“International authorities are concerned over the latest victims of the vigilante group now known as Hell. Warrants of arrest have been issued, however, with nothing more but surveillance footage to identify these killers, it appears that the NeoSeoul PD has no other lead. The body counts are still piling up, how much longer will it take until these people are behind bars? This is Noi Daniels, from the International News Bureau.”

“Should we be concerned?” Junsu asked as he switched off the television inside the shop.

Jinwoon seemed unconcerned over the matter, though it was more because he was more preoccupied with the fact that Rai was in police custody. Why it was not even mentioned in the report, he wasn’t sure, but Jinwoon knew that now was not the time to be complacent.

Bells chimed the opening of the shop door, and Chansung walked in looking troubled. “It won’t be easy trying to get into the precinct. More now that our faces are more or less going to be plastered on random places. Plus, does anyone know why Aff(x)tion hasn’t reopened yet?”

Unconsciously, their eyes moved towards the back of the room where Nichkhun stood. He was silent as he usually was, and he ignored the other members’ looks as he walked towards them. “So what are we going to do now?”

Jinwoon folded his hands on his lap, “When Kass comes back, we’ll know if we can infiltrate the precinct or the Fortuna generals.”

“Just one more after this and we’re all done, right?” Chansung looked almost too hopeful as he asked the question. He was getting tired of this large-scale assignment. When he was given the preliminary report for Fortuna, he did not expect anything like the past few weeks at all. Taking down corrupt officials was one thing, but bringing down and entire underground corporation was another. He was a thief- or at least he used to be. Until after the accident that changed the course his life. His and Jinwoon’s.

“It better be. I need a vacation,” Junsu drawled. He was too on edge having this much work to do analyzing research results and data banks just trying to figure out the scale of Fortuna’s projects. The technology may have been interesting, but it was beyond his interests. What was the use of designer babies? If everyone on Earth was perfect, then perfection would have lost its meaning. Beauty would lose its power, and nothing good ever came out when people played God.

“I don’t think this would be the end just yet,” Nichkhun warned. “There’s another part to June’s notes that we didn’t cover the other day. The Purple Forbidden Enclosure, whatever it’s supposed to mean, we still need to find out what it is.”

The discovery that June had been a part of Hell before him shook Nichkhun’s mental faculties, straining what little hold he had over his own sanity. Was it the reason she had almost been killed? Was Hell, and what it fought for the reason for her near death? Nichkhun did not know how he wanted to feel about that matter. A part of him felt betrayed. Betrayed that June would hide something like this from him. Another part of him felt as if he was betraying June instead. Now that Nichkhun was fighting against Hell’s enemies, did that mean he was on the side of that which caused all his turmoil?

…

Wooyoung’s eyes scanned the medical examiner’s reports before him. There was something he couldn’t quite put a finger on regarding Hell’s victims, Changmin included.

His fist tightened into a painful ball at the memory. Changmin was dead, that was fact- there was a body to prove it and autopsy report in his very hands. This was irreversible. There was no way their captain could pull a Nichkhun, no matter how much Wooyoung may have wished it so.

Sunye shuffled uneasily before him. “Inspector, is there anything wrong?”

Wooyoung lifted his gaze towards her, and beyond her to the white tiled walls of the coroner’s office. “You said it was poison?”

“The tox-panel was clean, but you know when I said I saw something like this before, too? Captain’s diaphragm was rigid- rigor doesn’t set that fast so I looked into it. He was poisoned. We’ve had a similar case before as well, when the PD was transferring Andy Lee- the decoys were all poisoned, though there were no traces of the poison in the system.”

“It wasn’t the stab that killed him,”

“No, if anything, the stab would have...taken away the pain.”

Wooyoung nodded in understanding. It was ironic. With no more acknowledgment, Wooyoung left Sunye’s office and proceeded to his own. Pulling out his phone, he quickly dialled a number he unconsciously knew by heart.

“Ami, I need another favor.”

…

Light. It was the first thing Mai saw when she opened her eyes. Blinded by the brightness of the room, she lifted her arm to shield her eyes, but even though her mind willed it, her body didn’t seem to respond. Groggily, she turned towards the left, pushing herself up from the white sheets and into a seating position by the edge of the hospital cot. Around her, there was nothing more but the whiteness of the walls and the harsh fluorescent lights.

