Rewrite

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Happy Friday my wonderful readers! For those of you who like Con, well we've got a chapter here that has a lot more of him. And for those who are worried about Jian and Wo, well they're going to figure some things out. And next week we're going to have some drama happen, nothing too serious but it's going to be interesting. As always don't forget to review and I'll see you on Monday!

Chapter 319

Jian had been in that small dark basement room for too long.

Hatachi had called Wo Fat about a ransom, told him the amount he wanted, gave Wo Fat an hour to get it all together, and then called him back for more instructions. The problem was, an hour later, when Hatachi began to call back, Wo Fat had stopped picking up his phone.

"Guess he doesn't like you as much as you thought," Hatachi had teased, awfully cruelly. But the more Wo Fat ignored him the angrier her brother got.

Jian knew better of course. Or, she hoped better. The last time someone had kidnapped someone of importance to Wo, he had gone ballistic. He had stormed the fortress and killed everyone inside. Then he had gone after the people who had planned it and obliterated them. Not that she wasn't mad at her brother, but that didn't mean she wanted her boyfriend to hurt him, or in this case kill him.

Even when Hatachi began to turn the anger onto her. He had only lashed out once, but her head still smarted from the smack across her temple with the gun he loved to remind her he had.

She wasn't sure where she was, not sure where he had taken her while she was out cold. But somewhere above her came a knock on their door and Hatachi paused. He glanced to Jian and then he headed for the door. Then the shouts came. First a man, then the sound of a body hitting the floor. Then there was shouting, actually words, asking what was going on, sounding an awful lot like their mother.

"I'm not… you didn't take me home… did you?" she asked Hatachi and he turned back to her, fear on his face. No. No. He couldn't have been that stupid!

"Don't you know what he's like?" she cried. "What he'd do?"

"I… I…"

"He'll kill them, Hatachi! Why would you…"

But they heard footsteps coming down the stairs, and with them came whimpering and cries and the sound of someone stumbling down. When the door to the room she was being held in was kicked down she already knew what was going to greet them, but worried her was the gun in Hitachi's hand. The light flooded in momentarily blinding her, but she knew it was Wo Fat even before she saw his profile lit up like he was some angel sent to save her.

Hatachi stumbled out some threat, warning Wo Fat to stay away, he even raised his gun but Wo Fat didn't care. He walked into that little room, two things with him and neither of them were weapons. He threw her mother to the ground and then threw the bag at Hatachi. It hit Hatachi right in the chest and took him down to the ground where he just stared up at Wo Fat with horror alight in his eyes.

Did he not think Wo Fat would find her? Would come for her? What was the plan when Hatachi was to get the money from him? Probably something like leave the money in a dumpster and after I've picked it up I'll get you the girl. Not a smart move.

Wo Fat said nothing to the boy at his feet, he simply kept on hand on the back of her mother's dress and his cold eyes on Hatachi.

"110 million yen," he said after a long silence. "You can check if you want."

But Hatachi didn't move, he glanced to Jian and Wo Fat's eyes followed. She hadn't quite ever seen the business side of him, that ruthlessness she was certain he commanded without a second thought, but she could see it now. For the first time she understood why people were afraid of her boyfriend. Because the eyes glittering at her in the darkness were not the eyes she was used to.

"Yes, you're right," Wo Fat said as if answering Hatachi's unasked question. "If I knew where you were the whole time, I could have easily just taken her by force. But you planned for that too. That is why you held her in your childhood home. With your parents just above you."

She really was home?!

Wo Fat's eyes turned back to her. "They knew you were here, you know." Yes, that didn't surprise her, though it seemed to have surprised him. "I may not know much about families, but this is a pretty shit one, if you ask me."

That was rich coming from the man whose sister was constantly dropping contact with him.

He straightened himself out, pulled something from behind his back and smiled in what she could only call was a dangerous way. "So, I think we should perform a trade of sorts. I will let you keep the money and not rough you up like I'd like to but only if you are willing to sacrifice someone of importance to you."

Hatachi, of course, glanced to Jian. "No, not her," Wo Fat growled. "She's not important to you."

He then let go of her mother who dropped to the ground and put a foot to her back to keep her pressed to the ground and then pointed his gun at her.

