Ky's shock completely took his voice as he reread his name on the bounty list several times. A hundred thousand World Dollars? By and large, those with a bounty on them were criminals, and to put that amount on one person said that he had done something so utterly reprehensible, they may as well vanish off the face of the earth.

The bounty system, with regard to criminals, worked on two principles: the severity of the crime committed and the resources of those who placed the bounty in the first place. When the bounty on Dizzy was placed, the sheer amount was so high that bounty hunters of all calibers went all-out trying to find her. By drawing on the greed of hunters and using the tax dollars of the U.N., the thought of having enough money to go into retirement became too great to ignore.

Though small compared to the bounty on Dizzy, one hundred thousand was still a hefty sum. There was little doubt that there were going to be people that wouldn't mind turning him in for that much money. On instinct, he lowered the front of his cap to let only a few strands of his blond hair stick out from his collar. He knew what it was like to be targeted by Gears, but being targeted by other people for money was something of which he had never thought of as he felt his breath coming faster than necessary.

Noticing his discomfort, Dizzy looked around the area to see an alleyway with no one nearby. Taking his arm, she guided him out of sight and, to her surprise, he did not resist at all. She placed him against the wall of a brick building and whispered, "Will you be alright?"

Her voice broke him out of his surprise as he looked to her and nodded hesitantly. She looked out to the square, silently asking Undine and Necro to stay alert for anything malignant in case they were spotted. She was more than aware of the problems one had when there was a bounty on one's head.

When she had left with Johnny to return to the Mayship, they had to avoid many populated areas, which also included airship and seaports. However, Johnny was able to smooth talk his way out of several potentially volatile situations. Looking back to him for a moment, she felt it rather unusual, now she was doing the same for someone else. Not unusual -- it felt nice. She was helping someone that needed it.

"Mister --" she was about to say his last name, but knew that his name would draw unwanted attention as she continued. "When Johnny and I left Europe, he was able to convince the people at the station to ignore how I looked like. I think I can convince the people here to let us go through."

Ky looked up to her in surprise. "How? There's a lot of people that know my face."

She looked around apprehensively, knowing that the less she said about it, the better, saying, "I think... I can use the same kind of ability that Testament has to keep himself invisible when he's walking through human towns."

Further surprised, Ky stood up and asked how could she do such a thing.

She looked to the side in reminiscence, saying, "Testament told me one time, his control over magic enables him to influence people just enough so that they would think he was a common sight."

Ky's eyebrow rose in surprise, and he said, "You can do that?"

She shook her head, saying, "I don't know. I've never tried it, because when I was with the Pirates, we always were able to make convincing disguises and personae in order to keep a low profile whenever we made landfall."

He furrowed his brow in thought, acknowledging that it would work for her. However, the idea that she had used it in times past to go around town left him torn as to whether it was good or not. In resignation, he knew that there was no alternative for them if they wanted to get out of Turkey.

Even if the country was not part of the U.N., the Bounty system was still going strong and was quite the staple for many people after the Crusades ended. Though things had long since settled, there were still hunters that wouldn't let go of the lifestyle.

Pulling his cap even lower, he stood up and said, "Well, we're not going to get there any faster standing here. Let's go."

She nodded and followed him back into the moving streams of people, oblivious to the shadow watching them leave.

On the rooftops of the buildings, a singular figure watched Dizzy and Ky march back into the crowd with a hungry smile. Whipping a few strands of her short, black hair out of her face, I-No donned a grin only grew with the passing of time. Her grip on her guitar tightened in a fit in anticipation.

"Hide all you want, little Gear, I'll find you," I-No cackled beneath her breath. It was nearly a year since they met last, and they had not parted on terms she would have liked. Even if she were a servant of That Man, she would not be denied her amusement. After all, it wasn't every day she had a chance to play with a Human/Gear hybrid.

Marie Crepe was having a rotten day. Though the shipment of ingredients had come on time and in good condition, the punks had the gall to assume she had to kiss their stinky rears as a tip for their punctuality. She promptly declined and informed them of her intention to go through other channels for her materials.

