Jungkook opened the car door, leaned out, and threw up all over the ground. He started to hyperventilate, panic having a field day within him as the mere thought of having to be in the same room as Ky and Junso again tore apart his very soul.

"No-n-n-n-o-o-!" The youngest screamed repetitively.

Jin immediately jumped back out of the car and ran over to Jungkook, quickly pulling him tightly into his arms. "Hey, hey. Shh," Jin cooed. "Listen to me. Bun, listen. They can't hurt you. They can't. We will all make sure of it, okay? Neither of them can hurt any of us ever again. It will never happen again. Breathe, Kook. Breathe."

What immediately caught everyone off guard was the sudden sound of Yoongi joining Jungkook in having a panic attack. The rapper was now also shedding tears and having trouble breathing as he clutched at his own chest. Seeing Jungkook panic like that sent him into his own downward spiral as flashbacks of Ky attempting to murder him in the woods in the middle of the night flooded his thoughts. He didn't know how he was supposed to see that mans face ever again.

"Oh, Yoongs..." Hoseok cooed as he wrapped his arms around his hyung. He wiped the tears from Yoongi's cheeks and rubbed his chest. "They can't hurt anyone. We have to listen to Jin hyung. Ky and Junso are done terrorizing us."

"You can n-never be t-too sure," Yoongi sniffled as he wiped his snot with his shirt sleeve. "Anything can happen when those two are in the room..."

Namjoon decided to speak up and attempt to offer words of comfort too. "Nothing will happen, we have a lot of protection now and I'm sure they will be chained up anyway. Think of it this way, the sooner the trials come and go and we face them, the sooner they get locked up for all of eternity."

Jungkook shrugged in Jin's arms after hearing Namjoon's speak to Yoongi. "I know, but it's going to be so hard."

Jin, hugging Jungkook more tightly, gently swiped his hand through Jungkook's hair. The maknae had started to sweat while panicking and much of it got stuck to his forehead. He then cupped the youngest's cheeks in his hands and looked him in the eyes. "I won't deny it will be hard. It will be scary, and we will all be on edge. But no matter what, we will have protection. I'm sure the room will be filled with guards and stuff. Obviously they won't let those two near us. And most importantly, we have each other."

Taehyung couldn't help but feel a slight bit of anger at Jin's statement. His eyebrows furrowed down as a frown spread across his face. "Yeah, we have had each other this entire time. Look how helpful that has been so far."

Hoseok reached over and squeezed Taehyung's shoulder. "Tae..."

The slight squeeze did comfort Taehyung a little bit, but the unnerving feeling didn't entirely subside. All seven of us haven't been able to protect each other all that well. He couldn't help but look to Jimin, who was sitting there absorbing everything that was being said. Jiminie's online post is really the only thing that freed us. We couldn't do it on our own.

Hoseok caught everyone's attention. "Hey, what do you say we get going out of here, yeah? I don't know about you all but I am feeling a bit depressed and tired. I'd like to go home and eat. Relaxing for a bit sounds nice."

Everyone agreed that it was best they get home. Anxiety sat in the pit of their stomachs about having to show up for the court trials that were quickly approaching.

Unfortunately for them, the first court date came sooner than later. All of them weren't able to sleep the night before, so they ended up cuddling in the living room together and had movie marathons. Jimin had made popcorn for everyone but their stomachs were too full of unease for them to be able to eat.

The day had finally come.

Yoongi felt as though he were having heart palpitations early in the morning. "If I have a heart attack, would that mean I don't have to go?"

"Yoongi hyung, you're not going to have a heart attack," Jimin reassured.

All of the boys were caught off guard when they heard loud beeping noises, the kind you hear from a large vehicle, approaching their house.

"What the hell is that? Is someone coming for us? Is this it? Is this the end for us?" Jimin ran and hid behind Namjoon, peeking around the leader's shoulder as all of them went to the window to see what was going on. Everyone was surprised by Jimin's sudden display of anxiety, but nobody questioned it.

That was just a part of their lives now.

Constant anxiety.

They all peered out the window, remaining out of sight, as they watched to see what was approaching. As the beeping got louder, what looked like large truck lights could be seen through the distant tree line just before the driveway started to curve.

All of their hearts were thudding in their chests as they anxiously stood there. The thudding was so loud, none of them could tell if they could hear each other's heartbeats or if they were hearing their own pulse thumping within their ears.

"S-should we call the police? Who is that? Who is coming up our driveway?" Taehyung whispered. "Surely it can't be Ky or Junso...court is literally today...we'd know if they escaped..."

