As an Information Analyst, Namjoon wouldn’t say most Beings with his job would be subjected to bloodshed or carnage. Not that Information Analysts haven’t been targeted and harmed before. They have. And still are.

But Namjoon hasn’t really witnessed, first-hand, too much bloodshed or carnage after becoming an Information Analyst. But he’s no stranger to it.

He’s painfully and intimately acquainted with it.

Having witnessed and experienced more than any living Being should have to do so during the average span of a Standard sol, Namjoon doesn’t need to be a trained Medic to identify and categorize the fatality of wounds not just on himself but on others.

He’s too familiar with the notion of how much the living body could endure, how much it could lose, under certain circumstances and still live.

He’s also too familiar with the rage that comes with life. The wrath that follows the desire to live, to burn through the dark like the sun, igniting the fissions of vengeance that comes with the very notion of what it meant to live.

But he’s also too familiar with the quiet acceptance of death. The quiet surrender that beckons the finality of the known, slipping into vastness, the multitude that is lost in its vastness. It’s as quiet and it’s blissful.

No rage lights up in Sk’jin’s eyes.

No fear, no pain- and the absence of that ever present light finally reveals what has always been there; or at least, what wasn’t supposed to be there.

‘He’s not supposed to be here.’

‘Stay here until you’re stabilized.’

Sk’jin just smiles.

But Namjoon knows better. Namjoon knows him better than he would have cared to admit in the past, but right now, here-

He kneels, slowly, before the Khol’isa.

He can’t look away from the shrapnel sticking out from his blood soaked clothes, can’t look away from how his skin was turning ashy, can’t look away from the quiet and

Sk’jin smiles and nods again but then as Namjoon kneels before him, hand reaching out but not quite touching him for a moment before gingerly placing them on his shoulders.

‘Sk’jin please,’ Namjoon whispers, holding his shoulders carefully, eyes shut. He can’t look the Khol’isa in the eye. ‘Please. Wait for me, and we can go together. All right?’

‘All right,’ Sk’jin replies. Namjoon feels his finger poke at his cheek. ‘Because you asked me so nicely.’

Namjoon sighs out, unsure why the singular touch was so grounding.

‘We will go get Hoseok and Yoongi,’ Namjoon repeats himself again. ‘Please make and hold temporary base here.’

‘Understood Cap.’

Namjoon looks at Sk’jin, taking in the blissful surrender in his eyes.

He knows him too well now.

‘Stay here?’ he looks over at Jungkook. He knows this was somewhat of a low-blow, that he would use the young Vicitra like this.

And Jungkook looks divided. His gaze flicks between the void, and then back to Sk’jin, and back at him.

He shouldn’t have to be here.

Namjoon wishes none of them were.

Jungkook nods and Namjoon stands up, unable to look back, barely aware of his movements other than to focus on getting himself into the transporter awaiting him.

‘Hoseok? Yoongi?’ he calls out as he jogs towards the open doorway to one of the transporters.

‘We’re here.’

‘I’m coming over to you.’ He pauses. ‘Listen, Sk’jin’s injured.’

‘How injured?’ Hoseok asks immediately.

‘It’s- it’s bad. Jungkook is with him. So are the Omhlophe.’ Namjoon settles into a seat, accepting a strange device from the Omhlophe that fits into his palm. ‘We need to destroy Sanctuary. Sk’jin says he can get us there. But we need a larger ship- something powerful enough to destroy it.’

‘For better communication with your scattered team!’ one of the Omhlophe chirps. Namjoon is not used to this sudden turn of events with the Beings they’ve been running away from for nearly the entire duration of this still ongoing mission.

‘You want to get our ship?’ Hoseok asks.

Namjoon isn’t surprised Hoseok could immediately guess his plan.

‘Yes. I think our missiles should be able to do significant damage. But the unit team there aren’t responding to Comms.’ Namjoon replies as the transporter lifts off gently, he’s wondering why the door wasn’t closing when, as though in reply, Jungkook appears out of nowhere and jumps inside, sitting across him, ‘What-?’

‘What’s wrong?’ Hoseok demands at once.

But Namjoon can’t even breathe­- he stares out through the still open doorway and still sitting up on the Medical Bed inside one of the larger transporters the Omhlophe brought with them is Sk’jin.

Even from this distance, his smile is apparent as he says something Namjoon cannot hear but fills him instantly with dread.

‘I want to come.’

Jungkook’s eyes are filled with the familiar confused fear that comes with the fierce desire to live, to be.

‘Jungkook-!’ Namjoon is about to call for the transporter to be landed back again when a new voice crackles through the device in his hand.

‘Good day, we are here to connect you to your teammate and the Yemenifesi Ch’inik’eti!’

Namjoon stares down at his hand as the Omhlophe in the transporter clap as though cheering.

‘Jimin?!’

‘What-?’

‘Princeling you took your time,’ Sk’jin breathes out. Namjoon pushes out of his seat as they pick up speed at an alarming pace, already moving far from where the Khol’isa was.

‘Is-,’ Jimin sounds exhausted. ‘Is everyone okay?’

Jungkook’s eyes fill up with tears, hands clenching into fists as he stares hard at the floor, unable to look out of the window, towards where Sk’jin was.

‘He told me to- he told me to protect you,’ he whispers, still unable to look up. ‘To protect all of you.’

‘Jungkook-‘

‘I- I need you all to listen to me,’ Jimin’s voice fills the air around them again. ‘Sk’jin, please prepare the Užkulisai-‘

‘-you disappear for hours and somehow you just know-‘ Sk’jin chuckles and a cold realization washes all over Namjoon.

‘-for take off. All GI personnel please head straight towards Sk’jin. Namjoon, Jungkook, turn back and aid Sk’jin ready the Užkulisai. I am headed to where Yoongi and Hoseok are- you need to evacuate that area immediately. Their extraction is currently top priority alongside the Užkulisai.’

‘What’s happening?’ Jungkook finally looks up, fury and fear and pain and sorrow ablaze in his eyes, ‘What about Taeh’yung?’

Namjoon doesn’t know what to say.

‘I- I don’t know. Just, please,’ Jimin manages to say, ‘We don’t have a lot of time-‘

‘-where’s Amme?’ Hoseok asks.

‘She- she’s with Tsirin. She’s buying us time- Hoseok, Yoongi- you’re both near the facilitator- it’s what controls all of the Sanctuaries you see in the sky as well as the Breakers- it’s the Yisheng ship that was lost in Axudar. At the core, I need to shut it down.’

‘-that’s it?’ Sk’jin snorts. ‘Just an off button.’

‘I need you all to take the Užkulisai and destroy the real Sanctuary. And then I need you to move as far away as possible, as quickly as you can.’

‘Jimin-.’ Hoseok exclaims quickly.

‘-wait Jimin-.’ It dawns on him all too quickly and apparently on Jungkook too.

‘-we can’t do that-!’ Jungkook cries out.

‘Please.’

Namjoon stops at the weight of Jimin’s tone. The finality- the surrender.

‘Please.’

Jungkook shakes his head, finally holding Namjoon’s gaze.

‘We can’t do that,’ he whispers, ‘We can’t- our plans-…we can’t. Not anymore.’

‘We can close this.’

‘Namjoon-,’ Jungkook is pleading, and Namjoon doesn’t know what he’s going to say but they need to act fast.

‘Turn the ship back around, we’re headed back to Sk’jin.’

Jungkook clutches at the top of his head, he’s clenching his teeth hard, he was clearly in a lot of pain and agitation.

‘Sk’jin, we’re coming back.’ Namjoon says quickly, ‘Please get ready to-‘

‘Oh, what a strange sight indeed!’

At first Namjoon doesn’t know who spoke, or to whom they were speaking to, but Jungkook seems to know as he looks up at Namjoon, eyebrows furrowed before he stares around at something past the cockpit.

The mountain-like ships in the air with the strange spinning rings around them all still, forming flat circular frames all over the sky. The bottom of the mountain seems to fracture, crumbling away somewhat, but something tells Namjoon it’s not some structural issue within the ships.

‘Spaces, this is over-kill,’ Sk’jin croaks through the device in his hand. ‘Princeling, your princess sister really hates us all doesn’t she?’

They were ships. Jungkook turns over more, leaning past the wall to watch and Namjoon follows after. Those were ships, all falling from under those mountains. But they’re not headed towards them, or towards the planet. They were flying out.

‘Are there more of you beyond the atmospheric barrier?’ Hoseok asks.

‘No! All of us came here at the same time!’ a voice, clearly one of the Omhlophe replies. Jungkook glances back at Namjoon, his expression aghast.

‘I-…I mean okay but-‘ Hoseok stammers out, clearly taken aback as well by this response.

‘We did go past the Great Network on our way here! It must be them!’ the Omhlophe around them all make sounds of agreement.

‘The Great Network?’ Namjoon repeats in confusion, eyeing the Omhlophe around them.

‘I think they’re talking about Ilya,’ Sk’jin explains.

Namjoon curses under his breath.

Jungkook returns to his seat, hesitation in his movement as he leans over, seeking the view out of the window to his right, glancing upwards.

He’s not surprised really- he just wishes he could have been wrong just this once.

Of course Ilya would come. It didn’t matter if Namjoon told him to turn away. Ilya couldn’t- he wouldn’t. He too was too connected to all of this. It’s wasn’t just because of Sk’jin. But because of Jn’young, Jaen, and every other Being on his network directly affected by all of this.

The expansion of horrors that began here reached out too far into the Universe for them to properly fathom.

‘Namjoon,’ Jungkook starts hesitantly. Namjoon turns to look at him at once, focusing on the youngling. ‘What do we do?’

Namjoon feels defeated. But he can’t let Jungkook see him like that- he can’t allow him to feel it.

‘We-,’ he pauses, swallowing hard as he looks back out of the window past the cockpit. ‘We do what Jimin says.’

‘But-…we still don’t know…we still don’t know, what happened to Taeh’yung-,’ Jungkook’s voice catches in his throat. ‘And-…I don’t want to leave him. I don’t want to leave Jimin here. I don’t-…Namjoon-‘

‘So the Yisheng ship is inside that uh- thing,’ Hoseok’s voice cuts in. ‘Jimin, we can do this together-‘

‘No,’ Jimin replies at once, ‘Everyone needs to leave as quickly as possible, please. I’m almost there, take this ship and leave.’

Jungkook looks at him with wide helpless eyes, hands clenched, head oddly bowed as though in pain.

‘We will be your defense! We will continue to engage the hateful forces here and lead you out!’

‘How?’ Jungkook asks faintly to no one in particular just as Hoseok says: ‘I’ll be honest I don’t know how we’re going to go past that.’

‘We can use the sunny lands to deflect detection, create an opening, and exit the atmosphere!’

‘We can counter heat detection radars by using the eastern lands to our advantage and find a breaching point.’

‘Show me whatever scanning and analysis you have on the whole mess up there,’ Namjoon orders before he asks, ‘And why aren’t we back at the site yet?’

‘Here is a working NaviLet to connect you to our mothership and her system network!’ the closest Omhlophe hands Namjoon a small cylinder. ‘You can view every report conducted by our system network on the whole mess up there.’

‘We’ll work on that right now,’ Namjoon replies to Hoseok as he takes the cylinder, ‘- if the Užkulisai is still there, we just need to fly through the barrier, no problem- we have enough weapons on there to take out Sanctuary I’m sure.’

If the Užkulisai was still there, functional, and still how they had left it, then definitely, they had a good chance at getting to Sanctuary and destroying it. That was where Sk’jin was headed. He already guessed the ship was in there. Namjoon wishes he had done something like, sedated the Khol’isa and strapped him to a Medical Bed or something. But his injuries- he shouldn’t be able to be moving around, let alone commandeering the Omhlophe to return to the mothership.

‘Your ship is still with us!’ the Omhlophe tells them.

This information seems to give Jungkook the smallest amount of hope. His eyes light up just a little, some hope brightening his features.

‘Sk’jin and his team are already moving towards the mothership! We can simply meet there instead!’

‘What?’ Jungkook swivels to the Omhlophe that just spoke before turning to Namjoon.

Namjoon doesn’t know what to say.

‘But- but he’s so injured-,’ Jungkook chokes out.

‘We will arrive shortly! Simply relax!’

‘Sk’jin-!’ Namjoon hisses over the device in his hands.

‘Jimin’s here- we’ll come join you as quickly as we can.’ Hoseok’s voice cuts over.

‘Sk’jin-,’ Namjoon’s trying to sound stern, but it’s not working. ‘What are you doing?’

‘Following princeling’s orders?’ Sk’jin replies, ‘Same as you.’

Namjoon closes his eyes.

‘They are ahead of us!’ the Omhlophe announce, gesturing ahead.

The air is bright with the thin beams of light that shoot upwards from the ground, igniting patterns high above them in the sky. But the brightness of it all feels wrong- it feels wrong.

In theory, Namjoon knows it should be better illuminated than this- but there’s a strange darkness that hovers over everything, a darkness that bleeds from the void in a way he can’t quite put to words. But it covers his sight, like some strange dusty smog- not quite diminishing visibility, but causing a sensation that makes him feel as though he couldn’t see everything he was supposed to. Or what he was seeing wasn’t quite real.

But amidst that, he can see a glint- a shape, speeding ahead towards the still smoking wreckage of the Omhlophe mothership that had crashed into what was clearly a vast range of mountains now flattened and buried into a strange crater that was still forming and breaking. It was most definitely not going to be safe to reenter after such a fall- the Omhlophe ship was clearly of a make and design very unknown to them, and with a crash like that, who knows what could be waiting to be triggered within.

