Kara's apartment, Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, three days later
"Hmmm...this is odd," Kara remarked as she checked Juri's slash wounds. The street fighter had shown incredible recuperative powers over the last few days. The slashes had long since stopped bleeding and were closing. Even the swelling around the street fighter's eye and side were almost gone, though there were still signs of bruising. The nurse knew she had provided very good care, but Juri shouldn't have been this far along with her recovery. If Kara hadn't seen it with her own eyes, she wouldn't have believed it. Why were the street fighter's wounds healing so fast? When the nurse inquired about it, the answer shocked her.
"Probably has something to do with my ki," Juri replied. Kara started checking around the street fighter but didn't go so far as to touch her. The street fighter raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing?"
"You said something about a key," the nurse answered. Juri stared at Kara with tightened eyes and leaned her head back into the headrest, exhaling heavily. "Is it some sort of healing device?"
"Not a key, dumbass...ki," the street fighter responded, shaking her head. "As in life force. Energy. Everyone has it...some more than others."
Kara shot an angry look at Juri before relenting, chewing her lower lip. Then, the nurse's eyes bugged as she had an epiphany.
"Wait a second, you're telling me that you can heal yourself faster than normal?" she asked incredulously. "Can it help in other ways, like combat?"
"Are you joking?" the street fighter countered. "Of course it can."
"So, when you were fighting that gang the other night," Kara inquired, her voice rising with excitement. "Your eye...glowed, or flashed, or...whatever. All I know is that when your eye did that thing, you were moving crazy fast! That was the ki working, right? I mean, it was amazing! Well, it was pretty freaky, but incredible at the same time!"
"Something like that, yeah," Juri replied, slowly nodding.
"Why isn't this common knowledge?" Kara wondered aloud. "I would think that this would be broadcast all over the place. I mean, cutting down healing time from a few weeks or even months to just a few days...that's incredible."
"Uh...there are disciplines to master before you can do it," Juri explained. "Most people don't or can't stay that focused."
"Is it...could I...Is there any way for me to learn that...what you do with your eye?" Kara asked.
The street fighter frowned.
'Sure sweetie, just let me gouge one of them out first...' Juri thought, inwardly cringing. It was an innocent question, but it still hit too close to home for the street fighter. A brief flicker of anger welled up at the recollection of losing her left eye. She bitterly shoved the memory back down. Kara noticed that Juri's hands balled into fists for a moment before relaxing.
"I doubt it," the street fighter finally answered and quickly changed the subject. "But since I'm healing up fast, you won't have to worry about me being here more than a couple more days or so."
Kara's shoulders slumped as she looked down at the floor. Despite her efforts to understand Juri more over the past few days, she continued to run into a proverbial brick wall.
"Yeah, I guess you're right," she finally said. A puzzled expression formed on Juri's face. Kara's dejected response was the last thing she expected.
"Why the hell are you looking so glum?" the street fighter asked. "I figured you'd be happy that I'll be out of your hair soon."
"Well, I was just thinking about what Menat said," Kara replied, shrugging. Juri let out a groan.
"Oh, give it a rest, will you?" she moaned, dropping into the comfy chair. "It's always about that fortune cookie! You talked to her for what, all of ten, maybe 15 minutes? I've known her for a few years. She's been wrong before. The way you're acting, you'd think she was a freaking oracle!"
"I just don't know," Kara persisted, throwing her hands up. "Maybe you're used to all of this weird stuff happening. I mean, between seeing you with your super speed, Menat's floating crystal ball and her teleporting. Not to mention someone who can shred bikes with just a swipe of a freaking hand claw! This is a first for me."
"Yeah, well, maybe I am used to it," the street fighter shot back. "So what? Why do you even care?"
"Juri, whether I like it or not, I've been thrown into this mess," Kara explained, her temper sparking. "I just want to know more about what I'm getting into and I keep getting the cold shoulder every time I ask you about it."
"That's because you keep prying into my damn life," the street fighter hissed, springing out of the chair and closed rapidly with the nurse. "And I don't like it!"
Kara took a step back and flinched. Juri stopped just in front of her, fists clenched. Her chest rose and fell heavily. The street fighter just stared into the trembling nurse's wide eyes.
'Oh shit, I've done it this time,' Kara thought. She looked down at her feet to avoid Juri's piercing gaze. However, the street fighter brought her hand to the nurse's chin, gripped it gently but firmly and pushed up, so that Kara was looking straight at Juri again. The street fighter's other hand was resting on her own hip.
