Author's Notes: I’ve had this chapter done for..err..at least a month, but I was just down right lazy, I suppose. Also having a lot of problems with my crazy soccer coach at school who has made it his ultimate goal to make my life a living hell in his presence after I quit the varsity team last weak in favour of track due to his evilness. Yeah... now I’m just ranting.
Also, as I mentioned in the Hwoajin ficlet I just put up, I also wrote a couple of Bryan/Lei one-shots for my friends, but I’m asking you guys what you would first think about me posting them... because... yeah, they’re a bit scary because Bryan just classifies as “that” character you can relate to those in other fandoms such as Lucious Malfoy, Naraku, Nakago, Goh, Xion, Muraki, or just anyone downright evil & sadistic, so the yaoi with them is usually of that nature.
The Past is the Past
Chapter 10
~The end now grows near
as the past now grows far...
A time when you find yourself wondering
who you really are...
Bryan stood outside of the shattered window, almost in sheer disbelief of how Heihachi had managed this. Managed to get from one place to the other in such a short amount of time. This didn’t matter though. Not when the elder Mishima now visibly stood inside of a lifting helicopter, laughing while holding the seemingly unconscious Lei Wulong in his arms.
“You’re time’s almost up. I’ll get you next time,” Heihachi sneered with a heightened smirk of amusement on his face, the helicopter then proceeding to lift into the hazy night sky.
Bryan stared at the flashing lights of the receding helicopter until their flickering illuminations were no longer present among the stars. Without word, Fury suddenly let out a loud growl of anger, instantly striking his fist against – and into – the neighbouring brick wall. A dispersal of dust and stone bursts in all directions as Bryan did this.
Fury pulled his fist back from the dented wall, unclenching it to temporarily take a look at his full hand. The skin had been broken around his knuckles, but almost no blood whatsoever flowed from the wound. Instead, the silver essence of metal was present beneath the flesh... Bryan just stood, staring. What was happening to him? Why now? Why did he all of a sudden find himself in question as to what he was? Or more, why he suddenly cared...? Before, he had sworn he had wanted nothing more than power. Power; and anything that would serve to increase it. But now, he suddenly felt... differently...
“Goddamn you, Lei Wulong.”
The elder Heihachi sneered once more in satisfaction of himself, and the power he possessed which would soon become even more powerful than it had ever been before.
“Soon...” he grinned to himself, staring out the helicopter’s nearest window that he stood by, looking down at the place he had left Fury. Even though there was now nothing really to feed to view other than building tops bordered by the darkness of night itself, the Mishima could take a pretty good guess as to what the picture currently looked like. Bryan Fury would come; but he was to lose, and this was most certainly for sure, Heihachi would see to it. How did the elder man know Fury would even follow though? Simple. Fury now had nothing left to savour in his life of encompassing death that had surrounded him for so long. Even though arisen in new life; Bryan had brought death along with him. To cheat death is to live in the darkness of it, much like Heihachi’s son Kazuya Mishima had been since the age of five, though even for Kazuya it was obviously much worse than it had ever been before in these more recent times; the evil consuming his shared soul. Heihachi actually debated momentarily as to who would actually win the prize for the most ruthless, blood-hungry being. Kazuya, or Fury? Still... he had to keep in mind one thing. Kazuya had a soul he didn’t own, but Bryan possessed no soul at all.
“Ugh...”
Heihachi turned, his previous state of contemplation broken by the interruption of a sudden groan from behind. It appeared Lei Wulong hadn’t been in a coma as he’d earlier thought, but from the look of things, it wouldn’t be long before he fell into one. The marred detective had been thrown like a piece of debris into a random helicopter seat in the nearest of three, separate rows. The area further back was crowded with at least five or six Tekkenshu either sitting, or talking in some random chat. There were also two other Tekkenshu up front, apparently pilots as well.
“Hmp, I hadn’t expected you to wake up anytime soon,” Heihachi smirked from his standing spot next to a large window of the helicopter’s side door, facing Wulong who only sat a few yards to his front.
“You bastard...” Lei managed to say, groaning each and every time he shifted a limb or his position at all, even an inch.
“This just hasn’t been your week, has it?” the Elder Mishima mocked in a rude tone filled with amusement. “I honestly don’t see why you ever decided to enter any of the Iron Fists in the first place. Your performance in all three of the tournaments you’ve participated in can be summarized as nothing short of atrocious, and worst of all; weak. You’ve always been the weakest male competitor ever to enter the Tekken, and hell, even Nina Williams overpowers you in strength. If you had of been my son, I would have killed you for it at first sign due to the dishonour you’d place upon me. Chaolan Lee may not be the strongest fighter in the tournament, stronger than you I might add, but at least he bares the fighting skills to win and the intelligence to succeed.”
