"Taehyung-ah," Seokjin said over the sound of sirens and people crying out around them. "What's going on? Who are you talking to?"

"It's..." he couldn't peel his eyes away from the DreamSoul, and Jungkook was staring back with some sort of resignation.

That look killed a part of him there and then, twisted his heart with distress. Tore another raspy sob from his chest.

"It's Kookie... is he.. is he still in the building?"

He turned to Namjoon, who was looking exhausted, one arm hanging limply by his side.

"Hyung, you work with him... Jungkookie... Where is he?" he asked, and it was the voice of a child, the sound they make when they know something is terribly wrong, but they just want someone, anyone, to tell them everything is fine.

Namjoon shook his head, eyes burning a whole into the pavement.

"I don't know Tae, he was working with Yoongi when the fire started; I... haven't seen either of them yet."

A few feet away, Brother Future was staring at the ghost with drawn eyebrows and utter confusion on his features. He turned to Universe to get his attention, mouth opening to call the deity, but was interrupted by a scream.

"TAEHYUNG-AH!!"

A shape rushed past them, and they watched powerless as Taehyung ran into the burning building, pushing ruthlessly past the people streaming out.

Seokjin was hot on his heels, and Fate saw his aura turn a solid crimson red.

"STOP HIM!" she begged.

Now Future might not be connected to the humans like other deities, but he was linked to Fate, subject to her even. He appeared in front of Taehyung's manager and gripped him by the shoulders, halting him in his steps. Jin thrashed and fought, confused and frustrated tears running down his face as he watched his charge and friend disappear between towers of flames, firemen failing to stop him.

And Fate turned to her long-time nemesis.

"Go", she whispered.

Lady Present took one look at Fate's newly blood-coloured eyes and gave one curt nod, then made for the doors.

Inside, Taehyung pressed his shirt to his face, trying to keep the smoke out of his lungs. The lights had long since died, the blaring alarms had fizzled out, silenced. The flames were licking at walls, chipping paint. Trapping souls. Stealing lives.

He crossed a firewoman's path, and she screamed through her mask to get out, but she was burdened with an unconscious body. She couldn't stop him.

He'd promised he would find Jungkook always, so he would find him. No one could stop him from doing so.

"Taehyungie, PLEASE," the ghost screamed from his side. "Please just leave, oh please if you ever cared for me: leave me and GET OUT!!"

But Taehyung ignored him. Kept moving.

He'd been to Yoongi's studio before, to record the song. Knew his way. But everything was chaos, pieces of the building raining down around him, charcoal walls and soot-covered floors toying with his sense of direction.

His soul chanted Kookie, Kookie, Kookie. Guiding him.

He took the stairs three at a time, bumping shoulders with several people who were trying to escape from the second floor, one of them shouting at him to turn back. He ignored them and kept going.

Then he reached the Sound Department's floor and his throat tightened in fear. Part of the ceiling must have collapsed, because the ground was covered in blocks of cement and a huge metal beam had lodged itself into the floor, vertical. Unmovable.

Taehyung climbed over the chaos, having to shimmy himself under the beam. Behind it was the door to the third floor.

It was barely open an inch, rattling as the sound of thumps reached him.

"Hello?!" he shouted through the gap.

"Hello?! We're stuck!" came a muffled voice from the inside, the person trying once more to throw their weight against the door. "The other exits are on fire, we're trapped!"

Taehyung looked down and despair attempted to take him over.

He didn't think he had the strength to move any of the debris.

But Kookie was on the other side.

"Move!" he shouted at the person, and the door stopped shaking under their efforts.

Taehyung turned to brace his back against the metal and put his feet up on the door, slamming it shut. Knees bent, feet off the ground, he tensed his thighs, and pushed. Put every once of strength he had into the movement. A grunt, then a yell tore from his throat as he put everything he had into getting through that door.

Kookie, Kookie, Kookie.

From next to him, Jungkook was sobbing, begging him to leave, trying to grab him to get him out, but his hands were becoming too see-through, and they went straight through Taehyung.

Then Lady Han was there, covered in soot. Took one look at the situation, at how hard Taehyung was trying, and knew it wouldn't be enough.

Her basilisk tail grew and twisted all the way up the metal, gripping it like a prey, and pulled. Hard.

The metal creaked, shifted just enough.

And suddenly the door was free, Tae was rushing through it, and Lady Han looked straight into Jungkook's eyes. Who stared back.

She froze. The entirety of the third floor staff seemed to spill into the stairwell, body after body running through the two ghosts who stood, disbelieving, watching each other.

