Donna opened her apartment door, "Alright blondie, where's the kid?"

Donna raised an eyebrow at me, not sure if I was serious, "It takes nine months Mio."

"I was talking about Daken." I spit on the sidewalk, "That asshole."

She rolled her eyes, "Come on in."

I walked into the apartment, "I'm telling you Donna, point me in the direction, and I will kill that bastard!"

"Keep it down, I have neighbors."

"This is LA, if these people really live here, then they've over heard worse things than a murder plot." I snickered, collapsing down on the couch. I rode a motorcycle, from New York to LA. In leather pants. My ass is on fire.

Donna looked me up and down, "In uniform? Don't you own civies?"

I rolled my eyes, "I'm not that great keeping up with my own laundry, this was one of the cleaner outfits I have."

"You've lived alone for nearly a year, and you haven't learned to keep up with your own laundry?" Donna asked, sitting down in an armchair across from me.

"Conner usually takes care of the housework, that's what boyfriends are for, right?"

She shook her head, "Mio, you're grasp on stereotypes is severely lacking."

I rolled my eyes, "Alright Donna, you called me down here, how do you want me to do it? I don't exactly have the Maramusa Blade, but there are other ways to kill our kind. Heavy poison will do it, but being able to administer it is tricky, if I shove eight pounds of heroin into his arm, he'll probably just cut off his arm before it spreads. If I try and burn him in a hellfire inferno, I'm not sure how I'll keep him in place, cause whatever rope I use will burn faster than his bones."

Donna held up her hand, "Mio, I don't want you to kill him."

"… What?"

"I don't want you to kill Daken." She explained. "If he's not enough of a man to step up and take care of his own child, so be it. The only reason I called you down here is…" She looked away, her calm poker face fading a little to show just how uncertain she was of herself, and her future. "I'm not sure I can do this alone."

Suddenly, I realized that even though I was a veteran at cleaning up after my father, this war was totally different then all the other ones of his I've ran into. This time, it isn't about revenge. It's about damage control, and I've never been to good at that.

Donna sighed, "I'm not afraid of child birth, I've gone through enough pain in my day. It's just that… I know that whatever it is, boy or girl, there's a high chance that it's going to have… different issues once it gets older. I can't count on Daken to be around to coach my kid through those issues, and I really don't want to call up an old man I hardly know."

That's not true, you just don't want to betray Daken by calling Logan.

"Why do you still care about him Donna?" I asked. "I mean, he knocks you up, drags you though all kinds of hell, and you still don't betray him. Why? That's not just crazy, its… sociopathic."

She smiled, just a little. "No, it's completely normal, as normal as people like us can get. Why does anyone stay in a relationship that's destructive? The answer is cliché, but completely true. Love. All we want as humans, no, and people, is love. Love that's worth more than money, or fame, or a promotion to Director of the FBI…"

Damn, Donna was married to her work.

"All we want in a relationship is someone we can fight with like crazy-"

"Then have the kind of make up sex that makes your left side go numb." I said dreamily.

"Exactly!" She said, one hand on her tiny stomach bump. "Someone who will go to court for you, and lie.

"Someone who comes off as completely impossible, yet totally sexy at the same time." I groaned, thinking about Connor. "Someone who would kill for you, not very well, but they'd put in the effort."

"Someone you can be with for fifty to sixty years, until one day you're both sitting on the porch of your house together, in the house you bought-"

"And you both get a heart attack and die." I laughed a little, "Daken dying from a heart attack. Lame ass way to go. Still, if it happens, I'm putting that on his gravestone, just for the sake of him flipping me off from Hell."

Donna stared at me a moment, "I'm going to get used to this eventually, right?"

"Haha, no."

"Right. But that's the thing about wanting love so bad, we'll stay with absolute idiots, for years. Trying to change them, trying to make them better, until we just give up, and we're left with three years of our life wasted, and we realize that Death do not give us rebates for wasted time."

I raised an eyebrow, "You have a very screwed up romantic past, don't you?"

