Author's Note: Awesome reviews, love you guys! I'm so glad you're enjoying the story! We still have a ways to go for our heroes! ;-)
Jadeoblue, thanks for the info about Thor and Rogue! :D I've come to realize I'm way too behind on my comic reading! Gah!
Chiwetel Ejiofor as Gris Gris (minus the dreadlocks, cause, seriously, dreadlocks?)
Chapter Twenty-Three
St. Louis Cathedral – Four Hours Earlier
Mercy stood next to her Patriarch, staring down at a blueprint of Julien's complex which was recently liberated by Claude from a dank office in the City Planning Office. It was laid out on a table on the dais, the position giving the thieves a clear view of the Cathedral's aisle and entrance.
The doors opened and six assassins took up flanking positions, no weapons drawn, this was neutral territory after all. Thieves and Assassins could and would do many things, but they'd never piss off the clergy. It just wasn't done, not to mention how terribly impolite it would be.
She watched as the Assassin Patriarch, Marius, entered with his right hand man, Gris Gris, at his side.
No one spoke until Marius was at the dais himself, his eyes glancing down at the map. "And what do thieves know of battle, hhm?"
"Dey know plenty," Gris Gris, a handsome black man with strength on his powerful frame, grinned, "dey know how to scurry away like da rats dey are at da first sign of trouble."
"A great thief never gives you a reason to hunt dem," John-Luc shot back easily, "doesn't mean we don't know how to defend ourselves."
"Is dat what dis is?" Marius gestured all around.
"Dis is what we are lead to," John-Luc said coldly, "we've been complacent for too long. Your son has gone too far, he'd see us both dead, you know dat."
Marius narrowed his eyes at his enemy and Mercy had to wonder if there wasn't also a friendship between them, born of the strange kinship they had as heirs and Patriarchs. Eventually, the elder assassin's eyes softened, "Yesterday, I'd threaten you at your words. Today, I am merely saddened by dem."
"Everything dat ever was," the Patriarch Thief sighed heavily, "let it end today. We cannot continue as we were before. Da old ways are truly dead, why should we continue to cling to dem?"
"We tried dis once before," Marius offered with minimal strife, "to bring about a new order, we both lost something important to us dat day."
Mercy glanced around, she could see the unease between thief and assassin, the glares and animosity that no one bothered to hide. "Da past is a lesson, one which we apparently are slow to learn," she spoke out of turn. "Julien is a threat to both our families. I know he is, was, one of yours, but we can't let him finish what he started ten years ago."
"Perhaps we could?" Gris Gris offered and Marius looked over at him curiously. "Julien's hatred had always been for da thieves, perhaps we can let him burn dem to da ground, once dey are gone, he will leave his family, his true family, alone."
Mercy shook her head, "After all dis time do you really think he has any intention of allowing such dangerous men to run free? Because dat is what you are to him, if he can't control you, he will kill you."
"I'd like to see him try," the man said with entirely too much confidence.
"And you will watch your world burn around you, Gris Gris," she said sadly but with surety.
"Da thief is right," Marius spoke after a moment's consideration. "Julien was well trained, and what is da fifth law?"
"Never leave an enemy at your back," the assassin ground through his teeth.
"We are now da enemy," the Patriarch answered solemnly.
"What do you say, Marius?" John-Luc never betrayed his emotions, giving his counterpart an even gaze. "Thieves and Assassins, together, we can fix all of dis."
"And de Old Ways?" the other man asked warily.
"Left in da past," the thief said lightly, "where everything else belongs. Da war, da animosity, da death, all of it."
Marius looked away for a moment, "Won't be dat easy."
"Today is a start," John-Luc offered his hand to his assassin counter-part.
With a hesitant nod to his head, Marius shook John-Luc's hand and Mercy breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe, just maybe, they might all get through this alive.
"I just missed something, didn't I…" a voice said from behind her and Mercy turned to the woman.
"Da Assassin's Guild has come to lend deir support," Mercy was pleased to say.
"Good, we could use tha extra men," Rogue gestured to her phone. "That was Gambit, he found another blind spot, this one into a staging ground. Apparently Julien has a small tactical group of about fifty, maybe sixty, heavily armed guards."
"Where?" Mercy asked and they turned back to the blueprints, pulling some satellite photos from under them.
"Here," the mutant traced her finger along a fence line to where two buildings met in a jagged catty-corner fashion. "Tha cameras have a narrow gap, enough for one man at a time ta get through, straight into this building here," she tapped at the one set farther back.
"What's in dere?" Claude finally felt the need to join the conversation.
"Barracks of fifteen of those guards," Rogue tapped her finger against the image. "Julien is likely planning on using them against Gambit when he attacks, otherwise what would be tha point in having them onsite yet not part of the normal protection detail."
