5 minutes earlier
Lesley drove to a halt, noting the black Honda Civic parked outside the cluster of buildings.
She stopped and laid the bike against a wall, unstrapping the rifle from her back and activating her camouflage state.
One shot. One kill.
He'd never see it coming.
Lesley ignored the swooping feeling in her chest as she sprinted around the first floor, checking below the staircases.
She looked below one of them, and her breath caught in her lungs.
"Lesley!" Harley was shouting, as Gusion snickered from beside her.
"He might be getting afraid," Lesley muttered, sneaking glances at her little brother, who was spinning in about every direction.
"Stop worrying too much," Gusion's infectious laugh snuck its way into her head, like an earworm, and Lesley found her spirits lifting.
"Easy to say for you," Lesley worriedly spoke.
"C'mon, Lesley, the point of hide-and-seek isn't to worry all the time!"
"Exactly what do you suggest-what is that?"
Gusion was scratching something into a wall using his dagger, and Lesley looked at it clearly. "Is that a drawing?"
Gusion nodded vigorously, his cheeks taking on a slightly pink tinge.
"Who-is that me?" Lesley asked.
Gusion flicked his knives. "I tried my best. I'm sorry if it-"
"It's wonderful," Lesley breathed-and it really was. He'd etched her face perfectly into a wall. She traced her finger along the lines of the carving.
"Thanks."
Lesley turned to him. "Did you always draw?"
Gusion nodded. "Yeah."
"How many drawings do you have at home?"
Gusion went redder now and he scratched the back of his neck. "Quite a few? I'm not sure…it's like a passing hobby. I just draw when I'm in the mood."
Lesley got the feeling that Gusion was embarrassed of something, but before she could press the matter, a jubilant voice echoed, "Found you!"
Lesley got out from under the staircase, followed by Gusion, who flipped his daggers. "Alright, kiddo, you got us. Who's the seeker now?"
"Who votes for Gusion to be the catcher?" Lesley called, and both her and Harley raised their hands, laughing at the dumbstruck expression on Gusion's face.
"Since when did you crack jokes?"
Lesley paused as she pondered Gusion's question. "Guess you got me in a happy mood now."
Gusion's face broke into a wide smile. "Sweet. One, two, three…"
Lesley and Harley began running away as Gusion counted loudly, and for once, her heart was at ease, without worries of the war raging on in the outside world.
Lesley set her rifle down and wiped off the dust off the wall. The carving of thirteen-year old her was still in the wall, and Gusion's infectious smile and laugh and Harley's boisterous enthusiasm came back to her in that instant.
A single tear fell from her eyes and rolled down her cheek, and Lesley immediately wiped it off, inhaling sharply and swallowing back the lump in her throat.
No feelings.
She snatched her rifle back up, trying to shut the voices in her head up.
Lesley walked over to the lift, pressing the button marked with a gleaming red four.
The lift lurched up with a heave, and that old illogical childhood fear that she would one day get stuck in this rusty lift and only her skeleton would be found returned.
She took a deep breath, and exhaled as the lift shuddered to a stop at the fourth level.
She looked outside the windows of the door, and her heart jolted as she saw Gusion casually walking over.
Their gazes locked, and Dyrroth's voice rang out in her head. Friend or family?
She raised the gun, and Gusion's expression changed from one of mild discomfort to utter terror, before his eyebrows furrowed and his stare hardened visibly, sending chills down her spine.
The lift doors opened and Gusion was already moving to the side, out of her immediate range.
Lesley cursed and ran out, knowing that in her heart, she would never be able to catch up to her best friend.
Gusion disappeared through the door of the staircases and Lesley ran through just as Gusion rounded the bend.
Lesley pointed the gun at where she estimated his head would be in about a second and fired, going for the headshot.
Gusion unexpectedly threw himself against the wall as the bullet buried itself in the staircase, and Lesley watched as he lost his balance and tumbled down the stairs, picking himself up and sprinting out.
Lesley let loose with a string of profanity and ran out of the door, running across the corridors to get a vantage point to snipe Gusion from, ignoring the feeling of her heart being pierced mercilessly and the tears welling up in her eyes.