Next, one of her employees was drinking on the job when he shouldn't have been. She didn't give a damn if his ancestry included having coinsures of the finest wines in Asia. No drinking on the job meant exactly that! With her heel on said worker's back, she frowned at the barely-conscious Zhang, now roughed up because of his lack of control whenever he was drunk by the other problem she now faced. She turned to the bunch of rowdies that had claimed she was making lousy food, which lead to her final and greatest source of chagrin.

With a frown and a flip of her undone dark brown hair, she stared down the eight Turks that had practically cleared out the restaurant. The men belonged to the gang, the Bloody Smile, a bunch of no name roughnecks that thought themselves hot stuff when they were just kids when the Crusades ended.

"So, bitch. You going to give us a refund or what?" the apparent leader grumbled with a smirk, believing he and his men to have the advantage. "Or, better yet, how's about we have a little fun and we'll call it even?"

Her prompt reply was an open-handed strike to his solar plexus, loaded with enough ki to send him flying through the window of the front of her establishment. He wasn't hurt, but he'd have a hard time keeping any food down for a few days, which suited her just fine... because she wouldn't allow anyone to bad mouth her cooking!

On instinct, the remaining seven thugs charged, hoping to take advantage of their numbers and size to overpower her. Knowing that she wouldn't be able to make use of such a small space, she leaped through the window, knowing that all of them would follow her.

"Stupid boys," Marie muttered in Chinese. When one of the thugs attempted to tackle her from behind, he suddenly found himself falling into the ground face-first. Though Marie was never one to advocate such extreme violence, she had no qualms about wishing people a great 'fall'.

When another thought to attack her head on, she leaped into the air, whirled as though she was on her feet, and brought her heel into an axe kick right into the man's trapezius. As expected, the strike brought the man to the ground and into unconsciousness. Just for the heck of it, she gave him an additional stomp on the liver.

From both sides, two men charged, thinking she would be unable to take both of them at the same time. Again, she surprised them with a simultaneous block of both their attacks and ki-assisted counter attacks to send them flying into the walls of nearby buildings.

She looked to the remaining three, charged, and struck faster than the pain could register. She knocked the first down with a split kick to his ankles and a punch to the groin. Then, the second fell with a dash behind him and a sphere of much stronger ki. Finally, she executed a palm thrust to hit the third's stomach, then his chin, sending him into the air for a meter or two.

When the tension finally dispersed, she sauntered over to the leader, sifted through his pockets, and took the amount he and his cronies owed her for the meal and the mess they caused. Leaving what little there was left with his wallet, she gave them a smile and chirped, happily, "Come again!"

She readjusted what one would call a kung fu suit's sleeves, checking for any stains she may have gotten on the fight, and walked back to her restaurant. In an instant, her cheerful demeanor vanished as she barked in her native language of Chinese, "Zhang! If you fix the window, consider yourself unfired! I'll be back in a bit, and it better be fixed or in the process of being fixed!"

Feeling a need for something Turkish, she hopped over the unconscious bodies of the gang members and gave a smirk at anyone foolish enough to actually watch her fight. From across the street, she noticed a pair of young girls, no older than eight years old, looking at her with a combination of fear and respect from their window. All it served to do was make Marie's ego -- and her smile -- all the larger.

It was decided. The day wasn't so bad after all.

There was very little that could make her day better, though she could name a few things, but knew enough not to hope for things that were not possible. Besides, her knight in shining armor was practically half a world away.

She was not looking at anyone in particular, her sense of detection felt something powerful. It was practically an inferno and, despite the amount of control that seemed to follow it, if someone like her could sense it, other ki-sensitive people like herself could as well.

Looking through the crowd, she noticed the source of the magic was a girl traveling with a man who seemed rather familiar. She blinked once, not sure if it was whom she thought it was. Weaving through the crowd, she trailed them. They seemed to be moving towards the train station.

When she noticed them tensing for a moment and, then, increasing their pace, she mimicked their speed and when the crowd grew thinner to those only heading towards the station, she outpaced them. When she was no further than two meters away, a larger person accidentally walked into her, causing her to lose her balance. Before she could recover or berate the man, the two people she was following had ducked behind a corner.

Ignoring the walking landmass, she followed the two into the alleyway, knowing that all that awaited them was a dead end. However, all she found were shadows and abandoned garbage cans. She was about to turn back when her senses felt the surge of magical energy drawing closer to her.

