Author's Note: Hello everyone. Sorry for the extra long hiatus. I just started a job not too long ago that was sucking up all my time. Truthfully, I almost dropped this story... but I've been inspired to pick it up again and mold it into something I really enjoy and hope you guys will as well. Thank you for the follows and favorites. It really makes me feel good. Anyway. Enjoy!

And so it continues...

When Hwoarang and Xiaoyu get back to the estate, Ellie and Asuka are awake and pacing around the office like maniacs. The second Asuka hears the front door open, she pokes her head out of the office and starts shouting at the top of her lungs.

"Where the hell have you guys been?" She marches toward them in the dark hallway where the two figures are still and hunched over.

Ellie follows on her heels just as angry. "Seriously? Leave the estate 10:30 at night and don't tell us? I've been calling you guys like crazy! It's 2 AM!" She flicks on the light and folds her arms, and suddenly her heart sinks. "Oh my god! What happened?"

Both Hwoarang and Xiaoyu are bruised and scarred. Hwoarang has a nasty gash over his left eye which is starting to swell and strange dark marks around his neck. Xiaoyu's top lip is swollen with blood, her shirt covered in street grime and filth. She clutches the side of her stomach and leans against the front door as she tries to recoup.

"You guys look like shit," Asuka says.

"Asuka!" Ellie hisses.

"What? They do. Looks like they just escaped from a back alley brawl."

"We did," Hwoarang says coarsely, shuffling over to sit on the stairs. Ellie crouches in front of him to examine the damage. From his rough voice and neck bruises, Ellie figures he must have been choked or something. Who could have done that? Who could have gotten close enough? Hwoarang is one of the best street fighters she knows.

She lets her eyes wander up to his split eyebrow.

"We should get that cleaned up," she tells him. She reaches up to touch his eyebrow but midway he gently grabs her wrist and lowers it. An exhausted smirk curves the corner of his mouth.

"I'll be alright," he says.

Embarrassed, Ellie pulls her hand back and stands to join the girls. She clears her throat. "So, anyone want to tell Asuka and I what happened?"

"Kazuya," Xiaoyu growls.

"Kazuya Mishima?" Asuka rages. "That lowlife, stupid- What was he doing out there?"

Xiaoyu stands a little straighter. She knows her side will be sore in the morning, but it could have been worse. Much worse. "Looking for Jin. He said we were close, that he could feel Jin's power."

Ellie pushes her glasses up over her scrunched nose. "Mishima? Jin's uncle? The last name...,"

"Jin's father. Also known as a sack of shit," Asuka sputters unashamed. "He was probably waiting for you two to find Jin and then kill him!"

"Jin told me his father was dead," Ellie says.

"I'm not surprised. Jin likes to pretend Kazuya doesn't exist," Hwoarang says, gaining the rooms attention. "Kazuya says he has a cure."

"Impossible," Ellie shakes her head. "If some type of cure were out there, Jin and I would have found it by now."

"It's not scientific," he adds, massaging his knuckles, "but whatever it is, it can't be any good. We need to find out what Kazuya is up to." He looks at each of them, lastly at Xiaoyu. Her lip is pretty bad, and her eyes are dark and tired. "But first we need some rest."

"What!" Xiaoyu shrieks.

Asuka nods in agreement. "He's right. Kazuya's not going to come back tonight. You need to be in your right mind in case he decides to show up tomorrow."

"No."

Hwoarang barely has the energy. "Ling, please."

Xiaoyu opens her mouth to protest but wires it back shut. She knows she could use the rest. The past few hours have been a blurry haze. Plus, she never fully recovered from Zafina's energy zap. She closes her eyes reluctantly, knowing how critical the next few hours are. "8 am."

"And not a second later," Hwoarang agrees, turning toward the stairs. "We find Jin tomorrow."

They meet in the office at 7:57 am in pj's and bad hair. The only one who bothered to get dressed was Ellie. Her hair is pulled back into a neat ponytail and a fresh cup of coffee in her hands.

"Come on, guys. Wake up," Ellie teases, taking a sip. Her glasses fog up a bit from the stream.

"Sorry we don't usually get up at this time like you do," Asuka whines, her hair sticking up in all type of directions. She yawns, "This is usually my bedtime."

