Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

The citadel is quiet. Way too quiet. Eerily so.

It’s kind of ironic, because for as long as Yoongi can remember he has always been wishing for everyone inside the citadel to just shut the fuck up one day and let him experience some peace and quiet.

Now the day has come and it’s freaking Yoongi out.

Probably because he knows what kind of quiet it is.

It’s not an all the highborn have found their inner zen and have realised that they don’t need to constantly gossip and party and can just calm the fuck down kind of quiet. It’s a shit is about to go down and it’s not going to be pretty kind of silence.

And Yoongi is pretty aware that in that scenario, he’s the one that’s going down. He’s not an idiot, despite what some of the more obvious traitors within the court’s ranks may think. He knows that outside of the citadel’s walls, almost everyone has turned against him.

Every single ungrateful, undeserving, treacherous subject of his has apparently forgotten that he’s the one who made sure they stopped being slaughtered by foreign forces inside their own homes. That he’s the one who won a war so that their children could be safe.

And all he’s ever asked for in return is that they don’t conspire to murder him in his sleep.

They call him a mad king for murdering the people of his country indiscriminately, but they fail to mention that he only executes those that want and have tried to kill him.

That’s not murder, that’s self-defence. 

And it’s not like the executions are fun to him. It’s not like he’s the one wildly swinging around a blade while laughing manically. Everyone accusing him of coldly murdering his subjects because he doesn’t care about them should always remember that he’s made sacrifices bigger than every single citizen of Godae.

He got rid of his fucking lover to keep the empire stable and safe. Fuck, he has chosen his country over his heart three times!

And look where that got him. No one will ever thank him for it. They’ll hang him for it, instead.

The ones who should really know better are the people inside of the citadel. Do the highborn really think that they’re safe from the angry mobs outside? Do they think being born into wealth and power makes them untouchable? If not even the fucking king of the empire is safe, why should they be?

Yoongi could name at least a dozen highborn more deserving of being punished for their crimes than he is.

Fuck, he has punished so many highborn for their crimes!

Well, maybe that is the reason why a bunch of highborn have taken the side of the traitors, now. Because they think those rats will show forgiveness, while they know that Yoongi won’t. He only shows forgiveness to those who deserve it. 

It’s not like every highborn is on the traitor’s side, though. Honestly, if he thinks about it from an outsider’s point of view, Yoongi figures that it could be quite funny, how the highborn are tearing each other apart at the moment.

There are those actively supporting the traitors because they actually support their case – whatever that case is – or, more commonly, because they want to save their own asses. Then there are those that are against the king, but also against the rebels. Yoongi almost hates those bastards the most. He knows it’s that group that murdered his mother and that has most definitely tried to murder him before, too. And then there are the pitiful few that are still loyal and supporting the king.

The only issue is – no one truly knows who’s who. It could make for a great play, Yoongi figures. Everyone tries to figure out who the traitor is but the punchline is they’re all traitors, just for different parties.

Speaking of parties; those still happen, even though Yoongi really can’t fathom why. Everyone inside the citadel is on edge, everyone is at odds with each other, nobody trusts anyone. But somehow, they all keep pretending like shit is normal.

There have been at least four occasions during which someone has gotten poisoned at breakfast or during one of said parties or stabbed in a corridor somewhere. And that’s only the times Yoongi has heard of it.

But the highborn still keep going to the public breakfast buffets and the parties and it’s not like Yoongi cares because if they want to die, then they’re welcome to.

But Yoongi doesn’t want to and so when he is out of his chambers, he never takes his hand off the hidden dagger beneath his cloak anymore.

It’s not like he could trust the guards stationed everywhere to protect him from an assassination attempt, either. Most of them have turned against him too, he knows it.

But he has faith in his own ability to protect himself. The only two people that have ever been able to beat him in a fight are currently behind bars, after all. And it’s not like someone could sneak up on him to attack him – the citadel’s corridors are long and empty, he’d see an assassin coming from a mile away.

Because that’s the one thing that is noticeably different in the everyday life of the citadel, apart from the general mood. The entire place has emptied out remarkably. A whole bunch of highborn have fled the citadel – and the entire capital altogether – and chosen to hide out in their country estates or wherever else they scurried off to.

They’re cowards, obviously, but Yoongi doesn’t begrudge them for it. He understands them more than those who choose to still pretend everything is business as usual.

Either way, only a fraction of the citadel’s inhabitants remain and so now when Yoongi wanders the halls, he is met with an eery sort of quiet.

When he doesn’t wander the halls, he usually finds himself in one of the two throne halls. Today, it’s the hall of everblooming flowers for a change, simply because it was the closer one once he got tired of walking around.

It’s interesting, how sitting on the throne in this hall gives off a different feeling than the one in the hall of blinding sunbeams. Maybe because it’s located on the outer parts of the citadel, not built that far into the mountain like the other hall and the view outside the large windows shows nothing but sky.

It feels like being quite literally on top of the world, when he’s sitting on this throne.

Yoongi is aware that he never used to spend as much time on either of his thrones as he does now, but … being the king is all he has left, now that he lost Taehyung and Jimin both.

King of an empty citadel and a country full of people that hate him.

Sometimes he wonders whether his mother would be appalled by how badly he failed, if she was still alive. Then he quickly bans the thought into the farthest reaches of his mind, back there with the constant question whether Jimin hates him, whether Taehyung is disappointed in him.

It’s not like it’s of any use, contemplating these worries too much. After all, the answer to all of them is most definitely yes. He doesn’t need to analyse it much further.

And it’s not like it matters, either. Who cares if his mother would despise him if she was still alive – because she isn’t. Who cares what Jimin and Taehyung think of him – no matter whether it’s positive or negative, it won’t undo what has been done and it won’t get them out of the cells they’re in right now.

Yoongi is the only one who could do that. And he won’t.

He’s distracted from his thoughts when suddenly one wing of the double door at the other end of the hall slams open. That in and of itself is already noticeable because of its rarity. No one slams doors in this place except for Yoongi when he’s feeling particularly pissed and even then it’s only ever the one in his own quarters. For every other door, there are servants or guards opening them for everyone wanting to step through. Yoongi is pretty sure that there are some highborn who don’t even know how doorknobs work.

But even more curious than the fact that someone had slammed a door is who slammed the door.

Because rushing over towards Yoongi, in a hurried pace that is also uncommon, is Hyejin. And she looks frantic. Yoongi didn’t even know that Hyejin could look frantic.

That’s why he immediately knows that whatever she’ll tell him now, it has to be bad.  Very bad.

Oh well.

It’s not like he was in a good mood that could have been ruined in the first place.

Entering the hall after her are Son Chaeyoung, Kim Byungyeon and Hoseok. All of them wear matching, worried expressions.

Yoongi sighs and sits up straighter in his throne.

“What’s this about, then?” he asks and watches as Hyejin drops into a quick bow right in front of the steps up to the throne. It’s much lower than usual from her; another sign that she’s frazzled.

“Your majesty, I hope you’ll excuse my actions, but I have gone ahead and called General Jung and Captain Kim in for a strategy meeting, because we have just gotten quite worrisome news from up north,” Hyejin tells him.

Yoongi raises an eyebrow. “And what news is that?”

“Distress signals have been lit in three provinces since early this morning, your majesty,” Hyejin answers. Yoongi’s eyebrows climb even higher. The northern part of Godae is made out of only four provinces – if three of them are in distress, that’s basically the entire northern half of the country.

“Are there any details on what their distress is, specifically?” Yoongi knows it’s an obsolete question, after all there’s really only one fathomable explanation for the provinces to be in distress, but he asks anyways.

Hyejin grimaces. “It’s not foreign enemies,” she admits and Yoongi nods.

“So the traitors have decided to attack in a large scale, then,” he concludes. Hyejin inclines her head in confirmation.

“That’s what it seems like, your majesty.”

Okay then.

Yoongi leans back, slumping down in his seat. It’s not like this comes as much of a surprise. Really, he has been waiting for this for ages now. After all, it’s been three weeks since Jimin came to him and told him it would be another month at most before the traitors enacted their final plan.

Hyejin looks alternately at him and Hoseok. She seems nervous at Yoongi’s lack of reaction. After a good minute of silence, she speaks up again.

“Your majesty, I’ve appointed Chaeyoung-ssi to keep her eyes on every incoming report and relay all necessary information to us.” She nods towards the young highborn who is waiting next to the doors, the only one who hasn’t come further into the room. “I trust her to verify all information that she’ll pass along.”

Yoongi nods to show that he has understood. He had noticed Chaeyoung accompanying Hyejin more often, recently. Seems like she got the position she had aimed for.

There’s silence, again. Now Byungyeon is starting to look uneasy too – he keeps staring intently at Yoongi as if he’s trying to mentally force him to speak, before he remembers himself and glares holes into the ground instead. Hoseok is the only one still looking calm, his poker face betraying no reaction at all.

Yoongi knows what they want from him. They want him to have a plan, even if it’s a shitty plan. They want him to tell them to go out and order all their troops to attack every rebel with all the force that they have available.

They want him to react with fury and violence and no patience for hesitancy, so that they can simply do what he says, since he’s their king and they’re the only loyal subjects he has left.

Because it’s obvious that this is why Hyejin has chosen these people, specifically, to be here when they relay the news to Yoongi. She thinks that they’re the last few that are still loyal to Yoongi, the last few that they can trust.

And Yoongi reckons she’s right.

But he still doesn’t give her what she wants.

Getting furious sounds exhausting right now. And he’s tired.

Over the course of the morning, Chaeyoung stays true to her – or, more accurately Hyejin’s – word and keeps leaving and then coming back with more and more reports of cities that have been attacked by traitors.

Yeosan, Gangnong, Naseon. Every city that has large military bases.

They don’t hear from Gajang or Seopo, but those are their two most heavily guarded cities, apart from Haneul, so maybe it’s only a matter of time until the traitors gain the upper hand there, too.

The commotions span the entirety of Godae.

The revolution has begun.

