Hey everyone! It's time for another long overdue new chapter! Sorry for the wait, but here it is! Thanks again for your patience and reviews! :)
Disclaimer: I do not own any characters. They are all property of Namco.
The cold sludge slipped between her toes with each slow step she took into an unknown direction. It beckoned her forth, and she followed obediently; the call became too strong for her to resist. Her skin was drenched and cold, yet it didn't stop her. Then again, she didn't possess the agency to do so.
The dark area was briefly illuminated and was promptly followed by a crackling boom that filled the atmosphere. The trees around her looked ominous as they swayed with unrest in the howling gusts of wind.
Her body finally stopped, gently wavering unsteadily to keep its balance as if the force within her was unfamiliar with controlling a human host. After a few moments of waiting alone in the heavy rain, an unearthly shadowy figure materialized before her. It was an entity that radiated pure evil with those same glowing red eyes that had been haunting her for so long. It swirled in front of her like a black mist with an oppressive energy powerful enough to stifle and overcome anything in its path. A normal person would flee the scene in terror, but her vacant eyes were forcefully glued to it. It spoke to her, its voice reverberated loudly in her head, making its intentions for her clearer than it had in the past.
A voice screamed her name frantically through the storm, it drew nearer and nearer until she was roughly tackled onto the ground. Her name was being screamed repeatedly while she was violently shaken. Eventually, the black fog lifted from her mind, returning to her the control she so desperately pleaded for in the darkness of her corrupted mind. With a deep gasping breath, she finally came to and was back in control of her mind and body. She looked listlessly at the woman hovering over her, whose wet, brunette hair clung to her frightened face. They were both completely drenched from the downpour.
The brunette was trembling, not only from her soaking wet pajamas, but from fear over this entire ordeal. She didn't think that waking up in the middle of the night to use the restroom would lead to her running outside in her nightgown during a raging storm to find her sister. Their front door was wide open, and as she desperately ran around the apartment to search for her older sibling, she spotted the blonde staggering into the park across the street wearing nothing but a tank top and underwear. Thanks to her, they were both covered in mud and would probably be guaranteed to develop a high fever the following day.
"You…saved me…"the blonde gasped out weakly. "You saw…'it', right?"
"What the hell are you talking about?! Saw what?" the younger sibling yelled irately. She forcefully helped the blonde up from the muddy grass, gripping her arm so tightly that it would probably leave a bruise. "I'm sick and tired of dealing with your shit!"
Her spirit was broken, and she never felt more alone in life. She had no one. The rain was her only ally at the moment; her tears were shrouded and her pain was hidden as the fuming brunette roughly dragged her back to their apartment.
There was always a certain motto that she lived her life by, one that kept her focused and perfectly sane despite all of the world shattering madness she encountered throughout her life. Unsurprisingly, it was something her father had once told her whenever he saw that she was down in spirit.
'Keep yourself busy, and you'll forget why you're unhappy…' his words echoed in her thoughts.
Now that she was wiser, she could see how problematic and dismissive that statement was, but admittedly, it served its purpose in keeping her afloat over the years. Busyness had always been her crutch, her shield, and without it she felt extremely vulnerable and troubled by various minutiae of life that she usually ignored. Though her employer's intentions may have come from a good place, he didn't realize just how much agony he was causing her by granting her a mandatory vacation.
Thinking back to the night of their sort of dinner, she recalled being comfortably lulled to sleep after finally knocking out from the heavy dosage of pain meds administered to her; however, the morning after was a different story. She couldn't remember how or why she'd awoken on her employer's chest or why he was so complacent with letting her fashion him into her personal mattress, but after the meds had dissipated, she felt absolutely awful. Her body was numb with pain and she had a splitting headache, and immediately taking notice of this, Jin personally escorted her to the medical wing to receive more thorough examination of her condition. Just as she feared, they kept her for a few days for medical treatment, more examinations, and, of course, recovery, but she loathed being holed up in the hospital.
Now that she was over that obstacle, she was saddled up with another inconvenience, complete and utter boredom. Due to the untimely vacation foisted onto her, she had difficulties adjusting to a schedule filled with nothing. The only productive things she had done so far was send out her laundry and dry cleaning, pay her bills, and perform maintenance checks on her weapons, but even those tasks required no more than a few hours to complete. There was far too much on her mind for her to have this much free time at her disposal.