"You want ta swap our men for his," Marius was the first to voice her plan.
"We need ta get Julien out in tha open and distracted from tha main goal," she moved the photos to the side and pointed to the four areas that had been circled on the blueprints. "These are tha ammo dumps and tha data server, Gambit spent tha whole morning locating them. His plan was to keep all the guards and Julien busy while tha thieves sneak in and disable them."
"Remy could get himself killed doing dis," Mercy pointed out in a non-to-pleased tone.
"Bigger tha distraction, bigger tha risk, but bigger tha payoff," Rogue practically quoted a Guild mantra and Mercy wondered if the mutant even realized it. "While we do this plans will be in motion to take out most of Julien's pawns offsite. Our main goal today is ta bring Julien's empire down from under him in one fell swoop with as little bloodshed as possible."
"As little bloodshed as possible?" Gris Gris laughed. "You do realize who you are talking to, right?"
"An effective assassin is one who knows more than just how ta kill," the mutant said dryly.
"And just where did you learn dat, fille?" Gris Gris eyed her warily.
"Would you believe my mother?" she replied cooly, ignoring the sudden odd stares that went her way. "Now, we send fifteen assassins in to replace tha guards, they will be Gambit's backup. Master Thieves will sneak in during tha chaos and set charges, which brings up tha problem I voiced earlier. Marius, what kind of high explosives do you have available?"
Gris Gris grunted, leaning forward on the table at the interloper, "Just who put you in charge, fille?"
"Name's Rogue, not fille," the mutant didn't even flinch at the man who's Guild title was First Kill for a very good reason, "and Gambit put me in charge."
"And dat makes it all da better?" the assassin held her gaze and while everyone noticed Rogue slowly slip off of her gloves, only Mercy caught the real significance of the action.
"Gris," Marius warned the man, "I spoke to Remy LeBeau last night, a deal was struck. If he wants his fille in charge den let him, so far her plans have merit."
"Merit," Gris Gris scoffed, "she's just following her copain's orders."
"Okay, one, he's not my boyfriend or copain, whatever, why can't ya'll speak English around here anyway?" she said with frustration then shook her head. "Secondly, Gambit only had an idea of what he wanted ta do, I came up with tha actual details, this is just as much my plan. And lastly, I have nothing invested here regarding tha Guilds, I only want ta take one more sycophantic psychopath off tha streets," her eyes flickered over to the Assassins Patriarch for a second, "um, no offense ta yourself, Marius."
"He gets it from his mother's side," the assassin replied dryly.
Gris Gris ignored him, "And you think you're qualified ta lead da Assassins, huh, fille?"
"Well, sugah, Interpol has me listed as a known terrorist so there's that…" she replied sweetly, then smiled, "and there's also tha fact that I'm both a Thief and an Assassin."
"Is dat so," he wasn't impressed.
"Oh, yes," her face took on a smile she could have only have borrowed from Remy LeBeau himself, "I steal lives."
Quickly she reached up but Gris Gris was a highly trained Assassin. He grabbed her hand to keep her from striking him… and within seconds he fell slumped over on the table before then sliding down onto the ground.
"Hein!" Marius bellowed as several assassins started to go for their weapons.
"Relax," the mutant said loudly, "Gris Gris is just taking a little nap, but I could have killed him."
One of the assassins straightened out Gris Gris and checked his pulse and breathing. "He's passed out, sir."
"How…?" John-Luc muttered the question etched on Marius' face.
"What?" Rogue shrugged, "Yah think Gambit brought me along cause I'm just another pretty face?" There was a moment of awkward silence. "Yeah, don't answer that."
"Well," Marius cleared his throat, "um… miss…"
"Just Rogue."
The Assassin smiled, "Rogue. What would you like? C4? Semtex? PE4?"
"Hmm," she seemed to think about it as if she was ordering wine with dinner, "Semtex I should think."
"Very fine choice, my dear."
…
Shipyards - Half an Hour Ago
"Claude, report?" Rogue called into her walkie talkie, he was the last thief to report in.
"It was flip da second switch, right?" the man's voice came over the radio.
"The first switch!" Gris Gris practically shouted into his receiver. "I told you dat six times!"
A chuckle not nearly as deep and rugged as Gambit's answered back. "Aww, did little Gris Gris not have a long enough nap?"
"Damn thieves!"
"Boys!" honestly, it was like she was back in the Brotherhood all over again. "Focus or I'll redefine nap-time for tha both of ya."
There was a pause, then a sobered voice said, "I'm in position, ma'am."
"Good," she was definitely not old enough to be called ma'am but right now she took what she could get. Picking up her other radio, "Gambit, you ready?"
"For you, mon cheri?" the thief's rich voice melted the line, "Always."
Rolling her eyes, "Do me a favor and don't get yourself killed, otherwise I can't kick your ass later for that comment."
