Note: So here's another chaper! Again I'm not the author so your thanks should be to "Didi" And Minjong is Jonghyun's father.

"Spoken" *thoughts*

Chapter 2: The Ghost

"I hate to be the one to ask," Minjong began after three hours of silence in the car, each in their own thoughts. He had been going through all the information he had managed to drag out of the teens last evening. Until then, he's only had a vague and disjointed understanding of what became of Key and Luna. Life experience had allowed him more time and thought to work through everything. He had questioned too much of what he heard not to help them. "But have you even consider what you're going to do when you catch up with them?"

The others looked at Taemin, who merely stared out the window, distant and cold. No one had been able to reach him since they watched the granilith carry away Luna and the baby. He refused to speak about the subject and would merely get up and walk away when anyone so much as mention it. Since last evening, he had only withdrawn more into himself.

"Taemin?" Amber reached out, touching his shoulder. Her initial anger at Luna depleted after the first few days and her preoccupation with Key-filled dreams have kept her from seeing the pain her brother was in, now... "Taemin?"

"Is he like brain dead or something?" Krystal asked, her tone light but her eyes full of concern.

"Yo Taemin," Minho gave him a light punch on the shoulder, to which there was no response. "Minjong asked a question."

"I'm thinking," Taemin replied woodenly. His eyes didn't see the dry hillside that held a kind of stark beauty he would normally be in awe of. He felt cold, had felt this way since coming out of the cave that once held the pods that incubated them. The look in her eyes as she left him...it haunted him. It did not seem to match the indifference on her face, as if her eyes were saying something more, the truth perhaps? Or maybe he was just reaching...

"I say we kill the ," Sulli suggested, her eyes on the scenery ahead, her mind somewhere darker. Her anger over Key's death and Luna's treachery had only added fuel to her anger over losing Taemin. Her reasons had been good for letting him go but that didn't help elevate the twinge of pain in her heart for what might have been.

"She's carrying my child," Taemin replied calmly, his eyes seeing her innocent youthful face framed by bouncing blonde curls as they sat talking beneath the stars. She looked so happy to be sharing her special place with him, showing him the stars and beyond.

"Not a problem," Krystal interjected happily. "We kill her after she has the baby."

"We're not killing anyone," Minjong declared in that authoritative tone that shut the rest of the chattering kids up quickly. "Murder solves nothing and there's an innocent to consider here."

"Key was innocent," Amber murmured quietly, slipping her arm through Taemin's hoping to gain some comfort from her withdrawn brother. The past few days have been terribly lonely. "But that didn't seem to matter."

"We get the truth first," Taemin turned to look at Minho, the only one he knew would be volatile enough to shoot first and ask questions later. "Nobody makes a move until we know what the hell is going on."

The intensity in Taemin's gaze was enough to leave an impression on Minho as he nodded his agreement. "She'll run if she sees us first."

"So we make sure we keep a very low profile." He sighed. "But Luna is weak with the baby not being able to survive long if it he continues to reside in this atmosphere, I doubt she'd put up much of a fight if we were to get to her quickly."

Minjong tilted the rear view mirror and exchanged looks with Taemin. "We should split up, look for her in teams of twos or threes. No one makes a move until we've all been updated."

"I agree," Minho turned and stared out the window as Krystal linked her fingers with his.

Taemin nodded. "Me too. Minho, you take Jonghyun. Krystal and Sulli will go with Minjong. Amber and I will stay together."

"Shouldn't we spread the power around a little more?" Krystal asked her thin brows furrowed with concern. "Luna may be weakened but she's not helpless."

"And Minjong has a gun," Minho pointed out though he too was slightly apprehensive over the split of the team.

"I'm not going to shoot her," the former sheriff announced without hesitation. "I won't."

"You may not have a choice," Amber point out.

"There's always another choice," came the answer. "Besides, I don't think Luna will hurt me."

"I don't either," Taemin agreed. He's seen the way Minjong protects and cares for Luna. For her not to reciprocate that... He won't believe it.

"If she would kill Key, an unarmed friend, what makes you think she won't try to blast someone that has a loaded gun on her?" Minho asked reasonably but definitely irritated by the fact that Taemin refused to see the danger Luna presents.

"I just know," Taemin answered quietly, turning to stare out the window once more. His blatant dismissal of the whole subject put an end to the discussion.

Minho shook his head and threw himself back against the cushion of the seat. Krystal traded concern looks with her best friend before snuggling close to Minho hoping to coax the man out of his dark mood. Jonghyun looked from Taemin to Minho to his father, wondering which to believe and which he wanted to believe. Amber leaned her head against her brother's shoulder and stared ahead, remembering the good times with Key.
 

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"I feel like I'm in a Charlie's Angel movie," Krystal grinned suddenly as she peeped around the corner of the local drug store.

The little town of Two Rock Texas housed a total of six drug stores, eighteen grocery stories, and a population number just a little over half a million. It was a quiet place if one can ignore the fact that half the town had recently been in a major fire. The charred remains of once thriving buildings sat there like rotting corpses with the sun bearing down on them.

"Smells like someone's left over bar-be-que party," Sulli waved a thin hand over her nose, trying to dispel some of the burnt smell that have lodged in her sinuses.

"Try to breathe through your mouth," Minjong suggested as he looked around casually and noted that there weren't that many people on the streets though quite a few curly haired blondes.

"How are we supposed to find her in this mess?" Krystal complained. "And not that that it's not nice to have you around Sheriff but why did we get stuck with you and your son has my man?"

Minjong almost smiled at the disgruntled tone that Krystal had unsuccessfully try to keep hidden. "Because Taemin is wiser than he would have you believe."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning there are a few of you in this little assembly that would like nothing better than to take Luna's head off without a second thought, and certainly no thought of Taemin's unborn child. You and Sulli have never been really good at hiding the fact that you don't like Luna, therefore it seemed logical not to leave you with someone that would only egg you two on. Minho is not too happy with Luna either but Jonghyun is not as likely to want to hurt her, plus on the bonus side Jonghyun is likely to put himself out there if he sees something he's not willing to live with. And Taemin can handle Amber." Minjong slanted the girls a look that warned them not to try anything stupid.

"Oh," Krystal pouted and crossed her arms. "Well I still say that Luna deserved anything Minho can..." Her expressive eyes went wide with shock a second before her jaw hit the ground. Her naturally pale complexion went three shades lighter as she lifted her trembling hand up to point across the street.

"Krystal, what is it?" Sulli grabbed her friend's arm as she looked around the corner to see three giggling teenage girls with ice creams, an eighty year old grandmother with a cane, a mother with her infant and the retreating back of a slender youth. "What? I missed it."

"Get a hold of yourself, Krystal." Minjong looked, craning his neck to see if he could spot anything that would terrible the youth in this matter. "What did you see?"

"A...a....a....." Her lower lip trembled and she turned to Sulli with horrified eyes. "A ghost."

"Ghost?" Blinking, she turned and looked at the half empty street once more, again seeing nothing out of the ordinary. "Who Krystal? Who did you see?"

Krystal swallowed hard and wished that Minho were here. "I saw Key."