A Blade and Her Shadow
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE'S MISSING?!"
"It is exactly what it means, Katarina. Now back to-"
"YOU'RE TELLING ME, THE GRAND GENERAL IS MISSING. THE BEST BLADEMASTER IN NOXU-"
Swain shot Katarina a hard glare, causing her to flinch.
" I thought you hated him, Katarina."
She kept silent. It was true, after all. He had raised her, trained as a weapon, ever since she could wield a blade. After her failure and disownment, she had seeked to break apart everything he had taught. Slaying in plain sight. Letting her enemies see her descend upon them as their messy reaper, not the silent one that he had taught her to be. Yet now, as she heard of his disappearance, she was faltering.
He's right, Kat. He cannot lord over you any longer. You serve Noxus now.
Straightening her back, she composed herself. Her eyes showed a solemness unlike her usual cockiness.
"Apologies Sir."
"It seems you have come to your senses."
"Yes sir"
"Now as I was saying, we have a report on a spy hiding on the outskirts of Noxus.I want him gone by the end of the week . Information of the target can be gotten at its usual location. Is that clear?"
"Yes sir"
"You are dismissed."
With that, Katarina saluted and left Swain's office.
"How did you deal with that girl, Marcus? It's truly a mystery." Sighing, Swain returned to the paperwork on his desk.
Katarina marched through the Bastion, approaching the left side of the titan-like building.
As she got closer and closer to her destination, she slowed to a crawl. Her mind was a mess, a clutter of thoughts and emotions. Hell, it was messier than most of her enemies' bodies after she was done with them. The man she hated the most, yet the one that made her who was, was now gone. What was left for her then?
Snap out of it Kat. You serve Noxus. As you desired then. As you still desire now.
Without realising it, she reached her destination. A building,2 stories tall and ridiculously wide. It was mostly bare, minus the sign right outside their set of doors that said, "Informats and mercenary center."
She entered the rambonoucious halls of the building, and scanned across it. The interior of the center itself was devoid of colour, save for the red painting the bounty board. The clothing of the many mercenaries was ridiculously colourful in comparison. Red, brown, white, black, green. It was like a toddler's painting. As Katarina stepped in, the heads of the mercs snapped in her direction, and all of a sudden, silence reigned.
Katarina raised an eyebrow, and as quickly as the silence came, it dispersed, replaced with the noisy yells of the mercs.
"YOOOOOO, it's the red-head."
"You here for some fun or something, little Kat?"
"You want a drink, mate?"
"Later boys. I need to see Hawk." Katarina waved the noisy bunch of mishaps off.
"Hawk? High command wants you on a mission again?" A shirtless grizzly of a man wearing bronze knuckles questioned her.
"You know how it is, Dran. I serve Noxus."
"Aye. But I've yet to see Hawk this whole time"
"He's in room 52." A quiet voice resounded over the racket of the 's eyes shifted to a bald stick-like figure , one of the top poison masters, and snakelike in personality. His beady eyes stared into hers, and his tongue flicked creepily over his lips.
"Thanks, Viper." Katarina rolled her eyes at Viper's little gestures and sauntered off into the right wing, where the business rooms were at.
"Don't keep him waiting, you know how impatient he is" Viper gave some parting words before heading into the left wing, where the bar was.
Katarina quickly found room 52. Just like the rest of the building, it was bland and looked incredibly like an interrogation room. As she entered it, she felt Hawk's eyes immediately set themselves on her.
"You're faster than I expected."
"Still slower then you would like, I bet"
Hawk. the top informant of the entire intelligence department. He had eyes and ears deep set everywhere. He himself was well trained as a spy, brought up apparently by the Faceless himself. His eyes let nothing escape out of his sight, his ears sharp beyond belief. It was said the only thing that could escape him, was someone else trained by the Faceless. The problem was that he rarely worked hard, and usually did it half arsed. Though the few times Katarina had actually seen him work hard, she had never seen such complete information. He also dressed in way too much black.
"I assume you know the basis of the mission?"
"Ye"
"Well then this will be easy, the target is a Demacian soldier that has been hiding for 2 weeks. He has reinforcement, around a squad of 15. So bring some weapons or something. The location and anything else is in the file."
Hawk threw a file onto a table. Katarina picked it up and skimmed through it. The information seemed pretty complete. As she walked away, she shot Hawk a look over her shoulder. He glared right back.
"You need to dress in less black." Making her last quip, she began her mission.
