Target No.1: Son Seungwan

Target No. 2: Blue Squirrel

Maintain secret identity

Be subservient to orders made by the Sons

Stay close and vigilant to Target No. 1

Bring Target No. 2 to headquarters

Quietly stand guard as Target No. 2 is tranquilised until microchip is prepared

She is copacetic and indifferent. Cold and hard. Joohyun is a slab of stone beneath your foot that you may step on or you may fall over and she will brace the impact. You will bleed over her and she will lie there, drinking your blood.

She is but a silent eye in the sky. The moon, in all its isolation, watches over the madness of humanity, doomed to witness war and bloodshed repeat itself in time, all with the distant warmth of the sun behind her--she is doomed to never touch it. She is doomed to lone observation; quiet, obedient and unmoving.

She is an insect crawling around her own corpse. She feels her bones and she tastes the lifeless meat it's covered with but it is as heavy as the microchip forcing her to stay put, and as cold as the monotonous rattling in her chest.

The balls of her feet are aching, she needs to move around or she might just fall over soon. She is given oxygen and she is given gravity. She is a peasant, genuflecting against burnt coal; waiting until her monarch might remember to tell her otherwise. 

The Blue Squirrel remains unconscious, strapped into the bed beside her. The restraints are at her ankles and wrists, Joohyun knows her partner has nothing to free herself from when all her gadgets are in her belt. She wants to scold her for not equipping herself with some kind of tool in her wrists at least for situations like these, but Joohyun's lips are pressed together. Not tightly, not painfully at all. Her tongue pushes against the gap of but it has no strength, it is no muscle anymore. It is a harmless snake imprisoned in ; and when it has a burst of energy, there are two lines of soldiers at the entrance, ready to defend. When Joohyun has enough of the metallic taste in , does she give up trying to speak.

There is a thought being poured into her brain; if I wish to help the Blue Squirrel, I will wrap my hands around my throat. I will give myself a hug that is fitting for someone who betrays my monarch, defying my order. 

The Sons are behind her with a scientist. Joohyun hasn't been listening to them much in her futile attempts at opening or lifting her toe or twitching her finger. What she can move is her eyes, she scans the woman before her. In a different scenario, Joohyun would think that she looks so peaceful. She doesn't begin to imagine what her partner went through these past few days since she recognised her grandmother's killer. She hopes that regardless of the tranquiliser, her partner might wake up better rested. That will be her last free thought if she can help it. Whatever the Sons are planning to do with them once they have both vigilantes under their control, Joohyun just hopes that her partner has gotten enough sleep for an eternity of slavery. 

"Are you sure it's ready?" Joohyun hears Taeyeon ask.

She's hoping they might go on a typical villain monologue by now so that if she's never going to be able to regain control of her body again, at least she'll know why and what they plan to do. Really, it's the least they can do.

"Yes, ma'am," the scientist says. "The beta chip in the Pink Bunny shows no signs of issues. I believe it can be tested in the other vigilante."

Beta chip, huh? So she's just another test subject to them. Figures.

"Wait, just 'tested'? I don't want the Squirrel to be just another test subject," Taeyeon says. "I think we should update the Bunny's chip, see how it goes before putting it in my mother and then the Squirrel."

Joohyun wonders why she's so worried about implanting it into her partner when she so easily put a test microchip in her. But, her job is to watch Target No. 2 so who is she to argue? 

Suddenly, the doors are swinging open and another scientists comes in, panting out, "The body is rejecting cryostasis!"

"What?" Tiffany grunts out. "What do you mean 'rejecting'?"

In the corner of her eye, Joohyun sees them all running out of the room. 

Now, alone with Target No. 2, Joohyun is allowed the privacy of cascading her vision with the features of her partner. She's unconscious yet her beauty is everything but. Joohyun wants to reach out and feel the softness of her cheek beneath her fingertips, but she is to stand guard. Nothing more, nothing less. 

Joohyun thinks back to the last time she was watching someone asleep. She was tasked to watch over Target No. 1 and Joohyun spent all of her patrol outside on Seungwan's balcony, watching her sleep. She knows it was incredibly creepy but it was something she had to do. Even if she wanted to move, her feet were much like it is now--unwilling to move.

A part of her enjoyed it.

Seungwan's always been a bright source of life and spirit, seeing how she preserves it and restores it in her slumber felt like witnessing the formation of a star. As gravity moulds dust and molecules, the beginnings of its light forms; spinning and spinning until that giant ball of pure energy appears. 

Joohyun remembers seeing galaxies in Seungwan's eyes when she woke up. 

She sees them again when the Squirrel's eyelids flutter open and her partner begins to slip back to consciousness.

"What the--" Seungwan grunts out, tugging at her restraints before she lifts her gaze to see Joohyun standing over her. "Bunny? L-Let me out of here!"

Joohyun doesn't say anything. She is but a mouthless moon. A devout follower of a god. A silent eye.

"Hey, come on," Seungwan whines, pulling against the straps around her wrists. "What was your command? Surely, there's a loophole."

There is no loophole. Joohyun is an empty shell now.

She is a passenger in her own body as someone else has the keys. Oh, right--that's the metaphor Mark said Tiffany used. It seems like he's just driving her body off a cliff, though. Her consciousness is growing tired; it's locked in a cage with the snake and the soldiers. She can see the outside and she can feel the ache in her muscles but the microchip has reign over her brain. It crawled through the back of her neck and chewed on the wires between herself and her psyche. It has its little fangs in her, with a crown on its head and an army of her own thoughts to keep her at bay. 

