By all means break the rules,
and break them beautifully, deliberately and well.

— Robert Bringhurst

What separates
the wolf from the sheep
is not a matter of good or evil.

We all have teeth—
but only some of us
are willing to use them.

— m.a.w

≡ ≡ ≡

leaning against the wall with his hands in his coat pockets, jeongguk lets his eyes move over the steady trickle of people heading into the large building at the end of the street. it looms overhead, among the other skyscrapers that populate this part of the city, floors upon floors of floor to ceiling windows within which things most of the nation could only dream of happen. for most of his life, jeongguk has walked these streets with his head down, not wanting to draw the attention of the businessmen who actually belong here. these skyscrapers always felt like looming monsters, casting dark shadows over his life, reminding him of how small he was in the eyes of the government.

it gives him so much satisfaction to do this, then.

his eyes move to yoongi, who lounges beside him as though they're deep in a conversation where they stand against the side of a parking garage. yoongi looks the picture of how he once did, back when they first met—expensive suit under the long, dark coat he wears that matches jeongguk's. the notable difference is his hair colour, now a deep black. the bottom half of his face is covered with a black mask, leaving only his eyes visible. jeongguk himself has gone for a white mask, hoping their slightly differing appearances won't draw attention. in any case, the suit he's wearing feels too constricting, too proper for the kind of work they do.

but they have to blend in. no matter how it hurts to pretend to be one of them, standing out as someone different for even a second could mean certain death. jeongguk glances over his shoulder at the doors they are meant to pass through, taking a deep breath. he knows how this goes. and anything could go wrong, since the future is never set in stone, but they've prepared. they know the risks. this is hardly their first go around. but it's definitely the one with the highest stakes.

jeongguk watches the faces of the people approaching the building, and when he spots the right one, he mutters, "him." immediately, he and yoongi begin walking down the street, blending into the stream of pressed suits and rolex watches. it must feel different for yoongi; he used to do this every day. for years, this was his second home. this is the security department of their government, the office and labs where yoongi worked and invented and helped the government kill soulmates for years.

it's been four months since yoongi stopped working for the government entirely, since he and jeongguk officially began their fight against the system and were put on a target list. eight months since they decided protecting soulmates was what they wanted to do at all. fourteen months since yoongi last set foot in this building.

and now they're going to break in. there's something very important inside that the rebels need.

approaching the building, nearly to the front doors, jeongguk nudges yoongi's elbow. it takes a few seconds, but then the man jeongguk spotted earlier accidentally drops his building key card on the ground. only several steps behind him, jeongguk reaches down and scoops it up, slipping it into his sleeve as he and yoongi make it to the doors.

first problem: there's no outside access into the building. only government employees with the correct key cards can get in, can access the elevator or stairwells, and can get into the different offices on various floors.

first solution: increase the probability that someone's key card will fall out of their pocket before they even get to the doors.

jeongguk presses the key card against the lock pad beside the door, breath held in his throat as he waits for the tell-tale beep and sound of the door unlocking. when it comes, he has no time to relax as he pulls the door open and lets yoongi slip in after him, forcing himself not to glance around to make sure no one is watching them. there's nothing more suspicious than that, not when they're simply supposed to be going to work on a regular day.

he feels yoongi's calming presence at his side as they enter the lobby of the building. beyond the massive reception desk in the middle of the room are the elevators and stairwell that leads to where they actually want to go. but between that—several security guards stand spread out across the room, observing the people entering the building. they stop several people on the way to question them or scan them with a device that can supposedly detect contact with bonded soulmates; jeongguk doubts the credibility of such a device, but now isn't the time to risk it.

the rebels have been gaining ground in their fight against the government for months now, increasing attacks on the police and targeting different departments. it's unsurprising security has been heightened here, but jeongguk feels yoongi reach out and touch his elbow as they make their way toward the guards, and jeongguk nods before letting that physical contact pull him into the future.

between one blink and the next, he understands what will happen in the next few minutes. turning his head as though to rub his chin against his collar, jeongguk whispers, "guard in the middle stops us, asks to see our identification, and when he suspects they're fake, he detains us."

yoongi nods once, and then his eyes move to the receptionist's desk, which they're currently passing. there's a large stack of boxes on one side, the mail delivery from this morning, and jeongguk watches as the receptionist gets up and trips over something, accidentally throwing herself against the stack of boxes and knocking them over the desk and onto the floor. they go with a loud bang, several people jumping out of the way, and jeongguk and yoongi play their parts well as they stumble away.

second problem: jeongguk doesn't need to predict the future beyond the security guard detaining them—getting caught would be the least of their worries once the government has their hands on them.

it's not just the fact that they could be found out as bonded soulmates. it's the fact that yoongi used to work here and people know his face. it's the fact that both of their faces have been plastered on wanted posters across the country. it's the fact that they're known rebels.

second solution: increase the probability that something will be in the receptionist's way when she stands up, causing her to trip and knock the boxes over.

as expected, the security guard who would have caught them, the closest to the mess, rushes forward to help pick up the boxes, giving jeongguk and yoongi an opportunity to put their heads down and walk on by, well within the thin crowd and away from suspecting security guards.

approaching the elevators, jeongguk surveys the amount of people waiting. there are too many; when walking down the street, it's easy to blend in, but being packed into an elevator with a smaller number of people is asking for trouble. but it's yoongi who leans in and asks, "stairs?" jeongguk nods, once again using the stolen key card to open the door to the stairwell. as he touches the doorknob, he predicts the future once more, and when he finds that they won't run into anyone on the stairs, he pulls it open and steps inside.

at the base of the stairs, yoongi pauses and looks up. the security department's offices are on the twentieth to twenty-sixth floors. "i already hate this part," he sighs, and jeongguk snorts, slapping yoongi's ass as he passes by to start up the first set of stairs.

"you'll have to thank hoseok-hyung for making us do so much cardio," he says.

"couldn't we have come when there were less people so we could use the elevator?"

"hyung, i spent days predicting this to figure out the day we go—"

"i know, gguk," yoongi groans, and then starts up the stairs after him. "just let me complain for a second."

once they reach the correct floor, they pause outside of the door that leads into the office that yoongi spent years of his life working in. jeongguk doesn't need to predict this part either, because they chose this day strategically; there will be no one in the security offices or labs for at least the next hour, because the entire department is attending a mandatory meeting with a different department several floors down. jeongguk has predicted this day so many times in the planning anyway, obsessing over each and every detail to make sure they get this right.

they can't risk one misstep. it's taken them months to iron out the kinks in their approach, but he and yoongi are a well-oiled machine now. it's easy to plan from the outside, to know each step of their mission, to memorize how to get in and out. it's dealing with hiccups in the execution of the plan that proves just how well they can work together. as much as jeongguk can predict the future, it's impossible to control every variable of this mission. but if they planned it right—and he knows they did—they shouldn't have to do damage control.

they step into the empty offices, heart pounding in jeongguk's ears as he takes it all in. he's never been here before, but he's heard so many stories from yoongi. yet this part just looks like... an office. as yoongi passes his hand over the door they just entered through and then hurries to the other doors used to enter and exit the office, jeongguk takes it all in. this is where yoongi did his work. this is where he sat and thought up the next horrific way to kill soulmates. and that part of him is in the past now, long gone, but it's harder to ignore when it's now staring him in the face.

"okay," yoongi breathes as he returns to jeongguk's side, pulling his mask down under his chin. "i made sure the doors will jam if anyone tries getting in before we're done, and i also messed with the cameras so they're stalled for the moment and aren't capturing anything in real time. ready to go?"

"did you like it here, hyung?" jeongguk asks, trailing his fingers over several cubicles as they make their way through the office to where they really want to go—the department head's personal office.

"why are you asking?" yoongi asks.

jeongguk shrugs. "i don't think much about who you were before we met anymore, but i can't help it now."

arriving at the correct office, they make their way inside—no lock on the door, apparently—and immediately begin digging. jeongguk touches different surfaces, the desk, the shelves, all predicting whether or not he will find what they're looking for within them so that he can save himself the time of actually looking. yoongi will be using his ability to increase the probability that they'll find what they're looking for, too, so it shouldn't take long. they were practically meant for this kind of work.

"half of the time, i didn't even think about the implications of what i was doing," yoongi says as they move about the room. "obviously i was inventing and testing terrible technologies, but a lot of the time, i wasn't looking at the bigger picture. i was just trying to figure out how to make these wires connect or wondering what colour was best for a prototype."

"there," says jeongguk, pointing to one of the side drawers on the desk. yoongi kneels next to it, pulling out his lock-picking kit before getting to work.

"the people here do awful things," yoongi continues. "i won't deny that. but at the same time, they were just my co-workers and we went out for drinks sometimes and we joked about things and we talked about movies we watched on the weekends. it was a job." he manages to pick the lock, putting away his kit before pulling open the drawer.

"but did you like it?"

"what do you want me to say, jeongguk?" asks yoongi as he pulls out several large folders from the drawer. "back then, i thought what i was doing was right. and sometimes it was stressful. there were co-workers i disliked. they always made a big deal out of birthdays and that pissed me off. but yeah. i did like it."

jeongguk hums, reaching for the folders and leafing through the first one. in truth, he doesn't know what he's looking for in an answer; it simply baffles him that yoongi could have lived for so long without realizing what he was doing was wrong. but the point is that he does know it's wrong now. the point is that they're going to steal these files and maybe destroy some shit on the way out, and it's going to combat just a bit of what yoongi did for so many years. it'll at least make the world a better place someday, somehow.

