No one dares to move as the gray smoke materializes into a person. The first thing Reine notices is his towering height; he is as tall as Taehyung is as he solidifies before her and the others. She takes another step back, though she continues to hold her chin high as she stares at where the person's face is forming.

A hood is concealing most of his features, but she purses her lips to hide her gasp when the flames of the fire next to her illuminate his face and she sees a skull in place of where a human face should be.

The last of the wisps of smoke fall away, and the man is left standing there in front of his opened box, his three brothers standing behind him and staring at him, their muscles tense as they wait for what happens next.

Reine stares at the man, seeing straps of leather crisscrossing down both of his arms and connecting together across his exposed chest. All other aspects of his outfit are as dark as the leather on his arms; his pants, boots, gloves and billowing hooded cape all resemble the same darkness as he looms in front of Reine, not moving an inch as the two stare at each other.

Slowly, the man's hands come and pull the cape away from his face, and when the shadows subside, his face morphs into that of a man. She sees his medium-length silver hair slicked back to stay off of his face, his eyes as dark as his brothers' as he watches Reine's reaction to his appearance with no emotion present in his gaze.

Jimin opens his mouth to speak, but the man holds his hand up and Jimin's jaw clamps shut as he holds his hands up in surrender.

"I am Seokjin, the Horseman of Death," the man introduces himself, his hand held out to await Reine's handshake.

Reine stares at the hand, and ultimately decides to shake it as a sign of respect. She can sense he feels great pride in his position, and she doesn't want to come off as disrespectful as she has met the man.

"I am Queen Reine of the kingdom of Cendres," she says, tilting her chin to bow to the man in front of her.

"Is that what they named this place?" Seokjin asks, nodding slowly as his hand falls away from Reine's. "Interesting."

"I have freed you and your brothers using my power as the Queen because I-"

Seokjin holds his hand up once again, and Reine can't help but stop herself from speaking. The aura the man is giving off makes Reine feel small and almost insignificant in his presence.

"I care not about your reasoning," Seokjin says. "Accept my gratitude for your deed."

Reine bows her head again. "I humbly accept."

"Brothers," Seokjin says, not looking over his shoulder as the three stand behind him. "It is a pleasure to see you all again."

"You're not even looking at us," Yoongi grumbles, and Jimin elbows him in the side.

Taehyung stands silently, his dark gaze shifting between Seokjin and Reine as his arms are crossed over his chest.

"Now that you all are free, I ask that we make our way back to my palace. It is a welcome place; maybe we can question people to see if they witnessed any faces or anything else of significance."

"No," Seokjin says, and Reine frowns slightly as the three men behind Seokjin take in a collective breath.

"What?" Reine asks, and Seokjin licks his lips before letting out a slow breath.

"You heard me," he says.

Reine takes in a deep breath, squaring her shoulders as she holds her chin high. "I am your Master, and you will do as I command, Horseman."

"I have no Master, Queen Reine of Cendres," Seokjin says, his figure emitting so much intensity that Reine takes an unconscious step back. "I gave my gratitude for our freedom, but I will never follow the orders of another being - much less orders from a human."

"Seokjin-"

"Yoongi," Seokjin interrupts his protests, and Yoongi scowls at his brother's back.

"Jimin," Seokjin continues, and Jimin tears his gaze away from Reine to look at his brother.

"Yes?" he asks, and Reine can hear the unease in his voice.

"I assume you established a connection with the girl's mind," he says, his eyes never leaving Reine's as she stares between the four, confusion painting her delicate features.

Jimin purses his lips, no longer able to make eye contact with Reine as she raises her eyebrows in question. "I did."

"Break it," he says.

Jimin shakes his head. "Seokjin, no."

"You cannot be at your full strength while you continue to connect yourself to this human. Am I correct to assume you used this connection to see her family's past memories? To see what the angels did after we were locked away?"

"Yes, but-"

"And what did you learn?" Seokjin asks, his gaze burning into Reine while she looks at the three men behind him, silently begging for any of them to look at her.

None of them do.

"A witch," Jimin says quietly as Yoongi shakes his head in protest. "A witch bound a spell to the life of the Queen; so long as she lives, a force field prevents us from leaving the vicinity of the kingdom. So even if we were free, we would not be able to leave this place to roam the Earth freely."

"So the Queen must be killed to break the barrier so we can have free reign once again," Seokjin says, nodding in understanding. "Would it not transfer the spell to the next Queen in line if we killed her now?"

Silence.

"I asked a question," Seokjin says, his tone dropping as Jimin cowers behind him.

"She is the last heir to the throne," Jimin says barely above a whisper as Reine stares at him in horror.

She doesn't know what to do; she can't move an inch as her heart pounds in her chest, her mind not convinced that the information being spoken is true.

"Break the connection, Jimin," Seokjin says again. "Your strength will grow and we can leave this place to take our rightful thrones as rulers of this planet."

