Mercury's fists tightened, arms crossed as he stood next to the table, listening in on the strategy meeting between the two elder assassins. He had been unsure of the woman's qualifications at first, but after listening to the back and forth between her and his father for the past thirty minutes, it was clear that she was at least experienced in the art of covert operations.
The younger girl on the other hand… Mercury could admit he was dubious. She had stood around for the first ten minutes, listening in from the other side of the table as Mercury had, then apparently gotten bored and left to lie down across the couch at the back of the room. Mercury just couldn't see her measuring up to the task, and with his own life on the line, he decided to have a little chat with the kid to see for himself if she would be capable of holding her own.
'Lotus' didn't react as he approached with a small grin on his face, "So, what's a kid like you doing on a mission like this?" He put just a tinge of contempt in his voice, letting her know what he thought of her.
"Waiting to kill the people I'm told to kill. What about you, kid?" the girl replied back with an equal amount of contempt. She didn't turn towards him, instead adopting an even more bored expression as she brought a hand up to mask a yawn. Mercury grit his teeth, hands clenching tighter, and the girl flashed a smile despite not even looking at him.
"Don't you think it might be better if you paid a little attention?" Mercury growled out, earning him another flash of teeth for his words. The girl turned an eye towards him, a slight twinkle buried in its depths.
She 'tsked' and waved a hand nonchalantly, as if to avoid his concerns, "I'm sure my part in the plan will be for me to cut loose as a distraction while the rest of you sneak in. I usually work better when I'm not strictly adhering to some plan and just left to my own devices."
Mercury made no attempts to hide the fact that he was looking her up and down. She certainly didn't look the part of someone that could reliably handle dozens of armed guards at the same time. Compared to himself, let alone Marcus… the girl hardly measured up. Mercury was in the middle of narrowing his eyes in a glare when he flinched back, the sharp edge of something grazed his throat. He immediately dropped into a defensive stance and backed away a few steps. The girl simply smirked and yawned again, eyes going dull as she closed them turned her head away from him.
Their little chat and him dropping into a fighting stance seemed to have drawn the attention of the two at the table. 'Widow' laughed lightly from somewhere behind him and spoke loudly in his direction, "I would avoid trying to stir up trouble. Lotus was having a good day until I had to drag her all the way back to Mistral for this little meeting. Best not to get on her nerves at the moment," Widow paused before calling out a little louder in a sweet voice, "Play nice, dear~"
"Don't make a fool out of yourself, boy," Marcus growled, and Mercury immediately relaxed into the posture he had been in before. He kept his eyes on the girl lying on the couch, but was content to avoid any further attention from their elders. Mercury would be punished severely for it later if he distracted them again.
After a few more silent moments, the two went back to strategizing and Mercury waited a few minutes in silence before speaking to the girl again, "What was that?"
The girl opened her eyes back up to smirk in his direction, "Who knows?" Her hand reached down to her sword, the blade whispering out a hair, "Maybe this version of me on the couch is merely an illusion, and I could strike at any moment?"
The older faunus woman loudly cleared her throat. Lotus eyed her and sighed, resheathing the sword with a small click and shifting into a sitting position on the couch. Lotus gave him a considering look, gazing him up and down as he had done to her, then reached out and gently patted the cushions in front of her, recently vacated by her own feet, "You're welcome to sit."
Mercury hesitantly stepped forward. He kept his aura up now, wary of any invisible, sharp objects that might bleed him dry, and sat down a foot away from the girl. Mercury tried to resume his nonchalant attitude from before, but his body was still tense, ready to spring into action at a moment's notice.
The girl rolled her eyes, "Even if I don't like it, we're comrades for the time being. I would hardly jeopardize the mission over a joke." Lotus stuck her hand out, offering up a handshake. Mercury took it, not wanting to seem cowed by her antics in any way. The girl's grip was firm, more so than he had been expecting. They shook a few times and withdrew, the girl sitting back against the cushions behind her. Her feet were angled on the couch toward Mercury still, and with a slight smirk, she extended them back out to rest across his lap.
"I like your outfit. You definitely look the part of an assassin," she eyed his grey and black coat, along with the metal grieves on his legs and arms. She then looked down at herself and the black hoodie she wore, "But I suppose, do you want to look the part if you're trying to sneakily murder someone?"
"You'll be thankful that you do once the fight actually starts," Mercury muttered, trying to ignore her legs laying across his lower half. They were so dainty that he hardly felt any weight, but he still felt trapped by them. Like she had pinned him exactly where she wanted him. "Armor protects your aura, just as much as it does the rest of your body."