Yoongi takes in every new report with a noncommittal hum.  He should probably be angry, furious, absolutely livid at how his life’s work is unravelling in front of him. But his insides feel as blank as he knows his expression is.

He watches how everyone else takes the news, instead.

Hyejin still appears more panicked than he has ever seen her. It’s probably because she knows she’ll be screwed when the traitors arrive in Haneul – which is inevitable now, Yoongi knows it very well – because she has always been loyal to Yoongi. She acted out and relayed his orders without hesitation and everyone knows it. It makes sense that she’s getting scared. She placed all her cards on the bet that’s losing.

Chaeyoung seems worried too, but in a distanced way. Almost as if she’s more worried every time she has to announce a new issue and wait for Yoongi’s reaction, than worried about the aftermath of what is happening right now. She probably has an escape plan at the ready, Yoongi figures. Weeks ago, on that day at the sky garden that seems so distant now, she told him that she’d be loyal to him, and he figures she has been until now. But she’s also proven herself to be smart, so she probably built herself some kind of lifeline to get off the ship in case it should sink.

Byungyeon has gotten over his moment of nerves very quickly and is now adamantly trying to develop a strategy to deal with the situation, like the military man that he is. It’s obvious that he’d prefer to be in a room with their tactical maps right now, so that he could sketch out movements for their battalions, but instead he makes do with theorising out loud. He seems determined to go down fighting and Yoongi almost feels flattered that the guy is apparently planning on staying loyal until his last moments.

Hoseok doesn’t really participate in Byungyeon’s planning. He just hums and shrugs and nods at everything Byungyeon says. Yoongi narrows his eyes and looks at Hoseok with more focus.

Hoseok is acting weird. He has never been one prone to panic – that would be an issue, considering his profession – but he usually does show at least some emotions, and he doesn’t hide it when he’s nervous, or caught off guard. And most importantly, he’s always been the first to start thinking of a plan when things went wrong.

But he’s staying passive, now.

It’s almost like … oh.

Oh.

Yoongi’s eyes widen for a moment when he realises why Hoseok is acting weird.

The general isn’t surprised by the revolution. He’s not brainstorming for a way out. He doesn’t seem worried or afraid, even though as Yoongi’s war general he should be even more screwed than Hyejin is.

But he won’t be. Because he’s one of them.

He doesn’t need to think of a plan, because things aren’t going wrong for him right now, they’re going very, very right. Exactly like he wants them to.

The more he thinks about it, the more things he realises – Hoseok probably framed Taehyung for Jimin’s escape too, didn’t he? Originally, Taehyung should have been with him in Seopo, after all, and Hoseok would have been in charge of the citadel. He’d been responsible for the guard assignments in that week, and he’d been at that party even though he usually never attends those to have an alibi. And for so long, he’d been in charge of finding the traitor’s hideout and never showed up with any results – he must have purposely led the soldiers astray.

Fuck, so much of it makes sense now.

For a moment, Yoongi considers making Hoseok pay for it immediately. He could order Byungyeon to kill him right here and now; the captain is so hierarchal, he’d probably obey straight away, no questions asked. Or Yoongi could pull out his sword and do it himself, which would feel even more appropriate, considering Hoseok’s actions had been a betrayal on such a personal level.

Yoongi had trusted him. Over Taehyung, over Jimin.

It would be fully within his right to execute Hoseok on the spot.

But … he doesn’t want to. Which is a weird feeling. He doesn’t remember the last time he hasn’t wanted to kill someone that wronged him, apart from Taehyung and Jimin, who are of course exceptions on every level.

But right now, he’s just so fucking tired of murdering everyone around him. He doesn’t want to paint the floor of yet another hall red.

And he doesn’t want to kill Hoseok, in particular.

He actually likes, or, well, liked, or … still likes? Hoseok. Yoongi thinks Hoseok was the first person he really started to have positive emotions for, after the two people he loves that are currently many metres below him in the dungeons. Everyone else were and are just people whose assistance he might appreciate or whose presence annoyed him. But over the years that Yoongi has gotten to know Hoseok, he did start to care for him on a somewhat personal level.

So, he doesn’t want to kill him.

Once that understanding truly sinks in, he pushes himself up and off his throne rather impulsively. Byungyeon, who has been monologuing strategies at Hoseok, as well as Hyejin and Chaeyoung, who have been quietly muttering amongst each other, all fall silent and look at him.

Hoseok looks at him, too, his eyes slightly widened. Did he notice how intently Yoongi had been staring at him for the past minutes? Was he scared for his life right now?

Yoongi returns all their looks for a few moments, then he makes his way down the steps and towards the hall’s exit.

“Your majesty?” Hyejin asks, sounding baffled. “Where are you going?”

Yoongi walks past her without replying.

“Your majesty!” Byungyeon almost sounds angry, and Yoongi is almost impressed. He didn’t think the other would have it in him to even get slightly irritated at his king. “Your majesty, we need a plan. What are we supposed to now?”

Yoongi, who has reached the door, pauses for a moment, looks over his shoulder at the two men standing next to each other and shrugs.

“You two can decide,” he declares. “As the two war generals, I hereby give you full authority on dealing with the crisis.” He doesn’t add good luck, but he feels like it’s heavily implied either way.

With that, he pulls open one wing of the door and leaves the hall. The last thing he hears before the heavy wood falls back into its latch is Byungyeon’s astounded voice, asking “did I just get promoted?” and Hoseok’s slightly hysterical laughter as an answer.

There’s only one guard stationed outside the doors, Yoongi notices. He wonders briefly where the other one went, because when he entered the hall a few hours ago, there had still been two. Maybe the soldiers are throwing in the towel one by one, too.

He doesn’t pay it much more mind as he walks away, moving swiftly through the empty corridors. His personal guards, the one that used to watch his back whenever he moved between rooms inside the citadel have been dismissed days ago. He didn’t trust them not to stab him in said back.

It has its advantages – he’s able to walk around much more freely, without having to bother to keep up some kind of pretence for the men and women taking note of every step behind him. It means he can wander around and look at lost as he feels, right now.

He doesn’t have a destination in mind. After all, there’s nowhere left to go, really.

He lets his feet lead him, simply setting one foot in front of the other, mindlessly.

Somehow, he ends up in his office.

His old office. Not the one that has been his office for the last nine years, but the one in his old quarters.

He only notices once he has pushed open the door and stepped inside the dark room, the hinges creaking as they swing open. As far as he knows, no one has opened this door in over eight years. The only one that has even come close to this room in recent time has been himself, weeks ago, when he somehow ended up in the corridor outside with Taehyung, after he found out Jimin was alive.

Of course he’d be carried back here again.

His subconscious is truly stubborn, huh?

He steps further inside the room, only the chandeliers in the corridor outside sending in their light through the door.

If he walked through the door on the wall to his right, right there, he’d enter his and Taehyung and Jimin’s bedroom. It’s crazy, how they only used that room together for a little under three years, and it had been Yoongi’s room alone for eighteen years before that, but still. It’s his and Taehyung and Jimin’s.

It’s hard to turn his gaze away from the door, as if he had to move against an invisible force. But he manages, only to find his eyes drawn to the playing table on the opposite wall.

The original playing table, the one Yoongi had made specifically for Jimin, after the other discovered the game somewhere in the city and fell in love with it, especially after he learned that it was another thing left behind by the elves. Maybe that’s why he’d always been so good at the game – it was in his blood.

He walks closer to the table, looking at it, at the original stones. Taehyung had hand-painted many of them himself, in painstakingly slow work – a gift from both of them for Jimin. There’s a thick cover of dust on all of them now, but Yoongi still spots the one with the little chip in it immediately. He picks it up, blows on it softly to remove the dust, strokes his finger over the blemish.

He remembers so well how Jimin had thrown it at the wall with all of his might, out of frustration, the first time he had ever lost the game.

And he remembers the stunned silence of all three of them after it hit the wall and then the floor, and the little cracking sound it made when a piece of it broke away at the impact. All three of them had looked at the stone, lying there on the floor. Then at each other, Jimin looking the most surprised at his own outburst. And then they all burst into laughter, so loud that it must have been heard throughout the entire citadel.

And then they stumbled all over each other as they hurried into the next room and finally fell into their sheets together.

That’s how most of their days ended, back then.

A month later, Jimin started acting weirdly.

Yoongi decides to stop remembering, then.

He turns away from the playing table, too. It's not like staring at it is of any use.

It's not like anything is of any use anymore, now.

He walks towards the desk. It's funny - even in the dim lighting, most of the room shrouded in darkness, he still knows exactly where to go and when to stop to not push against the desk's chair.

The layout of this room is ingrained deep into his memory, even to this day. So much so that it's almost embarrassing, how often he knocked into a piece of furniture in his other, his current office, because it's not placed in the same layout as this one.

When he worked here, he used to face the large windows. He liked looking outside, no matter what weather.

And Jimin and Taeyhung loved sitting on the windowsill, distracting him every time he looked up from the documents on his desk.

That was his very favourite view, actually.

Even if he always sighed and rolled his eyes and asked them whether they didn't have anything more important to do while they giggled as if they were children and not the two most powerful people in the country apart from him.

Now he realises that they were both. All three of them were still children, really.

Back then he pretended like he wasn't, and pretended like he wasn't playing along with their games exactly as they wanted when he rolled his eyes at their antics.

Ah fuck, he's remembering again. He really needs to stop doing that.

He walks past the desk and towards the aforementioned windows, instead.

This side of the citadel faces the city and the office is located so much lower than his current quarters.

If he opened the windows back then, like he's doing it now, too, he used to be able to hear the noise and bustle of the city really well. Almost as if he was amongst all those people, sharing their lives.

Now, he leans his head outside the window and sees the sun going down behind the trees on the other end of Haneul, bathing the city in a golden light.

He didn't even notice that an entire day has already passed.

He's so surprised by that realisation, by the passing of time, that it takes him a moment to notice - he doesn't hear the noise and bustle of the city. He doesn't hear anything.

A deathly silence hangs over the capital and it's as if even the birds have realised and are refraining from singing their usual melodies.

Yoongi understands what it is.