"But who knows who could still be working for them!" Yoongi tried to whisper, but it came out more like an aggravated yell. He was exhausted.

Both Jimin and Jungkook were gripping the back of Namjoon's shirt, while everyone else was holding on to each other as well. As the truck got closer, everyone was holding their breath.

And then suddenly, everyone turned to Jungkook.

"You motherfucker!" Hobi waved his hands in the air as he looked Jungkook dead in the eyes. "You didn't think to inform us the car you custom built was being delivered today?! You just let us all panic for nothing?!"

Everyone took a deep breath when they could finally see what was going on. Their hearts immediately lightened up.

Their new car was finally here.

"Aish!" Jungkook gripped at his hair. "I'm so sorry, hyungies, I completely forgot that it was today. I'm really sorry about that. I didn't mean to forget. My mind has been everywhere and..." He was speaking a mile a minute, insanely scared that everyone, especially Hobi, was actually angry with him for this little scare.

Jin couldn't help but feel a bit of anger towards Hobi. "Hey, relax and watch how you talk to him. Don't act like you've never forgotten something before. It's not that serious, but I won't let anyone get away with us talking to each other like that."

Jin felt like he was going to spend the rest of his life protecting and defending Jungkook in any way, shape, or form to atone for what he'd done. Regardless of what anyone did or said, the internal forgiveness to himself was something that was hard to hold on to. It was going to take a lot of work, and Jin would do absolutely anything to get to that point.

Everyone was quite surprised to see the serious look on Jin's face, and they immediately knew he wasn't fucking around with what he was saying. He was different now. More stern and serious when he needed to be, especially when it came to protecting them. Especially when it came to protecting Jungkook.

"I'm sorry, Jungkook-ah." Hobi put his hand to his chest and took a deep breath to calm himself. "I just got really nervous."

"Anyways," Jimin interrupted, "let's go see the new car!" He wanted to lighten the mood from this awkward moment. He knew how excited Jungkook was for this new car, and he didn't want anyone to dwell on the anxiety that had rushed through them all a moment ago. There was finally something good happening to them, and although the underlying anxiety of still having to show up for trials was sitting in the pit of everyone's stomachs, Jimin wanted to at least have everyone enjoy this moment.

"Me first!" Jungkook immediately ran outside and met the driver who had towed the brand new car into the driveway. The driver asked Jungkook to just sign a few forms, and then he unloaded the car down onto the gravel. "Enjoy your new ride!" The driver gave them a friendly wave before quickly departing.

"Well he sure doesn't waste any time, now does he?" Jin joked.

Jungkook was in the driver's seat already checking out all the cool customizations he'd ordered when he designed the car online. The burgundy color of the 8 seater SUV glistened in the sunlight, as if the thing had been freshly waxed. Taehyung was gawking at how cool the tires looked with the custom rims, with designs of dragons and knights with swords outlining the middle of them all. None of them had noticed those intricate details when they had viewed the final designs online.

"Is this supposed to represent something involving us?" Hobi asked Jungkook as he pointed to the rims.

"Yes," Jungkook nodded. "It's us slaying dragons." He was hoping his hyungs would understand the deeper meaning. It was to represent them all protecting each other and fighting against their greatest enemies. Luckily for him, everyone understood.

"That's so cool," Namjoon replied. They all hopped in the car to check out the inside as well while Jungkook messed around with the blue-tooth audio. Turning to Jin, he asked his hyung if he wanted to be the first to drive it. He was hoping that all of the excitement of this would overpower Jin's driving anxiety and that his hyung would drive the car without even thinking twice about it.

"No thanks, Koo. You know I don't want to drive for a while," Jin replied. The eldest felt bad seeing the disappointment in the maknae's expression, but he figured that right now it was still for the best that he didn't drive anyone.

Just in case.

Hobi mentioned finally returning the rental car, so the boys made a little trip out of it as Hobi drove it back to the shop and the others followed behind in their new ride. Once they returned home, the dread returned.

"It's time for us to head to the courthouse," Jimin informed. Everyone could hear him gulp.

"Oh," was all Taehyung said. The others looked around at each other anxiously.

"I suppose it is time we head out." The hesitation was clear in Namjoon's voice, but everyone knew it was now or never. In the end, they knew if they were going to win this case, they had to show up.

Which is exactly what they did.

All of them showed up to the courthouse in their finest black suits. They wanted to look as professional and put together as they possibly could. Seeing them in their suits made Yoongi feel a bit sad, because it reminded him of happier times such as when they would show up to award shows and events together in their suits.

He wished this was one of those events instead.