But there’s something relieving about the idea of returning to their ship. Like a safe-point. And Namjoon knows it’s all in his head but he can’t help but feel like he’s been given a foothold in this fall. Now all he needed to do was lift them all the way out of this void.

‘We’ll go in ahead and check to see if we can actually get anywhere with this plan, ya know-‘

‘Don’t do anything- don’t do anything before I get there, please wait for me.’ Namjoon pleads, nervous urgency bleeding into his tone. He tries to subdue it, but he can’t.

Jungkook is looking at him, his expression heartbroken.  

‘I told you I wouldn’t,’ Sk’jin replies gently, softly, weakly. ‘You gotta trust me a little Cap.’

‘Can we get there faster?’ Namjoon asks quietly, staring straight ahead. The mothership was humongous, so even though they can clearly see it embedded into the still crumbling crater, they were still nowhere near it.

‘We will try our best to get there quickly and safely!’

‘You need to leave now.’ Jimin’s voice resounds clearly, firmly, almost harshly.

‘Wait-!’ Hoseok gasps as though he was running, ‘They’ve detected movement- heat signals from within that uh, facilitator. You need back up to get inside- we need units and teams to enter-‘

‘No.’

‘What’s going on-?’ Namjoon demands at once.

‘It’s okay. You should tell us.’ Yoongi’s voice quietly filters through.

‘What? What’s going on. Jimin? What is it- what’s happened, what about your sister-.’

‘They will all die.’

For a moment, Namjoon doesn’t understand what they’re talking about.

‘What- what are you talking about, what do you mean?’

But Jungkook clearly does, because he’s staring at Namjoon with terror in his eyes.

‘What is he talking about-?’ Namjoon whispers but even as he asks, he already knows the answer.

‘The New Borns- the eggs- Nineti, Dehin, Amic- every other Regurgitated here, all of the New Borns- Jungkook. You will all die if you stay. You must leave.’

Jungkook sinks back into his seat.

‘It’s me,’ Jimin whispers again. ‘They came back to me.’

‘What do you mean?’ Namjoon asks, turning around to properly address Jimin.

‘Remember- remember I said,’ Jimin swallows. ‘-I said that Yoongi was not supposed to be here.’

Namjoon nods, ears straining for any sounds from outside the Transporter.

‘It’s- it’s because I was not supposed to be here,’ Jimin tells him tenuously, ‘I am the Fate of Menigišiti, that’s how they did it, that’s why the Red Evil came to Megibīya- they wanted me. They’re all tied to me.’

Things were falling into place, but Namjoon is a little overwhelmed to piece them together. All he knew right now was that they needed to get out of here.

Namjoon didn’t understand then. But he understands it now.

‘They’re all bound to me- you’re all bound to me,’ Jimin explains flatly, ‘I can stop Tsirin, but I cannot stop- I cannot stop what might happen once I break the promise. But they’re all all bound to me- and I cannot predict what will happen to them once- once I completely break Yino’s promise. So please-.’

Namjoon feels strangely numb, staring ahead without seeing anything.

No- no, he can’t be like this. He won’t allow it. He won’t allow any of it. Namjoon sits up, back straightening, he exhales out forcefully, somehow hoping it would expel his fears from within himself. But he can’t bring himself to look Jungkook in the eye.

‘Then I’ll come,’ Hoseok says at once, ‘I’ll come with you, with the Omhlophe, we send back- we send back Yoongi and the other GI out.’

‘I’m ordering all of the GI to leave. We leave the rest of the fight to the Omhlophe and we go to that Sanctuary and-.’ Namjoon replies, thinking fast, ‘Can we get transporters out to the GI who might be still stranded along the crescent? Connect with Hoseok, he has the tracker.’

‘Absolutely!’

‘Hoseok-.’ Jimin begins, clearly ready to argue but a sudden wave of terror floods Namjoon.

It’s not quite his own- it’s not-…it’s nothing he’s experienced really.

‘It’s them,’ Jungkook whispers, ‘It’s all of them- they’re…they’re being torn apart.’

A horrible sound fills the air and Namjoon feels nauseous, tilting wildly in his seat as though he was being physically shoved. But it’s nothing as bad as what Jungkook was going through.

His whole body seems disconnected from gravity- convulsing and twisting in his safety restraints as though he were underwater and in the mercy of some strange violent current. Immediately, Namjoon pulls himself out and goes to restrain the youngling- fearful he would somehow hurt himself.

He manages to steady Jungkook’s head at least. Jungkook is clearly trying to open his eyes, get himself together. But it’s obviously difficult- his body not under his control.

‘HOSEOK WHAT’S HAPPENING-?!’ Namjoon roars over the continuous sound.

But even over this din, he hears how the communication channels all give out.

‘Namjoon- Namjoon something’s starting,’ Jungkook gasps out, ‘Their voices- it’s…they’re getting louder, it hurt-it’s hurting them. Something’s starting!’

If Jungkook was effected like this, what about Yoongi? What about the GI?

‘Do we have pain inhibitors?’ he demands before trying to connect to the Comms, ‘Sk’jin- hey, can you hear me? Are the GI okay-? Sk’jin?! Kookie, look at me, what can you hear? What is it?’

‘Beneath us- it’s-,’ Jungkook swallows thickly, his words slurring as he shivers, ‘I think- I feel them being torn away.’

Namjoon doesn’t know what Jungkook is talking about- but this was probably something only they were feeling. Something that was effecting them.

‘Oh! Something approaches us, friend or foe, a curious fixation indeed,’ one of the Omhlophe remarks.

Namjoon does a double take, needing to take a moment to comprehend that strange mannerism in which the Omhlophe spoke.

‘We will get communications back soon I believe-!’

‘-mjoon?’

‘Sk’jin-!’ Namjoon gasps out, ‘Is everything okay there-?’

‘-eed-…to be care-ul-.’

‘,’ Namjoon tries the channels again, eyes wide as he scans the eastern lands. ‘What’s going on, Hoseok, Yoongi- what’s happening-?!’

Something heavy weighs down in the air and even Namjoon feels it. Jungkook feels groans piteously.

‘Tsirin is here.’

Something hurtles down in their direction. For a moment, Namjoon wonders if its remains of the previous disc-ships that had been torn apart by the entrance of the Omhlophe mothership.

‘We are being attacked!’ is the clarification he receives instead as the transporter interior lets out a quiet alarm followed by softly gleaming red lights.

And for the second time in just a span of an hour, the transporter he’s in is struck heavily, causing them to jolt and twist. Namjoon slides down, twisting on the ground of the transporter as a few of the Omhlophe are also thrown about. Jungkook is secured on his seat, the safety straps tugging at his bruised body. But he’s crying out in obvious pain.

Namjoon tries to steady himself- to grab onto something when all of a sudden, a great pressure builds in the side of his head- pushing and pushing until the strangest high-pitched whistle sounds through his whole body, ringing with so much force his head is shaking.

He’s never experienced pain like this – not after he left Kutsoglera.

He twists mid-fall, landing heavily but he manages to catch onto a footstool leg. His legs swing in the air momentarily before crashing down. He can sense that they’re losing speed- somehow they’re losing speed and with a mighty effort he manages to open his eyes just in time to see an Omhlophe fall out of the opening of the transporter, engulfed in bright lights still erupting outside. He feels, rather than hears, the sound of things exploding and detonating.

He sees his feet rise up, and just underneath the din of it all-

We are found

He gasps as his lungs fill with air, the pressure on him lifted and the voices that were screaming to a pitch gone, replaced instead by the alarms of the transporter and the roar of their engines clearly failing. He manages to brace himself as they land heavily, Namjoon’s only warning the sudden appearance of treetops that seem to reach up for them.

He ignores how he makes dents under his elbows on the floor of the transporter, scrambling to sit up.

That voice had been so clear. It was so so clear.

They were losing time.

He immediately spots Jungkook who is slumped forward, the safety straps straining against him. Heavy thumps resound all around, the sound of cracking trees and crumbling trunks and branches echo all around him. The communication channels are all down but Namjoon still yells out desperately.

‘We need back-up-!’ Namjoon crawls hurriedly to Jungkook’s seat. His eyes are open- he was conscious, ‘Are you okay-?’

Jungkook heaves, his stomach turning though there’s nothing that comes out.

‘O-okay-!’ he manages to get out as Namjoon removes the safety straps from around him. He sounds strained and faint- his whole body convulsing in a way the youngling didn’t realize.

‘Hoseok?’ Namjoon calls out loudly, ‘Hoseok, what’s happening?’

There’s no response.

Suddenly, Jungkook grabs at his sleeve.

‘Look-‘ he croaks out a faint whisper.

Namjoon looks at where Jungkook is staring down at.

A soft breeze blows in and for a second, every possible surface is covered in a strange growth of tiny plants, blossoming minute leaves and buds before it decays and vanishes to dust in the next second.

‘This is-‘

‘Yisheng!’ the Omhlophe cheer in various stages of injury and disarray.

‘Yeah-‘ was Amme nearby?

‘And now we have two!’ they add.

‘What-?’ Namjoon turns to address the Omhlophe when a loud sound approaches them.

‘We don’t have enough firepower down here to defend ourselves, we need to put everything on shields for now-…hey, why aren’t you doing anything?!’ Namjoon demands as he stares around at the motionless and comically relaxed Omhlophe. Jungkook shivers where he sits, energy sapped out of him. Namjoon studies the youngling, Jimin’s words resounding loudly in his head, ‘We need to try and go- we can’t- we have to go!’

He didn’t mean to sound hysterical but Namjoon is falling again. Out of nowhere, Jungkook reaches for him.

‘Shields are fully operational.’

Something detonates close by- a missile probably, weeding them out in this forest from above.

Namjoon takes his hand at once.

‘I won’t let anything happen to you, or to Sk’jin, or to the GI,’ Namjoon finds himself saying rapidly to the youngling. ‘I’ll get you all out of here. Okay? Don’t worry- I’ll make sure you get out of here.’

Jungkook is blinking slowly, mouth opening as though to say something but nothing is coming out.

‘Kookie-?’

Something strikes down on their ship- a blinding light overwhelms them and Namjoon feels himself falling to the ground, Jungkook following him a moment later. All too quickly, his hearing returns but it’s with the added ringing that threatens to makes Namjoon dizzy. He tries to sit up but he can’t, Jungkook is panting in a shallow manner next to him. Namjoon turns to his side as best as he could- he would protect the youngling if it was the last thing he did. That’s when he notices the blood slowly pouring out of Jungkook’s ears.

‘Jungkook, look at me- can you focus?’ Namjoon asks, trying to sound steady and calm. He needed to stabilize Jungkook- he was in some state of shock as well as-…as well as something Namjoon doesn’t understand.

‘Behold, an emergency kit!’ one of the Omhlophe slides down on their bony knees towards him, holding a dented case.

‘I think his ears have taken some damage,’ Namjoon reaches for the case as the ground beneath them rumbles and shakes. ‘How much time do we have on the shields?’

‘Less than 2 minutes!’ is the blithe reply.

‘Do we have anything we can use as defense-?’

Something heavy crashes in front of their ship, clearing the dust in the air and allowing them a shockingly clear view of a crumpled Axudarian ship wing. And then, not a second later, the rest of the ship crashes through in a heap of shrapnel, smoke, and stops through the trees in a bright explosion of white-hot fire.

‘What defenses are left above us?’ Namjoon asks at once, pocketing the pain inhibitors from the case before readjusting his position as he lowers himself scoop Jungkook up. Jungkook tries to protest but his words are cut short with a groan.

‘4 ships are operational!’

‘Okay can they keep covering us until we can get out of this area-?’ Namjoon picks him up easily, stepping close to the doorway just as another Axudarian ship crashes some ways from them, and it’s quickly followed by another, and then another.

‘What-?’

‘Is it Sk’jin?’ Jungkook wonders out loud, his head rolling about without his control.

Jungkook was losing control over his own body. He’s breathless as he pants heavily. His body was probably still in shock. He needed to rest- to take a moment away, that was something most living Beings with a functional biological body had to do. But they don’t have that time. The pain inhibitors wouldn’t do anything to actually help him other than numb the pain.

‘GI?’ he asks faintly. He was doing his best to not pass out.

‘No,’ Namjoon carefully steps out as the Omhlophe playfully leap out, no care at all.

‘What the -?’ he gasps out at their behavior when he notices something in the air- a strange glimmer- a mirage-like effect twisting the air subtly. He’s seen this before- not too long ago just-

‘-Yisheng Lim?’ Jungkook manages to lean his head back on Namjoon’s shoulder albeit at an odd angle. At least his head wasn’t rolling about at random.

A gust of wind whistles past them, dust billowing violently. Namjoon angles them away, bodily protecting Jungkook in his arms. And through the dust storm, seemingly appearing out of nowhere, the Beings who had appeared earlier that day are walking towards them again.

The Omhlophe gather and bow, an Axudarian ship whizzing overhead a bit too low for comfort before crashing some ways to the side. Namjoon looks up, and through the dust and ash and smoke, catches sight of Axudarian ships attempting to fight an invisible force.

Namjoon can’t help but take a step back as a figure steps out seemingly out of nowhere, the dust and ash washing over shapes and forms all around them. But as the figure comes closer, Namjoon recognizes Yisheng Lim- he’s hurrying over towards them, eyes narrowed as he steps through the dust.

He’s staring at the Omhlophe.

‘Yisheng-‘ Namjoon doesn’t know why or what he’s trying to warn the Yisheng about but it’s futile because Lim steps up towards the Omhlophe, confusion apparent in his eyes. He reaches a hand out, not touching the Omhlophe exactly- fingers just inches from contact.

