Disclaimer: Police officers are called derogatory names in this. I do not feel that way about cops, but any angry person would. In fact, my uncle is a cop… And he is cool. Also, there is use of some very strong language. More angry people talk. Continue if you wish.

This is for Ash and Doom-Song8, who loved Betrayed, so much. Thank you.

I loved my mother dearly. With no father to speak of, she was the only one I ever knew of. And influentially strong woman, I looked up to her as my only role model. She was the perfect role model, as a brave, witty, and righteous woman. All of my friends grew up looking up to her. She needeth no man to lead her. Her name was Miyazaki Sayuri, and she held her name proudly. Everyday she fought the obstacles of being a single mother stolidly. She was a single woman in a man's world fighting for herself and her child.

Every child fears losing a parent. In fact, as a child I used to run to my mother's room and climb into bed with her if I dreamed such. Just knowing she was there would make everything okay, and then I was able to sleep once again.

…………

Ikuya was a strange man, ominous to the point that I didn't trust him. He was part of the well known Red Dragon Syndicate. All that was, was the hyped up future Chinese Mafia, and everyone knew it. You couldn't take two steps without seeing a black coat with gold lining. Ikuya proudly showed his Red Dragon coat, he always wore it. The Red Dragons are evil, pure and simple… No one likes them, no one trusts them. They are murderers in every aspect, every last one of them have bounties on their heads, and they number in thousands. No one dares mess with them, for they are like brothers, and if you mess with one of them, you mess with the family. No one. Messes. With the family.

Just as no one trusts them they trust no one, and becoming a Red Dragon was like suicide, unless you were good enough. I wasn't one who was good enough, never trained for fighting in my life, never had the motivation to, never wanted to be a Dragon Dog.

…………

Today was a day unlike any other, however, I couldn't figure out why. I didn't know that today would change my life forever, it was the farthest thing from my mind. Today, to me, was grocery day, the day that I get food for the apartment that I shared with my mother. Just another average day for two average people.

As I exited the grocery store, something hit me. It caused my knees to buckle and my body to shake. I clenched my arms around the brown paper bag that I was previously holding on my hip. It was a horrible feeling to wash over me, a certain dizziness accompanied the feeling. Something bad was going to happen, something that I, nor any normal human being could even begin to comprehend. As far as I could tell, it was just a random depression. It happened all the time. It began when mother met Izuo, and it hasn't begun since. I suppose my wariness of him was too over whelming and it began to finally affect me. I didn't blame him for it, I blamed the fact that he was a filthy Red Dragon Dog.

When the feeling finally went away, my brain caught up, and my knees un buckled I took another step. I now had to see that my mother was okay. With a great rush, I turned the corner, heading down the street to the apartment building that housed our apartment. Something was not right, not right at all. It was all I could think of as I rushed as fast as I could with the groceries.

I finally reached apartment 21 B, and with shaking hands I opened the door. Everything was dead silent, but it looked fine. Mother should be home by now. No bothering to put the groceries down, I slipped off my shoes and continued on the hardwood floor into mother's bedroom. The door was closed, but still no noise. Still my hands were shaking as I knocked at the door. "Mother?" I called. No answer. I bit down hard on my lip, enough so it bled. There was no denying the over whelming fear that filled me and emanated from me.

I opened the door to what would then change my life. Due to the site before my eyes, I dropped the bag of groceries to the floor, the glass container in the bag shattering in slow motion. Time was slow from the moment on. The juice roared up violently and splashed back down as I ran past the fallen foods to my mother who was lying naked except for her own blood, which covered her and most of the floor. I ran to her and cradled her head in my lap, running my hand over her long ebony hair, hair that was like my own. Her hair and eyes I had, the ebony hair and the icy blue eyes were what showed us to be mother and daughter. "No mother! Don't leave me! This can't be happening!" It was like looking at an older version of myself, laying motionless, with a gash from the ribs down, indicating a sword. Sword… I leaned back some holding my mothers head in my lap, looking down into her icy eyes full of shock. If I'd only been there…I could have stopped the killer. This is my fault. Warm tears welled into my eyes and spilled down my cheek, into my hair and onto the floor, mixing with the blood, mixing the DNA that was a near match for mine. Tears and Blood. It was her blood on my legs, her blood covered my chest, her blood on my hands, and my blood in my mouth.