The calm before the storm.

The beginning of the end.

He sinks down on the windowsill, leaning his head against the window. The gold of his crown makes a small tinkling sound upon the impact. The glass touching his forehead beneath the crown is cold and it sends shivers down his spine.

Instinctively, he pulls his hands close to his body, into the pockets of his pants. In doing so, his fingers brush over an object he almost forgot was there. Something metallic.

He moves his fingertips along its various edges before he closes his fist around it, listening to it clinking.

The coldness of the glass has turned comforting and he closes his eyes.

The image that comes to mind, like it always does whenever his sight turns black, is of Taehyung and Jimin, smiling at him.

Except this time, it's not them as they looked like nine, ten, eleven years ago. It's their faces of today.

Yoongi realises he loves the view of it as much as he feels fondness for how they used to look like, who they used to be.

He wants to see them smile at him like this again.

Within a split second – or no, actually, it hasn't been a split-second at all, it's been a long time coming, really – he comes to a decision:

None of this is worth anything anymore.

He leaves the office and the entire wing of his old quarters behind full of determination.

Now that he knows what to do, there's no room inside of him for hesitation. He's almost excited about what will happen. He can't remember the last time he felt excitement.

His first destination is his current office and it's almost funny how much fewer feelings this place evokes in comparison to the room he just left. He spent big parts of his everyday life here for the past nine years but still … he doesn't feel sorry about the thought of leaving it behind at all.

He moves swiftly around his desk, a few of the papers stacked high on top of it fluttering away at the wind he causes, then bends down and unlocks the drawer that holds his money.

He grabs all the coins he has in there, packing them in a pouch and tying them to his belt. The Godae currency holds worth almost everywhere on this continent - and the amount he stored in this drawer will last him for a long time.

Once that is done, he leaves the office without another look behind. He won't miss it.

He heads to the entry to the secret passageway that will lead him to the hall of blinding sunbeams, unlocking the hidden door with one of the keys on the chain that was in his pocket.

He has something he needs to leave behind and Yoongi knows that this will be the appropriate place for it.

He pauses in his steps for a moment once he enters the hall, letting his gaze wander throughout the room.

The floor of this hall will forever be stained red.

He supposes it's an accurate representation of his reign.

When he leaves the hall again, after he has done what he needed to, he feels lighter than he has in years.

He walks through the secret passageway with his head held high and his feet speeding up as he finally heads towards the place his heart has been pulling him towards for too long now.

▪▫▪▫

Jungkook’s group arrives at Haneul’s outer wall in the early afternoon, the day after they left the Banhang Mine. So far, that means they’re sticking to their schedule.

While the journey yesterday had been … well, not relaxed, really, but more filled with excitement, all of them are tense today. The final revolution is imminent and Jungkook feels like it’s almost palpable in the air.

In the north, their people have already begun taking control over the town’s city halls and military bases. Activity on the road they’ve travelled along has picked up significantly in the last few hours – soldiers racing by on horseback, all of them probably carrying pleas for help to the citadel.

They’ve said goodbye to Namjoon and Serim a little while ago, at the abandoned treehouse village where Jungkook woke up after he got hurt. They’ll be safe there and they’ll wait until the action is over and in the meantime tend to any wounded allies that will come their way.

Jungkook only teared up a little bit when he hugged Namjoon tight. This is not going to be the last time I see you, he thought to himself fiercely, forcing himself to truly believe it. I’m gonna hug you again, soon, once this is a better world. Once you’re the new ruler of this country.

Namjoon in return held him just as tightly and Jungkook could almost hear the same thoughts echoing in his mind.

Now they’re here, just out of the line of sight of the soldiers guarding the gate. Seokjin stands on his left, Seokmin on his right.

Jungkook takes a deep breath and feels more than sees Seokjin glance at him quickly.

“Ready?” his leader murmurs quietly, barely more than a breath.

Jungkook nods once, short but determined.

Seokjin nods too. “Let’s go,” he declares, louder now, so that the rest of their group hears it too. He steps onto the road and starts walking towards the gate without hesitation, Jungkook and the others falling into position behind him.

Jungkook only recognises one of the guards at the gate and it’s almost ironic, how full circle they’ve come.

Kim Kapsoo, the soldier that has been ‘overseeing’ Jungkook’s crew since they first came to the capital, inclines his head as they come closer.

The other guard, a nervous looking man, frowns at them. “The city is on lockdown,” he tells them gruffly. “Turn around and come back another day.”

“No, Jeongsu-yah, it’s okay,” Kim Kapsoo says. “We’ll let them through.”

The guard looks like he wants to argue for a moment, but then he deflates and steps to the side, his hand moving away from the sword at his belt. Seokjin smiles at him, kindly.

“Thank you, Jeongsu-ssi,” he says quietly, then he bows his head towards Kapsoo in acknowledgement. “And thank you, too.”

“Of course, Captain Kim,” the man replies in an almost reverent tone. Seokjin bows his head again, and then they keep walking, Jungkook smiling at Kapsoo in passing. It’s always nice to see former foes become friendly faces.

Ten more steps and then they’re inside the capital.

The route they’re taking has become so familiar to Jungkook by now, he could walk it in his sleep. As always, they’ve arrived through the north-eastern gate, making their way through the lower parts of Haneul to get to the upper city.

Jungkook is glad that the quickest path to the upper city doesn’t lead them past the Miner’s Inn. He might start crying if he saw its barred doors and closed off windows, tangible proof that its owner isn’t with them anymore.

Jungkook clenches his jaw, staring at the road they’re walking on, the road towards the upper city and the citadel, full of determination. They’ll get justice, now. For Sosa, and for Sihyeon, and for everyone else they’ve lost. Or, even more accurately: for everyone else that has been taken from them by the mad king.

They’ll set things right and it won’t bring their friends back, but it’ll make sure that no one else will ever lose their life like this again: unnecessarily, at the whim of a madman.

Their first destination is a house close to the wall of the upper city that belongs to a friend of someone who used to work in the ministry of education with Namjoon but got executed all those months ago, along with almost all of Namjoon’s colleagues of back then. Now, the owner has offered it to the rebellion as a hideout.

Jungkook can’t stop the smile that spreads on his face when Eunji is the one opening the door, beaming at them, even though he frowns right after.

“Why are you opening the door?” he hisses, looking over his shoulder to make sure the roads are clear. “The owner of the house should’ve done that! We could’ve been soldiers, Eunji-yah.”

“Relax,” Eunji says with an eyeroll, stepping to the side so all of them can enter the house. “I’m not stupid, I saw that it was you through the window. And the lower city is deserted, so it’s not like we’re in danger of being watched.”

Jungkook huffs, even though he knows her arguments are valid. Then, he looks around the room, his lips pulling up again at the sight of the many familiar faces. Many of them – especially the younger and newer ones – are looking back at him and the others of his group with something almost like reverence in their eyes, which is a weird feeling. But he supposes it makes sense, too. They are the ones who will go into the citadel and take the crown from the mad king and they’re also being led by this country’s future king, after all.

And despite it being weird, Jungkook also instinctively stands up a little straighter as he smiles down at everyone. It feels good to be respected and maybe even a little admired.

“It’s good to see you all here,” Seokjin tells the room, also smiling kindly at everyone. “Were your missions so far successful?”

Jiwon stands up from where she has been hidden behind a column and nods after quickly waving at Jungkook and Seokmin.

“All the civilians have been informed, they’ll stay in their houses today, so there should be little to no collateral damage. The general mood is excitement. The mad king has lost their support and they like the things they’ve heard about you and Namjoon-oppa,” she explains and Jungkook breathes a sigh of relief. That’s a good start.

“Good,” Seokjin says, too. “What about the upper city?”

Jiwon grimaces. “The gates have been closed off and it’s teeming with soldiers. Three of our crews are in different hideouts throughout the upper city, waiting for the signal to start fighting. Honestly, I think the soldiers are kind of confused, from what we’ve heard they’re not looking very organised.”

“That’s good for us,” Dahye points out. “If they’re not organised that means the guys in the citadel don’t know what to do, they might be overwhelmed. Less organisation on their side means fewer motivated soldiers and better chances for us.”

Seokjin nods his head in agreement. “We should still all be careful, though,” he then tells the room. “What Dahye says is true, if we meet a disorganised force it makes our chances even better, but I don’t want any casualties because someone got too sure of themselves and sloppy in the process. Every soldier we will encounter in the upper city is highly trained and the mad king has always tended to keep the forces most loyal to him closest. General Jung has been working hard to get many of those men and women on our side over the last few weeks, but we still have to expect a large force of soldiers that will fight hard to stop us.”

“We’re ready, oppa,” Eunji speaks up, her eyes blazing with fierce determination. “None of the soldiers will know what hit them.”

Seokjin grins at her. “Of course, Eunji-yah, they’ll realise very quickly that you’re a force to be reckoned with.” Then, his expression grows more serious again. “But everyone, please also remember that we’re better than the mad king and his army. Don’t be naïve, but if a soldier surrenders, then spare them. I want us to get through this with as little death as possible and I mean that on both sides, okay?”

Everyone in the room nods and calls out their assent and Jungkook smiles. What is coming is going to be hard, but with Seokjin – and everyone else – by his side, it truly doesn’t seem that scary. He feels like he could fight the entirety of the mad king’s army as long as Seokjin has his back.

“Great! You all know what you have to do, now get on your positions and let’s take control of this city!” Seokjin claps into his hands to enunciate his words, and Jungkook feels the atmosphere shift, from slightly worried determination to fierce determination, as everyone stands up and starts to file out of the house in their respective little groups.

Jiwon and Eunji both hug Jungkook tightly, then they exit through the front door too, leaving only Jungkook’s group behind.

“Good speech,” Dahye quips, softly nudging her elbow in Seokjin’s ribs. “Be honest, did you rehearse that with Namjoon?”

Seokjin sniffs and turns up his nose but he can only hold the expression for a fleeting moment before his red ears betray him. “And if I did?” he asks haughtily and Jungkook, like everyone else in their group, starts to laugh.

