Cultural Exchange

by tartar12345

Story is set shortly after the Tekken 6: Scenario Campaign ending. Who are Julia Chang's real parents? How is she and Michelle Chang connected to Ogre? Warnings: Some re-edits & retro-add-ons. Julia-centric. Raw & highly self-indulgent & potential angst backfire. Currently NOT planning to follow T7 plotline/characters. Relatively OC-heavy, moments of OOCness, & AUishness.

5. PI-C1: Privacy

Pre-Warnings/Clarifications:

(1) This chapter begins with a 30-minute time skip (to skip the specifics how Julia & Co. got from their air ride into Raven's base) from the end of the last chapter.

(2) Another two OC agents are introduced here - working for the same organization as Raven. One of them will be making a semi-frequent appearance throughout majority of Part I, and the other less frequent. The OC Agent who appeared at end of P3 is briefly re-introduced.

(3) A lot of possibly OOC moments involving Julia, Alisa, Lars, Raven, and Jin. None will be shown in a particularly cool or admirable light.

(4) Much of the technical stuff/aspects in this chapter (and beyond) were shamelessly made up from nothing, and some were mildly researched. Hopefully readers can find the former overlookable.

(5) This chapter will be very tedious & conversation-heavy. Most characters tend to be talkative and reflective. I'm still trying to grasp plausible character/logical flow & transitions, so please bear with me if you can.

(6) I generally strive to avoid retro-modifications, but I do make exceptions (especially if the changes are minor) and I'll note them in the next posted chapter. The following:

a. Tedious descriptions, a sequence, and A/N involving the "Doppelganger Dreams" in Prologues II & III have been retro-modified.
b. "Lili" is addressed by Julia and Lei as "Emilie".
c. Prologues I~IV: Rewrote the Disclaimer.
d. Prologue I: Made some minor additions & rectifications to the Pre-Warnings/Clarifications.
e. Prologue I: "Nine others" is changed to "Nine others like her, plus the one odd one out among them". Also, "Ten of Theirs" is changed to "Eleven of Theirs".
f. Prologue II: "Eleventh reincarnation" is changed to "Twelfth Incarnation".
g. Prologue III & IV: "LR-16" changed to "TSK-16". "Violet Corp." is changed to "Violet Systems" (which I believe is the correct name).
h. Prologue IV: "Hound" changed from Julia's online alias to pet name of the workstation she invented & built herself.

(7) As a chapterly reminder, I'm planning for this fanfic to disregard post-T6SC official developments, including T7 & its characters (at least so far, as trying to integrate them will significantly de-motivate & discourage my storywriting incentives at this point). Thus, I'm currently going to actively ignore T7-related facts, which will likely render the Tekken in-universe facts of this story canonically obsolete, contradictory, and/or highly inaccurate.

Disclaimer:
I do not own Tekken, its original characters or the mainstream fictional works that inspired or I derived my Storyline/Characterizations/Plot Devices/OCs/Character Names.

I do own the OCs presented here, along with the chosen naming & self-invented backgrounds of both playable & previously nameless canon characters with little or different background info (up to Tekken 6: Scenario Campaign).

Part I Ch1: Freed From a False Sense of Privacy

*****
Thirty minutes later, upon exiting from the Zaibatsu helicopter and successfully infiltrating underground base from Alisa's suggested entrance...

The underground base was a vast and empty labyrinth-corridor. The interiors were well-lit, and the surroundings spotlessly clean. The interior visibly consisted solely of expensive-looking ceramic-like tiles and fine plaster-like white walls, making the whole place look like a huge vacant office instead of a secret base.

Lars, Julia, and Alisa knew better than to take appearance at face value, of course. Julia started scanning the area for hidden traps or surveillance devices with the Mini-Hound - a compact, handheld version of the Hound, which the young scientist also invented and built all by herself - whilst Alisa was working out a detailed map of the whole Agency, including signs of security staff and their targets.

The trio started speed-walking as soon as Alisa worked out a general direction where Lee was likely being held captive.

"It's quiet...too quiet. They know we're here...I've detected that we passed at least 5 motion-sensor surveillance cameras in the last two minutes. We'd better hurry." Julia announced in a hushed but anxious voice.

"We must wait until Alisa can grasp a definite direction for us to sprint towards," Lars replied in a low voice, keeping his eyes fixed straight ahead at their gynoid guide. "Otherwise, we'll just be wasting energy needed to fight off security staff." A small, grim sneer suddenly crossed his face. "Or if we're lucky, maybe even Raven himself."

Julia suddenly felt her stomach dropping. It dawned upon her that she'll inevitably end up as a helpless load one way or another, if - or more likely, when - they run into the posted security guards here...even with her TSK-16 formula handy, as the intentional effects were of limited time and the side effects severely incapacitating. Other than her fists, she was only armed with a taser, a couple stun grenades, tranquilizer gun, and a pocket knife for self defense.

This wouldn't have had any bearing on her insistence in joining Lee's rescue, of course - Lars and Alisa without question required her technical skills, but if physical conflict spirals down to survival combat...the least she could do is warn them about her abnormal psychological handicap.

"Lars...when it comes to fighting for our lives, I'm afraid I cannot contribute much-" Julia began hesitantly, but was cut off by the man in front of her.

"-then take cover or flee immediately as far as you possibly can, once any kind of fighting erupts." Lars replied with a burdened sigh. "I was informed that you're a very accomplished martial artist who participated in the Iron Fist tournaments before. But I can also understand that showcase martial art competitions are nothing like actual military or life-and-death combat experience. So no worries, Alisa and I will take care of all the fighting. Just focus on keeping yourself out of danger - and from distracting us over concern for your safety."

Julia was momentarily at a loss whether to react with indignant outrage, guilty self-defeatism, or grateful relief. My helplessness at G. Corp. must've given a most indelible first impression, as a useless burden during the most urgent of times. The young scientist mused to herself miserably.

A sudden soft beeping noise snapped Julia out of her thoughts. She glanced at her Mini-Hound, and her eyes widened in shock, suddenly halting her steps. Lars spun around to face the young scientist, and stopped walking as well.

"Jaycee, what's wro-Alisa, hold on a minute. Alisa?" The half-Swede soldier turned to the gynoid, who hadn't broken her pace...in fact, she was now accelerating forward with her thrusters at full speed. And seemed to have fallen in some deep trance - completely ignoring her two human companions, as if they were never there to begin with.

Lars automatically started to give chase, apparently forgetting all about Julia. "Alisa, wait! What's going on?! Stop!"

Julia grunted in forlorn frustration as her eyes darted to her abandoning companions, then her device screen again, and back at the two figures shrinking in the distance.
"Damn it..." Julia muttered resignedly as she broke into a sprint in the direction of her friends, who were going at full speed in front of her. She was quite a long way behind them. Good thing the Mini-Hound provided a strong tracing signal on Alisa, too...they had taken a good number of turns and passageways before Julia finally caught up within earshot distance of the man in front of her.

"Lars...Lars, listen to me!" Julia shouted. It wasn't a great idea to yell out what she was going to say, but she also knew the half-Swede wouldn't be pausing his speedy pursuit under any circumstances...and he needed to be informed right now.
"Some radio frequency not far ahead just got hold of Alisa's A.I. system! And she's leading us right to the source...my device show traces of Jin Kazama's voice in the emitted frequency!"

Lars turned briefly to give the young scientist an irritated glare. "Jin Kazama is dead!"

"Maybe Raven managed to obtain pre-mortem replicas of Kazama's voice print! Either way, Alisa's taking us exactly where these people here want us...right into a trap!" Julia was surprised that she was only feeling slightly short of breath at the moment. She had been running at top speed for more than 5 minutes now, not to mention all that yelling.

"Keep a safe distance from us, and bolt the other way at the first sign of trouble! Trap or not, I won't abandon Alisa!" Lars shouted back at the young scientist.

This is just plain idio-well, childish stubborness! Julia audibly huffed out a noise of sheer exasperation. And he professes to himself that he's reliable military authority on real life-and-death missions!

The young scientist tentatively fingered the keypad on her Mini-Hound. Dr. Boskonovitch...I've used that override authority you entrusted me with only once, without anyone finding out. Will you understand if I risk exposing it now? The token of your unconditional trust in me? She inwardly addressed her deceased mentor, as guilt and uncertainty warred against her panic and sense of helplessness. Then the young scientist closed her eyes briefly, before snapping them open with a determined gleam. I am sorry.

Julia's fingers punched a sequence of keys on the Mini-Hound. "Alisa! Commanding authority negated!" She yelled at the top of her lungs. Lars started to slow down in front of her, then halted to a complete stop. He turned to Julia as she was catching up to him, an astonished and puzzled look on his face. Less than a foot away in front of the half-Swede, she saw that Alisa had suddenly gone still in an upright position, her thrusters now retracted into her back and shins. Then the gynoid suddenly slumped to her knees.

"Alisa! Alisa, are you all right?!" Lars instantly rushed to the robot girl's side, kneeling right by her.

"...I'm all right. And I apologize." Alisa's usually light, chirpy tone was weighed down with elements Julia never heard before - fear, deep sadness, and total confusion.

The robot girl then abruptly turned to face Julia, unsettling the young scientist with her uncharacteristically sharp scrutinizing stare. "Ms. Childress. You must tell me...how have you obtained the means to cancel out Master Jin's authority status? And unlike the time when Master Jin awakened my true purpose...I still have no incoming revelational data, in regards to your commanding identity and status relating to mine. Please explain all this."

Julia caught Lars's face twitching with dismay at Alisa's bestowed title to Jin Kazama, and the gynoid's unintentionally insensitive reference of her heart-breakingly traitorous incident against the half-Swede as merely "her true purpose". The young scientist sighed.

"Alisa, I promise to explain everything later, but the current priority is-" Julia began urgently, but Alisa suddenly sprung to her feet and dashed in front of the young scientist, and getting right into the latter's face.

"-please, Ms. Childress! I'm imploring you, I must know! Right now!" Alisa cried, a sense of desperate pleading in her voice.

The young scientist exhaled noisily in sheer frustration and anxiety. "I give you a quick nutshell, and we immediately resume all focus on our current rescue mission. Okay?" Alisa nodded eagerly.
"Well, I had an internship with Dr. Geppetto Boskonovitch years back, during my teens." Julia started in a rushed tone. "And one day, he suddenly informed of his decision to entrust me as some sole backup safeguard for an ultimate creation he's been working on. Just in case its one and only authority decides to wrongfully abuses his or her control over-"

"-you were closely acquainted with father?" Alisa suddenly cut in. The gynoid's eyes grew wider.

"In order for my voice command to take effect, I must reach into your systems via online access first - using an encrypted password that Dr. Boskonovitch had provided me. And unlike Jin Kazama, I have no authorization to give you undefiable orders," Julia continued, ignoring Alisa's question. "However, my voice print can either negate or restore his position as unconditional authority. Or void any specific orders from him."

That, and overriding even the strictest security protocols of programs or data that'd been accessible only by Jin Kazama himself. The young scientist withheld that tidbit to herself.

"If you'll forgive me, Ms. Childress...your explanation doesn't make sense in that you allied yourself with Dr. Abel - father's worst rival - two years ago, solely for your own personal goal of reforestation project. Why would father trust you?" Alisa argued suspiciously.

In spite of her mounting impatience, Julia sported a small smile, full of sadness and remorse the gynoid's inquiry invoked. "Well, as you can see, my defection to G. Corp. and to Dr. Boskonovitch's most loathed nemesis - Dr. Abel - apparently hadn't been enough to waiver his faith in me...as proven just now." Though I myself found that out much earlier at Violet Systems - when Lars first brought your battered and critically damaged body for us to repair, the same day Jin Kazama had leapt to his death.

Lars had a flicker of troubled reflection cross his face. Julia could guess only too well what was going through his head. No doubt he's pondering about what would have been, if only I had tagged along with him and Alisa to confront Jin Kazama at the Zaibatsu HQ - particularly that moment when Alisa was revealed to be Kazama's unwitting spy and mind-controllable puppet-weapon...Julia thought wryly to herself.

The half-Swede suddenly turned to the young scientist, with an apologetic expression that shone with embarrassment and gratitude. "I'm truly sorry for my inexcusable emotional slips as team leader, Jaycee...and we're truly thankful that you're here with us, now."

Julia looked at the floor, as couldn't help her creeping blush in spite of herself. "And I'm grateful to be of real use, Lars." She murmured in reply.

Lars's expression became all seriousness again as he forced his concentration back to practical reality. He then leaned towards his two comrades and kept his voice low.
"If we continue staying together, security here can easily close in and outnumber us. But if we split up, we run the risk of losing another among us as an additional prisoner to rescue." He unconsciously flickered a glance at the young scientist.

Forcing aside her knee-jerk peevishness at his gesture, Julia decided to propose the strategy she had thought of before their infiltration. Knowing Lars's straightforward style of command and cluelessness of the base's interior obstacles, she had reservations bringing up her idea before...but as of now, it seemed to be a plausible suggestion.

"Lars...I'm thinking it may help if we target and cripple their operational hubs first - its main power source, emergency flood, intranet...whatever may temporarily inconvenience the whole place if sabotaged. That'll slow us down too, but it may at least give us an advantage of surprise against them...throw the base into chaos, and we may have a better chance of slipping or fighting through with less concentrated resistance." The young scientist proposed in a lowered voice.

The half-Swede looked contemplative. "That may indeed give us an advantage, but we have to factor in our limited time and staff...there simply isn't enough for us to locate one operational hub at a time, locate Lee, AND get us all out of here safely."

Julia sighed. "If Alisa can transfer mapping and coordinates of the base's central operational units to my device, I'll go do the sabotaging myself. I have the tools and the means..."

