Time. Ever since her crucial decision to pursue justice, Ayda had been running on a very specific schedule. While fortunate events led to an acceleration of her plans, there had always existed a strict table with which to adhere. In the beginning, she only had so long before word of her search spread and Sun Xin hightailed it out of town. After a stroke of luck at the bar, the thugs she beat up would never be able to hold their tongues forever. Honestly, she was surprised Lo Feng hadn't been tipped off.

Lo Feng. He was the reason she felt in such a rush now. Unlike the others, his silence could not be so easily bought. Doubtless, he answered to some very powerful people. Said individuals would be disappointed if they found out he'd so freely given away important information, even if the conference had been about a low-level gangster. He would open his mouth at the first opportunity, and then use his own skills to vanish for good.

Feng would blab. Ayda knew no amount of torture nor threats of violence could stay the tongue of such a powerful man, especially when he had strong friends. Someone in charge would find out. Deep down, Ayda knew this even before she tried to keep him quiet.

She had a few hours tops to find Sun Xin and be done with him. Factoring in the time it would take Lo Feng to get in touch with someone and then how quickly the Triad could feasibly mobilize, she refused to believe any greater window existed. They could even act sooner, if the right people were put on the job.

Ayda had to reach Merchant Street, and fast. The only problem, it was in the industrial district on the complete opposite side of town. After all, no city planner would smack the highest of classes right next to the factory workers. She needed to cross the great concrete and steel expanse of El Puerto in a short amount of time.

In this, she was more thankful than ever for her choice of vehicle. El Puerto had easily some of the worst traffic in the country. Not that she had anything to compare that statement against, but it must have been true. American cities would never accomplish anything, otherwise. The time of day only served to worsen matters considerably. The city was just grinding back to motion after its collective lunch break. Many thousands of people were on their way back to work, congesting the streets with metal and exhaust fumes.

Traffic meant absolutely nothing to her. The little motorcycle she rode weaved between cars, splitting between lanes to bypass any jams she may encounter. Ayda even dared to play loose with the speed limit on this occasion. Hopefully, there were no police. The last thing she needed was armed interference when her time already ran so short.

There was, however, one inevitable factor Ayda could not avoid no matter how hard she tried. Traffic signals. She'd never noticed just how many El Puerto had. Even taking care to choose the longest streets possible, she still met with a near endless tide of red, yellow, and green. They put a damper on her progress, resetting all of it effectively back to zero with each idle revolution of her engine.

The temptation to further fudge the law was strong. Upon every occasion when lights made her stop, Ayda wanted nothing more than to gun it through the intersection. Her reflexes were certainly fast enough to make it through unscathed. She could not say the same, however, about her bike. It was a sporty little thing, but made more with everyday travel in mind. It likely couldn't manage the rapid directional changes necessary to navigate such treacherous waters. There were also the other drivers. The intrusion of a girl on a motorcycle may force them to lose control of their own cars. Ayda was only interested in having one death on her hands.

It was a slow slog through the midday streets. The cars all around and tall buildings on either side were like constricting walls which threatened to close in at any minute if Ayda slowed down for even the slightest of unnecessary seconds. To her ears, unprotected by glass and metal, the city was loud and boisterous. Engines drowned out most sounds. Between the rhythmic low rumbles an occasional voice rose up, although the words fizzled to incoherent babble.

The further Ayda distanced herself from the city center, the more highrises disappeared. With them, so too vanished the traffic. It was a slow transition, a gradual change from congestion to freedom. Of course, neither left entirely. Instead, they grew increasingly rare until one could count the seconds between either. The streets themselves also became noticeably slimmer. Instead of a constricting sense, it felt like liberation. Leaving the city proper meant she crept ever closer to her goal.

This was exactly what she'd been hoping would happen. Ayda punched it. The front wheel of her bike popped up momentarily in response to the sudden speed. A high-pitched scream of gears and pistons echoed off buildings and down alleyways. Like a missile Ayda accelerated down the newly opened road. Now she was starting to make progress.

