Greetings everyone! I'm back again with another long chapter. I had no idea it was this long until I tried to break it up.

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters. They are all property of Namco.

What the hell was going on? He couldn't believe that he had to deal with such incompetence and insubordination on a daily basis. Once he got the call from the leader of his unit he knew what she had done, and now he was pissed. He had left the comfort of his office and took a car ride to one of their nearest military bases to meet up with his soldiers. He should've known something was amidst when he had tried to contact her all day and her phone went straight to voice mail. He couldn't believe that she had the audacity to disobey his wishes.

Jin exited his private black car and walked towards the group of soldiers waiting around for his arrival in the hangar. They all saluted him stiffly as he approached, and the leader quickly stepped forward to give him a report.

"Master Kazama, sir, we received false information about the mission. We were told that the target was to meet her in the urban district at 1200 hours, but when we arrived the target was nowhere in sight and we were unable to contact Miss Williams to receive clarification," the soldier reported hurriedly.

Jin folded his arms and cast his eyes downward, his raven bangs shielded expression from the men in front of him. This was a complete mess. Did she plan this all along, or was this a last minute stunt that she pulled? What the hell was she thinking? 'Nina...she directly disobeyed my orders, and for what? She couldn't put her foolish pride aside for once?' he thought, quite vexed with the situation.

"Sir, what are your orders now?" a soldier spoke up. "Are we to pursue and retrieve Miss Williams after we receive new intel on where to meet the target?"

"No," Jin said abruptly. He looked up at them with his usual stoic expression. They all seemed confused or nervous about the situation. "Does anyone know anything about her whereabouts? Can her phone be tracked?"

"We tried, but the GPS shows that she's at Central because she didn't take it with her. Perhaps she just ran away, or maybe the target cancelled his meeting to throw us off and catch us by the element of surprise," the Tekken Force soldier surmised, trying to offer his superior some answers.

He wish he knew how to get inside of her head to understand her reasoning. He wanted to keep her away from danger and this is how she repaid him? He didn't know how to react to this situation. Was he upset, nervous, or just plain disappointed? He was surely upset, but even so, he would find her and stop her before she did something truly foolish. With pure intensity in his eyes, he looked at his unit of soldiers and said, "Cover her tracks and find her. I want to know where she is even if you have to interrogate every one in sight. Find her." When he found her, and he will, he planned on punishing her accordingly for her insolence.

They were on standby until it was time for her to meet her target. The helicopter sat out of sight on top of a building to surveil the streets to keep a lookout for her target. She knew that Jin had to know what was going on by now, and she could only imagine the ferocious gleam in his eyes as he was probably setting out to stop her. She felt she had pulled this off rather covertly, but with his resources he'd find her soon. With the help of a pilot she had bribed, and maybe threatened as well, she was able to fly away stealthily to the rendezvous point.

It honestly wasn't in her intentions to disobey Jin's orders, but this opportunity was just too good to disregard. When she received the message from Bryan to change the time and location of their meeting, she knew it was the perfect opportunity to give Jin's men the slip with a little misdirection on her part. Hopefully, by the time they were able to locate her, she would have already eliminated the threat. This was probably going to get messy, but hopefully the chosen location near an old abandoned factory would cut down on any unintentional casualties should their showdown get too intense.

Nina sat in the helicopter beside the anxious pilot as she checked her equipment. She checked the ammunition of her assault rifle and her handgun to make sure that they were fully loaded, and she counted the number of hand grenades she had in her possession as well as other weapons in her arsenal. She didn't intend on it to take this much to take him down, but battles were always unpredictable. 'I hope this doesn't take all day, I really want another nice long soak in the tub,' she thought as she held her rifle to her chest.

"Ma'am, how much longer until he arrives? I should really report back to base...this was a bad idea," the soldier fretted, obviously afraid of the consequences he would face for leaving his post unannounced. It was close to dusk and he had been missing since before noon.

The assassin gave him a side eye in annoyance as he continuously attempted to wimp out on her. She had spared him from a brutal beating and ordered him, somewhat nicely, to escort her to her destination when she could have easily knocked him unconscious and commandeered the helicopter for herself. "Keep your headset off. You're not going to contact anyone until this is all over," she commanded flatly. "Besides, you can blame everything on me should anything go wrong."

"Ma'am?"

"Now what?"

