{This is OOC information for anyone watching after Xuennu's personal story arc! Enjoy ~}
"Xuennu--" Lei entered her personal cabin looking like he just saw a ghost and ran a marathon.
She pushed the screen away from her so she could sit up and face him from her bed, looking him over in confusion. "What's happening?"
"There's a priority transmission incoming at the bridge... it's--" He paused and caught his breath which now made since as he'd run all the way from the bridge to get to her. "It's a BioGen signature... Li jun's personal line."
Xue's stomach twisted, her fists clenching along with her jaw at just the sound of his name. She stood from her bed, already marching toward the door just as Lei scooted out of thee way, trying to scramble and keep up with her down the long corridor to the elevator. "He's got some fucking nerve calling this ship..."
"What do you think he wants?" Lei asked once they were inside and he'd hit the button for the bridge level.
"Nothing I'm willing to offer I'm sure." She said curtly. Her tone was cold as ice and she stood still as stone. No wavering in her breath, not even her hands shook. Lei wondered if she was really this calm or if perhaps she was reverting to an old mindset at the memory of Li Jun. "Likely he simply wants to irritate me."
"No offense... but that's pretty easy to do for him." He said softly.
She ignored him as the elevator gave a 'ding' to signal their arrival. As she entered the bridge she was greeted by the current helmsman and several deckers who were attempting to trace the call.
"Captain, the transmission is hailing from the BioGen headquarters in Beijing, nothing out of the ordinary. No unauthorized ships are within Hades airspace or orbital field at this time." The helmsman reported to her as she went to her seat and pulled up the holo screen in front of her.
"Patch him through." She said, Lei now standing at her right, her helmsman on her left, suddenly there he was in front of her. She realized how much of his face she remembered, but how much it had changed. He was scarred and aged from his time away, likely due to the destruction she caused at the headquarters in Beijing years before.
Neither of them said a word for a few silent moments, until Li Jun spoke with that smug smile on his face. "Fan Xu.... It's so nice to see you again. You haven't changed a bit."
She waited a short breath before answering. "You look like shit."
He let out a soft chuckle, the feigned charm he usually wore was just as sickening as she recalled it to be. "Well I have you to thank for that. You've really given me a run for my money these past couple of years. Between the hiding and trying to find that very small crack in your master plan that I could exploit to bring it all crashing down around you--"
"I"m not exactly sure what you think you have done to me, but the only thing I've had crashing down around me was your property."
"Now--" He started again, smugly. "That's not entirely true, is it? I can recall exactly how it felt to watch your beloved Colony crashing down around you and the other sewer rats you call your family. I hated missing out on that personally but it was nice to at least get a glimpse.."
Lei could see Xuennu's fists tightening on the arms of her chair, the metal bending slowly, but her face remained cool and even as she interrupted him. "What do you want?"
"Well-- Recent developments have brought to my attention some issues you've been having with your friends in Xin Beijing. I'm very sorry to hear you're not all getting along as you used to. Though that was kind of the whole point after all." He laughed as if this was a conversation between old friends. Xuennu knew he was trying to get under her skin, but the fact that it was working made her even more angry. "I just think it would be in your best interest to just leave Xin Beijing to me. You gave it a good go, and I have to say you got further than I ever expected you would, but things are different now."
"How so?" She asked him cooly, letting him believe she knew less than she did.
"It's above your paygrade." He smiled. "I won't bore you with the details, but you certainly don't need them in the first place. All I need from you is your word that you won't go trying to ruin my plans again."
"Oh come on now--" Xuennu chuckled softly, rolling her eyes. "What kind of fun would that be?"
"My aim is not fun." He retorted with more seriousness than he'd shown this whole time until now. "My aim is to get done what I need to get done to ensure the future of my great city." He cleared his throat and she saw his smile return to his lips. "Should I assume that means you do plan to get in my way and return to Xin Beijing?"
"If I wanted to do that, I'd need to know what your end game is."
"Nice try--" He held up a finger and continued. "That's for me to know and you to leave alone." He put his hand down on his lap and stared into Xuennu's eyes for a few moments in silence, then spoke up again. "I didn't figure you would simply give me your word for nothing, so tell me, what can I do to assure that you will leave Xin Beijing alone?"
She sat, feigning to be deep in thought over what exactly she would want from him, but in truth she wanted nothing he could offer besides to drop dead right then and there. She let out a long sigh and threw up her hands. "You know I just can't think of anything, but--" She looked at him a moment, he would notice a familiar snide smile he'd seen many times. "I have goals of my own, Li Jun. You can't possibly think it's fair that you get what you want and I go wanting."
"Hence my offer--" He reminded her, holding his hands open in a 'giving' gesture. "Just tell me what it is, and you'll have it."
"You really want to know?"
"I do." He answered with a firm nod.
"There is only one thing that I can think of right now... and maybe it's just that smug look on your disgusting face--" She sneered as she leaned toward him, his smugness faltering to a familiar, aggravated expression but she continued regardless. "but ever since you took me captive and tortured me and tested on me, not to mention the children you and your corporation tortured and tested on-- I just really really want you fucking dead."
