Dongwoo found himself in the same charcoal alley, the same settings, the same location as the day before. The place was becoming an addiction. He now understood why of all the places in Seoul, Sunggyu had decided to dump himself here. There was a certain air to the place. It lacked that lack luster aura that the Underworld had. Everything was turn into one big show, everything flowed here, and oddly enough it felt safe here, Dongwoo didn't have many places like that.
 
He walked through the double doors, eyes turned towards him, staring warily at the new figure who was more than a stranger in here. Strangers meant mystery, and mystery right now was no good. As if it wasn't repellent enough there was a mark on all their heads.
 
Dongwoo ignored the eyes and roamed straight to the bar where his new favorite bartender stood.
 
"What would it be?" She inquired, her back was turned towards him as she busy herself with the liquor cabinets where she was rearranging the glass cups.
 
"Strongest thing you have." He replied. It was the same response as yesterday. Apparently she had recognized his voice or something, but she whipped her head around towards him. He had already found a seat on one of the stools and was waiting for his drink. She eyes him cautiously before she whipped her head back around and grabbed a certain bottle from one of the cabinets.
 
"Is this becoming a habit of yours?" She asked, with her back still facing him.
 
"It wouldn't be the worst of my habits." He responded under his breath.
 
"Oh really, and what would be the worst of your habits?" She questioned.
 
"Killing." He answered bluntly not giving a damn anymore. Its not like she would take it literally, no, not a girl like her. She turned around to face him with a queer smirk on face as she passed him his drink.
 
"Yes, killing is quite a difficult habit to break. Especially when you're killing the people you care about." She remarked. He liked her, she thought differently from most people. She seemed like she gave no damn about anything happening outside those walls surrounding her. Even in the world she lived in, she had no serious worries.
 
She was indeed a girl of exquisite beauty. She was one of those languid women made of dark honey, smooth and sweet and terribly sticky, who take control of a room with a syrupy gesture, a toss of the hair, a single slow whiplash of the eyes and all the while remained as still as the center of a hurricane, apparently unaware of the force of gravity by which she irresistibly attract to herself.
 
Yet the odd part of this was that she held no power itself. She was but a mere bartender. If he hadn't seen her with Sunggyu that one time he could had walked passed her in the streets a dozen times and not look up once. She held this invisible force to cover up that attraction. But once that force broke she draw people in like a siren's call.
 
"Which one is it?" She asked.
 
"Which one is what?" He asked, flustered by her question.
 
"Which of your friends has a broken heart?" She restated, clarifying her question this time.
 
"Ah, the one who always has it together. That's the one." He responded. Dongwoo knew he shouldn't be talking, especially about the Reapers, it was dangerous business to run your mouth.
 
"But which one is really bothering you?" She asked again as she wiped some glasses with a cloth. Her eyes were turn away from him but he felt as if he grabbed her undivided attention.
 
"The crazy one. The one with the sharp tongue and even sharper temper. He's gone. On a road trip apparently, though I can't blame him, he needed it. I was growing tired of his PMSing anyway." He answered gulping the drink in one go before he found another liquor filled glass in front of him.
 
"You're quite amusing." She remarked. He raised an eyebrow at her.
 
"How so?" He questioned. She looked at him with curious eyes and a calm smirk.
 
"Because you don't give a damn about the wars outsider your doors, you only care about the ones within your home." She replied. He smirked, the girl could throw a witty quote and have the whole world thinking she was Mother Theresa.
 
"You're quite sharp." He commented.
 
"I hear that a lot."
 
"Did you hear about the Japanese Ambassador?" Another voice cut into their conversation catching both their attention. Their eyes listened into the conversation occurring half way across the bar.
 
"He was save by a black ops team. What if the rumors are true. I mean, a save job isn't really what the Reapers do. Are they scare too?" Another voice, the man sitting across from the first man replied. Dongwoo rolled his eyes. Scare? As if? At least for him.
 
"What about the rumor of Genie's return. Is she really back. The last time she was here it was a blood bath." The first voice explained. Dongwoo saw the bartender dropped her head before quickly turning around and grabbing something under the bar.
 
