4 hours after capture.

Leaning against the gray concrete of his prison cell, Leeteuk fights back another shiver. He still has no idea where he is or what’s going to happen to him, but at least Ryeowook is safe ━ he’s thankfully in the same cell, head pillowed on Leeteuk’s lap while he sleeps ━ and as for the others...there’s no one better than Heechul to lead them in his absence. Hopefully they’ll be alright.

After the police had invaded the Bunker (though how they’d managed to do that was another question Leeteuk didn't know the answer to), he’d spent many of the past few hours unconscious; the chloroform-laced sheet that had been shoved against his face left him with no memory of the trip to wherever he is now. When he’d woken up, he was in this very same cell. Ryeowook had been gradually regaining consciousness next to him, and two guards were just a few feet away, griping about how “the rest of the Resistance scum” had gotten away ━ until they saw the prisoners were awake.

He hasn't seen Shindong. Hopefully the other man managed to get away and tell the others what happened...otherwise Leeteuk may end up imprisoned for a while yet. Either way, his goal is the same:

Keep the other members safe.

~*~

9 hours after capture.

The door to the cell is slammed open with a clang!, and Leeteuk feels a hand clamp down like a vice around his arm before he’s yanked to a standing position and forcefully dragged out.

“Hyung!” Ryeowook yells behind him, but there’s no time to respond. Leeteuk stumbles and nearly falls in his haste to keep up with the prison guard’s pace, prompting an annoyed scowl from the latter, until he’s unceremoniously shoved into another room and the door is shut behind him.

Leeteuk’s heart pounds in his ears while he processes the events.

What...was that? And where am I now?

The room is entirely white and contains only a single desk with a chair on each side. A file folder of some sort is resting on the desk, but he can’t make out what━

Like something out of a bad action movie, the chair furthest away from him spins around to reveal a woman dressed in a crisp suit jacket. Her eyes look like they can see straight into his soul, and it’s times like these Leeteuk wishes he was more like Heechul so that he could make some scathing remark about how tacky her entrance was instead of silently following her command of “Sit down.”

When he takes a seat in the other chair, the woman wastes no time in getting down to business.

“So, here you are at last,” she says, still with that sharp gaze. “The leader of the so-called ‘Resistance,’ Leeteuk. Or, to be more accurate, Park Jungsoo.” She looks down for a moment to leaf through the folder, which Leeteuk can now see is his file, but not before catching the alarm that flashes in his expression. None of the members have ever been identified by name before; they’ve been meticulous about keeping up anonymity for nearly two full years. For that to change now doesn’t bode well for the future.

(If they still have one. If the others aren’t being rounded up right this second.)

“27 years old, an only child...it seems your parents had to be dealt with after they refused to cooperate with the law.”

Leeteuk clenches his fists but doesn’t rise to the bait.

“After October 2016, you were never seen or heard from again, but now I know why. You were out causing trouble with your delinquent friends.” She closes the file again, looking him straight in the eyes. “This doesn’t have to be difficult for you, Jungsoo. All I need from you is names, along with where they’re hiding. Give me that, and you can live like a king. We can give you a residency in the Capital’s wealthiest quarter and a monthly stipend; you’d be able to do more than just survive.”

And I’d also be locked away, so I could never spread the truth about how terrible you people are. Assuming you’d even follow through on your word.

“Nothing you offer me will convince me to give them up.”

The woman’s eyes narrow. “Very well. The difficult way it is, then.” She rises to her feet. “Goodbye for now, Jungsoo. We’ll be seeing each other again soon.”

~*~

24 hours after capture.

Leeteuk’s feet feel like lead as he trudges back yet again from a meeting with the government woman ━ the Inquisitor, as the guards refer to her. After bribing him had failed, she’s resorted to threats, and though he’s fairly sure she won’t be able to follow through with most of them (she is, after all, trying to use him to find the very people she’s threatening to harm)...it’s still frightening. Paired with the severe lack of food and sleep the guards make sure to enforce, Leeteuk is somewhat of a mess.

The scene when he returns to his cell takes him by surprise. Instead of sitting in the corner keeping watch, the two guards in the room are just outside of the cell. One of them is pinning Ryeowook against the steel bars with a forearm pressed across his windpipe, and Leeteuk sees red. The moment he hears one of the guards start to say “This one would snap like a twig. The Inquisitor might not even care if━”, he practically launches himself onto the man in question.

