Days had passed since the incident. Zhang had pushed it to the back of his mind but was still actively avoiding interacting with Geist, though he knew he needed to apologize for his outburst.

Seemed like it was just his psionics acting up and not Geist pulling some psionic trickery to guilt trip him for the psionic training sessions he had been skipping out of spite.

But he still wanted to stew on what had happened. It all just felt off in a way he couldn't describe. He was sure he felt Geist's touch on his mind when the voices started, but there was barely a trace of his touch when searched. Maybe it was just another odd quirk of psionics, or Geist had learned a new trick he wasn't sharing. No. Geist had his quirks but believed the man wouldn't tempt his luck with the Commander, keeping something like that secret with how some soldiers and staff were weary with the psions at the base.

The Hazard Course. The favorite place for all Gene-modded soldiers to put their more physical mods to the test.

Zhang was assisting Training Officer Conrad, per Commander Reeves' request to put the new round of Gene Modded soldiers through their paces. Specifically, the ones with the "Muscle Fiber Density" leg mod. Zhang didn't mind assisting, as it gave him something to do around the base and kept his mind occupied. It was time to scale some cliffs.

"Come on y'all! Y'all can't keep up with the old man?" Conrad heckled the soldiers that were falling behind Zhang, who was close to the top of the cliff face and was about ready to step off, completing another circuit. He had barely broken a sweat.

A few shot back that they were still disoriented as they were either freshly out of the Gene Labs or were still getting used to the new sensations coursing through their bodies.

"Tch! Tch! EXCUSES!" Conrad wasn't having it. "And he was leaping bounds like a jack rabbit right out of the tube with 3 other mods in his newly tweaked SYSTEM! What's y'all's excuse?"

Zhang was back on the ground floor before he jogged over and leaped up to the platform Conrad was barking his remarks from. He let out a few chuckles and shook his head.

"Go easy on them. It took me some time to warm up before I was 'leaping like a jackrabbit.'" He said.

Conrad silenced his mic quickly. He smirked. "They don' need to know that. Besides, when those pheromones and adrenaline kicked in, you were hopping all a'bout. And you were still movin' faster than them with two of those mods conflictin' for a bit."

Zhang tilted his head back and forth, trying to remember the day. Some details were faint since so much had happened since then. "True… Still, it'll take them a bit before they're running circles around me."

"Tch, heh, heh. I'll think about it." He wouldn't. "Now get back in there!" He unmuted his mic. "Do I need to get Corvo to whip y'all slugs up to speed?"

A collective groan could be heard, but that made everyone pick up the pace.

Zhang just rolled his eyes. What a character the old instructor could be.

He leaped off the platform and headed back over to that wall. With a coach and spring, he was already at the 8-meter marker and assisting whoever was failing to clear their first jump fully.

It took a few more rounds before most of the fresh batch could clear their first jump without missing it by a few inches or botching the landing, but as the training continued, all were growing confident in their new abilities.

Another set of rounds was done and Zhang no longer had to assist anyone and just kept a careful watch as the soldiers made their ascent and helped or playfully sabotaged each other.

Zhang had parked himself on the second-highest overhang and was watching a few soldiers make a race out of their latest round of climbing.

"Heh, youth." He chuckled to himself as he watched them.

Taking a moment, he had his fingers around this neck, checking his psi-dampening collar. His eyes flashed purple for a moment. "Hm." Everything felt in order. The collar was sitting just right. No new dings with how training was going today. And that faint, barely irritating disruption was sitting at the back of his mind. Good. Nothing to worry about.

He smiled to himself. Digging his fingers into the rocky soil. Legs kicked back and forth as he took in the fresh, hot canyon air. He was content.

He watched the soldiers go on, making mental notes here and there. He would pass on to Conrad what each one had to work on. Some were still hesitating, stepping off the ledge, which was causing them to fumble their landings.

"Have to get over the fear of heights." He noted.

As he made these observations, he didn't notice a faint static sensation grow in the back of his mind that was slowly shifting to a more familiar psionic tug. One tug, two, three, he finally noticed as it shifted into a skull-splitting series of thumps, causing him to hiss in pain. A hand flew to his head and the other quickly dug into the ground.

The blood between his ears was pulsing with a near-deafening ring. "What… the?" His collar was fine. What was going on?

Concentrating, he searched for the source, only to find a blur of sensations shifting within his mind and psionics.

Another sharp piercing sensation hit his mind, making him hiss again. He felt a shift in the sensations. A connection began to form and so did a voice. One all too familiar to him.

"Geist." He growled. "Not this again."

Just as he had finally pushed the incident to the back of his mind, all the rage from that day came rushing back.

Grinding his teeth, he worked to still himself and his infuriated thoughts. "Calm, calm. Don't need an outburst." He was glad no one noticed his hissing. "Let's see what he wants."

