All Genpei could feel was the stone prongs forcing his eyelids back, and a painful throbbing in his left jaw and temple where the Earthbending blows had struck. His limbs and torso were already numb- Zicheng had chi-blocked his limbs before forcing him into the chair. Darkness was all around, apart from the faint, greenish glow of the apparatus, humming just behind him.
"All this could have been avoided, Genpei." Zicheng's reproachful mutter reached him faintly. "If you hadn't succumbed to that Ashmaker's temptation, forgotten your duty to the greater good, as we were taught since we were children..."
Genpei heard himself give a scornful snort. "We were supposed... to protect the vulnerable, Zicheng. You know what we were, when the Dai Li found us... in Ba Sing Se. Rila was the same as us, at the war's end... a lost orphan. You're going to look down on me... for helping her, after what Long Feng's been doing behind the Earth King's back for deca-"
A stone band closed around his mouth, cutting off his speech. The wizened, merciless face of their former drillmaster, Sergeant Cao Ming, loomed in front of his face. "Hear your own words, Captain. Going behind the backs of those, who made you what you are. Remember what Captain Xi and I dragged you out of, what you cannot return to. The cause you have served, the years of labor and planning... To build a temple that will last a thousand years, each stone must be precisely laid. Shift the smallest one, and it all comes tumbling down. You have known this since the beginning, yet you risked it all for a tryst with the enemy. One of those who destroyed your village, forced you to flee to the Capitol in the first place, lost you everything."
Genpei ignored the rebuke about his hometown, but he felt a stab of guilt at the reference to his mentor. He'd always had to repeat himself after every mistake in training, but unlike Rila he hadn't been battered within an inch of his life, by someone several times his size. Apart from the occasional cuff from Cao Ming, his lumps had always come from Zicheng and his fellow trainees, not Xi. His Master had never used blows or other forms of discipline, whenever his pupils were out of line or asked too many questions. Instead, Xi simply sent them out into the squalid streets of the Lower Ring, without a word. Genpei had used the time to hone his observational skills, but overtime, he'd realized Xi's informal missions were also an unspoken reminder: Beyond the Dai Li, they had nothing, to go back to.
Or, so it had seemed, then...
His thoughts were disrupted by the screeching hiss of stone on metal as the sphere of green light swept across his vision, then out of sight again. Before he could jerk his head away, another Earthen band closed around his brow, pulling him back into place. The old sergeant's voice came again, from just behind him, but now it was low, soothing in tone. "No matter. If a stone has been incorrectly shaped, it must simply be re-cut. There was peace, within the Walls. When we return to Ba Sing Se, peace shall return... and spread across the Earth Kingdom, like the roots of a tree."
"Peace shall return." Zicheng, Joo Dee and several other agents echoed him.
Horseshit. Genpei struggled to focus on the meditation techniques Xi had taught him, to clear his mind, to assume Neutral Jing and wait for the right moment. He didn't know if it would allow him any real resistance; he hadn't known reeducation still existed, let alone if it could be countered. But the spine-tingling shriek of the rotating sphere, and the blaze of light passing before his gaze every few seconds, disrupted his concentration. His watering eyelids tried and failed to close, held open by the stone prongs.
"Go back to the very beginning." Low though Cao Ming's voice was, it rang off the chamber's damp stone walls. "Go back to what you were, what you cannot return to. What the Earth Kingdom must not return to..."
The emerald lamp shrieked across his vision again. This time, he seemed to perceive something passing it in the darkness, away from him; he wasn't sure if it was a stone, or...
"Go back to the beginning." Joo Dee's voice came, no longer high-pitched and cheerful, but iron wrapped in velvet. A chill ran down his spine as he strained again (and failed) to break free. On the last word, her voice had changed completely. It was still female, but someone elses. Someone... at the very back of his memory...
The lamp passed again, and for a split second, the scene that followed changed. Though his feet still weren't touching the ground, let alone moving, he seemed to be traveling in reverse, across a... hilltop. Below, a farm village silhouetted in flames blazed, its' smoke obscuring the stars above. The stones gripping his body were no longer stones, but a man's arms, cradling him to his shoulder as they fled. Next to them, the unknown woman's voice murmured curses, always directed at the 'Ashmakers', over and over beneath her tears. Then, darkness as the lamp swiveled behind Genpei's head again, and he remembered her arguing with the man as they bundled him onto a ferryboat. The creak of timber and ropes, as they crossed the moonlit bay to the Outer Wall, always on the lookout for the smoke of the black-armored ships...
