Work Text:
"I told you," Yoosung explained, "You have to become stronger. There is no way to achieve everything you want to as you are now. Protecting everyone— it's nearly impossible."
"Unless I was Jinhyuk-ssi," Teresa repeated, the mantra drilled into her mind from her constantly racing thoughts, all pointing to yesterday's events.
"You're not, and you should remember that. He knows things. And frankly, there is something wrong with him."
She chuckled dryly. "I think there might be with all of us."
Yoosung let the silence rest for a moment, eyes still on her from the fancy chair he was sitting in. She couldn't help but awkwardly swing her feet off the edge of the desk she was sat on, shoulders hunched, embarrassed.
"Why do you keep asking, when you already know the answer?"
That was the question, wasn't it?
She kicked her feet a little faster, shifting back onto her palms, staring up at the buzzing ceiling lights that gave her migraines if they stayed on too long.
"There's…this person," she muttered , "I don't know if I care about them anymore. Or if they even need my protection. I don't…don't provide anything. Can't do anything for him. It feels like I'm being replaced and outclassed all the time. Like I'm disposable."
Yoosung leaned back. "You're possibly the most valuable player on the planet aside from Jinhyuk. How are you disposable?"
She laughed again, short and bitter. "You say that, but…Fayden—"
"I made my choice," he snapped back, deathly serious, "I'd make that choice again. Even if it means the world thinks I'm a murderer."
She looked at him, drawing up the courage to match the unerring gaze he always had, filled with confidence that she wished she didn't have to fake just to stand at the same level.
"They tossed you aside. Everyone. They called you a murderer without even trying to ask why. They don't know what happened to Fayden still, because they refuse to listen to us. Jinhyuk— he defended you, sure, but not by saying you didn't do it, or listening to us, or— or anything. They just…"
"And you're worried he doesn't care about you?" Yoosung said evenly, "He doesn't."
Teresa fell backwards onto the table she was sitting on with a dull thud, eyes glassy as she stubbornly kept her eyes on the blinding LEDs above her.
"What do I do, Yoosung?" she sighed. "I thought I loved him, and now— now he's nothing like who I thought he was. He played the hero, and I fell for it all the way, and now he's so far out of reach that I couldn't even dream of reaching his level, and he's getting closer and closer with the girl he was willing to kill me to get to."
Yoosung's brow furrowed, just barely visible in her peripheral as she kept kicking her dangling feet, scratchy sleeve of her suit being brought up to her face to wipe the beginning of tears.
"What do you think you should do? Tell him? Keep playing for his attention, try and find a way to help him or protect him? The bastard doesn't feel kindness, or pity. He plays with people's feelings," Yoosung explained, "I assure you, he knows how you feel. He's using you."
She sat up slowly, dragging her eyes across the wall to meet the man next to her.
"That's what I'm asking. What do I do? I can't…I can't keep this up anymore. I just wanted to help people, to live up to the family name, save the people I cared about, and now I'm just…here. I want to let go of how I feel, because I can see, clear as day, that he doesn't care anymore. We're hardly even friends anymore. He doesn't even read my texts, doesn't ask me how I'm doing, just gives me orders like he owns me."
Yoosung took a moment to think, a certain reflectiveness in his eyes she had grown to notice over the time spent with him, someone she never envisioned getting close to. He stayed late with her on missions that dragged on for hours as she looked over the wounded, stood as a shining pillar of safety when faced with overwhelming odds where the strongest the world had to offer darted off at speeds she could never hope to match, smile wide despite the violence he left his companions to deal with.
She could say confidently, Yoosung was a good person. The Sword Saint, tauted as a ruthless killer, who was subject to Jinhyuk's every whim, was far greater a man than Jinhyuk himself. It was baffling that the world didn't see that.
She almost wished she loved him instead, until she reminded herself that she couldn't keep up with him either. It wasn't quite pity that brought the two of them together, but he seemed to feel the need to protect her. Like she couldn't handle the world around her. Like she needed another suit of armor.
Given her circumstances, she just might.
Yoosung finally spoke, voice even and focused. "You keep watching. Look at the gaps in the facade he puts up. Look around at everyone else he's used. It's everyone in the Veteran's Company, if you look hard enough. If you've come this far in understanding who he is, then you're almost free of him."
"Why do you stick around then?" she followed up, "You hate him."
