Well, folks... here you go... in this chapter, Sonja has a little happy flashback! It involves everyone's favorite guardian in red... >.> But how could anyone leave him out of any fic! Anyhow, enjoy!

In the Summoner's Shadow

Part II Chapter III

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)

"So," Rye smiled as Sonja walked in the door, slamming it behind her and plopping on the bed. "I assume it didn't go well?"

"Not at all…" she grumbled. Rye blinked and looked at her.

"Oh, no? What was wrong?" he asked.

"Oh, nothing… that is, if you don't count the fact that they sent me after my own father!" she growled and threw her pillow at him. He caught it and held it under his arm. He blinked sadly and stared at her.

"You're not human, are you?" he asked, wide eyed. She blinked and stared at him.

"Where the heck did you get that idea from?"

"No civilized anything would kill their own father…" he set the pillow down gently and slowly. Sonja sighed and shook her head.

"No, Rye, I didn't even touch him. I didn't even talk to him…" she sat up and hung her head. "I terminated…"

Ark and Rufio both blinked and looked at her.

"Terminated?" Rufio asked.

"It means she abandoned the target and refused to do her job. She's a bad example! Don't do what she did!" Rye explained, then turned to her again. "You'd have been better off to never come back, rather than return your sphere to the Generals…"

"I know, I know!" she sighed. "But I have no where else to go…"

"I thought Sonja family dead…" Ark tilted his head to the side. She shrugged.

"I thought so, too… but apparently my father is up and running around! Out of all the things he could have done for a living, this had to be it? A Summoner!" Sonja sighed in desperation.

Three heads turned to the door when a knock was heard. Rye answered it, giving the salute to the messenger and sending him on his way. He then unrolled the scroll he received and read it out loud.

"From the Respected Generals, Lieutenant Nightwish- report to us immediately, concerning your last assignment termination." Rye read, then looked at Sonja. She sighed and rose to her feet, walking slowly out of the room, her head hung. Rufio and Ark jumped up, watching her leave while they stood at the door way. Rye sighed and closed his eyes, clutching his staff for reassurance that she would be okay, though he had serious doubts.

When Sonja arrived at the doors to the General's room, she let out a loud sigh and knocked on the door. It opened and she walked in, stepping in the only light in the room- a big spot light in the middle of the darkness. She stared forward, unable to see anything other than pure black. However, she heard plenty.

"Lieutenant Nightwish… You have been charged with Termination of Assassination. How do you plead?" a voice asked.

"Guilty, my Respected General," she stood strait up, trying to keep her composure.

"Tell us why you did what you did," the voice demanded. She nodded.

"As you know, you sent me after Lord Braska. As you didn't know, I don't think, Lord Braska is my father. I absolutely refuse to harm my own father," she explained. A murmur was heard in the darkness, then another voice cleared its throat and spoke.

"Nightwish… as tradition, we are forced to punish you for doing what you did and forsaking your duties. However, your punishment shan't be too forceful. We admire your skills and recognize you being an asset to our organization. We also understand your position on the matter of your father's assassination."

"You should feel lucky, young one. Most assassins would receive about six times more than what you are getting now. Still, it's a very lethal dose. If you survive this, we will veto your demotion. Good luck, Lieutenant," another one of the Generals spoke as two others, cloaked in their brown garb covering everything but their hands and the muzzle of the one Ronso General walked towards her.

Sonja gasped and took a few steps back, but stopped when she hit the chest of the Ronso General behind her. He grabbed her arms and held them behind her back. With a force full of strength enough to break her bones easily, he kept her immobile against her own free will. Sonja had no choice but to watch as a white flower was picked off a small potted plant carried up by another General. A syringe in the hand of another stabbed into the flower's blossom and filled up with a bright, silver substance.

A look of pain shot across her face when the syringe needle was thrust into her chest, hitting her heart. The substance was injected. She gasped for air, falling limp in the Ronso's arms.

Sonja fell into a deep sleep brought on by the poison of the flower- the moon bloom. It was a blossom generated and cultivated purely for the use of the Assassin's organization, mainly for creating weapons no one could endure, but also for the punishment of recruits, such as the treatment Sonja was receiving. It was a deadly poison able to kill even the fiercest of opponents without much more than a quick jab of a sword and a few drops of poison on the blade.

Most victims undergo a nightmarish dream or something to the effect of an out-of-body experience, while others are just paralyzed, forced to listen to their family and loved ones at their own funeral while they are still alive. Either way, they are sentenced to a slow, painful death of starvation and dehydration.

Sonja, however, was totally different. Instead of suffering anything like the norm, she enjoyed a memory she had locked away deep in her mind.

