Tension and bodies remained tight, as Joon continued to hold Lilith hard up against the cabinets, and she stood in churning silence.

But not for long.

Lilith elbowed Joon hard in the side. She suddenly gripped one of his wrists hard but gentle and pivoted her hip strategically into his while giving a light but thoughtful twist. In moments, she had Joon doubled over with his arm pinned to his back as he cried out in pain.

She leaned over him, whispering fervently in his ear, "You paint such a neat little picture, but you know what still doesn't add up? Why the fuck we had to leave the others behind in such a rush. Unless you're just full of bullshit--which I'm guessing you are."

She twisted his wrist just-so and Joon let out a fresh peal of agony beneath her. Lilith smiled.

"I thought so. You can't play me for a fool, Joonie boy. I'm not some fresh-through-the-dimension-portals spring daisy like Shae was when you sank your claws into her. And I'm not buying any of this horse shit, so--"

Joon groaned and shifted. He heaved--and then Lilith was flying over his head and she landed with a heavy thud, her back into the hard metal floor, and Kim Namjoon rolled over and onto her. He pinned her hands over her head in his own, and braced her ankles against the floor using his strong, lanky legs.

He was smiling down at her like the devil himself.

"Without Jin around, I could have you all to myself. What better reason than to leave him behind?"

Lilith spat up at his face, giving Joon a moment of pause to blink back the wetness. She growled, "You monster. Why would I ever want you?"

Joon's face hovered closer and closer to Lilith's as he whispered darkly, "The absolute truth... is that I'm your monster, Lil. Want me or not, I'm yours and you're mine. Because I'm your Haejok Ai."

"That's ridiculous. You sold your soul, gave your spirit for one from the House of Mirth. So how can you belong to me? I have nothing to do with it."

"You've got it wrong, Lil. They took the spirit of Kim Namjoon as I was, and now I am something else. But who took the ancient texts? ...It wasn't me."

Lilith twisted and shook beneath Joon in a rage, but he was bigger and stronger and he held her down steadily. He went on, "I'm the stuff of your most beautifully bitter dreams. But I'm here and now. You can touch me, strangle me, shoot me. You can do whatever the fuck you want to me... except kill me. Because I am bound to you. My spirit was taken, and a spirit of bitterness seized me when I made a deal with the House of Mirth in that Satoor Ai tomb of a library. A spirit of your bitterness."

Tears were trickling quietly down the sides of her face now as Lilith blinked through the blur and up and Namjoon. The familiarity of him, even in this evil state... something in her gut told her that these words... they were true.

"I know. The House of Mirth has such a twisted sense of humor," he said with an airy chuckle.

Then Joon pressed his forehead against hers, the tip of his nose dusting her own, and he closed his eyes to slowly inhale a careful breath, then hold it a few moments before letting it go. Lilith watched him through her reluctant tears, watched open his eyes. She stared into where the streams of golden amber in those irises spread into the brown, like electric gold, and in that awful and wonderful space, she felt absolutely seen in all of her darkest dreams by her Haejok Ai. It made the rage inside of her settle just a little.

He was calm now, unsmiling. His hands and body against her had relaxed as he pushed away from her. His hands braced against the floor on both sides of her head. He leaned in just enough to kiss the corner of her mouth, before pushing himself up off of her and to his feet. When he reached a hand down to her, Lilith was surprised at herself when she took it and let herself be pulled to her feet without a second thought.

Joon relaxed, so she did too. Something about these truths coming to light had sobered the mood between them.

Lilith spoke quietly, with a hint of shame behind her words: "Two more things, I need to know. Does this make you to me... how Jungkook was to Shae?"

"No. I'm not a Gwangju Ai like he was, I'm a Haejok Ai. Something different. I am bound to you in a way, but I'm not your dog." Something about this fact, Joon found particularly amusing. "No spirits can harass me into obedience to you or remorse for anything that I do. It's refreshing, to be honest. Being without guile."

Lilith glared on. "Good to know." Her own remorse seemed to be multiplying by the minute. "Second question: where have you taken us? Because it's certainly not towards camp."

Joon looked towards the open glass of the shuttle cockpit. He put his hands on his hips and sighed in satisfaction. "Right you are. Camp is a long way away... but the texts have given me a lead on where we need to go if we want to be able to truly stop any magical beings that stand in our way. There's this genius device known as The Artifact, and these old smelly books say its whereabouts are rooted in this little galaxy. So we're here to see if it's still here or if it's been nabbed by treasure hunters. Either way, it's a place to start."

Lilith looked Joon up and down. Her gut ached with mistrust, disgust, and a very different sort of tension. She felt leagues away from certain about anything, and the bitterness and anger in her only seemed to quietly deepen all the more for it.

At Joon.

At herself.

I wish Jin was here. God, I need him. I wish he was here to help save me...from myself.

