Witness Protection

Disclaimer: I don't own Kickin' It, or any other Disney Channel show. They belong to their respective producers/writers/companies.

A/N:

Chapter 21 (Blinded by Rage)

Una Mave? Kim's heart thumped in her chest as she and Jack backed up against the wall. The woman didn't even seem to notice they were there, her focus was on the elder woman. "I'll handle this," Kim whispered to Jack. She knew they needed to make sure to hit when the moment was right, they had to separate that gun from Una. Not only that, but they needed to ensure she didn't kill Yvonne. As much as Kim wanted to take the woman out herself, it just wasn't right, and it wouldn't solve a thing.

To Kim, she understood what it was like to have pent up anger. She had been staying with an Aunt while her father went on his archeological dig. Her own mother had abandoned them long ago, and that was the reason she was so bitter towards Yvonne before. She knew how it felt to have your own mother reject you. Now when it came to Una, she could see this woman had a lot of pent up aggression. Her eyes were full of tears, her face drenched, and her body tense. Had she gone through similar sufferings? Una's appearance there couldn't have anything to do with the Black Dragons. No. She was blaming Yvonne for what happened to Hilda. She knew something.

"This is your fault!" Una screamed, echoing through the air. Yvonne gasped and looked up at the sky, breathing heavily at this point. "I've already taken care of Hilda's bastard stepfather…now it's your turn. You're going to get what's coming to you!" Yvonne put her hands over her mouth, holding back a scream. Kim raised an eyebrow and looked back into the house. Did Una kill Mr. Bodil? "I'm sick of parents like you! Sick of people who think they can treat their kids like the fucking scum of the earth! Sick!"

That was enough, Kim couldn't let this go on any further. She reached out and put her hand onto Una's shoulder. "Listen, I don't know what you've gone through, but there's no reason for you to take it out on this woman." Una's head snapped into her direction and her eyes narrowed even more. With a sudden pull of her arm, she jabbed her elbow into Kim's chest.

"Mind your own damned business!" Kim staggered back and sucked in some air, winded by the blow. She felt Jack's hands on her arms. She shook her head once and twitched into her direction. Now, she'd gone beyond reason. Una was going down, and hard.

"You did not just do that. Jack, take Yvonne inside. That's an order." She knew he would listen to her, she could be deadly when serious. Una started to look back at her, but before she could, Kim had already sprung into action. She put her back to Una's, reached over, grabbing her arm, and pulled it back over her shoulder. Una screamed out and fired a gunshot into the wall directly to the right of Jack.

Yvonne ran for the house and Jack followed her inside. In an instant, Kim flipped Una overhead. Adrenaline poured through her body and a tribal scream ripped from her throat. Una landed hard on the floor and looked up just as Kim started to leap onto her. She rolled to the side and Kim smashed her fist against the hard floor.

"You should learn to stay out of the way," Una stated. The woman quickly rose up and pointed her gun to Kim. Kim moved onto one knee, her fingertips kissed the ground and her eyes narrowed ferociously. "You couldn't possibly understand why I must do this. It's because of bitches like the one in there…poor excuses for mothers."

"You must have a lot of problems." She huffed and blew her hair from her face. In a catlike motion, she kicked forward, striking Una in the ankle. Una let out a scream and was sent falling into the ground beside her. "Think I don't get it? I get it just fine. My mother left us a year ago, and my dad surrounds himself in his archeology work. You don't see me going around killing off someone else's parents."

"The hell you know little girl." Una grabbed one of Kim's pigtails and pulled her down against the ground. She quickly hopped up and dug her heel into Kim's shoulder, growling spitefully. Kim screamed as searing pain shot through her shoulder and into her collarbone. "You think you have it so bad. My parents were abusive, neglectful, and eventually they killed my brother…how could you tell me what I did was so bad? Killing them? The asshole, the bitch, they ruined our lives. Just like the wench in that house!" She pointed her gun to the door and bellowed out a powerful scream. "Just like that wench, abandoning her daughter because Hilda was a 'mistake'. Fuck them, I say!" Kim rolled her eyes and started reaching up to Una's ankle.

