Hidden Blades, Hidden Family
By Major Mike Powell III
Claire "Lightning" Farron, a highly-ranked Assassin at the age of 21 strode through the dark back streets of Kyoto, Japan.
She was born into the Assassin Order, determined to follow in her father's footsteps after he was killed on a mission – leaving her and her mother to pick up the pieces.
Also, Lightning felt her dear mother always kept something from her, a secret she had heard her parents murmur about at night when they thought she was asleep.
Something had happened when she was a child. Someone had been taken from her and her parents.
However, after she was initiated into the Order, after she took her first Leap of Faith, she had left that mystery in the back of her mind.
After all, her time was taken almost completely up by her education and training.
Lightning had the ability to stay cool even in the most heated of battles, and she was often tasked to lead her fellow Assassins in different missions.
Not once had Lightning returned home with a casualty.
This time, Lightning had been sent to Japan to take care of a General once loyal to the Assassin cause, only to turn his back on them and live a life of debauchery and corruption, granted to him by the Templars.
Tonight, Lightning had sabotaged a shipment of weapons due for the General's castle.
The next night, she would lead an attack on the castle. The plan was inspired by the legendary Grand Master, Ezio Auditore himself, in his younger days.
Lightning would eliminate all marksmen and her fellow Assassins would then put on their uniforms and support Lightning once the fray started.
Now, the young woman was on her way back to the Assassin Headquarters to report in, but something caught her well-trained, sharp eye.
Her attention was drawn to a particular couple walking out of the brothel: a giant of a man with scruffy blonde hair wearing a perverted grin, looking very sleazy as he had his arm wrapped around a very uncomfortable-looking escort girl in a lovely pink, red and white kimono, waving a huge sake bottle with his hand, sputtering drunken gibberish. What caught Lightning's eye was the girl's unique shade of candy-pink hair and, for just a moment, the concubine turned her eyes towards the uniquely-dressed Assassin, and their gazes met.
Lightning was sure the girl couldn't see her eyes under the shade of her hood. However, Lightning looked into the girl's eyes, into those cobalt orbs, which looked strikingly like the Assassin's own.
The poor dear then turned her eyes back to the ogre of a man holding and groping her without any worries. Lightning's normally cool face turned into a scowl.
'Don't you touch her,' Was her only thought as she began to slowly approach the pervert and the concubine.
"Stay from your blade from the flesh of innocent" was one of the tenants of the Assassin's Creed, but Lightning had the gut feeling that the blonde bastard was not innocent, by any means.
She then noticed the katana that was slung on the man's belt and also, the glimmer of light touching silver and blood-red reflecting off of something hanging from the man's neck. Lightning smirked.
Also, she spotted a bench on the side of the street, very near to the drunk and the concubine.
'Perfect.'
Lightning casually walked towards the bench and sat down, keeping her eyes trained on her new target.
As the man and the pink-haired girl headed towards her, Lightning looked up and her gaze once again met the girl's, and this time, she lifted her hood to give her a glance of her face. She then raised her gloved finger to her lips in a "shhh" motion.
Then, Lightning struck.
It was quiet, efficient and quick: Lightning stood up, hooking an arm around the pervert swordsman's neck, bent him down and jammed her Hidden Blade between his ribs, straight into his heart.
She then gingerly brought the man down and sat him on the bench. Lightning then swooped in and hooked an arm around the pinkette's slim waist, bringing her softly and snug against her side and walking away, with everybody else on the street none the wiser.
"Where do you live?" Lightning asked, looking straight ahead, avoiding her charge's questioning gaze.
"A-Ah…eh, well, I rent a room at an inn, that way…" The girl meekly pointed in a certain direction. Lightning nodded and they went on their way.
"Um…who are you, miss? What did you do to that man?" She asked hesitantly.
"Call me Lightning. I killed him," she said without hesitation. The girl then tensed up and squeaked.
"K-K-Killed him?! B-But…you just pulled him down and…!"
"I have my ways," Lightning replied. The girl squirmed nervously in her grip.
"Calm down. I'm not going to hurt you. I saw how drunk he was and how he was manhandling you."
"Eh? Y-You saw that…?" The girl became flustered with embarrassment and shame. She then sighed and relaxed in Lightning's embrace. "Well, he had been seeing me for almost a week. He gave me good tips, but…he…he was really, really rough…and sometimes…violent…"
Lightning's jaw tensed and she stopped, grasping the girl's shoulders and looking down at her and seeing the tears beginning to glide down from the girl's beautiful eyes. She gently cupped her cheek and wiped the tears away with her thumb.
"It's Ok. He won't bother you or anyone again. What's your name?" The girl smiled softly before starting slightly and blushing in embarrassment.
"O-Oh, thanks…um, Serah. I'm Serah," the girl spoke.
Lightning smiled softly.
"Serah…that's a lovely name. Your name most definitely doesn't sound Japanese. Where are you from?" She asked as she wrapped her arm once again around Serah's waist, with the girl responding in kind and even resting her head on Lightning's shoulder as they walked towards her place.
"I'm…not really sure. I have some vague memories of being taken from my parents, being in a big house…but I was never told where I was from. I would assume…I don't know…England, judging from my looks, perhaps? I was raised to be an escort," Serah said.
"I see," Lightning replied. Something seemed to click with this girl. Lightning wondered what was it about this concubine…the striking resemblance, perhaps?