As it always did, the scenery in this part of town blended together while she traveled. When the city had been established, the industrial district was its heart. Right next to the docks, any and all raw materials passed through here, and many finished products were produced in the numerous factories. It was a booming, wealthy part of town where honest men and women came to earn a healthy living.

But that time was over. Through the years, El Puerto slowly changed over from industry to commerce. Just like many American cities, as wealth moved in, the diminishing middle class moved out. With every new skyscraper, another factory closed. Cushy office occupations and shoddy imports were more cost effective than domestically constructed goods. The honest men and women lost their jobs. The world moved on. With the advent of cheap foreign labor, it had little need for them. Of course, Ayda hadn't been around for any of this, but Bernard often spoke highly of the good ol' days.

Now, Ayda never spent much time in this particular part of town. She hadn't much reason to visit. These streets, however, were not completely unknown to her. Elliot's apartment was somewhere around here, a fact she detested. He could afford to live in a more savory neighborhood, but was too cheap for it. She wouldn't have to worry about him so much if he would just get a decent house. Maybe the two of them would have another little talk about it after this was all said and done.

After a while, the scenery blended together even more. Urban decay could only take so many forms. The dilapidated structures lost definition. It was hard to tell them all apart. They all looked exactly the same, more or less. Were it not for the advent of smartphone GPS, Ayda would have been hopelessly lost long ago.

But, modern technology was there to guide her. Within forty minutes she arrived at her destination. Abandoned didn't even begin to describe it. Taller than it was wide, the rotting apartment complex stretched five stories into a cloudless blue sky. Many windows were broken, and what few remained were impossible to see through for the impenetrable layers of grime. Once red bricks long ago faded to a dull brown, yet splotches of color popped up at random locations. Some had fallen out, leaving only gray mortar behind. Likely, Triad influence was the only thing which kept the city from demolishing it. What's worse, it wasn't even the most rundown thing Ayda had seen on the way there.

Ayda parked up in an alley across the street and shut off her bike, careful to place it as much in the shadows as possible. The decision to leave behind her staff was a difficult one, yet necessary. A long weapon would be a hindrance in tight quarters. She probably wouldn't need the boost it granted to deal with Sun Xin, anyway.

She crossed the near barren street and tried the front door. Locked. Predictable, but worth a shot. It would be stupid to not at least try the most obvious entrance. Funny, everything else in the place was likely in some sort of disrepair, but the lock worked just fine. That wasn't suspicious at all.

The door, however, presented a much more substantial barrier than it at first seemed to. Of course, Ayda could get through it with little trouble, but doing so would be loud. This was a quiet area, and an even quieter building. The slightest sound may tip Sun Xin off that something was amiss. She did not come all this way just to let him escape.

Ayda placed her index finger where the door met with the jam at roundabout the spot she assumed the latch would be. A tiny blast shattered the surrounding wood, creating a hole more than large enough to swing the latch through without any need to turn the handle. Ayda winced as she opened the door. That was still much louder than she'd expected. At least the main stairs were covered.

The staircase was the most predominant feature in the lobby. The only other attraction was a metal and glass door in the far wall. Likely, it led to some sort of office for the landlord. This place was so cheap, it didn't even have an elevator.

With a shake of her head, Ayda began her descent up the stairs. As the teenager walked, she realized just how rapidly her heart beat. Normally she was calm before a fight—and this would certainly end in conflict—but this time she could barely keep her emotions in check. Everything she'd been working for was about to come to a head. The only thing she'd wanted for almost two weeks now lay just a few steps ahead. Her hands trembled with anticipation. She didn't know whether to feel happy, anxious, angry, or some combination of the trio.

The second floor. To say it needed a little love would be an understatement. The drywall was beginning to rot and peel. The struts could be seen in spots. Many of the ceiling tiles had fallen, covering what was left of the carpet with dust and rubble. The floor had completely dropped out toward the end of the corridor. The entire place smelled of urine and mold. None of this was to mention the old building codes it likely adhered to. Sun Xin probably would have died of asbestos poisoning had Ayda not tracked him down.

