Mingi ran forward as soon as San passed out and took him in his arms as soon as he was lowered down. "San? San, can you hear me?" He asked gently, rocking him back and forth.

"He's out cold. Come on, let's get him upstairs." Yeosang said gently, placing a hand on Mingi's shoulder.

The taller nodded and the group of four returned to the loft that Jongho and Yeosang called their home.

As much as it pained him, Mingi allowed Jongho to tie San to a chair. Before he had blacked out, Mingi had caught him yelling for someone to not leave him, and he recognized the look in San's eyes. He had been under full control of the Pack.

"So what now?" Yunho asked, coming to stand next to him.

Mingi glanced at the drover and for a moment hoped that he would see a spark of recognition in the older's eyes. But there was nothing but concern and confusion. "I don't know." Mingi sighed. "We have him now, and this was definitely unexpected. Do you think you could get started on that headband then Yeosang?"

The hacker pursed his lips and nodded. "Let me get some scans so I can see what I'm working with. As long as it's not anything too complicated I should be able to make something fairly quickly."

"Great. I'll keep watch and make sure he doesn't do anything to try and hurt himself." Mingi said, pulling up another chair.

"I'm going to go lock up and make sure everything is ok downstairs." Jongho muttered, but he did stop long enough to press a kiss to the side of Yeosang's head before disappearing from the room.

Mingi smiled when he saw the hacker blush a little even though he never turned away from the machine he was getting hooked up to San's head. It made him happy to see that someone ended up in a good place this life.

If he was being honest, though, he could feel jealousy tugging at his heart too. He missed feeling Hongjoong next to him so much. And he knew it was selfish, but sometimes he still wished he had forgotten too.

But there was a reason he didn't, and he was determined to make sure he took down the Pack and fixed everything that was wrong in this world.

Yunho came to sit next to him and leaned forward so that his elbows were braced on his knees and he could lean forward. "So this is him?" He asked quietly.

Mingi nodded and glanced at the older. "Yeah. This is him."

"I heard him say 'don't leave'. I'm guessing he was talking about the voices?"

"I don't know, but that would be my assumption too." Mingi kept studying Yunho and noticed that he appeared to be taking in every detail of San's body, and as he did, his ears started to turn red. "Hopefully we can get them turned off so that we can help him. I don't think it's going to be pretty though. If that bastard has had control of him for a long time it may be hard to convince him to join us."

"But if he does, he could help us get to the other two."

"Assuming that Wooyoung is there, yes."

"You know," Yeosang interjected while still performing his scans, "I've been thinking about that. I can program his name into my system and see if it pops up in any data bases. I can make sure to hack into all the, um, whore... houses around here too." Yeosang cleared his throat and shifted in place. "They have to keep record of who they have somewhere."

"That would be great, thank you." Mingi sighed.

"What if we don't find him? What if there's no record of him anywhere?" Yunho finally looked away from San and pressed his lips together in a thin line. "Are you going to be ok with that?"

The question weighed heavily on Mingi's heart. He didn't want to accept that Wooyoung could be dead, but to some extent, that would probably be better than if Mercer had found him. In a perfect world, Wooyoung had never been picked up on the streets and he would still be with or near his family and be perfectly happy.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to be so..."

"No, it's ok." Mingi patted Yunho's knee a couple of times. "I don't know what we are going to do, but as long as he's happy then that's all I can ask for I suppose."

When no one answered, Mingi let out a sigh and leaned back in his chair. A comfortable silence fell over them as Yeosang got to work.

He spend a lot of time muttering to himself while pounding on his keyboard. He also spun in his chair a lot to examine San once more before spinning back to his work station. All the while he had a sucker in his mouth, which Jongho replaced for him after a couple of hours.

The way the two of them moved together told Mingi that they had been together for awhile, so when he couldn't stand it anymore he broke the silence. "How did you two find each other?"

Yeosang paused his work for a moment and chuckled. "Jongho actually saved my life."

"I did not, don't be so dramatic." Jongho started grumbling while crossing his arms and turning away from everyone.

"Such a child." Yeosang rolled his eyes. "I was scouting out a new business I was going to, um, hack into. And actually, this fighting right was one of them" He flashed a bashful smile and rubbed the side of his head. "I had heard Pack members frequented here so I was looking to make my mark. I dropped my guard and a few Pack members started giving me a hard time. Jongho came up and chased them off. I must admit I was pretty smitten right away, so I made an appearance here a few times over the next several days, and finally the thick idiot realized what I wanted and asked me to stay after a fight one night. We dated for a few months before we decided to go into business together."

"Best decision ever." Jongho said with a pout. He still wasn't looking at anyone and had started picking at something on his jeans.

Yeosang gave Jongho a loving look before getting back to his work.

Mingi couldn't help but admire the small smile he seemed to always see on Yeosang's face whenever he looked at the younger. It was something that he had hardly seen in his previous life. Yeosang had always been so serious and focused.

"I'm happy for you guys." He said, looking between the couple.

