A/N: Updates are happening again, every Monday! Since it's been awhile, check out the previous chapter if you'd like a refresher of what's happened so far :)
The campfire is the only thing keeping me from shivering into insanity.
Jin set up the tents and offered to make us dinner earlier, but no one was in the mood to eat. Huddled in our jackets now, a silence hangs over all of us - it's a dark, brooding, thick silence mingled only with the faintest murmurs of crickets and leaves scattering across the ground.
It's a cold silence... a dreadful one that sinks in and stays.
Jimin and Suga are gone.
And it doesn't help that my final memory of Jimin is a choreographed fight with the Commander. A part of me is painfully hurt, but the other part is just confused.
I still miss him.
Even if he's a traitor, I miss him - I admit it to myself. I miss his presence and the comfort he always gave me no matter the situation.
But his kindness, his personality, his dramatic reactions that always made J-Hope laugh... could that all have been an act? I wonder where he is now, if he's safe. Maybe the Commander is doing terrible things to him...
Snap out of it, Y/n. Jimin is fine.
J-Hope throws a new bundle of kindling into the fire. Jin and Taehyung keep the flames going while Namjoon stares into it emptily.
We're all quiet except for Jungkook - unable to stay still any longer, he starts pacing around us relentlessly. Rocks and sticks fly into the distorted air, forming a vortex of the roiling emotions inside him that I can easily feel from where I sit. There's fury and confusion and dismay. So many things. The air whirls with his mindset.
No one bothers to stop him. Then, having watched the swirling patterns for long enough, Jin clears his throat.
"... did any of you notice anything suspicious before today?" he asks delicately. "About Jimin?"
Taehyung shakes his head. J-Hope and I follow. After some thinking, Jungkook does the same and his little tornado relaxes from the diverted attention.
"I've noticed," Namjoon mumbles.
We turn to him with expectant gazes.
He looks around at all of us, then sighs and rubs a hand over his face. The campfire light emphasizes the contrast and shadows on him and, suddenly, for the briefest of moments, I see an uncanny resemblance of the green soldier from before - but I blink and shake my head. My exhaustion must be reaching a new level now, at this time of night.
I look back up at the tired leader of six.
"Jimin must've brought both letters," he says in a low voice. "The first one was on her windowsill, and the only person who went near Y/n's room at all was Jimin when he walked her to her room. Then he also happens to find the second letter a few days later... I don't think those are coincidences."
"Oh come on," J-Hope says. "Who's the most observant of all of us? Jimin, always. So maybe he's just paying attention-"
"But why would he be so good at it?" Namjoon prompts. "Now we have an explanation. He knows more than we know, he's just been hiding it from us all this time."
In other words, a definite traitor.
Ouch.
"Hyung," Jungkook bristles. "Why do you gotta be so harsh?"
"I'm not being harsh, I'm trying to stay objective-"
"This is Jimin we're talking about!" Taehyung adds. "My best friend! And now you come up out of nowhere saying he's a traitor-"
"And this is a disastrous situation we're talking about-"
"Jimin isn't disastrous!"
"Have you felt his persuasive powers?" Namjoon insists. "You don't know what they can do, or what he could hide with them, just think about it-"
"How dare you say that!"
"The Commander himself greeted Jimin as someone on their side, just ask Y/n!"
Jungkook huffs. "Don't drag Y/n into this now-"
Their voices rise. The arguments grow in strength and volume and soon enough, it's nothing like the silence around the campfire from before.
But one person stays quiet.
Jin.
The other voices become distant when my gaze falls upon him. The firelight reflects in his soft eyes, picture-perfect. His entire being seems right at home, naturally relaxed in the hazy orange light, and it immediately becomes apparent to me why fire is his element. It suits him so well.
He looks up at that moment, as if sensing my attention. I offer him a smile and tilt my head at an empty spot nearby. Want to sit next to me?
Sure, he nods.
The argument is so heated that he sneaks over without anyone noticing.
"If only we had Suga," Jin mumbles as puts his seat down next to me. "He always knows what to do when we're in disagreement."
I shrug. "But now we're on our own."
"I guess so."
We settle into a comfortable silence. At this point, Jungkook and Taehyung have ganged up against Namjoon while J-Hope tries to mediate the situation off to the side. But all of that feels distant as I sit with Jin in our quiet bubble.
"You know..." he says eventually, "I don't think any of them are right."
"Huh? Why?"
"Namjoon's points make sense. A lot of that stuff adds up. But Jimin is someone who wouldn't do that... not willingly, anyway."