The lamp passed, and suddenly an earth-colored sphere came hurtling out of the darkness. Genpei instinctively tried and failed to jerk his head sideways, but as the projectile struck his forehead and bounced lightly off, he realized it was hollow, made of boiled and hardened leather rather than rock. Zicheng's face gleamed briefly in the dark just as the lamp shrieked by again. His features suddenly looked younger, more hollow, yet less hardened, his voice shifting between that of a man and a child. "Go back to what we were before, Genpei. Chaotic, undisciplined, ready to cast each other off at the first opportunity. Constantly fighting to survive."
"Fighting to survive."
The light passed again, but this time, instead of vanishing abruptly to his right, the glow shifted to overhead, matching the noontime sun. The leather ball whizzed back again, narrowly missing his ear. Genpei craned his head to try and follow it; his restraints did not release, but their grip seemed to soften, shifting his position to follow the ball's arc. He was in a dusty courtyard behind a large, white-plastered house, with Zicheng and two other boys. All Earthbender orphans of the Lower Ring, youths who gathered occasionally in unspoken agreements that only offered the chance of a meal, shelter or coins for the gambling tables. But how had they gotten here, the rear courtyard of a Triad house, when they were constantly trying to avoid any encounters with the police, let alone the local crime syndicate? It was madness; other street orphans, seeing the Triads as a way out, would name their usual hiding spots in a heartbeat, in exchange for a meal or initiation. Why had he...
"Remember, what they took from you." He felt a sudden jab of pain at his temple, where Zicheng's Earthbending blow had struck (when had that happened?)
The lamp passed again, and he was peering drowsily between two reed screens. His parents' silhouettes were opposite a grizzled, muscular man with a queue, a Badgermole tattoo on his arm, and a low, menacing tone. This... This was the last time he'd seen them.
The orphanage director had warned him to forget about his parents, cuffed him when he asked where to find the man. But as soon as Genpei discovered he could Earthbend, he left the overcrowded building and took to the streets with Zicheng. Their alliance had been based on mutual means; they would train and support each other to survive the Lower Ring's treacherous streets, dividing the spoils until they felt ready to approach the Triads. However, their ends differed; Zicheng wished to join their ranks, figuring it was more of a choice than the impoverished orphanage or the Army. Genpei simply wanted answers- though he knew from the start, it wouldn't be as simple as knocking on the Triads' door. Either way, once they made it inside, all bets were off.
The ball whizzed past him again, rolling along a ridge of earth Zicheng raised beneath it. Just as it reached the goalposts, however, the defender made his move. A stone wedge spiked from the ground, hurling the ball in the opposite direction. Genpei dodged and spun around, just in time to see a short, heavyset man near the courtyard's entrance. The newcomer ducked, and the ball whizzed over his head and shattered the wood-and-ricepaper windowscreen behind him. Immediately, there was a bellow of indignation inside the house.
Genpei's eyes moved quickly from Zicheng's alarmed face, to the old man. He was relieved to see an amused smile on his bearded face as he approached them. "It is usually best to admit mistakes when they occur, and seek to restore honor-"
"HEY!" A hulking face, its' nose crooked from a previous break, filled the hole in the screen. "WHEN I'M THROUGH WITH YOU KIDS, THE WINDOW WON'T BE THE ONLY THING THAT'S BROKEN!"
The old man winced. "But not this time. Run!"
The four youths were already scattering as he spoke. Zicheng had witnessed the Triads' temper before, during his various nightime wanderings; their threats were always carried out. Having gotten the gangsters' attention, it was time to both impress them and stay alive.
As they all reached the mouth of the courtyard, a door slammed open behind them. The other two boys immediately took off in opposite directions; Zicheng and Genpei both stomped simultaneously, their stone collumns hurling them into the air. Flying over the nearest building, they rolled down the curved roof of the next one, conjuring Earthen currents and speeding down the street. They rounded the corner toward a small shrine, a public site where the thugs were less likely to come after them openly- only to find it empty. They glanced at each other in alarm and bewilderment; the square was almost never completely abandoned.
Suddenly, stone gauntlets descended on their ankles, pinning them in place. Twisting around, Genpei spotted two figures in green and black robes blocking the way across the square. The shorter one slid across the cobbles toward them, his hat tilting back to reveal a square jaw and narrow grey eyes.
Genpei felt a cold chill; the Dai Li were the only thing that frightened the Triads, even more than the Fire Nationals. Zicheng's hand chopped down in a futile gesture, trying to release his pinned feet; Genpei flashed a lopsided smile, excuses already forming on his lips. The taller, more muscular man shook his head. "Don't bother. What were you saying to that old man?"