"The woman's dying. What can she do? It doesn't matter if that woman is a friend or not. She's the modern day version of Medea."
 
"Yet hell has no fury like a woman scorn-"
 
"I need to go." Dongwoo abruptly adjured standing up from his seat and throwing some cash towards the bartender before quickly exiting the small haven within a jungle of beasts.
 
The bartender stood there in dismay, confusion, and curiosity before snapping back into her common state of mind. He was a Reaper. She had figured this much out. But why did he seem so different from the others?
--

    
"You know you always seem so gloomly. You should smile more, and I quote, 'peace begins with a smile,' said by Mother Theresa herself." Sungyeol said to the frigid doll before him. She had a book in hand and her face was dugged into it like it held all the secrets to the world.
 
"You really believe that. You have a mind of a fool, Lee Sungyeol." She stated flatly and aridly.
 
"No, I have the mind of an optimist." He correctly taking a seat in the empty seat beside her. They were currently in the library where Yookyung was trying to study and keep her mind off the mission that occurred the night before with the Ambassador.
 
"What exactly are you reading that has caught so much of your attention?" Sungyeol questioned. She held the book up revealing the title of the book. Medea.
 
"Ah, Greek Mythology." He remarked.
 
"Its such a shame. Medea. Her husband remarried another wife, a princess, betraying her which eventually ends up getting her banished my the king. She left with nothing, having to care for her sons." Yookyung mumbled. But to Sungyeol's ears this felt like a lot than a Greek story of a woman scorn and bent on revenge. It was personal to Yookyung.
 
"But she ends up killing the princess and the king, as well as her sons. I feel no sympathy for a woman who would be willing to kill her own blood for revenge." Sungyeol commented and instantly knew he had batter another nerve in the ice princess' heart.
 
"Who is it?" He asked. She turned her head towards him. She had on a pair of glasses and her hair was pulled up and in a bun, strands of amber felt in different directions. She rose a curious eyebrow to him.
 
"Who is it that reminds you of Medea?" He asked.
 
"A dying woman." She answered dryly and turned her absorption back to the book. Yes, he had heard much of a dying woman these days. Especially of one who lived in the shadows. Hiding from the universe, banished from home, and hiding in secrecy.
 
"Who is it that reminds you of Medea?" She questioned catching him off guard. Was Hong Yookyung starting a conversation with him?
 
"A woman who lives in the shadows."
 
"Doesn't everyone live in the shadows." She remarked. He could tell she wasn't one to look at the brighter side of things. There were no rainbows and unicorns in her mind, only humanity and reality.
 
"Yes. But doesn't everyone drench in sunlight?" He shot back to her and saw how her brows narrowed at his comment.
 
"Its getting late. Go." She instructed. She tried bossing him around often, no, all the time, but he didn't listen to her.
 
"Indeed. It is getting late. You should get home." He told her. She didn't give a response. She only stood up and began packing her things before exiting, not even bothering to bid farewell.
 
Today Sungyeol learned something. Hong Yookyung, the famous ice princess, believed in redemption.

--

"The woman is mad." He repeated for the nth time. It was already a obvious fact but no matter how many times he spoke those words, they refused to soak in. Eunji hadn't said a thing in a while. He noticed that. Though he didn't ask. He was too shock by Nicole's actions to be upset with Eunji right now. Then again, why the hell would he be upset with her, she had never done a thing to him. Whilst he on the other hand had taken, broken, and killed all she had.

The two eventually got to the door steps of the giant Jung Mansion that had been long forgotten. They said not a soul remained here, not after what happened here.

"She must had brought it back." Hoya commented noticing the newly planted lilies in the flower gardens. Nicole hadn't done much since she returned to Korea, but one of the things she did do was buy back Jung Mansion. Jung Mansion was where the world began, and it was where the world died. But from death there was always growth.

Eunji bent down to the ground and picked up a certain colored stone painted in pastel pink and flipped the stone. A single key was hidden inside.

