Hello, everyone! I'm back with another update! Sorry for the wait, but I'll try to update at least once every month. Also, thanks so much for the reviews and story follows, I really appreciate them all! :)

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

An unexplainable sense of dread weighed down heavily upon his thoughts. His chest felt heavy and a thick knot felt like it had lodged itself in his throat. Though not completely cognizant yet, something still lingered on his mind that made him feel completely horrid and despondent. He didn't want to wake up, he still felt fatigued and drained, a similar feeling he experienced in the past when he took a strong sleeping pill only to be granted three measly hours of rest. Something was trying to force its way to the forefront of his mind, but he desperately fought it back to the point where he could feel the tension pooling between his eyes. The state of wakefulness was approaching ever quickly, and soon he'd be forced to face the day.

The soft, melodic sound of gentle humming entered his ears, further beckoning him into the real world. Groggily, he slowly opened his eyes, only far enough to peer discreetly through the slits. Upon doing so, he glanced around with slightly blurry vision and noticed immediately that his surroundings were foreign to him. This was almost a cause for panic, but something about the humming heard in the background calmed him. He slowly skimmed over the vicinity and realized he was in a bedroom smaller than his own but still adequately spacious. Light seeped into the sheer white curtains, signaling to him that it was morning. He was dazed and his memory was fuzzy, but he didn't mind not recalling anything right away for some reason.

The door within the room produced a soft click as it opened. For unbeknownst reasons, he closed his eyes to feign sleep. The soft humming was more clear as the woman entered the room. He carefully cracked an eye open to observe. 'Nina…' he thought as his heart quickened with nervousness. 'This is her room?'

The blonde casually walked about her quarters adorned in her underwear as she went about her daily routine. He closed his eye briefly before reopening it to observe her. She walked to her closet and perused through her wardrobe briefly before grabbing a pair of dark jeans from the hanger. He wanted to avert his gaze from her to give her privacy, but there was something about watching her do the simplest things that was captivating to him. She pulled her jeans up over her hips just as any normal person would and, just the same, buttoned her blouse in an unremarkable way, but seeing her with her guard completely down was an event as rare as witnessing a comet blazing across the sky.

After finishing dressing herself, she casually walked to her vanity and began softly brushing through her blonde tresses before fashioning it into a ponytail. It wasn't until she picked up a silver tube and began applying lipstick to her lips that he noticed the bandage dressing her hand. His heart immediately sank as he noticed her injury and those dreadful memories he tried to suppress finally burst forth. The feel of his fanged teeth sinking into her soft flesh and the sharp cry of pain erupting from her mouth quickly invaded his memories. He absentmindedly clenched his teeth at the memory and shuddered. 'Nina...what…have I done?' he thought in penitence. Unconsciously, he released a heavy sigh in disappointment. The humming ceased.

"You're finally awake…" her voice floated across the room. Silence persisted quite a while after she spoke.

Reluctantly, the raven haired man fully opened his eyes to look upon the woman standing at the vanity. Her concerned blue eyes met with his, and he shamefully brought his hands up to cover his face, silently praying to magically vanish from existence. He didn't feel worthy of her concern or pity. Silence loomed over the room; he just laid there on her bed, completely stumped about what he could possibly say to her at the moment. He could hear her soft footsteps approaching before he felt the weight on the bed shift. A soft hand gently brushed against his shoulder, causing him to tense immensely from the contact. He felt horrendously guilty and felt that he was completely undeserving to be in her presence; he wanted immediate judgment for his violent transgression.

"Don't," he finally spoke in a terse tone. "I shouldn't be here…you shouldn't come near me." He heard her sigh heavily in exasperation.

Nina somehow knew that he would mentally torture and beat himself up over this, but she didn't want him to wallow in guilt over the incident. "It wasn't your fault," she spoke in a calm voice. "I know you didn't want to hurt me-"

"But I did!" he abruptly interjected with anger in his voice. "That's why I need you to stay away from me…you'll be in danger if you stay." If she truly requested it, he would release her from her contract to preserve her safety. Being around him must've been so burdensome and tiring, and now he had added to that stress by becoming a physical threat to her.

"Don't be so dramatic," the assassin said bluntly. It was then that he finally lowered his hands from his face and looked at her with confusion. "Sure it was a surprise, but this is nothing, and I'm still alive." She glanced at her bandaged hand and briefly thought back to the previous night. It was a struggle trying to get him from his office to his quarters; he was quite weakened from the ordeal and couldn't offer her much assistance in holding up his own weight up as they traveled down the long corridor. Feeling exhausted, she just had to settle for bringing him to her own place to lessen the distance to travel.

