Chapter Seven

Teal had spent the rest of that day with Lili, looking around for a dress to wear for the next night. Formal balls and parties weren't her thing, and she never went to one unless it was important. Helena had told her that she had to go, especially if it was a Zaibatsu sponsored event. She objected at first, but then realized that Jin would most likely be there, and agreed to go. Helena had transferred money onto the JCo credit card that she had given Teal days before, so that she could buy a dress. Lili was excited, almost drifting around the store in amazement at all of the gorgeous dresses, while Teal was behind her silently.

"Did you find one that you like?" Lili asked her.

"Huh? Uh, no." Teal said.

"You're not even looking, Teal." Lili said, holding a dress against her body. "This?"

Teal made a face and shook her head, and Lili placed the dress back on the rack. "You should find one that fits your shape."

"What shape?" Teal joked.

"Please," Lili laughed. "You have a little something going on...oh!"

Lili pulled another dress off of the rack and held it in front of of Teal, and she nodded.

"That's nice." Teal agreed. "You should get it."

"Oh no, this isn't for me. It's for you." Lili said handing it to her.

Teal took it from Lili's hands and looked down at it. "You sure I'd look right in this?"

"Positive." Lili grinned. "Buy it."

The next night, Teal had slowly but surely began to get herself ready for the party. Everyone else around her was pretty excited about it. Lili and Asuka had agreed to at least be cordial with each other, until the night is over at least. Even though everyone seemed to be excited, Teal just couldn't bring herself to feel the same way. She wasn't doing this for fun, no matter how much she tried to tell herself that she should be. While she was getting ready, Helena was talking to her via webcam, telling her what she had to do.

"I don't want you to do anything too serious, Teal. This is just a welcoming party for all of the participants in the tournament. I can't shake this feeling that something might happen, though." Helena said.

"Feeling? I had a vision about it, and told you." Teal said, rolling her eyes.

"Hey, none of that teenage back talk. I had a feeling before you even told me your vision." Helena said back. "Just relax, but not too much. Report back to me if anything suspicious happens."

"Fine."

"Good luck."

The webcam disconnected, and Teal continue to get herself dressed and ready. Christie had came to her hotel room minutes later with Julia Chang, another fighter in the tournament that Teal had met earlier that day. The clock had struck 9 in the evening, and the girls were ready to go. The ball was being held at a private, secluded Zaibatsu building that had been transformed for the event. It was in a remote area of Okinawa, and the guest had to be driven there by members of the company. Once they arrived at the place, it was already in full swing, packed with the rest of the men and women who were participating in the King of Iron Fist Tournament. Teal had been getting compliments on her dress for the majority of the night, and she had to give kudos to Lili for picking it out for her. The ball had been going pretty smoothly, and nothing too suspicious was happening. It was almost midnight, and Teal had left Lili and Christie's side to go to the bathroom. When she was finished, she began to make her way down the hall to the ball room, when heard a noise coming from another area and stopped. I should just turn around, and mind my business, she thought. But, of course, Teal didn't listen to herself. She began walking to where she heard the noises, and found herself going down a dark hallway, only being lit by a white lamp at the end. She stopped in front of one of the rooms, and heard noises again. Using her powers, Teal was able listen in on the noises, and heard voices.

"Sir, how long do we have to be on stand by before we make our move?" A female voice said.

"Not for much longer, I've found the perfect candidate for this operation." A male voice answered.

The voices began fading away, like they were walking out of the room into another room, until it fell completely silent again. I should really, really just turn back around now, Teal thought as she touched the doorknob instead. The door was locked, but she had no problem using her powers to unlock it, and she crept inside. The room was pretty dark, and the only light that was coming in was the silver light from the full moon outside. She continued to walk throughout the room, until she came across another door. It was halfway open, and she felt the coldness come from it, making her think it was the door to some type of basement. Teal realized that this door was apart of the vision she had earlier that night, so she had to go down there. She slipped off her heels and her shawl, and walked through the door.

That door had indeed led Teal to a basement-like area. The pipes around her were busted, rusted, and leaking, and she immediately regretted taking off her shoes, because of how wet her feet were getting. She continued to walk quietly down the hall, into it led her to an even bigger room. It had a huge projector screen in the front, and there was a pretty big round table around it. There were three people sitting around the table, but Teal could only see the faces of two of them. One of them was Nina Williams (Teal automatically recognized her from the club), and the other was Jin. The projector showed a world map, and half of Asia was covered in a bright red color.

