The homing beacon led Chaewon’s group to a park a couple blocks away on the edge of the city before the signal died. Nothing looked amiss from taking a quick look around, but looks can always be deceiving. They knew Seoyoung was smart enough not to make a move out in the open. There had to be a secluded area somewhere here.

“So, this Seoyoung girl. You said her ability was mimicry? Like copying our powers?” Eunchae asks as the five girls walk on the cemented pathway. During the ride over, Sakura had given them a quick summary of what to expect and how to fight Park Seoyoung- attack from afar, do not try to take her one on one, and under no circumstances should you allow her hands to make contact with you.

“Something like that. She drains one's powers on contact, leaving the target dizzy and weak. Normally, she’ll have the power for a couple hours, but if she manages to kill her victim and drain all their life force, she keeps their abilities permanently. Right now, from our data, she has the power to shift her arms into metal weapons, but more recently, she’s shown the ability to camouflage herself.” Sakura replies without looking back. Given the second listed ability, the older girl had to keep her eyes peeled for even the slightest movement in the foliage surrounding them.

“Okay…that sounds really scary, but you’ve beaten her before, right?” The youngest girl tries to clarify, suddenly feeling a bit apprehensive. She had joined HYVE to train to be an idol, but the new mutant initiative gave her an excuse to practice her powers as well. Eunchae couldn’t have predicted though that she’d be thrown right into the fire to apprehend a high tier mutant threat.

“Not without a few tricks…” Chaewon says ominously, remembering herself almost dying back in Busan trying to stop the rogue mutant. Eunchae quiets at the vague response, hearing the sound of her own heart beating. She couldn’t afford her ability to fail today. Her thoughts are interrupted though as Kazuha’s voice stops the group.

“I sense something strange.” The Japanese girl announces.

“What do you mean? I don’t see anything out of the ordinary.” Yunjin replies, but Kazuha shakes her head.

“No, the air feels different. Something pivoted off the path and into the forest.” She says confidently, pointing in the direction of a thicket to the group’s left. That’s when Sakura began to feel a tingle in her brain. Something technological was nearby and as she approached where Kazuha had pointed, she found a crushed cell phone on the ground. The older girl still wasn’t sure what the former spy’s power was, but she decided to trust her judgment..

