Rock and Dutch weren't exactly sure what to make of the scene of Revy having a staring contest with a child. It was honestly high on their lists of completely batshit insane things to be witnessing.

When her and Ethan had arrived back with the girl in tow, they had immediately asked where they kidnapped her from. It was the obvious question to ask given their current line of work. Why else would they have possession of a little girl, if they hadn't kidnapped her.

It had floored them when Revy was the one that said the girl was Ethan's daughter.

Ethan hadn't said a word, he just somewhat disappeared in the direction of the roof. He looked like his emotions, something they didn't get to see that much of, were in a complete fucking mess. They hadn't known him all that long in the scheme of things, and he had made it clear that he wasn't a chaste individual, but the idea of him having a child was just strange.

What Revy had against the girl wasn't all that obvious, and they weren't exactly sure how to ask in a way that would gain them a reasonable answer, but it was something very serious. Revy didn't have a gun in her hand during this.

"I'm hungry," the girl finally said.

"Tough tits. I'm not your fucking maid. I also don't like pissants that try to kill my friends, and business associates. So if you want food, you better fucking figure it out yourself," Revy never blinked as she replied.

Dutch looked over to Rock, "I don't know how to deal with this one. Holding a kid as a business arrangement is one thing, but I don't know what to do with her if she really is Ethan's. Fuck, that is just, fucking weird to even think about."

"I know. Ethan having a kid, and she tried to off him? He is pretty unapologetic about what he did in the past, but I don't know what he could have done to have her to try to kill him. I mean, he would have had to have done something pretty high on the fucked up shit scale. I kind of want to ask her, but I don't feel brave enough to get in between them,"Rock returned the look.

"I'm glad to see that you have learned something in the time you have been here. Maybe you can get something out of Ethan? I don't know who else would know anything that won't try to put you six down."

Rock nodded as he stood up and skirted around the female occupants of the room. Something about the girl really didn't sit right with him, which meant that she might really be related to Ethan. Ethan was the master of making people feel like that.

The door to the roof was open a little, and Rock could have sworn he heard crying. He waited for a few minutes, and was sure that was what that sound was. The idea of Ethan crying though. Yeah he had seen him have a mental breakdown not long after he had joined, but this sounded completely different to that, and he wasn't sure if it would be right to intrude on it.

"You love playing your fucking games, huh God? Something good happens to someone? Well fuck them, can't have the universe get all out of fucking whack, can you? I actually get to make up with my family, and then find out that the woman I loved more than my own fucking self was murdered. I know I am not a fucking angel or a saint, but what the fuck did I do, that she deserved to die for it? What did I do before I was born to even end up like this? I'm no fucking father, I'm a fucking killer for a fucking paycheck. I live in the biggest shithole that you ever allowed to fester on this fucking planet. Do you just enjoy seeing how much you can fuck someone over for your own fucking amusement? Am I just a fucking doll to you," the yells coming from Ethan made Rock reconsider going out there.

Ever since having the tumor removed from his head, Ethan had been a much happier, and pleasant person to be around. He didn't have the same level of melancholy they had associated with him. To listen to all of this, was actually a little heart breaking. To know that someone as indomitable as Ethan, could still have a human side, was humbling.

He finally got up the nerve to say something, "Hey, Ethan, is it safe for me to come out there?"

"You're a fucking adult, why do you need my fucking say so," Ethan replied, almost as if he couldn't bring himself to care.

Swallowing hard Rock opened the door the rest of the way and stepped out.

Ethan was a mess. His eyes were almost completely red, and the skin around them was swollen. The expression he had was one of complete and total defeat. This wasn't the mercenary mechanic that Rock had known for over a year. This was just a man at his lowest.

"So, you are sure?"

Ethan lolled his head over, "That she is mine? Yeah. Probably wouldn't hurt to go on one of those trashy talk shows and do a paternity test, but yeah, I'm pretty sure."

"I mean, what makes you think that," Rock asked as he leaned against the wall next to where Ethan was sitting.

Ethan held up a photograph, "The guy with his arm around the woman in the center. That's me a decade ago. The woman was Adira Cantor. She was the love of my life. If her parents weren't ultra-nationalist shit stains, me and you wouldn't know each other. Right now, I would probably be living in Israel, and maybe even be a wet-work asset for Mossad, or retired from the mercenary life. I wouldn't be here."

Rock looked hard at the photograph, "She was beautiful. Do you know how long ago she died?"

"The date is right there. Three months. I think around the time that we were making that run for the Philippine army. That is a tragedy photo. It is kept in a file, and as we drop, we get marked out. I wouldn't have called mercs getting offed a tragedy, but I guess when you care for someone, the name means something. Rock, I don't know what to fucking do," the older man looked over to Rock for advice.

"I don't know that I could say anything that would help you. I never had a girlfriend for very long back in Japan. They all thought that I wasn't worth anything with how slowly I advanced in my career. I know I don't have any children. For fuck sake though, you've done ok with Heidi."

