"The Demon in me"
A Tekken fanfic by Mikiya
Disclaimer: Character's from namco that I'm using in this story do not belong to me, I'm not making any profit from this story, so don't sue!
She ran through the dimly lit hallways that echoed her breathless gasps for air until what seemed like an eternity. She stopped at a junction in the hallway to find her way as well as catch her breath. Her heart was still beating fast, but she still had a screaming urge inside her body to keep running. She had been running out of pure fear. When she first laid eyes upon it, she had seen her destiny, to defeat the vicious ogre that had mercilessly brought many a great fighter to their death. She stood defiantly, staring it strait in the eyes, the windows of it's corrupt soul. But in its eyes she saw things no such person of her innocence was ever meant to see. The images in the eyes of the ogre were far more terrifying than she could've ever had imagined. The screaming tortured souls of the ogre's victims wandered aimlessly inside of the creature. The visions turned her stomach. She was beginning to feel their pain now hers as their screams became ever louder. She was sure now, it was her time to die. She was the next soul on his eternally tortured list. Run. Though her mind was screaming it, it actually took some time for the command to reach her legs. She took a few steps back towards the building, then turned around walking steadily towards it. Like a dangerous animal, she did not want to entice it to chase her by running, but her self restraint broke, as did her body, into a full run. Leading her blindly to where she was now.
Giving into her body's demand for rest she leaned against a wall and slid down it until she reached the floor. "There's no way I can let this demon defeat me before I've even fought it." Thought Julia to herself. She glanced about the hallways once more and when she was sure the ogre wasn't anywhere around she relaxed herself- somewhat. She stood up and walked back down the hallway, it didn't look familiar, but wasn't it the way she came. She realized she had no idea where she was. Why she even had come? The tournament had been deemed private and only certain guest were allowed to view it, but she'd never forgave herself if she didn't at least try to sneak a peak of the final battle. And there was Jin. She had to talk to him, to tell him the truth about his grandfather, even if he didn't believe her. She had a feeling something bad would happen to him if she didn't. "The images..." As she thought of them they came flooding back into her brain. She paced around mindlessly trying to understand the pictures her encounter with the ogre had shown her. But her unconscious seemed stumble over one particular image. "A symbol…" She couldn't get her mind to stay focused enough to get a clear view of it. "A mark..." Julia vaguely remembered catching a glimpse at one like it. "A demon mark…" The ogre had put it on him so it would know to come back to him.
"Jin."
She immediately turned back down the hall from where she came and took a left, then another right which lead her to a staircase which she ran up. She didn't know how or why she knew where she was going, but she ran her fastest.
Hworang wiped a trickle of blood from his mouth. Jin wasn't the same person he fought before. There was a vicious rage within each move he made. Though Hworang would never say it, he didn't know if he could last much longer. Jin's strength was almost inhuman. "I am the best," Hworang said to himself, "and this fight will prove it." He said before he kicked at Jin. The two exchanged blocked punches and kicks again before they broke apart. Breathing heavily, Hworang glared viciously at his opponent. Jin met his glare with an equal if not more vicious glare of his own. Hworang took his stance and prepared for an onslaught from Jin. But it didn't come. Jin's focus seemed to have been diverted by something behind him. Hworang wasn't one to waste god given openings and unleashed a combo of punches upon Jin, finishing it off with a kick to the mid-section, which sent Jin to the floor. "A little distracted there aren't we?" Hworang jeered. But Jin's attention would not be deviated, as he continued to stare in shock. Hworang turned his head around to see it coming at him fast. He had barely enough time to roll out of the way, then block as the horrid looking creature dove at him, missed then tried to attack him once more. He jumped back up, ducking a couple more of its swings before landing a kick upon its chest but that only infuriated it more. Putting his arms up to block the uppercut that the ogre attacked him with hardly decreased the hurt of the blow. It then rose into the air as Hworang stumbled back in shock. The ogre let out a huge blast of fire from its mouth. The explosion blew Hworang back into the wall. He then fell limply onto the ground. The ogre slowly turned its attention towards Jin.
It was finally here. The moment for which he had lived the past four years of his life was the present. In the years he'd been training he'd often dream of the moment he'd face the ogre that slaughtered his mother. He had secretly, at times, wondered if he really would be strong enough to defeat the ogre, if indeed he ever got a chance to face him. But as he stood before the creature now, he could think of nothing else but the various ways he would make the demon suffer for his pain.