They both glanced at him and Yeosang gave him a sad smile. "We will find Hongjoong. You'll see him again."

Mingi just nodded and closed his eyes. He hoped so.

"I think I'm actually done." Yeosang said after a few minutes.

"What? Already?"

The hacker smirked. "Did it take me longer last time?" He walked forward while carefully binding a little chip to a makeshift wire headband. "It's not perfect, so I'll need a little longer to make something a little more functional, but this will be enough for when he wakes up."

Yeosang carefully placed the headband on San's head and lined up the chip so it was directly over the chip in San's head.

"Thank you." Mingi's forehead scrunched in concern. "We should leave him tied up for now though, just in case. We don't know what he will be like when he gets up. If this works, he will probably be pretty scared though, we are going to need o be delicate with him when we try to expl—"

A soft moan interrupted him and all eyes fell on San.

The boy's head rolled out he side a little and he flexed his fingers. His eyes opened slowly and he groaned. The struggle to become conscious again was evident in the way he sluggishly looked around. "Where... Where am I?" His voice was raspy and laced with confusion.

"You're safe." Mingi said, moving to kneel in front of him.

The moment San was able to focus on him, and realize he didn't recognize Mingi, he started to pull at the restraints on his arms. "Let me go!!"

"San, I need you to calm down." Mingi placed his hands on the boy's knees and pressed firmly.

Hearing his name was enough to make him freeze. "Wh— Who are you?"

"Friends. We aren't going to hurt you."

San opened his mouth to speak again but then he whimpered and flinched.

"What's wrong?" Yunho asked, stepping forward.

"H-Head... H-Hurts..." San's body strained as he tried to curl in on himself. He looked like he was in pure agony.

"Do you guys have any pain killers?" Mingi asked while looking between Jongho and Yeosang. "It's the chip, it always does this."

Fear flashed in San's eyes and he started to struggle again. "P-Please... Let me go..." He pulled harder at the ropes and looked around the room with tears in his eyes. "P-P-Please..."

"San, please I need you to take a deep breath. I promise, we are friends. We are trying to free you from Mercer's control." Mingi said.

San instantly froze and looked at him with wide eyes. "How..."

"I know a lot about what's been going on, but I need you to listen to me. Can you do that?"

"Mingi..." Yunho whispered from behind him. "He needs to rest. You're going to overwhelm him." He pulled on Mingi's shoulder to get him to back up.

The younger had to admit that he was impressed. He wasn't expecting Yunho to jump in so quickly with how he had reacted to all the news, but that caring instinct must be taking over.

Yunho took his turn to kneel in front of San and rubbed his knee gently. "We are going to get you some medicine to make the pain go away. And then we can get you some water and let you get some rest, ok?"

San eyed Yunho nervously, but nodded a couple of times. His throat bobbed as he swallowed and he kept clenching and unclenching his fists.

"Mingi is right, we are going to help you. You're going to be ok. I'm going to untie you now, but only if you promise not to run." Yunho slowly moved his hand to San's right arm.

Jongho moved a little closer so he could intercept San if needed, but no one moved to stop him. Mingi had come to realize that he was in charge, so if he wasn't going to do anything to stop Yunho, then neither would the other two.

And right now, he was going to let Yunho take charge when it came to San. He had to hold onto the hope that the connection Yunho and San had before was still going to be there.

He watched as San stayed perfectly still the entire time that Yunho untied him, then allowed the taller to help him out of the chair. "Yeosang?"

"I've got it right here." The hacker hurried forward with a bottle of pills and a tall glass of water. "Take him to our room for now so he can lie down."

Yunho gave him a grateful smile and pocketed the bottle before taking the glass in one hand. He placed his other hand on San's upper back and let him through the door on the far side of the loft.

When the door closed, Mingi let out the breath he didn't realize he had been holding. Both Yeosang and Jongho exchanged a look before turning to Mingi. "Are you sure about this?" Yeosang asked.

"No." Mingi ran a hand through his hair. "No. But... it's all we've got. Yunho can handle himself. And we will be right here if he needs us. Let's just give them some time. San is going to be our most delicate recruit."

"What if he isn't going to do what you want him to do?" Jongho asked, crossing his arms. "The only reason I'm giving you a chance is because Yeosang believes your crazy story. We can't make everyone believe you. What is your plan for if he leaves and runs back to the boss you are trying to take down?"

"Jongho, stop..." Yeosang said quietly.

"No! I want to hear this! If I'm going to be putting my neck on the line for this nut job I want to know that we are going to be ok. You're my top priority and I won't do anything that will put you in harms way."

Mingi glanced at the door again and felt his shoulders sink. "I can't give you an answer to that Jongho. I'm sorry. I just can't... I wish I could. I wish I didn't even have to come and disturb the life you two built for each other. This... This isn't how I wanted any of this to go."

Before he gave either of them a chance to answer, Mingi grabbed his chair and moved it to the corner of the room. He turned it so that he faced away from them and hid his face in his hands as the foreboding feeling that he had made a horrible mistake slowly enveloped him.