle against it tells Jungkook he was not breaking out of this any time soon.

He struggles to balance himself without agitating whatever this rope was, tightening around him painfully. The ropes loop around him right under his ribs, pressing up against the softer regions of his abdomen, his whole weight hanging from there. Squinting, Jungkook realizes they’re headed towards the sea- the icy-boiling sea near the shore that was filled with radiation.

Realization floods him.

They were going to drop him into the sea.

There would be no surviving that.

Suddenly the transporter starts to fire. But none of them are aimed at him. For a moment, Jungkook wondered if he was going to be used in some cruel sport but it isn’t. Below him, through the trees, Jungkook spots a familiar HoverPort. Heart in his throat, Jungkook flails a little, hoping the GI below can see him- maybe help him- or maybe that’s why they were there. Zipping through the trees, following after in rapid speed.

There’s a small flash of light- of a TeorSer fire. They were firing back as well. Jungkook trusts the GI’s aim, knows they won’t hit him. But he’s still terrified when one of the shots streaks past him, too close for comfort.

But this was no easy feat even for the GI. To somehow shoot down a flying transporter that was hanging down a Being on it. The GI needed cover, but their cover was also preventing them from shooting accurately. So that would-

‘No-,’ Jungkook breathes out just as the GI completely abandons any cover, now fully exposed. The transporter starts firing just a second after the GI fires once.

Jungkook finds himself falling just as the HoverPort erupts into shrapnel and debris.

He crashes painfully through the trees, feels the branches snag on his skin before crumbling. His landing isn’t as hard as he had braced himself for, but that didn’t make it any less painful. He tries to turn over, distribute the pressure on his side when he finds himself sliding down hill uncontrollably.

Gasping and panting for breath, Jungkook curls up for a moment, pain washing over him. The rope around him loosens up and weakly but filled with determination, Jungkook removes the rope, shaking all over, the top of his head burning.

The GI had so simply exposed themselves. So easily just-…just given themselves up. Jungkook cannot process it.

He had fallen into some low valley. Immediately, he feels too exposed out here. The trees above him were still crumbling, large branches falling with a strange dusty echo- this world was not dying.

It was catching up to a time that had abandoned it.

Half crawling, Jungkook pushes himself out of the small valley. He keeps glancing up at the sky, wondering if any transporter would come back to try and take him back. But there’s nothing. Only that strange void that seemed visible from nearly everywhere.

Under his palms, Jungkook feels a strange tremble from deep within the core of the planet. Or was that because he was closer to the sea. Taeh’yung had been odd- well, odder, when they were closer to the sea. Breathing deep and slow, grounding himself and focusing.

The GI were still scattered around- surely, he needed to find them, needed to get back.

‘Sk’jin?’ he tries, tapping desperately on his Comm Device though he knows it won’t do anything if the channels were cut. ‘Namjoon? Jimin?’

There’s nothing.

There’s a large boulder and Jungkook quickly scurries under it, laying down for a moment.

Taeh’yung was gone.

He was just- one moment he was there- he was just there and yet-…yet, he wasn’t.

There was blood- there was so much blood and his eyes-

Jungkook distinctly hears the sound of TeorSers being fired.

Shaking himself a little, Jungkook crouches, wincing at the many pains erupting around his body. At least he could still actually move though. He listens closely- the sound was at a close distance, only audible because of how quiet everything was.

Glancing back up at the sky first, Jungkook quietly stalks his way towards the sound. If there were GI here, that meant HoverPorts- he could find his way back with them. He could bring backup.

The scene he sneaks up into is a horrendous one.

There are several fallen black-clad GI on the ground, even more of the Verktaë.

But Jungkook knows this location.

This was one of the charges he and Taeh’yung had come to not even an hour ago. They had cleared it because it was faulty. There were transporters, like the kind that had carried Jungkook away, and some other kind that he hasn’t seen before. There were some HoverPorts too- but none of their riders were on it.

He watches for a few more seconds- even though the numbers were greatly mismatched, the GI were very effectively taking down the Verktaë. They seemed to have been doing something with or around the charge- the entryway was open and there were strange large blocks with great wires coiling all around at random.

Whatever it was, Jungkook has a bad feeling about it.

He pushes forward towards the fight, easily slipping in, not at all questioning how the GI seem to immediately accommodate him as though expecting him. The Verktaë, however, are surprised- but it’s not the kind of surprised expression you want to see on the faces of your enemies.

They immediately charge towards him instead.

For a fraction of a second, Jungkook doesn’t know what to do.

But he finds his footing and instantly jumps into the incoming fray with little to no regard. He’s vaguely aware of the ground trembling, of some of the GI on the ground he had assumed were dead who were writhing in obvious pain.

Then he hears it.

So clearly.

Coming from the entryway towards the charge.

Voices.

He’s sent knocked back, landing painfully as several of the Verktaë converge around him, harsh cutting blows landing down on him. The GI are firing at them as Jungkook roars and claws his way out, kneeling as he makes to stand.

A harsh blow sends him down again, momentarily losing his consciousness, his vision turning black, before sound rushes back painfully and he covers his head with his arms, gritting his teeth at the assault grinding down on him.

The searing heat of a TeorSer fire skims above his back, relieving the weight and brutality he was enduring enough for him to push back against the few still around him.

He bodily lifts a tall Verktaë, throwing them harshly into an oncoming duo who fall at the sudden weight. A rope is suddenly thrown around him, attempts at restraining him. But the attempt is waylaid by the GI who are quick to cut the rope or take down the Verktaë responsible.

However, more of them are suddenly drawing ropes at him- he desperately tries to dodge the strange attack, the Verktaë now keeping distance, using the surrounding trees as cover, surrounding him and the GI. Above, he notices the transporter that had lifted him away, and along with it, 3 more. He backs away until he reaches with the GI- there’s just 4 of them all together now. And all of the Verktaë seem to be targeting Jungkook only.

‘Find Namjoon! Jungkook yells, breaking off from the others, ‘Find Namjoon-!’

The ground explodes.

The Verktaë seemed to have no issue in killing their own.

Heat washes over Jungkook as he flies backwards, fire and carnage where the GI and a few of the Verktaë had been standing seconds ago. His ears ringing and the whole sky spinning violently around him, Jungkook feels ropes being drawn around him, his body being dragged through the dirt and ashen foliage crumbling to dust all around him.

He sees outlines of the Verktaë hovering over him and Jungkook tries to struggle but he’s bound tight. The sky is suddenly blocked by something very solid- an entryway.

They were dragging him inside the charge.

Jungkook’s mind scrambles in an attempt to understand what was happening. He’s momentarily lifted, a horrible groaning sound followed by a sudden chorus of screams that shocks him to full consciousness.

Inside the strange dome-like room that held the charge, the Verktaë have dragged him in, clearly intending to throw him into the now terrifyingly open charge hatch.

The dome is alight, and Jungkook’s skin crawls- wasn’t this place supposed to be leaking with radiation? What was happening?!

He pulls harshly on one of the ropes restraining him, dragging forward one of the Verktaë. But they’re clearly anticipating this move as more rush in, lengths of rope dragging the other Verktaë along with him, looping around his neck dangerously.

He struggles, pushing off the rope from around his neck just in time just as the Verktaë tied around with him, misbalance him, lifting him up haphazardly and-

There are screams as the Verktaë behind him fall, grabbing onto the ledge, onto him, to stop themselves. Half of him is inside the hatch tunnel. To his horror the Verktaë convene further into the room, cramped tight with them, pushing and shoving so much that their bodies seem to form a strange sea of motion, waves threatening to submerge Jungkook. He tries to push against it, but he can’t- more of the Verktaë fall, dragging him down, pulling at the ropes that bound him, weighing him back down.

And then, a wave of motion- filled with the glitching light of the faulty dome above him, swells and breaks down on him.

With a quiet swell of humming voices welcoming him, Jungkook falls backwards into the charge tunnel- the last thing he sees is a cruel eclipse forming as the great hatch is shut in after him.

‘Are you worried Kookie?’ Taeh’yung asks as he marches through the forest with great noise and purpose. Jungkook follows quietly, alert and searching.

‘Of course.’ He can’t really keep up with what the others were saying, so he’s not sure how to feel yet.

‘Don’t be,’ Taeh’yung tells him with a confident smile. ‘Sometimes fate is simply made up. Fate is just a belief some Beings have, fate is something you can blame when things go wrong- by just saying, I guess this is my fate. It’s something some Beings choose to hide behind- but for me? No. I make my own fate- and I always will.’

‘…okay.’ Jungkook looks at the Zhak’gri with confusion. ‘I don’t…understand what you mean.’

‘You’ll see soon Kookie,’ Taeh’yung looks up at the sky, exhaling in and out, ‘I can smell it.’

Jungkook wakes with a start.

His landing hadn’t been the worst- beneath him are a number bodies of both the GI and the Verktaë. Ropes still tie around him, one still extending high up, trailing off into the darkness above. Around him are signs of struggle and battle- clearly no one survived.

