Chapter 8

June 13, 2021

"Well, that was about as fun as… I don't know," Asha mused as they were leaving the mansion where they had spent far too much time, "having a tooth pulled maybe?"

Logan wasn't paying all that much attention to her comments though, he was still shocked by the revelation he'd just had. How could that woman have found out his biggest secret? She had never met him, and most people who did know him had never figured out that he was Eyes Only. But that was what she had claimed, wasn't it?

It could be taken in a different way of course, but it was too much of a coincidence for his tastes. And than there was the exoskeleton as well, how could she have known about that? Most of the guests at the party didn't have a clue as to why he had suddenly been able to walk again, but she had known. She had known everything about him, and he didn't know anything about her.

"Hello, Earth to Logan. Come in Logan."

This time the words actually managed to penetrate his mind and he turned back to Asha. "Sorry, did you say something?"

"Nothing important," she sighed, "what is it that's got you so bothered. That Summers woman?"

"Yes, I can't shake the feeling that there's something off about her."

"Is it about whatever it was that she told you?"

Logan ignored the thinly-veiled request for information and instead focused on the question itself. "Partly, but there is more to it. She knows too much about what's going on, and did you see her walk?"

"Sorry, but I usually pay more attention to how men walk, not women." But he hadn't really waited for her to answer the question, and had already started formulating what he was going to say next.

"She didn't walk like the rest of those people. It's strange, I've spent my entire life among them, but I never really noticed the way they walk before."

A sigh came from Asha then, before she answered. "Okay, I'll bite. What did you notice about their walk?"

"It's strange," Logan mused again, while slowly shaking his head in wonderment, "each and every one of them walked in such a way that they would get noticed immediately. Both the men and women tried to get everyone's attention focused on them. But Summers… she was completely different, I hadn't noticed her until shortly before I talked to her, but she must've been at the party the entire time. Did you see her before she spoke to us?"

This earned a thoughtful frown from his companion, before she had to concede that she too hadn't really noticed the brunette woman. "But that doesn't mean anything, I was trying to get information from people and concentrated on those I was talking with. Or she could simply have been hiding herself."

"That's my point. People like her don't hide. I don't know all that much about her, but if my information is right, she owns several corporations. You can't achieve that kind of success in business if you hide from people. If you don't get noticed."

"So you're saying what exactly?"

"I don't think Dawn Summers is exactly what she seems to be. I think there's more to her than we know."

Turning a corner they continued their trek home, each immersed in their own thoughts. The silence remained for an entire block, until Asha spoke. "So, what do you plan to do? Inform Eyes Only?"

Right, inform Eyes Only. It really was a bit ridiculous that some total stranger knew who he was, while his closest associates didn't have a clue. "Yeah, I'll tell him and we'll probably do some research into Dawn Summers. There has to be something that can tell us one way or the other."

"Can tell us what?" Asha asked him, not following his reasoning.

"There is one thing that I do know about Summers, and when you combine that fact with the current situation it creates some questions."

"Logan, just tell me alright. Those people in there," she pointed behind her at in the direction of the mansion they had just left, "have already given me a headache. I'd really like it if you didn't try to make it worse, alright?"

Logan sighed, it was so annoying when he had to explain something that was so obvious. But he had to admit that she didn't exactly have the same information he had, so he couldn't really blame her for asking either. "Okay, it's actually very simple. Let's face the facts. Noir has been hired to kill Max. Noir is an assassin who is based in France. White called a number there to hire her."

"Yes, but that doesn't exactly tell me much about what Summers has to do with anything."

"I'm getting there. Like I said, it's all very simple. Summers too, is from France. In fact she has lived there for a long time, and I have a feeling that she's been living there since Noir left the States. And now she has suddenly turned up at the same time as Noir. Call me crazy if you like, but I really believe there's a connection right there."

Asha slowly nodded her head while thinking this over, and once again there were several minutes of silence during which each went over their own thoughts. "So, you're pretty sure that she is Noir."

"Either that, or she is in some way connected to her. But yes, I do believe that Dawn Summers is actually Noir."

"You do realize that it doesn't make sense right."

Doesn't make sense? It made perfect sense. "What do you mean?"

"If she's so rich, why would she continue taking so many chances to kill people? And aside from that, she must have friends among the elite, but from what you've told me before, Noir never refuses a contract."

"No, actually she does refuse contracts, it's only that once she's accepted one she doesn't go back on it."

Asha seemed to accept that, but still wouldn't give up trying to pick holes in his theory. "Alright, so she could refuse to accept missions where she'd have to kill her friends, but that still doesn't explain the whole money thing. Let alone why she'd single you out."

"Single me out?" What was she talking about?

"You know, the whole invitation thing?" Oh, that. But that actually reinforced his belief of her being Noir. If she really knew that he was Eyes Only she would know he was closely connected to the transgenics. Although, if he was honest about it, that didn't make a lot of sense either. Why give him a warning? That didn't seem to fit Noir's usual pattern.

"I… I don't know actually. That is rather strange, although it might just be to confuse me?" That last part came out more like a question than a statement, and he wasn't really happy about the doubt he could hear in his voice.

"Confuse you? Don't take this wrong Logan, but don't you think that's a bit too self-centered? I mean, if she wants to confuse someone, it should be Max. Not someone whose connection to the transgenics is hidden."

But that too actually made sense if she knew about him being Eyes Only. The only thing he couldn't explain away was the money thing. Why would anyone with that sort of money risk her life to kill people? On the other hand, if Noir's fees were even half of what the rumors said they were, she would have a lot of money regardless of what she did during the day. Expelling a loud breath he had to concede defeat. He was unlikely to convince Asha, and if his arguments couldn't even sway her, he wouldn't have the ghost of a chance when it came to Max.

"Alright, I'm still convinced that she has something to do with Noir. Maybe Summers isn't the assassin herself, but she has a connection to her. I can feel it. However," he spoke, raising his finger to stop Asha from interrupting, "I will first try to get more information before I'll go anywhere with my suspicions. Only once I've got more proof will I inform anyone else."

"Including Eyes Only?" Looking to his side, he noticed the raised eyebrow and decided to give her what she expected.

"No, I'll tell Eyes Only. His resources will be needed to uncover the information I need." By then they had reached a checkpoint, and his attention needed to be on the cop demanding to know what their business was at this time of night.

X.X.X

"So, why did you want to talk to him?" Samantha asked her guest.

"I wanted to play with his head."

Okay, that didn't make a lot of sense. Although, if you thought about what she'd done to Victor… "You wanted to play with his head."

"Yes, I like doing that. Don't tell me you've never noticed that before." The guileless expression on Dawn's face proved that she did indeed like toying with people. But Samantha had to admit that she hadn't had all that many chances to see her do so before this visit.

"Alright, but why him? You hardly know the man. In fact, I don't think you've even met him before tonight."