"Nothing." Genpei's hand slipped behind his back, fingers contorting to mold a jagged wedge of cobble from the street. "He just gave us advice on how to escape-"
"Advice?" The Dai Li officer scoffed. "If you're fool enough to take advice from an Ashmaker, boy, you won't live long."
"Ashmaker?" Genpei froze, his thirteen-year-old mind contrasting the portly, kind-faced stranger with his parents' farm receding in the distance, burning. He'd never actially seen the Fire Nation soldiers when they invaded, but that image, the seed of everything that had gone wrong in his life, he would never forget. "But... he spoke of honor, of admitting mistakes-"
"That very mention of honor, should have given him away to you." The first man cut him off. "Ashmakers use their supposed 'code of honor' to justify every horror they've ever committed, across the Earth Kingdom."
Zicheng's eyes widened. "A... Firebender, here? That... that can't be true, Ba Sing Se is-"
"Impenetrable to any army, no matter how large." The man rolled his eyes. "But it only takes a single infiltrator, from within, to open the gates of even the strongest fortress." His wrinkled, strangely-familiar face suddenly seemed inches away, his voice rougher. " You've seen how much destruction they can inflict before, haven't you? Imagine what it would be like, if they made it inside, with all these millions clustered together. How the Triads you've been seeking, would join them and turn you and your fellow orphans over at the first opportunity."
"How did you know..." We know everything. "Why... haven't you captured him, if you know what he is?"
"Intelligence is a long game, boy- far more so than that foolish match you chose to hold, in a Triad's backyard. We never strike a hair before we're ready, before we know we can win. Which is why, even if the Fire Army did break through the Outer Wall, they would never find us. And as long as the Dai Li endure, the Earth Kingdom will never truly fall."
"But... that can't be true, Azula got through... and then... you helped her-"
There was another sudden lance of pain, much sharper than the previous one, at his temple. Genpei fell to his knees, his eyes squeezing shut in agony, hands going to his head, but somehow failing to touch anything. An adult voice similar to Zicheng's, muttered from his right, "when we're further along." He glanced up quickly, but his companion's eyes were on their captors. Cao Ming's arm was outstretched, the stones of his gauntlet already returning to his hand.
"Far too soon." The other, younger man shook his head and removed his hat, the sunlight reflecting off his shaved dome. "You think you know about survival, about patience?" He held up his hand, Genpei's missing cobble twirling between his fingers. "You've only taught yourselves the basics; you've never seen beyond your next meal, nearest escape. We've been training under Masters since we were your age- our organization has kept the Earth King's peace for two centuries, and held back the Fire Army for nearly as long. And the main reason we've succeeded, is because we wait for the right moment." His hard gaze moved across Genpei's strong, defensive stance. "Though, that impulsive streak of yours may find its' uses... once it's been tempered a bit. A Triad den, isn't going to give you the answers you seek about your parents, Genpei. Not if you only go after them head-on."
"Y-you know my-" Genpei froze as the rest of the man's words hit him. "How did you know... I was looking for-"
"We know everything. To keep peace within the Walls, knowledge is always the key. I can provide you more knowledge than you could ever want... if you have the resolve to stay the course, to the end." The man replaced his hat and turned away, clasping his right hand in his left behind his back. His right index twitched, and the stones binding Genpei and Zicheng flew back to his wrists. "Alternately, you could fade back into the slums, waste away, and contribute nothing for yourself or anything greater..."
"That's if the Triads don't find you, in short order." The other officer shrugged. "And, given that nearly half of them feed us information in exchange for leaving them in peace, and they in turn have informants all over the Lower Ring..."
Genpei felt a flare of shock, defiance and anger in his chest, but his survival instincts kicked in, and he bit back a retort. Any advantage he thought he'd gained over the last three years, was clearly an illusion. It was Zicheng, rubbing his ankles, who spoke next. "Can we at least know your name?"
"I am but a servant of the Earth Kingdom... and now, so are both of you." The shorter Earthbender didn't turn back. "You will refer to me, as Master Xi."
