As Alex stood beside her, Ryūko looked back at what had been her home for all her life. She had accepted his offer of taking her away from her biological father rather quickly, so quickly that he got a tiny bit more pissed off with the doctor. Still, he put aside his anger and helped Ryūko pack what few belongings she had. He went back to Dane and Doctor Matoi who were just finishing their talks. Alex tamped his anger down for three more tense minutes before leaving with Dane in tow. Dane had been curious as to why Alex wanted to leave so quickly, but Alex just responded that he wanted to return to Stilwater and its many vices. There was a bit of truth to that, so he bought it. Alex told Dane to go ahead of him so he could leave behind a small bit of his Biomass to monitor the Doctor. Dane once again bought this reason and proceeded on to the airport without Alex. Alex then went back to the mansion and retrieved Ryūko.

The two were now standing on the road leading out of the mansion's grounds, Ryūko taking her last looks and Alex waiting for her to do so. To his surprise and slight relief, she wasn't entirely emotionally dead towards the place and what it represented. Soon, tears began forming in her eyes much to her trying to hide them. He could already tell she was going to be a stubborn one.

"Hey hey hey…" Alex said as he kneeled down to her. "Quit crying." He uttered bluntly with a playful tap to her forehead. "You don't need to cry anymore, you got me and I'm not going anywhere. So you can just lean on me when you're feeling sad and I'll make it all better." Alex said, and to his continued surprise the girl cried even harder as she grabbed ahold of him. Completely unused to this chain of events, he awkwardly hugged back as he tried to bring up any memories that might help him in this moment. Before he had finished, it had passed and Ryūko let go smiling.

"Come on new dad, let's get going." She said before starting to walk down the path out. This sudden shift left Alex slightly flustered and at a loss for words. The Supreme Alpha of the Blacklight Hive minds had been rendered speechless by a five-year-old girl. He was unbelievably grateful that no one was around to see it.

"Ryūko? Where is that girl…" Isshin Matoi called out as he searched his home for his daughter. He had checked her room and everywhere he knew that she spent her time. He wanted to make sure she was okay and knew that the men that had come before were now welcome in their shared home.

The meeting between the Blacklight beings had been an encouraging one. While they had lacked the personal drive he had in his fight against the Life Fibers, they had a instinctive one as competing Apex beings. There was a bit of worry on Matoi's part in that he might be choosing between one devil or another. Though, if it meant seeing off his heartless bitch of an ex-wife towards burning in hell, he would gladly hand the world over to the living virus.

He had sacrificed so much in his fight against her, and he dearly hoped the last five years had been worth it. He knew that the woman he had fallen in love with was dead the second he watched her coldly press the button to incinerate their second daughter. Their own offspring, disposed of like a dirty petri-dish because she had failed her mother's insane tests to merge her with Life Fibers. But he had saved Ryūko and escaped with her intact. He later found out that his daughter had in fact passed those same tests Ragyo had performed on her. He spent that day in a fit of insane laughter, at the irony of it all, at the blind stupidity of his ex-wife, at everything.

But he knew that he had become a broken man, one made bitter and stubbornly cold. Not a man fit to take care of a child, he had never shown his daughter the love he knew she deserved. He had plans to make up in some small way. Never in a way that would truly make everything even. But he would make sure that Ryūko would never have to live in a world with such evil. It did not matter if she hated him, in fact he welcomed it. He deserved it all and far worse.

"Ryūko! I need to speak with you!" He once again called out, trying his hardest to push down the irritation forming in his mind. He sincerely hoped that she somehow didn't inherit either of her parents' tempers. He soon came upon the kitchen, it was in a state that made him want to gag. Normally he would sustain himself on takeout and whatever his co-conspirators had brought him in some misguided feelings of concern. He was about to move on in his search once he saw she was not here when he saw a note on the table. Isshin saw it was in English, so he knew it had to have been left by his earlier guests. He did recall one of them had left to find food.

Dear Doctor Matoi, I have kidnapped your daughter.

He had to frantically reread the beginning of the note three times before he finally was able to gather his thoughts. This was not what he had been expecting at all, and he was unsure how to feel on this.

Dear Doctor Matoi, I have kidnapped your daughter.

That is right and this is no joke. I found the girl trying to make herself some food on the stove. Your daughter, left unsupervised, had piled up food boxes in order to cook her own meals on an appliance taller than she was. The sight of this was heartbreaking to say the very fucking least. She ended up falling off her tower of junk once she notice I had come into the room, flipping the boiling pot along with her. I reacted like a decent adult and saved her from injury… though we both know that with what she is, it was an unnecessary action. I decided to step up and cook a simple meal for her, and then I asked her that, if she truly wanted, she could come away to live with me. I'm sure it'll be a kick to the balls to hear that she readily said yes. And so I took her… so… handle that as you want.

