Okay! Here you go! Second chapter of the month! This was writen mostly on a Saturday night at 12:45 after being in a car ride for four strait hours previous, plagued by the effects of Taco Bell on Noah... not good! So, if this chapter seems a bit weird, then you know why!

In the Summoner's Shadow

Part II, Chapter II

Once, together we were happy and we were so very young; sadly now we have been parted- leaving me quite broken hearted. So many love songs still unsung… So many things still left to say. I did not leave without a care and I hope we meet again some day. I turn around to see you there as though I had not gone away. Just listen to me my one and only should you hear a lonely sound. Drifting sweet secrets in the breeze; please feel that I am still around. I leave you sadly, deeply thinking, this is really not too fair… so very proud at having known you, finding such sweet love to share. We must bow to a higher power when He comes to call us home, leaving those we love behind us to join us later when they come. Try to think of me with kindness; try to think of me with Love. One day please do come and join me in a happy home above

(Frank Paylor, Shadow)

One week later, Sonja ran onto the premises of the Djose temple. She sat down outside, where she wouldn't be considered a threat, but where she could make account of all those who entered and exited. Finally, the scent of the target she was hunting made it into range of her smell diameter. She smiled and dodged into the temple doors.

The assassin grabbed the pendant at her neck and held onto it, activating a barrier that popped up, keeping her scent, image, and even the sounds she made hidden from anyone else. Easily, she slipped past the guards in the temple.

The Trials were nothing compared to the art she had been taught and trained in. Thievery was only an everyday thing with her, and easily she figured out the puzzling room just by looking at it and completed it in possibly record time.

Finally, she ran to the chamber, stopping shortly to gaze at the door, then jolt in and hide in a shadowy part of the room, where she was totally hidden from everything. Calling upon deeper magic within the pendant, Sonja made herself completely invisible, even masking the electric vibes a human naturally gave off.

She lounged against the wall idly, waiting for her prey to enter the room. She was so unprepared for what she saw, she almost lost her mental hold upon the pendant's power and exposed herself to whom she was supposed to be hiding from.

"No…" she breathed, her words caught in the barrier she held up. "…not you…"

Her eyes stared blankly ahead while her mouth hung open like a cave. Her breath was captured in her chest. Her sudden remembrance that she was currently not breathing brought Sonja out of her trance.

"No!" she blinked, realizing the one she was so surprised and saddened to see become a Summoner was also the one she was assigned to kill and bring to the court of the Generals as proof she did what was asked of her.

"I won't do it… I can't do it!" she shouted at herself, falling to her knees and gasping, trying to hold back tears. A thin line of red gleam passed over her. She gasped when she realized she had just dropped her barrier. She clung to her pendant, letting out a sigh of relief when the Summoner merely glanced in her direction, then turned their attention back to their prayer, as if dismissing the whole thing as a figment of their imagination- perhaps the aftermath wooziness of the aeon gaining was hitting early… perhaps even it was the Fayth playing tricks, though it had never been reported that a Fayth was becoming playful with the Summoners who entered their Chambers.

Sonja gazed longingly at the Summoner kneeling before the statue.

"D… daddy…" she whispered to herself, fighting against a tear which was determined to stream down her face.

She kept turning the pendant in her hand, as a river turns a stone. She often heard Rye warn her about she would experience times where her heart would be twisted multiple ways. This was one of those times, she concluded.

Half of her wanted to run to him. Half of her wanted to hug him from behind around the waist and scream out her nickname for him, "Daddy-doodles." Half of her wanted to be with him and Yuna. Half of her wanted to live with them as a happy family once and for all. Half of her wanted to expose her here and now. Half of her wanted to completely resign from being the serial killer she was and repent. Half of her wanted to hold him. Half of her wanted him to hold her. Half of her wanted to tell him how much she loved him, and have him tell her likewise.

Another half of her wanted to take the dagger at her side and slit his throat for abandoning her almost a year ago; leaving her to the mercy of the fiend she now bore the claw-scars of. Another half of her wanted to run to him and destroy his being before he had the chance to finish his prayer and become stronger. Another half of her wanted to bathe in his blood. Another half of her wanted to bask in the glory of his defeat. Another half of her wanted to climb up the approval ladder of the Generals. Another half of her wanted him dead.

