She was irate.

No, to be honest she wasn't irate, she was madder then hell as she stood behind her desk she and spat out a tirade of abuse that didn't fit her female form or normal behaviour very well. They say redheads have a hot temper and at this point in time Valerie Stern was the definite proof of THAT.

A few of the closest staff stood before her as she fired of a seemingly endless tirade of abuse and anger fuelled insults. She had gone on for about five minutes and yet Bruce and Adam Wilson had no idea who her anger was aimed at and why...of course, Bruce had an idea...especially given the way the last show had gone down.

Sure the show had gone off moderately well and the ratings seemed good and like with every damn show outside the US the house had been packed and lively as only a Latin-American crowd could be, so all in all the show had been a success and had ended in a way that hyped the upcoming PPV perfectly.

There was however as they say a snag...one aspect of the show that had Stern less the pleased and far from happy.

One of the shows top stars, a former world champion had to say the least dodged a match, Jason Dante had decided to ignore his match with Cage of Duo and had instead opted to pursue some strange character that apparently tormented him in his private life.

Strangely enough the words "private life" had just been spit from Stern's mouth, she wasn't as Bruce and Wilson had already guessed to fond of Dante, and his latest escapade had brought her appreciation for the former world champion down to a new level of dislike and distaste.

Slowly the general manager of the TCW calmed down and let her spirits take it easy, as she did she sat down, before she calmed down enough to address other TCW issues she said.

"Right...if Mr. Dante wants to address his personal life in preference to his professional undertakings with the TCW, I'll play that game...If he doesn't show up to the new show...he can spend the rest of his life taking care of personal things...one more no-show on his part and his contract is null and void."

Wilson and Bruce both nodded.

"You want me to try to get hold of him and tell him?" Wilson asked.

Stern looked up from her papers and with a surprised look she said.

"No, he'll find out the next time he decides to act like a big diva and no show...we have other issues to attend to."

Bruce seemed a bit flattened by this, true his relationship with Dante that had once been friendly and a sort of mentor-student thing had turned sour a few years ago, these days Dante had nothing but loathing for Bruce and the things he had done, but no matter how sour things had turned between the two former friends, Bruce felt like he needed to warn Dante and decided to do just that as soon as this meeting was over. It was a long way to Chicago but Bruce had access to the TCW's jet and could make the journey in relative comfort.

Somewhere inside the strange former time-cop he wondered what drove him to do this, he wondered what drove him to help a man who by all means hated his guts.

*****

Her world lurched and wavered in strange ways, ever since she had put her hands to Jason Dante's temples her world had been a mess of conflict, anger and unventilated rage. The night were the worst, her dreams were filled with conflicts between love, hate, frustration, sorrow happiness and images she knew she had never seen mixed with what she thought were her real memories.

She sat up in her bed and buried her face in her hands, as fear, anger and hate mixed in her volatile mind, she began to cry...as tears brought on by frustration welled up in her eyes she felt as if a void had opened beneath her and threatened to suck her down into the murky depths of despair.

She had spent every night since she put her hands to Dante's head trying to find a way out, every night she had failed...every night was a new source of failure and frustration as her young mind seemed to build towards a great fall...time and time again she feared for her sanity...

If only...

If only Jason Dante was...

She didn't dare to let her mind have the word pass through it, she was afraid that letting it take root would unravel her fragile mind and bring on insanity...in the end she knew she couldn't keep the word out...she knew it had to pass through her mind...seconds later she gave up and let it.

"If only Jason Dante was DEAD!"

Without knowing it she had screamed it out, she had let her lungs vent her mind's desire...and just as she had feared, the wish had brought about the first step in the downward spiral...at this point there was no hope for Elsie, unless someone stopped her she would descend into madness.

Then as if her confession to a deaf night has been what she needed she laid down and fell asleep...a deep restful sleep without dreams and nightmares...the sleep of a satisfied mind.

While her confession had brought her calm and sleep, it brought no such thing for Cage...for him it only brought more sorrow and determination...He understood what had happened to Elsie when she put her palms on Dante's head...he knew instinctively what "he", Dante had done and what the albino had unleashed.

He also knew that it may be too late to turn back the time and undo the damage Dante had caused. No matter if he was wrong or right, Cage promised himself that Dante would pay for this...Elsie had been put in his charge so he could redeem himself for lifetimes of crimes and failures...he felt a familiar lump in his throat when he thought of the times past, he felt and suppressed a scream as he thought about how Dante with a single thought had erased all hope for Elsie, with one millisecond of thought, the Albino had erased all hope that Cage could ever shield Elsie from her true background...from her true heritage...Cage cursed Dante and his wife, he cursed the man who had brought this upon Elsie and himself.