"Typical." Hoya mumbled. That had always been the hiding spot for the spare key. Hoya thought it was naïve and stupid. The powerful Jung family having their spare key tucked under a stone rock. They were crazy. And that's exactly what the Jung family turned out to be.

"Do I go in?" She mumbled in a voice that was so nervous it nearly cracked. Hoya looked at her and saw the worry in her eyes. Eunji had supposedly died here. Eunji had lost her brother and cousins here, she had lost her father, her family, her identity, herself here. This place was her grave and she was stepping into it.

"Do we go in?" He correctly staring at her. She refused to meet eyes with him but he was fine with that. He didn't care anyways.

She brought the key up and slowly and unlocked the door. The swung the door opened and she took a deep breath. She felt like if she walked in she would she struck by lightning. Why had her cousin done this? Why did Nicole bring them back here? In her mind this place was where everything fell apart. This was where the world died, but it was also where the world began.

"Are you going in?" Hoya asked. She didn't look at him. She couldn't. She was angry. Angry at him. All her rage that had been trapped was building up to this moment. The moment where she would returned. But what she didn't expect was that she would be back with the one man who took her life away from her.

She ignored the question and walked inside. Hoya shrugged that off, though it was killing him. It annoyed him how she could easily pretend like he didn't even exist. But he couldn't blame her for being like that.

Once inside Eunji had found that Nicole had made the layout of the mansion the same as it had been when they were growing up. The same floors, the paint coats, the wall paper, the crown molding, the same redwood round table sitting in the middle of the room.

Even the irises on top of the table. The table was the first thing you saw when you walked in, and the iris flowers were awaiting you. Irises represent trust, her father told her that. That was why he had put the irises there, so when you walked in you know that trust was needed in order to survive in this family.

Sadly trust wasn't there after all. If it was, they would still be alive. Eunji took a few more steps in. It smelt like home. Like how it did all those years ago. She could feel Hoya's footsteps follow behind hers. They were soft and almost invisible-like.

"Your father said that irises represent trust. He put them there so whoever walked through the door knew that trust was needed in order to live with the Jung family." He stated. She dug her fingernails into the palm of her hands and held them in tight fists.

"He was clearly wrong. There was no trust." She murmured.

"Hyerim." He called her name. She ignored him and continued to walked. She hated how he said her name. She hated how he had a power over her like some sire bond where she had to obey all of his commands. He had a door open to her heart and he took it to his advantage, rather he knew it so not.

She walked into the living area and just like when she was a child, the fireplace was lit. It was lit all year round except for the summer. The same couches remained, the persian carpet, the coffee table, the counter tables. Even the portrait of the family hanging over the fire place. Her eyes fell on the picture. There they were.

The now decreased Jung family. Her eyes fell on her cousins, Jessica, the family's ice princess who could give Yookyung a run for her ice princess title. Krystal, the youngest Jung and certainly the firestorm of power. Her other cousins were there, Yonghwa and Jinwoon, both of whom were Nicole's brothers. They died years before she met Hoya. The Underworld was what got them in their graves so early. Her eyes fell on her oppa, Yunho. He was her white knight, her protector, he had given that job to Hoya. Hoya clearly hadn't met up to his standards.

"You know your oppa once told me to watch over you. That was when your father and uncles began digging to deep in the Underworld. Being the only male heir still alive, he tried to do everything in his power to keep you and your cousins safe." Hoya said from behind her.

He was following her. And she was reliving her life's story in this room. "Can you stop it already." Eunji snapped turning around to face him. She met eyes as cold as night and a mask of a pure ice. There really was no way around Hoya.

"No, I can't. Here you are, reliving your entire life. Its over Hyerim. Dead. Gone. Why bother?" He shot over to her. Eunji bit her lower lip. He was bashing her down to shreds.

"Because it mattered. Because Nicole brought us here for some reason. I know my cousin, she's mad, crazy, insane, but insanity is the only thing that works correctly here. She brought us here for a reason. And if you are going to mope around I suggest you leave." He smirked taking a step closer to her.

Something flickered in his eyes and it scared her making her take a step back.

