Disclaimer: I don't own Tekken.
-*-
The wind howled in the treetops, as though it were some animal in terrible pain. Julia shivered, pulling her shirt tightly round her as she trekked along the forest path. The branches of the trees seemed to reach for her, catching in her hair and tearing at her clothes. Soon she found herself having to fight her way through the twisted growths, the forest crowding in around her, swallowing her in it's darkness.
Desperately she tore at the foliage, trying frantically to free herself from it's grasp. Her fingers clutched at the sharp thorns, gnarled branches, and the huge leafs which enveloped her. They seemed to burn her flesh and she noticed that they felt tough and leathery.
Julia's eyes widened in horror as huge bat like wings folded around her, the colour of deep bruises.
She struck at them wildly, pulling herself free from their clutches. Fear gripped her heart as she watched the trees around her unfold and reveal their trunks to be formed from the bodies of demons. Their wicked red eyes gloating at her, they took flight into the night storm like a flock of crows.
All around her, fires rose, eating away at the trees, consuming them. Julia saw standing before her another demon, terrible and frightening, it's stare seeming so powerful it could pierce her flesh. An immense red scar marred its chest and coarse black hair swept back in a widow's peak, around two twisted, formidable horns.
Julia tried desperately to run as the monster advanced on her, but she found herself seemingly paralysed with fear. With one massive, clawed hand, the beast gripped her by the throat and pulled her close to its horrifying face.
"Kisama wa ware no shi da." the demon's voice echoed through her skull, tearing at her very soul. He threw her to the ground, smashing her against the rocks as though she was nothing more than a rag doll. Julia stared up in terror as fire scorched the sky in huge and terrible waves, and a harsh and barren desert swept across the land, the colourless sand burning her skin as it engulfed her. She fought to free her limbs, but she struggled in vain as the desert threatened to bury her alive.
Julia wriggled around, trying to get her arms and legs untangled. She opened her eyes and immediately shut them again, as the light burned into the back of her head. She lay still to let the throbbing in her head die down a little. Her body felt very heavy and weary. Little by little the nightmare faded and her memory of what had happened seeped back.
Eventually she ventured to open her eyes again, more cautiously this time.
"Well, well, well. I see sleeping beauty has finally woken up."
Julia raised herself up onto her elbows and scanned the room for the source of the voice. She was lying on a couch in a relatively bare room with a small kitchenette in one wall, and a couple of doors leading out of it. In the centre of the room was a low table and across the table there were a couple of chairs, one of which was occupied by a young man. She recognised him as one of the fighters from the tournament, an angry young redhead who had some sort of vendetta against the Japanese boy, Jin Kazama... She frowned, trying to recall his name.
"I was beginning to think you'd never wake up" Hwoarang watched her from behind the long strands of red hair which fell in his face. He smiled at her in what she took to be quite an arrogant manner.
"Where am I? How did I get here?" She questioned, pushing herself into a sitting position and examining the bandage on her arm suspiciously.
Hwoarang leant towards her and smiled again. "Straight to business huh? This is my place. I ran into you in that alley round the back of the Zaibatsu HQ. Seems you've been a bad girl." He smirked. "You wanna tell me why they were after you?"
"That's none of your business." She snapped, getting to her feet a little unsteadily, as the tranquilliser hadn't worn off completely yet. "You brought me back to your house? Why didn't you take me to the hospital?!" Julia was still very on edge after the other night's events, and she did not like being in unfamiliar surroundings.
"Hey, take it easy. You should rest a bit." Hwoarang stood up and moved round the table to her.
"I've got to get out of here." She said, quickly moved away from him and making for the door.
"Wait! Come on, I risked my ass for you, you could at least..." He trailed off as the door slammed shut behind her.
"Damn, she's hostile." Hwoarang grumbled to himself, watching her leave the building from his window.
It was around 4pm when the taxi dropped Julia outside her hotel. She made her way up to her room, looking around suspiciously in case the Tekken Force had bothered to track her back to the hotel. Fortunately, there was no sign of ill play, and she decided that they probably didn't realise that she'd made a copy of the files. Once in her room, she took a couple of painkillers to help with her headache, and tried to get some sleep. However, after 20 minutes of tossing and turning, she gave up and decided that she had to deal with all the stuff going through her head before she drove herself crazy.
Julia headed down to the local library, though it took her a while to find, since she didn't speak any Japanese, and Tokyo is a very big and confusing place. Once inside, she had even more trouble finding what she wanted. None of the librarians spoke English, but eventually they found a member of staff who did, and they were able to show her how to use the library's Internet service. This took yet more time, as the keyboards were set to type in Japanese. Finally, after over an hour, Julia was all set to do what she wanted.
First, she sent an email to Professor T., the leader of her research group, to tell him everything she had discovered. Then she began mulling over the nightmare she had had. It had felt so real, so terrifying. She saw the image of that monster every time she shut her eyes, and felt the heat of the dream burning into her flesh even now. On top of that, there was the fiery redhead who had helped her, but why would someone like that want to help her? She dreaded what he would have tried if she had stayed there, or what he could have done whilst she was asleep... But then she thought, perhaps she was being unfair. After all, he had saved her; she shuddered to think what would have become of her if the guards had caught her. She would probably be dead by now, or being tortured in some horrible dungeon. But he was a criminal, a street fighter, if she remembered correctly. His living was made from deceiving and hurting people. She was right not to trust him.
