Traitor's Song

24. Maverick

They had all made it back to the country house just before the skies decided to open up. Jin moved into the kitchen, putting the collar on the table that he had retrieved from the ocean. Henley noticed the collar being placed on the counter, walking over to him since all the mythical beings were clustered in the living room. The only ones that lingered closer to her like a shadow were Jimin and Yoongi.

"Is it safe to have that in the house?" asked Henley.

"Any tracker on it has been fried by water a hundred times over," said Jin. "It's safe. I'm going to work on trying to trace the origins of it so I can find out where these hunters are hiding."

Jimin looked at the collar that - just a day or two prior - he and Hobi had gotten off Jungkook's neck. The owner of that collar was someone that wanted to capture him. Jimin had to admit that he wasn't particularly pleased to see that thing again, and didn't like that it was lying on the counter in a place that was supposed to be safe. What if Jin was wrong, and the tracker on the collar still worked?

"That was a tracker?" asked Yoongi as his eyes lingered on it. He moved so that he could reach out a hand to grab it, twisting the cold metal band around and around in his fingers. "If it is, it's very crude at that."

Yoongi let his fingers wander over the small metal square attached to the back of it.

"I'm assuming some sort of electric charge came out of here," Yoongi continued. "You can see the tiny prongs that look the same as those from a taser. The metal is simple because it would easily conduct the electricity. There is no need to overcomplicate it. If there were a tracker on it, it'd be inside the metal box where the charge came from, but it would also run the risk of overheating due to its location."

"You seem to know an awful lot about trackers," said Jin as he looked over at Yoongi who would have blushed if his body had the ability to.

"Yeah..." He cleared his throat, not saying anything more as he put it down. "Do you have a screwdriver? I can see if the tracker is still whole."

Jin looked at Yoongi warily for a moment before disappearing into another room to grab a screwdriver. He soon returned with it, handing it to Yoongi who got right to work. Jin, Jimin, and Henley watched Yoongi's eyes narrow in their focus as he worked, moving to take the back of the box off and reveal the small chip inside that was about the size of a fingernail. He put it down on the counter, looking the tracker over.

"Mavericks..." Yoongi whispered in a barely audible voice as his fingers traced the ghostly minuscule outline of an 'M' branded into the tracker.

"Mavericks?" asked Jin, catching what Yoongi was saying. "I've heard of them before. I thought they were chased from the kingdom ages ago."

"Evil is never really gone," said Yoongi as he looked at Jin.

Jimin looked over at Yoongi. There was something the other wasn't saying, and he couldn't figure it out.

"Yoongi," said Jimin. "What aren't you telling us right now?"

Thunder rumbled in the sky outside, drowning out the chatter of Hobi, Jungkook, and Taehyung in the living room who were going on about who knew what. Yoongi wasn't making eye contact with any of them as he stared at the chip for the longest time. Henley and Jin exchanged a glance as Jimin moved to put a hand on Yoongi's back.

"I can't talk about it..." whispered Yoongi.

"Did these hunters - the Mavericks - did they try to do something to you too?" asked Henley trying to coach Yoongi along. "You can trust us. I promise you can."

"It's a long story..." said Yoongi, starting before stopping again.

"Well fortunate for you, there's a storm outside so we have all the time in the world to hear that story," said Jin.