Chapter 6: Reverie
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CODENAME: ALECTO

NAME: DI AVA

AGENCY: NIS

Music, my only release from the terrors of the world I live in, gently I guided my fingers over the keys in the blissful melody that is Chopin's Waltz in B Minor, closing my eyes and diving into a world other that this one of violence.

"Ava." a quiet voice called, breaking through my harmonic reverie. Snapping my head over I saw a tall young man, garbed in a grey long sleeved shirt, dark blue jeans, a pair of white sneakers, upon his face a cautious expression. Changmin, here at the restaurant on his day off. "Ava, we need to go." I quickly improvised the ending to the piece. Then stood up, walking towards him and giving a questioning look. "Ava..." he muttered, as if hesitating weather to tell me or not. "Your brother..." my eyes widened.

"Yunho?" I quickly blurted. "What happened to him, did he return from Australia alright?" Changmin bit his lip, realizing the worry in my eyes, seeing his hesitation, my heart dropped to the soles of my feet,
of course Yunho isn't alright, if he was there would be no reason for Changmin to hesitate. He knows my temper, he knows how much I worry about Yunho and his idiotic recklessness, he knows how I would rather have my fingernails ripped out than have my family be hurt.

"Changmin!" I said, my voice rising with every syllable. "Changmin what happened?!"

"Ava, Yunho was poisoned."
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I barged into the hospital room, towing a panting Changmin along after me, he collapsed in a heap, having ran from the restaurant all the way to the hospital at a sprint. Both of us booked it out of the building in seconds, not even waiting to tell the manager of my disappearance. However, none of that mattered after I laid eyes upon my older brother. His face was ashen, tinged with pink; his hair matted down against his face with sweat, hooked to his nose was an oxygen mask, an IV needle protruding from his left hand. My body broke free of the sense of calm - at last, as instinct of protection shot through the cage. I threw myself at Yunho, clutching the bed railing for support.

"No." I began, shocked at the sight of my older brother. "No.." I fell to my knees, as me back into memories I wished to forget.

* * *

"Hurry up Ava!" Sandara called, spinning around hyperactively, I wasn't far behind, ready to catch her if she slips on the frozen snow. "I'm absolutely craving ice-cream....let's get cake too! And..." she continued a massive list of sweets, her voice getting louder and louder. I shook my head, and let her lead the way to the grocery store. Humming gently to a song. Suddenly, heavy footsteps resounded in my ears, I spun around to see a black masked man, diving towards us. I ducked upon instinct, the man flying past me, I rushed at him and threw a heavy kick at his back. He toppled over, I spun around in search for my younger sister only to find her struggling to release herself from a man's grasp.

"Sandara!" I yelled, tackling the man, I wrapped my arms around his neck in attempts to strangle, however, my body was yanked in the opposite direction as I found myself in the same forsaken situation as my younger sister. Profanities flew from my mouth, I twisted my body around, disregarding the sickening pop of my shoulder. Finally, the man released me, unable to hang on any longer. As soon as my feet hit the ground, I rolled, grasping a handful of pebbles and throwing it in the general direction of my attacker at full force. Satisfied with the responding shriek of pain, I launched myself at the last one, however, didn’t find him, nor my sister. Panic clouded my thoughts, I spun around, and around, hoping for a trace of Sandara. Nothing, nothing...nothing! She's gone! Gone! I starting running, turning around every half a second, screaming her name, hoping, wishing, begging that she will turn up with a goofy smile on her face. Where could she have gone? That man?! Those other men? I twisted around and sprinted back. Nothing. The two men I beat up were gone. Without a trace of our scuffle. My legs gave out. My breathing grew short and laboured.

Gone.

* * *

"No!" I screamed, crashing out of the reverie. "Yunho, you will not leave me! You’re all I have left!" I heard Changmin stand beside me, his silent and comforting aura trying to wrap around my own panicking, agonizingly fearful one. "I shouldn't have let you go! I should have stopped you! I don't care what Zeus said, I'm his right hand man, I should also get more say in this! I'm sorry Yunho! It's my fault you weren't able to protect yourself, it's my fault you’re in this condition, it’s my fault Sandara died!"

"Ava, he will be alright -"

"How do you know!" I lashed out, jumping up and turning around to the voice... Only to find the doctor giving me a soft smile. "Oh...." Changmin gave him a light smile.

"Though he was poisoned quite aggressively, and with the fact that they found him late - the instigator of the fight really didn't want him dead." he said.

"Meaning he would make a full recovery right?"

"His condition will return to how it once was before. Not only that but we have managed to learn that he was poisoned with the same substance as was used against Julia Gillard - Prime Minister of Australia, and we would be able to duplicate the formula of the given antidote for her."

Wait...that would mean Yunho was nothing more than a test subject. What if what he was given harmed him more?! He could have been killed!

"Ava..." Changmin murmured. "Yunho is fine." Trying to reassure me. I took a deep breath.

“Changmin, I… Sandara…” My voice constricted around her name.

I’m so weak. I couldn’t even protect my little sister how am I worthy to try and command the agents of such a powerful organization? I couldn’t even keep my own brother safe.
“I know Ava, I know.”

I buried my face into Changmin’s chest as he wrapped his arms around me. Tch… how low can I fall? To hide myself within his protection away from the world where I had become so close to losing the two people I love most … is insanity. How many times have I saved the idiotically weak Changmin when we were small? But there was another moment, so long ago, that he shielded me as well…

* * *

“I don’t like our math teacher Ava; he doesn’t understand the material very well.” Changmin stated quietly as if only muttering it to himself, shivering in the cold, clutching a steaming cup of hot chocolate.

