One Thing

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: And hello there my wonderfully patient readers! I am happy to announce that this story is back... and it's going to be done in 4 chapters! That's right, this story is going to be finished soon! How cool is that? I'm hoping to keep posting all the way until it's done, which means for the next four weeks we should have steady updates! Anyway, i hope you like this update, it's a blast from the past, we're getting another "past" chapter next week as well, and then we get into the fun stuff! Hope to see you wonderful readers soon!

Chapter 31

Four years ago

Wo Fat had been minding his own business, sitting in his office, looking over the payments he had received that month.

He was simply making sure that all balanced, and he could underline in red the people who owed him. Specifically who had missed their payments and needed incentive to start paying him on time.

He was taking a break from his travel companion today. He said he was doing it for his own sanity but that was far from the truth. The fact of the matter was he didn't get things done around her, she distracted him altogether too much.

But being away from her was also a distraction. Now he was worried about whether or not she was alright out in the big city of Paris by herself.

Not that she had really gone all that far.

She was simply going to Versailles.

He had been worried about her going by herself, only because, up until that day, he had been accompanying to her all her tourist destinations. She had spent three days going through the Louvre because she wanted to see everything and she couldn't do it in one trip. They had then spent three days at Euro Disney land for the same reason. One of those days she was dressed as Ariel.

That was a Disney princess mermaid girl. Ro had the red hair to match and apparently that made Ariel her favourite princess.

Wo had felt rather out of his element in both of those places, but Rowan had been beaming and that had made him feel good. To be part of something that seemed to make her so happy.

He wasn't sure why he cared, or why it mattered, he just always wanted her to be happy. And he had taken that on as one of his responsibilities.

She was with him, it was his job to make sure she was mostly happy. No matter what.

He took that responsibility with the same seriousness he dedicated to his work.

The problem was that the responsibility of keeping her safe and happy was a full time job and it cut into him doing his own work. His empire had started to slip out of his fingers, money wasn't coming in as quickly. Pieces of his routes fell out of his hands when he wasn't looking and he hadn't gone after getting revenge for those act treachery in a timely fashion.

He had since then gotten all he had lost back in a spectacularly bloody fashion and had made an example of the ones who had tried to take him on. But even with all of that done there was still so much he needed to do to catch up. He had told her this and thought that she'd be mad. But no. She was fine with it.

She encouraged it actually.

Maybe a little too enthusiastically.

He had been taking her to parties and knew that a few of his business partners were interested in her. And why wouldn't they be? Put Ro in a beautiful gown and she looked flawless.

The fact that she kept telling him that she was unlucky in love didn't make sense to him. She was pretty, she was nice. She was a decent human being most of the time. Who wouldn't be interested in her?

Well he wasn't, but she was altogether too young for him.

She had endeared herself to him though. And that in itself was a feat.

She liked to say that he was like her older brother, looking out for her and being over protective of her and all of that. Except he was a better brother than her real brother.

That was distressing to hear. Both that she thought of him like a brother and the fact that he was doing a better job at being her brother then he real brother. He was a sociopath. How the hell did he manage to be a good sibling to her? He wasn't even trying to be a brother to her.

Maybe it was because he kept chasing away her dates.

But he had to! Every man she was interested in was either a cop trying to arrest him or a criminal he couldn't trust her with.

And frankly none of them were good enough for her.

That wasn't brotherly behaviour though… was it?

What would he know about being a sibling? He had never had one before. But the more she teased him about it, the more he started to figure that she might be right. Maybe he was acting like a big brother.

But no matter how much he wanted to stop, he couldn't. Which was how he ended up being this situation in the first place.

So today he was working and she was off in Versailles. She had promised hourly updates and to show him all the pictures she took on the fancy camera he had bought her when they started the whole touristing thing.

And for the first little bit she had followed through on that, then she just stopped. He hadn't heard from her in five hours and well… that was normal for her. She often lost her phone. She had a habit of putting it down and walking away from it. Normally he'd find it and put it his pocket and wait for her to notice it was missing. She always would, but she would never tell him this, she would simply call the phone and he'd pick it up and she'd chide him for not telling her he had it.

If she had done it today, however, that phone was just gone. She wasn't with someone who would notice and pick up her wayward phone. Which meant she would most likely have to call him from the hotel to give him the updates he wanted. Though he figured that one would be: "Kay, I lost my phone but I'm safe at the hotel now."

She did call.

After almost six hours of no contact she called him from the very phone he was certain she lost.

He picked up on the second ring.

"Hey. Did you lose your phone again and go back to get it? I can't come pick you up today so you better not need a ride."