He breathes deeply. Slowly moving his body to feel for any injuries. There’s something clearly wrong with his left foot, but other than that, somehow, he’s not seriously harmed. He definitely broke his fall in an extremely unpleasant way but here he was anyways. He tries to sit up but he finds that he just doesn’t have the strength- not yet anyways. He might not be injured, but he was most definitely exhausted and weak. Hoseok had taught him that the most valuable lesson to learn in any situation was pacing- that he needed to pace himself. He most definitely hadn’t been doing that but he thinks Hoseok will understand.

He manages to roll off of the bodies piled up, the ropes tugging and pulling at him but he slides them off, falling in a heap on the very uncomfortable tunnel flooring. He pants for a while, curled up on the uneven surface that was stained with gore and other fluids.

He listens carefully- any signs of Verktaë, or even the GI. But there’s nothing. Just hollow silence- so much that Jungkook wonders if he had imagined all those singing voices. But something tells him he most definitely didn’t. He closes his eyes, slowly flexing his hands, tentatively curling his feet.

A deep hollow groan fills the air- starting from beyond and further below this tunnel- the sound travels, and Jungkook counts seconds before it reaches him, the entire place shaking and trembling. Ynqaba had earthquakes sometimes- this felt like that, but different- fainter yet stronger, unnatural and a part of fate.

The tremors pass and Jungkook opens his eyes, focusing in the tunnel that surrounded him.

It’s dark, but there’s a faint light source from the strange containers that line up the entirety of the tunnel. He blinks a bit, eyes tracing shapes and outlines of something he vaguely recognizes- shapes and lines of things he’s seen before. He stares- not quite processing what it was until his stray to what he was laying on top of.

For a moment, Jungkook wonders if he’s half-dreaming.

He remembers stories from Ynqaba, of the strange deep tunnels filled with strange devices and ever stranger treasure worth more than the whole planet itself. Deep tunnels where, now he knows, his mothers found him and his siblings- rescued and cherished and beloved. 

He pushes himself up, staring down at the patch of what he thought was uneven tunnel flooring. Carefully, he wipes off the gore from the clean patch, waiting a while as the very dim light within shifts.

A hand, loose and free, drifts past slowly, knuckles briefly touching the surface.

With a grunt, Jungkook pushes himself up more, curling his legs under him, finally sitting up on top of an OrTank, containing a New Born. Containing an egg.

It’s not just one, or two- or a few dozen.

The tunnel is lined with the OrTanks, their faint light shifting, outlines of the occupants briefly visible for moments at a time and Jungkook’s pulse is roaring in his ears.

What were they doing here? How many of them were here?

Jungkook doesn’t know how long he sits there, just staring, until he realizes, with a combination of awe and fear, they were humming- a song that somehow he just knows and yet one he’s never heard before. A song sung in voices not uttered into this Time, and yet not one from the past or the future either.

The singing is louder- no, clearer, down the tunnel. Jungkook glances back up at the darkness above. He knows there’s no way of climbing up and getting out of here. There were 2 ladders, one automated and the other stationary- but Jungkook knows that there’s no way out from there.

Carefully standing and shrugging off the final rope off of his leg, Jungkook squints down into the tunnel leading straight forward. Jungkook glances down at the piles of bodies. Gritting his teeth he reaches around the corpses, careful as he separates the GI from the Verktaë. There were 4 in total. He removes their helmets carefully, placing it next to their bodies.

‘I’m sorry,’ he whispers as he takes a TeorSer, a Heliord, and 2 smaller blades. They had a number of other weapons on them, but Jungkook’s not too confident in them. They had some sort of explosives on them too and Jungkook doesn’t want to accidently cause some sort of detonation underground.

Apologizing one more time, Jungkook rummages into their inner lining pockets, carefully feeling for what he knew would be there unless it was already used up. Yoongi told him that the GI normally always carried small compressor shots filled with pain numbing agents. They didn’t carry actual medication, rather inhibitors or agents to suppress pain or control it as those were often the most deterring to overall mission success.

He finds one of the compressors, and hoping it’s one for pain, Jungkook carefully places it on the side of his arm and presses down. It doesn’t hurt, but Jungkook feels the faint tingling. He takes another, just in case, pocketing it carefully.

He leans against the wall, balancing himself as he flexes and alters his foot placement. Just because he would have a pain number didn’t mean he could or should further injure his foot. He takes off his shoe, looking at his foot in the dim light.

On the OrTank covered floor, a hand reaches in the darkness, as though inquiring about his injury.

‘It’s okay- I don’t think I sprained it really,’ Jungkook whispers to the New Born, unsure why, ‘Thank you.’

The gear he was wearing was borrowed from the GI, and Jungkook guesses that’s part of the reason why he survived so much of the physical damage he took on- including this foot injury.

He looks around him, breathing in and out purposefully a few times.

‘I need to get out of here,’ he tells them, ‘Please help me?’

For a moment, there’s nothing and Jungkook wonders if he’s just projecting or imagining the sense of connection he has with these New Borns. But there’s movement- in every OrTank- contained, slow, yet with a purpose and intention that was clearly not coincidental. In a quiet swelling chorus of humming and singing, the New Borns inside the OrTanks slowly raise their hands, pointing loosely down the tunnel.

‘Thank you.’

Jungkook quietly makes his way down the OrTank lined tunnel. The number was working and Jungkook’s foot no longer twinges in pain and the rest of his body no longer feels inflamed either. Tentatively he stretches his arms, pausing here and there to stretch his legs out carefully. He’s aware of the pain, the real pain, lingering in some areas, a sort of weight present but not quite felt. He would need to ignore it for now.

Every time he paused, inquiring or worried hands would press up under the OrTank covers. Jungkook does his best to smile, quietly telling the New Borns he was all right.

They slowly point the way down.

When he reaches a fork, he’s pointed down the left.

He’s not sure how long he’s been walking, or how many OrTanks there were. But here, somehow, he feels safe. It’s almost as though he knows the New Borns- knows their being, connected somehow, in some strange way.

After what felt like hours and thousands of OrTanks, he notices he shift in the light- not the faint dim illumination from within the OrTanks, but rather an actual light source coming through at the end of the tunnel. Another tremor passes- the fifth, in fact. It’s stronger as he gets closer- to what exactly he’s not sure.

The light is brighter as he walks closer and closer, ears on high alert. He’s not sure, somehow he thinks he can hear the sea.

The tunnel opens into a huge globe shaped room. Several other tunnels, also lined with OrTanks connect into this place. Above, more tunnels open into the great sphere, one opening right at the very top, also lined with OrTanks. There were flat half-moon shaped discs at the entryway of each tunnel that lined up with the glass like floors. And at the very center of the room, a hatch, similar to the one he just came down, covered in a still active and glowing dome, shimmers before him. But it’s huge.

Unsure why, he carefully calls out.

‘Hello?’

And singing in a thousand voices, a great wave of forgotten songs and memories yet to form sigh out to him in reply. Deep within from the core, a quiet singular voice- ancient and bright and young and dark all at once. But the voice is contained- contained and afraid, and alone.

Jungkook steps out into what he thought were very smooth, very shiny floors.

He sinks down, water engulfing him in an instance- water dark and frigid, the only illumination is the light of the protective dome illuminating his desperate hands, fighting against the water.

He breaks surface, gasping and panting, desperately reaching for the edge of the tunnel.

He manages to pull himself up, shaking all over with such a horrible fear that he’ll be dragged back into the now terrifyingly still water.

‘How- how is this the way?’ he whispers to the OrTanks he was leaning against. Their hands, this time clearer, faces with eyes closed, mouths unmoving though their voices were humming all around, all guiding him towards the center.

He notes a singular half-moon by the edge of the central hatch. He glances at the one to his right.

Shaking, Jungkook stands carefully. His initial introduction to a large body of water had been delightful. But this. This body of water, contained within this space, was shaking him to his core.

He carefully steps onto the half-moon disc, tentatively balancing his weight on the surface, unwilling to let go of the edge of the tunnel entryway. But he finds that he can stand on the surprisingly stable half-moon. He immediately crouches down when it starts to move. Jungkook wonders if they only moved if someone stood on them.

He stares at the half-moon on the edge of the central hatch and- who came here and didn’t leave?

He glances at the dark water all around- the central hatch hadn’t seemed too far previously, but now, out here, looking back, the tunnel he emerged from was further away than he expected.

He’s terrified that the half-moon will sink down, or will stop, leaving him in this strange dark water. But nothing of the sort happens. Jungkook finds himself at the central hatch. Here, the quiet humming sounds sadder, sounds more like a keening than anything else.

It’s strangely warm at the central hatch. With shaking legs, Jungkook steps up onto the landing. The half-moon that brought him there, as he suspected, doesn’t move away. Not wanting to stay at the edge, Jungkook carefully approaches the hatch, circling the whole area and finding no one there. Not a single trace.

The same sort of controls are here. Jungkook approaches it carefully, hesitantly placing his hand over the elegant yet rough etchings on the strange metallic surface of the control dashboard. There’s a faint flash of light from the tunnel he had just left- a warning.

Jungkook steps away at once.

Why did the New Borns guide him here?

He looks around before settling on the other half-moon. He studies the other tunnels leading down into this spherical room, counting the half-moon discs next to them. Only the tunnel at the very top didn’t have a half-moon disc next to it. Taking a deep breath, Jungkook steps onto the half-moon, crouching low. It’s terrifying how it’s on perfect level with the water, yet not a single drop makes its way to the disc.