She decided to try to find out more about G Corporation's devil gene experiments and what the Mishima Zaibatsu had been planning to do with them, but she had no luck finding any information. She felt as if she were fumbling pathetically in the dark for clues that she would never find. Perhaps it was best that she didn't find anything, did she really want to get involved with such evil?
Julia was reading about Heihachi Mishima, the Tekken Tournament organiser and CEO of the Mishima Zaibatsu, when she noticed a link to the tournament website. She followed the link and found information on all the participants. She knew she shouldn't be thinking about the redhead anymore, but curiosity got the better of her, and she found herself looking at his profile. His hair was shorter in his photograph, spiked into dyed-red tufts, instead of the longer strands which had fallen in the eyes of the man she saw that afternoon. 'Korean, Hwoarang: the Blood Talon. Unusual name...' She thought to herself as she read through his file. He had been drafted into the Korean army after the last tournament. 'Does that mean he's AWOL?' Julia was deep in thought when she was interrupted by a polite cough from behind her.
She turned to see a neatly dressed librarian looking at her nervously. "Ojosan, sumimasen. Toshokan a juu ji ni shimarimasu." She said, but Julia frowned at her in confusion. "Aa, American, yes? The library closes now." She explained, gesturing at a clock on the wall.
"Oh, I'm sorry!" Julia exclaimed, grabbing her coat from the back of her chair and headed for the exit.
It was already dark when she got outside and Julia hurriedly made her way back to the hotel. However, shortly after her departure she was confronted by two men. Others emerged from the shadows behind her. She was surrounded.
"Heey! Whadda we got here then?! Pretty little thing out all by herself in the middle of the night. Don't you know it's dangerous to walk the streets alone, little girl?" The first man jeered, blowing a cloud of sickly smoke in her direction.
"Kittaka! Leave this one alone, okay." A familiar voice barked out of the darkness behind her. Julia turned to see Hwoarang meander over to her and sling his arm rudely around her shoulders. He glared threateningly at the man.
"Friend of yours, Blood Talon?" Kittaka smirked.
"Yeah, we're best of friends." Hwoarang sneered sarcastically, giving Julia a shake. "Gonna give us a bit o' privacy." He stated simply, his voice taking on a dangerous edge.
"Sure thing." The group around them sauntered off into the night, muttering obscenities and casting filthy looks back at Julia and Hwoarang.
Once they'd gone Hwoarang removed his arm from her shoulders and stood in front of her, looking slightly uncomfortable. Julia went to walk past him, but he moved to block her path.
"Hey, I thought we could maybe have a chat before you went running off, you owe me that at least."
"I don't owe you anything!" Julia snapped. Being this close to him made her nervous, and she didn't trust his motives for helping her out, especially not after seeing the sort of people he hung out with. She tried to walk around him again, but he blocked her way. She tried again, this time making the mistake of shoving him. In a flash, he'd grabbed her by the hair and pushed her face first against a wall.
"I took on 8 armed guards and then hauled your heavy ass all the way back to my apartment. Then I stayed up all night making sure you didn't choke on your own vomit or something. You owe me a lot!" He snarled in her ear. His hot breath tickled her neck and she could feel the heat from his body pressed against her back. A hand pressed hard on the back of her shoulder, another slid down to her lower back. Julia trembled with fear under his grasp.
"Please, don't." She begged, her voice shaking.
Hwoarang tensed as he realised what she meant, and he quickly relaxed the pressure on her. "Sorry... Look, can't we just talk normally?" He asked, stepping back and letting her go.
As he moved Julia turned and hit him with all her strength. Hwoarang staggered back from the blow as she sprinted across the road and vaulted the wall into the City Park. Hwoarang recovered from her attack quickly and took chase, leaping the wall with equal agility. 'Why do I always seem to be running away!' Julia thought to herself, her heart thumping furiously, blood rushing in her ears. 'Oh God, he's gaining on me.' Hwoarang kicked off a park bench as he ran past, leaping and tackling Julia to the ground. She fought and struggled against him as he wrestled to keep her down. With one last shove he pinned both her wrists to the ground and she wriggled helplessly beneath him. All of a sudden he leaned in close to her and she froze instantly. He was so close his nose brushed hers, their lips so close they shared the same breath. She could feel the weight of his body pushing down upon her. Their eyes were locked and no matter how she tried, she could not look away from his fierce gaze. His eyes blazed with such passion and aggression she felt that they could penetrate her soul. But there was also a deep sadness and hurt within those eyes, and she feared that they would swallow her up and she would see nothing else. And then, as suddenly as he had come close, Hwoarang was gone, pushing himself off her and stalking away into the darkness, swearing under his breath. Julia just lay there, staring up at the night sky, her heart pounding in her chest, tears running down her cheeks.
-*-
A/N: I know everything isn't all nice and happy in this, but I refuse to believe that people who spend their entire lives fighting are going to be lovely and pleasant to everyone all the time.
