lost souls ➳ to the edge of the sky | ✓

SEVENTEEN

☪

Consciousness shot up, and I wasn't able to stop myself from shouting out a curse at the feeling of my stomach screaming as if I was gonna die. Yes, I did feel like I was gonna die. It was painful as hell, that I didn't have to care about a set of familiar faces staring at me from different directions despite a huge amount of relief washing every bit of anxiety off my body. I turned to see Y/N resting beside me, eyes closed.

I felt more than relieved to see her vitals were alright. She was just sleeping, and somehow the pain on my stomach eased for a while before turning to the others, realizing we were back in the rover as if the mission was over, but it wasn't. Nine spared me a glance through the front mirror as he drove, with Six turning his head over his shoulder making a tiny smile.

I turned to the right. Five was resting as well, looking out the window with a frown.

Zero. He's not here. And Evren. . . They disappeared after the explosion. Just like that.

“How's the wound?” Nine's calm voice made me feel grateful after finding out Zero wasn't with us.

I looked down to see that most my clothes were nearly torn all over and singed by the fire, and then her head lying on my shoulder as she held my face while I whispered those words to her—it recurred repeatedly inside my head, causing warmth to spread over my face. She couldn't have heard that, could she?

“Four, is something wrong? Are you bleeding?"

“No, I'm fine.” I placed my hand over my stomach, closing my eyes and sighing after seeing Six eye me in concern. “I just. . . thought it was gonna be the end of us.”

Nine grimaced. “It was PHASe who planted the bomb.”

I shot my eyes open, brows furrowing. “What?”

“From Raske's orders. They thought you were helping Seven. They've marked her as a traitor, that is why they cut all our lines off and forced us to retreat, but it turns out you decided to come with her. You brought Zero along, and that was how they managed to follow your tracks all the way to KAIROS' hideout, but they got away again.”

A breath of shock escaped my lips. He didn't know it was Y/N's soul that time when PHASe's men were hunting us throughout the district.

“Eight received the message. He's more than eager to see Five back.”

“And Zero's now in KAIROS." It took to having my fists balled it seemed like blood was about to ooze out from my palms. “I didn't—I shouldn't have. . . I lost him.”

“We lost him.” Nine glanced at me. A hint of sadness could be seen in his eyes. “But we'll keep on trying. You managed to retrieve Five,” his eyes darted towards the Shifter, who looked as if he couldn't hear that Nine was speaking, “we can get Zero back.”

If only I were as optimistic as you Nine. I looked over to the other side. Y/N's bruises were mended at the least, yet I couldn't bring myself to lay a finger on her now for she needed some time to rest. It was difficult for the both of us to see Zero gone, not realizing it was also the last time we would get to confront Evren.

I didn't know back then, that Evren meant something to the both of us.

“For the good news, Phantom Beta has Temperance in hand on convoy, all thanks to Six.”

I exhaled, looking at Six, then to Nine. “You know I'm not much of a talker, but thank you. For saving us, even if you had your doubts in me.”

Six let out a hearty laugh. “Isn't that what Alpha is for? Come on now, man, as if you're not the only Wraith in our team, I can tell you've successfully added more than a few words to your vocab.”