EPISODE SIXTEEN – MAMA KIN

INT. VALENTINE’S HOUSE

Silence apart from a clock ticking. Pan across to see Elli packing a suitcase. Marco sits on the bed watching, smoking.

Valentine: It’s not a holiday weekend Elli.

Elli: I’m a woman Marco. Two pairs of boxers and a stained polo shirt may be good enough for you, but I care how I look.

Valentine rolls his eyes. Mei enters. Valentine quickly stubs out his cigarette.

Valentine: Are you ready, sweetness?

Elli shoots him a funny look.

Mei: Yeah. Can Seth come?

Valentine: Say what? Why do you ask that?

Mei: Because I want Seth to come.

Valentine: Why?

Mei: He’s my friend.

Valentine: Well he’s not my friend.

Mei: Ah, but he is mine.

Valentine: No! This- Agh! Damnit, this is not a family vacation, this is serious!!! Get your bag, we’re leaving now.

INT. VALENTINE’S CAR (BUICK)

Valentine drives. Elli shotgun. Mei in the back. Seth too.

TITLE CARD: MAMA KIN

INT. BRISTOE CITY HOSPITAL

Valentine is at the desk. He gets a pass and jerks his head and his pack follows him into the bowels of the hospitals.

INT. RED STAR OFFICE

Remington sits alone in the wrecked office, behind a desk with a phone on it. He is trying to fix some sort of nondescript motor thingy. The phone rings. Remington answers.

Remington: Hello. No, he’s not here. He doesn’t work here anymore. (Beat) Well, eh sold his shares to me. (Beat) Sorry, he’s dead. (Beat) I’m here. (Beat) (Red-faced) What’s wrong with me? (Beat) Yes, I’m sure he is dead. (Beat) No, there is no chance of that, I saw him cremated.

INT. HOSPITAL

Valentine approaches a bed declaring its occupant to be “Lilah Kenichi”.

INT. RED STAR OFFICE

Remington has been writing something on a pad.

Remington: But I can handle it fine! (Beat) Oh, fine, I’ll pass on your message to him!

He slams down the phone. It starts ringing again.

INT. HOSPITAL LILAH’S ROOM

Valentine sits by the bed of a middle aged woman with Mei also seated. Seth is standing.

Valentine (V.O.): My mother… it seems she won’t last the night…

EXT. HOSPITAL

Valentine and Mei sit on a bench outside.

Valentine: A degenerative condition… she has suffered from nervous depression for many years. In fact, since my father died over twenty years ago. It really kicked in when your mother left because he was really our connection. I haven’t spoken to her in over five years.

Mei: It’s not your fault.

Valentine: The problem is… it is.

EXT. HIGHWAY

Remington races along in his Ferrari 250TR

EXT. HOSPITAL

Seth walks by and looks over blandly where Valentine sits. Elli catches up to him and hands him a cup of coffee.

Valentine: My father was Shiro Valentine, a master swordsman who worked as a bodyguard for Presidents Donovan and Phillips. He worked in the Wages administration as a personal retainer… but I had an argument with the chief representative of the Cassavaterne, a man named Mizuno Kitechi. My father defended me, but Kitechi was another old fashioned guy who took his pride and honour very seriously. He killed my father, raped my mother (allegedly) and he tried to wreck my career and marriage. Stupid!

Valentine yells the last word explosively, spitting. Mei inches away from him.

Valentine: All because I couldn’t control my temper. All because I could never resist it, stoking that fire.

Mei: You shouldn’t blame yourself… Kitechi is – he sounds like a nasty, pathetic piece of work.

Marco stands up and walks away. Seth had been listening closely and follows. Elli comes to Mei, hands her the other cup.

Elli: What were you talking about?

Mei: Consequences.

EXT. HOSPITAL

Seth: Are you alright?

Valentine: What’s it to you?

Seth: Sorry. I was just worried. Should I not be?

They walk along in silence.

Valentine: If you want to go back home, to the Tigers, then go. It’s just selfish, me keeping you hostage here. It will not bring back Su or Armside or my father or any of the others. It will not save my mother.