"Promises, promises," he said wistfully, then, "heading to da front gate now."
"Good luck," she couldn't keep herself from saying. She'd known about the plan since the night before but not until this moment did it hit her that if anything went wrong, he probably wouldn't come out of this alive. It was something that the realist in her tried to prepare her for but every other part of her refused to accept it could happen.
"La chance de dame est de mon côté, petite," he spoke of Lady Luck and she got a strange feeling he was referring to her.
A moment later there was a loud hiss-bang which could be heard from her hidden control base two buildings down from Julien's complex.
John-Luc smiled, "Didn't take him long, did it."
"Nope," Rogue returned the grin, confident in her friend's ability to come back to her in one piece. Clicking the radio, "All advance teams, as soon as ya see an opening, take it."
…
The guards moved away towards the sounds of battle and a figure slipped over a fence and hid behind a small electrical housing unit. Running low to the ground Theoren headed towards a metal building. A quick pick of the lock and the thief was in.
…
Claude could see Remy through the spaces between the buildings and watched as he took two men down with a double tap of his Bo staff. Satisfied that everyone was now fixated on his former Guild mate, the Master Thief popped a window on a building and snuck inside.
…
The cadre of assassins finished tying up the men they had knocked out, quickly donning stolen assault gear. It was the good stuff, military grade, Julien didn't spare any expense. A call came out over the radio for the containment teams to get into position. Gris Gris had no idea where that was supposed to be but he was sure he could figure it out. With a sharp, non-distinct reply to whoever was directing the battle the assassin lead his men to do the unthinkable… protect a damn thief.
…
It took longer, but Emil was a patient man. Eventually the guards on the rear of the complex, farthest away from Remy's attack, were called away. Picking the lock on one of the gates he strolled inside and headed to a large Army truck that was parked, boxes covered with heavy canvas inside.
…
Mercy was given the toughest assignment of getting to the data servers in the main building, literally under Julien's nose. Staying in Remy's shadow as he made a full on assault, Mercy slowly followed behind him, Semtex and detonator in hand. Her brother-in-law blew open a door and headed inside, she made her way to the far side entrance, avoiding the gathering assault team.
"Cleared," Claude's voice came over the radio ear-piece, Theoren was done as well.
Two of the tactical guards appeared around the corner and she slunk back into the shadows.
After they passed she made her way to the door and picked the lock in seconds to slip inside. Gambit hadn't really gotten a look at the server room, he wasn't able to get close enough, but the amount of wires, cooling units, and other tells feeding into the building made this the obvious choice for its location, a hunch which paid off.
"Cleared," Emil said over the radio.
Now they were waiting on her.
"Wait," she could barely hear the voices that were above and to the front of the building, "you paid off DEADPOOL?"
"Oui, every now and again someone has da idea to get revenge on me by sending da world's best assassin after me, non-guilded I might add," there was no mistaking Remy's voice.
Checking that the outer rooms were cleared she placed the explosive device on the central hub of the servers, racks upon racks of computers holding all of Julien's criminal exploits. Hopefully he didn't have a backup, though he probably did. Either way, it would be one more blow against the man to cripple his criminal enterprise for good.
A part of Mercy hoped Julien would get caught in the blast, another part wanted him to suffer more, and yet another told her that Henri would not approve of such thoughts.
Flipping the first switch on the detonator to arm it for remote trigger she made her way back out of the building and disappeared into the shadows.
"Cleared."
…
All explosives were set and armed. Rogue took a long breath before clicking the radio, "All teams, move into position. Tha explosions are your key ta attack. Disarm and disable. Only use deadly force if absolutely necessary. This means you, Fifolet."
There was a small pause then a deep voice said, "Understood, ma'am."
"Good," she said sweetly then picked up her other radio, turning the volume higher so she could hear what Gambit was saying.
"To be honest," she heard the thief clearly despite the transmitter being in his trench pocket, "I wasn't gonna deal with dat loose end until later, but I like da idea of everything being taken care of in a nice, neat package all in one go."
"How did you know about Fifolet?" Marius asked from beside her as the group started to move towards their selected entry point.
"I know because Gris Gris knows," she shrugged like it was no big deal, she didn't want to play it off as a threat.
"Interesting," he rubbed his chin in thought. "Miss Rogue, would you-"
She quickly lifted her hand holding her index finger in the air to stop him, not bothering to look at the assassin. "Don't even think about finishing that thought, sugah."
"What contingency plan?" Julien asked and she got very interested in the conversation.
"Something I improvised," Gambit responded. "Haven't you figured it out yet Julien?"
Rogue grinned as she realized the thief was giving her an opening.
"Figured out what?"
"I'm da distraction."
With those words, Rogue hit the detonator. Who said she didn't have a sense of style?