The forest was full of chatter, birds and beasts stalking through the undergrowth or swooping through the thick treetops. If it had been evening time, it would have cast the noise in an eerie hue--but the sun was bright on the other side of the shadowy treetops and the air hot above the moist canopy.

But in the undergrowth thick with green and moisture, cast in shade, the thick air was cool like a perfect pool on a summer's day. And Shae, Ava, Jungkook and Taehyung were swimming in it.

The four sleuthing humans suited up like warriors were focused and quiet, only the sounds of their bodies in motion, breathing quickly, interrupting the jungle chorus. A branch gently swept aside in a WOOSH. A snap of twigs underfoot. The scuffing of a boot against a fallen log. And the labored breaths.

They were far higher in altitude now than they had been back at camp. The jungle elevation rose and rose on a slow incline, a whole horizon rising away from the camp with no clear mountain peak that they could point to from back down in camp.

Then something shifted in the sounds and the sensations surrounding them.

Like a premonition, Jeon Jungkook felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle just as he led the way around a spiny pink fern, and into a small perfectly circular clearing. Bright sunlight burst down hot and humid over him, in that space without canopy cover. His eyes scanned the ground where no trees or shrubs grew. The earth in this circular clearing was sandy and dry, not lush and overflowing like the soil outside of it.

Then Taehyung stepped out, and he let out an audible gasp.

Ava and Shae followed. Ava reacted on instinct, pulling her longsword from the hilt on her hip and bracing it carefully in two hands. Shae, instead, squatted closer to the ground and reached down to scoop up some of that hot sand in her hands. It burned against her skin, but not too much to be unbearable, and she let it spread and scatter past the gaps in her fingers back down next to her feet.

Jungkook spun around in a careful circle, taking in that perfectly circular treeline around them. "This place..."

Taehyung's electric blue eyes stared into a singular spot on the uniform sandy earth of that perfectly symetrical clearning floor. "...is where the voices came from."

Ava choked. "Say what now what now?"

Shae scooped up more sand in her hand again. This time, as it spread between her fingers and fell back into the earth beneath her, the gravely shhhh noise of it raining down seemed to mingle in brief moments to her ears with the sound of human whispers for silence.

Shae stood up again and pulled the single shortsword out that was strapped to her back. It felt awkward in her hand, but it also felt like the right thing to do. She noticed that Tae, too, had unsheathed his Genji longsword and he had begun stalking along the perimeter of the sandy, circular space.

Only Jungkook stood with his hands still empty. His feet were firmly planted and he was staring straight up at the bright blue daylight sky.

"They're still here, Tae. They're still knocking." Jungkook then spun around and his eyes fell on Shae. But instead of the warm boyish brown glinting back at her, Jungkook's eyes looked black. Black and nothing else.

Shae gripped the shortsword in her hands even more firmly.

At the sight, Ava let out a knee-jerk, "I rebuke it in the name of Jesus!" Suddenly she was pointing the tip of her sword directly at Jungkook's broad form and open, sky-up palms.

Taehyung stood frozen and gaping at the far edge of the treeline, his hand at his side so limp that his sword slipped from it and fell into the sand. "K-Kookie?"

Shock. He was in shock.

For Tae, Shae, and even Ava could sense the wave of some dark force that suddenly emanated from Jeon Jungkook.

Tae whispered, "This can't be happening."

Ava stepped out in front of where Shae stood and positioned into an offensive stance. Her feet were ready to bounce, her arms ready to swipe and her body swerve.

She locked eyes with Jeon Jungkook. His head cocked lightly to one side and his mouth hung slightly open, showing his teeth. He looked disgusted.

Ava lunged.

Jungkook lazily side-stepped her sword and instantly she knew she'd stepped too far. He was too close. His hands clawed around the hilt of her blade. His elbow jabbed into her jaw as his hip pivoted into hers, and his body leveraged her away from her sword completely.

Panic tightened around her chest as it was happening, but she knew her reactions were too slow.

She was weaponless, and Jeon Jungkook was pointing her sword back at her. It was inches from the tip of Ava's freckled nose.

But then something hard slammed into the side of Jungkook's temple and knocked him hard off-balance, stumbling sideways and his hand going slightly limp. In the moment of disorientation, Kim Taehyung's hand slipped around the hilt of that longsword himself and he yanked it from Jungkook's hand just as he gave Jungkook a hard kick in the butt with his sandy boot. Kookie almost tumbled straight down into the sand, but he caught himself just in time.

Taehyung was like lightning. He tossed the longsword careful yet precarious by the hilt and it glided through the air... then Ava caught it heavily in one hand, and the metal tip fell and dug into the sandy topsoil beneath their feet.

The sun, the heat, and the tension. Everyone was marked with sweat, warmth, and heavy breathing now.

