tell me, would you kill to save a life ; 10/14
Baekhyun leads them through the dirty streets of the Bottoms, his strides long and fast, so much that his group of personal soldiers has to trot around him to keep up. Jongdae’s back still blurts out blood with every steps he takes, but he makes sure not to be distanced by Lexie’s assassin. He still has an arm around Kyungsoo, whose left ankle revealed to be twisted, but he’s pretty sure Kyungsoo would prefer limping his way to wherever Baekhyun is taking them considering how fast Jongdae is walking. He’s polite enough to keep his mouth shut though, or maybe it’s bravery, but whatever it is, Jongdae is grateful because right now, the last thing he wants to do is be at the back of Baekhyun’s little parade.
“So?” he asks “What the fuck were you doing in that building?”
Baekhyun barely spares him a glance, but the constant lopsided smirk on his lips stretches out a bit wider as an obvious sign that he did hear Jongdae. The latter internally groans, his whole being itching and urging him to punch that patronizing smile off Baekhyun’s face. Instead, he glances at Kyungsoo to make sure the latter is still holding up, and he uses the short pause away from Baekhyun’s closed face to calm his nerves. Kyungsoo looks at him, but he doesn’t say anything, his hand still clenching on Jongdae’s cape for support. He doesn’t look as scared now that they’ve left the building he was trapped in. Actually, now he doesn’t look scared enough for a boy who isn’t nineteen yet and who has been dropped in the middle of a gang war. This city really does do things to people, Jongdae thinks.
Kyungsoo flashes him a light smile which clashes with the paleness of his face and the wounds taking over his features. Jongdae feels himself compelled to smile back, and he does so before drawing back his attention on Baekhyun. The golden earpiece in the latter’s ear catches his eyes as they walk through a pool of light. A new shot of anger and frustration takes over him. Between that and Sehun bailing out on him and being God knows where… he’s about to explode.
“I know you can hear me!” he yells, leaning closer to Baekhyun’s ear. The latter startles, much to Jongdae’s pleasure, but quickly recomposes himself before throwing an amused look at Jongdae.
“And this is not funny anymore!” Jongdae adds, shooting daggers at Baekhyun.
“Mrs. Wright would never ever think such a situation is funny,” Baekhyun says, with his obedient voice.
“Cut the shit,” he says between gritted teeth. “What were you doing in that building? Were you aware the hostages were there all this time? And where is Thorne?”
Kyungsoo tenses against his side. Jongdae can’t blame him. In the chaos, he didn’t really have a chance to talk to him, but there’s not much mystery about what happened to him. He tightens his hold around the young man, and Kyungsoo softens.
“Did the bombs go off?” he asks with a worried, almost hesitant voice.
Jongdae pairs his own questioning eyes with Kyungsoo’s as he looks back at Baekhyun. The latter shakes his head.
“We didn’t know,” he tells Jongdae after a short silence. “We’re taking back the Bottoms block by block and we ran into your little friends. They told us where you were. Call it whatever you want, coincidence or destiny, but I still think a thank you is overdue.”
Jongdae snorts, but his heart misses a beat. Dahye. It’s not unusual for them to go silent for a few hours, but now that he knows she came across Baekhyun, he’d give a lot to talk to her. While the assassin is around though, he has to keep his worry for himself. His silence is apparently enough for Baekhyun to pick up on his internal dilemma, and he flashes an annoying reassuring smile at Jongdae.
“Don’t worry,” he says with a honey voice. “They’re okay.”
Jongdae glares at him, but doesn’t answer.
Next to him, Kyungsoo watches Baekhyun with furrowed eyebrows, a hint of outrage and disdain in his eyes.
“You said Mrs. Wright,” he says. “Lexie? Lexie Wright? You’re working for Lexie Wright?”
Baekhyun grins. “Yes I am.”
