"So how are you feeling right now, Chika?" Markus asked as he let his artificially upgraded organs, slowly purge the chemical exposure. "Nothing weird or any side effect you're feeling, right?" He questioned as Chika steadily drove the car away from the warehouse where those kidnappers were to safety. Markus was fine, since he had a unique body build that allowed him to endure whatever he had done in the warehouse when he did his chemical attack.

"Not really I think?" Chika said in questionable tone. "But so far I am not feeling anything off, and if I did, it might be from the kidnapping attempt." Chika said as she did her best to focus on driving, Markus made sure to note exactly what each control on the car did and what he would have to do when he would eventually started driving a car as in the future. "But I honestly don't know, I need to get a thorough medical checkup before anything is verified." Chika said to Markus, who nodded at that.

"Fair enough, so out of curiosity, do you know where we are going right now? Rather have a solid idea on our destination rather then just rolling along." Markus said to Chika, as another reason why he didn't drive came up. Markus stuck to the Chinese District and the local parts of it, and rarely went outside of his area, unless it was for those little excursions with Ai. Not being a native worked against him, so he needed Chika to drive to figure out where they're going.

"I'm planning to take us to my home." Chika said calmly as she could. "It's closer here and better protected." She said as Markus raised an eyebrow at that, wondering why going home first over possibly going to the police, but then again it was closer. "I rather not trust the police right now; they could be compromised or they could accidentally leak out any info on us."

"Issues with the police or something?" Markus asked, wondering if Chika had any bad encounters with any cops or what not.

"Nah." Chika shook her head. "My dad's a politician, so naturally there's going to be some private interests here and there." She said to Markus who nodded.

"Can't imagine what it's like having a bunch of politicians for parents growing up." Markus said to her. "I imagine it's a bit difficult?" He asked.

"Oh, it's hard here and there, but papa is really good at his job and I want to be like him in the future." Chika smiled happily, giving out a bright smile to Markus.

Markus hummed at that. "Neat, can't say much about my own family ambitions." Markus said, mainly because he lacked the memories for that. "But if your dad's an inspiration then you just got to go the distance as some would say." Markus said to her.

"Thanks Markus, by the way you never actually explained how you endured all those taser shots and required repeat taser shots when waking up." Chika said as Markus sighed internally at this. "You mentioned you had some pain resistance…Markus…were you a soldier of some kind?" She asked carefully.

"…You can say something like that." Markus revealed, not the whole truth but part of the truth since he was technically given a rank by the NCR as a Specialist Consultant. "But a lot of those missions are classified for a multitude of reasons, and right now I am perfectly content with living out my life as a Handyman, no more." He said to her.

"Must have been some crazy tour if you can shrug off being kidnapped like that." Chika said with a small smile as Markus chuckled as he remembered all the insane shit he went through. Training washouts, setting up a camp's fighting spirit back in orders, restarting a powerplant, and so on, all of it was not made for normal people and yet he did it.

"Well life's nothing but an endless adventure, just a matter of perspective Chika, and that's your advice from me." He said as Chika got confused over it and he decided to elaborate on it. "Chika, even in the smallest of places, entire worlds may exist. If not in one's surroundings, then behind another's eye. It is only an adventure with an end if you lack vision." Markus said.

Chika blinked at that. "That was rather profound, and pretty cool." She admitted. "So, in other words, life is like a never ending serializing Shounen Jump!" She said happily as Markus's smile turned a bit cramped at that as his metaphor became yet another thing corrupted by manga, damn it Kai-Ming.

"…Sure, let's go with that." Markus said casually, he wasn't going to start a pointless argument with Chika over this. One teenage girl obsessed with manga and anime was one too many for him to have to deal with, thank you very much. "By the way how far are we from your home?" He asked Chika.

"We're almost there, just to got to make several more turns." She said to Markus as they made a few more turns and then soon enough they arrived at a nice-looking place. Markus also noted the high walls that the house had, meaning that nobody can simply look in, useful in his opinion. "Now then, you might want to step behind me, we're not used to receiving random strangers into our place." Chika said once they arrived.

"Sure." Markus nodded. "But we should probably ditch the car while we can." He pointed out as Chika nodded and drove to an alleyway and parked it there before they got out and soon Markus followed Chika behind her, trying to look as presentable as possible, even if there were no visible pedestrians along the way.

