Title: 血滴子
Category: Cartoons » Hero: 108
Author: Cahaya Sidur
Language: English, Rating: Rated: K+
Genre: Suspense
Published: 02-04-14
Words: 1,837

Disclaimer: I do not own Hero: 108, nor do I own the name 血滴子.

AN: This was basically loosely inspired by the Chinese movie 血滴子 (Xiě Dī Zǐ/The Flying Guillotines - the name of the movie is 'The Guillotines), which has a special assassin squad of the Emperor, who created them for the sole purpose of destroying or killing anyone or anything that he didn't want around. Basically, they all die in the end because the Emperor's son, who is very modernised, decided that he didn't want anything tainting his name and kills them all off, removing their names from history.

Not sure if that will happen in this version...hopefully not.

If you want to know how the weapons look and work or how their clothes look like, just watch the first probably 10, maybe 15 minutes of the movie. Everything in here is in there.

The Emperor grimaced as he looked around. Now they were all captured. He looked at Commander Apetrully, who seemed panicked and was looking at the other leaders of their section. The only two missing were…ah.

Lin Chung and Lady Green.

Well, their aliases, at least.

No wonder. They were always the best of the thirteen. Though more secluded as well.

His eye caught them all as he looked around. Pity. He had thought more of them survived, but it seemed like only five had survived, including those two.

"Any last words, emperor?" he sneered.

The emperor looked at him, eyes calm. "血滴子." there was no hesitation as a blade struck the man in the arm, before Lady Green came charging in, leg sweeping expertly under the other man. Lin Chung worked equally efficient.

Codeword.

That word, his father had taught him, would immediately signal the remaining of the thirteen to drop any aliases that they might have and immediately revert to the trained, expert assassinations and protectors that they were of the current emperor.

Lady Green looked up, her face obscured by a silver mask that covered her eyes and the left part of her mouth. Lin Chung turned, his face completely obscured by a gold mask - a sign of his ranking. His eyes were dark in his mask.

"No!" the man's eyes widened as he watched his delicate plan unravel because of this unseen threat. He looked around, and forced a smirk on. "Only five left? Pathetic. Seems like they weren't as good as the tales said they were."

He looked around, seeing five people that weren't there before. The strings that had previously held them were on the ground, the guards who had guarded them already unconscious.

Masks adorned their faces.

The emperor grinned. They had used the fake face-masks well to hide their real appearance. Not even he or his father knew how they really looked like. From where 'Mano' used to stand, stood a figure wearing a dark blue metallic mask that covered his left eye and nose, enough that his true identity couldn't be seen. 'Rosefinch' wore an ivory mask that covered the right half of her face, and part of her left eye. 'Kowloon' wore a bronze mask that covered his eyes.

All five were dressed in sweeping black robes that the emperor knew hid many weapons.

"Let the emperor go." Lin Chung's tone was different from his normal soft-spoken speech. It was harsh, cold and demanding, eyes narrowed dangerously.

The man laughed, almost half mad now. "NO!"

Suddenly, a whirring sound came, and the man turned in horror as he noticed all five carrying a curved blade. The sound had come from 'Lin Chung's' blade, which had a ring spinning furiously on it. The man gasped, and stumbled away, but the ring was released.

It closed around the man's throat, and he gagged as spikes emerged from the top of the now-collar, and threatened to kill him. He froze, fear in his eyes.

"Lin Chung?" Jumpy asked timidly. The gold mask didn't even turn as he turned to the emperor. He didn't bow - merely stood there with his hands tucked together behind his back, head looking directly at the emperor. The other four had assumed a similar stance, their head bowed, but still up enough to see anything. They retreated to the shadows, avoiding anyone there.

The emperor grinned. "It is good to see you again, Arrow."

The gold mask dipped it's head in response, quiet. The emperor had met him before, when he was younger, and he had hardly dared to believe the tales.

Commander Apetrully spluttered. "The Elites!"

"The what?" Mystique Sonia demanded.

The emperor turned to her with a small smile on. "The Elites were founded by my grandfather to protect himself from any unseen enemies. The Elites were a highly specialised-trained group that swore loyalty to the emperor and only the emperor, even after death."

Mr. NoHands was the next to speak. "Everyone presumed that they died after the attack on the East Citadel."

The emperor shook his head. "On my father's orders, if they survived, they would go into hiding and only reveal themselves when the emperor tells them to."

The five were silent.

"But…then…" Mighty Ray seemed to be lost for words. The emperor could understand. They had lost five of their most trusted members - Mano, an important member of the Air Force. Rosefinch, second-in-command to Master Chou. Kowloon - second-in-command of Alpha Girl Latifah, of Second Squad. Lady Green - the unbeaten warrior of the Navy. Lin Chung - the finest warrior in Big Green and leader of First Squad.

God, that must have been a huge loss. Especially Lin Chung. Everyone knew him - trusted him. All had said so themselves.

The emperor turned to Lin Chung. "I'll discuss tactics with you back at East Citadel."

The gold mask nodded, dipped his head, and disappeared into the shadows, the robes blending in perfectly, the gold mask nowhere to be seen.

But he was still there - they followed the emperor unless instructed to otherwise.