It feels good to be relaxed, even if it’s only for a few seconds, before the hardest part of the day begins.

Seokjin clears his throat. “Remember, guys, our mission is to get to the citadel as quickly as we can. Don’t get lost in fighting every soldier you encounter on the streets up there, okay? Cut them down if they’re in your way, but the most important thing is moving past them. The others are there to deal with them and the quicker we get to the mad king, the quicker everything will end.”

Jungkook inclines his head to show he has understood, knowing the others are doing the same. They’ve talked about this many times before, but he understands why Seokjin is stressing it again – it’s easy to get so absorbed once there’s a fight going on that you forget you’re actually needed for another fight, somewhere else. It would do none of them any good if they exhausted all their energy – or, even worse, got hurt – before they even got close to the mad king inside his high towers.

Seokjin closes his eyes for a moment, an expression of pure concentration on his face. When he opens them again, they’re blazing. “The others have reached the first gate,” he declares. “Let’s go.”

They walk back out onto the street. Momentarily, Jungkook wonders about the owner of the house - has he been hiding upstairs, has he left the capital all together to safe himself, or was he perhaps part of one the groups that just left, not only offering them a safe hiding space but his fighting skills as well? Jungkook feels bad that he doesn't know.

But then they're outside and Jungkook can hear what Seokjin has already heard before - the clear sound of people fighting. That removes all thoughts unless those of the mission ahead of him from his mind.

He closes his eyes for a second, takes three deep breaths, rests his hand on the hilt of his sword and squeezes it for a moment.

Then he opens them again and is ready.

Their group moves quickly, now. The closest gate to the upper city is only two turns away and they need to get inside while it's obviously open and fought for.

No warning bells have been rung yet, which is a good sign. As long as the citadel is unaware of the mayhem that broke out right at its foot, they have a very good chance of getting inside.

The first hurdle, getting into the upper city, is passed quickly – as they expected, the doors are pushed wide open and the soldiers guarding it have all been engaged in battle. The king’s forces should be spread thin throughout the entire upper city, since the rebellion is attacking from every direction right now.

They make it almost a quarter of the way towards the citadel before the first group of around ten soldiers rushes towards them. Without interrupting his jog, Jungkook plucks an arrow from the quiver on his back, pulls the string of his bow and shoots. Out of the corner of his eyes he sees Chanmi doing the same.

Two soldiers drop, then they’re too close. Within one swift move, Jungkook hooks his bow to his quiver and pulls out his sword. There’s only one soldier coming at him that he deals with quickly – one duck below the guy’s sword, then he pierces his own right beneath the breast plate. The armour of Godae’s soldiers is ridiculously frail, Jungkook has always thought so. It didn’t make him feel particularly safe while he was wearing it. Now, it’s an advantage.

When he turns away from the dropped body of his opponent, he sees that the other soldiers have already been dealt with. Most of them by Seokjin, judging by the placement of the bodies, and still the other doesn’t even look the slightest out of breath.

Jungkook remembers once again just why Seokjin has always been at least a little bit terrifying to people who don’t know him.

Their group runs even quicker through the streets now. Jungkook sheathes his sword again, but instead keeps his bow in hand with an arrow already in place.

The next soldiers they encounter don’t come in larger groups. It’s always a maximum of two or three, sometimes even just one lone enemy and Chanmi and Jungkook deal with almost all of them before they even get in their sword’s reach. What they had hoped for seems to have worked out – the forces are spread thin.

Within what feels like barely two breaths, they’ve rounded their last corner. Straight ahead, Jungkook looks at the large, imposing gate of the citadel. A group of at least thirty soldiers is stationed in front of it.

Seokjin looks at Chanmi. “Go now, while we deal with them,” he tells her. Chanmi nods and turns to follow the order, but Seokjin holds her back by the shoulder. “One last chance, do you want someone to go with you to guard your back?”

Chanmi shakes her head and grins, just for a second. “You need everyone here and I’ll be quick, don’t worry,” she says and then she rushes off, pulling the arrow with a hook and rope attached out of her quiver as she goes.

Jungkook switches out his bow for his sword.

Seokjin doesn’t move for a few more seconds, their group effectively guarding Chanmi’s retreating figure from the sight of the soldiers, until she has disappeared behind some buildings. Then, he gives the command to start moving.

Jungkook, together with the other four, starts sprinting towards the soldiers at the gate at full speed. They need to be quick to avoid getting hit by arrows and to reach their opponents before they have had the time to put their bows away again and reach for their swords.

When the first arrow whizzes by Jungkook’s ear, he narrows his eyes and runs even faster. He crashes into the first soldier with such force that he’s certain his shoulder will be heavily bruised tomorrow, but it knocks the man off his feet and Jungkook plunges his sword into the soldier’s stomach before turning around and deflecting the blade of the next fighter.

Jungkook quickly gets lost in the rhythm of fight one soldier, break through their defence, cut them down, turn around, do the same thing again.

Like always when he has to seriously fight, it feels like time slows down and flies past him at the same time. He hears nothing but the blood rushing in his ears and the metallic sound of swords clanking against each other.

After a few seconds, or maybe a few hours, who knows really, Jungkook turns around and has no one to meet his blade.

He blinks a few times, the rushing sound subsiding, and takes in his surroundings. Four other people are standing in between bodies.

Minho, Dahye, Seokmin, Seokjin. None of them look hurt. Jungkook breathes out a sigh of relief.

Just then, the gate creaks open. Jungkook raises his sword again, but it’s Chanmi, with a smirk on her face and blood dripping down the dagger in her hand.

“Perfect timing,” Seokjin says and helps her push the heavy wings of the gate open further. “Any complications?”

“None that breathe anymore,” Chanmi replies, then she inclines her head to the small building with the stairs that lead up on the citadel’s defence walls. “There’s two terrified soldiers in there who I promised to spare as long as they don’t stab me in the back while I open this door.”

“Seems like they did as you said,” Dahye muses and then walks over to said building. Jungkook is too far away to hear everything she says, but the gist of it should be something along the lines of if you lay down your weapons and flee through the city none of our people will attack you, or otherwise just stay put here and you’ll be fine.

Jungkook and Seokmin close the gate behind them again so that they can’t be surprised from behind. Then, Jungkook looks up at the citadel that’s now right in front of him, looking more imposing than ever.

This is it.

The last part of their mission.

“I would’ve expected to see more soldiers here,” Seokmin mumbles next to him and Jungkook nods in agreement. The courtyard before them is huge and Jungkook had been prepared to see dozens upon dozens of soldiers coming at them. Instead, he finds only three crumbled bodies by the wall a few metres away – probably the source of the blood on Chanmi’s dagger.

“Maybe they’re all out in the city,” Minho muses, then shrugs. “Whatever it is, it’s good for us.”

Jungkook can’t argue with that.

“Okay, is everyone ready to go in?” Seokjin asks and everyone nods. “Good. Remember, don’t attack any servants unless they attack you first and even then, try to keep it nonlethal. Let’s head to the lower of the two throne halls first and see if the king is there. If not, we’ll go to the other. Let’s go.”

Seokjin leads the way, like he has done the whole time. The doors to the palace are unlocked and open under Seokjin’s hands without a creak. All of them step inside and the wings of the door the fall shut by themselves behind them. Immediately, the noise of the fights all throughout the city stops, leaving behind an eery silence.

Jungkook looks around with wide eyes.

He’s in the most dangerous place in the world now, for the second time in his life.

But it will also be the last time. After today, this won’t be a dangerous place anymore. Instead, it’ll be the home of two of his favourite people. Two good people. Two good kings.

Jungkook could probably find the way to the lower throne hall in his sleep now, that’s how often he has read through the directions Hoseok has sent them, searing them into his memory.

They don’t encounter many people on their way. Most highborn are hiding away in their chambers right now, probably, and most of the soldiers have been sent outside into the city, or they have fled too.

They run into a few servants, all of which drop to their knees immediately once they spot their group, surrendering. Seokjin tells them all to head to their workplaces or bedrooms and wait there for everything to be over. Jungkook breathes out a sigh of relief every time he watches their retreating backs, grateful for the spared bloodshed.

So far, the alarm bells still haven’t rung and Jungkook can hardly believe how well everything is going. Surely there must be a catch? Some sort of trap? Could it really be this easy?

On their entire path through the citadel’s corridors, they only encounter four soldiers. Seokjin and Dahye, who are leading their group, deal with each of them before they get even close to Jungkook’s sword.

And then they’re already at the large double door leading into the throne hall, one lone soldier standing guard in front of it. She sees them coming, her eyes opening almost comically wide, and then she drops her spear without a second of hesitation.

“Good choice,” Dahye says with a grin. “Would you mind opening that door for us?”

The soldier complies, almost stumbling over her own feet in her haste to turn around and turn the doorknob.

In the meantime, Jungkook frowns. If the king was inside, would there truly only be one single soldier guarding the room? What if this is the trap he has been waiting for and dozens upon dozens of soldiers wait inside to arrest and kill all of them on the spot?

Jungkook grips his sword tighter as the soldier pushes open the door. He glances inside and spots … an almost empty hall.

Huh.

Seokjin crosses the threshold and Jungkook follows, never more than a step behind.

There are a total of three people in the room huddled relatively closely together. A woman Jungkook doesn’t know but who must be a quite high-ranking highborn, judging by her dress and hairpiece, a man who is most definitely some rank of soldier and … Hoseok.

All breath leaves Jungkook in a rush. Hoseok is there, apparently unharmed, and he’s looking back at Jungkook with a small but beautiful smile.

“What is the meaning of this?” the woman asks authoritatively. “How dare you come in here?”

Jungkook can’t see Seokjin’s face from behind him, but he can imagine the polite but cold smile on his face very well as he answers, “good evening. We’re looking for the current king, would you know where to find him, by chance?”

The soldier Jungkook doesn’t know narrows his eyes as he looks at Seokjin. “Don’t I know you?” he wonders, then he gasps. “Are you Kim Seokjin? The old captain from Gajang?”