He feels the disc lift up from the water which remains undisturbed. Jungkook’s not sure how they’re floating up- was there something underneath supporting them up? Somehow, Jungkook doesn’t want to know the answer to that question.

He arrives at the entryway, right up to the automatic ladder.

He makes the mistake of looking back down.

It’s like an iris- the depths of the dark water staring at him, the illumination from the dome shield enough to just faintly show him just how deep the water went. Jungkook quickly averts his eyes from the scene below and instead looks up. It’s lined with OrTanks here too- and when Jungkook takes a slow deep breath, can feel a shift in the air coming down from here. He places a hand on the upper rung of the ladder. Slowly, the OrTanks press up close, as though to look at him.

‘I want to get back, is this the way?’ he asks quietly.

After some quiet moments, hands slowly drift upwards.

The motion gestures upwards, but Jungkook also notices how it’s in farewell.

Below, a sad sigh hums out, quickly quieted by a deep trembling groan that shakes the very air. But Jungkook doesn’t want to look back down again, afraid of what might be looking back up at him.

Jungkook climbs up onto the automated ladder rung, securing the safety straps onto his waist and adjusting it to his size. With an initially slow ascend, Jungkook picks up speed. Climbing up towards the small circle of light high above.

It doesn’t take more than half a minute before Jungkook reaches the top. He also notices that the OrTanks end midway- as though only halfway filled.

Their voices abruptly stop and as Jungkook climbs higher, a curious smell hits him. And before he can place exactly what it is, the sound of the sea greets him.

Jungkook decides it’s probably best not to ask more questions or even try to understand so he sniffs the air and nods in agreement. Taeh’yung beams at him.

‘You know Kookie, I once spent time at a terrible terrible place,’ Taeh’yung continues, much to Jungkook’s apprehension and confusion. ‘This place was dark; and it took so much from you. One of the worst places I’ve been to in this Known Universe.’

‘Why were you there? What happened?’

‘Oh I just wanted to check something out!’ Taeh’yung tells him casually.

‘Why would you do that voluntarily?’ Jungkook asks, now more frustrated than anything. Why was Taeh’yung talking like this? What was wrong? He seemed the same, yet strangely excited.

‘I found out some things when I was there,’ Taeh’yung explains, ‘I was really able to understand a lot. And well, I guess you could say, just like fate, I was called for, and I was able to see so much.’

Taeh’yung suddenly stops.

‘Beauty, pain, death- creation,’ he breathes out before turning to look at him, ‘It was also when I found out I lacked something.’

‘…what is it?’ Jungkook asks cautiously as Taeh’yung continues to walk.

‘Silence.’

He was near the sea side.

Meaning he was even further than before- but if this was the same area they had been to earlier, Jungkook knew his way back.

He slows to a stop, reaching a sort of expanded ledge that could be a footpath. More dashboards and more complicated systems were spread around in here. Jungkook notes that there were panels opened here, as though someone tried to mess with the wiring. Maybe whoever did that had gone down to the central core he just came up from. Tentatively, he ducks over the edge a little. But he’s too high up to see anything below.

The hatch isn’t locked, Jungkook can tell, all he would have to do is push.

He can smell the sea, but he can’t hear anything outside of the hatch. There could be hordes of the Verktaë outside. He needed to be prepared. Arming himself with one of the TeorSers and biting onto the handle of the Heliord, Jungkook stands close to the edge, gently feeling the strange metal and pushing slightly. When he feels a slight shift, the smallest hint of the whole hatch moving a little he quietly exerts more strength and carefully lifts the hatch just a crack.

It’s brighter out here, and Jungkook takes a moment to adjust. The smell of the sea is stronger and he hears it. He pushes open the hatch more as the air trembles, a long groan of pain echoing from behind him, masking the sounds of the hatch opening completely.

This room containing the charge had been occupied at one point. It’s also excessively damp, the walls stained in strange patterns and deposits of salt and sand cling to the edges around the room. There were large crates all around- several OrTanks waiting for their turn to be placed inside the tunnels also line up the place. Jungkook isn’t surprised that they’re already turned around to look at him, as though expecting him.

Waiting for him.

He waves shortly, immediately feeling a little dumb for doing it before he climbs out completely. Removing the Heliord from his mouth and keeping it ready at his side, Jungkook quietly steps away from the hatch and towards the stairs leading up. There’s a strange wash of heat, immediately followed by a chilling breeze. Jungkook watches in awe as frost forms over the stairs before they immediately melt away again. He couldn’t stay here. There’s a grumbling sound from deep in the earth but it’s not the one he’s been unfortunately getting used to.

He remembers seeing the geysers from a distance. They were a lot closer to the shore and he and Taeh’yung hadn’t made it that far out. He crouches down on the stairs, fumbling for the tiny radiation reader. There’s no indication of a radiation leak of any level here.

His breath mists into the air but he’s sweating profusely. Something tells him this was not a healthy place to be in for long. He climbs up the stairs, above him the sky expands upwards, strange movement in the rosy expanse that Jungkook cannot immediately place or understand. Maybe he was in the dark for too long, so he was seeing things.

The strange black void is still there, now pulsing upwards to a point high above in the sky. Carefully, he looks over the edge of the stairs to the side. Over towards the very edge of the shore, massive Transporters were docked, uncaring of the storming sea behind them or of the geysers that dotted the dark shore.

But it’s not the near hundreds of transporters that catches his attention- it’s the indescribably large mountain-like ship submerged in the water to the side of the shore.

The crescent ended in a thin tall ridge dipping into the sea. This natural wall blocked a vast majority of the massive ice blocks from hurtling up onto the shore. And beyond this wall, partially covered by the sea, blocks of ice, steam, and raging grey waves is a massive ship.

Jungkook quickly ducks down again as he hears voices. It’s getting closer and Jungkook acts on his gut instinct. He quickly returns back down the stairs, slipping a little in his haste to duck behind the OrTanks as footsteps turn down into the domed room. Crouched low, Jungkook waits, quietly placing the TeorSer down on the floor and lifting the Heliord up instead.

He hears the voices talking among each other, the New Borns in the OrTanks, swaying and leaning to the side, covering him from sight. He watches as the Verktaë crouch down, opening one of the crates and discussing something, their backs turned to him.

He’s tensing to jump over the OrTanks and leap at the Verktaë but a hand presses against the OrTank, stopping him from his attempt. The sound of the sea was deafening his senses. Another Verktaë steps down and joins the others. They’re lifting up the crate, clearly taking it out. The one who just came down takes one of the crates and walks back out. the New Borns, as though telling him to have at it, literally move away.

They don’t even have time to react.

Jungkook hastily removes the strange white-like garb they were wearing and wears it on top of his own clothes. He grabs one of the crates identical to the one the previous Verktaë had carried out and also steps out. Both Hoseok and Yoongi had taught him how to blend into a place. But he remembers what Sk’jin told him the most.

‘Act like you just absolutely do not want to be there. Most Beings are not where they are because they want to be there, they’re forced to be there.’

Jungkook slouches, dragging his feet a little, a scowl on his mouth as he steps out. A Verktaë passes him, not sparing him a glance. Jungkook quickly scans the place, spotting the Verktaë that had come inside the charge. They were clearly headed for one of the ships closer inland in the shoreline. Jungkook scans the shore, wondering how he could escape or at least duck away long enough to make it to the forest. A spray of very hot and very cold water showers momentarily over him, burning and chilling the small spots of his exposed skin. There’s not a lot of them walking about- in fact, it seemed like they were getting ready to leave. A few of the flying transporters leave, flying out away from the crescent towards the darker regions of the planet.

So all of this was here from before- they were just hidden in places they could never hope to detect or spot them. Right? But he knows how Jimin worked so hard to make sure that the planet would at least be somewhat safe for them to enter. To carry out their plans.

He glances at the strange void- a strange gnawing sensation growing in the pit of his stomach at the sight of it. He’s not sure why or how he thinks it, but something in him tells him the Jimin was in there.

Jungkook was running out of ideas. He’s taking this crate, but he’s not sure where he was headed and for how long either. The Verktaë he was following walks into the larger transporter that looked more like a freight and into what was probably a storage area. Jungkook quickly dumps the contents of the crates near the ramp and still holding the crate, walks past the freight and confidently heads towards the forest line.

Heart in his throat, Jungkook manages to walk past at least 10 Verktaë, 4 transporters, and another freight without a single incident. The moment he makes it several steps into the forest, he chances a casual glance back by ducking down as though to make adjustments on his shoes.

No one was following him.

Gulping, Jungkook stands again, picking up the crate and walking forward again. His senses on high alert, Jungkook doesn’t for a moment let his guard or act slip. He’s been walking through the forest for almost 5 minutes, crate in his arms, not looking back once, when he hears voices.

He’s going to walk past, when he sees the corpse by the side of a tree.

It’s a GI.

He stops in his tracks. He listens again, honing in on the voices and as he steps closer to the corpse, the voices are closer. There’s probably 4 of them.

He smells blood now too. Blood, flesh- something acrid. Standing by the corpse, Jungkook notes that there’s a gory wound that pierces through the sternum of the GI, their arms and one leg bound with rope.

