WARNING: This chapter contains mentions of murder and other gruesome acts.
"V..." The man sits up against a dingy mattress with his back pushed flat against the wall. His chest heaves heavily and sweat pours down his pale skin. Brown and red bandages are tied tightly around his shoulder. His foot is fastened to a branch and his bruised and purple flesh peaks out from beneath the sullied bandages in large bumps. Seven's hands shake. "What the hell happened to you?"
The man throws his head down and coughs, dulling light blue hair swaying against his flushed cheeks. Luciel breaks his daze and rushes to his side. V's coughs shake his whole frame. A wad of blood splats onto the floor. "It's Rika," he mutters between coughs. Luciel helps him sit up straight, and V gratefully puts his weight on the younger man. "She's out of control."
"Is she," Saeyoung sucks in his breath as he recalls the state of the small village he drove through. Bodies were laid strewn across yards, blood painted the walls, and children hung from trees. He clenches his jaw. There was even a woman that had her pregnant belly split open and her unborn child ripped out. "Is she the one that did this?" His clench V's arm tightly, "Did she have all of those people brutally massacred?!"
"Yes," the word falls from his lips. V sits up straight on his own, taking a sip from a water bottle that the redhead passes to him. "I watched it with my own two eyes. Their screams... I can still hear them now. Thank god I couldn't see their faces..."
Seven clenches his teeth tightly. "Why would she do something like this? This is crazy... even for her."
"I agree. Some of the villagers broke into Magenta and vandalized it. They weren't happy with having the society nearby." He takes a labored breath. "Rika should've left the innocent ones alone. They didn't deserve to die!"
"Society..." Seven mumbles. "Innocent?" Repulsion grows on Saeyoung's features as he busies himself with changing the man's bandages. "You sound like you think some of her actions are justified... if all of the villagers vandalized Magenta do you think that this would've all been okay?"
"I— Luciel." A small curve forms on V's lips, only to fall immediately. What's wrong with me. "That's not what I meant... you know that." Seven remains focused on the bandages on his leg, avoiding his gaze by keeping himself glued to his side. "Ah, you don't trust me anymore."
Silence falls over the room. On the dresser, a picture of a young family smiles at Saeyoung. A couple not a few years older than him have a newborn in their arms. Would they have still been able to smile if they knew that they would be murdered brutally and have a stranger sleep in their home? If he knew this would happen would he have disobeyed V? "That picture reminded me of Saeran and Y/n," V smiles. "It's blurry and I can't see their faces well, but they must be happy. I want to take a picture like this for them one day too."
"Wh- what?" Luciel looks away from the bandages into his friend's face. He's smiling. The sheets and walls are stained with blood and a foul odor of rot wafts from the kitchen. On the doorstep outside an infant lay bare with its hair ripped out and limbs misshapen. But, V is smiling. Here in their bed. "Y- Y/n and my brother... they resemble this couple? This couple who you stood by as they were murdered by your fiancée?!"
"Luciel..." the man closes his eyes and exhales. The boy's hands are pulling the bandages on his leg so tightly that he's losing feeling in the appendage. "I didn't mean it that way... Y/n and Saeran will be okay."
"How do you know?!" Saeyoung spits. He throws the bandages down and slams his hand down on the floor. "How am I supposed to trust you after all if this?! Just what are you planning? Just what the hell is going on?!"
V flinches at his voice, his head throbbing. "Luciel... please calm down." He takes a staggered breath and puts a hand on the hacker's shoulder. "I'll tell you everything, so please... listen."
A long pause passes before Saeyoung speaks up. He flicks off the man's hand. "Fine."
"I snook in to try to convince Rika to stop, originally. But the Mint Eye is much different than how it was before. While getting in is easy, it's much harder to get in touch with higher ranked officials and its harder to escape. The entry level believers are more violent and most haven't even come into direct contact with Rika."
"Get to the point." Saeyoung clenches and unclenches his hand. "Y/n was almost abducted and Rika said that she would try to bring her in first. What was that about?"
"I don't know how they're going to do it, but they don't plan on making her a regular believer. Rika wants to make her into an elite like Saeran was. Like how MC is now."
"What do you mean like MC is now." That night they saved Saeran, Rika stabbed MC in the chest. She can't still be alive and working for Rika, can she? "She is dead."
"I thought so too." His hand combs through his mint hair, sweat dripping down his cheeks. He leans back slightly and coughs. "But she's very much alive. And after Y/n. I don't know her goal."
Seven puts his head in his hands and takes a deep breath. Think. He needs to think. MC is alive. The town has been massacred. The Mint Eye is getting more powerful. Y/n is in danger. V, the only one with a lead, is in poor shape. Seven takes a deep breath and it's a bother bear before he finally lifts his head. There are too many lives at risk. "We need to go to the police."
V shakes his head. "I'm afraid it's too late for that." He points to a cloak strewn across the floor in the narrow hallway. "If you look in the
pocket, you'll find some documents that I managed to steal." Luciel rises hestitantly and makes his way over to it. He crouches down and takes out the folded stack of papers. "Rika has already made contact with government officials." A picture of Rika and the last man that Luiciel wanted to see slips out of the stack. His eyes and figure is too familiar, too much like his own. "We're the only ones that can stop this now." It's his father. The Prime Minister of Korea.
His hands tremble. Thing shouldn't have come to this. He should've stopped this sooner. All of this— all of this— is his fault. Tears spring to Luciel's eyes, his fist clenches at his side tightly. "We go back in two days." V drops his head in relief a moment too soon. "I'm not going to let them have their way. I'm not going to let them take Y/n."
"You need to promise me something, Luciel." Desperation coats his voice and his unfocusing eyes waver on Luciel's distant form. Then, the mint haired man's arms open slightly. Luciel stares for a long time, but V doesn't move an inch, as if suspended in time. Eventually, he finds his way back to the bed. Gently, V's damaged arms wrap around Luciel's awkward form, his hands pulling the hacker's ear against his bare chest. "You must have been scared coming all the way out here and walking through the village..." his voice rolls as softly as the wind lifts butterflies' wings. "You've always been strong, Luciel." V's fingers delicately glide along the tips of Saeyoung's silky red locks. "But the RFA isn't as strong as you. They can't bare this truth." V's lips curl next to the young boy's ears. Luciel's hands hold on to the man's wounded form tightly. "I need you to promise to keep the majority of the truth between us."
Saeyoung bites his lip, his head angling down away from V's blind gaze. He squeezes his eyes shut tightly, but a smile already paints V'a features. V lifts Saeyoung's head with a single hand beneath his chin and floats his finger atop Saeyoung's bitten lip. Against the pads of his fingers, Saeyoung's lips are puffyand red. A shiver runs down Luciel's back.
His next words are but a whisper.
"I promise."