Fan Fiction

E-SIX

by GreenHammock

Chapter 23

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“Don’t worry, she’s harmless,” Changmin groaned. This was the seventh time he’d said this, but it seemed to have less and less impact each time he did. The four of them were sitting in the living room, discussing the presence of ‘Six.’ Yunho was entirely against her staying; Junsu was apprehensive; YooChun couldn’t be bothered.

“I’m not worried about her being a threat,” Junsu said, gesturing to the girl that was sitting on the ground in front of them. He splayed out the fingers of his hand, wiggling them slightly. She watched them, analyzing the way his tendons stretched and relaxed under his skin. Junsu continued, “What I’m worried about is the tracking devise in her neck. What if it self-activates? What then? We’ll be choking on our own blood if Hero gets anywhere near us.”

Yunho nodded, “That’s why I think she should leave. If you can’t salvage the data, won’t kill her, then she’s a threat to us. We should set her loose.”

Changmin gaped, “And what? Let Hero find and deal with her? She’s a human being, guys. He’ll punish her! We all know what happens to people he punishes”-

“What happens to them?” she asked quietly. All eyes turned to Six; Yunho shifted and looked moodily to the side.

“They turn up dead.” Changmin spoke, nearly inaudible. She said nothing in response, lowering her head in thought.

Junsu bit his lip, “Can we swipe her?” he asked Changmin, looking up suddenly. Changmin shook hi head grimly.

“We risk losing the data, and”-

“Who the fuck cares?” YooChun snapped, speaking up for the first time since their argument commenced. He stood up and walked over to her. “We can’t get the data anyways, right? It’s useless to us. If we swipe the tracker, she won’t die, we won’t have to worry about Hero finding her, we may still have all of the data, and she can stay here without posing a threat to us. I’d say it’s the best bet. Otherwise, she’ll be found and killed, and the data will be transferred to something more complex, harder for us to tap into.”

Junsu and Yunho seemed to consider this. Junsu nodded. “Makes sense – why don’t we just swipe the tracker? We could even plant it in a cyber-prostitute; get him chasing after someone else. You wouldn’t mind that too much, would ya, Ho?”

Yunho shook his head in compliance, “Sounds like a plan.”

Changmin frowned suddenly, wringing his fingers together. “See, that’s just it. A plan. We’re toying with the mind of a human being, and still treating her like a lifeless drone. We can’t do anything without her permission. If she complies, I have to tell her potential side effects, which she’ll very likely reject.”

YooChun groaned, “What the fuck now? Side effects?”

Junsu was trying hard to figure out what they could be. His college education seemed foggier and foggier the more he tried to tap into it. Changmin answered, “I told you already. All biomechanical mechanisms are hardwired into her brain – her natural ‘interface.’ The tracking devise is as well. While it wouldn’t do anything as intense as extracting the data, it would definitely leave gaps in her memory. She might not remember anything at all.”

The others looked at him, before turning their eyes to Six.

“So what?” YooChun snapped, narrowing his eyes. “We let Hero come with his men and his guns and let them take her? What are you suggesting, Min? What’s gotten into you? Fuck, where’d your brain go?”

Junsu shook his head, “The way this is all going… it seems like killing her would be the least harmful approach for all of us. A way to protect her from Hero’s torment, protect ourselves from the same thing, while getting the information we need.”

Changmin sat down then, his face falling into the palms of his hands. “What do you think, Six? What do you want?”

Six looked up at them from her spot on the ground, deep frown on her face. “My memories are all I have,” she whispered. A tiny twinge of sympathy swept through the group of men, before Yunho nodded.

“A life without memories isn’t worth living,” he decided, turning to look at Six, who had a degree of acceptance written on his face. “Sorry, Six, but we’re going to have to kill you, in your best interest.”

Six smiled softly at him, clasping her hands in her lap. “You are good friends,” she stated tenderly. The others cut their eyes to her in wonder – they were going to kill her. How did that make them good on any level?

“What?” Junsu was shocked.

But Six smiled at them and wiggled a bit in anticipation. “You are looking out for me. You are good friends.” Her smiled faltered, and she looked at Changmin sadly. “But this means I will be unable to see J again. If you see J, will you tell him I am sorry?”

“Sorry?” Changmin could barely speak. He shook his head, “What are you talking about?”

She looked so tranquil, so calm, her eyes creasing in mild contention. “The white arches,” she said dreamily, tightening her hands. “In front of a landscape of blue. We are to stand under the white arches on yellow dust and hold eachother hands, exchange golden bands and embrace.” A look of nostalgia flushed through her eyes, before it faded into the sad green and she sighed. “I promised I would, but I will be unable to. I will break a promise. For that, I am sorry.”

Changmin pressed his lips together and nodded, before looking at Yunho. “So how are we going to do this? Just shoot her point on, or do you have a plan?” Though he asked, he didn’t want to know.

Yunho looked to YooChun. Suddenly, all eyes were on the slouching man. YooChun looked at them weakly, before he shrugged in defeat.

