After about half an hour of travel, the group arrives on the outskirts of the campus. Because of the camouflage, Eunbi and the others struggled to point out to the driver where exactly to stop until Sakura and Yena directed them. The campus may have been invisible, but the two could still sense the technological and electrical currents. When they reach a good spot with cover, the driver pulls over and lets the everyone step out. The members then thank him before he leaves the group on their own.

“They have the electric shield set to kill…” Yena observes as she stares at the shield. As if to prove her point, a bird flying overhead bumps into the invisible wall and immediately gets fried.

“Yikes…poor bird.” Nako mumbles.

“They must really be serious about keeping control of this place.” Sakura says while searching for a weak point they could use to break in like last time.

“You don’t think Gaeun and the others are…” Wonyoung doesn’t even finish her sentence, but everyone knew what she was thinking. What if their friends were already gone?

“Nonsense, Wonnie. They wouldn’t have doubled the security if they were hiding nobody.” Yujin says to calm the younger girl down.

“Why don’t we use the tunnel we used last time?” Hitomi asks curiously.

“Because if they followed us down that path, they probably already shut it down.” Chaeyeon responds.

“Yena, come help me over here.” Sakura calls after finding a spot they could break in. The tech-girl could feel a control box on the other side of where she was staring, but needed Yena’s help to reach it without being shocked. With her power over machines, Sakura had some extra resistance to electricity. Sensing the extra volts of electricity coursing through the shield though, the tech-girl decided she needed the duck to absorb some of it before she could do anything.

A couple minutes later, the duo manages to break through and create a hole for the group to get in. Sakura quickly hacks into the security cameras planted on the trees, and connects the group via her mental link.

“Alright, girls. You know your roles. Time to split up.” Eunbi orders as the group goes their separate ways.

~~~~

“What the hell happened here?” Yena asks when she sees the state the campus was in. Normally at this time of day, trainees would be bustling around going about their daily routines. Now though, the campus was littered with guards everywhere, not a trainee in sight. It looked more like a military base now than a school.

“They’ve beefed up the security since yesterday…” Sakura observes, scanning for the building that housed the server room. Eventually, she spots it and motions for the others to follow her.

“That’s the same building that those members of ITZY got into, right?” Yuri asks. There was that name again- ITZY. Chaeyeon got the short version from Eunbi the night before, but there were some details she was clearly leaving out. But why though?

“You mind giving me some more information on that team? Saku-chan and I don’t even know what their powers are.” Chaeyeon asks curiously. She doesn’t miss the way Yena looks at Yuri gingerly, as if signaling her to proceed with caution.

“Well…Yena-unnie and I fought them, and they were really tough. From Eunbi-unnie’s report, they have fire, shapeshifting, elasticity, teleportation and speed powers. Actually for that last one, it was more of slowing down time around her to make her appear faster or something.” Yuri whispers as they arrive a few meters away from the data center’s entrance.

Slowing down time…? It can’t be. Chaeyeon thinks to herself. These powers being listed felt familiar to her, but she wasn’t too sure.

“Enough chatter, guys. We need to break in now. Yuri, do your thing.” Sakura interrupts. The hamster nods and walks up to the guard at the door, striking up a conversation. After thirty seconds, Yuri gives the go-signal, and the guard ushers the group inside.

“This place feels a bit too empty…” Yena says as they walked down the hallway.

“Yah, you just jinxed us, duck-face…” Yuri responds, face-palming.

~~~~

After a couple minutes of searching, knocking out the occasional guard on the way, the group arrives at their destination. Sakura and Yena didn’t need to read the room label to know what was on the other side of the wall. They could just feel the electricity and power emanating from the servers and computers inside. Sakura was about to reach for the handle when she noticed it was melted.

“I guess they haven’t bothered to replace it…” Yena mutters as she nudges the door open slowly. There were a few researchers and guards inside, but nothing the group couldn’t handle. While Yuri, Yena and Chaeyeon work on hiding the unconscious bodies, Sakura goes to work. The tech-girl noticed a lot of file activity going towards that lab on Jeju island and went on to spend the next few minutes securing all the files onto an encrypted folder. She also made sure to send a few viruses to the secret lab that she hoped would delete most of the files they’d stolen.

“What was it like fighting that team?” Chaeyeon asks while Sakura worked.