"No, she doesn't need a ride."

That wasn't Rowan's voice.

That voice was male, and very French.

Wo Fat was on the defensive immediately.

"Who is this?"

"Oh you know who this is."

Except he didn't. Because if he did, he wouldn't be asking who this was.

He could reasonably guess a few things though. Starting with, if this person was calling from Rowan's phone, she was in trouble. He was going with hostage situation at the moment, though he'd prefer a medical situation. Like: "She's in this hospital, come pick her up."

He wasn't going to get lucky though.

"Alright. I know who this is. Why don't you tell me what you want?"

"I want the money you owe me."

Oh.

He knew who it was.

It was Ares.

Ares was an art thief. Or that was his specialty. He and Wo Fat had teamed up to steal an artefact from a well-known crime boss in Paris. He had wanted Wo Fat's help because that particular Crime Boss, Rouxel, was terrified of Wo Fat and wouldn't retaliate if he knew Wo Fat was the one who hit him.

Ares was supposed to hock the item for them.

Wo Fat hadn't trusted him though, so after getting the piece, he ransomed it back Rouxel.

He gave Wo Fat the money, Wo Fat told him where Ares was and where he had the artefact.

Wo Fat got to keep all the money, Rouxel got his piece back, and from his understanding Ares had taken a beating.

Wo Fat had figured the business done. Ares hadn't been killed, which was a nice outcome considering the circumstances. Everyone should have been happy. Wo Fat was well aware that most everyone knew not to mess with him, so he figured himself and Rowan to be protected, but vengeance was a great motivator.

And of course, Ares must have realized that the easiest way to get to Wo Fat was to grab Rowan. It was a good gamble too, because he was already trying to figure out how to get 1.5 billion out of his accounts in time for this drop.

"And I don't want half. I want it all."

Okay. 3 billion then.

"I want to talk to her first."

At that Ares laughed. "You're not in a position to make orders," he growled. "And besides… you can't. She's a little… detained."

An uncomfortable flash of worry ran under his skin. That could mean many things, he assumed it meant she was tied up and probably locked up. But she couldn't talk to him that could mean that she was gagged, or unconscious.

Knowing Ro, she was probably unconscious.

A gag wouldn't have stopped her much. She was a chatter box when she was in a good mood, when she was being malicious it was worse. So much worse.

Sometimes he dreamed of knocking her out to get her to stop, and he knew first hand that it was worse if she were trying to be annoying.

"Have the money ready by midnight tonight and you'll get your precious girl back," he said. "We both know you won't go to the cops, but if you're even a second late, if you come with your men, I'll show your girl what Rouxel did to me."

Ares hung up the phone leaving Wo Fat sitting at his desk. He was shaking he was so angry.

But under that anger was the worry.

He was afraid.

He was afraid something was going to happen to his Ro.

But it was making the anger so much more potent and he had a feeling that it wouldn't be good for Ares.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Wo Fat, like a man unhinged, did not go to get the money Ares wanted.

Oh it occurred to him to do so, he just didn't.

See, once that anger and fear took over, he sort of lost control.

It took two phone calls and he had a location. Not the location that Ares was at, but the address for a woman in Sèvres. A more active suburb of Paris.

She was known as Ares' girlfriend, and he had been staying there while getting back on his feet. Wo Fat had gone to her place, let himself in and then went about literally beating the every-living shit out of her until he got answers to his questions.

She had told him everything.

Starting first with she was well aware of who Rowan was, and that her boyfriend was dating her. He wasn't really dating her, but instead playing at it, because he had been trying to get to Wo Fat through her.

Originally he thought she might be able to get him the money, or information about his business that Ares could use against him. Except she couldn't, he described her as too dumb to know anything of use, and there was no way that Wo Fat would give her any access to his accounts.

But he was wrong on both accounts.

Ro did have access to his bank accounts. She had a debit card access and a credit card he paid for. And he talked about his business with her all the time, she was always in his office or his warehouse bugging him or bringing him lunch.

Ro just didn't listen to him.

After getting through all of that, though, she told him where she was.

In a warehouse in Batignolles.

Ares had been clear. Don't bring his men. Well, with the way Wo Fat was feeling, he wasn't going to need them.

He showed up at that warehouse in Batignolles ready to fuck shit up. He had an automatic weapon, enough reloads to last him the day. He had his pistol for emergencies. His knife to cut her from her bonds, cause he knew his Ro well enough to know that she was probably heavily tied up.

But when he got there it was completely deserted.

Goddamn it he should have killed that girlfriend. He shouldn't have given her the chance to warn him.

