A/N: A flashback chapter! You love flashback chapters really. And we learn just what this world's Yusei was like before his death, not to mention a nice look at Kiryu and Milly back then compared to now. Big cliff hanger too. And big thanks for your lovely reviews, I love them. I mean it. I love them.
Melinda spun, whipping out her pistol and pressing it to the forehead of the man behind her. Golden eyes sparkled with amusement.
"Put that thing down, Milly," Kiryu laughed softly, taking the barrel in his palm and moving it away. "You're on edge. How come?"
"Hmm..." Melinda with a sigh and tapped the tip against her jaw in thought. "Kyosuke, I have this funny feeling you were following me. Why?"
"It's nothing," he replied. "I just wanted to keep an eye on you."
"Why? Kyosuke, you don't do anything without reason."
"You're a good investment of my time, Milly." He glanced at her pistol, and after a moment of glaring at him, Melinda relented and holstered it. "E Sector. Tell me what you know."
Melinda frowned and leant casually back against the alley wall. Kiryu watched her quickly. He'd wait as long as it took, she knew that. The pair of young teens had known each other for almost two years now, and they knew each other well enough. They knew patience was a trait they both had in bundles.
"What's in it for me? You know you can't have anything free," Melinda whispered.
"Anything in particular you want?" Kiryu asked.
"I'd like you to stop calling me Milly."
"You're the only person I've ever met who calls me Kyosuke, so that one's not going to happen. Anything else?"
"Why are you following me?"
"E Sector. You're aware of the gang there?"
Melinda frowned and nodded. "What's that got to do with anything? If you know about them, what do you want from me?"
"There's one person in particular," Kiryu said, leaning on the wall next to her. "They have a few nasty members."
"You're not giving me much to go on, Kyosuke." She smirked and glanced at him. "Have you been making enemies, Blue? Just stick to protecting you little patch and stop causing trouble."
She pushed off the wall and went to leave but Kiryu caught her arm and pulled her back against the wall, leaning over her. "Milly, don't hold out on me here. I'm in a tough spot and I need your help."
"Say it, Kyosuke."
"Please."
"I'll get my boy on it," Melinda laughed resting her hands on his shoulders. "He does love a challenge. So, how serious is this tough spot that you're willing to say the p word? Have they sent their little assassin after you?"
"They want my sectors," he replied. "I don't want to hand them over without a fight."
She laughed and pulled him close, twisting her fingers through his hair. "You must be the only person to see me, Kyosuke. So many others just ignore me as I pass through. They don't tend to realise how dangerous I really am. You get it though."
"I like a dangerous girl." He smiled and kissed her gently. "Get on it for me, yeah?"
"Get off me," she laughed, pushing him off playfully. "I'll do what I can. I'll see you around, Kyosuke."
She strode away and Kiryu smiled as she glanced back. After a moment, Kiryu turned and headed back to his sector. Above them, on a broken roof top, a boy of their age watched with cold blue eyes. Once Kiryu was out of sight, he turned to follow at a safe distance. Just as he went to climb onto the next roof the brick work in front of him chipped and a gunshot ripped through the air. A bullet was lodged in the wall of the next building. He turned slowly. Melinda was in the alleyway entrance, gazing up at him with a twisted smirk. He glared back as she lowered her pistol.
A long moment passed between them. Melinda laughed and broke the standoff first, turning and walking away. The boy smiled to himself. Even if Kiryu was clueless about the fate that awaited him, his guardian angel seemed to be paying attention.
Melinda strode into E Sector under cover of darkness. The sooner she could get in and out the better. The gang there had been in full control for as long as she could remember, and had controlled almost all the Satellite at one point or another. Both Melinda and Kiryu had been in trouble with them before. Kiryu might not have known Yusei when he'd first appeared, but he'd obviously done his research since then. Melinda, on the other hand, had known exactly who he was from the moment she'd set eyes on him- not that she could believe it.
She smiled as the gang's main base loomed ahead. She drew her pistol slowly, hoping she had enough ammo for all of them. The door swung open easily and the dozen or so members inside turned, jumping up from their seat in surprise.
"So," Melinda said quietly. "Where's your boss?"
"Who the hell are you?" one snapped.
Melinda laughed and fired a shot into this shoulder. He feel to the ground screaming and she leant over him.
"Now, this doesn't have to be hard," she said. "If you tell me, I'll leave."
"There's the remains of an old apartment block a little south of here," he panted. "He's usually there at night."
"Thank you."
"So, Fudo, do you remember who I am and what you did to me?"
Yusei groaned and gazed up into the darkness. He had come to the conclusion that he probably wasn't dead and there really was someone torturing him. His breath was heavy and laboured. He didn't know how long it had been since his last visit from this man, but his condition was getting worse. He wondered if maybe whatever he was drinking had been changed to do just that.
"Still nothing? Don't tell me being dead has erased your memory?" he laughed. "It would explain a lot. Maybe I should fill you in then, hmm? Let's start with your life of crime." The man grabbed a handful of his hair and pulled him from the ground. "How many people have you killed for me Yusei?"