“Well, we got beaten pretty badly, but only because they outnumbered us.” Yena responds.  

“I feel like there’s something I’m missing. Where would those mutants even come from, and why would they side with the enemy?”  Yena and Yuri give each other that same look again, which starts to make Chaeyeon’s mind whir more as she thought of why they were being so secretive about the details.

“They were from a mutant school. Like Eunbi mentioned, we suspect they used the mind-control gas on them, but we couldn’t get a good look if their eyes were red or not.” Yena finally says after thinking. Before Chaeyeon could ask something else, Sakura speaks up again.

“Okay, I think I’ve locked the system down hard enough. I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who can access the data for now. Let’s go meet up with Eunbi-unnie at the rendezvous point now.” She says. The others nod in agreement, but before they could walk out the door, an almost invisible force throws a er punch at Yena, causing her to crumple on the ground.

“Yah…what the hell was that?” She mumbles as she rubs her face. The other three set themselves up in a fighting stance, but Sakura and Yuri are also quickly knocked down by the dashing blur.

“Who are you?!?” Chaeyeon shouts just as a punch barely grazes her head. She wasn’t given a response though as she was met with more and more physical attacks. Chaeyeon was fast, but defending against this flurry was proving to be incredibly difficult. Whoever this assailant was, Chaeyeon was sure her speed was being matched.

Eventually, after a few more agile maneuvers, the feather-girl makes a good dodge and manages to land a counter-punch. The figure staggers and slows down immensely, giving Chaeyeon another opening for an attack.

“I said, who are you?” Chaeyeon asks again. The figure stops moving and settles into a defensive stance of her own as she blocked the only exit to the server room. Chaeyeon still couldn’t make out who it was because of the black hood the person was wearing.

“Fine, if you’re not going to tell me who you are, I’m gonna have to take that hood off myself!” Chaeyeon shouts as she charges forward. The hooded figure takes on the challenge and blocks every one of the girl’s attacks. Meanwhile, on the other side of the room, Yena checks on Yuri and Sakura.

“Yah, you two alright?” She asks.

“If you call being smacked in the groin at lightning speed alright, then I’m peachy…” Yuri replies sarcastically before turning towards where Chaeyeon was.

“Wait, where’s Chaeyeon-unnie?” The hamster asks.

“They were right there staring at each other just a couple seconds ago.” Yena says, realizing she couldn’t see either person as well.

“They’re still in this room.” Sakura interjects, focusing her eyes before continuing. “They’re just fighting at super high speed. I’ve seen this before in an anime actually. I can barely keep up with them.” She couldn’t see clearly, but she could feel the winds blowing around them. Chaeyeon and her adversary were zipping around the server room, neither side letting up.

“Enough!” Chaeyeon yells defiantly as she spins in a circle, creating a mini-tornado directed towards the hooded figure.

“Yena! Electrify the tornado now!” She then says to her friend who obliges. The enemy looks ready to nimbly dodge the attack like all the others, but Yuri was one step ahead.

“Freeze!” She shouts, and for that split second of indecision caused by the charm-speak, the hooded figure falters just long enough to be caught in the electric tornado and shocked.

“Nice work, girls!” Chaeyeon cheers as she walks over to the now knocked out enemy. “Let’s see who you are…”

“Unnie…is that who I think It is?” Yuri asks nervously when she catches a glimpse of their adversary’s face.

