Continuum

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 There's nothing like being told that you might have been sent to a mirror universe that was about to explode by some higher power to make you feel self-conscious. Taehyung followed Halkyeon out of the messy conference room and was surprised when he saw the other boys were strewn about the large room, most of them with bottles in their hands. Seokjin, Yoongi, Jimin, and Namjoon were seated at what appeared to be a makeshift table, and Hoseok was pacing around.

"You're done!" Jimin said, smiling as he held what appeared to a brown beer bottle to his lips.

"Beer?" Yoongi asked, holding an unopened bottle up. "I'm afraid Kookie took all the liquor." He pointed with his thumb over his shoulder at Jeongguk, who was perched on a ledge with a tall vodka bottle in his hands.

"Hey!" Halkyeon yelled, sounding annoyed. "That's mine!" He paused. "How the hell did you find it?"

"Hoseok gets antsy when he's nervous and Kookie is an alcoholic," Namjoon answered, giving a sideways disapproving glance at Jimin, who was happily downing a beer. Namjoon, of course, had no bottle near him. "Put the two together and they can sniff out any alcohol in a place."

"Jeongguk is an alcoholic?" Taehyung asked, looking at the boy who was happily drinking the vodka like it was water and pointedly ignoring anything going on in the world around him. "I'm glad to say my Kookie isn't like that."

For some reason, that brought Jeongguk back to the present. "I'm gonna die soon anyway!" he yell-whined, without any anger. Then he went back to sulking with alcohol.

"Speaking of everyone dying soon, I thought we were working on bringing Taehyung home?" Halkyeon interrupted.

Immediately, everyone (except Jeongguk) sat up straighter with wide eyes. "You thought of something?" Hoseok asked.

"I think so," Halkyeon answered. "But I don't know if-"

"Great!" Seokjin interrupted, standing up and brushing imaginary wrinkles off of his clothes. "Let's do this!"

"But we haven't-"

"Can we do anything to help?" Yoongi asked, walking closer to the two of them.

Taehyung watched it all happen with amazement. He was touched by the sentiment, but they weren't even listening to Halkyeon. "But guys," he said, and everyone looked at him, even Jeongguk. "What if this doesn't work?"

There was a tense moment of silence. "It has to work," Yoongi said. His voice was steely with determination. "You need to go home." He gave a glance backward at the other boys, one that Taehyung couldn't read, but knew that it wasn't good. "You need to go home now."

Halkyeon sighed in defeat. "Okay," he said. "Here goes nothing."

Jeongguk slid off the ledge he was sitting on, landing on the ground like a cat. "No," he said quietly. "Here goes everything."

Halkyeon seemed to know exactly what to do with the particle accelerator in order to change the amount of electromagnetic radiation it created. Taehyung watched with fascination as he typed into computers, changed settings, and, Taehyung laughed at the idea, generally looked like a badass in the nerdy sort of way.

Once finished, he backed away from the machine and sighed, looking remarkably self-proud. "Okay," he said. "This should be pretty close to the same amount and type of radiation that you were exposed to."

Taehyung choked on thin air at the words. "'Pretty close'?" he repeated, staring at the machine before slowly walking closer to it. "Does pretty close count when it comes to radiation?"

From somewhere behind him, Yoongi chuckled. "Have I mentioned I like him?"

"Yoongi, now is not the time!" Seokjin hissed.