“What—?!”

Hawkeye’s eyes blew wide, disbelief freezing him as blue particles flickered in the air like winter fireflies.

“Falcon Armor activation complete. Booting.”

The system’s voice chimed. Blue grains swarmed around him, clinging to his skin like frost. In a heartbeat they hardened, a cold Armor sealing him in.

“This… could it be…”

Panluan stared too, shock cutting through him. He knew that Mech like a scar he’d touched a thousand times.

Hawkeye rose slowly. Blue dominated, flecked with white; two intricate thrusters hummed at his back. A giant sniper rifle hung on his left shoulder like a steel albatross.

“This…”

He lifted a hand, dazed at the Armor wrapped around him like ice.

“You still know how to handle it, right?”

A woman’s voice slid through his earpiece. Strange, yet warm, like a familiar lantern lit on a new street.

Vrrr—

From above, thrusters thundered. Every face tilted upward. Two Mechs hung in the air like twin omens. Up front, a purple-black Mech cradled a mechanical rifle; six wing-like fins on its back bled a pale blue glow. Beside it, a white heavy Mech floated solid as a mountain; a massive thruster kept it aloft. Micro missile pods dotted its frame, and a long square cannon braced against its left forearm like a stone pillar.

Masks hid their faces, metal veils for war. But their shapes said woman. And the pilot of the purple-black Mech wore white hair that streamed like moonlit silk.

“Are you—”

Hawkeye stared at the purple-black Mech, words snagging on awe.

“I called you. You didn’t believe me. So I came myself.”

Tang Coco’s voice held a weary smile, like rain after dust.

“No… this can’t be. How did it become…”

He couldn’t make this world fit inside his chest.

“I’ll explain later. For now, you need distance from your enemy, right? Forgot how I taught you?”

“Oh… oh. Got it.”

Falcon thrusters flared, blue dust whipping like a comet tail. He rocketed up, raised his sniper, and watched the battlefield like a hawk over winter fields.

Thud—

Tang Coco dropped to the ground, forty-odd meters before Panluan. Around her, base soldiers lifted rifles like a black forest of steel. No shots. Orders held them tight.

“Captain…”

Panluan’s voice trembled, a frayed wire under storm.

“Panluan…”

Tang Coco said his name softly, like a bell tolled once.

“I didn’t die. Are you disappointed?”

“I…”

Panluan’s gaze drifted, lost like a boat in fog.

“I’m not disappointed in rebellion. I’m disappointed in who you are now. Panluan was my brother. My regret is I failed to protect him.”

Her voice carried ash and heat, remorse like fire banked under snow.

“What good is that now!!!”

He shouted, anger spitting sparks.

“True. It’s useless now.”

“So—sorry. Today, I’ll teach you one last time.”

Her Armor brightened like a sunrise, then broke into glittering particles. They swarmed back, knitting a new shell—pitch-black, built for close combat, a midnight blade given bones.

She slid her long knife back over her shoulder. She curled both fists, and watched Panluan with a predator’s calm.

“Raaagh!”

Panluan roared. Twin claws snapped out like fangs and he rushed her like a storm. Tang Coco moved like she’d read his heartbeat. Each strike she slipped with the smallest motion, a reed bending under wind. After a dozen furious swipes, she’d taken only one step back.

Thump!

Her heavy kick landed. Panluan flew, skidding across the earth like a cart blown off the road.

“Are you toying with me?”

He forced himself upright, fury boiling, eyes like broken glass.

“No. I’m confirming something.”

Her stare held him, steady as a blade laid flat.

“Scan complete,” her System murmured inside her skull. “Opponent’s Mech differs from Dark Energy mechs used by Dark Ability Users. Similarity 13 percent. Conclusion: local manufacture with otherworld tech support.”

“So he’s not a Dark Ability User… Then what’s with Panluan?”

“Unknown energy signature interfering with his brain,” the System said. “Body is incomplete. Brain region shows no abnormalities.”

“Source?”

“Fifty-six meters north.”

“Hm?”

Tang Coco turned. A second floor coughed black smoke. Inside that ink, a silhouette stood, a shadow set against char.

“As expected of Asura! You don’t even see me, do you?”

Panluan saw her gaze drift and bellowed, anger clawing up his throat.

“Stand down, trash…”

A low voice rolled from the smoke, like a cave breathing. Hongcheng walked out, slow as a hunter who knows the trap will spring.

“You just puppeteer others to fight. Sounds more trash to me.”

Tang Coco’s scorn cut clean, a knife through damp cloth.

“Hahahahaha!”

“Asura, didn’t think you’d live. And change your gender, too. What, can’t show your old face anymore?”

“Who are you.”

“I’m Hongcheng. A senior of your Shadow Division.”

“Where’s Hong Wei?”

“Him? Relax. I didn’t kill him. He’s useful. Now that you’re here, it’s his turn to be useful.”

“…”

She didn’t catch that thread. It twisted wrong.

“Don’t get it? It’s fine. You’ll understand soon.”

Black particles gathered around him like a murder of crows. A giant black Armor crawled onto his body, plating over flesh like night overtaking dusk.

“System, isn’t that Dark Energy?”

“No. Only looks similar. Essence differs. These particles seem man-made.”

“…”

Krrr-thoom!

Hongcheng leapt from the second floor. He hit the ground, and his Armor clicked into full reality. The black Mech towered, twice a normal Mech’s height. Four arms bristled from his torso; two more extended off his shoulders, while his back sprouted mechanical limbs like a spider’s cold garden.

“Mm… ugly.”

Tang Coco sighed, light as a leaf falling, cutting all the same.