Soon Chika and Markus entered the property and Markus couldn't help but let out a whistle. "Pretty nice place you got." Markus commented on, seeing the well cared for lawn and flower garden, and the likes.

"Well yeah it's my home." Chika said with a relaxed tone before they entered in. "Huh, that's strange nobody's here." She said in surprise.

"Is there usually someone here?" Markus asked as Chika turned to him and was about to say something, only for her eyes to widen as Markus raised an eyebrow and reacting without a second word, he quickly rose up his hand and felt some kind of glass bottle in it before it actually struck him. Oh, goody more potential danger to his life was avoided

As Markus turned around, he saw a younger pink haired girl holding a handle of said glass bottle in her hands staring at him in wide eyes. "How the heck did you manage to catch that so quickly?" She asked as Chika behind Markus choked on something, probably had something to do with way he almost got hurt.

Raising an eyebrow at her, Markus just looked at the bottle in his hand, it was some kind of wine bottle that he didn't know or really care about. But he honestly did not really care at the moment, he was tired, annoyed, and exasperated beyond belief. "Seriously?" He muttered to the girl that he would soon find out to be Chika's younger sister.

Ai couldn't help but feel a bit on edge, she was waiting for Markus to come back but so far, he has not returned. And then she tried calling his number, only to get no one, and that made her nervous and decided to stop calling Markus's number. She also noticed that Aqua wasn't around and started to scramble in a panic trying to find him, when she found him in Markus's room. "Aqua!" She called out as Aqua flinched as he seemingly knelt close to Markus's closet. "You know the rules, you're not allowed to go into Markus's room." She scolded.

"Ah sorry was just curious about Markus's room." He said innocently to try and get out of trouble no doubt. Too bad for Aqua, Ai wasn't going to abide by that, especially since they were guests in Markus's home and was kind enough to offer them shelter. Something Aqua quickly picked up on, seeing the narrowing eyes on Ai as she marched to him.

"Aqua, I have tried to be a good mother, and I try not to be a disciplinarian, but don't think I won't hesitate to spank you." She said firmly as Aqua yelped as she picked him up and carried him out. "What Markus does in his private time or what he does in his household is not for us to know or be noisy in, and you're already breaking one of his rules when staying here, as guests we abide by those rules." She said firmly as she carried him to the den and put him on the couch where Ruby was sleeping.

As she was about to continue scolding Aqua, she paused as she noticed her phone ringing, and saw an unfamiliar number, not many know about this number so she decided to take a chance. "Hello?" She answered cautiously, if it was a stranger that knew her, then she was going to turn off her phone and not deal with it, and use Markus's home phone as an alternative means of contact.

The voice that answered her back was obviously a relief to her though. "Ai, it's me, Markus." Markus's voice sounded back, though did he sound a little bit off to her ears? "Sorry I couldn't come back on time, let's just say I had to deal with some annoying issues after I went babysitting for a bit, an issue that left me without the ability to call you back." He said to her.

Ai felt her worry erupt at that, considering what Markus had to deal with recently and what she was almost victim to, she couldn't help but believe in a connection. "Is it related to what happened earlier…today, Markus?" She asked with a worried tone in her voice, hoping it wasn't like that else she would be really worried about how long have they been watching her.

"Thankfully not related to that issue that you were dealing with earlier on." Markus said as Ai let out a sigh of relief. "Just an issue relating to another person is all, it's mainly just me helping out a student from the school out of some issues and the likes. Nothing to worry about Ai." Markus assured and Ai was content to believe, until someone else came and spoke sending her heart into a spike of worry.

"Markus! Why are you talking and moving around?! You almost got smashed in the head with a glass bottle! You should be laying down and not talking and get your hands checked for any cuts or bruises!?" A female voice shrieked in worry as Ai's heart dropped at that as she suddenly learned Markus got hurt.

"It's fine." Markus replied back. "I've taken tougher blows before Chika, and that small incident before that was kind of an exception all things considered, I'll be fit as fit can be soon enough." He said to Chika and to Ai no doubt. Most likely Markus's way of trying to reassure both of them, but what Chika said next made Ai start choking on air.

