(Content Warning: This chapter contains descriptions of violence and animal hunting)
Nighttime in Hong Kong meant that as the Skyranger approached, Jane saw the lights of the city glittering on the water. She leaned forward, nearly out the back entirely, the wind buffeting her face as they circled the island, the crystalline towers jutting out of the earth and almost reaching up to grab them.
"Be careful you do not fall, Quiet." Zhang put his hand on Jane's shoulder and pulled her back a step. "I know the city is intoxicating…" He didn't finish that thought.
"It looks so different from how ADVENT usually builds their cities." Jane mused, kneeling down a bit to give herself a steadier hold. The white skyscrapers looked like rock formations, like stalagmites cutting across the ground, adorned with colorful crystals that she knew were the lights of people living day to day.
"It's an old city." He agreed. "It is...good to see it still maintains its identity, even after all this…"
"Chilong." Annette was standing up, shrugging on her own jacket as she held out his. "We're about to drop."
"Where are we landing?" Jane asked.
"The Chiu Yuen Cemetery." Zhang said, taking the jacket from Annette. "...It's been nearly 30 years since I was there last."
"I know that all too well." Annette chuckled. "Do you think it still functions as a grave site?"
Zhang said nothing in response to that, and called up to Bryni instead. "Firebrand. We are ready to descend."
"Gotcha, Chilong!" She giggled, and the Skyranger began to drop lower in the sky. Jane could see the white stone walls of the cemetery now. Although it looked old and dilapidated, with the stone tombs crumbling and vines creeping up the walls, it was still a noble sight.
Bryni let down the ropes, and Jane took hold of one and jumped, sliding down the warm rubber and landing in soft, half-dead grass. The other two followed, rising to their feet as Firebrand signaled them once again.
"Call me if you need a pickup!" She quipped as the Skyranger flew off into the dimly lit horizon.
Zhang sighed and looked around at the gravestones, age and fuzzy memories clouding his eyes. "Taymallat." He called out to Annette. "Were you ever here before?
"No, I was rescued after you joined." She answered him, looking around. "You used to talk about this place a lot. You said you felt like you died here."
"I wish I'd been there." Jane muttered.
"You would have been 10." Zhang chuckled. "That is far too young to be playing with firearms."
"The other officers' kids got to run around in the base." Jane crossed her arms.
"You were also in another country at the time." Annette tried to assure her as Zhang made his way towards the stone wall. "You had every right to focus on your life as a child. Going to school, making friends…"
"Yep. Cause that was so much fun." Jane sighed, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
"It is better you stayed away." Zhang cut in as he circled back. "Had you been in the base during the attack, perhaps they would have taken you along with Dante."
Jane bit her lip, and Annette stared at the ground, quickly changing the subject. "...Chilong, is our contact here yet?"
"There's a car sitting outside the gates." He said. "I recognize the license plate number. The Triad is still using age-old codes."
"Weird." Jane scoffed as the two of them followed Zhang through the overgrown graveyard. "You'd think a criminal organization would be a bit more on top of shit."
"Maybe they don't need to be…" Zhang led them out of the cemetery and down the sidewalk, towards a black car that looked like something straight out of a movie. He leaned down by the passenger side window and tapped on it, and as it rolled down, spoke something to the driver.
Jane looked inside. The driver could have passed for a bald man at first glance. Underneath his sunglasses in the low light, Jane had to really squint to tell, but it still only took her moments to realize that the thin figure was actually a hybrid soldier; she saw the screws drilled into his jaw, and the lumpiness of his wide nose, and the grooves on his eyebrows that sat, unmoving, over almost black eyes.
Zhang tentatively spoke something in Chinese, and the driver responded fluently. Looking relieved, Zhang turned to the two women and held the backseat door open. "Come inside." He assured them. "He is with the boss."
"He's a hybrid…" Jane knew she had no right to talk as though she were scared (she'd bedded many a Skirmisher girl before), but the sight of one in a clean-cut suit screamed ADVENT to her.
"He is our ride." Zhang shrugged. "Unless you'd like to walk. It's perfectly doable."
