Despite his inability to hurt humans, Seonghwa was positively furious. Hongjoong had to hold him back with his full body so that he wouldn't go after Seungyoun, and even then the task seemed ridiculously exhausting. He stood there, between Seonghwa and their opponent, with his hands cramped into Seonghwa's skin.

"What do you mean your life or ours? I advise you strongly to stop speaking in riddles or else it could get you into trouble." Seonghwa was hissing at him just as angrily as Wooyoung, angrier than Hongjoong had ever seen the man. Even angrier than when he had slapped Hongjoong with a Peeper.

His current state worried the scientist. He could figure that Seonghwa must have been worried as soon as he had gotten to know that Hongjoong had left with Seungyoun, but this rage was different. It might have been related to San.

"Shh, Hwa, it's fine. We are just talking." Trying to calm down both of them, Hongjoong gently patted the man's arm around his middle. Seonghwa fell into a steely silence while Hongjoong focused back on Seungyoun. The man still stood there with his eyes defensive and shoulders squared.

"Explain yourself first. What did you do to San?"

Behind Seungyoun, Hongjoong could see Wooyoung clenching his fists furiously. The man was seething with anger, but he also kept himself composed. Hongjoong appreciated it. If one of them escalated, that might mean more unnecessary hurt for the rest of them.

"He wasn't meant to kill him or anything... Just to slow him down, so he wouldn't come after us. I guess the other team was faster than I had anticipated." With a shrug, Seungyoun continued watching both parties suspiciously. He was tense, prepared for combat. His posture disclosed more of the secrets he had hidden. This man could fight. He was no mere scientist with a protection unit at his side; he was prepared.

"So you confess to having destroyed the tower and attacked San?"

"Yeah. Eden's sudden visit was too soon for my plans. The androids were also a force I didn't anticipate. They were way more perceptive than you guys, especially that one." Seungyoun nodded his chin at Seonghwa with a faint smirk on his face. He was intrigued. Seonghwa tightened his grip around Hongjoong with a scowl.

"I feel like I should listen to the whole story, but I don't have the patience. Hongjoong, what's going on here?" Wooyoung cut the situation short, his usually so warm and soft voice now clipped and harsh. Despite all expectations, neither his nor Seonghwa's eyes had melted a hole in Seungyoun's body yet.

Hongjoong kept his eyes on Seungyoun to gauge his reactions as he gave Wooyoung a quick rundown of the situation.

"Seungyoun here plans to protect this planet with his life. He wants to set free the Frozen one to make sure that nobody will ever return to this place, and asked us to keep Alterra off his back."

Wooyoung clenched his jaw.

"Is asking that hard? Anybody in the team would have agreed that Alterra shouldn't settle here, even without you taking drastic measures."

Hongjoong shifted, pressing further back against Seonghwa's body. He was worried about San and what could have possibly happened back at the outpost between him and Yohan. However, for now, he had to concentrate on this. Seungyoun was making it hard for them.

"I don't doubt that. But you and all of Alterra need a reminder that you also shouldn't come back. You've been reporting all the time, right? Still, your superior chose to come here. It's not enough to keep them away. This will be."

Wooyoung grew visibly exasperated. The next time he spoke, he took a threatening step forwards in Sungyoun's direction, making the man narrow his eyes at him and Hongjoong nearly lunge. Seonghwa's arm kept him back, stopping him from further worsening the situation. His heart beat nervously in his chest.

"Then why attack San?!"

"Oh, come on, darling, what do you want to hear? That I'm sorry? He's a machine for god's sake, just get him a few spare parts and he will be fine."

Hongjoong saw Wooyoung's eyes flash in the exact same moment that he registered the comment to be one step too far, but he wasn't fast enough. Neither were Seungyoun nor Seonghwa.

Wooyoung threw himself at the scientist with an angry cry that had Seonghwa push Hongjoong behind him and immediately join the fight.

From then on, everything escalated.

Hongjoong saw Woyoung's first hit land in Seungyoun's stomach, only to get retaliated by an elbow that hit his face with a sickening crunch. Seonghwa was there immediately, never attacking, but trying to block and dodge Seungyoun's hits.

However, Wooyoung didn't know his boundaries. With his rage unleashed, he kept trying to attack, which prompted Seungyoun to return the favour. Seonghwa's diplomatic tries did little to break them apart, and soon the two of them grew rather agitated by the body between them.

Hongjoong quickly decided not to get between them and instead hurried towards the control panel that was left unsupervised. While rounding the table, he hit the button for the melting machines, and finally heard the hum they had been making quieten down and soon dying out completely. The warmth remained trapped in the cave, but it wouldn't be enough to entirely unfreeze the rest of the still huge chunk of ice around the leviathan.

While the three behind him were still struggling and yelling profanities at each other, Hongjoong hurried to whip out his knife and cut all the cables that connected the machines with the batteries. It wouldn't be permanent damage given that cables were easy to replace, but Hongjoong was confident that the process would be difficult on this planet. It might at least give them the time to escape this place before Seungyoun got it patched up.

His hands flew over the consoles to check if everything had been turned off afterwards, finding nothing still functioning. With a relieved sigh, he then looked around to find something to break them apart, anything to distract them.

However, another cry from Wooyoung that sounded more warning rather than uncontrollably furious made him whip around to the group.