"What do you want?" a voice with a distinct French accent said from behind her.

Her eyes widened when she knew just whose voice that was. She whirled around, saw the wary gaze of the man, and smiled, much to his confusion. His accomplice, standing nearby, also was as confused as he was. Marie, out of a force of habit, leaped forward and threw her arms around his shoulders. "Ky!" she squealed happily.

Ky's accomplice blinked in surprise and, then, looked to him, with questions in her eyes.

Pushing Marie away, Ky said to her, "I'm sorry, but I don't think we've ever met."

Not at all deterred, Marie countered, "Yes, we have!" She pulled her hair upward and, with both hands, held her hair until it turned into a familiar and unusual style where a circle hung on her back. "Now, imagine my hair's a few shades lighter, and my clothes are much nicer," she added with a pose and a wink.

Ky gaped. "Mademoiselle Jam?"

Jam froze momentarily and put her palm over Ky's mouth, shushing him quiet. "No one's supposed to know!" she whispered urgently. "For the past half year, I've been going around as Marie Crepe. Keeps me inconspicuous."

The girl that traveled with Ky put her hand to her chin, muttering her name beneath her breath, almost as if she were trying to remember where she heard the name.

Ky sighed as he took her hand off his face. He was not surprised when, by all rights, he should have been. The name held a lack of sublety that seemed to fit the Chinese chef. He said, "I understand. Now, if you'll excuse us, we have to try and get out of Turkey before some bounty hunters try to get us."

Jam frowned and laughed, "Oh, Ky. Everyone thinks it's just a joke. I saw the list, and everyone just shrugged it off. Why would anyone want to hunt you?"

Ky looked to the girl traveling with him, who, Jam noted, was the source of the gargantuan levels of magic she had felt earlier.

Not sure he wanted to divulge what he had been doing, he said, "It's a long story, and, unfortunately, we don't have the time to explain."

"Oh!" the girl said in recollection, "You're the bounty hunter that I met when Johnny showed up."

Jam, not exactly sure what the girl was talking about, asked, "And you are?"

The girl looked to Ky, visually asking for his approval, which left Jam wondering what they were discussing.

It was true that she had run into several 'Johnnys' in the past, and those were encounters she would have rather forgotten. She left that query for another time when the girl, gaining approval from Ky, which left more questions for Jam to think about, took off her hat and, with a shake of her head, her hair turned from a dusty blonde to a definitive azure blue.

Holding back a gasp, Jam realized with whom she was dealing.

She looked to Ky and said, in all seriousness, "We need to talk." She pointed a thumb back to the entrance of the alley, adding, "My place. Now."

Jam's -- or Marie's -- place was like many others in the Chinese area of town, making use of every single inch of space. On top of her modest restaurant, she also had some rooms for the occasional travelers, people she knew. At the back of the kitchen, there was a flight of stairs that led to the deceptively roomy second floor, which held a main room, a washroom, and two bedrooms, the first of which belonged to its owner, and the other to what few visitors she would have, which doubled as a storage room.

Slumping down on the plush couch she had acquired through intense haggling, Jam turned to her two guests and said, "Okay, now, what exactly happened?"

Ky didn't want to reiterate the whole story, not to mention the unpleasant memory of Haan demanding an answer the day before. He was about to answer when Dizzy spoke up.

"Do you remember," she said, "how you, Johnny, and I talked about what to do to get rid of the bounty?"

Jam nodded, saying, "Yes. I claimed it and, then, you left that place about a year ago with the Pirates."

"About a month and a half ago," Dizzy elaborated, "the Pirates were attacked. I still don't know if they survived or not, but I doubt it. And, since then, I've been under Ky's protection."

As Dizzy continued to tell Jam of what they'd gone through, Ky wondered what, exactly, she felt when she said that. A feeling of guilt silently surged in his gut at the way he had treated her. Though they had reconciled much of what he had done since she was placed in his care, he still hated himself for what he nearly did.

It was true. She was just like a child, wanting to trust, wanting to believe, so different than so many people he had met in the past. Some were hardened beyond cracking, and others were broken. He amended that he was part of the former when he considered what he had done in the past.