Most of all he cursed a man who was no en route to Jason Dante's Chicago home.

*****

Bruce swallowed hard as he stepped up to the large oaken door that lead into Dante's mansion like home outside of Chicago. He felt hesitant as he approached, Bruce had never been fearful of anything, especially not Jason Dante. There had been a time when Dante and Bruce had been friends, in fact there had been a time that Dante had viewed Bruce as a mentor and a teacher on the path of corruption, those times just like the glory days of Bruce-666 were long gone, in the place of respect and friendship was a deeply rooted hatred towards Bruce.

The former time-cop sighed, Dante was right to hate him he thought...He had been forced to do some horrible things to Dante...this was of course something Bruce only confessed to himself when he was alone, only when he was on his own at night when his personal demons came out to haunt him...Guilt wasn't something Bruce handled well...and guilt he had in droves.

As he walked up to the large door he felt the wings of days gone by in the wind, he remembered the glory days of the Hellfire Club, he remembered the quartet of Bleeder, Bruce-666, Jason Dante and the Baroness...the most influential group ever to join the then 411fed, from it had sprung then roots to the Dynasty, the Vicious Circle and later the New Hellfire Club..all these years later the tendrils of Bleeder continued to strain on the sanity of the world.

As his hand rose to knock on the door, the grim realisation that he had been cut off from the world he been part in shaping sunk in, Bruce felt old for the first time in his strange life, as his right hand delivered the knocks to the door he felt the sting of the scars brought on my his time gauntlets more then ever...As his hand continued the motion he felt the fear of facing someone he knew hated him...for once Bruce felt hesitant about meeting Jason Dante, this time there was no sarcasm, no quick wit...only a desire to warn him and to in some small way pay back the debts he felt he owed his former student.

As the door opened he felt hesitation turn to determination.

"Yes?"

The voice was small and female, filled with a strange and potent mix of fear, sadness and anger, Bruce looked at the young woman who peered out at him from behind the shield the oaken door provided her, his face couldn't hide his surprise and reaction.

"Selenia?"

He had to ask, the woman who has so forcefully stood behind Dante the last few months and who was now his wife seemed to have shrunk, her eyes looked like she hadn't slept for ages and her jet black hair hung from her head the way unwashed hair tends to do. Selenia didn't say anything, she simply stared at him.

As he felt his confidence wash aay under her strange gaze he gathered what courage he had left and asked.

"Is Jason home?"

"No."

The reply was short and sounded awfully cold, Bruce got the idea that the cold wasn't aimed at him
at all.

"Oh...I eh..." For once the motor mouth Bruce had run out of words.

"Where is he then?"

"I don't know."

"Oh."

At this point a man who was larger then both Selenia and Bruce put his hand on the woman's shoulder in a protective way.

Ignoring this Bruce asked again.

"You sure you don't know?"

Before Selenia could reply the large man Bruce only knew by reputation to be Jay Ecks said.

"She already told you that she doesn't know..."

At this point Bruce noticed that Ecks seemed to suffer from the same sleep deprivation as Selenia did, his eyes were marked by the circles that told him that Ecks spend most of the days awake.

"Fine..." Bruce shot back before continuing. "...do you know where I can get hold of Jason?"

"No."

No hurt, no pain just a cold hard no. Bruce decided to up the ante a bit.

"You don't know where he has gone to...and you haven't notified the fed? If he's missing you should at least contact the police..."

Ecks face changed tiredness forced the cold exterior to crack somewhat.

"I'm not sure I care about him enough any more to bother doing that..."

"Not sure?"

With that comment the cold hard surface returned to Ecks face.

"Am I questioned by the fed for some reason?"

"No."

"Good, the shut your trap and fuck off!"

"But I..."

"Fuck off!" Ecks added for extra clarity before slamming the door shut in front of Bruce's puzzled face.

As he walked back to his car he felt more sure then ever that this was something he needed to take a loo at further. Deep down he felt a kind of relief that things were turning again, a relief based on that once more he could play a part in the game.

*****

Imagine the cheapest cheesiest motel room you can imagine. Cheap furniture that makes IKEA look upper class, wallpaper designed by a blind graphics designer and a rug with more debris in it then an average New York alley.