"Markus! You took over half a dozen taser shots from highly illegally modified tasers that were highly lethal and were tased along the way when we got kidnapped! You shouldn't even be moving around right now. And that's especially after my little sister confused you for someone holding me hostage or whatever and then almost smashing a glass bottle on the back of your head!"

Markus got tased in lethal amounts?! Markus got kidnapped?! Markus almost got a blow to the back of the head with a glass bottle but possibly hurt his hands still? Just what in the name of the gods did Markus get up to when he went out for a couple of hours?!

"It's fine." Markus said nonchalantly. "Took some nastier blows and recovered just fine, all things considered. Besides, I already got my hands checked up and examined as well as my looking my body for any potential obvious injuries on my body. Good thing my reflexes are faster and I didn't actually get struck or hurt by anything." He said, sounding absolutely way too casual about this for Ai's heart!

"Markus Redgrave!" Ai snapped in angered worry. "You get yourself some rest right now or when you come back, we will have a talk about how uncaring you seem to act about your health and I won't be holding back my displeasure with you!" Ai said to Markus as he made a strange noise at hearing that.

"Oooohhh~! Is Markus in trouble with the Missus~?" Chika, the girl whom Markus was speaking to spoke up. "Why Markus, you never told you us you were in a relationship and with such a caring girl too!" She said in excitement as Ai turned red in embarrassment at that. "Hey there Ai, sorry to be hogging your boyfriend~!" She said cheerfully as Ai turned even redder at that. "Right now, we're getting some medical treatment since he refuses to go to the hospital." She explained.

Before Ai could stammer out a response or anything, Markus sharply made a response. "Ai is not in a relationship with me, she's a friend that was dealing with some home troubles, so I am helping her out, nothing else to it Chika." Markus said to Chika, while Ai is relieved to not have to answer to her questions. A part of her couldn't help but wilt at the clear and concise way Markus so easily rejected into being in a relationship with her.

Those words also reminded her of what Nino said to her about her, having a crush on Markus, making her blush a bit at the reminder.

"I believe you are in the throes of what they call love."

"Well, you know what they say Ai, we don't exactly have a choice on who we fall in love with, it is what our hearts want."

"So, he's good with kids huh~?" I suppose that's good for your potential future relationship if you wanted to get into a serious relationship and have a few darling babies with him, Ai~"

Ai did her absolute hardest to remove those thoughts from her head and focus on the actual issue right now before her. Which was Markus being injured or hurt and deciding to treat that as a one-off issue with little to worry about.

"Markus, if you're not going to get yourself checked out, then come back here right now and at least rest until you're actually well again." She said, she knew that even if Markus was going to come back to his home, she can't actually make him go see a doctor, there were plenty of people that were stubborn about seeing the doctor for one reason or another.

"Yeah, yeah, I know Ai, don't worry about it." Markus replied back to her with ease. "Not like I can go back into work, what with my phone being missing or destroyed or whatever. Speaking of which, can you give Wu-Fei a call and tell him my phone's been compromised? I need to get a new one at some point later and I can't exactly work without a means of communication. Also, whatever you do Ai, don't answer a call from my phone, could be used by someone else for all I know." He warned.

Ai felt her throat dry up, as whatever issue she had about her love life vanished as she remembered that Markus was kidnapped along with the girl besides him. It was just only the start of the day and already she had someone try to kill her and Markus, and now Markus was kidnapped by someone else alongside a girl, that Markus no doubt helped escaped from. "I understand." She said in a soft trembling tone.

"Good, stay smart, don't answer the door for strangers, and be safe, don't panic Ai, and it will get better, trust me." Markus said calmly yet soothingly, and the strangest part was, Ai did trust Markus's words, he wasn't usually the kind of guy to lie, might put down his actions a bit, but never lied to her for the most part.

"I understand." Ai said as she took several deep breaths and the likes. "Just…try to come back home safely please?" Ai requested. "It's been an extremely hectic day and I don't think my heart can take anymore surprises, or else I think I might have a heart attack at this rate." She pleaded earnestly with Markus.

"…Can't promise anything for certain, but I will do what I can to come back without any more injuries if I can." Markus replied to her. "In case you're hungry and you want fresher food, go call Wu-Fei's place, he can get the food delivered to Hui-Fang, and she will bring up the food to my room, she can do that much." Markus reminded her as Ai made a nose of acceptance. "Well then sorry to do this, but I have to go now, bye, Ai, see you back home." Markus replied to her.

