A/N: Well, would ya believe it? I finally updated this thing. It's not much of a chapter, more of a burnt offering to prove I am still trying.


Roger Bacon: Believe me, she's very trying.


That reminds me. Formatting. Yeesh, I HATE my computer. However,this is a test run of an HTML thingy I just got so if this doesn't work it'll be all screwed and make no sense.
Bacon: No change there then.


*blows dust off previous chapters* Oh dear gods! I was called MIFFY back then! Woah, I sound all. . .annoying. Was I annoying back then? Oh, that probably means I'm still annoying now.


Bacon: Yes. VERY annoying, neurotic, pathetic. . .


And before we start, aegis, that thing with the shooting people in the head. . .it all depends on the distance, type of gun used etc. So it was vaguely possible that that would happen. I'm worried this chapter will suck. Seriously suck. I've probably lost all grasp I ever had on Margarete's character. . .


Bacon: Which was none anyway. . .


Hey, I've had enough of you now, hatboy! Go back in your box!


Bacon: *sweatdrop* She's still calling me hatboy. Get on with the fic for gods' sake!

















Part Two, Chapter One: Coffee With Bullet

Margarete's head is pounding. Blissfully unaware for a perfect second, the situation hits her like a hammer as soon as she finds consciousness. She's still sticky with sweat and blood, Kawashima's blood. Margarete swallows hard, trying to make the lump in her throat go away. Get over it, she tells herself, she's a spy, a professional. This is in the job description. But. . . that was someone she'd known. All these years, all these plans, all these missions together. Everything that was Kawashima, gone in an instant. . .because of her. With a sudden chill, it occurs to her that everyone she's ever had to kill had someone who thought of them like this, a part of a world blown away. . . Put it out of my head, she thinks, don't let ideas like this take over, what good can it do now? Sometimes people have to die, that's just the way things go.





Margarete climbs off the small bed onto the softly swaying boards of the ship. Wondering how long she'd been out for, she steps tentatively out of the cabin, mind racing with what she should tell Yuri, Alice and Zhuzhen when they inevitably ask what had been going on. Upon seeing the outside, she suddenly stops in her train of thought, staring blankly at the sight that meets her.



Something else has happened since she and Kawashima faced each other here. The deck is a mess of more than blood and brains, there's slime everywhere. Crates have been knocked over, scattered across the boat. What the hell? Kawashima's corpse has been left untouched where she fell. The others look battered, sombre, there's been a battle somehow. They are silent but for Yuri muttering something unintelligibly under his breath to Alice. As soon as Margarete appears, he stops mid-sentence.



. . . What happened?' she asks, stunned; she'd never expected to be the one asking them. Yuri and alice begin to speak at the same time.



Sea Mother-'


Li Li-'



They stop, each intending the other to continue. Zhuzhen appears to be unaware, gazing at his feet in melancholy thought.



Li LI turned up,' Yuri carries on his explanation. And she changed into this damn monster thing. Sea Mother put all her energy into making a seal and trying to lay her to rest, send her to Nirvana. . .and she died. Sea Mother, not Li LI. We had to fight Li Li. And it was. . .'



As Yuri launches into a lengthy explanation of events, another thing begins to prey at Margarete's mind, making her concentration continually falter. Unable to focus on Yuri's story, she can't help but ask.


. . . Kato. Where's Kato?'

Yuri, slightly put out she hadn't been paying full attention to him, gestures towards the cabin.

He's in there. . . And while we're on the subject of explaining, don't you have quite a lot of that to do yourself?'



Margarete feels a shiver of nerves run through her, though she'd known it was going to happen. She is afraid to tell the truth- they will be angry, and rightly so, she reflects remorsefully- but she doesn't want to lie to them again. If she does, she has the feeling the truth would show somehow. It'd be harder now than ever to keep secrets.



Well?' Yuri prompts. What the hell was going on earlier?'


Margarete makes a decision to tell them the truth and her stomach immediately fills with ice. Even if she had decided to lie, she couldn't come up with anything halfway plausible.



I was sent to spy on you. . . by the Japanese army. . .' She falters over the words. Suddenly her tongue seems too big for her mouth, her brain can't string thoughts into sentences, she feels removed and dreamlike, as if she was remembering a lost panic.


I'd been instructed to track you,' Somehow, she manages to continue. Capture Alice. . . . But. . .well. . . I thought about this, why I was. . .what I. . .which side I was on. . . That's why I had to kill her. . .' She trails off, knowing how bad this sounds. How can she explain something like that? She certainly can't come up with a justification.




What, do you expect us to trust you now?!' Yuri explodes. Forget it!! I knew we should never have let you come with us in the first place! And after all that getting us to trust you, you betray us!'



She feels relieved now. She's said it, and this was the reaction she'd expected. Alice keeps her eyes on Margarete, bemused. Alice didn't seem the type to lose her temper, but her distant though fixed expression is beginning to unsettle Margarete more than Yuri's yelling. She stares at the messy planks, lost and with no idea what to do. She can't expect them to trust her now, and there isn't any way she'll ever go back to the army.