"Is that the guy?" he asked while looking over the area to a lone figure walking down the deserted street.

Nina followed his gaze and saw the man from afar with what appeared to be a bazooka hoisted over his shoulder. She smirked. 'This is definitely going to get messy.'

"What should I do?" the pilot asked nervously.

"Move a mile north of this area. I'm getting off here, and I'll try to keep this little meeting contained in this area, but for your safety, you're better off moving a little further away," she instructed as she grabbed her weapons and equipment before disembarking from the helicopter. She walked to the edge of the old factory building and looked down at her target as he approached closer. Without further thought, she used her rappel gun to descend down from the building and decided to greet her guest.

The man halted in his tracks when a blonde woman landed on the ground not too far from him and he cackled maniacally in amusement. "That bastard sent you out here all alone to face the big bad wolf?" he asked as he walked closer to her.

Nina watched the man as he drew nearer and placed a hand on her hip. He was dressed in nothing but blue camouflage pants and had a red bandana tied around his right arm. His muscular body was covered in old battle scars from top to bottom. He was a true brute, a savage beast, and a complete wild man, but despite his infamy as a crazed warmongering animal, she would bring him down. Her rifle was strapped to her back, for now, and she wanted to focus on giving him one last chance to turn back before things got out of hand. "Are you sure you want to go through with this? It's not too late to abandon this mission," Nina warned the man calmly.

He scoffed at her words with a crazed grin and replied, "You want me to leave without relieving some tension? What a tease!" His eyes raked over her body lustfully as he licked his lips. That purple bodysuit she was wearing was driving him wild, all those buckles and straps definitely reminded of some kinky bondage play.

The blonde assassin rolled her eyes in disgust as he unabashedly stared at her chest. She simply smirked as she shook her head at the man. "You must be really hard up for the money if you've come all this way to seek out my employer," she remarked as she glared him down.

"Ha, who cares about money? I came here to have fun with you, doll. You look like you like to play rough...I like a woman who likes to get a little dirty," he said, smiling at the innuendo.

"Hmph, you don't even care about your mission, do you?" she questioned. He was a strange customer, but his apathy towards his contract with whomever he was working for was interesting. "Who sent you?"

A huge smirk appeared on his face. "I'll tell you if you come over here and give me a nice face sitting, baby," Bryan suggested with a lecherous grin.

Nina cradled her face in her palm with a heavy sigh. She returned her gaze to him and finally reached for her assault rifle and said, "Let's just get this over with."

The mercenary aimed his bazooka at her with a grin. "I hope you can keep up with my rhythm, dolly!" he finally fired his bazooka with a crazed laugh.

Nina swiftly dove out of the line of fire and rolled out of the way to avoid the fiery explosion with her rifle in hand, hasty to fire back at him. She let loose a barrage of bullets at him and watched as he quickly ran out of her sight to take refuge behind a parked car. She wanted to avoid endangering civilians, but property damage was always inevitable. She continued to fire at the vehicle impassively as she riddled it with holes and shattered the windows. She ceased fire when she saw a canister roll near her feet. Of course he threw a grenade, she didn't expect anything less from him.

Nina put her agility to the test and took refuge behind a concrete road block to avoid the blast. To her surprise, there was no blast, but the area quickly became shrouded in smoke. 'A smoke grenade, huh? I guess he wants to turn this battle into hand to hand combat. I definitely wanted to avoid that," she thought as she desperately tried to resist the urge to cough and give away her location as she stealthily tried to move to a new location to hide.

"I'm glad you let me reschedule our meeting, you see, I was a little hungover earlier and didn't want to give you a half-assed performance," his voice rang out over the smoke filled street. "I want you to feel my raw power as I give you the pounding of a lifetime." He laughed at his own words as he stalked around nearby to find her.

She ignored his disgusting rant and kept her guard up as she kept her finger on the trigger as her eyes darted around to furtively scan the area for her opponent. 'I knew his battle tactics were unpredictable, but I'm sure he's just using this as a distraction to reload that damn bazooka,' she sneered at the thought, especially since his weapon of choice instantly reminded her of her floozy sister. A crunch of glass was heard behind her and she quickly whipped around to the sound. Upon doing so, she found herself narrowly dodging a punch being thrown at her face as he almost successfully snuck up on her.

"Your body heat is fiery hot!" he told her as he reached for her rifle during her brief distraction. Being a cyborg, his vision allowed him to locate her rather easily, even amidst the smog blanket.

