Taehyung's words sent the entire clearing into an uproar of protests.

"THE HELL, TAE?"

"That's not true! How can you say that?"

"Tae, come on-"

"AIGHT LISTEN HERE MOTHER F*CKER-"

"LANGUAGE!"

"-YOU'RE NOT-"

That last comment came from Yoongi, which made Mai arch her brows in surprise. He clearly did have a soft spot for these six men, although his aggressive way of showing it honestly didn't shock Mai whatsoever. He was 100% a tsundre- it was kind of funny, actually.

But in any case, as Taehyung was bombarded with light scoldings mixed with what should have been confidence boosters but instead went horribly wrong (don't ask).

"Taehyung," Mai huffed, finally breaking through the plethora of words as she thought the conversation was going downhill (why else would Jimin be held in a headlock by Jungkook at the moment?), "I don't know what power you have, but I'm sure you're not useless."

At this, the handsome, blonde prince scoffed, facing Mai with a sharply bitter look in his dark gray eyes. "Yes, I am. I don't have an affinity for any thread type- I can only work basic spells, and even those drain almost all my power. All I can do is see the threads. That's it. I've never met another Thread Witch, but no one would ever want to be one, so it matters not."

There was a cold, almost unfamiliar silence in response so Taehyung's surprisingly bitter words. Mai didn't want to pry, but there must have been a reason why he sounded so upset.

Maybe... hm, think about it. There might the be issue of not fitting in, obviously. He must think of himself as a failure and all that, but that can't possibly be it.

Mai tried to stop her train of thought before it got too out of hand. It was Taehyung's issue, his own feelings. If he wanted to tell her, he could. Be he needed his own privacy as well, and this information wasn't vital.

"Ah," Mai broke the silence was a small, noncommittal cough, pursing her lips. She honestly did care about Taehyung, and seeing he usually playful prince so despondent made Mai's heart clench. "Well-"

"We should head back," Namjoon's smooth voice suddenly broke Mai's words, all eyes in the clearing flicking to the tall Oceier. Mai instantly snapped her mouth shut, glad she didn't have to say anything. "I mean," Namjoon rubbed the back of his neck, almost looking painfully shy for a moment before his authoritative exterior was pulled back up, "we've all met the warrior, right? And I think we can determine that she IS the warrior, and not just a rumor."

There was silence, and a few nods. Mai wasn't quite sure what her reaction to this information should be.

"But now that we know this," Yoongi drawled boredly, fixing Mai with an almost irritated expression, as if this wasn't the outcome he wanted (which it probably wasn't, Mai thought with a snort), "what do we do about it? Lock her up until her sidekicks arrive? Let her loose and give her an opportunity to get herself killed?"

Mai narrowed her eyes and tensed up at Yoongi's words. Lock her up? She glanced at Taehyung and Jimin. Surely they wouldn't throw her in a dungeon or something- right?

Well... she THOUGHT they wouldn't. But in truth... she didn't really know them that well.

They could very well do anything to her, Mai realized. Unease slithered up her spine as she shifted back on her heels.

"Yoongi, please do everyone a favor and keep your suggestions to yourself," Seokjin snapped, his shockingly blue eyes zeroing in on Mai with a reassuring look. Said mint-haired man just scoffed.

"Well, what ELSE are we supposed to do, huh? Sugarcoating it for her isn't going to make anything better, hyung,"

"Well, we're NOT locking her up," Taehyung suddenly broke in, his voice almost a growl as he glared at Yoongi, "how can you even think like that? She's supposed to save the entire world and here you are, talking about throwing her in the dungeon."

"Did I say throw her in the dungeon?" Yoongi snapped back, his jaw ticking, "I meant in a room or something, so she'd be safe from all those war-crazed maniacs hiding in your castle, Taehyung. Yeah, you think we haven't noticed? The entire Esterie Council is trying to find a reason to attack Oceier right about now because the star crystal's in our lands. And if you start waving the warrior who's supposed to bring peace in front of their faces, what do you think is going to happen to her, huh?"

