A/N This work is a collab made with swanqueen-in-gotham. She has made an amazing vid for this story which, even if ffnet doesn't let me post is back at my twitter and tumblr (shadowdianne in both cases) if anyone wants to take a look at it. Which I hevily reccomend. It's a really amazing work and it has been a delight to do a collab such as this one.
As a PS this story is set in New York City during its 1870's. I tried to bring as much historical background as possible. However, there are things that due to the story has needed to be tweaked. I hope that for the historical nerds out there -fellow one here- the details and small tidbits of information are presented as organically as possible. As another PS Regina's character has been heavily based on Evie Frye in several occasions regarding both her fighting style and clothing which is not exactly the better mirror of the fashion of that time in that particular place but it seemed the closest to what Regina would in fact use.
As always comments are heavily appreciated.
Prologue
Nighttime had fallen upon New York City and the once bustling streets were now filled with whispers and shadows that only the few ones awake were privy to hear and see. In one corner of the ninth avenue, however, between the gagging smell of the stagnant water from the Hudson and the mix of burned grease and coal that never seemed to cease from the now dormant factories, the silhouette of a shadow was crouched behind a few forgotten wooden boxes equally gnawed by rats and stray dogs alike. Contrary to the whistling breeze that carried away the saline stench from the forgotten steamships that now slept in the decks a few streets away and the clacking sound of the elevated railway that rose a few meters from where the boxes where, the silhouette was perfectly still; making no noise as the sound of the voice of the half-drunken thug she had been spying at ever since the last rays of sun had disappeared altogether came to her in the same fashion the stench did.
Regina bit down her bottom lip as she moved slightly further away from the boxes, switching her weight from her left to her right foot as she darted a look between the almost corroded wood planks that conformed the box. Grasping the top part of her hood she gave it a tug as she looked at her left where a splash of silver signaled the place where the half-hidden moon reflected its light into the puddles that were scattered along the street. Patience had never been her most proficient characteristic and as she mentally counted the seconds while the heavy footsteps seemed to approach her place she crouched even more, her left hand digging into the dark clothes of her suit, a much more fitting ensemble that any woman would have been caught wearing during daylight.
Finally, after a few more long excruciating moments, the barrel-like chest of the thug came into view, his frame barely contained by a now grey -possibly former white- shirt and loose pants. Narrowing her eyes the brunette assassin pursed her lips and rotated her right wrist, a mechanic whirring rising from the motion. Nodding to herself and waiting just enough for the thug to look at the other side of the street while grumbling how he was expected to freeze his ass off she whistled once, the sound piercing through the air and making the brute look towards the shadows he hadn't been looking at until then.
Moving forward and grabbing one of his feet Regina pulled upwards as quickly as possible until she felt the brute stumble, unable to regain his center. Just as quickly Regina let the man fall while moving swiftly towards his now exposed back. The silver moonlight illuminated the hidden blade of her right wrist as she left the mechanism exposed to it, the blade disappearing just as quickly in the thug's back. The man let go a quick scream that was promptly muffled by his own blood which soon enough started to pool around his unmoving body once Regina twisted the blade inside him.
Retracting the blade again with another snap of her wrist Regina stood as tall as she was, her eyes shining under her hood while she looked at the door the now dead thug had been guarding all night long, the dimmed light that came from below the door enough for the woman to smile victoriously while throwing one last glance to the corpse. It was going to probably cause some ruckus a few hours from then, she thought while glancing at the pocket watch she had dangling from its chain, but she really didn't have any other option than leave him there.
Squaring her shoulders and heading towards the now unguarded door she left the body behind, her fingers disappearing once again in her suit and grasping the small set of lock picks she had checked to still have a few moments before. However, she soon discovered that apart from the thug nothing else had been set in order to keep the entrance guarded and so one single thrust into the open door later revealed the entry, the light she had seen below the door now illuminating her figure as she stepped inside, closing the door just enough behind her to make it look tightly closed from a distance.
Blinking and moving closer to the corridor's walls she quickly found herself into a bigger room in were the dancing flames of a fire licked the shadows away and illuminated the blackened floor in where three more thugs talked to each other in gruff voices as they played cards. The fire, coming from a small heater close to where Regina was crouching once more, caused the woman to blink the away a droplet of sweat as she mentally calculated how many steps she would need in order to reach the nearest thug and the door that waited for her behind all of the three men who now were laughing as another round of their card game was done. Probably too many.
She didn't pay any mind to their words, knowing she probably had seconds before either the nearest one turned and saw her or the other two looked up enough for her form to be revealed behind the heater. Extracting one small, light knife from the back of her right boot she counted to ten before raising, the heat of the heater's walls biting into her knuckles of her right hand as she threw the knife towards the nape of the thug nearest to the door and grabbed a fistful of still steaming cinders. Wincing briefly, she took two more steps forward just as the man fell, the movement causing his companions to turn and scream death threats as they saw her. She, however, didn't let them approach her enough and jumped to her left when the closest one tried to grab her. Keeping her back as straight as possible, she bared her hidden blade once again, slicing the man's side with it before throwing the cinders at him, the scream that followed suit as he tried to scrub them from his eyes enough sign that they had hit their destined target.
