Xi Corporations HQ, 11:00 a.m. ;

"And you believe this crap?!", Zhi Xi read the piece of paper Xi Yuan had been earlier threatened with, a minute or two after he stepped into his ex-student's office and was infuriated by the contents scribbled into it. Furiously, he crumpled the piece of paper into his fist and threw it into the trash bin five feet away from him. "My sister would never do something like that, young man.", he said, his tone much calmer now than before.

"I know, bro Xi.", Xi Yuan sighed, "Do you really think I'd doubt Xinghe? Never. And even if I would've, I knew better than discussing it with her brother. Her overprotective, loves-her-more-than-his-own-life, brother! I would've just confronted her. She is my fiancee. Anything she says, is the truth, for me.

"But that's the problem. I cannot go to her with this. I can't."

"Why?", Zhi Xi furrowed his brows, confused.

"Because... she is already occupied in her own battles.", the man explained, as he sipped his coffee silently.

"Yuan.", Zhi Xi frowned, "This paper says that Xinghe once worked for the same underworld gang that killed your grandparents. That she was an assassin in there. Are you really not going to talk to her about this?"

"Right now? No.", the man smiled, "The Queen's busy saving her empire."

"But--"

"I simply have one question for you, bro Xi.", the man interrupted. Noticing the girl's brother resigning with a nod, he continued, "How much did the five years of Military Chief training change her?"

After a minute or two of silence, the man finally replied calmly, "More than any of us six could've ever expected. For good, actually. She became a better version of herself after those five years. More confident. More fierce. Stern. Decisive. It was as if she was a whole new person.

"Unlike before, she didn't feel the need to win over others' approval, or recognition, for that matter. I mean... it was as if she'd made peace with her past. She'd accepted that..."

"That she wasn't made for regular life.", Xi Yuan finished the man's sentence, smiling sadly, "I sensed that when she rejected me in NYC."

"Yeah. Initially, that bothered us. All the six of us. But then, you walked in. And gradually, slowly, she started healing. Smiling. Living. So we just gave up."

After a moment of silence between the two men, Xi Yuan finally shook his head. "Something huge happened. In the duration of these five years."

"What do you mean?", Zhi Xi crossed his arms.

"There's no way someone's personality can change so tremendously, even after a significant period of time. There should be an explanation for it. Moreover, I have a strong feeling that Xinghe's involvement with the 'Werewolf Crew' is either a consequence or a part of this change."

"Anyway, I will figure it out on my own. I am not going to let her feel that I don't trust her by questioning her like this."

"So what's your next move?"

Letting out a shaky breath, the man looked at his girl's elder brother, "I've got to have a word with my Uncle."

"Do you want me to come with you?", Zhi Xi raised his brows.

"You will do that for me?", Xi Yuan looked up at the man, stunned.

The man nodded, "Believe it or not, Yuan, you are family now. And Superfamily sticks together. Ad infinitum."

Ad Infinitum. It was a Latin phrase, the Superfamily was well-known throughout Country X for. It meant 'to infinity', without end or limit. It was a promise the Six tigers had made to their two sisters, at one fine event. A promise of protection. In hell and, in heaven. The family had this phrase engraved in almost every property they owned. So saying it to Xi Yuan was a huge deal. And Xi Yuan was well-aware of it.

________________________

City N, Southside, 9:00 p.m. ;

It was just another normal day for them. They hadn't expected the Hybrids to look into them so soon. As planned, they were preparing for their next target. Lu Wei. Guns loaded. Grenades prepared. Black masks pulled over their faces. Of course, they knew where the Superfamily was allocated after Mo Zixuan's incident. But they were going to do it anyway, for they'd been ordered to generate fear, and not to really kill them.

The fear. The deadliest weapon in history. The entire foundation of terrorism was depending on this one word. And they had to maintain it. They needed to maintain it.

Rong Xinghe was currently the biggest threat to it. 'The woman with no fear', was what they called her. The worst thing about fear was that it could be erased in a blink. Even in countries like Iraq and Syria, oppressed by terrorism, the tales of Country X's Military Chief were akin to a ray of hope. A hope that maybe someday, they'd get their Rong Xinghe, the way Country X did.

And hope gave birth to betrayal, uprisings, escapism. There were about 50 active organizations currently designated as terrorist by various governments. And each one was infuriated by how efficiently Rong Xinghe was protecting her country, and how she was encouraging the victimized locals to speak up and, rescuing boys 'under-training'.

'She has to be stopped!', they often discussed over dinners. They despised her and couldn't wait any longer to make her life a living hell. But that was the thing. It wasn't easy to stretch their claws anywhere near her. She was shielded by her brothers, her fiance, the hybrids, and herself. She'd never been some damsel in distress. She'd always been the warrior princess, her brothers so adored.

"Kill as many as you can.", a thirty-something-year-old guy named Rahim, commanded his underlings.

"Even the kids?", one of the boys asked. Killing kids was considered 'Kuffar', a sin, in Islam. And they were working for Lashkar ul-Mujahidin, a terrorist organization that had pretty much the same believes as Islamic State did, in Sinjar, a small city in the south of Iraq. Propagation of Islam. Intensely. Violently.

"Yes. It's not like there are a ton of them.", Rahim chuckled, "Just a girl and a boy. It'd be better if the entire goddamned Superfamily is wiped off of the face of this earth tonight. Allah will be so pleased by us.", he cackled.

"Nope, you idiot. It's not their time yet.", out of nowhere, a feminine voice, filled with mockery, resounded through the small room, "Yours, though? Shawn, could you lock the doors from the outside please?", she sweetly requested.