A/N: Hello? Anybody here? ^_^;; Hehe... Yeah, sorry about the long wait, but I ran across some very unfortunate circumstances, as I mentioned in a previous update. Then I had to get myself in the mood to rewrite this section over again. And that would be my fault. You should all thank T4 for keeping me on my toes. It's hard to get me to work sometimes. But this chapter has finally been finished! Again, I am very sorry for the delay! Please enjoy!

Disclaimer: Even after all this time, we have still not aquired Escaflowne or it's characters. So sad.

Chapter 4

People seemed to appear from nowhere. It seemed that Dragon's warehouse was being overrun by intruders.

'Oh gosh - that's the lighter guy in the distance. Hide, Hitomi, hide. Don't let him see you or else he'll know you lied.' She tried to make herself as small as possible, but he was heading into the alley, undoubtedly looking for Dragon.

"...finally show their faces, do they?" she heard him mutter as he flicked his lighter on and off, "Well, if that's what old Whitey wants, that's what he'll get! I knew he'd been planning a rumble. It looks like he decided it was about time his gang got crushed. I'll take great pleasure in taking you down... personally."

Hitomi held her breath as the lighter man muttered, standing directly in front of her. 'Please move,' she thought.

Dilandau suddenly looked up and quickly stepped to the side. Dragon landed right where the other man had been, his switch blade out. The other gang leader pulled out his gun. Hitomi, still trying to hide, gasped slightly, but not enough to be heard. "It's nice that you have the guts to meet me in person, Whitey," Dilandau taunted.

"I aim to please, Dilly," said Dragon with a smirk, adjusting the knife in his hand.

"That's nice. I aim to kill," came the reply, a sinister grin appearing on his face as he snapped his lighter shut and clutched it in his hand.

The hiding cashier bit her lip. If that gang leader ('What kind of a name is Dilly for a gang leader?') noticed her, she could be dead. Now she wished she were in the dumpster, but then again...

"I see you're just itching to get started. In that case..." At that, Dragon lunged at his opponent. Dilandau calmly stepped out of the way as his oncoming attacker ran past him, narrowly missing his arm. Now, Dilandau's back was to Hitomi. She wasn't sure whether to be glad or scared that they didn't seem to notice her presence.

Dragon straightened up and turned back to his foe. He lunged again, this time aiming for his midsection, keeping his head low. Dilandau smirked and stuck his foot out, tripping the other gang leader as he moved out of the way, and fired his gun. In one quick movement, Dragon rolled out of the way and sat crouched, unfortunately for Hitomi only a foot from her. It was at this point that Dilandau noticed her presence. With that realization, he mocked, "Hey, I see you got your girl hiding in the shadows."

"What?" He quickly turned around and shoved the top box away. "What are you still doing here!? Are you a complete moron!?"

"Hey!" she yelled back, standing up. "I'm not the one who made me sit here. I was minding my own business yet again, and now this!" She threw up her hands. "I'll just go home."

"I don't think so, missy. Going with Whitey here has gotten you mixed up with the wrong crowd." Dilandau turned his gun on her and motioned for her to return to her court-side seat.

"You are such an idiot," Dragon muttered as he ran his free hand through his hair. "If you had only listened to me..." Sighing heavily, he turned back to his opponent and readied his knife.

Hitomi sat back down on the cold pavement, muttering, "Well, at least I don't need a haircut..."

Calming down, Dragon suddenly ran at Dilandau, aiming for his gun hand. Not quite fast enough at dodging this time, Dragon managed to get the gun loose from the other man, but with his lighter hand, Dilandau was able to get in a good blow to Dragon's chin, splitting his lip. Meanwhile, the gun slid along the pavement to Hitomi's feet. She picked it up.

"Not feeling as confident now, are we Dilly?" he said, wiping some of the blood off of his lip, as the other man glared at Hitomi who now held his gun. "Care to finish this?"

Now weaponless, Dilandau's eyes narrowed as he calmly waited for Dragon to make the first move. He didn't have to wait long as the other came at him. With a cry of rage, the unarmed man threw a punch, Dragon ducking just in time and coming up behind his opponent. Dilandau, realizing what had happened, quickly turned, but as he did, his foe slashed at his face leaving a long cut on his cheek. Stunned, Dilandau grabbed his face. Using the opportunity, Dragon drew back his fist and punched the other man square in the nose, causing him to fall back against the wall, knocking him unconscious.

