Work Text
Prologue: ‘Crash Landing’
[play now on YT: Emptiness - Mattia Cupelli]
Stars.So many stars. Above, below. All around him.There was complete silence. Then, a crackle.“P—k Jimi—”Silence. The stars were so bright, they almost hurt his eyes.“Park Jimin. Do you copy.” A voice through an intercom. It was familiar.The stars were shifting. Glinting on the glass separating him from the vacuum.“Park Jimin, do you copy. If you can hear me, please respond.”It was Commander Min Yoongi’s voice. Dim…calm…through the speaker in his vocac:om’s earpiece. “Park Jimin, I can see your vitals on my monitor. I know you’re alive. Please respond.”He took a breath.“I’m…here.”It was all he could say before the crackling increased.He saw it out of the corner of his eye. Explosions. One, two…small at first. Spreading, increasing in size as they blossomed like bubbles through the Whalien’s hull.“—k J—min. I—Sendi—y—”The words didn’t register at first. He could barely hear them through the crackling. ‘Park Jimin. I’m Sending you.’ When they did register, spreading panic through his veins, it was too late.“No! Commander, don’t Send me! I—”A huge fireball engulfed the ship. The crackling from the earpiece cut out. But not before Jimin felt a sharp tug on his spine. He didn’t even have a chance to react to the explosion before the escape pod surrounding him disappeared. The stars began to move faster.Bright, swirling, changing colors. Moving faster and faster. Sucking him through wormhole after wormhole. It was cold. Ice needles formed on the tiny hairs on his skin.The light changed. Became grayer, duller.He burst through a cloud. Water droplets clung to his skin, to his clothes.There was abrupt clarity. Trees, branches, a hill. Pain. Rocks and dead leaves, and more branches. Pain. Silence..Silence....Darkness...... ‘ Outer Arm (OA) ’ Part I Chapter 1: 'The Backpacker' “Holy fucking shit,” Yoongi exclaimed under his breath, stopping in his tracks. “I didn’t sign up for this.”Ten feet ahead of him down off the path lay a man—or at least he thought it was a man; he hadn’t gotten close enough yet to know for sure—face down and body covered with dirt and debris. It looked like a foreigner, if the blond hair was any indication. That made him even more nervous.Taking a deep breath and steeling his nerves, he set down his bag and began to inch down the hill toward the figure.“You better fucking not be dead,” he muttered. “’Cause I’m leaving your ass right where I found it and never looking back.”The man was not dead. He was pale and cold to the touch. But alive. And not a foreigner; well anyway, he looked Korean. Yoongi knew it was entirely possible that the man could be German or American for all he knew. But he was very much unconscious. He was young—very young, perhaps a few years younger than Yoongi, with an attractive face despite it being smeared with dirt and dried up streaks of blood. His golden hair had leaves and other debris tangled within it, but otherwise seemed well-taken care of. He was dressed in what looked a lot like a motocross racing suit, and Yoongi glanced around briefly to see if there was a motorbike lying nearby. There wasn’t, nor were there tire tracks. He wondered how he got all the way out into the mountains like this. There was a broken earpiece beside his head, hanging off of a strange metal ring around his neck that looked like it had buttons or sensors of some kind running along its circumference. When Yoongi touched it, a sharp spark of static pierced his fingertip. He withdrew his hand.Yoongi wondered what to do. His phone hadn’t had any signal in quite a while, and he knew he had to be around a two-days’ hike away from any kind of civilization—which honestly had been the entire point of his solo trip in the first place, but it seemed like his plans were going out the window now.Yoongi grimaced and then glanced back up at the trail where his bag lay. This wasn’t going to be fun. The man looked to be about the same size as him, but he’d never really considered himself to be terribly strong. Yoongi wasn’t weak…he just had never exactly tried carrying another human being before. He crouched down and gently lifted the unconscious man into a sitting position, and then crouched in front of him, draping his limp arms over his shoulders. The loose ear piece swung around and smacked him in the face, causing him to scowl. Then, with a low groan, Yoongi pushed himself to his feet, bringing the heavy weight with him. He shifted the man higher up on his back and took hold of his hard, muscled thighs, bending over more so he wouldn’t slide off. Then he began the steep journey back up to the trail.An hour later found Yoongi in a small clearing by a barely trickling brook. He’d set the man down, using his pack as a pillow, before setting up camp, and now he was currently using a small towel to wash away the dirt and blood from the man’s skin. He’d finally managed to remove the earpiece and collar-like metal from the man’s neck without shocking himself. The battery charge must have finally run out.The more he cleaned away from the man’s face, the more he couldn’t help being struck by the man’s beauty. He had soft, rounded cheeks and plump lips, his skin was free of acne; the only marks on his face were a few soft freckles. Yoongi carefully wiped at the cuts—luckily they had long since stopped bleeding, so he didn’t bother covering them up.He noticed the man’s hands were caked with dirt, so he rinsed out the towel and soaked it with plenty of water before going to work on his hands. Again, he wondered how old the man was. His hands felt so small and delicate within Yoongi’s as he scrubbed at the dirt stuck under his nails and between his fingers. There were several silver rings adorning the man’s fingers, which he had to work around; he didn’t feel right removing the jewelry without permission.Once the man was mostly clean, Yoongi lifted him into the tent. Glancing at his sleeping bag, where he figured it was best to place the man, Yoongi grimaced at how dirty and damp the unconscious man's outfit was. He really didn't want to get the inside of his sleeping bag dirty. Scratching the back of his neck and pursing his lips, he sighed and began to peel off the stranger's bizarre suit. He hesitated when he realized the inside was perfectly dry and warm, but then he figured he was already halfway done; he might as well finish the job.The man had a t-shirt on under his suit, which smelled like it had been worn for much more than just a day, so while the torso was still hanging around the man’s waist, Yoongi also pulled that off and took out one of his long-sleeved t-shirts before tugging that over the man’s head. He tried to not look too hard at the lean muscles of the narrow but fit torso of the man. Yoongi also took off his own sweatshirt, hoping that the already warm material would give the man a little more heat. Sincerely hoping the man wouldn’t wake up in the middle of his extremely awkward struggle, he removed the dirty, damp lower half of the suit (thankfully the man was wearing boxer briefs) and replaced it with a pair of relatively clean joggers. Finally, he wrapped the man up in his sleeping bag and crawled back out of the tent.It was only around three in the afternoon, and he’d been hoping to get more ground covered today, but it looked like that wasn’t going to happen. Sighing, Yoongi glanced up at the sky. There was still a bit of blue sky, but the clouds accumulating were dark and gray, promising rain. He quickly went to work getting the rain-proof tarp secured over the tent, and heated up a bit of dehydrated stew on his single burner kerosene stove—if it could even be called that—using some filtered water from the stream. It was a bit of a pain to lug with the rest of his belongings, but it proved useful when he didn’t have time or a safe place to build a fire. Not to mention he already packed pretty lightly anyway.When the first drops of rain began to fall, Yoongi retreated into the tent with his thermos of now steaming hot stew. The tent was small, really only meant for one person, but there was just enough space for him to sit a little way’s away from the unconscious man. He sat there, listening to the drumming of rain on the tarp overhead, occasionally accented by larger drops falling from the trees surrounding them.Frowning, he set the thermos down and crawled over to observe the stranger more. He really needed to wake the man up somehow, but he’d shown no sign of waking thus far. He knew sometimes scents could trigger consciousness…maybe the smell of food?Yoongi picked up his thermos again and scooped out a little stew into the cup section, holding it up to the man’s nose, wafting it a little. At first nothing happened, then the man’s nose scrunched up slightly. Apart from his heartbeat and breath, it was the first real sign of life. There was a flicker behind his eyelids. Yoongi put the thermos down and put his hand on the man’s shoulder, shaking it a little.“Hey. Come on, wake up,” he urged. Wake—”The man’s eyes fluttered open, and they stared up at Yoongi for a moment, crinkling a little in a barely-there smile; clearly not quite aware yet. Then they abruptly drew into sharp focus, and the man gasped, sitting up sharply, scrambling back—but not getting very far because he was sealed tightly within the sleeping bag.Yoongi pushed back his initial shock at the movement in order to stop the man from completely destroying his tent in his wild attempt to escape. The injured man was nearly shouting, nonsense words coming from his lips, as he fought against Yoongi’s hands.“Chill the fuck out, will you?!” Yoongi bellowed finally, and the man froze. Yoongi could see the intense fear and…pain, perhaps—in his eyes, and suddenly felt a little bad. But he didn’t let it last long. “Look. I found you blacked out just off the path. I’m not going to hurt you. Okay?” He held his hands up.The man’s eyes flicked around the tent as he continued to struggle against the sleeping bag, but every time he looked back at Yoongi there was something in his eyes, almost like recognition, or familiarity.“Here, let me—let me help you get out of that,” Yoongi said, reaching forward. He frowned at the way the man flinched and squeezed his eyes shut, turning his face away. It left an uneasy feeling in his stomach. But he ignored it, and quickly unzipped just enough of the sleeping bag to free the man’s arms. The man hurriedly shimmied out of the bag, backing up nearly against the tent wall, glancing at the door and probably noticing the sound of heavy rain outside.Yoongi sat back, cross-legged, and picked up his stew to continue eating, hoping that taking some of his attention off of the man would ease his tension. "What's your name? Mine is Min Yoongi," he said after swallowing a bite of stew. He noticed how the man's eyes flickered between his face and the thermos. But then his eyes flew back to Yoongi's face.“Min—” the stranger grimaced and coughed slightly, "Min Yoongi...?" He seemed confused, or panicked about something. His hands were shaking, and his eyes were roaming all over Yoongi’s body, but not in a sexual way. For some reason it didn’t make Yoongi feel uncomfortable how the man’s eyes lingered on his hands, on his neck, his hair, and especially his face."Yes? You do speak Korean, right?" He realized the man hadn’t said anything intelligible other than repeat his name.The man frowned. "Yes, I speak…Korean. You.... Never mind. I'm...Park Jimin."Yoongi nodded. It was good to finally have a name. "Okay, Park Jimin-ssi. Are you hungry? I have a little stew you're welcome to have. It was dehydrated, so it's not the best, but it's food."He saw Jimin lick his lips nervously. "That’s all right. I should go."Yoongi frowned. “Go where?”The man only shook his head."Please eat," Yoongi insisted. He scooped out a little more, making sure to include a few chunks of meat. The man looked like he hadn't eaten in a while. He pulled out his fork—he only had one set of utensils, and he was already using the spoon—and handed the food to Jimin. The man's hands were still shaking as he took the cup and fork from Yoongi with a small “Thank you.”It was then that Jimin gave another start; he'd realized that he was wearing different clothes. He gasped and shrank away, luckily without spilling the food. "Where is my suit?" His face was pale. "Why did you—?""I didn't touch you, I swear. Your…suit? Was dirty and wet. And you were freezing. I didn't want you getting pneumonia. I swear, I won't hurt you, Jimin-ssi. Now, please eat, before it gets cold."But then Jimin’s hand flew to his neck in alarm, after checking that his rings were still on his fingers, and looking in confusion at one in particular on his middle finger. “Where’s my—?”“Your earpiece thing? It’s right over there,” Yoongi pointed to a small pile of clothes in a corner of the tent, where he’d carefully set down the piece of electronics so they wouldn’t get wet. He watched as Jimin immediately scrambled over to pick it up and examine it. He could see the exact moment when the other man realized it was broken. Whatever it was must have been more important than Yoongi had thought, because the expression on Jimin’s face was so devastated that Yoongi wouldn’t have been surprised if someone had died.“How did you get all the way out here?” Yoongi asked, finally. Jimin looked up.“You—I mean, I was sent here.” It looked like Jimin had caught himself in the middle of saying something he shouldn’t have.“Sent, like on a trip? Without any gear? Where’s all your hiking shit?”The golden-haired man frowned. “Hiking?” He looked around at the tent again. “Are you hiking?”Yoongi snorted. “Isn’t that obvious? What else would I be doing out here in the middle of the wilderness?”“Wilderness?”“Yes—” Yoongi stopped himself. Something was very wrong. “You don’t know where you are, do you.”Slowly, Jimin shook his head. He kept glancing at the tent door.Yoongi pulled out his smartphone, and switched it on. He didn’t have signal to call anyone, but at least the GPS still worked enough for him to locate himself on the saved maps, and he had a solar charger to keep the battery from dying in case of emergency. Like this. He held out his phone to the man.“Look. We’re right here. It’s a two-day’s hike to the nearest town. I wasn’t planning on heading that way, but obviously you can’t just tag along with me on my trip, and I can’t leave you here on your own.”The man was silent, looking carefully at the map, zooming in and out of it several times.“Where are you from?” Yoongi asked.“Busan,” Jimin mumbled, only half paying attention.“Busan? You don’t have an accent, though. You sound like you’re from Seoul.”Jimin made a face. “Was born there. I didn’t grow up there, though. I grew up on the—uh, I grew up somewhere else.”If that wasn’t suspicious, Yoongi didn’t know what was. The man was clearly hiding something. . First rule of Sending:
If occupants of the Destination World don’t appear to know what Sending is,
you must not reveal any details of your Originating World. It was clear that this world’s Min Yoongi had no idea what Jimin had meant when he told him, “I was Sent here.” He’d nearly screwed up by almost saying, ‘You Sent me here.’ But it was difficult when the two men looked so eerily similar to each other. There were subtle differences, but overall they were the same bodies.This Min Yoongi may have been younger than Commander Min, but probably only by ten years at most. Commander Min had more lines on his face, he was built to fight, and he had dyed silver-white hair. The Min Yoongi sitting cross-legged before Jimin inside the tent was much slimmer, had natural black hair which kept falling in his eyes, and his face seemed softer, like he didn’t have to spend all his time hiding his emotions from subordinates and enemies. He also didn’t have the thin, white scar on his left ear which Commander Min had always borne since Jimin first met him. But apart from that, they were the same. Jimin could see that he even had the same mole as Commander Min did just above his left collarbone.Jimin felt his heart clench slightly at the last thing he remembered. Commander Min had died just as he Sent Jimin. There was little to no chance that he could have escaped that explosion in time. He could have, but instead he used his last strength to protect Jimin. To Send him far away, far from everyone. He tried to not dwell on the Commander’s death. Jimin had suffered so many deaths over the past several months, and the only way he had coped was by keeping his mind on their mission. But it was difficult. Commander Min wasn’t just another member of the Rebellion. He’d been his mentor and friend for many years. Jimin felt the sting in his eyes and nose, and frowned, clenching his fist in order to push the feeling away.It most definitely wasn’t the first time Jimin had been Sent somewhere, but usually it was within his own dimension. According to the maps, this was Earth, but was it the same Earth he knew? The one time he had been briefly Sent to another dimension, he hadn’t met any parallel beings. Did that mean there was another Park Jimin on this world? This Min Yoongi hadn’t even blinked at the name, so even if there was, the backpacker clearly did not know him.Jimin tried to figure out what the date was by ‘accidentally’ locking the phone and hitting the lock button again, but it only told him the day of the week, the month, and the day. Not the year. Sometimes, certain Sendings dropped the Sent into the past, or the future. It was extremely difficult to pinpoint exactly where to send someone, which was why it still was relatively rare even in Jimin’s dimension. Usually it was easiest to find a link, and aim for it. With Commander Min abruptly Sending Jimin in his last moments, he must have aimed for his parallel self.Commander Min had always been the most skilled at Sending people, even two people at once, including himself. It had proved handy on a number of occasions. Jimin wondered why he hadn’t Sent himself off of the ship before the explosion, why he had only Sent Jimin. If only he had Sent himself into the escape pod he had forced Jimin into before jettisoning it, they’d both be alive now.He’d also Sent Jimin without a weapon, or any way to defend himself. Should the Royal Family realize he hadn’t gone down with the ship, and then manage to pinpoint his location and Send the intergalactic police after him, he was defenseless. He might have a few days’ lead, at most, but it wasn’t difficult to follow a Sent’s trail if one had the right equipment. It was only a matter of time. Although Commander Min had been training him, Jimin still wasn’t ready to Send himself anywhere safely.Jimin handed the phone back to Yoongi. He had to remind himself that he couldn’t allow himself to blindly trust the man. Just because he looked and sounded like the Min Yoongi from his Originating World, it didn’t mean that he was trustworthy. Parallels weren’t always morally identical. It could be a trap.“Sorry, I locked it,” he muttered. He silently finished eating the lukewarm meat stew. It was good, despite being re-hydrated, reheated, and then having cooled off significantly. Jimin felt weak, like he hadn’t eaten in days, even though he was sure that he’d eaten something before the attack. But then again, the attack had been going on for several hours. He wasn’t even sure for how long he had been unconscious.He also felt heavy. It took more strength than usual to hold himself upright. He knew the gravity on Earth was much stronger than he was used to, having been raised on one of the colonies in the Outer Arm. He had been born on Earth, but his family had evacuated with the Royal Family when Jimin was only seven. It had been difficult, being a child refugee, but perhaps not understanding what was going on had spared him more mental trauma than he would have accumulated otherwise.“So, you don’t know how you got here,” Yoongi repeated. Jimin could hear the suspicion in his voice, but it didn’t sound like he was necessarily being suspicious toward Jimin. More toward what had happened to him. He sounded concerned.Jimin shook his head. He decided the best course of action was to give a half-truth. “The only thing I remember is trees, and…pain.” There was no way for him to know if falling from the sky was a normal thing—usually Sendings didn’t end up in their Destination World in such a manner. But Jimin also supposed that most Sendings weren’t initiated by someone about to die. He anxiously twisted the thick ring that was around his middle finger. It wasn’t his, and it hadn’t been there before. He tried to think back to his last moments in Commander Min’s presence. When had he slipped it onto Jimin’s finger? Because there was no other explanation, and Jimin knew this was the Commander’s ring. He’d never seen the other man without it. Why had he given it to Jimin?“Were you kidnapped? Is there someone after you that we should be worried about?”Jimin wet his lips. “I don’t know.”“And you don’t have any belongings.”“What?” Jimin frowned at Yoongi.“It’s not like I was looking for a wallet or anything, but it was kind of obvious that you didn’t have anything with you when I changed your clothes.”Of course Jimin didn’t have a wallet. He knew what one was, but no one carried wallets anymore. They were inconvenient, and with all monetary transactions taking place digitally, there really was no need to carry money. The only thing he needed right now was his vocac:om fixed, and a weapon of some sort. He wondered if Yoongi had a knife he could steal.Rather than respond, Jimin remained quiet. ...........Glossary of Terms or Specialized Tech (to be posted at the end of chapters where they are first introduced)VOCAC:OM (Vocal-Optic Communication Auxiliary Collar: Outer Model): Communicator, recorder (has side, front-facing camera), vitals monitor (sensor dots inside the collar by neck), tracker... The "buttons" twist/click to turn things on or off. Not designed for Earth’s gravity. (Outer Space model.) [concept drawing by me]
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Chapter 2: ‘The Separation’ The moment his fighter touched down on the Whalien’s deck, Jimin was scrambling to unbuckle himself and get out. He ignored the countdown in his ear for safe removal of his helmet.“Neural sync disconnecting in 5…4…3—”Jimin unlatched the collar connecting it to his suit, and wrenched it off of his head. He didn’t have time to wait. He nearly fell as he jumped down to the deck, a sharp pulsing in the back of his eyes that made the ground seem to swoop up toward him before falling away just as abruptly. He shook his head and clenched his jaw tight. He knew Commander Min had to be on the bridge. He bolted past the swarm of people moving in the opposite direction.He was right. At first, Jimin thought there wasn’t anyone left on the bridge, but then he saw Commander Min standing by the main monitor when he stumbled through the door after barely managing to key in the code through his vertigo.The Commander stared at Jimin in weakly disguised shock.
[play now on YT: Audiomachine, ‘Unfinished Life’]
“What the hell are you doing here? You should be off of the ship with the others!”Jimin was fighting to stay upright, leaning heavily against the back of the navigator’s empty seat. “I had to come back for you. What are you—” his head lolled, and everything tilted dangerously before his vision snapped back, “what’re you still doing here?”His legs abruptly gave out, and he slid down the back of the seat to the ground. He blinked in minor surprise when the Commander’s face was suddenly in front of his own. He felt a hand on his chin, tilting his head up. He tried to hold eye contact, but ended up staring off at the main monitor. Numerous areas of the ship were blinking red on the diagram.“Why are you like this? Your vitals were—” he broke off, glancing down at the oblong monitor on his forearm. Jimin couldn’t see, but he could guess that he was checking his brain activity. “You disconnected too soon. Goddamn it. What were you thinking? You need to get out of here,” Commander Min said, voice low and final.“Not without you,” Jimin mumbled, quickly losing his words. He thought he heard a scoff.Abruptly a loud alarm began to sound, and the red light over the door started flashing.“Not now,” Commander Min snapped, pulling Jimin to his feet.They began running, if it could even be called that. Jimin couldn’t control his feet very well. There was a low rumble, and suddenly they were floating as the Artificial Gravity Stabilizer cut out. Jimin felt himself drift even closer to unconsciousness, but then suddenly it was back, their feet were on the floor, and he was being hurried along the corridor.Jimin could barely keep on his feet. His ears were ringing, and he wanted to throw up from the way everything was spinning and tilting. The AGS kept cutting out and returning, occasionally with accelerated Gs that caused them both to groan with the effort it took to move; the only thing stabilizing him was Commander Min’s hands holding him up.“We’re almost there,” the older man’s gruff voice said close to his ear. “Hang on just a little longer.”The ship jolted, and they were thrown into the opposite wall. Commander Min’s arms kept Jimin from most of the impact, but his head still snapped painfully, forcing a moan from his lips.“Fuckers,” the Commander hissed, and was dragging Jimin down the corridor not a second later.Jimin wasn’t sure how, but suddenly they were in front of the escape pods. He let himself get shoved into one, barely aware of the way he was strapped in and his hands were squeezed tightly together momentarily, but when Commander Min moved back, he had enough awareness to stiffen and try to grab onto his arm.“Where’re you going?” Jimin slurred. He hated the way the Commander’s face was going in and out of focus. He tried to tighten his grip, but he could already feel it slipping as he lost strength.“I can’t come with you, Jimin. I have to stay with the ship.” He shoved Jimin back, wrenching his arm away. “It’s more important for you to escape. We can’t allow them to find you.”Jimin didn’t have a chance to protest; the door slid shut, there was a short count-down, and then the jettison from the ship was so sudden that he lost his last hold on consciousness. . “Attention all Whalien fighters. This is Commander Min Yoongi. Redirect all fire to cover the pods’ departure.”All escape pods belonging to the Whalien had beacons automatically visible to the fighters to prevent tragedies caused by friendly fire.He waited a few seconds to hear some confirmations before turning to go.Now that Jimin was safely jettisoned with his autopilot’s destination set to their refuge base on Cyphern’s moon, Yoongi moved back to the bridge as quickly as he could. They hadn’t finished downloading the hack into the Archeus’s main database. He checked the time. The download should have finished by now, though. If he could get back to the bridge in time to remove the data before evacuating, it wouldn’t be a complete waste of time. Captain Kim was overseeing the evacuation of all remaining Whalien crew, so it was up to Yoongi to get the data in time; they’d ordered their young hacker to evacuate already.The AGS was completely inactive by this point, so Yoongi had to propel himself along the rungs specifically fixed on every wall for situations like this.His right middle finger felt strange without his ring, the one he had slipped onto Jimin’s finger only moments ago. Jimin didn’t know the significance of the ring, but Yoongi hoped that the other man would keep it with him nonetheless. As long as he kept it with him, even if they got separated, Yoongi had hope of finding him again.Then, once they regrouped, he could explain properly. Everything. It was time.
[play now on YT: ‘Chargers From The Sky’]
When the Commander arrived on the bridge, he was relieved to see the download was complete, and all trace of the hack had been deleted. He quickly removed the data and slipped the paper-thin drive into the monitor on his arm. Before he turned to go, he checked on the main monitor to see how the battle was going. He felt himself pale.Not only were the fighters outnumbered and struggling now, but the Archeus seemed to be—“Enemy ship has locked onto the Whalien. Initiating shields.”Yoongi swore and spun the video frame on the monitor around to see better as the Whalien’s feminine automated voice sounded through the room via the intercom.
“Shield initiation failed. Redirecting AGS energy supply for backup.”
Not good. Yoongi knew before the automated voice could even continue, because he’d just had to float from the pod loading area.
“AGS malfunction found. Unable to redirect energy supply. Initiating—”
Yoongi stopped listening. He watched in horror as he spotted E-10, the pod Jimin was occupying, take several hits, getting knocked off course but luckily remaining intact due to properly functioning shields. The Commander checked the monitor on his arm, swiping through the menus as fast as he could to access Jimin’s vocac:om’s monitoring of his vital signs.He was alive, and breathing. But that didn’t tell him what he wanted to know.Yoongi called through his vocac:om.“Park Jimin. Do you copy.”Silence. Yoongi strained to hear for any sound at all, but there was nothing. Only a slight crackle, but he couldn’t tell which end it was on.“Park Jimin. Do you copy.”Still nothing, but—no, wait. Was that a groan?“Park Jimin, do you copy. If you can hear me, please respond.” He kept his voice calm despite the tenseness in his shoulders. “Park Jimin, I can see your vitals on my monitor. I know you’re alive. Please respond.”He heard it, this time; a shaky breath. And then, finally, a voice.
“I’m…here.”
Yoongi lost his grip on the control panel as the ship lurched, and he had to grab onto the Captain’s seat to keep from floating too far. All of the alarms were going off, now, and dimly he heard the overhead intercom announce that the blast doors were being closed between all levels and corridors of the ship to prevent fire from spreading. But Yoongi could feel every explosion as they grew closer and closer to the bridge.He closed his eyes and concentrated, feeling through the vacuum to find Jimin’s link. He could almost grasp onto him, locking down on his link before searching for a strong enough link with which to connect him. It didn’t matter where he Sent him, as long as it was away from here. Someone could find him later.“Park Jimin. I’m Sending you.”It seemed like minutes, but in reality was barely a second; he could feel a link. It was faint, and far away, but he could feel the strength in the connection.He barely heard Jimin’s panicked voice in his ear.
