~A/N~

This is an updated version of this fic. When I came back to this fic my entire writing style had changed. I didn't want to keep such a jarring transition to a completely different narrating tone. So, before I post chapter 3, I'm updating the first two. This fic holds a very special place in my heart that it was the first published fic I had ever tried to write, so I will do my best to complete it. Do note it is set at the end of Tekken 5 and does NOT follow Tekken 6 or 7.

This story was at one point T. To my followers who might not read M, I'm sorry, but the direction I want to take this fic doesn't fit with my original T vision. This is going to be a much darker take on the same plot. This chapter itself has become much darker and violent and I find it helps with keeping the characters in character. Updates will be sporadic, but they're coming. Enjoy!

The winds had finally died down in the barren wasteland where Jin had just fought. His great-grandfather, Jinpachi, was dead. As much as it was a victory, the Zaibatsu was his, a flicker of remorse ran through him.

It was true, he loathed his own blood, the Mishima part of him, but he had never given the other a chance. Jinpachi made his devil-blood boil and rage, and the man was possessed by…something, but beyond that, nothing. He had a resolve to do what was needed to end the curse of his blood, but this weighed on Jin as a questionably unnecessary sacrifice.

The 21-year-old looked at his hands with the contemplation before he sighed and put them back down at his side. There was no point staying nor thinking about it, what was done was done. He had a company to run and a bloodline to kill. Jin turned to leave when hell itself stared him in the face.

With a murderous smirk and his arms crossed, Kazuya Mishima snickered at his boy that was now facing him. He had waited, very patiently, for this moment. Kill two birds with one stone; either Jinpachi or Jin would die in battle with one another and he could face the weakened victor. He had expected Jin to win, it was who he wanted with that devil inside of him, and now he was excited to fight. There was no one to call foul, so Kazuya would be able to get the Zaibatsu all to himself with both of his enemies dead.

Before Jin could ready himself, Kazuya connected a fist to the younger man's abdomen. Pain rippled through Jin as he was launched across the ground from the impact. He groaned before he attempted to push himself upright. Kazuya, however, was still a step ahead of him and knocked him back down with an electrified punch to the chest, knocking the wind out of Jin as he was sent back into contact with the ground.

Without any hesitation, Kazuya got on top of Jin, straddling him and effectively immobilizing him. The two glared at each other before Kazuya sneered at Jin's attempts to wriggle free and grabbed hold of Jin's neck, putting enough pressure to choke the younger man.

"Pathetic."

Kazuya's free hand connected in a fist to Jin's face. It repeated in that action, Kazuya putting more force into it with the rage that was building at the lack of results. He didn't want this Jin, he wanted the devil. He knew he should've just killed them both, less mess, but he wanted a fight, some resistance to make it a victory. Both him and the devil rage that was inside him.

As if on cue with that thought, wings and horns sprouted from Jin, the horns catching Kazuya slightly off guard and piercing his fist as he tried to land another punch. Blood was trickling down Kazuya's hand and the recoil from the pain was enough of a distraction for Devil Jin to turn the tides on his position, launching Kazuya off him with his inhuman strength.

It was Devil Jin who acted first from the men's both standing positions, aiming a laser straight for Kazuya. The older man side stepped at the last second before impact, avoiding the deadly beam and went in for a brutal attack of his own. With an electrified uppercut, Devil Jin fell back. However, while Kazuya had expected him to go down as previous, as Kazuya had gone to follow the devil down, Devil Jin launched a surprise blow to Kazuya's chest, sending them on different paths to the ground and both landing on their sides from the momentum.

Again, they both rose before exchanging blows, knocking each other down and exchanging punches. The process was irritating, infuriating, and maddening. With an all or nothing attack from Devil Jin, leaving his defenses wide open, Kazuya sealed the deal with a straight on fist to the forehead with his healthy hand between Devil Jin's horns, effectively knocking him out cold.

Kazuya was enraged with how long that had taken. The boy had put up too much of a fight. Although there was an ounce of proudness attached, he squashed it the second it arose, choosing instead to focus on his task at hand. With a huff, Kazuya knelt beside the boy, starting the process to absorb the Devil's power from Jin. It was his devil to begin with and in proof, Kazuya's eye both shone red once the process was complete.

The plan for the older man had been to leave after that, but Kazuya found himself unable to move. His jaw clenched tight at he kept kneeling there, peering down at his own flesh and blood. Whatever had come up as proudness before was rearing its head again, and this time, the devil anger wasn't stopping it. The devil inside of him demanded an heir and Jin was the only compatible match alive for devil other than Kazuya, causing any emotions that may have come from deep inside him to launch straight to the surface. At the realization, Kazuya realized that was the culprit to why he had never taken advantage of a situation to kill Jin outright and with it, and cringed at himself for giving in to the weakness.