I leave this place with your daughter knowing that she will be better in my care. She will be plenty safe from her mother, yes I was able to figure that out, and no I feel no inclination to harm Ryūko because of her connection to that cunt. I also understand that you are a fucked up man, damaged by the years of pain from just being near said cunt, but I do have to conceded that I'm sure you enjoyed parts of the union… parts that I may enjoy myself if my plans of breaking her bear fruit. Please take comfort that this will involve massive amounts of pain, humiliation, and many car batteries. But back to me taking your daughter, I can understand though I cannot accept your reasons for neglecting Ryūko, but I'm going to pull the old classic if you truly love her… you'll let me take care of her. It may be cliché, but it is true.

I'm sure you might have some worries over the fact a living super virus, slash hedonistic gangbanging psychopath is a better option than yourself. With all due respect… fuck your worries. I'm a living super virus, slash hedonistic gangbanging psychopath so I don't need to listen to your shit. On a more serious note, know that I undertake this with great care and responsibility. I take the idea of family to heart more than anyone on the goddamn planet. I will never abuse or do wrong by Ryūko. I make that promise on either Ragyo's dead corpse or broken mind, whichever happens first.

I will be sending the paperwork for transfer of guardianship in the mail. I truly hope that you will see that this is for the best and sign Ryūko over to me. Or don't, I can digitally forge your signature easily. Knowing that you honestly support this would be nice. But that's all… just nice… not necessary.

From your Comrade in Arms against spaghetti monsters. Alex Mercer, Zeus, Boss of the Third Street Saints, Supreme Alpha of the Blacklight Hive mind, Badass of all Badass.

Isshin dropped the letter once he had finished reading it. So many conflicting and confusing thoughts raced through his mind. Angry, sadness, relief, guilt, and so many other emotions accompanied those twisting thoughts. He knew so much that had been stated in this letter had been right, that he was a broken man that did not deserve to be in the position of a father, that it was a danger to have Ryūko in the same hemisphere let alone the same country as Ragyo. He wasn't sure how he should feel on this Alex Mercer taking his daughter though.

"Erh… best to accept this…" He said this but the tears forming in his spoke a different feeling. "No need to have her around a broken old man that doesn't even remember to properly feed his own daughter. No… it's better… this way… I will keep my promise to you Ryūko, some day… you won't have to suffer the fact you still live in a world with that monster with your mother's face and name."

Alex sipped his lemonade as he leaned back in his private jet he and Dane were taking back to Stilwater. Ryūko meanwhile was looking out of the nearby window with great interest in the clouds surrounding the jet. Alex grinned at the child's normal reaction to being on her first plane ride.

When he had first showed up at the runway with Ryūko at his side, to say Dane was upset would be putting it as mildly as one possibly could. The corporate Alpha had actually assaulted Alex in full Viral Armor over the fact he had just potentially ruined a highly valuable alliance. Fortunately, Alex was able to finish the fight quickly this time by catching Dane's incoming hammerfist barehanded. Ryūko had watched the whole thing wide eyed and clearly enjoyed it. Fingers quickly clenching around the caught fist, Alex whipped Dane into the air before slamming him into the ground forty-three times. Ryūko had been ushered into the jet after the eighteenth time by Dane's gamma Jamie, much to the child's protests.

Once Alex had finished his display of power and asserted himself once again, the two boarded the jet and began talking about the issue in the onboard conference room. Dane had politely asked what exactly was going through Alex's head. The explanation he received was that his boss had discovered that Isshin Matoi had apparently had a child with Ragyo, and this child was also a Life Fiber hybrid, but far more advanced than the one he had played with on the roof. Alex figured that it would be a good idea to take the girl and use her against the Life Fibers. Dane conceded this as a valid point, but questioned Alex's choice in taking the girl specifically. Alex scoffed at the idea of leaving her with doctor Matoi. Dane questioned if Alex was deciding this on logical or personal reasons. It was at that point Alex pulled rank on Dane and stated that he didn't need to explain his actions to anyone, as that was what being the Supreme Alpha was about.

Alex had then left Dane to think on the last few days and what would be their plan moving forward where Revocs was concerned. Now that they had conformed that Life Fibers were the reason for Revocs' success, they would need to find a way to use that. They couldn't just tell the world about the "Invasion of The Clothing Parasites", it was all too crazy for anyone to believe. Not only that, but the Fibers' psychic nature meant that the Illuminati wouldn't like it if they told people about them. Alex had figured that they were using Life Fibers to condition the populations of Revocs customers to always buy Revocs brands. Unfortunately Ultor couldn't do the same thing with Blacklight. It would require them to infect everyone for that degree of influence. But Alex wasn't in charge of that problem, that was Dane's headache. He was focused on relaxing with a glass of lemonade in one hand and a case of cashews in the other.