Following the conversation, he noticed that Dizzy said nothing concerning the events that had transpired that morning, nor did she mentioned anything about how she was treated while under his care. She had every right to complain. To suppress the right of one's discontent was what he fought against. Maybe she was voluntarily keeping it secret?

"So, now, we're trying to get back into the U.N. without calling attention to ourselves," Dizzy concluded.

Jam stared at them blankly, trying to completely digest all that she had just been told. In his experience, Ky had known Jam to be clever when it came to matters of money, business, and such. However, whenever politics came up, she had told him, quite bluntly, it was a painfully dull. It also brought back the ordeal they had faced while searching for the truth in Purgatory.

In retrospect, with his problems concerning the Robo-Kys, he was inclined to agree with her point of view. He was meant for the battlefield, not the administrator's desk. His train of thought was broken as Jam nodded and stood up.

With hands balled into fists and placed on her hips, she said, "Okay, then. If you want to get back to the U.N., you're going to have to take a less conspicuous route."

She moved over to one of the walls, heavily decorated with various posters, maps, and lists of recipes of various origins. Finding a map of Europe, she traced her fingers around several red lines she had drawn in with a pencil, looking at the other entry points to the edges of the E.U.

Ky and Dizzy exchanged looks until Jam exclaimed, "Aha! Here we go! The northern posts are a lot more open than the southern. Not a lot of other people there, other than Swedes, Finns, and Russians."

"How do you know all this?" Ky asked.

Jam turned and said, with a smile, "How do you think I got here? I was brought to Geneva because they wanted me to prove that I was the one that fulfilled the bounty. I couldn't prove it, so I had to run. I had a few contacts that got me a ride out of there, so I moved north to lose the UN and moved south until I came here."

"And you've been in hiding ever since?" Dizzy asked empathetically.

Jam blinked once and shrugged, saying, "Sorta. Though I miss being the center of attention, I think I can get used to working my way back to the top. Besides, I haven't had a chance to show those idiots from Hanagata and Hyuma that I can make even better food than both of them!" She emphasized her position with a clenched fist and a heavy stomp on the floor.

Dizzy and Ky were slightly surprised as Jam pulled back into her usually cheery disposition, saying, "But enough about me. You two make yourselves at home, and I'll call around, see if any friends of mine are heading north."

She hopped out of the room before either had a chance to protest.

An hour later, it was decided by Jam that they were going to stay for the next two days. The freighter pilot that had ushered Jam out of U.N. territory was going that same route, and, after some sweet-talking on Jam's part, she was able to convince him to let two passengers along.

With the lights low and the noise from the outside dying down, Dizzy looked up from her makeshift bed, sitting across the way from Jam's sparsely-covered room, which surprised the Commander Gear, for there seemed to be a perpetual mess of all things that spoke of what Jam was everywhere else in the apartment. Even Ky's bedroom had a few creature comforts that spoke about what he liked.

However, the room she was to stay in was quite mundane. There were two beds across from each other and there was the desk with nothing on it. Though it had seen lots of use, its maintenance clearly hid most of the marks that showed its consistent application in the past.

Dizzy, in a fresh change of clothes, sat upward and leaned against the wall. She stared out of the window, noting the lack of activity of the sleeping town, save for the occasional scuffle between alley animals.

She wasn't sure why, but sleep was eluding her. The specter had been strangely silent ever since Rhodes, and her guardians were resting, along with the city outside. She looked to the satchel, by her pillow, containing the documents she felt she had to defend with her life. Upon it was the fleur-de-lis, now cleaned and beautiful, her personal placebo against that which she feared.

She took the pendant and let it dangle over one of her hands, looking at the golden crown, sparking in the moonlight. She never had any real possessions of her own, aside from the books she always read, but those were always someone else's. The pendant belonged to her. She placed the trinket into her open hand and carefully held it close to her heart. With any hope, she would be able to find the courage to live in a hostile world without fear.

She looked up to the slowly-approaching footsteps and subsequent opening of the door. In similar modest bedclothes, Jam poked her head in, asking, "Are you asleep?"

Dizzy shook her hand and moved her hands to her lap, shaking her head.

"Anything wrong?" Jam said, closing the door as quietly as she could. She padded to her bed and slowly glided on, like a toddler sneaking back from the kitchen with a snack in hand.

