Hola! I'm back with a new chapter! This story is going to start to take a major turn from being more romantic to being more dramatic. On the other hand, Halloween is coming! I can't wait! I think I might write a Tekken Halloween special, but I'm not sure...Anyway, thank you to all that reviewed! Please continue! I hope you like this chapter!
Disclaimer: I don't own Tekken or any of its' characters. Sigh
Bonds of LoveLing felt the wind get knocked out of her. The pain was instantaneous, and she coughed up blood from the extremely powerful hit. She stumbled backwards, and black spots were spinning in front of her eyes. She almost collapsed, but something inside her drove her onwards, despite the pain. He came at her again, red eyes glinting like the fiery pits of hell, and a smile plastered on his face. He's enjoying this! Angered by her realization, she lunged forward and caught him in the side of his head with a right punch. It didn't seem to effect him much, and he came back after her, grinning like the devil himself. Ling dodged his ferocious punches, jumping when he tried to trip her. The fight continued like this, with Ling masterfully dodging his attacks. Something about his style felt familiar, and Ling suddenly thought, his fighting style is almost exactly like Jin's! She suddenly smiled as his moves took on patterns that were relatively easy to read. After all, how many times had she fought Jin and watched him train?
Wisely, she chose not to launch an offensive. It would use up too much energy, and she always lost to Jin after she made an attack. She would wait for him to make a mistake, then she would attack. Ling waited, dodging, but everything about his style was perfect. He left no space for an opening, and Ling felt the sudden urge to run away. He finally landed a hit on her, sending her flying to the ground with a yelp of pain. Before he could hit her again she rolled to the side and flipped up. Her ankle gave a sharp pain. It wasn't ready for fighting on this level again. She kicked him as hard as she could, and it sent him stumbling back a bit. He laughed at her as he regained his footing, and that dreadful sound sent prickles of fear running up Ling's spine.
He lunged at her, and Ling barely skidded out of the way in time. I have to do something fast. I can't keep this up for much longer. The black spots came back into motion as she thought this, forming critical blind spots. Jin's father continued his assault and Ling was left with no time to think. All there was time for was dodging. He aimed a kick straight at her stomach, and Ling jumped onto his outstretched leg, trying the same move she had against Julia, and using her momentum to carry her over his head. It worked, but when Ling landed her ankle gave out and she crashed to the floor. Jin's father calmly walked up to her, and Ling felt overrun by fear. She tried to get u, but Jin's father stepped on her back. Utterly defeated, she hardly even bothered to move her body when he lifted her up by the collar to see her eye to eye. Her limbs were dead from over exertion, and she felt extremely fortunate not to have any broken bones, or worse. She starred into burning red eyes, and they critically analyzed her.
"My son found a girl. This is quite the development..." His voice was deep and sounded almost like Jin's, but there was something wrong with it, as if he were truly evil. "I wonder, do you think he'd hate me even more if I snapped your skinny neck in half?" He grinned and moved his arm to her neck. Ling cringed back in fear, but there was nothing she could do. "No, I think it'd be better if I suffocated you to death. That is supposed to be one of the most painful ways to die." His cold hand started to apply pressure to her neck, and Ling felt her air supply cut off. The black spots returned with a vengeance, and Ling's body came to life. Her legs kicked at him and her hands desperately clawed at his hands and arms. This did nothing but leave deep crescent marks on his hands, the same hideous shade as his eyes. Her lungs exploded as she gasped for air, for beautiful life, and her hand brushed the handle of her dagger. Could I? She thought.
Time seemed to pause as she lifted the dagger from its' sheath. With one final burst of strength, she grabbed the dagger and plunged it into his upper arm, where it met his shoulder. She saw his eyes widen in pain as he let go of her, and she slowly fell to the ground without him to hold her up. On her way down she saw Jin and time seemed to stop. Jin's eyes were as red as his father's, and besides the claws, tattoos marked his body, along with a pair of raven black wings that sprouted from his back, and a menacing jewel in the center of his forehead. Oh my God! Then things sped back up, and Ling felt her head hit the floor with a menacing crack. There was an explosion of pain, and then things painfully faded to a deep black.
Jin slowly got up from the floor. To his side he saw a girl falling to the ground. Their eyes met, and for a brief instant that seemed like a small eternity, his hatred faded away to be replaced with a different emotion he couldn't quite place. Then the girl's head hit the floor and the connection was lost. The hatred returned, and it was all focused on one person, his father. Jin lunged at him and sliced open his chest. The man backed away and then laughed. The sound was horrible, and only made Jin want to kill this man faster.
His father laughed and cackled, "what an interesting development. It seems I passed this gene on to my son." He walked forward, and when he got to the girl he brutally kicked her body across the floor. For some reason this angered Jin, and he glared back up at his father. His father cackled once again, and Jin glared at him. He prepared an attack, but stopped suddenly. Before him his father was transforming into a creature that looked exactly like him. "Until next time, Jin." With that last warning he flew up through the ceiling. Jin started to follow him, but a moan from the girl stopped him. She was regaining conscientiousness, and a large pool of blood littered the floor around her. He gently scooped her into his arms, and her hazy chocoate-brown eyes looked up at him. She raised a hand to stroke his face, but than coughs racked her small, fragile body, and blood poured from her mouth.
