The Last Command

Chapter 4: Nightmare Train

G-Corp need better drill instructors; I've been running for six minutes flat and haven't heard those goons from the diner behind me once. Maybe they saw an ice-cream van and decided to take a break and have a snack. That'd be funny.

Quick choice – which direction, left, right, straight on? Anything standing out? Just more alleyways ahead, a boarded-up newsagent's to the left, and to the right...the subway? It runs to the outskirts of the city, which is where you were heading anyway, and you might as well admit it, girl – you are getting a bit tired. And if they don't see you go in, they won't be waiting at the other end. Let's go with that, then. I dash across the street – whoa, sliding over the hood of a car I did not see coming – and knock over an elderly couple before pushing through the stiff revolving doors at the station's entrance, ignoring the ticket booths – no money, and I'm in a hurry anyway – and vaulting over the security barriers. Instantly, some rent-a-cop puts a hand on my shoulder.

"Sorry, boys, but for me the law is optional," I say with an apologetic smile – and I mean it, too. It gives me no pleasure to beat up guys like this, guys so far beneath my level they're practically subterranean, but sometimes it has to be done. So I reach up, grab the guy's fingers and twist his arm around over my head as I turn to face him, before lashing out with a right kick that catches him right on the back of the head, sending his silly peaked cap flying as he hits the deck. His partner thinks he's got the drop on me, but I kick his shin out from under him, and as he stoops forwards, bring the point of my elbow down across his neck. He joins his friend on the floor. I keep going.

Down the stairs I go, three at a time, shouldering my way past the sorrowful travellers, their homes likely lost to the tides of war – and hallelujah, the train's just pulling up to the platform. Open the doors, open the doors, open – ow, damn things didn't open fast enough; I just ran straight into them. Squeezing through the still-small gap, I peer out through the windows...good, no soldiers. I heave a sigh of relief and slump down into the thinly-padded seating, easing the tension out of my neck as the carriage shudders around me and starts to move away from the station. Guess I might as well relax while I've got the chance; got another four stops to go before we're close enough to the city outskirts for me to make it the rest of the way on foot. Lucky I got a carriage to myself – hate it when you're stuck on a train next to a bunch of freaks...

"Heeeeeeyyyy, I know YOU!"

That voice sends shivers up my spine. No, no, please no, let it be someone else...

"IT'S NINA!" shrieks Ling Xiaoyu as she plonks herself down beside me, dainty little plaid skirt flapping around as she wraps her arms around me in a hug, burying her thick head against my shoulder and making little 'squee' noises. Not again...

***HOKKAIDO, JAPAN

***THE IRON FIST TRAINING GROUNDS

***3 YEARS EARLIER

As the massive double-doors swing open, I'm left wondering again why I'm here, up high in the mountains of a country that almost certainly isn't my home. The high walls are topped with razor-wire, evenly punctuated by guard towers, each manned by...are those actually people? I saw some articles in newspapers on the way over about robots, how they're becoming cheaper and easy to mass-produce; they had a picture of a big one called, what was it, 'Gun Jack' that looked pretty intimidating. These ones in the towers aren't nearly so large, but they're armed, and the way their eyes glow is quite disconcerting. It all makes me want to just turn around and leave, but every time I do, I hear that voice again, the first voice I've ever heard –

"YOU WILL KILL JIN KAZAMA!"

And I can't take another step backward without my legs turning to jelly beneath me. No idea who 'Jin Kazama' is, only ever seen pictures of him – a bit younger than me, well-built, spiked hair, weird tattoo on one arm – and no idea what he's done wrong to deserve death. But apparently, it's not my job to care about those details; as if the knife, gun and concealed explosives that'd been left with the clothes – my clothes – I'd found after waking up weren't enough of a clue, the receptionist that filed my application for this little tournament had it printed out in block capitals on my ID card – 'ASSASSIN'.