The girl shrugged, "A valid point. Not to mention, you do have a decent aura reserve in the first place. More than mine, and more than your father's," she gave a cursory glance back towards the table, "Widow still has us all beat... I wouldn't let that get to your head, though. Not where I'm concerned. I'm… surprisingly resilient, when I want to be. It would be your mistake to forget that."
Mercury let the rest of what she said drown out after the earlier admission. 'I have more aura than my father?' His head spun in rapid thought. During spars, Marcus had always made it seem as if his strength was limitless, only calling off their fights when Mercury's aura began to dip too low. 'Could I… Is it time? Can I finally be free of him?'
He was snapped out of it as the girl's foot nudged his knee, "Remnant to Mercury, you in there?"
Mercury immediately adopted a calm expression and forcibly let himself relax despite the position he was still in. His eyes glanced towards their elders, but the two were still focused on the blueprint on the table between them. Marcus hadn't caught on to their conversation.
"Yeah, I'm still here," he replied evenly, turning his eyes back on the girl next to him. He had a sudden impulse to hug her, or shake her hand, or… something. If only for delivering a small seed of hope to him. He relentlessly crushed the urge beneath his own iron will, though.
Lotus still seemed to notice something was off and grinned, coming to the wrong conclusion. Her feet rubbed back and forth over the top of his thighs for a moment, "Oh, is the young assassin uncomfortable~?"
Mercury's face reddened despite himself. He certainly hadn't been thinking anything along those lines up until now, but she was… well, cute. In a, 'could murder you at any moment so enjoy this while it lasts' sort of way. Mercury could appreciate a girl that could take care of herself in a fight, but that was yet to be seen as far as he was concerned, sharp nicks across the neck or no. Why could he end someone's life without a second thought, yet a little light teasing by a girl could still get this much of a reaction out of him? 'Two can play at that game.'
Mercury's face adopted a practiced grin, "Oh? I rather enjoy it. Perhaps after the mission, we could find some place private to celebrate?"
It was her turn to go red in the cheeks. The girl's feet withdrew immediately as if she'd been burned. She tried to hide her face with a polite cough, turning away from him before speaking again, "C-Certainly not."
A grin spread across Mercury's face, satisfied that he had turned the girl's own teasing around on her, "So shy!" he whispered mockingly.
Lotus rested her chin against her palm as the color slowly dissipated from her cheeks, "You'd think after dealing death out to so many people, everything else would be easier by comparison."
Mercury scoffed, "How many people could a child like you have killed so far?"
The girl frowned, narrowing her eyes at him, "You first. How many?"
Mercury smiled, leaning forward to whisper conspiratorially, "Twenty-three. You?" He was proud of the number of kills he had racked up. They had been accepting missions for the past couple years, now.
The girl continued to frown, her eyes drifting off towards the wall in thought. There was a slight tremor in her voice when she spoke next, "I've... lost count. I think I stopped keeping track about a year ago… some time after fifty...? They all just sort of… blur together."
'Over fifty!? Surely she was joking? But… she didn't look like she was joking...' His eyes took in her long black hair, her black hoodie, the fact that she had been picked to assist on their mission… In a rush, the dots suddenly fell into place in Mercury's mind, realizing that the girl's name had been shortened. 'The Black Lotus' was a name he had heard whispered many times. Mercury suddenly found himself a lot less comfortable with her proximity. He had heard the rumors and thought them ridiculous. A small girl that could kill you without a moment's notice… a chill ran through his body at the reminder of the graze across his throat, and he subconsciously ran his hand across it.
Lotus didn't seem to catch the motion, still lost in thought as she was. She eventually shook herself out of it with a muttered, "They never have to know." Mercury didn't think he was supposed to hear it and pretended not to, instead keeping his eyes focused entirely on the elder two assassins across the room while the girl recovered.
She eyed him, but was apparently satisfied that he hadn't heard her and hummed lightly. Mercury flinched when her legs returned across his, but if she noticed it, she made no comment.
"So, I guess you're an assassin because it's just part of the family business?" the girl's eyes drifted back and forth between himself and Marcus, taking in the obvious similarities.
He nodded, willing to distract himself from the contact with some idle conversation, "What about you?" Mercury looked between the girl and the older woman. Other than their shared profession, the two were physically very different. Different hair colors, different eye colors, Lotus had lighter skin and wasn't built the same as the older woman. Perhaps a late growth spurt could bring her up to the older woman's height, but Mercury doubted it. They looked nothing alike.
Lotus shrugged, "Adopted, in a way. We were both members in the White Fang, but everyone else died, so now it's just the two of us. That was around three years ago."
Mercury frowned, "You're faunus?"
"You got a problem with that?" Lotus's voice tensed, and Mercury once again felt very self conscious about how close he was to the girl that could apparently kill him without lifting a finger.