“C-Chaeryeong…”

~~~~

“This place seems really creepy…” Wonyoung whispers as they walk down the empty halls of the security complex. This was where they’d held the scientist, Park Eunseo, when the campus was first attacked. The four were busy protecting the infirmary when it happened, but they’d heard stories from Yuri and Chaewon about how much of a maze the building was.

“Yeah...and they’re keeping our friends in here? They don’t deserve this…” Nako mumbles.

“Just stay calm, everyone. We just have to stick with Eunbi-unnie’s plan.” Yujin says, trying to sound confident and hoping the others wouldn’t notice her nervousness. This was her very first time as a unit leader, and she could feel the pressure slowly build up. Wonyoung manages to pick up on it though and gives her shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

After a couple more turns, the group finds itself a few rooms from their destination. The area labeled ‘holding cells’ wasn’t used often because Seunggi never found a reason too outside of the Seoyoung incident. Even still, he had always made it a point to maintain the place just in case. Judging from the cobwebs hanging on the walls though, it was evident Principal Ahn didn’t share the same sentiment. Nako and Hitomi go and knock out the rest of the guards while Yujin and Wonyoung enter the cell area.

“Anybody home…?” Yujin calls out. To add on to the less than humane living conditions, the lights were kept off, leaving them in darkness.

“Yujin? That you?” A voice responds. Wonyoung walks over to a wall and feels around until she finds the light switch and flips it. It took a few seconds, but the ceiling eventually lights up the room to reveal a lot of their friends imprisoned behind glass walls.

“Gahyeon-unnie! Don’t worry, we’ll get you all out of here!” Yujin and Wonyoung then spend the next few minutes breaking the locks on the cells. They do a quick headcount after freeing everyone, but notice a few people missing.

“Where’s Gaeun-unnie?” Wonyoung asks. Gahyeon’s face darkens at the mention of their friend’s name.

“They took her and Yunjin.” She says exasperatedly. “She was the biggest threat left on campus, and helping Chaeyeon-unnie and the others escape compromised our position. It was easy to round up everyone else once she was taken out…”

“What about the trainers? Yoon-jeong-sunbae? Young-jun-sunbae?” Gahyeon shakes her head before responding.

“I don’t know. They might be somewhere else on campus, but we haven’t seen them since the day you guys left. Principal Ahn must’ve done something to them.”

“Well, we’re going to have to find them later.” Yujin says. “Right now, we have to work on taking back this campus. We’re not going to be getting any more help because as far as the public knows, nothing’s wrong here. That principal’s been feeding the media lies.”

“Yujin, Yujin! We have a situation over here!” Hitomi’s voice suddenly rings in the younger girl’s head.

“What is it, Hii-chan?”

“Two new enemies. They’re mutants. Nako and I can’t hold them off fore-” The connection with their friend cuts off as the doors blow open, Hitomi being thrown through.

“Hii-chan!” Wonyoung yells as she goes and checks up on her. On the other side of the door, two hooded figures stand in front of them with Nako knocked out behind them. Yujin grits her teeth, signaling everyone to stay behind her. This part of the mission is my responsibility. I can’t let the others down. She thinks as she bursts the pipes and sends water projectiles over to her adversaries. The first figure stretches herself in different directions to avoid the attacks while the second teleports around the room.

“Gahyeon-unnie, go lead the others out of here! There has to be another exit!” She orders. The older girl nods quickly and ushers everyone away from the fight. Sure, everyone was taught how to fight on campus, but not everyone was necessarily ready. They certainly didn’t have the field experience that Yujin and the others had.

“You’re gonna pay for hurting my friends!” Yujin shouts as she charges. After their mission in Busan, Yujin had made it a point to learn how to fight without her powers more, and while she’d definitely made progress, her punches just weren’t landing. The elastic girl was nimbly contorting her body to dodge all the attacks. After one unfortunate miss, she launches a counterattack and gets a punch in on Yujin who staggers back, wiping blood off .