“Go.. to fucking.. hell..” Lei harshly stated with hate; something he’d been taught never to show or feel. But he did. He hated this man. It was obvious to Lei that Heihachi knew he’d be no challenge to fight, especially like this, so it now appeared to Wulong that the Mishima before him was instead going to have some fun fucking with his mind, just to heighten his sick hilarity. “For being the worthless fighter I am, you sure acted as if I was an important asset to the previous tournament.”
Heihachi shook his head with a slight laugh, acting like he was waiting for Lei to say more.
Lei looked down at the floor temporarily in thought, everything preluding the fourth tournament suddenly rushing back through his thoughts. “You wanted me to join you; help you with your research somehow, in which I of course rejected. I never found out what it was.”
“Well it doesn’t matter now, for you’ve helped me all the same with your stubbornness,” the elder man replied, his voice serious, yet mocking at the same time, “You did as you always did in the past. In attempts to gain more strength, you’ve always made those around you all the more vulnerable in the process of it, for honour. Well I’ll tell you this much, Wulong Lei, helping others merely to help yourself makes you no better than so many of the other greedy rats who entered my previous tournament,” Heihachi spat with a glare.
Lei didn’t want to hear anymore of this. No. He didn’t know if he could handle anymore of Heihachi’s menacing words; true words... which had seemed to shred right through him.
“Now it won’t be long,” Heihachi continued, “Be long before everything is set in place. Bryan Fury’s death will be the starting point of unleashing my great power, for then nothing can possibly stand in the way of my bio-weapon. I have my son and grandson chained up at this very moment, along with Ogre’s DNA in my grasp, so the devil gene will be mine shortly as well. ...The world will soon enter what will be known as ‘the age of darkness’.”
“Overconfidence is your weakness,” Lei accusingly stated.
“Foolish bitch. Your weakness is your weakness.”
Bryan continued to run down the streets as fast as he could, caring less as to what or who he ran into along the way. Hell, he’d sworn he’d knocked a young woman through the glass window of some restaurant a couple blocks ago, but it of course meant nothing to him. Fury knew where he was going; and nothing would stand is his way. As of now; the Fourth Tekken was back into play, which was actually true, even considering Bryan’s current unawareness to this... Fury was contented with his apparent success in ditching the numerous cops awhile back before they’d made their arrival to the deserted street he’d recently vacated of his presence.
Still, with every four-foot step of the way Bryan now took down the luminous sidewalk, or sprint in this case, he felt his strength deteriorate that much more. Oh fuck it. As long as he possessed enough power to brutally kill these fucking bastards he’d despised for so long. All of them. Heihachi, for taking everything away from him. Dr. Abel, for giving him life, only to give him death. Lei Wulong for... everything, really.
I should’ve fucking killed him back at the inn.
No matter what, one thing was certain. If Bryan truly was to die on this night, he would not be the only one.
Back to Lei again... Things had obvious swayed from the original path Fury had intended in the start, which was to make Lei his, use him, and dispose of him. Not in any pleasant form whatsoever, he might add. Still... why hadn’t Fury killed Lei already? He’d originally planned things out much different the day before... basically to rape him to a bloody pulp, before slitting his throat. The last part actually wouldn’t have seemed nearly so sadistic as anyone would have normally expected of Bryan, but the idea of ripping the detective’s body limb by limb and organ by organ didn’t really appeal to him as much for some reason, though the idea was still fairly tempting. Yes, Lei Wulong’s motionless body would look much too beautiful completely splattered in dark crimson... maybe with a few slow; make that agonizingly slow; stabs to the side, accompanied by the incessant cries of unbearable pain. Make him suffer a slow death.
Yes, things had definitely not gone as planned. As Fury continued to sprint down the tapered sidewalks, an unfamiliar feeling had begun to set it. It was regret. An unknown feeling to him... He regretted not having killed Lei back at the inn, and now viewed the fact that he hadn’t exterminated the detective as a sure sign of weakness. ‘Bryan’ and ‘weak’ definitely didn’t fall within even a thousand miles of each other. Hell, he had possessed more power than any of the other competitors ever to enter the Tekken, and was namely the most powerful being in existence. However, he had previously failed to uphold this title due to the sickness brought along with the death that yet again was closing in on him. Fury staked everything on this one purpose; to become the most powerful being in existence once again. What the fuck else mattered? What other purpose in life did he have? Once again, he valued power the way Lei valued honour.
Your death would be too much of a wasteful shame in all this...
