A/N: As promised! A very fast update and a long one at that! I will say now that I enjoy this chapter so much more than the last one! Wow. Double digits already. Anyways. Again, I only speak a little bit of French and it isn't very good at all (you would be surprised how many people speak French in Texas... that is to say, very few- so the practice thing doesn't really happen, but I tried to make it not completely wrong). T.T More questions forever! Not really, everything will make sense eventually. Sorry about the last chapter being so lame and I hope this one makes up for it. Thank you for baring with me! Please enjoy and thank you for reading! :D

Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Calibur or any of the characters therein.

TEN

The Civil Men

Siegfried's eye throbbed behind the patch of gauze that was taped to his face as he walked into his office, clad in an outfit that was almost identical to the one he had worn the day before- the only difference being a different band symbol decorating his shirt. His injured eye had been throbbing all day, all the night before, nonstop since he woke up with it. Logic told the German that he had to have been awake when it happened, but he couldn't quite remember what had happened. He remembered being given a key and walking into his father's room and then everything became blurry and thinking about it gave him a headache up until the point when he was standing dumbly and in pain in that very office he had woken up in. Although, he wasn't sure he could call it 'woken up' because he didn't think he had fallen asleep. It was like being stuck in a confusing circle of questions with no answers.

When he awoke, he had seen the man from before had passed out, that the office was a mess, the head of security had shown up- along with a few police officers- and his secretary had run in crying about something. She hadn't been around for whatever had happened. None of the others had been. Siegfried had to spend an exhausting amount of time telling the police he was not pressing charges and convincing them to leave, all while his head security guy- Rock- wrapped his face in gauze to stop the bleeding from... whatever the hell had happened. It seemed as though there had only been two people in the room when the event happened. The only person who would be able to tell Siegfried what had happened before he 'woke up' would be the passed out man. Tira had told him it was their IT guy. Their only IT guy.

The place looked much cleaner than it had the night before and Siegfried could only guess that it was Tira's doing. He hadn't done anything to fix the place up. Cleaning up after him wasn't exactly her job as far as he could tell- maybe it was? He honestly didn't know and he wasn't about to ask his own secretary what her job was for fear of looking as clueless as he felt. Either way, it was still very nice of her to do. He wasn't sure where he would have started if he had to get everything back in order. With a small smile, the blond cracked the large double doors open enough to peak his face out.

"Tira," the girl looked up when he addressed her, "Thank you."

She grinned and nodded happily at her boss, confident that he wouldn't be able to tell she had been face-down on her desk in shame for letting him down the day before and somehow causing whatever it was that had happened. Logic would have told anyone else that there was nothing they could have done even if they had been around and it certainly tried to tell the same thing to Tira, but she was the kind of young woman who put one hundred and ten percent into everything she did and she wasn't going to let something like logic convince her that allowing anything bad to happen to her boss was anything short of a failure on her part. "Of course! It was no problem! I got one of the security guys to help me. Also, don't worry!" She had started so happy, but her voice faltered and quieted as she continued, "About the IT guy, I mean. Finding a replacement shouldn't be too hard, right?" She laughed nervously.

"Uhm... right... thank you," Siegfried said, his smile dampening around the edges slightly. He didn't even want to think about having to hire anyone. All the reading resumes and having interviews and he wasn't even sure how he would train someone for a position he really knew nothing about. He could probably get the current the guy to train the new one before firing him, but that seemed too... wrong. Making someone teach their replacement how to replace them. It didn't sit right with the German.

He attacked you.

"I don't know that," the blond murmured as he walked to his desk and sank into his black leather office chair, "Not for sure."

There was a chance that a normal person would have been concerned about a voice in their head, but Siegfried wasn't too bothered by it. He had had his share of imaginary friends during his lonely childhood years and could only assume that that was all it was. It was just some kind of reaction to the stress of his father's passing, inheriting a business he really didn't want, and blacking out and then finding himself bleeding with a passed out employee, who looked worse for ware himself. Surely, it was nothing to be concerned about and it would go away with time. He just had to get more comfortable with how life was and it would go away. Besides, Siegfried had a fine hatred of doctors- psychiatric or not- and was more than happy to call it a reaction to stress instead of going to some over-paid quack for help.

That was what Siegfried told himself as he decided to try to go through e-mails or something. He still wasn't sure exactly what the Hell his father actually did in the office. Part of him was sure that he could hear the faint sound of the voice in his head laughing at him, but he ignored it. Pushing that fact deep down to be examined never seemed like the best plan at the time.

It was then that the phone rang and Siegfried suddenly remembered one of the things his father had done every day- if the Frenchmen was to be believed and Siegfried had no reason not to believe him.

With a quiet sigh, the German answered the pone, "Yes?"

"Non, non, non, mon ami," the voice on the other end of the line managed to sound both amused and disappointed at the same time, "That is a terrible greeting for a man such as yourself!"

