ASSASSINS
~*~
They had forgotten the first lesson: that we must be powerful, beautiful, and without regret. - Armand, Interview With A Vampire
~*~
If you asked Sun Yù-Lōng, his sister was a delicate flower of feminine beauty and grace.
If you asked just about anyone else, Sun Yù-Lién was a violent girl with a short temper and the very god of war's own daughter.
Yù-Lién was an assassin, her weapon of choice Japanese shukusen. They were like the girl herself, decorative but deadly. She wielded them with the grace only constant training could provide; the armbands she wore as the Jade Lotus covered the multitude of scars she'd received in learning to use the weapons.
Yù-Lōng was more laid back than his fiery, intense twin, yet there was an air about him that suggested he was but a sleeping tiger. Like his sister, Yù-Lōng was an assassin; however, he preferred using a traditional Chinese tai-jian. Like Yù-Lōng, the sword was strong, equally capable of protection or attack. He was lucky enough to have a natural feel for swords, but the long scar on his cheek was testimony to the fact that natural skill was no match for years of practice.
Yù-Lōng actually shared his sister's delicate beauty, which gave him a decidedly odd appearance - no one could possibly mistake the one-time acrobat for a girl. To his delight, he'd found that his girlish features combined with his blatant masculinity had a tendency to rattle people. This, in addition to his constant state of tranquillity, made him the negotiate.
Yù-Lién was the fire to Yù-Lōng's water; she was the yin to his yang.
Both twins had long black hair. Yù-Lién's was matte black and worn loose; Yù-Lōng's was silvery-black and kept back in a ponytail. When they donned their assassin's garb, the Jade Lotus kept her hair in a deceptively simple bun held in place with lacquered chopsticks while the Shining Dragon simply braided his.
Their eyes were the same muddy brown, though flecks of green appeared in Yù-Lōng's eyes when he donned his reading glasses and in Yù-Lién's when it was that time of the month. This made a wonderful Early Warning Device for her brother, who would throw chocolate from a distance and then flee for his life. Yù-Lién on PMS was one of the most terrifying things known to man, as far as he was concerned.
As assassins, both were talented. This was of course only to be expected, as they were twins of the Sun clan. Those of the clan who left for the outside world often did well for themselves, especially in not-so legal ventures: they were all extremely proud of their former comrade now known as Ghost, a hacker.
Like Ghost, they'd taken on pseudonyms for their illegal activities and were known in the underworld as the Jade Lotus and the Shining Dragon, though some called them the Twins. Neither liked this, as they'd seen some of the jobs accredited to them under that title. Sure, they were good, but they weren't that good, and some of those jobs had transpired at least twenty years before their parents had even considered having children.
If either of them had had any hacking skills beyond disabling alarms, they would have researched this puzzle. However, they didn't, so they couldn't.
Most of their jobs were mob hits, though there were some neither would take. A year before, they'd been offered a contract on some French don who called himself something Yù-Lōng couldn't pronounce and Yù-Lién couldn't remember; however, the Lotus had scouted out his club and the Dragon had scouted out his restaurant. Both counted nine bodyguards, including a pair that could probably double as assassins. And as good as they were at blending in, both had come away with the feeling that they'd been spotted and quite possibly identified.
Unsurprisingly, they passed up the contract, and someone else took the offer.
The body was never found.
Occasionally, they'd take solo projects, but for the most part, they worked as a team, reading each other nearly flawlessly. There were of course mistakes and botched hits; they were only human, after all, and youth and skill has rarely been a match for age and experience.
Currently, they were both sneaking through a large, ornate mansion, preparing to take their target down. Their plans were foiled, however, due to the fact that when they found him, their target was lying in a pool of his own blood, his throat slashed open.
Then Yù-Lién was grabbed from behind, a straight razor coming to rest against her jugular vein before she could reach either shukusen tucked into her belt. Her angry outcry alerted Yù-Lōng, but a cold voice spoke before his hand was even halfway to his sword. "Touch that hilt and she dies." He was barely able to stop his hand. Slowly, he drew it away before raising his hands away from his body. "Take it off," purred an identical voice purred behind him. British accents, he noted, unbuckling the sword belt encircling his hips and slowly kneeling to lay his favoured weapon on the floor.
