Babette POV:
I rush upstairs with Nazir and the client, all of us drawing our weapons. When we arrive at the main sanctum we find that the fight has already begun. Cicero (our newest member) is busy noisly dying on the floor, Gabriella and Festus are fighting the gigantic Khajiit that has invaded our sanctuary, and Veezara and Arnbjorn are hanging back and preparing to help. Gabriella (who's claimed so many times she knows how she's going to die) runs out of arrows to fire at the Khajiit, and the beast seems to sense the Dunmer's weakness. She roars, pushes past Festus (who was attempting to contain the monster), and leaps at the assassin. Gabriella only has time to scream before the beast is on her, tearing and ripping. Festus uses a fireball on the vampire in an attempt to save his fellow, but the creature only turns towards him and charges. Gabriella is still alive, but it must be a living oblivion for her. Her breathing is rapid, her organs are thrown everywhere, and within a few seconds she lets out a chocking noise as she dies. Festus himself meets a similar fate, the monster tearing him apart in a matter of seconds. Veezara moved to help when Gabriella died, but now he's stopped and is simply standing in place and shaking. The beast (I'm almost certain she's straight from oblivion) spits some guts from her mouth, stands, and screams at the remaining members of our order.
"What's wrong? A guild of assassins can't kill a single person?! I bit your damned leader's head off and the lot of you can't do shit about it!". We all realized what she means, but Arnbjorn is the first to react. He transforms, falls to all four, and growls as he advances on the vampire. She takes one look at Astrid's husband and says, "Cute. The big bad wolf is suppose to scare the little kitty away?". Arnbjorn can only roar in fear as the creature lunges towards him, trapping him in a headlock. Veezara and Nazir start to fire arrows at the creature (why they weren't helping all along I'll never know), but nothing kills her. She raises her free hand, curls in into a fist, and begins smashing it against Arnbjorn's face. He whimpers and yowls in pain, but he can't swing his claws in a way that they would catch the Khajiit. I want to help, but I'm honestly terrified of the monster. It's as if she's a dremora straight from Mehrunes Dagon's plane of oblivion. When Arnbjorn's skull is a bloody mess she drops the body, but freezes when she notices our client. Her ears flatten, she reveals her gigantic fangs, and growls, "You.". Our client (I think her name is Sybille) only calmly smiles and asks, "How are you enjoying the queen?". Something clicks in the monster's eyes, and she all but screams, "YOU BITCH!". She then lets out a roars as she leaps at our client.
Sybille quickly moves to the side, allowing the giant Khajiit to land on the ground where she was just standing. The Khajiit rises as quickly as she can, but Sybille is ready. She reaches out, yanks the Khajiit's arms behind her back, and flips around. When Veezara and Nazir fail to do anything our client screams, "Fire you idiots! Fire!". Both of them open fire on the defenseless vampire, but she doesn't die. If anything she seems to get angry. When she starts flailing in an attempt to get free Sybille yells, "Aim for the eyes!". The Khajiit closes her eyes (as if that'll stop the arrows) and begins fighting even harder. Sybille drives her to the ground (practically lying on the woman) and yells at Nazir (the closest to her), "Kill it! Kill it!". Nazir loads his bow, aims, and fires. The Khajiit lets out a gagging noise, falls over, and remains still. Sybille laughs, rises, and claps Nazir on the shoulder when he walks over. I walk right behind him, eyeing the dead Khajiit. Veezara walks over to, but looks ashamed of himself. I can't say I blame him, he was useless in the fight (although I did even less). Nazir kicks the body and curses her. Veezara looks around the sanctuary and says, "She killed five of our members, now there's only three of us! And, we're leaderless!". Nazir shakes his hand and tells the Argonian, "We'll work it out.".
Nazir and I talk to the client about killing the queen (now that the Khajiit's gone it should be easy), but Veezara walks over to the Khajiit. I watch him out of the corner of my eye. He picks up her clawed hand and drops it, watching the dust swirl around the creature's paw. The Argonian pokes and prods at the woman, moves her jaw in a chewing motion, and lifts her one good eyelid up and down. I'm not sure why the man is acting so strange, but I allow him to examine the body. It's better than Nazir beating the shit out of it. Speaking of which, why hasn't the Khajiit released her bowels? The rest of the place reeks because of the bodies voiding themselves, but the Khajiit smells perfectly fine (a faint scent of corpse, but nothing else). I get my answer when Veezara pokes at the Khajiit's fangs. Within a second the Khajiit has her teeth around his throat, and his windpipe is across the room the next instant. Veezara falls to the floor, his lifeblood pumping out onto the floor. Nazir readies his bow when the woman charges us, but she completely ignores him. Sybille is tackled, but unlike my brothers she puts up a fight. The two claw, bite, and attempt to rip each other to shreds. The Khajiit now lacks an eye, and Sybille uses that to her advantage. But in the end the fight ends the same way every other fight did.