"I don't really-"

His words were cut off by Raphael, "Something like 'Schauffen here' would be tolerable, but only because it would be reminiscent of your father, mais, I would prefer something more along 'Hello' or, my favorite, 'Yes, Monsieur Sorel, how may I serve you today?' although, we do not always get what we want and I have the feeling tha-" Whatever he was saying was cut off by Siegfried simply hanging up the phone.

He wasn't sure how or why his father put up with such calls. Part of him assumed that they all ended with the elder Schauffen hanging up and his caller being too stubborn to stop trying. With that out of the way, Siegfried tried to get back to work, but promptly realized that he still wasn't too sure of what it was he should be doing. There was a reason that he never jumped at the chance to visit his father at work and learn the trade. Office work was too stuffy for a guy like him.

For the second time that day, Siegfried found himself getting up and walking to the door to peak out at his secretary. "Tira?"

The secretary's head shot up from her desk, "Yes, Mr. Schauffen? Do you need anything? Can I get you something?"

"Uhm, yes," Siegfried wasn't too thrilled with what he was about to do, but it seemed as good a step towards being productive as any, "Could you ask the IT guy to come up here? I need to speak with him."

Tira's grin faltered slightly and it was far more obvious than she had meant it to be that keeping the grin at all was difficult for her. It almost made Siegfried feel bad for asking. "You don't have to, sir. I could tell him or send down a note or an e-mail or have Rock tell him..."

"I would rather speak with him myself."

"Well... of course, sir..." Tira said quietly, still feeling as though the previous day was somehow her fault and her inability to talk her boss out of being face to face with an obviously crazy and dangerous man was only further proof of her failure as an assistant. "Would you, at least, like Rock in there with you?"

The German sighed quietly, "No, I don't..." She looked like a kicked puppy and it was enough to make the older man give his head a small shake and revise his words somewhat, "...think he should be in the same room. It would be better if he stayed outside the door, alright?"

"Yes, sir." Siegfried was rewarded with a small smile from his secretary as she contacted their head of security and the IT guy.

Siegfried strode back to his desk and sunk into his chair. He wasn't really sure what he was going to say to the other man. He didn't want to admit that he didn't have any clue what had happened the day before, but he needed to know what had happened. A voice whispered in his mind that he didn't need or want to know, but he couldn't bring himself to listen to it. Something had happened it didn't sit well with him to punish a man who might not have been guilty.

No one else had been in the room with them. No one else knew that had happened. Maybe the IT guy had attacked him. Maybe the guy had been acting out of self defense and Siegfried had been the violent one. He would find out before deciding what to do about his employee. The voice in his head tried to warn him against it again, more insistently, but he ignored it. Ignoring things they didn't feel like listening to was a common trait amongst the Schauffen family. Whether or not that was a good thing was up for debate.

The wait for the other man wasn't as long as he had expected it would be. No more than a few minutes after he had spoken to Tira, the IT guy was walking through his door, not bothering to knock. It made him wonder exactly how busy the other man could have been and how important his job was. If it was only worth having one guy, it might not have been much. Maybe replacing him wouldn't be difficult if he did, indeed, have to replace the brunette.

The Chinese man looked exhausted and had a bruise forming on his cheek. His hair was somewhat disheveled. Clearly, he hadn't spent much time cleaning up before work and Siegfried idly wondered if he had even bothered to changes his clothing. Rock had told him that someone had picked up the passed out man, so Siegfried figured he hadn't spent the night at the office but, looking at him in that moment, it was hard to tell if the other had actually gone home or not.

"You wanted to see me." It was more of a statement than a question, but the other man didn't sound angry. If anything, he seemed apprehensive as he stood by the door.

Siegfried cleared his throat and motioned for the two chairs in front of his desk, "Feel free to sit down. You look like you could use a rest." The Chinese man snorted, but walked forward and sat in one of the chairs; they were much more comfortable than the one he had in the small office ten floors down, but that wasn't much of a surprise.

Kilik wasn't sure what to say to his boss. In general, he didn't talk to people very much. His job called for him to be alone in a room surrounded by machines for hours and his room mate had long ago accepted his quiet nature and stopped trying to get him to speak. Most days, it wasn't much of a problem, but it left him unequipped to deal with moments that called for a dialogue.

Brown eyes scanned over the features of his boss, silently taking in the bandage on his face. Other than that, the other man didn't look much worse for ware. Maybe the beginnings of bags under his eyes, but it was clear that he had taken much less damage than the monk. When considering that one of them was housing a demon that was making them stronger and more resistant to damage, it wasn't much of a shock that Siegfried would look better than Kilik.

He wondered if his boss even knew about the demon. From what he knew about Soul Edge, he gave the taller man the benefit of the doubt instead of treating him as though he were voluntarily hosting a demon. Still, he couldn't keep himself from gently purifying the remaining taint in the air around himself. The action would only make him feel worse, but it wasn't an urge he was going to fight against.

