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The sound of his motorcycle slowly started to mingle with the other sounds of this city. Cars honking, people shouting, music playing in to the air... All the memories of his youth started to come back to him. The smells hit him as well; a fusion of the bad and the good, unwashed bodies mingling with food, gas, and the faint aroma of nature.

He had returned.

Riding across the long suspension bridge, he entered the main throughway in to the city. Afer cruising for about a mile, he took the off ramp on to the main streets. Finding the sign he had been looking for, Hektor finally pulled his bike over and parked.

The deli is still here... Hektor sighed as he kicked the stand down. Pulling his bags off the bike he walked in to the small shop as the smells of meat, bread, and pastries consumed him as he entered.

Behind the counter an older woman stood, kneading a big doughy sphere. He stood there for a moment, waiting for her to slow down before clearing his throat. Looking up the brown skin womans face turned from irriattion, then to shock, then the happiness. She rushed from behind the counter embracing the man, her powdered hands leaving prints on the back of his jacket.

"Hektor! I thought you would never return." She stood back to look at him as if reconciling her mental picture to this man that stood before her. "you don't look quite as sharp as you used to."

"Issabella.." he said taking her hands in his "My life has changed..not all for the worst." He touched her face with one hand and then hugged her. "I missed you and Sam."

"He will be happy to see you!" Her face lite up as he mentioned her husband.

They stood there chatting for a minute; her telling him about the kids and Hektor mentioning some of the wonders he had seen. He wanted to tell her about it all, the good times and the bad, but he could not. He would just have to leave it at the good times.

"I do need a favor though..." Hektor said as he looked around the shop, making sure no one was in there. "Don't tell a soul I am here. Also I need to rent that room above this shop for awhile..."

"Why not tell people and you can have the room for free you know" came out all jumbled in to one sentence from Issabella.

"I have...things I need to do Issa." he said simply "And I refuse to accept for free what I can afford to pay for." He took a small purse out of one of his bags and handed it to her. "This should pay for at least a year..."

He walked toward the stairs at the back of the shop, not listening to her refusing to take so much money from him. He felt tired and alone. He was home but he wasn't sure he should be back. In one of his bags, his small wolf made noise: it was about time to feed.

Fayette soon exited the forest and was walking along the sidewalk near a highway to enter Sialis city. Estella purred beside her, trotting steadily - not too fast, not too slow. Fayette grinned at her familiar, and the snow tiger gave a lopsided grin of her own.

Fayette stopped for a moment, and Estella stopped beside her, and Fayette just listened to all the sounds of the city with eyelids closed. Estella growled sarcastically, "Yay! Noise!" Fayette opened her eyes and giggled. Fayette stopped her giggles abruptly and rolled her eyes...remembering how she didn't like 'giggling like a crazed teen girl.' Fayette replied to her tiger, "Well, I like noise! Can't blame me for listening to it!" Estella had no reply.

Fayette and Estella soon broke into a fun run, sprinting across the sidewalks and after about an hour they soon stopped, growing tired with exhaustion. Fayette breathed, "Wow... that was good exercise!" She finally made it to a nice, busy street and Estella whined through thought, Faye!! I want some food... please?" Fayette sighed and replied in thought, Okay, okay! Geez, Stella... Relax! Okay? I will get you some food -- hey, wait! Can't you just hunt?! Estella thought back, Yes, I can ... but I am tired from all that running! Besides, I can't hunt anything here! There's nothing good to eat ... unless you want to go back to the forst clearing. Fayette sighed and nodded.

Then she spotted the sign of the Issabella's Deli. She ushered in Estella.

Fayette smiled and said in reply, "Hey." She then made her way to a table, and her tiger curled up under the table - beside her feet. She flipped through a menu, looking for something to eat. She asked Estella in thought, Hey, Stell -- you want me to get some meat for you? Beef, perhaps? Estella licked her chops and nodded her head esctatically.

Fayette grinned and then looked for something for herself to eat. She decided upon a meat and vegetable sub.

"How can they charge that much for such a short distance?" K'sahn grumbled as he hopped off the bus. He took a few steps down the sidewalk as he gathered his bearings, taking note of every small detail, "It doesn't seem to have changed much from the last time that I was here, whenever that was. Curses; it's always so hard to remember when I was somewhere."

Bah, I'll have plenty of time for this, once I'm done with my mission. I guess it's time to start mingling with the citizens.

