Final Confrontation

by Jcarlton

Stories that start before the first MK movie and then pick up after it ended. The world holds surprises for the kombatants once they return from Shang Tsung's island, and some adversaries refuse to stay dead. Note that MK Annihilation never happened.

1. Final Confrontation 1

The newly acquired office building for the U.S. Embassy in Hong Kong looked like a nice improvement when compared to the old one. Lieutenant Richards of the U.S. Army Special Forces was escorting the foreign U.S. delegate inside as they both hastily walked after the colonel. All three men walked inside after the door was opened for them by an aid sent by the local government and proceeded into a hallway.

"Your partner was supposed to meet us here", the well-dressed colonel told the two other men, "I hope she didn't take off because we were late. Where the hell is she?"

The clean-shaven and equally well-dressed lieutenant wasn't impressed, and neither was the delegate who was in an incredibly clean suit.

"You don't just walk away from your assigned post, goddamn it! Who the hell does she think she is?" Richards didn't try to cover up his arrogance. He'd been in a bad mood ever since he was told he was assigned a partner, but the fact that he was assigned with a woman made him feel infinitely worse. She probably got accepted into the Special Forces because of all the feminist equal acceptance nonsense that had been sweeping some organizations, Richards thought to himself.

Just then, his partner appeared from the end of the hallway and walked towards them at a quick pace. Lieutenant Sonya Blade had her blond hair tied in a knot and was dressed in sneakers, a pair of shorts that reached halfway down her thighs and a loose white T-shirt that wasn't even tucked in; not exactly the proper appearance for an Army officer, both Richards and the colonel thought to themselves. Upon reaching the trio, Sonya stopped about five feet away from them and crossed her arms across her chest.

"Gee, guys. Somebody's a little late, no?", she remarked with sarcasm.

"What the hell are you wearing? What's with the outfit?", Richards thought out loud without giving her any explanations, "You're supposed to represent our country here in Hong Kong! What kind of an image is that??".

"Is image all you people worry about?...I guess so because you all look great but unfortunately at the same time you show up at a rendezvous over two hours late. It's been a lot of fun watching the paint dry in here all that time...And as for your image, the only thing that's really gonna matter is how good everybody is inside if and when the shooting starts. If you have a loser in a commando outfit, that's not gonna change his performance whatsoever in action, and vice versa!", Sonya was mildly annoyed, but as usual, she was completely under control.

"Well, I sure hope you two enjoy working together", the colonel added with a fake smile and pulled out the orders for the two officers, feeling secretly glad inside that he wasn't in lieutenant Richards' shoes.

The colonel handed a copy of the orders to both officers and quietly walked out feeling relieved. That bitch never belonged in the military to begin with, he thought to himself, she was never concerned about how everyone viewed her in particular and the Army in general, she just followed her instincts and nothing else. It'd be a nice experiment to put lieutenant Blade on the set of a talk show that is being recorded to see what happens, he chuckled as he nodded to the doorman and walked out of the embassy into the streets of Hong Kong. What the hell was the world coming to, he wondered as he headed towards a popular bar that he knew quite well. Visiting a bar was against the rules, but he really didn't care; after all, no one was watching, and that was all that really mattered.

Back inside the new building, after the delegate had left them to get a drink, the two officers were grudgingly going over their new plans after making peace with the fact that they were stuck with each other no matter how they felt.

"Our job is to make sure that entire embassy goes back home in one piece when their stay is done...", Sonya was reviewing the orders, "Baby-sitting somebody is about as boring as it gets, you realize that, don't you?".

"Good thing I'm in such good company then", Richards added.

The sarcasm in Richards' voice was apparent as his partner widened her eyes in response.

"Hey, I don't need an attitude from you, OK?", Sonya replied by pointing her index finger straight at his face.

Getting on each other's nerves obviously wasn't working, so Sonya decided to have some mutual cooperation for both their sake.

"Look...", she sighed, "I think it will be better for us both if we try to get along, OK? Trying to kill each other isn't gonna do either of us any good...The enemy's outside, not in here. If we can't accept each other, who will?".

"Fine", was the only answer she received. It wasn't what she was hoping for, but at least it was better than nothing.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

".....when the weapons shipment left for Tokyo, it was intercepted and hijacked. Two of our guys were killed and the entire shipment was gone by the time reinforcement arrived... To be brutally honest, we just weren't ready. We were so soft that a bunch of punks just ate us alive", Sonya kept on with the description of the attack on the lost shipment, "I mean, we were just inviting someone to come in and kick our ass whenever they liked. And, to make things even more interesting, some of our guys who were left described the attackers. I swear those sons of bitches had connections with the Black Dragon; they might've been working for the Black Dragon itself".

"A crime syndicate now takes us down, huh? That's great, just great!", Richards was actually agreeing with something she said, Sonya thought to herself, which was good.

"I'm telling you, though", Sonya went on, "If those pricks try anything while I'm around, they'll get their asses kicked so bad that they'll realize that crime doesn't pay. I'm just waiting for some wiseguy to try something at the conference".

"Well, if anything productive comes out of that conference, it won't be good for the Black Dragon, that's for sure... I just can't imagine so many countries coming together to hit organized crime all at once. I still think it's only a politician's game, though".

"Maybe,", Sonya added, "but who knows? Let's just wait and see. In the meantime, if our guy is gonna go over there in an hour, I better get dressed. I don't think they wanna allow someone in shorts into the conference just like that, although I still think it might give us an advantage in the way of undercover work...When we're in uniform, we're just too damn obvious".

"Nice try, you're still going dressed like the rest of us losers", Richards smiled as his new partner grabbed a gym bag with her commando outfit inside and proceeded to leave the room.

"You said it, not me", she smiled back.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

In another section of the city, in a bunker under an expensive estate, Kano was busy discussing plans of his own; the conference had to be disrupted, everyone who was around him knew that, but how that was supposed to be achieved was still an issue full of controversy. Kano honestly believed that he had the best idea as he was arguing about details with his major rival for the position of head of the Black Dragon Organization in front of about two dozen subordinates.

"I'm tellin' ya mate,", Kano kept pressing his point of view with his Australian accent, "we have the weapons and the ability. What we need to do is hit these bastards in an open way, show them our defiance in the face of their 'sweeping reform'! We can break in there during their meeting and waste as many of them as possible within ninety seconds and then we'll scram. Then, all these idiots will know the exact position where they stand, which is right under our feet".

Kano was desperately trying to sound brave when debating the means of the attack with his opponent Benson, who still wanted to play it safe. The two men had been committing crimes in the Black Dragon for years, and Benson was always Kano's opposite. Kano was wild and daring while he always looked for the easiest escape route. Safety was the exact issue they were arguing over presently.

"Chances that aren't necessary shouldn't be allowed", Benson countered, "Just one bomb from one of our smarter guys will do as much damage as the army you wanna take there, you lunatic! What if one of these guys gets injured and allows himself to be captured and then spills his guts about the whole organization? You're still gonna be this brave then?".

"There's no way in hell anybody will be taken alive. We resist to the death! Everybody knows that!", Kano barked back, putting Benson down and trying to fire up his subordinates at the same time. This kind of argument had gone one for years as both men had tried to be the sole head of the organization with little success, but they both felt the campaign to strike at an international conference could prove to be the tie breaker in their quest for the top position.

The voices of the subordinates were quietly starting to side with Kano. Realizing this, the crime lord decided to let them come to the decision by themselves, so he turned around and started walking towards the exit door.

"Look, mate,", he announced to no one in particular, "everyone has to make the decision as a group, but the strike isn't at least for another hour or so. Until that happens, I wanna catch a workout first".

With those words, Kano was gone through the doorway. Benson signaled four of the subordinates to go after him, claiming he was worried about his rival's health and well-being.

"You four, stay with him and make sure he doesn't get hurt or killed or something. He better stay in one piece, because I wanna kill him myself when the time comes".

Kano and the four subordinates entered a large gymnasium in the west section of the estate. Inside the gymnasium were several dozens of cages lined up one on top of each other against one of the walls. Inside the different cages were some cats, some monkeys, some large rodents and some chickens. Kano walked up to a pile of three cages that reached about his height and lifted the top one. He stared at the one foot tall monkey inside for a few seconds before shaking the cage vigorously. He shook it just long enough to freak out the monkey inside right before he opened the steel door and let the animal jump out desperately. As the monkey raced on the wooden floor, Kano pulled out a huge, menacing-looking blade from his pants pocket and with a single breath, chased after the animal while the four subordinates looked on.

The monkey had a lot of speed and agility, but it was in Kano's turf, so what it didn't have was a place to run for, since the entire gymnasium was closed like a large box, there were no windows and only one closed door. Kano finally cornered his prey in the intersection of two walls; as he closed in, he knew he would have to move in one quick motion. He lunged forward with the knife in his right hand and grabbed the terrified monkey with his left. The animal's desperate efforts to get away were clearly no match for Kano's grip.

"Not a bad run, mate", Kano looked down and addressed his prey with a smile, "You gave me a pretty good workout".

With those words, Kano gripped the monkey's head with his left hand and slowly slit its throat with the knife. All the animals in the cages shrieked and panicked as soon as he let the monkey go. On the clean, shiny floor of the gymnasium, the monkey gasped, coughed and flung its arms into the empty space all around it as the pool of blood that it was lying in kept spreading larger and larger. The screams of the remaining animals ceased when the monkey stopped moving and just remained face-down in its own blood. Seeing that, Kano turned around from the bloody scene, cleaned his knife with a towel and walked towards the four subordinates. He didn't stop as he reached them, he proceeded to leave the gymnasium all together, but before he exited, he addressed the four men in an authoritative voice.

"Clean that up, will ya'?", was the only thing they heard from him before he opened the door and vanished.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As all the foreign diplomats were getting ready to officially start the meeting, Sonya and her partner walked inside the 13th floor of the thirty storied building, following a few feet behind the American ambassador who had been sent here. Both their outfits stood out because everyone else in the place was dressed formally and the two partners were dressed in pitch black commando outfits; neither one seemed to mind the blank stares they were getting, though.

While the minutes passed and everyone who was sent as a participating country's representative sat around a large rectangular table, numbers were used to inform the attendants of the urgency of the problem; the number of lives lost to organized criminal activity and the billions of dollars lost in property damage were the first things pointed out. A speech describing organized crime as being an immoral activity followed the numbers. Lieutenant Richards personally thought it was all very boring as he and Sonya stood erect on both sides of the main door and carefully looked over everyone who was present, just to make sure that no one got any bright ideas. After all, they both knew that the Black Dragon was very rich and that many people in society in general could be bought if the price was right.

When the routine visual check was still going on, both partners suddenly had their attention diverged from their task by a faint sound. They both realized that it was the sound of a helicopter approaching. None of the diplomats seemed to hear, or if they heard it, they didn't give it much importance. But the sound of the rotor blades kept getting closer and closer until it was obvious that it was right next to the building. Most of the diplomats looked up, wondering what was going on just a few seconds before the side of the wall that the two officers were facing blew in from outside with a loud explosion and sent concrete and glass in all directions. Most diplomats were hit by those pieces of stone or glass as they fell out of their chair and scrambled for the exit doors in a panicked state because they finally realized something was wrong. Sonya and Richards recovered from the shock very quickly.

