“Go back, dammit! Go back!” Jiyeon was screaming, lurching forward for the controls; she was half-blinded by her tears, choking with sobs, but still she fought to reach the controls, to navigate them back to the horror she had just witnessed.

Hyomin and Eunjung grabbed hold of the desperate girl, but it was only with Dani helping them that they managed to pull her back, restraining her and strapping her into a seat. Eunjung grabbed Jiyeon firmly by the shoulders. “Jiyeon! Listen to me. We have to get out of here first, all right? JB…he wouldn’t…wouldn’t want his sacrifice to go to waste.”

Jiyeon’s teary eyes turned hard. “Of course you’d say that – Taecyeon wasn’t hurt, was he?”

Eunjung recoiled as if struck. Jiyeon didn’t falter. “If you felt for Taecyeon as much as I feel for JB, if you really understand, you’ll let me go back. He needs me.”

Eunjung glanced up at Hyomin pleadingly; the assassin knelt down beside Jiyeon to persuade her, but before she could, Dani delivered one well-placed chop to the side of Jiyeon’s neck.

Jiyeon slumped almost at once, her head lolling, unconscious. The T-ara members shot up in shock, but Dani’s face was cool. “That’ll stop her from going back for the time being at least, won’t it?” She threw herself into the seat next to Jiyeon, waiting patiently for them to reach the assassins’ headquarters.

The other assassins exchanged wary glanced, but quickly strapped themselves into their seats; as Hyomin got into the seat next to Dani, she could not help but notice.

Dani’s hands were trembling, so hard that her entire seat was shaking.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jr’s eyes widened in horror; his arms reached out to grasp his brother, holding onto him as he staggered away from Jun.K. Jun.K looked shocked as well, taking a few steps back – it was one thing to stab a person who’d just been assaulting you, and quite another to stab the vice-leader you’d been following for so long. Before he could move, Junho launched himself at him, pinning him down as he wrestled the knife away. Junho’s voice was soft and pitiless, “You’ve done quite enough damage, I think.”

Wooyoung had stopped struggling; both he and Taecyeon were next to JB, their faces similar portraits of horror. Jr’s hands were bloody, his shirt drenched as he pressed JB’s wound, desperately trying to staunch the flow of blood. Taecyeon’s phone was out; frantically, he punched the numbers to the hospital in.

“Come on, brother, stay with me!” Jr’s voice grew ever desperate as the blood continued to flow freely from JB’s wound; he cradled JB’s head, shaking him. “Wake up!”

Wooyoung’s head shot up, his gaze reaching the abandoned T-ara van; before anyone else could say anything, he grabbed hold of JB’s legs. “The van! Let’s get him to the hospital!”

Jr looked up, his face teary but set in determination as he gave a nod. Together, they hoisted JB up, running for the van.

Taecyeon rose to hurry after them, but he paused, remembering Jun.K and Chansung. He wanted to go to the hospital with them – but he was the leader, and he had his duties. He hesitated, then called after Wooyoung, “Get him to the hospital and make sure he’s safe! I’ll stay and clean up!”

As Wooyoung got into the driver’s seat and drove off, Taecyeon headed over to Jun.K and Junho. Junho had Jun.K cuffed and was holding his gun to Jun.K’s head. “What now, boss?”

Taecyeon leaned down to kneel beside Jun.K. “You’ve caused a lot of trouble for us, you know?”

Jun.K’s look was pure venom. “Better than being a traitor like you!”

Taecyeon’s brows rose. “A traitor? Even if we are traitors, at least we didn’t try to kill JB. Do you think the Head Consul will forgive you once he knows you stabbed his son?”

Jun.K hesitated for a moment, the thought only now occurring to him.

“He won’t let you off and you know it.”

“Not if he knows what JB was up to. Not if he knows the relationship between JB and that…that assassin . In fact, he’ll praise me for trying to get rid of a traitor!” Jun.K spat back furiously.

Taecyeon paused, almost thoughtfully. “That is true. So what now, then?”

Junho shifted uncomfortably. “Taecyeon, you can’t-”

Taecyeon held up his hand, his expression suddenly hard. “You broke the rules, Jun.K We are Warriors – but we are brothers first. And you didn’t respect that.”

“What’s your point?” Jun.K snapped defiantly.

“You betrayed us. You hurt your brother. You’re worse than a traitor. You’re unforgivable!” Taecyeon’s voice rose as he spoke, culminating in a furious shout – before any of them could react, he snatched the gun from Junho and fired right into Jun.K’s head.

Junho gasped. “Hyung!”

Taecyeon looked up, his eyes cold. “Will you betray me too?”

“Will you kill me to keep this a secret?” Junho responded, shaking from the speed at which things had escalated.

There was no pause – Taecyeon shook his head. “I killed Jun.K because he hurt Chansung and JB. He hurt his own brother. He broke our code. But you – you’ve only tried to help us as much as you can.” He flipped the gun around, holding the handle of the gun out to Junho. “If you’re going to report us – then finish this now. Shoot me. You can tell the Elders that Jun.K and I died in a firefight after I saw him kill Chansung.”