"He's the strongest," Yoosung sighed, "And I need to beat him. I've spent years trying, beating my head against the wall. I can't let him win."
"And so he uses you."
He nodded. "He does. I'm well aware of it. It's a price I pay."
"And you're okay with it?"
She managed to sneak a chuckle out of him, a rare feat. "No. Most certainly not."
She cracked a smile— humorless, but there. "I think I understand. If I want to help everyone, I probably have to stick with him too."
Yoosung nodded, a confirmation she was hoping would never come. A part of her was relieved— another was pained in a way that only betrayal could cause. Betrayal from her own heart, despite knowing how ruthless her idol truly was, and betrayal from Jinhyuk himself, for pretending to be someone he wasn't.
The resentful voice of her other self in her mind dredged up every little mistake he had made in the past, fighting against the naive yet ever important hopeful part of her that wanted so badly for Jinhyuk to be the person she thought he could be. But if he really was the hero she wished he was, he would never be as strong as he was. It took a certain type of person to be in his position, to leverage every advantage for the sake of all humanity.
It was becoming clearer to her that the kind of person who would brand other people was someone she couldn't love anymore.
All she needed was one more push, and she was ready to snap. No more bottling up her feelings. No Noona required for her to say how she really felt. She could feel it.
She would never be able to reach the heights that he did, but she never wanted to. She wouldn't become like him. Getting strong her own way, without needing to measure up to him, so that she could save who really mattered to her was all the motivation she need.
All she had to do now was kick her addiction to Jinhyuk.
'A task easier said than done', she thought to herself as she picked up the phone.
Her heart had jumped into her throat a moment ago, pulse racing as she heard the telltale sound of Jinhyuk's ringtone. It had been months since he had called her, the last time being all the way back before the carnival.
She had thought it was a date. Just the two of them, at a theme park. She remembered thinking it would have been romantic to ride the ferris wheel, look out across the skyline and maybe sit a bit too close together.
It was just more work though. She felt more like a third wheel to the rest of the team at that point than even remotely coming close to being on a real date with Jinhyuk.
It would've been worse if it had been a date though. Finding him curled up with Alice after flying out the entirety of Veteran's Company to her family home was a shot through the heart she could barely take at the time, that still stung on occasion.
She picked up the phone, doing her best to bury her excitement deep below the surface. She wouldn't go back to how she was before. She hadn't reclaimed herself for nothing.
Jinhyuk's voice carried over the tinny speaker, voice echoing in a way that told her he was at the Veteran's Guild HQ, and not at wherever he lived. She hated that she could tell the difference, her first few months worth of time spent obsessing over him coming back to bite her.
This was a work call. She only ever received a call for emergencies.
"I need you to come in, as soon as possible," he explained, "There's a bit of a problem with the Olympus guild, and we sorta owe them big time. I'm bringing everyone in."
She huffed with fake cheeriness "Right. I'm on my way!" before hanging up, getting up from her seat and summoning her armor, the front door already flying open.
Teresa arrived in the middle of the pack, greeted by Yeonhwa and Taemin as they entered the lobby of the guild. The three of them boarded the elevator together, surrounded by faces she'd never seen before and those simply working day to day in the building.
The number ticked higher and higher as she tapped her foot, fighting the urge to pace in an area much too small.
The meeting room already had multiple people in it. Yoosung was standing off to the side, watching the newcomers spill in, Alice had taken a seat right next to the head of the table, and right next to her, Jinhyuk sat, feet kicked up like he hadn't just called for an emergency meeting between every top player the world had to offer.
Teresa took a seat, just next to where Yoosung sat normally. It didn't go unnoticed when he sat down a moment later, giving her a nod.
It took a few minutes for everyone to arrive after that, a few folks Teresa hadn't interacted with trudging through the door and taking seats, but soon enough Jinhyuk sprang to his feet.
"Alright everyone. In order to take some of the heat off of the Stalker, we gave out a bunch of contracts to mines on the 20th floor. There's been a complication."
He pressed a button on the desk, and the screen behind him lit up with a map.
"Right here—" —he pointed to a spot, marked with the colors of the Olympus Guild— "—is the territory the Olympus guild claimed. Pretty simple selection of mana crystal mines. Our problem today is that there's a secret area hidden deep in there. I was really hoping they wouldn't notice it, but it looks like we'll have to deal with it now."