“No! Commander, don’t Send me! I—”
He locked down on the second link and gave Jimin the hardest shove possible to Send him onto the line connecting them.Yoongi knew it was dangerous to split his concentration in the middle of Sending, but he had no choice. He could feel the heat, could hear the roar, and he knew the fire would reach him in the next moment. As much as he knew Jimin feared for him becoming a martyr, the Commander had no desire to die yet. He clenched his ring-less hand at his side and hurled his own link out without first finding a line to connect with.His breath was punched out of him as he fell through darkness without a target destination. He could still feel Jimin’s link, though, and that’s all that mattered. Sensing that he was nearly there, Yoongi released his hold on Jimin and focused all of his attention on himself.Hopefully he wasn’t too late to catch onto a link. . “We’ll head out first thing tomorrow, toward the town I was telling you about,” Yoongi spoke as he settled down into his sleeping bag and reached for the flashlight lantern to switch it off. Jimin was lying to his side, a bundle of clothes underneath his head and Yoongi’s heavier jacket draped over him for warmth in addition to the clothes he was still wearing. “I can’t promise how fast we can get there, but as long as you’re up for the hike, we’ll try to get there as quick as possible.”Jimin cracked a small smile. “Not sure how great of a hiker I am,” was his reply, and Yoongi couldn’t help the snort that came out, “but I’m no stranger to hard workouts.”“Ha. Funny that I absolutely hate working out.”He was about to switch off the light when Jimin spoke up. “Why’re you hiking, then?”“Backpacking,” he corrected him. “I’m backpacking. But anyway, it’s sort of a…retreat for myself, I guess you could call it.”“A retreat?”Yoongi hummed. “Yeah. I just…needed to get away from society for a bit, you know?” He paused, and when Jimin didn’t react, he continued anyway. “I also thought I could use some inspiration. I think I’ve run dry lately. Haven’t been able to make anything worthwhile.”“Inspiration? What do you make?” he could hear genuine curiosity in Jimin’s voice, now. “You some kind of artist?”Yoongi huffed out a laugh. “Well, no; not really. But in a way, I guess; I’m an architect.”“That’s…different,” he heard Jimin mutter, and it almost sounded like he was thinking aloud.“Not what you expected, huh?”“No, I just—I mean, I wouldn’t have guessed that, I suppose.”“Eh. Well, even though I’ve been relatively successful so far, I probably won’t be for much longer. I don’t know what it is. I just—” he broke off, all of his stress abruptly coming back full force. This is why he’d needed to get away. To clear his mind. To get rid of all of those negative thoughts. Yet here he was, delving right back down into that black pit of despair at his failing career.He wasn’t even failing yet. But he could see it was going to happen soon enough.“Sorry. I don’t really—” He wasn’t sure why he was even apologizing. When Jimin was quiet for too long, he heaved a sigh. “Let’s just sleep.”Jimin grunted in acknowledgement, and Yoongi switched off the lantern, plunging them into darkness.Immediately, his sense of hearing kicked in. He’d grown used to the sounds of the forest at night, easily able to relax and sleep quickly, but now he was highly aware of the body next to his. The rain had stopped sometime after nightfall, but the trees around them were so laden with water that heavy drops continued to hit the tarp periodically. Other than that, it was silent. Yoongi could barely hear Jimin breathing, and he didn’t even shift around restlessly. He just lay there, silently.Where had he come from? The fact that Jimin hadn’t even known that they were in the woods—in the mountains, really—was a huge red flag. He’d either had something happen to him to make him forget—concussion, perhaps—or he’d been drugged and transported into the woods before getting abandoned. But if that was the case, Yoongi hadn’t seen any other hikers on the trail so far. None of it made sense.After a good fifteen minutes had probably passed, Yoongi finally heard a noise from his guest. Just a soft rustle as he shifted, rolling over on the most likely uncomfortable ground. He heard an equally quiet sigh, and a sound like—he tried to place the sound, drawing up an image in his head—like dry hands rubbing against each other, or fingers—a scratch of metal reached his ears. Oh. Jimin must’ve been fiddling with his rings.Once he’d identified the sound, or at least settled on that conclusion, Yoongi let his eyes slip open to stare at the roof of the tent. His eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and although the floor of the tent was still pitch-black, the narrow dome around them was faintly visible; just enough for him to see the outline of Jimin’s figure when he shifted his eyes to glance at him. The other man was now facing away from him, with his back to Yoongi. He was shivering, just slightly, and whenever a noise reached them through the tent walls, he flinched.Was Jimin scared of the woods? Perhaps in the morning, Yoongi would ask him about it, although there really wasn’t anything to be done about stray twigs snapping and night animals calling in the dark. They couldn’t just check into a hotel in the middle of the wilderness, and Yoongi certainly wasn’t going to offer to hold the suspicious stranger’s hand.He had to bite the inside of his lip to keep from making an amused sound at his own thought, and quickly shut his eyes again.The nervous thrum in Yoongi’s blood from having a stranger in his tent distracted him for a while, tiring him out until he had no choice but to succumb to sleep at long last.Morning dawned bright, cloudless, and cool. Yoongi awoke alone in the tent. At first, it didn’t occur to him that anything was strange, but then the previous day came back to him, and he sat up abruptly. He panicked momentarily, assuming that Jimin had run off on his own (with his jacket, even), but when he ducked out from the tent’s low entrance, he found the other man sitting on a large rock, wrapped up in the large jacket and still wearing Yoongi’s clothes.He was staring out into the woods.“Mor—morning,” Yoongi croaked, clearing his throat mid-way through when he realized his throat hadn’t woken up just yet. It was interesting how Jimin’s posture immediately straightened when he heard Yoongi’s voice, but then returned partway to his previous slouch when he glanced up at him.“Good morning,” he returned. His breath floated out in the air before him. It wasn’t that cold, but it was still chilly enough for their breaths to form clouds. “Thank you,” he continued, “for letting me stay in your tent last night.”Yoongi snorted as he pulled out his bag of provisions. He was already regretting not packing even instant coffee let alone pre-ground coffee, but he hadn’t wanted to lug a million things on his trip, so his simple water pack would have to do. He tossed Jimin a breakfast bar and the water pack after taking a swig for himself.“What was I supposed to have done; leave you out in the rain? I’m not that cruel. As much as my friends would like to claim.”Jimin only smiled slightly, lips curling a little, but it didn’t entirely reach his eyes. He handed the water pack back.“How are you feeling? What time did you wake up?” Yoongi began packing up the little he had unpacked, wondering if he should offer some different clothes to Jimin. He hadn’t packed more than a few sets of clothing, but if they were going to head toward a town, he supposed he could simply stop by a laundromat to get everything cleaned at once.Jimin shrugged. “I slept all right.” Yoongi was reminded of the way he’d flinched at the forest sounds last night. “I don’t know what time I woke—it was still mostly dark. I didn’t wake you when I left the tent?”“Nope. Surprising, actually. Normally I’d notice if I heard the zipper open.”“Ah. I tried to be quiet.”They didn’t say much for a few more minutes, until Yoongi indicated he was going to go off to relieve himself. Jimin just nodded and went into the tent to gather his things. By the time Yoongi had returned, Jimin was wearing the lower half of his motocross suit—Yoongi wasn’t sure how to ask about it, despite how curious he was about the bizarre outfit—with the top unfastened and somewhat tied around his waist. He only had on his simple t-shirt again, and was holding Yoongi’s hoodie.“You can keep wearing that, if you want,” Yoongi offered. “The last thing we need is for you to come down with something, too.”“Oh. Thanks, then.” Jimin pulled it on once more and zipped it all the way up to his neck. His shoulders were much narrower than Yoongi’s, and the hoodie looked like it would have slipped right off of them otherwise. “It’s comfy,” he added, somewhat hesitantly. He tugged on his boots, latching and fastening them to the legs of the pants themselves until they almost seemed like a seamless fit, and then he stood up out of the tent.Yoongi suddenly had the distinct feeling that Jimin was just as nervous around him as he was around the other man, if not more so. It also felt like the stranger was purposely trying to keep some distance between them. For some reason that rubbed Yoongi the wrong way.“Look,” he started, almost surprising himself with the gruff, irritated tone to his voice, “I’m not going to hurt you. You don’t have to act like that. Just—I dunno, relax. We’ll get you into a town, where we can call someone, and hopefully get you home safe.” He paused, trying to wordlessly get Jimin to look up at him and make eye contact. When he finally did, Yoongi held out a hand. “Deal?”He saw Jimin glance at his hand, visibly swallow, and then nod. He reached out to shake Yoongi’s hand, grip surprisingly firm and strong despite his small stature.“Deal. And, thanks.”Yoongi scoffed and let go, turning away. “No more thanks. Just give me a hand with this, and we’ll call it even.”Together, they disassembled the tarp and tent, shaking them out and quickly rolling everything up. Then Yoongi looked over his GPS one last time to double check which trails he wanted to take compared to his original plan, and then they headed off.Yoongi heaved his bag up higher on his shoulders, and kept an ear out for any suspicious sounds from behind him on the trail, where Jimin was following him. The other man was a quiet hiker, not starting up any unnecessary conversation; and while normally Yoongi would prefer this, right now it only made him nervous. He’d entrusted his tent and rolled-up, folded-up tarp to Jimin to carry, and the stranger had accepted with no complaint. . This world’s Min Yoongi was both strikingly similar to Jimin’s own, and yet drastically different. Certain mannerisms were the same; certain tilts of the head, certain tones of voice…but where Commander Min was always focused and in control, this Yoongi seemed to forget things and get distracted frequently enough for Jimin to notice. The backpacker often pointed things out to Jimin as they were hiking, and he’d add on anecdotes to the little tidbits of facts.Both Min Yoongis were intelligent, that was for sure.Jimin tentatively decided that he could trust this Yoongi, at least for the time being. He often looked out for loose or unstable ground along the trail, warning Jimin before he could get tripped up or snagged, and he held branches out of the way when they strayed into their path, rather than simply letting them swing back and smack him in the face after pushing them aside for himself.Once, long ago, Jimin had seen a forest. He couldn’t recall if he’d gone into it, or just looked at it from the outside. He wondered if it had been a forest on Earth he remembered. He had spent most of his remembered life inside artificial living units, where nature was planned and controlled. Here, there was no aesthetic design, there was nothing to keep the pesky insects away, and nothing to prevent wild animals from attacking or making a meal out of them.Jimin hadn’t slept well. Despite his words to Yoongi, he’d barely slept. He was pretty sure he’d dozed more than he actually slept. Jimin had read enough books and seen enough movies to know what kinds of animals lived and roamed in the wilderness. Every snap of a twig outside the tent was a large, burly bear or a wild boar; every rustle of leaves was a hungry wolf or an angry leopard.Even the presence of another person beside him hadn’t been a comfort. Knowing that it was Min Yoongi, yet not Min Yoongi, did nothing to calm his nerves. The few times he and Commander Min had camped out on a planet or a moon with at least partially breathable air, they’d always had a secure, airtight ‘tent;’ if it could even be called that. More like a capsule or pod. Expandable, collapsible; designed to keep out all danger and toxins. Jimin had always been impressed and surprised by the amount of knowledge Commander Min had when they were on duo missions like that. Jimin didn’t know the first thing about starting a fire or how to check for whether wood was truly dry enough to be burned without creating too much smoke. He didn’t know about where the best place to set up a tent was, or how to make all accompanying belongings multipurpose to save on carried weight.Jimin had been impressed with everything about the Commander since the very first time they had met. Jimin was lucky to have met him.Now, Jimin lifted his eyes from the forest floor where he’d been looking out for roots and loose rocks to trip over, and observed the man hiking ahead of him. He was so similar, and yet not.In his quickly increasing exhaustion—he’d never spent so much time all at once in such strong Gs—Jimin imagined the silhouette before him shifting. It didn’t take much to imagine. The shoulders remained the same, but perhaps they were a little straighter, a little broader with firm muscle from years in the military. The Commander had been in the military for four years before even meeting Jimin in the younger’s first year in service, and they’d stuck together for four years after with Jimin under Commander Min’s leadership. The Commander was a serious, hardened soul, although occasionally he cracked a surprising joke.Jimin mentally replaced Yoongi’s dark hair with the Commander’s silvery white hair. Commander Min didn’t particularly care for his appearance in the way Jimin did, and his hair was often half-hazardly brushed back with just his fingers, squished beneath a military cap, or completely hidden by a helmet. Even with the false image in his mind, though, this world’s Min Yoongi was still far younger, and far softer than the man Jimin knew.The man who had sacrificed the last moments of his own life to Send Jimin away from a losing battle.Jimin bit the inside of his lip, frowning hard at the back of Yoongi’s head. There was no time to mourn. No point in mourning. It was just one more death among the hundreds Jimin had witnessed or been a part of.Jimin’s heart had always been a little soft, though. Despite being specially trained in hand-to-hand combat, he did not like to take lives. He had, numerous times of course, but he couldn’t help the crushing feeling of wrongness whenever he saw the life disappear from their eyes.He’d welcomed the chance to become a fighter pilot. It had been Commander Min’s suggestion. Somehow, he’d trusted in how skilled Jimin would become; one of the top in the fleet. Without the face-to-face reminder of humanity in front of him when fighting, Jimin had excelled. He could probably fly anything at this point, if given half a minute to locate all of the controls.He could fly anything…but he couldn’t Send himself anywhere. No matter how hard he trained with the Commander, Jimin had never succeeded. The one time he’d partially Sent himself, he was only lucky that the Commander had been able to catch his link and draw him back fully intact and mentally stable before he got lost in a wormhole.Jimin’s foot caught on a root, and he stumbled. What would have normally been just a small stumble seemed to trigger a chain reaction in his body as it was thrown off balance while he was lost in thought. He stumbled again as he felt the full effects of the Earth’s gravity, and he just barely caught himself on a nearby tree. When Yoongi turned around, a look of concern on his face so similar to the last time Jimin had seen Commander Min, the lost pilot felt something in him break.A choked off sob forced its way up his throat, and he turned his face away into his arm to hide it, eyes stinging. His stomach felt like it was cramping up, and he dropped to his knees as his head abruptly swooped.“Hey—hey, are you all right? Jimin-ssi?” Yoongi was standing next to him in a moment, unable to crouch down properly because of his large pack, but offering out a hand. Jimin shrugged it away.“’m fine,” he rasped, trying with all his effort to reign in the crushing pain that was finally hitting him.The Commander was dead, but here Min Yoongi was, standing beside him, talking to him, worried about him, with no idea who Jimin was.“Here.”It took him a moment to realize that the pack of water was being pressed into his hand.“You probably need more water. I don’t have much right now until we can refill at the river, but you can have it now. You need it more than I do. I don’t know if you had a concussion, but even if you didn’t, you must’ve been unconscious for a while before I found you. Take it easy and let me know if we’re going too fast for you.”“I’m fine,” Jimin insisted again, this time more firmly. He did take the water, though.He clenched his jaw, willing himself to stop seeing the Commander in front of him. This was a stranger. This was not his mentor…not his friend.This was a stranger.Commander Min Yoongi was dead, and Jimin would never see him again............
Glossary of Terms or Specialized Tech
Fighter helmets: Fighter pilots have to wear helmets synced to their brains for full control and visual awareness of the battles. Disconnecting too soon causes slurred speech, vertigo, vomiting, weakened muscles (because the neurotransmitters can’t send the electric signals needed to control them), and occasionally loss of consciousness. [concept drawing by me]Archeus: The main mothership of the Royal Family. *More info on the Royal Family to come later.‘Archeus was a word made up by the Swiss physician and alchemist Paracelsus as a way to describe the vital force that connects man, nature and the universe.’ - source Cyphern – Planet. Rebel’s refuge base is located on the non-planet side of its moon. Cyphern was once thought habitable, but the weather was too extreme for humans to survive comfortably or without great effort. Frigid winters, too-hot summers. Floods and wind. Humid. Only 2 light-years from Outer Arm.
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Chapter 3: ‘M.I.A.’ The weather shifted mid-afternoon, turning cloudy and dull. Jimin wondered if it would start raining again.“If I hadn’t shown up,” he spoke up at one point, startling both himself and Yoongi, “what were you planning to do? Just hike and camp? You said you were on a retreat.”“Yes and no,” Yoongi replied, sounding a little out of breath. He certainly wasn’t in as good of shape as Commander Min. “Over the next ridge just north of here, there’s a valley and a small cabin I built. I was planning on stopping there for a bit, clearing my head, getting some work done…then head back the way I came.” He paused. “I mean, that was the general plan. I didn’t really plan in detail. Like I said, I just needed to get away.”“Ah.” Jimin wasn’t sure what he was supposed to say to that. He felt a little guilty for getting in the way, but it wasn’t like Yoongi was really doing anything, right? Relaxing? Not like it would be the end of the world. This was far more important. There were lives on the line.Even though Jimin had no idea what he was going to do once they did get to town. He supposed he would pretend to contact someone, and then part ways. Then again, had he been Sent to Yoongi on purpose? Was he the link Commander Min had locked onto when Sending Jimin?He had no way to know, and from what he could see, this Min Yoongi was nearly useless for anything but keeping him momentarily alive in the woods, and for his company—as odd as it was, it did feel somewhat familiar. Jimin felt at ease around him in a way he knew he wouldn’t if it had been any other stranger.No, he didn’t trust him completely; not yet. But he could feel himself relaxing as the hours wore on.“What about you?” Yoongi suddenly asked. “What do you do? You look old enough to be working, right? You’re not a student still, are you?”Jimin shook his head, and then remembered that he was behind Yoongi, so he vocalized the reply. “No. Not a student.”“How old are you, anyway?”“Twenty-two. You?”“Huh. You’re older than I thought. I’m twenty-five.”So this Min Yoongi was far younger than the one he knew. Commander Min was thirty-three, if Jimin recalled correctly. Sometimes they lost track of birthdays, what with them not being so important when there was a rebellion going on. They rarely celebrated birthdays.“So?” Yoongi prompted when Jimin didn’t say anything. “If you’re not a student, what do you do for work?”Jimin tried to think of a realistic answer. He had to be careful of certain careers which didn’t exist. If it was an entirely parallel Destination World, there was no telling what existed and didn’t. So far they didn’t feel all that different from what he was used to, though. Still—saying that he was a ‘fighter pilot’ would definitely not go over well.“I don’t—it’s kind of embarrassing,” he stalled, when he realized he’d been thinking for too long. He had to think of something mundane, and boring; something he wouldn’t be asked many questions about. But what? “I’m just, uh—I do deliveries,” he ended up with, lamely.“Ah.” Yoongi nodded, ahead of him. “I gotcha. You didn’t go to university, then, I assume?”Jimin frowned a little. He wasn’t entirely sure what that was. Was it something everyone did? But then what was it? He tried to dig deep into his memory of everything he had learned during trainings and lectures, everything he’d read during his long nights of studying for the exams. He’d enlisted at the age of eighteen, acing all of the exams from sheer overload of studying and graduating high school a little earlier than his classmates. He’d heard whispers of the Rebellion in his third year, and immediately knew he wanted to join. After what had happened to his mother; there was no question about it.“No need to feel embarrassed about not going,” the older man added when Jimin once again took too long to respond. “Honestly, university is only useful if you need to be specialized in something. Otherwise…it’s just a waste of money, I think. As long as you’re happy, that’s all that matters, seriously. No one is going to give a shit about all those boring textbooks you read. No one’s going to care that you got a hundred or a forty on a test.”Jimin tried to hide the smile that threatened to spread across his lips. There was just something so…Min Yoongi about those comments. Maybe both men were more similar than he thought. After all, if they were parallel beings, there had to be more things they had in common besides just their names and appearances.“I’m not dumb,” Jimin decided to protest. “I was a top student when I was in school.”“Never said you were,” Yoongi said dryly, pausing as he checked his GPS. “You hungry? We should probably stop soon to have a bite.”Jimin hadn’t been thinking about his stomach, but now that they had stopped, and he was taking notice, he did feel hunger pains, and his hands were a little shaky.“A bit, yeah.”They found a somewhat level rock to sit upon and break out Yoongi’s food bag. He poured water into another packet of dehydrated rations—this time it was some kind of casserole—and heated it up on his little stove. Just like the stew he’d eaten the previous night, it was surprisingly good.“Is all your food dehydrated like this?” he asked, chewing on what tasted like chicken and noodles, with bits of carrot, onion, and possibly even mushrooms.“Not all, but most of it. I have a stock of non-perishables and canned foods down in my cabin. Hopefully it’s still there, at least. Haven’t got any alerts from the security being triggered by trespassers.”Even after living in space nearly all his life, Jimin knew that there was something strange about that. “You have an alarm system set up on a cabin in the middle of the woods? What, are you loaded or something like that?”He didn’t miss the amused smirk. “Something like that.” Jimin watched as Yoongi ate another forkful of casserole, and took a swig of water. “I’m a pretty successful architect. Or at least I was. We’ll see how long my savings lasts.”This Min Yoongi seemed pessimistic to the point of it almost seeming like there was something Jimin should be worried about. Commander Min, while always realistic, never seemed to talk like that. He wasn’t about to sugarcoat a situation, but he also didn’t assume the worst before they’d even had a chance to put the effort in to remedy it.Then again, Commander Min was a lot older. Jimin supposed he’d had time to mature in a way that this world’s Yoongi clearly hadn’t yet. He wondered how different the Commander had been when he was younger, before Jimin had met him upon his enlistment.“What will you do if you can’t get inspiration, or whatever it is you’re looking for?” Jimin asked.He couldn’t help that he felt a little concerned for this world’s Min Yoongi. Even though they weren’t the same person, it almost felt like he was doing disservice to Commander Min by not caring; Jimin wanted Yoongi to be well and happy, and right now he had the sense that the man sitting across from him, silently chewing his casserole, was not happy.“Dunno,” was the answer he was given, along with a simple shrug of the shoulders. “Find something else I’m good at, I guess.” There was something in the tone of his voice that told Jimin he didn’t want to talk about it anymore, so he dropped it.Once they finished eating and wiped off their utensils as best they could without running water, it was back to hiking. The dull, gray clouds eventually thinned out as the wind picked up the higher they climbed. There were fewer trees to protect them from the wind that rushed through the mountainous terrain, and Jimin ended up refastening the torso of his suit to combat the chill. He still wore Yoongi’s large jacket over it, though.Eventually they began a downward trail once again, and reentered the trees as the afternoon wore on.By the time they stopped in a nice, level clearing to set up camp for the night once the sun got too low in the sky for them to hike safely, Jimin’s entire body was aching from the constant workout on uneven surfaces. He’d adjusted to the pull of Earth’s gravity, although he still felt somewhat weaker than he usually did in the low-gravity environments he spent most of his time in. It was taking a toll on him.They made significant progress that day, according to Yoongi as he began unpacking the tent and cooking tools. They should reach town the next day.They built a small fire this time, working together to create something of a miniature fire pit with surrounding rocks and stones so they wouldn’t burn the whole forest down. Yoongi heated up some of the water he’d collected and filtered from a small river they’d passed earlier on in the day, and cooked them up some ramyeon.When Jimin tasted the gochujang in the broth, he froze. Unbidden, an image from his childhood appeared; sitting with his mother in their home in Busan, eating ramyeon from the saucepan set on their little table on the floor of their living room. He was seven at the time.They had the news playing on the TV, the volume turned down with the closed captions running across the screen. Jimin remembered slurping up the noodles and getting a particularly spicy mouthful, coughing and choking loudly. His mother had absently handed him her glass of milk, never taking her eyes off of the replaying explosions onscreen.Jimin hadn’t understood at the time that it had been a turning point in their lives. He hadn’t understood why, barely a few weeks later, they were being rushed onto giant ships and shot off into space. He hadn’t understood why he had to say goodbye to his friends and his favorite teacher.He understood now.Jimin didn’t choke on the spicy noodles, now. He silently continued to eat, savoring the flavor he hadn’t tasted in so many years. Savoring the memory of his mother with her beautiful, long black hair and rosy cheeks. Park Minseo, had been her name. She had been a strong woman, full of love; but also filled with a bitterness and cautiousness Jimin never understood.She had carried that with her to her death.Jimin stared up at the sky. He could see the moonlight above the puffy altocumulus clouds, lining them with a silver glow, enhancing their softness. Gazing up at them, he thought about who was out there beyond them—if anyone at all; and how many years or worlds away they were. He wondered whether anyone was looking for him. With Commander Min dead, how would anyone find him? Without the ability to Send himself, would he be trapped in this world, on this Earth, forever? . Stars shot past Yoongi faster and faster, never-ending. He could feel himself starting to freeze, could feel himself starting to lose consciousness as if all the blood was being drawn from his brain. Just before he was lost, though, he found a link. He caught onto it with all his might, and drew himself toward its pulse.When he came out of the last vortex, he was upside-down and would have possibly broken his neck if it weren’t for him quickly tucking under and into a ball before he hit the ground hard on his side. It knocked the wind completely out of him, but not a second later he felt his stomach rise. He rolled over just in time to vomit all over the cement where he was lying.He hadn’t puked after a Sending in years. His stomach rose again, and he let out the last of his stomach—mostly just bile at this point—before he felt the darkness creep in again. The last thing he knew before everything went silent was the thud-click of magnetized boots approaching over the cement, and a familiar voice.“Took you long enough…this wasn’t how you were supposed to show up here, you know.” Slowly, sounds came back, and then light.Yoongi groaned slightly and could feel how dry his mouth was. He frowned before slowly opening his eyes and staring up at the paneled ceiling. There were tube lights overhead; a steady, cold glow, completely silent. He became aware of a fan somewhere off to his side, humming lowly. An equally soft digital ping sounded every now and then, in some pattern he couldn’t figure out.He was lying on a bed of some sort—nothing terribly comfortable; perhaps a gurney or a cot, or a simple medical bed. He wasn’t hooked up to anything, but there were definitely machines in the room. When he shifted, an additional beeping sound started up; it was slow, with long pauses, but it was unlike the other pinging sound.A door hissed open, and footsteps approached.“Finally up, are you? Where’ve you been, Commander?”He groaned and heaved himself up onto his elbows to look at Jung Hoseok, his longest friend of nearly eight years, and one of the medics stationed at the refuge base. Was that where he was now?“You’re all there, in there, right?” Hoseok frowned, leaning a little closer and already reaching toward his pocket to pull out a scanner, but Yoongi stopped him.“I’m fine, just a little drained.” His voice was hoarse. “What’s the latest report? Did everyone make it back?”Hoseok drew back, and gave him a bizarre look. “You do realize you’ve been gone for three weeks, right?”Yoongi sat up straight, so quickly that his head spun a little. “What?” That couldn’t be— “No. I—what do you mean, three weeks?”“We all thought you went down with the Whalien. Captain Kim said you were last on the bridge, waiting for that fucking download. Poor Jeongguk has been beating himself up about it, even though it’s not his fault at all.”“The Captain’s alive? And Jeongguk-ah? They made it? And the evacuees?”“Yes—thirty-one of the forty pods arrived undamaged and safe. Three were heavily damaged, with injuries; a few fatal, unfortunately. One pod arrived empty for some reason, and we…lost five full pods. We also lost four fighters; the rest made it back safely.” Hoseok’s voice was grim, but they both knew there was no sense in getting too emotional over the loss. The greater threat was far more serious than the small numbers of fatalities they had suffered, as horrible as it was to speak of them that way.Abruptly Yoongi repeated Hoseok’s words in his head. One pod empty. “Wait. One pod was empty? Do you remember which one it was?”Hoseok gave him a look like he was insane, and went over to a monitor. “You think I remember something like that from three weeks ago?” Without waiting for a response, he skipped through several screens before finding what he was looking for. “E-10. Arrived severely damaged on the outside, with the glass cracked and most of the oxygen gone—insides were frozen over. But there was no sign of—”“That was Jimin’s pod,” Yoongi interrupted. “Where’s Jimin? Did he make it? You said three weeks—is he here already?”Hoseok pursed his lips. “Jimin’s M.I.A. In the beginning, we assumed he was with you, but when neither of you showed up, we knew something had to have gone wrong. Then, you popped out of nowhere onto the hangar floor two days ago, alone. Taehyung found you. We have no idea where Jimin is. Was he out fighting? He and his fighter never came back with the others. He was one of the four we counted lost.”“Fuck.” The Commander put his head in his hands, willing himself to calm down and think straight. “God fucking dammit.” He looked up. “I Sent him.” He saw the way Hoseok’s shoulders relaxed, and quickly added, “I don’t know where I Sent him, but he’s out there somewhere. I had to let go before the Whalien exploded with me onboard. And then I didn’t—I didn’t even bother finding myself a link before Sending myself off of the ship.”“Shit.”They stared at each other for a brief moment, equally stunned at the turn of events, and then Yoongi swung his legs off of the bed and staggered to his feet.“Whoa, hold on there,” the medic protested, grabbing his shoulder as his knees buckled. “You shouldn’t be—”“There’s no time, Hoseok-ah,” Yoongi snapped, shrugging him off and grimacing as he shook himself out a little before heading for the door. His entire body ached, and he could feel his strength draining out of him with every step. “We don’t know where Jimin is, we don’t know how long until our favorite Royal prisoner kicks the bucket, and when he does—wait, Lee Ki-Woong is still alive, right? Please tell me he’s alive.” He paused for barely half a second as they moved down the tunnel-like corridor. He’d suddenly remembered he had lost three weeks of time. Anything could have happened in that time.“He is. I can name a few who wish he wasn’t, but—yeah, the bastard’s still alive.”“Thank god. At least there’s that.”“At least there’s that,” Hoseok agreed. “Meanwhile we don’t know where the Archeus has disappeared off to. After the battle, it blinked out and we don’t know how much they know."“The Archeus,” Yoongi hissed, reaching for his arm monitor and realizing it wasn’t there. “Where’s my monitor? I need to give the Captain the download.”“Captain Kim took it already,” Hoseok said, coming close to support him again when he sank against a wall. “Seriously, Yoongi-hyung,” he said in a low voice, switching to their more familiar, off-duty titles, “it can wait. You need to get your strength back first. Namjoon has everything already. And Jeongguk’s been pouring over the download. Wait and I’ll have them come to you.”“But Jimin—” Yoongi cut himself off. Hoseok was right. Even so— “I still need to talk to Namjoon,” he insisted. “Don’t make me give you a direct order, Hoseok-ah.”The medic raised both hands in surrender. “Fine, fine. But at least let me help you there.”When Yoongi stepped into the communications room, it took a moment for anyone to notice his presence. However, the moment Captain Kim Namjoon spotted him, there was a shout as his good friend and fellow officer rushed over.“Commander Min! Good to see you up and about. How are you feeling?” Namjoon pulled him into a quick hug, patting him on the back a little. Hoseok took his leave, presumably heading back to the medical rooms.“I’ve been better. But that’s not important right now. Hoseok said I’ve been gone three weeks? Fill me in on what’s happened since then.”“Not much has happened, to be honest. The Archeus disappeared, and we can’t pick up its signal anywhere. There have been no attacks, thankfully, so we’ve had a bit of time to regroup, resupply, and just catch our breaths in general, but it feels…like we’re missing something. I don’t like it.”“And the download? You’ve been looking through it?”“Yeah. Jeongguk’s been decoding it since you dropped into the hangar the other night. He’s gotten some of the info out, but not all of it yet. There’s some kind of firewall within the data that he’s having trouble breaking through.”There was a sudden commotion on the other side of the room, and both men looked up. A tall young man wearing half of a fighter’s uniform—the top hanging and half tied around his hips, just a simple under armor shirt on— had just burst through the door, nearly crashing into two people leaving, and immediately jogged over to Yoongi and the Captain.“Commander Min! Where’s Jimin-ah?” Kim Taehyung’s expression was closed, as it usually became when he was trying to hide how angry or upset he was, even though it was clear as day. The boy couldn’t hide his emotions no matter how hard he tried. “Where’s Jimin?” he asked again when Yoongi didn’t answer quickly enough. His voice was dangerously low.The Commander shook his head. “I don’t know. He’s…alive, I think, though. He should be alive. But I have to get back to OA before I can find him again.”“What?” This time it was the Captain. “Why do you have to go back to OA?”“I put a tracker on him before I put him in the escape pod.” He sighed, knowing he’d have to go through and explain everything. His knees buckled abruptly, and Namjoon quickly put an arm around him to support him. They made their way over to a station where there were some empty chairs, and Yoongi sank down into one.“During the battle, Jimin returned to ship without permission,” he began. “Not only that, but he removed his helmet before the countdown had ended. He found me on the bridge—I think he was coming to get me off the ship—but then he collapsed. The idiot. I managed to get him into one of the escape pods—E-10, the one which Hoseok told me returned empty and damaged.”Taehyung gasped, interrupting his recounting. “No.”Yoongi put a hand up to quiet him. “I Sent him just before the Whalien was destroyed. But I don’t know where. I wasn’t thinking of a place; I was trying to find a strong enough link to push him toward, since I knew I didn’t have time to finish Sending him.”“What?” Taehyung sounded angry again. “You just threw him out there and then left him? He could be still—”“Kim Taehyung,” Yoongi interrupted sharply. “I didn’t leave him; I held onto his link until the very last moment I could. But the ship exploded before I could do anything, and so I Sent myself out without anything to hold onto. Would you rather I had died onboard?”“Why didn’t you just follow his link?” Taehyung demanded. The young fighter had been Sent before, of course, but he’d never attempted it on his own. He didn’t understand exactly how it worked.“Come on, Taehyung,” the Captain spoke up, this time. “He couldn’t have done that. Sure, if Jimin had already arrived, he might’ve been able to if the trace was still there, but we can’t just follow people through the wormholes like that.” He turned to Yoongi. “But what’s this about a tracker? You know we already wiped his tracker three years ago.”“It’s not the one in his arm. It’s one I gave him when I put him in his escape pod. But it’s a two-part tracker, and without the other half, the one he has on him is useless. I need to get back to OA, where the other half is.”“Back to OA?” Namjoon looked doubtful. “It’ll take too long to get back there without—you can’t be thinking of Sending yourself there right now, are you? That’s too risky. You’re in no condition, and you know very well I’m nowhere as good as you at Sending other people.”“I know. I need to try, though.” Without his mother on OA anymore, Yoongi didn’t have a strong enough link to get back without a lot of effort. “I have to try. We need to find him.”“What about—” Taehyung trailed off uncertainly and then started up again when they both looked at him. “What about finding the same link you used to Send him originally? Can’t you find that one again?”“I could try,” Yoongi agreed, glancing at Namjoon without much hope. “But the problem is that too much time has passed, and that link—who knows what could have happened to it.”“But you could try?” Taehyung said hopefully.Yoongi nodded, and reached up to pat the taller, but far younger man on the shoulder. “I could try.” He sighed, and then turned back to Namjoon. “But if that doesn’t work…I’m gonna need to get back to OA as soon as I can.”Namjoon pursed his lips, but nodded. “I’ll see what we can do to help.”...........
