A/N: Hey, guys! Sorry this took so long! Been SUPER hectic lately and my allergies have me feeling a mess! I hope this makes up for it! A bit of a long chapter here, I'll admit. But I hope you guys like it! Enjoy!

Chapter Nine

Cammy, Guile, and Ken guided Sharma and Bordeaux to the Fenix building and entered it through the service way of the entrance. The Fenix building was a large office building located in downtown Paris that went up a hundred stories. All the team could think about was how many surprises could wait them on which random floor; if not all of them. Guile stepped out of the service area first, opening the door and looking around. When he saw no one around, they all proceeded up the office building, finding an elevator that would take them to the 70th Floor to retrieve the Ruby Core component. When they found one, they all rode it, becoming nervous about what they would find. The elevator stopped and the 70th and they all got out.

Nothing was there.

Just bare hallways, vacant offices, and all the lights were off. Not a soul around. In fact, nothing happened to them the entire elevator ride. No one else even got on or off. In fact, they hadn't seen anyone since they found the elevators.

Cammy looked around. "I'm gonna hate myself in the morning for saying this but… it's quiet. Too quiet."

"It is only 10:00 here, right?" Ken asked. "Where is everybody?"

"This… screams set-up," Guile pointed out.

Cammy narrowed her eyes and looked up at the ceiling. She looked back at her allies, "Ken, Guile, take Sharma and Bordeaux to get the Ruby Core."

Everyone looked at her, curiously.

"And just where the hell are you going?" Guile asked.

"To get Narang." She got back on the elevator.

Guile paused for a second before calling after her, "Cammy."

She looked at him.

"This is all a trap."

She lowered her face a little. She hit the "UP" button. "Then let's not keep 'em waiting." The elevator doors closed.

Ryu punched Vicious across the face then kneed him in the gut. Vicious absorbed the blow but retaliated with a kick of his own followed by an uppercut. They traded blows until their fight spilled back into the hallway where Vicious showed his ability to not let his environment hinder him. As they fought, Vicious wove himself around the objects in the hallway like he had memorized where they were beforehand. Ryu was only so much impressed by this as he had more than enough of Guerrilla's newest servant. Ryu dodged a kick from Vicious and punched him in the face. This caused Vicious to go for another series of punches but Ryu dodged or blocked them all and kicked him in the side. He grabbed Vicious by the collar of his coat and threw him against a wall but held on and threw against him the opposite wall and back before picking him up and throwing him down the hall.

Vicious growled and looked up at his enemy.

Ryu just entered another stance. "C'mon."

Chun-Li caught Juri's kick and tossed her against a bookshelf. She charged at her and tried kicking her but missed, taking out three shelves and knocking books everywhere. Juri punched Chun-Li in the side and kicked her in the thigh. Chun-Li swung her arm wide enough to force Juri back; Juri flipped backward, jumping over a couch before landing on the floor. They squared off for a second with the couch in between them.

Juri smirked, "Hmph!" Her eye glowed.

Chun-Li gasped.

Juri kicked the couch at her with ease but Chun-Li put a considerable amount of ki into her leg performed one kick that obliterated the couch in an easy strike.

The movement impressed Juri, as it did Guerrilla as he glanced over his shoulder.

Chun-Li held her stance. "Got anything else?"

Guile, Ken, Sharma, and Bordeaux walked to the room where Ruby Core was. They approached the door where the doctors used their key cards to enter the room. The found the Ruby Core, a laptop sized computer device, sitting on table with wires connected to it.

Ken looked at it. "Huh. Doesn't seem like much to look at."

"Why thank you," Sharma said, sarcastically.

"Oh… uh… sorry."

The doctors got to work unhooking the Core and, within a couple of minutes, had it a small silver briefcase, ready to go.

"Alright," Guile said. "Let's find Cammy and get the hell outta here." He looked behind him and saw shadows moving in the hallway. "Or… get ready for a fight." He motioned for everyone to get down.

They saw Ludge and Kelly walked down the hallway.

"Who are they?" Sharma asked.

"Hide under the table, gentlemen," Guile instructed in a whisper. "Ken, we got work to do."

Ken hit his fist in his palm, "Fine by me."

Cammy arrived at the top floor of the building and walked down another darkened hallway; she steeled herself and proceeded on. She kept going until she came to a conference room with glass planes and a chair turned around, making seeing if anyone was in it nearly impossible even with the clear glass. That sent off warnings in her head right away. She drew her service weapon, took a deep breath, and slowly opened the door. She kept the gun aimed at the turned around chair. She advanced slowly then rushed toward the chair, hurrying to the front of it.

