Alternate Universe Timeline #1: 2024

Keonhee blinks. Standing across from him is a smiling RAVN. His hand is up, displaying his red bracelet. Seoho is not with him, however. Even more bizarre is the fact that the sand isn't cracked or splintered and overhead, the clouds have thinned some. Behind him, the grass walls of his maze are gone, nonexistent.

Keonhee takes a step forward, toward RAVN, when there's the roar of a car's engine. Tires skid, kicking up sand and four men in black suits burst out of two similar black SUVs. The FBI? No...worse.

Two men grab RAVN's arms and two grab Keonhee.

RAVN screams and grunts, kicking at the sand and trying to get free, but one of the men snatches his arm with the red bracelet on it in one hand and holds it still. He flicks out a pocket knife with his other hand and quickly slices the thread.

The red bracelet flutters into the sand.

NO! Keonhee screams inside of his head as he struggles with his own mysterious two men.

RAVN is then roughly shoved to his knees.

"That's four bracelets cut, three to go!" one of the men snarls.

Keonhee can feel his muscles straining with the effort of his fight. Time seems to slow and slow and then it stops altogether.

Keonhee's breathing is shallow and heavy, but he finds himself able to slip free from the two men holding onto him. He drops down to RAVN, who is on his hands and knees in the sand. "Youngjo..."

RAVN is sobbing. The broken bracelet lies in the sand to his side, a combination of tan and crimson.

Keonhee snatches it and brushes the sand off. He clutches it and gets up to his feet. "I'm...sorry..." He steps backward. "I promise, I'll find you and fix this. But I can't do anything if I'm captured..."

Keonhee spins and bolts off, down the beach, heading away from RAVN and the four men.

His speed picks up as he gets further and further away and he's sure that he can hear the faint, agonized scream of RAVN as time has kickstarted once more. Tears form in his eyes, but he doesn't stop.

He can't.

Keonhee looks at the wild ocean water to his side. In the sea's waves and foam, he can see images - no, scenes - playing out.

The first is Kihyun's red bracelet being cut, before he is killed by a sharp sword.

Keonhee shakes his head, more tears flowing forth. He keeps moving, but his speed is decreasing.

The second scene he sees is Joohoney being cornered in an alleyway. They finally caught him!

The third scene he witnesses is Minhyuk and Hwanwoong being arrested, both of their bracelets get severed and then they are killed with a sword like Kihyun.

Keonhee touches his wrist, covering the red bracelet with his hand, continually reassuring himself that it is still there.

But...Seoho?! Seoho's alive here? Isn't he?

Keonhee stops abruptly in place.

Before him is a long, endless dark black line and a curtain of swirling, churning mist that is alive. Keonhee, blinking tears away and trying to calm his racing heart, gradually lifts his hand up to it. He crosses the line and the mist seems to respond with a hissing noise.

At once the mist projects a scene for him.

It's Seoho.

He's standing, spinning in place. He's trapped. It looks like he's stuck in a white box somewhere. He doesn't have the red bracelet.

Keonhee gasps.

Seoho cries out each of the names of Darkest Days: "JOOHONEY-HYUNG!? YOUNGJO-SSI! KIHYUNIE! WOONGIE! MINHYUK-SSI! KEONHEE!!"

Keonhee steps back, his feet shuffling in the sand. He eyes Seoho's bracelet-less wrist.

Wait, is Seoho alive? Am I the only one...

Keonhee slowly spins in place, looking back along the beach. The waves are slapping against the shoreline.

Ryu Jin's voice comes to his ear once more: "Fix Joohoney's bracelet or you will be trapped and separated in this alternate universe forever!"

"How?" Keonhee mutters half to himself, half to the empty beach. "How...?"