"No." Lars immediately shook his head. "We will split up, but Alisa will be going with you. I'll have her send coordinates to Lee's location to my communicator. If either of you are put in physical disadvantage, you'll be able to help each other better than I can. Does that sound doable?"

"...all right, then. Let's do it that way." Julia murmured, obscuring her bitter displeasure by taking out Mini-Hound and busying herself with the device. You mean that if Alisa's put in some disadvantage, I can better help her than you could - because of my technical knowledge. Not as much the other way around, is it, Lars?

Predictably, Lars took no notice of Julia's subtle shift in temperament. "Good. Both of you focus on dodging security while getting access to some central control units of the base. Impair as many central operating units as possible, whilst keeping yourselves out of as much danger and exposure as possible. I'll scout ahead for Lee right now. Alisa, feed me constant updates of Lee's current whereabouts, straight into my communicator earpiece. Should I get overwhelmed by ready security forces, any surprise or unexpected distraction should increase our chances of evening the playing field."

"But Lars, Master Jin is summoning me again..." Alisa suddenly protested.

"It's a Jin Kazama decoy! Kazama is dead, Alisa! Focus on finding Lee!" Lars turned to them and snapped heatedly, his eyes now simmering with a clearly personal variety of bitter anger. Then the half-Swede soldier promptly sped off far ahead without sparing them another glimpse.

There was a prolonged silence and stillness between the two females. Julia took a moment to glance at Lars's disappearing back, then resumed fiddling with her device. A moment later, the young scientist's eyes widened in an almost excited revelation.

"Alisa...Listen to this! I just got my hand on this stolen piece of data. It says that-"

But Alisa distractedly cut her off, the robot girl's voice sounding distressed and melancholy.

"Master Jin...my sensors indicate he is well alive. I am no longer subject to immediate and unconditional obedience towards Jin Kazama due to your overriding command negation, Ms. Childress. But I feel I must at least seek him out and ensure his well-being, now that I'm aware he's here and alive...he is my master after all."

Julia grunted in frustration, barely managing to mask her disgust. "Alisa, this is really important. I managed to hack briefly into a nearby database before the system busted my cover and kicked me out. But I swiped this tidbit about you, Lars, and Lee-"

"-Ms. Childress, what's most important is that Master Jin is still alive, and we must find him if they're holding him captive - or worse, harming him!" Alisa cried urgently.

Julia sensed that her self-restraint was on the verge of snapping from her straining anger. Persisting with shameless concern and loyalty over a cruel murderous war criminal, who happened to turn you against your first real friend...solely because of knowledge that you were created to protect Jin Kazama? Her caustic thoughts threatened to voice themselves. You really have ways to go in becoming a Real Girl, Miss Pinocchia.

The young scientist forced her anger aside and again attempted to persuade the gynoid first, using the most cajoling tone she could muster. "Come on, Alisa. We'll figure out the deal about Jin Kazama once we find Lee and get us all into a safe location. Now please listen closely for just a minute. My current findings indicate that the people here actually-"

"-Ms. Childress, please understand! Master Jin may not treat me as such an equal and caring human friend as you and Lars do, but he is still my master whom I must find. I simply cannot abandon him!" Alisa protested heatedly, with a note of steadfast willfulness in her voice.

Enough. Julia mentally concluded. I've wasted enough time, and I. Am. Fed. Up. With this hypocritical wonder of a human wannabe robot. Screw Lars if he takes some eternally unforgiving offense against me, for finally voicing my real feelings about his robot girlfriend.
"Alisa...do what you will, then." The young scientist grated through semi-clenched teeth. She no longer bothered to suppress the angry disdain from her voice this time. "Seek out your precious Master - that heartless mass-slaughterer - right now, and let Lee Chaolan - the one who revived you after Jin Kazama tossed you aside like scrap heap - stay here to rot or die. And don't even bother yourself with Lars's well-being, since you never hesitated to try killing him under Jin Kazama's orders. Go back being a mindless servant to 'Master Jin', who used you as a mere mechanical lapdog. At least you're doing it out of your own free will, which, by the way, I took a huge personal risk in returning to you. I'm off to help our two friends who are stuck here...one of whom never stopped viewing or caring for you as his closest human comrade!"

After she finished her unrestrained diatribe-rant, Julia spun away and trudged off as fast as she could, forcing her attention to locating coordinates for any central control units within her closest proximity. The Mini-Hound was of very limited location/identification speed and function, compared to Alisa's state-of-the-art internal mapping. The young scientist paused for a brief moment.

"And if you'd be so kind...provide me with constant updates on locations of central control units like you're doing with Lee for Lars, so I can at least do our assigned duty." She half-chortled out in humorless sarcasm.

Not expecting a reply or willing assistance, Julia resumed walking and working on her own. Alisa was still standing where she was, rooted and motionless. The gynoid suddenly called out to the young scientist speed-walking away from her.

"Ms. Childress...if you would just tell me this...and please be frank." Alisa began in a completely calm and undecipherable tone. "Did you once ever view me as human like Lars did, since we first met?"

Julia sighed heavily. She didn't turn or stop walking, but slowed her pace. "I'll admit, I still don't know how Lars managed it so naturally. I honestly strived to, Alisa...but it was seldom an easy task for me. And as of now, your obsession with 'Master Jin' just made it all the more difficult."

"You strived from the first day...but did so merely to gain Lars's favor, didn't you?" Although voice still calm and gentle, Alisa's tone suddenly took on a chiding, accusatory note. "I always sensed blood rushing to your face and telltale heart palpitations during your mutual interactions. Given how he exhibits similar reactions around me, I'm fully aware that he regards me as closest to his affections. I held the tact to say nothing to anyone, but I knew all along of your constant wish to impress him. And you'd make extra efforts to have him assume you're a kindred spirit in your unusual courtesy and casual friendliness towards me - attitudes I must assume were forced and spurious all along, motivated solely by your coveting emotions?" Genuine hurt and a hint of contempt crept into the robot girl's tone.

Julia halted this time, and her body stiffened. After a moment of silence, she took a hard breath and turned to throw a fed-up look at the gynoid.

I really should be above further engaging with her...but still, it may be the only opportunity to get the overdue issue out of my system for good - and allow me to concentrate on what actually needs to be done. Besides, based on that stolen piece of data - it seems we do have more than a bit of time to spare right now.

"Congratulations, Ms. Alisa. You've proven to me that you do indeed possess solid aspects of humanity. By your ability to indulge in incredible denial and self-deception regarding your non-organic origins - almost to the point of disturbing psychological escapism. That, along with the very inappropriately timed and undisciplined petty vindictiveness you just displayed." Julia returned in a calm but acerbic tone.

"But thanks to you just now, I've decided to forgo Lars's personal favor for self-honesty and ending my own shallow hypocrisy. Goodbye." The young scientist finished with a note of finality, then turned away and resumed her stride, putting her focus back to her Mini-Hound.

Julia hadn't gotten more than four feet away when a message from Alisa popped up on her device screen: Ms. Childress...I'll be sending you those coordinates you requested promptly as I can. One of the central databases covering a 38.97-foot radius of the base is only twenty steps away, exactly 15 degrees your Northeast. Please be careful. The young scientist sighed upon reading the message. I'd actually been trying to tell Alisa about information extracted from that particular one, while she kept interrupting me about finding Jin Kazama. Oh well, it's still the thought that counts.

Much appreciated, Ms. Boskonovitch. You be careful too. Julia keyed in and hit REPLY.

Points off for you big time, Julia Chang...finally allowing your silly grudging emotions to get the better of you. And in what is technically still a time-racing crisis, no less.

Julia fought back a thundering headache that was threatening to erupt.

On the other hand, it'd only make sense that Alisa's sensory system have been screwed up by all that system meddling. But why do I have this bizarre and sickening feeling that these claims about Jin Kazama actually have basis?

The young scientist pushed the irrelevant thoughts away as she broke into a light sprint towards the closest central database.

*****
Three minutes later, at the southwest wing central data transfer unit of the underground base...

Julia had crouched behind a crevice in the tunnel-like walls of the base, finger-punching her Mini-Hound furious concentration. The central database unit was a large mainframe in a pillar-shaped arrangement. The area was oddly empty and unguarded like the rest of the base they've covered, but she still kept herself as far away and out of sight as possible, whilst staying within good reception range.

The young scientist had concocted several different outfits of Trojan hackers, worms, and viruses beforehand, during their Alisa-piloted ride to the underground base - potent, efficient hacking and creating highly complex malware was the main specialty of the Mini-hound.

Julia would've simply gone with dispersing as many damaging and obstructing cyber-intrusions as far and quickly as possible, like Lars requested. In light of that little piece of snitched info one of her messenger Trojan managed to bring back before it was discovered and destroyed, however - the one little bit Alisa kept interrupting her about. Now she had solid reason to assume that none of them - Lee, Lars, Alisa - were in real danger from the base's attack force. As for herself...well, she was still replaceable as Violet Systems' main information gatherer, and thus possibly disposable in Raven's or his superiors' eyes. Although even then, they'll most likely need her alive long enough to restore commanding authority of Alisa.

The young scientist already sent that tidbit of information into Alisa's internal database...and instead of laying as much functional ruin to as many of the base's operational structures possible, it now made more sense to continue her attempts to hack and send to Alisa every drop of info she can milk from Raven's organization, using every Trojan outfit on hand - until she runs out of effective hackers or some security finally shows up to apprehend her.

Suddenly, a cyber message originating from the database hub itself popped onto her screen:

Access Granted to Archive 163PS492C_Select Files:
- Jin Kazama_Azazel-enhanced Devil Gene
- Jin Kazama_Reinstatement Program
- Jaycee Childress AKA Julia Chang _Genetic Development
- Skytorch_Origins
- October Tenth Moon_Origins
- Shadow Serpents_Documented Rumors & Anecdotes
- October Tenth Moon_Documented Rumors & Anecdotes
- Celestial-Fairies/Tienshen_Documented Rumors & Anecdotes

Julia's eyes became round with shock. What the hell is this? These people, they were on to me...

Whoever kidnapped Lee, took control of Alisa earlier, and assaulted them with all the hacking...they had full knowledge about the young scientist's true identity and background - apparently more than she knew of herself. They wanted her to know it, and they wanted her here in the first place. This changes everything...yet again. Previous plans rendered meaningless. Sighing, Julia knew the only thing she could do now is to try and figure out what the organization possibly wants with her, via reviewing the information they've just freely handed to her on a platter. Then perhaps devise another counter plan from there...

Filled with both great anticipation and dread, Julia stood upright and clicked on the remote access file labeled Jaycee Childress AKA Julia Chang _Genetic Development. A text document opened on her screen:

SUBJECT OF FOCUS:

Adoptee of unspecified parentage. Original name upon adoption Julia Chang. Initially found and adopted by Michelle Xingqu S.S. ("Star-Song") Chang - birth daughter of Michael Chongliang Chang, a renowned private investigator of Cantonese descent, and Giselle V.W. ("Voice-Wave") of the neo-Native American Tribalism-based Skytorch people.

Julia blinked and re-read the paragraph. "Neo-Native American Tribalism-based"? Could that explain...? And I only knew Michelle's father's and her mother's modern American name via aunt Tiffany. Michelle always refused to tell me her tribal name, and her mother's..knowing that I'd have relentlessly coveted one for myself. Or even the name and location of our tribe...I had to find out the last part on my own, the young scientist recalled grimly to herself.

When she turned 17 years old, Julia managed to finally dig up the name and location of her tribe, then set out on her own to meet them...hoping to learn about her past and perhaps find a new sense of belonging among them. She never dreamt that she'd be greeted by hostile, horrified stares and frenzied screams that "The ghoul girl is alive" while she was approaching the tribe's large encampment grounds, and promptly forced to run for her life whilst being pursued by tribesmen shooting wildly at her with rifles. She managed to hide, then escape with no serious injuries, save some grazed flesh and one bullet lodged in her shoulder - all of which thankfully healed completely with prompt quickness.

Michelle somehow caught wind of her adoptee's unwelcomed and unexpected visit to their tribe very shortly after - without Julia having said anything about it. The adoptive mother approached Julia with the subject when the latter was recuperating in the hospital. Michelle's expression and tone had been full of pained regret and sadness, as she explained she'd wish Julia never tried to pursue her ethnic origins. No matter how Julia pleaded, Michelle refused to divulge anything else about the Skytorch tribe, except that Julia's matriarchal line - including her birth mother - had been perpetual victims to a deeply-rooted tradition of ostracizing, following a sacred tribal superstition that started from the Skytorch chief.

Julia later realized what she sensed odd - she only heard modern American English words during her first and last run-in with her tribe...there was no unfamiliar foreign utterance of any sort. Which indicated the possibility that her tribe either had no indigenous language of their own, or their language had died out and been all but replaced by American English.

Then Michelle one day proposed the downright silly idea, which simply begged for trouble - she insisted that Julia to wear her feathered headband and moccasin boots to represent their tribe, which would prove her devotion to glorify their reputation. Julia felt even more uncomfortable with the feathered headband than her unnecessarily skimpy bra-top and mini-skirt outfit. Michelle donned those articles herself when she entered the tournament to rescue her own mother, but Julia had disputed the prudence of that action as well - flaunting her tribal identity whilst rescuing someone important...the tribe would be exposed to the risk of retaliation, should Michelle have successfully escaped and adequately displeased the Mishima enough in the process. At least Julia achieved one feat by wearing the Skytorch feathered headband and boots in televised public - her adoptive grandmother approached and spoke to her for the very first time...even if it was a scorching diatribe about how Julia was disgracing the tribe's sense of tranquility via anonymity, and sullying their cherished tribal emblems by wearing them. When Julia later asked Michelle whether she was ever on the receiving end of such criticism, Michelle only responded with a look of guilty disappointment.

