Chapter 13- Aftermath

Project IZ*ONE II

When Eunbi, Chaewon and Minjoo arrive at the auditorium, the place was bustling with energy. Most of the soldiers had been run out of the base already, and the trainees gathered inside were all conversing about the recent traumatic events. The leader scans the hall she’d sat in many times until she locks eyes with a familiar face.

“Eunbi-unnie! What took you girls so long?” Yujin greets as she walks up to them. When she talked to the younger girl earlier, she’d sounded a bit rattled, but the puppy now had her usual bright smile on her face again. Eunbi wanted to respond, but there were still so many thoughts running through her head. What could they have possibly told her?

“Unnie? Everything okay? Where’s Hyewon-unnie?” Yujin asks when Eunbi doesn’t immediately respond. There was this somber expression on the leader’s face that she could tell meant something went wrong.

“Uhm, how about Chaewon and I explain it to you first and give Eunbi-unnie some time to rest a bit?” Minjoo suggests after a few more silent seconds go by. Yujin slowly nods, but still had concern etched on her face.

“Alright…I’ll save my final reports for when we meet up with the others again later. Take it easy, Eunbi-unnie. We’re all here for you if you need us.” Yujin says before being led away by Minjoo.

“You gonna be okay?” Chaewon asks. She’d known Eunbi for a long time, but she’d never seen her like this before.

“Y-Yeah…I just need to think a bit more. I’ll meet up with Saku-chan first before going to the mission debriefing.” She replies. Chaewon looked like she was going to say more, but decides against it, turning to catch up with Minjoo and Yujin.

After a few minutes of making her way through the crowd, replying hello to the trainees who would greet her, Eunbi finds herself at the back area of the auditorium. She’d never actually been there before. This was normally the place where the trainers and Seunggi would stay before walking up to the front where they would address the trainees. Sakura was actually the one who found out about the place by looking at the campus maps the day before. After passing by a couple rooms, Eunbi arrived at the one she was told to meet up at and steps in. Inside, she saw Sakura who nodded at her, as well as Chaeyeon who was tending to someone laying down on a makeshift bed.

“Hey…” Eunbi greets. Chaeyeon, who hadn’t noticed the leader walk in, turns at the sound of her voice.

“Why didn’t you tell me right away?” She asks. Eunbi knew this would be coming. She’d wanted to tell Chaeyeon some other time, but she was too late.

“Why, unnie? Why didn’t you tell me my sister was under the enemy’s control?!” Chaeyeon yells angrily.

“I-I’m sorry, Chaeyeon. I…I just didn’t want you to do anything rash. I thought I would’ve had time to tell you after this mission, but evidently, I was wrong.” Eunbi finally replies, the guilt creeping up on her.

“Rash? What if I accidentally hurt Chaeryeong more because I didn’t know it was her? We’re lucky that Yena only stunned her. Did everyone else know?”

“Everyone except you, Sakura, Hii-chan and Nako…”

“Why didn’t you trust me with that information? Don’t you think I deserved to know that? I thought she was safe at JYP, and now I find out she was with the enemy the whole time!” Chaeyeon’s words felt like daggers being thrown at Eunbi. She was already hurt about the situation with Hyewon, but seeing how hurt Chaeyeon was made her feel worse.

“Chaeyeon, calm down. She made a logical choice in the moment.” Sakura interjects, trying to defuse the situation.

“You’re really taking her side?” Chaeyeon replies.

“I’m not saying that. I’m saying that in the moment, Eunbi-unnie’s thought process made sense. Think about it, when Yuri was abducted, Yena did something stupid. When Minjoo was abducted, Chaewon did something stupid. Can you really blame her for not telling us? Besides, if you knew it was Chaeryeong, you might’ve let your guard down. She was still under their control, so we don’t know what she would’ve done if we’d gone easy on her.” Chaeyeon was still upset, but she had to begrudgingly agree with Sakura’s arguments.

“I hate when you’re right…” She mumbles.

