Angel in the Dark Sky

A/N: This chapter is the longest I've written yet. It is still to be determined whether my writing skills have actually improved over a span of 2 years, since last submitting a chapter.

While dutifully jotting down parts of this chapter, it came to me that my understanding of Lei and Bryan's characters has changed quite a bit. Although I did read the previous chapters left, right, up, and down, I apologize in advance if there is a notable change in the direction of the overall story line.

Aside from that, I hope you enjoy reading the following chapter:

Chapter 7: Spark the Fire and All Falls Down

Lei lifted himself up the ladder, the fourth one being the last that he had to endure climbing on, knowing fully well that it would lead him up the third floor. His breathing was even more labored now, due to the lack of air inside the ducts. His exhaustion didn't help either.

A closed end stopped him dead on his tracks. Out of frustration, the detective made a vain attempt in pushing the bolted cover so that somehow it might budge open.

"This thing's completely shut. I can't open it!"

"Must you always whine when you're stuck in a corner?" Yoshimitsu chuckled at his own pun. "Use your gun, for crying-out-loud. That's what it's there for."

Oh yeah... Lei felt dumb at his own alarm.

"And you're supposed to be 'supercop'."

"Quit the snide remarks, buddy. If I had my way, I'd be out of here in a second." 'Here' being the hellhole he was in.

He fired his gun at each corners of the metal cover and yanked it off. With that small barrier out of the way, Lei felt very relieved as he hopped out into the dark corridor on the third floor.

"I assume you're on the third floor by now?"

"You assumed correctly." Lei replied, checking both ways around the corner just in case somebody walked in unexpectedly.

"There's a stairwell to your right. Take it all the way up to the fifteenth floor. Avoid the elevator at all costs."

"You make my job so easy, Yoshimitsu."

Lei found the stairwell and stared dumbfounded at the never-ending stairs spiraling upwards as if trying to reach the heavens. He took his first steps sluggishly; after taking a few more his pace quickened. He didn't even realize he was climbing the stairs in such haste as if he was being chased by the echo of his footsteps. He finally paused, leaning on the wall upon reaching the tenth floor. He wiped the sweat dripping from the brow of his reddened face, panting, taking a moment to catch his breath. Yoshimitsu must have been out of his mind, he thought, expecting him to climb such ridiculous heights.

Beneath the isolated sound of his breathing was the deafening silence that was driving him abnormally paranoid. His irrational fear outweighed his physical exhaustion and it was enough to force him to resume climbing again. He was dying to get out.

Thankfully, he reached the end of the staircase. The door was there but it refused to open to Lei.

"It's locked." The detective gravely stated.

"Naturally--this floor is off-limits to non-employees. Use the lock pick."

As he picked at the lock, Lei mentally cursed himself for being so reliant on Yoshimitsu. He had found many ways to open a locked door in the past and he was stumped as to why he couldn't have figured it out himself. He slowly cracked open the door slightly, peeking through the narrow slit. The area was quite illuminated but fortunately there wasn't anyone in sight.

"Shit!" He cursed under his breath as soon as he spotted a moving surveillance camera on the ceiling, swiftly shutting the door in the process.

"Sorry about that, Lei. I just contacted Kiyoshi to see if he's inside the control room. He'll disable the lights soon."

Lei sighed nervously. "You could have told me that sooner!"

"The lights are out! Quickly make your way to Sector B!"

Wulong did what he was told spitefully. If he was going to put his life on the line for a bunch of vigilantes, a heads up would have been suffice. He stopped moving when he heard approaching footsteps up ahead. Lei gingerly peered around the corner and saw two guards walking towards his way. The detective panicked for a minute, and then an idea came to his mind. All of the lights were off but he noticed a lone ceiling fluorescent just above the guards. Oblivious to Lei's presence, the two guards examined the darkness around them with their flashlights.

"Damn. What happened to the lights?" One of the guards said to the other.

"I don't know. They already sent a mechanic to fix the problem."

