The night time routine of the DuCouteau household went by as usual. The only thing being different was the atmosphere. Dinner went by in silence, Marcus's normal smoke break was significantly shorter to have more time to sit with his daughters in the living room, and all the servants seemed to lower their heads in sorrow and respect as Katarina walked past them. As for myself, I kept my guard on full alert. My arm blade has not left my side since I've strapped it in. I'm not sure what the Deceiver looks like, so I need to be ready for attacks at any moment. I refuse to let Katarina be taken by whoever this terrorist is, and I'd gladly die just to keep this family together. I brought her into this mess, so I will get her out. Yeah...that's why I'm doing this...cause I feel obligated to do so. Let's go with that. While Marcus and the girls sit in the living room, I just stay up on the second floor balcony, keeping an eye out on them. Specifically Kat. Cassie seems to be her normal, cheery self, so I go with the assumption that no one has informed her of what might happen. Unless she's just hiding her true feelings. Cassie then looks directly at me, and blows me a kiss. Never mind, she has no idea. I personally believe someone should tell her, it would absolutely devastate her if she found out one morning that Kat was gone...or dead, but if Marcus thinks not telling her is the best way to go, then so be it. As the clock strikes 9:00 pm, everyone begins to get ready for bed, but I still stay on guard and make the rounds around the hallway where Kat's room connects to Cassie's and mine. I just stand by the outside of Kat's door and keep my back leaning on the wall. I hear a door open from down the hall and see Kat step out of the bathroom in her sleeping attire, a sports bra and sweatpants. She spots me by her door and begins to walk up to me.
"You don't have to, Talon. You should get some rest."
"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm just relaxing." Kat goes a little red.
"Well...thanks." She brushes past me and into her room. The small contact from her makes my heart jump for some reason. I grab onto my chest to make sure I'm not having a heart attack or something. What a weird feeling... I then hear rampant footsteps quickly heading towards me and I go into full alert when I spot Cassie, and she does not look happy. She walks right up to me and looks me in the eye. Again for some reason I feel as if I can't move or speak.
"I saw that, Talon. Don't you think I'm going to lose to my sister or that neighbor girl...got that?"
"What are you talking-" Cassie places a finger on my lips.
"Hush...you will realize who is best for you one day." She then moves her hand from my lips to feel my cheek, then walks off into her room. Such a weird girl. Thank goodness it seems like she's the only one like that. I nod off my thoughts and go back to hanging around Kat's room, keeping watch. I close my eyes for a bit and just stand there, every now and then peeking into Kat's room. The first hour goes by uneventful, so I slide my back down the wall to sit on the floor. The second hour I begin to clean my blade with just my breath and my sleeve. The third hour, I'm going in and out of consciousness. A nearby grandfather clock's bells begin to toll as the hands strike midnight, snapping me out of my haze. I stand up and stretch my body out until I feel a satisfying crack in my back. I lean into Kat's room once more to check on her and see that she's still sound asleep. Seeing her asleep makes me feel exhausted, but I feel as though I should keep standing watch. I yawn and cave in to my exhaustion. I step out into the hall and begin to remove my arm blade and actually inspect it close up for the first time. It's a very sleek chrome and very lightweight. Imprinted at the bottom of the blade is a faint T. For some reason my body goes into alert as I stand by my bedroom door. I strap my arm blade back in and grab onto the doorknob. I place my ear to the door and listen for any noise...silence. I prepare myself to head inside, and when I feel ready I push inside and find...nothing. I look under the bed, nothing. The wardrobe, nothing. I open my window and look around outside...nothing. Maybe my exhaustion has my mind playing tricks on me? I remove my arm blade and place it under my pillow to grab it if I ever suddenly get awoken. I then walk to my door to close it. Once it's closed I turn my back to just plop into bed and fall asleep but my body feels suddenly constricted. I look and see that wrapped around me is a chain of solid gold, and a chain of solid...purple? I then hear the sound of high heeled shoes coming from the darkness in the corner of my room.
"I'm impressed you were able to sense my presence...unfortunately you just had to lower your guard." A woman steps out in a very revealing, yet elegant dress. The woman looks very young, and beautiful. In her hand she holds a long black and gold staff, with purple gems orbiting around the tip. I say nothing as I feel a very strong magic power emanating off of her. The woman comes close to me and begins to brush her hand across my chest, my shoulders, and then my face. "So young...so delicious." She removes her hand from my body and licks her fingers. "Tell me boy, what's your name?"
"First, tell me who you are." She smiles and puts her hand back onto my chest.