"N-no. Not really. We take missions to kill humans and faunus. We accept missions from humans and faunus. A contract is a contract, no matter who it is," Mercury wasn't lying for her benefit. He honestly didn't care either way.
Lotus nodded in acceptance, "Same here. I remember a time where I cared about the distinction… We all bleed red though, eh?" The girl let out a light giggle, "Except the Grimm, of course. You know, that's where I got my name in the first place?" Sadness flickered through her eyes and was gone the next moment, so fast that Mercury almost missed it.
Mercury grinned despite himself, "What, your name wasn't always 'The Black Lotus'? Who would have guessed?"
The girl gave him another playful kick against his knee and sighed, "No. Once upon a time, my name was… Olivia. She was naive, though. She believed she could live a life of her choosing." Lotus's eyes grew dark, "What a fool."
Mercury could sympathize, surprisingly. It wasn't as if he himself had chosen to be an assassin in the first place. Marcus had broken him into a thousand pieces, then reforged Mercury into the child his father always wanted. Someone as dead inside as Marcus himself was. Mercury loathed the man, but up until now, had thought himself too weak to earn his freedom. With Lotus's words earlier, he had started to build a modicum of hope, as small as it was.
Despite the trepidation he felt from interacting with the girl, Mercury wanted to return the favor. He was thankful for the nugget of information that she had freely given him, even if she didn't know the effect it would have, "What did Olivia want to do in life?" He asked it quietly, intent on not clueing the adults into their conversation. It was straying dangerously towards treason, or that was at least how his father would see it.
The girl sighed and sat back, giving a small, forced chuckle, "Olivia wanted to become a huntress." She gestured to herself and spread her arms wide, as if to say 'Look how far that dream went.'
"What's stopping you?" Mercury frowned, "You must be talented. Becoming a huntress would be a piece of cake compared to what you already do."
Lotus flicked an eye towards the two adults and turned back to Mercury with a sigh, "It would never work. My hands are stained with the deaths of countless others. What kind of hypocrite could turn to a life of protecting people after that?" Her voice dipped lower, in a barely audible whisper to Mercury's ears, "What would her friends say if they found out?"
Mercury got the distinct impression that Lotus already had certain people in mind with that last line, and dropped his voice just as low, "I'm sure if they really were Olivia's friends, they would be able to understand? You'll never know unless you try."
Lotus chuckled at that, "You've been living the assassin's life too long," the girl gave him a sad look, "This life isn't normal, Mercury. It's very much the opposite of normal. Normal people couldn't possibly understand the things we do."
There was some truth to her words. Mercury could only shrug in defeat, "Find better friends, then."
"What, like you?" Lotus gave a genuine giggle that lasted for a few seconds. It tapered off as she realized the position they were still in. She remained how she was, though, despite the redness returning to her cheeks. Lotus sighed, "I… I think I'll still try. See how it goes. There's only one person left on my personal hit list. Once that's done… Who knows? Maybe I'll feel a sense of freedom from all this… all this bloodshed."
Mercury couldn't help but silently echo her sentiments through his own mind. He desperately wanted to be free of his father's influence, and to live his life the way he chose. A small voice in his mind told him that he wouldn't be doing anything different, though. Killing was all he knew, and he was good at it. Could he do anything else?
"If you two are done flirting over there, we're ready for you to return to the table now~," the older woman laughed at the heat that rose in both their cheeks. Lotus whipped her feet off him and stood, smoothing down her hoodie as if it had been out of place. Mercury stood as well, avoiding eye contact with his father as they both stepped back over to the table. The blueprint was laid out, now covered in markings that crossed every which way, detailing their plans.
Mercury spotted the courtyard. There was simply a large red circle around it, and the words 'Lotus distraction' scribbled across the middle. 'She wasn't kidding…' The two elder assassins began detailing out the plan, starting with what routes they would take to get into position before sending Lotus the signal to attack the front courtyard and cause as much mayhem as she could.
A little worry crept through his mind, surprising Mercury. 'Can she actually survive all that firepower? She even admitted my aura is stronger…' Mercury shook himself out of it. If she died, she died. Lotus would hardly be the first, and certainly wouldn't be the last... He couldn't afford to lose his concentration and start caring about someone else now, not when he finally had a glimmer of hope for his own freedom.
They went through the details of the plan several times over, but after the first, Lotus was content to head back over to the couch. Her part in the plan didn't require any of the finer points that Widow and Marcus were now drilling into him. Which turns to take, what to expect, contingencies upon contingencies for every little possibility or eventuality until he could recite them all verbatim. Mercury knew better than to get anything wrong. Not with his father there.
