“Aah!” Mirror Match involuntarily groaned as she applied the ointment and bandages to her wounded chest. She had planned on getting her fill from her meeting with Frigid, but instead, she used up all her reserve energy facing off against High Noon. She didn’t have enough left to heal her wounds, though she managed to scrape up some residue from some of the civilians in Trottingham; just enough for her to get back to her penthouse without drawing undue attention.
Mirror cursed at High Noon as she finished wrapping the bandages around her chest. She hadn’t felt this weak in a long time. Tiny gouts of emerald flame escaped from her nostrils and from between her teeth as her internals attempted to repair the damage they had been dealt.
Mirror pushed a whole clump of purple hair out of her face before shuffling herself over to her nail clippers and scissors. She grumbled, having to cut her nails and hair back to normal length again was a pain, especially since she only just did so the previous day. Plus, her body was in bad shape from the bullets, unable to heal up instantly because of her rash decision. She had been careless, not smelling High Noon until he was practically upon them. She was getting sloppy, letting her guard down in Frigid’s presence.
“You’re lucky I don’t kill you right now, High Noon…” Mirror coughed as she picked up her clippers. “Or actually, unlucky if you look at it from your view…”
After she finished trimming everything back to regular length, the Templar agent slowly made her way to her living room wearing nothing but her bandages, gently leaning herself back on the couch with a sigh. It was going to take at least three days before she could get back to operating strength. She wished Frigid Night was here right now. With him around, she could probably get back to her optimal within a few hours. Thinking about the grey haired Assassin just made her stomach rumble so she changed topics.
Mirror Match picked up her remote and flipped to a random romance channel. Whether she liked it or not, watching through it would at least help her through a little of her pain.
A sappy love story was playing, where a girl had been separated from her lover because of a parasitic infection and had to fight her way through infected humans to see him again. The film refreshed Mirror slightly, until a character played by Ebony Wings popped on stage and saved the girl.
“No, no, no, no,” Mirror muttered as she began flipping through the different channels. “Why is it always her? Is she in every blasted movie?”
Put off by the supposedly acclaimed actress, Mirror decided against watching the TV and stalked over to her room where she carefully laid herself on the bed, avoiding pressure on her injuries.
“Ah... ” Mirror hadn’t had to deal with lasting pain in so long that she had almost forgotten what it was like to have to live with it normally. “As if life could get any worse…”
Something would have to be done. Mirror dialled up one of her agents, Sassy Saddles. After the fifth or sixth ring, someone picked up on the other end.
“Hello, Sassy? Yes, this is Mirror Match. I wanted to ask you, how soon can we have another charity event going up? Yes, I wish to donate some funds to the old people’s home. No, I don’t care which one! I’ll send over the invoice and you can present it for me. No, I shan’t be attending, Sassy. I’m feeling a touch unwell and my doctor has told me to get a few days’ rest. No, it’s not serious; just a slight allergic reaction to a shot, you know how it is. Call me back if there are any complications. Goodbye.”
Mirror put the phone down and gazed lazily at her wall. This charity event ought to speed up her recovery process. It wasn’t as good as meeting dear ol’ Friggy, but it was a start.
Already she could taste the gratitude and adoration of the masses, and it invigorated her. A dull grin full of fangs lit up on her charcoal-black face and she ambled out to the expansive hallway of mementos.
Among all the priceless artifacts and sentimental items, there was a plain metal globe. Spinning it three times clockwise, Mirror found Trotsylvania and pressed it, the segment of the sphere sinking in with a click.
A few seconds later, a previously plain section of the wall slid open on oiled hinges and Mirror entered, the lights turning on from a hidden sensor. Inside, various cabinets of guns, knives, and ammunition lined every visible surface. Foregoing the weaponry for now, Mirror trekked to a corkboard that had a series of photos pinned to it. In view were Sparkplug, Broadside, Fire Frenzy, and Pierce Network. All but the last had a silver knife thrust through the forehead. Pierce had surprisingly given her a lot of trouble for a guy who didn’t seem to do anything but sit in front of a computer all day, but she was determined not to let the hacker win.
She pulled her dagger from its sheath and sucked on the tip, sitting down at the workbench and fiddling with the loose parts. Perhaps it was time to cease with the traditional approach with Pierce and move on to something a bit more unexpected. First things first though…
There was a slim black laptop in the corner hooked up to a printer and it took all of five minutes to get a photo of High Noon on paper.
She smiled and got ready to pin it to the board, already tasting the words, ‘for crimes against the queen and her kin…’
Mirror stopped, the pin millimeters from the surface of the paper. Crimes against the queen and her kin. Not the queen or her kin. And.
Though she longed to stick the tack into the cowboy’s portrait and mark him up for execution in her mind, in her deepest heart of hearts, something was holding her back.
High Noon had annoyed her, true, but he wasn’t worthy of an execution. Not quite. Not yet. And she was not the queen.