Got the image on your inner retina?

Good, now make that image twenty times cheaper and a hundred times dirtier and you get my home on the road in Brazil.

No don't ask me why a man like myself who despite losing his own companies owns a great idea of money would settle for a dirt hold in Sao Paulo for a home, you wouldn't like the answer.

Fine, to me the mind and the body is one and the same in a way, if I feel like shit mentally I tend to fell shit physically too, I know most people are like this, but sadly I tend to take this to extremes...thus we have me cooped up in a crummy Brazilian Motel accompanied by roaches.

Now, back to the plot....

*****

They say living in one world is hard, imagine living in two or even maybe three at the same time, with this in mind you can see the despair and trouble Jason Dante is in, ever since his temples were assailed by Elise's hands his world had been wrought to the point of absolute chaos.

He was alone...it had been a week since he had last heard his cellphone ring and had seen Selenia's number and name on the display...she had given up on him and somewhere in the jumbled mess of his mind, he couldn't blame her...he had dashed off from his pregnant wife to finish something he didn't even have a clue what it truly was...he had kidnapped a fellow TCWer...thankfully Selenia didn't know this as that would have probably driven her over the edge...the same edge Dante hadn't even stopped to look at after he had checked himself out of hospital after waking up, he had stepped out of the hospital and into a confused and perplexing world.

In his mind images that had both had seen and hadn't seen danced and both kinds claimed to be real.

He saw himself restrained by men in black while two other men of whom he couldn't recognize the faces off shook their heads in sadness at him.

Then he saw himself standing above the bloodied remains of a human...a woman...a woman who looked as if she had just been gutted, had her stomach torn open by a surgeon with less care then Charles Manson, he saw himself standing there with hands bloodied and a grin on his lips that was beyond sick and straight into disgusting, he heard the scream of anguish from someone who loved the woman, he felt a loneliness that was horrifying in it's depth and severity. Each breath he took he felt pain and sorrow assail him like linesmen charging a Quarterback. He saw people with faces that were gone, replaced by white, empty visages, he saw shapes looming and as certain events played out he felt a sharp pain in his head as if there was a road block he had hit trying to get further.

The last few hours he had been sitting on his bed with his legs tucked up to him looking like a twelve year old with a panic attack, as the pain hit again, he slumped out of the bed and fell into a nearly foetal position on the floor. He let out only a small sound and faint "help me", a desperate plea from a desperate man.

Images of murder and innocence mixed in his fevered mind as he picked himself up from the floor and staggered to the equally dirty and disgusting kitchen area, he filled the sink with hot water and stuck his head underneath the surface...he wasn't trying to kill himself, he was only trying to escape.

As the hot water began to make his skin tinge he pulled his head out of the sink and sighed...no release and no peace. He dried his face on a towel that has nearly rigid from dirt and walked into the living room/bed room on the threshold of the room he stopped and looked into the mirror, his eyes grew wide when he saw the face staring back at him...the face was unlike Jason Dante's clean shaven, in face it didn't even have eyebrows, it had a white/platinum blonde goatee sticking out from the chin, and around the eyes were the kind of rings that had these days been associated with Emos or Goths...the mouth was curled into a cruel and calculating grin, the man was dressed in black from head to toe, and wore a long black leather coat.

Dante's lips spoke a name too silently to be heard followed by a more forceful "You!"

The next words stumbled from his mouth like pearls from a necklace.

"No...It can't be...I got rid of that part of myself...no...he's dead...NO!"

As he threw himself face first onto the bed to bury his head and escape a destiny he thought was far behind him, it was only in his deepest despair and panic that a deep and restful sleep settled on him.

Hours passed by and he slept like a child.

As day turned into night he woke up, as the last rays of the sun was fading he opened his eyes and despite his head still rocking and reeling he had to focus as he wasn't alone.

Slowly he stood up and stared into where the eyes were supposed to be hadn't they been obscured by the cloth of a black mask.

Again the word "you..." passed his lips.

The time "You." Wasn't his twisted reflection.

This time "you" was the Hunter.

A black-gloved hand covered Jason Dante's mouth just as it had covered Selenia's a short time ago.

"Good morning, Jason."

Through the mask, Dante could make out the hint of a smirk on The Hunter's face. Sitting straight up, Dante comes face to face with the man who's been stalking him for months.