Only to have Kirill's fist nearly collide with her face, causing her to stumble back until she hit the wall.

She gritted her teeth. The trap had been sprung.

She managed to lock Kirill's arm between her shoulder and her head and tried to fire her gun, missing a few shots before one finally grazed his cheek. Kirill managed to knock the gun out of her hands and kick her back. He went to punch her but Cammy grabbed his arm and tossed him against the wall, sending him through it.

She thought about going for her gun but she heard footsteps approach. She hopped up on to top of the table and performed a Cannon Drill through the glass panes to take out the H.A.T.E. soldiers that appeared. After they were down, she exhaled. "Damn!" She saw that Kirill was just getting to his feet and decided that she it would be better to make an escape. She rushed for the elevator to get to the others.

Ludge walked to the door for the Ruby Core and prepared to open it so he and Kelly could attack Guile and Ken. But, soon as he touched it, it was tackled against him courtesy of Guile charging into it. While he held Ludge in place, Ken jumped past him and kicked Kelly across the face.

"I don't usually like fighting women," Ken said to her. "But considering the circumstances…"

"Oh," Kelly smirked. "Don't worry about it." She jumped and punched him across the cheek.

Cammy got off the elevator at the 70th floor and began to attack the two H.A.T.E. soldiers standing guard. She grabbed the assault rifle of one, immediately taking him out by throwing the gun back in his face. She kicked in the gun then face of the other soldier in a speed that would make Chun-Li proud, knocking him out as well. She didn't wait to see if they stayed down as she took off down the hall. She found her two friends fighting off Kelly and Ludge. She saw Ken had just taken a kick from Kelly, ran behind the blonde woman, wrapped her arms Kelly's waist, and lifted her up before tossing her back down the hallway.

"Cammy?" Ken asked.

"Narang's not here!" Cammy shouted. "It's a set-up! We need to go!"

"Right!" Ken ran back in the room, retrieved the doctors and took off for the elevators.

"Stairs!" Cammy yelled.

Ken stopped them and took them both down the opposite end of the hallway. Cammy kicked the trying to recover Kelly across the face and Guile punched Ludge hard enough to put him down for now and they took off after Ken and the doctors. Ken rounded a corner to a stairwell and dealt with a pair H.A.T.E. soldiers armed with Taser batons trying to take him down. He managed to knock them both out, giving Guile and Cammy time to catch up.

As they descended down the stairs, Ken couldn't help but ask, "If Narang isn't here, then where the hell is he?"

"Doesn't matter!" Cammy said. "This was all meant to get us here. Probably why Guerrilla let his location leak!"

"But why?" Guile asked. "What's the point of this?"

"I dunno! But for now we need to get the hell outta here, find Chun-Li and Ryu, and bugger out of Paris!"

The group got down to the service area, making it to a parking garage where they left their car only to find themselves surrounded by H.A.T.E. Company soldiers armed with machine guns, led by Lana with Narang in tow.

Cammy narrowed her eyes, "Bollocks…"

They looked to see Kirill, Ludge, and Kelly were coming up behind them, leading to the fighters to grit their teeth.

"You should surrender now," Lana advised. "I'd hate to have all of you riddled with bullets. That's not what our leader wants."

Guile looked at all of the guns pointed at them. "Looks like we don't have much of a choice."

"It would seem not." Lana looked at her soldiers, "Take them."

Soldiers walked to the three fighters and hit them with Tasers. They all cried out in pain after the initial strikes, causing them fall to their knees. They were struck again and again, causing them to grit their teeth and want to fight. Guile even tried to get up and fight back.

"Uh, uh, uh!" Lana held her finger up. She pointed at the soldiers holding Sharma and Bordeaux at gunpoint.

Guile just gritted his teeth as a few more strikes hit him until he was stomach first on the ground. He looked to see that Ken and Cammy were already down and weren't getting back up. A pair of boots obstructed his vision of them and he looked to see that it was Kirill blocking his view.

Kirill smirked, "Hmph. Americans." He lifted the stun baton high and hit Guile across the face, knocking him out.

