[Note if it wasn’t clear that chapters 4-6 are all happening at the same time.]

“Hey, Kkura. I have a question.” Eunchae says as Le Sserafim approaches KYB Programming.

“What is it?” Though Sakura was not in the best of moods knowing that a lot of what was going on was her fault, she didn’t want to show it, especially to the maknae of the group. She tried to encourage Eunchae as much as possible these days because the time mutants need the most support was when they were young.

“You and the others believe KYB is the one who had your laptop stolen months ago, right? Eunchae asks. The tech-girl nods in response, leading to a follow-up question.

“Well, there was a mission shortly after that where Eunbi-unnie and Hyewon-unnie were investigating cybersecurity firms that were being broken into. If KYB has their own programming division, why didn’t they just have it hacked over there?”

It was a good question to be fair; one that she’s also considered since doing her research on the company.

“My best guess is that they didn’t want the extraction to lead back to them. It was clear in those robberies that they were looking for specific tools, so maybe they were trying to recreate their own codes using third-party software. You see, when someone touches my tech, I can trace exactly what was done with it. If they used a code created by their company, I’d be able to cross reference that until I found them whereas if they used several different parts, it’d be harder for me to figure out it was them.” Sakura explains, though from the looks of things, it had only seemed to confuse the youngest even more.

“Uhm, anyone able to simplify that for me?” Eunchae asks the others in the van.

“How about this- bad guys just like to cover their footprints.” Yunjin says with a laugh, giving Sakura a pat on the shoulder. The maknae finally nods in understanding.

“Oh, okay. That cleared it up. Thanks unnies.” From the smile on Eunchae’s face, you wouldn’t know that the six girls in the car were on their way to an infiltration mission. On the opposite end, Sakura’s been on so many that it’s become routine for her, and yet, she felt a bit on edge for this one.

As Sakura sits back in her seat, a hand suddenly taps her shoulder. It was the other Japanese member of the group, Kazuha.

“Saku-chan, are you worried about something?” The younger girl asks in their native language to have a bit more privacy.

“Is it showing that much?” Sakura chuckles back, realizing that her poker face had worsened compared to before she came to Korea.

“Mhm, you’ve had that look on your face ever since we met up earlier to discuss the plan. I know that you feel that this is your fault, but we’re here to support you.” Kazuha says.

“A lot of people are getting hurt because of me. Chaeyeon was supposed to come with us, but the robots I designed attacked her sister’s home. If something bad happens, and I’m unable to fix it, I won’t be able to forgive myself.” The tech girl replies. Kazuha was quiet for a few seconds, contemplating what to say.

“You don’t have to say anything, Zuha. I’d prefer us dealing with this problem with actions rather than words.” Sakura ends up saying, as if reading her friend’s mind.

“Alright, Kkura-chan. You know you can count on me for that, but for the record, I understood why you did the things you did. I know you’re a good person.” Though Kazuha was still rather new to the country, Sakura had quickly made her feel at home. Only a few people like Chaeyeon knew it, but the older girl had a soft side. Everything Sakura did was in an effort to protect her teammates.

Over at the front of the van, Minjoo looks back at the four girls conversing about different things.

“You have a nice group of people in your group, Chae.” The raven-haired girl says to her girlfriend who was driving. It had taken her a couple of attempts, but yes, she could now drive.

“Yeah, I still kinda do wish you took the offer, Min.” Chaewon replies, keeping both eyes on the road.

“You know why I couldn’t, unnie. Beyond just contracts, I just can’t be in that life anymore.”

“I know. Just call it wishful thinking. You’re here today despite that, aren’t you?”

“That’s different. This is an IZ*ONE level threat. I promised myself those were the only missions I’d take up.” Minjoo had this discussion half a year ago when the short-haired girl had initially asked her to join the group. IZ*ONE was her first family outside her own parents, and she was content with that. She didn’t want her life to just become mission after mission. The only exception she made was when it was a big one like this that needed all the help they could get.

“Actually, there was another reason I wanted you to join in that I never mentioned.” Minjoo’s eyebrow raises at the sudden information. Chaewon notices this and smiles.

“I’ll tell you some other time because we just arrived. Just remind me, okay?” The leader of Le Sserafim then calls everyone’s attention and tells them to get ready.

~~~~

“Alright girls, going over the plan again. You each have a decryption key that I made. We’re going to split up into two groups. Me, Chaewon, and Minjoo will check their server room. Meanwhile, a Chaewon clone will accompany Yunjin, Kazuha, and Eunchae to the main office. All we need to find is any connection between KYB and the androids or my laptop. After that, we make our escape. Please leave fighting to a minimum.” Sakura says to the team. In front of them was a three-story tall white building with ‘KYB Programming’ on a sign right in the middle.

The initial infiltration was easy given that Le Sserafim’s composition was good for sneaking around. Having Minjoo with them was an added bonus. While she cloaked Sakura and Chaewon in invisibility, Kazuha shifted to air mode and Yunjin casted illusions that masked the others’ presence.