“I’m sorry again, Chaeyeon.” Eunbi says. She appreciated Sakura defending her, but she knew that she was still in the wrong for withholding that information.

“I think we should move on to more pressing matters now. At least we have Chaeryeong here with us. She’s going to be helpful when we go get Hyewon and the other ITZY members.” Sakura says.

“Wait, Hyewon-unnie? What are you talking about?” Chaeyeon asks, not completely caught up with the situation. Sakura was about to reply, but Eunbi beat her to it.

“She left with them…” Eunbi says.

“Left with them? You mean taken?”

“No, their leader, Yeji, told Hyewon something and she joined them. She told me to trust her, but…I don’t know what to do.” Eunbi’s emotions were starting to catch up to her while retelling what had happened. Chaeyeon’s expression softens seeing the tears welling up in Eunbi’s eyes. She’d initially been upset with the older girl, but Chaeyeon couldn’t imagine what she had to go through. She suddenly felt guilty herself for piling on her.

“D-don’t worry, unnie. We’ll get her back. We’ve always gotten our friends back before. She also said to trust her, right? I think Hyewon deserves our trust after all we’ve been through, don’t you think?” Chaeyeon says as she envelops Eunbi in a hug.

“Thanks, Chae…” Eunbi says between sniffles. She always tried her best to remain composed for the team, but she just couldn’t help it this time. It was nice to have a secondary leader in the group like Chaeyeon to take some of the burden off her, and remind herself that she was allowed to have emotions too.

Eunbi was about to say that they should round up the others already, but a coughing noise suddenly interrupts the moment. It seemed like the commotion must’ve woken up the person lying in bed. While Chaeyeon turns to check on her sister, Eunbi was surprised by Sakura, who gave her a handkerchief to wipe her tears with. It was a small action, but it meant a lot coming from the tech-girl who wasn’t normally one to be involved in emotional situations.

“W-where am I…” Chaeryeong mumbles from her bed.

“Ryeong, it’s me. It’s Chaeyeon-unnie. Do you recognize me?” The feather-girl asks.

“Chae…Chae…Chaeyeon!” She shouts as she sits up in her bed. “Be careful! It’s dangerous!” She continues to yell, not realizing where she was.

“Hey, hey, calm down, Chaeryeong! Everything’s fine. We’re safe here. We rescued you.” Chaeyeon calmly replies, putting a hand on her sister’s shoulder. Eunbi realizes watching her that Chaeyeon was very good at calming people down. There was this aura around her that got people to feel less agitated.

“Wait…unnie? Is that really you?” Chaeryeong asks slowly.

“Yes, it’s me. It’s gonna be okay. We’ll explain everything, but for now, I need you to look at me.”

“It-It is you…I missed you so much, unnie…” Chaeryeong says, embracing her older sister. Eunbi gives Sakura a look signaling that they should give the two some time to catch up. The aforementioned girl nods and quietly makes her way out.

“Chaeyeon-ah, we’ll meet up at our usual spot after I address the other trainees, but you can take your time if you want.” Eunbi says before closing the door. She then takes a deep breath and walks out to center stage where the podium was.

~~~~

“Hello, everyone. It’s been a couple days…” Eunbi begins after tapping on the microphone. The trainees who were milling around now begin settling in the seats near them. Looking at everyone from this perspective, Eunbi recalls how packed the place was just a few months ago. This was the home she felt like she needed to protect. She needed to make sure these attacks stopped happening.

“I’d first like to apologize for what’s been happening the past two days. If you weren’t aware, Principal Ahn betrayed us. He was using our data to supply his own research into mutants. We should’ve noticed it sooner…” She continues. The crowd remains silent as the leader talks.

“What I want to say though is that we shouldn’t lose out on hope. This is supposed to be a safe haven, and we will continue to protect it. Beyond that, our goal is to also make the world a safe place for mutants. I know that I may not ever understand what some of you have experienced, but fighting side-by-side with you all has only reinforced to me that this is a cause worth fighting for. In my eyes, there shouldn’t be a difference in treatment between you and the rest of society. There is a place for everyone no matter what their background is, and we will fight for it. I know recent events have made the situation seem bleak, but I ask you all to hold on to hope. Things will get better. We’ll make sure of it.” When Eunbi ends her short speech, the crowd slowly erupts into cheers. Chaewon, Minjoo and Yujin were giving her thumbs-ups while Sakura was standing in a corner with a smile. What she said may have sounded cliché or cheesy, but Eunbi truly believed in her ideals. She quickly gives a few more short announcements before asking her members to go meet up at the room Seunggi had assigned for their group meetings.

