"—Nia! Val! Are you both okay?! Hey, both of you answer us!" Val groaned as she heard Chaewon's panicked voice over the in-ear. It took her a moment to remember where they were.
The ball. The Wings. The explosion. Nia.
Val quickly sat up, realizing they were in the remains of what was probably the treasury or vault of the castle. There was the sound of screaming, panic, and confusion, and she looked around to see that people in the castle had noticed the disturbance.
Of course, they'd noticed. They had caused a damn explosion.
There was something else though.
From somewhere further away, she could hear rhythmic marching. It didn't take her much time to realize what it was.
They'd caused such a ruckus, it was a surprise the army actually took this long to do something. She remembered what Zera, Jaeyun, and Roshan had said. The army consisted of almost all White Lotus members, but also it was the combined might of Sector 1 and 2's armies. Granted, Sector 1 didn't really have all that much of an army but Sector 2 was more than enough to make up for it.
They poured over the hills and it was only then that Val actually processed the fact that they were probably looking for her and Nia.
For the first time in a while, she was scared. She wasn't sure how much backup the rebellion had thought to bring, seeing as this was supposed to be a covert operation. Would they even be able to handle a battle like this?
She shook her head. No, she couldn't think about that right now. One thing at a time. Her priority now was finding Nia.
"Nia," She called out, her voice hesitant. She didn't want to alert anyone to her position since it seemed she hadn't been spotted yet, "Nia, where are you?" She called out a little bit louder, "Nia—"
Someone covered her mouth before tugging her back behind the remains of a wall, Val struggled for a moment, elbowing the person in the stomach before she heard a groan, "Stop fighting, you idiot, it's just me," Nia hissed, "Be quiet and stop moving or they might see us. We can't get back into the castle so we need to find another way to reconvene with the others."
"Do you have the Wings?" Val asked. She watched as the younger reached into her pocket and pulled out the silver device. Looking closer, it seemed like there were holes in the middle of the device where something could be inserted.
She remembered something that Bella had mentioned to her after they'd escaped from Sector 2. Apocalypse had apparently told them that the device itself was a key and that in the wrong hands, it could literally cause mass destruction.
Val shivered a bit, "Do you want to keep it or should I keep it?" She asked. Nia didn't hesitate to hold it out to her.
"I'm an idiot, I trust you with it more than I trust myself," Nia said immediately. Val didn't know how to feel about it but she didn't argue, taking the Wings and keeping it in her pocket.
Suddenly, they both heard Chaewon's voice over their in-ears, panicked as she yelled, "Both of you, get out of there, right now!" The two didn't hesitate to scramble to their feet and move back into the destroyed treasury.
They'd barely managed to make it to the door of the treasury when there was a loud blast behind them. Val and Nia whirled around as the older cursed under her breath, "Oh my God, they know we're here. That was fucking dynamite."
"No fucking duh, we need to get a move on!" Nia grabbed her hand and dragged her through the door, where Chaewon and Risále were waiting. They had no time to process the unconscious bodies on the ground, "We've got the damn thing, we need to go—"
"We're surrounded," Risále interrupted, her face grim, "The guys are downstairs but we can't get out of the castle. It's like we thought, they knew we were going to come. Julian and Kaedan's dad must have had the armies stationed out of sight but in range of the castle."
Chaewon took a deep breath, "Right, we knew this wouldn't be easy when we chose to do this. First things first, we need to get downstairs. The army already seems to know we're up here so any escape route from here is just nonexistent. Our problem here is that they destroyed the fucking stairs while we were up here."
"I'm sorry, they what?" Val asked, disbelief clear in her voice.
Risále nodded, "Since it was a metal spiral staircase, it wasn't all that hard for them to destroy it. So, Chaewon and I have been trying to figure out how to get down without breaking our legs—"
"Chaewon?! Are you guys okay?! We heard the explosion, what the hell did you guys do?!" Elliot's frantic voice came in over their in-ears.