Mirror touched the tip of her kris dagger to the photo, the acid eating away at the paper instantly and dissolving it to nothing.
“Hmph. I hope someone kills you, High Noon, but it won’t be me.”
As for Pierce… Mirror already had a few ideas that would allow her to finish the man without having to get close like before. Tradition demanded that she be there to administer the kill in person, but like every tradition, it had to change with the times. He would suffer as they all had for destroying the Eye. To have a means of finding her queen for the first time in almost a century, snatched away because of some petty turf war between those Assassins and Templars, was enough to make her blood boil. Crimes against the queen and her kin indeed.
The Templar agent continued to tinker and toy with her spare parts, almost not hearing her phone ringing outside. Mirror quickly hopped off her chair and rushed for the exit, accidentally hitting her wounded side on the way out.
“Agh! Who placed this door frame here? Ah!” she clutched at her side as she hobbled for her phone, finally picking it up after what seemed like forever. She hoped whoever was calling had better have a very good reason for disturbing her at this unholy hour. “Hello, this is Mirror Match speaking.”
“Mirror Match, it’s Mahogany. Something… has come up. We need you back as soon as possible. We finally found someone who can use the artifact, or rather, they found us.”
“Is that so?” Mirror’s eyes brightened at that. “What are they like?”
“He is a man of magnificent vision and power, who will at long last be able to put the world into order. He has requested that we refer to him as Grand Master, or King Sombra.”
“Sombra…” The inside of Mirror’s mouth was suddenly very dry. “Are you sure about this, sir? His name is Sombra?”
“Very certain. He said so himself. Why? Do you know something about him? If so, do enlighten me.”
“No, sir. Just noting that this new Grand Master shares the same name as an old king from Saddle Arabia. How will this affect my work, sir?”
“Very little. He is doing exactly what our Templars have visioned for generations! We’re finally on the road to total victory! Though, whatever he asks of you, I recommend you do as he says. He doesn’t take kindly to insolence.”
Mirror’s smile had no humour to it. “Don’t worry about me, chairman. I’m well learned in the ways of royals.”
“Very good. So, when are you able to return here? The new Grand Master wants to meet all his subjects.”
“Not anytime soon, chairman,” Mirror added a little pain to her voice. “I just got back from a battle with the Assassins. They got me pretty good. I’m afraid I’ll need to recuperate for a few days.”
“Oh. That’s a pity. Then I wish you swift recovery. You are one of our best after all. I shall inform the Grand Master that you will return in a few days. Take care, Mirror Match. Get well soon.”
Mirror set down the phone with a clunk. Sombra. Now there was a name she hadn’t heard in many years. Not since…
“Oh, pull it together, Psithyra,” Mirror admonished herself. “You’re royalty yourself; what would your queen say if she saw you in such a state?”
The night was cold and dark, but even in her little sanctuary of warmth and light, Mirror Match felt a shiver run through her that had nothing to do with the temperature. Something very bad was coming, and it had everything to do with this Sombra. She was sure of it, and her intuition was rarely ever wrong. One of her old friends from long ago had told her of a dark king called Sombra who took over her empire. She hoped this wasn’t the same one; if so, her executions would have to take a back seat while she assessed the gravity of the situation.
“Chrysalis, my queen, friend of my heart…” Mirror intoned reverently, her hands clasped on her breast. “Wherever you are, please give your servant the strength to face the day.”
"That's as far as we get for the day, huh?" Twilight Sparkle rubbed at her shoulders as they made their way back out of the school building, heading for the Wondercolt statue.
Morning Blade looked up at the darkening sky and nodded. "I'll need to get home too. My family will be expecting me."
"It's just a shame how things turned out for the Assassins, huh?" Twilight breathed on her hands and rubbed them together. "I know, you killed people, but in the end, you're Sunset's friends and you were trying to safeguard your world and ours, even. That automatically puts you in our good books, let me tell you that."
Morning smiled, but shook her head. "No, like I said, we're not good people. The things we have to do as Assassins, never go there, Twilight. It's not a world you would want to be part of. I see that now. Back when I joined, I thought I'd be making a difference, protecting the world from the Templars. In the end, killing is killing, princess. I had to lie, cheat, do everything I could to make sure we won."
"But you're not a bad person, Morning Blade." Twilight placed a hand on the ex-Assassin's shoulder. "You learnt to be better than that."
"That's something I'm still learning." Morning looked down at her hand, opening and closing it, reminiscing how a hidden blade would shoot out from her sleeves normally. "But don't worry about me, Twilight. I've learnt that now, I have to live. Live on for my friends. It's what they would've wanted."
"You couldn't have said it better, Morning." Twilight stuck one foot through the portal. "Well, I won't keep you any longer for today, Morning. I'll see you tomorrow?"
"You will. Take care, princess."
"Goodnight, Morning Blade."