[A/N]: double updates to celebrate~ We're almost done! Just a few more chapters to go. Are you all excited for it?

~ ♘ | ♜ | ♗ ~

Lee Sooman’s office was like any other precinct. All seven floors were filled with varied offices of different head departments whose range of control spread all throughout NeoSeoul. It should have been obvious to Hell- the emblem in front of the building was a blue dragon- also Lee Sooman and his direct subordinates’ personal insignia. Their main target would be at the top floor, it was a given that the path to their destination would not be easy.

Junsu watched as Mai frowned with distaste as three regular guards dropped unconscious to the floor. Chansung shrugged casually as he walked over them and scaled the wall to the next post. Nichkhun had already gone ahead with Wooyoung, while Suzy and Jia together with Jay and Kass were in the rear.

Junsu didn’t know how to feel being stuck babysitting Mai. The officer made no effort in hiding her dislike for every one of them, and while this amused Junsu, it was not a preferable arrangement when on a kill order. Even Rai was more cooperative than her.

“You didn’t kill them,” Mai stated, walking around the fallen bodies of people the same rank as her.

Chansung shrugged again. “Didn’t have to, they’re normal.”

Junsu decided to just ignore the issue altogether and moved on. The next few rooms were going to be tricky to maneuver considering layout of the building- considering the design of his bow. Kass should have been his partner, she had been ever since she joined Hell, but her disappearances were increasing in frequency and not to say he was worried about her- he was worried about the team.

The cold tiled floors were not the easiest to walk on, every step made a loud clacking sound that alerted anyone within a radius of their presence. Very crafty indeed.

“What are we looking for again?” Chansung asked, literally sniffing the area out.

“What are you doing?” Mai asked. Both men had suddenly gone quiet and stopped moving.

“Shut up,” Junsu crouched down on the floor and pulled out his bow. “What is it Chansung?”

Chansung raised a palm as warning. He wasn’t sure what was coming up, but there was a stench around the building that was nothing like sweaty bodies he had learned to filter out. This smell was sweet, almost familiar, but he couldn’t place where he had smelled it before. It was gone in an instant, and confused he looked around the narrow corridor for any clues.

Junsu strained his eyes even though there was no apparent reason to. Chansung was obviously bothered about something, and what he could smell out, Junsu was meant to see eventually. But even though they were directly under bright incandescent lights there was nothing but whitewashed walls ahead. This wasn’t going to be easy, he knew.

Mai was utterly puzzled by the weird behavior from the two men. She had earlier labelled them as different, and weird was a common word to describe them, but this time it took on a whole new meaning. The corridor was empty, why did they seem so afraid?

“What’s wrong with you?” she asked again. Mai didn’t receive her answers as soon as she wanted and she was slowly running out of patience. Although on the other hand, she was surprised to see just how careful Hell was at work. Whether this manner also applied to Nichkhun and Rai piqued her curiosity. No wonder they had been so hard to capture.

No, she thought. She was not about to admire the enemy.

“Are you ready?” that may not have been what Mai wanted to hear, but Junsu had nothing more to say to her. “It looks clear for the meantime, but be careful.”

Chansung led the way again, walking at a regular pace along the premises. It was uncomfortably silent for the officer, even more so since the other two seemed to be having some kind of mental conversation. About her, she was certain.

She didn’t realize just how attuned these assassins were with each other. It insulted her that they were a lot more cooperative and moved more as an individual unit than Schatten. Even the inspector fit in easily.

“So you think we’ll live long enough to tell the tale?”

Mai was confused with Junsu’s question, but Chansung just laughed.

“Hopefully. If Jia’s reading of Dr. Aybarra’s notes were accurate, then the next wave of enemies are going to be a mixture of Beast and Girls Generation, but with a bonus exoskeleton like Wahrheit’s.” It was an ambitious attempt from them to attack these things. Chansung had no doubts that they knew Hell would be there. He wouldn’t be surprised if all this was to lead to an ambush attack.