"Um, Lightning? Can I…Can I see your face?" Serah spoke meekly.
"Not yet. Wait until we get to your place. My people aren't too keen on revealing our faces in public." Lightning spoke cryptically.
Serah tilted her head to the side in a downright adorable fashion.
"O-Oh, I see. Ok." She said with a smile. Serah saw the smile on Lightning's lips, too.
Soon enough, Lightning and Serah had made it back to the younger girl's inn room.
"Um, I know it's not much, but please, make yourself comfortable. Would you like some tea?" Serah asked as Lightning stood on the foyer of her room. The older woman nodded.
Serah nodded in return and went to heat up the kettle while Lightning walked further into the room and sat down cross-legged on a cushion in front of a low coffee table.
A few moments later, Serah returned with a tray with two steaming mugs of tea. She handed Lightning hers and then sat down right next to her, sitting like a proper Japanese woman. Lightning raised an eyebrow. She wondered how these Japanese women did that, so gracefully too, in Serah's case.
"So…" Serah began, looking expectantly at Lightning. "Can I…see the face of my savior now?" She smiled.
That smile was contagious alright.
Lightning nodded and smoothly pulled her hood off in a fluid, almost elegant motion.
Serah gasped and almost dropped her tea.
"Uncanny, isn't it?" Lightning uttered thoughtfully.
Icy-blue gazed into shocked, confused cobalt.
"Pretty much…I…I feel like I'm looking at a mirror…but not seeing, uh…um…" the younger woman eventually could not hold Lightning's gaze and she looked down at her cup of tea.
Serah's eyes widened and looked questioningly at the face of the woman now an exact two inches before her own, a gloved hand resting comfortably, soothingly on her cheek.
"All my life I've felt like there was something missing…something that should have been part of the family pictures, yet there was just an empty space. You feel it too, don't you…Serah?" Lightning cooed, looking Serah right in the eye. The girl had no idea how to really reply to that, yet she felt the tug at her heart strings and then, she felt a massive wave of nostalgia and familiarity when her gaze landed on the twinkle of a lightning bolt-shaped pendant that now dangled between Lightning's fingers.
"…I…I don't…can it be…?" The younger girl whispered in awe as the woman before her gently set the pendant in her palm, gently caressing her cheek with her free hand. Tears prickled at the edges of her cobalt eyes as she looked back into Lightning's eyes. "Clairebear…"
It had been such a long time since Claire "Lightning" Farron had last smiled, yet now, she smiled like it was in her very nature. She was reunited with her little sister.
Serah welcomed Lightning's embrace with twice the intensity and tightness, weaving her arms around her big sister's waist and burying her face in her warm, soft, white-clad bosom and nuzzling her half-cape.
The Assassin let out a shuddering sigh of bliss and squeezed Serah in her arms.
A few minutes passed by in contended, warm, comfortable silence as the two Farron sisters became reacquainted with each other's presence in this one, simple gesture of affection.
Still cuddled into Lightning's lap, Serah questioned quietly, as if afraid to break the warm, welcoming ambience.
"So…Claire, why did you…um…why did you kill that man?" she asked and kept her eyes closed and her earing focused on the beating of her sister's heart right below where she rested her cheek.
"He was a target," Lightning replied without hesitation and Serah looked on with curiosity as the white-clad woman reached into a pocket in her armored vest. Serah raised an eyebrow upon seeing the eerie-looking, silver and blood-red cross hanging from a broken black chain being held in Lightning's free hand.
"W-What is that? A Christian cross?" Feeling Lightning shift under her, Serah turned her gaze upwards to meet her big sister's. They looked steely yet gentle, gentleness and care reserved for her and only her.
"I took it from him after I assassinated him. He was part of something bigger and he was a target of opportunity. But Serah…if you ask again, I will have to tell you everything, yes…but after I do, there may be no turning back. If I let you know about what I do, my mission and the mission of my comrades…regardless of what you choose to do afterwards…you will be in danger," apprehension dawned in Lightning's eyes as she spoke. Serah could tell this was a decision she had to be careful in making.
"Claire…if asking means I'll be in danger yet I can remain by your side…then…" The girl smiled gently and her eyes shined with affection, devotion…and resolve and determination that were all Farron. She straddled Lightning's lap and cradled the older woman's beautiful face with her palms. "Then…tell me everything, Claire. But do it…after I tell…and show you what I do…alright~?"
Lightning's eyes widened yet she did not fight it in the slightest when, after that alluring purr, Serah swooped in and kissed Lightning, her big sister, right on the lips and gently pushed her to the floor, keeping the kiss going even as they descended to the mat and well after the younger woman began to disrobe and then, urged Lightning to follow suit.
"I'll tear down Heaven itself if it means protecting you, Serah…"
"And if I can, and you'll have me, I'll fight and protect you as well, Claire."
And as the oil lantern providing the room with warm, amber light was put out and darkness embraced the two sisters getting intimately reacquainted with each other, Claire "Lightning" Farron idly wondered to herself…everything is permitted, no?
FIN
For Roxius, kept you waiting, huh? Here's to you, my friend. :3
Also, to all others that read, enjoyed and review this story, one-shots are actually called ONE-SHOTS for a reason, no? So, I implore you, guys and girls, DO NOT ask me for a sequel or next chapter or whatever, Ok? Thank you. Have a nice day, ya'll.
Semper-Fi! Carry on!