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Chapter 4: ‘Found’ Yoongi spread out his sleeping mat and then his sleeping bag. At one end of the very small tent, Jimin was changing out of his suit and into the joggers from the night before. Yoongi was reminded of how small the other man was without the layers of his suit and the jacket he’d been wearing most of the day. Before Jimin had told him he was twenty-two, Yoongi had assumed he was perhaps twenty at most. Yet…there was something so aged in his eyes, like he’d been through hell and back.Yoongi didn’t entirely believe that Jimin did deliveries. Or if he did—there was something else going on that he was keeping to himself. Yoongi wasn’t naïve. People didn’t just show up unconscious in the middle of the woods for no reason. Jimin had been dumped there; abandoned, without any means of survival had Yoongi not happened upon him. There had to have been a reason. So far, the other man seemed kind and harmless enough. He hadn’t made a single move to harm Yoongi, nor had he tried to steal anything and run off.Then again, Jimin probably realized he didn’t have a chance out here without Yoongi.He glanced down at the sleeping bag again as Jimin crawled over to him and began to spread out the jacket the same way he had the night before. He was already shivering, tugging the sleeves down to cover his hands.Yoongi reached for the zipper of his sleeping bag.“Let’s share it,” he said before he could take back the thought.“Excuse me?” Jimin froze, eyes shooting up to his face. “Share what?”“The sleeping bag.” Yoongi began to unzip it all the way open, and pulled it open so it could be spread out over them. It wouldn’t be nearly as warm, but seeing Jimin curled up under the meager jacket didn’t sit right with him. Yoongi wasn’t that heartless.“I’m fine, really,” Jimin insisted, and lay down, pulling the jacket up to his chin, drawing his legs up under it. His socked feet and bare ankles were still very much visible.“That’s bullshit, and we both know it,” Yoongi gave him an unamused look. “Come on. This isn’t much, but it’s better than a damn jacket.”“I said I’m fine,” Jimin muttered.“Why?”“Why what?”“I’m literally offering to share this so you don’t freeze your balls off,” Yoongi griped. “Why are you so adamant about not accepting my goodwill? Do you have a legitimate reason, or are you just being stubborn?”Jimin gaped at him. “I’m not cold; I don’t need it.”“I can literally see your goosebumps,” Yoongi sighed tiredly. He lay himself down on the mat, and then lifted the sleeping bag up with a sharp shake, causing it to spread out and settle down over both of them.“If you tug this away from me in the middle of the night, you’re going to earn an ‘I told you so,’ in the morning,” Yoongi warned him lightly, before rolling onto his side with his back to the other man. He reached out an arm to switch off the lantern.There wasn’t much space between them; perhaps fifteen or twenty centimeters at most. The tent didn’t allow for much room, and the sleeping bag was not the kind designed to be opened up like this, lying slightly lumpy over their feet, but it was still sufficient. He heard the rustle and felt the tiny tug of the sleeping bag over him as Jimin seemed to roll over onto his side as well. There was a somewhat embarrassed, “Goodnight,” and then they both fell silent. Jimin’s heels brushed against Yoongi’s upper shins before pulling away as if burned. Yoongi didn’t even bother rolling his eyes.It had been a while since Yoongi had shared his sleeping space with someone like this. His last relationship had been nearly four years ago, and he’d just never bothered trying to start up another. It was all so much of a headache, to the point that he’d just lost interest. He preferred being alone, anyway; having the freedom to do what he wanted without worrying about working around another person’s schedule and needs. It was probably part of the reason why he’d grown so successful so quickly; he threw himself completely into his work, because there was nothing holding him back and nothing influencing his decisions but himself.Sleeping beside someone like this, listening to their breathing and feeling the warmth from their body, was oddly calming, though. He’d forgotten about that part.Not to say that he was thinking about that kind of thing with this random stranger he’d found in the woods; that would just be inappropriate and taking advantage of the situation. Despite how beautiful Yoongi found the other man, he wouldn’t dream of trying anything with him in this situation. Perhaps, had they met in another way, he might have considered it. But everything about their meeting and interaction was too strange.Unconscious in the middle of the forest? No idea how he got there? No identification or belongings? Strange clothing? It was too bizarre. Like something out of a thriller.Yoongi sighed and shifted slightly, trying to get comfortable without tugging the sleeping bag away from his companion.Sleep came a little easier tonight. . Jimin felt himself pulled back into consciousness abruptly, but when he opened his eyes to stare up at the dimly lit tent ceiling, he couldn’t immediately place what had woken him. Yoongi was still fast asleep beside him, curled up on the sleeping mat with the sleeping bag still draped over both of their bodies. He was facing Jimin now, mouth slightly open as he slept. Jimin took a moment to observe him, noticing how completely relaxed he seemed.He was so young. Only a few years older than Jimin himself, and yet there was something about him that felt like he’d been living like an adult for a long time already. He felt…‘jaded,’ was probably the right word for it. Tired of life, tired of whatever stress it was he’d been dealing with.Jimin picked out all of the similarities and differences between the face he knew so well and the one in front of him. Granted, Jimin hadn’t exactly stared at his mentor so meticulously as he was doing now, but years of working closely together and becoming almost inseparable companions even in their down time, Jimin had learned Commander Min’s face very well. The only differences he could spot were due to age; sharpened cheekbones, wrinkles by his eyes, tighter skin.There was a small sound outside the tent, like a dead leaf crunching under a weight. Instinctively, Jimin’s eyes shifted toward the sound, although he didn’t jump like he had the night before. Then he heard a rustle and the quietest click of plastic or metal, and his entire body went stiff. There were humans out there, and he had a strong suspicion they were not from this world.There was no way for him to know if they were friend or foe without seeing them, though, and with him closed up in the tent, there was no way for him to check without giving himself away. He lay still and desperately hoped Yoongi didn’t wake.He heard a low murmur just outside the tent; there were more than one, and they were talking together, but Jimin couldn’t hear what they were saying. Something in his gut told him they were not friends.Yoongi shifted slightly and made a soft groaning noise in his sleep, and Jimin pursed his lips tightly together; eyes on him, ears trained on the sounds outside. He could probably muffle and restrain Yoongi if he had to, to prevent him from bringing attention to Jimin’s presence; Jimin had never been able to overtake the Commander during training and sparring, but the Yoongi in front of him now definitely would be no problem at all.That didn’t mean he wanted to, though.Carefully, moving slower than he ever had in his life, Jimin slipped out from under the sleeping bag, trying to not make a noise that wouldn’t be considered one made out of sleep. He creeped over to his boots by the tent door and took one at a time, slipping them on and fastening them as silently as he could. He had no weapon, but if he had his boots on, he could at least run. He glanced at his suit folded neatly beside Yoongi’s bag, and gingerly lifted it to hide it underneath the jacket. His useless vocac:om was being kept safe in one of the inner pockets of the jacket.If he could just get out of the tent without them noticing, perhaps he could draw them away—or if he could hide fast enough, then even if they looked inside the tent, they’d hopefully assume Yoongi was just a regular hiker and leave him be.He strained his ears to listen. The sounds seemed to be on the side of the tent opposite the door. It was a huge risk, but he was going to take it.Swallowing tightly and trying to ignore the way his heart beat hard in his chest, he pinched the inner seam of the door zipper to make it as taut as possible and began to unzip the door, tooth by tooth. As soon as there was enough room for him to slip through—he thanked his genes for making him both small and flexible—he carefully squeezed out, remaining in a crouch while he zipped the tent back up just as slowly as he’d opened it.The sun hadn’t risen just yet, but it wouldn’t be long; the sky overhead was dark, dark indigo, but the horizon through the trees was a pale white-orange. It just barely illuminated his surroundings and promised daylight at any moment. His breath rose out in a cloud, and he quickly took a deep breath before holding it. Now that he was outside the tent and completely vulnerable on the blind side of the tent, he was starting to regret his decision. But there was no going back, now.Jimin moved toward the corner of the tent, careful of each step, feeling out with his fingers before creeping forward. When he reached the corner, he took the chance, and peered around it. He could see two figures, clearly in garb from his world, and clearly not from the Rebels. The badges on their sleeves told him as much.They must have followed his Sending trace. There was no other explanation for how they’d found him so quickly. Which meant—had they won the battle? The Whalien had been lost, after all. Had anyone escaped? Had the remaining fighters and evacuees been taken captive or simply killed? Jimin didn’t allow himself to think about that.The men weren’t looking his way at the moment; instead, they were facing each other and looking down at a dimly glowing screen.He didn’t wait for another chance. Making sure to step toe-heel to soften his steps, he hurried as fast as he could in the opposite direction, not rising to his full height until he was sure he had significant brush between them. There was no point in going too far and getting lost, so he found a sturdy enough looking pine and began to climb it, taking care to not snap any branches on his way up.He couldn’t see much from his position, but that also meant that they hopefully couldn’t see him, either. He waited, and waited as the sun slowly began to rise through the trees. It was cold, but he couldn’t do anything about it, clutching at the rough bark, crouching uncomfortably in a way that would allow him to jump down quickly if need be.The two figures moved into view momentarily; they were heading away from the tent, thankfully, but also moving toward Jimin. They drew closer and closer, stepping in a similar way to himself, before pausing. They were only a few trees away, now, and they seemed to be conversing again. Abruptly, one of them took hold of the other’s inner elbow, and a split second later there was the tell-tale quiet but cringe-inducing ripping sound as they Sent themselves away.Jimin waited another several minutes before gingerly climbing back down. His hands were pale and stiff, but red around his knuckles. He bit his lip to keep his jaw from shaking so much from the cold as he returned to the tent.He suspiciously checked the area around their tent, but didn’t see any evidence of anything being left behind or disturbed.When he unzipped the tent and crawled back in, he nearly collided with Yoongi, who seemed to be on his way out of the tent. They both fell back, Jimin rolling to the side into the tent, before scrambling back up.“Holy fucking hell,” Yoongi gasped out as Jimin quickly zipped the door shut once more. “What were you doing out there?”“Taking a piss,” Jimin lied easily. He tugged his boots off and began to strip out of the clothes he’d borrowed so he could pull his suit back on.“What are you doing? Why do you look half-frozen?” Yoongi pointed out suddenly. Jimin tried to control the shivering, but didn’t succeed very well.“I’m fine, it’s just a little chilly out there.” He quickly fastened his suit and began pulling his boots back on. Warmth began to return to his body. “We should get a move on, if we want to get to town early,” he said, tugging the jacket out from under the sleeping bag and shucking it on.“What’s the hurry all of a sudden?” Yoongi frowned. “We’re only a couple hours away now. We should reach it before lunch.”“That soon?” Jimin raised his eyebrows. “Good. The sooner, the better.” He began gathering the few loose items in the tent—the lantern, the abandoned sleeping bag, which he quickly zipped up before rolling up tightly—“Jimin.” Yoongi put a hand on his arm to stop him, forgoing honorifics in a way that gave Jimin a sudden chill at the familiarity. “What’s going on? I’m not stupid; I can tell something’s wrong.”“We need to go,” is all Jimin could say. “We need to go.” He wished he could leave Yoongi here; separate him from potential harm, but he knew there was no way he could find his own way back to the town without the help of the backpacker.“All right, all right; you’re freaking me the fuck out. We’ll go.” He turned and also began to gather his belongings to pack them back into the bag. He pulled out two energy bars, and tossed one to Jimin. “At least eat this, first. If you want us to get a move on, we’ll need some sustenance.”“I’ll eat it on the way. We need to get the tent packed up.”Thankfully, Yoongi didn’t fuss too much more, although he kept sending suspicious glances at Jimin throughout the entire time they disassembled the tent and packed it up.He didn’t have the stomach for it, but Jimin broke open the energy bar while he watched Yoongi reattach the tent to his large bag. The food didn’t go down well, sticking in his throat and settling unpleasantly in his stomach. He gulped down several swallows of water before passing the pack back to Yoongi. Jimin tried to keep from pushing the other man to eat faster, but his impatience must have shown, because soon enough Yoongi heaved his bag back up onto his shoulders and began to lead the way.They hadn’t been hiking for more than twenty minutes when Jimin caught a flash out of the corner of his eye, and looked down. Just barely visible in the glint of the morning sun, there was a tiny pinprick of red dancing on his chest. He dropped to the ground before his heart beat could even increase.“Jimin-ssi, what—”Jimin seized Yoongi’s ankle and knocked him off his feet, sending him crashing down from all of the weight on his back. “Get down,” he hissed unnecessarily. He quickly pulled Yoongi’s arms out of the restraint of his bag. He had no way to protect Yoongi without a weapon. If he could get one of theirs—“Stay down, and don’t move until I tell you,” he whispered into the other man’s ear as he dragged him behind a thick tree.“The fuck? Why—”“Shut up, and don’t move.”With that, Jimin slipped out from behind the tree, crouching as he scrambled behind bushes and rocks, trying to keep as quiet as he could. Then he grabbed onto a low branch, lifting himself up high into the air. The moment he came into sight, he heard the gunshots and felt the burning rays disturb the air as they missed him. He leapt from branch to branch, flipping and turning to avoid the shots.It was far more difficult to move like this in Earth’s gravity, but luckily Jimin’s training had been intense, and the Commander often pushed everyone into accelerated gravity chambers during sparring matches.He dropped down and took out one of the shooters, snatching his gun and turning it on him immediately.Just as he was taking out a second one, he heard a loud commotion and glanced in time to see Yoongi being restrained by one of the men. He wasn’t being quiet about it, yelling and swearing and struggling—without any luck of freeing himself because this Min Yoongi clearly didn’t know the first thing about self defense.Jimin kicked the third man in the face as he got close enough, and turned the gun he had in his hand on the fourth.“Let him go,” he shouted in rage.When the man not only didn’t do as he was told, but also began to raise a buzzing shock blade up toward Yoongi’s throat, Jimin didn’t hesitate; he shot two quick shots, hitting his mark directly in the temple. He didn’t have time to see the result as he felt a searing pain slice across his shoulder.Turning without a sound, he shot both of his remaining attackers in the face and chest.There was abrupt silence as all four of the attackers lay unmoving on the forest floor. Ignoring the pain in his shoulder, Jimin collected their guns and checked their bodies for anything useful.Yoongi came over while he was still crouching down beside one of the men.“What the fuck! What did you just do? Did you just kill them? Oh my god, I’ve been harboring a killer.”“They were going to kill us,” Jimin pointed out as he pulled out a few energy cartridges. He remembered a time when he would have blanched at what he had just done. But that was a long time ago, and he wasn’t about to let two Min Yoongis die.“Yeah, but,” Yoongi looked disturbed. “You couldn’t just, I dunno, maim them?”“Why would I do that? Then they’d just send more after me after confirming my location.” He removed their vocac:oms; it wouldn't be safe to use them as is, but perhaps he could salvage his own. Jimin wasn't the most skilled in fixing things; that was more along the lines of Commander Min, or one of the other Rebels’ specialties, but Jimin wasn't completely useless, and he was sure he could figure something out. He took the shock blade, removing its holster from its dead owner and strapping it to his own thigh.“Why are they after you? Are those the guys who left you in the woods? What did you do? And what kind of guns are those, anyway?” It was clear that Yoongi was freaked out, and becoming more horrified the more time he had to think. Jimin might have to break the first rule of Sending, after all.“I'll explain later. Right now, I need to make sure they don't lead anyone else here.” He turned the left arm of the man he currently was inspecting. He pinched the area just below the wrist, searching and feeling around until— “Found it,” he muttered. He pulled out one of the guns, pressed the barrel directly at the spot he'd been pinching on the man's forearm, and pulled the trigger, blowing a hole in the dead man's arm.“Fuck!” Yoongi exclaimed, and jumped away. He was waving his hands frantically in front of his face. “What are you doing? He's already dead!”“Sorry. They have trackers. I need to destroy them.” One by one, he did the same to each of the others.Jimin had a tracker; nearly everyone did. But he'd had his information wiped from all servers when he officially joined the Rebels. There were only two ways to avoid being tracked, and those were it; destroy or delete. It was extremely risky to remove the tracker without suffering severe blood loss; trackers were surgically inserted so close to the veins that most people who tried to remove them themselves usually died from blood loss.“Trackers,” Yoongi repeated dully. “Trackers. What is this, a sci-fi movie?”Jimin glanced up at him, smiling slightly. There was no humor to it. “Not a movie, I'm afraid.”With a groan, he pushed himself to his feet. His shoulder was throbbing; he should probably check out the burn, but he knew it couldn’t be too bad if he could still move his arm and fingers just fine, and—"We need to get going."This time, Yoongi didn’t protest. . Yoongi couldn’t wrap his brain around what was going on. One moment, Jimin was a simple, seemingly innocent young man—albeit with some unknown and dangerous problems; the next he was sprinting around, performing acrobatics, killing people. With strange, futuristic-looking guns. It didn’t add up, and what was even worse, there was something very off about the entire situation.Was he dreaming? Was he about to wake up in a few minutes, with Jimin still asleep beside him in the tent, curled up in his jacket under the sleeping bag?The longer they hiked, though, it became clearer that he was most certainly not dreaming. At first it was in a very uncomfortable silence, but finally Yoongi couldn’t stand it anymore. He wasn’t used to just letting people keep important things from him.“Tell me what’s going on,” he demanded, stopping abruptly and causing Jimin to nearly crash into him. “Tell me, or I won’t take you to town.”He knew it was dangerous to threaten the other man; especially since he was now armed with multiple guns, ammunition, and a knife, and appeared to be very capable of defending himself against attackers. Again, how had he ended up unconscious in the middle of the woods with the way he knew how to fight?“I’ll tell you, but we have to keep moving. We can’t stay here.”Yoongi noticed then that there was blood on the shoulder of his jacket Jimin was wearing. Jimin’s face was a strange sort of pasty, and he was sweating.“You’re hurt,” Yoongi pointed out, unsure if he was just surprised or concerned.Jimin nodded. “I got grazed. It’s fine. It could have been worse.”“I have a first aid kit. I’ll patch you up if you tell me what’s going on.” He knew it was a lame bargain, but he also really didn’t like the way Jimin’s face looked right now.Jimin stared at him for a moment before swallowing. “Off the path. We—” he stopped to grimace, and Yoongi made a decision.He grabbed Jimin’s other arm and pulled him with surprisingly little protest off of the path, pushing through the brush until they found a somewhat clear spot to sit down, unseen from both the path and the sky. Once Jimin was settled on the ground, Yoongi set his bag down and pulled out the purposely easily accessible first aid kit from a side pocket. Then he carefully helped Jimin pull the shoulder of the jacket down enough to free his arm.“Talk,” Yoongi said stiffly, as he fumbled to also open up the top half of Jimin’s suit and move aside his shirt so he could get to bare skin.Jimin waited until his bleeding and…burned?—shoulder was bare, until Yoongi began to carefully clean the luckily superficial wound with disinfectant, and then he began to speak.“I’m not from your world,” were the words he decided to start off with, and rather than scoffing and telling him he was insane, Yoongi remained silent as he cleaned and then covered the wound. “You asked what I do—I’m a fighter pilot in a rebellion. I, I’m from a place called Outer Arm. It’s a giant series of linked space stations. It orbits our destroyed Earth, and feeds off of its dying moon. I—”“Sorry, what?” Yoongi interrupted. “‘Feeds off of its dying moon’? What does that mean?”Jimin frowned. “What do you think it means? We pull from the resources left on the moon. Water, metals, what little food there is left—some people still live on the moon, but they are mostly just laborers and military, now.”“There’s water and shit on your moon?” Yoongi didn’t bother hiding the disbelief in his voice. What was even going on? None of it made sense.“Of course—why; is there none on yours?”“You’ve seen the moon in the sky,” Yoongi pointed out. “Does that look like it has any water or people on it? No. It’s just a dead rock orbiting Earth.”Jimin was quiet for a moment, allowing just the sounds of the breeze and the birds in the trees to reach their ears.“It doesn’t look all that different, honestly. The mining and agriculture is on the far side of the moon—I learned in history classes about the general public going up in arms about ‘ruining the view’ if they’d set up shop on the Earth side. Most of the water is underground, and the agriculture is farmed within specially built greenhouse units.“Anyway, all of that’s not important,” Jimin brushed off with a shake of his head. “As I was saying, I’m from OA—what we call Outer Arm for short—but I lived on Earth when I was a child. My mother and I had to evacuate due to nuclear war. The people who still live on Earth now…I don’t know how they can do it. Most died. It was livable at first, I guess, but with each year it gets worse. The radiation and fallout has drastically changed the climates, made people and animals sick, and it’s extremely difficult to grow anything without the right resources such as what a lab could provide. Of course, there are old communities and colonies throughout the galaxy, but for all of the people on Earth who couldn’t afford to leave—there wasn’t much they could do but stay and try to survive. There really aren’t that many humans left in the galaxy, now,” he sighed.“Are you from the future?” Yoongi asked, internally cringing at the absurdity of that question alone. He wasn’t even sure if he would believe it even if Jimin said yes.“Not the future, I don’t think. I’m from what we call a parallel universe. It’s nearly the same, but…different.”“How are you here, then?”“I was sent here.”“Yes, but how?”Jimin smiled, then, but it was more like a grimace. “Send. It’s not the word you’re thinking of. When someone ‘sends’ someone, it’s like…teleporting? You leave one plane of existence and appear in another. It’s not instant, but it’s near-instant. Not everyone can do it, either—I can’t; I’ve never succeeded no matter how many times I tried, otherwise I would have gone home by now. I was sent through what we call ‘wormholes’ to come here. I probably would be dead otherwise. The person who sent me is dead.” Abruptly Jimin bit his lip as he stared up at Yoongi, a strange, pinched expression of mental pain crossing his features. “He died to save me.”When Yoongi saw the tears fill up Jimin’s waterline, an uncomfortable feeling clenched at his chest. He swallowed and looked away, back down to the nearly finished wrapping of Jimin’s injury. He tore off a couple pieces of medical tape and secured them before drawing Jimin’s arm back into his sleeves.“Why were you sent here?” Yoongi asked finally, after the silence had dragged on too long.“I don’t know. He—he might’ve just been reaching for anything without thinking. I’m…stuck here until someone finds me.”“When you say ‘someone,’ you mean someone from your side, I assume? Why were those men after you?”Jimin rolled his shoulders and straightened out his clothing before standing up. “We need to put more distance between here,” he said first, and Yoongi nearly called him out on avoiding the question, but then he surprised him by saying a moment later on the path, “Those men were probably from the Intergalactic Police. I assassinated the Deputy Prime Minister of Outer Arm. There’s probably a warrant out for my arrest. Or death, I’m not sure. I only killed her two weeks ago.”Yoongi sucked in his breath. “You what?” He then choked out a second later, “Why?” because Jimin just didn’t seem like the person to do something like that without good reason, but there really was no way to know that for sure.“Like I said, I evacuated Earth during the Last War.”Yoongi noticed he said it like a title, like ‘World War II.’“I was only seven; I don’t really remember it all that well. I wasn’t lying when I said I was born in Busan. I saw it on your map; it’s the same city, in the same place. But different. It’s impossible to tell how much is the same and how much is different, here. Anyway, I grew up on OA, and life seemed normal, until I got to my teenage years and started to notice things and hear things. The Royal Family—”“Royal family?” Yoongi interrupted again, feeling like a headache was starting up in his temples.“The Royal Family of Korea,” Jimin said, as if it was obvious. “Korea was one of the most advanced countries in the world, and the Lee family had their claws and money rooted so deep in its infrastructure that they basically monopolized most of the Outer Space industry throughout the world. They sponsored and owned half of the ships capable of traveling between Earth and Outer, they founded most of the programs…I could go on and on, but the main point here is that when shit hit the fan and nuclear bombs started going off, it was the Royal Family who had the capability to evacuate as many people as they did.“For years, they were the ‘saviors of mankind.’ For years, they could do anything they wanted, because they had saved us. And maybe, in the beginning, they did genuinely care, but at one point, that idolization and privilege corrupted them. They began mistreating the residents, taxing income and rationing resources even more than before. We all were fitted with trackers way in the beginning, when we left Earth. For our own safety, they’d told us, at the time.“As you can expect, plans of rebellion weren’t far behind. I don’t know how long plans of rebellion were in place; I was too young, but it was already in motion behind the scenes by the time I joined the military.“They abandoned OA. Around fifty thousand people reside in the colonies of OA. But they’ve decided that there are bigger and greater things worth their attention, and bit by bit, they have left Outer Arm—but they didn’t just leave, no; we could have dealt with that. We chased them away, after all. We hadn’t known.” Jimin’s voice grew angrier the more he spoke. “We could have survived. We could have figured that out. No; when they left, they literally cut OA off from any chance of survival.”“What do you mean?” Yoongi was growing invested in the story despite himself.“When they originally sponsored the construction of Outer Arm, I guess they were paranoid about someone else coming into power, so to ensure that that couldn’t happen, they programmed all of the life support on the stations—oxygen, filters, electricity, whatever you can think of—to be activated only by the DNA of a member of Royal blood. Anyone from their family, be it the king or fourth cousin twice removed, as long as there is a trace of their blood, the life support can be activated.“We didn’t know this at first. No one did. It took barely a few weeks before the effects started showing. Machines shutting down with no warning and with no reason. Electricity failing. The Artificial Gravity Stabilizers going out of whack. To top it off, we can’t use deceased DNA—we tried that already—so there has to be a living family member available to activate it.”Jimin took a deep breath, voice a little hoarse from all of his talking. “Two months ago, we were able to capture a member of the Royal Family, but he’s in bad health, and will probably die soon. The settings can be reprogrammed if they get someone with the DNA to change it, but—well, he’s a complete asshole and refuses to cooperate.”Jimin stopped speaking. Once again all they could hear was the crunch of their footsteps and the sound of nature around them as they hiked. Yoongi tried to process everything he’d been told. There was so much detail that it couldn’t be made up, and he’d seen with his own eyes the men—intergalactic police?—that had attacked them. It didn’t make sense, but how could Jimin be making all of this up?“You don’t need to go into town, do you,” Yoongi suddenly realized aloud, but didn’t stop leading the way.“No,” was the quiet response. “I don’t. There’s no difference between me being here or in town. There’s no place for me to go until someone from the Rebels finds me. If they ever do.”Yoongi grimaced at the despondent tone of voice. “Well,” he started, “I personally don’t want to be stuck in the middle of the woods with space soldiers after us, so we’re still going to town. You can do what you want after that, but I am not sticking around here anymore.”Jimin hummed his acknowledgement, and they continued on............
Glossary of Terms or Specialized Tech
Shock blade: Utility grade knife with an electric current running through the hollowed blade. Can be used as a taser on humans, to short-circuit electronics, or as a regular knife if switched off. The handle is covered in rubber to prevent accidental shocks to the user. Used by police and military.
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Chapter 5: ‘Failure to Send’ The Commander quickly pulled on a fresh flight suit, strapping his monitor back onto his arm and making sure he had extra energy cartridges for his two guns. One for close range, the other for long range. He hooked his vocac:om around his neck and over his ears, leaving it turned off for now.There was a knock on the door to the changing room, and Namjoon came around the corner.“Make sure you have a space-tight helmet,” the Captain warned him, “just in case.”“Yeah. I know. I planned on it.” Yoongi sighed and brushed his hair off of his forehead.“Careful,” Namjoon said, and the Commander glanced up at him when he heard the light, teasing tone of his voice, “you’ll end up bald at this rate. I wonder if there’s a point at which your hair can’t turn any more silver than it is now. Looks a little whiter now, already. Maybe it’ll just start falling out.”Yoongi let himself smile slightly, and purposely pushed his hair back again, holding it tight against his skull for a moment as he took a deep breath before letting go. “Fuck off, Joon.”“Just saying. You Send too often. You’re abusing your license, and your hair is going to suffer.”“It’s a necessary sacrifice I’m willing to make.”Namjoon hummed in acknowledgement. When Yoongi was ready, he walked alongside him down the corridor.Namjoon and Hoseok were the only ones who knew that Yoongi’s hair wasn’t simply dyed silver. It was a little known fact that Sending too often could have multiple side effects. One of which was the melanin getting stripped from the Sender’s hair. Most people didn’t even have licenses to Send, and even fewer Sent enough to even notice a difference. It was the least of Yoongi’s worries, honestly; it had never bothered him other than when Namjoon was being an ass about it.“Do you think you can do it? Do you think you can track him down the way Taehyung suggested?” the Captain spoke up as they got closer to the communications room.“No. If I’m brutally honest with you; no. But I’m not going to not even bother trying, because I’ll regret that even more than any time wasted in the attempt. I have to get him back.”“We have to get him back,” the Captain reminded him.“Yeah,” Yoongi agreed, grimacing. They reached the door of the communications room, and stepped inside. “We have to get him back. God, if I could just remember—”“Captain! Commander!”Both men looked over as their former Whalien navigator strode up to them.“Navigator Kim,” Yoongi greeted, nodding his head at the slightly older man. His age was something Yoongi never forgot; even though Kim Seokjin was lower rank than both Namjoon and Yoongi, he never let them forget that he was older by a handful of months. It was amusing, Yoongi thought, which parts of a culture stuck with people even after leaving the country on Earth in which the culture originated.“We caught a trace of a ship that might be the Archeus. Ironically, they’re closer to OA than they’ve been in a while. I don’t know what it is they might be planning, but I don’t want to find out.”“How can they get there so quickly?” Namjoon frowned, leaning over one of Seokjin’s broad shoulders to peer at the screen where the chart was displayed.“I’m not sure—they could have built some advanced technology and kept it all to themselves,” the navigator shrugged. “It wouldn’t surprise me, honestly.”“Navigator,” Yoongi interrupted. “Can you bring up a location pin on where the Whalien was lost?”“Yessir.” Seokjin skipped through screens until he found what he was looking for, and typed in the Whalien’s codes.Yoongi looked over the information and charts that appeared, mentally creating a picture of the exact location he’d been in when he Sent Jimin.He shut his eyes and reached out, far into the vacuum, searching for that link he’d caught onto. He remembered how strong it had felt, despite being so far away. But it was completely gone, now. He tried to feel for Jimin’s link in the same area, reaching out as far as he could, but it, too, was nowhere to be found. It didn’t make sense.“It’s gone,” he muttered, slowly opening his eyes and realizing Namjoon’s hand was at his back, holding him steady; his knees had started to buckle from the strain of searching. “It’s not there anymore. Neither of them are.”“Not there anymore?” Seokjin frowned.“Yeah, it’s—I know where it’s supposed to be. I remember that much. But it’s physically not there anymore.” He glanced at Namjoon. “I have to go back to OA. There’s no helping it.”Seokjin turned back to his monitors, already going through, pulling up the coordinates. “I can try to guide you,” he said, “but I don’t know what good it will do. Try to hold onto one of our links so you can get back if something goes wrong.” As Navigator, Seokjin was fully educated in the mechanics of Sending, but he was unable to do so himself. It took a level of self-sacrifice and endurance Yoongi knew the other man had never been able to achieve.Yoongi hadn’t had anything else to lose when he’d started training to Send all those years ago.