She shrugged, "I wasn't always a stone cold bitch who didn't take any lip from anyone, no. I was a doormat, I let guys use me anytime they wanted, because my Dad never told me I could do better. But Daken is not going to do that to me. I'm not going to let this happen to myself again."

"Hmm, for the record, whatever the hell those evil men put you through, you have to admit, the results are turning out nicely." I pointed out.

Donna smirked, "Whenever a man hits on me now, I just take my gun out. They usually run away quickly."

Okay, I hate my Dad for a lot of things, I mean, he is a royal screw up. There is not one thing he has done all of his life without some double motive that benefits him. But tapping Donna… this is the only act of his I will ever condone.

Not even Scott could find fault with this, and Scott can find fault with anything. Donna is everything any man should be looking for. Pretty, smart, slightly psychotic, I mean, she's the whole package! Daken, I will never say this to your face, but… nice. Nice job scoring with this girl. This is the only sexual fling you've had since my mother that I approve of. Actually… no, I don't approve of you getting with my mother, you suck for that.

I stood up, "Alright Donna, I'll help you out with this kid. I'll stick around until you've popped the bun out of the oven, and you've gotten a handle on it, then I have to go back to New York. You can call me anytime you need to, and I promise to be there for all the important stuff in your baby's life."

She smiled, "You'll be the first to get a birthday invitation."

"Birthday? I'm talking about the four most important stuff, graduation, marriage, divorce, and funeral."

She laughed, "Thank you Mio."

I nodded, "I swear Donna, you're not going to be left alone to raise my little half sibling. I will be the coolest older sister, ever."

"Right after I get done killing Daken." I finished, heading for the door.

Donna groaned, "Really Mio?"

"Don't judge me Donna, this is just how my family works. We hate our fathers, and love our grandfathers. We swear to kill our fathers, and our grandfathers help us do it." I smirked, pointing at her baby bump, "And as soon as that kid turns nine, I'm teaching it Mugai-ryu."

"I don't even want to know what that is."

"Relax, it's just traditional samurai swordplay."

"Just?"

SEVERAL HOURS LATER:

I tracked him down to a bar on the edge of town. I could hear that bastard laughing from the parking lot. Even without my enhanced hearing I could have heard him. I walk in, and I see Daken across the bar, sitting on a couch with funny looking stains that I really don't want to see the history behind, a slut under one arm and a man-slut under the other arm.

He knows I'm here, he can smell me. But he doesn't look up at me, and I don't look up at him. I'm not here to kill him, for one thing it's to public of a place, and it would be to much trouble. For another, I actually have to be somewhere tomorrow, so me getting chained up in a rat infested cellar somewhere won't exactly help me.

But also because, I don't want to. It's not going to solve anything, it never has. Daken will just feed off of the hate and anger I physically throw at him, and all this will be for nothing. The only way I'm going to put Daken in his place is with logic and words he can't counteract, so that's what I'll do.

Just one problem, on the way over here I was so angry, I didn't exactly think of anything Oscar worthy to say, so this might take awhile…

I head to the bar, flash a fake ID, and order the strongest shot they had. Literally, those were my exact words. "Strongest shot you have please."

The barkeep stared at me, "Uh, darlin, you sure about that?"

"You know what? You're right. You've got one hell of a voice of reason." I flash him a smile, "Six of your strongest shots."

The grown men on either side of me start laughing, and the barkeep shakes his head, mumbling about stupid kids, getting drunk and taken home by pedo's, then hands me a tray full of shots, colored a dark red. "They're an original mix, I call them red dragons. It's just cranberry juice, mixed with sake and the strongest whiskey ever made. That I know of."

Red dragons? Ironic.

I throw one back, and it's probably the best drink I've ever had. I can taste the Cranberry juice, and the Sake, and the whiskey. The flavors combine and then separate over and over again in the most delicious way.

I couldn't help thinking about another red dragon I knew of. The story I told Lovette once, the one my mother told me about three times a week, the story that granted me my name.