Nina held onto her rifle and slipped into an old bad habit of hers as she quickly launched a kick to his groin. To her dismay, he laughed it off and the sick creep even appeared to enjoy it. She gasped when he reached out with a free hand and gripped it around her neck. He was just itching to get his hands on her it seemed. Screw the gun, she needed to put a little distance between them. She released her grip on her weapon and used her free hand to deliver a hard back hand slap to his face, which stunned him just enough to cause him to loosen his grip, allowing her to slip away and out of the strap of her rifle. It was his now since he wanted it so badly, but surprisingly he flung it aside with a cocky grin. The smoke was now waning away to improve visibility of the area again.

"Come on, I came for a fun little one on one fight with you! Why waste all this ammo when we could do this the old fashioned way?" he bargained with a shrug.

She knew the many disadvantages of engaging in close quarter battle with a cyborg, but she figured it would be a great way to reach the finale of their showdown. She said nothing as she moved into her battle stance and emoted with her eyes for him to give it his all. 'Avoid his punches and subdue him, then do what must be done,' she mentally instructed herself.

After much investigating that led him no where, he finally found the answers he sought in the last place he thought to check, her private quarters. She had left her phone in her room not only to prevent him from tracking it, but to leave him vital information about her whereabouts. Reading through her most recent emails, he discovered everything concerning her rescheduled meeting with Bryan Fury.

Now, he and his small team of soldiers were on their way to the location via chopper. He only hoped it wasn't too late to reach her in time. What could possibly possess her to go well out of her way to fight such a dangerous psychopath? Was she completely mad? She was a glutton for action and perilous situations. He supposed that in a life of an assassin such things were commonplace for her, but he was admittedly worried that she'd be outmatched by an opponent who enjoyed destruction with no qualms about how many he killed along the way.

Jin's mood fluctuated up and down as he sat quietly in the corner of the helicopter away from the other three occupants, including the pilot. He had gone from being furious to worried back and forth throughout the day, and now his stomach felt like it had twisted into a hard knot. Besides the soldiers, he had brought along a suitcase filled with double the amount of the bounty price that was placed on his head. It was a coward's way out, but it beat the other disastrous outcomes that were bound to happen if he didn't put an end to this madness.

As he looked out of the window and down at the landscape they flew over he realized this was the first time in a while that he had left HQ. He had been a shut in for the last few weeks due to his paranoia and distrust of everyone and everything. He let out a long, heavy sigh as his eyes fell upon the setting sun, which would normally calm him, but his mind was too preoccupied to enjoy it. 'I'll just pay him off and bring Nina back with me, then we're going to have a long discussion about her behavior,' the dark haired man thought, anxious to get this all over with.

"Sir, we've spotted the missing helicopter on a building up ahead," a soldier reported. "Permission to land to quickly interrogate the pilot, sir?

"Make it quick!" he urged. The pilot probably knew more about her plans and they could use all the information they could get, but they had to be hasty about it.

The assassin forcefully thrust her palms into her opponent's chest and the impact sent him skidding back a few feet. She quickly followed up by leaping towards him to grip him in a tight grapple in which she used all of her strength to attempt to snap his leg within the hold. He struggled hard and was highly resistant to allowing her get the better of him. He fought back and broke out of her hold and kicked her off of him. Nina grunted in anger as she grew impatient with dealing with the bionic man.

Bryan regained his composure and began throwing a combo of hard hitting punches at her, which she dodged, but not as skillfully as she had done before. Her stamina was wearing thin, and pretty soon he'd have her where he wanted her. She reversed the last punch he threw and she quickly grabbed his arm and in a series of intricate moves she flipped him onto the ground with a thud. He was surprised she still had fight in her after they had been going at it for a while now. He laughed as he peeled himself from the ground and looked over at the relentless blonde assassin. "Damn, you're really dedicated to your job," he commented with a smirk as he stood up again. "You must reap a lot of benefits working for a man like Jin Kazama, huh?" He figured he'd let her catch her breath a little while he took a moment to take in the sight of the blonde beauty.

She was a little winded now, and now it would be in her best interests to use the last ace up her sleeve to quickly end things. She had effectively dodged his blows and landed a few of her own on him, but it wasn't enough to take down someone like him, she had to get a little creative. She returned to her battle stance with a deadly gleam in her eyes and fiercely declared, "Time to die!"