"Same here," Hwoarang grunts as he enters, leaning against the wall length bookcase with his arms crossed over his chest. The neck marks are practically gone, though his eyebrow is still fresh.

"What should we do first?" Ellie asks.

"Wait for Xiaoyu."

Xiaoyu shuffles in right on cue with a brush, huge orange slippers, and two hair ties around her wrist. "I'm here."

They all watch her as she lazy plops down on one of the office chairs and starts brushing her hair. Her eyes are closed when she says, "Let's start with Kazuya."

Asuka perks up a bit, turning to Ellie. "Yeah, like can you find out what the bastard's been doing for the past few months?"

"I'm sure there's something on him." Ellie sits down in front of the computer, starting it up. "It will take a few seconds to load. I'll start with his bank accounts and then maybe his any outstanding company files."

"Whatever can help Jin, it's not science," Xiaoyu says. "Kazuya made that clear last night."

"What does that mean?" Asuka sits in the office chair across from Xiaoyu. "That doesn't really tell us what to look for."

"I don't know. See if he's been to see any priests or-,"

"Purchased a sword of darkness?"

"Asuka, what are you talking about?" Ellie shakes her head trying not to laugh.

Asuka waves her hand through the air. "Trying to name anything that isn't scientific."

"Try something else," Xiaoyu tells her.

Ellie raises her eyebrows and looks back to the screen. "Okay, I'm in. Ka-zu-ya Mi-sh - Ah, Kazuya Mishima. Wait..., I've seen him before."

Asuka yawns. "The office building?"

"No." Ellie shakes her head, narrowing her eyes on the screen. "It can't be."

"What is it?" Hwoarang finally speaks, pushing himself off the wall.

"He's the guy who paid me to hack into Mishima Zaibatsu. Remember, that's how I started working for Jin. Kazuya hired me- though I don't think that's the name he used- and once I got in the system, Jin wanted to hire me for the company instead of hacking into it." She let out a sigh. "Wow. I had no idea that was his father."

Xiaoyu shakes her head, and then brushes through her hair, splitting it in half to make pigtails. "I should have known it was him."

Asuka is astonished. "You hacked into Mishima Zaibatsu? Bad ass, Ellie. Maybe I should be learning from you instead of those professors at the university. And here I am, thinking you're this perfect angel."

Ellie keeps typing. "That was a long time ago. I never want to go back to that lifestyle. Okay - here we go. Nothing unusual yet... No swords of darkness either."

"Sword of darkness," Asuka corrects. "Only one."

"Give it a rest, Asuka." Hwoarang leans against the desk next to Ellie's computer. "Kazuya could have been talking about anything."

"Like what?" Asuka asks.

Xiaoyu has one pigtail tied up, working on the other. "I'm guessing you're not familiar with the term "anything"."

Asuka snorts, turning her attention to Hwoarang. "So, are you going to tell her to give it a rest or-."

"Kazuya's bank statement has plane ticket purchases all over it," Ellie announces. Several to the states, one to Paris, one to Africa..."

"Africa. The orb," Hwoarang says abruptly. Asuka mutters something under her breath as Hwoarang puts his thoughts together. "Azezel's tomb in Egypt."

"I've read about it. You think Kazuya has it?" Ellie asks, glancing over her glasses.

Xiaoyu says, "That doesn't make any sense. Doesn't the orb extract the devil gene? It would be no use to Kazuya."

"Unless Kazuya is really trying to help," Ellie guesses.

Xiaoyu, Asuka, and Hwoarang all say at the same time, "No."

"Okay." Her cheeks turn a bright pink as she picks up typing again. "Maybe not."

"Definitely not," Asuka confirms. "So then what?"

"I just rechecked any lead Jin might have had on Kazuya before he left. It looks like Jin had a team in Egypt as well," Ellie says.

Hwoarang and Xiaoyu exchange glances. They are so close. They can feel it, like it's right under their noses. Why won't the pieces come together for them?

"You think they were looking for the orb, too?" Asuka asks.

Hwoarang gets up to look over Ellie's shoulder."Probably, but their assignment has been suspended, right?"

"It should be. I suspended all team activity when Jin left. I put the whole company on halt, except for financing, but this one is... still showing active. It says they've been there for five months. I… I don't know how I missed this before."