It looked like everyone had left in a hurry, which meant they knew he was coming.

Or, they had fortified a single location to make sure he couldn't get to her.

He figured a back room or office.

That, of course, was the logical choice, it was what he would do, but there was something else. There was something tugging in his chest, a sort of pulse that seemed to be leading him. Though it was completely illogical, he was sure it was leading him to her.

And that pulse was telling him to look in the back.

With his automatic weapon in hand he stormed towards the back, towards where the pull was taking him. The smart thing to do was to sneak through, but he wasn't thinking smart. The panic had taken over him, was making him think irrationally when he'd never.

So he got to the door where the tug in his chest was strongest and just… kicked it right down while shouting: "Where is my sister?"

Except no one was there.

A chair was tipped over, the desk was shoved to the side, the windows were blown open and it looked like something had been slammed into the wall repeatedly. In fact, it looked like something or someone might have gone through the wall.

But no one was actually there.

There were blood spatters on the floor, the walls, the ceiling. Why was there blood on the ceiling?

What… what the hell had happened here?

Oh the fear had him now. It looked like a murder happened in this room, it looked like a struggle went down before the murder. And no one was here.

Not a single person.

This was not good.

"Ro?" he called into the empty space. He wasn't sure why he was expecting an answer, but he did it again.

That time there was a pop. He knew that sound, that was a portal, she had popped a portal. He kept looking around trying to find her and the portal but he didn't see anything.

"Up here."

Wo Fat looked up right away and there she was. Or at least, her head was. She had popped a portal on the ceiling that only her head was popping out of.

"What are you doing up there?"

"I'm dealing with something, is it time to go?"

Wo Fat frowned at her. "Get out of the void and get down here, right this second," he snapped with a stomp of his foot.

"Geeze, alright, give me a second."

Her head disappeared into the void, the portal closing with a pop. There was another pop, this time from beside him and this time she hole she had ripped open was big enough for her whole body for her to fit through. She walked through calmly, looking perfectly fine, and smiled up at him as if all of this was okay.

Wo Fat frowned at her and after a while she looked around and then back to him. "What?"

"What the hell did you do?"

Rowan looked around again. "Well… you were taking too long so… you know… I took matters into my own hands."

"By using the void?"

See, when they left Toronto, he had told her adamantly that she should not use her powers unless absolutely necessary. Her powers were distinctive and they could be weaponized, he didn't need governments or her family trying to track her down to use her as a weapon.

Or as grant money, since that's all her father wanted her for.

"Well I was just gonna wait, but you took too long and he… he pissed me off."

Wo Fat rolled his eyes. "Where he is?"

Rowan pointed up to the ceiling and he frowned. She had him in the void.

"Is he alive?"

"Yeah…"

"Bring him back. Bring them all back."

Rowan sighed but snapped her fingers. A portal opened on the ceiling and they all came crashing down around them. And on top of the pile was Ares.

They were all gasping for air, which made sense because if Rowan wasn't protecting you in the void you couldn't breathe.

There had to be at least twenty men in that room with them now. She must have grabbed everyone in that warehouse with her and dropped them in the void.

That wasn't good. Considering he needed her powers to be a secret.

"Can we go home now?" she asked him and something in him cracked a little.

She sounded so sad, so tired. This had not been a good day for her. He wanted to take her home, wrap her up in blankets, hand her tea and put on Disney.

He had business to deal with first, though.

"Yes we can," he said fishing his keys out of his pocket he tossed them to her. "Car's just outside, wait for me there, okay?"

"Aren't you coming with me?"

"No, cause I'm not done here yet," he said. "Car, go."

He had to purposely turn her around and push her towards the door, and then he had to patiently wait as she walked through it. He watched her make her way through the warehouse, and once he was certain she was far enough away he slammed the door shut and whirled back around on the pile of men that were still too out of it to react.

Wo Fat grabbed Ares off the top of the pile and threw him down onto the concrete. Once he was out of the way he turned back around and just began shooting.

He shot at every single man on the floor, he even got the ones that found it in them to get up and try and run away.

There couldn't be any survivors. No one could know what she could do.

Well, that wasn't true, he was going to leave at least one survivor, so he could tell everyone just how fucked up the whole situation was. Word of mouth was the most powerful way to create a reputation in the underground.

With the men all dealt with Wo Fat turned back to Ares. The man was trying to crawl away, still to disoriented to actually get away though, oxygen deprivation was like that. He calmly walked back to him, kicked him onto his back and the knelt down right on his chest.

He put his knee in one of his lungs so the man couldn't breathe again. That was important, he wanted this guy weak.