But at that moment, she decided it was best to consent to Joon's advice. And Lilith felt a twinge at the thought of a reunion with Kim Seokjin--like it was something she wanted but didn't think she could stomach. Her urgency for him, she brushed aside like dust beneath a rug for the time being.

Lilith nodded intently at Joon. "Ok then. Let's see if we can find this Artifact. But first and foremost, I'm going to check in with base camp."

"Aye aye, captain."

Joon gave a mock-salute in her direction, and Lilith mentally swore at him for it... and quietly enjoyed it.

--

A far smaller fighter jet was swerving its way through the galaxy, it's cramped cockpit framed with two seats, one in front of the other. In the front seat sat Dean with fat earmuffs/headphones arching over his head, and a thick black mask cupped over his face to ensure quality air control and ease of communication between him and Jin.

Jin was occupying the second seat behind him, and he was strapped into a similar oversized headset and mask. He kept shifting and grumbling in the seat over his lack of leg room, while Dean was himself busy with navigating that small fighter jet, on a mission to track and recapture Kim Namjoon and Lilith's own ship far ahead of them.

Jin piped up, one complaint of many rolling off of his tongue, "Dear God, your shuttle smells like nicotine and dead dreams. What a pitiful thing."

"Shut up, pretty boy Jin. This is what a man smells like. And your peppermint hand lotion is totally ruining it. What are you, anyway, an eighty-year-old woman trapped inside a man's body?"

Jin kicked at the back of Dean's seat. "No, I'm a man. A grown ass man. You are just a prepubescent boy trapped inside of a man's body. One who thinks that Catcher in the Rye and On the Road are actual manuals for manliness. Anyone ever tell you that those guys died ALONE."

Dean's voice cracked a little as he answered, "Am not. I just like leather jackets and that nomadic, adrenaline rush kinda life, a'right? And I have no idea what those manuals are, but if you know them then they're probably not that important anyway."

"God, you've just proven my point so perfectly it almost hurts. Almost. While I, on the other hand, am a man of white lab coats. Or wool coats with shiny buttons and knit scarves. Or Oxford loafers that have been freshly oiled. Or--"

"Should I congratulate you on your taste in pansy ass menswear?"

"Class, Dean. I have class. Sass. And one helluvan ass. Whereas you have... well, you have a mildly nauseating metal thing permanently stuck to your left arm, and a tiny little ship that smells like moldy socks and corn chips."

"You sure like to hear the sound of your voice, don'tcha? Can't imagine how that woman stands you..."

"And I can't imagine how you ever got the better of Lilith in the first place. You're certainly not good looking enough to try and seduce her--though I'm sure you gave it your best, disadvantaged as you are. You poor dog."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night."

"Lilith helps me sleep at night. Right after we--"

"Don't make me eject you from this cockpit, mannequin man. If you keep your yap trappin' then, so help me..."

"That's not even physically possible. We're in SPACE. Open that sunroof and send me flyin' and guess who else is gonna--"

"DEAR GOD WHY ARE YOU SO ANNOYING." Dean threw his head back into the headrest behind him and groaned. "Could you please just shut the hell up? There's an asteroid belt ahead and I need to concentrate so that we don't crash and die, alright?"

Jin sighed. "Dean, are you sure you aren't just a bundle of nicotine and lost hope? Because we're definitely not flying in the direction of base camp."

"Obviously. We're tracking Joon and your hot girl, and they ain't flyin' back to base camp."

Jin paused. "Alright. I'll shut up for the asteroid belt. But after that, I make no promises."

Dean waved a hand emphatically in front of him as he exclaimed in relief, "Thank you."

Jin piped up once more, still sounding sour, "But we're not at the asteroid belt yet. How much longer?"

"Eh, five to ten minutes, I'd say."

Jin nodded in satisfaction to himself, though Dean couldn't see him. Then the sassy doctor noted, "Well, that's plenty of time for me to further emphasize my point."

"You had a point? I thought you were just talking to yourself at this point to make your delicate ego feel better."

Jin tried to throw himself forward and silde his hands up around the neck of the chair in front of him, and Dean's tattooed neck in tow--but Jin's seatbelt was so firmly secure that he hardly flailed out of his seat. "Hmph."

Dean muttered almost inaudibly beneath the hum of the shuttle, "Yeah, that's what I thought."

Jin snapped, "Did you say something?"

"Not to you, Kim Seokjin. Now please. For the love of your sweet ass girlfriend and all that is holy in this universe, wouldya just let me drive in peace?"

"... Fine. Just hurry it up. I'm... I'm worried about her."

Dean was braced for a snarky comeback, but the honesty was far more rattling. Dean's memory of the pool of blood from inside the Library of Mirth flashed in his mind, as did the thought that Kim Seokjin had spoken nothing further of it or who it belonged to or what had happened in the darkness.

Dean held his tongue, and the two young men continued on their flight path straight for the dangerous asteroid belt.