In a swift motion, Kazuya wrapped his left arm around the back of Jin's shoulders and raised the younger man's upper half to his chest. With his right hand, Kazuya pinned Jin's hands down to the boy's own chest in preparation for the fight he knew would ensue by the outrageous idea that he was going through with. In what he attempted to be a less threatening voice, the older man started, gently shaking the other.

"Wake up, Jin."

Slowly but surely, brown eyes began to flicker open. For a few moments they were disoriented before locking with red ones and the panic set in for Jin to get out of the position he was in. Kazuya tightened his grip around his spawn's shoulders and pressed Jin's hands into his chest with more force. The grip and the pressure weren't enough to hurt him, but enough to get the point across. With how between up the kid already looked, avoiding any more harm would do Kazuya more favors as he snarled at the other.

"Calm down and listen!"

Jin, surprisingly, followed the order, realizing the struggle would get him nowhere. It was greeted with partial shock spreading across Kazuya's face at first, but the boy still held a nasty fire in his eyes that implied murder, so with a huff, he continued.

"I didn't spare your life for you to throw it away. Heihachi will continue to look for you, and he will kill you. Without devil, you are powerless against him. Hide."

Jin's brows furrowed, his mood having shifted from rage to utter confusion. At the shift, Kazuya loosened his grip and pulled away to stand up, leaving Jin to catch himself with a free arm before standing himself up to face the other man at eye level. The younger man didn't understand what was happening and he was far from a powerless being, even without devil. He did a check on his brand on his left arm to make sure it was gone before he protested in his confusion.

"What?"

"I'm not going to repeat myself."

Crossing his arms, Kazuya stared into Jin. He was unsure if the boy was that disoriented from being knocked out or if it threw him off that badly to not be fighting in that moment. Whichever reason, it wouldn't do, Kazuya couldn't have either of them dawdling around. The question that came from the devil spawn's mouth next, however, was enough to throw Kazuya off and have him raise a brow.

"Why didn't you kill me?"

It was in such a matter-of-fact and serious tone that it was as if Jin had now become confident he wasn't going to get injured and could perform an interrogation. Kazuya couldn't help but quip back, slightly intrigued by the fearlessness. Jin was just like his mother in that regard.

"Do you want me to?"

"No."

Jin shook his slowly with his reply, studying Kazuya. The older man wasn't letting on much, and Jin had the look of expectation strewn across his face, wanting answers from his so-called father. Giving up on his 'get the hell out of dodge' motif in favor of the intrigued that was plaguing him, Kazuya gave in and gave him a bone to chew on.

"I never wanted you dead, I wanted the devil inside of you that was mine. I chose to keep you alive, but I needed to defeat devil to absorb it."

There was no softness to the tone or to Kazuya's face at the words. For a moment, Jin stood there, contemplating what he had just been told, and Kazuya debated if he should leave. Before the red-eyed man could come up with a decision, venom was spat back at him.

"You couldn't tell me that sooner?!"

A brow was raised in a lack of amusement to that question. Kazuya was going to gloss over the fact that no, he wasn't fully aware of the why till moments before. The point of even dealing with the barrage of questions was to keep his offspring from doing something stupid to get himself killed, he didn't need Jin to know specifics that could paint him in an even worse light, as unbelievable as the concept of worse was. Instead, the older man opted to go with the reasoning he believed was why he didn't clue in till after the fact.

"Do you think devil would show itself if it knew I wouldn't do anything to you? It may not seem it, but it is sentient."

Jin took a step back in confusion, shaking his head with the information that was coming to him. At that instant, what he had believed about Kazuya had been thrown upside down. While his mother had described his father as a caring, mostly-bark man with a very brash and cold exterior, all their interactions had spoken otherwise. With what little Heihachi had told Jin, Kazuya had come off as nothing but murderous and power-hungry. It had made sense for Kazuya not to say anything when they had met, Jin had already been carrying and extruding devil, but it had influenced his opinions regardless.

Though Kazuya came off far from fatherly in his words, Jin imagined it was about as caring as the other man could get. Taking the time to answer, taking a much harder route to keep him alive, the actions spoke volumes to Jin of what he potentially was in the elder man's eyes. He wasn't about to get ahead of himself, but the threat of death, and perhaps injury, was gone.

The two men stood staring at one another for some time. While Kazuya was now waiting for a cue to leave, Jin was trying to process the entirety of the events that had unfolded. Realizing he was not going to get his cue anytime soon, Kazuya began speaking again to snap his son out of his daze.

"I'm going to kill Heihachi. Ask me whatever after that. Go…somewhere safe."

Kazuya had looked away and trailed off at the end. It pained his cold, dead heart to even say something of that caliber and he decided he was not sticking around to see the reaction to that particularly embarrassing slip of the word 'safe'. While Jin nodded in resigned agreement, Kazuya summoned and spread his devil wings violently, taking flight to leave the boy to his own devices.