"Maybe later." Annette took Jane by the hand and pulled her into the backseat, and Zhang got into the passenger seat. Jane watched the hybrid man adjusting the mirror, glancing at her briefly as he did.
"What's your name?" Jane asked, then cleared her throat, opting to give her (absolutely awful) Cantonese a try, and sounded kind of like she was talking with cotton in her mouth.
The hybrid responded to her question almost in monotone, and Jane could not pick out a damn word he said until Zhang turned around.
"He says he doesn't have a name." Zhang translated. "But his designation number is-"
"T8Y47. Yeah, got that part." Jane reclined back in her seat and stared out the window, watching the streets of Hong Kong rush by. Light glinted into the windows as they passed through the neighborhood and onto a highway, where a few other cars joined them, each one carrying a different passenger. Jane saw one young woman in the car beside them, glancing in her mirror occasionally as she fixed her makeup. On the other side was a beat up truck with an old man driving it, hauling fish down the near-empty freeway.
"Welcome to Hong Kong." Zhang chuckled, settling into his seat, into familiarity.
.
.
Dhar-Mon did not have his sister's conviction to be up with the rising sun, especially with his problems with insomnia.
He should have slept in his quarters on the ship, but when they had arrived the Elerium Horde had given them access to the temporary lodgings used by the other warriors, and Dhar-Mon had found it rude to refuse such an offer.
Malinalli had been up late tending to the various ailing people within the city, and when she returned to the large stone longhouse, she was surprised to open the door and see Dhar-Mon sitting up against a far wall, staring off into space instead of sleeping soundly. Toward the back of the room, along where there were a few scattered stone chairs covered in fur, the remains of a fire burned. The great hall was empty currently, the majority of the clan members having retreated to private rooms, their own homes or situating themselves in corners where they were unlikely to be disturbed.
The dark little medic took her hair down from its braid and began peeling off her uniform, which was slightly dirty from the trek outside, leaving herself in her undershirt and shorts (her skin prickled in the cold air, but that would be ratified soon enough). She slid under Dhar-Mon's arm and felt him sigh, as he wrapped said arm around her and pulled her against his chest, arranging his threadbare blanket around her shoulders.
"It's late." She whispered. "Couldn't sleep?"
"No matter how I tried." He sighed. "Even with the knowledge that I was not alone in this place…"
"Is it still fear?" She asked quietly.
He sighed. "...Discomfort. General discomfort."
"Insomnia could be a side effect of…" She hesitated.
"Of my attempted murder. I know." He growled. "Sleep seems to be a faraway dream tonight. I have much to think about, much to keep my mind occupied."
She cuddled closer into his chest, pressing her head against his sternum. "I'm here now." She whimpered. "Do you want to try and sleep again?"
He ran his large hand through her curly hair, and she felt him settle a bit. "Do not worry for me." He chided her gently. "You sleep, Molly. You need your rest far more than I."
She cuddled up against him, and he reached up and ran a hand through her thick curly hair, his unfeeling fingers wrapping the dark coils around themselves. He massaged her scalp, and she seemed to purr at his touch, relaxing noticeably in his lap. Despite what he had said before, with Malinalli in his lap, in the comfort of her presence, Dhar-Mon found himself slipping into dreamland.
Daytime came too fast, for the both of them, but they heard the horses riding into the city again and knew it was time to rise.
.
.
Malinalli had taken her leave back onto the Avenger to shower, and while Dhar-Mon usually opted to join her, this morning he was entranced by the rituals conducted by the members of the Horde. He watched, captivated, as Parysatis and Aisha led the caravan of horses thundering back from the open plains, with Tyche the Eagle tailing behind Parysatis diligently, as though she were led by a string. The rest of the furred warriors followed the two women.