"GET OUT! GET OUT NOW!", Richards was screaming as Sonya signaled the direction of the main door with one arm while retrieving her 9mm Glock with the other. Just then, a rope appeared dangling a foot or two outside the fifteen-foot wide hole in the wall right before someone dressed in military fatigue used it to jump into the room. The person had an AK-47 strapped to his chest which he pulled out as soon as both his feet were securely on the floor. Without aiming, the intruder stepped inside and led off a hail of bullets towards the general direction of the retreating diplomats. All his initial rounds ended up punching holes in the wall opposite him, where Sonya and her partner were still standing at their full height. Before the guy got another chance to fire, maybe with better accuracy, Sonya and Richards aimed their 9mm pistol directly at his chest; Richards fired three times and Sonya twice. Their target shrieked, dropped his weapon and fell on his back with five clean holes in his upper body.

As he lay in front of the giant hole, the intruder was desperately trying to hold on by pressing his feet against the floor while his life quickly drained out of his body. But he wasn't alone because three more ropes appeared just before three new intruders slipped from the helicopter into the room. They were dressed and armed just like the first one and, seeing their colleague dead, they knew there was resistance. But that knowledge didn't help them because Sonya already had the one at the farthest left of the three within her sights as she still had her hands extended at an arm's length in front of her face holding the pistol. She pulled the trigger once and a round exploded into the second intruder's chest; since this one was just on the edge of the hole, he was thrown back and gave out a yell as he fell thirteen stories down.

Richards aimed for the middle of the three men as that one was still pulling out his AK-47 and pumped two rounds into him, flattening him against the wall at his full height and then leaving a red streak on the wall as he sank towards the floor. The third one, though, pulled out his AK-47 in time, stepped over the body of the original intruder and fired over twenty rounds at the disorganized diplomats, still adding on to the confusion. At least a pair of diplomats were mercilessly cut in half by his bullets as the intruder was cheering before both officers concentrated their fire on him and cut him down in his turn; as that one went down, his body shook vigorously and his AK-47 kept spitting out bullets in every direction as another diplomat was hit before he slammed on the floor and finally stopped moving.

Five more new intruders showed up at the hole as Sonya and Richards overturned two tables into a vertical position and ducked behind them for cover to give themselves a better edge while the last of the surviving diplomats bailed out of the room. But this time, the Black Dragon soldiers were more ready for a confrontation because all five charged straight for the two Army officers without pulling their AK-47s out. Both Sonya and Richards aimed, fired and were able to drop one each before the remaining three tackled the table and then them with full force. Two of them started struggling with Richards as the third slammed Sonya's back against the wall and fought for control of her semi-automatic. During the struggle, Sonya saw other Black Dragon invaders coming from outside but just running past them with the AK-47s at the ready, since they were clearly after the diplomats and not the two of them. As her opponent tried to point the muzzle of the pistol towards her, Sonya kicked him right below the knee, possibly breaking his leg. As he screamed in pain and let go of her handgun, she pressed the muzzle right below his throat and pulled the trigger once. The bullet went out her opponent's back and Sonya's chest was splattered with drops of his blood as he dropped without a sound.

She then looked over to where Richards and the two other intruders were struggling just in time to see one intruder hold her partner from behind and the other intruder stab him in the heart with a hunting knife right before cutting his throat. The intruder holding the knife dropped it on the floor as Richards slumped forward holding his throat and gasping as the artificial light in the room glinted off the intruder's metallic eye.

"Richards! NOOO!", Sonya screamed as she leveled the Glock in front of her face and fired four times. But she was so upset that all four rounds missed their targets and the two men who had murdered her partner simply ran back to the hole in the wall, grabbed two of the many ropes there and were pulled up by the chopper. Sonya could've opened fire again as they were retreating, but she rushed to her partner instead to try to save him. As soon as she reached him, though, she knew that he was long gone.

Amid all the debris and all the dead bodies, there was only one thing for her to do, and that was to go after the intruders who had slipped past her during the hand-to-hand struggle. She took her partner's pistol as well as hers and leveled both at arm's length in front of her shoulders before quickly walking out of the room. Her throat felt so tight with grief that she thought there was a noose around it, but she couldn't think about that now.

She emerged into a hallway at the end of which she heard some automatic weapons fire. When approaching the end of the hallway at a fast pace, she had to walk by some rooms whose doors were left open. As she reached one of the open doorways, she didn't notice a lead pipe coming down on her arms until it was too late. The pipe hit her on the forearms and she lost both handguns; then, just as fast as the first hit, someone's closed fist from the doorway punched her in the jaw.

"Aaaaah!", was the only instinctive result Sonya screamed out as she was hurled towards the opposite wall about ten feet away.

The impact against the wall forced her down on her knees as she opened her mouth and eyes wide in order to recover from the painful blow to the head. From the doorway, the assailant emerged and Sonya recognized who he was.

"Well, well. Look who it is. The one and only Benson. The head of the Black Dragons", she told herself out loud.

"One of the heads, bitch, not the sole one. And as you can see, I aien't shy about hitting a woman, if that's what you call yourself", Benson replied with the lead pipe still in his left hand as he kicked both Glocks away, "Of course, if my man Kano had listened to me and just that bomb, we wouldn't be here and we wouldn't have lost all those guys just now. But no! Kano had to show off!".

Benson raised his hands above his head as he was describing Kano, whom he clearly disliked.

"Of course,", he went on, "I saw what he did here just now to that partner of yours. He was the one who cut the asshole's throat and when I go back, I'm never gonna hear the end of how he wasted a Special Forces grunt. He's gonna have something to hold over my head... That is, unless I kill a Special Forces grunt of my own".

With those words, Benson took two steps towards Sonya, but he wasn't through talking.

"But, you're a bit better looking than your partner was,", he added, "so maybe I'll have some fun with you first before you meet your maker".

Without saying anything else, Benson loosened his belt and undid the button of his camouflage pants with his right hand. He then proceeded to lower the zipper as he menacingly got closer. But Sonya pressed her hands palm-down against the wall behind and used it as leverage to stand back up on her feet because she definitely had different ideas.

"You wanna have fun?", she asked him, "Have fun with this!".

Sonya twisted around and kicked him straight in the stomach. The force of her kick sent Benson staggering back into the room from which he had emerged. Inside, he slammed against the wall and lost the lead pipe as he bent over, gasping for breath. Sonya followed him inside without even bothering to pick up her pistols. She had a really mean look on her face because her grief over her partner had suddenly turned to pure anger.

"I can see why you wanna resort to raping", she told him, "With an ugly face like that, even hookers probably stay away from you".

Benson wasn't about to give up, so he charged towards her with all his strength. But Sonya was more than ready because she twisted to her side and kicked him in the head as he reached her. As her ankle impacted against his jaw, Benson flew fifteen feet away and landed on the floor in sheer agony. Sonya calmly walked over to him, pulled him up by his shirt collar with her left hand and brought him up to his knees. She looked down on him with simple hatred for a split second before she started punching him in the jaw with her closed right fist over a dozen times very fast within a handful of seconds. Benson's head was snapping back and forth like a speedbag as she kept on disfiguring him for what happened to her partner and those diplomats and also for what he tried to do to her. When the punches ceased, Benson was spitting out blood and some teeth as Sonya then picked him up to his full height right in front of her and gave him one last comment to hear.

"Have fun, asshole!", was the only thing Benson heard before she sent her right foot with all her strength right between his legs. The force of the kick sent Benson vertically about a foot high into the air before he fell back on the floor, curled his body into a ball and moaned in pain.

"You may consider yourself placed in my custody, tough guy", was the next thing he heard from the lady before she exited the room to retrieve her pistols. The only sound he was emanating was "Ugghhhh! Uggghhh!..." as he gasped for breath.

A few seconds later, she came back in with both semiautomatics tucked in her belt. Benson, at that time, couldn't believe what had happened; he was lying on the floor after getting beaten up by a woman. All his hatred towards her started making him forget his pain since he wasn't used to being on the receiving end of this kind of humiliation. When he saw her, he stood back up with some difficulty, spat out two more bloody teeth and picked up his lead pipe again with his left hand. From over a dozen feet away, he lunged towards her, yelling at the top of his lungs and holding the lead pipe over his head. But animal instinct is never a match for a controlled mind. As he was about six feet away, Sonya flipped upside down on her two hands, placed both her ankles firmly around his chest and leg tossed him over her. Benson shrieked as he was lifted off his feet and was flying. Since the room was relatively small and Sonya had just entered, instead of landing on the floor after a 180 degree flight, Benson impacted head-first into the wall behind her. After she let go of him and came back on her feet, Sonya realized right away that there was no point in taking him in because the blow against the way had broken his neck. All the better, she thought to herself, as she pulled the two Glocks out and ran back towards the end of the hallway.

As she reached her destination, she stumbled upon at least a dozen bodies. Three were members of the Black Dragon as identified by their clothes, but the rest were either diplomats or security guards. From the looks of it, it seemed like the security personnel assigned for the building were putting up a brave fight, but they were badly outgunned; it was AK-47s against revolvers and that's why seven guards were gunned down as compared to three intruders. But the automatic gunfire could still be heard somewhere else, and she ran towards it determined to stop the remaining terrorists before any more innocent lives were lost.

Upon reaching the source of the gunfire, she realized there was just one more intruder standing. A single Black Dragon soldier, with the bodies of one of his comrades and two more diplomats near him, was keeping half a dozen security guards and police officers at bay. The remaining terrorist was crouched behind a desk with his back to Sonya and was facing his opponents who also had taken cover. The security guards and police officers clearly saw Sonya and stopped firing, but the Black Dragon terrorist didn't since he was only staring straight ahead and squeezing the trigger as hard as he could. That was the last thing he did because Sonya pulled the trigger of both handguns at once and two rounds simultaneously hit her target in the back, about six inches apart from each other. The target screamed and slumped forward on the desk after letting go of his AK-47 as the piercing sound of the gunfire abruptly stopped, although the smell of lead remained. The terrorist was still alive as the law officers cautiously closed in on him with their handguns at the ready.

Seeing that, Sonya turned around without word and walked back to her fallen partner, still holding on to her gun and to his. She walked past the dozen plus bodies, walked into the hallway, past the room where Benson lay lifelessly and reached the conference room where the confrontation had initiated. No one other than her was moving as she walked over to where lieutenant Richards was in order to take one last look at him. She squatted down next to him to see his face and felt about what happened; it was just like those cowards from the Black Dragon to jump someone after they had him outnumbered two to one, she thought to herself as she let both pistols slip out of her hands. Since the top half of the standard Special Forces commando outfit consisted of a black tank top and a black sweatshirt, she took off the sweatshirt and ceremoniously covered her partner's face and throat with it.

Sonya then heard something terrifying; the rotor blades of the helicopter were back. She instantly grabbed the two Glocks from the floor, stood back up and rushed over to the hole the explosion had created in the wall. She had a clear view of the Black Dragon helicopter with the occupants, who were dressed exactly like the intruders, inside as the chopper was hovering about two floors above her room. The person who had murdered her partner was still alive in the helicopter, so she aimed for it with both pistols and pulled the triggers as many times as she could before her weapons were empty. The helicopter didn't even seem to be scratched, though, and from the amount of hatred she felt inside, Sonya wasn't about to give up. She dropped the two pistols and looked around, spotting an AK-47 that belonged to one of the dead intruders nearby. She grabbed it and screamed as she pointed it towards the ever-present helicopter. Unfortunately, as she did that, she also saw that one of the occupants of the hovering helicopter had a shoulder propelled rocket launcher aimed at her.

