One Week Later
Gotham City, Maryland

The door knob turned slowly, before the door was pushed open, and in walked Judas Priest. He walked slowly through the corridor to the coat closet, which he opened before taking off his jacket. Mona Sax sat at the kitchen island sipping from a cup of black coffee.

"Welcome home, darling husband of mine." said Mona flippantly.
"Hey." said Priest as he dropped his leather jacket on the closet floor, he then shut the door and walked to the fridge and opened it, took a look then closed it, finding nothing to his liking.

"Are you drunk?" she asked.
"Nope." said Priest as he took off his cowboy hat and placed it upside down on the table, before dropping his dark shades in it.

"Are you sure? You smell like you're drunk."
"Vampires don't get drunk. Ever." he said as sat on a couch's side to take his cowboy boots off, "We're blessed that way."

Priest allowed himself to fall back onto the couch with a grunt.

"That damn landlady has been snooping around about us, asking if we were really married."
"Did you shoot her?" asked Priest as he shut his eyes.
"No."
"I don't see why we had to pretend to be a couple anyway. What was Nemo hoping to accomplish? I'm beginning to wonder about him."

Mona kept quiet, while Priest went on, "What the hell was I thinking? Getting in bed with the guy just because he beat the shit out of Hannibal King, like that's so hard. Hell, I could have done it, I just never was in the mood."

"You slept with Nemo?" asked Mona with interest.
"It's a figure of speech, doll." said Priest as he sat up, rubbing his temple, "A quart of Fish blood would really hit the spot right about now."

"Are you alright?" asked Mona, "You seem... off."
"I'm not a morning person." said Priest as he stood up and headed for the bathroom, "I'm going to have a soak and sleep the rest of the day. If you're going out, try to swing by a Chinese place and ask for fish blood if you can."

Mumbai, India

A family sat at a table in a dinning room in an ample yet simple and cozy house, eating lunch. They were naturally all Indian, ranging in age from childhood to old age.

"So, Mister Dakkar," said a young woman of her twenties, "Where do you know my Grandfather from?"

Nemo flashed the oldest at the table, a man of ninety yet with a lucid mind, a quick look, and said, "My father served in the war with him."

"Yes," said the family's patriarch, "He did. We lived in the same neighborhood when we returned."

"Was he a sapper as well?" asked the young woman.
"Zara," said a middle aged man who appeared to be her father, "Don't badger the gentleman."
"I wasn't..."
"It's no trouble." said Nemo, " Actually, my father stewarded a ship."
"Really? I didn't know there were Indians captaining British ships at the time."
"Well," said Nemo with a smile, "I don't believe the British wanted the their public to know we were catching up to them so fast."

There were a few scattered laughs.

"What do you for a living?" asked a young man of the girl's age.
"I used to be a naval engineer. I'm currently at liberty, self employed, as it were."
"Where did you study?" asked a bespectacled woman of her late forties as she passed her husband a bowl of salad.

"New York, Paris, London. I hear you're heading to one of those Cities yourself, Mrs. Rao."
"Actually we're moving to San Francisco," said Kavita Rao, "How did you know?"
"Your father is a very proud man."

The old man laughed and said, "But am I to blame?"

"My husband and I are moving to San Francisco, I've been offered a position with Worthington Labs."
"And how do you feel about the move, Mr. Rao?"
"Fine, really. Some friends in the University of California are arranging to offer me a teaching position with them as well." said the husband, "I couldn't bear to think what would happen to me if Kavita and I were separated."

"Oh, enough of that," said the old man cheerfully, "We have the rest of the day to talk, let us eat now."

Later

The house was empty, after the old man's guests had left,

"Finally, some quiet." said the old man as he and Nemo sat on a balcony enjoying cool breezes at sunset.
"If you're tired I can come back tomorrow." said Nemo.
"Kip Singh never prefers rest over the company of his old brothers in arms, Captain."

The two simply sat and enjoyed their surroundings for a few minutes in complete silence.

"I thought you were dead." said Singh, "What have you been doing for the last twenty years?"
"My usual thing."
"You're still at it with the League, then?"
"Yes."
"Listen, Nemo, have I ever told you about Hanah? The Canadian nurse I met in Italy during the war?"
"Yes."
"Well, she was the first woman I ever truly loved. When the war was over, we drifted apart, there were a plethora of reasons for it. Anyway, I was crushed when I saw her for the last time, I thought I could never love again.