Kyungsoo snorts. Eighteen or not, the boy looks at Baekhyun, who probably murdered a good dozen of people tonight - if not more - like he’s some ugly bug that deserves nothing more than to be stepped on. He doesn’t even bother hiding his gaze, or pretending to be impressed or scared by Baekhyun’s obvious powerful rank in Port Ville’s mob web; he just stares at him, as straight-forwardly as possible, with so much disdain and hardness that Jongdae himself gets caught in it.
“You don’t deserve any thank you then,” Kyungsoo says, defying. “My dad told me about your boss. She’s evil.”
Jongdae instinctively deploys his senses, sticking a bit of his attention on every soldier walking around them, but mostly on Baekhyun. The latter is known for his speed and his agility, and if he were to pull out one of his weapons right now, he could become lethal for Kyungsoo. Baekhyun doesn’t show any sign of anger though.
“My boss likes your father,” Baekhyun says with a charming smile and a flirtatious intonation. “We both thinks he’s a great Commissioner.”
Kyungsoo stares at him, obviously outraged. Jongdae hears him take his breath, but he presses him tighter against himself before Kyungsoo can actually insult Baekhyun and Lexie again. He does it a bit stronger than what he aimed for, because Kyungsoo lets out a tiny yelp of pain quickly followed by a look of betrayal and anger towards Jongdae - who ignores it, feeling very much like he’s facing Do Insung.
Baekhyun doesn’t miss the exchange, and he lets out what sounds like a low chuckle. Jongdae watches him with suspicion, but Baekhyun doesn’t add anything to the subject. He turns right at the end of the street, the whole troop on his heels. He doesn’t even pause before crossing the road, and with how empty the Bottoms are right now, Baekhyun looks like a King going home. To his deadly Queen, Jongdae thinks.
He scans their surroundings, but mostly crashes against closed windows, doors and shutters and people hiding in the safety of their homes, just like it was in Chanyeol’s neighbourhood. They’re not downtown yet, although they did get closer, and the agitation there is now much clearer in Jongdae’s ears. He picks up gunfire, detonations and screams, just like he hears the air buzzing over there as probably a hundred of radios and talkie walkies are gathered in the centre. He still can’t make out what’s really happening, because it feels like a wall to him, thick and too rigid for him to slip through a crack, but the tension is definitely stronger here, almost tangible.
Baekhyun lifts a hand, and the mercenaries all stop in unison in front of a shabby pub. The wooden plank clumsily screwed above the red door looks so old and seedy that Jongdae can’t even read the name of the place. It’s bordering on poetic, because the pub looks like the negative of Lexie’s club, and she definitely is the type of person who enjoys a good irony when it’s nicely dosed. For all Jongdae knows, she could actually own the place and run it like the shadow of her club. Light and shadow are always intricately connected, and that is something she’s always loved playing with.
The mercenaries close around them, their backs turned on Jongdae, Kyungsoo and Baekhyun as they scan the two ends of the street, their guns ready to spit if the slightest shadow twitch. Baekhyun stretches his hand and opens the door. His eyes fall on Jongdae, and he smiles.
“After you.”
Jongdae can feel Kyungsoo’s eyes on him, probably pleading and bordering on judging, but what can he do? Kyungsoo obviously cannot run, and trying to escape to ten machine guns is already risky enough without that. He knows Lexie likes to be theatrical and intense, just like he is painfully aware that Baekhyun is her most valued director, and he chooses to ignore the lurking nervousness rising in his chest. Chances are that Lexie will just have a word or two with them before letting go, and, who knows, Jongdae might also receive some precious information, such as what happened exactly when they came across Dahye. So he braces himself, tightens his hold around Kyungsoo’s waist and steps into the pub.
“Are you working with her?” Kyungsoo aggressively whispers. “Are you a sell-out? I can’t believe you, of all people -”
“Shht,” Jongdae hisses. He draws his attention away from the ridiculously confined corridor they’re walking in to glance at Kyungsoo. “Don’t say anything, you hear me? You let me do the talking.”