Clueless as to handle this new freedom, she returned to the only place she knew to report to, even if it was completely unnecessary for her to do so. Nina glared out of the large floor length window, observing nothing of particular interest to her. She supposed that she just enjoyed the view from the height and its deceptive calming effect. Chaos and turmoil were slowly devouring the world, but the panoramic scenery from his office was as lovely as ever. She sighed quietly as she wallowed in her own restlessness, feeling completely lost at the moment.
It would take a blind man not to notice how perturbed his bodyguard appeared to be at the moment. When she entered his office earlier in the morning, she regarded him with a slight perfunctory nod before making her way to the windows, standing there for nearly fifteen minutes without a word. The blonde was dressed in her usual office attire, a white blouse and black slacks with heels, as if it were just a normal work day.
Beforehand, he was simply enjoying the quiet solitude of his office, trying to keep his troubled thoughts at bay by reading book over a cup of coffee when she surreptitiously entered his office. Not wanting to disturb her melancholic, contemplative mood, he continued reading while only lifting his eyes from the page periodically to steal glances at her. He watched her as she leaned against the wall with her arms folded across her chest with her eyes still glued to the window.
Jin sighed. "I thought you'd be happy," his voice pierced the silence. "You're wasting your vacation days moping around my office." He could see her purse her peachy lips slightly before they returned to their normal frown. He wanted to cure her from her perpetual gloom, but she seemed so reticent lately. He knew he'd risk an unfavorable response, but it was worth a shot. "Is it your sister?" She slowly turned her head towards him with a discernable look of surprise.
She wondered why he assumed that she'd be thinking about her sister. Did she happen to mention that to him in her loopy state of mind when they were last together? There were many things weighing on her conscious, keeping her awake at night, and even if she didn't want to admit it, her sister was one of them. Their last run in left her unsettled, angry, and confused. Anna had ample opportunity to either kill or attempt to capture her, yet she wasted her chances just to verbally assault her over matters she no longer cared for or didn't wish to remember. Nothing Anna usually said got beneath her skin, which she considered to be her titanium shell, but their heated argument over their father plucked a few discordant chords within her. It wasn't just her, it was everything. The chilling night memories, the disastrous war, her conflicted emotions, all of them were bearing on her mind heavily as of late. 'Anna…ever since she came back, I've been having those horrible nightmares. Is she really the cause of this?' the blonde pondered.
He was given no response, so he figured that his assumption was correct. It was one of those topics that she never fully disclosed to him, but if it was the cause of her glum behavior, maybe it'd do some good to discuss it. "Tell me what's wrong," he demanded coolly as he placed his book on his desk and turned his chair towards her.
Nina suddenly felt as if she was abruptly shoved out onto center stage, expected to deliver a grand speech, yet she didn't deem her trivial problems to be worth his time. She sighed, "Jin, you're orchestrating a wide scale war, you have a neverending list of people who want you dead, and you're facing a slew of other problems not many people can understand," she reminded him in a straightforward tone. "My sibling squabbles are not tantamount to the issues you're dealing with."
Once again, she proved to be resistant to openly discussing her problems. She was impossible to deal with at times. "If it's nothing, then why are you here?" he questioned, impatiently. "You're obviously here because you want my attention."
Her eyes widened a bit at his accusation. She wanted to retort, but maybe he was right. She was tired of being bombarded with her troublesome thoughts, so she subconsciously came to the only place where she felt she could escape. It was a strange pattern that she had developed over time; she had a habit of seeking him out when she needed comfort. She averted her eyes from his and looked back to the scenic view. "There's honestly too much happening right now for me to take a vacation," she admitted. "I keep thinking about needless things…and these strange dreams…" her voice trailed off.
"What dreams?" he asked curiously. Their eyes joined again.
She shook her head dismissively. "It's nothing…just weird dreams…or memories from my past," she explained softly. "Maybe I'm just going crazy..."
He was very familiar with strange dreams and visions, so he could definitely sympathize with her. He convinced himself that he was going mad long before he acted upon his plans. "These dreams…are they a common occurrence?"