After another thirty minutes, they left. The hour was approaching and time was of the essence. Their employer had been very specific. The council members needed to die as quickly as possible.
Mercury had no objections, he wanted to get home and start on a few plans of his own.
Widow shrouded the group of three with her semblance, masking any sounds as she slashed her heavy dagger through the gate's lock. They had approached the back entrance, moving through the shadows as they went. She waved her hand, gesturing for the other two to make their approach, and sized them up as they did so. Widow had to hand it to the kid, he'd been trained well. 'Not as well as Lotus. That girl is my pride and joy.' Widow would never admit otherwise, even if the boy melded into the darkness like he'd been born to it.
There was no need to peek around the corner to know that the guard was slowly making his roundabout approach to do his regular gate inspection. Widow could feel him nearing, and with a sudden, silent swing of the gates, stepped into his side from the shadows. The man attempted to shout a warning, but no sound could be heard as Widow stabbed him through the chest and dragged him back through the gate, setting him against the wall. Marcus gave her an approving nod, and she continued to lead the three into the compound.
The blueprints they had scoured for half an hour had detailed out various corridors and rooms that they could take to get to each of their two points of interest. Their first target was the security room so that they could disable the feed and remove any traces of video that would been saved on them. Once that was done, they could move more freely through the building, only having to worry about human eyes instead of digital ones.
Widow could feel the slow swivel of the camera positioned nearby, its path currently sweeping it in the direction of the gate that they had not yet moved past. The spider faunus kept her hand up, cautioning the other two not to press forward until she gave the signal. The sweep paused, aimed directly at the gates, then began to backtrack as the movement resumed. Widow waved the two to follow from over her shoulder as she stepped through the gate, keeping her sixth sense focused on the camera's path so that they remained just behind its viewing angle.
They reached the wall of the building itself, now safely beneath the camera they had been avoiding. Widow tested the door they stood next to, receiving a small jingle of metal in return. 'Of course it's locked.' She made use of her semblance again, wishing for a moment that Lotus was with them, 'My little darling could cut through this thing like paper.' Instead, she was forced to break it herself. With her aura increased strength, it only took a few strikes before the knob dropped to the ground on both sides.
Widow quickly worked her hand into the empty portion of the door, pulling back on the bolt that held it in place before pushing the door open. She knew they were away from the prying eyes of any guards inside, and slipped through, gesturing for Marcus and Mercury to follow suit. She closed it behind them, just in time for another camera's sweeping angle outside to miss them by a narrow margin. Widow doubted anyone watching the cameras would notice the knob on the ground outside. It was too small of a detail.
The trio set off through the twisting corridors, occasionally passing through rooms that brought them one step closer to their initial goal. Widow's extra sense was working overtime, alerting them to both camera and guards alike. She could feel them all. None caught sight, until finally, they stood outside the door to the security room. Widow held up a finger to the pair, 'Two,' then pointed out their general positions through the wall. They silently communicated, and with their plan firmly in mind, put it into action.
Mercury took one step back, still enveloped in Widow's semblance, and fired off the shotgun from his steel-toed boots. A hole silently appeared through it, instantly allowing access as Marcus and Widow both flashed through the door. One guard was brewing a pot of coffee at a table set against the left wall. Marcus took him in a moment, his own foot crashing against the side of the man's head and snapping it to the side at an angle it was never meant to be in. Widow was just as fast, moving behind the man directly ahead of the door, sitting in his large chair as he watched the monitors.
Widow pushed the man out of the chair, his fingers clutching at the long slit across his neck even as his movements stilled. She hardly paid him any mind as she pulled up the security system's live feed. Widow turned back to Marcus and Mercury, "I've got this. Guard the door and I'll be right out."
Marcus nodded, and the pair left her to it, moving down the hallway a sufficient distance away. Widow could feel them taking up their positions, one on each end where the corridor corners turned into the hallway her room was in.
Widow went through the directory, turning off their cameras one by one until only one live feed remained, recording a section of the building's exterior. Widow hesitated, this would be a gamble, but with her expertise, and Lotus's natural talents, as well as Malachite's backing… 'I'm sorry, little spider. You're going to be stuck in Mistral for a while… But it has to be this way.' Widow left that single camera to record, and then wiped the harddrive of all past video evidence.
There would be only one person caught on tape tonight.
Lotus sighed as she stood against a tree across the street from the front gates she was supposed to assault. Her foot idly drummed back against the trunk, chipping away at the bark with each tap. Her appendages were already active, stretched down across her limbs. They wouldn't be for long, though. She would have to move into a more... defensive... stance once the fight began.