Bryan smiled smugly at her diligence and perseverance as he put his fists up once again. "I won't kill you, but I'm going to break you real bad, then I'm going to kill your boss," he threatened darkly with a sadistic grin. "It's been fun, doll, but I'm ready for the climax!" He charged at her again and began throwing a series of kick and punch combos at her again, and surprisingly, she was still able to keep up with his rhythm.

The assassin continued to dodge his blows artfully, but if she didn't subdue him quickly, she'd be more vulnerable to receive the pounding he was aching to give her. He was definitely trying to wear her down, but she refused to let him succeed. 'He's throwing some haymakers my way, I better end this soon,' she thought, trying to devise her next battle tactic. In a brief moment of breaking to regain their breath, she took the opportunity to hit a button on a small device connected to her hip. Ten minutes, that's all she needed. She saw Bryan charging her again, throwing a hard punch sure to render the strongest man unconscious. She, however, was able to quickly sidestep the punch and grab onto his extended arm, which she flipped her leg over and pulled him to the ground in a tight arm grapple. She twisted his non-bionic arm so painfully that even a masochist like him groaned in agony. She held onto him as long as she could before he fought back and broke free, finally throwing her off him. Nina rolled onto the ground before catching her footing and her breath again.

Bryan got onto his feet again, ignoring the aching in his left shoulder. Now, he was getting upset, and the scowl on his scarred face showed that he was no longer having fun. He glared at the woman dangerously, thinking of the several ways he was going to maim and break her in half. He gritted his teeth and motioned for her to run up once again. Once she charged him she threw a swift kick at his head, it connected, but he was able to seize her by the leg. His hand shot forward and gripped her tightly around her neck and with a good measure of his strength, he picked her up and slammed her onto the hard concrete.

Nina collided into ground and she felt the air rush from her lungs. A sharp pain rocketed throughout her body and she laid on the ground for a moment, too tired and stunned to rise to her feet at the moment. However, the cyborg offered her some assistance as he knelt down and gripped her neck tightly before lifting her from the ground and into the air with the strength of one arm alone. She coughed and struggled to breathe, and her eyes were beginning to water as he tried to squeeze the life out of her body. 'I have to hold out...a little longer,' she thought as she struggled to breathe.

She heard the sound of a helicopter approaching and she wondered why the pilot had followed her when she ordered him to stay back. 'That idiot is going to ruin everything!' With newfound vigor, she grabbed onto Bryan's arm and once again utilized her grappling skills as she swung her legs around his arm and applied enough pressure with her thighs to cause him to loosen his grip on her throat. The chopper was getting closer and was probably hovering over them. A little more than seven minutes remained. The crazed cyborg gave her no time to recover as he began swinging wildly at her. She could barely catch her breath as he forced her to dodge his blows once again.

"Nina!" a strong voice rang out over the area over the loud spinning blades of the helicopter.

The voice startled her, and instinctively she whipped around to look up at the person calling out to her. 'Jin?! Why is he here?!' She was shocked by his appearance. She didn't think he'd leave the comfort of his office to pursue her. In her moment of distraction, she realized she made a fatal error.

Bryan laughed as he finally connected one of his infamous punches with her abdomen. He felt her body curl over his fist as she practically went completely limp. "Sorry about that, sweetheart, but it's been fun," he said to her in a low voice. The assassin crumpled to her knees while cradling her abdomen before completely falling to the ground. "Now that your boss is here, I can get rid of him too, and if you stay conscious long enough, you'll get a front row seat to the show," the cyborg told her with a sickening grin.

Her abdomen was screaming in pain and she could barely focus on the words the man spoke to her. The air had completely evacuated from her lungs from the impact of his punch, and she found it exceedingly difficult to reclaim her lost breath. Her face scrunched up in pain as she laid on the cold concrete of the street, writhing in pain while trying not to let out anguished cries. Why did Jin come for her? How could he be so foolish to hand himself over to his headhunter on a silver platter? Not only that, his appearance put another cog in her plan. How long did she have left now? Less than five minutes. 'I can't blackout...come on, get your shit together...' she pled with herself silently.

Jin was most certainly furious now. His eyes focused on Nina, who was now incapacitated from being hit by the crazed man. "Land the chopper," he ordered in a grave tone. He stripped off his leather coat and then proceeded to unbutton the cuffs of his sleeves of his silk shirt to roll them up.