~~~~

“Nice speech, unnie! I really think they needed it. It’s really been a rough couple of days.” Chaewon cheers as they walk towards their meeting room.

“I was just saying what I believed in. I don’t think it was anything too revolutionary.” Eunbi replies, trying to play it off. Inside, she was glad to have so much support, but she knew that with that support comes a lot more pressure to perform.

“Minjoo-unnie and Chaewon-unnie caught me up with what happened to Hyewon-unnie by the way. I’m really sorry for what happened. I’m sure we can go take her back.” Yujin says. Having Hyewon’s name brought up again stung a bit, but it wasn’t a topic they could simply avoid.

After a couple minutes, the group arrives at their destination, and waits for the other members to make their way to the table they’d set up at. Apart from Wonyoung, who was still holding a cold-compress on her bruises from earlier, everyone looked relatively unscathed which was a relief. Eventually, the last member, Chaeyeon, arrives accompanied by her sister, Chaeryeong, who was feeling well enough to make the walk over.

“Alright, mission debriefing time. Status reports?” Eunbi begins.

“We did a headcount and it looks like the only missing people among the trainees are Gaeun-unnie and Yunjin-unnie.” Yujin says. Eunbi nods and looks over at Yena.

“No more bombs around the whole campus, or at least, we believe we’ve defused them all.” The duck says. She and Yuri had walked around the area looking for any leftovers, and found quite a lot even outside the garage. It looked like Principal Ahn wasn’t afraid to blow the place to kingdom come if he felt like it. Luckily for them, Yena could detect the faint electrical currents the bombs emitted.

“That’s a relief. Nako, Hii-chan, any luck finding the trainers?”

“Yeah. Turns out they were all drugged and locked in one of the storage rooms. Thankfully, Miyu and Sihyeon were still around. X-ray vision and sonar tracking helped out a lot.” Nako reports.

“Are they okay? There isn’t exactly an infirmary staff anymore to take care of them.”

“No worries. We have some trainees here who have healing powers like Hongki-sunbaenim. Miho and Yiren have it handled.” Hitomi replies. On the other side of the table, Yena smiles knowing her friends from Yuehua were helping out too.

“Well, that’s a relief. At least we’ll be able to leave the place in good hands when we go save Hyewon.” Eunbi says. Silence engulfed the group at the mention of their friend’s name. This was the first time they were all together again to actually discuss it, and in all honesty, the ones who hadn’t had it confirmed yet wanted Eunbi to tell them she was kidding. They just couldn’t believe Hyewon would leave like that.

“Did she actually go with them?” Wonyoung asks.

“I’m afraid so…” Eunbi replies as she goes on to retell the events at the garage.

“There has to be a reason she agreed, right? There’s no way she’d just go along willingly.” Yuri says. Not many people knew, but Hyewon was one of the members the others had begun to lean on. She’d have this cold vibe, but in reality, she’d give great food recommendations and talk animatedly about tv shows.

“Yes, she told me to trust her, so you all have to trust her too. It’s the other ITZY members we have to worry about for now.” At this, all eyes turn towards Chaeryeong. At a glance, you could easily tell that she and Chaeyeon were siblings. From their hair to their facial features and their sitting posture, there were so many things similar between them. Chaeyeon looks at her sister, silently asking if she felt ready to talk, and the younger girl nods.

