Chapter Twenty
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Yor woke, instantly alert to every sound and movement as her bleary eyes opened to the ceiling. Rain fell softly on the fire escape by the bedroom window. Anya breathed evenly in her sleep. The room was by no means loud, she heard nothing of alarm outside, and she wasn't sure what had woken her. The lull of drowsy warmth tried to pull her back under, but something nicked in her brain, unable to let her rest.
She sat up and checked on the kids sleeping on the bed. She and Loid had insisted that Demetrius take it and the children slept soundly on either side of him. With little to no floor space to comfortably settle in the living room, Yor and Loid didn't mind sleeping on the floor and they had rolled out mats on opposite sides of the bed.
Seeing Anya safe and sound, Yor tilted her head and tucked her hair behind an ear, listening for anything amiss. All was silent. The apartment was quiet on the other side of the bedroom door and yet Yor couldn't leave it alone.
She had felt this before. The unsettling twitch in her brain that told her not all was right. The danger that lurked beyond the illusion of safety and stillness. A disquiet that reached into her bones and urged her to be on her guard despite the warmth nestling in the apartment against the cold outdoors and the blissful peacefulness ensconcing her and her loved ones.
With noiseless motions, she removed her blanket and crept to the door. She held an ear to it and tried to quiet her beating heart in her head. She so very much wanted to leave the bedroom to investigate, but she made herself wait a moment longer for any sound. She was glad she did as her trained hearing picked up on something in the main area.
Someone was here.
Weightless steps passed over the floor like a wraith, undetectable to those who couldn't feel the subtle shifts in the floor and the sound of friction that no matter how one tried to erase, could never truly be completely smothered. And as Yor assessed the situation, she determined there to be at least three invading the apartment.
They weren't thieves. They moved with graceful stealth that Yor knew only herself to exceed and her features fell heavy with dangerous understanding.
Her knives flicked out from her hands.
Yor glanced to Loid who had risen to sitting on the opposite side of the room from where Yor had been sleeping and maybe it was the look on her face that made him understand and nod. With a dig under his pillow, he withdrew his pistol and Yor turned her attention back to the door, or rather what waited on the other side, as Loid carefully woke the kids from their peaceful slumber.
It was too bad they had to wake them. Yor would have liked to take care of business before anyone even knew, dispose the bodies, and return to bed without anyone ever having to worry. But she couldn't risk the smallest chance that things could go badly and catch the kids unawares in their sleep. They could be taken away or hurt before they even knew what was happening.
As Loid joined Yor at the door she was met with a welcome feeling of companionship. She was used to handling things on her own, but she liked working with Loid. They had made a good team infiltrating the lab and, like that instance, this one felt more important than anything else. When she is assigned a target, she is protecting her country. But right now she's protecting her family and, though they were not in an ideal situation, her heart thrummed with love for her adoptive daughter and a warmth for her husband who had provided that relationship. Who had given her this family to protect in the first place.
The intruders were stalking closer and Yor held up three fingers to her husband. He indicated he understood and they double checked that the children had moved to the side and out of the door's line of sight when it would open.
Yor shared a curt nod with Loid and they burst out of the bedroom.
The attack was immediate. The three assassins were clearly not expecting the Forgers to be aware of their presence, much less charge at them, and Yor's knife was barely deflected with a shing by a woman that she didn't bother profiling. That alone toldYor how good she was. To be able to defend herself against the Thorn Princess was no small feat. Keeping control of her adrenaline, the quick of Yor's eyes observed the important parts of her opponent. The neck. Her temples. Her gut that would bleed out with a stab of her knife. Her hands that carried a single edged sword licked with poison if the faint smell trailing after the blade as it swung near Yor's face was anything to go by.
Loid's gun didn't last long in his hands. As adept as he was, his training was not that of an assassin and it was swiftly disabled, though he dodged the following attack. Yor spared a tenth of a glance to the weapon he narrowly avoided. In each of the enemy's hands, a handle was attached to blades on either end and they curved sharply to form an overlapping circle that didn't quite touch. It rendered the firearm useless when it sliced it in two like a block of soft butter.
Loid was unarmed.
Movement burst from the third assassin and without missing a beat, Yor deflected her attackers sword, spun, and kicked the flying knife on it's way to dig into Loid's skull, sending it past his face instead of into it. The knife embedded in the wall with a thump and Loid was quick to grab it, using it as a shield against another blow aimed for his chest.
Yor's hands all but vibrated with the urge to use them. The years of training and habitual practice urging every slash with powerful intensity. Her opponent was strong, but Yor was stronger. Faster. Every swing of the long blade missed it's mark, even as Yor interfered with the second and third assassins' attempts to bring down Loid.
A swipe ripped the swordswoman's shoulder and Yor met the returned attack with her own. It was deflected.
Slash, block, dodge, attack, annoy the third assassin trying to gang up on Loid. He was managing against the one, but he didn't need a second. Having decided that Yor was getting too much in the way, the assassin with the throwing knives, aimed and missed at her chest. Instead, Yor yanked the swordswoman in front of her to take it in it the back.
She only grunted.