Hitomi sat there breathing somewhat quickly with the gun still in her hand. She looked at it. She then looked at Dragon who was attempting to assess the damage done to his lip. The gash from his opponent's punch was bleeding, but not as bad as before. Hitomi stood.

The gang leader glared at her. "Why the heck didn't you hide like I told you to? I suggest you get out of here. Now. Unless of course you want more trouble."

She looked him in the eye, and then she turned and headed to the door of her apartment.

"Hey!"

She turned and looked at him, silently.

He took a step forward and held out his hand. "I suggest you give me that gun first."

Feeling the cold metal in her hand, she replied calmly. "I don't think so."

"And why is that?"

She became a little defensive. "Why would I ever give something like this to you? I don't trust you at all."

"Hey, who was it that told you to go and hide? I could've just let you get in the way, which probably would have resulted in a little more than you being stuffed in a dumpster. It's not my fault you didn't listen to me, wench!" he yelled, getting quite fed up with her.

She rolled her eyes and continued to her apartment.

"Hey! Get back here!" At that, Dragon ran up to her. "I said, 'give me that gun'!"

Her eyes turned cold. "You know what? I didn't ask for any of this. You need to leave me alone. Got it?" As she warned him, she poked him with the tip of the gun for emphasis.

His eyes narrowed. "You'll regret this." With that, he ran back to Dilandau, who was still lying on the ground.

"Whatever..." she mumbled as she continued inside, concealing the gun in her work smock.

Bending down, Dragon heaved the unconcious gang leader onto his shoulder. He made his way as quickly as possible back to his warehouse. This would make the whole night worth while.

"Where were you? What happened outside? Are you okay?" Momaru asked as his sister walked into the room.

"I'm okay, for now. Momaru, don't ever leave our apartment unless it's daylight and there are lots of people around. I don't know how, but we've gotten ourselves mixed up in something bad." She sighed. Her brother came over and hugged her, but during the hug, he felt something hard against his sister's side.

"What is that?"

"N-nothing." She looked away, unable to look him in the eyes.

He opened her smock and saw the gun. "What are you doing, sis?" He was scared.

"It's okay. I'm going to turn it in tomorrow to the police. It'll be okay." She put the gun on the table and held her brother close, then kissed him on the forehead.

"Hey, wake up, you piece of trash!" Dragon kicked his captive, who was currently tied quite securely to the same chair Momaru had been in earlier. The rest of his gang, most of whom were battered and bloody, stood and watched. They were going to enjoy this.

"How'd you do it, boss? How'd you knock the leader of the Slayers unconscious like this?" one overly eager gang member asked.

Their leader shrugged. "It was easy. He didn't stand a chance against the likes of me," he boasted.

Many of the gang people mumbled in approvement. With a smirk, their leader kicked the man again. "I said, wake up!"

Dilandau looked up slowly, squinting at the light from the lone bulb hanging bare from the ceiling.

"Finally."

The captured gang leader looked around the room. So he'd been caught. How pathetic. "Where'd Miss Dragon go, huh?" was his attempt at mocking.

"'Miss Dragon'?" whispered a gang member. The one next to him who was sporting a black eye shrugged.

"I'm afraid you don't fully understand your situation," Dragon said a little louder than necessary, trying to get off of that particular subject, "In case you hadn't noticed, you are not the one in charge here, so we will be the ones asking the questions, not you. Got it?" He cracked his knuckles.

Dilandau glared up at his rival, but said nothing.

"All right. Now, we're going to discuss territory. I want you and your gang to clear out of 22nd Street and fast. It's a little too close to our base of operations. Understood?" he said. Realizing he would not recieve a reply, he added, "And you must stay on the other side of 30th Street, got it? I don't want to see a single one of your lackeys any nearer. If I do, well, you just may not ever see them again. You're lucky I don't just kill you now." He flashed him a cruel smile and crossed his arms over his chest. Dilandau followed this with a colorful string of curses muttered under his breath as he struggled against his bonds.

"Good," replied Dragon, "I also want you to disband any of your men that came out if this with a black eye or less. Can't have your stronger men left. Ol' Chid over there isn't looking to healthy at the moment," he jerked his head towards a young man who was sporting two black eyes, a broken arm, and a number of cuts and bruises, "and I'm afraid I just won't tolerate that."

