CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: Burn

The doorbell rang. Taeyeon went to answer it, and saw Daesung through the peephole. She opened the door. "Hey, you."

"Me?" He said.

"Yes, you. You said the people here would kowtow to me."

"You actually want them to do that?"

"Of course not," she said. "Unless that's the opposite of getting disrespected."

"Yeah, well, they'd be nicer if they know you're in Jiyong-hyung's good books. But mostly they're wary of you now because Sunny is, and we trust her," Daesung said.

"Ah, her." Taeyeon glanced down the corridor. "Are you gonna tell me that she's normally nice too, just gotta get to know her?"

"No, Jiyong-hyung's shy, but Sunny-noona is real straight with people. I guess she just doesn't trust you yet."

"What's up with you kkangpehs and trust, seriously," Taeyeon muttered. 

Daesung coughed. "Don't worry. Once you kick all the North you're gonna kick, they'll come around, I'm sure of it!"

And I'm gay for little boys. Taeyeon shrugged. "So who were you here for anyway?"

"You," Daesung said. "I just wanted to give you a bit of advice. Hanbin's crew is an impressionable bunch. They're Sunny's favorite team as well, because they follow her orders so well."

Taeyeon frowned. "Are you saying that I should watch my back around them? I'm gonna be in the open with a crowd of super enemies and bad weapons, and I gotta watch my back? Great."

"Just, be careful. Sunny was giving off real negative vibes when she looked at you. She's a practical person, y'know.  She's gonna do what she thinks she's gotta do."

Taeyeon huffed. "Damn, okay. Thanks. Watch yourself out there, Daesung."

"Thanks. This is for you." He held up a white plastic bag and gave it to her. She looked inside to see enough kimbaps to feed a kindergarten. "You said you need a crazy amount of food. Hope this is enough!"

With that, Daesung spun on his heel and jaunted away. She yelled her thanks after him, and turned back into the apartment. "Hey, Jessica, I'm going now."

"Okay, hold up." Jessica fished something out of her pocket and tossed it at Taeyeon, who caught it with one hand.

"What's this?" Taeyeon turned it over in her hand. It was a black electronic fob with a button on its side and an unlit LED on its tip. It was like an brandless car key remote.

Jessica got out another fob and pressed its button. The light on Taeyeon's fob lit up. Jessica said, "It transmits morse. The Navy corpsmen use this. I'm not sure if we'll be in range, but I hope we can keep in touch."

They would be miles from each other. Taeyeon didn't think it would work, but it was nice. "Cool. Talk to you later, then."

Team Hanbin was a six-man crew. Led by Kim Hanbin, there was Bobby Kim, Kim Jinhwan, Koo Junhoe, Song Yunhyeong, Kim Donghyuk and Jung Chanwoo. Even without Taeyeon, it was an load of Kims. After what Daesung told her, she didn't think having the same family name as them would be a chummy factor. The younger boys had reproach in their eyes, but the older ones were indifferent, if not cordial. She was always in a tactical position as they moved out of Hongdae across Seoul. She wasn't going to let any Northerners or Sunny fanboys get the drop on her.

She was given a standard bullpup like the others, but also a long-range rifle, because she had proven during the smuggling mission that she could use one.

They had the Northeast part of Central Seoul, which stretched from Insadong to the right and up to Yongeon-dong. From the Hongik subway station, they walked done the green line to the City Hall interchange, before splitting up when they got above ground. They would each take up a spot and inform the others via radio when they saw some Chimeras.

After an hour, Taeyeon found a building that she liked. It used to be a pharmacy, and was wedged between two lower mom and pop shops. It had a wide angle view of a large cross street, and behind it were all residential buildings. She would be able to see anyone coming from a mile away without being snuck up on.

The shelves of the pharmacy were, of course, swiped clean of all supplies. She went to the rooftop and settled in. Then, it was the wait.

Taeyeon pulled out the Morse code fob from her pocket and tapped the hangul word for 'Jessica' in morse: PTU GGU XE.

