They were back in the large hall where Lee and Jin had sparred. The hall looked very different now. It was spread with prayer flags and red paper charms and half a dozen incense burners. A number of hired musicians in ornate garb sat in two lines facing each other, with a large space between them.

Kazuya stood with his arms folded, looking dubiously at the whole affair. Lee stood next to him with an almost mirrored expression. They weren't speaking to each other since Kazuya had imprisoned Jin in the depths of G-Corp. Even after releasing him, Lee still hadn't spoken a word to his brother. They co-ordinated with one another in silence. They managed this so efficiently that Jin half wished they'd fallen out weeks ago.

Asuka was reading over a wad of pages in the corner. She was dressed in her hakama and full gi top. Jin could see by the way her fingers twitched that she was agitated. Her eyes narrowed and she put her tongue out as she read. Jin had been dragged out of the corridor in chains and vanished for the better part of three days. Asuka wasn't the only one who looked like she'd been shaken by that. Jin glanced back at the thin-lipped expression his uncle was wearing, and the haggard look to his usually pristine features. Kazuya had managed to make firm enemies of both Lee and Asuka. Jin knew they were only here for him, and that their patience had worn thin.

He went over to Asuka and stood near her.

"I'm fine," she said irritably.

"I never said you weren't."

She looked over her papers at him.

"You look terrible," she remarked.

"Thanks."

"You look like you haven't eaten in days."

"I ate this morning." Jin had been ravenous this morning. It had indeed been some time since he'd eaten before that, but he didn't need to worry Asuka and Lee any further. "I'm sorry I worried you," he added, speaking in an undertone so as not to draw the attention of his uncle and father as they finished directing the ritual preparations.

"I wasn't worried, Jin." Her eyes flashed. "I was threatened. He used your safety as a way to make us do everything he asked."

"I know… and I know that can't have been easy but-"

"It wasn't." She wheeled on him. "It sucked, Jin!" She brushed the back of her hand over her eyes. Jin faltered. Asuka looked so young just then. He thought of when he'd been her age, looking up to Heihachi for any comfort and stability, eager to get things right and prove that he was still strong despite the lot life had handed him. How many times had he put on a face that was tough and more confident than the anxious thing he'd been inside?

"I'm sorry," he said. She concentrated hard on the notes in front of her as she collected herself. "I appreciate you being here for me. Thank-you for trying to help me. When I asked you here, I wasn't thinking of your safety. It was selfish of me. I wasn't thinking of how Kazuya might use the situation to his advantage. If I had, I never would have-"

Asuka sniffed and punched his arm lightly.

"You're a super idiot, Jin. Like I'm going to let your goon old man stop me from doing what I can. Kazamas stick together. You gotta help a guy out if you can. We ain't no Mishimas. Now let me memorise this dumb dance or I might accidently turn you into a frog with the wrong magic spell."

"Asuka, that's not how it works, it-"

"Gotcha." She winked at him. Jin felt lighter. He smiled and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Thank-you," he said again. She gave him a more steady smile back, and he was glad to see her eyes were dryer.

Jin looked back to his uncle and father. Lee strode over to the musicians' director. As he did, Jin noticed Kazuya was summoning him with a finger. He had a look in his eye that prompted Jin to scowl. He stalked to his father's side.

"You said you'd let me do this," Jin said before his father could speak, "don't you dare back down on this now. Everything is ready. I need this." He hadn't dared call Kazuya 'father' again after he snapped at him not to in that cell. Even though something had passed between them and Jin felt safer around him, he still had a pool of guilt in his chest over attacking Kazuya when his guard was down. He cringed internally at the idea of letting himself have that term of address when he'd been reprimanded for it.

"This ritual…" Kazuya started. Jin gave him a black stare. Kazuya huffed at his expression. "Don't look at me like that. I've been thinking. And, there's something I didn't tell you before. This ritual… there are things you don't understand about it." Jin's anger built inside him. He'd been half expecting something like this, but he'd hoped for better from Kazuya after the tenderness he'd shown him in that cell. "This ritual," Kazuya continued, and he looked troubled now, "it… it makes you confront the things you've done: the things that you've done that you don't remember: the things you've done whilst you were a devil."