“This must be Goeun’s. Let’s follow Kazuha’s lead for now.” The tech girl says, letting the aforementioned girl lead them off the path and into the forest.

~~~~

After a couple minutes of trekking, the thicket opens up into a clearing that wasn’t visible earlier. As the group fans out to survey the area, Sakura now finds herself next to Yunjin.

“I never would’ve imagined working with you or even Chaewon-unnie for that matter.” The dark-haired girl says absentmindedly. She’d found herself rescued by the members of IZ*ONE more times than she’d care to admit, which is one of the reasons that really pushed her to join HYVE after receiving their offer. She wanted to be able to help others the way they helped her.

“Yeah, life can be very unpredictable, but I haven’t fully decided on committing yet.” Sakura replies quietly.

“I really hope you do though. We could use your experience. You’re much more powerful than you give yourself credit for.” Yunjin says. Given the past couple days, the compliment meant a lot to the tech girl. Before she could reply though, she hears Chaewon let out a gasp from across the clearing.

“Oh no… we have to find Goeun quickly.” The short-haired girl says, pointing towards a trail of blood leading even deeper into the shrubbery.

After following it, the group eventually reaches a river that cuts through the forest. It definitely felt like they were out of the park’s jurisdiction now, and on the riverbank was an unconscious body of a woman.

“Goeun!!!” Chaewon shouts as she runs to their fallen ally. The brunette was in very bad shape with bruises all over and a large gash on her forearm. Luckily though, she was still breathing.

“Goeun, can you hear me? What happened?” Sakura asks, trying to awaken the girl by splashing some water on her face while Chaewon and Yunjin tended to her wounds. Suddenly and much to the group’s relief, Goeun began to stir.

“Sakura-unnie…?” She asks through a cough.

“Yes, it’s me. We’re here to help.” The older girl replies, but Goeun shakes her head.

“Seoyoung…it’s a trap…” She whispers just before an invisible force sends Eunchae flying from behind them. Kazuha’s eyes widen, twisting just in time to deflect another invisible attack. Without even blinking, the Japanese girl quickly launches a kick into the air that manages to connect with something. To the group’s surprise, a blonde girl with a pointed chin begins to materialize in front of them.

“You’re good.” Seoyoung says with a menacing smile before shifting her arms into her patented metal blades.

Kazuha though is unphased and charges directly towards the rogue mutant. Sakura was just about to tell her to stop until the younger girl’s body began to shimmer and disappear into thin air. Seoyoung looked around confused until a strong gust of wind smacked her right across the face. The air then rematerialized behind her into Kazuha’s form who sweeps her off her feet with a low kick.

“Sakura, get the others out of here.” She says as she dodges another swing by Seoyoung. Kazuha’s movements were graceful and smooth, and Sakura couldn’t help but think it was connected to her ballerina training.

Meanwhile, Chaewon had sent a clone over to check on Eunchae who had fallen into the river and was now spitting out water.

“Not fair! She caught me off guard.” The youngest girl complains.

“You think you’re ready to fight?” Chaewon asks, noticing how Kazuha wasn’t making much progress against Seoyoung. She had to spend so much time dodging her metal blades that she couldn’t get off a counterattack.

“I thought you’d never ask, unnie.” Eunchae says with a smirk before placing her hand on her chest and focusing her energy. Slowly but surely, a golden light began to emit from the blonde girl’s body until she was at the center of a fifteen foot avatar. Sakura sees this unfold, hanging open as Eunchae runs up to Seoyoung and lands a powerful punch while she was preoccupied with Kazuha.

“Yah, Kkura, we have to go!” Chaewon says, snapping the older girl out of her thoughts. She then runs to catch up with Yunjin who was trying to block her and Goeun from Seoyoung’s sight with an illusion.

With Chaewon and her clones joining the fight, Seoyoung looked like she was on the ropes, but that’s when her eyes landed on Sakura.

“You’re not getting away that easily!” She says as she camouflages and disappears from the group’s sight.

In a flash, one of Chaewon’s clones is struck down causing all of her copies to fade away. The short-haired girl clutches her gut which despite not having any visible injury, was causing her immense pain.

Eunchae is the next to be attacked as Seoyoung stabs her metal arm right into her avatar’s leg. This causes the younger girl to stumble and lose control of her fighting form. When she looks down, she sees blood dripping from a cut that was in a similar area where her avatar had been attacked. The trio were being picked off one by one.

With Kazuha now standing alone, she tries to focus on her surroundings, sensing for Seoyoung’s presence. A sudden disturbance in the air behind her causes her to turn and strike, but it proved to be a fake out. Seoyoung then appears out of nowhere and lets out a supersonic screech, no doubt stolen from Goeun. Kazuha tries to shift back into her wind form, but it proves to be useless. You couldn’t dodge a sound-based attack by shifting density. Now that Kazuha was on her knees in solid form again, Seoyoung walked up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, stealing her power as well.

“This ability feels really strong…” She says with a maniacal laugh. Yunjin and Sakura can only watch this all unfold in horror.

“You’re both next…” Seoyoung says, turning her attention towards the two of them. Yunjin tries to cast an illusion, but the rogue mutant breaks right through, knowing what Yunjin’s weakness was. The dark-haired girl’s abilities were most effective when the target was caught off guard, which was definitely not the case right now.

Seoyoung has an evil smile on her face, trying out the power she’d stolen from Kazuha and becoming one with the air, but this proved to be a huge mistake. Out of nowhere, a blur dashes onto the scene and creates a tornado that Seoyoung in.

“Kkura-unnnie, are you okay?” An invisible voice asks while tapping the aforementioned girl’s shoulder.

“Who…?”

“Oh, sorry. It’s me, Minjoo! Looks like Chaeyeon-unnie and I got here just in time.” The brunette says after uncloaking herself.

“Thanks, we need to get the others to safety.” Sakura replies, trying to regain composure.

“Wait, oh my god, Chaewonnie!” Minjoo shouts when she spots her girlfriend on the ground in pain a couple meters away.

“Yah, a little help here!” Chaeyeon says suddenly. She’d just finished running circles around Seoyoung until she was dizzy on the ground back in physical form. Yunjin, who had also managed to steady herself, takes this as her cue to form an illusion while Seoyoung was disoriented.

When the blonde girl wakes up, she charges towards the river, her hands back in metal form only to run through her targets and fall right into the water.

“Yah! Where’d you rats go!” She yells, but everyone is already long gone. Minjoo had managed to cloak the wounded while the rest hurried off back to the park’s main path.

