On The Run || JJK ✔️

41 - Take and Give

Slowly but surely I make my way toward the surface. The sounds are getting louder. There's a particularly big commotion somewhere up and to the right. I make a mental note to go check that out. To the left of me I hear struggling, like someone could be in danger. A Fighter, maybe or-

Or one of us?

I pivot immediately and start digging to the left. By the sound of it, this person doesn't have much time left.

My muscles protest but I urge myself on in the hopes of saving a life. I keep listening to make sure I'm heading in the right direction. The dirt is much more soaked here, and the closer I get, the more sure I am that it's another one of those vertical tunnels filled with water.

They'd separated us, to kill us off one by one.

Another dig and water starts pouring through. I use its streamflow pressure to take away bigger chunks of dirt, increasing the size of the entrance. I make sure to generate an air bubble over my nose and mouth before diving in to look around the new territory.

There's a figure somewhere a little below me. He's digging, but it's clear he's losing energy. With a gesture I use air to propel him upwards towards me.

Namjoon.

My heart sinks.

Hurriedly I grab his hand and pull him through the water over to where I entered, dawning an air bubble around his nose and mouth in the process. It's impossible for me to reset the dirt to block out the water, and I don't have enough energy to keep the water at bay with sheer air force. Namjoon's eyes are closed at this point. Without hesitation, I use up the rest of my elemental energy to help me dig upwards from my original tunnel to escape the water.

"Please," I whisper to myself. "Please hurry, I don't know if he'll..." make it.

At my begging, the golden threads reemerge on my hands, feeble. It's using any last bit of sound, including the commotion still happening above, to hang on and help me move more dirt out of the way.

Finally I drag Namjoon out of the water into the newly formed tunnel. I lay him on his back. He's not breathing. I check his pulse. Barely there. In blind panic I move my two hands onto his chest. Maybe CPR or something will work.

"Save him," I cough. "Please save him. Please work."

His airways must be full of water. I wish I could clear them, help him breathe again. The threads on my hands silently travel into his chest.

They wouldn't just abandon me like that, would they? I grimace but don't stop with the CPR.

I notice that Namjoon looks like he's... glowing isn't the right word. The threads, I knew somehow, had found his lungs. It felt like I was transferring energy into J-Hope at the beginning of it all, in the truck getaway back at school. And now...

He inhales.

"Namjoon!" I help him roll onto his side where he starts coughing up water. As if satisfied, the golden threads fade away. Tears start pooling in my eyes. "You're okay!"

He coughs a bit more, then groans as he lays down on his back again.

"Were your powers not working?" I worry.

He says nothing at first. "Electricity doesn't work against water or earth very well," he says eventually. "But thank you. I can't believe you found me."

"I can't believe it either." If I had the energy to, I would've laughed in relief.

"Have you found any of the others?" he asks.

"... no?"

How he's thinking so much about others already is beyond me. He literally just came back from almost dying. "I'm not worried about Taehyung since his element is Earth," he mutters. "Who I am worried about is Jungkook."

I blink. "Why?"

He shakes his head. "You don't need to worry about why right now."

"Is he in danger?" I push.

"Possibly."

"Why him specifically?"

Namjoon's gaze stays steady on the tunnel ceiling.

"Why Jungkook, Namjoon?"

"... he's the target."

"What?" Dread fills my stomach.

"The ink on the last part of Jimin's letter was blotted out, but I knew the target couldn't be you because he wouldn't risk sending anything to tell us what we already knew. Jungkook is the target."

I fight to keep my voice steady. "When did you figure this out?"

"Just now."

"How?!"

"Because they separated us, and you're right here."

A moment of silence follows as my brain keeps up. "So they separated us to target one of us specifically, to-"

"To use it against you, draw you out into the open where it's easier to capture you. If not me, nor you, and they've separated our group, then it's either-"

"-Taehyung or Jungkook," we finish together.

And Jungkook is the youngest, so it probably wasn't hard to choose between the two. Figures.

"Aren't we basically dead to them, though?" I ask. "That tunnel-water thing could easily have killed me. It wouldn't make sense for them to use Jungkook against me if I'm dead."

Namjoon shakes his head, but doesn't say anything.

The dread in my stomach doesn't go away. After a moment something clicks and I start digging upwards.

"Where are you going?"

"Before I found you, I heard a commotion up and to the right," I mutter. "Might as well go up there."

"You're out of energy."

"I know." I keep my gaze on the dirt in front of me.

"You'd just be putting yourself into danger."

"I know."

Namjoon says nothing at first, just watches as I keep digging. I fight to keep down the grimaces of pain I'm experiencing with every movement.

"If you're thinking about giving yourself up for him... don't."

He figured it out.

"Yeah, well, I'm tired," I huff, "of all these stalemate shenanigans. I give myself over, then Jungkook gets back safe and sound, and no one else gets hurt because of me-"

"None of this is your fault."

"It kind of is, if you think about it." I keep my gaze trained on the dirt. "If I didn't join you guys, Jimin wouldn't be back in Training Headquarters right now, Jungkook wouldn't be in mortal danger, J-Hope wouldn't be missing, Jin and Suga wouldn't have been separated from-"

"Their efforts would be for nothing if you just give up now," Namjoon hisses. "You're believing what the Commander wants you to believe."

"Namjoon," I finally turn to face him. "I love you guys. But even you can tell that all of this destruction is because they're hunting me down specifically. It has to be me so none of you get more hurt. It's for the greater good."

"But-"

"It's my choice." I look him straight in the eyes. "It's something I need to do and nothing's going to stop me."