The Hunter is the first to make a move... He pulls the top of his mask off, revealing jet black hair and steel grey eyes, which are staring straight into Jason Dante's own pale pair.

"Do I look familiar to you, Jason? Do I invoke some sort of memory? Some past violation?"

Rather than reply, Dante kept his gaze locked with The Hunter's. On the surface, it appeared that he was showing his resolve. However, underneath, Dante was doing everything he could to ignore the screaming pain inside his head. This is how it felt with Elsie, only this was... so much stronger. So much louder.



The automatic doors of O'Hare International open wide into the night. Her hair still tousled and messed from sleeping on the plane, Elsie steps into one of the many waiting cabs. Unlike some of her TCW coworkers, Elsie is able to easily slip around the country, even the world, without much notice. To many, she's just some little girl.



Visions of fire fill Dante's mind. Not the hellfire he was used to, but something very primal and man-made. Fire bringing a house to the ground. A simple graveyard in the distance, with three unadorned headstones. The smell of blood and burnt flesh, and then that same image, a woman ripped apart, her body opened up in front of Dante.

Without realizing it, Dante was smirking.

"So now you begin to remember..."

Dante shakes his head, regaining some control, the smirk falling from his face. He was sitting face-to-face with his stalker... Why was I smiling??



The home was disturbed for a second time that night. A weaker knock this time. The door swings open again.

"Bruce, I already told -- Oh... Can I help you?"

A pair of hands reached up, touching the temples of Selenia's head. Both women's eyes floated backward as they stood there together.

Why had Elsie come here? She wasn't even entirely sure herself. All she knew was that she wanted answers. She needed them. Ever since that first encounter with Dante's mind, she'd been haunted by images of a man she did not know, but a man who was still very familiar to her. Other, far more disturbing visions were in her mind as well.

These images haunted Dante just as they haunted her. Between the two of them, she wasn't sure which of them, if any, actually came from Dante. Some seemed more familiar than others... Almost as if he had simply unlocked them in her own mind. Her quest for answers is what led her to reach out to Dante again during Havoc, to again intwine their minds. But there were no answers for her that night. The images and feelings only intensified for her, and, she imagined, for Dante as well.

Elsie had hoped that by coming here, she could see into Selenia's mind, and come closer to uncovering which visions were her own and which were merely implanted by Dante. Unfortunately for Elsie, The Hunter had already reached Selenia weeks ago. There would be no answers tonight. The same images that filled the minds of Elsie and Dante also filled Selenia's.



"Jason, we are not going to finish this tonight. That's not why I'm here... At Retribution, when you're putting on a show in front of millions, that's when we're going to finish this. I'm going to make sure everyone is aware of exactly what you've --"

The Hunter isn't allowed to finish as his body is thrown into the opposite wall after Cage's shoulder caught his midsection.

The monster throws a punch, his arm swinging forward, sending The Hunter's masked head half way through the hotel room wall.

Breathing heavily, his entire body throbbing, Cage snarls at Dante.

"Get out of the fucking bed, you idiot!"

Finally snapped back to reality, Jason Dante fires himself out of the bed, ready to fight.

"Uhnnn..."

The Hunter, still plastered to the wall, rubs his skull. Cage gives Dante an irritated glare.

"Why the hell are you still here?? You have more important things to do than getting both of us killed tonight! Hurry up!"

As The Hunter begins to push himself up, Dante heads toward the door without giving it much thought. His mind is still recovering, leaving him in no position to deal with both The Hunter and a pissed-off Cage.

"Get up! We're going to finish this before you drag her even farther into this mess of yours!"

The Hunter climbs to his feet, and Cage throws another punch. This one is dodged, The Hunter landing behind the big man.

As Dante races into the parking lot, heading to his rusty brown rental car, he attempts to take in what's just happened. Why on earth had Cage shown up? More than that, why had he shown up to help him?? More important things to do? What could he mean--

An image flashes into Dante's mind.

"Selenia!!"

Pushing the old car's engine to the limit, Dante makes off towards the airport. As he exits the parking lot, a loud howl echoes through his ears... It almost sounds like Cage screaming.

He fell to the floor with a thud, not that the thud could be heard over the screaming he did. A large man with greyish skin had dropped to his knees and was at this moment acting as if he was covered in insects that he tried to scratch off. As Hunter corrected his clothes as he stared at Cage's futile efforts to rid himself of what was plaguing him.