She waited for a while, but the LED light didn't so much as light up. She counted to thirty before tapping Jessica's name again. Waiting for a reply made time drag by, so she decided to turn her eyes back to the road. It was all quiet except for birds and gunfire in the distance. Team Hanbin's radio stayed silent, so she was relaxed.

The hours ticked by.

She unwrapped a kimbap and stuffed the entire roll into , chewed four times, and swallowed. She ate another three. The sun was sinking over the horizon and the sky bled pink.

She pulled out the fob again. PTU GGU XE. Minutes later, she stuffed it in her pocket again. Hongdae was too far away, or Jessica was too busy at the clinic. She sighed. Both were possible.

Somewhere in the middle of the night, she fell asleep on the ground close to the wall. The next morning's cold woke her up. She tapped on the fob, PTU GGU XE, and took out another kimbap.

The flash of light caught her eye. She missed the first letter, but the next one she got was EU, then KSF. -ae. Yeon, she read. Taeyeon? Excited she tapped 'jung'.

The next reply was: 'I am Tiffany.'

Taeyeon was too excited about contacting a friendly to be disappointed that the responder wasn't Jessica. She sent: 'Where are you?'

'I am next to Woori Bank. You?'

'A pharmacy. Cheonggyecheon-ro and Daehak-ro junction.'

'I am coming.'

'Be careful.'

Tiffany, must have been very careful, because she took the rest of the afternoon to make her way to the cross street. Taeyeon saw her try to be discreet from a few blocks out, and made sure that no one was following Tiffany. She had her rifle out, ready to cover the American journalist.

When Tiffany reached the entrance of the pharmacy, she looked around. Taeyeon peeked over the ledge and waved at her. She broke into a wide smile and waved back shortly before hurrying into the building. 

Taeyeon grinned back involuntarily. The last time they saw each other, they hadn't been the best of friends, but now, she had been left alone enough to look forward to meeting Tiffany again.

Tiffany made it to the rooftop shortly after. "Hi, Taeyeon. It's been a long time. How have you been? How's Jess?"

"Hey Tiffany," she said. "I'm fine. Jessica is doing alright."

"Awesome. What are you doing here?"

"Staking out, as usual. Looking for Chimeras, I mean, the enemy's Fireflies."

"Chimera is a good name. How did you find out about them?" Tiffany said. "The last time Jess and I talked, she said you were with some civilian army. Is that still the case? There are a lot of rumors in Seongnam-" Taeyeon's smile dropped as she recalled what Sunny said- "but I think that's a load of tosh."

"We've still been with the gang," she replied. "A few days ago I helped them smuggle a bunch of civilians out of Seoul. We ran into a Chimera and so now we're trying to defend Central Seoul. We don't have a lot to go on. What can you tell me about them?"

"Most of it is confidential, but from what I've been able to gather, they stole a batch of your serums but probably can't duplicate it."

"So the Chimeras out there today are all that there'll be?"

"Yes."

"Good. Makes them a lot easier to deal with."

"Yes, it does. Another thing we've noticed is that the Chimeras travel one by one, commanding a platoon of normal foot soldiers."

"Ah, I see. Even better."

"You think so?"

"Yeah, it's so North Korean to depend on hierarchy centered on one person, but to me it just sounds like they never heard of 'divide and conquer'."

"They've been quite effective. The aid station I'm at has been busy."

There was a brief moment of silence as Taeyeon thought of what to say. "You're at an aid station now?"

"I've been staying there for the past week or so," Tiffany said. "I think I've covered the more interesting aspects of combat already, when I was with you guys."

Taeyeon shrugged with a smile. She took out a kimbap. "Want one?"

"Sure."

They each ate a roll, while Tiffany talked about life at the aid station. Her voice wasn't as jarring as Taeyeon remembered. It wasn't hard to listen to. Taeyeon kept waiting for Tiffany to ask about why she ran from the military, because she didn't think that Jessica would have told her, but Tiffany never asked. They talked until the eave of dusk.