Faramis looked up and saw Dyrroth lifting a ragdoll about half his size.
"Aren't you a little too old to be playing with toys?" he asked, though secretly he was glad that Dyrroth had finally moved on from torture and murder.
"It's a human," Dyrroth snapped. Never mind.
Faramis took a closer look at the 'doll', which he now saw was a person.
"He suddenly passed out, and no, I did not do anything to him," Dyrroth quickly clarified upon seeing the look on Faramis' face.
Faramis placed his hand and let his aura overflow the boy's, feeling whatever he felt, be it pain, happiness, or sorrow.
He quickly retracted it. "It's an allergic reaction to the dark energy in the Abyss. Something in his magic's reacting abnormally with pretty much-" Faramis checked again. "-all of his internal organs. Nothing fatal at the moment, though if we keep him here, that may change very quickly."
Dyrroth scratched his head. "You're telling me the kid can't be here?"
"Unless you want him dead within the hour. If you need him alive, he has to be above ground."
Dyrroth ruminated for a second, before apparently coming to a decision. He grabbed the kid and tapped the crystal on his chest, and a hole opened under them as he fell.
Faramis shook his head. One day or another, that kid's sadistic methods were going to get him into trouble.
Silvanna was zoned out when Fanny ran into her.
She knew this because she hadn't noticed Fanny colliding into her mid-flight, instead unfocusedly brushing off her quickly muttered apology.
Fanny had gotten used to her best friend's apathetic demeanour, but sometimes, the lack of emotion that her best friend displayed did get on her nerves.
"Anna!" she called out to the princess's retreating back, who had apparently not heard her.
Fanny sighed and thrust out two cables to each side of the corridor, hooking herself to Silvanna and leaping over her head before landing perfectly in front of her.
"Anna," Fanny repeated, before employing the trusted method she always used to awaken Silvanna from one of these trances-she grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her like a soda can.
The unfocused look disappeared from Silvanna's grey eyes as she narrowed them at Fanny. "What do you want?"
Fanny decided to cut to the chase. "Exactly what are you going to do?"
"Excuse me?"
"You're the princess of a war-torn country that's just lost its leader. We've got another defection to the dark side and a possible return of Shadowbringers, and one of our refugees-who were supposedly more protected, by the way-is dead. By murder, and we don't know who the killer is."
Silvanna cut in. "I hardly think that just because we've seen one Shadowbringer it means that the entire race is going to return."
"Yeah, but that's not what the people are going to think, aren't they?"
Silvanna frowned. "Why not?"
Fanny kept forgetting how terrible Silvanna was with people. "Because that's what they do. Also, Dyrroth is wreaking havoc on our lines. If he stops the siege and starts a full-scale attack, I'm not sure whether we'd be able to hold them off, let alone defeat them."
Silvanna's gaze grew frostier, but Fanny held her ground. She had never been afraid of Silvanna, and no amount of icy glares could change that.
"We can hold them off. And as for Gusion, I sent a few forces to scour the places he frequently visited. He will either be captured, or he has to get out of the Empire."
Gusion ran out on the third floor, Helcurt already ahead of him.
"How did she know that we're here?" Helcurt bellowed, and Gusion shushed him frantically.
"I don't know!"
"Did you tell her?"
"Why would I tell her?"
"Love is blind!"
Gusion spluttered. "I don't love her!"
Helcurt fired off another reply that Gusion didn't bother listening to. Out of the corner of his eye, a flash of pink hair moved.
"DUCK!" he bellowed, and hunched down as a bullet flew right over his head, grazing his hair as it embedded itself into the ground.
Gusion flattened himself against the wall at the side as more bullets ricocheted against the wall and the bannister.
Helcurt didn't move. "Too short to hit, sucker!"
The spray of bullets stopped and Gusion waited for a second before slowly looking up.
Almost immediately a bullet came at him, and Gusion barely ducked beneath it as it whistled past the bridge of his nose.
"We need to get inside Cecilion's house, and fast," Gusion muttered, and the cogs in his brain began to turn. "Helcurt? I've got a plan."
"All ears," Helcurt replied.
"I'll draw her away, and you break into his house."
"I don't even know what to look for!"
"Evidence?"
