Darkness. Cold, suffocating, endless.
The same place he found into after the Forever Fall incident.
Hyunwoo felt himself drifting, weightless, his body broken somewhere far away. Yet here, in this void, something burned—a crimson light, pulsing like a heart, waiting for him.
The glow took form. A figure, familiar yet alien, stood before him. Its outline was his, but sharper, older, its eyes glowing with the same red aura that had consumed him in battle.
Hyunwoo's chest tightened. He knew.
The owner of the red aura. The one who had taken his body before.
The original Hyunwoo Kim
His voice cut through the silence, hoarse and furious.
"We met again, huh... So what now? You want to take this body back?"
The figure did not answer. Only stared at him, silent, its crimson gaze heavy with something Hyunwoo couldn't read.
Hyunwoo's fists clenched, his voice cracking with both rage and fear.
"Answer me, dammit!"
At last, the figure moved. Its voice was calm, deep, resonating in the void like an echo from another life.
"...This is for your sake, Hyunwoo Kim."
Hyunwoo's breath hitched. His anger wavered, tangled with confusion.
"What do you mean?"
The figure stepped forward, its red aura flaring brighter, consuming the darkness around them. Slowly, it extended its hand.
"We need to combine, both of us. But right now—it's too early."
Hyunwoo stared at the hand, his own trembling at his side.
"Combine...?"
The figure's tone sharpened, not cruel, but absolute.
"My aura is wild. If you can't control it, you're done. It'll consume everything—your body, your mind, your soul."
The red aura around the figure cracked like fire, shards of crimson drifting through the void. The weight of its power pressed against Hyunwoo's chest, suffocating and terrifying.
Yet the outstretched hand never wavered.
Hyunwoo staggered in the endless void, red fragments of aura circling him like shattered glass suspended in air. His breath came ragged, eyes locked onto the silhouette before him.
"What do you mean?" his voice cracked with fury. "What purpose did you have... to give me this aura?"
The figure did not move at first. Only silence stretched between them, heavy and suffocating. Finally, it spoke — low, steady, carrying a strange calm that only unsettled him more.
"It is too early," the figure said, its words echoing inside his chest rather than his ears. "But know this, Hyunwoo Kim... I am on your side."
Hyunwoo's fists clenched. His voice rose, desperate, almost breaking.
"On my side? Then why does it feel like this aura is tearing me apart?! Why does it feel like it's trying to consume me?!"
The figure's crimson glow pulsed once, slow and deliberate.
"This aura," it whispered, "is the anger, the grief, the fury that this body has carried for years. Abandoned. Left to fester. For too long, it has existed without an owner... without someone to guide it."
The void shuddered. The shards of red aura whirled violently, biting into Hyunwoo's skin, filling his veins with fire. He winced, but the figure only stepped closer, eyes glowing like embers.
"Control it, Hyunwoo," it said, raising its hand, palm outstretched. "Tame it as if it were your own aura. Only then will it obey you."
Hyunwoo's teeth ground together. His chest burned. "And if I can't?"
The figure leaned forward, its voice a whisper like steel.
"Then it will consume you. Body, mind, and soul. And you will become nothing but rage."
Just like earlier.
Hyunwoo's breathing quickened, but before he could respond, the figure's glow began to dim, dissolving into the shards around him. The outstretched hand lingered even as the rest of the body faded.
"When you are ready... when you can master it..." The voice drifted, faint but unyielding. "...we will meet again."
The void shattered like glass.
____
The night pressed in like a weight, the silence of the forest broken only by the crackle of the fire and Hyunwoo's shallow, uneven breaths.
Jiwon's hands trembled as he tightened the makeshift bandages around Hyunwoo's broken arm. Blood seeped through anyway, darkening the cloth. Beside him, Jisoo was pale, her sharp eyes darting to Hyunwoo's face every few seconds as if expecting him to vanish before their eyes.
Jaemin lay propped against a log, his own injury bound but far from healed. His voice was hoarse, heavy with guilt.