After she finally got him settled, she begrudgingly made a late night visit to the infirmary to have her hand examined. The medic was perplexed at how she had managed to get bitten by a wild dog in the middle of the night, especially when the teeth impressions didn't match, but, despite his many suspicions, he treated her wound properly. Even afterwards, she barely slept a wink as she nestled up comfortably on her chaise; she kept a close eye on him as he slept, partly in concern for him but also for her own safety.

Jin's eyes fell upon her bandaged hand and it further ignited the guilt and disgust he harbored for himself. Why was she, once again, minimalizing the severity of this situation? Was this always her tactic for coping with trauma? "I hurt you…" he breathed out sorrowfully as he forced himself to look at her injury. "I'm sorry…I'm so sorry…" his voice trailed off weakly as he covered his face with his palm.

Her blue eyes focused on him as he continued to blame himself. She positioned herself to comfortably lie beside him despite the tension. She rested her head on her pillow and turned towards him. "Remember when you told me everything that I would need to know about working for you in Phuket?" she recalled. "You pretty much warned me that something like this could happen and gave me the option to nullify my contract…but I didn't." She noticed that he lowered his hand from his face to look her in the eyes once again.

It was true. He did give her the choice back then, and now, he thought about giving her that option again. He stared intently into her eyes and said, "If you want to leave, I wouldn't deny your wishes."

His tone was so serious that it nearly made her nervous. "I knew what I was getting myself into, I'd be a coward to run now," she admitted with a small, wry smirk. "Besides, I'm not afraid."

They just silently stared into each other's eyes as they laid in bed together. He was relieved that she wasn't afraid of him, but he still feared losing complete control over himself and risking harming her, or worse, in the future. Last night, he couldn't remember what triggered him to the point that he allowed his mental state to become so weakened. He vaguely recalled what happened or how he managed to forfeit control of his conscious to that damned demon. It was like his own conscious slowly became submerged in the darkness of the devil's influence and control, but he could see a slither of light that he desperately yet futilely fought his way towards in attempts to wake up and regain control of himself, but he failed.

Jin pulled himself from his thoughts and realigned his attention to the blonde beside him. He had so much he wanted to say to make everything right, but he knew he lacked the eloquence to properly put his jumbled thoughts into words, as usual. "Nina…I just want you to know that…that dark half you saw last night wasn't me," he revealed in a deeply contrite tone. "I would never want to harm you." She offered him a small comforting smile that put him slightly at ease.

"I know, Jin, you're not a monster," she consoled him. "And I doubt that you harbor some perverse desire to eat, kill, or fuck me…I can't remember the exact order."

His eyes widened a bit and his mouth gaped slightly. "Wh-what? I...he said that to you?!" he stammered in shock. "I would never…I'm sorry…"

She smirked slightly at his reaction. In retrospect, she wouldn't have been opposed to one of those options, but she was a bit embarrassed to admit such a thing to him. Besides, she wasn't in the best headspace last night, it would have made for a rough encounter that he would have been unprepared to handle. She closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath as she tried to banish away those conflicted thoughts from the events that transpired yesterday. 'After the shock of seeing Jin that way…I nearly forgot about my run in with…' her thoughts were interrupted.

"I still can't believe how everything happened, and I barely remember much after you called me," Jin tried to recall, still feeling a bit discombobulated. "What time was it?" He figured he could piece the clues together to figure out the timeline of what led to him blacking out if he had more details.

Off the top of her head, she couldn't remember, her night was quite complicated and stressful as well. She glanced over to her nightstand to grab her phone to check her call records. Her stomach plummeted. The device wasn't planted by her bedside as it should've been, but before panicking she decided to search elsewhere.

Jin was slightly alarmed when she suddenly jumped up from her resting position beside him and began frantically searching for something. She fell to her knees and looked beneath her bed, dashed to her wardrobe and searched pockets on her black leather jacket before completely pausing in place, seemingly in deep thought. He finally sat up slowly as he observed her strange behavior. "What's the matter? Did you forget something?" he questioned her calmly.

'Wait…where the hell did I put my phone?! I must've dropped it somewhere, but where? Before I panic any further, I need to retrace my steps,' she figured as she forced herself to remain calm. She didn't want to alarm Jin.

"Nina? Did you hear me?" he asked. She was still absorbed in her thoughts.

'I hope it's on company grounds, if it's not, then I'll have to go back to the city…' she became apprehensive at the thought.

"Nina!" he called out to her sharply, now becoming annoyed with being ignored. "What is it?"

