--Room #70, the Makai, 8:00AM local time--

"In today's local news, a nurse from St. Peter's Medical Facility has been murdered. In what local authorities are calling a premeditated attack, the body of 31-year-old Alicia White was discov-"

With his head still face-down against the pillow, Pierantoni extended out one arm and slammed his palm onto the clock radio to cut off the broadcast. He groaned slightly, but drug himself out of bed and went to the bathroom to splash water into his face until he felt more awake. He didn't look half as decent right now, but it wasn't anything a typical morning cup of coffee wouldn't fix. He definitely was gonna need a lot of cups to get through today, considering last nights events, and his lack of sleep.

For perhaps the millionth time now, Enrique decided to recount those events through his mind. At about five minutes past midnight, Alicia had called him, asking him to meet her at her apartment. Thirty-five minutes later, he'd discovered her body at the apartment, strangled to death. And just like that, he thought. No signs of a break in, no traces of the killer's presence, nothing at all.

Riq took a deep breath, rummaging over his assorted thoughts that provided more questions than answers. Sighing at himself, he left the bathroom just as his phone blared to life, attracting his attention. The Federal agent was apprehensive at first, as on the screen it reads 'Caller Unknown', but eventually answered the call.

"Pierantoni. Who's this?"

"Good, you're up," a voice boomed into his ear. "Don't worry about the call, I've ensured that it can't be traced."

'Snake,' was Riq's wordless realization of who's on the line. "Yeah, I just woke up. Had a rough night."

"Last night's assassination, I know," he responded. "The police report mentioned your name as being at the scene."

"Right," Enrique spoke. He'd been taken in for questioning that night by the authorities only to be eventually let go. Naturally, he knew better than to ask his superior how he'd come across information so quickly. "Unfortunately I was too late to save her."

"She was a friend of yours?"

"Not exactly," Enrique replied. "She was an Umbrella employee, an informant, recently placed under protection. I received a call from her, so I was on my way over to her apartment when it happened." With a grave tone he added, "I believe that information is what got her killed."

"You know what that information is?"

"She gave me a name," Riq answered. He had barely heard Alicia say it, in fact. The woman had been so frantic over the phone she was practically stumbling over her words. "A Mats...da, I think." He tried to remember how White pronounced it. "Yeah, that's what she said. Matsda."

"Matsda." There was silence on the other end for what seemed like moments, then, "Was there anything else?"

"She mentioned 'her employers', so we know who's involved, but this 'Matsda' guy's our only lead on why she was killed."

"I see."

Another short period of silence followed between the two, but this time it was Enrique who broke it.

"I'll keep you updated should any new developments take place," he said, and with that, he ended the call.
 

*****

--somewhere along the Interstate H-1, 11:32AM--

Amidst the traffic-filled highway, a small, silver-chromed motorcycle dodged and weaved past the cars in front of it with impressive grace, carrying its rider forward. The strong breeze caught and ruffled his clothes with a distinctive flapping sound, yet Jin Kushina didn't regard it. That's because he was wearing earphones, attached to the iPod strapped to his belt, listening to none other than the sounds of Sacred Edge.

Kushina gave the vehicle some gas, and it responded with a gutteral roar as it picked up speed, accelerating him towards his destination: to Honolulu, to the FBI building where Natalie's works. His mind reverted back to the not-so-distant past, to the reason he's on this highway in the first place.

Last night, Natalie hadn't returned back to the hotel. Before leaving the room yesterday he'd left a note for her on top of one of the animal's cages, yet earlier this morning he found the same note unopened. So now here he was, taking no chances whatsoever, riding a rented motorcycle he'd purchased for the day, drawing closer and closer to the city.

Jin revved the engine some more in order to narrowly overtake a nearby lorry truck before slowing back down slightly, thoughts lost to all but the heavy rock sound - apart from the task at hand - pouring out of his earphones.

****

-- Main Tournament Arena, 12:15PM --

The crowd's cheering at the announcement of the two fighters' names was merely background noise to the two men's brief greetings as each stepped into the designated match area in the arena.

"Hope you're ready for a different outcome this time, man," Luke said as he flexed his knuckles beneath the wrapping tape typical to Muay Thai fighters. Wearing yellow shorts trimmed in red, his outfit was simple but showed off his muscular physique.

"If you say so," Enrique replied without genuine interest in dialogue. It had been a long couple of days, after all. His clothing was less flashy than Luke's, a simple black karate gi. He was the first to take his stance, followed soon by his opponent. The referee quickly signaled for the match to begin.

As he often did, Luke instantly burst into the offensive to begin the match, which served to suit Pierantoni well, due to his stronger reliance on a defensive style. No more than a second had passed before Luke was already near his opponent, his leg whistling towards Riq's head in a quick roundhouse. As Pierantoni leaned back to avoid the attack, Luke immediately recovered in time to throw out a follow up leg strike, only to reach the same result. A third attack from Blaze was blocked this time, yet the American remained undeterred as he concluded his offense with a short uppercut that Riq deftly shifted out of range from, whilst keeping his distance from Luke, in a neat demonstration of his defensive abilities.

Yeah, I feel warmed up now, Luke encouraged himself with a confident smile. Lemme try this a second time...

Riq only grunted in anticipation as Luke immediately underwent a second offensive wave, except with a dramatically more faster, fluid and crisp series of attacks, much to Riq's surprise. The hell? I don't remember this guy being THAT fast last time... Pierantoni thought to himself in between focusing on Luke's feet in an attempt to predict his movement. He had to retaliate soon.

Keeping his eyes on Blaze's feet almost cost the Puerto Rican a blow to the side of the face, but as he leaned back to let the fist whiz by, his opportunity came. Using one hand to snatch Luke's wrist, Enrique yanked the other man forward to pull him off balance, releasing while bringing his knee up, spinning with the momentum to drive the knee low into Luke's hip.