One of the soldiers looked at him in confusion as he did this. "Sir, I thought you were going to drop off the payment, you're not thinking about facing him, are you?" the armored suit clad man asked.

"Don't question me, just follow my orders!" he bit out angrily.

Bryan looked up at the young man in the helicopter with another laugh. "Are you seeing this? It looks like your boss is here to rescue his damsel in distress," he mocked as he looked back at the injured woman on her hands and knees behind him. He knew that she was in severe pain, but even so, it seemed she simply refused to stay down.

The blonde grit her teeth in pain as she clenched her fists on the ground to try to lift herself up. The pain was searing and she definitely wouldn't mind to be knocked unconscious to be granted temporary relief from this suffering. She craned her head just enough to see Jin being lowered in the helicopter, strapping on his red gauntlets as if he were ready to rip Bryan in half. "Jin...go...now," she murmured, barely audible to anyone. Under two minutes were left now.

Bryan heard her labored voice and smiled smugly before looking back at the Mishima boy. "Your girl here is a handful…a real firecracker! She's really devoted to her job...most would've fled the scene once they saw my face, but this one..." he paused as he stepped over to her and placed his booted foot into her back and pushed her back onto the ground again. "She has heart. Too bad this'll be her last stand, but I'm pretty sure you've had your chance with her already, eh?" He smirked at the young man suggestively. He relished in the sound of her soft cries of pain, it was a symphony to his ears.

Jin's anger was reaching a boiling point, but if he wasn't careful, things could go wrong for everyone if the beast inside him surfaced. Once the chopper was low enough, he jumped down and he looked down the road at his supposed killer. "Five hundred thousand," he said flatly.

Bryan's eyes narrowed. "Five hundred thousand what?" he shouted out to him in question.

"I'm doubling the price of the bounty you were owed," he explained as he held up a black briefcase. "Take the money and leave!" Jin sneered as the man laughed maniacally.

Were her ears deceiving her? Even through her pain, she clearly heard that ludicrous offer. 'Jin, don't be a fool! If you give this creep a half a million dollars...I'll kill you myself!' she thought angrily. She was still pinned beneath his foot and any time she tried to move he applied more pressure. He was in close range of her now, and at least the boys in the helicopter landed. The ball was back in her court once again. Less than a minute now.

The cyborg's laughter finally subsided, and he looked at the spiky haired boy again in disbelief. "You came out here in your expensive suit at night in the worst part of the city to give me half a million dollars to leave you and your girl alone? What a pussy move!" he spat out with disdain.

Jin ignored his taunts and his crude insults. He didn't care what he thought, he just wanted this to all be over and done with. If he didn't take the cash, he would eradicate the man himself. "Get away from her and go!" he yelled angrily with clenched fists.

"I don't do this for the money, it's all about the thrill. Keep your cash, Mishima dog!" he spat. He laughed as he looked down at the woman under his foot and roughly yanked her up by her arm. More groans of pain erupted from her as he held her up and seized her by the neck. "Can I get a goodbye kiss before I snap your pretty little neck, doll face?" He smirked. He could hear the rapid footsteps of Jin charging towards them in a rage.

"Fuck off, creep," Nina choked out in a strained voice. A loud beeping noise emanated from a device clipped to her belt. In an instant, the entire area went black. Another groan of anguish slipped from her lips when she felt a great weight collapse on top of her as she hit the ground. Her poor aching ribs were being punished beyond belief.

'What's going on?' Jin thought as he halted in his tracks and whipped around in the darkness to find the assassin. Was there a blackout? "Nina?! Are you okay?" he called out to her.

The soldiers got out of the helicopter and used high-shine flashlights to search the area. The helicopter controls were down, but hopefully they'd be able to fly back to HQ with fuel alone. One of the men ran to Jin's side with a light to help him locate the woman. "Over there, sir!" he shouted as he shone his light onto two figures.

Nina was pinned underneath Bryan's weight after he collapsed onto her, completely unmoving. He was heavy as hell, but at the current moment she lacked the strength to roll him off of her, especially with her bruised abdomen singing in pain. The soldier continued to shine his light on her and she could hear footsteps approaching her quickly. The sound of another helicopter flying over the area could be heard. The helicopter shone extra lighting over the area and vastly improved visibility for them. Jin rushed to her and carefully pried the unconscious man off of her and tossed him aside with relative ease. That was a tremendous help. She felt his arms encircle around her shoulders as he attempted to help her up to her feet.