‘Um-‘

Lim snatches his hand back, eyebrows furrowed. Then he studies Namjoon before his eyes settle on Jungkook. Jungkook clearly feels very uncomfortable, squirming in Namjoon’s arms as Lim approaches them both.

‘Yisheng Lim-‘ Namjoon tries again, taking another step back but Lim doesn’t even have to touch him, hand raised feet from Jungkook’s head.

Namjoon isn’t the one being healed but even he can feel it. Yisheng Lim wasn’t like any Yisheng he knew of, or heard of. The term “wild Yisheng” suddenly comes to his mind and even though crude, somehow made sense. Lim wouldn’t use his abilities as a Yisheng like what they all accepted “Yishengs” to be like. His methods, his abilities- they would all be completely different from anything Namjoon knew about.

Jungkook writhes for a moment, his body stiffening, jerking in Namjoon’s arms. He holds him closer, steadying the youngling. But that’s when he notices the trees around them crumbling down to nothing but ash in rings, stretching from their standing point. Jungkook stumbles out of Namjoon’s arms and he falls onto all fours, retching violently though nothing comes out.

‘What the -?’ Namjoon steps forward to check on Jungkook when Lim stops him, an urgent look on his face as he scans him too.

‘Khoi a gne an om?’ Lim asks before clearly letting out a curse, momentarily forgetting they did not speak the same languages. He stops before asking, ‘Jimin?’

Namjoon shakes his head.

‘I don’t know- but the Omhlophe-‘ Namjoon turns his head around to them when one of them eagerly raises their hand up.

‘Oh Unknown Yisheng! We can guide you to the Yemenifesi Ch’inik’eti!’ they mime enthusiastically with all 4 arms.

Jimin’s title as well as the universal language of pointing and gesturing seems to do the trick.

Lim nods and with with hardly a glance back at Namjoon and Jungkook, turns around as the Omhlophe cheers, clearly giddy at having a chance to go with Yisheng Lim.

‘Wait-!’ Namjoon calls out, jogging ahead. Lim pauses, his expression impatient. But Namjoon ignores it.

‘There was another ship-‘ he points to their transporter, ‘Another ship, it was ahead of us,’ he points again, ‘Did you see it?’

After a little more miming, Lim frowns and shakes his head. He was going to Jimin. Of course he was. He had to.

‘Namjoon-!’

Jungkook looks completely healthy- his skin back to its normal hue, his ears no longer bleeding, his eyes bright and sharp, his movement confident and sure.

A thought strikes Namjoon.

‘Kookie, go with Yisheng and go to Hoseok and Yoongi.’ he tells the youngling.

‘What? No-,’ Jungkook refuses at once and Namjoon had been expecting that.

There’s a sudden burst of clear connection on their Comms and they can hear Hoseok’s voice but it’s entirely audible- instead, the line is overwhelmed by the sound of singing.

Lim freezes, eyes widening at the sound. The others around him stare at the Comms in his hand, speaking to each other urgently.

‘Hoseok?’ Namjoon calls at once, ‘Jimin?’

Lim pauses, waiting for a connection as well.

The line bursts and crackles again and Namjoon tries once more.

The singing is painfully clear and loud- a call for help, sounding out past the barriers of dreams, time, and space. Jungkook fidgets, arms crossing over himself, shuffling on his feet. Lim watches him curiously. Namjoon may not be able to sense it like Jungkook, or even like Lim; but he knows that something is wrong, and something horrible was about to happen.

‘I need you to go with Lim,’ Namjoon hands him the Comm and pushes him towards Lim a little, nodding at the Yisheng while gesturing to him. Lim studies Jungkook for a moment before nodding.

Somehow it’s weirdly reassuring though not a single word is exchanged between them.

‘But-‘

‘I’ll go to Sk’jin,’ Namjoon tells him firmly, ‘Jungkook- I need to know you’re going to be safe- Lim was able to come back in here- it means they can leave again.’

‘What about you?!’ Jungkook all but screams.

The line cracks on again.

‘­Hoseok- there’s issues with the communications again, I think the Axudarians are reinforcing their blockers. Too many are appearing out of nowhere all over the place,’ Namjoon glances up. ‘We’ve lost contact with Sk’jin’s ship, I’m sending Jungkook with Yisheng Lim to you. You all need to get out immediately okay?’

The line snaps just as the singing stops abruptly.

Everyone flinches except for Namjoon. Even the Omhlophe seem restless.

The look on Lim’s face, the abrupt change of behavior among the Omhlophe, and the way the air seemed to still, the light of the sun pausing, as though in wonderment.

Lim says something and the others behind start running back to their ships.

‘Hoseok! They’re here-! Yisheng Lim is here-can you hear me they’re coming towards you!’ Namjoon calls again.

A faint screams resonates through the air and Lim lets out a strange sound- something like a cough, a sudden exhale like he wasn’t expecting it. He sways, eyes wide in alarm. Jungkook immediately goes to steady him as a wave of growth washes over them and dies away all within a singular moment.

‘Jungkook you need to go,’ Namjoon tells him again. ‘You’ll be safer with Yisheng Lim.’

Jungkook steadies the Yisheng who stares out towards the distant high mountain ranges.

‘But-‘

‘I’ll go find Sk’jin,’ Namjoon tells him, ‘Don’t worry, remember what I said? Don’t worry, okay? Go with Lim.’

Hesitantly, Jungkook nods. There was something happening there, beyond the mountains, that was clearly somehow pulling at Jungkook. And Namjoon doesn’t know if it’s a good thing or not. All he knows is that Jungkook had a better chance of making it out of here with Lim.

‘I’ll keep in contact, okay? I’ll update you,’ Namjoon points at his Comm in his hand as he walks backwards.

‘Namjoon!’

The Kutsoglerin pauses, turning to look at him.

Jungkook hesitates. Namjoon knows what he’s about to say next.

‘He- Sk’jin,’ his voice cracks, ‘He’s-…’

Namjoon walks up to him, hands coming up to hold his face in between his hands.

He was so young.

‘It’s okay,’ Namjoon tells him earnestly, ‘It’s okay, we’ll be okay. We will all be okay. I won’t let anything happen to him, okay?’

Jungkook nods, grasping onto Namjoon’s hands.

‘Go,’ Namjoon tells him quietly, throat tightening, ‘Stay safe, okay? Stick to Yisheng Lim.’

Jungkook nods again, swallowing thickly.

‘I- I’ll see you again, right?’

‘Of course,’ Namjoon takes a step back, mustering up a smile, ‘And I’ll bring Sk’jin with me.’

 

 

*

 

 

Sk’jin doesn’t know how many times he’s going to survive being shot out of the sky. He was certainly setting a record for it.

‘Are you forgetting that time we were in Leyk-iin? We got shot out of the sky 8 times in an hour.’ Ti snorts.

‘Oh yeah,’ Sk’jin wheezes.

‘Also- we haven’t crashed, this is, at least, just an emergency landing.’ Nambike offers.

They were attacked, unsurprisingly, and Sk’jin is pleased to know that the Omhlophe are all excellent pilots. They only lost one ship, and some selfish part of Sk’jin is happy that it’s not the ship carrying Amad’la.

‘We will make ready the transporter soon!’ the Omhlophe report to him happily, all of them buzzing about in swarms.

Sk’jin had been administered with a powerful numbing agent and many pain inhibitors. And though risky, he has blood clotting agents administered straight into his wound. He doesn’t take out the shrapnel though- that ugly bit of metal would be decorating him for a while longer.

‘How are you holding up?’ Ahadi asks from the side.

Sk’jin gestures to himself with an eyebrow raised, ‘What do you think?’

Ahadi rolls his eyes, muttering under his breath.

‘Can we hurry? I need to get to the ship before Namjoon can.’

‘I think it would actually be helpful if he came with us?’ Ti suggests.

Sk’jin shakes his head.

‘No. He can’t.’

‘Help us, or come with us?’ Nambike asks to clarify.

‘Both,’ Sk’jin replies, sighing with relief as the transporter lights up and hums to life.

‘We do not have enough power for shields and air-turbines!’ the Omhlophe announce, ‘But we can still traverse through these desolate lands!’

‘Then lets do it,’ Sk’jin waves a hand before looking behind him at the GI. ‘You guys ready? Still okay to go?’

He’s given multiple thumb’s/claw up.

‘Great,’ Sk’jin glances down at the Comms the Omhlophe had given them, sparking to life with their channel. But he ignores it.

‘I guess it is that Yisheng that’s come,’ Nambike nods at the Omhlophe who had been utterly giddy. ‘Leem?’

‘Lim,’ Sk’jin corrects her. ‘Yeah- we have 2 Yishengs with us. Might be useful.’

‘Is Lim technically even a Yisheng?’ Ahadi asks as the transporter lifts from the ground just a little. ‘He hasn’t been trained- no laws, no rules.’

‘Hey, who knows, that might actually be a good thing. Look what the “proper” training has brought about in the Universe.’ Ti remarks dryly.

And Ti did have a point.

‘This is fun!’ one of the Omhlophe stops by to tell him as they whizz through the crumbling forest.

Sk’jin laughs.

‘This is very pretty,’ they add, gesturing to this horns, ‘Do they hurt?’

That’s a surprising question- Sk’jin has never been asked this before. But when he thinks of it-

‘-maybe,’ he replies with a smile, ‘But in a good way.’

‘Pain can be good?’

‘Please do not give this poor Being an innuendo for a response,’ Nambike cuts across sharply.

‘I think everyone’s definition of pain is different,’ is the response Sk’jin gives instead. ‘Maybe these horns will hurt some Beings, for others they won’t notice it. But for me- it’s…-it reminds me of home.’

‘Khol’isa?’

Sk’jin laughs, shaking his head as he reaches for his horns, lightly touching the familiar but foreign weight gracing his temples.

‘No, not Khol’isa.’

‘If it’s your home, then why is it painful?’

Ahadi looks at him, warm brown eyes filled with earnest adoration. Ti isn’t looking at him but she’s listening intently, Sk’jin knows- knows it from the way her back is straighter than usual, shoulders tucked a little back, head angled towards him just a little. Nambike doesn’t bother pretending, she leans in, expression curious but also expectant.

‘Because when I built my home, I built it on a promise,’ Sk’jin explains slowly. The transporter flies past a particularly thick set of trees before coming across a narrow knoll. ‘And I kept every single one of them- except for the most important one.’

‘You broke a promise?’

Sk’jin nods.

‘But I’m fulfilling it now.’

‘So your home won’t hurt anymore?’

Sk’jin smiles widely, nodding at the Omhlophe.

‘I’m so happy for you, Communications Manager Sk’jin!’

‘I guess they’re kinda cute in a weird way,’ Nambike grumbles.

‘They’re like the GI but maybe a bit more unhinged, and certainly more vocal.’ Ti remarks.

‘Either way, I’m happy they’re both on our side,’ Ahadi says fervently. A moment later, Nambike and Ti nod gravely in agreement.

‘We will arrive at the mothership in 10 minutes!’ the pilot cheers.

‘Where exactly is the Užkulisai?’

‘Internal Hangar 5!’ is the immediate response he gets, ‘Hopefully it is not damaged.’

‘Spaces I really hope the not,’ Sk’jin sighs before asking, ‘Why would you just crash the ship through the atmosphere like that?’

‘We were aiding the Great Network!’ the Omhlophe cheerfully tells him. Coming through the blank mask and lack of gesticulation or action from them, the voice feels somewhat artificial but honestly Sk’jin has no complaints.

‘Ilya’s a full grown -‘

‘-he’s grown up,’ Ahadi says loudly, frowning at Ti who snickers.

‘They were in trouble! The mothership does not have a lot of weapons- but what we lack in ammunition, we make up for in bulk size!’

There’s a pause before Ti and Sk’jin start hysterically giggling.

‘Oh Spaces,’ Nambike sighs, hands coming up to massage her temples.

‘He did keep his promise,’ Ahadi says to him quietly.

‘Of course he did,’ Sk’jin scoffs, ‘I raised him right.’

‘Excuse me? I’m literally right here,’ Nambike cries out, offended. ‘If anything, Ilya is the way he is, because of me.’

‘I say let Sk’jin take the credit for any product of a weird dysfunctional family, keep your name clear of it,’ Ti advises, ‘I don’t doubt Ilya’s record is just as outstanding as Sk’jin’s in his heyday.’

‘Hey, you, I’m still a legend.’

‘Okay legend, what do you propose we do after we get your monster of a ship from their monster of a ship?’ Ti shoots back.

‘Well, we’re gonna need to get us out of the planet first- you think we can cause some sort of distraction?’ Sk’jin floats the idea out towards the Omhlophe.

‘Leave it to us! We will do our best!’

‘You don’t have another mothership somewhere to just throw up do you?’ Sk’jin asks with a laugh.

The Omhlophe don’t respond to that and Sk’jin shares sidelong glances with his crew, all of them trying their best not to laugh.

A dull pain blossoms, spreading all over his torso.

‘Not coughing out blood yet right?’ Ti quirks up an eyebrow.

Sk’jin shakes his head, gritting his teeth.

‘We are approaching the mothership!’ they announce after another pain inhibitor is administered.

Sk’jin has to take a moment to focus on the sight approaching him as the inhibitor starts to spread. The white mothership is ridiculously big- larger than what Sk’jin remembers actually. But then again it was a little difficult comparing sizes out in space. It’s still belching out a huge pillar of smoke that significantly darkens the area around it. The smoke is so tall it casts a shadow across the edges of the crescent.