Katarina stalked through the clustered groups of houses, coming right up to a block. It looked no different than the other houses, other than the sign next to the door that labelled it. She knocked on the door. No one answered. Katarina then busted the door down.
The door dropped onto the floor, raising a dust house was empty and dark, no sign of use on anything in the house. A layer of dust had formed on the counter and the tables. Katarina frowned, and began her search. But just as she began, she heard a soft thud. Turning, she saw the silhouette of a man in the doorway. Within mere milliseconds, it vanished. Katarina threw herself out of the door, leaping over the grocery bag with its contents spilled out on the ground. She saw the man run into the throng of Noxian peasants.
Trying to hide amongst the crowd eh?
Katarina drew a dagger out of its sheath from her waist. In a single fluid motion, she threw it up high, and ahead of her. As it rotated through the air, time slowed down in her eyes. Another dagger in her hand, she watched the dagger. One rotation. Two. Her legs tensed, just a slight fraction, unnoticeable to most experts. She heard the scream of a woman who noticed the dagger spinning through the air just as it hit its apex. And then she leapt.
Her figure flickered. Momentum carried her upwards, right to the dagger. Up there, her eyes locked onto the man, who had looked back at the scream of the woman. As they locked eyes, Katarina smirked. As terror drew upon the man's face, Katarina threw the other dagger with her right hand above a house. As her hand gripped the first dagger, she flickered once again. Landing on the building, she smiled.
"I've got my mark."
The man ran, as far as possible. He turned left and right, dashing through the maze known as Noxus's outer layers. Fear gripped his heart. He felt her knife getting closer, ever so close into his neck. He only wanted the coin they had promised. He didn't even know who they were or what they wanted. He made a mad dash, checking the address the soldiers had given her. He made more turns, left, right, left, right. Crossing into the slums, he made a final dash into an abandoned warehouse.
"Where are they? They said they would be here! I DON'T WANT TO DIE! THAT WAS THE SINISTER BLADE!"
"That would be me, yes." A cold, smug, beautiful voice rang out behind him.
The man frantically turned around. He saw her resting against the door, daggers in both hands. He felt death loom around him, its grip slowly constricting around him. His breaths grew faster. He collapsed onto the ground, stuttering.
Katarina frowned. This didn't seem like a Demacian spy. She strolled up to the scaredy cat.
"So who hired you? You're clearly not some super agent. You're closer to pissing yourself than the guillotine is to most criminals. "
"I-I-I...I do-don't know any-thing. I SWEAR." the man's voice grew louder and more high pitched over the course of a few words. "They just paid me some gold to pretend to stay there."
"Who?"
"I DON'T KNOW, THEY JUST SAID IF ANYONE TURNED UP COME TO THIS PLACE"
This is a trap? Shi-
All of sudden she noticed the presence of projectiles coming down. Reaction delayed by surprise, the projectiles landed and proved themselves to be smoke bombs. Katarina quickly held her breath, careful of any poison in the smoke. She noticed the man collapse fully on the ground.
So anesthetic or lethal. Most likely anesthetic.
As the smoke cleared up, she noticed that she was now surrounded, by not one squad, but a platoon, and armed with all sorts of gear.
Are you fucking kidding me, Hawk. Of all days to not do a decent job, TODAY?! How did an armed platoon get in here anyways?! Its the fucking slums but still?!
Katarina grimly eyes her surroundings. She felt the anesthetic dull her reaction and body. Growling, she took up a battle stance, arms raised and body low.
"The Sinister Blade, Katarina. Who would have thought we would have caught you?"
A man Katarina presumed to be captain, applauded and gloated before he pulled out a mace. She noted it to be of Demacian steel. Snarling, she hoped to prepare herself while the idiot kept talking. However the captain immediately commanded the platoon to advance, with him at the helm.
They marched slowly, approaching her as they would a fierce beast. And a beast was always the most dangerous when pushing into a corner. They intended to let the anesthetic take over.
Katarina, pushed for time, took the first strike. She launched one dagger upwards and another into the closest soldier. The soldier deflected the dagger, forcing him out of form for a second. And she took that second. She flickered right in front of him, grabbing her dagger and stabbing towards his neck. But before it could find her mark, she dodged backwards, narrowly dodging a sword from her side. Katarina threw her dagger from below, into the second swordsman chin. She flickered back to the first dagger, but was grazed by a crossbow bolt.