Unfortunately, it was not.

Officer Lee met them at the front door and could see how red with nerves and fidgety all of the boys were. He eyed them as they all tugged at their clothes.

"It's alright, boys," Officer Lee reassured. "They can't hurt you anymore. Not here, not now, not ever. You have to trust me on this."

"We do trust you, it's them we don't trust." Taehyung looked around and pointed at everyone. He was talking about everyone. "They could all be working for those two assholes. What if this doesn't end in our favor?"

"It will," Officer Lee replied. He turned and began to lead the way into the courthouse. It was an old stone building, with not much design to it. The stone was light brown and there were no designs other than a small imprint at the top of the doors that read "Seoul Courthouse."

The members decided to all hold each other's hands while they were escorted inside. If there was ever a time to truly come together as one, it was in this moment. They'd have to face their tormentors once again. Face to face. It felt like having to go look the devil and all of his demons directly in the eyes.

As they were making their way to the main room that was already filling up with jury members, Yoongi pulled backwards away from the group. When they all stopped and turned to him, he had started to immediately shed rivers of tears and his breathing picked up as he clutched his chest. "I can't. I can't do it. I can't go in there. I-I-I-" He was hyperventilating a lot now. "I can't. NO. I can't. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"Hey, hey, hey." Jin grabbed Yoongi and pulled him into a tight hug, with the rest of the members surrounding them and joining them in the hug too. Yoongi pressed his face into Jin's chest and started to absolutely wail.

"Yoongi-ah, hey listen to me, listen to hyung." Jin started as he rubbed his dongsaeng's back. "We've got this, okay?"

The others knew, in the grand scheme of things, even though they were all there to comfort, support, and protect Yoongi, sometimes it all came down to one thing.

And that was that Yoongi's only hyung, Jin, would be the only one who could comfort him.

Yoongi lifted his face from Jin's chest and looked at his eyes, desperately craving that reassurance that his only big brother could give. "I-I don't think I've got this. He-he...I mean they...I mean he..." Yoongi was losing his train of thought. He knew what he was trying to say but he couldn't articulate it into words. On top of that, he felt extremely embarrassed. He was never one to be so emotionally vulnerable like this, and having this emotional breakdown in public was only making him feel even worse.

Jin continued to rub his back, he didn't need Yoongi to articulate why he was panicking because they all fully understood what he was going through. Yet, seeing him hurting like that tore them into even more pieces than what they'd already been torn into.

"They can't do anything, kiddo," Jin continued. He felt it was his duty as the oldest out of all of them to be the one to somehow come up with the words of wisdom right now, even if he wasn't completely believing his own words and felt that internal terror himself. "No matter what happens and who is in there, nobody will touch you. I will lay my life down on the line if I have to. I'll make sure nobody hurts you ever again. Even if it kills me. However, please don't worry because that won't happen. I promise on my very soul."

"He tried to kill m-me. And you. All of us. Him and Junso tried to kill all of-of-us." Yoongi sniffled as he wiped the tears and snot from his face with his suit sleeve, slightly ruining it as it became covered in gunk. A physical manifestation of the mess that he'd felt all their lives had become. He couldn't believe how one or two people could conspire together to cause so much damage in the lives of others, but apparently those people existed and unfortunately found their way into the lives of the members.

"And there is only one way to make sure neither of them have that chance ever again." The members watched as Jin pulled Yoongi's face back against his chest to muffle his cries. The audible noise was breaking his heart too much. "And that's by going in there and telling them what the fuck everyone in that room needs to hear. We have to tell our story."

Yoongi knew Jin was right, the only way out of this situation for good was to go into that room and give their testimony. Yoongi tried to change his mindset. I can't let anyone scare me anymore. I have to stand up for myself in order to be free. Don't do this just for me, but do it for them too. He lifted his face once more and looked at his members, who were also crying now. Their eyes were bloodshot and stained with dark circles. Do it for them too.

Yoongi sucked in a big breath to help calm his nerves. He wiped the final tears that fell, telling himself this will be the last time those bastards will ever make him cry due to fear ever again. He straightened out his suit and lifted his shoulders.

"Okay, everyone. I am ready."

----

A/N: Hey guys! I am so so sorry this update took literally forever. A lot of stuff in my personal life came up, a friend died in a car accident, another friend in a coma, etc. etc. etc. I don't want to get into all that but I wanted to let you all know that...

The story lives on!

Even if updates are slow please know I am planning to finish this out, no matter how long it takes. Thank you all for your patience, and I am hoping to update again soon! I hope you enjoyed the chapter, I know you all waited a while for it!