4.6 | Dark Ages ✓

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SHE TELLS HIM everything.

This is the trickiest jump he is in, she explains, because there are two Taehyungs. The other him-his past self of twenty-one days ago-is here. He'd started dating her a month after they'd met, and they've been living together since. Five years of working with her towards a common goal, spending time in her company and simply being with her.

Shit, is he actually feeling jealous of himself?

But he holds his tongue and hides out on the back porch when his past self returns. Unable to stop his curiosity, he peeks at them through the window. Dressed in a long coat and lugging around a bag that looks remarkably familiar, his past self dumps a load of files onto the table, chugs down the tea that she hands him, and affectionately kisses her before heading out again.

Lucky bastard.

Fuck it all, he really is jealous.

Bemused, he re-enters the house once his past self has headed out. Her eyes sparkle with good humor as she hands him the same mug that his other self had been drinking from.

"That was a close call," she says. "I'm afraid you'll have to keep hiding while you're here. It's important that he doesn't find out about you, or it could lead to some kind of Butterfly effect with unimaginable consequences."

He hums in agreement at that and turns to follow her. She leads him to the bookshelves in the far corner, then kneels down by one of the floorboards. It looks no different from the others, but when she places a palm on it, the surface lights up a pale blue. The floorboard slides open, revealing stairs that lead downwards.

He blinks in surprise. In all his time spent here, he'd never imagined that the house was bigger than it seemed. Intrigued, he follows her down, finding two rooms in the basement. She leads him to the one on the left and flips a switch, bathing the room in bright light.

"This is my lab," she says."I don't know how long you're here for, but you can stay here until you have to go back. He hardly ever comes into my lab anyway, so you should be safe."

He stops behind her, staring at the room in wonder. Where the furniture above had been sparse and old, what lies down here is technology that boggles him in their sheer complexity.

"Do you want to see your lab?" she asks.

"I have a lab?"

She simply smiles at his confusion and gestures to the other room. When she opens the door, he can only stare. This...this is familiar. It feels like re-entering a dream from a long time ago. He takes that first step in and déjà vu rushes through him-he must've stepped into this room dozens of times before.

This is where I work, he thinks as he looks around. Here, in this isolated town with the girl I love, I will save the world.

In his peripheral, he catches her chance a glance his way, as though seeking for his approval. His lips twitch up faintly; her smile widens in response. He wanders further into the lab, not daring to touch anything, until he notices something.

His feet come to a halt.

There, set on a stand, is a distillation flask with pale blue liquid labelled Antigen U.

She sidles up to him; her hand brushing the back of his. "That's what he-well, you are working on. It's like a virus, but the good kind. If you inject it into the zombies, they will be unable to generate antibodies to combat the virus, so the virus will eat at them until they're dead-"

He shakes his head in disbelief. This was exactly what Namjoon had told him. And yet, in the present, the cure had been called Antigen V. His mind begins to race.

Has Antigen V not been created yet?

"-it's not very stable yet, and its effectiveness is currently at ninety-five percent," she continues, unaware of his consternation. "The other five percent of the time, it doesn't work, especially if the human has just been turned. In the latter case, the antibodies in the human are still intact, so his body can fight against the Antigen."

He swallows and turns to her. "Why is it called Antigen U?"

"Well, it's just a placeholder since you've never been very creative," she says, with a soft laugh. "You started at A when you first had the idea for an Antigen about four years ago, and you've been working your way through since."

He stares at the blue liquid in the flask, his mind working rapidly. What would cause Antigen U to become Antigen V? A new trial-one that would prove successful enough to save the world. A new formula-one that is one-hundred percent effective. Another answer...

I have the answer.

Slowly, he draws out his gun from his jacket. She doesn't seem frightened to see it-merely curious; and he remembers that she'd seen him with a gun on several occasions before. He makes sure that the safety catch is in place, then sets it down in front of her.

"In my time, the world has been saved by something called Antigen V," he says quietly, meeting her gaze. "I believe this is the answer that my other self has been looking for."