“What the hell?” Bryan said aloud during his run, barely even distracted by the wreck he’d just caused jaywalking, “Fuck, I actually said that shit,” he growled. Yet again another regret.
Or maybe he was just angry.
But then again, wasn’t he always?
“Okay everyone; out.” Heihachi had immediately spoken these words upon his departure from the large helicopter, which had landed right on the Mishima Zaibatsu’s roof.
A couple of Tekkenshu soon followed after the elder Mishima, on either side of Lei as they dragged him by the arms down the small flight of retractable steps.
“Did you shoot him up?” Heihachi asked his fighters, wondering if the detective would even live long enough to reach his prison after the overdose of narcotics he’d been injected with to prevent him from trying anything smart, or more stupid in Heihachi’s opinion. He didn’t have time to worry about any of this right now; his sights were now set on another task he first had to fulfil before everything would surely be set in stone with his plans. Of course. The elder man still had Kazuya and Jin to first take care of.
“Yep,” one of the Tekkenshu replied, “Don’t worry; he’s not going anywhere anytime soon.”
“Better make that anytime at all,” Heihachi corrected. “Take him to the lab, while prepare for the fourth Tekken’s final battle...” An evil lip curl soon found its way to the man’s face.
The whole while Lei felt himself being dragged to wherever the hell he was going, he was completely delirious. This whole thing was like one, big nightmare he couldn’t wake up from, no matter how hard he tried. His whole body ached, especially his arm, but at the same time he felt completely relaxed in reaction to the drugs. It seemed being doped up and then hauled off somewhere was now becoming a rather frequent happening in this chapter of his life, which Lei now feared would be the closing one.
“Get in there!” Lei heard some voice yell while falling to hit the hard surface of the floor. A door slam followed this.
Now where the hell am I?
The detective took a moment to study his new surroundings, though everything seemed to be moving in slow-motion. He viewed things as if he had the worst case of astigmatism in history while his surroundings spun, looping in endless circles.
“Well, well, well. Look who it is.”
“Wha...?” It had been fairly hard just for Lei to manage getting this out.
“And to think I’d half expected you to be dead by now. Obviously you’ve had more of an influence on Fury than I would have thought – just because you’re alive.” These words had been spoken by none other than the treacherously evil Dr. Abel, who stood a mere yard away from where Wulong lay kneeled on the floor. “No matter. Accordingly, it shouldn’t even be three hours before Fury meets his now ultimate death, while Heihachi Mishima has meanwhile gone to take care of his remaining bloodline. Then, I shall combine Jin’s, Kazuya’s, and Ogre’s DNA with Heihachi’s own, and create—”
“An unstoppable monster...” Lei finished the sentence off.
“Precisely. And we mustn’t forget my superior bio-weapon.”
“You bastard... You know damn well what the influence of the devil-gene will be on everyday life forms; suppressed, or not. You can’t contain that kind of unnatural power, all other genes will subside. The very world as we know it would become one, big hell. Is that your definition of human enhancement?!”
“Hmp,” Abel smirked with a hint of annoyance, “You’re one smart idiot, even though you practically described our world in its current state anyhow. The joy of rebirth cannot be witnessed without the fate of destruction.”
The callous doctor then turned to walk away from the detective, who was pretty much glued to his current spot on the floor for the time being, so Abel wasn’t worried about anything. He just hoped Fury would soon arrive. In Bryan Fury; his own DNA, there contained a key. Exactly what Bryan was. Death. Somehow, there was a way for Bryan’s own enhanced genetics to outweigh that of the devil-gene in its earlier states. Anyone who held this knowledge, Dr. Boskonovich for example, could use this factor as a definite means for putting a halt to Abel’s bio-weapon, rendering it useless. In Bryan, Abel had brought death to life, while the bio-weapon would most certainly bring life to death. This didn’t mix. New life defeated death...
By this time, at least an hour or so had passed since Lei had first arrived to the Mishima Zaibatsu, perhaps longer. Slowly awakening, the first thought which happened to cross his weary mind was ‘I wonder where the hell I’ll wake up this time?’. It certainly figured.
“Hey, you okay?”
Lei realized shortly after hearing this foreign voice that he was being shaken slightly by the shoulders, before the same words were once more spoken. Still delirious and obviously paranoid, Lei impulsively shot his right fist up to whoever the was, a moving picture of random faces playing through his head as to who this was, even though his eyes were still closed.
The detective yelped slightly when his hand hit something hard upon contact, his eyes then opening while he struggled about, being held down by whoever this other person was.
“Hey! Cut it out, or they’ll hear you!”