Li Jun went to speak again but Xuennu interrupted before he could ge tthe first syllable out.
"And not just dead. I want your throat in my hands while I crush the life from your useless body, grasping, raking, clawing for your last breath that will never come. I want to see the life leaving your eyes. I want to see the moment you realize you're never going to fucking see another day. That, Li Jun, is what I want."
"I see." He said shortly, almost as if those words didn't phase him, but it wouldn't have come to much surprise. He took a deep breath and reached for something off camera. When his hand returned into view, she saw him holding a small glass beaker; what was within the beaker made Xuennu's body tense. For the first time since she'd hailed his call, she lost her cool demeanor. That made Li Jun smile once again. "I see I have your attention now." He lifted the glass beaker up into plain view, clearly displaying it's wriggling black contents to her.
"I don't need to tell you what this is, Fan." He continued when he realized she was too stunned, or angry, to speak. "You must have thought after all this time, that you escaped the victor in the destruction of my building. That I was gone for good and you could do as you pleased with -my- city. You did, for a time. Little did you know I had my own plans." He grinned. "While you were playing make believe with your Triad friends, I was creating something that would give me some leverage."
"I already saw the files at your Host facility." She interupted him, trying to gain back some momentum, some control over the conversation. "I know what you were trying to do. I saw the logs... it didn't work."
"Not that particular test, no." He agreed. "Project X runs far deeper than those tests. I'm sure by now you know that I was tipped off about you and your little incursion on the Host facility. No doubt you've already killed the informer, but that's besides the point. The logs you found, Fan, were just to give you a taste of what I'm going to do. I have your very life blood.. your DNA... I have you in this tiny little glass beaker." He smiled lovingly at the container of her blood. "And if you value your family and the people of Hades, you will listen very carefully."
She said nothing, simply glared at him. After a few moments of her silence, he gathered that she was in fact listening carefully.
"You know what your blood can do. You know the destruction it can cause if unleashed. Well my team of brilliant scientists have done the unthinkable. They have essentially mass produced carbon copies of your specially mutated blood and made me a very specially designed bioweapon. You see this blood right here, belongs to you. If I unleashed it, it wouldn't do much without direction, but what we've made? Doesn't answer to you."
"You're bluffing." She called him out in a ditch attempt to see him slip.
"That would be a foolish mistake for you to make if I weren't." He said, setting down the beaker finally and folding his hands neatly in his lap once more. "Do I have your complete and utter compliance now?"
"What do you want...?" She asked him again.
"It is very clear to me after this conversation that you are not at all willing to let a sleeping dog lie. I now see that there is only one choice left... to give you an ultimatum. A chance to redeem yourself to the world for all the horrible things you've done." He grinned again. "You surrender to me, or I destroy your colony and everyone in it."
Xuennu was seething. The arms of her chair were all but crushed under her grip but her face remained ever stoic and neutral. Lei watched her closely, fear setting in at what she might do, or worse, what Li Jun might do. If he wasn't bluffing, it could end badly. Li Jun might have enough pull to rally not just the Triads against Xuennu but other corporations. He was insane but there were still eyes toward Mars, ones who were searching for an opening like this.
"And don't think to warn anyone either. Any moves you make to sound an alarm to your forces or attempt to stop this will be just as foolish as rejecting my ultimatum. I'll unleash it anyway and you'll have saved no one. Even you, with all your ships, cannot evac an entire Colony that quickly. You learned that lesson before." He stopped, realizing that Xuennu was not engaging in the conversation any longer. She stared at the holo screen, or rather, right through it out the glass to see the Red planet in front of them; the cruiser's sights were on Hades always, just a small smudge on the surface from here. "I'm running out of patience, Fan."
"Give her a minute!" Lei snapped at him, already angry at the audacity this prick had to speak to her that way in the first place, but he looked to Xuennu. She looked different. She was contemplating all her options but he'd never seen her take so long to shut down such a stupid threat. "Xue.." He said quietly. "You don't have to do this... he won't get through defenses. He can't-"
"I already have-" Li jun interjected. "It's a big planet, kid, with plenty of orbital space."
"He's bluffing." Lei said, trying to get Xuennu to listen to him and not Li Jun.
"He's not bluffing..." She said finally. Her grip had loosened on her chair and she sat up much straighter as she looked directly at Li Jun. "He won't let this go... and neither will I."
"So let's go and-" He tried to stop her, redirect her attention but she wasn't listening.
"No." Xuennu stood up and turned to Lei, for a moment she looked as if she would cry, but swallowed that knot in her throat quickly. "It's time to end this, Lei." She said and before Lei could protest, he saw her left eye wink quickly at him. She turned toward the holo comm screen again. "I'll make my way to Beijing in an unarmed shuttle."
"Well... aren't you a hero." Li Jun said with as much sarcasm as she would expect, but the nearby consol ping'd with the location coordinates.
Xuennu uploaded them to her internal nav and then deleted them from the systems. Lei jumped forward to protest. "What are you doing?!"
"I'll be there." Xuennu told Li Jun and with a click, she cut his connection.