"About yesterday," Siegfried started carefully, watching the other man's eyes as they moved over his face before resting the eye that was not covered, "I am not sure if I should be apologizing or demanding an explanation from you." It hadn't exactly been what he planned to say. He definitely didn't plan on giving away his lack of knowledge about the situation so soon, but there was something relaxing about the other man's presence. He couldn't put his finger on what it was, but it was as though something that had been bugging him all day was gone. Like a weight lifted from his shoulders.

Kilik nodded, his eyes dropping down to his lap for a moment before meeting that of his boss again, "It was not your fault. Stress and loss do terrible things to people and I should not have been so callous with you." He knew that he couldn't tell the other man about the demon without sounding insane. He also knew that using Siegfried's lack of memories to his advantage and making the blonde feel bad for something that was, technically, not his fault was not something Kilik was willing to do.

"What happened?" The German's voice was quieter than he had intended. He was this man's boss and, though he was new to the position, he had been through situations that put him in a leadership role before and he knew very well that showing any hint of weakness or of being unsure was the last thing he should be doing. His father had taught him the value of strong leadership and the cost of the alternative at a young age. He cleared his throat and repeated the words, his voice sounding solid, "What happened?"

"Words were exchanged," Kilik said simply.

"Words?" Siegfried growled as his eye began to throb again. That feeling was resurfacing. "Words do not end in bruises and bandages."

There was the slightest bit of a smirk from the shorter man before it faded. He shook his head and ran a hand through the untidy brown locks on his head, "That came after the words. It is my fault you can't glare at me with both eyes right now." There was a small pause in which Kilik's body gave an involuntary shutter. He could feel darkness rising and he wasn't sure how he would react to it if exposed a second time in so many days, especially in his current tired state. His voice was quiet when he continued, "I did not do that to you until after you threw your desk at me."

When the Asian man shuddered, Siegfried could only assume it was because of the memory of being attacked by his boss. Normally, he would scoff at the notion that he threw a desk as large as his current one at another person on his own, but it wasn't so unbelievable under the circumstances. People could do amazing things when put into the right situations for it. He had the feeling that any situation that would be enough for him to black out was the right one for such a feat. When he was very young- he had been so angry at so many things back them- he had blacked out before and come to to the realization that he had beaten another kid up. It was usually for something stupid. That might have been a resurfacing of that. Also, he could not deny how much worse the smaller man looked than him or that he had seen the state of the office after whatever had happened. He gave a small nod. Whatever had been rising within him sank back down.

Both Siegfried and Kilik sat in silence for a short while, each waiting for the other to speak. Kilik was relieved when he felt the aura of the cursed blade fade away. The air around them was almost pure of the remaining traces of evil from the previous day and Kilik could only hope that that would last. Siegfried was unsure of exactly where to go with the conversation. He was comfortable just sitting there, but he didn't know why. He wasn't entirely trusting of a situation that almost seemed to be actively putting him at ease.

Finally, the German spoke, "Tira told me you are our only IT guy."

Kilik nodded.

There was another short pause where Siegfried gave the other man time to speak. When it was clear that he wasn't going to, the blond continued, "What, exactly, do you do?"

"I make sure our computer systems stay up and running."

Either the smaller man was trying to be a pain in his ass, or he was too tired to give full explanations. Holding back a growl, Siegfried tried again, "You are the only one in the IT department, if it can still be called a department."

"Ah," Kilik said quietly. He gave a small, knowing nod, "You want to know what you will be looking for in my replacement."

The single blue eye that showed closed for a short while before opening again and focusing on the other man. He saw no reason to lie. Somehow, trying not to admit he was thinking about restaffing the man who he had, apparently, thrown office furniture at seemed ridiculous. "If it comes to that, yes. You haven't jumped me yet and you aren't foaming at the mouth." He couldn't help but give a small smile, "I'm sure Tira will be happily surprised by that. She made you out to be some kind of lunatic."

There was a soft snort before Kilik said, "Almost a whole conversation and neither one of us has threatened physical harm or thrown anything at the other. Its a new record for us." It didn't occur to him until after he spoke that his words held an amount of rudeness to them. He didn't care enough to regret it at that moment. What he wanted to do was end this meeting and get to sleep. Of course, with what he had set up earlier, he doubted he would get sleep any time soon. It should have been spreading while they spoke.

So, the other man did have some kind of sense of humor to him. It made him seem more like a real person than some faceless guy who worked for the German. Siegfried chuckled, "Exactly. Are you going to..." whatever he was going to say trailed off as a flash on his computer screen caught his eye. "...huh?" The screen blinked once. Then twice. Then two more times before his screen seemed to dissolve into the image of a large butterfly with blue and yellow wings on a black background.