"You can keep the money, but I'm going to kill your mother in return."

"NO!" Jian screamed. But Hatachi was silent. He looked down to the bag in his lap and then to his mother. "Wo, don't you dare. I'll never forgive you! I swear."

"This isn't your decision, it's the favourite son's. Come on then, Hatachi, what will it be. Your mother or 110 million yen?"

Hatachi looked at his sobbing mother one more time, who was shaking with her sobs, her eyes pleading with him to save her, and then said: "The money no contest."

"NO!"

Wo Fat just shrugged. "Alright."

"Hatachi, change your decision. Now!" Jian cred as she watched her boyfriend take the safety of his gun and aim it at their mother.

"Oh, he's not going to shoot…" but he did. He shot their mother three times in the back, rapid fire. Jian watched as Wo just calmly took his foot off her mother's body and then came towards her. He cut her free of her bonds but she ignored him to jump to her mother's side.

She put her hands to her, trying to find the bullet wounds as she shook and tried to quell the tears. "You… you monster!" she screamed at Wo as he came to stand over her. She looked up into his unfeeling eyes hating him more than anything at that moment.

"Jian…"

Her eyes turned to her mother, who was slowly pushing herself up. Her eyes fearful and tear-filled as well. It was then that Jian realized it. No blood. No bullet wounds. Her mother was fine.

"Blanks," Wo Fat said softly. He moved quickly, he kicked her mother away from her. Letting the woman collapse to the ground sobbing as Wo Fat hovered over her. "Be sure to remember which child of yours begged for your life and which child put a price on it."

He took a hold of Jian's arm and dragged her up to her feet. "Time to go," he said. He turned back to Hatachi. "You'll owe me now. And while you'll probably survive, I'll have very inventive punishments for missed payments. Trust me. It's going to be worse, owing me than the other guys."

With his last threat ushered he led her upstairs. She found her father unconscious on the floor, having clearly tried to keep Wo out and failed. Once she was out of the house and led to where his Audi was parked on the street just outside the house.

"I can't believe…"

"I wouldn't have shot your mother for real, Jian, I'm not stupid," he whispered softly. "But as you imagine I wasn't happy with what happened today. No parent should be okay with one of their children ransoming the other. Especially considering who I am and my penchant for over reacting."

He opened the car door for her and she looked at it before looking back to him. "Before I get into that car… I need to know… why… why didn't you just come in and take me? Why the torment?"

His eyes still hadn't changed. And for a moment he just stared at her with those cold, calculated dark brown eyes. God if his eyes got any darker, they'd go black.

"I suppose because I was angry," he answered after a moment of thought. "He took something from me, someone I care very much about. But unlike when someone took Rowan from me, I knew violence, the kind of violence I wanted to inflict, wouldn't have… been appropriate or welcomed in this sense."

Her heart swelled to hear that she was someone that he cared about. That he thought long and hard about rescuing her, had known that he couldn't just come in guns blazing if she was at home with her parents.

"You wanted to hurt him so you…"

"I took away his mother's love," Wo said. "In a way I killed two birds with one stone. Your mother now knows what kind of son she's been protecting and he'll no longer have her unwavering support and the feeling that she'll let him get away with everything he does."

His hand reached out to where her head hurt the most. Where he had hit her over the head with the gun. He hmmed at her as he took it in. He must not have seen in it in the darkness of the basement. "We should leave… or I might go back in there."

Jian blinked her eyes still not quite sure she actually believed it. But she couldn't believe that someone like him had done that for her. She felt just as important as his sister, if not more.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

The two hostages came out of the room and Rowan and Con were ushered into the room after them. They went in, hands raised as Marvin stood across from them, gun in hand watching them. He ordered the guard to check them for weapons which he did with a metal detector wand. When they were cleared Marvin said: "Okay, start rolling."

But Rowan was supposed to get them footage, she couldn't do it from there. Rowan put on her brightest smile and said: "Is it okay if we set up over there? The lighting is better." She then pointed to the window.

"Yeah. Lighting," Con agreed. Rowan turned a warning glare onto him, he did not sound the right amount of nervous.

But Marvin didn't seem to notice. After thinking about it he merely said: "Move."

