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Rou hurried to the dungeon cells at the sight of daylight. As usual the dungeon keeper was there, sleeping at his post but otherwise not bothering his sister.

Dark black dirt covered Faye's exposed skin, even through the fabric of her white shirt her strained muscles looked painful. Her red hair was stringy and greasy. A bowl of uneaten food was in front of her, a bowl full of water was too. The food had already molded even though it looked just a day old.

"By the Gods," Rou breathed.

Faye's head snapped up, her eyes sunken in and her lips dry with dead skin peeling off. The fierce light in her green eyes from the 1st day she was imprisoned was fading, and her head wound now looked infected.

"Look what is happening to me Rou..."

Rou's heart began to break. Faye's voice sounded lifeless and broken.

"Listen to me sister, the Goddess of fate has not yet made death apart of your path." Rou knelt in front of her, "I have a proposition for you."

Faye's bushy brows caked with dirt furrowed, "proposition?"

"The Queen will pardon you if you join her guard."

"Goddammit Rou, how dare you volunteer my life for that bitch!" The assassin seethed,

"Then die down here!" Rou shouted at her face, shaking.

Faye's mouth snapped closed, she stared bewildered at her brother.

"Tell me Faye...what sort of legend would it be if the most famous assassin in the world died in the dungeon of her enemies?" Rou knew how to pick at his sisters pride and her desire to be the best.

Faye's thoughts turned to the one in the blue mask, "whatever she does I'll be watching you. Every single thing you do, I'll be watching. And I'll have a specially made rope for you to hang from if you lift a finger against anyone in this kingdom, especially my brothers and the Queen."

Faye was silent for what seemed like forever,

Her goals hadn't changed, but the execution of them did. The Queen's contract remained valid, a contract that was not spoken nor written but known by Faye and Faye alone. Faye felt no desire to change her plans to kill Augustaria, but now she was being given a chance to do so more personally.

How stupid are they? She thought, their Queen is too forgiving for her own good!

Rou was talking about something that she didn't catch while she was entrenched in her thoughts,

"Fine."

"And in case you haven't noticed-fine? Wait? Fine? You're agreeing to this?"

"Yes." Faye affirmed.

A small smile touched Rou's lips, "Alright then...sister."

Rou disappeared behind Faye's cell door faster than he had entered. Faye began counting the hours to her release.

XXXXXXXXXX

Faye awoke to the clicks of steel boots, 3 men in royal armor began working working the locks to her bonds. She hadn't even fully woken up when the locks released and she fell flat on her face.

Her arms and legs were numb, for a second panic took over believing her limbs would forever be that way.

"Get her up." One guard growled.

The two others grabbed her arms and hoisted her up, she felt blood freely rush through her legs but it still took a second for her to balance on them. They held her arms behind her roughly jostling and pushing her. Faye rolled her eyes, kick me while I'm down, what could I do weak like this?

The 3 led Faye to a circled room, surrounded with scowling and fearful women dressed in working clothes. Buckets of water at their feet and rags dripping wet in their hands. The guards threw her in the room, unable to keep her own balance Faye fell forward, at the complete mercy of the women before her.

"Well? Somebody gonna have to touch er." Someone said.

"I'm not! Look at those marks on her." Another one shouted.

"Oh fer' the gods sake!"

Faye was suddenly drenched in water, she gasped, it was freezing cold!

She was so weak and cold she didn't register hands working off her clothing until she was completely naked.

The women scrubbed harshly at her skin, dirt water flowed down the drain, bony fingers of an elderly woman worked into her red hair with soap.

"She may need another scrub." One woman laughed, the others joined her. Faye tensed, they knew how weak she was, they were no longer afraid.

And she hated every moment.

What felt like hours later the women had finished with her. Faye was covered in a towel and her hair was still wet when they led her out and into a room with a large vanity and mannequins. A man and woman stood in the room, they were obviously waiting for her. The two sported glowing black hair that reached their backs and tied at the end with a white ribbon, their skin pale. An aura of pride from them both hit Faye.

The woman, tall and dramatic seemed to float over to the red headed assassin and looked her over.

"Brother, she will definitely need lots of blue!"

Faye frowned.

"Oh dear, no one likes a sour face." She scolded her, "I'm Alter, my brother here is Alder." She held out a hand, Faye glared at it instead. "Well then...we have your armor and have refurbished it to be fit for our kingdom."

"Refurbished it?" Faye growled.

Alder pulled a set of armor off a rack and practically twirled to show Faye his handiwork. Her eyes popped wide open, her black and green light armor was now a brilliant white with thick blue embroidery.

"What did you do to it!?" Faye screeched, she had that armor for years, it was a gift from the guild master himself.

"We made it less ugly!" Alder took offense to her anger, "ugh! And to think you'd be grateful!"

"I oughta rip-,"

"Now that's enough the both of you!" Alter's voice hushed them both. "Please," Alter smiled as wide as she could, showing off glowing white teeth, "miss...come sit here." Alter patted a chair in front of the vanity.

Faye kept her burning stare on Alder as she tightened her grip on the towel covering herself. She cautiously approached the giant mirror decorating the dark wood vanity and stared shocked at her own reflection,

Faye was used to seeing her eyes sunken in, but this was an exhaustion that was foreign to Faye. Due to her occupation she was used to looking like she never had any sleep, but despite sleeping in her cell, she looked like she was starved. I look like a skeleton...she sighed to herself. Her usually tanned skin looked tight and pale too. Her hair was better than she expected, long and a vibrant red but still stringy and lifeless.