Jungkook drops the crate, ignoring how clearly he’s been spotted. He kneels by the GI and unwraps the ropes bounding them and unfolds their limbs out.

A voice calls out to him, clearly asking what he was doing. Then, as he removes the helmet of the GI, a face he’s seen on the ship a few times appears to him.

He’s prodded by something and Jungkook jumps to action.

He swings the Heliord as he activates it, slicing up the closest Verktaë in a silent fury. The Verktaë move fast, two spears moving to stab at him- he dodges one but grabs the next one, tugging hard and aiming a hard kick against the imbalanced Verktaë.  

Jungkook breaks the long spear over his knee and with the piece with the blade flings it to his right, meeting his target right at their chest. With the remaining blunt ended piece he parries remaining 2 who charge up against him.

A strange anger unfurls within him- and before he can process it, or understand it- Jungkook finds himself in a scene of carnage. The Verktaë are very dead around him, the borrowed robes he was wearing covered in blood. He removes it a little blankly, staring down and wondering what he had done.

He wipes his hands on a stretch of the robes that weren’t already soaked. He looks back at the GI, breathing hard.

And behind the tree, where the Verktaë had been standing previously, he finds a HoverPort.

The area past it is another sight of carnage- clearly the Verktaë had stormed the GI and a fierce sense of pride flares in Jungkook at the many fallen Verktaë around the HoverPort as he walks up to it. It looks damaged, the back seat gone and the protective covering in some areas entirely chipped off. It wasn’t standing right either, and as Jungkook carefully tries to set it up right, it tilts again.

Filled with anticipation, Jungkook lightly taps at the control unit panel and to his absolute relief, finds that the HoverPort was still functional. He looks around carefully before swinging over the HoverPort, starting it up completely. He glances up at the sky, at the Void- strangely enough it acts as a sort of landmark- and Jungkook, with more force than what he remembered, steers the HoverPort to the side and drives forward.

At first he maintains a slight speed, eyes squinting as he scans the area. Another shudder shakes the forest, more dust falling all around, reducing visibility. He increases his speed, ears pricked for any strange sounds. 

He climbs up a ridge, away from the thicker dust lower down and as he pulls up, in the distant valley below, he’s able to see the entirety of the crescent up until the waterfall past Jalvana.

His skin crawls.

Below him, in the shadow of the high mountain peaks to the west, a strange dull red light glows faintly- too faintly. But Jungkook is familiar with this hue- with this specific shade of red. His heart jumping, Jungkook knows it’s Sk’jin.

Glancing once more at the landscape presented to him, Jungkook drives the HoverPort down towards where he had seen the strange red light.

He glances all around him as he descends the steep valley slope, expecting to be jumped at any moment. There’s a very strange lull in how things were moving- or maybe this was simply the calm before the storm, as Yoongi once said. Skin still crawling, Jungkook heads down steadily.

He chooses to get off the HoverPort once he reaches the bottom. Carefully, ears pricked, ready with the TeorSer and with a heavy and annoyingly hopeful heart, Jungkook walks into the dusty scraggly bushy clearing past the borders of the woods.

‘Jungkook.’

Jungkook will never admit to the scream he lets out or how easily Amad’la disarms him, clearly just in case he shoots her which he honestly nearly did.

‘Crew member Jungkook.’ She addresses him. She’s covered in the strange dust, bleeding in several places but still standing. Relief courses over Jungkook at the sight of GI. She points to where a faint red light, just at the edge of Jungkook’s sight, pulses. ‘Communications Manager Sk’jin needs our protection.’

‘I was missing silence. And I had never really realized…how absolutely beautiful it is.’

Jungkook fervently hopes Taeh’yung won’t continue to speak in riddles anymore and to his relief the Zhak’gri seems satisfied with what he’s said and remains silent as they make circles around the place. It’s frustrating, but Jungkook also does not want to accidently trigger a strange conversation again when he thinks he should be concentrating on what the others were saying too.

Jungkook wishes he could understand more, but sometimes he feels as though the others are trying to not let him really understand everything. Jungkook wonders if it’s because of his age, or if maybe they were trying to protect him from knowing too much. Knowing too much was what caused so many of them to be here- from what Jungkook has read, has come to understand, and has pieced together from what he’s been told, he understands that all of them were here because they knew too much. Namjoon, Hoseok, Sk’jin- and Yoongi.

Jungkook still doesn’t quite understand how Yoongi from the past could exist now when this Yoongi wasn’t really entirely him of the past. And yet, from what Jungkook understands, this was what was causing him to be the way he was. Exhausted, worn out, fading- not because of his mind, or his body- but because-

‘What’s going on?’ Jungkook asks at once, following the GI who guides him out of the straggly bushes and into clearing that was clearly recently cleared judging by the indented rings on the course sandy soil.

‘Interrogation,’ is all that Amad’la says, pointing ahead.

There are two figures- one standing, the other kneeling. Jungkook immediately recognizes Sk’jin- relief flooding him when he can confirm the Khol’isa was all right.

‘It’s strange,’ Amad’la says out of nowhere.

‘It is,’ Jungkook agrees, though he’s not sure what the GI was referring to. Either way, everything right now was definitely strange.

Sk’jin is surrounded in a red haze- the ground around him, around them is smooth like glass reflecting a horribly bloody-hued sky and there-

The kneeling figure, the Verktaë, is strangely molded to the ground, strange flaky yet dense layers wrapped around them, trapping them down. Sk’jin’s hands are over their temples, red light dripping down to fall into the bloody sky beneath their feet.

‘I think he is lost.’ Amad’la tells him. ‘He has ventured too far. He needs to come back.’

The Verktaë is stuck in a strange scream- mouth gaping wide, eyes shut tight, shoulders drawn back, hands in pained fists. Jungkook doesn’t understand what he’s seeing before him because Sk’jin has his horns.

His horns.

They’re tall, thin- coiled perfectly and magnificently; a crown befitting beyond compare.

And in between his horns, a cruel and bright moon pulses in red- a Bloodmoon.

But even more terrifying are his eyes. The light around him, Jungkook realizes, is not from the moon between his crystal horns, but rather from his eyes.

Sk’jin has always been unfathomably beautiful- and this beauty lingered somewhere in the realm edging towards uncomfortable. And like this.

Sk’jin’s beauty strikes terror into his very soul.

There’s something so raw, so terrifying- as though looking straight into the heart of a star and seeing nothing but a horrible darkness- cold and heavy and unfathomably beautiful.

Jungkook cautiously steps into the red light. He’s terrified, but he knows this won’t harm him. Sk’jin would never. Not even like this. He knows this. He trusts this.

If Sk’jin needed to come back, he would get him back. He trusts Sk’jin- he knows nothing will happen to him.

He hears Amad’la attempt to pull him back but he shakes his head.

‘I will bring him back.’ Is all he says to the GI.

Amad’la nods, her stance ready to fire, scanning the smoking clearing with sharp focused eyes.

Jungkook doesn’t feel a difference- nothing really, as he takes a step forward. But at the very edge, where the sky falls below his feet and the red light pulses like a physical entity, Jungkook pauses.

‘Jin?’ he whispers softly. ‘Jinnie?’

There’s no response from the Khol’isa.

Swallowing, Jungkook takes a step forward. He stands on top of the sky, following the coordinates of the Bloodmoon before him he glides over the sky, taking 3 steps before he falls.

Above him the Bloodmoon glares down at him, a bright and glaring eye.

He’s landed without realizing, stepping onto flat dry stones bereft of any lichen or moss. He realizes he’s standing on top of a large segment of a canyon. The breaks in between each pillar or rocky column so small they’re nearly invisible. But Jungkook crouches down, feeling a breeze blow through the gap. Kneeling on all fours, Jungkook leans in further, heart pounding in his throat.

He hears nothing for a while and then-

A strange sound- it reminds him of when his mother had been tearing old pieces of fabric into smaller rags to be used as bandages or tourniquets because he and his siblings so frequently got injured, playing over the rocky gritty terrain.

With his fingers, he carefully feels at the edge of the gap and finds that it breaks apart quite easily. Though it seemed to be made of the same hard stone-like formation of the rocky columns he was standing on, with just a little pressure, the floor chips.

Creating a wider gap, Jungkook looks inside, the red of the Bloodmoon immediately staining the pale grey a gory pink. The canyon is deep, curved and lined with stony alcove like pockets.

A shudder runs down his spine as he notices that not all of the alcoves are empty. Like strange insect cocoons, fragile yet dense covering layer over these alcoves, encasing within the shape and form of Beings strangely too tall, too narrow and too agonized to seem as though they willingly entered this state.

The ripping sound is above him and Jungkook pushes himself away from the depthless canyon of cocoons to find a strange sight before him.

Too tall, too narrow- flaking bits of cocoon seem to swathe this Being, a long arm reaching out for Jungkook, flesh brilliant red at the edges of their hands and wrist. Blood vessels stark- almost cruelly, line their skin, making Jungkook wince at the sight of it.

It breathes, a strange hissing sound as more ripping sounds fill the empty red-stained world. Its covering, the strange cocoon membrane floats around it like some strange clothing- like strange wings. It takes a step closer and Jungkook quickly crawls backwards, tensing as he stands to a low crouch.