"True. I've never met him before, but that doesn't mean I don't know him. In fact, I've known about him since before the Pulse."

Before the Pulse? What? Was the impossible going to happen? Was Dawn actually going to speak about her past before her arrival in France? "What do you mean?"

"Do you remember that time when this Noir you mentioned earlier got so much attention from the media?"

Did she remember that? Was there a moment she didn't? But instead of saying that she answered cautiously. "I think so yes, wasn't that somewhere around 2006 or 2007?"

"Something like that. It was when she first began to make herself known, when she first started hunting the military."

"Oh yeah, I remember that. According to the FBI she had actually been active before that, otherwise they would have thought she was a copycat from that psycho."

This time Dawn frowned in thought. "Psycho? What psycho?"

If that sort of behavior hadn't been frowned upon by her family and friends, Samantha would have rolled her eyes at the obvious obtuse behavior of her friend. "You know who I'm talking about. The Soldier Hunter."

"Oh, her."

"Yeah her," Samantha almost whispered that last word as something came to her. "Kinda weird don't you think?"

"What?"

"That the Soldier Hunter was a woman too. I mean, that makes two of them marked as public enemy number one in only a couple of years."

"Noir was never considered so."

"Of course she was. Everybody knew her, the super assassin that named herself after some cartoon."

Instead of agreeing with her statement, Dawn shook her head. "Everybody knew her alright, but she wasn't important enough to rate that high. Most of her targets were underworld figures, and no matter what they might say the government didn't mind that they were dying."

This time she couldn't resist rolling her eyes in exasperation. Dawn was such a smart woman, but it was moments like these that she seemed so gullible, or innocent maybe. "Oh god, you're not telling me that you actually believe all those conspiracy things do you? The ones that talk about Roswell, Area 51, shadow governments, Noir not being hunted, etcetera, etcetera."

"Or the ones about the secret facility where they mixed human and animal DNA?"

"Yeah," realization hit Samantha at the same moment she wanted to agree with Dawn, "alright, so one of them was actually true. That doesn't mean the rest is as well. I mean, there was an entire team dedicated to hunting Noir, do you think they let her go or something?"

"Or something, yeah."

"Oh come on, and why would they do that?"

Dawn didn't seem moved by her words, and simply looked at her with those wide innocent eyes. "Because she was cleaning up their mess."

"Because she was cleaning up their mess. What? Did they hire her too?" Even as she said it, Samantha noticed Dawn's eyes change a bit, as if she was staring into the past. Probably trying to remember the contents of whatever conspiracy site she'd gotten this information.

"They tried, but she always refused." The words were whispered, and for a moment she thought she heard some pain in them, but that idea passed quickly. "She would never believe it wasn't a trap."

"Okay, whatever you want. But if she wasn't hired, why did they think she was helping them?"

"Because she cleaned up the mess they'd left behind in Sunnydale."

Okay, that was it. Now she was really going too far with all the conspiracy nonsense. "Dawn, there was nothing in Sunnydale. It was a terrorist attack gone wrong, or maybe even something else that required the military to bomb it. But listen to me." And saying so she grabbed Dawn's face in her hands, before clearly punctuating the words she wanted to imprint on her friend's mind. "There. Was. No. Secret. Facility. In. Sunnydale."

"Alright, if you don't want to talk about I won't mention it anymore." A sigh of frustration came from Dawn as she said that, but Samantha knew that if her friend said something like that she'd keep her word. "But that doesn't mean they tried to kill Noir."

Time to halt this conversation, before even worse memories came back. It was bad enough that she had already been reminded of finding her father's mutilated corpse after Noir had been done with him. "Noir was evil Dawn. Still is actually, and I don't think there's anything you can say that would convince me not to kill her if I ever met her." Oh god, she was starting to cry. Quickly she wiped her eyes with the palms of her hands before it really started. She could deal with this, in three months time it would be fourteen years ago so there was no need for her to fall to pieces again.

It was Dawn though who looked as if she'd been struck. A horrified expression adorning her face, making her look more like the thirty-five years she actually was. "What have I done?"

The whispered comment didn't make a lot of sense, until Samantha felt the tear that had managed to find its way to her chin. "You haven't done anything. It's just that…" She trailed off, remembering the days she grieved so much. That time when she as a fifteen year old girl had been forced to support her mother.

A gentle caress on her face from the other woman as she wiped the solitary tear away brought her out of her reverie. "Who was it?"

"My father. That bitch killed my father."

"I'm so sorry," once again it came as a barely audible whisper, but the pain that was evident in the voice made her feel better.

"Nothing you could do about it. But do you see? That's why I don't believe the thing about Sunnydale. Daddy would never have been involved with something like that."

"Of course he wouldn't, come on. Let's go get you cleaned up."

Samantha didn't really understand the sorrowful expression on her friend's face, but the plan of cleaning herself up was a good one. She was hosting this party, she was the last one who should be showing any weak emotions like this. But even so her reply was barely whispered. "Okay."

X.X.X

While the party had ended almost an hour before, for Dawn the night was far from over. The time for actual action was approaching fast, and she loved it. In a way she might be called an adrenaline-junkie, but that wouldn't be wholly accurate. Yes, she loved the feeling of the adrenaline coursing through her body, but that wasn't the most important thing. It was the test.

The test to see if she was still as good as she believed herself to be. The test that showed her how much the average opponent had improved. And afterwards the inevitable feeling of happiness as she realized that her opponents hadn't improved nearly enough.

Walking into the dark bedroom that had been assigned to her, she looked for a moment at the bed that was its centerpiece. From what little she had tried it, she knew that it would be a very comfortable place to sleep in, but she also doubted she'd actually get the chance to do so. Kicking off the high heels she was still wearing Dawn wondered about her life. The life that allowed her to stay in places like this, but not let her actually use the facilities.

The night before had been spent in the gym, trying to forget the memories that the encounter with Victor had awoken. Samantha might believe she had been sleeping in, but the fact was that the last time she slept had been the night before she stepped on the plane that brought her here. Well, at least staying awake was a good way to get over your jet lag.

With a slight smirk on her face, Dawn dropped the beautiful gown she was wearing. After all these years she had finally learned to appreciate the beauty that was inherent in this kind of clothing. Sure, it wasn't useful for fighting, or even most other types of missions, but it had its uses. As did the silk underwear that was all she was that covered her body right now. The same color of red as the gown itself had been, the skimpy pieces of fabric were useless when it came to staying warm.

But that didn't prevent her from enjoying the way they almost seemed to caress her body with every step she took. Sighing in regret, Dawn moved her hands behind her, so that she could undo the bra, before slipping the panties down her legs. Closing her eyes made her think it was done by the knowledgeable hands of a lover, maybe even Jacob or Samantha. That thought suddenly scared her though, and she stilled her movement, letting the piece of fabric simply fall to the floor. It was bad enough that she had killed the woman's father, there was no need to have sick fantasies about her as well. Sure, she looked good and with all the training she regularly did she would probably be hard to exhaust.

