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Hollis raised a closed fist, and the other four shadows behind him stilled. Kade watched as the leader placed his hand on the ground, rifle cradled into his lap. Behind him, the shadows shifted, waiting for word from Hollis. Ember was behind him, their fingers rolling over the barrel of their shotgun, a nervous tick. Selyne was to his left; she was hefting around that pulse-rig like it weighed nothing. And to his right was…

Rysa. Too close. 

He angled his arm out slightly as a signal to her to move away. She did not. 

“I can take point,” she whispered. 

He quickly put his finger to his mouth to tell her to be silent. She did not. 

“You said I could last time.”

She was younger than the rest of them, barely 18, but that was old enough to join the patrols, and their mother had agreed to it. Officially, she’d been with the team for the last three months for her training, but unofficially, she was just following him around like always. Her training had apparently been a waste of time if she still wouldn’t listen to him. 

Abruptly, Hollis held up two fingers. That was Kade’s signal. He eased forward, crouching next to the leader. A ruin loomed ahead just outside the treeline. An old relay structure, the spine of a dish broken, hanging down. The metal bones were exposed from years of storms and disrepair. 

“I feel it,” Selyne whispered from behind them. 

He could feel it too, not the warm and resonant hum of the Worldstrings, but a cold and mechanical rhythm. The Hollow were here. But what kind?

Ember adjusted her grip on her shotgun, growing more nervous. “It’s closer than the last sweep.”

Rysa moved up on the other side of Hollis to see. “Maybe it’s nesting.”

Kade rolled his eyes. The Hollow didn’t nest, they didn’t breed, and they didn’t need shelter. She was thinking of them as too human. They were the opposite. Their only function was to follow ancient directives that no one understood anymore. However, he had to admit that their behavior was changing. They had been edging closer and closer to the perimeter, closer than they ever had before. They weren’t attacking, as long as you didn’t get too close, but what could they want?

“Formation split,” Hollis whispered. “Kade with me. Ember take the wide left, Selyne, you’re on the rear. Ryse -.”

“I’m not staying behind,” she insisted. 

“If you’d let me finish a sentence for once,” Hollis steeled. “You shadow Kade.”

She pressed her lips together and nodded. 

The five of them descended into the broken basin along the edge of the relay tower; the concrete ground was cracked, vines pushing up from beneath. 

Kade pressed his full palm into a piece of the concrete; he had to close his eyes to concentrate. He did not like to admit that he wasn’t as good at this as Hollis. He could feel the hum here, though. It pulsed in a steady rhythm. 

“Something’s wrong,” Kade relayed, eyes still closed. “It’s close; we should be able to see it.”

Movement shifted past him, prompting him to open his eyes. Rysa was moving closer to the building. 

“Ryse,” he warned. 

She listened for once, and stopped, but not before the ground beneath her boot made a metallic click. Every muscle in him froze. Too late. The concrete beneath her opened in a perfect circle, and a red light enveloped her. 

“Contact!” Hollis barked, no longer worried about keeping quiet, his rifle raised.

A beam of white light nearly blinded them as it lanced across the abandoned parking lot. It was not aimed at Ryse, but rather it cut off Ember’s approach to her. Was that…strategic? 

Two shadowed shapes unfolded from the ruins of the relay station. These were four-legged and low to the ground, with central red eyes scanning their surroundings. Crawlers. 

A third shadow rose, looming over the others, with humanoid limbs. A walker. Shit. 

“Defensive positions!” Hollis ordered. 

They each moved as they had been trained, Ember as laying down suppression fire in short bursts to try and keep the Hollow from getting closer to Ryse. Hollis pivoted to cover the right flank, and Selyne from behind was steadying the pulse-rig for when the big one was in range. 

Kade rushed straight for his sister. The trap she had stepped on was weight-based; he didn’t have time to find something of her exact weight. He grabbed some abandoned rebarb and pressed it into the trap while she stepped off, then grabbed her and pulled her to the ground when the explosion went off. Kade positioned himself to cover her and put his hands overlapped around the back of his head. Better to get a finger popped than his skull. Dirt and bits of concrete rained down on them from above. 

“Pattern break!” Hollis shouted. 

The machines could hear, but there had never been any indication they could actually understand human speech. 

As the others changed positions, Kade looked up to see the nearest crawler shoot a red beam in Ember’s direction. She was forced to stop her cover fire to find cover for herself. Kade pulled Ryse up by the back of her collar. He would have to wait and check to make sure she was okay later, but right now, they just had to get out. 

