Feathers And Carnations Chapter Twenty-four

*TW: knife on skin= blood (lol)

There was no turning back now. The trap was set, and Jisung was the bait. He sat in the passenger seat of Chan’s SUV, tensely rubbing the fresh bandage on his arm. It was painful setting a tracker under his skin, but it was the only way to guarantee that Chimera wouldn’t find it.

“Jisung, I’m still not sure about this,” Chan finally broke the suffocating silence.

“We’ve been planning this for two days, I know what I’m doing.”

“You know what I mean. Plans go astray all the time and since you’ll be a captive, nothing is guaranteed.”

“Well I have a better chance than Changbin. Even if everything else goes wrong, I’m at least getting him out of there. He doesn’t have anything to do with Chimera, they have no other use for him except to lure me in.”

Chan went quiet for another long moment. “I trust you. I just don’t want to send one of my own into the mouth of a beast.”

Jisung let out a breath, willing some tension to leave his body. “I know. Just stick to the plan and we’ll work with what we’ve got.”

“The numbers we’ve gathered are still relatively small, but I’ll try to pull more into this fight while I can.”

“Hopefully we won’t need that much manpower. As long as Felix is able to work with that formula for the explosive and Jeongin and Hyunjin can get things set up, there won’t be much fighting to do.” Jisung turned his attention back to the window, mentally running through his plan over and over. He wasn’t worried about succeeding in destroying Chimera, he was worried about getting out in time. He had to get himself and Minho out of there. He didn’t voice his concerns to anyone, however. Everyone was worried enough as it was.

A heavy cloud of uncertainty and tension fell over the car as they reached the isolated road where Chimera was waiting for them. Three vans sat blocking the road ahead, and a small crowd of guards stood in front of them, armed to the teeth. Just ahead of them was Hyeon standing behind Changbin, who was kneeling and restrained. Two large men flanked them.

“At least they didn’t lie about him being alive,” Chan muttered, stopping the car. “Are you ready?”

Jisung wordlessly climbed out of the car, his eyes glued to the scene in front of him. It took everything in his power to stay calm. Lashing out now would derail the entire plan.

Chan followed closely behind him, his hand resting on his holstered firearm as they slowly approached Chimera.

Jisung immediately noticed a thin bandage wrapped around Hyeon’s head, which made him feel a spark of satisfaction. I’m sure Minho was the cause of that. He then scanned Changbin, noting the bruises on his face and his bloodied lip. Despite the circumstance, Changbin had a subtle smirk on his face.

“I must say, I’m fairly surprised that you actually showed up,” Hyeon said in way of greeting. “After our last visit I wasn’t sure if you’d have the guts to come back.”

The echo of an ache rippled through Jisung’s hands and he curled them into fists. “We’ve both shown up as agreed.  Now the question is, are we going to complete this exchange as agreed?”

Hyeon tilted his head in amusement. “If you want things to go as we agreed, why did you show up with only one man as backup?”

Jisung flashed his teeth in a threatening smile. “He’s all I need.”

Hyeon’s amusement flickered away at the sight of Chan’s glare, and he pushed Changbin with his foot. “This thing doesn’t mean anything to me, so unless I know you’re giving up willingly, I’ll just kill him.”

Jisung nodded at Chan before continuing forward, arms held up. “As you can see, I didn’t come here to mess around.”

Changbin was shaking his head. “Ji, what are you doing? You’re such a dumbass.”

“I’m doing this for you. And you’re the dumbass for getting caught.”

“Low blow.”

Hyeon cleared his throat obnoxiously. “As touching as this is, can we move on? I’m low on patience.”

“So am I,” Jisung snapped. “Now let him up and uncuff him.”

The world held its breath.

Finally, Hyeon motioned and one of the men flanking him bent to free Changbin’s arms.

Changbin got to his feet, rolling out his shoulders. “You really know how to treat a guy, don’t you?” The man pushed him. “Okay patience, geez.”

Jisung cautiously made his way forward, holding his breath for the moment Hyeon decided to pull something dirty. He would pull something, that was guaranteed. It was only a matter of when.

As they passed one another at a safe distance, Changbin whispered, “Seriously, what are you doing?”

“Chan will explain.”

Changbin was clearly not very happy with that answer, but he would have to deal with it. No one liked this plan, and Jisung didn’t care. He would sooner die than sit back and let Chimera continue its deadly rampage.

As he neared the enemy, Jisung noticed a strange interaction between a few of the officers, and he knew what they were planning instantly. The moment he was in range of Hyeon’s men, he grabbed the closest man’s machine gun, slamming it in his face and making him stumble back. He wrenched the gun free and aimed it at Hyeon. “Have your men stand down.”

