Okay here's chapter 7! I tried to follow the game line so I could start incorporating all that jazz into it.

Chapter 7: Erin

Garrett groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. These last few months were proving hard not to start killing people. Alia frustrated him. It seemed like no matter what she did he was transfixed. That little witch was slowly wrapping him around her fingers and he was either stupid or horny enough to go along with it; worst of all with a smile on his face. And now Basso, lining up a job for him to work with Erin. He knew that it would come to this eventually, word was spreading fast about her, the thief that would kill her marks. He still felt partially responsible for the monster he had a hand in creating and he knew he needed to at least try to talk to her.

Basso laughed nervously, sitting across the desk from him. "I know it's not ideal… But she's going to get herself killed. I figured we should at least try to intervene."

"By 'we' you mean 'me'."

"Well yeah."

He glared. "Fine. Can you make sure Alia gets home?"

"Of course. How is she by the way?"

"Good. I made her wait outside." He motioned in the direction of the alley.

Basso narrowed his eyes, a sly grin spread on his wide face. "You seem… relaxed."

He felt himself tense slightly. The events of last morning and a couple hours before flashed in his head. He merely glared and left the tavern.

LATER

"It's about time you showed up."

His stomach sunk. Part of him wanted to believe that she wouldn't come, that she would blow off the job for fear of getting another one of his lectures. But when it came to Erin, as usual, he was wrong.

"Could you be any louder?" He snapped. She had purposefully made a ruckus while he was clearing out a house on his way to meet her.

"How else would you know it was me?" She smiled with her hands on her hips. She seemed to have ditched practical work clothes with something a little more risqué. "Basso did tell you we were working on this together right?"

"Yes, I've been sent to babysit. Again."

"Oh, Garrett, don't be like that. Come on, it will be just like old times."

"That's what I'm afraid of." He mumbled as he followed her through the rooftops. She tried to make small talk, even tried to compete with him on the way. But he would have none of it. There was a sour taste in the back of his mouth that he couldn't swallow no matter how hard he tried. Something bad was going to happen.

As he entered the abandoned attic he saw Erin sitting on a desk illuminated by the flicker of a few stray candles. The dust that had been disturbed by their movements was almost suffocating.

Erin's face fell. Her coy demeanor changed to a sneer in a matter of seconds. "What crawled up your ass and died? Are you mad because you couldn't bring your little pet along?"

He turned to face her, he could feel his face harden as he tried to keep a neutral expression. "No."

She scoffed and produced a map out of her pocket. "This Primal Stone thing is in the ceremony room at Northcrest Manor."

"That's the baron's mansion. It won't be easy." He said warily, snatching the map from her hands.

"Worried?" She asked coyly. She had painted her lips black and with her sharp features and scarf around her head she looked like a long black cat, no doubt raining bad luck wherever she went.

"Yes. And so should you."

"Don't worry!" She said cheerfully. "I'll pick up your slack." She slid off the desk and smiled.

He scowled at her. She was treating this like a game, nothing about her had changed. She tried to play this life off as 'fun' and 'exciting'; and an attitude like that was absolutely stupid. Garrett wasn't a thief for the rush or because he was inherently a bad person. He had needs and bills and he just so happened to be really good at stealing. People with great personalities became salesmen, and Garrett picked their pockets. Everyone utilizes their skills. But he often wondered if Erin saw value in anything. A commission was presented, she took it and ran with it. She didn't see the profit in staying anonymous, or picky, or even alive.

They worked their way through the streets until they came upon the stone wall that surrounded the baron's manor. He gave Erin a lift up and she helped to pull him over the edge. They landed in the cover of darkness and some decorative shrubs.

"That's a lot of guards…" Erin mumbled.

"I bet they're not here to kill time. A lot of guards is a lot of steel…" He trailed off quietly, hunched down in the brush.

"I've never had a problem with swords." She said proudly. "But then again, I'm not just a thief."

