Author note : and now the chapter people have been waiting for since emissary.

Act 1 - Chapter 3

Messiah.

"Ugh. Why did you have to insist to having the buggy parked so far away?" Emelia moaned as she hung her head over the edge of the windowless door.

Clarity looked over from the driver seat where she sat and sighed as she saw what Emelia was doing. "I insisted in case we found something more dangerous so it wouldn't have found our ride. Its standard protocol and you know that."

"Ugh, I know but, ugh." Emelia continued to moan as she dangled her arms out of the buggy along with her head.

"Don't do that, Emelia," Clarity said after a moment. "If you get hit by something it'll hurt like hell. Worst case it'll kill you, and then your parents will kill me."

"Only if your parents don't kill you first!" Emelia said with a grin as she dragged herself back into the buggy and flipped on the screen in front of her, bringing up a map of Kania. "It'll be at least another nine hours until we get to Mirage. Why the heck did my mom have to make it so far away?"

"Because a port city has to be near water."

"I know that but I still think she could have made it further north up the coastline instead of almost directly west of Nexus!"

"Then the Halkeginian navy could possibly see it. A small chance, but still a chance." Clarity explained calmly as the buggy flew over a small hill and landed back on the ground with a lurch.

"I know, but—ah, never mind!" Emelia cried out in anger and embarrassment as she pulled out her Shardshot and began fiddling with its chambers.

"Must you do that? You'll break your gun and- aw crap!"

"Yes I must, it keeps me occupied. And what's wrong?" Emelia asked as she closed her Shardshot and placed it back into its holster on her belt.

"We're almost out of fuel. We'll need to find a Tib Spike and refuel. Any around?"

Emelia jumped up and stood on her chair as she peered out at the horizon, using only a hand on the bar in front of her to stop herself from falling out of the buggy. "I think there's . . . . Yes I see one just a bit northwest of us, it should be within reach!" Emelia called as she pointed in the direction of the spike before dropping back onto her seat with a smile.

Clarity smiled upon hearing the news and turned the buggy to target their new objective. "Was it a Red spike?"

"I, uh, couldn't tell . . . . . oh hell I hope it's a red one, I really don't want to tire myself out just to get a couple kilograms of red Tib!"

Clarity merely smiled vindictively as the buggy came over a hill, granting both of them clear sight of the Tiberium spike in the ground and the clearing around it.

Tiberium Spikes were a Technology from Nod's origin world of Earth, and worked by pulling Tiberium in the ground toward it and then breaking it down to be used. When the prophetess pulled their plans out of Legion's databanks however, she and Clarity's father Faravis, made some adjustments to them. The adjustment caused the Tiberium connected to the spikes to drain metals and minerals at lower rates, but also caused the original material to regenerate itself, creating a nearly infinite amount of resources. Though their gathering was slow and trucks had to come out to collect their reserves every few weeks.

Driving up beside the Tib Spike both Clarity and Emelia let out sighs of relief as they saw the Large Red Crystals of Tiberium around it. Jumping out of the buggy and drawing one of her swords Emelia swung it at the nearest crystal and then twisted her blade, breaking off a large chunk of red Tiberium that landed at her feet. Picking it up and walking over to the buggies back she found Clarity had already opened the compartment and smiled. "Thank goodness for power spikes huh?"

"Yeah, but really not having them would be counterproductive, especially since everything we use is powered by Red Tib."Clarity stated as Emelia collected and dropped the shares of red Tib into the buggies power compartment and closed it.

"Yeah I guess so. Aren't like half of all Tiberium spikes for creating Red Tib anyway?"

"Yes, you should know this! This is why your folks are always angry with you!"

"They're not angry just-," Emelia began to argue until the sound of a radio angrily wailing caught both their attentions.

Rushing over to the seats of the buggy Clarity grabbed the Radio and clicked it on, "Yes, hello?"

"Clarity, good! I need you and my daughter to do something for us."

Both Emelia and Clarity's faced became cold as they heard Siesta's voice through the radio. Did she know they had been planning to sneak over to Mirage? "Um, okay. Do you want to talk to Emelia instead or-," Clarity began, gaining an angry glare from Emelia as she did.

"No that's fine. We need you both to go to Kania's north western edge and look for crashed ships, specifically, carryalls, venoms and vertigo's."

Both Emelia and Clarity looked at each other for a moment with looks of confusion and worry on their faces. "D-did my mum order an attack on Halkeginia or-?"

"Of course not Clarity. The Scrin threshold went active about half an hour ago and both Nod and GDI Forces from Earth came through. We need you to find those Nod forces and see how many survived and then call us back with a damage assessment so we can react accordingly."