The number plates for most rooms were missing, but the appropriate domicile was not hard to find. Only one of the doors remained closed. Indeed, most didn't even have doors at all. Ayda shook her head again. This was almost too easy. She started toward apartment 208.

She stopped at the precipice. This was the moment she'd been waiting for. All the feelings threatened to rush back all at once. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Now or never.

With assistance from a modest blast, Ayda kicked in the door. Splinters flew as the latch crashed through the wooden jam. The door itself swung all the way around and smacked into the wall hard enough for the knob to stick into the aging drywall. Ayda stepped through and opened her mouth to give an epic opening lined, but stopped short when she saw the interior.

Stolen novel; please report.

Empty. There was no one inside, no furniture nor living necessities. It didn't even have a refrigerator. The structure mostly mirrored the rest of the building. The walls were peeling. Rot had begun to set in. The floors were dirty, but most of the ceiling tiles stayed properly suspended. It would have appeared completely untouched, save for the picture frames. There were three in total sitting upon a broken shelf on the east living room wall. They clearly were out of place. Almost no dust gathered on them. Someone had been here recently.

Ayda slowly combed her way through the ruin. The apartment opened up immediately to a perfectly square living room, surprisingly large for the size of the home. An opening in the far wall led to a small kitchenette. Through a hole she could see a hallway before it. It was possible Sun Xin simply wasn't in the main area when she made her entrance. There were a lot of corners, numerous places for someone to hide. She didn't like it.

Head on a swivel, she headed straight for the hall. There was nothing to see in the den, anyway. Just as she'd predicted, it was quiet. Even death itself would make an ungodly racket. The air stood still. The only movement was her own. It sent prickles down her spine. The whole place felt—for lack of a better term—haunted.

The kitchenette was tiny. It could be inspected with a single glance. Clear. Ayda looked left and then right down the hallway. There were rooms at both ends, a closet to the east, and what must have been a bathroom to the west. Being only one person, she had to choose a direction. As it would be easier for someone to hide in the lavatory, she turned left.

Her footfalls were slow and meticulous in an attempt to make as little noise as possible. She didn't want to tip Sun Xin off to her approximate location. Her efforts, however, were only somewhat successful. The ancient boards creaked like an old lady's joints. Making a move with zero sound was almost impossible.

Even so, through the cacophony she created, nothing escaped her trained senses. Something was indeed wrong with the place. Internally, she kicked herself for failing to notice it sooner. The shadows concealed many secrets. Still, though, it was probably good she'd turned left instead of right. Otherwise, the footsteps creeping up behind her would have had a perfect ambush. She stopped in her tracks and let them approach a few feet more, until whoever they belonged to was almost in striking distance.

"Never stab down," she said suddenly. The steps abruptly halted. Bingo. "If you were a fighter you'd know to never stab down because, if you do," she turned, "your opponent will block."

There, standing petrified a few feet away from her, as a petrified young Asian man with a narrow face and dark hair. He held a kitchen knife high above his head, poised to plunge it between her vertebrae. The expression on his pathetic mug was a priceless mix of shock and pure panic.

"Hello, Sun Xin."

Ayda gave a sinister smile. Of course, she recognized him. His picture—stupid goatee and all—had been burned into her eyes from the moment she saw it on the news. This was the man she'd been looking for. This was the villain who ruined her life, sent her into a spiraling pit of despair the likes of which she'd only felt once before eleven years ago. This was Sun Xin.

The Asian man glanced at the knife in his fist. In an impressively smooth roll of his fingers, he flipped to an upward dagger grip. From the hip, he thrust it forward. The attack was laughably slow. Ayda quarter turned to dodge. As the point sailed harmlessly by, she grabbed his wrist. A harsh yank pulled him off kilter. Their faces were close. Fear already stained his eyes. Ayda met them with untempered fire.

"Not that how you stab really matters."