The guards continued their idle talk as Lei looked on. Now would be the perfect time to try out his exquisite silenced Makarov pistol. He peeked to the right again, this time aiming his gun at the light above. With one quick press of the trigger, the light vanished and darkness enclosed the now startled guards. There were murmurs being exchanged but Lei ignored them.

Facing the opposite wall, Lei broke into a short run towards it, kicked one foot forward then rebounded. He grabbed a hold of the pipe fixed on the ceiling and wrapped his legs around it.

"Lei, you need to get the door code from one of the guards."

"Give me a minute. I'm trying to figure out which lucky guy to pick on."

Stealthily, he edged forward until one guard was directly below him. He freed his arms as he hung upside-down, and then whipped his gun hard against the back of the guard's head. He fell with a loud thud that caught the other guard's attention. However, as he ran to his partner's aid, once he was within reach, Lei grabbed the opportunity and the startled enemy's neck.

"I know you're probably dying to get back to the party so I'll keep it short. What's the door code for Sector B?" Lei said in a hushed voice, arms firmly locked around his captive.

The guard struggled for a bit.

"I ain't tellin' you nothin'! You're some kind of rookie, aren't you? You don't scare me!"

This obviously ticked Lei off, as his grip tightened to a painful degree. The guard started choking against Lei's almost steel-hard grip, his arms and legs flailing about helplessly.

"If you don't give me the code the moment you open your mouth again, you'll soon be joining you're partner on the floor."

"Ackk!! Three-zero-eight-two!"

"Thanks."

The guard let out a strangled gasp before collapsing on the floor. Lei almost felt bad for wringing the man's neck as he dropped himself down to land on his feet. He ignored his inner voice and focused back to his mission. He recalled the floor schematics in his head and lead his way to the lab. Surprisingly, no one was guarding the outside of the laboratory, but Lei wasn't complaining either. He punched in the code on the number pad and watched the glass doors part in front of him.

"What's your status, Lei?"

"I'm inside the lab now." The detective said as he passed by test tubes, devices, and all sorts of apparatuses.

"Great job! You're better than I thought. I was a little worried at first but you've definitely lifted my hopes up."

"Don't get too excited yet. I still have to figure out where they stored the sample."

Putting on his detective skills to work, Lei looked above and below him. The walkway he was on was narrow and it led him all the way to the back of the laboratory. At the end of the narrow walkway, there was a small compartment resting on top of a working table that caught the detective's eye. Not particularly an expert in scientific contraptions, Lei concluded in his own mind that it was a mini-fridge of some sort, used to store perishable items. However, being a logical person like himself, he knew that something valuable must be contained inside, taking note of yet another keypad stamped on its cover. The sample must be inside, Lei thought.

"Hey, I think I found something. A locked storage box of some sort. " Lei said, looking over the compartment. "Hold on, I'm going to see if I can find the code."

Common sense told him to start searching the computer databases for clues. Surely whoever locked up the compartment would have made a reference to the code as a fail-safe. There were numerous computers scattered about in several working stations. Lei accessed the one closest to where he was. A prompt instantly popped up as soon as he touched the keyboard, demanding a password. The detective let out an annoyed groan.

"I'm all out of options. It seems everything in this place is password-protected."

"Kiyoshi, can you hack into their system and find the code?"

There was an exchange of words between the two distant persons. For the first time, Lei was able to hear one of the other ninja speak. Judging by the character of his voice, he was most likely 10 years younger than Lei.

"I'm already on it." Kiyoshi said. "Give me a few minutes."

As the anxious detective momentarily waited, a few concerns that he had brushed aside earlier had resurfaced.

"What if they already began mass-producing the sample? This thing's probably one of hundreds more..."

"Maybe, but highly doubtful." Yoshimitsu reassured. "Dr. Boskonovitch was the one who developed the gene, back when he used to work for Heihachi Mishima. Unfortunately for Kazuya, the doctor was already evicted from his role as the corporation's top scientific advisor before he could gain valuable information about the gene."