[listen now on YT: Cézame Trailers – Singularity]
Yoongi fit his helmet over his head, making sure he could hear the click of it locking into place and sealing tightly before he focused on the coordinates. It was significantly more difficult to Send with just a location—especially one in motion—when there wasn’t a firm human link at the other end. It was why so many people didn’t even bother learning; what was the point if you couldn’t just pop in and out of places whenever and wherever?Yoongi closed his eyes briefly and hurled his link out through the vacuum this time, picturing exactly where he wanted to go, trying to latch onto some kind of link strong enough to pull him through. The communications room disappeared from around him like a light being switched off, and he shot through the vacuum, stars turning into streaks of light. He held on as tightly as he could, but a different kind of darkness began to cloud at his consciousness within moments. There was a sharp stinging at the base of his neck.Abruptly he felt like he’d passed something. It was a sudden burst, like a beacon, but he couldn’t stop himself before he was already far beyond it. He turned without thinking, wanting to reach back; to catch hold of the link that could be no other than the one he’d been trying so hard to locate—The line he was on snapped.In a completely different way than he’d ever experienced before, Yoongi felt himself jerk to a standstill. He was disconnected from any and all links. He was nowhere. The stars had stopped rushing. They blinked around him, silent, and distant.“Fuck,” he breathed.He tested his vocac:com.“Commander Min Yoongi to Captain Kim Namjoon. Do you copy.” He waited a moment, with no answer. “Captain Kim, can you hear me?”Silence.He tried to see if he could tell from the stars where he was. There was literally no telling where or when he was, but if he could just calculate his—he spotted a spec of light that wasn’t a star. He didn’t recognize it, but a planet was better than drifting in space.He focused on the planet’s visual, hoping it would be enough. The pain in his spine started almost immediately this time. It was a dull, almost numbing pain; like whiplash from being in a car accident. He tried to ignore it, knowing he couldn’t afford to split his concentration again.He hit the ground on his feet, but he hit it so hard his knees buckled.He fell face first into a thick, snow-like substance. He pushed himself up, only to nearly get bowled over by a gust of wind so strong that it felt like he’d been socked by a giant pillow. He stumbled forward, catching himself as he tried to look around. The sun of this planet wasn’t visible at all, but it seemed like early dawn or late evening with the way the light was casted around him. The wind surged around him, picking up piles of snow—or perhaps it was snowing, as well—and hurling them about. Massive, jagged rocks rising high into the air scattered the landscape, black like coal and with a strange shimmer to them like iron ore.The wind howled between the rocks, and desperate to get out of the sheer force of it, Yoongi staggered toward the closest one.The temperature gauge on his monitor beeped three times in quick succession; minus 210 degrees Celcius, and dropping. Luckily his suit was designed to protect him from such temperatures, but if anything should happen to his suit, such as a tear in its material, or crack in his helmet, he’d not have long before freezing to death.The moment he was in the shelter of the rock formation, he tried to feel for that burst he’d felt. It had to have been Jimin. It made no sense why it would be where he’d felt it, but it had to have been.He tried to concentrate. But it was gone, and he could feel himself weakening. He could almost hear Namjoon’s voice in his head, telling him he was in no condition to be Sending. It was true. He wasn’t. He could feel it. But he had to do this.The wind and snow disappeared.Yoongi was no longer moving steadily through the wormholes, but instead tumbled through them, limbs whipping him around, mind growing dizzier and dizzier. He hit a hard, metal surface with his back shoulder, and felt his breath punched out of him. . Jimin and Yoongi reached town a little after eleven. It didn’t seem to be much of a town at all, even, with no flashy buildings other than what seemed to be a bank, and only one old, three-story hotel that they could see. They walked down a narrow street without any kind of designated walking space other than the thin shoulder of the road, passing a few old pubs with their metal sheet doors pulled down; their night-time hours printed in peeling, cracking paint. They passed a barbershop, and a sauna, as well.When they unconsciously came to a stop across the street from a tiny diner, Jimin glanced at Yoongi. “You can leave me here, you know. It’s probably safer for you if you don’t get caught up in all of this.”“What are you going to do?” Yoongi frowned at him, and only as a few pedestrians walked past did Jimin realize how dirty they both were, with bits of dirt smudged across their faces, and bits of dried blood underneath Yoongi’s fingernails from when he’d patched Jimin up. He could see it clearly as the other man absently held onto the straps of his backpack to ease the strain from his shoulders. “You have no money, remember?”Jimin had forgotten about that detail, seeing has how he did have money; just not anything he could use here.Yoongi seemed to battle with himself for a moment about something, and then he spoke, sounding like he was already regretting his words, but unable to help them.“Look,” he started with a sigh, “we’re both a mess. You’re covered in blood.” It was an exaggeration, but there was a bit of a dark patch on outside of the jacket shoulder. “Why don’t we get cleaned up, grab some real food, and then decide where to go from there?” He paused and rolled his eyes slightly. “I’ll pay.”Jimin didn’t want to fight him. “Okay,” he muttered, feeling heeled in a similar way to how he did whenever Commander Min scolded him for acting brash.“Good. Now that that’s sorted out,” Yoongi turned, glancing around their immediate vicinity. “I’d suggest the sauna, but I doubt they’ll let you in with your injury. We could check out that hotel—see if we could get a room to wash up in. Might have to stay the night, anyway.”“I’m fine,” Jimin started to say, but was cut off.“You’re not fine. And that restaurant or diner—or whatever it is—isn’t going to be happy about us walking in like this.”That was how Jimin ended up following Yoongi down the hall of the first floor of the hotel they’d seen before, the oldest key Jimin had ever seen in his life held between Yoongi’s fingers.Jimin remembered, vaguely, of a time before he evacuated Earth, when he and his mother had stayed in a hotel. It had been his birthday, and they went to the beach for a weekend despite it being October. They didn’t go in the water, but simply built sand castles and ate unhealthy snacks all afternoon in the sun. Their hotel room had been small, but cozy, with one full-sized bed they had shared, curled up together. Maybe Jimin had been four, or five at the time. He didn’t remember that time too clearly.This room was also small, accommodating two twin-sized beds, a desk, and a small bathroom with a simple stall-shower. Everything had a grayish, brown tinge to it.Yoongi let out a loud groan as he let his bag fall to the carpeted floor.“I’m going to see about using those washing machines off the side of the lobby,” he announced. “I’ll shower when I get back, so you can take your time.” He pointed out the set of sleepwear lying neatly folded on each bed which came with the room. “Just use those for now, and then you can borrow something of mine again when I’m back. Your…space suit…is too noticeable,” he gave Jimin an uncomfortable stare. “It’s a space suit, isn’t it. I’ve been wondering about it since I found you.”Jimin nodded, and began to gingerly shrug off the jacket. His shoulder felt sore and a little stiff, making it more difficult to get the sleeve off. “Yeah. It’s my flight suit.” He poked at the tear. “Pretty useless like this, though. It’s supposed to be airtight and insulate me from all elements—or lack there-of.”Yoongi’s eyes widened a little comically. “You can—wait, but how do you breathe?”Jimin snorted. “I usually have a helmet on, with an oxygen converter hooked up.”“A what?—I mean, obviously it converts oxygen; I could figure that out, but—”“It takes all of my expelled CO2 and converts it back into O2 to breathe.”“But you can’t—it doesn’t work that way,” Yoongi pointed out, surprising Jimin with his knowledge. “It doesn’t split into O2 like that.”Jimin held his hands up in mock surrender. “Don’t ask me to explain it all to you. What I do know, is that the pack which connects to the helmet gives me oxygen to breathe.”Yoongi didn’t look very satisfied with that answer, but after a few seconds, he shrugged and turned to his bag and began to unpack his dirty clothes. “Give me your stuff; I’ll wash it, too,” he waved at Jimin without bothering to look at him. Jimin glanced down at his suit. He must’ve been too quiet, because he heard a scoff. “I meant the clothes you’ve got under that thing,” he laughed, shaking his head. “You fucking reek. We both do, probably. I just can’t smell myself anymore.”Jimin couldn’t help the laugh the bubbled out of him, and he nodded as he grabbed the room wear—looked like a set of sleep pants and a classic button-down sleep shirt with one breast pocket—and stepped into the bathroom to change, still giggling slightly to himself.The bathroom fan was loud, and slightly squeaky, startling him when he first switched on the light, but then he quickly peeled his suit off, letting it drop unceremoniously to the floor, and then pulled off his shirt and underwear. His shirt was stained with blood, and torn in the shoulder.“Yoongi-ssi?” He stuck his head out of the bathroom door. “I dunno if we should bother with my shirt—and I don’t want to get the blood into your clothes.”“How bad is it? Lemme see.”Jimin held out the shirt.“Oh. It’s just a small tear. And most of the blood should come out in the wash—I doubt it’ll get into any of my stuff. I mean, you can toss it if you want, but—”“All right,” Jimin agreed. “If you don’t mind.”“Nah, nah; it’s not a big deal. Just toss them into here.” He held out a dirty laundry bag, which was already mostly filled, and Jimin dropped his clothes in before leaning back into the bathroom and shutting the door.“Oh, and you can just call me ‘hyung,’” Yoongi called through the door.Jimin stared at the closed door for a moment, smiling a little. He opened his mouth. “All right, hyung,” he replied, feeling the oddness of it on his tongue.He removed each of his rings, quickly washing them with a little soap and water before setting them on a hand towel to dry. He picked up the large ring Commander Min had given him, and looked at it a little more closely, holding it up to the light. There were engravings on the inside, but not words. It looked more like a circuit board. Although the ring itself was a silver-toned metal, the lines running around and interconnecting on the inside of the ring were gold. He carefully touched the inside with the tip of his index finger, but the surface was completely smooth. He angled the ring. He couldn’t see anything else unusual about the ring, so he set it back down with his other, more everyday rings.Jimin was in the middle of figuring out the shower nozzles when there was a sharp knock on the door.“Yeah?”“I’m heading out. Take your time. I left the first aid kit on the desk if you want to redress your wound.”“Thanks,” Jimin called through the door.Luckily the shower was not too difficult to understand, and after removing the gauze from around his shoulder—the wound didn’t look too bad, thankfully—he stepped under the hot spray and snapped the folding door shut before he got water all over the bathroom floor.He winced a little when the water hit his shoulder, but soon grew used to it, and was able to ignore the minor pain. He used the hotel shampoo and rinse to scrub his hair thoroughly before moving on to the rest of his body. He let himself simply absorb the water after he was clean, feeling it cascade over him and cleansing everything away.He thought about everyone he’d left behind. If they were even alive. Had Taehyung survived the battle? Losing Commander Min was already devastating enough, but if Taehyung, his best friend and fellow fighter pilot, had been killed in that battle as well, Jimin wasn’t sure he could stand it. He was sure that his assassination of Deputy Prime Minister Shin Eunha had been the trigger for the Archeus searching them out to attack rather than vice versa as it had been for a while. If his friends were dead, it was truly Jimin’s fault.He slowly bent down to a crouch, the shower still pounding all around him. He clasped his arms around his knees, hugging tight. The water ran down his face and blocked his nose briefly, streaming over his open, gasping mouth. He squeezed his eyes shut as he shook and sobbed into his knees.He had never wished so desperately to be able to Send himself. Commander Min had tried so hard to train him, spending hours upon hours, days upon days trying to help him master it. Jimin never could. He understood all of the physics of it, all of the rules; he knew exactly what he was supposed to be doing. But for some reason Jimin was incapable of Sending on his own. He still remembered the worst, and final day of his training.He’d been only nineteen at the time.They’d thought for a moment Jimin had finally figured it out. The training room had disappeared, but then it had flickered back, and then suddenly Jimin felt himself hurling through a wormhole only to be spit back—and then pulled back into the vacuum with absolutely no control. His entire body had exploded in pain, like his spine was on fire, like he was being ripped apart, and he couldn’t do anything but scream his throat raw.When Commander Min appeared and wrapped a firm arm around his waist, dragging him back to the safety of the training room, Jimin had collapsed against him and cried until he was so hoarse he couldn’t make any noise. Then, the Commander had helped him to the medical bay, and sat with him until he was sedated.They never attempted it again.When Jimin’s sobs tapered off, and he felt himself calming down, he gripped the door handlebar to pull himself back to his feet and turn off the water. He felt exhausted and drained, yet clear-headed now. He dried off and pulled on the bottom half of the hotel sleep clothes, and then put the Commander’s ring back on. He left his other rings on the towel when he went out into the room to collect the first aid kit.His wound wasn’t bleeding anymore; it was mostly cauterized. Nonetheless, he put some disinfecting ointment on it, then cut a few folds of fresh gauze and taped them over his shoulder just to be safe. Once that was taken care of, he put on the shirt.It was such a relief to be properly clean. Jimin hadn’t really thought about it, but he finally felt human again. His hair was soft and not greasy, his skin didn’t have that ever present grimy feeling of dirt and not-quite-clean hands, and right now as he leaned back against the head of his bed and closed his eyes, he felt his entire body relaxing in a way it hadn’t in…well, probably in months. The rebellion had everyone constantly on guard, ready to jump into battle at a moment’s notice if necessary.He didn’t notice when he drifted off to sleep.The click of the hotel door opening jolted Jimin back to consciousness. He’d slipped down to the mattress, where he’d curled around one of the pillows, and he blearily tried to get his bearings as he pushed himself up into a sitting position.“Sorry it took so lo—oh. Were you asleep?” Yoongi looked startled, taking in Jimin’s probably sleep-puffy appearance.Jimin frowned and rubbed at his eyes, then at his face, trying to get himself to wake up more fully. “Just…fell asleep, I guess. Didn’t mean to.” He ran his fingers through his hair, messing it up absently before straightening it out again. Yoongi was still looking at him a little funny. “How’d the washing go?” he asked, to turn the attention away from himself.“I had to wait for a washer, but eventually one freed up. Are you hungry? It’s nearly two.”“Yeah, a bit,” Jimin admitted, putting a hand to his somewhat grumbly stomach. “Didn’t you want to shower first, though, hyung?”“Yeah. I’ll be quick.” Yoongi went over to his own bed and dumped out the contents of the laundry bag, and Jimin got a wave of scented detergent. Yoongi sorted through the clothes until he found Jimin’s two items, and tossed them onto his bed. “There you go. All clean and dry. You can pick whatever from here to wear when we go find food. I’m just going to hop into the shower and then we can go, all right?”Jimin nodded and gave an affirmative answer, before Yoongi moved around the beds and then shut himself in the bathroom. Jimin got up from the bed and picked out the shirt he’d been wearing before, and then held up a pair of comfortable-looking black cotton sweatpants. He switched out the sleepwear for his own underwear and the fresh clothing.True to his word, Yoongi didn’t take long in the shower. Jimin had only been dressed for a little less than ten minutes before the other man emerged, hair still wet, but smelling much cleaner, and looking rejuvenated.“Ready?” he asked Jimin immediately. “Come on, before my stomach eats itself.”Jimin smiled slightly. This Min Yoongi had a very similar sense of humor to the Commander. Rather than finding it painful, though, Jimin realized it was calming. Perhaps it was because of his crying session in the shower, or perhaps it was something else; but he found himself relaxing further around the other man, and readily following him out the door after they both put on their shoes.They walked over to that diner they’d seen earlier. When they stepped inside, an old woman behind the counter glanced up at them.“Last order’s at two-thirty,” she announced. “Do you know what you want?”Jimin automatically glanced at the clock on the wall above her head. It was two-eighteen.“Um,” Yoongi said eloquently. “Do you have a menu?”They were handed a laminated menu, and quickly picked out their meals before going over to sit in a corner booth by a large, potted plant.Yoongi leaned onto his elbows on the table, and Jimin leaned back, folding his arms. He raised his eyebrows.“Yes?”Yoongi sighed. “What’re you going to do? If you can’t Send, what—how are you going to get home? Just wait?”“There’s not much more I can do,” Jimin slouched down from his stiff stance. “I’m going to see if I can fix my vocac:om—that broken head piece of mine,” he clarified when Yoongi fixed him with a confused look, “and see if there’s any way to contact someone. But,” he trailed off morosely, “I doubt it will do any good. I don’t think I can communicate between Worlds.”Their food came a few minutes later, and after eating nothing but trail food for days, the steaming rice, fresh vegetables, and beef were more delicious than he could have ever imagined. They silently ate, Yoongi scrolling through his phone. He’d apparently reconnected with enough signal to use his phone again. Jimin could see him going through messages, skimming through without answering any.Once they were stuffed full, Yoongi paid the bill, and they headed back to the hotel room. Jimin pulled out all of the equipment he’d stolen from the men who had attacked them, and set it out over his bed. He picked up his broken vocac:om and compared it to the IGPs’ ones. Their models were more up-to-date; as expected, seeing as the Royal Family was rolling in money, and the IGP undoubtedly were generously funded by them.“Do you need some kind of tool to pull those apart?” Yoongi sat down across from him on his own bed. He reached forward and picked up one of the headpieces, examining it. “What does this thing do, anyway?”“A bunch of things. And yes, if you have anything—thanks,” he broke off as Yoongi reached into a pocket to pull out a pocket knife which seemed to have several attachments.Jimin tried to figure out where he could pull the pieces apart without breaking the pieces he could use. If he could detach the earpiece and its wire, maybe he could reconnect them to his own, which had snapped sometime between when he’d been Sent and when he’d crashed to this Earth. He wished he was handier with these kinds of things.“Why don’t you just slip the flathead screwdriver in right here,” Yoongi pointed to a section on the piece he was holding, “and disconnect it enough to snip the wires, strip them a little more, reconnect the wires right here,” he pointed to another part on Jimin’s broken piece, “and seal it with electric adhesive? We can’t exactly smolder them together, after all.”Jimin stared up at him, mouth a little open in surprise. “How do you know that?”Yoongi shrugged and grinned, reaching back to rub at his neck somewhat bashfully. “I figured it would be useful to know electrical engineering while I was studying to be an architect. It’s come in handy here and there. Anyway,” he diverted, “there’s probably a hardware store around here where we can pick up anything we need. Let’s figure out what all needs to be fixed before we make the trip, though.”Together, they went over the various pieces, with Jimin explaining what each part did, and he continued to be surprised when Yoongi not only figured out how to accomplish something, but gave suggestions on how to improve it even more.The sun was starting to go down by the time they found the hardware store on the other side of town after asking the hotel front desk when they realized nothing was listed on the map on Yoongi’s phone. Yoongi had been right; it was easy to find the various materials they needed, and once again he paid for everything with his money. . “I’m still full from lunch,” Yoongi said as he and Jimin headed back toward the hotel, the orange sun streaming through the tall trees around the town gradually dimming with each minute it descended behind the mountains.There was a thin layer of clouds lit up in spectacular colors, and the evening was quiet. Although people were out and about, there was a calm air to the town. Even if it was under such strange circumstances, Yoongi was glad he had redirected his path to this town. He found himself also not minding that his whole trip had been interrupted.The entire situation was beyond bizarre. It shouldn’t be believable. Jimin’s story was ridiculous. Yet, it fit. And somehow, it made sense. It was almost a little exciting, if he was honest, with the exception of the four men Jimin had killed right before his eyes.Sitting in the laundry room at the hotel, waiting for his clothes to be washed, Yoongi had gone through a mix of emotions as he came to terms with what his life had become since he’d found Jimin face down in the woods. He’d never seen anyone die firsthand; let alone killed. Yoongi considered himself a pacifist, and although he knew he’d have to go into the military in a few years at the latest, he’d been putting it off.Normally, he would think he’d feel horrified by what he’d witnessed. But the truth was, he’d been worried for Jimin’s safety when they’d been attacked out of nowhere. He’d been a good hiking companion, and Yoongi found himself enjoying his company more than he’d thought would be possible when the entire point of his trip was to get away from people. It had been a relief when Jimin had taken their attackers out.Beside him, he heard Jimin gasp, and a hand caught his elbow.Yoongi automatically looked up when he realized Jimin was, too. There was a hole in the clouds, with a streak of darker clouds punched down, trailing Earthward to the west.“Jimin, what—?”“Yoongi-hyung. We have to get back,” Jimin urged, voice quiet and tense. “I don’t have the guns on me.” He didn’t let go of Yoongi’s elbow, taking the lead and nearly dragging him back the way they’d come.“Jimin, what’re you panicking about? It’s—that’s a natural phenomenon. A fallstreak hole. Nothing to worry about—”“That’s what they want you to think,” Jimin spat, finally letting go when it was clear that Yoongi would follow him without needing to be pulled along. “I know what that is. But that; that’s not a fallstreak hole. I don’t know if they’ve put stealth shields up to keep from being detected by your world, or what, but I’m pretty sure they managed to somehow get a ship here. I don’t know how. We’ve never figured out how to do it. But—”There was a sharp crackle, and Jimin yelped as he was struck by something. Suddenly they were surrounded by six figures suited in the same uniforms as the men from the woods—what had Jimin said they were? Intergalactic Police?—and two already had a hold of Jimin by his bad arm and his other elbow. Another two seized Yoongi.Jimin remained silent, but he was struggling angrily. He broke free and kicked one of the men holding Yoongi in the face with his foot. The commotion caused the other man to accidentally release Yoongi just as another suddenly snapped a thick but lightweight-looking metal collar around Jimin’s neck.“Don’t even think about Sending. You’ll snap your neck without this to stabilize you,” the man snarled, holding up his arm where some other device was attached.“Yoongi, run!” Jimin exclaimed, eyes widening in abrupt fear. His hands were quickly restrained behind his back.“’Yoongi’?” he heard one of the men holding Jimin repeat. “Min Yoongi? Don’t let him go!” he ordered sharply, abrupt anger filling his voice, and before he knew what was happening—before he could even register the fact that they knew his name—Yoongi found himself being restrained in a similar way to Jimin.The last thing Yoongi heard before the world completely disappeared was Jimin’s outraged scream............
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Chapter 6: ‘Interrogation of a Terrorist’
[listen now on YT: Space Orchestral Music Mix]
When Yoongi felt a sharp tug at his spine and everything around him disappeared, he instinctively squeezed his eyes shut. But the strange sensation didn’t go away, and he opened them to find bright lights shooting past as if he was shooting through the stars. He was being gripped by two of the men. Before he had a chance to wonder where Jimin was, a corridor materialized out of nowhere and his feet hit the ground as all awareness suddenly rushed back. Jimin and the others were all there, as well.Immediately, Yoongi hunched forward—as well as he could while restrained—and vomited all over the floor where they stood.“Oh, shit—goddammit,” someone spat, and he was yanked not so kindly away from the mess. He could barely walk. Everything was still spinning, and he felt more disoriented than he’d ever felt in his life.“Wha’s happening?” he slurred out, feeling panic creep over him more and more.“It’s okay, hyung; you’ll be fine,” he heard Jimin call to him, sounding distressed and not at all convincing.“Jim’n? Whe’rah we?” He felt so dizzy. He couldn’t focus on anything, and his stomach lurched painfully twice before he threw up again right when his legs gave out. He was held up by his biceps.“What’s wrong with him?” someone demanded. “Is he on drugs?”“He’s never Sent before!” Jimin responded angrily. His voice was shaky. “He’s an innocent! You just broke Intergalactic Law, you fucking hypocrites!”“You keep your little mouth shut, murderer,” someone spat; there was a sharp slapping sound and gasp followed by abrupt silence.Yoongi felt himself begin to get dragged down the corridor until he managed to get enough strength to put his feet under himself and stumble. He groaned with every jolt and every turn they took. It felt like hours later but was probably only minutes when they entered a cooler corridor separated by a hissing sliding door. Then, without any warning, Yoongi was shoved in through a narrow doorway so abruptly that he fell to the ground and barely kept himself from falling flat on his face.He groaned loudly in pain when Jimin was thrown in as well, landing heavily on top of him before he tumbled to the ground beside him.A previously hidden door slid shut, leaving them alone in their cell. Even in Yoongi’s disoriented, nauseous state, he could tell that this was a cell.“Yoongi-hyung,” Jimin said beside him. He’d rolled over and managed to get onto his knees despite his arms being restrained behind his back. “Hyung, I’m so sorry. I didn’t want you to get involved in this. You have no place in this World.”“Fucking hell,” Yoongi grumbled, rolling almost onto his back but for his arms which got in the way. He stared up at Jimin. His throat burned, and his mouth tasted disgusting. His nostrils weren’t faring much better. “What just ‘appened?”Jimin’s head was floating back and forth above him, sometimes holding still, sometimes wavering in and out of focus.“We’re…I think we’re back in my Originating World,” Jimin answered. The worried expression on his face didn’t go away. “Are you—are you okay?”“I got teleported?” What was his life turning into? Some retreat this was turning into.“Um. Yes. God, I’m so sorry,” Jimin said again.“Why don’t you feel shitty, too? How come I’m the only one?”“That’s common for a first-time Send.” Jimin shuffled closer. “I may not be able to Send myself, but I’ve been Sent by others enough times to be somewhat used to it. Can you sit up? You might feel a little better if you can—”“No, I think I’m good down here,” Yoongi interrupted, closing his eyes as another bought of dizziness hit him. “Pretty sure the world will only spin worse if I’m vertical.”They lapsed into silence. Yoongi eventually managed to sit up and shuffle over toward a wall to lean against beside Jimin.“What are they going to do to us?” Yoongi asked a while later, almost thinking aloud. Jimin glanced at him momentarily before looking away.“I don’t know. You…you might be able to get out of here all right once they figure out you don’t belong here—”“But you already told them that, and they didn’t give a shit.”“No, they have to wait orders from higher up. They can’t just release you without good reason, and obviously they thought I was lying. Once they realize you really are from another World, you should be released.”“What about you?” Yoongi prompted when Jimin didn’t continue after a few moments.“Me?” Jimin sighed heavily and shifted his legs. “I assassinated the DP Minister, remember? I guess I’ll get put on trial and then either locked up for life…or executed. I guess. No point in wasting crucial resources on prisoners.”Yoongi blanched. Jimin didn’t sound all that concerned about the prospect of execution. He didn’t know what to say to that, and so he remained silent.A while later, Yoongi felt like he was starting to drift off to sleep out of a combination of boredom and exhaustion from the stress of everything when the door hissed open. Two…officers, perhaps—a man and a woman—entered, unmasked and wearing what seemed to be regular uniforms rather than space suits like the ones who had captured them. The man strode into the cell, and without any kind of warning, hauled Jimin up by an arm. At first Jimin didn’t do anything, although Yoongi instinctively sat up straight and alert, but as he was pulled toward the door and the woman made no move to even approach Yoongi, Jimin began to struggle.They were going to be separated.Jimin started swearing loudly and kicking, using his shoulders and head to knock the man back. Yoongi scrambled to his feet, pushing his way awkwardly up the wall because he couldn’t just rise to his feet like Jimin had effortlessly done at one point.Just as he started toward the fight, there was a dull thunk, and Jimin froze before collapsing completely.“Jimin!”The woman shifted the large gun she’d used the blunt end to hit Jimin with and aimed it toward Yoongi. He reflexively backed up against the wall.“Don’t even think of trying anything,” she snapped at him, and then she and the man seized Jimin under his armpits, pulling him up to hang limply between them. His head lolled, hanging lifelessly with his chin on his chest.“Where are you taking him?” Yoongi demanded as they dragged Jimin toward the door.“That’s no business of yours,” the man replied this time. “Someone will be here for you shortly, so just sit tight until then.”The door hissed shut, leaving Yoongi completely alone. . Jimin woke up to a cold blast of air to his face. His head throbbed in the back, and for a split second he wasn’t sure where he was. But then he noticed his surroundings. He was restrained in some kind of chair. The somewhat small room he was in seemed to be empty, with blank walls that had ventilation holes, large enough to fit a finger into, spread in a bar across each wall, as well as two rows in the ceiling on either side of the industrial light fixture. There were speakers in the ceiling closer to the wall before him, where there was a wide horizontal window separating him from another room. He could see a work station of some sort with a large monitor to one side and a panel which was currently unlit.An IGP officer was standing behind the workstation, and when he glanced up at Jimin, they made eye contact. It was darker in the other room, or the glass perhaps was tinted, because Jimin couldn’t see the man’s expression well enough to tell what he was thinking.“Thank you for finally joining us,” a voice came through a set of speakers in the ceiling, only slightly delayed from the man’s mouth movements. His voice was very calm, but Jimin knew he should not expect kindness from him. He’d heard the same tone of voice from Commander Min just before a rough interrogation. The Commander had always been calm and well-spoken during interrogations, but Jimin would never want to be on the receiving end of that temperament.Jimin remained silent. Inside, he was boiling in anger, and wondering where Yoongi was, since he wasn’t with Jimin now. Outwardly, though, he kept his lips pursed shut. He subtly tested the restraints on his chair. There was a strap holding him up by the chest, and there were straps around each of his forearms, connected to the arms of the chair. The Sending blocker was still around his neck. His legs were free.No one seemed to be in the room with him, if the reflection in the window was anything to go by. He could see the green ‘EXIT’ light lit up above a door behind him.“Park Jimin, of Outer Arm Colony Three, correct? Block Six, Number 479?”When Jimin didn’t respond, the man tapped something on the panel twice, and a sharp but weak shock of static-like electricity hit him from the chair. He couldn’t tell if it was transferred from the restraints or directly from the chair, but whichever it was, the sensation was highly unpleasant. He just barely held in his wince.“We can do this the easy way, or we can do it the hard way. It doesn’t matter to me,” the man shrugged. “But one requires more paperwork and costs taxpayer money.”What an asshole, Jimin thought, shutting his eyes briefly before forcing himself to fix the man with an unbothered stare.“Yeah, you got the right person. And who, may I ask, am I speaking with?”The man tapped something into the panel, but nothing happened that Jimin could tell.“Colonel Im Juwon, of the Fifth Division, Intergalactic Police. Do you know why you are here, Park Jimin?”Jimin raised an eyebrow. He could play dumb, but he had a feeling it wouldn’t do much good. Always better to be a thorn, though.“No; and why would that be?”“In addition to the deaths of…four of my respected officers, you have been arrested under strong evidence of your direct involvement in the assassination of Deputy Prime Minister Shin Eunha, on the twenty-third of May, Year Fifteen A.E.”Jimin leaned forward as best he could. He had a little wiggle room in the restraints, but not much. He could shift his arms forward and back with only a bit of burn, but his chest restraint kept him from going anywhere.“What’s this ‘strong evidence’ of yours?”A screen with three photos which turned out to be videos popped up on the surface of the window glass, projected backward from the monitor. Three different clear shots of Jimin, dressed in everyday clothing, with a snapback pulled low over his face. Only his mouth and chin were visible, and his ears whenever he turned.Jimin watched as the Jimin on the screen kept low and checked his long-range gun, making sure the silencer was on. He watched as he spoke into his vocac:om—there was no audio in the video, but he saw his hand went up to touch it briefly as he often did out of habit—and then the moment the DP Minister stepped outside of a building across the street with several other government workers and press, he moved into sight, aimed his gun, and fired three quick shots. The DP Minister fell immediately. Jimin’s aim had been to kill quickly and painlessly; and in that he had succeeded. The DP Minister’s security scrambled into action, but Jimin was too fast; and small enough to easily hide in a crowd. He disappeared momentarily from the frame of one camera, only to reappear at the very edge of another’s frame just as he jumped into a vehicle which took off before he was even fully inside the backseat.The videos stopped, and Jimin refocused his gaze on Colonel Im.“Nice angles,” Jimin drawled, feigning unconcern. “You got my good side. Thanks.”He wasn’t expecting the surge of electricity to shoot through him just then, and the shout that left his mouth was partially from pain, but mostly from the surprise. It lasted only five seconds, but five seconds was a long time. His fingers were white where he gripped the edge of the chair arms.“If you just wanted to torture me,” Jimin spat out, “why did you even bother going through the trouble of pretending to interrogate me?”“This is an interrogation. But we don’t give terrorists the same rights as our fellow humans.”“Did you just call me a terrorist?”“Don’t sound so surprised. That’s exactly what you are. You and your silly, immature ‘Rebel’ army, trying to convince the universe of our sinfulness.”“Because you are!” Jimin had never been as good as Commander Min at controlling his temper.“You may not like the few extra taxes, or the few more, necessary rules, but that doesn’t make the government, or those of us employed by them, the evil ones. We’re protecting the laws of the people and keeping the population safe.”Jimin scoffed. “You keep telling yourself that.”“Now,” the man shifted, and fiddled with the panel again. “I have a few questions for you. We’ll also be asking your Commander similar questions, so don’t even think of lying. We’ll know.”Jimin felt his blood run cold. Were they going to torture Yoongi, too?“Don’t you dare hurt him,” he growled, pulling at his binds. “That man is not Commander Min! He’s from that Destination World you just pulled us out of. He doesn’t know anything. He’s innocent. He shouldn’t even be here!”“We’ll be the judge of that,” Colonel Im brushed him off. “I advise you to refrain from sitting too far forward in that chair, by the way.”Jimin frowned. He didn’t bother looking down at his binds. He couldn’t move his chest very far forward, anyway. He made no move to adjust his posture, not wanting to show any obedience.“Who all was with you on the day you killed the Deputy Prime Minister?”Jimin remained silent.“Was Commander Min Yoongi with you in that vehicle? I assume he was involved somehow.”Jimin didn’t let himself react. No, the Commander hadn’t been. It hadn’t been an approved mission, and he’d been scolded heavily for it when his superior had met him at the regroup location. Jimin still remembered how livid the other man had been. Over the years, they had fought enough times, but this had been one of the most extreme times. The worst thing was that Commander Min hadn’t even seemed surprised. He was only angry, and worried for Jimin’s safety now that “the entire galaxy will be after” him now. Of course, it was an exaggeration, and Jimin had pointed that out at the time. He’d known what he was signing up for when he joined the Rebels.“How about Captain Kim Namjoon? No? Or how about some fellow, lower ranking officers. Did you convince them into helping you carry out such a treasonous act, knowing that all of your heads could roll should you be caught?”Jimin squeezed the ends of the chair arms, never removing his gaze from the officer, but never letting a single reaction cross his face.“Answer me, Park Jimin.”“I’m not telling you anythi—”He was cut off as ice-cold water pelted him from above and to the sides of him. Those weren’t ventilation vents. In a matter of seconds, he was drenched and sputtering.“—The fuck?!” He spat out water and shook his head violently to get water out of his ears. He watched the water drain out of the floor, which he noticed only now was made of thin grates. He couldn’t see what was below.“I told you; we can do this the easy way, or the hard way.” The Colonel folded his arms across his chest. “I have several other options to allow you to test out, if you choose the hard way. Your choice.”“I’m not a terrorist,” Jimin hissed. He was shivering already, and he didn’t want to find out what the electric shocks felt like while wet.“So you’ve said. And yet, we both watched footage just now of you assassinating a high government official in a clear show of treasonous terrorism.”Colonel Im adjusted some things on the panel, then turned back to Jimin. “Where is the Rebel refuge base?”“Like I’m going to tell you something like that,” Jimin scoffed.“So it does exist. Interesting.”Fuck.“Why did you and Min Yoongi Send yourselves to another Earth in the middle of a battle, abandoning your fellow Rebels?”“I told you, that isn’t Commander Min!”Another round of water barraged him, this time to the point of thinking he was about to suffocate. When it stopped, he choked out a mouthful of water and gasped for air.“You’re not doing a very good job at convincing me of your morality,” Jimin rasped, blinking water out of his eyes. It smelled like chlorinated water, the kind that sits in tanks in space for too long and is no longer fit for drinking. “If that man isn’t Commander Min, then where is he? The Whalien was destroyed three days ago. The Rebels suffered great losses that day. We have not seen any activity from them since. They ran with their tails between their legs, scattered in all directions. Probably hiding out in their little refuge base like the pathetic cowards they are.”Jimin wasn’t an idiot. He knew the man was trying to get a rise out of him. It wouldn’t work.“Tell me where the base is, and perhaps they can bargain for you. If they care enough about one insignificant fighter pilot, that is.”“I’m not telling you shit.” And bargain for him? There was no way the IGP would let him go. They really were underestimating his intelligence, and it was beyond offensive.The chair began to hum, and that was the only warning before a completely different kind of pain exploded throughout him. It wasn’t electricity. It was like he was on fire, like hot irons were jabbing into his back, through his arms, and legs. He bit down on his lip, trying to keep his eyes open through the pain. Breathing heavily through his nose, hands convulsing, it only took ten seconds before he couldn’t stop the scream from tearing out of his throat.When the chair stopped humming and the pain receded, he hung in his restraints, tears clinging halfway down his cheeks. He tasted blood in his mouth.The questions continued, and when he didn’t answer, the punishments continued as well. Hardly ever the same thing twice in a row, and never the same length of time or strength. It was impossible to brace himself for one or the other.At least two hours must have passed by the time the interrogation was put to a halt. His entire body was shaking when the door behind him slid open.His entire body was shaking, and he could barely breathe, but when the chest restraint was disconnected, he wrenched his arms backwards through the arm restraints, thankful for once of his small hands. He elbowed one guard hard in the gut, swinging his leg up to kick the other in the chest. They weren’t fast enough getting their weapons, and he bolted out through the door, making sure to shut and lock it behind him.Jimin got a dozen steps down the corridor before a woman—the same one from before—came out of an adjacent passage and immediately seized him. If he’d been at full strength, he might have been able to overcome her, but exhausted and in pain as he was, his reaction time was too slow. She had his hands bent behind his back and fresh cuffs around his wrists in no time.“Not a smart move, kid,” she snapped at him as she gave him a shove back the way he came, grasping one of his arms with one hand, pressing her gun to his spine with the other. . Yoongi looked up from where he’d been sitting against the far wall of his cell as the door slid open. After Jimin had been taken away, it had been nearly silent. He could hear the dull hum of motors somewhere; maybe ventilation fans. There were no windows to the cell. He was only thankful they kept the lights on.The longer he was alone, the more worried he became. What were they doing with Jimin? He had no idea what to expect. Nothing that was going on made any sense at all.He tried to hide his anxiety as two guards entered the cell. They were bigger than the ones who had taken Jimin. Were they expecting him to put up a fight?“Get up,” one of them ordered him, and Yoongi didn’t need to be told twice. He scrambled to his feet, but didn’t move from his spot.“Where’s Jimin?” he demanded. His throat was dry and disgusting, and his hands were shaking, but the image of Jimin’s unconscious body getting hauled away was stuck in his brain. It left a sick feeling in his stomach completely different from the horrendous motion sickness he had after being Sent.“That’s none of your concern. Come on.” The man speaking gestured to the door.“I think it is my concern,” Yoongi bit out. He told himself to imagine that these were just difficult building commissioners he had to deal with; not that they were men who could probably take him out with one punch. Or a shot to the head.He didn’t protest or fight back when they each took hold of his arms and began leading him out of the cell.“At least tell me he’s okay,” he pushed again.“We’re not at liberty to say.”“Where are you taking me?”“To be questioned, of course.”“Questioned about what?”One of the men snorted. “‘Questioned about what,’ he says,” the man mocked.Yoongi scowled, but didn’t say anything.He was led into a room that looked a lot like an office. There were multiple monitors set into desk-like workstations, at which three people were currently busy. One of them, a man of average height and build, with somewhat mixed features as if he had one non-Korean parent, turned toward Yoongi when he was brought in. He stood up and walked forward to greet them.“Welcome, Commander,” the man started, “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”Yoongi frowned, pulling his head back reflexively. “Excuse me; what?”“Don’t play dumb; it’s not befitting of a man of your station. Min Yoongi, am I not wrong?”“…Yes; how do you know my name? What’s going on?”A chill went down Yoongi’s spine, unlike anything he’d felt before. He was in a different…dimension, right? They’d teleported—‘Sent’—to another world, right? Then how did this man know his name? How had those men before, in his own world, known his name?He tried to step back, only to bump into one of the guards who remained behind him, ready to beat him up or, or kill him at a moment’s notice.The man’s eyes narrowed. “Are you saying that you are not Commander Min Yoongi, directly responsible for the little bastard we’ve got in the other room under interrogation?”“What?” They were talking about Jimin, right? He automatically glanced in the direction the man indicated, but there was nothing to see; only a solid, shut door and no way to see through it.“Are you not Commander Min Yoongi?” the question was repeated, more sternly this time. Yoongi’s head hurt.“What are you—yes, I’m Min Yoongi, but what—what’s the—I’m not a Commander of anything. I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”There was silence for a moment, as the man and the guards glanced at each other. Then Yoongi was led over to a computer.“You say you’re not the Commander. But you were with Park Jimin when we followed his Sent trail.”“What does my being with Jimin have to do with anything? I literally found him abandoned, unconscious, in the middle of the fucking woods!” Yoongi spat out, his disbelief at the entire situation overcoming any common sense. He didn’t know what these people could do to him. But they were the police, right? They had to listen to reason. And he was telling the truth. “Are you aware of his crimes?”“His—” Yoongi cut himself off. Even if Jimin had done what he’d said, and killed a government official from his—what had he called it; his Originating World?—Yoongi didn’t want anything to do with it, and he didn’t want to be the one to inadvertently confirm and therefore condemn the young man he’d unintentionally began to concern himself with.“Take a look at this, and let me know if he looks familiar to you at all.”He brought up a set of videos and pressed play. Yoongi watched, not knowing what he was supposed to be looking at, until he suddenly recognized a familiar figure.Jimin was wearing a dark cap to hide his face, but Yoongi had spent enough time in close quarters with the other man over the course of the last handful of days to be able to recognize the shape of his jaw and his lips visible past the brim of his cap. He had on casual black pants and a dark blue jacket similar to what Yoongi would call a bomber jacket. He had on a charcoal-gray hoodie underneath; it was surprising to see him wearing such…Earth clothes. Or whatever it was called. Yoongi’s world’s clothes.Abruptly Jimin drew a gun from within his jacket, fiddled with it—Yoongi didn’t know a thing about guns, but from what he’d seen already, Jimin knew them very well—and then stepped out of his hiding spot.The entire video couldn’t have been more than two minutes at most, but it felt almost like time slowed down when Yoongi realized what was about to happen. He couldn’t control the grimace and flinch when Jimin fired his shots up the steps across the street, and the woman in the business suit collapsed in a puddle of blood. Yoongi was too caught up staring in shock at the dead woman and panicking crowd on the screen to even notice that Jimin had disappeared from the screens.“I can see that you recognize him,” came the calm voice of the man Yoongi still didn’t know the name of—but by this point he was beyond even caring. What the hell kind of mess had he fallen into?“I—” Yoongi swallowed. “Who was that woman?” he found himself asking. Was the Jimin he thought he knew—was he actually—had Yoongi just fallen for his innocent demeanor? He’d been nothing but kind, if a little rough around the edges and a little strange, but Jimin felt like a good person. Was he, though?“That woman was Deputy Prime Minister Shin Eunha, leaving a conference on the twenty-third of May.”Abruptly Yoongi recalled Jimin’s words to him the day before: ‘I only killed her two weeks ago.’ He hadn’t lied to Yoongi. He also hadn’t seemed regretful. Even if the Royal Family Jimin had spoken of was so bad, he couldn’t see how the assassination of any government officials was the right thing to do. It was still murder, and she had been unarmed and unaware.“Major Kang, I think he’s a Parallel.”Yoongi turned quickly at the sound of a new voice. An older man sitting at one of the workstations had taken an earpiece out and was facing them. Yoongi hadn’t noticed when he’d started listening in to the conversation.“Yes, I’m starting to think so, as well. He seems a bit young, in fact. I heard the Commander was much older…?”Yoongi felt his face go pale. “Are you…saying…there’s another Min Yoongi in this dimension?”...........