Then in one shockingly fluid movement, the previous rigid form suddenly stands straight at a horrifying height, the membrane around it falling away elegantly and horrifically, revealing a raw-skinned Being, its form long and narrow, face unformed but cruel, eyes slitting open to reveal a horrendous milky white pair of orbs.

Jungkook tries to run by his legs are wrapped in membrane and suddenly all around him more tearing sounds fill the air and pushing through the ground are narrow and horrible limbs- rigid yet fluid and raw-

‘JIN!’ he screams into the strange world.

They all stop. They all halt.

‘JIN!’ he screams again.

The Bloodmoon pulses and Jungkook stares up at it.

‘JIN-!’

He’s inside a fragmented ship- decay and nature has taken over but the anti-matter core is still supplying emergency power to the lights and everything is bathed in red once more. Jungkook blinks furiously as he tries to readjust the stark and sudden change in environments.

Carefully, he takes a step forward. It felt solid beneath his feet but so did the previous…previous what he cannot say for certain.

‘Jinnie?’ he calls out, barely a whisper. The lights begin to flicker a little before it settles again and Jungkook immediately keeps quiet. He makes his way upwards, mainly because the whole interior of this ship was tilted, and observes how old stains of some sort of liquid seemed to have run down the side of this hallway substantially, creating a distinctly eroded and stained area. A sort of dried gunky moss or algae might have once taken over the place but it was now stone-like and fragile looking. Jungkook climbs up carefully, cautious as to not make any sound.

He reaches what is clearly a Bridge.

On the Bridge, the windows are covered in layers of dust, dead foliage, and living foliage barely allowing any light to pass through.

There are bodies in here.

They have gone past the point of decay. Several in crouched strange heaps, strangely preserved in a way that makes Jungkook uncomfortable. He spots another hallway and he cautiously approaches it. The red light does a good job of covering the horrific stains on the walls but Jungkook easily spots them. Something horrible happened here a long time ago.

He turns the corner and comes across what could only be the Living Quarters. Some doors were open, some were shut- they all had a basic layout and this place was surprisingly not filled with corpses.

There is, however, upon further investigation of this horrible empty place, a massive blood stain in front of a shut doorway. The doorway is separated from the rest- larger too. The blood is old, staining the floor deeply. There’s a strange patch, as though what lay on that blood pool was taken away. Out of nowhere, that same horrible sound takes over and the top of Jungkook’s head burns with fear and apprehension of pain as he shakily turns.

Down the end of the hallway he had just come down from, a strange floating figure appears.

As a youngling he would listen to his older siblings tell him and his younger siblings ghost stories. Of faceless creatures waiting to steal them in the acid washed barren wastelands past the mountains. Of the vast worm like creatures whose mouth was filled with teeth, waiting to swallow down whole transporters and their crew in a poof of gritty sand. It was always thrilling to hear them, to shiver in the night as he slept, imagining ghosts and ghouls.

But he never did quite believe in it, because his mothers would always roll their eyes, laughing at the complex stories their older children came up with. Jungkook took safety from his mothers laughter, their fond smiles and light chastising.

But this.

This looked like the worst of his childhood nightmares.

Strangely afloat, a strained and dry yet damp cocoon floated midair, a long unformed arm dragging behind it. Jungkook is frozen in fear, unable to move as the ghost approaches. The closer it gets, the emergency light shines a light through the layers of fragile cocoon membrane, outlining a malformed Being inside, twisted as though in continuous pain.

It stops right before the pool of blood.

The hand drags on the blood stained floor, tapping all too lightly at the sealed doorway.

It’s like the other rooms but also not quite.

It’s bigger, for sure.

But it’s covered in horrifying layers of the same membrane. And at the very center of the room, where the bed was supposed to be, is replaced with a sort of tub- long and spacious- replicating the form and shape of the alcoves Jungkook saw under the canyons.

The strange floating creature simply stares at it, or at least Jungkook thinks it is. It had no visible eyes. Then after a few long moments, the creature turns away from the room and drifts past Jungkook. Jungkook is frozen, unable to move, unable to decide what to do. He’s not sure he understands how or why he’s here but he knows Sk’jin was somewhere here. He needed to find him.

‘Jin?’ he whispers again.

The creature stops and terror floods Jungkook once more. He doesn’t budge an inch as the creature moves back towards him again. Pulse pounding in his ears, cold sweat breaking out on his forehead, Jungkook is still frozen as the creature approaches, stopping just feet from him.

The strange membrane swathed around it ripples in an unknown and un-felt breeze. But Jungkook isn’t exactly paying attention to that, the head or whatever it was of this creature turns in the slightest tilt, as though studying Jungkook.

Pulling over his head suddenly is the membrane and Jungkook pushes it off at once, a breathless yelp escaping him as he falls backwards onto a wonderfully comfortable seat.

The whole Living Quarters is alive- there are all sort of Beings walking around, sitting on chairs and couches, some eating, some clearly having a meeting as they study some complex projection. Someone is cleaning their TeorSer on one side as another braids the hair of 3 children successively.

‘-and how is that my problem?’

Jungkook, electrified, turns at the sound of Sk’jin’s voice.

He looks the same- he is the same; but not quite. No. This Sk’jin is bright- so bright. His hair moves in a motion that doesn’t seem real, the gleam of his crystal helix horns indescribable, the delicate rosy flush of his skin beyond beauty.

He’s walking towards Jungkook, next to him a tall Being, upon whose shoulders sat a youngling very familiar looking.

The youngling was an Ožkan for sure. Jungkook was sure of it.

‘Captain!’ the Ožkan grumbles, ‘Stop being difficult!’

Sk’jin breaks out into wheezes as the Being carrying the Ožkan youngling snorts.

‘Yes Captain, stop being difficult.’

‘Okay how about you present me with your best arguments, support your argument with evidence and reference, and come back to me and I will consider it.’ Sk’jin pauses by the large doorway.

The Ožkan crosses his arms, exhaling as though tired of Sk’jin’s antics and says, ‘Fine, I’ll do it. You better prepare for the bestest presentation!’

‘I am most excited for it,’ Sk’jin nods, not a hint of exaggeration or falsehood in his voice.

The youngling climbs down the other Being before scurrying off, his hoof-like feet making clattering sounds over the floors.

‘You do know that Ilya will set you up with a 5 hour long presentation right?’ the Being laughs, warm brown eyes sparkling as he leans up on the wall, crossing his arms over his chest. He has deep dimples denting into the warmth of his skin; it reminds him of-

‘I have no doubt.’ Sk’jin continues to stand elegantly and poised, looking over the Living Quarters, pausing to smile back at someone. ‘And I think that will be a very good way to spend 5 hours.’

The Being chuckles before standing straight and stretching his arms and shoulders a little.

‘Okay I need to go check on something at the Hangars-‘

‘-there’s no need to report to me what you’re about to do,’ Sk’jin rolls his eyes though he’s smiling. ‘I’ll see you later for dinner.’

The unknown Being just grins, leaning over to lightly caress Sk’jin’s ear before tugging on it playfully.

‘See you!’

Sk’jin shakes his head, smiling at the retreating figure, ears flushed red.

Jungkook doesn’t realize that he’s crying. He sniffs, finding his nose a little stuffed but the noise triggers something and suddenly Sk’jin stares straight at him, eyes flaring neon red and the membrane finally fully slips away.

Red light bleeds through the strange cocooned head, flakes of membrane falling into dust around him.

And Jungkook understands it now. Finally.

‘Jin?’

He carefully reaches out a hand, reaching up to touch the Khol’isa, desolated and ruined here aboard this strange ghost-filled ship.

The creature turns and floats away. This time, Jungkook follows after him.

This ship was enormous. Many parts of it didn’t make sense to him, but nonetheless, keeping his eyes on this strange version of Sk’jin, Jungkook follows after him through a strange clearly routine path. He’s surprised when they step out of the red lit interior of the ship into a sunny clearing surrounded by an oppressively dense forest.

Jungkook nearly loses sight of Sk’jin before catching sight of him again among the tall reedy weeds.

Out here in the sunlight, Jungkook notes that the membrane around Sk’jin’s strange form is almost transparent. Within, encased and restrained and malformed is a twisted Being, reminiscent of the strange Beings from the planet cursed by the Bloodmoon.

Once Jungkook was able to use the functions and facilities within the Užkulisai as well as speak to Lisai, he was able to read up more on the Khol’isa as a whole. He had seen Khol’isa, just now, for what it was, an impossibly long time ago. The Khol’isa, from what Jungkook read, evolved- but slowly.

So Jungkook cannot fathom how they went from this to how they looked now.

The shadows of the oppressive forest stretch out, beckoning them in. Jungkook immediately keeps closer, eyeing the massive trees carefully. They arrive at a strange clearing, made of strange gnarled but smooth roots, all tangled within each other forming a sort of reverse dome on the floor.

Circling this large sunken clearing are mounds. Burial mounds.

Jungkook watches stiffly as Sk’jin makes his way around the clearing, circling the dome downwards towards the center, There, he stops.

The long malformed arm rests gently on the surface of the mound. Jungkook quietly makes his way to the bottom, kneeling before the mound that was clearly the most important- the most heartbreaking one.