But in this case it was wrong. Dawn knew what her problem was though. It had been too long since she'd shared a bed with someone, too many months since she'd been able to completely let go. Closing her eyes for a moment she tried to calm her racing heart. Oh god, was she horny.

Why had she waited so long? Especially as it was obviously bad enough that she started lusting after friends. That the particular friend happened to be a woman didn't really matter to her. It was the act of sex that was important to her, not the partner.

Tearing her thoughts away from that path—it could wait until after she'd accomplished her mission—Dawn refocused on the here and now. The room was still dark, but she didn't really need the light anyway. She could see everything she needed to see, and she was incapable of dropping her guard enough not to be aware of the target she'd make if the light was turned on. A sniper wouldn't need any fancy equipment if her profile was displayed so prominently against the satin curtains that covered the window.

But she did want to feel the night air, and as nobody could see inside anyway—as if she actually cared whether someone saw her naked—she might as well open the window. Walking towards it she opened the curtains, but before doing anything else was captivated by the sight of the night sky. It was so beautiful, and it was so much more visible here in present day Seattle than it was in Paris. Of course, compared to the Manor there was still an awful lot of light pollution, but at least she could see the sky here.

It did remind her of another time she watched this sky. A time when she had been lying on the ground, gravely injured, outside a house that had exploded moments before. The memories of that night still occasionally haunted her dreams; the desperate attempt to get away before anyone came to check on her, and the long months of recovery that followed it.

But unlike then, tonight the sky contained a full moon. And while the light of that celestial body spilled over her, exposing her to the world, she didn't try to hide from it. The full moon brought better, cherished, memories as it always reminded her of Chloe. Could she have actually planned it that way? It seemed strange for her to think of the other sapling as someone who could plan that far ahead, but she had received a lot of the same training Kirika had. No matter how impulsive the girl might have seemed at times, she too had been capable of planning a mission in cold blood. She just hadn't been able to control her own heart.

With yet another sigh, Dawn pulled the window open until the cool evening breeze was caressing her entire body, top to bottom. It felt good, and after the hot and crowded atmosphere of the party, not to mention her mind, it was exactly what she needed to wake up. Oh yes, closing her eyes she once again tried to think of something other than the upcoming mission, and preferably something that had to nothing to do with sex.

The dress, yes, why not think about the dress some more? The first time she had seen a dress intended only to enhance the wearers beauty had been when Buffy wore it during that fateful Halloween. And at that time she had scoffed at it, why would anyone want to wear something like that? Sure, she had liked to wear pretty clothes in an attempt to turn the boys' heads, but her, or rather her sister's, reputation had already ensured that was a useless mission anyway.

In the years after that her reputation at school had always been that of someone who didn't care about looks, and for once a high school reputation was actually accurate. But once she'd started to move in the circles of the elite, a place she'd never envisioned herself to be, it often was necessary for her to wear clothes like these. At first she had managed to make it bearable by thinking of it as part of a mission. At that time, her goals for the future hadn't been completely formed yet and she wanted to be able to use every asset she had.

And use those assets she did. It wasn't always necessary to kill someone to make them capitulate. Sometimes there were other ways to achieve victory, if you weren't too picky about using them. A smile creased the corners of her mouth then, as Dawn recalled some of those moments. They had been pleasurable, and had done their part in keeping her sane, but those memories sparked other thoughts as well and the smile disappeared again..

What would her mother have thought about her? It was just another form of the doubts she was having these days, but this one bothered her more than most of the others did. She had changed so much over the years, turning into someone that was both better and worse than the child she had been. And if her mother had been alive now, what would she have thought? Would she have been proud, or ashamed of what her daughter had done to survive?

Survive? Let's be honest here; most of what she had done wasn't for survival. Her actions had always been based on two precepts. Revenge and greed. She winced at that last word, while it was probably accurate she had spent far too much time with the politically correct to truly appreciate brutal honesty. Honesty was important though, and she really shouldn't forget about it.

But it didn't really matter right now. She had things to do, weapons to collect, and people to kill. Turning away from the view of the dark city, Dawn walked over to her suitcases and grabbed the only one that was still locked. Several locks and a location tracker ensured that it would never be stolen during her travels, and that nobody would ever examine its contents.

She knew that the suitcase hadn't been designed to be opened in a hurry, but even so it always surprised her exactly how long it took until she finally heard the final click that indicated it was open. And even then she had to wait for the internal defenses to become inactive. All in all, it took about a minute before she could access its contents.

The lining of the lid was filled with various knives, and other bladed weapons, while in the sides there were a number of disposable cell phones. Each phone would be used only once before she'd throw it away, but they were all of a high quality.

But most of the suitcase was filled with that one thing most people filled them with. Clothes. Not the beautiful clothes she wore to parties, nor even the slightly less formal wear that was used for conducting her other business. Instead these were the kind of clothes that came only in one color. Black, the color of death. Her color.

Taking what she needed out of the suitcase, she ran her fingers over the fabric. Like everything she wore, these clothes were custom made, and while they might not be the latest creation of whoever the current master of fashion was, they were the most expensive pieces of clothing she owned. The slightly stiff material fit her like a glove, and in the case of the gloves that was actually literally, but still allowed her a free range of movement.

There was a reason for the stiffness of the clothes though, a reason that was based on previous experiences. She wasn't bulletproof, but there was no reason not to wear clothes that would at least help her in that regard. Bullet wounds hurt, no matter where they hit or how much damage they did. Even wearing these reinforced clothes she would still feel each and every impact on her body. Using the latest body armor that was used by SWAT teams would have offered far more protection, but her style of fighting was based on speed and stealth.

Retracting her hand from where it was till touching the clothes, Dawn once again closed the suitcase and put it back where it belonged. Before returning to the bed however, she first walked over to the door and made sure it was locked. Having someone walk in while she was standing naked in the glorious moonlight was one thing, having someone walk in while she was dressing up for a mission was a completely different matter.

X.X.X

"Have you found anything?" Logan asked once the video link had been established. It had been over an hour since he called Sebastian, and he really hoped the man would have found something by now. This wasn't really the man's field of expertise, but he did have more connections to Europe than Logan himself had..

As usual, the artificially created voice of his friend didn't give anything away by its tone. "I have contacted several people and asked them about Dawn Summers. Without giving away your suspicions it was difficult to get the information I required, but in the end I came across several articles that were useful."

"And?" Logan asked, trying to contain his anxiety. He was certain that this was the break he'd been waiting for. The moment Sebastian would supply the proof he'd be able to go to Max, and then to the police.

"The articles themselves weren't conclusive, but after talking to one of the authors I have come to the conclusion that it is impossible for Dawn Summers to be the assassin calling herself Noir."