"I should get back before dark," Tiffany said.

"Ok, I'll take you."

Tiffany reached out and squeezed her shoulder, surprising her. "Thanks, but I don't think you should go near any military station for now. The rumors are pretty intense."

Taeyeon nodded, and stood up. "Then at least let me walk you as far as I can."

Back on the pharmacy rooftop, Taeyeon waited alone for another two days. She did not bother with the fob again, because Jessica would have gotten in touch by now, and because she didn't want Tiffany to risk coming out again. Time streamed by without any chatter from the Team Hanbin radio. They probably had setup a private channel and excluded her from their small talk. She didn't bother trying to find it by tuning the radio. She didn't give a about their boy conversations anyway.

She was, yet again, wolfing down a fifth kimbap when she received a call.

"Guys, I see them! , they're going to Jongmyo. Get your asses here." It was the kid called Donghyuk.

Taeyeon grabbed her bullpup and the rifle, leaving the bag of kimbap. She swung over the ledge and leapt off the building. She hit the ground at a run. The Jongmyo Shrine was a national treasure. It was constructed during the Joseon dynasty to bury the royal family. It was even more respected that Gyeongbok palace. She normally didn't care much about cultural artifacts, but not if the Northerners were going to rag on her country's stuff.

Luckily, the shrine was not far west of her location. She ran straight down Cheonggyecheon-ro. There was a high stone wall fencing the shrine. She vaulted over it easily. She kept low to the ground and brought the radio up to . "I'm here, on the East side. Where are they?"

"They're burning Jeongjeon Hall. I can't do anything by myself. Where's everyone else?"

The other boys said that they were on their way. Taeyeon sprinted to the hall, which was burning under gigantic flames, and dived behind an offering platform. She counted sixteen Northerners.

She setup the rifle and picked off three soldiers in rapid succession. The crack of each shot boomed in her ear, but over the roar of the fire, the Northerners didn't know where the bullets were coming from. They dispersed in a panic. She shot down two more men, straight in the face. Now that the remaining eleven Northerners were on the look out, they could see where the shots were coming from. They yelled and pointed. One of the Northerners zeroed in on her, and started charging in a zigzag, firing her bullpup.

Taeyeon ditched the rifle and pumped her own bullpup. The Northerner, who was a woman, and clearly fast enough to be the Chimera here. They spat bullets at each other, then Taeyeon ran out of bullets first. The Chimera forced her out into a wide, paved walkway. Now that she was in the open, she scrambled behind a tree before more bullets ripped it up. She ducked behind another tree, but the Chimera threw a grenade at her.

Taeyeon saw it arc in the air, and started speed-shimmying up the tree she was standing behind of. The grenade exploded beneath her as she leapt off and plowed into the Chimera. She wrestled for the Chimera's bullpup, but their strength was equal.

Meanwhile, Taeyeon's radio began squawking like crazy as the rest of Team Hanbin hit the scene. The normal Northerners charged out of the burning hall to meet them.

The Chimera glanced back, and Taeyeon took advantage of the split second to kick the woman in the stomach and yanked the bullpup off her hands. A blow to the back of her head with the of the submachine gun, and the Chimera was down on the ground. Taeyeon flipped the bullpup over to shoot her, but the bullpup was empty. The woman grabbed Taeyeon's ankles and tripped her up. !

Taeyeon shrugged her ankle out of the woman's death grip before she got pulled into a leg lock, and kicked the woman in the face. Taeyeon wrapped her arms and legs around the woman from the back, and put the woman in a headlock, squeezing with all her strength. 

The woman threw her head back, smashing into Taeyeon's mouth. Taeyeon saw lights wink out as the woman used the opportunity to scramble away and regain her breath.

Taeyeon spat out a thick wad of blood. She got to her feet at a crouch, slipping the trusty YG switchblade out and flicking it open. The woman took a deep breath and stopped panting. She unsheathed a large hunting knife from the holster clipped to her boot.

