This is a bit late, sorry about that. As I've said in my other stories I've been a little busy with some… things. Sorry I let that distract me, but hey, at least it gave me some time to relax for once. So here we are again, this story isn't making as much traction early on as most of my other stories did, but I have faith. I am not one to give up so easily.

There is a fun fact though, as far as I know, there's like six stories in total on Fanfiction here that has Marcus Black as a character tag. Though I think I am the first to actually write a story revolving around him. Correct me if I am wrong of course.

Beta: CrowSkull

Destiny Fated Black

Chapter 6

I was stupid enough to think my 'old friends' were done with me, and they caused a lot of problems…

Two highly ranked assassins trying to kill each other was something Emerald never thought she'd ever be able to watch. It was like she wasn't even there in the first place, and whenever she was given a chance to get involved the old man would just push her away. While she would usually complain that he was babying her for no reason, she figured that if this woman was able to make him even slightly worried, than that was a good enough reason for him to hold her back. She wanted to help still, however. Cobe's semblance appeared to be much more annoying than Marcus eluded too earlier. Even then, every time she appeared somewhere in the room, she could see the shimmer of white hair as he wasted no time to go and try and punish her for revealing herself. Only for sparks to fly as blades clashed against blades or bullets crashed into aura. She was out of her league here, and as much as she might have enjoyed seeing Marcus getting his shit kicked in, if that was how this fight was going to end up, Cinder needed him. So by extension, she needed him too.

The masked assassin fell out of the ceiling and slashed at Marcus' back, he bent forward impossibly quick to dodge the attack, and spun around to catch her wrist as she tried to recklessly stab him through the neck. His hand lunged out toward her mask to rip it off, but the woman leaned back and twisted out of his grip, then flipped through the air. When she landed she went straight through the floor, merging with it once more. Emerald cursed and pressed her back against Marcus', who held a low stance as he looked around the room for any signs of the other assassin emerging once more.

"So dangerous, your reputation precedes you! Even in spite of your old age." Cobe mocked with a disturbing cackle.

Marcus groaned and complained. "I'm not that old…" He said indignantly. Emerald could almost imagine a pout on the older man's face.

"This is no time for stupid banter Marcus!" She hissed right before she fired a few rounds into a wall. Then cursed when a ruined piece of metal that was part of the wall fell off.

"Banter is a form of combat itself, Grass." Marcus countered as he slowly turned with her still pressed against his back. "Distracts your opponent, makes them angry. Most of the time they would get more reckless."

"Trying to teach me something I already know?" Emerald snapped.

"Obviously you don't, if you're this stressed out right now." Marcus snapped back, roughly shoving her to the side and tripping her over. Emerald looked back to see a hand that very nearly grabbed her ankle. She didn't know what would have happened if she was pulled into the floor with the woman using her semblance, but she did not like what her imagination managed to come up with. "Sit tight and be defensive, and stick to the plan." The ex-assassin told her.

Cobe threw herself out of the wall and hurled at him like a spear. Such an attack was reckless yet very powerful. Marcus barely reacted in time and blocked her blades with the side of his gun, and caught the other blade with the edge of his knife locking itself into one of the sawteeth that her longer dagger had carved into it. Emerald caught sight of the woman's dark blue eyes, and hurried to try and use her semblance. Cobe turned away at the last second before Emerald could make her feel like she was falling or fighting multiple Marcus', and caught the white haired man across the cheek with her elbow as she twisted away and landed in a low stance. She tried to sweep Marcus' legs out from underneath him, but when her shin came in contact with the back of his leg, a loud painful clang echoed throughout the small room.

"Agh!" Cobe cried out as she dragged her shin back, a stinging pain running all the way of her leg even through the padded light metal armour she had on her body.

Marcus smirked at her. His bionic legs were good for one thing, he didn't have to worry about defending them from attack. Only bad thing about them was how plain they were, unlike his dear son, his bionic legs were just that, legs, without any extra function. "I love it when people try to do that to me." He said as he picked his leg straight up over his head, and crashed his heel down to slam it on the back of the other assassins skull. Cobe was struck, and was struck hard, but instead of her face being smashed into the floor, she went right through it with her semblance. When Marcus' heel made contact with the ground, it peeled up and cracked under his strength. Shards of concrete went flying throughout the room, and Emerald winced as one of them pelted her in the chest.

