"I said step away from the girl, alien scum!" The guard roared.

What? What?

I felt Jimin's arms loosening around me, but that made cling tighter to him. I'd just found him. I couldn't lose him again.

"What are you doing?" I didn't even know who I was speaking to. It didn't matter though. My voice came out in a raspy whisper and no one heard me.

I was finally beginning to comprehend everything that was happening.

A couple feet away the crowds had momentarily stopped fighting and was staring with murmurs and venomous whispers as they watched the scene before them.

"Did you see that? He mauled the poor guard."

"I always knew these alien rats shouldn't have ever come to earth. They're unhinged!"

"Last time!" The guard roared, his gun clicking in his hands. "Step away and put your hands up. Or I'll shoot."

Jimin silently and firmly pried my arms away from him. I stumbled a little and stared at him. There was dried blood across his face and shirt, but whatever injuries he might've sustained looked to be already gone.

"Put your hands up!" The guard yelled at Jimin.

"Stop it!" I finally managed to get out in an audible voice. "He's weaponless can't you see? He's done nothing wrong!"

"Get behind me, young miss," the guard snapped at me, obviously not listening to me. "You don't want to be around this dangerous creature."

"No!" I stumbled in between Jimin and the gunpoint. "Drop the gun. What did he do? Why are you pointing a gun at him?"

"Jiyeon stop..." Jimin murmured, but I didn't yield. Not this time. I wasn't going to let him get pushed around and unfairly treated. Not again.

"Look me in the eye and tell me what he did wrong!" I shouted at the guard.

The guard finally seemed to register me and what I was saying. A dark, furious look fixed upon his features. "You're an alien sympathizer?" He spat at me. "Did you not just see what happened? That beast you're defending just mauled me!"

"Lies!" I yelled back. "He was just protecting me!" The guard had been hurting me more than Jimin had to him; there were deep nail marks in my arm from where the guard had been dragging me while his skin had no blemish even after being bowled over by the wolf.

"Jiyeon stop." Jimin grabbed the back of my shirt and tried tugging me off to the side, out of direct fire from the gun and filthy insults hurled towards us. "Don't do this."

"Let go of the girl, alien!" The guard shrieked, a maniacal glint in his eyes now. "I said put your hands in the air or I'll shoot you."

A new kind of fear trickled in me. The crazy that was glimmering in the guard's eyes was the kind of crazy that said the man wasn't in his right mind. I didn't doubt he would shoot if one person stepped out of line. He might even shoot me.

"Put down your gun."

The crowd watching the scene unfold abruptly fell silent at the deep, older voice that boomed behind me. I didn't turn around. I didn't dare put my back to the gun that was still being pointed at Jimin and I by the deranged guard.

"I said put down your gun in the name of the New Order."

The guard finally blinked a couple times and seemed to slowly click back into reality. His eyes widened at the person behind me and the gun fell from his hands. The clatter of the weapon echoed distantly in my ears.

I realized I was panting, hard. Warm fluid dripped down my cheek. I didn't even remember when I got injured. Adrenaline still seared through my veins and my entire body shook.

"H-he attacked me," the guard abruptly burst out. He pointed an accusatory finger over my shoulder, at Jimin. "He turned into a great monster and attacked me!"

Murmurs of affirmation circled the crowd before us and I realized with a sinking heart that most of them were humans. They all threw dirty looks at Jimin and I. I wanted to scream back at them.

"Really?" Silence fell again as the deep voice behind me spoke up again. There was an unbreakable steel of authority in his voice that no one, not even the angriest looking person, dared try and break. "Where are your injuries?"

The guard faltered. "Excuse me?"

"I asked you, where are your injuries. Surely if you were mauled by this Outworlder here, you'd have injuries. I see hardly a scratch on you."

The guard sputtered. He certainly looked disheveled, but there wasn't even a single scrape on him.

"I believe you have better things to do than to threaten and throw false claims at an Outworlder," the Voice said smoothly, unyielding. "You're dismissed."

The guard opened his mouth but then clearly thought the better of it. Unmatched hatred that took my breath away filled his eyes as he grabbed his gun and stalked away.

I heard someone in the crowd mutter darkly, "Of course an alien would defend another alien. We saw him. The scumbag attacked the poor guard."

It wasn't until after the guard disappeared that I finally allowed myself to exhale and turn around.

Jimin was on me in an instant, once again pulling me against his chest tightly. I released a little sob that had been lodged in my throat since the moment I saw the building explode.

My own arms were back around him and we clung to each other tightly.

"Don't do that," he was hissing in my ear while burying his nose into my skin. "Don't you dare step in front of a gun like that again. Not for me. Not like that."

"I was scared. You... the building exploded and I thought you'd..." The word 'die' came out in another sob and his arms around me tightened more if possible until I could barely breathe. But I didn't care. I welcomed the strength, the fierceness. At least it meant he was alive.

Finally, when we both began to steady ourselves and the frenzy of trying to find each other began to die down we pulled back and I met his large eyes, soaking in the emotions and unspeakable messages he conveyed to me through them.

Safe. He was safe. For now.

I turned to look upon the owner of the Voice that might have just saved both of our lives.

I found myself face to face with no other than General Konu, the Infinity Council member of warfare. Jimin's father.

Well, shit.

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