"In other words..."

"Even if they had the sample, they have no idea how its mechanism works. I'm sure Kazuya wanted to keep it safe while they figure out how to mass-produce it, as you would say."

Though Yoshimitsu's words were meant to ease his anxiety, he felt anything but unworried. There were still missing pieces to the whole picture, along with the unsettled fate of Steve Fox's body. That being said, he hadn't been able to locate where Fox's body had been preserved. The surreptitious ninja had said to him before that his body might have been kept somewhere in the building but the exact location was very hard to pinpoint that it was almost pointless to try. Acquiring the sample is the main objective, Yoshimitsu had said to him. Leave everything else to me. Lei was going to ask Yoshimitsu about his obscure statement when Kiyoshi interrupted from the other end.

"Lei, the code is twenty-four, zero-six, thirty-one."

"Got it."

"One more thing..." Kiyoshi trailed off. "I thought I saw someone heading to your floor. I don't mean to alarm you, but try to finish up as fast as you can."

Lei needed no further encouragement and went right to work. It was all straight-forward from this point: punch in the code, grab the sample, and head to the rooftop to make his escape.

First thing's first.

24...

06...

31...

There was a click...but it wasn't the lock.

Lei felt the solid end of a gun behind his head.

"I don't know how you got in here, but it looks like I can never have one night without running into you."

"What's taking him so long?" Yasuo said, slightly annoyed. He was sitting on the pilot's seat of the helicopter. "Kiyoshi's already here. I say we leave him behind."

The head Manji clan leader, who was sitting close to the edge of the open cabin door, shook his head.

"No," he said unwaveringly. "We will wait for him."

The idea of leaving Lei behind had crossed his mind once, but his conscience begged differently. He made a promise to Lei and he would honor those words just as Lei had honored his.

Bryan's left hand grasped Lei's shoulder and shoved him towards the opposite wall, causing the detective to painfully hit his back against the edge of the counter. The impact knocked his headset off onto the floor, cutting off his only means of communication with Yoshimitsu. Lei stayed in his position, kept in check by the gun aimed at his face.

"I'll save you the insults for later, Lei. Right now, I want to know what the fuck you're doing up here. You're not a scientist and I'm sure as hell you weren't invited either."

"It's my job to investigate this place." Lei replied, looking his assailant in the eyes. "I have enough evidence to prove that this conglomerate is involved in illegal activities."

What seemed to be out of nowhere and inappropriate, the silver-haired man bursted into a cruel, sickening laughter. The guttural tone of his guffaw reverberated through Lei's body.

"And you sneaking your way into this building isn't illegal." Bryan retorted sarcastically. "Stop making excuses, Lei. It just makes you look dumber than you already are." He grinned. "Besides, I know exactly what you came here for."

There was something forbidding in that last sentence and Lei has yet to know what it was.

The tall, intimidating man took a few steps back to pull out something from the recently unlocked compartment. In his grasp was a test tube sealed with a metal casing. He held it up for Lei to see. There was little light inside the laboratory but Lei knew that it contained the REGEN gene.

"This is more than a piece of genetic code. It's a curse. Once it's in your hands, Kunimitsu's men will be hunting you down like a pack of wolves." Bryan assured, steadily closing the gap between him and Lei. "Not even Yoshimitsu can save you."

The detective's thoughts were torn into two: one side desperately finding a way to escape, the other half curiously wondering what Bryan had meant. Although the latter was just as important, it wouldn't do him any good if he couldn't get past Bryan alive. Fighting him wasn't an option, Lei realized, as he could clearly remember the outcome of their recent confrontation.

When Fury was about a foot away, Lei thrust his leg forward and kicked the test tube from his enemy's grasp. Amidst Fury's state of surprise, Lei caught the fragile item and dive-rolled to the right, removing himself from the disadvantage position. During the split-second of Lei's escape, Fury let out an angry grunt and fired a couple of successive shots at the detective. However, Lei had already blended into the darkness, hiding behind a large console. He could see through his night vision-enabled eyes that Fury was shuffling around blindly, searching for him.