"Don't worry dear we will make you completely presentable to her Majesty." Alter beamed as she ran her hands gently through Faye's hair. Faye tried to relax, until Alter began picking at her head wound, "oh dear! A healing spell would clear that right up!"

Faye felt an intense warmth against her forehead, before Alter moved her hands to reveal her head wound was gone save for a scar replacing it.

"Much better!"

After much fussing and arguing Faye was in her refurbished armor, she noticed it fit tighter, she huffed, this armor is completely useless to work in!

Alter had even curled her hair. Her hair fell in ringlets down her her shoulders and back. Faye noted that Alter's work was impressive, her hair and even her skin was glowing like a fire again.

Faye scowled at the man, Alder, who had completely changed her armor. It wasn't bad work, everything was sewn together perfectly, her armor felt like new, as if her Master had just issued it to her 15 years ago, Faye just hated the colors. Alder approached her with her black wool cloak,

"I kept your cloak black, it looks nice with the new colors on your armor."

Well at least some things will remain as I received them.

"Oh! Rou! Isn't she beautiful!"

Faye spun around to see her brother in his most formal attire yet. A short blue cape strapped together by a silver clasp, covering a glowing white shirt and long black pants. He was wearing a simple, silver crown that was jewel-less but shown his position in this kingdom. Faye secretly marveled at her brother,

"Yes she is." Faye scowled at his compliment. He was trying to get on her good side, maybe when she was younger she would blush at the compliments of even her brother, but she was not the same person from years ago.

"Let's just get this over with." She mumbled.

Rou motioned for Faye to follow him.

"Oh! Wait! Before you leave!" Faye instinctively bristled when Alter scurried towards them with something in her palm.

Without asking Faye's permission she dropped a strange necklace around her neck.

The necklace was, of course and to Faye's disgust, blue, bearing a symbol she never seen before made out of a sapphire with a silver border caressing it's curves.

Faye didn't wear jewelry, she didn't like the attention jewelry gave her.

Faye began to feel a pang of hopelessness, realizing her independent and loner nature was being trampled on, her life truly was changing out of her control and she could do nothing about it.

Rou nodded his head towards the door, Faye followed him out into the hallway,

"Before we head to the Court Chambers, there are rules we have to discuss." Rou said.

"Haven't I been subjected to enough of your policies and rules?" Faye rolled her eyes at him.

"Not even close." Rou said, no room for arguing in his voice.

Faye crossed her arms, "speak."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Leonardo stood near his Queen as usual. They hadn't talked at all since the night before, which thankfully no one else found odd, but he felt incredibly out of place while unable to speak normally to Augustaria. She wouldn't even look at him.

"All of the council have taken their seats brother." Donatello told him. Leonardo looked around the council room, rows of men and women seated in their respective seats confirmed Donatello's report.

"Good." Leonardo gave his brother a small smile.

"Are you sure you're alright Leo? You've barely spoken a word this morning." He asked.

"I'm sure Don. I just had little sleep last night, thinking about my work." Leonardo lied.

"Where the hell is Rou? He always takes long getting places." Raphael gruffly stated to them both.

"Geez Raph go easy on him, he'll be here soon, we're all stressed out about this whole thing." Michelangelo touched his older brother's shoulder.

"I just got somewhere to be." Raphael mumbled.

"Wherever you've been going lately can wait Raph. We need to deal with the assassin first, the Queen always comes first." Leonardo softened his expression, "don't worry, this will be over soon." He assured his brother, but also himself.

The council room became quiet at the presence of Rou and then the assassin who was hiding her face under the hood of her black cloak.

"My Queen, excuse my lateness." Rou bowed to Augustaria and approached the council.

Augustaria smiled softly, "It's quite alright." Augustaria looked at the assassin with a more stern eye, "Rou, is your...friend attempting to hide from me?"

Rou looked at his sister, elbowing her harshly, she gave him a rude look but pushed her hood off her head anyway.

Leonardo could truly study the assassins face now. Her skin wasn't nearly like how Augustaria's reminded him of sunlight. The assassin's skin tanned gaving it a soft brown tint and her hair reminded him of a fierce fire.

"My Queen, this is Faye, your enemy, and now your servant. She has agreed to serve you in your royal guard." Rou introduced the woman.

Leonardo stole a quick glance at Augustaria who was still kindly smiling at the scowling woman.

"Unless the council voices any objections, I shall have Leonardo administer the oath."

The council was surprisingly quiet.

Rou and Faye approached closer to the 4 brothers, who stood separate from the council,

She was much closer for Leonardo to observe now. He noticed the bags under her eyes and the scar left on her forehead. She certainly wasn't ugly but he found himself picking out every blemish he could find for verbal ammunition in case she mouthed off to him later.

"Place your hand on the mark of the guard and repeat after me." Leonardo held the guards badge out for the woman to touch.

Faye hesitated, her hand hovering over the badge before she flattened her palm against it.

There was a jolt of electricity that went through Leonardo for a split second. One that compelled him to pull away from the assassins touch but he resisted the urge.

"I Faye...swear loyalty to this kingdom, I swear to protect our queen, Augustaria."

Faye quietly repeated after Leonardo,

"I swear loyalty to the Queens Guard, and to reject the evil of the world in favor for righteousness and desire to uphold the law."

Faye repeated this.

"I Faye, am now apart of the Queens Guard until the Queen releases me from service."

Faye repeated this with some difficulty. Her scowl deepening.

"Congratulations...Faye." A hint of disgust in Leonardo's voice made Faye look up to glare at him. "You're one of us now."

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Various Gods in this Universe:

Valteria and Dalteri: Brother and sister Goddess and God of Fate and Destiny.

Thank you for reading. Please review or favorite so I know you're enjoying my story.