"should we just take all of these?" jeongguk asks. "they didn't tell us the specifics of what we're looking for, but i think it's safe to take it all." this mission is simple—steal a folder of files from the security department. they aren't always privy to the exact details of their missions, but jeongguk knows for a fact even the higher-ups in the rebel organizations don't know exactly what yoongi and jeongguk are dealing with.

all jeongguk knows is the rebels have gained intel that the government is in possession of a weapon that will change everything in the fight against the rebels, and the plans for it are in the security department head's office. or—currently in jeongguk's and yoongi's hands. whatever these files contain, it will enlighten the rebels as to what the government is planning and what steps the rebels need to take to fight against that plan. and if they steal a little more, it might just set the security department back a bit in their production of such a weapon.

with the folders, yoongi closes the drawer and they safely tuck the files away. they've gotten in and now all they have to go is get out, but—the security department will be empty for another hour. and jeongguk is most curious about the center of so many of yoongi's stories about this place—"

"can we go to the labs?" he asks, watching the way yoongi's eyes light up and then darken. "we don't have to touch anything. i just want to see them."

"it's risky."

"we're already in enemy territory," says jeongguk. "besides—" he pauses, reaching out for yoongi and closing his eyes so he can predict what will happen when they go to the labs. he finds nothing amiss, and when he opens his eyes and gives yoongi a grin, yoongi can only sigh before he takes jeongguk's hand and pulls him through the office. knowing he's won, jeongguk leans over and presses a kiss to yoongi's cheek, even as yoongi grumbles about how jeongguk is going to get them killed one day.

jeongguk hasn't predicted that yet, and he hopes he never will.

the labs are more like what jeongguk imagined when yoongi told him stories about creating technologies to encourage what is essentially genocide. large, open rooms surrounded by glass walls, each containing different machines essential to the inventor's needs. everything is silent and unmoving now, but as they move down the hallway, jeongguk spots a wall full of different kinds of guns, most of them looking like they're straight out of a science fiction movie, and a lab with suits of armor in the middle, and one with what he can only guess is some sort of portal to another world. and it's not, but it's easier to think so than to remember everything in this building is meant to kill. meant to kill people like him. these weapons are used on the rebels, and used on bonded soulmates who aren't even part of the rebels.

suddenly, jeongguk wants to destroy it all. he wants to burn this entire building to the ground, wants to end it all. and he knows that's not allowed; that isn't part of the mission he and yoongi have been given, but god. god. he can't help it.

he realizes yoongi hasn't made it as far as him. instead, he's stopped in front of a lab near the middle of the hallway, staring into it with his hand pressed against the glass. when jeongguk joins him again, yoongi whispers, "this was my lab." jeongguk's heart lurches. "there was a hierarchy here, as there is in most departments. you'd start out assisting the office as a whole, and then you'd be promoted to assisting one particular inventor. and if you impressed the department head by coming up with a good enough idea of your own, you'd be promoted to junior inventor. all of the junior inventors shared one or two labs. and if you were good at that, good enough for him, you'd get your own lab. your own playground to invent and test and play to your heart's content."

carefully, jeongguk hooks his pinkie around yoongi's. the both of them have had a lot to come to terms with since they met and bonded, and after that as well. most of the time, he knows that yoongi doesn't confront his past; it's his past for a reason and now that they're part of the rebels, they're doing much better work. but it's staring him in the face now: once upon a time, yoongi not only stood by and let people die, but actively helped kill them.

"god, i was good at what i did," yoongi whispers. "and i hate it, but sometimes i miss this. not—not the fact that i was helping the government kill people, but having my own space to invent and create. spending nights awake trying to work out kinks in an idea i had, giving my all to one project until i saw it through to the end. and that moment when i finally ran a successful trial—" he huffs out a laugh. "i've never felt anything like it. i was doing terrible things, but i miss feeling like that. like anything was possible."

jeongguk frowns, leaning his head on yoongi's shoulder as they look into the lab together. it's a shame that even more has been taken from yoongi since this started; he can't take his marine biology classes anymore, and jeongguk knows how happy those made him. and now that they're with the rebels, they're doing good work. but it's angry work. everything they do now is born out of rage and hatred, destroying rather than creating. they need to do it. but it makes them bitter. the world is such a terrible fucking place, isn't it?

"but still," yoongi adds. "fuck this place. fuck the government."

"fuck the government," jeongguk agrees solemnly. "i want to destroy it. this entire lab."

"i don't think we can," says yoongi. "but maybe—" he pauses, tilting his head against jeongguk's. he concentrates for a moment and then lifts his foot and kicks the glass. there's a low thrum at the contact, and then, with another kick, several of the circular devices on a shelf against the adjacent wall sway dangerously forward. there's no possible way kicking a glass wall could do much damage, but which yoongi's ability, the probability of the devices falling is heightened. and sure enough, with a third and final kick, the devices are jarred off the shelf and go tumbling to the ground. several of them smash upon impact, little metal and glass pieces scattering across the ground.

jeongguk can't help but guffaw with laughter at the sight. and then—

"who's there?"

jeongguk's head snaps sideways, panic immediately welling up in him when he realizes neither he nor yoongi said that.

there's someone else in the building.

"shit," hisses jeongguk, grabbing yoongi by the arm and dashing down the hallway away from the voice. they hurtle around the corner in time for the voice to call again—"hello? is anyone here?" it's the voice of a young woman, and when jeongguk dares to peek around the corner, he sees her now slowly walking down the hallway toward the labs. she's dressed like a businesswoman, like she works in this office, and it would make sense that someone from the office would show up here at this time. but yoongi jammed the doors, so she couldn't have gotten in after yoongi and jeongguk did.

which means she's been here the whole fucking time.

"what the fuck?" whispers yoongi when jeongguk presses his back flat against the wall. "where did she come from?"

"i don't know," jeongguk hisses; his mind is rapidly turning, trying to figure out how it's possible. because he never saw this woman in any of his predictions about this day. just minutes ago, he predicted what would happen when he and yoongi visited the labs. he knew that yoongi would stop at the fourth lab down the hallway. he knew yoongi would kick the wall. he knew the devices would fall. but he didn't know she'd be there and that doesn't make sense, and how could she had turned up, and how could he not have seen it coming, and—

"hello?" she calls again. jeongguk's heart is in his throat, both with confusion and panic. he and yoongi have to get out of here now.

yoongi elbows him in the side, tilting his head toward the rest of the office and ultimately to the door leading them away from this place. with a nod, they silently hurry back the way they came, crouching low once they get to the cubicles. once more, jeongguk tries to predict the future of the situation, but he still can't see the woman. all he knows is that he and yoongi will get out, but there's no way they're just going to walk through the office unscathed the way the future is presenting itself.

they continue toward the door, but jeongguk is distracted by the fact that the light directly overhead is flickering a little, clearly needing a new bulb. he straightens up, staring at it for longer than he should, and then when he looks down again—"hello," says the young woman, notw standing directly in front of jeongguk and yoongi.

"jesus—fuck," curses jeongguk, startling to find her right there when he hadn't heard her approaching or even noticed her.

"i thought i heard someone here," she says, and she's—grinning at them, clearly not suspecting them of being intruders. "do you two work here? i only started this past week, so i haven't met everyone yet. i thought everyone was at the seminar thing?"

jeongguk's throat closes up, forgetting every word in his own language, but yoongi thankfully steps in with a laugh. "department-wide seminars are kind of boring," he says. no doubt he had to attend plenty of them in his time here so he's not even acting. "we decided to slip out early to get a head start on some work while the rest of the office is out. i apologize if we scared you or anything."

"oh, definitely not." her grin widens. she says something else, but jeongguk isn't paying attention, too busy rapidly trying to predict a way out of this. but even when he predicts just a few moments in the future, the young woman still isn't there. instead, he knows that in less than a minute, the first employees will begin returning from the seminar. they'll find that the doors are jammed thanks to yoongi. they'll raise an alarm.

jeongguk sees their way out.

he steps up behind yoongi, trying to remain as casual as possible as yoongi continues his conversation with the young woman, and whispers, "unjam the doors."

yoongi tilts his head in a clear question of why. jeongguk's heart pounds harder, knowing it's risky—but they can't get away from this woman without having a reason to. they have to blend in again. and if anyone who has been working here for longer than a year sees yoongi and recognizes him, they'll be busted. but it's a risk they have to take.

when the lock clicks on the other side of the room and the door to the office opens, letting in the first flow of employees, jeongguk jumps into the conversation with a quick, "ah, it looks like everyone else is returning. we better get back to work before someone accuses us of slacking off." he grabs yoongi's elbow, adding, "it was nice to meet you. maybe we'll see you around more?" to the young woman before he pushes yoongi toward the door leading to the stairwell, keeping their faces turned away from the trickle of regular employees now entering the office.

"what are you doing?" yoongi hisses at him. "we're going to get caught."

"so distract them," jeongguk says.

"i've already drained myself enough."

"distract them or we die." it's not a prediction—but it's the truth anyway. if someone catches them here, they'll die. and that young woman has already seen their faces, so it's risky enough. he doesn't, for one moment, believe her story, and she might be reporting them at this very moment to the department head. even as they try to casually head for the stairwell, the employees are heading down the office corridors toward them, and jeongguk's heart begins to race the longer it goes on without a distraction.

"hey!" someone calls, and jeongguk doesn't know if it's aimed toward them but he panics anyway, pinching yoongi hard enough to hurt, and—"hey, you two! aren't yo—"

the sprinklers go off.

jeongguk gasps when he's immediately doused with water raining down from above, but the rest of the employees do the same—some of them shouting, someone shrieking. jeongguk almost stumbles to a halt before he feels himself before dragged by yoongi, and in the midst of the panic of the sprinklers, he bursts through the door into the stairwell.

he doesn't have to question it. they're silent as they hurtle down the stairs, intent on getting out of this damn building as soon as possible. they have the files they need, safe and sound in yoongi's bag, but that doesn't erase the fact that they were almost caught. it doesn't erase the fact that they're still in enemy territory right now. even when they get to the lobby and get out of the building without another hitch, jeongguk doesn't feel any better. the further they get from the security department, the worse he feels. their mission is a success as they disappear between one street and the next, heading back to their domain—the rebel outskirts of the city, the underground of the underground. but jeongguk can't help feeling like they lost something anyway.

by the time they get back to the bunker, jeongguk's hair and clothes are dry, but his mind is racing faster than before. "i don't understand," jeongguk says for the nth time as he and yoongi jump through the hoops they must to get into the bunker at all: fingerprints and eye scans and voice activated locks, three different sets of doors and a staircase that takes them deep into the ground. it's not the most ideal living situation, but it's what they must do to survive; the bunker is a dorm built underground, fit for seven and seven only. it's not much, but it serves its purpose. there are bunkers scattered all over the city, these places that the rebels live and hide, choosing to spread themselves out rather than incite an attack by crowding together all of the time.

jeongguk wouldn't mind having their superiors a little closer at a time like this, though.