The sun suddenly sped across the horizon (or was it the lamp?) and darkness fell again. The boys were following Xi down a damp, sloping tunnel (where was it damp in the Lower Ring, besides the sewage canals?) lit by luminous crystals protruding from the walls. A vast network of catacombs stretched beneath the old city, dividing into more passages than he could count. A girl about their age, wearing a yellow robe and a green scarf stamped with the Earth Kingdom's seal bowed to him, a hesitant, nervous smile on her face. Cao Ming explained they had 'rescued' her and others from the streets, and from the Triads' brothels. Genpei felt a flash of pity; having Earthbending, at least he and Zicheng hadn't had to sell themselves. But as he started to ask more, there was a sharp pain in his temple again.
"It's his lie detection- he can feel your pulse through the stone." A voice seemed to mutter, at the back of his head. Something heavy- Xi's gauntleted hand, probably- dropped onto his shoulder and turned him away.
Several days and nights flashed by, with increasing speed. By day, Genpei was Xi's shadow, through the winding alleys and side-streets of Ba Sing Se, observing the reactions in his Master's wake with interest. Even the Triads, who treated the police with open contempt, drew back in fear as the man's black and green robe swept past. By night... he and Zicheng pummeled each other with increasingly accurate Earthbending, under the watchful eye and quick hand of Cao Ming. Or, he went wandering alone, at Xi's directive- not just through the Lower Ring, but for the first time the other two as well, to hone his knowledge of the city as a whole. He was amazed by what he saw of the universities, temples, markets and palaces of the Middle and Upper Ring, yet he felt uncomfortable, out of place... and, a bit resentful. None of these people suffered, as the denizens of the Lower and Agrarian Rings did; what had they done, to earn such privelege?
Not yet skilled or stealthy enough to qualify for an officer's uniform, he wore simple laborer's clothes; every time he entered the Middle or Upper Ring, he half-expected to be thrown out. But if Triad thugs, soldiers or police stopped him, he would withdraw a bronze bauble trailing a green silk tassel from his pocket. As soon as they read the characters embossed on it, they released him without a word. At the end of each patrol, he compiled every detail of what he'd learned, no matter how mundane, to Xi, then listened behind the door (he half-suspected Xi always left it just slightly ajar on purpose) as other reports were dictated.
His initial uncertainty and dismay soon faded to enthusiasm, as his understanding of Ba Sing Se grew. Whatever arrangement the crime syndicates and nobility had with the Dai Li, it was clear where the real power lay. If he and Zicheng bided their time and learned how to judge for the right moment, as Xi had suggested...
Suddenly, the daylight reflected off a pristine lake, the opposite shore so far off it seemed to touch the edge of the Outer Wall. Farmland and wooded hills rose on their flanks, and behind them.
"We've received an order from Long Feng." Xi shook his head grimly. "The Avatar has reached the Earth King; our headquarters beneath Lake Laogai must be demolished."
A Lieutenant at his right gave a concerned expression. "Those facilities will be extremely difficult to replicate, Captain. Perhaps the Grand Secretariat's order was a bit hasty-"
"It is the Grand Secretariat who put us in this position in the first place, by not properly dealing with the Avatar." Xi cut him off sharply. "If King Kuei is swayed by the Avatar's arguments, then the Dai Li's position is unstable... for the first time, in over a century. And, should the regime collapse with us, as it almost certainly will, Lake Laogai cannot fall into Ashmaker hands."
Genpei, standing at his mentor's left, kept his blank gaze on the mass of water, but his stance was rigid beneath his robes. Xi's pulse was still steady; he hadn't outright lied, but... there had been something, he'd avoided mentioning. Still, as long as the Outer Wall still stood, the Dai Li's political position was their first priority. "Couldn't we somehow... persuade the Avatar to support our cause, Masters?"
Cao Ming shook his head. "He's no older than you and Zicheng, and was raised among those pious Air Nomad fools. Having never faced the daily challenges we do, his naivete has blinded him to the reality of this war. And he's too powerful, for us to contain." He shot Xi a reproachful look. "Which is why Long Feng tried to handle the boy and his friends diplomatically, as he did with His Majesty-"
"And what has that dawdling gained him, now?" Xi cut him off. "Neutral Jing means waiting for the right moment, Sergeant, not waiting indefinitely. He chose to keep too much from the only one who can dismiss him, and now it comes back to bite us." He exhaled sharply. "We will remain quiet for a few days... until we can sense which way the wind is blowing." No one laughed at the irony. "Demolish the facilities as ordered, and send our reserves, as well as Joo Dee, into the tunnels beneath the Catacombs; the Council of Five won't go looking for us there, only Long Feng knows their full extent. I will return to His Majesty's court, and learn what I can. The Grand Secretariat failed to contain this obstacle because he struck too late. If we are to retain our position, and that of the city, we must not to make the opposite mistake, in turn." He locked eyes with Cao Ming, then squeezed Genpei's shoulder. "Do not act, without my signal."