Once Cobe got hit as hard as she did, she started to get more cautious, and all of her attacks after that was specifically aimed to not hit Marcus in his bionic legs. Emerald could barely keep up with what was happening, and wondered how the old man was able to keep moving as quickly as he was for what felt like hours. There was a point where the woman started going after her, and she was barely able to defend herself against the crazy strength of the female assassin. Her back was against the wall and she was struggling to try and push her back, and only did when she desperately pulled the triggers on the firearm mechanism of her guns. The recoil was enough to stun the woman, which gave Marcus time to punch the woman across the face and cut her mask off as he pulled back with the edge of his knife.

When Emerald saw her full face, she grimaced. It wasn't that the woman had anything wrong with her face, other than the filed to a point teeth she had poking out of her mouth, the only deformation she could see was the tiny holes and scabs across her lower lip. Evidence of her accidentally hurting herself with her own teeth. Other than that, she looked like a regular normal person, the kind of person that she wouldn't even react to had she seen her on the sidewalk walking past her.

Before any words could be said, Marcus dashed forward again while she studied her face and committed it to memory just in case the worst did come to pass. This time around the woman was more worried, protecting her face like her life depended on it, and it probably did when she was relying on her semblance so much. Marcus wasn't giving her a single second to rest. Emerald had to hand it to the old man, annoying as he is, one thing he knew how to do was fight. When Cobe tried to retreat back into the wall, Marcus grabbed her by the wrist and ignored the pain in his hand as a blade bounced off of his aura. She kept trying to get him to let go, but he just wouldn't.

"Grass, now!" Marcus screamed at her.

Emerald didn't waste any time to try and correct him, and stared into the woman's eyes with wide red eyes of her own. She made her see the first thing that came to her mind, which was the walls and floor crumbling around her. All of her possible escape routes being cut off by ones such as Cinder, Roman, and even that Neo girl. It was all an illusion, but the woman wouldn't know about that. As far as she knew, she was surrounded and helpless, because as her eyes scanned the room frantically for any kind of escape. Marcus' exposed palm in his glove was pressed against her the skin of her face.

There was a flash of blue aura and a scream of agonized grief as the woman had her semblance stolen away from her. Marcus growled at the woman and pulled the woman up by the bun she made out of her hair. Cobe desperately tried to attack him with her weapons, but Emerald made sure to shoot them out of her hands before they could make contact with his aura. He looked back and nodded at her, thanking her for the assist.

"Your semblance is gone, Cobe. You're not getting it back. You've lost. Now tell me, how many of the assassins are in Vale?" Marcus asked as he held the woman by her neck and pushed her up against the wall. He was making sure that he didn't squeeze so hard that she wouldn't be able to breathe, but made sure that he did squeeze hard enough to let her know that if she tried anything he'd break her neck. He put his gun and knife away as well, only because now he no longer needed them. This fight was already over.

"Hehe… it will be an honor that it took the lethal Marcus Black in order to kill me." Cobe said to him with pained blue eyes, and a bloody toothy smile to go along with it. "Get on with it Black, you won't get anything out of me. Unlike you, I am not a traitor-"

Emerald grimaced as her voice was cut off as neck broke with an audible snap as her spine twisted and cracked. Her head was spun all the way around in an instant, and Marcus dropped her body down to the ground with a dull thump. "Fucking idiot…" He stayed looking at the body and the shocked dead bloodshot eyes that stared back up at him, and sighed as he turned around to look at her.

"You hurt?" He asked her with no obvious concern in his voice.

"Aura is a little low, but I'm fine." Emerald said as she glanced down to her scroll and aura gauge, on another meter underneath hers, she could see that his aura was just as almost full. She raised an eyebrow but thought none of it, he didn't take many hits after all, and the ones that did connect weren't very strong evidently. "That woman was insane, why was she after you? How did they know you were here in Vale?"

"Grass, I've been walking around in the open like an idiot for these past couple of weeks." Marcus chuckled. "Not to mention that I still have a hit on my head. Even after these past few months, the organization I used to work with don't take kindly to those who tell them to fuck themselves and live to tell about it." He kicked at Cobe's dead body. "If there's one, there's bound to be more to come. I must have thousands on my head, maybe even millions if they're that desperate enough to have me killed. Every assassin in Vale would want to collect on my bounty."

