THIS CHAPTER IS REALLY BIG I HOPE YOU GUYS APPRECIATE IT LOL <3

The next week was a flurry of activity. Word of Minho and Yuki's next mission spread quickly and was met with equal worry and anticipation. SHINee and EXO reacted to news of Minho and Yuki's assignment exactly the way the pair expected them to react. They immediately rejected the plan and argued that Soo Man should pick a different team. After an hour's worth of arguing, however, the teams acquiesed, realizing that the pair were going to take on the mission regardless of what they said. As Minho so eloquently put it:  "You guys, we're going through this mission with or without your help. You might as well give us a hand if you don't want us to die."

Kai and Taemin had been working tirelessly with the rest of the Gadgets Department, analyzing the North Korean gadgets Minho had brought them and trying to make sense of their mechanisms. It was Taemin that finally managed to figure out how to replicate the gadgets' designs one late night. Within the next day, he shared the information with Kai, who relayed it to the rest of the department. 

Jonghyun and Kris spent their time figuring going to different weapon designs, trying to figure out exactly what kind of weapons would be beneficial for Minho and Yuki. They decided to try to keep things simple, hoping direct confrontation was something that could be avoided. Thanks to Taemin's discovery, Kris and Jonghyun were permitted to explore more technilogical possibilities.

Jinki and Leetuk spent night after night interrogating the North Korean spy that was still in their captivity, seeing if he had anymore information to offer up. It didn't take long for him to start speaking again. Soon, Jinki and Leetuk had a basic, yet detailed floor plan of North Korea's spy base to work with. They started communicating with Taeyeon and Henry, using the girl's artistic skills and the boy's digital imaging abilty to create a rough map of the area Yuki and Minho would be navigating.

It was Key's job that was one of the most challenging. Soo Man had put him and Nam Woohyun on a team meant to sneak around near the border and observe the sentries for the week. Their job was to find patterns and look for the most clear period of time for Yuki and Minho to get through. They also had to get clear photographs of the North Korean sentries on the other side. Once those pictures were acquired, Key and Woohyun were meant to work with their fellow disguise artists in order to create realistic looking face masks that would match the men and women in the pictures they took.

Meanwhile, Minho and Yuki spent all the time they weren't strategizing or working with their teammates training harder than ever. They tried to discuss every possible way the mission could go wrong, talking through escape plans and what to do in the worst case scenario. 

Everything was set. Minho and Yuki had already figured out how they were going to cross over the border. Their weapons were ready. They had a solid plan. They were to break in, steal the information, and get out. Simple.

And yet, worry continued to linger in the air.

Yuki looked at the small bag in front of her. She and Minho had decided that packing light was their best option. The bag was thin enough to be concealed under their clothes without looking too out of place. Other than that, they had their standard weapons' belts and that was it. 

But is it enough? Yuki wondered idly, touching her dragon pendant. Taemin had already given her the tiny flash drive to stick between her dragon's wings. It was nestled their safely, simply waiting to be put to use. The girl started slightly when she heard the door open behind her.

"Hey," Minho said, "sorry, did I scare you?"

"Nah," Yuki replied casually, "I just wasn't paying attention. What's up?"

"The boys and I were reviewing the plan one last time before we head off. I was sent out to look for you so we could get started."

"Ah, okay," Yuki said, "my bad. Let's get a move on then."

Minho nodded and the two headed off towards the Briefing Room.

SHINee looked up when Minho and Yuki entered. "Welcome back," Jinki said, nodding at the pair as he turned his attention back to the hologram in front of him. Minho and Yuki joined him, watching the screen intently. "Okay," Jinki said, "we begin Phase 1 of the plan here, about 30 miles west of the main border." He tapped part of the screen and it lit up. "You two will go in the cover of darkness, around 10 p.m. at night. According to what Kibum and Woohyun have observed, that's around the time where border patrol switches out their guards. There's going to be a period of exactly five minutes where there aren't any guards in the area except for two:  one man and one woman. Their job is to stay back and wait until the new guards show up to make sure this area of the border isn't completely undefended. You guys have five minutes to take these two guards out, hide their bodies, and replace them. When the other guards show up, act like you're supposed to be there and pass them by. Key and Woohyun have shown you the salute the two guards do to the incoming guards. After that, you two run the show. According to what Leetuk and I have found out from our North Korean friend, it's pretty common-place for soldiers to go in and out of the spy base. A lot of the time, they act as guards for different rooms and things. You guys shouldn't have a problem getting in. Understood?"