She also said "Welcome back, miss Williams." How did she know my name? It took me two hours to figure it out myself. And the fact that they knew my apparent career as well, and took my presence here for granted...I've been to this place before. Why can't I remember that? Why can't I remember anything before waking up in a vat of freezing water, naked and cold and confused, my only company that echoing, hideous voice in my head. It forced me to drag myself up out of that tank, and somehow beckoned me onwards, guiding me out of the stainless-steel labyrinth, warning me away from the soulless men in suits; only a lone elderly man in a white coat tried to stop me, and when I drew my knife with shaking hands, he looked so sad, so...pitying, before he just slumped back down to his desk and turned his back as I left. In hindsight, I should have stuck around and tried to get some answers from him, but no, I...I was scared, had to run. The voice said I would only be safe if I followed its instructions – instructions which led me here.

"Well, let's see what this place's all about," I say to myself with a light tone that rings horribly false. As I shoulder my bag and step forward, I feel the ground beneath me shifting underfoot, and take a look; it's powdery, a mix of brown and pure white grains – sand doesn't look like that, right? Crouching down, I run my hands through it, then pinch a gram or so of the stuff between two fingertips and raise it to my lips – why does something so weird feel so natural to me? – and taste it...salt. Part sand, part salt. To soak up the blood, part of me adds. Funnily enough, that doesn't make me feel a whole lot more comfortable.

Shaking that thought from my head, I stand back up, smile at a guard giving me a funny look, and continue on across the courtyard. From every direction I hear shouts and cries, and looking around, I see men and women of many different ages, cultures and creeds engaging in unarmed combat practice, sometimes against dummies, sometimes pairing up to spar with each other. I focus on one, a curious man, large, tanned, wearing some sort of mask resembling a jungle cat, as he skips around a wooden dummy with rusted ball-joints, throwing out cautionary jabs before lunging forwards and blasting it across the face with a high kick – duck that, step to the side – leaving him with his back to the dummy, but not defenceless, as he quickly swings his other leg around towards the dummy's crotch – bring heel down across back of knee, render leg useless – wait, what am I thinking? How do I know that, whatever it is? Am I...

I'm here to fight. Hope I'm good at that.

Something – someone – whistles at me. I look over my shoulder, to find a man staring at me; white, muscular, older than me by a good margin. He wears a ragged red martial arts suit – a gi, I think is the term – but his most distinctive feature is undeniably his hair, a thick brush of dirty blonde strands going almost straight up for almost a full foot above his head. It takes a lot of effort to tear my eyes away from it and look him in the face as he winks at me. "Lookin' good, sweetheart. Nice to see ya dress down for daddy, too..."

As he nods towards me, I suddenly feel like covering up; I hadn't thought there was anything wrong with the red vest and the leather pants when I'd put them on – sure, they wouldn't be much good in cold weather, but it's the middle of the summer, I just figured this was how every woman would be dressing. Evidently not, and I don't like the way this guy's looking at me, so I avert my gaze and keep walking, past the oddly-haired guy and his partner, and a...is that a bear?

"You're a GIRL!" Someone else squeals; I turn to face the voice and – "Whuh!" – this new person runs into me at high speed, wrapping their arms around my back just as their shoulder rams into my gut. A wave of seething, boiling red flashes through my mind and something sour fills my throat – but the attacker lets go before I can make a move, and stands back with their hands over their – her mouth in shock.

"Oh noes! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you, I'm just – it's all really, really exciting, this is my first time here, and-and-and I thought it was just me and Julia alone with all these big scary guys, and then you came in! YAY!" She hops up and down on the spot, clapping her hands together, and I can get a good look at her now; young, Asian, about the same height as me but more slim, black hair tied up in two bunches, wearing some sort of loose red outfit with a yellow belt, and luminous bangles at her wrists. Amongst the others in the courtyard, she seems out of place, purely by looking...harmless.

Now she's staring at me with her head tilted to the side and her lower lip sticking out in a childish pout. "I didn't hurt you much, did I?"