“Why the hell not,” he grumble, turning around and walking toward Six. In each step he took, his feet grew heavier and heavier. He stopped before her, reached behind himself and grabbed for the gun he had tucked in the back of his jeans. He checked the barrel for bullets, before he spun the barrel and pushed it into place. He looked back at Yunho, before he cursed and pointed the gun. He aimed for the direct center of her forehead, finger sliding over the trigger effortlessly. He held it there, levitating over the tiny piece of plastic that could end her life, and pressed his lips together.

He looked over his shoulder at the three of them. “Do you want to live?” he whispered to her, directing his eyes back into her honest ones. She nodded softly, head tilting to the side.

“But I understand that I can not,” she whispered back. YooChun nodded, gripping the gun a wee-bit tighter.

“Anything you want to ask? To say?” Last words, he said mentally. Everyone deserved their last words.

Six seemed to think, before she nodded. “What is Hero?”

YooChun was about to answer, when Yunho grabbed him by the shoulder and swung him back. “Wowowow,” YooChun growled, tossing the gun across the room and tugging on Yunho. “Hold the show – you don’t fucking throw someone who’s ready to fucking shoot! Do you want to be shot in the fucking face?”

“You don’t know who Hero is?” Yunho snapped at Six, grasping tightly onto her shoulders. She stared at him. He shook her. “Fucking answer me! Do you or do you not know who Hero is?”

Her head shook slowly, “I do not know Hero.”

Yunho looked at her intensely, before he shook his own head. Changmin seemed to catch on, jumping up and rushing over to her a loudly questioning, “Do you know what it means? Six, what does Hero mean? Tell me.”

Her eyes lifted to gaze at his face, and she frowned. “He-ro,” she pronounced sadly. “I do not know this word. I am sorry, Changmin.”

Yunho released her shoulders and left the room in a storm. Junsu looked confused. Changmin knelt in front of Six and hugged her tightly, muttering something to her. YooChun was the first to speak.

“Wow, wait- fuck! Hero! She doesn’t know ‘Hero’? Christ!” he raved, ruffling his hair in frustration. Junsu looked skeptical.

“Why is that such a big deal? I mean, she was locked in a solitary room by herself, isolated”-

“Because,” YooChun growled, “Don’t you fucking get it? Why did we steal her? For information on Hero’s profile! We wanted past, business plans, layouts, identity, fuck, she gave off enough I-Radiation to have his entire life mission statement embedded into her brain! And we get her, and guess the fuck what? She doesn’t even fucking know who he is! Where’s our fucking information now?” He fumed, dropping bitterly on the couch to kick and, periodically, scream.

Junsu frowned, “I though the data was of his liaison with the Japanese yakuza – and didn’t we want to find out if he was after Roog land or not?”

“Ex-fucking-actly,” YooChun remarked, huffing, “and if there was anything that would have info on it, the data we were after would. Fuck, we were so sure. Fucking… she’s fucking useless!”

Changmin was now sitting beside her, but his head shook when YooChun said that and he scowled. “Not totally, YooChun,” he corrected in a lecturing tone. “Why would he keep her so protected? All the guards, all the ammo – she has something in her he doesn’t want anyone to get a hold of, we just don’t know what.”

Junsu pursed his lips, “What are you suggesting?”

“That she’s important to him,” Changmin deducted, placing a hand on her back. “Don’t know what, but she obviously is important. And there is most definitely data in her. So what if it’s not the kind we were after? It’s still something he wants to keep on the down low. Maybe it’s weapons information, or building surveillance – anything about his organization that doesn’t directly relate to him.”

Junsu smirked, “That’s brilliant.”

“We don’t call you a fuckin’ egg head for nothing,” YooChun remarked, sitting up and clapping loudly. “Sweet, okay. So what now?”

There was a small, odd smile on Junsu’s face, “Blackmail.”

The others cut their eyes to him in wonder – Six was interested in his statement, as well. They were suggesting that this ‘Hero’ person was keeping her there in order to protect his… secrets? She didn’t understand.

“We can tell him we’ve got her, tell him we’ll give her back if he backs off of Roog territory, keeps himself in his little Dat haven,” Junsu offered. “Or else we’ll offer her up to the Korean Gov’ in order to shut down Dat operations.”

Changmin beamed and jumped up, “Oh gee, I’m going to tell Yunho!”

“Don’t take credit for my idea!” Junsu shouted, taking off after him as he bounded down the hallway. There was a slam from the end of the hall – Six and YooChun sat in silence in the living room. He looked at her for a moment, wondering why she was so calm about all this, when she suddenly stood.

“Thank you,” she said, bowing. YooChun’s eyebrow quirked.

“For…?”

“For not killing me,” she answered.

He snorted. “I would have, if not Yunho fucking diving in the way and pulling me, I would have. Don’t think so highly of me, aight? I’m fucking Roog scum if you’ve never seen it.”

But Six shook her head and went over to the discarded gun, picking it up and handing it to him. “You wouldn’t have,” she said.

“Oh yeah?” YooChun asked, twisting her arm and digging the gun into her stomach. “Who says I wouldn’t? Who says I won’t, right now?”

Six’s eyes danced, and she wiggled playfully in his grasp. “Because,” she started, voice happy and light. They exchanged a knowing look, and he smiled softly down at her as she spoke.

“The gun’s empty.”

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09.07.09.