A/N: Hey there, here's the next chapter! With more action, more suspense, and just a little bit of RockxRevy fluff! Hope you enjoy!

Rock always hated waking up. In all honesty he could stay in bed for an entire month and not get bored – of course a naked Revy would help with the boredom for sure, but alas when Rock finally opened his eyes he wasn't treated to the cinnamon orbs that he was hoping for, instead he was faced with a very black face, and a pair of glasses.

Needless to say that this was a rather major deviation from his previous thoughts, and so jumping backwards and yelling out "FUCK!" while he fell off the edge of his bed seemed like a rather good idea at the time.

After recovering from the initial shock, he peered cautiously over the bed and beheld… Dutch… looking rather unhappy. "Rock, you're awake." It was hardly a question, and from the tone of voice that the Dutch was sporting, this conversation wasn't likely to be overly pleasant.

The first words out of the man's mouth confirmed his suspicions. "This isn't good Rock."

Picking himself off the floor, Rock dropped back onto the bed and rubbed his eyes. "You're telling me, but why the fuck do they suspect m--" He abruptly cut himself off however, when he remembered exactly what had happened. "Where the fuck is Revy?!"

Dutch, his face as emotionless as ever, pointed over to a cot on the other side of the room, which Rock immediately ran to.

On it laid a bruised, battered, but very much alive Revy – and with the sleepy curses aimed towards Benny and his "Stupid fucking bets," that she was muttering in her sleep it seemed that she hadn't been hurt that badly.

Rock let out a sigh of relief and sat beside her on the bed, intertwining his fingers with hers and calming his heart rate down to an acceptable level now that he had reassured himself that she was safe.

Once he'd gotten back to normal he turned to face the man in the chair across the room. "So what the hell's happened?"

Dutch reached up and pushed his glasses up his nose before speaking. "Balalaika and Chang had a large attack on their organizations; apparently some crazy fucker walked right into the building where a meeting between the Russian Mafia and the Triad was taking place with C4 strapped to his chest, and then he said "I have a message from the Lagoon Company" before blowing himself to high heaven."

Rock scratched his head in confusion. "I still don't get it, what does that have to do with me?"

"The meeting was top secret Rock, and when Balalaika looked back on how the assassin had gathered his information she found a whole pile of bodies."

Rock looked at him with a dumbfounded expression. "And?"

"And they were tortured just like the infamous Assassin X has tortured in the past." Rock froze and locked eyes with the black man, a wary look in his eyes.

Seemingly unperturbed by Rock's untrusting gaze he continued. "I know you've done some fucked up shit rock, and when Balalaika showed me pictures I understood for the first time just how fucked up some of the stuff you'd done was, but I'm not pissed. You're Rock, you're not Assassin X – sure that's a part of you, but it's not you."

He stood up from his chair and walked towards the door at the far end of the room. Just as he was about to leave the room he turned to face the shocked face of Rock. "Oh, and Rock?" A maniacal grin spread across his features. "That was very very exciting."

Not waiting for an answer, the mountain of a man exited the door and closed it behind him with a resounding clang.

Rock looked at the space which Dutch had been standing moments before in absolute wonder; he'd have to take Benny's advice and stop trying to figure that man out.

He thought for a few moments before standing from Revy's bed and letting her hand go, walking quickly over to his bedside table where he had spotted his guns moments earlier.

He slid the two intricately engraved weapons into their respective holsters and then picked his coat from the back of the chair where Dutch had been sitting earlier.

He slipped into the dark jacket and zipped it up slightly to conceal the weapons hidden beneath, and then walked over to Revy's bedside once again.

He looked down at her face, now calm, and smiled sadly before stroking one finger across her cheek – blushing when she nuzzled it unconsciously. "I'm sorry Revy, but I love you too much to involve you in this mess."

He pressed a light kiss to her tanned cheek before standing up straight and, without a backwards glance, began walking towards the door which Dutch had existed only minutes previously.

The silence in the room was not to last however, and a second later a gunshot rang out in the room – this, as always, was followed by the expected metallic tinkle a moment later. "Fuck."