"Oh shit!!", was the only thing she yelled out as she dropped the AK-47 and ran for the door leading to the hallway. Just as she bolted through the doorway, a rocket came through the giant hole in the wall and exploded into the floor of the conference room. All the rubble, furniture and bodies on the thirteenth story conference room were then dropped into the twelfth story room right below as a second giant hole opened up in the floor.

Looking back, Sonya saw that there was nothing left of the conference room on the thirteenth floor. She was covered with dust but was otherwise unhurt. This fight wasn't over, she thought to herself, because whoever started it was going to pay.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As the hours passed after the helicopter was gone, Sonya was led outside along with the many occupants of the building by the police officers and Army personnel who answered the distress call. Outside the damaged building, she just sat on the edge of the sidewalk across the street and looked up at the giant hole the original rocket had created with despair. Emergency officials were rushing past her as if she wasn't even there, and that was fine with her since she just wanted to be left alone with her thoughts and without any other human contact right now. While staring across the street over time, her eyes eventually got hold of the emergency officials exiting the main entrance of the building. None of them was working hard to try to save anyone's life, though, and that was simply because there were no lives to save. People were going in, putting the corpses in a body bag, putting the bag on a stretcher and pushing the stretcher towards an ambulance. She knew that inside one of those body bags was her partner, but it didn't stop with him of course; there were many more following. She watched the seemingly infinite line of bags exiting the building for a few minutes. She then put her head in both her hands and lowered her head towards the ground while closing her eyes for a few seconds. Just then, an outside voice interrupted her peace.

"Lieutenant Blade?", a man's shaky voice called her from a few feet away.

Sonya didn't know who it was and she really didn't want to know, just like she didn't want to open her eyes or answer. But she knew she had to answer; she couldn't remain in the enveloping darkness forever, unfortunately.

"Yeah, what?", she answered without raising her head or opening her eyes. When she didn't hear any answer, she knew she had to look up. So she opened her eyes, pulled her face up towards the sky and realized the man she was addressing was the diplomat she and her partner had escorted here. He was clearly shaken up and his 3-piece suit was a mess, but at least there weren't any holes in him. After making eye contact with him for a brief second, Sonya turned her attention back towards the building.

"What's on your mind?", she asked him indirectly. She wanted to be left alone pretty back, but if this guy wanted to talk, she wouldn't refuse.

"Well", the diplomat answered, "I wanted to...To inquire...Is lieutenant Richards OK?...I know I heard a lot of shooting after I was out of that room. What happened?".

"My partner didn't make it", she answered without moving any muscle except for her mouth and still staring straight ahead.

"Oh my God!", the diplomat's voice got even more shaky than before, "I'm so sorry. What happened?".

"They jumped us. It was three on two. I got lucky", she answered, "One tackled me, but two tackled him".

"I feel terrible", the diplomat announced to no one in particular.

"Me too", Sonya rigidly replied, still staring straight ahead.

"I mean, you two saved my life. I owe you two more than I can ever repay. Especially him".

"Don't worry about it".

"I mean, I don't even know your name. All they said was 'this is lieutenant Richards, this is lieutenant Blade' and that was it", he said as he cleared tears out of his eyes.

"It's Sonya", she said as she looked up at him once more and extended her right hand.

"I'm James", the diplomat said as he shook it, "Look, if there's ever anything I can do for you, you just need to ask".

Hearing that, Sonya figured it was only appropriate to stand up. As she gained her balance and got back on her feet, a large amount of dust settled around the area of the sidewalk where she was since her pants and tank top were still covered from top to bottom.

"Well, thanks for the offer, but I'm fine", she told him, "Just try to be nice".

"I will, really", the diplomat answered, "And if you change your mind, just call the embassy, they'll know how to contact my private office...Thinking of calling, I oughta call my wife in the states before she hears about this on the news".

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea", she forced a small smile on her face to assure him that she'd be OK when he left, so he did.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Back in the Army base, Sonya walked into the barracks and came face-to-face with the colonel who had assigned Richards with her and a younger, black officer in a black commando outfit just like hers, except that hers was a lot more messy. The two men were watching a news report when she had walked in.

"....and the attack was the worst that people here could remember", the TV reporter went on, "At least 25 people are counted to be dead so far and the entire downtown Hong Kong was a mess this day because...", the colonel shut the TV screen off with a remote control.

"This isn't gonna be good for us, you know", the colonel addressed both her and the other officer, "The president is disappointed by our actions".

When he mentioned the president, he looked straight at her and Sonya was not in any mood to take criticism.

"Say what?!?!", she snapped, "Nobody here had any idea those sons of bitches from the Black Dragon would try something like this! We were outnumbered and outgunned! Richards gave his life trying to protect those diplomats and so did God knows how many other guys in that building. Those guys knew they were at an incredible disadvantage against those AK-47s, but they decided to fight back anyway!...We lost a lot of heroes in that building! So why don't you just tell the president to take his disappointment and to shove it up his ass?".

With that sharp retaliation, Sonya added "Jeez!" and moved towards a hallway in the barracks where she knew she could finally get a shower and a change of clothes. She didn't know why the colonel was acting like this and she didn't care. She was too exhausted to care about some politician's motives.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After getting cleaned up, Sonya was sitting at a desk and satisfying her hunger by munching down on ham and cheese sandwiches and a can of soda. It felt good to be wearing her familiar shorts and T-shirt again as well as having her hair combed, but there was no internal comfort and she was thinking of what she had to do to resolve her personal conflicts.

She was busy making a second sandwich disappear when the black officer who was with the colonel walked into the room and introduced himself. He was still wearing his commando uniform, but had no name tag, unlike most.

"Hi, I'm Jackson, I knew lieutenant Richards from way back. I'm sorry about what happened to him".

"Yeah", was Sonya's only answer as she still had her mouth full.

"How long were you two partners?", he asked.

"About three hours", was her frank answer.

"The coroner said he died from a stab wound to the heart. Is the motherfucker who did it dead? Do you know?".

"He got away", Sonya replied as she finished the second sandwich, "Jackson, is it?".

"Call me Jax, everyone else does", Jackson told her with a smile. It was a very nice gesture, but Sonya didn't feel like smiling back today.

"Well, Jax, I know who did it. Benson mentioned his name before he died".

"Yeah, this Benson guy. Nice work you did on him. The guy's wanted in over two dozen countries. But one thing is for sure, he aien't gonna bother anybody else. What happened today was ironic, actually. The only person who survived after getting shot was that asshole that you popped twice in the back".

"The last one?".

"Yeah, he made it through surgery. When he wakes up, we're waiting to ask him some questions".

"This other guy, Benson said his name was Kano. He said he was one of the heads of the Black Dragon".

"Is this him?", Jax pulled out a wallet-size picture and held it within a few inches of Sonya's face. The face in the picture was exactly who Sonya saw cutting her partner's throat, there was no mistaking the face, the beard and especially the metallic right eye.

"Yeah, that was him", she answered him almost instantly.

"Well, this guy is even worse than Benson was", Jax informed her, "He's definitely dangerous. Especially now that Benson's out of the picture; he has total control of the Black Dragons".

"I don't care", Sonya flatly answered as she picked up her soda can, "I aien't resting until he's either dead or in custody...Preferably dead".

"Look, sergeant...", Jax tried to reason with her.

"I'm a lieutenant!", Sonya interrupted.

"Sergeant, lieutenant...I'm still your superior", Jax went on with a temporary smirk, "Not resting until this guy is down aien't a good idea".

"Don't give me a speech Jax", Sonya looked away as she began sipping.

"Look, we're gonna get at least another chance with this character, maybe real soon. If the shooting starts and you're exhausted, that's not gonna help anybody, except maybe Kano himself. Just get some rest, you need it after what happened today. If Richards was here, that's what he'd say. If anything happens, I'll make sure you're notified".

Sonya didn't like the idea, but she had to admit to herself that her eyes were getting heavier every minute. So she realized she had to take Jax's advice.

"Allright, fine. But you will let me know if anything happens", it sounded more like an order than a request.

"I promise", Jax replied as he leaned on the desk.

"Thanks", was the only thing she could think of saying as she emptied the soda can and got up to head for bed and get some sleep.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Rolling around on her bunk bed, which was about a foot off the floor, Sonya was asleep after a handful of minutes and she was dreaming. She saw herself walking on a busy street with her deceased twin brother, Daniel. The rain was pouring down hard, but neither one of them seemed to notice that they were getting drenched. They finally followed the crowd up a staircase and through the main entrance of a large, fancily decorated building. Once inside from the rain, she and her brother stopped while the crowd kept walking by. Sonya looked around the interior of the place and couldn't recognize it.

"Danny,", she addressed her brother, "I think we're in the wrong place".

Her brother seemed annoyed at her comment and snapped back.

"Can't you do anything right?"....

Just then, Sonya opened her eyes in the darkness and knew that she was awake. Sitting up in bed, she saw through a small window of her barracks that it was still pitch-black outside. She reached over for her wristwatch on the floor. Feeling the muzzle of her Glock, she knew the watch was about six inches to its left and thus got her fingers around it. As she brought the wristwatch within a few inches of her face, she turned a small light inside the watch on and saw that it was about 3:20 AM. Exhaling loudly through her mouth, she dropped the watch back on the floor as she remained seated on the bunk bed. She wondered what had prompted her to dream about her dead brother as she wiped the sweat off her forehead with her left palm. It might've been possible that Richards' death brought back some memories about her twin brother since both guys looked somewhat alike, but Sonya couldn't understand the meaning of the dream. She asked herself why Daniel had snapped at her in such a way; it's not like she screwed up during the confrontation against the Black Dragon and she knew for a fact that she didn't feel guilty over what happened to her partner or to her brother years ago. There was a difference between feeling bad and feeling guilty.

After thinking about it for several minutes, she couldn't come up with an answer so she just crashed her head back on the pillow and closed her eyes, waiting for the sun to come back and hoping to fall asleep.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When Sonya opened her eyes again, the sun was up and it was almost 7:30 in the morning. She twisted around, put both her feet on the floor and sat up as she picked up the wristwatch and the Glock. She then stood up and proceeded to leave the barracks barefoot. Just as she exited the room, she saw Jax coming towards her from the direction that she was heading towards. Jax didn't seem to have changed a bit since last night, since his commando outfit looked exactly the same way it did the last time Sonya talked to him. Sonya looked the same as she did last night too, but the only difference was that last night, she was wearing a shirt, shorts and sneakers and right now the sneakers were nowhere to be found.

"I'm glad you're awake", Jax called out from fifteen feet away as they came closer, "We just finished interrogating the intruder who survived yesterday and he spilled his guts. We might know where Kano is gonna be tonight".

"Great! Where?", Sonya strapped the watch around her wrist.

"Come with me", Jax signaled with one hand, "There's a meeting going on right now".

Jax led her to a small conference area where the colonel was busy talking with four other men. One of the men was at least in his late 50's while the other three were approximately her age.

"This is lieutenant Blade", Jax announced to the four men as Sonya followed him into the room and set the pistol down on a table. The four men and the colonel were clearly astonished at her appearance, but no one said anything out loud.

"Unless Kano changed his mind last night, he's gonna attend a party tonight downtown", Jax clued her in.

"That's great! We can grab him if he's there!", Sonya instantly exclaimed, slamming her closed right fist into her open left palm.

"No, lieutenant, we'll be doing that", the oldest man of the four answered.

"They're with the FBI", Jax went on, "They're running the show".

"Yeah, right!", Sonya wasn't about to let anything get in her way, "He killed one of us. So we get him!".