He didn’t care. The claws on his back lashed out, lengthening with a whipcrack, stabbing for her like spears from the dark.

She reacted on heat and instinct. Her thrusters spat flame, and she slid back fast, the strike missing like rain past a window. The claws gouged deep into the ground, then kept burrowing, drilling down like worms seeking roots.

“…”

She saw it. His target wasn’t her.

Thud!

A low report sounded above. Hawkeye fired. A silver bullet, particle-laced, streaked for Hongcheng’s head like a star falling.

Zzzt—

A black energy shield blossomed around Hongcheng, ink spilling into a dome. The bullet splashed and died.

“System, analyze.”

“Looks like a Dark Energy field. Essence differs.”

“What’s the rush, little fly?”

Hongcheng grinned toward the sky. The earth shivered; cracks webbed where the claws dove. They clamped onto something, and began to drag, muscles of steel pulling a buried bone from the land.

Rrr-rr-rr—

It came up at last. Everyone stared. In the air, the claws cradled a hexagonal prism, taller than a person. Along its six faces sat small cylinders filled with yellow liquid, opaque as old amber. One cylinder was different. Its liquid was red, a wound in glass.

“Want to know what these do? I’ll tell you soon. First, let’s invite their maker.”

His claws stabbed toward the building again. A first-floor room ripped open like paper. The claws dragged out a hospital bed, wheels squealing. On it lay Hong Wei.

“…”

Tang Coco saw Hong Wei—saw what he’d been reduced to—and her anger flared like a torch under ice. But she stayed cold, a blade kept at the throat of grief.

“Bastard!”

Hawkeye roared, a thunder in his chest. He couldn’t shoot. Hong Wei lay beside Hongcheng, a wrong move turning rescue into murder.

“He’s your brother. You treat your own blood like this?”

Tang Coco’s glare burned like noon sun. Her mask hid the fire on her face.

“Heh. Enough. Don’t act like he’s some saint. He fooled you all.”

Hongcheng’s voice oiled the air, slick and sour.

“In this device is a living controller. In those yellow liquids? Bits of an unnoticed organ from inside your bodies.”

“What!”

Hawkeye and Tang Coco jolted, shock like ice water down the spine. They’d never heard of anything like this.

“You don’t know his Anomaly Power, do you?”

Hongcheng smiled, teeth of a wolf behind silk.

“…”

True. Hong Wei had never said.

“His Anomaly Power lets him touch a piece of someone’s tissue, then control all their body functions. Downside: long contact needed. Hard to pull off with you. So he kept tiny pieces from inside you during your surgeries when you were gravely wounded.”

“He can control the drug fluids with his Anomaly Power. Change their properties to stimulate those stored tissues. Different stimuli, different reactions in you… The red one’s for Lynx, the one who died. Shame.”

He gazed at the red cylinder like a collector fondling a stolen jewel.

“…”

His story fit like a lock. But Tang Coco refused to believe Hong Wei had done this to them.

“Don’t believe it? Easy to prove.”

Hongcheng reached to Hong Wei, pressed a button on the device near Hong Wei’s head. One yellow cylinder turned green, the color of poisoned spring.

“Ugh…”

Above, the Falcon Mech went limp, power snuffed. It dropped, a stiff shadow falling.

“Damn.”

The thought cut through Tang Coco like a knife.

Whoosh—

The white Mech—Marilyn—swept in and caught the Falcon like a swan scooping a falling child. She lowered him gently, as if setting him on snow.

“Marilyn, what’s his status?”

“Just lost consciousness. Give me thirty minutes. I can fix him.”

Marilyn’s Anomaly Power rippled through Hawkeye’s body, a soft tide mapping even bones.

“See? This thing holds your lives. Unconsciousness is the least punishment. Ending you takes only a thought.”

Hongcheng basked, a lord under a black sun. Panluan stood aside, frozen, a statue carved from rage.

“…”

Tang Coco watched him and planned. That black shield wouldn’t break in an instant. A hard push would only give him time to flip more cylinders. Her mind jumped to Gu Xin, worry like a thread pulled tight.

“One last chance. Kneel. Serve me.”

Hongcheng’s voice came from above, heavy as a mountain’s shadow.

“…”

Tang Coco stood unmoving, a blade sheathed.

“No problem. Then I’ll do this.”

As he spoke, Hongcheng flipped a yellow canister to green, the color crawling like moss over dry stone. He smiled at Tang Coco; his hand was on the one assigned to her.

But... over ten seconds slid by. Tang Coco still didn't go under; the sleep he'd baited refused to swallow her like fog.

"Huh? What's going on?" Surprise pinched Hongcheng's brow like a tightening net.

Tang Coco let out a helpless laugh, thin as paper, then spoke. "Sorry—whatever you're controlling might tie to my old body. Don't forget, I've died once, a candle snuffed and lit again."

"What! You—" His shout snapped like a bowstring under frost.

He hadn't expected that; he'd always assumed Tang Ke just switched genders. His old assumption cracked like a brittle shell.

"Hahahaha—interesting, interesting;" his laughter rolled like gravel loosed on a slope. "I'm even more interested in someone who's died once. Don't forget—your brother's life sits in my palm, and the one you love. I can't control you, but if I bind them, I pull your strings."

"Sorry—you probably won't get that chance, old man." Tang Coco shook her head, cutting the air like a bell ending its last ring.

"Hm? His breath hung like a pale wisp." A cloud of doubt slid over Hongcheng's face like passing shadow. Then a chill brushed his neck; he turned toward Hong Wei.

At some point, Hong Wei had opened his eyes and fixed them on him. Those eyes were bright and cold, like blades catching pale light.