WELL THEN.

Mai couldn't help her interest from piquing as she listened to Yoongi all but yell at Taehyung, even though what he was saying should have been more concerning than anything.

Taehyung opened his mouth as if to retort, but closed it hesitantly. So he was essentially admitting Yoongi was right.

"Yoongi, that's a little-"

"Hobi, shut up, you know I'm right," Yoongi cocked his head arrogantly, but no one challenged him.

"So... we're going to keep her in her room? Indefinitely? Until the other requirements of the prophecy are fulfilled?" Jimin asked hesitantly into the silence, but before anyone could affirm or deny this, Mai narrowed her eyes and spoke up.

"I think that you've all forgotten that I'm still here," she spat, crossing her arms over her chest as she glared at all of them, but mostly Yoongi, "but now that you've gotten the reminder, maybe tell me exactly what and why you plan to do with me so I can agree to it MYSELF. You're NOT going to manhandle me into anything."

Perhaps this was slightly unreasonable- they were all clearly talking about her safety. But she wouldn't lie- the fact that they were all so agitated about it gave her the impression that she was actually in danger, which stressed her out more than anything. BUT if they were going to put her under house arrest (castle arrest? Seriously-fancy-room arrest?), she wanted to know EXACTLY why.

She felt slightly like a criminal here, actually. Everyone seemed so wary of her, handling her like she was either incredibly fragile or could destroy them all. Even the ones who she'd known and come to be at least slightly familiar with were looking at her with trepidation.

She didn't particularly like the feeling.

Suddenly, Jungkook let out a little laugh, which made everyone in the clearing look at him. He gazed at Mai, his blue-green eyes lit up with mirth. "Sorry, pretty, I think everyone just keeps forgetting that you're not one to just stand there and take it."

Mai raised both eyebrows at the maybe-there implication behind the youngest's words, but she didn't say anything.

"Well, believe it or not," Yoongi huffed after a moment of silence, his usually-rough voice now a simdge more gentle as he fixed Mai with an intense look, "this is for your own safety."

"That's true," Hoseok, surprisingly, jumped in, his sympathy overflowing on his face even as he spoke, "I don't think you understand what some people would do to have you dead, Mai."

A slow breath hissed between Mai's teeth as she stared at Hoseok and Yoongi, who both seemed to be on the same page, which was odd, because their personalities were so contrasting that seeing them eye to eye was slightly unnerving.

Mai knew that there was something up with this status of hers that her weird rainbow eyes had given her. But dead?

"And why, exactly," Mai fought to keep her cool as she slowly let her words taint the air, fighting back the thudding of her heart, "do people want me dead?"

There it was. It had been alluded to many times, but no one had ever exactly named why Mai was in danger in this strange dimension. Honestly, Mai wasn't even sure what she was supposed to do. There had been faint snippets of conversation that helped her build an idea- the four Kingdoms out here were supposedly about to go to war, and Mai was going to bring the peace.

Somehow.

But even though there had been all this talk about a prophecy, about her role, about even a few clues to how she was going to go about this, no one had SAID anything.

"Let me rephrase," Mai suddenly spoke again, eyes narrowed and flashing colors as she tried to mask her uncertainty and fear (okay who WOULDN'T be afraid when they were told people were out to kill them?) with anger, "please tell me everything you f*cking know about me and this prophecy, and why I'm apparently so dangerous THAT PEOPLE WANT ME DEAD."

With each word, the pitch of her voice raised louder and louder, her eyes flickering colors faster as she let panic begin to slam repeatedly through her senses like the tide coming in.