He scowled at her back. And with that she was swooping through the darkness, being reckless but silent. If she would just curb her attitude and dangerous tendencies Erin would be a very good thief. He hoped that her arrogance was part of her young age and prayed that if she lived long enough she would grow out of it.

As they made their way around the most populated areas of the courtyard they came across a pair of guards trying to light a fire pit.

"You couldn't set a cloth aflame if it was doused in oil, son" He heard one man say to the other much younger guard. "I'll show you how it's done. If you pack it together too close, then the air won't feed the flames."

The younger one sighed as he rounded the edge of the bushes and crouched behind Erin, waiting for an opportunity to get past them. "I should know better, my family used to be charcoal burners."

"Is that so?" The older one started, but Garrett didn't pay attention to what the rest of his response was as he watched Erin pounce on the young one. He saw his body go limp as she dragged him into the shadows. But the other guard turned, looking for his comrade. His hands were now tied. He had to take this man down quickly, quietly, and alive. He darted out from his hiding spot and came up on the unsuspecting guard's' back. He slammed the back of his head with his blackjack; and with a loud grunt he became lethargic. He let the man fall against his own body and dragged him over to a nice, dark spot where he wouldn't be seen, then went over to Erin who was ducking down behind a bench. He didn't like the way the guard she attacked looked laying there, something was off. He put his hands in front of his nose, trying in vain to feel him breathing.

"What the hell just happened?" He snapped. "Why'd you kill this guard? He was barely older than you!" He was having a hard time containing his anger and also keep whispering.

Erin seemed to shrink back a bit at his quiet wrath. "He was a guard, Garrett. Wrong place, wrong time." She gave a half-hearted shrug and peeked around to make sure they weren't seen.

"You haven't changed a bit, have you?"

She turned to look at him, offended. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means, I don't kill without thought or good reason, and I don't get paid for it." He glared at her.

She scoffed. "So basically it's okay when you or your new little pet to do it but not me? I see, I get it. But you know that guard," She gestured to the dead man next to her. "He's not going to wake up later and follow our trail to cause any trouble."

"If you were a good thief when any guards woke up you'd be long gone." She rolled her eyes at him. "And Alia saved my life." She looked back at him eyes wide. "In my opinion that falls under the category of 'a good reason'." He remembered seeing her frozen on the roof with her bow, and when was bleeding in a back alley she shed tears for the life she took. Alia may be soft hearted, but he would rather a bit of a cry baby then a cold blooded killer.

Her face scrunched up in a mix of emotions before she darted away from him. All this nonsense was giving him a headache that he really didn't need.

Between a few more silent movements and snarky comments about her dependence on this claw thing that she had they ended up on a roof adjacent to the ceremony room. As he swung down off of the rope he had climbed to get there he had the displeasure of watching her bash another man's face in.

Upon seeing his face twisted with anger she threw her head back and sighed. "What's the matter, Master Thief? You think I might actually beat you to this thing? I'd share. Probably."

"I'm worried you're going to get us both killed." He snarled.

"I can handle myself, okay? I can move faster, I can climb faster, I can-"

"You can kill faster, make mistakes faster. I get it." He cut her off, lacing his words with venom. "You're not in control." He tried to soften his voice to get through to her thick skull. She was making so many mistakes and the last thing he wanted was to hear of her getting killed on the job or hung in the streets for all to see.

She straightened her back and glared at him. "Well, that's why I'm better. So deal with it." He was about half an inch from punching her in the face. "Let's just get the job done." She said and turned to squeeze through a narrow walkway. Garrett took the opportunity to lift her claw tool off her belt. We'll do it without this, he thought to himself.

As he made his way across the large, flat roof of the ceremony room he knelt down beside Erin and peered through the large glass skylight. He could see about a dozen men, including the baron, all in long robes. They opened a chest with a blue stone that was glowing in a mystical manner. All in all it looked like some freaky magic shit that he wanted no part of. He could feel his muscles tense, telling him to run.

"I'm guessing that's what we're after. The Primal Stone." She said smoothly.