Helcurt sighed. "Fine. But how are you going to draw her away?"
Gusion flicked up a magic blade and flipped it, catching it by the blade. He took aim and hurled it at the lift button, and with a metallic creak, the lift groaned back to life, falling from the fourth floor.
"I'll take it and go upstairs, and hopefully Lesley will chase after me," he explained, casting a cursory glance upwards to check where she was as the lift arrived.
That probably saved him, as the barrel of the rifle was aimed for him from the top floor, Lesley having repositioned herself to get a good shot.
For a second, he froze, paralysed with terror. But Lesley, for some reason, hesitated.
She never hesitated.
Gusion leapt into a roll just as the lift doors juddered open, two bullets just missing him as he slid into the lift, before getting to one knee and slamming the close button as a bullet splintered the reinforced glass.
He slumped back down and slapped the button with a 5.
The lift rose, slowly and clunkily and Gusion got into a sprinting position.
The lift ground to a halt, and the moment the doors opened, Gusion burst out of the lift just as Lesley exploded from the door of the staircases at the exact same time.
She pointed the rifle and fired and Gusion twisted, the bullet grazing his right bicep as he faced her, his hand going to the slightly wounded area.
Gusion stared at her, unable to understand why she was shooting at him, and that moment of distraction cost him as Lesley's finger was on the trigger, a hard look in her eyes.
A loud "NO!" was wrenched from Gusion's throat as Lesley's finger squeezed.
The gun simply clicked, and Lesley cursed angrily as Gusion moved forward, tackling her around the waist and wrapping another hand around her thigh to lift her leg off, bringing them both down to the floor in a tangled mess of limbs.
Gusion grabbed the barrel of the rifle, grunting as he tried to wrench it from her hands. He knew she was much stronger than him, but he hoped that she was slightly disoriented.
He was right. The rifle slid away from her grip with enough momentum to hit Gusion on the chin. He hurled the rifle down the corridor as far away from them as he could, and grabbed her by the shoulders and pinned her down.
Lesley's head came up and hit him in the nose, and Gusion's eyes watered as he was shoved off.
They both got to their feet and Gusion clenched his fists as he stared Lesley down, standing between Lesley and the rifle.
Mostly, during their spars, he would be the one to initiate combat. Surprisingly, she took the initiative this time and lunged at him.
Gusion blocked a fist with his forearm and dodged Lesley's follow-up elbow strike, but a knee to the abdomen caught him off guard and she shoved him back and went in for another strike.
Gusion unsheathed his dagger and sidestepped, slicing lightly across Lesley's upper arm before grabbing her by the back of her shirt and tugging her back, causing her to lose her balance.
He slammed his shoulder into her and knocked her back, and she took a look at the small cut he'd made.
Gusion smiled. "Now we've got matching scars."
Lesley snorted, dropping the surly snarl for a second, and Gusion felt his heart soar as her mouth twisted into the crooked half-smile she got when she found something mildly amusing. "Seriously?"
"We do everything together, don't we?"
Suddenly Gusion could pretend that everything was back to normal-the two of them together, thick as thieves, with him performing ridiculous antics to hear her melodic laugh that felt like heaven on earth, them cracking jokes about whatever unintentionally funny thing Lapu-Lapu said, the best of friends(and hopefully more than that).
Then it was as if a spell had been cast as Lesley's face snapped back to its serious expression, fierce determination shining through her wintry blue eyes.
Gusion flipped his daggers. "You know I'm innocent, right?"
"Shut up," Lesley snarled, and Gusion caught the choked edge in her voice. Something's up with her.
"Lesley-" he began, but she gave no room for him to continue, wildly lunging at him.
She herself had advised against it, five years ago, during one of his first few sparring sessions.
"Don't go swinging immediately, no matter how fast you are," Lesley spoke, cracking her knuckles as Gusion groaned from the ground, the flurry of fists to his abdomen having knocked the wind out of him.
"You know," he wheezed. "I got stabbed there by Hanzo."
"That was seven months ago, and I know you got stabbed. I got my stomach slashed open too, Gusion."
Gusion sighed, and got to one knee.
"Up for another one, Les?"
She dropped into a fighting stance. "Ready when you are."
