The Assassins
By- GirlWithSilverEyes (.com) and American-Anime (.com)
Summary: Was originally an RP (Role Play) between American-Anime and I on DeviantArt. It's about our Maximum Ride OC's pasts. Talon and Ivy belong to me. Oh-3 is Talon's boyfriend now, Brage Ethans, who belongs to American-Anime as well as all other characters bedsides Talon and Ivy.
The "Boss" glared at the two dark-haired girls that where in the room, casting his gray gaze to the redhead next to him shortly afterwards.
"Naniqua, You know what to do," he said coolly, a small smirk tugging at his lips.
"Yes, sir," the redhead, dressed in a full-body, leather suit with weapons of all sorts decorating it. "But, if you please..." She waved her hand towards the door as a signal.
The Whitecoat nodded his head curtly, waving off the other persons who were with him before leaving himself.
"Do not fail me, Oh-Two."
"Have I ever?" The 'Boss' smiled at her reply, closing the door behind her.
Naniqua continued to stare at the door, her head moving slightly as if watching someone walk. The girl with multi-colored hair started to rear up on the two girls- probably sisters- but didn't attack them quite yet.
"Where are they?" the African American boy, who was lounging near the furthest wall, asked loudly.
Naniqua held her hand, three fingers extended. She put one down, and then another slowly.
Finally, the last finger went down, making the older of the two "Targets" stiffen.
"Relax, honey," Andre said from his corner. "It ain't gonna hurt you."
Talon stiffened as the last of the three fingers the girl held up went down. From the corner of the room a boy said in what Talon could only perceive as a mocking tone, "Relax, honey, it ain't gonna hurt you."
A feral growl ripped from her throat as she saw ivy cower behind her, she started to change into her other form, watching the people who held them captive.
As she changed, she felt her connection with Ivy grow stronger. She thought to ivy, "as soon as they are distracted by me, make a run for it. Get out a find a big city, I'll come find you. Keep going as long as you can, and have the animals help you. Okay sweetie, love you, and always remember you're my little girl. Talon thought all of this to Ivy in the second it took her to change forms.
Talon saw Ivy give one jerky nod, then growled at the people holding her and her little girl captive, she vowed she would never get captured again, and that if she did, she would always save ivy first. It was time to complete this vow, even if it cost her, her life.
Talon waited for one of them to make the first move, her fur standing up, her teeth bared, eyes cold and calculating like pools of molten silver. A deep growl rumbled through her chest as she crouch, ready to protect her little girl, and to hopefully make it out alive.
Zhnahke jumped back from her kneeling position when the older girl suddenly shifted into a panther.
"Woah!"
Naniqua spun to see the feline and held up her hands, smiling warmly.
"No need for that, we aren't going to hurt you," she told them swiftly, seeing Andre reach over to pull Zhnahke away from the cat.
Stepping forward cautiously, Naniqua laid her loaded gun, her Swiss army knife, her longer sword, and her smaller handgun right in front of the girl.
"See? We're with you."
Talon glared at the weapons that had been layer in front of her by who she thought was the leader. She let the growl rumble away and stopped baring her teeth.
Talon watched as the boy pulled the other girl away from her and thought, "So those two may have...a connection?"
Talon kept her eyes on the three people and slowly changes back, smirking. She stood so she could defend ivy and herself if she needed to. Her talons slowly slid out from her fingers, and she said in a mocking tone, "on my side, no one has ever been on my side! How would I know if you are trustworthy? If I listened, me and my ivy could die!
Talon thinks for a moment until she gets an idea. She thinks to ivy, "Grab one of the bombs out of my pocket...try to sneak it out...hold on to it until I tell you to hand it to me." Talon waited for a response, and when she didn't get any from ivy, she realized that plan wasn't possible. She turned her attention back to the people in front of her, "if you want me to trust you, ALL of your weapons need to be dropped." Talon stood there waiting for the three people to do or say something.
Zhnahke snapped up at what she heard the girl think.