The large man had been on the offence, he had been the one to attack the Hunter as he desperately tried to right some wrongs...but most of all he had tried to protect Elsie

As the large man dropped on his back with the words "Get it out of me!" permanently written on his lips, the Hunter pulled off his mask and sat down on the bed that had only recently been occupied by Jason Dante.

As he sat there with his features unmasked and left to the ravages of the evening air, he took a deep breath and sighed. He had been planning this for so long, for years his had seen the raise of Jason Dante with increasing disgust, this man who...who carried so much of the reason for his, the hunter's personal agony on his shoulders had risen to prominence and greatness, he had even won the world title and forged a now dead alliance with the former champion.

And all the time the Hunter had watched and felt despair grow as a man he knew to only deserve misery prospered. He wiped the blood Cage's violent attacks had caused and then he paused. The large man seemed almost paralysed by the onslaught of the wave of misery and pain that had flushed over him, The Hunter shook his head and bowed down beside the large and still twitching man.

"Not up to it huh, Cage?"

He waited for a reply he knew would never come, then as the sarcastic grin was expected a sad and calm smile followed. He patted the large man on the shoulder and said.

"Don't worry, no one is."

He got up from the bed and before he left the room and Cage behind to face and maybe overcome his current weak state and his sudden phobias, he pulled the mask back down over his head covering the black hair and the steel grey eyes.

His head hurt as he walked off towards his car, there had been a time when he would leave a situation not unlike this one and flee to comfort and calm, there had been a time when the man who now called himself the Hunter had had a source of comfort.

But not now...not any more...and it was all because of that ass-hole Jason Dante. He creaked his neck. He felt slightly confused as he sat down behind the wheel of the rental car, Cage had showed up from nowhere...the man who had taken Dante to the limits hadn't attacked Dante, he had attacked the Hunter, calling this strange and perplexing was definitely right.

The Hunter understood that cage protected someone a girl or a woman, that much he understood...the question was who and why...The Hunter shook his head to clear the questions o9ut of his mind, the important part was that all the wrongs that had been done to him and to anyone in the TCW was the fault of one man...Dante was the one to blame...not him.

Not the Hunter.

*****

Selenia had fallen back into the marble decked hallway, she felt the cold stone floor beneath her, she felt the sickening cold spread through her body. As the chill in her mind began to almost paralyse her, something in her semi-demonic mind began to fight back, nanometre by nanometre she pushed the pain and the fears away, slowly she pushed the memories introduced to her mind by Elsie and the Hunter out, She felt her cheeks heat as the body disposed of the waste as heat.

She reached the memories that came from Jason and she paused and bit her lip, she had doubted him she truly had...but as the "clean" memories of Jason Dante emerged she saw the problem, of course it was still very much a muddy and jumbled up jigsaw to her mind's eye, but now at least she saw the entire puzzle, it didn't seem to have a true solution as it lay there a jumbled mess of different memories across the flotsam and jetsam of three or four different minds.

Slowly, the submissive Selenia withered away as her curiosity was awakened, piece by piece she began to see the world through the eyes she had had before the Hunter had attacked her and Jay.

As she slowly made her way back to her feet, Elsie stared at her, she had seen others turned into babbling simpletons by what ever it was she could do, she had seen Dante carried out on a stretcher after their minds interfaced. But this woman, Dante's wife...the person she saw as her last chance for an answer just got up.

As Selenia stood up, Elsie launched another "attack" on her, this wasn't born from a wish for answers or to solve the infernal jigsaw...she was simply motivated by the most basic of all human longings...Survival.

When she extended her hands, she was however restrained by two powerful grips, in a vain attempt fuelled by desperation, she fought Selenia on the marble floor, Her effort brought sweat to her brow and in the end tears to her eyes. She had come for answers, but had attacked Selenia, something in Elsie drove her to do this to a woman she had only seen across a wrestling ring before, a woman she had somehow at first depended on for help and then as soon as she had shaken off the effects of her her wish for help had turned into an inexplicable wish to hurt Selenia.

All these conflicting emotions brought Elsie to the brink of a break down, As her efforts to over power the older and stringer Selenia failed, she took that one final step over the edge and against her will, she began to cry...all she said as she stood there in front of Selenia who looked worn, tired and surprised.

"Why won't you just let me do it? Why? Why can't you just help me so I can sleep again...I'm so tired...I can't even...focus on anything any more...I get annoyed at the smallest thing...please let me find the answers...PLEASE!"