"Anything you say," Dillandau said sarcastically, knowing that there was no way on earth he'd ever do that.

"Oh, and I'll be personally checking up on you, just to make sure. Of course, you won't know when or where I'll be, but you can be sure that if I catch you disobeying these rules I have set up, my men and I will pay you a special visit. Now," Dragon turned to his gang, "what should we do next with our 'guest'? Any suggestions?"

A man from the back said, "Oo, let's dress him up as a woman!" A roar of approval rose from the rest of them.

Dragon turned back to the tied up man and smirked. "I guess that settles it, then. Now, let's get to work, shall we?" His grin widened as he waved his hand. The man that had spoken immediately ran to find the necessary equipment.

When the man returned a few minutes later with make-up and a dress, the whole gang cheered.

"Strip him," the leader ordered, as he grabbed his arms and dragged him to his feet.

Without cutting him loose, they took his clothes off by tearing them off of him, to be sure he couldn't change until he got back to his own base. Then, after restraining their struggling captive, they put the halter top and mini skirt on him. Dragon grinned.

"Now, somone hand me the make-up. I want to do this personally." He grabbed the lipstick that was passed to him (bright red in color) and opened it. After the lipstick had been messily applied due to the squirming of the mini skirted man, Dragon proceeded to add blush, mascara, and bright blue eye shadow. "Can't have anyone seeing such an ugly scar on a 'lady', now can we?" he mocked as he finished with the blush which now covered the wound he had received earlier that evening.

As a final touch, Chid eagerly handed him a blonde wig. Upon placing it on his head, he stepped back to observe his work. One of the gang members mockingly whistled as the place was filled with laughter.

"So sweetness," mocked their leader, "I hope you've learned something from all this. Now, I suggest you walk very slowly back to your headquarters. And don't try to rub your eyes. You'll smear your make-up."

The gang cut the rope tying his feet together, but left the one on his hands. One didn't need hands free to walk home. With that, they led him to the door. With mock cat calls, they sent him on his way. Dilandau carefully strode down the street, trying to keep his short skirt from riding up too much. He couldn't believe the humiliation. He swore to himself that they would pay.

"I'll get you, White Dragon. Just you wait. Dragons are my Slayers specialty. And next time we'll strike, only it will be a much more vulnerable area..."

It was Friday. Hitomi, after work at Mr. Moleman's pizza shop and on her way to the grocery store, stopped by the police station. She didn't want trouble. All she wanted to do was turn in the gun. The woman at the desk looked up. "May I help you?" she asked, noticing Hitomi.

"Well, uh... I sure hope so." She felt the gun in her purse. "I have something I found that I'd like to turn in to the police." She bit her lip, her green eyes revealing her worry.

"Well, what is it? We're very busy, you know," said the woman impatiently.

Hitomi stuck her hand into her purse and pulled out the gun, making sure it didn't face toward anyone and set it on the counter.

The woman glanced at the gun and then back at the girl. "Where did you get this?"

"Like I said, I sorta found it in an alley way by my apartment." Hitomi looked too naive and well-behaved to be messed up with guns. The lady did not understand.

"Really?" said the lady, obviously incredulous. "Well, you need to fill out some forms. The police will want to question you further about this. When you are done filling the papers out, I suggest you take a seat over there and wait for someone to come and get you." The woman opened a drawer and pulled out the needed forms and handed them to Hitomi.

"Ma'am, I didn't know that this would take so long. I have to be at work in 20 minutes, and it's about a 10 minute walk from here," the cashier explained, taking the paperwork. "Can I bring this back tomorrow maybe?"

"I'm sorry, you should have thought of that sooner. You must wait here. We wouldn't want something to happen to you in the meantime so that we couldn't get ahold of you," she said in mock concern.

Hitomi furrowed her eyebrows. This stunk. Why was her life so complicated? She sat down and filled out the form. Mainly, it just asked for her name, address, and what she had brought in and where it was found. A few minutes later, a policeman with a doughnut in his hand walked up to her.

"Are you the one that brought in the gun?" he said, his mouth full.

"Yes, sir."

"Come with me." He walked into a room in the back, waving her to follow.

She followed. He motioned for her to take a seat, so she did. "Sir, I'm sorry to bother you, but I have to be at work in like 10 minutes now, and I have to walk. I'm already going to be late," she said, hoping he'd hurry.