Moving closer towards the third thug as the man knocked over the small table they had been playing at she let the blade slide again into its sheathe, the motion making the thug's eyes bulge as he closed his hands into two meaty fists. Breezing through the floor, Regina picked the embedded knife from the first man's neck and pulled, knocking the third man unconscious with the blunt handle after dodging a half-arsed attempt of hitting her.
Looking at her hand and sighing as she saw the now red skin she tried to open and close it a few times, feeling the skin tighter around her burn but nothing that couldn't be fixed later. Looking at the new three corpses she let her guard down for the first time in all those minutes, her back relaxing at last as she focused on the beaten and worn out jackets they were in where the letters QoD were still visible at its left side, closer to the breast. It had been a while since she had felt anything else than just numbness after an assassination and for that she closed her eyes, mentally kicking herself before opening her eyes again; she really didn't have the time and she knew that, could feel it in the soft ticking noise of her clock that kept marking how many minutes she still had. Not many and, definetely, not enough.
Pushing the door open and nodding to herself when it rotated on its hinges she walked inside, leaving the three corpses and the heater behind.
The following room, once she achieved it after climbing through a set of clacking steel-made stairs, was definetely bigger and full of empty barrels attached to what seemed to be mechanical arms that kept them in place. She had seen similar constructions in the other factories she had been and so, walking past the seemingly unending lines of barrels she looked up, where the owner's office blinked in the darkness thanks to the twinkling light that came from the stained windows from where he eyed the production in the form of four wooden walls firmly perched atop girders. The security of this one, however, was laughable and for a second she wondered if she was heading to a trap. The information she had received, alongside with the map she had checked before going there, had been pretty accurate but only four men guarding one seemed to be a little lacking. Perhaps, she thought while moving towards the smaller set of stairs erected in the middle of the industrial unit, the man wasn't as important as he seemed to think considered why she was here.
Her boots didn't make any sound as she climbed the stairs up, crouching as quickly as possible once she reached the top, careful to not move directly in front of the grease stained windows. The air was thick with the same mix of burnt grease and coal that floated around the compound outside and for a second she breathed through her mouth, careful to not make any sound while she almost crawled until she was directly beneath one of the windows, the chain of her pocket watch dangling perilously before she caught it, preventing it from hitting the outside wall of the small construction.
This was it, she thought, trying her hidden blade.
The rest came and went in a blur as she peeked into the office through the glass. Seeing the balding head of the man she had come for she spied on him as he seemed to read and rewrite something in papers she was too far to conclude what it where. The movements of the man, however, were nervous and imprecise and twice he looked up in just as many seconds before re-writing something in nerve-wracking slowness.
Focusing on the office and how it was layered, Regina realized that the door would open not in front of the man but at his left. The office on itself apparently wasn't much more than just what she had already seen; just a desk and the light she had seen plus papers that were stacked one atop the other creating mountains the man seemed to be digging on right now. Counting to three Regina moved to door just as the man inside wrote another thing down into his papers. The door was thinner than the ones she had already trespassed and so she pushed, mentally rolling her eyes as it moved, a crack of light slit open the almost darkness she had been surrounded with ever since she had entered in the building. The sound of the door, however, gyrating on its hinges, made enough noise for the man inside to turn towards it, his eyes narrowing in fear as he threw his hand atop the papers he had been writing on, ink splattering on his skin as he did so.
Regina knew she had seconds before the man either tried to attack or cried for help. She had not seen any other entrance than the one she had used but the whole factory plant was inmense and it was perfectly possible for more thugs been in one of the shadowed corners waiting to be called. Opening the door fully and jumping quickly into the room she straightened up and closed the door with a swift motion of her right arm, the light coming from the obviously used and never upgraded oil lamp guilty of the pool of light that had been casting shadows on the man's face as he wrote seeming to ttilitate as the man in question started to tremble on his chair.
"Who are you?" She spluttered as Regina closed the distance between her and the desk the man now was hiding behind, knuckles white as he grabbed its wooden edge, papers momentarily forgotten. "What are you doing here?"
The brunette could feel the stare of the man as he took on her clothes; nothing appropriate for a woman or for someone who liked to call themselves proper. The tight-fitting pants and boots dyed black so they didn't reflect back any kind of color in the utmost darkest she normally worked in the first thing one would see. Next the black and purple fitting jacket very much loved back in England by her brothers and sisters but not so much in America and last but not least the gleaming handle of one of her knives alongside with the mechanism around her wrist that created the sheathe for her hidden blades. Nothing about her spoke good omen and for that she let her mouth form a small smirk, one she knew would leave the man worried about his safety if he wasn't already.