"i predicted the future multiple times and she was never there," says jeongguk, down one dark hallway and one dark staircase. "how could she not have been there? she almost—she saw our faces, hyung. we're probably fucked. i don't know get it."

at the bottom of the staircase, just before the door that will ultimately lead them into their home—their home that has been a home for four months, when they were forced to truly leave everything behind—yoongi stops and turns to look at him. "there can only be one explanation, can't there?" he asks. "unless the government has somehow developed a technology that allows people to bypass abilities like yours—which is unlikely—then it was her. jeongguk, what if she had an ability that stopped you from seeing her?"

jeongguk flinches backwards. "you're not suggesting—"

"she's a bonded soulmate," says yoongi, "with some sort of misdirection ability. forcing us to focus elsewhere so we don't realize she's there."

"was she a rebel, then? was she there on a mission, too, and we just didn't know? wouldn't they have told us if that was the case?"

yoongi's face is rigid in thought as he shakes his head. "that doesn't make sense," he agrees. "i think it's deeper than that, jeongguk. i think she was telling the truth when she said she works for the security department."

"but—"

"c'mon," says yoongi, reaching out to pull him toward the door. "we have to hand these files over and debrief from the mission. we're not going to answer any questions standing out here."

most days, jeongguk doesn't dwell on how vastly his life has changed in the almost two years since he met yoongi. back then, he used to think he couldn't possibly face a worse poverty and oppression than he had been facing for his entire life, but then he comes home and he's reminded all over again that there is always something worse this fucking government can do to people.

after the government attacked the guardians and killed almost all of their friends, yoongi and jeongguk immediately set out to contact the rebels. not much is known by the general public, even other bonded soulmates, about their operations, but in the end, it wasn't difficult to find someone who could hear their determination to help and make it a reality. heading into it, they knew everything would change, but it was almost impressive at which the speed everything in their lives derailed.

the rebels are technically one cohesive group of people broken up into much smaller rebel squads, all under the command of the same small group of leaders. they're scattered across the city in bunkers like this one, teamed up with other rebels in groups that are meant to complement each other; they work together to complete missions given to them by the rebel leaders, who organize and decide what steps must be taken in their fight against the government. it's a lot more structured than jeongguk imagined; most of the time, they just wait from word from the higher-ups for what to do, where to go, and what to expect.

but going off on their own is dangerous—because the moment they aligned themselves with the rebels, yoongi and jeongguk became targets of the government. although at first they were doing smaller and simpler tasks as they got the hang of how the rebels worked and how to use their abilities in this new setting, it didn't take long for the government spies and police and special agents to catch wind of what had happened.

within hours, bank accounts had been frozen, property seized, arrest warrants put out. they'd left their house and jobs long before, but after that, they had no choice. they live off of what the rebels as a whole can provide them. they rely on each other for protection, shelter, food, and companionship. their faces are plastered everywhere as known rebels, worse so for yoongi because he used to be a semi-prominent government employee. every time they step outside, they are at danger of being killed. and yet they do it day after day, completing these missions in hopes that one day, this will all be over and the nation will have nothing to fear.

they can never return to anything from their old lives. jeongguk hasn't been home in four months, and oh, the guilt eats him whole. but this is his fight now and sacrifices have to be made. it's only now that he realizes what he used to take for granted, even in his poverty. when he has nothing to his name, it's easy to romanticize that shitty apartment with its painted walls that he grew up in. but he has to live like this because of the government and its reign of terror, its attempts to eradicate soulmates as a whole.

he has lost so much, given up so much in his choice to fight for what he believes in. but—of course, he's gained some, too. and maybe this isn't so bad, after all, if he focuses on the silver lining.

the moment yoongi opens the door to the dorm, they're immediately assaulted with noise. as jeongguk steps inside, toeing off his boots and sliding them into place among the dozens of other pairs near the door, he hears shouting and stomping and shrieking—but it only takes a moment to place the noise as the kind that needn't be worried about. the dorm isn't large, barely more than three small bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, and a living room, but the moment jeongguk steps out of entrance, he's nearly taken out by someone running by with a shriek.

jeongguk steps back and into yoongi's body as another person flies past.

"c'mon, hobi-hyung, it's not scary!" the second person calls, and the responding, "if you come near me with that thing, park jimin, i will throw you into the river and leave you to drown!"

behind him, yoongi hums. "looks like jimin found another creepy crawly to terrorize his poor soulmate with."

a third person runs by with a whiny, "jimin, give it back!"

less than a second later, yet another of their roommates passes with a, "taehyung, it's not your pet and you are not keeping that thing in our dorm!"

"but hyuuuuung!"

"seokjin-hyung, tell jimin to—fucking christ, jimin, what did i say?"

"it wants to be your friend!"

"it wants my foot squishing it to death, actually."

"hoseok-hyung, that's my son!"

jeongguk glances over his shoulder at yoongi. "these are the people the government are afraid of, you know," he says. "these are the people who possess the power and drive to take down an entire fucked up system. the nation's future is in their hands."

yoongi grins. "literal children, all of them."

sometimes when jeongguk gets overwhelmed by the desperation of their lives, by the thought of doing this for years and never getting anywhere, by the idea of never actually making a difference and then dying the way the government wants him to—all he has to do is come home. all he has to do is surround himself with these ridiculous men he's come to call his brothers and know that the guardians were right, those months ago, when they were toasting to the small things in the midst of tragedy and hardship.

the world may be shit and the government may be trying to kill them, but they'll always have running around their dorm and screaming about a bug. and for that, jeongguk is grateful. he's still panicked and worried about what happened on the mission, but he can already feel the tension draining out of him. it's this place. it's these people.

finally, the last member of their family walks through the entrance, belatedly, with a sigh on his lips as though he's a tired parent. when he spots jeongguk and yoongi, though, he stops, turning to them with a surprised grin. "oh, jeongguk! hyung!"

"hi, namjoon," says yoongi.

"you're back? hey, dumbfucks! they're back!"

all they get in response is more of hoseok's screaming and taehyung's whining and jimin's demonic laughter and seokjin sounding like he can't decide whether he wants to scold them or join in. "how'd it go?" namjoon asks in lieu of waiting for the others.

"we got it," says yoongi as he slips the bag off of his shoulder and digs in it for the files to hand over to namjoon. "we almost got caught, but we got what we came for."

"there was a woman there that i couldn't predict being there, hyung," says jeongguk. "it was the weirdest thing. yoongi-hyung thinks she might be a bonded soulmate working for the government."

namjoon pauses with his hand on the files as yoongi hands them over. "a bonded soulmate working for the government?" he asks, bewildered. "how is that possible?"

"that's what i said."

"it's possible," says yoongi. "honestly, i always heard rumours about that stuff when i was working security, but nothing that had any solid footing. but i wouldn't be surprised if the government was playing dirty like that."

"i'll send a message to headquarters immediately so they can grab the files as soon as possible," says namjoon. "but i say we take a peek inside first. find out what this special technology that will change everything is."

this is always jeongguk's favourite part of a mission—other than the moment they succeed, when that relief and satisfaction floods through him: getting to come home and debrief with the others. to meet and talk about what went wrong, what went well, and what they can improve on. to tell stories of what happened, to see the reaction of the others.

they've been placed together for a purpose, each of them filling a different role in the group. sometimes all seven of them are part of a mission if it calls for it, but sometimes they go off in smaller groups—like this time, when it was only jeongguk and yoongi since they couldn't risk slipping more than two people into the security department at once. and now jeongguk gets to retell the fantastic success to the others, and he knows they'll be mesmerized by it all.

but first—they actually have to round up the others.

"i'll go get them," says yoongi as namjoon heads to his room—office—to send a message to headquarters, as he handles all communications with the other rebel squads and the leaders. "what do you think will best bribe them to listen?"

"i still think we should just do an avengers assemble thing," says jeongguk.

"baby, i love you, but you're not iron man."

"iron man wishes he could predict the future."

yoongi snorts, rolling his eyes, but when he kisses jeongguk and then heads further into the dorm to find the rest of their squad, jeongguk hears him saying something about korea's mightiest heroes.

once everyone has been rounded up and are sitting around the living room—with minimal complaining and threats from the others, mostly hoseok toward jimin—namjoon opens the file folder that jeongguk and yoongi stole. as he and yoongi begin to decipher everything inside, jimin and taehyung practically sit on top of jeongguk and demand to know every detail of the mission.

"hyung really destroyed some shit in the labs?" taehyung asks once jeongguk has gotten through it. "he's usually such a pacifist in your missions."

"you should have blown something up," says jimin. "can you blow something up next time?"

"honestly, i never want to go back there," says jeongguk. "it was weird. that's where yoongi-hyung worked for so long. i didn't like the reminder of who he used to be."

"that's why you should blow it up," says jimin. "if there's no building, you never have to go back."

"why are you such a pyromaniac, jimin?"