"Hey..." Jimin walked up to her, his eyes glittering silver with concern. His voice had taken on a soothing quality that made Mai sway on her feet, unsure of what she was feeling. She was... angry? Wait. Wait. Yeah, she was angry. Scared. And for good reason, because NO ONE TOLD HER ANYTHING IN THIS GODFORSAKEN PLACE. "Mai, calm down. We've got you, just-"

Shaking all fuzziness out of her mind, Mai pushed Jimin back and felt something flare inside of her, hot and sharp and bubbling, about to explode. Jimin stared at her in shock, backing up slowly at... whatever was happening to her.

"Mai? What- something's up with her threads!" Taehyung's voice hit her, but it sounded muddled, warped, as if it had to travel through a wall of distortion before reaching her. Mai's eyes suddenly flickered from focus to fuzz, the threads all around her seeming to collapse in and squeeze her slowly.

"Mai? Mai!"

She'd fallen to her knees. She forgot how or when.

"What happened to her?!"

Everything was blurry, except for all the colors lacing themselves through her vision, and it was far too hot.

"Joon, do something!"

Mai blinked and tried to stand, hazy confusion replacing all pretense of panic, but felt, with detachment, herself falling, and large hands gripping her back to break it.

"Hey! Woman! Don't go dying on us here, we need you!"

Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong. It was almost as if her soul was being ripped from her body, as if she could see everything happening around her through eyes that were not her own. Her head and chest were spiking with pain, but mostly, all she felt was numb, as if her senses had forgotten their jobs.

Mai couldn't breathe. Every second that ticked by had her scrabbling, pushing, wanting for air, but it wouldn't come. Everything was turning fuzzy, evaporating like dust around her.

Is this how I die? Mai giggled hazily in the deep recesses of her mind, too out of it to care that this was nothing to be laughing about, Without knowing how it even happened? By a poison, or maybe by a spell I still have no idea about?

How ironic. Mai tried to twist her lips into a dry smile, her thoughts wandering to Yuki and Emiko and Zheng, her friends, and her home, her wonderful, normal city with magic of its own that threw none of this warrior and prophecy nonsense on her.

"It's really dumb," Mai didn't even realize she was speaking until a heartbeat after she'd uttered the words, shooting up as soon as she did so. Relief flooded through her, a warm rush of emotion. She still had hope, a chance-

But... no. Something was still very wrong here. She didn't feel anyone around her, anyone holding her, anyone yelling over her. There was nothing. Just an eerie stillness. Slowly standing up, Mai shakily let her head swivel until she saw what she was involuntary looking for.

The seven boys... yelling at each other... shaking each other in panic... huddled over... her?

Her own body lay limp in Yoongi's (excuse me? YOONGI?) arms, her head lolled back, chest unmoving as her eyes stared limply into space, settled on a somehow cold, watery red. Frankly, it just seemed incredibly wrong and unnerving to see herself like that- bigger still, because as she leaned forward to poke her own face, no one seemed to notice as she prodded the scarily cold, brown skin.

That's creepy. That is 100% a little too horrifying to be allowed in real life, thank you very much.

"Uh..." Mai began, only to be met with Jimin's panicked scream of: 'SHE'S NOT BREATHING HOLY SH*T-'. Pursing her lips, Mai tried to remind herself that this was not funny and that this was a very serious situation and- nope, she was laughing.

What was wrong with her? She had no clue.

"I'm glad you find your imminent death amusing," an oddly familiar, clear, high voice sounded out from behind her, although no one else seemed to acknowledge it. Whipping around, Mai cake face to face with someone who she had seen many times before but honestly never gave a second thought about through all the craziness going on in this weird dimension.

The Star Queen looked a little worse for wear, Mai noted as she took in the appearance of the pale, starry-freckled lady. Her multi-faceted, glittering dress seemed to hang off her frame, which appeared to be painfully thin. Her face had narrowed out, her white eyes seeming bigger and slightly haunted. Blotches of purple colored the droops underneath her eyes, splashing the lifeless, cold white skin with an ugly plum.

"You look..." oh dear. Was there a way to bite her words? Apparently not, because Mai's mouth continued to run its stupid course. "...like sh*t."