"There it is." He stated.

"There what is?"

"That anger you been stuffing deep down." He answered. He was getting closer to her and she found her foot rooted to the floor.

"What are you doing?" She questioned, her voice was shaking.

"I'm...apologizing." He answered and stopped in front of her. He threw his pride away, his ego, all that made him Hoya, the trigger happy Reaper.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything I ever did to you and your family. I...I was stupid, I thought that following orders was all I was supposed to do. Its how I was trained. And in the end I ended up hurting the people I love."

"What?" She mumbled, mouth falling open. "The people you love?" She questioned.

Hoya huffed out air and ran his fingers through his hair. It was now or never. His pride had to be pushed aside. It didn't matter here. Here, he wasn't Hoya, he was Howon, the man she fell in love with.

"I love you. I always did, I always had." He told her looking her straight in the eyes. He was being real and sincere, and that was when she realized that there was no way around Hoya, but there was around Howon. And that scared her. Especially now when they were both marked.

She was marked, he was marked, the Angels were marked, the Reapers were marked, her cousin was marked the thought of her cousin being marked made her angry. It brought back memories of how much agony filled her soul when she saw him put a bullet in her brother's chest. She brought her arm up and with a chaotic force of anger and frustration she brought her arm towards his face. Then the slap came, the slap echoed through the house.

Then she did the one thing her mind could come up with, she ran out. She ran away from him, just as he did to her.

--

"What, no, 'great job Woohyun, 'nice work', no, nothing. Some epic thank you present. Not even a card?" Woohyun whined as he stared at the woman.

"Sorry, there were no 'congrats on finding your balls again' greeting card" Gina replied sarcastically.

"The Japanese Ambassador is the next target. Only this time, the kill will be made in public. The Ambassador is scheduled to attend a conference tonight, where he is also supposed to give a speech. That's when the kill is done." Sunggyu began giving next and precise information and instructions to Woohyun and Sungjong. This would be a three man mission, the rest of the pack had scattered off, though their inputs didn't matter.

"The easiest way to take him done would be through a sniper. We have to made sure all the diameter is secure. I don't want any surprises." He continued,

"Woohyun, you're be there at the party, it fixes well with the billionaire playboy alias." Sunggyu continued. "

Yeah, he gets a ballroom with wine and and beautiful women and we get rooftop security." Sungjong whined. Woohyun nudged him.

"Stop whining." Woohyun stated.

"The target was secure. We found the sniper, he's in custody." Woohyun told her, though she already knew this. "The Japanese Ambassador is the least of my concern right now." She stated sternly.

"Really, then what is?" He asked.

"The fact that you all are fooling about like teenagers. Falling in love? I thought I taught you all better than this. " She assumed. Gina had taught them that falling in love was dangerous. Your loved ones could easily become targets. They would get hurt, even killed. Falling in love was no good in the Underworld.

"Noona, we just can't cut off our feelings and emotions. Just because this is the Underworld doesn't mean we are striped of our emotions." Woohyun rebutted. The words falling off his lips were ones belonging to another foreign language he hadn't realize he could speak.

She snorted, "You're one to speak." She rebutted, and she was right. Woohyun certainly wasn't one to be speaking about feelings. He played with the emotions of women, jumping into bed with them one night then casting them aside the next. He toyed with their hearts and bodies. It was all a game to him, woman. So he had no right to be talking about feelings and emotions to her, he crushed feelings and emotions and turned them into dusk.

"Go." She instructed. He eyes her suspiciously wondering what was going on in that head of hers. Choi Gina could fit the entire weight of the world into that head of hers. She could take any mess they gave her and come out victorious. But this fight seemed different. The circumstances were different.

He nodded exiting the room, leaving behind the USB she had asked for. Her return was known to really few, and those who knew were the only ones she could count on at this point. Chorong, being the main one, Nicole as well, though the girl was playing match-maker right now. Sunggyu and Woohyun were the only ones of the Reapers who knew. It was better this way. There were fewer people involved which meant less talking.