The hallway is only lightened by a couple of bare bulbs hanging from the ceilings, and it’s barely enough to break the dusty, creepy darkness stagnating around them, but Jongdae doesn’t miss the glare Kyungsoo flashes him. He finds it almost funny how he has almost the same expressions than his father, but with a rawness and a straightforwardness that even Commissioner Do Insung wouldn’t have dreamed to have. Insung was probably softened by the years of dealing with Port Ville’s politics and the charity events and other galas he’s always invited to, but Kyungsoo obviously doesn’t have that common sense. Which makes him both admirable and stupid, really.
The hallway turns to be quite short, and they soon emerge in the main room of the pub. The lack of windows and proper light makes it look as dirty and oppressive as the entrance was. An impression that the very low ceiling and the crooked walls easily emphasize, and Jongdae can’t help but feel like every piece of furniture was placed in here to make sure no customer would miss how unsteady the whole place looks. There are a few stools aligned along the bar, a good amount of dust on the label-less bottles stashed on mismatched shelves, and a disassembled jukebox glooming in a corner.
A creeping sense of uneasiness runs down Jongdae’s spine as more gloomy details invade his sight, and the presence of Lexie Wright and a greyish-haired man that Jongdae knows too well don’t really help. However, his eyes catch a very familiar silhouette which, this time, has a strong sense of relief wash over him.
“Heize!” he exclaims as his heart leaps into his throat.
Dahye flashes him a weak smile, and Jongdae’s blood freezes in his veins. He hastily takes her in, but she doesn’t seem to be injured. Her heartbeat though is erratic, and unusually heavy. Her long cape is wrapped around her small body figure in a protective way, and her hood is pulled up, but he doesn’t miss the look of distress she sends him. Still holding Kyungsoo against him, Jongdae looks at the other familiar figure standing next to her, and the look Jongin sends him back is as worried as Dahye’s - actually even bordering on pained, and it doesn’t take long for Jongdae to understand why. The ferrous smell of blood tickles his nose, and he can taste copper on the back of his tongue.
“What happened?” he asks as he catches sight of the wound Jongin’s sporting on his arm.
He joins his two friends with a few strides, Kyungsoo limping next to him, and helps the latter take support against the wall. Dahye barely spares him a glance, her eyes instead jumping to the entrance of the room. Jongdae looks into Jongin’s face before drawing his attention on the wound.
“It’s okay,” Jongin says in a low voice. “I got shot, but it didn’t touch anything, I can still move my arm.”
Jongdae glances at Lexie and Baekhyun over his shoulder, purposely ignoring the third man.
“Where’s Chanyeol?” he asks Dahye and Jongin as he makes Jongin take support against the wall, just next to Kyungsoo. The two exchange a pained, and comprehensive look.
Dahye’s face crumbles and falls. She nervously squirms from one foot to the other.
“I lost him,” she says. Her voice is raw, but it doesn’t break. She throws a nervous glance over Jongdae’s shoulder. “There was an attack in the school, and I lost him in the chaos… I - I tried to find him but Jongin got shot. I had to evacuate him and - ”
“And we saved them,” a very raspy and low voice says.
Dahye’s lips seal together, and she steps closer to Jongin and Kyungsoo, her posture protective and wary. Jongdae can’t blame her. Dealing with Lexie is a thing but dealing with her boss is another thing. Yet, here he is, so tall that his perfectly styled hair grazes the ceiling, and so stereotypical with his long coat and the dark borsalina in his hands. Leone Pavoni himself watches Jongdae with disapproval, his thick eyebrows furrowed and the curve of his lips hanging low on his chin.
“I am not used to being ignored, my boy,” he says.
His voice is so loud, so stormy. This is a man who is used to crush people with his presence only, a man who does not take no for answers. This is the only man who gives orders to Lexie Wright. Jongdae glances at Dahye, but they both stay quiet.
“He’s probably too intimidated to ask his questions,” Lexie chuckles. She’s sitting on of the tools with her legs dangling off a few inches above the floor. Her golden high heels regularly catch the light.
