15 minutes ago...

"Chaeyeon-unnie! Over here!" Chaewon yells as she finds a door to an empty room. They'd been chased around the facility for a few minutes already, but without Yena or Sakura to lead them, it was pretty difficult to navigate. It's felt like they've passed the same hallways five times already, and Chaewon was starting to get tired. She'd managed to save some energy by having the clones above ground meet and merge to guard Juri and Noe, but there was still so much going on. Somewhere in this same facility, another one of her clones was hiding Sihyeon and Goeun. It was starting to get really disorientating, but she was trying to fight through it.

When the two get inside, they lock the door and try to stay as silent as possible. A couple seconds later, they hear footsteps of soldiers running by, and they breathe a sigh of relief.

"That was a close one..." Chaeyeon says as she leans against the wall. She was already injured from a while ago, and carrying Gaeun around wasn't helping.

"Okay, while we were running, I got a message from Eunbi-unnie. They've found Seoyoung, and Saku-chan and the others are on their way." She reports.

"That's good to hear. What about your other clones? Are they all doing okay?" Chaeyeon asks.

"Chaewon-one is just watching the perimeter with Yujin. Nako and Hyewon are trying to breakthrough Seoyoung's cell, and it looks like they made some progress. Chaewon-two is fine. Just got word from Seunggi-sunbaenim that they're almost here. Noe and Juri are still knocked out. As for Chaewon-3, she used us as a distraction to get Sihyeon and Goeun to the elevator. She was closer than us, so she remembered where to go, which reminds me, I should ask Sakura for directions." Chaeyeon was in awe at how Chaewon managed to keep track of everything her clones were doing at once. She has truly mastered the art of multitasking. After a few seconds, Sakura relays a message to them.

"Hi guys. This is Sakura. I'm going to send a mental map of the route to the elevator. It'll be marked in red. I'm not going to be able to maintain it for long though, so make sure to memorize it. There should be some signs around to help at the very least." She says.

"Thanks, Saku-chan!" Chaeyeon responds.

"No problem. I'm sorry to cut things short, but I gotta go. There's a situation with Eunbi-unnie's team."

"What situation are they talking about, Chaewon?" Chaeyeon then asks the younger girl.

"Uh-oh...well, it looked like a trap when we walked in, and it definitely was one. That scientist, Park Eunseo, is giving a villain monologue, and Seoyoung is now free from her prison. Looks like it's gonna be a fight."

"Should we go back and help?"

"No, we should stick with the plan. Gaeun is still out cold, and she should be our priority." Chaewon understood that Chaeyeon wanted to help their friends, she did too, but they had a mission to accomplish. They just had to trust that the others were strong enough to beat Seoyoung without them. Well, "them" being Chaeyeon because Chaewon-one was already there.

~~~~

When the coast was clear, and they had finally caught their breath, they began to move again. As it turned out, Sakura's advice was really helpful. The path was a lot simpler than they originally thought.

"Okay, we should be getting close now. Just a couple more turns-" Chaewon gets cut off by a sudden pain in her arm. At first, she thought it was nothing, but the pain slowly began to spread to her whole body.

"Aghhh!" Chaewon screams in pain, falling to her knees.

"Chaewon! What's wrong? Is everything okay?" Chaeyeon lays Gaeun down against a wall and goes back to the younger girl. Something bad must've happened to her other clone.

"Evidently...not, Chaeyeon-unnie..." Leave it to Chaewon to try to keep things light even when she's on the ground, obviously hurting.

"Seoyoung...Sacrifice...Part of the plan..." She manages to say with a smirk. Chaeyeon was trying to process all of this, but Chaewon's cries probably alerted the guards to where they were. She didn't have the luxury of time.

"I'm...sorry, Chaeyeon-unnie. You gotta do this last part on your own...Don't worry about me. I'll be fine, I hope" And with that, Chaewon-four begins to fade away in the older girl's arms. She knows Chaewon didn't die, but having that happen right in front of her really sent shivers up her spine. Chaeyeon shakily gets up and goes over to Gaeun once more.

"You sure you can't wake up and help right now, unnie?" She asks Gaeun who was still unconscious and unresponsive. Chaeyeon could only sigh at this.

"Alright, Chaeyeon...you can do this." She says to psych herself up. She picks up Gaeun again and moves.

~~~~

The elevator...finally. Chaeyeon thinks to herself as she sees the set of metal doors ahead of her. Just as she was about to walk towards it though, the lights overhead begin to flicker. Oh, what now?

Darkness begins to swirl around her, and Chaeyeon now realizes who's arrived to stop her. Really? Of all the times? A figure begins to materialize in front of her, revealing none other than Jurina.

"Well, Chaeyeon...we meet again."

"Didn't Hyewon freeze you in a block of ice?" She taunts, recalling one of the reports from Eunbi's team earlier.

"Yes...that was certainly unpleasant and well, cold, but your friends made a mistake by just leaving me there." Jurina responds.

