Taehyung's POV
I wake up breathing heavily, I look over next to me where Shadow lays peacefully sleeping. I sit up and rub my face with my hands. I hear whimpering coming from Shadow, I turn toward her and see her beginning to frantically move her head, she then starts to move her legs, and her hands clench the sheets.
I turn fully towards her and grab her shoulders to shake her, but before I am able to she springs up wrapping her arms around me, screaming into my chest muffling it so the others wouldn't hear her. I rub her head and back soothingly cooing to her as her screams starts to cease becoming wet tears running down her face wetting my shirt.
She clings tightly to me as she silently cries. When her whimpers stop she pulls away looking down. I put my hand under her chin bringing it up so that our eyes meet. I take my other hand and wipe the stray tears from her eyes and face. I give her a subtle smile, she smiles back at me before climbing into my lap and snuggling herself on me, her breathing starts to even.
I slowly turn my body so that I'm facing the foot of the bed before laying down and slowly falling back to sleep. When I wake up I feel movement on me remembering Shadow fell asleep on me I'm not worried. I then hear a knock on the door before it opens revealing Jungkook.
"Hey, you need to get up we need to go to the brother's so we can find out what they want as payment for what they are going to do to take the map out of Shadow."
"Ok," is all I say as I sit up.
Jungkook leaves and closes the door doing so. Shadow wakes up and heads to the bathroom. In the quietness I hear the shower running. As much as I want to go in there to her I can't that would be crossing the line and I want her to trust me like she did. Once the water stops I hear shuffling then the door opens revealing Shadow in only a towel, I feel my pants start to tighten. I need a ice cold shower. I get off the bed grabbing my clothes off the dresser and head to the bathroom. When I'm done I leave the bathroom back into Shadow's room to find her trying to get into Secret Place. I chuckle silently as she struggles.
"Hey, Shadow let me help you babe." I say walking over to her and grabbing her hand, and showing her how to get into Secret Place.
Once inside she looks around with wide eyes filled with wonder. I clear my throat knowing we can't stay in here long. She looks back at me.
"Clouds...um...we have to um...we have to get back because we're going to be leaving for a while." I tell her gently.
She looks down at the ground, my heart pains to see her disappointed.
"Don't worry we'll get your memory back and we'll be coming back here princess. We just need to go and see some people and see what they want so we can get it so we can bring it back so they can help you by getting what's inside you out. Babygirl, I promise you we'll be coming back here once we're done."
"Otay," she says quickly almost to submissively.
I frown inwardly at the thought of her having to do something she isn't willing to do. She walks to the entrance ahead of me, it give me enough time to take in her physical state. She doesn't look as strong as she once did. I really don't think when she is able to remember, I don't think she will come back to the way she was she now has a more child likeness to her that I am getting used to. I'm starting to think of her as my baby now since she is going in to her little head space.
When I catch up to her I grab her by the hand so that I know I won't loose her. Once I take her hand I feel her flinch in response I pull my hand away instantly. When hand is completely by my side I feel her tiny hand slip back into mine. I look down at her cautiously, she looks up at me shyly. I give her a subtle smile sending her a message she will be okay, and that she can trust me. She smiles back at me before letting me guide her back through the entrance.
When we're back in her room she lets go of my hand and walks over to her bed grabbing both mine and her backpacks. She walks back over to me extending my backpack to me, I take it from her putting it on my back as she puts her's on. We make our way out of her room turning off the lights and closing the door on the way out, before going to the living room.
"Took you both long enough." Toni snaps out.
I hear my princess whimper as I feel her grab the back of my shirt tail.
"Toni don't snap at them especially Shadow, giving what she's been through. Snap at Taehyung all you want but don't do it in front of Shadow. She doesn't have a strong mental state anymore because of the memory loss that the Keeper had to do with." Silver reasons with her.
I'm taken by surprise on how she's able to calm down the hot head of my team easily. I smile inwardly knowing Silver is a good asset to the team. Mark comes up to me.
"Shadow's friend Rosie and Lucien are worried about Shadow since they haven't seen her in a while. We didn't meet Lucien when we first got here, when we first met Shadow and Rosie because he had the flu, and at the time Rosie and Lucien were only just friends. Rosie called me since she had only my number and asked if she and Lucien could come with us. I told her I would have to ask you and see if it's alright then I would call her back." Mark says quickly.
"I understand the dangers with them coming along with us but I think it would be good for Shadow to have them come with us since they ate her friends we'll have to tell them what's happened unless they already know." I tell him.
He nods his head and takes out his phone and heads towards the kitchen. As I watch him disappear into the kitchen I feel Shadow's grip on my shirt begin to tighten again, I look up to find Toni coming towards us. Shadow whimpers loudly, I gently take her by the arm pulling her in front of me, pulling her to my chest. She hides her face there.
