[a/n: I was going to wait until later to post this but then I remembered I had left you on a cliff hanger. Whoops :). So here, you can have this. It ends kinda weird and it's not edited, please don't come at me. I hope you enjoy it though. Love ya! 💜]
Jungkook watched the battle intensely, seeking out his family. He'd been keeping an eye on each of them. They'd been fighting for an hour now, both sides sending out countless reinforcements.
Min Ji was keeping track of how many ones without free will they'd taken captive and how many were out on the battlefield.
"Jungkook, judging by the number we've seen and the number of residents who once lived in your town, the next wave will be their final and strongest bunch," Min Ji announced.
"Does that mean...?"
"Yes. Let's go. Be smart and safe, you're well prepared."
She gave him a pat on the shoulder stepped towards the edge. Suddenly, the last wave of hazmat-suited vessels came rushing out of the woods.
"Run, Jungkook! Hurry!" She urged, motioning to the drop.
Turning to the edge of the building, they jumped.
[a/n: Don't freak out it's a one story building]
Jungkook landed lightly, rolling with the momentum to save himself from any pain. Jumping to his feet, he took off at a sprint. Running through the bloodied ground, he realized most of the ones without free will had been taken captive into the military base. This was the last wave they needed to worry about. The only problem was the soldiers had used up all their waves of reinforcements and they were tired and weakened. Jungkook and Min Ji launched themselves into battle.
Seeing that Jungkook and Min Ji were their biggest threats, multiple hazmat suited bodies attacked them at once. Jungkook raged through the crowd, smashing suits. He realized that the suits had metal exoskeletons inside, as well as colored wires. This must be what helps these starving bodies to move and stand, reacting to their muscle movements, Jungkook thought.
Suddenly, one of them came at him at a run. He realized they were holding a knife.
Surprise caused him to hesitate, the vessel taking that split second to their advantage and pinning him against a tree. He grunted and struggled. He punched them in the darkened glass of their suit's mask, it shattered, pieces falling around him. The person wielded their blade, unaffected, but Jungkook caught their hand and used his other to grip their headgear.
Twisting the helmet, wires snapped and fizzed as he threw it down. But it was not the electrical popping that caused Jungkook to gasp.
Inside, the hollowed face of an all-too-familiar man stared through him with empty eyes.
"Taehyung!" He cried, screaming in emotional agony.
Taehyung didn't hear, swinging the knife again, face blind and blank. Jungkook dodged and threw Taehyung off him, only to have the vessel follow, gripping the blade.
Taehyung swung again, this time slicing Jungkook's arm slightly.
"Taehyung! Stop! Please!"
Taehyung twitched.
"Tae!"
His eyes cleared for a split second and his breathing became uneven.
"J-Jungk-" He rasped, voice scratchy from being unused.
His body swung again, against his will.
"No! D-don't let me hurt you..." His eyes went still and blank again.
"Taehyung!"
The vessel pushed Jungkook to the ground. Taehyung's body kneeled, straddling him, pulling the knife to his ear and hovering over his face. His eyes were empty.
"Taehyung! Please stop!"
The knife went further back.
"Taehyung! I love you!" Jungkook cried as the knife plummeted towards his heart.
It stopped just in time as Taehyung's eyes cleared again, the words reaching his ears. He gasped and threw himself backward, off of Jungkook. He fought for control of his body as it tried to come at Jungkook again.
"Jungkook! Run! Leave me! Kill me! Don't let me hurt you!" Taehyung growled through clenched teeth as he forced his weak body the stand still.
"Taehyung! I'll save you! Just drop the knife!"
Taehyung growled as he forced his fingers to loosen. Jungkook grabbed the blade when the hand was loose enough before stabbing it through the suit. He pulled it down, ripping the white plastic with a satisfying sound of snapping wires and this metal bars.
The suit fell in half and Taehyung fell to the ground. Jungkook removed the rest of the metal and plastic from Taehyung's thin and fragile body. His skin hugged his protruding bones and parts of his shirt were ripped off, but the knife had never touched his skin. Taehyung lay limply, unable to move.
Jungkook hadn't realized he was crying until his tear dripped onto the dusty cloth of Taehyung's tattered shirt. He put his hand on the side of Taehyung's face, caressing his visible cheekbone gently.
"Taehyung..."
"Jungkook... I-" Taehyung trailed off and a heavy breath made his body shudder. "I almost killed you..."
"No, no, no," Jungkook whispered gently, "It wasn't you. It wasn't your fault."
He continued to whisper sweet nothings for a while, gently hunched over Taehyung's limp figure.
"I love you, Jungkook," Taehyung whispered hoarsely.
He would've been bawling his eyes out if he had the energy.
"I love you, too, Taehyung. So much."
They sat in a sweet silence for a while before Taehyung whispered.
"I can't move, Jungkook. What do I do?"
Jungkook gently slid his arms under Taehyung's knees and around his shoulder blades. Then, he lifted the older up bridal style. Taehyung smiled softly.
"I suppose we've switched positions," He whispered softly, voice tired but relieved.
Jungkook smiled a tearful smile and gently kissed Taehyung's forehead.
"It's time to go home," He whispered.
"Where are the others?" Taehyung asked weakly, his head still limp against Jungkook's arm as the younger started walking back towards the military base.
The battlefield was empty now, everyone was inside the base- including the ones without free will.
"In there," Jungkook replied, nodding at the big building.
Min Ji's slender form stood waiting at the entrance. Jungkook approached her, holding Taehyung close.
"Jungkook," She gave him a soft smile, "Am I correct to assume that this is the fabled Taehyung?"
"Yes," Jungkook replied quietly.
Min Ji turned to Taehyung, giving him a bow. This came as a slight surprise to Jungkook, as Min Ji was of such high rank he'd never seen her bow before.
"Taehyung. Thank you. You are the reason for the determination of the boy who saved us all."
"I- I'm what?" Taehyung croaked, barely above a whisper.
"Wait, but I barely did anything," Jungkook interrupted.
Min Ji turned to him.
"You gave us hope. Also, you finished off the battle. I don't know if you noticed, but you were the last soldier on the battlefield. If you hadn't been there, the few hostile vessels left standing could've taken our weakened sodiers."
"O-oh."
"We can talk more later," She added, "We need to give Taehyung immediate medical attention."
Jungkook nodded and went inside.
***
Jungkook sat by the hospital bed as Taehyung was pumped full of fluid through an IV in both arms. A machine whirred above him, its mechanical arm moving from Taehyung's head to his toes and back again, shedding a beam of strange blue light.
"What's it doing?" Jungkook asked quietly, trying not to wake Taehyung, who had fallen asleep on the soft mattress.
Jungkook kept glancing at the heart monitor, unable to shake the thought that Taehyung looked dead- lying so still, nose to the ceiling. The only indicators that the thin man was stable was the subtle suck and blow of an oxygen machine, attached by a tube with a triangular mask over Taehyung's mouth and nose, as well as the steady beeping which tracked the rise and fall of the evenly spaced lines on the monitor beside the bed.
"It's restoring life to his cells," Min Ji explained in a similarly hushed voice. "He still won't be fully healed for a while, though."
Jungkook nodded.