Falling In Science |VMinKook| [Completed]

Chapter 30

*POV: Taehyung- Original dimension*

'I did say I had something to tell you, didn't I? Meet us at your office.'
A note barely still stuck to my apartment door brought forth a few questions in my head. "Us?" I repeated aloud, stuffing the note into my pocket and starting towards the office.

It was painful how every second reminded me of how much time I had left. Every breeze took away from my remaining age, striking my face as it dried.
Every universe had a way of ridding itself of intruders.

My office door stood between me and Taehyung. I went to fish my keys out when the door clicked open and he appeared behind it, the keychain hanging on his sly index finger. "I may have taken something while you weren't looking..or feeling." He remarked, frowning at how tired I was. He wheeled the desk chair towards me, sitting me down and dragging it to the wall so I had full view of the room.

"Chimmy." He called out and, as he retreated from where I sat, I noticed a barely human figure on the small couch across from me. 'Wide' couldn't even begin to describe my eyes, but it could definitely do so for Taehyung's mouth, as he immediately started talking again.

"I found dear old Jimin here near a depressing-looking building. You could say we had a 'moment' and I knew he knew something. He took me to the building and, well, we found one Jungkook, dead." I listened carefully, my eyes still trained on Jimin, figuring that it was the diseased, middle-dimension Jungkook, since we knew how the other versions ended up. At the sound of the word "dead", Jimin visibly broke onto the couch, clutching his heart in what I assumed was hurt.

"You two can have your moment, you know. You are from the same world, after all." Taehyung nudged my chair towards Jimin after seeing that I was too shocked to move. Struggling, I pushed myself onto the couch and embraced him with all I had, and he gave back just as much. We both looked back at Taehyung, waiting for him to say something. He always had something to say, didn't he.

"Let's recap." He said gesturing to the whiteboard I often used for notes.

"Jungkook number one!" He spoke, orderly placing the symbols "JK#1" on the board. "As I understood from Jimin, he was, err, gone. And that's what started this entire mess." He crossed Jungkook out and moved on. "The one that we found laying inside that building, the "shadow" Jungkook, as you call him, is also gone. Him along with his entire world since you brought on a dangerous disease into it. So that takes all versions of us out. This world hasn't been corrupted in any way, as you've already seen." He nodded towards me, confirming that I left detective Jimin and Jungkook fine as they were.

"Well," he capped the marker and walked towards us, crouching. "That only leaves the two of you here- in a place you don't belong." We looked at each other, Jimin and I, as Taehyung stood back up and went through my desk. It was an exchange of tired, overworked looks. We'd both worked for nothing, when we could've accepted the fate that was written years ago.

"You see.." Taehyung's distant voice came closer. "Each universe has a different version of everyone, and each version ties with the others in one way or another. Every Taehyung has invented, or found the key to inventing this gun." He pulled out the inter-dimensional portal gun and looked at it regretfully "me hopefully being the exception. Every Jimin has the same beautifully cursive and unique handwriting. And every Jungkook, at least the ones I've heard stories about, died young and innocent."

My body hurt, and I didn't know if it was because of what Taehyung was throwing at me or because of its dying state. Either way, it hurt to listen, to respond and even react. "You're both dying." His tone became sadder and deeper, making me realize I probably sounded a hundred times worse than that. "Would you really rather die in a place you're alien to?" With every word, it was apparent that the weight of an obvious goodbye was taking a toll on him. I got up, gathering strength to pat him, myself, on the back. Taehyung knew a lot, and he was doing good with all the information he gathered, unlike previous others who carelessly destroyed the vast multiverse, me being one of them.

He pointed the gun at the empty corner behind Jimin and I, waiting for approval to open a one-way door.
"Are you ready to move on?"
"I've put up with this galaxy bullshit for too long. You bet your ass I'm ready." I almost smiled, faltering at Jimin, who immediately started crying, choking out an "I didn't even get to say goodbye to Kookie."
"Oh, but you did." Taehyung told him, referring to the Jungkook who first died in his arms. It was sad to admit, but that was how it should've ended. In one universe, with one set of each.

I wiped Jimin's multiplying tears and silently asked Taehyung to open the portal, one last time.
"Don't make the same mistake I made." I told him, standing up and moving to the middle of the room, Jimin's hand in mine.
"Wouldn't dream of it." Came the reply and, as I let sickness consume me, I figured that was the best way to die- in a swirl of space, among stars and colorful stretches of nothing. The sonic sound of an opening portal pounded against my eardrum and I stepped into it with the first Jimin I ever knew.

Taehyung stood behind the open hole, the gun hanging off of his fingers, his other hand waving a heavy goodbye. I waved back, and soon I saw all but black.
***
Fading in and out of consciousness, I found myself lying under a roof so familiar. I was back at my intoxicated home, where the radiation almost killed all of us off. Jimin was already stone cold when the hole finally closed, but I had the pleasure of seeing our home in my last waking moments. Everything didn't seem so bad anymore, and I greeted my death with acceptance and an open heart.