"why don't you support my pyromaniac-ness, taehyung? some best friend you are."

seokjin cuts in with a, "the last time anyone support your pyromaniac-ness, you literally started this dorm on fire and we almost died."

jimin shifts in his seat to stare at seokjin, who is sitting beside yoongi and namjoon as they study the files. "maybe if we were allowed outside of this dorm more often, i wouldn't need to try science experiments inside."

with a laugh, jeongguk settles down further into the sofa, where taehyung's legs are thrown over his lap and jimin is squished into his side. like this, it's once again easy to forget that they're all wanted by the government and have targets on their backs every time they leave the house.

jimin and hoseok—bonded soulmates, have been for a little over a year longer than yoongi and jeongguk—are the two in their group that are highly trained in combat. they're the ones who actually fight face to face with the government, since their superhuman abilities are combative. jeongguk and yoongi, in contrast, usually do covert missions like the one they just completed, as well as support jimin and hoseok in the field by predicting and manipulating the outcome of their missions to ensure everything goes smoothly.

namjoon joined the rebels shortly after jeongguk and yoongi, encouraged by them after the incident that nearly killed him along with their other friends. rather than fight out in the field like yoongi and jeongguk or hoseok and jimin, though, he's their leader from the inside. his superhuman ability to speak any language and decode any message makes him the perfect person to work in communication for them; he is the one who works most closely with headquarters to organize missions, wrangling the others in their squad and also doing work on the side to decode messages from the government intercepted by the rebels.

taehyung and seokjin are a little different. neither of them are bonded soulmates—and so neither of them have superhuman abilities. seokjin knows who his soulmate is, but years ago, when they met, they refused to be in contact with him. they were so frightened by what the government could do to them that they broke seokjin's heart by running and never looking back. but seokjin wanted to do something, anyway, and chose to join the rebels without a power so that he could create a world where no one has to run from the person they're meant to be with.

on the contrary, taehyung has never met his soulmate. but his parents were bonded soulmates who joined the rebels before he was born. they were killed by the government when he was a child and so he was raised by other rebels in his parents' squad. he was born into this, knew that even without a power of his own, he had to fight for his parents and for the thousands of other people like them who were killed for wanting a better world.

(jeongguk suspects that taehyung and seokjin are at least half in love with each other, but that's neither here or there.)

the two of them support from the back like namjoon—they've been trained in combat by hoseok and jimin, like jeongguk and yoongi were when they first joined the squad, but their roles are much more flexible. whatever the bonded soulmates need to complete a mission is done by taehyung and seokjin, whether it's providing supplies or running into the field with a grenade.

jeongguk doesn't know how they can do it without superhuman abilities. even if jeongguk's own ability isn't combative and won't protect him in battle the way hoseok's or jimin's will, he still uses it like a shield, like a crutch. but seokjin and taehyung are just... normal people. normal people who have the same drive and will and grit as the rest of them, minus the superhuman powers. they're the bravest people jeongguk knows.

and also, often, much more. they're family. all of them are his family.

"i got it," says namjoon suddenly, drawing everyone's attention when he sits back and holds up a piece of paper from the file. "this is all kind of fragmented and disjointed, but i think we can piece it together."

"it would be stupid of them to put all of their plans into one file folder," says yoongi. "even when i worked there, they only have bits and pieces of big plans to different people so that no one would know everything and couldn't give everything away."

"they don't even trust their own people," snorts jimin. "what a great situation they have going on there."

"it's smart, actually," says seokjin. "if they want to protect themselves. and it shows that they're afraid of what would happen if we got our hands on one of those slimy bastards."

"what does it say, hyung?" asks taehyung, cutting in.

rather than answering, namjoon's and yoongi's eyes shift to jeongguk. "do you want to explain what happened with the woman in the office first, gguk-ah?" asks namjoon.

jeongguk straightens up before he tells the story again—of how he every time he predicted the future of the mission, he only ever saw himself and yoongi in the office. of how suddenly the woman was there and how, even when he predicted the future of the situation he knew she was in, the knowledge of her existence from the future was simply missing.

when he finishes, most of the others with puzzled responses, yoongi says, "i was thinking there was no way it was possible... unless she has an ability of some kind that could keep her out of jeongguk's predictions."

jimin's hand comes down on jeongguk's knee, squeezing it subconsciously. "but what would mean—"

"she's a bonded soulmate, yeah," finishes yoongi. "which sounds ridiculous. the government hates us. they kill us at every chance we get. but..." he turns to namjoon, who gives them all a rather grave look before holding up the piece of paper again.

jeongguk feels himself go cold.

"the rebels have been gaining intel for a while that the government has made a new development," says namjoon. "some sort of weapon that would change everything. jeongguk and yoongi-hyung went to the security department to steal the files that might be able to tell us what that weapon is, and..." he laughs, shaking his head. "those fuckers."

"namjoon, seriously," says hoseok. "spit it out."

"they're using bonded soulmates," says yoongi. "soulmates are their new weapon."

"everyone always focuses on the government killing bonded soulmates so we tend to forget they also capture bonded soulmates without killing them sometimes," says namjoon. "you hear about it on the news—police raiding a bonded soulmate settlement and capturing the soulmates and then torturing them for information. we always assume they just kill the soulmates in the end, but... they haven't been doing that."

"don't say it," whispers taehyung.

"the security department has developed a technology that essentially brainwashes bonded soulmates into believing the government is an ally and the rebels are enemies," says namjoon, setting the paper down with the rest of the file. "they've been stockpiling these soulmates for god knows how long, probably hand-picking them according to how useful their abilities are, and are now creating their own army of bonded soulmate to use against the rebels. they haven't been able to beat us with their own means, so now they're turning us against each other. fire with fire."

silence settles upon them like a heavy weight, keeping them down down down. the moment namjoon says it, jeongguk can only think of course. of course the government would do something like this. it only makes sense, and how could they not have thought of this before? and yet—perhaps some part of him had wanted to hope that they would soon be coming to the end of this fight.

they're simply entering a new era of it. they'll be fighting their own kind, fighting other soulmates who have simply been misled.

"that woman at the office," yoongi says, eyes moving to jeongguk's. "she was probably a captured soulmate. the government probably thought her ability would be useful—misdirection or invisibility, whatever it is. they brainwashed her and now she works for the security department. even if they don't fight in the field, think of the damage they could do to us in every department of the government. the knowledge they have..."

"this is fucked," says seokjin. "absolutely fucked."

hoseok snorts, and then says, "you can say that again."

"it's fucked!" seokjin shouts. "fuck the government."

the rest of them mumble a unified, "fuck the government," in response. this new development will indeed change everything—but it's not up to the seven of them to deal with just yet. someone from rebel headquarters will soon arrive to take the files so that their leaders can do something with it and figure out how to fight this new threat. the seven of them simply have to wait for further instructions. and here's where it gets frustrating not to be able to just do what he wants—and jeongguk knows it would be a bad idea, but now he does want to go back to that security department and just burn down the whole fucking building.

instead, namjoon closes the file, leaving the folder of damning information sitting on their tiny coffee/kitchen table. for some time, all seven of them just stare at it.

and then jimin says, "anyone wanna see the bug hobi-hyung is scared of?"

"park jimin!" hoseok launches off of the sofa, already racing through the dorm as jimin takes off after him, such a loving soulmate, and jeongguk can barely crack a grin at their antics. just like that, they're back to this way of life. but what else can they do? how else can they bear it, the knowledge and the pain and the burden of being the ones to save them all? what else can they do but try to keep their heads above water, fearful of drowning in despair should they spend a little too long focusing on the brutal reality of their lives?

oh, jeongguk can't blame them, not when he's been trying so long to find a way to balance his anger and his desire to find any simple joy in this life. and here it is finally: the anger and the joy. when the others get up to make sure hoseok and jimin don't fight to the point of fucking in the middle of the kitchen (again), yoongi just catches jeongguk's eye from across the room, and he grins. and jeongguk grins back. and everything is fucked. but at least they have this.

at least they have this.

≡ ≡ ≡

jeongguk hears yoongi calling his name only after the third or fourth time, probably, assuming from the way yoongi is staring at him and the vaguely exasperated tone of his voice. jeongguk stops pacing, turning to look at his husband with an expectant expression. yoongi just says, "you're going to make yourself sick if you don't stop."

"stop what?"

yoongi's stare is deadpan and then he pats the empty spot on the bed next to him, jeongguk's side of the bed. it's true that jeongguk has been pacing in front of their bed for nearly half an hour now, the entire time it took yoongi to go through his bedtime routine. their room is barely more than a closet with a bed in it, as are the other two bedrooms in the dorm and at this point jeongguk has nearly worn a groove in the carpet because of it. it's not the pacing that bothers yoongi, though; jeongguk knows this.

it's the thinking. the predicting.

when they first joined the rebels, they'd only really used their abilities for every day activities or playing jokes on each other. they only knew soft limits, didn't know how to strengthen themselves. along with learning combat from hoseok and jimin and other rebel skills from taehyung and seokjin, yoongi and jeongguk began training their abilities. they became stronger, pushing the boundaries of what they could do. now jeongguk can predict events nearly a month in advance, although his knowledge gets murky from that distance. yoongi has been learning how to throw his ability so that he can affect a situation without even being in it.

it was hard work, continually coming up against their limits and forcing themselves to move past it. but that means that they know what happens when they do reach their limits. they both know that if jeongguk uses his ability too much in a short amount of time, he'll get such intense headaches that they make him throw up. even now, he can feel the pounding in his head, aching all the way down to his neck, but he just—needs to know. he needs to know what happens. he needs to know if they'll be safe, if this new development will mean the end for all of them.

his head is filled with too much knowledge of the future; jeongguk can't even keep his predictions straight anymore, can't remember what he predicted just a minute ago. he cares little about knowing namjoon will stub his toe tomorrow morning or someone will set off the fire alarm a week from now; he's searching for signs that they'll be hurt or killed. he hasn't found any indication yet, but he just needs to push a little harder, a little farther—"jeongguk," says yoongi again, more firmly.

"just one more, hyung," says jeongguk, closing his eyes again and resuming his pacing.

"jeongguk, stop."

"one more—" he feels hands on him, opening his eyes to see yoongi has gotten out of bed and is manhandling him toward it. despite his protests, jeongguk will admit he's tired and his head hurts and he wishes he could stop, but nothing is going to quell the fear within him. he used to think that being a rebel would be all badass missions and courage, but the truth is that jeongguk is terrified most of the time. he's just angrier than he is scared most of the time, too.

he lets yoongi push him onto the bed, onto his back so yoongi can crawl over top of him and crowd him in. then yoongi lifts his hand, running his thumb over jeongguk's forehead in an attempt to smooth out the lines of worry. "stop that," he says, gentle now. "worrying isn't going to change anything. you can't change it, jeongguk. you can't change what the government is going to do and it's not your responsibility to, okay? it's not your responsibility to keep everyone safe."