Selenia had to sit down after her ordeal, but she kept her eyes on the tired young girl.

"What answers are you looking for? I don't even know you..."

Elsie looked at Selenia as the tears her tiredness had brought on dried up.

"I'm Elsie...I...I..."

"You were the one that brought Jason down a few weeks ago."

Elsie nodded.

"Yes...Yes I am."

Selenia's face grew dark as she recalled the event, despite the false sense of betrayal she still loved Jason and had done so through this ordeal.

"Please..." Elsie begged.

"Don't worry...I won't hurt you...But you will help me."

"Help you with what?"

"Finding Jason...ever since this began has had been gone...and he is the only one who can help us make sense of this."

Elsie said nothing, she just nodded meekly, but somewhere in her mind a voice gave it's approval...a voice that wanted more then help...it was a voice asking for vengeance.

*****
It was in the middle of the night, the few people that spent the night at the airport were very few, in fact at the moment only three people seemed to be willing to refer to the cavernous arrival hall "home."

"Home."

He let the word pass his lips as he entered his second hour of waiting and his second hour of constant apologies from a clerk who was obviously over worked and only wanted to go home.

"Home."

He said the word as he stood at some unknown middle of no place airport waiting to get a ticket for his flight back to Chicago, he was used to globe-trotting from the time before Novamori, back then it was the fear of losing business that drive him on, now it was the desperate need for him to get to Chicago.

"To Chicago" he said to himself almost as if in a trance.

For many years New York had been his home, of course, he had never felt truly at home in the metropolis they called the Big Apple, it was only after Selenia had entered his life he began to feel at home in the city.

He sighed.

It had taken him this long to accept that the reason he had started to feel home was Selenia, his worry mixed with guilt as he thought back at his recent exile from home...his exile from Chicago.

He sighed again as he watched the clerk shake her head, his ticket wasn't done yet. He told her in broken Spanish that he was going to the toilet and would be back soon. He trudged off to the bathroom and entered, while it was nice to be in a perfectly clean toilet for the first time in weeks, he was too tired and too absorbed about the Selenia situation to even notice.

Seconds later a voice stirred him fro the comfortable lull of tiredness and worry.

"You think a grey oaf can stop me, Jason?"

Dante turned around and again came face to face with the visage that haunted his confusing dreams.

"You think, you can outrun a predator primed on you?"

As they stood face to face in the bathroom the masked man smirked, at least judging by the creases on the mask.

"I think it's time you learned a little lesson, Jason."

Somewhere in the deep darkness of Jason Dante's soul a beacon flared to life, he saw that the Hunter was poised to strike and he felt the man who had survived the battle on the Desert Mesa and the war in the Vegas carnival slowly be reborn, bit by bit the angst dropped off him, piece by piece guts and a spine grew back into him.

He only hoped he was ready for the attack he knew would come.

As The Hunter lunges forward, Jason Dante tries to dodge him. Both men tumble away from each other as the attacker srikes the side of Jason's abdomen.

Quickly back on their feet, the men circle each other, standoff-style, for a moment. Now they both lunge, with The Hunter gaining the upper hand.




"You're sure that's the right airport?"

Staring at the map on the screen, Elsie nods.

"Yeah... I'm positive."

Although she had some rather significant reservations about flying this far into her pregnancy, Selenia's bags were packed and being loaded into the car. Beside her, Elsie had no bags to pack, so she was more than ready to go.




The Hunter's arm is wrapped around Jason's throat, the masked man attempting to choke his adversary. Dante struggles to free himself, launching the occasional punch into The Hunter's ribcage. Both men move very slowly and deliberately.

Unlike the almost dance-like battles that take place inside the ring, this fight is messy, it's personal, and there's nothing even remotely choreographed about it. This shit's ugly.




The flight was stressful at best, the small, old plane being the only one making a flight this far south this late at night. The atmosphere on the plane wasn't helping things either, as Selenia sat next to the girl who had in the not-so-distant past attacked both her and the man closest to her.

"Does it ever hurt?"

Selenia looked down at her traveling companion. The bright eyes staring up at Selenia exposed the girl's youth and naivete. Despite all that the girl had been through, despite all she had done, she was still just that: a girl.

"Does what hurt?"

A finger pointed gently towards Selenia's stomach.

"The baby..."

Selenia smiled slightly at the girl. With Jason missing, she had barely spoken a word about her unborn child to anyone. Pregnancy really wasn't one of Jay's areas of expertise, and there really wasn't anyone else around.




