Author's Note: One chapter left~ :3

We're almost ready.

Here's the brief rundown before we go in. Lars has this disc with this massive computer virus in it. It's been checked numerous times by Lars, Lei and you yourself. He's gonna put it in the system and bring down the Zaibatsu's computers, ruining all of its research, destroying all of the files, breaking all communication to the other parts of the world, and so on and so forth. If we're lucky, we can offload the virus into the other networks worldwide. With the Zaibatsu down, the other parts of the Empire won't know what to do, and hopefully they can all rebel, because no one supports his cause. No one.

To back this up, Lars has his best soldiers from his main unit stationed at the major world parts – New York, Los Angeles, Beijing, Moscow, Sydney, London, Pyongyang, New Delhi, Rome, and so on and so forth. He had this done ages ago, because he knew this day would come. Once the Zaibatsu's been run down, he's gonna order them to take control by sending a mass text from his work phone. This is risky and all, and Lars knows this, but he's reasoned with us that if the virus brings down the Zaibatsu's network, then there's no way that the tyrant can track the text from this station. Doesn't stop him from going to other stations… But anyway, these soldiers have been there for so long already, they know them, trust them and believe in them. Belief is important. If the workers believe these soldiers, who believe in Lars like we do, then it'll be fine.

I know it sounds a little confusing because I keep switching terms. Here's the simple explanation. All of the tyrant's bases are collectively called the Empire. The main base in Japan, the one we're going to attack, is called the Zaibatsu. It was called the Mishima Zaibatsu, but the tyrant himself dropped the first word in vehement hate for that part of his family. After the end of the King Of Iron Fist Tournament Six, he slaughtered his Father and Grandfather mercilessly. Absolutely butchered them. I'd go into details, but I don't wanna make myself sick before such an important mission.

Miguel, Asuka, you and myself have been assigned as 'fake prisoners'. So to say, Lars is gonna lead us in, chained up and all, and he'll take us to the computer labs. Miguel, Asuka and my mission is basically just to guard the door and prevent anyone from entering, once we've taken out who is inside, that is. You're going to set up the network so that the Zaibatsu is interacting with all the other major stations at the same time. After that, all that's gotta be done is the disc insertion, and that's it. Lights out, power down, and out we go… after we break some of the other materials. While us five are here, Lei, Lili and Miharu are just going to keep the hideout safe.

Lars quickly looks to the four of us. With a small smile, he says, "We all good to go?"

Asuka raises her arms, "Yeah, we're all chained. Make sure you don't lose the key!"

"Sure. Now everyone, try and look angry and defeated. I want to see good actors and actresses," he surveys us for a moment, watching Asuka scowl – and mean it; and shakes his head, chuckling a little. Grabbing onto the chain that holds the four of us, he pulls hard and leaps from the alleyway, charging down to the Zaibatsu's entrance. I pretend to fight against the chains, hissing under my breath, and I faintly hear Lars go 'good, good' directly in front of me.

The sun burns my skin, but it's oddly comforting. Lars' booming voice suddenly sounds, shouting at us at how we were traitors and how we cannot fight the Empire. He shouts at us, a key phrase being 'you think you could overthrow us, you think you could do better for yourselves!'; and I inwardly chuckle for a brief moment at not only the irony of the statement, but at how the other Tekken Force soldiers around him are just clapping proudly and going 'wowww'. I even hear a guy comment on how Lars finally 'caught that punk Hwoarang, he should deliver him to Jin himself for execution!'.

Pfft. Wanker.

Two soldiers up ahead open the door and salute Lars, the one on the left speaking, "Would you like us to take them to the torture chambers?"

"No," he says, chuckling darkly, "I'll do it myself. I'm detouring to the laboratory first to get some acid. I feel like burning their eyes, maybe their skin too."

I mock-cringe and shout out, feigning anger, "I hope you fucking spill it on yourself!"

In immediate response, Lars spins around, eyes narrowed, and he backhands me. Real anger then sets in my face, and I almost shout out 'why the hell did you do that', but I have to remind myself that I'm acting and so is he. The attack stings, and I can feel a bit of blood on my cheek because of the force of the hit, let alone the stuff on the back of his glove. Hissing, I try to pull away again, only to be harshly pulled forward, and I pretend to fall, only to be yanked back up again by the chains.