She grabbed the USB and plugged it in her laptop. She looked through the files located in the USB. She had asked for a specific type of files. She searched thoroughly making sure not to miss the file's name. Her eyes popped open when she saw the familiar looking name appear across the screen.

'Palefire.'

The name read and brought back memories of a mission that occurred years ago. She clicked into the file scanning through it until she found the information she was looking for. This was going to track her down to him. Him. The man who was trying to take them down. It was his plan for revenge. Against her and the Angels. The Angels just didn't know it yet, at least not all of them.

"Did you find him?" Nicole called towards her as she stepped out from the shadows. She had waited patiently and quietly for Woohyun to leave.

Gina nodded. "Gabriel... it's an alias, for Victor Voss, German Korean arms dealer, major drug lord, known for the assassination of at least a dozen world leaders." Gina replied. Nicole looked at the file from Gina's shoulder only to realize Gina had summarized the man's list of wrongs.

"I feel like you know more than you're telling." Nicole remarked honestly causing Gina to chuckle.

"Victor Voss. Age; 28. Born in Seoul, Korea. Fluent in Korean, German, Italian, English, Japanese, Chinese, and French. Educated from Oxford. Divorced, four times, three of his wives dead, one in an mental rehab center. All of which were Swedish models. Drinks red wine, prefers cold environments, and has a disliking for large urban cities, oh and owns two German Shepards, and when he was 16, he went to his first and last American major lead baseball game." Gina added. Nicole stared at her unnie in shock. Indeed, this wasn't random bliz attacks on the Underworld. This was outright revenge.

"You dated him." Nicole put the pieces together. Gina nodded with a frown.

"I was young and naïve and he had a hot accent." Gina remarked.

"Then what the hell does he want. What does he want from the girls?" Nicole demanded, it was no question, but an order.

"He's getting even. Three years ago there was a mission. You were here, don't you remember. Palefire. It involved sabotaging a deal made between two dealers. Only it wasn't weapons, drugs, or money, the girls were supposed to intersect. It was a list."

"The Dragon's list." Nicole mumbled in shock.

"Yes. That list. But during the mission something went wrong. Do you remember?" Gina asked. Nicole felt her lungs dry up as the memory suddenly slammed into her mind. It was playing like a vivid movie screen.

"Yes. I Remember."

--

    
Chorong stared eye and eye with what could only be consider a pesticide of a human being. He gloated in his pitiful life of nothingness. He eyes her with lustful eyes and gave her one of his smiles showing yellow-strained teeth.
 
"What do I get in return?" He questioned with a slight tilt of the head.
 
"Your life." She replied forthwith. His smirk deepen, much to her displeasure.
 
"Now, how is that a fair trade?" He questioned.
 
"Its not."
 
"I have an alternative." He suggested. She didn't like the idea of that. Chorong was flying solo for this. She couldn't get the others involved. She was their leader, she had to do this on her own.
 
"I give you this, and how about you stay the night." He suggested and she tighten her fist.
 
"How about I empty a clip in your face?" She suggested as she raised an eyebrow at him. Man and their egos. Gosh, she despised it. If only it was as easy to strip away a man's ego as it was his pants.
 
"Feisty. I like that." He remarked and she mentally puked. She wasn't here for games. Though she was living one. But before she could make a move the windows blasted, shattering into millions of tiny pieces. The man's men ran in, Chorong panicked. Someone was messing with her deal.
 
She ran towards the guy, pulling out a blade, tucked inside her corset as she sliced his upper abdomen. He winced in pain but stepped back. He pulled the black disk in his hand away, from her. She groaned as she kicked him causing him to stumble over. By now his men were attacking her at all corners. She threw a punch to the right, a kick to the left, she threw her blade towards one as she snapped the neck of another, before retrieving her blade again.
 
She felt movement moving from behind her and knew that an additional figure had entered the room. She looked around for the leader and found him running towards the exit.
 
Coward.
 
She ran after him, a few men following behind her. But she managed to stab one and catapulted a punch at another sending him staggering back before she threw him over her shoulders and slamming his body back down. She turned back towards the double doors as she ran after the guy.
 