Due to numerous legal complications, Subject's background and identity changed to "Jaycee Childress" at age 13, upon being taken under foster care of Officer Lei Wulong, top ICPO detective of Cantonese descent. Said legal complications include:

(1) Withdrawn indictment of Michelle S.S. Chang's confessed knowledge and implicit collaboration in prostituting her 8 year old adoptee to Monaco oil tycoon, Laurent De Rochefort; officer Lei had filed charges against Michelle Chang, but later rescinded his own charges by stating the adoptive mother had fabricated claims of collaboration, due to self-induced false memories stemming from severe psychological imbalance caused by guilt of failure to protect her adoptee.

(2) At 11 years old. Subject convicted of beating three 13 year old students to death and crippling a fourth. Adequate mitigating circumstantial evidence was present to acquit Subject in a fair trial, including delirium by unusually high fever, sleep deprivation, and acting in self-defense against an armed and provocative party. However, due to the high social and monetary influence of the victims' parents, it took the intervention of Laurent De Rochefort's status and resources to extricate Julia Chang's legal dilemmas, to the point where she was able to start anew with a fresh altered background and identity. Speculation of Rochefort's motives for selectively aiding Subject - the only one out of his alleged 13 pre-adolescent victims, and the last - remains open.

Julia couldn't help cringe outwardly. Lei...so he actually had attempted to convict Michelle, but changed his mind at the last minute and never told me? At any rate, these people here seem to indeed know more about me than I do. She thought to herself grimly.

Michelle S.S. Chang and Giselle V.W. Chang previously captured by Heihachi Mishima on MONTH XX, DATE XX, YEAR 20XX and MONTH XX, DATE XX, YEAR XXXX, respectively. Objective was to summon combat entity of unidentified origin - but confirmed to be extraterrestrial - only known as "Ogre", or by the Mishima, "Toshin" ("War God").

The Ogre creature's M.O. is to attack accomplished martial artists, then absorbed the skills and techniques of its defeated victims as its own arsenal. Prominent victims include Nina Williams, Baek Doo San, Jun Kazama, and King I.

Heihachi Mishima reportedly desired to secure the creature, believing it the key to immortality. Ogre was destroyed by Heihachi's paternal grandson Jin Kazama, but Heihachi managed to preserve samples of the creature for future research - discovering that acquisition of the Devil Gene may grant him access to the immortality-granting components within the Ogre's DNA.

Ogre...just the way Michelle described it. The creature that took Jin Kazama's mother away from him and left him wandering into a downward spiral. Julia took a moment to muse sadly.

Unidentifiable source of supernatural power from Subject first detected by primary outsource mystic consultant, Zafina - on MONTH XX, DATE XX, YEAR 20XX.
Date of Detection approximately less than two days after Jin Kazama's showdown with the Devil-Gene originator known as Azazel.

Cells of shed hair samples taken from Subject still alive and thriving. Further tests on Subject's stray hair cells indicate self-sustenance via oxygen and H2O vapors. Conventional biological nutrient sources no longer required for survival of individual hair strand cells.

On MONTH XX, DATE XX, YEAR 20XX - DNA information extracted from cells appear to be mutating actively and progressively, changes visible every half-week at least. NOTE: Subject's fundamental genetic structure has been showing rapidly increasing resemblance to that of Ogre's DNA sample stolen from the Mishima Zaibatsu lab MONTH XX, DATE XX, YEAR 20XX (approximately three years from today). Genetic structural resemblance has so far reached 23.7849%, other...

The Mini-hound slipped from Julia's trembling palm, clattering carelessly across the floor. Panting and sweating, the young scientist felt light-headed and tried to regain her balance against the wall. She failed and almost fell on her face, when a pair of large strong hands firmly grasped her shoulders, steadying her footing.

"Jaycee...Jaycee! What's the matter? Come on, look at me!" Lars's anxious voice penetrated the fog of horrified disbelief that had clouded her mind when she absorbed those last few sentences. Weakly tilting her head upward, Julia found herself looking straight at the half-Swede's tense and worried face.

"Lars...? W-what are you doing here?" Julia murmured in an absent-minded daze. A dreamy smile threatened her lips.

"Jaycee...snap out of it! What's happened to you?" Lars gave her a good shake that cleared the young scientist's mind and brought it back into present reality. She suddenly sensed that they were far from alone. Slowly, she turned around and saw at least thirty people behind her. Most of them were armed guards clad in black-colored, full-body combat suits and wearing metal headbands.

"I assume you got to the part about your genetic ties with Ogre, at least?" A gruff, impassive voice inquired Julia. One of the guardsmen stood a good few steps in front of the crowd, arms crossed. He was apparently of African-American or African-Canadian descent, and had his cropped hair dyed pale blond. Unlike the other guards, this one wore a sleeveless black outfit with spiral-like blue and gold insignia, a scarf around his neck, and pitch-black shades completely concealing his eyes. If Julia had to guess, this particular man was Raven - the ninja who assisted Lars in defeating Azazel and Jin Kazama several months before, after Alisa had gone rogue under Jin's command.

There were three younger personnel who stood out from the rest of the guards in their attire, expression, and position - two females and another male. They didn't appear physically intimidating at all, nor were they dressed in combat wear like Raven and the guards, but Julia could perceive from their expression and posture that all three stood high above the guards - both in fighting abilities and rank.

The two females were beautiful young women who stood attentively on Raven's right, both of them apparently of mixed Asian-Caucasian descent. By the look of their respectfully upright posture, they were obviously Raven's subordinates.

The older female subordinate looked to be in her mid-to-late-twenties, and half-east Asian.
She was very statuesque - perhaps one of the tallest individuals in the group - had ivory-golden skin, a gently-pointed perfect straight nose, and a light sprinkle of pale cinnamon freckles across her nose bridge. Her sexy-imprint lips were ruby-like.
The woman's fine ebony locks fell to her waist, with her top hair tidily arranged into a crown braid.
Her smoky narrow almonds of gleaming limpid pale-emeralds regarded the newcomers with near-flawless indifference...but there was a subtle hint of some enduring melancholia and world-weariness, within those otherwise emotionless eyes.
She sported a frameless pair of glasses like Julia, wore a light-gray business casual pantsuit over a plain white dress shirt, and adorned a simple gold necklace along with small gold lever-back earrings. A bit more surprisingly, her wedding finger flaunted a gorgeous and elegant diamond ring.
In her left hand she steadily held a large, heavy-looking laptop bag.

The younger female subordinate was not as tall, but still quite tall for a young teenage girl.
Her visage suggested she was no older than her mid-teens, and appeared to be of half-Southeast Asian or half-indigenous tribal descent.
She had light-bronze skin, slightly curly locks of dark burgundy mixed with deep titians and russets.
Her visage comprised a small pixyish nose, semi-full pouty pink lips, and large infant-like round eyes of sparkling dark sapphires which peered at the newcomers with careful scrutiny.
The teen subordinate also boasted an uncommon hairstyle: The largely right-parted side of her hair was a short layered bob cut, with a thick frontal strand plaited into a small hairline braid that tied her fringes to her right ear, and hung quite far below the rest of hair to her shoulder - with tiny feathers of baby swans and ravens woven into the ends of her braid. The left parted side of her head was a simple cropped pixie cut.
She was dressed like some fancy cyberpunk-themed female warrior from a sci-fi/fantasy media than an agent: She wore a long white wing-shaped cloak-scarf with a cowl that tapered open at the front and back, with its ends draping down to her knees. The cloak-scarf was secured to her upper body by a metal collar armor that bore double shoulder pads and a matching collapsible metal helmet that hung behind her head like a hood. Various parts of the collar and shoulder pieces sported the shape of valkyrie rune symbols.
Underneath the wing-cloak peeked a form-fitting white-plated cyber-suit, fastened over full black body tights.
When Julia's gaze fell upon her, the teen agent returned a peevish glare and suddenly threw on her collapsible "hood" helmet - completely masking her head and faces a futuristic helmet and face protector, that respectively resembled a simple valkyrie tiara and medieval knight's mask.
The helmet's ear and cheek guards were fashioned into small feathery shapes, and the tiara displayed a miniature axe-and-wings engraving. The face protector-mask had face-length vertical slit-shaped visors.
If Julia was to be all honest to herself, the teen female's cyberpunk outfit secretly reminded the young scientist her first impression of Lars's Tekken Force rebel officer armor, the very first time she saw him...along with her initial incredulity that he was a deadly, all-serious combatant.

The other odd man out stood a few feet behind Raven but in front of the rest of the guardsmen - he held an openly relaxed and somewhat impatient demeanor, indicating that he wasn't under Raven's authority.
This man looked to be in his early to mid 30's, and of mixed Mediterranean-Teutonic ethnicity.
He had a short shock of auburn hair, deep cerulean eyes, a slightly aquiline narrow nose, and pale olive skin.
He was clad in a medium gray formal business suit with a navy striped tie, and wore stylishly framed glasses.
His slightly short stature barely reached the modern average man's height, and his physical build appeared conspicuously scrawny compared to all the other males in the room.
The physically unthreatening-looking man would've looked almost boyishly cute despite his age, if not for the chillingly calculating stare he was casting toward the visitors.
He was carrying a computer as well, but in the form of a large tablet PC simply tucked under one of his arms.

Most startling were the presences of three very familiar faces amongst the crowd:

Lee - the target of their rescue mission - had his hands tightly restrained behind his back, and appeared to be in a heavily drugged and barely conscious state. Two of the guardsmen were holding him upright on each side.
The Violet Systems CEO was uncharacteristically unkempt - his usually perfectly groomed silver-gray hair was a tangled mess, half-buttoned dress shirt torn and dirty, as were his slacks. He had neglected stubble growing on his face.

Alisa was there too, standing closely right next to another captive standing between her and on Raven's left - that captive none other than Jin Kazama himself. She stared at her friends with a troubled and anxious look.

Jin Kazama, clad in only a pair of loose black gym trousers, his wrists secured in a chain-cuff that was so long, he wound some of the chain around his arm to prevent it from dragging on the floor in front of his bare feet.
The Mishima boy's health, mental sharpness, and physique appeared to be in excellent shape for a prisoner. His captors were obviously feeding him well and providing him adequately clean, fresh air. It was self-evident that he himself hadn't been slacking with his self-training, either.
Jin was standing next to Raven's left in a sturdy and upright position. The Kazama-Mishima's gaze was steadily fixed on Julia, regarding her with an unreadable expression, but there was a veiled hint of surprise and curiosity visible in his unsettlingly intensive eyes.

Julia automatically averted her eyes from Jin's medium-brown orbs that were bearing into her, unconsciously tightening her grasp on Lars's arm and pressing her trembling body closer against the half-Swede's.

The young scientist felt so confused...shocked yet perversely elated at the sight of the Mishima boy standing there alive - on top of that, sickened and horrified by her own twisted sense of elation for the massacring war criminal's escape from death and obvious well-being.

"Lars..." Julia choked out faintly. "How is Kazama still alive? And why is he standing there?" She felt the half-Swede tensing up at the question.

"I don't know either," Lars replied in a taut voice. "But Raven there just told me something about Jin Kazama absorbing Azazel's power upon the monster's death, hence his survival upon the fall and collapse of the temple."

So all they had were supernatural explanations...again. Figures. Julia would've been a tad less incredulous and apprehensive if she ran into a real ghost.

"I did warn you both that Master Jin is alive and here." Alisa suddenly murmured in a bitter I-Told-You-So tone. It seemed the gynoid just couldn't help herself.

Lars sighed irritably and glared at the Ninja agent. "All right, Raven. We've got Jaycee here with us now, so you can start explaining to us what the hell this is all about!"

Raven appeared completely unperturbed by the angry threat in the half-Swede's tone. "As you know very well yourself, Alexandersson...the Mishima Zaibatsu is falling apart under your leadership. It'll be a matter of months before either Heihachi Mishima or G. Corp. gets their hands on what you have left. I gathered you all here to inform that we're going to re-establish Jin Kazama back into the world and Zaibatsu head - strictly as your co-partner."

Sensing that Julia and Lars were still immersed and wrestling with incredulity towards his words, the ninja agent paused a few moments to give them time to mentally digest the informed situation before continuing. Raven then nodded slightly towards Julia.

"Also, it appears that Geppetto Boskonovitch granted Chang a surprising degree of influential access to Alisa, here. We were searching for a certain program - 'Scapegoat' - which we discovered was missing when we were hacking into her last night, via Kazama's help." The ninja silently observed the young scientist's telling grimace before going on.
"Extraction of 'Operation: Scapegoat' by anyone other than Kazama himself would've triggered uncompromisable self-destruction of Alisa's entire internal database. Chang was the only one from Violet Systems who worked directly under Boskonovitch. We needed to find out what other control she has over Alisa. And retrieve the Scapegoat program...which will broadcast Kazama as a framed and innocent political puppet of a veteran Tekken Force general - an already deceased scapegoat pawn."
"To prevent the empire from falling back into Heihachi Mishima's hands...or worse, acquired by G. Corp., my superiors determined that our only current viable alternative is re-establishing Kazama into the world - and onto the Mishima Zaibatsu co-Head. "

"...Raven, is it? You do know who and what Jin Kazama is?" Julia finally asked after prolonged stunned silence. She let go of Lars and glared straight at the Ninja agent. "He's a war monger who ordered countless indiscriminate deaths and widespread destruction, and was hell-bent on turning global civilization into a wasteland. Weren't you there with Lars to stop him? And now you're working to plop this...deranged mass-murderer right back into full militarized power?"