Her bare feet touched down on the cold tiled floor, and it was only when she was fully standing up did she notice the bandages on her arms and the dull throbbing pain on her sides. Underneath the hospital gown were several more cuts, lacerations, and injuries from her fight with Rai.

She staggered back as the memory came rushing back down to her, and she clutched her head as visions of blood baths and people being cut down flooded her mind. Tears sprung from her eyes and she fell back onto the bed unable to stop her sobs and the painful cry from the back of .

Captain Lee Changmin, Dong Youngbae, Kang Daesung, the rest of Big Bang and 2ne1.

She brought both her hands to pressing it tightly shut as if it would keep all the pain from surging out from her body. She felt sick inside. Nauseous, like she wanted to throw up. Shivers racked her body and she tucked her knees to her chest.

Everyone of them. Gone.

Only one face surfaced as the root of all her pain, and Mai knew what she had to do. There was no more room to just sit there. She had to take action, in any way she knew how.

…

Meeting his ex-girlfriend was not something Jay was looking forward to, but there were some things that needed to be done, and as unfortunate as it was, those things were in the expertise of one Yang Nara.

Looking at her now, Jay noticed things that weren’t there when he had left her two years ago. There was something about her now, something that had matured. No longer did she appear like the nosy reporter he knew her to be, instead, in her eyes, was the spark of someone that had seen many things. Things, not necessarily good.

“Why are you asking me this Jay?” Her voice wasn’t accusing, it was more amused.

“Because you’re the only one I know who knows this best.” It was the truth. If there was anyone Jay trusted outside his circle, even after all this years, it was Nara, ex-girlfriend she may have been.

“Don’t you have friends at the Weather Station?”

“I do, but I trust you more than them.”

She met his gaze firmly and leaned forwards on the table, resting her weight on her forearms. “Yes, Detective Park Junjin and Lee Minwoo were killed under the same circumstances as your captain and all those men in the decoy mission. And yes, Eric Mun was onto something, I managed to get a copy of his notes. He was looking into this Fortuna thing when he disappeared along with his partner.”

“Anything else?”

“A Daniel Henney. The detectives handling the Seo Minjae case were too determined to find this Mr. Henney. I don’t know why, but whoever he is, he may be important. I just don’t know how or why.”

“There’s something else I need you to look into.”

Nara quirked her brow at this odd request. She didn’t expect Jay to contact her, much less ask to meet her. She was curious, and even when Ian had warned her about getting involved, she had agreed. “What is it?”

“I need you to find someone for me.”

…

Jay pinched the bridge of his nose at another attempt to ease the stress. Pain shot through his temple as he spent another night pouring over Changmin’s notes. There was so much to cover, but with Taecyeon and Seulong both missing in action, Wooyoung unreachable, Mai incapacitated, and Junho preoccupied, there was just him alone to go over the logs.

Next to him, his partner Conny had already dosed off on her desk, and Jay sighed feeling envious. He was tired. He wanted to curl up and fall deep asleep, but with the work in front of him, there was nothing he could do. Conny argued that he didn’t need to do anything, that their jurisdiction was on hold until further notice, but with his findings, there was no way he was going to stop now.

Again he pulled out Junho’s files. Changmin had questioned how Junho could have been taken down during the evaluations. He had always been so good at evading attacks, Fuu’s notes underneath Changmin’s handwriting say that perhaps it was because Junho had gone through the course without his glasses on. Yet Changmin argued that Junho’s aim was perfect at range even without his glasses.

Until Junho’s records revealed him to be farsighted. Still, even with this knowledge, Changmin’s notes remained unsure. Question marks were drawn everywhere on Changmin’s private journal, and Jay could only assume why. Was Changmin questioning Junho’s eyesight?

Was he questioning Junho’s judgment instead?

Jay, however, was fixated on only one thing. It was the same photograph from that morning. That same photograph that had him opening up all of Changmin’s research on Schatten.

Mai’s reports lay haphazardly strewn across his table. The questions of why Hell knew exactly where Schatten would be at the time they would was already out in the open. How did Hell know about Schatten?

And Jay, just as Changmin, found only one link.