AN: I know it's been ages since I've updated this story, but here have this as an offering of my deepest apologies. Thanks to those who haven't tried sending people after me for my long halt in updating, (and I had a few.) Well, enjoy!
Title: Who am I?
Chapter: 6: Realization
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The curtains were drawn leaving the interior light to play shadows upon what moved. The only thing that moved was a petite figure, slender but with an apparent athleticism. Her eyes were weary, her clothes shabby and worn. Her hair was a withering dandelion, fading away into the snow. Her crystalline eyes darted rapidly but without much energy. Despite her looks, inside she was quite young and infantile. Her character and carefree manner is what had left her in this position.
"Are you sure that you want to dispose of this child here, with me?" The woman nodded and looked at the infant that she carried in her arms. Her recently born daughter was sleeping soundly. She was moving around, trying to find comfort in her mother's arms.
"Yes, I do. I trust you old sage to take care of her well, and please never tell her that I am...that I am her mother. My sister will usurp that role for me; it will be less painful for her this way."
"I see, the elderly man took the child gently from the quivering arms of the woman and brushed his gentle fingers over the child's face, "She will be safe here, I assure you."
The woman nodded and bided farewell to a daughter that she would never see again. Leaving her in the care of a powerful sage and her sister, a careful witch, was the best choice. She was foolish to think she could escape the grip of the decease that was consuming her. She could not bear for her daughter to grow up seeing her mother as a sickly old woman. It was best to leave her hear with the sage. It would turn a much safer place.
"Good bye my dearest, she said as she covered her head with the cloth that she was wrapped in, "Please, I beg of you one favor." The woman whispered.
"Anything, the sage said comfortingly to the woman before him who was on the verge of tears."
"Let me leave her with a name?"
"Of course, the sage said kindly."
"Then you will be called, the woman let a tear of her drop on the child's cheek and awakened her, "I shall call you, Francoise."
The child only smiled at the woman and fell back into a deep slumber. The woman bid her farewell to the sage and ran into the night. She went to meet her end at the hands of an illness deep in the forest.
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"Damn it, Shadow yelled in frustration, only followed by the howl of the wind." He couldn't believe that he had let the girl get away, and less of all that his son had betrayed him. His heart would have shattered; if he had one left. Shadow's ego was severely damaged.
"There's no need to get so upset Shadow, there will be more chances." Scarl commented looking at the angry man before him. Shadow was one of his deadliest and most skillful assassins. Shadow was a fatal combination, at least in his opinion. A man who had became an assassin to get ride of the consuming grief of the death of his wife and the death of his recently born daughter. He had never gotten to meet the girl. His wife had escaped one night and took her along shortly after her birth and never returned. The infant had been presumed dead because her corpse was never found.
"Don't worry, Scarl said in his malevolent voice, "I'll be dammed if you don't catch them soon."
"Then you'd best be preparing your tomb and gathering some exorcists." Shadow said as he left into the night.
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Joe pounded his fists into the nearest table, causing it to tremble. He immediately regretted it but sat down with a sigh on a couch. What was he to do now? How do you break this sort of news to someone? What was he supposed to say?
'Hey Francoise, my father just killed your grandfather. I'm sure you don't mind but there weren't any 'My father just killed your grandfather', cards at the store. I'm sorry though.'
The though horrified him, nonetheless horrified him to tell Francoise. There was no way to put it gently, and there was no way to release the anger that was flowing through his veins for his father; the assassin.
In truth, what was he to do? He had met Francoise a few days ago and spoke to her a few times. So what if they had exchanged a few pleasantries, that was about it. He was the less qualified person to break this news to her. He felt like he had to though. He wanted to protect her, to save her from his father.
His father, the assassin.
He couldn't put the words 'assassin' and 'father' in the same sentence, it made a truth resurface. Joe did not want this fact to resurface and so he had avoided it for most of his life and he didn't want to give it up now.
His father killed people. Not for money, not for fame, and not for pleasure. He killed them for honor.
What kind of honorable deed was it to kill someone grandfather, an elderly person incapable of defending himself? It was inexcusable; someone had to avenge Francoise's grandfather's death.
He heard the sniffles coming from the room Francoise had shut herself in. Joe opened the door and looked at the solemn moon. His shadow accompanying him silently as Joe moved. Joe knew that after all these years of killing, someone had to stand up to his father.
What better person then him?
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AU: Next chapter--Revenge.