Rock grinned, raised an eyebrow inquisitively and slowly turned around to face the highly pissed off and very much awake Revy who was sitting up in her bed with a smoking pistol in her hand. "And you thought that I thought that you were actually asleep."

"Etch." She blew a stray strand of her hair away from her eyes and stood up from her bed, putting her gun back where it belonged. "Well I thought it was worth a shot." She bent down and slid on her boots before firmly tying them. "So what now?"

Rock leant against the wall and looked at her seriously. "Well I meant what I said; I'd really prefer if you didn't get involved."

She gave him an impatient look as she finished tying the knot. "And why would that be Rock?"

"Well if you got killed I don't know what I'd d--"

It was then that Revy unloaded the contents of both her pistols in Rock's direction, which was quite a lot considering that she had recently invested in some extended magazines.

Rock looked at her with a shocked look on his face, even as all thirty bullets tinkled to the ground having been deflected by the two pistols now clutched very firmly in his hands.

She glared at him angrily and paced towards him – it would've taken an idiot not to see her threatening posture. "You wouldn't know what to do?!"

Rock shrunk back, and couldn't help but wish that he could sink into the wall behind him. "What the fuck do you think I would do if you got killed you dipshit Rock?!"

By this time she was within a few meters of him, and she slammed her fist into the wall beside his head before continuing – but one thing about her shocked Rock: she was crying.

She brought her face within inches of his own and then screamed angrily at him, "Do you know how I felt when Balalaika was shooting into the ceiling and you were protecting me? I thought that you were going to die Rock!"

She closed her eyes and buried her head into his breast while repeatedly slamming her fist into his chest. "YOU IDIOT ROCK, I COULDN'T LIVE WITHOUT YOU! NOT WITH THE WAY I FEEL NOW!"

Rock looked down at the woman in front of him and didn't even make a move to defend himself from her vicious punches.

Slowly he brought his arms up and pulled her into an embrace, her onslaught ceasing when she felt his arms snaking around her back and all that was left was the sound of her sobs.

Rock and Revy stood there for what could've been hours, and it was Rock that finally broke the silence with a chuckle when he noticed that tears had been leaking from his eyes as well. "Geez."

Revy pulled back and looked at him questioningly; her eyes still red from the tears. He pulled a tissue from his pocket and dabbed the wet trails from her cheeks before taking care of himself. "If somebody had told me that I'd cry because I loved someone a year ago I would've shot them, and then laughed at their stupidity."

He pulled her to him once again and laughed lightly. "Looks like this love thing is making you and me soft Revy."

She nuzzled into his chest and gave a small smile. "I'm only like this when I'm alone with you, and you're only like this when you're around me; so I don't think we're weak – I'm stronger since I met you."

His eyes softened for a second at her words, but soon hardened when he remembered just why they were in this situation. "Revy." Hearing his serious tone she turned her head up to look at his face. "This doesn't involve you; you could walk away and you wouldn't be in any danger."

She was clearly about to interject, but Rock stopped her by pressing a finger to his lips. "I wasn't finished."

He let his finger drop and then continued. "But, if you want to help me then how can I object; I don't own you." He gave her a grin, "And after all, I couldn't ask for a better person to cover my back."

She smiled at him and nodded. "I'm coming with you."

He nodded and stepped away from the hard wall at his back. "Well this is going to be one hell of a journey, I'll tell you that. For someone to make it look like I had killed the Russian Mafia and Triad leaders it would take a lot of planning, a lot of money, and one hell of a motive."

He walked over to the bed which he had been sleeping in earlier and sat down in the chair which Dutch had been vacating earlier, motioning that Revy should sit opposite him.

Once she had settled herself he pulled a manila folder from his jacket, one he had picked up from his bedside table apparently left by Dutch as a sort of farewell gift. He opened up the cover and looked at the front piece of paper in amusement.

"What?"

He held up the piece of paper with a grin on his face. Revy looked at the piece of paper for a moment before gasping when she finally comprehended what it meant.

