Chapter1
New world, new thrills
Nobody from the outside world would imagine it, but ever since Noxus changed his government and location it became actually a safe place to live. Of course if you don't mind being spied 24/7 looking for any hints of treason and having a curfew that you have to abide or you will arrested and then interrogated in a painful way.
The new city was still in construction process and it was already late night so the only way to be in the street is to have a special permission, a professional level of stealth or a strength recognized by the whole city or at least the high command
The latter one was the case of Katarina Du'couteau. She was currently running through the rooftops, using shumpo from time to time only to shorten the distance between her and the capitol. All the way from her apartment till now she's been cursing the new formed council for calling her at such a late hour in her free days, she didn't know what could be so urgent but better be important.
'I'm sure they'll have the gall to reprehend me for being late or even accuse me of having" indecent activities"' at this thought she face palmed herself, hard, because of the realization that they wouldn't be entirely wrong about that . So she started cursing herself a little to the rest of the way.
After a few more minutes, one or two shumpo's, and a bunch of curses she finally saw her destination on the distance.
The capitol main building was three floors high and was four blocks wide. On the corners there were four sentry towers with two spotlights each one. It had a u shape with the main door placed on the center under the intimidating noxian crest. The whole place was built strategically so if any demacian…ekhm… enemy army or mob tried to break inside they could be easily surrounded by dozens of campers in the roofs.
The sight of that building could have two effects on her: Thrill because it meant that the elder council probably had a mission for her and that meant assassination. Or it could mean another meeting of old, senile people babbling about new ideas ways to overpower Demacia and take control of Valoran. Yet the key word was 'ideas', meaning that it was all talk no action. So she, being and action woman, went to standstill mode for hours only able to think stuff like when will the meeting end, or why the universe hate her so much to give her in such a punishment, or even how easy would be to stab herself in the heart just to escape from there.
She prayed hard that it wasn't the latter; they hardly gave her assassination missions since…that day. So she has been accumulating a lot of stress. And stress and a council meeting could only mean a slowly and painful death
"I swear I'll just jump of the next roof if I don't kill someone soon!" she said out loud, but then noticed the proximity of said roof, the next ones and also the pipes that they had ' it isn't such a bad idea' she thought and since she couldn't do it the other way, she decided to relieve some stress
With a quick movement she activated the chronometer on her watch and not even a millisecond after she jumped to the next rooftop
In that moment she stopped running, oh no she wasn't running, she was flying.
That was probably the only activity that she enjoyed almost or even the same as killing
The old parkour
Few things caused Katarina's adrenaline to rise, but to her adrenaline was equal to ecstasy. Every time she runs that way it remembers her the most exciting of combats. Every time she ducked under a pipe she felt like ducking under an enemy's sword, when she dashed between an air conditioning and a water tank she remember when she smashed through a window when the situation didn't require stealth and it was overwhelming the feeling she had each time she cut the rope of a crane to gain an upwards boost.
She felt...untouchable
When she was done the assassin was breathing heavily. She stopped the chronometer and looked at her time.
'26, 5 seconds for a hundred meters, you're getting rusty' she thought 'I seriously hope they give at least some exercise'
When she finally arrived to the capitol she was received by two guards who grant her access at the mere sight of the sinister blade sending them a scowl. There was an incident the last time she's been due to 'proper protocols', but a few broken bones were for them to understand why protocols didn't apply for her.
To enter the capitol is like traveling to a completely different world. While on the outside the building resembled a fortress, on the inside was like a filthy rich museum.
Cross the main doors and you'll find an enormous hall made of black marble. The walls were decorated with whit various paintings showing the episodes of the noxian history, the floor was also made of black marble whit crimson diamond patterns, on the roof hanged an elegant black and crimson candelabrum which looked like four armored dragons breathing fire; there wasn't any candles or lamps, the light was created whit magic to look like the dragons were breathing it; and the roof itself was made of glass with retractable panels so the room could light both day and night.
To the left there were hallways leading the offices of the council members and to the right to the quarters of the Steel fist, the new formed order system (or 'bunch of double faces' as the assassin prefers).
But the 'filthy rich' part wasn't the architecture but the ornament that stood in the middle of the hall.
It was a twenty feet tall gold statue of a tall, short haired man wearing a flashy yet intimidating armor raising his sword in war cry.
The statue of the current Grand general Keiran Darkwill
Yet Katarina wasn't interested in anything of the aforementioned but in the man leaning on their leader's statue
It was about 6 feet tall, bald whit three lines of hair remaining, was wearing a scarf covering the lower part of his face, he walked whit a cane and on his left shoulder he had probably the most hideous crow in the whole history, it had six red eyes and messy black feathers.
They stood before each other for a few moments in silence, the man was looking at her as if expecting something from her and the assassin was looking at him like not wanting to please him. But at least those were not hostile gazes; the look on the crow's eyes was murderous at least.