The rest had snuck off into the compound ten minutes ago. The building was like a fortress in its own right. The walls that lined the outside edge were thick enough to warrant walkways, and were lined with several guards, all carrying standard issue weaponry. Lotus wasn't worried about them. Her appendages were bulletproof, even without taking her aura into account. With the way the guards were lined up on the wall, as soon as she got the go ahead she could take them out one by one. Only a single guard would be able to fire at her at once, for fear of shooting each other in the back.
No, she tapped her foot repeatedly in mild worry over Mercury's part in the plan. The boy had made a good impression on her, surprisingly, and she couldn't help but notice that aside from her, Mercury would have one of the more dangerous tasks. Lotus would draw the bulk of the guards, 'and maybe a few huntsman', to herself. Mercury would join in the assault on the inside, then take up a position outside the main council chambers to stop any returning huntsman or guards if those inside got word out. Marcus and Widow were to take out any of the personal guards, along with the council members themselves. 'There's a lot riding on whether or not I can keep them occupied and away from Mercury…'
Lotus decided right then and there that she would make sure it was a spectacular display that got their attention diverted outside. She reached down into her pouch and hefted out one of the explosives that Malachite had acquired for her. 'How many vehicles were parked outside?' A slightly demented smile curled her lips, 'Oh, this is going to be fun~'
A vibration through the scroll in her pocket signalled Lotus to begin. She immediately snapped into action, crossing the street in a short burst. Her appendages pierced into the sides, hefting her up on to the wall with ease even as the first few guards began to shout their warnings. Lotus relied on her sixth sense to guess the trajectory of the bullets being aimed her way, and devoted two of her appendages to blocking them. The other two remained on her arms as she crashed into the first guard, knocking him from the wall, his aura shattered on impact, a hole appearing through his chest along with it.
'Fodder,' Lotus thought to herself. These guards were little more than low class, dime a dozen mercenaries for hire. 'Don't they know you should always pay for the best?' If you didn't, then someone else would. The four assassins storming the building were proof enough of that. The next few guards were dropped in a similar fashion, gutted and thrown off the wall out of the way of Lotus's war path. She stopped to play with the fourth. The last one behind him had finally pulled out his radio and was shouting for back up. Lotus pierced through the fourth guard with several appendages at once, letting his dying screams be heard through the radio for good measure. 'That should rile them up.'
Lotus threw that man off the wall as well and closed the distance to the last. Now that he had called for backup, he was of little use. Once he was disposed of, Lotus descended into the courtyard, chucking explosives beneath each of the vehicles in the parking lot. They were parked in a line near the front door, the occupants apparently wanting to enter the building in haste. 'They must have known they were going to be attacked.' The positions of the vehicles made little sense, otherwise.
Lotus stood in the center of the courtyard, thirty feet back from the line of vehicles that sat between herself and the front door. Over a dozen guards poured out, dressed the same as the ones she'd already killed. They raised their guns, aiming down their sights at Lotus while taking cover behind the sides of the vehicles.
A few men exited after them, differently dressed and sporting a wider variety of weaponry than the goons she had seen thus far. They hefted their weapons, and began to walk through the line of cars, smiling at the lone girl that had caused so much panic. 'Silly huntsmen. You shouldn't underestimate a pretty face.'
Lotus gave them one cheeky smile as she wrapped her invisible appendages around herself and activated the detonator in her hand. They didn't even have time to scream as their lives were extinguished in a brilliant flash. Fire and steel exploded outwards from the line of cars, the shards acting as shrapnel that cut them all to pieces even as the flames melted their flesh to the bone. A shockwave of dust blew Lotus back a few feet, bits of metal pinging off her invisible limbs, but left her relatively unharmed. Her appendages took the brunt of the blast with no complaints.
Lotus was given only a few moments to breath before her sixth sense warned her of another wave of guards exited the building, flanked by a few more huntsmen. A thick haze of gunfire ricocheted off Lotus's appendages, fired randomly through the cloud of smoke and dust between them. Lotus wrapped herself in her defensive barrier once again while she pulled two more grenades out of her satchel, these ones of a different variety. She was thankful for once that she was still short for her age, her limbs were able to cover her entire front by layering them over the top of one another. All at once, the flurry of bullets ceased as they ran out of ammunition, the sound of two dozen magazines falling to the ground with a metal clatter as they all began to reload.
The dust cleared, revealing Lotus, not a scratch to be seen. She grinned as the smoke grenades she had thrown ignited, dispensing a thick cloud of white smoke that blinded everyone in the area, once again cutting off vision entirely. 'Except not for me~' She flexed her appendages in preparation to lunge forward and began tearing the defenseless guards to pieces. A streak of black in a field of white flecked with splatters of red in the air.