“The one and only,” Seokjin confirms. “And you must be … Kim Byungyeon? The one who held that very same position most recently?”

“I am,” Kim Byungyeon answers. “And it’s a very bold move of you to waltz right into a room with the two war generals in it. What’s to stop us from arresting and executing you on the spot for high treason?” He pulls his sword out of its sheath as he says it and Jungkook tenses, fully prepared to jump in front of Seokjin.

But then, before either Kim Byungyeon – the new war general, apparently? – or Jungkook can move a muscle, Hoseok draws his own sword and holds it up to the man’s throat in one swift move.

“I’m stopping you, Byungyeon-ssi,” he says in a low voice. “Drop your sword, please.”

For a second, Kim Byungyeon looks shellshocked at this turn of events, but then his face shutters into blankness. He drops his sword and it falls to the floor with a clunk that echoes throughout the hall.

Hoseok doesn’t remove his sword from the other general’s neck, which is probably a smart move. A highly trained soldier like that probably has a bunch more weapons on his body and would also be a real threat without any weapon at all.

“You are a traitor?” the woman hisses suddenly, sounding equal parts astonished and furious. Hoseok turns his head towards her.

“Hyejin-ssi,” he says politely, “I know you have at least one dagger hidden somewhere on your person. I’d be grateful if you could drop it, too.”

“Why should I?” Hyejin asks, her chin raised defiantly.

“Because you’re very much outnumbered and if you have a weapon, you’re a threat and we must treat you accordingly,” Dahye answers plainly. “But if you drop it and surrender, you’ll be given a fair trial. I know you don’t usually do those in here, but I’m sure you must at least be familiar with the concept?”

“Noona,” Seokjin chides quietly, but Jungkook can hear the amusement in his voice. Dahye simply shrugs and then glares at Hyejin, until she pulls two daggers out of each of her sleeves and throws them to the floor with a huff.

“Thank you,” Seokjin tells her, then he glances over his shoulder at Jungkook and Seokmin. “Could you bind both of them, please?”

Jungkook nods immediately, untying the rope from his belt that all of them carry with them for this purpose. He walks over to Kim Byungyeon, who doesn’t try to resist at all as Jungkook swiftly ties his hands together behind his back.

Once it’s done, Jungkook steps to the side and in the process finds himself right next to Hoseok, now. He feels an itch in his fingers to reach out and finally get to touch him again, but there’s still one pressing matter to attend to.

“So, where is the king?” Seokjin asks again.

“We don’t know,” Hoseok answers, and Jungkook whips his head around to stare at him in shock.

“What?”

“He left a little while ago, just before sundown,” Hoseok explains. “He didn’t tell anyone where he went, and I couldn’t leave here, or it would’ve been too suspicious. I tried to free the way for you as much as possible, instead.”

“Which worked very well, thank you,” Jungkook mumbles and Hoseok sends him a quick but almost blinding smile.

“He must be somewhere in the building, then,” Minho muses and Seokjin nods.

“What about the other throne hall?” he theorises, looking at Hoseok questioningly. “You told us that he spends a lot of time there?”

Hoseok nods in confirmation. “It’s very likely that he’s there, yes.”

“Good, then let’s go,” Seokjin decides. He gestures towards the two prisoners. “Let’s bring them, too. If the king sees that his inner circle has surrendered, maybe that’ll make it easier to arrest him.”

Seokjin and Hoseok take the lead, while Jungkook grabs Kim Byungyeon by the elbow and follows them. The man still hasn’t said a single word since he realised Hoseok’s betrayal and Jungkook can’t help but wonder what’s going on inside his mind. When Jungkook looks over his shoulder, he sees that Hyejin, too, has evened out her expression and is walking by Dahye’s side without any readable emotion.

Maybe it was a necessity to be exceptionally good at hiding your emotions to make it inside the citadel, especially this close to the king, Jungkook reckons.

It’s not a very long walk to get from this throne hall to the other one. It’s only one flight of stairs up – beautifully carved stairs with its railings overgrown by plants, and Jungkook wonders once again how a place of such evil could have been so beautiful all this time – and then down multiple long corridors, the windows getting fewer as they enter the part of the building that is built into the mountain, instead of just against and on top of it.

Two guards are positioned in front of the doors to the hall, but none of them even begin to point their spears at the approaching group when they see Hoseok at the head of it.

“General Jung?” one of them greets, the question obvious in their voice.

“Kim Haebom-ssi,” Hoseok replies, gesturing towards Seokjin next to him, “this is Captain Kim Seokjin. He’ll take over command of the citadel now, with my full support. Please open the door for him.”

Kim Haebom glances between Hoseok and Seokjin for a few moments, then spots the tied-up Byungyeon and Hyejin behind them and very obviously comes to a decision. He and his fellow guard push open the door without further hesitation.

Their party steps inside and Jungkook finds himself in an empty hall.

Huh.

“Huh,” Hoseok says. “I really did expect him to be here.”

Jungkook steps a little to the side, to glance past Seokjin and Hoseok and get a good look at the hall. The moment his eyes fall on the floor and its red tint, he feels sick. He has heard about it before, about the horrors that have occurred within these very walls forever painting the stone, but it’s something else entirely to see it with his own eyes.

This is where Kim Sosa died. Where so many of their allies and friends died. Where their blood has been spilled so often that it couldn’t be fully washed away anymore.

Jungkook is so frozen in place, looking at that stain, that he doesn’t even notice how the others have spread out further into the room, until Seokmin calls out from the direction of the throne.

“Uhm, Jin-hyung, I think you should look at this.”

Jungkook’s head snaps up, as does Seokjin’s, who has been standing next to him, shock-still as well. They walk towards Seokmin together, and Jungkook quietly fears what new horror might await them at the throne.

But it’s not a horror. At least, not in the sense Jungkook dreaded.

Sitting there, on the cushion of the throne, is a crown.

Is the crown.

The mad king’s crown.

The one he hasn’t been seen without in over a decade, the one he always wears. The symbol of his power.

“What is the meaning of this?” Jungkook whispers. He looks at Hoseok, who is looking at the crown with shock. Glancing around the room, everyone is looking at the crown with shock, even Byungyeon and Hyejin, startled out of their blankness.

“Have you ever seen the king without his crown?” Jungkook asks Hoseok. Hoseok shakes his head.

“Not once. He even wore it when he was working alone in his office. Supposedly, he only took it off for sleep, and only ever once all servants had left his room,” Hoseok explains.

“But now it’s here and he is not.” Jungkook feels a little stupid, pointing out this obvious fact, but … it doesn’t make sense. He can’t make sense of it.

“We need to find him,” Seokjin decides, causing everyone to look at him instead of at the crown. He stands right next to the throne, on the highest step of the small podium, with his head held high and one hand on the throne’s armrest. “He doesn’t hold the crown anymore, which means he’s effective immediately not the king anymore. But he still needs to be held responsible for his crimes.”

“What do you want us to do?” Dahye asks.

“Noona, go with Hoseok and order for the signal bells to be rung, please,” Seokjin orders. “Everyone should know that the king has abstained and that the fighting should seize.”

“On it,” Dahye complies immediately. Hoseok only lingers for a second, making eye-contact with Jungkook, and briefly smiles before he follows Dahye out of the hall.

“Once more of our people have arrived here and every soldier knows that they shouldn’t attack us anymore, I want the rest of you to lead patrols to scour the citadel,” Seokjin continues. “Like Minho-hyung said earlier, Min Yoongi must be somewhere in the building, still.”

Jungkook nods and then, without having anything better to do, sits down on top of the steps, his back to the throne and the crown still on it. Immediately, his eyes fall towards the stained floor again and nausea creeps its way up his throat once more.

He closes his eyes instead, and settles down to wait.

It’s not long before the sound of the bells rings throughout the citadel and the entire capital with it, sending a signal to stop to every soldier and every rebel fighting out there.

Jungkook takes a deep breath in, lets it out slowly.

This means it’s over.

Almost.

Jungkook hears someone sitting down next to him and can tell by the feeling alone that it’s Seokjin.

“Jungkook-ah, once a few more of our people are here, can you lead a patrol to the dungeons?” he asks quietly, “I don’t actually think we’ll find the mad king there, but I’d be interested to see who he has locked up there. And in the process, you could take our two prisoners there too, until we can have a trial for them.”

Jungkook opens his eyes at that, looking over to where Hyejin and Byungyeon have sat down on the floor, leaning against one of the pillars lining one side of the hall, being watched by Chanmi and Minho.

“Yeah sure, hyung, I’ll do that,” he replies, turning his head slightly to look at Seokjin, who smiles back tiredly.

“Thank you.”

“How are you holding up?” Jungkook sticks to the low volume Seokjin had started talking with earlier. “You kind of became the king even quicker than planned, right? Don’t you wanna put on the crown?”

“I don’t think it’s the right time yet,” Seokjin sighs out, “and I shouldn’t do it without Joonie here, yet. And some more highborn to witness it too, I think. But … yeah, I did not expect to find the crown without it being attached to the mad king’s head. Kind of a surprising turn of events.”

“You handled it very gracefully, though,” Jungkook assures him, patting Seokjin’s knee softly. “We’ll find the mad king soon and then he can still have his official trial and we’ll be back on the regular plan.”

“I like the sound of that,” Seokjin says with a small grin. Then, he clears his throat and lets his expression grow more serious again. “Anyways, I should stop sitting around on the floor while people could come in any minute now, wanting to know what happens next. It wouldn’t make a good picture to find the future king like this.”

“I think it’d make you relatable,” Jungkook points out and Seokjin smiles at him gently while slowly standing up.

“But the highborn don’t want a king that’s relatable,” he points out, “and it’s not the image I want to show them, at least not at first. They need to see that I’m powerful, so that they don’t even think about immediately going behind my back.”

Jungkook inclines his head, conceding the point. He likes the idea of a relatable king – of two relatable kings, even, and he knows he’ll get them, but he understands why it wouldn’t be favourable if everyone saw Seokjin and Namjoon as relatable.

