"Monster!" Lan Fan gasped in recognition.

The homunculus donned that shark smile of his.

"You know, you really should've taught the little lady some manners," Greed drolled.

"I think she turned out quite well," Feng took pride.

"I'll say," Greed gave her a lascivious look.

Lan Fan reddened from her face down to her neck.

The bodyguard writhed her wrist free from the homunculus's hold.

"What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing. Do you even know where you are?" asked the homunculus.

Lan Fan Liu opened her mouth to answer only to realize she did not in fact know. Every which way she looked she saw nothing but a boundless void of white. She couldn't recall the events leading up to her sudden appearance in this expanse of white nothingness.

This place disquieted her.

"I... don't know," she confessed.

"I was trying to break it to her gently," Feng grumbled.

"I got your number pops! You're trying to get her to 'walk into the light' when you should be kicking her ass back the other way!"

"I'm afraid it doesn't work like that," he said regretfully.

Lan Fan looked at the man she didn't know, really looked at him. She didn't remember his face but she could recall the timbre of his voice. He'd called her mooncake. Lan Fan had forgotten the epithet entirely.

"Father?"

"Hey, mooncake," Feng Liu beamed at his daughter. "How's the little prince? He hasn't given you too much trouble, I hope?"

"Emperor," Lan Fan breathed.

"That's a good question! How is the brat?"

The bodyguard ignored their inquires.

"This isn't real," Lan Fan denied.

"It's real enough," said Greed.

"This is a dream," she insisted. "It can't be real. You're both dead."

"Welcome to the club, honey."


Margot Fontaine tilted Lan Fan's head to the proper angle to ensure she had an open airway. The former combat medic pinched the Xingese woman's nose, breathed once for her, and resumed chest compressions. Lan Fan's pallor remained deathly. Margot had removed her suit jacket and rolled up her sleeves. She didn't concern herself with the odds of survival. Wasting energy worrying about the odds wouldn't help Lan Fan beat them.

While Margot focused on resuscitation Master Hsu set Lan Fan up with an intravenous port in the crook of her elbow.

"How warm should the saline be?" Master Hsu questioned.

Margot wracked her brain as she breathed for Lan Fan again.

"One hundred three, no, one hundred four degrees fahrenheit."

Master Hsu drew a purification circle on the lacquered surface of his desk with a grease pencil, set a bottle of saline in the center, and activated the array. He used a towel to transfer the bottle to the I.V. stand and connected the plastic tubing to the port in Lan Fan's arm.


Bolin burst through the door to Master Hsu's office with the blankets. He halted at the sight of Commander Liu. She wasn't decent. Her pretty dress little more than scrap fabric on the floor. One of her gloves lay atop the pile. Looking at her in her underthings, in such a vulnerable state, made him feel dirty. He flushed with shame and averted his eyes.

"I have O negative blood," he half shouted. Bolin stepped closer. He glued his eyes to the ceiling and he held out the bundle to Master Hsu.

"Thank you my dear boy," said Master Hsu. He snatched a blanket off the top of the stack. The alkahestris used the already drawn array to energize the atoms in the cloth. He tucked the warmed blanket around Commander Liu's body.

Margot came up from another breath, pointed at the alkahestris, and snapped her fingers.

"Tuck the blanket around her trunk. Leave the extremities for now or you'll just force cold blood back to her heart."

The automail doctor snapped again this time at Bolin.

"Take over here. I need to administer meds."

The bodyguard's eyes went wide as saucers. He wasn't sure if he could do that. Lan Fan looked so fragile. When it came to delicate tasks he had clumsy hands.

"I-I don't know if I can-" Bolin stammered.

"Yes, you can. I'll show you. Now set down those blankets and get your ass over here," The fiery woman demanded.

Bolin placed the blankets on the bed beside Lan Fan's stockinged feet. Margot demonstrated the resuscitation technique then moved aside for him to take over. The bodyguard took a breath to steel himself, pinched Lan Fan's nose, and breathed for her. The commander's skin felt cold; it sent a shiver through him.

"Good," Margot praised. "Now start compressions." She snapped her fingers to help him establish the rhythm.


Margot led the guard whose name she did not know through two cycles of breathing and compression. Satisfied with his consistency she stepped away. Inside her bag she located a hypodermic needle and a bottle of epinephrine.

Margot held the bottle at eye level and drew a cubic centimeter of the synthetic adrenaline into the syringe. Setting the bottle down she narrowed her eyes as she flicked the barrel. She depressed the syringe with the slightest of pressure to rid the contents of air bubbles.

Certain she wasn't about to give her girl an embolism the automail doctor injected the hormone into her I.V. "What's your name?" Margot asked the bodyguard. The redhead unhooked Lan Fan's garters and rolled her silk stockings off. She flung the sheer fabric onto the pile of clothes on the floor, and kicked the garments out from underfoot.

"Bolin, ma'am."

"Hsu take her temperature again. Bolin continue compressions in the meantime," she instructed.

Margot pinched Lan Fan's fingers and toes for signs of improving circulation. The doctor didn't get the capillary refill response she was looking for. Lan Fan's head wound remained a secondary concern until they got her heart pumping blood on its own. Margot hadn't provided trauma care since Ishval but she hadn't forgot the lessons.

In those days she felt more like a butcher than a surgeon.

"As soon as the I.V. fluids finish warm and hang another bottle."