"I'm sorry lieutenant,", the older man countered, "but the FBI has jurisdiction. We're to extradite him back to the states so he can answer to federal charges...".

Sonya's answer to him was a sarcastic and unimpressed smile as he continued.

"Of course, if you want to assist, I think we can allow that this time".

"Assist?!?! Kano's mine!!!!! No one else's!!!!!", Sonya was almost screaming by now as if she'd been insulted.

Looking at her colonel, Sonya could see that his facial expression was nonverbally telling her not to interfere. She couldn't take on the entire system, so she had to concede defeat, for now.

Assistant director Bradley, as the man in his late 50's introduced himself, set out to explain his plan. The party that Kano was attending was taking place inside a high-rise which had 38 floors. Assuming Kano was spotted, they would 'neutralize' him, take him to the roof and be picked up by a helicopter. Two of the younger agents, Johnson and Cain, would be piloting the helicopter while the third, Brighton, would bring them Kano. Of course, since Sonya simply had to get involved, Bradley fit her in with Brighton. Sonya really didn't like the way his plan was going on and said so. Her opinion was duly noted, but that's about as far as it went.

"You guys are treating Kano like he's a common criminal", she kept objecting even though no one was interested in what she had to say, "He's not. He has a million connections as the leader of the Black Dragon, especially now that Benson's dead. What're you gonna do afterwards? Drag him back to the states, read him his rights and consider freeing him on bail? This guy's a monster, we shouldn't give him due process. He's too damn dangerous".

"We have done this before, you know", Brighton coldly replied, "You just expect us to put a bullet through his head execution-style?".

"Of course not", the colonel promptly replied.

"That's not a bad idea", Sonya answered the young agent.

"Lady,", Brighton was annoyed, "we've spent the last ten months gathering evidence and going after Kano. How long have you been after him?".

Sonya chose not to answer his question because it was going to sound ridiculous if she said 'Twelve hours' as a response, so she just kept her mouth shut. It was apparent from the expression on agent Brighton's face that he didn't like the idea of having someone else accompany him as he was zeroing in on Kano. After all the time he had spent on this case, grabbing Kano was supposed to be his privilege alone, but it seemed now that he had to share it.

As the argument was proceeding, it was clear Sonya was on the losing side, especially since Jax didn't open his mouth once and she went up alone against five opponents, so she was forced to go along with the original plan.

Afterwards, when she and Jax walked out after the meeting was over, she had to know if he decided to participate.

"Are you coming along tonight?", she asked him.

"What's the point? And I don't see why you want to. These guys wanna do things their way and they'll get the job done", Jax answered.

"How can you say 'what's the point'?", Sonya was surprised, "I thought Richards was your friend!".

"He was! But what is being there for the big bust gonna do? It aien't gonna bring him back.... What? You think you're gonna feet better after you have a small hand in taking him in?".

"Yeah!", was her snappy answer.

"Look, if you wanna live like that, then fine", Jax told her, "But I know better".

With those words, Jax walked away and left her surprised. She didn't understand why he said what he did, but for now, she had to run to get ready for tonight's hunt. First thing she needed to do was to put some shoes on.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As the hours went by and the morning turned to evening, Sonya got her instructions from Bradley. She received a waitress' uniform from Bradley so she'd be able to infiltrate the party without standing out. She didn't know how Bradley got the uniform so fast, but she wasn't concerned about it; the only thing on her mind was getting the night over with.

Sonya was sitting in the back seat of the four-door vehicle with Brighton in the front passenger seat as Bradley was driving towards their destination. As they were nearing the high-rise, Bradley asked them both if they were allright with the idea of going after Kano alone. He couldn't realistically do anything about it if they had a problem with the idea, except perhaps give some encouragement, but Sonya didn't answer since she was fine. She was looking at the back of Brighton's head as the agent was staring straight ahead as the high-rise where the party was taking place got closer and closer each second.

"The party's over for this guy, boss", Brighton addressed Bradley without looking at him, "He's going down; because I'm gonna be the party crasher".

Once Bradley parked the car in front of the high-rise, all three got out at once. Outside the main entrance, all three got together before going inside. Sonya was wearing the waitress uniform as Bradley and Brighton had a tuxedo on. She felt weird in a dress, but whatever sacrifices had to be done to try to grab Kano were worth it. As they entered the building, Bradley separated from the two of them and walked towards the elevators.

"Good luck, kids", was what they heard from him as he headed for the 35th floor.

Walking around for about ten minutes, pretending to be enjoying themselves, they spotted Kano drinking champagne from a bottle while everyone around him was drinking from a glass. He appeared to really be enjoying himself dressed in the suit and tie as he laughed heartily with some of the other guests.

"Well, he's got guts showing his face after yesterday, that's for sure", Sonya whispered to her partner, who simply looked at the criminal with a cold stare.

Partying, Kano left the other guests while still holding on to the bottle and started walking away from the main crowd. The blonde waitress and her apparent date who seemed handcuffed to her followed. Gulping more champagne, Kano proceeded into a hallway that led out of the main room. Sonya and Brighton were only about twenty seconds behind, but when they reached the origin of the hallway, they saw that there were two 90 degree divisions that cut across the hall, one leading to the left and one to the right.

"I'll take the left! If you see him, grab him and meet us on the 35th! Be careful!", Sonya exclaimed as she quickly walked towards the intersection, followed closely by Brighton.

She almost started running towards the left while her partner headed in the opposite direction. Rushing in a dress was as uncomfortable as could be, but she kept hurrying on until the hallway led her to a 90 degree right. Turning the corner, she spotted Kano about twenty yards away getting into an elevator door that had just opened. She hurried over and squeezed into the elevator just as the door was closing. She caught her breath as Kano pressed the button for the 17th floor and took another sip from the bottle. He then stared at her and smiled.

"Gee, why isn't a pretty thing such as yourself staying at the party and entertaining the guests?", he asked, "Isn't that what they pay you for?".

"Yeaaah!", Sonya answered with a fake laugh, "But I got a small problem upstairs".

"Well, I'm on my way to meet a very expensive call girl,", Kano informed her, "but when I'm done, maybe you and I could get together afterwards. I pay real good if you can satisfy me".

"Really?", she answered with that stupid smile still on her face, trying to sound like she was interested, "But why wait? Why don't you have me first?".

"Well...I dunno....", Kano was playing hard-to-get as he raised the bottle above his head for another sip.

"Come oooooon!", she kept smiling as she put one finger from her right hand on his shoulder and slowly brought it towards his neck, "I can do everything your date can do. The only difference is I can do it better".

She brought her face within two inches of his and whispered "Much better".

The smile on Kano's face widened.

"Well, you gotta understand, baby", he answered, "This date is prepaid for; if I don't show up, I don't get my money's worth".

"Ooooooh!", Sonya acted upset in a spoiled way, "Well, tell you what. Why don't you see what I have to offer and then decide whether I get to be first or second".

With those words, Sonya brought both her hands to the top button of her blouse. The waitress outfit had half a dozen buttons on the front and, with Kano's eyes strictly on her hands, she started unbuttoning the top one. That was the last thing Kano saw because just then, she closed her right hand into a fist, pulled her right arm back and punched him in the jaw. Kano screamed, twisted around and slammed into the elevator controls behind him as he let go of his bottle, which smashed on the floor. Before giving him a chance to recover, Sonya grabbed him by the hair on the back of his head and, with all her strength, drove his face into the elevator door, denting it. Kano's body fell unconscious on the floor just as the elevator reached the 17th floor and the dented door opened up. There was a couple in their sixties waiting a few feet away to get in. They were obviously amazed at what they saw.

"What happened?", the man asked with his eyes wide open.

"Oh", Sonya answered him with yet another fake smile as she squatted next to Kano to supposedly help him up, "He had too much to drink. I was trying to help him to his room, when, I guess he passed out and he hit his head on the door here".

"Uh, do you want some help to take him to his room?", the woman offered.

"No, no, I'm fine. We were just going upstairs", Sonya wanted to get rid of them fast, "Are you folks going to the party downstairs?".

"Well, yes", the man answered.

"I'm sorry. You can't take this elevator. I gotta take him upstairs, you know", she laughed after she said it like everything was all very amusing.

"Oh, that's fine. We'll wait for the next one", was the couple's fortunate answer as Sonya hit the button for the 35th floor and the dented door closed again.

As the elevator was climbing towards floor #35, Sonya pulled out a pair of handcuffs and secured Kano's wrists together behind his back. She then hoisted him up by his collar to his full height and squatted in front of him to bring her right shoulder in front of his stomach. Then, she stood up as she wrapped her right arm around his lower back and her left arm around the back of his thighs. Carrying his entire weight on her shoulder was a challenge, but she could handle it.

When the elevator finally hit #35 and the door opened, she walked out hoping no one was around, and no one was as she carried Kano to room 3522, where Bradley was waiting. Upon reaching the door marked that number, she knocked on it three times with her left elbow since she couldn't free either one of her hands. Bradley opened it within seconds and let her in.

"Where's Brighton?", was the first thing the assistant director asked as she walked in and put Kano down on the floor.

"We got separated...Call him back up here", she told him.

Bradley pulled out a small radio, extended the antenna and spoke into it.

"Brighton, do you read me?".

"Brighton here", was the answer on the other end.

"Sonya has Kano. Come on up".

"I'm on my way".

"We should head for the roof right now", Bradley told her as he pressed a blue button on a device, "That told the other two boys that we got what we came for. Brighton will meet us there".

As Sonya picked Kano back up, Bradley didn't feel right about letting her do the heavy work.

"You need any help with that, by the way?", he asked.

"I'm fine", she answered as she loaded Kano's entire weight on her left shoulder this time, "Just get the door".

The trio headed back for the elevator and Bradley pressed the upward arrow to call it. After a nervous minute on the incredibly quiet 35th floor, the elevator door opened and they got on it. Bradley pressed the button for floor #38 as soon as Sonya stepped inside and they were on their way...Once on the 38th floor, it was a short, though excruciating, walk until finding the doorway to the roof and the clear night sky where Sonya could put Kano down again and start rubbing her shoulders.

One minute passed, then two, then three. The helicopter wasn't supposed to be this late, and neither was Brighton.

"Where the hell are then?", Sonya exclaimed as she was pacing back and forth. She didn't try to hide the fact that she was nervous.

"Relax, lieutenant, I'm sure they'll be here", Bradley calmly replied.

"Well, you sure got a lot of faith in 'em", Sonya told him as she stopped pacing and faced him from fifteen feet away.

"Hey, they're my boys. They deserve it".

"Your kids? All three of them?", she was astonished.

"Not my real kids, lieutenant...I never married, never had a family...These guys have been working with me for the last five years..They became my family".

"Huh".

"I tell you. Those three kids have a hell of a lot more fire than I did when I was their age...They're the one reason I'm sure this world isn't going down the drain. You remind me a lot of them, actually".

"Thanks", she answered, flattered by the comment.

"Do you have a family, lieutenant?", Bradley asked next.

"I got parents back in the states, does that count?".

"Well, if your parents are still alive, that's nice, of course. But I'm talking about a husband and kids".

"Hell, no".

"Huh. Well, take my advice and don't be like me", Bradley warned her, "I served with one type of law enforcement or another for almost 35 years now. I was so busy enforcing the law that I forgot there were other things in life... Believe me, serving your country is great, but you gotta keep everything in perspective. If you have a chance with a nice young man, don't sacrifice it for your job. I keep warning these kids about it, but so far, they don't listen".

"I'll keep that in mind", Sonya told him, and she would.