She nodded slowly. Her memories usually resurfaced at strange times and in odd ways, but her dreams were downright unsettling. With another heavy sigh she said, "I don't want a vacation…I just want all of this to be over," she admitted to him with a worried expression. "I want this war to be over…after you destroy this Azazel creature…I want things to be normal." She was a contract assassin who killed for money without hesitation, yet somehow this war was slowly breaking her. What was taking so long for this thing to surface?
He dreaded the day that she'd confront him with her doubts about his plans, but he had no control over the resurrection of that beast. Its delayed appearance gave him more time, gave them more time, but her impatience would only wind the clock faster to his demise. He wanted to buy more time, but she was ready for the end results already. He turned his head towards the window and stared blankly at the cloudy skies. "It'll all be over soon," he spoke in a despairing tone. "It'll awaken…I'll destroy it…" '…and myself along with it.'
"Our men have that area secured, maybe it's about time we visit that temple to destroy that thing," she suggested. "Then, we can end this war for once and for all." She gazed at him, anticipating his answer, but he seemed slightly distressed by the topic. His eyes were sorrowful as he silently glared out the window.
Her words forced him to consider taking a faster pathway to end it all sooner than he anticipated. With his death, people would throw parades in celebration and usher in a new era of peace. A lot of suffering would come to an end if he hurried things along. Being alive at this point was only selfish. 'Azazel…I haven't heard its voice as frequently as I have in the past. Maybe she's right…I should just get this all over with…' he pondered deeply. He was seriously considering such possibilities until she spoke again.
"Better yet, have you ever considered the possibility of just letting Kazuya pursue the beast?" she wondered. "Best case scenario, he challenges it and fails, then we'll have one less thorn in our sides. What's the worse that could happen?"
He never knew what Kazuya wanted from this war or what his discovery of Azazel would bring, but he had a foreboding feeling that the outcome would be disastrous. Jin shook his head firmly. "No, his intentions are not to be trusted," he reasserted tersely. He could feel her angry eyes glaring at him.
"Why not? If we set him up to take the bait, he could recklessly pursue it and hopefully die in battle, and then you can finish the thing off and end this war!" she suggested with deluded desperation. "Even if Kazuya prevails, at least you won't have to worry about doing so, then warding off G Corp would be our only concern." She felt as if she were giving him helpful feedback for his plans, yet he was hellbent on doing things his way, which seemed so drawn out and convoluted. Perhaps she was wedged between this battle of father and son where the sole purpose was just an arrogant showcasing of machismo between the two men.
"Enough!" he shouted, commandingly. He finally let his eyes fall upon her again, appearing visibly agitated by her sudden doubts and reservations about his plans, but once he noticed the genuine look of concern on her face, he quickly calmed his nerves to prevent his temper from flaring. Her unrest and unease was all his fault; she seemed to be slowly unraveling at the seams and he was the cause. 'You'll only drag her down with your misery.' The words of that demon echoed in his mind, and it pained and disgusted him to admit that he was probably right. The sickening feeling of guilt settled within his gut as they both fell silent. They were both frustrated, but he didn't want to fight with her anymore. He took the few moments to formulate the best way to handle this situation, without escalating the tension. Before he could, he was surprised when she spoke again.
"I'm sorry…I'm being selfish," Nina sincerely apologized as she took a deep breath. She leaned her back head against the wall and tilted it upwards as if she were asking the heavens for guidance. "I don't want to pressure you. I guess I'm thinking that you're the key to ending everyone's suffering, even my own. I just want the pain to end, especially yours, Jin." These were the needless things she wanted to keep bottled up, but in her current state of unrest, she couldn't hold it in anymore, thus she took some of her frustrations out on him. This is why she yearned to be busy again. She closed her eyes and attempted to calm her uneasy nerves. She opened them again when she felt his warm palm smoothing over her cheek. She was a little surprised because she didn't even hear him approach her since she was so consumed with her thoughts.
The blonde assassin gazed back at him with doleful eyes, he could feel that her despondency mirrored his own, but he didn't want her to feel that way. In due time, everything would be restored to order. "Do assassins usually worry about their clients like this?" he asked with a faint playful smirk, trying to lighten the mood. He could see a small smirk pulling at the corner of her lips as well, hopefully signaling a shift in her mood.