He waved his hand, and a piece of paper materialized out of thin air. "The contract has a few guidelines, but the gist of it is that its up to us to deal with any enemies that show up. And considering that we're only permitted access to areas that contain hostiles, we're going to have to teleport into the sub-area containing our target today."
He slammed his hand on the desk, leaning over it as he swept his gaze over the room, a grave look on his face.
"That means we have to risk an Outbreak to get inside. I already tried to reason with the guild, but they weren't having any of it."
The room went from quietly listening to a deafening silence washing over everyone. A few looks made their way to her, memories of the last outbreak all the way in Amsterdam coming to mind as they processed the news.
Jinhyuk continued, saying "This normally wouldn't be a problem for us, considering our strength as a group. But. This dungeon is…special. It's chock full of automatons, a literal army of them, with a strong boss to boot. They don't take normal damage, so while they're slow and won't deal much damage to us, we won't be able to do much damage to them— conventionally."
He raised his hand once more, a colossal sword beginning to materialize where a document had been a moment ago.
"This," he explained, "Is the weapon that can damage them. The only one that exists."
He tossed it across the table haphazardly, making everyone flinch until it bounced to a stop in front of Yoosung.
He stared Yoosung dead in the face as he said "You're going to be the one to wield it. If you help the Olympus Guild, prove you aren't such a murderer after all, it'll make life all the easier for the rest of us. We need to get you some good PR."
Yoosung picked the blade up cautiously, the curved silver blade glinting in the light that spilled in from the windows. Glowing blue runes were etched into the sides, pulsing with faint energy.
It was much larger than what Yoosung usually wielded, looking like it would require three or four hands to even use.
Jinhyuk planted his hands on his hips, a proud look on his face despite the fear that had taken hold of the room. "Let's get to work."
Teresa slammed her gauntleted hand down on her thigh as she waited, already in formation, trying to stop her body from shaking out of anxiety. She had been on the fritz ever since Jinhyuk had mentioned a potential outbreak, and now here they were, formed up around a sigil in a public park that Jinhyuk had claimed would be the perfect defensive position, despite the fact that Teresa could see people going for a morning jog just a small ways away.
She pushed down the fear, letting it sink into her other self. It wouldn't feel great to be overwhelmed with fear the next time she swapped, but it was better than being shaky and overwhelmed during a fight.
She hoped she wouldn't have to swap today, but a gut feeling was screaming at her to be ready for anything.
Jinhyuk gave the signal for one of his helpers to open the portal, and the resulting surge of magic blew a gust of wind that shook the nearby trees. The first defensive line, spearheaded by Yoosung and Jinhyuk, sprinted inside.
Jinhyuk had said that there would be an army.
It felt like he was underestimating the sheer size of the catacombs they now found themselves in.
Amalgamations of steel and wood formed up in rows that stretched on as far as she could see. They were humanoid, but they were slowly awakening, a single eye where their face should be illuminating in waves as they noticed the infiltrators.
The automatons closest to the raid party raised their arms, revealing a twin barrelled gun instead of a hand on each of them. They fired away without hesitation, entirely in sync, providing waves of fire that swept over them and through the gaping portal behind, only to be caught by the barrier someone had the foresight to set up beforehand.
Teresa made a note to thank them later.
She turned to charge into the horde, drawing their attention and blasting holy energy into their ranks as Yoosung shot off into the crowd, sword glinting in silver arcs that tore through the robots with ease— something everyone else sorely lacked.
Her holy magic hardly even slowed the advance of the hundreds of automatons in front of her, simply making them stumble. Yeonhwa pummeled as many as she could, only to back off with bloodied knuckles and nothing to show for her efforts.
Taemin's machine guns fired in bursts, plinking off of the robot's armor and tearing into the wood on their bodies, but ultimately doing little to slow the advance as they crept forward.
They had time, for now, but each step taken brought the unstoppable army even closer to the outside world.
"Yoosung!" Jinhyuk shouted over the action, "Find the big one! It'll be somewhere near the back! Once you take it out, they'll be killable!"
Already on a mountain of metal bodies, Yoosung flew deeper into the giant cavern, so far that Teresa lost sight of him. The only evidence he was even still alive was the occasional glint of torchlight off of the new blade he held, and the sounds of destruction that echoed off the walls.