"What do you want Toni? Your scaring Shadow and I already know she doesn't trust you with the help of her wolf Rain." I tell her stroking Shadow's head.
Shadow cuddles into me farther as Toni moves closer to us with a disgusted look on her face, before she gets to close I stop petting Shadow's head to grab Toni by the shoulder to make her stop moving.
"Toni, leave me and Shadow alone right now cause I'm in no mood to put up with you and your attitude today. I hope you want to keep your powers since I gave them back to you when we were getting rid of the Keeper for Shadow's benefit." She lets out a snarl before turning around and stomping over to where Silver is.
I look do at Shadow who is still hiding her face in my chest, I chuckle at how cute she is. I my head down resting my chin a top her head before speaking to her.
"Shadow, your going to have to let me to so we can leave soon." I tell her while rubbing her back and removing my head from hers.
Eventually, she lifts her head up and disconnects herself from me. I look towards the kitchen to find Mark coming out with Rosie and a guy following behind him is who I'm guessing is Lucien. Shadow attaches herself back on me mumbling something. I hear a gasp escape from Rosie as she see's Shadow's state. When all three of them get to us they stop.
"Mark did you tell them what's happened to Shadow?" I ask him.
"Yeah," is all he says as I nod my head acknowledgment.
I turn my attention to Shadow's friends.
"I know it confuses the both of you on Shadow's situation. It also scares you. But you have no idea how much it scares me." Anger crosses Rosie's face.
"How can you say that. You barely even know her. You've known her for what? A couple of months and you say that you love her." Rosie yells at me making Shadow buries herself into me.
"I know more things about her than you do. Rosie, you have been her best friend for years and still doesn't know everything about her that I know from only a couple of months and still knows more about her than you do. We need to calm down because we're scaring Shadow and I can't bare the thought of her being scared of me." I say trailing off as I wrap my arms around Shadow's shoulders hugging her.
I lean my head down to her should and silently whisper in her ear.
"Princess do you want me to pick you up and hold you or do you want to walk?" She rubs her head into me making me coo and chuckle at how cute she is.
"Uh, I wan chu to pick me up daddy." She whispers back to me shyly.
"Ok princess." I say to her as I put my hands under arms lifting her up, she wraps her legs around my waist and puts her arms around my neck.
I put my hands under her bum to hold her up so that she won't fall. She leans her head on my shoulder facing the crook of my neck. I look up to see Rosie looking at the both of us like we have three heads. Lucien doesn't look affected by it.
"What? Your looking at the both of us like we have three heads." I say in a knowing manner.
"Yo...you picked her up like she's a baby." Rosie stutters out, I shrug.
Yeah, I'm babying her and she's not complaining. Others may think it's weird but it's the only way I know of to get her close to me again. I can tell she's asleep now by her even breathing and light snoring. I chuckle at her cuteness. I turn my attention to Mark.
"If we don't want the Brothers mad at us we need to get going now." I tell him, he nods.
"Yeah, we're going to have to drive there since we're under a no fly zone." He says before adding.
"I can help you take off her backpack if it's getting heavy for you to hold her." He offers, I nod my head.
"Thanks, also can you help me hold her so I can take mine off as well and put them both in the trunk of the Tahoe?"
"Yeah, of course, the others things are already in either one. I'm sure your talking about the black Tahoe?" He says questionably.
"Yeah," is all I say.
As I take off my backpack and drops it to the floor as he hold Shadow up like he said he would do so she wouldn't fall and wake up. Once I get it off and on the floor I put my hands back in place holding her as Mark gets her backpack off then picks up mine off the floor and heads out the door to put them in the Tahoe. When everyone is ready to go we go outside after saying our goodbyes to Shadow's parents and my dad and uncle's. Since im still holding a sleeping Shadow and no one wanted to wake her up her parents, my dad, and uncle's give her a kiss on the forehead.
Holding Shadow makes me unable to drive so we all agree Jin is gets to drive with Namjoon sitting next to him up front. With me holding Shadow we have enough room for one more person so Bambam rides with us. Once everyone is settled in both vehicles we head off to our destination to meet the Brothers.
We've been riding a while and Shadow has woken up, she's getting restless.
"Jin is there a gas station coming up?" I ask him sending the question to Namjoon making him looking it up on his phone while Jin drives.
Joon turns in his seat slightly in my direction as he starts to speak.
"There is a gas station not far from here." He says to me and mostly to Jin because he knows Jin wants to rest, I nod my head.
When we get to the gas station Shadow opens the door and hops out. I must have have taken to long because Shadow starts to whine making me chuckle at her, she notices then starts whining even more.