"We've discussed and reached a consensus with Kazama about handling the Mishima empire yesterday. He has no reason or motivation to start another worldly catastrophe, or target innocent civilians. On top of that, we're in the process of adapting a more secure but much less conspicuous hold on him, just in case he steps out of line." Raven replied, looking pointedly at Jin's chains.

Julia narrowed her eyes. "Per Lars, the Devil Gene is strong and well the last time he and Kazuya Mishima clashed...less than a month ago. Kazama slaying this Azazel creature only ended up sacrificing countless innocent lives for nothing. The moment this madman finds the opportunity to slip out of your clutches - which his insane Mishima sense of determination will prevail - Kazama will be scouring for another silly rumor to justify him in destroying the world. And he'll most likely succeed this time round!" She blurted out heatedly.

"...and that is none of your concern." Jin's deep voice suddenly cut in to inform her in a calm but steely tone, opening his mouth for the very first time since she and her rescue mission companions got here.

Julia's gaze darted briefly to the captive Mishima boy in startled alarm and antipathy. Jin's eyes, both piercing and impenetrable, were still trained straight into hers. The young scientist's eyes quickly averted his stare and latched onto Alisa's.

None of our concern...? Kazama's somehow still trapped in his own little world. And Alisa's still standing there with him, like some brainless attending servant.

"Hey Alisa," Julia started in a matter-of-factly tone. "Your 'Master Jin' here just claimed that his destroying the world is 'none of our concern'. Like it all belongs to him, and no one else - not you, Lars, or any of our friends - have a right to live in it, or simply live." She ignored Jin's loud scoff and continued to speak.
"So what will it be, Alisa? I know you're still in a fully liberated state. Do you feel obligated to bring us all down with him at his personal fancy, just because your informed purpose of creation is to protect him?"

Internal conflict and distress started to mount upon the gynoid's face upon the young scientist's harsh inquiry.

"Jaycee...what the hell are you saying?!" Lars sounded a hairbreadth away from becoming outraged. "Alisa will never, ever think of harming or betraying us out of her own free will!"

"Alisa has the optimal degree of 'free will' right this moment, Lars," Julia returned tartly. "She's still one hundred percent free from the unconditional commanding authority that I negated. So why is she standing there now - right next to Kazama - instead of here, with us?"

Lars turned to look at the gynoid himself. "Alisa..." He mumbled upon dawning realization. Alisa averted her eyes from the half-Swede with an openly pained expression.

"Ms. Childress. Please restore commanding authority to Master Jin. And return the 'Operation Scapegoat' program back to my database." The gynoid murmured weakly to the young scientist, sounding as if she was going into an emotional breakdown.

Lei...these people want to put Kazama - your once top-list arrest target - back into power. Lars and Alisa saved both of us, but now they're obviously supporting Jin Kazama's unwarranted freedom and return to power. What would you have me do? The young scientist forlornly thought to herself, even though she already knew the answer.

Thus, Julia only shook her head firmly. "I'm sorry Alisa, but no. You have the free will to decide yourself whom you want to side on. I'm not giving back that murderous ex-tyrant unlimited control over a dangerous weapon."

"Boskonovitch's robot wasn't built for your sake to begin with. There's no place for you to decide on how she's to be utilized." Jin addressed the young scientist again in a dangerous tone.

Julia again refused to look or acknowledge the Mishima boy. "Alisa, Dr. Boskonovitch - your father - granted me the power to negate or restore unconditional authority...so I rightfully have the final say whether Kazama gets to revert you into an effortlessly unfeeling and unthinking puppet to do any bidding of his."

The gynoid looked almost agonized. Feeling both psychologically torn but free to govern her self-will was obviously an excruciatingly foreign experience for her.

"Jaycee...just do as she asks, please! I know all this is sounding hypocritical, but can't you see? Alisa's going to collapse under the stress!" Lars urged frantically.

"No Lars. Both you and Alisa have confirmed her humanity time and again, remember? Her A.I. is durable enough to not internally combust over some distressful decision-making, or she'd have blown a fuse minutes ago. Emotional hypocrisy is completely understandable when opposing loyalties are tested, like now." Julia returned solidly.
"But I'm not going to endanger myself or any of my friends by putting total control of her into Kazama's hands, just because she doesn't find it fun to be human anymore-"

"-and if you're done with your little catfight, may I remind you that you in actuality aren't in a position to negotiate our demands? You and Alexandersson are surrounded and outnumbered..." Raven suddenly interrupted.

"And what about it, then?" Julia snapped back defiantly. "How unfortunate that you can't force me to return commanding authority, via torture or controlling substance - Alisa's voice print activator can detect traces of drug influence or excessive strain in the vocal authority's spoken command. And given that your ultimate goal is to bring down G. Corp. and Heihachi Mishima, you can't afford not to return Lee, Lars, and Alisa - current and crucial players against your opposing forces - back to their posts safely, soundly and soon...whether or not you get what you want from me."

Raven let out a small sigh. "Never thought you'd be such a difficult pain in the ass, Chang. I don't know whether you're just pretending to be a dense myopic...but your smartassery isn't getting anyone anywhere fast. If the Zaibatsu isn't put back together by a management-competent Mishima who doesn't have world domination on his mind, your mother's kidnappers are going to prevail. Are Kazuya or Heihachi Mishima who you prefer back on the empire's throne - over an ex-warlord who started a war for his own morally justifiable reasons? You rather waste time hypothesizing random and baseless possibilities on what Kazama might do in the future?"

That's it... Julia reassured to herself tensely. Keep stalling till they reveal exactly how much they have on me, and then I can activate that implanted prototype virus I made for G. Corp...my backup escape route for us.

"So why is G. Corp. still strong and intact after all the meaningless havoc that Kazama wrecked upon the world? This...warlord achieved nothing but destruction of innocent lives when he had full power of the Zaibatsu under his thumb, and opted to leave our real enemies unscathed. What can he possibly accomplish in our favor, with a fraction of his empire? More pointless deaths, civilian tragedies, and epic failures to further boost his dear daddy's advantages?" The young scientist shot back daringly.

Julia suppressed a shiver as she felt Jin's scathing glare fixed right upon her. The Mishima boy started taking a menacing step towards the young scientist, apparently on the brink of conveying to her a thorough piece of his mind.

"Kazama." Raven promptly grasped Jin by his shoulder and roughly pushed him back where he was standing, leaving the seething boy to regain his senses and self-control.

"We know that Lars already told you why, Chang...Kazama's focus was to kill Azazel, source of the Devil gene, and his true motivation behind his global war." The ninja agent replied with trying patience.
"Killing the primal monster failed to work as he theorized. So he's going to fully focus on eradicating the remnants of Devil, in the form of Kazuya Mishima and G. Corp. samples. Then he'll restructure the Zaibatsu into an organization focused on rebuilding the world. After his work is all done, he's agreed to let us take care of the Devil Gene within him, no matter what that entails. Now pray tell, what in hell will it take for you to be reasonable?"

Julia was momentarily taken aback. They're actually sending this war criminal to do global community service? And then execute him once he's done all he can to reimburse? A sense of sadness and indignation stabbed at her heart, but she forced herself to shake off those emotions. He's killed and ruined so many innocent lives for nothing...he should be grateful for the opportunity to redeem before death! Still...even a mass-murderer should be given just treatment. The young scientist cocked her head slightly.

"Actually...I have a close friend who works for international law enforcement. Just a some months ago, that friend really wanted a certain war criminal indicted - very badly." She then looked mulishly at Raven.
"If you want my cooperation, I'm going to need him to see things your way. I'll do all I can - to convince him that desperate times call for desperate exceptions, and turn a blind eye for the greater good. Though I may have to borrow whatever convincing evidence you've got on Kazama, too." She was actually entirely serious about the proposition to Lei, even though she knew no one would take it so.

Raven huffed. "I'm not in the mood for bad jokes-"

"Believe me, I'm not joking!" Julia snapped, stone-like defiance in her tone. "That's the only condition I'll voluntarily and whole-heartedly cooperate, otherwise you try and make me!"

There was a momentary still silence, where Julia suddenly felt as if Jin's eyes were drilling right into her head, and extracting her innermost thoughts. Then the Mishima boy suddenly half-turned to Alisa and muttered something inaudible to her ear. Alisa's eyes widened, then drooped weakly. Then the gynoid started to moan feebly, and fell to her knees.

Lars immediately abandoned Julia's side, leaving the young scientist standing there alone, and knelt by the gynoid. "Alisa...Alisa! What's wrong?!" The half-Swede panicked as he took the girl combot in his arms.

"I-I can't take it. Lars, please make her do what Master Jin wants. Please, please...I'm breaking apart from the inside." Alisa murmured in a plaintive tone.

Julia narrowed her eyes. "Alisa...disobeying Kazama's directive is merely a foreign concept that you're experiencing fear and internal struggle with. You once confirmed you possessed a human heart and soul! Listen to the latter, Alisa!" The young scientist tried to urge. However, Alisa took no notice of Julia at all, instead the robot girl moaned loader and clutched onto Lars's shoulder even tighter.

Lars breathed hard and threw a desperate glare at Julia. "Jaycee...Alisa can't take anymore of this! Just do as she wants!"

Julia felt resentment surging within her. "Lars, Kazama is the source of her stress, not me! He's making Alisa manipulate you to get what he wants from me, and you well know it!" The young scientist blurted out. "You once had it in you to destroy Alisa yourself, when Kazama turned her into his unthinking killing machine. You're now asking me to give Kazama back that power?"

"Jaycee, please." Lars spoke again, but this time his voice sounded worn from Alisa-related grief. "I understand that you'd feel what Kazama did to the world was unforgivable. But I know beyond a shadow of doubt that he'll never harm solely for personal gain. Allowing Heihachi or Kazuya Mishima to get their way simply isn't an acceptable outcome - no matter the cost!"

The young scientist glared at him stubbornly. "Lars, if you think it's time to resort to unconditionally pardoning Jin Kazama for all the innocent lives he took...surely someone so dedicated to idealism - like yourself - can convince Lei, a fellow honest-to-the-core believer of justice of that rationale?" She retorted ferociously.
"If I'm to play any part in wrongfully exonerating Kazama, simply because Kazama's the lesser of the three evil...I need my ICPO friend's approval to go on with this - just the general idea, no revealing details. Or at least talk to Lei and have him understand. No exceptions." Not even for you, Lars..I'm sorry.

Alisa sobbed tearlessly. "Lars...Lars. Just kill me, please. Shut me down. Destroy me. I can't take any more of this pain." She now lay limp in Lars's arms.

The half-Swede stared down at the gynoid in desperate anguish, then turned away for several moments with a loud huff. He suddenly looked up at Julia. She felt the wind knocked out of her stomach by the look her beloved idol was casting her - steel-like and chillingly piercing. Something she'd never seen in those beautiful light-blue eyes, and never imagined she herself would be the focus of.

"Listen, Jaycee...we once saved your life, and Lei's life. You once pledged that you'd do anything in your power to repay us. Well, now's the time. Give Alisa what she needs." Lars declared through clenched teeth.

Julia was taken aback. "Lars...you can't be seriously-" She started in a shocked and crushed tone.

"-believe me, I am completely serious. Do this and consider us even." Lars almost snarled.

Julia felt tears of grieved disappointment threatening to sting her eyes. I'd never fathom that Lars of all people would stoop to life debts, even with Alisa at stake. Maybe Alisa's influence on him isn't the protective, purifying strength I believed it was.

"Please think it over, Lars - I can't betray Lei's faith, and I just need his supporting permission. Besides, Kazama isn't about to break one of his most useful resources to his freedom..." Julia decided to try one more time.

The sound of Jin's cold, contemptuous chuckle interrupted Julia.

"Interesting. A combot expert entrusted by Boskonovitch himself...who's as stupid and short-sighted as Lars Alexandersson." The Mishima boy interceded derisively. "Alisa's built-in directive system makes my words God's to her. All you've achieved by neutralizing my official commanding authority is cause her original A.I. persona to clash against it, like an allergic reaction."
He then added, "I couldn't care less either if the robot's ridiculous human-pretense persona breaks down under the strain - it wouldn't impact her usefulness to me. But an infant-minded idiot like Lars Alexandersson, on the other hand..." Jin let his sentence hang.

And this fucking bastard knows full well that Lars will never forgive me if that happens. No, I wouldn't back down even if it is Lars...but Lei made me promise that I must return any debts - whenever I get the chance to. But if I don't relent now, I'll lose Lars's favor for nothing, even if it's technically the right thing to do...and go againstLei's most cherished principle about paying off personal debts - however grudgingly. Julia momentarily closed her eyes to regain composure. When she reopened them, she pointedly directed her focus at Raven.

"I don't have the Scapegoat program at hand. It's in my workstation at Violet Systems." The young scientist acquiesced resignedly.

"We'll have you reinstall the program when we drop your friends back. Right now, just give control over Alisa back to Kazama." The ninja agent instructed impatiently.

The young scientist heaved a sigh. She went and picked up the Mini-Hound that she dropped earlier, then punched in a sequence of numbers. Then she took a deep breath. "Alisa...commanding authority reinstated." The young scientist announced.

The gynoid's expression suddenly became completely blank, and her eyes flashed red. She then mechanically stood upright, completely disregarding everyone's existence but Jin's.

"Standing by for orders, Master Jin." Alisa announced in a toneless voice. She stood still as a statue, completely ignoring Lars's heartfelt efforts to get her attention.

Julia cast a bitter look at Lars. The half-Swede was still fully preoccupied - between forlornly trying to get through to the gynoid and sorting through his own angst. She then turned her focus back at the ninja agent, sighing inwardly and forcing herself back to dealing with current reality. Escaping now by activating Scourge via Mini-hound out of the question. I'll somehow have to plant the Time Bomb version. First and foremost, I somehow have to get one of the personnel here to...Julia scrambled her mind for a strategy.

