Act 2 - Chapter 1

Plans

Kane. He was a man known by many names, messiah, prophet, bringer of Tiberium, fanatic, madman. These names and more were all true, yet untrue, and carried with them a history of three wars and a staggering amount of years.

But here in this foreign land, this was only partially so, Kane thought to himself as he looked around the City of Nexus; a utopia for Louise's people. The prophetess. That was what her people called her with as much benevolence and warmth as he was called by his own.

Nexus was beyond what he had ever seen for the brotherhood of Nod. It was more massive than the temple primes of old, and the mere thought of how much land area it controlled was staggering.

Louise had been a welcome addition to his forces when he first met her years ago in the fields of green but now she commanded her own legions of Loyal Crystalists. It made him extremely happy, yet also made him worry. In the past his greatest allies had betrayed him more than just once. Would the same thing happen here? Would he be betrayed and trapped on foreign soil, unable to watch as his dreams manifested into reality?

"No, I mustn't let my negative thoughts get the better of me, not now of all times." Kane muttered to himself as he looked up at the sky above him. Its vibrant color and the presence of two moons, far larger than most he had seen, proved he was on a different world.

"Hey, prophet!"

Kane turned his head to the voice that beckoned out to him. Standing a few feet away was the one that was Louise's wife, the Blue Lotus. Siesta was her name if he recalled correctly. He had not spoken to her since the first time they met a week before, but something about her made him very cautious.

Her grandmother, the Black Lotus, was one who Kane had been familiar with. She had been one of his best agents in the Asian blue zones, and was so skilled, that most people at that time thought she had been a myth. Siesta looked like her in many ways, and her body fit her grandmother's old, and rather revealing outfit well, but whenever Kane had seen her in the last week, she always seemed to be glaring at him. And something about her glare, no, her eyes and her entire being, made him very, very cautious.

"Yes, do you need something, Blue Lotus?" Kane asked, doing his best to be polite. It wasn't something he was familiar with. He knew how to be polite to his subordinates and people, doing so often brought better results. But this was not being polite to someone under him, it was more akin to someone, beside him, and perhaps that was what made him so cautious of her.

"I don't, but our inner circle is having a meeting, and Louise asked me to see if you and Ajay wanted to join us for it." Siesta said, her gaze fixed on Kane's face.

Kane nodded to her and quickly followed her up the streets of Nexus, his mind working as it usually did, thinking. Louise had stated that after their prior meeting, they would put things on hold until the Brotherhood from earth was settled, and it seemed now she was deciding to have things move forward. The timing was strange though. While some of his people were still recovering from injuries, they all were settled, and many were helping local Crystalists with their work as a way to pay for lodgings. They had been settled for half a week already, so what had happened that made her decide to move forward again?

There was the one other thing that had been bothering him as well. Louise had described her rough plan to him, but had given no details on immediate plans or operations. He knew that she trusted him; it had been proven years before. So was she being cautious or just avoiding giving him information for some sort of reason?

"Before we head to the CIC, there is something I've been meaning to say." Siesta suddenly said as she stopped just shy of the doorway to Nexus Prime, Kane a mere meter behind her.

"And that would be?" Kane quickly replied with a calm tone and expression.

Siesta spun around on her heels and looked around, finding and sensing no one nearby but herself and Kane then spoke with her tone serious and edged with steel. "I do not know what kind of plans, machinations or ideas you have for things here, but I will not let them interfere with our own plans! You may be the great prophet, but Louise is the leader here, and if you do anything that causes her problems, I will personally drown you under a thousand gallons of liquid Tib, and ignite it. Do I make myself clear!?"

Kane could not reply instantly and was visibly surprised by what Siesta had just said. He knew that she seemed the most leery of his presence, but he had no idea she was so protective of Louise. But it didn't matter. "You do not need to worry. My forces and I shall provide assistance as we can, but our primary objective is returning to our world."

Siesta glared at Kane for a moment and turned back to the doors, flinging them open and walking inside without a word. Going through the building to the CIC, it was exactly as Kane had seen it the first time, with one stark difference. The hologram projector in the room was showing a large map of the continent, as well as small blinking lights taking up most of Tristania and spreading into the countryside around it.

Standing in front of the hologram was Louise, Fouquet, Faravis and Ajay, and all of them seemed to be staring at the blinking lights.