"That's strange. Can you look up when it was re-activated?"

"Yeah let me see." Ellie goes through the company files with Hwoarang over her shoulder, while Xiaoyu slowly stops brushing her hair. Jin has been continuing his work behind her back. She doesn't want to cry but she can feels the tears spilling towards her eyes the way a wave crashes to shore. How could he have shut them out this way?

Hwoarang stares at the screen, barely believe what he's reading. "Team 421-34. Re-activated by… Jin Kazama."

Asuka scoffs. "That makes no sense."

Ellie pushes her glasses up on her nose. "There's no way Jin couldn't have done it himself."

"He didn't," Xiaoyu says.

They all stop to look at Xiaoyu as her eyes fill up with tears, her bottom lip trembling. She closes her eyes to gain some composure.

"Xiao?"

"Who's the Team Lead?" Xiaoyu asks, already knowing the answer. All this time, Jin missing and not even letting his closest friends knowing what he was up to. He didn't fall off the face of the earth or hide from the world. He only stayed away from them. Stupid scars, why did Hwoarang have to tell Jin about the scars? That's what made him leave.

Hwoarang reads the screen and then mutters under his breath, "Dammit."

Ellie, not understanding, shrugs her shoulders. "Nina Williams… what does that mean?"

Nina's name stings Xiaoyu's heart, the lump in her throat growing too large for her to keep down. Tears flood her eyes as she backs away from the group. Betrayed.

"Ling, wait a sec." Hwoarang calls, but she's already gone.

Asuka stands, looking at Hwoarang. "What's wrong? I don't get it."

Hwoarang starts off after her, his voice snide and clipped. "He put his trust in Nina before Xiaoyu, before me. He didn't even see the point in contacting us to let us know he was okay. How would that make you feel?" He gritted his teeth and punched the wall hard before leaving the office. "Pretty shitty, that's how."

Asuka's voice is quiet when she asks, "El, who is this lady?"

Ellie shruggs "She works for Jin. I've heard her name maybe once or twice."

Jin springs awake at the knocking on his apartment door. He sits up trying to gather his bearings as the sunlight streams through the tattered blinds. What happened last night? His blinks are slow, as if waking up from a dream, the knocking a constant in the background. He must have passed out on the floor while talking to Kiku. He feels like a groggy sack of flour ready to spill out at the seams. Pressing his palms to the floor to stand, his knee knocks the empty vial rolling it across the hardwood floor.

The red potion.

The demon.

He inspects himself immediately, gathering his shirt in his fingers and realizing his clothes are still on his body and in tact. His skin isn't crawling. The whispers are gone. He didn't fully change.

It worked.

The potion reversed the change!

The knocking continues, and Jin rises to his feet to answer the door. When he cracks it open, Kiku comes rushing in, a blur of red pajamas just above his knee, and she wraps her arms around his leg.

"Mr. Neighbor, you scared me!" she whines into his jeans. "You were screaming and then you never answered! I stayed up until my mom got me, but I couldn't sleep. I was worried the monster got you!"

At first he just stands there, his arms raised in the air as he looks down at her, but then he reaches down to pick her up, wiping the tears from her cheeks. He is stunned. Never has anything been able to stop the demon from changing. He smiles widely taking this moment in, and then without warning swings Kiku around, dipping her upside down and pulling her back up. Kiku laughs and so does Jin. Years of trying to extract the devil gene, repress it, slow it down, anything. Finally, progress. It's like stepping out of the dark into the light of the sun. He feels redeemed. He carries Kiku around the apartment pretending to dance and hop around like Xiaoyu's friend, Panda.

"I'm sorry Kiku. I won't scare you like that again." He sets her down and rustles her hair a bit. "Thank you for looking after me."

With her face still puffy, she smiles. "I said I would stay with you until you felt better."

He is filled with hope, but his celebration is short lived. What if Zafina can't duplicate the potion? How much would he need? What if it doesn't work a second time? He can't think about that right now. He must think positive.

"I feel much better, Kiku." He stands up looking around the apartment in which the demon didn't destroy. "Much better."

"Good. I have to go back to my room... before my mom finds out."

He nods, suddenly remembering, "Okay. I have to make a phone call anyway."