I come to the same realization. "So it's a mixture of both?"
"Sort of. I've seen the signs from Jimin," Jin fidgets with the zipper on his jacket. "I'd say I'm pretty good at reading them, being the oldest and all that. Jimin's a really strong actor. Really strong - but he's not perfect. And I've never seen him look at the Commander with any sense of true respect."
Suddenly there's a bubble of hope inside me that wasn't there before.
"But how can you be sure?" I whisper.
"Well, think about it. If Jimin really was out to kidnap you, he would've done it the moment he had you alone... which he did when he walked you to your room, on that first night you came to Base C."
My eyes widen at the thought.
"So he had the chance," Jin says, "but he didn't do it. Why not?"
"... because he didn't want to," I say in awe.
Jin points a finger gun at me in approval. "Exactly."
We settle into a thoughtful silence. The more I think about the possibility, the more it makes sense. Especially with the speech he gave to the Commander about friendship...
"I think we should let the others know," I say. "That makes a lot of sense. Maybe we can help him out of it."
"Maybe," Jin allows. Then he looks at me with a sense of urgency. "But remember, you're our first priority. They're after you. Not Jimin, not Namjoon, not me, you. I... don't know what will happen out there, to be honest, but you've got to remember that you're part of our family now. Don't think of yourself as anything less than that, got it?"
A strange gut feeling tells me that something was hidden in those words... but Jin is waiting for a response, so I quickly nod and make a mental note to figure that out later.
"Great," Jin smiles. Then he looks back at the others. "Now let's go settle this fight once and for all."
~
INT. FREEDOM ACADEMY - NIGHT
"I've got a report, sir. From Operation Getaway."
The principal eagerly looks up. "I expect it went well?"
"... no, sir."
"No?"
The green soldier nearly flinches under the accusing glare, but he stops himself. "Y/n... well, she rejected our offer. They launched a surprise attack on us with a red truck. We managed to capture one in the parking lot, but he got away."
SLAM!
The principal's fist hits the table. This time, the green soldier fails to stop himself from flinching. "You're telling me we failed?!"
"But we got Jimin back, sir," the soldier reassures him. "A valuable asset in our team. He's off finding Y/n as we speak-"
"I wanted the girl, you doughnut," the principal hisses. "Not someone already on our side."
The soldier grimaces. "I'm... sorry, sir."
"What's a sorry gonna do for us, huh? A sorry won't get her back. A sorry won't save our day. A sorry won't do anything."
The principal is seething. He stands up and starts pacing around the room, hands behind his back in deep thought.
"I'm very disappointed in you, Jackson Potter. I had hopes. You were doing so well in your classes, you were so loyal - I gave you a chance out of the goodness of my heart. And what do you accomplish? A mess of a failure!"
"It was a rookie mistake, sir," the soldier tries. "Everyone makes mistakes. I tried my best -"
"Now is not the time to make mistakes!"
Jackson can't find a response to that. He decides to stay silent - the safest option.
"Explain it all to me in detail, then," the principal mutters. "Did you Fighters ever have her captured at some point? Separated from the group?"
"Yes, sir."
"And what did the girl do?"
"She... uhh..." Jackson imagines the scene in his head. "She used her air powers."
The principal scoffs. "Even I can guess that, you fool. What I mean is, what did she do first? What was her immediate reaction?"
Jackson pauses at that, closing his eyes in deep thought. He rewatches the scene again in his head, crystal clear images passing one after another like pages of a memorized textbook. "I think she actually..." Jackson replays the scene again to make sure. Then he says in slight disbelief: "She reached for Jungkook first."
"Really now?"
"Yes, sir."
No response. Jackson hesitantly looks up. Then he sighs in relief when he sees the proud look on the other's face.
"Perfect." The principal lets out a satisfied chuckle that echoes and fills the room. "Perfect. Is Jungkook also the youngest?
"Y/n is the youngest, sir. Jungkook is second. They're both in my grade."
The principal's face twists into a wicked grin.
He may not have a reputation for looking for the sharpest, nor for his intellectual speed, but there's a reason he's the principal of Freedom Academy - he's a mastermind. He can manipulate a situation to keep things under control better than anyone else.
And now... he knows exactly what to do.
"It's difficult if the girl doesn't cooperate, huh?" He turns to face Jackson. "Instead of hoping to take her physically, we'll have to destroy her mentally first. It helps that Jungkook is the second youngest."
"Sir?"
The principal pauses dramatically, eyes shining with new determination and lunatic joy.
"Target the Jungkook boy instead."