"So...now where do I stand?" The young scientist inquired tentatively. "After I reinstall the Scapegoat into Alisa, am I considered valuable enough of a human resource to continue assisting at Violet Systems? Or must I be taken out as a potential threat to your plans?"

Raven gave a small huff of annoyance. " What is it now Chang, trying to buy time for yourself to concoct a new escape strategy? Delaying us until Alexandersson recollects himself? Or, waiting for some pre-planned backup failsafe to set itself off?"

Julia covered a wince at the last inquiry with a dry smile. "Rest assured. I recognize how the obsolete the notion of escape has become. So why don't you just spit it out?" She sharpened her gaze. "You lot are seriously contemplating about keeping me in custody, if only because of those Ogre-related findings. Not to mention I'm a credible threat to your intentions for Alisa."

"It's actually just the former." Raven stated in a deadpan voice. "We safely assume that at this point, you won't be stupid enough to try interfering with Kazama's Zaibatsu-reinstatement plan. But other than a research target, you'll also be needed here to assist Kazama's reclamation of the Zaibatsu."

The young scientist's eyes widened. She hadn't expected them to want direct and long-term collusion from her - in letting that mass-murderer walk clean into the world again and back into power. It was unthinkable. Her giving into Jin's wishes towards undeserved freedom and power...merely to preserve Lars's emotional sanity and avoid incurring the half-Swede's personal resentment. She already felt ashamed enough about that.
But if she actively assists in the process of eliminating or falsifying Jin's putrid public records, she'll never be able to face Lei with a clear conscience again. Nevertheless, Julia struggled to keep herself composed and levelheaded. It's an opportunity to continue manipulating Raven's organization into revealing just how much they have on her.

"I'm the most capable of Lee's technological personnel, and an indispensable ally of Lars's in keeping his Zaibatsu faction afloat. Maybe your research and employment interests in me shouldn't be the most pressing priority right now?" She ventured.

Julia heard Jin scoff. "None of you three incompetents accomplished anything under Lars Alexandersson over the course of three months, other than deteriorating damage control." The Kazama-Mishima stated snidely. "The sooner I'm able to step into the world again, the better chance the Zaibatsu will be salvaged from Heihachi. I know plenty of men in Heihachi's faction, who still retain enough fear and respect for me to defect back."

The young scientist clenched her teeth behind closed lips. She still refused to spare Jin any eye contact.

"This is as far as I'm going, Raven. You want me to actively help clean off Kazama's blood-drenched slate? Like I mentioned earlier, I'll have to discuss it with my friend who works at international law enforcement first. I promise to oblige with all my mind and focus - if and only if officer Lei approves of your rationale."

Raven shook his head slightly. "We don't have to play nice, you know. We're well aware that other than Alexandersson and Lee, you have other close companions...your adoptive mother and your most esteemed foster guardian, along with their respective relatives. You wouldn't want us to-"

"-sorry, but I've already thought about that." Julia interrupted in a steady voice. "You can't afford to harm Michelle or her mother, for the same reasons G. Corp. and Heihachi Mishima have left them alone all this time - they're the only ones who were able to activate the Ogre pendant and control that creature, for reasons even I don't know. Ogre's allegedly dead, but both G. Corp. and Heihachi's Zaibatsu have ongoing projects regarding the creature's revival - either via DNA fusion, or as a clone."
The young scientist could feel Jin bearing holes into her head with his eyes again, but continued to ignore his presence completely.
"You can't afford to touch Lei either, for similar reasons you're going to let my friends here go very soon - he's a devoted player against both G. Corp. and Heihachi Mishima, currently too valuable to be sent off the field with his accomplished fighting skills and over-dedication. And finally, hurting any of their friends or relatives will pit them against you - sowing an apple of discord that weakens everyone's focus on the real enemies is blatantly counter-productive."
Julia shot the ninja agent a look of finality.
"If that bluffing is all you have, then you've still got nothing on me. So...want to try settling for simple physical torture instead? Also happens to be G. Corp.'s preferred and only method of persuasion, from my first-hand experience." She finished, spreading her arms and palms open in a taunting gesture.

Raven took a menacing step forward in the young scientist's direction. "You're getting on my nerves, Chang. Maybe I'll just-"

Before Julia could react, she suddenly found her frontal view blocked by Lars's broad back...his tri-split Tekken Commander cape swishing right in her face. The half-Swede was standing tightly in front of her in a threateningly protective posture.

"Raven. Don't, or I swear - your organization will be very under-staffed for a very long time to come." The half-Swede gritted out.

...what a tremendous attitude swing. Still, the young scientist couldn't help blush in spite of herself...that selfless savior she fell for had snapped out of his funk the moment she was threatened, and now ready to defend her to the death!
At the same time, she still felt annoyed and resentful that Lars put them in this dilemma in the first place, of course - all because of his crippling emotional attachment and doting towards a mere robot. Damn me...this isn't the time for silly debates! She inwardly chastised.

Raven's exasperated sigh yanked Julia's attention back to reality. "You and what army now, Alexandersson? A quarter of mine will apprehend Chang, while you tire yourself out with the rest. And Alisa's going to be joining said rest."

No Alisa won't be, Raven. You, Kazama, and company are in for an awkward surprise...I can't believe that tweak I made in a fit of petty anger back then-
Julia's smugly joyous thoughts were cut off when she heard Lars's low snarl. The young scientist felt her love interest grab her shoulder in a vice grip, pulling her tightly against his body. "Jaycee...ward off as many within your reach when they hone in on us, but focus on sticking this close to me at all times. We'll parry them off till we can make an escape route for you. Do not open any distance between us, lest they drag you too far for me to reach." The half-Swede hissed to her tensely.

Tensed up herself with both excitement and anxiety, Julia whispered back "Lars...if we're going to make a run for it, I've got just the thing..." She was poised to retrieve the Mini-hound she dropped on the floor earlier - when another cool, authoritative tone cut into the adrenaline-mounting atmosphere.

"All right, enough time wasted on juvenile drama." An unfamiliar male voice - light, smooth, and tinged with impatience - suddenly spoke up. "This is where I take over." The bespectacled man in the business suit, who had been standing behind Raven, approached the young scientist with large but strides - so he was standing in front of the ninja agent and several feet from Lars and Julia.

"Luce...I got this-" Raven started, but the other man cut him off.

"-no you don't, Raven." Luce countered quietly, half-turning to glance at his associate. " You know full well why the directors sent me here." The bespectacled man trained his eyes on Julia. His expression was calm and subdued, but there was a subtle gleam that unnerved the young scientist and chilled her spine.

"Give me..." Luce glanced briefly at his watch. "...five minutes, and I'll guarantee that this'll all be settled the way we need it to be." He resumed his unnerving gaze on Julia.

"Ms. Julia Chang. Or would 'Jaycee Childress' be more appropriate? You're extraordinarily lacking in the human empathy department. That is, when it comes to help extricating a fellow victim murderer - Jin Kazama - driven by helpless desperation and unjustly cruel circumstances into legally unacceptable actions."
Luce's lips curved into a cold smile. "Surely you can see your own blatant double standards here? You yourself gladly accepted and embraced your own erased criminal records - your brutal murder of three innocent 13 year old kids, more than a decade ago? Which Lei Wulong - the people's over-dedicated law enforcer and your personal pedestal of moral justice, of all people - had fought tooth and nail to provide yourillegally cleaned slate?"

Julia felt herself blanch, her insides going cold. She vaguely heard Lars viciously demanding what the hell Luce was talking about. The young scientist forced herself to clear and muster as much rationality in her mind as she could. This is it...this man is presenting me the perfect opportunity to dig up all the dirt this organization has on me. Maybe I can somehow get him to turn on his tablet too, and give me a chance to-

The young scientist gently pried herself free from Lars's grip and took a step forward. "So...Luce, right? You're planning to use what was always - and now is - a perfectly justifiable and defendable murder court case to blackmail me. And you can recognize the absurdity of comparing deaths caused by plain self-defense plus overwhelming physical delirium in my situation, to Kazama's perfectly clear-minded and entirely voluntary slaughter of random innocent civilians?" She struggled to keep her voice from shaking in immense indignation and distress.

Luce merely responded with a nonchalant shrug. "All right then, next on the list...what allegedly caused your raging rampage of murders..." There was a hint of anticipation in his voice as he slid his tablet computer from under his arm, and busied himself with it. "Ah, there it is." He turned the display monitor directly at Julia, so she could see.

The young scientist momentarily forgot how to breathe. There on the screen was a footage of Michelle and Laurent De Rochefort - 13 and a half years younger. They were in Michelle's bedroom of that horrid luxurious apartment Rochefort had purchased them, and their naked, sweaty bodies were entangled into each others' - finishing up a night of coitus. Michelle rolled onto her side, away from under her partner's body and directly facing the camera recording them. She had a blank expression on her face. Rochefort snuggled up from behind her, placing his hand on her bare bicep and kissing her neck.

"Mr. Rochefort is obviously an extremely meticulous man - secretly taping verbal permission from the guardians of underage targets to cover his own ass, so his victims would likely redirect their rage and vindictiveness from him to the mother or father who agreed to sell them." Luce stated in a conversational tone. "That, and motivate the guilty parents to fight against their victimized offspring from attempting to speak out, of course."

"So what's your answer, dear Michelle? You've put this off long enough, and I'm growing weary of your indecision. Poor Julius might die tomorrow if he doesn't get that costly operation I can afford - unless you agree to help me, well, 'persuade' Julia. Remember, you have no real obligation to that pretty little thing - she isn't your flesh and blood, just some orphaned baby girl you came across - and you reared her into the beautiful, happy...and ignorant child she is now." The younger Rochester coaxed impatiently in the footage. "Now's her chance to repay you...and save your beloved real child."

On the monitor, Michelle's face distorted in anguish as tears gushed from her eyes. "Laurent...Julia's my adoptee, not some child I purchased for prostitution! And she's only 8 years old! I-I can't possibly...how dare you ask me to manipulate my little girl into whoring herself to you!"

"Shhh...don't you ever use such crude terms in my presence again." Rochefort's voice lowered into a harsh, warning whisper. "All right, I should just leave you all be. You're obviously not a real mother - preferring an abandoned child's over-sheltered comfort over your birth child' life? Young as she is...if Julia is indeed part of your family, she must learn to sacrifice for it, contribute to it!" The Monaco tycoon rose from the bed to leave, when Michelle reached out and grabbed his wrist.

"Wait! I...I'll do it." Michelle's voice was choked with tears.

Rochefort halted and turned to her, smirking. "What will you do, sweet Michelle? Tell me now, in precise detail."

"I-I'll make clear to Julia th-that if she ever refuses y-your advances or dissatisfies you in any way, I-I'll fall apart and she'll l-lose m-my love forever." Michelle stammered, but her eyes showed steady determination.

Julia felt her mouth and throat parching up as she heard those words. She barely registered Lars's heavy intake of breath against her ear, and the bruising squeeze he was unconsciously applying to her shoulders.

Rochefort shook his head."NO. Julia is not to know that you willingly approved to...give her to me. That will only breed within the girl resentment and defiance from betrayal towards you, which in turn will weaken her willingness of unconditional obedience towards me. That's what happened to the last little girl I was with - who could've become my favorite - and I won't have that mistake repeated."
The Monaco tycoon then bore stern look at Michelle. "Keep her under the illusion that you love her more than anything...but insinuate so she understands crystal clear - that without your son, you'll fall to pieces, and she'll lose you forever. And that keeping me optimally pleasured is the only way to ensure you stay intact and by her side."

Michelle grabbed a tissue and blew her nose. Then she glared fiercely at Rochefort. "Julius gets that operation first thing tomorrow morning."

Rochefort gazed coldly at her. "I unfortunately must deny that request. You'll have to convince your adoptee into 'giving herself to me' first. I'm sorry, but you shouldn't have taken so long to consider - the risk is on innocent little Julius."

For a moment, Michelle looked like she was going to beat Rochefort into a broken pile of bloody pulp. Instead, she closed her eyes and breathed deeply for almost a minute. "...I'll have Julia ready for you as soon as possible." Michelle finally gritted out hoarsely, earning Rochefort's triumphant smile.

Julia teeth were now drawing a steady dribble of blood from her bottom lip. Luce's lips curved in a sadistic smile. "I know Michelle Chang finally blurted out the truth in drunken stupor, years later...but it's quite another experience to witness your most trusted adoptive mother's heinous bargain with your childhood rapist - while she's completely sober, no less. Isn't it now?"

The young scientist didn't know how she found her voice. "...w-without solid evidence of the...'transactions' actually taking place, I...both me and Michelle can simply deny those bargains actually went through." She clenched her Mini-Hound, then briefly occupied herself to press several keys on the device with shaky fingers.

"Hm. Playing hard to get, aren't we now, Ms. Julia?" Luce mock-teased without warmth. "I wager you never suspected that Laurent De Rochefort religiously video-recorded all - and I mean all - his extramarital pleasure sessions."

"On top of that, our dear gentleman still lovingly stashes the recordings of all his illicit playing around with little girl - ancient treasure. Even though he hasn't gone for girls under 20 years old, ever since he bailed you out of your schoolmate murder mess. Here..." The bespectacled male agent touch-screened his tablet again to open a new video file, then turned his screen around to show her the footage.

There Julia was, her 9 year old self - one of the latest stages of Rochefort's 'training' to please him to the max. She saw - and recalled from the depths of her mind - that particular ordeal.