She finally pulled herself from her racing thoughts and faced him. Despite her minor distress, she managed to keep her wall of faux composure erect. She shook her head slowly. "It's nothing important, I just forgot to run an errand yesterday," she quickly fibbed. With that said, she grabbed her jacket and slipped it on quickly.

Jin was confused about why her mood shifted so suddenly. Admittedly, he became a little worried at seeing her hastily dressing herself to leave all of the sudden. "You're going out again?" he inquired curiously.

She quickly grabbed her keys from the drawer in her nightstand. "Just a quick run," she stated hurriedly. He was watching her like a hawk, he was definitely suspicious. Nina returned to her bedside and sat down as she placed her hand on his shoulder. "I'll be back, just stay here as long as you want and rest up."

He remained silent as she gently rubbed his shoulder before getting up again to head towards the door. She briefly glanced back at him with a look of hesitancy before leaving him alone in her quarters. Once she left, he just sat alone in her bed, confused and dumbfounded by her abrupt departure. Her behavior was definitely rousing his suspicions, but, whatever was going on, she'd probably explain it to him later.

He shook his head slowly and sighed as he lazily fell backwards onto the bed. He still felt absolutely awful about what he had done, and her willingness to forgive him so easily still made him feel unworthy of her trust. For so long, he succeeded in keeping her safe from himself, so why did this happen now? Stress and guilt were weighing him down, and he was afraid that he was changing. This war had warped his perception of morality and made him more numb to the pain he was in and the pain he was causing others.

'You sound…just like your father,' Nina's voice echoed in his memory.

Even during his losing battle in his mental tug of war with the demon, those words deeply penetrated through both their consciousness and was ultimately what saved him from the demon's total possession. Her words shook him to the core and made him realize his own ultimate fear, becoming anything like Kazuya Mishima. He could feel his skin crawling at the thought and decided to dismiss his stressful musings for the moment.

The cool, silken sheets on her bed felt comforting against his skin, and he settled in to her bed even more. In fact, the surroundings in her room generally felt warmer and comforting than his own despite the relatively simple and minimalistic décor she maintained. In his own quarters, he preferred the presence of blackout curtains to keep himself shrouded in darkness to help cater to his poor sleeping habits; her room, however, invited light in, which forced its occupant to awaken to face the challenges of the day ahead.

Jin closed his eyes, feeling too lazy to get out of bed just yet, and he figured that he'd accept the offer to lounge in her room for a while before resuming his regularly scheduled day. He hoped that her errand wouldn't take too long and she'd return soon. The rational part of him wanted her to keep her distance away from him for her own safety, but the selfish part of him secretly wished for her to stay despite the many hazards he posed to her.

'That bastard…he could have easily killed her if he wanted, but he was gaining some sick twisted pleasure from toying with her just to spite me,' he reflected. 'I don't know how to keep him at bay now, he's becoming unpredictable.' There were so many problems that he had to contend with in the future, but for now, he just wanted to rest his weary mind and body.

After thoroughly and carefully retracing her last known steps from the previous night and procuring no results, panic slowly began to surface within her. She was certain that maybe she had dropped it in the garage where she'd parked her bike, but after that assumption was a bust, she furtively began skimming around other places she had been on the company's grounds to locate her misplaced phone with no luck. Her fruitless search brought her to the main lobby to gather her thoughts and determine her next course of action. It wasn't that she lacked the necessary tools to track and locate her phone, that could be done easily, she was just annoyed about doing the extra leg work. She wondered if she should just bite the bullet and inform Jin, but her pride was preventing her from admitting her careless mistake to her employer. A professional assassin that couldn't keep up with her phone? How laughable!

The irritated blonde paced slowly in front of the lobby windows and placed her hand over her face with a deep sigh. 'I can't believe this…why in the hell did I make that unnecessary detour?' she berated herself. 'Well, at least whatever street urchin found it won't be able to unlock it, but if I receive any calls they can still answer them…I need to retrieve it asap!' For the moment, she carefully plotted her next course of action, attempting to use her nonexistent gift of foresight to predict the multiple avenues of different outcomes for this predicament. The best outcome would be if she could locate it in lost and found at the arena with no fuss; the worst would be if she had to chase down, beat, maim, or kill the perp responsible for stealing her phone as a last resort. Normally, she wouldn't hesitate to get herself involved in a violent skirmish, but she had too much on her mind to feel fulfilled by such a lowly guilty pleasure of hers.

