Here it is (finally), Ch. 4 of my ME fanfic. Sorry I haven't been able to update in a while. If you want the reasons, read my updated profile.

And now, behold:

It had been about six or seven months since Faith's accident. By now, she had fully recovered and was ready to get back out into the city. Merc had forced her into training to make sure she was ready. Fox had laughed at her grumbling under her breath when she got back to Merc's, and now he had a bruise on his shoulder to show for it. Since then, Faith and Celeste had been sent on a mission to deliver a runner's bag, the blues shooting at them the whole way through. Before she even got back to Merc's, she radioed in that she was heading towards Robert Pope's office. Merc had turned and tossed a comm. piece to Fox.

"Meet her there," Merc told him, "and tell her she can whine all she wants. I can't have the blues gunning her down, and she stands more of a chance with you around." Fox nodded and leapt out of the gutted AC cooling unit that Merc called home and dashed off to Pope's office.

After about fifteen minutes, Fox spotted Faith and let out a shrill whistle. Faith stopped and looked around. She spotted him and waved for him to come over. Fox leapt across two rooftops and landed next to the raven-haired woman.

"What are you doing here?" Fox could hear the annoyance in her voice and read the anger and surprise in her face.

"Merc sent me," he replied, "and he told me he's not listening to your 'whining.' Apparently I'm tagging along whether you like it or not." Faith stood with her hands on her hips and locked her almond eyes with Fox's heterochromatic grey and amber ones (AN: for those of you who don't know, heterochromia is the condition of having two different colored eyes. In Fox's case, his left eye is violet and his right is grey).

"Hey," Fox said shrugging, "don't shoot the messenger." Faith smiled and placed her hand to her ear.

"Merc…" She was about to open her mouth when she was cut off.

"Look," Merc's voice came over both their earpieces, "I don't want to hear it. Fox is going with you and that's final."

"But…"

"I. Don't. Want. To. Hear. It. You two better get moving, blue traffic's been up lately, and I don't need the two of you getting caught."

"Well," Fox said grinning, "you heard the man!" Faith scowled at him and turned, waving for him to follow. The two of them made their way off of the rooftop they were standing on and to a small outcropping of the building where Pope's office was. They forced open a door and made their way down a short hallway to an elevator. Faith mashed the button and the doors spread open. The couple entered the elevator and Faith pressed the button to the floor where Pope's office was.

"Man I hate these things," Fox said leaning against one of the walls, "they're way too small and cramped. It's like being backed into a corner." Faith simply nodded in agreement. Elevators were like taboo to runners. If the blues managed to corner you in an elevator, you'd better kiss your ass good-bye. More than one good runner had fallen prey to cops waiting just outside the elevator's doors.

After what seemed like an eternity to the two runners, the heavy steel doors slid open. Fox followed Faith up a short set of stairs and into and office. The first thing Fox's eyes spotted was the CPF cop standing in the corner of the room. As if she sensed his distress, Faith spoke up.

"Don't worry," she said reassuringly, "that's my sis, Kate."

"Ah," Fox said as the hairs on the back of his neck relaxed, "I was worried there for a second. She must have been the other girl I saw you with way back during the November Riots. Why didn't you tell us before that you had a sister?"

"Well," Faith said, "we haven't gotten along very well for the last few years." Faith walked up to the desk in the room, where a man was laying face down on the desk in a pool of his own blood.

"Kate," Faith said examining the body, "what going on?"

"You don't recognize him?" Kate sounded surprised at Faith. "That's Pope."

"What," Fox yelled, "what the hell's going on here?"

"Kate," Faith asked, "you didn't…"

"No!" Kate cut off her sister in mid-sentence. "Of course I didn't kill him! He called me over so he could talk to me. When I got here he was just sitting at his desk, writing. We talked for a while, then everything went black. When I came to, he had been shot, and I'm pretty sure it was with my gun." (AN: I tried to take this dialog excerpt from the game as best I could, please forgive me if it's not exact!) Faith walked over to examine Pope and removed a piece of paper from his hand. She examined it and stuck it in her pocket. Fox stood looking out the window and let the rest of the girls' conversation become white noise. Suddenly, he spotted something that made his heart jump a little.

"Um, Faith," he called to her and pointed down at the street, "you might want to take a look at this." Faith walked over and looked down out of the window. Amongst the gleaming white buildings of the city, she spotted the flashing red and blue lights of CPF squad cars speeding in their direction.

"Faith, Fox," Merc called to them over the earpiece, "blues are headed your way; you need to be heading out of there. Now." Fox moved to the door, stopping for a second to take a glance at Pope's body. Damn it, he thought, he could have changed this city for the better. He started back toward the door when Merc chimed in again.