"In a far away land, there was a young boy, named Mio, who owned next to nothing, except his sword, and his love for his country. He wanted to go to war as a soldier, but he was to young. So he stayed in his home, and watched helplessly as the real soldiers failed to protect his beloved country, and a powerful emperor took over the land."

I smiled as Mom pulled the blankets over me, stroking my hair, "Why did the emperor take over the land?"

"Because, some people are evil, and will always want more power, this man was one of those people. He fell, just like all of those people fall. Anyone who goes down that road will fall."

I threw a second shot back, and heard my father snicker from across the bar at the looks I was receiving from grown men. Looks of sympathy, pity, and awe. I mean, seriously? This stuff might be strong, and burn like fire, but these guys are acting like wussies.

"After years of watching all the suffering the emperor put his country through, Mio had had enough. He was now a full grown man, and he felt it was his responsibility to save his country from any more suffering."

I threw back a third shot.

"So he took his sword, and carried it up to the highest mountain in Japan, and then knelt outside of a cave that the ancient dragon of Yamatai lived in. The dragon came out, and asked him why he came to his domain uninvited. Mio begged for forgiveness, and told the dragon all the suffering going on in his land. He then unsheathed his sword, and held it out to the dragon, and begged the dragon to teach him the secrets of the sword."

I threw back a fourth shot, remembering now that when my mother taught me how to fight with a sword, I used to pretend that I was the Mio in the story. I would pretend that the great Red Dragon of Yamatai was teaching me to fight, so I could save many people and be a great hero.

"After learning all he could from the dragon, Mio went back to his country, and then took out the entire army of the evil emperor by himself, and then killed the emperor. Years later, when Mio had become the emperor of the country he still loved, the dragon came to the palace, and demanded the heart of the princess as payment for teaching Mio to fight. Mio could not refuse, he had to be honorable, and pay his dept. So he grabbed his sword, and cut out his own heart, and gave it to the dragon, saying 'Here, the princes is in my heart' and then he died."

I threw back the fifth shot, and the minute I did, I felt a sudden burst of pain in my head. I hissed out a breath, grabbing my head, and mumbling a curse in Japanese. This wasn't alcohol induced pain, this was a pain I had come to be very familiar with these past few months.

The pain of a memory clicking into place.

I held my sword out in my stance, "Mama, tell me the story of Mio and the Red Dragon again."

She smiled, "Mio, you know that story by heart. But you always seem to think I named you Mio so you would be like the Mio from that story."

I looked up at my mother, lowering my sword slightly. "But, didn't you?"

She shook her head, "No, I never wanted you to be like Mio. Mio spent his life in service to his country, a slave to them, even when he ruled over them. The Great Red Dragon served no one, and answered to no one. He lived his life the way he wanted to, and even with Mio's greatness, the Red Dragon was still superior to him in every way."

"But Mama, the Red Dragon made Mio kill himself."

"That part of the story is more metaphoric. It is meant to mean, that even though the Red Dragon had the best of intentions teaching Mio, his teachings led Mio down the wrong path, leading Mio to cut himself down in the end. The Red Dragon most likely knew Mio would make this mistake, but knew that he would never be able to talk Mio out of it. Some mistakes in life, we have to make."

She knelt beside me, brushing my hair out of my eyes, "I want you to live your life as a teacher, someone who guides the way for others. A teacher who knows that sometimes, mistakes have to be made, and they will have great consequences, but the lessons learned from those mistakes will be the greatest lessons you could ever teach them."

She kissed my forehead, "Promise me Mio, that you will be like the Red Dragon, and not like Mio."

I stared right into my mother's eyes, "I'm sorry Mama, but I cannot. I want to be like Mio, a servant to my father."

I could see the hurt in her eyes, smell the sadness on her scent, but I hadn't cared at the time.

I stared down at the last shot, and felt a tear run down my face. Several of the men snickered, and one mumbled, "I knew she couldn't handle it."

I wiped the tear away, holding that little shot glass and looking into it. I mumbled to low for anyone but Daken to hear, "I am so sorry Mama. Of course I promise."

