Balalaika sat pinching the bridge of her nose, "Ok, go through this one more time."

Rock and Revy looked at each other with a tired look before Rock spoke up, "One of the Sentinel soldiers accidentally knocked the glasses that Roberta wears all the time off of her face. Apparently once that happened, Ethan somehow recognized her as the girl that was supposed to have killed the man that took him under his wing when Ethan was starting out as a mercenary. Faster than I had ever seen him move before, he had grabbed her by the neck and had slammed her against a wall as high as he could lift her. Around that time Revy, Benny, and Heidi were passing by on their way here and saw the commotion.

While we were trying to get him to calm down and let her go, she started trying to get at something in her top. He thought she might have had some sort of weapon in there, and he tore her top and bra open. A picture fell out. It just so happened that it was a picture of a F.A.R.C. group that included Roberta, and the man she was supposed to have killed. When he saw the picture, he let her go, asked her how it was possible, and then he just walked off. Nobody has been able to find him since."

"How do you lose track, of a six foot three juggernaut, when most of the population is much smaller than him. He is bigger than most of the other mercenaries and criminals that inhabit this city? Is there at least someone trying to find him," the woman was not sounding very enthusiastic at the news.

"No luck Sis. He scared his old man's men shitless. They don't want anything to do with him, and everyone else is stuck staring at the Russians. I'm shit at tracking. That said, I think I have an idea where he went, and I think, it might be better for everyone if he calms down before we start trying to use him as a living artillery piece," Revy looked down at the floor as she spoke.

Chang listened from where he sat behind his desk. He didn't really know Ethan, but he was a man, and he knew how bad something like this must have messed him up. He wasn't going to come out and just say it, but he could understand.

"So, how long do you think that it is going to be before he snaps out of it and mans up," Chang asked.

"Honestly, I don't know, and I wouldn't want to go up and ask him. There is a really good chance that he shoots anyone that annoys him in the face right now. I have never seen him get that angry, not even when someone tried to sabotage the engines on the Lagoon. I agree with Revy, it would be best to leave him alone until he calms down," Rock toned in.

"Ugh, his parents are not going to be happy when they wake up. Ok, how is Roberta," Balalaika took a deep breath.

"Well, the doctors said that she isn't in any shape to see combat right now. Apparently she hadn't fully healed from her vendetta against Gray Fox, and this aggravated some of the injuries she picked up from that. They were amazed that she is as functional as she is. They said that any other normal woman would have been in a wheelchair for the rest of her life. There is also the woman they brought back," he replied.

Chang perked up at that, "Yeah, we had been wondering about that. What is the deal with her?"

"Roberta kept Ethan from killing her apparently. She has been trying to find forgiveness or something, and when he went to put a bullet in the girl's head, she put a gun to his and talked him out of it. If it was anyone else, I wouldn't believe it. They did compromise on how to deal with her, as she claims that Ethan was wanting to have her stripped completely naked so that she had nowhere to hide anything. Fast forward, and apparently one of the bodies that is hanging in Rattle Alley, was her older brother. Roberta doesn't speak Russian, so she hasn't been able to speak to her, but it doesn't matter because she is, semi catatonic. She, isn't in a good place no matter how you look at it," Rock relayed.

"We shouldn't have let that place stand like it has. Even beyond it being outside anyone's territory, those people are savages. We should have burned it to the grounds years ago. At least at the moment we can claim ignorance given that Mr. Coffey ordered the place burned to the ground. Ok, the situation is at least under control enough that we can come up with a plan to push them out all the way. With luck we might be able to find a way to send someone behind their lines to end this issue, permanently. If you are able to find Mag, and he is stable enough to fight, make sure that he comes here before anywhere else everyone here wants this over and done with. You are dismissed," Balalaika made a gesture and the two left the room.

"Well, this fucking sucks. Both of them out of commission, and one that there isn't a way to get into shape anytime soon. Well, at least we know where the biggest part of these bastards are. No chance that your men have a Mig and some 500kg bombs stashed anywhere for your birthday next year," Chang sat back and rubbed his eyes.

"I doubt that they are that resourceful, though we do have a T64, even if it has run dry on high explosive shells. I must have let my men get too bored if they went about tracking the thing down. I should let them get bored more often. Mr. Coffey said that he should have some ideas by the time he wakes up, so I am willing to trust him on that given what he has demonstrated so far. I must say, hiring his company for security at my facilities has not been a bad investment so far," she replied.

