Raised in the Shadows
Disclaimer: We really don't own Oblivion.
A/N: Gaaraxocfan decided last night that we should do a Valentine's Day chapter for both of our two stories. So now I am stuck in the back of my parents' car, driving to Nebraska in a snow storm and typing! Be grateful for this chapter.
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Two months later…
"Come on you guys." Rain said. Vicente and Lucien glared.
"I thought you two would do anything for your daughters." Kira said, placing her hands on her hips.
"We'd do almost anything. Not this." Lucien said.
"I absolutely refuse." Vicente crossed his arms stubbornly.
"It'll be fun." Kira and Rain said together.
"No. We won't do it." The men said together. Rain and Kira slapped them.
"Ow, what the hell, Kira?!" Lucien yelled. Vicente glared at Rain.
"That was mature." The vampire said. The girls groaned.
"This isn't about being mature!" Rain said.
"Now get off your ass and go play dress up with your daughters!" Kira yelled, pointing out the door of Vicente's room.
"No." The men wouldn't budge.
"Why not?"
"Because we're us." Vicente said.
"We're Lucien Lachance and Vicente Valtieri. We don't do this kind of thing." Lucien said.
"Don't you love your daughters?" Rain said.
"You can't guilt us into this. We're serial killers. We're still not doing it." Vicente said.
"Why don't you two do it?" Lucien tilted his head to the side.
"Because, Mr. I'm-Such-A-Brilliant-Speaker-For-the-Black-Hand, Adamus Phillida just retired. I have to go to Leyawiin and kill him." Kira said.
"And I'm helping her break into his successor's office so she can put his finger in the guy's desk." Rain said.
"No." Lucien and Vicente said.
"Fine then. Vicente, you'll be sleeping here on that rock slab for a while then." Rain said.
"And Lucien you can just sleep in the creepy room with all of the dead bodies with their hearts ripped out." Kira said.
"What?" The two men faltered for a moment.
"If you two don't do this then you won't be sleeping in our beds anytime soon." Kira said. Vicente and Lucien glanced at each other uneasily. They had to choose between their pride and the right to sleep in their own beds.
"Now either you two can sleep alone for the next few weeks or you can be men and go play dress up with your daughters!" Rain said. The men had uncertain looks on their faces. Finally they nodded at each other with determination.
"No." They said finally.
"Alright then. Have fun sleeping alone. We'll be back from Leyawiin soon." Rain said.
"Have fun in the creepy dead body room, Luke." Kira said. She flipped off Lucien before leaving with her sister.
"Hey I happen to like the creepy dead body room!" Lucien shouted back. He and Vicente sighed and sat down at the table.
"Do you think we're going to regret this later?" Vicente asked. Lucien shrugged.
"I'm not sure. At least you're not bound by marriage to Rain. If anything ever went terribly wrong between you two, you could leave. I'm stuck with Kira…" Lucien said.
"Rain has been talking about marriage though…." Vicente said.
"….So if you married her, would that make you my brother-in-law or would you still be my adopted father?" Lucien asked.
"I'm still trying to figure out if Kira is my adopted daughter and Crystal is my other daughter but Rain's daughter too, does that make Crystal Kira's niece or adopted half sister?" Vicente said.
"But if you're Kira's adopted father and Rain is Kira's adopted sister does that mean you're sleeping with your other daughter?" Lucien said. Vicente shrugged.
"If you're my adopted son and Kira is my adopted daughter, are you sleeping with your sister?" Vicente wondered. They both sighed. They were only getting confused.
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"So are you going to use the Rose of Sithis to kill Phillida?" Rain asked as they rode to Leyawiin.
"I don't think so. I have horrible aim with bows and arrows. Let's just follow Phillida for a while and learn his routine before we plan anything." Kira said. Rain nodded.
"Hey, when we're in Imperial City do you want to sneak into the royal palace to see Martin?" She asked. The Oblivion Crisis was finally over. Martin and the two heroes Revan and Olaf managed to save the day and prevent Mehrunes Dagon from crossing over to Cyrodiil.
"Sure, that might be fun. Can you imagine the look on his face when we pop up out of nowhere?" Kira laughed.
"It'll be great!" Rain agreed. They rode in comfortable silence for a while.
