Quick note: Asked about where this fits into the SF canon, here's my reply: It takes place after SF3 and most of the events in the SF series. Though I'm trying my hardest to keep it concurrent with Capcom's storyline (even with all their retrochanging of old storylines), I'm sure I'll have to take a few liberties to make the story work. If you notice any horrible discrepancies, please let me know and I'll do my best to change it.

Street Fighter: Destiny Wind
Original Fanfiction by: Ichabod Crofte

Chapter Two: A New Beginning

Filisur, Switzerland
Swiss Alps
January 5, 2001

Chun-Li bent down to pet the tiny puppy that was sniffing her ankles curiously. Wagging its tale furiously, it licked her hand appreciatively. The former Interpol agent held her wide-brimmed sunhat to her head as a cold wind swept down the street.

"I'll be you're not cold," she grinned at the puppy. "This is just your sort of weather."

She nodded and thanked the old woman to whom the dog belonged, and was on her way. Chun-Li closed her eyes and sucked in the cool, crisp, alpine air. It was a great day to be alive. More than most could ever hope to be, Chun-Li was thankful to be alive.

The girl veered into the alleyway where she had left her bicycle. Fastening her shopping bags brimming with colorful, handmade bracelets to the handlebars, she sped off up the cobble streets, through a honeycomb of crimson-roofed buildings and up absurdly declivitous slopes that most grown men would avoid, her strong legs pumping the peddles of the bike effortlessly.

As she neared her small cottage on the hillside, the corners of her mouth widened into an enormous grin. There, parked upon the grass a few yards from the verandah, was a military jeep. And that could only be one person.

Chun-Li jumped off the bicycle and dashed for the house, her excitement growing with each step. The front door opened, and the muscle-bound, clean-cut figure of Guile appeared.

"GUILE!" Chun-Li squealed like a twelve year old girl. "Oh my God! I can't believe you're here! I mean after all, it's been so long and...well you know, we haven't spoken since the incident and so much has happened and there's been so little time to write and-"

"It's good to see you too, kiddo," Guile cut in as Chun-Li threw her arms around Guile's shoulders and hugged him.

"What're ya doing here?" she queried.

"You're a difficult woman to track down, Chun-Li," Guile smirked, "but apparently military intelligence still has some merit. You look good, as usual."

"Yeah, so do you Guile!" Chun-Li said, still shocked by her former comrade's sudden appearance.

"You dropped off the face of the planet," Guile went on. "You didn't think I wouldn't try and find out where you'd gone, did you?"

Chun-Li shook her head in disbelief. "Wow...Guile. Incredible."

Guile nodded, waiting for the amazement to wear off.

"Yeah, it was complicated," Chun-Li said, almost sadly.

"Wanna tell me about it?" Guile asked.

"Of course," replied the former Interpol agent. "C'mon inside."

Guile found it extremely difficult to suppress a silly smile as he looked around Chun-Li's cottage. This was a city girl living in a tiny, quaint, two-room cabana in the middle of the Swiss Alps. A city rat living in a farmhouse, he chuckled to himself. Chun-Li picked up on his astonishment easily.

"I know what you're thinking," Chun-Li said, placing the shopping bags she'd brought in from outside on the mahogany table in the center of the room. She crossed the room and threw open all of the shutters as she spoke. "Chun-Li: city rat gone field mouse."

Guile blanched. "Er...that's exactly what I was thinking," he admitted, running a hand through his hair which quickly (and impossibly) returned to its irregular shape.

"I know," the girl smiled. "We've always been on the same wavelength, you and I, haven't we?" she giggled. "But you know, you can get used to this life. It's quiet, tranquil, and unhurried."

"Sleepy, boring and dull," Guile added. "It must have been something massive that drove you all the way out here."

Chun-Li sighed, looking almost teary-eyed. "You remember that dojo I started after I rescued that girl from Urien?"

Guile nodded.

"Even after you and I destroyed the core of Shadowlaw, there were still Shadowlaw cells functioning completely independently of Bison. When I was away giving a presentation for Interpol, they came and destroyed the dojo. Some of the bodies were never found."