"'Connection'?" she huffed, standing straight up. "What kind of 'connection' do you think we have?" She was stopped when Andrew put a hand on her shoulder to walk past her and drop his short blade to the ground.
"There ya go," he said calmly, bowing a little before standing up again. He looked at Zhnahke, and back at the pile of weapons.
After a moment or so, the black-haired girl did the same.
"Sorry 'bout goin off," she mentally sent Talon. "It's just strange to think it's that way to other people."
"You two...," Naniqua interrupted unintentionally.
"You can go now."
Talon straightened from her defensive position when she heard the girl, Zhnahke, asked her a question. "Well, don't you..." Talon paused as she tried to find a word for what she thought. "Have a...is relationship the right word...? Oh, you're sorry...what does sorry mean...I have never heard that word before..."
Talon looked towards the pile of weapons cautiously, "That is all...? We can...go...?"
Ivy hesitantly tugged on the edge of Talon's dirtied, to small hospital gown, asking to be picked up silently. Talon felt the tug, and slowly bent down to pick up ivy, and cradle the little three year old to her chest, never taking her eyes off of the two girls and boy.
Naniqua brushed off the muttering Zhnahke and waved her hand at Ivy.
"She's cute. Is she you're sister?" she asked, even though she was informed about most of their lives. Without an answer, just a glare, she continued with, "Yes, you are free to leave. We don't want to hurt you.
"It's kinda hard to explain," Andre piped up, eyed Zhnahke (who was still busy talking to herself in a corner). "I mean, without Oh-Three here. He's the one who normally does the talkin'. He's actually pretty good at it." He thought, 'And he has quite a way with the ladies... It's kind of scary, actually.
"Anyway," Naniqua tried. "We're not really assassins. We're just going along with what the bloody Whitecoats say, so we can get on their good side. We have a while to go, considering they still keep us cooped up in cages and tested on. That's where Oh-Three is; he's being tested. .. Did we mention that already?"
Talon looked at the leader with intelligent eyes, "No, no, you did not mention that...so you want to get out too...? Tested...that's when they hurt us...Who is Oh-Three...what is he like...?"
Ivy whimpered a bit, causing talon to look down at her quickly, only to see ivy pointing towards the three people. "W-who're dey Ta-lly?" Ivy question quietly, trying to get the few words she knew into a sentence.
Talon smiled down at Ivy softly, then looked back up quickly. "Do you have names?" Talon asked the question lightly, not adding a cutting edge to her tone. "I am thinking you already know about us, you are supposed assassins." Talon looked at each of the three and relaxed slightly, slowly petting ivy's matted hair softly, causing the tiny three year old to curl in closer and purr to Talon.
Naniqua smiled at the little girl's question. "My name is Naniqua."
"Andre," the darker, only male said as he raised his hand a little. He jerked his head towards the girl STILL muttering in the corner. "That's Zhnahke. Don't mind her; she just doesn't like it when people think we're something we're not."
"Which is basically all of the time," Naniqua grinned. "And, we are not assassins. We don't kill people. In fact, most of us have taken up the Christian faith."
Naniqua, of course, wouldn't answer the other question about Oh-Three, whoever he was. But, she did say, "The only one who didn't take up the faith was James... He died a couple weeks ago... Someone thought we were actually a threat and attacked."
Andre walked over to pull Naniqua into a hug when she looked away from the sisters.
"James was her brother," Zhnahke said out loud, walking back to rub Naniqua's shoulders and seeing the girls' confusion.
Talon looked at the dark-skinned boy and the girl who was previously muttering in the corner comfort their leader, not knowing what to do or say. Talon had never heard the words I'm sorry before, so, she had nothing to say to the girl that would express her feelings.
Talon chose to ask a question instead, "What is Christian, and what is Faith...I do not know words like them..." Talon trailed off feeling stupid, the Whitecoats only taught her a minimal amount of words, just enough for her to communicate.