"You know…It's probably a good idea that we didn't have the guys play with Crystal and Moralis. Lucien would've had to borrow some pants or something from Vicente." Kira said thoughtfully.
"Why?" Rain asked.
"Because he's not wearing anything under his Speaker robes today." Rain nearly fell off her horse laughing.
"Why not?" She asked once she finally got her composure.
"Well…a couple days ago we were…y'know…and then one of the wolf hounds comes running in with a message from J'ghasta. It was some urgent thing in Bruma so we had to rush there right away. No time to grab much besides our weapons. Since we just got back earlier, Lucien hasn't had time to stop at Fort Farragut yet." Kira said. Rain shook her head.
"And I thought Vicente was a freak." She said. Kira shrugged and laughed.
"Hey, tell me again why you've waited two months to kill Phillida." Rain said.
"Well, I thought about doing it when I first got the contract but then I heard he was going to retire. It'd be much easier to kill him now instead of when he was still working as an important guard in Imperial City. He'd either be on duty, sleeping in the barracks or with Hieronymus Lex. Now all I have to worry about is his new bodyguard." Kira explained.
"So will you need me when you're actually killing him?" Rain asked.
"Probably not. Unless you wanted to distract the bodyguard." Kira said.
"No way! I can't fight a trained bodyguard." Rain said. Kira chuckled.
"Alright, but stay nearby when I'm killing Phillida. We'll probably have to make a quick escape from the city." She said. Rain nodded. They hurried to Leyawiin.
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Two days later…
After following Adamus Phillida for two days, Kira concluded that he was a very boring man. She was now preparing to kill him. She had learned that every night he would take a walk along the lake without his bodyguard. Kira would kill him and then make a run for it with Rain before any other guards were alerted.
"Are you all set Rain?" Kira asked. Rain nodded.
"Yep. You'll take out Phillida and I'll be waiting nearby with the horses. We'll hurry to Imperial City, say hello to Martin and then hurry back to the Sanctuary to torture Vicente and Lucien." Rain said. They left their inn quickly. Soon they were hiding in the shadows, watching Phillida slowly walk closer.
Phillida walked calmly along the lake, watching the sunset. He was enjoying his retirement after so much hard work. His only regret was that he hadn't caught the Dark Brotherhood but there was no use worrying over it now. Other guards would continue the search. The Brotherhood couldn't last forever.
He was deep in thought. It was almost the anniversary of the night he had killed Christine Chandra, one of the top Dark Brotherhood members. But something still bothered him from that night. Phillida wondered from time to time what Alexial Azrael's daughters were doing with the Brotherhood. Phillida was sure it was them. When he had met Alexial his older daughter had been right there…
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Many years earlier…
"This sure is some party, huh Phillida?" Another guard asked. Phillida nodded. They were at the Azrael house for a party celebrating Alexial's most recent accomplishment. Everyone knew Alexial hated these parties but his wife insisted on them.
"It's great. The Azrael family is very lucky." Phillida said.
"Have you met Master Alexial yet?" The guard asked.
"No. What's he like?"
"Well for one he's a lot younger than you'd think. He couldn't be more than six or seven years older than us! He's kinda scary too. Very quiet and kind of angry looking." The guard said.
"Wow. He's young but still already a weapons master?" Phillida said in disbelief. The guard nodded.
"You should meet him. He's standing over there with his two kids and wife." The guard pointed towards the front of the room. Phillida nodded and walked away.
Alexial wasn't hard to spot. He was sitting at a table with several important guard captains and their wives. His wife was at his side, enjoying the party like the others but Alexial just looked bored. He was twirling a dagger around that was slowly ripping up his hand but he didn't seem to notice. In his lap was a young girl probably three years old. Next to Alexial was his teenage son.
Alexial looked tall and strong. His brown hair was cut short but was still fairly messy. His eyes were sharp and watchful. His wife had long black hair, like their son. Their daughter looked mostly like Alexial.
"Ah, look here Alexial. This is one of my most promising young guards. Adamus come sit over here!" Captain Scarlett yelled happily. He was Phillida's mentor and leading officer in the Imperial City. Phillida nodded and sat down.
"This is Adamus Phillida. He's one of my best students." Scarlett boasted proudly. Phillida smiled modestly.
