Once we secured any documents and piece of evidence we quickly escaped the castle and made our way back to the Elliot, once there we debriefed with Brooks. 

-So the Knight escaped? 

-Yeah, but he did leave us a lead to the Chairwoman, plus we got loads of useful documents and intel. I'm sure MI6 and Interpol wouldn't mind having. 

-True, Europe is something the Winsdor accords can't afford to lose. So what was the the lead the Knight left? 

-A set of coordinates in the balkans. 

-The balkans? That's gonna be tricky, the closest the fleet can dock is at Greece. Getting to the balkans will require VTOLs and i can't guarantee you'll get air support. 

-Why? I thought Croatia was friendly? 

-A few months after you left the whole region became imbroiled in war, then a few months later the 2nd Yugoslavian Republic was formed. 

-Oh, in tha-

-And promptly collapsed again. 

-You gotta be shitting me! 

-I wish i was. Now the whole region is in chaos so we can't get close without causing an international incident. 

-Well shit. At least that means we won't have to expect the local government intervening. 

-Yeah, we at least have that going for us. 

A week later 

We finally arrived in Greece, we're loading up on gear and getting ready to leave at midnight. We should arrive at the coordinates by sunrise, though hopefully abit earlier. The coordinates point to a massive listening station built during the first cold war, it was built on a heavily forested plateau just below the snow cap. 

The flight there is quiet with Cherié brushing Feys fur and Fox doing maintenance on her rifle. I decide to further probe my Seraphim memories but to no avail, i have zero info on the Chairwoman or the Master for that matter. I find it odd that these memories have not a single shred of info on her, they have info on things like past events, things in the future and obviously information on other worlds and realities. But nothing on her, its almost as if someone scrubbed her clean from the memories, or I'm not able to access said memories. 

We reach the coordinates and we're dropped off 500 meters from the station. We slowly make our way there and i notice patrols around the place. We set up an ambush and drop the patrol. 

Pfht

Pfht

Pfht

Pfht

We continue pressing on and eliminating any guards we encounter. 

Pfht

Pfht

Pfht

Pfht

Pfht

Pfht

We arrive at the station and i quickly locate a door, we enter and quietly secured the room. I had Fey watch the doors while the rest of us reloads and made sure our equipment was all set, i turn the outer dial on my watch 5 seconds back. Fox asks me about it. 

-What was that for? 

-Insurance. 

We continue on further into the station and eventually reaching a large room filled with computer equipment. The lights switch on to full brightness and i see the Chairwoman standing on a balcony overlooking the room. She waves her hand and dozens of dormant security robots activate. The Chairwoman leaves the room. 

-Shit she getting away! 

-Go after her then! We can handle this Snake! 

-That's right! Just go after her Sir! 

-Woof! 

As we fire at the robots i decide to go after her but before i go i hand Cherié my .50 cal machine gun, the Gorgon, as well as several boxes worth of ammo belts. 

-Cherié! Make good use of it! 

-Yes Sir! 

-You three better not die! That's an order! 

I quickly parkour my way to the exit the Chairwoman took and started running down the hallway. I blasted any guard or security robot in my way. I keep getting glimpses of her going around corners till eventually i chase her out the building and into the forest. 

I know she's leading me somewhere, maybe a trap or something, but i have follow. If i let her escape who knows when i'll be able to find her again. Eventually i managed to track her to a clearing in the forest covered in flowers. I see her standing in the middle of the clearing and i finally get a good look at her. Her long emerald green hair, her sharp eyes with matching green pupils, the business suit and heels she wears no matter the occasion. Yup, it really is her, the woman who trained me, the Master. She looks at me dead in the eyes and speaks. 

-Good job, I'm glad you could make it. Snake, or should i call you Seraphim? 

-So you're like him. 

-Yes and no, i don't have clones, I'm just ageless. 

-Then why? 

-? 

-Why the bomb? Why the network? And why now did you finally decide to meet me again? 

-The bomb was just to satisfy my curiosity, the network was so i could monitor and influence world events. As for why now, well, you finally came back from your little holiday in Enigma. 

-So what now? 

-Now, we'll conduct your final test. 

She draws a sword and what appears to be a mana pistol form her dimensional storage. I do the same, drawing my dragon sword and mana revolver. I fire the first shot but she parries with her sword and returns fire. I dodge her salvo and close in to a sword duel. Suddenly her sword breaks into multiple segments and she swings it at me. I swiftly pull back from it. It seems its a sword whip rather than a regular sword. 

Now the fight's a stalemate, i can't get close and she doesn't want to attack. I decide to tilt the odds by using my grenades, everything from flashbangs to smokes. Even having her vision obscured and hearing blocked she manages to intercept my mana bullets with her own and parries my sword with her swordwhip, going back and forth between sword and whip. 

When the smoke clears we end up in the same positions we started in. She once again looks at me in the eye and speaks. 

-What's with the yellow hoodie anyway? 

-I got my sense of fashion from you. 

-Hahaha! I see you have his sense of humour. Well then! It's my turn now! 

She charges at me in the blink of the eye. We clashed swords and fired our guns at each other, swinging around our swords and parrying each others weapons. We continue this for another 30 seconds before she gets one on me, she shoots my sword out of my hand and her sword whip pulls my revolver out the other. Then she proceeds to roundhouse kick me in the chest. I'm sent flying a dozen meters and crashed into a tree, she teleports to just in front of me and points her gun at me. 

-What a shame. 

-I think your forgetting something you always taught me, always have an insurance policy. 

I clenched my fist to activate my watch. The outer dial moves forward 5 seconds and i teleport to my position 5 seconds earlier, right behind her. I draw a handgun from my storage and point it at her before she manages to turn around. 

-Checkmate. 

-Huh, well then. Congratulations you passed! 

=====================================

(A.N now to just wrap up loose ends in the epilogue)