When they dismounted in the paddock, Dhar-Mon saw each warrior remove something from their saddle bag, and as the white-haired Parysatis drew closer, he saw that in her hands she carried the dead carcasses of a rabbit and a fox. He raised a brow curiously, and watched as Aisha followed her with only a rabbit in her hands. The veiled woman nodded at him as she passed, leading the rest of the small hunting party towards the the center of the city
Dhar-Mon followed them. Most of the warriors gathered at the large, central pavilion where one soldier was feeding wood into a fire pit, however Aisha and one other warrior broke off from the group and made their way to the grassy area just outside the city, where her companion began setting up their own makeshift fire. Aisha sat down with the rabbit in her lap, pulled a dagger from her belt, and began to skin the animal.
Dhar-Mon furrowed his brow as he approached the two, and the other warrior looked up and said something in a language he didn't recognize. Aisha replied in a similar tongue, and then looked to the Chosen. "Kadyr is nervous with you getting so close. I assume you're just curious as to why we're sitting out here alone?"
He faltered, the words stinging in his chest. "...Yes." He admitted. "I will leave you be, if you prefer."
"I don't mind the company." She smiled, albeit a bit nervously, and turned back to Kadyr, who was scowling into the flames. "We are Muslim, we can't eat what the other warriors caught. That's why we're out here by ourselves."
Dhar-Mon still hung back a good way, giving them ample room. He had heard of the religion of Islam, though his own understanding of it was even more lacking than his understanding of Christianity, seeing as the Elders had deemed any worship not directed towards them as heretical. As Kadyr lit the fire to cook their meal, he felt its presence warm him as much as the knowledge that these humans still held their faith even against all odds.
"Why can't you eat their animals?" He asked, delicately, worrying it was rude to pry. "Do they refuse to share?"
"No, they would if we asked." Aisha assured him. "But the animal must be killed a certain way to be halal. And if it's not halal, we can't eat it."
He stayed silent after that, watching her careful hands prepare the animal. She made it look so simple, and yet so complicated, like she was painting a picture instead of cooking a meal.
"Must you hunt every day, then?" He asked.
"Almost. If we catch enough for two days, then we take a break." She smiled. "But usually we only find enough for one day."
"I see." He watched them a moment longer. "It must be difficult with only you two. Are there others who could help you?"
"There were…" Aisha trailed off. "Just...just us now. Before I could hunt myself there was an old man, Serik, who would hunt for me. Monkh would go with him for protection even if she couldn't hunt my food herself."
"Monkh?" Dhar-Mon asked.
Aisha grew even more quiet, swallowing hard around a lump in her throat. "...Would you like to share?" She asked, pulling the cooked rabbit off of the tray.
"I do not need-"
"Please." She insisted. "It's rude to let our neighbor go hungry."
He stared at the piece of rabbit she offered him, and took it from her hands. "Thank you." He nodded.
"Odan Mekke twralı surañız." Kadyr said to Aisha as she sat in silence.
"Siz senimdisiz be? Siz bilgiñiz keledi me?" She sighed and looked toward Dhar-Mon. "...Rumor was you were the Chosen who...um...you lived in a religious hall…"
"My stronghold was centered in the Vatican, yes." He admitted, hanging his head in an attempt to stifle the old memories. "...The church floor saw the blood of many innocents."
"I see." Aisha sounded disappointed. "...Have you heard of the city of Mecca?"
"Of course." Dhar-Mon delicately picked at the piece of rabbit with his sharp nails. "It is quite well known."
"It is?" She fiddled with her own food. "I'm sorry I just...it's still there?"
He blinked, seeing the hopeful desperation on her face, and smiled. "It is. It still stands tall…worship as it was before is technically forbidden, but the Elders know better than to wipe such an important city off this earth. It is still populated, to this day. I have heard it is in fact quite prosperous."
He saw her lip tremble a bit. "...And the Kaaba? Masjid al-Haram?"
"Still stand, though I have not seen them myself, I know the Elders would never do something so foolish as to demolish them. They prefer to...impose themselves upon the existing cultures. With varying degrees of effectiveness." He thought about his own stronghold for a bit, how the surrounding towns still definitely practiced their own religion despite his constant commands otherwise. "I would be surprised if there was not at least some amount of worship there, in defiance of the Elders."
