"Well, I'm here," Julia murmured to herself, staring up at a dark and abandoned old warehouse.

Keeping alert, she stealthily crept into the ruined warehouse.

The thought of this being a trap never crossed her mind. She had just been so anxious to find out where her mother was and she knew she could trust Jin.

"Jin?" She called out, trying to adjust her eyesight to the dark surrounding her.

"Jin?" She called again.

The lights were suddenly switched on. The glare of the bright light made her throw her hands over her eyes in hope of escaping blindness.

In this moment of vulnerability, Julia felt a pair of strong hands roughly shove her to the ground.

She regained her composure as well as her eyesight and glared up at . . . Ling and another young redheaded Korean man who Julia didn't recognise.

He must have been at least a couple of years older than Ling herself.

Struggling to get up, Julia heard Ling laugh at her. "What's the rush? You're gonna be here for a very long time," her eyes narrowed.

"Look, Ling, I'm so sorry for what I did to you . . ." Julia started.

"It's too late for any of that crap," Ling snapped, then clicked her fingers.

Immediately, a gang of masked people surrounded her.

Ling smiled with satisfaction, then turned to the redheaded Korean, "Hwoarang – you can take it from here!"

Julia was outraged. "You bought me here just so you could get SOMEONE ELSE to attack me? You can't even do it yourself," Julia shook her head, "Wow, that's low. Even for someone like you!"

Ling's eyes flashed with rage. "Kill that bitch and make it painful." With that, she strode away – found herself a comfortable seat and sat down ready to watch Julia suffer. She started to file her nails to occupy herself. 

The man called Hwoarang signalled to his masked gang, not meeting Julia's gaze.

"What? So you're just gonna follow orders?" Julia said in disbelief.

"Any friend of Kazama's is an enemy of mine," Hwoarang said coldly.

"Pathetic," Julia looked around her in repulsion.

"Little girl. I think you're in no position to throw insults," he motioned to his gang, which stood around her in a tight ring, outnumbering her.

Julia bristled. She hated being patronized and especially hated being referred to as a 'little girl'.

Burning with anger, she instinctively sprung into a powerful kick, putting as much force as she could behind it. As through her training, she had perfected this technique with excellent accuracy.

Stunned, he fell to the floor from the sheer impact of her kick. Seeing that his defence was down, Julia seized her chance and broke free of her captors.

But, she didn't escape for long. Two of Hwoarang's gang had caught her and now held her back.

He faced her, while she continued to glare. "You fight almost as well as a man," he said, his voice was dripping with sarcasm.

She narrowed her eyes. "Funny. I was going to say the same thing about you!"

Anger flashed across his face and in one swift movement, he charged at her – slamming her back against a wall. She gasped as she felt the breath being knocked out of her.

"I'd hate to ruin your pretty face, so let's just skip the retorts," he snarled.

"You're scum," she spat, shaking her head in disgust.

His eyes narrowed and his hand tore down, ripping her skirt in one single jerk, she gasped as she felt his cold hands against her bare midriff. With that, he forcefully threw her to the floor.

Trying to shake the dizziness, that was invading her head, away – Julia found she was too weak to get up.

Hwoarang's gang surrounded her. Julia squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the pain. Very faintly, before she fell unconscious, she heard Hwoarang whisper, "I'm sorry. I didn't have any other choice." 

Jin was restless. He couldn't sit still or concentrate on anything. All he could keep thinking about was Julia. The way she had smiled at him today . . . Jin shook his head, trying not to become distracted by the image of her beauty.

Suddenly, an image of another girl appeared in his head; Ling. The decent thing to do was to let her know that he just wasn't interested in her, rather than go behind her back with Julia.

Jin sighed and looked at the clock. It was kinda late but he knew he wouldn't be able to think about anything else if he left it till morning. 

He made his way over to Ling's house. He knocked on the door but found it opened easily.

Cautiously, he stepped inside, "Ling?"

No one was in. Sighing with annoyance, Jin ripped a piece of paper off a pad and grabbed a pen. The damn girl was always following him around till the point of him wanting to break her neck and the one second when he wanted to see her, she had vanished into thin air.

Jin sighed again as he scribbled a note. Suddenly, Ling's cat ran past his feet and screeched a terrified 'miaow'.

Startled, Jin tripped and knocked into Ling's answering machine. He had hit the "play" button.

Just as he was about to stop it playing, Hwoarang's voice filled the room, "Ling, it's me. You really sure you wanna go through with beating up this Chang girl? It sounds pretty harsh. Either way, see you in the warehouse in a few minutes."