Taehyung on the other hand was running as fast as he could through the black haze. Up here, flames burned brighter than ever. A column to his right was engulfed, smoke came down over his eyes, so he crouched as he stepped into hell.

Down to the end he went, bent over, counting the doors as he went.

Kookie, Kookie, Kookie.

He brought his shirt away from his face for just a second.

"JUNGKOOK!" he screamed, causing his lungs to contract in complaint.

He bent over to cough as ghost Kookie appeared by his side, begging still.

"Kookie," he said, allowing deadly fumes into his lungs. "Show me where you are."

The ghost shook his head viciously. Refusing. Opened his words to say something, but no sounds came out, his nearly translucent figure stumbling in shock. He couldn't speak.

"The longer it takes, the longer I'll be in this building Kookie. Help me."

His voice was calm, serious. It sent shivers of desperation through the ghost. But he nodded, ran down the next corridor, right to the end. The smoke wasn't so bad down here, but Taehyung kept his shirt pressed to his face, realising it wasn't covering enough. He ripped the bottom of the fabric off, and wrapped the strip of material round his head before carrying on. Behind him, Lady Han stopped, looking at the wide open window letting gulps of air in.

She clicked her fingers.

Through the opening poured a thousand of her fairies, their arms covered with ribbons upon ribbons of luck flowers.

"You know what to do!" Han shouted over the destruction making the building creak, and they dispersed like a miraculous cloud. Han followed them, knowing the flowers not enough to save humans. But every flower gave them another breath, and she helped them up, pushed them out and moved on to the next person.

From outside, Fate had watched as they broke through the door and nearly a hundred red souls turned orange when they ran down the stairs and through the doors. And she gasped as, all over the building, auras started flickering between the two colours.

But up on the third floor, a small cluster of lights stayed a deep crimson just as Kim Taehyung, a small red star himself, reached them. He collided with the door and pressed the handle down, pushed the panel open.

Inside, the room looked normal, untouched, and two people looked back at him with wide open eyes, gasping.

"Kim Taehyung what the FUCK?!" Yoongi screamed at him, getting up with fury in his eyes. "What the FUCK are you doing here?! Do you realise how DANGEROUS you coming here IS?!"

"YOONGI, NOW IS NOT THE TIME!" interrupted a raspy voice from the floor.

Taehyung looked down and froze in fear. Hobi was looking up at them, one arm tucked tightly into his body and face distorted in pain. Something was draped over his legs, something with soft brown hair and long eyelashes.

"Hoseok got hit by falling ceiling, his right arm looks dislocated and something's wrong with his leg. Jungkookie won't wake up."

Yoongi was choking on his own words, from fear or smoke inhalation, Taehyung couldn't tell.

"I'm here now, that's enough of us to get out."

Around them, luck fairies fluttered in with garlands of pure Luck and stuffed them into their pockets, collars, hair, anywhere they could reach. And they wailed when their auras remained a deep red.

"Yeah, let's go." Yoongi coughed out. "You're in better shape, so you're carrying Jungkookie."

Taehyung nodded, would have fought any other plan and Yoongi probably knew that. Could see it in his eyes when he'd come in crying the boy's name. So Tae leaned over and the boys did their best to heave the unconscious body of their maknae up onto his back. He staggered under the weight, and opened the door, peering into the now flame-filled corridor with terror.

He glanced behind him and saw Yoongi ready to follow, Hoseok by his side with his left arm slung over the other's shoulders, the other hanging limply down his side. His right leg was bleeding; he looked like he could barely walk. Taehyung readjusted the makeshift scarf around his mouth and nodded to the pair, then stepped into the blaze.

Outside, Namjoon and Seokjin were arguing with a fireman, pointing at the building as panic coursed through them, to no avail. The emergency response was huge, three trucks already there, trying to put out the flames, but pieces of the huge building were crumbling in on themselves under the weight of the water, and there were still people inside. So they stopped, held back the water as their colleagues rushed in and out of the inferno.

Civilians such as themselves were being pushed back roughly, trying to clear a safe area for ambulances to pull into, and moans were rising from the injured who'd made it out somehow.

A hand grabbed Namjoon by the elbow and spun him round.

"Where's Jungkook?" Jimin gasped, and the man across from him sighed in relief.

"Oh my god we didn't know where you were Jimin!"

He was fine, hadn't been even remotely near BigHit when it had come under attack, but he'd seen the live news coverage and rushed over, eyes wide and desperate as he searched their faces.