"but hyung—"

"we're okay," says yoongi. of course he knows what jeongguk is so panicked about without jeongguk even needing to say it. they are soulmates, after all. "we're okay right now. namjoon sent the files to headquarters and they'll figure out what we need to do. and then we'll do it. you're only going to take yourself out of the game if you spend all of your time so worried about what's going to happen next."

the truth is, this ability is a curse as much as it is a gift. jeongguk has spent most of his life anticipating and worrying about the future. growing up, he was worried about if there would be something to eat for his next meal, if his parents would be safe at work, if his neighbours and friends would survive. as he grew older, he began worrying about the future of their nation as a whole, of soulmates and rebels, fearful for a life lived without seeing any change or hope for their situation. once he bonded with yoongi and put himself at further risk, he was constantly worried about yoongi coming home from work unscathed, worried about leaving the house and being tailed, worried about being found out and killed for it. as a rebel, that fear is only compounded now that he's a wanted criminal.

it makes sense, then, that he should be able to predict the future. it ought to lessen some of his anxiety to know what's coming next, but the truth is that being able to predict the future has only made him worry more—because he can't predict everything, and even if he predicts the future, nothing is set in stone. and if he knows something bad is going to happen, he might not be able to change it even with that knowledge. or, like in this case, there is only so far his powers can extend and he can't know if they'll be safe a month from now, can't know what the government is planning next, can't protect everyone—

"jeongguk," yoongi whispers, pulling him back. jeongguk focuses on him again, face hovering above his as yoongi takes jeongguk's cheeks into his hands. "right now, we're safe. and it's not up to you to keep it that way. we're all capable adults. and this new development is scary, i know. but we have to deal with it as it comes. what you need to do right now is focus on the present instead of the future. the present is you and me right now, right here. okay?"

"okay," jeongguk says. yoongi is good at this—talking him down, helping him focus. jeongguk wraps his hands around yoongi's wrists and holds on tight. "okay. i just can't help being worried. i'm so scared that something bad is going to happen to us."

"i know, baby," says yoongi. "i'm scared too. and so is everyone else."

as if on cue, there's a thump against the wall, the one they share with jimin and hoseok's room, and then a loud moan that could either be of pleasure or genuine pain. sometimes it's hard to tell with them. either way, it makes jeongguk grin a little when he says, "sure sounds like it."

"your method of dealing with fear is trying to predict the future until you throw up. their method involves a lot more dick. no one is perfect."

jeongguk laughs. and it makes yoongi grin, and—yeah. sometimes jeongguk forgets how attuned they are to each other's feelings, and he forgets that his worrying makes yoongi worry, and seeing jeongguk in pain gives yoongi pain, too. they were always meant to do this together. what jeongguk has learned over the past few years is that he can never do any of this alone, and that's why he has a soulmate at all. but beyond that, the other members of their squad—squad 613—are, in some ways, his soulmates, too. they function as a team, complementing each other so that they can complete their assignments together.

and it's not just about being rebels. jeongguk has never felt more content than he does here, even living with nothing and hiding from the government, even being at very serious risk of being killed every day. it feels right to be here with them, all of them feeding off of each other to create such a harmonious family.

they're all scared and worried. they're all trying to fight for what they believe in without knowing if any of it will make a real difference. and it's not up to jeongguk to protect all of them, as much as he feels like he has to.

yoongi flops onto the bed beside him, pulling jeongguk in until their legs are tangled together, pressed together with jeongguk's head tucked under yoongi's chin and yoongi's hand moving through his hair. "i'll be honest," he sighs. "the government using bonded soulmates to fight the rebels might mean the end of all of this. but our duty here is to do what we can to prevent that as instructed by our leaders. the world is shit, jeongguk, and i want so badly for us to win this. i want us to make a real difference in the grand scheme of things, and it's frustrating when we don't see that. but in the end, this is still our life. and if we spend all of it worrying about what the government does next, we'll miss what's right in front of us."

"i wish we didn't have to do this," jeongguk says, tightening his hold on yoongi's torso. "i wish we could just live normal fucking lives and be happy. i wish we could have the big house and the white picket fence and ten kids." he won't deny there's something thrilling about the way they do live—and getting to sneak around and fuck with the government with his soulmate is exciting most of the time. he feels powerful getting to do all of this with yoongi, trying to change their fate and trying to better the world. but at the end of the day, they still have to hide. they still can't have what they want. the silver lining is that he'd do anything as long as he could do it with yoongi.

but he'd still like a normal life. he doesn't even get to paint anymore. they sold yoongi's marine biology textbooks a long time ago. and this is what they chose, sacrificing everything for a chance to change the world. but god-fucking-dammit, it's hard.

"i'd change it if i could," says yoongi. "if my powers were that strong, i'd just make the government give up. i'd do anything for you, jeongguk; whatever you want. whatever would make you happy."

in the grand scheme of things, changing the way the nation is run and dismantling the systems that benefit the few and oppress the many is what would make jeongguk happy. but they can't do that alone, and the longer he lays here in yoongi's arms, the more he's coming to terms with that for tonight. he'll never stop worrying entirely, but right now, this is warm. this is familiar.

and the others are always reminding him of silver linings. of little things. "you make me happy," jeongguk says, then. "and what would make me happy right now is just... staying here. and maybe if you touched my butt."

yoongi snorts, dipping his head so he can kiss jeongguk's hair. "you're a man of simple pleasures."

"don't act like you don't like touching my butt."

there's no real response, but yoongi does hum and then reach down to pat jeongguk's butt, so it's close enough. jeongguk snuggles a little closer, trying to listen to yoongi's heartbeat to remind himself of this moment, of where they stand. every night he has to remind himself that he's lucky to have yoongi at all, allowing himself to bask in the moments when they are safe and together. that might change tomorrow, but for now, the government can't take this from him. they never can.

quietly, jeongguk asks, "do you ever regret it? deciding to be friends with me when we met?" yoongi had the most to lose back then, and he has lost it. jeongguk was already sitting in shit, figuratively speaking, back then. and being back in yoongi's old department has made him think of how far yoongi has fallen.

yoongi hums again. "i'll admit it would be nice to have money and privilege right about now," he says. "it was weird for my pride when the government officially cut me off from everything. i worked hard to get what i had, and sometimes i miss that big fucking house and a good job and being able to do whatever i wanted. i can't deny that, but..." he presses his cheek to the top of jeongguk's head. "i keep coming back to what you told me that first night we met, about how the government was controlling me, too, without me even noticing it. i was a pawn in their game just as much as you were, but i was just benefiting from the game so i thought i was free. and it sucks to live the way we do and to be in danger, but—i don't regret it. not only do i know we're doing the right thing, but no matter the conditions we live in and the way we're being treated, i got you out all of this. and you're better than anything i could have hoped to have back then."

"that's so cheesy, hyung," says jeongguk, but he can't deny the way it makes him feel warm all over. "i don't regret it either, though. i'd take any shit side effect that comes with getting to be with you, because i get to be with you. it's no contest."

"also having superpowers is pretty cool."

"we are literally the avengers."

"jeongguk."

he giggles, kissing the center of yoongi's throat. "i hope that someday we get to live normal lives and have everything we want," he says. "but for now, i'm happy just having you. the universe did a pretty good job making us soulmates."

"it did, didn't it?" sighs yoongi.

yes, jeongguk has spent most of his life looking at the future. even now, he spends so much time predicting the future so that he can ensure the success of their squad's missions. but this right here is all the reminder he needs that he has to live in the present. he has to focus on this—yoongi in his arms and a love that isn't for the future but is for now. they'll get to the rest of it when it comes, no matter how terrifying or dangerous or uncertain.

≡ ≡ ≡

riding in one of these trucks never becomes less nerve-wracking for jeongguk, despite how heavily armoured they are. apparently no amount of fire power should be able to penetrate the trucks the rebels use to transport goods and occasionally personnel across the city, but he doesn't want to test the theory, and rumbling through the quiet streets of seoul in a massive tank-like truck seems like a beacon for trouble if anything. but they don't have much of a choice when they're meant to complete a mission in the poor parts of the city; public transportation doesn't come this way, the area is too far to walk to from their bunker, and arriving in an unarmoured vehicle is risky.

still, jeongguk is glad for the tinted windows on the truck as they drive to their destination—a neighbourhood not far from the one jeongguk grew up in, where there has been heavy police activity recently. just a few days ago, their squad was given another mission; a group of the government's special agents have set up camp in this neighbourhood and are going door to door trying to smoke out bonded soulmates. in the process, they've been careless about the aftermath when they don't find soulmates, going so far as to seriously injure innocent people, destroy houses, and otherwise disrupt the way of life there. the people don't have the means to stand up to the police and tell them to get the fuck out of the neighbourhood, so squad 613 is being sent to do it instead.

since the mission will most certainly involve heavy combat with the police and special agents, it's jimin and hoseok who are heading it. jeongguk and yoongi will work from the background to support the pair with their own abilities, jeongguk predicting as many next steps as possible and yoongi using that information to sway the outcome in the rebels' favour. namjoon will stay with the trucks to survey from above with drones and provide back-up supplies, while taehyung and seokjin will evacuate and protect the civilians from the area until it ends one of two ways.

jeongguk has done his predictions, so he does know how this should end—with the squad driving the police out and restoring peace to the neighbourhood. but he knows from experience that anything can tip the scale and it's foolish to rely on predictions made before they get into the thick of it. his job during the mission is to predict just one step at a time, to stay one minute ahead of the battle so that he can make sure nothing goes wrong—and to make sure that if something does go wrong, he gets jimin and hoseok out of there.

it wouldn't be the first time he and yoongi have had to do damage control. but the seven of them pride themselves on having a high success rate. and this isn't meant to be a battle to end all battles; they're just trying to help one neighbourhood, protect one group of people from the terror of the police and government's special agents.

it's always a bit strange, though, to do these things here. for jeongguk, it's easier to work missions in the government's territory. driving through streets that look a little too familiar almost make him sick to remember how he's lived and what he's abandoned. it's taken months to come to terms with the choices he's had to make in hopes of making the world a better place, but even now, jeongguk can't deny that those feelings of guilt have never really gone away.

watching out of the window as the streets slowly pass, it takes jeongguk longer than it should for him to realize these streets and buildings look familiar not because they're like his old neighbourhood, but because they are his old neighbourhood. he sits up a little higher in his seat, pressing closer to the window as his old high school passes by, several small children playing on the broken swing set in the park next to it.

he puts his hand against the window as they keep driving, heading deeper into his neighbourhood. they have to pass through it to get where they're going, after all—and he should turn away, should listen to taehyung and seokjin speaking in low tones next to him, but he hasn't been here for so long. there's the corner convenience store he and his friends used to visit after school, where the old woman behind the counter would give them candy for free if they complimented her. there's the fence he scraped his knee on when he was ten years old and running for his life from a police officer who tried to question him about if his parents had matching tattoos.

this is his neighbourhood. his home. these are his people. he knows that if they turn down this street and then that one, they'll end up at his old apartment building, the one his parents still live in.

he hasn't seen them in four months.

