"Does it hurt?"

"No. Should it?"

Jin was standing over the operating chair in which Jungkook was reclining. Jin held up a long metal spike in his gloved hands. He pulled and bent the arm of the light that was hanging over the operating chair so that it shifted lower and closer to Jungkook's head.

For once in his life, Jungkook looked nervous.

"What is that for?"

Jin said in a foreboding voice, "It's for gauging out your eyes."

"HYUNG!" Jungkook's eyes bugged out and he lifted his arms in an X over his face.

"What? I'm not an ax murderer, I'm a doctor." Jin rolled his eyes. "Now stop squirming."

Jin lay the metal spike flat across Jungkook's lap, adjusting it so that it was balanced and wouldn't fall to one side or the other and onto the floor.

"Why's it so heavy?" Jungkook grumbled.

"Why's your head so big?" Jin sassed back.

Jungkook narrowed his eyes at the good doctor, but he was afraid to move too much and make the metal rod laying across his lap to shift too much. Not that he was actually scared of Jin's wrath or anything, right? Right.

Jin pulled a clear handheld monitor up off of the counter nearby and stared methodically over the pixelated details ticking and dancing across the screen.

"Seriously, what is this thing?"

Jin gave a sigh laced with superiority. "It's a device that measures magi-electric energy. Right now it's measuring you."

"Well what does it say? Show me."

"It's loading."

"What is this, last century? No one waits for things to load anymore."

Jin flicked Jungkook in the forehead, like flicking a dog that'd just made a mess. "Hush hush, bro, before I stick you with a sedative."

Jungkook gave a deadpan glare back in response, eyes dull, but said nothing.

"AHA!"

"What?"

Jin plucked the metal spike from Jungkook's lap and tossed it with a noisy metallic clanging onto a counter next to them. Then Jin shifted in his wheeled stool and tilted the clear screen in his hands so that Jungkook could see it too.

"This. Is you."

The screen showed a fuzzy dark blue silhouette of Jungkook's body. Through the pixelated blur of blue, tiny white dashes were crawling along the inside.

"Are those worms!?"

"Oh god, no."

The dashes seemed to be flowing in a particular pattern, one after the other: up and down limbs, into finger sockets, twirling around the lungs, spinning around the kidney, and on and on. The area around the brain looked like a snow globe because there were so many dancing white lines, while a good deal more seemed to spiral along down the spinal chord like lights around a Christmas tree.

"Not worms?"

"These," Jin gestured to all the white lines, "signify flow and concentration of magi-electric energy."

"How nice. Now, what the flip does that mean?"

Jin pursed his lips and paused, features unmoving, to shoot a deadpan glare at their youngest companion. "Don't make me hit you this time." Jin turned back to the screen in his hands. "If you were normal, you'd still have some of these floating around in different areas because I know I've put more than a few runes into your skin, some permanent and some not. Mysterium leaves a lasting mark. But THIS level of energy...I'd never put enough runes on any living body to make someone turn into this."

"Is this the part where you tell me that I'm terminal?"

Jin did smack Jungkook in the back of the head that time.

"OUCH."

"No. Now stand up," Jin commanded, ignoring the look of annoyance and pain on Jungkook's face in that operator's chair. Jin pushed the arm of the chair's overhanging light so that it was higher above their heads. "I want to test a theory."

Jin scooted on his wheeled stool away from the operating chair and set down his handheld monitor. Then he opened a bottom cabinet next to a sink, pulled out a black box, and flipped open the lid.

Jungkook pushed himself up and out of the operator's chair, his feet bouncing and his eyes taking in the bright, sanitized medical bay with fresh eyes. Then Jungkook's eyes fell on the small device that Jin was holding in his hands.

"Don't freak out," Jin prefaced.

"That makes me think that I should freak out." Jungkook took a step backwards from the good doctor. "Is that what I think it is?"

"If what you're thinking it is happens to be something kinky, then you better stop that shit right now, Jeon Jungkook. Because this handsome face is taken."

Jungkook rolled his eyes.

"Now hold still."