A bit of an unorthodox move, but while the blond fighter fell to the ground, Riq brought his right heel down toward the back of Luke's head, intent on stunning or perhaps knocking the man out before he lost the advantage. Riq's foot collided with the ground instead of his intended target, however, causing him to mentally curse and hop back a few steps while Luke rolled quickly to a crouch. Riq's sudden distance seemed to interrupt whatever attack Luke had planned, but Blaze wasn't void of other options.

Luke closed in on Enrique as quickly as before, who simply tightened his defense in response. Recognizing the sudden yet familiar motion of Luke's hips from their last match, Riq quickly brought his arms low at the last critical moment in time to block the former's Spin Kick technique. What Riq didn't expect is the backfist that instantly came after, Blaze using the momentum of his spin to bounce his fist against his opponent's exposed cheek with a resounding crack. A visibly stunned Riq was given no time to recover as Luke let loose a rapid-fire series of punches, aptly known as the Lightning Punch. Blow after blow lands on Pierantoni, slowly lifting him off the ground until Luke slammed an uppercut into the gut to finish it off. Riq sailed through the air from his opponent, before landing with a unruly thud several yards away.

~*~

"Ouch, that's gotta hurt…" Chun Li said as she winced a bit, watching the fight from the VIP area. She sat next to Ryu, who was also engrossed in the match.

"He's not down yet," the street fighting champion murmured his expert opinion as his dark eyes watched the man on the ground as the referee began the count. Chun Li gave him a sidelong glance with a hint of a smile. No matter how bad things were, Ryu could always distract himself with a fight, either his own or someone else's. Though the situation with Iwa put them under a lot of stress and imposed tensions between the two of them and the Masters family, there wasn't a lot they could do at the moment.

Nothing but watch and wait for the right time.

There was so much going on here, even aside from Iwa's defection. If only she still had the authority that came with her Interpol badge…

"See?" Ryu said as the Puerto Rican fighter got back on his feet. Chun Li came out of her thoughts to grin, "Guess so," she said. "This should be pretty good…"

~*~

As the referee began a ten-count, Luke waited until Riq wobbled back up onto his feet before he burst forward, this time with the Thrust Kick. With his vision slightly blurred, Riq was unable to react fast enough to prevent Luke's foot from finding its target in Pierantoni's chest. The strike blew Riq into the sky with tremendous force, before he skidded along the ground, all to the appeal of the fighting crowd. The latter was lost to Riq, amongst other things, like the searing surge of pain in his ribcage where the Thrust Kick had struck, or the glob of blood in his mouth from his bruised cheek. There was, instead, only the drive to do something to snuff out his opponent's fiery offense, lest he end up in more trouble than he was now. His body, meanwhile, reacted in an instinctive motion to pull himself off the ground, breaking the count at five.

A small smile curved one edge of Luke's lips, something that the Kajukenbo fighter noted. Though broken into a sweat, Luke still had a lot left to show. Spitting the blood that had pooled in his mouth, Riq took his stance again and motioned his opponent forward, an invitation Luke readily received. Just as fast as before, the younger man let loose a barrage of punches, alternating with a kick now and then, most of which Riq avoids or blocked, having made minute changes to more readily adapt to the rapid pace.

When Luke came in once more with another right punch, Riq took his opportunity. He lunged forward, his body leaned into a low stance while his right hand blocked the punch and his left snapped forward to collide with Blaze's face. Luke's vision went white for a split second, recovering only in time to be aware that Enrique's hands had reversed, his left now grasping Luke's right while the free hand struck his face a second time in tiger claw form. Suddenly the blond found himself colliding hard with the ground a second time, his legs having been kicked out from under him. The very next instant the hard edge of Riq's right arm arced down to strike him in the throat, proving the other fighter had a few fast moves of his own.

The audience roared at the come-back as Riq moved back to allow for a count as Luke lays coughing, trying to force air through his windpipes again. He saw spots at the edge of his peripheral vision for a short time, but forced himself up quickly at the count of four. As soon as the count was halted, Riq moved in to try and put the kickboxer down for a third and final time.

Now forced to switch roles, Luke braced himself for Enrique's attack, which didn't take long to appear. Once within range Riq spun on one leg, swinging the other around with a powerful wheel kick. It raced towards Blaze in a blur, who raised a forearm to block the blow, yet was still forced back a few yards from the attack's force. Riq wasted no time by closing the gap with two punches to the chest, then releasing two alternating wheel kicks to the face and a side kick. Luke was left helpless to defend himself in time as Riq's right leg blurred into a back kick to the torso, bringing him down to one knee as he coughed up several droplets of blood onto the ground. Blaze quickly recognized what's next as Riq hopped into the air, and it's then that he retaliated with his counter-move for Riq's Stampede technique.

Blocking out the pain coursing through him, Luke gathered his energy and took to the air with a rising knee, connecting with Riq's ankle just as the latter's leg came down in a crescent motion, cutting off the would-be final blow of the Stampede. The Puerto Rican let out a pained grimace as the force of Luke's Rising Knee Smash carried them upwards until gravity took over. The crowd's noise dropped somewhat as Riq's body crashed several feet away from where Luke landed.

This time the referee wasn't given a chance, since the undercover Agent rolled to a kneeling position quickly, staring down his adversary as he slowly stood. His face showed little of his pain, as he felt acutely the damage done to his ankle, the bone jarred and the tendons bruised. His stance showed that he favored it only slightly, but in his mind Riq went over the options left to him without the full use of his right leg. Attacks requiring him to repeatedly use that leg in an offensive motion wouldn't be available now, and Enrique had no intention of furthering the damage done.

Luke couldn't help a small grin at Pierantoni's stamina in battle. Amazing for an older guy who smokes... he thought to himself as he gave the man a few seconds to recuperate before charging in for what would likely be the final assault necessary to bring the injured Puerto Rican down.

