Author's Notes
This is a special fic for Cormag Ravenstaff! I'll give you more details about what's going on at the end of the fic!
This fic is a bit darker than what I normally write, but be assured that everything turns out okay!
Fearful
She's been caught. Discovered. They know she's not a loyal member of the Fang. How did they find out that she isn't one of them?
However, the more important question might be how she'll be able to escape the punishment that is to befall her. The assassin Jaffar, better known as The Angel of Death, has her completely immobilized in a head and arm-lock, and his strength greatly overpowers hers. From everything she's learned about this terrifying man, there is no way to escape him once he's been ordered to execute.
"Angel of Death, you kill quickly and efficiently," the morph Ephidel sneers in the background. He's watching Jaffar and the girl currently in his constriction. "Take this mouse... no, this rat... and exterminate her. I'd stay and watch her suffer for her traitorous actions, but I have to speak with Lord Nergal first. Enjoy the afterlife, rat... The Angel of Death will transport you there shortly."
With a snap of his fingers, an aura surrounds the morph, preparing to teleport him. "But before you make this trip to the afterlife... I'll let your little friends find your lifeless corpse to give them a bit of... motivation..."
"No..." Leila breathes out grievously as the morph disappears from the room, leaving only herself and The Angel of Death. She knows that she is done for, that there's nothing that she can do to save herself.
However...
It's a long shot, but the only thing she can do is perhaps attempt to sway the Angel with words; to pour out her deepest emotions.
The problem is, it's hard to persuade someone who doesn't HAVE emotions.
But there's no harm in trying.
"Jaffar, permit me to speak briefly before you carry out the Fang's judgement," Leila asks gently, being careful in how she words her statement. She knows that if she in any way asked to speak without relating it to Jaffar's original order, she would be killed without another word. However, the way she worded her request does not violate the order, so he will quite likely allow it. The Angel of Death is referred to as a killing machine for a reason. As Leila was thinking about earlier, Jaffar is emotionless; he's only motivated to do basic functions such as eat and sleep, or carry out orders from his higher-ups.
As hoped, the assassin nods in approval to allow her to say her piece.
"You know the friends of mine that are supposed to find my corpse? There is... someone among them who I care very much about," Leila begins, feeling the fear of death enter her heart as she speaks. "If I don't get to see him again, I don't know what he'll do. He's such a cheerful person, but... if I'm dead, he might become a lifeless drone, unable to be happy in any way... because I have the feeling he cares very much about me as well."
She then mentally curses herself, believing that she's misspoken about how she thinks this particular person views her. Leila's words imply much less affection than she knows exists; why else would the young man ask for her to come to his hometown and meet his parents?
Regardless, she knows she has to carry on. Sighing, she continues her plea: "I'm obviously pleading for my life right now, but... what if someone you cared about was in my situation right now? What if someone who cared about you..."
"Nobody cares about me."
Jaffar pulls his twin daggers out of his cloak and prepares himself to strike, knowing that he's allowed her too long to speak. This is when the real realization of her fate manifests itself into Leila's heart; she's going to die. She's going to lose the one she cares about the most.
And she's scared to death of that.
"Farewell..."
Leila shuts her eyes, waiting for one of the daggers to pierce her heart...
"J-Jaffar?"
The Angel of Death hesitates when a high-pitched girl's voice speaks his name from one of the hallways. Leila isn't entirely sure who the voice belongs to, but clearly it's stopping Jaffar from taking action.
Perhaps...
"Jaffar? Are you there?" the voice calls again. "I have your next mission for tomorrow. And to perk you up, I made you apple tea, your favourite!"
Leila notices that this girl is somehow making Jaffar falter in his resolve to kill, and it produces a glimmer of hope inside her. Maybe she can be saved!
"What about her?" Leila asks with anticipation. "She seems to care for you..."
"Silence!" Jaffar whispers, covering Leila's mouth so that she's unable to speak. "Be still... your fate is still coming..."
"Jaffar?" the girl calls out once more, but this time her voice sounds a little worried. "I know I'm part of the Black Fang, but... I still can't handle death very well. If I come out and find you killed someone while I'm here..."
Jaffar does not react.
Even as the girl starts crying, he still does not react.
Does this girl affect Jaffar so much that he isn't carrying out his order?
"Jaffar? Can you come out? Please..."
Before she can register what happened, Jaffar glares at the still hopeful Leila in his arms and bashes her head with the handle of his dagger. As she falls to the ground, as she loses her consciousness, the only thing she can see in her vision is Jaffar holding the daggers in his hands and ready to stab her in the heart...