“We saved your people,” Pavoni says, his eyes still digging holes in Jongdae’s face. “In exchange, I want you to kill Thorne.”
Silence follows Pavoni’s thunder voice. Jongdae, his arm still stretched towards Dahye, and his body turned to Kyungsoo and Jongin, watches the leader of what is now the last organized mob of Port Ville, dumbfounded.
“What?”
“Oh, honey,” Lexie purrs. She looks so excited, past delighted, and when Jongdae draws his attention on her, she playfully winks at him.
It at least enables Jongdae to get a grip on himself. Warmth spreads over his cheeks as he can feel his blood rush there, and he glares at her before turning back to Pavoni.
“I am not your boy,” he hisses. There’s too much information, too many things to process, from Sehun being gone - again - to Jongin’s injury and Chanyeol’s disappearance. Jongdae should be out there, he should be helping his friends, and not licking Pavoni’s shiny boots. “And I won’t help you kill Thorne. That’s not what I do. You didn’t even save all my friends and you want me to become your errand boy?”
Dahye takes in a particularly loud lungful of air behind him, but Jongdae doesn’t let Pavoni’s narrowed eyes unsettle him.
“Didn’t I tell you he wouldn’t take it well?” Lexie singsongs.
“Yes you did,” Baekhyun adds, with an equally musical voice.
Jongdae feels his temper flare dangerously, and his senses swell around him in response to the growing amount of adrenaline burning through his veins. He catches Kyungsoo, Jongin and Dahye all watching him - Kyungsoo with a certain delight, Jongin with sick worry and pain all over his face, and Dahye with wary eyes - and his mind receives every smell, every sound filling the pub, but also its close surroundings. Heartbeats, blood rushing through veins, lungs swelling then emptying themselves, and sweat, fancy perfumes, and a very distinct smell of leather. Jongdae freezes and whirls around, his heart now spitting fire in his veins.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he groans as a slow, regular heartbeat fills his ears.
Surely enough, Sehun steps into the room, in his leather gloriousness. The smell of blood gets stronger, and Jongdae quickly spots the holes on Sehun’s chest from which a dark thick liquid has trickled down on his jacket. The dirty bulbs of light barely reach his face, and the gloomy atmosphere of the pub seems to mix particularly well with the shadows on Sehun’s face, but Jongdae does catch his eyes lowering in what looks like an abashed expression. Oh, it better be.
“Thorne wasn’t there,” Sehun states in a blank voice.
“Ah,” Pavoni smiles. “Here you are, Mr…” his voice trails off and he glances at Lexie.
“The Hood,” she says. Contrary to Pavoni, her own smile radiates real warmth that reaches her eyes and makes them curl up. “Just, the Hood.”
Pavoni looks back at Sehun, and Jongdae knows what’s coming next. Anger swells in his chest, until it feels too big for his own body and crushing for his bones. The bullet in his back is still tearing his flesh, but he now takes perverse pleasure in it as it matches his flaring desire to tear the whole place down.
“Shut up,” he snaps at Sehun as the latter looks back at Pavoni. “You shut up. And you - ” he turns back his attention of the mob leader. “My answer’s no. I don’t care about your stupid vendetta, I am not part of your gang, okay? Thorne isn’t even the only leader, the Mayor himself is mixed up in all that mess, so get your shit together and just deal with it yourself, if you’re so powerful.”
“The Mayor?” Jongin gasps in his back.
Kyungsoo nods. “Yep,” he says, popping out the last letter.
Jongdae meets Dahye’s eyes, which are momentarily stripped of worry and instead filled by confusion and wordless questions. He shakes his head discreetly, and she gets the message. They can’t talk right now, he’ll explain later.
“It makes sense,” Pavoni muses. “I myself have some contacts with Port Ville’s high society, just like Beaulieu had his.”