Enrique, however, had other plans. As expected, Luke attacked where he knew Riq would be weakest, on his right side. The blond punched in two quick jabs which were blocked, then drops low to spin into a leg sweep. Riq hopped over the attack, but not without effort. Luke came out of the spin with an uppercut, but Pierantoni leaned back to narrowly avoid the strike. With his fist still upraised in the momentum of the swing, Luke's right side was left briefly exposed.

Riq capitalized on the opportunity with one sharp punch to the kickboxer's ribs, causing the breath to leave Luke's lungs in a hiss through clenched teeth. Riq followed this with a palm strike to Blaze's sternum to wind him even more, forcing the younger fighter back several steps. Though his right ankle protested with pain when he put weight on it, Enrique moved forward quickly to take advantage with his Coffee Mill technique. Two hammer strikes across Luke's left cheek, then Riq drove his right knee into the man's stomach. A harsh grunt escaped Luke as more pain was visited upon his abdomen, but before he could react, he felt hands gripping his right arm and noticed Riq was now on that side of him.

Another hammer hit comes across Luke's ribs and the kick boxer knew he had to act quickly to avoid more of the same. In a desperate move, with Riq still within close range to him, Blaze latched his hands onto Pierantoni's shoulders and pulled him forward, right into a knee to the solar plexus. Luke repeated the strike a second time, then leapt up to slam a high knee to the chest as he let go of Enrique's shoulders.

To Luke's surprise, the last strike didn't knock Riq off his feet as he expected, yet he was positive he'd won as he closes the gap to extend his assault with his Flame Vulcan Kick. The technique caused Luke's leg to ignite into a burst of ki-flames, which served to further the damage of each concussive blow he performed. As Luke added a side kick to complete the move, his mind recalled the outcome of Pierantoni's match against Jin Kushina, notably how his body had succumbed to the fiery blasts that accompanied the Japanese fighter's winning attack. With his energy almost spent, he too hoped for a similar outcome, for the confirmation of victory.

The only confirmation Luke received, to his disbelief, was that Enrique was still conscious as he picked himself up once more. Blaze dashed forward, drawing energy into his right fist, then leapt into the air, drawing that same fist back. As Luke reached overtop Riq, he brought his fist down directly onto his skull, continuing his flight briefly before gravity drug him back down to the ground.

Luke turned around in time to see the Puerto Rican's fallen body, beaten into unconsciousness and thus unable to beat the ten-count.

"KO! The winner is... Luke Blaze!"

Luke fell to his knees, feeling drained, as a wave of relief washed over his features.

*****

-- FBI local office, Honolulu, 1:15PM --

"Where is she?" Jin asked as he opened the door to Special Agent in Charge Kyle Parker's office. The question came without any pretense of friendliness or even the slightest greeting as Jin walked in, right past a protesting secretary who tried - and failed - to interpose herself between him and Parker's office door. Sitting in his desk chair with some paperwork in front of him, Kyle looked up at his uninvited guest with both brows up.

"I'm sorry, sir," his secretary said with a helpless gesture and a look of exasperation. "He was rather persistent. Should I call security?" She shot an annoyed look at Jin, who kept a steady, expectant gaze on Agent Parker.

Kyle gave a polite smile and shook his head, "No Linda, that's alright."

The woman nodded and exited the office, shutting the door behind her and leaving the two men to talk in private. Parker gestured with one hand to the chair before his desk.

"Have a seat, Mr. Kushina."

Jin noted a hint of arrogance in the man's smile and shook his head once to reject the offer.

"No thanks."

"Ah, alright then. So...you were asking about something?" Kyle knew exactly what Jin had asked, but as was his nature, he enjoyed being difficult.

"Where is Natalie? She didn't come back last night," he said in a tone that was polite but with a frosty edge. Since meeting him, Jin hadn't liked the Agent in the least, particularly for the man's treatment of his fiancée. He didn't doubt that it was Parker's fault that Natalie had failed to come back to the room in at least twenty-four hours.

"So you came all the way here because you lost track of your girl? Well, she is a busy one…"

"Only because you made it that way."

Kyle chuckled. "Jin - I can call you that, right? - I only give her assignments. That's all. It's up to her how quickly she gets them done, how much time she devotes to them and how much she takes off to spend with you. Of course...that's assuming she enjoys you more than work…"

Gold eyes narrowed slightly. "I'm not up for repeating the question again."

Parker let a soft sigh slip and inquired with mock patience in his tone, "Try calling her? She has a cell phone, you know…"

"She's not answering."

With one brow raised, Parker pulled out his cell phone and pressed a few keys. He put it on speaker and both could hear the four or so rings it took for the voicemail to answer.

"Well, seems she doesn't wanna talk to either of us. Who knew we had something in common?"

Jin continued to ignore Parker's jibes outwardly, but inside he was more than tired of this and his patience was wearing. "So where is she supposed to be and when's the last time you saw her?"

"Why such a strong need to find her?"

"We've got some things to discuss," Kushina replied vaguely with an clipped edge in his tone.

"Ah," Kyle said in an enlightened tone, "I saw her yesterday. As for where she might be, well, I can't say... Even if I knew, it's a matter of protocol."

"She's my fiancée and I have a right to know where she is."

"Then good luck finding her."

Fists clenched at his sides, Jin resisted any violent thoughts and simply turned and walked out of the office, much the same way he'd come in as green eyes watched him, accompanied by a cold smile.
 

****

-- Room #70, The Makai, 1:25PM --

One glance though the peephole exposed the identity of the person authoring the persisting knocking. A somewhat exasperated sigh was followed by Enrique resting his forehead on the door's surface, just for a moment, before granting access to his visitor.

"Oh my God, are you ok? The medics were going crazy looking for you!" The peaking concern in Victoria's voice was obvious, but Riq could only offer a weary look as he moved aside to allow her in.

