They stood in a circle, Nichkhun, Wooyoung, Rai, Jay, and Jinwoon, crouching over a map as they deduced the location of their final target. Nichkhun was certain of the location, and there was a unanimous agreement as soon as Jia pulled up the map showing all the other locations they marked out. At the center of the White Tiger laboratories, the Black Tortoise, Pheonix Records, and Lee Sooman’s office, was the one place not one of them wanted to revisit.

“Looks like we’re going back to school,” Jay commented, drawing a big red circle around the Academy’s location on the map. “Probably June and Changmin’s lab. Why didn’t I think of this before?”

Nichkhun shook his head. He didn’t want to go back there. One painful memory overshadowed the rest of his days as a student, but he knew he had no other choice. “Changmin will be there, so will Kass and Kazuki.”

“Leave Kazuki to me,” Rai said. “What are you going to do about the doctor?”

Nichkhun clenched his teeth before speaking. “Leave Changmin to me, I don’t care how you take care of the rest of them. I’ll find June and put an end to this all.”

Wooyoung nodded. “He’ll be expecting you. You can’t just go there alone.”

“He’ll have his best bodyguards there. If it’s anything like the past missions, then you should be prepared for a grand welcome,” Jinwoon said. “We can handle the cronies, but you still can’t go on your own Nichkhun.”

“I’ll go with him,” Wooyoung stated. He cocked his head towards Rai who was standing next to him “I’m taking her along. Consider us your bodyguards. Changmin will probably have his best guards attack you, so leave June to us.”

Nichkhun nodded. “The three of us will head straight to June’s lab, while the rest of you destroy everything you can.”

“You’re going to entrust your life, and the life of the love of your life to the people who want to kill you?” Mai cut in, arms crossed on her chest.

A ghost of a smile appeared on Nichkhun’s face as he turned his head towards her. “I trust my life, and June’s as well to no one else but them.”

Mai shook her head. “You may have brainwashed Taecyeon and Seulong, but I still don’t think this is the way to go.”

“Still thinking that, are you?” Chansung asked. “You know it’s not about that anymore. This is really it. We’re taking down Fortuna once and for all. It’s your mission as a member of Schatten, isn’t it?”

“I don’t understand, Mai,” Junho said, “You always said you wanted to make a difference. This is making a difference, and you’re running away from it because the means don’t fall under what you consider acceptable. You can’t keep thinking like that. Not everything falls into black and white.”

Mai said nothing more, and looked away. It was true what Junho said. She was more afraid of the consequences than anything else. She was terrified of the dangers involved- of dying without leaving a part of her that would last forever. She was afraid of the kinds of pain she knew she would receive. She was afraid of being proven wrong. She glanced towards Junho, who despite her aggression towards him, her doubting him at his time of need, had found it in him to forgive her and watch out for her.

“Ami and Rain are cooperating with us, they sent a team to take care of what stragglers we might find across campus and within and along the chain of command,” Jinwoon said. “We have about sixty minutes broken down into pieces before the alarms go off. That’s as much as the Weather Station can give us without creating a large gap in their system that would create considerable suspicion.”

“That’s enough time,” Jay said, confidently. “Taec and Seulong have something for us that could help, plus I have these,” he pulled out the two railguns from his belt and laid them on the table. “These babies will save lives.”

Nichkhun, Wooyoung, and Rai shook their heads, all three muttering about barbaric weapons and lack of elegance and grace. Jay ignored them, commenting instead on utility over form. “As long as it gets the job done- and June gave me these.”

Nichkhun’s teeth gnashed against each other, but he said nothing more. It hurt him that June had affiliations and dealings that he knew nothing about. Umbra was one thing, but her relations with both Wooyoung and Jay- and him not realizing were unacceptable to him. Shim Changmin too.

“So we just storm right in, right?” Chansung asked, pulling the schematic of the labs closer to him. He had never set foot on the building before, much unlike the rest of his teammates. It didn’t matter. He doubted there would be a considerable amount of navigating as compared to fighting.

“More or less, yes,” Jinwoon answered. “I’m sure they’ll be waiting.”

“Then we shouldn’t keep them, should we?” Rai said, bumping her fists on the table.

Wooyoung let a smile slip, and Mai frowned. She couldn’t fathom how it was possible for the inspector and her rival to get along this easily. It was as if they exchanged swords and that was it. Her lips pressed into a thin line as the two walked past her. Junho sent her a reassuring smile and laid a hand on her shoulder.

“It will be over soon. Don’t worry, I’m sure they won’t let you take the fall for this.”

It may have been what she wanted to hear, but something more bothered her. It was the final battle, she knew, but something inside her warned her of an impending dark cloud that would loom over them from then on. Mai shook it away as Junho left the room, leaving her alone. One look at the map and she bit her lip. She had been vaguely aware of June’s accident at the lab, but the details were kept from the public. It seemed that were too many thing kept from the public- not only what happened behind the lab doors, but also behind their backs as well. Too many secrets had been revealed and she didn’t know what to believe. Everyone else she knew seemed to have accepted everything and moved on, but not her. Mai knew she was already left behind, perhaps the only one left at the starting line with no one waiting for her to catch up. Questions still plagued her mind, but even though the answers all hung in a mist in front of her, her hands couldn’t grasp them.