"We'll have to be on guard then," Emerald rubbed a sore muscle on the back of her shoulder. "This hideout is compromised. We shouldn't ever come back here. We also should get rid of the body and tell Cinder about this to see what we should do about it."

"Took the words right out of my mouth," Marcus said as he walked over to one of the beds and ripped the sheets off and threw it on the dead body. He knelt down and wrapped up the body in its entirety. When he was done, he picked it up and threw it over his shoulder. "We'll throw it into the ocean, it's the best place to hide a body, especially with all the light metal armor she has, she'd sink to the bottom quickly. We just need to get to the docks."

"Agreed, but won't we be seen if we walk around in the open at night with a dead body on your shoulders? That's bound to attract the wrong type of attention."

"I know an old route," Marcus said a little softly. "To get to the harbor, there's an old route assassins were able to pass through underground. We could go that way, or we can take the alleys and hope for the best."

"Which way is less risky?" Emerald asked him.

Marcus shrugged his shoulders helplessly.

"Great…" Emerald sighed. "So we can either go underground and risk running into one of your assassin friends, or we can take the alleys and risk getting the police called on us."

"Also, my assassin friends might still attack us in the open." Marcus pointed out. "Or while the police chased us. Could have a few within the cops as well."

"Underground it is then," Emerald decided. "Lead the way."

Marcus ended up leading her to a sewer in the middle of an alley. They just had to cross a lit up street. Just in case there were bystanders walking around this late at night, they had a casual conversation of them complaining about taking out the trash all the way until Marcus kicked open the lid to reveal a pristine looking ladder. The tunnel itself was surprisingly well ventilated, even if it did smell like they were walking through a dump. Luckily, there were none of Marcus' old friends that decided to jump out at them. It was a maze to Emerald, but Marcus seemed to know exactly where he was going. She was forced to trust in his judgment until they made it all the way to another more wet tunnel system which lead to another ladder, this one much more rusty, and they climbed out of the ground and up onto the harbor.

It was about four in the morning by the time to finally got there. The sun was beginning to rise in the far distance, but there was nobody around. Marcus wasted no time and jogged toward the edge of the docks and threw Cobe's body into the ocean. The water swallowed the body up instantly, and Emerald watched and wondered morbidly how long it would take the fish to pick it clean of its flesh.

"That's that taken care of." Marcus said with a sigh through his nose. "You think Cinder is awake right now?"

"I don't know," Emerald admitted honestly. "I find her asleep very rarely, especially since she gained the powers of the maiden."

"Well, we'll find out soon I guess." Marcus said as he scrolled through his contacts and pressed his finger on Cinder's name. The scroll only rang for a few seconds before the woman's seductive voice came through the line on the other side.

"Don't tell me you've completed your next task so quickly?" Cinder asked him when her face appeared on the scroll.

"No, we ran into an issue that we felt that we should run by you." Marcus told her truthfully.

"Have you now?" Disappointment ran over Cinder's face. Emerald felt a stab of guilt in her heart, and the apology came out of her mouth before Marcus was even able to reply. "What happened?" Cinder asked next.

"It seems like my old friends aren't exactly finished with me yet," Marcus said as he sat against the railing. "Me and Grass were being followed was we were on our way to this Rox kid's place, so we went on to lead them to one of our less used hideouts. They tried to ambush us, but we were able to handle it."

"I presume that these old friends of yours have been dealt with."

"Yup," Marcus nodded to her. "Threw her body into the ocean. That hideout is lost, but she was a pretty high tier assassin like I was. They aren't going to be so brave the next time around."

"Hm," Cinder smirked at him. "Even though we may have lost one hideout, I suppose that is a small price to pay for how value you and Emerald's lives have. You acted well."

"Thanks." Marcus rolled his eyes when he saw Emerald light up like a Christmas tree. "But there's something else I want to run by you."

"Go on." Even though Emerald was waving her hands no at him, he wanted to ask her anyway. It wouldn't hurt, and it would definitely make things easier for all of them down the line if he was given the okay to do this.

"I want to go after them, I have an idea where the main base is around here in Vale. If I can find it and take down the leaders here, then the organization will be fractured and we'll have more than enough time to do what we need to do." Marcus explained to Cinder.

"You want to destroy the assassins, is that so?" Cinder asked him.

"Yeah. It would put a halt on what you want me to do, but I feel like it would be worth it down the line." Marcus said with a flat face.