The masked face of The Hunter jerks backward as Jason's thumb lodges itself in his throat. The Hunter frees Dante from his grip, and both men lean against opposing walls, their warm, heavy breath filling the air.

The men are at each other again, each attempting to grab the other. No wrestling holds, no fancy kung fu grips. Dante gives up on the idea and swings a fist forward.

The Hunter's head jerks back again. A small spot on his mask grows darker as blood drips from his mouth.

He fires back with a shot of his own, but Jason's head swerves just in time. Another blow follows, this one connecting with Jason's gut.

As the albino falls over his waist, an arm across his stomach, The Hunter pulls away his mouthpiece, wiping the blood onto his sleeve.

"Having fun yet, Jason?"




"Sometimes it hurts, but only very slightly. Even this far into it, the baby's still very tiny."

Rubbing her stomach, Selenia allowed Elsie to follow suit. The girl smiled up at her for a moment, then removed her hand, looking quickly to the floor.

"Cage told me that when mommy was pregnant with me, she was hurt real bad... He said that's why I had to come live with him..."




Glancing upward, Dante notices the smirk on The Hunter's face. Now he's over the edge, his body flying forward, slamming himself and his attacker into a sink. The both go down hard, but The Hunter took the brunt of it all.

Dante's still on him, and the two of them are rolling on the floor. Landing on top, Jason locks his hands around The Hunter's neck. With the mouthpiece out of the way, Jason can see the veins in the man's neck bulging, the skin turning red.

The Hunter's hands are reaching upward, trying to force Dante's arms apart. The albino keeps choking, a look of madness in his eyes. Both men are grunting, unable to speak.

"Who's in control now, you piece of shit!"

Such unrestricted, violent outbursts are something of a rarity from Jason Dante, at least since he parted ways with the "old" Hellfire Club. But right now, Jason Dante is taking down the guy that even Cage couldn't handle.

A line of blood flows from Dante's mouth as he bites down on his own lip, his fingers digging into The Hunter's throat.

"You want to reach for something? You want to fuck with my head some more?! Well here you go!!"

Releasing his grip from The Hunter's neck, Dante grabs the masked man by the forearms. As The Hunter wheezes and gasps for air, Jason forces his attackers hands onto his temples.

For a moment, both men are frozen. The bathroom is silent, save for the sounds of a leaky faucet and The Hunter's lungs searching for more air.

Then it happens. It's slow at first, almost unnoticeable. A couple random ticks from either man. Then a few more, a little more obvious. A leg shoots off in one direction, an arm in another. By now, both men are locked in position, convulsing, one on top of the other, The Hunter's hands stuck to Jason's skull.

A few minutes later, it's all over. The ticks and convulsions end. With a final heave, Dante collapses on top of The Hunter.

The men lie there for a moment, neither one seeming to be conscious.

A head jerks up. The Hunter shoves Jason off of him. His eyes dart around the room suspiciously. If Jason was awake, he would notice that the grey has faded from them, replaced by a pale blue.

Rising to his feet, The Hunter continues to look around the bathroom. He rolls Dante over and leaps backward upon seeing his face.

From what little can be seen of The Hunter's face, a look of confusion is showing itself. He looks up, into the mirror above the freshly cracked sink.

He reaches up, touching the mask on his face curiously. Taking a heavy breath, he tries to process everything.

As Jason is waking up, The Hunter is heading out the window. The groggy albino pushes upward, attempting to grab hold of his attacker, but instead finds himself face-down on the dirty tile floor.

A slight screech echoes throughout the room as the door slides open across the tiles.

Running to Jason's side, cradling his beaten body, Selenia begins to cry. Taking a few deep breaths, Jason reaches up, wrapping his arms around her.

As she embraces her lover, Selenia doesn't notice that Elsie has long since slipped out into tonight's darkness.

Finding Jason Dante isn't the only reason she's come down here. She knows her protector is somewhere nearby, and she knows that he's discovered something very, very important.




Across the city, on the bed of the ruined hotel room, the hulking man known as Cage is recovering, physically and mentally. He knows that the girl leaving the airport became aware of something in his mind when he launched his earlier attack.

After being forced into action, Cage's mind was left to reveal to Elsie that he had discovered something so significant to all of these people.

What Elsie doesn't know is that Cage didn't discover that tonight; he's known all along who The Hunter is.