She gathered her magic, before glowing golden energy filled the air between her and her allies, bolstering their strength as she charged into the nearest batch of steel abominations. Her sword glanced off of their shells despite the magic imbued within it, but attacking their exposed joints slowed them down. Her damage was well below normal, but that was what she was expecting.
She battered one down with her shield, toppling the stiff creatures like dominoes, buying herself a few moments to channel her magic into the ground and create a large gash in the floor, large enough to make it hard for the robots to reach her.
In the distance, she saw as Yoosung became visible again, his sword glowing blue as he streaked through the air, carving up hundreds of the automatons with practiced ease.
Teresa rushed over to her closest ally and healed their wounds as they fought, still holding back the waves of enemies. Yeonhwa's bleeding stopped, no longer pooling at the base of whatever she laid into, and Taemin was able to breathe deep once more as she pulled one of their bullets out of his lung, the bloody hunk of metal falling to the floor, barely audible over the sound of casings hitting the floor.
Her defense was high enough that on her rush back to her defensive position, bullets simply bounced off of her armor, ricocheting into the ceiling and the floor with terrifying whizzes, nearly hitting her teammates.
The robots were now crawling through the makeshift ravine she built, scrambling up the other side. Gaining ground.
She kicked the leading machine back down, taking a dozen or so of its compatriots back into the hole with it, before she cast a bolt of holy lightning at the ceiling above, collapsing the roof onto them. They still wriggled and sparked underneath the wreckage, but they couldn't move.
Taking a look around, they were the only robots disposed of other than the ones Yoosung had obliterated.
Jinhyuk simply stood behind their crumbling defenses, hands in his pockets, bullets impacting the barrier he had built around himself as he smiled.
A deafening whine echoed throughout the catacomb as the ground shook. Far in the distance, likely a mile or more away, a colossal light began to glow, shedding across the battlefield that had previously been dominated by muzzle flashes.
A robot, hundreds of feet tall, made of the same impenetrable steel as the rest, stood in front of the minuscule form of Yoosung, who was surrounded by automaton corpses. A massive cannon adorned one of it's arms, replacing the gun that the rest of the smaller machines had. There was enough light to see that the shell loaded inside was the size of a semi truck, maybe larger.
The firing paused. Taemin's turrets whirred, barrels spinning but unused. Yeonhwa slowed to a stop. Alice even sat up from her perch near the back of the group, blood swirling around her instead of arcing towards the horde as arrows.
The battlefield took a breath, tentative, as the large robot raised its arm, cannon pointed straight at the portal, right where the defenders were holding.
Jinhyuk, positioned dead center, grinned wider, stance shifting low as he pushed his arms out in front of himself, a barrier forming in the air between himself and the front lines.
With a deafening boom, the projectile fired, spinning through the air impossibly quickly, drilling into Jinhyuk's barrier as the battlefield woke back up. The smaller automatons began advancing once more with renewed fervor, firing en masse at the players stationed near the portal, no longer caring about friendly fire as ricocheting projectiles dominated the space, impacting everything and everyone as they were drowned out in a hail of gunfire thousands strong.
Taemin opened fire, Yeonhwa charged back in once more, Alice created walls and walls of blood, and the barrier on the other side of the portal crackled with the effort required to maintain it. Teresa herself surged against the bots, opting to push as many over as she could instead of pitifully attempting to damage them. Holy energy surged at their feet, tendrils of it grabbing at their ankles and pulling them off balance.
Yoosung had been spurned into action in the distance, the blue whir of his sword visible as he danced across the machine leader. Sparks shot off of it as it took damage, but it remained unfazed as it slowly moved to reload, pulling another giant shell off of its body and opening the chamber of its weapon.
Out of the corner of her eye, Teresa watched Jinhyuk struggle as the first projectile still pressed down oppressively on his barrier, cracks beginning to form as sweat visibly poured down his face, locked in concentration. The glowing blue wall of mana was beginning to crack, the sheer explosive force behind the projectile overpowering the strongest barrier that humanity could muster.
It was horrifying.
The tide of enemies surged. The defenders lost ground, precious inches falling under machine control as Jinhyuk barely held on, the force of maintaining the barrier sending him slowly sliding backwards as he held, straining beyond what Teresa had seen him do before.
The loud click of the break action cannon slamming shut rang in her ears as she stilled. Yoosung was still fighting, pushing hard as he tore up and down the creature, tearing gashes in it from head to toe. It was swaying ever so slightly, like it could be blown over by a particularly strong gust of wind.