‘Actually-‘ Nambike begins just as Sk’jin finishes the admittedly wild idea in his mind.

‘Let’s use the smoke to fly straight up,’ Sk’jin announces, ‘It should mask us quite effectively.’

‘It is going up very high,’ Ahadi remarks before nodding, ‘Sounds good.’

‘Oooh!’ the Omhlophe trill, ‘What an excellent idea! We will draw their attention away by diverting the rest of our forces back towards Yemenifesi Ch’inik’eti!’

‘Actually you should fly back towards them,’ Sk’jin nods, ‘They’re gonna need all the help.’

‘Even with two Yishengs?’

‘If you’ve seen what I’ve seen, you’ll know two Yishengs is not enough,’ Sk’jin snorts.

‘That’s one way of making your trauma seem appealing.’

They enter the shadow of the smoke and the cold is very obvious. Sk’jin shivers involuntarily.

‘This whole planet is so cursed,’ Ti remarks offhandedly. ‘I’m guessing Tsirin has a major hand in the way it looks now.’

‘Look wise I don’t think so,’ Ahadi offers, ‘Feeling wise- I mean, you can hear the singing now, can’t you?’

Yes, unfortunately, Sk’jin can hear the singing.

‘It might take a moment to find an entrance that we can use!’ the Omhlophe calls back from the front. ‘We do not know if we can enter with the transporter.’

‘I could probably do with some stretching,’ Sk’jin nods emphatically. He’s feeling so much braver with 6 shots of pain inhibitors.

‘Oh I’ve waited so long to say this to you,’ Ti is practically vibrating, ‘Come on, come on, just do it!’

‘Okay fine,’ Sk’jin huffs out, readjusting his position to sit up a bit straighter. He doesn’t feel any pain, but he knows it’s there- a dull muted weight wrapped all around him. ‘Oh no, I’m injured!’

Ti grins widely from where she sits before she says gleefully, ‘Walk it off!’

‘She’s always hated it when you used to say that,’ Nambike guffaws, reaching over to cuff Ti on the head, ‘Are you happy now?’

Ti cackles delightfully.

‘Oh yeah, have we gotten rid of the Verktaë tailing us?’ Ahadi asks, sitting up and twisting around.

‘Are we being followed?’ Sk’jin asks, a little surprised he had forgotten that.

‘It would seem that we have been left alone!’ the Omhlophe tells them.

‘Maybe princeling is doing something dangerous.’ Ti ruminates.

‘When has he not,’ Sk’jin snorts. ‘But it’s good he’s drawing attention away for now at least.’

‘Or maybe they’re following Lim. I think it’s fair to say Tsirin doesn’t know what’s up with anything going on in Menigišiti,’ Ahadi ruminates, ‘So it was probably her plan to neutralize them if they chose to appear.’

‘You know, gotta admit, their camouflage tech is insane,’ Nambike comments, ‘I’d hate to think what the Venture Unit would do with that tech.’

‘Or the GIU,’ Sk’jin offers, ‘Or any organization within the GLA to be fair.’

‘Well, Ndica didn’t disappoint, that’s for sure.’

Sk’jin snorts.

‘Who are you talking to?’

The Omhlophe at the cockpit asks him.

‘Oh,’ Sk’jin forgets momentarily, ‘I guess I’m talking to myself.’

‘Is it to help you cope with your fatal injuries?’

Sk’jin laughs as Ti cackles.

‘I guess,’ Sk’jin nods, ‘I’m just enjoying the little mercies I’ve been blessed with.’

‘Mercy?’

Sk’jin hums in response.

They skirt around the edges of the area the mothership had crashed into. The occasional boulder still crashes down the new sloping ranges caused by the meteoric fall. Sk’jin briefly wonders if the crumbling cities around the crescent survived the ripple effect of the impact. He hadn’t studied the landscape much to see what had changed so he’s not sure if the mountain ranges high above them and the craggy valley they had flown up from were entirely new geographic masses or not.

‘How many transporters are still with us?’ Sk’jin inquires, turning his head back around a little.

‘Out of the 5 that were with us, 4 remain!’

‘Is Amad’la okay?’ Sk’jin asks.

‘The transporter carrying her is still with us!’

‘Now that’s definitely preferential treatment.’

‘Hey, she saved my life many times okay,’ Sk’jin says at once, ‘She also appreciates my cooking and helps wash up the most. Unlike you 3.’

All three of them are instantly engrossed with the view at that.

‘We would like to taste your cooking!’

Sk’jin laughs, ‘Hey, maybe in some weird twist of fate, you can.’

‘We look forward to that weird twist of fate.’

‘But isn’t that rare?’

Sk’jin smiles at that.

‘I wouldn’t say that.’

The sun seems to be weaker, Sk’jin notes, as the singing persists. He needs to strain his ears to hear it, but it’s there. Lingering somewhere between waking and sleeping- in a state that existed in between nowhere and everywhere.

The Comm in his hands crackles. He hears Namjoon’s voice.

‘Can we hurry?’

‘We’ve split up to find an entrance point! Do not worry! We will make one if needed!’ the Omhlophe reassure him.

Sk’jin is weirdly reassured.

‘Avoiding someone?’ Ahadi raises an eyebrow.

‘Absolutely.’

‘I honestly thought you were gonna come up with some half-assed excuse,’ Nambike remarks, ‘Hey, you’ve had some growth! You’ve finally matured into those horns.’

‘Why are you avoiding your Captain?’ Ti shoots.

‘Because I’ve been lost for so long, and he knows exactly where he’s going.’

They find an entry point, the location blithely repeated over to them over the Comms. The transporter barely has enough power to get them higher up, but they manage. Sk’jin groans out in pain as the transporter lands a little too harshly. Three of the Omhlophe closest to him all raise a pain inhibitor in their hands, ready to administer it to him at a moments notice.

‘It’s okay- not yet,’ Sk’jin wheezes as he gets himself out of the seat.

‘You got it,’ Nambike nods encouragingly from outside the transporter.

‘We will have to create an entry towards the upper hangars,’ the Omhlophe tell him, ‘Please do stand to the side.’

Sk’jin steps out into the very large and long hangar. It’s enormous and in complete disarray. Some areas have completely caved through, metallic support beams crushed and bent, lengths and lengths of wires tangled and in heaps coil all over.

Ti whistles lowly, ‘Wow, this is intense.’

‘Yeah,’ Ahadi walks around, studying the whole place visible to them. ‘Definitely a strange hybrid of like, Yisheng tech, and I’m definitely getting GIU vibes in general.’

‘You reckon K’mara would have purged her whole department without anyone knowing a damn thing?’

Sk’jin rolls his eyes, ‘Or everyone would know and won’t say a thing because they’re scared of her.’

‘As far as Khol’isa’s go, I think she’s the best example in the Known Universe,’ Ti announces loftily. Sk’jin does not take the bait.

‘Hey, Jn’young’s nice,’ Ahadi says unexpectedly.

‘You take that back right now,’ Sk’jin hisses just as an ominous sound rings through the hangar and without warning, a bright and horrible light erupts for a fraction of a second. Sk’jin is very blinded, standing as still as he could even though everything around him is spinning.

‘That was disgusting what the was that?!’ Nambike gasps out.

‘I think it’s safe to say whatever tech the “Red Evil” developed is still here,’ Ahadi coughs out, approaching Sk’jin to help him balance.

The Omhlophe appear before him though it’s a little hard to make them out considering Sk’jin’s vision is still absolutely all over the place.

‘We have made a way!’

‘Spaces why do you have an internal laser?’ Sk’jin hisses, blinking hard to get rid of his weird vision. His eyes feel like they’re burning and Sk’jin does not need another injury over the ones he already has. ‘Aren’t weapons created to be directed outside the ship, not within?!’

‘It’s not an internal laser! It is our Atmoshield.’

‘That’s not reassuring and I don’t want to know more about it,’ Nambike says firmly.

‘We can now make our merry way to the Užkulisai!’ they cheer.

Ahadi cheers with them but is stopped by a painful jab from Ti.

‘We will board the remaining transporter that has the highest levels in their power cells.’ The Omhlophe help Sk’jin walk over to the side seeing as the Khol’isa still had problems with his vision from the horrible light. ‘We will need to transfer the contents from within the transporter out first.’

Squinting, Sk’jin manages to focus a little. He finds the Omhlophe removing excess cargo and equipment from within the transporter. Within the cool dark of the Hangar, Sk’jin realizes there’s quite a lot of the Omhlophe. Maybe they were left behind here, as there weren’t enough transporters. But soon, as Sk’jin’s sight returns and his eyes are no longer burning, he finds himself in a a Hangar filled with the Omhlophe. It’s unnerving for sure, but considering everything that’s transpired, this was somewhat very reassuring.

‘Communications Manager Sk’jin, we must unfortunately report that your GI is not cooperating with us.’

Sk’jin looks around and up, to address the very tall Omhlophe that was talking to him.

‘What?’

The tall Omhlophe points and Sk’jin follows the direction he’s pointed to. Propped up on the portable Medical Bed is Amad’la.

‘We wish to settle her into a Medical Bay, her injuries can be looked after with some care and time,’ the Omhlophe tells him. ‘But she refuses any treatment.’

Sk’jin nods, swallowing the hard lump that’s formed in his throat. He walks over to the GI, catching her attention at once.

‘Communications Manager,’ she mumbles weakly, nodding at him.

‘Former Unit Captain Amad’la,’ Sk’jin leans against the side of her Bed, careful not to upset his injuries. ‘Why are you not getting treated?’

She doesn’t respond immediately.

‘I’d like to be taken outside,’ is all she says. ‘I like the sight of mountains.’

Jimin’s words from earlier resonate in his mind. Of course Amad’la would have heard, of course she knew- she would have been able to feel it. The same way Yoongi did, the same way every single one of the Regurgitated did.

‘Okay,’ Sk’jin nods before look up at the tall Omhlophe. ‘Please take her outside and find a suitable location where the mountains can be seen properly.’

For a moment Sk’jin is worried he will be refused but the Omhlophe nods and bows elegantly in understanding.

Amad’la takes Sk’jin’s hand, squeezing it a little.

‘You are my favourite.’ She tells him, expression blank and voice neutral.

Sk’jin grins, leaning down to kiss the GI’s forehead. He holds in a grimace of pain.

‘You’re my favourite GI.’ He pauses, ‘Don’t tell Yoongi.’

And then, Amad’la smiles.

Sk’jin waits until the sea of the Omhlophe gathered in the Hangar blocks his view before he enters the remaining transporter left. As they rise through the newly formed vertical tunnel, Sk’jin wishes he had the time to explore this strange ship. He’s sure they could learn a lot about the Omhlophe, and their creators in turn. Maybe even uncover more unpleasant truths connected to all of this in some twisted way.

They push through some fallen over paneling before they pause a moment, flying out into a dark space before the floodlights of the transporter light up.

The Užkulisai stands there, scratched up and somewhat damaged but intact and in one piece.

‘She looks better than I expected,’ Ti remarks, quite pleased.

A strange pang of nostalgia hits Sk’jin at the sight of the ship as they land. The moment the transporter touches down on the Hangar floors, the whole atrium-like space lights up, showing him exactly how big this place was.

Ahadi whistles under his breath, warm brown eyes wide as he takes in the sight of the Hangar.

‘Our biggest one was nowhere near the size of this place,’ he remarks.

‘Well, it’s definitely overkill,’ Nambike states.

They land a safe distance from the Užkulisai.

‘We will prepare the ship for you!’ the Omhlophe announce happily.

‘There’s no need, just make sure it has plenty of fuel,’ he tells them instead, gingerly getting off the transporter before immediately being forced to sit back down as a loud tremor passes through the mothership, distorting even the light and the reflections around the Hangar.

The whole ship shakes and it’s not just some normal quake. It’s not even the same as the other unusual quakes they’ve been experiencing here in this planet. Overwhelmed, Sk’jin has to kneel on the ground on all fours, closing his eyes as the singing overwhelms him. They needed to hurry- they were clearly running out of time.

‘Something big is going down,’ Nambike sounds worried, distorted. ‘Jimin and his sister.’

Sk’jin closes his eyes as his family flicker in and out of focus, disappearing into the blood-red shadows around him that appear every time they vanish.

‘Well,’ Ti remarks, squatting down next to Sk’jin, ‘At least we know the sister is still around.’

Sk’jin snorts but it’s more of a cough. He’s vaguely aware of the blood that slowly drips out of his cloths. Vacantly, he notes that the side of his trousers are damp from blood. The compressors couldn’t do much, not at this point and level.

‘Not for long,’ Ahadi says quietly, helping Sk’jin stand as the tremors subside. ‘I think it’s obvious what Jimin is going to do.’

‘Well, he can try,’ Ti says quietly before nodding towards the side, ‘I think we should get a move on. Someone else is coming.’ Ti points out just as Sk’jin spies additional lights breaching the edge of the rough vertical tunnel they had just blasted through minutes ago.

‘Maybe it’s the Omhlophe coming to help…?’ Ti trails off.

But Sk’jin knows it’s not.

‘Please make sure the fuel is filled,’ Sk’jin calls out to the Omhlophe again, ‘And make sure to switch all of the power-source from the Medical Bays into the shields.’

‘Understood!’ 

Sk’jin slowly makes his way to the mid-point between his transporter, the Užkulisai, and the newly arrived transporter. He squints a little as the transporter turns, the lights beaming over him like some physical force. The transporter has barely landed and Namjoon is jumping out, eyes wide as he stares at Sk’jin.