“Should be fun,” Junsu muttered, keeping his eyes wide open for anything. Chansung may have relaxed the slightest bit, but Chansung was no shark in water smelling blood. The sniper would have to see things first if Chansung didn’t sense it before him. “I wish Rai was here.”

“Would be loads easier.”

“What are you talking about?” Mai asked, annoyed.

“Rai here would make things easier,” Junsu repeated.

Mai sneered. “What’s so good about her? I still think I can beat her.”

A dry chuckle from both men was the reply to her. “This again?” Junsu laughed. “You can’t beat her, Chansung can’t, I won’t even try. Only Nichkhun can, and Wooyoung too, I suppose.”

“Why do you think so highly of her?”

Chansung shrugged. “Besides the fact that she’ll skin you alive if you ever lay a hand on me?”

Mai rolled her eyes. She highly doubted that. Both Chansung’s points seemed too good to be true.

“Anyway, Junsu, you never got to finish your story the last time.”

“What story? The one from the Seiryuu thing?”

Chansung nodded. “So what’s with the other Kim Junsu?”

It didn’t take long for Mai to connect the dots and associate the Kim Junsu from the Black Tortoise to the Kim Junsu she was with now. She never got to ask what this Junsu’s deal was. She was curious of course. She knew Chansung’s unfortunate chain of events, Nichkhun’s crazy ideals, Rai’s equally crazy thirst for revenge, but she didn’t know about Jinwoon and Junsu.

“Her name was Lee Yoojin,” Junsu began, melancholy tinging his voice. “She died.”

Chansung almost tripped on his own feet. “That’s it?”

“Yeah,” Junsu sighed. “Her papers were signed Kim Junsu, and when foul play was detected, he blamed it on me. So yeah, he kills the love of my life, I kill him.”

“Makes sense.”

Not for Mai. It didn’t make sense for Mai. Just because someone important died, that didn’t mean revenge was necessary, she opened to give her opinions on the matter, but Chansung started laughing.

“I can’t believe you had a love of your life.”

“Shut up, I did. We were going to get married after I get my MD. But yeah, Kim Junsu made my life hell, and because he’s all high and mighty, he doesn’t even get a slap on the hand. Talk about justice.”

Mai shook her head vigorously. “Revenge is not the-”

Her words were cut off when Chansung and Junsu abruptly stopped for apparently no reason. She didn’t understand what the fuss was all about, her instincts were just as sharp but she didn’t sense anything out of order. She was beginning to think these men were more crazy than careful.

Until they heard a loud crash from a several paces ahead of them. Several men dusted themselves off, laughing amongst each other as they pulled each other upright. Mai heard both Chansung and Junsu curse under breaths and she stepped back and pulled out her jutte.

“I knew it,” Chansung said, pulling out his katana, “my math prof really is evil.” In front of him was Park Leeteuk, who also recognized him.

“You know him?!” Mai yelled, taking another step back as the four men walked towards them.

Chansung answered with a whine and a shrug. His two companions were for all points and purposes useless against what they were up against, and he honestly wanted to live a little longer than this. He took in a sharp breath of air as four men blocked their way.

It could be worse, he thought, we could be completely surrounded.

It took a turn for the worse when Chansung’s fears became a reality. From behind him, the walls collapsed and Jia and Suzy both flew in, skidding down on the floor. He and Junsu hepled them up, and soon the thief blanched. He smelled them coming, it was rotten and vile and he wanted to choke. Behind him three more men arrived, completely outnumbering and surrounding them.

Seven men attacked them all at the same time, and Chansung braced himself for the coming impact.

~ ♕ | ♛ ~

Comfort may not have been a word to associate with the act of an assassination, but that was what both Nichkhun and Wooyoung felt as they trod down the white-washed halls. For both men, there was nothing more but the rush of undergoing the same mission together. The implicit trust they had for the other was still as strong as it had been two years before. It didn’t matter what had gone between them in years that had passed. Wooyoung now understood what Nichkhun had gone through, and while he still believed that there could have been a different way for the other to have faced the matter, it didn’t matter anymore.

