Jin walked alongside Lee Chaolan, leading him through the shallow footpaths around his mountain home. The boys eyes often side glanced to his slightly limping Uncle.

“Can we stop for a bit?” Lee asked, taking a seat atop a fallen tree, tapping his cigarette pack to his palm to release one of the cylinders. Jin nodded, drawing himself to a seat, Indian style before the silver haired man.

“What happened to you leg?” Jin asked with all a Childs honesty.

“They were both broken a long time ago in a martial arts tournament.” Chaolan sparked the cylinder to life, exhaling as he looked up along the trees. Jin was curiously studying him and Lee could feel his eyes, burning with questions.

“If you are my fathers brother, why do you look different than the picture my mommy showed me of him?” Jins face was stone set, observing every motion his Uncle made.

“Well, Jin, your father and I were brothers, but not by blood. I was born in another place, where I met with your grandfather. He found me on the street and brought me to his home in Tokyo, where I first met your father. Heihachi Mishima adopted me and made me part of the family when I was only a little older than you. Your father and I had been brothers ever since. That is why I do not look the same as he.”

Jin nodded in understanding, though he wondered why his mother never told him more about his silver haired uncle who walked with a cane. “And my grandfather, is he still alive?”

“Yes, Jin, Heihachi is still living and in Tokyo, a long ways away from here.” Lee inhaled sharply as he thought of the vicious old man.

“Why doesn’t he ever come to visit us?” Kazuya’s eyes looked into Lee, from this small boys face.

“I don’t really know why, Jin.” It was a simple answer to quelch the incessant mind of a child. Jin would not understand the litany of excuses Chaolan could give him...and the subject was something that gave Lee an uncomfortable chill.

“Uncle Lee, what was my father like? I know my mommy has told me stories about him. But he was your brother, can you tell me what he was like?”

Lee found himself a little more than nervous to discuss something this delicate with his nephew. This was the domain of Jun, to give the boy Kazuya’s background, though it was only natural for Jin to ask. Chaolan would have to be cautious with his words.

“Well, he was a very smart boy who grew into a successful business man. He was a world renowned fighter of Mishima Style Karate, an ancestral form of martial arts begun by your great grandfather, Jinpachi Mishima, many years ago. Kazuya was known for his incredible power of both mind and body, well respected among his peers. He fell in love with your mother, the moment he saw her.”

Jin absorbed every word Lee Chaolan spoke, drinking it in with bated breath.

“Do you think about your father, often, Jin?” Lee asked, observing the boy as he exhaled, leaning his elbows against his leather clad, upper thighs, balancing the cane along his leg.

“Yes, Uncle. I look at his picture until my eyes hurt. I want to be just like him when I grow up. Mommy tells me I look like Father, and sometimes I think I make her sad. I don’t want her to cry.”

Chaolan was amazed at the simple, honest intelligence of Jin Kazama. At over 5 years old, he had a wisdom he should not possess, yet...an almost karmic understanding of pain in the world, all linked to his Fathers death and his mothers infinite sadness.

“You don’t make her sad, Jin, your mother was very much in love with your father...as he loved her. I think he would be here now, if he could be, though he is closer than you might think.”

Jin looked up, his eyes dripping with confusion. Lee wondered if any of the Devil who once shared a soul with Kazuya had transferred itself into the boy, giving him the uncanny power of perceptions he possessed at such a young age.

As Lee studied the boy, the culmination of his sins weighed heavily, though the light of redemption was not far behind. Once Chaolan had the strength after surgery, he chartered a helicopter to take him to the volcano where Kazuya met his end. Stationed in a wheel chair for more time than he ever wanted, Lee Chaolan wheeled himself up along the incline to make peace with his brothers soul. It was at that moment, circling the land before the lip of the volcano, that Lee caught a glimpse of a blackened mass, half hidden by the sparse shrubbery of the earth. Though it looked like cooled magma, Lee was still drawn to it. It was then he found it was a form, encased within hardened rock, and instantly tears rode the edge of his eyes. It had to be Kazuya’s body, ejected from the molten innards of the volcano. Beneath the ash and rock, perhaps Kazuya was preserved and Lee could give him a proper burial, which Heihachi Mishima would never do.

