Hello again guys, we got chapter eleven coming up! I hope you've enjoyed it thus far and that you will continue to do so. Anyway, I own no rights and make no profit. Also, I'd like to apologize for neglecting this story again. I've been too busy for anything more than oneshots over the past few months.

To Meech: Again, all valid points in regards to Revy/Rock. Your cited points are precisely the reason that I wrote the last chapter the way that I did. I had toyed with developing their relationship and having something come of it towards the end, but then that would be a little too functional for Black Lagoon and for Revy. She is not practiced in relationships and is unaccustomed to any emotion besides anger. The way I see it, her offer was a feeble attempt at expressing her feelings. And again, you are right, naturally things will get awkward.

Ch. 11: Enemy of my enemy…

It was just at four in the afternoon in the city of Roanapur and the streets were lively as always. In spite of the tension between Hotel Moscow, the Triad, and the encroaching yakuza, businesses had suffered very little as the city's inhabitants did their best to go about business as usual.

One business that had suffered a bit was the Church of Violence.

At the present moment, the old bells of the cathedral could be heard ringing over the hillside above the main city to signify the new hour. Out in Yolanda's garden, Eda paid no mind to the noise as she continued her chore of pulling weeds and sowing new seeds; pausing once in a while to wipe the sweat from her damp forehead.

The moments when the nun actually obeyed one of the more mundane orders given to her by the mother superior were few and far between, but they almost always coincided with a drastic shift towards pensive reflection on the young woman's part. Today was no exception. It had been two weeks since the incident at the loading docks and as the inevitable gang war drew closer and closer, Eda was feeling more and more conflicted with her place in this world.

She still remembered the day she had decided that law enforcement was her future; it was the same day that the innocence of her childhood was shattered. Eda had been all of ten years old at the time when she went on a weekend trip to the Piggly Wiggly with her mother and two year old sister. She had tried hard over the years and still, twenty five years after the fact, she could recall nothing about the incident but waking up in the hospital with a bandaged head and being told by her father that a bomb had killed them both. She remembers the intense feeling of grief at the loss followed by a burning rage that she had never known herself capable of feeling. That rage had served as her motivation through countless hours of grueling workouts that left her passed out in the floor and endless boring lectures in school. She told herself that if she could get into law enforcement, she would be in a position to avenge them.

Things had changed though.

Eda had climbed her way up the ranks at Langley and brought down several terrorists and career criminals, yet with each assignment it felt as if she was stepping further away from the goal she'd set out to fulfill…like she was no more than a dog on the government's leash. That, and the fact that each assignment that required her to immerse herself in the evils of this world left her feeling as though she had left a piece of her humanity behind.

She chuckled bitterly to herself at the thought. It seemed as though she had been losing pieces of herself to her job long before she set foot in Roanapur.

The thought of Roanapur and the way that everyone in the city openly embraced every sin imaginable would make most turn tail and run, but by some fucked up twist of fate, the nun considered this place more a home to her now than anywhere in the states. The agency had warned her not to become involved with the people she dealt with while undercover, and it was a task she had done well in the past, but Roanapur had sucked her in. When she really stopped to think about it, Yolanda had become the closest thing to a mother that she had known since she was ten years old. Then, there was Revy. They fought and they bitched at each other, but the agent had grown to genuinely care about the short-tempered gunslinger along with the rest of Lagoon Company.

Hell, she didn't even have to act anymore when she donned the purple shades and the nun's habit. In fact, the fake nun could no longer distinguish between her "real" personality and the one that she had adopted several years ago upon setting foot in the city of the damned.

And that final thought was enough to make the decision that she had been struggling with for a while now.

"Penny for your thoughts?" The elderly woman's voice reached Eda's ears and she smiled as her train of thought was derailed. This was their game. Each time the agent found herself deep in thought, the old woman would be quick to act on her role as confidante and ex-officio mother superior.

Setting the gardening tools aside for a moment, the blonde turned to face the one-eyed nun. "Just making a decision, Sister."

"Oh?" Both the tone of voice and the look on Yolanda's face betrayed a sort of omniscience on this matter; as if she knew exactly what was already on the younger woman's mind without even having to ask. In a sense, she did.

In response to the question and knowing gaze Eda simply nodded leaving Yolanda to question her again as she pulled out a pack of cigarettes and lit one.

"Any word from the agency?"

"Actually, yes," Eda mirrored the older nuns actions as she retrieved her own pack of smokes from her habit. "I've been told to keep an eye on the situation, but let it take its course."

Yolanda exhaled a long stream of smoke off her cigarette. "Well, that's a rather surprising move of inaction given the danger that this Shinji character poses."

Eda smirked, taking a drag of her own cigarette, allowing the soothing burn to permeate her lungs. "Yes well, the enemy of my enemy is my friend…at least, that's the stance the agency is taking. He hasn't actually done anything that would warrant drastic measures from Uncle Sam yet, so they figure Hotel Moscow and the Triads can take him out for the rest of the world. And if they fail, well, that's just two less problems for Interpol to worry about."

"I see, well at any rate, it's not really the church's problem" Yolanda smiled as both women turned to head back into the chapel, "On the other hand, it will be nice to get this war over with so that we can continue our regular operations in peace without the interference of Chang and Balalaika."

"Yeah, no shit!" Eda scoffed, snuffing out her cigarette in an ashtray that sat on the altar. "All those customers we keep having to turn away are putting a dent in my booze money."

