Gusion grasped his dagger as Cecilion moved towards them. "Hello, Gusion. You recognise me, don't you?"
Helcurt nodded. "Hello, Bruce Wayne," he hissed, rapping his claws against the floor in a staccato rhythm.
Gusion groaned and placed his face in his hands as Cecilion frowned. "What did you just call me, abomination?"
For a moment, Gusion feared that Helcurt was going to charge, but the Shadowbringer simply snorted.
"Abomination?" he mocked. "Look who's talking, Nosferatu. At least I don't have to kill people and drink their blood to survive."
"No," Cecilion replied. "You just do it for fun."
"Careful there, vampy."
"Vampire?" Gusion stepped back, a chill running down his spine, as he flicked his knife out of its sheath. He pointed it at Cecilion, who simply raised an eyebrow. "Does Tigreal know?"
"And here I thought we were on the same side, Paxley," Cecilion smiled, spinning his staff threateningly as Helcurt growled, baring his fangs.
Gusion lowered his knife. "Same side?"
"Didn't Dyrroth not tell you?" Cecilion cocked his head, his calm expression replaced with one of confusion.
"Tell us what?" Helcurt asked.
"Silence," Cecilion snapped at him. Helcurt opened his mouth to fire off what would undoubtedly have been a scathing remark, but Gusion interrupted him. "Speak, Cecilion," he commanded, signing at Helcurt to shut up. Helcurt hissed angrily but complied.
Cecilion took a deep breath, and spoke. "I'm on the dark side. I never left."
Dead silence reigned for a few minutes before Helcurt sneezed shadows. "God, bat hair sure messes with my nose."
"You never left?" Gusion asked Cecilion. "Like what, Tigreal's spy?"
"Alice's spy, more like," Cecilion corrected, and Gusion went numb. "Does Carmilla know?"
"Does she?" Cecilion grinned. "She's the one that suggested it. A three person squadron-me, her, and-"
"Zhask," Gusion finished for him as fear took hold. He remembered the Kastiyan's rage on the battlefield as he sawed through their men like sandpaper.
Yve's strength lay in her army, but Zhask was terror itself personified for a long time-some even presumed that Zhask was the one that was calling the shots and Alice was simply a minion.
Dyrroth could be scary, but it would take him years before he reached Zhask's level of power.
"Why did Alice let go of Zhask?" Gusion asked. "Wasn't he the strongest at that time?"
"Old age, if you can believe it," Cecilion snorted. "Kastiyans live long lives, but Zhask was around since way before the first war. At one point, he kind of started slipping-not fit to be a leader. Besides, Yve was coming, and Alice didn't want her as an enemy, so Zhask had to go."
"And you two joined."
Cecilion nodded. "We function mostly as underground moles-passing information from time to time. Dyrroth's ambushes are mostly helped by us. Sorry about that day, though, with you getting injured really badly. The kid was supposed to be alone."
"So you set him up to die." Rage surged through Gusion's veins for a hot moment.
Cecilion shifted. "Dyrroth wasn't going to kill the little fellow. He was going for your girlfriend."
Gusion's face turned red as Helcurt began laughing. "Not my girlfriend," he snarled.
"Really?" Cecilion's voice could not have held more scepticism.
"Irrelevant," Gusion deflected. "You would have let Harley die."
"Look, let's not deliberate over whatever I did, alright?" Cecilion fired back. "Besides, Alice told us to take Tigreal out."
"Kill Tigreal? Not poss-" Gusion started, but then stopped as he realised that this group had Zhask.
"Zhask's using some mind magic," Cecilion muttered. "We had to kill the other assassin, though. She knew about mind magic and how to counter it, so we got Hanzo on her."
"Natalia?"
"Yeah, the clawed one." Gusion's face blanched at those words, and Cecilion frowned. "Is there a problem?"
"Uh, just where was she?"
Cecilion's face scrunched up as he thought for a second. "She was digging up something at the outskirts-uhh, remember where Yin and Julian died trying to save Melissa from Leomord? Yeah, around there. Anything else?"
"No, nothing. Any other bombshells or information we need to know?"
"Nah."
"Right, then. Helcurt," he cast a meaningful loom at the Shadowbringer, who understood. Gusion turned away and flicked his dagger, dispelling the magic he had set around the house as the shadows fizzed beside him, then Cecilion screamed for a banal second before going silent.
"This mystery squadron's the next target, I assume?" Helcurt asked, teleporting beside Gusion, black blood glinting on his claws.
"Should be," Gusion muttered, and froze as the rustling of bushes came from outside.
The scream was what alerted Lesley.
Harley had gone to sleep about an hour ago, and Lesley had been preparing for bed when a sudden chilling scream came from Gusion's house.
Lesley shot up bolt upright and snatched her rifle, peeking out of the window, and the blue sheen that had surrounded the house went out.
It was the magic Gusion had set up in the house, and Lesley knew that if the light went out, there were two reasons.
One was that Gusion had put them out.
The other was if he was dead.
Her heartbeat spiked erratically as Lesley ran down the stairs and out the door, hurriedly locking it and vaulting clumsily over the fence.
She fell into a bush and clambered out, holding the rifle at the ready as she activated her camouflage.
Quickly, she pushed the door open slightly, and slunk in, bolting it shut behind her.
She felt the camouflage wear off and squinted into the darkness of the house, moving to the wall as her fingers drew across, her nails scraping across the chinks of paint, trying to locate the light switch.