Aisha looked almost overjoyed, and even Kadyr looked significantly more relaxed. She began cleaning off the bones left behind from her meal. "...I've wanted to make the Hajj since I was little." She admitted. "But I thought...I didn't want to hope...they took everything else…" She sniffled, wiping her cheek with the back of her hand. "...There's still hope."
He reached out to comfort her, but drew back, refraining from intruding on her comfort zone. "There is always hope." He assured her. "I promise you that. When this war is over, you shall see the glowing city with your own eyes."
"That brings me comfort." She cleared her throat. "Has it been hard for you? Acclimating to fighting alongside humans?"
Dhar-Mon considered her words carefully. "Yes." He admitted. "But it is not as hard as it once was."
"I'm glad they trust you." She nodded. "The Khatun...I was surprised she let you come with us. She's not exactly tolerant of aliens."
"She seems to not be tolerant of many things."
"I mean, she's very kind." Aisha said quickly. "Really, she's an amazing leader. Please don't judge her too much." She swallowed. "ADVENT took a lot from her."
Kadyr muttered something in almost a whisper, and Aisha stared at her hands, carefully cleaning them with a cloth. "Like I said." She murmured. "They took a lot from us."
.
.
Betos approached the Shrinemaiden from behind, as she stared out over the glowing city. "You have seemed distracted recently." Betos touched her elbow gently. "Are you well, Kon-Mai?"
She nodded, her eyes not straying from the glowing stones along the pathways. The city had died down a bit since the morning hunt, but every so often a child would run by, or the sound of a scuffle would echo through the valley. As they held this vigil, a warrior with his hair loose and flowing behind him sprinted to the great stone door that held the way to the Khatun's palace and slipped inside. "I have been thinking quite a bit…" The Shrinemaiden finally said.
"About what?" She moved to stand beside her, leaning against the stone wall of the old building. It was certainly sturdy, and Betos was not surprised this place had stood the test of time.
Kon-Mai held the silence for a moment. "...Something feels so wrong here." She admitted. "Have you noticed, Betos, that there are no crops here?"
Betos looked around, examining the grasslands. "The steppe is not known for its fertile land, is it?"
"No, but…" She rubbed her temples. "...There are no farm animals anywhere. No sheep or cattle. The grass may not be ideal, but those animals should still be at least present in a city like this. And yet, they are not here."
Betos looked around again, and...nodded in agreement. "A settlement this large, you would think they would cultivate farm animals."
"Indeed." Kon-Mai crossed her arms. "Each warrior returned with game from the hunt, but to feed this many people? It's unsustainable."
"Maybe they have another food source." Betos considered. "We do not know all of the Khatun's dealings. And she seems to be quite a secretive woman."
"I have noticed. It concerns me." Kon-Mai looked toward the Skirmisher woman. "Have you met with her?"
"She is less interested in the Skirmishers than she is in XCOM or the Reapers." Betos sighed. "Which is understandable. She knows Volk from a past life. And XCOM...is XCOM."
"You speak as though you have nothing to offer." Kon-Mai scoffed. "You bested me in battle. At one time, that would have been unthinkable."
Betos chuckled. "I remember a time when you could barely hold a sword and couldn't find your feet to climb a brick wall." She nudged Kon-Mai gently.
Kon-Mai blushed. "I was merely unaccustomed to my long arms!" She stammered. "Once I had regained my balance, I was unbeatable for a time."
"For a time, yes." Betos was still smirking. "As far as you know."
"What does that mean?"
"Nothing."
"Betos." Kon-Mai grumbled. "...You are simply teasing me."
"If that is what you believe~"
"The only alternative is you let me win those fights. And that is unthinkable." She scoffed
Betos smiled and deliberately looked away.
"Oh you…" Kon-Mai blushed purple and smirked. "I suppose we will have to arrange a rematch then~"
Betos went to speak again (perhaps to accept her proposal) but broke off, looking ahead as the stone door slid aside and Drakaina stepped out, followed by Senuna.
"Maybe they are finally coming to fetch you for the meeting." Kon-Mai mentioned, but the way Drakaina speedwalked past them straight to the pavilion told them otherwise.
Senuna approached the two. "Would you like to get out in the open air, Shrinemaiden?" She sounded slightly out of breath.