Minho and Yuki nodded grimly. "Now," Jinki continued, "we're sending Jonghyun and Kris to the border with you. They're our best snipers. We know there are sentries posted in towers every six miles, so Kris and Jonghyun will take out the ones on either side of your position during the shift change to make sure you two are undisturbed. Now, those sentries aren't due to change position until around 2 a.m. the next morning, which gives you two about four hours before someone raises an alarm. That means you have four hours to break into the base, retrieve the information from North Korea's main super computer, and get out."

Again, Minho and Yuki nodded their heads. Jinki looked at the pair, concern in his eyes. "This isn't going to be easy," he warned, "in fact, this plan is damn near impossible."

"We know," Yuki said, "it's up to us to make it possible; and trust us, we have every intention of doing so." Jinki looked into his teammates' eyes. He saw nothing but solid determination. He nodded, his face set. 

"Right," he said, "Kibum, go get them geared up. It's almost time for them to leave." Key stood up and nodded, blinking rapidly. He motioned for the pair to follow him to the room Minho and Yuki were previously in.

"Oh, and you guys?" Jinki asked, making Yuki and Minho turn around. They looked at the boy, waiting for him to continue. "Give 'em hell from us and come back to us safely," Jinki said.

Yuki and Minho grinned, snapping their leader a salute. "Yes, sir," they chorused.

Key told Yuki to wait while he helped Minho suit up. There was silence as Minho pulled on his spy suit and Key walked around him, making sure everything was in place. It was Minho that chose to break the silence. "You can say it, Key," he said quietly.

"Me saying anything makes no difference," the blonde boy said quietly, "at the end of the day, you two are still going."

"Key, everything is going to be okay," Minho said reassuringly, "Ice Princess and I. . . we know what we're doing. We can handle this."

"Please," Key said, "don't try to give me that now. Don't try to give me false hope and promise me everything's going to be okay. The truth is, we don't know what's going to happen, and all I can do is sit here and wait and hope that you come back alive." The boy adjusted Minho's belt before exiting the room, not even giving Minho a chance to reply. 

Yuki, who had overhead the conversation, remained silent as Key walked over to her and took her to a changing room. He zipped up the back of her suit and adjusted the straps of her belt. Then, when the boy stepped back to check his handiwork, Yuki surprised him by stepping forward and hugging him. "You're right, Umma," she said, "we don't know what's going to happen. But all I can ask is that you have confidence in my abilities as well as Keroro's. I know the mission went bad last time, but it's okay. Keroro and I are in this together for real this time. And if that's the case, nothing can stop us. I'm asking you to believe in us, Umma. Believe that we will give our 10000% to make this mission a success."

Key wrapped his arms around the girl and sniffled slightly. "Okay," he simply said, "I will. I promise." Yuki pulled away and smiled.

"Good."

Yuki and Key walked out to meet Minho in the main section of the changing room. "Okay, you two," Key said, holding up two malleable masks, "these are the facemasks of the man and woman you two are supposed to be impersonating. I designed them according to your guys' facial structures so even the most scrutinous eyes won't be able to realize that you're wearing a mask. You remember how to put them on correctly?" Minho and Yuki nodded. Key picked up the thin packs on the table and placed the masks inside. "Then you're good to go," the boy said, "it's time for you guys to see Taemin. Good luck, try to stay safe. We'll be waiting for you to come back."

"All right," Taemin said, getting straight down to business, "thanks to Minho Hyung, I have the new and improved communication devices and gadgets up and running. With these babies, you guys have the power to alternate radio frequencies. I coded for several different ones, just in case any other countries pick up some tips from North Korea. For your convenience, I've labeled North and South Korea's frequencies so you guys don't have to fiddle with the frequencies too much. It's a good thing Minho Hyung took those gadgets on the down low. If North Korea had willingly given him their gadgets, we'd be right back at square one because they would have changed everything by now. I stuck with the skin pic technology to keep you guys from getting caught, so the camoflauge on your watches and ear pieces still work, but at least this time around, we can hear everything that you guys do throughout the entire mission and help you if you get stuck. We're trying to keep you guys light, which means smaller and more efficient gadgets. Kai and I got rid of all the bugs in the jetpacks, so they should be in perfect, functioning order. Kai and I have them set to South Korean frequency, which means you won't be able to use them until you get close to the border. Oh, and Hyung, take this." Taemin handed Minho an average-sized flashdrive. Minho looked at the boy questioningly. "We don't have time for you guys to hack into the mainframe by hand," the younger boy explained, "and the risk of you triggering an alarm by accident is noticeably higher if you do it by hand anyways. This USB will do the heavy-lifting for you instead. The codes in here are strong enough to break through even the most complicated firewalls in seconds without raising so much as a red flag. Kai and I spent weeks developing this, so use it and don't try to show off."