Both Emelia and Clarity's faces lit up with instant interest. "Nod forces? From the origin world, from Earth?" Clarity asked carefully, trying to and failing to hide her sudden excitement.

Siesta did not answer right away, causing both girls to suddenly worry, until she finally answered. "Yes. If there are survivors, and we think there will be if they landed safely, remember you are the daughters of inner circle members, please act accordingly. And yes, I'm directing that to you, Emelia!"

Emelia shrunk down beside the buggy as Clarity took the receiver closer to her mouth. "Uh, Emelia is grabbing some Tib for the buggy. She's not here at the moment." Clarity lied.

"Do you think I believe that, Clarity?" Siesta asked. "Both of you get going already. This is important, okay?"

"Of course. We'll be one the way as soon as Emelia returns with that crystal." Clarity said before quickly reaching over and turning off the radio before looking to Emelia. "What did you do to piss your mum off so badly, Emelia?"

Emelia shrugged as she pulled herself up and into the Buggy. "I don't know, but I think mum knew we were trying to get to Mirage."

"You think!" Clarity said with a sigh as she set the buggy in gear. "Let's get going then, you heard your mum."

"Yeah. On the upside we're really close to the northwestern edge!"

Clarity smiled and nodded in agreement as she stepped on the gas causing the buggy to lurch forward, its speed increasing by the second until it was around 250KM and they sped across the grasslands of northern Kania.

The grasslands of northern Kania were the easiest area of the continent to traverse. With only sparse trees, wide and shallow rivers that twisted around, and grass as far as the eye could see; it was an easy area to see things on the horizon, but a hard place to see individuals hidden in the grass. Luckily for them, smoke signalled their objective, and almost four hours later Clarity and Emelia were standing atop a hill and looking down, a massive number of both broken and unbroken Nod aircraft lying on the plains below them.

" . . . . Shall we take a look?" Emelia asked after almost a full minute of silence.

Clarity shook her head. "Don't look around, but I noticed a couple people in the grass. They likely think they have us surrounded." Clarity whispered.

Emelia turned her head to Clarity and looked at her with a 'seriously' look. "I saw them too. They look like shadows, but they're really bad at staying hidden."

"It's not that they are bad, Emelia," Clarity said as she looked to Emelia and then back at the sight below them, "it's that we were given shadow training by your mum, and combat training from both our moms."

Emelia opened her mouth to speak but instead looked back at the ships before them again. "Okay, you've got a point, we're well trained. Are we going to go check out those ships or not? It looks like that central carryall is in rough shape, they could have wounded."

Clarity was quiet for a minute before letting out a heavy sigh. "Fine, but we take this slowly and carefully. We don't know how anyone will react to us, but be ready to have to book it if necessary, alright?"

Emelia smiled and placed both her hands on the hilts of her sheathed swords. "Alright. Let's go say hi."

Clarity nodded as the two of them began to slowly walk toward the landed and crashed ships. As they walked down the hill they could see many people in the grasses around them, all of them wearing black plate, and carrying large caliber pistols. Definitely shadow teams. The shadows that followed them did not attack in any way, merely followed them. They were either under orders, or saw the similarity in Emelia and Clarity's clothing to their own. Whatever the reason they did not come out of the bushes until after Emelia and Clarity neared one of the venoms. Then bursting from the grass behind them the shadows all pointed their guns to the girls. At the same time, many men and women popped out from behind the venom craft, aiming rotary rifles at them with steel in their eyes. No one moved for many moments, the Nod sliders unsure how to react to the situation, and Clarity and Emelia giving them time to see their clothing and make the correct assumptions.

Finely, unable to stand the silence any longer Emelia stepped forward and smiled. "We heard you all had a little problem. Need help?"

A young man stepped forward and pointed his rotary rifle to Emelia's head, the end of the barrel a mere inch from her nose." Who the hell are you two and where did you come from?"

Emelia let the rotary rifle hang there for only a moment, allowing the soldier to let a feeling of power sink in. Then she swatted the barrel away, wrenched the gun out of his hands and drew one of her blades, pressing its edge to his throat with a smile. "Now, I know I was being nice, but apparently we need to try this again!" Emelia stated, her face suddenly becoming cold and steely. "I am Emelia Vallière, daughter of Louise Vallière, Prophetess of the Crystalists and Third rank commando of the Crystalist special operations. You will bring me to see your leader, now!"

Not a single person moved for a moment until Clarity shook her head in exasperation and stepped forward. "We're Nod forces native to this land." Clarity explained. "We were sent to find you and see what happened."