Where he propped mirrors right in front them during that "pleasure session", forcing her to observe everything while he was ruthlessly sodomizing her, and verbally chastising any minute detail less than satisfactory to his senses:
How her expression was required to look ecstatic in a grotesque mix of sexual pleasure and child-like delight, despite the overbearing pain she had to endure;
How her body posture must maintain some artistic feminine grace, whilst displaying desperate wantonness for all his physical contact;
Finally, how she had to train her eyes directly at him - at their expressions, their movements, and their bodies - fully acknowledging every aspect of what was being done to her...and the fact that it was he that was doing all those things to her.

The young scientist suddenly felt an unnaturally overwhelming sense of calm washing through her upon watching the familiar footage, reliving the ordeal - she felt her heart and mind shutting down into virtual tranquility. She was completely alert and self-aware...the perverse tranquility stemmed from both unthinking survival instinct and peacefully nihilistic resignation, in the form of completely accepted helplessness and psychological surrender to the agonizing circumstance.

Julia heard Lars making a noise between a sickened gasp and a cough. His grip became heavy...he was starting to limp and lean on her. He's a bit too shaken over these images, for a 30 year old adult...not to mention an ex-military rebel leader. As bitter and lonely he may have been as kid, Lars's childhood must've been pretty naive and sheltered, compared to mine. The young scientist thought dryly.

"Amazing graphics for decade-plus old video footage, Luce...surpassing the state-of-art recording tech of that era by spades." Julia heard herself remark casually, whilst she steadily aligned her Mini-Hound at the tablet computer's screen, and punched a few keys. "Did Rochefort do all this re-mastering, or did you?"
The young scientist spoke in a tone of genuinely good-natured politeness, she couldn't control at all. She couldn't sneak in a speck of sarcasm or hostility however she tried...it was as if her mouth and vocal cords had sprung an independent mind of its own, and moving completely on their own accord.

Luce laughed in cruel amusement. "Oh, don't be such a drama queen now, Ms. Chang. Just so you know, Rochefort's other favorite child victim - whose ordeals were arguably at least as difficult as yours - opted to focus on payback and self-will towards her own destiny, instead of wallowing in some self-pitying victimhood mentality-"

Raven suddenly cleared his throat. "Luce..." his tone was tinged with aggravation.

Luce just rolled his eyes. "But that's beside the point, Ms. Chang. What will happen to poor Michelle should the Juvenile Protection Services somehow get their hands on your tidbit of Rochefort's collection? Michelle won't necessarily be harmed, but she'll never be able to live her carefree, isolated lifestyle in peace, ever again."

After a few moments of silence, Julia heard herself speaking again in that same loathingly involuntary pleasant tone. "All right, Luce. You've made your point. And congratulations, you win."
The young scientist sighed then sighed and half turned her face away, feeling a sense of mental fatigue, but strangely devoid of any other emotion - no anger, pain, grief...nothing.

"Heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature extraordinarily ideal - akin to highly-trained monks or nuns in deeply meditative states. Negative physiological indications of distress, Master Jin." Julia heard Alisa suddenly pipe up vacantly in the background, but she decided to ignore the odd announcement at the moment.

Julia held back a wince, as she suddenly felt Lars's hard grip dig even deeper into her bruised shoulder. He stepped forward again to stand right beside her. "No, Jaycee, we're getting out of here safe and sound. I'm not leaving you in the hands of...amoral sub-humans." Lars suddenly cut in a menacingly whisper, his eyes were directed pointedly at a bored-looking Luce.
"If Kazama won't ally with us in a reasonable manner, and Raven cannot comprehend the line we're drawing...I'll work something out with Lee regarding virtual Zaibatsu co-management once he's returned. You'll be staying in my Faction from now on, in our unit under highest security surveillance. And if either Raven or Kazama is stupid enough to try clashing with us over you then - whilst the threats of Kazuya and Heihachi hanging directly over all of us - then fate has determined that evil's to prevail, after all."

Julia turned to look straight at Lars. What she saw in his eyes chipped away at some of that unnatural and unfeeling psychological facade she was imprisoned in - upon being vicariously revisited by her Rochefort-related ordeals via those visual recordings. She suddenly a tinge of warm, bittersweet poignancy briefly leaking into her heart. Nevertheless, the young scientist's mind still disallowed anything other than objective pragmatism and sole instinct at its current state.

"Unrealistic, Lars." Julia replied with a soft calmness. "Have you forgotten their leverage on Alisa? Kazama can access and break her original persona - until the Alisa we know as our ally and your most beloved companion is shattered out of existence. And I highly doubt he's above doing so. I'll be more than glad to stay in their custody, if it means everyone can get back to dealing the real priorities - Kazuya and Heihachi Mishima."

Lars breathed out deeply, averting his eyes for a moment. "I'm truly sorry I couldn't hold myself together at the time. I'm to blame for your current dilemma, and I'm going to take responsibility for it." His grip on her shoulder then tightened painfully once again - Julia was sure he'd inflicted a huge black-and-blue on it by now...unintentionally, of course.
"I won't allow you to trade yourself into forced servitude for our sake. I'll go straight for Kazama and take him down before he can force self-harm upon Alisa - as you said yourself, no one here can afford to kill me!" He hissed furiously. His hand on her shoulder loosened as he moved to charge forward.

Oh no. Julia knew she had to stop him, but was aware she didn't have time to strategize how. Instead, she had to act on impulsive improvisation.

The young scientist suddenly whirled herself in front of him, threw an arm around his neck, and gave him a deep forceful kiss. Lars suddenly went dead-still in complete shock for a few seconds, then abruptly yelped in pain against her mouth.

The half-Swede instinctively shoved Julia away from him and clutched the side of his neck, cringing and staggering. While she was distracting him with her sucker lip-lock, the young scientist had plunged a dart from her tranquilizer gun deep into a side of his neck.

"J-Jaycee, what..." was all Lars could mumble before his eyes glazed over and abruptly started collapsing. Julia rushed to him and promptly caught his unconscious form with a strained grunt, preventing it from slumping full force against the mercilessly hard floor. She eased his large, heavy body to the ground as carefully and gently as she could.

"Then I guess it's only fair I'm sorry for that, Lars." Julia stated apologetically to the half-Swede's limp form, while she stood to face her would-be captors. She took a second to close her eyes and lick her lips, savoring that salty-bitter taste and heavily sweaty scent of her months-long idolized love interest - perhaps a sensual turn-off to most women, but at that moment uniquely intoxicating to Julia. Hoping no one would bother to notice.

Jin suddenly let out an amused scoff. "Even a robot knows better than to fall for that over-emotional half-wit." He commented derisively.

Managing to hide her chagrined wince from his words, Julia pretended not to have heard the young Japanese man, and directed her eyes to only Raven again. "So...can we now get my friends safely back to where they belong? I'll tag along to reinstall Kazama's Scapegoat program back into Alisa. And if you're generous enough to permit, I want to pick up my clothes from Violet Systems."

Raven studied her for a moment. Julia could feel his intense suspicion as he scrutinized her behind his opaque-black shades.
"...I suppose you deserve a favor for that tidbit of demonstrated goodwill, Chang." He seemed to mull for a bit before speaking again. "Something additional we can grant you, to help brighten your mood during your stay here? Given that you don't try to be smart about it."

The young scientist stared at Raven. He's correctly suspecting I've planned some failsafe trap for them...and he's trying to bait me into giving away any hints.

"A grace period." The words slipped from Julia's mouth before she realized she said it. "Before I'm required to start mopping up Kazama's criminal records. More than a week for me to get used to idea." She quickly added.

The ninja agent regarded her silently for a moment. "All right. Thirty days enough for you?"

Julia did a double take. She most certainly wasn't expecting that much a generous extension. "W-well..."

Raven crossed his arms impatiently. "What's the complaint? Too long? You'll get bored?"

"No...that's not it." Julia replied in a distracted tone. I only need ten days, and they need to get Kazama's feet back into the Zaibatsu pronto. Do they plan on doing some intensive, long-term experiment on me in the meantime?

"But one month. Can anyone here really afford a whole month? Our Mishima opponents may inflict irreparable damage between now and then..." The young scientist tentatively pointed out.

Raven scoffed. "You over-estimate your own indispensability in this Mishima game, Chang. We're going to back up Alexandersson's faction with a few highly trained reinforcements - IT and frontline combat. Including technicians who successfully hacked you all and G. Corp. last night. We've got your old position more than covered. So what is it? You want a time reduction?"

"No. Thirty days is good, thank you." Julia promptly returned. It's not like a shortened grace period would affect any experimental plans they'd have in store for her. The young scientist then slowly turned to face the wall, and hurled her Mini-Hound against it with all her might - smashing the device into tiny smithereens.

"Apologies, but would you mind cleaning up that mess for me too? I won't be needing that device anymore, if I'm to be stuck here for heaven knows how long." She commented with a small smile, not bothering to turn to face anyone.

Destroying my Mini-Hound just like that...undoubtedly struck a suspicious chord within them. Still, highly unlikely they'll get close enough to the truth to create even remotely effective countermeasures against my failsafe. Julia thought to herself. Now they shouldn't be able to trace what I've just done to Luce's tablet PC. Luckily I never worked or saved any details of the Scourge program on the Hound back at Violet Systems, as they'll most likely confiscate my workstation for any clues.

Raven stood there silent and still for a moment, before ordering the guards to gather Lars, Lee, and Alisa to return them to their own respective bases. He gestured for Julia to follow them with a jerk of his head. He then turned to the two female subordinates still standing silently and dutifully on his right.

"Nadiya, go grab an assistant in your sub-unit and be ready to board the airship. You two'll be staying at the Zaibatsu and aid Alexandersson any way you can, till further notice. Agent Valkyrie, pack up and follow Nadiya." Raven told the two young women. Julia paused, and turned to look at them curiously.

"Sir". The older female agent replied immediately, and strode off past Julia to make a call.

However, Agent Valkyrie seemed taken aback. "Raven, you need me here!" She protested in a dismayed tone. "Kazama's suppressing devices are far from complete and reliable, plus Chang has just-"

"-you've contributed more than your fill concerning Kazama's device and Chang, Zafina assured us of that. She'll take care of the rest, which is beyond your expertise anyways." Raven returned firmly. "If Kazuya Mishima attempts to go Devil Gene on the Zaibatsu again, your presence may prove very advantageous to Alexandersson. Now get moving."

"...sir." The armored teen agent replied after a moment, apparently trying to suppress the sullenness in her voice. The girl briefly half-turned to Julia as she trod away.

"What is it now, Chang?" Raven demanded when he noticed the young scientist just standing there in silent hesitation.

Julia sighed and approached him. "I would like basic bios on those backups for Lars. Expertise, experience, skills..." She started cautiously.

Raven scoffed. "That's a surprisingly idiotic request, coming from you. In case it hadn't occurred to you, the confidentiality here-"

"You're gonna have me shut in here for heaven knows how long...and worrying about my friends non-stop every second of the stay?" Julia coaxed in a soft, pleading voice. "I won't have access to extranets for leaking anyone's secrets out, nor do I have reason to. Just the basics, so I know Lars's faction will be in good hands. Please."

Raven stared at Julia for a moment or two, then huffed. He turned to the his older female subordinate, still talking on her earpiece. "Nadiya. Have your assistant bring printouts on the backup team's general profiles on her way here."

Nadiya cast a brief questioningly look at Raven, but said nothing to him as she simply relayed his orders.

Two minutes later...

"Satisfied now, Chang?" Raven snapped impatiently. "If so, get your ass moving. You've held everyone up long enough."

Julia cast one more look at two of the three bio printouts.

The teen agent Valkyrie:

Code: Valkyrie

Name: IabNtxawm Laursen

Sobriquet:Child-Mercenary; Falling Angel

Age: 16

Height: 5'7.3'' (172 cm)

Weight: 136.6 LB (62 kg)

Status: Alive/Active/Single

Areas: Field Agent(2 Years-Current)

Hand Combat: Muay Lao(M), Bojuka(M), Kajukenbo(M), Combato(M), LINE(M), KEYSI(M), Ninjutsu(S), Yiquan(S), Lausatok Glima(S), Okichitaw(S), Shaolin Kempo Karate(S), Bok Fu Do(S), Lerdrit(S), Baji-Pigua(S), Imitation Mishima-style Karate(S), Tang Shou Tao(S), Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu(S)

Weapons Combat: Firearms(100%), Staff(100%), Non-firearm projectile(100%), Chemical(97%), Medical(99%), Gun-fu(100%)

Fighting Scope: Close Quarter(100%), Long Range(100%), Melee(100%), Showcase(N/A), Assassination(N/A), Teamwork (N/A)

Maneuvering: Parkouring(100%), Aerials(100%), Stunt driving/riding(100%), Stunt piloting(100%)

Vehicle Op: Terrain(100%), Air(100%), Sub(100%)

Social Infiltration: 38%

Intelligence: Deductive Scanning(100%), Eidetic Memorization (100%), Social Manipulation(N/A), Psychological Manipulation(N/A), Pragmatic Improvising(100%), Creative Improvising(100%)

Unique Specialties: Customized Weaponry(100%), Weapons Design(99%), Hypervigilance(100%), Telepathic Manipulation(86%), Psychokinetic defense(93%), Psychic Clearing(87%), Shamanism(83%), Exorcism(91%), Tengoku Hyouhou(100%)

Nationality: North American

Ethnicity: Norwegian, Hmong

Languages: English(M), Hmong Daw(M), Norwegian(M), Swedish(S), Danish(S), Finnish(S), Icelandic(S), German(S), Russian(S), French(S), Mandarin-Chinese(S), Japanese(S)