"We already have China under control, but G Corp has half of Japan covered. The only place they haven't taken is Tokyo." Nina said.

"And what does J Corp have?" Jin asked.

Nina smirked, "Hong Kong and Thailand. They are really trying to be the top dog, and they don't even come close."

"Don't count them out yet, Nina. I have a feeling they have some sort of plan to take us and G Corp down."

"Have you told anyone else why you're doing this? Besides me?" Nina asked.

"No, no one would understand. I'm sure you don't even understand completely. If I have to seem like the bad guy right now, then so be it. This has to be done."

"I understand, Jin." Nina said, nodding her head slowly.

Teal realized that it would be a good idea to go back now, so she turned around. Her hand hit one of the pipes as she turned, causing it to make a loud pinging noise.

"What was that?" The third person asked.

"I don't know." Nina said, taking out her phone. She pressed a button on the side of it. "Bring some of my men down here now, someone's been spying on us. Find them, and kill them.

Teal gasped and quickly began running back down the hall. As she got closer to the stairs that went back up stairs, about four armed guards ran down them, and towards her. She turned to her left and ran down another dark hallway, just as more guards began coming closer to her. She couldn't see that well in front of her, and crashed into one of them, falling on the floor. She got up slowly and kicked him back down, to make sure he didn't get up again. As Teal was getting ready to run again, she was tackled from behind again and knocked back to the ground. She tried her best to fight the armed men too, but it was too many of them pinning her down. She didn't have enough concentration to use her powers in the best way, and she was continuously getting hit in the head and back. A white light suddenly appeared, and it was so forceful, that it knocked the ten or so guards off of her. Teal turned over so that she was sitting on her butt, and shielded her eyes from the bright light.

"Go." An unfamiliar, female voice said.

"Huh?" Teal said looking around to see if anyone was there. Instead, she heard more guards coming her from the other end of the hall.

"Teal, go!" The female voice said again.

She obeyed and got up quickly, running back towards the stairs. Once she was out of the basement, she didn't even stop to put back on her shoes, grabbing them as she ran out of the room.

"Teal!" Asuka called out to her, from where the bathroom was. "Whoa! What happened to your dress..and your hair?"

"Nothing, I'm okay. I'm...I'm ready to go." She said.

"Good, me too." Asuka said, tugging at her dress. "This is so uncomfortable."

"Yeah, you don't know the half of it..." Teal said as they walked towards the exit.

"What do you mean, they got away?!" Nina exclaimed, slamming her hand down on the table.

"It was a girl, ma'am. We couldn't see her face clearly because it was dark, but she couldn't have been no older than 20." One of the guards said.

"But you said you had her. What the hell happened?!" Nina said.

"Something hit us. It wasn't the girl, it was something else. When I looked up, the girl was gone."

"Ugh, dammit!"

While Nina stood there, seething, Jin was quiet. He had gone back up the stairs to the room, and found Teal's shawl on the floor. She had mistakenly left it on the floor when she grabbed her shoes. Once he saw the shawl, he automatically knew it was her and smiled.

"We need to shut down this whole ball until we find that little brat." Nina sneered.

"No need to," Jin suddenly said. "She most likely left by now."
"Then what are we going to do?"

"Lie and wait. She'll be back soon." Jin said.

"...Fine. Get back to work." Nina said to the guard.

"Yes ma'am."

As the guard left, and Nina left behind him, Jin looked back down at the shawl in his hand and sniffed it. It still had the same warm vanilla smell that Teal somehow kept on her skin for years. Old feelings began creeping up in the back of his mind, and he tried his best to suppress it.

Awww, you still have feelings for her?

"Shut up." Jin said through his teeth at his Devil gene.

I knew it, and you tried to suppress it when you two locked eyes last time. You do know she is going to die, right?

"By who?"

If not you, your father. Or maybe your grandfather. Whoever gets their hands on her first. You don't even realized how important this girl is. She doesn't even realize it either.

"Wait...she's the one?" Jin said, surprised. "But I thought we were looking for someone with the Angel gene."

The Devil snorted and laughed. What? That weak bitch is only in your father. What Teal has is a strong power that has been in her family for generation. She's the perfect weapon for power, and world domination.

"I can't let them get to her." Jin said.

J Corp already has her. And there using her to take this company, and G Corp, down.

"I know Teal, and there has to be another reason why she's working with them in the first place. I know we'll see each again soon, and I'm going to find out why."