"Come out and face me, Wulong!" Bryan called out, his anger quite apparent from the tone of his voice.

His sharp, well-trained ears detected a faint sound coming from the petri dish-filled countertop to his left. Without making any noise, he inched closer and whipped out his gun... only to aim at nothing.

"Fuck!"

At the exact moment he turned his head, he was struck hard on the head with a heavy metallic object. Lei had snuck behind him and swung the laboratory microscope he managed to grab from the equipment tray. Surprisingly, it was more than enough to knock his opponent to the ground unconscious.

Lei might as well have won the lottery that night because the chances of Bryan being floored by him was almost zero to none. He hesitated on leaving his former partner in this state but he knew this was absolutely no time for him to falter.

With his path completely clear, Lei dashed to the nearest exit.

Twelve minutes had passed since Lei's last transmission. For the three ninja, it seemed like forever. Every passing second was just as nerve-racking as the last one. The inevitable risk of being caught grew exponentially.

Just as Yoshimitsu was about to throw his hands up and give in to Yasuo's incessant nagging, the detective came running across the open rooftop whilst fighting against gusty winds.

"Over here, Lei!"

The heaving man threw himself into the confines of the helicopter where his teammates waited. Yasuo, who was already keen on flying off a long time ago, started the engine. The propellers whirred into life, lifting the aircraft higher into the evening sky.

Lei handed the highly regarded vial to Yoshimitsu and was given a nod of approval in return.

"I can't thank you enough, Lei. Dr. Boskonovitch will be pleased."

Kiyoshi nodded in agreement. Yasuo, from where he was sitting in the cockpit, gave his praises as well. Despite all that, Lei simply waved his hand indolently.

"I'd like to go home now, if you don't mind." he said. "I've had enough for one night."

"We can drop you off anywhere you wish." Kiyoshi offered. With the seriousness of the operation behind them, his friendly nature finally came into full view. Right after securing the sample, Yoshimitsu followed through with Kiyoshi's suggestion.

Like a gambler pulling out his wild card, the Manji clan leader took out something that caught Lei's immediate attention.

"What are you doing?" the detective asked, tensing up all over again.

Yoshimitsu systematically began to explain as he held a small device in his hand.

"We may have the sample, but it's no use if Kazuya still has access to its source."

"What are you implying?" Lei returned, his gaze still on the unknown device.

"This remote will set off the C4s Yasuo planted within the building. It will destroy the laboratory, along with Steve Fox's remains."

That single sentence, the hidden meaning behind his self-sacrificing mission, was enough to push Lei over the edge.

"No!" Lei protested but was held back by Kiyoshi. "That wasn't part of the plan! This is not what I agreed to!"

It wasn't just because he had been deceived right from the beginning. It was the realization that by doing the work of these people, he had completely gone against his own values, and that was the one thing that hit him hard the most.

"I understand your concern, Lei, but the consequences will be far worse if we let Kazuya experiment on his body even further." Yoshimitsu said calmly without ill-will, despite how cold his words were.

"What you're doing is terrorism!" Lei insisted. "People will get hurt--innocent people!"

"There will be some bloodshed, but that is how it will be."

That was Yoshimitsu's rationale, put together in one short and bleak sentence.

Without another word of the matter, he pressed the button and a large explosion lit up the night sky in a blaze of hellish smoke and fire. Time slowed down; every second etched into his mind, like watching a car crash happening before his eyes. Watching as the Mishima Zaibatsu crumble unceremoniously to the ground.

Lei felt powerless, his body physically restrained, unable to do anything. This state he was in, he hadn't felt in a long time. All those vows he made turned to ashes as soon as he had willingly become a part of this mess. How could he have let this happen? People he knew were inside that building--his co-workers, friends, prominent figureheads...

Bryan.