But the arm was raised, cannon already pointed at the portal.
Time felt like it slowed. Teresa could see the realization dawn on Jinhyuk's face as he risked a glance up, losing concentration for just a moment to gaze upon what was surely defeat. Yoosung hesitated, uncharacteristic and full of what was clearly fear. The blue arc stopped for less than a quarter of a second.
A quarter of a second too long, she supposed.
It wouldn't have made a difference, she realized, as the second shot rang out, the shell whirring across the room at a dizzying speed, before impacting the barrier just next to the first shot. Jinhyuk's barrier held for a mere moment, before being torn through.
An explosion rocked the chamber, boulders falling from the ceiling, ground shaking, as Teresa was lifted off of her feet and slammed backwards into a wall some forty feet off the ground, deep within enemy lines.
Her head spun, spots dancing in her vision as she felt something warm trickle down the back of her neck. The battlefield below her was blurry, but she could see the mass of gray beginning to pick itself back up after the explosion toppled them all.
The crater she had caused in the carved out walls was deep, but not enough to stand on. She felt herself peel off the wall, tumbling forward in an uncontrolled roll until she clattered on the ground, her body aching in ways entirely new to what was likely her very next death.
She managed to reach a shaking hand up to the back of her head, channeling all of the golden energy she could through her now bloodied gauntlets to stich up her wounds. The ground beneath her was already pooling up with her blood, but the trickle was slowing.
Forcing herself up onto a knee, she pressed herself up to her feet, ribs aching, likely broken in multiple places. She could feel the telltale itch of her healing kicking in, bones and muscle stitching itself back together.
She took a few stumbling steps, thinking only about those who couldn't heal themselves like she could. It was her job to keep them alive. That was her purpose here.
She felt something in her chest pop back into place, and she drew in a breath she didn't know she had been holding, her lung no longer punctured as her vision cleared up. Her legs still shook, her sword and shield were still lost somewhere in this mess, but she was alive.
Somehow.
She pushed off of the nearest robot, stepping onto a pile that hadn't managed to sort themselves out yet, still a tangle of stiff mechanical limbs that served as the perfect platform to view the chaos.
She saw Taemin's guns still firing, hardly slowing the horde, gunfire not audible over the ringing in her ears. There was a massive crater where Jinhyuk had been standing, large enough that it blew through the portal and clawed up the ground on the other side.
Yeonhwa was on her feet, albeit barely. She looked like she might pass out at any moment. Every strike left bloody hand prints on the robots in front of her.
Alice had it the best of them, looking a bit shaken, and maybe covered in soot, but alright. She kept calmly constructing walls of blood to divert the machines, keeping them away from the now undefended portal.
Teresa didn't see any sign of Jinhyuk. No barriers. No magic. Not even any gunshots from the bottom of the crater.
Cursing herself, she charged through the tide of automatons, bowling them over and forcing her legs under her, stumbling and tripping over hands that grabbed at her and wires that snagged her feet.
The edge of the crater was barren, the machines that had been close being either entirely eviscerated or knocked so far away that it hardly mattered.
Inside, at the bottom of the crater, was Jinhyuk.
She hated herself for feeling relieved, and then hated herself more for hoping that Jinhyuk hadn't been okay. Her mind was running laps, trying to find out whether or not the vindictive satisfaction of seeing him on death's door was something she was really feeling or bitterness bubbling up at the worst moment, battlefield jitters driving her logical thoughts out of the window.
She slid down the sides of the crater, falling to her knees at his side with a panic seated deep in her chest that she knew came from a feeling she didn't want to feel anymore.
Someone she loved was dying, she thought, but is that really true?
Pressing her hands to his chest, she surged with holy energy, sparks of golden power shooting off of her as she felt…
Nothing.
Jinhyuk pushed her hands off, and calmly stood up, brushing the dust off of his jacket. The automatons were surging around the edges of the crater, just a few feet away from the portal, those on the outside beginning to shout in panic.
Teresa's jaw dropped.
Jinhyuk merely strode towards the fight happening at the far end of the hall, where Yoosung was still tearing away at the largest robot, that was now doing it's best to swat him like a fly.
"What the hell are you doing?" he asked, expression grim. "Move."
Teresa couldn't move her feet. Couldn't register what had just happened.