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Chapter 7: ‘Finding the Beacon’ The Commander became aware of two things right away: there was quiet music playing somewhere nearby in another room—just the soft plucking of strings accompanied by wooden hand drums with slightly more present humming; and there was a somewhat familiar smell of drying herbs around him. It floated about in the air around him, triggering feelings of nostalgia and calmness. As he slowly drew closer to consciousness, groaning lowly at the soreness of his back and neck, he also became aware of the soft bedding underneath his body, and the blankets over him.His eyes snapped open. When he spotted the scrap metal galaxy mobile hanging above him, he felt all of the tenseness drain out of him.He made it.Taking a deep breath, he slowly sat up, pushing the blankets aside. He could hear movements in another room off to the side and just out of sight where the music was coming from. The sound of metal pans scraping against a stove, and something being stirred. There was a small jingle of metal, and then the scratch of tiny claws scampering across the floor.“Charkie.” Yoongi put out a hand to quietly greet the little mutt as he ran up to the bed. Charkie’s slightly wavy fur was the same off-white with giant splotches of gray-brown it had been when Yoongi last saw him nearly two years ago. The Maltese-Schnauzer mutt shook his head happily and snuffled Yoongi’s hand.The Commander sensed eyes on him, then, and looked up to see Jihye, his late mother’s closest friend and neighbor, smiling down at him. Her hair was grayer than it had been, and longer; it was twisted up into a clip, a few fly-away strands falling free here and there. She still wore the big, heavy earrings she’d always had, which tugged her lobes down.“Ajumma,” he greeted, groaning as he got to his feet and stepped toward her. He vaguely noticed his shoes were gone, although he was still wearing his suit minus the helmet and vocac:om.“Yoongi-yah. You gave me the fright of my life when you hit our unit wall last night. Aren’t you supposed to land somewhere safe when you Send?”She let him wrap his arms around her small body, and they both sighed at the same time. He felt drained, but it was soothing to hold her.“I’ve had a long…couple of months,” he ended after a moment. “Not exactly in my best Sending condition. How have you been, though?” he asked her, pulling away after a moment. Charkie was still bouncing around their ankles and putting his paws on Yoongi’s knees.“Charcoal. Down. —Not terrible, all things considered.” She gestured for him to follow her into the kitchen. “The air filters haven’t been acting up like they had been, and the water seems all right. Food’s been a little tight, though. They’ve been rationing everything because the usual shipments of food from the moon stopped coming, and the farms in Colony Four have been struggling to keep the animals nourished.”Yoongi did his best to keep from reacting too strongly to the news, but it was still impossible to hide his sigh as he watched her dish some rice out into bowls and then pour a mostly broth-like soup into mugs.“Don’t worry; that’s not everything,” Jihye laughed lightly, waving a hand dismissively before turning back to the stove and bringing over a covered bowl that turned out to be steaming sweet potatoes. She spooned out several chunks onto Yoongi’s rice.“Thank you,” he said quietly, as he picked up the spoon she handed him. “You really didn’t have to—”“Don’t be ridiculous; do you think Hayoonie would ever forgive me for leaving her precious son to die?”Yoongi made a face at her, one eyebrow raised as he lowered the mug of broth down from his face for a moment just as he was about to take his first sip. “Ajumma. Don’t exaggerate.”She shook her head and then took a long swallow of broth. “I’m not exaggerating, Yoongi-yah. When I found you, your oxygen converter had a big crack in it, and all of the oxygen was getting sucked out of your suit. Luckily my hands are still as nimble as ever! But oh, dear, are those helmets difficult to get off!”Yoongi smiled slightly. She hadn’t changed at all. He remained quiet as he ate the food she was sacrificing for him.“How’s the war going, mister military man?” she asked, then, and he glanced up. She wasn’t looking at him; she was ruffling Charkie’s fur and getting her hands slobbered on.He hesitated too long before answering, and she turned to him, questions in her eyes.“Not well, I’m afraid. It’s why I’m here.” Yoongi set his food down, feeling his stomach shrink a little. “We lost the Whalien three or so weeks ago—” he ignored her gasp, “—and in the chaos of the moment, I Sent one of my best men somewhere I can’t trace. Unfortunately, he has never been able to Send himself, so he’s trapped wherever that is until I can find him.”“It’s been three weeks and you still haven’t found him?” she asked, concern leaking through her voice. She patted Charkie on the head and then returned her full attention to Yoongi.“It’s a long story,” he avoided, not wanting to explain everything and unload onto her. “But before I Sent him, I gave him a special beacon—do you remember way back, when I first brought my mother here to be healed? Before I brought her here, I visited her whenever I could, you know? I wasn’t the best at Sending back then—I’m still not,” he added, grimacing. “So I created a two-way beacon so I could always find her.”Recognition passed across her eyes. “I think she may have mentioned it once or twice before. I don’t really recall, though. Just thought it was her usual bragging about her smart son.”Yoongi snorted lightly. “Yeah. Real smart. Anyway, the beacon I gave him was the one I always wore, and it’s connected to the one she used to have. I’ve come here to find it, because one half is useless without the other.”“Your soldier is lucky to have a Commander who cares so much,” Jihye commented, smiling warmly at him before shifting to collect the empty dishes and bring them to the sink.“I…have to get Jimin back,” he said, the words feeling painful even as he said them.“‘Jimin.’ Why does that name sound familiar?”“Park Jimin. He—”Jihye interrupted him. “That’s the boy who came around when Hayoon passed?”“That’s—yes,” Yoongi backtracked, surprised that she’d remembered the one interaction they’d had together. They’d been in the middle of a duo mission when Yoongi had received the news of his mother’s drastically failing health, and when Jimin selflessly offered to accompany him back, he hadn’t even tried to argue with him. He hadn’t wanted to admit it, but he’d welcomed the company.“Oh.” The concerned expression was almost instant. “He was such a sweet boy. He helped me choose the flowers for Hayoon, you know. So kind. I can’t picture him fighting in a war; such a precious soul.”Yoongi heaved a heavy sigh, but couldn’t keep the sad smile from his face. He hadn’t known about that; but it didn’t surprise him. “Not sure if ‘precious’ is the right word; he’s got too much fire inside for that, but yes, once upon a time I felt the same. Such is life, though. It changes all of us.”Jihye nodded. “It does.”After a little more catching up while Jihye put away the leftover food and set everything else in the dishwasher, Yoongi excused himself; he didn’t have time to dawdle. He tugged on his boots once more and took his vocac:om and damaged helmet from where Jihye had set them safely aside on a shelf. Luckily the vocac:om wasn’t damaged, so he would have to see if he could get in touch with the Captain once he had a moment.He gave Jihye one last hug before stepping outside and taking the few steps to the unit next door. It took only a few seconds to scan him, and then the door clicked open.
[Listen now on YT: I don’t even know my own name – Alita: Battle Angel OST]
The living unit had a musty, unlived-in smell to it when Yoongi stepped inside and shut the door behind him. It wasn’t overwhelming, but still present. Everything was as he’d left it. He didn’t want to waste any more time than he already had, but he found himself moving around the unit, shuffling through his belongings, needing to ground himself in the familiar.It had been a very long time since his mother had shared the unit with him, but evidence of her former presence was still everywhere in the unit. Yoongi hadn’t been much for decorating or extra furniture, but his mother had put in an effort to make it feel more like home. Yoongi had long grown used to the strangeness of the living units by the time he brought her to live with him five years ago, but she had done what she could to put a little of Earth back into the lifeless space of the unit. Although he always teased her about trying too hard to make it feel like their old home, he had secretly been thankful for the small bit of their world they could still share together even so far away from everything they knew.He knew exactly where the necklace would be. Locked up, in a small box along with a few other belongings of his mother’s as well as the single diamond set carefully into its precious bedding, he took the box out and placed it onto the dining table. He picked up the small box first and snapped it open; the slightly rounded, smoky diamond reflected the light from overhead. The pale yellow silk on which it rested looked as new as ever. He took a moment to just stare at it.“Eomma,” he murmured. He gently took the diamond out of the box, and held it in his palm, just feeling the weight of it against his skin.His mother had sacrificed so much. They hadn’t had time to think it all through before uprooting her life, and Yoongi tried to not think of all of the regrets he held toward that time of his life; he was only thankful that she had at least spent the last few years of her life relatively happy.Jihye had been a saving grace, really. Throughout all of his mother’s treatments and getting used to a new environment, their neighbor who was close to fifteen years his mother’s senior had taken them both into her heart in a way he’d never expected. His mother, scared and ill and overwhelmed, had latched onto the kindness and never let go.He set the diamond back into its bedding, leaving the box open, and opened a second, long and slim box. Inside on a piece of simple cloth, was the necklace he had painstakingly created all those years ago after finally succeeding in Sending.It wasn’t meant to be a pretty necklace. It was meant to be simple enough to not draw attention, but large enough to hold the technology necessary for the beacon. He’d known his mother never wore rings, being a very hands-on kind of person in her everyday life; taking her wedding ring off on a regular basis, and after his parents’ divorce when Yoongi was twelve, he’d never seen her wear a ring since. He’d known not to create a ring as he had done for himself.Instead, he’d fashioned a somewhat oval-shaped silver pendant with the gold circuits interlacing and flowing visibly across the back surface. There was no writing on the pendant, although his mother had often considered having something engraved on the front—she’d never had a chance to, though.Holding the necklace in his hand, he could feel the faint connection when he closed his eyes and tapped into it.Yoongi trusted that he would find Jimin again; he knew he would. He let his mind relax and open up, following the beacon. It was like a pulse. Like a lighthouse across a bay, flickering back and forth between an opposing shore.It didn’t take long. Eyes still closed, he frowned at how strong the beacon was, pulsing back at him. Jimin…was in this dimension.But how? To Yoongi’s knowledge, Jimin still couldn’t Send himself. He knew he’d Sent him out of their Originating World. He wracked his brain, trying to recall anything at all; any hint that Jimin would have been able to Send himself, but he didn’t come up with anything.Yoongi had always found it so infuriating how unreliable his memory was at the worst of times. He knew Namjoon liked to comment on how sharp his memory was, but the truth was he didn’t know the half of it.There were unpleasant gaps in Yoongi’s memory. When he tried to remember specific things, those gaps were like gaping holes with fuzzy, unfocused edges. He could recall emotions, and the general time of certain events, but frequently what he really wanted to remember wasn’t there.He often wondered if it was another byproduct of Sending too often. It made sense; first his hair, then his mind. Would he someday lose his entire memory? God, he hoped not. Or that it would be so far into the future that he wouldn’t care.Yoongi concentrated on the pulse. It felt even stronger now that he had locked onto it. It was growing stronger. Jimin was heading toward him?He opened his eyes. It wasn’t possible. Or maybe it was. He couldn’t remember, after all. That space was so fuzzy.He set the necklace down and turned on his vocac:om. He had to hold it up to his chin thanks to being in artificial gravity, but at least it should be able to work.“This is Commander Min Yoongi, reporting from Outer Arm. Captain Kim Namjoon, do you copy?”He knew he would have to wait a little for the signal to go through, but sure enough, a moment later he heard a familiar smooth voice directly in his ear.“Commander Min. It’s a relief to hear your voice. You made it safely?”Yoongi knew to keep his messages short and to the point. “Yes. I have the tracking beacon, and I can feel him. But Captain—he’s in our dimension. He’s not supposed to be.”“In our dimension? Are you sure?”He picked up the necklace, fingering the pendant and feeling for the pulse. “Yes. He’s in our dimension, and he’s moving toward OA.” His frown increased. “He’s still far away, but he’s moving fast.”“Perhaps he’s in a ship in hyper speed. Are you sure he’s moving in your direction?”Yoongi tried to concentrate harder on the pulse. He reached out, as if to catch hold of it but only to feel its presence without pulling, and tried to follow what direction it was headed. There was no way he could Send onto a ship in hyper speed, nor could he simply pull Jimin back. That would be far more dangerous, and horribly traumatic to any Sent.“I’m almost positive he’s moving in this direction. But he’s probably several days away.”He had to wait a few moments for Namjoon’s next message to come through.“I want you to wait on getting to him. If we’re lucky, he might come to you first. Stay on OA for now. Check on Lee Ki-Woong’s status and get back in touch. Recharge. We’re in the middle of prepping Whalien II for launch. The Archeus is in your neighborhood right now, and we can’t risk an attack to OA if they decide they’ve completely lost any regard for humanity. When we’re close, we’ll slow the ship down enough for you to Send back here; there’s no need for us to bring further danger to the colonies by docking.”“Copy that. Safe launch, Captain.” . Major James Kang, as Yoongi learned his name was, didn’t tell him anything. At least, nothing of use. Shortly after deciding that Yoongi was a ‘Parallel,’ and confirming that, yes; there was another Min Yoongi in this dimension, and, no; Yoongi was not the one they were looking for, Yoongi had been led away. They took him to a different cell much farther away than his first, and left him there with no other explanation after removing his restraints.This cell looked far more ‘long term use’ than the previous one. It had two shelf bed platforms on opposite walls with thin, futon-like pads to lie upon with currently folded blankets, a partially private toilet and sink—he immediately made use of the sink to clear out his by now revolting tasting mouth and wash his face off a bit—and to his surprise, a small window.High up, about two heads above his eye level, was a rectangular window barely the width of two hands and about the height of the length of his forearm—but still, a window. Once he was sure no one was watching him—he didn’t see any evidence of cameras in the ceiling or walls—he climbed up to stand on one of the beds so he could look out. At first, he saw nothing but black. But then, his eyes began to refocus, and he realized he could see stars. Not just stars in a night sky, though. There was something distinct about them; like he was looking at them from outside an atmosphere; in space, not on Earth.Even though Jimin had told him as much, it was the first moment when that information began to really sink in. He wasn’t on Earth, anymore. He was in space. He was in space, in another dimension, and there was someone else with his name living in this world.Something else the IGP officers had mentioned, though, stuck in his mind.“Are you saying that you are not Commander Min Yoongi, directly responsible for the little bastard we’ve got in the other room under interrogation?”‘Directly responsible for.’ Those had been the words Major Kang had used. Directly responsible for Jimin?Yoongi abruptly recalled the way Jimin had acted the very, very first time they’d interacted. He’d gone from calm to terrified. He’d stared at every part of Yoongi. He’d flinched at Yoongi’s movements. He’d reacted strongly to Yoongi’s name.Those reactions made a great deal more sense if Jimin had known a different Min Yoongi before meeting him.Yoongi stepped down and sat heavily upon the edge of the bed, putting his head in his hands. It ‘made sense,’ but the entirety of the situation didn’t make any fucking sense. He’d been reluctantly on board with the idea of another dimension. Sure. Maybe Jimin had come from the future. Why not. Technology could have advanced enough eventually for those things, right? But then…parallel beings? Another Min Yoongi? Did that mean there was another Park Jimin in his world? Even just the thought of that made his head hurt. How many worlds were there? Or dimensions. Whatever they were called.He’d been sitting in silence for a while—maybe an hour; he had no idea—when he heard movement outside his door. He straightened and looked up as there was a heavy clunking noise and then the door slid open. He had only a half-second to take in the shadow of two figures, one tall and broad, the other small and narrow, before the smaller one was thrown into the cell without so much as a word. As the dripping wet figure collapsed unmoving onto the ground, the door slid shut.It didn’t take a genius to figure out who the man on the floor was, and Yoongi leapt up from the bed to quickly crouch beside Jimin and carefully turn him over. He was definitely unconscious. He was soaked from head to toe with what appeared to be water, and there was the slight stain of blood on the insides of his lips. His skin was pale.All of the suspicious and uneasy feelings Yoongi had experienced between the time of watching Jimin assassinate that woman and now seemed to melt away at the sight of the prone and defenseless man whose presence he’d grown used to over the past few days.“Jimin,” Yoongi whispered, patting at his cheek. “Jimin-ah, come on; wake up.”The other man didn’t respond at all.“Jimin,” he said a little louder, putting both hands on his face this time, “please wake up.”Folds appeared between Jimin’s brows, and a small, whining groan was just barely audible. But it was a good sign. Yoongi pulled one of the blankets down and wrapped it around Jimin’s shoulders, using it a little like a towel to rub at his hair to dry it.“Jimin. Park Jimin. Come on, kid.” Yoongi sighed and brushed damp bangs off of Jimin’s forehead where they’d been sticking. “Can you hear me?”“Uhh,” Jimin vocalized, mouth finally popping open a little.“Good good good. Come on. It’s me. Yoongi-hyung.”Jimin’s eyelids rippled, and he started to open them.“—oongi—ung?”Yoongi couldn’t help the swell of relief that hit him when Jimin’s eyes finally opened and he was able to hold his gaze. He smiled down at him. “Welcome back.”Jimin’s eyes fluttered shut, but it wasn’t because he’d passed out; he grimaced and bit his lip before speaking slowly, visibly struggling to enunciate his words. “I’m…sorry. I’m so…so sorry.”Yoongi shook his head, but didn’t say anything. He didn’t want to lie, and say it was okay. It was far from okay. Everything was—well, it was a disaster, to put it lightly.“Can you stand? Let’s get you up off the floor,” he said instead, lifting Jimin’s shoulders up until he was sitting. But when Jimin tried and failed to push himself up, and Yoongi found he didn’t have the strength anymore to simply lift Jimin up onto a bed, he maneuvered them over to a wall where he could sit and rest Jimin’s head on one of his thighs for at least a little cushioning.“They…didn’t hurt you?” Jimin asked, looking up at him, somehow looking concerned even though he was the one in terrible shape.Yoongi shook his head. “They didn’t do anything to me. They just…asked me questions.” He purposely didn’t say more.“I’m glad. I’m glad…they didn’t hurt you. I’m…really…so sorry you got…dragged into this.”Jimin looked like he wanted to say something else, but his breathing was short and labored, and there was a distinct lack of strength in every small movement he made. Yoongi let him lie there in silence, bringing the blanket closer around his neck and shoulders when the other man began to shiver slightly.Yoongi wanted to ask him what had happened. He wanted to ask about so many things. But Jimin looked weaker than he’d ever seen him before, and Yoongi found he didn’t have the heart to bombard him with questions. They sat in silence for a while until a panel on the wall opened up with a hiss, folding down into a shelf, and a tray with two servings of food slid out.A light on the corner of the opening blinked in time with a quiet beeping noise, and when it didn’t appear like it would turn off any time soon, Yoongi carefully moved Jimin’s head to the floor and walked over to pick up the tray. The panel clicked, the beeping and blinking light stopped, and then the panel folded back up into the wall. Yoongi carried the tray back to where Jimin was lying, and set it down beside him before lifting his head back onto his thigh.“There’s food,” he said. “If you’re hungry. You don’t think it’s poisoned, right?”A small smile curved Jimin’s lips. “They wouldn’t do that. They need us alive.”“They—what? Why?”Jimin heaved a heavy sigh, which came out as more of a groan than anything else, and started to push himself up. Yoongi gave him a hand, helping him sit up and lean back against the wall. Jimin still couldn’t hold himself up very well, though, and ended up mostly leaning against Yoongi’s side.Putting a hand to Jimin’s shoulder to stabilize him as he leaned forward to drag the tray closer to them once again, Yoongi inspected the contents of their meal.Everything was held in malleable containers, and even the utensils seemed only firm enough for eating the food; completely useless as a weapon of defense or self harm.There was a milky, cloudy liquid visible inside the cups once their lids were popped open, and when Yoongi lifted one to his nose, it smelled like a combination of bready and fruity.“It’s probably a protein drink,” Jimin murmured, having been watching Yoongi without him realizing. “They won’t give us meat, but they give prisoners the legal requirement of nutrients to prevent further health issues from occurring due to malnutrition. Healthy prisoners are less work.”Yoongi took a tentative sip of the drink, and it did remind him a little of a weak protein shake. Less grainy, and less sweet, but still with that not-quite-right taste he’d never enjoyed. He picked up the other cup and helped Jimin lift it to his lips to take a few small sips.Jimin laughed breathily. “I bet they put me in here with you so they wouldn’t have to do this. Lazy fuckers.”“If I wasn’t here, would they have taken care of you?”Jimin hummed. “Maybe. Maybe not. I don’t think they really care too much, but tossing us in here together is probably just…easier.”Yoongi set the cups down and picked up one of the bowls. The food inside was unidentifiable. There were chunks of various natural colors—vegetables, perhaps—some kind of rusty brown sauce, and a drier, grain-like food. Like rice, but more solid. Not bread, not rice, but a combination of the two.Yoongi picked up one of the flimsy spoons and scooped out a small portion before lifting it to Jimin’s mouth. The other man opened his mouth with no complaint or comment, and let Yoongi feed him several bites until he turned away slightly.“You should eat, too,” he protested. He lifted a trembling hand and took the spoon from Yoongi. “Put the tray on my lap so I can reach.” When Yoongi did so after setting the cups onto the floor and taking the other bowl for himself, Jimin weakly scooped out another tiny portion and began to slowly feed himself. Yoongi took a few larger bites of the bland but not horrible food, and then used his other hand to help steady Jimin’s wrist.“Thanks,” Jimin muttered uncomfortably, a little color flowing back into his cheeks. He glanced up at Yoongi’s face briefly before returning his gaze to the spoon to make sure he didn’t spill on himself.When they finished everything on the tray, Yoongi went to place the tray under where the panel was, and was surprised when it automatically opened. He set the tray onto the shelf, watching as it was pushed back. The panel shut itself once again.Jimin had stopped trembling by this point, and was able to sit up on his own. Yoongi gave him a hand to haul him to his feet so he could stumble over to the toilet and relieve himself before climbing onto one of the beds and lying down.“Try to get some sleep,” Jimin told him, tugging the blanket around himself. “It’s probably pretty late. We need to have our strength back if they come to bother us again in the morning.”Yoongi couldn’t deny this, and so he went over to the other bed and lay down. After a while of no movement from either men, the lights of the cell flickered and faded to a very dull glow.He didn’t notice when he drifted off to sleep. . Jimin woke up before Yoongi, his internal clock far more sensitive to time on a spaceship despite the lack of natural indicators that there would be on a planet or moon. He felt stronger after his rest, and he sat up with no difficulty. He stared across the cell at Yoongi, fast asleep with his face turned toward him.The amount of relief Jimin had felt the previous night when Yoongi had appeared completely unharmed was indescribable. He knew they must have at least spoken with the other man, since he had been moved from their previous cell as well, but somehow he’d escaped any kind of violence. Jimin couldn’t entirely erase the guilt he felt toward him, but knowing that Yoongi was all right did lift a significant weight off.Even so, he had to figure a way out of there.Jimin silently got up from his bed and went over to the door to inspect it. There were no buttons or touch screens on this side of the door, and nothing that could be used to open it. He went over to the panel where their food had come out. It was about shoulder-width; wide enough for him to squeeze inside, but even if the food chute was big enough, escaping through vents was never a smart idea. There was far too much of a chance of the previously large enough vent to suddenly narrow down to barely enough to fit a hand in, and with all of the motors and equipment running throughout the ship, there were sure to be hot spots and cold spots—and areas with no breathable oxygen. Not worth the risk, especially with an untrained companion.Even so, Jimin felt around the edges of the panel, to see if there was any way to force it open. He was so concentrated on the task that he didn’t hear the shuffling as Yoongi rose from bed, but when the whooshing of the toilet sounded in the quiet of the room, he jumped slightly.“What’re you doing?” Yoongi’s hoarse, sleep-rough voice came up behind him. The other man cleared his throat a few times before continuing. “You trying to find a way out?”“Something like that. Not through here, though. I was thinking,” Jimin spoke, starting to voice the idea as it came to him, “that we could break off parts of this to use as weapons.”Yoongi was silent, and when Jimin glanced at him, he was just looking at the panel as well, lips pursed.“What are you thinking about?” he asked.“Well, obviously I don’t know about this dimension’s mechanical engineering, but I did see that there were hinged metal bars inside that we could probably break off—but wouldn’t that trigger an alarm if we did that?”Jimin shrugged. “Doesn’t matter if it does. The only way we’re getting out of here is if someone opens the door from the other side. So if this triggers an alarm and gets someone to investigate, that’s all we need.” He paused. “Let’s just hope they feed us breakfast, and don’t come back to get us before then. I can’t get this open with my bare fingers.”While they waited, Jimin stretched and loosened his body, testing out how recovered he was from his intense interrogation and follow-up punishment. He’d been brash when he tried to escape before. This time, he needed to be smarter. He didn’t have just himself to account for, now.Thankfully, not only had the aftereffects of the electric shocks worn off, but his shoulder wasn’t bothering him nearly as much as the day before; he had almost full rotation ability, and putting pressure on it didn’t send stabbing pain through his shoulder, either.“How are you at running?” he asked conversationally, raising his eyebrows at Yoongi where he sat on the edge of his bed, watching silently.“I’m all right, I guess. Not the fastest, but I suppose adrenaline and a fear of death would give me some extra oomph.”The bluntness of Yoongi’s words surprised Jimin for a moment, and a soft laugh bubbled up before he could stop it.“Well, I hope so. Because we’re going to have to book it when they come looking.”Yoongi stood up and began to do some stretching of his own. Amateur, slightly ineffective stretches that Jimin did his best to not scoff at, but stretches all the same. He did end up going over to assist the other man after a few minutes, though; if they were going to get out of this alive, and preferably uninjured, then they couldn’t have any cramping muscles getting in the way of their escape.Yoongi was in the middle of swearing at Jimin for pushing him a little too far into one stretch when the meal panel hissed open and began the same beeping as it had for the previous meal. They both froze, looking at it, before Jimin walked over.“Will it just keep beeping at us if we leave the tray there?” Yoongi asked, right beside him.“Dunno. Probably.”Jimin went back over to pick up his blanket, and folded it up nice and thick before shoving it in the bottom corner where the panel separated from the wall.“Try taking the tray,” he said as he drew his sleeves down over his hands. When Yoongi lifted the tray, he quickly reached in to grab hold of the two extension bars close to the hinges. He heard Yoongi set the tray down, and then he came to the other side to help hold the shelf down as it began to try lifting up.Jimin pulled as hard as he could, but the metal wouldn’t break from the hinges no matter how much strength he put into it. He let go with a strained huff, and helped hold the shelf down while he tried to think and ignore the incessant beeping.“Can you hold this down completely for me? I’m going to try something else. You need to stay out of the way, though.”“Why—what are you going to do?”“Kick it.”Jimin didn’t miss the way Yoongi glanced between Jimin’s feet and the panel; a very awkward distance. But Jimin had seen worse.“Okay. I’ll try.”Yoongi changed the position of his grip so he was holding the panel from the bottom with just his hands, the only way to give Jimin the room he needed. Then, taking a small step back, Jimin swung his leg high up into the air and let it smash down at an angle, heel out, against one of the metal bars. His heavy duty boots didn’t fail him, and there was a small metallic ‘plink!’ as the bar broke off just before the hinges. He quickly snatched it up from where it’d fallen, and did the same to the other side.The panel door, now with nothing to hold it stable or draw it back, fell to hang uselessly against the wall. The beeping changed into a monotonous ‘beeeeeeeee!’ tone, and the speed of the light’s blinking increased to an urgent flashing instead.Jimin handed Yoongi one of the broken bars. He didn’t expect Yoongi to use it, but if he had something to defend himself with, that was better than nothing.Now they could only wait............