Despite her irritation with the nurse's frequent questioning over the last few days, Juri was surprised that she didn't feel a desire to kick Kara through the wall. Whatever the case, enough was enough!
"Ok sweetie, let's try this again," Juri said quietly. "Why is it so important that you know more about me?"
"Because...because, I barely know anything about you!" Kara blurted. Her hands remained at her sides in an effort not to provoke the street fighter any further. "I know you think I'm really stupid for believing in Menat, but I just...that's not the answer you wanted to hear, but it's the truth! This whole thing scares the shit out of me! I don't feel like I have any control of the situation at all. Whatever is going to happen though, I think we're supposed to stick together. You know, a team."
Juri's eyes widened and her head pulled back. She leaned it towards Kara again and squinted, realizing that the nurse was dead serious. Then the street fighter snorted and started to giggle, removing her hand from the nurse's chin. The giggling turned into full on laughter. Her side started to hurt again, but she didn't care. So, this was what the nurse's despondence was all about? Not being able to tag along with her. It was unbelievable!
"Stick by me?!" Juri inquired as her laughing subsided a bit. "Oh shit, what are we supposed to be... what was that American historical couple...Bonnie and Clyde? Are you freaking serious?"
The street fighter threw back her head and started to roar with laughter again. Kara simply stood there, her face suddenly getting hot.
"Wow, and I thought Chun Li had some screwy ideas," Juri continued, her hand now holding her side as she started to cough. The laughing stopped as the street fighter squeezed her eyes shut and grimaced. The nurse stepped forward and helped Juri back into the comfy chair.
"Damn, that hurt," the street fighter admitted as the coughing subsided. Kara backed away, blinking back tears.
"Wow, you're such a bitch," she said, staring daggers. "All I did was explain how I really felt, offer my help and you shit on me for it. Was that really so hilarious?"
"Oh, come on, how was I supposed to react?" Juri replied. "Let's get one thing straight. The last thing I need right now is to babysit someone. You'd just get in the way. How many fights have you been in before? Real fights, I mean. Look, I appreciate you taking me in and all, but I work alone."
"You know, you could teach me," Kara answered quietly. "Then you wouldn't have to...babysit me."
"Right," the street fighter said, rolling her eyes. "Do you have any idea how long it would take to train someone who's never fought before? We're talking passable, not even good."
Kara didn't respond, but instead turned and went down the hallway. Juri was perplexed. Where was she going? The nurse returned a couple of minutes later with a large knife. The street fighter eyed the weapon warily. Had Kara gone off the deep end? But the nurse didn't move to attack. The street fighter looked closer at the blade.
"Why does that look familiar?" Juri asked, raising an eyebrow. "Wait a second, is that the kukri knife that asshole had the other night? So, you wanted a souvenir to remember us by?"
"Uh no, I took it because someone, not naming names, decided to just take off and leave me alone on the side of the road in the dark," Kara fired back. "I needed something to defend myself with in case someone else wandered by. I could use this to fight too."
Juri glanced at the knife and then to Kara before rubbing her forehead. Well, at least she knew that the nurse wasn't going to knife her.
"First of all, do you even know how to wield that thing?" the street fighter asked doubtfully. "You're more likely to cut yourself than do anything to an opponent. Secondly, who else was going to stop by after I took care of the gang? Other than Menat, I mean. You were in the clear."
"I didn't know that at the time," Kara said faltering a bit as she continued. "And I've...watched a few kukri knife videos on Footube over the past couple of days..."
Juri started laughing again, though not as hard as before. Oh, for crying out loud, this was getting absurd. Why was she even having this argument?
"Wow, this just keeps getting better," she said, covering her face with her hands. After a moment, she removed her hands and laid them on the armrests. "Sweetie, do you have any idea of the skill it takes to use one of those? The idiot who carried that before was reasonably skilled and look how he turned out. It takes more than a few short videos on Footube to master that knife!"
Kara's face hung downwards, bright red from the embarrassment and anger. Although she was getting pissed at Juri's dismissive treatment of her, she couldn't deny the street fighter's reasoning.
"You have no idea what you'd be getting yourself into," Juri continued, exasperated at the nurse's persistence. "You got really lucky the other night with that pepper spray and now you think you're ready to go? It doesn't work like that, sweetie. You caught those two jackasses off guard. If you met them again, they'd destroy you. Sure, I'm a bitch, but believe me, I'm doing you a favor by telling you this."