Her fear of death is what thankfully takes her from the conscious world before she has to feel the metal plunge into her chest...
"Matthew..."
"Leila?"
Leila can hear the gruff, and yet familiar voice speaking to her... faintly, faintly in the distance...
"You're awake? Thank goodness..."
As Leila slowly opens her eyes to ascertain the identity of the familiar voice, her world gradually focuses into view; a healer's tent. Yes, she's in a healer's tent. She can tell from the various staves and other medicinal equipment that's organized all over the tables.
But, how did this happen? Why did this happen?
She should be dead by Jaffar's hands...
"When we found you in the woods and saw the big gash on your head, we were really worried about your safety," the voice informs her, and she turns her head to see who's speaking to her. It turns out to be Lord Hector; her 'boss', so to speak. "When you wouldn't wake up even after pouring water on your head, that was when we thought you were a goner."
Leila groans in pain now, almost like she remembers the pain from the blow to her head only after Hector reminded her of it. Rubbing her head in an attempt to soothe her headache, it soon becomes evident that she'll need more than a forehead massage to feel better. "I'm mostly okay, but I've got a big headache now, and I guess I might still be a bit drowsy. Serra's with you, right? Could you get her to come here and give me some relief, please?"
Hector can't help but grin. "I'll do better than that. Hold on for a moment!"
Leila raises an eyebrow at the comment, but before she can reply, Hector runs out of the tent and he starts yelling inaudibly outside for something. While she waits, she lies back down on her bed and closes her eyes in the hopes of relieving her headache.
All she can think about, however, is Jaffar.
The Angel of Death.
A man who has never failed at any job he's been given.
And yet, here she is, still alive, even though she was sentenced to death at the hands of the Angel himself. In Leila's mind, there are only two possible reasons for this. One, somehow, that girl who was talking to Jaffar earlier may have influenced him in some way to not kill her. Two, he may have kept her alive to appease the girl...
...but he might come back personally to finish the job. When she least expects it.
It is an absolutely terrifying notion, but not at all an impossible one. She's heard that Jaffar can sneak up on deer in the forest and slash them with his daggers to instantly kill them before they can make a sound.
How can you escape from... that? A man who may not even be human?
"Leila..."
What? Who's there?
"You're alive..."
Oh no! That's him! He's found me!
There's no mistaking it. The voice belongs to Jaffar, and judging by its volume, he's close by.
And all Leila can do is tremble.
Tremble, as she awaits the punishment that's eventually going to befall her.
Tremble, as she whimpers in fear over the finality of the situation.
Tremble, as she begins to sob and her life starts flashing before her eyes.
Her memories jump all over the place in her mind as the seconds slowly tick closer to her impending execution. All of her good memories; memories of her parents, memories of her first day working as a spy. All of her bad memories; memories of her parents' consecutive funerals, memories of living on the streets for many years of her life.
But one specific memory prioritizes itself as more important than the rest. The memory of the one person who she's come to fully trust over the years, the one person who she's come to truly appreciate.
The one person who she's come to love...
"Matthew..." she whispers.
"Leila..." Jaffar whispers back.
I have to say it... even if it's to the man who's about to murder me, I have to make sure that I've revealed my true feelings...
"Matthew... I've... always loved you..."
Silence.
Silence hangs over her head as she cries, fearfully awaiting her death; the one thing that will take her away from her special one forever.
Until...
"Leila, you... share my feelings?"
Wait a minute...
"I can't believe it..."
Is it really Jaffar... that's speaking to me?
Before Leila can ponder over her inquiry, the man who she believes to be The Angel of Death wraps his arms around her in a tight embrace, seemingly ready to ultimately finish what he's started.
The fear of finally dying is too much for Leila to handle, so she does the only thing that she can think of right now.
She screams.
"Leila! Leila! What's wrong? Wake up!"
Leila's eyes shoot open at the familiar voice... and to her astonishment, it's Matthew who's holding her in his arms, not Jaffar. Was it Matthew who she was speaking to after Hector left? Or was the entire experience a dream?
"M-Matthew?"
"You're... awake," Matthew iterates cheerfully, but his eyes are telling a different story than his tone of voice implies. Their luster for life is much duller than usual, and the bags under them shows the intense worry he's gone through waiting, hoping that she would wake up. "Hector told me he said he needed to go somewhere for a while, so he asked I take a turn watching over you. Did he already know you were awake?"
"Y-yes," Leila answers quietly, still trying to grasp the details about the entire situation. "But... Jaffar..."
"Who's Jaffar?"