"gguk?" it's seokjin, putting his hand on jeongguk's knee. "you okay?"

jeongguk turns away from the window to find both he and taehyung watching him with twin concerned expressions. jeongguk's eyes shift out of the front window to the other truck in front of them, the one carrying yoongi. then he says, "yeah. s'just..." he shakes his head. "this is where i grew up. before yoongi-hyung and all of this, this was my neighbourhood." living here was never a dream by any standards. he lived in poverty, was treated terribly by the government and the elite society alike. but this was the village that raised him, the people who worked to give him and the other children his age a life worth living.

these are the people he's fighting for. this is the reason he's become a rebel at all. yet he can't help feeling as though, without them, he's missing a part of himself. he tore himself from all of this so quickly and violently, hardly even allowed a moment to say goodbye. and he's glad to be fighting such a worthy cause, but when he looks out the window and is reminded of this place he once called home, jeongguk is just... sad.

"i haven't seen my parents in four months," he whispers. "i don't know if i'll ever see them again. it's too dangerous."

seokjin squeezes his knee. "i know," he says. "i wish we didn't have to give up so much for this. but if we have to protect them from the government, then we need to protect them from ourselves, too." both taehyung and seokjin have been rebels for years longer than jeongguk. taehyung was practically born into it and seokjin chose to join the rebels when he was barely twenty years old, back when jeongguk was still a young teenager. they must know this feeling so well, and sometimes jeongguk feels silly for voicing it at all, but they're the only ones who can truly understand.

"how do you stand it?" asks jeongguk. "how can you do this for years and still drive through these neighbourhoods and never see anything get better? when we joined the rebels, i thought... well. i don't know what i was expecting."

"to be a superhero?" asks taehyung. "guns blazing, walking away from explosions, outsmarting the government and seeing them fall before your very eyes?"

jeongguk almost laughs. "something like that."

"people romanticize the rebels," says taehyung. "see us as saviours, as the superheroes of the age. and yeah, most of us do have badass superpowers that we use in battles. we can do more than the average person to fight against the government, but in the end we're just... people. and people are weak. people get frustrated. people miss their parents."

"i choose to believe what we're doing will make a difference," says seokjin. "even if we don't see it. we don't have to see it for it to be real. and maybe you'll keep driving through this neighbourhood and never see anything different, but one day someone will drive through this neighbourhood and it'll be the most beautiful drive of their life. these people will be taken care of. these streets will be singing with joy and love and hope."

outside, they pass by the burned down house of a man jeongguk knew distantly as a kid, whose home was torched by the government when it was suspected his daughter had bonded with her soulmate. she hadn't, but they did it anyway. jeongguk takes a very deep breath and chooses to believe seokjin is right.

"and you'll get to see your parents again," adds taehyung. "i'm sure we can arrange for you to do that soon, if we take the right precautions."

"it's okay," says jeongguk. "i miss them, but you're right—these are the sacrifices we must make."

"i'm sure they're proud of you, you know," says taehyung. "their little jeonggukie, all grown up and saving the world."

jeongguk snorts, but he lets taehyung ruffle his hair anyway. "let's go save the world, then," he says. "aven—"

"if you fucking say avengers assemble, i will never speak to you again."

"but hyung—"

≡ ≡ ≡

"remember," says namjoon as they huddle around the truck, parked a good three blocks from where the police and special agents have set up their headquarters in the neighbourhood. "our first task here is negotiation. we know from jeongguk's predictions that the negotiations don't work and the police resort to violence to fight us, but we need that buffer time for seokjin-hyung and taehyung to evacuate the residents from the area, so make sure to get them talking for as long as possible. yoongi-hyung, you'll be helping with the evacuating so it goes as smoothly as possible and hopefully by the time the police draw their weapons, you can be back to assist jeongguk with behind the scenes stuff."

jeongguk shivers, rubbing at his clothed arms. it's chilly today, something he didn't bother to predict when he was looking forward to this day. he should have, though; then he could have brought a bigger coat. namjoon continues refreshing them on their mission. it's like he said—jimin and hoseok will try to negotiate with the police about leaving the area, but the police won't listen and will instead pull their weapons. in the midst of that, it'll be jeongguk and yoongi's job to predict and manipulate the little parts of it in jimin and hoseok's favour so that nothing goes wrong. and should something go wrong, taehyung and seokjin will be there to get them out and namjoon will be there to call back up if needed.

the neighbourhood is eerily silent as they go their separate ways, jeongguk heading toward the police's makeshift headquarters with jimin and hoseok. they're in a good mood today, joking around with each other as they so often are; their soulmate bond always keeps them optimistic about these missions. it's not only about being confident in their ability to work together, but also being confident in their abilities themselves. jimin and hoseok are fucking good at this. and they enjoy it.

jeongguk can't help feeling on edge, though. although he's done his predictions of this mission, he knows by now that he can't foresee everything that will happen and sometimes things can go wrong. he knows he'll feel better when yoongi is back from evacuating the area, so he tries to let jimin and hoseok's idle chatter calm him before they finally turn down the street where the fight will take place.

the police have overtaken a half-built apartment building that has been sitting empty for years now, when funding dried up and the government pulled out despite promises to the neighbourhood to take care of them. nothing new there. from the end of the street, jeongguk can see a row of police cars parked on the street, as well as several guards with guns stationed outside of the main doors to the apartment. on one of the higher floors, through the glassless windows, jeongguk can see and hear a group of officers laughing about something, maybe playing a card game.

hilarious, isn't it. they sit and joke and have a good time while the people around them are suffering for no reason. today they aren't doing any patrols of the area or trying to force people out of their homes. today, they'll be the ones leaving.

jimin, hoseok, and jeongguk sneak closer, keeping out of view of the guards as they reach the furthest police car, behind which jeongguk will watch and wait. "they need about ten more minutes," jeongguk whispers to the other two. "but the evacuation of the nearest residents will only take about three or four more minutes, so as long as you keep the guards talking until then, we'll be in the clear. don't activate your abilities until you absolutely need to, though. we need yoongi back first."

"good thing i'm a smooth talker," says jimin. hoseok elbows him, but he's right; although they're both exceptionally skilled in combat, jimin and hoseok are also pretty good at negotiating, or at least keeping their enemies talking until they hit a dead end. then with a nod and promise of luck, jimin and hoseok approach the front of the building and jeongguk crouches behind the police car, peeking out from the side to watch what happens.

jimin and hoseok keep the guards, and the police from upstairs who are alerted to the presence of bonded soulmates, talking for almost five minutes. jeongguk can only make out bits and pieces from where he's hiding, but he gets the gist of it: jimin and hoseok are trying to reason with them about moving out of the area to protect the residents, asking on what grounds they think they can just come in here and hurt people and disrupt the way of life, and offering to go easy on them should they cooperate. no doubt during that time the police are calling for back-up and getting information on just who jimin and hoseok are—which is risky, but rebel headquarters was clear on not going in guns blazing.

the conversation has just escalated to a bit of shouting when jeongguk senses yoongi arriving seconds before he does, skidding against the car with a breathless, "hey," when he does. "anything exciting happen?"

"they're about to start fighting," says jeongguk. "how'd the evacuating go?"

"we got everyone within a two block radius out and tae and seokjin-hyung are working on a few more streets in case it gets really ugly," says yoongi. "ready for this?"

jeongguk peers around the side of the car again to see the guards stepping back from jimin and hoseok as they load their weapons, the police doing the same, and jeongguk nods. he holds out his hand for yoongi to take, knowing their powers align better this way, and then takes a deep breath. he closes his eyes, trusting that yoongi will be his eyes and be able to protect him in real time as jeongguk is continually throwing himself seconds into the future. sure enough, he feels yoongi move until he's kneeling in front of jeongguk, peering over the hood of the car at the inevitable fight. he takes jeongguk's hand.

the future comes to him. not in images, but in pure knowledge. jeongguk constructs it in his mind, envisioning what will happen from what he knows will happen. and then they begin.

"second officer from the right fires first," he tells yoongi. "five seconds. it hits jimin-hyung in the leg." yoongi squeezes his hand, and when the five seconds are up, jeongguk hears the sound of a gun jamming, knowing yoongi has done so to make sure the bullet doesn't strike jimin. but the shot has been fired anyway, metaphorically, and all hell breaks loose.

over the sounds of shouting and sudden gunfire, jeongguk focuses on the future instead. "officer with the cap shoots in three seconds, hits hoseok. the guard by the door—he's going to radio in for back-up."

"not if i jam the signal," mutters yoongi. "why aren't jimin and hoseok using their abilities yet?"