The emperor turned back to Commander Apetrully, who seemed stunned. "But…but…Mano? Rosefinch? Lady Green? Kowloon? Lin Chung?"

The emperor tilted his head. "Aliases. Disguises. Speed, Nightshade, Ocean, Blade, Arrow."

"That's their real names?"

The emperor shrugged. "Those are the names they took up. I'm not sure about their real names. Their parents named them - they're the second-generation Elites."

"Thirteen?"

"There was originally thirteen of them." the emperor explained. "When they first began, there was nine of them - Bow, Dagger, Quick, Agility, Attack, Sight, Dark, Silence, Hidden. They had children - the thirteen that were killed. Nightshade, who you called Rosefinch, was the daughter of Dark and Attack, Attack being the one who trained them and lead them.

"Ocean and Arrow are siblings. Uh," the emperor frowned, seeing confused looks. "Lady Green and Lin Chung." several nods. "After the five, there used to be eight more - Solar, Lunar, Tracker, Scythe, Peace, Justice, Knives, and…uh…" the emperor looked at the darkness where the gold mask had disappeared.

"Grace." the voice was sharp but quiet, and came from the other side of the room.

The emperor nodded. "Technically, Nightshade would lead, but Arrow was chosen instead."

"So they were the ones who escaped the East Citadel?"

The emperor nodded, once again turning to the shadows. "What happened afterwards?"

The voice surprised them, even as they were expecting it. He stepped out of the shadows for once, gold mask eerie in the lighting, black robes still half-concealing his body from the rest. His posture was still perfect, his curved blade nowhere in sight.

"After, we managed to get the emperor and his family to the tunnels under East Citadel. We scattered when the bears came and bombs started dropping down on us. We split up to leave by different passageways - safer that way, and agreed to a rendezvous. If we weren't there by a specific time, we would assume they were dead and leave." he looked up, eyes meeting the Commander's. "Four of us were found. Nightshade barely caught up to us." he dipped his head. "And we found our way to Big Green."

"And your aliases?"

Arrow didn't look up as he continued speaking. "That's a secret we cannot reveal."

A small nod from NoHands, before Latifah spluttered in, face red with rage.

"So, what? Everything was fake? All five of you?"

"Not everything." the voice was quiet.

"Not-not everything?!" Latifah demanded. "So…let's see. Your appearance were fake, your backstories were fake, your personalities were fake! So what was real?"

"Our motive. We all wanted to return the emperor to the throne."

"So you can continue killing people for him?!" Latifah demanded.

"No." his voice was quiet as he replied.

General Kwan then butted in. "We trusted you people. We thought you were loyal people we could trust."

"You could trust us."

"Not in the way we wanted to."

"What would you have us do?" the mask finally looked up. Blank and emotionless. "The emperor himself ordered that we remained in hiding until told otherwise. We weren't to tell a single soul about it. We weren't even permitted to talk about it amongst ourselves."

Now that Mystique Sonia thought about it, it made a lot of sense. Lin Chung had always gotten along with Rosefinch or Lady Green easily, and vice versa. Kowloon had an animosity towards First Squad, but he had only ever indirectly fought Lin Chung, never insulted him directly. Mano was a surprise, but considering how quiet he usually was, it was no surprise.

And of course. All five were trained assassins and warriors, able to take on massive feats that no ordinary person could. Mano and Rosefinch were among the best in the Air Force, Rosefinch being Master Chou's second-in-command. Kowloon was, admittedly, the best warrior in Second Squad. Lady Green was unbeatable in battle, and had once faced ten-foot high waves to single-handedly defeat Highroller's force of Bears. And Lin Chung…leader of First Squad, finest warrior in Big Green - even Hidden Kingdom, some might argue. He worked well in either water or air…and had passed everything so easily.

Now it all made sense.

All were sent to become one of the best.

Lady Green to the Navy. Mano and Rosefinch to the Air Force. Kowloon and Lin Chung to the Squads.

She closed her eyes as Rosefinch stepped out. Or was it Nightshade now? Her mask gleamed, and her eyes were calm behind the mask. "We did no such thing. Everything we told you was the truth."

"That each of you came from a poor village?"

Kowloon…'blades'? seemed indignant. "Of course. Don't assume that just because we have hidden who we really are from you, that we lied about everything else."

"Seems likely." Mighty Ray murmured.

Blades stepped forward, eyes flashing behind his mask, but Lin Chung (Arrow?)'s quiet voice calmed him down quickly and effectively, so quiet that they hardly heard it. "Blades. Nightshade. Control yourself."

Both backed off, heads bowed.

"So they are sworn to you?" NoHands questioned.

"No." Arrow interrupted the emperor. "We are not." at the emperor's raised eyebrow, he elaborated, though his gaze remained calm, gold mask eerily staring at them all. "We have sworn allegiance and loyalty to the people. The emperor protects the people. As long as he continues to do so, we will continue to serve him. Should he change his ways, we shall as well."

The emperor nodded, and turned to leave. As the five seemed to submerge themselves in the darkness, Commander Apetrully called out, as if testing.

"Our oath, our loyalty, our life." that had been the code back then to test the loyalty of the guards. Only those closest to the emperor knew it - only the empress knew it. But if the emperor really had trusted them as they said, then…

The five masks stared back at Commander Apetrully. "Our people."