Lucid

Chapter 41

POV: Leeseo
Suddenly an alarm blares loudly. Y/N looks up, then rushes to a screen on the wall and begins reading something. He turns back to me and shuts, "Alright, game over." What, that's it? Walking back to the table, he points at a few spots. "I have APC's all through the forest, and I have fortifications to defend this bridge. I was going to force you to cross it under fire and hopefully make it a stalemate until I could ambush your artillery with my reserve forces and cut your supply, then attack from the rear." Saying that, he runs out of the room. I take a second, but I understand the plan. The map shows me all his troops now, and I can see his army gathered around the bridge and all the mini-tanks in the forest.  I probably could have beat that, I'd just cross the river somewhere else and attack him from behind.

Walking out of the room, I see him exit the armory, now wearing some light armor, and carrying a bunch of weapons.
"Where are you going?"
"That was a breach alarm, someone's trying to steal something that's mine." That seems dumb. "You're going to stay here. And I'm going to go kill some people." Hu- what?
"Kill people!?" I ask, shocked. He more calmly, not at all phased by it.
"I'm not bringing you with me for that, so you'll stay here. I'll lock the armory door but you can keep playing with the sim room. Just use voice commands." He walks down the hall, putting guns into slots across his armor.
"How long will you be gone?" I don't want to be alone here for too long.
"An hour at most. Don't worry!" He shouts as he steps into the elevator. "Bye!" He calls, and the door shuts behind him. Helpful, as always. I turn around, walking over to the window. He has a great view of the city here. I can see the Lotte tower nicely; and the city to the left of it. He left in a hurry, I wouldn't have minded a little more... warning? I don't know. It was very abrupt. I wonder if he had something on his mind, the way he kept bouncing from topic to topic. I turn, and wander back down the hallway. Most of the doors are closed, but that one is cracked, and there's a light coming out. I step inside, and it's just a blank room with a glass top desk. This could work to do my homework, especially since I won't get distracted with the view since there's no windows. I sit down, pushing the chair closer, and rest my arm on the table. As soon as I touch it there'a a noise, and the room fills with light. A whole bunch of screens appear- no, not screens, some kind of hologram! That's so cool. They're all floating slowly around. Let's see...
"Masked attacker subdues 5 at Music show"
"Secretive figure attacks government office, reveals corruption scheme"
"Stealth-dressed man saves hostages in stock exchange situation"
"Aespa saved by gun-wielding ninja"
"Five found dead at terrorist hideout"
Oh my god. These are all... are they all him? Is this Y/N keeping track of what he does? I keep reading, noticing that some of these are a year old or more! How long has he been doing this here?
Just then, I see our name! "IVE, IU, TXT, and more targeted by bombing!"
"Hey, can I see that one?" I am, pointing to it. It floats closer to me, expanding. Let's see... "IVE performance... power shortages... bomb threats... three injured..." I remember this, it was when Y/N showed up and took us all back to our dorm before we were done. He never did tell us why. I guess I don't mind now. All of these news articles are about him, then. There's so many. I look up, seeing the dozens of floating panels all with dangerous headlines.
"Computer, how many of these have to do with IVE?" Hopefully this works the same as must sci-fi computers. It suddenly makes a whine bunch of them disappear, more than half. Here, I can see "IVE at risk due to bomb threat" "IVE seen in public, attacked by a group of kids!" "4 arrested after masked Vigilante strikes at IVE concert" then I see one more- not news, but a thread of posts on a fan site.
"Who is the masked man seen protective IVE?" It shows the video from the Han River fight, then goes into detail. Scrolling it, it talks about Fixer's appearances- all across Seoul, for a year or so now, everything from fights to break-ins to terrorist attacks. It's listing each thing, until I reach the most recent ones.  Here, it shows just about every time Y/N has been or with us in public. From the Monsta X show, to the Han River, to some show I'm not familiar with, where Oh My Girl was performing. Each one shows only a small view of him, from the corner of a picture or a few frames of a video. He always has his face covered, but it's still a little worrisome. Lastly, shows.... Oh no. An article, from Seoul police department. They're looking for him, and not just them. Even the Korean government is involved now. I'm sure Y/N wouldn't put us in danger... but I hope he'll be okay.  I keep moving through, seeing all the information people have saved about Y/N. Nobody seems angry at him, that's good. But he's doing a lot, and people want to find him. I'll have to tell everyone else about that once I get home.

I close the computer and start working on my homework, finishing it up just before I hear Y/N step back inside. I walk into the hallway, and he waives.
"Hey. Sorry about that. Everything good here?" I nod, hiding my nervousness. It's hard to see Y/N the same knowing how he's a wanted man.
"It's good! I should be headed home soon, so I'll see you later?" He nods.
"Of course." I text my manager, and he confirms he's picking me up soon. Walking to the elevator, I waive to Y/N as he gives a thumbs up.
"See you."

POV: Fixer (Y/N)
Leeseo seemed off when she left. But she didn't ask or do anything, and I didn't have enough time to observer anything more so I'll let it pass. Heading back to the armory, I start cleaning and returning everything. Leeseo did well with the weapons earlier. Perhaps if she gets tired of Kpop one day I'll hire her. If I'm still around.

Y'know.... I should get a will. I mean, most of my assets are tied up in a thousand different ways, given all the things I do. But I have enough to finish my work. I walk back to my office, leaving the weapons on the cleaning bench. I sit down, pushing aside all the news I was accumulating. I start writing down some details, mostly about missions to get completed if I pass. Of course, there's plenty of money to be distributed, but most of it will go to contracts. Of course, can't forget some charity work. And then... there's the girls. I'll put something special in for them. I keep writing, putting down details and plans on how my expectations will adjust based on prevailing circumstances. There's lots of different caveats, contingencies to cover, which I note. But at the same time, I start putting down a few more notes, one for each of the girls to have in case the worst happens. It's not much, a simple message and a gift. But they deserve something.

POV: Liz
Leeseo walks back into the room, and sits down in the chair tiredly. Before I can start to say hello, she says,
"Did you know Y/N is being hunted by the police?" I mean... I could have expected.
"That makes sense. He beat some people up, after all."
"Not just that." As she talks, the others start coming out of their rooms. "Apparently he's been doing stuff in Seoul and Korea for a year now. Even the government has talked about it. It's all online, I was reading about it in his office." Wonyoung covers her mouth, surprised. Rei seems uncomfortable. Gaeul doesn't react.
"How did you find it all?" I ask, trying to better understand.
"He had it all pulled up. His house is crazy, he's got a big computer, a simulator, a ton of guns too. But I'm nervous he's in danger." Wonyoung shakes her head, cutting in.
"Y/N can handle himself, I'm sure of it. He'll be fine."
"He fought off some street thugs, but this is the government! What if it comes back and hurts us?" She asks, scared. That makes more sense, if he's not careful someone could find out that we're friends and try to hurt us.
"He's smart. He won't let us get hurt." Gaeul says, calmly. It's the first time I've ever seen her say something nice about him.  Maybe she's just in a good mood. Or maybe she's having character development. She's also got a point. He's always careful, I think. Besides, if it's just the government chasing him, they wouldn't hurt us.
Right?

A/N
I'm gonna try and do weekly updates. However, I'm going to college in a few months and that'll be rough so I'm going to hope to get all of lucid written before I leave and then do backlog updates.

Lucid will be a functional standalone story, however the two following books will be fully interconnected, including cliffhanger ending of the second one.
So keep an eye out after Lucid is done, for the follow-up, Lucent, and the end of the saga, Luminary