I smile, warmly and honestly for a change. "No, I was just shocked for a moment there. Didn't see you coming." She grins back, so widely it almost looks painful. "Goody! I'm Xiaoyu Ling, what's your name." "Nina, Nina Williams." Even now it still doesn't sound familiar to my ears. "Hi, Nina-Nina!" "No, it's just 'Nina' once." "But it sounds funner my way! Can I please call you Nina-Nina? Please?" Her enthusiasm is just so...infectious, I feel like laughing. In fact, I am laughing. "Yeah, okay, Nina-Nina it is." Xiaoyu giggles, then hooks her arm around mine and starts dragging me along like...like an I-don't-know-what. "Cool! Lemme show you around, first we're gonna go to the fighters' quarters – it's like a little mini-hotel place, you'll already have a room reserved so you can drop off that bag, it must be real heavy! Then we can go around the arenas, and the meditation pool where that ninja guy always sits, and the gift shop where they sell those cute hoodies, and then we should probably think about getting some lunch..."

***THE PRESENT

Yeah, it's deja vu, right? In the 3 years that I've known her, Xiaoyu hasn't grown up, at all – still the same dainty ball of manic energy and unbridled curiousity, even through some very dark times. Me, though...when we first met, I was fresh from cryosleep, with a mind mostly emptied of all memory, running purely on instinct. That was my life for two years, until everything came back. Thank my sister for that. And in that moment, I changed from an overgrown infant into a forty-year veteran, and now the same giddy mannerisms I once found adorable just give me a massive headache. Like the one I've got right now.

"Aww, it's been soooo long since I've seen you! I missed you! So does Julia – well, she doesn't say she misses you but I think she does. And it's so hard to be friends with that new blonde girl that's been showing up – she's such a meanie!" Xiaoyu still hasn't let go of me. She's very clingy. "Why d'you have to be so busy all the time? I had fun hanging around with you, and so did Panda! Didn't you, Panda?"

A grunt comes from my right, and I look over to see, yes, Panda sat there, gormlessly staring at me with its black eyes, its shoulders hunched and rear end parked across about three peoples' worth of seating. Just so we're clear here – this is an actual panda bear. Which Xiaoyu keeps as a pet. And she named it 'Panda'. This is another good reason why I try to avoid hanging out with her anymore.

"Well, that's great, Xiaoyu, but I'm kind of on an assignment right now, so – " And of course she misses the point like a champion and cuts me off. "Oooh, like a quest? A treasure hunt? Can I come along? I am SO good at map-reading! And finding odd socks when they fall behind the dryer!" "No, not that sort of assignment, it's – did I ever tell you what 'wet-work' means?" She frowns and scratches her head in thought. "Is that when you go swimming?" "No, it's when I go killing." "You do what?" "Killing, Xiaoyu," I state firmly, pushing the girl away from me with one hand on each of her arms, fixing her with the most piercing gaze I can manage, "that's what I do. I'm an assassin. I murder bad people at the command of other, worse people."

She just sits there in shock for a minute, even as the train pulls up at another platform, the doors sliding open then closed again without any new arrivals. "You...you kill..." Maybe it was wrong to tell her that. Even with a war tearing the world apart around her, I doubt notions like mortality and the evil that men do have ever crossed Xiaoyu's mind, and those can be pretty hard truths to swallow the first time. But, hell, everyone has to grow up eventually. "Yes, Xiaoyu. I'm a killer." "A-and...and Jin, he's..." Uh-oh. How did we get onto the Jin topic? This isn't going where I want it to... "Calm down, now, girl, it's – "

But she's up out of her seat, tears welling up in her eyes, shoulders shaking, and then she screams – "YOU KILLED JIN!" I've never heard her scream before. It's a shrill, panicked sound, like a lone deer with a fresh bullet-wound in its flank, and I...I feel guilty. It's been a long time since I've felt that way. God knows murder doesn't faze me anymore; getting used to the feeling of someone's blood on your hands was one of the first things Dad taught me. But this, right here...I just stole a little girl's innocence. You never taught me how to deal with that one, Dad.