Also slowly, he reached inside his tunic to produce a small Browning and laid it carefully beside the tai-jian. "Smart boy," said the man holding Yù-Lién captive. Yù-Lōng looked him over carefully and felt the blood drain from his face as he recognised the pale skin, silver-white suit, and white dreadlocks of one of the albino twins he had seen in the restaurant.
The man grinned as his identical twin came around, removing her two shukusen from her belt as well as her CZ-83. He looked vaguely impressed as he flipped open one of the shukusen. "We have heard of these," he said, closing the steel-ribbed fan and setting it and the other weapons beside Yù-Lōng's.
"These are not the weapons of bodyguards," one said, to which his Twin added, "They are the weapons of assassins." The albino not holding Yù-Lién hostage circled her brother like a cat. His face was full of the playful sadism inherent to all "domesticated" felines; Yù-Lōng, a cat-lover with the scars to prove it, watched him like a hawk, a challenging glint in his eyes.
It would not be good to appear as prey to these human cats. Yù-Lién realised this as well he did, but with that razor pressed against her neck, there wasn't much she could do. However, the blazing rage in her eyes most definitely marked her as not-prey.
Of course, only an idiot would equate his fiery twin with prey, and these men certainly weren't idiots. Everything about them seemed to scream "wealth" and "personal assassins". They were professionals; he and Yù-Lién were children in comparison. There was no doubt in his young mind that these were the Twins whom he and his sister were occasionally mistaken for.
All of this flew completely out of his head when the one holding Yù-Lién removed the lacquered chopsticks from her hair, all but purring as the silken mass tumbled down her back, making her look younger, more vulnerable. Yù-Lōng's brain overrode Logic and Safety, flipping straight into Protective Brother Mode. "Don't touch her!" he snapped, taking a step forward.
A strong hand gripped his shoulder and dragged him back; Yù-Lién, however, had had enough. One of her hands came up and pushed her captor's arm away from her neck before the elbow on the other arm rammed back into his gut.
The albino laughed and pushed her forward just as she did so, turning her intended escape into a stumble. Yù-Lién worked swiftly with this, going all the way down and rolling, scooping up their blades as she did so. She tossed Yù-Lōng his tai-jian as he jerked free, turning to face the man behind her as she felt her brother's back press against hers. He drew his weapon as she snapped her lady fans open, ready to do battle.
It was an odd tableau; two sets of twin assassins facing off. Then one of the albino twins struck at Yù-Lién, who blocked with her left shukusen and struck with her right, slashing a deep wound across his chest. He looked at the wound, then at her, before smirking and suddenly shifting into a ghostly, green-tinged figure and back. The wound was gone. Yù-Lién's eyes widened as he smirked. "Dragon!" she called to her brother in their native Chinese, "I think it's time to leave!" He nodded, sliding his foot under his Browning and kicking it up into his left hand, which he then levelled at the albino in front of him and opened fire.
To his dismay, this albino also pulled the same ghosting trick his twin had. "I think you're right!" He shifted his aim to a window and blew the glass out with four well-placed shots. At his shout, both ran for the forcibly opened window and leapt through. Luckily, they had both been trained to handle falls from high places. Yù-Lién landed on her feet and rolled, Yù-Lōng landed in a sort of crouch and used his momentum to spring forward into a sprint. Yù-Lién bolted in the opposite direction, heading for a sleek black Ducati whilst her brother jogged for his Maserati.
Both tore out of the place as fast as their respective vehicles could carry them, utterly unaware of the tracers that the Twins had planted on each one of them.
~*~
As I said before, yes, I am aware that it hasn't been three weeks; however, rescheduling has made me realise that I should get some new chapters out now and devote all of April to school. Sorry, guys, but I don't need to flunk out.
~*~
Orcus: Of course Cain went good. I can't make Abel good and not make Cain good. Besides, they were never evil.
Megami: Go ahead and cheer for the vamps. I don't mind. I love it when my villains pick up fans – wait, you haven't met my villains yet.
Suzuka: Thanks for the plushies!
Sapphire: It better be a good sequel. I will be unhappy if I pull a Disney Sequel.
Phreak: I do not have strange taste. It's just not very discriminating.
Dragonet: Unfortunately, both Molly and Schwarz are by now dead. This takes place during the Peace, or Seventh Cycle, and Molly and Schwarz come from the Fourth (Fifth as well in Molly's case). Schwarz... well, we all know what happened to the other crews in Matrix: Reloaded. Sorry, guys.