He was just on time to see Seungyoun raise a gun he must have equipped secretly when none of them hadn't noticed. At first, Hongjoong expected him to point it at Woooung, but instead, the muzzle soon faced Seonghwa, who still stood there with his hair wild and clothing ripped in some places.

"Seonghwa, watch out!" Hongjoong's throat hurt around the harsh yell, but it was already too late.

With a loud noise that sounded like thunder in the dark cave, the gun unloaded, and Seonghwa immediately lost footing as he was hit in the head. He crashed on the floor lifelessly, and with his eyes wide open. They were twitching for a second; then, he froze completely.

For a second, they all stood there, doing nothing.

Then Hongjoong's cry disrupted the silence.

Hongjoong's chest constricted as he felt as if his heart had just been ripped right out of his chest. He barely registered how Wooyoung hit Seungyoun over the head with the butt of his knife nastily, how Seungyoun crashed down on one knee and dropped the weapon.

Instead, his eyes were stuck on Seonghwa as he hurried over and pushed Seungyoun away roughly to sink down next to the android. He wasn't bleeding the poisonous dark liquid that fuelled them, and Hongjoong saw no signs of an injury either, yet Seonghwa was extremely still. Even when Hongjoong shook his shoulders and cried out for the man, he didn't get anywhere.

He heard Seungyoun and Wooyoung struggle more in the back, not yet giving up against each other either.

Hongjoong was still not minding them, too busy with fussing over his boyfriend, but the room fell silent from one second to the next when he felt the press of a hard object against the back of his head.

"Enough."

Seungyoun's breaths were ragged and heavy as he tried to suck some air back into his lungs. Wooyoung was no fighter, but since anger fuelled him, he had probably managed to land a few good hits even when faced with an opponent like Seungyoun.

Yet, Wooyoung was most likely hurt, too.

Hongjoong didn't know what to do to resolve the situation, but for now, keeping still and not moving seemed to be a good decision. If he was right, he had a gun pressed to his head, so he should take care not to make things escalate completely.

"Seungyoun," Hongjoong murmured quietly to interrupt their stand-off. His hands were still resting on Seonghwa's chest, not yet reaching out towards the man's restart buttons. He figured that his systems had short-circuited just how they had because of the EMP blast from the Crabsquids, and he would need a second to get back up.

Another sign of how much Seungyoun was hiding from them. He knew exactly how to blast out an android, even if he had claimed not to know anything about them.

It was little lies, but Hongjoong finally saw them everywhere.

"You don't have to fight us. We already conceded. You can just go, and we will leave. Our lives are more important than trying to fight you."

"Hongjoong-" Wooyoung tried protesting with hurt in his voice, but the team leader shushed him impatiently.

"No, shut up. San is hurt, isn't he? Let's just go, Wooyoung. It's not worth getting more people hurt over. I already talked it out with him. We are on the same side, even if we disagree on the techniques. Let's go tell Eden that we should leave this planet alone and let him do his thing."

At the end of his tense speech, the gun dropped from his head. Seungyoun was still heaving for breath, probably badly hurt. Hongjoong wanted to check on him to see if he needed help, but he knew that Wooyoung wouldn't have it.

"Leave. Go, and we will keep our end of the deal."

Hongjoong stayed where he was, not even looking over his shoulder as he carefully opened the compartment at Seonghwa's nape so that he could restart the android. He could hear Seungyoun's feet heavily dragging over the ice as he slinked off.

Hongjoong saw him leave from the corners of his eyes, how he disappeared in the shadows with the gun still pointed at them. The echo of his heaving breath travelled from one cave wall to the next for a while, then he disappeared somewhere, and it was quiet.

Pushing the plate in Seonghwa's skin back into place, Hongjoong turned to Wooyoung as he heavily dropped down next to him. He was bleeding at his temple and clutching his ribs from time to time, but he looked about as fine as possible.

"What happened?"

"I stabbed him. He probably won't make the night."

The gasp that tumbled out of Hongjoong's mouth was somewhere between feeling offended and hurt. Now, he turned to search the darkness for Seungyoun worriedly. He only found dark blood glistening on the ice, creating eerie spots in the pale light.

"Why? He wasn't trying to kill us, Woo!"

"You heard him. Even if he wasn't planning on that... His traps sure did. He might have ensured your safety, but if he had gotten rid of a few others of us on the way, he wouldn't have minded either. That could have been an actual gun, and then you wouldn't be taking his side anymore." His voice was defensive and loud, disrupting the silence. Hongjoong could hear the regret in his voice, noticed the worry.

He understood. He maybe would have done the same for Seonghwa.

"It's fine; I'm not mad. I just wished that it wouldn't have ended like that. I had him so close to just letting us off."

"Maybe he will survive."

The insecurity in his voice betrayed his uplifting words. They sounded hollow in the cold night.

Hongjoong nodded anyway.

"Maybe, yes. Let's bring Seonghwa back and patch San up. We will go back as soon as possible, and take care of things there."

Wooyoung gave a meek nod and then helped Hongjoong to pull up Seonghwa. Together, they left the cave, Seungyoun, and everything related to him. They didn't look back, not worried about getting eaten by a frozen leviathan anymore, and just focused on surviving.

Maybe Seungyoun would survive, maybe he wouldn't.

Hongjoong would keep his promise.