Old Relationship

* Title screen
* Original title card

**Old Relationship** is the third episode of Mainstream and officially introduces the Six Wings and Delta Seven as they intervene in Replacer Bishop's plans.

## Synopsis

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> *Coffin Company receives a request from the military. As the confrontation with the Replacer Syndicate intensifies, Yoo Mina faces an old friend.*
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## Appearances

* Coffin Company
	+ Managerial Department
		- Machine G.A.P.
		- Lee Sooyeon
		- Kim Hana
	+ Operation Department
		- Lena Mackenzie
		- Chloe Starseeker
	+ Fenrir Squad
		- Yoo Mina
		- Joo Shiyoon
		- Hilde
	+ ALT Squad
		- Seo Yoon
		- Xiao Lin
		- Eujin
		- Kim Sobin
* Six Wings
	+ Na Yubin
	+ Lee Jisoo
	+ Amy Firstwing (Mentioned only)
* Delta Seven
	+ Sylvia Cooper
	+ Maria Antonov (Mentioned only)
	+ Jake Walker (Mentioned only)
* Mason Mercenary Office
	+ John Mason
	+ Zhang Wei
	+ Tommy and the Losers
* Replacer Syndicate
	+ Replacer Bishop
	+ Replacer Pawn splitter
	+ Replacer Knight (Mentioned only)
	+ Lost Ship
* Yoo Mina's High School
	+ Shin Narae
	+ Shin Najin
	+ Yoo Mina's sister (Mentioned only)
* The Girl

## Plot Summary

### Act 1

The episode begins with Lee Jisoo being scolded by a City Hall staff member for her incompetence while Na Yubin is talking with several residents. The two of them go on leave when Yubin receives a call from Amy, who tells him she has found the item they've been looking for.

Sylvia Lena Cooper, John Masion, Zhang Wei, and Tommy and the Losers enter the Coffin for a mission briefing. Lee Sooyeon explains that Coffin Company, because of its impressive performance on the previous mission, is now a government contractor of the U.S. Department of Defense and has been tasked with another mission. Sylvia, introducing herself as a member of the DoD's Delta Seven, explains that her group needs assistance in retrieving an item from the Replacer Syndicate—because it did not have enough solid ground to work in areas out of their jurisdiction, the DoD had to reach out to an Administration-licensed company for help. Sylvia also states that the item in question is classified information but says she can give more details once it has been acquired.

The group lands at the residential zone of the Old Industrial Area and reach the approximate coordinates of the item's location. John says he can track the item, which he believes to be a Counterside artifact, via its unique resonance wavelength, so Sylvia starts a radar search for the artifact using John's Ian Jr. drone. They successfully finds the item, which is revealed to be the Lost Ship, only to see that the Replacers are already there as well. Before the group attacks, John privately talks with Seo Yoon about how the hybriders seem particularly interested in her and gives her a mysterious pill for insurance.

Shiyoon suggests to Mina that the Replacers must be creating the hybriders for some grander purpose; to him, creating mindless Replacer hybriders in itself would be highly inefficient compared to using regular C.O.s or ground troops. Mina tells him that she doesn't care and reiterates that she only cares about the money for eliminating the Replacers.

Sylvia has her Leaf Node confirm the ship's identity as Grace Hopper, the second ship of the New Constitution class. The group considers how they will extract the item from the area when they are ambushed by Replacer Bishop and her forces. Bishop recognizes Mina and reveals herself as her old friend Shin Narae, to Mina's shock. Bishop is easily beaten by Fenrir Squad, but Mina prevents Shiyoon from executing Bishop. Hilde tries to execute Bishop instead, but Yubin, her former apprentice, arrives and flings her away.

Sooyeon rushes up to the Coffin's bridge and asks Yubin why he returned despite saying a long time ago that he wouldn't come back. Hilde thinks Yubin came to fight, but he denies this and instead orders Jisoo to capture Bishop. Yubin greets Mina and tells her that she can try to save Bishop where "promises were broken". Yubin tries to leave but is blocked by Shiyoon, so Jisoo incapacitates Shiyoon and knocks out Mina.

### Act 2

There is a flashback to Mina hanging out with her school friends, Shin Narae and her younger brother Najin. After the trio take a group photo, Narae notices the watch Mina is carrying, and Mina says it was given to her by her sister.

Mina wakes up at the infirmary with Shiyoon at her side. Shiyoon asks Mina about her relation to Bishop; Mina reveals that Bishop is Shin Narae, a former classmate of hers who supposedly died along with her family in a corruption disaster when they were in high school. Before she can elaborate further, she and Shiyoon leave to handle the remaining Corrupted Objects.

Upon returning to the ship, Hilde is enraged and thinks Sooyeon isn't taking Yubin's reappearance seriously. Sooyeon tells her it was thanks to Yubin that she (among some others) survived the Administration Failure and that Hilde, a deserter, is in no position to disrespecting him. Sooyeon further reveals Yubin had asked her to join him but declined his offer. At any rate, Sooyeon wants to wrap up the mission since the Lost Ship was recovered, but Hilde wants to pursue Yubin and settle things out with him.