After an unspecified amount of time the man cleared his throat signalizing that they won't leave till he get what he demanded.
Sighing in defeat the assassin finally spoke
"Swain" she greet him clearly pissed
"Sinister blade" he greet her back ignoring her tone "you are late"
'I fucking knew it' she thought "well sorry for not being available every hour of every week next time I'll mold my schedule more to your tastes". When she said that the crow hissed coldly at her dangerously, threaten her to continue.
"Calm down Beatrice" Swain's words worked like charm "children had the right to be insolent sometimes" the insult wasn't what bothered the assassin, but the way he said it. Not insulting but merely stating the facts.
No matter what was the situation, the strategist always managed to piss her of.
"Now if I may ask" he continued "what were you doing that was so important?"
"Is for me to know and for you to guess" she stated
"You know many people wouldn't believe it but I actually admire that stubbornness of your" he praised her sarcastically . You don't mind trivial things such as manners or priorities, you get the job done in your own terms and while it's inefficient it is certainly efec…"
"It's not like I don't enjoy our chats but I have an appointment" she passed him wanting to end this as soon as possible
Also, she really hated their chats
"Yes, with me" the assassins stop dead in her tracks and looked at Swain questioningly "I managed to fake the council orders without them noticing"
'Great more cheats' if there was something Katarina hated, was being manipulated. "Then why am I here?"
"Before I'll tell you about it I'm going to reveal you ONE secret".
"Really? What, it's my birthday or something?" the high command was very strict with its secrets, they rarely -never- share their secrets whit anyone even their assassins.
"This brings us to the time of the first Grand general Boram Darkwill" Swain continued, ignoring her "His seek of power was admirable but, we have to accept, it was also bold and at some point it became dangerous. I'm not talking about the forbidden magics, but the look for new biological weapons" the assassin was listening a little bored for the history lesson" one in particular was called project 'Metuas diem'".
"What?"
"Its Latin, it means 'fears death'" he sat at the base of the statue there was an emotion on his face the assassin couldn't place. Was it…? No it couldn't be…worry? "The idea was to create a drug that could private the user from his fears, emotions and pain both emotional and physical to make them more efficient warriors and assassins"
"So that was the drug Noxus has been developing whit Zaun? The perfect assassin?" she asked
"Yes that was the original idea" he answered "but Boram discovered it had another use" he made a pause with pain in his face "with a bit of magic in the formula it could literally hack the enemies brain to transmit all the fear and pain that the user's brain had to them".
Katarina raised her eyebrow not understanding.
"Imagine an army of coldblooded killers against an army of coward children". That got the assassin's interest. "That's the reason it was labeled as classified; if the word that we were developing such a weapon spread out, Demacia would never let it go."
"What is the problem of Demacia being afraid of us?"Couldn't we just threat them?" she started to get suspicious
"It wouldn't be a problem if we could carry those threats" the strategist answered with resignation "but we couldn't, the project was a failure, none of the test subjects survived. Finally it was canceled and the secret labs closed" he said with hints of anger "those facilities were abandoned for almost twenty years now…but…a week ago an order was sent for all the scientists that worked on the project to go there and recover all the notes and every drop of the formula that was left. They hadn't return ever since"
"Why would the Grand general send such an order? Didn't you say the project was a failure?" she asked curious.
"That's the thing, the general didn't send any order" he said shocking her" but when the council investigated the matter, they tracked the order to the main computer of the same facilities" the curiosity in her eyes became excitement.
"It's that so?" she asked with a smirk
"Yes and that's not all, yesterday we sent a Crimson squad to find out what happened, and all communications failed instantly. They disappeared to" Katarina's suspicions continued to rise, the Crimsons weren't by any means pushovers, and they disappear in a rescue mission?
"And that would be your mission: find out what happened to the team; what or who send the first order and seal the labs" he stressed the last part, like daring her to disobey
"Seal?" she asked 'what are you hiding there Swain?' "It doesn't sound like my kind of mission" she really hoped she could kill someone today
"I know but you are the only one capable enough if the Crimson's weren't"
"But what about Talon?"
"He has already left, you will meet him there" he stated "he just couldn't wait you any longer"
"Where are those labs again?" she asked avoiding to discuss her schedule again
"At the old city, in the psychiatric hospital" the assassin complaint slightly, she was about to enter a damn abandoned madhouse "a car is waiting you outside along with an emergency team"
Feeling that there was nothing more to say she turned around and started walking to the exit. She hadn't even walked ten steps when Swain called her again
"Sinister blade" he called her attention "I have to give you one last warning: if you do anything beyond the limits of the mission whatever happens, it would be at your own risk" he said regaining his usual monotone and his crow hissing in approval.
"I'll keep that in mind" she said in a bored tone and then left 'so Swain thinks he can temp me into whatever he has hidden in there?' she grinned and started to feel very excited 'maybe I should please him for once?'