Ivy had silent tears streaming down her cheeks as she felt the sadness coming from the leader most of all, but also from her friends. The enormous amount of emotions was too much for Ivy, causing her to shake violently, and then finally lose consciousness.
Talon looked down at ivy in alarm as she felt her go limp. "Oh, Ivy, Honey please wake up...I knew this would happen..." Talon trailed of sadly, now cradling Ivy like a baby, supporting all of the three year old's weight.
Talon looked back up at the three, hoping they wouldn't be to alarmed at ivy's collapse. Talon knew ivy would be fine, as long as the emotions were calmer.
Naniqua looked up when the little girl fell limp. She struck her palm to the middle of her forehead.
"I forgot! She's apathetic," she hissed silently, only loud enough for Zhnahke and Andre to hear. She looked at Andre and jerked her head towards the sisters as a way to say "Go explain whatever she asked, get them water, do SOMETHING!"
"Right," he nodded, spinning on his heels to walk towards them as Zhnahke put her hand on Naniqua's head and closed her eyes.
As Andre neared the sisters, he saw the older, conscious one's nervous looks back at the girls. He smiled as warmly as he could (taught by a certain No. 3, who was skilled in talking to girls, unlike Andre).
"Don't mind them," he waved off. "They're gonna to try to dull our emotional aura.. In other words, little Miss Ivy won't be able to get as many emotions as she just did. She should be awake and fine here soon, as she always is, correct?" He watched the elder nod. "Now, what was your question?"
As Talon asked again, Naniqua shivered slightly and Ivy twitched a little. There was a small bolt of light from Zhnahke's hand, but with Andre's careful motions, he averted and kept Talon's attention on him.
"Well, 'Faith' is a belief in somethin'. Like, you believe that Ivy will wake up. And she has 'faith' in you, yes?" he explained, hoping his Southern-American accent wasn't too thick for her. "She believes that you will protect her from anythin' bad happenin' to her. And you will protect her.
"Christianity is one's those faiths, but it's in a God. A God is someone that looks over everything. Not like a Whitecoat, though. God, in the Christian faith, made the whole entire world. He, uh.. He gave a child named Jesus Christ to a mother, who later brought that baby into the world," he tried to tell, remembering what No. 3 had read to him (No. 3 was the only one of the group that could read).
"This baby now, Jesus, could do anythin'. He could make blind men see, he could let the deaf hear sounds again; heal the sick, and he could even calm storms. He was the Son of God. And he wasn't just some sham, either, y'hear? On one unlucky day"- he forgot the date - "he was sentenced to death by a king. Now, he died alright. Stone dead when they was through with him."
By now, Ivy was at least half-conscious, making humming sounds. Andre continued, though.
"When he was deader than dead, they locked 'I'm up tight in a cave made of stone. In front of that cave, they put a rock as big as this whole place, whole buildin' in front of it, and stationed the strongest of the kings' guards- or protectors.. Like the Whitecoat's Erasers to us- in front of that stone," he said, getting into it and exaggerating a bit. "The third day after his death, though... That rock? It be gone. Loooong gone now, y'hear? In place of it was a beautiful angel, staring at the guards that had woken up. Now, she said,
"'The Son of God is no longer dead' is what she said, and that 'He is now alive, and very well'. She flew up on a beam of light, right into the sky above our heads. And guess who walked out after that?" He didn't wait for her to remember the name. "Our boy and Savior Jesus Christ, that's who. He was alive, alive from being dead as a rock."
"Andre," Zhnahke interrupted, hanging off his shoulder now. "I think that's enough; you're overwhelming the poor thing." She turned to Talon with a smile, her slit pupils a warm silver now. "I think you can look the rest out yourself when you finally get around a leave."
"Which, you should probably do soon," Naniqua butted in, looking at the watch wrapped tight around her wrist. "Whitecoats should be checkin' up in about two solid minutes."