Jungkook carefully places his hands over the soft dusty soil.

‘This is where I died.’

Jungkook jumps in shock, whipping his head around for the source- for the Being he was searching for.

But there’s no one.

When Jungkook looks back down he’s in a massive white space that seemed endless and though empty, seemed filled with music unheard but felt.

‘-you won’t be complete.’

Taeh’yung?!

Jungkook leaps to his feet, eyes wide as he searches desperately for the Zhak’gri, heart beating fast with a wretched hope.

‘I don’t expect to be.’

That was Sk’jin.

They were both here.

‘Jin-!’ Jungkook calls out desperately. He can’t pinpoint the sound.

‘What will you do?’ Taeh’yung asks, his voice so clear, as though right next to him-

The Zhak’gri stands there, his hair is shorter here. And across him, across them, is Sk’jin.

This is the Sk’jin Jungkook knows. He’s covered in some strange textured material- wet, and yet dry, flaking off to form seamlessly with the white void around them.

He was bleeding, staining the whole space red.

‘It’s already here,’ Sk’jin says quietly. A red light pulses above his head, slowly forming and taking shape.

‘You know you can’t escape it,’ Taeh’yung tells him quietly.

‘I know. I never could.’

‘Are you ready?’

Sk’jin sighs, nodding.

Taeh’yung suddenly turns to Jungkook, eyes bright and terrifyingly aware. Around him, clearer than ever, brighter than ever, larger than ever, 4 other Beings appear.

‘We will help you come back,’ Taeh’yung says, not looking away from Jungkook and Jungkook can’t look away.

‘Your hand.’

Jungkook doesn’t think, he just listens and he’s lifting his hand and-

Taeh’yung smiles, eyes gleaming green that pulses and fill the air. And like a whisper meant only Jungkook he says:

‘I’ll see you soon.’

Jungkook falls backwards, tugging Sk’jin down with him. He’s aware that he’s roaring, there’s commotion all around them. Dirt flying in the air, the air filled with dust and debris.

He lands with a thud on the distressed ground, Sk’jin gasping in pain that has nothing to do with the fall they’ve just taken. The moment he can, his hands fly to his head, gripping onto the horns with so much force Jungkook is momentarily afraid he’ll snap off the fragile looking crystals. But he doesn’t.

Sk’jin recoils from himself, writhing momentarily as Jungkook turns them on the ground to stabilize the Khol’isa. He hears TeorSers being fired, the sound of the Verktaë transporter. Jungkook is barely startled when Amad’la appears, looking worse for wear.

‘Two transporters above ground. 6 hostiles.’ She tells him gesturing to the ground.

Jungkook nods but suddenly he’s being tugged down.

‘I will cover.’ Amad’la tells him, stepping back and disappearing into the dusty air.

Jungkook crouches down, covering Sk’jin’s still shaking form as best as he could. His senses are on high alert.

‘Jungkook-!’ Sk’jin pants out loudly. Jungkook quickly covers his mouth with his hand, leaning in closer. Sk’jin doesn’t seem to really notice the state they were in. He was still clearly in shock. Jungkook glance up to the side and is filled with a quiet horror at the remains of the Verktaë Sk’jin had been “interrogating”. 

He hovers over the Khol’isa, barely wincing at the sound of Amad’la’s TeorSer going off. He manages to drag the Khol’isa while crawling, over towards a low bush. It wasn’t much, but some cover was better than nothing. Sk’jin struggles against Jungkook’s hand for a moment, body convulsing in a way that frightens the young Vicitra. He quickly pulls his hand away, wondering if he used too much force. One of Sk’jin’s hands is still clutching at his horns, the other grabbing onto Jungkook’s. Tears streak down the Khol’isa’s face- a strange sort of blissful anguish in his eyes as he locks gazes with Jungkook.

‘Sk’jin-,’ Jungkook tries desperately.

‘-Kookie-!’ the Bloodmoon dims slowly in his eyes. ‘Why- why did you follow me there? You- you could have-!’

His voice breaks out into a choke and he closes his eyes, pained and broken. Jungkook thinks of the empty hallways, of the old stains on the floors, of the sunken graveyard, of the cracked soil and hidden alcoves.

‘I had to get you out,’ Jungkook tries his best to explain, ‘I had to get you out and-.’

Sk’jin opens his eyes.

‘I didn’t want you to see it.’

‘See what?’

Sk’jin carefully lets go of his hand and lets go of his horn as well in favour of carefully cupping Jungkook’s face.

‘All the promises I’ve broken.’

‘I think this circumference is about right for Jinnie,’ Taeh’yung nods.

‘Taeh’yung?’

‘Hm?’

‘…um, what is a soul?’

Taeh’yung blinks at him with some surprise before he grins.

‘Oh Kookie that- that is the question isn’t it?’ he smiles. ‘So many Beings, so many cultures, religions, studies, science- they all have their own explanation as to what a soul could be, what a soul is- and if it even exists in the first place.’

‘Do…do you think it’s not real?’

‘Oh, I absolutely believe in it,’ Taeh’yung nods fervently, ‘You see Kookie- a soul, at least from what I can see, is just memories.’

‘Memories?’

Amad’la appears before them.

‘2 hostiles remaining. The transporters have left but I believe it’s because they are getting reinforcement.’

‘Where- where is Namjoon?’ Sk’jin asks, trying to sit up but barely being able to move.

‘I don’t know- I have no communication,’ Jungkook tries his best to explain. ‘I was- I was just-…I tried to find Taeh’yung but he- I don’t know what happened.’

Sk’jin stops struggling, his expression helpless and sorrowful.

‘He was-…they needed to get rid of him first.’ Sk’jin says quietly as Amad’la kneels down to check on his vitals. ‘Oh, Amad’la my dear, you’re just so sweet to me.’

‘You are experiencing psychological distress that is overwhelming your physical capabilities. Please overcome this as soon as possible.’

‘...wow really wish I could that easily none of us would be here,’ Sk’jin huffs out before glancing over at Jungkook. ‘We need to find a way to get back to the others Kookie.’

Jungkook nods.

‘I’ll carry you if you can’t walk.’ He says at once, ‘We can make our way back- follow our trail back.’

‘Have you seen anyone else?’ Sk’jin asks, moving limply against Jungkook.

‘No,’ Jungkook shakes his head, ‘I just- Jinnie I just- below us. Beneath it’s-.’

‘I know,’ Sk’jin says softly, ‘I’ve seen it too. I’ve seen them too.’

‘There’s so many,’ he whispers.

Sk’jin’s expression is pained.

The sky above them pulses and Sk’jin winces- actually flinches from the sound and light.

‘Is that- - it’s happening too fast,’ Sk’jin curses.

‘Do you know what it is?’ Jungkook asks, crouching in front of Sk’jin as Amad’la helps the Khol’isa climb on.

‘Unfortunately.’ Sk’jin replies grimly. ‘We need to leave.’

‘But-…but the-,’ Jungkook gulps, looking down at his feet, the faces of the sleeping Beings in their OrTanks looming at the forefront of his mind. Of the strange dark eye he climbed out, staring at him.

Sk’jin doesn’t reply, gingerly getting on his back. Jungkook helps him hook his legs around his waist. Sk’jin is oddly heavy for his built and height. Suddenly, Amad’la throws out her arm, blocking him from moving.

‘What is it-?’ Jungkook begins to ask but he feels it too.

Again, but this is different. This one felt different.

‘This way,’ Amad’la guides them past the low bush they were hiding under.

Crouching a little, Jungkook carries Sk’jin on his back and hurries after Amad’la, staying low and incredibly quiet.

‘They’ve been here the entire time- just waiting for us to get here, waiting for us to bring Jimin back here.’ Sk’jin whispers faintly, barely audible. The air slowly clears as they reach a slope. Jungkook barely registers the burning of his muscles as he climbs up the loose sandy up-climb, focused on staying low and not making a sound.

Just as they breach the slope, they’re met with a sight Jungkook cannot quite comprehend.

‘The Breaker,’ Sk’jin informs him, as an impossibly large object, horrifyingly familiar, looking very much like the blackened mountains of Ynqaba’s barren wastelands, pushes out of the night skies into the light, rings orbiting the structure, ripping clouds apart in some vicious display.

‘The what?’ Jungkook asks breathlessly.

‘That’s what they call it,’ Sk’jin tells him quietly, ‘The Breaker of Fate.’

A chill runs down Jungkook’s spine.

‘Um- I saw one, by the shore.’ Jungkook tells Sk’jin.

‘We need to help Jimin,’ Sk’jin tells him unexpectedly. ‘This might be more than what he can handle.’

‘Yoongi,’ Jungkook tells him confidently, ‘Yoongi must be with him.’

Sk’jin hums back faintly.

‘There’s more.’

‘More?’ Jungkook isn’t sure what Sk’jin is going on about- his voice faint and his body limp against his own. It terrifies him.

‘Hm,’ Sk’jin replies softly, ‘More Breakers.’

‘How? Why?’ Jungkook asks haphazardly. Surely just two of these would be…enough for whatever they were planning. Surely.