"Heidi is almost an adult already. What did I have to fucking do? Hannah is eight. She is half Heidi's age. Look at this hellhole. Would you raise a child her age here if you had a choice? Do I send her to my folks, and hope that they have straightened up as much as I hope? I've never felt this helpless in the face of anything. I've also never been this fucking happy. I have a daughter. I, don't even know what to say. Know what to think," Ethan shifted his vision to look at the passing clouds.

"I don't know what to tell you. I mean, I think I am happy for you. I just, I don't know that the idea of you having children has sunk in yet. I mean, seeing you like this is a mindfuck," Rock knew better than to try to color his words.

"I mean, I knew I had some out there. I was your average horny merc. If I could find a woman to fuck, I fucked. Condoms aren't that common in Africa, especially in warzones. Hell, thinking back on it, some of the hookers I did were likely children. I guess at the time I didn't care, but, fuck I am a total piece of shit. Maybe Adira's parents were right to turn her against me. I, don't even know who to turn to for advice. Who the fuck would have ever been in a situation like this? I, think I am going to take a trip over to the church."

Rock looked down at him, "I don't know if they would be able to help you. What could they really do? I don't think they have any real connection to the actual Catholic Church."

"Probably not, but Sister Yolanda has been a good listener. Rock, I just, I am sitting here, thinking of all the fucked up shit I have done. Why has God allowed me to live? What positive contribution am I giving to the world? I deserve to fucking die, and to be forgotten. You should have let that fucking commie filet my throat," Ethan dropped his head into his hands.

Ethan's words threw Rock for a loop. He honestly didn't know what he could say to snap him out of this. Everything that he could imagine Ethan having done, the man intimated that he had done so much worse. It was almost like sixteen or seventeen years of self-loathing were hitting all at once. Or it was it was exactly like that.

"Well, at least you aren't trying to claim she isn't your daughter. I don't know how it really works for mercenaries, but, I would think most of them wouldn't want any kind of baggage that could be used against them in any way," Rock said after a few minutes of silence.

Ethan only shrugged, "The truth is, that mercenaries don't even know how things work for mercenaries. Our only value is that we are alive, can use a gun, and don't belong to the people that are paying us. Governments used to value us highly, because it is easier to tell your populace that we sent someone other than your sons, fathers, and brothers to die. Rock, I know I am not that much older than you, but I am pretty damn old for a merc of my experience. Eight years is a long time for an independent, I have been in things twice that long. I had been in the game for six years when I met Adira. Back then, I think I could have left this life easily, I don't know if I could do that now, and even if I could, could I make a decent father?"

Ethan stood up and walked to look over the city. It was full of life at that time of the day, and would only slow down sligthly as the sun set. In a way it was beautiful, if you could ignore what the nature of its denizens were. Those denizens were the point the mercenary was making.

"Revy said that, Hannah, tried to kill you, why," Rock finally asked.

Ethan's hands seemed like he was trying to crush the half wall that he was resting them on. His teeth clenched, and a small streak of tears ran down his face. His breath went ragged.

Finally he answered, "Adira's parents told her that I killed Adira. Like I said, they never liked me, because I wasn't Israeli. Both of them were Mossad. Her father a field agent, and her mother was an analyst. In the time I lived in Tel Aviv, I met many other Mossad agents who had no love for them. While there was always a severe hatred for Nazis, they hated anyone that had ever said a bad word against the Jewish faith. At that time I really didn't hide that I was a Catholic, and there has been a long history of tension between the two faiths. Given the Diaspora, they could have cared less that I came from the States, but because I wasn't Jewish, I was a piece of fucking trash."

"That's, why would they think you killed her," Rock asked.

"They know I didn't. Otherwise her father most likely would have come after me himself. I don't know if he is going to find and kill the real bastard, but I don't know that I can. Not with the commitments I have here. They sent her here to die most likely. I know them well enough, to know that is the kind of bullshit they would pull, to clean up their family line. Again, I wasn't a Jew, so I contaminated their daughter. Rock, if you could have stayed in Japan, insulated from this world, what would you have done?"

"Honestly, unless something improved, I would have probably jumped out of a thirtieth story window. My life in Japan was horrible. I was a failure to my family, barely making it in my career, and unable to keep a girlfriend. I had no hobbies, or even time for them. I was working over a hundred hours a week. I had one day off, and usually spent it either drunk, drunk and passed out, or just passed out. I was eating convenience store food for every meal, and even when I could get vacation, I got pulled in to team building gatherings, where we ended up just getting drunk. Why do you think I, actually like my life here? Why I never say I miss Japan, or that I want to leave? I am actually free here . There could be improvements," Rock joined Ethan where he was standing at the half wall, "but I get to make my rules."

