Minho was being escorted for a talk with SangJung early in the morning. He felt rather eager for this visit, considering he may be finally caught in his act. He wanted to know if he was found out. Maybe he would grab everyone and shoot off somewhere just to try.

He and the guard that lead him the last fifteen minutes stood at the door. Minho looked back at him, expecting him to open the familiar door of his first week in the prison.

  “It’s a special visit,” the man’s voice sounded young, “You won’t need to defend yourself.”

Minho shifted his shackled and still waited for him to open the door, but the guard did nothing.

  “Won’t you get in trouble for holding me out here?” he asked.

  “Just wait,” he advised, “We need to wait until—” the door knocked, “—That.”

The guard breathed out and opened the door to let Minho in, “Please save me,” he whispered, “I have a sister out there. I’m all she had,” he plead to Minho, slowly shutting the door behind him.

Minho started to feel the weight on his shoulders about the other prisoners. Surely Luna and Onew and other creatures on his side were spreading the news to the right people and helped to make sure all these innocent people escaped.

Minho turned to look at SangJung with the expectancy of being hit in the face, right to listen to his screams and childish ways; the news of his demise.

Minho slightly staggered at who he looked at—clearly it wasn’t SangJung.

Trinity leaned against the wall with her arms crossed. She made the room less daunting for Minho, but just a sniff of the air and he still felt iffy about it.

  “Why you?” Minho leaned against the door, “More important, about last time—”

She held up a hand and shook her head, “No more question. I have answers. Sit down?” she gestured for the chair.

Minho automatically sat down in the chair by her and crossed his legs, his face already asking everything.

  “You take too long,” she repeated, “Now you take even longer. . .”

  “You were so vague!” Minho protested, “How am I supposed to know what you’re talking about?”

She paused, taking a moment to try and understand the Korean before she held up her hand again and pushed off the wall, kneeling in front of him, “You absolutely positive you get out? Get as much as you can out?”

Minho furrowed his brows, “I don’t trust you enough.”

  “I told you,” her brows pulled together, almost pleadingly, “I tell you answers. Just tell me. No SangJung,” she immediately shook her head, “No SangJung,” she stumbled and tried to pull a word out of her head, “Pro . . . Promise?” she said in Korean.

Minho wanted to scoff in his head that she was only pulling him into a trap but he couldn’t commit to it. She pulled him in the other direction, and he couldn’t deny her.

  “As much as I can,” he admitted, “I’m getting as much as I can out of here.”

She smiled, “Good. You get me out here too, you know. Despite what I done to our kind,” her eyes gestured to her back and she brought up her burnt wrist, “I rather be with them than be here in a lie.”

  “You plan to die?” Minho blatantly asked, “What?”

  “Of course,” she confirmed, “Minho, not everyone is happy living anymore. They done with this world. Whatever after they want go to.”

Minho hadn’t thought about it that way. He didn’t want to think of it that way, either. He’d rather save them to live rather than save them to die. It seemed more like damnation than freedom.

  “But . . . you’ll burn to death,” Minho tried to reason with her.

  “More courageous than to do it myself,” she shook her head with a sad smile, “You do me favor.”

Minho tried to wrap his head around the fact that in the end, he would really let it happen. He had no time to specifically force those who want to die to get out, but he still didn’t want to let them wither away.

  “I’m not sure that I should let you,” Minho sighed.

  “You have no choice,” she shook her head again, “It only way. You let it happen. You have to

  “Listen to me,” she grabbed his burned wrist, “You no need to worry about the other innocent. I take care of that. You just need to go down there.”

Minho furrowed his brows and took back his wrist, “Why are you double-crossing him?”

Trinity took a second to comprehend, pursing her lips before looking at the door, “I made mistake. Big mistake. He not good person. As much as he can be, he not. It has to end, even if it is murder.”

She stood up and Minho watched her as she rubbed her hands together, “I told you. Two-one-nine.”

Minho abruptly stood, “What is it?”

She turned around blankly, “Furnace latch number. It not coal and heat. It the way down.”

  “The way down?” Minho repeated, “Down to where I need to go?”

She nodded, “Exactly. Now, not tomorrow, but the next day I make first distraction at one-thirty. You make way to Taemin. At two, I make other distraction and you head south into furnace. I empty the area the morning before you go. I get all people out,” she grabbed Minho’s shoulders, “No fail. Can not fail. Please. You the only hope of making this disappear forever,” she held on to Minho’s face, a small smile on her lips, “Empire rebuilt. Lives anew. A new era for us. You not fail. I believe you.”