"they're waiting for—officer on the far left!" jeongguk doesn't have time to get the words out fully to explain what she's going to do, but he knows yoongi will do something about it, likely make sure she stumbles over an uneven part of the sidewalk she just happened not to notice on her way over. this is the way the two of them work best when it comes to small-scale fights; jimin and hoseok are busy using their own guns and fighting hand-to-hand with the officers, so jeongguk predicts what the officers will do and yoongi makes sure it doesn't happen—by jamming their guns or making them trip or, in more dire situations, making something fall on them.

which—"can we do anything about the building?" yoongi asks. jeongguk mutters about another officer, making sure they won't hit hoseok, and then turns his predictions to the building. it's been sitting for a long time, the structure not entirely sound. if any part of it was already on the verge of crumbling...

jeongguk sees it, knows what yoongi will do. "thirty-seven seconds," he says. "if you make one of the officers accidentally fire into the beams under the second-floor windows, part of the wall will collapse onto the two officers below. it's what they're waiting for—it'll distract the officers and hoseok-hyung can activate his ability." in the meantime, gunshots continue to ring out, although further apart now as jimin and hoseok work on disarming their opponents. jeongguk wishes he could watch it; he finds it fascinating to watch the two of them fight, moving in tandem without even having to look at each other. but he knows what he has to do.

after thirty-seven seconds, there's one last gunshot and then the sound of wood and plaster breaking off from the building before crashing to the ground. cries of pain and surprise fill the air and then jeongguk finally opens his eyes, turning to look over top of the car because this is the part he always has to watch. dust goes up from where part of the building has fallen on two officers, the others rushing to help them, and jimin and hoseok quickly retreat back into the street, throwing their weapons to the side.

jimin stands in front of hoseok, facing him; hoseok closes his eyes, tilting his head upward slightly as he opens his arms and jimin carefully presses two of his fingers to the center of hoseok's forehead. no matter how many times jeongguk watches this, it both terrifies him and fascinates him; it's part of the reason they have to hide, why no one other than jimin and hoseok can be in the field during combative battles.

at first, nothing happens. the officers realize something is going to happen, though, and turn their attention back to jimin and hoseok. the sound of jammed guns reaches them, yoongi's doing, and then—black smoke begins to seep out of hoseok's body. at first, it's little more than a few wisps but within seconds, black smoke is shooting out of his open palms, open mouth, and from under jimin's fingers on his forehead. the smoke begins to clump together, taking form into human-like creatures. they're pitch-black in colour, clumps of smoke that become more solid before jeongguk can begin to make out heads and torsos, even arms and legs amidst the hovering darkness.

but that's all they really are: darkness.

jeongguk hears one of the officers say what the fuck, and then, without turning away from hoseok, jimin flicks his free hand in the direction of the officers. the creatures—demons, jeongguk knows they're fucking demons—let out ear-splitting shrieks as they whip through the air toward the officers. again, gunshots ring out, but they'll do little damage to the demons as they attack the officers. these ones, the least developed of hoseok's underlings, can do little more than distract the officers and scare them, maybe cause a few scratches or bruises here and there, but that's all they need for now.

they're not the main event, after all.

jeongguk keeps his eyes trained on hoseok, heart clenching in anticipation before it finally happens: the smoke emanating from his body bursts into an explosion of darkness that swallows half of the street and then immediately snaps back toward he and jimin. instead of returning to his body, though, the hoseok becomes the darkness, his body now pitch-black and twice as large as his human one. when he opens his eyes, they're a deep red, mouth curling back into a wonton smile of fangs that match the claws on his hands.

"hoseok," says jimin, hand now pressed firmly into his—the demon's—chest. "don't kill them unless you have to."

hoseok gives something akin to a bark, but jimin pushes a little harder on his chest. "don't. kill. them," he repeats more firmly. and when hoseok finally seems to understand the command, jimin drops his hand and steps out of the way, allowing the demon to take off for the officers as jimin quickly follows, twisting his hands to control the smaller demons still among the officers. he'll have them bond together into fewer but stronger demons, ones that can actually do damage, and he'll control them to do his bidding just as he'll, to some extent, control hoseok.

it was terrifying, watching it for the first time. it was terrifying for jimin and hoseok to sit him down and explain what they do to begin with—these joyful, caring, beautiful people. jeongguk never would have guessed they contain such raw and terrible power inside of them. but it does work beautifully in a rebel setting.

there's a darkness inside jung hoseok. he can choose to let it out so that it exists outside of him in its own form, the smaller demons that he released first. or, as he does when they need more, he can allow the darkness to consume himself instead. the demon that hoseok becomes as a result is a beast in its own right—twice as large as the average man, and twice as strong, twice as fast, twice as fearless. it feels little pain in the midst of battle and will stop at nothing to get what it wants. but the problem is that when the demon takes over, hoseok can't control it. he becomes mindless, a killing machine that will tear humans apart and kill even hoseok's closest friends without hoseok's mind and heart to stop it.

thankfully, park jimin is around to take care of that. his power is simple: he can control demons. in battle, this most often comes out with the smaller demons hoseok releases; they don't have real minds of their own, so jimin is their puppet master, using them from afar so that he doesn't have to risk injury to himself. depending on the mission, he might let hoseok run rampant. sometimes he's hoseok's puppet master, too. either way, jimin is the only one that demon will listen to.

now, jimin stands further back in the street, concentrating on controlling the smaller demons as they attack the officers. hoseok has run straight into battle, bullets from the officers doing no damage—at least for now, but he'll feel some of it when he returns to his human form—and physically trying to drag them into the street where jimin will bind them. this mission is meant to have as few casualties as possible.

either way, they don't need jeongguk and yoongi's intervention so much now. they'll watch to make sure nothing is going wrong, but as background support, jeongguk is happy to watch the show. he winces when hoseok physically throws an officer into the street, one of the smaller demons controlled by jimin scampering after it to sit on top of the man and keep him from escaping.

hoseok slams a different officer against the side of the apartment building, prompting jimin to call out a, "hyung! what the fuck did i say!" the demon gives a rather mournful growl in response, but doesn't continue the violent actions.

jeongguk snorts. "that thing is fucking terrifying," he whispers to yoongi, "but he's also kind of just a big, bratty puppy who likes playing with its food."

"does he kill anyone?"

within a few seconds, jeongguk can answer a confident, "no. not unless someth—shit!" the knowledge of the next moment of time fills his head and jeongguk doesn't have time to say anything or stop it; he grabs yoongi by the arm and throws the both of them away from the car, landing on the ground just as the car explodes.

jeongguk keeps his hands over his head as an intense heat wave reaches them, the car soaring through the air and landing only a meter from where the two of them have fallen. debris from the car crashes around them and jeongguk quickly rolls, turning to look at the burning wreck of the car and beyond it, hoseok and jimin still engaged in a battle with the officers.

"what the fuck?" asks yoongi. "where did that come from?"

"i didn't know it was going to happen," says jeongguk. "i didn't see it coming until the instant it was going to happen." it takes barely a second for the panic to set in. something is wrong.

something is very, very wrong.

on cue, another car in the line up explodes. jeongguk scrambles back as yoongi helps pull him to his feet, the both of them now out in the open, but it's not a fear of hoseok's demon finding them that has jeongguk's breath hitching.

on the other side of the battle, running down the street toward them, are three people dressed in dark clothing. they're not dressed like the police or special agents, but jeongguk knows immediately who they are—they've been at the center of his fears for days now. when he predicted this mission, he never saw anyone else arriving, never saw cars exploding or back-up arriving on either side of the mission.

he knows this not because he predicted it with his power, but because there can be no other explanation.

the government is using bonded soulmates against them.

"fuck," breathes yoongi as jeongguk grabs his arm and pulls him away from the other cars—another one of them explodes, anyway, finally causing jimin to falter; the demon sitting on the officer at his feet spasms out of control and the officer finally rolls free, throwing himself at jimin. "hyung—!" jeongguk calls, but yoongi has already pulled his gun and shoots at the officer. the bullet hits him in the leg, causing him to fall, and jeongguk says, "that's not what i meant!"

"who are they?" yoongi demands. "are they with us?"

"no," says jeongguk. "jimin-hyung—we have to abort the mission!"

"what?" jimin yells back, but it's too late; the very ground next to where jimin is standing explodes from beneath, sending jimin flying. the three newcomers have finally arrived on the scene as chaos begins to reign, the little demons jimin was controlling dissipating entirely. hoseok is still attacking the officers, but with jimin's concentration broken, the demon turns its attention to the three other soulmates and has no instruction on what to do with them.

jeongguk's stomach drops. and hoseok attacks.

"we have to get out of here!" jeongguk calls, letting go of yoongi and running for jimin. he tries to predict what will happen when he reaches jimin, but he can't see anything. every time he tries to predict it, his attention is thrown elsewhere, giving him useless knowledge like the fact that a fucking weed will grow along this sidewalk in the next three days. how is that mean to help him?

he hears yoongi yelling out for him, but jeongguk skids to a stop next to jimin, hauling him up. "what's—what's going on?" jimin asks, bleeding from the head and clearly disorientated. another car explodes on the street, but when jeongguk turns away from it, he sees that the debris from the other exploded cars, as well as the broken up street, are slowly rising into the air. jeongguk stops with his arm supporting jimin, meeting yoongi's eyes across the street—and then the debris goes flying.

jeongguk can only turn and run for safety, knowing that yoongi will be trying to change the trajectory of the debris, but jeongguk and jimin are still pelted with it. it's painful, knocking them over, and jeongguk barely pulls jimin out of the way of a car bumper slamming into the spot where he was just lying. again, jeongguk tries to predict where the debris will land so he can keep frm getting hit, but nothing comes to him. there's just nothing, useless predictions filling his head.

all at once, he gets it.