Chun-Li kicked Juri out of a window and jumped out after. Juri recovered and kicked Chun-Li across the face. Chun-Li stumbled back and was struck by Juri's fist to her gut. Chun-Li hit Juri with an open palm, directly to her face, and followed with kick across the Feng Shui user's face, causing Juri to back off to shake off the effects of the kick. Chun-Li took a breather, as well, when suddenly a ki blast came out of the wall of the mansion.

Chun-Li turned around and saw Ryu flip backwards, jumping out of the house, and dodged a flying kick from Vicious. The silver haired fighter spun around and went for another kick but Ryu caught his leg and punched him in the gut then punched him across the face. He lifted Vicious up again and slammed him hard on the ground.

Chun-Li smirked at her husband's skill.

"Wow," Juri said as she stood up, causing Chun-Li to scowl and refocus on her. "Someone would think that you two would have something to prove?"

Chun-Li charged at her but was stopped in her tracks when a wave of electricity hit her like a hammer. She screamed out loud as she sank to her knees.

Ryu saw her go down and saw that Guerrilla hit her with an electric rifle-like weapon. With a roar, Ryu charged at Guerrilla but was stopped by a flying knee to his back by Vicious. Ryu started to get up but Guerrilla hit him with the same weapon he hit Chun-Li with. Ryu fell to his knees, gritting his teeth as the pain coursed through him.

Guerrilla chuckled. "Once more with feeling?"

Ryu tried to stand but Guerrilla just shot him again, the force from the blast throwing Ryu against ground with the fighter landing hard on his back.

"Ryu!" Chun-Li cried out, struggling to stand. Just as she got to her feet, Guerrilla shot her again, forcing her to the ground. She started shaking from the blast and her breathing came out shakily.

"No!" Ryu tried to move toward her. He managed to slowly start to move.

Guerrilla shot him again. He chuckled, "Oh, my! This is starting to become the most fun I've ever had!"

Chun-Li saw Ryu was trying to get to her and did her best to meet him halfway. They knew that they weren't going to win this fight. They realized that Guerrilla made it so that they never could. They crawled to each other in between shots from their nemesis, crying out after each bolt hit them, until they were close enough to take hold of each other's hand. They were shaking from the pain and this did nothing to lessen it. But, like in all other instances since this first started, they knew they could hold on to each other, even in the darkest of hours. They didn't come any darker than right now.

Guerrilla approached and stood over them, "Such love. Quite the inspiration, you two are."

They growled at him.

He held up his rifle, "Do you like it? It's an experimental weapon that the FBI has been working on. They're looking for a useful bullet alternative but one more effective than a stand Taser. Not so useful as they don't know how to keep the charge concurrent." He smirked. "I had the same problem so I just made do. I only needed it to stun you both. I have what I came for." He handed the gun to Vicious and walked away. Two soldiers came up and hit them both across the face with Taser baton, rendering them unconscious.

At their hangar, H.A.T.E. gathered together with their prized prisoners, all but Sharma and Bordeaux were unconscious and chained up.

"Your stratagem was a success, sir," Lana said.

Guerrilla smiled and looked at them all. "Wasn't it, though?"

"What do want with us?" Sharma asked.

"With you, Dr. Sharma, that should be obvious. You and Bordeaux are going to complete the Ruby Core and install it into the Red Eclipse." He looked at Lana, "Did you retrieve the final piece of the Core?"

"Yes, sir," Lana answered.

"And what will you use it for?" Bordeaux asked.

"What else? World domination. Once your work is complete, I will have total control over military satellites around the globe. Every nation on this planet will agree to my demands."

Sharma and Bordeaux sat silently as they knew had no choice but to go along with this.

"But, first things first: I have a far more personal matter to see to. To that end…" Guerrilla looked at Ryu and Chun-Li. "It's time I truly make these two suffer." He looked at his soldiers. "Lock up the rest and take them to the home base. But leave Ryu to me. And ready my private plane." He looked at the silver haired assassin, "Come along, Vicious." He looked back at Ryu. "We're taking a little trip."

In a rural area of India, Sagat was still being pursued by H.A.T.E. and he had no way of knowing where Ryu and Chun-Li are or if they were even okay. To escape his pursuers, he ran into a house and closed the door behind him. He looked out of the window and saw a couple of cars pulling up outside. He growled. This was about to be his last stand. He looked to see a woman standing and staring at him, stunned.

"Are you alone?" he asked her.

She nodded.

He groaned. "Well, small blessings, I guess." He walked toward her. "You need to hide some place safe. There are men coming for me. I apologize for any damage that may be done to your home."