"I- I wouldn't-"
"Oh, not now, obviously," he said, tossing him back to the floor. "But you did. You worked for me. You were my right hand man. I trusted you with the toughest work, the things I needed to have done without question and without fail. I only remember one time when you came back and told me you couldn't do the job without a good reason. I got used to your soft side. Oh, you weren't all bad; you had this issue with hurting mothers, or children, or anyone with a particularly good sob story actually. Such issues notwithstanding, you were the best I could ask for."
Kiryu tore through the Satellite on his D-Wheel towards E Sector. Melinda had figured out why he'd been in E Sector, so he needed to make sure he'd really killed Yusei. If there was any chance he'd survived, Melinda would be on it. He just had to get there before she did. He had to make sure Yusei was dead and stayed dead.
He swung off at the small apartment building the E Sector leader owned. He threw the door open and bounded up the stairs. There was no sign of anyone inside and nowhere to hold a prisoner. If the leader did have Yusei he wasn't there. He sighed and thought back, trying to figure out where was suitable to hold a difficult prisoner like Yusei, someone the leader would want to take him time with and torture. Where would he be able to keep Yusei for this long without being found out?
Then it hit him. There was a bunker at the far end of the sector that used to be used by Security as a weapons store. It was isolated and secure and perfect to keep someone locked up in. But it was in one of the regions that were most damaged by Zero Reverse. The ground was littered with patches of torn up concrete, huge crevasses and the perfect place for traps, not to mention impossible to get a D-Wheel through. It could take hours to get through safely if you didn't know your way.
"How do you know that's where they are?"
Melinda laughed and glanced at Kiryu. "Don't you trust me? You asked me to get you info, and I did. In the centre there's an old weapons bunker. They use it as a torture chamber."
"Want to come with me on a raid tomorrow?"
"Seriously?" Melinda laughed. Kiryu smiled and nodded. "Oh, Kyosuke, I thought you'd never ask. Why the hell have you taken this long to figure out I wanted to come?"
She threw her arms around him and kissed him deeply. While not completely sure what he'd said to warrant such a reaction, Kiryu was happy to play along. It was all too soon when their lips parted and Melinda smiled.
"You're welcome," he whispered.
"Don't thank me yet," she murmured. "What are doing tonight?"
"Nothing."
"Wrong answer. You're moving into my place, and I'm not taking no for an answer."
"Ok..."
"Good. Now go and get packed up."
Once he'd disappeared out of sight, Melinda stood and glanced down over the ridge of broken concrete. Cole cobalt eyes rolled lazily up to gaze in her stony dark brown ones. He smiled casually and leant back on his elbows. Melinda jumped down to the piece he was reclined on.
"Stay away from Kyosuke," she snapped. "I won't let you hurt him."
"I have my orders," he replied. Melinda frowned. He wasn't at all fazed by her. He sounded like he'd been asked about the weather. "Melinda Snow... you've known for a long time I've been watching you. When I first saw you with Kiryu, you told him people didn't see the true you, but he did."
"And?"
He closed his eyes momentarily then stood to face her. Melinda's heart skipped a beat as he stared into her eyes, gazing straight into her mind and soul.
"Leave him, join me," he said. She gasped before she could stop herself and his smile grew a little. "You're right, not many people see the real you, but I do. So, drop the idiot and work for me and my boss. You're worth so much more than whatever you get from him."
"Really?" She smiled and turned, climbing back up onto the main road. "Walk with me?"
He climbed up to join her and the pair walked slowly through the streets together, chatting about nothing in particular, but avoiding talking about their work. Melinda tried to ask his name, but he didn't answer, and that was as far as it went. At the end of Melinda's street, they stopped.
"So?" he said. "Will you at least consider my offer?"
"If you'd tell me who you are, I might be more inclined," Melinda replied. "However, what I do know is if you weren't out to hurt Kyosuke, we could get along very well. Since you won't back down it's not going to happen though."
"I'm sorry to hear that."
Before Melinda could register what was going on, he'd knocked her to the ground with a blow to the side of her face. She gazed up at him from the ground and for the first time in a long while, felt true fear. He smiled and knelt at her side, gripped her arm and twisted. An agonised scream tore from her lips and he dropped her back to the ground as he drew a strange metal box with the Security logo.
"Do you know the best part?" he said quietly. "Your dear Kyosuke Kiryu will think this was all caused by Security; he'll be so pissed and preoccupied by his anger, he'll abandon guarding his sectors. And if you stay quiet about it and just play along, then I won't have need to come back for Kiryu." He smiled and patted her head. "Your right, that's the sad thing, we could have been friends. We could have been great together. Now, this is going to hurt."
Yusei was struggling to breathe. His body was dripping with sweat and his head pounding. The man holding him either didn't notice or didn't care.
"Do you understand yet, Fudo? Your forgotten past?"
"No... I could never do that," he said, before breaking into a coughing fit.
"I suppose I should tell you what you did," the man said.
There was a sudden banging outside and a roar of a dragon. Yusei groaned and struggled to sit up. The man growled and Yusei heard footsteps moving across the floor as if pacing.
"Don't get any silly ideas," he laughed cruelly. "There's no hope for you anymore. That last bottle I gave you was poison. You'll be dead within an hour if you don't get help, and you don't have any hope."
At that moment, there was a metalic clang, light streamed into the room, blinding Yusei momentarily and he could just make out a figure standing next to the silhouette of a dragon.