As I leaned back my hands brushed against a piece of paper. I gently set mother's head back down, picking the paper up with my hands.

...She knew too much...

Suddenly, I knew too much. Or I knew everything, and now I knew that I would go to the cops, lest I be considered a killer upon the finding of my mother's body. One way or another, I would join the Syndicate. I would find Izuo, and I would kill him. I would repay him for what he did to my mother, and to me. He took her life and I would take his, I would return the favor twice as violently.

I walked blankly to the phone, picked up the receiver and dialed the police.

"My mother's been murdered." I said stolidly into the receiver. "Apartment 21 B. You can trace the call." With that I hung up the phone and walked to the window, right hand over left elbow. The police's noisy sirens and flashing red and blue lights were there momentarily. They had to bust down the door when they came. They always do it. I turned to them slowly and blankly. "She's in there. I can tell you who murdered her, as well. Its so very obvious." I said. They looked at me as though I was the murderer, which I would believe too, at first glance If I weren't me right now. I was covered in head to toe in blood, some of it seeping from the self-inflicted lip wound.

After thorough inspection of the room and my mother's lifeless body, the cuffed me and brought me into an inspection room, after stitching up the nasty little wound upon my lower lip. Another man Joined my moments later, sitting across from me. I knew that the big mirror was a two way, so I turned to look at them. "I don't like people watching me." I said blankly.

"Why? You don't want others to see you confess? Is that it!" He shouted. I shook my head. Why was he getting offended and huffy? It wasn't his mother who had just been murdered. Then it sunk in. My mother had been murdered… I looked over at him with angry eyes.

"NO YOU DONUT MUNCHING MORON!" I shouted at him. He looked shocked, which almost made me smirk. I had changed more than I ever would in two seconds. The want for revenge makes you do that. "I hate people watching me when I'm about to cry! You act as though you're offended and it wasn't your mother, the only person who cared about you that was murdered! It was mine! My mother! I can never have that back now!" I shouted and nearly jumped from the table. "You treat me as a murderer when I'm the ONLY one who can tell you who it really was!" I shouted at him.

"Oh? And who was it?" He asked. He had become cocky. He was the bad cop, but I was glad I didn't get the two-faced good cop. I closed my eyes.

"His name is Ikuya, Ikuya Kimura. " I said. "You want him, go the Red Dragon Syndicate and get him." I said sternly. I knew it wouldn't happen, and now that they knew it wasn't me, I was free from them.

"Alright, tell us what happened." He said. Now he had become the good cop.

Schizophrenic bastard...

"I was going home from work, and it was my turn to by the groceries. So I stopped at McAllister's groceries as I always do." I said. I wasn't in any shock it all. This must have seemed strange to them, but I had other things on my mind. Revenge. Knowing that my mother's killer would not be brought to justice, I was already plotting. The police wont touch the Syndicate, I knew that well. I was glad for that, because I wanted to personally deliver a hot plate of vengeance to that bastard. I wanted to kill him, not some injection. I would kill him just as he did her. He would pay, I would make sure of it. "I can't tell you a time, I don't remember. However, you can check with Ezekiel, he was the cashier." I said.

"Go on." He said. Now he was being sweet. I wanted to kill him…

"I paused in the street for a few minutes, then continued home. I walked in, took my shoes off, and went to my mother's room. I bit my lip," I said and paused long enough to point at the stitches, " I opened the door. That's when I saw her and dropped the bags at the door. The pickles broke… I ran to my mother and picked her head up, got covered in her blood. Upon leaning back, I touched the note that you probably found." I said stoically.

"You don't sound upset. Why is that?" He asked. Bad cop. Bad cop, no donut.