Kiku, in her bunny slippers, shuffles back to her apartment, closing the door behind her. He goes into his room, sitting on the edge of his bed. He looks at all the ripped clothes and strewn books around the room. He doesn't have to be that anymore. Finally, he can control it.

He takes a long hot shower, letting the water spill over his head and shoulders as he thinks. Maybe now he can go back. If he can control the demon, then he can't hurt his friends anymore. What he would give to go back, but first, he has to be sure. He can never hurt them again- He won't allow it. And what if Xiaoyu hasn't forgiven him? What if they don't want him back?

After his shower, he throws on a black tshirt and jeans and head's for the payphone out front of the apartment.

"I've been waiting for your call."

Jin watches the street as people make their way to work. "Hello, Nina."

"You sound chipper today."

"I have good news, but first any updates from Egypt?"

"Yes, my men have finally entered Azezel's tomb, well, what's left of it. It is in ruin."

Jin stiffens a bit, switching the corded phone from his right hand to his left. "You found the orb?"

"Unfortunately, no," Nina, says reluctantly. Jin closes his eyes, frustration simmering within. Nina and her team have been scouring Egypt for the orb for the past five months at Jin's order, regularly giving updates when Jin calls from the payphone. The orb is the only thing that can remove the devil gene for good and give him the real freedom he has been searching for.

"Then this conversation is pointless," he says curtly. "I have a temporary outlet but I need that orb."

"We have made some progress, sir. We found fingerprints around where the orb should be, and we ran them with our equipment."

"Well?"

"The prints belong to Zafina, that sorceress woman."

"What!" Jin bangs his hand against the metal booth hard enough to make passersbys turn to look. He faces the other way, turning away from them. His tone is scathing. "She knows I am looking for the orb and she kept it from me?"

"I heard Zafina has an agenda of her own. The locals say Zafina has protected the temple for many years. After I saved you with the chopper, she must have gone inside and taken the orb."

"You should have had your men on it immediately! We wouldn't have to deal with this."

"I know, sir. I can dispatch a team to her residence and collect the artifact right away."

"No," Jin can feel the anger building inside. He thought Zafina was sincerely looking to help him, but all of it had been a lie. She used him for her own advancement and let him suffer at the hand of the demon, pretending to care. She didn't give him the potion to help, she gave him the potion to distract him from the orb. At least now he knows where it is.

"I'll handle it myself," Jin says, then hanging up the phone, makes his way toward Zafina's.

"ZAFINA!" Jin rages, banging against the door violently. "Zafina!"

Before the doorknob can fully twist, Jin barges his way in, seizing Zafina by the shoulders. He pushes her backward, Zafina knocking delicate trinkets and artifacts on the ground as her arms flail frantically until her back is pressed against the wall of the living room.

"Where is it! Where is the orb!"

Her eyes are wide with fear, tears filling them like mosaic glass. She points to her left, and Jin follows her finger to an end table with with several green and red potions set on top.

"No!" he screams. "No more distractions. The ORB!"

She tries to shake her shoulders free, and he lets go, placing his hands on either side of her so she can't escape. She coughs violently into her hands, her eyes terror-stricken. For a moment, Jin feels a pang of regret.

"It's gone!" she manages to get out between gasps.

"I'd come up with more than that if I were you."

"It was stolen! A month ago."

"By who?"

"I don't know!" she cries. "I came home and the place was trashed, Miguel was knocked out and the orb was missing! Then two days later you showed up looking for my help!"

Jin punches the wall behind her head and it crumbles around his fist making Zafina shudder. The enchanting, sultry demeanor she characteristically possesses has now vanished under Jin's fury. "Why didn't you tell me as soon as it happened?"

"What were you going to do, if I told you? Kill me? Go home to your friends? There was nothing that could be done. Maybe the orb is better out there. The two stars are in danger of aligning!"

"Don't give me that astrology bullshit! I needed your help to RID the devil gene, and you lied to my face, claiming you had no idea. You took the orb from Egypt, didn't you?"

She cuts her eyes away from him. "I am trying to protect the world."

"You selfish-,"

"My self goals have nothing to do with it," she says firmly, regaining bits of that confidence and meeting his eyes. He is so close that she can feel the intimidating warmth radiating from his body, boxing her in like an oven. "You and your father are a danger to the world. If one of you import the gene into the orb, the other has a chance of absorbing double the amount. The results will be catastrophic. Now, I want to help you as much as I can, but I have much bigger things to consider."

