Before the Fall

Chapter Forty-Eight - Who is Really in Control

Namjoon

By day two, I was finally able to sit up and move around. Perks of being a hybrid - faster than normal healing.

Taehyung was up as well, dragging his back leg behind him as he ambled through the clinic. We all  seemed to be fighting the urge to tease him, but seeing as he was a four hundred pound tiger at the moment, it seemed wiser to give him preferential treatment as well as a wide berth.

"Jin, how long before Li comes back?" I sat on the edge of my bed and beckoned my lieutenant over to me.

"He said two days. We're nearing the end of day two. I half expect him to barge through that door any moment now."

I nodded. He was most likely right. Li had no real respect of time frames. If he said an hour he really meant twenty minutes. He told us two weeks and showed up a week early. "We had best get ready then."

"Are you sure you can handle this? We don't know what to expect. What if there's a fight?" Jin looked understandably worried.

"My trigger finger still works," I said, wiggling it in the air. He chuckled and I smiled as well. I missed small moments like these. We hadn't had them in so long.

"You know I always have your back, right?" he murmured, giving me a pointed look. I nodded appreciatively.

"You always have, hyung."

I looked around the room just as Jimin came bursting in, looking haggard.

"I got it! I really figured out a formula!" His voice was high-pitched and excited. He practically bounded to my bedside.

Everyone joined us, huddling together as he held up a small vial. His eyes gleamed with pride. "I took a sample of Aster's blood, right? Well, I injected the sample with a bit of this puppy here, and voila! The feral cells in her blood immediately went dormant!"

My eyes widened and my hand shot out to grasp the one of his that was holding the vial. "Jimin, I swear if you drop that thing and ruin it I will..."

"True, sorry, General. I was just so excited."

"Why are you in here with it? Go get it to her!" Yoongi growled and grabbed Jimin, shoving him towards the hall that led to Aster's cell.

"I'm going! I hope this works!" Jimin called back as he ran.

"What?! He hopes?!" Hoseok looked flabbergasted and shook his head.

"If he hurts her, he won't have to worry about Li. I'll strangle that freakish leopard with my bare hands," mumbled Yoongi.

I felt flutters in my chest. When I was told Aster when feral, something in me sunk and I felt despair for the first time in a long while. Knowing what happened to Moonsik, I was sick at the thought of the same thing happening to her.

My eyes followed Jimin's bounding body down the hall, his leopard tail waving wildly as he ran. I felt like my breathing had stopped and time stood still as I waited for him to return. I stared at the hallway, dreading the worst.

"Jimin said it will work, so it will work," muttered Jin, grasping one of my shoulders firmly.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and waited. No one else spoke. Even Taehyung had stopped his pacing and stood staring at the doorway.

It felt like hours before movement was spotted down the hall.

I slid down off my bed and shouldered a path through the other men, making my way to the doorway to the hall. When I saw Aster peek around the corner, I froze.