Her healing had found nothing wrong with him. He just dusted himself off like it was nothing. And now he was taking the slow and steady way towards Yoosung, almost surely going to arrive far too late to help, despite the threat of an Outbreak quite literally seconds away.
He grimaced at her inaction.
"I didn't need your help, you—"
"What is wrong with you?" she interrupted, everything after months, finally boiling over.
Automatons poured through the portal, gunfire finally cracking the barrier that had been stationed outside. Yeonhwa stumbled, barely on her knees. Taemin was still nowhere to be seen.
"We don't have time for everything that's wrong with you," he snapped back, "So go fix your damn outbreak, before you have another mental breakdown and I have to pick up all the pieces."
Teresa exploded with magical energy, hair shifting ana unnatural gray as tattoos formed on her face. Debris shot across the room as the burst of wind caused by her transformation shook the ground, but Jinhyuk stood unfazed.
He stood there, wasting time just as she was, apparently resolute despite the fact that people were likely dying.
Teresa felt sick to her stomach. Something deep in her snapped.
The urge to send him sprawling across the room was so, so strong, but Teresa yielded. Spinning on her heel, she shot off towards the portal, sword reappearing in her hand and sprouting a long, shadowy blade.
With a flick of her wrist, a small explosion rocketed some of the machines away from the portal near Yeonhwa. A quick heal set her mostly back on her feet, no longer losing blood at an alarming rate. Getting along with all of her emotions had benefits, it seemed. More magic was always better.
I'm going to kill him.
Teresa, feeling all of her anxiety and rage swelling within her as she charged out of the portal, body familiar yet not as she tore through robots as best she could, did her best to focus on helping. On not dwelling on what Jinhyuk would have to say to her, on what kind of talking to she would get for just trying to help. It didn't work.
Fear and anger fueled her onwards, roaring as she toppled the flood of automatons that were now making their way into the park. Her blows did almost nothing, even channeling every drop of mana she had into an attack, so for now, all she could do was watch as the little blue dot tear across the giant robot through the window of the portal.
Civilians were beginning to take notice. Screams of terror could be heard as gunfire rang out in the open city block, shattering glass and bouncing between high rises. The nearest was a jogger she had seen earlier, eyes wide with fear as he watched the oncoming horde barely slow as all the players outside cast magic into them.
She couldn't blame him for being paralyzed with fear. It was a miracle she wasn't exactly like him right now.
Too absorbed in her thoughts, she missed one of the machines, a bullet whizzing past her head and sinking into the torso of the man she was just staring at, knocking him flat onto his back.
Teresa tore off from the group she was attacking, sending a wave of fire at the offending machine before running to the mans side.
Blood was pooling beneath him already, and her hair returned to its normal golden hue as she once again poured every ounce of healing magic she had into the person in front of her. This time, she could feel arteries stitching themselves back together underneath her fingers, veins twisting back into place. Gunshots bounced off of her back, ricocheting in all directions.
The man wasn't breathing. His heart had stopped in the few moments it took her to run over. The bullet had torn straight through it.
No, no casualties.
Not again.
I'm not letting it happen again.
She began compressions, feeling ribs start to creak under the pressure of her enhanced strength, still flooding his body with holy energy.
No breathing.
No, No, No No No No NoNoNoNoNoNo
Not Again Not Again Not Again
He can't die under my watch. Not more.
His blood, or maybe her own, coated her hands, caking into the grooves of her armor as she kept pressing down on his chest.
She took a deep breath, and opened his mouth, pushing the air deep into his lungs.
Nothing.
She felt a bullet land between two of her armor plates. With her level of defense, she would live, but the pain tore through her side, knocking her hands off course.
Teresa could feel tears start to form in the corners of her eyes, soon to be mixed with the blood that stained her cheeks.
One, two, three, four, breath. One, two, three, four, breath.
Please wake up.
Another bullet tore into the exposed part of her shoulder. She felt one of the ribs snap, before fixing itself back up with the nonstop flow of magic she was outputting.
With a terrifying sizzling noise, the robots that had been approaching her position stalled for a moment. The lights on their faces switched colors, now a dull yellow.
The swarm that rushed through the portal began to be cut down by the hundreds, machine gun fire, spells, and melee attacks tearing through them with ease.
Yoosung had succeeded.
She couldn't celebrate yet. Her healing magic couldn't bring a person back from death, and so all she could do was keep pushing, hoping beyond hope that this innocent bystander would live.
