Take Me to the Sky | BTS+

Sucks to Suck

Ava and Jin were bickering their way down the open platform of their transport shuttle over who's fault it was that their mission failed, and who was going to be the one to break the news to Joon that Chimin and Jungkook were--for lack of a better phrase--now prisoners of war.

They landed around the same time as Joon and Shae's own shuttle. As the sassy dynamic duo realized the presence of Joon and Shae standing near the exit to the shuttle hangar, the two sass pots stopped in their tracks.

The voices of Shae and Joon echoed over them, startling them out of their argument completely.

It was Shae who was shouting, and it was a terrifying sound that neither Ava nor Jin had ever heard before.

"What was all of that about doing the right thing? Just pretty words to trick me?!"

"No. Shae, that's not...."

"So what, apparently I'm some human battery and... have you just been planning to use me like this, this whole time? Is that why you didn't tell me what I was?! Thought I might run away?!"

"Don't be ridiculous! This was never how this was supposed to go! I cared for you before I knew what you were, and the fact that you--"

"What am I, Kim Namjoon? Just livestock you can barter and trade?! IS THAT ALL I AM TO YOU?!"

"DAMMIT IT'S NOT THAT SIMPLE!"

Shae motioned as if to pound her fists against Joon's chest, but his hands reached out and clasped her firmly by the wrists. She struggled to break free but he held her, pulled her into him, his face bearing down over hers with dark intensity.

He went on, his voice biting like a frigid wind, "My hands are tied, there's nothing that I can do about it yet, and you can hate me all the fuck you want but this is how things are right now. And you're going to have to learn to live with that."

Ava and Jin exchanged panicked looks with each other.

Shae answered, this time her words breathless, "Let me go, Kim Namjoon. Please just let me go."

He did.

Shae ran from the hangar before the tears started to pour for anyone to see.

Ava's voice flicked like a whip as she and Jin approached the breathless leader, "The hell did you do, yah shit?"

Joon only answered by sending a glare towards Jin and Ava.

Just then the echo of a new set of footsteps sounded around them as Kim Taehyung entered the hangar, clipboard in hand. He pushed up the golden rimmed glasses that rested on his nose and asked in his smooth, jazzy voice, "So it went well then?"

Joon ran for Taehyung, yanked him up by his collar, and landed a severe punch to Tae's nose. Ava could hear the crack across the room, and the blood followed quickly after.

Joon yanked Tae up off of the ground by the collar with just one hand. His other hand suddenly crackled with white electricity as the combat runes in his arm ignited with their power.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't strike you down for good." The bright light flickering against one have of Joon's face caused the other half to be cast in deep shadow. "Just try me, you bastard."

Ava and Jin looked at each other again, nodded, and began closing in on Joon from behind.

Tae didn't answer.

Joon went on, "I stuck up for you. I LIED to cover your ass, and this is how you repay me, YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT?!"

Tae didn't even attempt to fight back, in his words or in his limbs. He just hung limp from Joon's hand, looking down at Joon with blank eyes, and remained silent.

Ava and Jin struck Joon all at once, both of them latching around an arm, both of them driving a strong kick into the back of Joon's legs and attempting to pressure him down onto his knees.

For a moment it worked.

Tae fell from Joon's grasp and stumbled aside, clutching at his throat, coughing and gasping for air.

Joon heaved his left shoulder, where Ava held, and rolled her forward onto the solid hangar floor with effortless rage.

When he attempted to do the same to Jin, the good doctor's hands quickly slipped from Joon's arm and began hovering over both of Joon's shoulders instead. A soft pink light flickered from Jin's hands, and a pattern like flower blossoms curled around his palms and curve of his thumbs with that pink glow as the rune activated.

It wasn't an attack rune.

Joon's eyes lulled where he still sat upright on his knees. His voice was relaxed and lazy as he said, "Kim Taehyung, you're a... dead man...."

Then Joon slumped forward in a lazy swoon. Jin made sure to catch Joon by the shoulders before he fell heavily onto his face, then guided Joon's passed out body gently onto the floor.

Ava had a comforting hand on Tae's shoulder. Tae was wiping at the blood running down his face with the back of his hand, but his expression continued to remain stale--there was no terror there, nor was there shame or remorse. He blankly observed the blood on his hand, Ava's hand reached out to his arm, Joon's unconscious body on the floor, and Jin's quizzical expression.

Jin gave a nervous laugh in Tae's direction, "I'm kinda relieved Joon was busy fighting with you. Because our big news is that Chiminie and Kookie have been successfully kidnapped by Hoseok and Yoongi, and we didn't bring back a lick of Mysterium. What a sucky day this has been for us all then, eh?"

Jin's lightheartedness didn't touch Kim Taehyung. The slender, soft man was surprised at himself. He wasn't afraid. For once, he wasn't afraid.

Ava asked, her hand still on Tae's shoulder, "What they heck happened with Joon and Shae? And you?"

"It may be wise for you to go ask Shae's perspective for yourself. She will likely have more to say than I. But in short, I helped Joon to make a deal with Petra, and Joon didn't like the results."

Jin frowned. "What does that mean?"

"It means she knows that Shae's a Satoor Ai and Shae's become the best bargaining chip we could have ever asked for."

Recognition settling into both Jin and Ava.

Without a second thought, Ava wound her hand back and slapped Taehying hard across the face. A red mark showed on his skin in the shape of her hand.

"Good thing Joon didn't kill you because now I wanna do it myself." Ava's hands reached for the small Geji blades that were attached to her legs, finally thankful that she was wearing her free-moving combat suit that day.

Ava jabbed with her blades, and Tae tapped at the strikes with his clipboard as he jumped and dodged out of her way. Lunge, strike, lunge, Tae danced and danced his way out of her reach, all the while a blank expression remaining fixed on his face.

The quiet dance continued on until Tae made a sharp downward strike with his clipboard over both of Ava's hands, making the small blades scatter to the floor. Then he drove the corner of his clipboard into one of her shoulders, tucked one of his legs into hers, and twisted her body sideways...and making her stumble forwards onto the floor.

Ava swore viciously under her breath as she fell.

Taehyung stepped calmly aside and hugged his clipboard to his chest, his shoulders slumped forward an unassuming. His fixedly blank face looked up at Jin's shocked, wide eyes. "The hatred from all of you is worth it, in case you care to know. It's worth it because I've just saved Noon Mool from going Dark, and I did it without shedding a lick of anyone's blood."

Jin shook his head slowly. "Oh, Taehyungie. You don't know what you're saying. What is it you think that Petra plans to do to Shae?"