She ran to a nearby stove and ducked behind it.

Sagat backed up from the door and brought his fists up. He heard people starting to approach but then he heard a commotion outside, a lot of shouting and grunting. Gunfire came a few seconds later but then the sound of blows landing echoed through the street along with the sound of electricity and fire crackling could be heard, as well.

Sagat stood confounded as to what could cause that.

Suddenly, one of his assailants came crashing through the window of the house, landing unconscious on the ground.

Sagat stared at the unconscious goon but refocused when he heard the door opening.

In walked the last person in the world he was expecting to be there to help him. She was still wearing that business suit and her yellow sunglasses but her red hair in the peculiar style was always Crimson Viper's distinguishing feature.

"God, you think with all the money they spend on ammo, they could get men who shoot somewhat straight," Viper criticized.

"Viper!" Sagat said, surprised.

"Hello, Sagat," she smiled.

"What are you doing here?"

"I came to rescue you. A 'thank you' would be nice."

He chuckled. "Thank you."

She nodded. She looked at the lady hiding. "You can come out now. Everything is fine and the police are on their way to arrest these men and you will be compensated for your damages."

The lady nodded.

Viper looked back at Sagat. "So, do you want to be a hero?"

"How so?" Sagat asked.

"These men work for Guerrilla's terrorist group called H.A.T.E. Guerrilla has been going after Chun-Li, Ryu, and the others and for all I know, he may have them already."

"So, what are we going to do?"

"Go after Guerrilla, bring H.A.T.E. down, and, if need be, rescue the others. So, are you in?"

Sagat's jaw clenched. "Hmph! Hell, yes."

Ryu groaned as he started to come to. He had a splitting headache but he was able to move. He found that he was on a couch, a rather comfortable one at that. Wherever he was, he felt that it was moving. He looked out of the small window and realized he was on an airplane. A personal jet, if he had to guess. He saw it was somewhere around dawn or dusk wherever he was. But, considering where he was last, where he could possibly be now left him more than worried.

"Doing okay, over there?"

Ryu immediately recognized Guerrilla's voice. He looked to see the tyrant sitting in one of the easy chairs in the cabin with his massive arms crossed. He turned to see that Vicious was sitting in the other chair with his fingers intertwined. He gritted his teeth but his head was still fuzzy. "Where… where am I?"

"We're on a plane," Guerrilla answered.

Ryu looked around. "Where's Chun-Li? Where's my wife?! Where are my friends?! Where are…"

Vicious started to react.

Guerrilla put his hand up, stopping him. He looked back at his enemy, "Calm down, Ryu. You're going to have a heart attack." He smiled. "And you're going to need all of your strength."

"Where are they?!"

"Not here. But in my company."

Ryu started to understand. "You have them locked down."

"Exactly."

Ryu was seething but maintained his composure. He sat up straight. "What do you want?"

"Now we're getting somewhere." He leaned forward. "Do you know that some people say you're the strongest fighter in the world?"

"I don't care."

"I know you don't. Not my point. My point is that… I want you prove it."

"Prove it? How?"

"I want you to fight someone."

"Who?"

Guerrilla smiled. "How often do you keep that Dark Hadou of yours at bay?"

"It's not easy now, I'll tell you that."

"Oooh. Impressive threat. I didn't know you had it in you."

Ryu was close to growling.

"You're not in the mood for fun? Too bad. Anyway, I want you to prove how strong you are." He turned serious. "Or I will end your American friend, your British friend, your best friend, then your wife. In exactly that order."

Ryu knew he meant every word. He wasn't going to argue. "Who am I fighting?"

Guerrilla smiled. "Someone from your past. Someone you know very well."

"Who, dammit!"

Guerrilla stopped, letting the tension build. Of course, when he spoke the name, a different tension entered. One of dread. One of terror. One of darkness. The only kind that this man could inflict by the very mention of his name.

"Akuma."

A/N: Let's give that a moment to sink in, shall we?

Aaaaaaand, now, you are seeing Guerrilla's plan for revenge. So, to answer your next question, yes.

Akuma. Is. Coming.

I actually had a chuckle when 89niners-best-team-ever mentioned him in the last review. Also, C. Viper has entered the game and she is after H.A.T.E., as well, and she has Sagat along for the ride. What will happen next? Stay tuned and find out! Thanks in advance for the reviews!