It wasn't the first time he has ever run for his life, but it certainly wasn't what Seungri was expecting when he was just playing games with Chaerin moments ago. In fact, running down countless hallways to an eerie underground that seemed more and more troublesome the more they ran didn't seem like such a good idea. Seungri’s legs were about to give out when they finally stopped at a dead-end.

“There!” CL pointed her arm towards the end of the hallway. Quickly dropping to the floor, she felt the ground for the opening that led to the underground. With a hefty grunt, she loosened a stone tile from the deceptively cemented floor and revealed a passageway below. Seungri peered down the hatch warily, not liking the prospects of dropping down to some unknown abyss.

“Uh, do we have to use this?” Dara asked with uncertainty.

“Fastest escape route, perfectly secure, and magic resistant as well,” CL grinned, pointing to the black hole beneath them, “You can’t be having any second thoughts now. You’re the one who suggested it in the first place.”

“I know. It’s just that whenever we use it and Bom does her transportation thing, someone’s bound to lose an arm someday and I don’t want to be there when—”

“You’ll be fine.” CL gave her a look and gestured for the healer to jump down. “Ladies first.”

“Okay, okay,” Dara rolled her eyes, bending her knees, “Here goes nothing.”

Before Dara could swoop down into the underground, a shadow hurried towards them.

Seungri didn’t know why, but it seemed to be running straight towards him. No, straight AT him.

“Oof,” Seungri was effectively tackled to the ground, his arms bound to his back in a tight hold. The man held him down with ease while the others looked on in pure shock.

“Taeyang!” Dara exclaimed, ready to push the man off of Seungri, “What are you doing to him?”

Taeyang didn’t say anything and took out a dagger from his back. Seungri bit back a hiss when the commander sliced a thin cut on his neck just above his collarbone. Some blood oozed out of the cut as he felt something pried out of his wound. Seungri held the urge to er punch this man in the face, seeing how the others weren’t afraid of him. As far as first impressions go, he would say this one wasn’t the most pleasant.

He was rolled away from Taeyang as soon as the man let his arms go. Quickly easing Seungri next to her, Dara pulled out a bandage from a pocket in her jumpsuit. She gave Taeyang a glare and patched up Seungri’s wound as efficiently as she could at the moment.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Dara pouted a little, muttering to herself about men and their love for violence.

Taeyang held up a small black cube between his fingers, showing it to Dara, CL, and then, to Jiyong.

Jiyong’s eyes widened in surprise. “Don’t tell me that’s…”

“Yeah, a tracer,” Taeyang grimanced and threw the object as far as he could down the hallway to some floor below. “That’s how they found the palace.”

“Through a boy who could have died in the desert?” CL asked.

Taeyang warily replied, “He probably wasn’t the only one. All soldiers have a chip planted in them when they join, it keeps track of them when they run away or are…let go. When they become no longer useful, the soldiers are sent out to various areas around the capitol to sniff out any hiding places as their last duty. It was one of the ways they could find people who were hard to locate. People like us.”

“How could they do that? Can you just imagine how many of those young boys they used?” Dara whispered sadly, tears threatening to fall. Seungri nodded in anger. Not only was he left out there to die, but now he learned that he was also a tracer to find the first prince’s enemies. And there were others like him! Were they just tools? Bodies they could dispose of, useful alive and dead? He wasn't even treated like a human being.

“They know nothing of trust or compassion,” Jiyong commented bitterly. He turned to Seungri suddenly, startling him. “We’ll try to find your other family members once we get out of here.”

“How are you going—,” Before Seungri could finish his question, the group heard a barrage of curses echoing down the hallway. Seungri jumped a little at the sound and glanced at Dara who merely shrugged.

Seungri looked in front of him and shifted his eyes down the hallway. In a flash, he saw Seunghyun and an orange haired woman make their appearance with a couple of unfriendly soldiers in tow. The woman was throwing what looked like fireballs at the throng of troops and seemed to be quite pleased when they burst into flames. Seunghyun gave an excited woot with more expletives in between.

“Perfect timing,” CL chuckled, brandishing her club tightly in her hand.

Jiyong shook his head in amusement, “And I’ve told him numerous times to control that mouth of his.”

“At least we are all together now,” Taeyang replied with a tone that seemed to indicate this happened a lot.

“Okay, well, see you guys in a bit,” Dara patted Seungri’s shoulder before straightening up and jumping down the hatch.

“Seungri,” Jiyong called from beside him, “It might be in your best interest to follow. Taeyang will guide you down.”