Chang simply shrugged, "Well, I can't really argue with you given the circumstances. It's strange though."

"What is?"

"Why," Chang sat forward, "would this man have so much hate in him, that he would literally invade another country without the support of his own, just to kill a single mercenary? I mean, this seems like it is way more effort than it is worth. What could he think that he had done to come after him?"

"Bugakov believes that Mag is the man that killed his brother. The truth, is actually the opposite, but I am having difficulty being able to track down what I would need to prove it. A very great amount of difficulty," Balalaika pulled a cigar from her jacket and lit it.

"I don't follow."

"When is the last time you saw my little errand girl in Roanapur?"

It took Chang several moments to figure out who she was talking about, "Le Majeur. I hadn't thought about her in a while, so a good while I guess."

"I had sent her to locate some items for me, not all that long before Mag arrived here. She was successful, and I received everything, but by that time he had been attacked the first time and injured. So, once I had a line on the one person that could have cleared everything up, Bugakov's niece, I redirected her. Somehow though, she keeps popping up, and then disappearing. I don't know how or why, but it has Le Majeur quite exhausted, but, I haven't had a reason to tell her to stop. Depending on how things go, oh..."

"Uh, oh. I don't like how you trailed off there."

Balalaika turned to face Chang, "I had forgotten something. According to Mag, during the first attack they attempted on him, he killed Bugakov's daughter. That might explain why he has so much hatred, that it would drive him to do this. I must excuse myself, I made a mistake in the beginning of all this, and I need to correct it. If Mr. Coffey asks, tell him that I should be back in a few hours. I will send Boris to join you in my place for now. Don't get too strung out over things, Babe."

As she walked out Chang yelled after her, "I still hate that fucking nickname, Fry Face."

Ethan sat at the table of his apartment, looking at a box. He didn't open it very often, not wanting to feel the pain of seeing the item inside it. It was probably the one thing that he cherished the most, but the memories it brought up, were so painful to him.

He opened the lid on it. Inside sat an old M1911. The markings were off from a Colt though. The slide was marked: Ejercito Argentino, Sist. Colt Cal. 11.25mm. Mod. 1927. He really hadn't ever looked at the markings on it before, but he wasn't that shocked. Manuel had told him about taking it off some poor gang boss in Sao Paolo in the late sixties.

"Senor, Coffey," a voice behind him said.

He recognized Roberta's voice right off. Strangely, there wasn't any part of him that was telling him to pull the weapon out of its box, and put a round between her eyes. It was strange, but, he understood why.

"I'm a little surprised that you tracked me down. Aren't you afraid that I am going to drop you where you stand," he didn't turn around as he spoke.

"No, I'm not. I thought, you might, tengo preguntas. About, Manuel," she said quietly.

"I never stopped to consider that he ever would have survived. I wasn't anywhere close to as experienced as I am now. I doubt I was even aware that F.A.R.C. was getting cheap ass Chinese shit back then. Not to mention that the ambush smashed the convoy hard. It is a fucking strange world we live in, you know it," he said.

"I will not argue with you. I, always thought that you had died after you ran," she said weakly.

"Might as well sit down, I figure that ankle is probably starting to act up again," he kicked the chair next to him out from the table.

Roberta hesitated for a moment before she took the offered seat, "Gracias."

"De nada. I spent, fucking fifteen years hating you. Not even really knowning who you were, or if you were even alive. Your face was burned into my mind, and yet there you were, playing superman, and I didn't pick up on it until someone knocked those glasses off you. I saw him drop, how did he survive?"

She licked her lips, "The bullets only had enough force to leave the barrel, and break the skin. He just had the wind knocked out of him."

Ethan nodded, "I had heard rumors of Makarovs having rounds bounce off heavy clothing. Guess I know how that was happening. He was a lucky old bastard, I should have known that he would have lived through anything. How did he end up working for a bunch of commie terrorists?"

"One of the leaders in the cell that carried out the ambush, had met him before. Pensó que sería valioso (He thought that he would be valuable). He knew that Manuel was capable of things that very few others were capable of. He also knew that he had a thing about children. He was grieving you, and, the five of us in that picture became, I don't know how to describe it. He made sure that we were strong," she said, still not looking at Ethan.

He didn't say anything for a while. He just thought about who he remembered Manuel being, and it just sounded like him. Ethan picked the pistol up out of the box and popped the magazine on it. It still had six rounds in it. For some reason Manuel hated single loading the first round in an automatic, and couldn't be bothered to top off a pistol mag with how little he actually used it.