"It's too spread out; I don't see how they could all be related." Ajay stated.

"I agree. Halkeginia does not have the technology and magic does not bring such readings." Faravis said seriously.

"Yes, but we know that GDI followed you guys through the threshold. If they managed to land in Halkeginia without causing any battles, their forces could be the ones giving us these signals." Fouquet added calmly as she pointed to the clusters of lights in Tristania.

"Regardless, of where the waves are coming from, it does not change the fact that GD is likely in Halkeginia, and that we may have to accelerate our plans. Right, Louise?" Siesta said loudly as she and Kane walked up to the hologram table.

Louise nodded and placed both hands on the table, looking to Kane as she did. "Sorry to have you come here, but I figured you might want to know what we were planning."

"It is quite alright. Please continue, I shall speak only if I feel it necessary." Kane replied, suddenly getting a chill down his spine as Siesta left his side and walked around the table, stopping beside Louise.

"Alright, thank you for being here then," Louise said with a smile, before her face suddenly became serious, as if all prior emotion had drained out of it. "Back to the point at hand then, we'll come back to these radio signals later. Siesta, if you would."

Taking her call, Siesta tapped on a board and changed the holograms format, replacing the blinking dot with small red ones, that appeared as she spoke, positioned at different places in the different countries. "In the last three months we have lost many agents that were gathering intelligence and hunting leads in Halkeginia. One in Tristania and Germania, two in Gallia, and three in Romalia. All of our agents were actively looking for information of the group we believe is working behind the scenes in Halkeginia

"Um, sorry for interrupting when we're just kind of here, but a group, behind the crowns? As in plural?" Ajay asked suddenly.

Siesta nodded. "Yes, we found proof of its existence a few years ago, and believe they were the reason some of our original, and earlier plans did not come out the expected way. We don't have a name, but we believe it is a group comprised of both nobles and commoners due to the seemingly wide range of their influence."

"Hmmm, so they've caught roughly half our agents in Halkeginia then?" Fouquet asked unsure of the numbers.

Siesta nodded." Yes, and that is our problems, do we send in more people, change the direction of our searches, or change who is there in the first place."

"How about we change up who is over there then?" Faravis said after a moment of silence, causing everyone to look to him.

"But to whom?" Louise asked.

"Stay with me for a moment here, but I suggest we send, to Tristania at least, our daughters. We'll send Clarity and Emelia."

"What? That would never work? Emelia maybe, but her personality is far from perfect for wet work, and Clarity just wouldn't fit in!" Fouquet nearly shrieked.

"No, it would work." Louise suddenly said, causing everyone to look to her in surprise. "If we had Emelia holding a place for Clarity to come back to as a regular person, Emelia could get to know the people, while Clarity finds out what people don't want found. It could work, but we'd need a place near lots of knowledge, and where someone her age could blend in."

Siesta sighed and placed a hand on the bridge of her nose "Louise, think back a bit."

" . . . . Huh?"

"Ugh, the school! We have Emelia enter the magic academy!" Siesta said finally.

"Ah, I see. If Emelia is there as a student she would blend in, and Clarity could use her dorm room as a place to rest between areas for missions. There's no way she'd be caught by any of those old buffoons anyway!" Fouquet said with a smile.

"Hmmm, I'm not so sure, some of the teachers know us. If they find a connection between either of them to us, they could be compromised." Louise muttered with crossed arms, clearly not entirely on board with the idea.

"True, we'd have to make sure their initial insertion into the school went off without a hitch . . . . . and I think I know how it can be done." Siesta said with a smile as she rapped upon the keyboard before her and brought up images of the academy. "If we can alter the records of transferring students, and get someone's stamp of approval, we could have Emelia go in as, say, a low ranking Germanian noble's daughter. I think it'd work."

Louise hummed to herself for a moment before looking to Fouquet and Faravis, both of whom gave strong nods to her. "Alright, our girls are our best people really. We'd have to send people to get her in though and to make up her fake identity, and can your people do it, Siesta?"

Siesta smiled at Louise words and leaned away from the console, placing her hands on her hips as she did, "my shadows could, but they might make a mistake, so I'll do it myself! I'll leave as soon as we're done."

Louise nodded. "Alright then. There's only one other thing we need to look into then. GDI!"