Jongdae stares. He’s always known Port Ville was corrupted. This is why, after all, he decided to become Alpha when he was sixteen, because he couldn’t handle it anymore. He was hopeful back then though, he was so convinced he could do some good and change the way things were, and maybe he did. Maybe it got a bit better during those five years, maybe the Bottoms were a bit safer, and justice was fairer. But then he folded the Alpha costume and he left it to rot under his bed, he left himself to rot with his guilt and his loss. It’s so clear now, none of this chaos would have happened if Jongdae has just sucked it up and kept on going. The people of Port Ville should have had been more important, he should have realized there was a greater good, that it wasn’t just about his grief. Dahye did, after all. She enrolled, she became a cop, and he just kept on wallowing in self-pity.
The guilt that seizes him is new, fresh and heavy. He keeps a straight face but he can feel himself collapsing in the silence blooming around him. He thought he had experienced it all when he saw that warehouse explode just a few feet away from him, but he was wrong. How many people died because he could see no further than the end of his nose?
“It’s no,” he repeats. His voice sounds distant to his own ears. “Use your connections if you have so many of them. I’m not doing your dirty work.”
“Does everyone agree with that?” Lexie says. Jongdae’s breath catches in her throat as she literally glows from her stool. “Do you?” she continues, her eyes stopping on Sehun.
“Fuck you, Lexie,” Jongdae hisses. He turns to Sehun. “Don’t move.”
He can feel the tension seizing Sehun’s body from where he is standing, he can see the muscles tightening under the leather jacket or his tight jeans. He catches Sehun’s jaws roll under his facial mask, but Sehun does not move. Jongdae goes back to glaring at Lexie. He won’t let her use Sehun, she won’t push him around this time. He realizes that she probably gave specific orders about Sehun, because the latter entered the Pavoni headquarters without having to put on a fight, and it just angers him even more. He can be her pawn if she wants to, he can play with her, but Sehun can’t. Sehun is already playing with too many voices, and Jongdae won’t let her be one of them.
“I know where Thorne is,” Pavoni says. “And I can ask Lexie and Mr. Byun here to protect your two wounded friends while she -” he gestures at Dahye “- leaves to try and find your missing duckling.”
“That would be a pleasure,” Baekhyun says in a whisper as he flashes an eye smile at Kyungsoo, who glowers at him in answer.
Jongdae immediately feels Dahye walking closer. He turns his attention on her, and unsurprisingly meets her pleading eyes. She’s obviously trying to appear strong and impossible to crack, but she’s worried sick about Chanyeol.
“The communicators?” he asks her in a low voice.
She shakes her head.
“They burnt out when we used one of …” she obviously hesitates to say Jongin’s name, her eyes going to the latter then to Pavoni, and Jongdae chooses not to tell her that both Chanyeol and Jongin’s names already popped into the conversation. “One of his EMP bombs.”
“I told you they were just prototypes,” Jongin mumbles. He looks even paler than when Jongdae stepped into the pub earlier, but his eyes haven’t lost their fiery look, even when they silently plead Jongdae.
Jongdae looks into Dahye’s face, his heart beating erratically against his ribcage. Is he really considering accepting that deal? There’s no discussing the fact that they need to find Chanyeol, and sooner better than later. They also have to tend to Kyungsoo and Jongin, who are hurt and who shouldn’t be dragged back into the fight. Thorne obviously has to be stopped, and now, it sounds like Jongdae can add the Mayor’s name to his list of people to bring in as quickly as possible. He can’t do all of it alone, and for the first time, Dahye isn’t enough.
Jongdae glances at Sehun, whose eyes have never left him. He can’t let him go after Thorne, but it’s also quite obvious that he can’t really stop him. If Sehun decides he wants to leave, Jongdae would hardly be an obstacle for him. But, if he comes with him, if he tags along, he might have a chance to stop Sehun from killing Thorne.
And that, Jongdae shamefully realizes, might be what he wants the most. He wants to believe that this time, he can stop it. He can save Sehun.
