Finally, a JaffarNino. I have always been a mild supporter of it (like, not really crazy about it), but I never wrote a JaffarNino fic before. This is my first. I just decided that it would make a nice story. So read, enjoy and review!

Prisoners of Darkness

Two fugitives, prisoners of darkness, on the run…Seeking a route of escape…

"Kill her!"

The command was direct. He had not believed it at first, but as it had sunk in, Jaffar had realized what he had just been ordered to do.

Kill Nino!

Kill Nino? She had done nothing. Why kill her?

That was the reason. She had done nothing. She was useless.

He had to follow his orders, as he had for all the years of his life, and kill her. It was the wish of his master, and he lived to serve his master.

But something just made him feel like resisting the order, made him want to defy Lord Nergal, just once. He didn't want to kill Nino. It didn't feel right at all.

Now, he stood in the shadows, watching as the young mage paced around in the swishing grass, under the moon, anxiously glancing about.

She's waiting for me, Jaffar realized. She doesn't know that I—

My orders. I was ordered to kill her. Disobedience means death. There's no space for guilt in my heart.

Slowly, he stepped out of the darkness. At the sound of his almost silent footsteps, she glanced up, a tiny smile appearing on her lips.

"Jaffar!" her voice came out in a breath, barely audible. "I didn't know that you were coming!" Her soft laughing was so innocent, her eyes so unknowing of the fate that awaited her. "What are we going to do now?"

Jaffar glared coldly back, feeling his heart freeze from all emotion, from all the feelings that he, indeed, had.

"We?" he replied, fixing his glare straight into her eyes, though it took him all his strength to keep it there. "No. Tonight, you die."

Nino's eyes filled up with shock, and with pain. "I—" came her gasp of shock. She was speechless, and he felt guilt suddenly attack him, making him feel breathless, strength-less.

Jaffar felt the dagger handles in his firm hands, warmed by his powerful grip. Kill her, kill her now! He had the power to kill, to kill anyone in the world. But why, why couldn't he kill just one more? Nino was no one. Sonia thought so. And whatever his masters thought was a fact.

Blocking out his guilt and his pain, he leapt forth, as he had done time and time again. His muscles moved smoothly through the reflex action as he raised a dagger and got ready to bring it tearing down, in a killer move.

He felt his arm grow weak with sudden hesitation, then the resistance of flesh, before the silver blades ripped through the skin on Nino's neck. Dark liquid swelled in the wound, coming out in black-red spurts under the light of the full moon. Every drop of blood was like a scream of agony, a cry for everything to end. But Nino still looked on bravely, seeming to know that this had been an order. Forgive me, Nino! Forgive me, for ever doing this to you...

A memory flashed through his mind. An echo of a gasping shout, of agony, a last, dying breath. "Ma-Matthew..."

No! This has gone on for too long!

Jaffar stopped his arm. His left hand shook, dagger drawn, ready to strike Nino's last blow at any moment. His forehead rained sweat. I've never been so—afraid before...

The assassin looked on at Nino's unblinking, bright eyes, defiance suddenly flaring in his heart.

I've had enough of this. I am only a tool, to be used by Lord Nergal to his heart's content. I don't want that, I want to be more! I want to be allowed the emotions that I should have, I don't want to be a prisoner, I want to have a life of my own!

Prisoners of darkness, searching...searching for a way to run away, and break free.

"Jaffar..."

The mage's wound was bleeding. It's only a shallow cut, Jaffar realised with relief. It'll heal in time.

Nino looked on at Jaffar. There was still fear in her eyes, but it was already ebbing. You're safe now, Nino, safe from Lord Nergal.

He reached out and took her gently in her arms, a gesture he had wished to make for two years already.

"Nino, I know what we're going to do tonight," he whispered. "Tonight, we're escaping." Nino nodded soundlessly, trusting.

"We're running from Lord Nergal?" she asked in reply, into his shoulder. "Where will we go?"

"Somewhere," he answered earnestly. "Somewhere, where we can be free."

Then, together, they slipped back into the shadow of the trees, and they left their old life behind, forever.

Hope you liked it. Very mildly dark, but more of spiritual than angst. I finally decided that it should be Spiritual and Romance, though you wouldn't usually think that a JaffarNino story could fall under Spiritual. That's what I find, anyway.