‘Ah, you’re here just on time,’ Sk’jin waves his arm shortly. Raising it high made his whole chest feel like it was collapsing. Namjoon doesn’t stop staring at him.

‘You- you shouldn’t be standing,’ is what he says the moment he’s close enough.

Sk’jin laughs- more like he coughs but it’s a humourous cough.

‘I know what you’re planning on doing Sk’jin there is another way,’ Namjoon says at once, his eyes widening even more as he stares at the blood stain on his abdomen, ‘Just hear me out-‘

‘I don’t know what you think I’m about to do Namjoonie,’ Sk’jin waves a hand dismissively, ‘But-‘

‘Sk’jin,’ Namjoon stops before him, sounding breathless. ‘Please stop.’

So Sk’jin stops. He stops and simply stands before Namjoon. This seems to throw Namjoon off- as though he was expecting to fight with him.

‘Okay Namjoonie,’ Sk’jin shrugs a little, ‘What do we do next?’

‘We-…’ Namjoon pauses, looking confused. It’s almost comical, how his eyes are wide, his mouth hanging open.

‘Actually,’ Sk’jin winces a little, curling in on himself, ‘I think I need to-‘

Namjoon is there at once, hands careful, almost hesitant as he supports Sk’jin.

‘Sit-,’ Namjoon gently tries to guide him towards the workbenches lined up along the Hangar.

‘No,’ Sk’jin shakes his head, ‘If I sit, I won’t be able to stand again.’

Namjoon’s jaw is clenched hard. He was now avoiding the dark stain on his side, eyes never wandering past his shoulders.

‘You’re in no condition to be moving- let alone piloting the Užkulisai,’ he tells him firmly, ‘No doubt the Omhlophe here can pilot the Užkulisai, you just stay here, I’ll find Sanctuary, I –I can finish this. I’ll finish this.’

The look in Namjoon’s eyes. It dawns on Sk’jin.

Ahadi nods behind Namjoon, smiling.

‘I think, I can see it now, Namjoonie,’ Sk’jin smiles at Ahadi. Namjoon actually looks behind him, confusion growing.

‘What?’ Namjoon is taken aback by Sk’jin’s seemingly random topic change, ‘What are you talking about?’

Sk’jin is not physically well, obviously, and doing this to someone of Namjoon’s capacity even at his full strength would not be easy. So he needs him closer.

He gestures for the Kutsoglerin to come closer.

And he does. Easily, quickly, readily.

Namjoon trusts him. He trusted him and- it breaks Sk’jin’s heart a little. Because here was a Being who wouldn’t hold eye contact with him for more than a second before, who would physically distance himself, regarding him with distrust and suspicion. And yet here they were now, exposing themselves in the rawest possible way.

Sk’jin falters, almost hesitates as he reaches up, hand gently curving along the side of the Kutsoglerin’s face.

‘What is it?’ Namjoon asks worriedly, leaning in a bit more, hand coming up to take Sk’jin’s.

‘I’m sorry,’ he whispers brokenly.

It wouldn’t be this easy. It shouldn’t. Sk’jin knows that.

But the Kutsoglerin is clearly fatigued- mentally, physically, emotionally. His mind, his heart, wrung out and strained. And it’s all too easy, for Sk’jin to bring the light of the Bloodmoon here, staining the momentary fragility of their gaze with its light. Sk’jin hates it- hates that this is what he has to do.

Hates that this is the light Namjoon will last remember him in.

He could never escape it- he could never escape this cursed bleeding light no matter what he did. It would always linger, staining everything around him.

Ahadi, Ti, and Nambike vanish, small mercies granted to him slipping away from between his fingers, exposed under the light of the Bloodmoon.

Namjoon’s eyes widen just a fraction, the hand that had come up to take his own tightening just the slightest- but it’s too late.

His eyes gleam with the light of the Bloodmoon, reflected from Sk’jin’s own.

‘You can’t come with me,’ Sk’jin tells him, raising his other hand to properly cup his face. ‘You know I can’t stay. I know that look in your eyes- I know that determination. I once felt it too. It was within me too. But I lost mine.’

He feels Namjoon fighting the light of the Bloodmoon- feels him straining against it, pushing. If Sk’jin listens close enough, he would be able to feel Namjoon screaming his name.

‘Which is why I need to make sure you don’t lose yours.’

Slowly, he walks Namjoon back to the transporter he came back in. A few of the GI are waiting for them.

‘I am following Jimin’s orders,’ he tells them, not looking away from Namjoon, ‘But in order to fulfill my mission, I need Captain Namjoon to remain on this planet, safe. Please take him out of here, the Omhlophe will help guide you to a safer location outside of this ship, past the crater.’

After a moments silence he hears, ‘Understood.’

‘No-!’ Namjoon grits out, the light of the Bloodmoon nearly abruptly vanishing from his warm brown eyes as he manages to tear his gaze away. But Sk’jin was prepared for that.

‘Namjoon.’

Namjoon’s hand is gripping his hard and tight, his expression blank, the light of the Bloodmoon is back and it’s bright and strong, pulsing in his eyes. Sk’jin gently pries his hand out before he leans in and tilts Namjoon’s head back up. Their eyes meet again and Sk’jin regrets not being able to see the colour of his eyes.

He had tried his best, not to raise suspicion or alarm in Namjoon, but of course he would figure it out.

‘Thank you,’ he whispers, ‘For guiding this mission.’

He presses a soft blood-stained kiss against Namjoon’s lips.

Slowly, he backs away from the Kutsoglerin, their eyes still locked.

‘Take him,’ he says quietly.

The GI pause for a moment before they gently guide Namjoon back into the transporter. Sk’jin continues to back away. Namjoon’s eyes gleam red in the distance, still focused on Sk’jin’s own. Sk’jin stops at the partially open Hangar doors and smiles at the Kutsoglerin.

‘Thank you for making me see it.’

‘And I promise you now, that I’ll make you see it.’

He watches as the transporter starts up and leave through the vertical tunnel.

Sk’jin then carefully and slowly makes his way into the Užkulisai.

He’s alone, walking through the dimly lit familiar spaces. He walks through the Hangar, past the empty space where the Spardyti was usually kept. Past the OrTank socket that contained Jimin.

He enters the Lobby. The UV Bed he never got to use is there, waiting to be fully assembled. He walks up slowly, the stairs higher and steeper than he remembers.

In the Living Quarters, he pauses at the Lobby, just taking in the sight of the damage that had been caused by the attack of the GI in Grisial. The kitchen is a mess, unsurprisingly. Very old bloodstains still mar the floors. Panels have come off, displaced and flung out, the contents spilling out in some places. Obviously the fall they’ve had with the mothership probably also caused some issues. However, as he’s heard no report of damages from the Omhlophe, Sk’jin is confident she can still fly.

‘Lisai?’

The main lights switch on at once and a faint humming fills the air.

‘Communications Manager Sk’jin, how can I help you?’

It makes Sk’jin smile.

‘Can I get a report on the systems functions?’

‘Understood.’

Slowly, Sk’jin makes his way into his cabin. Struggling and blinking the light of the Bloodmoon out of his sight and eyes, Sk’jin removes his outer wear. Ti appears, fuzzy and out of focus, helping him. After some thought, Sk’jin pulls out his lilac and maroon robes, the edges trimmed with fragile slivers of gems and minerals in delicate patterns like constellations.

‘That’s a nice choice,’ Ahadi says softly, only his voice carrying through the light of the Bloodmoon.

Sk’jin doesn’t quite have the strength to respond.

‘Life support at 17%. Internal gravity at 23%. Coolants at 27%. Turbines at 41%. Engines at 67%. Warp engines at 65%. Shields at 82%.’

‘Okay that’s honestly so much better than I was expecting,’ Sk’jin mumbles as he walks back out into the Lobby.

Getting up to the Bridge is half a trek. But Sk’jin doesn’t make a sound, pushing himself through the breaking light of the Bloodmoon, his family around him, whispering words of encouragement through the red light.

At the Bridge, Sk’jin pauses for a moment to steady his breathing. He’s not sure how he made it to the cockpit and how he seated himself in, but one of the Omhlophe is standing before him, holding up a pain inhibitor in one hand, and what he suspects is adrenaline in the other.

Sk’jin nods.

He barely feels the jabs, only knows they’ve been administered because his mind clears a little, his sight returning to focus, his ears clearing a little bit.

‘Thank you,’ he says to the Omhlophe. ‘I’ll take it from here. Please cause a distraction- or go to Jimin and the others, they’ll need as much help as possible.’

‘We are already there,’ the Omhlophe tells him in a bright tone, ‘From what we last heard, we have taken the new Yisheng into this unknown facilitator alongside the GI, including the Human Yoongi!’

‘Do you know where Jungkook is?’

‘He was last reported to be with Head Pilot Hoseok!’

Sk’jin sighs in relief.

‘Thank you, take care of yourselves,’ Sk’jin laughs a little to himself, never having guessed he would be saying these words to the Omhlophe, let alone conversing with them and allying with them during such a moment.

‘We will. Thank you for your kind words, you are very strange.’

Sk’jin wheezes in pain.

‘Lisai, alert me when everyone has left the ship.’ He calls out as the Omhlophe exit the Bridge.

‘Understood.’

‘Safety on please,’ Sk’jin says with a grimace, gritting his teeth right after as the safety straps roll over him, across his injury. He looks down at the stain on his robes. ‘Oh well.’

‘Would Communications Manager Sk’jin like for us to create an exit for him?’

‘Actually that would be great yeah,’ Sk’jin breathes out, ‘I was planning on bulleting my way out, but lets leave that for later.’

‘Setting an exit point so that you may fly out hidden by the smoke column in absolute secrecy!’

‘All personnel have exited the ship.’

‘Thank you Lisai,’ Sk’jin starts up the projector.

‘Would you like me to input the coordinates?’

‘There are no coordinates- just set up the GCR Scanner,’ Sk’jin replies, ‘Also have warp at standby.’

‘Understood.’

‘Starting engines.’

The ship hums to life, the Hangar lighting up as the Užkulisai activates.

‘Feels weirdly good to be back,’ Sk’jin mumbles, looking around the Bridge fondly.

‘We would like to warn you of a bright light-!’

Sk’jin closes his eyes immediately though the brightness of whatever was in the Omhlophe Atmoshield still burns through his closed eyes. But it’s not as bad, as Sk’jin opens his eyes hesitantly.

‘The way has been opened for you save for the exterior shell as that is the reach of the Atmoshield.’

‘Thank you. Please make sure Amad’la is secured in a safe location. Or well, as safe as possible.’

‘You can count on us!’

Weirdly, Sk’jin believes them when they say that.

It’s not complicated, starting the ship and steadily ascending up the vertical shaft that’s gleaming with molten metal on some levels, smoke like water pouring down over the ship.

Rather than hearing it, Sk’jin feels it. Something heavy breaks- he’s not sure what it is, what it could be. His hands start shaking uncontrollably.

A bright light blossoms over him- past the thick smoke. Something is bright and wrong above him- no, around him.

‘What’s happening?’ he asks quietly.

‘It would appear that the Heart is perhaps too difficult to kill after all.’

‘Jimin you piece of princeling,’ Sk’jin mutters with no real aggression. ‘Come on, you can do it.’

He knows he’s made it out when the density of the darkness of the smoke shifts, the movement around him wider and thinner.

‘Scan the smoke and set auto-pilot to follow the least visible of routes.’

‘Understood. Scanning.’

The air feels overwhelmingly heavy again, the entirety of the sky, the earth, everything around him crying out in pain as some horrendous weight tries to wrap itself back around the planet, pulling everything and everyone down, inevitably.

Even the smoke seems to weigh down, stretching and pulling, light stretches and pulls too- the breath in Sk’jin’s lung just barely remaining within him.

‘- , Jimin, work with me here,’ Sk’jin hisses under his breath.

The smoke seems to peel off, layer by layer and he catches sight of the sky, distorted and angry, the land below unraveling as mountains turn to waves, suns exploding as night erupts at random.

‘Alignment complete.’

‘GO!’ Sk’jin half-yells.

The turbines turn, engines igniting under maximum throttle, shields rippling over, a faint blue in this murky grey and black.

‘Divert all energy sources from internal gravity to engines!’ Sk’jin orders.

‘Understood.’

His feet lift at random as the internal gravity in the Bridge clears. Sk’jin eyes their readings- he knows they’re going fast, knows that they’re pushing through further upwards into the atmosphere but the sky around Megibīya won’t allow him to leave.

Then, with a brutal force that crashes over the Užkulisai like some wave, the smoke is stripped down and smothered far below him, exposing him in the vast sky.

It’s cruel, Sk’jin thinks, staring at the horrendously mutated sight of the pulsing sky, crossed with strange beams of light, huge disc-like ships, and corrupted stars. Around him, Sk’jin notes fleets of ships appearing out of thin air, exposed and contained within this tainted space controlled by a maddened mind and broken heart. Beneath him, that horrible blackened void is back- Tsirin was overpowering Jimin; he needed to act fast.

Lightning like light stretches and pulses above, clearer now that there are no clouds- the air stripped raw and open. In the distance, Sk’jin catches sight of Yino, light ebbing and glitching- and instead, a horrible strange emptiness seems to pulse a little to its left- a void invisible in the dark of space, but mimicking the one Tsirin had created on Megibīya.  

Sanctuary was overtaken and corrupted as well- now an endless maw taking and stealing more than just light and memory, but Time and Space around it.

‘Okay…so, change of plan?’ Ti asks slowly, her outline blurred though her voice is clear.

‘No, we keep going ahead,’ Nambike leans in over his seat, tapping the projection node. ‘We need to trust Jimin can do this.’