She sighed audibly in the empty room and walked out. They were leaving in a few hours and she had to be ready, both physically and emotionally. Wooyoung stood by the door, and she looked up at him in surprise.

“You’re going to need these,” he said, pressing something cold into her hands.

Mai looked down and saw a pair of cold metal sai gleaming under the lights. “Inspector-” Her words retreated into as Wooyoung left as abruptly as he handed her the sai. Mai stared hard at the three-pronged weapons in her hands. She was trained to use a sai, she could wield it with no trouble. It was the idea that it could kill a person, modified or not, that held her back.

“...tread with caution,” she whispered, eyes pinned on the door in which Wooyoung disappeared.

“Are you ready?”

Chansung looked up from tying his boots and to Jinwoon. He sat on his bed and pulled his katana closer to him. “I am,” he answered, looking his friend in the eye. “I’m ready.”

Jinwoon nodded gravely. He wanted to come with them, to fight his enemies and feel their bones breaking underneath his feet. He was thirsty for revenge, and he felt guilty and envious that he was putting Chansung through the burden of doing his job for him. “I’m sorry,” he suddenly said.

“For what?” Chansung was caught off guard.

“For this. For being forced to take my place.”

Chansung chuckled dryly. “It was either this or death, it wasn’t a hard choice.”

Jinwoon shook his head slowly. “They wouldn’t have killed you. If you had said no, they would have let you go, made you do something else. You should never have offered to join Hell.”

“Why bring this up now? I made the decision. I almost killed you back then- a life for a life. I had nothing more to give up but that. You, JYP, you guys gave me something to live for. You gave me a new life. I’ll get them for you, Jinwoon. I’ll be your like your sword, just tell me what to do.”

Jinwoon laid his hands on his lap and looked straight into Chansung’s eyes. “I’m very grateful, don’t get me wrong. It would have been very different without you here, and for that I am thankful. Even though this isn’t your life, you took it with no complaints. I just wanted to give you one last chance to back out.”

Chansung laughed. “You’re not gonna get rid of me. I’ll be your legs. Where you can’t go, I’ll go for you.”

Junsu pulled out his crossbow from inside its case and thoroughly inspected every angle of it. Heavy bolts lay by him, and one by one he set them against each other on a holster. If the others knew about Yoojin, they made no mention of it. She was his target foremost that night. Her and whatever else Fortuna would throw at them. It was the last stand now, and he was ready. He joined Seulong and Taecyeon inside the basement, and all three men stood by each other on the work desk.

Seulong handed him a bag and Junsu warily took it. “Are you sure about this?”

“It explodes on impact so you have to be careful,” Seulong answered. “These are going to fit the grooves of your stock perfectly. Just shoot and run. Leave the big finish to me.”

Taecyeon cracked his knuckles. He was ashen, and he hopped from one leg to the other. He was enraged about what happened to Eunhee, but the reminder of what they were facing troubled him. His last encounter with Fortuna left him bruised and nearly incapacitated- and those were nothing compared to what he was about to face now. “So how are we splitting up this time?”

Junsu shrugged. “I don’t think it matters. Nichkhun, Wooyoung, and Rai all have their businesses to attend to, so we have to make sure they make it to the lab whole. Everything else we deal with. Jia and Suzy are coming with us, but they’re still pretty beat up.”

“We can do this, right?” Seulong asked, looking up at the two men with him. “We can really defeat them all.”

Junsu smiled. “You have a big finish right? If all else fails, just skip to that and call it a day.”

Seulong gulped loudly. That was the last thing he wanted to hear.

Rai inhaled sharply as Junho dabbed disinfectant on her open wound. It seared through her skin, leaving a trail of needles all over her body. She clutched at the sheets under her and bit down hard. Just sitting there and not fighting increased the pain tenfold. Her hands ached for blood- for Kazuki’s blood. She saw nothing more but her target waiting to be cut down. She fell forwards as Junho taped her midsection tightly, grabbing on to his arms, digging her nails into his flesh.

“I know it hurts, but you have to take it. If we do it like this, then it won’t hurt as much later when you fight.” His voice was calm, but inside he was a mess. His heart was racing with the thought that they were going to be facing their toughest enemy to date.

“Are you going to be okay?” she asked, eyes boring into his shoulder.

“I’m fine,” he answered, “it’s nothing. Try not to do anything stupid.”

She smirked and said nothing. Blood stains seeped through the fabric of Junho’s plain white shirt, and she wished she had been the hit instead. It would have done her more good to have been immune to pain like Junho was.

He handed Rai her shirt and gathered his kit as she pulled it over her head. “Don’t die,” he said, “don’t die out there.”