What? That was impossible, and he told Sebastian that.

"No, the proof is there. I have not found anything that disproves a link between miss Summers and Noir, but she can not be the assassin."

"Why not? It all makes sense."

"The theory might be sound, but unless she can be in two places at the same time it is impossible."

"Two places at the same time? What do you mean?"

Not immediately answering him, the paraplegic first sent two articles to Logan, who began scanning their contents the moment they arrived. "As you can see, on January 14 this year, both Dawn Summers and Noir were in different locations."

"Yes, I can see that Summers was attending a stockholders meeting in Munich, while Noir executed a mission in Tel Aviv. But that just doesn't make sense. I'm certain that she is the assassin. Could she have made it there in time?"

"No, both the murder and the meeting took place at the same time."

Logan frowned at that. This really didn't make any sense, he had been so certain. It wasn't like he'd never made mistakes, but a mistake of this magnitude? No, that was far too unlikely. "Could it be a copycat? Someone else taking advantage of Noir's fame?"

"Unlikely, taking the name of an active assassin is never good for one's health. If this was someone other than the real Noir it would be known by now."

"Okay, you're right about that. The body of this copycat would have been found a long time ago. But what if it was someone hired by Summers to throw off all suspicions? I won't believe her innocence until I see more proof."

The silence that followed gave him the impression that Sebastian didn't like this, and when the other finally spoke that impression was justified. "Why do you wish to prove that Summers is Noir? All the evidence so far points the other way."

Why did he want to prove it so badly? Logan had to admit that he might come over a bit, well, anxious might be a good word for it. But he was so certain, there simply was no doubt in his mind that Summers was here to kill Max, and he simply couldn't let that happen. "I can't let her kill Max. She's in danger from this woman, and if I can stop her I'll do so."

"Are you sure that is that all there is to it?"

Of course? What else could there be? What other motive could there be? He wasn't about to question his own motives; he was doing the right thing, no doubt about it. "I'm sure."

"It doesn't have anything to do with the fact that Noir outsmarted you?"

That was not the right way to say something like that, and Logan felt his brow crease as he thought about it. "No, aside from the fact that she didn't actually outsmart me but instead left the country, that was a long time ago."

"But the fact that Summers knew more about you than you know about her could have triggered something."

What was this? Some kind of psychotherapy session? His motives were obvious and didn't have anything to do with revenge, or even with someone who was in a position to reveal his secret identity to the world. No, this was all simply to save Max, no other reason. "No Sebastian, the only reason I'm doing this is to remove a danger to humanity from the world."

"Is she a danger to humanity?"

"What?" What kind of question was that? How could a professional assassin not be a danger?

"If Noir truly is Summers than she is far more concerned about humanity's survival than most," Sebastian said, "I was not sure whether to give you this information, but there is an organization to which Summers has a link."

"Organization? What kind of organization?"

"It is a council, based in England, that calls itself the Watcher's Council. While the leaders might not always have the best ideas for humanity, their members do some excellent work."

"What kind of work?"

But Sebastian didn't seem inclined to answer that question, strange. His friend had never seemed so closed about something before. "There is another reason I don't believe Summers would want to kill the transgenics."

"Really?" Why was he only now coming with all this information instead of at the start of their conversation?

"A lot of the genetic research in Europe is done by her companies. It would be more likely for her to seek contact with Max for a way to live together peacefully. Contact with the transgenics might help her with her own research."

"Right, I'll think about it, okay?" Logan suddenly had enough of this conversation; all Sebastian was doing was to try to disprove his theory. That might be the scientific way of doing things, but he didn't have to like it. "I'll talk to you later, alright? Goodbye."

Closing the connection, Logan stood up to pace around the room. He'd gotten used to the smell of the paint that still hung around here, but for some reason it was getting to him right now. Opening the front door, he stepped outside for a moment to clear his head.

Sebastian might have tried to tell him that Summers couldn't possibly be the assassin, but he just couldn't believe it. It simply made too much sense. No, he needed another source of information, there had to be someone who could prove what he believed. Taking his cellphone, he dialed a number from memory and waited until someone would answer.

X.X.X

Oh yes, this felt so good. Silently crossing from one shadow to the next, Dawn approached the first checkpoint she'd have to pass. A checkpoint she had no intention of passing the legitimate way. She hadn't spent the entire day in this city for nothing. By now she had uncovered at least one easy way to cross from one part of the city into another, the only problem with this one was that it was the hardest.

Not exactly a surprise either with the amount of money that was located on this side of the big fence. But as always there were more ways to reach the perimeter than there were checkpoints. And in this case there was a fairly simple route, that while it would mean she'd have to cross an additional zone ensured she could go where she wanted to go. Wearing the weapons of her trade, or at least those she hadn't collected yet.

There was the garage she'd been looking for. The small building was connected to a taller house, which was connected to its neighbor, which was fairly close to the fence. Running towards the garage she waited until the last possible moment before placing her foot against the wall, use it to push off and, by grabbing the edge of the roof, swing herself up onto it.

Squatting on top of the roof, Dawn waited for a minute to see if someone had noticed her nearly silent actions, but when it was obvious that wasn't the case she continued on. There were beings on the earth who you couldn't hear when they walked, none of them human, but when she wanted it Dawn came as close as humanly possible. Nearly gliding over the roof of the house she made sure that the sleeping inhabitants never had the slightest inkling she was there.

Soon she had reached the second house, and with a jump to cross the small gap between them she landed on its roof. Once again her landing had been nearly inaudible, but she waited nonetheless. She wasn't really on a schedule, what she wanted would be waiting for her no matter what time she arrived, and could therefore take all the time she wanted.

In this house people weren't sleeping. In fact, the activity they were engaged in would ensure that there was no way that they'd actually notice her as long as she didn't fall into the bedroom. Fine by her, people should have fun and if it made her job easier, so be it.

Completely dressed in her black outfit Dawn crouched while examining the fence she needed to jump over. It was perhaps two meters away from her, and was about as tall as the roof she was standing on. That was doable, the only problem was the fact that she needed to get down to the ground again. Which in itself wasn't difficult, that was after all the purpose of gravity, but she preferred to land without breaking any bones.

The solution that presented itself was a tree on the other side of the fence. A tree that had been annoyingly placed as it wasn't right in front of her, but instead about four meters to the right of the roof, and another three behind the fence. The math wasn't that difficult and would mean that she'd have to jump a little over six meters, while there was an annoying fence in the way.

Neither the transgenics, nor her sister, would have had any trouble with a jump like that. But she was human, well mostly, and it was a bit more difficult for her. Not that she doubted her ability to make it, the most difficult part was crossing the fence at the right height and let momentum take care of the rest. Backing up a bit on the flat roof, she attempted to position herself just right before she started to run.

