A/N: Disclaimer, the science in this chapter isn't very accurate. I just thought it'd be cool and it kind of works out sooo :)
It could be someone else, he tells himself. Not me.
But then, why would the light flash in a storage room?
Jimin sighs in frustration. Nevermind running out of this unscathed - he'll have to rely on the librarian for defense and escape somehow by the skin of his teeth.
He hopes the fuzz was strong enough for the librarian to not realize he's in here.
All the Fighters are coming, he scribbles. The odds are against you.
Target is Jungkook not Y/n.
"Hey, I'm not letting you just strut into my storage room! No sir!"
The librarian's voice.
Security's here.
Jimin curses under his breath. The muffled commotion outside makes him write impossibly faster.
Be careful. Forget me. Keep yourselves safe I'll be okay
It occurs to him, right then and there, that the note is beginning to sound like a goodbye. A final one.
BOOM BOOM.
They're pounding on the door now.
Jimin's hand trembles more and at this point he's so nervous that he can't really even focus anymore, there are tears in his eyes he's so scared but surely this was the right choice-
Don't stay for me i'm lost hope runn
BOOM.
Any moment now and the door will break down. The last line is barely readable with the 'n' in run traveling across the page in panic.
Done! Jimin's mind cries in relief. Get out get out -
He crumples the paper and holds it tightly in his fist as his eyes dart around the room for a second exit.
There isn't one.
He looks at the ceiling.
There's a tile with bars, and a tall pile of boxes leading up to it.
A vent.
A way out.
SLAMMM!
He's almost caught under the doorway as it's torn off the hinges. Jimin runs to his only hope of escape, eyes glued to the tile, and reaches out-
"STOP RIGHT THERE!"
Jimin ignores them.
Zip.
The lights cut out.
This tactic works on most people, since everything becomes disorienting in the dark which usually intimidates them into surrendering.
But not for Jimin - he calmly tunes in to the sounds around the room and keeps a mental layout of the general area. He keeps his breathing steady and quiet as he continues in the direction of the vent, climbing up on the box piles.
"Show yourself! Now!" security says.
Jimin wisely chooses not to respond to keep his location secret. He quietly climbs higher and feels along the wall, finding the part where it connects to the ceiling...
"Don't make us use our weapons."
His fingers glide along the textured tiles above him...
"We'll do this the hard way if we have to."
That was a gruffier voice, so there are at least two guards - but Jimin isn't really paying attention anymore because his hand just found cold metal.
The vent.
He keeps a steady grip on it and shifts quietly so the rest of his body is underneath. Now all he has to do is push -
"Alright, you've got three seconds kid. Three."
- upwards with all his strength -
"Two."
- but the vent doesn't budge.
"One."
FLASH.
A beam of blinding light. Jimin doesn't look away in time.
It's enough for security. In his briefest moment of surprise they close in, boots thumping on the hard ground, and one of them grabs Jimin by his t-shirt and yanks him upwards.
Jimin keeps blinking but it's no use through the flash blindness.
"You're in trouble," one of them chuckles. "Look how far disobeying authority got you. Not much, huh? Now you're coming with us to Training Headquarters -"
He doesn't hear anything beyond that. "Training Headquarters" echoes in his mind, triggering something inside him more powerful than anything he's ever experienced before. A wave of fear, along with boiling hatred, surges through every inch of his being.
Jimin finds the pen, still in his hand, and chucks it with all his strength at his captor.
"YOW!"
The grip on his shirt releases. Good.
"My eye of all places! How can he even aim?"
The eye? Even Jimin's surprised with himself but he doesn't stand in satisfaction. He's already climbing back towards the vent (thank goodness for dance practice, he hasn't lost his orientation even once.) The second pair of boots - and a third? - rapidly approach.
"Surrender now and you won't be taken to Training Headquarters," one of them lifts up a weapon-stick. "Otherwise we'll fire. Literally. Final chance."
No Training Headquarters? Lies, Jimin thinks.
And after a taste of this brief victory, of the excitement and thrill running through his veins, there's no way he could go back.
A life on the run doesn't sound so bad after all.
"NEVER!" Jimin yells. It sounds more like a roar than a human shout.
BANG.
Silence. Then...
Burning.
Hot, terrifying burning. Smoke obscures his vision and makes it hard to breathe and his throat hurts.
They weren't kidding when they said fire.
Jimin waves his hand in the air to no avail, coughing, inhaling the thick smoke that makes his eyes water and has rapidly covered every inch of the room. He swallows in pain, winces at the burning in his throat.
I want water.
Someone grabs him. Security. The physical contact with his skin burns.
His imitation energy is right there, sitting patiently inside him and ready to be used, but Jimin can't concentrate for the life of him in the scorching heat.
I need water.
It crosses his mind that they must want him alive - why else would they go through all this trouble? - so that's not what he's worried about. He's worried about the note. It's crumpled safely in his fist for now but it could burn up at any moment.
They drag him out of the storage room.
Jimin's still coughing from the smoke, eyes watering.
Water.
They pass the librarian on the way out.
Water...
Jimin blinks. The last of the flash blindness dies away.
Wait...
Isn't the librarian's element water?
The heat and smoke still sting, but Jimin's mind is clearer now that he's out of the burning storage room. He searches for her.
She's at the storage room entrance, trying to put out the fire. Her efforts are a bit pathetic really because her little stream of water just turns into steam.
But it's enough.
As long as someone's using their power, no matter how effective, Jimin can imitate it. He gathers his energy and pulls the water molecules toward him.
Then the strangest idea crosses his mind.