"Look, you still think I'm her killer, you can just piss off you fat jackass." I said straightly. His eyes widened at my potty mouth. I sighed some. "I'm just thinking about how none of you are going to get your asses up from that donut shop and do anything about my mother's murder. Thanks for making a difference." I said, my last line dripping with sarcasm. For another hour, we went back and forth until they knew I was innocent. I was allowed a shower and released. I scrubbed my skin and scalp to almost rawness, as if I could escape and forget what had happened. As if I was scrubbing myself out of a child's nightmare, a child's very detailed and complicated nightmare. I had to face the facts. It was all real. I walked away that day with an all new look at life. However, it wasn't a very happy one.

…………

Three years I trained. I honed and perfected my skills as hand to hand combat and swordsmanship until no one around could face me. Not a day went by in those three years where I didn't think of my mother…and Izuo. From 19 to twenty-two I trained. Some days I nearly passed out from lack of sleep and energy, and yet I pushed myself until I could push no more. I was ready. Of course ready would have to wait, as it took three more months to try to find out where the HQ was. Once I found out I was off.

I don't know how I got the means to get there, but I did. Seeing Red Dragon HQ for the first time was amazing. Well, in all technicality, it wasn't the actual headquarters. It was only a mobile sect of the Syndicate. Taking it all in at once would be hard to do, my head was spinning at the sites as it was. I didn't even notice all of the men pointing weapons at me. Oh Joy. Many men surrounded me and even went to the extra length to put their swords to my neck. More joy. There was another one coming at me. Still. More. Joy. Slowly I raised my head to look to a man with silver hair walking toward me. This was the sect leader. I could tell because many of the others bowed their pathetic little heads to him. I looked at him strait faced as he reached to his katana. Raising a slender black brow, never quivering.

"What business do you have here, girl?" He snapped.

"Plenty." I said bravely and calmly. "Firstly, I am no girl. I am a woman. A woman named Kasumi Miyazaki, and I wish to be a Red Dragon Dog." I sneered. He looked upon me with dark, menacing eyes, and grabbed my wrist, dragging me off. We passed by about eight doors, stopping at the ninth one. The silver haired man, with blatant disregard for my safety, shoved my into the door. I landed against a hard surface, and slid to the cod floor. I sat there for about five minutes, thinking how rude it was of him, before groping around the dark room for a switch.

Finally my hand passed over one, and I flicked it. Instantly the room came to life before my eyes. Unfortunately, it was an incredibly…dull…life. The room was furnished with a cot in the corner, what I guessed was a closet, and then on the wall adjacent, a bathroom. Oh how exciting it must be to be a Red Dragon Dog. I paced over to the door and attempted futilely to open it. It was locked from the outside. "What the? WHAT KIND OF BLODDY DOOR LOCKS FROM THE OUTSIDE?" I shouted angrily. With a sigh I walked over and plopped onto cot. Not even a damned magazine to pass the time.

Half an hour later, who had now become my night in shining armor from my ennui came. It was that sinister silver-haired, dark-eyed guy. I looked at him, half expected to be pulled by my wrist to somewhere, but he grunted what sounded like 'come' which is what I did. The man led me down several corridors, and through a big swinging metal door. As I looked around this new room, I could tell that it was some sort of dojo, so to speak. The lights flickered on and instantly I flung my arm over my eyes. "Ah! I'm blind!" I shrieked.

"Shut up." The silvered haired man said flatly. I blinked as I removed my arms.

"Just who the hell are you anyway?" I snapped.

"You will call me Master Vicious…if you make it." He snapped back, with extra emphasis on if. All I could think was Ooh look at me with my dark torture-ed-ness. I help back snickers as he tossed a katana at me unexpectedly. Just as unexpectedly, I caught it with my left hand, right on the handle. With a sharp noise I drew the katana from it's sheath and tossed the sheath to the side.

It was actually a beautiful specimen of katana. Real Japanese and extremely sharp. I knew it was sharp because I unprofessionally sliced my finger when I opened it. I felt no pain anymore, so that didn't much matter.