“Yujinnie!” Wonyoung lays Hitomi down carefully and tries to join the fray, but the other figure blocks her path. She tries to use her telekinesis to grab onto the enemy, but she couldn’t due to her constant teleporting. Wonyoung couldn’t lock on, and after a few more teleports, the enemy was behind her and sweeps her off her feet with a low kick.

“Ugh…what happened.” Nako mumbles as she shakes her head. Last thing she remembered was a couple of mutants teleporting out of nowhere and ambushing them. The short-girl scans the battle field and her eyes widen when she sees Hitomi on the ground. Oh you’re gonna regret that… Nako slowly gets up and angrily charges the elastic girl who now had Yujin wrapped up in a bind, slowly squeezing the air out of her. With a strong smack, the enemy winces and releases Yujin who struggled to catch her breathe. That punch would’ve knocked out any normal person, but it felt like the brunt of the hit was absorbed like rubber. Nako, undeterred by this, calls out to the enemy.

“Round two?” Nako taunts. “You don’t have the drop on me this time.” The enemy extends her hand over to punch Nako, but her fist is caught and held.

“Time to give you a taste of your own medicine.” Nako grumbles as she slowly squeezes the girl’s hand like a vise-grip. This gives Yujin a chance to launch another water attack which scores a direct hit.

Meanwhile, Wonyoung was still having trouble taking care of the teleporter. Every time she thought she had her, she’d vanish into thin air, only to reappear behind her. Eventually, Wonyoung grew tired, and the hooded figure struck, landing a blow right to her chest. The young girl screams as her entire left side explodes in pain. That was the area where Seoyoung’s blade pierced through, so it was a really sensitive spot.

“Wonyoung!” Yujin shouts when she turns and sees her friend writhing on the ground in pain. She was about to run to her, but their other enemy extends her free hand and holds Yujin back.

“Nothing personal…” The enemy whispers before pulling a dagger from her pocket.

“NO!!!” Yujin cries at the top of her lungs trying to shake off the iron grip on her as the hooded figure swings her dagger…

 Just before it can make contact though, a vine deflects it. Hitomi had managed to get up just in time to stop the attack. The vines now moved to cover the entire room, and no matter where the figure teleported, the plants would lash out in an attempt to grab her.

“Yuna, Lia, mission complete. Fall back.” A voice radios in to the figures’ comms.

“Yes, Yeji.” Yuna replies before teleporting next to Lia and grabbing her hand.

“Wait, what the-” Nako begins to say, but it was too late. The two figures disappear into thin air. With them now gone, Yujin runs over to Wonyoung who was still down, clutching her side.

“Wonnie, are you okay? Oh my god this is all my fault…” Yujin says, taking responsibility for what had happened. She was the leader. She was supposed to keep everyone safe, but looking around, all of her teammates were hurt and bruised except her.

“Unnie, it’s fine.” Wonyoung whispers, gripping onto Yujin’s hand. “I’m okay, it was just a bad hit. I’ll be fine after a bit of rest.”

“No, it isn’t fine. Look at you three, you were all hurt on my watch…” Yujin says with a sniffle.

“Yujin, there’s nothing else you could’ve done. We bulldozed our way through here and freed our friends. How could we have predicted those two mutants would show up?” Nako says in an attempt to reassure the puppy.

“Yeah, you did a great job, Yujin. This was your first time, and you led us well. You executed the plan in the end. Gahyeon-unnie and the others escaped thanks to you.” Hitomi adds. There were times where Yujin looked very mature and composed, but the reality was that she was still a kid.  She needed as much support as anyone else.

“Thanks, girls. I’m sorry for breaking down. I promise I’ll get the hang of this leading thing.” Yujin responds, wiping away a few tears.

“You will. I know you will.” Wonyoung says with a smile as she’s helped up. The youngest girl was more physically hurt she let on, but she wanted to focus on Yujin first.

“Eunbi-unnie. We got everyone out, but Gaeun-unnie and Yunjin-unnie were taken. We’ll rendezvous with you shortly.” Yujin reports after she managed to get her bearings back.

“No need, we just finished up over here.” A tired Eunbi responds. “Just secure the area and meet up at the auditorium later. We have a bit of a situation that happened with Chaeyeon’s team.”

“Alright, unnie. Understood.”