"How wonderful. I'm Asana Azrael. Obviously you must know Alexial and this is our son Erik and daughter Kira." Alexial's wife said kindly. The boy, Erik, smiled politely. He was probably 14 or 15 years old. The little girl, Kira, just glanced in Phillida's direction. She looked just as bored as her father.
"It's nice to meet all of you." Phillida said.
"If you're training under Scarlett then you must be going into the tracking division of the guards, correct?" Alexial asked. He looked a little less bored. Phillida nodded.
"Yes sir. I think I can be of the most benefit there." He said.
"Will you try to track escaped criminals or go for the real challenges and try to find the Thieves Guild or even the Dark Brotherhood?" Alexial asked.
"I want to take down the Dark Brotherhood. A group as terrible as them must be stopped." Phillida said with determination. Alexial smirked.
"Wha's the Dark Brot'erhood?" Kira asked. Alexial looked down at his daughter and frowned.
"They're a very bad group Kira. Stay away from anyone or anything that has to do with them." He said.
"Alexial, you'll scare her." Asana said. Kira was frowning slightly at her father. It looked like she was trying to think about something but couldn't really focus.
"Hey what about those werewolf rumors up here in Bruma? What are you doing about that Alexial?" Scarlett asked. Phillida thought he saw Alexial glance at his son quickly.
"We've taken care of it. The strongest werewolf was killed during the last full moon." He said quickly.
"I heard there still might be one more around. Are you going to search for it?" Another guard captain asked.
"This one hasn't killed anyone or caused harm. As far as I'm concerned it can come and go as it pleases. It's not like the other one." Alexial said smoothly.
"Are you sure? I bet Adamus here could help you track it." Scarlett said.
"I said I've taken care of it." Alexial said dangerously. Everyone quickly dropped the subject. Erik nervously took a drink of water. Phillida noticed his right hand was bandaged.
"Have you all heard our wonderful news yet?" Asana asked to break the silence. The other guards shook their heads.
"We've decided to adopt a child. We found a beautiful little Wood Elf girl named Rain. We're so happy she's going to join our family in a few months." Asana said brightly.
"Well that's wonderful! Congratulations, Alexial." Scarlett said warmly. Alexial nodded.
"I can't wait to have another little sister. And I bet Kira will be glad she won't be the baby of the family." Erik grinned at his sister. She stuck out her tongue at him. Talk moved on to other matters and details about each of the guard captains' lives and families…
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Phillida was positive the two girls he had seen were Alexial's daughters. The Azrael family was known for its stubborn and disobedient members. Phillida wouldn't be surprised if the girl, Kira, had joined the Dark Brotherhood because her father had said they were bad. The young Wood Elf girl that they had adopted months later would just follow her sister.
Phillida shrugged to himself and turned to face the lake. It was a beautiful evening. His close friend, Hieronymus Lex, would be meeting him out here soon. Apparently Lex had been transferred out of the Imperial City and wanted to at least take a short break before the transition.
A dark shape jumped out of the shadows and knocked Phillida to the ground. Phillida reacted quickly and rolled away, pulling out his sword. The assassin's sword nearly stabbed him in the chest. Phillida paused. He knew this sword. It was the Azrael family sword. He quickly jumped to his feet.
Kira swore and pulled her sword out of the ground. She was prepared to fight Phillida. He would pay for all the trouble he had caused the Dark Brotherhood.
"I don't believe it. It is you." Phillida said. Kira paused and raised one eyebrow at him.
"You know me?" She asked curiously.
"You are Alexial Azrael's daughter. I knew it!" Phillida said.
"That's unimportant. You're going to pay for everything you've done to my family…" Kira said darkly. Phillida glared angrily at her.
"Your family! You mean the Dark Brotherhood. How could you, of all people, call them your family? They killed your parents!" Phillida shouted. Kira shrugged.
"I never cared much for them." She said simply. Phillida was furious. The Dark Brotherhood had destroyed the ties that Kira should have had with her real family.
Kira jumped forward and attacked Phillida. Phillida tried to move away but her sword quickly changed direction and cut his shoulder. He gasped and staggered back from the pain. Kira easily stayed in motion. Her attacks kept coming. Phillida barely had time to block and no time to attack. He knew this fighting style. Alexial was known for his impossible attack techniques. This girl had to be close to becoming a weapons master such as her father. Finally Phillida's sword was knocked from his hand and he was knocked back.