Oddly, the regal lady who had been snappishly telling her a bunch of inspirational stuff in her last visit just cracked a small smirk as she gazed at Mai. "Glad you noticed, Warrior," her voice sounded broken, tired. Mai could help the stab of pity that rolled through her at the sound.

"Do you... well... do you know what's happening here?" Mai helplessly gestured to the huddle of people behind her after a moment of awkward silence, who were still freaking out, although their yells had reduced to nothing more than background noise. The Star Queen just snorted, fixing Mai with an exaggerated eye roll.

"Yes, because I'm the one that caused it. Thank you for loosing your temper, by the way, because that was he only way I could pull your head out for a chat before everything goes to hell, which it will in a few minutes."

That... was odd. Strange words, spoken hurriedly, with little fluidity and more roughness than Mai was used to. The Star Queen took one look at Mai's careful expression and sighed.

"I can see the future, little Warrior, even on my weakened form- which is because of you, by the way, this ridiculous prophecy is killing me- and I know that in a few minutes, that ballroom over there is going to explode."

It took a few seconds for the words to sink in, as Mai was still watching Taehyung essentially go into a panic and plead that they take her own body to the palace to be treated, with Jungkook instantly taking Mai's limp from from Yoongi and lifting her like she weighed nothing.

And then it hit her and Mai's head snapped to the side so fast she thought she may have broken her neck.

"WHAT?"

"Look, Warrior, we don't have much time, so I'll cut to the chase. Ask your clever little Oceier to explain the entire prophecy to you, but I'm here for the important bits. Mai, this prophecy is a spell. And spells need energy to work, and this spell is so old and so powerful I can't cut it off and I can't reverse it. So it's sapping my energy slowly. If you don't find the four items stated in the original version of the prophecy, the essence of that Star Queen will vanish, and the world will be imbalanced and therefore sucked into turmoil," the Star Queen's voice was sharp, matter of fact as she commanded Mai's attention with her alluring eyes. Mai wished she could take notes, honestly. The essence of the Star Queen? The hell was that? And four items?

"O-okay," Mai tried to gain control over her harsh breathing, nodding frantically at the vital words, "so there are for things I need to find to avoid you being dissolved into nothingness... Uh, in how long, exactly? And hang on, can we get back to the exploding part?"

The Star Queen let our a long breath, following Mai's gaze to Jungkook, flocked by six other men, who was incidentally carrying her toward the Esterie palace. Suffering her feet forward, Mai and the Star Queen flared and watched.

"I forget sometimes," the Star Queen finally muttered quietly, a laugh without humor escaping her thin lips, "that you know absolutely nothing. Even every child in this world knows the prophecy. But you don't."

"That's not my fault," Mai snapped defensively, "these damn boys refuse to tell me anything except in bits and pieces."

"Hm. True. But in any case, Warrior, know this. On the seventh sunrise on the seventh month, if you haven't defeated the Shadow King at his own foolish, ambitious game, all is lost."

Shadow King? Oh dear lord, WHAT ELSE?

"Who-"

"Figure it out, Warrior," the Star Queen huffed, cutting through Mai's nervously stated question. "Our time's almost up. I've told you what you need to know, so please go tell that tall Oceier who likes to stick his know-it-all nose in everyone's business about it so he can explain everything further and hopefully help you avert the entire dimension from certain doom. Good luck."

"Wha- HANG ON YOU B*TCH-"

The Star Queen's lips pulled up into an amused smirk at Mai's frantic yell. She'd been very blunt and clear about what Mai was to do, but at this point, she wasn't sure if she preferred the boy's 'toeing-into-everything-regarding-Mai-one-f*cking-inch-at-a-time' approach or this throwing everything into Mai's damn face style.

"Sorry bout' the short visit, Warrior, but if I keep you here any longer, your soul will dissipate into threads and you'll die and I don't think your blonde womanizer would be happy about that," oddly enough, after her words, the Star Queen watched a hurrying Taehyung (who was glancing down at Mai's limp body repeatedly) with true emotion flashing in her otherwise blank irises. Mai pursed her lips, a question forming on them before the Star Queen looked back up and fixed her sharp gaze on Mai once more.