Earlier, Victoria followed the group of paramedics that had escorted Riq out of the ring and into an improvised medical facility, built to provide injured fighters with first aid attention prior to their transfer to the hospital. Much to Victoria's surprise (and much to the medics' utter confusion), Enrique disappeared before receiving any aid. Left with little options on where to look, Victoria was lucky enough to find him in his hotel room.

"You look like a wreck"

Enrique ignored Victoria's statement of the obvious, and instead slowly limped his way to the bed, where he sat and continued on the labor of bandaging his right ankle. He heard as Victoria scavenged through the bathroom for anything useful. She emerged a moment later, holding a box of tissue paper and a small bottle of rubbing alcohol.

"Victoria, what do you…" The low hiss that escaped Riq's lips interrupted his question, result of the stinging sensation produced by the alcohol-moistened tissue that Victoria was firmly pressing onto the deep cut over his left brow.

What she wanted should have been clearly evident, Victoria believed, but she decided to provide him an answer to his question anyway.

"Well, you know...there's the fact that I care enough to check whether or not you're dead." She took a seat on the bed, now nursing the gash that grazed his temple with a fresh tissue. "And I'm also very curious to know why you just ran off without getting medical attention." She poked on his rib cage, not too gently; Enrique winced. "You need a doctor"

The reasons for which Enrique preferred to keep his distance from Umbrella's "medical staff" were many and quite justified, and although he could have formed a very convincing argument to rationalize his actions, only one thought made it pass through his throbbing head and into words.

"I didn't have the time…"

Victoria chuckled. "Right…" She pulled several band-aids from her back pocket, which she had "borrowed" from the infirmary earlier, and taped two of them two of them on the now clean wounds on Pierantoni's face. She placed a third, larger one on an incise on his left arm, just above the elbow. Her fingers lingered there. She watched as his right hand reached to sooth the pulsating pain that currently rampaged on his forehead.

"Look Riq, whatever you have to do...you can't do it if you're falling apart." His green eyes met her dark ones for a moment, but the feeling of his arm muscles tensing under her fingers caused her to immediately break the contact and lift herself from her seat.

Victoria cleared her throat. "I um, gotta go...find Sean. I haven't seen him since I left the hospital yesterday." Enid pulled her cell phone from her bag, hitting one speed dial button and taking the receiver to her ear. Once the first ring was heard, she leaned back onto the desk behind her, waiting.

The headache that had been cursing through Pierantoni's skull was suddenly subdued by a vague memory that jotted on the back of his mind.

"Victoria, what's your partner's name again?"

Enid pressed a button on her cell phone to disconnect the unsuccessful call. The look she gave her teacher silently yelled Are you insane?!. What she said, however, was slightly different. "I just told you his name. Sean. Did that Luke guy hit you once too many times on the head?"

Enrique sighed. "His full name Victoria. What is it?"

"Sean Matsuda."

"And when was the last time you saw him?"

"Yesterday afternoon, like I said. I went to visit him at the hospital. Riq are you ok?"

The answer never came, for Pierantoni was already up and pushing Victoria out the bedroom door.

"What the hell...Riq??"

Once outside, Victoria turned to continue her protests only to be halted by Enrique's fingers slipping through her hair, his thumb gently grazing her cheek.

"Gracias." Was all he said before disappearing behind a slammed door.

*****

-- Honolulu National Airport, 3:05PM…--

Darren settled in his seat on flight 542, briefly looking out the window facing the distant Hawaiian landscape. Silver-grey eyes blinked and lowered their gaze to the worn photo held in his hand, taken from his jeans' pocket. The same photo had led him here, in hopes of finding out who he had been in a forgotten life. A photo that now proved useless, except to further the cryptic mystery of why he had it in the first place.

What had his connection to the woman been? He thought back on the encounter with Iwa, and on the conversation that followed once he finally caught up with her.

"Look, I already said I don't know you." The look in her eyes was a mix of apathy, annoyance and boredom.

"But...you have to! Why else would I have a picture of you...if I'd never met you?" Dante's tone held a desperate edge as he confronted her on the balcony of her hotel room. It was late, so both kept their voices quiet. "You have to know something about me!"

"Che," the woman scoffed uncaringly. "Do you know how many people are after me? For all I know, you got that from one of them. Or who knows? Maybe you had some stupid crush on me and stalked me…" She rolled her dark eyes, "For whatever reasons, I got plenty of stalkers already. Leave me alone and go back to wherever you came from."

He was stricken with outrage and shock. So much hope had been placed on her...for nothing. A part of him wanted to fight her, to beat the information out of her.

But something told him she was right.

When he looked at her, standing in her presence...there was not the slightest hint of familiarity. No sense of knowing her, nothing. His shoulders sagged.

"...then I'm sorry to have troubled you."

She'd looked away to give attention to the squirrel chittering on her shoulder, and when she looked back he was gone.

So here he was, leaving Hawaii and heading back for the place where he'd made his home. Nothing new to tell about himself, nothing but more questions. He sighed.

Dante was tired of questions...for now, at least.

A flight attendant walked by him with a smile and asked, "Did you enjoy your stay here, sir?"

Darren gave a small smile and a lying nod. Truthfully, he hadn't taken the time to enjoy much of anything here. "I did, thanks."

With another brief exchange of small-talk, the woman went about her rounds and soon the 'fasten seatbelts' sign came on. Dante buckled himself in and watched out the window as the scenery started to slowly pass, eventually lifting him into the air on his way home.

*****

-- The Master's suite, 4:50PM --

"Thank you."

The room attendant nodded a polite "you're welcome" after placing two drinks on the table. It wasn't until the maid had exited the suite that Eliza Masters redirected her gaze to the young woman sitting on the other side of the table and offered her a sweet smile.

"They should be back any minute now. Mel insisted on going to the pool today."
Victoria smiled in response, taking a quick sip of the frosty drink in her hands. Kids would always be kids, and young Mel was a very hyperactive example.