Huh, this was easier than she thought. They got into position and she heard Steve's voice in her ear. "Alright Ro, Networks ready to go. What about you."

Rowan nodded. "We're ready to go live," she announced to the room. Con stared at her not moving once and she had to glare at him to get him to holster the camera properly, though he did it with an eye roll.

"Great," Marvin cried seemingly not noticed Con's unprofessional and unafraid behaviour. "Now, you," he said directing his words to Con and Rowan inwardly swore. "Keep rolling no matter what. Do not cut for any reason. I'm streaming the broadcast. I'll know if you do."

Con just gave the man a thumbs up and said: "Whatever you say boss." He then nodded to Ro. "To you in three, two, one."

And Rowan launched right into it. "Good afternoon. We are coming to you live from inside the Hawaii State Supreme court. The man next to me, Marvin, has taken control of the room, but has allowed us access. Sir, would you please tell us why you've invited us inside?"

She then turned and offered him her microphone which he gladly took.

"Well, I wanted to speak with the people about something that's become a crisis in America. In the last 30 years, our country has had twice as many mass shootings than the other 24 richest countries on this planet combined. And what has our government done about that? They killed the assault weapon ban and made it easier for people to get guns. They think it's more important to protect the second amendment than it is to protect our children!"

Behind them came the tell-tale sign of a gun cocking and everyone turned. A shot echoed out, the bullet hit Marvin in the shoulder which caused him to squeeze the trigger involuntarily. Immediately Con was moving, he took that camera and bashed it into Marvin's head and then tried to get the gun off of him. Problem was, Marvin didn't go down all the way and the gun was strapped to his body.

Rowan went to the judge who got shot by the stray bullets Marvin had shot by accident. The judge who had, coincidentally, pulled his gun to shoot Marvin. "Just had to be a hero," she growled as she went to put pressure on the wound.

As she was busy helping the man, Con was busy wrestling with Marvin, another couple bullets were fired, one narrowly missing her head. "HEY!" she shouted and Con stopped fighting with Marvin and let him get back up. Marvin was a smart man, as soon as he could he had the gun pointed in Rowan's direction.

"It's her, you won't do anything if I'm threatening her," he said and then he took a good long look at them. "You guys are cops, aren't ya?"

"Why does everyone think that," Rowan cried. "Neither of us look like cops. I mean seriously!"

"Get away from him!" Marvin ordered but Rowan refused to move.

"Nope, can't do that. Can't do that because this guy needs direct pressure or he's going to bleed out. And to be honest, if I start looking at this blood, I just know I'mma vomit…"

Con put a hand out and grabbed her ripping her up. "Just wipe your hands on me like you usually do," he hissed. "There she's up, that guys gonna do direct pressure, happy now?" he asked Marvin.

"Toss your earpieces on the ground and then kick them to me," he ordered. He then went into his bag as they did that.

"Did you break the camera?" Rowan hissed to Con.

"Yep. Don't need your void sense to know that Commander of yours is probably freaking out."

"Yeah he's right outside the door, too nervous to come in yet though."

"The fact that you can tell that should freak me out but it actually makes me feel a little better," Con hissed back.

Marvin turned on them. "Stop talking!" he shouted and both of them nodded. He showed them the zipties in his hands. "Here. Put these on. Cinch them with your teeth and sit down."

"Oh… oh… oh… I know this one!" Rowan cried as soon as he handed her the zipties. "Your son killed a bunch of people in a mass shooting in… in… in… oh… I know this… Virginia, right? Right? He did, didn't he? You're Kyle Kane!"

Poor Marvin, or Kyle stared at her with wide eyes of horror. But Rowan was on a roll. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, this is cause you think you failed your son, and you thought at least something good would come out of this…" "—Rowan… stop…" "…and then it didn't you were all we need a platform and then you killed some guy who was like a gun promoter or something…" "Yeah I think you're losing it a bit there Ro." "—Okay so I don't know all the terminology but that's it… right? Right?"

He raised his gun again shouting: "Shut up!" at Rowan and Con surged forward. He took her vision as a distraction to get the upper hand on Kyle. He grabbed the barrel of the gun and forced it up as the man pulled the trigger. He shouted out in pain though he didn't get hit by the looks of it, and then he slammed his other fist into Kyle's face. The poor man went down and Con went about disarming him, but the man, he didn't fight him, he just let him do it.