Not for the first time, Lotus wondered if she could get away with taxing morticians for all the customers they were about to receive.
Meanwhile...
"Hey, Yang? Can you pass me that box of crayons?"
"Are you still trying to figure out what colors to go with for Crescent Rose?"
"Yeah, I think I've almost got it. I just need more red."
Yang rolled her eyes playfully, "You always need more red, Red."
Mercury flinched as an enormous explosion rocked the building, and was soon followed by a cacophony of gunfire. 'Okay… maybe she can handle herself.' He had been worried about the younger girl's part in the plan, but was now wondering how he ever could have doubted her. You didn't earn a reputation like hers for no reason.
They had long since moved from the security room. As soon as the guards cleared out, Widow and Marcus had sprung into action, assisting him in killing the half dozen guards that remained outside the conference room door. The two then proceeded inside without him, leaving him to ward off any unwanted guests. The sounds of fighting behind him were dulled by the thick wooden doors that stood between himself and the pair of older assassins.
A surge of static could be heard over a radio, still held in the outstretched hands of one of the dead guards lying in the hallway. It was followed by the sounds of more gunfire and screaming, then a panicked voice, "We're getting slaughtered out here! Where's our backup!?"
Another voice answered it a moment later, echoed by a muffled voice through the door behind him, "They're already inside! Pull back and fortify!"
Mercury stretched and lowered himself into his combat stance as the sounds of distant footsteps reached him, headed his direction. Two huntsmen rounded the corner, looking a bit worse for wear. Mercury could tell they had fled the battle outside, but without any visible wounds, likely still had their auras up. Each slowed and approached cautiously, raising their weapons as they eyed Mercury warily.
'Show time.'
Lotus felt two of the huntsmen leave. They had been blinded by the smoke long enough for her to kill the guards, all of which were strewn about the front of the building in bloody heaps. Her appendages were stained crimson, one of the few reasons the lone huntsman that had been left to confront her still stood. He had a defensive fighting style, involving a pair of small shields that he wore, one on each wrist. A blade protruded from beneath the shields over the top of his knuckles. He fought with a very mobile brawling style, dipping in and out of range of her appendages and occasionally firing off a few rounds at her in an attempt to keep her at bay.
'He's just trying to delay me,' Lotus scoffed. The two huntsmen that had left would end up running into Mercury. She stepped back from the lone huntsman, 'Let's end this quick, eh?'
Lotus let him get a hit in with one of his blades. The huntsman's eyes widened as she allowed her semblance to deactivate, bloody appendages disappearing completely. The blood vanished along with them, and as they reappeared, they were once again fully invisible. She quickly used them to strike against her own aura, giving it a brief shimmer in multiple places across her body to make it appear as if it had broken. To the huntsman, though, it seemed as if she had lost her aura and semblance completely, and was now defenseless.
Lotus feigned reaching for Copper's sword in a panic, letting herself back up another step. The huntsman's eyes narrowed, thinking this was his chance, and lunged across the intervening distance, intent on getting his strike in before she could rearm herself.
Her appendages speared through him while his guard was down, stopping him in his tracks. The tip of his blade scraped against the aura that still protected Lotus's chest. His eyes widened, face twisting in shock, pain, and confusion as his hands grabbed at the invisible appendages. All at once, he seemed to understand the trick she had played, even as his eyes dulled and his body slumped in her grasp. Lotus hurled him into the wreckage of the exploded cars behind her, and with none remaining to halt her progress, ran inside.
Mercury ended the remaining huntsman with a shotgun kick to his head, putting him out of his misery where he'd been lying on the ground. He tensed as the sound of lighter footsteps reached him, but then relaxed. Lotus ran into view, a smattering of blood and dust across her body. With one glance though, Mercury could tell none of it was her own.
"What took you so long?" he grinned as she approached, eyeing the two dead huntsman briefly.
She smiled, brushing some of the dust off her shoulders, "Traffic was terrible."
The sounds of combat were dying down in the room behind them. Mercury stepped to the side of the door, gesturing towards it for Lotus to walk past, "After you." Lotus passed him and pushed the door open. Seven more dead huntsmen lay on the floor across the room, in pools of their own blood among broken chairs, knocked over bookcases, and one long flipped table. Marcus and Widow were just then bearing down on the council members, who had all moved to a corner of the room. Lotus and Mercury stood at the doorway, still keeping an eye behind themselves while the older assassins were finishing up.
"No! You can't do this!"
Lotus caught Mercury's attention and gave an exaggerated eye roll, "Haven't heard that one a thousand times."
'Please I'm begging you!', Mercury replied in a high pitched falsetto, "I hate that one the most. Begging doesn't fill my pockets with lien."