"Very well," came Master Hsu's grim reply.

Margot Fontaine cut him a sharp look.

"Is there a problem?"

"I do not agree with this course of treatment," Hsu admitted.

"Then there's the door," she pointed. "I don't need you here if you're not committed to making every effort to revive her."

"Even if by some miracle you managed to revive her the poor girl has gone too long without oxygen to her brain. The likelihood of severe deficits-"

Margot cut him off, "I'm the expert here when it comes to neurological signs not you. Either fall in line or get out."

"You cannot throw me out of my own office," he balked.

The automail doctor jostled the alkahestris out of her way to take the thermometer out of her patient's mouth. Bolin gave Lan Fan another breath of air without having to be instructed. Margot read the thermometer then set it aside.

"You think I won't? Watch me."

A loud knock sounded at the door.

Margot gave Master Hsu a black look.

"Why don't you get that?" Margot bit out at him.

The alkahestris drew himself up, stuck out his chin, and walked to the door without another word to her. While Master Hsu answered the door Margot grabbed her stethoscope from her medical bag.

"Master Hsu there's been a terrible accident in the kitchen!"

Margot looked over at the alkahestris who stood in the doorway with a member of the help. She saw the man's eyes widen at the sight of her patient. The automail doctor grasped the edge of the privacy curtain.

"Go on then."

The surgeon closed the curtain with a snap of her wrist.


This is a nightmare.

Ling cursed the vastness of his palace. He couldn't get to Master Hsu's office fast enough. If he had better shoes he'd simply take the rooftops. Instead he took every shortcut he knew. He pushed his concern for the events unfolding in his city to the back of his mind. He trusted the dowager empress to mitigate the disaster taking place outside the palace walls.

He turned a corner too fast.

The oxfords he wore for the first time tonight were far from broken in. The soles of his shoes slipped on the waxed wood under his feet. Lieutenant Gao grabbed his elbow to keep him from crashing into a dainty table set against the wall, saving a priceless vase from shattering on the floor in the process.

Ling didn't let it slow him down.

He didn't take the time to thank Qiyin for the reflexive save. He had none to spare. Not when the woman he loved was in such critical condition. He'd called her petulant for not answering his summons; Ling hated himself for it. How could he even for a second think she wouldn't answer his call to action if she was able?

How long had Lan Fan laid there in the freezing cold?

In the meantime Ling had wallowed in self pity instead of looking for her. He should've found her not Tingzhe; He should've gone after her when she didn't come back instead of sulking at the bar like a child.

The crisp bowtie around his collar suddenly felt too tight. Ling tugged at the fabric around his neck until the knot came loose. His ribcage felt more akin to a prison for his lungs. He had to remind himself to breathe through the constricted feeling in his chest.

At last he reached the office of the royal alkahestris. The emperor barrelled through the door with Lieutenant Gao close behind. Around one of the beds in the room the curtain was drawn.

"Lan Fan!" Ling cried.

Margot Fontaine moved out from behind the curtain.

"Is she all right?" asked Ling in a panic.

"You need to wait outside," The automail doctor brooked no argument.

"I have to see her!" he insisted.

"Get him out of here," Margot demanded of Qiyin.

"I will not leave her!"

"Your Majesty, if you would allow me to I will stay. I'm Commander Liu's medical proxy," Lieutenant Gao stated.

The emperor and the automail doctor both looked at the bodyguard.

"What?" Ling questioned.

"In the event Commander Liu is unable to make her own medical decisions I have authority to make them on her behalf."

"Why have I not heard of this before now?" Emperor Yao demanded.

"I imagine Commander Liu did not wish to upset you with such talk," Lieutenant Gao reasoned.

Ling weighed Qiyin's words.

"If you would please wait outside I will provide you updates as they are available," the bodyguard promised.

"I'll permit it," said Margot.

"Thank you," he intoned.

The emperor reluctantly retreated from the room. In the hall outside the office Ling leaned his back against the wall and settled in to wait. He felt as helpless as he had the night Doctor Knox debrided Lan Fan's shoulder.

The silence now was somehow worse than the screams then.


Margot waited until the door snicked shut to step back behind the curtain. The lieutenant guard took up the spot at the end of the exam table. He clasped his hands behind his back and stood at attention.

"Are you really Lan Fan's medical proxy?" she asked.

"I am," Qiyin confirmed. "I would retrieve the paperwork from my room, but it appears time is of the essence."

"I'll take you at your word."

The automail doctor removed her stethoscope from around her neck as she stepped over to Lan Fan's bedside. Bolin removed his hands from his commander's chest in order for her to listen to her heart.

Not even a flutter of a heartbeat.

"What are her directives?" Margot questioned. Allowing the winded bodyguard to have a break she resumed resuscitation efforts herself.

"No extraordinary measures. If she is to die she does not wish to have the process prolonged," Qiyin answered.

Margot cut him a look.

"Are you going to try and stop me then?"


Qiyin Gao considered.

In allowing the automail doctor to continue her efforts he would be going against his commander's wishes. Qiyin glanced over his shoulder. He thought of the young man on the other side of the door. Of the devastation the commander's death would cause to those who loved her. He locked eyes with the woman doing her damndest to save Lan Fan Liu Zhang's life.

"Do you believe you can save her?"

"I can save her," Margot responded.

"Then I shall take you at your word."