Guile knelt down in the soft, wet grass that covered Charlie's grave as he propped a small arrangement of flowers against the headstone.  It had been two days since Charlie's funeral, four since his death.  Guile remained there for a long while, thinking back on his childhood, adolescence and adulthood with Charlie.  He could still clearly remember the first time him and Charlie met one another.  Charlie and his mother had just moved in next door to Guile's family.  Charlie and him were both five years old.  Guile's mother had dragged him with her to meet the new neighbors.  When Charlie's mother opened the door, Guile, being a shy child, had hidden himself behind his mother's legs.  When he stretched his neck to see the woman who opened the door, Guile was met by the face of Charlie, peering around his mother's legs as well.  After that initial meeting him and Charlie were always together.  Guile laughed to himself when he remembered the time his father had found him and Charlie drunk at the beach.  They had planned on camping out with a few other friends, but those friends headed home leaving only him and Charlie.  Somehow Guile's father had found out about it and came to retrieve the two boys.  That was when they were 16.  Guile couldn't remember ever being more afraid in his life.  Until now.  Guile's father had flown in for the funeral, but left earlier that morning.  Guile's father was like a father to Charlie even before Charlie's mother was killed in a car accident.  That happened when the boys were a few months away from graduating.  Charlie moved in with Guile's family so he could finish off the school year.  Then the two made the decision to join the Air Force, together.  Charlie had wanted to achieve great things to honor his mother's memory.  And he had.  Charlie became a father, perhaps the greatest thing possible.  Guile could still hear the words in his mind that Charlie spoke to him after he had met Cammy for the first time.  'I can't be just an occasional part of Cammy's life.  It has to be permanent; I have to stay here with her.  I have missed so much already.'  From that day on Charlie dedicated his life to Cammy.  But now he was gone, and so was Cammy.

"You shouldn't be here right now buddy.  You should be at home with Cammy.  You still have so much more life to live, so many more things to do…but I screwed up.  I screwed up so bad.  And you paid for it, Cammy paid for it."

Guile was beginning to weep as he spoke.

"I'm so damn sorry.  She's just a kid.  It's all my fault she went that night.  I thought I was doing the right thing, protecting her.  But if I would have just let her go, taken her to you, she wouldn't have been there when—when Vega came.  You would have never let this happen to Melissa.  I failed you, but I'm going to make up for it.  I'm getting her back from those bastards, and I'll make them pay.  I don't care what it takes, if I loose everything.  I'll get her back.  For you, for her, I'll get her back.  And they will pay."

                  Cammy sat against the wall in her small cell staring at a plate of food that has been slid under the door.  It had been three days since her meeting with Bison.  They had taken her back to the first cell she was in, not the hospital-like room.  A small mattress was placed on the floor in the corner for her to sleep on, though she didn't sleep.  Of course she occasionally dozed off for, say, thirty minutes but remained erect.  This was the eighth meal that had been brought to her.  She hadn't touched any of them.  She wasn't going to.  At first she wouldn't eat just because she remembered hearing Bison say she needed to.  But now she had begun to have paranoid feelings.  What if they put something in it?  They're going to drug me.  Cammy forced herself to look away from the meal as she felt her stomach begin to rumble.

"Stop it."

She tried to concentrate on something else but soon the aroma of the meal reached her nose.  Her stomach groaned again.  I'm so hungry.  Just one bite.  Cammy slid over to the plate.  She couldn't tell what the food was.  Looked like a microwave burrito meal, or in other words, brownish mush.  But it smelled so good.  Cammy turned away again.

"No!"

She stood and was going to walk to the door to begin her, now, daily ritual of beating at the steel door, but her legs buckled underneath her and she fell onto the floor.

"Dammit!"

Cammy stayed on the ground for a long while, just lying there, eyes wide and staring blankly into nothing.  She felt so weak now, as if all her life had been drained away suddenly.  So be it.  I will not do anything they tell me too.  Cammy yelled loudly.

"Do you hear me?  I will not help you destroy me.  I'll die first!  I—I'm going to die here."

Cammy broke into sobs.  Why hasn't anyone come for me?  Cammy still was on the ground lying motionless when she heard someone enter the cell.  She didn't turn her head.  She figured it was Vega.  However it wasn't.  A man knelt down on the floor next to her and grabbed her wrist.  She started to protest but the man spoke before she could.

"Don't worry, I'm just checking your pulse.  You know, you really should be eating.  It's not good for you.  The master wants you to be healthy."

"I don't care what he wants."

He shined a small light into her eyes and spoke again.

"Well I do.  Nothing's worth dying for.  Especially when it's the not easiest way out."

His words confused Cammy but she didn't hear anything else because he soon gave her a shot that caused the room to grow even blurrier before it went black. 

