One never knows at whose hand a deer may die.

Crouching tigers and hidden dragons go slumming, smiling tolerantly as the wannabes pick fights all around them. The fastest gun alive in the west keeps his bar open and his mouth closed while the gun-toting drunks argue about which one is faster. And you? You are just dying to ask what the hell legends are doing in that place. So you do.

" Why in the name of all that's holy did you come here? You've got better things to do."

"Penance."

"You're not even Catholic."

"Atonement?" George Temple Jr. cleans the glass with a piece of chamois, and holds it up to the light to check for spots. He sets it down and pours you a drink from the almost empty bottle of soju he keeps for his favorite customers.

Li Mu Bai is eating ramen with Yu Shu Lien at the bar. He reaches over and absently adds soy sauce to her bowl. "Maybe in my next life, I will have made up for having used my skills and powers for evil."

"That sounds as good a reason as any. Except you're the one who's Catholic."

"Penance, then."

"I like the idea of karma, " You Shu Lien says as she spears a piece of sea urchin off her beloved's plate. "Maybe I'll be back as Anita Mui."

"Hate to break this to you, but she's dead."

"Damn. Oh well. Ramen's good. Eat up."

"It was? Really?"

"A little salty, but I'm not going to be drawing swords over that. "

At the next table, someone does, the wannabe brat who does have potential but just won't freaking listen to those who are old enough to know better, so she picks fights and steals stuff and runs away, becoming a general pain in the ass to those who are just trying to enjoy retirement in the presence of their previously unrequited loves.

Everyone dies, except brat and bartender.

But it's okay. It could have been worse.