And so Seokjin stands next to the throne again, ready to paint a self-assured picture for every stranger coming in and Jungkook closes his eyes again and resumes waiting.   

It’s a few more minutes, half an hour at most, and then things get very hectic very quickly. Dozens of people flood into the throne hall. Many of them are fellow fighters and Jungkook feels a giant weight lift off his shoulders when he spots both Jiwon and Eunji, neither of them appearing to be seriously hurt. But there are also people Jungkook doesn’t know – soldiers and servants and highborn, all of them swarming in and wanting to find out what has happened and what is going to happen. Jungkook is pretty sure that all of the highborn present are probably those that have started to support their cause over the last few weeks and months, while those that haven’t are probably trying to look for ways to escape, now.

Jungkook is glad when Seokjin gives him the signal to lead his patrol out, thankful for the chance to escape the madness. He wishes he could form the patrol out of his crew, but everyone who knows the citadel well is supposed to lead their own patrol and that includes Seokmin, Jiwon and Eunji.

In the end, he leaves with Somi, Hongjoon and Yunho, all of whom he only knows fleetingly, but hey. At least he knows them. It would’ve been embarrassing if he had to ask them their names before leading them towards the dungeons

No guards are watching the dungeons’ entrance. Maybe they fled, or maybe they’re part of those crowding the throne hall, now. Either way, Jungkook is careful when gets close to the heavy metal door, resting a hand on the hilt of his sword. Who knows what’s waiting for them on the other side of that door?

The answer is: nothing.

No soldiers wait for them inside the corridor and as Jungkook and the others in his group slowly walk further inside the dungeons, they find every cell empty as well.

Jungkook turns to look at Kim Byungyeon. “Do you have keys for these cells, Byungyeon-ssi?” he asks as politely as he can.

Byungyeon looks back and for a second Jungkook almost expects him to roll his eyes and say do you really think I would give you the keys so you could lock me up? Which, to be fair, would be valid, but then his expression stays blank instead and he nods towards his belt.

Sure enough, a ring with multiple keys hangs there and Jungkook frees it from the belt quickly.

“Would you two like to be put in the same cell or separately?” he asks the two prisoners then, unsure of how close they truly are. If he were in their position, he’d always want to share his cell with someone, to at least not be alone in a shitty situation. But this is the citadel and everyone is a snake, so maybe the two hate each other.

“It’s your choice, Hyejin-ssi,” Byungyeon murmurs quietly and Hyejin narrows her eyes for a moment, before turning to Jungkook. Somehow, even with being much shorter than he is, she manages to look down on him.

“How long will we have to stay here? Because there’s only one sleeping cot per cell,” she asks, which is a good question.

“I don’t know,” Jungkook tells her honestly, “there’s a lot going on and I’m not sure how quickly we’ll be able to have some trials. But I can put you in the same cell for now and if it turns out to take longer and you’ll need to sleep, we can send you to a different cell then? I’d send someone for you with food soon anyways.”

Hyejin looks like she wants to complain for a moment, then she huffs. “Fine,” she says, “put us in the same cell.”

Jungkook nods and unlocks the cell they’re standing in front of, leading them inside. “I’ll undo your cuffs now, please don’t try anything stupid,” he tells them, “All four of us are very skilled fighters, but I really don’t want any unnecessary bloodshed.”

Neither Byungyeon nor Hyejin reply and neither of them move after Jungkook cuts through the ropes binding their hands together. He leaves their cell, closes the door and locks it.

“As I said, I’ll send someone to bring you food soon,” he promises, not getting any reply again. Then, he looks at Somi and the other two.

“Okay, let’s carefully check all the other cells in here, just to see if we’ll find something,” he decides. It’s not that he suspects they’ll find the king hiding in some dark corner of a cell, but well. He just wants to be sure that they have searched everywhere.

Their search turns up empty.

Not a single cell is occupied, which confuses Jungkook as much as it brings him relief. He half-feared to find Jimin behind one of these bars again, tied to his chair just like he had been a few months ago before they rescued him.

Once they’ve thoroughly scoured the place without turning up any results, they head back towards the throne hall. Maybe someone else has found the mad king – or should Jungkook call him the old king now? It’s kind of confusing.

Just before they reach the hall, though, the noise of the people inside already audible, Seokmin catches up to their group and grabs Jungkook by the arm.

“Jungkook-ah, I found something,” he tells him, sounding slightly out of breath and looking the part, too. “You should see it.”

“Did you find the king?” Jungkook immediately asks, even though it wouldn’t make sense for Seokmin to tell him, instead of bringing the matter to Seokjin right away. Sure enough, Seokmin shakes his head.

“No,” he says, “not that. Just … come with me, please?”

Jungkook nods, then gestures for Somi, Hongjoon and Yunho to go ahead before following Seokmin.

He’s lead up some stairs and down some corridors and soon enough he doesn’t know where they are anymore. Or, more like, he still has a general idea, thanks to the detailed layouts of the citadel Hoseok gave them, but he doesn’t think he has ever learned which function the rooms in this wing of the citadel hold, specifically.

“Where exactly are we?” he asks Seokmin once they slow down, approaching an open door leading into a corridor with a few doors leading off of it.

“I didn’t know it either when my patrol came here,” Seokmin explains, pushing open a creaking door, revealing an office behind it. “So I asked the first servant we came across. Apparently, these are the mad king’s old chambers.”

Jungkook’s eyes widen and he looks around the office with new curiosity. It looks like it’s been abandoned for a long time, judging by the amount of dust on every piece of furniture.

“Is this what you wanted to show me?” he asks. Seokmin shakes his head, walking through the office towards a door on the side.

“No, that’s through here,” he says, pressing down the doorknob. Before he opens the door, however, he looks at Jungkook with dark eyes. “Listen, I don’t … I don’t really know what to make of what we found. I sent Wooyung to tell Seokjin-hyung, too, but … I felt like I should tell you first, so you could see it right away.”

Jungkook doesn’t know whether he’s more confused or more worried at Seokmin’s words, but either way he can’t stand to not understand what’s going on any longer, so he wordlessly steps past Seokmin, pushing open the door and entering what is quite obviously a bedroom, judging by the gigantic bed in the centre of the room.

It takes a second for Jungkook to realise just what it is Seokmin found, because the overly large bed truly captures all the attention at first glance. But then he sees that leaning against the wall that isn’t built out of large windows are paintings, loads of them, seemingly just stacked there and forgotten.

Jungkook walks closer towards them, his heart beating too fast in his chest. The focal point of the paintings is a truly giant portrait right in the middle, so large that it almost goes up to Jungkook’s chest, depicting three people.

The one in the middle wears a crown.

But Jungkook has more trouble looking away from the one on his left, with a hairstyle Jungkook doesn’t know on him, but a regal expression that is quite familiar.

He tears his eyes away with a struggle, directing them instead to the golden plaque attached to the bottom of the frame, with a few words inscribed on it.

King Min Yoongi and his two war generals, Kim Taehyung and Park Jimin, after his coronation.

With a heavy thump, Jungkook drops to the floor in front of the painting, staring up at it.

Park Jimin. War general.

His Park Jimin, a war general?

“What the fuck,” Jungkook croaks out. Seokmin lowers himself down to the floor too, albeit slightly slower and more graceful than Jungkook did.

“The other paintings all seem to have been made by the same person,” he murmurs, gesturing towards the smaller frames that Jungkook hasn’t paid any attention to, yet. Now he does. They’re not as refined as the large portrait, the one that has probably been done by some sort of official royal painter, they’re generally looking more abstract. But still it’s clear that their artist was very talented, just as it’s clear who the two models for every painting with a person in it were. The king and Jimin.

Kth, reads the tiny signature in the corner of each one.

“Kim Taehyung?” Jungkook questions out loud, and Seokmin shrugs.

“I guess so,” he says. “Who would’ve thought that the serial killer’s biggest enabler was an artist in his spare time?”

Who would’ve thought that the serial killer and his biggest enabler were so close to Jimin, Jungkook thinks, but he doesn’t say it out loud.

It doesn’t seem right.

But the proof is there, right in front of them, and unmistakeable. One of the paintings shows Jimin and the mad king lying beneath a meadow, Jimin’s head resting on the king’s chest, both of them with their eyes closed and soft smiles on their faces.

It feels wrong, to see such an evil man depicted in such a gentle, loving manner.

Both of them are painted with such love written in each brushstroke.

“There are … insane amounts of papers stacked in all these drawers, too,” Seokmin tells him, pointing towards the wall adjacent to the one they’re currently staring at. “I just skimmed through some of it, but it looks like love letters and notes on strategy meetings and army movements and … just a whole bunch of stuff. The strategic stuff especially reads a lot like the stuff Jimin-hyung proposed when he was with us.”

Jungkook hums. Jimin told them he got his strategic prowess in Jian, but … well, that never really explained why he knew the workings of the Godae military so well, did it?

A lot of things make sense now.

Jungkook remembers Hoseok telling him about the war general and the mad king having had a falling out, right after Jimin got captured. The war general Kim Taehyung, who apparently had been in love with both of them.

Jimin not getting hurt while he was imprisoned and then staying tight-lipped about why that was, about what had happened during his time in the dungeons. Because it was his shared history with the mad king that saved him from torture?

But so many more things make no sense at all.

How and why did a war general find his way to the rebellion? Why had Jimin helped them to grow so much, to become such a force to be reckoned with? Why had he been so adamant about wanting to kill the mad king if he was his … what? His lover? His ex-lover?

Why did he disappear, and where did he disappear to?

And, most pressingly in Jungkook’s eyes, why did no one know about Jimin having been a war general? How did no one ever recognise him? How had someone who, judging by those strategic notes Seokmin mentioned, had been so instrumental in the turning of tides of Godae’s war against Ina been so thoroughly forgotten by everyone in this country?

Why had Jimin pretended to be his friend?

Jungkook is pulled away from his thoughts by footsteps coming closer and when he turns his head, he spots Seokjin entering the room, stopping in his tracks when his gaze falls on the paintings.