She couldn't— wouldn't— have another life on her hands.
"Please, please wake up," she begged, tears now freely flowing, images of the three other outbreaks she had lived through flashing through her mind.
She imagined the sickening squelch of people turned zombies, being skewered on tendrils, screams dying as they choked on their own blood. Random citizens evaporated by the explosive magic of the undead in the second attack on Amsterdam, dead before they could even cry for help.
She could barely see through the tears in her eyes, sobs racking her body as she kept pushing, ribs cracking and fixing themselves up in mere moments as she kept artificially pumping blood.
With a crack, her vision exploded red. Her body kept moving, continuing the rhythmic compressions with one hand while she cleared her vision with her bloodied gauntlet.
Through tears, all she could see was a red blur where a face used to be. It was unclear whether blood or tears were running down her chin. Possibly both.
She lost momentum, hands still channeling energy. Blood poured out of the stump of a neck that used to belong to a person, small bits of gristle slowly regrowing itself as the magic struggled to find somewhere to go.
The ground underneath them, stained dark from blood, began to sprout, flowers blooming and growing in an instant— so much life energy flooding into the nearby space that life surged around her.
Teresa slowly stood, knees weak. Looking down, she could see her entire front caked with the remains of the person in front of her.
It was just a headless corpse, trying to mend itself back together with pieces that no longer existed.
Teresa turned, the few remaining robots firing potshots that merely bounced off of her before being cut down. She stumbled forward, making slow progress towards the portal as her mind fogged over.
She was unstable, and she could tell. She couldn't settle in one form, switching back and forth between blonde and gray, tattoos shifting and warping on her face.
She wasn't sure how quickly time was passing. Someone may have said something to her, or maybe not. She simply swayed on her feet, nauseous.
Her stomach twisted into knots, before forcing her to double over, retching on her hands and knees. She vomited up nothing but acid, but her body kept forcing it out of her, dry heaving until she was able to stand again.
She sunk back onto her knees.
The one person she didn't want to see was standing above her, a disappointing look on his face. He didn't seem put off by the blood she was drenched in, simply…disapproving.
He watched as she forced herself to her feet, barely able to stand on her own. Her knees were wobbly, hands shaking uncontrollably, but she managed.
"What were you thinking?" Jinhyuk asked, incredulous. He sounded exactly like he had after 'Noona' had taken over the first time. When he berated her to the point of tears.
When she still saw him as her hero.
The twisting in her stomach wasn't just the visceral reaction to violence she had been subjected to. It was also the bubbling, violent rage that started surging through her, all because the man in front of her decided it would be best to start an outbreak in a public park.
Why had she trusted him? It was so clearly a horrible idea.
"You…looked dead," she answered genuinely. "I— I wanted to help."
"You think I can't handle something like—"
"You couldn't handle it," she cut in, "Your barrier fell. The robots got through, because you couldn't stop the cannon. People died. And you don't even care!"
She laughed, nearly maniacal, doubling over, clutching at her injured sides that she hadn't bothered to patch up yet.
"You— You're selfish, and you use people, and people die because it benefits you, and you don't care, because if it makes you stronger, it's all for the greater good, right?"
She couldn't tell whether she looked like herself or Noona right now. Frankly, she didn't care.
Teresa couldn't remember a time when Jinhyuk looked more downright furious. His eyes changed to red for a moment, his posture towered over her, and she couldn't care any less. He could kill her right now, and it would just prove her right.
"I thought you were a hero," she mumbled, tears beginning to flow freely again, "I…I loved you. Or so I thought. It wasn't really you. Just some fake— a caricature— you made because I was useful."
He stomped forward, nostrils flared, eyes wide. "You think I don't care if people get hurt? That I don't care when people die? Are you blind, or just ignorant, because…every single time, I think about it. I lose sleep almost every night, nightmares full of people who I couldn't save. Do you think trying to save people is your special thing? Or are you just making me the bad guy because you got a stupid crush?"
On one hand, his words struck home. The insults dug deeper than they should, her feelings for him making everything he said gospel.
But did he really care? Because not once had she seen proof. He was just words, hot air blown hard enough to make it seem like a person existed.
"Am I a person then? Because you've sacrificed me. Killed me. With your own two hands. A literal backstab," she snapped. "Y—You drag kids into this! Pray, a—and Casey, and Judelo are all just kids! How are you okay with that?"