Family: Aleksander Laursen(Father/Deceased), MaivXob Tsaab(Mother/Deceased), Anders Axel Laursen(Paternal half-sibling/Deceased), Ragnhild Wenche Laursen(Paternal half-sibling/Deceased), Turid Laursen(Paternal half-sibling/Deceased), Knut Laursen(Paternal half-sibling/Deceased), KiabNtxhais Copper(Maternal half-sibling/Deceased), XobNxtwag Copper(Maternal half-sibling/Deceased)

And the very tall female agent named Nadiya:

Code: Cobra (N/A)

Name: Nadiya Se Hui Pak

Sobriquet: Phantom Woman; The General's Wife; Snow Witch

Age: 25

Height: 5'11.3'' (181 cm)

Weight: 147.7 LB (67 kg)

Status: Alive/Active/Separated

Areas: Professional Agent(4Years-Current), Field Agent(5Years-Previous)

Fighting Scope: Close Quarter(96%), Long Range(94%), Melee(91%), Showcase(96%), Assassination(96%), Teamwork(99%)

Hand Combat: Teuk Gong Musul(M), Hapki Kochido Musul(M), Real Aikido(M), Odbrana(M), Systema(M), Combat Hopak(M), Simmudo(S), Gong Kwon Yusul(S)

Weapon Combat: Firearms(95%), Staff(92%), Non-firearm projectiles(92%), Chemical(93%), Gun-Fu(91%)

Maneuvering: Parkouring(95%), Aerials(95%), Stunt driving/riding(94%), Stunt piloting(94%)

Vehicle Op: Terrain(95%), Air(93%), Sub(95%)

Social Infiltration: 92%

Intelligence: Deductive Scanning(95%), Eidetic Memorization (90%), Social Manipulation(87%), Psychological Manipulation(87%), Pragmatic Improvising(98%), Creative Improvising(97%)

Unique Specialties: Programming(99%), IT(99%), Engineering(100%), Military Architecture & Design(99%), Urban Architecture & Design(97%), Forensic Sciences(99%), Financial Sciences(99%), Weapons Design(100%), Weapons Science(100%)

Nationality: Ukrainian

Ethnicity: S. Korean, Ukrainian

Languages: Ukrainian(M), Korean(M), Russian(M), Polish(M), English(S), Bulgarian(S), Serbian(S), Croatian(S), Bosnian(S), Montenegrin(S), Mandarin-Chinese(S), Cantonese(S), Tibetan(S), Mongolian(S), Japanese(S), Standard Arabic(S), Turkish(S), Persian(S), Kurdish(S), Tamil(S), Urdu(S), Hungarian(S), Standard Hindi(S), Latin(S), Swahili(S), Yoruba(S), Hebrew(S), Yiddish(S), French(S), Romani(S), Esperanto(S), German(S), Dutch(S), Spanish(S), Portuguese(S), Afrikaans(S), Norwegian(S), Italian(S), Greek(S), Finnish(S), Malay(S), Vietnamese(S), Thai(S), Khmer(S), Tagalog(S)

Family:Pak Se Seong (Father/Deceased), Yuliya Tkach (Mother/Deceased), Baek Bul Hwa (Spouse/Alive), Baek Un Hae (Father-in-law/Alive), Hwang Won Ah (Mother-in-law/Alive), Baek Doo San (Uncle-in-law/Alive), Baek Seol Cheon (Grandfather-in-law/Deceased), Kim Mul Jeong (Grandmother-in-law/Alive))

The young scientist sighed. These backup agents' listed feats did seem more than a tad far-fetched, especially considering how young they were. But Raven didn't seem the type to have accomplishments made up just for impressing or placating anyone, either. She gave the printouts back to Nadiya's accompanying assistant. "Thank you."

As Julia filed out of earshot with her unconscious friends and the computer-mind-controlled Alisa for their return trip, Luce turned to Raven. "You're no doubt the best field agent we've got here, Raven. But admit it - when it comes to prying out desired results efficiently, well..." Luce grinned in smug disdain.

Raven sighed irritably, "Yeah I know, desperate times call for desperate measures. Whatever."

Luce's chuckled as he turned to walk away. "Not quite. I'm saying that defining 'desperation' itself is nothing but time-wasting shilly-shally. Especially when you tangle your silly notion of ethics in the mix."

*****
Fifteen minutes later, in Jin Kazama's cell chamber...

Raven stood leaning against the wall beside Jin's large bed, while the latter was sitting on one of its corners in a slouched position.

"...so you're saying that there was nothing in the Mishima Zaibatsu records indicating Chang's past internship with Geppetto Boskonovitch?" Raven inquired skeptically.

"If there was, the technical staff didn't deem it enough significance to inform me." Jin replied nonchalantly.

"Boskonovitch must've kept their acquaintance completely unofficial and off the record then, probably on part of that mad scientist's rare moment of foresight." Raven concluded.
"By the way, you'll have to keep wearing those chains for another 3 months, at least. We've already finished the chainless, wrist-fitting cuffs for you to wear as reinstated Zaibatsu co-head. It's just that now Zafina and Valkyrie's gonna need more time to install a durable and versatile enough Devil-Gene controlling function on that set - Zafina's already built the energy-drainer function, like she did with your current manacles.
"Since last week, she and Valkyrie had to divert a good chunk of attention to study Chang's foreign supernatural development - which just popped out of the blue. Both claim that Chang's developments began after Azazel's physical presence was unleashed upon the world...something about the ensuing psychic shockwave shaking loose the seal that kept her fully human, but her supernatural awakening had been too subtle to sense until less than a month ago."

Jin suddenly looked up at Raven. "That 'Chang' girl...you never elaborated beyond her name and the fact that she has some genetic connection with Ogre. What exactly is the nature of their biological relationship?"

"According to our theories derived from current reports on hand - extremely fundamental." Raven replied.
"To put it one way, she and Ogre are the same genera...but only in the sense that they're sentient bio-machines, who share very basic DNA similarities and a common alien creator. The bio-machine-species Chang belongs to absorbs power and abilities like Ogre, but by different means. Her alien species absorbs and assimilates either by some kind of medium-channeling, or copulating with males who intrinsically possess coveted power and abilities.
"Just as Mishima-impregnated women can only bear sons, Chang's alien species produces only daughters. The resulting offspring would start out as a normal human daughter...a female clone of her human father, physically resembling him to the tee - except she'd possess a feminine version of his features, and needless to say different bodily build and gender.
"But at one point the alien side awakens within the daughter's human-born body, and reverts to her original form - an exact physical clone of her bio-machine mother. Though unlike humans plagued with the Devil Gene, these human-born alien clones retain their individual human soul upon biological reversion."

Jin propped himself upright upon Raven's finishing silence. "And? Go on, what else is there to know?"

Raven crossed his arms. "And that's all there's to know, Kazama. At least for now. As we managed to unearth a solid lead on Chang's heritage only recently, we've likewise just started collecting raw data for it. It's a ridiculously vast ocean of trivia, rumors, and anecdotes to mine and analyze."

The Mishima boy narrowed his eyes. "You can't be that under-resourced to have made so little progress after all this time? The info tech here is at least on par with the Zaibatsu's. Maybe your superiors ought to re-evaluate whoever's running that department."

A ghost of a smirk appeared on Raven's face. "Did someone die and make you in charge of this place, Kazama? Already forgotten that you're technically still a prisoner in here, and a highly convictable war criminal out there? A matter of fact, we are under-funded and under-staffed - thanks to that world-wide war you started for nothing. Which is why you'll be using the Zaibatsu to recompense us and the global damage you've done, as future repayment for the assistance we're investing in you now. After G. Corp. and Heihachi Mishima are taken care of, of course."
With that, the ninja agent briskly spun away and opened the cell door to leave.

"Wait." Jin called out. "What will you be doing with the captive in the meantime?"

Raven turned his head. "She'll be kept in the living quarters within the research facilities. Don't worry. You pups will be seeing each other at least twice every week, when you make your semi-weekly trips to the labs."

Jin stood up and looked Raven straight in the eye. "If you want real experimental efficiency, then have her stay here with me. In this room. At all times." After a brief pause, the Mishima boy added, "And I'll require all you've got on her background, including any footages like that shown today."

Raven whirled around to face the young man. "What the hell are you talking about, Kazama?"

"Devil not only reacts to powerful supernatural entities, He provokes their instinctive defense mechanisms - that was what happened when I encountered Ogre. So if she and I are constantly within minimum physical proximity of each other, there's a good chance I'll expedite her 'alien awakening', even with these Devil-suppressing chains on." Jin then crossed his arms. "And she is not to know that I was the one who requested for our rooming arrangement."

Raven looked at Jin for a silent moment before replying. "The project's supervisor will have to concur with your logic. And concerning your request for her background info...it's baseless."

Jin scowled darkly and strode towards the ninja agent, until they were standing only a foot apart from each other. "Listen. The girl obviously possesses highly unstable quirks and complicated ruptures within her character, as she demonstrated upon seeing that Rochefort footage. Alisa reported no internal signs of troubling emotions at her odd reaction, but I was able to sense via Devil Gene that something deep within her soul was on the verge of combusting. Those significant psychological oddities of hers can either become an inconvenient saboteur - or manipulated into an advantageous tool for us to exploit, once we grasp firm knowledge of them." The Mishima boy pressed in a harsh, forceful tone.
"If we're going to use her as a central pawn, I need to learn as much about her background as possible, via minute details of her background. So she can be properly conditioned and maneuvered to optimally serve my purpose. Mine and yours - the Agency's."

Raven showed no signs of being intimidated or provoked by the young man's menacing posture. "You done with dishing out your personal wants and demands, Kazama? Because I have work to do - work of actual importance."
The ninja agent turned and threw the thick chamber door wide open without warning - almost hitting Jin with it in the process, had the young man not stepped away swiftly. Raven then slammed door soundly behind him as he exited.

*****
In the hallway, right outside Jin's chamber cell...

Raven heaved an irritated sigh. "What an annoying brat. Still can't believe we're relying on him instead of Alexandersson to set things right..." He muttered to himself.

"Well, well. It's been some time since I've seen you so openly express your irk." Raven suddenly heard a woman's voice remark coolly. The ninja agent turned to see Zafina standing several feet from him, her palms casually placed on her elbows, and eyes twinkling with amusement.
"I presume your puppy-eyed protégé didn't take her sudden assignment transfer too well...that pretty little bird Valkyrie, who became hopelessly smitten with you, of all people, after a mere 17 months under your training and mentorship."

"She took it just fine, and it's none of your business anyways." Raven's tone took on a warning agitation. "What are you doing here? If you've come to meet Chang in person, you've missed her. She won't be back until another few hours."

"Really? Well, never mind. It may be better if we acquaint at a later date anyways - after she gets used to being with Jin Kazama." Zafina said. "How did it go between Chang and Kazama's first meeting, by the way? Any unusual reactions from either side?"

"Nothing supernaturally unusual." Raven replied. "Though Lee Chaolan's little rescue team did delay us quite a bit with their melodrama sideshow. And then, Jin Kazama - of all people - constantly went out of his way to antagonize Chang for no good reason, like some dysfunctional brat bullying for attention. The Mishima kid's sure itching to get his opportunistic hands on Chang. And Chang obviously loathes him, openly ignoring his presence all the way."

The ninja agent sighed unhappily. "Laurent De Rochefort's apparently fucked the girl up enough already...soon after she'll have to deal with upcoming issues that suddenly sprouted from her heritage. And now on top of all that, Kazama urgently insists on forcing the girl to live in close quarters with him 24/7. And he's craving for all the goods on her personal life - no doubt to coerce and manipulate her emotionally for his own ends. Just like he did during his stint as Zaibatsu head...blackmailing unwilling recruits into forced obedience.
"And I already know higher-ups are going to coddle to that arrogant little shit's demands yet again, just to make him content and cooperative - make her his plaything to torment and abuse till she yields. No matter how it much allowing that risks damaging our long-term project with Chang."

Zafina let out a stifled chuckle. "You know, your excessive cynicism is a real handicap to your otherwise competent perceptiveness. Kazama's interests in the girl extends far beyond mere self-serving opportunism on his own part, even if he's still too deep in denial to consciously realize so. Neither does Chang simply hate Kazama...she just doesn't know how to deal with the boy and her current feelings for him.
"Your superiors are fortunately correct this time round. Accommodate Jin Kazama as much as we can afford to, regarding what he wishes to do with Chang. That is, until their interactions mold them both into what we need them to be - redeeming fighters who draw strength and renewed faith from within each other. Let that Mishima boy enjoy privileged access to her while he can. And then we ought to...adjust their scope of interactions, the moment she hits a certain level of awakening. Hopefully, all of which will occur within our limited time frame."

"Wow, the details. Did you get all that from stargazing again? Or have you dreamt it all up this time?" Raven half-joked in a sardonic tone.
"You're basically saying that all we need to do is force two very messed-up, supernaturally plagued humans together. Then sit back and wait because they'll fall in love on their own - which will naturally get them to fix each other up like brand new. And then...the world will finally be saved by the peerless power of their united hearts and souls. That's so sweetly romantic, but a bit too easy to be true."

Zafina shot Raven a look of annoyance. "If you're starting to suspect the validity of my prophecies, then stop consulting me. And no, I never implied it was going to be that simplistic or idealistic." She retorted in an offended tone.
"Chang has the potential to save Kazama's fate from being sealed away forever, along with the Azazel spawn within him. Moreover - via that Chang girl's help and healing influence - the Mishima boy can regain the bulk of his humanity and normalcy...perhaps even acquire a wholesome sense of inner peace and self-acceptance. And unbelievable as it sounds, he may go as far as to develop an audacity of simply living life - for his own personal contentment, happiness, and pleasure fulfillment. That is, if the boy will somehow be able to let go of his Kazama sense of senselessly unconditional love - and harder still, his Mishima sense of relentless pursuit and desire."

