At a mosque in Azadistan, several men tell religious leader Rasa Massoud Rachmadi that Parliament is defying the will of God by allowing heretics to enter the country. They think now is the time to strike before they lose out to the reformists, but Rasa tells them to calm down because God will bring down divine punishment upon Marina and Parliament. The men insist that they need to fight, but their meeting is interrupted when several masked gunmen storm the mosque and open fire. After the war six years ago, Azadistan annexed the former Krugis Republic and revived its monarchy, but the country is now split between two political groups, making the country extremely volatile. Shirin informs Marina that Massoud has been kidnapped, and that the conservatives probably think it was the reformists