And of course, there's the whole 'thing' Xiaoyu has...or had...for Jin. She saw...she always saw through the enigma, or the dark cloud that Jin chose to hide his true nature behind. He was never any less than a knight in shining armour in her eyes, even when he ignored her completely; how she's ever been able to handle his death, I can't begin to fathom. But now I've brought those feelings to the surface, god help me.

"I can't...you...do you have any idea what this FEELS LIKE?" She's still screaming, the tears flowing freely down her cheeks now. "Xiaoyu, please, just let me – " "You heartless BITCH!" "Just – " "I should kill YOU!" She lunges forward, making a wild grab for my knife – dammit, I can't hurt her, I just have to grab both her arms and hold them out to the sides, and stand up again, bracing my strength against hers, not to mention moving the both of us further down the carriage, away from her panda and its claws... "LISTEN TO ME! I worked for Jin for the whole last year! I was his bodyguard – I was protecting him! Please..." Her struggles have weakened, the initial wave of fury now giving way to pure grief, so I lower my tone accordingly. "Please believe me." "Buh-but..." She sniffles, her breath coming in sharp gasps. "If you wuh-were protecting him...why's he...why did he die?"

"He thought he had to," I say in a voice now little more than a listless drone, "he thought he was saving the world." I can't bring myself to add any conviction to that statement, because right now, in this place, with a sobbing, broken shell of a girl in front of me...I don't think it was worth it.

"I d-don't care about the world anymore," she chokes out, her head now sagging down under the weight of her own depressing thoughts, "it's nuh-nothing without him..." She's not resisting anymore. I let go of her arms – then, as she threatens to sink to the floor, wrap mine around her slim, shuddering shoulders and pull her in close to me. "I know, Xiaoyu, I know. But you have to try. Jin gave his life in exchange for yours. For the sake of his memory...if you really care about him...just live."

I don't know why I just said that. I don't know what I'm doing. It's just...it's instinct.

We stand together like that for a minute or so, as her sobs slow down and begin to subside. Then something warm and fluffy grows around my gut; I think for a horrifying moment that I'm starting to go soft, but then I hear a familiar grunting moan, and look around to find Panda with his arms wrapped gently around both of us, and his snout resting on Xiaoyu's head. She shakes a little as a chuckle rises through her throat. "Well...if Panda says you're right, I'll go with that."

The train starts to slow again, and Xiaoyu's hands press gently against me; I take the hint and drop my arms just as she murmurs, "it's our stop, Panda." She steps away and lets the bear wipe her eyes dry with its big black-&-white paws, then heads for the door as it slides open – and stops with one foot out and one foot in. "Thank you, Nina-Nina," she says in a voice barely higher than a whisper, "and good luck." Then she skips out the door, followed by Panda, missing my uncomfortable attempt at a wave. There goes my one and only link to a normal life...

But, just as this train rolls on past the station, so does the mission. And I can't afford the luxury of anything resembling a 'normal life' until it's over.

***FIVE MINUTES LATER

Finally, my stop. I tap my foot impatiently as the train crawls to a halt and the door slides open, then stride confidently out across the platform, giving the scattered few civilians a cursory glance as I go, though none of them seem like anything out of the ordinary. Unless I read the map back at Yuji's place completely wrong, there's a couple of private airfields about 30 miles from this place; I can make that kind of distance on foot by nightfall, barely, although it'd be best to wait 'til dawn before stealing a plane and getting off this damn island.

"Nina Williams?"

At the top of the steps leading up to the surface stands a single man, a soldier, in full battle armour. I look over my shoulder and, unsurprisingly, he's got three buddies backing him up, sealing off my route to the platform I just came from. Not even one of them brought a rifle, though. Can't tell if that's sloppiness or a result of underestimating me. Either way, it won't be that hard to beat all four of them – and that's when I notice the insignia on the armour. A lion's head. "You guys with Lars?"

"Captain Alexandersson sent us to retrieve you, miss Williams," the guy in front says, a slight tone of pompous snark detectable in his voice even through his helmet's filters. "He has requested your presence at our command centre."