"I won't take too much of his time. I just…"

"Victoria!" Mel's happy little voice redirected the attention of both women to the suite's door. Victoria grinned as the little boy pounced on her to deliver a giant hug in greeting.

"When's your next fight? Are ya gonna kick some butt? Are ya? Are ya?"

"Honey, come on you have to take a shower now," Eliza instructed her son, in an effort to stop is energetic shower of questions towards the Hispanic girl.

"Awwwww mom!! I don't wanna!!"

"Do as your mom says. Take a shower." After a small shove into the bathroom's direction courtesy of his father's large hand, the younger Masters did as he was told but not without several chirpy protests. A moment later, Ken was taking a seat across from Victoria, not missing the inquisitive glance the young woman had given to the suitcases assembled behind the suite's bedroom door.

Predicting her next question, Ken thought it best to give her an explanation. "You know, under other circumstances I would have preferred to keep them close. This time, I don't think I'll have the time to keep an eye on them."

That statement sounded quite familiar to Victoria. Ken wasn't the only one attempting to send loved ones back home. Riq would probably go as far as buying her a plane ticket himself, Victoria suspected, but she would be however, much more resistant than the Masters family.

"What makes you think they'll be better off back home?"

"I've made sure of it."

Victoria sighed. Inside she knew the answer to her next question, but felt obliged to ask anyway. She had to after all, hear it from someone she trusted. "Sean's in trouble...isn't he?"

It was now Ken's turn to release a drained breath. Keeping something like this from Victoria was pretty much impossible and quite unfair as she and his disciple had become rather close during their time together as partners in the tournament.

"Victoria, Shadowlaw isn't the only entity interested in the tourney fighters…"

"If it's not them then who is it? Where's Sean?" Victoria impatiently cut the man off mid-sentence.

Lowering his voice somewhat Ken continued, in a clear attempt to hide any surfacing anger under a weak, cool tone. "I received a call yesterday...from Umbrella. They have Sean. They seem to be very attracted to the talents of many in this tournament."

A wave of news flashes flooded Victoria's mind. For years now, many had tried to expose the pharmaceutical company as a corrupt organization, whose money laundering and underground negotiations with terrorists funded many unmoral, unethical and clearly unlawful projects...many with the purpose of creating biological weapons of mass destruction. Nothing had ever been successfully confirmed; the press and justice were always so easily coerced.

Victoria shook her head slightly, dispersing the sudden blur of thoughts and voiced a very justified question. "What? Do you think they're working with…?"

"That's always a possibility." Ken Masters paused for a slight moment before going on. "Victoria, we're going to get him back, but our conversation cannot leave this room. At least not yet."

"But I don't understand why they would…"

It was now Ken's turn to interrupt. "Victoria, you and I are both aware of the abilities you bring to this competition, the attention you've received. Fight your last fight, and leave before they can get to you."

"I can't do that, Ken!" The feeling kept growing, that feeling of being looked down upon. And to think that she had to show all of them how well she could take care of herself.

"I'm sure your sensei is taking good care of things," Ken added, paying little heed her outburst.

Victoria looked up at him, questioningly.

"I know who he's working for. " He clarified. "Ms. Rinaldo isn't the only one who makes it her business to know who is staying in this hotel. And I believe you know he's not the only official representing the government in this tournament."

Victoria nodded, so did Ken in response.

"Listen, if it's really that hard for you to stay away from this mess...for whatever reasons you may have...at least promise me you'll watch your back."

"I promise", was her reply.

*****

-- Nana's Island restaurant and bar, 5:45PM…--

The food smelled divine as Agent Wynshire walked into the establishment, nearly doubled over with hunger at the plethora of scents. The place wasn't overly crowded, but had enough people to cover her meeting with the mysterious Mr. Carter.

She was dressed not in her work clothes, but more casual red plaid capris and black boy-beater, along with all her favorite jewelry. The receptionist didn't give her the odd look she often got, only an overly friendly smile and welcome.

"Seating for how many?"

"I'm supposed to meet someone here. Short black hair, smiles a lot, about this tall…" Natalie explained and held a hand up, a few inches over her head.

The lady got an expression of recognition, "Oh, that handsome guy," she said with a conspiratorial grin, no doubt getting the wrong impression. Natalie offered a weak smile and nod. Well, that was the cover Jack seemed to be going for, anyway.

The receptionist assigned a waitress to Natalie, who was then escorted her to the outdoor patio, where Mr. Carter was waiting. He smiled when he saw her, and after setting menus before them and taking their drink orders, the waitress left them alone. Jack gave a small greeting before getting down to business, "Did you find anything?" Even as he asked, he kept up the easy-going, conversational front.

Natalie did her best to smile in return and leaned forward as if in a casual talk with someone she knew. "Nah, all offices were clean. Whoever it is, they're hiding it well."

"I know you've been overworked, Natalie," it bothered her a little that he used her first name so informally, though the feeling didn't make much sense. There were worse names to be called by, she thought as he continued. "but I need you to find out who it is soon. We're running short on time."

She sighed, "I know, it's just…"

She stopped when the waitress showed up to take their order. Jack gave his, then smiled and told Wyn, "Have whatever you like, it's on me."

Since this wasn't one of the tournament sponsoring restaurants, Natalie smirked and inclined her head. "Thanks." With that she pointed out the house steak, with three local favorites for sides and grilled pineapple for dessert. Rather than be surprised, Jack only chuckled and shook his head. "You eat well for a woman your size."

She let the remark slide and smirked as the waitress again disappeared. "I have to keep up my strength somehow."

"And it's quite considerable, it seems. Your next match is well publicized." He took a sip of his drink and cleared his throat, "Does fighting your lover put a strain on things?"

"Not as much as not fighting him, which is what will happen."

Jack's brow furrowed, "Oh, why? Seems like it might draw more attention...if you didn't show. Like Iwa Hoshi."