He nodded to his commander who obediently grabbed Seungri’s collar and unceremoniously dropped him down to the underground before Seungri could even protest. The bronze-eyed man winced at Seungri’s shrill echoing screams and glanced at Taeyang with a raised eyebrow, quite curious about his friend’s brash nature towards the boy.

Taeyang merely gave a mock salute and proceeded down the hatch. Jiyong took a deep breath in annoyance and mentally reminded himself to scold his commander when this was over. Taking him out of his thoughts, CL pushed past Jiyong in her battle charge towards the enemy soldiers.

“Go first,” CL called behind her, “We’ll seal the entrance once we’re done here.”

“No,” Jiyong replied stubbornly and rolled up his sleeves to free his hands, “If you are fighting, so am I.”

CL rolled her eyes and caught a guard’s face with the backside of her club, “Whatever you say.”

It wasn’t in her to protest against GD’s wishes, unlike the always wary Taeyang or Dara. Now that she thought about it, she probably wouldn’t stop him from jumping off a bridge if he asked her not to. CL had known GD long enough to understand his desire to help anyone in need and to fight by his companions. He can take care of himself and make his own decision. There were quite a few things she had to consider once she became GD’s advisor and that included making room for his stubbornness. She smiled slightly. In more ways than one, he was just like his father.  

Bom and Seunghyun were having a ball of a time keeping the soldiers at bay. But they have been fighting for longer than anyone else in the group and it was starting to show. Bom couldn’t produce any more of her awesome fireballs and Seunghyun was now using both hands to swing his spear. CL was just about to smash more of her enemies into pieces to reach the other two when Jiyong grasped her arm and pushed her out of the way. Swiftly moving through the soldiers with a speed that rivaled Taeyang (and that was saying something), Jiyong cut through the throng. She watched in surprise as he ruthlessly pushed down on the soldiers’ pressure points, most definitely going to leave them either paralyzed or in deep, deep pain. CL winced at a particularly sharp push from his palms through a random enemy’s chest. The poor man crumbled to the floor in a dead faint. She had trained with Jiyong many times and knew that when he moved like that, well, you had better hope he takes mercy on you.

The other two have also stopped fighting, preferring to watch their leader knock down more of the soldiers without their help. Once he finished destroying the barrage of enemies, some of whom have run away, he turned to his friends with tight lips and hands on hips.

“Well, what are you waiting for? Get down there.”   

The underground was spacious, albeit a little chilly, and quite practical. The gray walls weren’t to his taste, but considering its purpose, Seungri guessed the color of the structure didn’t matter. There was an abundant amount of supplies inside, mostly food, that he learned help feed the people in the town. They were packed up in a bunch of crates that were brought up to the surface whenever Jiyong asked for it. It was a very efficient system and the town has managed well even with the interference of war.

In fact, Bom, whom he learned was the orange haired woman, was the one who launched the system and created that force field around them. It apparently kept anyone who was part of the first prince’s army away from the town until they figured out a safer place to teleport to. As a giant safety net, the underground was wonderfully designed. But before he could ask more about it, he was rushed over to sit down by Dara to get his injuries checked.

From the corner of the room, which he assumed served as some sort of gathering place, he watched as CL, Taeyang, Top, and Bom talk about what happened just recently and their next plan of action. Jiyong was nowhere in sight, moving about the underground to make sure the entrances were sealed correctly, the townsmen were safe,  and doing whatever it was a leader did. Suddenly, he saw Taeyang slam a fist against the wall and then, cross his arms in disapproval.

If Seungri wasn’t still feeling the remaining pangs of pain from the scars on his body, he would find the commander’s anger to be highly amusing. The others were standing in a circle unfazed, this too seemed to be a common occurrence for them.

“You let him fight all those soldiers?”

“Yeah, he was great! You should have seen how that one—”

“What were you guys thinking? Even when I wasn’t there, I thought you could handle it! Have you forgotten who we are supposed to be protecting?”

“Hey, chill. He handled it just fine like always.”

“That’s not the problem.”

“He doesn’t need to be babied. He can take care of himself.”

“Yeah! He even did his palm force thing through this guy’s chest and—”

“Bom, not right now.”

“Hey, don’t talk to her like that!”

“Chaerin, this is serious. We need to take Jiyong’s protection as our number one priority.”

“We are. But you seem to fail to see how much GD needs the freedom to decide for himself how he wants to rule and how he wants to be protected.”

“Oh, yeah? How would you know that? You weren’t even there for most of his life.”

“Don’t you dare bring that up. At least I didn’t try to kill him!”

“Guys, I don’t think this is the time to discuss—”

“Shut it!”

“Quiet, Seunghyun!”    