From there, everything is a blur. Leeteuk is a whirlwind of punches, and he feels many of them hit their target...but then there’s only pain. Pain as the guards’ initial shock wears off and they redirect their aggression, pain as he falls under their barrage of violence, and pain as he’s thrown back into the cell, left there on the ground like a broken doll.

At the edge of his consciousness, he can sense Ryeowook kneeling over him, calling his name. The Resistance leader tries to say something, anything, but the only sound that leaves his lips is a pained groan.

Maybe he would have managed more, but suddenly there are cool hands on his face, pain explodes where they touch, and he’s mercifully embraced by darkness.

~*~

“I’m so sorry.”

“Ssh, I already told you that you don’t need to apologize.”

“But it was my fault. I wasn’t there to protect you, and if I hadn’t come back in time…”

“But you did, and I’m okay. You really need to stop this habit of blaming yourself for everything that goes wrong. It’s eating you up inside.”

“As leader, I have a responsibility to━ agh!”

“Don’t move too much. I bandaged your face with part of your shirt, but everything else is just going to take time to heal.”

“And that’s...that’s why I can’t see out of my right eye?”

“That, and it’s swollen shut. I’d treat it if I had any supplies, but this is the best I could do.”

“I’m the one who’s supposed to be taking care of you.”

“It’s okay.”

A pause.

“I won’t let them touch you again, Ryeowook. That’s a promise.”

“I know you won’t...thank you.”

~*~

31 hours after capture

Ryeowook is awakened by a commotion at the cell’s entrance. He has just enough time for his eyes to flicker open and to sit up from his spot next to Leeteuk, and then the guards burst in.

They don’t seem to have forgiven the other man for the earlier skirmish; when they pull him to his feet, they’re more careless than usual with his abused body. Ryeowook, to his own surprise, is forced up as well. As they’re both escorted down the hallway that Leeteuk had disappeared through on four separate occasions, he feels his confusion grow. Since their arrival at the prison, Ryeowook has been generally disregarded in favor of the Resistance leader. What do they want with him all of a sudden?

The two hostage members are brought into another room, and Ryeowook sees the Inquisitor standing there exactly as Leeteuk has described her, sending both of them withering looks.

“Gentlemen,” she says coldly, “so glad you could make it. Guards?”

Ryeowook feels the sharp press of metal against the back of his head, and he goes deathly still.

“Let him go,” Leeteuk pleads, his pupils blown wide in fear. “I’ll give you names, okay? All of them. Just don’t hurt him.”

The Inquisitor lets out an exaggerated sigh. “I’m afraid that won’t be enough anymore, Jungsoo.” She nods to the guard holding Ryeowook at gunpoint. “Bring him this way. We don’t want our other troublemaker getting any silly ideas about freeing him.”

Ryeowook doesn’t struggle as the distance between him and his leader grows distressingly wider. The thought of a bullet going through his skull at any moment wipes anything else from his mind, thoughts of escape included.

“What I need from you,” the Inquisitor continues, “is a vow of servitude. You swear your loyalty to Mayor Park, you help us track down the rest of the Resistance, and the boy walks free. If not…” The gun presses harder against Ryeowook’s skull. “You have ten seconds until his head is blown off. Ten.”

The horrified look on Leeteuk’s face breaks Ryeowook’s heart. “Hyung…” he says, sharing a long look with the other. “Please don’t work with them. After everything we’ve been through━”

A hand slaps across his face, shutting him up.

“Seven. Six.”

I’m really going to die. And I don’t even get to tell the others goodbye...I should have thanked Yesung more for rescuing me. And told Sungmin that I knew it was him who cleaned up that disaster in the kitchen a few months ago so that Heechul didn’t get angry. And told Henry…

“Four.”

Mother, father, I don’t know if you’re still alive, but if you’re not...I hope I can see you again.

“Three.”

“Wait!” Leeteuk yells, and Ryeowook feels like throwing up. “I’ll do it. I’ll━”

“Drop the gun, and no one gets hurt,” a familiar voice rings out.

If Ryeowook hadn’t already been crying, he would have started now out of sheer relief. Because there, striding into the room like an avenging angel, and flanked by eight other Resistance members with guns trained on the government lackeys...is Kim Heechul.

“How in the world━?”

“I won’t ask again.”

