─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

SEASON 3 EPISODE 1

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Location:

System: Toliman

Faction: United Colonies

Planet: Toliman-II

Place: Londinion

A/N: Welcome to Starfield season 3! As you can tell based on the new banner and Jungkook as the pic instead of Jimin, there are going to be major changes this season.

Season 3 is the halfway point, so it's likely going to be the darkest season where Jimin's character is going to get tested around every corner. Jimin is going to go through it, and you guys get front row seats to it.

But hey, Taehyung will be in this season, so get ready for that!

This chapter is shorter since the last two were realllllyyyy longgggggg.

I hope you like SF season 3! Let's jump right in!

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Jungkook

Six months after Y/n had went missing, Jungkook found himself in Londinion.

Jimin had stationed Jungkook there, claiming he was the only one he could trust to bring Y/n home. Why Jimin trusted Jungkook was beyond him, but he didn't have the time to think about it. Every day, Jungkook scanned the tunnels, searching for evidence of Y/n. Other than occasional pieces of torn clothing and empty cans of food, he hadn't found much; however, it was enough to deduce that she was alive, but where?

Y/n loved Jimin, so why hadn't she attempted to crawl out of the ruins? Or maybe she had, but it had failed. Thermal readings of the undergrounds led them to believe there were structures and life down there, but way too much life for comfort. Too many Terrormorphs. If Y/n was alive like the evidence suggested, then how was she surviving all those Terrormorphs? Every volunteer team they had sent in there had died until the UC had forced them to stop.

Jungkook opted not to think about it and instead tapped away at his terminal with both his real and prosthetic hand. Inside Forward Base 441 sat a dozen UC employees, Jungkook included. They stayed inside in the heating, but no radiators could stop the cold air from drafting in every once in a while, especially when soldiers came back from patrol.

In the six months since their Londinion siege, Jin had discovered the microbes were effective against heatleeches as well, so it was deployed and did an effective job wiping out the Terrormorphs around Londinion, but as it spread, it eliminated heatleeches, too. Just to be safe, Jimin had bought a cat for the ship named Marbles. Despite the name, she had an orange coat. The last thing any of the crew needed was a heatleech getting on an innocent planet because they didn't take the proper precautions.

Captain Park insisted on multiple daily heatleech checks, performed by Sam and Barrett. Sarah, who had joined up with the crew after Y/n's disappearance, oversaw all the inspections while Jimin flew the ship. The atmosphere on the ship, which Jimin had named Starbright with a call sign of Star-114, had plummeted. Jimin was different.

He wasn't even Jimin.

As if on cue, the doors snapped open to the office space. Cold air drifted in, as did Captain Park Jimin with his scarf blowing behind him and his far longer, black hair covering his entire neck. Pieces of the darkness sank down his cheeks and nose, parting just so they could see his narrowed eyes.

Without speaking, Jimin stepped further into the room and didn't bother shutting the doors. His boots squeaked while mud and ice infected the metal floors that the janitor had cleaned five minutes ago. The other employees jumped to their feet and stood at attention. Jungkook hesitated before doing the same.

Jimin blew a bubble from his gum, not uttering a single syllable as he scanned over each and every worker, who had their heads slumped. They held their trembling hands behind their backs, and the trembles increased whenever Jimin came too close. He halted in front of Jungkook. Jungkook cleared his throat to say something, anything, but Jimin beat him to it.

"Mr. Jeon," he said in a slow, dragged out voice. He paused to chew his gum, smacking his lips together in the process. A scar ran across the bridge of his nose and intersected with his freckles. Jungkook didn't remember where Jimin had gotten it, but the probable answer was Neon during one of his recent "missions," if one could call them that. "Have you sent more probes to the underground?"

"The tunnels are collapsed, sir." Jungkook found himself stuttering, and when Jimin raised a brow, he fired out his next words as fast as possible. "I've sent as many VAS units as I could, but none of them survive."

Jimin popped a bubble in Jungkook's face. "We deployed a microbe, didn't we?"

