A Long Way to Fall

by Cinders of War

Chapter 48: Disarray

"Stop squirming..." Wolfgang smiled as he stepped down on the poor man's already broken leg. He would've screamed louder if not for the cloth tied around his mouth. "Your friend already paid the price for trying to get away. Why not just relax? It'll be more fun that way, at least for me."

Wolfgang's smile widened as he pulled a long meat cleaver from his coat. It was already stained and rusted from countless other kills, but still very much usable.

He spun the man on his back and pressed down on his tied up arms before digging a portion of the cleaver into the man's right palm. The man tried to scream again, but to muted effect.

"Now I know I'm supposed to be killing Assassins, and believe me, I did..." Wolfgang began talking as he pulled out the blade, only to pierce it into the man's lower arm. "Just so happens you people were there. Can't have any witnesses you see... Understandable right?"

The man seemed to try to say something, but obviously couldn't.

"What's that?" Wolfgang flipped him around and put an ear close to his mouth. "I can't hear you! You've gotta speak up!" He lifted his cleaver and smashed it down past the man's ear.

Blood began spilling out as Wolfgang picked up the piece of meat. He chuckled to himself before tossing it into a pile of trash. He looked into the man's eyes, watching the glistening orbs radiate pure fear. That was his job besides killing. To make his victims show their fear. Only then, did Wolfgang feel more alive.

He picked up his cleaver again and looked at it. All of a sudden, his phone began vibrating in his pocket. The killer snarled and fished it out, but not before embedding a part of the blade into the man's chest, not deep enough to kill, but enough to hurt.

"Yes, Wolfgang here..." he said, slightly irritated. "Can this wait? I'm in the middle of some... Work."

"Wolfgang, it's Lumberjack."

Wolfgang nodded. It was the bossman. He kind of liked the guy. He wasn't as formal and professional like the chairman was, which was something Wolfgang himself didn't enjoy doing. Talking to Lumberjack was so much easier.

"What can I do for you, boss?"

"Got a few jobs for you," Mahogany Wood's brother continued. "The Assassins are in disarray at the moment. They'll all be about and around, doing what they can to fix themselves back up. This is your chance. Teach them to fear you. Destroy them."

Wolfgang's eyes immediately widened, but so did his long smile. "Oh, that I can do, boss. That I can do. In fact, I shall begin right away."

With that said, Wolfgang pulled his cleaver above his head and brought it down in between the man's eyes, this time lodging it all the way to the brain.

---

"Chairman, this is unacceptable!" Talon grunted as Crescent Wing fixed him a wary eye, silently telling him to cool down. Talon sighed and took a more passive stance. "I just lost half my men in that... that witch's plan! Something must be done!"

Mahogany breathed heavily out his nostrils as he swiveled his chair back to the table. They had all seen the footage from Bullseye's helmet camera. How a whole unit of trained soldiers had been cut down like a lumberjack cutting down trees. What more is that the Assassin Mentor had wielded her artifact against them, shredding even Dragon Unit's lieutenant to bits.

Even now, after learning the location of the Assassin bureau, they couldn't attack like they had first planned to. With a weapon like that, they only had a death wish to charge in there.

Then there was Mirror Match. Sure, she was a few levels above his common men, but her plan had just gotten a lot of his men killed, just for a list of names.

"Yes, I admit. It wasn't a thought out plan," Mahogany said at last. "But we had results. Now we know what the Assassins are capable of, and we know what Mirror Match can do to them."

"But... Chairman! My men!"

"Sacrificable, major." Mahogany said sternly, something in his eyes telling the red-skinned man to stand down. "Don't forget. It's all for a greater cause. We just need to look ahead. In the end, we will be the victors. Not the Assassins."

"But what are we to do now?" Talon raised both hands in question. "The Eye is destroyed. It would take months to rebuild something like that!"

"Leave the projects to Timber," Mahogany replied. "He's already taking care of it. This time, we'll just need to make sure the Assassins don't reach it."

Talon wanted to say more, but he could think of nothing else. "As you say, chairman." Talon slightly bowed before leaving.

Mahogany Wood turned his chair back to the window and looked out. "Crescent, send word to gather as much materials as they can. This might be our chance while the Assassins are in disarray."

Mahogany smiled. This time, they had Mirror Match early on and a whole stack of data on the machine. The Assassins weren't going to stop him this time.

---

Satin Breeze watched Star Lance as he sat beside the Mentor as she rested on her bed. He would gently rub at her head from time to time, an action Satin thought she would never see from the lieutenant. He must care a lot about her to be this worried.

