The room felt empty. With only Jay, Conny, Taecyeon, and Seulong, Schatten’s office was no longer the vibrant office it had been. Taecyeon remained belligerent, still unable to process the fact that Fuu was no longer a part of Schatten. Seulong felt the same, though less in magnitude. For Conny who was the outsider in all this, she knew all she could do was find a way to help them. Next to her, Jay stood seemingly calm, yet she knew her partner well. Jay Park was anything but calm right now. He was furious, and he felt helpless because of it.

“The coroner’s office just submitted their reports on the bodies we had collected from the scene.” Conny’s voice came out quiet, small, unknowing how to break the atmosphere. “They discovered markings on the bodies of each victim, markings that were absent from Beast. According to the chief medical examiner, it’s a brand, like the one you would use to mark cattle. An iris.”

She pulled out the photograph of the flower seared into the skin of every one of their latest victims. “I don’t know what an iris stands for, but whatever it is, I’m sure it’s a clue to what this Fortuna could be.”

Silence.

“I also analyzed the data Fuu left for me before she left for the Weather Station.” It was a sensitive topic, but Conny knew there was no other way. Fuu was still a part of Schatten, she needed the others to understand that as well. But with the events of the days past, Conny also knew that nothing she would say could cross the thick skulls of the men in front of her. “She said she had been able to tap into the frequency the other group, they called themselves Hell, used. She wasn’t able to completely triangulate its source location- too much precaution was taken by the other side. We’re up against something greater than we initially thought.”

The word ‘we’ made some heads turn, and the interpol agent bit her tongue as hostile glares came back at her. “Also, bauer, laufer, dame. Those were the only clues we have to Hell’s identities. Pawn, bishop, and queen. They’re German words for chess pieces.”

“What do they mean?” Jay asked, leaning forwards on his desk.

“I’m not sure. But the technology they have, the use of code names, these are not your regular vigilantes. These are professional assassins. They’re hired by someone. Someone powerful.”

…

“We know that Fortuna is trying to create an army, but for what? And more importantly, for who?”

Jinwoon’s eyes turned to Kwon and Jia who were leading the night’s session. Nichkhun, Junsu, and Chansung sat several seats apart, Kass was missing as she usually was, and without Rai, the room felt empty.

“I’ve analyzed Dr. Aybarra’s notes,” Jia began, eyeing Nichkhun carefully from her corner of the room. “Most of her notes would have predicted the last few attacks by the Fortuna generals. Or at least, they would have given us a clue to what we would be facing.”

Projected in front was a copy of the diagram Dr. Aybarra had drawn. It had been the central piece in her research, whatever it was, it was her most important clue. Arranged on the city map were arbitrary locations alluding to the four cardinal directions. On each direction were a series of sets similar to a Venn Diagram. The set similar to all four major groupings was a void, with only a symbol of an iris etched onto it. On the north, was a caduceus laid on top of a carapace of a tortoise; on the carapace, instead of the regular geometric patterns, were drawings of irises instead. To the west was a white tiger standing on top of a Petri dish. Directly across from it, to the east, was a blue oriental dragon with a shield, with a schematic representation of an iris on it, behind it. And at the bottom, the south, was a vermillion bird with an iris flower in its beak.

“White Tiger laboratories, The Black Tortoise, and Pheonix Records. Suzy and Fei are still looking for anything that would allude to the Azure Dragon. Right now everything we’ve been up against is written here.” Jia pulled out a pointer and the red dot hovered over the western boundaries of the map. “The White Tiger Labs are here,” under the figure were words grouped together.

Disguised in white it will Fall. Belyi. Strakh. Uzhas. A metamorphosis of metal on metal.

“So, I’m guessing this is Beast?” Chansung asked, now confused with what the diagram was meant to imply.

Kwon nodded in response, “Beast, yes. Belyi, Strakh, Uzhas. These are Russian for white, fear, and terror. Metal on metal, could be transforming the kidnapped students into the beasts they became.”

“That’s not the only thing. Look at the others. Every other creature has an iris branded on them except the White Tiger labs and Beast. We looked into the medical reports from NeoSeoul ME’s office. Girls Generation, and those things Nichkhun and Chansung took down- the rest of the bodyguards, they all had irises branded on their skin. Beast did not.”

“So, Beast was independent? Was White Tiger- Park Yoochun independent?” Junsu asked, leaning forwards and resting his elbows on his knees.