Upon entering the arena Julia rushed over to where Hworang laid. She heard a grunt of pain escape him as he struggled to lift his head. She put her hand behind his neck to support him.
"Julia?" He said.
"Will you be okay?" She asked. He only grunted in reply. She wanted nothing more than to help Jin destroy the evil being but she wouldn't. This was Jin's fight, he'd been waiting a good portion of his life for it, and besides, at the speeds they were attacking each other now, she'd probably only get in the way. The monster let out an ear-piercing wail as Jin swiftly snapped its arm in two. Then its transformation began.
It looked more horrifying than before to Julia. Jin was on the ground still recovering from being blinded by the creature's radiant output. The ogre was no longer the discolored humanoid creature with a fancy headdress, it was something else. With large spiky scales protruding from its back, red eyes and a snake for a hand, this truly was a creature of ones nightmares. Looking upon the ogre's new form, Jin was frozen.
"Jin, no," thought Julia, "Please don't let this new form intimidate you, it merely changed as a last resort because it was loosing, you still have the upper hand."
Jin dodged the massive scaled arm sweeping after him. He scrambled around furiously trying to avoid getting hit as he tried his best to concentrate on a new strategy, but a giant snake rushed him from the side. He threw himself on the ground then rolled as the snake, which he now saw was an extension of the ogre, smashed its head into the ground where Jin had landed not more than a second earlier. The ogre's massive form stood over Jin ominously. Jin found himself unable to move.
"Even if Jin kills me for this later, I have to help." Julia stealthily charged the monster from its back. Sensing her somehow, it turned around and tried to swipe at her, but she ducked out of the way and landed her kick on the massive beast. The beast let out a thunderous roar, and swiped at her with its razor sharp talons. "Julia NO!" thought Jin. Her attack however was a much-needed diversion, giving Jin enough time to formulate a short term attack plan. Jin rushed at the ogre, it turned to face him seemingly to expect the oncoming attack, but he rolled to the side just as the monster moved to meet his attack and landed a powerful side kick onto the monster's chest. Jin continued to barrage the ogre with a whirlwind of kicks and punches, leaving the monster too dazed to block the onslaught. The monster jumped up into the air, where it hovered. It then shot a stream of fire from its mouth at him. Jin had to run and take cover to avoid getting toasted, but ended up being blown across the room by the sheer force of the attack. As Julia watched the horrifying event from the place where she had fallen wounded, she couldn't pry her eye away from what looked like to be a cracked scale on it's side, where Jin had landed a mighty blow. Ignoring the pain in her arm she made her way inconspicuously towards the wall and grabbed a burning torch from one of the iron thresholds. She saw her chance as it began to descend to the ground once more. At once she rushed underneath the demon and shoved the glowing embers deep underneath the pliable scale into the ogre. Julia rushed the monster again and kicked in the torch, shoving it even further into the ogre's being.
True ogre threw back its head and bellowed as it let a huge stream of fire stream out of its mouth high into the air. The explosive force of the fire seemed to ignite everything it touched, even the stones of the building crumbled when the inferno touched them. Then, the monster's tantrum ended, as did its evil existence.
Jin blocked his eyes from the blinding flash of light that the ogre dissipated into. He stood there, not quite knowing how to react. But he was soon brought back to the urgency of the present.
"Hey pretty boy! What are ya standing around for the whole place is coming down!" Said Hworang, signaling him towards the exit.
Jin looked back frantically into the array of falling rocks, for any hint of where Julia could be.
"Julia." He said more to himself than to anyone else.
"Come on, we have to get the hell out of here before the whole place comes down on us!" Jin turned to face Hworang. "I'm not leaving without Julia." Hworang looked at him as if he was crazed, but he knew Jin meant what he said.
Jin's expression softened as he reassured Hworang, "I'll get her out, I promise. But I need you to take care of your own safety." Hworang sighed. Jin definitely took bravado to a whole new level, but nobody had to tell Hworang twice to get out of a collapsing building. Without another word he took off towards the exit. Jin took off into the falling ruble at times knocking offending pieces away that tried to land on him. He spotted Julia, and scooped up her immobile form from the floor, gingerly, with both of his arms. But as he looked back towards where the exit was, he saw even more pieces of the building falling and knew it would be impossible to make it though without damaging Julia even more. He took a running jump onto one of the windowsills above, kicking out the glass pane. The only way to go was down.