"it's her!" jeongguk shouts, pulling a still-disoriented jimin to his feet. his eyes meet yoongi's as he pulls jimin through the raining debris. "hyung, it's the woman from the office!" misdirection, yoongi had said. it makes sense, doesn't it? she was able to keep herself out of jeongguk's predictions the first time, and now, if she's here, she's misdirecting jeongguk's attention so that he can't predict what's happening. she was able to keep herself and the other government soulmates out of his predictions so that he wouldn't know they would show up and ruin this.

jeongguk is suddenly useless now. all he can do is function like a completely normal person.

he hears his name called again, trying to dodge debris that keeps flying right at him. something slams into his arm, causing him to stumble and cry out in pain, but when he turns his attention sideways, he sees yoongi running toward the three soulmates. "the others are coming!" yoongi yells to him. "get jimin to safety!"

"hyung, you can't—" he narrowly misses a huge chunk of concrete slamming into both he and jimin from the side, desperately trying to call to yoongi. and yoongi will be of more use against the soulmates, yes, but jeongguk can't just let him run after them, especially when—he gasps, stumbling to a halt when he suddenly remembers: hoseok. he can hear the demon growling from down the street, which means he's still fighting the soulmates. maybe that's why the explosions have stopped. but if yoongi throws himself into the battle, hoseok won't be able to differentiate him from their actual enemies.

"hyung," jeongguk calls, turning and sitting jimin against the edge of the building next to the apartment. "jimin-hyung, you need to call hoseok-hyung back!"

jimin groans, head lolling against the building.

"hyung," jeongguk tries again, panic welling up in him. he doesn't know what to do—he's always been able to use his ability to right their wrongs, and anytime the shit has hit the fan in their missions, they've never had to deal with fighting other fucking soulmates. by the time their back-up arrives, it might be too late. they have to save their friends now. "jimin, he's going to kill yoongi-hyung. we have to get out of here, but you're the only one who can call him back into his human form."

"gguk-ah," jimin mumbles, eyes beginning to flutter shut. jeongguk is on the verge of tears, suddenly, growling in frustration before he realizes it's no use. jimin is too injured to do anything now, which means jeongguk has to do something. both the explosions and the falling debris have stopped, which likely means hoseok and yoongi are fending off the soulmates enough, but they still have to get out of here. this is no longer about winning—it's about surviving.

jeongguk knows what he has to do.

he gets up, running back into the street. he catches sight of yoongi with his own gun out, trying to fight that way and his with his own ability. and there's hoseok as the demon, fighting against an entire car that one of their opponents is moving with what jeongguk imagines is telekinesis. as jeongguk runs towards them, he sees hoseok finally fling the car to the side and leap after the soulmate controlling it, knocking him to the ground and landing on top of him, hand closing around his head probably to rip it off—

"hey!" jeongguk screams, picking up a piece of the torn up street and throwing it at hoseok. it glances off of hoseok's back, but it's enough to draw his attention, and jeongguk breathes hard before he adds, "come get me, you ugly demon motherfucker!"

"jeongguk!" yoongi yells, momentarily turning from the man he's fighting—the one with the exploding ability. "what the fuck are you doing?"

jeongguk doesn't give him an answer, instead shouting, "run!" before he sees hoseok stand up and start after him. fear spikes through jeongguk as he turns to run, too, hoping to lead hoseok away so that they can finally end this, but—he slams into someone who was standing right behind him. he gasps, hands on him immediately as he's turned around and feels something sharp being pressed to his throat.

there's a vaguely familiar voice in his ear that mocks, "didn't see me coming, did you?"

jeongguk struggles against her hold. it is the woman from the office, now holding him at knife point. "what are you doing?" jeongguk wheezes at her. "can't you see that you're fighting the wrong people? you're just gonna kill the ones who are trying to make the world a better place for you?"

"who said anything about killing you?" she asks. hoseok is still bounding toward them and jeongguk's stomach is tied in knots, knowing that if he reaches them, they're both dead. "we don't want to kill you—yet. we're still busy building our little army."

jeongguk steps on her foot, hard, but all it does is make her dig the blade a little harder into his throat. "i'll never agree to help you," he says.

"i don't want you, jeon jeongguk," she says. "i've already figured out how to defeat you. no, what we want is him." jeongguk's heart stutters as he stares at hoseok, this demon. that's what they want—of course. he's brilliant in battle. of course the government would want him on their side.

"you can't control him," says jeongguk. "his soulmate is the only one who can do that."

"oh, you're so stupid," the woman sighs. "you don't think we know that?"

from somewhere behind them, there's a loud groan of pain. jeongguk flinches because he knows that voice. it's jimin, and when the woman turns them sideways, he sees that two of the police officers have him in their grasp. jeongguk had practically forgotten about them, too focused on the soulmates, but now he cries out, trying to get out of the woman's grasp. it's no use, though.

"make him stop," the woman demands of jimin.

"fuck you," says jimin. he's clearly gained back enough of his clarity to be able to do that, at least, but then one of the officers detaining him kicks him in the knee, hard. jimin groans in pain again.

"make him stop."

hoseok is nearly upon them now, seething with anger and seeping that smoke of darkness. and jeongguk would rather sacrifice himself than have either of his friends bend to the will of the government, yet—"hoseok." at the sound of jimin's voice, the demon immediately comes to stop, barely a foot from the small group with his hand outstretched to them. he hovers there, unsure what to do. jimin could easily make hoseok kill everyone but jimin and jeongguk, yet jeongguk knows that's not what's going to happen. he doesn't have to predict that, either.

"good," says the woman. "where's the other one? min yoongi?"

"get your fucking hands off of me!" yoongi calls. jeongguk's stomach falls when he sees the two other soulmates dragging yoongi toward the group from where they overpowered him after hoseok ran after jeongguk. even yoongi's ability wasn't able to fend against two other trained soulmates. now they have jimin, yoongi, and jeongguk in their grasp with a demon waiting for command.

surely namjoon, taehyung, and seokjin should be here by now. which means they must have gotten caught up with something else, other soulmates or police who were sent to make sure nothing interrupted this part of the government's mission. jeongguk is so goddamn angry he could turn into an uncontrollable demon himself.

"now," says the woman still holding onto him. "let's make this easy. that demon will do whatever you say, right? tell him that we're not his enemies."

jimin doesn't respond, but he does spit at her feet, which is enough of an answer.

jeongguk can practically hear her roll her eyes, and then within seconds she's pulled out a gun and shot jimin in the foot. jeongguk flinches as jimin screams in pain, and if it hadn't been for the police officers holding him up, he'd have crumpled to the ground. "i said to make this easy, boys," she says. "you have a lot of limbs i could shoot to make you do what i want."

"i'll never do what you want," jimin hisses through gritted teeth, and then the woman presses the gun to the side of jeongguk's head instead. jeongguk barely has time to register what she's threatening before jimin is gasping out a, "fuck, no, wait—"

"going to cooperate now?"

"don't shoot anyone else."

"tell that demon we're not his enemies, then. make him see us as his friends. no—his leaders. tell him to listen to us instead."

"that's not how it fucking works. you can't control him."

"you have no idea what you're up against right now, park jimin," she says. "you have no idea the power and resources and technology the government has on their side. we don't need to control him with words or will the way your silly soulmate bond allows. we'll have a lot more fun with it."

jeongguk tries to catch jimin's eye to tell him not to do it—he'll take the fall. he'd rather be shot in the head and die right now then let these fuckers take hoseok and use him to fight against the rebels. but he can tell that jimin is considering it. they'll shoot jeongguk, and then they'll shoot yoongi and then, likely, namjoon and taehyung and seokjin. and once all of jimin's best friends are dead, they might even kill hoseok.

jeongguk gets it. he gets why jimin does it, but it still shatters him anyway.

"hoseok-hyung," says jimin, voice breaking on the last syllable. "these people... they're not your enemies, okay? you have to listen to them. listen to them the way you listen to me. don't kill them. be good." the demon tilts its head, clearly not fully understanding, and the woman presses the gun harder into jeongguk's head. jimin sees it, shuddering in a breath before he repeats himself, a little more firmly.

when the demon seems to understand, the woman orders one of the police officers to handcuff hoseok. the action is done cautiously, in case the demon isn't listening to jimin—but hoseok stands pliant and well-mannered, allowing the police officer to handcuff his hands behind his back. it's clear they plan on taking hoseok like this—which means he'll remain in his demon form. jimin is the only one who can call him back into his human form. and it's clear they're not planning on taking jimin with them.

"perfect," the woman says. "it was fun playing with you boys, but we've gotten what we came for."

"you're fucking disgusting," yoongi seethes at her. "how could you do this to your own people? how can you help them like this?"

"it's funny you should ask," she says. "weren't you the one doing this not too long ago?"

"that's different—"

"sure it is. but if you ever want to change your mind again... we'd be happy to welcome you back, min yoongi. in the meantime, i think we'll be nice today and let all of you live. it's fun to know you'll be suffering."

with a sudden burst of determination, jimin tries to break out of the hold of the officers. "don't take him—" he yells, managing to get one arm out, and then a rock from the street slams into jimin's head from the side. he's knocked out immediately, the officers letting him fall to the ground as jeongguk breathes hard, staring at him.

the woman giggles directly into his ear. "this was so much fun," she says. "we should do it again some time. i'd say see you later, but... we both know you'll never see me coming, jeongguk." then she lets go of jeongguk, shoving him toward yoongi as she steps away. the other soulmates let go of yoongi as well, letting the two of them collide awkwardly before jeongguk turns on them, prepared to fight one last time—only to find a gun pointed at him.

"don't try it," says one of the other soulmates, the one with the telekinesis power. jeongguk doesn't have much of a choice, anyway. there's nothing he could do now, not outnumbered and overpowered like this.

all he can do is watch as the soulmates take hold of hoseok and begin walking him back down the street, back the way they came. they leave jimin knocked out on the ground and jeongguk and yoongi with injuries as they watch the soulmates walk away with hoseok in their grasp—helpless to do anything now. helpless to stop it.

he should feel lucky that they didn't kill him, since that's been the goal of the government since he first became a rebel, but somehow, being alive doesn't feel like a mercy. right now, all being alive feels like is a promise that jeongguk will meet this enemy again, and when he does, the ending will be much, much worse.