"What is happening?" Betos demanded, sounding slightly miffed to be out of the loop.
"Our meeting got cut short. ADVENT is passing by with a caravan of food stuffs, probably going to a Stronghold. Drakaina is hellbent on intercepting and I said you were one of our best ambush units, soooo..." Senuna winked
Kon-Mai looked toward Betos. "It has been a while since we have been on assignment together." She smiled.
"Oh, you want to go too?" Senuna looked puzzled at the Skirmisher. "Well I'm sure Betos is a busy woman-"
"On the contrary. I have been rather bored lately." Betos scowled. "Yes, Kon-Mai. I would love to accompany you."
Senuna smiled, her face tense. "Well, have fun on your date you two." She brushed past whimsically as Betos sighed, and then it was Kon-Mai's turn to put a hand on her elbow.
"The Commander means no harm." She assured her.
"I am fully aware of the Commander's...idiosyncrasies." Betos said. "It is Drakaina I am unsure of."
Kon-Mai's head shot up as Drakaina's powerful voice echoed through the valley in a war cry, summoning all the warriors to the pavilion. She felt a familiar chill run down her spine, her legs itching as she fought the urge to run.
.
.
The steppe was quiet, save for the distant rumbling of armored cars dragging themselves over wild ground. In the distance, ADVENT soldiers crawled like ants over the giant grey and green rock that was the world before them. Had the soldiers glanced up, they would have seen the small shadow of a bird pass over them, or heard the flap of her wings as she drew closer. Her eyes, glowing purple and dilated, looked down over the makeshift train and scanned its entire length, before the eagle turned and retreated back the way she'd come. If the soldiers had seen her, none of them felt it of great importance to shoot her down.
It was their greatest mistake.
As Tyche approached the line of horses and warriors standing at attention, Parysatis opened her eyes, the glow in her own pupils fading. Tyche seemed to falter a bit before swooping in and gliding to rest on her arm, flapping to keep her balance.
Gur-Rai, as he stood beside her, looked up at the girl on the horse and whistled quietly. "Impressive." He mused, and she looked sideways at him, her expression blank.
"They have four cars." She said to Drakaina, abandoning Gur-Rai's gaze. "About 4 soldiers in each truck, and six troopers walking on either side of each. They are moving slow; their wheels are not used to our roads."
Drakaina chuckled. "Of course they aren't." She turned her own horse to face her soldiers, and scanned the lineup herself. Volk clumsily moved his own steed closer to where she'd been, a confident smile on his face. He had a few of his reapers with him, but really her eyes were on the XCOM soldiers. As she had hoped, Senuna had sent her Chosen: not all of them, the largest one had remained at camp, and really she was unconcerned with him anyway. The sniper was promising: someone who could pick off targets from a distance that could rival her own archers would be invaluable to her. When Drakaina's eyes finally focused on Kon-Mai, her lip twitched just a bit, her hand tightening on the hilt of her own blade. A notorious swordsman, she had waited years to face this woman in battle. A shame she never got the chance, but a swordswoman like her? Fighting for the Elerium Horde? Drakaina managed a smile at the thought.
Betos looked out from her position beside Kon-Mai, sighing as Drakaina rode up and down the ranks slowly. Kon-Mai reached over and put a hand on her shoulder, and Betos shook her head.
"We are more than mere soldiers." She mumbled. "My soldiers answer to me."
"And on the battlefield, so do I." Kon-Mai let slip before she tightly shut her mouth, hoping her blush wasn't too strong.
They both startled to attention as Drakaina let out another bone-shattering war cry, and called out to her soldiers in Mongolian: "Edgeer khuuramch khümüüst khar sünsnii ayanga chölöölökh!" She bellowed, her powerful voice cutting the air in two.
Once again, Kon-Mai felt herself shudder. This time Betos noticed, and reached over to her, pressing one hand on her lower back. "What's wrong?"
"I…" She pressed a hand to her forehead as Drakaina kept shouting, her words melting together again. "...I feel like I've…heard this all before…"
"Release the black fog!" Drakaina's voice curdled with fury and blood. "Let Genghis Khan, Our Father, ride alongside us! Let us make them TASTE DEATH!"