“B-Bryan?” Lei murmured in hallucination while feeling his wrists pinned down. This was most likely why.
“Uh, no... I didn’t figure you’d forgotten m name that soon.”
His vision finally starting to settle a bit, the long-haired man was then able to get a better view of who this was. “Yoshimitsu?”
The Manji leader nodded, releasing his hold on Lei’s wrists once he’d seem to have calmed down.
“Wha...where...”
“You’re in the Mishima labs,” Yoshimitsu stated. “I came here to free Dr. Boskonovich and help put a halt to Heihachi’s evil intentions. I just happened to see you in here, since the walls are mostly made of glass.”
Lei groaned, rubbing the back of his head while sitting up. Yoshimitsu noticed the long streams of dried blood all along the arms of the Chinese as he did this. “What the hell was done to you, anyway?”
“I was shot up with whatever kind of drugs they decided to use, and whatever they are; they’re powerful. My senses are soiled, that’s for sure.”
“It also looks like there’s something wrong with your right arm,” the older man stated.
“Ugh... the drugs almost made me forget about that much, at least,” Lei sighed, rubbing his bruised arm with the hand of his left. “When Heihachi did this to me earlier, I swore he damn near tore it off... Where is he, anyway?”
“He’s gone to his temple at the moment for the final battle.”
“What?” Lei inquired in curiosity, “But the tournament ended. The victor was never announced.”
“That’s because the tournament was never finished. It was but a mere trap to capture Mishima Kazuya and Kazama Jin.”
“I forgot about that,” Lei cursed to himself. “I sure hope Jin is alright... I heard he disappeared in the finals, and that’s how Kazuya instead won by default, before he too disappeared.”
The ninja nodded in response. “Heihachi must be defeated; that much is sure. He will not rest until his wishes are fulfilled, and I fear light may be shifted to darkness quite soon unless he is overcome once and for all.”
“Jin is the key,” Lei confidently assured, “He’s the only one fighting in the way of good who possess the power and skill to take Heihachi down. Kazuya and Bryan would probably have a chance, too, but I fear their victory would result in something horrible as well...”
“Revenge is the number two reason the fighters used for motivation in this tournament,” Yoshimitsu said in remark, “And it’s not ever a good reason, either.”
Lei’s brows furrowed a bit. “If revenge is number two, then what is one?”
“Power.”
“I should have figured that right off...” Lei sighed.
“Anyway, we need to get going,” the Manji stated, briefly inspecting his surroundings. He was thankful to see no one within view, other than Lei, along with a couple falling security guards and lab attendants he’d taken down. Still, there were most likely cameras ever square inch of this place, so he couldn’t help but figure it wouldn’t be long before Tekkenshu or some lab workers strolled in. Yoshimitsu was going to make sure his efforts weren’t effete.
Lei found he was able to stand, though knew there was no way he could fight. He hated this. “If only I had my gun,” he cursed aloud. “Though I doubt it’d be of much use to my anyhow.”
“A few members of my clan and I were able to free what competitors I’m sure Heihachi was holding hostage here, and hopefully guided them to safety. I came back looking for Boskonivich.”
“They-they were alive?” Wulong sighed in utter relief of Yoshimitsu’s previous words.
“Yes indeed. Apparently, Heihachi had no use for them whatsoever other than to create confusion in the sick game of his, unless he wanted some extra test subjects around for the bio-weapon.”
“That’s exactly what Bryan said...” Lei trailed off. Not from the words, but moreover the thought of Bryan Fury alone.
“Look, I’m going to see what I can do to help you get out of this horrid hell before coming back here to take care of business.”
“There must be something I can do,” the detective objectively spoke, “I want to stop Heihachi and Abel as much as anyone. I’m not fighting sorely to help myself anymore... I want to help everyone, as it should be.”
Suddenly, the sound of rapid footsteps were heard; obviously in greater numbers than just a solitary few.
“In here!” a Tekkenshu shouted at the top of his lungs, holding a fully-packed gun while kicking through the double doors to enter the labs.
“Shit, they’re gone!” another man exclaimed.
The lead Tekkenshu once more looked around the deserted lab, seeing a few other soldiers, along with lab attendants, scattered about the floor. “I knew we shouldn’t have left that Chinese guy in here so unattended! I don’t care what the old man said!”
“We’ll get um’, though.”
A/N: There’s chapter 10, and thanks still more to my wonderful readers, especially Indigo Siren for giving me a nice idea earlier! (the ending sequence suggestion)
Now, I shall go buy more batteries for my keyboard -- the down point of wireless electronics, or at least for me because I use my keyboard so dang much!