You know,' Yuri remarks, still angry but not yelling so loudly. If you're on our side now,' -he spits these words out like he doesn't believe them- you could have done something to HELP, put them off the scent, instead of starting a fucking gunfight and drawing even more attention to us! Bloody HELL!!' He aims a violent kick at a nearby crate, sending it rattling over the deck. Margarete swears under her breath, wishing she'd thought to be more subtle. In retrospect, she'd had the perfect situation for double-crossing. If she'd been careful enough Yuri and Alice might never have had to know. Too late now, she think sadly, and if there's one thing that won't help now it's regretting and wishing.


She turns towards the cabin, not wanting to talk to Kato but not wanting to spend more time getting yelled at by Yuri either. Margarete hesitates at the cabin door. What will she say? What will he do?




Inside, Kato is fully conscious again, but he looks afraid and confused. When she enters he gives her a look of the greatest contempt, and she can't blame him. Even if he;s in the wrong, she'd betrayed him as well. That's my job, she thinks, betraying people . . .



You're one of them now,' Kato says. It's only half a statement. He's trying it out to see what her reaction is. He hasn't a clue whose side she's on. Margarete doesn't confirm or deny, but keeps her face carefully blank. Now, the army is getting in Kato's way. His emotions tell him revenge, this bitch killed Kawashima, shoot her! By the army code he's had drummed into him, though, in this situation he ought to capture her and the Elliott girl, and return them to an army base. There, though, they'll both be executed anyway, as far as he knows. What difference will it make if it's me or a firing squad? He considers this studiously. That spy, she'll certainly get shot, and she'll be harder to capture than the other.



Agent Malkovich,' he says, he's never heard her real name, even. An army deserter. And you're in the way of our plans to capture Elliott. Well, you should know what happens to deserters by now. They get shot.' His voice is covered in false confidence and bravado. Margarete can tell he's terrified.

No,' Margarete retorts firmly. If she was going to give in now, she'd killed Kawashima for nothing. You aren't taking Alice.' Her voice is even and controlled. Inside her head it feels like she's screaming in anger. Gripping her pistol by her side for the second time, she feels a mix of nerves - this battle could well be her last- and calm resolve- now she has something she's sure of. She knows whose side she's on.



Kato can see she's going to fight over this. Now he's the lost one. He saw what happened to Kawashima, and he's all too well aware that it could be about to happen to him. But, his conscience reminds him, that's why he's here! What was the bloody point of being in the army in the first place if he isn't prepared to fight for his cause and die for his country? He loads his own gun. Sick with panic, he realises that this is it.



Margarete will die. Or he will. And he is absolutely determined never to let Japan down.




Spurred on by this thought, he squashes his terror and fires two quick, loud, echoing shots. Bullets flash through the air towards Margarete. She neatly sidesteps and whips her pistol up so it's pointing at Kato's head.



Deja vu. . . Kato realises it at the same time. This is a reflection of the earlier deadlock with Kawashima. Margarete decides not to think too much. That only makes battles worse. . .



She pulls the trigger and hopes for the best. Kato had been ready for that and ducks, jerking his head to the left and ending up in a crouch by one wall. The shots whizz past his right ear and smash through the cabin window. Glass explodes outwards onto the deck, propelled by the force of the bullets. Outside, the others rush to get out of the way. There's going to be more crossfire, this battle is fairer. Before, Kawashima had already been injured.




Kato jumps up from his position, immediately shooting again. He's a better fighter than she'd given him credit for, but not the best aim. These shots end up in the wood of the cabin wall, closer to Margarete's middle than she was comfortable with. This is getting harder, she realises. Why had she assumed he was untrained, unable to hold his own? He'd been in Kawashima's shadow every time she saw him, that's why. . .




Margarete fires blindly in his vague direction, hoping for the best, Quite what the best was she never did decide, but in a second it was too late. . .




It takes longer for Kato to die than it had for Kawashima. By some miracle, the bullet lodged in his chest, smashing and splintering his ribs. Kato collapses onto the floor, air rattling through a punctured lung. He chokes,with blood and phlegm bubbling around his lips. Then his body jerks violently, contorts, and suddenly relaxes into uncanny stillness.



Margarete stares at his corpse, the second life she's taken today. . . It's a shame, she thinks, he'd have been a good soldier. . .



Outside, Alice is staring over the ocean. In the misty distance, the mountains of a Japanese island are only just visible. On the other side of the boat, the tall buildings and busy port of Shanghai are coming into view.




Yuri stands by her side, facing the other way, watching events intently. His eyes fix on Margarete, blood spattered down her coat, standing quietly over the body of Kato.




Oh shit,' he breathes. They're really gonna have it in for us now.'






I'm sorry for two things. One is that that chapter just sucked. The other is that this took so long to update. I knew it was gonna take ages. . . And certain details don't work. I haven't really got much of a clue, actually, there might be a place where you can see Shanghai and Japan at the same time. From maps, it seems maybe only just, on a VERY clear day. . . And as you can all see I can't write action scenes to save my life. Why the hell did I START this story? I wonder if I'll gain any readers this time? Please review, if you're reading this. Anyone? ^^ It won't take quite this long for next chapter. . .