Behind me, I feel Asuka 'try' to pull away as well, but to no avail. I hear you mock-whimper, and I hear Miguel mock-growl. One of the three mutters something that I can't quite hear, but Lars definitely notices, and to maintain his angry, 'loyal' pretence, he tugs again and charges down the Zaibatsu's long corridors, which I'm surprised to find aren't actually lined by as many guards as I thought. To please those who are there, though, he pulls and continues to shout at us.

After a lot of weaving and bobbing through, we come to the laboratory. He tells the soldiers that are standing on either side of the door to leave, and they do. He looks back to me, then to the others and smiles slightly, opening the door and looking ahead of himself again. He enters, pulling us along with him, and looks to the two doctors in the room.

"Abel," he grits, nodding slightly at the bald man with tinted, red glasses. Doctor Abel nods back, a sinister smirk on his withered face. His voice noticeably changes when he turns and greets the other doctor who still has some hair, and his nod is deeper than it was beforehand. He clearly favours this man, "Boskonovitch."

Doctor Boskonovitch smiles at Lars, before leaning to the side and observing me and the others. He clicks his tongue, eyebrows high and clearly surprised, "And what have you brought us here? More people to harm?" he pauses, and then adds what I think rival might be thinking. He still doesn't understand why the tyrant makes them work together, after all they loathe each other. Abel's already tried poisoning Boskonovitch, according to Lars, "Experiments, perhaps?"

Lars chuckles. He turns and looks at me, then the others and at the two soldiers in the room. He holds out the chains to Boskonovitch, who takes them into his frail hands, and walks towards the door. I continue to pretend to struggle, albeit not very hard, because I know what's coming next. Lars locks the door and starts muttering something I don't understand, before swiftly spinning on his heel and slamming his fist squarely into the neck of the soldier on his left. The force of the attack has the soldier's head twist and a sickening crack is heard. He falls dead.

Before the other soldier can react, he's all over the wall as well, Lars' heel digging into his neck. To make sure he's dead, the Swede grabs the man's falling body and snaps his neck, and eventually he falls. Abel's panicking, he doesn't know what's going on, and I watch as he moves to get to the nearby white phone. Lars' handgun is already out and pointing at him, and as he approaches the scientist, he speaks, "Don't move."

I'm surprised to see that Boskonovitch isn't panicking. I look to Lars again, seeing that he's grabbed the key from his pocket and has hurled it to this Doctor. It's then that I understand everything – Boskonovitch was in on the act for the whole time. He knew about the raid, he knew Lars was gonna come here with 'prisoners' and so on and so forth. I smile slightly and stand taller once the cuffs are off my hands, and I rub my wrists subconsciously, watching as the Tekken Force Officer presses the barrel of the gun to Abel's forehead.

I briefly look at you, and you look back. With a small nod, you run over to the nearest computer and start to fish around for that disc. Boskonovitch is at your side, aiding you in logging into the computer, where to go and so on. I'm not gonna go into those technical terms, I suck with computers. My gaze moves to Asuka and Miguel. They're moving the two bodies of the soldiers far into the corners, and once they're there, in unison with a mighty swing, they shatter test tubes and beakers, the glass shattering like an exploded firecracker.

I slink around the large table that the two Doctors had been working at beforehand, looking at their latest work. Looks like its some type of gun. As I move around, I watch Abel. His hands are up and he's sweating and terrified, but there's a smirk on his face that I find unnerving. It's… Its one of those smirks where you've got no idea what he's gonna do, and deep in the pit of my stomach is a worry for Lars' safety.

Lars looks at me for a moment before looking back at Abel. He chuckles once, "This is it, old man."

I'm behind Abel now. It's been our plan since the start for a silent murder. Screw the gun's silencer, if it was on his gun while he was going through the area, it would've looked suspicious in the eyes of the other soldiers. You gave me one of your knives, which you said you made, before we were chained up, and you said that it'd be of better use in my hands than in yours. You said that you want to help stop the war, without using your fists or a gun or a knife or any other weapon. And so, you gave it to me. I'm the one that's gonna kill Abel, not Lars. I'm gonna slice his throat open and watch as the blood cascades down his chest, staining his skin and his clothes a bloody red.

Abel still doesn't know I'm behind him. I see his head turn, watching Miguel put his fist through a large, glass container, and the watery contents flood the area, pulsing forth like a wave. I look to Asuka, who is ripping wires out of a wall. I hear you curse, because you're having difficulty putting in that disc in the slot, because you're panicking. Slow down, sweetheart. Panicking's not gonna get you anywhere. It's not gonna get any of us anywhere.