"Take care Markus." Ai said as she ended the call and took a moment to let out a sigh. Truly, this day was insane beyond measure. And thinking about all the events that had happened plus the upcoming performances that were coming. Ai started to think that this may be all a bit too much for her to deal with.

Still…Markus got kidnapped and was held hostage, she knew he was okay but the fact that he was able to get himself and Chika out was impressive and also raises some questions. Questions that she never thought about until she though back to his morning of how Markus could seemingly run so fast or fight so well. All of this was giving Ai a headache.

"I need a vacation." She sighed out.

"You know you didn't have to be that loud." Markus grunted as he took a medical kit from Chika and then walked into a bathroom and locked himself inside as he took off his clothes. Mainly because he had to get rid of his contaminated clothes, much like how Chika did once she got over the initial trouble that was her sister.

Speaking of, she was sent to grab some spare clothes for Markus from their father's clothing selection, mainly the cheap warn out clothes that he was planning in discarding. As well as some undergarments from the local convenience store, because there was no way in hell, Markus was going to wear another man's underwear. It would be a bit weird for Markus to be wearing anyone else's set of clothes right about now, especially with how expensive most of Chika's father's suits are. But thankfully he also had some stuff that wasn't too rich for his blood.

"Markus, you got injured trying to protect me, and getting me out of there. You should be lucky that I didn't mention the gas or the shootout." Chika retorted from outside of the bathroom. Thankfully, her place had more than one bathroom, especially a personal bathroom for her and her sister to use. So, Chika already washed herself off and removed the clothes and tossed them into the trash. "Besides, we don't know how bad you were actually hurt." She said in concern.

"Like I said, I've been through worse." He said as he examined himself in the mirror and winced as he saw some nasty burns got added to his body from the overcharged Taser Shots. That was going to take some time to look presentable. "Also, the important thing is that we're still alive." He said before he turned on the shower to cold and gave himself a thorough rinse.

"The important thing? Markus, the important thing is that we barely made it out of there, and while I can take care of myself through my own family connections, your face has been made out and now they're going to want to take revenge on you. And in case you haven't noticed or remember, foreigners stand out here Markus." Chika pointed out logically to Markus as he finished cleaning himself up as best as he could with what he had on him.

"Well luckily for me, I don't go out of my lane in life aside from rare occasions, aside from that though. I stay in a nice quiet place, besides it's not like they can track me either." Markus said casually, which is quite true, having no identity of any kind was going to make it impossible for anyone to track down his digital records. Besides, he always had a habit of initializing his own name on his own phone. Mainly because he didn't want anyone to be able to track him down, and has Wu-Fei and Kai-Ming taught him how to delete his own texts that he sends out so he doesn't leave any copies of his name that's mentioned.

Also, he checked to see what he did and not did not have left on his person when he got out. Aside from his tool kit and his phone, he was not missing anything much. Thankfully they didn't bother to confiscate his apartment key from his person or his wallet for whatever reason. Though considering it was empty of money, he figured out why they probably left his wallet alone after that.

"Markus, your life could still be in danger." Chika said in genuine concern for him as another sound made itself known and Chika got distracted. "Oh yes, thank you for the clothes you can do back now…yes he forgave you, now you can go." She said to her sister as she walked off. "Markus, I now have clothes for you to wear!" Chika said casually as Markus nodded, even though Chika couldn't see it.

"Thank you, Chika, just leave it outside, I will grab it myself, and please turn around, I don't want to traumatize a kid with the horrible mess that is my body, what with all things that my body went through." He said as Chika squeaked and seemingly gained some distance and Markus opened the door a bit and grabbed the clothes on the ground and locked the door again.

Markus was grateful to have some new clothes and as he finished putting on his new clothes, he looked at himself in the mirror and couldn't help but frown and wince at his current look. Yeah, these clothes were for an above average size Japanese man, Markus was kind of tall and big by American standards and as such, his clothes were kind of tight on him, thankfully nothing was tearing up or what not or else there would have been some serious issues for him.