~~~~

“Sakura, we’ve made it to the top floor. Nothing amiss so far. Zuha’s just opening the main office door.” Yunjin communicates through the mental link Sakura had set up. Her group had opted to use the elevator, which may or may not have scared guards and late-night workers when the metal doors would open for no one to be there.

“That’s good, we’re getting close to the server room. Just a bit more security we have to get through.” The older girl replies. A couple seconds later the door in front of Yunjin’s group opens. Kazuha had simply slipped through to the other side using a vent and unlocked it.

The room didn’t look very special. The walls were colored white with a couple picture frames hanging on them. On the shelves were more photos of the KYB Programming CEO with the KYB Holdings president, Kim Yong-bum. Finally, in the center of the room was an oak desk with a PC monitor on it.

“Alright, let’s see what we have here…” Chaewon mumbles as she sits on the office chair and plugs her decryption key into the console below the desk. After a couple seconds of scanning through files, a notification pops up on the side of the screen,

“Sakura’s gadget found a match for the malware code that hacked her laptop.” The short-haired girl says.

“That must make it an open and shut case, right?” Kazuha asks, but Chaewon shakes her head.

“No, maybe to us it is, but any computer can get malware. We need to keep digging for hard evidence.”

While Chaewon and Kazuha do that, Yunjin and Eunchae were looking through the shelves and drawers for other clues.

“Hmm? What’s this?” Yunjin asks herself when a picture frame catches her attention. She slowly picks it up and when her eyes realize who was in the picture, she suddenly drops it.

“Yah, what was that?” A guard’s voice from the outside wonders when he hears the sound of broken glass.

“Sorry! Someone’s coming, don’t move.” Yunjin whispers before casting another illusion to make the room look normal. The door then suddenly unlocks, one of the guards peering inside.

“Aish, maybe there are ghosts here…” He says while scanning the room, not seeing anything wrong with the place, before shutting the door again.

“What was that, unnie?” Eunchae asks while picking up the picture and seeing an unfamiliar man in it.

“I’m sure now KYB is involved. That’s Ahn Joon-young in the photo.” Yunjin replies, the mention of the name causing Chaewon to look away from the screen for a second.

“Ahn Joon-young as in the maniac who posed as our principal and abducted you?” She asks to which Yunjin nods. The photo showed the Programming president and Joon-young shaking hands with Kim Yong-bum in the middle. It looked to be a partnership celebration.

“Alright, that’s that hard evidence we needed. I wasn’t getting anything else from this stupid PC.” Chaewon says. The security on some of the files on this computer appeared to be too complicated even for Sakura’s decrypter which made sense for a programming company. Only Sakura herself would have the power to unlock those. The short-haired girl was just about to contact the other group when a loud snap echoed in everyone’s heads.

“What was that???” Kazuha asks when everyone recovers.

“Sakura’s connection was just cut, which means they’re in trouble. We need to mo-” Before Chaewon could finish her sentence, she fell down on one knee, grabbing at her head.

“Unnie???” The others gather around their leader’s clone in worry, but ultimately couldn’t do anything as the copy began to fade in front of their eyes.