Jongdae feels his resolve crumble under the weight of his guilt and the amount of self-loathing filling him. His heart beating harshly against his ribcage, he looks at Dahye. Behind him, Sehun stirs, another wave of tension emitting from his body as he probably picked up on the change of speed in Jongdae’s heart rate.
“Give me your earpiece,” Jongdae asks him.
Sehun obeys without blinking, almost eagerly pulling out the little device from his ear. He lets it fall in Jongdae’s palm, intent on avoiding any contact. Jongdae glares at him before drawing back his attention on Dahye. He hands her the communicator.
“Give me yours,” he then says coldly to Baekhyun.
The latter raises an eyebrow. He glances at Lexie who discreetly nods, and takes out his own earpiece. He puts it in Jongdae’s palm, and the latter focuses on the golden piece of metal. He wraps himself around the waves it emits and lets them take him into the core of the device. There he tweaks it, sew new waves for it, and only withdraws when they reverberate in him the exact same way the ones from his own earpiece do. He turns to Kyungsoo and Jongin.
“Here you go. Don’t burn that one out.”
He tosses it at Jongin, who raises his arms to catch it but moans in pain when he does. Kyungsoo is the one closing his fist around it mid-air. He hands it to Jongin, the latter thanking him with a little smile.
“You’re going to tell me where Thorne is now,” Jongdae continues, this time speaking to Pavoni. “I will stop Thorne, but I’ll do it by the book. He’s gonna end his life in jail.”
Pavoni shakes his head. “That’s not the deal I offered you, boy.”
Jongdae opens his mouth, but Lexie interrupts by giving a little cough. Pavoni frowns and turns to her. She gives him a blinding smile, her hands under her thighs as she dangles her legs in a very childlike way.
“You might want to change the deal,” she says in a voice laced with honey. “Beaulieu’s already dead and you’re the king now. Alpha will basically be acting on your orders, everyone in the streets will know. Plus,” she simpers. “Thorne going to prison doesn’t mean we can’t kill him, does it?”
Pavoni considers her. She’s right, of course she is. Just like the rest of Port Ville, the city prison isn’t as safe as it should be, and there isn’t a week passing by without some prisoner bleeding out on his bunk. Gangs have infected its cells, and justice has been kicked out in favour of settling of scores. This is a problem Jongdae will have to deal with, of course, but there’s a time and place for everything. First, Thorne has to be brought in.
“Okay,” Pavoni says with the little smile of a man who knows he can’t be stopped. “Okay.”
His eyes fall on Sehun, and Jongdae mentally snorts. Think what you want old man, that’s not happening, he internally hisses. His eyes go from Pavoni to Sehun though, and he shoots the latter a very serious look.
“You stay with me. Should you try to shake me off, I’ll take you out.”
Sehun holds his gaze, but he doesn’t protest. The tension is so heavy around him that he now squirms, itching to dash off after Thorne.
Jongdae turns to Dahye.
“Call Insung. Tell him his son is safe and he can enter the Bottoms now. We’re gonna need the PVPD.”
Dahye nods.
“And tell me when you find Chanyeol, okay?”
She doesn’t nod this time, but she sends him a very grateful look that Jongdae doesn’t think he deserves. He does not dwell on it though - because that would be the worse timing - and turns back to Lexie, Baekhyun and Pavoni.
“I need your promise that my friends will be safe with you.”
“You have my words,” Pavoni immediately delivers, way too prompt to be sincere.
“Not yours,” Jongdae says. He gestures at Lexie with a nod. “Hers.”
Lexie straightens on her stool, and gives him the most blazing smile Jongdae has ever seen. She’s a snake, yes, but she’s always lived up to her words with Jongdae, despite everything she might have hidden. He wants her to tell plainly that she will take care of Kyungsoo and Jongin.
“Baekhyun and I will protect your kids, love. You have my words.”
The red alert alarm is now constantly ringing through Jongdae’s mind, shrieking and painful. He has absolutely no idea what he’s doing, but he just really hopes he’s not making this hell even worse than it already is. Because that wouldn’t be the first time.
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