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"Oi, Melris, new info for you from the higher ups."

"It's Walpurgis, Jeremiah."

The man sighed. "Alright, Walpurgis. New info for you from the higher ups."

The teen accepted the envelope with a solemn nod. "Thanks."

The teen's friend nodded back. "No problem, and hey, look; don't let the whole Shaw situation get you down." Setting a reassuring hand on Walpurgis' shoulder, he continued. "What happened wasn't your fault, and command knows it. Shaw's actions were his own, there wasn't anything you could have done to stop it."

"I could have not ******** up so bad that Shaw had to die saving me." But Walpurgis didn't say that. Jeremiah didn't deserve it. Instead, he gave the man a small smile. "Yeah."

Jeramiah patted Walpurgis on the the shoulder a couple times. "Good man." The man waved as he left Walpurgis alone in the hall.

Sighing, Walpurgis opened the envelope and read the letter within.



Walpurgis folded the paper up and stuffed it into his pocket. More or less, the note said that he cost them a lot by losing Shaw, and he had better not screw up again. And now that the officer that killed Shaw knew who he was, his use in Kanto was at an abrupt end.

Walpurgis was determined not to screw up again.

Once they were inside, a woman with fair skin, blue eyes, and long blonde hair strode up to Aliester and planted a kiss on his cheek. "Welcome home, honey." She looked down at Walpurgis with a smile. "And this must be Lin?" Walpurgis nodded and the woman wrapped him in a hug. At first, from all the training he had done with Shaw, he thought she was attacking him, but he quickly realized the gesture was harmless. She broke off and placed her hands on his shoulders. "You'll be safe here, Lin. We look forward to getting to know you." All the while, the same kind smile.

It was all foreign to him. Growing up on the streets, he'd never received a hug before. A kind smile, too, was something he hadn't had much experience with. Shaw certainly never gave them. Was this what having a family was like? Was this what he had stolen from Karina? "You should have died, not him!" The words from that rainy day echoed in his mind. Tears welled up in his eyes, and he went to brush them away, but the woman beat him to it. "It's alright, Lin. It's alright." She merely continued to smile, and Walpurgis wondered if that was all he needed - a kind smile, and words to match.

"Thank you."

Felicia smiled as she set the plate of food down in front of him. "You're very welcome, Lin."

From his seat, Aliester gave a mock warning. "You better be careful with Felicia's cooking - it's so good, it'll make other food taste like rubbish!"

Felicia sighed. "My cooking isn't that good."

Walpurgis bit into the food and found that either he'd had terrible food all his life, which wasn't too far a stretch, or she was being incredibly modest. Probably a combination of both. "It's good." He took another bite, then another. Felicia merely smiled as Aliester laughed, and the family began eating in earnest.

Walpurgis recalled hearing that normal families talked at dinner. Swallowing his food, he turned to Aliester. "What do you do for a living, Mr. Corbin?"

The man swallowed his food in turn and smiled. "Felicia and I are doctors, actually."

"That seems interesting." Walpurgis said, half-honestly.

"Hehy, Win!" Adam spoke with his mouth full of food, looking at Walpurgis.

Felicia gave him a stern look. "Adam, manners."

The boy swallowed his food. "Hey, Lin! Is it true your dad got shot saving you?"

Felicia dropped her fork in horror. "Adam!" She turned to Walpurgis, smiling apologetically. "I'm so sorry, I'm sure you don't want to think about that." She gave her son a stern look.

Walpurgis shook his head sadly. It was obvious to him that his 'dad' was Shaw. "No, it's alright. It was my fault anyway."

This time it was him that was fixed with the stern look. "Don't ever say that, Lin. It wasn't your fault. No matter what you did, it was the gunman who pulled the trigger, not you."

Walpurgis averted his eyes from Felicia's gaze and looked down at his food before nodding meekly. In some ways, she was scarier than Shaw.

Felicia's face softened back into the kind smile. "Well, the food is getting cold, so we should hurry up and finish!" The four continued to eat in silence as Walpurgis thought idly to himself.

I don't know how long I'm supposed to stay here, pretending to be family. I've just got to wait until my next mission.

I'm just biding time.

Four more years passed, and Walpurgis had completed his training to become a doctor, and now worked full time at the clinic. Four years, and Walpurgis never heard from Team Rocket. One more than one occasion, he wondered if they had simply left him with the Corbins to get rid of him. If so, it was a very light punishment. The Corbins were the nicest people he'd ever known.

As Walpurgis was laying in bed one night, Adam, now 16 years old, rolled over in his bed to face him. "Hey, Lin? Is there a girl you like?"

Walpurgis was silent a moment. "There was a girl back in Kanto I liked, yeah. She'd be about 21 now."

Adam grinned. "If you've got the hots for this girl, you should go for it, man. What've you got to lose?"