"He was with you about four years?"

"Si. He seemed to be the most attached to me out of all us. I don't know why, since I was the one that shot him. He, talked about you often," Roberta still couldn't bring herself to look up.

Ethan had just grabbed the serrations on the back of the slide, and disengaged the safety when she told him that, "I, really wanted the life he had planned to get us out of the business with. I sometimes wonder how things would have gone if, we hadn't run that convoy. If we..."

"Had found a ranch on the Yucatan, and buried your guns. He often said that it was a life we should all really aspire to. I, hated him. I hated him for most of the time that I knew him, because of what mercenaries represented, and how brainwashed I wash to the ideas of communism. I saw him as the worst expression of the capitalist pigs that we were fighting against. How much lower could a person sink than to kill for money? Then, he got sick," tears started to gather in the corner of her eyes.

"Lung cancer."

Roberta looked up, "You knew?"

"It was part of the reason he wanted us to settle down. He didn't know that I knew. I doubt that he wanted me to know. We ran convoys for Médecins sans Frontières. He had one check him out one day when he was feeling sick between runs. I was, passing on the dark side of the tent they were in, and overheard them. I did my best to wait until he wanted to tell me. It wasn't that severe then, I guess it was a slow cancer. I had a bout with brain cancer about a year ago, I was lucky enough that they could take it out. They told him that with the life we led, there wasn't any reasonable way to treat it," he pulled back on the slide and caught the round when it ejected.

Roberta felt the streams of wet travel down her face, "He never told any of us, until about a year before he died. He got to the point that he couldn't breathe well enough to train us in anything physical. He spent half the time coughing up blood. Yet he still never lost that loco smile of his. The five of us were the most dangerous that F.A.R.C. had. He made sure of it. He, started to think that you were alive somehow, given that they never found the truck, or a body."

"He was right. I ended up somehow making it all the way into Venezuela. I wrecked the truck on the Lovelace estate. They helped me get healed up for a few months. I took care of a problem they were having before I left. That's, how I knew Diego. He was a good man, better than should have ever stuck his neck out for someone like me," he racked the slide a few times before he locked it open.

"The Master, he really was better than we deserved to even know. My, father knew him. Even though I had never met him, and my father had died before I deserted, he still helped me. Even with the chance it could put him and his family at risk. Senor Coffey," she was cut off.

He pushed the plunger down and swung the bushing out of the way, "Caleb. I don't let a lot of people use that name. But, if you were close to Manuel, you can use it. I, would rather you did, at least in private."

"Caleb, when we were in the storefront, while I was asleep after you gave me the shot of," she tried to remember what the medicine was.

"Promedol."

"Si. After you gave me the shot, and I went to sleep, I saw Manuel. I'm not sure if it was a dream or not, and I can't remember the full message he wanted me to to give you, but I can remember that he wanted to to let go of all the hate in your heart. He wanted you to find a way out of all this someday."

Ethan lined up the slide, and pushed the slide stop out of the gun, "It would be nice to leave it all behind. I just don't know that the world outside of this city, has any place for me. You were lucky to find something to give you purpose, someone to. Even as much as she has come to love me in just a few days, I don't think that I can ever be anything good for my daughter. What girl would want their old man to show up to career day and tell all of her class mates they used to kill people for a paycheck. She is going to be better off without me in her life as much as possible."

"If you never try, then you will never be," Roberta said as he pulled the slide off of the frame.

"Maybe so, but I've been at this so long, that I don't even know how to start trying," he sat the frame down on the table.

Roberta looked at his face finally. She had been avoiding it as hard as she could with the feelings he brought up. She felt her heart start racing as she watched him take the slide apart. He was so handsome, so perfect to her, that she wouldn't care if he had slaughtered a nation.

"Caleb," her voice started hitching as he turned his head to her.

She couldn't speak. There weren't any words that she could get to come out, and even if they did, she wasn't sure that they would convey what she wanted them to. Thoughts raced in her mind like horses on a track, the noise inside her head almost drowning out the pounding of her heart.

"Roberta? Are you ok," he asked, putting the last pieces of the weapon on the table.

It was a now or never thing. She reached her hands out and placed them on either side of his chin. She scooted as far as she could over in the seat and leaned over. When their lips touched, both of them lost sight of reality. And their clothes.

A/N: I know many of you have been waiting for this moment, and that many of you want the sweaty details. Unfortunately, I suck at those sorts of things, so you don't get those. You all will just have to use your imagination.