Either way he needed to head back home soon, Ai and the kids were in his apartment still, and Ai was still waiting for him to come back. "Say Chika." Markus called out as he adjusted his clothes as best as he can. "Can I ask you for a favor?" He asked.

"Markus, you saved my life, I think I owe you many favors." Chika said dryly to him.

"Point conceded." Markus said as he came out of the bathroom and gave her back the medical kit. "Right now, I kind of have to go back home, and for the sake of all that is sacred, please do not mention me to your parents that I save you." He said as Chika's eyes widened at that bit of detail for a favor.

"Why would you want to keep quiet about you being the one to get me out of there?" Chika questioned in befuddlement. "I imagine my parents would want to thank you so much for getting me out of there and you plenty of favors." She said to him.

"Much like with Kaguya, I did it because I can, and I also really don't want any attention on me." Markus said to Chika. "Furthermore, I also don't want to be dealing with multiple issues at once, and right now, I got a bigger issue that I need to focus on. I'm also pretty sure your family can keep you safe at least." Markus said to her as Chika opened and closed her mouth several times at hearing this.

Eventually Chika sighed and rubbed her eyes. "I don't get you at all Markus." She said to him. "But I suppose I can do you a solid and…leave out your involvement and put you down as a Good Samaritan who helped me out and walked away once the danger was over." She then said to him.

"You have my thanks Chika, I just got to take care of some stuff back home…though if it does get serious, you have every permission to get me involved if you need help." Markus said to her as she nodded at that.

"Thank you, Markus and if you wan to get back, I can call you up a taxi." Chika said as Markus nodded at that as that would be far more convenient for him to get back home. "Or if you want, I can also get you a map on how to get back home on the metro." She added in as an afterthought to him.

"I think I rather prefer the Taxi, much rather not spend too much time among strangers in an open place right about now." Markus said to her as Chika nodded and started dialing up a taxi for him to get back home.

And without much trouble, Markus got into a taxi and headed back to the Chinese District where he had to meet the next, and hopefully last, troublesome moment of the day for the time being.

The moment Markus got back inside into his place, he opened the door and saw Ai and the kids eating some Chinese Food from Wu-Fei's place. They paused upon seeing Markus come back home, Ruby and Aqua were more than surprised to see him in different clothes at the moment rather than the ones he was wearing when he left.

"Before you ask, I would like to change please, and I also had a bit of a…extremely hectic afternoon to say the least." Markus said to them before he focused on Ai. "Also did you manage to tell Wu-Fei that my phone got stolen?" He asked Ai as she nodded at Markus's question.

"Yep, Wu-Fei's going to try and get you a new phone as soon as possible, he already disabled your stolen phone and is going to get you a new one as soon as possible." Ai explained to Markus as he nodded at that. "Also, he asked me to tell you, to take the week off, considering how hectic it's been for you and would rather if you recovered before anything else." She added in.

"Thank you, now I am going to change now, these clothes are tight on me." Markus said with a frown as he headed into his room and walked in and locked it. As he turned around, he paused as he looked at the position of his chair and the way that his closet was left partial open. He frowned at the sight, it hasn't even been a day yet and already someone broke one of the ground rules about his home.

Sighing at this, he quickly changed clothes and got back into actual clothes that fitted him and soon exited his room to see Ai and the kids by the den, not saying or doing anything. "Hello Markus." Ai said calmly with a smile, then it faltered a bit as she saw the frown on his face. "Not happy about something?" She asked a bit nervously.

"For the sake of my own mind and to not worry me, I have to ask, did any one of you three entered my room?" Markus asked calmly as Ai and Aqua winced at that while Ruby looked confused. "Well that narrows it down then, and considering you're not the kind of person that intentionally tries to annoy me, I'm going to hazard a guess and say Aqua entered my room, didn't he?" Markus deduced as Ai nodded shyly at that as he turned to the boy, who flinched under Markus's gaze. "Now why would you do that boy?" He questioned Aqua.

Aqua squirmed in Ai's grasp but Ai kept him still to prevent him from looking away. "Because…I wanted to learn more about you?" He asked innocently but not innocently enough for Markus's liking.