~~~~

“Yah, Kim Chaewon! Did you not think of informing me that you were building a mutant team before running off to go after a high level threat like Seoyoung?” Eunbi scolds.

Instead of heading back to HYVE, the group went straight to PD campus where they were immediately sent to the infirmary. Chaeyeon hadn’t said a word the entire way again, and once they got to their destination, it was Chaewon who was getting an earful from IZ*ONE’s leader.

“I just thought-” The short-haired girl tries to respond but is immediately cut off.

“That you could take her on just like that? It’s one thing to send our best to protect others, and it’s another to send a team with no experience together to do the same thing. She picked you off one by one because you weren’t fighting as a unit.” The older girl says, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“Alright, alright, unnie. I’m sorry. We were in over our own heads.” Chaewon apologizes.

“You don’t just have to apologize to me. You have to say sorry to them as well.” Eunbi says, pointing at Eunchae, Kazuha, and Yunjin. Guilt starts to rise in Chaewon realizing how foolhardy she was. Eunchae was still young, not even 14 yet, and here she was taking her on this mission. At least Wonyoung had the help and protection of eleven other girls on her first mission. Kazuha may have been experienced, but she’d only met them all for the first time today. Meanwhile, Yunjin might have had some unresolved trauma from an almost fatal encounter with the rogue mutant a year ago. It was starting to dawn on Chaewon that she just made a unanimous decision to chase after a target the new group wasn’t prepared to take on. These thoughts cause the short-haired girl’s head to drop in shame which causes Eunbi’s heart to soften just a little bit.

“I don’t have a problem with you forming your own team, Chae.” She says, placing a reassuring arm on her shoulder. “Just like Yujin, you have the makings of a good leader. You just need to be more careful.”

“I’ll try to be better, unnie. I promise.” Chaewon says with her head bowed.

“If Seoyoung shows up again, we’ll have you and your group on standby. Just make sure to plan things out better this time.” Eunbi announces, effectively closing the discussion before turning to face Sakura.

“Kkura, come with me. We have things to discuss.”