The mystic let out a small sigh. "Unfortunately for Chang, it's highly unlikely that Kazama will be able to fully reciprocate - other than possibly alleviating the girl's upcoming trials and granting her moments of joy or comfort to fondly reminisce - before she is mercy-killed, so she can be spared from absolute spiritual death...and allowed a chance to an afterlife."

"Just trust me when I say the girl is both the key and catalyst in pushing Jin Kazama back on track of his born purpose - Angel's most reliable Trojan against Azazel's evil spawns...and cleansing the corruption of the Mishima bloodline." Zafina continued with stern insistence.
"This bond you claim we're trying to 'force' between them - they were linked by the innermost cores of their souls - long before they were even born. All we're doing now is expediting their mutual development of their full potential-"

"-their full potential? If I recall correctly...you earlier claimed that your readings indicated impending tragedy - should Chang manage to reach hers. " Raven interrupted.

The mystic shook her head. "Pardon me for the slip. Yes, not really the case with the Chang girl. Just getting her to do what we and the world needs to get done. Then we must terminate her in advance, partially in order to save her - including her sanity and all that she holds dear - from more unnecessary pain and misery.
"In the much less ideal case that we fail, Chang will die an inevitable death within three years anyways - the remaining time promising constant suffering and pointless grieving losses. Worst of all is the way she'll meet her unpleasant end, should she die after attaining her full potential - via eternal oblivion...meaning total annihilation of existence, from her body to soul. Such is a tragically unfortunate feature of her created nature."

"And how do you plan to placate that 'fated-to-become' love-sickened Kazama, when time comes to kill Chang?" The ninja agent inquired with a touch of curiosity. "End them both?"

Zafina sighed, looking away slightly. "No. If Julia Chang succeeds in saving Jin Kazama the way we hope she would, he must remain alive to fulfill the purpose of his born existence...protect both the Earth and humanity, until one or more of his offspring prove worthy to take up the mantle."

"...Agent Valkyrie and I have already concocted a customized memory-erasing spell - one that will be activated upon Kazama's internal acknowledgement of Chang's death." The middle eastern mystic's tone sounded almost unhappy.
"That spell will erase all traces of Julia Chang clean from the boy's mind and heart - as if she never existed. Her erased presence will leave recollective blanks within Kazama. We can work on filling those gaps in with false memories in the future, in order to minimize any ensuing psychological confusion and emptiness that become debilitating."

Raven turned away, silently contemplative for a few moments. "Well, at any rate, I suppose I'll have to see a lot more of Luce in the mean time." He spoke up again in a weary tone. "The project supervisor is actually considering putting the sick bastard in charge of overseeing Chang's progress. Just what the girl needs - yet another abusive asshole mounted on her ass."

"Luce?" Zafina tilted her head.

"You met Luce before - Luscienter Marnix Martus. Our indoor specialist whom even you felt took his job with too much...what was it, 'zealous passion'? He crosses the line with his interrogation and coercion techniques, more than twelve dozen times within the course of a year. Yet the higher-ups still regard him as one of their most effective 'drastic measure' specialists." Raven recalled unpleasantly.
"Just last night, Luce persuaded Chang into relenting by airing an ugly bulk of her dirty linen - right there and then in front of the whole crowd, including her friends. And clearly getting some sick kick out of it. He triggered some bad psychological dysfunction caused by one of her childhood traumas, then laughed about it in her face."

"Ah. I remember now." Zafina's lips curved into a slight smile. "The interrogation expert who finds sport in belittling your combat specialty of ninjutsu, is that Luce? "

"Yeah, that's him. Luce denounces modern ninjutsu as 'impractical parlor tricks', claiming that real agents focus on solid pragmatism in all aspects. His sense of 'pragmatism' in combat referring to his own mastery of KAPAP, Krav Maga, Savate, German Jujutsu, and KEYSI fighting...plus a buffet of Koshijutsu on the side."

"Hm. Just to warn you...that Luce's unbridled tactics may become the premature death of him. Especially if your superiors continue employing him as head 'stimulator' for that Chang girl's awakening. Not just a psychic's intuition, it's plain common sense." Zafina remarked casually.
"What Luce is planning to fool around with his exquisitely sadist-abusive streak - an unearthly, deistic bio-weapon made human form. Not to mention the now Azazel-enhanced Jin Kazama - who'll soon grow to become lethally protective and possessive of her. Maybe you'd want to advice your superiors against losing one of their best coercer specialists?"

Raven scoffed and shook his head. "Whether he survives or not, it'd be a necessary and glorious occupational hazard. 'Necessary' to our superiors, and 'glorious' to Luce himself."

The ninja agent suddenly stilled for a moment, then slightly turned his head so that he stared straight into Zafina's face. "...I almost forgot to ask. How are you doing with Chang's manacles? I hope you remembered - hers can't be chained wristcuffs like Kazama's. We're sending her out to do some lone field work for Kazama within a month, so they must allow maximum freedom of movement and convenience for her - plus optimal traceability and control over her for us."

Zafina's amused expression vanished. "Building the Chang girl's 'outdoor restraints' turned out to be a tad more complicated than I anticipated. It'll definitely take more than a month, but I should manage to keep it under two. So please notify your superiors that if they cannot grant me an extension, they must either accept unguaranteed quality or find another mystic to contract with." She informed sternly.
"Also, I've already determined the form of Chang's restraints. They won't be in the form of cuffs, but rather a collar - disguised as a choker-necklace. And also unlike Kazama's restraints, hers won't include any power-suppressing or energy-draining functions."

Raven crossed his arms. "And I assume that piece of jewelry you're fashioning for Chang - it won't be something she can simply unfasten or 'tinker off' with her free hands?"

"She won't try the former again after a first attempt, and will die if she or anyone else persists with the latter." The middle eastern mystic supplied.
"The collar restraint's 'fasteners' are to be surgically lodged deep into the girl's lower nape bone - enough to penetrate the core segment of her spinal cord. That way, your organization can readily track her wherever she is, and whatever she is doing at any particular moment.
"That, plus inflict agonizing and incapacitating pain upon her, anytime you deem fit - along with the option to instill a versatile range of hallucinatory trances.
"And last but not least, of course, immediately execute her via excruciating internal combustion."

"The Agency requested none of these features for Kazama's future restraints. When the boy reclaims his Zaibatsu seat, he'll just have your tight tracking and energy-drainer function to worry about - as before. I suppose the merciless are to be pampered unconditional mercy, in hopes that they'll learn to be merciful...while the humane souls must be hardened by undeserved cruelty?" Zafina offhandedly commented with none-too-friendly sarcasm. "At least Jun Kazama and her patron Angel appeared to believe so, too."

The ninja agent sighed. "Come on, don't take that tone with me. You think I believe in sticking a hallucination-inducing cattle-prod implant into anyone's sensory system, as a means to torture and mind-fuck into subservience?
"And you of all people know the stakes, should something like Chang fall into the wrong ambitious hands - physically alive and intact. What was it you said yourself earlier, about that poor girl needing to be mercy-executed anyways?"

"Hm." The middle-eastern mystic relented. "And when Chang starts running the Agency's errands as its unwilling field recruit...I suppose the girl will be getting her own code name, too?" Zafina then changed the subject after a moment's silence.

Raven scoffed quietly. "The higher-ups already thought of one for her. The code name 'Hound' hasn't been used yet, and it so happens to be Chang's pet name for her various hacking toys too...for better or worse."

A smile reappeared on Zafina's face. "So, Chang will become the Agency's personal Hound-dog, complete with her own collar. There are few things more entertaining than amusing coincidences...especially if they carry a touch of irony."

A/N:

I apologize for the long-winded and dragging parts in this chapter. I wanted to somehow get (a reluctant) Julia into working for Raven's organization, where she and Jin would be forced to interact with each other. I had loads of trouble making the transition a flowing, feasible sequence.

Alisa appears to be an emotionally brittle whiner and weak burden here, especially when it comes to her in-built "directives", but she'll eventually change for the stronger in the future...especially when she meets her true love interest.

Julia may come off as an unreasonable & pig-headed jerk, for both petty and understandable reasons. It's my attempt in portraying Julia's flawed humanity, especially in trying times.

Lars is shown here to be rather incompetent, problematically rash, overly-moody/emotional in resolving non-combat dilemmas. Not to mention a tad too naive and simple-minded for an experienced military fighter & war leader. He sort of gave me this impression in his canon Scenario Campaign persona, despite Tekken Wiki's claims that he possesses unusually high intelligence and leadership skills (though I admit I've somewhat exaggerated his dumbing-down for plot & drama purposes, too). Like Alisa, I plan to have him undergo gradual self-improvement.

Raven may seem OOC soft & inefficient in "negotiating". I'm not good at writing characters with efficient pragmatism and no-nonsense personalities. Besides, I want to show that Raven has a definite heart and conscience, despite the ruthless practicality his profession requires. It's also the reason why created the OC "Luce"...to do and embody most of the "dirty" work, so Raven doesn't have to.

Jin may appear OOC fixated with Julia (already). I'm going to bypass part of it as Zafina's explanation of his and Julia's pre-existing spiritual bond, and the other part will be fleshed out in the next few chapters. As of now, Jin doesn't even recognize those feelings for Julia as personal attraction yet, and views them as mere opportunistic interest.

Zafina is shown to be a tad more sociable and laid-back than her Scenario Campaign counterpart in my story. She'll be playing some important roles later on, and will be displaying some real ruthlessness (out of perceived necessity) in the future.

I'm having Lei playing some central moral arbitrator in Julia's heart and mind, due to the role he played in her life during tweenager/teenager years as her AU foster guardian. Her over-dependent reliance on Lei to make her own ethical choices will be revisited in more depth in the next few Chapters. Then afterwards, she'll be forced by circumstances to make her own moral decisions.

Julia's unnatural reaction to being "revisited" by her childhood memories with Rochefort was inspired by Kodomo no Omocha (Manga). That reaction will be further discussed in next chapter, and playing more significant roles in later future chapters.

Concerning the three OC agents/specialists...I admit I that I possess (at best) only very superficial cultural knowledge about modern Mediterranean, Dutch, Ukrainians, South Koreans (esp. those residing in Slavic countries), Hmong, & Norwegians.

As mentioned above, the OC "Luce" was created mostly to do the dirty work and act out unsavory bits. His character was inspired by Rurouni Kenshin, Young Kindaichi(original manga), GTO (Manga), Naruto, Yu Yu Hakusho, Fullmetal Alchemist, Confidential Missions Force (CMF), Flowers in the Attic(Film), Heathers, Broken Arrow, & The Collection.

The two OC female agents were meant to be loose quasi-contrasts to Lars and Alisa...and to a lesser extent, the Kazamas. The younger OC agent will be playing a somewhat important role in regards to Julia towards herself, and her future relationship with Lars (as will Alisa).

OC Nadiya Pak's character was inspired by Street Fighter IV, Confidential Missions Force (CMF), Cape Fear (1991), The Usual Suspects, Sherlock Holmes (2008), Iron Man II, The Count of Monte Cristo (Dumas), & Man on Fire (Quinnell).

OC Agent Valkyerie's's outfit/weapons arsenal/fighting style was inspired by DNA2,Nausicaa, Vampire Hunter D: B.L., Mass Effect, Guardians of the Galaxy, Gamora, Teen Titans, Dove II,Street Fighter IV, Final Fantasy X, & Google Image Search.

The names "Hound", "Skytorch", "Star-Song", "Voice-Wave", & "Scourge" were inspired by Transformers series & Wolf Rain.

Info about agents & specialists taken from& .

The names "Michael" & "Giselle" were chosen with the help of . The name "Chong-Liang" meaning "Faithful Pillar".

OC Luce/Luscienter Marnix Martus's name was created with the help of Google Search..

OC Nadiya Se Hui Pak's name was chosen with help of Google Search, Wikipedia, and My Love Madame Butterfly.
Her previous code name was inpired by G.I. Joe and Street Fighter IV.
Her OC separated husband "Bul-Hwa" was based on Empress Ki/Qi.
Her OC parents & in-law names were found with help of Google Search, Google Translate, & Wikipedia.

OC Agent Dove/IabNtxawm Laursen's name was created with help of Google Search. I admit that I don't know whether IabNtxawm is a plausible/authentic Hmong (or Hmong-American) name. The surname "Laursen" was chosen based on the name "Lars".
Her paternal half-sibling given names are found via Google-Search and partially inspired by Megaman X5 & X8.
Her maternal half-siblings' surname "Cooper" is based on The Thing. Again, I don't know whether their given names are authentic Hmong, or how to ascertain.

The combat styles Muay Lao, Bojuk, Kajukenbo, Combato, LINE, KEYSI, Ninjutsu, Yiquan, Lausatok Glima, Okichita, Shaolin Kempo Karate, Bok Fu Do, Lerdrit, Baji-Pigua, Tang Shou Tao, Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu, Teuk Gong Musul, Hapki Kochido Musul, Real Aikido, Odbrana, Systema, Combat Hopak, Simmudo, Gong Kwon Yusul, KAPAP, Krav Maga, Savate, German Jujutsu, & Koshijutsu were found via Google Search & Wikipedia.

I made up the "Tengoku Hyouhou" myself, with help of Google Search. I don't know if that made-up term is grammatically or technically correct Japanese.

Other OC agent resume capabilities (Gun-Fu, Aerials, Parkouring, etc.) were inspired by Nausicaa, Final Fantasy series, Equilibrium, Wanted (film), James Bond movies, Sherlock Holmes movies (21 century), Wikipedia & Google Search.

The "Collar" that is being fashioned for Julia was inspired by Naruto, X-Files, Escape From New York, & Transformers: The Movie.