Hyeon’s face was already growing red. “So you aren’t going to keep your word.”

“I intend to as long as you do. I will not move until my comrades are safely gone.”

Hyeon scoffed. “You realize you’re outnumbered twenty to one, right? I could get rid of you with a simple twitch of my finger.”

“You don’t want to destroy me though, do you?” Jisung felt no fear as several guns trained on him, and he kept his cold gaze glued to Hyeon in a challenging glare. Seeing him again was nauseating, but Jisung’s anger overpowered his fear tenfold.

After what felt like an eternity, Hyeon motioned and his men lowered their weapons. Another tense minute passed until Jisung heard the sound of Chan’s SUV fade away completely. Chimera would more than like pursue them, but a the very least Jisung bought them some time.

It was a struggle for Jisung to drop the gun and hold his hands up. The guards surrounded him, roughly pulling his arms back as they clamped a heavy set of chains on his wrists.

Hyeon slowly walked up to him, a snake-like smile bright on his ugly face. “You truly are fascinating, JH-47. I didn’t think you actually cared about your friends enough to serve yourself on a silver platter.”

“A heartless pig like you wouldn’t understand, so I won’t bother explaining anything to you.” Hyeon’s lip curled and Jisung smirked. “The truth hurts, doesn’t it?”

Hyeon’s knuckles slammed into Jisung’s cheek, making his head jerk to the side. “Perhaps I’ll have to train you to be silent again.”

Jisung rotated his jaw. He’d been hit harder, honestly. “I’d like to see you try.”

“No wonder you and ML-32 get along so well,” Hyeon chuckled darkly. “I suppose I’ll have to give you the same treatment, although I doubt you’d survive as long. Your program has made you a bit weaker than the other program.”

It was time to get his plan into action. “So what, you’ll put me with ML-32 just to pull me away in order to mess with me?”

Hyeon tilted his head. “That’s not a bad idea. If you keep blabbing on you’ll tell me the best way to torture you without even meaning to.” He turned to his men. “Get it in transport, and keep it talking.”

Jisung bit down a slight smile as the guards shoved him forward. Yes, run with that idea old man, and you’ll make it that much easier to tear your life apart.

⧫⧫⧫

Jisung hated being back here. His mind and body wanted shut down for every minute that passed as he was brought through security and searched. Thankfully, Chimera didn’t find the tracker embedded in his skin, and that gave him a bit of courage to move on with this plan.

As he was escorted through the facility, Jisung could feel his heart being tugged, like it knew where Minho was being kept. He was almost afraid to see the mafia don, to see what state he was in. But he was far too anxious to get to him to let fear get in the way. After weeks of waiting, Jisung finally had the chance to get him out.

It took much too long to wind through the many passages of Chimera, and Jisung breathed an unexpected sigh of relief when they reached a set of white metal doors surrounded by DO NOT ENTER signs. After punching a code into the keypad off to the side, his escorts pushed the doors open and led him through.

A wide room spread out before them, painted completely white and filled with tables of equipment and strange devices. Hyeon was standing at a computer near the far back wall, and Jisung immediately noticed the door next to it. His heart tugged. Minho is there.

Jisung’s eyes swept over the room, and a dull ache grew in his head as his mind tried to catch a glimpse of his memory. He got dizzy a few times just on the way here, and he hoped that wouldn’t prove to be an issue when it was time to escape with Minho.

“Yes, take it all in. You’ll have to get used to my office since you’ll be spending most of you insignificant life here,” Hyeon said a bit too cheerfully, typing away at his computer.

Jisung’s heart jumped. So he is in here. “Should I be honored that you’re making a special exception for Minho and I to enter here?”

“You should be. My office is my personal playpen, if you will, and you and ML-32 are simply new toys. With the help of your bodies and minds, I will be able to further my programs and perfect my machines completely.”

“Where is he?”

Hyeon glared at him over his shoulder. “Prisoners don’t get to ask questions.”

“Where is he?” Jisung pushed, his patience wearing thin. The sooner he got the plan moving, the sooner they could escape and end this misery.

“You really want to see ML-32 that badly? Fine.” Hyeon turned to a young female guard standing near the door at the back. “You, show this machine in.”

Anxiety ignited in the pit of Jisung’s stomach when the girl approached him and took a hold of his upper arm. He was about to spit a few chosen words when she subtly leaned closer to him as she pulled him toward the door.

“I’m Eui, I’m on your side.”