‘He knows he has to,’ Ahadi’s hand is on top of his.

Oh yeah, this was cruel. Tsirin was truly sick in the head.

‘Shields are at maximum?’ Sk’jin asks.

‘Shields are at maximum.’ Lisai confirms.

‘We’re going to have to trust that the Omhlophe are causing a distraction,’ Sk’jin grits through his teeth, ‘Disengage from auto-pilot, I’m flying us up.’

‘Confirmed.’

Taking hold of the steers and controls, Sk’jin forces himself to breathe in slow and deeply. They would see him all too clearly. The smoke wouldn’t have helped him beyond the initial lower to mid-ranged atmospheres, but it would have bought him some more time. Also, this strange forceful gravity weighing down on him and this ship was not helping.

‘Are we detecting any anomalies regarding gravitational pull from the planet?’

Lisai doesn’t answer. It wasn’t exactly an answerable question after all.

‘System report!’

‘Analyzing.’

The sky around them is so clear, that it almost seems fake, like some distorted virtual reality that had an error on atmospheric volumetrics, when an annoyingly familiar ship appears through the dark, the glitching light of Yino that was now starting to hurt Sk’jin’s eye casting sharp relief over its massive outline.

‘Wow, will you look at that?’ Nambike whistles at the sight of the GIU Mothership, appearing to his side. ‘Of course she wanted to make a dramatic appearance.’

The sky ripples- this appearance is no doubt not gone unnoticed.

‘Well, an exit is much more important than an entrance, is what I’ve always said,’ Ti sniffs.

‘Okay but this is not a competition,’ Ahadi frowns.

It was soothing at first. But now, like this, Sk’jin just wants the weight within him, the weight he carried for so long, to come back to him, intact, untainted, not harvested from the depths of his soul so carelessly plucked out from the warmth he was supposed to fade together with.

‘Lisai, get ready to plot out a pathway through any breach or breakthrough the GIU mothership is going to make next. They’ll note our ship- they’ll think we’re trying to escape through, they’ll make us a pathway.’

Now, in this endless red-lit cold, he continues to linger, watching and listening to a manipulation of what once embodied his happiness and being.

‘Small mercies,’ Sk’jin whispers, watching Tsirin’s cruel play with his memories and regrets appear before him again. It was cruel, but maybe he did deserve this.

Ahadi looks at him, brown eyes troubled.

‘Aren’t we past that by now?’ he asks quietly, kneeling before him.

Sk’jin just smiles, reaching up to curve his hand over his face.

‘Maybe, maybe not, I don’t-…I don’t particularly care,’ he whispers, ‘You’ve always been with me. All of you. Or maybe it’s just that I refused to leave you.’

‘You could have,’ he hums.

The GIU mothership sparks up, lights unfolding and stretching like gossamer strands, impossibly thin, indescribably uncanny.

Oh.

K’mara wasn’t late. She was watching to see the outcome.

‘Why would I want to do that?’ Sk’jin laughs.

‘You could have started over,’ Ahadi smiles, nodding around the Bridge.

The strands break through the atmosphere- the first contact sets off a wailing scream from deep within.

Yino’s light flickers violently.

K’mara wasn’t here to rescue them.

‘I know,’ Sk’jin breathes in deeply. The stars are brighter than ever somehow amidst all of this. ‘But I want to come back to you.’

Ahadi’s expression breaks.

He’s not real. Sk’jin knows that.

Because he buried him himself, buried each and every single one of them himself, toiling in a state marred and tainted and ever since he hasn’t been able to break free from it. Even here, like this.

Communication channels suddenly open for a few seconds- a myriad of voices wash over him.

‘You haven’t broken any promises,’ Ahadi tells him quietly. ‘To me, to Ti, to Nambike. To anyone.’

‘Just to myself,’ Sk’jin whispers.

Ahadi’s eyes close.

He hears K’mara’s voice, making some sort of announcement over public channels, clearly addressing the Verktaë. This was just out of politeness- probably policy too. K’mara brought the mothership here, that only meant one thing. He can hear Namjoon’s voice, he hears Hoseok too. Amidst the white noise he can hear Ilya too.

‘You know I can’t- I can’t stay,’ Sk’jin tells him, repeating his words. ‘I’m just-…’

The strange corrupted stars start to realign, changing shape and formation

‘I wasn’t supposed to,’ he whispers, ‘I’m not supposed to be here. You know that.’

Ahadi nods.

‘I just want to come back.’

The thin gossamer strands break and recoil- it’s hauntingly quiet though. In a strange comforting way, it’s quiet.

‘Navigating a plot through the opening.’

The projection changes and Sk’jin follows it as the HUD over the wide windows adjusts itself, mapping a pathway for him to follow.

Pushing through past the Užkulisai, a combination of Omhlophe and Menigišiti transporters shoot past.

‘Lisai, divert every possible power source into engines. Eject water cells.’

‘Diverting. Ejecting water cells.’ 

The strands furl out of the mothership again and great, Sk’jin would need to redirect his path away from K’mara and her love for blowing up planets. That was one thing she and Taeh’yung had in common except from what Sk’jin knows K’mara has already actually gotten a score under her belt.

He’s not too sure about Taeh’yung. He wouldn’t be surprised though if he did.

Sk’jin would have to leave handling K’mara to Namjoon and Hoseok. And in order for them to handle K’mara, Sk’jin needed to hurry. K’mara’s method of solving problems was probably too inherently Khol’isa – if you couldn’t immediately fix it or understand it, destroy it.

The energy diversion propels them faster. They’re burning through the edge of the atmosphere- the links of the network above closer and closer though, at least for the moment, Sk’jin doesn’t think he’s been noticed. Or even if he has, he was clearly not a priority when K’mara was looming above them like this.

Reaching this high up, the systems within the ship start to jump around. Comms and channels open up, projections flaring and the HUDs lighting up at random.

‘-Captain Namjoon, is that you in that ship?’

Sk’jin has half the mind to ignore K’mara.

The channel is weak, breaking all over the place. But that meant Sk’jin was reaching close to the barrier, enough to push past the concentration of the pulse. Also the massive breaks all over the network visible now at this height was also contributing to that.

Communications would soon very well be open properly and Sk’jin doesn’t think he’s strong enough for that. And he’s proven right immediately.

‘-…is that you Sk’jin?’

It’s Ilya.

‘Was it that obvious?’ he asks wryly as Nambike makes an uncharacteristic cooing sound, her voice carrying over like a whisper. Pride, joy, and so much love.

‘-trackers put-…n the grou-d-…hy are yo-…lone?’

‘Not alone,’ Sk’jin hums to himself, shifting the angle of the turbines to redirect them through a fresh opening created by K’mara’s strange threads of light. She was stopping for now- clearly to allow Sk’jin to pass.

‘Is that GCR Scanner ready?’

‘Yes.’

‘Scan for a void- probably close to what a black-hole reading would look like within a Standard 50 AU of the planet.’

‘Understood.’

‘Sk’jin-!’

A quiet alarm signals Sk’jin that something- somethings- were headed towards him. Okay, so his temporary lack of immediate threat status has been revoked.

‘How are we on shields?’

‘92%.’

‘That’s great,’ Sk’jin grips tight around the controls, hands shaking- or maybe his entire body was shaking.

The light on Yino glides over the smooth surface of the windows around the Bridge, igniting as Sk’jin exits the Megibīya’s atmosphere before completely vanishing a second later.

‘Switching engines.’

The communication lines clear up immediately and for a moment everything it too loud. There were too many voices, too many channels opening- the whole ship seems to come alive, lights flaring. But it quells down just as quickly as it rose up and-

‘-can you hear me?’

‘Yes,’ Sk’jin replies as the GCR Scanner continues to expand its search. It made sense, Sk’jin thought- to find Sanctuary like this. ‘Lisai, is Captain Namjoon’s system purge still installed?’

‘It is.’

‘Please deliver it to my projector.’ Sk’jin says before linking back to Ilya’s open channel that Sk’jin is 100% sure K’mara was listening in on too.

‘Ilya- can you take care of the things following me out? I think it might be the Verktaë.’

Looking back at Megibīya from this point- the whole planet is aglow- but the burning wrongful expansion of light that was forcefully fed through the earth and pushed out through the pulsing heart of the void, thrown back out into Yino is invisible. Sk’jin doesn’t know if this was some diversion, all a part of Tsirin’s plans, to make sure even if she didn’t succeed, someone like K’mara, who was too quick to call for planetary destruction, would inevitably unknowingly fulfill her plan. And K’mara was indeed clearly headed towards that direction.

Great. Thank you once again, K’mara.

The alarms signaling the approach of potential hostile forces cuts off.

‘Where are the others? Why are you- we will send you coordinates to come here, are you injured?’

‘They’re all still back on the surface,’ Sk’jin says quickly as the Užkulisai System setting is projected before him, ‘I need to you to stop K’mara- at least give Jimin the time he needs. Blowing up the planet will not help us in any way.’

‘-K’mara is doing what-?!’ he hears someone, probably Jaen, explode.

‘Contact Namjoon and Hoseok on the surface- coordinate with them. We’re sending out the GI- they-…’ he thinks of Jn’young, of the potential other New Borns aboard Ilya’s ship. ‘I need you to move away as quickly as you can once the GI are out of the planet.’

‘Where are you going? We will send transporters to get you- Spaces , Sk’jin you’re headed straight for-‘

‘Ilya,’ Sk’jin breathes out, opening the Comms Channels settings, ‘I still need to complete my part of the mission.’

‘I’ll come help you-‘

‘Don’t forget,’ Sk’jin says quietly, ‘Don’t forget your promise.’

Then he purges all of the channels.

Silence fills the Bridge.

‘Anomaly detected 43 AU at 05.11.873.422.’ Lisai announces just as a low humming warning alarm rings off, alerting the ship and her crew of their definite approach towards unsafe radiation levels.

‘Set trajectory for those coordinates.’

‘Understood.’

Sk’jin leans back, having only realized he was leaning forward completely. Not thinking much about it, he releases the safety straps. Surprisingly, or not too surprisingly, there is no pain. Carefully, he looks down at his torso.

‘Arriving at 05.11.873.422 in 3 minutes.’

‘Set up warp in 2 minutes, 50 seconds.’ He orders as he shuts off the alarms for the radiation. This time it wasn’t the fake alarm set up around the Sanctuary to protect it.

‘I cannot under safety protocol 003.’

‘Override, under the authorization of Communications Manager, last active member onboard the Užkulisai.’

‘Do you accept the legal penalty you will be charged with under the GLA?’

Sk’jin laughs. He closes the tab that measures the overwhelming radiation that was now rippling outwards, pulses mimicking a corrupted heart.

‘That’s not too bad for my last offence. Yes Lisai, do it.’

‘Understood. You have been officially reported.’

‘Nice,’ Sk’jin grins to himself.

Now all he had to do was wait less than 3 minutes.

He pulls up the surveillance feed from outside the ship, directed at Megibīya. It’s horrible to look at- the void is like some strange maw, unnatural and wrong in every sense possible- expanding, much to Sk’jin’s horror.  The Verktaë ships were now, somehow, swarming over the massive GIU mothership. There’s an incomprehensible number of Verktaë forces- something they really did not account for; more like something they could never have actually tried to even begin to hypothesize really. But it seems that the Tsirin was saving the vast majority of whatever offensive forces she had on attacking the GIU. The impossibly thin threads of light move like lightning over parts of the darkened lands- where the massive crater existed. The proportions of the size of the planet, the mothership, the lightning, the network that was braking apart, streaking down like meteors is overwhelming and strangely beautiful. If they truly didn’t hurry and get out of the planet, even if they succeed, the falling network of ships all around the planet would basically shatter it to smithereens. The Omhlophe ship had nearly flattened a whole are of the southern crescent.

And somewhere in that mess, Ilya’s ship was doing all it could to face the Verktaë head on.

Suddenly, Sk’jin feels warm.

‘Oh is this infection,’ Sk’jin groans, ‘I didn’t want to feel this part.’

‘1 minute.’

He looks down at his hands- surprisingly clean. He collapses the surveillance from the HUD only to nearly scream at the strange sight before him.

A strange light- undulations of something dark and deep- nearly indigo or purple in hue, blossoms oddly; erratically, before him. But Sk’jin doesn’t feel any fear. It’s almost instead as though he knew this strange form. They couldn’t be there already.

This light- it wasn’t what he witnessed at the Sanctuary- it wasn’t what he saw in the Void created by Tsirin either. This was-

Sk’jin smiles.

‘You can’t tell me what to do,’ he whispers. ‘This is mine.’

The light shimmers, a form blossoming briefly before it moves with the stars, a force beyond chaos and bliss, a life born before the stars, alive in the darkness that existed beyond this expansion.

‘Thank you though,’ he adds, looking out into the darkness, in the distance, a strange blotted shape distorts the stars momentarily before vanishing. They were close.

With some difficulty, Sk’jin readjusts himself, relaxing as best as he could. The strange warmth is back, and there is a weight on his eyelids.

He remembers reading somewhere, maybe in one of Yoongi’s odd books, about sleeping. Was this what it was like to be sleepy? It didn’t feel all that great, or maybe because it was a new experience?

‘Sk’jin!’

Namjoon’s voice sounds out clearly from behind him, from the Navigation Table. After a moment, the projection shifts and sound waves erupt as Namjoon somehow manages to find a way to reconnect with the Užkulisai.

Sk’jin barely has time to react, too stunned at this sudden intrusion.

’30 seconds.’