"And the first thing you do after getting out was finding me? How thoughtful..." At this point, Chaeyeon was just stalling for time as she was racking her brain to figure out a plan. She was still a bit roughed up from earlier, but it was clear Jurina wouldn't get out of her way without a fight. Her tough-girl act wasn't going to convince her for long. She slowly lays Gaeun on the ground, preparing for a fight.

"As much as I'd like to take care of them myself, I'm afraid the honor will go to Seoyoung. Your friends have taken the bait, and they're going to fall, one by one." This statement causes Chaeyeon's confidence to falter for a second. What kind of boost did they give to Seoyoung? She thinks worriedly. Jurina seems to sense this, and continues.

"Don't worry so much, you'll be dead long before you see what happened to them..." The lights turn off and Jurina begins a barrage of attacks, sneaking in punches and kicks left and right. Without her vision, Chaeyeon felt helpless, not knowing where the next attack would come from. After a couple more jabs she drops to the ground, her body aching all over.

"Is this the best you can do? You needed Hitomi to save you last time, but you're all alone now. You're pathetic." Jurina's laughs echo in the hallway.

Wait... Chaeyeon thinks to herself as she finds an idea. Focus, Chaeyeon. Focus. Sakura's voice says in her head. She closes her eyes and listens, feeling the movement around her.

"Gotcha!" She shouts as she snaps to her right just in time to stop Jurina's blow.

"What in the world?" If the lights weren't off, Chaeyeon would see a surprised wide-eyed look on Jurina's face. The younger girl was quick on the counter attack and gives Jurina a quick flurry of kicks that send her flying into a wall.

Jurina dusts herself off and tries to go on the offense again, but this time, Chaeyeon was able to block her attacks. Her movements were too quick, and she was being read like a book. After another good counter punch, Jurina lets out a defiant yell.

"Enough!" She then absorbs the darkness into her hands, getting ready for a projectile blast. Chaeyeon feels the disturbance in the air, and when she opens her eyes, the lights were back on to reveal a large ray of darkness was blasting towards her. She tries to dodge it, but with all her injuries compounding, she couldn't move fast enough and was hit hard. When the dust settles, Jurina slowly walks towards Chaeyeon like a lion stalking a wounded zebra. She then summons one more ball of darkness in her palm.

"It's time we finished things, don't you think?" Jurina says with a smirk. Chaeyeon was out of options. This was the end, and her one regret was that she never managed to tell Sakura how she felt. She glares at Jurina one more time, unwilling for her last moments to be with her eyes closed.

"It's over..." And with that, Jurina throws her ball of darkness towards Chaeyeon. Feeling the projectile connect, she begins to walk away satisfied, but a voice responds from behind her.

"Maybe try that on me this time, Jurina..." When she turns around, she sees Chaeyeon on the ground with a protective wind bubble shielding her from the blast. Standing next to her was Lee Gaeun, who'd managed to wake up just in time to save Chaeyeon.

"Maybe I will!" She yells as she fires dark projectiles towards the older girl who manages to deflect them all away with her wind.

"You needed the help of Seoyoung to take us all out last time. Just surrender now. Seunggi-sunbaenim will be a lot more forgiving than whoever you're working for after learning you've failed...again." Gaeun says. It said a lot about her character that even after everything Jurina had done, she was willing to give her a second chance. Chaeyeon didn't think she would've been able to do it.

"NEVER! We mutants deserve better than being kept in check and living in a society where normal humans despise us! How can you of all people not see this?" Jurina seemed to have struck a nerve on that last question as Gaeun glares back, remembering what she'd gone through with Yunjin to get by and survive.

"Our image will never recover if people like you keep acting like this! We have potential to do a lot of good in the world. Why go down a path of anarchy?"

"You'll see...you'll all see when this is all said and done that I was right. You have no idea where this is all going, and you'll have to come crawling back to me." At this, Jurina smirks as the sounds of soldier footsteps approach the hall they were in.

She stalled us. Chaeyeon realizes too late. Jurina once again shuts the lights off and when they flicker back on, she's gone.

"Freeze!" The guards yell. "We have you surrounded!" Sure enough, every hall way around the was being blocked by soldiers. Chaeyeon looks forward at the elevator that was their ticket to escape that now seemed way further than it was five minutes ago.

"I'm sorry about hurting you earlier, Chaeyeon. I couldn't control myself." Gaeun apologizes.