"Oh, like we are going to believe that!" the man pinned by Emelia said before her blade pressed against his neck ever so slightly harder.

"Shut it, we are!" Emelia said angrily as she shook her shoulder causing the Crystalist logo on it to shake about.

"I don't recognize that symbol. You both are just-," another soldier began before he was loudly interrupted by a new voice.

"What is going on here? Report!" a man yelled as he walked into view from behind the nearby venom craft. The man looked easily in his fifties or sixties, and had a head of unkempt short brown hair. He was well built and looked in good shape regardless of his age and the vest he wore left his large arms completely uncovered.

"G-General Ajay, sir! We caught these two snooping around. We think they're spies for GDI!" a soldier said as he saluted the old man.

Ajay walked past the soldier and looked at Clarity and Emelia, his gaze stopping on Emelia. "You look familiar," Ajay muttered to himself for a moment. "Please release my soldier. Who are you, girl?"

Emelia looked to Clarity who gave her a quick nod, and pushed the soldier away, sliding her blade back into its sheathe and dropping the man's rotary rifle to the ground. "My name is Emelia Vallière, daughter of the Prophetess, and Third Ranked Commando of the Crystalist special operations forces."

Ajay raised an eyebrow as he heard the girl's family name. "Vallière? Is your mother perhaps, named Louise?"

Emelia nodded. "Yes, why?"

Ajay smiled. "Alright then, that explains everything. Would the two of you please come with me. We have much to discuss and there's someone you should meet."

Emelia and Clarity looked to each other for a moment as Clarity stepped up beside Emelia. "How do we know we can trust you?"

"Because, I knew Louise long ago." Ajay stated as he turned his gaze to his troops and scowled. "If these girls introduced themselves to you then you should have recognize at least this girl's family name. Brush up on your history when you have a chance and get back to work!"

The soldiers darted away immediately, leaving Emelia and Clarity alone with Ajay as he turned around and waved his arm. "C'mon, this way."

Clarity and Emelia stepped up on either side of Ajay as they followed him, their muscles tense and ready to react should things turn sour. Ajay led them further into the array of landed and crashed Nod ships and toward the carryall that sat in the center. The crafts around them where covered in dents, scrapes, and burn markings, while many of the crashed crafts were smoldering wrecks with the telling signs of rocket and bullet holes upon them; a few even had dead bodies sticking out of them or lying inside of them. "Why have you not dealt with your dead yet?" Clarity asked solemnly as they walked.

Ajay looked to him and shook his head. "We only landed, and crashed, a few hours ago. Many of our ships should have broken apart sooner, but their pilots forced them past their limits to find land. We're still tallying who is dead and alive while our next move is decided. Your coming will likely change the possibilities."

"And why is that?" Clarity asked, slightly irked that he was taking so long to answer.

"Because of this girl's name." Ajay said as he gestured to Emelia, a gesture that made her scowl in curiosity. "What is your name by the way, girl?"

"Clarity. Second Rank Commando of the Crystalists special operations division." Clarity said, leaving out her family name, and the names of her parents.

Ajay nodded as he stopped in front of the back of the carryall, which had a large piece of cloth strung from it, blocking view of what was inside. "Stay here." Ajay ordered as he slipped inside the carryall, making sure to push the cloth back to where it had been. Almost immediately both girls could hear Ajay speaking with another man, but their hushed tones and whispers did not penetrate the cloth in front of them. After a few moments of incoherent muttering, mumbling and whispering, and a few more moments of silence, Ajay's voice pierced the silence once more. "Enter."

Emelia and Clarity looked at each other and simultaneously nodded pushing the cloth out of their way and entering the carryall together. As the cloth fell back behind them they found the inside of the carryall in a shape they did not expect. The walls had their plating taken off; revealing large quantities of cabling and insulation, and many of the wires had been pulled out of the walls and were lying across the floor. A few of the cables were connected to what appeared to have been the carryalls main control panel that now sat on a chair, and had a small, broke hologram being shown above it; a small hologram of the area around the crashed and landed ships. Ajay himself sat on a section of seating that did not have cabling lying across it, and just behind him, standing beside the makeshift hologram, was a man. The man stood tall, easily six feet tall, and was completely bald. He looked to them and smiled warmly. "You do indeed look a lot like your mother. Emelia, was it?"

Emelia nodded. "Yes, how do you know my mother?"

The bald man let out a quick chuckle. "Because my dear, I trained her."

"Wait, if you trained her, then-", Clarity began before being cut off.

"Indeed, but allow me to introduce myself correctly, girls." the man said softly. "My name is Kane, the Head of The Brotherhood of Nod."