That's one huge knife. Taeyeon wouldn't be able to parry such a heavy weapon with her thin switchblade, which would collapse on itself and slice her own fingers off.

The woman leapt forward before Taeyeon could make a countermove, and Taeyeon jumped back, before stepping in again and nicking the woman in the forearm. The woman cried out a little and swapped the hunting knife to her good hand. Taeyeon smelled victory. Not a lot of people could fight equally well with both hands.

Then, something white hot seared past her right shoulder, and the ground at her feet ripped up. Somebody was shooting at her from behind. Taeyeon spun out of the way and saw some Northerners aiming their bullpups at her. The woman lunged at her, ing the hunting knife forward. She dodged and ran into Jeongjeon Hall, which, while burning, would provide some cover.

As expected, only the Chimera followed her in. Taeyeon started sweating as soon as the heat of the fire shone onto her. The woman was tired already, panting desperately, still bogged down by her substandard stamina. Taeyeon, whose endurance had months to catch up, was not breathing as hard.

The woman threw the hunting knife, which was too desperate. Taeyeon threw herself out of the way before scrambling forwards, slashing out with the switchblade. She ripped the woman in the chest and thighs before the woman managed to jump out of the way, before falling to the ground.

The woman pulled out a taser this time, pushing down on the button to charge it. Taeyeon didn't waste any time bending down and slicing the woman's throat. Blood splattered onto her face. She felt a two-pronged barb puncture her side before eight hundred volts shocked her system. She went down, twitching involuntarily, but knowing that it would pass. The taser hadn't been fully charged, and the woman was definitely very dead. Open throats don't close quick enough.

She lay on the ground, feeling like the heat of the nearby fire was at her face. Where's everybody? I don't hear them fighting outside. When her body regained more control, she crawled to her feet and walked out of the hall. The only people still standing were the YG gangsters. They had won, and it looked like the fight had been won for a while now. None of them came to back me up.

She walked to them numbly. Her shoulder was scraped by a bullet, and her lip was cut, but that was the extend of her injuries. The others were in similar states, except for the boys called Jinhwan and Chanwoo. They had been shot and needed medical attention. Taeyeon wanted to tell them where the aid station that Tiffany was at, because that was the closest, but she couldn't risk the kids mouthing off to the military where she was. So they rushed back to Hongdae on foot.

When they made it to the YG clinic, the two boys were pale and shuddering. Yuri administered blood transfusions immediately, while Jessica patched up everyone else.

She tapped Taeyeon's shoulder. "How recent is this?"

"Maybe an hour ago. Grazed by a bullet."

"I can see that, but usually you get further along by now."

"I haven't lost much blood though," Taeyeon said.

Jessica tilted her head thoughtfully. "Walk me through the situation."

"We were fighting, first by guns, then melee. I stabbed her, we got near a big fire, like a really hot and big fire."

"That's unusual, but I don't know how heat would interfere with your healing abilities," Jessica said. "I'm no engineer though."

"She did taser me a bit. It wasn't fully charged, but still took me out for a moment. But she was pretty much dead by then."

Jessica snapped her fingers. "The electricity from the taser. Again, I'm no engineer, but sounds like it shorted out the nanorobots in  your bloodstream."

"Damn... I guess. What does that mean?"

"You've got a bunch of dead machines in your blood. I don't know if we need to get rid of them, but we need to get you more nanos. I'll try to get in touch with Dr. Seo again. For now, don't go back out yet."

"Well, okay," Taeyeon said. "By the way, I got in touch with Tiffany using the Morse transmitter. We talked for a bit."

"Oh, that's great. When we've arranged meetings, we never really set a location. We used the fobs to find each other. How was it?"

"Not bad," she said. Then, remembering that Tiffany was good friends with Jessica, tried to make an effort. "It was nice seeing someone after all that time out there. She's doing well, reporting an aid station now. I think you know."

"No, she was still frequenting between Seongnam and North Korea the last time we talked." Jessica smiled. "It's good to know she's no longer on such a risky route."