Fear seized him, and he hardly realized that he had transformed back into a human. "Ling!" he cried out. She continued to hack up blood, and he decided not to waste time. Taking off at a sprint, he carried the semi-conscious girl out of the building. Some detached part of him noticed both an unconscious Hwoarang and Julia, but he was more worried for the one he held in his arms. Coughing up blood was never a good sign.
Heihachi saw them, and members of the Tekkenshu rushed forward to treat her. Heihachi walked over to him and asked, "what happened? Why are my three other fighters brutally injured while you only have a few bruises and a small cut on your arm?" Should I tell him the truth? He looked up at Heihachi and decided not to tell him how he could transform into that... thing.
"I don't know. All four of us were communicating over the ear-pieces when Julia screamed and her signal went dead. She had time to warn us that they were doing a search of the building. Then they found me. One of them shot at me, but they missed. I knocked them all out, but then I fell unconscious as well. From what I think happened, Hwoarang went next, leaving only Ling. She destroyed the DVD and met up with Julia and Hwoarang, but when I met up with them that man appeared. I said that I would take him and for the others to go on ahead. Ling stayed, and after he defeated me they fought and he beat the shit out of her. Then he turned back on me. Then he left, and that's about it."
Heihachi nodded and seemed to buy his story. One of the physicians came up to him and whispered something to Heihachi. Heihachi told him, "Julia, Hwoarang, and Ling all have pretty bad concussions. Ling also has some internal bleeding from trauma to the abdomen. We have to leave, now."
Hwoarang groggily woke up. His head was killing him, and he felt a bandage on his head. "Urgh..." he groaned. He looked to his side and saw Ling on a hospital bed. There was a bandage around her head, and some strange equipment hooked up to her. Turning to his right he saw that Julia was also unconscious, but her condition, thankfully, wasn't as serious. What the hell happened to us? He thought. Then he remembered the mission.
He had just sent Ling back to Jin. His head was pounding, and he was dizzy. Julia felt heavier with every step, and it took him a long time to get outside. Each time he wanted to stop, he looked down at Julia's unconscious face. It was his motivation. He could keep going for her. He finally managed to tumble into the alley Heihachi had agreed to meet them at. Exhausted he handed Julia to the Tekkenshu. With his motivation taken away from him, the world started to spin, and Hwoarang welcomed the blackness that engulfed his mind.
Hwoarang looked up at the calendar. July 9, 2004. It had been three days since that mission. Finally noticing he was awake, one of the nurses scampered over to him. She was wearing a badge that told him that she worked for the Mishima Hospital. "Mr. Hwoarang, you shouldn't be up. Stay in bed, and I'll bring you some food." Now that she mentioned it, he was starving. After he ate the food she brought him he read a hospital magazine. It was old, and extremely boring, but it was better than nothing. At about 2:30 Jin came in. Hwoarang nodded to him, and Jin did the same in response. Then he began to speak.
"The doctor was worried. All of you were supposed to wake up after two days at the most." He looked sorrowfully over at Ling, and Hwoarang noticed that his eyes were bloodshot, and he had shadows under his eyes. He seemed miserable. "You really care for her, don't you?" Hwoarang asked. Jin nodded and added, "but these things are always doomed." Hwoarang stared at him, and a silence filled the air. In the silence Jin and Hwoarang came to a silent understanding. "So, Kazama, why don't you show her how much you care?" Jin tensed up, but he turned to Hwoarang. "She knows, if that's what you're talking about." The silence filled the air again, but this time it was filled with tension. Hwoarang was trying to figure out why people like Jin and Ling served Heihachi. He would never of expected a kind looking couple like them to serve a madman. Jin was stroking Ling's pale hand, and looking on in sadness at the equipment attached to her unconscious form. Suddenly his mind was brought back to something Jin had said during the mission, when that man had appeared.
"What did you mean by father?" he asked. Jin turned and looked at him, anger in his eyes, but he answered in an angry tone, "my father left my mother five years ago. I hadn't seen him since." Hwoarang could sense the anger and sadness in his throat and replied, "sorry." He wisely decided not to pry any further, and he went back to reading his magazine. The sad mood eventually became too much for Hwoarang, so he jokingly said, "Kazama, you better get used to this room, because when I kick your ass you're going to be seeing this room a lot." Kazama smiled and replied, "you're the one who's going to be seeing this room a lot. That is, unless I kick your ass back to Korea." Both Jin and Hwoarang laughed at this, and amongst all the chaos, an unlikely friendship was born.
Julia awoke suddenly, and her head hurt like Hell. She heard laughter, and she turned to see Jin and Hwoarang sharing a laugh. She smiled and said, "hi guys." Hwoarang turned to her, and he let out a broad, true, smile. "Hi," he replied. Julia looked around and noticed that one member of their team was missing. "Where's Ling?" she asked.