This time her movement was based on strength, not stealth, and it might have been possible that the couple in the bedroom would be able to hear her over their own noise. But that didn't matter, as she was soon flying away from them. There was a beautiful sense of freedom while being airborne and she enjoyed it to the fullest. For that brief time she was flying through the air she once again felt like a little girl on her first trip to Disney World. Of course, in Disney World you didn't regularly crash into the trunk of a tree at the end of your journey.

Halfway through the jump she realized what was going to happen, she had slightly miscalculated the height that was required to cross the fence. And as a consequence she wouldn't end up as high as she planned in the tree either. The intention had been to grab a branch and use it to slow her fall, but instead she ended up aimed at the middle of the trunk.

Extending her arms in front of helped a little, as they took the brunt of the impact, but even so she crashed into the tree harder than she would have preferred. On the other hand, it was still better than actually crashing to the floor instead of gliding down the trunk as she did now. And besides, it showed her that the alcohol she'd drunk during the party had been a bit too much after all. Not that she'd actually drunk that much, at least she didn't think she had. And it wasn't as if she wasn't used to drinking. Oh well, obviously she had miscalculated what she could handle tonight.

Normally she should have been able to adapt faster to the messed up jump. Adapt and succeed in achieving what she needed to do. Oh well, no harm no foul. Time to go on. She wasn't happy with her stupid mistake, but as there wasn't much she could do about it now she shrugged her concerns off. There were still a couple of checkpoints she needed to pass before she got to where she wanted to be. At least the way back was easier. But before walking on, there was something she could finally do now that she was no longer close to a place that might give away the location she was staying at. The perfect time to place a couple of calls.

Taking the cell phone from her pocket she dialed a number from memory.

"Oui?"

"C'est moi," Dawn answered.

"Yes?"

"Has my equipment arrived yet?"

The French man on the other end of the connection didn't need to think about the answer long. "It has. You can collect it anytime you want."

"Good. Has anything happened that I need to know about?"

"Non."

"Good," and with that last word she terminated the call. Her weapons were where they should be and once she had collected them she could go and see which of the people she'd called were trustworthy. Ordering weapons while she had her own shipped was perhaps a bit over the top, and expensive, but it was always better to have something the enemy didn't know about.

But now she should go and collect her package. Putting the phone back in the pocket she'd taken it from, Dawn set out for the place she could cross the barrier between this zone and the next.

X.X.X

"Master?"

"What?" Carlos growled at the fledgling that had interrupted his musings.

"We have located the fourth one."

The fourth one, finally. "It's about time you did."

Even a simple growl like that made the weakling before him cower back in fear. How was he supposed to take back control of the city if all he had to work with were creatures like this? On the other hand, having some expendable people around would definitely be a good thing when they'd finally confront Noir.

"Well? Speak up. Where is it?"

The weakling only got more scared every time he raised his voice, but Carlos didn't care. Fear was a great motivator, and the more scared his underlings were of him, the more secure his own position was. And as the shaking didn't stop the fledgling from answering the question he was more than happy with the situation. "A-a small gang had been approached by Noir f-for weapons. T-they are called Los Lobos, and l-like the others, they were told to have the weapons ready tonight."

"Get the noob," Carlos told him once he'd managed to decipher the stuttering. The noob was their newest member. In fact he was so fresh that he hadn't been turned until the night before. But he was a member of the team that the government had sent to track down his future queen.

Carlos had turned the man himself, expecting to get some information from his newest minion. But even he'd been surprised about the things Charlie Brooks had been able to tell him. The fact was that he didn't like what the man had told him, he hadn't known that Noir had been the Soldier Hunter and that information had almost been enough to rethink his plans.

The Soldier Hunter. Sure, humanity had believed she only hunted soldiers, but the demons had known better. The soldiers that had been hunted had all been connected to the mess in Sunnydale. So there could only be one possibility, despite everything that the community believed, she was actively hunting demons. There simply was no other reason she would have gone after those particular soldiers, and now he was trying to get her to join them.

A grim smile appeared on Carlos' face as he thought about it, sure there were some dangers in taking her in, but what he'd get in exchange for those few losses would be so much more. When he'd first devised the plan to bring her into his fold, he had still thought of Noir as a mere human who killed nothing but what she'd been hired to kill. Now though, with the knowledge that she was actually someone capable of casual murder and torture. Well, that was even better.

"You called for me?" Once again someone disturbed him from his thoughts, but as he had ordered the fledgling to come here…

"We have found the fourth seller. Are you sure there won't be any more?"

"I told you, I'm good at this shit. Hell, I'm leet when it comes to this chick. There's nothing I don't know."

"Except her real name."

That seemed to shut the fool up. "Well, yeah except that." Okay, almost shut him up. This was really getting to be annoying, and it was really the last time he'd turn a geek. Why the man had to talk in gibberish half the time wasn't something he understood, let alone something he wanted to understand. Why did he accept that anyway? Words like noob and leet weren't to be used in his domain. Well, except maybe to indicate the fool in front of him. But only he was allowed to do so, none of his underlings.

"But you are certain that she won't have any other sources?"

"Except for however she has her own weapons shipped in, yeah."

Except for, what? Slowly he turned his head to look Brooks full in the face and show him the true extent of his power, before slowly stating, "And why haven't you told me about that before?"

The other man didn't really seem impressed though. "Oh cut that out, Mansfield was far scarier than you can possibly be. And I survived working for that guy for years. But to answer your question, I figured you already knew."

"And why did you think that?"

"You seemed competent enough, and you were already in power before the States got slashdotted."

Another annoying term he didn't understand, but at least this one wasn't that hard to decipher. Not that he really knew what it meant to be slashdotted, but it probably had to do with the Pulse. But wait a minute. "Are you suggesting I'm not competent because I didn't know that?"

This time the fledgling realized what was likely to happen if he didn't answer the question the right way. "No! No! Not at all. I just thought that with you seeming to know everything else, you also knew about this."

"Even I can't know everything all the time. And you're the one who's been stalking Noir for the last what? Twenty years?"

"Almost eighteen."

Bloody annoying geek. "Eighteen then, and that was using more extensive resources than I can easily get my hands on. Now, explain!" Carlos roared that last sentence so loud that his entire home seemed to ring with the words.

And, judging by the sudden wide eyes, Brooks finally seemed to understand that whoever that Mansfield had been, he'd been nothing compared to a true Master. "Yes sir, I will." And Charlie Brooks started talking. Talking fast and nervously, as if he was trying to save himself from certain death. But despite the presentation the information was sound, and Carlos learned about the things the agent had been an accomplice to. From killing the innocent to ensure the secrecy of his team, to covering up crimes that wouldn't fit the profile of the Soldier Hunter.

He then started speaking about the time when everyone had believed the Soldier Hunter had been dead. The agents hunting her had never really believed this to be the case, despite all the proof that had been supplied, but they too had lost track of her. The woman believed by so many to be the Hunter had actually been one of Brooks' colleagues, as had been the unidentified man caught in the blast.