"The ballroom is going to explode any second now, Warrior. Get down there and save the seven of your companions before the lot of you die and everything is ruined."

And with that, Mai felt a tug towards herself and she collapsed into the little feeling, letting herself be soaked back into her body.

Her eyes, although they had already been open, snapped up as she finally felt what she was supposed to be feeling- Jungkook's hands on her back and under her knees, holding her with surprising gentleness.

Chest heaving, she greedily sucked in air as if she'd been starved off it and Jungkook looked down at her with both alarm and relief warring his in beautiful blue-green eyes, as mesmerizing as a glittering summer ocean.

"Mai?" his voice was almost weak as he stopped in the middle of the garden, only about a hundred yards from the start of the open-air banquet hall.

The banquet hall.

"Jungkook!" Mai writhed in his hold, rolling out of his grip as he recoiled in shock for a moment. Disappointed to find that her legs were still disgustingly wobbly, Mai stumbled backward and felt Jungkook yelp and wrap an arm around her waist, hurriedly yanking her against his corded torso for support.

"Mai, calm down, we don't know what happened but we're taking you to a doctor-" Jungkook tried to gently push her along, but the Star Queen's warning rang bright in her mind.

"No!" Mai's hands were suddenly fisting his shirt, her muddled mind only thinking about how to STOP THE LOT OF THEM FROM GETTING BLOWN UP, not really caring how it looked to the other six men who had caught up to Jungkook and his speedy legs.

Jungkook flushed a bright red as his eyes flicked from Mai's pleading face to her hands, which were pressed against his chest, but Mai took no notice.

"Don't go in," Mai inhaled sharply, her mind still fragmented from everything that had been pressed into it, "Jungkook, please, don't."

Letting out a long, shaky breath, Jungkook tried to unlock his limbs from the shock of having Mai pressed up against him, but he found it harder than he expected. "Hey, pretty, calm down," his voice was lower than usual, almost rasping, but Mai literally did not give a flying f*ck at that moment.

"Mai? Darling, I think you're giving Kook cardiac arrest-" Taehyung was suddenly at her side, fingers firmly wrapped around her own, but she didn't relax. Not in the slightest.

Stepping back, still with a wild look in her eyes, she made eye contact with Namjoon, who was watching her carefully, considering her frantic words. "Don't go in," she whispered, almost crying, which was ridiculous, although everything at this point was ridiculous so why bother? "Please don't."

"Okay, she's lost her damn mind," Yoongi strode over to her, eyes raking over her face, "come on, woman, there's nothing-"

And at that moment, everything behind Mai, although she didn't see it properly in that moment, exploded into a fireball of smoke and glittering, gleaming streams of flame. Whirling around, Mai felt everything slowing to a dramatic slow-motion, as if this was just a drawn-out movie.

But when Mai was jolted forward with a force she'd never felt in her life, a feeling of darkness pummeling her spine as she was thrown away like a speck of dust, she knew.

And she was brutally reminded, as she lay, honest, hot tears pouring down her face, that this wasn't a movie.

Although Mai wouldn't have wished for anything else then and there.

A/N:
Excuse me sir

What is this?

Could it possibly be...

AN UPDATE?

YeS YA MFS IM STILL HERE AND ALVE AHAHAHAHHA I DID IT I KICKED WRITERS BLOCK IN THE THROAT ARE YALL PROUD OF ME?

But like on an honest note I'm so nhappy I actually did this I was THIS close to giving up but me at 2:19 in the morning refused and here we go.

Hopefully Project: Ares is next. Like seriously I need to get on (GAGEOWA BRING THE PAIN ON) with these stories ack

Eh tho pray for me I love you stay safe o love youuuuuu

Your friendly neighborhood desi author,

-MyOwnARMY