"Well... yes, sir, that's right, but Londinion is the home of Terrormorphs. It'll take time-"

"That we don't have," Jimin interrupted with an eye roll. He squeezed Jungkook's shoulder, and his eyes lit up with a fiery blue. A burning sensation hit Jungkook's shoulder. Luckily, Jungkook had prepared ahead of time and wore UC armor to help with the burns. "You have one more month. Find her, or else I'll burn the entire fucking planet to the ground."

Jungkook lowered his tone. "Making threats to the UC isn't a good idea, Captain."

Jimin smiled. It didn't reach his eyes. "Why? You think they can stop me?"

No, they couldn't. No one could.

Ever since Y/n had disappeared, Jimin went public with his powers and had gained four new ones since then. He had a solar flare ability, which was a more powerful version of his particle beam. It glistened his eyes the color of a phoenix, and it could melt entire Terrormorphs without Jimin breaking a sweat. Then there was his shield, where he could bend light to deflect bullets for a short time, but only for his front, not his back. There was also his grav dash, as he called it. An ability where he could dash forward and hover off the ground, leading to stronger agility and movement.

But what made him most powerful was time.

As if Jimin could read Jungkook's thoughts, Jimin, who had been in front of Jungkook, was at the doorway in the blink of an eye. That was because Jimin could control time. Andreja had called it "Phased Time," a power where Jimin could slow time around him for about ten seconds, and no one would know. With that kind of power, he could take over the entire UC in one day and still have time for dinner. Jimin had become powerful enough that not even Ecliptic mercenaries had the guts to track him down and try to kill him for the massive bounty the remaining pirates had put on his head.

"Find her." Jimin pried open the doors and glared at Jungkook. "One month."

The man departed as fast as he came. The others stumbled back into their seats and pretended that didn't happen. Jungkook waited an extra second before mimicking them, plopping in front of the monitors beeping to show life under the surface. More Terrormorphs the microbe hadn't killed yet. Jimin was powerful, but even he didn't have the power to go in and kill the Terrormorphs. He had tried right after getting his time power with VASCO as his backup. VASCO had lost most of his limbs, and Jimin had to use the time power to escape before they both got torn apart. If an all-powerful force of nature like Jimin couldn't find Y/n down there, Jungkook didn't know how a bunch of depressed office workers would, but he didn't have much choice.

"Why don't we send more probes?" one of the men in the room asked.

Jungkook tapped his metal fingers against the desk before hopping to his feet. "Fine. Keep an eye on the monitors while I'm gone."

He rushed over to the exit and ran after Jimin. Jimin was in the distance strolling his way to the ship with his hands in his pockets. Despite the freezing temperatures, the man didn't bother to wear multiple layers or face protection. Instead, he allowed the bitter winds of Londinion to whack his body.

"Sir, wait." Jungkook sprinted to get in front of him, and Jimin slowed and motioned for him to speak. "You know we won't find her. Why are you doing this to us?"

"If you give up, that means she's dead. Is she dead, Mr. Jeon?"

Jungkook nibbled on his lower lip. "Not that we know of. Evidence points to her-"

"Living in the underground, waiting for someone to help her? Waiting for me to rescue her?" Jimin stepped closer and tightened his scarf before lowering his voice by an octave. "I'm going to save her, but don't worry, your work won't go to waste. You think I'm working on Neon for no reason?"

Jungkook knitted his brows together. "How can Neon help Y/n?"

"There's something there that can help us find her. Once I get my hands on it, I'll use your scans to narrow down where she is, then I'll go get her."

"By yourself?"

Jimin didn't answer for a long beat. When he did, his words remained low. "Maybe. One other person at most, but that other person needs to be all in. No pussying out at the last second."

"I'll do it, but you need to tell me the plan. What's on Neon that you're looking for?"

"You wouldn't support me if I told you."