The younger man knew that if the roles had been reversed, Nichkhun would be the first on his side instead of opposing him as the younger one had. He had never completely understood what June had meant until Mai and Junho.

Footsteps echoed hauntingly across the vacant hall making the atmosphere intensify even though nothing had happened. Nichkhun counted the seconds as they moved further down the main building. It had already been empty when they arrived, nothing more but a few measly guards to get by. Whoever was in charge of Seiryuu was waiting for them. He had no doubts it was Lee Sooman himself waiting at the top floor.

Nichkhun didn’t care who it was. To the world, Nichkhun Horvejkul and Juniper Aybarra were dead. All the blonde wanted now was to cut down everyone that had destroyed their lives. All he wanted was the blood of June’s killers on his sword.

“We should arrive at the top floor soon. It’s a little too easy, I think,” Wooyoung commented, briefly looking behind him though he felt no threat around them.

“I know,” Nichkhun answered. “It’s been too quiet. There’s a commotion a few floors down, but Chansung and the others should be handling that. I have a bad feeling we’re up for a surprise.”

“Hyung,” Wooyoung was tentative, suddenly unsure how to ask his query, “what happens after this?”

Nichkhun replied with a slight shake of his head. “You go back to your old life, and I build a new one.”

“What if she-”

“She’ll wake up,” he stressed. “If she doesn’t then everything I’ve done so far would have been useless.”

“Not useless,” Wooyoung argued softly. “It would only glorify what you did.”

Nichkhun shrugged. “After this it’s goodbye,”

Wooyoung’s shoulders dropped slightly, but he said nothing more as they continued walking. It was by the end of the long corridor that they finally found what they had been waiting for. Three men stood in a line in front of the elevators that led to the top office, all three armed and dangerous.

~ ♞ | ♙  ~

Jay treaded lightly behind Kass Lee. He was wary of Hell’s pawn, there was something about her that he couldn’t quite explain, something he instinctively did not trust. He saw the way Nichkhun and Wooyoung both looked at her, the way both men were just as wary of her. Perhaps it was the nature of her job that had them all on edge, though the others did not seem to distrust her as much as they did. A Pawn. Jay thought it was exactly because she was so adept at deception that he couldn’t stand her.

Her hips sashayed as she walked, something Jay noticed immediately. It wasn’t the stride of a killer, rather it was one of a seductress, perhaps the most dangerous of all. One more glaring fact stood out like a signal flare out in the distance. According to Nara’s reports back to him, the woman in front of him looked nothing like the Kass Lee on file.

The Kass Lee in file had been reported dead almost two years ago, a death called on the same night as June Aybarra’s. He doubted Nichkhun and Wooyoung knew this, in fact, Jay doubted anyone else knew of it. He didn’t even want to know how Nara had gone about looking for this but of information. All he wanted from her was to find June and Nichkhun to confirm his suspicions. She had been thorough, finding June and Nichkhun- the Fourth Avenue flower shop, in a matter of a week. Nara’s proficiency had been impressive. Even her reports on Daniel Henney and the Main Office had been surprised beyond his expectations.

Barging in on Hell wasn’t even an issue, despite his standing, albeit unspoken, rivalry with Nichkhun, the Thai had made no objection- Jay even thought Nichkhun was almost thankful. Jay wanted to be here- after all, hadn’t it been him June had discussed Fortuna with before?

“Hey Kass,”

“Don’t hey me, babe.”

“I’m just curious,” He kept his hands ready at the two railgun pistols on his belt. They weren’t made for standard use just yet, but he had his connections- and fair amounts of warning from both Conny and Ami, “how exactly do you know that everyone we’re looking for is gonna be here?”

She laughed. “I’m a pawn, that’s what I do. I look into things and find things, and do all the dirty work.”

“No, really, how did you go about looking for all this?”

Kass paused momentarily and turned towards him. Her leather boots squeaked as she twisted around to face him. “Why so curious?”