The sun sank, and the emerald lamps of the caverns rushed past Genpei again. He and Zicheng were standing at attention in Xi's hidden cell, below the Crystal Catacombs themselves. Genpei's mind was reeling, at the kaliedoscope of rumors, reports and whispers that had reached him, in the last few days. The Fire Princess had gotten past them? The Earth King gone, and even the Dai Li didn't know where?
"How could this have happened?" Cao Ming sputtered angrily. "Instead of seizing the heir to the Fire Nation when she's completely encircled, we hand her the keys and let her father's armies enter our Capitol?! Seven decades, of throwing back every attacker... and Ba Sing Se falls to the conspiracy of a single Ashmaker girl?! We literally outnumbered her a thousand to one-"
"The Grand Secretariat misjudged the situation... again." Xi pressed his hand to his temples, wearily. "He clearly didn't expect the Fire Princess to have such a strong... influence, upon some of our officers. Even if the "Mandate of Heaven" argument is ignored, her comrades had the Earth King in their custody when Long Feng made his move. She would have murdered Kuei rather than surrender, and that would have provoked a succesional crisis- thrown the Earth Kingdom's last stronghold, into civil war. Even with the Council of Five neutralized, the Dai Li's authority was still far from secure, since Long Feng's arrest. Under those circumstances, do you really think we could have stopped another assault like the one with that drill? We barely managed to hold off that attack, and only with help from the Avatar- who, according to Captain Yuesheng's report, has since been slain-"
"So our only option, once again, is to play along until we have a real chance, to strike back?" The Sergeant snorted. "It seems Long Feng isn't the only one who 'misjudged' the situation-"
"Weren't you the one, Sergeant, who told these boys that it only takes one infiltrator to open the strongest fortress?" Despite his sarcastic tone, Xi's mouth was a rigid line, his expression as opaque as always. "Rest assured, Yuesheng and I have a plan... and, surprisingly, a timeline. With the Earth King's whereabouts unknown... there is no one but us, for his citizens to rally to."
His hand descended on Genpei and Zicheng's shoulders in a firm grip. "Princess Azula demands that the Dai Li's senior officers, including myself, follow her to the Ashmaker Capitol. She claims we will act as her new 'personal guard'... in other words, as hostages. Everything rests on you, and the other new recruits. You know the personal codes of every faction in the city, how to cover your tracks, how to siphon the truth from lies. Put these skills to use, and keep honing your Earthbending under Cao Ming." His fierce gaze seeming to bore into each of them. "Sozin's Comet will return at the end of the summer... but once it fades, the Ashmakers' advantage will be exhausted. I'll be relying on both of you to give us every speck of information you can... for when Yuesheng and I return."
Genpei and Zicheng bowed their heads, stone-encased fists against their chest. Xi had never been wrong before, had always reciprocated their loyalty. No matter how the Fire Army might crack down on Ba Sing Se, they would never know it as the Dai Li did. "We will not fail you, Master Xi."
And then, the tassel wasn't clutched in Genpei's fist but swaying back and forth across his vision, hanging from the wide brim of his hat. He and Zicheng were in a neighborhood they'd rarely entered before: it was filled with a mixture of Nonbender peasants and recently-arrived refugees, trapped by the occupation. Despite having been given new Fire Nation administrators, it was also the haunt of a recently-formed nationalist gang, the Emerald Boarcupines. What a stupid name, Genpei thought. Still, it made for a reasonable insignia, he supposed, as four of them stumbled onto the moonlit street. One was dragging a pleading youth by the scruff of his neck, another had a stone blade hovering over his hand. The tattoo of the snarling, quilled pig was just visible over the edge of each of their collars.
At the scraping of the Dai Li's stone shoes, the group spun around. Three of them were a head taller than Genpei and Zicheng, and two were Benders. But Xi and Cao Ming had given them all they needed and more, as promised.