Gusion used the exact same tactic she'd used back then-he swung his forearm into her neck, and she recoiled, gasping for air.
If he hit her now, right in the diaphragm, and shoved her to the ground, she wouldn't get up for at least two minutes, and it would take a longer time for her to actually come after her.
That'd hurt her.
The image of Lesley, unable to breathe and coughing on the floor, entered his mind.
Instead, Gusion grabbed her by the shoulders, and slammed her against the wall, trying to use as little force as possible.
He summoned two daggers and tilted her head upwards, before stabbing them downwards, around her neck, and he watched her eyes clamp shut as the daggers plunged through the air towards her.
Helcurt clambered over the railing and stuck his claws into the cement.
"Come on, Helcurt," he told himself. "You got this."
He took another step forward, and caught sight of the windows.
In fact, there were several windows.
Which one was Cecilion's?
Helcurt whistled as he slowly, yet steadily crawled over to the row of five windows on the fourth floor, before clawing at the second window.
After he'd made a large enough gash, he stabbed it with his tail, and the window shattered. Helcurt launched himself inside the room, and walked over to the door.
"How do I open this?" he snarled, trying to turn the round doorknob with his claws, which just kept sliding off.
"Great."
Dyrroth leapt out of the portal. "ZHASK!"
There was a crash and a clatter, and Zhask began shouting what were probably curse words in Kastiyan, before exiting the kitchen with a spatula and ladle in each hand.
"Wadja want?" Zhask snapped.
Dyrroth dropped the stirring child at Zhask's feet. "He's a hostage, but I can't keep him down there because of medical reasons. Some allergies, according to Faramis."
Zhask nodded. "So what do I do?"
"Honestly, just stick him in a room until I tell you what else to do."
"Got it. What food should I give him?"
Dyrroth's mouth split in a creepy open-wound smile. "Nothing."
"Come again?"
"No food, no water," Dyrroth elaborated. "I want him to be in agony when his sister sees him again. I'll leave him there for about a week, then I'll kill him. And it will shatter Lesley Vance, mentally and emotionally. That will be sweet to watch, breaking down a strong-willed hero to a fraction of what she was."
Zhask nodded. "Why don't we just kill him now?"
"It'll hurt more when I let them adjust a bit."
"Really?"
Dyrroth shrugged. "In the meantime, I've got myself entertained with something else."
Zhask finally recalled it. "There's something you might want to know."
"What?"
"Cecilion's dead."
Dyrroth's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. "How?"
Zhask shrugged. "Carmilla called a few minutes ago. She sounded like she'd been crying."
Dyrroth's face twisted into an angry snarl, before the orange gem on his chest began to buzz. "I gotta go, Alice is calling."
The black hole opened up beneath him and he fell in, leaving Zhask alone with Harley.
Lesley opened her eyes, surprised that she was alive.
She tried to look down, but her chin hit something cold and metal.
Two knives had been embedded in the wall in a criss-cross position around her neck, and Gusion snatched up her right hand, flicking another two dagger around it, effectively pinning her to the wall.
Lesley tried to use her free hand, but Gusion saw it coming and within seconds, that hand was trapped too, so that Lesley was in a position similar to being crucified, except that she was uninjured, and her legs were still free.
For a second, everything was silent, save the sound of their heavy breathing, and Lesley suddenly was keenly aware of how close they both were, her heart fluttering.
Her lips tingled and suddenly her knees felt weak as Gusion's hot breath blew across her cheek, causing her body to shiver.
What was up with her?
Gusion suddenly pulled away, a pale blush dancing on his face, and something akin to disappointment flooded through Lesley's veins, something that she didn't understand.
"You know I'm innocent, right?"
Lesley didn't look him in the eyes. She couldn't-he'd stuck by her side for the best and worst times of her life ever since she was twelve. He was closer to her than anyone else, even Harley, though she would never have admitted it.
You would have killed me, wouldn't you?
"It was just a dream," she muttered to herself under her breath, inhaling deeply and clenching her jaw.
"You're not fine," Gusion said-even though his voice was soft, it felt deafening.
Lesley's hands curled up into fists. "Let me go."
"For you to shoot me?"