Minho and Yuki cracked a smile. "Deal," the pair said. Minho took the USB and placed it into his belt.

"Now, for added help, I had a chat with Henry and he showed me the digital floor plan of the North Korean base he developed. I took it and inputed it into your watches," Taemin continued. He took Yuki's wrist and tapped a few buttons on her watch. Almost instantly, a holographic image popped up, showing a detailed map of the North Korean base.  "When the two of you get into the base, I'll activate the tracker on your watches so you guys can figure out where you are and bam: your own personal GPS."

"Sweet," Yuki said, eyeing the map on her watch, "but. . . this still begs the question of how we're going to locate the super computer. We can't just keep opening and closing doors all over the place. That'll raise some suspicion, don't ya think?"

"Ah, but then we arrive at the best part," Taemin answered with a grin, "there's a special function on your watch designed to make it vibrate quietly when you get close to sources of high power. And when I say high power, I mean super computer power."

"So you're telling me we have to play a death defying game of Hot and Cold to find this thing?" Minho asked incredulously.

"Pretty much," Taemin replied with a quick shrug, "you guys know the general direction you have to go in. The super computer is going to be somewhere in the heart of the building. This is just to help you find the room."

"Better than nothing, I suppose," Minho muttered to himself.

"That's the spirit, Hyung," Taemin said with a grin, clapping him on the back, "anyways, moving on." Taemin picked up what looked like. . .

"Is that a bean?" Yuki asked, eyeing the oddly-shaped, black object. Taemin rolled his eyes.

"It's a disruptor, Noona," he replied, "I'm figuring that the door to the super computer is going to have some complicated security behind it. Plug in this baby to the security system outside the door and it should disarm it without any issues." He placed the item into Yuki's gearbelt. "Also," the boy continued, "I'm bringing back my spiders. I made six of them, total, just in case we need to short circuit anything. They're also built with a special self-defense mechanism:  if I tell them to, they can release knock out gas. So if you need to access a room with a lot of people in it, my little friends here can handle the problem." The boy dropped six little balls into Yuki's belt along with the disruptor. "All right, this is the last trick up my sleeve," Taemin said, reaching behind his desk and pulling out two circular objects. Minho choked.

"ARE THOSE SMART BOMBS?!" he exclaimed. Taemin shook his head.

"Honestly, you guys need to stop jumping to conclusions," the boy said disgruntedly, "while the idea is similar, these bombs don't kill. I need you two to understand that you are to use these in absolute emergencies ONLY. If you trigger this bomb, you will knock all technology within a 20 mile radius off-line. The bomb is designed similar to your watches and earpieces, which is to say that you can choose which frequency you want to disrupt. Like your comms, I've labeled North and South Korea's frequencies so you can set up the bombs easily. If you don't want your tech to be knocked off-line, make sure it's set to a different frequency than the bomb, all right?"

Minho and Yuki nodded, taking one bomb each and placing it in their belts. "That's all I have for you two," Taemin said, the worry in his voice starting to become more obvious, "it should be enough." I hope it's enough. It has to be enough. I can't let them down.

Minho seemed to read Taemin's thoughts. "It is enough," he said confidently, "Taemin, you've given us more than we could ask for. It's going to be fine." Yuki nodded along to Minho's words. Taemin sighed, but placed a smile on his face.

"You better believe that," he said, grinning, "I'll have banana milk waiting for you two when you get back!"

"That is something to look forward to," Yuki laughed. Taemin hugged the pair briefly before pulled away.

"Time for you guys to see Jonghyun Hyung," he said, "good luck you two."