"Are you saying that you can't handle what they throw at you in the case that you continue your task?" Cinder raised an eyebrow at him.

"Well… no, not really." Marcus answered honestly. "I'd be able to handle anything, as long as they don't catch me with half aura and my pants down."

"Then I have faith that you will continue to impress me." Cinder said with that smile of hers that told him that her decision was final. Even then, he pressed on.

"Are you sure this is the right decision?" He questioned her. "These assassins may not be a threat to me, but to Roman and the White Fang? The could tear them apart."

"The fact that they have not done so already tells me that it is not as easy as it sounds to them." Cinder countered. "I am sure that dear Roman has had a few visitors late at night while we were absent from Vale. He can handle himself. As you can. My decision is final Marcus Black. Take Emerald and rest for the night, tomorrow I want you two back on your task, but keep your guard up. I wouldn't want to hear of your unfortunate demise."

Marcus sighed when Cinder hung up the scroll on him without giving him any time to reply. He stuck the scroll back in his pocket, and turned around to gaze into the horizon of the ocean before him. The ocean was just beginning to rise, and he could see it's dark red-orange shine off the water miles ahead of him.

"You shouldn't have questioned her." And just like that, the moment of tranquility was ruined with the rush of the reality of life. No rest for the wicked, at least mentally this time around.

"Maybe." Marcus shrugged, not really caring for what she thought of his decision just then. "You heard the lady Grass, time to take it easy for the rest of the… morning, I guess." He said as he pushed off of the railing and started walking back toward the city, Emerald quickly caught up and told him of a nearby warehouse that was secretly taken over by the White Fang that they could hunker down inside for a few hours. Marcus followed her, and with only a few glares from some of the faunus they were able to find a room and rest for the duration of the sun's light.

Marcus slumped down on the soft couch provided for them, and the moment he shut his eyes he fell asleep. There wasn't much else for them to do until the sun went down and it was dark outside again, so he slept until the sun was down and out of the sky. By the time he woke up, Emerald was just about ready to smack him until he opened his eyes. It didn't matter if their aura wasn't all the way back up to a hundred percent just yet, it was time to get back to work.

"Man, I feel like the sun was out just a few minutes ago." Marcus groaned as he and Emerald walked out of the warehouse that the White Fang took over. The got a few more glares, but it seemed like they got the memo when they recognized Marcus for who he was. Adam must have told and warned them all about him. Good for them, now they won't try to do anything stupid for him just doing what his job entailed. He assassinated people from both within the White Fang, and those who were their enemies. He didn't discriminate, and didn't quite care about their questionable revolution unless they were paying him for a contract.

"You were asleep for nearly twelve hours." Emerald pointed out. "Then you sat around and made me watch some stupid movie with you for the next two."

"Oh yeah," Marcus chuckled. "I do remember that, fancy that. To be fair the movie wasn't that bad. I happened to be really touched when that Grimm-wurm swallowed up the hot girl while her dumb ass friends screamed in terror. Ah, it really hit me on a spiritual level." He said as he wiped a fake tear away from his eye.

Emerald rolled her eyes. The movie wasn't that bad, maybe, and in fact it caught the Grimm-wurm creature pretty well, even if it was a little too big at times. Grimm were always the worst in Vacuo, they always seemed to evolve purely in a way to screw someone over in the desert. What kind of God thought that a Grimm that could live in the sand in Vacuo, which spanned over the entire continent, and thought that was a good idea? She's never been there herself, but she'd never want to now, especially after a tale that Marcus did not have to tell her.

It was about some contract someone from Mistral gave him to go all the way to Vacuo and kill some guy in some village in the middle of nowhere. Finding said village was difficult, but he developed his tracking skills a lot at that time apparently. There was Grimm, bandits, too friendly travelers, and other assassins. He managed to complete the contract, but swore to never go there again, at least not for a contract. Even though he's still never been there again in what's been about half a decade so far.

"Well, as much as I would love to continue to make you uncomfortable, it's time to get back into serious mode." Marcus said he flicked his chin to the side to point out the few obvious gang members walking beside them on the other side of the sidewalk. Apparently these 'Rock Hard Gunners' favorite color was blue, and they used to be a rival to the Red Axe Gang, but they mutually decided to leave each other alone in some truce agreement. Whether that was because they realized that fighting each other just because one was red and the other blue or because they just didn't want to waste resources on each other any more was unimportant. What was important was that Cinder wanted them both on her side, and one was down. Hopefully this Rox kid would be as submissive as Junior was. If he was smart enough, that is.