Silence carried on between them. The sentence Jimin spoke scratched at Jungkook's mind as he attempted to process it. Neon had fish, fish, drugs, and more fish. Nothing there could help their hunt. At least, nothing Jungkook knew of. Jimin had invisibility and other powers, so the odds were he had access to far more information than Jungkook did, but that didn't change the oddity of it all.

"Jimin," Jungkook whispered, his tone breaking for a beat too long. "I can't support anything you're doing. I don't know who I'm looking at right now. I joined to help you on a noble quest, but we haven't done anything good since Y/n left."

Jimin set his shoulders and smiled. It didn't reach his eyes. "Then leave."

Without another word, Jimin walked around him and stalked off to the ship. Jungkook watched the whole journey, not caring about the cold nibbling at his flesh. By the time Jimin got to the vehicle, the soldiers patrolling the area ushered Jungkook back inside to prevent frostbite and hypothermia. Funny. Jungkook felt warm, not cold. He didn't know why.

He returned to his station and, what a surprise, found nothing new. The monitors didn't reveal new intel that'd bring them to Y/n. That led to a long, boring day of nothing. For eight hours, Jungkook sat there searching through the numbers and questioning his sanity. Shocker, the probes never returned. Their signals stopped about a minute after they had entered the cave system. Not so much as a sound got recorded before the robots got torn apart.

When nightfall stretched across the horizon, Jungkook deemed it time to call Jimin back to Londinion. He had left earlier, likely to go to Neon to continue his crusade. He sent the message and received confirmation Jimin was on the way. It'd take a few minutes tops, but Jungkook didn't have the patience. Instead, he went down the corridor leading to the commanding officer's quarters. The doors slid apart and welcomed Jungkook. Inside waited Commander Min, who had insisted on staying wherever Jungkook was.

Commander Min, whose face was cloaked by cyan light coming off the various security screens in front of him, peeped his head up. The hallway's brightness revealed the man's eye bags and long black hair that covered a scar underneath his left ear.

"Problem?"

"No. Just came to tell you I'm leaving."

Yoongi came over and patted Jungkook on the shoulder. "With Jimin?"

"Yeah, why?"

Yoongi snorted. "Good luck."

Jungkook needed it. Jimin had two moods: blank stares and calm anger that could snap into full blown rage at any moment. Eggshells didn't begin to describe how it felt talking to Park Jimin. He was half-surprised he didn't get fired yet.

When Jungkook didn't leave, Yoongi shut off the security cameras and leaned against the single desk in the cramped room. It had white walls and no light, but after clapping his hands, the main bulb in the ceiling switched on and coated them with luminance. The desk had a slanted surface and a computer on it controlling all the cameras that acted as holograms on the white walls.

"Something wrong, kid?"

Jungkook didn't know how to answer that. He tried anyway. "It's hard to talk about when Jimin's around."

Commander Min brought his brows together. "Talk about what?"

"Y/n." Then, after a moment, Jungkook added, "I miss her too, but I can't bring that up unless I want to get a solar flare up my ass. I don't know what to do, Yoongi. He's going off the deep end. I can't follow him down that path."

"You don't have to." When Jungkook tilted his head, Yoongi smiled. It showed off his gums, but it didn't quite reach its full potential. "He needs help, Jungkook. He's going through more than anyone should have to go through. Have you seen his full file?"

"I didn't have clearance to all of it, no."

Yoongi hummed and averted his gaze to the wall. "He was just a kid, and he lost everything. His dad, his mom, his body, and his mind. Now he lost his wife. Can you blame him for going off the deep end?"

Jungkook peered at his feet. "Maybe not."

"Exactly. He needs a reminder that he still has a family." Commander Min lifted Jungkook's head up so they could lock eyes. "Remind him."

Before he could answer, he heard footsteps sound off behind him. The steps commanded the entire base and outshined the buzz from Yoongi's computer and the distant chatter of the UC officers relieved their shifts ended. The man who entered was Park Jimin with his hands behind his back and his narrowed stare landing on Jungkook.

"I have an important meeting on Neon. Let's go."