I really need to get those trimmed, she thought, just as she found the light switch and something clattered behind her.
She instinctively swung around, raising her rifle and squeezing the trigger.
The barrel was knocked aside and the shot rang out in the dark room. Lesley felt something tug on her rifle and shoved it forth in a stabbing motion, hearing a pained grunt.
Her finger went to squeeze the trigger again when the rifle was shoved aside and a fist connected with her left cheek.
She staggered back and another fist was swung into the other side of her face as the rifle was yanked out of her hands. Something hard hit the centre of her head and Lesley blinked, the blow sending her head spinning.
She stumbled back as the shadows shifted, and Lesley ducked under a blow that swung over her head, straightening while holding her arms up against her head.
Almost immediately, she caught a flurry of blows on her forearms that were aimed for her face. She waited for a second before bringing her left arm up and when the attacker's arm connected with her right arm, she hammered her fist onto her opponent's forearm.
A yelp of pain sounded and she grabbed the arm and yanked, pulling them into an uppercut and following it up with a punch across the jaw.
She stepped back on instinct, avoiding a swing of a limb and responded with a jab to the abdomen, earning her an agonised groan.
Lesley moved forward blindly, her knee connecting with the opponent's body and her right hook meeting nothing but air.
A hand closed around her wrist and she made out a glint of steel before she was forcefully pulled forward so hard she thought her arm might get ripped off.
She felt herself getting pulled to one side and her wrist was let go off and her momentum carried her back into a wall.
She bounced off it and a forearm collided with her waist as another hit her neck. Lesley gagged as she was powered back and forcibly slammed against the wall, a blade coming to rest across her neck.
For a moment, the only sound that could be heard was the attacker's heavy breathing as Lesley stilled.
Her eyes wandered to the blade and she saw the hilt of the blade glowing faintly with a blue tinge, and her breath hitched. "Gusion?"
The heavy breathing stopped as the blade pressed further against her neck, and her pulse skittered at the proximity between them.
"Didn't expect to see me again, after painting me as a criminal?" His voice was tight with anger, his breath hot on her face, and Lesley swallowed, her throat suddenly very dry.
"That was a mistake," she tried, and Gusion snarled, his knife digging deeper into her neck, making her wince. "Really?"
"I didn't expect the Shadowbringer to be alive."
"So what were you thinking? Tigreal would come in, check for Helcurt, not find him, and leave?"
"I was angry, alright?" Lesley snapped, and tensed up, waiting for the dagger to slit her throat. When Gusion didn't move, Lesley continued. "You didn't tell me about the Shadowbringer, and that nearly cost Harley his life. I had to find out from Dyrroth, and-and I felt betrayed. I didn't think it through. And I'm sorry for that."
The tense atmosphere hovered for a moment, before the dagger was removed from her neck and Gusion stepped back. Lesley could just about make out his outline.
"Natalia's injured," Gusion said, and the earlier rage had drained out of his voice. "She's at the place where Yin and Julian died. Tigreal's incapacitated, too."
Lesley frowned. "How do you know this?"
But Gusion didn't answer.
Instead, the door opened and Lesley saw someone move through it.
Lesley moved. "Wait!" she shouted, holding the door open, but she caught a glimpse of his purple scarf disappearing behind the fence as Gusion sprinted away.
A stab of disappointment and sadness hit her in the heart and she slumped against the wall, her pulse racing. This wasn't the first time they had fought, but never before had it ever been this serious.
He'll come back, she told herself. He will. He always does.
She turned around, stalking towards the light switch and flicked it on, and a surprised gasp escaped her mouth as the lights came on, revealing a horribly mutilated body, destroyed to the point where Lesley would not have recognised it had it not been for the staff that still faintly glowed red and the bats surrounding the corpse.
Zhask watched from the treetops as the soldiers rushed to collect their leader, three of them supporting him by his shoulders and lifting him up as they moved back to the palace, their spears at the ready to attack.
He dialled a number into his phone. "Hanzo?"
"Done and dusted," the familiar gravelly rasp sounded. "For reportedly one of the most skilled assassins, she didn't see me coming."
"Alright, you can go back now. No idea why Dyrroth isn't invading the bloody place yet. If I had still been in charge, there'd have been a full-scale invasion years back."
"And that's why you're not in charge, old man."
With that, Hanzo hung up on him. Zhask growled angrily. Lil' upstart.
Lancelot was driving back home after interrogating Lesley about Gusion.
She'd repeatedly assured him that no, she had no idea of what had turned him over, and that she had informed Tigreal after sensing a bit of dark energy at his house.
His phone rang and he looked at the caller ID before immediately pulling over to the side of the road.
"Lesley?" he spoke into the phone.
"Cecilion is dead," she said, her voice emotionless over the phone.
"What?"
"I'm not sure who killed him-"
"Wait, wait, hold up, where are you?"
"Gusion's house. I saw the enchantment disappear and when I went to investigate, I found his body."
"Alright, I'm turning the car around-"
"Natalia's injured."
Lancelot frowned. "Lesley? Are you fine?"
"Yes. Natalia's at Highway 51."
"Where Julian died?"
"Yep."
"How on earth did you know this?"
"I'll tell you. You might want to get to Natalia first."
"Right, I'll just call Tigreal-"
"I doubt that he'll be available."
Lancelot was beginning to get really freaked out. "You know what, Lesley, I don't like that. How do you know all of this?"
"Trust me."
"Alright, just stay there, and don't go anywhere."
Lesley hung up on him.