Central Vale, that was all the information that the little piece of paper that Cinder gave him said about where Rox and his gang were located. It was an inconvenience, but if one paid attention hard enough it really wasn't that hard to find, at least not for someone of Marcus' caliber. They just saw those two guys walking across the street with a badge on their shirt that said 'RHG' in big black and blue lettering and figured that they were from the gang. That hunch was proven right when they were seen entering a building with neon blue lights above a door.

"It is beyond me how the police in this city could be so clueless." Marcus said with a grunt. "Neon blue lights, some shady guys obviously standing guard in front of it with a concealed holster, and the RHG badge. How less subtle can these guys be?"

"Less bitching, more recruiting." Emerald said as they casually strolled up to the two guards, who were keeping an eye on them the moment they started walking toward them after cutting across the empty street.

"Yeah, yeah, let me work my charm." Marcus said as he stood up a little straighter, and allowed a cocky smirk to curve up from the corner of his lips. "'Sup boys, is Rox here?"

"Get out of here asshole." One guard warned him as he put a hand on his weapon.

"Rox doesn't see anyone without a scheduled meeting." The other said.

"Well, we're here to have a scheduled meeting with him." Marcus said, gesturing to himself and Emerald.

"We were sent by a woman, she might have sent a forewarned message of our arrival. We're here to talk and make some arrangements, nothing more." Emerald explained.

"Yeah? Rox read that message in front of all of us, and you know what he said?" One of them, the one with green eyes looked down at her.

"He said you could go take your offer and fuck yourselves with it." The other snickered.

"Charming fellow." Marcus quipped. "Listen boys, I am not one for dancing around, so I'll just flat out say it." In a flash he brandished his knife and flourished it in one hand. The guards drew their guns out and pointed them at him, their smiles gone and eyes going wide with panic. "Name's Marcus Black, might have heard about me, might not have. But if you do." He pointed the tip of the knife at each of them. "Then you know that one way or another, I am not about to let two assholes with shitty attitudes stop me from getting what my contractor wants. So, with that said, how do you two punks want to handle this?"

The two guards released the safety on their guns with an audible click.

"Thought so." Marcus threw his knife into one's eye before he could pull the trigger, and the other fell with a muffled cry of pain as Emerald appeared behind him and stabbed him through the back, the point of her green blade sticking out the other side covered in blood. They both fell over, but Marcus prevented them from falling out into the sidewalk, pushing them together so they looked like they were sitting snuggling instead of dead.

"I knew you were up to something Grass." Marcus said as he wrenched his knife out of the man's eye socket.

"I made them think that I was still behind you as I went behind them." Emerald said as she wiped the blood off her weapon one of the dead guys pants. "So, are we sneaking in or are we crossing this name off our list early?"

"Not yet, I'll give the kid the benefit of the doubt." Marcus said with a small nod. "Maybe he just had some dumb ass guards, lets just sneak in for now."

"Doesn't hurt to try, I guess." Emerald agreed.

Sneaking in wasn't that hard, in fact it was quite easy. Rox and his gang members seemed to think that they were the top dog are these parts. Which they weren't as long as Roman was around, but as they snuck throughout the compound they quickly realized that Roman's name was blacklisted around here. Unless you were talking bad about him, it was a rule not to talk about him. Injured pride then, Marcus noted. He's dealt with those kinds of people before, the kind of people who hire an assassin to take down a rival for whatever it was that they were doing. Most of the time it was for someone who 'stole' a woman or man away from them, and that rival had to have an 'unfortunate' accident in order for them to gain some leeway. In some fucked up way, it worked most of the time. Humans had fragile minds like that, latching onto anything that might make them feel good. For Rox, it was apparently forcing those beneath him to stay loyal to him and brand themselves as a permanent member of his gang. From what he overheard as they snuck around the base looking for Rox himself, he had an aura, and was among the only ones in the gang to have aura, along with some training to use it. Typical arrogant nobody, Marcus knew exactly how to handle him.

Emerald used her semblance on a sole guard who was guarding a room, and they walked past him like they belonged there. Marcus even nodded to the guy, who nodded back politely.

"Wait a second," Marcus said to Emerald as they walked by a few generators. "Just in case."