Ryūko was still having the time of her life looking out the window. Until the sound of the food cart came around. Then her head snapped back as the smell of the food came to her nose. Alex had to stifle the laugh that was trying to surface at the bit of drool that was hanging off her lip at the amount of food that was next to them.

"As usual I will have everything… though today I will have to skip on the extra dessert." Alex winked to the stewardess and nodded to the five year old next to him. The Infected stewardess slightly frowned in disappointment but followed the Supreme Alpha's orders nonetheless.

"Is all that for us?" Ryūko asked, still in her native Japanese as she had yet to learn English.

"Yup, but first, a challenge…" Alex said before handing the tin of nuts he had been holding to Ryūko. "You must first get at least ten of these nuts into my mouth or I will eat all this food while watch and cry!" He said, overdramatically so as to show that he wasn't actually going to do that. So, in about five minutes later Dane walked in on the two as Ryūko was trying to forcefully shove the whole tin down Alex's mouth as she had yet to get a single nut in by throwing it.

"Yeah… this is going to be a great plan Alex." Dane sighed as he quickly left the main cabin for his own.

Ragyo was going over an assembled report on her newest foe: the Blacklight virus. It had been easy to determine that it was this mutative supervirus that had been released by Avarice when his body rejected her own Life Fibers. So far she had learned that her enemy was not to be underestimated, seeing as it had been responsible for the destruction of New York City. She remembered years back feeling quite saddened to hear of New York's fashion expos being canceled, yet another sin this pestilence had committed.

The intel she had gathered was minimal at best, other than rumors and scattered news reports about the destruction of the major American city there had been little substance to her findings. According to her contacts, this "Blackwatch" was very good at purging all witnesses and leakers on the subject. She also had to remember to avoid these particular pigs in human clothing as not only had they committed several crimes against fashion but they might also prove troublesome through their own lack of humanity. Their willingness to do anything for victory was a threat in and of itself that she would not want to deal with.

But, so long as she avoided the eye of Blackwatch, an easy task since she was not in any way infected, all she had to deal with was Blacklight. She thought about tipping off the special ops group about the continued existence of their prey, but that might bring their attention to her and the Life Fibers. Not only that but she wanted to be the one to tear Blacklight apart piece by piece.

So far all she knew of Blacklight was that it was able of craft beings of power comparable to herself, and that it was capable of creating mass destruction though mutation and infection. Though from the talk between them, Avarice was clearly the more powerful of the two interlopers. The way he had said the fight between her and him didn't count in terms of weakness to other Viral beings was interesting in that it gave her a glimpse into the inner workings of these so called Hives. The strongest rule, did that mean it was run by brutes with no intelligence? Ragyo could only hope so.

But she wondered if Avarice was at the top of these Hives. She had thought so until she obtained a stolen Blackwatch report on a being codenamed "Zeus." Lately she had become quite captivated by this individual, the first success of the Blacklight bioweapon, true name Alex Mercer, a handsome man with a cold scowl that sent shivers down Ragyo's spine. She was currently scanning a projected image of the subject as the doors to her office opened. She knew who it was, and she never once looked away from her object of fascination.

"Lady Ragyo, your daughter has arrived." Hoomaru announced as she escorted Ragyo's daughter, Satsuki over to Ragyo's desk.

"Thank you Hoomaru, please make sure that…" Ragyo was interrupted by the echoing sound of something crawling through the air vents. Satsuki raised an eye at the sound while Ragyo just scowled. For the past month they had found that they had eliminated all but one of those irritating Blacklight Horrors, the survivor eluding every attempt to kill it. Ragyo was at the point of seriously considering sealing the building and gassing the whole place.

"Something wrong mother?" Satsuki asked in her normal monotone, only a slight hint of interest rode the sounds of the emotionless words. Ragyo smiled at the steely composure her daughter maintained, even she had yet to gain access to what lurked under that face of stone.

"Nothing my dear, just a cockroach that keeps coming back." Satsuki showed only the faintest of reaction to the growl of annoyance Ragyo let out. This Horror had been a pain, it had her whole staff on edge. Barely any work was getting done, it made deliberate sounds of terror in the form of bumps in the air vent or bloodcurdling shrieks in the night shifts. Then there was the fact that her staff was dwindling one by one. Nui had tried on four separate occasions to locate the monster but to no success. "But ignoring that, as I was saying… Hoomaru please make sure that the helicopter is ready for departure. Once I finish here I wish to return home with my daughter."