"Get…off me!" She clamped her hand around Una's foot and jerked it back, sending Una into the ground once more. Thinking fast, she hopped up to her feet and put her hand over her right shoulder. The minute her hand touched the shoulder, it sent a cringing pain through her. "God that's tender." Instinctively, she began to shrug her shoulders and bounce on her toes, hoping to get the blood flowing and the adrenaline pumping. She watched Una rise up and dust herself off. "So you've got a pretty screwed up childhood. I can understand that. Still, it doesn't mean you need to go around killing people."

"Hilda was my best friend! My best friend!" Una ripped out a primal scream and kicked out to the side. Kim shot to the right, avoiding the kick, then delivered a round kick of her own. The kick connected with Una's side, just below the ribcage. Una screamed out in agony and jumped back, holding her right side and panting heavily. "Do you know…how it feels…to have your best friend put in a coma?"

"No I don't, but I do know how it feels thinking you might never see them again. Either way, Yvonne in there didn't put Hilda in a coma, so I wouldn't complain to her." She leaned on her right foot and brought her fists up level with her face. Her right shoulder blade was still painful, but she suspected it wouldn't be anything worse than a bruise.

"You're going to fight? I have a gun."

"Which you've yet to use…Not that I'm giving you the option…" She wanted to feel something for this woman, she truly did, but it was hard. Una seemed lost, completely blinded through her own personal aggressions, and the possible loss of her best friend. "I'm glad that Hilda's okay, we've been real torn up by that one. Care to explain her? Why's she with the Black Dragons?"

"It's not that she's with them…she was saved by them. Rescued, and we were her family. We loved her, cared about her, and…" Una shook her head and rushed forward, throwing a hard left hook. Kim deflected it with her right palm, pushing Una's wrist back. She then crouched down and slammed a fist into Una's sternum. The woman leapt back, gasping in for air.

"You really need to not do that." She swept her hand along her brow, sweat was pouring down her. The things Una was saying, they didn't make a whole lot of sense. How was Hilda saved by the Black Dragons? "The Black Dragons are trying to kill millions of innocent lives, and you're telling me, they took the time to stop and save one woman?"

Una shot a glare towards her and rolled her eyes. "It was more than that. All of us were 'saved' at one point or another. I'm not going into personal details with someone like you, though. Besides, what are we to you?"

"Oh…I suppose I haven't told you yet…" She actually thought Una might have recognized her at this point, but clearly not. She lowered her voice and stepped forward, locking her feet against the ground. "I'm one of the fighters that derailed those machines that were spitting out those metal devices of yours." Una's eyes grew large and she began trembling.

"Y-You're a part of that group? The same group that put Hilda in that…that coma!" Kim flinched and she gave Una an apologetic look. It didn't seem to reach, as the woman let out a violent cry and charged for her.

Thinking fast, Kim performed a back-flip, dodging Una's hard right fist. When she landed on her fist, she began kicking to hopefully push the woman back some. First a right frontal kick, then a left roundhouse kick, followed by a right side kick. Each kick, Una moved back and threw a palm down to deflect.

Both women were locked in the midst of combat, ignoring the environment around them. Kim knew there was no more room for talking, she just needed to knock Una out, and hopefully they could get more out of her in regards to these dragons.

In the last instant, she saw Una snap the pistol in her direction. Her eyes widened and she quickly kicked Una's arm into the air. The woman screamed and started leaning back with the kick, having thrown the gun into the air. In the last minute, by sheer force of the kick, Kim realized her rival was falling over the railing. Just as the woman fell over, she ran forward and reached down, coming within inches of her.

Her heart raced and she screamed out, watching in despair as Una's body crumpled on the ground below. The gun landed beside her, firing off a shot that appeared to graze her head. "No!" Her body went numb and a chill shot through her. She'd just killed one of the captains. She didn't want to kill her! "You weren't supposed to die! You weren't supposed to fall! Damn it!"

She felt someone's arms around her and quickly turned to see Jack. He positioned his hands on her upper arms and looked into her eyes. His touch stabbed her right shoulder, so she gently reached up and moved it down. "Kim? Are you all right?"

"No Jack, I'm not…I just kicked Una over the edge." She didn't mean to be sarcastic or snarky, but that was how it came out. He appeared hurt only for an instant, then guided her slowly into the house.

"The Italian police are already here. They've been here…Mr. Bodil's gone, Kim. Una suffocated him…they found a pillow over his face." Kim winced and slowly brushed her hand through her hair.