"Aqua, my room is not only my private place, but also my workshop, you could have hurt yourself if you had touched something that you weren't familiar with. I can handle all the junk that I touch because I mess with junk and tech a lot for my own personal reasons. You are small and young and I much rather if you did not worry me like that." Markus explained calmly and rationally to Aqua. Being mad here was kind of stupid and would only unintentionally make things worse, got to handle it like an adult here.

"I understand." Aqua said looking down at himself, as Markus nodded at that. Good enough that he understood what he did wrong and why he wasn't supposed to go into Markus room.

"Good, now question Ai, do you have a punishment in mind for Aqua?" Markus soon asked Ai.

"Indeed, I do, Markus, don't worry Aqua will be punished for his actions." She affirmed as Aua's eyes widened.

"Wait, what?" Aqua squeaked out as Markus snorted at him.

"Oh, come now, did you really think I was going to let you get off free? I may not be your parent, but Ai is certainly your parent and she respects boundaries so be a good kid and take your punishment from your mother why don't you?" Markus said casually with a smile as Aqua paled a bit as he was put into a certain position that parents used to do back in the old days to punish misbehaving children.

Spanking.

After Aqua was spanked and put to bed early, and Ruby was allowed to stay up to watch some TV, Markus invited Ai into his room and the moment that Markus closed the door, Ai rushed up and tackle hugged him had, which barely made Markus move.

"You stupid man, why did you brush off the danger that you were in?" Ai said in a quiet yet frustrated tone. "Why did you try to push off the danger that you were in like it was nothing? Did you think that was going to reassure me, or did you think that you can handle throwing yourself in danger like that Markus?!" She nearly hissed out at him with a slowly rising tone.

Markus had no idea what to say to that at beginning at his eyes blinked but he answered as best as he could. "Because I have been in greater danger than that before Ai." Markus said calmly as he felt Ai's grip tighten on him. "You know that there's a lot about me that you don't know, but let's just say my life is rather…hectic at the best of times. But I supposed I got used to the danger that I honestly don't get scared that much nowadays." Markus said calmly, the first time he got kidnapped he was scared shitless, especially with how much of a shitshow the Sierra Madre Heist turned out to be.

"And is that supposed to make me feel better?" She nearly snapped at him as she let go of him and frowned at him with upset looking eyes and if Markus looked at her eyes, he swore he could have felt the strange star like shapes in them slowly darkening. "You just throw yourself into danger and expect us to be happy with that? And what if you got unlucky, what if you got that one bad moment in which your life ends, what are we, your friends and companions supposed to do now?" She questioned.

"…Because I was the only one who could do anything about it." Markus said. "Fate happens to love playing practical jokes on me besides I already did die once." He said as Ai looked confused at those words, taking a moment to compose himself, he slowly lifted the hair covering his forehead that he pressed down so it always covers him and what Ai saw caused her eyes to widen in shock.

Two gunshot scars in the forehead.

"Oh my God!" She breathed out in shock and in horror as she looked at Markus in worry.

"When I got shot, I was left buried in a shallow grave but against all odds I survived. But at the cost of every last memory I had left, I didn't even have a name." Markus explained calmly to Ai, as her eyes widened in horror and in sorrow. "Markus Redgrave isn't even the name I originally had; it was a name given to me in my quest to learn more about myself. A quest that was evidentially a very violent one." He explained.

"Where are you going with this Markus?" Ai asked weakly.

"I know the value of my own life, and I very much rather not throw it away." Markus said firmly. "But sometimes events conspire out of our control and leads to very unexpected results Ai." He said to her. "But let me promise you this, I don't plan on dying anytime soon, but what situations I get into due to Fate, I can't leave well alone. Much like how I cannot leave you well alone now too." He said to her earnestly.

Ai was silent for a moment before the darkness in her eyes faded away and some small tears came out as a small tight smile formed on her face that was far more genuine than the usual smile that Ai had on her face. "I suppose that's the best I'm going to get with you I supposed?" She said to him.

"Sorry, but it's true." Markus said as Ai suddenly hugged him again. "AI?"

"Shut up and let me hug you, your sudden words have left me in a bit of a tizzy that's going to require a lot more details tomorrow." Ai retorted before she tightened her hug. "But also…thank you for being honest with me Markus." She said gratefully as she buried her face into his body.

And at this, all Markus could do was endure the silent hug and slowly hugged her back, feeling a strange warmth in his heart that he never felt before.