‘Continuum,’ Sk’jin replies, head pressed up against Jungkook’s, ‘It is a cycle that exists beyond the realm of existence – beyond the realm of Matter and Time and Space. A cycle that Is. A cycle that is continuum. A cycle that unapologetically moves forward. Because where there is a beginning, there is always an end. Where there is an end, there is always a beginning.’

Jungkook has heard this before. He knows this is the Yisheng code- a sort of ideology they lived by.

Quietly, Sk’jin yawns.

‘Are you tired?’ Jungkook asks randomly.

Sk’jin chuckles.

‘I think I’m sleepy.’

They continue to move forward in whatever direction Amad’la guides them through. The void is to their right, the darkness that Jungkook cannot look at lingering and staining his vision no matter how much he blinks it away.

‘I’m sorry you had to see me like that.’

‘What?’

‘You saw me at my worst. The lowest.’ Sk’jin says quietly.

Jungkook grips onto Sk’jin’s legs a little tighter.

‘I think I saw you at your strongest.’

‘You’re not strong when you’re broken.’

‘I see you,’ Jungkook tells him bluntly, ‘You are whole.’

Amad’la stumbles suddenly and Sk’jin gasps out.

‘Something’s happening-‘ he pants out, body suddenly tense on Jungkook’s back.

Then Amad’la falls over in evident pain.

‘Jungkook-!’ Sk’jin’s hands are on his shoulders, painfully tight. The ground rumbles and it’s different and it’s worse than before and in a wave, like casting a stone in a still body of water, the sky ripples ominously- strangely, breaking away what was once there- what was placed there, revealing what was truly there.

‘Breakers- more Breakers,’ Sk’jin gasps out, ‘We need to go-!’

The black stain on the right of his vision suddenly vanishes and even Amad’la seems to be all right, her turning around to look at them on the ground, her blank expression displaying something akin to shock.

‘Jungkook we need to go now- we need to go-!’ Sk’jin cries out but it’s too late.

From a point in the far distant forest below, the void erupts violently once more- larger, darker- extending outwards into the sky and breaking it to reveal a sky full of strange forms and shapes- bearing down in a maddened orchestra of wrath.

The light around them, previously rosy and gold changes sharply, nauseatingly to a strange violent pulsing light and against his own intuition, Jungkook turns to the east and rather than the permanent rising rosy sun is a wretched dark star, streaking out of two points in a force so powerful Jungkook swears he can hear it.

And then the screaming starts.

Voices Jungkook heard, spoke to. Voices that helped him, voices that touched him- they were screaming.

‘They were never supposed to exist,’ Sk’jin sounds small and tired.

The sky cracks in lines of light, meeting with the strange floating shapes high above them. They form bright points, like some strange webbing in a mist of condensation. That pin pricks of light condense before shooting down in a horrendous display of corrupted light straight down into the ground.

The sound is horrible- the screams cut short and with horror, Jungkook understands what’s happening.

Forests and rocks and water and earth implode, ash and dust erupting in clouds clearing in an instance, no memory no recollection remaining to linger even for a fraction of time- all around this crescent, as the Breakers watch over head.

He falls to his knees, screaming for those whose voices were burnt out in an instance, piercing down the surface, all the way down and-

He barely notices when a Verktaë appears out of nowhere, Sk’jin’s grip on his turning vice like and pushing him down to avoid swing of the bladed-spear aimed right for his neck.

Jungkook sees red. The screams of the New Borns push him forward as he twists up and away, pushing Sk’jin behind him before leaping forward, hands like claws extending out, barely paying attention to the first Verktaë as he crushes his hand through their throat in a hot gush. He lifts the Verktaë up, throwing it down harshly before crouching over it and roaring. There’s more than 15 of them, all rushing forward. The sky ripples more- bright lights like cruel unnatural lighting strikes down more, continuously, reflecting a horrible aching light, casting horrific shadows all around him in every direction.

Jungkook leaps forward, behind him TeorSer fire shoots out, taking down some other of the approaching Verktaë. Amad’la must be up. On all fours, Jungkook runs forward, dodging the blasts of energy from the long-spears of the Verktaë before tackling one of them just as it takes a hit from Amad’la’s TeorSer. He rolls off of the screaming body, yanking away the spear before hurling it straight and true.

Rage and pain and heartbreak ignite within him.

It goes straight through an approaching Verktaë who mid-run doesn’t seem to realize what was happening, eyes rolling back but legs running forward. Jungkook easily grabs their spear and right on time parries the swing aimed at him. 

Another spear comes to stab him, the Verktaë flying through the air, body parallel to the ground. Jungkook pushes himself off of his first assailant, allowing the other Verktaë to fly through before swinging down the spear harshly. His move is blocked and Jungkook kicks the defensive stance down, breaking the other spear cleanly into two. He throws the spear in his hand at the Verktaë who was just turning from his leaping jump, sending them impaled down to the side. He grabs the broken spears from the groaning Verktaë and brings one end down the chest of the fallen assailant just as a TeorSer fire shoots over his head, bringing down another approaching him. Jungkook looks behind him to check on Sk’jin, finding one of the Verktaë approaching him from the other side.

They had them surrounded.

He throws the other broken end at the Verktaë headed for Sk’jin as he starts to run back. He needed to cover and protect Sk’jin for as long as he could.

His immediate field of sight around him is restrictive but above him is horrifyingly clear and claustrophobic at the same time. Amad’la continues to fire- but she was now the primary target as the Verktaë change their tactic and decide to shoot at them instead. Rather than continue forward towards where Sk’jin was, Jungkook makes a sharp detour to his left.

He crouches, occasionally reaching forward to run on all fours. He sees a flash of light just as he makes it to a rocky terrain. Using the jutting edges of harsh rock, Jungkook leaps high into the air, momentarily clearing the mist, dust trailing behind him. He lands with his full weight on one of the Verktaë. He feels the crunch of their bones under his feet. The other Verktaë with him falls over with a scream.

Wrath boils within Jungkook at the sight of the tainted eclipse- a cruel mockery, a hateful act; all of this for what?

Jungkook grabs them by their feet, dragging them forward before bringing his clamped hands down on their head.

He’s tackled back by two Verktaë, dragging him down by his arms.

Either Jungkook was lighter than they assumed, but they push back too far with too much force, causing one of them to slip and stumble. Jungkook tenses, focusing on the loosened hold of his left arm and pulls. The Verktaë, stumbles towards Jungkook, their eyes wide in horror at the realization of their mistake. But it’s too late.

Jungkook bites down on their stretched throat, the momentum of their twisting bodies doing most of the work.

Scrambling to run away, the other Verktaë crawls backwards in a mad panic. Jungkook spits out a mouthful of blood and tissue, taking a step forward but he’s blocked by a literal stone being thrown at him.

The Verktaë who was bleeding out to the side was clearly trying to buy time for their partner. They’re trying to spit out words, a strange gurgling from their open throat.

And something inside Jungkook releases and rage like never before floods through him.

Rage, and pain.

The pain that was born with him, that lived with him, his mothers, his siblings- pain that lived in the planet that was simply just another attempt at a half-assed plan conducted and supported by the very same Beings before him.

Born, found, in a planet destroyed and harvested and abandoned- Jungkook was found into hunger, thirst, fear, and acid rain before understanding what any of it meant.

Hands soaked red in blood, Jungkook is snarling as he climbs out of the rocky ledges. He leaves behind him a messy trail of blood before tackling a group of Verktaë who were making their way towards where Sk’jin and Amad’la were.

Jungkook doesn’t know what he’s doing- only his body moving, under the control of so much pain.

‘-ungkook!’

Jungkook snaps awake from his hazy rage-induced hunt.

It’s hauntingly quiet, save for the dripping sound of blood from his clothes and hands. Jungkook vaguely registers pain on his right thigh and upper arm. He doesn’t remember being hurt but he feels a faint reminder of it.

Sk’jin is being helped up by Amad’la who doesn’t seem at all surprised to see him standing in a scene of absolute carnage. Sk’jin stares down at the area and for a moment Jungkook fears judgment, fears disgust,- worst of all he fears fear.

But when Sk’jin looks up there is a shared pain in his eyes- a shared pain, a shared fear, a shared desperation.

‘There was a moment,’ Sk’jin tells him, reaching out for him. Jungkook instantly balances him, wincing a little at the amount of blood on him, instantly staining Sk’jin’s clothes though they weren’t the cleanest either. ‘The communication channels were open for a moment- I think we need to get higher up.’

All around them, lightning funnels down at random.

‘There are more coming,’ Amad’la tells them as she reassesses her TeorSer. ‘I will not have enough power soon.’ 

‘There’s a hill towards there,’ Sk’jin winces as he turns his head around, ‘Let’s try and make our way up there.’

‘Take Communications Manager Sk’jin-,’ Amad’la says as she approaches them, ‘Jungkook, here is a small blade you may like-‘

Jungkook is too late to notice the spear piercing through the dusty air. Amad’la, however, seems to sense it, her body moving but it’s not fast enough. She clearly tries to push them away, physically moving to act as a physical barrier but it’s too late. It cuts through her side right under her ribs before slicing down the edge of Jungkook’s hip as well.

‘NO!’ Sk’jin screams as they all fall.

The pain triggers all of the other pain and injuries on Jungkook’s body as he falls heavily, unprepared and unable to even brace himself. Amad’la writhes where she falls, blood very quickly oozing out of her wound.