As she said that, she heard Kano moaning on the floor. She saw him move a few seconds later.

"Well, well", Sonya crossed her arms looking down at him, "Look who's awake".

Kano started laughing as he was lying face down; not exactly the kind of reaction one would expect from someone who just got caught, Sonya thought to herself.

"What the hell are you laughing at?!", she snapped at him.

"I'm surprised, baby", Kano kept laughing, "I didn't think you were gonna knock me out like that. I thought you'd pull out a gun and yell 'FREEZE' or something, but you've got one hell of a punch, I'll give you that".

"Like you actually saw the hit coming? Yeah, right!", Sonya sounded confident although she was getting scared.

"Come on, baby", Kano said while turning on his back and looking up at her, "You honestly thought I didn't recognize you from yesterday's raid? I saw you when I slit your friend's throat".

A chill overtook Sonya when she heard his words. Kano wasn't lying, he'd been expecting them. Then he was probably playing along the entire time in the elevator, just like she was. She withdrew her 9mm Glock just as at least ten Black Dragon soldiers rushed onto the roof with their AK-47s aimed at her and Bradley.

"Well, well", Kano snickered as he stood up with some difficulty, "Looks like the advantage is mine now. Hey guys!!".

He signaled one of the men about his hands so that one rushed over to him and shot through the handcuffs with his AK-47 as another grabbed Sonya's pistol out of her hand while another disarmed Bradley.

"How the hell did you know? You couldn't have!!", Bradley almost screamed as he was pushed towards Sonya and then surrounded by the soldiers.

"Simple", Kano kept smiling, "I have someone in your FBI bought. He told us when and where and how the hit was going down, as well as who was carrying it out...".

He addressed Sonya again.

"When I left I really was hoping that you'd be the one who finds me instead of that Brighton fellow, baby...By the way, talking about this Brighton fellow,", Kano went on, "where is he?".

"Right here, boss", one of the men answered as two others exited through the doorway and returned a few seconds later dragging Brighton's body. Of what light was available on the roof, it could be seen that the agent's body was shot numerous times.

"Hey, guys!", Kano faced his men and looked puzzled, "There was one more of you. What the hell happened?".

"He cut Mark down when we jumped him", one of his men answered as he pointed to Brighton's body.

"Oh Jesus!", Bradley whispered as he realized Brighton was long dead.

Just then, they heard the rotor blades of the helicopter approaching. It was about two hundred yards away and closing in when Kano pulled out a small device with an antenna on it.

"What the hell's that?", Bradley asked him, although he was scared to know the answer.

"This,", Kano proudly responded, "is the control for the C4 that's in your chopper".

With those words, Kano pressed a button on the device and the FBI helicopter blew up in a bright explosion in the night sky. Agents Johnson and Cain were no more. The burning helicopter then went straight down right in the middle of the heavily populated street below. Just how many people lost their lives on the ground could not be told from the rooftop, but there had to be plenty of casualties.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH!!", Bradley screamed in a rage as he lunged for Kano, intending to do some major physical damage. But he didn't get far because one of Kano's men hit him on the side of the face with his AK-47. As the agent fell on his back, in pain and bleeding from a deep cut on his forehead, Kano kept enjoying himself.

"See, baby", he stood one foot in front of Sonya, facing her, as he withdrew his hunting knife, "First, we're gonna shoot this old-timer here. Then, we're gonna take you to a special room in this building here and we're gonna tie you up and then, you're gonna pay for that punch in that elevator...And you're gonna pay bad!".

"Leave her alone, you asshole!", Bradley addressed him from the floor. It didn't do much good, except for getting him a kick in the stomach.

As Bradley coughed, Kano snickered and pressed the cold steel of the blade against her cheek as he and Sonya locked eyes and he kept on talking as if Bradley wasn't even there.

"See, this knife is as sharp as a razor. I always demand high quality like that. See, when you're securely tied up, we're gonna tape your mouth shut and then I'm gonna start cutting you up. First I'm gonna start cutting your fingers off, one at a time. Then your toes, one at a time. Then your hands, your arms, your feet...Well, you get the idea. And the only thing I'm gonna use throughout the entire operation is my blade here, and you're not gonna receive any morphine", he chuckled, "Personally, I hope you'll still be conscious by the time I get to cutting your eyes out, because I want me to be the last thing you see of this world before you see all red".

Kano had the most sadistic smile on his face that anyone could imagine as he once more addressed his men and looked away from her.

"OK, boys! Finish off the old man and show my baby here the way to my private chambers".

One Black Dragon soldier pulled Bradley up to his knees while a second one pressed his AK-47 against the back of the agent's head as the rest of the men dragged Sonya past Brighton's body. One soldier walked ahead while the rest were pushing her from behind. Kano wasn't among them, though; he remained behind because he wanted to see Bradley eat lead first. Sonya knew at this point that she had only one chance to save Bradley and herself, it was all or nothing.

"Hey, Kano!", she turned around and called back as she was being shoved back inside the building, "There's just one thing you forgot! Tonight I carried a back-up!".

Without saying anything else, and before any of the soldiers could react, Sonya reached for the 5-shot Davis P380 pistol that she had strapped to her left thigh, a few inches above the knee. With a single, smooth move, she pulled out the reserve pistol, pressed the muzzle against the back of the head of the soldier who was in front of her and pulled back on the trigger once. With a solid explosion, the guy's brains shot out of his forehead as he screamed and fell forward. Before he hit the ground, though, Sonya dropped her handgun and held on to the back of his shirt with her left hand long enough to get her right fingers around his AK-47.

She then let go of him and, as he crashed on the floor, she was gripping the muzzle of his AK-47. She turned around and positioned her left hand around the trigger to face the half dozen men who were behind her just as some of them were leveling their own AK-47s towards her. But Sonya fired first and the bursts of bullets shot out of her weapon a split second before theirs and cut them down to pieces as she kept waving her weapon back and forth at a 60 degree angle to effectively cover everyone behind her. The shrieks and screams of pain that she heard told her that those people were either dead or dying very fast as her nose caught the sharp smell of lead and blood at the same time.

Having emptied the AK-47, she let it go and picked the small pistol back up. She aimed at the sight where Bradley and his two potential executioners were almost 40 feet away and, not wanting to risk hitting Bradley, fired four shots several feet over everyone's head. The two soldiers, seeing they were under fire, instinctively pushed Bradley aside and started shooting back in the darkness. This time, Sonya dropped the Davis P380 and lunged forward on her stomach. She flattened her entire body on the floor next to the dead Black Dragon soldiers and reached and reached for the closest AK-47 she saw. She grabbed the bloody weapon and brought it close to her. Then, lifting her head a few inches above the concrete, she positioned the AK-47 in front of her face and zeroed in on the targets.

The two men and Bradley were hard to point out, not because of the distance between them and Sonya, but because of the enveloping darkness that was all around. As the two soldiers fired, Sonya saw their gun flashes as their AK-47s kept aiming for her. She couldn't fire at their gun flashes, though, because she might've still hit Bradley by mistake. Just then, her eyes caught a commotion that was taking place where her two opponents were. She saw one man get punched and another get shoved on his back as a third ran away from the scene; it must've been Bradley, she thought to herself just as the man who was punched aimed for the fleeing man and fired a handful of times, hitting him in the back. As the fleeing man went down, the two men concentrated their fire on Sonya again, but they weren't very bright because they were still standing at their full height. Sonya aimed for the left gun flash and let three quick bursts shoot out of her AK-47. The result was a yell as the person behind the gun flash went down and didn't get back up. Seeing that, the second Black Dragon soldier finally wised up and ducked as he kept firing...Over twenty rounds were exchanged between him and Sonya as all the bullets hit the floor a few inches away from their target. But Sonya was a far more superior marksman, or markswoman in this case, and the next time the Black Dragon soldier squeezed on his trigger, she responded by firing a single round towards his gun flash. Her round exploded into the muzzle of his AK-47 and tore it apart.

Without thinking, the Black Dragon soldier screamed out of fear and surprise and stood up to run as far away from his opponent as he could. He was heading for the exit door on the opposite side of the roof that led back into the building. If he had been under a different state of mind, he'd know that it was a careless move, but he wasn't thinking. As he was running, Sonya stared at him through her AK-47 with a grim face and decided not to let him live. It was payback for the way they had hit Bradley. She pulled the trigger once more and one round tore through the very center of her target's back. He dropped with a scream and was still moaning as Sonya looked around for Kano, who was nowhere to be seen. Not surprised, she stood up and quickly walked over to where Kano was lying. Under different circumstances, she would've cared about how the last Black Dragon soldier that she took down was, since he was still conscious and in pain; but right now, she just let him suffer, not caring whether he lived or died. As she reached Bradley, she found him lying face-down on his stomach, so she kneeled next to him, held him by the shoulders and turned him over, hoping to see that he was still breathing, which he was.

"Hang on, Bradley, you're gonna be OK", she tried to reassure as she held him, even though she knew he wouldn't last long enough for any paramedics to arrive. Bradley probably knew it too since two bullets had made two clean holes in him, one in the stomach and the other in the right side of the chest.

"Did you get Kano?", he whispered.

"No. I got everybody but him!", she was actually disappointed with herself because she wanted to say 'yes' to make the agent feel better.

"You were right", Bradley laughed even though he was in incredible pain, "We should've justkilled him".

"He's dead. He's going down, I promise", Sonya wiped a tear out of her right eye with her right index finger as Bradley's head fell backwards, but his eyes were still open.

"I'm sorry I made you wear that dress, lieutenant", he told her as he closed his eyes, "It must be very uncomfortable for you".

That was the last thing he said, so Sonya slowly put him back down on the concrete floor, completely sobbing and crying now. The right side of her face was smeared with blood because both her hands were bloody after grabbing the dead soldier's AK-47 and then holding Bradley. She tried hard to breath and covered her face with her forearms and rested it on her lap as tears kept coming down her eyes. She relived every scene in her mind: Richards' death, the diplomats', the security guards', Brighton's, Johnson and Cain's and Bradley's. Losing five partners in 48 hours was too much. She stayed on her knees next to the body in that way for over a minute as she kept trying to catch her breath until the tears finally began to slow down. She wiped both eyes with both forearms for several seconds until the tears stopped. She stood up and decided to leave the roof since there was nothing else to do. As she was on her way back inside the building, she heard the last Black Dragon soldier that she had shot call out in pain.

"Call an ambulance, goddammit!! I'm dying!!!".

Instead of completely ignoring him, Sonya decided to answer him before she left. Walking away, she turned her head towards him.

"If you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself, tough guy".

The guy's moans were the last thing she heard as she walked through the doorway leading to the 38th floor.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Half an hour later, it was the same scene that she had seen the previous day. She had already called her barracks with the news after washing her hands and Jax told her that he was on his way there. She was standing outside the high-rise in the dress with dozens of guests as twelve body bags were brought out, heading for the waiting ambulances. But it wasn't the only place paramedics were summoned to because other ambulances were rushing about a block away to see if anyone could be helped at the sights where the agents' helicopter went down after it exploded. Just then, Jax appeared making his way towards her through the crowd from about five yards away.

"Are you OK, sergeant?", he asked as he reached her.

"I'm fine", she answered with an emotionless stare, "You missed quiet a show here".

"It's not the only one", Jax added, "We got four cars a block from here. The chopper came down right on them. All the drivers and passengers inside were burned alive. They're still trying to see which body part belongs to who".

"More good news!", Sonya answered, "It just doesn't stop, does it?".