The whole office had been trashed. There were papers all across the floor and a few shelves had been moved about during Star Lance's fight, and everything was splattered with dried blood. Satin shuddered. Star Lance had told them about the fight, how Mirror just couldn't die, even with a spear to the gut, and how she had taken him down with the fangs that had sunk into his arm. The lieutenant was still recovering from that, but he deemed his wounds insignificant compared to the Mentor, who lay unconscious at his side.

"What do you think she took?" Dewdrop asked her partner as she neatly arranged a stack of paper in her hands.

"Star Lance said only the Mentor knows," Satin shrugged. "But he did say she pulled a paper from one of the files."

"Why invade the bureau, fight off a bunch of Assassins, just to get a piece of paper?" Dewdrop mused as she dumped the papers on the table.

"She was after one of the reports." Both turned to Star Lance, his back still facing them. "I'm not sure which one she took. Only time will tell us why she needed that. Whatever the Templars are planning, it must be important if they were willing to attack us here."

“But if Mirror can defeat even you, then how are we safe?” Dewdrop asked. It had a lot of sense. If the Mentor’s right hand man couldn’t beat Frigid’s ex-girlfriend, then who could?

Satin waited for Star Lance to start shouting, but it never came. Instead, it looked like his shoulders slumped even lower. “I don’t know… I… I don’t know…”

Satin wanted to encourage the man, to tell him that there was still hope for them, but she didn’t know how. Mirror Match had really broken the morale in their bureau after her attack. The blue-purple haired Assassin just continued and helped Dewdrop put away the rest of the papers in silence. They quickly left to give Star Lance and the Mentor some room, heading up to Dewdrop’s.

“Man, I don’t know what to think about today…” Dewdrop sighed and put her hands behind her head. “When did Mirror get that good? There’s no way anyone can take down Star Lance, and yet… she did!”

“Yeah… I don’t know what happened to her,” Satin shook her head. Her old master really had some skill. She could’ve been a traitor the whole time, holding back and watching them as they went about their daily tasks. “We’ll just need to be extra careful. Double the watches and everything, you know?”

Dewdrop scoffed and narrowed her eyes. “Yeah? Tell that to Frigid. If it weren’t for him, all this wouldn’t happen. He just can’t let go that Mirror’s now one of them.”

“It’s not his fault, Dew.” Satin knew saying none of it was his fault was totally wrong, but she just didn’t like blaming him for everything that happened lately. They arrived at the top of the staircase and continued right towards Dewdrop’s room. “He’s just… lost. Clouded.”

“Well, whatever he is, he’s gonna get all of us killed if it keeps going like this.” The pale coloured Assassin grabbed for her handle and pushed the door open. “Someone’s gotta tell him before he makes another dumb move like this.”

---

Frigid Night breathed heavily as he walked among the other Assassins. After returning to the bureau, none of the others had bothered talking to him, giving him watchful eyes as he made his way through. He had even offered to help Dr. Patch clean up the medic wing, but even the usually nice head medic didn’t have anything to say to him.

Frigid sighed. He had really blown it this time. Bringing Mirror Match back to the bureau? Now it sounded like a terrible idea. He had just wanted her back, ignoring all the warnings the others had given him. Even now as he walked down the halls to his room, he still loved her. After everything she did, he still wanted to protect her.

What did he get out of all this? Resentment. Now the others didn’t want to have anything to do with him. They probably thought he was a traitor, helping the Templars steal information from them. He couldn’t blame them. Twice now, he had failed to do the right thing.

As he got closer to his room, he noticed something white pasted on his door. It was a simple drawing of his head, along with a huge ‘X’ crossing over it in red. Frigid just opened his door and headed in, leaving the paper stuck on its sleek surface; he deserved it after all.

Fortunately, his room was untouched as he dumped his coat, knife slings, and hidden blades on his side chair before throwing himself face down onto his bed. He thought about his current options, unsure of what he was going to do next. With his latest stunt, he was sure to have lost the trust of most of his fellow Assassins; they probably wanted nothing to do with him anymore.

With nothing more to do, Frigid pulled his pillow over his head and drifted off to sleep, hoping things would be different in the morning.

Comments

[Jaxxon Markus Citadel]

Well it is kind of Frigid's fault that all this happened, though I suspect Mirror Match would have found a way into the bureau even without his help.

[Marcthelightspark2004]

8803686
No, it was her plan to use Frigid, but I guess she WOULD have found a different way.

[MoonlightRift]

She already knew where they lived, Frigid just made things faster for her.