'Request', he says, not 'order'. How polite. At least I can turn it down without a fuss – although...Lars has a pretty damned impressive military force to call on, and I need untraceable passage to Russia. Surely the big Swedish idiot could spare me a plane, right?

"Yeah, sure. Okay. Take me to your leader, boys."

Author's Notes

Well, my plan to always stay one chapter ahead is now officially off; chapter 5 is taking a bit too long for my liking, so in the interests of not leaving you folks waiting a needlessly long time, I've jumped the gun and put this one up before finishing 5. Ah well, never could stick to a schedule anyway.

Anyway, this chapter...I originally meant for this one to be funny, but somehow, as I wrote it, it became almost a melodrama. Not sure how that happened, but I do rather like the end result. And yeah, I've done two flashbacks in the space of two chapters now, and both were set in the same place, albeit at different times. Another totally unplanned thing, and I promise chapter 5 won't bother with such a mechanic. Or at least it won't be set in the same place.

When writing Nina's T3-era thoughts, I deliberately chose not to make her seem like she was under mind control from Ogre, even though the original bio for Nina in that game said she "acted robotically" in pursuit of Jin. I've never really bought into that, mostly because Nina's fighting style and (more importantly) intro/win animations remained the same as they were in T1 and T2. Granted, that was probably just laziness on the developers' part, but...well, it's my story, and if I want to retcon stuff based on, essentially, a glitch, then I bloody well will! Plus, mind-controlled people have no interesting thoughts, so writing her in that style would be a pain. Instead, I chose to emphasise the, I suppose, innocence brought on by her amnesia, and have Ogre's control be limited to a kind of echoing thought that somehow compels Nina to follow its demands.

Oh yeah, and Xiaoyu...hmm. Y'know, I used to hate her too, back during T3 and TTT, mostly because kung-fu schoolgirls are a serious pet-peeve for me. I just dislike the idea of some skinny, idiotic teenager, who only studies martial arts in their spare time, fighting competitively (and often winning) against serious, obsessive martial artists a la Baek, Paul, and Law, or against characters like Nina or Bryan who, whilst not pure martial artists, are badass for all sorts of other good reasons. That said, time has mellowed my feelings here, so whilst I still don't play with Xiaoyu (too many stance changes), I do find her quite funny. Changing her story from just being a competitive brat who's chasing her dreams to becoming Jin's creepy stalker and trying/failing to save him/the world definitely helped in that sense, even if it did sadly give birth to all that Xiaoyin dross that clogs up this site like tar in a chain-smoker's lungs...but that rant is for another time.

Anyway – reviewers! I've had another two! Well, another one, technically, because the other one is the same guy as last time, but it sounds more impressive if I say two.

LuvDuchess: Thanks! And yeah, I've never bought Nina as being quite the same one-dimensional bitch that many other writers seem to take her as. No, she's not the friendliest girl, but she has depth; she isn't pure evil or anything. Hope you enjoyed this chapter too.

Aegis Khaos: You again? I kid. Yeah, I kinda let my own personal biases bleed into the story there, which in retrospect is probably quite immature...but yeah, I can't stand Asuka. That said, I'm trying to be more even-handed with the 'guest stars' from this point on, so hopefully you won't see many recognisable faces being reduced to a pulp without at least making a good impression first. Glad you liked the scene with Jun as well. I felt that could be a little risky, since Jun's almost the polar opposite of Nina and there's never been any real connection between the two – but the way I see it, Nina wouldn't automatically hate someone providing they're neither stupid nor her current target, and Jun's kind of...naturally sociable, a friend to everyone. Hopefully, I managed to make that clear.

Wow, that was a HELL of a lot more notes than I'd intended to put here. Hope it didn't bore you.

Next Time: Nina's forced to stray from her path and confront a man she had no desire to ever see again – can she stick to the plan, or will her own feelings, mixed with her killer instincts, force her to bring the whole operation crashing down in flames...and with it, the world? Guest-starring Lars Alexandersson and Alisa Bosconovitch!