She planted her free fist right beneath Sun Xin's ribs. All the air escaped his lungs as a blast compressed them. He lifted into the air. The strike was not as powerful as it could have been, though. The man came to rest just before the other end of the hallway. About halfway between, he dropped his knife. Miraculously, he managed to catch himself on the wall and remain upright. Full of surprises, this one.

Ayda immediately closed the distance. The last thing she wanted was for him to recover his weapon. When she was close enough, Xin pushed himself off his meager support and threw a wild haymaker at her face. She intercepted it with her wrist. In almost the same motion, Ayda hammered a punch into his kidneys. She dropped her block and re-purposed it into a jab at the sternum. Finally, Ayda hit with a monstrous backfist to Xin's right ear. The ensuing blast slammed his face into the wall which had previously been holding him up. He slid slowly to the ground, trailing saliva down the faded paint.

She wasn't done with him, not yet. Ayda grabbed the dazed man by his black hoodie and dragged him to the opening in the wall. A burst kick to the ribs sent him flying. Sun Xin soared all the way into the living room and smacked against the far wall with enough force to dislodge the trapped door. He landed hard on his hands and knees. Ayda began a slow walk toward him.

"I'm here to kill you, by the way," she quipped. "Probably should've mentioned that."

From where he knelt on the ground, Sun Xin gave her a minacious sneer. Suddenly, he shot upright. The villain bolted at her, an old piece of wood brandished above his head. It must have wiggled loose when he hit the wall. Ayda let him approach without making any sort of motion to defend.

He swung diagonally downward from his right shoulder. Ayda sidestepped and turned to avoid it. Sun Xin redoubled and struck laterally at her face. She ducked and it passed smoothly over her head. The cudgel smashed through each of the picture frames in rapid succession. Glass sprayed everywhere as they crashed around the room.

When Ayda stood back up, Xin tried to come straight down with his new weapon. Ayda made an upward scissoring motion with her arms to meet it. A blast tore through the wood, reducing it to splinters and sawdust. Xin recoiled from the blow, taking a step back right into perfect kicking range. Ayda hooked a heel behind his head with a crafty bend of her knee. She only used her own power, though, as anything more probably would have broken his skull, and where's the fun in that?

Xin tumbled forward. He hit the ground and rolled over onto his back, wincing in pain. There would be no respite. Ayda went straight for the mount. She straddled his midsection, holding him down with superior strength. She drew back her fist.

"No, no, wait," Xin pleaded, putting up his hands in defense.

Ayda didn't care for his petty groveling. She accelerated her hand toward his face. Unassisted by her power, her knuckles made a terrible impact. She lifted her other fist and let it fall right after the first. Again and again she punched him, nary a pause in her assault. Every hit made an awful slapping sound, fell like cinder blocks upon his face. All Sun Xin could do was lay there and accept his punishment. This was his recompense. This was his fate.

"You want me to stop?" Ayda screamed as she hit him. "You want me to show mercy? You should've shown mercy!"

She would not relent. If anything, she hit him harder. Blood dribbled from his broken nose and ruptured lips. A cut sprang up on his cheek as Ayda dealt and accidental glancing blow. She was not in control of herself. Without blasts the punches rained down like hellfire, but Ayda felt no connection to them. The only thing which spurred her on was pure, unyielding rage. Before her was the man who took away the first thing she'd allowed herself to love in such a long time. She would not leave until he knew every ounce of pain he had caused.

"What do you have to say for yourself, huh?' She shouted between hits. "Any last words?"

Ayda may have been on a murderous mission, but she was not without courtesy. She let up to allow him a moment to catch his breath. A doomed man should at least make a statement about his death.

"Why?" Gurgled Sun Xin, likely chocking on his own blood.

"Why?" Ayda breathed. "You want to know why?" She hit him once. "Jacqueline Belmont? Blonde hair, green eyes? Sound familiar?"

She gave him a second to respond. Xin slowly shook his head right to left, but remained silent.

"You mean, you really don't know?" Ayda punched him again, but her wrist fell limp.

"She was my sister!" She screeched. Wet splotches appeared on Xin's shirt, and Ayda realized they were her tears. "She was my sister and you killed her! How can you say you don't know?"