The warriors all raised their swords and echoed her call: before Kon-Mai knew it, they charged.
.
.
The black car pulled into the garage slowly, the lights of the city disappearing behind them. Jane watched in wonder as the crystal towers and skyscrapers vanished beneath the cement ceiling.
"I think this is the same building…" Zhang muttered as he looked around. T8Y47 looked at him, but said nothing as he slowly pulled into a parking spot.
Annette took Jane by the arm and helped her out of the car the moment it stopped, and Jane stepped away the moment they were out in the "fresh" air. Zhang followed, and their hybrid guide was the last to emerge, locking the car and gesturing for them to follow.
Zhang obeyed, Annette and Jane were a bit slower to comply, but all three humans followed him to a metal elevator, the door sliding open the second they approached. Zhang entered first, looking around diligently, and then the two girls followed. The doors closed, and the elevator began to rise.
Jane looked towards the hybrid, and T8Y47 looked at her in his peripheral.
Very little could be said in the short time it took to rise to the top floor, which shocked Jane as from the smoothness of the ride she had assumed they only went up a single level. The door slid open to a golden hallway, that looked as though it had been molded from shining marble inlaid with quartz and styled after a mix of ancient Chinese and European architecture.
The hallway was narrow, only wide enough for them to all walk single file as they clacked silently towards the towering metal door at the end of the hall. Jane looked around occasionally, not failing to notice the cameras that were watching them.
They stopped before the door, and T8Y47 pressed down on a button and leaned in close. His monotone voice was lowered to almost a whisper, and Jane only managed to catch "Chilong" and "Vahlen" in the barrage of Cantonese, before the door swung open, and they were greeted with an even more ornate office. The floor was lined with gold and quartz, and the walls were carved from shining marble and inlaid with a glowing blue substance. Around the room, various statues sculpted from gold and adorned with jewels and glowing metals. The eyes of the sculptures glowed from within, as though they were living creatures.
The man who sat behind the golden desk rose, straightening his suit. He looked almost as young as Jane herself, save for a bit of grey at the temples and smile lines around his eyes. They crinkled, glowing purple as he smiled widely. "Chilong." He said, his accent thick and flowing and sending shivers down Jane's spine. "I have missed you, my friend."
Zhang looked like he was having a stroke. He reached out for the wall beside him, his lip quivering as he stared at the man. "...You must be a dream." He chuckled, his voice cracking. "There's no way…"
"It's been 25 years, and this is how you greet me?" The man came out from around his desk, moving without the trouble of someone who was aged. "Since my old friend is a bit star struck, allow me to introduce myself." He chuckled, and took Jane's hand. "I am Liu Weiyin."
"Dax́iiu." Zhang mumbled. "We called him Dax́iiu. He is...he was...my employer, when I was a part of the Triad."
.
.
Within an instant, the smell of battle and the fury of blood caught up with her. She did not even realize she had been swept up in the cacophony of the charge until she cloaked and slipped away from them, her long legs sprinting far ahead of the warriors on foot, almost keeping pace with the horses.
Kon-Mai heard the whinny of the Khatun's ashy horse as the leader of the pack slammed into the metal caravan, drawing her bent sword and slicing up ward, cutting the ADVENT soldier down in one fell swoop. Kon-Mai followed her direction, sprinting around towards the other side of the caravan and uncloaking just as she saw the white's of the soldier's eyes. For a moment she saw fear in their gaze before she skewered him.
Behind them, she heard the other warriors riding back and forth along the edges of the battle, circling the caravan to keep it from escaping during the fray. As she let the soldier drop from her blade, Kon-Mai saw a flash of blue and purple as Aisha rode by, her bow knocked with a glowing purple arrow. She raised strong arms and loosed it, and it flew sharp and true, finding its mark in the shoulder of an ADVENT trooper.