Jin folded his arms and put out his lower lip stubbornly.

"So what?"

"You'll see things you didn't know you'd done. Terrible things. You'll have that weight on you, that guilt."

"I deserve it." Jin blew his fringe out of his face. "I did those things, so I have to remember them and own up to them."

"Don't be idiotic," Kazuya snapped at him. Jin faltered. "They're not your fault if you were completely out of control. Didn't I tell you your devil had an opposing personality to you? These aren't things you both wished for, these are the actions of a monster that seized control of you. You will have memories implanted in you that are not your burden to carry. I know some of the things you'll see… And if you can't hack your guilt complex over what you've done whilst conscious, there's no way you're going to hold up with what you'll see in that ritual."

Jin's arms unfolded. He swallowed. Kazuya's words shook him, but he wasn't about to have a change of heart now.

"I'll-… I'll just have to learn to deal with it," he said, though some of his confidence had left him.

"You won't deal with it. You'll be a different person. This will crush you. That creature has hurt people you care about deeply. It's done things that… things that Kazama Jin doesn't need to carry around on his shoulders." Kazuya looked angry now, frustrated.

"You're just trying to talk me out of this. You're always trying to manipulate me for your own ends! At least I'll be in control of my actions, at least I-" But Jin was going back over their conversations together. That moment Kazuya had told him of reports that his devil counterpart had eaten someone… What if that had really happened? What if it had been multiple people? He glanced towards the lines of musicians tuning their instruments and the attendants checking incense braziers and Asuka practicing steps of a dance from a page she held out before her. The truth felt like a heavy blade hovering just above them. When he took up position between them all, it would come down on his unsuspecting body, severing the last of his innocence from the terrible thing he'd become. Devil would be gone, but the things it had done would stay and stay and stay.

"Let me take this from you." Kazuya's voice was soft. When Jin looked back, his father had taken a step closer. "Let me take away this curse for you. It will be so easy, so simple. And it will save you the pain of this ritual."

Jin's eyes narrowed. So that was where this was headed. He shook his head firmly.

"I told you no! I don't want you to have that full devil inside you! You don't even know what it'll do to you and whether you'll be able to control it! Stop trying to play me and frighten me into give you what you want!"

"I'm not thinking of that-"

"You are! You've been hunting me down for this gene for years! You just can't stand the idea of losing what you care about most!" Jin's voice was raised now, and he could feel eyes on him. He didn't care. He hated the way Kazuya toyed with his desire to be close to him. He hated the way that he stood there looking so calm and collected whilst Jin felt like he was on the verge of tears. He hated the way that every time Kazuya let him feel like he was real family, ulterior motives of power and ambition and control were veiled in his intentions. Jin blinked his eyes quickly. Lee had kept warning him about this. He'd told him time and time again-

Fingertips touched Jin's cheek and brought him out of that avalanche of thought. Kazuya turned his face towards him.

"It's true. I can't stand the idea of losing what I care about most." He said it very quietly.

Tears immediately bloomed in Jin's eyes and started to run silently down his face. They were partly because he'd ached to hear something like that from Kazuya for a long time now, and partly because he couldn't know if these were more empty words just leading him on. He looked at Kazuya and said nothing. A teardrop clung to his chin. Kazuya wiped it off.

"Let me take this from you," he said again. "Let me take it from you and I will…" Kazuya looked over at the ritual preparations. He hesitated. Then he returned his gaze to Jin. "I'll do the ritual myself. You can be rid of it without experiencing those memories or having them haunt you."

Jin shook his head, not trusting himself to speak. His shoulders quivered.

"You don't believe me?" Kazuya gave a small, bitter laugh. "I can hardly blame you. But you're a Kazama. You can know the truth about my emotions if you try."

Jin tried to keep his voice steady.

"I-I can't do that. My mother had that gift, not me."

"You have it. As does your cousin. Each of you a little differently, but it's there. Come. See for yourself."