"So you give me a compression potion instead, to throw me off?"

"Compression?" Zafina raises an eyebrow. "The potion worked."

"It didn't extract the gene." Jin sighs, "I still feel it within."

"But Jin, this is a breakthrough!"

"It's not the orb! It is only tempora-,"

"Zafina?" A deep, burly voice calls from the doorway. "What's going on?"

Miguel.

"Oh God," Zafina puts her fingers to her forehead. Jin drops his hands from either side of her and steps away, turning to face Miguel. His bulky body steals the light from the doorway, casting a shadow over the fallen and busted trinkets Zafina knocked over before. This doesn't look good.

Jin raises his hands, palms facing out. He is still angry, but things will get ugly if the demon gets out."Take it easy, Miguel."

"You!" Miguel rages at the same time Zafina screams, "Miguel, don't!"

He doesn't listen. Zafina gets out of the way just before Miguel pummels Jin into the wall. Jin cannot fight, he refuses to; otherwise, he will release the demon. No matter how furious he is with Zafina, no matter how hard Miguel comes for him, they will all lose if the demon breaks free. All of this will have been for nothing.

"How dare you come here!"

"I didn't-,"

"Shut up!" He pulls Jin off the wall only to slam him into it again, cracks forming in the plaster. "You killed my sister!"

"Miguel, he didn't. It was an accident!" Zafina wails, unable to calm Miguel down. Jin sees it in his eyes, a fiery, wild anger that won't be extinguished.

"Retrocede, Zafina! Pedazo de mierda! I'll kill you!" Miguel yanks Jin by the collar and throws him over the couch onto the coffee table which collapses beneath him. It feels like the wind has been taken out of him as Jin curls over on his side to get up, but before he can, Miguel grabs him from behind, flinging him into the next wall.

"Stop!" Zafina screams. "He'll change to the demon!"

"Let him! I want to see what all the fuss is about anyway." Miguel throws Jin into the bookcase like a ragdoll, more of Zafina's artifacts shattering on the floor. Five seconds inhale, five second exhale. Jin tries to control his breaths, but it doesn't stop the demon from crawling underneath. From the side of his eye, like a mystic smoke, Jin sees a fourth bird appear in the cage, flapping violently around the other three just as Miguel picks him up again.

Jin grabs Miguel by the collar before he can be thrown across the room again. "Enough!"

Miguel, who can't be convinced, lands a hard punch to Jin's side which feels like the explosion of a grenade. He'd coil over, but Miguel has him pinned, ready to hit again.

We will end him.

Let's make Zafina pay.

Kill them both.

The voices. Another hard blow feels like an igniting fire, and the demon comes faster than it ever has before. Jin's eyes shoot up, sharp blood red pupils as the tattoos begin the sizzle on. Miguel jumps back, his hands seared by the burning flesh as he turns to Zafina.

"What is this?" he says to her. She shuffles over to the end table, grabbing a red potion. Jin hunches over, his bones shifting, the wings beginning to sprout. The birds in the cage are possessed, running into each other and losing feathers against the metal bars as Jin screams out in pain. Zafina crouches in front of Jin to help him. Can he even be helped at this point?

"Take this! Jin, take it now!" She panics. "Miguel, help me! Get him on the ground."

"I'm not helping that thing," Miguel says, touching the four corners of his torso to make the cross.

"If he doesn't drink this now, he'll be a danger to everyone! You started this! Help me now!"

"Shit!" Miguel exhales, pushing Jin back by the shoulders to lay him on the ground. His wings, half-grown, flap aggressively like a bird caught in a paper bag, making it hard to get Jin on his back. With all his force , Miguel pushes Jin down onto the carpet.

"Keep him still," Zafina orders, twisting the top from the vial.

"I've got him, Zaf. Do it!"

She pressed Jin's forehead to tilt it back, but the seared tattoos burn her hand and only some of the potion makes it in his mouth.

"That should be more than enough," she declares, quickly backing away. "Let him go!"

Miguel let's go, quickly putting himself between Zafina and the demon. Neither Miguel or Zafina have seen anything so terribly disturbing as Jin, the half-demon he is, chokes on the spewing hot potion. The pain looks unimaginable. How could the human body survive a change like that? While Jin lays there twisting and writhing, even Miguel can't stand to watch.