I threw the last shot back, and several women cheered through the bar, "Whoo hoo!"

The girl under Daken's arm clapped. "You go girl!"

"Damn, you take it like water!" The guy under Daken's other arm exclaimed.

Daken himself remains quiet, but I can feel him smirking, knowing what was probably an impossible feat to these people is like guzzling water for me.

I could feel a slight buzz from the alcohol, but it was gone in literally, three seconds. I love my healing factor, cause without it, I'd probably be stumbling drunk around this bar by now.

The man sitting on my left side leaned in, his leather jacket stank of sweat and urine, his teeth were yellow from cigarette smoke, and his ratty bandana had holes all in it. "Girl only gets that drunk when she's either looking to kill someone, or get laid."

He leaned in closer, breath tickling my ear, and breath making me want to hurl worse than Frost's mind probing did. "What'll it be babe?"

I turn to face him fully, and then out my curled fist up to the side of my neck, then popping my claws. The blades rip through my throat, tearing muscle and gushing blood all over my uniform. Damn. Maybe Donna will wash my clothes?

I retract my claws as he stumbles off the bar stool, falling on his ass, "I don't know, do I look like I wanna get laid by a gross old man with a pecker the size of a chicken beak?"

Nearly everyone in the bar screams, jumping up and scrambling over each other to get out. The bartender moves to do the same, but I point a finger at him, "No, not you."

He sinks to his knees, "Come on, don't kill me, I'm just the bartender!"

"Exactly, that stuff you just made me, put like, three or four bottles in a bag, I'm gonna need them later." I ordered.

He nodded, standing up shakily, "Uh, yes ma'am."

"Don't call me ma'am, I'm not old yet. But for reasons you don't know, when I am old, I'm still gonna look like a smoking hot teenager."

Daken laughs, the girl under his arm is gone, but for some reason the guy is still there, his legs swung across Daken's lap, leaning into him. "See, you've got more of me in you everyday."

I stalk over to him, but turn to glare at his lap boy first, "The man whose lap you're straddling happens to be my father, who left my pregnant mother alone. He also just left the woman whose pregnant with my half sister and/or brother alone. We're having a family meeting here, so, if you don't mind?"

He shrugged, "Sure thing."

He walked out of the bar, and what I did next I am not proud of, but he was intentionally swaying his hips in a very flirtatious manner.

I stared at his ass as he walked out. Day-um!

My shadow of a conscious cried out. Control your raging hormones!

It' not my fault that I haven't had any action in two months, and call me crazy, but the guy kind of smells like Connor! But Connor's got an even better back view, if you know what I mean.

Focus!

I turn back to Daken, to see he was staring at that guys ass too. I don't know why but I hate my genetics even more now.

Daken smirked up at my glare, "Don't judge me, you were staring too."

I pointed at my face, "This is a disappointed look. This look is not for staring at a hot gay man's ass. In this day and age, I can't really blame anyone, male or female for staring at a gay guy's ass."

Daken chuckled, crossing his arms. "Yeah yeah. So what now, gonna scream at me? Claw my face? Cut off my balls? Hate to tell you this, but they grow back."

I don't want to know how he knows that. I keep glaring at him, not bothering to use my pheromones to cover up my real emotions, because at this point I don't care if he knows how much he has hurt me. I don't care that I just cried in front of him, and a whole bar. If I'm going to act strong and put on a brave face, it's not going to be for him.

I will never be strong for him again.

"I have nearly all my memories back."

"Oh?"

"Not all of them, but most." I can't help the anger coursing through me, wanting to hit him, bite him, make him bleed. I want to cause him pain, like he caused me my whole life. Not by abandoning me, but by abandoning me, and then coming back. Again and again. "I thought that… they would show me something important about you. Something that would change my opinion of you. I was right."