It’s a tribute to how controlled Seokjin must have been throughout the last hour or so, that no sign of surprise shows on his face. He simply takes in what he sees, expressionless, and then comes closer. Instead of sitting on the floor, too, he precariously perches himself on the edge of the bed, his shins brushing against Jungkook’s back.

“Seokmin-ah, could you go back to the throne hall and check with Dahye-noona whether there are more parts of the citadel that have to be searched?” is the first thing he asks. Seokmin nods and stands up, quickly ruffling through Jungkook’s hair before leaving the room.

Once they’re alone, Seokjin and Jungkook sit in silence for a while. Jungkook doesn’t know what to say, so he’s relieved when Seokjin is the one to break it.

“I understand why Wooyung seemed so disturbed, when he told me that they found the king’s old chambers,” he says quietly.

Jungkook chokes out a laugh. “Yeah.” Then, after a pause, “did you know?”

“Know what?” Seokjin asks, even though they both know what.

“Did you know that Jimin-hyung used to be a war general?” Jungkook spells it out either way. It still sounds so wrong, saying it out loud. “And not just any, but apparently the mad king’s first war general after his coronation.”

“I didn’t,” Seokjin answers. “Though, after he disappeared, I might have … suspected.”

“And you didn’t tell me?”

“What use would it have been, for you?” Jungkook looks at him for a brief moment, scowling. Seokjin simply raises his eyebrows and continues, “he was already gone at that point, and it was unlikely he’d return. And either way, I wasn’t even sure. It was just a thought that had crept up on me, because I did know that the mad king used to have a war general called Park Jimin.”

“But you never made the connection earlier?”

Seokjin shrugs. “Park Jimin isn’t exactly an uncommon name, Jungkook-ah. And I had never met the war general back then or seen a single portrait of him. Obviously, now I can see why.” He gestures towards the paintings in front of them. “Once I climbed up some ranks and came to the citadel for the first time, Park Jimin was generally never talked about. Everyone knew that something had occurred and that the mad king got rid of him. So no, when a man called Park Jimin who said he was from Jian appeared and offered his help to take down the king, I did not suspect him to be the war general that had been murdered almost a decade earlier.”

Jungkook looks down at his feet. Seokjin’s voice has been gentle, but also decisive. He wouldn’t accept any blame from Jungkook.

And it’s not like Jungkook really blames Seokjin for anything anyways, it’s just … it’s hard to wrap his head around something that has completely blindsided him and then to see that it hasn’t caught Seokjin off guard in the same manner.

It also plays into another matter, one that Jungkook is even more worried about:

“Do you think Hobi-hyung knew about it?” he asks quietly, barely more than a whisper. There’s a moment of silence, then a gentle hand lands on his shoulder.

“You’ll have to ask him that yourself, Jungkook-ah,” Seokjin tells him. Jungkook grimaces. He knows Seokjin is right but … that’s not a conversation he looks forward to having. Which is a shame, because all night he had been so excited for the chance to finally get to talk to Hoseok again, after so long spent apart. Now he’s terrified of finding out that the other had lied to him for months.

Seokjin pats his shoulder. “But for now, there is a lot we still have to do,” he says, standing up. “So come on, up we go. I need you as moral support so I can role my eyes at someone if some highborn or another says something stupid.”

Jungkook snorts and lets himself be pulled up by Seokjin. “Sure, hyung,” he mumbles, “I’ll stand on the side and receive every one of your eyerolls.”

“Good boy,” Seokjin praises him and then heads for the door, pulling Jungkook along. Before he leaves the room, Jungkook looks back one last time, glancing at Jimin’s face, feeling as if his eyes pierce right through him.

Jungkook shivers, then pulls the door shut behind him.

When they get back to the throne hall, it is somehow even fuller than it was earlier. Jungkook quickly moves off to the side, leaning against a pillar and scanning the crowd for familiar faces.

Namjoon has arrived by now, but he’s surrounded by a throng of people and looks to be deep in conversation, so Jungkook settles on sending him his brightest smile when their eyes meet for a moment.

Eunji also has retreated to a corner, only on the other side of the hall, sitting on the floor with Serim and Yoorim next to her. Jungkook didn’t even know Yoorim also got sent to the capital, but seeing her with her head resting on Eunji’s shoulder reminds him that a few months ago, before everything started getting so serious, those two had been in the process of becoming something. Or at least, he had seen their potential in becoming something.

Seeing them like that also reminds Jungkook that it’s so late in the night now that it’s almost early again and he’s so insanely tired.

But he knows that before he can even think about finding some quiet corner – surely, somewhere in this giant citadel, that must exist? – and get some sleep, he’ll have to make sure that everyone he cares about has made it through the night. And he’ll have to have a talk with Hoseok.

But Hoseok hasn’t reappeared yet, or if he has, he’s hidden deep inside the crowd and so Jungkook leans some more of his weight against the pillar, crosses his arms and keeps watching the people surrounding him.

He notices his blinks becoming slower and slower, notices the effort it takes each time to force his eyes open again, but it’s hard to do anything against it either way. He’s just … so tired. He has never managed to fall asleep standing up before, not like Seokmin has, on multiple occasions, but he supposes he actually could, now.

His feet are sturdy and the pillar is a good support and not even that uncomfortable to rest his head against, really …

The next time he blinks, his eyes stay shut and he is planning on opening them again very soon, he really is, he hasn’t purposefully closed them, it’s still a blink even if it lasts longer than thirty seconds …

“Are you asleep while standing up right now?”

That voice, filled equal parts with astonishment and amusement, gives Jungkook the jolt he needed to rip his eyes open again.

Hoseok is standing very close to him, his hands held out in front of him as if prepared to hold Jungkook’s body up, which sends weirdly warm shivers down Jungkook’s spine. He already felt it earlier in the night, but it’s there in the same force again now – it’s so good to see Hoseok.

Especially an unharmed, smiling Hoseok.

“I was asleep while standing up,” Jungkook sniffs, “until you woke me up.”

Hoseok’s responding laugh is beautiful and man, Jungkook really hopes that he hasn’t been lied to for months, because he never wants to stop feeling fond when thinking about or looking at him.

“Sorry, Jungkook-ah,” Hoseok says softly. “How about, to make up for it, I’ll show you to my chambers and then you can sleep in a real bed? A pretty comfortable one, at that.”

Jungkook smiles lopsidedly. “Will you sleep too?” he asks.

Hoseok hums, looking around the room. “I don’t think there’s anything more I have to do tonight? I talked with Jin-hyung and Namjoonie and I think all the important stuff has been taken care of. So yeah, I should probably get some sleep for a few hours, too. It’ll be a busy day once the sun rises again.”

“Okay,” Jungkook mumbles, the ending of the word turning into a huge yawn. “Then take me to bed, please.”

“I’ll never get tired of hearing that.” Hoseok grins, then softly takes Jungkook by the arm and leads him out of the hall. It has emptied out a little bit in the time Jungkook has been almost-technically-kind-of asleep. He supposes lots of people decided to rest for a while. Now that the adrenaline of the fight has subsided, everyone must be crashing.

Jungkook tries to stay alert while Hoseok guides him through the citadel, but his eyes already start to droop again and after a while he stops fighting against it. He knows Hoseok won’t steer him into any walls.

“We’re here, Jungkook-ah,” Hoseok murmurs after a while and when Jungkook opens his eyes again, he finds himself in a dimly lit bedroom. He’s aware that this is the first time he is seeing Hoseok’s personal quarters, his home, and he is desperately curious, but at the same time the only thing his eyes zero in on is the large double bed in the centre of the room.

Heavens, he is so tired.

Hoseok chuckles next to him. “Just go ahead, Kook-ah, lie down and sleep,” he says. “Nothing’s stopping you.”

Jungkook is about to agree and take the last few steps forward to faceplant on the mattress, but then he remembers that yes, there is in fact something stopping him. He needs to have a talk with Hoseok now, so that afterwards he can sleep next to him without anything weighing on his mind.

“Do you have some water I can wash my face with?” he asks Hoseok. “Preferably really, really cold water.”

Hoseok looks bemused, but he leads Jungkook through a door off the side of the bedroom nonetheless, and damn. Being a war general apparently comes with its advantages, because Hoseok has his own private bathroom, with a large bathtub in the middle, a basin off to the side and its own fireplace.

“Considering all the servants had better things to do tonight than heat up the water, it should be very cold,” Hoseok tells him, “so just take all the time that you need. I’ll wait in the bedroom, okay?”

“Thank you,” Jungkook says sincerely. Then, just before Hoseok closes the door behind him, he calls out – “don’t fall asleep yet, okay? I need to talk to you.”

“Of course,” Hoseok replies and then Jungkook is left alone.

He had only planned on splashing water in his face to shock himself awake again, but now that he has a whole room at his disposal, he figures he could use the chance to at least take off his leather armour as well and wash the sweat off the rest of his body too.

The water truly is very cold, and Jungkook hisses as he rubs himself down with a towel that was folded up neatly next to the basin. It’s painful, but it does its job – while he doesn’t feel wide awake, per se, he’s at least coherent enough to have that conversation now.

Once he’s dry, he considers putting on his own dirty clothes again, but then he spots a pair of soft pants and a shirt and reckons Hoseok won’t mind.

Hoseok doesn’t mind, judging by the way his mouth drops just a little bit open when Jungkook re-enters the bedroom, his eyes flitting up and down Jungkook’s attire.

Jungkook smiles at him shily, then walks over and joins him on the bed. He doesn’t crawl under the covers yet, like Hoseok has, instead he sits cross-legged at the foot of it, facing Hoseok, who sits up a little bit straighter, leaning against the headrest.

“You said you wanted to talk?” he asks and Jungkook nods.

“Yeah,” he confirms. “Just … I want to get it out of the way now, because starting tomorrow, things are going to become very hectic for a while and I don’t want to forget.”

“Sounds sensible.” Hoseok’s voice is serious, and Jungkook appreciates that he caught on to the mood so quickly. He thinks if Hoseok had been playful or flirty, he would find it much harder to get this over with. “So, what is it?”

