Chapter 3:

A year more or less had gone by.

Revy and Eda had fallen into a routine where Revy would curse at her and Eda would make some snarky comment.

It was in a way, their way of communicating, but Revy knew that Eda liked messing with her, since she realized there was no other way of getting close to the gunslinger, under the circumstances, since Revy was too angry at her.

And a year after Revy and Eda initially met, was when Revy met yet another one of her mates.

When the gunfire began right near the harbor, Dutch ordered Revy to stay out of the way. He wasn't going to risk her.

Revy felt a comment that he shouldn't worry too much ready to be used, since, hello, he fucking needed her as muscle, right?

Still, she held her tongue for the moment.

In the distance, she spotted another ship going by, firing at Chang's ship.

She grunted a curse out, heading to the back of the building, starting to load up her weapons.

She knew to stay out of the fray, as Dutch had instructed her, it didn't change that she wanted to be ready, if trouble came the way of their establishment.

She knew that she didn't have to worry about her mate, Eda, since Eda wasn't stupid enough to get herself involved. So, almost no chance of her getting shot.

There were a round of loud gunshots that made her tense, then a loud splashing sound, causing Revy to lift her head.

Had someone fallen off of a ship after getting shot? Shit.

Revy didn't want to deal with finding bodies in the harbor.

Dutch wouldn't like it either.

That was when something happened.

Revy's chest went tight. Like something cold was closing up around her heart.

She gasped, wincing at the feeling.

What the fuck?

It felt like something cold was slicing into her.

"The hell?" Revy groaned.

She needed air.

She lowered the gun she had been loading down onto the floor, then moved to the backdoor, opening it, breathing out weakly, feeling like her chest was clenching to the point of agony.

This hurt.

This fucking hurt.

What the hell was this?

She stepped away from the backdoor, and ignored the sound of the door closing as she got to the edge of the harbor.

She peered down into the water and suddenly noticed something. The sun was lowering in the sky, but not so much that Revy didn't see the pale blonde hair sticking up out of the water.

"Who-?" Revy mumbled, furrowing her eyebrows as she leaned in closer, ignoring the gunfire, making out a face beneath the water.

A woman's face. Scarred.

The woman's body was large, very tall and broad-shouldered.

Revy then remembered something. Rumors. Rumors about a new group was muscling in on Chang and Verrochio and Abrego's territories. A group of people-Russian supposedly, led by a woman who was tall, blonde and scarred.

Revy hesitated. The smartest thing to do would be to leave her to die, and she knew it.

Another power in the city, would lead to less freedom for her and Dutch.

Still….Revy wasn't even sure why she did it, but she ran back inside and got Dutch, and they began to fish the woman out of the water, pulling her onto the deck, Dutch pumping the water out of her and Revy watching as the woman coughed up the water, the woman's eyes opening.

And Revy felt the breath leave her.

The scarred woman looked at Revy, holding still for a moment, her piercing blue eyes not leaving the tattooed gunwoman.

Dutch was talking but neither woman were paying his words any mind.

The scarred woman spoke her next words, and Revy felt the tightness in her chest beginning to loosen, not just loosen, but expel itself entirely of the fear that seemed to have been creeping in all this time.

The woman said, "You're here. You're actually here."

The woman's soft voice contradicted her appearance.

To say the woman was scarred, was a great understatement.

Revy had a terrible feeling that the scars had all been done to the blonde woman deliberately.

The woman's face was scarred, her neck was scarred, her breasts were scarred-Revy was willing to bet that almost all of the woman's body, if not all of it, was scarred, too.

And what was more, Revy knew what had done this.

Fire. This had to have been done by fire.

Revy didn't even have time to feel euphoric relief at seeing another of her mates here. Her jaw clenched and harsh heat entered her blood at the thought of whoever had put a flame to this woman's flesh.

Who had burned her?

Who and where was Revy to find them and how slowly did her mate want Revy to kill them?

The woman's gaze then narrowed as she spoke, "The two of you should perhaps get inside. My men are still waging against Chang's forces. It would inconvenient if either of you got shot right now."

Revy got the sense the woman meant more of Revy herself being shot, than Dutch, but Revy understood.

And it was in that moment that she registered again the sounds of gunfire in the distance.

(Oh, right, there was still more or less a battle going on right now.)