A light erupts behind him- something so bright, it washes over the the ship, so solid and firm, like a physical mass.

It highlights them around him, standing by his side, as he tried to till the end.

‘Sk’jin, are you there?’ Namjoon asks, voice breaking not because of the unstable connection.

‘You saw so much of me,’ he mumbles to Ahadi who goes in and out of focus. ‘Did you see this too?’

‘Warp engines are ready.’ Lisai announces pleasantly.

He kicks his feet up, sighing heavily before coughing, a heavy taste coating his tongue.   

‘Sk’jin!’

Suddenly Sk’jin cries.

‘Oh Spaces, Namjoon why would you-,’ Sk’jin rambles, his nose immediately gets blocked. ‘I can’t look like this right now, Spaces .’

Ahadi smiles at him, dimples forming deep into his skin, warm brown eyes sparkling. Ti is laughing, probably saying something about how he already looked a wreck.

‘You’re- you’re okay?’ Namjoon chokes out.

‘I mean- I guess.’

Nambike pointedly rolls her eyes at him.

‘I think I’m feeling sleepy.’

‘Sleep- sleepy?’

‘Yeah.’

‘You lied to me.’

‘I’ve lied to you many times,’ Sk’jin laughs. ‘But I am actually sleepy. It’s weird.’

‘Don’t.’ he says it so softly. So quietly.

The tear in space is much more visible now. It fades away, revealing the strange Sanctuary that fades out as well, before the stars take over- before it repeats all over again. Sk’jin glances at the GCR Scanner again, the display is absolutely wild.

‘Not- not like this,’ Namjoon whispers quietly, ‘Please…not like this.’

‘Are you getting out? You need to start moving, K’mara won’t miss an opportunity to blow up a planet.’ Sk’jin shakes his head a little, as though trying to literally shake his tears out. ‘She’s not going to listen to reason, I think ultimately in the end she was just looking for an excuse to blow up this mission and everything connected to it.’ Sk’jin pauses, quirking his eyebrows to himself, ‘Actually, maybe that’s what all of this was, in the end.’

‘Sk’jin- there’s- there’s another way-‘ he’s…his words are strained, he was still fighting the Bloodmoon.

Sk’jin takes a deep pained breath, hands clenching and unclenching on the sides of the chair before he slowly places his palms over them. Breathing carefully and purposefully, he looks around the Bridge.

‘You know? I’ve always wanted to pilot the Užkulisai like this,’ Sk’jin says quietly, blinking away the tears that just somehow won’t stop. ‘Always wanted to do something reckless and burn it up.’

‘Sk’jin please-!’

‘Initializing warp in 10-‘ Lisai announces coolly. Sk’jin focuses ahead of the ship. He can’t see it so much as he can feel it. It’s there again- that same feeling the first time he saw this behemoth of a structure.

It genuinely looked so much like a real star now- angry, raw, uncontrollable and filled with a raging light for life.

‘You’re a good captain, Namjoon,’ Sk’jin doesn’t know if the Kutsoglerin can hear him.

‘-9-‘

‘I know I’ve talked you down a lot, called you a fool-‘ words keep spilling out from him.

‘-Sk’jin please-!’ Namjoon cries out, ‘Please come back-!’

‘-and maybe you are. We all are.’

‘-8-‘

Sk’jin closes his eyes for a moment, tears quietly spilling out more and more. Light pulls in thin strands around the windows.

‘-but don’t change- yeah? Don’t change.’

‘-7-‘

When he opens his eyes Ahadi, Ti, and Nambike are no longer there. But the Bloodmoon does not stain his vision anymore.

‘It’s so beautiful,’ he says aloud.

The purity of the light of the stars, the depths of the dark of space, the music that set everything in balance within the Universe. It’s beautiful.

‘-stop it, Sk’jin stop we can think of something else-!’

He can hear them singing, so much clearer now. He also hears them crying, peaceful slumbering dreams torn apart by nightmares, surging and ripping through them as Time and Space and Light consume them.

‘-please!’

‘-6-‘

Oh, it’s so so loud here.

‘-5.’

‘SK’JIN-!’

‘-4-‘

But he can stop it. He had seen it. They had all seen it. Ahadi was right after all. Sk’jin would make sure to tell him that.

‘You’ll be okay. All of you.’

‘-3-‘

‘It’s done,’ he says quietly, ‘It’s done now.’

‘Sk’jin-‘

‘-2-‘

‘I guess I’ll just-‘

Closing his eyes, he allows that strange warmth, that strange weight that settles over him to finally take over him.

He buried his family himself long ago. But here, right now, Sk’jin feels himself being reborn. What were reluctant hands now hold him aloft- 6 pairs supporting him and lifting him higher through the tainted reddened skies and into a light pure and bright and-

‘-1-‘

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hoseok wakes up with a start.

Fear overwhelming him, a horrendous nightmare tearing through his very being, shocking him awake with a wretched gasp.

But it wasn’t a nightmare that awoke him- at least not a nightmare by its pure definition.

The last thing he remembers before being knocked out is being told that Jungkook’s transporter had been hit by a descending wave of Verktaë forces. He had rushed to get to the scene only to find that though the transporter was not too badly damaged and a few of the unknown numbers of the Menigišiti ships had arrived to take care of the Verktaë, Jungkook himself was entirely missing.

But he knew where the youngling would have gone. He tries to reach out to Yoongi but in a whirlwind of chaos, a horrible darkness swallows the light of the many suns that ignited within Megibīya’s skies, the horrible void had returned.

But it’s not the same.

It’s worse. It’s stronger- burdening him from within, a strange weight pressuring down on him, on everyone around him- even the Omhlophe. The GI they had brought into the ship slump in their seats, and fear overwhelms Hoseok like never before.

And that’s when the mountains come down. And before Hoseok realizes it, something crashes through their transporter and with a horrifying jolt, Hoseok finds himself being flung into a darkness that blankets him.

He’s gasping for breath- the darkness around him overwhelming. He has no bearings- he’s not even sure he’s actually awake. Was he still in some strangely lucid dream?

‘-here-!’

A voice whispers to him.

It’s to his right.

With strength he didn’t know he had in him, Hoseok shrugs himself about, his whole body twitching in pain. He briefly thinks that it couldn’t be healthy to have so much damage inflicted upon his being this many times despite being completely healed not even an hour ago.

He knows he’s shaking-

‘-just a little forward- give me your hand.’

Gulping in air as he forces himself to move towards the voice. Probably one of the Omhlophe though they’re not as chirpy as usual. Well, it would be uncanny to be that chirpy after what was undoubtedly a horrible accident.

‘Reach out.’

Hoseok blindly guesses the location of the voice and with all the strength he can muster, stretches out his hand to reach for the cool and gentle one awaiting him.

He falls out, unplugged and lifted out. He rolls out from the upside down transporter, half buried in the gritty dark sandy earth native to this side of the planet. He’s sliding and rolling for quite some time before he finally stops, his body moving without his permission or control.

It’s too bright.

And not in a way that suggested he was in the dark for too long- something was wrong.

On his back- Hoseok finds that he’s strangely embalmed in a soothing quiet. He hears the wind though he doesn’t feel it. He can’t quite look away from the sky, laced with impossibly thin lightning that was emanating from a ship that is joltingly familiar.

The GIU mothership. It had to be.

So not only did Amme come here, K’mara did too.

But she brought the mothership with her. That wasn’t exactly protocol- not unless she-…

Hoseok tries to sit up but he can’t, a strange sensation- not of pain, not of anything good, spreads over his chest, keeping him down.

It’s that strange pressure- a strange weight, tugging from the void. It had to be.

And there was that faint singing. It was coming from-…it came from beneath him. How? And where was that Being who spoke to him? Was it one of the Omhlophe? It couldn’t be anyone from Menigišiti, Hoseok wouldn’t have been able to understand their language.

A horrifying thought pushes itself to the forefront of his mind: had they lost? Had Jimin lost the fight with his sister?

A strange darkness had swallowed the explosions of light synonymous to the radiance Jimin exuded in the far distance. Now Hoseok can barely turn his head to look around himself. All he knows is that the sky expands seemingly in an endless manner all about his line of sight.

And the sight of K’mara’s ship far above him does not quite give him the reassurance he desperately needed.

K’mara was undoubtedly an excellent leader- undoubtedly putting the safety of the GLA, the Known Universe, ahead of every of her choice; K’mara was probably the best and most astute leader within the higher rankings officers across the universe. But this was also where she was dangerous.

Because it would be so much simpler for her to simply eradicate Megibīya.

In fact, as Hoseok’s mind starts to clear a little more, the sensation around him dulling a little, he starts to realize that maybe all of this was in fact K’mara’s intentions after all.

Whatever activity present on Megibīya, in the form of the void, the presence of the Verktaë, the Omhlophe, them their whole team, tied and connected so blatantly to the Gaia Case, K’mara had every single authority to absolutely destroy the planet as a means of stopping the same power that destroyed so many planets and systems.

Lightning slowly stretches out from the mothership and Hoseok feels the weight of his own heart overpower the strange gravity ensnaring him.

The singing turns to screams.

K’mara was going to follow GIU and GLA protocol and start the preliminary rounds to probe and observe a hostile situation. This was just for show. This was just so that she could put it in her logs; K’mara, one of the Trifecta leading the GIU would never detract from protocol. That’s why her record was so infallible.

A face appears in his sky and Hoseok jolts violently at the sight of the unknown Being. But the moment he catches sight of the odd dirty white robes, Hoseok immediately recognizes them.

The Omhlophe’s mask has broken or fallen off, Hoseok isn’t sure. For some reason, he’s not too surprised to find himself looking at a very normal looking Being, someone not out place in the busy streets of Šerdesas. Their expression is blank, reminiscent of the GI, blood smudged down the side of their face.

Their mouth opens, forming words but Hoseok can’t hear them.

Then he’s propped to sit up, and everything around him spins. Nausea hits him hard and Hoseok closes his eyes at once. It’s never been this bad.

Something cold presses into his skin and with a startling awareness, Hoseok realizes he hadn’t been able to hear anything prior to the compressor the Omhlophe had obviously just administered.

‘You are all right,’ the Omhlophe tells him, ‘But please take a moment to gather yourself!’

His breath is rattling in his chest, pants that are loud, pulse thudding in his ears- the singing is gone, the humming in the wind is gone and-

The Omhlophe is gently patting his hand. Their hand is surprisingly warm, scales climb down the back of their hand, fingers ending in blunt but dangerous talons.

He stares at his hand- at the Omhlophe’s hand. But he had-

‘-I can’t stop-…he’s not-…he’-…-!‘

Namjoon’s voice is clear- startlingly clear.

In fact, all of the channels for communication are startlingly clear and as Hoseok’s eyes focus on the sight around him, he’s witness to truly apocalyptic sights.

Raining down from the GIU mothership, lightning strikes over the vast network wrapped all around the planet. The mountainous ships are falling- a rumbling in the air that is horrific and unnatural- too far, and yet too close. The night skies in the distance explode in light, new landscapes formed in a seismic genesis of light and power unimaginable. But those fall apart as well, flattened by falling ships and satellites. K’mara sweeps over the network with horrifying ease.

He hears Ilya’s voice, he hears Jn’young too, and Jaen.

‘Namjoon!’ he manages to get out when the sky darkens.

But it’s not because of something blocking it- no, rather, a point in the sky beyond the GIU mothership, erupts so brightly that all other light around it seems to dull in comparison.

A star blossoms in the sky.

‘His home does not hurt anymore.’

‘What did you say-?’

A scream tears through the air.

The light is pure and bright and alive.

‘-no-!’ Namjoon’s voice crackles through- breaking, but not because of the channels.

Cold washes down his back, over his whole being as he watches the star stretch out bright and beautiful and whole.

‘It is done.’ The Omhlophe turns away from the piercing star, pointing to something else.

In a strange daze, his soul mutely crying out in a pain his heart couldn’t quite understand just yet.

The landscape here has changed dramatically- the towering mountains are gone- only the edges of where the facilitator was buried stands. But beyond that- sloping with the curvature of the planet, the mountains that walled and protected the cities within the crescent, have vanished- only a stuttering and wrong blackened void, convulsing within itself. And Hoseok watches as the light of this newborn star shatters the the thin needle like reach from the void, vanishing in the sky just as all of the satellites- the corrupted sanctuaries diminish, their false light flickering before fading away into the sky.

‘Nam-Namjoon-,’ he tries again, his own voice distant as he stares upwards, eyes filling with tears not because of the intensity and beauty of the light but because-

He trips on something, falling onto his knees and hands.

‘-stand-.’

It’s the same voice.

‘-please.’

And Hoseok somehow manages to stand.

‘Namjoon can you hear me?’ he gasps out, staring about him wildly.

Only the lone Omhlophe who was now waving their arms towards a small unit of surviving Omhlophe, Beings from Menigišiti, and the GI walking towards them.

‘-is-…Hoseok-!’ Namjoon gasps out, ‘-I couldn’t stop- I couldn’t stop him.’

Torn, Hoseok’s tear filled eyes flit between the star in the sky and the darkness spewing uncontrollably.

‘-Hoseok? Hoseok is that you?’

It’s Jaen.

‘Yes, I’m here,’ Hoseok gasps out just as a hand takes his and turns him around. Startled, Hoseok spins, staring at nothing around him.

‘You’re all down there? All of you?’ Jn’young demands just as  the GIU mothership reappears in the sky, silhouetted strangely by the star that fans out, streaks of light pure and bright emanating from it in ways Hoseok has never witnessed anywhere across the Universe.