"Of course, sir," Jungkook said with a bow in apology. He squeezed Yoongi's shoulder, and Yoongi nodded as a way to tell him to go. Jungkook accepted the gesture and exited with his captain.

They didn't utter a syllable the whole way to the ship. The ramp hissed as it closed behind him, sealing off the freezing temperatures of Londinion. Jimin didn't so much as flinch from the blast of heat the bay had. Jungkook had to lean against the wall to support himself. The problem with working on Londinion was the drastic temperature changes. Going from freezing to heat caused pain as his skin adjusted. Jimin, on the other hand, couldn't be bothered to check in to see if Jungkook was okay.

Not that he had since Y/n went missing, but it would be nice.

Jimin marched off toward the cockpit, and Jungkook trailed behind. Marbles jumped out of the cafeteria and ran in-step with Jimin. She adored Jimin as much as Y/n had to the point where she went anywhere he did. As soon as he plopped down in the pilot's seat, Marbles rubbed her coat against his leg and purred, then flopped over to show her belly. Unlike the rest of the crew, Jimin liked Marbles, so he leaned down and scratched her stomach to make her kick her hind leg and purr more.

"Barrett should be my co-pilot, not you," Jimin said while powering up the controls with one hand and scratching Marbles with the other. "No offense, but he's a better pilot."

"I know, but do you want me to waste time going all the way to Barrett's room to get him?"

Jimin didn't answer, so Jungkook took it as permission to slip into the co-pilot's seat. He didn't get a chance to strap in since Jimin lifted their vessel off the ground. The takeoff was rough to say the least. Their "pilot" never completed his training, leading to rocky landings and bumpy takeoffs. Jungkook had to scramble to buckle in. His superior didn't care; he set the auto pilot and picked up Marbles to strap her in with him.

"Slow down, maybe?" Jungkook suggested, but Jimin blew a raspberry and made no effort to smoothen the takeoff.

Space called to them. The twinkling stars embraced him as Jimin booted up the grav drive and Jungkook set the coordinates. Quietness encompassed them more than the light from the stars did. UC patrol ships flew by and asked for identification. As soon as they handed it over, they got clearance to depart. Jimin didn't wait and began the jump barely in time for Jungkook to finish plugging in the coords.

"Jimin!" Jungkook whipped around and whacked his shoulder. "Enough! I get it, you're pissed off and want to find your wife, but we can't do that if you start a jump before I set the fucking coords! Do you want to end up jumping into an asteroid field? A planet? A black hole?"

Jimin grunted. "Maybe. At least it'll get me out of social interaction, including this conversation, so would you please shut up?"

With his metal hand, Jungkook tightened his seatbelt and waited for the jump to finish. Freestar officers scanned them when they entered Neon's orbit. Well, the planet wasn't named Neon, but Jungkook forgot the name of it, and, to be honest, everyone called it Neon. It was the only place to visit, so why bother calling it anything other than Neon or Ocean World?

Since they didn't have contraband, they passed the scan, and Jimin brought them in for landing at Neon's spaceport. It took several minutes of traveling through open space to get to the surface, giving Jungkook time to scan over the intricacies of his prosthetic.

When Jimin had gotten his arm chomped off by a Terrormorph, Jungkook hadn't processed the idea of losing a limb. All he saw was a friend in need, and that was enough to convince him to step the fuck up and do something for once. The pain had caused him to pass out before he could understand what had happened to him. Then, he had woken up with bandages over his shoulder and no arm attached to it. It had taken two months to get a proper prosthetic, and another two for him to adjust to it. Six months later, he had an "arm," but it wasn't the same. His shoulder hurt sometimes, and he wished he had flesh instead of metal, but he made his choice. He didn't regret it, even if the man by his side who he had sacrificed his body for treated him like a punching bag.

The engines rumbled and roared as they landed. Rain pounded against the cockpit window, and lightning cracked through the gray clouds. Night descended on Neon, and the lights glowed brighter as a result. The pink welcome sign flashed so much it looked like it burned. Knowing Neon, that was a distinct possibility.