Jin's eyes were filled with horror, his mouth open with shock. Without a minute's hesitation, he bolted out the door, praying that he wasn't too late.

Hwoarang looked away, feeling sick to the stomach as he watched his gang beat up some poor girl he had never even met before.

This was all HER fault. He glared at Ling, who was watching the scene with sick amusement and was still filing her damn nails. But what else could he do? She knew something about him, something about his past. Something that no one could ever find out. EVER.

"Oh god," Hwoarang uttered a horrified murmur as he turned back round to Julia.

She was lying, unconscious, blood poured down her temples and wounds covered her body.

"Please," he looked at Ling, restraining the urge to strangle her gloating face, "Give permission to stop this cruelty. She is past regaining consciousness."

Everything he had said to Julia and every action that he had performed had all been an act. True, that he despised Jin Kazama and would definitely stay away from his friends. Jin and Hwoarang were well known rivals, but this time he had had no choice.

Ling smirked at him. "I guess she's had her fair share of fun," with that, she clapped her hands, "boys!" They all backed away from Julia's defenceless form.

Normally, Hwoarang could take seeing people wounded and unconscious. He was a street fighter, usually fighting for justice (which usually involved "making money" off unfortunate foreigners) or any other case he found to be relevant.

"Go home, guys. It's been a productive day," Ling grinned cheerfully.

Hwoarang's gang looked at him to receive confirmation of Ling's order. Hwoarang nodded with a sigh.

Once they left, Hwoarang looked at Ling, "What are we gonna do with her?" he pointed to Julia.

Ling shrugged. "Just leave her here. She can go rot in hell for all I care."

"What's your deal? You've just got some guys to severely maim a girl and you're acting like you've just taken a walk in the park!" Hwoarang exclaimed.

"She was a major bitch. I did everyone a favour," Ling smiled.

Hwoarang shook his head. "You're the bitch," he muttered, "I can't believe I just helped you do this . . ."

"Maybe someone would like to shut the hell up right now if he doesn't want his god damn secret being exposed to the whole nation on the front of all the newspapers by tomorrow morning," Ling narrowed her eyes.

Seething, Hwoarang looked away, furious at the power she had over him.

He looked over at Julia again and wished he could phone for an ambulance.

Before he could let his thoughts torment him further, Jin Kazama burst in.

"What the hell have you done with her?" He shouted. His voice growled out his words.

"Oh, wow. It's the knight in shining armour to the rescue," Ling snarled, "only he's too late to save his princess."

Jin's eyes swept across the floor and locked onto Julia. He threw himself down and gently picked up her hand, "Julia – can you hear me?"

Ling laughed and ran out. "Have fun!"

Hwoarang looked desperately at Jin, "Look, I didn't want to do this . . ."

Jin growled, sprang up and held him by his throat, "But yet, you still did. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't rip you apart?"

Hwoarang pushed him back. "I don't need to justify myself to scum like you."

Jin's face furrowed in anger, with one angry shout, he attacked Hwoarang down to the ground.

Hwoarang knew now wasn't the time to fight back, wiping the blood from his swollen lip, he said, "Whatever reason I had, I know it wasn't one that could validate what I did," he was bound by honour to say the next part, "I'm sorry."

Jin looked at him. "Fine." Then he turned his attention back to Julia. "Julia?" He whispered.

"I'll help you get her to a hospital," Hwoarang offered. He knew he needed to do something.

Jin glared at him, looking like he was about to refuse the offer but shrugged, thinking that two people would be quicker to help save Julia.

Jin felt like crying as he ran his fingers down her face, her blood smeared onto his fingers as he did so. Julia's eyelids slowly started to flutter open and it hurt to open her mouth to form a word. "Jin . . ." she started weakly.

His eyes widened in surprise, "Julia!" he exclaimed happily.

Julia smiled and winced. "I hurt all over . . ."

"Ssh, don't worry. You'll be OK," Jin looked down, and whispered, "I love you Julia Chang."

If Julia weren't in so much pain, that would have been the happiest moment of her life. "I love you Jim Kazama!"

Jin smiled at the mention of his new nickname and gently, lifted her off the ground.

Hwoarang was already outside, gunning up the engine on his motorbike. Cradling Julia in his arms, Jin got onto the bike behind Hwoarang.

"Just drive and don't say a word," Jin told him.  Hwoarang sighed. He had no intention of doing anything else.