"How the fuck did this guy know they were coming for him?", Jax asked himself more than he asked her.

"He had somebody at the FBI on his payroll. I dunno who", Sonya clued him in, "Everywhere you go he's got somebody on his payroll. There's just no getting him, unless....".

"What?", Jax wanted her to finish her sentence.

"Let's get out of here, huh, Jax? We should talk somewhere else", Sonya didn't finish it.

As they walked about twenty yards in two minutes through the massive crowd, they reached the open sidewalk which had a handful of ambulances, a handful of police cars and a firetruck around. Among the sirens and the emergency lights, Sonya kept talking.

"Every time we try an official, sanctioned hit, this guy's gonna be ahead of us", she told Jax, "If he bought the FBI, how the hell can we assume that he didn't do the same with the Special Forces? The only way to get this guy is to go after him without the official heads knowing about it, so no one else can know about it either".

"Wait a second!", Jax protested, "You're thinking of taking this guy out? We can't do that, Sonya. We're not killers! We have to let the system handle him if possible. Not doing so would mean we're murderers".

"That's what the four agents said, remember? And look what happened!", Sonya tried to reason with him, "Look, we'll grab him alive if we can. But if he resists, then we kill him, that's it. And I'm almost sure he's gonna resist".

"Look, sergeant", Jax went on, "Let's go back to the barracks and think about this, OK? You should get some rest and try to relax before any decisions are made".

"All we've been doing for the last two days is relaxing while this guy eats us alive!", Sonya snapped. Not too many people around her seemed to notice though.

"Look, you need to get out of that dress anyway, don't you? Fine, so we should go back to the barracks. Besides, we don't even know where this prick is right now. What the hell makes you think we can track him down by ourselves? Any information on his whereabouts are probably gonna come from the top, and when it comes from the top, everybody's gonna know it, not just us".

Back in her room in the barracks, Sonya was thinking about what Jax had said. He was right; the only way they would know where Kano was would be if their superiors got the information and relayed it to them. Then, their superiors would get to decide what actions are taken. Of course, she thought to herself, the only chance she had would be if she found his whereabouts by herself, and the only way that was going to get done was by going to every lowlife she knew of in Hong Kong that might associate with Kano to put pressure on him. Then, after getting the information, she would corner him and if he resisted, which he would, just finish him off. She figured the worst the Army would be able to do as punishment will be the loss of her rank and the price would be more than worth it. But the main problem was how to find his whereabouts...After getting out of the waitress outfit, she had her shorts and T-shirt on again. She decided to start cruising around downtown Hong Kong in search of anyone who would know any information tomorrow since Jax was right about another thing; she needed her rest. She went to bed expecting not to have a good night's sleep.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

She was sound asleep in the middle of the night and she wasn't dreaming anything, just resting her body and her mind. The physical and emotional strain of the last two days had exhausted her so much that she was out cold in bed, getting her desperately needed energy back. Part of the strain was actually having to keep all the grief inside of her; the grief for Richards, for the FBI agents, the security guards in the building, the diplomats and, latest, all the people who she heard had been burned alive in their vehicles when the FBI helicopter came down on them like a fireball from hell. She hadn't even known how many victims there were overall, just that the number was big; and everyone had friends and loved ones who would miss them as time went on, and the only person responsible for that misery who was still breathing was Kano. Sonya had remembered the last fact more than anything else.

But she wasn't thinking about him at this moment, because right now she was at peace as she lied comfortably on her back on the bunk bed. Her bunk bed had never been comfortable before, nor was it meant to be, but it sure was tonight. The peace was not meant to last long, though.

Sonya was jolted awake from her sleep because of a sudden pressure that was applied on her mouth. As she opened her eyes wide, she almost instantly realized that it was a hand covering her lips in order to keep her from screaming out. Looking frantically around, she noticed to her horror that the hand belonged to Kano; she could still make out his metallic eye despite the darkness in the room. Kano wasn't alone, he had brought two of his men along as well and each man was leaning on one of her wrists to make sure she couldn't move. She knew this was no dream.

"MMMMMMMMMM!!", she desperately tried to yell out without any success as she attempted to free her face from Kano's pressuring hand by shaking her head.

"What's that, baby?", Kano whispered as he put his entire weight on his hand and thus on her face, "You wanna have fun? Right now? Well, I think I'm up for it, don't you guys?".

"Sure, boss!", was the answer from one of his two subordinates as Kano grabbed the covers with his free hand and tossed it aside.

"See, baby", Kano looked down at her, "I couldn't let you go after everything that happened on that roof...No no!...Me, the head of the Black Dragons? Humiliated by a woman? God! What would people think? I have to teach you a lesson! The three of us are gonna take turns... One by one...By the time we're through, you're gonna wanna scream so bad!!...I'm gonna make sure of that before I cut your throat and let you join your partner".

Then, with a smile still on his face, Kano addressed his two subordinates as he pulled out his knife with his free hand.

"Well, boys. Which part should I cut off first?".

"How 'bout the feet so she can't run away?", the subordinate who had both his hands wrapped around her left wrist answered.

"Yeah, why not?", Kano answered as pressed the tip of the blade on her stomach, "So pretty, too. It's gonna be a shame at the end".

A ton of rage was shooting through Sonya's system as Kano rested the knife on her stomach and ripped a piece of duct tape with his free hand, which he then used to paste her lips together so both his hands would be free.

"See, baby? I thought of everything!", he gloated as he picked up his knife again and walked to the foot of the bed.

Just then, Sonya turned the rage into action. She brought both her legs up at once like she was doing leg raises real fast and aimed as far to the right as possible. Her right leg hit the subordinate who was leaning on her wrist over the head, though not painfully, just with enough force to make him lose his grip on her wrist. As he recovered from the relatively light hit, Sonya took advantage of it by reaching for the floor with her right hand and hoping that Kano hadn't spotted her Glock when he came in.

He hadn't because she gripped the handle of the pistol and pulled it up. The first person to stare down its muzzle was the subordinate on her right. She aimed in the darkness in his direction as he was one foot away and pulled the trigger eight times. Her target screamed and fell on his back as his blood stained the bunk bed as well as Sonya's clothes and skin. Without looking, she then turned the handgun against the man at her left and frantically fired several more times. That one screamed as he let her go and slammed against the wall behind him. Turning her head to the left, she saw a silhouette holding his left shoulder and screaming.

"YOU BITCH!! YOU BITCH!! YOU BITCH!!!!!", was the only thing he kept yelling out while Kano let go of his knife and took off running for the door because he wasn't about to hang around to become target #3.

Sonya pulled the duct tape off her lips with her left hand and screamed while she fired at him until the Glock was empty. But she knew instinctively that she had missed. She planted her feet on the floor on the right side of the bed, jumped out barefoot and proceeded to give chase. As soon as she took one step, though, she tripped on the body of the subordinate who was at her right and fell on her face, losing the Glock. Not discouraged, she stood back up, grabbed the handgun and started running. As she exited the room, she saw Kano was about twenty yards ahead.

Sonya ran after him for about fifty yards until they were both outside in the darkness, with only the light from the moon and stars. She felt like a lioness going after a deer and she could've caught him on foot, but she didn't want to risk giving him a chance to disappear in the dark. As she was five yards behind him, she stopped, aimed the empty handgun at him as she was looking at him through eyes that were as cold as the ground she was standing on.

"FREEZE, TOUGH GUY!! OR I'LL SHOOT!!", she yelled.

Kano must've believed her because he stopped cold in his tracks and turned around without raising his hands.

"What, baby?", he grimaced, trying to sound defiant, "You're gonna shoot me?"

"Not really", Sonya answered, "The gun is empty".

With those words, Sonya dropped the Glock on the ground and rushed over to him.

"This is for Richards!", she told him a split second before she uppercut him with her right hand. The hit took Kano by surprise and he staggered several steps behind, losing his equilibrium but still managing to stay on his feet.

Sonya took the necessary few steps to close the gap between her and him. As Kano seemed to recover from the blow, she had more in mind.

"This is for the FBI agents!", she added as she let loose a series of hits.

With both hands closed into a fist, she punched Kano in the jaw with her left hand. As his head snapped to the right, she quickly followed it with a punch with her right hand and his head snapped back to the left. She then sent her right fist straight into his stomach and knocked the wind out of him. As Kano bent over, gasping for breath, Sonya grabbed both his ears and lifted her right knee so her knee impacted into his face. The last hit sent Kano staggering further behind as he yelled out in pain. He still managed to stay on his feet, though.

"And this is for everybody else!", Sonya let him know as she rushed over to him to keep adding to the punishment. When she was approximately three feet in front of him, Kano recovered his balance and stood back up straight, ready for a fight, or so he thought.

Sonya twisted around to her left side and kicked him in the jaw. The hit of her ankle slamming hard into his teeth was more powerful than any punch and sent Kano crashing on the ground with a yell. He was on his hands and knees, trying to get back up with thoughts of a hasty retreat in mind since she was obviously more than a match for him. But Sonya didn't give him a chance because she then kicked him in the head the same way that one would punt a football. That painful hit sent the horizontal Kano in the air as he landed on his back and saw nothing but the stars as he looked up.

"Get up, motherfucker!", Sonya taunted him. Kano wasn't about to since he knew what would be in store if he did. He decided that maybe he should try to beg for mercy and, when she was distracted and listening to him, he should try to simply run away.

But Sonya didn't have mercy on her mind as she bent over, locking eyes with him from a few inches away, grabbed his shirt with both her hands and smoothly yanked him up to his feet despite his resistance. She let go of his shirt with her right hand, and by still holding him with her left, punched him in the jaw with yet another right fist. The massive hit sent Kano back on the ground before he could even say a word, let alone distract her.

"It's not so easy when you're alone, is it, tough guy?", she told him just as she picked him back up to his feet like before and punched him in the stomach one more time. As Kano bent over for the second time, they both heard someone calling from the darkness.

"Hey, sergeant!! Stop! What're you doing??".

Kano was in too much pain to care about who had called out with the question and Sonya was too busy sending her elbow crashing down on the back of his head to notice.

After Kano fell on his face, grunting in agony, Sonya angrily kicked him in the side of the stomach. The kick hurt her foot as much as it hurt his stomach since she had no shoes on, but she didn't care for now. The kick turned Kano on his left side of the stomach so that his stomach was facing her. That was a tempting opening and Sonya took advantage of it. She repeatedly kicked him in the stomach, hurting both his stomach and her foot at the same time, as Kano kept screaming and trying to cover himself with his arms in vain.

Just then, someone emerged from behind Sonya, running towards them. The individual reached her and restrained her by giving her a bearhug from behind. Sonya was completely taken by surprise and the individual had such powerful arms that she couldn't get out of it.

"Hey, what're you doing?!?! Let go!!! Let gooo!!!", she protested as she desperately tried to struggle out of the man's grip, but in vain.

Seeing what happened, Kano didn't care who the person was. He was simply thankful to have a chance to escape before Sonya did any more damage to him. He stood up, and despite the fact that he was in a lot of pain, managed to run as fast away from her as he could. Running hurt his stomach, but he didn't stop because it was better than the alternative of staying there and having to face her when she got loose.

Sonya saw him disappear in the massive darkness that was all around and couldn't believe her eyes.

"Let go of me, you idiot!!! LET GOOOOOO!!!!", she kept screaming as she struggled. But the more she struggled, the tighter the man's grip seemed to get.

"Calm down, sergeant! You're gonna hurt yourself!", the man told her.