"No worries, unnie. Let's just focus on getting out of here." Gaeun nods and begins to focus, winds starting to swirl around until they were in the eye of their own personal tornado which was acting as a barrier, deflecting bullets and gas bombs. As Gaeun walks forward, the tornado moves with her and dozens of soldiers are tossed aside. When the wind dissipates, Gaeun and Chaeyeon are the only ones left standing. The two enter the elevator and head up, hoping the others were right on their tails.

~~~~

"Jeez, looks like Chaeyeon put in the work." Yena whistles as she sees the bodies of unconscious soldiers strewn around the hallways.

"No time to mess around, Yena! We gotta move!" Eunbi says, trying to get everyone to the elevator. They soon notice though that it can only fit six people at a time, so they send Hitomi, Minjoo and Yujin up with the injured Chaewon, Wonyoung and Seoyoung. As they wait for the elevator to come back down, Sakura sifts through the files she'd downloaded from the main server looking anything interesting. Weapons...Security... Classified...wait, that sounds good. She thinks to herself, and as she looks through the folder, her eyes widen at a certain document...Clones...A.J.Y.

"Uhm...guys?" She begins to say when the elevator dings, signaling it's arrival at their floor.

"What is it, Saku-chan?" Yuri responds.

"Hmm, nothing...maybe later." She had contemplated sharing the new information, but with already so much going on, Sakura decided to keep the information for after the mission. Her train of thought was disrupted though as she hears a voice pierce through the air.

"There they are! Shoot to kill!" More guards have arrived at the scene, guns drawn.

"Hyewon-ah, barricade the corridors!" Eunbi orders, and Hyewon seals of the entrances with as much ice as she could.

"It's not gonna hold them for long, head inside already!" When they finally all get in, Eunbi gives a look to Yena who seems to understand what she's being told. She puts her hands against the elevator dashboard and sends an electric current into it before saying. "Hold on to your dinners because this ride's gonna be a bit bumpy!" Sure enough, the extra power put in zooms the elevator up twice its usual speed.

"Yena-unnie!!!!!" Yuri screams as she grabs hold of the aforementioned girl. It felt like the reverse of those tower-dropper rides at the amusement parks, as if their stomachs were left behind on the basement floor as they were being sent up.

When they finally arrive up, the six girls spill out of the elevator doubling over, dazed and feeling sick, but ultimately...alive. Yena uses the last bit of her energy to short-circuit the doors, locking the soldiers down there, for now.

"Never...do that again, duck..." Yuri slurs. Yena just lets the younger girl lean on her for support, planting a kiss on her forehead.

"Yes, Yuri, I'm sorry. I won't do it again!" Yena says with a smile. "It was funny to hear your scream though. With that high pitch, I think you'd be the perfect main vocalist for a kpop group!"  She laughs, only to be shut up with a smack from the younger.

"How can you go from sweet to childish in the blink of an eye..." Yuri mumbles jokingly, still blushing from the kiss on the forehead she'd just received.

"What's up with you guys?" Yujin asks after walking over, seeing the sick expressions on their faces.

"Yena-unnie happened..." Nako manages to get out. Yena sits back laughing, scratching the back of her head.

"Eunbi signaled me to boost the elevator, and I obliged. We got up quick, didn't we?"

"I didn't tell you to leave our stomachs behind, though." Eunbi says with a smirk. As she surveys around her, she sees some of the medics from the training facility sent by Seunggi-sunbaenim tending to the kidnapped trainees as well as Wonyoung, Chaeyeon and Chaewon. Yujin notices this and gives the eldest a thumbs up.

"They were already here when we got up, unnie. Great work on the mission. We got what we came for and more." She says.

"Not yet, Yujin. The last step is getting out of here. There are definitely other exits the guards can use to get out."

"You have a point. I'll help usher the others to the vans then. The authorities should be here to sweep the perimeter soon, and I don't want to be arrested again. Get some rest, unnie. You deserve it!" Yujin's big puppy smile was enough to reassure Eunbi that she was feeling better now. She was worried when the younger was visibly fuming over what happened to Wonyoung, but it seemed like she was in proper hands already. Speaking of which, a familiar voice calls for her attention. It was Lee Hongki, the facilities, main medic.

"Good work down there, Eunbi. We couldn't be more proud!" He says as they shake hands. Eunbi suddenly felt a whole bunch of energy come back to her. Hongki-sunbaenim must've given her a boost.

"Thanks, ssaem!" She responds. "How are the others?"

"Gaeun and the others kidnapped are just starting to get their bearings, so I think they'll be fine." He starts off.

"Chaewon looks to be doing better. I was afraid that she might've had a wrist fracture, but it turns out it was just exhaustion and overexertion." He then points to his right at Minjoo giving the aforementioned girl a big hug.

"As for Wonyoung, it might take her a bit longer to heal. She'll live, but she's going to stay in the infirmary for a couple more days. The injury she sustained was severe, but luckily, the attack missed the important organs." No wonder Yujin was in brighter spirits. This was the best news they hoped to receive.

"Chaeyeon is also doing fine, I've healed most of her bruises already. Finally, Seoyoung...well, we're keeping her subdued just in case, but we're not sure what to do with her when we come back. That'll be up to Seunggi and the higher-ups.

"Thanks for the report, ssaem. Let's get moving." Eunbi says, but before he walks away, Hongki says one more thing.

"You earned a lot of respect, Eunbi. Mutants around the country will feel a whole lot safer knowing people like you are on their side." He then turns and heads to a van before Eunbi could respond. She was definitely thankful for the older man's words of encouragement. 

"Eunbi-unnie! You coming or what?" Yena calls enthusiastically. Eunbi faces the elevator one more time and smiles. She was feeling hopeful that everything they'd done tonight could mean the end for this syndicate, and that it might be the first step for more freedom for mutants. She then gets on the van and the group rides away.