“At least we get another chance…” The short-haired girl says before her ear is pulled by Minjoo who took Eunbi leaving as her cue to start nagging her girlfriend herself. Sakura lets out a wistful sigh seeing the two, only being able to think of a certain speedster and how she wished she would just talk to her as she followed Eunbi out.

~~~~

“What did you think of Chaewon’s team?” Eunbi asks once they were alone in the war room which surprises the Japanese girl.

“They have the talent. I mean, Chaewon and Yunjin are already experienced. Kazuha was apparently a former spy in the Netherlands as well. Even the young girl, Eunchae, shows a lot of control over her abilities. I just think during the fight they were a bit disjointed. They were fighting as a group, but not together if that makes sense.” Sakura replies objectively. Eunbi quiets at the new information before speaking again.

“Okay, that’s a relief. I just didn’t think Chaewon would jump into battle with her group that quickly.”

“Wait, you knew about her team?” Sakura asked, taken aback by the older girl’s comment.

“Yes, I’ve been briefed on it- Project Le Sserafim. HYVE has wanted to build their own mutant team for a while, so they brought it up with me and Seunggi-sunbae. We don’t know what their plan is, but with Chaewon placed in charge of the team, we decided we should let it play out for now.” Eunbi says.

“So, this was a test? You wanted to see how Chaewon would do as a leader?” Sakura guesses, being proven right when the older girl nods.

“I didn’t plan for her to go after Seoyoung, but yes, we’re assessing Chaewon’s leadership skills right now. While she still has room to improve, I can see the potential. You said she offered you to join the team though, right? I think you should take her up on that for the good of that unit.”

“Wait, what? Are you sure about that?” The tech girl asks, thinking she didn’t hear Eunbi right the first time.

“They need a steadying presence, and I think you can be that for them. It’ll also help with communication if HYVE tries to hide anything.” Eunbi reasoned, and Sakura found it hard to disagree. The IZ*ONE leader also felt deep down that this team had a better chance of taking Seoyoung down since they had two mutants she had no data on. That’s why she wanted to give them a second chance.

“You should do it.” A new voice cuts into the conversation. When Eunbi and Sakura turn, they see Chaeyeon standing by the doorway with an unreadable expression.

“Chaeyeon, how long have you been-” Eunbi begins to say, but Chaeyeon holds a hand up to stop her.

“Long enough to know what’s going on. Can you please excuse me and Kkura, unnie?” The younger girl asks politely.

“Sure…” Eunbi then turns to look at Sakura, giving her shoulder a reassuring squeeze before leaving the couple alone.

“Chaeyeon-ah, I’m really sorry. For everything. I want to make things right, but I need us to talk for that to happen.” Sakura says pleadingly. At this, Chaeyeon quickly closes the distance between them, giving her a big hug.

“I know. I’m sorry too. I should’ve spoken my mind sooner instead of letting my thoughts wander. Seoyoung is a problem bigger than any petty grudge I could have against you. I love you, Kkura. I wouldn’t have gotten upset if I didn’t care about you…about us.” The younger girl says with tears streaming down her eyes.

“Wait, so why do you want me to join Le Sserafim? I thought you wanted me to leave.” Sakura asks, tears starting to form in her eyes as well.

“No, it’s not about our fight. I do genuinely think you can help Chaewon and the others. I know you can do a lot more there than cooped up in your room all day here.” Chaeyeon replies before continuing.

“I’m not letting you go. I’m letting you grow. We’ll still have time to go on dates again like we used to, but our mission to keep the peace should come first.” Sakura, who was now bawling, nods.

“Okay, Chaeyeon. Thank you…for forgiving me. I-I love you too. I love you so much.” The older girl says as she cupped the feather girl’s face in her hands and kissed her. All the tension from the past couple months was finally dissipating as the two locked lips. After a couple seconds though, it was Chaeyeon who separated first to catch her breath and steer them back to the matter at hand.

“So, uh, I assume you have a plan to find Seoyoung and get the data back, right?” The feather girl says as she fans her now red face.

“Yes, I think I do now.” Sakura replies with a giggle. 

It was time to use the rogue mutant’s strategy against her.

A/N: Hi, surprised? I also didn't expect to be back this soon. After my first day onsite, I was working from home today and had some free time. 

So, Le Sserafim's first battle didn't go as expected, but they'll get another crack at Seoyoung in the next chapter! I hope y'all liked the powers I assigned to Kazuha and Eunchae. Actually, I didn't ask about in the IVE story either, but I hope you liked what I gave Gaeul, Liz, Rei, and Leeseo as well lol. I put a lot of thought into those abilities.

Anyways, hope y'all enjoyed the KkuChaen moment in the end! This is still a KkuChaen story at heart after all.

Thank you again for all the support, likes, and comments! Again, work may delay chapters, so please stay patient with me.

I'll hopefully see y'all again in the next chapter!