The blonde woman replied quickly, "We're all safe, Val and Nia have the Wings. The problem is we're all trapped upstairs since they decided to destroy the fucking staircase and there's no way out from up here. You guys have an escape route down there?"
"Val and Nia got the what—You know what, never mind! I can't find any openings to get out of here, we're literally surrounded on all sides," Kaedan added, and it sounded like he was slightly exerting himself.
"Are you guys okay? What's going on down there?" Risále asked, seemingly picking up on it as well.
Hyunwoo was the one who responded this time, "Doing just fine, darlin'," He was breathing a bit heavily, "It seems like they trained up the guards here, they're giving us just a bit of a hard time."
Chaewon groaned, "That would probably be Julian's work. God, how has no one killed that guy out of pure annoyance? Is he giving you guys trouble?"
There was silence for a moment from all four guys before Hyunwoo spoke up, "He's…Indisposed right now," Val watched Risále raise her eyebrow at the way he worded it, pausing to think about it.
"Hyunwoo," She dragged the last syllable of his name out, "What exactly do you mean by indisposed?"
"We've got other things to focus on, darlin'," Hyunwoo said, his voice a little bit firmer this time, "He's not a problem for now—Oh, fuck, he's gone."
"What?" Elliot sounded genuinely confused and even slightly impressed, "No way, he's already up and moving after a subdrop like that?"
Risále paused and blinked, "A what?!" She practically screeched, "Hyunwoo, what the fuck did you do?!"
"To be honest," Kaedan muttered, "It was really effective. He was kind of flopping around like a dead fish for a while there."
"What the fuck exactly have you four been doing?" Val asked, looking at the other three women in genuine disbelief, "We've been up here solving puzzles and getting the Wings you guys have been—What, seducing Julian?"
Kaedan sighed, "To be honest, it wasn't on purpose. We found him in this weird fully-clothed orgy party," Nia made a strangled sound at that, "And so to back there, the four of us kind of had to, you know, pull a whole fake dating thing. Chaewon knows what I'm talking about, she's been part of that kind of scheme before."
Risále, Val, and Nia turned to look at Chaewon who just shook her head, "Yeah, yeah, I know what you're talking about. But the subdrop thing?"
"He definitely has a thing for older men," Elliot said, and the disgust could be heard in his voice, "Which wouldn't be a problem if he didn't seem to keep going for men who have known him since he was a child or men that are practically a decade older than him. Well, both in Kaedan's case but…"
Chaewon paused and processed that, "Oh my God, Elliot, you don't mean he—"
"Yup. Trust me, I don't know how I caught his attention either but unfortunately, I did," The grimness in their voice was unmistakable.
"Oh, shut up with that," Xander replied and they could practically hear him rolling his eyes, "You've dated not one, not two, but three people in this group and are married to one of them. I think that says enough about how you caught his attention. Anyways, I think what's more impressive is even with that preference, Hyunwoo somehow got to him."
Risále snorted, "That's my man right there."
"...Is that something to be proud of?" Val asked quietly, leaning over to Nia. The younger girl just shrugged and muttered something about everyone in the group being crazy, "Anyway, how are we going to get down?"
"We've been working on that," Hyunwoo replied, "Come out, we're where the stairs used to be."
The four of them looked at each other before heading out of the room. Looking down at where the staircase used to be, they saw Hyunwoo waving up at them, Xander, Elliot, and Kaedan standing behind him.
"Hey, Hyun!" Risále waved down.
"Hey, darlin'," The man replied fondly, "Hang tight, we've got a plan. If Val could toss down her bow, then we can—"
Risále, however, seemed to have no plans of hearing him out, "Catch me, Hyun!" She called out. And then, right in front of Val, Chaewon, and Nia's eyes, the blue-haired woman jumped down four stories.