"Poor child," she heard a voice sigh.
"Yeah… she's having a rather hard time even breathing…" the voice of her father explained. She felt his hands under her shoulders pushing her into a sitting position.
Sonja coughed when she was moved. It felt as if she were choking on her lung, the sensation of it being ripped from her chest shooting through her body. She gasped for breath afterwards.
"Wow. Sounds worse than what you told me," the other man whistled.
"Yes… it frightens me. The healer said she had pneumonia, and that there was a high possibility she wouldn't pull through since she was so young," Braska made a silent sigh.
Sonja opened her eyes weakly and wheezed as she spoke, looking up at her father.
"D…daddy…" she coughed again. She leaned into his hand on her cheek.
"Shh… don't speak, dearest. Listen to me, Sonja… I need you to try and eat. I know you're not feeling well and I know you're very weak right now, but if you don't eat, you won't heal. Your body needs energy to fight off what you're sick with," he explained to her, stroking her cheek as he did so. "Can you do that?"
Sonja moaned lightly and shook her head. Braska sighed and put his hand on her shoulder, squeezing it lovingly. His hand reached out and returned with a spoon full of broth from a bowl held by the other man in the room.
"Please try, dearest…" Braska pleaded.
"Her throat could be hurting her too much to even swallow," the other man suggested. Sonja, in her dazed state, finally recognized the voice. She turned towards the other and smiled slightly.
"A…uwon…" she breathed, then coughed again. Auron smiled and reached his ungloved hand out towards her, rubbing her head and ruffling her hair.
"Hey, kid," he greeted her. "Feeling bad?"
Sonja looked up at him and nodded, her eyes half closed.
"Try eating a little bit. You'll feel lost better, I promise," he smiled and held his pinky out to her. She grabbed it with hers, something they developed when she was tiny. With a smile, she held back a cough and sighed. The cough came back with a vengeance, however, and she choked on it to the point where Braska was pounding her on the back to open her wind pipe. He sighed and shook his head.
"Poor baby," Braska hugged her. Auron reached over and grabbed her, pulling her to him and laying her head in the crook of his elbow while he hugged her shoulders against his chest.
"Come on, baby girl… you have got to eat!" Braska held her hand.
"Can you swallow at all?" Auron asked Sonja. She nodded slightly and coughed again. He filled the spoon again and held it to her lips, allowing her to sip at it as she pleased, encouraging her as she did so.
Braska sighed. Sonja absolutely adored Auron. Perhaps the young man even bested the father at the title of Sonja's favorite person in the whole world. Anything Auron asked of Sonja got done- no questions asked. She wasn't as obedient to her own father! She would obey him, yes, but it would often take her a few minutes to get around to it. Yet with this lad in the red trench coat… immediately orders were fulfilled to the best of Sonja's ability. Even now… as close as she was to death and in as much pain as she was, she still bended to his will so easily.
Sonja groaned and tilted her head to the side when she could drink no more of the broth she was being fed. Auron looked down at the bowl, noting she ate at the very least a fourth of it. He smiled and nodded, then handed the bowl to Braska and made her sip at some water from a cup on her bedside table.
"They share a room, don't they? The girls?" Auron asked. Braska nodded.
"Yes. Yuna's spending nights in my bed until Sonja gets better. I don't know if this is contagious, but if it is, I'd rather only one daughter have it and not both," the older answered and looked to the door way, seeing Yuna standing there.
"Daddy… Is Sonja okay?" she asked.
"Not right now, she's not… she will be, though…" he smiled and nodded. 'Hopefully,' he thought to himself. Auron looked over at him and saw the worry in his eyes.
"If she gets some sleep, she'll feel tons better," Auron mentioned as he laid Sonja down under the covers on the mutual bed of the sisters.
"I know. Her coughing has been keeping her up the last couple nights. I'm glad I made Yuna come sleep with me, or she'd be awake with her sister's noise," Braska nodded.
"Daddy, Auron, she's not sleeping 'cause she's scared!" Yuna told them, running into the room. Braska scooped her up and took her outside into the hall where she wouldn't be exposed to the germs in the room and Sonja wouldn't be exposed to the germs Yuna brought in from outside.
"What do you mean?" he asked her, hugging her to his chest.
"She's scared of the dark! She always falls asleep before me because she's always crying herself to sleep! I hold her hand at night and it makes her feel better. She hasn't been sleeping because I'm not there to protect her!" Yuna told him, tugging on his hair. Braska blinked.
"Sonja? Scared of the dark?" he wondered out loud. Yuna nodded. He then smiled with a slight laugh.
"Well, my little one, it's time for sleep. You too, dearest," he called into the room. Auron rose to leave, but Sonja reached for him. She held onto his pointer finger- the only thing her hands were big enough to grasp. He stopped and looked down at her.
"Uh, I don't think she wants to be left alone…" he looked at Braska.
"Sonja, I'm sorry, but Auron has to go home to his own house," Braska told her. Auron shook his head.
"I'll stay with her until she falls asleep…" he said. Braska looked at him.
"You don't mind?"
"No, not at all. I have no children to go home to, no wife no nothing. Sharing your little girls is just as good, though," he smiled. Sonja shivered and coughed. Auron slipped off his jacket and laid it over her, tucking her in gently. She smiled and cuddled into the fabric. Braska watched this and sighed with a smile then nodded.
"If you'd like to stay with her for a while, feel free. That is, if you don't mind getting sick…" He smiled. Auron smiled also and nodded. He then sat next to Sonja and rubbed her forehead.
"Good night, Sonja... I love you…" Braska told his youngest as he walked away.
"Night night, sissy!" Yuna called. Sonja tried to call back, but just coughed and hacked. Auron sighed and let her sip more water. He felt her cheek with his ungloved hand.
"You're freezing!" he furrowed his brow worriedly. She nodded to him and coughed again. He blinked and looked around for more blankets, but then realized if any more were added to her, it would be quite heavy on the young girl's chest, and her lungs were having a hard enough time as it was. He sighed and looked down at his sake jug.
"Last resort," he muttered and pulled her up to a sitting position and held the jug neck to her lips.
"Slowly, now. Very slowly…" he told her, gently tilting the jug up for her. The warm liquid hit her lips and she coughed again. He pulled it away and smiled.
"Yeah, it does that until you're used to it," he said and tried again. He only allowed her a few shots- just enough to make her body heat its self up.
"Don't tell your father," he chuckled. She looked up at him and nodded. He reached over and blew the candle out, hearing a small whimper from the child at his side. His hand went to her shoulder and he leaned backwards on his other hand.
"You're seriously scared of the dark?" he asked her. She nodded and clutched to his wrist for comfort. He shook his head and sighed.
"Why?" he asked. She didn't respond. Not that she could, but she wouldn't anyways.
"Go to sleep… don't worry, I'll protect you," he told her. She held her hand out infront of his face. It was light enough from the stars outside to see her holding her pinky finger up. He blinked and smiled, then grabbed it with his and shook it.
"I promise," he smiled. She still didn't seem convinced. He took his sword out and laid it beside her. Auron took Sonja's hands and placed them around the handle of the sword. He then grabbed the sword with her hands on it, putting his on top of hers. He heard a small giggle. He smiled and rubbed her head.
"Maybe I'll teach you how to use it one day," he told her. They both held their pinkies out at the same time and shook. Sonja snuggled down into Auron's coat, her hands on the hilt of the sword with her head on his knee. He sighed and feared to move, so spent the night against the wall while she slept.
The next morning, Auron woke; he had a large crick in his neck and his back ached while his knee was practically dead under the weight of Sonja's head. He looked down at her and smiled, patting her gently to wake her up. She grumbled and looked at him, still asleep in a manner of speaking. Soon, Braska walked in, a bowl of creamy porridge in his hands. He looked at Sonja and smiled.
"Sleep well?" he asked, then saw the sword lying on the bed. He looked at Auron with a worried frown. "Did I miss something last night?"
"No," Auron assured him. "Nothing but a show of faith and protection,"
Braska nodded and handed him the porridge. After he coaxed Sonja to eat, the younger man allowed her to go to sleep again.
"Auron, I have to thank you for all you do for my girls," he sighed.
"No problem," he shook his head. "It's nothing, really. I never had a little sibling or anything. This is kind of my way of having two now," he explained. "I'm sorry; I know that sounds ridiculous,"
Braska shook his head. "No, not at all. Actually, I have to agree with you. They only have one uncle on their mother's side. This is good for them. They need more role models in their life," he smiled. "And Sonja constantly looks to you as one… I mean, she even holds her fork the same way you do, saying she does it because 'Auwon did it, too!'"
Auron's eyes widened slightly in embarrassment. He then blinked when Braska laughed.
"The kid loves you more than me, I think," he sighed happily and stroked her head.