Upon closer study of the mirror-like shine on the sword, I found Vicious charging at me. With a dodge-roll, I ducked his shot and went up after his ribs. He dodged the skillfully, and came back at my throat. I brought my katana behind my back, pointed to the floor. His katana clashed against mine, as the metal-against-metal clang rung through the dojo. He was quite strong, but I was strong enough to hold against him. As the same time we pushed off of each other, and I was to my feet instantly. Vicious dove at me, so I decided to make it interesting. I ducked his aimed shot and got behind him, charging. He spun to meet my shot and as I passed by him, our noses touched slightly. Now it was down to us standing three feet away, both was cocky smirks upon our faces, standing in ready position. A sadistic grin came upon his face and with one final dive, he swung at me, for lack of other words, viciously. I dove backward, hitting the floor. Vicious passed over me, and I somersaulted to my feet. He spun around, facing me now. With two quick slashes, he sheathed his sword. I, of course, was about three feet from mine, so I scuffled backward, and picked it up. In mimic, making an X with my precise slashes, I sheathed the katana, grasping it tightly.

"Hm." He said. He almost sounded slightly interested. "That katana is now yours, keep it with you at all times. You will be fit with a temporary jacket tonight. Tomorrow you will go to HQ to be assessed to weather or not you belong amongst us. Do not socialize with any of the members, your food will be brought to you. " He spoke with seriousness. "Do not leave your room. You will find everything you need in your bathroom should you need to take a shower. That it all." And with that, I turned and walked back to my cot.

…………

The next morning I turned over to find a black trench coat lying next to my katana, neatly folded. This was the temporary coat that Master Vicious was talking about. I sneered at the thought of master, but picked up the trench and slid it around my shoulders. I then grabbed my katana and attached it at my side. I sighed and walked into the bathroom which had a full body mirror. Not bad.

I exited my room, closing the door, and headed to the pod bay, as Vicious had instructed. Today was my day to be assessed. Today I would either continue or fail my mission. Today was the day.

There were two other men on the pod that Vicious led me onto. I supposed they were brothers, one older than the other. The eldest had short dark hair and sharp dark eyes, the other's hair fell into his eyes. He had dark eyes as well. I watched the carefully, but took the seat between them. Both looked about as dead serious as Vicious did, and not a single one of us talked. It turned out that the HQ was a huge building on some planet I had never heard of. Oh well.

The building was white on the inside, furnished with a row of center-hall crimson carpets that were lined with gold. There was an occasional deeper red orient dragon printed on the carpet. Every now and then, to break up the monotony or red white and gold, there was a healthy green rubber tree. I scoffed at their pathetic attempt to make this place look less sterile.

All the while, I walked in the middle of the other three men. Vicious walked in front of me, center, I was centered, and the two brothers walked side by side. I felt like a prisoner, and figured basically, I was. With a sighed I messed with that golden tassel atop the katana handle. I was not to speak to any of them, lest I find out about some big secret I shouldn't know about 'less I was a real Dragon Dog.

Vicious was, of course, the first to two gigantimo doors. Placing a hand on each handle, her pulled back on the handles of the doors. With great ease they swung open, and light burst out. A moron would think this place Heaven itself. Of course, Vicious was there, making it Hell.

In the back of the room there were four men sitting behind a desk. These must be the heads of the headquarters. I looked upon each of the four old Chinese men with disgust, and wondered what in the universe was holding them together. The men looked as though the were quadruplets. Vicious made some sort of hello noise to them and they welcomed him warmly. Truth was, the four of them made my skin crawl.

"Hello Vicious." One of them spoke, I of course didn't see, I wasn't paying attention. "What have you brought for us today?" The man asked. His voice was rather raspy, that or, my mind couldn't grasp it because I was looking at the wonderful picture of what was once Beijing, China.

"Her name is Miyazaki Kasumi. She came to use yesterday, asking to join." Vicious replied coldly.

"Oh?" Another man spoke. "Does Vicious speak the truth?" Another one rasped to me.

"Huh?" I paused, being completely lost. "Oh! Yes, yes. I wish to join the Syndicate." I said as professionally as I could muster.

"Why is this?" He asked. I sighed and grumbled under my breath. I was beginning to understand why Vicious hated them. They spoke more than he did, and asked more questions than I.