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Chapter 8: ‘Code D’ Neither of them touched the food. They stood on either side of the doorway, waiting.“I want you to only act in defense,” Jimin said firmly, feeling the bizarreness of giving Yoongi an order. Usually it was the other way around, with Jimin taking orders from Commander Min.Yoongi nodded, though. His knuckles were white where he was clenching his fist around the metal piece. Once again, Jimin recalled how Yoongi had been unable to defend himself against their attackers in the woods and later in the town. Jimin had never been responsible for another person in this way before. Commander Min had always been the one protecting him, never letting a single hit get through. The idea of not being able to return that favor—even though this was a completely different person—was nerve-wracking. Jimin found himself feeling scared for the other man.Before he could brood further, he thought he caught a sound on the other side of the door. Jimin strained his ears, closing his eyes for a moment to concentrate. Sure enough, the volume of the sound increased, and he snapped his eyes open and raised his arm above his head broken metal tight in his fist. He braced himself to attack. He saw Yoongi swallow, eyes wide.The door slid open.Jimin didn’t wait to see who it was. He wasn’t going to take any chances. The split-second the guard got past the doorframe, he swung the makeshift knife down right into the man’s neck. He blocked out all sounds, knowing that he’d panic if he thought too much about what he was doing. They had to get out of here.The wound wasn’t deep, but it maimed the man enough to cause the kick Jimin then gave him to send him hard into the wall and down to the ground, knocking him out.He wasn’t alone. The second guard was more prepared, and Jimin had to fend off several strikes, purposely backing into the cell. They were evenly matched, but just as Jimin started to lose his ground, Yoongi grabbed the guard from the back and wrapped his arm around his neck, pulling him off of Jimin where he’d been pushing him against one of the beds.Yoongi may have not had any training in combat, but he was smart; he locked his elbow tight with his other arm, putting the guard into a chokehold. The man struggled uselessly for a moment before he seemed to realize Yoongi wasn’t going to do anything else, and Jimin caught onto the shift in his stance just in time.Just as the man began to twist his body to throw Yoongi off and likely injure him, Jimin swung his leg out and kicked him in the side, harshly separating him from Yoongi.“Get behind me,” Jimin snapped quickly, grabbing the material of Yoongi’s shirt to pull him farther away, letting go only to shove him more with a hand to his stomach. He didn’t have another second—the guard pulled out a shock blade, and Jimin lunged forward with a curse. They grappled for several seconds as he fought the knife off of him, and then with a surge of adrenaline, Jimin slammed the man’s head into the side of the sink.He felt the man go limp, and immediately let go. He didn’t wait to see whether he was alive or not.“Grab any weapon you can. We’ve got to get out of here before they send more.”He snatched up the guns and the shock blade, and found Yoongi holding some kind of device in his hand, frowning at it when Jimin turned to him.“What’s that?” he asked, quickly going over to check the other guard as well for anything Yoongi had missed.“Dunno. You don’t know what it is, either?”Jimin took it from him. “Oh. They’re magnetic handcuffs,” he said. They were currently locked together in a cylinder, but he knew if he just twisted them apart, then they’d separate and then open to snap around a pair of wrists. Another button on them activated and deactivated the outer magnets to use them for their intended purpose.Figuring they could come in handy, he stuffed them into one of the pockets of Yoongi’s hoodie he still had on.“Let’s go.”The corridor was mercifully empty.Jimin didn’t know the layout of the ship, but luckily the direction they picked led them to an intersection with a panel on the wall that had a simple map of the main locations and levels. Jimin quickly found the launch bay. It was at the lower back end of the ship as he was expecting. They were currently somewhere around the upper middle levels.“We need to get down three levels,” he pointed out, tapping the map. “But first, let’s go in this direction.”Yoongi nodded as he ran his finger along another corridor to their left on the map, and then they continued on. They found a door leading to a stairwell, and bolted down three levels.Then the alarms began going off.“Attention all officers. Code D is in effect. Code D is in Effect.”“Shit.”“I assume that’s for us,” Yoongi muttered as they paused.“Yeah. It’s a typical code for when detainees try to break out. Come on. Keep your eyes open.”Yoongi was carrying a blaster gun just in case, but Jimin doubted he would use it. He couldn’t expect a first-timer to automatically be okay with killing. He certainly hadn’t been.“If you have to shoot,” Jimin started, “and you don’t want to kill anyone, aim—”“For the legs and arms,” Yoongi cut him off. “Yeah. I know.”Jimin would have laughed if they were in another situation. “Good.”Their first obstacles came only a moment later. Jimin pulled up short, causing Yoongi to run into him, but he held his ground, and backed them against a wall just as an officer walked around a corner. Jimin used the shock blade to bring him down, and before he could retaliate, they sprinted off.That was when the shots started coming. They came out into a larger room full of storage containers probably full of supply shipments, as well as large tanks of fuel. They both made use of their guns, firing back but with little success, as most of the officers were wearing blast-proof uniforms.“Come on!” Jimin dragged Yoongi toward the fuel tanks, hoping they’d create some kind of cover. He could see the wide hangar door not far up ahead, but it was still too far to make a direct run for it.It was just as they were ducking behind the tanks when it happened.Yoongi let out a shout, and fell into Jimin’s side, nearly bringing him down. Jimin caught him and regained his footing right away, but then he saw the blood. Yoongi had a hand up to the left side of his head, from which blood was streaming down through his fingers.“Hyung—” Jimin grabbed him and pulled them both down out of sight. “Oh my god. Yoongi-hyung—” the sight of the blood flowing freely from his head, covering his entire forearm, sent a horrible chill through Jimin’s body. “No no no—”Jimin grabbed Yoongi’s head between his hands, pressing down against the wound over Yoongi’s own hand. The other man’s face was contorted in pain, but he wasn’t making any noise. His face was swiftly going pale, and Jimin hurriedly got him down to the ground before his legs could give out.“No, please,” he could feel the panic beginning to flood through him. He couldn’t lose him again.Yoongi groaned and shifted, eyes coming a little back into focus from where they’d started to roll.“It’s—it’s just my ea-ear, I think,” he struggled to say through the pain. “Jimin,” he spat out, taking hold of Jimin’s shoulder with his other hand in a surprisingly strong grip.The shouts and shots were getting closer.Jimin tried to pull himself together. Just his ear. Just his ear. He was going to be okay. He was going to be—they had to get out of there, now.“Give me your gun,” he hissed. “We have to run. I’ll cover you. Can you do that?”“Yeah, I—”“Don’t take your hand away. Please.”Yoongi nodded, and then grimaced when the movement caused him pain. Jimin helped pull him to his feet.“Ready?”“Yeah.”“Go!”They hurled themselves out from behind the tank, feet pounding hard against the ground as they pushed themselves to run as fast as they could. Jimin fired behind them and in front of them, taking out a few officers—but there were far more than he could handle on his own.“Take a right, take a right!” he shouted as they reached the open hangar door, and they darted between equipment and more, smaller tanks and metal containers. There were rows upon rows of smaller fighter ships in the hangar, but those were only meant for short-term flights. Jimin had no idea where they were in the galaxy. They needed something bigger in case they had to travel farther.He could see slightly larger ships just past the fighters. There were a few maintenance workers in the area, but most of them weren’t armed, and jumped out of the way as they approached. Two ships down, Jimin saw one with its door open.The ship was short in length—just by the quick glance he was allowed, he guessed it was around ten meters from nose to tail—but it was wide, with an at least fifteen-meter wingspan and four engines.“Get inside!” he pushed Yoongi toward the open door, and turned around to shoot a few more shots before climbing up after him. He punched the panel to get the door to shut. The lights flickered on as the door was closing.It was silent, suddenly; all sounds of their pursuit cutting off with the locking of the door. Yoongi’s raspy panting was loud in the silence. His arm was covered in blood, as was his neck and half of his jaw. His face looked clammy.“Shit,” Jimin swore again, pulling at his hoodie to free himself enough to tug off the shirt he wore underneath. They didn’t have any time, but if he didn’t cover the injury—or check it—soon, Yoongi might not make it through an escape, successful or not.“Let me see.” He carefully pulled away Yoongi’s hand, which had been covering his ear. Sure enough, there was an ugly gash right through his lobe. It was bad, but it wasn’t fatal. “Here.” Jimin pressed the shirt against his ear and began wrapping it around Yoongi’s head until it was tight, and then he tied it off. “Once we get out of here, we’ll fix it up, but this should help for now.”He tugged the hoodie back up and zipped it up to his neck, hurriedly wiping his bloody hands on his sides. “Come on.”Yoongi stumbled, and Jimin quickly put an arm under his arm and around his back to help steady him as they moved toward the cockpit. He sat Yoongi down in a chair and helped him get buckled before he took the pilot’s seat.He heard banging on the belly of the ship. They had to get out of there, now.It only took Jimin a moment to figure out the controls. He’d never flown this particular model, but it seemed similar enough for him to figure it out. His fingers moved quickly over the panel, flicking switches and checking the meters. They were at full fuel, and full charge. With a low rumble, the ship came to life. The banging underneath stopped, and just out of the side of the windows Jimin could see the people back away, but continue to shoot. He quickly turned on the shields, even though he didn’t think handheld blaster guns could do much to damage a space-tight vehicle.Adjusting the jets to lift off of the launch bay floor, Jimin glanced once at Yoongi to make sure he was still conscious, and then he pulled hard to back out of the space. He felt the ship bump into a few things, but nothing large enough to cause impact. He fired warning shots at the ground as he got the hang of the ship’s balance and weight in the artificial gravity of the ship, swaying a little in the air before stabilizing.“Hang on,” he warned Yoongi, still silent in the other chair, face almost white.He could see pilots running for the fighters, jumping into their cockpits. The launch bay’s ceiling was high, with the exit close to the very back of the ship. Jimin flew in a loop over the tops of half a dozen other ships, pulling a hard right when the radar warned him of incoming fire. Yoongi groaned loudly beside him.The comm channel was blissfully silent. Jimin was a little surprised that the IGP launch control bridge wasn’t making any attempts to call him back or threaten him—no need for that; he knew what they wanted—but he didn’t think too much about it.The launch bay door was shut, of course. It looked to be a double-door exit—a common feature to allow the hangar to have gravity and oxygen so workers didn’t have to worry about oxygen packs or proper suits. Neither Jimin nor Yoongi were wearing flight suits, after all. He just hoped the ship had some in storage.Jimin fired at the doors, which started opening as soon as the workers realized what he was about to do—by the time they reached the outer doors at the end of the passage, they were already open enough to turn sideways and slip through.He heard Yoongi swear lowly when they finally exited the IGP ship. Suddenly all of the bright launch bay lights were gone, all of the surrounding vibrations from other engines were gone, and there was nothing but stars.“Oh, fuuuck,” Yoongi moaned right when they lost gravity. A moment later Jimin felt a bead of blood hit his cheek.Even though it wasn’t nearly as important as getting away from their pursuers, he found the AGS switch on the console and quickly flicked it on before Yoongi’s blood could spread too far.The combat radar began blinking instantly as fighters followed them out of the ship. Jimin swooped out of the way of the blasts, maneuvering around and setting of his own round of fire. He took out two fighters, but more and more were coming out of the ship.Still, there was no noise from the comm speaker other than some soft, intermittent crackling.“Where’s the hyper speed on this thing?” he wondered aloud, trying to keep an eye on their attackers while simultaneously figuring out the flight console. “Hang on, hyung, I’m going to try to lose them.”“Uhh, ‘kay,” was the mumble he got. He spared a glance; Yoongi wasn’t looking good.“Just hang in there; I’ll help you in a minute. Just—just please try to not pass out, okay?”“I’ll try.”Jimin found the hyper drive settings, and quickly typed in the coordinates he had memorized. Then he pulled just far enough away from the fighters, dodging more blasts—and then he activated the hyper drive.For a moment, it felt like time slowed down, but then all at once they were forced back into their seats and their surroundings turned into a blur, which steadily changed into full darkness with only the farthest galaxies and nebulae visible as tiny blurs of light. Jimin checked their radar to make sure no one had followed or was tracking them, and then switched the autopilot on. He unlatched his buckles and leapt out of his seat.“Yoongi-hyung,” he gasped, not liking the pastiness of the other man’s face. He unbuckled him and helped him out of the chair. “Come on, let’s see where this thing’s medical unit is.”Yoongi held onto his shoulder as he groaned. “I feel like…my ear is on fire and I’m going to puke,” he mumbled.“Yeah, I’m not surprised. But please don’t puke,” Jimin pleaded lightly. “You’ve done enough of that.”The medical unit was only a few steps away from the cockpit. It was nothing more than an alcove with a thinly padded table with retractable straps, a monitor set into the wall, and a few drawers of secured supplies.They carefully removed the now soaked shirt from around Yoongi’s head, and Jimin cleaned and disinfected the wound as quickly and as well as he could before dabbing some numbing gel around the area.“I need to stitch it up,” Jimin warned him. “And I’m not—I’m not medically trained, but I’ll do my best.”“Just do it,” Yoongi grimaced. “As long as my ear doesn’t fall off.”Jimin laughed, and startled slightly when he heard wetness in his own voice. Fuck. He took a shaky breath and pulled out the stitching machine, connected to the wall by a long cord. He held it up close to the wound on Yoongi’s ear, and pressed the button. A blue-white light illuminated the wound, and Yoongi cursed loudly when the first stitch went in, despite the numbing gel.Jimin’s hand was on Yoongi’s chest to steady himself, and he tried to not react when Yoongi seized it in a nearly painful grip. He only turned his wrist so their hands could lock together more comfortably as he continued to concentrate on closing up the wound. Yoongi squeezed his hand with each puncture.Finally, the wound was stitched back together. It wasn’t pretty, but it would do. Jimin returned the stitcher back to its spot on the wall, and looked through the available supplies. He hoped there would be packages of lab grown skin—even he knew those were best for healing outer wounds without scarring—but he didn’t see any in the drawers. He had to settle for simple adhesive bandages, which he had to cut to fit properly to Yoongi’s ear.When he was done, he started to step back, only to find his hand still trapped within Yoongi’s fist. It was released as soon as Yoongi realized what he was doing.“Don’t they have painkillers?” he complained, moving his hand to clench his knee. “I mean, it’s not—it’s not bad right now because of that stuff you put on it, but—fuck, if I could have some painkillers—”“Yeah—probably. Lemme see.” Jimin opened up a draw full of medications, and found a large number of painkillers. He checked the dosage and handed them over. “They dissolve in your mouth,” he explained. Don’t swallow until they turn to powder.”Yoongi made a face as he waited for the tablets to turn into mushy powder on his tongue, and Jimin had to laugh.There was a long moment of silence after Yoongi had swallowed the medicine, as they stared at each other. Then Jimin sank back against the wall behind him.“Fuck,” he expelled. “We made it.” He could feel the adrenaline running out of him.“What are we going to do now?” Yoongi asked, looking rather lost.Jimin straightened up. “I put in the coordinates to OA; we’re going at hyper speed on autopilot right now—but I don’t know how long it’ll take to get there. I have to go check.”When Yoongi made a move to get off of the table and follow him, Jimin put a hand out to stop him.“You need to rest. I’ll be right back.”Jimin went back into the cockpit; everything seemed to be working fine still, which was a relief. He checked the hyper drive monitor, and swore under his breath.Three-hundred seventeen hours; or rather, thirteen days and five hours until they reached Outer Arm. He checked that they were going at the full potential. Yes. Checked the fuel supply in relation to that distance. Just barely enough, with a little left over. And of course they had their solar resources, but it wasn’t nearly as powerful as the fuel cores. . “Nearly two weeks,” Jimin said as he returned from the cockpit several minutes later. Yoongi had been resting back against the wall of the medical area, but he sat up.“Two weeks?”“Yeah. Two weeks until we reach OA.”“Two weeks?” Yoongi couldn’t believe his ears. “Weeks. Two of them. What the fuck?” What was he going to do for two weeks in a—in a fucking spaceship? “Please tell me there’s a faster way. Or somewhere else we can stop.”Jimin looked genuinely sorry. “We’re going as fast as the ship will take us. I didn’t want to take us to the Rebel base on Cyphern’s moon in case the IGP had a tracker on the ship. OA is a safer destination.”“How are we—is there even food on this thing?”“If nothing else, there should be food in the emergency kit,” Jimin said.“So…what is this—I’m just going to disappear from my world? How do I get back?”“Once we get to OA, I promise to get you sent back home.”Yoongi wasn’t looking at him, and startled when Jimin took his hand, squeezing it slightly.“I promise, okay?” his voice was softer, and his eyes looked so apologetic that Yoongi had to look away again. “I swear to get you home, Yoongi-hyung.”Saying ‘Thank you,’ didn’t seem like the right response. He wasn’t sure what to say, so he just nodded.Jimin let go of his hand after a moment. “I’m going to take a look around the ship, and figure out what supplies we have—things like that. You try to get some rest. I’ll be back as soon as I check everything out.”Yoongi nodded again. Everything was too overwhelming. The painkillers and the numbing gel had lessened the pain considerably, but his mind was still reminding him of the surge of fire he’d felt, as if someone had hit him in the side of the head with a blow torch. He had no idea what his ear looked like. Thankfully, he still seemed to be able to hear just fine out of it, although at the moment the bandage muffled some of the sound.It was a lot louder on this smaller ship than the IGP ship. Just like being on a large cruise ship would seem smoother and quieter sailing than a fishing rig, from where Yoongi sat, he could hear the hum of the engines, and some soft, slow beeping around the corner out of sight in the direction of the cockpit.Now, in this stolen ship, it was even more obvious that he was in outer space. Something he’d never even considered or dreamed about. Something only astronauts and specially trained people did. What was he doing here? In the span of a few days…his simple backpacking trip had thrown a man from an alternative reality at him, he’d been attacked multiple times, been kidnapped—no, technically he had been arrested, he supposed—and now…he’d probably committed a felony by escaping.“Fuck,” he breathed. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.” This had to be a nightmare. But it wasn’t. He knew that. The pain he’d experienced, the adrenaline, and—well, his imagination surely couldn’t make all of this up.He’d wanted to get away from everything, but not like this. Just some peace and quiet. That’s all he wanted. To recharge, and rethink his path in life.He didn’t notice when Jimin returned.“Are you okay? Yoongi-hyung?”He refocused his eyes, realizing that he’d been staring off at nothing at all. He noticed that not only were Jimin’s hands now clean, but he also was wearing a fresh wine-red t-shirt and charcoal-black cargo pants that looked a little too large on him. He had a belt securing them to his slim waist.“I’m fine,” Yoongi muttered, far from it. Jimin didn’t press.“I’ve got some good news. Want to hear it?”“Shoot.”“This ship has an emergency rations supply for four people, good enough for a month. So we don’t need to worry about starving. I also found some suits, and off-duty uniforms as you’ve probably noticed,” he gestured to himself, “so you can get out of your bloody clothes. There are four sleeping units—basically just bunks with privacy screens—and two showers. I also looked up the ship manual up front, so I’ll read through that in case anything goes wrong mid-way through our trip.”“If anything goes wrong? Like what?” Yoongi didn’t want to know.Jimin smiled at him, as if he understood. “Don’t worry about it.” He paused. “Do you want to take a look around? Or do you want to stay here and rest some more?”Yoongi made to get up off of the table. “If I stay here any longer I’m going to go mad.”It didn’t take Jimin long to show Yoongi around the ship.He’d seen photos and videos from within the International Space Station and shuttles a few times here and there when they were featured in the news. This was similar, but different. Everything was smoother here, and there were fewer switches and buttons. Certainly no Velcro strips on the walls like in the ISS.Yoongi didn’t understand how they were experiencing gravity without some kind of centrifugal force, but he wasn’t complaining. The one minute of zero gravity they’d experienced when exiting the ship had been startling and unpleasant enough in its abruptness. Perhaps, if he’d been prepared for it—and uninjured—he might have enjoyed it. But as it was, he preferred the artificial gravity at the moment.When they reached the sleeping area of the ship, Jimin showed him how the shower worked, and then handed him a set of clean clothing. Yoongi was careful to not get his bandage wet, but he did his best to clean everything else around and below his ear, scrubbing hard to get some of the drying blood off. The pressurized dryer was a bizarre experience, leaving him feeling a lot like he’d just had a dozen hair dryers on high aimed directly at his entire body for twenty seconds before turning off. He was left dry, and toasty, but a little windswept.He changed into the identical clothes Jimin had been wearing, although whereas Jimin had tucked his shirt into his pants, Yoongi couldn’t be bothered, and just left it untucked.“How’re you feeling?” Jimin asked as soon as he stepped back into the cockpit to find the other man scanning through lines and lines and diagrams of what Yoongi assumed was the ship’s manual.“Much better. Clean.”“Always a good thing.”Yoongi didn’t understand how Jimin could be so relaxed. But maybe he was used to this kind of life.With nothing else to do to occupy himself, Yoongi went over to look over Jimin’s shoulder and read along with him. He figured he might as well be useful if they were going to be stuck in the ship for another two weeks.A few hours later found them both sitting on the floor against the wall at the rear of the cockpit, legs spread out in front of them. Empty ration packs lay beside them; their first meal on board.The stars glowed in front of them, and neither one spoke for a long while. Yoongi stared up through the large windshield. When Jimin had said ‘hyper speed,’ he’d expected something like what he’d seen in sci-fi movies, with all of the streaks of light, but in reality it was almost impossible to tell that they were moving at such a high speed. Here and there, a small streak of light would pass by, but most of the stars or galaxies were so far away that they didn’t move at all in relation to their own passage through space.After some time, Jimin began to talk. His voice was low, and had no energy."All of this is my fault. I know there's no point in saying, 'I shouldn't have done that,' but it's the truth, and I really shouldn't have done it."Yoongi didn't immediately respond. "Done what?""Kill Shin Eunha.""Who—?""The Deputy Prime Minister.""Oh. Right." Yoongi certainly hadn't forgotten about that, but the name hadn't automatically registered."If I hadn't—I acted against orders. I mean, no one specifically told me not to, but I wasn't supposed to go off on my own and—" he broke off. "It's my fault everyone is probably dead now.""What do you mean, 'probably'?" "I told you before I was Sent in the middle of a battle, right?"Yoongi hummed in acknowledgement."I know that the ship was destroyed. The Whalien was a warship, basically. A destroyer. Full of good men and women, fighting for themselves and their families and friends; for their fellow human community. "I have no idea if the escape pods were picked off by the Archeus—the ship belonging to the Royal Family which attacked us; I vaguely recall my own escape pod being attacked, but it's all a blur. I was in and out of consciousness at the time. But I—" he swallowed tightly. "My best friend was another fighter pilot. I have no idea if he's even still alive. And my Commander—the one who Sent me—I know he must have died as well."There it was. That Commander, again. Yoongi made note of the fact that Jimin never used his name. Not once. "You don't know for sure?""He was still on the ship when he Sent me. He was still on the ship when it exploded." Jimin took a shuddering breath, then. “We were close. I trusted him with my life. Literally.”Yoongi felt uneasy, but he had to know. He didn’t think he could bear two more weeks alone with Jimin if this crucial information was avoided. “This…‘Commander.’ You wouldn’t be talking about a ‘Commander Min Yoongi,’ would you?”He felt Jimin tense beside him. “Where did you hear—?”“Back on the IGP ship. When they questioned me. They thought I was someone called Commander Min Yoongi. They said he was responsible for you, or something like that. They—I mean, they decided that I wasn’t him, in the end—they called me a ‘Parallel’?”Jimin was silent, and out of the corner of his eyes Yoongi could see his hands were gripping the fabric of his pants tightly by his lower thighs.“Jimin,” Yoongi began slowly, keeping his voice low as if talking to a spooked animal, “why didn’t you say anything? I mean, obviously not at the beginning, but like…once things started going to shit, you still didn’t—”“I didn’t know what to do,” Jimin cut him off. He sounded almost panicked. “I’ve never met a Parallel before. Of course, I’d heard of them; I knew it was possible, but to see one for myself? And…it’s dangerous.”“What is?”“For you to know too much. Or—” he seemed to backtrack. “Not to know too much, but…like…if you ever met—but that wouldn’t happen, now.”“What wouldn’t happen?”“Meeting your Parallel.”“Oh.” Yoongi wasn’t sure how he felt about that. It didn’t feel real. It felt like some kind of weird theoretical game everyone was playing with him. “Why wouldn’t I meet him?”“Because he’s dead. There’s no danger in you meeting him at this point.”Yoongi recalled Jimin telling him that before. He hadn’t thought much of it at the time, other than feeling sorry for him. But now—his parallel self had existed, had been a part of Jimin’s life—and died. He’d died.“He’s dead,” Jimin whispered again, and Yoongi looked at him more directly. He could see the emotions swirling just below the surface; Jimin’s eyes were shinier than usual, and he was biting his lip—he pulled his knees up to his chest, and heaved a shaky breath.“You were close?” Yoongi murmured, wondering just what that meant, even as he said the words. When Jimin nodded, and a tear finally slipped down his cheek, Yoongi hesitantly put a hand on his shoulder, just intending to pat him comfortingly, but Jimin’s breath suddenly hitched, and he jerked toward him slightly, only to pull back.“I’m—I’m sorry, can I just—?”When Jimin fell sideways against him without waiting for confirmation, Yoongi let out a large lungful of air and found himself with his arms around the other as he shook with silent sobs.“I’m sorry,” Jimin mumbled against him, even as Yoongi felt him clutching the front of his shirt like his life depended on it. “I’m sorry—I know you’re not him. I know. I just—”“It’s fine,” Yoongi found himself saying, letting one hand fall to carefully pat at his back. It was all very awkward, until he finally gave in and just began rubbing his palm up and down Jimin’s back. Jimin shuddered against him and seemed to slowly calm down until he was just leaning against him.“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t. I just. I miss him. And he—why did he have to be so stupid? He should have just Sent himself with me. We could have made it.”They were quiet for a while. When Jimin pulled away, he remained leaning against Yoongi’s side where he sat beside him.“He gave me this, before he put me into an escape pod.” Jimin held up his hand, where he had the largest of his rings on. Yoongi noticed all of his other rings were gone.“A ring?”“Yeah. It was his. I’d never seen him without it, from the very first time I met him. I don’t know why he gave it to me, though.” Jimin took it off, and fiddled with it. Yoongi thought he saw something on the inside.“Can I see?”Jimin barely hesitated before handing it to him. The ring was a little heavy in his palm, but warm from being on Jimin’s finger. The outside was silver, with gold circuits inside. It was intriguing.“Is that just a design, or does it do anything?”“I don’t know. I’ve never seen him take it off, so I never knew it had those on the inside.”“He must’ve given it to you for a reason,” Yoongi mused, handing it back. Jimin slipped it back onto his finger.“Yeah. But why?”...........
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Chapter 9: ‘Honesty’ A few days had passed since their escape from the Intergalactic Police ship. The amazement, shock, and fear of being in outer space had faded somewhat. Yoongi decided it was actually pretty boring without anything to do, and as someone who needed to always keep busy, he spent most of his time learning about the mechanics of the ship. Sometimes with Jimin’s assistance, sometimes without. They purposely gave each other some time alone to save their sanity, and Yoongi welcomed the solace. He wasn’t huge on spending every waking moment in the presence of another person, and having time to himself was like a giant exhale of air he’d been holding in for too long.Yoongi was always careful about what he fiddled with on the ship, but he carried around a tablet Jimin had given him which had nearly all of the information about the ship in it. The technology in this other world was similar but different to what he was used to; it was as if this universe was simply more advanced because rather than having conservatism and the people in power hold progress back, engineers, scientists, and mathematicians were given the resources they needed to actually prosper.Despite wanting time to himself, Yoongi did notice a change in Jimin’s and his relationship, if it could even be called that. So far their entire joint presence had been completely out of necessity—not choice. Even so, Yoongi found himself more and more aware of the other man and his behavior.Since Jimin’s minor breakdown the first day, Yoongi felt as if the younger man was trying to put some distance between them; or put walls up around himself. Yoongi wasn’t sure if it was because Jimin was embarrassed for crying against him, or if it was something else entirely, but being someone who preferred to tell things as they were, it didn’t take long for Yoongi to begin feeling annoyed by what felt a lot like avoidance.Meanwhile, another source of annoyance arose for Yoongi after a few days: there was nothing with which to shave; and to his displeasure, the few days onboard their small ship in addition to the time spent in what he had been mentally referring to as ‘space jail,’ his stubble was becoming very noticeable.Jimin finally pointed it out on the fourth day.“Are you trying for a new look, or something?” he asked, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips as they sat in the ship’s little canteen together, eating breakfast.Yoongi reached up self-consciously and rubbed at his chin and upper lip. He’d never actually let his facial hair grow this long before; it was a bizarre sensation.“I’m not doing it on purpose,” he shrugged as he dropped his hand back down to the table. He glanced up at Jimin’s perfectly smooth face. “There aren’t any razors in the toiletries supplies. How in the world do you have no stubble after all this time?”Jimin’s entire face went slack in surprise. “Razors? Of course there are no razors. Why don’t you just use the facial laser?”“The what?”“You don’t have facial lasers in your world?”“You mean like laser treatment? We do, but…I’d never do that to myself,” Yoongi replied, frowning in confusion.Jimin laughed one of his soft, giggle-like laughs that Yoongi was quickly getting used to.“When you finish eating, I’ll show you.” He picked up his cup of coffee and took a sip. His eyes laughed at Yoongi from over the rim.“Shut up.” Yoongi stopped himself from rolling his eyes.“I didn’t say anything,” Jimin said lightly.“You were thinking it, though.”After they cleaned up their meal, they both headed back to the shower units, where Jimin pulled out a device from a closed panel on the wall where there were a few other electronics kept. Yoongi had seen them, but hadn’t looked so carefully through; he had just assumed there was nothing in there he needed.“If you use this, you only need to use it once a month or so, depending on how fast your hair grows.”“I thought laser treatment lasted much longer than that. And I thought it was supposed to kill off the hair follicles.”“There are permanent ones, but this is just a temporary one. It’s much faster and easier for people to use on themselves,” Jimin explained. He took out a tube of something that looked like a thin gel, and handed it to Yoongi. “Here, put this on the areas you want gone—this will protect your skin.”Yoongi turned to the wall mirror beside them as he spread the gel onto his lower face and neck, and then capped the tube, returning it to its original location.Jimin held up the hair removal device. “Um, do you want me to show you how to do it, or should I just explain it?”“Maybe just show me a section and I can do the rest,” Yoongi suggested. He let Jimin step into his space, and he tensed only slightly when warm fingertips moved his jaw slightly to the side.“You want it all smooth, right? You don’t want to keep any specific areas?”“Yeah, yeah. I like it clean-shaven.”“Okay. Tilt your head a little more—yes, that’s perfect.” Jimin brought the device up to Yoongi’s cheek, close to the lower lobe of his uninjured ear. “Can you see what I’m doing in the mirror?” At Yoongi’s hum, he continued. “You just press down on this button here, and slowly move it against the growing direction of the follicles.”Jimin pressed the nose of the device against Yoongi’s skin. He felt heat and a little tingling, but no pain as it was moved along his skin. Jimin did a few passes before Yoongi realized that he was supposed to try it for himself, but he’d unintentionally zoned out as he stared into the mirror, watching. Similarly to how he often felt sleepy when he went to get a haircut, a calm had come over him.“Oh, right,” he muttered, when Jimin began to pull away.Maybe the other man had noticed his hesitation, because he paused before Yoongi could take the handle from him.“Or I could just finish this?” he said, voice soft in their proximity. “It’s not like you’ll need to learn how to do this; you’ll be back in your own world before it even grows out.”“Yeah. All right. Thanks.” Yoongi tried not to think about how awkward the situation was, and just cleared his mind, eyes drifting back to the mirror as Jimin continued to go over his face. His touches were far lighter than Yoongi had expected, and it threw him off.When Jimin was done with his face and jaw, he put his hand at the base of Yoongi’s neck. “Okay, tilt your head back so I can get down under your jaw.”Yoongi visibly jerked when Jimin’s thumb brushed against his Adam’s apple.“Sorry,” they both said at the same time, before Yoongi explained uncomfortably, “My neck’s a little sensitive.”He felt a puff of warm air when Jimin chuckled quietly. “Noted.” He shifted his hand. “Is this okay?”“Yeah. It’s fine.”When Jimin finished and put the device down, he patted the skin a little where he’d lasered, rubbing his thumb a few times here and there to check whether he’d missed any spots.“Looks good,” Jimin commented with a short nod, and then stepped away. “How do you like it?”Yoongi glanced past his shoulder at the mirror. His skin looked and felt much smoother than usual. “It’s…it feels kind of weird, to be honest, but it’s fine. Thanks.”He noticed Jimin’s eyes drift up to the left side of his head.“How’s your ear doing?”Yoongi absently reached up to touch it just along the edge of the bandage. “I’ve been changing the bandage every morning after I wash up,” he said. “It doesn’t hurt as much now—I halved the painkillers I was taking. I think it’s healing pretty quickly, but,” he paused, “it looks like it’s going to scar pretty bad.”Jimin grimaced. “I’m sorry. It’s probably because we couldn’t treat it right away. Maybe…maybe when we get to OA, we can have them treat the scar?”Yoongi inadvertently recoiled. “No—uh, no offense, but I’d rather not get involved any more into all of this crazy world,” he said. “I think I’ve had enough of this sci-fi movie.”Jimin’s expression was hard to read. He smiled slightly, nodding. “Understandable.” He backed away, giving Yoongi space. “I stand by my promise; I’ll get you back home.”Yoongi nodded. It didn’t feel right to say thank you, for some reason.They returned to their individual projects for a little while, until Jimin came to find Yoongi again where he had been learning the circuitry of the ship, sitting cross-legged on the floor by the door leading to the maintenance deck.“Hey, so,” Jimin trailed off, and something in his voice made Yoongi look up, alert. “The communication channel’s jammed. I tried radioing to OA, and to the base on Cyphern’s moon; there’s nothing but some occasional static. I thought it was strange when they didn’t try communicating with us when we broke out and stole this. But I guess even if they did try, we didn’t hear them.”“Is that something we can fix?” Yoongi asked, getting to his feet so that he wasn’t craning his neck to look up at Jimin from the floor.“We can try. But I think it’s beyond our capabilities and resources.”Yoongi led him to the cockpit. “We have to try.” He’d read that section of the manual already; there had to be a fixable solution.Unfortunately, it was clear when he looked over the console, that Jimin had tried everything already.“Where is the jam?” Yoongi wondered aloud, looking through all of the readings. Jimin reached forward, hand brushing his to tap the panel and move through the screens.“Here.” He pointed out the suspiciously dead input bar. “I went through the system already to see if it’s a software issue, or if there was a lock on it, but I think—I think it’s an exterior problem.”“Exterior?”“There might be damage outside the ship.” He sighed, and rubbed at his face, looking tired. “We didn’t exactly check the ship’s condition before stealing it. It could have been out for maintenance, for all we know.”Yoongi felt a little sick. They were on a possibly malfunctioning ship in the middle of fucking outer space.“Honestly, we’re just lucky that it’s nothing worse,” Jimin said. “If the hyper drive hadn’t worked, we’d probably be dead right now.”“Good to know,” Yoongi muttered dryly.With the now known absence of any audio communication available, Jimin paid more attention to the radar in case they approached friend or foe. Over the following days, Yoongi found himself having to remind the other man to get some rest—he certainly didn’t know how to pilot the ship should something happened to Jimin. They turned up the volume of the alert so they could hear it even if they were in the canteen, but nothing ever showed.To Yoongi, it felt as if they were the only ones in the vast emptiness of space.As the days blurred together and Yoongi lost track of how many days he’d been alone on this ship with Jimin, they ended up talking to pass the time.They really had nothing else to do. The ship didn’t come with games or activities. There was only so long one could stare at the console and radar. Jimin surprised Yoongi by tugging a mattress and the bedding and pillows from the unused beds in the sleeping unit to the cockpit, creating a sort of relaxation space in the back of the room. He would take his boots off, wrap himself in the freshly cleaned hoodie he stole from Yoongi, and sit back against the wall, dozing or humming to himself.One afternoon—or evening; Yoongi really had no idea—as they were sitting together on the makeshift sofa, Jimin asked Yoongi about his life.The question came out of the blue, but perhaps it had been something Jimin had been wondering about for a while and only now felt comfortable enough around Yoongi to ask.“What do you want to know?” Yoongi asked, absently scratching at his healing ear. He’d stopped using bandages, and Jimin had helped him remove the stitches that morning before Yoongi’s shower. He tried to not think about how odd Jimin had acted when examining the ear without the stitches. He’d seemed a combination of surprised and confused, but didn’t voice his thoughts, and Yoongi hadn’t asked.“Well, you told me already you’re an architect, right?”“Yeah.”“What was your life like before…I ruined it?”Yoongi rolled his eyes and used his own socked foot to lightly kick Jimin’s leg. “You didn’t ruin my life, kid. It was already ruined before you came along.”“Yeah, right. I literally kidnapped you to an alternate dimension, got you arrested and shot in the ear—”“You didn’t kidnap me. Those IGP fuckers did. And would you rather be dead? Would you rather I hadn’t carried your unconscious body up from the hill where I found you? Would you have rather I left you lying in the middle of the damn woods for the bears to find?” Jimin pouted, which made Yoongi only snort. “I wouldn’t say no to a thank you, though.”He wasn’t really expecting the quiet, “Thank you,” that Jimin gave him.“Oh.” Yoongi cleared his throat. “I mean—”“I mean it, hyung,” Jimin said, shifting to face him. “But really. Tell me about…your family, or your friends—do you have any pets? Things like that?”Yoongi laughed, feeling relieved that Jimin had shifted the conversation back to its original direction, even if that direction meant digging into his own life.“Well, I guess I’ll start with the easiest question first: no pets. Although I do like dogs. But no, I’ve never had a pet. My family…there’s my mother. And of course my grandparents,” he added. “I’m an only child.”“And your father?”“Haven’t seen him in years, honestly. He and my mother got divorced when I was still a kid.”Jimin was frowning in the most peculiar way, but then he seemed to catch hold of himself and clear his expression. “What’s your mother like?”Yoongi smiled sadly, suddenly missing her. “She’s…well, she’s what I like to call ‘The Three C’s.’”“What?” Jimin let out a startled laugh.“Chaotic, Creative, and Curious.” He paused. “A dangerous combination. I think I get the last two from her, but I’d like to hope that I managed to evade the chaotic part.”Jimin smiled, scrunching his nose up a bit as he leaned his head against the wall, body still turned toward him as he listened. “She sounds nice.”“She is. She’s a ceramicist. She makes vases, and urns, and other kinds of decorative ware as well.” Yoongi’s own smile fell, then. “I haven’t talked to her in—well, I don’t really know if time is passing at the same rate back home or not?—but the last time I spoke to her was on the phone, a few days before my trip. We had a big fight. Said some things I didn’t mean. She threw them right back at me. I hung up on her.”“Yoongi-hyung,” Jimin began hesitantly, “may I ask, why you were on your trip? You mentioned something before, but not really…” he trailed off.There it was; the question he’d been trying to avoid. Now, though, it didn’t feel like he was talking to a stranger. He felt like he was talking to someone who would care. Maybe it would be okay.Anyway, if he ended up dying in this world, none of it would ever matter, anyway.