Jin knew Asuka and Lee would be watching. He knew they were angry with him for the chances he kept giving Kazuya. He knew they felt like he belittled their struggles and took their support for granted. He reached out his hands uncertainly. He paused, waiting for Kazuya's permission to proceed. Kazuya nodded. Jin placed his hands, one on either side of Kazuya's face. His skin was coarse and Jin could feel rough scars under his fingers. He closed his eyes.

Things came to him. Jumbled pictures and scenes. Fragments of memories that slipped to him like half-remembered dreams. An office on a hot summer morning. A much younger Lee Chaolan handing him paperwork anxiously. The serious, stern gaze of Kazama Jun in a functional uniform and the way the heaviness of the room rolled back around her like oil dispersed by water. A luxurious apartment with handsome mirrors and a quilted bed. Jun turning to see him in a floor length gown of pearl blue and a smile so soft it broke down mountains inside him. An overgrown path beneath a tangle of trees and humid heat. Wilting salad leaves in his arms and Jun flashing in and out of sight as she led the way. Her laughter whenever she turned back and glimpsed him stamping uphill with his unusual burden. A brimming filling his chest, like it was so full of love it might burst. A promise settling in his bones that he'd never stop walking that hill, so long as she was one step ahead of him.

Jin drew his hands away. He looked at Kazuya.

"Well?" his father asked. "Can you at least feel that I'm being honest with you?"

Jin wasn't sure what to say. He wasn't sure what Kazuya had been expecting him to feel. But in a way it didn't matter. He'd seen what he needed to anyway. Jin nodded slowly.

"Let me take this from you," Kazuya said again, more gently this time.

Jin nodded.

"What if you're different afterwards though," Jin asked, "and you decide…"

"The last time I decided to be rid of it, I had the full devil gene inside me."

"My mother was there though. And she's a lot stronger than me."

Kazuya gave a huff of a laugh.

"You're twenty-one, aren't you?" Jin nodded in response to that. "When I knew your mother, she was just one year older than you are now. You're a lot like her. The same strong determination. The same irritating tugging at my conscience. But you don't need to keep looking up to people, Jin. You don't need to look for her, or to try and find her replacement in others. You're strong. It wasn't Kazama Jun that brought me to this decision this time. It was you. It was my son. Don't dismiss your influence so lightly."

Kazuya turned away from him and surveyed the hall with a practical eye, already moving on to logistical arrangements.

"That doesn't mean we shouldn't attempt to be somewhat swift in getting the ritual underway as soon as I've taken your gene from you," Kazuya added.

Jin watched him, still not quite believing this was really happening. He tried to keep a lid on all the insecurities that Kazuya's words touched on: hearing praise from him, hearing him call him son, hearing him compare him to his mother… Jin was already so far in that he knew he couldn't say no even if he thought he ought to. He was caught up in dreams of waking up in safety after he'd been afraid, with the feel of silk under his cheek and strong arms keeping out the world. He wanted to trust and never let go. He wanted to have what he'd had for a few brief moments in that cell.

"When I let you take my gene – I won't be able to hold you to your promise. No one will. You'll be unstoppable…"

"Are you forgetting that I'm the one man on earth who shares a body with a demon and subdues it to my will? I am many things, but I've never seen the need for duplicity. Heihachi was always the one who liked to present himself as magnanimous whilst double dealing behind everyone's backs. I've never shied away from what I am. I've done terrible things. And I've made terrible promises. Promises of revenge. Promises to get back everything that was taken from me. But I've never broken a promise." Kazuya gave a smirk. "Ask Chaolan."

"You'll really give it all up? Just so that I don't have to experience the things my devil has done?"

Kazuya turned back to him. Jin could see things in his eyes: a wrestling, a struggle, a fight in so many directions, but also a calm certainty.

"The things we remember haunt us. They turn us into people we never really intended to be. They set intentions inside us that will drive us for the rest of our lives. I wanted Heihachi to suffer as I did. I never planned for anyone else to suffer too. It just got away from me. And the more it happened the less it mattered. I never wanted this for you."

Jin couldn't form any words in response to that. Instead he just looked at Kazuya dumbly.

"We should be quick," Kazuya said, breaking the moment for him. "Before Chaolan comes over and hears what we intend to do." Jin nodded. "Come here."