"You don't understand! Lionheart has betrayed the city!"
Lotus raised a hand to mimic a mouth moving.
"Isn't that the Headmaster for Haven Academy?" Mercury frowned.
Lotus paused to think while the man's begging continued in the background, "Yeah, he has a seat on the Council. They must have had a falling out," her eyes lit up, "Pretty sure Lionheart is a faunus, so win-win for me, I guess."
"Wonder what betrayal they're talking about," Mercury asked rhetorically. Obviously Lotus wouldn't have the answer either.
"Do you really want to know?" Lotus glanced at him with a smug expression, "That's probably why we were hired in the first place, remember?" Lotus turned back to the scene and cupped her hands together to shout across the room, "Would you two hurry it up!? We aren't getting any younger, ya know!"
"All good things come to those who wait, little spider," Widow laughed. She flicked a gun off the floor up into her hand and leveled it at the man that was shouting anyway, "But you have a point. I hardly wish to celebrate from a Mistralian prison cell."
"Please! We can pay you!" the man's eyes darted at the other council members next to him, "T-Ten million lien! Each!"
"Y-you could retire! Move to another city! We could forget all about this!" the man fell to his knees, hands outstretched and clasped together as he begged.
Widow paused, sparring an eye at Marcus next to her, "What are you thinkin', partner? That's a boat load of lien."
"I'll admit to being a little curious," Marcus said roughly, turning his attention to the begging council member, "What's Lionheart mixed up in?"
The panic in the council member's eyes eased, a glimmer of hope returning as he began to stammer, "H-He's working w-with a man! A f-faunus! They're killing all the city's h-huntsmen one by one!"
He didn't get the chance to speak another word, as the hole from Widow's bullet appeared through his skull. The council member dropped to the ground, dead before he even knew it. Widow raised the pistol, and gunned down the rest of the council members in quick succession.
"Bad news?" Marcus asked simply, the bodies slumped to the ground as he turned to look at Widow.
"The faunus they're speaking of is Tyrian," she glanced back towards Lotus, "My little spider and I met him just last night," Her eyes focused back on Marcus, holding his gaze. "From one professional to another, Tyrian is more than either of us could handle."
Marcus nodded, "I would have said no regardless. I have my reputation to maintain. Like I said, I was just curious." He turned back around towards the two younger assassins at the door as he and Widow headed their direction, "Let's head out. We hardly want to be here when the cavalry arrives."
Mercury got Lotus's attention and led the two of them to their escape route, knowing she hadn't been bothering to pay attention that far into the plan. They gained some distance from the older two, and Mercury glanced over at the young spider faunus, "Tyrian, huh? What's so special about the guy?"
Lotus let out a dry laugh, "You mean aside from being incredibly unhinged and having an aura reserve more than double yours?"
Mercury winced, this guy didn't sound like someone you would want after you, "Sure, aside from that."
She frowned slightly, turning an eye to him as they walked, "He… I mean, don't get me wrong. I'm pretty sure I didn't eat any hallucinogens before then, but I did eat some stew that was offered to me by an old married couple I'd never met before we left to go kill a couple hunters… but what it looked like," Lotus hesitated, sparing him another glance before forging on, "It looked like he could control Grimm."
'…?' Mercury stopped in place, holding his hands up and moving them in a 'hold on' gesture, "Wait a second... He what?" 'I don't remember taking a blow to the head. I must have, though.' Mercury couldn't make sense of the string of words that Lotus had just uttered.
"Widow saw them too. Tyrian chatted us up after we killed a pair of hunters, saying he had been there to do it. When we left, we could see some Grimm through the trees. They…" Lotus held her hands out, fingers pointed downwards to mimic something standing on four legs, "They were just waiting there. Patiently. Like their master told them to sit while he did something else."
They both resumed walking slowly, Mercury trailing a little behind until they finally exited the building. The news was far from comforting. When he was younger, he had often thought silently to himself that his father was more Grimm than human. Over the years, he had grown to accept that he was like his father as well. They didn't care who it was they killed. Mercury had no regrets for the lives he ended, and lost no sleep over it. Still… actually working with the Grimm? That was a barrier he didn't think he could cross. It hardly seemed possible. Lotus didn't appear to be lying to him, though, the revulsion displayed on her face was genuine enough.
The wall was easy enough to scale. The distant sound of sirens could be heard, quickly approaching the building they had just left as Lotus and Mercury were soon joined by the older assassins. The four faded into the night, using the rest of the surrounding structures to vanish into the concrete jungle. In half an hour, they were already lounging back in Malachite's hideout, watching the news as Widow and Marcus split their earnings at a nearby table. Mercury slouched in his chair across from Lotus, arms crossed over his chest. Marcus wasn't really paying attention to the news, he had just put it on as background noise out of habit.