She was halfway through a parking lott when she caught up to him. She attacked him from behind causing him to fall and letting the disk slid away. She threw a punch at the guy before pulling out her blade and slicing his neck. She growled. Nothing was working her way today.
 
She got off the guy and dashed over to the disk, ready to grab the disk, she was inches away from it when a pair of hands reached and out picked it up. "Looking for this?" He questioned waving it in front of her.
 
The person who had sabotaged her day stood there with that cocky smile and flashing his eye smile. Nam Woohyun.
 
"Nam Woohyun! Give it to me." She ordered. He had already realized who it was. Even today, she wore a mask, a dark cloth wrapped around her face, hiding all but her eyes and forehead. He knew her voice, the soft melody had filled with eyes from miles away, those curves of hers he had memorized, the way she spoke, she was carefree, fearless, she played no game but herself. She was there for the prize. He knew it was her.
 
"Hello to you too Pretty."
 
"How the hell did you get here?"
 
"Same way you did, through the front door." He replied. She groaned. Why of all days, why today lord?
 
"I don't have time for games, give me that disc." She demanded taking a step towards him.
 
"I don't think so. What do you want with this?" He questioned.
 
"Its none of your business." She replied harshly causing his smirk to widen.
 
"We're working together remember. I think I have the right to know what you're doing, why you're here and why you need this." He responded. There were too many questions. And she wanted to answer none of them.
 
"I don't think so. You want this. You gotta trade me something in return." He rebutted. Great, the man was playing games. She didn't respond.
 
She only took another foot closer, "Show me your face." He revealed. Her eyes furrowed at him. What was he up to?
 
"I don't have time for this." She ranted as she grabbed for the disc causing him to step back, he grabbed her shoulder and threw her against the wall behind him, his body along with hers.
 
She hit the wall with a loud thump, "You know, I quite like this position." He remarked. His chest and torso meeting hers, leaving no room inbetween.
 
"Now, if you want this," he began holding up the disc with one hand as his other arm found its way to her waist, "Show me your face." He commanded. Chorong however, wasn't a good listener. She kicked him, flipping him over before throwing him on the ground, she tried side-stepping him as she grabbed the disc only to have his arm reach out and grab her ankle pulling her down on top of him.
 
"On second thought, I actually like this position more." He said wrapping his arms around her waist, but this position wasn't her main concern. The cloth wrapping around her face had fallen revealing her entire face to him.
 
"You know, Pretty really does suit you." He commented. He was more than amazed. He saw cute chubby cheeks, a round oval face, soft pink lips he wanted against his own, and a small nose. Here she was, no mask, no hood to hide her face, and she was on top of him.
 
"Aish." She growled pulling away from him after pulling the disc away.
 
"You really are a menace." She growled.
 
"And you're really pretty. I don't even know your name Angel." He remarked.
 
"If you want to know it, you have to earn it." She insisted as she turned her heels and began walking away, ignoring the dead body on the ground and the rest of the dead bodies inside.
 
He didn't follow her, thank goodness.
 
She made her way out of the place and to her BMW, which patiently awaited for her. She slipped into the car, scrolling herself. He saw her face. The man saw her face. She slammed her fist against the wheel as she tugged strands of her hair.
 
--
 
Woohyun easily broke the lock and entered the office. It belonged to a now dead gang leader. Inside the room he walked over to the desk. And predictably he pulled open the first drawl to the right, and there it was.
 
The man really had no brains. "Gotcha." Woohyun mumbled looking into the case.
 
These babies were difficult to find, especially because the people who made them had no names, no faces, they were just ghosts. Another group much like the Reapers and Dark Angels.
 
"The sniper belongs in that gang. You find that gang and I bet we can lead them back to who hired them." Sunggyu voice echoed through his mind as he remembered what Sunggyu said to him. Sunggyu was too busy mopping around to leave Command Base, so the lucky job was thrown down to him. Plus, Hoya was gone, or else this job would be his. Woohyun smirked and opened the box. A smile appeared on his face when he saw the contains inside. 14 Spider Bullets.