Chapter Text
It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
“No, don’t you dare touch them!”
The words echoed in Haewon’s mind. Over, and over again. Lily’s voice could never really escape her.
Her arms are holding her. Sticky, they feel sticky, is all Haewon can manage to think. But they’re Lily’s nonetheless.
“Please, I’ll do anything.”
A moment of silence. Then, Lily’s voice, pleading in a language Haewon doesn’t understand. Suddenly, she feels the absence of Lily’s warmth and tries to lift her head. Why does it feel so heavy?
Lily cups her face and kisses her forehead, “I love you so much Haewonnie. We’ll always have the next life. I love you.” She sounds like she’s trying not to cry. Haewon knows something is wrong, tries to say something to reassure her, but she can’t seem to find the strength to open her mouth and do something about it.
Just like that, Lily is gone and Haewon’s world fades into black.
The next thing she knows, she’s peeling her eyes open back on the ship. Bae looks up from beside her bed, tears already forming in what looks like relief.
“Haewon, you’re awake, I-” “Where’s Lily?”
Jinsol’s eyes drop.
“Jinsol?”
“She…do you not remember?”
“Remember what?” Haewon can feel her annoyance growing. “Jinsol, I swear to god if you don’t tell me in the next 5 seconds-”
“She was taken. Mon-Monopole took her.”
“What?”
“Monopole- they captured her. She’s- Lily’s gone.”
Haewon feels the air rush out from her lungs. Her head feels too light. She can’t breathe. Why can’t she breathe? Lily-
“Haewon? Are you- Shit, I’m getting Yoona. Yoona!” Jinsol’s hands move, unsure, before she all but sprints out of the room.
Haewon doesn’t want Yoona, she wants Lily.
Lily, oh god.
She can’t breathe.
She can’t-
“Haewon?”
She looks up. Yoona’s eyes pierce through her, worried. Haewon realises her eyes are wet, and quickly wipes the tears away before standing up.
“Are we there yet?” “Almost. Haewon, you-” “I’m fine.”
The look Yoona gives her is enough for her to fold.
“I just, what if we don’t make it in time? What if-” She feels a hand on her shoulder and looks up. “The only thing we can do right now is to be prepared. This isn’t just on you.”
“How is it not? I got us into this mess and now the team’s falling apart because of it. Kyujin’s locked herself in the control room, Jinsol’s always above deck and I’ve seen Jiwoo twice in the past two days. Lily got” she swallows, “captured because of me.” Yoona’s gaze softens.
“Look, I know you, and I know for a fact,” she presses a finger into her chest, “that you are being too hard on yourself. You’re right, the team needs you, Lily needs you. But you won’t be of any use to this mission until you get out of your own head. Got it? Now, come on. Team meeting in five.” Haewon watches Yoona walk out the door. She sighs. God, can today get any worse?” She turns to look at the picture of her and Lily on her desk and picks up the frame.
“Lily not now, I need to-”
“Haewonnie,” Lily cups her face and pouts “would you rather go to Jinsol or would you rather be here with me?” Haewon’s first instinct, of course, is to fold.
“I- Lily she- she said she needs me for something.” Haewon stammers out. She can already feel Lily’s big brown eyes pulling her in.
“Well, I need you for something else first. And then you can go do your important work stuff with Jinsol, okay Captain?”
Lily’s face is a lot closer than Haewon remembers, and before she realises it, their lips are pressed together and the air is sucked out of her lungs.
Suddenly, they hear a gasp and jump apart to see Kyujin and Jiwoo, cameras out and faces red.
“I-Unnie we-” “It was Kyujin’s idea!” “Liar-”
Haewon exchanges a look with Lily, turns and starts running at the maknaes. They both let out a shriek and start sprinting down the corridor.
“Jang Kyujin! Kim Jiwoo! When I catch you two-”
A loud bell interrupts Haewon’s daydream. “All attention, everyone on board the NMU, report to briefing room for team meeting. I repeat, everyone report to briefing room for team meeting.” Yoona’s voice blasts over the loudspeaker. Haewon sighs. She hears another knock on the door. “Come in.” This time, it’s Jinsol’s familiar head of blonde popping in. “Haewon-” “I know. Just, just give me a minute.” Jinsol looks as if she’s about to say something, but decides against it, opting to nod and close the door behind her. Haewon looks at the picture one more time, smiling when she sees Lily’s bright gaze. Her heart clenches.
I’m coming. I promise we’ll have this life.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Haewon looks around the room.
Kyujin is toying with what looks like a small piece of metal. Jiwoo’s buried in her hoodie, the fabric swallowing her whole. Jinsol can’t seem to sit still, eyes darting between random objects in the room, fingers tapping out an old song on the table. Sullyoon, on the other hand, is too still. Her eyes seem to look into Haewon’s soul, silently encouraging.
Haewon swallows hard and claps twice. All eyes dart to meet hers.
“Status update. Kyujin, start.”