"What are you doing?" Emerald hissed as he knelt down and took to making a few adjustments to the electrical generator. Adding a little modification of his own to make things go a little easier for them if what he thought was going to happen was actually going to happen.

"Just a precaution." Marcus said as he typed a few codes into his scroll, and armed the device that he planted within the generators control panel. "Let's keep going, he shouldn't be too far now."

His words rang true as they came across a wide open room with double doors with neon blue light peeking through from around the edges. Marcus and Emerald looked to each other and rolled their eyes at the same time. There were two armed guards at the front of the double doors, and both were knocked out as Marcus and Emerald rushed them at the same time and silenced them before they could shout them out. They let their unconscious bodies fall softly to the floor, and without a second thought Marcus pushed through the double doors, earning the attention of over a dozen armed people who all stopped what they were doing to aim their weapons at them.

"Stop," Their apparent leader said as he raised one hand, each finger wrapped up in a ring. "These two went through all the trouble to come see me, I guess I can allow them to hear what I have to say." Rox said as he leaned forward in his seat, the two women who were obviously being paid to sit on his lap hopped off and were dismissed into a different side room. Marcus and Emerald stood in front of him about twenty feet back, the former with his arms crossed and the latter tense and ready to bring out her weapons.

"Now tell me, the fuck are you doing in my home base?" Rox asked. He was a young guy, just as the paper told him. He dyed part of his black hair blue and shaved one side of his head. His ears both had two gold earrings, and the guy even went so far as to wear contacts to make his eyes look unnaturally blue, even by Remnants standards. His clothes were similar to the uniforms the rest of his gang wore, but with blue ripped jeans and much more bling about the outfit. Everything about him screamed 'yes, I am the one in charge this gang here, shoot at me first'.

"We're here to make an offer." Marcus started off with, not letting the kids arrogance rub off on him.

"I hope you know what you're doing." Emerald warned as she kept her hands close to her weapons, but not yet touching it. They were surrounded by about a dozen armed guards, plus two more who came through the doors behind them and with no cover to hide behind if they started shooting.

"Oh yeah?" Rox asked, chuckling. "Are you from that bitches group? What was her name… something Fall, something like that. Now, my memory might be bad at times, but I explicitly remember telling her to fuck off."

"Well, that woman is someone that does not take no for an answer." Marcus said with a smirk. "What's so bad about it? You work with us, you get paid and some rep. Should be a win-win, we both get what we want."

"The Rock Hard Gunners don't work for anyone buster." Rox spat to the side. "Now, I'm a merciful man, so I'll give you a choice: Get the fuck out of my base, or I'll order my guards to kill ya both."

Marcus' eyes flashed dangerously, Rox took a step back in shock as he felt gravity pull down on his body even more. "You know who I am kid? Probably not." He laughed bitterly, allowing his white aura to simmer down. He didn't mean to let it flare like that, but he guessed he just got tired of listening to this guy talk despite him only saying a few sentences so far. "You're young, stupid, think you're on top of the world. I get it, you want to keep feeling that way, you got one of the most powerful gangs at your beck and call after all. But trust me, it won't last. Nothing good ever lasts, and I was paid to take guys down like you some times."

"A-assassin!" Rox exclaimed. "What, you here to kill me or something!?"

"Kill you? Hah, no." Marcus shook his head, and Rox tilted his in confusion. "Good to know you know what an assassin is though, so you get the danger here. You look like a guy who prefers shit straight up, am I right?" He asked, changing his manner of speech to appeal to the kids gang side.

"So what if I am?" Rox asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Great. So here is the choice I am giving you." Marcus said as he flipped a knife in his hand, catching it by the blade. Rox's eyes locked on to it, wondering how he was able to draw it so quickly. "Work with my boss, and maybe you're gang won't go to shit once Huntsman start getting involved, or don't, and me and Grass here will kill everyone in this room and then make you the offer again. We might keep you alive then, but it depends on how much you piss me off." Marcus caught the blade by it's handle, and lazily pointed the tip of it toward Rox. "So, what'd ya say?"

Rox grit his teeth and clenched his fists angrily, his answer was written all over his face before he even opened his mouth. "You dare come into my base, and threaten me!?" He asked, pointing an accusing finger at Marcus and Emerald. "You little shits, assassins or not I won't let you get away with this! Maybe I'll just have to send your boss your heads as my answer this time." He grinned maniacally. "Yeah, that sounds like a plan. Boys!"