Even knowing she was still alive hadn't helped the agents though. No more soldiers got killed, and after six months without any results the team got disbanded. In the end it came down to over a year before she killed again, this time openly using the name that made her famous.

At that moment Noir became a reality and nobody was able to withstand this incarnation of Death. Aside from their team, which had been hastily resurrected, nobody saw the similarities with the Hunter. The profile had changed completely, going from a serial killer to a professional assassin capable of taking the most difficult jobs. But they had eventually realized that she was hunting the same people again. Except that this time around she did other jobs as well.

"I thought you said that your boss had killed the last link she had to the Initiative," Carlos demanded, while thinking that the Initiative was an interesting name for a program to hunt demons.

"He did, hell we even killed a woman and her children so that she'd be blamed for it. And it did work, she didn't hunt members of the Initiative after that." Brooks said, but seeing the look Carlos threw at him, he quickly continued explaining. "But that could also be because she found a different target, from that moment on she went after members of the Committee."

"Committee?"

"The people responsible for most of the black projects. They were behind the Initiative and even the whole Manticore mess."

"They were the ones that ordered the freaks created?" Well, at least Noir had done something else that was good. "Did she get them all?"

"Yeah, it took a couple of years, but as far as we know, she got every single one of them. Unlike before she was patient with them. It was impossible to protect them since you never knew when she was gonna strike. There could be weeks between the targets, or even years. But in the end, they all died."

"And now she's come to finish the job," Carlos whispered in near reverence. Oh this was so much better than he'd ever dreamed. Once he had her under his control she would be his personal assassin, his personal slave. But someone that powerful would definitely try to make a grab for power, so he had to preempt that. He would make her his queen, and together they would rule the underworld. Death, and her consort.

He frowned as that possibility struck him. No. He was the master, his name would be first. Consort sounded so, so, well he didn't really know what it sounded like but it sounded weak. As if you weren't able to rule your own kingdom. He would have to think about the name thing, not having her in the name would probably insult her, but it also should be clear that he was the one in charge. He'd have time to do so later though, first she needed to be captured.

"Get Crutcha," Carlos told one of the other fledglings that hadn't yet fled from his earlier outbursts. It was time to send his people to capture themselves a nice little assassin.

X.X.X

This place was crawling with vampires and demons as well, Dawn realized while she scanned the meeting place with her night-vision goggles. And, unlike at the other three spots, the vampires here didn't even bother to pretend. These fools hadn't even cleaned up the corpses of the people she had contracted. It wasn't the first time that demons had tried to get at her in one of these spots, but it was unusual that they had managed to find all of them.

And that just wasn't supposed to happen. After all the whole point in having multiple orders running at the same time was that nobody would know for sure where she'd go, and that anyone trying to catch her would have to spread his assets. But it seemed that this time she'd managed to piss of the local master. The only good thing was that they also kept the cops away.

In the end it all came down to one simple question. Did she really need the weapons she'd ordered from these people? Looking at the single suitcase standing next to her, the answer was pretty obvious. No, she had everything she needed to accomplish the mission. So she really should just turn around.

Right. Pick up the suitcase, turn around, and walk back to the mansion. No matter what she thought though, her body didn't move a single muscle and she continued staring at the group of vampires. She might not need the weapons but she did want to get them. Besides, this was such an obvious challenge that she couldn't just let it slide. Why had someone gone through all this trouble? What did they think to accomplish with it?

Sighing in resignation, Dawn knew what was going to happen. She was on the verge of convincing herself that it was actually necessary that she'd get the weapons and interrogate some of the vampires or demons for information. But that wasn't the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Gods! Had she been watching some kind of idiotic courtroom movie again?

Horrified that such a ridiculous thought had entered her mind, she shook her head in order to dispel it. There was a time and place for everything, except for things like that. However, the truth was that she didn't care about the weapons, or the villain of the week. She was simply itching for a fight, something to prepare herself for what was to come.

See? She could be honest to herself, there was no need to lie to everyone. Just because hardly anyone knew even half of what she planned to do, didn't mean that she couldn't tell the truth. And now, as a reward for telling herself the truth, she might as well go have some fun. The smirk that appeared on her face when she said that would have scared away anyone who saw it. Unfortunately for the creatures down the street, they never saw it.

Before doing anything else, Dawn checked one last time if she had everything she needed on her, before hiding the suitcase. This one was just as well-protected as the one at the mansion, but knowing the thief would die didn't help much in retrieving her equipment. At least not in the short run.

Once she got back down to the street, she started walking through the dark neighborhood in the direction of her latest targets, moving as silently as the death she personified. Nothing human would ever hear her come, but as she knew all too well, the beings she intended to kill weren't human. In fact, each and every one of them had probably killed more humans than she had. Reconsidering that, she amended the thought. Each and every one of them that had been turned over a decade ago might have killed more humans than she had.

Nevertheless, while she might not be able to sneak up on them it was still important to find out if she'd reached this group before they'd put up out any scouts. From her lookout spot earlier she'd already been able to verify that they hadn't placed them everywhere they should have. That still left a couple of spots she needed to check out though,

These were vampires, demons, and she couldn't sneak up on them. If any scouts existed, and she came near them, they would hear her heartbeat, her breathing, or any of a dozen other things she couldn't control. But, she decided while taking one of her special daggers in each hand, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. It would be difficult, in fact she was pretty sure that no ordinary human should be able take out this many of them.

But since when had she let something as silly as facts get in her way? Right now she was circling around the group, in the hope she might be able to pick off a couple of scouts before she had to deal with the rest. And of course there was that one other thing. The little detail that only a select group knew of.

The human body was built in a certain way, but there were ways to improve it. Athletes had improved their body through gene therapy for nearly a decade, ever since it had become legal. And as she owned the companies where they had that done, why shouldn't she take advantage of it?

She was stronger than most humans, her training had already brought her to the top of what her body had been able to sustain. The genetic modifications only set the bar at a higher level, allowing her to reach that level faster, and keep her there with a minimum of training. In much the same way as she'd had her eyes take advantage of the latest improvements in that field.

Her eyes were far better than the standard twenty-twenty, and it had been achieved by nothing more than a laser treatment similar to the one people all over the world underwent on a daily basis. For the past two decades there had been speculations that it should be possible to improve your eyesight beyond what nature had provided.

The only thing missing was built-in night vision, and she was sure that one day that would become possible as well. Apparently some of the transgenics found in this city had something like it, but that wasn't something she wanted to use. Not only had their genetic tampering been done at an early stage in their embryonic development, making it impossible to duplicate in her own body, but they had used animal DNA for it. And there was no way in hell she'd put something inhuman into her own body.