"Yeah, definitely."

A few days later, Jinhwan and Chanwoo were still in critical condition, and she herself was still recovering slowly at a normal rate. The other four members of Team Hanbin and Taeyeon waited at the clinic by assisting Yuri and Jessica. The boys refused to leave until they knew that their brothers were okay.

Daesung was also checked in at the clinic, his neck in a cast and his voice as hoarse as sandpaper, while Jiyong, Youngbae and the two Seunghyuns went back out into the field.

Jessica let herself out of the clinic, to meet her Navy colleagues, who had a delivery from Seongnam. Taeyeon kept Daesung company. 

Half an hour later, Sunny came to the clinic to visit. It was a routine inspection to see how YG was faring. One hour in, Jessica returned with a case of three syringes. She showed it to Taeyeon and lifted the lid. "These two have the nanorobots. This one, we use first. It'll dissolve the current shorted-out machinery into waste. Red blood cells will get rid of it through CO2."

Taeyeon held out her forearm and pushed up a sleeve. "Let's do it."

There was the distinctively one-two rack of a semi-automatic's slide being pulled. Taeyeon instinctively pushed Jessica low as she turned around. Sunny, in her grey automated wheelchair, was pointing a gun at her. Hanbin took a revolver out of his waistband, and Bobby, Junhoe, Yunhyeong and Donghyuk followed suit.

"Put the case on the floor, and kick it over to me," Hanbin said.

Taeyeon glanced at Daesung, who looked surprised as well. She slowly took the case from Jessica's hands and did as Hanbin said. He picked up the box and brought it to Sunny.

"What the hell is going on?" Yuri asked. "What is the meaning of this?"

Sunny looked at her. "Since Taeyeon here won't share her Chimera serums with us, we'll just have to take it."

"Don't be stupid, Sunny," Taeyeon said.

"That's not the complete set," Jessica said. "We don't know what will happen if you just put this part in."

"No, I think we do," Sunny said. "These are the nanorobots that does all the repair work, and that's all it is. Just machines, doesn't do any biological mutation. We'll see if this works on me. If it doesn't, I'll just dissolve the useless machines and everything will be as if it never happened."

"Noona," Daesung said, voice a harsh rasp that was loud in the quiet room. "Taeyeon needs it."

"She doesn't need it now. She can ask for more," Sunny said, and both statements were true. "Yuri, help me with the injections. These two."

Taeyeon looked around her, the dark gun barrels staring right back. There was no way to move without igniting a shootout. She could only stare as Yuri swabbed Sunny's arm with a disinfectant and injected the two nanorobot solutions in two slow, complete pushes.

She glanced at Jessica, whose eyes were closed off, as dull as when they first met. It looked like Jessica was done with this place. So was she. The guns pointing at them let up. She let out a big sigh, and offered a perfunctory nod to Daesung to tell him that it was fine. Jessica took her hand and they left the clinic.

"Let's leave. It's not good for you- for us- here," Jessica said. "I'll ask for a re-supply. It shouldn't take more than another few days. Then let's go. We can make a difference somewhere else."

Taeyeon closed her eyes and breathed deeply. She realized that her fists were clenched so tight that the knuckles were locked white. She opened her hands slowly, and nodded.

Sunny sustained a high fever that had not subsided. She was bedridden. Taeyeon didn't know much beyond that. She didn't care. After Daesung reported what happened to Jiyong, the able members of Team Hanbin were forced to go back to Insadong. 

Jessica and Taeyeon received another case four days later. Along with this second case was a message written in English. Jessica translated it for Taeyeon. "It says, 'Meet me at Daejeon, Dr. S'. Why? Where in Daejeon?"

"Daejeon hospital, I think. That's where Hyoyeon is. That's my sergeant."

"Why do we have to go there?"

"I don't know. I don't dare to hope for anything good right now," Taeyeon said. "But we have to go."

A/N: Sorry for the late update... Life:/ How was this chapter? Good/bad/meh?