"Go to hell, Phillida." Kira said, moving in for the kill. Phillida glared at her. He wasn't afraid of death. Before he was killed he spotted a female Wood Elf nearby and a familiar figure running towards him along the coast. Then everything went black…
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"Adamus!" Hieronymus Lex shouted. Kira glanced back. She swore. There was Lex, running at her angrily. She quickly cut off Phillida's finger with the ring on it and started to run. Rain was waiting right there with the horses. Kira jumped on quickly.
"Come on. Lex will definitely have every guard in Leyawiin after us in minutes." She said urgently.
"Fantastic." Rain said, getting on her horse. They rode off as fast as they could away from the town. Soon they were in the forest and on their way to Imperial City.
"Damn it!" Lex cursed and then kneeled down next to the body of his old friend. He sighed in defeat.
"Poor Adamus. I've been outsmarted by the Grey Fox and you've been killed by the Dark Brotherhood. We've both failed…" He said softly. Lex's hand balled into a fist. He wouldn't let the Dark Brotherhood get away with this. He shouted for the guards and began organizing a search party…
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Hours later…
"That was great!" Kira laughed once she was sure they were safe. Rain nodded and laughed too.
"I can't believe Phillida is finally dead!" Rain said.
"Yeah…but that was weird. He knew who I was." Kira said.
"How?"
"He probably met Dad once and saw me with him." Kira shrugged.
"Oh well, no need to worry about that. Now let's just sneak into Imperial City and place his finger in his successor's desk." Rain said. Kira nodded and they entered the city. Soon they had placed the finger in the desk and were quietly walking around the city.
"Do you think we could visit Martin?" Rain asked. Kira shook her head.
"No. By now word will have reached the city that Phillida has been murdered. If we try to break into the palace to see Martin and get caught they'll know we killed Phillida and think that we're trying to assassinate the emperor. Let's at least give Martin some time to reproduce before we try to kill him." Kira joked. Rain shook her head.
"I guess it would be bad if Martin found out about us being part of the Dark Brotherhood. Let's head home…" She said. Kira found a discarded paper on the ground.
"Oh so that's the date today." She said after reading it quickly.
"What's the date?" Rain asked.
"It's the start of the season for those who were born under the sign of the Lover. And here we are making the guys sleep alone." Kira said.
"We're eviler than I thought we were." Rain chuckled.
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"We leave for maybe 12 hours and all we asked you two to do is play dress up with your daughters. Instead you sat here and played cards?" Rain asked. Vicente and Lucien nodded without looking up from their game.
"If you want we could all play strip poker." Lucien grinned at Kira. She hit the back of his head. Vicente chuckled.
"We told you we weren't going to play dress up." The vampire said.
"You two are hopeless." Kira said. She grabbed the back of Lucien's hood and pulled him out of his chair.
"Just do it, you idiot." She said. Lucien stared down at her. Rain sat down next to Vicente and glared at him.
"Now." She said. Lucien and Vicente moved a few inches away from Kira and Rain.
"Why can't you just make Cecilia and Erik do it?" Lucien almost whined.
"We're not going to do that to them! Cecilia is busy and that would scar Erik for life!" Rain said.
"Just do it. Or remember where you'll be sleeping for a while." Kira threatened. Vicente and Lucien glanced at each other and sighed in defeat. Kira and Rain grinned. Rain slowly pulled out a tiny top hat and placed it on Vicente's head. Kira placed a fez on Lucien. They both put monocles on Lucien and Vicente's left eyes. The two men looked like they were crying on the inside.
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"Kira, do we have anything to eat?" Lucien asked. Kira looked up from the book she was reading on their bed.
"What the hell, Lucien?! Why are walking around naked?" She asked.
"I had to work for three hours to get all the stuff off my Speaker robes. That contract J'ghasta had us do was messier than you think." Lucien said.
"You're lucky the kids aren't here. You could have scarred Moralis for life." Kira shook her head. Lucien grinned at her and threw his now relatively clean robes on a nearby chair.
"But seriously, do we have any food?" He asked again. Kira shrugged.
"Why don't you go out in all your manly glory and kill something for dinner." She said. Lucien sighed.
"We really don't have anything?" He asked.
"We might have a few apples, that may or may not be poisoned, and some venison. And for the love of Sithis, put some pants on!" Kira said, throwing a pair of pants at her husband. He continued to grin at her.