Natalie hadn't really thought of that, but shook her head and replied, "I can't. My boss is making sure I stay plenty busy."

Jack was quiet for a moment, steepling his fingers together as he leaned back in his chair. "Think maybe he's keeping you busy for a reason? I mean, beyond the fact that you've established that he's an @#%$."

Thin brows drew low over blue eyes as she thought for a moment, but any reply was cut off by the vibration of Carter's phone in his pocket. He took it out and checked the ID and pressed a few buttons, enough that Natalie knew it was a text message, then he sighed with a small smile. "I'm sorry, I've got to take care of something, it won't take more than fifteen minutes. I'll be back soon."

She nodded and he excused himself, leaving her alone with her thoughts as she waited on the food.

A few minutes later, a tap on her should startled her from her thoughts. Natalie turned around quickly, finding herself staring up at the near expressionless face of her lover.

"Jin!" She started to ask what he was doing there, but shut her mouth when he cut in.

"We need to talk."

She winced. Of all the times he could confront her..."Right now isn't a good time."

The even tone he'd used before took on a slight edge, showing his irritation. "It wasn't a request."

That rubbed her the wrong way. The waitress brought the food to her table and left in the time it took Natalie to respond. "You can't just wait until I come back to the room? I'm in the middle of something important here…" Her tone was hushed and her expression slightly stern, almost matching Jin's for a moment.

She was ignorant of his encounter with her boss, and saw only his frustration at her. But before he could come back at her, Jack's quiet but friendly tone cut into their conversation.

"Is everything alright?"

Natalie turned to see that same smile he always displayed directed at Jin as Jack stood next to his seat, not yet taking it. He extended his hand in a genial manner, "I've read a lot about you, Mr. Kushina. I'm Jack...a friend of Natalie's."

Natalie somehow doubted that would go over as well as Carter planned.

"Nice to meet you," Jin responded. Although Jack couldn't tell, Natalie sensed the lack of sincerity in Kushina's reply, evidenced more so with his lack of response to Jack's hand gesture. "I'm sorry you had to waste your time arranging this... meeting, but me and my fiancée have important matters to discuss. So if you'll excuse us…"

"We do?" Natalie looked up at Jin with growing anger.

Anything else she might have said was blocked by Carter's reply, "Oh? Well, I hate to get in the way, but I wish you'd reconsider. We were just having dinner and a good conversation. I'd hate to waste dinner...could you just give us a short while? I promise I won't keep her too long."

For reasons obvious to both Agents, Jack couldn't invite Jin into the conversation, but Natalie was sure Jin didn't understand why. She could see only the faintest strain at the corners of Jack's eyes, and only noticed it because it was something she hadn't seen before.

"Yes, we do," Jin replied at Natalie. Was she trying to push him to the side, and put this guy, a virtual stranger, as a higher priority over him instead? He turned back to Jack, armed with the same sincere-sounding but not genuinely sincere tone, "My apologies, but it is a matter of importance." And then, more bluntly, "Not that I necessarily feel the need to stress the importance of anything concerning myself and Natalie to strangers."

Instead of being put off by the words, Jack only shrugged and nodded. "Another time then," he told Natalie, then leaned down to unexpectedly put one arm around her for a brief moment. If he slipped anything into her pocket, she didn't feel it, only blinked until he pulled back and gestured Jin towards the chair he'd been sitting in.

"All yours," Jack said with his usual grin, and was soon gone.

Natalie recovered and shot an annoyed look at Jin, "Well? What was so important?"

She stared at her meal rather than dig in like usual. Whatever important thing Jack had called her about and had been about to say would have to wait, and as he'd put it, they didn't have a lot of time. She did wonder what Jin had to say and wanted to hear it, she just hoped that whatever reason he'd run Carter off for was good.

"I don't like this."

Natalie blinked and stared at him for a long moment. This - his 'important matter' - was just telling her something she already knew? "Hun, as profound as I'm sure that statement is, is that really all you have to say?" The circles under her eyes seemed more noticeable now, as lids narrowed in a slightly incredulous gaze. She was aware of how Jin felt about her job, but she had thought she'd made it clear that – for now – it was necessary.

"It's enough," was his reply. He soon stared at her with grave eyes. "You're changing, and not for the better."

She didn't like where this was going. Another long pause passed as she stared at him with dull eyes. "I'm doing what I have to in order to get through this…" she said in a quiet tone. His words and any implication therein bothered her deeply, because she knew he wouldn't say something like that casually. "I told you before that I don't have any options. So what do you really want to say to me?"

"Arranging secret meetings, coming in at late nights, or in yesterday's case, not at all..." Jin spoke on, as if directly continuing on from where he left off whilst ignoring Natalie's response in the process. "I don't like how... dedicated you've become to all this, as if you don't know where it's gonna lead you." He studied her inquisitively. "In fact, how deep are you in this?"

"As deep as someone in my position is expected to be," she said vaguely, and it was at least a partial lie. Taking Jack up on his offer increased her risks, but if his suspicions were true, it would ultimately pay off well. Natalie took a deep breath, then, "I know where this will lead me, Jin. Back home with you if I perform up to standard...or to prison if I don't." There was a third option as well, but she didn't feel the need to state it. There were some things he was better off not knowing the odds of. One hand pinched the bridge of her nose briefly as she felt the beginnings of a headache. "Trust me, it's nothing I haven't done before."

"Or dead," Jin said flatly. "Which goes right back to my last question: tell me how deep Parker's pushed you in this?"

There was the option of telling him the truth, which meant breaking policy - something she didn't care too much about - and possibly putting his life in danger, something she did care about. But the truth wouldn't serve to make him feel any better about their situation...it would almost certainly do the opposite and work against her. Then again, if she brushed him off with a simple answer, he would know it was a lie. She wondered how much he had or hadn't noticed...that she had started sleeping with her gun under her pillow, showering with her holster hung in the bathroom and never was she without her phone and a weapon. Natalie thought carefully over her words before answering, picking up her fork and idly pushing the food on her plate around. "Deeper than you'd like me to be." It was both honest and uncompromising.