“I don’t have a problem with it, neither should you, the curriculum is easy.” I replied, kicking the snow under my feet. Changmin frowned.

“Well, obviously we both don’t have issues with the course, but what –” his speech was cut off as he slammed into the tall body of an obese boy.

“Hey!” the boy yelled. I stopped and turned around. Then profanities gushed its way through my brain, Changmin of all the people you could have bumped into, it had to be Maeda Takeshi. The most ignorant, plump, and nasty boy of our school! Not only that but you had to spill scorching hot chocolate on him!? Changmin gaped astonished by the appearance of the boy and the dripping liquid on his face. “Why you little –“Takeshi raised his arm in preparation to pummel Changmin. Changmin cringed and raised his now, half empty cup in attempts to protect himself.

Quickly pushing him out of the way, I raised my own arm. Takeshi’s large fist smashed into my open palm, I then wrapped my thin fingers around the fist and raised my other hand to grasp his plump wrist, then swung myself underneath his arm, flipping him onto his back. He landed, throwing the fine snow up around him. Regaining my stability, I crouched like a cat in front of Changmin, ready to pounce upon the one wishing to harm him.

It isn’t uncommon, for Changmin to be targeted by bullies after school; however he hasn’t yet angered Kobayashi Takeshi until today. Takeshi finally regained his senses and stumbled to his feet. Muttering about brats and girls, is he insulting me? Thinking that girls are weak and that Changmin could take care of himself and –

“A-Ava?” Changmin squeaked, pointing at the sound of booming footsteps behind us, I turned and saw five other tall boys walking towards us, three of them brandishing baseball bats, all of them quiet muscular. Takeshi smiled. They were all friends. They were all part of this gang of bullies. The five sneered at us, cracking their knuckles, and slapping the bats in their palms.

“Well, well, what do we have here?” one mocked. “A boyish-looking girl trying to protect this geeky nerd.”

But of course, how typical, a pack of lions team up to hunt the lone two deer. Nevertheless, I stood my ground determined to protect Changmin however I can. They circled us, laughing, pounding fists and swinging the bats. Takeshi who had regained the remains of his ego at the arrival of his pack stood further back of the circle. Clearing displaying the fact that he is the leader.

“Get the geek.” Takeshi said. Two of the five rushed at Changmin, one raising their bat. I pushed Changmin out of the way, pulling my forearm to block a kick, with that same arm I grasped hold of the bat and wrenched it out of the guy’s hand. Grasping the end, I prepared to let the adrenaline take full domination. The boy whose bat I took began swearing and throwing inaccurate punches at me, the other stayed behind flanking him if anything goes wrong. His bat gripped tightly in my hand, I swung at the immediate threat lunging toward me.

“Ava!” I swung toward Changmin, troubled, only to glimpse the bat which would pulled me down into nothingness. Even now, what happened between the world of consciousness and unconsciousness is hazy to me. I remember seeing glimpses of a frantic Changmin shielding my body from the thugs. Seeing him struggle to dodge the bats. Seeing him wince in response to the strike of the fists. Seeing them thrash him around like a cruel feline would do to a mouse.
I laboured to remain in the world of the aware, fighting to reclaim control of my body. My only desire was to protect Changmin, I won’t lose him. I won’t! I won’t! However the black monster drove me down once more.

I believe there was a moment when Changmin mustered up the courage to throw a weak punch. But what I can’t forget was the moment where the thugs had left, and a badly beaten Changmin had fallen to my side. I remember, he gave an ugly bruised grin to me and uttered right before he fell into unconsciousness as well:

“Thank goodness you’re safe.”

* * *
I pushed Changmin away from me, disgusted by my past and my present weakness, and then turned my attention to the Doctor.

“Were you able to find anything on his person about his attacker?” I asked. My goal, to find out more about this member of the NJC, I will personality kill them myself. The doctor nodded, plunging his hand into the pocket of his white lab coat, fishing out a white folded piece of paper, handing it to me. I unfolded it, gaping at the crimson ink that marked the page.

“Idiot U-Know. You should think before jumping to conclusions. Here is the antidote to the poison. Now be a good boy and watch the news every day. Nesoi” Changmin read over my shoulder. “It’s in Japanese.”

“No doubt, it’s from the NJC.” I snapped.

“Watch the news every day?” Changmin questioned. “Why?”

“Maybe an announcement?” I muttered. “However which news station, it could be any!”

“Most likely the either the Japanese, or the Australian, considering their latest scheme.”

“Whatever they are planning, we better pay attention.”

“Nesoi.” Changmin muttered. “The Greek deity of the islands.”

“A girl’s alias.”

“Could it be the same one who killed Hermes in Italy?” That’s right, before Hermes died; we have recorded what he had said, threatening ‘Nesoi’ about an encounter with the NIS.

“Dammit Changmin.” I growled. “I want to stop them.” He remained silent, though I knew he agreed with me. “I will stop this insane war for regime. The NJC will fall.”
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Author's Note: Unfortunately Winglin's been down from last Tuesday to today, but I rest assured, Obsidian Theatre has Junsu and Changmin working on Hacking into the site and fixing it for good. In the meantime however, every chapter up to 12 has been written and edited for Decieving the Gods! Excited? There's still more good news to come! Obsidian Theatre has now opened an account on asianfanfics.com where the tuesday update shall appear there! http://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/6152/deceiving-the-gods-changmin-dbsk-jaejoong-junsu-yoochun-yunho
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~ Always Keep the Faith ~