"It's not that simple," Yoongi speaks, and Reine can see the desperation in his eyes. "Jimin has also been blocking out the assholes from reaching her mind. If he breaks the connection, they can enter the kingdom."

"So be it," Seokjin says, his mind made.

Out of nowhere, Taehyung moves, and his dark blade is buried in Seokjin's back as Taehyung yells out in anger, his eyes darker than ever.

Seokjin doesn't flinch. He only sighs.

"You know our weapons won't kill each other," he says in a calm voice, and Taehyung pulls the blade back out and places it back in his holster.

"I know," Taehyung grinds out. "You're pissing me off, though, so I figured I'd cause you some well-deserved pain."

Seokjin's eyebrow raises as he glances behind him at Taehyung. "Pissing you off? Since when do you feel such insignificant emotions?"

Taehyung doesn't answer; instead, his eyes shift to look at Reine for a moment before turning back to look at his brother.

"Ah," Seokjin says, turning back to stare at Reine, whose hands are shaking as confusion and hurt bloom in her chest. "You have grown to care for the human and wish to see her alive."

"We don't need to hurt her, Seokjin," Jimin says, his tone almost begging. "This kingdom is vast; we can live in our homes like we used to. We can-"

"Jimin," Seokjin says, his tone warning Jimin not to finish his sentence. "Break the connection. We can be far away from this place before the angels even set foot on this planet."

Jimin's eyes finally look at Reine, her own tear-filled eyes staring at him.

"Jimin?" Reine asks, taking a small step towards him. "What is all of this about? What's going on?"

"He played you, Your Majesty," Seokjin says as he steps aside. "He used you to look into your ancestors' past and figure out what exactly the angels did to keep us trapped here. He used you to figure out how to win - and how we win is by killing you."

Reine shakes her head, her gaze shifting to Yoongi and Taehyung, who look heartbroken.

"You all knew this would happen?" she asks in a quiet voice.

"I told you to run, Reine," Taehyung says quietly.

"We hoped it wouldn't be like this," Yoongi says. "We hoped he would be on your side, but that's not the case."

"They are being made to choose: me or you," Seokjin says, his voice calm as he watches Reine's tears slide down her cheeks.

"And they're choosing you," she says, her voice breaking as the memories of her time with Seokjin's three brothers play in her mind.

"He's our brother," Jimin says, sniffling as tears slide down his own cheeks as he loads an arrow into his bow. "You know we will always choose our family over anything. You would do the same, wouldn't you?"

"I wouldn't know," Reine says, straightening her shoulders as she faces Jimin head-on in defeat. "I don't have a family anymore."

As soon as the words leave Reine's mouth, she sees Jimin shift his bow slightly lower, and when the arrow flies, it buries itself into Reine's stomach.

A small gasp leaves her lips as she grabs the protruding arrow with both of her hands, pain ripping through her body. That small shift of his hands at the last second caused the arrow to go into her stomach instead of her heart.

Seokjin is not happy.

"You were supposed to kill her," Seokjin says. "Killing her while breaking the connection would give us a second's head-start to leave this place before-"

A low rumble sounds, the noise growing in intensity as the four Horsemen's gazes darken.

Seokjin holds his right hand out, and a cloud of gray smoke envelops it; when it evaporates, a scythe is left behind, his fingers enclosing around the weapon.

Taehyung pulls his daggers out, and Reine idly wonders why he's pulled out his white dagger as he watches Reine fall to her knees.

"I will kill her myself," Seokjin says, and before the three men behind him can object, he is walking towards Reine as she kneels helplessly in the pool of her own blood.

The crimson substance dribbles from her lips to her chin, her eyes shifting between the three men she has grown to care for in different ways.

She sees Jimin loading his bow with another arrow as he pulls his mask on, his wild gaze glancing in every direction as tears stain his cheeks. She remembers the friendship the two had grown and how from the moment the two had met, they thrived off of their shared wit and endless bickering.

She sees Yoongi draw his sword, his jaw clenched as he narrowly avoids a rock falling from the cave's ceiling from the rumbling of the ground beneath them. She remembers the feeling he unlocked within her - the feeling of living in the moment. She felt alive with him, and he opened a part of herself she didn't know existed.

She also sees Taehyung, the man she feels so emotionally connected to, standing in the dark corner of the cave, his eyes glaring at the back of Seokjin's head as his brother advances closer to Reine.

While she knows she cares about the three of them - and maybe they care for her too - they won't stop their brother.

All this time, their main goal has been to get each other back.

Reine almost lets herself believe that they hoped Seokjin wouldn't have acted this way; she hopes that they truly wished to live peacefully in this kingdom alongside her.

But Seokjin refused, and the three brothers chose to stand with him instead of with her.

Now, as she coughs out blood and sees the liquid staining the dirt floor beneath her, all she can think of is that this entire journey - the abandonment of her kingdom, the near death experiences and the treacherous obstacles she overcame - was all for nothing.