Chun-Li began to sob. "I...I killed them, Guile... They came for me, and they killed those children instead."

Guile took Chun-Li into his arms and held her close to him. "It's like I told you, Chun. It never really ends. Evil sleeps, but it never dies. That's why I keep on fighting. As long as I've got my tags and a breath in my body, I'll put my fists to good use."

The Chinese girl sank down into one of the chairs. "I...I couldn't do it anymore Guile. I couldn't put those who were close to me in danger. So, with the cooperation of Interpol, I faked my own death, and came to live my life quietly here."

"Quietly?" Guile muttered, his eyes scanning across the laptop computers, dossiers, envelopes, printouts, and documents that were sprawled across her desks. "Looks like you've been quite the busy ex I.C.P.O. agent." He walked over to one of the trestles. Upon it were various passports, wads of assorted international currency, and picture identification cards. Beneath it was a suitcase. "Going somewhere?" asked the military officer who was now a major.

Chun-Li's eyes tracked to Guile's discovery. "I guess I never really gave up the hope that someday I would find the real mastermind behind Shadowlaw," she said quietly, half to herself. "I had always thought it would end with Bison. But Bison was only the beginning."

"What do you know?" said Guile sternly.

"Some old buddies of mine at Interpol in charge of Asiatic crime had been monitoring Thai chat rooms on the internet since the new millennium. They eventually encountered something they thought was particularly unusual."

"What did they find?"

"Recipes for spicy Thai cuisine."

"So?"

"The numbers in the recipes were sequences of prime numbers. One of I.C.P.O.'s advanced computer algorithms for code breaking revealed that it was actually some sort of Fibonacci morse code."

"In English for those who don't speak cyber geek, Chun-Li."

"When the numbers were unscrambled," the ex Interpol agent went on determinedly, "they were times, dates, and locations, and one high level order to withdraw $1.5 billion from a bank account. Agents in the field report that both Balrog and Vega have both popped up on the grid in Thailand. Coincidentally, a week after that report, an offshore bank account in Grand Cayman reported a sizeable withdrawal of exactly $1.5 billion dollars. We found that the account belonged to a company that we had long suspected was a Shadowlaw front. The account had remained dormant since Bison was destroyed."

Guile glared at Chun-Li. "You're not seriously thinking about going after these guys again, are you?"

A cold wind blew through the windows, howling through the small atrium of the cottage. The candles flickered.

"Shadowlaw...Bison...took everything I ever had," said Chun-Li. "Everything I ever loved or cared for was destroyed by Bison or his goons. I had given up on trying to finish them off, Guile, when all I could find were dead ends. But this is a fresh start. A new beginning."

Guile walked over to Chun-Li, resting his heavy hands upon her shoulders. "You can't do this, kiddo," he said. "I can't let you. You've had too many close calls with these Shadowlaw creeps."

"Yet here I am. Alive."

"For now," Guile countered darkly. "Besides, you've been in these mountains for months. You haven't been training at all. You know Shadowlaw associates sharpen their skills relentlessly."

Chun-Li pushed Guile's hands aside with a swift swipe of her leg.

"I'm going," resolved Chun-Li. "And you're not going to stop me."

"You act as if you have nothing to loose," Guile shot back.

"Have I?" retorted the other.

Guile looked hurt. But it was clear there was little he could say or do to prevent Chun-Li from going once more into the east on what was clearly a suicidal blood hunt. But Guile wasn't ready to loose Chun-Li. Not again.

"Then I'm going with you," he said finally.

"Don't be stupid," said Chun-Li, walking over to the table cluttered with all of her research. She began to pack her bags.

"Look, Chun-Li," said Guile firmly. "If this personal vendetta of yours is really what you want, you're gonna need my help. You can't take all of Shadowlaw's soldiers solo. You know that. I know you've lost a lot of loved ones to Bison, but so have I. If we go after Shadowlaw, we go after them together."

Chun-Li's shoulders sagged as she breathed a long sigh. She turned around, a mischievous grin on her face. Guile felt dread stir in the pit of his stomach.

"Fight ya for it?" Chun-Li quipped.

Guile bent down and tightened his shoelaces.

"You're on, kiddo!" he smirked.