The horde of Verktaë who had them surrounded were approaching all too fast, all too quickly- as though incensed by whatever was happening all around them, their eyes wide and crazed- mouths open in screeching roars.

From behind him, Sk’jin moves, hands stretched out.

‘Jin-?’ Jungkook turns and to his absolute horror, finds the Khol’isa almost afloat.

And in a graceful step that brings him back vertically on the ground, feet disproportionately heavy as he makes contact with the fragmented ground.

The Verktaë recoil, attempting to slow down on their attempt to swoop down on them.

Jungkook watches in horror as Sk’jin’s form extends- very much into the shape of what he had seen deep in the memories of Sk’jin’s mind. The horns twist out, a cruel iron-like halo above a delicately coloured Being. Something pulses out of him- a horrible weight that pushes Jungkook down as well but there’s no pain, nothing. When he’s able to sit up after a few seconds, breathing harshly he can barely believe what he was looking at.

The Verktaë bleed- they were just bleeding. They’re screaming in a pain indescribable but palpable. A membrane rises around them, around all of them- though it leaves Amad’la’s form and himself alone. The Bloodmoon pulses and flickers rapidly above Sk’jin’s now elongated and alien form, hurting Jungkook’s eyes but he can’t look away. Sk’jin’s voice echoes lowly, almost inaudible. He doesn’t understand what he’s saying, but it makes Jungkook want to cry.

‘Jin-!’ he manages to choke out.

The Bloodmoon fades and Sk’jin shrinks back to his normal state- the Verktaë bleeding out of their skins in a heap around the Khol’isa. Jungkook crawls forward as quickly as he can, towards the shaking Khol’isa who was trying to reach for the GI on the ground some feet from him.

But before he can reach him, something explodes to his right, throwing dirt and dust into the air. He closes his eyes at once but the damage is done.  

Unable to open his eyes, Jungkook relies on his hearing but it’s difficult when everything was being thrown up into chaos. His hands feel for Sk’jin; he had just been there- no more than a meter, but Jungkook can’t hear the Khol’isa.

‘Jin-!’ he coughs out, a mouthful of dust coating his tongue in an instance.

He feels blindly, quickly, for the Khol’isa- he’s disoriented and what he felt didn’t make sense to what he remembered seeing. He stops, hands forming fists over the uneven root-covered terrain he doesn’t remember seeing.

He inhales deeply, slowly, controlling the urge to cough and-

He scrambles to his right, reaching out and for a moment he thinks he’s wrong but he reaches out a second time and his fingers find fabric. It’s familiar and Jungkook knows he’s right. He pushes himself up a little higher, reaching out with his other hand and this time he grabs a shin. He inhales carefully again- this was Sk’jin, he was sure of it.

‘Kookie-?’ a faint whisper as Jungkook places his hands on the Khol’isa’s shoulders.

‘Eyes- my eyes hurt,’ Jungkook chokes out.

‘Get down,’ Sk’jin says in a shaking whisper, ‘Something’s coming this way.’

‘Where are we?’ Jungkook asks instead, ‘It doesn’t feel the same.’

‘What-?’

He hears the sound of the weapon- all too familiar with it now. A sharp inhale and Jungkook tenses, coiling around before jumping forward. He could only trust his nose right now- his nose and-

‘-left!’

Jungkook dodges before returning back to position, tensing as he stretches forward, tackling the oncoming Verktaë around their knees. They fall in a heap and Jungkook brings his elbow down, hearing the crack of the sternum before he’s focusing his attention elsewhere. He grabs the fallen weapon, holding it up as he hears another approaching Being.

‘There’s 2!’ Sk’jin faintly cries out. ‘Kookie- jump!’

He barely has time to prepare, but he jumps up, the most curious sound of water rushing all around him rushes about him again. He brings down the spear from high above his head, swinging it down, making harsh and loud contact with something. He lands, stumbling a little. The Verktaë attacking him take advantage of this. Kicking him as he tries to regain balance but Jungkook grabs the foot, tugging hard and biting down. There’s a shocked roar of pain and Jungkook centers on the sound, throwing his head back, connecting with a face with a sharp blow.

Someone tackles him and Jungkook’s orientation goes spinning once more- the strange threat of water flowing over him, making him feel weirdly breathless.

‘NO!’ he hears Sk’jin choke out, a desperate scuffle as something heavy lands to his side.

Something flails and thrashes on his side- that strange smell of decomposition and cold and blood and damp. He catches hold of it, the end of a jacket and Jungkook yanks at it hard, dragging off whatever Verktaë Sk’jin had knocked down.

But it kicks Jungkook off and he feels Sk’jin catch him- more like attempt to catch him in his weakened state. They both fall back heavily but Jungkook immediately turns over. He holds Sk’jin tight as he twists his head around, teeth bared, ready to bite, claw- anything-

A bright bolt of TeorSer fire, bright enough cast a fiery eruption through his eyelids illuminates the air before him and something heavy drops. He feels Sk’jin turning around, arms wrapping around him protectively before he stills and-

‘Namjoon-?!’ Sk’jin gasps faintly.

Managing to open his eyes just a fraction, Jungkook turns just in time to see a blurred and unfocused Namjoon lowering the TeorSer he had clearly fired.

His eyes hurt beyond anything he’s felt before, closing them at once and hunching over Sk’jin.

‘Emergency medical procedures now!’ Namjoon yells, his steps approaching them.

‘Jungkook-,’ Sk’jin gasps, pushing him gently, ‘His eyes- Namjoon, his eyes-.’

‘Optical spray!’ Namjoon yells behind him but one of the GI is already on him, holding something white and in a second his face is soaked but like a film being removed from his eyes, his vision slips back into normal.

‘Amad’la- she’s there-.’

Gasping and panting, Jungkook first checks the sky for any water but doesn’t find any.

‘Hey, hey, look at me,’ Namjoon draws his gaze back down, studying his face carefully. ‘It’s okay- we’re leaving soon okay?’

Jungkook gulps, panting as he looks around at the dusty and smoking clearing around them lit up so oddly. He notes how some of the GI have pulled out a stretcher and were placing Amad’la on it. She was twitching- she was still alive.

Namjoon was here. He had to tell him all of what he saw. Has to tell him about the New Borns, about the eggs- about-!

‘Can you stand?’ Namjoon asks.

Jungkook nods, taking deep breaths to stabilize himself like how Hoseok taught him, focusing his energy and mind on readying himself to stand.

‘Namjoon- below, there’s- they’re below us, they’re dying-!’ he manages to get out, voice breaking at one.

Namjoon just nods, a crushed look on his features.

He knew. He already knew what was happening.

‘We can’t-…?’ Jungkook whispers.

Namjoon slowly shakes his head.

‘Captain we only need one more pulse to be taken down for basic communications,’ a GI tells the Kutsoglerin just as Sk’jin reaches up, blinking rapidly, unable to rightly speak, just hands reaching up for Namjoon. A worried expression on his face, Namjoon easily lifts Sk’jin who weakly protests for a moment before managing to get out, ‘Namjoon- Namjoon, I need you to listen. There’s- Jimin’s sister- it’s not-‘

‘Jimin’s sister?!’ Namjoon repeats incredulously as Jungkook also stands, his whole body feeling as though it had been seared. Jimin’s sister?! What was Sk’jin talking about?

‘Namjoon-,’ Sk’jin places his hands on Namjoon’s face, eyes glowing red, reflecting on Namjoon’s own brown eyes.

The Kutsoglerin stops. So does Jungkook, unsure what he was witnessing, suddenly afraid that Sk’jin has gone mad or something. But then Sk’jin’s hands slowly slide down, finger lightly tracing the spot on Namjoon’s cheeks where his dimples normally showed up.

Then in a strange echoing haze, Sk’jin lets out a strange chuckle.

Namjoon shares a quick worried glance with Jungkook before they both focus on the Khol’isa who glances up at the sky.

‘They are going to break this continuum.’

‘Memories, dreams- nightmares,’ Taeh’yung stretches his arms up. ‘And none of these are permanent- none of these are well, unchangeable- memories change, dreams fade, nightmares relent- nothing really stays- that’s why you can’t study the soul- can’t say what it is- not when it’s always changing, always shifting.’

‘…okay,’ Jungkook sort of regrets asking.

‘Why do you ask?’ Taeh’yung asks him in turn.

‘I-…I was um, thinking,’ Jungkook replies. ‘Does…does a soul make you tired?’

Taeh’yung pauses in his actions.

‘Oh Kookie,’ the Zhak’gri grins, the figures behind him jitter to a strange stop. He starts to walk ahead again and Jungkook quickly follows. ‘You really are asking the best of questions.’

(Author’s Notes)

Me: Oh my feral child

Friend: Are you talking about sk’jin or Jungkook?

Me: yes

And yes here is a moodboard!

And wow, I AM keeping schedule and updating when I said I would please praise me

Also if you want bgm I highly recommend the music for Loki (the series) I listened to that and wrote this chapter in like, a maddened frenzy I’m not even kidding.

Also if you’re here from reading all the gore, well, uh, I’m sorry. I’m afraid it won’t get that much better with the next chapter.