Lee Chaolan left the volcano without the darkened form, devising a way to get what he believed to be Kazuya’s body from the area to be cleaned up and appropriately laid to a hero’s rest.

Chaolan made arrangements with a research affiliate of the Zaibatsu to obtain the form and prepare it for burial, hushed from Heihachi. Within a few days after the blackened form was removed from the volcano, Lee received a phone call that would change his life forever. One of the scientists had taken to using a solvent to carefully dissolve the thick layers of ash and rock from the form and uncovered what appeared to be a charred body, ripe with lacerations...and what could only be described as...wings. The tissue of the body was well preserved. Lee, interested in the science of biogenetics suddenly realized what he had to do.

The Silver Devil bayed the scientist to remain quiet and in exchange, he would be permitted to examine the body more closely, and possibly head an operation to salvage the remains. This fascinated the scientist, who carefully cataloged and hid the body until the next time Chaolan would contact him, instantly agreed.

In the midst of rigorous physical therapy, Lee made arrangements to cash in his stocks and bonds for a heavy sum. Using his research contacts with affiliates in the biogenetic/technology field working under the Zaibatsu, Lee was able to procure grants from the scientific community to begin his own research facility. He funded the corporation, the G-Corporation, housing it in the States, where Chaolan had the remains shipped...far from the reach of Heihachi Mishima and the arm of the Zaibatsu.

Using his pull, and a large pocket, Lee hired only the most prolific biogenetic minds of the time, from around the globe, securing them to the base of operations in Nebraska with one incredible ideal. Although science as a whole denied the ability to replicate life, those brilliant minds working for the secretive G Corporation believed it was possible to use the tissues and other preserved genetic materials to bring Kazuya Mishima back to life.

Over the passage of several years, Lee grew in physical strength and mental resolve to make the impossible happen. Chaolan would not only walk again and regain his beloved art of Ninjitsu....he would repent before the haunting memories of his brother and sacrificing all his resources to the alter of Science...would bring Kazuya back to life. The silver devil would defy the gods of heaven and hell and proclaim victory, if it took his last possible breath.

Kazuya’s body was reborn, stolen from the hands of the grim reaper itself. The body was alive but a question of the soul remained. Could science give Kazuya his soul. The question never needed to be answered. After nearly 6 months of computer controlled life, the body began to react of it’s own accord. Was it Kazuya....or the Devil? Chaolan would dedicate all his time to isolating the anomaly of what the scientists called “The Devil Gene” they had discovered while exploring the DNA code of the fallen Mishima.

Although the body had taken on the likeness of Kazuya, it was still not him...not yet. The researchers and Scientists were in complete shock the first time an electrical current swirled around the right hand of the reborn body. An isolated disturbance that nearly blew out the computerized monitors that kept the form breathing, it’s heart beating.

Only a month ago, as Lee was stumbling through the most basic motions of Ninjitsu, falling more often than he stood, the phone rang. Dragging his legs, unbent behind him, writhing in the anguish of physical pain, limitation and frustration, Lee held the receiver to his ear.

The Scientist on the line was screaming in fear....or was it excitement. “Sir, I have news to report. During acupuncture treatment to the vital tissues to keep them from atrophy...the subject sat upright. He sat straight up, not a reflex of the needles....he sat up.”

Chaolan hung the phone up, charged with his own excitement. Grasping his shaking hand to his cane, propped alongside the wall, Lee picked himself up and readied himself to join the Team of Scientists at the corporation.

Once the silver devil walked into the security tight doors, he was amazed at what he saw before him. The figure of Kazuya Mishima was still sitting upright his legs swung over the cold metal table, eyes open, staring straight ahead. He made no other movements, no other signs of acknowledgement. This was a breakthrough.

Lee donned a mask and gown for the sterile room and stood in the doorway for long moments. “Kazuya. Kazuya...can you hear me?”

The form did not move, still as stone. But Chaolan could feel the force tainting the room. He knew the Devil was still within, weakened from the lowered Ki of the slain body that in death bore its’ resemblance.