“So…hello, everyone. My name is Lee Chaeryeong, and as most of you probably know, I’m Chaeyeon’s sister.” She greets shyly.

“Yes, nice to finally meet you. I wish it were under better circumstances, but not much we can do about it now.” Eunbi greets back on behalf of the group, the others simply waving and giving encouraging looks.

“Yeah, I’m really sorry for all the trouble me and my friends caused. I swear I didn’t do any of it on purpose.” Chaeryeong says, bowing her head apologetically.

“It’s water under the bridge. What we need right now is information. What exactly happened to you girls?” Chaeryeong nods at the questions as she begins recalling the past few months.

As the original file had mentioned, Chaeryeong and her team, ITZY, were on a reconnaissance mission on Yujeonja Tech Solutions in Daegu. They managed to teleport in thanks to Yuna, and began searching the place. They’d found a file about the early stages of a cloning project, but before they could extract it, white gas began to fill the room they were in. They tried to teleport out, but Yuna’s abilities had stopped working. In fact, none of them could use their powers as they became enveloped by the gas and eventually pass out.

When Chaeryeong woke up, she was handcuffed in a cell. She tried to escape, but her powers just wouldn’t work. Every day for the next few weeks, she and her friends were treated as guinea pigs. They’d receive different tests, and have gadgets and machines used on them. Needless to say, it was a very painful experience. Eventually, they were all taken to one last room where a new green gas began flowing from the vents. Next thing she knew, her head was blank.

“Blank? As in, you can’t remember anything after?” Chaeyeon asks.

“Things are a bit fuzzy, but when I woke up, you were the first person I saw clearly, unnie. I don’t remember a lot of what happened apart from what you’ve already told me.” She says quietly.

“Well, there go our leads…” Yena mutters.

“No need to be too negative, Yena. The fact that she’s here is already going to be a lot of help to us because she knows her friend’s tendencies.” Sakura says.

“Oh, yes, my friends…I hope they’re doing alright. I’ll do whatever it takes to help you guys save them too. Believe me, they don’t know what they’re doing.”

“My jaw certainly thinks they knew what they were doing.” Yujin quips as she rubs the sore area. She ended up having to get a few stiches after that fight.

“In any case, we should start planning our next move.” Eunbi interjects.

“Are we leaving tomorrow already? I’m good to go, but I won’t lie, I’m beat.” Chaewon says.

“That didn’t stop you when Minjoo over there was abducted.” Nako reminds the older girl who could only raise her hands up in defeat.

“I agree with Chaewon though. We’ve been through a lot. I want to go rescue Hyewon more than anyone here, but I think we should rest for a few days. Seunggi-sunbaenim’s reinforcements will be here soon, and the trainers are still in the infirmary. We can’t leave here too soon or it’ll just be run over again.” Eunbi says. The others nod in agreement, but the question lingering at the back of their minds was how long they could delay before something bad happened.

~~~~

That worry that the group had came to fruition three days later in the form of a news report. During that time, Seunggi had sent a set of guards that patrolled the edge of the campus 24/7. Seunggi himself though was still in hiding. He didn’t want to compromise the area by showing up without clearance. As for the trainers, they had managed to heal, and began teaching the trainees again. With the recent attacks, it only became more apparent that they needed to train everyone on how to fight without their powers. Eunbi was on a morning jog around campus when Chaeyeon ran up to her to call her attention.

“Unnie! We have a problem!” Chaeyeon shouts. She’d seen the news while scrolling through social media, and ran all over campus looking for the leader.

“What is it?” Eunbi asks, taking off her earbuds, a jazzy song, "Door", beginning to play out loud.

“It’s Gaeun-unnie! She’s on the news. Like, she attacked a part of the city!” Chaeyeon replies quickly. Eunbi had to ask her to repeat it because she couldn’t believe what she’d heard. Chaeyeon takes out her phone and shows Eunbi the video. A woman who definitely looked like Gaeun whipped up a tornado that ripped through a city street.

“We have to meet with the others now.” Eunbi says.

“We can head to my room then. Chaeryeong and Saku-chan are already there. I’ll round up everyone else.” The feather-girl says as she zips off.