Rokuro Okajima "Rock"

Wanted by the Russian Mafia and the Triad ALIVE.

$2,000,000 reward.

"I really didn't think I was worth that much money." She looked at him in shock; how could he be so calm?! He scratched his head for a moment before humming thoughtfully. "But this sure does change things; I mean the Police will want to catch us, they're as corrupt as everyone else and 2 million dollars is quite a packet; bounty hunters will want in on the action and then there's the matter of the top assassins, the Russian Mafia and the Triad to worry about."

He rubbed his eyes in frustration. "Whoever planned this certainly had the intention of killing me." Revy's mouth opened and closed a few times, and Rock sent her an amused grin. "Not thinking of claiming the bounty now, are we?"

She jolted from her daydream before crossing her arms across her chest and pouting angrily. "Idiot, I wouldn't do that."

He raised an eyebrow curiously. "Who are you and what have you done with Revy?"

She punched him in the chest and smiled when she heard the breath whoosh out of his lungs. "You dipshit Rock, if I took you in then who the hell would I snog in my free time?"

Rock grinned and leant forward after tucking the folder back into his waistband, resting his chin on his clasped hands. "Good point."

His eyes roved around the room surrounding them and he hummed thoughtfully. "Well we're in one of the boatsheds down by the wharf, so Dutch must've brought us here after Balalaika had left."

He stood up from the bed after a moments silence and held out his hand to the sitting gunwoman. "Shall we?"

She grinned widely and took his hand. "Sure, let's get the hell out of here." The couple walked towards the door at the end of the shed and Rock reached his fingers out towards the handle.

He froze. Revy looked at his face and saw a look of depression on his normally calm features. "What?"

He unzipped his jacket and threw it to the ground beside him before sighing in exasperation. "I knew it was too ambitious to think that we could just walk out of here and get out of town without any problem."

Revy looked at the bottom of the door and sighed when she saw the light from outside. "It's night time isn't it?" Rock nodded. "And there aren't any lights around the wharf are there?" He shook his head and ran a hand through his jet-black hair.

Revy let the two empty magazines in her guns drop to the ground with a clatter before slamming two new clips into place.

Rock turned his head to look at her and grinned when he saw the bloodlust in her eyes. "Well well well, Revy two hands wants to have a bit of a shootout then?"

The deadly look in her eyes was more than enough to answer his question and he smirked as he pulled his own two guns from their holsters.

Before he burst through the door however, he turned to Revy with a challenge in his eyes. "Headshot 20 points, chest 10, and I reckon if you manage to blow off all their limbs then that counts as 100; what do ya think?"

She grinned sadistically at him. "You're on, loser shouts the other one to a dinner and as many drinks they can handle?"

He mirrored her grin, "Sounds good Revy." And with that he burst through the door. Rock was expecting the worst, and he was sorely disappointed at the turnout.

Immediately machine-gun fire lit up along the containers surrounding them, but before the bullets could even reach Rock and Revy they had been stopped by a rather extreme means that Rock saved specifically for demolishing the enemy's morale.

While the machine guns were fast, Rock was faster. Deathly silence rocketed across the battle ground as metal clanged to the ground halfway between the killer duo and the machine gunners.

There was some incomprehensible gurgling from most of the would-be bounty collectors as they looked at the smoking guns held in Rock's hands, his twisted smile in harsh contrast with the darkness surrounding him.

The majority of the fighters ran right there and then: any person that could shoot machine-gun bullets down in mid-air with a pistol wasn't worth fighting for all the money in the world as far as they were concerned.

The people that stayed however were clearly hardened assassins, Mafia and Triad members. Rock's grin widened as his smoking magazines clattered to the ground and he slipped two fresh clips into the red-hot guns. "So it's just us left then?"

Revy flicked off the safeties on her pistols and the click echoed around the silent expanse. Nobody moved for a moment, and then hell suddenly broke loose.

Rock brought his pistols up and immediately began firing at his opponents, Revy started up a moment later. A head came into the sight of Rock's pistol and with a squeeze of the trigger a fountain of blood erupted from where the man's skull had resided moments before. "That's a fifty Revy!"