The piece she was playing with falls out of her hands. Kyujin stammers. “I- the ship has been calibrated. Jinsol unnie and I have managed to track down Lily unnie’s location from the communicator she had with her. We’re on route, T-minus 6 hours to her location.”
“And the device?” Haewon presses. Yoona shoots her a look. Go easy on her. Haewon avoids her gaze, but softens her tone. “How’s progress on the device going?”
“It’s done. I just need to do a final fitting for you, but otherwise it should be in top working order.”
“Okay, good work. Jiwoo, progress on-”
“Unnie wait.” Kyujin interrupts. “Uh, I just, Jinsol unnie had something to add.”
Haewon blinks. Oh, right. “Of course, sorry. Jinsol, what are your findings?” Jinsol’s eyes meet hers, frowning. Why does everyone keep looking at her like that?
“Right so, the place she’s in seems to be one of Monopole’s biggest bases yet, it’s about 10 floors, but based on how weak the signal is from the tracker, Kyujin and I think she’s being kept somewhere in the basement, so, you know, she can’t escape. Once you get in, we’ll be able to scan the layout better and we should be able to break both of you out within 48 hours maximum.” Jinsol places the device in front of her. It’s small, round, and kind of looks like those earpieces singers use. Lily would love that. Haewon shakes her head. “Anything else I need to know?” She looks at Jiwoo. She’s a little startled to see her dark brown eyes already looking back at her.
“Intel on the streets say that….their methods for treating prisoners is….harsh. You need to be prepared for…however you find Lily unnie.” Jiwoo’s voice is low and raw, as if she’s spent the last 2 nights doing nothing but screaming. Nightmares, Haewon quickly realises. Kyujin’s hand finds Jiwoo’s waist, pulling her in a little closer from where they’re seated beside each other. She looks over to Yoona.
“Jiwoo has already shared with me the gist of it, we’ve practically covered everything in your first aid training. If you need additional help, just tap this button,” Yoona taps a small, vaguely button looking symbol on the earpiece, “and I’ll be on 24 hour call. Again, we should have you both out within 2 days, so the training you have should be good enough.”
“Should be? Lily deserves better than should be.” Haewon can’t stop herself from spitting out, though her words lack their usual fire. Bae steps in front of Yoona, eyes blazing, and a vague memory of Haewon doing the same for Lily in the middle of a particularly tense mission pops up into her head.
They lock eyes for a minute, Haewon looks away and mutters out a quick “I’m sorry. Everyone to the landing station half an hour before we start. Meeting dismissed.” She hears someone call out her name, but she can’t bring herself to turn around. Just 6 more hours.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Haewon!”
Yoona watches Haewon go. Kyujin and Jiwoo slink out, the younger’s arms firmly wrapped around Jiwoo’s hoodie. She allows herself a small smile at that. She feels her posture fall, and Jinsol’s face is soon in front of her, a worried look on her face. Her long arms wrap around her, engulfing her in a bear hug. She feels herself melting into Jinsol’s embrace.
“It’s okay.” She says softly into the air beside them. “It’s gonna be okay.” Neither of them know who she’s trying to convince.
“How’s Haewon holding up?” Jinsol finally asks.
“What do you think?” Yoona replies tiredly. “I haven’t seen her eyebags this bad since our first mission.” “That bad?” Jinsol’s arms hold hers, frowning. Yoona can’t help but picture a, albeit very large, golden retriever standing in front of her.
“We all knew it was gonna take a big toll on her. I mean, it’s Lily. Like, once in a lifetime, love of her life, sunshine of her days, Lily Jin Park Morrow. I’d be worried if it didn’t.” Jinsol sighs. “When you put it that way…Yoona I just…”
“Just what?” Jinsol’s head dips, her hands wringing nervously.
“Jinsol.” Yoona takes her face in her hands and gently tilts her head up.
“I’m…I know…I’m just worried…what if we end up losing both of them? What if it fails and then it’s just…we never…” She can see the tears welling up in Jinsol’s eyes and she wants nothing more than to be able to kiss away all her worries.
“Hey. It’s gonna be okay. It’s always darkest before dawn, remember? I know it's dangerous, I know the risk is high, but this is Haewon we’re talking about. If there’s one thing she’s gonna do, it’s that she’ll never let anything bad happen to Lily, not if she can help it. Okay? Picture both of them back here safe and sound, whispering to each other on the couch in the living room and scarring us all for life.” She gets a soft giggle out of Jinsol and smiles. The tears in her eyes are quickly thumbed away.
“Thank you.” Jinsol says, kissing Yoona’s cheek. “I’m gonna go check on the younger ones and do final preparations. Don’t worry too much about Haewon, okay?”
Yoona laughs. “You’re seriously the one telling me that?” Jinsol shrugs. “Someone has to tell you every once in a while.” She takes Yoona’s hand, kissing it. Yoona watches her waltz out the door. “Fare thee well my princess, may we meet again!” She says with a wink before disappearing. Yoona rolls her eyes, but she can’t stop the grin quickly spreading across her face.
She sighs, heading for the medical room.