Dizzy looked to her hands, considering the item within, hoping to draw out the courage from it, she said, "Have you ever had dreams -- or seen things -- that you wish you hadn't?"

Pulling the covers up to her shoulders, Jam cocked an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Struggling for the right words, Dizzy offered, "When I spoke with my friends about their dreams, they were always odd and unusual. Whenever I have dreams, they're too clear, and they scare me."

Jam wasn't sure what to make of Dizzy's statement. Though she did have an answer, it probably wasn't the one she needed. "Well," she said, pausing, "when I saw things that frightened me in dreams, it always had to do with things that scared me when I was awake."

Dizzy took a quick look to her host and figured, by her age, that she knew the affects of living during the Crusades. She couldn't have been older than twenty-two years old, give or take a year.

"Like the Gears?" Dizzy proposed.

Jam's eyes locked with hers and the bravado, the silliness, and the childishness of the chef that everyone knew, vanished. "When the Gears attacked the camps at Changchun, I was with the refugees that were relocated to Vancouver. We were attacked by Gears more than once on the way and until then, I had never seen a Gear up close. If it weren't for the Shaolin nun that became my mother, I wouldn't have survived."

As Dizzy imagined what it was that Jam had experienced, a minor headache appeared. It wasn't painful, but she could feel like she was being pulled into a something she couldn't explain.

Further and further her mind fell until she saw flame all around her. Dizzy saw many people running in fear from large shadows, covered in spikes and blood, relentlessly perusing the fleeing humans.

"Mama! Mama!" a young girl's voice cried from behind her. She turned to see a little Chinese child, hunched over the inert body of a woman with a gaping hole in her chest, darkening the shirt with blood. It was Jam! She was about to approach her when a rumble turned her around to see a Gear, a Brute, nicknamed for its sheer size and strength.

It appeared more like a gorilla than human, due to its excessively long arms and disproportioned body. The sheer bulk of the arms were laden with muscles strong enough to stop a speeding train. They had easily killed their fair share of humans during the war. The Brute raised its boulder-sized fist, prepared to crush the girl flat. Dizzy cried for the Gear to stop, but it was no use.

A blur of color dashed passed through, grabbed Jam, and resumed its flight back to the fleeing train at the edge of town as the Brute created a crater from its missed attack. From what Dizzy could see, the blur appeared to be a woman with a covering on her face. She was dressed in simple brown and gray robes and moved as easily through the following Gears like wind through the trees. When the woman and Jam left out of sight, she felt herself ascending upwards.

Dizzy looked to a confused Jam as the latter finished speaking.

"You alright? You looked kind of dazed."

Embarrassed, Dizzy nodded and tried to change the subject, noting that her pendant had fallen into her lap. She had no idea what had just happened and felt Necro and Undine would have better insight to the matter. "I was wondering, how did you find Ky and I while we were moving through the town?"

With a proud smile, Jam replied, "It was you. I'm a ki user and as such, I can sense magic and similar elements with little to no effort. You were practically a geyser of magic. It was next to impossible not to find you."

Depressed, Dizzy apologized, "I'm sorry. I try to keep control of my power, but it always has a habit of going farther than I want."

Jam folded her arms and said, "Have you ever tried to train yourself to control it?"

The Commander Gear shook her head and answered, "There was no one there really to teach me."

The chef sighed and held her hand to her head as though she was asked a foolishly rhetorical question. "It's not as hard as you think," she chided gently. She slid off her bed and stood in the clear center of the room. She started in the center with her feet together, completely inert. However, when Jam moved her feet to shoulder width, she began a movement involving turns and steps which seemed as natural as breathing. In addition, Dizzy could not only feel, she could see the ki starting to gather around Jam's body.

As the chef continued, the energy started to flow into beautiful patterns, a testament to her talent. To Dizzy's surprise, she could even barely feel the large amount of ki, despite being able to see it so easily.

When the form ended, Jam smiled proudly and asked, "Pretty good, huh?"

Dizzy nodded eagerly as she questioned Jam further, "How can you do that?"

Smugly, Jam held out her hand and within seconds, a perfectly spherical ball of ki appeared. "Practice. Lots of it." She brought her other hand near the sphere and exchanged the ball into her other hand as though it were made of solid matter.