Two elements?
Would that work?
Jimin pulls on the fire, too.
He's not sure, and no one's ever done it before (since Freedom Academy forbids anyone working together in "student accomplice gatherings"), but it seems to be working. There's fire flickering inside him, ready for revenge, and there's water too, a soothing cold that runs to the tip of his fingers.
He doesn't know how much longer he can hold on so he has to act fast. A plan forms in his mind.
Jimin soaks the note in water. Excess droplets fall through his fingers but before the guards can notice, he quickly engulfs the note in a bright flame on his palm.
Fire heats up water, which makes steam.
And steam travels upwards.
The guards immediately tackle him to the ground now, alarmed by the sudden fire, but this time Jimin doesn't fight back. The bright flame was intense and hot enough that the water heated up in no time, and no amount of tackling could change things now.
They're too late.
Floating in the air above them is the letter, safe and sound in a bubble of dense steam just out of arm's reach. It stays for a few precious seconds, as if wondering where to go, before drifting merrily through the air conditioning system.
Jimin exhales in relief.
He arrives at the Commander's office moments later escorted by two fuming guards, covered in dark ashes and smelling of smoke- a grubby sight compared to the charismatic elegance of the Commander.
Despite the impending doom in front of him, Jimin is satisfied.
Victory is ours. He did the right thing.
With the note no longer in his hand... Jimin finds that he isn't afraid anymore. He's accepted what's to come.
The Commander's dark red eyes are the last thing he sees before the door closes behind them.
~
"So I was right?" The light is back in Taehyung's eyes.
"Yup."
"I was actually right?"
"Mhm."
"Like, I was really, definitely, actually right?"
Suga rolls his eyes and glares at Taehyung, who's completely oblivious because he's jumping in excitement. Jin also looks satisfied with himself.
"Jimin's not a bad guy!" Taehyung sings. "I knew it!"
"He wouldn't do that to us," Jin agrees.
"Yeah, yeah." Suga waves them off, but I notice a fond smile on his face. "So leaving him with Freedom Academy is out of question. When I was there the Commander was always full of himself so maybe we can use that to our advantage..."
I look at the trees and snow around us, thinking. Surely we can't rely on flattering the Commander. I glance at a bush over here, and the snowman that J-Hope built over there, and a brighter white spot there in the midst of all the snow...
Wait.
I lean over and squint to see just what it is. It looks flat, and angular, and slightly burnt at the edges. Has it been sitting there this whole time? How could it-
"What are you looking at?"
I glance at Jungkook, then point.
Everyone hears us and looks over. Suga trails off. We all glance at each other in silence and, after some nonverbal communication, Namjoon stands up. He's the best at using his element, I realize. And he has the most destructive abilities in case something goes wrong.
Namjoon's electric energy surfaces in preparation.
But I wonder if it's enough against the worst-case scenario. What could it be? A letter from Freedom Academy, again? A threat? Would they be up for a peace treaty?
"It's... just a paper." He looks up. The rest of us exhale in relief. "I don't feel anything dangerous."
Jin stands next to him and pokes at it. "Yeah, it's just paper. Unless there's a timed trap on it, so be careful. Here, no Namjoon, I'll hold it so it doesn't get zapped into oblivion. What if it's something important?"
J-Hope motions for the rest of us to walk closer.
We wait patiently in a circle surrounding Jin, hearing the paper crinkle as it's unfolded ever-so-carefully.
"I... don't have much time," Jin reads slowly. "They're coming for you. Led by... I can't read that part. Uh... before sunset."
I scoot closer. The letter is blotched, messy ink smearing across the surface in nearly illegible handwriting. Everyone looks concerned. Whoever wrote this must've been in a real hurry. And why is the paper slightly burnt?
"All the... Fighters are... coming? The odds are against you..."
"The odds were always against us though," Namjoon says. "So that's nothing new."
"Maybe the person's saying that they're ALL coming. Like, literally a HUGE army of Fighters, more than we've ever faced before. I'm talking about the biggest army they've got. Like, an ENORMOUS -"
"Well, let's keep reading first," Jin clears his throat, making J-Hope falter in his dramatic gestures, "and see if we can find anything else first."
J-Hope nods, then Jin holds up the letter again. "Uhm... target is... Y/n."
"We knew that though," Taehyung points out.
"But there's a blotch. Right there," I point at the smeared ink right before my name. "That could be someone else's name."
"But why would they go after someone else?"
"Maybe that's what they want us to think," Suga says darkly.
"No, maybe that's what they want us to think," says Jungkook.
"No, no, I'm with Suga on this one," J-Hope insists. "They'd want us to think they're going after someone else so we don't protect Y/n as much."
"Yeah, they've always been after Y/n."
"They could've changed their plans though!"
"Okay but what if this was all a prank -"
"Alright PIPE DOWN you non-artists!" Jin straightens up and uses his authoritative voice. "Let me read this interpretive handwriting to the end and THEN we can discuss or we'll never finish at this rate!"
Even though Jin's yelling, there's also a friendly tone about it. The rest of us shut up, amused, as he turns back to the letter again.
"Lemme see... be careful. Forget me... keep yourselves safe... I'll be okay, don't stay for me... I'm... I can't read that... and then it says run," Jin says finally. "It doesn't say who it's from."
My mind races over what we heard. How could someone know all this information? Why would they send it to us? Unless it's someone working from the inside, someone close to us and wants us to be safe, someone like -
Taehyung and I make eye contact.
Something dark and solemn that passes between us, silently understood. He nods.
"What if it's from Jimin?"