Which left her with what she had. Realistically she knew that all these improvements to her body didn't even come close to the level of strength and speed she would be facing. The vampires in front of her were still stronger than she was, and even the early model transgenics would be able to beat her in practically every aspect. But often that little extra she'd received was enough, enough to surprise her opponent, enough to give her that short moment she needed to kill him.

The vampires were good to train against. Like all other demons they didn't seem to understand that killing someone should be done as quickly as possible. They never realized that the only thing that could be accomplished by letting someone die slowly was giving them another chance to kill you. When she would face the transgenics though, it could be over within seconds. They were soldiers, trained to kill as efficiently as she did.

Unprofessional, Dawn thought as she'd completed her check of the surroundings. She almost felt insulted by the vampires' behavior, how did they think to set up a decent ambush without anyone warning them of her approach? Did they really believe they could take her on like that? Well, that called for an object lesson even worse than she'd originally planned.

Approaching the group, pack, whatever, Dawn focused on the vampire she'd selected as the one that would be sacrificed first. The dagger in her right hand was a steel one inlaid with silver, but the one in her left was made from a kind of Ironwood of which she couldn't remember the complete name. It didn't quite have the same strength as most of her metal knives, but was still far better than any of the stakes Buffy had once used to kill vampires. Of course, it wasn't so much the weapon used, as the skill of the wielder that mattered.

As soon as it spotted her, the vampire approached at a speed that almost gave Dawn trouble seeing it in time. Waiting until the very last moment, she let the creature make the mistake, as she suddenly extended the wooden knife in front of her, letting the vampire stake itself. The resulting explosion of dust made her close her eyes for a moment, but it had been a long time since lack of sight had bothered her in a fight. Crouching down, she quickly swept her foot in a movement that took the next opponent to the ground, where she was able to stake him before he was able to get up.

Having accomplished that she was once again able to open her eyes and this allowed her to recognize the next demon for what it was. 'Stralik demon, known weaknesses: the throat,' the silver-inlaid knife that she used to try to stab it there was blocked, 'kneecaps,' a brutal kick took care of one of them and sent the demon to the ground howling, while he also released her hand. A quick slash later and she didn't even need to remember the other weaknesses.

By now however, the survivors were starting to get organized. They had seen the ease with which she had been able to defeat their comrades, and didn't feel the need to undergo the same treatment. They even skipped a level as the next attack came not from two sides, but from three.

Seeing the three vampires were trying to corner her, Dawn decided to take the fight to them. Instead of backing up as they were used to humans doing in a situation like this, she picked one of the vampires and attacked him. From the way he moved she had figured this one to be the strongest and she wanted to take him down in the few seconds she had before his friends would join him.

The wooden knife was blocked, as was the knee directed at his crotch, and the kick to the side of his body. A vampire with at least some martial arts training, but not enough, never enough. When her wrist was grabbed during the second attempt with her knife, Dawn didn't even think but used the other knife to cut into his wrist, causing blood to spill out.

Despite never having actually studied a vampire's physiology Dawn still knew how they reacted to damage. If they were susceptible to cuts, as she had often tested, then it made sense to her that slashing a major artery would have the same effect it had on a human being. And at first that seemed to be the case, but after a moment or two the lack of blood pressure caused the heavy bleeding to stop.

The shock at seeing his own blood like that had distracted her opponent though, so the fact that it stopped bleeding didn't really matter. Even with her face covered in blood, Dawn didn't hesitate to shove the knife between his ribs, and into his dead heart. "Poof," she whispered. A quiet concession that he'd put up a better fight than she'd anticipated.

Strangely enough though, none of the vampires or demons had spoken even a single word. Normally they were the ones who made the noise, while she moved silently among them in a beautiful dance of death. Her next opponent was already coming though, making sure she didn't have the time to think things over any further. All of her concentration needed to be on the here and now. There were still eight of them left, and she had no intention of letting any of them get away.

This vampire, a female one for once, had come too close for her to use her knife and Dawn was forced to back up, a movement that proved useless as the vampire kept pace with her. Now, normally she wouldn't really mind a good looking female like that paying attention to her, but she preferred her lovers alive. Besides, craning her neck enough so that she could look into the vampire's green eyes, Dawn didn't think that she would like its plans for the night.

If she hadn't needed her arms to fend of the vampire's attacks she could have used her elbows to push it away, but the attacks came too fast. Without any respite, attack followed attack. First the vampire slashed with its right hand, and when that was blocked she repeated the action with her left. A pattern was starting to build, but Dawn had no intention of getting into such a dangerous situation. No doubt there was another vampire standing behind her, but there was one thing that the vampire didn't take into account.

For any martial artist the arms and hands are only a small portion of the body they can use, and as Dawn was coming to grips with the speed of the attacks she had time to think of different movements. Her legs were free, and with a simple sweep of her foot she spilled the surprised vampire to the ground. Quickly bending through her knees, she staked it while extending one foot to her back in an attempt to keep off the other vampire.

Looking up she saw the next ones coming, while a quick glance over her shoulder told her that she'd managed to kick the vampire there to the ground. To her right was a wall, so that left only one side as a place to move too. A cartwheel to her left ensured both that she was out of immediate danger, and that she had sore hands. Okay, it had been fun so far, but maybe she had overestimated her own abilities a bit.

She had maybe two seconds before the next vampire would reach her, and she needed a bit more time. A short movement and the silver-inlaid knife was flying through the air, until it pierced the vampire's throat and spine, causing it to fall down as it could no longer control its muscles.

The next one was already coming though, but for that one she had a far better surprise. Unsnapping the silenced, custom-built, .44 that was holstered on her right leg, Dawn aimed it in one flowing movement and, using her second hand to steady the gun, pulled the trigger. The hollow-point bullet smashed into the vampire's brain, decapitating it, before it even had time to be surprised about the fact that someone was going to use a gun on it.

Dawn didn't stop after the first one though, every vampire around received a similar treatment during the next seconds until those who hadn't been dusted by the gunshot lay on the ground with a large hole in their head. Which left only the demons. The same demons that were still standing there, shocked by her actions.

Unless her count was off, she still had three bullets left in her gun. Three bullets for five demons. Unless they'd be kind enough to stand behind each other, and decrease the density of their thick hides, that wouldn't be enough. She doubted she'd have the time for a reload, although she wasn't quite sure how useful that would be anyway.

Once she'd made the mistake of using a gun against a demon where she wasn't sure that would be successful. Eventually she had killed it, but the time she'd spent recovering from her wounds had been wasted. At least this time there was no demon here that she hadn't at least read about, so she knew their weaknesses. Unless of course the writer of the article had messed up, like he'd done with the prolzics.

She emptied the gun on the two demons she was pretty sure would be affected by it. And even with them she aimed for their tiny eyes. One of them went down when her first shot tore into its eye, creating a large hole. That might not have killed it immediately, you could never be sure with these inhuman things, but it was out for quite a while.