All the guards that were surrounding them, including Rox himself pointed their guns at them. Emerald cursed and drew her weapons, pointing them back at the gang members as she backed up against Marcus, who drew his gun as well and had it pointed directly at Rox himself.

"I am obligated to highly recommend that you reconsider this decision Rox!" Marcus exclaimed as he fumbled with his scroll in his off hand.

Rox smirked back, and snapped his fingers. "Kill them both."

At the same time, Marcus pressed a button that appeared on the center of his scroll, and the moment that Rox gave the order an explosion rocked the entire building. The lights shut off and quickly came the panicked shouting and reckless shooting as the guards lit up the entire center of the room. Rox shouted for them all to stop, and had one of the guards turn on a flashlight.

A white haired man was smiling at said guard as soon as he turned it on, that was the last thing he saw as Marcus wrapped his muscled arms around the man's throat and used him as a meat shield to block the bullets that came at them. Once they stopped to reload, Marcus killed the body forward and knocked one of them down. Emerald used the cover of darkness and slashed out the back of two of their necks. They weren't expecting it and were focusing their aura toward Marcus, and both paid for it as they fell to the ground choking on their own blood. Three down in almost as many seconds, and more was quick to follow.

It was a slaughter, Rox soon realized as he heard the pained screams of his guards and friends. He heard blood splatters against the walls and the floor, and with every flash of a powerful hand cannon he got a glimpse of the white haired assassin. Each time he pulled the trigger, one of his men died, and after the last one fell. Marcus Black was staring at him next. Out of paralyzing fear, his legs gave out from underneath him and he crawled as far as the room would let him until his back came in contact with the throne that he had made for himself. The lights turned back on and two figures were right in front of him. He screamed in terror and huddled up in a little ball. Tears stung his eyes as they rolled down his cheeks.

"So, how about that offer?" Marcus asked him as he planted his foot beside him, leaning over him with a sick grin on his face. Part of his white hair was mixed with blood, and his associate grimaced and made an 'Eugh' sound as she flicked blood off of her hands. Rox whimpered.

"I-I get it man!" Rox cried. "T-tell her I'll work with her, I'll do it!"

"Oh? So much more submissive now." Marcus leaned in closer, his cruel smile grew even wider. He was having fun with this, it was a guilty pleasure of his. Making people who thought they were on top of the world come crashing down with the sudden reality of life. "You know, all of your buddies would still be alive right now if you just said no before, so why should I let you live now?"

"Marcus," Emerald warned. "You're going too far."

"I'm going just as far as I need too." Marcus snapped back. Emerald took a step back, submitting to his sudden snap in temper. "Answer the question, buster."

"I-I have money, men, drugs! I can provide your boss with whatever she needs. I'll be loyal to her!" The kid cried harder. "Just don't kill me man, please, I'm begging ya!"

"Always begging." Marcus snorted. "Why do people beg like that's going to save them? I don't get it, it just makes this whole thing annoying and makes me want to kill them even more. It's pathetic." He sighed as he drew his gun back from Rox's head, and flipped it back into its holster. Emerald sighed a sigh of relief, relieved that Marcus wasn't actually going to kill the guy.

Marcus threw a folded piece of paper into the terrified man's lap, and Rox looked up at him with questioning teary eyes. "Contact my boss with whatever she wrote down there, and remember." He flicked his knife in his face, causing the blood that was still on it to splatter. "Stay loyal, or I'll be giving you a visit late at night." He added as he turned around, took Emerald, and started walking away.

Nobody tried to stop them, and those who did were dealt with. They had a straight path to the exit, and they took it without any more problems. Emerald looked to the white haired man and wondered to herself. How could the man that has been bugging her so well these past couple of weeks be so cruel like that all of a sudden? Things didn't add up, and that made the man before her all the more dangerous. She couldn't trust him, not with her life at least.

Especially not when he had such a satisfied smile on his face the whole time as they made their way back to a safe house.

Oh dear, Marcus, and you were making such progress. Pft, nah, not really. Marcus Black here is still the cruel assassin that he was made out to be, that hasn't changed. We'll just have to see how the rest of his story goes the rest of the way. This is still Volume 1 by the way, so we still have a ways to go.

Please review and let me know what you think of the story so far.

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