Leila hesitates for a moment before she responds to the question. Obviously, nobody would know who Jaffar is unless they were in the Black Fang. She wants so badly to explain everything she's gone through, everything's she's just anguished over.
Most of all, though, she just wants her morbid fear of the Angel's hand to be sedated, if at least for a moment.
"Maybe that's for another time," Matthew deduces, and Leila breathes a sigh of relief. "But, perhaps everything will be all right now that you're awake. I'll leave for a little bit and let you relax..."
"No!"
Without thinking, Leila latches onto to Matthew and pulls him into her cot so that he cannot escape from her embrace.
Matthew! No! You can't leave!
The minute I'm alone... I may never see you again...
"Just stay... for a while..."
"Whoa! This is unexpected!" Matthew exclaims, but he's clearly not unhappy with the close proximity. In fact, he takes the opportunity to wrap his arms around Leila herself so that they are holding each other contentedly. "I'll admit I never expected to say this at this point in time, but... I've wanted to do this for a long time..."
In Matthew's arms, she feels safe now. Even if The Angel of Death, Jaffar, still comes back to carry out his orders... at the very least, her final moments will be with the one who she cares about the most... and who she now knows cares the most about her.
"I never realized it before today, but... so did I," she replies, and she gives him a small kiss on the cheek.
EPILOGUE
Leila immediately gave up her job as a spy after that, and stayed with Matthew and the army he was under. Her morbid fear of Jaffar returning completely paralyzed her in almost everything that she did, so Matthew was temporarily relieved of his duties as a spy, thief, and soldier to make sure she was comfortable and comforted, to which both of them happily obliged.
Eventually, when Jaffar (and a young girl who never left his side) joined the army weeks later, Leila nearly suffered a panic attack at his presence, and rightfully so. However, she came to terms with the fact that Jaffar was no longer, in fact, going to carry out his punishment as she expected, and although there was a long story that came with these terms that proved his sincerity, the fear of death by his hand never left her. The only relief from her terrifying fear came from Matthew, her fiancé. Matthew had proposed to Leila the day after the two of them reunited.
After the war, Matthew and Leila married, and after that they never saw The Angel of Death, or the young girl who later became his wife, again. And while Leila's fears still resurfaced from time to time, as long as she had Matthew by her side, she could handle them. Yes, as long as she stayed beside her special one, she would never have to be truly afraid again...
THE END
Author's Notes
As mentioned before, this is a special fic for Cormag Ravenstaff! He had the idea that we should write fics for each other with the pairings of our choices. My OTP is EphraimxMyrrh from FE8 for those of you who don't know, and Cormag's OTP is MatthewxLeila from FE7, obviously. How could I pass up the opportunity for someone to write an EphraimxMyrrh fic that I KNOW is going to be great?!
I'm not sure where the idea of fear came from, but it sounded like an interesting way to go. It's about a 90% coincidence that this fic has a very, VERY slight similarity to Cormag's own MatthewxLeila fic. :p
I also wasn't sure whether Jaffar should have such a prominent role or not. He's not Matthew or Leila, obviously. Regardless, I think his dynamic really added to Leila's agony throughout the fic that could not be achieved otherwise. Since she was a double agent, she surely knew a lot about him if she didn't directly talk to him on numerous occasions. Let's just hope his inclusion added to the fic and not detracted instead.
Yes, I know I somewhat cheated with having Nino influence Jaffar at the beginning of the fic. However, Jaffar obviously would have gotten some of his missions from her before they officially became friends, and Nino is clearly the type of girl that would make tea for someone if she found out that a particular person liked it. How would she ever find out Jaffar's favourite is apple tea, though? Who knows? I just made it up because I thought it was cute. :p Jaffar would have been on somewhat familiar terms with her regardless, so I don't think it's too much of a stretch.
What's the truth about the sequence with Leila and Jaffar after Hector leaves the healer's tent? WE'LL NEVER KNOW, BWA HA HA. That part is purposely ambiguous. Choose the explanation that makes YOU happy!
Overall, this was an interesting fic to write, and I'm glad I got the opportunity to write it! Everyone be sure to check out Cormag Ravenstaff and his stories, especially Impossible Emblem! You won't regret it! It's a modern day secret agent AU with loads of FE characters from many FE games and it's hard to stop reading once you start! If you like action with romance thrown into the mix, you'll like his works!
Thanks a lot Cormag for writing me your EphraimxMyrrh fic! We'll have to do this again sometime! Maybe with different pairings, though. Or maybe not. :p
As for me, I'm long overdue to update A Glimmer of Hope, my multi-chapter FE6 story! Look forward to it in a few weeks, hopefully!