He took a hesitant step back.
"You brand people!" she shouted into his face, spittle flying, "You're enslaving people! Do you know how wrong that is? You kill a—and you steal…and you traumatize kids, and brand people, force them into s—servitude, and use people— I thought we were friends. I wanted you to ask me on a date, take me somewhere nice, maybe— I don't even remember anymore."
The edges of her vision clouded. She could feel the vice grip he had on her heart finally start to slip as she bared it all to the world, spitting his crimes back in his face in front of the gathering audience of every other member of the Veteran's Company.
Yoosung had appeared. Battered, a bit bloody, but watching.
Teresa reached a bloody hand up and smeared red all over the side of his face defiantly, catching Jinhyuk off guard.
"That…that man, over there, going for a morning jog, just died, because of you!" she screamed, voice hoarse. "I just…j—just watched his head explode. In front of me. Because you, wanted to enter the tower in a park!"
Jinhyuk was on the back foot now, a shocked expression on his face. Vindictiveness flared behind her ribs, heart pounding in her ears.
He's only surprised because I'm fighting back.
She pushed a finger to his chest, staring him as best as she could in the eyes with tears clouding her vision.
"You're selfish, and you use people, and…I'm done loving you. I did everything I could. I thought you wanted to save people, and all I can remember is you cracking jokes like lives aren't on the line. You never cared."
She turned on her heel, still shaky and exhausted, and started shambling. One foot in front of the other, shoulders hunched, arms hugging her sides as she used what little mana she had left to stop the wounds that were slowly oozing blood.
In her peripheral, she saw Yoosung level a disappointed look at Jinhyuk.
She highly doubted Jinhyuk cared.
Teresa wasn't quite sure where she had ended up. She knew she was at least relatively close to the park, mostly because she couldn't get very far in her condition.
The storefront she found herself in was a mess. The windows were blown out. Shattered glass coated almost every surface. There was a pool of some liquid leaked out from under a pile of rubble that smelled faintly coppery, but she didn't wipe her tears, fearing that another person would be dead in front of her.
She had drawn her knees up to her chest, hiding behind the counter of what had once been a kitchen. Sobs racked her body, shaking her to her core as she cried into her knees.
Hugging herself didn't make her feel much better, but she kept trying.
She didn't hear as footsteps got louder, but she did notice the blurry, black-clad figure in the corners of her vision.
The figure crouched, shaking out a towel and beginning to wipe down her armor as she kept crying, the stark white fabric coming away dark red.
"You saved a lot of people today," Yoosung said, voice lacking the distant tone he always used.
He sounded warm. Safe.
He was also lying.
"H—He died," she sobbed.
Yoosung grabbed a new towel, the old one now heavy with blood. "The reports are saying that there were over twenty other people in the park at the time. They all focused on you, even before that man was shot. You held them back well, and then drew their attention well."
Teresa sniffled, an argument dying on her tongue.
Yoosung kept dutifully wiping down her armor, getting most of the blood off and wiping away the snot on her face. At some point, other people had entered the building, but they left the two alone, instead lifting rubble on the other side of the counter.
Yoosung stood, knees cracking after sitting down with her for too long. "I think," he started, "You gave Jinhyuk a good talking to. He needed someone to take him down a few pegs."
Teresa snorted. "Yeah…"
"Do you think you'll be alright?"
The humor from the last comment died just after arriving. "I really hope so," Teresa sighed, "But…I don't think I can handle another outbreak."
"There'll be some reevaluation. Lot's of Veteran's Company saw your speech. They'll want to know things, and they're smart. Jinhyuk will have a lot more people to please, who won't just follow everything he says," Yoosung explained. "And Olympus Guild isn't happy that an outbreak happened on their contract."
"Makes sense," Teresa said wetly, tears finally slowing.
Yoosung vaulted over the restaurant counter with a sigh, saying over his shoulder "Let's get out of here. I'm sure you'd rather be someplace else anyways."
Teresa took a moment to stand, but managed. It took some awkward shifting, and a bit of help, but she made it over the counter, walking away from her hiding place.
She had traded one curse for another today, but the new one was more bearable. Had she been stronger, she could have saved more lives. But her guilt over loving Jinhyuk was gone. No more was her heart inextricably tied to his, a one sided red strong of fate finally severed.