He noticed her pained expression as he tried to move her and that hard knot of worry twisted within his gut again. Why didn't she listen to him? He didn't like seeing her this way, and this could've been avoided if she would have only listened to him. He looked over to the unconscious cyborg and wondered what the hell she did to him. It didn't matter now, he had to get her back to the chopper and rush her to receive medical treatment.

He looked down at the injured blonde woman, and she stared back up at him with tired eyes. "Nina, I'm going to help you stand...hold onto me," he said in a low voice as he carefully helped her up from the ground, wincing whenever she moaned in pain from his efforts. He pulled her arm around his neck and carefully rose to his feet with his other arm around her waist.

She had fractured her ribs numerous times in her career, it was nothing, but the repeated aggravation to the area really exacerbated the pain ten fold. Now that she was on her feet again, with Jin's help, she felt that she could move around on her own. "Thanks," she said softly as she looked up at the taller man by her side. She looked over to Bryan again. "We should take him in for questioning if his human half is still salvageable. The EMP shut him down temporarily, but it probably wasn't enough to kill him for good," she reported to him.

Jin's face tensed at her words. He couldn't believe that after all that happened she still viewed this as a normal mission. She could have died, yet she disregarded it as if it were nothing. Her nonchalance towards her own mortality was frightening and infuriating at times. The assassin was a mad woman indeed. She began to pull out of his hold on her to walk back to the chopper on her own. "What's wrong with you? What are you doing?" he questioned in annoyance.

The blonde attempted to limp away from him with the little ounce of energy she had recovered. She looked into Jin's angry yet worrisome eyes with a weak smirk. "I'm fine. Don't fret over me, this is nothing compared to what could've happened," she reminded. He shouldn't have come for her in the first place, the act alone still showed that he still didn't trust in her abilities, but in an odd way she was flattered that he cared enough to do so. She cradled her sore, throbbing midsection with her arm and limped towards the newly arrived chopper. She wondered if he ratted her out, but it didn't matter now.

Jin watched her limp away in shock. She was too headstrong and prideful for her own good, but he, too, had been that way all his life as well. However, with her injuries, now wasn't the time to pretend to be strong. He caught up to her in a matter of a few steps since she moved at a snail's pace, and he forcefully assisted her trek to the helicopter by slinging her arm over his neck while holding onto her waist. He remained silent as they approached the helicopter.

"Jin, I told you I'm fine," Nina protested again.

"Be quiet," he hissed dismissively to her refusal for his help as he motioned for the pilot to help her in.

Her blue eyes widened a bit at his response. He was dead serious now, she must've pissed him off. She smirked slightly in amusement and silently complied.

Jin looked around again and noticed the soldiers he brought were looking down at the cyborg. He figured that he'd listen to his bodyguard and send him to the lab to see what they could do with him. He ordered them to load him into the other helicopter to have the pilot take him back to HQ. He climbed into the helicopter and they finally took off. He made sure the injured woman laid flat on her back on the bench to relax. He knelt down beside her to check her condition, she seemed fine now. "Don't think that you're not in trouble for disobeying my orders," he reminded her sternly with a serious expression.

Nina parted her lips and let out a tired sigh as she slowly turned her head towards him. So, he was still angry about that? "Are you going to punish me, Mr. Kazama?" she said mockingly.

"I'm serious, Nina!" he snapped lightly. "Don't you know how wor-" he paused for a moment to rephrase his words. He looked away from her and said in a low voice, "You were reckless."

She was too exhausted and in too much pain to argue with him. If he wanted to punish her for preventing an enemy from coming after him, then so be it, but she was only doing her job as she saw fit. "Reckless, but still alive. It's part of my job to take risks...so I did in order to keep you and the Mishima Zaibatsu safe," she explained tiredly. How many times must she say this to him?

"I was worried that you wouldn't make it back, that's all," he confessed candidly as he cast his eyes downward briefly. Though she was his bodyguard and an important asset to his team, truthfully and unintentionally, he had slowly become dependent on her companionship. In his new world, she was all he had. She lifted her gloved hand weakly and gently pressed it to his cheek. The raven haired man looked at her in mild surprise. It was rare, if ever, that she displayed the more sentimental side of her personality to him or anyone.