It took only two swift steps, a flick of Genpei's wrist, and several swift jabs from Zicheng, and the Triads were disarmed, bruised and immobilized. Genpei broke the Earthbenders' fingers, for good measure. As they bit back screams of pain, fearful of alerting an Ashmaker patrol, Zicheng glanced at him. His expression was puzzled, but hardly squeamish; they'd both seen far worse. "I don't believe Cao Ming said anything, about crippling them-"
"Did I ask about Cao Ming's opinion on this?" Genpei cut him off, his voice hard. Noticing his partner's wary expression, he exhaled slowly, banishing the tension from his frame. "Besides... Xi and Cao Ming told us to make sure the occupation wasn't upset, prematurely. The Boarcupines are Ba Sing Se's newest Triad; their members are young, hotheaded, and eager to defy the invaders at any turn. They need to know the real rules of this city, don't they? Just as we did, when we first arrived here... they need to know who they take their orders from, and who they'll be accountable to if the Fire Nation gets wind of any of this. Better to make sure their Earthbenders stay out of action for a while, at the very least."
He met Zicheng's gaze briefly, hoping he hadn't guessed the truth: that Genpei had been itching to take action against the Triads, ever since Xi's departure. Zicheng had been even quicker to embrace the Dai Li's code than that of the Triads, and for all their time together on the streets, there was neither affection nor real trust between him and Genpei, only grudging mutual respect. He might not be able to detect lies through vibrations, but if he thought his comrade had gone too far...
Zicheng's eyes were narrowed in suspicion, but then both his expression and his features seemed to change; his jaw lengthened, cheekbones becoming more pronounced. His voice also deepened. "Good point. But, if we're going to make an example... let's start with the one they were going after."
Genpei blinked, confused. "What do you-"
"He's from a rival gang." Cao Ming's voice cut him off. They were in the tunnels beneath the Crystal Catacombs once again, their prisoners manacled before them.
Genpei frowned. Had this already... happened? But it should have been different... "Does... Captain Xi have a message for us? I thought he-"
"Merely for you to dispose of this one, and leave his body for the Ashmakers to find. It will send them and the locals, the right message." Cao Ming's hand clenched into a fist, levitating the youngest toward him by his stone-bound hands. The teenager's sleeve slid down, revealing a tattoo. "He sold out rebels within the Middle and Lower Ring, ones Xi and I had already persuaded to stand down until Sozin's Comet passed. Undermined his fellow Earth Citizens, to collaborate with our sworn enemies in exchange for a meal."
Genpei swallowed, his tongue filling his throat. The prisoner's features seemed to blur, shifting briefly to an older, broader face, one he recognized. For a split second, the tattoo on his wrist vanished. "This... can't be right. We... we took them-"
Another agonizing jab in his temple cut off his speech, brought him to his knees. The Sergeant leaned close, his gravely voice surprisingly soothing. "You've wanted this from the start, haven't you, Genpei? To deal with the corrupt, those who oppress the weak. Like those who took your home, your parents. You were on a quest to destroy the Triads from within, from the day you started that ballgame in their backyard. Xi and I simply gave you the tools, to make your calling your duty."
The captive opened his mouth to say something, but Zicheng's gauntlet clamped around it, cutting him off. Cao Ming stared down at him with an expression of contempt. "Those who collaborate, deserve no better than the Ashmakers; eliminating them will bring hope to the Earth King's people, cut through the fear and despair they've faced since the Fire Nation arrived. Our citizens already outnumber their soldiers by the thousands... Apart from those few turncoats, Joo Dee is the only foothold the Fire Nation has in Ba Sing Se, and she can be returned to us at any time. Once summer comes to an end... we have but to make our move, and the Ashmaker's foundation stones collapse." He gestured toward the terrified prisoner, then back to Genpei. "We make the first cracks... with this one."
Genpei sucked in air, frantically massaging his head, trying to banish the blinding pain and concentrate his jumbled thoughts at the same time. It seemed... too much. Fear and pain could certainly serve to teach the powerful to mind their place; he'd witnessed their effect before. But he'd never taken a life. And did this young man deserve it? There were collaborators, but he didn't seem like one...
"Go back to the beginning. Remember what they took from you. Go back to the beginning. Remember what they took..."
The image of his burning village, then his parents pleading with the hukling mobster, flashed back-to-back before his eyes.
Joo Dee, Zicheng and Cao Ming's voices merged into a relentless, monotone chant, boring into his brain, focusing him toward his target. He inhaled a final time, slowly, then stood up. He didn't look down at his wrist, as the gauntlet molded into a stone blade. Inflexible though Cao Ming was, his training had made them stronger... like Xi, he had never failed them. And justice for the Triads, was long overdue. Now that he had a cast-iron excuse, he would lead the purge and remove them, one by one...
"Genpei, the Earth King has invited you to Lake Laogai."
Genpei's lips moved in response as his blade swept forward, the pain in his head finally receding.
"I am honored to accept His invitation."