Seth hesitates.

Seth: I heard you talking about Kitechi.

Pause. Then Valentine laughs.

Valentine: Ah. I see. Yes, Claverty was never particularly fond of him either.

Seth: Considering all that he did to you… and all that you are capable of…. How come you never killed him?

Valentine: The White Tigers have tried to assassinate him too surely?

Seth: Well. Er – Yeah.

Valentine: But you never succeeded.

Seth: Well, no.

Valentine: So, you should already know. I tried. But at some point, I suppose you have just got to move on.

Seth: Our motives are political. But didn’t the great Shiro Valentine teach the importance of honour and as a part of this, vengeance for those you love when they are wronged?

Valentine: That only works when the vengeance is not tainted by your own failures. And it was me who murdered my wife.

Seth (flabbergasted): Huh?

Valentine: As good as. The night before she left, we had the mother of all rows. Then she left and died in childbirth. At least that’s the story. But if I’d have been there to show my support. To show how much I loved her… But instead I always bring pain to those I love the most. The only person who deserves the fury of my vengeance is me.

They stop. Seth looks at his feet. Valentine looks up and sees a familiar looking Ferrari pulling up nearby. Remington gets out.

Valentine: Beat it, kid.

Seth waddles off. Remington replaces him at Valentine’s side.

Remington: How is she?

Valentine: What brings you here?

Remington: I have messages for you.

Valentine leans against Remington’s car, much to Remington’s distaste.

Remington: Roy’s Palace. They faxed in your forms.

He takes a sheaf of papers from his inside pocket.

Remington: Sign these and you will become an active partner.

Valentine swipes them.

Remington: What do you want over there?

Valentine: Don’t kid, Nick. You are a shareholder too and you know the kind of business they do.

Remington: But that’s enough for me. Sure, the money is nice. But the bureaucracy is almost as bad as in Yokohama.

Valentine: You can’t compare Deim to Shadowhite.

Remington: Don’t avoid my question.

Valentine: Sorry. But I think I’ll keep my private affairs to myself from now on.

Remington: Oh. So then you won’t want to know about the phone call I got from Yukio then.

Valentine stops and glares.

BREAK

EXT. HOSPITAL

Valentine: Yukio? What did he say?

Remington: Nothing really. He was just wondering where you were. Where do you think he’s been hiding himself?

Valentine: Who knows. Who cares.

Remington: One more thing. (Valentine looks back) Sean Devine escaped. (Valentine looks blank) We booked him, three years ago. Remember, net guy. Kidnapped all those women, assaulted them, worst kind of scum, you broke his head open.

Valentine: Oh yeah. I remember who he is. And I remember what I did.

Remington: The reward is $2 million.

Valentine: Your business.

Valentine feels his belt.

Valentine: I’m being paged. Looks like this is it.

INT. HOSPITAL

Valentine sits by Lilah’s bed and says a silent prayer.

Valentine (V.O.): I’m sorry…

Valentine holds Lilah’s hand and nods his head. Doctor Macswiney, who wears an Aerosmith badge on his lapel, switches off the life support machine which shows zero brain activity.

EXT. HOSPITAL

Valentine speaks to Mei.

Valentine: My father always told my mother that the city was there for her to use. I told Su the same thing… but they both hated it for the death it came to represent. I loved it for the power it gave it gave me. But it’s time I left that all behind.

WALKING (with Seth)

Seth: Leave it all behind?

Valentine: No, not all. Just the blood.

Seth: What do you mean?

Valentine: What are you still doing here, huh? I thought you’d have scampered back to Claverty by now.

Seth: Why do you hate him so much?

Valentine: I hate two types of people. People who smoke weed and people who break promises. He allowed the future I was trying to build be destroyed. Allowed the Cassavaterne Sha’arad to destroy the hope of this nation. Like I said, he is responsible for the death of your father.

Seth: You like blaming people for stuff, don’t you?

They reach the car, Valentine gets in.

Valentine: Coming or not?

Seth gets in. Valentine starts up and drives.

Valentine: Did you know that Brown and Blonde were about to defect to Sha’arad’s side when we found them?