"Just as I thought," Jin said. It wasn't until he spoke again that he realized he'd reached one hand across the table to clasp Natalie's during the course of the conversation. His next words, however, lacked such tenderness, "Then get out."

Her hand turned palm-up to curl fingers around his as if imploring him to understand. Both slender brows drew low over narrowed eyes. "Don't you think I would if I could? I think I already established that I can't."

"I'm not buying it," Jin countered with equally narrowed eyes. "Especially coming from you,"

With a soft but frustrated huff, Natalie leaned on the table as if it would somehow help her argument. "Why? Because I can pull a handful of tricks? They found me twice already...and we both know it's not just about me anymore."

"So wh-" Jin's comment went unfinished as he caught the sound of a camera click. He stared over towards his left in time to receive a camera flash directly at his face, momentarily blinding and adding further to his irritated state.

Also caught and stunned by the flash, albeit not as bad as Jin, Natalie's eyes zoned in on the culprit: a young male photographer, with all signs pointing to being a paparazzi. I so don't need this right now...she thought grimly.

Jin glared at the intruder whilst instinctively raising one arm to cover his face. "Go away," he warned sternly.

The photographer doesn't comply, but instead chose to shower a second, then a third irritatingly bright camera flash at the pair, which even drew some disapproving glances from a few nearby patrons who found the picture-taking a disturbance.

"Hey, didn't you hear-" Unbeknownst to Natalie, up until the subsequent moment, Jin had made his move just before the third flash, rising up so quickly from his chair that he'd knocked it over in the process. By the time she could continue her speech Jin was already in the guy's face, with one hand reached out towards the offending object. Before the man had time to escape, Natalie saw Jin's hand lash out and knock the camera away, where it landed some feet behind them, followed by her fiancé latching his other black-gloved hand onto the collar of his shirt.

"Hey, that's a very expensive-" the man screamed into Jin's face, and would no doubt have continued, if not for what he saw in Jin's eyes that abruptly brought his words to a cease.

His eyes were glowing.

"I've not had a good day today," Jin started, further tightening his grip on the hapless photographer's shirt as he continued, "and I did warn you to go away." Jin then held up a hand in front of his face and gave the irritant a cold stare. "Since you know who I am, then you should know what I can do…" he accentuated those words by igniting his palm into thin, flickering strings of dark flames, the insignia of his namesake, as what appeared to be a chilling smile formed upon his features. "Moero-" (Burn)

Jin is cut off again for the second time this evening, except this time it's by Natalie, who has yanked Jin's grip away from the photographer, simultaneously pushing him out of the way to essentially end up standing in the place he stood former. The latter has no qualms about taking full advantage of the situation, promptly turning around to retrieve his camera and fleeing the scene even faster.

Jin stared with a brief moment of puzzlement at Natalie's now-stern expression towards him, wondering what she seemed to be so upset about.

"What the hell were you doing back there?!" Natalie scolded. "Don't tell me you were stupid enough to actually attack him?!"

"Stupid?" Jin frowned and let both his hands drop whilst snuffing his flames out with a closed fist, his whole plans of destroying the camera - with the added bonus of deliberately scaring the guy - now foiled. "Sounds like someone's forgotten which one of us is 'deeper than you'd like me to be'."

The unwilling Agent stared up at her lover incredulously for a second. She almost couldn't believe that he'd nearly hurt the guy. It was close to reminiscent of something he might've done in a life past. Turquoise eyes hardened again as she realized she wasn't the only one this situation was changing.

"What's wrong with you?? Why are you being like this? It's not like you've never done anything that put you in harm's way!" She hissed as quietly as she could considering there were several people staring at them now. "Why can't you trust me to handle this? I'll be fine."

He smiled at her then, but it was an empty smile, accompanying the cool tone of the quiet words that followed. "Then for your sake, you'd better hope that's the case."

He looked at her only a second longer before turning to leave, but that instance was long enough for her to see the lingering anger and resentment in his eyes. Something she knew that only she could tell, as patrons slowly turned back to their meals, believing the excitement to be over with his absence and parting comment.

Natalie stared at his retreating form for the moment it took for him to go completely out of her line of vision, her expression cool. Yet inside, negative emotions were a roiling combination of bitterness, frustration, fatigue and anger.

A familiar voice cut into her thoughts. "I take it that didn't go well."

Natalie turned to the source and saw Jack standing there. He held up one hand with a piece of paper in it, smiling apologetically. "Forgot to pay the bill," he explained.

She sighed and took her seat at their table after he gestured for her to do so. Conversation around them slowly resumed, but she could hear snippets of it were about the scene that had just taken place.

"He doesn't like my work, or the reason I'm involved in it." She didn't know why she vented even that much to him, maybe the stress had become a bit too much.

"You mean he doesn't like that you're being forced to cooperate."

She shouldn't have been surprised that he knew, but she did raise a brow at him. "Yeah."

Jack shrugged, "It's a hard life, doing what we do. Sometimes...you sacrifice what you care most about because it gets in the way…" Then, with a hint of melancholy that made Natalie wonder if he talked from experience, he added, "or to protect them. Either way, it's never easy."

She sighed and stared down at her food. She wouldn't do that, she simply refused. Because if she gave him up, it meant she no longer had any hope for herself. But wasn't that being selfish? "I don't want to talk about this right now. It's been a long day. Can we get to what you called me here for?"

Jack's smile returned and he picked up his fork, "Sure, but let's eat in the meantime. No point in wasting good food, is there?"

Hungry as she was, Natalie couldn't help but agree. "You're buyin' next time too, just so ya know," she said as she picked up her utensils and dug in.