Walpurgis laughed ruefully as he remembered her last words to him. "I'm pretty sure she hates me."

"Man, why do you think that?"

"Her dad died because of me."

"Oh. s**t. Yeah, she probably hates you." Adam was silent a moment. "Tons of other chicks out there, though, bro. You'll find one."

Walpurgis entered the warehouse as stealthily as he could, but he still found a knife at his neck. Before he could do anything, the knife retreated back into the folds of the cloak of the figure beside him. "********, Walpurgis, ah almost killed ya!" Walpurgis froze. Although it was slightly deeper than he remembered, there was no mistaking the owner of the the voice. A hand pulled back the hood, confirming his suspicions.

Karina.

"I swear, man, ya could've let me know it was you. We had a secret knock and s**t back in Kanto."

Walpurgis swallowed as the words echoed in his mind again. "I, uh, didn't know it would be you. The note just said 'Kriemhild Gretchen'."

Karina slapped a palm to her forehead. "s**t, my bad. Yeah, ah'm Kriemhild Gretchen now." She grinned. "Been a while."

"Uh, yeah. It has. Six years or so." Why did she seem so happy? She wasn't mad about Shaw? "Look, I, uh, never really got to say this back-" He was cut off by Karina placing a hand over his mouth.

"Sh. Someone's comin'."

"How can you tell?" Moments after he said that, he heard the sound of footsteps. That's right - Karina had always had better hearing than him.

"Get to that side of the door. Kill whoever comes in. I'll go around to take out any runners." Before Walpurgis could respond, she was already running quietly to the back entrance. He went to the door as she directed.

His heart was beating quickly, the adrenaline flowing through his veins accelerating his thoughts. What if he screwed up? Karina would probably take care of it. Could she? Probably. No point in thinking too much on it. Shaw's words echoed in his mind. "You aren't making art, you're making corpses. Don't go for a pretty kill, just kill." He steadied his breathing and closed his eyes. That's right. He had the daggers, he had the training, it was all a part of him. He could do this.

The door slid open, and Walpurgis whirled around, daggers in hand, slashing wildly, stabbing madly, not even really seeing who he was attacking. The figure fell to the ground, and Walpurgis only then noticed the long blonde hair that fell with it, staining red in the blood pooling around it.

He heard a scream from outside, and he knew that Karina had killed the other one. He should have left well enough alone, he knew he should have, but curiosity got the better of him. Kneeling down, he turned over the corpse and stared in horror at the face of the woman he had murdered, the woman that for the past six years had been the mother he never had, and screamed.

Walpurgis awoke some time later. He couldn't tell how much time had elaplsed since he was knocked unconscious. Looking around, he immediately noted Karina sleeping next to him, followed by the fact that they seemed to be indoors. He stood, shakily, remembering how he had killed Felicia Corbin. He felt like crying, but no tears would come. Above all, he just felt exhausted.

Behind him, he heard Karina stir. He turned, wanting to scream at Karina for tricking him into killing his family. But he couldn't even muster the energy to do that. "Did you know...?"

Karina looked up with bleary eyes. "Know what, Walpurgis?"

"That our targets were my mom and dad? Is this your revenge for me getting Shaw killed?"

Karina was confused. "'Your mom and dad'...?" Realization spread over her face, followed by horror. "They never told you? It was a deep infiltration mission, Walpurgis - you were supposed to get close to the Corbins and kill them. You weren't supposed to get attached to them."

Walpurgis wanted to slam his fist into the wall, but again, all he felt was crippling exhaustion. He just wanted to sleep and never wake up. "All I was told was to be part of their family. Then six years later, I get a note that says to kill two people, nothing about who they were."

Karina's horror made way for fury. "Those assholes! Ah'll kill 'em. Ah'll ********' kill 'em!" She forced herself to calm down and looked to Walpurgis with pleading eyes. "Walpurgis, if ah had had any idea that ya didn't know, ah would have told ya! Ah wasn't allowed to send ya any mail, or come see ya, or anything - no one was - but had ah known, ah would have come anyway, ah swear!"

Walpurgis looked at her with tired eyes. "So this wasn't your way of getting back at me for getting your dad killed...?"

Repressed tears filled in the woman's eyes. "Ah don't blame ya for dad's death, Walpurgis. Ah was scared and angry; ah didn't mean what I said. Ah...." She broke off and looked uncomfortably at the steel below her feet. Swallowing, she looked up at him. "Ah love ya, Walpurgis. That's the truth."

Instead of giving an answer, Walpurgis just began to fall to the ground, unconscious. Karina caught him and, placing his head on her lap, brushed idly at his hair to calm herself down. "Ah'm sorry, Walpurgis. Ah'm so sorry."

As Adam Corbin stared in stunned disbelief at the corpses of his parents, the crumpled note dropped from his hand.

"Why, Lin...?"