Before I get out I speak to Jin and Namjoon, Mark, and Jackson. I haven't realized Jungkook, Lexu, Bambam, Tyler, Rosie, Lucien, Toni, Silver, and Versil had already gotten out but is listening to me.
"Before we start to leave make sure we have everyone and I mean everyone cause I am not losing anyone." I say pointedly.
"We will," everyone says even Shadow.
I get out fully and closes the door. Shadow pulls me inside towards the door to go inside. Once inside she pulls me towards the bathroom and tells me to stay put.
When she's done I hear a flush, the sink, and then the door unlock. We then get what we need, mostly what Shadow and the girls need which was mostly food. We get enough food and things to keep in four huge coolers we have in both Tahoe's, two in each one.
Once we know we have everyone we get in the Tahoe we rode in: Vengeance who is now driving, Jin sits beside him in the passenger seat. I sit behind Namjoon. Shadow sits in Bambam's lap in the middle. Mark sits next to them. Jackson sits behind Mark, Rosie sits beside Jackson leaving Lucien who sits besides her behind me.
"Do we know where we're headed in Noscola?" I ask Mark, he turns his head towards me.
I already know he and Jin know where we're going without having to ask them to get that information.
"We're going to a mansion where the Ten Brothers live in Noscola." Mark says nonchalantly.
A little while later Shadow lays down on all of us with her head in my lap and her feet in Marks. As she falls asleep I rub her head gently. When she's asleep I lay my head back against the seat. I must have fallen asleep because I'm being shaken awake. I look down to see Shadow still asleep. I look out the windshield to see us parked in the driveway of a huge mansion. I look at Marks because I know he's going to say something.
"The brothers are waiting for us. If we're late they won't help her. Come on we need to hurry." He says opening the door and gets out with everyone else following suit after I wake Shadow up.
We all walk up the courtyard to reach the door, but before we are able to walk on the tile steppingstones that make up the walkway Mark stops us.
"The Brothers texted me before we got here and told me that the steppingstones have a riddle and we get three tries. If we get it wrong all three times we're dead." He says to all of us.
We all look down at the steppingstones expecting them to speak but no sound comes out. Words just form on the surface.
You must answer 3 riddles.
3 must answer all 3 correctly.
All 3 has 3 tries to get it right.
Answer all 3 right you have passage.
I look up at Mark.
"I thought you said they only have one riddle."
"I did, I thought there was only one riddle." I look back at the steppingstones with only two words on it now.
Let's begin...
Then the words disappeared being replaced with the first riddle.
I have cities, but no buildings.
I have mountains, but no trees.
I have water, but no fish. What am I?
I look up at everyone as they finish reading the riddle.
"I might know what it is." Jackson says speaking up.
"Is it space?" He says we all wait looking at the steppingstones to see them disappear.
You are wrong.
You have 2 answers left.
We all look at Jackson to see him deep in thought.
"It can't be a picture cause you can draw or paint on those...I know it this time...It's a map." He says yelling.
We are all in shock that he yelled but we all put our attention on the steppingstones expectantly to watch the riddle disappear once again.
You are correct.
You have 2 more riddles with
2 more people to answer their 3 chances.
Then the words disappear once again being replaced by the second riddle.
I never was and never was to be.
No one ever saw me, nor ever will.
Yet, I am the confidence of all who live and breathe.
What am I?
"I know what it is," Versil says.
We all look at him shocked even Tyler.
"What all of you thought I was stupid? I'm not stupid my sister is always saying I am." He asks looking at Tyler with hurt filled eyes.
"It's tomorrow." He says in loud anger looking at Tyler to see his reaction.
Tyler looks down at the steppingstones. While watching the both of them I look down at them as well.
You are correct You have 1 more riddle
With 1 more person who has 3 chances.
We all look up at Versil in shock especially Tyler. Seeing Tyler's expression makes Versil blush and turns his face away making Tyler chuckle. We all look back at the stone for the last riddle.
Poor people have me.
Rich people need me.
If you eat me you'll die.
What am I?
Behind me I can here Rosie mumbling as she thinks of the answers for the riddle.
"Money....no you can't die from eating money actually you could but that's not the answer. Patience...no that's not it either. Poor people have nothing. Rich people need nothing. If we eat nothing we'll die. So it's... nothing. I know the answer it's nothing. The answer is nothing." She yells out making some of us jump.
"The answer is nothing. Poor people have nothing. Rich people need nothing. If you eat nothing you'll die." She explains to those who didn't understand.
We look at the steppingstones to reveal it's answer. I fee Shadow's small hand slip into mine gripping it tight.
You are correct.
You may pass.