High Noon sat in the prison cell as he awaited his release. He had told them what they were to say to police and now awaited confirmation from the Board. They bandaged up his leg for him, but it still hurt. It would take some time for his muscles to heal. He also had time to think of all the things he had done wrong.
For both of Mahogany Wood’s siblings, he had listened to them. Oak Wood wanted to be left alone to conduct his research, while Hemlock wanted to get out of the car to kill the Assassin. Both of them made the wrong choice, but the punishment would go down to him.
Moments later, he heard footsteps as a police officer and a familiar face showed up around the corner. The cop produced some keys and opened the lock to his cell door. High Noon got up and walked out to greet the Templar.
“Crescent Wing,” High Noon acknowledged as the blue-skinned bodyguard stood before him.
“Chairman Wood wants you to know, he’s given you too many chances,” Crescent Wing began. “This is the last.”
High Noon paused for a while, but realized there was nothing more he could do. “I understand.”
He followed Crescent Wing out of the station and into the car parked outside. Crescent Wing waited until the cowboy got into the car before proceeding to the driver’s seat.
“Thanks for coming to get me, Crescent,” Noon said as the chairman's bodyguard started the car.
“Don’t get me mistaken,” Crescent Wing told him coldly, as he kept his eyes on the road. “I’m not doing this because you’re my friend. I’m just doing what I’m told, and I do it effectively.”
“Yeah…” High Noon sighed.
Crescent Wing did much better than he did. He never lost anyone he had to protect. High Noon had already lost two.
“Crescent Wing?” High Noon asked. “What we do as Templars… are we doing the right thing?”
This time, Crescent half turned his head. “Why do you doubt us now? Of course we are. The Templars fight to secure a better world for everyone. The Assassins just get in our way, because they can’t see what we see.”
“But we strive to control the world? To make it better, but on our terms?”
“Look, Noon. You shouldn’t ask these questions. Just know that it’s all for the better.”
High Noon rested his back on the seat. “Alright. I guess so.”
“Good,” Crescent Wing said, returning his full attention to the road.
The rest of the journey continued in silence as they drove to the Board of Education’s building.
Frigid went down to the armory before looking for Mirror Match. He had lost his sword in the Templar chase in Manehattan. He needed a new weapon. One hidden blade and a few throwing knives weren’t going to be enough.
“Never really good with swords, were you, Frigid?” someone said behind him.
He turned to see the Mentor’s right hand man behind him, leaning on the doorway.
“Star Lance!” he said, startled. “What’re you doing all the way here?”
He pulled down his hood as he walked in and smoothed out his purple hair. “I can’t just be hanging around the Mentor’s office all day can I?”
“Guess not,” Frigid said, though he was sure that was what Star Lance did.
“Anyway, I don’t think you do very well with swords at all. You’ve gone on… what? Three missions? I think you should switch it up. You haven’t done all that well with one, have you?”
“Well, I can get better.”
“Sure you can, Frigid Night,” Star Lance said sarcastically. “Maybe in another fifty years or so. If you’re still alive by then.”
Star Lance looked like his was going to say more, but a hand appeared on his shoulder, taking his attention away from Frigid.
“Star Lance, please,” Dust Fencer said sternly. “Don’t bother the kid. He’s still got much more to learn.”
“Got that right,” Star Lance smirked. He dusted off Dust Fencer’s hand and walked out.
Dust turned to Frigid. “Don’t listen to what most of them say. I think you still have lots of potential.”
“Thanks, Dust,” Frigid said, thankful he had friends like him. “Weren’t you supposed to bring the data to Pierce Network?”
Dust Fencer laughed. “Have you forgotten who Pierce Network is? He finished breaking down all the data on your way here. Sure, he talked to himself for a bit, but he finished it. And… why are you here, Frigid? I thought you were going to the dojo.”
“I lost my sword while chasing Hemlock. I need something else.”
Dust Fencer thought for a while. “Maybe a long weapon doesn’t suit you. I know you’re pretty good with knives, so why not take this.”
Dust walked over to one section and picked out another hidden blade for Frigid. “This might work better for you. Plus, it’s going to be strapped onto your arm, so it’ll be harder to lose.”
Frigid accepted the blade. He’d never thought about getting a second one. Maybe this could be what he was looking for from the start.
“Thanks, Dust,” Frigid said, equipping the second hidden blade. “So… what did Pierce find out?”
“Oh, right!” Dust remembered, laughing. “That’s what I came here to tell you.”
“What?”
Dust stopped and made a serious face. “We’ve discovered what the Templars have been doing.”
Frigid waited. “Go on.”
“This artifact they’ve been mentioning? Apparently, it has some sort of power that lets them control people.”
“What? As in… mind control?”
Dust Fencer nodded. “We believe so. The good news is that they’ve been trying to figure out how to use it effectively, but failed at using it for long periods of time.”
“So they still haven’t figured it out,” Frigid understood.
“That’s right.”
“And there’s bad news, yes?”
“Yes. We’ve discovered more Templars.”
“Who else do we have?” Frigid asked.
“The Board of Education. They are all Templars.”
“Wow, talk about problems…” Twilight Sparkle stopped to think about what she had heard from Morning Blade. “So that’s when you figured out your human education heads were the bad guys?”
“That’s when the others learnt about it, yes,” Morning grinned. “I wasn’t there yet, remember?”
“That’s right,” Twilight chuckled. “Kinda forgot about it. You make it all sound like you were actually there.”
