System Reboot - BTS

Jungkook had grown used to silence in the labyrinth. The air carried a low hum, a residual pulse from the sound-based energy he kept unleashing to fight off the glass-shadow creatures. The walls shifted endlessly, reflecting distorted versions of himself—some older, some different. He'd stopped trusting his reflection hours ago.

He exhaled sharply and wiped the sweat from his brow. His hands were still glowing faintly from the last battle. The mark on his wrist pulsed in a steady rhythm, like a compass made of music.

Then came the flicker.

A light zipped past his field of vision, a silver glint that darted just above the maze's walls. He tensed, ready to defend, but the object circled back, hovering cautiously above him. It was small, spherical, no bigger than a basketball, with glowing panels and tiny thrusters that kept it floating steadily. A single blue eye blinked open on its surface, scanning him.

Jungkook raised a hand. "Uh… hi?"

The drone whirred softly, then spoke in a curious, synthetic voice. "Vocal signature detected. Anomaly confirmed. Identity scan in progress..."

He blinked. "What?"

A beam of light passed over his body from head to toe. The drone made a pleased-sounding chirp.

"Biometric match: 97.6%. Initiating protocol."

"Wait, what protocol?"

The drone's screen flashed with scrolling text. Then it paused. "Keyword detected: BTS. System memory unlock commencing."

Jungkook stepped back, eyes wide. "You know BTS?"

The drone spun once in place. "BTS. Beyond The Scene. Registered identity: musical collective. Emotional resonance: high. Global impact: significant."

He smiled, disbelieving. "You actually know us."

The drone projected a small blue hologram. Flickering timeline of BTS performances, interviews, and fragments of their songs. Their past, compressed into light. Jungkook reached out to touch it. It pulsed warmly beneath his fingers.

"This is real…" he whispered.

"Initializing System Reboot: Operation Name – BTS," the drone continued. "Accessing communication satellite. Sending beacon request..."

Back on Archive Moon Theta-7, Namjoon was deep inside a derelict research lab nestled in the ruins of an ancient space station. It had taken him hours to find it, tracing the constellation symbols, following the faint trail of code embedded in the sky. He had hoped, foolishly, that someone might be waiting inside.

But there was no one. Only machines.

The lab was in stasis, emergency lights flickering. A central console sat beneath layers of dust and cracked displays. Namjoon wiped the surface clean and stared at the interface, reading the ancient glyphs. They weren't Korean. Not even Earth-based. But their logic was familiar algorithms, if-then structures, feedback loops. Language was language, even here.

He cracked his knuckles. "Okay, let's see if I still remember how to break things to fix them."

Using his enhanced fingers, he traced patterns across the console, bypassing locks through rhythm rather than code. The screen blinked. A low chime sounded. Then the system spoke:

"Authorization required. Identify purpose."

He hesitated, then leaned closer. "I want to send a message. A signal."

"Format?"

Namjoon drew a breath. His voice steady, he said, "If you hear this… come find me."

He paused, then added, "BTS is not over."

The lab hummed to life.

A signal flared out across the Echo Sector.

Hundreds of light-years away, J-Hope was not having a good time.

He dashed through a marketplace suspended in low gravity, twisting between floating stalls and ducking under neon-lit signs written in alien script. Behind him, two humanoid bounty hunters gave chase, heavily armed and very persistent.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" he shouted mid-dodge as he flipped over a merchant's platform.

A shout followed him. "Subject J-Hope! Return the resonance crystal!"

"I didn't steal it!" he yelled back, clutching the tiny shard in his pocket. "It reacted to me, okay? Big difference!"

He launched into a sprint, feet barely touching the surface of the rotating platform beneath him. The marketplace blurred around him, a chaos of languages, smells, and artificial light. He could hear the heavy thudding of the bounty hunters' boots getting closer.

Then his earpiece, part of the tech embedded behind his ear, buzzed.

A voice crackled through. Familiar.

"If you hear this… come find me. BTS is not over."

He skidded to a halt, gasping.

"Namjoon…?"

The voice repeated, clearer this time. No mistaking it. His leader. His hyung. Their voice.

J-Hope smiled, just for a second.

Then a blast scorched the ground beside him.

"Right, later!" he snapped, sprinting again. "First, not get disintegrated. Then, find the team!"

Deep in the Dissonant Forge, Yoongi hunched over a soundboard that looked more like an altar than a machine. Cables stretched around him like veins, pulsing with molten light. He had been trying to stabilize the frequencies in the forge's heart, something inside it had been glitching, disrupting the harmony of the entire sector. And it was starting to mess with him, too. His thoughts felt like static.

"System integrity: fluctuating," the forge's AI droned flatly.

"Yeah, I can hear that," Yoongi muttered, adjusting a crystalline dial.

Sparks danced across the interface. His cybernetic fingers moved instinctively, each adjustment fine-tuned to restore balance not with equations, but with intuition. He didn't read the code. He felt it.

As he finally locked the final frequency into place, the forge let out a low, satisfied hum. The static stopped. Silence reigned, for one blessed moment.

Then it came.

A voice. Not from the forge, not from his mind, but cutting through the static like a lifeline.

"If you hear this… come find me. BTS is not over."

Yoongi froze.

The sound hit something deep inside him. Deeper than memory. Deeper than logic. He closed his eyes.

"Namjoon," he whispered.

The forge responded instantly. Screens lit up with coordinates. The soundboard shifted, offering him an outbound comm link.

"External signal located. Archive Moon Theta-7. Do you wish to initiate travel protocol?"

Yoongi chuckled under his breath. "Damn right I do."

He grabbed the portable sound core, his makeshift weapon and instrument, and slung it over his back. The forge's gate creaked open.

"Guess it's time to turn the volume back up."

With a final glance at the place that rebuilt him, Yoongi stepped into the light.

Back in the labyrinth, Jungkook's drone emitted a cheerful ping.

"Signal received. Source identified: Archive Moon Theta-7."

He clenched his fists. "Hyung."

"Do you wish to rendezvous?"

Jungkook looked up at the glowing maze around him. The shadows were moving again. But this time, they didn't scare him. He nodded.

"Yeah. Let's bring BTS back online."

The drone expanded its frame, unfolding into a streamlined glider form. Panels adjusted, revealing a cockpit slot just big enough for him.

"Estimated jump time: four minutes."

As Jungkook climbed in, he whispered to himself, "Just hold on. I'm coming."

In the Hushed Vale, Jimin sat at the edge of a glowing lake. He had been meditating, letting emotion guide him through the soundless void of this world. That's how he communicated here, not through voice but through feeling.

A wave of emotion hit him like a memory. Not his. Namjoon's.

"Come find me… BTS is not over."

Jimin's eyes opened slowly, tears welling up without warning. He smiled.

In the Velvet Stage, Taehyung was mid-performance, strings of light forming constellations with every note he played. When the message hit, it trembled through his violin, resonating through the melody.

Come find me… BTS is not over.

He stopped playing. Bow lowered. A grin tugged at his lips.

"You found the words, hyung."

Elsewhere—across galaxies, over star-forges and silent forests, the message repeated. A beacon in the void. A reminder.

They were not done.

They were not lost.

And the song was still playing.