"I would appreciate it if you stopped calling me sweetie," Kara said, fixing the street fighter with an icy stare.
Juri didn't respond. Instead, she leaned back into the chair and closed her eyes. Weariness started to creep into her body. The street fighter really didn't need this argument right now.
When the nurse realized that a response wasn't forthcoming, she turned and wandered over to the sliding glass window, staring out at the apartments just beyond her backyard. She noted that the morning sunshine had been replaced with grey skies.
'A fitting image,' Kara thought, her chances of convincing Juri were disappearing like the sunshine outside. The street fighter had remained tight-lipped about her life throughout her convalescence, although she never shown signs of outright hostility. Well, until today, that is and even then, her outburst was relatively mild. The nurse was fully aware of Juri's capabilities even in her still injured state. She had no doubt that the street fighter could lay her flat even now.
An irritating itch caught Kara's attention and she looked at her hands. The angry redness was gone and the scrapes were already scabbed over. It was a relief since it meant there was no serious infection. The physical injuries were healing well enough, but the emotional scars remained.
The nurse couldn't recall having any sleeping issues during that first night on the couch, probably due to exhaustion. After that, Kara had gone back to resting in her own bed, though the door remained open in case Juri needed something. However, the more comfortable bed failed to make sleep easier. During the last few nights, the nurse woke up from several nightmares in a cold sweat, her breathing shallow and rapid. The first night was of the gang leader raising the tire iron to strike her; Juri had failed to show up. Kara woke up right before the lug wrench connected with her skull.
In the second night's dream she remembered not being able to save Juri. The nurse couldn't squeeze the button on the pepper spray canister. The masked one called Vega reached in and speared her with his hand claw, pinning her to the car seat. She woke up with a startled cry, shaking and clutching the spot where he stabbed her. At that point, Kara wasn't sure if she could ever sleep again.
Despite her misgivings, she found herself closing her eyes as soon as her head hit the pillow the following evening. This dream was the strangest of all because it had nothing to do with the events that Kara shared with Juri. She returned to the roadside where the gang had trapped her. However, a broad-shouldered grinning man dressed in a maroon military uniform was present instead, his arms crossed over his chest. He floated perhaps a foot or so off the ground, enveloped in a purple glow. He said nothing to her, but stared with white, pupil less eyes. Kara couldn't understand why, but his presence absolutely terrified her.
He moved closer with a deep chuckle and reached for her trembling body, the maniacal grin broadening. His head and hand increased in size as he reached for her. The nurse was frozen in place, but it wasn't just fear that held her. Something was anchoring her to that spot! The hand and arm drew closer and his mouth opened. Kara cringed and screamed in response as she realized that he intended to grab and then devour her. She couldn't escape! The outsized hand closed around the nurse, squeezing her until she couldn't breathe. Kara could feel the pressure on her ribs as she was drawn into the widening maw. The hideous chuckling grew louder. Just as the man was about to claim her, Kara was yanked out of his grasp and backwards by an unseen force.
That was when she woke up, her heart pounding, the chuckle slowly fading away. Was it her imagination hearing that horrible sound briefly echo through the bedroom?! Kara wasn't sure if she had screamed upon awakening, but tears ran down both her cheeks. The nurse choked back a sob. Her ribs still ached from the grip, but she didn't think they were fractured. And why were they even hurting? How the hell did that dream become so vivid? It took several minutes for her racing heart to subside. Needless to say, she couldn't sleep for the rest of the night.
Kara considered telling Juri about the nightmare but elected against it. It was too nonsensical. She wasn't sure herself what it meant. If the street fighter had a good laugh about the nurse wanting to partner up, what would she think of this?
'Yeah, I can imagine how that would go down,' Kara thought bitterly. 'Hey Juri, a weird, scary glowing man tried to abduct and eat me in my dream last night. Does that mean anything to you?'
So, in the end, the nurse kept her mouth shut, but wondered when she would stop having these nightmares. Probably never, she supposed. It wouldn't hurt to ask a general question though, would it?
"Does it get any easier?" Kara asked, still staring out the window.
Juri opened her eyes and furrowed her brows.
"Does what get any easier?" she replied with a hint of irritation. "I have no idea what you're talking about, sweetie."
"I've had nightmares the last few nights," Kara announced, looking heavenward up to the skies. "Sorry, my question was a bit vague."