I hear Lars' breath freeze. I immediately look back to him, along with all of the others, and we all see that another handgun – Abel's – is pressed to his jaw. He must've whipped it out with lightning fast reflexes. I can't see his face, but I'm pretty damn sure he's smirking. Drawing the knife from my pocket, I slowly inch my hand around, and I hear the man between us speak to the man before him, "Go on then, shoot. If I die, I'm taking you with me, Alexandersson."

His other hand is at the phone. From the corner of my eye, I glance to see that there's an 'emergency' button in the cradle. His thumb is hovering above it. He wanted to get to the phone so he could press this button and get more soldiers down here, alert them that some serious shit's about to go down, you know? I wanna move it out of the way so he doesn't get it, but I choose not to, because it could jeopardise the current operation.

But it could also save it.

Lars speaks, his proud voice stern and unafraid, even in the face of what could be his death. His voice always sounds so damn proud, and I told him about this once and asked if that's how he felt, or if that was a cold-blooded, fake mask he put on his face to deter the enemy. He said 'no' to both, "Move your finger away from the button." His eyes narrow, and he flicks his head to the side for a brief moment, indicating what he wants Abel to do, "Move your finger away from the button and put down the gun. Doing these two things will ensure your life."

"And what 'life' is torture in the hands of the Resistance?"

In an instant, everything changes. Sound invades my ears, loud and screeching, and echoing throughout the laboratory. Two distinct sounds, intertwining with one another. One is screeching continuously, just roaring, the other was brief and quick; and it reverberates, bouncing between the walls, floor and ceiling. In a matter of one second, Abel did two things in perfect unison and fucked up our operation.

He pressed the button and shot Lars at the same time.

Moving on my fallback position, I slice is throat open and watch as he falls beside the dead Lars. I can already hear the pitter-pattering footsteps of other soldiers, running to the source of the deafening noise. I put the knife in my pocket and pick up both guns. One's warm and smells of gunpowder. I can see smoke still ascending from the end of it.

I throw the unfired one to the nearby Asuka, who catches it with ease in her small hands and nods at me briefly. She moves to my side, standing behind the table, and aims the gun at the door that'll be open soon enough. I look to Miguel, who is already heading for the window on the opposite side of the room. You've just put the disc into the computer, and you're still waiting for it to open so you can activate the virus. I gather my voice and shout above the wailing sirens, "There's no time, leave it and get out. We've already lost Lars, we can't lose you too."

You heed my words and leap from the swivel chair. I hear a crash behind me, and I realise that Miguel's smashed through one of the windows and is climbing out of it. You follow, and I assume you're careful not to cut yourself on the glass. As all of that happens, Boskonovitch moves to the computer to take over what you started, and he's opened the file and is putting in the passwords and shit needed to activate the virus. There's about fourteen of them, and I don't think he's gonna have enough time.

Asuka places her free hand over the one holding the handgun, tightening her grip. I aim at the door also and watch as it fizzles open, fog rising and then parting like the red sea for Moses. I see two Tekken Force soldiers standing there, guns raised, and I'm sure there's more behind them. Asuka and I shoot immediately, watching as our bullets soared through the air and pierced the helmets of the two. After a few more shots, I push Asuka by the shoulder towards the window, and I say to the only other living man in the room, "I'm sorry, Doc."

He says nothing and continues to work away, because he knows he's going to die soon as well because of his treason. I briefly look to the fallen Lars, whose eyes are staring up at the ceiling, dead and blank. As the two of us turn to go through the window, I put my fist on my chest like he did, and drag it to my right, my fingers uncurling, spreading and imitating a clawed hand. He fought like a lion, always and until the end. I have no doubt in my mind that he'll be remembered, whether we bring down the tyrant or not.

"Goodnight, Lars Alexandersson."

With Asuka in front of me, I escape through the window and hear multiple shots go off underneath the blanket of the siren, and then the body of Doctor Boskonovitch hit the ground too, like his enemy and his ally only minutes beforehand. I don't hear a second alarm go off or a computer shutdown and crash, and its then that I realise exactly how farfetched our hopes were – were, because they were shattered tonight…

…I know it's only going to get worse.