"Told you not to talk, huh?" Seungwan pouts.

Joohyun doesn't do much as blink.

"That's never stopped me before," Seungwan grins.

She's very flippant, considering how she's literally strapped down and about to be chipped, Joohyun thinks.

"Hey, Bunny. When I propose to you, how many carrots would you like?" Joohyun rolls her eyes at that. "Ah, so you are still in there, somewhere."

Despite the dire situation they're in, Joohyun's glad her partner's facetious attitude and jokes still have the same effect as it always has--warmth. It's like a disease that intrudes into her chest and brews a cup of hot green tea there before slipping away. 

Her pinky finger flicks slightly.

"Say, Bunny boo... Where would you want to go for our bunnymoon?" Seungwan doesn't give up on this effort and Joohyun shuts her eyes. The car is swerving this obstacle, not changing gears and not slowing down. It will crash if it needs to, but it must reach its destination first. Joohyun will carry out her order. "Hey, I hop you're listening to me, now. I love you, Bunny. We're gonna get out of this, together alright? Just let me out of these and I'll remove the commands."

Joohyun manages to shake her head at her, ever so slightly. 

"Bunny, please. I can't let them do this to anyone else," Seungwan begs quietly. "Blink once if you agree with me."

Joohyun does just that.

She wants to help her but she must be kept here. That's the only thing she knows now. The Blue Squirrel must remain here, restrained and under her careful eye.

"Okay, so it looks like they haven't completely brainwashed you. It's just making you do things whether you want to or not." Joohyun blinks again and Seungwan sighs. "I'm gonna need you to snap out of it, then. We both want to get out of here--"

"Ah, you're awake!" Tiffany suddenly appears back in the room. Joohyun notices that the other scientist and his wife is not with him as he comes up beside her. "Have you been trying to talk with your partner, hm?"

"What do you want from me?" Seungwan grunts out. 

"I want you to help me help humanity," he replies, throwing a perfunctory shrug. "That's the only thing we all should strive towards, isn't it?"

"I don't see how any of this is helping anyone," Seungwan snarks back.

Tiffany chuckles and goes to the desk on the side with his back directly facing Joohyun. There's some light clacking on a keyboard and some clattering with objects before he spins around with a small, hand-held device. It has a thin hollow tube and is almost shaped like a gun. For implanting the microchip, Joohyun thinks.

"Don't worry," Tiffany says to Seungwan after seeing her nervous expression. "This isn't for you," he promises, "...yet."

He then turns to Joohyun and gives her a come-hither gesture with a finger. Joohyun follows him wordlessly.

Be subservient to orders made by the Sons, Joohyun thinks.

"How much do you miss your grandmother, Squirrel?" Tiffany asks as he moves aside Joohyun's hair. 

"W-What? Hey, get your hands off her, !"

"You can talk to her again," Tiffany continues as he sets the device up to the back of Joohyun's neck. "Originally, we wanted to just revive her completely but there was an issue," Joohyun hears the tremble in his voice at that, "and it looks like we'll have to go to Plan B."

"What's Plan B?" Seungwan voices Joohyun's own thoughts. 

"Transfering her consciousness," Tiffany explains. "Your partner's been very good at listening to her orders. I think she deserves a reward."

This man is insane, Joohyun thinks but doesn't find it in her to protest.

"Don't ing touch her!" Seungwan snarls, fighting against the restraints roughly. "I'm warning you!"

"Stop with that tantrum now," Tiffany mutters and presses a button on the implanting device. It let's out a sudden hiss of air and Joohyun clenches her jaw at the piercing of her skin as the device penetrates the back of her neck. She doesn't let herself make a sound. "Do you really want your grandmother to see you acting like a child?"

Joohyun feels like she's missing something. Why does he care about the Squirrel's grandmother? He's talking to her partner as if she was his daughter.

Squirrel's quiet. Suspiciously so. There's a prolonged sort of staring contest between the Squirrel and Tiffany as Joohyun seems lost in a cloud of well... nothingness. 

"You know who I am, huh?" 

Tiffany doesn't say anything; his mouth splits into a devilish smirk and his eyes glint beneath the harsh light overhead. 

"Of course I do," Tiffany chuckles. "I do my research. I know who you both are."

Of course, Joohyun isn't able to react to that. Her partner however, has her teeth gritting and Joohyun hears the stretching of her restraints as the Squirrel tugs tightly in anger.

"How about this," Tiffany says and pushes Joohyun towards her. "You can have a little kiss with Bunny before that happens, okay? Don't worry, I won't tell Joohyun you cheated on her."

Joohyun thinks it's a bit weird to kiss someone who's about a few seconds away from getting your grandmother's brain implanted in them.

"Go on, now," Tiffany pats her back encouragingly. "Hey, maybe true love's kiss can break her free?" he jokes at Seungwan's look of disbelief. 

Well, it won't hurt to try, Joohyun muses and leans down.

"Bunny, wait--" Joohyun presses their lips together and Seungwan makes a small sound at the back of as they kiss. Joohyun tastes strawberry chapstick and saccharine breaths against . 

"Okay, keep it PG-13," Tiffany mumbles and Joohyun immediately straightens up, staring blankly at the oth