"Listen here, you French-fuck," he growled. "Fucking with my sister was the first mistake. Now I'm going to leave you alive, only as an example. I want you to sing it to the fucking world. You touch my sister, and you die. You got me? That's for everyone. Not just you. In general."

"Did you just call me your sister?"

Wo Fat turned around. "Rowan!" he cried. "I told you to go to the car!"

That was because Rowan didn't do well with blood, but she was standing there, in front of the carnage, with eyes wide and shining. She didn't look like she was about to vomit, she didn't look horrified, but she did look like she was about to cry, and Wo Fat didn't know why.

"You called me your sister!"

Wo Fat glared at her and then down to the man whose chest he was kneeling on, gun still pointed to his temple. He moved the gun, put it right between his eyes and then put pressure until the man's head was down against the ground. Trapping him there.

He then turned back to Rowan. "Ro, this really isn't the time…"

"Yes it is! You called me your sister! You do love me!"

"No, no, no," he started but she was already starting forward. She wrapped him up in a hug he didn't want and then kissed his cheek loudly.

"I love you too."

Wo Fat shrugged her off. "Will you just go? Go wait in the car please!"

Ro sighed but did as she was told.

"See what you've done," Wo Fat asked. "Do you see? She's not going to let this go and it's all your fault."

Ares just stared at him. Clearly wanting to argue, but also knowing that he couldn't.

"What was I saying before she interrupted?"

"Going after your sister is a death sentence?"

Wo Fat nodded. "Right. Yes. Death sentence. Thank you. Don't fuck with my sister. Simple. Spread the word. Good-bye Ares."

He stood up, letting the man sit there and cough it out, before heading back out of that small room they had been holding his Ro in. He stalked through the warehouse and all the way back to his borrowed car to find it idling.

He opened the door and found Rowan sitting in the driver's seat.

"Who said you could drive?" Wo Fat said. Rowan blinked her big blue eyes at him but he was not deterred. "Move. Now."

Rowan didn't leave the car, but she did slip out of the driver's seat and into the passenger one. Wo Fat got himself into the car, and was in the process of actually driving away from that warehouse before Rowan started bugging him.

"So… are we going to talk about it now or later?"

"Ro…"

"Okay. Now it is…"

"Rowan so help me…"

"So how long have you thought of me as a sister?"

Wo shot a scowl at her but she just smiled widely. "I hate you. You know… I hate you…"

"You literally told him not to fuck with your sister… so… do you have a different sister I don't know about or…?"

"You know I don't," he snapped. She was smiling again and Wo rolled his eyes. "For godsake, you're not going to let this go, are you?"

"No!" she cried brightly.

"Fine. Fine. You may… slightly… maybe… a little bit… be like my little sister…" Beside him Rowan straightened, her smile widening to proportions that could not be human. "Now… no… don't you take this the wrong way. This is not… no… see… I can see that smile… you're letting it get to your head…"

"I'm your baby sister!"

Wo Fat groaned. "Jesus Rowan…"

"How long! Tell me how long!"

"I unno it just happened, alright?" he cried. "Just… you know, I probably wouldn't have noticed but you just had to get in trouble again, didn't you?"

"Yeah but you came to get me anyway!"

Should have left her, that's what he should have done.

"Okay, you got what you wanted, I admitted to it. Now let it go."

"You love me don't you?" she asked and he frowned.

"I love no one," he growled. She was grinning wildly at him though which meant she didn't believe him. "I admitted that I saw you as my sister and that's all you're getting, now drop it."

Rowan did drop it, but that smile did not fade off of her face… well… until it did.

"You know… he had a girlfriend the whole time we were dating?"

"Not sure it was a real relationship, Rowan," he said right away.

She shook her head. "He was cheating on me, the whole time."

"He was dating you to get to me. Not a real relationship," he said again. But Rowan wouldn't listen.

She just kept saying that it was cheating, in fact that seemed to be the thing she was the most upset about. Not the fact that it was a fake relationship, or that he had kidnapped her, she was upset that he cheated. Wo Fat figured that it would blow over.

The man had been lucky to survive dealing with Rowan's void powers, but five months later, long after they left Paris, China and Colombia, Ares got arrested for lifting a piece he never even touched. He had a hard time proving that he didn't because they they found it in his apartment, hanging on his wall, with his finger prints on it.

He kept saying that it was a replica that he got as gift from an ex lover… but… well… his ex hadn't been in the country at the time. And they could prove that.

They had him in jail with in a matter of days and no one could save him.

Poor Ares. Infamous for stealing the Mona Lisa, even though Rowan was the one who stole it.