Coffin Company reach the rendezvous point, an old battlefield from the final days of the Administration Failure, and meet Yubin again. Hilde again believes Yubin is looking for revenge, but Yubin assures her that he holds no grudge against her. He then has Jisoo distract Hilde and Shiyoon so he can talk to Mina, whom he was focusing on. Mina demands to know where Narae is and believes the Replacers had brainwashed her into joining them. Yubin expresses sympathy for Mina before and sending her to a strange dimension with a snap of his fingers.

Inside the dimension, Mina encounters dormant Shadows of Hilde and Shiyoon. She tries to wake them up, thinking they are her real comrades, but the Shadow of an unknown girl stops and tells her that they are just illusions fabricated by her own memory. The girl assures Mina that she is not with Na Yubin and, after finding out Mina's name, explains that one of them must defeat the other to leave the dimension; according to her, this is because their memories are overlapping as a result of them being in the same mental space. Mina just barely defeats the girl and returns to reality.

Yubin informs Jisoo that he has finally recovered the Qliphoth Factor form the energy extraction core of the Old Administration. He then reveals that Bishop had allowed herself to be kidnapped by him and is leading an assault on ALT Squad's location as he speaks.

### Act 3

Sylvia grows impatient with Sooyeon, thinking she's stalling to keep Sylvia around as insurance in case Yubin attacks the ship they are on. However, they are interrupted by an attack by the Replacers. Seo Yoon wants to escort Sooyeon and Sylvia out of the ship, but Sylvia declines as she is certain Delta Seven will send reinforcements soon. Sylvia then uses Leaf Node to blow out the Replacers' weapons and communications systems, thereby making them retreat for the time being.

Meanwhile on a different front, John and Tommy's team are under heavy fire, so ALT Squad is sent over to extract them. Some time passes and the battle turns suspiciously quiet, however, and Sylvia realizes that the Lost Ship is not the Replacers' objective. Just then, Replacer Bishop ambushes ALT Squad and incapacitates Yoon, who tells the rest of the Squad to run. Bishop then retreats with Yoon as her prisoner.

Later at a temporary supply station, Yoon awakens to see Bishop watching her. As Bishop injects herself with a stabilizer, Yoon realizes that Bishop's body is decaying and thinks she's planning to harvest Yoon for her Alternative Factor. Bishop denies this and says she wants to make Yoon suffer so Mina suffers as well.

### Act 4

Sylvia tells the group that she's leaving due to new orders from her bosses, much to ALT Squad's complaints. She admits she's curious as to why the Replacers are so determined to capture ALT Squad but doesn't want to stick around ALT Squad anymore, seeing them as untrustworthy. John intervenes and asks Sylvia for her satellite system for a moment in order to track down Seo Yoon's location— as it turns out, he and Yoon had ingested a VHF transmission capsule before the mission.

John leads the group to where Yoon is believed to be held, and Mina realizes it is her old school. Bishop appears and tells the group she placed Yoon into a Factor extractor, which was set up so that Bishop must die for Yoon to be saved. They battle, and Bishops brings out the Replacer Pawn splitters, a Replacer Pawn capable of cloning itself. Bishop then asks Mina why she didn't save her brother and blames his death on her. ALT Squad then pleads with Mina to kill Bishop to save Yoon.

After being defeated by her old friend, Bishop says that she will not live much longer, revealing that Mina's Awakening Collapse was responsible for her injuries and thereby forcing her to transform into her current form. Shiyoon discusses this with Hilde, who states that an Awakening Collapse, which rarely occurs when a high-grade Counter receives his powers for the first time, is usually no more than a few dozen meters, even with strong counters.

As a last resort, Bishop uses the the Qliphoth Factor that Yubin had given her earlier to transform and empower herself. She resumes engaging Mina but is defeated again. Mina hesitates on executing Bishop despite the latter's demands to finish her off, only for Lin to kill the Replacer instead to save Yoon. Yubin and Jisoo watch from afar before leaving.

During mission debriefing, Hilde tells Sooyeon that Yubin is her enemy now that he's used the Qliphoth Factor. As Hilde leaves, Sooyeon says she actually did agree to join Yubin but he retracted his offer, saying Hilde would have no one on her side. Shiyoon escorts Mina home at Hilde's request, and Mina thinks back to the Awakening Collapse event.

Mina looks at the framed group photo and remembers the time when Najin sacrificed himself to save Mina from a pack of C.O.s. She cries, feeling guilty for his death.

## Gallery

Manager Na YubinReplacer Bishop ambushes the groupBishop reveals her face to MinaSeo Yoon is held prisoner by BishopMina holds Bishop as she diesMina thinks about Najin at homeDecaying group photoMina hides from COs with Najin