“It’s gonna be okay, Yoona-yah.” Lily grins at her.
“But unnie, what if she doesn’t say yes?” Yoona looks up to see Lily grimacing.
“Yoona, are you honestly telling me you’ve never seen how Jinsol looks at you? Not once?” She rolls her eyes at Yoona’s wary look.
“She looks at you like she’d hang up the stars, moon, and sky just to see you crack a smile. Honestly, you’re both oblivious as hell. You, I expected, but Jinsol of all people,” she throws up her hands, exasperated, and Yoona laughs a little. “Jinsol is the worst, most hopeless romantic I know, and I’m me! And she still can’t see you both pining for each other. You’re made for each other, I swear.”
Yoona watches as she paces the room and protests. “Unnie, you say that because you and Haewon spent years making heart eyes at each other. We’re not like your perfect, sickly sweet love story. What if I screw it up?”
Lily spins around and grabs her by the shoulders and looks almost too seriously into her eyes. Yoona would laugh if not for the butterflies currently invading her stomach.
“You. Will not. Screw this up. Yoona, I promise you it will be fine. Remember, it’s always darkest before dawn. Okay? At worst you come back, we grab a bunch of pillows and huddle on your bed, eat ice cream and cry.” She lets go, grabs her jacket and opens the door. “Now, I am gonna drag Haewon away from Jinsol so that you two can have your date. Good luck Yoona! You got this.” She throws an encouraging grin before closing the door shut. Soon after, Jinsol walks in with a sheepish grin on her face and flowers in her hands.
Later as she falls asleep to Jinsol’s arms around her, she wonders why she ever doubted Lily.
It’s always darkest before dawn. Lily unnie, I sure hope you’re right this time too.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pain. That’s all Lily can feel, can even think about when she comes to. She tries to shift her body but a sharp pain in her side quickly stops her. She lets out a loud groan.
Where am I? What happened?
She hears a loud noise that sounds like heavy metal grating. Lily yelps as she’s grabbed at by rough hands, brought up by the shoulders and forced up onto her knees. A hand grabs her by the hair and yanks her head up. She bites back a wince and forces her eyes open. The hand in question belongs to a man standing before her. He looks vaguely familiar, but the haze in her mind clouds her judgment.
“Well, well, well. Looks like the siren has finally been caught.” The man’s face breaks into a sinister grin, and it hits Lily all at once.
“You.” She spits out, her voice sounds unusually weak but venomous all the same. Is that blood that just sprayed out of her mouth?
Monopole’s leader steps back, seemingly satisfied. “Where’s your little group now? Your little team of misfits and deviants have finally abandoned you…what’s wrong? Voice wasn’t ‘perfectly on pitch’ this time?”
Lily feels a pang hit her heart, but rolls her eyes at him anyway. Don’t let them break you, Haewon once told her.
“Screw you. They’ll come for me. I know they will.”
“Oh really? We haven’t had any invasions since then. Your little ship hasn’t even popped up on our radar. Sure looks like they've left the area.”
Sure looks like they’ve left you.
Lily swallows and smirks at him. “As always, you underestimate us. Looks to me that your tech isn’t advanced enough. What, a team of scientists not enough to compete with one 19 year old engineer?” Kyujin, their little teenage genius. God, she’s so proud of her. She knows she hits a soft spot with that one. Monopole’s tech department never could catch up to her. She feels the force of a hand connecting with her face and her head jerks to the side.
“What us? You are all alone here. You. Just you.” He hisses. He bends down until their faces are so close that she can feel his breaths. He grabs her chin and bends her head towards him, forces her to face him. “You will tell us where they’re hiding. You will help us bring the downfall of NMIXX. I will make you watch every one of them take their last breaths. I will force your eyes open if I have to.” He sneers at her and all but flings her head away from him, as if touching her any longer would burn him.
Lily feels a fire igniting inside her. She turns and spits on him. The look on his face when her blood splatters on his pristine, white shirt is worth it. Satisfying. She pays for it, however, with a punch strong enough to send her straight to the ground. Lily feels her head connect with the hard ground and pain explodes behind her eyes.
“Get her up!” Cold, rough hands grab her again, this time pulling her up to her feet. Lily’s head is spinning, feels feather light.
“I recall you saying something about, what was it again, ‘I’ll do anything’? Time to put that to the test, sweetheart.” He drawls the last word. Lily’s eyes widen in horror against her will. No. No no no no no- A bag is thrown over her head.
When the bag is removed, she’s in another room. This time, it’s almost pitch black, though she can make out something metal gleaming through the darkness.
She’s strapped to the chair with rope. Typical, she thinks. How cartoon villain of them.
Her thoughts are interrupted with the arrival of a tall, broad figure holding…a baseball bat? She hasn’t seen one of those since they were back in Mixxtopia. The figure swings it towards her ribs. Oh.
Her ribs explode from the pain. The last thing Lily feels are fireworks erupting in her sides.
I hope the next life comes faster, is the last thing she thinks before she passes out.