She is going to die by the hand of Death while people she has grown to care for stand by and watch.

The arrow didn't enter her heart, no, but her heart still feels as though it's been shattered.

Reine knows she can't outrun Death; from his aura alone, she can feel the power he holds and she knows that she can't defeat him.

She is only a confused, stupid human, after all.

The blade of Seokjin's scythe glows as he raises it over his head.

"May you find peace in the afterlife for what you have done for my brothers and me," Seokjin says in a calming tone, and Reine looks at him, blood dripping down her neck from her mouth as she looks him in the eye.

Jimin, Yoongi and Taehyung all look at Reine, sadness on their faces as they watch the scene.

"Reine, I'm so sorry," Jimin yells out as the blade swings, and Reine closes her eyes as she readies herself to see her parents and her best friend again.

A loud clanking sound erupts in front of her, and when Reine opens her eyes, her breath stops in her chest as she sees a man kneeling in front of her, his skin glowing faintly as white wings fold themselves into his back, turning into gold-inked tattoos.

He holds a golden shield in front of him, intercepting Seokjin's scythe.

"You," Yoongi's voice seethes as he twirls the blade of his sword in his hand.

"Me," the man says, grinning as he stands, his muscles bulging as he holds back the scythe.

Seokjin scowls at the man in front of him, but gets caught off guard when the man headbutts him, sending Seokjin stumbling backwards.

Reine's jaw drops open, but she doesn't have time to properly take in what's happening as she's lifted from the ground. She glances and sees another man with faintly glowing skin carrying her to the farthest corner of the cave as a third man walks forward to join the man with the shield.

The man who carried Reine gently sets her against the wall, his gaze falling to the arrow in her stomach.

"This will hurt," he says, and without a warning, he pulls the arrow from her body, and she screams out in agony before she sucks in a breath as a strange sensation overcomes her entire torso.

She glances and sees the strange man's hands on her wound, and a golden glow is bleeding from his fingertips to cover the hole in her stomach.

Unlike Taehyung's healing that feels like the cool touch of running water, she feels a warm tingling sensation as the wound closes itself.

Reine's tired eyes glance over to see the other two men, their backs to her as they stand between Reine and the Horsemen.

"You have to get through us," the man with the shield says, a golden sword now in his free hand as he clanks it against his shield. His dark, wavy hair hangs messily, his eyes partially hidden within its tresses. "And we have not been locked away in boxes withering away for centuries, so we have you outmatched in strength even if it is four against two."

Seokjin glances at the two men as he steps back to stand alongside his three brothers.

For a moment, the six of them stare at each other, and Reine can see the hatred in the eyes of the Horsemen as they stare at the two men in front of them.

"You can't beat us without the weapon, assholes," Jimin spits, smirking as he grips his bow more tightly.

"A temporary problem," the other man says, his wavy light brown hair glowing with his aura surrounding him. He has the same golden tattoos on his back as the other man, and Reine assumes they are all the angels that the Horsemen have frequently talked about, remembering how the tattoos were previously large white wings.

"We cannot in this moment, but we can spill your blood endlessly while you weaken even further," the dark-haired man says, and Reine sees his golden eyes glitter with mischief as he smirks in Yoongi's direction.

"Fair enough," Seokjin says, his scythe disappearing in another cloud of gray smoke. "But know that once we regain strength, we will be back to kill the Queen. You can't protect her forever."

"We can try," the man healing Reine says, and she glances to see his own golden gaze burning brightly with anger.

"I'll see you soon," Yoongi says in a dangerously low voice, pointing his blade at the man with the shield, who grins in his direction as the four Horsemen dissipate in a cloud of gray smoke.

Reine feels her entire body sag against the wall of the cave when the man finishes healing her, and she immediately stands and cowers away from the three men.

"Hey," the man with the light brown hair says as he walks to her, holding his hands up to show he isn't going to try anything. "We do not wish to harm you. We came to protect you."

Reine shakes her head, confusion gripping her senses as she tries to sort out everything that has happened in the past few minutes.

Her allies - her friends - betrayed her, and now they're gone, replaced by these strangers.

"I am Hoseok," the man with the light brown hair says. "I am the messenger Archangel. I tried to warn you about them, but Jimin's hold was too strong. I think I may have gotten through to you in the desert while Jimin was too distracted to keep his grip on your connection to him."

Reine frowns slightly as she remembers hearing the disembodied voice before she opened Yoongi's box.

"That is Namjoon," Hoseok says, gesturing to the healer. "He is the healer Archangel, as you witnessed."

"Jungkook," the man with the shield says, waving at Reine after he places his sword in its holster on his hip. "Warrior Archangel."

Hoseok sighs as he watches Reine's confused gaze shift between the three.

"It is time we had a talk so you can learn the truth," Hoseok says. "The whole truth."