If Sonya had been calmer, she would've noticed that it was Jax behind her, but she was in a rage at this moment and she started struggling like a wild animal as Jax lifted a foot off the ground in order to calm her down. Sonya started kicking her legs in midair as she snapped her head back in order to hit the person behind her in the face; both attempts were unsuccessful.

"Aaaaggggggggggghh! Aaagggggggggggggggh!", she kept growling as she lost all sense of sanity after watching Kano slip through her fingers.

After about thirty seconds of that, she realized that there was no getting out of the grip unless she calmed down, so she did. Seeing that, Jax decided to put her back down on her feet.

"Now, I'm gonna let you go, OK?", he told her, "I want you calm".

"Fine!", Sonya answered in a cold voice as she finally realized that she was talking to Jax.

Jax eased her back on the ground and loosened his grip around her. As he did, Sonya took one large step away from him, turned around, and looked him in the eye, completely calm.

"Now, who the hell was that guy that you were beating up on before....", Jax spoke first.

That was about all he got to say because Sonya made her right hand into a fist, pulled her right arm back and punched him in the jaw with as massive a blow as she could come up with. Just because she was calm didn't mean she wasn't angry.

But Jax was much stronger than Kano. A punch that almost destroyed Kano only swung Jax's face to the right. He was looking at his right shoulder instead of straight ahead, but otherwise, his body didn't move an inch.

Jax turned his head back in front to look at her and, for the first time since Sonya met him, he had an angry look on his face and it was directed at her. Sonya opened her eyes wide even though she stood her ground because she just realized that this man was probably strong enough to break her in half if he wanted to. But fortunately, Jax didn't strike back.

"I wouldn't recommend that you do that again, sergeant!!", he snapped at her.

Sonya wouldn't hit him again, but she wasn't through with him.

"You idiot!!", she answered, "That was Kano!!! I had him and you let him escape!".

"What?!?", Jax seemed genuinely surprised when he heard Kano's name, "No way! How could he have gotten here?".

"I don't know!!!", Sonya snapped back, "He came into my room with two of his goons!!".

"What??!!", Jax couldn't believe what he was hearing, "Wait a second. Are you hurt?".

He had just noticed that she was covered with blood. His question calmed her down to a great extent.

"No...", she answered, "It's that asshole's blood. I think one of the two is still alive back there".

Just then, a handful of other soldiers showed up.

"Hey, what's going on here? Is everybody OK? We heard gunshots", one of them asked.

All the soldiers were armed. Some of them with pistols and others with M-16 assault rifles; obviously sleeping with a Glock wasn't good enough for them.

"Yeah, everything's OK", Jax answered them, "But I think it's gonna be a long night. We have a couple of bodies to pick up".

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Everybody was up during the night as the body of one of the subordinates was carried out of the barracks in a bag and the second subordinate was taken to a doctor on the base under heavy guard as the military police was summoned. As a doctor from the army was patching up the subordinate's shoulder wound, Kano's employee was seated on a table eyeing the five soldiers who had their M-16 aimed right at him as they were waiting for him to make a wrong move.

Sonya, who was still covered with the other subordinate's blood, walked into the medical facility followed by Jax. The soldiers recognized them and let the both of them walk up to the injured Black Dragon member. Jax stayed a few feet behind as Sonya confronted him by standing next to the doctor.

"Where's Kano going, you son of a bitch??", she demanded by locking eyes with him.

The subordinate didn't answer a word and Sonya was annoyed enough as it was; she wasn't about to put up with his attitude. She grabbed him by the back of his hair and pulled his head back as the subordinate screamed and held on to his wounded shoulder.

"I aien't gonna put up with this, you prick!! Spill it!!", she was taking out her anger on him.

The doctor intervened because her physical confrontation with the patient was only going to make the shoulder wound worse.

"Please, lieutenant", he motioned her to let go of his hair.

She reluctantly did as the doctor saw the blood on her clothes and skin.

"Are you hurt, lieutenant?", he added.

"No", was her simple answer as she kept staring at the subordinate, "You're gonna talk. I don't care if I have to beat the truth out of you with my bare hands".

Her facial expression made everyone believe that she meant what she said.

"Lieutenant,", a voice called her from behind, "I can't allow that".

She turned around to see two officers from the military police department. They were accompanied by a soldier who had been telling them what happened.

"We'll take care of him as soon as the doctor can let him go. He's our responsibility", one of them told her in a polite manner.

"After I'm through with him", Sonya defiantly responded.

"Lieutenant,", the other officer answered, "we will charge him with the maximum, and we will question him, but we cannot allow you to punish him yourself".

"Give me a break, goddammit!", she sounded annoyed.

"If our roles were reversed, you'd be telling us the same thing", the first officer countered.

Despite her anger, Sonya had to admit they were right. She would be telling them the same thing.

"Just tell us when he's done, doctor", the first military police officer told the physician, "We have eight more guys outside who want to take him into custody".

"He's done, the bullet is out and I already stopped the bleeding", the doctor said as he looked at his patient, "He's all yours"

Hearing that, the two officers approached the subordinate, handcuffed his hands behind his back and pulled him off the table that he was sitting on.

"We have him charged with burglary, and also attempted murder", the first officer looked at Sonya when he said the last charge.

With that, they dragged him outside to the other officers who were waiting. Sonya watched them go, knowing that she was putting her faith in total strangers at the moment by assuming that they weren't on Kano's payroll. But she didn't have much of a choice.

Even after the officers were gone, everyone at the base was still awake because the main thing that was bothering them was how three people could've just broken into the barracks and the base itself without raising an alarm.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kano was running for miles once outside the base, he was out of breath but still refused to stop for rest because he was very scared, even though he knew that there was no way anyone could've followed him in the night. As time went on, he simply didn't have the stamina any more and thus stopped and dropped on the ground, gasping for breath. He was miles away from the base by now, although he didn't know exactly where. He needed to find a phone to call his organization and demand to be picked up by a car, he thought to himself. He looked up and saw that he was in a rural area, with no street lights or cars or phones anywhere.

"Great, this is just great", he told himself as he kept breathing hard and sat up on the ground.

As he was still catching his breath, he heard a sound behind him. He didn't know what it was and, naturally nervous, quickly turned around. It was an oriental man standing at his full height about six feet away from him and looking down at him.

"Sickening", the man said as he kept staring right into Kano's eyes.

"Who the fuck are you, mate?", Kano demanded, looking up at him.

"My name is Shang Tsung", the man told him with an air of superiority before he pointed his index finger down at him, "You man call me mister Shang Tsung".

"How the fuck did you get here, mister?", Kano asked him sarcastically.

As he said that, Shang Tsung took two steps towards him, bent over, gripped Kano's throat with his right hand and pulled him up to his feet , choking him at the same time.

"You will show respect", Shang Tsung told him as Kano was desperately trying to get out of the grip but couldn't, "If I didn't need your pathetic assistance, you wouldn't even be alive right now".

"OK!! OK!!", Kano whimpered as Shang Tsung let him go. Rubbing his throat with one hand, Kano looked at him.

"So what do you want?", he asked.

"I need your help to bring Sonya to me", Shang Tsung frankly told him, "I will tell you everything you're to do".

With those words, Shang Tsung turned around and walked away. Kano stood where he was without moving until he was called when Shang Tsung was about thirty feet away from him.

"Well, come along!", Shang Tsung called back, "Unless you plan to stay here. The authorities here will not rest until they have your head. With me, you will be safe".

Hearing that, Kano ran after him and when he reached him, a bright orange circle opened up a few feet in front of them. Kano didn't want to touch it, but when Shang Tsung stepped through it, he reluctantly followed. As he stepped through, the orange circle disappeared and he found himself in an empty dance studio. Shang Tsung walked over to a desk and sat down on the chair without saying a word.

"What do we do now?", Kano was anxious.

"Now, we wait until sunrise", his answer was, "If you want to call any friends, assuming you have any, now's the time to do it; because you won't be back in this city for a while".

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As the sun finally rose, Sonya and Jax were forced into a discussion about the latest events with the colonel after she got a different T-shirt and shorts and new sneakers to wear as well as a fast shower to wash the subordinate's blood off her body.

"You carry a Glock with you next to the bed at night?", the colonel asked her as if he'd never heard of the idea before, even though numerous soldiers did.

"Sir, I don't think that's the important issue right now", Jax politely interrupted, "The issue is how those three guys managed to break in here without anyone knowing about it. If it happened once, it could happen again".

"Somebody here sold us out", Sonya flatly stated.

"How can you be so sure?", Jax asked.

"Come on. It happened with the FBI", Sonya reasoned, "What the hell makes us think that it wouldn't happen here? The Black Dragon is very rich, we've always known that, and it only takes one person to sell out an entire society. Kano knew exactly which room to go to. How the hell did he know that room was mine? Somebody here had to have told him".

"That's ridiculous!", the colonel countered, "Do you know all the negative publicity we'll get if we start looking for an impostor here??".

"What's ridiculous? The fact that we have an impostor or the fact that we won't do anything about it?", Sonya was getting annoyed at his attitude, "Or the fact that you're too worried about your image on the news to do anything affective around here?".

She stared the colonel right into his eyes when she made the last comment. He obviously didn't appreciate her wit or her courage right now.

"You're walking on thin ice, lieutenant!!", he barked back with an air of superiority, "And as for this discussion, it's over. Your concern is noted and you're both dismissed".

That was her and Jax's invitation to leave his presence, which they did with pleasure. Once outside, Jax couldn't help but bring up the subject again.

"You really think it's somebody here?", he spoke to her first.

"Yeah", she answered without looking at him; Jax could see something wasn't right.

"What is it?", he demanded.

"Not much", she answered picking her words carefully, "Just wondering how you found me so fast in the dark like that outside when I was with Kano".

Her statement was nothing short of an accusation and Jax knew it.

"What?", he laughed, "You think it was me?!?".

"I don't know what to think, Jax", Sonya wasn't laughing as she looked at him, "What I know are facts...Like you stopped me from bringing Kano in. And you didn't want to go along with us when the FBI was trying to grab Kano yesterday evening...Why was that? Was it a coincidence or did you know something we didn't, like that everyone there was walking into an ambush".

"I can't fucking believe I'm hearing this!!!", Jax snapped, "You think I was the one who told Kano about where to find you?...What's next, you're gonna suspect that Richards was involved with them too?".

"Is it such a crazy idea? You know where my room is and you knew about the FBI hit. Is it so crazy to suspect that you were the one behind the whole thing from the start?".

"YEAH!! It is!!...", Jax countered, "Actually, maybe it's not...You're right about everything you said so far, but you missed one point, sarge. Assistant director Bradley had a chopper waiting to pick Kano up...Nobody here knew where the chopper was! Not me, not you, nobody! Just Bradley, his boys and some people at the FBI. So I couldn't have told him where to go to plant that C4 on the chopper to blow it up, now could I?...And as for me knowing where your room is, jeez! There are 300 men and one woman in this base. You're the only person other than the colonel who has a room all alone. Everybody knows where your room is! Goddamn, we use it as a neutral point when we talk about areas in this base!".

With those words, an angry Jax walked away. As he got about ten yards from her, he turned around with one last comment and he was calmer.

"You know, sarge,", he added as he stared at her, "you just got attacked, and in your bed of all places. That was a lousy experience, no doubt. If you need some help getting over it, there's some counseling available here in the base; but don't go paranoid on me, OK?".

