We'll get you back, Jimin.
We'll get you back.
"Let me go!"
Jimin's voice is hoarse from yelling. He slams the iron bars in front of him over and over again with bruised fists, each burst of pain a reminder of his own weaknesses and faults. "Someone, PLEASE!"
Somewhere out there his friends are probably fighting for their lives against Freedom Academy. And here he's sitting miles away, unable to help, surrounded by unforgiving stone walls so far underground it's like a different world from the surface of Earth. There's nothing to see by except for the bleak, flickering, fluorescent light in the hallway beyond his cell door.
It hurts to breathe.
The murky scent of earth, pervasive and looming, sickens him. It's a trigger that sends his fight-or-flight system into overdrive which the guards know only too well.
"Help..." Jimin's eyes well up with tears. He hadn't planned on crying, crying was weak, but now he's getting so desperate that he can't keep his emotions in anymore. "Please..."
He knew this would happen. He sent the letter knowing he'd end up here again.
But was it worth it?
Of course it was worth it. Jimin shakes his head. Why am I doubting that now?
Shaky breath in, shaky breath out. He wraps his arms around his knees and rocks himself back and forth on the wet floor, shivering from cold and nerves and panic. He swallows, lost for words.
It was worth it, it was worth it, it was worth it.
He chants the phrase like a hymn, a lifeline floating on the insanity threatening to drown him and never let him out again. It's the only thing that keeps him going.
But now I'm back here again, a part of him sneers.
It was worth it, it was worth it-
I should've just followed the Commander's orders.
It was worth it-
Did the letter even go through?
It. Was. Worth it.
Jimin covers his ears, grounding himself. He can't afford to lose this inner battle now, that's exactly what the guards want. He won't give in, he'll never give in, he's strong enough, strong enough, strong enough...
He works through his thoughts. As the hours pass, the hatred inside of him simmers into a fiery inner resolve.
And hours later when a guard finally stops at his cell door, Jimin doesn't even look up - he knows better this time, that the guard is a decoy meant to give false hope and then hurt him more. Jimin is stronger than that.
The guard's confused stare bores into his skull.
Tension hangs heavy in the air.
This time is different, Jimin tells himself. This time I won't break.
The guard walks away without a word.
~
I frown at the still-oblivious Fighters below us. We're on top of a hill that Jungkook found a while ago so most of the camp is in clear view.
"You'd think they'd be back by now, right?" I ask.
Jungkook shrugs.
I peek anxiously at Namjoon and Jin who are still standing where J-Hope's group left us, barely in sight somewhere down below. I glance at the lumpy stick-basket that I've been weaving during the wait. Then I look back at the Fighters.
Still no sign from J-Hope.
This is either going really well, or...
"I can't sit still anymore," I sigh and stand up, wishing I had my notebook back so I could doodle away my restlessness. "Want to walk around or something?"
"Yes, but we need to keep watch, so no."
I groan.
Stupid long wait.
"Just think about something else," Jungkook says, "like the satisfaction you'll feel when you finally get to wind the bad guys away."
"Is this what you've been thinking about the whole time?"
"Yeah. It keeps me going."
I roll my eyes at his eagerness until my gaze lands on an orange streak in the sky.
Ooh, that looks different. And pretty.
Wait-
"What does orange mean again?" Jungkook has noticed it too.
"Caution?" I gulp.
"Thought so."
Don't panic yet, I tell myself as I wipe my sweaty palms. They think they've been seen, that's all, it's not red yet so everything's okay...
An alert silence settles between us. I look down at Namjoon and Jin again where they're also noticeably more tense. Still no sign of J-Hope's group.
C'mon...
Then something black darts at the corner of my vision so I tilt my head to look up. Its sorrowful caw, paired with the magnificent dark silhouette of spread wings against the snowy white sky, feels like an omen that I don't completely understand.
And seconds later like a wisp of smoke the raven disappears, gone.
"That was fast," I whisper.
I look back at Jungkook who's already staring at me.
Then he smirks.
"Fast isn't in my vocabulary, Y/n," he says, head tilted with a playful gleam in his eyes. "Want to find out what is?"
I glance at him accusingly knowing he said the same thing in that getaway fight from school, but this time there's something dark and teasing in his new undertone. I break eye contact and distract myself with the orange streak in the sky. "How?"
"You'll find out soon enough."
"That sounds mysterious."
"It'll be fun," he says happily. "Once we get into the swing of things you'll see how quickly I can wind those Figh-"
Crunch.
Jungkook pauses mid-word. We look over to our left as Jungkook simultaneously pulls on my hand so he's standing between me and the direction of noise.
I freeze.
He's never moved so fast before. How did he -?
"Who's there?" Jungkook calls out, voice somehow steady. My mouth goes dry. A precious second passes, then two, then three...
"Oh how cute!" One earth Fighter stumbles from the trees, laughing. I grimace at how loud and shrill her laughter is. "You must be Jungkook and you... " she waves her hand at me "... you must be Y/n."
"You sound drunk," I say bluntly.
She smiles sweetly. "You sure you're not the drunk one, sweetheart?"
Jungkook punches in her direction, using his wind elemental so that even with the long distance between them he still strikes her. She stumbles back, then laughs again.
What's up with these people laughing all the time?
"Ignore what they say," Jungkook tells me quietly. "They're talking to distract you."
"Why is she acting like that?"
"I don't know."
I look around, frowning. There's no one else here besides Drunk Fighter, the streak in the sky is a deeper shade of orange now, and Namjoon and Jin below are... gone.
And some Fighters in camp are looking this way.
That's why she's laughing like a maniac! I mute her laughter immediately but I know it's too late. We've been seen.
"We need to go."
"Where?"
"Anywhere." Jungkook tugs on my wrist so we're both facing a nearby forest.
I mute the sound waves from our running while Jungkook uses the wind to push us there faster than we've ever traveled before. But even once we're hidden by the trees, the earth is rumbling behind us and there are battle cries in the Fighter's camp and the streak in the sky has gone red.
Something is definitely wrong.
"Do you have a plan?" I ask gingerly.
"Honestly, no."
"... then how -"
"- but I did just think of one. You'll say I'm crazy."
I duck so I don't get hit in the face by a tree branch. "What is it?"
"We can't be snipers now since we've been seen, so let's just run down there and join them."
"Put ourselves in the fight?"
"Yeah."
"You're crazy!"
"Knew you'd say that," he murmurs fondly. Then in his normal voice: "The only other option is to run off, but then we'd get caught anyway because it's just the two of us so why not make ourselves useful?"
We jump over a fallen tree trunk.
"I guess you have a point," I say.
"You're up for it?"
"Let's go."
I can't think of a better idea in my panicked state of mind anyway.
Jungkook leads the way. Before long we've found the edge of camp and traced the red beam from the sky into the ground to pinpoint J-Hope's exact location.
There's enough distance between us and the closest Fighters for us to pause and think.
As Jungkook stands there, overlooking the whole camp with an expression that I can't really decipher, I sneak a glance at him to take in his eyes and nose and lips and windswept hair... allowing myself to be lost in him just one more time.
"Now we need to get down," he says.