Jin stepped closer. "Tell me what to do."

"Relax. Just be you. Be calm. And trust me." Kazuya lifted his chin up with a finger and Jin's eyes fluttered shut. Then he felt Kazuya's other hand cover over the tattoo on his bicep.

Jin felt that tug again, like he had on the helipad that night. Ropes untethered inside him, and he felt them running through his fingers like kite strings. Something shifted in him. Racing clouds on a windy day skated far above him. Shadows were tugged out of their corners and laid bar beneath a blue sky.

"That's it," Kazuya said. His voice was gentle and comforting. Jin let it take him far away. "Let me take it all away. You've suffered enough."

Jin's composure began to wilt. He could feel something rushing out of him now, like ink squeezed from a sponge, like clods of earth beneath him becoming a landslide, like gates opening that had stopped up a river for years. Kazuya's other arm caught him and held him upright.

A voice sounded far away – his uncle, concerned.

The rush had subsided now and was more like a thread being drawn out of him, unravelling something tightly sewn together, until the last parts of him started to simply fall apart. Scattered iron filings throughout his soul dragged themselves to the hand on his arm pulling poison out of his very veins.

"Kazuya! What are you-…?" Lee sounded so far away.

In Jin's mind, places that had been night for as long has he could remember were parting clouds and becoming bright sunshine. He could see the sky. He could smell the air. He could taste fresh scents on a cool breeze. He could feel warmth. He could feel whole. He felt so much lighter than he could ever remember. The relief filling him was so enormous that he immediately felt tears begin to roll down his cheeks again.

"Am I hurting you?" Kazuya murmured.

Jin shook his head.

"Kazuya!" Lee sounded furious. Jin could hear him running across the hall.

Kazuya gripped him harder and Jin felt that last trailing thread wisp from his mind like the memory of rainclouds passing over the horizon. Kazuya released him.

They both stumbled back.

"What have you done!?" Lee shouted.

"I'm alright, Uncle," Jin said blearily. His eyes opened. He was on his knees. The hall was vague and blurred. But bright. So bright. The breath that hit his lungs was like chill winter on mountain tops. Jin watched with some confusion as his uncle moved straight passed him and went to Kazuya.

Lee put his arms around Kazuya, steadying him as his head tossed back, lips twitching and eyes rolling up to show their whites.

"Kaz…!" Lee clasped his hand as he helped Kazuya sink to the ground. "I told you this was too dangerous, I told you-…"

Jin looked down at his arm. His hated devil tattoo was gone. Then he looked at his uncle and father. He felt clear and clean for the first time in years. But the deep roots of guilt reached up, as they always had, to choke him.

"He said… he said it would be fine!" Jin got up unsteadily and took a step towards them. He wanted to check on Kazuya, but the protective way Lee was curled around his brother made Jin rethink. "He said he would do the ritual in my place! He said…-"

Lee shot him a black look, then returned his attention to Kazuya.

"Kaz…" Lee said again, and brushed a stray hair from his face like the way he did for Jin. "Talk to me."

Kazuya's eyes fell shut. Jin saw Lee's hand tighten on his brother's as he cradled him in his lap. Lee swallowed and Jin noticed that his uncle barely matched his immaculate suit and brilliantly combed hair. His eyes were haunted and his face was shadowed with the past and a thousand experiences that Jin could not start to imagine. There was a weariness in his shoulders and Jin wondered how he'd ever managed to miss the weight of that burden pressing on his uncle.

Kazuya stirred in Lee's arms. His brown skin was a map of scars under the pale overhead lighting. His eyes flickered open.

They were both red.

Author Note: Couple of Zen Gardens of the Heart refs in here :) And hopefully you're all not sure whether to hug Jin or slap him for all the trust he keeps giving Kaz. Lee and Asuka are definitely on the slap him side. Two more chapters left of this story. Thank you for all comments from reviewers old and new! I'm really enjoying all your comments and your collective anger and care for Jin. And the surprising number of you who feel for Kaz. I think that's my fault because I love the guy. That's fine though, you can both love and hate an asshole all at once 3