*Cough* Hello. About this story… it is my first story thus far where the formatting is not fixed, allowing you to have input as to where it goes, pairings if any, etcetera.

Oh, and… I wouldn't make Ryu die so easily! Who do you think I am? Onward!

*

Gods, he looked so peaceful. She had never seen him look so calm, so… human.

Even still, she let tears splash down her cheeks. She cared for him, even if they didn't always get along well. "You know, we might have been on bad terms sometimes, but I never wanted you dead," she whispered, cradling his motionless body, stroking his hair.

A lump was forming in her throat. Suddenly, she heard bracken breaking and snapped around to face a somewhat familiar face.

"Bayman. What the hell are you doing here?" she hissed, angrily brushing away the tears on her cheeks, standing up.

"What's it to you?" his voice was still as brusque as she remembered it. "Crying over your boyfriend?" he asked, gesturing to the body on the ground.

"Did you do it?" she reached behind her, for her katana. "It was you, wasn't it?"

He shrugged casually. "Donovan wanted him. I wanted to make Donovan suffer. He could not get what he wanted once in a while,"

"So you killed him," Insatiable rage was beginning to consume her senses. "Just because you wanted to settle a grudge,"

"Pretty much,"

"That's not good enough!" she screeched into the forest, lunging blindly at him with her katana in hand. He easily dodged, grabbing her and putting her into a tight head-lock.

"You're not good enough to beat me, little girl,"

"I'm a kunoichi," she struggled to pull away, and couldn't. "And I never say never. Mores to the point, I am more then skilled enough to defeat you,"

The assassin had made one foolish error: Forget about her right hand, which just so happened to be holding the katana.

She grinned savagely as she stabbed it into his arm. He immediately pulled away, loosening his grip around her neck. He glared at her, nursing his arm.

"I'll be back for you, little kunoichi. Mark my words,"

"Mark this,"

She grabbed a sharp stick lying on the ground and threw it blindly at the assassin, spearing his arm. "Mark my words; I'll be avenging his death. Painfully,"

She watched him run off into the forest before turning back to the prone body lying so peacefully on the leaves.

"Trust you to even die so close to nature," the adrenaline rush gave way to the consuming sadness once more. "Now I see. Funny how death does that. Makes you see things. You really were just trying to protect me, even if it was in your own eccentric way,"

Gods, he looked so… beautiful. Hair framing his face. Excluding wound, he looked like he was asleep. Damn. Thinking a corpse is beautiful… gods, how could anyone do this just for something so stupid? Why are men always so stubborn when it comes to maintaining their pride? Every single man I've met… pride just drives them.

"Hayabusa-san, I will avenge your death," she whispered, before bending down and lightly kissing his cool cheek. "Mark my words,"

With that, she disappeared in a breeze of sakura petals, with a new cause to life.

*

He winced as yet another needle stabbed into his arm. "Is this really necessary?" he managed to get out before he was silenced abruptly by a hand covering his mouth briefly, before withdrawing as the owner turned to adjust some chemicals.

"Of course. Not that I expect you to understand, being the fool you are,"

He shook his head. "Donovan. I never assumed that you would go to such lengths to achieve power. Seems foolish to me,"

"You are too arrogant for your own good," Another needle came into his line of vision.

"Arrogance is better then weakness,"

"True, true," Donovan laughed dryly. "Fool or not, we certainly do agree on some things. Even though it seems like we come from two different worlds,"

"Yes. One sane, one not," he muttered under his breath.

"One more, and then we'll all be done," Donovan was sounding so cheerful today. It instantly made him wary. "Done for the day, that is,"

"What is the use of these, may I ask?"

"No, you may not,"

If he hadn't have been bound, he would have drummed his fingers on the table. "Don't tell me, something else to further advance your no doubt megalomaniacal plans for gaining power. Am I correct?"

Donovan laughed; a cruel, harsh laugh that made him shudder involuntarily. "Yet again. Perhaps you really aren't as foolish as the rest of them. Although you sacrificed your own freedom for someone else's. That was foolish of you,"

"I couldn't protect her before," his voice was soft, his eyes fixated on nothing. "So it was my duty to protect her this time," With that, he made contact with the man in front of him once more. "Not that it matters. You have your lab-rat. What else do you want?"

"World power and lots more clones," Donovan grinned. "Ryu Hayabusa,"