Juri turned her head and studied Kara, who remained with her back to the street fighter. Was it easier? She couldn't remember the last time she had a truly awful one. Of course, the terrors she had witnessed while awake made her nightmares seem trivial by comparison. The street fighter heard Kara cry out last night but forced herself to ignore it.
"I don't know," Juri finally said, shrugging. "Don't really get them often myself."
Kara turned to face the street fighter.
"You don't generally get nightmares in your line of work?" the nurse asked with a doubtful tone. "Lucky you, I guess."
Juri's face flushed and her jaw clenched. She wasn't sure if Kara's last comment was sincere or snark.
"Yeah, I guess it is," the street fighter insisted, eyeing her carefully.
Another conversational brick wall. The nurse decided to do something more productive than continue the fruitless discussion. She needed to get things done before dinner and the afternoon was mostly over.
"Ok," Kara conceded, shaking her head. "Look, I'm gonna take a shower. Just yell if you have a problem, ok?"
"Sure, fine, whatever," the street fighter responded, her eyes following the nurse as the latter stalked down the hallway.
Juri's anger faded, but she still watched Kara's retreating form before closing her eyes. She suddenly felt very tired, as the creeping weariness grew stronger. The idleness of the convalescence was driving her crazy.
The street fighter had spent the last three days mostly just eating and sleeping. She acknowledged the necessity of rest, but it didn't make her feel any better. She needed to stay active, not sit around like a freaking couch potato!
"Dammit, I can't even do my daily basic exercise routine," Juri fumed to herself. She was starting to feel bloated and restless while remaining tired all the time. It was more than that, however. The street fighter, above all, just wanted to fight, strike back at those who hurt her and make them pay. Like the gangs who caused her delays the other night, she needed something to unleash her anger on. However, the only person currently around that she could vent her frustrations on was a nurse who had admittedly bent over backwards to help her. The nurse had fed her, checked and dressed her wounds, and provided an essential safe haven throughout the recovery. Juri was grateful for the assistance Kara had given over the last few days. She was just unsure how to express it. It certainly didn't involve turning the nurse into a kicking bag.
She still couldn't fathom the notion that Kara truly wanted to go with her. The very idea was both stupid and laughable. The pool of potential candidates that Juri considered useful partners could be counted on one hand. Of course, there was the question of reliability. Some of those "comrades" might easily backstab her. She worked better alone...well apart from the snafu a few nights previous.
'Sweet kid, but Shadaloo would chew her up and crap out the parts,' she thought ruefully. 'How much use could she be in a fight? I mean, even if she could be taught...Hell, why am I even entertaining this idea?'
Juri knew the answer, even though she was less than thrilled with it. The street fighter, despite her better judgment, had taken a liking to Kara over the last few days. The nurse clearly was more than competent at healing and she wasn't stupid. Juri couldn't remember the last time she had spent more than a few hours around someone, much less a few days that didn't involve fighting or sex (and often it was the same thing to her!). It was so strange to have a person around to just talk about mundane stuff.
Juri would never breathe an admission of this to anyone, but the outcome at the hotel frightened her. It was the closest that she had come to dying since Bison tore out her original bionic eye a couple of years earlier. It wasn't the idea of death itself that bothered her. No one was exempt from that, not even Juri. But the timing really sucked. There was so much which the street fighter needed to do! She was so close to regaining her original power and abilities. To fall before even having a chance to replace, much less use this "new" artificial eye...that scared her.
There was another aspect of Kara that the street fighter had to consider: her level of ki energy. It shouldn't have been as high as it was, given her lack of martial arts abilities. It was nowhere near as great as her own or other elite fighters that she knew. Granted, Kara was in good health and physical shape, but it certainly shouldn't have been greater than those gang members Juri faced the other night. The potential certainly was there, though. If the nurse could be molded into the type of combatant Juri needed...
In time, it was possible that the nurse could become a competent fighter. Perhaps on the level of that preening jackass, Dan Hibiki. She giggled as a mental image of Kara knocking out that insufferable prick formed in her mind.
'It's not like I'd be the first to teach someone,' Juri thought. 'Ken Masters has...haha, Sean Matsuda. Good luck with that one, Kenny. Chun Li is teaching her daughter martial arts. How adorable. Damn, China doll, why did you have to go and adopt her?'
Perhaps a trusted partner could be useful. Whatever the lack of fighting ability the nurse had, there was no question of her willingness to learn. Of course, it could also be the ibuprofen talking. It would be better to revisit this when the street fighter had the painkillers flushed from her system. There was plenty of time to think more on it later. In the meantime...