Just when she thought her first half was winning, she started to doubt her good feeling.

This same half of her was embarrassed that he should see her as she was, brandishing the turquoise Sigma on her shoulder and the pendant around her neck- both the secret emblems of an assassin. This same half of her wondered how he would react when he saw her. This same half of her wondered if he would try and kill her when he saw her, not recognizing her through her growth, or would he allow his guardians the joy an honor?

Of course, he was a Summoner now, and she was dead to him… perhaps even he would think her an Unsent… and try and Send her… not that it would do anything more to her than irk her anger and send her possibly flying to knock some sense into that thick head of his, which would in turn irk his guardians' angers and spark their assault upon her.

Then again, she wondered… would he embrace her? Would he kiss her cheek, O so lovingly? Would he call her by her name and promise everything would be okay, as he had done in days long past? Would he tell her he loved her and pester her playfully until she said the same thing in return, no matter how much she jokingly withheld her truest feelings for him? Would he be mad at her for becoming what she had become?

Her five year old imagination ran wild with so many whatif's and so many wouldhe's that she was distracted, causing her barrier to begin to fade. Again, she tightened her grip on her pendant and kept watching her father gain his aeon.

Sonja's pride kept commanding her to stick to her appointed job and obliterate him. However, her body, spirit, mind, and heart all warned her that if she even hurt him in any way, she would then hurt her self in every way.

"Now's the perfect chance!" part of her mind shouted as the Fayth merged its power with Braska, dropping him to the ground.

"No!" another part of her mind shouted. "I won't do it!"

"Why not? Because he's your father? Grow up, you coward! All's fair in love and Slaughter Wages! Think of it- who or what do you love more? Your father, or the Gil you'll receive for doing your father in?" the other part asked.

Sonja sighed. It was normal for her to have these conversations with her… it was almost as if her mind was split in twain: a rabid, feral side who seemed too much like a wild beast for her own good, and then a calm, gentle side- cultivated and civilized.

Wolf and Man, she called them.

Wolf- the one which seemed to enjoy it when she shed blood of her prey and enemies all over the ground. Wolf- the one which relished in the warmth of the life on her claws and in her nose. Wolf- the one which sent her into a craze to kill her prey every time she caught them in her sights. Wolf- the one which kept her alive all these years.

Then there was man… Man- the one which reasoned with logic instead of lust for blood. Man- the one which kept sense in her head. Man- the one which looked to the brighter side of things and wondered how it could be changed to suit her. Man- the one who allowed Sonja to interact with society easily. Man- the one who kept her sane though all these years.

They often argued with each other, trying to prove the other wrong. Schizophrenia, you might say? No… just indecisiveness. Wolf and Man were her version of the shoulder angel and devil she heard rumors of often- the ear gremlins- she laughed to herself, then sighed.

"He's weakened… like a wounded pup before the sword of a guardian… nothing compared to you! Just go! He won't have anything to defend himself with! No guardians to protect him, and he's not strong enough to stand, much less summon! Go!" Wolf commanded.

"This is exactly why I'm not doing anything! Where's the glory in his weakened state? Why not wait until he can fend for himself, gaining extra admiration and spot light!" Man countered, using Wolf's own logic against her.

"True," Wolf agreed and the two shut up as Sonja tuned them out. They were bad for her sanity.

All she could do from that point on was watch as her father slowly regained his strength and rose to his feet, leaning heavily on his staff for support, then reverting to the aid of his bare-chested guardian's arm.

With a heavy heart she followed him, pausing to watch him, standing where he was once kneeling in prayer. Father… she sighed in her mind. The sigh became louder as she followed him out of the temple.

"What are you doing, you fool? There goes your chance at glory! At Power! At Gil!" Wolf shouted.

"Shut up…" Man mentally slapped her and sighed.

Sonja reached in her pocket and pulled out a small sphere recorder and held it up to speak into it.

"Mission: auto terminated. Target: permitted escape…" she sighed and watched Braska and his two guardians disappear into the distance before praying to him hastily and walking in the opposite direction from him.

So, how was it? You know the routine...