Lee drew closer, looking deeply along the viciously scarred form of Kazuya Mishima. The skin had been regrown from the tissue samples, patched together and stitched into place, though the scars were dark and deep, in time they would heal as the body balanced into the stages of life. Kazuya’s hair had begun to regrow, in patches at first, along his face and body...until the follicles of his once silken ebony hair received the signal for life. Though barely more than a peach fuzz, the life Lee Chaolan and the team of leading BioGenetic minds had implanted....was taking root.

Putting a gloved hand on Kazuya’s arm, Lee watched him for reaction. None. Not even a flicker of increased heart rate beeping across the monitors. It would not matter, the body had shown it’s first signs of physical control, of movement in the 5 years it took to rebuild it. There was time, infinite time. Nothing would stop Lee Chaolans dream, not even the gods and devils of the other worlds combined.

Just days after the first controlled movements of Kazuya’s body, Lee Chaolan returned to Tokyo to keep his date with Lei Wulong. This trip was dual focused in nature. Lee Chaolan needed something from Kazuya’s son. Antibodies...cells...that could only be found in living blood. Chaolan had given samples of his own tissue and bone to rebuild his brother, but the genetics did not match. The scientists were able to patch a synthesis of the samples early on to build the initial structural fragments that Kazuya lacked. But his blood could not be matched, no matter how Scientists isolated it. There was only one way and Lee would do what he must to make it so.

And in the midst of the planning for the trip, Chaolan had also come across another brain storm. Kazuya had not responded again from the initial charge to sit upright, regardless of increasing acupuncture and rigorous physical sensation. What if Lee Chaolan could bring back a picture of Jun and her boy, Kazuya’s boy. Would the figure of Kazuya react to emotional stimulus? The silver devil had to try. But getting the picture would be much easier than retrieving the blood sample he so desperately needed to infuse with Kazuya.

Breaking from the center of his reflection, he smiled. The plan Lee had formed posed no better time, as they sat alone in the wooded pathway on Juns property. Jin was quiet for the moment Chaolans thoughts were reflecting, his dark eyes lingering on the ornate silver cane his uncle rested upon.

“Would you like to see it, Jin, its a very special cane. I had it made a few years ago, for assistance as well as protection. Come, sit beside me and I will let you take a closer look.”

Jin rose from the ground, rushing to sit beside his uncle, his eyes alight in curious wonder to the cane Lee cradled so lovingly. “Now, I want you to hold your one hand here, along the flat rolling edge of the body of the cane. Be careful not to move your arm now, I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“alright, uncle Lee...” Jin nodded, tilting his head to study the piece as Lee positioned his arm, half knowing the boy would be too intent on seeing what lay within, rather than watching his appendage.

Resting the cane between them, Lee positioned the ornate silver head to face toward the ground. “Now Jin, when I tell you, pull the body of the cane toward you....”

Lee released the small upraised silver button just below the top of the cane. “Now!”

Jin pulled with his opposite hand, and a flash of silver connected with his arm. The boy jumped, sending the sword cane along his forearm, making a slight , clean 2 inch slice.

The sword cane clamored to the floor as Jin grasped his arm. Blood trickled through his fingers. Just as Lee Chaolan expected.

Removing a 4x4 sterile gauze from the pocket of his coat, Lee patted the minor wound as it bled. “Its alright, Jin, its only a minor cut. This is why you must be careful to listen. Thank goodness you are not more seriously cut.”

Lee paid close attention to the blood gathering from beneath his fingertips, collecting in the fiber of the gauze. Applying pressure to stop the bleeding, Jins confused eyes looked up into his.

“You will be alright Jin, don’t worry.” Lee smiled. “We will stop the bleeding and then all you will need is a band aid. Now, run along to your Mother and let her clean the cut. I will be behind you in just a moment.” Lee removed the gauze as Jin ran toward the house.

Lifting a small, clear plastic biohazard bag from his inner pocket, Lee folded the gauze over, careful not to touch the bloodied fibers. Slipping it into the sterile bag, Lee sealed it and folded it back into his pocket.

Raising the sword cane up and returning the cover to it, Lee slowly stood up. Leaning heavily on the comfort of it’s grip, Chaolan walked along the footpath, back to the house.