"Look, this is serious. I'll be sure to have a talk with your manager. Where do you work?" he asked, eating the last of his doughnut.

"The grocery store on 36th street."

"Oh, well that's perfect. I have to pick up something from there anyway," he said, tossing out his empty doughnut box. "Now, let's get on with this. Where exactly did you get this gun?"

"It was on the ground in the alley between the warehouse and my apartment building," she explained. She was already too far into this mess. She didn't want to give anything away that would be reason for her to be in trouble with White Dragon or anyone else, for that matter.

"And where is that?"

"20th street. I live in the Miami Apartments."

"Ok," he said, taking notes. "Do you realize that it's been rumored that gangs like to hang out in that area?"

"Yes, I have heard that." She added in thoughts, "And I've seen it too and been pulled in as a part..."

"Have you witnessed any strange activity lately?"

"I heard a gun shot in the alley last night," she said honestly. Her eyes had been closed, so, it wasn't a total lie. This was horrible. She hated lying and hiding the truth really was lying, in its own fashion.

"I see." He scribbled down some more notes. "And where were you when you heard this shot?"

"The alley," she whispered, not wanting to answer.

"Really? What direction did the shot come from?"

"Sorta in front of me." Why had she done this? She shoulda just given the gun to Dragon...

"In front of you? Then did you see anyone? If you heard a shot and then found this gun, there must have been someone there." The policeman stared her in the eyes, waiting for an answer.

"There were lots of people," she replied honestly. "But, I had my eyes closed..."

"So you're saying you have no idea what these people look like?"

She looked up at him. "I can't say anymore. I've already said too much." She scooted her chair back. "I better go."

"Hold it right there!" he almost shouted. "You're hiding something. You know more than you're letting on. I'm afraid I can't let you go until you answer all of my questions truthfully."

"Don't I get a lawyer or something? I don't have to answer any of your questions. I've said all I want to say, thank you." She stood.

"Hey! I'm not through with you yet!"

"I don't have to tell you anything. I know my rights. Now, are you going to drop me off at work or shall I start walking?" she asked with finality.

"Look, if you're being threatened, we can protect you from whoever it is. I'll ask you once more, where did you find this gun and who did you see in the alley?"

"I've answered you already." She was adamant that she say no more.

"Fine." He walked past her and out of the station, holding the door for her. "I promised you a ride, so if you want one, you'd better get out here quick."

She silently scurried after him. He walked up to his police car and opened up the passenger door for her. She got in, the policeman shutting the door behind her. He walked over to the driver's side, got in, and turned on the car. In a few minutes, they'd arrived at the grocery store.

Since the doors were locked, the policeman opened her door for her. Hitomi hurried in, but the policeman kept pace. One last time, he questioned, "Are you sure you have nothing else to tell me?"

"I'm sure. Thank you for your time anyhow." She hurried over and clocked in only 5 minutes late. Getting her till, she looked around and noticed Van. The policeman was still sorta hanging around her, perhaps with some hope that she'd say something incriminating.

For a second, the bagger's eyes widened. He stopped what he was doing (listening to the other bagger's talk as the cashiers cast them nasty looks) and stared at her. His eyes narrowed dangerously, and he frowned. 'So, she ratted on me, did she?' he thought. Hitomi saw the bagger's look at her, and she looked away from him. She wanted to be done with him.

His eyes rarely left her all that day, except of course when he saw a woman with a head that seemed much too small for her body. That was creepy looking. But as soon as 'shrunken head lady' left, he returned to his glaring.

The entire day, Hitomi felt the eyes burning into her head. Finally, her break came. She decided to go sit in the small deli area of the store. All she wanted was time to herself, time to think, time to rest.

Unfortunately, she didn't get it.

to be continued...

A/N: Ooo... Who could it be? What was going to happen now? I'm just on the edge of my seat here! The shrunken head lady - wow! Classic grocery store moments. Lemme tell you all, keep reading - exciting things are in store for you. - This from the other author (if you can call us authors...)

(Gwydo's 2 cents) Oh man... Converting Big G into Dilandau is hard. But no one else fit... And of course I can't make my Dilly be a stupid fool. Ahhhh, anyway, the next chapter won't take two months, I promise! In fact, it's already written! It just needs to be edited. So check back in, oh, a week or so (it shouldn't take that long, but I've been busy lately). Thanx for being patient and let us know what you think! ^_~