                  Ken pulled himself up onto the top bunk in the barracks that had been his lying place for the past two nights.  After telling the bookie at the street fight that he wanted to join Shadowlaw, he was taken to another room where they strip-searched him.  Of course he had come out clean.  Then he was taken to yet another room with several other men, some of which he had caught a glimpse of earlier that night.  A few gave him a slightly hateful glare, though Ken dismissed it.  These weren't the type of fighters to congratulate you on a job well done.  After that him and the others were transported in an unmarked, white van to…well, actually he didn't know where in the hell he was.  In the van information was collected from each man.  It was too late for Ken to lie about his name; it had been used at the tournament.  But he did tell them he was an orphan, and he was simply tired of fighting just for the fight.  He was ready to start benefiting from his skills.  It was believable enough.  Most of the other men were trying to hide from the law, actually, all of the rest were.  But regardless Ken had proven himself to them in his fight with Adon.  Thinking back on it, Ken was ashamed.  He had taken such a cheap, if not unnecessary, hit on Adon.  That wasn't what he was trained to do.  It wasn't respectable at all.  But in the past few days, he had done many things he was not proud of.  Upon arriving at their destination, training began immediately and continued throughout the night.  He hadn't sparred for that long with others since he last trained with Ryu.  The next day, after only a few hours of sleep, him and the others were woken up and training began again.  This time with more concentration placed on weapons.  Ken excelled in this due to his previous training, not in weapons, but on concentrating on a task.  The others were cranky, quite frankly, stupid, and often mouthed off to the officials.  One man told one of the officers in charge to go fuck himself, and was promptly shot.  It was then that Ken realized how this evil organization had excelled so much.  They ruled on fear, they preyed on the unethical scum in the world.  Since the man's untimely death, there had been no other problems, proving Ken's theory.  Now he had just ended his third day of training, and was totally beat.  Every time he thought of quitting, of trying to find a way out, he thought of Cammy.  If I think I'm going through hell right now, just imagine what she must be going through.  The drive to help her kept him going.  In the time he had been here, he had befriended one man.  His name was Julian Marquez.  His dark brown hair hung into his bright blue eyes, though upon first seeing him, it was slicked back giving him a harder, more ruthless look.  At that time, Julian had been one of then men who admitted to wanting to join to avoid the law.  But now, Ken didn't believe it.  He felt something thump his back through the thin mattress.  Then he heard Julian's New York accent.

"Yo, Ken?  You up?"

"Yeah man.  Wide awake."

"So, why you up?  Thinking about your girl?"

"I don't have a girl."

"Sure you don't.  And I bet your thinking about me when you get that dreamy look on your face, huh?"

Ken gave a short laugh and replied in the most girly voice he could use quietly,

"Of course I am.  You know you're the only man for me."

Julian made kissy noises and both men shared a laugh.  After a short while longer, Ken spoke.

"Julian?"

"Yeah?"

"I don't believe this bull shit about you hiding from the law.  That's just not you.  Your like me."

"Man, I got myself fucked royally back in the states.  Probably on their way to my hotel room as we speak.  I killed my old man.  Well not my old man, my stepfather.  He came home and started wailing out on my Ma.  He'd done it before, but it was really bad this time.  So I jumped in.  I shoulda just called the cops you know.  But I was so tired of him.  I just wanted him gone.  I got out of control.  Then my Ma flipped out and was about to call the cops on me.  He got her head all turned around, and she turned on me.  I convinced her not to call them and left.  But I know she did eventually.  It was only a matter of time before they came for me.  So I came here.  There are fights in New York, but not as large as the ones here."

"Couldn't you have told the police what happened?"

"They wouldn't have believed me.  Like I said, my Ma convinced herself he hadn't done nothing wrong."

"Man, I'm sorry."

"No big deal.  I'm getting by.  I feel lucky you know.  I found a way out of all that shit."

"I guess so."

"Not everyone can have such a noble reason as you."

"Noble?  What's noble about wanting to profit?"

"I don't buy your shit.  I see you in training.  Something else is going on.  But like I said before.  No big deal."

Julian was right.  He had to make sure that nobody suspected why he was really here, for Cammy's sake, if not for his own.  Ken heard Julian pull his covers over his body before he spoke.

"Well anyway, I'm going to get some Z's now.  We got a big day tomorrow.  Meeting the boss."

"Yeah."

Ken put his hands behind his pillow and stared up at the ceiling.  He had to be impressive tomorrow, because he needed to be placed in the highest position possible to help Cammy.

"Dream of me Ken.  Just don't mess up the sheets."

"Ha, ha; very funny Julian."

"I kid, I kid.  Night, man."

"Night."

Well there it is.  You kids make sure to tell me what you though about the chapter, and Julian.  Later!!