"I'm... sorry," Xin struggled to say through swollen lips.

"You're sorry?" Repeated Ayda. "Do you think sorry is good enough anymore?"

"I was afraid. My mask fell off, I didn't know what to do." Sun Xin continued to explain between wheezing breaths, as if anything he said would save him at this point.

"No," Ayda said simply, her tone inexplicably calm. The tears dried up. He shoulders relaxed. "No, you weren't afraid. You didn't even know what fear was. Let me show you."

Again, she drew back her fist. Sun Xin closed his eyes and looked away, unable to fight back anymore. This was what he deserved for messing with the wrong people. Criminals always got what was coming to them. He would not be an exception.

Ayda embraced her powers. Explosive strength coursed through her veins. So much energy built up, her fist glowed purple. There would be nothing left of him when she was done. The world would never even know he existed. The name Sun Xin would mean nothing, not even a footnote on the annals of history. She dropped her fist.

The blow never landed. Something caught the corner of her eye. Ayda stopped short, suddenly enraptured by this new thing which consumed all of her attention. Sun Xin looked at her, clearly confused but still more afraid than anything else. Ayda let her hand fall to her side. The glow faded. She leaned over and dug the object of her obsession out from underneath shattered glass.

A photograph, an old picture of a middle-aged woman pushing a young boy on a backyard swing set. They were both of Asian descent. The two wore wide smiles, each having the times of their lives. They looked so happy, blissfully enjoying their lives without a care in the world. The boy was what really grabbed her. They had the same eyes. This was an old picture of Sun Xin. She flipped it over. There was writing on the back, faded ink she could barely make out.

Do you remember your old swing set?

Sometimes I wish you were still that young.

You'll always be my little boy.

Love, Mom.

"You're not the cause," Ayda breathed. "You're the symptom." The realization racked her brain. She dismounted, opting instead to sit beside her former target hugging her knees.

It was like a bombshell on her consciousness. This man, whom she'd only ever seen as evil, had family. He was once a little boy, free and innocent of the world's corruption. This despicable degenerate was not his first state, and would not be his last. Moreover, someone out there loved him, and he loved them back. This man was not evil. He was a human being.

In her quest for justice, Ayda had become blind to the real malice right under her nose. Every day she spent chasing Sun Xin, someone's sister died at the hands of men like him. But he wasn't behind the gun. There were always weak men willing to do bad things. Ayda thought she was making a difference. She thought she was doing the right thing, but it was all just a waste of energy. Whether or not he lived or died made no difference. Removing one man from a pool of hundreds—if not thousands—wouldn't matter. The world continued to turn. People went on with their lives. No one cared. Everything she'd done up until this point was ultimately and absolutely pointless.

"I'm done," she said, after a moment. "I'm done with this. I'm done fighting you. I'm just..." She let out a long sigh. "I'm just done."

Ayda stood. She remained still for a second. Gently, she wiped the remaining tear tracks from her face. After running fingers through her hair, she started toward the exit. All the determination left from her walk. She moved like a woman defeated, a lost soul devoid of hope or meaning. She stopped just short of the outer hallway to call back into the apartment.

"Turn yourself in or don't. Whatever. I don't care anymore." And with that, she departed.

Never once did Ayda turn back. Never once did she contemplate returning to finish the deed. The only thing she wanted to do was put this all behind her, to forget it ever happened. El Puerto moved on, and she needed to as well. Her life needed a new avenue.

On the slow ride home, lulled by engines and soft music, a new purpose entered into her being. Even though she let Sun Xin go, a part of her still wanted justice. She wanted to make the people responsible pay for what they did to Jackie. But that wasn't Sun Xin. He was just a pawn in a grander scheme, an unfortunate plaything for the ones who pulled the strings. Sun Xin and men like him were nothing but a side effect. Treating them would do no good.

Ayda had been going about this all wrong. The loss of one man could not rectify the death of her sister. The loss of one man could not prevent others from suffering a similar fate. Her enemy was not one man. Her enemy was the entire Chinese Triad.