"At once lady Ragyo." Hoomaru bowed before walking off to her assigned task leaving the two Kiryuin women alone.

"So who is that mother?" Satsuki asked as she looked up at the hologram of a man she had never seen before.

"That is Alex Mercer, also known as Zeus. A fitting title I am finding." Ragyo purred as she leaned back in her chair. "A indestructible viral being that was able to kill thousands of well-trained soldiers, monsters born out of madmen's nightmares, and even withstand nuclear fire." Satsuki listened quietly as Ragyo listed of his accomplishments. "Now this being rules a shadow empire composed of corporations and criminal syndicates. Along with his own army of viral monsters, he is truly an amusing man….. despite the poor quality of company he keeps." The image changed from Alex Mercer to a video of Ragyo and Avarice Mercy's fight.

"And this one is the one that insulted you?"

"Yes, a thug and a beast called Avarice Mercy, a pretty name that he should not own." Ragyo reviewed the battle while her daughter watched for the first time. Ragyo also paid attention to the way Satsuki's eyes were scanning the battle with hidden intensity. "These viral beings will be no match for the power that is Covers and the Awakened Life Fibers, and soon, like the pigs in human clothing, they will fall. They will fall even harder for daring to change past what the Life Fibers had planned for humanity."

"And Alex Mercer?"

"Oh don't you worry my dear, I have plans for this being who wears the name of a god."

"Dios mío, she is so cute!" Luz cheered as she picked up the five year old Ryūko who was looking rather annoyed at being fussed over, but at the same time quite happy to have someone pay attention to her in so long. The inner circle of the Saints had been convened to discuss what had happened in Japan, or at least that was what they had been told. But when they had arrived at Alex's villa, they found him making pancakes for Dana and a small girl they had never seen before. Shaundi and Lin had been too shocked to react, mostly by the fact Alex had introduced the girl as his new daughter. Luz passed over that part because Alex had focused on her in the Hive Mind to make things easier. Carlos and Pierce had long learned to expect the unexpected from him, so Alex doing something stupid and crazy didn't provoke much surprise.

"Damn boss… you just had to beat me and Eesh at having kids huh?" Gat joked as he swiped a plate of pancakes from his Alpha. He was perfectly fine with this, if anything it meant that Alex was going to have to commiserate and share the pains of parenthood with the Gat couple, even if he did kinda skip over the baby years.

"Sorry 'bout that, but I just couldn't leave her where she was. Besides, the kid has spunk… a-a-a-a-and now I've turned into the old man…" Alex grumbled privately after feeling ashamed of himself. The two then turned back at the sound of Luz screaming as Ryūko fell back to the ground.

"El pequeño mocoso acaba de morderme!" Luz yelled out as Ryūko scampered behind Alex.

"Yeah she does that, not a big fan of people invading personal space." Alex warned to the rest of them.

"Alright! We need to talk about just what the hell is going on." Lin said as she came to her senses. "Alex… just what happened over in Japan?" She said looking down at the girl hiding behind him and sticking its tongue out at the group.

"Most importantly, since when do you have a kid?" Carlos asked in a much calmer tone than Lin.

"First off, she's not mine." Alex said and while that had been very obvious, the flashes of relief going across Luz, Shandi, and Lin's faces did form, as well as the wave of relief that came over Mileena which he felt in the Hive Mind. "Second, I have taken a liking to her so do consider her my daughter in all but blood." The finality in his words and presence in the Hive Mind made the Virals in the room gulp with fear. Meanwhile Dana at that sighed and stood up from her seat. "You got som… oh no…" Alex grumbled as his sister began pulling him out of the room. Everyone was left in silence as the two siblings left, nobody really knowing what to do at that point. "Okay I get it you want to talk!" Alex shouted as Dana let go once they had reached his bedroom.

"Alex, when you first said that girl was your daughter to the morons downstairs I thought it was trying to be funny. Which it would have been. But what you just said goes beyond a joke." Dana said with her arms crossed and look of complete seriousness on her face.