****

-- The Makai, 7:40PM --

From the word 'Go' and a mental nudge, Maru scrambled off Iwa's palm and up the walls via the vines and railings. Another mental nudge and Maru stopped to catch a familiar scent. He made his way carefully through the balcony windows and scrambled up the curtains and hid in an unobtrusive spot while the Maru-cam attached to him sent its feed back to Iwa.

Below him John was busying himself around his room checking this box and that monitor. The frustration on his face seemed to hint he was running low on ammunition and the monitors were pretty much useless as his target only returned to her room to sleep. There was a beep on his computer and he scrambled over to it at once. An instant messaging box popped up and led to a flurry of typing from John.

Over the course of the electronic conversation John seemed to calm down. A tab on his computer's window started to blink and maximizing it showed a map with a marked location and a time and date. There was a list of things that he should expect to receive as well.

A mental nudge from Iwa signalled Maru that she had seen what she needed to know and he could return. A twitch of his whiskers and he was down the curtains and out of the windows.

****

-- The Makai, poolside, 8:10PM --

Sakura lounged by the pool in the cool evening breeze with her cell-phone in hand. Her red and white bikini contrasted against lightly tanned skin under the glow of the lamp-posts set around the pool. A few other guests milled about, swimming in the clear water or relaxing outside of it as she did. Her expression screwed into a frown as she checked her voicemail. "Dammit, Mien takes forever to return my calls…"

"Better watch those thighs, Sakura. You're getting as chunky as that Chun Li woman. Unlike me…" the woman preened as she placed one hand on a slender but toned thigh.

Brown eyes glared up at Karin Kanzuki, who tossed golden ringlets back from covering her lavender bikini top.

"Say that to her face, Karin, and she'll kick your heart-shaped ass," Saky replied in as sweet a tone as she could muster.

Karin harrumphed with a frown of her own. "Whatever. What are you doing, anyway?" she asked as she deposited her towel and sarong on the lounge chair to Sakura's right.

"Trying to get in touch with a friend…" the brunette replied. Fuss and spat they did, but their rivalry had somehow turned into an unwitting (and often hard to detect) friendship.

Karin sighed, "I know how it is. Everyone around here has better things to do than help me find a suitable date for a dinner party…" The frustration in the girl's tone made Sakura chuckle.

"Why don't you just find your own date. There's plenty of guys around here…"

Karin stared at Sakura as if in shock. "Go out with…" she made a general gesture to wave her hand in a wide arc, "these guys?! Half of them are like over-glorified professional wrestlers! And the rest are so…" She wrinkled her nose as she finished, "plain."

Sakura rolled her eyes and started playing a game on her phone. "Suit yourself, no one else can help that you're so picky."

"I'm not picky," Karin corrected, "I have standards, that's all."

"Uh huh."

Karin sat on the lounge chair, frowning petulantly at being almost ignored. "I saw that you have a match in a couple of days…"

Sakura looked back at the blond and gave up on her amusement with her cell phone. "Yeah, with Ryu-sensei."

Karin grinned, "Are you nervous? You know you have no chance of winning, right?"

Sakura huffed. "I'm excited, actually. And some encouragement you give…"

"I try," Karin said flippantly. "Say, that funny-dressed girl you hang out with fights the day after tomorrow, hmm? I heard she got matched up with her boyfriend…" Karin's impish grin implied her pleasure at having something to gossip about. There just were enough people around who liked it so much, and Meliza was just too busy most of the time to do 'girl' things.

"It's her fiancé, actually." Too bad Sakura wasn't quite as into 'girl' things as some, so that was all the interesting information she offered. Truthfully, that's what she'd been trying to contact Mien about. She tried texting as well as calling, but got no response either way. Saky wanted to wish her luck in the match, maybe hang out a bit and spar.

Karin was oblivious to Sakura's lack of interest in the conversation topic and continued, "Oh ho! Have they gotten into any spats because of it?"

Sakura actually chuckled then, "I wouldn't know, Kanzuki, I haven't talked to Nat much in the last few days."

Karin's look turned quizzical then, "Nat? I thought her name was something else…"

Oops, Sakura thought, then sighed. It couldn't hurt, really. She'd heard several people call Mien by her real name, which the girl had finally told her the last time they'd gone out. "That's her alias. Her real name is Natalie."

Karin quirked a brow. Why would anyone use an alias to enter a tournament? Come to think of it, she'd seen the girl in passing wearing a blazer and dress slacks rather than her usual...whatever-it-was-called garb.

Umbrella and other shady companies, disappearing combatants, one murdered fighter, myriad other strange happenings, and now some girl with a split personality. Weird.

Suddenly Sakura's phone started playing a popular rock song and she answered immediately with a grin, knowing by the ringtone she'd set who it would be. "It's about time!"

Karin gave Sakura a bored look as the woman continued on the phone.

"Yeah...yeah I know. So you wanna hang out in the gym for a while? I gotta practice...and you got a match soon, too." Sakura wondered at the hesitation on the other end of the phone, but her smile lit her face again at the answer she got.

"Great! See you in...what, half an hour? Cool, ja!"

As Saky got up and towelled off still-damp hair, Karin sighed, "So that was your friend?"

"Yep, we're gonna spar a bit. Wanna come?"

Karin looked at the pool she'd yet to hop into. "Well, I wanted to go for a swim…"

"That's fine. You can drop by when you're done if you want," Sakura said as she picked up her stuff. "See ya!" she added, then jogged back toward the hotel.

Karin sighed as she stood up and made her way to the diving board. On her way, she stuffed her curls under a swimmer's cap and pouted inwardly. I don't see why everyone has to be so damn busy...Granted, she was busy too, but at least she took time out to mingle.

Hmm, maybe she would stop by the gym. The girls could probably get cleaned up after they were done fighting and accompany her for some drinks.

Karin giggled to herself. Well, she would be sure not to let them get too wasted. Just enough to have fun with her. She climbed the ladder and was soon diving into the cool water of the pool.