The small device in Jin's hands was a black neck collar with metallic studs bulging through the material. Jin stepped forward and started strapping a black collar around his subordinate's neck, and when he latched the magnetic ends in gave a metallic CLICK. Jin tugged at the material to make sure it was taught, making Jungkook's eyes bulge in fake panic.

"Don't choke me. Goodness gracious."

"I'm more of a poison 'em to death kinda person when it comes to murdering my enemies."

"I thought people alway said that poison was a woman's weapon?"

Jin scoffed. "Woman, man, it's classier than wringing someone's neck. I am nothing if not classy, even when it comes to murder."

Jin stepped back from where Jungkook stood and plucked up his handheld clear screen again. He began tapping things into the surface.

"Brace yourself. This may sting."

Jin gave a final TAP.

Jungkook's whole body became tense and rigid, but he tried not to let the pain show too much in his face. His hands trailed up to the collar around his neck, and the stinging skin where the collar's metal nodes were making contact

A shock collar? Why the heck would Jin hyung put me in a shock collar like I'm some kind of animal?

"Not strong enough? Then...."

Jin tap-tapped again.

Jungkook let out a loud, "GHA!" and leaned forward, holding his legs to support himself.

Damn. This stings.

"Nope, still not enough."

Jin tap-tapped again, this time adjusting for even more of an increase than before, and looked up to observe the resulting reaction from Jungkook.

He was surprised to see that the young pilot's body hadn't moved from being bent forward and holding onto his kees. In fact, Jungkook's shoulders looked suddenly relaxed and his stance far more casual.

Jin checked the screen again. Yeah the charge went up, not down. Weird.

The good doctor looked up from his screen and let out a high-pitched scream.

Jungkook was inches from Jin. The young pilot's face was blank of any expression, and his eyes flickered and blazed with an electric blue light.

One of the pilot's hands snapped like a viper, vice grip, around the wrist of Jin's hand that held onto the handheld screen.

"Now...now Kookie...."

Jungkook's free hand lashed forward and tore the handheld screen from Jin's hands. Then he tossed it over his shoulder in a motion that seemed nonchalant, but with a resulting force like a hurricane. The thin rectangle of glass instantly shattered into the wall into a fine dust.

The shock collar stopped working as a result.

A few seconds later, Jungkook's eye's flickered from eerie electric blue back to their very ordinary brown.

Recognition started to dawn on the young pilot's face as he saw the terrified look in Jin's eyes and looked down at where his hand was holding tightly to his superior's arm. Jungkook quickly released his hold on Jin and took three paces backwards, his eyes widening.

"Good. God." Jin finally found his voice.

"What happened?"

"You don't remember?"

"No."

"Then I was right." Jin collapsed back onto his wheeled stool, his eyes gaping.

"Right about what? What's going on, Jin hyung?"

"I know what you are. And if you are what you are, then I know what Shae is, too."

"Ok, this isn't the time to be talking in riddles, man. Spit it out."

"She's a Satoor Ai. And you're her...Gwangju Ai."

"NO."

"Yes."

Jungkook looked like he might fall over from a different kind of shock now. He tumbled back into the operating chair and sat down, breathless.

Jin studied the panic on Jungkook's face: the widening of his almond eyes, how his hands had started gripping and running through his brown hair. He was still wearing the black, studded collar. "I'm not sure what's more disturbing, the part about you or her."

"Obviously ME. I am now the equivalent of a glorified house pet. TO SOME GIRL I HARDLY KNOW." Jungkook's hands started clawing at the black material around his neck. He found the metallic clasp on the back, unhitched it, and threw the string of material down hard onto the floor with a growl.

"That's a bit melodramatic, don't you think?"

Jungkook sent Jin a scathing look. "You're the expert on that subject. Not me."

"That. Was a good burn. ...Yah little shit."

Jungkook gave a slight smirk. It didn't necessarily make him feel any better, though.

Jin sighed. "I guess I understand now why you didn't tell anyone about that Mysterium cave."

"How's that? I mean, I'd actually kinda like to know myself." He gave a halfhearted, ironic laugh.