Her voice dropped a register and the look on her face warned Jay that she was on to him. He knew better than to underestimate her- Kass was deadly and he knew it. “Just am. Can’t I be?”

She smirked, and within seconds Jay’s vision began to cloud, and he slumped unconscious on the floor.

June was late, and Jay was about to call for an emergency unit to go looking for her. Juniper Aybarra was never late. Never. He checked his watch one more time, it had only been three minutes, yes, but that was the gravity of said lateness. He could not stress enough how June was never- not even one second late for anything.

He tapped his foot impatiently on the grass. She had called him so suddenly as soon as one of his combat sessions had ended sounding very agitated and worried. He arranged to meet with her immediately- instinctively he knew it was urgent, something she couldn’t tell Nichkhun.

Her choosing to tell him, well, Jay was undeniably ecstatic regardless of what the issue might have been. Her trust was something he valued, something he was going to protect, though he had yielded to Nichkhun, it didn’t mean he had given up on her completely. No one may have understood why, but June was not someone that could easily be given up.

Finally, soft footfalls running behind him eased the tension growing on his nape. June came running, clearly out of breath, skidding to a halt in front of him. “Sorry!” she said. “Changmin wouldn’t let me leave, I had to find some way to get him to shut up.”

“That’s okay,” Jay answered, unable to hide the smile on his face. “What’s up?”

The expression on her face changed and it was business as usual. “Remember what I told you a few days ago? About that project Changmin had been telling me about? About Dr. Bulatov’s offer? I think I found something you might want to look into.”

“You mean the military projects?”

“Not just those. The exosuit projects are well underway, it’s something else I’m worried about.”

“Something you can’t tell Nichkhun?” He didn’t regret saying it.

Her eyes narrowed significantly, “I can’t get him involved, no matter what happens I will keep him as far away from this as possible.”

“And knowingly endanger me?”

“Jay,”

“Sorry. Look, I’ll look into this.” He sighed in defeat. “You’re putting your life in my hands in order to protect him, you know how that would make him feel?”

“I don’t care. You don’t have to worry about my safety, I just need all the information I can get. I know you’ve been talking to Rain.”

He was caught the moment she mentioned Jung Jihoon’s codename. June knew about his other affiliations, and it appeared now that she was involved too. “Alright, fine. I’ll do it.” He couldn’t say no to her eyes b with tears- he couldn’t say no to her at all.

“I have something for you.”

That was when he noticed the case she had with her. June handed it to him with care, and slowly he unlocked the pins and opened it. His eyes widened and he quickly snapped the case shut. “These are-”

“Railguns, they shoot out large bolts of electric projectiles. The circuits are still experimental, but Ami’s lab had these custom made for you.”

“I thought Ami was moving into surveillance?”

“I had her finish up her work at special weapons first, we designed and built this for you Jay, you’re the only one who can double wield this to perfection. Take them.”

He couldn’t say no to these either, not when the technology wasn’t even publicly available yet. June and Ami making these for him, and him alone, he didn’t know if he should feel honored or pressured. “June-”

“Jay, you’re our only hope. Ami moving into surveillance, it’s partly because she wants to follow Rain, but it’s also so she can gain more intel. Don’t think that Nara isn’t involved, because she is too. Yin and Yang from Umbra will be coming to see us soon for the counter project to Fortuna. We have to move fast.”

Jay nodded understanding full well the gravity of the situation. It was ironic that he broke up with Nara because of his affiliations with Umbra, only to find out that his now ex-girlfriend was Umbra too. “Alright. I’m reporting to Rain and JYP tonight, I have a special assignment in NeoBerlin, and-”

“Quite done, yet?”

He laughed. “Alright, I can’t believe you bribed me with secret military equipment.”

“A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.”

She bid him goodbye and walked away. In Jay’s mind, there was nothing more he thought of, than the possibilities- what if June had met him first, what if instead of making Nichkhun go alone, Jay shadowed him in the labs instead.