Ava snapped, "What the hell is wrong with Jungkook?"

Taehyung's crystal blue eyes bore past Ava, and straight at Shae. The two of them searched each other as if to see how much the other understood in a matter of precious moments. The answer was, enough.

"Shae?!" Ava looked with panicked eyes at her best friend.

"I-I think he's been possessed. Kind of." Shae answered quietly.

"By spirits of the House of Reed, who used to reign on this planet in their ancient lifetimes," Tae added, and both the young women turned to look at his painfully beautiful side profile as Tae stared at his dearest comrade. "But I don't understand... how..."

Ava looked from Shae to Tae to Jeon Jungkook across the clearing like she was the only sane human left on that planet.

Tae slowly pulled the two short swords on his back from their sheaths, and the sound of metal zipped through the air as Jungkook turned slowly around. His hands were still empty, his longsword still sheathed at his hip as his head was cocked to one side and those black eyes gleamed beneath the brown shaggy hair that had fallen into his stoic face.

Ava stepped up to Taehyung's shoulder.

Jungkook took a single step. Then he swept his toe in front of him like he was drawing a line in the sand. Finally, Jungkook's mouth opened to speak, but it wasn't his voice that came out. It was a woman's: "There's only room for one great House on this land. Coming here, House of Card... is a declaration... of war."

Tae braced his shortswords backwards in his hands, so the blades fanned like deadly fins out of his forearms and he crouched low, ready to spring.

Ava braced into her back foot and pulled the hilt of her longsword up next to her cheek, her strong arms angular and poised to lunge.

"But if you surrender, Shae of the House of Card... then we'll give you your Best Man back without a fight. The choice is yours. Come across this line, come in peaceful surrender, and the fight stops here."

Tae and Ava could sense Shae's movement just behind them and they shouted in unison, "NO!"

Then Tae and Ava side-eyed each other, nodded, and sprung.

Tae leaned forward sharply, his body practically skimming into the sand as he ran forward at full speed.

Ava's sword rose even higher over her head, her shoulders lifted strong and hands tight against that leather hilt as she fell into step behind Tae.

Those shortswords spun and Kim Taehyung became a whirl of silver and steel. Jungkook yanked the hilt of his sword roughly from his hip and braced it against each whirling strike, then swung the butt around hard into the back of Tae's head and sending the young silver-haired man off balance and reeling.

As Ava's blade swung down in a long, heavy arch, Jungkook peeled his own from it's sheath and it rose like the sun--nothing could stop it's path. Not even Ava's strength and perfect form.

Ava was knocked backwards, but her sword was still poised and pointed, her feet offensive now. Jungkook was the one to lunge. She deflected. Lunge, snap, step back, Ava kept stepping back futher and futher trying to maintain her defensive stance and remain unscathed, but Jungkook was unyeilding and unharmed. His movements were as strong and unfeeling as the blackness of his eyes beneath his shaggy brown hair that scattered and clung to his sweaty brow.

Then Ava shifted mid-step. She lunged forward, not backward.

Her blade found skin. Thick muscle and tendon.

Ava gaped in shock at how her blade protruded from Jungkook's muscluar shoulder clad in that black light armor. She stared at where the armor had torn, peachy skin was exposed, and she could see flesh and blood pouring.

She was frozen.

And in that moment, Jungkook swung his sword in an upward, arched motion. Ava raised her arm just in time, as his blade sliced hard and clean through part of her forearm.

She didn't even notice at first, just yanked herself and her sword away from Jungkook, hard. But when the Geji blade fell from her fingers without her consent and into sand, she knew something was wrong.

Then she saw red spreading from her arm and into the sand beneath her. She blinked numbly at it, then up at those black eyes that didn't truly belong to Jeon Jungkook.

He kicked her in the stomach. Winded for more reasons than one, Ava fell back into sand and cradled her injured arm against her chest in her fall. But she kept her eyes on Jungkook as she fell.

And before she hit the sand, Jungkook pivoted on his toes and his longsword rose swiftly to intercept the downward sweep of Kim Taehyung's two shortswords in a joint motion. Tae's two blades created more leverage. He pushed and pushed, and Jungkook's blade was forced lower and lower... until it was low enough that Tae kicked at Jungkook's hands that gripped that hilt with all their might, hoping that his hold would give and the blade would fumble. In a second sweep of motion, Taehyung's twin short swords swiped sideways through the air... and he thought he'd missed.

But then he saw twin red lines form in slow motion on Jeon Jungkook's left cheek. The red lines began to bulge in places. Then blood dripped in a gentle, slow-motion patter like a red mist that hasn't quite turned into pouring rain.