Daken sighed, "I couldn't be there to raise you, but I tried to instruct your mother on how to raise you to my expectations, and-"

"Stop making excuses, you bastard!" I cried, and I felt tears gather in my eyes. I don't care if I cry in front of him. My mother cried in front of him, and I can't look at her as anything but strong. I want to be like the Red Dragon. If I'm going to be a teacher, and leader, then I need to start here. "I don't care for your excuses, because I know the truth! All you ever wanted to do by ordering my mother around on how to raise me, was to turn me into your weapon."

The tears seemed to vanish, not even spilling over, they were just gone. New strength pumped into my blood, strength I didn't even know I had.

"You are a despicable excuse for a man- NO! That's not what you are. Your kind doesn't deserve excuses! You keep saying you hate yourself, that you want to change, get a second chance, prove that you aren't under Romulus' control, well guess what!? YOU ARE JUST LIKE ROMULUS!"

Daken stood up, popping his claws out and snarling, "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME!?"

"Sorry Daken, we're not going to beat the blood out of each other until one of us wins, you don't get to do that today. After everything you've ever done for me, you owe me this! The chance to tell you… how I feel."

Daken paused for a moment, and then laughed. He laughed, and laughed, and laughed. He finally sat back down on the couch, sheathing his claws. "Alright then cub, tell me how you, haha, feel!"

"You said you wanted to start over, and I'll admit, you deserved the chance to do that. After what Romulus did to you, you deserved a chance at a better life. But you screwed it up for yourself! Every chance you've gotten, you've ruined them, over and over again, on purpose! I've given you so many chances, since I first met you when I was a child, SO MANY! But just when I think that maybe, just maybe you have an interest in me, other than a weapon, you tear a little more of my heart out."

I can't help it, I let out a small sob, but I don't cry. "I don't need you to be my father. I know you're incapable of feeling that way towards me, but I still want you to respect me! I can't look at you as my father, not anymore. But I respected you. I really did. Even before I learned the truth about my past, I respected you! You're a brilliant Martial Artist, you're a genius, a master assassin, a pro at manipulation in every form. And every now and then, when it really counted, you would turn around, and you would save the day. With the Dark Avengers, in Madripor, even though it was a double edge sword, I respected you."

I ball my hands into fists, "But not anymore! After the shit you just pulled with Donna, I don't respect you anymore!"

He crossed his arms, "Do you really think I care?"

"I KNOW YOU CARE!" I roared, "As much as you try to deny it, there's four people whose opinions of yourself that matter to you. One of them is me."

I shook my head, letting out a bitter laugh, "I thought… I know you didn't love my mother. Whatever the hell happened between you two to get her to sleep with you, and have me? Love had nothing to do with it. But I know you love Donna. You'll swear up and down it isn't true, but you love her. I thought that this time, this one time, the simplest of things to do… that you would step up. That you would be the man I know you can be, the man my mother knew you could have been!"

He opened his mouth to talk, but I beat him to it, "NO! You don't get to defend yourself, you don't have the right! I told you, if you screwed up with Donna, that I was going to step in, and clean up your mess. But I'm not going to be like my mother! I'm not going to let you decide what this kid learns. Donna's baby will be nothing like you, and I'll make sure of it. I will spend my whole life fighting against it! You are never allowed to see Donna again, or her baby! You had your chance, and you screwed it up, again! So no, you're not getting another chance, ever!"

Daken growled, "You can't keep me away from my own kid-"

"It's not your kid! Not after you ran away, again! You criticize me for running, but all you do is run! I learned how to run from you, because the minute commitment pops up, you run! And because of you I was afraid to love someone. I was so afraid of getting hurt, that I ran from Connor." I took in a shaky breath, "I'm not running anymore. Never. Never again. I'm not going to be like you, anymore. Logan always told me, step up, or step aside, well guess what, you stepped aside! So now I've gotta step up, asshole!"

I turned away from him, walking to the bar, and grabbing the bottles of red dragon. "I'm going to be what my mother always wanted me to be. Nothing like you."

I tuck the bag under my arm, walking towards the door, but then I stop, because there's only one thing left to say. "And I know you aren't going to leave this alone. You'll track me down, find me again, and you'll try and put yourself back up as the alpha by slashing me up. But it won't work this time, because while you're attacking me, I'm just going to look in your eyes, and I know what I'll see there."