"So commanding, I love it! My name is Emilia LeBlanc...you probably know me as the Deceiver." My eyes rise in surprise. Then slump back down into an angry look.
"Talon. What business do you have here?"
"I'm here for you...it was rather impressive seeing you kill one of my strongest members. And I need someone to fulfill that role-"
"I refuse." The chains around my body begin to squeeze harder, but then relax. I can see the frustration in her eyes, but she still is able to keep her composure. The Deceiver brushes the little bit of hair that fell onto her face off to the side.
"Everyone has desires, Talon. With the Black Rose you can do whatever you've dreamed of...all that we ask for in return is your loyalty." I begin to laugh in the Deceiver's face. She scowls. "What's so funny, boy?" The chains begin to squeeze me.
"Your offer sounds like my current situation." I begin to laugh even harder. The Deceiver doesn't seem to find me as amusing. The chains around my body begin to practically strangle me, leaving me fighting for air.
"I've seen what you will become. I refuse to let you decline my offer. All will kneel...you will soon understand..." The chains become too much to handle, and I keep a smile on my face as I fall unconscious.
The Following Morning, DuCouteau Household
Like clockwork for the weekend, Katarina wakes up around 9:00 am as the sun begins to beam in her eyes on this beautiful Saturday morning. Stretching her body out as she rises, her eyes open in sudden happiness as she bolts out the door. She runs right past Cassie, past all the servants offering her clean clothes for the day and directly to her father's study. As she bolts inside, Marcus suddenly looks up from his sad stance and up into an energetic, cheery mood. They meet each other halfway and embrace one another as if they haven't seen each other in years.
"Thank goodness I was wrong this time around." Marcus says it as he keeps his head in Kat's blood red hair. They're broken up when Cassie comes walking into the study as well.
"Daddy, where's Talon?" As quickly as the mood was raised, it was immensely lowered. Marcus and Kat let go of each other and quickly run off. Kat runs across the mansion asking every servant if they've seen him. Marcus runs across the street to Lady Aella's home and frantically knocks on the door. He brushes past the guards and into the living room, asking both Riven and Lady Aella if they've seen Talon. At hearing of Talon's MIA status, Riven chooses to help Marcus in searching for him. In a desperate attempt to find him, Marcus even resorts to sending his elite out in search of him. Many hours go by and there is still no sign of Talon. Kat and Marcus go into Talon's room to try and understand what might have happened. He walks over to the bed and notices a shimmer of reflected sunlight from under Talon's pillow. Lifting it up reveals Talon's arm blade...and a black rose. Marcus is silent.
"Father...I left him alone. He stood outside my door all night watching me...it's my fault..." Kat begins to choke up but chooses not to cry...she wouldn't cry over some street rat. Marcus chokes up as well but smiles.
"I thought you promised, boy..." Marcus lets a single tear shed. "You said you would keep our family together..." He lets some more tears fall. "Didn't you know you are a part of this family?" Kat can no longer hold back, as she begins to cry as well.
Elsewhere in Noxus...
Oh fuck...my head is killing me. I open my eyes and notice that I'm upside down. It's hard to think with all this blood rushing to my head. I begin to wiggle around but to no avail. I only do good at slightly swinging myself. I look at what binds me and find the solid gold and purple chains still tightly coiling around my body, and also a rope that's connected to a ceiling I cannot see, wrapped around my ankles, keeping me suspended from the floor. I give up to conserve energy and begin to assess my surroundings. All I'm able to see is a wooden door, the cobblestone floor, and a nearby desk and chair. Everything else is too dark for me to get a good look at. Suddenly the rope gets cut and I fall to the floor. Seemingly out of thin air I hear a voice that could be directly out of a horror story.
"Ooh-ooh-ooh. Another puppet? How fun!" In a puff of smoke, a startling figure appears before me. A jester...but not just any jester. I've only heard of him in urban legends, but he looks very real as he stands in front of me. "You flatter me, eyeing me so hard! Ha-ha!" Shaco...the Demon Jester. A pure evil entity of killing intent, Shaco roams the streets looking for those unlucky enough to cross his path. Or that's how I heard the legend goes. And of course here I am, right on a silver platter, tied up and ready to die. He pulls two jagged daggers out of his belt line and begins to juggle them. "Where to cut...where to cut...right here?" He places a dagger on my throat. "Or maybe here?" He then moves it to my sternum. "Or maybe-"
"That's enough, Shaco." The jester turns around. For once I'm thankful to see the Deceiver, but it's short lived. "This is your new student, Talon. Can't have him dead if you wish to utilize him as a weapon." Shaco looks at me and smiles from ear to ear.