His palm felt warm and comforting against her cheek. She realized that their closeness had caused her to be more expressive than she had ever been in the past, but she could detect his bait from a mile away. He was absolutely hellbent on discovering the combination to her safe of well kept secrets. "Why? Do you believe I'm giving you preferential treatment?" she counter asked. "I'm just…worried."
"I just didn't think I'd be worthy of your concern," he told her as he gently cupped her chin with his forefinger and thumb. Perhaps if he self deprecated himself a little, she'd feel some pity for him."I'm not just another needless matter on your mind?"
Nina felt herself succumbing to his charm once again. He persisted on finding new and interesting ways to force her to confess her feelings, it was amusing. The blonde smiled smugly and placed a hand on his cheek. "If you were, I'd be thousands of miles away on a remote beach enjoying my vacation," she confessed.
Jin couldn't resist but to crack a smile at her admission. It wasn't an outright declaration of her emotions, but coming from her, it was close enough. He wanted to comment with another quip, but his close proximity to her lips convinced him to remain silent and engage in a more fulfilling activity.
She closed her eyes as he leaned in and gently kissed her. As usual, they held a certain amount of restraint until the prolonged sensation of their lips mingling caused their passion to soar. His body pressed hers against the wall as he further deepened their kiss. She embraced her arms around his torso as she became thoroughly aroused as he boldly slipped his tongue between her parted lips. Her hands gripped the back of his shirt as she tried to suppress the urge to moan against his lips. This was a kiss that was far too passionate for the early hours of the morning, she hadn't even had her necessary dose of caffeine yet. Nonetheless, she definitely felt that his affection offered her some well needed emotional healing.
Jin could feel his focus slipping as he felt himself becoming far more excited than he intended. He yearned to experience that intimacy they shared together, he wanted to feel that strange, wondrous emotion that overwhelmed his senses whenever they were together. Unfortunately, he would have to stop himself before his need to pursue his selfish desires forced him to abandon his responsibilities.
He slowly parted from her lips, finally allowing both of them to breathe. He cradled her soft cheek in his palm and stared into her slightly flushed face in amusement. He could see that she was craving much more from the lustful sparkle in her cerulean eyes. "I have a meeting," he breathed out, reluctantly. He could see her face slowly expressing her discontent.
Since he didn't email her his itinerary, she was completely unaware of this. She sighed softly and folded her arms across her chest. "A meeting with who?" she questioned.
"You needn't concern yourself with that…you're on vacation," he reminded her.
She tilted her head to the side slightly. "Jin…" she let his name linger in the air until he answered her.
That serious expression and concern in her eyes made him cave. "I have a meeting with Eddy, if you must know," he revealed. She seemed even more worried now.
She sighed heavily this time. "So…you're finally going to tell him?" Poor Eddy was left in the dark for far too long, this was long overdue. Things could get ugly, she didn't want to leave him alone. "Do you want me to stay?"
Jin slowly shook his head. "No, this is something I have to do," he spoke dejectedly. He had been dodging this conversation for long enough, he was tired of being a coward. Besides, having her present would probably seem threatening or add even more tension to the meeting. "You should go and rest, don't worry about me." He tried to reassure her that everything would be fine, he could see that she was troubled by other matters and he didn't want to add to them.
The ever intuitive blonde could sense that he was ill at ease about this meeting, and she wanted to further object his decision to dismiss her, but she decided to throw in the towel and concede with his wishes. He was holding his head low with a morose expression on his features. She stepped towards him and placed a comforting hand on his cheek. "It'll be fine, Jin," she assured confidently. "If you need me…just call."
Her hand retracted from his face until he reached up and clasped it in his. He gently placed a kiss on the palm of her hand without any perceivable reason. He remained silent as he released her hand and simply gave her a slight nod. With a faint smile, she turned away from him and left his office.
Once she exited his office, she breathed a sigh of relief as she made her way down the hall. She heard the familiar footfalls of another person echoing in the long corridor as she traversed it. The figure was none other than Eddy himself, undoubtedly on his way to hear the grim news concerning his business arrangement with Jin. Her breath hitched slightly as he drew nearer.