"We... we should've been faster," he muttered, fists digging into the dirt. "If we had pushed harder, if I—"
"Don't," Jiwon snapped, more out of fear than anger. He swallowed hard, forcing steadiness into his voice. "Don't you dare blame yourself. If you hadn't taken that hit, Hyunwoo would've..." His voice trailed, too heavy to finish.
Jisoo pressed her lips together, her gaze fixed on Hyunwoo's still form. The boy's face, usually sharp with resolve, looked hollow under the firelight. His chest rose and fell shallowly, each breath a battle. And in the faint glow of the embers, they all saw it—the way his aura had cracked and shattered like glass, fragments of red still flickering faintly before fading into nothing.
"His aura's gone," Jisoo whispered, voice tight. "Shattered. He... he has nothing left to protect or heal him."
The words made the campfire feel colder.
Jaemin pushed against the log, struggling upright despite Jiwon's protest. His jaw set, teeth grinding.
"How long does it take for help reach here."
Jiwon nodded quickly, eyes burning. "Pyrrha said she'd tell Ozpin immediately. They're coming, but..." He looked at Hyunwoo, at the blood that wouldn't stop, at the boy's face twitching with pain even unconscious. "...I don't know if he has that long."
A heavy silence fell. Each crack of the fire sounded like a countdown.
Finally, Jisoo's voice broke the quiet, shaking despite her usual calm.
"Hyunwoo's never lost control before... Not once since we've known him. And tonight... I don't even know if that was him."
Her words trembled in the air, unanswered.
The three of them sat there—helpless, waiting, watching the boy who had once stood unyielding now lie broken before them. Every second stretched like an eternity.
And all they could do was pray that help would arrive before it was too late.
The distant hum of engines broke through the stillness of the night.
Jiwon's head snapped up, eyes wide with desperate hope. A moment later, the shadows above split apart as a Bullhead descended through the trees, its lights cutting across the dark forest like salvation.
Jisoo exhaled shakily, her hands tightening around Hyunwoo's limp form.
"They're here..." she whispered, as if afraid the words would dissolve if spoken too loud.
The Bullhead landed with a hiss of air and the hatch opened. Ozpin stepped out first, cane in hand, followed by Glynda and two medics carrying stretchers. The sight of them nearly brought Jiwon to tears.
"Here!" Jaemin shouted, struggling to his feet despite his injury. "Over here!"
The medics rushed forward, carefully lifting Hyunwoo onto the stretcher. His body looked impossibly fragile under the harsh light, aura completely shattered, his arm twisted unnaturally, his chest rising and falling in shallow bursts.
As they worked, Glynda's sharp gaze swept over the others. "What happened here?"
Jiwon spoke quickly, words tumbling over themselves. "Two of those humanoid Grimm—just like the one at Forever Fall—they appeared. We fought, but they were faster, stronger. Jaemin got hurt, and... and Hyunwoo—" His voice cracked. He swallowed and forced the words out. "Hyunwoo fought them alone. He said they were connected to him. He forced us to retreat."
Jisoo added quietly, "When it was over... it wasn't just Grimm that remained. There were... pieces. An arm. A leg. Just like before."
Ozpin's gaze lingered on the siblings, unreadable, before settling on Hyunwoo. The boy was unconscious, pale, but even now a faint red shimmer lingered and faded across his skin, like the afterimage of a flame extinguishing itself.
Slowly, Ozpin's hand tightened on his cane. A memory stirred—Hyunwoo's quiet voice months ago, hesitant, confessional.
"The Grimm that attacked us... it wasn't normal. It left behind something. And when it died... it sounded like my father."
Ozpin's eyes softened, though his face remained composed. He looked at Hyunwoo, then at the medics lifting him toward the Bullhead.
'So it's true,' he thought grimly. 'Those creatures... that voice. The humanoid Grimm is his father.'
The night air felt heavier with the weight of it. Ozpin turned back to the others, voice calm but edged with gravity.
"Get him to Beacon immediately," he ordered the medics. "He doesn't have a moment to spare."
The Bullhead's engines roared to life once more, carrying Hyunwoo away into the dark sky—toward safety, and toward questions that weighed heavier than the wounds he bore.
___
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