[Listen now on YT: Enya Hall – Vive la Paix]
“It’s not very exciting, really,” he prefaced. “I’ve been a professional architect for, what, five years, now? Nearly six?”“Wait, wait,” Jimin cut him off. “I thought—how old—didn’t you say you’re twenty-five?”Yoongi was used to this reaction. It was always the same during interviews. “I started when I was around nineteen; still in university. My department participated in a national contest, and my work was picked out of the entire architecture department. Pissed off several of my sunbaenims.“From there, everything seemed to just fall into place, I guess? I got hired into a big architect firm, continued creating ‘masterpieces,’” he made air quotes as he said it, “ended up dropping out of school because classes were getting in the way of real work, and I never saw the point of continuing if the end goal was what I’d already accomplished.”“Wow, that’s…wow. Your work must’ve been really good.”Yoongi shrugged. He used to be referred to as a ‘genius’ architect, although lately that title had faded into the background.“They said I ‘thought outside the box,’ and ‘wasn’t afraid to take risks’ with my designs,” he explained. “There are some great architects in Korea already, but I guess I just, I dunno. I guess I just let my brain flow and designed whatever I wanted rather than follow the trends only.”That’s what he always told himself, at least. Even now—especially now—he really wasn’t sure what had made him so different.“Maybe you are a genius,” Jimin grinned, bumping his shoulder playfully with his own. “You’ve already got this ship figured out—I bet you could fly it if you had to—and you’re not going through a mental breakdown about all of this interdimensional travel.”Yoongi scoffed. “Speaking of mental breakdowns,” he said lightly, purposely trying to make a joke of the situation. “So, I was basically just a kid when I started working professionally.”“Nineteen’s not—”“It is,” he cut Jimin off. “Nineteen is still a kid. You think you’re an adult. You think you know everything about the world. You don’t. I didn’t. I was so caught up in the success of my work—I just threw myself into it. I destroyed one relationship barely two years into it.” He thought he felt Jimin shift beside him, but he didn’t look at the younger man, preferring to speak to the room, staring up through the windows at the stars. It helped him focus. “I’d been together with my—uh,” he faltered suddenly, unsure of the reception he would receive, but didn’t take more than a split-second to decide, fuck it; he didn’t care anymore, “my boyfriend for a year or so; not really that long, honestly, but I guess I—no,” he corrected himself, “I know I cared more about my career than…” he sighed, trailing off.“Than you did for him?” Jimin prompted quietly.Yoongi glanced briefly at him. Jimin had shifted so he was completely facing him, giving Yoongi his full attention. He had a solemn expression on his face, and no judgement. Somehow it was relieving. He nodded.“Yes. I guess I was what you’d call an ‘absent’ boyfriend. I mean, I didn’t even really realize—until it was way too late.” He shifted, pulling his legs in to sit cross-legged and fiddle with the hem of his pants. “That’s not—that has nothing to do with my retreat, though.”Jimin didn’t prod him. He just waited for Yoongi to bring himself to speak.
[Listen now on YT: Tiago D. Ferreira - Do We Fall]
“About a year ago, maybe less, I started pulling away. I don’t know exactly what it was—I mean, I’ve never really been big on socializing anyway, but this was different. I had to work harder to get pieces people would latch onto. I would spend all day or all weekend in my studio, with nothing but a few rough sketches to show for it. Sometimes not even that much.“And the more my work was rejected, the more people began to show their disappointment in me…the more I hated what I was doing. At first, it was just me pulling away, but as the months wore on, I got angrier and more depressed. I blew up at friends, I blew up at family, I—I destroyed my studio.” He grimaced. “I know; it sounds stupid. On one of my worse days, I got drunker than I have been in a long, long time, and just…tore everything apart.“I think it was a wake-up call for me, though. The very next day, I decided to pack up and go on my backpacking retreat. Of course, it wasn’t until a few days later that I actually left, but that’s when I made the decision.”If he closed his eyes, Yoongi could still see the aftermath he’d woken up to the following morning. The sun had come shining through the tall windows, mocking him with its pure brilliance and beauty, illuminating the torn papers, broken rulers and protractors, his smashed computer monitor, and the evidence of his drinking scattered all around the studio. He’d sobbed his eyes out that morning, sitting in the middle of the mess, feeling hopeless.He startled slightly when he felt a tentative, warm hand settle upon his forearm, by his elbow. He took a breath before looking up at Jimin.“Maybe it was the universe’s way of telling you it was time to start over, and follow a different path,” Jimin said, voice soft. Yoongi normally would have scoffed at such words, but he was quiet now. “If you had never decided to go on that—on your retreat, we never would have met. And I’m glad to have met you. Really.”Jimin’s gaze was a little too intense, but Yoongi held it for as long as he could, until they both naturally lowered their eyes and looked away. Jimin shifted once more, settling back against the wall. Yoongi wondered if he was imagining that Jimin was sitting a little closer than before. He didn’t point it out, though.It felt…comfortable............
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Chapter 10: ‘Dying Fuel Cell’ “Min Yoongi,” Lieutenant Choi Sejin greeted as the Commander walked into the man’s office. He’d called an hour ago to warn him he was stopping by. “What a pleasant surprise. Last I heard, you disappeared. What happened?”“Ran into some issues Sending myself off of the Whalien as it was destroyed,” Yoongi explained. “I lost three weeks.”Sejin raised his eyebrows over the frames of his glasses. As the man to train Yoongi to Send in the first place, he knew how skilled the Commander was. As such, he also knew without needing to ask that it had been bad.“I’m glad to see you here in one piece, then,” he said solemnly.“Likewise, Lieutenant Choi. Almost thought I wasn’t going to make it,” he replied dryly.Sejin was a tall, bulky man, and Yoongi was reminded of that fact when the other stood up from behind his desk and approached him. He towered over the Commander, and was nearly twice as broad, despite Yoongi’s own muscled build. Once upon a time ago, Sejin had been Yoongi’s drill sergeant, and later on his Lieutenant Colonel; one of the forerunners of the splitting of the Royal Army, leading the way as they set the Rebellion into motion. It was thanks to the participation of such a high-ranking officer that they’d managed to acquire so many ships and smuggle enough resources to birth their cause.These days, however, Sejin’s responsibilities were far less exciting and dangerous; he oversaw the captivity of Lee Ki-Woong and the safety of Outer Arm.“I assume you’re here to check on the dying fuel cell,” Sejin grimaced. He indicated they should leave the office.“Dying?” Yoongi spoke quickly, feeling his stomach drop. He followed Sejin out the door, back down the hallway and then toward the elevators.“Yes. Dying. His health has been significantly declining in the last few days.”“Dammit.”“We need to get him to change the permissions. Perhaps you can be more persuasive. Now with our last resort killed in battle—oh no; they didn’t tell you he was reported M.I.A.?” Sejin cut himself off when Yoongi froze and turned to him in shock.“Told me what—who—? No, no; he didn’t die,” Yoongi shook his head, connecting the dots quickly enough. “I Sent him out of harm’s way. He’s safe. I think.”“You think? Where is he?”Yoongi sighed. “I have reason to think he might actually be on his way here.” He didn’t go into details as they were walking through the building. No one was to know who they were talking about. Apart from Yoongi, only Sejin, Namjoon, and Hoseok knew the truth. Although it was highly likely Seokjin knew as well; there wasn’t much the Captain kept from his Navigator.“I know he’s alive, though,” he muttered.They stepped inside an elevator after Sejin scanned his hand.“Lee’s been particularly difficult lately. We’re trying to convince him to change the permissions, but he point-blank refuses. Doesn’t matter what we do, and we can’t exactly endanger his health to threaten him—and he knows it,” Sejin shook his head. “The problem is, he’s now refusing to eat and drink, so we’ve been forced to put an I.V. in him and a tube down his throat. He’s under constant monitoring as well, because a few days ago he tried to use the tube to strangle himself.”Yoongi grimaced and swore. “Do they not care that there are tens of thousands of people who will die?”“If we can get Park Jimin back, though,” Sejin began, “we might have some hope.”“We can’t count on it, though,” Yoongi reminded him. He wasn’t keen on the idea. Any time Jimin’s name was brought up, he got the distinct sense that he had turned into nothing but an object for them to use, and then throw away. Even speaking with Namjoon, he sometimes got that impression. It was one of the reasons he’d worked so hard to make sure Jimin made a name for himself with his own skills in battle and combat. “And we can’t force him to—”“It wouldn’t be forcing him,” Sejin cut in. “Why would he say no? You know as well as I do that he’d do anything to help OA. If his little stunt the other month was any indication,” he said, raising his eyebrows. Jimin’s assassination of Shin Eunha had caused unnecessary havoc, throwing all of the top officials into hot water, so to speak. Before the assassination, the Rebellion had been relatively low-key, fought on equal grounds; soldier against soldier. Now, however, the Royal Family and Intergalactic Police were labeling them as terrorists—or at least Jimin as a terrorist.The only reason Jimin hadn’t been court martialed was because they’d had to almost immediately go into battle, and he was one of their best fighters.“You forget that he doesn’t even know,” the Commander ground out, thankful when the elevator finally reached their floor and the doors opened. He stepped out ahead of Sejin before pausing and allowing him to take the lead once more.“Well, he’ll have to find out sooner or later,” Sejin said dryly. “You can’t protect him from the truth forever, Commander. And if it comes down to it…we may need his blood.”Lee Ki-Woong was awake when they walked into the room where he was being held. He’d been strapped and locked to the medical bed, with monitors on either side. An intravenous tube was connected to his arm, a monitor to his finger, and a feeding tube was taped to his face, fed down one nostril. There were dark, linear bruises around his throat, and his hair had been shaved close to his scalp. His face, once round and full, now sagged and clung to his cheekbones.When he caught sight of Yoongi, he scowled.“Why am I not surprised?” he spat, voice gravelly with physical weakness, but no less biting. “They sent in the dog to nip at my heels, finally?”Commander Min didn’t respond at first, choosing to observe him silently, checking over the monitors as one of the medics moved out of the way. A guard stood nearby, against the opposite wall, arms folded as she leaned back, never taking her eyes off of Lee Ki-Woong.“When was the last time you had to take some of his blood?” Yoongi asked the medic in charge. She pulled up the files for Lee on the monitor on her arm, flipping through two or three panels before she got to what she was looking for.“Four days ago,” she answered. “We have been able to go as long as a week between draws, but it’s better to only do it every four or five days to avoid lagging in the system.”Yoongi wondered how they managed to bring Lee to the operations room so often for the blood draws, since he was strapped to the medical bed and looked like he would certainly not cooperate with walking there on his own. He didn’t bother asking, though. It wasn’t relevant to the matter at hand.“Just going to ignore me, then?” Lee spoke up. “Nothing like sending a coward to do a man’s job,” he continued.Yoongi would have loved nothing more than to wring the man’s neck, but obviously that would not go over well, so he restrained himself.“Lee-ssi,” he addressed him at last, “I am here to not only check on your wellbeing, but also to convince you to reset Outer Arm’s life support system. We are not asking you to do anything else. In fact, we will release you, without further punishment, if you cooperate.”“And I’ll tell you exactly what I told the last bastard to try that spiel with me; I’m not giving you shit. You can suck me dry, but I will not betray my sovereign by passing the control over to a group of treasonous terrorists.”“So you would rather sign the death warrant of fifty thousand innocent people with your so-called loyalty, than save all of them and gain your own freedom?” Yoongi scowled, folding his arms in an attempt to reign in his urge to cause even more physical harm to the man. “Are you insane? Who’s the real terrorist?”“Go ahead and torture me if you want to,” Lee exclaimed, and then spat at Yoongi. The saliva fell short, splattering on the floor by his feet.Yoongi made a brief, revolted face, and then turned to Sejin. “Where are the head wraps? I don’t think he deserves to see anymore.”The medic brought a long round of head-wrapping, and took hold of Lee’s forehead to steady it; he immediately tried to be difficult by squirming around, as she started to wrap it around his head over his eyes, creating a blindfold. They couldn’t endanger his health anymore, but at least this would cut off one of his senses in a more humane fashion than their ancestors did when they gouged out the eyes of their prisoners.“I hope everyone fucking dies on this rust heap!” Lee shouted, still struggling in his bonds. “Disgusting animals, you should have just stayed on Earth where you belong!”Yoongi and Sejin left in the middle of his ranting, no need to waste any more time with him.“We should put a gag on him, too,” Yoongi groused, rubbing at his temples. “There’s been no luck with simply hacking into the system?” he asked, then.Sejin shook his head. “Believe me, we’ve tried. Our best hackers. But we just can’t get around it. They’ve somehow locked it to anyone without Lee blood, but it’s not something we can access even while Lee Ki-Woong is connected to it. He knows how to access the reset, but as you can see, he refuses to cooperate. This is why we need our last resort. We have no choice, Commander.”“Why do you think he’ll be able to access the reset if it’s so difficult? If simply the fact that Lee is refusing—”“We don’t think it’s that difficult, actually,” Sejin corrected him. “We have a feeling that it’s actually quite easy. But it can only be accessed by the Lee blood carrier. I don’t think it’s a code or anything. I think it’s a physical or chemical trigger.”“Not his blood?”“No. Something else.”Yoongi expelled a long breath of air.“I’ll see what I can do.” . Jimin finished securing his space suit, making sure there were no open gaps, before turning to help Yoongi. Now that they were nearing their destination, Jimin decided they should make sure the suits were space ready…and teach Yoongi how to wear one. However, Yoongi—as usual—caught on quickly, and figured out on his own how most of the suit worked.“How did you know how to do that?” Jimin asked, looking in surprise at how well he’d done all of the fastenings—in the correct order and everything.“Not the first time I’ve dealt with one of these, remember?” When Jimin just frowned, unable to make the connection (when had he even touched a space suit, before?), Yoongi continued with a laugh. “When I first found you,” he clarified. “You were wearing that space suit, and I took it off of you. This one’s not all that different, although yours was a bit tighter and harder to get off.”Jimin felt his face heat up slightly for some reason, and he busied himself with helping Yoongi connect the boots to the pant legs.“Forgot about that,” he muttered. Waking up to find he’d been stripped nearly naked by essentially a stranger—no; Yoongi had been a stranger at the time—had not been the best of experiences, but also looking back, knowing that this Yoongi had done that…well, he felt far more embarrassed than he wanted to be.As Jimin was double-checking that everything was fastened on Yoongi’s suit, the other man spoke up, voice sounding hesitant.“Maybe this is a weird question…but I’ve been wondering: since space travel is more advanced in this dimension, do you know…are there aliens?”Jimin had been preparing himself for a serious question, so…for a second, he just stared in shock at Yoongi, momentarily freezing before he burst out laughing so hard that Yoongi had to grab onto him to keep Jimin from falling over.“What—” the more he thought about it, the more he laughed, “why—why would you—” he gasped between the giggles that were overtaking him, “ask me something like that? Aliens?”Yoongi pouted, an expression Jimin wasn’t used to seeing on Min Yoongi’s face, and he was nearly crying as he gasped for air, clutching the arm holding onto him.“It’s not that funny,” Yoongi complained. But even through his teary eyes, Jimin could see the hint of a smile on his lips.“Oh god, my stomach hurts now,” Jimin groaned, suddenly feeling exhausted. His laughter died down, but he was still holding onto Yoongi, just the occasional giggle coming through.“Why wouldn’t there be aliens, if there’re such things as teleporting, and blaster guns, and hyper speed?” Yoongi continued. Jimin abruptly realized Yoongi was not letting go of him either, even after he’d calmed down.“There are…no aliens,” Jimin said slowly. “Unless you count humans born on other planets or space colonies. But nothing like in the movies.”“Huh.” Yoongi stared at him for a while, until suddenly Jimin realized he was far too comfortable, and pulled away.“How’s that feel?” Jimin asked, gesturing vaguely at Yoongi’s suit.“What? Oh,” Yoongi blinked, and then glanced down at himself. “Feels fine, I guess. Less constricting than I thought it’d be, considering how snug yours was,” he said. He stretched his arms out and moved his legs around a bit, faking taking giant steps up stairs, and then twisted his waist a few times. “Feels pretty comfy. Not sure I believe this is appropriate for going out into space, but…” he shrugged.“You should wear that around a bit; get used to it. It’s safer to stay in one of those from now on,” Jimin explained. Best to also keep the helmets nearby as well, he thought.They spent the rest of the next few hours double-checking meters and making sure there weren’t any problems anywhere on the ship, and then they settled back into the canteen to eat once their stomachs began to growl.They were just about finishing up with their ‘spring vegetables and chicken rice’ when Yoongi decided to bring up something far more sensitive than aliens.“Jimin, can I ask about the other Min Yoongi? Commander Min?”Jimin finished chewing his mouthful before looking up. “What do you want to know about him?”“You—before I knew who you were talking about, you mentioned that you were close with him. You said he was your mentor?”Jimin sighed, and sat back, leaning against the wall where his stool-like seat was positioned.“Yeah, he was responsible for most of my training. We’ve been serving together for around four years, now.”Yoongi looked like he was battling with himself about whatever he wanted to say, and sure enough, once he spoke the words, Jimin understood why.“How…close were you? I mean, were you—?”Jimin shook his head. It was becoming easier to talk and think about Commander Min recently without getting so emotional. “We were close, and we spent a good amount of time together, but no; we weren’t in a relationship, if that’s what you’re trying to subtly ask.”Yoongi had the grace to look a little embarrassed. Jimin continued before he could react otherwise, though.“To be completely honest, the age gap was too wide for me to even consider something like that? I mean… I was eighteen when I met him, and he was twenty-nine.” He laughed. “That feels millennia apart at that age. Of course, we’re closer now—I mean, we got closer—but I don’t know. I trusted him with my life; I don’t think I had a single secret from him, and other than my best friend, he was probably the closest companion of mine. But I never…” he trailed off.Jimin tried to recall if he’d ever thought of the Commander in that way. It almost felt wrong to think about it now, after he was gone. But the truth of the matter was that Jimin had always had more important things on his mind, and Commander Min had always been there, so there wasn’t a need to think about spending even more time with him. Jimin had never seen or heard of the Commander being in a relationship at any point, either. They never really talked about things like that. Jimin didn’t even know whether the Min Yoongi of his world was interested in men, but most people didn’t stick to one sex anyway, so it was likely that he at least went both ways.Of course, he’d known Commander Min was handsome. It would be impossible to not notice such a thing, and perhaps at one point he had the tiniest of superficial interest in the other man, but the nature of their relationship just didn’t feed into that kind of path, he supposed. Not that it mattered, now.“You never thought of him that way,” Yoongi vocalized, as if he’d heard Jimin’s thoughts.He shrugged. “I mean, of course I thought he was attractive,” he said offhandedly, laughing slightly until he froze slightly upon realizing what he’d inadvertently implied. He heard what he thought was a scoff. He glanced quickly at Yoongi across the little table and saw him trying to hide a grin. Jimin swung his body toward him and kicked him from under the table. Yoongi chuckled and kicked him right back. He forced himself to not rise to the teasing.“We never talked about that kind of stuff,” he explained. “I don’t know how to say it; we were just…there?” He thought about all the times they had been physically close, with Commander Min comforting him or helping him in some way—or even just teasing him. Yet, other than knowing that the Commander was someone very important to him; someone he enjoyed being around and didn’t want to lose, Jimin had never considered anything more.Yoongi, however, surprised him by nodding. “No, I get it. It’s just the mark of a very close friendship—and he was your superior, which I’m sure was a factor, as well; right?”Jimin hesitated before nodding. “I suppose. I never really thought about that, though.” He retrospectively realized that there were a lot of instances where their comradery wasn’t exactly the same as those who had been involved as long as Jimin had. Taehyung, for example; he’d joined at the same time as Jimin, he’d trained in the same unit, and he also had spent time with Commander Min. But it was Jimin with whom the Commander had inexplicably grown close.He wondered why Yoongi was asking these kinds of questions. The past few days especially had felt different, somehow. It hadn’t been sudden, but unlike how they’d originally purposely given each other space, now Jimin realized that more and more often they found each other seeking out the other, and spending more time chatting. Sometimes about meaningful things, sometimes about ridiculously random topics.It wasn’t even just that it was comfortable being in the other man’s presence; Jimin kept finding himself physically closer. Rather than shifting away when Yoongi leaned in to look at something more closely Jimin was showing him on the ship, Jimin would remain where he was, sometimes even unconsciously placing a hand on Yoongi’s shoulder or back. When they were sitting together, talking, or dozing from sheer boredom, their shoulders or thighs often touched, as well.Once, Jimin woke out of a doze to find he’d fallen asleep against Yoongi’s shoulder. The older man hadn’t seemed to mind, though, simply sparing him a small smile and then returning to whatever he’d been reading on the tablet.It was all very confusing.“When you go back,” Jimin brought up at one point, “what are you going to do?”Yoongi frowned. “What do you mean?”“I mean…are you going to just continue your retreat? Or…will you go back to work? Or…” he trailed off.Yoongi hummed, and shuffled around slightly where they were sitting on the mattress together. He was sitting cross-legged, leaning back with his chin raised, eyes on the stars through the windows. They both had their suits on, as they had taken to wearing on a constant basis lately.“I can’t deny I haven’t thought about it,” he started, “but nothing feels—I just, after this craziness, I don’t even know what to think. Going back and returning to life as if none of this ever happened?” He sighed loudly. “I just don’t know, Jimin-ah. How can I pretend that none of this happened?”He turned just his head to look at Jimin where he was unconsciously clutching one of the pillows on his lap, fiddling with the corner seam.“You should just forget…about this,” Jimin said quietly, looking down. Something about it just felt inherently wrong.They were both silent for a while, until Jimin looked up again and found Yoongi watching him carefully.“You want me to just forget about you?” Yoongi asked, voice so neutral that Jimin grimaced. “I’m not going to just be able to forget all of this, you know.”Jimin thought about what would happen in a day or so, once they reached Outer Arm. They’d probably find one of the officials, such as Lieutenant Choi, and have Yoongi Sent home. Then they’d probably never meet again, and it would be like they hadn’t even met in the first place. When that happened, Jimin would finally be all alone.The idea of it hurt a lot more than Jimin expected.“I,” he began, throat suddenly feeling tight, “I’m going to…miss you,” he nearly whispered, refusing to look up from his lap. It wasn’t because Yoongi was like a replacement for the Commander. Yes, they were similar; often scarily so, but they were also very different as well.Yoongi didn’t respond for such a long time that finally Jimin looked up at him, and the expression on Yoongi’s face almost made him pull back. It was hard to describe. There was so much going on behind his eyes, but his face was neutral except for a flicker of something as if he was trying to keep himself from saying something.“Jimin,” Yoongi said, then, and his voice had a strange, scratchy tone to it, like he was experiencing the same tightness that Jimin felt.He tensed slightly when he felt a hand on his, where it rested unmoving on the pillow. He let his fingers get lifted and held as Yoongi’s fingers curled around his hand.“I don’t want to forget you,” he told Jimin, squeezing his hand slightly.Jimin felt like he was having trouble breathing when he squeezed Yoongi’s hand back. His eyes widened when he realized Yoongi was leaning closer, and he could feel his breath on his face. Jimin involuntarily tightened his grip as he sucked in his breath and swallowed.His eyes flickered down to Yoongi’s mouth and back up before he could even process what he was thinking.“Hyung…”Just as their lips touched, the console began beeping so loudly that Jimin jolted forward and gasped against Yoongi’s cheek before scrambling up and rushing over to the radar panel. He’d forgotten how high he’d set the volume, and right now his ears were throbbing. He didn’t have time to turn it down, though.On opposite sides of the radar, there were two different blips. One was fast approaching, the other seemed to be moving in a similar direction to them; toward OA. They were still in hyper speed, and yet the approaching ship was gaining on them.“Fuck,” Jimin spat out. “Fuck fuck fuck.” He quickly secured himself into the main pilot’s seat, and didn’t even look at Yoongi when he shouted, “Get buckled! I’m turning off the AGS to give us more power!”Yoongi not only got buckled immediately, but he also managed to lower the volume of the radar’s beeping to a more reasonable level, and with the absence of the noise, Jimin vaguely realized how hard his heart was beating.He switched off the AGS, pulled out of hyper drive, and almost instantaneously their pursuer was upon them. He couldn’t tell immediately who it was; the ship was larger than theirs, but most certainly not the IGP ship they’d escaped. It was fast, though. Jimin had barely switched from autopilot to manual when it was nearly on their tail.He pulled a hard right and flew in a loop to try to come up behind the other ship and get under their belly, but they were too smart for him. The ship turned over, and suddenly they were in range of a set of blaster cannons. Jimin panicked slightly when they couldn’t evade the blast fully, but the impact barely moved them; Yoongi had activated the shields without Jimin realizing.“Is that IGP?” Yoongi asked, suddenly. “That’s the same symbol on these suits and all around this ship.”He was pointing out the logo on the side of the ship as they flew past what was probably the bridge. It was a simple but stylized version of the galaxy, with a shield in the center. Definitely IGP.Jimin didn’t answer, rolling them out of the way of another blast—and suddenly his head knocked forward as it was hit from the back by a pillow.“Shit—the pillows and—we didn’t strap them down,” Jimin exclaimed, shoving the pillow away, sending it floating in the opposite direction. He spared the shortest of glances and saw that the mattress was currently rolling in the air, the blanket floating toward the ceiling.“I’ve got it,” Yoongi said, already unbuckling himself.“No, hyung, don’t—”Yoongi was already kicking off from his seat and floating back to grab the blanket and use it to tie the pillows together—but Jimin couldn’t watch him, because the IGP ship wasn’t giving them a moment’s rest. He didn’t think they could outrun the ship, but hell if he wasn’t going to at least try.They were getting closer to the second ship, and when the cameras got in focus of the writing on the side, he nearly gasped.Whalien II.Did that mean Captain Kim was alive?The comm speaker started crackling, but there was only an empty sound behind the intermittent hissing and popping.“Fuck, I think they’re trying to talk to us,” Jimin hissed, vaguely aware of Yoongi returning to his seat, the mattress and bedding hopefully secured somewhere.Jimin clicked on the transmitter.“This is Park Jimin, of Squadron Three,” he raised his voice. “Requesting permission to board.” There was no response, just as he was expecting.“I thought it was broken,” Yoongi pointed out.“Yes, but I have no idea—maybe they can hear us, but we just can’t hear them,” he said. He had to perform several tricky maneuvers to avoid the IGP ship, looping around and flying away from Whalien II before coming back. When they got within firing distance, the guns on Whalien II’s port side began firing.“No no no,” he muttered, dodging all of the shots. Now they had attacks coming from both sides, and he could barely keep up. He didn’t want to use the guns, but it looked like he’d have to.The next time he pulled in range of the IGP ship, he fired off three blasts, but their shields were too strong.“Goddamnit! –This is Park Jimin; please allow us to board!” he tried again.Yoongi was fiddling with the console in front of him, when suddenly there was a huge surge of power, the lights dimming for only a split-second before returning to normal. They were pushed back into their seats—Yoongi had activated the backup thrusters, and abruptly their speed increased nearly fifty percent.“Fucking genius—thanks—” Jimin had to fall into another spiral to avoid a double attack.“This is Park Jimin,” he was nearly shouting. “Don’t shoot!” The attacks didn’t stop, though, and Jimin could feel the thrusters begin to lag after only a few minutes.They were both jerked forward when something hit them from the back, and a red indicator on the console began blinking and buzzing. The shields had weakened from their little power surge.“I’m gonna try landing,” Jimin warned Yoongi, fingers flying over the controls.“Land?! Land where?”“Look. They’re opening the bay.” Jimin knew it wasn’t to allow them to land, but to release the fighters. Nevertheless, he knew they didn’t have a choice at this point.Just as the IGP ship let off a round of fire, Jimin threw the ship into a hard spiral, aiming straight for the landing bay. The ship seemed similar to the Whalien’s design—or at least he hoped so; he’d rather not crash into the inner walls of the ship.Just as they entered, a blast hit their wing from close range, and they bounced, spinning out of control until they were suddenly caught in the brake lines and jerked to a full stop. There was a pregnant pause, and then a horrendous whining noise as their engines cut out, a loud hissing noise audible from the outer shell of the ship.All of the lights inside the ship went dark............