Minho kept still, chewing the inside of his lip at the pressure.

  “You go now, I not see you,” she suddenly let go, knocking on the door, “I not see you now. I not see you later. This is last time, I hope.” The door opened and the same guard came in to take Minho, “You do well. I wish you all happy lives,” she smiled and pat Minho’s cheek and the guard’s shoulder, “Goodbye.”

They both watched Trinity walk out of the room into the hallway, inside Minho, it felt like a part of him just . . . detached.

It was really . . . over.

  “Let’s go,” the guard grabbed his arm, leading him out, “And hey . . . good luck.”

  “What am I supposed to tell them?” Taemin asked.

Minho backed out of the bird, falling on to Onew.

  “Hey!” Onew complained, pushing Minho off of him, “I’m not a cushion!”

Minho scrambled to his feet, immediately pulling Onew up with him, “Sorry, sorry. Impact was big this time.”

They were all together once again and the pieces were finally falling to each place, and the puzzle was ready to be framed and over with.

  “What did he say, anyway?” Luna asked, topped on Jonghyun as a dog, taking a little ride as the Taerant needed to walk a little.

  “He wants to know what to tell Kapsoo,” he tied his hair up, “I’m guessing he can just tell them he’s over it. I mean, we’re off in two days . . .”

Onew looked slightly up at Minho, eyes sharp, “No. Don’t tell him that.”

Jonghyun stopped to and stared at Minho tensely, Luna sensing it and getting off of him before he changed back into a human, Luna grabbing his clothes and shielding him from her eyes. The air in the room grew thick with tension and Minho wasn’t following the edge.

No one was offering him the explanation—they all awkwardly stood around as Onew grew red by the minute, getting at least angry, by Minho’s eyes.

 “Why not?” he finally asked, “Don’t leave me out of this.”

Jonghyun pulled his pants up slowly, pointing for Minho to sit down, staring down at the floor carefully, “It’s over if they know.”

Minho stared back at Onew as he sat on the stiff bed with Luna. Just to think something was going right and it could all go wrong with just a small thing. Why did everything have to be dangerous?

  “Why can’t he tell?” he asked, “I mean, they can’t hold him, right?”

Onew rubbed his face, “He’ll stay missing until the day he dies.”

Minho chose not to speak. The quiver he felt inside was small, but so controllable. He felt Daesung pat him on the shoulder encouragingly to keep Minho from falling apart at such a crucial part.

  “We can’t drag this out anymore,” he looked at Jonghyun, “We didn’t want to tell you earlier because, well, Minho, you’re never a stable guy.” He nodded to Jonghyun, “Hyung, you have to tell him now, it’s time.”

Jonghyun kept still for a few seconds, his mouth scrunching up as he continued examining the floor. He hesitated to do anything, to even open his mouth. His eyes drooped, his whole body sagging as if he weren’t ready at all, “Okay.”

He rubbed his face, sitting on the floor in front of Minho, “How about we finish talking about Kibum, Minho?”

Minho was about to say something, to jump out of exclamation even though he wasn’t even sure what to even say, but Jonghyun silenced him, “Just listen, Minho.”

Minho kept quiet while Jonghyun hesitated to start. Jonghyun kept fidgeting; rubbing his eyes or his hands. He’d try to start speaking but then huff an aggravated, humorless laugh. Onew and Luna kept trying to encourage him to start because it was his story—that they couldn’t tell it for him.

  “You won’t turn, I promise,” Luna nudged his knee with her foot a little, “You’ve told it over and over, you can do it again.”

Jonghyun looked up at Luna momentarily before placing his hand over his eyes, sighing for one last time.

  “It was my birthday,” Jonghyun shook his head, “We were going for a walk about a mile from the house because it was a damn nice to for a Spring day. We were just joking around and whatnot and then it just . . .”

He paused again, never showing his eyes to Minho, “Kibum and I were traced by SangJung’s ancestor. It was all wrong, I couldn’t trust them from the get-go. I took Kibum and ran. But clearly, they had the speed, too. They rode on Taerants—you can never outrun a Taerant when you are one; you run with them.