But finally, Jin's coughs stop becoming so harsh and his wings don't flutter nearly as violent as before. Instead, his eyes glaze over and he becomes incredibly stiff, as if the blood in his veins is turning to granite. He feels nothing. His mind is void of any thoughts. Far away, like a whisper on the wind, he can hear them, just barely, and he holds on to their voices so that he may have a tether to reality.

"Zafina, I want that thing out of here. He will bring a terrible curse over this house."

"You did this… he stays here until he has awakened."

After Xiaoyu's exit, Hwoarang returns a few minutes later without her and clear look of defeat on his tired features. "She won't talk to me."

"Maybe I should try." Asuka gets up from her chair but Hwoarang touches her shoulder.

"Just let her be for a while," he sighs. To everyone's pleasure, Asuka doesn't argue. They are too exhausted for bickering at this point. Hwoarang presses his palms into his eyes and groans, "Let's keep working. What else did you find out?"

"Hwoarang?" Asuka stands up. "This doesn't necessarily mean Jin is keeping contact, right? I mean… maybe this Nina Williams running the team on her own, opened it using Jin's name."

Hwoarang pressed his lips into a firm line. "No. Nina wouldn't do anything like this without consulting Jin first."

"Who is she, Hwoarang?"

"One of Jin's closest bodyguards. Obviously, the main person he trusts right now," he says nonchalantly. "El, you find anything?"

"There isn't much else," she tells them. "There hasn't been any activity since the entry was made."

"Maybe we should try to reach this lady," says Asuka.

"No," Hwoarang finds his spot back on the corner of Ellie's desk. He bites on his thumb nail as Ellie tries to imagine what he might be going through. It's one thing for Jin to be missing. It's another to be away, but still running business. Jin should have at least told Hwoarang that he wanted to give Xiaoyu space, or whatever his reasons for leaving. Hwoarang would have understood.

Hwoarang decides, "Finding Jin isn't our main concern anymore, it's Kazuya."

Ellie and Asuka look at each other. It's the way Hwoarang says it, as if Jin no longer matters. The silence that follows is bleak.

"Okay," Ellie finally gets out. "Let's… let's focus on Kazuya then. Can you remember what he said, Hwoarang?"

"Everything that comes out of his mouth is bullshit."

"Anything helpful?"

"Dammit, I don't know, Ellie!"

Ellie takes a breath, curling her fingers away from the keyboard.

"He must have said something!" Asuka shoots back, taking up for Ellie's silence.

"What the hell do you guys want me to say? Kazuya said shit Kazuya would say. He talked about Jin. He wants to extract the devil gene. We can stop him from his evil-asshole plans. We can't protect Jin and he can't stay Mr. Neighbor-."

"Stay Mr. What?"

"Mr. Neighbor?" Ellie narrows her eyes. "I've heard that before." She starts typing again at the keyboard.

Asuka raises her index finger. "What exactly did he say?"

"Ugh," Hwoarang grunts, clearly frustrated. "Something like Jin can't stay Mr. Neighbor forever. I don't know. He was talking out of his ass."

Asuka shakes her head. "Kazuya's a lot of things, but an ass-talker isn't one of them. That meant something. Anything?"

"Nothing," Ellie says after searching the term on Google. "I know I've heard it though, I just can't remember where. Mr. Neighbor. It sounds so specific. Maybe he lives next to someone Kazuya knows, or-,"

Ellie becomes incredibly still and the others naturally do the same.

"El?"

She whispers to herself, "Mr. Neighbor… Kiku."

"Did she just say Kiku?"

"Kiku? What's that, some kind of fruit?"

"No," Ellie stands from her chair. "Hwoarang, remember that little girl I was talking to the first time we went looking for Jin?"

He scratches his head. "Sort of. Why?"

"Her name was Kiku, and she was outside because she was waiting for 'Mr. Neighbor' to get back." She looks up at each of them. "I know how to find Jin!"

"Asuka, go see if you can get Xiaoyu out of her room." Hwoarang looks to Ellie. "Which complex?"

"Uh," Ellie shuts her eyes trying to imagine the area. "The one with the fence. I can point it out if I see it!"