When he then turned around from her and walked away again, Sonya thought about what he had just said and figured out he was right. Jax couldn't have been the one involved against them. All the pressure was getting to her, she was starting to see enemies among the shadows, and it wasn't a good sign.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Back at the dance studio, a bit before noon, Kano was busy talking to one of his subordinates who was called within the last two hours and who brought him an exact copy of the blade that he lost in the base a few hours ago. He told the subordinate that if anyone comes into the studio looking for him, that he's to shoot first and ask questions later. After that bit of encouragement, there was nothing to do but to promise the man more cocaine if he did his job right and to then hand him his Uzi machine gun for guard duty. Shang Tsung still wasn't impressed if that's what Kano was trying to do as they watched a large crowd outside the room gathering on the dance floor and following the beat of the loud music. The place had opened for customers a few hours earlier and it was very popular. While the subordinate loaded his Uzi, Shang Tsung looked at his watch.

"It's daytime", Shang Tsung told them as he picked up a cordless telephone, "That means it's time to call my beautiful Sonya over".

"You're gonna call her over here?? What're you nuts, mate??", Kano snapped more out of fear than out of anger.

"Shut up", Shang Tsung calmly responded as he dialed. He waited a few seconds until someone on the other end picked up.

"Is this the United States Army base?", he politely asked.

"Good", he said into the phone after a few more seconds, "I want to inform you that the criminal you are searching for, the one called Kano, is hiding in a dance studio across the street from the building where the shoot-out took place yesterday evening".

Without saying anything else, he hung up. He then looked at Kano and could see that his 'guest' was planning to get the hell out of there fast.

"Don't worry", Shang Tsung reassured him, "I don't want her to get to you. You're simply the bait... When she gets here, and she will, I want you to leave through the tunnel that's in front of the desk and head for the seaport... On pier number forty, there will be a boat. Board it. I will take care of the rest".

"What kind of a boat is it?", Kano pressed, "I don't wanna board the wrong one by mistake, you know".

"You'll know it when you see it", Shang Tsung replied, "But until she gets here, just relax".

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Back at the base, Sonya was summoned to the colonel's office and she totally didn't care why.

"I'm here to tell you that this kind of attitude on your part has to stop if you wanna keep staying at this base, lieutenant", he emphasized her rank to make sure she realized that he was her superior, "Is that understood?".

"Of course, colonel!", she emphasized his rank because she wanted to let him know that she didn't respect him one bit as an actual person.

Just then, Jax rushed into the office without knocking.

"Sir,", he announced, "we just got an anonymous tip about Kano's whereabouts!".

"Where??", Sonya exclaimed.

"Across the street from the building you were in last night. In a dance studio", he answered.

"I'm going!", Sonya declared to no one in particular and headed towards the door without bothering to ask for the colonel's permission.

"No you're not!!", the colonel protested, "Every time you go after this guy, there's gunfire and negative press about us. You're staying right here!".

Upon walking past Jax and reaching the door, Sonya turned around to answer him with a sarcastic smile.

"Yeah, right!", she simply said, "In your dreams, colonel".

"LIEUTENANT!!!", the colonel raised his voice, "I'm warning you! If you disobey my orders, you'll be through here!".

Sonya had just about enough of him and decided it was finally time to stop being polite.

"Why don't you go fuck your mother, you goddamn politician?", she answered.

"Briggs,", the colonel spoke to Jax, "escort her to her room. She's under house arrest. Listen to me carefully, Blade! If you don't stay in your room for the next 24 hours, I'll have you put on a plane and shipped back to the states. There you can go back to working for your daddy the major! It's only because of him that you got accepted here in the first place".

Sonya walked out of his followed by Jax. Her room was only about thirty yards away, so it didn't take them long to reach it. Once inside, Sonya put her wristwatch on and stared at him.

"You know I'm going, Jax. Don't try to stop me", she almost pleaded with him because she knew if he was determined to get in her way, she wouldn't be able to leave.

"You heard him", Jax answered, "If you go, you're finished here".

"I don't care!", Sonya countered, "Besides, it just means I get to go back to my 'daddy', remember?".

"Look, Sonya, you didn't get accepted here because of your father's position in the army, I know that, but what're you gonna do, huh? You're gonna break out of here, go to this place in your shorts, find a baseball bat along the way and scream Kano's name while you're swinging the bat around?".

"No", Sonya responded, "Of course not".

She reached under her bunk bed and pulled out her Glock. It was newly loaded with twenty fresh rounds.

"See you around, Jax", she told him with a smile as she was about to exit through the door holding on the pistol, "And, earlier on this morning when it was still dark out, I appreciate you not hitting me back when I decked you".

She realized that this was the first time she had a genuine smile on her face since she was talking to Richards in the American Embassy over two days ago.

"Sonya, wait a sec!", Jax stopped her, "I'll come with you".

"This aien't your fight. You don't have to", was her answer.

"The fuck I don't. I should've been there yesterday with the FBI. Richards was my friend", he countered, "Besides, there's a space in my barracks where there are extra uniforms and some better weapons kept. You're bound to find a uniform that fits you. You shouldn't go there looking like this".

"Look, not that I don't appreciate it, but there's no point in the both of us ending our career here. You don't have anybody back in the states to go back to in the military if you're booted out of here", Sonya tried to keep him back.

"I aien't gonna get kicked out", he reassured her, "The colonel only said you had to stay in your room, he didn't say anything about me. Besides, if he tried anything, I'll sue his ass off for racial discrimination".

"Fine", Sonya gave up.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sonya followed Jax as he walked towards his barracks. He entered a room where a man about their age was seated on a bunk bed with his legs crossed and reading a magazine. As she walked in, she saw Jax exchanging greetings with him. Jax then walked towards an empty closet that was touching the wall and placed both his hands on one side of it, trying to push it aside. Seeing that, the man on the bunk bed opened his eyes wide to protest.

"Hey! What the hell?!", he exclaimed.

"Relax, Scott", Jax responded, "Blade is OK. She can see it".

With those words, Jax easily pushed the closet to one side and Sonya saw a hollow opening in the wall behind it that was exactly the same size as the closet itself. In the opening were a dozen shotguns that were equipped with a flashlight, over twenty M-16 assault rifles, five AK-47s and three M-60 machine guns as well as a huge amount of ammunition. On a top shelf rested a handful of clean and ironed commando outfits that were wrapped in a clear plastic cover.

"You're bound to find a uniform of your size", Jax told her while pointing at them, "And there are plenty of shoes for those outfits under the bunk beds too if you want".

"You two wanna clue me in as to what's going on here?", Scott demanded as he closed the magazine and stayed seated on the bed. He didn't like the fact that Jax had told an outsider about their arsenal.

"We're going after Kano", Jax explained as Sonya picked out an AK-47.

"Are you serious?", Scott twisted around and planted both his feet on the floor.

"Yeah", Jax answered, "We got a tip he was in a dance studio".

"Wait a second", Scott wondered, "Does the colonel know about this?".

"Well, not exactly", was Jax's answer.

"Haha! Now it's getting good!", Scott became more interested as he addressed Sonya for the first time, "You know, Blade, a dance studio could be crowded, so you don't want that AK-47. That thing spits out bullets like there's no tomorrow. It's no good in a crowded place. Besides, if it's dark, you might wanna consider taking one of the shotguns instead".

Hearing his advice, Sonya put the AK-47 in its place, picked up a shotgun and started examining it.

"You're probably right", she told him.

"So, who's going exactly? I could come along too", Scott said next as he stood up.

"Hey! No way!", Sonya protested by looking at him, "What's this? Everybody wants to end their career all of a sudden? No!".

"You shouldn't come either, Jax", Sonya faced Jax next.

"Forget it. Kano's mine. You shouldn't do this alone", Jax insisted, "Actually, Scott, I think it would be better if you stay behind. We're gonna need to borrow a ride to go to the studio and it'd be best if you drove the car back here after we're out of it. If the colonel doesn't notice the car missing, then he's less likely to notice us missing".

"OK", Scott yielded, "I guess that makes sense".

Sonya kept going over the wrapped commando outfits, trying to find out that was her size. She found it and told the two men.

"Anywhere I can go to change into this?", she asked Jax as she held on to the outfit.

"Yeah, the door beyond the bunk beds over there", Jax pointed towards it with his index finger.

Sonya left for the door without another word. She appreciated the assistance the two men were giving her, but she still didn't feel comfortable taking them along. As she was leaving, Jax was busy loading ammunition into two of the shotguns...

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A few minutes later, Sonya came back dressed in the commando outfit and holding her previous clothes on her right forearm. She laid the T-shirt and shorts on the nearest bunk bed. Before she had to scan the place for a pair of shoes that could fit her, Scott broke the silence and saved her from the hassle.

"Does size nine fit you?", he asked her with a blank expression on his face.

"Yeah", she answered not knowing what was going through his mind.

"The shoes that are under the second bed on your left are size nine. Nobody's using them", he told her.

"Thanks", she had to say as she walked over to her left, sat on that particular bed and took her sneakers off.

Scott left the room as she was busy fitting into the new shoes and Jax announced that he was ready. After a few more seconds, Sonya stood up and both soldiers walked out of the barracks without another word and with Jax still holding both shotguns. As they stepped outside, they saw that Scott was already behind the wheel of a jeep and he drove it until he brought the vehicle within a few feet of them. Sonya climbed into the front passenger seat as Jax handed her one of the shotguns and then climbed into the back seat himself.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Scott drove out of the base and kept his attention on the road without saying anything. Sonya didn't turn her face to her left even though she wanted to, she just kept staring ahead also. She was wondering why Scott had been so eager to come along; was it because he liked the idea of breaking the rules or was it because he wanted to help two fellow soldiers out or was it something else, she kept telling herself. She also told herself that she had been too rude with him by snapping in the way she did, but she couldn't bring herself to apologize.

It took the three of them about ten minutes to reach the building where she had been with the FBI agents the previous day. Sure enough, there was a dance studio across the street. Scott parked the jeep about twenty yards away from the studio as Sonya and Jax jumped out of the vehicle at the same time. Looking back on her seat, Sonya realized there was a black cap on the floor where her feet were. She reached for it and picked it up before putting in on.

"Thanks, Scott", Jax told him as he looked at the studio.

"Any time", Scott answered him, "I still think I should come with you, though. This is your last chance".

"No", Sonya kept answering, "Besides, you aren't even armed".

"Sure I am", Scott told her as he reached over and opened the glove compartment. There was a 9mm pistol there that he gripped and pulled out.

"No!", Sonya was getting annoyed at his persistence, "Just drive the car back, OK?".

With those words, she turned away from him and headed for the studio while holding on to the shotgun. Jax stayed behind with Scott for a few seconds more.

"Stay with her, Jax", Scott told him as he was about to drive away, "I don't wanna go to another funeral".

"I hear you", Jax answered him as Scott drove off.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

He hurried to catch up with her as she was standing outside the main entrance. She didn't seem to care a bit that she was getting stares from passerby's.

"I think this is the only way in", Sonya told him.

"Probably", Jax answered.

They both entered through the main entrance at the same time.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Inside the studio, the wireless phone rang and Kano picked it up. It was his subordinate on the other end, telling him he just spotted Sonya and someone else. He asked Kano if he should eliminate them, so Kano covered the lower half of the phone with his palm and asked Shang Tsung.

"He wants to know if he should take them out", he told Shang Tsung.

"He'll never make it. He'll die", Shang Tsung simply answered, "Those two are too well prepared".

Kano put the phone back to his ear and answered his subordinate's question.

"Sure, take them out", he said with a smile.