~~~~

20 minutes ago…

“This feels familiar.” Chaewon banters as their group makes their way to the garage. “Reminds me of our very first unofficial mission sneaking into the garage.”

“Well, last time, we didn’t have people trying to kill us…” Hyewon mumbles back.

“Be quiet, everyone. We’re getting close.” Eunbi chides. The two promptly shut up and the group moved in silence the rest of the way.

Eventually, they arrive at their destination. The garage was situated on the edge of campus, so it was more isolated than the other buildings. Peering from behind the bushes and trees, they could count two soldiers guarding the entrance, with more likely inside. Minjoo sneaks behind invisibly and trips the two guards, allowing the others to move in and knock them out. When they got inside, the group continued to knock out guards easily as they wound their way down the spiral staircase. Just when they thought the premises were secure, a voice yells out.

“Stop right there!” A man with a device that looked like a remote control steps out from behind one of the vans along with three soldiers.

“Uh, if you hadn’t noticed, we beat all the other guards up there, so you should just step aside before someone gets hurt!” Chaewon says back. The man chuckles in response.

“I was told you would be looking for a vehicle to escape undetected, but…” He clicks the remote and one of the cars behind him explodes. “Your little team is going to be stuck here.”

“Yah, this is government property, you can’t just-” As Eunbi tries to reason, the man presses the remote again, and a bus now blows up.

“I very much can. Your group of mutants are wanted criminals, and we’re at liberty to do whatever it takes to stop you. Give it up now and surrender.” Eunbi was at a loss for words, trying to evaluate all their options, when she locks eyes with Hyewon who gives her a knowing look.

“Over my dead body.” Hyewon says as she quickly shoots a beam of ice towards the man’s hand.

“You crazy mutants!” He yells as he grabs his now frozen hand, unable to feel it.

“I tried to warn you.” Chaewon says with a shrug. The three soldiers make an attempt to reach for their guns, but Hyewon was faster, freezing all their weapons.

“Last chance to run!” Eunbi says, and while the soldiers managed to run away, Hyewon makes sure to subdue the man with the remote.

“No you don’t. As long as you have that remote, we’re not letting you go.” She says as uses her powers to create an ice shackle that locks him in place.

“I swear you mutants are nothing but trouble. Mr. Ahn is doing the world a favor by trying to get you all under control.” The man says bitterly.

“You say something?” Hyewon asks, her hands still coated in an icy mist.

“No, no. Nothing!” The main says quickly, not wanting his mouth to be the next thing frozen.

“Alright, Chaewon and Minjoo, go defuse all the bombs. Sakura will be able to walk you through how over the mental link. Hyewon and I will secure the rest of the garage.” The two younger girls nod and split up.

~~~~

“I got another one! That’s eight to two so far.” Chaewon cheers as she cuts the wires on another bomb. Sakura had given them a quick rundown on how to defuse the bombs- open the panel, look for the red wire and cut it.

 “Not fair, unnie! You have clones running around everywhere to do it quicker.” Minjoo whines back. On the inside though, she was still nervous every time she cut a wire, afraid that she’d make a mistake and blow everything up.

“All I’m hearing is excuses, Min~” She says with a laugh as she defuses another one. Minjoo turned to give a witty response, but was surprised to see Chaewon right next to her.

“Yah, get back to defusing bombs already.” Minjoo says, pretending to be upset. Chaewon pouts and sighs in response.

“Okay, I’m sorry, Min. I didn’t mean to. I know your trying your best.” She says as she grabs a hold of Minjoo’s hand. The younger girl’s heart jumps a little at that small action. “Wanna take a break?” Chaewon asks with a smirk.

“Are you sure? I’m pretty sure Eunbi-unnie would get really upset.” Minjoo responds, but ultimately follows as the short-haired girl tugs her hand along.

~~~~

“How’re the others?” Hyewon asks Eunbi as they look through the garage storage area for any more hidden information.

“Yujin sounded a bit rattled, but she said they were fine. As for Chaeyeon’s team, I only found out about it a couple minutes ago, but they ran into Chaeryeong.” The leader says.

“You mean her sister?” Eunbi nods at the follow-up question, her face unreadable.

“They managed to defeat her, but I think we owe Chaeyeon a lot of explaining now. I told them to meet us at the auditorium after we finish up here.”

“We should head back then. If Chaeryeong was here, then that means the other ITZY members might be here too.” Hyewon advises. Eunbi nods, and the two rush back to the main garage only to realize their captive was gone, a puddle of water in the spot they’d left him.

“Someone melted it…” Eunbi says as she walks over and picks up the now short-circuited remote the man had been holding. Little did she know that while she was inspecting the machine, someone was watching in the shadows, charging a fireball.

“Unnie, look out!” Hyewon yells as she pulls Eunbi out of the way at the last second, the projectile just missing and engulfing the car behind them in fire.

“Step out and show yourself!” Hyewon shouts, visibly ticked off at who had just attacked her girlfriend. At this, a woman steps out of the shadows with a ball of fire in her hand. She was wearing the attire of the girl they’d seen from the break-in last week, black hood over camouflage clothing. This time though, Hyewon could clearly see her face. She had black hair, tied-up pucca style, and fierce red eyes- the same eye-color all their friends had when they were controlled by the gas they’d had to deal with before.

“You’re from ITZY, aren’t you? Why are you helping these people?” Hyewon asks. For a split second, the woman’s eyes flicker to the color brown, but revert to red just as fast.