"Robes." He said, disgusted. "Robes are always a bad sign."

Down below, the men began talking about 'the awakened' and 'industrial enlightenment' and 'channeling the primal'. The Baron was seemed to be the leader, his arms outstretched over the little blue gem. Two hooded figures did something with a book, and all the others began to chant in some strange language. With the stone at their center, they encircled it and chanted even louder. A strange aura radiated from the primal stone and began to swirl around the would-be cultists.

"Come on, let's go down there this will be fun." Erin said, excited.

But Garrett was already half way across the roof. "No. We're done here. Job's over." Every alarm in his body was going off, telling him to get the hell out of there.

"What? Are you joking?" She asked him incredulously.

"Something's not right here. It's too dangerous." She still had a defiant look on her face. "And you're not ready yet." He said, keeping his eyes steady with hers.

"You know I'm not a kid anymore!" she pouted. "I can do this. I'm going down there, with or without you." She turned and headed back for the skylight.

"Not without this you're not." He said, holding her claw up for her to see.

She looked down at her belt then back up at him. Her face twisted in rage. "What the fuck is your problem?!" She tried to rush him but he dodged her.

"You're mad because I don't want to see you die?" She grabbed for the claw but he swatted her hand away.

"No." She sneered. "You're mad because I didn't turn out to be your little clone. I don't follow 'Garret's super special code' and so you look down on me and never realize my potential!" She shouted in the darkness as a strange wind picked up, and it was coming from below them.

"You can't just kill people Erin! Not without conscience or consequence!"

"Why because you're too weak to?!" She lunged at him and he found himself striking her in the face, hard.

"Because once you kill and shrug it off, every kill after that becomes more and more easy." He said between breaths. She stood there, holding her cheek and glaring at him. "Then everyone around you becomes expendable. Where does it stop, Erin? When you kill Basso? Me? You going to slit the throat of a child if he catches you in his mother's jewelry box?" He was desperate, trying to make her see. But her eyes were clouded with rage.

The stone beneath them began to sway. Garrett turned to see a bluish green light growing strongly from the room below. When his back was turned Erin swatted the claw from his hands. It fell on top of the glass and slid almost to the center. She immediately darted towards the danger, reaching for her tool.

"Don't move!" Garrett pleaded. He heard voices and saw the Thief Taker General down on the grounds below. They had been spotted. His heart pounded in his chest, adrenaline pulsed through his veins, begging him to run. But he had left Erin before, and he just couldn't bring himself to do it again.

She looked back at him, her eyes filled with panic as the glass below her gave way. He leaped forward and reached over the edge, just barely grabbing her forearm. The broken glass was cutting into his chest and under his arm as he dangled with her added weight. Looking past her hanging frame was the men with the robes, chanting and swaying as the light and smoke swirled around them and the stone.

"Garret!" Erin all but sobbed. "I'm slipping! Give me the claw!"

He looked over and sure enough it was there. With his free hand he tried to reach for it. He gritted his teeth and stretched his arm as far as it would go, but before he could attempt to curl his fingers around it he felt Erin's hand slip through his. He watched as she fell, dread and fear etched on her face. But she didn't hit the ground. She landed on a ball of light that was emitting from the stone beneath her, she looked around confused, but alive.

The walls began to shake as the building around them started to crumble from whatever black magic the robed men were performing. He tried to roll off the glass but it shattered underneath him. He squinted his eyes to try to keep glass from getting in them as he turned in the air and fired his grappling hook in a hail mary attempt to save his ass. He jarred as he reached the end of the rope, he didn't know what it could have hooked on but he wasn't about to question miracles. He closed his eyes as glass and wood rained down upon him. He only squinted open his right eye as he swung just a few feet above Erin, her arms and legs were outstretched and she wasn't moving anymore. He hit the wall as it all came crashing down around him, and the next thing he knew he was plunged into darkness.

*Well, this is where they left off in the game so this is where I'm going to leave off too. Next chapter will be up soon, hopefully, because I feel like I'm on a roll.