Hwoarang's smile dimmed slightly dimmed, and he moved to the side so she could see. Ling was hooked up to several devices, and she was still unconscious. "Oh," she whispered softly. Even though she had only known the girl for a short time, Julia respected her. She could tell that Ling was a good person. She stood up, and ignoring the wave of nausea that swept over her, she sat in a chair next to Ling. "I guess we should wait for her to get up then."
Ling groggily shook they black spots from her vision. Everything was blurry, but as it cleared up she could see three figures over her head, Jin Hwoarang, and Julia. As her body regained feeling she felt Jin's large warm hand over hers. Then the pain came. Ling moaned, it was everywhere. Her arms and legs felt like lead, her head ached, and her stomach felt like someone had taken a drill to it.
"How are you feeling?" Julia asked softly. Jin was staring at her with concerned eyes, and Ling could see the dark shadows under his eyes from lack of sleep. "Fine," she managed. She managed to sit up, and she brought a hand to her stomach. "How long has it been?" she asked. "Five days," Hwoarang answered. "You were suffering from a concussion and internal bleeding." Julia told her. Ling nodded.
For the rest of the day the four people conversed. Because of the mission that had almost ended in tragedy, they had a deep bond form between them. Ling learned a lot about her friends that day. Julia was a native American, and both she and Hwoarang both spoke several languages, including English and Chinese! Jin admitted that he too spoke English, and Ling told them that she spoke some, but she was far from fluent. Julia agreed to give her lessons, and the rest of the day was filled with laughter, a rare treat for Ling nowadays. She was able to forget about Heihachi and everything for a while, and she felt like a regular teenager.
The next day was even better. The doctor informed her that the internal bleeding had completely stopped, and that all three of them were free to go home. They walked into the manor, chatting amiably, but Heihachi confronted them before they could head upstairs.
"Glad to see you're all OK. Can you fight yet?" Ling shook her head no. "The doctor said that we should wait a few days until we do anything to physical." Heihachi nodded and told them, "good. In that case I want to inform you of your next mission." Ling gaped. Next mission! We just got back from the hospital! She seethed with anger, but Heihachi failed to notice this as he continued. "I'm sending you to Egypt. You are to accompany the Tekkenshu to a large pyramid somewhere around there. Your maps and everything else will be given to you tomorrow. We are leaving for Egypt in one week. That should give you time to heal and train. Do not tell anyone about this. Understood." Ling watched as they all nodded. Julia and Hwoarang seemed somewhat pale, and Jin and Ling's confused gazes met.
"Heihachi, what are we doing in Egypt?" Ling asked. Heihachi glared at her and replied, "that's for me to know girl. If you value your family at all, you won't question what I tell you to do." Ling heard Julia gasp and say, "Mr. Mishima, that's blackmail! It's illegal! I could report you to the cops for that!" Heihachi laughed and replied, "go ahead. I own the cops." Julia turned a horrified face to Ling who simply nodded. Heihachi walked away, and the four were left alone. "Ling," she asked, "what's this all about." Ling gulped and looked at Jin who shrugged and said, "they were bound to find out anyway." Ling turned back to Julia and began her story.
"About three weeks ago, I was kidnapped by Mishima Corporations to be used as one of their fighters. I was transported here from China, where I was forced to do anything Heihachi tells me. If I don't, he kills my family. Jin is kind of the same. Heihachi's his grandfather, and five years ago when his father abandoned them Heihachi kidnapped his mother. Now if Jin doesn't do as he's told, his mother dies."
As she finished her story, both Julia and Hwoarang looked appalled. Ling turned her head to the side, ashamed. Jin glared at them, as if daring them to question the story. Julia and Hwoarang exchanged glances, and Julia muttered, "sorry." Ling nodded, and walked up to her room. She heard the others follow her up, and from her room she heard three doors open and three doors close. Startled, she realized one of the doors was her own.
She watched Jin sit next to her on her bed. Like those many other times when Ling needed him he was there, and he embraced her tightly. She returned the embrace and inhaled his wonderful sent. She tucked her head into the crook of his neck and clutched his shirt with her arms. He leaned away from her slightly and gently pushed her off of him. "Ling, everything will be okay." He pulled her in for a sweet kiss, and Ling truly felt hopeful that maybe it would all get better. When they broke the kiss Ling sighed and climbed into Jin's lap. He wrapped his muscular arms around her, and Ling thought, perhaps things will get better.
Meanwhile, Julia had crept into Hwoarang's room. "You know what he's planning by going to Egypt, don't you?" Hwoarang nodded and then asked, "so, do you think it will be a good opportunity to grab the necklace?" Julia sighed and answered, "it may be our only opportunity. Do you think we should tell Jin or Ling?" She watched as Hwoarang shook his head no. "We don't know if they're telling the truth. They probably are, but we don't know for sure. Even if they are, we can't trust them to not tell Heihachi. He might threaten their families. No, we keep this to ourselves, and when the time comes, we take the necklace and leave. We can't let anyone get in the way." Julia nodded and said, "well then, good night." She silently crept back to her room and contemplated what had happened today. God, our simple plan is getting more and more complicated with everyday we spend here.
So, you like? What do you think? Please R&R! Thanx!
Reina-183