Ethan looked at his friend with a little concern, "I probably wouldn't have lived. Me leaving, is what cleaned my parents up. I don't know if anything could have, without me leaving. I have never been able to see my life, if I stayed. But now, I am having to figure out how to make sure that my own child, has a chance to have a future. Something that I don't know how to do, never could have dreamed of it. Yet, as scared as I am, I, am probably the happiest I have ever been, but the reason for it, I don't even want to talk about anymore."

Rock looked out over the city. He hadn't ever thought about having a child. It wasn't something that was part of the culture he had grown in. At least, not as long as he was just a wage slave. Only the successful had the right to such things.

"So, are you thinking of taking her, and leaving Roanapur," Rock asked as he continued to look over the skyline.

"No. I don't belong outside the bounds of this place. Not anymore. Like I said, there are thousands of lives, that lay on my shoulders. Satan, is likely to welcome me to hell with hookers and tequila, and offer me the throne. I don't deserve to have Hannah, I didn't deserve her mother. There are only two of us left from that operation, I wonder what ever happened to Pipsqueak," Ethan pushed himself to stand up straight.

"Pipsqueak?"

"That short dude in the second row. We always gave him a hard time, and I think he took it to heart, rather than understanding that was how mercenaries interacted. He was, uh, God I can't really remember where he came from. He was weird, but we thought pretty well of him, he just treated the rest of us like shit, saying that we thought he was worthless, and that he was holding us up. Oh yeah, he was from Colombia, I think he said that his family was some kind of former nobility. He had a crush on Adira, but he never had a chance with how he acted."

Rock looked at the picture. The guy looked familiar. Honestly, he looked like one of the Cartel's Lieutenants, one of the nastier ones. He had a bad habit of insulting Revy, and saying that she belonged bent over a couch, instead of fighting like a man.

"That is, Diego Cabrera. He is a lieutenant for the local cartel branch, one of the nastiest of them. He thinks that Revy should be a prostitute, rather than muscle. It is a, chore, keeping her from killing him," Rock handed him the picture.

"Damn. All of us mercs do end up here. I may try to run him down someday, see how he is. God, I am tired. Rock, thanks for coming up here. We get to thinking that we are so big and fucking bad, that we forget we are still human."

"I'm serious, we should get an apartment together," Benny said as him and Jane walked up the stairs.

"I don't know, I have to leave town so often, and you are gone half the time on that boat. I mean, why should we have a place we aren't ever at, Sweetie Pie," she said as she clung onto him.

"I'm not working right now, remember. I can do stuff there, and be there when you are in town. You know, I may not even go back to working on the Lagoon when it gets finished. Doesn't that sound great," he put on his biggest smile.

The woman looked at him suspiciously, "Are you just wanting to get me somewhere you can lock me in a sex dungeon? Cause if so, you just had to say it."

Benny was doing his best to not roll his eyes. He loved this woman, but she was nothing but a hornball. If she wasn't a major player in the counterfeit game, he would have sworn that she only thought with her pussy.

"Yes, we can see about that. We may need to find a house in that case, but we can work that out when we make a final decision. Just think about it, ok," he said as he pushed the door to the common area open.

Him and Jane stopped in their tracks as they saw the staring contest. Seeing Revy wasn't such a big thing, since she lived there, but the little girl, was new. They couldn't help to stare at the sight.

"Uh, ok. I know I shouldn't be shocked by anything that happens in this city, but here I am. I am shocked. Shock is what I have. I don't know how to get over this. Could someone explain what is going on," Benny spoke as he tried to rationalize the scene.

"Oh Benny Boy, the shock isn't ending anytime soon," Dutch said from his chair.

"Oh great, just what I wanted to hear. Who is the kid, and why is she looking the Grim Reaper in the face," Benny said as he and Jane walked over to Dutch.

"That is apparently Ethan's daughter. Let that sink in," was the reply as the large black man raised a beer to his lips.

"Ethan? The mercenary with monthly mood swings, who works on the engines, when they are working? That Ethan? Has a kid? We didn't know this? He never told us this," the computer nerd suddenly wished that he was using those computers right then.

"Apparently he didn't know until a little earlier when she tried to shank him at the Flag."

"Out of everything said so far, that makes the most sense. She tried to shank him? He shot a man for trying to grab Revy's tits. How did she not get a bullet between her eyes, he has said that he has killed kids before?"

Dutch shrugged, "I don't know. I wasn't there. Rock is up on the roof with him, so we may get some more info soon."

Jane walked over to the girl, "Aren't you so adorable. Why are you in such a horrible place as this?"

Hannah simply looked over, then up and down, and spoke, "Is every woman in this city a slut?"

Revy burst out laughing. That was the single, funniest thing she had heard in a long time.

"I think she included you in that question," Jane looked over with an annoyed look.

Revy fought to breathe enough to reply, "Yeah... heheheheehe... but she... hahahhaahhhahha... is definitely related... hehehahehahehaehhahehgaehehahehahehha... to Ethan."