~~~~

“Gaeun-unnie did what?” Yujin asks incredulously after being shown the same video Eunbi saw. Chaeyeon had finally managed to find everyone but not without running around the whole campus again. Nako and Hitomi were out training, Yuri, Yena, Yujin and Wonyoung were at the cafeteria and Chaewon and Minjoo were hanging out at the library.

“That can’t be her, can it?” Nako says, trying to get a closer look at the video.

“I mean, how many other mutants do we know with air powers that look exactly like Gaeun-unnie?” Chaewon replies sarcastically.

“Not the time for jokes, Chaewon. This is serious.” Eunbi chides. She knew from the mission reports that Gaeun and Yunjin had been taken by Ahn’s goons before they’d gotten there, but she still couldn’t wrap her mind around what she was watching. People were running around in chaos as winds uprooted lampposts and ripped apart electrical wires.

“Wait, there’s a new video!” Wonyoung interjects after looking through her laptop. When she plays it, the whole group is even more shocked as they see a familiar group of mutants subdue Gaeun.

“Is that…?” Yuri lets her question hang in the air until Chaeryeong speaks up.

“It’s ITZY…those are my friends…” She mutters, and as the video went, Yeji threw a fireball in Gaeun’s direction only for the older girl to swat it away. This proved to be a diversion though as Gaeun is hit from behind by a ray of ice.

“Hyewon…” Eunbi says. If they thought this video couldn’t get any crazier, it just did. The rest of the video plays out in silence as the group watches Ryujin and Yuna team up to attack Gaeun with alternating punches and kicks. The older girl was barely holding on, but the final blow was Lia sneaking up from behind and tripping her. She then uses her elastic arms to wrap and constrict Gaeun until she lost consciousness. Just like that, the fight was as good as done. The crowd that was initially cowering in fear was now cheering for the group who had stopped Gaeun.

“Oh, so when they stop an attack, they’re heroes, but when we stop terrorists, we’re villains. That doesn’t seem fair.”  Yena whines.

“In fairness, what we do is stop people who hate mutants. What they did was stop someone directly attacking humans.” Sakura replies.

“Don’t you inject your logic into this.” The duck says back.

“Wait, look closer in the video. Look at Gaeun’s face.” Hitomi observes, pointing out their friend’s scarlet red eyes.

“The gas? But, how come the others’ eyes are normal?” Minjoo asks.

“Oh yeah, you’re right. What’s going on? Don’t tell me they’re actually doing this on their own free will.” Chaewon says.

“Uh, girls, I think we’ll find out more here. There’s a new video that was just posted.” Wonyoung interjects when she sees another notification pop up. It was Principal Ahn walking towards ITZY and addressing the crowd that had begun to gather.

“Citizens of Seoul, for years, we have been plagued by rogue mutant attacks without a way to defend ourselves. The Produce program was flawed, and even today, their trainees have committed crimes against the people. I’m here to tell you that there is no need to fear any longer. This group of mutants is just the first that I have trained to do the job others were afraid of doing.” At this, the group automatically salutes to him.

“I don’t believe we should be against mutants. If they are on our side, and follow orders, it would be a waste of potential to ostracize them. I aim that all mutants be a part of society, but for that to happen, we must first register them all. My name is Ahn Joon-young, and I assure everyone that my plans will have South Korea coming out of this era as the most powerful country in the world!”

“There’s no way anyone’s gonna believe that malarkey.” Yujin says but is immediately proven wrong when the crowd cheers even louder than before. ITZY and Hyewon all smile and wave at them as Principal Ahn formally bows.

“You’ve got to be kidding me. Registration? That’s just going to make them demonize us more!” Chaeyeon says, the room now engulfed in silence.

“The news sites seem to be eating this all up.” Sakura mutters. “They’re hailing ITZY as the poster girls for a new era of mutants.”