Once in the living room, she saw Yvonne hunched over in her recliner, bawling into her hands. Ciara was in the doorway, having arrived moments before. She rushed over and took her from Jack, hugging her close. "She didn't have anyone," Kim said with a quiet voice. "Una killed her family years ago, she said that to me. She was abused by her parents, and they killed her brother. I think…I think that's why she was so angry here, wanted to take out the parents that abandoned her best friend. She had her own pain…"

"Hilda was really her best friend?" Ciara asked, skeptical, but interested. "You mean to tell me the captains were close?"

"She said they were all like family. Hilda was loved by all of them. We might be foiling their plan to take out all of those celebrities, but…something tells me we're pissing them off for something other than that."

"Is Una alive?"

"I don't…I don't know…" She moved past Ciara and Jack, slowly leaving the house. She walked around the side, stopping before Una's body. She wanted to turn away in sheer disgust, but instead, she fell to her knees and let a tear fall from her face.

Una was indeed crumpled on the ground, blood was pooling beneath her, and a trickle of blood had moved from the corner of the woman's lips. For some reason, she felt a kinship with this woman. Perhaps it was from the bad pasts they'd suffered at the hands of their mothers. Maybe Una was just a more extreme version of her own anger, her own rage. Hell, she'd even been involved in the Black Dragons at one point of time. If it hadn't been for Ty's selfishness against Jack, she'd still be with them.

"I started taking martial arts…because I thought it would control all the anger and hate I had in my life." Jack's shadow fell on her from the corner of the building, but she didn't look over or pay him any mind. Her focus was still on Una's body. "Dad avoided the problems. There was a lot of fighting going on, and mom was violent to both of us. I started training in martial arts to get around that, to protect myself from her. One day she put her hands on me…and I fought back. I hit my own mother."

She clenched her eyes shut and started to weep as her chest began aching. She never liked to be touched, she would attack anyone that dared to come near her when she was emotional, or if they threatened her. She'd been riddled with guilt when she struck her mother that day, punch her mom square in the jaw. Her father had already been pushed to the ground during a cuss-fight with the woman, so she only stood up to defend him.

"Mom slapped me hard against the face and I retaliated, I punched her." She threw her hand to her mouth and started imagining herself in Una's position. Fighting on blind anger and hate. "That day, mom left. For good…I blamed myself so much."

"It wasn't your fault…" She lifted her head at Jack's voice and slowly looked over as he knelt beside her. He put his arm around her shoulders and her defenses started to spike up. She relaxed herself and slowly leaned her head against his shoulder. "You were protecting yourself, Kim. You and your father…I'm sorry about your mom. You shouldn't blame yourself for that."

"Una…reminds me so much of what I could have turned into. Then when I get upset, I worry about turning into my mother."

"That's just it. You didn't. You're not her, you're nothing like her, and you never will be. I would never allow it. Nor would I let you turn into your mom." She smiled as he playfully poked her nose. "You're beautiful, strong, resilient, and…I know you would never let yourself go insane like Una, or like your mom." She wiped he eyes and lifted her gaze into his.

"Don't you tell anyone what you heard though, I don't want any pity parties." He smiled graciously at her and gently kissed her forehead. His kiss warmed her and smoothed over her frayed nerves. She sighed and closed her eyes, letting her heart slow itself.

"It's between me and you. So, what do you say…we let the police clean up the mess here, and then we can go experience some of that 'Italian magic' everyone's been talking about? While we're here, maybe we can find that Coliseum, check out that tower of 'pizza' that Eddie's going on about." His subtle smirk and chipper tone warmed her heart. "Then maybe while we're still in Italy…we can go for one of those gondola rides along the rivers."

She opened her eyes and smiled peacefully, loving the idea of a romantic ride through the city. "Sure Jack, and thank you. I can't think of anyone I'd rather be going through this with…" She reached over and hugged him, letting him hug her as well.

Italy. Truly a mysterious and magical place, Ciara and Phil were onto something. Yet, no matter how much love and romance filled the air of this country, she wouldn't soon forget Una Mave. She was exactly opposite of what Kim ever wanted to be.

Learned a lot here. We will see Kim's mother in a much later chapter, the woman is the true OC, she doesn't belong in either the show or my novels and is only created for this story. Anyway, what did you think of the background info on Una? What did you think of the fight? Looks like Kim got her first true taste of killing the enemy as well.