Her blood pumping, her body trembling, Kon-Mai was absorbed into the sounds of battle and the fray itself seemed to carry her. She darted through the line of cars and made a flying leap onto one of them, embedding her sword into the once impenetrable windshield and impaling the driver as she did so. The passenger tried to fire on her, but the glass was still technically bulletproof.
As she dealt with them, she heard the sound of a revving engine from behind her, and jumped off the car to run up to the front once again. She saw one of the cars had broken formation, and the poor beleaguered driver was flooring it to try and escape. The rest of the horde was preoccupied with the rest of the soldiers, and trying to keep the other cars from breaking loose, that none of them could bother to chase this rogue one.
Kon-Mai scowled, kicking her legs up into a sprint, and darted after the vehicle. She leapt onto the top, digging in her sword, and (as she predicted), the driver swerved and slowed. But she did not have time to blunt her sword on metal again.
She slid down the windshield and landed surely on the grass, rising before the trapped vehicle like a wraith in the shadows. She saw the people inside struggling to try and undo their seat belts, but they were trapped under the weight of metal and her crushing gaze.
Kon-Mai buried her sword into the ground, pulling it back and tearing a long, curved gash in the stony steppe. Psionic energy flooded her vision and trembled in her arms, her muscles twitching violently as she held that position for a moment. Then, she ripped her blade from the ground and loosed the wave unto the car, causing it to fly backward and flip over, caught like a turtle on its back.
With this last effort, Kon-Mai felt the energy and excitement of battle finally leave her, and her arms dropped to her side as she stood there, panting. The rest of the Horde stared at her in awe from what seemed like a mile away, but Drakaina and Aisha rode up to her on their horses, Drakaina taking the lead while Aisha hung back, her eyes wide with what looked like confusion and grief.
"An impressive feat." Drakaina rode up to her and nodded in acknowledgement. "...Your psionic wave was powerful enough to stop them in their tracks."
"Thank you." Kon-Mai clasped one hand over the other and bowed to Drakaina, who looked slightly ill at ease.
"Makes me wonder where you learned that." She mused quietly.
Kon-Mai blinked, unable to answer her question, for she herself did not know.
Summary: Jane, Zhang and Annette land in Hong Kong, with Bryni dropping them off in the same cemetery that Zhang met XCOM in 25 years ago. They briefly discuss the past, with Jane expressing displeasure at not having been a part of it, until they meet up with their contact, a hybrid named T8Y47 who will be driving them to meet with the Triad.
In Mongolia, Dhar-Mon laments to Malinalli that he still has insomnia, and the two cuddle until morning. When morning comes, a hunting party returns with game, and Dhar-Mon joins Aisha and her brother Kadyr, who must catch their own food in a specific way in order for them to be able to eat it. Aisha asks Dhar-Mon about his experience with religion, and then asks whether the city of Mecca still stands. He assures her it does, as the Elders knew better than to demolish it, and she reveals she wants to make the Hajj one day.
Betos meets Kon-Mai, who is disturbed by some inconsistencies within the Horde's territory, like the lack of farmland, and how generally something seems to be wrong. Betos comforts her, and the two tease each other until Senuna invites Kon-Mai to join the Horde on a mission to intercept a food truck caravan. Kon-Mai accepts, and Betos decides to go with her.
Back in Hong Kong, T8Y47 brings the three soldiers to the office, and they ride an elevator to an ornately decorated top floor, where they meet with Liu Weiyin, also known as Dax́iiu. Zhang reveals, shocked, that Dax́iiu was his boss years ago, when he was part of the Triad.
Out on the plains, Parysatis uses her eagle to scan the area, and as Drakaina rallys the warriors, Kon-Mai reveals to Betos that she recognizes the words she uses. The warriors charge, and Kon-Mai becomes swept up in the fury of battle. She takes out several soldiers, before using her harbor wave to stop a truck dead in its tracks. While Drakaina is impressed, Aisha looks disturbed, and the Khatun asks Kon-Mai where she learned that move. Kon-Mai, confused, is unable to answer.
(Hello everyone! Sorry this one took extra time! I had to do a LOT of research for this, and I really hope it paid off! It's a bit shorter than I'd have liked, but overall, I hope it finds you well!)