There was a pause as the two Warriors faced each other. Then Junho pushed Taecyeon’s hand away. “Don’t be ridiculous. We need to clear up this mess now, not create an even bigger one.” He walked over to Chansung’s body, and Taecyeon could not stop the smile from spreading across his face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jr leaned his head lifelessly against the wall, closing his eyes. JB had gotten hurt to protect him – and even now the doctors were still operating on him, he wasn’t out of the danger zone yet. Jr bit his lip, so hard that blood welled up. Things were such a mess – Chansung was dead, JB was hurt and possibly dying, and Dani had betrayed them and joined the assassins-

“Are you all right?” Wooyoung’s voice was soft as he sat down next to Jr. There was no trace of the vengeful, angry Warrior in him. He was just worried, the same as Jr. Jr understood – Wooyoung considered JB a brother too.

Jr realised that Wooyoung was still waiting for his reply. “Can I be all right? Can any of us be all right? Everything is screwed up now.”

There was a long silence as Wooyoung ran his fingers along the railing of the chair. Then he spoke, “You know, I was mad at your brother at first. Mad at Taecyeon, too. The assassins are our mortal enemies, and to find out that they were in love with them, that they actually saved that Soyeon woman for their loves…damn, but I was pissed. But- they’re still my brothers. I never wanted…I never wanted any of this to happen to them. And now…all this…”

“It’s not your fault, Wooyoung.” Jr’s voice was soft, “You didn’t pull the trigger, you didn’t stab the knife. If anything, it’s Jun.K’s fault.”

“How can it not be my fault! If I wasn’t so distracted with Dani, with my wanting to kill all those assassins, Jun.K would never have gotten a chance to shoot Chansung, and things would never have deteriorated to this state! If only I hadn’t been so…so god damn stupid, none of this would have happened!”

“You didn’t know it would happen. And how could you not be upset about Dani? She’s your sister. Wooyoung, you didn’t do anything. This is not your fault. You treated JB and Chansung like brothers – like you said, you never wanted any of this to happen. It’s just chance, just fate.” Jr laid a hand on Wooyoung’s shoulder. “Right now all we should do is pray for JB.”

Wooyoung managed a weak, regretful laugh. “If- no, when JB gets out of the operating theatre, I swear I will not be pissed with him and Taecyeon again. Whatever gets things back to normal-”

“Guys!” Taecyeon called to Wooyoung and Jr; he and Junho quickly ran up to them. “Is JB still in the operating theatre?”

One look at their faces gave Taecyeon the answer. He sank into the chair next to Wooyoung. “This is all my fault – I’m a terrible leader. I’m supposed to be leading us, and instead I-”

“Are we all just going to go around blaming ourselves for what happened?” Jr interjected. He forced a smile. “Come on, guys. None of us wanted this to happen. It isn’t our fault. All we should do is just hope for the best for JB, and then do our best to get things back to normal. All right?”

Taecyeon managed a real smile for the first time that day. “I’ll handle things with the Council. The official story will be that Jun.K engaged Chansung in a firefight when JB and I stumbled across them – we tried to stop them from fighting and bring Chansung in peacefully but Jun.K was so caught up in the fight he stabbed JB. I got JB to the hospital while Chansung and Jun.K literally fought to the death.”

Junho sighed. “Not the most believable story, but the best we could come up with under the circumstances.”

Taecyeon gripped Jr and Wooyoung by the arm; all four Warriors rose together as the leader spoke. “Don’t worry about the Council, I’ll take care of them. All we need to do now is get things back to normal.”

Back to normal.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Five Years Later, New York, America

Nickhun whistled as he stuck his earphone into his ears; he glanced at his phone as it vibrated and quickly picked up. “Hyung?”

Taecyeon’s voice was joking. “Yah, did you steal my earphones again?”

“They’re my earphones! I just lent them to you and you never returned them properly!” Nickhun protested.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Can you pick up the maknaes from the dojo? I’ve just received an assignment from the heads.” Taecyeon answered, his voice turning serious.

“Sure thing. I might be a little late though, I’m kind of far away from the dojo.” Nickhun hung up and turned to Junho. “Hyung wants us to-”

“Pick up the maknaes at the dojo? Yeah, I heard. Not deaf here, you know? Drop me off at the mall first, I’ll get bubble tea for all of us.” Junho replied with a grin. Nickhun gave a blissful smile. “Ah, bubble tea…”

As Nickhun parked the car outside the mall, he and Junho hopped out, heading for the Warriors’ favourite bubble tea store. Nickhun mused. “Should we get something for JB? Wouldn’t be nice to leave him out…maybe some flowers for him?”

“Sure, we’ll just get the bubble tea first, then we’ll visit the florist.” As they strode into the bubble tea store, Junho was stopped short as a woman sitting at a table suddenly jumped up, pointing at him. “You! You’re the danshin, aren’t you? The one who stole my wallet last time?!”

But Junho wasn’t looking at the woman, and for that matter, neither was Nickhun. Both of them were staring at the three women sitting at the same table as Junho’s accuser.

Lee Qri, Park Hyomin and Park Jiyeon stared up at the Warriors, their faces similar portraits of shock. 

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Time jump! I bet none of you saw that coming! 

So, after the big messup in the previous chapter, the Warriors have to find a way to deal with the fallout, with two of their members dead. This chapter was mostly a cleaning up and prepatory chapter for the next arc - in New York! Nickhun makes a reappearance after a long absence - his absence will be explained in the next chapter, and yes he's already aware of all the things that happened in the previous arc. Another familiar character appears to - the girl who calls Junho "danshin". Can any of you remember who that is?

Next chapter will delve more deeply into Dani and Areum, plus the re-meeting of assassins/Warriors. Oh, the angst of reunited lovers! Till next time!

And remember guys, comment and subscribe!