It’s the most terrifying the Strategist has ever sounded. In seconds, the cool metal touch recedes from Ryeowook’s head, and with a barely-noticeable motion of Heechul’s hand, Siwon and Sungmin fire with perfect accuracy at the two guards ━ sleep darts, Ryeowook notes. It seems that, at least for now, the Resistance hasn’t resorted to breaking its Drones-only policy for regular bullets.

With the guards slumped unconscious on the floor, the Inquisitor is the only threat remaining. The smile on Heechul’s face would probably give even demons nightmares.

“I need you to deliver a message for me to those snakes you work for,” he says, voice practically dripping with venom. “Tell them the Resistance is coming for their heads. And if they ever pull something like this again, I’ll personally drag them to Hell.”

Another snap of Heechul’s fingers, and the Inquisitor joins the guards. For a moment, no one speaks, as if doing so would cause everything to descend back into chaos.

“Heechul━” Leeteuk finally starts to say, but he’s cut off by the other man’s sudden embrace.

“Don’t ing scare me like that again, Jungsoo,” Heechul says, voice tight. “Got it?”

“I won’t; I promise.”

His words bring back Ryeowook back to their conversation earlier, and the ground suddenly seems to sway underneath his feet as he realizes just how close he had come to death. Thankfully, strong arms wrap around him before he can fall, and he turns his head to see Sungmin.

“Don’t worry. You’re safe now,” he says with a warm smile.

What would I do without all of you?

“Thank you.”

Ryeowook would have said more, but another face in the group catches his attention. Sungmin follows his gaze, and he laughs when he sees who’s on the receiving end. “Go ahead. He was worried about you, too.”

Conscious of the eyes that are on him, Ryeowook is hesitant to rush to Henry. He tries to act nonchalant about it; he takes measured steps over to where the other stands, and the hug he gives him is hesitant, brief. Nothing that could be misconstrued as more than a reunion between friends.

Henry has no such qualms. He tugs the other man as close as he can manage, reaching a hand up to tangle his fingers through Ryeowook’s hair.

I missed you.

Behind him, Heechul is still talking to Leeteuk, sounding like he’s mostly recovered from that moment of emotional transparency. “Shindong is backing up all of our files,” he says in a low voice. Ryeowook doubts that the room has microphones to pick up anything that’s said, but he supposes one can’t be too careful. “We’re going to relocate to the secondary Bunker as fast as we can.”

Ryeowook frowns, finally letting go of Henry. “Since when do we have a secondary Bunker?” he asks skeptically.

“Apparently since forever ago,” Eunhyuk answers for the Strategist, his arms crossed. “But Heechul, Leeteuk, and Shindong didn’t feel the need to share.”

“The fewer people who knew, the safer the secret would be,” Leeteuk says earnestly. “I would still trust all of you with my life.”

Heechul clicks his tongue. “Speaking of which...it’s probably best to leave before the Mayor realizes we’ve foiled his plan. Let’s get out of here.”

Ryeowook can’t agree more.

~*~

Leeteuk is the last to leave. It’s his fingerprint that seals shut the entrance to the place that he’s called home for the past two years, countless memories entombed behind the concealed steel doors.

Maybe he’s being overdramatic. The people he’d made those memories with ━ the ones who’s made it this far ━ are still with him. Everything that has personal value or that’s necessary for the Resistance effort is being hauled to the new Bunker. The design was nearly identical, so it will almost be like they haven’t left at all. And yet…

There’s a tug at Leeteuk’s heart when he thinks about not being able to point at that one imperfection in the kitchen wall and say “Look, that’s where Yesung accidentally scared Ryeowook so badly that a frying pan ended up leaving a permanent dent.” Not being able to almost trip on the uneven last step coming down the stairs from his office and remember the time that Eunhyuk did trip ━ quite spectacularly, and on top of Donghae, which Heechul hadn’t shut up about for the rest of the week. Not being able to sit at the table and remember when there were 11 other faces besides his own, imagine what it would be like to have all 13 ━no, all 15━ around that same table.

Nothing is going to be the same. Leeteuk can feel it in his bones.

He spares the unassuming cluster of rocks one last glance before turning to follow the rest of the group, and then he doesn’t look back.

(When the others are watching.)

A/N: Much like Ryeowook, I'm alive; I survived finals! Thanks for your nice comments, everyone. :) But now that it's officially my summer break, there shouldn't be anymore delays in posting (like this slight one...). Anyway, as always, thanks for reading and commenting, and I'll see you next Friday for another update!