“Oh god, we need to get down there quick.” Yunjin says, shocked at what had just happened.

~~~~

10 minutes ago…

“You find anything yet, unnie?” Minjoo asks nervously as she and Chaewon stand guard over their friend, the former holding on to both girls to keep them invisible.

“She’s in hacking mode, Min. She can’t hear us.” The short-haired girl replies, looking at their friend whose hands were placed on one of the servers.

“No… not this… not this either…” Sakura says in her mind as she swipes past files. The tech-girl then focuses harder to bring up the locked folders that were deeper within the storage. Eventually she finds one labeled ‘robotics’ and pulls it closer. In her machine world though, this looked like a chained up envelope appearing into her arms. To unlock it, she conjures up a metal pin out of thin air and begins picking at the lock until she hears a satisfying click.

“Okay… this should be it.” What she finds within the file are the exact schematics that had been stolen from her and the codes they’d put in its mainframe. “Bingo.”

As she was about to exit back into the real world though, she notices another file behind the first blueprint. It was another version of the android, but with a special feature.

“Hmm? Why would its eyes need that code?” She thinks before sharp pain in her shoulder forces her to open her eyes.

“Hello there, Sakura. Don’t worry, you won’t die. We need you.” The voice of a woman says.

“Yah, who are you?” Chaewon asks, trying to shake free from a guard’s hold. Across from her, Minjoo was in a similar situation.

“How did you even see us?” The dark-haired girl asks. The woman, who had a pistol in one hand, chuckles, tapping on her black-rimmed shades.

“Had to get some new ones after your friend, Hyewon, broke my last pair. They gave these some nice upgrades.”

“Wait… Kim Sohye? How did you get here?” Sakura mumbles, gripping on her shoulder that was still on fire with pain.

“KYB has their hands everywhere. It wasn’t that hard to pull the strings and get me out. It was just about timing.” She replies with a laugh.

“Looks like we’re going to have to send you somewhere else then!” Chaewon says before finally getting an elbow free to strike her captor in the side. She immediately splits into four copies and charges towards Sohye who could only sigh before taking her shades off to stare directly into the main Chaewon’s eyes.

“NO!!!” Minjoo screams as she sees her girlfriend crumple to the ground, her copies also dissipating.

“Tragic. It seemed like she had a lot of good memories too.” Sohye says, putting her shades back on.

“What… what do you want?” Sakura asks.

“Like I said, KYB needs you. Now, are you going to come with us or not? I didn’t completely erase the memories of your friend here, but that could be arranged if you remain uncooperative.” At that moment, the server room’s door is broken through by a huge fist. The other Le Sserafim members had finally arrived.

“You better surrender now whoever you are!” Yunjin says to Sohye whose back was still turned.

“The choice is yours, Sakura.” She threatens once again, playing around with her shades.

“Girls… stand down.” The older girl eventually says through a cough.

“What? You’re hurt, unnie! Let us-”

“No, this is the only way.” Sakura says before reestablishing the mental link,

“Trust me. Sohye already wiped Chaewon’s memories. I don’t want you all getting hurt too.” The girls clearly didn’t like it, but ultimately decided to step aside.

“No funny business, Miyawaki.” Sohye says as she has her men pick the injured woman up and carry her out of the room.

Once they were gone, Minjoo immediately rushes over to Chaewon and begins shaking her.

“Chae… Chae, please wake up. Chaewon!” She screams until the body she was holding begins to stir.

“Where… am I?” Chaewon asks groggily, grabbing at her head.

“No, no… please say you remember me. It’s me. Kim Minjoo.” The younger girl pleads.

“I feel like I’d remember a face like yours.” She replies with a slight chuckle. Minjoo would have laughed if it were a joke, but it clearly wasn’t.

“Minjoo… what do we do?” The shaky voice of Yunjin cuts through. Suddenly, Minjoo remembered that she wasn’t alone and Chaewon’s teammates must’ve been devastated too.

“We need to get her to Eunbi now. She and Hyewon might know something.” The dark-haired girl says, but at the mention of the first name, Chaewon’s head turns.

“Eunbi? As in Kwon Eunbi? How do you know her?” She asks.

“You remember Eunbi? We’ll explain everything later, Chaewon. We just need to get out of here.” Minjoo says, relieved to some extent that they wouldn’t completely have to start over with Chaewon. Just as they were about to leave though, a group of guards appeared to block their exit.

“Now that the boss has what he needs, you are all expendable.” One soldier says while his gun was aimed right at Chaewon.

The rest of the Le Sserafim girls take a fighting stance, ready to defend their leader, but in the blink of an eye, the whole group is blown away by a whirlwind. It was Chaeyeon.

“I’m sorry I’m late, girls. Things at JYP were a bit- wait, where is Sakura?” The feather girl asks when she sees her girlfriend missing.

“She had to leave with them…” Kazuha replies.

“What do you mean ‘had to’? We need to go after them then!” Chaeyeon was about to turn and give chase, but Minjoo grabs her arm.

“We can’t unnie. We don’t know what direction they went in, and…” Minjoo couldn’t even finish her sentence without bursting into tears, the emotion finally taking over her. Chaeyeon’s eyes then meet Chaewon’s for an explanation, but there was something different about them.

“Her mind was wiped… not completely, but we need to get back to base now. Sakura told us to trust her, so we have to hope she knows what she’s doing.” Yunjin says.

“Her mind… was wiped?” Chaeyeon repeats what she heard unconsciously, looking at Minjoo who was still bawling.

“Why is everything falling apart…”

 

A/N: Alright, as you can see, things aren't going very well for the team. The next chapter will focus on the aftermath of these past three chapters as the remaining members try and figure out what to do. 

I know it was a bit sad, especially the ending of this and the previous chapter, but the team can't always just succeed, right? Otherwise, the story would end right away. Everything will fall into place with time, promise!

Thanks once again for reading and supporting this fic, and I'll see y'all in the next one!