She realized that she hadn't spoken to him since their not so warm exchange in the armory a while back. They were both swamped with their respective duties, so that was always a valid excuse for their avoidance of each other. She wanted to somehow clear the air in case there was any animosity between them, but he walked right past her as if she were a spectre. She made no attempt to speak to him. He seemed so focused and consumed with his thoughts; his lips were pulled into a tight frown and his eyes gleamed with seriousness and determination, apprehension as well. She exhaled lightly and kept trekking down the hall. 'Good luck, Eddy…' she thought gravely. Again, this shouldn't be a concern of hers, it was just another needless thing causing her mental anguish. However, she hoped for best, somehow.
There were so many things happening within the organization these days that it was very difficult to keep everything properly sorted. G Corporation, the monster with many faces, had so many different appearances to uphold. In the public's eye, they were champions of justice to restore the war torn world to order; however, their private affairs included a long laundry list of dastardly deeds. In the morning, they'd hold a press conference discouraging vigilante behavior only to fly out to their bases in the evening to supply the poor fools with more weapons of destruction. The clever dogs at the Mishima Zaibatsu foiled their secret operation by dismantling their base near the sea, which was the central import area for their firearms, but it was only a temporary setback.
The exhausted brunette leaned against the back wall of the elevator as she rode up from the lower levels back into the main levels of the Millennium Tower. The underground levels were bustling with activity; the central command center was located there, and it the main base of their military operations. After her last mission, she had been tasked with the excruciatingly boring job of overseeing the various missions being carried out around the globe from a very small, tastelessly decorated office with large LCD screens being the only scenery she was offered. It was her punishment so to speak for failing to capture her sister.
Certain complications that her boss couldn't sympathize with had impeded her mission, but she was lucky that being on probation from field duty was all that she received; others would have received a .45 caliber to the back of their head. Given her success with dealing with her sister in the past, she supposed that Kazuya had much faith in her abilities to take on her older sibling. Unbeknownst to her employer, she wouldn't have had much success with that mission in the past had it not been for his scheming step brother.
During the King of the Iron Fist Tournament 2, she had first met acquaintances with the silver haired man when she was brought on to work under Kazuya when he seized control of the Mishima Zaibstsu. She was young and eager to please, and she was determined to take Nina down at all costs. Being as vivacious and flirtatious as she was, she had the silver haired demon, Lee Chaolon, on her radar, but seeing that the man was quite troubled and consumed with hatred for his step brother, it was quite difficult to pursue any type of relationship with him beyond simple friendship. The mistreatment and humiliation he endured under Kazuya led him to a self loathing, miserable existence filled with booze, blow, and bimbos to fill his void and numb his pain, so she instead set her sights on the more powerful of the two men.
Towards the climax of the tournament, they had only just begun to receive intel that the assassin hot on her boss' trail had undeniably been receiving information from an inside source. During their internal investigations, she had barely put enough heat on him to melt a slice of butter before he caved in and broke down hysterically, confessing that he was indeed conspiring with the assassin, Nina Williams, to help her exterminate Kazuya. He begged her to never tell him, and she never did only at the expense that he'd run far away from the Zaibstsu for her to keep her silence. Consequently, thanks to his double crossing, she was able to set up an elaborate trap to capture the pesky blonde. Everything that happened after that, however, was beyond her control. She sighed heavily and tried to prevent her mind from flooding with the accusatory statements her sister hurled at her during their last meeting. She never knew what Kazuya was planning, she just followed her orders.
She snapped out of her thoughts when the elevator dinged and stopped on a floor she didn't request. She looked up at the doors as they opened and was surprised to see her comrade boarding the elevator. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes and feigned a smile instead. "I'm glad to see that you're back on your feet again," she expressed in a lukewarm tone.
The tall kickboxer stepped into the elevator with a minor limp and a smug smirk on his face. "Well, aren't you a sight for sore eyes, princess," he said as he observed her in her short red dress with her breasts perked up for duty. "Trying to get promoted from desk duty with that little get up, I see." He chuckled lightly as he noted her annoyance.
Anna pursed her lips at his little quip. She only had a few more floors before she reached her stop, hopefully she could make it without killing the annoying fool. "Oh, Bruce, you never fail to charm me with your kind words," she said sarcastically. "It makes me so sad that my evil sister kept you off your feet for so long." She smirked as he sneered.