Dream-Gusion's betrayed expression floated to the forefront of her mind, and Lesley gritted her teeth.
Gusion's hand went to her cheek and tilted it up, and Lesley's breath short-circuited from the contact, the grey specks in his electric blue eyes having never looked more prominent.
Friend or family?
Dyrroth's slimy voice flooded her head, and Lesley shook her head, dislodging his palm from her face. Don't look at him, don't look at him, don't look at him.
"Whatever it is, you can talk to me-" he tried to explain.
"Go away," she snarled, trying not to face him, and the wave of guilt he caused.
"Les-"
"JUST GO!" she bellowed, her face hot with anger, as she turned to him.
The anger melted away as she took in the kicked-puppy expression on his face, and he stepped away from her.
"Those are-those are magic blades," he said. "They'll fade in forty-five minutes. Don't try to move-you might cut yourself."
Lesley nodded to the best of her ability, to show that she understood.
The both of them stayed in silence.
"I'm sorry about Harley," Gusion said, and Lesley's head snapped out, her lungs suddenly unable to function. How did he know?
Oh, and the moment you tell anyone about this-do I even need to elaborate?
"I-I should have told you about Helcurt." Lesley's breathing returned to normal. "I put you and him in danger. It was my mistake-I thought you wouldn't want him around. I'm sorry for that."
I'm sorry too, Lesley thought. I wish things were different. I wish I didn't have to kill you.
"I don't know whether you're trying to kill me because you think I've gone dark, or because you think I murdered Cecilion, or because I put you guys in danger. I-I just want this to stop. To go back to how things were. I'll tell Helcurt to go away. Or we can work something out."
So do I, Gusion, so do I.
But she couldn't speak her thoughts.
Your target is Gusion Paxley.
"Go away," Lesley whispered, trying not to break down. Don't show it.
Gusion stared at her for a second, then turned on his heel and walked away.
Forty-five minutes, then you'll be back to killing him.
Gusion suddenly reappeared in front of her, and Lesley jerked in surprise.
"Hold still." His hand reached for the daggers around her neck, and she stiffened.
The daggers came loose before Gusion pulled them out, before he removed the purple scarf and tied it around her upper arm, where he had cut her.
"I thought it would be funny to give you a matching scar," he whispered into her ear, sending shivers down her body. What is he doing to me and does he know it?
Lesley's eyes wandered to his own wound. "What about you?"
Gusion looked at it, before pulling up the sleeve, exposing a bruise and a slightly bleeding scratch across the muscle. "It'll heal."
"So will mine."
"But yours will hurt more when you're stuck in that position."
"And yours will hurt more when you're in a fight."
Gusion's lips twisted in a wry smile. "I'll be fine. And besides, you'll probably be getting into more fights to protect Harley, won't you?"
Where did you go?
Something must have shown on her face, because Gusion grew serious. "Hey, what's wrong?"
Can I tell him?
Dyrroth's cackle echoed in her head.
"Let me out," she snarled, her gaze fixed on the ground.
"You know I can't do that."
"Then leave."
Each footstep that he took felt like the ringing of the executioner's bell to her, and she tried to disregard the burning feeling in her heart and the pit in her stomach.
"Just wait for forty-five minutes," she repeated to herself. "Then we can get Harley back."
You'll have to kill Gusion for that. Can you?
Gusion distractedly made his way back down to the fourth floor.
Something was up with Lesley. She'd hesitated to shoot him once, and she'd somehow lost quickly in a fight with him.
Gusion was faster than her, sure, but when it came to hand-to-hand combat, Lesley surpassed him easily.
He knocked on the door. "Helcurt, let me in!"
Helcurt's raspy voice came through. "I can't open this stupid thing!" The sounds of claws scraping against metal became more pronounced, and Gusion had to fight a snicker at the mental image of Helcurt struggling with a doorknob.
It took five minutes for Helcurt to somehow open the lock, and he pulled the door open, but the gate on the outside was padlocked.
"Keys," Gusion said, and Helcurt leapt onto a wall before using his tail to hook a key ring off the key hanger.
Gusion tried three keys before getting the right one and walked into Cecilion's house, locking the door behind him.