Jisung nearly didn’t catch what she said, but his heartbeat rapidly increased and he held his breath as she unlocked the door. He glanced at Hyeon, who smiled at him menacingly.

“I’ll give you lovebirds two minutes. My soldier will keep you in line if you try anything.”

Jisung exaggerated a frown. “What, you won’t be joining us?”

“I find touching displays sickening. And I’ve tested ML-32 enough today, I’ll be steering clear until tomorrow.” Hyeon waved them off like a pesky insect. “Go before I change my mind.”

“Yes sir.” Eui pushed the door open and gently nudged Jisung inside.

Jisung’s heart fell out of his chest at the sight before him. Minho was sitting against the far wall, each of his arms restrained to the wall by three chains. His head was hanging down, as if he were unconscious, and his clothes and the floor around him was smeared with blood. The door closed and Eui let go of him.

Jisung flew across the room and fell to his knees at Minho’s side. “Minho!” His voice barely worked. He carefully cupped Minho’s face in his chained hands, swiping stray drops of dried blood from his skin. “Minho, it’s me, Jisung,” he whispered. “Can you open your eyes for me?”

Minho’s eyes flickered, and then he suddenly flinched back with a sharp inhale. “Get out of my head,” he muttered hoarsely.

Unsure of what to do, Jisung made himself back up. He didn’t know what Hyeon did to him, but that couldn’t stop him from helping. “Minho, it’s really me. I promise.”

Minho’s heavy-lidded eyes studied Jisung’s face cautiously, as if trying to interpret a hidden threat. “What-” a cough rattled out of him. “What did you give me?”

Jisung wasn’t sure what that meant at first, but it didn’t take him long to understand. “I gave you a bracelet. It was carved with a carnation.”

“What happened before you gave it to me?”

“We kissed for the first time. It was silly, but it was a first kiss, so it seemed about right.”

Minho released a heavy breath. “My Jisung, it’s really you.”

Jisung’s throat tightened. “Yes, it’s me. I’m here to get you out.”

“I knew you could do it with your genius little brain.”

Jisung breathed some of the tension out of his body as he smiled slightly. “I’m late, but I’m here. It’s going to get hectic, but you’ll just have to trust me.”

“I trust you completely,” Minho assured, his eyes serious.

Jisung glanced back at the guard, Eui. “Are you really on our side?”

The girl nodded confidently. “I don’t have any power here but I do what I can.”

“Do you have a knife I can use?”

“Yes, but Hyeon will catch you before you have the chance to do anything,” Eui warned, holding a small knife that she took from her belt.

“Thank you. I don’t need it for long.” With a deep breath, Jisung pulled the bandage open and set the blade over the wound in his arm, reopening it with a flick of his wrist.

Minho jumped. “Jisung, what are you doing?”

Gritting his teeth, Jisung dug the blade into the open wound, mentally telling himself not to pass out until he managed to pull the small tracker out from under his skin.

Eui gasped. “Are you okay?”

Jisung ignored the intense ache pulsing through his whole arm, closed the bandage, and wiped the knife on his pants before handing it back to Eui. “I’m alright, this was just a scratch.” He dropped the bloodied tracker on the cold cement floor and crushed it with his knee.

Minho pulled against the chains, his natural reaction to hold Jisung overpowering but stopped by the restraints. “Want to explain your confusing plan before I kill you for intentionally hurting yourself?”

Jisung grabbed Minho’s reaching hands, still wondering if this was real as he rubbed comforting circles into Minho’s knuckles with his thumbs. “That was a tracker. The two machines that helped me escape know where Chimera is and most of the layout of this place. But, they have no idea where Hyeon’s office is or how it’s structured. Thanks to that tracker, they can now get an idea.”

“Why destroy it?”

“Since I destroyed it exactly where you are, they know I find you, and now we can go through with our plan.”

Minho was smiling now. “And your plan is..?”

“Let’s just say with a mix of methane, hydrogen, and a few other things, we’ve created a self-destruct sequence.”

Minho squeezed Jisung’s hands. “Oh, I could kiss you.”

Jisung surprised himself as a small laugh bubbled free. “How about just on the cheek until you’re cleaned up?”

“Perfect.”

A flurry of soft emotion swept over the pair as Jisung turned his face and Minho gently kissed his cheek. Everything was still fairly new to them, and the butterflies they felt were fresh and exciting. But in the same moment, a mix of relief and anxiety rushed in like a strong breeze, sending the butterflies into a frenzy. They had a world to explore within each other, but that would have to wait for the time they would have once they were freed from Chimera’s chains.