  “The bastard shot me in the legs and no matter what Kibum or I said, they weren’t letting us go. They took us by force and we were separated. I was left to the pain all on my own with no one to help. People weren’t as ‘kind’ as they are now when it came to injury. I had to do everything you’ve been doing now when shattered legs for a while . . .

  “I hadn’t seen Kibum for months,” he took his hand away and shook his head, “The stories they told him . . . the lies they spread . . . it was enough to drive a man insane and that’s exactly what they did to Kibum. He started to injure himself from the horrors of their words, not from me. The lies drove him to scar his own face . . .”

He laid his dace in his hand, sighing and tapping on the floor anxiously, “I saw him just that one time. You don’t know how angry I was. How much I just wanted to let it all out and tear everyone to shreds. But I couldn’t do it because I finally had Kibum with my after a whole half year. Just knowing he was still with me and able to touch me was all that mattered.”

Minho looked away from Jonghyun, his own hands rubbing each other. That was exactly his scenario, yet he screwed it up entirely. Even an emotionally-wrecked Jonghyun was stronger than him.

  “The second time was long from then. We though we were being freed . . .” he bit his lip as the memory painfully arose to the worst. He stopped, not wanting to continue until he shakily sighed, “Kibum never gave upon me and told them he’d never believe them and still kept to my side. He told them he wanted to keep remembering. We thought . . . they just took our whole situation as a misunderstanding and would let us go.”

Minho stiffened and didn’t want to hear the rest. He absolutely know what was going to happen. It was so obvious; so inevitable. Hearing it would even discourage him, “No, stop. Jonghyun I don’t want to hear anymore.”

  “I’m going to tell you, Minho,” Jonghyun shook his head, “I want you to be the last person to know the story and tell it to your kids.”

Luna got up, Onew unfazed when she situated herself in Jonghyun’s lap, the Taerant’s arms surrounding her as she laid back, “Kibum had Luna’s figure—but slimmer,” he chuckled a little, “Thin . . .”

He swallowed and Luna silently encouraged him to go on, wiping the slight appearance of tears in his eyes, “It’s their policy,” Jonghyun looked at Minho, the fire in his eyes suddenly there, “When someone refuses to forget, that means there is something broken we cannot fix. . . And when I cannot fix that, we have to rid of the broken of our hands.”

Jonghyun huffed another laugh without any muse and squeezed Luna to him, “If they aren’t willing to forget and they’re on our side, these people believe they’ve been possessed—taken from humanity. They think the only way to save them is to send them to the afterlife before ‘God’ judges their mistakes.

  “I tried to . . . I tried to . . .” Jonghyun buried his face into Luna’s shoulder, “I tried to keep him from harm—I tried to take us to escape. It was my fault I didn’t protect him well enough! I was the reason he died!”

He cut off, the trembled of his shoulders causing the atmosphere to grow heavy, “I could’ve saved him!” he outburst, Luna cringing, “I didn’t know about marking him! I didn’t know I could turn him immortal! I could’ve bitten him and he’d still be here! I’ll never be able to look at a gun and find interest in it because of Kibum!”

Jonghyun stopped talking after that, crying into Luna’s shirt with little ‘Kibums’ here and there.

Minho cleared his sore throat, “It’s not your fault,” he gruffly spoke, rubbing his bottom lip, “You did your best, Jonghyun. What matters is that you tried. That . . . that you cared enough to still think about him to this day.

  “It’s like Taemin and I . . .” he nodded, starting to talk to himself. “If I didn’t change, Taemin would’ve died. I tried to protect him, but I really did end up losing him to this point.”

Jonghyun sharply pulled his head up with his emotionally-wrecked face, but Minho cut him off, “I know. I don’t know what forever is like. But what matters is what you try to do now and even forever. You tried, Jonghyun. And I know you know Kibum hadn’t given up on you.”

But then Minho looked at Onew, “Now, in present day . . . Taemin’s still in danger then. And now I can’t risk him to do anything. . .”

Onew stared at Jonghyun, red in his own eyes as he pulled a hand through his tangled hair, “Tell him to say nothing about it. Don’t tell him why because he’ll freak out. Just tell him to wait it out and you’ll come for him.”

Minho slowly got up, watching Jonghyun hiding on Luna before making his message to the bird.

It was a short response before it was off again and the two men joined Luna in trying to calm Jonghyun from his ails.

It made Minho think about what Jonghyun would do when he makes it out of this place. He’d want to keep Jonghyun close, even in their own home, but at the same time, it would be selfish to show off that he still saved his own love. It would be a punch in the face every day.