“Geez, fine.”

“Taeyang, CL, both of you settle down right now.”

Seungri felt a familiar tap on his shoulder and looked up to see Jiyong staring at the bickering couple with a frown. Taeyang cleared his throat and stood straight with his arms on his sides, assuming an appropriate soldier stance. CL merely waved to GD and sat down on a nearby crate, noticeably farther away from the commander.

Jiyong sighed quietly, then turned to Dara, “Is he okay to go now?”

Dara nodded, “Yeah, Seungri either didn’t sustain that horrible of injuries as we initially thought or he just happened to be a fast healer.”

“Good,” Jiyong squeezed Seungri’s shoulder in assurance before heading towards Bom and handing her something from his pocket, “cuz we are leaving now.”

“Oh! It’s water glass!” Bom exclaimed excitedly, already adding bits of magic into the crystal and making it glow.

“Really?” Seunghyun asked surprised and eyed the thing in Bom’s hand with curiosity. He turned to Jiyong, “Then, does that mean you already found a proper place?”

“Yes. Lucky too, I just sent a message to Gangnam this morning. They shouldn’t be too surprised if we moved into their neighborhood a week earlier than planned.”

“That’s great!” Dara jumped in happiness, bringing Seungri with her to join the group, “We haven’t seen Minzy in so long!”

“It’s a good change,” CL commented, “It’s almost fishing season and I’m sure we’ll have enough supplies there to last us a while.”

“Agreed. And I’ve been meaning to get more water-bearing weapons for the west guard,” Taeyang looked at CL with a small smile. It seems that if there was something they could agree on, it would have to be about the affairs of the state.

“Then it’s settled,” Jiyong clasped his hands, “Bom, give us the okay and we’ll get ready.”

“Okay!” She chirped and let the crystal fall from her hands. It didn’t break into a million pieces like Seungri originally thought, but actually stayed afloat in-between Bom’s hands, sending sparks of white and blue flying all over the place. Bom started mumbling a bunch of foreign words and then, everything started to vibrate.

“What the heck, Bom? That was not a warning!”

“Sorry, Taeyang! But I was too excited—water glass is extremely rare and very effective for transportation spells!”

“Wait. Water glass? Jiyong, where did you get that?” Taeyang asked suspiciously as they were all currently lying down on the ground, holding tight to whatever wasn’t lifting off the ground from the power of the spell.

“Uh, I sort of grabbed it from…”

“Jiyong! Don’t tell me you opened—”

“Guys, get ready!” Bom exclaimed as a blinding light spread all around them. Seungri shielded his eyes with his arm as he felt himself swish from one side of the room to the other. He forced himself to take small breaths to conserve the oxygen that seem to thin out and expel from the room. He felt like he was going to pass out and his head was killing him. When he was just about to throw up the remains of his lunch, everything turned to a stop. There was a pop and bam, he fell harshly on the ground. Hearing other groans around him, it seemed he wasn’t the only one feeling the effects of the spell.

“Never again,” Seunghyun panted out from under a crate with a bunch of wood shavings all over his clothes.

“…sorry, I didn’t mean to, next time….”

“Bom,” Dara grabbed onto her shoulder with a very pale face, “just don’t.”    

Once everyone got their barring again and Bom had quite the scolding from CL, they straightened up the place and opened up one of the hatchways. Jiyong and Taeyang quickly got out and talked with a couple of Gangnam guards who clearly felt the magical pulse of their teleportation spell. And soon enough, they were welcomed with open arms to a lively ocean getaway.

“Jiyong-sshi,” Seungri asked quietly as they were escorted past fertile lands and an unusual amount of sun-tanners, “where are we going?”  

“We’re meeting the leader of Gangnam. He…uh…” Jiyong gave him a weird smile and started to say something else but stopped himself numerous times, thinking better of it. This unsettled Seungri who wasn’t used to having him be so conflicted before. When he glanced at the others, they also held similar uncomfortable appearances, except Bom who didn’t seem to mind whatever was bothering her friends. However, to Seungri’s relief, it didn’t seem like any of them feared what they were facing. In fact, it just seemed like they felt a bit…awkward. Like meeting someone who defied expectations or had weird tastes, someone like a crazy uncle.

“Hey, G-Dragon!” A man in a vibrant neon pink, patterned suit came bouncing towards them. Seungri pointed at the man questioningly as Jiyong nodded in response.   

“Psy.”

I'm sorry I haven't updated in so long! My hard drive crashed and all of my stories sort of disappeared!

If you have any person (preferably in the YG family) that you would like to see soon, let me know! :)