“Have you ever been to the king’s old quarters?” Jungkook asks with no preamble. Hoseok frowns, looking confused. He shakes his head slowly.

“No, I haven’t. He stopped using those like a decade ago or so, didn’t he? That entire wing has been out of use for way longer than I have been here.”

“Okay.” That’s a good start. “Then … as a war general, how much do you know about the history of the other war generals?”

Hoseok’s frown deepens. “Do you mean like … every war general ever? Because I’ll be honest, I have technically learned about them once, but I could definitely not name all of them anymore.”

“What about the ones during the mad king’s reign?” Jungkook questions further. “All your direct predecessors.”

Hoseok makes a sound of understanding. “Ah, well, I have met the three that came before me? None of them lasted longer than a few months, and I was already a regular presence in the citadel by that point. And then I had indirect contact with the two that came before that. I couldn’t tell you much about any of the ones even earlier than that.”

“What about the first one?” Jungkook asks directly. “The one the mad king named right after his coronation, alongside Kim Taehyung.”

“Park Jimin?” Hoseok asks, sounding completely clueless. Jungkook flinches at the mention of the name, something Hoseok obviously notices. It takes a few seconds and then understanding dawns on his face. “You’re not saying …?”

“Seokmin found the mad king’s old chambers earlier,” Jungkook explains, the words rushing out of him. “It was full of paintings and portraits, of the mad king and of the war general Park Jimin. Who looked very familiar.”

“Oh shit,” Hoseok whispers, his eyes widening. “And you thought I might have known about it?”

Jungkook grimaces, but Hoseok doesn’t sound accusing, or offended. “I was scared that you might have, yes,” he confirms.

Hoseok rapidly shakes his head. “I really didn’t. Though … honestly, I probably should have put two and two together? The king and Tae- the general really started acting so weirdly once Jimin was captured. But I never went to the academy, I was raised and trained on my parent’s estate further in the south. I only entered Haneul’s circles when the general had already been replaced … huh.”

Hoseok looks like he just had another revelation and Jungkook raises his eyebrows. “What?”

“I just realised … rumour had it that the mad king ordered Kim Taehyung to kill the other general. Neither of them ever confirmed it, obviously, but it was kind of an open secret. So … it makes even more sense now why the relationship between the two of them became strained once Jimin was captured. The king must have really thought Taehyung had killed him. That’s why he probably blamed Taehyung once you had freed Jimin and arrested him.”

“Wow.” That’s fucked up. Jungkook can hardly wrap his head around the amount of drama and betrayal that seems to be an almost daily occasion in the citadel.

“Yeah,” Hoseok agrees quietly.

They stay silent for a while, then. Now that Jungkook has confirmed the most important thing – that Hoseok did not, in fact, know about Jimin’s true identity – he feels like everything else can wait until tomorrow.

The question of where the king disappeared to still remains. There will need to be trials, to figure out how much each person holding a position in the citadel was involved in the crimes committed over the last decade. Namjoon and Seokjin will need to be coronated and the entire governing body will have to be rebuilt. The dead will have to be buried and grieved. Jungkook and Hoseok will have to talk about how their relationship proceeds from here.

But none of that has to happen tonight.

What matters now is this: the mad king’s army surrendered. The revolution was successful. The people Jungkook loves most are alive. Hoseok is by his side.

A ray of light suddenly shines into the room, turning Hoseok’s profile golden. Jungkook turns his head towards the large windows.

“The sun is coming up,” he whispers, watching how the first beams of sunlight break across the sky, chasing away the darkness of the night.

It’s a new day, in a new era of Godae.

“C’mon, Jungkook-ah,” Hoseok says softly, pulling on Jungkook’s arm until they lie side by side, Hoseok’s arm across Jungkook’s waist, holding him close. “Let’s sleep.”

Jungkook sends one last glance at the lightening sky, then at Hoseok’s relaxed, ethereal face, then he closes his eyes and drifts off to sleep.

▪▫▪▫

They have just reached the ocean as the first rays of sunlight shine across the sky, sailing further into the open waters.

Yoongi is standing at the rear end of the ship, looking at the coast of Godae getting smaller and smaller, the light tower of Seopo only a tiny speck in the distance.

He wonders briefly what might be happening in Haneul right now. Surely the rebels must have taken over the citadel by now? They’ve had all night to do it, after all. And Hoseok’s help as well, probably.

He is pulled out of his musings by multiple crashing noises behind him, probably caused by the crew of sailors whose ship they found passage on. It’s an annoyingly loud group of people.

Yoongi is about to turn around to glare at them when he’s distracted by two figures stepping up to him, falling into place on his left and right side.

“Godae looks so peaceful, like this,” Taehyung says quietly on his right, his deep voice merely more than a rumble, almost swallowed by the sound of water lapping against the ship. “You wouldn’t guess that there have been fights throughout the entire country all day and night.”

“Most things look pretty from a distance but ugly once you get close,” Jimin speaks up on Yoongi’s left.

Yoongi has a question on the tip of his tongue, something along the lines of is that what you think about us, as well? Was the idea of us pretty from a distance, but turned out to be ugly up close?

He doesn’t ask, though. Maybe because he’s afraid to hear the answer, or maybe because there’s no point to ask anymore, now. Ugly or not, Jimin chose this, chose them. So did Taehyung. And Yoongi himself, too.

The sailors make another loud noise, then laugh obnoxiously. Taehyung rolls his eyes.

“We might have to kill them once we’ve arrived,” he thinks out loud, “just to make sure that they’ll never tell anyone they saw us.”

Yoongi glances towards his other side, trying to gauge Jimin’s reaction. Jimin hums. “Yeah, that might be necessary. My influence should last for a while, but we’d be more on the safe side if they’ll never open their mouths again.”

Both Jimin and Taehyung look at Yoongi now, who shrugs. “Don’t look at me,” he says, “I don’t care. If you think it’s safer to kill them, then let’s kill them once we’ve reached our destination.”

Wherever that might be.

Jimin nods, determined. “Good. I’ll keep influencing them until we arrive, then.”

With that settled, Yoongi turns his gaze back to the disappearing coast. The ship they’re on is a fast one and they’re rapidly sailing further and further away. It’s hard to believe, almost, that when the sun went down, he was still the king of Godae and Jimin and Taehyung were imprisoned in his dungeon. Now the sun has come back up and he won’t ever see the country he has grown up in again, but instead he’ll have Jimin and Taehyung by his side for the rest of his life. If all goes well, that is.

Sometimes, all it takes is a night for everything to change.

Yoongi still can’t really wrap his head around how easy all of it had been, too.

After he left his crown behind and headed to the dungeon, he half-expected his journey to end there already, half-expected Taehyung and Jimin to refuse to even look at him, or to kill him the minute he unlocked their cells. He would’ve deserved it, too.

But they didn’t. Instead they both just looked at him and smiled as if they already knew what he was there for.

“Took you long enough,” was all Jimin said once Yoongi had explained himself.

“Where are we going?” was all Taehyung asked.

“Wherever you want,” Yoongi replied and Taehyung smiled more.

They got rid of the three soldiers stationed inside and outside the dungeon – way less than it should’ve been, so multiple must have deserted already – and hid their bodies in one of the secret passageways. Then, they took one of said passageways through the mountain, down to where the Somi River raced along in its canyon, where a single small boat was tied to a pier, curtesy of Taehyung.

“You have a lot of enemies, it was always likely that one day, we might have to make a secret escape from the citadel,” was his explanation.

They took the boat and followed the current of the Somi River towards the ocean, covered in the darkness of the night.

Jimin took the lead once they arrived at the sea, finding a trader’s ship that was about to depart towards the Sinnan Kingdom, convincing the captain to take them on board.

“You trust us,” he said, with a nice smile and a hand on the man’s shoulder. “You have no reason to doubt us and no interest in our reasons why we want to go to Sinnan. You’re simply happy to help us and to offer us a place on your ship. The rest of your crew feels the same. You trust us.”

“I trust you,” the captain said with a dopey smile and stepped to the side, welcoming the three of them to his ship.

Yoongi witnessed it and felt stupid – how could he ever have thought that Jimin was secretly using his powers, secretly manipulating him and others. There was no way not to notice – the power simply poured out of him, rolled off of him in almost tangible waves.

And now they’re here, on this ship, heading vaguely in the direction of the Sinnan Kingdom. They haven’t really talked about anything yet, though Yoongi knows that there’s a lot they could talk about.

They could talk about what will happen next, what they’ll do once they’ve arrived wherever they want to arrive at. They could talk about what did happen. What went wrong, so horribly, terrifyingly wrong, and how they’ll make sure that it won’t go this wrong again.

But then again, what help is talking, anyways. He spent weeks talking with both of them, while they were imprisoned, and it got them nowhere. 

What matters is this: they’re all here, right now, together. They all betrayed each other and hurt each other, times and times again, but it was always about the crown and the country or because of the crown and the country and they have left both of those things behind.

They’re back to a clean slate, now.

All Yoongi knows is that he loves Taehyung and he loves Jimin. He hasn’t stopped loving either of them once, for the last twelve years, and he’s not going to.

If they decide one day to take revenge and to make him pay for what he did, well. That would be in their right. The thought doesn’t scare him or make him angry and it doesn’t make him love them any less, either.

Yoongi takes a small step forward, so that he’s right against the railing. He looks down on the waves crashing against the boat, the water still black, carrying the night that is slowly expelled from the sky.

He looks at the shore. That country was his life for thirty years. He was raised to be its leader from the moment he was born. He gave everything he had to it. He always thought he would die for it, too, just like his mother did.

This is better.

Yoongi turns his back on the brightening sky and the kingdom with it, facing Jimin and Taehyung instead. Both of them meet his eyes with kind smiles, so much more than what he deserves. He doesn’t need Godae, or a crown. All he needs is right here, right next to him.

Wordlessly, all of them moving as one, they shuffle into a small circle, their hands finding each other, their fingers interlacing.

Yoongi knows he doesn’t deserve this, but he has it anyways.

Without either of them looking back, they keep holding onto each other as they sail into their future.