With no less vigor than before, the fight continued like a dance, soft scuffing and the cling of steel on steel the only evidence anything was happening. Yor didn't give the swordswoman a chance to remove the blade in her back as they naturally moved into the living room immediately to Yor's left. The third assassin followed.
There really was almost no space to fight in and Yor grabbed the advantage of height on the coffee table before the swordswoman could. Yor's opponent came at her legs and Yor dodged, slamming a foot down on the blade, pinning it to the table, and kicking the woman in the face in retaliation. The head swung back, blood dripping, and Yor's same foot came flying up to kick a knife in the air harmlessly to the side. The third assassin wasn't done and was suddenly jumping off the wall opposite the couch and flying towards Yor, blades in either hand.
Clang! Thud!
The windowed wall shuddered at the body thrown into it, though the third assassin was quick to get up.
Until Yor threw her knife in his eye and he crumpled to the ground.
She spun as the swordswoman rose, surprising Yor. She was sure she had knocked her out, or even killed her with the force to her skull, but here she was standing. And more determined than ever. Her eyes narrowed into angry slits, raising her blade once more.
Yor's eyes narrowed in turn, not risking to retrieve her knife or take a glance at Loid, but watched in her periphery for how he was doing. Not the best, apparently. It was taking everything he had just to stay on the defensive, using a second knife he must have found somewhere. Yor needed to finish this swordswoman off quick and help him.
The swordswoman lunged.
There must be something about getting knocked in the head that boosted one's skills, because it was as if the swordswoman's reserves kicked in to double her speed and rate of attack. Yor jumped from the table as the sword broke it in two and she was forced into a constant trade of blows and blocks where neither seemed to gain the upper hand. Slash, deflect, kick, dodge, thrust, attack, block, block, deflect, knee, slash, kick.
The sword swung and slashed with deadly accuracy and Yor was constantly dodging in and out of it's reach. As she made one of these dodges out of reach, she found herself at the wall and swiped her knife out of the assassins head without taking her eyes off her opponent. It took barely a second, but the swordswoman took it, missed Yor, and sliced into the wall. A speckling of dust puffed the air as the assassin withdrew her sword to dodge Yor's knife and the competition to see who could draw blood next, continued.
It was going on too long. When Yor next checked on Loid, there was blood striping his sleeve (though he wasn't doing terribly) and his assassin wasn't slowing down. The swordswoman was relentlessly persistent and Yor had to finish this now. She forced her mind to focus, to forget about Loid or anyone else for the moment, her vision tunnelling on the movements in front of her and the muscles giving away the swordswoman's next move before she could preform them.
This was rare. This never happened. Yor couldn't remember the last time someone had lasted so long against her. Her opponent's training must have started as early as Yor's did.
But Yor was still better.
The assassin gasped in pain at the knife shoved into her gut. The sword slipped from her fingers as the blade in her stomach was ripped upwards.
She fell to the floor, choking on her own blood.
Yor stepped over the dying body, absently wondering how difficult it would be to get the stains out of the floor. Though it wouldn't matter after this. They would definitely be moving. She didn't like how quickly they had been found and that was also something they would have to look into.
"Tsk." The assassin jumped away from Loid before Yor's blade pierced his skull, annoyed by the interruption. It seemed he had been having fun sparring with Loid. Yor would be lying if she said she didn't take a little pleasure at his slight smirk that turned fiercely downwards at her interference. After dealing with the swordswoman, Yor's intense focus had dropped a little, having dispatched the object of her concern. This assassin before her would not best her and with no others to currently worry about, she wasn't on a time limit.
The assassin must have been quite consumed by his fight with Loid, because now he was noticing his two downed allies with uneasy displeasure. Unease, because Yor had dispatched them both and now he had to deal with her.
Yor's knife was immediately yanked from the wall as she swiped at her enemy with the other. His eyes briefly flashed wide when she seemed to teleport in front of him and barely missed the killing strike to his neck. A trickle of blood leaked from the graze and he desperately raised his weapons. Yor barraged him mercilessly, beating him back and away from her husband and to the door.
Interesting. He wasn't dead yet.
Though he wasn't doing well, collecting scrapes and slashes as he always just managed not to die. But he couldn't do it forever and Yor didn't miss the glance behind her. To the door. The bedroom door.
Where the kids were.
Yor didn't like that.
And she made this very known as her knife drove through the front door, missing his head as he literally jumped away from her to the side, diving into a roll. He was up instantly and making for the window.
"Oh, no you don't." Yor muttered murderously, leaving a new peep hole as she withdrew her blade.
by some irritating sense of instinct, the assassin caught her blade flung at his head as he turned, and crashed backwards into the glass.
Smash!
The closed curtains did nothing to hinder the assassin as he jumped out the window, and it did nothing to hinder Yor when she scraped the assassin's torso. But he was falling. He grew further away with every second and before she could throw her knife, he threw something instead.
Yor grabbed for it instinctively when it arced to the window and she let her gaze shift to it from her prey.
A grenade.
Authors Note: I may redo this chapter at some point. Maybe. Not in love with the fight scene but I'm too lazy to redo it at the moment. :P