With the other demon her first shot had missed its eye, and as the bullet struck a bone it didn't seem to have a lot of effect on it. The way it seemed to dismiss her attempt at killing did incense her slightly, so instead of risking losing the last bullet as well, she aimed for another known weak spot.

When the demon's throat was destroyed it stopped its annoying laughter. No more bullets left, and as the remaining demons had now come out of their paralysis she had to fall back on other means.

Quickly Dawn stepped to the vampire she'd disabled with the silver knife earlier and tore it from his throat. While doing so, she looked into its wildly rolling eyes and wondered what it was thinking. There was no way it could move anything below its neck, and with no possibility of getting air past its vocal cords it couldn't even scream for help. However, she was pretty certain that it was begging for mercy. And as she didn't want to risk it getting up while her back was turned, she decided to extend it.

Staking the vampire was the work of moments, and as soon as it burst into a cloud of dust she was moving again. The demons weren't very far from her now and she wanted to take out as many as she could before they reached her. The two knives disappeared into their sheaths, and in their place she started using her throwing knives. This time the immediate goal wasn't to kill them, but to disable them so she could get the chance to do so. For one demon this meant aiming at the chest, for another the throat, and with the last one she once again aimed for the eyes.

The small, silver, knives were nearly impossible to track in the dark street but she knew most of them struck exactly where she'd aimed. Of the three demons there was only one that came through the onslaught unscathed. Another had managed to turn away so that the knife didn't strike a vital spot, while the last had crumbled to the ground holding its throat in an attempt to stem the flow of blood.

She didn't feel sorry for them, and without a second thought she continued her attack. A flying kick managed to topple the still distracted demon that she'd managed to hit, and before it, or its friend, managed to react she'd cut up its hamstrings. It probably wouldn't take long for it to heal a relatively light injury like that, but it would be long enough.

The other demon had reasserted itself though and as she was focusing too much on the other, Dawn didn't see the blow coming. She did feel it though. The blow itself was hard enough to send her airborne and crash into the wall several meters away. At the moment of the crash, all the air inside of her body was expelled and before she even hit the ground she was already gasping for air.

Gods, that hurt. But she wasn't a professional for nothing and it didn't take long for her to come back to her senses. A quick mental check of her body seemed to indicate that nothing had been broken—yeah, score one for genetically improved bones—but once she was back in her room she'd have to do a more thorough check.

A horrifying thought hit her then, what if the demon had hit her head instead? The impact might have shaken her brain so much that it caused enough damage to kill her. Which meant she wouldn't have been able to complete the mission, a mission that was far too important to fail. No matter, Dawn thought, he hadn't hit her head and the rest was useless speculation.

While these thoughts raced through her head, Dawn had managed to get herself on her knees again. Her vision was still a bit blurry from the impact, but she could clearly see the demon approaching. He'd managed to duck the first knife that had been thrown at him. But could he do the same when she threw more at him? Realizing there was only one way to test that, she pulled back the small flaps near her wrists, exposing the sets of throwing knives stored there.

These were smaller, but once again it was the skill of the wielder that counted. The moment the demon noticed what she was about to do, it started running, no longer trying to look menacing but instead attempting to reach her before she managed to start throwing these knives. It failed. As far as she knew there was only one human being that was once as good at this as her, and she had been forked to death.

The second pair was already flying through the air while the demon was still busy ducking the first. Impressively, it even managed to avoid that second set, but the third and fourth were simply too much. Even so, it reached her and wrapped its hands around her neck.

The knives had to have had some effects, because otherwise the purple demon would have snapped her neck immediately. Or it simply wanted her to suffer while she died, there was always enough of that nonsense going around. Instead of obeying her instincts, and futilely try to remove the strong hands that were wringing the life out of her, Dawn took hold of the silver knife she'd retrieved earlier and slammed it in the demon's neck. For a moment she thought it hadn't worked, until with a slow keening sound the strangling grip disappeared and the demon fell backwards.

Good! Not wasting another second she scooted on top of its body and repeatedly plunged the knives into its chest, until not even that caused anymore movement. The demon goo was splattered all over her now, and she had a feeling she didn't make for a pretty sight when she raised her head to look at the remaining demons. They wanted to get away, she could see it in their expressions. Pure, naked, fear was one emotion she was able to recognize on every face, human or otherwise.

The demons actually started to get up from where they still lay, although their wounds prevented them from moving very quickly. Jumping up from where she was seated, Dawn was quicker. A lot quicker. The distance was bridged in a timespan that didn't seem to exist for her, while all the time she could think of only one thing. Kill them. Kill them all.

Krisklik, that was the demon's kind. The observation barely managed to reach her conscious thoughts while she slashed its throat. One down, three to go. This part of the fight couldn't even be called a fight anymore, it was a slaughter. Every time one of the demons tried to put up resistance, she broke through it. Every time they tried to hit her, she saw the blow coming before it was even executed and turned it to her advantage.

But she was nice. She only killed three of them. Not that the remaining demon had been lucky. The only thing that separated it from the others was that final killing stab in the heart. But she had managed to pull herself out of the killing frenzy that sometimes still took her over. It hardly ever happened, and she had a feeling that it was a residue from the initial merger. It had happened too fast, too quickly, and now she sometimes lost control.

But that didn't matter. For now she would allow the demon to rest while she took care of the vampires that were slowly starting to regain consciousness. Kneeling beside the first one, she staked it, and immediately discovered an annoying side effect to the demon blood— aside from the incredible stench of course. The vampire dust, ashes, whatever, stuck to it. Rising to her feet again, she tried to get the stuff off her, but failed.

Instead of allowing her rage to get the better of her again, she simply continued staking the prone vampires. But every time she did so she thought about the way this little outing had ruined another good suit. And not only a suit, raising her hand to her still sore throat Dawn tried to figure out what it looked like. It was obviously red, and considering the size of the demon's hands the mark probably covered most of her neck.

Finishing the rest of the vampires as fast as she could, Dawn then walked over to the suitcase that she'd ordered. Ignoring the smell of massacred humans, she opened it up and checked to contents to see if everything was there. As expected everything was there, and she took a small bundle from it.

Depending on the person she contacted, questions were asked about the orders she placed. But for some reason that she couldn't really understand, nobody ever asked her anything about these. And as she opened the packet and placed the contents close to the demon's body, she couldn't help but wonder about that. They were tools meant for surgeons, what did they think she was going to do with it?

Instead of wondering even more about the silly behavior of humanity, Dawn focused on the demon and with a bright smile on her face, and a scalpel in her hand, she asked her first question. "Now tell me, why were you waiting for me here?"

Post-fic comments: And yet another chapter. I hope you're still all enjoying the story and will let me know about it.

MaxS452, Xelab, thank you both for your feedback. It's always good to see that people are enjoying my work.