The feeling of the hand on her head was so great that Sonja thought she could feel it on her person through the dream.

"Auron?" she muttered, looking up. Rye blinked and stared at her strangely.

"Who? What?" he asked, wiping the sweat from her forehead.

"Never mind…" she sighed, trying to sit up, but fell back to the bed woozily. Rye chided her.

"Stay down, Lieutenant," he demanded.

"Alright, Commander," she rolled her eyes and laid down again. "Where are the twins?" she asked.

"They're on their first assignment," he smiled proudly. "Can you believe it? They grew up so fast!"

"Right… So… I survived the moon bloom…" she looked down at her finger nails, permanently painted silver from the poison pigment they absorbed. Rye nodded.

"Amazing in itself, but you even survived it in less than a month! Most people, even with a one fortieth dose, don't survive; much less filter it out of their bodies so quickly. You amaze me, you know that?" he asked her with a smile. She scoffed.

"I amaze myself…" she yawned and closed her eyes.

"When you wake, you need to eat something," he told her.

Sonja smirked and laughed a bit.

"You sound just like him,"

"Who?" he asked, but was answered with nothing more than a light snore. He smiled and shrugged. "Ah, well… probably no one important…"

That's right, Rye... he's no one important or anything and will never be famous, ahem

So, how was it? Tell me! I have a new reviewer, SO SORRY I FORGOT YOUR NAME! smack smack smack! Not that that helps my memory... >.>

But, yes... REVIEW! (p.s. I'll put your name up next chapter!)