"I can not tell you specifically why, these are my own reasons. I can tell you, however, that I believe I can get closer to someone as a Syndicate do-I mean- Member, and take vengeance." I spoke solemnly. The four men stayed where they were the whole time, now turning to whisper amongst themselves. I grumbled to myself in my mind, all the while wondering what they were going to make me do to enter. Then my skin crawled again as many disgusting thoughts crawled into my brain. Ugh. I shivered slightly and tugged my coat tighter around me.

"Well, lets see what you can do. Vicious, take her to the training room." A third man spoke. And there we were again, same formation, walking down the hall. Vicious in front and center, myself behind him, and behind me, the two brothers. We walked for what seemed forever, I got bored, so I began to count the rubber trees that we passed.

One little two little three little rubber trees

Four little five little six little rubber trees

Seven little eight little nine little rubber trees

Ten little rubber trees more…

Finally we came to a door. As we entered, I found this to be very familiar. My mind strayed to thoughts of yesterday. It was another dojo, much like the one Vicious had in the Mobile Sect Ship. I looked around to see that the room itself was like an old dojo with rice paper walls and hardwood floors. I gaped at the site around me. These were so hard to come by. It was a beautiful thing, it reminded me of all the books I'd read on ancient Japan.

I picked my head up at the sound of a rustle in the room. There was a man about Vicious' size. I turned to see that the three dogs that brought me here were standing behind me, so it wasn't Vicious. I supposed my test was to fight him.

"We want to see if you are worthy enough of a fighter to be in the Syndicate. Kill him." The first voice came.

"If you can kill him, you are in." A second voice rasped. My heart raced. I have to kill someone? Damn it! On my first day too! Nothing ever goes my way! There's no way I'm going to kill him! Then I remembered why I was here in the first place, and wrapped my hand around the hilt of the katana at my side. "Begin."

At the last word the large man dove at me and, just as I had done with Vicious, I dodge-rolled. He flipped his katana to his left hand and charged toward me with his fist. "So ya wanna fight dirty, eh?" With that I grabbed his hand and brought my foot up to his gut. This sent from flying a ways back, and I ripped the coat from my shoulders. "Lets fight dirty!" I yelled and dove at him. He caught me and threw me, but I landed on my hands, sprung backwards and landed on my feet.

For two minutes we stood, staring each other down katana ready. He smirked at me and the lights went out.

"Continue." A voice rang in my right ear. "You'll have to depend on your other four senses now." came the second line in my left ear. I sighed and closed my eyes. It was dead silence save our breathing and heartbeats, and his noisy feet on the hardwood floor. They were right. I would depend on hearing to get me through this, and now my hearing told me that the man was about three feet to my left, coming fast. He swung at me, I dove backwards bringing my katana handle to his jaw. Quickly coming behind him, I drove the katana through his upper back and ripped it out.

I felt his blood hit my face and drench my shirt and pants. The lights flicked on and with a blank stare at Vicious, I wiped away some of the man's blood that dripped into my eye. The same sadistic grin was displayed upon his face, his age showed in the wrinkles around his mouth. With a deep breath, I smiled to the two way mirror that was to my right.

"So what do I win?" I asked cockily.

…………

" She's perfect Vicious. Welcome to the Syndicate, Miss Miyazaki…"

And just like that I was in. My life had changed, there was no one there for me, and I had something I now had to do. My mission had been started and now all I had to do was execute it. My mother would be avenged!

Now that I was a dog, I was allowed to talk to the other, eat with the others, be one of them. I walked into the mess hall wearing my newly fitted black trench with gold trim, looking around with icy eyes. Freshly showered and clean of other people's bodily fluids, I searched for a table. There was no one I wanted to sit with, seeing as I knew no one.

"Why don't you come sit with us?" I heard a voice behind me. I turned on heel to see the two brothers that had been my prison guards previously. It had been the eldest who'd spoken.

"So I'm allowed to interact with you now?" I asked, raising a brow. The men laughed at me slightly and smiled.

"Yeah. That's just for non-members. We aren't supposed to speak with civilians." He said. I smiled slightly.