"Speaking of which, I heard that you failed in that department as well," he reminded. "Maybe instead of skipping rope and playing patty cake, you should've been more focused on stopping that bitch!" He was still slightly bitter about his last encounter with the assassin; he yearned for revenge.
"Oh, you think you're so witty, Bruce," she remarked. "Maybe Kazuya should just give you a red nose and you can cheer up all the injured soldiers in the ICU." She could see him gritting his teeth in anger from the corners of his eyes as if he were gearing up for another silly retort, but she wasn't in the best mood, and one more peep from him would gladly make her pick up where Nina left off. Luckily for him, the elevator reached its stop and the door opened.
She immediately stepped out and began traversing the long hall leading to her employer's office. To her dismay, the tall man was walking right behind her. She clicked her tongue with a sigh. "What business do you have with him?"
Bruce smirked. "What? You didn't receive the email? Apparently the boss is updating us on his latest plans," he revealed. "I guess being stuck in the basement really has left you in the dark."
She clenched her fists lightly by her side before choosing to ignore him. Being on the teasing end was no fun, she wondered if this is how Nina felt whenever she relentlessly bugged her to death. The truth was, she didn't receive an email, she was just doing her daily check in with him while, shamefully, hoping to get back in his good graces.
They both arrived to his office doors, she cautiously knocked but received no answer, but they both entered despite that. Their employer stood erect in the dimmed office with his arms folded across his chest as he observed several LCD screens in front of him with various maps and grids on display. He heard them enter, so there was no need for him to turn around and acknowledge them right away. With the recent dreams, visions, and voices speaking to him, he saw everything more clearly. 'It seems Jin is taking his sweet time and the beast is growing impatient,' he mused. 'The collision of two stars… then he will awaken.'
"You called, boss?" Bruce interrupted.
Anna just silently observed him. He had been much more reclusive lately, and even when she spotted him from afar, he always seemed so consumed with his thoughts. Something strange was happening with him, yet she had no inkling of an idea about what was going on anymore.
The devilish man finally turned to face his subordinates with a blank face. He nodded very slightly to Bruce, it was his way of welcoming him back after his absence from his duties. His bicolored gaze then locked onto the red clad vixen, and with a look of indifference he offered her the same gesture. He had much more important things to concern himself with besides dealing with that woman. "It's time that we take the reins from Jin and speed things along," he started. "I'm tired of waiting, we to take matters into our own hands." They looked confused, as they should, but he was careful not to reveal too much too early on, especially since he had only recently found out the scope of Jin's plans halfway through their game.
Both Anna and Bruce cast each other confused glances as their employer spoke to them. Wasn't that the plan all along or did he have something else in mind? They both remained silent.
"It spoke to me in my dreams…now I know what I must do," he spoke cryptically. "The war is merely a distraction…in order for it to awaken, I must bring the fight to Jin."
Still, they were both slightly stumped by this new revelation in his plans, but whatever he had up his sleeve was sure to be fun. Bruce smirked and cracked his knuckles. "I'm guessing this means the gloves are off and there's no more kiddie play then?" he wondered. Kazuya smirked and nodded in return. "Good, I'm tired of playing mind games…I'm ready for some real bloodsport."
"The cold war is over," Kazuya announced sternly. "I expect both of you to carry out your missions with full precision without hesitation…no matter how deadly it may get and despite any reservations you may have." As he spoke this, his glare fell upon the brunette once again.
Anna tensed and inhaled silently as her boss bored her down with his angry eyes. To conceal her disquiet, she allowed her lips to form into a confident smirk. He was right, she had to fully put aside her emotions and stop playing cat and mouse with her prey. She couldn't afford any more failures at this point because the next time he may not be so lenient with her.
'This game of war is a game no more,' the devilish man thought insidiously as he turned back to the screens again, contemplating their next course of action. 'Prepare yourself, Jin.'
End of chapter 27!
Nina's slowly breaking under the pressure; Jin is still so secretive; Kazuya is out for blood; Anna is struggling with regrets from her past. I've been brainstorming, and I want the future chapters to take a darker turn in theme. If material is deemed to be too disturbing, I'll put warnings at the beginning of the chapters. Thanks for reading!