The smile had the desired effect and in a second the man was swallowing hard, eyes dancing frenziedly from one corner of the small room to the other, wishing, probably, to be saved any minute now.
"We both know your goons aren't going to appear. " Regina spoke, inflicting on her words as much coldness as possible while trying to look as collected as she would back at any other situation. Infiltrate a party? Done. Get information no one else seemed able to get? Done. Infiltrating a facility? Done. Scaring someone to death before getting information from them? Not so easy. She had liked it, once, but as she licked the back of her teeth while waiting for the man to keep talking she realized that her grip around the knife was too strong, her posture too stiff and her feet weren't as well positioned as they could have. Annoyed with herself she channeled her center slightly lower, just in case the frantic drumming of the man's fingers against the wooden desk meant something else than just fear.
Just as expected the man rose his left hand, a gun on his grip, one he probably would have had hidden behind the first drawer, waiting just in case something like this happened. Changing her own grip around the knife from its handle to the pointed blade Regina snapped her fingers hitting the man's knuckles with the handle, the pain from the hit eliciting a small cry as the gun fell into the papers of the desk with a heavy thud.
"Impressive." Regina said in a flat tone even though she could feel her heart racing inside her chest. "As I was saying, your goons aren't going to appear and you know perfectly well which kind of power I represent."
She saw the man's nervous nod as well as the fat droplets of sweat that were starting to form on his receding hairline.
"Then listen to me, everything you've been giving them? We want as much information as possible; money, who uses it and who carries it. The robber barons are already restless and you, being one of them, must very well know that once they start actively battling for New York's City control there are going to be very few things for the smaller factories. Yours is the responsibility for being one of those at the beginning of the tensions or not."
Regina saw the man swallow nervously once again as she thought again on her words. It was true after all that the industry barons, the ones that didn't have problems looking at the other way as long as money kept flowing through their factories, were already battling for the better deck places and deals. It was only matter of time that everything went south. She was not economist but she understood enough to know that they were already very close to that explosion and with Templars already making moves the time they had was even shorter.
"So, what's going to be?" She whispered, hand gripping the knife, blade gleaming on the dirty light of the oil lamp. The man licked his lips, yellowing teeth peeking between them.
"I will give you everything you need." He finally replied, voice weak as Regina picked up the gun and moved it away from the man's hands.
"Excellent." She answered, voice feigning a cheerfulness she didn't feel. Moving as quickly as possible she hit the man above his ear, the blow making his face go slack as his eyes rolled up, his body falling on top of his papers, the still fresh ink probably coating his chest and the brownish grey jacket he wore.
Looking down at the papers that were visible Regina frowned as she saw numbers upon numbers and what seemed to delivery notes. Embezzlement. Clicking her tongue, she looked at her watch only to grunt inwardly realizing that she was already late. Checking around the room with one final glance and leaving everything as it was as instructed she turned and opened the door of the office, quickly closing it behind her and going back the already walked path. No one stopped her and even though she eyed the shadows between every barrel, the air still steaming with unrefined soap, no thug jumped to her from them. Apparently, her job was done.
The slightly colder but still heavy air of the nighttime breeze hit her nose as she finally exited the factory, the corpse of the first goon she had taken care of nowhere in sight.
"I told you I had everything under control." She snapped into the shadows, eyes narrowing in rage as a soft chuckle was heard from where she had been staring at.
"I'm sure of it." The shadows replied in a heavy British accent as a female silhouette came out of them. "Leaving so many corpses behind one would say you want to get caught."
Regina let out a heavy sigh, feeling the wings of her nose flare up as she stared at the redhead that was now eyeing her with a lopsided smirk. "I had a very tight schedule." She replied, knowing very well that that didn't excuse her sloppiness. The redhead shrugged, pointing at a small corner at Regina's back where the brunette knew there was an alley rarely used except for drunkards that went there to take a piss. "I've put him there, hopefully by the time he is found our new friend has already covered his trails enough for us to pick up the rest."
Regina nodded at that, choosing to leave behind a conversation Zelena had apparently decided to also not take in that moment. "He is ready to talk, as soon as he wakes up that is."
The glee on Zelena's following answer wasn't feigned. "Excellent."
Regina nodded before she glanced at the elevated railroad, the clanking sound that came from it still being carried away by the wind. Zelena followed her gaze and shook her head before extracting a small envelope from one of her hidden pockets. Her clothes were very much like Regina's, the coat the brunette wore actually something the redhead had carried away from England when she had left the country. "You have new orders. We have managed to find that one of our watched Templars is about to climb a few rungs, possibly get enough power to start funneling the money in the organization. You need to stop it."
Regina nodded at that, already opening the letter in where the details of the mission were written in the precise handwriting of their archivist.
"Killian Jones." She read. Glancing up again she heard Zelena already moving back to the shadows, her red mane covered by her own hood.
Looking at her watch she sighed. Long night it was then.