It took a moment to steady his mind and refocus his psionics, as this connection was still causing him pain.

"Strings, patterns, weaves…. Hm." Geist was muttering under his breath. "Just when I think I figure it out, it proves me wrong. A new leaf emerges. A new petal unfolds. The tides wash away the sands, erasing my expeditions but revealing something new. Something exciting."

Zhang continued to focus on the connection. So far, he was only picking up Geist and no one else like last time. He was having difficulty making sense of the cryptic words Geist was speaking but could figure out it didn't deal with him or training.

As quick as that anger came, it was disappearing. Maybe it was his psionics messing up again and not Geist forcing a connection to him.

He let out a disgruntled sigh. Was this a sign of his psionics becoming unstable again? How were they going to get this fixed?

"I yearn for the days I was not given this curse." One of the few times he lamented this psionic potential being found in him.

But no time to lament. He wanted to see if he could close off this connection before it caused him more problems. He still had training he needed to assist with before he could pay Geist a visit.

As he focused on the connection to sever it, Geist's voice grew louder in his mind.

"More weaves and patterns across the Earth. A mass expanse. Everything is connected to, flowing into and out of a Void. One flourishing with life and another devoid of it. A gap. And…" Geist passed. As he did so, Zhang felt a surge of power in the connection. "Hm… hm?" Seemed Geist did too.

There was a pause before Zhang felt a tentative touch, Geist's touch, reach out and flow through the connection. It quickly overpowered Zhang's attempts to close it off, causing some psionic feedback, much to his frustration.

Dammit. Zhang mentally recoiled, but did his best to keep the pain under control. For the moment, he held back his power to avoid any more feedback.

"What is this? I'm in the isolation chamber. There should be no connections to anyone but the Earth and Void." Geist almost sounded confused, if not concerned, as he searched out this connection to its source.

But as Geist reached the source, he paused again. "Wait…" He weaved his way through the connection again, carefully picking the familiarity of the strings to this mind. "Z-Zhang?"

Just ask Geist made the discovery, their connection was abruptly cut.

A whirl of psionic swirled inside Zhang's mind before it all finally snapped.

"Gah!" He gasped, lurching forward. He barely stopped himself from tumbling forward. "What the hell?" There was always something strange going on with psionics.

"Hey!" Someone called out. "You alright up there?"

Figures I'd slip with those growing backlashes. He shook his head a few times before letting out a gruff snort. "I'm fine. Feedback from the adrenal glands." A little lie.

Zhang craned his neck back and forth as he gave it a good rub. He could feel his mind and psionics slowly ordering itself back in place after the spontaneous psionic connection again. His mind lingered on Geist's connection. The man seemed just as surprised as him as he had discovered the connection.

"Hm." He chewed on his tongue. Why was there always something wrong with psionics? He needed to find Geist. This couldn't wait.

Pushing himself off the ledge, one last rush of adrenaline ran through his system before he touched the ground. He made his way over to Conrad first.

"Something just came up." Zhang made a simple gesture towards his head. "Have to go."

"Ah, gotcha. Go on and get!" Conrad simply nodded.

Zhang was halfway through the base before he felt a familiar psionic ping in his mind before a more audible ping rang out around the corner. The next second Geist came around the corner. The man looked a little frazzled as his eyes twinkled with purple energy. There was no dampening collar in sight.

"There you are!" He exclaimed, quickly hushing himself in order to avoid drawing too much attention.

"I was heading to you." Zhang paused in his tracks. A brow was raised. He was half waiting for the Bases A.I. to go off, mentioning the psionic activity. "Did you..?" He felt like he didn't have to explain.

Geist swiftly nodded, like his head was going to fall off. "Is this what happened days ago? Collar on?"

"Yes." He nodded. "Though this was somewhat different. More painful on my end."

Geist paced around him, finger tapping away at his chin and mumbling under his breath. "What could this be? What could this be?"

So far, nothing was ringing a bell in Geist's mind. This just made him worry more, which increased his pacing. He turned his attention back to Zhang. The man's puzzled look didn't help ease his mind. He reached his hand out towards his hand, psionic energy jumping between his fingers. Wait, no. Not here. Not safe for the others. He cut his psionic energy for a moment and just let his hand fall on Zhang's shoulder.

"I feel I need to explore your psionics. See if They are planting seeds of madness. Isolation room. No time to tell the Commander and Psi Division." Geist said.

At the mention of Them, Zhang grimaced. It had been some time since those Elders had touched his mind again with Their bids to make him betray XCOM. Did They have new tricks up Their sleeves? Better to find out now than before, he was an unknowing thrall. "Teleport away."

Geist tightened his fingers on his shoulder. Psionics energy flowed from him to Zhang before faint wisps appeared around the two.

The next second, they disappeared with a ping.