Seth: …What?

Valentine: It’s all true. Armside found their paperwork.

Seth: That’s a lie.

Valentine: That’s why Shadowhite killed them. He doesn’t want that man getting those sorts of retainers. Everything is a power play between Shadowhite and Sha’arad. They want each others jobs to combine with their own. Your “Prince” is just a pawn and I do not want to be stuck ion the middle again.

Seth: So what? Quiet life for you?

Valentine: I promised someone very dear to me that I would be able to stop it. Stop the fights; stop the killing, the manipulation, and that I would settle down, a normal life, no more blood on my hands. I hate people who break promises.

EXT. HOUSE

Valentine pulls up and they get out.

Seth: Can I have a gun?

Valentine: No.

Seth: What if he’s armed?

Valentine: Is this definitely where Devine is?

Seth: Well, isn’t that Remington’s car over there?

Valentine sneaks up to the place, looks in the window.

Seth: So you’ve faced this guy before, right? He’s small potatoes.

Valentine: He’s a sadist.

Seth: Did you really break his head open?

Valentine moves to another window.

Seth: Did brains come out?

Valentine: Shut up Seth, you know you can be really annoying.

Seth stares, agape.

Seth: Me? What about you? Thinking you’re too cool for school? Well I got news for you… You aren’t!

Valentine looks. He sees Remington lying face down unconscious on the floor. Then he is being dragged away.

Valentine: I knew he couldn’t handle it.

Valentine grabs a garden gnome and breaks open the window, launching himself through the window. Seth climbs in after and falls in on the other side. Some dude with his shirt tucked into his pants is trying to undo Remington’s belt. Valentine and Seth both think “ew”.

Valentine: Maybe there were some brains after all. (Beat) Hey!

Valentine picks up the garden gnome again and throws it at Devine, hitting him on the head. Devine reacts in a primal and furious manner, charging. Valentine dashes, grabs and throws Devine into a mirror wall. It breaks up and the glass falls, wounding Devine. Behind the mirror is a closet where a woman is chained up.

Valentine: As a citizen of this country, I pay taxes like any other guy.

Valentine punches Devine, sending him sprawling. Valentine stalks over to his writhing form.

Valentine: Too much, some might say. A certain portion goes towards the jail system.

Valentine kicks Devine. Devine rolls away, coughing blood. Valentine stalks over.

Valentine: So you can imagine how it might piss me off when sick freaks like you escape so easily and start polluting our streets.

Valentine clutches Devine’s collar and punches him hard on the jaw.

Valentine: Scum like you should piss off and die!

Valentine kicks Devine in the chest. Something crunches as it breaks. Valentine looks, blood on his hands. He tries to wipe it away. Valentine smiles falsely.

Seth: Who did you promise?

Valentine goes to the closet, unchains the woman, contemplates his answer.

Valentine: My wife. Ex. And she disappeared and it all seemed meaningless. But now, she’s back… Sort of. With Mei here, I feel like I’ve been handed a second chance, you know?

Seth looks at Devine’s broken body.

Seth: So what, now you’re showing mercy?

Valentine: I’ve never fought for the hell of it. I’ve never fought to make myself feel better. I fought because it was the right thing to do.

He raises his blood stained hand.

Valentine: But I was never able to help the people who really needed it.

EXT. HOSPITAL

Valentine has his arm around Elli and Mei ushering them to his car. Remington and Seth are to the other side.

Remington: You should stick around for a little while. You could learn a thing or two.

Seth nods. He goes over to Valentine. The girls are in the car.

Seth: Mr Valentine!

Valentine: Marco.

Seth: Your second chance… It revolves around Mei… but be careful. She is not everything that she seems.

Valentine stares intensely, then nods, gets in his car and drives away.

END – KEEP IN TOUCH WITH YOUR ROOTS

Episode 17 preview

I wanted to help people. That was all I ever wanted once. To serve the people who rely on me. But it seems so impossible to judge when the ones you love can’t be trusted, and the ones you don’t trust are the ones on whom you depend. Next episode, The Other Side. Whose side are you on?