She smirked at him as she kept firing. "Only fifty love? I'm already on two hundred!"

And so on it went, each shot from the killers' pistols taking another life, each shot ending in a bloody fountain until the battleground – now strewn with bloody corpses – fell silent once again.

Rock let out a relieved sigh and wiped a streak of blood from his cheek – that bullet had gotten way too close for comfort. "Well if Balalaika didn't hate me before, she's going to hate me now."

"Tch, amateurs."

Rock was just about to turn around to leave when his ears caught the faint sound of footsteps in the distance. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the noise; around 60kg, male – definitely, and a slight swagger.

His eyes snapped open and he let out a wild grin as the man came into sight. "Well Assassin Y, I didn't expect you to be here."

Said blonde-haired man gave Rock an insane grin. "Well I heard that there was a bounty on your life, and I could hardly pass up the chance to kill you."

The man's eyes widened dementedly and he let out a shrill laugh, his face pointed towards the sky. After a moment's laughing his head snapped back down and he locked eyes with Rock, a twisted smile on his lips.

Rock looked at the man with a disgusted look on his face. "What the fuck did they do to make you like this? I mean, I have been known to enjoy the odd fire fight – even boarder line insane shit but you – what the fuck Nick?"

Revy turned to look at Rock with a shocked look on her tanned features. "You know this fuck head?"

Rock nodded sadly as he looked at the crazed man standing across the battlefield. "Yeah, I know him. He partnered with me on quite a few missions."

He shook his head as if to dispel a thought in his head. "No, I don't know him." He pointed at the blonde, still glaring at Rock as if looks could kill. "I don't know him. The Nick I know was nothing like that – he was calm, cool and collected under pressure, and although he enjoyed killing he was nothing like thi--"

A scream from the other side of the expanse interrupted Rock mid-sentence. Rock turned to the origin of the yell with dull eyes, looking at the charging man as if he was deeply disappointed.

He slowly slid a new clip into one of his guns and slid the other into its holster. Still looking at his maddened ex-partner he spoke to Revy in a low voice. "Nick would never have done this, he never would've charged head on; something or someone made him like this."

He fired a shot at the man's feet and the blonde leapt back to land on a nearby container, his eyes still insane. "Nick once told me that if he ever became a slave of Nessus he wanted me to kill him in as brutal way as possible."

The blonde assassin charged once again and Rock raised his gun with a grim expression. "I intend to keep that promise."

Rock carefully aimed at the oncoming man and whispered three words before firing. "Rest in peace."

Sixteen shots rang out over the misty battle ground and Rock watched as his old friend was virtually blown apart; all four limbs separated from his body and a multitude of bullets in both his head and chest.

Rock lowered his guns and sighed, dropping his head to look at the tarmac at his feet. Revy looked at the assassin in front of her and – for the first time in her life – didn't know what to say.

After minutes of silence Revy placed a hand gently on Rock's shoulder. "Rock, we have to go."

He was still for a moment but then nodded and lifted his head before taking a deep breath to clear his head. "Okay, let's go."

He wrapped an arm protectively around Revy's shoulders and pulled her to his side before walking towards the nearby road. He looked down in surprise when he felt her fingers intertwine with his.

When he saw her comforting smile he allowed a small, thankful smile tease at his lips. "Sorry about that, he was a good friend."

She nodded in understanding before lifting up a finger as if remembering something monumentally important. "I owe you dinner and drinks!"

He gave a genuine grin at her jovial attitude and gave her a small squeeze. "That you do, but I think I'll pass on the drinks until this mess is over – chances are I'll need to be alert at all times."

She pouted at his comment. "Fine, suit yourself."

He raised an eyebrow and a small smile tugged at his lips. "I hate to break it to you Revy, but that includes you too."

She let out a humph, but then looked up at her lovers face with a question in her eyes. "What's Nessus?"

Rock's eyes darkened at the mention of the name, but cleared after a few moments. "I'll tell you once we get out of town – for now we need to find a vehicle."