"So, what are you buying with your cut?" Mercury asked, turning an eye over to Lotus who was absentmindedly playing with the sword at her hip.
The young faunus looked up with a tight grin, "I'll be hiring an airship to Vale."
"What's in Vale?"
Lotus stretched her arms above her head from where she sat, "Meeting Tyrian wasn't all bad. I've been trying to get revenge on the huntsmen that took out the White Fang. The two that Widow and I killed last night were two of the three left on my list. Tyrian told us the last is in some small town outside Vale."
Lotus breathed out a sigh of relief and flashed him a smile, "It's been a little over three years since then. I was starting to lose hope. Now though?" She rocked back and forth in the chair giddily, eyes returning to the news report.
'Well, at least one of us is happy.'
Her joy was short lived.
The chair legs crashed to the floor as Lotus suddenly sat forward, eyes glued to the screen on the wall across the room from them. Her body had gone rigid, eyes widening in shock at what it displayed.
Mercury followed her eyes to it, and froze as well. On the screen was a very large, very detailed still image of Lotus. The image had been taken while she was in the courtyard, her eyes brimming with delight. The image changed, widening out to show the bodies scattered around her, all blurred out to protect the viewers from the gruesome sight.
A series of small green bars appeared, growing larger as Widow picked up the remote and raised the volume to hear the female reporter, "- dear viewers, we have terrible news tonight. Four members of the Mistral Council were assassinated during a meeting earlier this evening. The figure depicted in the images shown is the sole culprit, identified as 'The Black Lotus' by the Mistral Police Department, and considered armed and very dangerous. We warn you against attempting to confront this individual. If you or anyone you know has information on this person, dial the number at the bottom of the screen. Do your part. Any concrete information that leads to her capture could earn you one million lien. We will be back with more later, as Leonardo Lionheart, Headmaster at Haven Academy, will be issuing a statement..."
The sound slowly died back down as Widow lowered the volume. All eyes turned back to Lotus. Marcus gave her a flat look, simply watching for her reaction instead of displaying any of his own. Mercury couldn't help but look troubled by what he had just seen. 'I don't think she's going to be hiring an airship any time soon.'
Widow rose from the chair at her own table and slowly closed the distance to Lotus, "I'm sorry, dear. There… must have been an additional set of cameras sending their recordings to an off-site system. I'm certain I deactivated all of the locally operated cameras."
Lotus could only nod dumbly. Mercury didn't blame her, he wouldn't ever want to be in her shoes. The entire police department, every huntsman and huntress, and all of the civilians would be after her for a reward that sizable. 'She won't be able to step foot out of the safehouse, even if she wears a hood. There will certainly be those desperate enough to try and force her to show her face, especially in the slums…'
The scroll in Widow's pocket buzzed. She swiftly pulled out the offending object, but paused as she read the caller ID. Mercury could just make out Malachite's name despite it being backwards before Widow excused herself to another room to take the call.
Mercury hesitantly reached out, placing his hand over the top of Lotus's to get the attention of the young faunus. Her shoulders quivered, and she brought her free hand up to her face, covering her eyes.
"It's alright. This whole thing will blow over before you know it," Mercury tried to drop his voice into a comforting tone, but couldn't quite manage it. It was still rough. He wasn't used to this sort of thing, "A few months and they'll forget all about it. The Grimm always take top priority sooner or later, and there's plenty of pompous bureaucrats ready to step in and take their place."
Lotus used her hoodie sleeve to wipe her face and gave him a nod, "I hope so. I've already had to wait so long… What's a few more months?" Her eyes roamed around the decently sized and well furnished safe house, "At least it isn't as small as the last place we had to hide out in…'
"That's the spirit," Mercury let out a polite chuckle before catching his father's eye. Mercury's hand whipped back to himself in a surge of panic, and his face returned to the calm, uncaring stone his father had drilled into him so many times.
"Time for us to leave," Marcus stated flatly, standing from where he had been sitting and shoveling their cut of the lien into a briefcase. Mercury knew he had taken only their share and not a single lien more. His father had standards, and fervent pride in his reputation. Marcus Black was not a thief. He earned his money through murder. Any that would suggest otherwise were signing their own death warrant.
As Marcus led his son to the door, Mercury couldn't help himself but flash Lotus one last parting smile. It was sorrowful, or at least he hoped that's how it would come across.
'She was nice… as far as assassins go.'
Mercury offered up a silent prayer that they would meet again someday. Under better circumstances, once he was free of his father, and once she had gotten her revenge.
'Good luck, Olivia.'