“Yes, you’re right. My name is Yeji, and you must be Kang Hyewon of 8D.” She says before launching a couple fireballs at Hyewon. She counters with a beam of ice, and the two elements steam as they make contact.

“Eunbi-unnie, find Chaewon and Minjoo! I’ll handle this girl!” Hyewon says as she deflects another fiery barrage. The older girl runs off, leaving the two alone. Hyewon charges up another ice attack, but Yeji holds her hand up before speaking.

“Now that she’s gone. I’m here to relay a little message to you…”

~~~~

“Aaand that should be the last one. Damn, Minjoo, you really let me and my clones do all the work.” Chaewon says out loud as she cuts the last wire. When no response comes though, she gets worried.

“Min? Where are you?” She asks as she wanders around. Chaewon skips through the perspectives of all her clones and finds nothing. Where could she have gone?

With all the vehicles littered around the garage, it was a bit difficult to maneuver around, but after a few minutes of searching, Chaewon sees one of her clones exit a storage room. Now, normally that wouldn’t be a concern, but Chaewon realized quickly that something was up when she couldn’t see through that clones eyes. She didn’t even remember sending a clone over there.

“Hey, you! Wait, I mean, me!” She calls out to herself. The clone stops and slowly turns, a smirk on her face.

“Hello Kim Chaewon. Nice to meet you again.” She says with her exact voice.

“Again? What do you mean again?” Chaewon replies, raising her guard. The supposed clone’s body then begins to shift until a blonde haired girl with red eyes stands before her.

“Name’s Ryujin. Your girlfriend was so gullible by the way. You two are perfect for each other.” She says with a laugh.

“Yah, what did you do with Minjoo?” Chaewon asks, her clones now surrounding Ryujin. The blonde girl transforms back into Chaewon once again and charges to fight. Though Chaewon was usually very coordinated with her clones, it was difficult to get a hit in on Ryujin because she looked exactly like her. Her clones ended up lost and punching and kicking each other instead, causing Chaewon to choose to fight one on one instead.

Inside the storage room, Minjoo slowly gets up, trying to remember what had just happened to her. She remembers Chaewon leading her towards the room, thinking she might pull her in for a quick making-out session. Now that she thinks about it, her cheeks redden in embarrassment for even considering it a possibility. After that though, all she could remember was darkness. She reaches for the back of her head and feels an aching spot. Was I knocked out by someone? Where’s Chaewon? She asks herself as she reaches towards the exit door. What awaited her on the other side though made her think she was still unconscious. It was Chaewon…fighting a clone of Chaewon.

“Chae…?” She calls out. When Ryujin notices Minjoo, she rushes over to her before Chaewon could.

“Minjoo! I’m glad your safe. Those ITZY people are here, and that person is trying to pose as me!” Ryujin says with a perfect impression of Chaewon’s voice. No way she’s gonna fall for that, right? Chaewon thinks. Instead, Minjoo slowly nods and holds onto Ryujin’s hand.

“Don’t worry, Eunbi-unnie and Hyewon-unnie will show up soon, right?” Minjoo asks.

“I don’t think so. They’re kind of preoccupied right now.” Ryujin responds, and right on cue, a fireball explodes in the distance.

“We’re going to have to fight this fake ourselves.” She continues, getting into a fighting stance.

“Wait, Min, you’re really believing her? Isn’t it obvious that I’m the real Chaewon?” Chaewon asks. Minjoo, suddenly unsure of herself, lets go of Ryujin’s hand and studies her.

“You two…look exactly the same.” She says quietly.

“Well, what about this?” Chaewon says as she clones herself. “I bet she can’t do that.”

“Don’t listen to her, Min! When she transformed into me, she stole my powers too. Trust me.” Ryujin counters. At this point, Minjoo’s head was spinning trying to figure out the real Chaewon. She decides to take in a big breath and step back before talking again.

“Okay, tell me something only the real Chaewon-unnie would know then.” She challenges. Ryujin was frozen at this request while Chaewon smirked, knowing she had it in the bag.

“The first time I thought about liking you was after I accidentally walked in on you being invisible in the bathroom.” Chaewon says calmly. Minjoo’s cheeks redden, but she immediately runs over to her and away from Ryujin.

“Don’t ever mention that incident again, Chae.” Minjoo complains.

“Yah, she took you to the storage room alone, did you end doing anything while I was gone?” Chaewon fires back.

“Of course not! She knocked me out cold the second we got in!” Minjoo responds with blushed cheeks. Meanwhile, Ryujin looks on with an amused face.

“Like I said, your girlfriend was really gullible.” She teases, still in the form of Chaewon.

“We know it’s you now, Ryujin! Just change back!”

“Maybe later. For now, I need to head out. We got what we came here for…” The blonde girl says before sprinting off back in the direction of where the fireball had come from. On the way, she runs into Eunbi who was looking for her.

“Yah, ITZY’s here! We have to support Hyewon back at the entrance!” The leader says, letting Ryujin run by.

“Unnie! Stop that girl! That’s not me!” Chaewon yells at Eunbi who was had just started to turn..

“Chaewon?” She says confusedly, feeling a sense of déjà vu until the realization hits her. “Wait, the shapeshifter?!”