"Because it isn't. I…"

"Alex!" Dana yelled interrupting him. "I…. I'm getting really concerned about you, I've said this before and meant it but now… I'm getting really scared that something is wrong with you, really wrong. Ever since you lived though that nuke, and I'm not saying that you don't deserve to let loose a bit, but ever since that nuke I've noticed that you've been getting more and more unstable. You eat like it's a Vegas-style buffet for every meal, the amount of booze you've drank could fill a lake, the mountains of drugs you've taken would have made any Colombian kingpin OD by now, and you've become a goddamn manwhore. You're taking everything in life with zero restraint, and now you want to throw a child into that meat grinder!" Alex said nothing, he just let his sister continue. "I honestly can't take any more of this, the only reason I'm not calling child services is one, they are crap, and two because I trust Aisha to bust your balls enough to something of a decent parent to that girl. But I'm done with all this Alex, I'm going to help Shogo in San Francisco a bit and then I'm done with the Saints, Blacklight too. I thought that I might have been getting through to you but I think now I was just trying to be hopeful." Dana said before walking out of the room leaving Alex to think over what had been said.

Everyone watching wanted to go to either of them, but the look on Dana's face said that she needed space from them all and the sheer amount of Not in the mood Alex was giving off in the Hive Mind crushed any thought of that.

"Uh… any idea what might have happened?" Pierce asked as he looked around for an answer.

"No clue, but I think it's best to just let the boss have his time alone." Carlos advised to the others but Gat just laughed from his place at the dining table.

"Might want to say that in Japanese." Gat said as he pointed to the young girl now running up the stairs. "Let her." Gat ordered as they jumped up to stop her.

"In the mood he's in he'll kill her." Carlos said in shock of Gat's orders.

"No, he won't, and besides… this is a good test to see if he was serious about this whole thing." Meanwhile Ryūko was standing at the close of where she heard all the loud screaming. She couldn't understand what was being said but she understood that something had happened and that her new father figure was upset. When her last father got angry the best thing for to do was hide, but in the young girl's mind Alex was the opposite of her previous father and so he needed the opposite action from her.

The second she opened the door a torrent of barbed tendrils crashed into the walls around her, never actually piercing her but close enough that she was truly scared. In the center of the room was a writhing mass of black tendrils and crimson lights. Every now and then there would be a crack in the flowing biomass, and inside was Alex in his Viral form. Ryūko had never seen his other form, she had seen Dane's but Alex's was nothing like that. Whereas Dane's had been sleek and minimal with interlocking plates, Alex's was demonic, barbed and angular. Ryūko wanted nothing more than to run any from the terrifying sight but she stood firm and began walking forward. She knew deep down that something had happened between him and the woman that he had said was his sister this morning. She assumed that it had it be that she was leaving and not coming back, if she had someone she cared about and they left she would be angry too. She continued on, tendrils whipped around her threateningly and one had even cut her cheek as she walked up to the mass of Biomass in the middle of the room. Ryūko reached out to the wall of shifting biomass and to her surprise it opened up. The being inside was still in his Viral form and still not entirely coherent. Alex's mind was a rush of emotions clouding his mental facilities. The more instinctual side of him had taken over much high brain functions. Ryūko continued to move forward, not any fear on her face as she had gotten this far so she knew she had nothing to fear. She walked toward the demonic looking being in the center of the twisting mass of black tendrils, not stopping even once it had started a low growl of warning.

"Hey…" Ryūko started as she moved closer. "Quit crying." She said repeating what he had told her when they had left her home. Even adding the tap to the forehead. "You don't need to cry anymore, you got me and I'm not going anywhere. So you can just lean on me when you're feeling sad and I'll make it all better." She finished with wrapping her arms around his chest, the Viral armor slowly receded toward his back. The tendrils following. Alex's own crying face soon was revealed as he returned the hug.

Author's Notes Yay! we've reached the 200k mark. And now Dana has bailed on Alex, honestly I wasn't planning on doing that until I made this chapter but I felt that Alex needed to go through some kind of shock. And the timing felt good so it could give him and Ryūko a good bonding moment.

And i'm going to sya this for everyone wondering, Ryūko or any other Life Fiber Hybrids will be Evolved or Infected.

Reviews

Helkil - no... I do plan on making a Batman/Prototype crossover with a Alex/Poison Ivy pairing but nothing planned for this fic.

Xenoguyver - thank you and yes... she will be a lot more Badass because she now has king of all badass as her dad

Notsae - Nui doesn't have human parts for Alex to infect, while not as advance as Ragyo or Ryuko, Nui is still a fully formed Hybrid and thus Life Fibers are intertwined with her whole body. As for why Alex let her go... a fuck you to Ragyo and not worth it. But mostly saying that he is confident enough that he can do stuff like that.

IAmPedobear -Thank you and here it is.

Reads too much - He spent a lot of time in a coma where he learned a few things. and yes they are too incompatible. And yes to Shogo

Rmarcano321 - You said okay with Spoilers. And yes it is... but so does Alex kinda

Xalimech - thank you

Dazac - the meaning of the dialog is stated in the following text. I promise that I won't do that much non English in one scene again.