Talon listened to the dark skinned boy in wonder. She felt like his story was true, by just the way he spoke of it. Talon wished that the girl hadn't stopped his story, the story had somehow calmed her. "The story...it is true?" Talon asked the boy. Even though she posed it as a question, she said it like a fact.
Talon panicked slightly, clutching the now conscious Ivy tighter as she processed what the girl had said. "They are coming back? B-but, they want me dead, they don't like when I cause trouble,...and destroy things,...and hurt them,...and they say that I shouldn't be alive, that I am a freak...they don't like my bombs...the fire I made killed many erasers...saved me and ivy too." Talon rambled this off quickly, panicking slightly, as she had come to realize that the three people in the room with her were helping save her and ivy, and that they were kind people, not brutal like the Whitecoats. She was worried for all of the people in the room. If the Whitecoats found her and Ivy alive, the three would be punished.
"I-I," Talon tried to express her feelings, finally coming up with a word, "Thank you all..." Talon trailed off quietly, wondering how her and ivy would leave.
Naniqua flashed another smile at the girls' direction.
"Of course that's story's real. As real as can be." She remembered the slight thought wave she got from the girl.
"...They won't find you. They've never found anyone, not even a group of ten siblings that were up for Retirement." Naniqua reached over to put her hand on Talon's shoulder, coaxing her towards the door with slightly tugs and pulls. "Don't worry about them finding out, now. It'll slow you down. We knew what we was gettin' into."
"That's right. If we weren't sure of anything, we wouldn't have done what we just did," Zhnahke smiled, her forked tongue accidently slipping through her teeth. She blushed and shut her mouth, making Andre laugh.
"Get going," Naniqua smiled. "Maybe we'll meet you again, soon."
As Naniqua explained carefully, and at her level, to Talon and Ivy how they would get out of the building, Andre leaned over to the smaller girl at his side.
"Y'know.. I have a feeling Oh-Three would take a likin' to her..." he muttered. Zhnahke laughed acidly (it was her natural laugh; she was raised by Erasers, not Whitecoats).
"We'll see if they meet. He's getting out sometime now." She perked up when Talon turned her way.
Talon's ears swiveled as she heard what the boy who told her the amazing story said. Talon realized what he meant and blushed slightly, turning towards them, Talon smiled a radiant smile. Talon turned to Zhnahke, "That is really cool, y'know...and, thank you, all, for helping me and my little girl get out. I do hope we meet again. Ivy says thank you too, even though she doesn't know how to make herself say it yet...Thank you." Talon flashed them all a grateful smile, not defensive in the least. "Just through the door and out?" Talon nodded towards the door, hugging Ivy close to her chest, keeping the three year old quiet.
Naniqua nodded. "Yes, and just follow the red arrows through. Don't worry, you won't be followed. They're only visible to those who... Oh," Naniqua covered her mouth before she could swear.
"Zhnay, get over here. We need to give her the directions," she said to her partner. Of course, she had forgotten that giving the "drug" to see the arrows was Oh-Three's job.
After shifting up Talon's sight slightly to see the arrows, Naniqua turned back to the girl.
"Sorry about that, I guess I forgot... again," she apologized nervously. "You can go now."
Talon looked down at her feet, feeling stupid again, "What does that word, "Sorry" mean...you keep saying it, and I don't understand..." Talon looked up slowly, still feeling stupid.
Ivy quietly laid her head on Talon's shoulder as she slowly fell asleep, snoring softly. Talon started to pet her hair again, making sure she stayed asleep.
Naniqua smiled again. "Sorry means that you feel bad. Sorrow is a feeling. Have you ever felt as if you've done something wrong, or like you're in trouble?" When Talon nodded shyly, she said, "That means you felt a little sorry, even if you didn't know it."
Naniqua glanced back at where the Whitecoats had headed. "They're getting jumpy. You might have to leave now."
Talon smiles and hugs ivy closer, keeping her quiet. "Thank You, so much." She smiles warmly at them all, then silently slunk out the door with Ivy.