I opened the door, letting the cold wind outside bite at my face. "Regret. Maybe not today, or tomorrow, but you'll regret the decision you made. You're going to regret that you weren't there for your new child. That you didn't hold Donna's hand threw these next few months. Not being there in the hospital. Not holding your child for the first time. You'll regret not being there what it calls you Daddy for the first time. The first time it smiles at you. And when I see that in your eyes, I'm going to smile at you. Just to let you know that I was there, and I'm happy."

I walked out, shutting the door behind me.

For the first time, in a very long time, I felt… good. And despite that good feeling, I could feel tears start to run down my cheeks. A huge weight lifted off my shoulders. I could help but smile a little as I looked up towards the moon.

My cell phone suddenly rang, and I smiled at the caller ID, "Hey Connor."

"Hey Mio, I've been trying to get a hold of you for the past hour, cause uh… well, I know you said Logan was out of ear shot during our last call…"

"Oh no."

"Um, well, he kind of came into our apartment, uh… well, here's what happened babe."

Connor jumped up from his chair as the front door was kicked down, a raging made Wolverine standing there. "What the-? Uh, Mr. Logan?"

"Don't you Mr. Logan me bub." Wolverine growled, "You're pretty slick, I'll give you that. Moving in with my little girl, and conveniently not mentioning it to me, and somehow stopping her from telling me. Making sure I was out of earshot? Haha, you're smart. But you never once thought about your credit card record."

"Uh-"

"I had Kitty hack into your credit card record, and you won't believe what I saw there. You bought condoms."

"Now hold on, I know what you're thinking, but-"

"So after I saw that, I had her hack into Mio's phone record, and listened to every call you two have had." Logan popped his claws, a deadly glare coming onto his face, "I am not happy."

"Shit!"

"So what did you do?" I asked. "Fly out the window?"

"Wow babe, you know me so well!" Connor laughed. "And right now, yeah I'm hovering about twenty feet above the ground, so he can't get me. Just one problem, he brought friends."

Damn you Logan. "How many?"

"Two."

"Describe them."

"One has a trench coat and keeps throwing exploding cards at me. The other one is dressed in the American flag, and he's throwing a weird shield at me." Now that you mention it, I could hear explosions and screaming in the background. Perfect.

Once again, damn you Logan.

"Throw the phone down to Captain America."

I heard the wind rush by the phone, until someone caught it, "Hello?"

"Hi Steve. Look, this is Mio."

"Oh, how are you?"

"I'm delightful. But if you guys BBQ my boyfriend, I'm really not going to be happy."

"He's your boyfriend!? Logan said he was some guy who kept sexually assaulting you at work."

Gambit took the phone from Steve, "Hold on petite, Ah get he's ya boyfriend an all, but dat bein' said, ya Uncle Remy needs ta teach him few t'ings 'bout physical contact."

"Remy, so help me God, if you do not leave Connor alone, I will give Rogue the letters you never sent her."

"… ya wouldn't."

"Think about who you're talking to."

"Right, you got your Daddy's powers… and ya Grandpa's temper. You got it petite, we'll stop helping Logan scare ya boy toy."

"Thank you."

There was a long pause, until Connor took the phone, "Mio thank God! I love you so much, I love you so much, I love you so much."

"Calm down Connor. Look, some things came up, and I… won't be home for awhile."

"… How long?"

"I'm in LA, and I'm going to be here for about six to eight months." Donna was four months pregnant by my count, the two months Daken spent as a kid, and the two I've spent on Utopia X. Even after she had the baby, I was going to have to stick around awhile to make sure she had everything under control. "And I'd like you to come out here with me."

"Uh… I'll get out there as soon as I can babe."

"Thank you Connor. I have to go, I'll explain everything when you get here." I can't explain it over the phone, Logan was within ear shot.

I hung up, time to get back to Donna.

I know, this was a LONG chapter, but it's also one of the best I've ever written. Your thoughts?