Minho and Yuki nodded at the boy before exiting the Gadgets Room, Taemin's anxious eyes following them until they disappeared around the corner.

Jonghyun was already leaning against the table laid out with his weapons of choice when Minho and Yuki entered the Weapons Room. He started talking at soon as the two got close enough. "We're keeping things pretty standard in terms of weapons," Jonghyun explained as Minho and Yuki eyed his choices. "You both get one pistol each, both equipped with a built in silencer. To only be used in absolute emergencies. The bullets aren't normal; they're multipellets. When fired, the bullet expands into four fragments, meaning you can hit several targets at once. I'm also giving you both the extending poles from the last time you two paid North Korea a visit, along with two daggers and four throwing stars each, laced with poison for a quick kill. For the love of god, please don't accidentally cut yourselves. You also have several smoke bombs each for a quick get away if needed. I'm also including a slingshot for you, Minho, since you seem to be pretty good with those. These pellets here are filled with incredibly old cyanide. Ingesting it won't kill you, but it will definitely make you wish you were dead. It's enough to make the person who eats it violently sick. To be used at your own discretion." Yuki and Minho watched Jonghyun silently. They could tell he was trying to avoid talking about where they were going, forcing himself to only do his side of the deal. "And if you look here-"

"Jonghyun," Minho said gently, cutting the boy off, "slow your roll." Jonghyun stopped talking, not meeting the pair's gazes.

"You guys don't have much time. . ." he mumbled in a pathetic excuse to drag their attention back to his stock of weapons.

"It's going to be okay, Jonghyun," Yuki said.

"No," the boy said through gritted teeth, "stop saying that. You two are willingly going back to hell. How is any of this going to be okay?! We don't know what's going to happen out there! We don't know how any of this is going to turn out! We don't know-"

"You're right," Minho interrupted, repeating what Yuki had said to Key earlier, "we don't know. But that's okay. We're members of S.M., Jonghyun. Our job is to willingly risk our lives for the sake of the place we call home. And that's what Ice Princess and I are doing. As spies, we can't let relationships affect us. Jonghyun, we love you and we know you love us and care for us, but for the sake of this mission, we need you to treat us as teammates and not family. We need you to be completely focused on this mission and help us. You get that, right?"

Jonghyun nodded mutely, not trusting himself to speak. They were going no matter what. All he could do was make sure that he did everything physically possible to help them succeed. Minho and Yuki hugged Jonghyun without another word. They had witnessed a similar scene four times now. Their friends were counting on them to complete this mission and come back safely, something they had every intention of doing. 

For this mission, there was no room for doubt.

Only determination.

They were set. Their suits were on. Their weapons and gadgets were packed. Their packs were on their backs. It was a quiet walk down the hall towards the front of the S.M. Building. 

Like last time, all of the spies had congregated into the lobby, parting a way down the middle for the two to walk through

Like last time, Soo Man stomped his foot on the ground and saluted them.

Like last time, all the spies in the S.M. Building followed suit.

Like last time, Minho and Yuki stood tall and saluted them back.

"Long live South Korea."

They exited the lobby, heading towards the car that was waiting for them. Kris and Jonghyun stepped in first, their guns strapped to their backs. 

Yuki placed her hand on the car door, ready to open it. She stopped when Minho placed a hand on her shoulder. The girl turned around. 

Minho held out his hand, his expression determined. Yuki nodded, her expression mirroring his, as she reached out to grasp it. A smirk touched Minho's lips as he began to speak with Yuki following up.

"Born to fight."

"Trained to kill."

"Prepared to die."

"Never will."

"Keep low."

"Move fast."

"Kill first."

"Die last."

"One shot."

"One kill."

"No luck."

"Pure skill."

Thank you truly_me for showing me the last quote in this chapter like a bajillion years ago! <3 I finally decided to use it :3 ANYWHO, HERE WE GO AGAIN. LET'S SEE HOW MINKI FAIRS AGAINST NORTH KOREA WITH THEIR NEW PLAN.

As always, thank you to the amazing wonderful new flurry! You're awesome and thanks for subbing <3

CATCH YOU GUYS NEXT FRIDAY WITH THE NEXT UPDATE!! <3 

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE COMMENT, SUBSCRIBE AND UP-VOTE I LOVE YOU GUYS!

~Yuki ❄