Bringing out more daggers from her pouch, she spun, throwing them in a circle, hoping to overwhelm them. But they hid behind shields. Some daggers found their marks, cutting down at least 7 of the 29 left. She stopped, mostly because she was almost out of daggers, but also because she could feel the anesthetic slowly getting to her. She was slightly dizzy, but could still fight. Then more bolts cut open her skin
Fuck
Katarina staggered. She almost lost balance, but through sheer will, kept herself steady.
She snarled, almost lunging forwards. But she cooled her head, and quickly made a headcount. And she paused.
10. 10 were left, there should have been 19 minimum, 22 max. How did the rest die?
She got no answer, and in the next moment, she felt a blunt weapon smash behind her knee,knocking her down.
Shouldn't have paused
She should have known better. There was no time for pauses in the heat of battle. Her own father had taught her that. But that wouldn't be the end.
Katarina rolled forward, as awkward as it was. In the middle of the roll, she pushed off, launching herself into a soldier. As her feet connected with his jaw, she spun again, throwing 2 of her last 3 daggers into separate targets. As she got back on her feet, she gave her enemies a hard look, and collapsed onto her knees.
"Ha… this is it I guess."
She stared ahead, conscious, but unable to make any movements.
The anesthetic had done it work. The captain, bruised but alive, let out a sigh of relief. He had hid behind during the whirlwind of blades, so he had been unscaved. Katarina had shown why she was one of Noxus's best assassins. She had almost wiped a platoon out, single handedly while drugged. They had intended to capture her for information, but he now felt she was too dangerous to be left alive. Picking up a sword dropped by a fallen comrade, he slowly approached her.
"Any last words, Sinister Blade?"
Katarina looked at the captain, and with herculean effort, said:
"You've lost."
And the captain dropped on his side, as he felt the life seep out of him. He didn't even notice when the cut was made, but as he died, he saw a hooded figure step over his body. He saw Katarina's eyes on him, yet the hooded man never even spared him a glance. As he died, he only had one thought.
Who?
While the captain died to his unknown assailant, Katarina returned her gaze at her savior. Amber eyes, chiseled jawline. She knew him. The blade her father had once sent after her.
"Talon."
He was silent. Was he here to end her? Had that been her father's last order? Or was he here of his own volition, to end what he had begun? If he was, why did he save her?
He stalked up to her, like a predator to prey. Even as he was simply strolling, she could see his teachings embedded into his whole body. How silently he walked, how efficient his movements were. No energy wasted, no sound made. She had only seen someone else as efficient as him. Their teacher. Her father.
He positioned himself in front of her. On her knees, she looked into those cold amber eyes. He peered down at her, eyes unblinking. The eyes sucked her in, and she left as if everything was laid bare. She had never felt so naked.
As she was absorbed by his eyes, Talon lowered the mask covering his face. He was rugged handsome, almost an Adonis. Katarina's eyes scanned his face and traced a light scar under his right eye,then along the jawline and ended up on his lips.
"Hello Katarina."
His words snapped her back into attention, and her eyes went back to his. Lethargically, she mouthed out the words "why". Talon, versed in lipreading, pinched her chin and raised her head. He bent down slightly and stared in her eyes. Then he moved past her, down to her ears. She could feel his breath on it, sending shivers down her spine. In the faintest whisper, she heard,
"I wonder, Kat."
That was the last thing she heard. Talon's left arm stuck into her solar plexus, and with a gasp, she was out.
Talon laid her on the ground and looked around, giving the silent battlefield a soft glance. He revelled in the silence. He saw the unconscious man Katarina had chased earlier on the ground, and flicked a dagger towards him. It sunk into the man. He wouldn't have lasted long anyways. Bats like him never did.
Talon flexed a finger, pulling on a fine almost invisible wire. The dagger flew back, almost into Talon, but deft hands caught it before it could stab its master. He floated to the bodies, as his hands nicked any gold or silver the soldiers had. Coin would not serve the dead. Talon let out a breath. He looked down at his feet. Shadows casted by the walls seem to reach for melded into his shadow, like they yearned to be part of the darkness he walked in. He had come a long way from that hoodrat assassin. Now, he was infinitely close to the Edge. But he could not reach it. Not yet.
Returning to Katarina, he knelt down at her side. His eyes retook the predatory glint, only amplified by the shadows casted by his hood. He hoisted her up, hands caressing her back. A strong hand gripped her neck, locking her head onto his shoulders. His mouth clipped the skin next to her nape, leaving a red mark there. Under his hot breath, Talon let out the slightest of murmurs.
"You won't escape me, little kitty."