Sybille lasted longer than anyone else, but she to dies at the hands of the monster. The creature stands, spits out Sybille's skull, and turns to us. Nazir drops his bow, raises his hand, and begins bargaining for our lives. I'm not sure if he truly wants to bargain or if he just wants to buy some time so he's the first to attack. Before any deal can be struck, the Khajiit does what she's best at. Killing. While she tears Nazir to shreds I flee. Those men and women were my family, but I can't help Nazir. The best thing I can do right now is escape. But before I can reach the front door I feel myself being pushed to the ground. I can only scream as I feel a large amount of pressure grip my skull.
Mercenary POV:
I make my way over to the pool of water, washing myself. I pluck the arrow from my skull and throw it to the side, blood running down my cheek. Damn. I look at my reflection and grimace. The missing eye is a major disadvantage in a fight, but my battling days are over. I'm the royal bodyguard, but there are so many other guards that I'm not necessary. I rip some cloth from my undershirt and wrap it around my head, hiding the bloody wound from sight. I examine my face and can't help wondering what a woman like Elisif sees in me. She could have anyone in Skyrim, but she chose the freaky Khajiit. At least I never have to worry about her only wanting me for my looks. I stop gazing at my reflection and walk around the sanctuary. A giant spider attempts to eat me, but I easily kill it and move on. I find what I was looking for rather easily. The Night Mother. If I'm going to destroy The Dark Brotherhood, then I'm going to destroy it right. I light a torch and thrust it at the unholy matron, the dead flesh crackling as she burns. I swear I can faintly hear someone screaming in pain, but I ignore it and keep roasting the corpse. When she's steadily burning I leave. As I go out the door I swear I hear someone faintly yelling, "Listener.". I flick my ears, shake my head to clear it, and keep walking.
Elisif POV:
I'm standing on my balcony, the cold air snapping at my gown. I sigh as I gaze at the celebrating soldiers below, a festival going on in the main square of Windhelm. The legion took the city early in the morning, Ulfric died in the afternoon, and now the celebration is going on. It's been a busy day, and many of the city's citizens are held up in their houses. The people of Windhelm aren't pleased about Ulfric's death, but that's not what's on my mind. The Khajiit swore she would meet up with me before I gave my speech to the men, but I talked to the soldiers hours ago.
Everyone (including Tullius) was pleased, but I've been rather down ever since. I close my eyes, but screech when two arms wrap around me. I flip around and swing with all my might at who I think is an assassin, but gasp when my fist hits the mercenary's shoulder. She cocks her head and asks, "Were you attempting to hurt me?". I nod, then notice the patch around her head. I instinctively reach up to take it off, but the woman grabs my hand to stop me. She shakes her head and explains, "It's a nasty wound one of the assassins gave me while I was ripping The Dark Brotherhood apart. I think Sybille was the one who made the contract to kill you, but we don't have to worry about her any more.". I nod in understanding, then pull the Khajiit's face to mine. It's all she can do to catch herself as I push her onto my bed.
I smile as I lie beside the Khajiit, her pelt clinging to her body with sweat. I kicked off the blanket a few minutes ago to cool down, but now the cold wind of the north is freezing areas that I definitely need. The Khajiit stretches as I pull the goat skin cover over us. She reaches over and strokes my side as she asks me, "What happens now?". I think about answering her question with something sexual, but I can see on her face that it's a serious question. So, I answer, "You've taken care of the assassins, the war is won, and I've fallen for you over and over again. I suppose the only thing to do is live happily ever after.". She moves to stroke my hair and whispers, "You know it won't be that easy.". I nod and whisper back, "We can never marry, show our love publicly, or let anyone catch on. It'll be hard work for both of us. Do you still wish to be with me? I'm sure The Beasts will take you back, if that is what you desire.". My heart would shatter if she left me, but I can't stand in the way of what she wants. If she truly wants to leave, then I only wish for her happiness. But the woman shakes her head and tells me, "I'm no stranger to hard work. And, I recall you wanted to learn how to use a two-handed weapon. What kind of master would I be if I left?". I smile, lean over, and share a gentle kiss with her. I whisper as quietly as I can (fearing what I'll do if she says no), "Promise you'll always stay with me?". She smiles and answers, "Now and forever.".
The End
I have no idea why I thought this would last seven chapters, but I'm still pleased with how it worked out. I would like to thank everyone who's read and/or reviewed The Queen and Her Cat. I won't lie, there were times when I thought this wouldn't be worth writing, but everyone's lovely reviews kept me going. And, now I can easily say this was one of my favorite stories to write. Now, onto another matter. I want to write another story, and I gave my readers the chance to vote on which one I would do next (choices were in chapter 33). But now there's a problem. There's a tie. I might end up writing both, but one's going to have to come before the other. So, here are the two choices. Fell free to review or message me your vote.
Maven Black-Briar/Female Dragonborn, Suspense/Romance. Maven is looking for any chance she can get to claw her way up in the political world, and getting in good with the queen's lapdog is the perfect way. All she needs to do is make the woman fall for her, but everything might not go as planned. Ending is up in the air.
Serana/Female Dragonborn (Vampire), Romance/Suspense. After Harkon died everything was suppose to be fine, but that's not the case. The Dawnguard is hounding the vampires, the court is ripping itself apart, and the vampire finds herself an incapable leader. Serana can help her, but first she has to get the vampire to trust her. This ending is currently in the air.