Mai sat in silence as she tried to digest the events of the past few weeks. She had been to a battle that was not hers, a fight that she had nothing to win or lose. In a sense she understood how Taecyeon felt, how Nichkhun felt, even Rai, perhaps, in that vague ambiguous sense. Little pieces of information hung before her lids, dots that were meant to be connected to create a whole, but try as she may Mai couldn’t connect the dots. She knew how Fortuna worked and operated, she understood Lee Sooman’s motives and how every other person they had investigated was used by their Chief for his own gains. Mai understood the self-serving nature that all humans had in them, the way the same concept fueled Nichkhun and his group of assassins. Understanding was not enough. Was it truly so hard for these people to let their feelings aside and look at the situation from a different perspective? Or was it perhaps that she, herself, did not feel strongly enough for anything to fully grasp what was happening now?

The door opened, and in came Junho, carrying with him bloody bandages meant for the trash. He looked at her, softly, knowingly. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she said, “I just...”

“Maybe you don’t have to.”

Mai looked up, surprised that even now Junho could read her as easily. “I have to.”

“Not everything has a rational and justifiable reason for everything. Nothing is black and white, though we might want to compartmentalize everything like that. We can’t tell these people what’s right or wrong when they truly believe that what they’re doing is the right thing. You tried to kill me, remember? All because I bore the same mark as your enemy.

“Whether or not you believed that was the right thing to do, or if your emotions got the better of you, it doesn’t really matter. The way you felt back then, feelings of betrayal, feelings of hurt, confusion, these people live with that kind of pain everyday. You can’t judge them, nobody can.”

“I just can’t accept the fact that they kill people and not feel anything about it!”

“You don’t think they do?” Taken aback, Mai could only stare at him, unsure of how to respond. Junho sighed and sat down next to her. “They’re humans with souls like you. Rai has nightmares, Nichkhun looks like he’s never had a peaceful night’s sleep. Why do you think Junsu sleeps with all those girls? Chansung and Jinwoon may not show it, but I know they hurt just as much. What do you think the flower shop means to them?”

Mai’s eyes bore into the empty wall in front of her. All those things shouldn’t have meant anything, right? It was just a shop, just a cover for them, nothing more than just a beautiful facade to the ugliness that lay underneath. “Why are you defending them?”

“Is that what it is? Defending them? Maybe because it’s the least I can do for them.”

Mai shook her head as the first tear fell from her eyes. The dam she had built had begun to overflow, and she was just overwhelmed with everything that had gone on. “This isn’t my fight.”

“It’s Schatten’s fight now, too. I don’t think Captain would let this pass, sometimes, you just have to dive head first without calculating the risk factor. It’s like what Junsu says, all you really need to do is calculate the catharsis factor, from there everything will be worth it.”

Wooyoung watched in silence as Nichkhun and Jay stared each other down. As long as they didn’t try to kill each other, then he would stay out of it. Like Nichkhun, Wooyoung was surprised that June had the railguns made for Jay. In a way he understood why June didn’t want Nichkhun involved, but he also understood Nichkhun’s feelings.

Nichkhun felt left out and betrayed, but he understood well enough than to let his feelings waver. However, understanding didn’t lead to acceptance, and now more than ever he felt the need to take June away from everything that had brought her to this situation in the first place. “She trusted you, but you failed her.”

Jay shook his head. “No one could have stopped that incident Nichkhun, you know that. She wanted us to be able to protect ourselves. She kept you out, telling us all to make sure you were never even involved.”

“Yet here I am.”

“She loved you, you should know that.”

“Don’t talk about her in the past tense, she’s still alive.”

Jay shook his head again. “You don’t know that. What if Changmin turns her into something else? Something like those monsters? You know what he’s capable of.”

Nichkhun refused to entertain the idea. “You will not lay a hand on her Jay. Whatever happens, leave everything concerning her to me.”

Jay’s expression was stern. “I loved her too, but when it comes right down to it, if I have to, I will kill her. If you try to stop me-”

“You’ll die first before you even get anywhere near her.”

Jay knew what had to be done, and he was prepared for it. He hoped that his fears wouldn’t be made reality, that June would be kept safe from the monstrosities of Fortuna, but he could only hope for so much. Conny had failed to make contact with Daniel Henney and Narsha Park, it appeared that both had completely disappeared off the grid and there was nothing more he could do about it. At least he knew that Umbra would not die out. What he feared now was the revelation of more hidden organizations. What more had been a lie? What was left for him to believe in?

Wooyoung watched as Jay left them alone. Like the interpol agent, Wooyoung had his fears about could have happened to June- of he had these fears, what more for Nichkhun? He couldn’t begin to understand what kind of torment Nichkhun had to go through losing June not just once but twice to the same man. His hyung was tense, fist tightly clenched and eyes focused on the floor.

“What if he’s right?” Nichkhun asked, voice low and raspy.

Wooyoung shook his head. “He’s not. If...if Changmin...he can’t do that to her, right?”

Nichkhun shifted his gaze towards his friend. “Let’s hope not.”