Siran and the others approach Taipei, Taiwan with Master Chao and Zhang Wei. Zhang Wei had his hands tied behind his back with some rope and was forced to walk in front of the crew as they approached the palace they once stormed before in order to ask for Xiaobai's help. This time, each step they took closer to the palace felt heavier than before, and each step they took up the stairs grew the tension they felt as they were watched with guns pointing from all directions at them. The only two things to seemed to stop them from being shot on sight was Zhang Wei in the front, and Li Xiu Chao in the back. This congressional palace that had been built during the recovery period after the Naris Catastrophe stood as a monument to the Chinese Communist Party's overbearing control. This day, the crew thought silently to themselves, would be the last day this palace stands. As the large palace doors were violently thrusted open by pure endo from Siran, Siran began to walk faster inside, his gun pressed to the back on Zhang's head. Eventually, Li Xiaobai and several special forces units from both the PLA (People's Liberation Army) and Chinese Secret Service stood by his side. "This isn't the first time I've seen your poor temper lead you into rudely pushing your way into MY palace, Siran." Xiaobai says. "And with no less than the chief of police and my very own brother in hand as well. Bargaining chips, I presume?"
"We're ending this conflict finally" Siran says. "I know how you work. Nothing you say can be trusted. I want you out of Japan. I want you out of Hong Kong and I want you out of Taiwan. Do so and we won't have to shed any blood today."
"Shed any blood?" Xiaobai asks. "Well, that's really quite a lovely sentiment, Siran" Xiaobai says in a mocking tone, "but you still think like such a child after all of these years? You don't remember that, for a short time, even you were my dog? Barking at my command? Doing what I told you to do? That, for a moment, we had you do our dirty work for a slight bit of hope, for nothing? To hell with The Six Guns. I thought I had made it very clear I didn't want to see nor hear your crew ever again."
All of the forces standing next to Xiaobai raised their weapons and aimed at the crew. "Think this through, Xiaobai!" Siran demands. "We have one of your top officials at our mercy! Your Chief of Police in our h-" suddenly a gunshot is heard and Zhang Wei falls to the ground, dead.
Siran looks up, horrified and in disbelief, at Xiaobai who was holding the smoking gun. "Kill the rest." Xiaobai commands as he keeps his gun aimed at Siran.
"Xiaobai!" Siran yells as Xiaobai shoots at Siran. A digital shield blocks all of Xiaobai's shots as Siran continues to say "This is the last time you fuck with me! The last time, Xiaobai!"
"Out of my way!" Chao says as he pushes Siran aside. "I know how this man works. This is my fight."
"Siran!" Holly calls out. "We need some help on taking out these soldiers before I lose my grip on these shields! We're being overrun!"
Siran looks back at Holly, then back at Chao, then back to Holly. "I'm counting on you, Chao."
"The least I can do for taking care of my daughter this long." Chao replies without taking his eyes off of Xiaobai.
"It's been a while, Chao." Xiaobai says as he takes his suit jacket off. "I wish you had spent more time in the prison, really. I have so many better things to do than to worry about a family reunion."
"What family?" Chao asks. "You broke apart our family and you know it."
"Mother killed herself when father died." Xiaobai replies calmly. "And HE died for a worthless little city like Hong Kong. I brought UNITY! All of the land that belongs to China, brought finally reunited under MY command! You pushed your own daughter away by starting that war!"
Chao charges at Xiaobai, charms in hand given to him from the crew. With a buff spell, Chao throws a powerful punch at Xiaobai, but Xiaobai blocks it with one hand. When Xiaobai blocks the punch lazily, the force of the punch is distorted and seems to go right past Xiaobai as he used a distortion spell with his hand. "I don't know what you did to manipulate my daughter to working for such a shitty regime." Chao hisses, "But Ying would never betray Hong Kong."
"She came to me willingly." Xiaobai says. "She saw what was important. It wasn't family, it was country."
"Liar!" Chao says as he spins and aims to plant his left elbow into the side of Xiaobai's head.