She let a small, weak smile dance along her lips despite the pain she was feeling. "You're kind, Jin, even if you don't want to show it, and everything you're going through...you don't deserve it. That's why I try so hard...to keep anything bad from happening to you so that you can complete your goals," she spoke in a soft and sincere tone. She removed her hand from his cheek and he reached up to gently clasp it within his own. She grew quiet as she closed her eyes. The pain wasn't subsiding.

Her words echoed in his mind as he still held her hand to let her know he was still by her side. He skimmed over her form to survey any other damage she had endured during her battle. Her midsection was beginning to bruise, the reddish purple tint appearing on her skin definitely indicated that she had some internal bleeding. Also, he noticed dark bruise marks forming around her throat again. It unnerved him to see her like this even if she was trained in this line of work and had grown accustomed to treating her body like a deadly weapon. Jin observed her face and saw that she didn't seem to be resting peacefully. A grimace was present on her visage as she slowly writhed in discomfort. "Is there anything I can do?" he asked with worry as he gave her hand a slight squeeze.

"Jin, I need you..." her voice trailed off as she whimpered a little in discomfort.

His heart rate increased slightly as she uttered those words. What did she mean by that? He was confused and didn't know how to respond. "Nina...I..." he stammered a bit as he looked down at her.

"I need you to...give me a shot of morphine," she finished as she opened her eyes lazily to look at him. "The case...under the bench." He seemed a little flustered, but she was in far too much pain to care about anything else at the moment.

Her words pulled him from his awkward moment of stupor, and he did as he was told and opened the medical case under the bench. It was packed with bandages, antiseptics, antibiotics, and pain killers. He found a packet containing a vial of morphine with a syringe and opened it to prepare it for her. He cleaned the skin of her exposed upper arm and gave her the injection. He had his fair share of morphine shots after some intense battles he survived in past tournaments. He only hoped it would act quickly enough to end her suffering.

"Thanks..." she whispered softly as she closed her eyes again. "...for caring..." her voice trailed off again as the effects of the drug were starting to kick in a little.

His lips twitched into a small smile at her words as he continued to watch over her as she drifted off. She was insane for disobeying his orders, but her devotion to her job was unparalleled. She had done her research on the target, and in retrospect, he was now convinced that his secret service would have fallen prey to the enemy. Thanks to her, he had one less adversary attempting to kill him or impede his plans.

The twinkling city lights below them captured his attention momentarily as they flew over the city on route to the Central Tower. The crisp autumn air circulated through the helicopter, sending a small chill throughout his body. He returned his attention to the resting woman and draped his previously discarded leather coat over her sleeping form. Due to her scanty attire, he was sure that she had to be cold if the night air was able to affect him. As usual, he fell into an old habit and began to gaze down at the assassin with interest. Even bruised and weary, in his eyes her beauty remained untarnished, in fact, seeing her this way only served to further increase his appreciation of her skills and his attraction to her.

Jin slowly reached his hand out towards her face and carefully placed it on her cheek, and he gently brushed a few tendrils of hair from her face with his fingers as he silently observed her. His touch was feather light as to not rouse or disturb her from her drug induced slumber. The feel of her soft, warm skin beneath his large palm only further enticed him to do something he had desperately tried to refrain from doing in the past when his male curiosity got the better of his senses.

The raven haired man leaned over her face slowly and lightly pressed his lips to hers, giving the woman a gentle, chaste kiss. Her lips were warm and soft against his cooler ones, and as his lips lingered against hers, his heart began pounding against his chest rapidly. Jin parted from her lips and slowly retreated from her. A low sigh escaped from his lips as the excitement, arousal, and guilt from his actions began rushing over him at once.

What the hell was he thinking? He bit his lower lip lightly in frustration as he slowly shook his head. His eyes fell upon the unconscious woman once more before he forced them to look elsewhere. The cool air caused him to shiver again as he stared off into the dark night sky, letting the night lights temporarily distract his troubled mind. He admonished himself for his own stupidity. This was the beginning of the end of his life, he had no time to give in to his curiosity and self-indulgence.

Sorry, I had to scale back Bryan's strength a bit to make this workable. When I envisioned the fight, I didn't want it to simply be Nina dodging cars and blasts aimed at her lol. Jin...keep your willpower strong lol. Thanks for reading! R&R