Kyle had just started to sob. "There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about it. About where I went wrong. I… I failed my boy."

Con just shook his head, the guy was down, he was in the middle of a spiral and Con and gotten the gun away from him. The man wasn't in a threat anymore.

"What happened are you okay?" Rowan asked him as he waved his hand around, clearly in pain.

"I got burned Rowan."

"What? How? By what?"

"What do you mean by what? Guns heat up when bullets come out of them," Con snapped. "That's a rapid fire assault rifle and I had a hold of the barrel."

"Well that was dumb."

Con turned a dark glare to her. "Yeah Ro, should have just let him shoot you."

"I should have seen the signs," Kyle half scream sobbed, interrupting their argument. "I… I failed my son! I'm sorry. I'm so sorry! I failed my son."

"Oh my god, I can't take this anymore," Con said. He grabbed Kyle by the front of his shirt and forced the man to stand up. "You look at me, I want you to listen. I'm not a cop. Okay? I'm not. I'm an assassin."

His eyes lit up as he stared at Con with new eyes, Rowan just wanted to know what was happening. "Yeah, scary right? And I'll have you know, the whole time I was here, I could have disarmed you and taken you down in two moves, but I didn't. Alright? I didn't. Cause she pukes at blood and now I'm really glad I didn't, cause I get it."

"You? You're part of the problem."

"You're right. I am. But I've been where you stand. I've been you. I'm this… because I took that anger and turned it into something bad. But when I say I get it, I do, because I failed my son too. I failed my son and he died."

At that Kyle's face began to droop in saddened shock as he stared at Con.

"Yeah, that's right. And you know what? The people who did it, they weren't going to get justice. They were just going to get away with it, keep getting away with for the rest of their lives. Cops weren't going to do a damn thing for my family. So I did it. I put the whole cartel in the ground. Every damn person right down to the dog. And you know what? I didn't feel better. I didn't feel better and I lost myself. I stopped being the person I was and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get back to it." Con then put a hand to Kyle's arm. "And I don't think you want that, because you're not like me. You don't want to hurt people, you don't want to be a monster."

Kyle shook his head and Con offered him a hand.

"This isn't what you want to do, and you can still fix it. All you have to do is go out that door, surrender yourself, and you won't end up like me."

As Kyle did as Con suggested Rowan came to stand beside Con. "I don't care what you say. I'm glad you're you."

Con turned to look at Rowan a strange sort of smile on his face. A smile that stayed there even after Steven got into that room, ready to throw his arms around his girlfriend.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Wo Fat tried to not show it, but he shook the whole time he drove them home. He had nothing but white knuckles the entire time because he was struggling with all he had not to turn that car around and thrash that fool Hatachi Hui for doing this to his woman.

Brother or not, he so desperately wanted to get his hands around that man's neck.

Still he got her home, parked his car and carefully escorted her back up to their loft apartment. Once inside he ushered her into the washroom. Just like all the times that he had come back home injured, he sat her down on the edge of their tub and then went for a cold compress that she kept in their fridge.

When he returned, he knelt down in front of her and pressed it to the side of her head that was red and puffy. But no sooner did he have that compress to her swelling bruise did she suddenly launch herself at him.

This wasn't the first time a woman, who desperately needed first aid, chose to, instead, find comfort in his arms. This was something Rowan did to him all the time. So, he knew better than to push her off. Instead he held her to him, softly, so she didn't feel restricted, and then just ran his hand up and down her back until she felt better.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she sobbed into his shoulder.

"That's alright, just let it out."

Jian clamoured off his lap and hastily swiped at her eyes. "This is so stupid. I don't know why I'm upset. It's not like they haven't done something like that before."

"I know."

"I mean, they just handed me over to the Yakuza, why wouldn't my parents be okay with my brother kidnapping me and holding me ransom?"

"Well… I can only tell you what I've heard, and that's that family is supposed to care about those things. And apparently most normal families wouldn't have been okay with what transpired tonight."

Jian was silent for a moment where Wo Fat stared at her waiting for something else to come to him, but seemed to be done talking. They sat there for a moment, Jian on her knees, hiccupping softly, holding the compress to her head, Wo Fat sitting casually with one knee up, waiting to see if she'd need more comfort.