The mother superior briefly glowered at the agent's word choice, yet chose not to address the indiscretion this time in favor of making an observation. "My my, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were becoming a regular citizen of this city." The comment was made in jest, and yet that all-knowing look had returned. Perhaps, Eda mused, Yolanda had been able to see the influence of Roanapur growing within her all this time.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot." The nun flashed a half-smile to the older nun as she stood in the entrance to the hallway leading to their cells. "Once this shit cools down, you're gonna have to get used to running this place without me again for a few days. I've got some business in the states."

"You do realize the ramifications of your choice…"

"Of course," the blonde continued to smirk as if she had an entire game of chess worked out in her mind, "That's why this is my only option; anything else will work itself out" She turned on her heel and began stalking down the corridor towards her room, tossing one final comment over her shoulder.

"At any rate, this'll be my last assignment."

Unnoticed by either of them, the church's resident priest in training stepped out from the shadows in the opposite side of the chapel and watched the nun's retreating back with a worried expression. He then pulled out his cell phone and withdrew from the sanctuary to make his call away from the sharp eye of Yolanda.

Elsewhere in town, two figures stood within the decrepit old surroundings of a small shack. The wood rotted away in many places and walls and floor were all thick with the grime of the city. In short, it was a metaphor for the exhaustion each of the two felt as they continued to trade blow after blow with their blades.

Shortly after the meeting with Shinji, Rock had approached Shenhua about helping him to retrain. The Taiwanese assassin had happily accepted, but a fortnight later found the Japanese ex-businessman questioning his decision. As he stood in the middle of that dingy old room, lungs burning and sweat soaking his white collar shirt while he struggled to keep a firm grasp on his sword, Rock struggled to recall a time when he had ever been through such rigorous training. The woman before him could be deceptively sweet. He supposed, however, that that was part of what made her so deadly.

After a brief standoff, Shenhua bolted at him again wielding both kukri knives with deadly precision. Rock had learned fairly early on in their two weeks of training that the assassin preferred a defensive approach, but she also could turn on a dime and unleash a flurry of lightning quick assaults capable of leaving a trail of corpses in her wake should any of her enemies get lax in their vigilance. He struggled against the twin kukri blades, parrying strike after strike as she twirled, ducked, and leapt at him; anything to throw him off his game. Still, he managed to keep up somehow, countering with delicate, sweeping side blows and overhead slices until finally he managed to toss her back.

Rock briefly savored the moment as he looked on at Shenhua's sprawled form on the floor a few feet away. But suddenly, that image, and the image of Yukio's corpse merged in his mind and he heard her voice speak to him.

'Right now, you're in the twilight.' The thoughts and voices began to swirl in his head like a maelstrom in the middle of the ocean, 'You've never had to choose!' They pounded the inside of his brain mercilessly like rough waves capsizing and swallowing a vessel lost at sea.

'Of course I'm gonna fight for them!'

Rock had become totally enveloped by the memory of that night at the bowling alley and of the duel at the docks in Japan. He hadn't even noticed Shenhua get to her feet as he stared down at the intricately designed dragon on the hilt of his sword with shock in his eyes. Suddenly, he felt himself choking as his windpipe constricted beneath the force of a chord wrapping itself around his neck and he grasped at it feverishly, looking up at the assassin with startled eyes.

"Ay yah! That no good. You getting too unfocused, dumbass." She chided lightly as she release the tension in the kukri rope and regarded his gasping figure with an amused gaze.

"What am I becoming?" He continued to stare down at the sharp steel clutched in his hands, speaking more to himself than to his mentor, almost seeming to forget her presence once again now that he was no longer choking.

With a supremely puzzled expression written on her Taiwanese features, the beautiful assassin kneeled across from him. "Huh? What you mean?"

The words were enough to pull the white collar from his minor state of detachment and he brought his eyes to meet hers. "It's just…" He didn't quite know exactly how to state his concern and silence settled back over them for a brief moment before he spoke up again. "I've been in Roanapur for a year and a half now. I've tried to stay as far away from the carnage as possible, but now…" Again he struggled to find the right words and Shenhua simply waited patiently for him to continue. "Now here I am, willfully taking up a sword. I still don't want to hurt anyone, but I know that I'd be willing to kill if I had to. It scares me."

He was surprised to hear a slight chuckle from the Asian woman across from him and he regarded her with raised brows as she spoke to him. "Silly dumbass. You not changed; still the same person." She said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, and yet the businessman wanted to argue with her.

"But…" He could feel the darkness growing inside of him as much as he wanted to ignore it, and he dreaded when the day might come when he would lose his place in the twilight. The assassin wasn't finished though.

"You not like the rest of us." There was a darkness in her pleasant tone as she gently caressed one of her blades with a twisted smirk on her face, as if emphasizing her statement. "If you kill, it because you protecting friends. This very noble."

Rock simply stared at the knife-wielder with mild surprise at the fact that such words would come out of someone who killed so casually. It was true that criminals had their own code of honor, but the aspect of killing was an area where no one seemed to give a flying shit about the word. He wasn't sure if she was genuine or simply humoring him, but as he thought about it, her words made sense and he allowed his mind to be soothed. He smiled as he stood up and slipped the sword into its home at his belt.

"Thank you, Shenhua."

And that's 11! I know, not much going on here, but next chapter will see the return of Balalaika, Chang and more bloodshed!