"Hey," he said annoyed, "the two of you need to be outgoing like, oh, NOW!" Faith embraced her sister before joining Fox and the two runners exited the office.

No sooner had their feet touched the carpeted floor outside of the office when the elevator chimed and out walked several CPF cops clad in their black body armor with their machine guns held up at the ready.

"Faith, go," Fox ordered her, "I'll keep them busy." He dashed down the stairs before she had a chance to reply. Faith sighed and ran off down a nearby hallway. Three of the cops gave chase to her, while the other three had their guns pointed at Fox, who was standing at the bottom of the stairs with his hands up.

"Alright, alright," he told them, "you've got me. I'm not gonna run, promise." He secretly prayed that the cops would believe him. If not, he probably wouldn't make it out of the building alive.

Luckily, they seemed to believe him, and one of the cops approached to handcuff him. As the man approached, Fox quickly knocked the gun out of his hands and grabbed the front of the man's armor, pulling him close and using him as a shield against the other cops, who weren't shooting for fear of hitting their comrade. Fox smirked and started to run as he pushed the cop into one of his companions, sending both crashing to the floor. As the third raised his gun to shoot, Fox slid in between his legs, grasping the man's ankles as he went. The cop swore and fell face first into the floor. By the time any of them had gotten off the ground, Fox had already rounded the corner and dashed off down the small hallway. He rounded another corner and sped down this new hallway, his eyes desperately searching for a way out. He spotted a staircase in the glass offices and sucked in a large gasp of air. Fox dove at the fragile glass wall, crashing through it and sending shards of glass tinkling across the floor. He rolled on impact and dashed up the stairs. He made his way over to the railing and kicked down the door connecting this room to the next. He spotted a vent on the far wall and dashed toward it. He pulled it off the wall and scrambled into it. He made his way through the vents, eventually emerging into a small hallway that led to a balcony. Fox walked out on to it and looked around. He spotted a series of pipes that would lead him to a smaller outcropping of the office building. He backed up as far as he could and dashed to the other end of the balcony. He ran across the wall and latched onto the first pipe. He slid down until he ran out of pipe and jumped over to the next. He slid down to the small rooftop and turned to make his way out across the city.

The sight that greeted his eyes made his heart stop. In the distance, he could see several cop cars set up over the surrounding area, but worse was the helicopter that was charging towards his current position.

"Hey kido," Merc's voice crackled, "get your ass over to the subway station. Krieg's gonna meet you there, then the two of you are gonna go pick up Faith. Watch your ass, blues have the area locked down tight; don't get shot." Fox ran and leapt from his rooftop to the next. Almost immediately after his feet touched the concrete roof, the bird spotted him and rained bullets down on him. Fox ran desperately, dodging over vents and sliding under pipes. He rounded a corner and spotted a doorway on the next rooftop. He leapt over to the door and shoulder-barged his way through it. The bird retreated as Fox found the stairs and made his way down to ground-level. He checked around before walking through the door. He dashed from alleyway to alleyway, making his way slowly toward the subway. After several minutes, he descended the stairs down into the dank station. He looked around trying to spot Krieg when he felt a hand touch his shoulder. He quickly grabbed the figure's arm and flipped him over his shoulder.

"Ow, damn it!" Krieg swore as Fox released his arm and helped him to his feet.

"Sorry," he apologized, "I didn't know it was you." Krieg glared at Fox, then laughed and slapped him on the back.

"No worries," he said, "now, let's go get Faith." Fox nodded and the two men made their way to their rendez-vous with the girl.

............

Fox looked up and brought an arm over his face as Faith came crashing through the glass ceiling of the subway access tunnel. He glanced up to make sure the bird kept flying. Krieg helped Faith to her feet and she dusted herself off.

"You okay," Fox walked over to her, "that looked like it might've hurt."

"They got her," Faith said darkly, "they got Kate. They got her, and blues in jail never last long." Fox embraced her.

"Don't worry," he said, "we'll get her back. You're like my sister, remember, so that makes Kate my sister, too. I'm not gonna let anything happen to her, I promise." Faith looked up and saw the determination in his eyes.

"You'd better not," she said, "or I'm gonna kick your ass." Fox just smirked at her.

"C'mon," Krieg said, "let's get you two outta here." With that, Faith and Fox followed Krieg down the subway access tunnel.

Ooohh, is this the beginning of a romantic relationship between Faith and Fox? Maybe...Only I know the answer (mwahahaha).

So, I'll try to update soon, but no promises ('cause I don't want to break any). Please R&R.

BTW, R&R my other stories (both current and upcoming) as well. For a list of current projects I'm working on, check out my updated profile. That's all for now.

Au revoir,

La lune du sang