~~~~

“Well, what is it?” Hyewon asks, still not letting her guard down.

“Your superiors have been in talks with ours. You are to stand down and come with us.” Yeji says.

“Excuse me? Why should I believe what you're saying?” Hyewon replies, dumbfounded at what she’d just heard. Yeji then takes a phone out of her pocket, dials a number and tosses it to her.

“Hyewon, I’m sorry, but the government has told us to pull you out of this operation.” The voice of her boss says, but Hyewon could tell that some of it was forced.

“Because your friends are now criminals, we can’t directly be involved. They already cleared your records from the police. Just come along with those people, and follow orders.” He continues putting some emphasis on some words, as if giving hints.

“Yes, sir…” She begrudgingly says as she hangs up, the phone shaking in her hand. Ryujin shows up shortly after and stands next to Yeji.

“She get the message?” She asks. Yeji nods as she communicates an order to their other team members.

“Chaeryeong is nonresponsive, but we can’t wait for her. Let’s just head on over to the rendezvous point.” Yeji says as she motions Hyewon to follow, but a voice interrupts them.

“Hyewon-ah! What’re you doing?” Eunbi shouts as she sees Hyewon walking towards the enemy.

“I’m sorry, unnie. Orders are orders…” She replies, that unreadable expression from when they’d first met masking her face again.

“What do you mean?! You shouldn’t trust anything they tell you!” The leader says. Minjoo and Chaewon were ready to fight, but without Hyewon’s elemental powers on their side, they didn’t like their chances. Yeji begins spinning a fire ball on her hand, but Hyewon puts a hand in front of her.

“Let’s just go. If you want me to come willingly, do not hurt my friends.” She says with finality.

“Aw, you’re just no fun, ice queen.” Ryujin teases, but she straightens up once Hyewon gives her a cold glare.

“Don’t do this, Hyewon…” Eunbi pleads. Her girlfriend’s expression softens for just a second to give the leader a knowing look. Trust me… She says through the mental link they still had from Sakura. And with that, she follows Ryujin and Yeji up the stairs.

Eunbi falls to her knees, still not processing what had happened. Her heart felt like it was being torn in two. Chaewon and Minjoo try to comfort her, but even they were shocked at what had just transpired. They were in no shape to give chase right now.

“Trust me” Hyewon had said. Eunbi decided to hold on to that last message as she stands up, and dusts herself off. Alright, Hyewon. I trust you. She thinks to herself.

“C’mon, girls. We have to meet the others and sweep the rest of the campus for any other guards. We’ll get Hyewon back later.” The leader says calmly. Chaewon and Minjoo nod and follow along. When they arrive back upstairs, ITZY and Hyewon were nowhere to be seen.

~~~~

A/N: Hello again, everyone! I posted it on twitter the other day, but I had a bit of trouble writing this chapter. I had a rough idea of where I wanted this story to go, but I've been getting a lot of writer's block lately. Hopefully this chapter is still enjoyable because I spent a lot of time thinking about it. That being said, it might be a couple weeks till the next one because I have several tests and projects I have to do for school in the near future.  

Anyway, thank you again for all the people who've supported the series so far! I couldn't have gotten this far without your support.  I don't want to put a number on it, but you can probably feel the end of the story coming soon. I'll do my best to make the next few chapters enjoyabable and fun! Likes, comments and the like are always appreciated! See you in the next chapter!