The spy looked around slowly, searching for a suitable spot to start his investigation, until, eventually, he found what he was looking for.

Aha, a deli: all kinds of people could show up there. Perhaps one of them will have information about my target. If not, I'm hungry, anyway.

The silver-haired diplomat quickly rifled through his pockets, in search of money. After finding that he had enough for quite a while, K'sahn made his way towards the building.

The door to the deli closed behind him with a jingle as he walked out into the bright midday sun. He stood there a moment, squinting, as his eyes finished adjusting to the light.

When he opened them, the first thing he noticed was a man with silvery hair walking toward him. Overall, the man looked as if he was an albino, a very rare sight indeed. Genji's eyes shifted.

The second thing he noticed was a payday. In one fluid motion, he had tucked his food into his kimono and drew a sword with his left hand, then sprinted toward the street.

Several weeks ago, he had taken a contract from some shady gentlemen at a night club downtown. The kind of men that were probably involved with the Sialis Syndicate, the most powerful organized crime gang in town. He had figured his mark had been a little too late or a little too short on a payment, but Genji hadn't asked. He never asked questions about his marks beyond what he needed to know to finish the job.

As it turned out, the mark had skipped town days before Genji had been handed the contract. He had used his network of contacts to glean any information he could about the mark's whereabouts, but to no avail, this particular mark was a slippery one. Then, just when he had given up on making the contract, his mark appears right before his very eyes at the most unexpected of times.

Gotcha. He thought to himself as he quickly narrowed the gap between himself and 'payday'.

K'sahn's eyes narrowed as the armed man rushed towards him. At the same time, hundreds of thoughts flooded his mind as dozens of automatic processes activated simultaneously.

What? Why would somebody come after me? I haven't been outmanuvered already, have I? Could there be a leak in the Intelligence Department? Did I make a mistake, the last time that I was here or during my previous mission? Ehh, forget it; I can deal with one assassin.

With his noncombat thought processes over, the spy quickly changed gears to strategy.

Hmm...My best bet would probably be to dodge it. I could use Cold Shoulder, but I'm not sure that I want to give away my full strength, yet.

With that, K'sahn unnoticeably shifted his weight to the ball of each foot and prepared for a fight.

What? He's gone! Obviously, this is more than just a simple swordsman; I'll have to be much more careful.

K'sahn turned his head back and forth, slowly, scanning the area for signs of his assailant.

Where is he? What happened? Could he be invisible? Teleportation, perhaps? Any matter, this is far too dangerous for simply dodging; I'll have to fight magic with magic.

At that, the silver haired man relaxed his pose and shifted his legs apart, into a more defensive stance. He exhaled slowly and closed his eyes. He felt a warmth flowing within him, cycling throughout his entire body. Upon realizing its presence, the diplomat released his mental barriers, setting free the great cold that had consumed him as a child, the cold of hopelessness. The cold surged out, infecting the stream of warmth, making it like ice.

Then the stream expanded, and the cold began to consume his body. Within moments, the man had been completely devoured by it.

Let's see him kill me, now.

The city seemed to hum with life. Hektor sat on the balcony breathing in his old home, reliving hte memories of his past. The wind gusted off the city street, cooling him off as the day wore on. The memories kept on coming.

Leaving had not been easy...

The memories rolld over him; family tension filled with shouting and scuffles. He denied the military, saying it was ran by fools and the incompetent and willfully ignorant ravings of a lunatic. His mother had called him blasphemous, his sister had wept and told him not to go. His faher, ever unemotional, just turned his back as he walked out.

A noise below brought him out of his memories; two people seemed to be at odd below him, the street emptied as they silently duel.

He looked down to see a man chasing another, but the reasons for this eluded him. Shaking his head he exited the balcony, going through the room to the short flight of stairs going down in to the deli proper.

Issabella greeted him with a wink, a smile and a wave. Hektor wasn't a bit surprised to see a woman sitting there, with a tiger seemingly digging in to one of Issabella's special plates. Hektor's stomach growled as he sat down beside her reaching a hand out to pet the animal.

"Put these two on my bill and get me something to go. I saw something in the street I'm curious about." He smiled at the woman and her pet inviting conversation.

The woman seemed to smile back and the tiger..he wasn't sure about the tiger. Outside the wind gusted, cold and frosty, as Issabella went back to find him something to eat.