"But then, I came back here, and I met Ruhi, I was whole again. I know there are times when the future seems so bleak, but it's not true that you can never go h-"
"No, Kip." said Nemo sternly, "Do not attempt to sway my mind. You do not know what the League has done over the years, to mankind, to the world, to India!"

"Sorry, I don't know what I was thinking." said Kip, who didn't want to get into an argument, "So tell me, what really Brings you to Mumbai?"

"Vacation. I've been in constant motion for three years and feel some rest is in order."
"Ahh, but there's no rest for you, Nemo."
"Kip..."
"I'm not saying anything, I'm merely stating the obvious."
"Can we just... Enjoy our tea?"
"Fine. Go prepare a pot."

Cairo, Egypt

Sayid Jarrah, a dark skinned and bearded man of thirty-seven sat at a table, spread before him was many documents and papers bearing a great deal of details regarding matters most boring.

Still, this was better than the Island.

He stood up from the table and walked away, intending to take a break. He did his best to avoid running into one of his partners, Aisha Fadhil. Aisha was a woman of her late twenties, with multiple piercing and raven black grid-locked hair.

He saw her in her room, wearing a revealing top and sharpening her massive dagger, she raised her eyes to look at him sharply. He didn't do anything to deserve it, she just tended to give every male she came in contact with that vicious, feral-like look.

Sayid took a cigarette out of a pack in pocket and struck a match to light it, then stepped onto the balcony where another of his partners was leaning against the railing, looking at the Nile river. The man's name was Fareed Almasry, nicknamed Cairo Fred, he was a fair skinned, well built, gray haired man of sixty.

Fareed turned to look at him, and appeared as if he was about to say something, before simply nodding and turning back to look at the legendary river.

Sayid smoked in silence, as he recollected the events that led him to this place. He was on a plain a few years ago, heading from Sidney to Los Angeles where he hoped to be reunited with a long lost love, their flight crashed onto an uncharted island in the south pacific, where he and the others surviving passengers were stranded for a long time. The thing is, the Island was not normal in the least, kidnap, murder and other unusual events were the norm over there, and it appeared that their crash was not a simply accident.

When they were finally rescued, he was approached by a man known as Robert Barnes, who identified himself as a former CIA Agent, presumed dead by his employers. Barnes informed him that their crash was engineered by a secret Intelligence Agent known as the League, he explained to him the nature of this organization and what were the things they did, furthermore, he provided proof to the validity of his claims. Barnes then went on to make Sayid an offer, to join a movement of individuals with an Agenda to cripple the League forever.

Sayid had reasons to dislike the CIA, but upon listening to what Barnes had to say, he felt compelled to accept his offer.

Barnes explained to him that the opposition was scattered across the world in cells, and that there were four major minds behind the whole operation, on of whom was an ex-Soviet Naval General, piloting the submarine known as Red October, his name was Marko Raimus. And so it was that the four of them met and started working in Cairo for ten so far at this point.

Their un-official leader was Barnes, an American ex-Spy, who had formidable experience due to operating in the Middle East for decades. Next was Aisha Fadhil, a deadly, ruthless and cunning Afghan Rebel. Then there was Fareed 'Cairo Fred' Almasry, a former Egyptian Intelligence Service Agent and Assassin. And finally there was him, Sayid Jarrah, former communication officer and Interrogator with the Iraqi Republican Guard, not to mention a CIA informant for a brief period.

The cigarette was done; it was time to go back to work.

All dialog is translated from Hindi.

A little bit slow, I know, I'm a bit busy these days, but I didn't want to keep you waiting too long.

Boot, I would have liekd to use Ash Williams, but I havn't seen any of Evil Dead.

Lava, what Bone power are you refering to? I was listening to American Idiot today and didn't notice anything like that. Also, Gotham is supposed to be either in New York or New Jersey, but I had already used both, and I thought Maryland would be a nic eplace to place Gotham in.

In case you're wondering:

1. Kip Singh is the Sikh sapper from the movie 'The English Patient'.

2. Kavita Rao is from 'X:Men : The Last Stand', kee in mid that the events of this story occur in 2007, a few months before the X-Men trilogy.

3. Sayid Jarrah is from Lost, I have based his character on Season 1 as it is all I have seen so far. SO DON'T SPOIL IT FOR ME. :)

4. Aisha Fadhil is from Ady Diggle's the Losers comic book.

5. Ben Barnes in from Syriana.

6. Cairo Fred is from one of the Pink Panther Movies.