"Holy fuck—" Even though it was completely warranted, it was still somewhat surprised to hear Hyunwoo curse that directly as the man rushed forward to catch his girlfriend. He let out a slight, "Oof!" when she landed in his arms, wrapping her hands around his shoulders. Xander had stepped forward quickly to support Hyunwoo as he stumbled.
"Hi!" Risále grinned.
"You are the stupidest individual I have ever met and I swear to god, I will murder you once we get out of here," Kaedan was the one who responded as Hyunwoo just stared at her in shock.
Risále pouted, "Come on, I knew he wouldn't let me fall!"
Hyunwoo put her down before putting his hands on her shoulders, "My love. You are a smart person. You also have enhanced intelligence. Do you think that anyone can catch someone who's falling from four stories without any support?"
"...Ah," Risále frowned, "Didn't think of that. Whoops."
"Yes, perhaps you should think before you jump off of high landings!" Kaedan scolded, "Dumbass, if you'd waited just five seconds, we could have gotten you down a much safer way!"
"Don't call me a dumbass!"
"What else are you if you have enhanced intelligence and you still jump down four stories and expect your boyfriend to catch you?!"
"...He still caught me!"
"And I caught him," Xander smacked the back of her head, "I swear to God, you're going to be the death of him."
Risále turned to Hyunwoo, "Tell them, I won't be the death of you—"
"You very much will, Risále Manon," Hyunwoo sighed, rubbing his forehead, "Now that my heart has moved back from my stomach to my chest, let's just…Move on. Val, your bow and arrow?"
She pulled out her bow and arrow and tossed it down. The three of them still stuck on the upper floor watched as Hyunwoo handed the bow to Xander, "Other than Val, you're probably one of our best shots," Xander nodded as he looped a couple of rings of what looked like a curtain through the back of the arrow.
Val had to admit, Xander was probably second to her when it came to long-range weapons. The arrow landed on the wall right next to them, dragging the curtain up with it creating a cloth rope they could climb down.
"This was what our plan was originally," Xander turned and gave Risále a pointed look, "Before some reckless idiot decided to give us all a heart attack."
"Alright, alright, I get it, I won't jump off of four-story buildings anymore, jeez," She crossed her arms and glared back at them, "Can't a girl just have some fun?"
Hyunwoo looked at her, "Baby," He said seriously, "Making my heart literally stop out of fear is not fun."
"Fine, fine, I'm sorry," She took his hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it, "Sorry for scaring you like that, though," She said a bit more sincerely.
"It's…Fine, I think," Hyunwoo sighed, "It's my job to be worried when you, Bella, or Leon do stupid shit like that. Which all of you do."
Nia jumped off the cloth a few feet from the ground, "You're telling me Bella is like those two idiots?"
Val snorted, "Bella can be worse than them at times. The grenade situation should have said a lot about her."
"Right. That somehow just slipped my mind."
Elliot helped Chaewon down as the blonde woman pressed a kiss to her spouse's cheek, "Thanks, babe. So, how exactly do we get out of here? It sounds like the guards weren't that easy to get rid of plus both armies are surrounding the castle…"
Kaedan hummed, "We could try and brute force it. There are eight of us. The only problem with that is…"
"We'd probably be worn out by the time we got outside." Xander finished, "Is there an easier way out without confronting the guards?"
"If there was, I would have mentioned it," Kaedan sighed, "All the secret tunnels and exits that I used to take to leave the castle have all been blocked off. Courtesy of my dear old father, I presume."
Risále frowned, "Well, this would have been easier if I still had the blueprints of this building, but I think from a structural standpoint, it does have its weaknesses, especially in the South—"
Before she could finish, though, there was a loud explosion from the southern wing of the castle, and screams could be heard. They stumbled, trying to keep their balance as the ground shook underneath them, "What the fuck was that!" Nia yelled, gripping Val's arm as the taller pulled her closer to shield her from any loose falling debris.
There was the sound of static in their in-ears, then the sound of Zera's voice, "Sorry, everyone. Took us longer than expected, but backup has arrived!"