Eui stepped forward. “I’m sorry, but I think your time is up. I can hear Hyeon getting impatient.”

Jisung pulled back just enough to meet Minho’s eyes. “Be ready, and trust me, okay?”

Minho nodded. “Always.”

Jisung let Eui help him to his feet just as the door opened and Hyeon called out.

“I’ll escort you to you cell if I can, okay?” Eui whispered as they left the room. “I feel like I can be of more help if I know what your plan is.”

Jisung nodded subtly and glanced back at Minho sorrowfully. Seeing him in such a state was horrifying and heartbreaking all at once, and it made him that much more determined to get him out of there. 

Hyeon’s happy sigh pulled Jisung’s attention away from the room as one of the guards closed the door and locked it. “I do love seeing such sadness from you, JH-47. You’ve always caused me so much trouble that I find putting you through misery much more satisfying than any other machine. Well, aside from ML-32 of course. But I believe in killing two birds with one stone.”

A cruel smile slowly grew on Jisung’s lips. “And what happens if you’re one of those birds?”

Hyeon slid from the chair he was sitting in, giving Jisung a curious once-over. Jisung’s skin crawled as the man slowly drew closer. “And what would the second bird be, hmm? How would you expect to win against me? I’ve controlled your whole life, I made you into what you are today.”

Jisung fought the need to back away and hide himself in a corner, but he lost a part of the battle, and his gaze instinctively dropped to the floor.

Hyeon was still creeping closer. “Your little life is in my hands, and the moment I decide to, I can kill you with a snap of my fingers.” He snapped his fingers and Jisung flinched. “That’s a good little machine. You’ll be easy to break again. Take it down to its holding cell. I’ll get started with it nice and early in the morning.”

“Yes sir.” With a gentle tug, Eui led Jisung across the room toward the double doors, and no one tried to stop them. When the doors to Hyeon’s office closed, she squeezed his arm. “Are you okay?”

Jisung forced himself to breathe. “Yeah, I’m okay. How do you know Minho? Why are you willing to help us?”

Eui checked their surroundings before answering. “He saved my life about a year ago and it’s kind of a coincidence that we ran into each other here. My only attachment here is my paycheck, and when he offered to hire me for more money I naturally agreed to help him get out of his cell. 

“After he was caught again, I asked around and learned the story you two share. So I owed him and now I understand him. Is this making any sense?”

“Yes it makes sense. Thank you for helping him when I wasn’t able to.”

“I’ve never liked my boss, he’s creepy and rude, and I’ve seen just how cruel he really is since I’ve been posted to his office. This place is so much more… hellish than I ever really knew.”

Jisung nodded. “Well, this place is about to be blown sky high. Now that I’ve destroyed the tracker, my team will be moving in and filling the ventilation system with a formula of flammable gasses. All it’ll take is a spark and as soon as things start exploding, I’ll make my way to Minho.”

Eui’s brow furrowed. “But… won’t they be destroying you two with the rest of this place?”

Jisung couldn’t mask his uncertainty. “That’s the thing, the destruction will be a distraction, it’ll open a door for us, but we have to figure the rest of it out. The main reason for the tracker was so they could know where to unleash the explosives last.”

“We’re in the middle of the compound, how will you get out?”

“Like I said, I’ll have to figure that out. As for you, you should watch out and get yourself to safety. I don’t want to accidentally kill one of Minho’s inside allies. If you run into anyone from my team tell them Eagle Eyes sent you and they’ll help you get out.”

Eui led them to a stop in front of a small barred cell and shook her head as she opened it. “You guys are absolutely insane.”

Jisung smiled slightly. “We get that a lot.”

Eui took a deep breath. “So, how long until everything starts exploding?”

“Within the next hour.” Just saying that had adrenaline jolting through Jisung’s veins, and he had to remind himself to stay calm.

“Well shit,” Eui huffed with a small laugh, “I should get a move on. Do you remember how to get to Minho?”

Jisung nodded. “I do, now don’t worry about us anymore, okay?”

Eui pulled a set of keys from her pocket. “This silver one goes to most cells, this other one goes to the door Minho is behind. I can’t unlock your chains, I’m sorry.”

Jisung smiled. “You’ve already put me ahead just with these. Thank you.”

“Make it out, please. I’m waiting on that promised paycheck.” Eui winked playfully before closing him into the cell.

Now it was time to wait.

———————– When I first wrote this chapter I thought it was short. Guess not lol. I’m a sucker for angsty reunion scenes. It wasn’t that angsty, but still. THINGS ARE HAPPENING. Are ya ready?

Thanks for reading \^0^/