A gentle pitter-patter on the sliding glass doors caught Juri's attention. She stood up and wandered over. Water trails ran down the window as rain started to hit. The sky was a dark grey as the rainstorm intensified, the raindrops pelting the concrete surface of the patio. The sound further relaxed the street fighter. She always enjoyed watching a rainstorm. The street fighter continued to watch for several more minutes before a wide yawn escaped her lips. The recovery had made her sleepy at various times during the day. Juri decided to give in to her body's demands and went back to the chair. It wasn't long before she fell asleep, the sound of the rain growing more distant until it faded into silence.
After drifting through a well of inky darkness, Juri found herself walking down a well-lit hallway. The street fighter didn't need to wonder where she was, the place was well known to her. However, she didn't understand why she would dream of this now. Unlike the usual warped dimensions that typically frequented hers, the imagery surrounding Juri was crisp and clean, like a photograph. Dread welled up in the street fighter as she stopped and looked around.
She was no longer wearing the t-shirt and gym shorts that Kara had given her to replace the bathrobe. Instead, Juri wore a nondescript grayish blue outfit and black sneakers, a thick metal chain linked to cuffs clamped around her ankles. The corridor was punctuated with closed steel doors on both sides.
Juri was somehow forced to start walking again despite her attempts to halt. The street fighter no longer controlled her limbs as she marched onward, passing several sentries guarding more of the steel doors. Apparently, her captors thought she was still a danger even with all of those precautions hobbling her. A rage started to build within Juri. She'd show them just how much of a threat she could be.
The street fighter knew where she was headed and frantically tried to regain control of her legs but was unable to do so. Due to her photographic memory, there should have been two other guards herding her along the hallway, but they were nowhere to be found. Instead, an unseen force pushed Juri into an awkward gait down several more passages until she finally reached a larger rectangular steel door. Whoever...whatever was controlling the street fighter's movements compelled her to enter.
At this point, she was able to fight back, somehow regaining command of her body and stopped just short of the door. The pressure within her to enter the room intensified and Juri was barely able to resist it. Her eyes were clenched shut as she focused on fighting back as the invisible force wall threatened to crush her against the closed door.
"I...will...not...enter," she hissed with labored breaths, a trickle of sweat running down her forehead. She knew what lay beyond the doorway. Pain...terrible pain. And death. Yes, plenty of that. There was an abundance of both in this place. The pressure dissolved abruptly. Juri scrambled to regain her balance after pushing back against the unseen force. Then she heard muffled voices behind the door; one barking orders, others pleading. Juri closed her eyes and emotionally braced herself. Although she couldn't make the voices out, she didn't need to. She already knew what would happen next.
From within, Juri heard cries of despair, a pair of gunshots and an anguished scream. She didn't need to understand what was going on. She was reliving her worst nightmare. Tears ran down both cheeks as the street fighter sank to her knees, head bowed down. Wait, both cheeks? How was that possible? Her hand brushed her left cheek and sure enough, it was wet. So many years had passed since she had been able to feel tears on that side of her face. It was a bittersweet memory for Juri. Bitter in the sense that her entire world crumbled at this location in the distant past. Sweet because not only did it enrage the street fighter, but it also gave her focus for that hate. No matter how long it took, Juri would find a way to destroy Shadaloo. But the question was, why was she dreaming of this so clearly, of all times?
As the street fighter struggled to understand why she was revisiting this part of her past, her right eye caught a flash of purple glow just outside her direct vision. Juri ignored it and closed her eyes, continuing to sob with helplessness and rage. She suddenly felt very useless, an ominous dread taking hold of her. The street fighter simply wasn't strong enough to halt what had happened. What could someone like herself do to stop them? They were simply too powerful.
'Hold on, that's not right,' she thought. She shook her head furiously in an attempt to clear the fear that threatened to overtake her. 'I am strong enough. I'm no longer that girl! What the hell is going on?'
A throaty chuckle caught her attention and the street fighter's head swiveled in the sound's direction. Juri's eyes bulged before they turned into slits as she froze and a tightness gripped her stomach.
The glowing man, donned in his infamous red military uniform, floated above the ground just beyond her reach. The cold, pure-white eyes belied the broad, toothy grin on his face. It was the street fighter's mortal enemy. There were many people that Juri disliked, but this one...this one she loathed. She wiped her eyes and a white-hot rage filled her.
"So, are you surprised to see me after all this time?" the leader of the Shadaloo terror organization asked.