He wouldn’t advise Jonghyun to live in the wild alone—he may resort to going back to a carnivore out of his emotional distress. And Minho wouldn’t enjoy that kind of confrontation with him.

Now wasn’t the time to ask about it as he patted Jonghyun on the back and whispered things to him. All he could do right now is try to keep him from going insane.

  “So we’ll meet up at the furnace,” Onew settled, removing himself from the window, “Jonghyun and I, you and Luna.”

Minho double-took at Onew with his sudden turn of plans, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, no. We’re absolutely not splitting up.”

Onew shook his head, pointing at the door, “If we all go together, we’ll be as noticeable as a spotlight!”

  “Onew,” Minho got up from the bed, “We’re noticeable period, if you haven’t noticed! Besides, Trinity said she’s clearing our way, it won’t be as bad.”

Onew stubbornly shook his head, “I’ve been with her since day one here. How can you trust her so easily? I can’t even trust her! She’s in it with SangJung all the time!”

Minho glared darts at Onew, tongue poking his cheek before retorting, “Instinct.”

  “Can you really trust that?” Onew raised his brows almost mockingly, “Didn’t that get Taemin here in the first place?”

Minho snapped, grabbing Onew by the collar of his shirt and pressing him to the wall, “Shut up! I have no idea what you’re problem is, but we’re doing this my way. Your way got you to kill someone,” Minho knew that hurt him just as much, “You want to do that again—?”

Onew shoved him back violently, “Don’t act so ing noble, Minho.”

  “We’re not. Splitting. Up.” Minho finalized with clenched teeth.

The two stared each other down with the head of the tension passing through the room and missing the window. Minho had no clue why Onew couldn’t just stick together with everyone or trust him on this. They’ve been up to par for months and now at the last minute he decided to try screwing it up.

  “Alright, break it up, now!” Luna screamed and pushed them away from each other, “I’ll determine it! And you know what, you two?” she yelled, turning to Onew and hit him on the chest, “We’re all going together, that’s final, Onew!”

Onew’s face blew up in shock, “Luna, you can’t be serious!”

She pushed him back, “You’re going to face it! You’re not leaving them when we’re out of here! So get used to the thought and face it! It doesn’t make sense to avoid it!”

Onew grabbed her hand harshly, “Luna—”

Luna grabbed him bak and pulled him to the opposite corner of the room, continuing a heated hushed argument.

Minho forced himself to cool down, darts still on Onew, “What is up with him?”

Jonghyun stared at Onew, too, “He’s tired. He’s over thinking it, I suppose. He’s hit breaking point. It’ll be okay when we get out. He’ll say his apologies.”

  “I don’t want an apology,” Minho huffed, sitting on the bed, “I want to know what he’s thinking.”

They watched as Onew kept arguing with Luna, but she kept firing shots back at him. They knew Onew wasn’t going to last long with hard Luna was going at it, but it seemed like forever in just a short time.

  “I’m through,” she hissed, “I don’t care what you have to say. It’s all or nothing, Onew, and I’m not leaving you to nothing,” she left him at the corner crawling on to the bed with an exhausted huff.

Jonghyun rubbed her shoulder, “He’s tired.”

  “You don’t even know,” she groaned, “Just wait until we leave.”

The two men looked at each other, not even knowing what she meant.

----Note~-----

I can't believe it took me all of March to just get to this. >.>

I'm sorry guys. No excuses this time.

So we found out about Kibum! And tonight, the final two chapters of Jongkey's story is in BTS! Go look!

Yes, Onew's still acting weird as hell, but IT WILL LITERALLY BE EXPLAINED IN THE NEXT CHAPTER!

BECAUSE GUESS WHAT?

WE'RE FINALLY BLOWING THIS JOINT THE NEXT CHAPTER!

Ugh, the end is so near I'm going to cry.

The next three chapters are basically a split up of the whole day of escaping because there's so much to write about, so I hope it doesn't draaaag.

Yes but anyhow!

Three extra chapters tonight: Jongkey and Trinity + SangJung. ^^

I still have to try getting all of those done before the end. I'm so lwasidfriguaefinbv;div;w about it.

Anyhow, I really hoped you enjoyed and sorry for taking so long.

Thank you to every comment, sub, view, and any possible votes!

Thank you for just sticking with me at all!

Love you!

~FlaMinhoe