Funny how her attitude had changed since Mako had left the force. The occasional lunches to stay in touch turned into frequent, then routine dinners. First at standard restaurants, then at places he could pay for, then at places she paid for.

And sometime along in there, she had started walking him home. Then driving because the weather was bad. Then picking him up because it was on her way.

And then she learned he could cook.

She no longer remembered exactly when she had given him a key to her place.

The fact he had fished one for his place out of his pocket, stammering about being beaten to the punch, though, still made her feel a warmth she barely remembered from her younger years.

At Saikhan’s door, she snapped herself out of her wandering thoughts. She rotated the knob loudly and entered without knocking.

“Tell Xiaonan she did a good job. This was clean and efficient.”

Her deputy nodded, but instead of reaching out for the file, opened a drawer in his desk.

“Mail room said they checked these two envelopes and didn’t find anything alarming.”

Alarming?

She raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to get to the point.

“One is addressed to you, one to Mako. They resealed both then told me I should give them to you personally. Someone didn’t get the memo he wasn’t here anymore. You can get it to him?”

He extended them to her, and she managed to take them without snatching them. Barely.

With a glance, she identified hers, extended a knife from her vambrace, and sliced it open. She pulled the single leaf of paper out, allowed herself an eyeful, then shoved it back down.

“I’ll take care of this.”

“What was it?”

“Not police business.”

She spun on her heel, all but ran to her office, locking up and leaving without letting Saikhan catch her eye.

Exiting the elevator outside her apartment, she took in a deep breath. He was grilling fish again. She had not eaten as much fish in her entire life as in the past few months. Fresh out of the force, she knew he had worked at a couple of restaurants near the docks, places known for their no-nonsense, quick-cooking food.

It was entirely possible he hadn’t even started cooking until he saw her car down on the street.

Not wanting to waste his efforts, she removed her uniform and hung it on its stand. When she went to lock up her briefcase, she was reminded of the two envelopes.

Given what she had seen, she had to struggle with herself about whether to peek at Mako’s envelope.

Screwing her eyes closed and gritting her teeth, she acknowledged that if she were to maintain his trust, she’d have to give it to him with the same explanation she’d received.

But maybe she didn’t have to admit to her own…

Taking a deep breath, she carried the envelope into the kitchen just as Mako was turning around with bowls full of steaming soup.

She couldn’t keep herself from bending forward to take a whiff.

Standing up, she caught his eye. “If I hadn’t already been hungry, this would be enough to do it.” Her heart thumped when she saw the proud blush on his cheeks.

“I watched for you, and had just enough time to get it ready for you. I like the challenge.” He smiled at her and waited for her to sit before he folded himself down across the table from her.

When she set the envelope down to pour the tea, he asked why his name was on it. She just nodded to it. He drug a finger down a seam to open it. He tented it open, then flipped it over.

His eyes bulged, he caught her eye, blushed furiously, and slammed the envelope down hard enough to jostle the dishes.

Caught with the teapot still in the air, Lin just raised an eyebrow at him, but he kept his face to the table. He mumbled something, and she knew it was probably related to what she had seen in Saikhan’s office.

An entirely unfamiliar urge swept over her, and before her judgement could catch up, she said, “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”

Mako half gasped, half choked in consternation, grabbing at the edge of the table.

Leaving him to gasp like the fish must have done hours earlier, Lin retrieved her envelope and held it out to him. He drank some water and looked up, but rather than catch his eye, she permitted herself one more - though hopefully not last - look at the contents.

Mako, in striped trousers and an open jacket, all in black, fingered one of several chains across his otherwise naked chest. Two dragons danced face to face on either side of his sternum. But it was his face, his expression that had caught - and held - her eye.

The sound of paper on wood attracted her attention, and with a careful breath, she extended her envelope back to him as she took his in her other hand.

This time, it was her own face staring back at her. The expression felt so familiar, yet distant. Disdainful, yet incisively attentive. The studs and rings and buckles and tattoos on her shoulders, just like Mako’s, were all in black. Just like in the portrait of Mako, her eyes stood out.

When he stood beside her, she got caught in his arrestingly beautiful, amber eyes.

***

The city page scurried into his office, looking flustered. He bowed, wringing his hands. “Sir, please forgive me. When you told me to take your mail to the post, I believe I took the wrong stack. I have taken several messages from your honorable friends asking you to return their calls about some portraits?”

Bolin scanned his desk and wondered just how long Mako would let him live.

One part FFF, one part inspiration from the amazing goth-inspired art of Caro Oliveira:

Mako and Lin