“That’s how it sounds when you gather lots of information from various different key sources, Twilight.”
Twilight put the end of her pencil against her cheek. “So what happens now? They set out to defeat the education board?”
“You know, about that…” Morning flipped her pages. “I could only gather so much information over the years. Some things just… skip, you know? What I’m trying to say is that I have some missing bits of information.”
“Oh,” Twilight blinked a few times. “Don’t worry, Morning Blade. You’ve already done so much by having this book of history. A few missing parts aren’t going to change anything.”
“Thank you, princess,” Morning looked down at her book. “So if you don’t mind, we can continue on. We’ll have missed some training and missions Frigid undertook, but I don’t think we’ve missed the most important bits. Here we go…”
One year later
Frigid strolled down the halls of the bureau looking for Mirror Match. It has been a week since he and Mirror Match became apprentices. He’d thought they should celebrate over some food. It had been a while since he'd gotten to eat with her.
He headed down the stairs to the ground floor, making a turn at the staircase. Spotting a familiar figure ahead, he called out to her. “Mirror Match!”
She turned and waved at him. “Frigid Night! Yes? What can I do for you?”
“Want to go grab some lunch?” he asked. “I’m a little hungry, and I thought we should celebrate becoming apprentices. We’re moving up the ranks at a good speed.”
“Well, I haven’t eaten yet, so why not?”
They continued down towards the canteen. On the way there, two Assassins had stopped them.
“Hey, Frigid!” Ice Flake, a veteran Assassin with white hair and blue skin smiled. “You two seem close. Are you like…”
“Together?” Fire Frenzy, a fiery haired Assassin, who was also Ice Flake’s partner, added in.
Mirror looked like she was about to say something, but Frigid cut in. “Oh no, no. Not like that. We’re just partners.”
“Yeah…” Ice Flake patted him on the arm. “I can see that. Well, enjoy your time together.”
The two Assassins went on, laughing about something Frigid couldn’t hear about, but he paid no attention to them.
“So…” Mirror started on the way to the canteen. “We’re just… partners?”
Frigid blushed, unsure of what to say. “Uhh… well… we’re friends. That’s it! Yup! Friends! More than partners.”
Mirror looked disappointed for a second, but shook it off as they entered the huge eating room.
“So what do you think about the Board?” she asked him, getting their minds off of the earlier conversation. “If we take them all down, someone’s going to know something’s up. That or we let the media decide the story.”
“Yeah,” Frigid pondered, putting his hand to his chin. “We’ve got to be very careful about who we take out and we’ve got to make them all look like accidents, I suppose.”
“I still can’t believe that they’re all Templars. They put up a pretty good cover.”
“Yeah,” Frigid nodded. “Also, you remember Flurry? The Templar we took down last week?”
“Yes?”
“She had data on her, revealing that the Wood family has been in control of the Templars here for quite some time now.”
“Ah, the Woods,” she nodded, remembering old targets. “Hemlock was part of the Wood family.”
“Yeah, and this one other guy I assassinated. Oak Wood.”
“The Templar Grand Master must be pretty upset with what you’ve done,” she joked, elbowing him in the ribs.
“Ouch!” he yelped. They entered the canteen, heading for the front. “Well, I guess we’ll worry about that when the time comes. It’s food time!”
High Noon paced his room, wondering about everything he had done since leaving Appleloosa. Ever since the Assassin gave him a knife to his leg, he’d been thinking if he had chosen the wrong side. He left the bandages on long after his leg was healed. It was a good reminder that he needed to be more careful with what he did.
“Still thinking, Noon?”
He looked up to see who it was and quickly got up.
“Chairman Wood,” he said. “What can I do for you?”
“Not much, it seems,” Mahogany Wood sneered. He walked over to the window and looked out. “I want you to watch Lumberjack. He’s bringing in the best killers in town to take down the Assassins. Maybe you can learn something from him.”
“If that’s what you want me to do, sir,” High Noon responded, feeling like he wasn’t going to be of much use anymore.
The Chairman turned to the door. “Learn well. Don’t expect anymore chances from me.”
High Noon made his way to a chair as Mahogany Wood left. The Chairman didn’t seem to trust him at all. Now he had to watch Mahogany’s brother, Lumberjack, find killers. Killers were the very people he wanted to stop, and now here he was, helping to hire people to kill other people.
Things weren’t looking too great.
Mahogany Wood returned to his office and sat at his desk. High Noon has been a drastic disappointment since he let Oak Wood die. He’d thought he give the man a second chance by looking out for his sister, Hemlock, but he failed that too.
He picked up his phone and dialed a number. After three rings, someone picked up.
“Hello, this is Ash Wood speaking. With whom am I speaking to?”
“Ash,” Mahogany started. “It’s your brother, Mahogany.”
“Ah, Mahogany. What can I do for you?”
“I have a man here, High Noon. He’s not as effective as I once thought he was. He is the one that let Oak Wood and Hemlock die.”
“Ah… that one,” Ash said with hatred in his voice. “What do you need of me, brother?”
“Keep an eye on him for me,” Mahogany ordered. “If he even messes up one more time. If he lets our brother Lumberjack die… Take him out.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Ash chuckled. “I’ll get to doing what I do best.”
Mahogany put down the phone. He’d give High Noon this last chance. If he couldn’t even pull off one more useful act, then there would be no point in keeping him.