"My very own student!" Shaco touches the chains and it releases me. My body begins to ache all over as it readjusts to being able to breathe normally. "Oh, just think of all the fun we'll have fun! First we'll need textbooks, and notebooks, and reading books, and... Oh, who am I kidding?" He reaches into the darkness and tosses me a sword. I let it fall to the floor in front of me as I reluctantly grab it. His voice is suddenly lower with a demonic hint to it. "The only thing we'll need are victims... Stand up, student." I stay sitting. "I said...", he kicks me in the face and it knocks me backwards, "STAND UP! Those who are disobedient will be swiftly punished." I go to my knees and wipe the blood coming out of my mouth off. "You should also be thinking about those girls in your home...would be terrible if anything happened to them." My heart stops for a second. I'd rather not have anything happen to Katarina, or Cassie, so I decide I will listen to this demon for the time being. "Good boy." He begins to laugh again. "You need anything else, LeBlanc?" The Deceiver nods her no and exits. "So...the Deceiver has deemed you worthy of being taught the ways of the assassin under my guidance? So very interesting..." Shaco snaps his fingers to light up a section of the room that was previously hidden by the darkness. I look and see people chained to the walls. Something is off with these people as they're all yanking and tugging like wild animals against the chains. Shaco begins to walk over to them and tells me to follow. "These are the others who Ms. LeBlanc said were worthy..." His grin never seems to falter as he speaks. "Surprise me, boy. Let's see how nice you play..." Shaco then disappears and the bindings on these people are removed. That's when I see it...they've all gone completely mad. Like a pack of wild dogs they charge at me, leaving me no other choice but to use deadly force. The first man runs right into my sword, laughter that I cannot see the source of begins to fill the room. I then begin to skillfully swing my sword around, slicing everyone who comes near me. This was no challenge. I lower my sword once I see no more movement. Maniacal laughter replaces the silence, and with another puff of smoke, Shaco appears before me once again. "Wonderful! You didn't even hesitate to kill them! Absolutely wonderful!"
"Let's strike a deal, clown. I'll listen to your orders for now, in exchange for my release." Shaco grins.
"I don't think you understand how it works here, boy..." His voice drops back to its normal demonic tone. "You see, all that enter these chambers either die, or succumb to the darkness..." A second identical voice to that of Shaco's whispers in my ear, startling me. "The darkness being his will..." My body suddenly begins to feel heavy, and no matter how hard I fight it, I once again begin to lose my grip on consciousness.
1 Week Later, House of DuCouteau
"I can't believe Talon would just up and leave out of our lives like that." Cassie makes a pout face and crosses her arms. "And to think I would of let him do all those things to me..."
"Cassie, please stop talking about Talon." Kat tries to hide her face full of pain but fails to do so. Just being reminded of Talon having had ever existed is enough to hurt her. Marcus is the same way, still refusing to lose him. He sends his elites out every night to search all over Noxus but with no luck. Morale for the elites has taken a major hit, since a seemingly easy search has turned out to be impossible. It's as if Talon has completely vanished off the face of the planet. Riven has once again resumed back to her introverted ways, only speaking to Lady Aella, as if her open side disappeared along with Talon. Only until he was gone did everyone notice how much of a difference he made in their lives. The sound of quick footsteps echo through the halls of the DuCouteau house, as Marcus makes his way out the door and to a carriage. He takes the carriage to the Noxian High Command and ignores everyone who greets him. He heads straight for the door of the office of Jericho Swain. Knowing he doesn't need to knock, he immediately steps right in and interrupts the older man feeding his massive, alien-like bird. The man whispers something to the bird, causing it to flap it's enormous wings and settle on a nearby roost.
"Something on your mind, Marcus?" The man adjusts his chair accordingly, and faces Marcus.
"I need all the information on the Black Rose that we have. It may seem sudden Jericho, but I need it for my own reasons." Jericho is a little taken back by the urgency in Marcus's voice.
"You and I both know it's best not to delve too deep in those old factions. You never know when myth is reality."
"I understand, but please, as a friend Jericho, I need any information we may have." Jericho leans his head back and sighs. He grabs his cane and lifts himself up. Slowly but surely he heads over to a small bookshelf located in the back corner of the room. Reaching into the bookshelf he pulls out a dusty book with a thin file full of photos and documents wedged inside. He hands it over to Marcus, and with no words, Marcus takes it and bows to Jericho. Just as sudden as Marcus was in, he was out. Jericho begins to nod his head in disappointment after Marcus left the room.
"I'm not sure why you wish to research the Order so suddenly, Marcus...but it would be a damn shame for you to be an enemy of the new and improved Black Rose..."