Shae had helped Ava to her feet, but Ava let out a scream of pain whenever she tried to grip her longsword in both hands. So, instead, she stole the shortsword from Shae and held it awkwardly in her left hand as she approached Jungkook from behind.

Ava and Tae nodded at each other.

Jungkook smiled darkly.

The end was in sight.

"WAIT!"

All eyes turned to Shae. She was stepping closer to Ava, and in turn to Jungkook.

Tae shouted, "Don't come closer, Shae! You can't trust what he says about anything, don't make any deals!"

Ava said in a low voice, "I swear if you do something stupid, Shae, so help me I'll--"

But Shae couldn't stand it. The blood. The violence. People she loved so much in a civil war that wasn't even theirs to begin with.

And then there was Jeon Jungkook—stolen and depraved.

She could sense the whispers and screams of anger and satisfaction in this place. The House of Reed needs to be silenced.

It was this thought that she didn't quite understand that compelled her.

Shae ran. She ran past Ava before she could be stopped. She ran straight for Jeon Jungkook's back and flung her arms around his waist from behind, pulling herself into his strong, bloodied back with all her might. She could feel the warmth of his sticky blood. She could smell it so vividly.

Then Shae pulled herself tighter into him from behind and felt a laugh rattle in his strong chest.

A dark woman's voice rose up out of him again: "The white flag of surrender, then. Peace for power it is."

Shae had closed her eyes as she embraced Jungkook's body... but suddenly they flashed open as she looked over Jungkook's shoulder. And Kim Taehyung could see that they glowed with a vibrant electric blue light. When Shae opened her mouth, the same mysterious light-energy echoed out of her mouth and began to ripple from her fingertips that were now clawing into Jungkook's bloodied chest.

She said, "I'll never surrender my family for empty peace. Be gone from this man, and this place, for good. House of Reed, this is your home no longer. This land belongs to me. It belongs to us." As she said her final three words, power rippled from her skin and echoed through the clearing in seismic waves so strong they knocked Ava and Tae from their feet and shook the trees like a cyclone.

"Time... to... GO."

She shouted this last word, and with it, a cry rose out of Jeon Jungkook's own chest against hers until the two of them were screaming forms bound tightly in the midst of a powerful tornado of blue-wave energy that echoed around them.

Just as it seemed that no one could endure the energy waves any longer... they rippled and subsided.

Shae's form ceased its eerie glow.

Tae and Ava were able to lift their heads from the sand where they lay.

And Jeon Jungkook's eyes were their normal, kind brown.

Jungkook and Shae both fell into the sand. Shae let go of Jungkook's form, and he shifted around on his knees to face her, cupping her face in his hands as her own hands cupped his. They pressed their foreheads into each other a moment in solemn silence... and then they pulled their faces and hands away, both in peels of laughter and relief.

Then Jungkook fell forward again and pulled Shae into a bear hug.

"GHA! You little saint, you!"

The smell of blood hit her afresh.

"Oh, alright Kookie. Alright. Let me see it, let me see..."

Jungkook was reluctant to slacked his bear hug embrace, but he obliged. Then he looked down at where the wound in his chest was. Shae wedged her fingers into the year in his chest armor but the skin beneath it was smooth. He gave a casual shrug.

"It's gone. Must be those healing skills of yours." He laughed because he didn't really have any words for the feeling of relief that was rushing through him.

Ava wailed, still laying in the sand in defeat and still bleeding and in pain, "Will someone please tell me what the actual HELL just happened? Why do I feel like we all just watched the same trippy sci-fi movie, and I'm the only one who missed the plot twist?"

Tae was the only one on his feet. He walked slowly up to Jungkook, then fell to his knees and slung his arms around Kookie's neck from behind as he tucked his cheek into Jungkook's back. He said softly, "The House of Reed tried to use us to come back. But instead... Shae has cleansed this land of their darkness forever. By her authority, it belongs to the House of Card now."

Ava rolled her eyes. "Sure. Sure, makes PERFECT sense."

Shae scrambled to her feet and over to her friend. "Hold still, Ava. This might be a little freaky."

"No no, by all means. Don't take your time, I'm just over here dying of shock and misery by sword injury and assault by the possessed. Just another day in service and sacrifice to my magical best friend."

"What, you want a medal or something?" Shae asked sarcastically as she crouched down over Ava.

"Some god damned recognition is a great place to start. But a healed arm would be better. And then a bath, before I turn around and kick these two's asses for leading us up here into this spirit death-trap for no good reason that I can see."

Shae sighed and her hands gently pressed into Ava's forearm. Ava winced.

As her hands glowed a gentle blue and Shae watched Ava's pained face relax in relief, the thoughtful young woman whispered carefully, "I get the feeling... that the land needed to be cleansed for us to truly be safe here. And now it has. Now it belongs to... well, to me."