"You couldn't, could you?" Jin asked.

"I mean, I could probably have formed the words, yeah. But like...any time I'd try to, it was like something just took ahold of me. Like whenever we left Shae and Joonie inside of that room together. Outside the room, this something in me said STAY. Standing in front of you that day and telling you what had happened, the something said DON'T SAY THAT PART. And I just listened."

Jin nodded. "Because you're a good solider. It's what you do."

Jungkook shrugged. "Wait, so how do you understand WHY that's a part of this whole weirdness again? Because I still kinda don't."

"Kookie, you know what a Satoor Ai is, right?"

"In theory. It's not like any of us have every met one, right? They're all supposed to be dead."

Jin sighed. How to explain? "Basically the magic that has taken hold inside of your body is made up of the powers of the Satoori Ai who had been buried in that Mysterium cave where you were...possessed? Gosh, that seems like such a strong word for it."

"Come again?"

Jin wasn't sure how much wider Jungkook's almond eyes could get.

"It was a tomb, Kookie. You discovered a Satoor Ai tomb. And the spirits of the dead of that tomb are what are giving you your magic now. In times of crisis, they take ahold of you to protect you from dying. Like just now whenever the voltage was dangerously high on that collar, they kicked into gear, and suddenly you weren't steering your own ship."

"That's not freaky at all."

Jin gave a heavy sigh.

"So I have other people living inside of me now? Is that what the heck you're saying right now?"

"Yes and no. They're not gonna make you have your coffee with two creams and a sugar instead of black because they like it, even if you don't. It's mainly a passive existence, from what I understand. But they become active to protect your life, or the lives of living Satoor Ai. Which all evidence points to Shae being at this point."

"So they--gosh it makes me sound crazy to refer to my thoughts as if they are this grand jury in my head. Anyway, they didn't want me to blab about their burial site, basically? What's your grand theory on THAT?"

"I'm going to need a whole pot of coffee first before we get into all of this, or I'm gonna have an aneurysm."

"Jin-hyung, you're old, but you're not that old."

"I'm not sure if I should box your ears or thank you for that sentiment."

"You're welcome," Jungkook grinned in response. "So does this mean we tell Joonie hyung about--"

"We aren't going to tell Joon or anyone else about any of this for the moment."

"No? Why not?"

"No. For one thing, all of this is looking far too convenient to be on accident, in my not so humble opinion. And I don't like what that suggests."

"You mean, you think someone on our team wanted all of this to happen?"

"Ask yourself this, Kookie. Who was it who found Shae and Ava in the first place? Who sent you on that mission into the middle of nowhere with promising readings and the hope of a discovery?"

Jungkook gave a dry laugh. "You're not suggesting that Chiminie...."

"Yes. I am. He MUST have seen the readings from your suit during mission there, including the data that affirmed the presence of Mysterium. He has to already know that there's Mysterium on that tiny planet and, for some damned reason, he probably hid that data and has stayed mum about all. Of. This."

Jungkook swallowed back the hurt and confusion that washed over him at the thought.

"But we're not going to bring it up for now, with him or anyone, because I'm not sure if he's the only one who's in on this scheme, and I want to observe you a bit longer first. I also don't want to tell anyone about that Mysterium cache just yet, because I'm not sure what will happen to you and your inner spirit people," Jin wiggled his fingers in mock-creepiness towards Jungkook, "if we disturb the Mysterium in it. And I don't want to test it yet if I don't have to."

"So I'm stuck with voices in my head forever then? Is that it?"

"I'm going to do some research and see what I can find out about the connection between burial sites and Gwangju Ai. And about how new Gwangju Ai grow and develop. And about what it means that Shae is a Satoor Ai." Jin sighed and said sarcastically, "Because I don't already have a million other things to do."

"Thanks hyung." Jungkook twiddled his thumbs, shy and passive.

"Besides, I'd personally rather run a heist of those assholes, Hoseok and Yoongi, than go digging through a bunch of rocks on a planet that could boil me like a shrimp. No thank you."