"I just feel so stupid."

"Well I'm told that will pass in time," Wo Fat said softly. "Would you like another hug?"

Jian sniffed a bit and then nodded and Wo Fat gathered her up in his arms again and pulled her onto his lap. "It's alright, you don't have to worry about them anymore. You have me now."

"But you're not my family. I know it sounds crazy but I just want them to want me. To side with me for once."

"It's not crazy. You should have seen the crazy things that Rowan did to try and win back her family's approval last year. She took on the Russian mob for her brother. And did she get a thank you? No, he almost got her arrested."

Jian pulled herself out of his grip and scowled at him. "That woman also collects people to turn into family members. Some of them against their will, if I remember your story right."

Yes, he hadn't wanted to be Rowan's brother when this all first started, but he loved being her brother now. She had filled a great void in his life. She provided him with the love, nurturing and unconditional support that a family was supposed to give, and he felt like he was a better criminal for it. He was definitely more confident and he made better wiser choices.

"You can say all you want about my reluctance to be inducted into her adoptive family, but it has turned out for the best."

"She isn't even talking to you right now."

"Well, that's true, unless I need something. She's been very good in emergency situations," he replied. Jian slid off of his lap and seemed to look at him with new eyes. "Would you like something to eat? Dinner is probably cold but I'm sure I can heat it up again."

He got up, offered her a hand to help her up and saw something strange on her face. Anger. What the hell could she be angry about? He had just saved her. Had just proved to her mother that she was the better child.

Wo Fat sensed an argument coming so he walked away and back to the meal he had prepared but had left unattended to rescue his girlfriend. He could hear Jian following him.

"You call her for emergencies? What do you constitute as an emergency?" she asked. Wo Fat turned to her wondering why that mattered. "Did you call her about me today?"

Wo Fat paused. He had been trying to not lie to the people he cared about anymore. Seeing as how badly it had gone with Rowan after all. So he chose to tell her the truth, even though he knew she'd be mad at him.

"I did."

"Why?"

"She needed to give me the money."

Jian blinked her eyes. "I'm sorry… the ransom money came from her? What… what about you? Don't you have…"

"My resources are depleted until further notice, they're also tied up in a few other projects and Rowan doesn't mind…"

"So, my brother doesn't owe you, he owes your sister."

"Yes, and she's already picked his punishment. It's a lot worse than anything I could have come up with," Wo said with a smile but Jian was not happy. "It's not physical… it's just embarrassing…"

"You said you and her weren't talking. That's what you said. That you would drop her."

"Well… I…"

Jian wrapped her arms around her sides a sort of sadness creeping up on her. "I love you."

Those words knocked the breath right out of his lungs. He knew he cared about her but he wasn't sure his emotions ran that deep for Jian. He wasn't sure he could love anyone.

"I'm not looking for you to say it back, but… I just… you have to see how having Rowan in your life hurts me, right?"

"No."

It was an honest answer and luckily, she took it as that.

"I know you. I know that love is a hard emotion for you, I'd be surprised if you ever managed to feel anything similar for me. But I know you love Rowan."

That was true he did. "But… not in the same way. It's not romantic in anyway."

"I know, but what if you, being who you are, can only love one person?" Oh, oh no. Maybe she had a point. "I'm worried that if you carry on with her, there won't be any room for me in your heart and that… that makes all of this meaningless."

Wo Fat sighed again. He didn't want this to be meaningless. He wanted to stay with her. Especially since he knew Rowan still hadn't forgiven him.

"I don't think it's meaningless," he whispered after a moment of contemplation.

Jian took a step towards him. "I want you to be with me. Like officially. No more trial run. But until you can learn to love two people, it's either her or me. I have been second best my whole life, I will not be second best in your heart too."

This was what Wo wanted too. He wanted to work things out with Jian and Rowan had said that she would be fine with him cutting her out. He just didn't want to be that sibling. But with Jian staring at him in that way baring her heart to him, he knew what he was going to say.

"You're not second best to me. I… I won't talk to her anymore. I promise."

She smiled and wrapped her arms around him. He hugged her too but his heart had never felt that heavy before.