“No, but there were no missing persons reports on the other victims. Just the Beast boys. We believe that the White Tiger labs were the only group to experiment on developed humans, and that the other groups have produced these soldiers from scratch.”

“Like, from children? Or from even before that? Where would have they gotten in vivo donors?” Junsu asked again, confused. If Fortuna manufactured humans from scratch, then where would they have incubated the fertilized embryos? Creating a zygote was easy, incubating it, and making sure it reached its viable age was not.

“We know what the Black Tortoise means, Chornaya Cherepakha, that’s the same thing. The caduceus, the snake wrapped around Apollo’s staff, the symbol for medicine, we know that’s Dr. Kim Junsu. That’s what Xuan Wu is, isn’t it? A snake wrapped around a tortoise?” Chansung added, though it did not dispel the confusion in the room.

“Why is it that we’re only getting more questions than answers.” Jinwoon sighed. He stared back at the projected diagram in front. There were numbers scribbled over the other three sets, “9, 5, 10. Does that mean the next set of people we’re facing adds up to 10?”

“Likely. The numbers add up the latest set of...whatever they’re supposed to be called,” Junsu replied, “There’s something I don’t get. Every other set has the word white in some language in it. First there was Belyi, then now there’s weiss, hvit, and shiro. What’s it supposed to mean?”

Jinwoon shrugged. “Maybe we’re up against something...white?”

…

“It means white, well...bright.”

Jay wasn’t sure how he wanted to process the last bit of information Conny revealed to him. After dismissing Taecyeon and Seulong, Jay asked Conny to stay behind. In a sense he knew he didn’t have to- she already had that look on her face that there was more she wanted to say, but was uncertain as how to say it with both Taecyeon and Seulong in the room.

“In German, hell, it means bright. Which is ironic since Schatten is shadow.”

It never occurred to Jay before. Somewhere at the back of his mind he was aware of what schatten had meant, but now in the context of the enemy, it made perfect sense in a weird sick manner. “We still need to find Wooyoung. He’s been missing since, well, I don’t even remember since when.”

“You know they’re not your responsibility. Schatten isn’t your team.”

He didn’t miss the warning in her voice. “They’re my friends. This isn’t about work anymore.”

Conny sighed, and she didn’t want to open up another can of very personal worms. “The files, you were reading through them. You didn’t like what you saw?”

“Changmin was looking into what happened between Wooyoung and Nichkhun. I think he must have known that Nichkhun was somehow still alive.” Jay purposely left June’s file out of the conversation. Conny did not need to know that.

“And Junho’s file?”

“I don’t know. All Junho ever does is train, spend time in the archives, shadow Fuu in the comlabs. Do you think there’s something suspicious about him?”

“You mean besides the fact that he’s keeping vigil on both Mai and that assassin we caught?”

Jay shrugged and pulled out Junho’s file from Changmin’s box. Jay wasn’t too surprised to see that Junho had grown up in an orphanage. Flipping over the page, Jay did not expect to see a full report of Junho’s medical records. What he found there surprised him, and without a word, he passed his partner the photo that not even he could say a word out loud to.

…

“Nichkhun, may I speak with you?”

The blonde waited for the last occupant of the room to leave before turning to Jinwoon. “What is it?”

“I was hesitant to talk about it earlier today, but I think you should know.”

Already Nichkhun was impatient. “Just say it Jinwoon.”

Jinwoon bit his lip, “You know how Staunton and Kwon found you?”

Nichkhun nodded, the memory still fresh in his mind. It was not something he wanted to go back to, but Jinwoon’s statement had forced him to back to a memory from what seemed to be so long ago. “What about it?”

“I think they found you, because I think Dr. Aybarra wanted them to.” If Jinwoon did not have Nichkhun’s full attention before, then he definitely did now. “You know how I’ve been looking into her background and affiliations? The reason Jia knows about her and the notes, is because Dr. Aybarra was supposed to be our Konig. She was supposed to be our king.”

Jinwoon shrunk under Nichkhun’s steady and piercing gaze, “I mean, you remember we were talking about how and why Dr. Aybarra was even involved in all this? I dug out some old records the other night. Just...clearing out the old case files the former archbishop left before I took over. I found Dr. Aybarra’s file. Nichkhun, she was- is the missing piece to our set.”