'I have to make this quick, I'm still worried about Jin,' she thought with concern. 'He shouldn't be left alone for too long in his current state.' Nina didn't fully understand the nature of his condition or know if she would have any bearing on helping him, but she definitely didn't want him to be alone should another incident occur. Thinking back to the previous night unconsciously made her flex her bandaged hand, feeling the slightly numbing pain from her injury.

"Nina?" a voice called her name. "What are you doing down here?"

She was interrupted from her thoughts and whipped around from the window and turned to acknowledge the person. "Eddy…" she said his name quietly as he walked towards her, donned in his Tekken Force uniform sans the helmet. "How is everything?" She had her own problems to attend to, but she had already been rude to him once and, beyond her own belief, she actually cared about not further damaging their civil working relationship. The fact they that were still on speaking terms showed that there was no bad blood between them despite their minor disagreement in the past.

Eddy casually approached her with his usual reserved demeanor. It had been a while since they had spoken with each other, but considering the high tensions around them, it was understandable that they'd allow their stress to overcome them at times. "Are you okay? You look a little stressed," he noted. His eyes then fell upon the bandages dressing her hand. "What happened?"

Nina noticed him staring at her wound and shrugged as she folded her arms across her chest to casually conceal her hand. "It's nothing serious," she brushed off calmly to avoid arousing any concern. "Where are you headed?" She noticed that he was dressed for duty and wondered what was going on; she'd been so out of the loop lately due to her ill-timed vacation.

Eddy held a serious look on his face when he explained, "There's been some suspicious activity from G Corp in the Middle East, so we've been ordered to double down on our defenses."

It was no surprise that their enemies were making moves behind the scene, they just had to be one step ahead at all times. It seemed that poor Eddy was dragged into the fray once again to fulfill his deal with Jin despite the obvious reluctance she could read on his features. "So, have you cleared up things with the boss?" she asked curiously. His meeting with Jin was long overdue, and she wondered how he would proceed in the future if the incentive for his services were no longer there.

Surprisingly, he didn't appear to be upset by the topic as he normally would have been in the past. He actually seemed slightly optimistic. "It's better, but not the best," he replied. "As long as my master is improving, then that's all that matters to me now."

Her blue eyes blinked a few times in surprise from his words. She was slightly confused. If that were the case, then why was Jin dreading their meeting beforehand? She was a little skeptical and wanted to question Eddy about the details of the meeting, but she decided it was best to avoid overstepping her boundaries, for now.

An alert beeped from Eddy's phone that demanded his attention. He immediately checked it and looked back up at the blonde. "My team is waiting for me," he announced as he quickly walked towards the door. "I'll catch up with you later."

Nina silently watched him leave through the lobby doors and slowly shook her head. He was a selfless man forced to commit unspeakable things to protect a loved one, the perfect collateral. She tore her thoughts away from her colleague's troubles to focus on her own. She still had a dilemma to resolve.

The blonde turned her attention to the desk in the main lobby. She noticed Jin's jittery secretary quickly averting her eyes away from her and resuming whatever work she was doing at her computer. A plan formed in her mind. Nina casually strode over to the desk, too absorbed in her thoughts to pay attention to the woman. Her eyes zoomed in on the phone on the desk and she remained silent as she continued thinking. 'If my phone is still on, I can call it and track it from the computer once I get a signal, then I can be on my way.'

"Would you like a cup of tea, Miss Williams?" the woman asked in her usual meek manner.

She was slow to remove her attention from the phone before calmly regarding the woman with a blank stare. After registering the question, she rejected the offer with a slow shake of her head. Nina made her way around the desk without a single explanation and quickly reached for the phone and was in the process of dialing before she felt the nervous, intrusive eyes of the secretary fixated on her. The woman was visibly tense from having her space invaded, especially since it was her, the infamous silent assassin and right hand of the newly infamous Jin Kazama. She glared at the woman silently before forcing her frowned lips into a tight, thin smile. "I changed my mind, I would like a cup of tea now," she said stiffly, forcing herself to appear friendly despite her frustration. It must've been an unconvincing display since the poor woman's eyes widened as if death himself had spoken to her. In a clumsy, uncoordinated manner, the woman stood up and shuffled away while muttering about how quickly she'd return.

Now that she had privacy, she stood over the computer and her nimble fingers began typing away as she accessed the necessary page to track down lost or stolen technology. She also quickly dialed her phone number and was anxious about whether it was still on or if someone would answer. The phone, to her surprise, did indeed ring, and she breathed a sigh of relief and was mere moments from hanging up until someone answered.

"Hello?" a man's voice answered cautiously. "May I ask who this is?"