‘Yes-,’ Hoseok responds breathlessly, fear now forcing its way down his throat, ‘Yes we- we’re here-?’

The lightning- hair like and now blackened by the sheer force of light from this new star, rains down onto the planet.

‘You need to get out- K’mara is- we’ve tried to reason with her but-‘

‘-whatever is happening down there is reaching cataclysmic levels- I don’t understand what I’m reading but you need to get out,’ Jaen tells him quickly, ‘Do you have a ship? Please tell me you have a ship-‘

‘Hoseok,’ Jn’young tells him evenly, ‘K’mara is about to neutralize this planet. You need to get out.’

The star fades away just as quickly as it had blossomed in the sky and in the absence of its sudden light, in the wake of its loss, Hoseok finds himself surrounded by thousands upon thousands of singing Beings, their arms lifted up, heads looking up.

‘How many do you see?’

Turning with a gasp, Hoseok finds himself alone. Only the Omhlophe, now jogging up towards other several incoming groups of survivors, appear in this desolate place.

What sounds like thunder but too loud- too fast, and too unnatural rumbles through the sky. The void expands even more, and the mothership stops the strange storm for a moment only to release a pillar of dull light directly across it. Its path falls down past the sky and Hoseok doesn’t know where it’s making contact but the sky falls apart as a strangely subdued and slow wave ripples over the sky.

‘No-‘ Hoseok gasps out, ‘Connect me to K’mara right now-!’

It’s strangely beautiful.

There’s nothing Hoseok can do as the satellites, the disc-ships, the mountain-like ships, descend back towards the planet from their height. There is a terrifying silence- broken only by Hoseok’s own breath, and the now clearer than even erratic pulsing of the void.

And then they’re all gone.

Hoseok stares.

He stares and stares.

‘Hoseok…-?’

He spins around, looking back at the void. It was still there. Was it Tsirin? Was it Jimin?

‘What was that-?’ Hoseok demands, fear shaking his voice as terror he’s never felt before erupts through him. ‘What’s going on-?!’

Something else descends through the sky- from the same point the star had previously blossomed in.

The sight of this singular thing- a living thing, Hoseok’s senses scream at him, terrifies him to his core, rooting him to his spot.

He hears Jaen and Jn’young demanding answers but he can scarcely breathe.

It falls at a strange angle- not straight down- rather…-rather, to Hoseok’s increasing terror that leans over onto madness and hysteria, it was approaching him.

It’s a living Being. But nothing Hoseok has ever witnessed- nothing he has ever seen or felt…-or has he?

The strange figure, frightening and impossible to describe, sinks down from the sky down to the ground not very far from where he stood.

No sound is heard on impact- no tremor, nothing.

But where it landed, a strange impossible colour blossoms- a riot of disturbance that is so calm yet so destructive, Hoseok can scarcely look at it.

Then it shoots past where he’s standing- ripples of quiet- a peace achieved in the aftermath of chaos indescribable, wash over him. And Hoseok, as well as every other Being including the Omhlophe, sink to their knees in a primal reverence of a life-force beyond the measures of Time and Space and Matter.

It’s strange, the earth below turning transparent as though it were deep waters alight from far within. Hoseok sees the shapes of the earth, the plates, the layers, the structures, the bones of this planet as that strange chaotic light spreads through, innumerable neurons sparking up.

Above, the GIU mothership is still looming, but no light shines from it anymore- only the dying light of Yino bleeds onto it.

‘Hoseok?’

It’s Ilya.

‘What’s happening?’

Hoseok watches as the strange light beneath the earth reaches the void.

There’s something strangely anticlimactic about it. Strangely anticlimactic in the way the blackened void, a horrific twisted corrupted heart doesn’t even get the chance to beat out its last pulse but simply vanishes as though it was never there to begin with. Cleanly removed, erased from existence- from sight, from thought, from memory-

Hoseok is suddenly overwhelmed by the idea that he’s going to fade away, like dust, his being would collapse. Without thinking, he wraps his arms around himself, a strange shudder running through him.

Something falls to his side.

Jumping out of his strange revere, Hoseok spins around just in time to catch sight of one of the GI crumpling down. And it’s not a singular case.

The groups of survivors of a mixture of the Omhlophe, GI, and from Menigišiti had gathered towards where Hoseok stood. And with a sinking heart, Hoseok watches as the black-clad figures of some of the GI, drop to the ground, like whatever was holding them up- whatever string setting them up was cut loose and they all fall one by one.

Hoseok barely registers the shocked gasps, the rushed movement of the Beings from Menigišiti rushing to check on the GI.

‘The promise has been broken,’ Hoseok whispers to himself.

Hoseok jumps out of his skin as a hand is placed on his shoulder. He’s almost shocked to see the hand belong to an actual Being- one of the Beings from Menigišiti.

‘Lo kal ro,’ they say, gesturing to the side.

Flickering in and out of sight, a small but still functioning transporter of sorts is headed towards them. Hoseok doesn’t understand.

Then they point, towards where the void had once encased an entire mountain range.

‘Lo kal ro,’ they repeat, gently tugging on his sleeve.

He stares down at his hands.

He wasn’t lost. No- he didn’t fade away. He was here.

The first step he takes is steadier than he anticipated.

‘Hoseok,’ it’s Ilya again. ‘I’m coming down.’

‘Kal ang,’ they say again. Their tone of voice is…it’s kind. Gentle, careful- almost as though Hoseok could break any moment.

Nothing happens. There is no tremor beneath his feet, no mountain crumbling, no ship falling from the sky in a blaze like a meteor. Everything is still and quiet- as though nothing happened.

Hoseok blindly follows the Menigišitien to the transporter that lands. They’re talking among themselves but Hoseok’s not paying attention or trying to understand.

‘I’m going to Namjoon first. Just…if you can, please gather the others- do you have a screen? Some form of system on you?’ Ilya’s voice quiets to a whisper.

Hoseok enters the unusual transporter- he would take in more of the experience but he’s-…he feels strangely disassociated. He dully feels inside his jacket for the slim NaviLet that was somehow still in one piece. It’s activated, responding to a flurry of signals and notifications and alerts all still rushing in as the channels are accessible again. He stares at the uncannily empty skies again, still unable to understand or process what he witness.

What had he even witnessed?

Because now, faint rays of light streak through the dusky sky, small hints of mist and cloud forming high above. As though everything they had been through had never even taken place at all.

They lift off, the light from the transporters engines temporarily lighting the forms and shapes of figures, now all standing still, arms down by their side, all facing the direction of the now missing void. Hoseok can, at least from the height afforded him, witness the strange changes all over the visible planet.

The light of Yino is significantly weak- it now reminded him of the fading light of stars at the end of their fission capacity.

‘K’mara’s ship is completely down,’ Jaen is informing him, ‘I don’t know what happened- what any of that was- but…everything is just…it’s just gone.’

With numb hands, Hoseok expands the NaviLet. Ignoring everything on the screen he access the isotope tracker.

Namjoon is exactly where there ship had crashed- somehow he had managed to get there. Jungkook is inside the facilitator.

Taeh’yung’s tracker is offline.

As is Jimin’s.

As well as Sk’jin’s.

However, flickering slowly, randomly- Yoongi’s white dot appears.

It’s somewhere in the facilitator, not far from Jungkook’s blue dot.

He’s not sure how much time passes, but they slow to a stop and Hoseok finds himself at the foot of the entrance to the facilitator. In the distance, other ships- GI, Omhlophe, and Menigišitien, approach carefully. High above, the GIU mothership, like some strange moon, wanes high above them.

Stepping out into a scene of subdued and past carnage, Hoseok realizes, it’s absolutely quiet.

There is no song, no voice echoing from a dream unseen but remembered. No soft hum of a past not yet lived, no roar from a future repeated over and over again.

It was just- quiet.

But it was not empty.

In the dim light, he sees them again. Shapes and forms, in the distant mist, through the dust- the faint light of Yino reflected down on the curves down shoulders, the slopes of faces, the soft edges of fingers.

He needs to gain some height.

Hoseok climbs up the stairs leading to the entrance of the facilitator. He’s not sure how he gets to the top but he does. And there he finds a familiar figure. Approaching, Hoseok stares down at Dehin, leaning back on a flat rock, eyes half closed, gaze set outwards towards the endless and now quiet night. In his hands, a flower made of paper sits there perfectly.

Hoseok carefully enters the facilitator. At the bottom of the steep ramp like slope, he comes across a few of the Menigišitien supporting up Yisheng Lim. He looks awful- skin impossibly pale, he even seemed to have lost weight.

His eyes however, are still sharp- alight. He spots Hoseok. And there seems to be some relief- but mostly sadness. He whispers something to the closest Being to him and they turn to look at Hoseok.

Without saying a word, they point down.

Hoseok nods.

It’s so quiet. But not…not in an unsettling way. But rather, exactly how it is just at the cusp of sleep- a blissful silence that caresses you with a promise of rest.

Hoseok doesn’t register the piles and piles of bodies -  mix of Verktaë, Omhlophe, and further in, as though guiding him in the sea of stained white robes, black clad forms of the Regurgitated. 

He steps into the complete darkness. And he knows his eyes aren’t tricking him- not really. In the shadows, moving a little as though to make space for him, figures and forms of Beings- of memories long lost, yet unlived.

He finds Nineti there.

And Saykahn.

And Amic.

He walks through tall and narrow halls, lined with bodies that are now sparse and far apart until it’s empty for a long while before he reaches a half-dome atrium. He barely registers the strange floors, eyes only on the figure visible in the soft light of an open doorway in the center pillar of the atrium. The blue dot on his NaviLet tracker.

Hoseok falls to his knees as he finds Jungkook. With shaking hands, he manages to find a steady pulse. Half carrying the Vicitra out, Hoseok places the youngling down carefully out on the strange floors. He was unconscious for some reason, Hoseok isn’t sure what.

But he was here too. He was here.

He hadn’t realized that a few of the Menigišitien had followed him here. They’re speaking to him as they come towards Jungkook, pulling out small compact pouches from within their pockets.

Past them, a faint figure walks over to the doorway- this was an elevator. Standing, Hoseok looks down at Jungkook one more time to truly cement that the youngling was okay. Then he steps into the doorway.

When he looks down, he register the warm drops that fall on the front of his jacket.

Was he crying?

The doorway opens again and this time he’s a little afraid.

The darkness is strange- but yet, somehow welcoming- drawing Hoseok closer in to rest, to simply close his eyes and rest.

But no- not yet. He couldn’t.

Taking a firm step forward, the darkness lifts and his footsteps echo all around the narrow hallway that slowly leads him out into a massive space. Far in the center, a strange shape- a colour that is unnervingly out of place, stands out in the dim.

Hoseok has to rub his eyes a little, checking himself.

But each step closer shows him that he’s not wrong. That he hasn’t somehow slipped into a dream.

Glancing back, Hoseok isn’t too startled to see the shapes and figures walking into the dome. They were guiding him.

When Hoseok turns back around to face forward, he’s a little startled to find himself nearly at the center. 

He glances at his scanner. Yoongi’s tiny white dot is still there, faint, flickering- but still there.

‘Yoongi?’

But there’s no one.

Draped over the pillar on the dais is a yellow blanket, warm as though someone had just used it.

And washing over him, finally breaking him, the soft sun-warmed fragrance of the sea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The night has always held a special place in his heart.

A blanket of quiet, a connection into the unknown far beyond the skies navigated by ever changing constellations, an expansion that is boundless.

He loved to look out of his window- be it on Earth, Mars, a Transporter, a ship, in Šerdesas, in the Yisheng Headquarters; he would make his way to a window and just observe the framed night presented to him.

It’s beautiful.

It was also terrifying.

To be lost.

And he’s felt lost, for so long- untethered, adrift- constellations expand changing and shifting; it’s terrifying, but he knows he’s not alone.

If he closed his eyes and listened, he could hear the very air sigh, longing and stretching to return to a blissful quiet, sinking softly into the unknown as boundless as the dark sky above him.

And Yoongi knows he’s not lost. He’s not adrift in a sea of stars, treading through the darkness, longing and reaching alone. Because knows that no matter what, if he waits just a little longer, if he stretched his hand forward, the sun would return. 

It’s getting brighter, the sun rises softly, gently.

Its light shifts, ripples as clouds break and form, slowly turning golden as the sky blossoms in shades of the softest rose.

It’s warm, it’s gentle- it opens its eyes, rising from the bed to watch as the night finally fades away.

Yoongi smiles, the light of the sun washing over him for the last time.

He breathes in the light.

The sun, his sun, he finds, has brown eyes.

And now that he’s here, now that they’re here, now that the day has returned-

Yoongi finally allows himself to sleep.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Author’s Notes)

 

Sorry for the late updates

Mentally was struggling a lot the past months because it turns out covid doesn’t just up your lungs it also s up your period, your mental health, and like, a lot of stuff

So wear masks even if you’re vaccinated this is such a horrible thing to go through during AND after

And it varies for people like, I don’t know when I’ll get back to normal but god I hope its soon because I hate not being in control of my own thoughts and emotions like you covid it was bad enough getting it now I have to deal with after effects that aren’t treatable and I just need to let it

Fade out

Im like thanks but I have to do

Anyways

I was supposed to have finished this fic by now and I can only apologize for the many delays and I would also like to thank every single one of you who has continued reading despite my absolute inability to stick to a schedule

Thank you for staying with me and this story, it means so much to me!

Also I am SO happy for bts being able ot perform before army JUST AS GOD INTENDED

Their energy

Their smiles

Just

So much man

So much

and *coughs* yes sorry about what happens in this chapter

please do not send assassins at me