"Stay on the ship," Jimin said, unbuckling and passing Marbles off to Jungkook.

"Can I at least know where you're going and how long you'll be?"

Jimin stood and parked the ship, shutting down the engines in the process. "I'm visiting an old buddy. Ron Garsin. Maybe you've heard of him?"

Oh good lord. Everyone in the UC knew Ron Garsin. He was a serial rapist—child rapist. Neon security did nothing to stop him, and that led to Ron world-hopping and performing his crimes all around the Freestar and UC. No one had arrested him despite all the search parties and warrants out for him.

Jungkook cleared his throat and stroked behind Marbles' ears. "You know where he is?"

"Of course. He thinks we're having a chat to discuss hacking. He learned from Nyx, so Neon considers him one of the best. Like me."

"Is that how he's avoided jail for so long?"

Jimin hummed. "He has a group of people protecting him. A group of people paid by Benjamin Bayu."

Ah, that explained it. Benjamin God damn Bayu needed a knife to the head. That was too good for him, but at least it'd stop his crimes quicker. Bayu was considered Neon's "leader," and he had created the craze for the purple powder drug Jimin's mother was addicted to. If Bayu died, Neon could prosper. One problem: Bayu was untouchable. No one could-

Oh no.

Right when Jimin went to leave, Jungkook shot up and used his metal hand to grab him by the shoulder with poor Marbles landing on her feet on the ground. The strength of the metal kept Jimin in place. The man whipped around and quirked a brow, and Jungkook sucked in a breath between his teeth before speaking.

"You're here for Bayu, aren't you? You're here to kill him?"

Jimin squirmed to get out of Jungkook's grasp. It didn't work. "So what if I am? He deserves it, and so does Ron."

Okay, yeah, Jungkook agreed with that. Justice was a foreign concept to the Settled Systems. Rapists got off with a slap on the wrist and hardened criminals escaped the clutch of the law every day. Criminals needed to get thrown behind bars; however, Jungkook wouldn't mind if a few of them, like Ron and Bayu, met their demise. But that didn't mean Jimin had to do it. After everything he had lost, the more blood he got on his hands, the worse he'd become. Especially if Y/n was alive and returned to see what Jimin had become.

"Maybe, but do you have to deal the final blow?"

In a blink, Jimin was at the entrance of the cockpit. Once again, his time powers proved unstoppable, and Jungkook's metal hand held empty air. Jimin and him made eye contact, but Jimin remained quiet for too long. He licked his lips and smirked. The smirk dropped a second after it appeared.

"I'll burn the entire fucking Freestar down if it means saving her, so stay out of my way."

He stormed off after saying that, leaving Jungkook with a meowing Marbles and an empty ship. The rest of the crew hid in their quarters whenever Jimin was around, meaning Jungkook had no one to run to. Not without disturbing their slumber or meditation or whatever they did in their free time.

He slumped to the ground and allowed Marbles to bounce up on his lap and lay down. The orange cat was one years old with a wide, muscular build and sharp claws. The white tip of her tail brushed by his cheek, and he drowned in the softness of her fur. He sighed and studied the space Jimin had stood, but the man never returned. Jungkook was alone.

They all were.

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A/N: There's the rather short intro to season 3, but we'll be getting into the meat of it real fast. Thanks for reading, remember to vote and comment for more frequent updates!

P.S., I'm trying to get 2k followers by my birthday (July 9th). If I reach 2k by my birthday, I'll release a new fic of your choice (I'll do a poll for you to vote!) over the summer alongside ADS. I have nine options for you to choose from, including several PJMs, but also other members as well.

On the road to 2k! Let's get there together. I'm gonna be doing a bunch of reviews and updates to hopefully boost my profile, though any support with follows or showing new people my work is appreciated.

Thank you everyone for supporting me so much. I wasn't expecting to reach 1k so soon, and now I'm almost at 2k. It's beyond unbelievable. I can't thank you enough for giving me this platform to share my work. I wouldn't be here without you, so truly, thank you.