“So, since their eyes aren’t red like Gaeun-unnie’s and they’re over there saluting him, are they just working with Ahn now?” Chaewon asks, bringing up her earlier concern again.

“There’s got to be another explanation. My friends wouldn’t unknowingly help someone like that guy!” Chaeryeong says defensively.

“Ditto for Hyewon-unnie. Why would she attack Gaeun-unnie like that if she was in control of herself? Maybe they were wearing contact lenses, or it was blackmail! You did say that Yeji had told her something before she joined them.” Yuri adds.

“Occam’s Razor. Sometimes the simplest explanation is the correct one. Wasn’t Hyewon once doing undercover work herself?” Sakura replies. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Hyewon, but it would be naïve to not consider all the options.

“Yah, we trusted you in the end and it worked out, didn’t it?” Yena says back. Chaeyeon was about to interject, but Eunbi beats her to it.

“GIRLS!” She shouts to get everyone’s attention. The room now quiets down once again as the leader tries to recompose herself.

“Listen, we can worry about if they’re working with Ahn or under his control for hours, but that doesn’t change what our goal is. We still need to rescue them.” Eunbi says calmly.

“How are we going to do that, unnie? Judging from what Ahn said in the video, the public’s perception of us has turned for the worse. I don’t think they’re just going to believe we’re actually the good guys.” Nako replies.

“To get to the bottom of this, we first have to expose Ahn for the criminal he is, and the only we can do that is at Jeju Island.” The leader says after giving it some thought. The others slowly nod in agreement before Eunbi speaks again.

“We should leave by tomorrow at the latest. Seunggi-sunbaenim actually sent us a pilot too, so we should be able to get there smoothly. Prepare yourselves, it’s going to be a tough mission.” The group hadn’t seen Eunbi look this serious in a long time, and they knew it was because Hyewon meant a lot to her. It was admirable how she was carrying herself despite everything that’d happened. It made Chaewon and Yena reflect on how recklessly they behaved in similar situations. Everyone knew that they had to do their best this time for their leader.

“Sakura, Chaeyeon, Chaeryeong, I’m going to need your help to plan our courses of action. Everyone else, we’ll meet you at dinner to go over the mission, and we’ll all leave by tomorrow morning.” As the group begins to file out to prepare, Eunbi could only stare at the still image of Hyewon waving at the crowd in front of her.

Don’t worry, Hyewonnie. We’ll find you soon. She thinks.

A/N: Greetings again, everyone! I hope you enjoyed this chapter.  I don't really have much to say this time, but in the next chapter, Hyewon will make her return! Thank you all once again for your patience and support! I always enjoy reading through comments across all platforms; it just makes me feel happy knowing so many people have loved the story so far! Anyways, I'll keep it short this time, if you want to get more updates on how the writing is going, my twt is @TofuBeagle22. I'll see you all in the next chapter!

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Tofu22
Huge apologies on the last chapter being missing! I posted it on ao3 and wattpad, and i could've sworn I posted it here too, but it looks like the work didn't save. Nevertheless, the final chapter is here now, so I hope you all enjoy!

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healingice #1
Chapter 20: this might honestly be my fav izone fic yet. can’t imagine the planning that went into this, to which characters got what power, which teams they should be split into for every mission, which powers could fight another (in the itzy/izone fight) and more. thank you for writing not one, but TWO of this masterpiece and looking forward to the spin-offs from this!
pixycatcher
#2
Chapter 20: The friendly capture of the flag sounds quite intriguing! God, it was a really long journey, and I loved every moment of reading this work! my English is a little bad, I'm sorry, but I just couldn't help thanking you for your work. and I love chaekura couple :>
twiceonce999 #3
Chapter 12: Can't wait for chaekura being girlfriend....
soshi4everFever #4
Chapter 10: This story is really amazing. Iz*one and powers in one story? What more could you asked for? Thank you for this amazing story author nim ^^ I'm inlove 😳