Xiaobai and Chao exchange blows as Siran, Blake, Tanya and Satomi fight back against the soldiers surrounding the crew; fighting for their lives as Haru, Holly, and Mikoto fight to keep the crew alive by blocking as much as possible. Siran still felt conflicted about his missing wife and his past life he recently learned about. His consciousness weighing down on him. Holly and most of the crew could feel Siran's uneasiness and felt an unusual sense of dread, but kept full faith in their captain. Chao felt rusty as he's been locked up for far too long and no longer was capable in martial arts. However, he remembered well how dirty his brother fights, as he had a very long time to reflect on it. Chao threw a false kick at Xiaobai's side. When Xiaobai moved to block the kick, Chao threw his leg forward, shifting his weight forward as he brought both of his hands straight towards Xiaobai's stomach with a buff spell. Chao landed a powerful hit on Xiaobai's midsection, and knocked Xiaobai to the ground on his back. Chao stood over Xiaobai as Xiaobai moved his hand under himself as if to begin to crawl backwards. Chao took a step forward to stand directly over his brother, and Xiaobai slid his hand out from underneath himself and caused a rectangular pillar-like spike to stick out of the ground at incredible speed right under Chao's face. Chao, however, saw it coming and stopped moving for a second and the pillar scraped the end of his chin but nothing else. Chao then grabs the small pillar and snaps the top off with a single hand and a buff spell, then crushes the concrete in his bare hand. "Your tricks are getting old, brother." Chao says. "Just admit defeat and get this over with."
"Hah!" Xiaobai scoffs. "To you? I had to step on more than a few fingers to get to where I am today." Xiaobai stands up as he rolls up his shirt sleeves and reveals black wraps underneath covered in charmed that were stitched into the material. his arms begin to glow with a faint green light as he continues to say, "Now who's fingers do you think I stepped on?"
"You played dirty." Chao argues calmly. "A tactic that will only work once. You will not step on my fingers a second time."
"We'll see about that." Xiaobai replies with a grin as the two charge at each other again.
"So, how long until McNamara comes back?" an FBI agent asks another as they walk on the ground floor of this old base that used to belong to the Ly'Lum.
"Don't complain." The other agent says as the two walk together. "We stay here, make sure nobody comes for the kids, don't do paperwork, get paid. It's like taking candy from a baby."
The two agents stop and lean against the concrete wall to relax a little and take a deep breath together. "I guess you're right when you say that. It's an easy day, but damn I am bored..."
"Yeah, I hear you." The other says. "I could use something, ANYTHING to help pass the day." Suddenly, an arm punches through the concrete wall and grabs the first agent and strangles him. "Holy shit!" the other agent exclaims in horror. The first agent is yanked through the wall and into the vast darkness of the perpetual night outside as dust from the crumbling wall creates a thick smoke. He raised his gun and aimed into the smoke, but didn't know what to shoot at or what happened. All he knew was his friend was no longer screaming. As the dust from the concrete had mostly settled, the agent stood frozen with fear, so still that he could hear his own heartbeat. Then, he saw it. What looked like a pair of glowing eyes opened up in the darkness. The agent shot, but the arm swatted the magic burst from the gun out of the air like a fly. Then, Zia stepped into the base with her clairvoyance magic activated and a burning anger in her eyes. The agent shakingly tried to reach for his walkie-talkie to radio in and warn the others, but he fumbled and dropped the radio. The agent looked down at the dropped radio and then back up at Zia. In the blink of an eye, Zia planted her foot into the agent's chest and sent him flying to the back of the worn down building where a path opened up leading underground where more agents poured out from.
Zia tilted her head to the right slowly until her neck popped, then looks back at the army of FBI agents and FBI SWAT units and got into a fighting stance. "Where is my son?" Zia hisses in anger.
"It's The Six Guns!" one agent calls out on the radio. "Put the base into full lockdown! Nobody gets in or out! Send reinforcements to the entrance!"
While in his fox form and hiding in crevices in these long tunnels and rock-walled rooms of this underground base, Silas overheard several of the radios going off and calling out the presence of The Six Guns coming here. Excited but needing more information, he stayed and listened for the radio of a nearby agent again. "White hair." A voice over the radio says, "Clairvoyance magic activated. Believed to be Zia of The Six Guns. Proceed with caution. Order is to kill on sight. Do not try to take this one alive."