"Oh?"

"Yeah. C'mon." The younger one spoke and headed for a table. "Why don't you stay here? We'll be back with some food." He said again, I just looked at him oddly and he motioned for me to sit. A few moments later the two came back, the eldest was carrying two trays of what looked like dog puke. I choked and gagged at the site of it. The eldest set one of the trays in front of me.

"Its not as bad as it looks, you'll get used to it." The eldest said. "Forgive me, but I can't seem to remember your name." He said. They both were so kind, even as Dragon Dogs, but I still didn't trust them, even as one of them.

"Miyazaki Kasumi." I said while solemnly twirling the fork around the dog puke. He smiled slightly.

" Hello Miss Miyazaki, My name is Lin, and this is my little brother, Shin." He said, pointing to his brother. I smiled and reached a hand out to shake, but instead he grabbed it, flipped it around and kissed the top of it lightly. I had the urge to tell him that the 1600's had ended many a year ago, but gulped it down with the 'food.' I had made my first friends.

…………

Three more years passed, and I was now very close to Lin and Shin. They were the brothers I never had. They were my protectors, and the only people I had left in the world that cared about me. I grew to love them like my own family, and they were the only people in this hell that I had trusted.

My body count had risen to about 50 or so in count, not that I was counting. It didn't even matter anymore. In all three of the years I had been here, I had not once even caught a whiff of Ikuya, but I never forgot. Oh no, never forgot once why I voluntarily got myself sucked into this hell.

The Syndicate was much more entangled than anyone could ever imagine. There were secret politics and political assassinations that were done everyday, but no one cared. No one messes with the Syndicate, we are too many in number. You can kill one of us but ten more will take his place, and no matter if you run, you will be found. Maybe not by the same sect, but you'll have an APB on you instantly. No where to run, nowhere to hide. You can try, but you'll only be prolonging the inevitable.

Today I needed to go out, I didn't care where. I just had to go. Currently the mobile sect HQ was floating around the blue moon called Callisto. Cold or not, I would go down and look around. So, boarding one of the pods, (which was identical to Every. Last. One. Of the others.) I started it with a kick and I was off.

It didn't take long to get near where I was going, and as I was about to descend to Callisto, the pod radio made its annoying crunchy noise so I flicked it on. There was a lot of noise but a voice rang through. "You're going down Syndicate Scum!" It was a male voice. I sighed and pushed the off button and pulled up on the controls, whizzing upward. Syndicate pods are much faster than most of civilian pods, so I attempted to get away. As I made my escape one of my engines was hit and found myself spiraling toward Callisto. I thought I was going to die.

The crash knocked my unconscious, and I woke later that night. I tired my radio many times that night with no luck, and curled up in the floor. I spent three weeks doing this, occasionally going out for food and other things. When one is stranded, one must do everything in their power to contact base. Well, the only -power- I had was my radio, which I would run around in random spots and try a multitude of times for those three weeks. Finally, I gave up.

"I quit!" I yelled to the empty air in my permanently disabled pod. The only was I was getting back to HQ was if I got the parts for my pod, and I was running low on woolongs and food. Boy, it was some curve ball I had been thrown. My mind stayed back to the infantile guilt about my mother's death, and in an attempt to stray from it, I went for a walk.

The brisk cold air stung my lungs and fingers, but I shoved my hands into my pockets and pulled my collar around my nose, walking with head down. In the meantime, I would amuse myself at a local bar. I looked up to a ruddy old bar sign and read. "The Blue Crow." As opposed to the orange crow? I thought and laughed aloud at myself. Oh, what the hell? I thought thn entered anyway….

…………

The REAL final notes:

Well, I just had to write this. I think this had got to be the longest thing I have other written that's all in one chapter. 7 ½ pages. Holy crap.

This is the FINAL anything to do with this. - Please enjoy this.

Once again, please forgive and mistakes, for I am WAY too lazy to go back and check it.

I stayed up until 7 in the morning to write this. No sleep.

So, If anything sounds weird, give me a heads up, and I will try and fix it.