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Chapter 11: ‘Reconnect’ The Commander clasped the necklace in his hand, concentrating on the beacon for what felt like the hundredth time since he’d arrived to Colony Seven. It was getting closer. There was no doubt about it. Throughout the several days he’d been recouping and working with Sejin, Yoongi had gone through many different possible explanations for how Jimin had returned to his Originating World. Some of them less optimistic than the others.Perhaps Jimin had finally accomplished Sending. Perhaps he’d accomplished it and procured a ship, figured out what the ring did, and was following it.But that was unlikely. Especially because if Jimin had figured out Sending, then why wasn’t he on OA yet?The possibility which gave Yoongi chills and kept him from sleeping some nights, though, was the worst: that Jimin hadn’t come back to his Originating World at all; that something terrible had happened to him, and that either the Royal Family or the Intergalactic Police had found the ring, somehow had known what it did, and were on their way back to OA.Even though Yoongi told himself that this idea was unrealistic and didn’t make sense, he couldn’t help worrying.Then, sometimes he got the idea that perhaps Jimin had been captured. That Jimin wasn’t even alone. That he’d found someone, and brought them back to this World with him. That they were both on their way here. This idea also made no sense, though, and Yoongi usually had to fight off a migraine after strange thoughts like that slipped into his mind.Whalien II was on its way to Outer Arm, now. Only a few days away, still in hyper drive.The Commander spent his time working with Sejin and the Central Works of OA. His least favorite part was observing the morning Ki-Woong gave blood. It was an unpleasant experience, to say the least.Activating the life support system for Outer Arm hadn’t always been like this, despite what they'd originally thought. There was a time when it didn’t matter to the Royal Family who was in charge of the control rooms at the very center of OA. When the Rebellion began, however, the permissions were changed; purposely to make it impossible to sustain without the Lee bloodline. It was the cruelest fate for all of the innocent residents living in the colonies, having just followed the most obvious choice of leaders when escaping the fallout on Earth during the Evacuation.None of them could have ever imagined that one day their leaders would abandon them in such a fashion.Yoongi stood back and watched as Ki-Woong was locked into the machine. The vertical plexiglass cylinder was large enough to fit perhaps three full-grown adults, but only Ki-Woong stood inside. He wasn’t exactly standing; he was restrained and held up by supports. Thin tubes from up in the cylinder were also connected to his body, attached at his elbows. Only one of the tubes drew blood. The others fed a drip into him to keep up his strength. Scanners located throughout the cylinder monitored his vitals and connected to his mind.If only they could hack into his brain to force him to override Outer Arm’s life support system, at least a portion of their problems would be solved. This world had accomplished many ways of tapping into the human brain, but hacking in and forcing a person to do something against their will was not something that had either been attempted—to Yoongi’s knowledge—or if it had been, it certainly hadn’t succeeded. Rather, the scanners allowed the system to communicate with the one connected, giving them the power to alter and power it in a way no one else could.No matter how hard they tried, however, Ki-Woong refused to bend to their will. No matter how many lives would be lost.The Commander had no wish to see Jimin hooked up to such an awful-looking device, but if it came down to it, he knew even he would end up being one of the people asking Jimin to help them. Successful evacuation of so many people was unrealistic and difficult because there weren’t many places which could take them in, nor did they have the means to separately transport people to multiple locations throughout the galaxy.Anyway, it wasn’t likely Jimin would say no.The more sensitive issue wasn’t even Jimin’s cooperation, though. It was telling the young man the truth. Yoongi knew Jimin was happier not knowing his history. He didn’t need to be burdened with it. He didn’t need to know. . Yoongi was woken up in the middle of the night by his vocac:om, beeping from the chair near his bed. He blindly reached for it, automatically answering the call even as he got it close enough to his ear to hear.“Commander Min Yoongi,” he rasped into the mouthpiece as he sat up.“Commander,” Namjoon’s voice filtered through immediately, sounding clearer than it had in a while. “Captain Kim reporting from Whalien II.”“Good to hear from you, Captain,” Yoongi swung his legs off of the bed and attached the vocac:om properly so he could pull on some clothes. He grabbed a bottle of water from the floor and took a quick swallow to combat his dry throat. “What’s the word?”“We’ve just pulled out of hyper drive, and should arrive to OA within two days. Would you be able to Send yourself on board before then? There are some things we need to discuss.”“Of course, Captain. Give me an hour?”There was some noise disturbance on the other end of the line, and Namjoon didn’t reply immediately. He was back a moment later.“Sorry about that—Seokji—Navigator Kim just informed me what time it is on OA.” Yoongi heard the sheepish laugh in the Captain’s voice, and he shook his head as he quietly scoffed.“I don’t even know what time it is, Captain. I was asleep.”“It’s shortly past oh-four-hundred hours there, Commander. We’ll expect you in a couple hours at your convenience. Just warn me before you head our way, got that? I don’t need to break a monitor out of shock.”“Copy that, Cap,” Yoongi snorted. “See you soon.”After that, Yoongi quickly gathered his clothes and went off to shower. He didn’t bother taking long; just a quick wash and rinse, before letting the air jets dry him off—his mother never liked them, preferring towels to a “carwash treatment,” she’d called it—and then he tossed on his uniform.Having a feeling he wouldn’t be returning for a while, Yoongi grabbed all of the leftover food in his kitchen and packed it into a bag before stepping over to Jihye’s.“I won’t be needing this,” he told her. “I hope it helps out just a little.”She was already opening her mouth to protest, but Yoongi beat her to it.“It’ll just go to waste otherwise. Please, take it. Share it with your friends if you don’t feel right to have it all.”She nodded and took the bag, and then leaned up to give him a hug.“Take care of yourself, son,” she smiled.“And you,” he returned.Back in his unit, he made sure he had everything he needed before putting his vocac:om back on.“This is Commander Min,” he spoke, connecting to the ship’s channel. “I’m on my way to Whalien II.”“Copy that,” Seokjin’s voice came through. “We’ll see you shortly.”Yoongi shut his eyes and reached out, feeling for Namjoon’s link. His was the easiest to lock down on. When he felt it, he hurled his link out, and his living unit vanished. Fully rested and at proper health for a change, the Send went completely smoothly. He would have enjoyed the streaks of swirling color all around him, but Yoongi was too focused to even pay attention.His feet didn’t even stumble when he touched down on the floor of Whalien II’s bridge.“Commander, welcome back,” Namjoon patted him on the back as he came up from behind him. “We’ve got lots to discuss. Jeongguk-ah, come on.”The young hacker pushed himself back from his station and immediately was at the Captain’s side. Jeongguk wasn’t as tall as the Captain, but he was still taller than Yoongi, and despite his lazy look, he exuded strength with his straight posture; he had the top half of his suit tied around his waist, his loose, simple black shirt hiding a figure the Commander knew to be just as strong as any soldier.Jeongguk was just a kid, though. At barely twenty-years-old, he’d already successfully hacked into multiple super-security systems, and become the top hacker in their fleet. He was one of the smartest people Yoongi knew, but he could get distracted easily; the Commander was often grateful that usually all it took was a word from the Captain to put him back in his place and get him back on track.Yoongi followed Namjoon off of the bridge and down the corridor to a smaller, more private and windowless room used for sensitive discussions. The Captain sat down at the table in the center of the room and switched on the monitor, only to stand up again. Jeongguk took a seat instead, immediately pulling up several folders.“I’m going to start off by saying that Jeongguk has now been included in the circle of people who are privy to all restricted information,” Namjoon spoke, leaning forward against the table as Yoongi stepped up behind Jeongguk to get a better view.Jeongguk made a soft scoffing noise. “Even if I wasn’t given clearance, I’d probably find out anyhow.”“Exactly.” The Captain caught Yoongi’s eyes and made an amused but tired expression.“Right.” Yoongi folded his arms. “So I assume this is about what we got from the Archeus?”“Yep.” Jeongguk replied.Namjoon cleared his throat. “Abandoning Outer Arm may have always been a part of their plan—we’re not sure, but after what we found, it seems highly likely.”“Why would they create an entire—”“They weren’t ready when the Evacuation happened. Do you remember all of the media coverage of their involvement in the space industry before that? How much money, and tech, and intelligence they were putting into it?”Yoongi didn’t, not really, but he knew enough. “Yeah,” he said instead. He’d have to speak with Namjoon later to see how much Jeongguk actually knew.Jeongguk took the reins, then. “When I was sorting through all of the junk we collected, I found something very interesting.” He pulled up what looked like a log. “It goes way back. Since before the Evacuation.”Yoongi tried to read through the text, but there was a lot of shorthand and coordinates that he didn’t understand.“We had Navigator Kim look over these,” Jeongguk continued, pointing to the very numbers Yoongi was squinting at, “and they’re in another part of the galaxy. Much farther than Cyphern.”“What is it?” Yoongi asked, even as he was starting to guess.“It looks like a planet. Or a moon of a super planet—it’s hard to tell from just what we have here. Either way, they’ve known about it for years, and kept it from the public.”Yoongi raised his eyebrows but didn’t say anything, waiting for the hacker to continue.“There are a bunch of dates that look like possible departure or arrival dates, and there are lists of supplies or cargo—things like that.”“Are these supplies agriculture and living-related, or are they mining and drilling supplies?”“The first one,” Namjoon spoke up. “The planet looks like it’s habitable.”“And they’re trying to keep it from everyone? What’s even the point?”The Captain shrugged. “Who knows. Maybe they want to build the perfect society of aristocrats,” he said, probably only half-joking.“The in-breeding will be a nightmare in a century,” Jeongguk snorted.“Yes, well that’s beside the point,” Namjoon let out a half-laugh. “What this tells us, is that Outer Arm was always going to be their mid-base, nothing more than a jump station. It wasn’t supposed to house a bunch of useless civilians. It was supposed to hold their agriculturists, their scientists, their architects, their engineers—”“I get the idea,” Yoongi cut him off.“But,” Namjoon continued, not phased by his attitude, “instead, it was filled with families with young children, and thousands of people with little to no use in their eyes. OA turned into a drain on their resources.”“Well, that’s what happens when your home planet gets destroyed,” Jeongguk retorted, leaning back and folding his arms, eyebrows raised, unamused. He had been one of those children.“Captain Kim, Commander Min,” Seokjin’s voice suddenly came through the intercom in the room, “you are needed on the bridge immediately.”Namjoon frowned. “Thinks he can order me around, does he?” His tone of voice was mild, though, and Yoongi knew he was only saying it to lighten the possible seriousness of the call.Jeongguk shut down the monitor and removed all of the data. Yoongi followed the Captain out of the room, both of their steps quick. When the doors slid open to the bridge, they were immediately aware of the tension in the room.“Captain,” Seokjin called out from his station, “we’ve picked up on two ships. At least one is definitely IGP. The other is too small to tell yet. They both suddenly just pulled out of hyper drive, not far behind us.”Yoongi took in the monitors. A large IGP patrol cruiser, it looked like, and a smaller ship were—“They’re fighting,” Yoongi and Namjoon noticed at the same time.Sure enough, there were flashes of light from blasters, and the smaller ship was flying erratically around the larger one.“Captain, the smaller ship is approaching firing range,” Seokjin announced.Namjoon switched on the comm.“This is Captain Kim Namjoon of Whalien II; you are flying too close to our ship. Fall back or state your identity.”There was no answer. Yoongi and Namjoon glanced at each other.“I repeat, state your identity, or we will be forced to fire upon you.”There wasn’t even a crackle.“Wait, isn’t that an IGP ship as well?” Yoongi pointed out, a weird feeling coming over him.“Is the message getting through? Or are they just ignoring us?”“They could both be hostile. I don’t trust the IGP. Ready the fighters.”“On it, Captain.”“Why is the IGP firing on their own ship?” Seokjin asked the bridge, sounding like he was thinking aloud as the fighter signal alarm began to sound throughout the bridge—and the rest of the ship, hopefully.Yoongi had just noticed the same thing. The little ship was dodging nearly all attacks, and despite being clearly equipped with firepower, it didn’t fight back.No. Wait. He saw the little ship’s guns brighten just before they fired, three times—on the IGP ship. The blasts didn’t cause any damage, and a moment later the ship’s engines glowed sharply before its speed abruptly increased. It didn’t fire off any more shots, looping and—it was hit in the rear by one of the IGP’s shots, but it didn’t give up.“Three fighters are ready to go, Captain.”“Send them out.”The Commander carefully watched the movement of the ship. Something about it was familiar. The almost graceful way in which it was handled by its obviously skilled pilot reminded him of—When the ship suddenly went into a spiral, aiming directly for the open launch bay without ever firing a single shot at Whalien II despite them firing several shots, he gasped.He knew exactly who was behind the controls.“Cease fire!” he bellowed, startling Namjoon right beside him. “All guns, cease fire! The pilot is one of our own!”Even so, a few last shots went off, one catching the wing right just as it entered the launch bay. Whalien II’s automatic anti-fire jets sprayed down the small ship as it hit the brake lines, getting caught and jerking to a stop.The Captain ordered the doors closed and fighters to remain on standby, and for a moment there was startled silence.“It’s Jimin,” Yoongi breathed. “I know it.” He pressed his hand against his chest, feeling the necklace through the material of his shirt. Sure enough, the pulse was stronger than ever, and unmoving.Namjoon stared hard at him. “You’re sure.”“I’m sure. It’s him. He’s on that ship.”. As the lights cut out, Jimin could only hear Yoongi’s and his heavy breathing, and the subtle creaking of the ship as Whalien II’s AGS affected them. They were caught almost upright; tilted just to the side in a way that Jimin was sure would make it difficult to walk. He unbuckled himself.“Are you okay?” he asked Yoongi, hearing similar clicks coming from his seat.“Yeah. I’m fine.” His voice was shaky.Jimin climbed up over the console to look out the window. He could already see the figures of Rebels running out onto the landing bay floor, guns held at ready. Three fighters with their systems activated had their blasters aimed directly at their little ship.“When we go outside,” Jimin began, turning to the dim outline of Yoongi, “keep your hands up and clasped behind your head.”“What? Why?”“We’re wearing IGP suits,” Jimin reminded him. “They might not shoot on sight, but if we make any sudden movements they consider hostile, they might."“And we don’t want to get shot at,” Yoongi said dryly.“That’s right.”“Great.”“Don’t worry,” Jimin assured him. “These are the good guys.”“I’m just not looking forward to getting shot at again, you know?”Jimin found Yoongi’s arm and squeezed it. “I won’t let them shoot at you. I promise.”They made their way to the outer doors by feeling around and by memory. Jimin couldn’t hear anything past the doors.“When we open the doors, don’t move yet. Just—follow what I do, okay?”“Yeah, gotcha.”Jimin reached for the button to open the doors before hesitating. As soon as those doors were open, the time leading up to when he would have to say good bye to Yoongi would be even shorter. Depending on which officers were on this ship, Yoongi could be gone in ten minutes. It was highly unlikely they would ever meet again. Yoongi had no place in this world. He belonged back in his own world.Jimin didn’t want to say good bye, though.“Hyung,” he began, just barely able to see the other man. “Wait, I just—”Jimin grabbed Yoongi on both sides of his face and yanked him toward himself. He could only see the gleam of Yoongi’s eyes, but he could feel the intake of his breath against his lips. Jimin shut his eyes and pressed their mouths together.Despite being caught off guard, Yoongi immediately responded to the kiss, hands coming up to hold Jimin’s waist, head angling slightly to the side for a less awkward fit. It felt natural, the steady way their lips moved against each other. It was a quick, clean kiss, over in barely a few seconds, but it only took those few seconds for Jimin to fall completely into it. He didn’t want to let go.He had to, though.They broke apart, and without a word, Jimin pressed the button to open the doors. As light entered their vision, he saw the way Yoongi was looking at him. Like he understood.Jimin cleared his throat, arm out to keep Yoongi back. “Not yet.”The doors hissed to a stand-still, a few feet off of the ground still from where they were suspended by the brake lines they’d gotten caught in.“We’re gonna have to jump,” Jimin whispered. “I’ll go first.”He waited to hear shots, but there was nothing. He could hear movement, but it was still relatively quiet.Jimin took a breath and stepped down the slope of the door, glancing back at Yoongi one last time before he put his hands up behind his head—he heard the telltale clicks as the safeties were deactivated on many blasters. Ready to fire at any time. He walked slowly, until the very edge. There was a line of men and women poised ready to fire on him; too far to see their faces clearly, but still in perfect firing range.“Keep your hands up!” he heard a familiar voice shout as they slowly began to walk toward the ‘welcoming crew.’ Captain Kim was alive. Even as Jimin’s heart began to lighten in optimism of who else could be okay, he held his elbows out as he clasped his hands together behind his head.He jumped down to the ground, legs only buckling for a second. He immediately shifted to block Yoongi as he, too, jumped with a groan.“State your names and purpose,” another voice called out firmly, this one even more familiar. Jimin choked and felt the blood drain from his face.Commander Min.Yoongi bumped into him from behind when he inadvertently froze.“Jimin, what—” Yoongi hissed.He was too busy scanning the group, but it didn’t take long to pick the Commander out, with his pale hair. Their eyes locked, and Jimin could already feel his eyes stinging—when Commander Min’s eyes shifted and then widened.“Shi—fuck—” Jimin burst out at the same time that Yoongi started to gasp, “What the—”He disregarded any warning about keeping his hands up, and slapped his palms over Yoongi’s eyes. Jimin heard the sharp shift as the crew strengthened their stances to shoot.“Hold your fire!” Commander Min shouted.“Jimin, what’s going on—what the fuck; let me go—” Yoongi was struggling against him, but Jimin held on tight, stronger than him. He watched as the Commander strode toward them with Captain Kim and two other men Jimin didn’t know the names of but recognized their faces.Commander Min looked slightly ill, strange emotions passing over his face. But otherwise healthy and all in one piece. He muttered something to the Captain, which was then vocalized louder.“Restrain and bind the Parallel.”The other two men took out handcuffs and a black band from the utility cartridges on their belts, and Yoongi was forced to turn away from them as Jimin’s hands were taken away from his face.Jimin couldn’t think. Yoongi was swearing and struggling uselessly as he had his wrists bound, and his eyes once again covered. The Commander reached out a hand to Jimin, and he swallowed, biting the insides of his cheeks. He stepped forward.“C-Commander,” he breathed, barely audible.He was alive. All this time. He’d been alive all this time. He’d never died.“Welcome home, Jimin,” Commander Min said quietly, a somewhat closed off smile on his lips.“You all can return to your stations,” the Captain called out to the rest of the crew waiting to jump in to action. “We’ve got this under control.”As the crowd dispersed, one of the fighters opened up, and there was a shout.“Jimin!”He turned quickly, eyes widening. Taehyung was sprinting toward them, in full fighter gear minus his helmet. He had barely a second to take that in before he was barreled into by his best friend, and lifted up in a tight hug.“I thought you’d died,” Taehyung said in his ear, squeezing him far too hard. “Where the hell have you been?”...........
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Chapter 12: ‘Second Separation’ “Taehyung, Jimin,” Commander Min’s voice interrupted, and Jimin quickly pushed himself away from Taehyung enough to face the Commander. Taehyung didn’t take his arm away from Jimin’s shoulders.“Sir,” Jimin spoke, voice sounding too weak to even his own ears, “I…I thought you—but I saw you—and the ship—”Commander Min frowned, as if he was confused, but then his expression cleared as he probably pieced together what Jimin was struggling to say. I thought you were dead.“I Sent myself off in time.”It didn’t add up, though. Jimin could feel himself start to get upset; the shocking relief from the Commander being alive, morphing into confusion as to why he’d gone through the last few weeks alone. Abandoned. With no way to get back in touch with anyone or even know whether anyone was looking for him. Had anyone looked for him?“Why didn’t you bring me back?” he choked out, anger clogging his throat. Taehyung’s hand squeezed his arm. “You just Sent me, with nothing. I was—I was in the middle of nowhere,” he exclaimed. “Your—your Parallel found me—I was unconscious in the middle of the fucking woods, not a single weapon on me, with the IGP after my sorry ass!”“Let’s bring this somewhere more private, shall we?” Captain Kim suddenly spoke up, and Jimin realized Yoongi was nowhere to be seen. He tensed, and pulled completely away from Taehyung.“Where did you take him?” he asked sharply.“To somewhere more private,” Commander Min answered for him, voice firm. It was the tone he used when he didn’t want to be crossed. He and the Captain turned and began to walk toward the doors leading back into the ship.“He’s not dangerous,” Jimin insisted, walking faster to stay at pace with Commander Min. He heard Taehyung following behind, after finally letting go of Jimin. “He saved my life.”“I know,” Commander Min replied shortly.“You—what? Then why did you restrain him like that? Cover his eyes, sure, but why—”“It’s safer that way.”“How the hell is it safer?! He can’t defend himself like that!”“He doesn’t need to defend himself. He just doesn’t know that. If he’s restrained, he won’t try to do something stupid like fight one of us and cause an accident.”“Jimin, show some respect to your superior officer,” the Captain broke in, and Jimin snapped his mouth shut but clenched his fists. “We are relieved you are home, and healthy. That doesn’t mean we appreciate your insubordination. You are still in the red for your actions in May.“Taehyung,” Captain Kim continued, “return to your station. You may catch up with Jimin later.”“Yes sir,” his friend responded, and clapped Jimin hard on the back once with a sympathetic smile, before turning and jogging off in a different direction.Jimin’s blood was pumping hard, a confusing whirlpool of emotions swirling around his mind. He wished he could speak alone with the Commander, without the extra presence of Captain Kim. Jimin was still trying to process his living, breathing presence. He had grieved his loss, and was just beginning to move on; but now…here the Commander was, in the flesh. Jimin didn’t know what to think.It didn’t help that—and maybe it was just his imagination—he thought he could still taste Yoongi on the tip of his tongue. It didn’t even make sense, because it had been such a simple kiss that there shouldn’t be any lingering taste—but the knowledge that he’d just kissed Commander Min’s Parallel, that now they were both in the same world…he suddenly didn’t know how to act around the Commander. He couldn’t look at him without seeing Yoongi in every part of him.Captain Kim suddenly paused and glanced back at Jimin with a different kind of frown, before increasing his pace.“Do they have a warrant?” he spoke out of nowhere; likely into his vocac:om. Jimin couldn’t hear whoever he was speaking to on the other end. “I see. Of course. Well, we’re not handing him over. That’s—” he broke off, listening for a moment. “I’m not looking to get into a fight with the IGP, but if that’s what it comes to…” he trailed off. “Right.”They came to a closed door, which Captain Kim stopped in front of and quickly unlocked. He waved them through while he stopped in the corridor, lowering his voice to speak more privately through the vocac:com.Inside the room, which held an average-size conference table and several chairs around it, Jimin and Commander Min found Yoongi sitting on one of the chairs, still in the blindfold and still with his hands restrained behind him. He was angry, shouting at the officers who were standing with him.“Why the fuck am I blindfolded?” Yoongi was demanding, struggling in the restraints. “And why am I locked up? Where’s Jimin? You know perfectly well I can’t do shit against—”“Yoongi-hyung, please,” Jimin pleaded, rushing forward and taking hold of his elbow, glancing helplessly between Commander Min and Yoongi as the Commander stepped up close; barely a pace away.“Jimin-ah,” Yoongi exclaimed, “what’s going on? Why the fuck am I locked up like this? I thought you said these were the good guys.”“It’s for your own safety,” Jimin said, squeezing his arm slightly. “Please don’t struggle. We’re not going to harm you. I promise.”Jimin’s mind was tripping out with two Min Yoongis right in front of him, but he couldn’t even imagine how it was for Commander Min, who was staring directly down at his Parallel.It was discouraged to meet or look upon your Parallel. Although there was no known physical effect, the psychological effects could be severe for those not prepared to see a living, breathing, independently thinking copy of themselves. It was different for everyone, but the most extreme cases ended with one or both Parallels going insane.“Jimin is right,” the Commander spoke, and Jimin saw a frown form between Yoongi’s brows. “It is for your own safety. You will be released; this is only temporary.”Jimin made a small sound; he wasn’t sure if he was trying to say anything in particular. Whether it was to protest or interject, he snapped his mouth shut before he could get anything out other than a bubble of noise from the back of his throat.“At least tell me who I’m speaking with,” Yoongi spat out, ignoring Jimin and facing in the direction of the Commander.Commander Min pursed his lips and seemed to take a steadying breath. Jimin had known the man long enough to tell that he was feeling off but was trying to hide it.“You’re speaking with Commander Min Yoongi of the Rebels.” He spoke clearly, and there was no waver to his voice.Jimin felt the way Yoongi recoiled.“What?” There was a pause. “But I thought Jimin said—no. That’s…that’s not possible.” Yoongi began shaking his head. “Let me see.”Jimin looked up at Commander Min in panic. “Commander, he’s, he’s—this isn’t a good idea. We need to separate you two. You’re already—”Commander Min shook his head, though. “No, Jimin, we don’t. This is necessary. He’s already involved, and it’s already happened. I’ll Send him back, but he needs to know some things first.”“You’re going to Send him back now?” Jimin’s hand involuntarily tightened around Yoongi’s arm. Of course they had to Send him back. He didn’t belong in this world. It made perfect sense. And he’d promised Yoongi he’d get him home. But now…Jimin couldn’t help the way he didn’t like that idea anymore.Instead of answering, Commander Min turned to the two guards in the room. “You may leave. And let the Captain know that I can handle this. Thank you.”They saluted, something of a strange sight to Jimin, considering how much the ranks mixed and worked together in the Rebels—and then they stepped outside, shutting the door behind them.It was silent for a long moment. Then, the Commander nodded to Jimin.“Please step aside, Jimin.”Jimin hesitated, but Commander Min’s voice was calm, and some of the anger was wearing off with Yoongi’s well-being taking priority at the moment. He’d finish that discussion later. He let his hand slip away from Yoongi’s arm, and stepped back one step.“What are you going to do with me?” Yoongi muttered, lips pursing.“I’m not going to do anything to you. I’m going to give you a warning.” The Commander took a deep breath, and Jimin noticed that his hands were slightly shaking. It was barely a tremble, but Jimin was used to noticing tiny details about people. To him, it was obvious that Commander Min was struggling, and something pinched in Jimin’s heart.He was angry, he was confused, but Jimin couldn’t fight the concern for his Commander.“And you’re going to promise me something.”Before Jimin could react, the Commander Min reached forward and pulled the blindfold from Yoongi’s eyes.“Fuck—What are you doing?!”When Yoongi made eye contact with Commander Min, his eyes widened, and he made a strange, unpleasant garbled sound. His face went pale, and he struggled hard at his restraints.“The fuck—?”Jimin jumped forward and tried to step between the two, grabbing Yoongi’s face and forcing him to look at him instead.“Hyung, look at me—”“Jimin, out of the way,” Commander Min said, placing a hand on his shoulder, his fingers curling completely around Jimin’s shoulder cap, palm warm through the fabric of his shirt. It was the first physical contact since their separation, and Jimin felt like the air was getting pulled from his lungs. He tried to stand his ground. The whole thing felt wrong. He was touching both Min Yoongis at the same time.Yoongi’s eyes were focused over Jimin’s shoulder, and he could feel himself slowly being shifted aside. Commander Min was being gentle, but he was far stronger than Jimin, and it was clear in the way Jimin stumbled a little and finally had to step to the side, losing contact with both men.“I am Commander Min Yoongi,” the man said once more, with purpose, “and I want you to listen very carefully.”Yoongi didn’t say a word. He seemed to be calming down, but his pupils were contracted, and his entire body was tense.“Park Jimin,” Commander Min began, and Jimin at first thought he was being addressed—only to realize he wasn’t, “is a very stubborn person.”Yoongi’s eyes narrowed, likely feeling as confused as Jimin did.“He will get under your skin. He won’t listen. He’ll try to do things his way.”What?“But he must be protected. Not only because of what he means to you—”Jimin turned abruptly to stare at the older man, sucking in a sharp breath.“—but because of reasons far bigger than your own selfish needs.”“Commander—” Jimin tried to break in, but was ignored.“You are going to promise me.”Yoongi wet his lips, nostrils widening slightly as he drew in a breath. He was freaked out, that much was clear.“I know you won’t remember a lot of things. But you must remember one thing if nothing else: protect him.”The Commander was speaking as if he was going to disappear, as if the older officer wouldn’t be there; as if Jimin would need Yoongi’s protection once he was gone. It made no sense—but more than that, it created a bubble of panic in his chest.“Commander, what are you talking about?” Jimin demanded weakly.“Do you understand?” Commander Min didn’t take his eyes off of Yoongi.Yoongi didn’t reply.“Say you understand, and will promise me this.”Finally, Yoongi spoke. His throat made a rough scratching noise, but his words were clear: “I promise.”“Good. I am going to release you, now.”Jimin watched him step around to unlock the cuffs from around Yoongi’s wrists, setting them down on the table in the room. Yoongi immediately brought his arms back in front of himself, rolling his shoulders absently.“Min Yoongi,” the Commander spoke again, and this time there was something in his voice Jimin didn’t like. Something that put him on edge. He was staring strangely at Yoongi. “Remember your promise, if nothing else. I’m Sending you.”“No, wait!” Jimin exclaimed, jumping forward, but was caught by a firm hand.Yoongi didn’t even have time to look surprised. There was a horrid ripping sound, and then suddenly he was gone.“Why would you do that?!” Jimin found himself shouting, turning on the Commander, overwhelmed with shock and anger. “I didn’t—I wanted to—he’s gone! You don’t even know where he came from! Where’d you Send him?!”Somehow, losing Min Yoongi for the second time felt even more painful. Jimin’s chest was burning. He didn’t realize he was still yelling at Commander Min until his shoulders were seized in a nearly painful grip, he was shaken roughly, and his superior officer bellowed at him:“He’s not my Parallel!”There was a stunned silence for half a breath.“He’s not my Parallel, Jimin—he’s me.”Commander Min was still holding him by both shoulders, but his entire demeanor had softened, as if in defeat. His voice was calm.“What?” Jimin’s voice cracked. There was a buzzing in his ears. “I don’t…understand.”Commander Min’s hands tightened briefly before loosening, and dropping. Jimin swayed, having inadvertently been relying on the support. He watched as the Commander sank into the chair Yoongi had just been occupying.“Sit down.” Commander Min waved at another chair nearby.Jimin found himself obeying without thinking.“That person…was me. Not my Parallel. Me.”“That doesn’t make sense. What’re you—what do you mean?”Commander Min had been looking down at his hands, but he looked up and met Jimin’s gaze. “I’m not from this World. I met you eight years ago when you came to my world and brought me here.”“Eight years—?”Commander Min’s lips quirked slightly. “That Min Yoongi. He’s only twenty-five.”“Yes, how do you—”“Like I said, he’s me. I’m him. We’re one and the same person.”Too many thoughts were flying across Jimin’s brain. He couldn’t decide on which to focus on; which question to ask. Commander Min decided for him, though.“I confess I don’t know much. Or rather, I don’t remember much. The warnings about meeting Parallels are true—even truer for meeting your past or future self. There are gaps in my memory, and parts that are too blurry and distorted to make any sense out of.“I never forgot you, and yet I’ve had no sense of when any of this would happen. I’ve been searching for you, and then I had a feeling…so I waited.”Jimin was having difficulty taking the information in. It was like he was trying to connect the dots using thread that kept slipping from each pin.“Are you sure?” he asked slowly, almost begging for it to be a joke.“I am. What do you need me to say for you to believe me? I’m not lying to you, Jimin. I swear.” “If…if you are…him, then why are you here? In this world? Why—where did you Send him—I mean, yourself? Not back to his—your Originating World?”There was something in Commander Min’s eyes that felt familiar and yet new. He smiled sadly at Jimin. “Because I know now what I didn’t know then; that you wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for my being Sent back in time. I purposely stranded myself in the year Seven A.E. so I could become who I am now.”“But…” It still felt like a cruel joke. They couldn’t be the same person. “What do you remember?”“Are you asking me to prove that I know something I wouldn’t know otherwise unless we were the same person?”“I don’t—yes.” Jimin changed his mind mid-sentence, realizing he needed something solid to make this real.The Commander sighed heavily, and folded his arms, staring hard at Jimin’s face. “It was a long time ago, and I only have bits and pieces—”“Then give me those pieces,” Jimin cut in stubbornly. “What do you know?”Commander Min appeared to be thinking deeply, and then he opened his mouth at last.“I told you I was an architect, right?”Jimin swallowed tightly, and nodded.“I was on a mental health retreat. Backpacking.”Shivers ran down Jimin’s spine, and his fingers went a little cold.“I don’t remember how I found you, or in what order things happened, but I remember…” he frowned, like he was trying to see through fog. “I remember carrying you on my back… I remember getting attacked. I remember the hotel room.”He paused, eyes refocusing on Jimin’s face.“I remember kissing you.”Jimin’s stomach clenched, and he involuntarily tensed, drawing back in his chair. . Yoongi knew what was happening, now. But that didn’t make it any easier. He shot through blinding wormholes for what felt like forever, feeling an icy tingling at his spine—until everything cleared and suddenly he was collapsing on a hard surface. It took him a moment for his head to stop spinning enough to raise it and push himself to his feet with a groan.The first thing he noticed was that there was no sky. He was outside, on the sidewalk of a town, or city…but high above him, walkways made of metal and plexiglass or some other kind of plastic-y material crisscrossed between buildings and the greater walls, panels with glowing false sky gave off a gray, cloudy feeling to the daylight they provided, and the air felt very much recycled.Where was he?He was alone, that was for sure. Neither Jimin nor his Parallel, Commander Min Yoongi, were with him.Why hadn’t he been Sent back to Earth? His Earth, to be more specific?He grimaced as a wave of vertigo suddenly hit him. He could still hear the echo of Jimin’s voice shouting in panic, and he experienced an unpleasant sensation like he was falling backward, his brain pushed to the front of his skull, his eyes throbbing.It took him a moment to realize he was lying flat on his back, and a middle-aged woman was leaning over him.“Are you all right?” she asked him, extending a hand, which he took and managed to get back on his feet.“I…” he trailed off. What was he supposed to say? “I’m fine,” he ended up lying. “I just…got a little dizzy.”“Maybe you should stop by a medic, in case it’s something serious.” She frowned in concern.“Ah, right.” He nodded. “I’ll do that,” he said, just to satisfy her and hopefully have her leave him alone so he could figure out what had happened—and where he was.Once she left, Yoongi cautiously picked a direction and began walking, having no clue where he should even begin looking—or what he should look for. An information center for tourists, perhaps. Or a city hall, even.It was after he’d wandered for at least half an hour, when he spotted two men in uniform. They didn’t look intimidating, and they didn’t have the same IGP insignia that he had only just begun to recognize. Which, by the way, he glanced down at himself, relief flooding through him when he realized that the IGP shirt he was wearing didn’t have any obvious logos or markings that he could see. He hoped he looked just like someone wearing a labor work uniform.Yoongi was in the middle of deciding whether to actually go up and ask them where an information center was when they noticed him. When they began moving in his direction, he did his best to not look guilty, or too nervous.“You look a little lost there, sir,” one of them said, holding some kind of digital device similar to a tablet, but with some extra buttons. “Which colony are you from?”“I just…moved here,” he lied quickly, not sure what else he could say.Evidently that was an odd thing to tell them, though, because they both paused and glanced at each other.“You just moved here? Which living unit?”“I don’t need to tell you that,” he protested as civilly as he could.“Actually, you do.” The thinner of the two men held out his hand. “Let’s see your ID.”Yoongi pretended to check his pockets, and then shook his head. “I left it at home, sorry.”The man huffed out a sigh. “Your tracker,” he emphasized, as if Yoongi was being an idiot. Which he probably was.“My—oh.” He got a sudden flash of memory of Jimin shooting the forearms of already dead police officers. He didn’t have a tracker.Well…he could try playing innocent. He held out his arm, mentally crossing his fingers.The thinner man took his arm and held the device over it—it didn’t take long for him to realized something was wrong.“Where’s your tracker?”“Huh?”“Didn’t you get a tracker when you evacuated?”Evacuated? What the hell?The other man, a bit shorter and buffer than the one scanning his non-existent tracker, pulled out a device of his own.“What’s your name.” It wasn’t a question. It was a demand.“Min Yoongi.”“Min…Yoon…Gi. How old are you?”“Twenty-five.” He figured it would be safer to just cooperate, but he couldn’t help the creeping feeling that he was digging himself a hole at the same time.“Huh. There’s no one here by that name in the system.” The guy looked back up at him. “How’d you completely miss getting registered? And for this long?”“Uh…I don’t know?”The thinner man groaned in annoyance. “Well, you’re going to have to come with us and get registered, sir. We can’t have you wandering without a tracker. It’s crucial for your safety, should there be an emergency.”Before he knew what was happening, Yoongi was being herded into a small police vehicle—luckily no cuffs this time—and barely a few minutes later they pulled into a horseshoe driveway in front of a simple but modernly designed building with three levels.Somewhere, at the back of his mind, Yoongi felt like what he was about to do was a very bad idea, but he couldn’t quite recall why. What had Jimin told him about trackers?He was led through a main hallway, which didn’t look all that different from what he would expect at a city office; plain, minimalist, and full of staff working straight-faced through their load. They turned down a side hallway, passing a few doors on either side before they stopped at one labeled, ‘REGISTRATION.’Yoongi wasn’t expecting that he would go straight into surgery with no prior warning, barely ten minutes later.“What the fuck—you can’t just—” he struggled as his arm was strapped down to a medical table. He was only given a chair, had his arm wiped down with instantly working numbing gel—and then they stuck a long, thin metal knife into his arm.His stomach lurched once, and then rose completely, emptying itself all over the floor. The machine performing surgery didn’t pause as the medical staff in the room quickly moved to clean up the mess, and a minute later Yoongi felt a horrid swooping sensation inside his head as everything went black............To be continuedin Part II...