Author's note: I've decided to release this chapter a little early because the story does start a bit slowly. This is the beginning of the build to conflict, and so after this the updates will come a little more slowly. As an idea about how much I have written, this installment will bring me up to 2800ish words published. The current running doc is 8000+ words, and I can easily see it going longer than that. I hope you're enjoying this so far and if you have critiques or comments feel free to message me privately or post a review. Without further ado:

Nine years, three months after Advent Unification, Village in Brittany, France

The outdoor movies were a new program, sponsored by the village council to encourage community and show old films from around the turn of the millennium. This week's showing was The Usual Suspects. The Commander smiled at the park staff as he walked in. His eyes searched the crowd, looking for a particular face. He found him under a tree, eyes glowing faintly in the shadow. It was hard for psionics to hide their powers, especially when genetic modifications had changed their bodies even further.

Still, every day it seemed like a new gene therapy had been discovered by Advent scientists. Clinics were starting to spring up where ordinary public could even apply for the new modifications. When he had called Dr. Vahlen about the clinics, she had refused to give him a straight answer because she was in charge of some of their administration. While her refusal had been puzzling, she had always been so committed to her job that he couldn't fault her. A quick check with some other former XCOM scientists revealed that the Meld used by Advent came from stocks found during and after the war, but the nine years that had passed since the war had seen great improvements in efficiency. During the war, the genetic modifications to soldiers had been physically taxing and Meld intensive. One scientist the Commander spoke to said that because the processes were offered so widely, he was still glad that Meld was practically abundant for research purposes.

His mind snapped back to former U.N. General Peter van Doorn as he approached the base of the tree. "You're practically glowing, general," he teased.

"I know, Commander," van Doorn responded. "I can suppress it if I need to, but I've been retired for so long that no one's going to pay attention to an old bald guy whose eyes are a little funky."

"How have you been? It's been a while."

"Oh you know, having most, if not all of the fun possible these days. I think the gene-mod stuff really gave me a new lease on life. And my kids keep telling me about their neighbors who are going to one of those new clinics. I think the stuff that Vahlen and her team cooked up seems to have benefited a lot more people than just the team. Do you talk to any of them?"

The Commander paused and thought. After a brief silence, he replied, "No. And that's a shame, to be honest. I wish I talked to them more. The most often contact is with the MEC farm, and they're doing just fine. They started growing their own crops, so it's quite literally a farm now."

"I always wondered how Bradford got the Russians to look the other way on that."

The Commander chuckled. "Basically, he personally guaranteed the safety of the Russian prime minister from the aliens during the war. Then they turned it over to XCOM when the Temple Ship exploded. They really honored their end of that deal. But back to staying in touch with the rest of the team."

He continued, "What do you think Peter? Would you want to get the gang back together? Maybe even at the old base if we can convince Advent to let us. You'd get to see all the MECs and we could commemorate twenty years since this whole thing ended."

"Hell yes, Commander! I'm surprised no one's done it already."

"I think that we sort of split out wider than other military units. Especially the MECs and the genetically modded, and the psionics. It's hard to interact with your comrades sometimes, let alone normal people. I'll see what I can do to set this thing up.

The movie was already underway as they stopped talking. It was a crime film from the decade before the new millennium. The Commander felt lost as he tried to follow the jerky narrative structure, from the crime scene, to jail, to an interrogation, and a mysterious man who no one could name. As the movie ended, the cops realized that the man they had been interrogating was the mastermind all along. As a flustered detective chased after the newly revealed villain in vain, the narrator's voice said, "The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist."

The applause was muted, but the moviegoers left buzzing about the exciting twist ending. The Commander pondered the message as he walked home, dictating messages to the people he needed to make the reunion idea happen.

Thanks to /u/nanopaladin for catching a typo in this chapter.