"No. It's my fort; I'll do whatever the hell I want." He said. Lucien walked off into the other room in search of his dinner. Kira went back to reading her book. It was often she got to read. The only books Lucien ever had lying around were The Five Tenants and a few others on alchemy or sword techniques. She had borrowed this one from Rain. Kira finished the book and walked into the other room. Lucien was nowhere to be seen.
"Well okay then…" Kira said. She looked up when she heard the trap door open. Rain climbed down the rope ladder.
"Hey Kira. Did you finish that book?" Rain asked.
"Yeah. I left it in the bedroom. I'll get it." Kira walked back into the other room. Rain looked around for a place to sit. To her left there was a table covered in alchemy ingredients…and blood. There was also another table covered with tools made for sharpening weapons…and blood. Finally she looked at the table that she guessed Lucien and Kira ate at. It only had a few specks of blood here and there.
"Hey Rain." Rain heard Lucien walk in the room.
"Hey, do you have any tables that aren't covered in….What the hell?" Rain quickly covered her eyes and looked away. She heard Lucien laugh.
"Here's your book…Lucien! Could you behave yourself for at least five minutes?!" Kira shouted at him.
"Just make him leave the room!" Rain shouted. Lucien grabbed an apple, inspected it quickly for poison and walked off with it. Kira shook her head and sat down next to Rain.
"Never. Again." Rain said. Kira laughed.
"Sorry. Sometimes it's like having three children and no husband." She said. Rain looked at her.
"Why does he have a tattoo that close to his….?" Rain asked. Kira shrugged.
"I…really don't know. He's had it for as long as I've been with him. Just be happy you've got Vicente who has been trained by women for over three centuries. He's all fancy and sophisticated." Kira said.
"Vicente's not always like that. Sometimes he can be almost as bad as Lucien. I don't think it'd be possible to be as bad as Lucien." Rain said, looking around.
"Yeah…well…he's mine at least. So I can keep a grip on the terror that is Lucien Lachance and protect the world." Kira laughed. Rain stood up.
"I'm going to leave before he comes back again. Have fun protecting the world from this horrible…whatever he is." Rain quickly left. Lucien walked back in.
"See what you do? Now you've scared my sister so much that she may never come back here." Kira said.
"Good. That way we'll have more food." Lucien said. He had finally pulled on some pants. He sat down right next to Kira and pulled her onto his lap.
"What?" She asked as he stared at her.
"I played with Moralis and Crystal. You owe me." Lucien said. Kira rolled her eyes and quickly kissed him.
"But you just got dressed again…" She started to fake complain. Lucien shook his head and kissed Kira.
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"Remind me next time I go to their hideout to stare directly down at the floor." Rain said as she walked in the bedroom of her house.
"Why?" Vicente asked. He was relaxing on the bed after feeding recently.
"Let's just say I got to see more of Lucien than I ever wanted to." Rain shivered and sat down next to the vampire. Vicente laughed.
"Did you see the tattoo he has above his…?" Vicente started.
"Yes, I saw the tattoo. How did you know about it?" Rain asked.
"Who do you think got Lucien drunk and dared him to get it?" Vicente asked. Rain shook her head.
"You're a bad influence." She said, stretching out next to Vicente.
"I would think you'd know that by now. I'm usually a very bad influence." Vicente smirked. Rain shook her head.
"So long as you don't start walking around naked then I don't care what you do." She said.
"Did Lucien do anything else?" Vicente asked after a while.
"Not really. He just walked in the room as if it was the most normal thing ever and started to eat an apple." Rain said. Vicente laughed again.
"That's my boy." He said.
"Stupid bad influence." Rain growled.
"Oh you love me because I'm a bad influence." Vicente rolled on his side and smirked at Rain.
"You are just like Lucien." Rain said.
"Well what do you expect? He is my son." Vicente said and kissed Rain.
"You want to play strip poker?" He asked after a while. Rain smacked his chest and rolled her eyes.
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THERE! I TYPED IN THE CAR, TWO DAYS IN A ROW.
So what if it's the day after Valentine's Day?
Here's your special little chapter!
….And yes, Lucien went commando.
Now everyone say happy 80th birthday to Wantaco79's grandma!
HAPPY FRICKEN VALENTINE'S DAY.
(eye twitches)