Her stomach sunk and she could hear her heart drumming in her ears and the blood rushed from her face. She was frozen. That British accent rang within her ears and without a doubt, she knew who she was speaking with. She couldn't say anything, in fact, she was nearly too shaken to speak.

"Hey…are you that woman from last night?" the voice inquired cautiously with curiosity. "I didn't mean to find your phone, but if you want it back I can meet you somewhere."

Nina was still too stunned to respond, her racing heart made it difficult for her to breathe. 'Of all people…why?' her thoughts trailed off. 'Fate has a cruel way of fucking me over. Why is this happening to me?' She was beginning to feel unfairly targeted by some cosmic force in the universe that had it out for her.

"Listen, if it is you, do you want your phone back or not?" the voice spoke again, slightly irritable at the lack of response.

With a few deep breaths to soothe her rattled nerves, she finally gave herself the will to speak. "I can track your location and cause very serious trouble for you," she calmly threatened despite her raging emotions. "Leave the phone at a location of my choice and that's all I'll need from you." At all costs, she wanted to avoid having another run in with the boxer. Her mind still wasn't ready to cope with any of this, and she didn't think she'd ever fully be able to come to terms with this predicament.

"If it's all right with you, I'd prefer to see whom I'm returning this phone to," he suggested. "Or I could just turn it in to the police station like I originally planned."

"You'd be wise not to test my patience!" she threatened irritably. "I'm not going to play this game with you!"

"Hmph, it seems like you don't want the authorities involved," he noticed. "Who are you, really?"

"Don't get smart with me, you little shi-" she was abruptly cut off.

"My name is Steve," he stressed in a firm voice. "It seems I'm holding more cards in my hand at the moment, so will you agree to meet me now?"

There was silence on her end for a moment as she was having an intense internal struggle. This was the very last thing she wanted to encounter in her venture to retrieve her phone. She was now certain that the universe had stacked fated dominoes around her and knocked them down just to watch the chaos that would ensue. She continued to hold the receiver to her ear while she pinched the bridge of her nose to rub away the building tension. She sighed heavily as she realized there was no way around this situation. "Don't move from your current location," she ordered. "I'll be on my way." She stared at the computer screen and observed the GPS with his exact coordinates and location on display.

"Okay, my room number is-"

"I already have that information," she interrupted. "Don't turn the phone off and do not answer a single call after I hang up. Understood?" She narrowed her eyes slightly as she gave him these instructions, hoping he wouldn't do anything foolish with her device.

"Yes, I won't-"

She hung up before he started babbling again, and she took one final glance at the location on the computer before logging out. She was being gracious enough to control her temper and not send her team after him to reclaim her phone. Since she wanted to do this quickly and covertly, she would have to resolve this on her own without the involvement of others; the less people that knew, the better.

He seemed quite adamant about meeting her face to face, and she wondered if he knew. Had he connected all the dots and found out the truth somehow? Or was he just suspicious as to why she was so desperate to avoid him the previous night? Either way, the thought of meeting him disturbed her to the point where she nearly felt physically ill; she wasn't prepared for this at all. Truthfully, she didn't want to meet him, speak to him, or truly see him, she felt there was no purpose. What could she possibly say to him? What did he want to say to her if he did indeed know the truth?

Nina stood in place for a while, pondering these troubling thoughts. She was never a coward, never, but she'd rather stand alone on a battlefield and take on a charging army than to come face to face with a part of her past that she permanently tried to bury. She sighed heavily again and took a long, deep breath to relax her tingling nerves. She had to get over this fear and get a move on to head to the rendezvous point. She sharply turned around and was nearly taken aback by a sharp squeal from the woman that was standing behind her.

The woman, in her startlement, had clumsily spilled the hot cup of tea onto herself. She quickly began trying to hold her soaked blouse away from her body to lessen the sting from the hot liquid. Strangely, the secretary began frantically apologizing to her. "I'm sorry, miss Williams, I'll get you another cup!" she pled in a groveling tone.

Nina looked confused for a moment before shaking her mind free from the distraction. Despite feeling slightly responsible for startling the woman, but she didn't have any more time to waste. "I'm sorry," she muttered quickly as she swiftly brushed past the woman and headed towards the elevator. She wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible, like ripping off a band aid. 'I've been avoiding this situation ever since I found out the truth, but I guess this is my punishment for running for so long…I finally have to face this fear,' she realized, attempting to give herself more courage as she set out on this venture.

End of chapter 29!

Poor Nina can't catch a break! I'm already in the works of finishing up the next chapter! There was so much that I wanted to add to this chapter, but I'm saving it for the next instead. Again, thank you all for your continued interest in this extra long story haha, I'll try to wind it down soon.