"You form a sphere in your mind, and then pour your ki into that sphere. Keeping it within the sphere you made and pouring it in even more." She brought both of her hands together again and Dizzy could feel the strength of the ball practically double. "If you can keep pouring your power into the sphere, while keeping the sphere as its original shape, you can make it stronger. Again, it takes practice." Letting her hands go, Jam casually let the ball of ki vanish into the air. "Now you try."

The Commander Gear had watched the proceedings with all her mental facilities, noting muscle movements, energy flow, and breathing from Jam. Bringing her hands close together, she closed her eyes and mentally recited Jam's instructions, word for word.

She saw the sphere. She had almost made a circle, but knew a sphere had more than one dimension. There was some difficulty, but she soon was able to form the sphere in her mind and attempted to ebb some of her power into it.

Watching intently, Jam saw the beginnings of sparks of light. What few slips of magic she could see was red. Sadly, it never progressed further than that as the mental and physical exertions overtook Dizzy and the sphere vanished. She leaned against the wall, breathing heavily.

With a proud smile, Jam said, "Not bad. It takes a lot of people years to be able to do what you just did. Once you figure that out, keeping your power in check will be a cinch."

"Thank you, Miss Jam." Dizzy said.

Jam shook her head and corrected her, "Remember, it's Marie now. And don't mention it." As she returned to her bed, intent on going to sleep, Dizzy's voice once again stopped her.

"Miss Ja... erm, Marie, can I ask why you're helping us?"

Jam crawled into bed and muttered tiredly, "It's nothing you have to worry about." The way she said it put the matter to rest, in spite of the fact she still had other questions.

What she wanted to ask more than anything concerned her overly friendly greeting to Ky when she discovered he was here. There were so few things about Ky Dizzy was aware of. Seeing Jam's reaction gave her some hope to the seemingly shadowed past of her guardian. However, it appeared she had hit another dead end and it would be a while before she would learn anything.

Knowing nothing more could be done, she lie in her bed and let herself drift off to sleep.

"Undine... you must not tell her."

Undine was still defiant. "You cannot force me to withhold the truth from her. I know she can do something about all this. She is stronger than you think her to be."

Necro was resolute. "Regardless of your opinion, Undine, I fulfill my purpose. As should you. When the time comes for the truth to be known, we will tell her and there will be no more secrets between us all."

Undine's tone grew suddenly bitter. "By then, it may be too late."

"If you place so much faith in her, then you should not worry. She has overcome the influence of her heritage so far."

"Yes, but that doesn't speak for when the last stage occurs."

"The last stage?"

"Yes. You, in your excessive reactionary impulses, never noticed once that the process has begun."

"You mean her growth?"

"No. This is something completely different. Something you were never privy to."

"And you were?"

"Yes. And as galling as it sounds, it looks like you and I can keep secrets from each other."

"You are correct... it is very galling."

"And if you attempt to take control as you have in the past, I won't hesitate to erase your functions."

"And you will get us killed in the process."

"...I'm willing to take that chance."

"And you will."

End of chapter 10

Whew, another chapter done. And once again; props go out to my pre-readers for making sure I don't make a total fool out of myself.

I wasn't completely sure about using Ky as a bounty to keep the plot moving. However, what I needed was a reason to keep Ky from moving into Greece and essentially bring them up north for an upcoming plot point. So, there you have it.

Now, Marie Crepe is the name that Samuraiter and I came up with since Jam was basically a labeled deviant for not bringing Dizzy forward. Besides, I like crepes more than jam anyway. Oh, and just a note; Jam was performing the short form in Tai Chi Chuan, of said art, I am quite fond of.

And speaking of Samuraiter, Jam's youth is a reference to his story, Corpus Et Mortalis. Since it's no longer on I suggest looking for it on his page. It's a long read, but a good one.

Now, we have Necro and Undine arguing as usual, but I always wanted to give those two more of their own voices. Besides, it wasn't Dizzy's ridiculous outfit that drew me to her – it was Undine, but that's a matter for another time.

Finally, all things Guilty Gear belongs to Sammy, Arc System, and Daisuke Ishiwatari.