"Is my best friend still in there?" he asked, no- begged. Didn't care how his voice tapered off into a whine.

Namjoon stared back gravely, gave a single nod.

"Him, Yoongi, Hoseok... even Taehyung. And about a quarter of the staff still."

Solemnly, prayers ringing in their heads, the trio turned and stared at the inferno. Couldn't see the Luck Pixies working desperately to keep the flames away from unconscious bodies like a miniature army. At the helm of their forces, Lady Han was crushing doors and lifting fallen walls, hoping the chaos would cover traces of her passage.

And inside she fumed.

They were gods, yet this was all she could do, all she could give. Along the years, she'd seen millions of deaths, knew the human race was fragile and ephemeral. But Singularity Stars were different; moments in time that weren't fixed, where she had a choice to make. And maybe in the past she would have ignored it, but something about the two DreamScape souls inside was special, and everyone they had encountered in this building had an energy about them that told her she still had a choice. She cared, for the first time in a long time. So she pushed and shoved, and when she fazed into the gymnasium to find a good hundred souls trying to work together to reach the high windows, she nearly cried in relief.

One side of the building held three sets of double doors, but part of the roof had collapsed and blocked off all access. With one thought, every Luck Pixie in the vicinity tumbled into the room, and together they set about holding together the precarious pyramid of furniture the crews had built in desperation to reach the only other viable exit: windows. Huge glass panes about ten meters in the air

And so finally, up the humans went.

One hand gripped at the shattered window ledge. And then shouts of recognition, orders to bring ladders and a flurry of organised chaos. Every fireman and firewoman rushing from the main building and from the street, climbing ladders and helping people down.

One by one, the room emptied, up through the skylights and back down the rickety metal bars on the other side. The Luck Pixies held strong, pushed and pulled and stared at their leader with newfound awe.

Only a handful of people were left now, only a couple, only one. Then they were all out and free, and the fire engines aimed their guns at that wing of the building, and fired.

Streams of water hit the stones and fizzled out the flames, giving hope. And taking it away.

The shock of cold cracked the remaining foundations, and Han barely had time to give the order to clear out, before the whole metal ceiling gave in. The structure folded in on itself. Gravel and metal and glass exploded into the air, a billowing plume of smoke swept over the humans gathered outside.

They'd thought it was safe; thought it was detached enough to work on. But the seismic-like aftershock spread through the ground, and next to it, the main body shuddered, and crumbled.

Inside, Jungkook's ghost was gesturing through the haze, scared down to his bones. If Taehyung died, it would have been his fault. The rest of them, they'd been there, but Taehyung had come in for him. His fault, all his fault, it's all he could think about.

So he was running ahead, checking the way and doubling back if the path was blocked by flames or cement. Behind him, Taehyung carried his body, eyes squinting, red and teary from the smoke, relaying his directions to the two last men.

They'd nearly made it, Jungkook had sprinted ahead, found the open front doors and nearly cried in relief. Then he'd run back, ignoring how his fingers looked practically invisible by now. Flames were licking violently at this part of the building, the air searingly hot. Four bodies stumbled forward, and the flames grew taller.

Taehyung saw something out of the corner of his eye, glanced back at Yoongi, and made a decision.

"Take Jungkook!" he screamed, voice muffled by the scarf.

Unconscious body swapped hands, Hoseok doing his best to hold himself up, an invisible cast of Luck flowers winding around his leg to help him stand.

Taehyung grabbed the fire extinguisher which had been missed in the chaos, yanked it off the wall and aimed it forward.

Kookie, Kookie, Kookie.

White foam carved their path, and Taehyung stared helpless as Jungkook's ghost teetered on the edge of invisibility.

It took one second, one very unlucky moment in time, for Taehyung to find himself protecting Hoseok from the fire licking at his feet. Found himself covering their backs. They kept walking and when he turned around they were a few feet away. Just a few feet awake. It was all it took.

Then the gymnasium collapsed.

The Earth growled up at them in warning.

The boys stumbled forwards.

And Taehyung fell onto his back.

Namjoon and Seokjin stared in horror as three silhouettes hobbled out of the building, and the door crumpled like paper behind them.

A whole floor disintegrating under the shock.

The building collapsed onto itself, sending shards in every direction in the form of dust clouds.

Granite floated in the air as medics rushed forwards.

Smoke thickened the sky, painted the colour of blood by the setting sun.

Water hoses came back on, the flames went out.

The head counts began.

And the verdict fell.

Taehyung was, of course, still inside.