"Mom!" Silas excitedly thinks to himself. He turns around and begins running back towards the others to tell the news and try to break them out now that the soldiers and agents are all running to the surface level. As he runs, he runs into a fully armored SWAT soldier. At first the soldier looks down at him confused, as he's still in his fox form. Suddenly, Silas changes from his fox form to his human form and punches the soldier in the side of the helmet with a distortion punch. The impact of the punch goes through the helmet and knocks the soldier out as he was not prepared for a fight at all, as he was mostly sure until just now that he was looking at just a normal fox. Silas steals the radio off of the soldier and begins to run towards Dana and Carl. Suddenly, Silas stops and grabs the gun off of the soldier and looks back down the tunnel. A certain uneasiness was still settled in Silas's mind, so Silas decides to pick up the soldier himself and take him back to the circular room with Dana and Carl to hide the unconscious man.
"Into kidnapping now, Silas?" Dana says in a disappointed tone.
"You know that's not what's happening." Silas replies. "I had to hide him! I knocked him unconscious and didn't want him to be found! What if someone found him? They'd know there's something going on!"
"So, what was ahead that was so important that you left us tied against this stupid pole?" Carl asks.
"Ah... sorry..." Silas apologizes. "B-but! Mom is here!"
"Mo-... You mean Zia!?" Dana asks. "You found her!?"
"No!" Silas says as he gets visibly more excited. "She found us!"
"Your mom's alive! Congrats!" Carl says. "Look, I'm genuinely happy for you, so don't take it the wrong way when I say untie us you jackass!"
"Ah! Y-yeah!" Silas says as he takes a combat knife off of the soldier's harness. Silas begins cutting Dana and Carl out of the ropes as he apologizes over and over. "I'm really sorry, guys." He says.
"We get it..." Dana says as she rubs her wrists, waiting for blood to flow to her hands again.
"I don't know what I was thinking..." Silas adds.
"Uh-huh..." Carl says as he leans back against the support beam trying not to move as he feels a pins and needles sensation from the lack of blood to his arms.
"I just got in over my head and-" Silas says before he's interrupted.
"Silas!" Dana interrupts. "We get it! Relax and take a deep breath. What all lies ahead?"
"A pretty direct tunnel system." Silas answers. "There aren't many splitting paths and they mostly just lead to more empty room. Looks like they're still more or less building this base under Omnia's nose. I remember the path I took and already mapped most of this floor up to the next. However, I'm not sure exactly how far below the surface we are. All I know is that it seems like mom came here. Think she knows we're here?"
"That would be the logical conclusion." Dana says. "However, your mother has been missing all of this time. We have to consider the possibility that it's a false alarm. Are you two ready to break out of this place?"
"Should we leave this guy alive?" Carl asks.
"No!" Silas interjects. "I mean, yes! I mean, don't kill! No killing! Now that Chronos is dealt with, I don't want to live in fear of killing another person ever again! Leave him alive!'
"Alive?" Carl asks. "And just let them go free?"
"I have an idea." Dana says. "Tie him up. Leave him here. They likely won't find him until we're long gone in that case."
"That's what I was hoping for." Silas says. "Thanks... I just... don't want to kill someone or be responsible for someone's death ever again."
"Hey you have a good heart, Silas." Dana adds. "But don't forget us like that again!" Dana then swipes Silas over the back of his head with her hand.
"Ow! Sorry!" Silas says, then rubs the back of his head. After tying up the soldier where they were recently just tied up, Silas takes out the gun he stole from the soldier and hands it to Carl. "Also, I wanted you to have this. I took it off of the soldier. I know your dad was a soldier and your mom makes guns for a living, so I thought it'd be best in your hands. I'm worried I might accidentally kill if I use it. Think you can use it well?"
"You want me to use a gun and not kill people?" Carl asks skeptically. "You're sure asking a lot, you know. It's a gun, Silas."
"I-I'm sorry." Silas responds.
"I'm just yanking ya, Silas." Carl scoffs. "Did you forget who I am? Of course I can use a gun well enough to not kill anyone. Come on, it's me. I'm awesome!"