Don't Forget

#12 Among the Assasins

     Just as the kingdom has poverty, there also is the network of organized crime and darker dealings. Rules have the strange tendency to be broken.
The nobles were perhaps the worst in this department before the capital fell to the squids. A noble is given everything that they desire from birth. Anyone would be spoiled from that kind of treatment. Learning to work their trade with a silver tongue often dealt with betrayals and unsavory people.
Assassins always find work weather in peace time or war. They rule the shadows, only talked about in mumbled words. Death is the best way to assure silence. The only rules for these murders are simple: You don't take contracts on other assassins. You don't target anyone in a castle of any kind, because it may result in the mass murder of of those in the continent's moral underworld. Finally, the most important, don't get caught.
     Poisons, blades, 'accidents', it's all fair game. A skilled assassin could make much more money then any noble. Using that profit would quickly raise suspicion and lead to death. The cocky or stupid never lasted long enough to learn anything useful for captors. The best assassins would end their own lives before capture.
     The best of these had witnesses confused if it was truly an assassination. The Deaders are the best in their trade. A Deader is never linked to their target. Clients could go to the same 'hired help' multiple times, and be met with different people at each meeting.
     Assassins never involve themselves with other assassins. A young Deader, with the alias of Red Vactor, saw opportunity in this. He certainly had the money. Red is surprisingly good at his job despite his age. Being an assassin is an expectantly lonely career.
The young Deader discreetly built a large manor house in the middle of a jungle. Only one dirt path even breaks up the trees. He'd hire some puppets to take contracts from all over the continent. Red would finally have some company that understood him. He never grew up around anyone that cared.
     After some research, the Deader kidnaped a couple people. Social skills aren't very high on an assassin's to-do list. It wasn't very easy for him to simply knock someone out rather then kill. Getting them back to the manor was even worse, but assassins can always learn new tricks.
     One of the first was a man on the brink of becoming a Deader himself. Red would only know him by 'Ian'. He tied Ian up in the basement floor of the manor house and waited till he woke up. Those were some really strong herbs that he used to keep Ian asleep for a whole week.
     "I know you're awake", Red giggles. He sits in a chair facing the other Deader, the chair being backwards as he straddles the seat. Part of him enjoys toying with his prey.
"So?", Ian mumbles, still not moving. Both his hands have rope going across the palms and wrists, preventing escape. He sits slumped on his chair while trying to figure out where he is.
"I'm bored! You've been sitting here for hours", Red wines in annoyance. He's known for his frequent mood swings. Red is a loose cannon. Laughing with you at one moment, slicing someone's throat the next. His childhood is filled with unstable adults that influenced his every thought.
"And why is that?", Ian asks more loudly then before. His eyes are now open to slits behind tinted sunglasses. With Red's voice, attitude, and the red hair, he knows who's sitting in the chair opposite. "What do you want with me?".
"Um..... I don't really know", Red blinks in thought, "I suppose that it's just for the joy of your company".
"Is that so?", Ian sarcastically snaps. He doesn't believe it for a second. Red has a reputation for being slightly out there, but this is just ridiculous.
Red eventually did untie Ian. After a few hours of meaningless conversation, Ian still had no idea why he was there. He had never even met another assassin before now. Pieces of Red's plan slowly came together after being stuck in the manor for nearly a month.
It's just a place to call home. Good assassins never stay in one place too long. But in this jungle, no soldier or even an army would try to come through. Going around the small forest would be much easier. There's so much cover for trained assassins that it'd be child's play to pick off any who dared. The intelligence of Red's location and idea was startling. It's safe for people like him, or anyone on the run.
      Maybe Ian was just looking too deeply into Red's actions. The Deader's past isn't exactly a secret. Everybody needs somebody to talk to. Even a mentally deranged assassin.
The two Deaders took contracts while living in the manor. The path through the trees allowed for one horse to pass from their stables. Ian slowly got used to Red's sporadic behavior. It was nice being able to talk to someone who understood, and share different methods for the jobs.
     A few more assassins came to live in the manor house, but all brought there by Red. It was a shock when two of them just showed up at the front door one day. They clearly didn't know each other very well, but purposely sought out the assassins.
     One never spoke a word to anyone, using some sort of sign language that Red didn't recognize. The other appeared to be a runaway soldier from the GoldenEye army. All of the troops have been hiding their camps from the Piscus. Politics never really effect assassins. The capital fell, causing no serious change to them.
Red always understood that these two were here for more then just an assassin's life. Sub, the mute, has the skills, but hesitated to kill for money on the first contract that Red gave him. The soldier wasn't trained at all as an assassin. He was almost kicked out, but Ian taught him a few tricks to be useful. The Deader never told the two what they were after.
It's been about a year and a half since those two came, and now Red is currently staring down a filthy fourteen-year-old. The boy seems to have a death wish, mouthing off to two Deaders and another assassin. Ian's proposal has Red whipping around back to face him.
"Train him? Train him? Ian, you see a gutter rat, right? Not some half trained soldier like Vikk?", Red cocks his head, genuinely surprised. None of the assassins in the manor have trained anyone from scratch.
     "It survived in the mines", Ian shrugs, "It'd be something interesting to do between contracts".
     "This life kills most people after a few years. He'd be better off literally anywhere else. Who wants a weak brat?", Red snarks. His attitude has shifted back to annoyance, but it gets worse when the kid speaks again.
     "I'm not weak, and you're the gutter rat", they snarl. Red moves before the kid has even finished the insult. A knife slips out of his sleeve and to his hand, slicing for the brat's neck. It wasn't a very forceful blow but was indeed meant to kill. 
     That's why Red is surprised when the kid grabs onto his wrist. The Deader stands to the side of his target, but the kid didn't flinch even when they stopped the knife an inch from their throat.
      "Damnit! I'm not afraid of you", he throws Red's arm away and faces the assassin. Red looks at those brown eyes as his mood shifts again. Something has really snapped in this kid. The mines never leave people like this. Those eyes remind Red of himself. They both have something very broken inside.
"I like you! Can we keep it, Ian?", Red giggles, sheathing the knife. The Deader is still uncontrollably laughing at.... everything in the universe, really. It only makes sense in his mind.
The kid watches him walk with a confused expression, but Ian comes forward and nudges them to follow. Sub squints at the dirty slave before following as well.
"Don't worry, you'll get used to Red. He's not that bad", Ian says. The group wanders through the forest and back to where they hid some horses. Red makes sure not to show it, but he's keeping track of the kid's footsteps to tell if he's following. Could always use him as a puppet contractor if he's not good to be an assassin.
     When they got back to the manor house, Red tied Sky to the rafters and left him there for a day. That didn't discourage the kid at all. Red feels that it just made him even more resolved.
     Ian took over from there. Sky knew a few basic GoldenEye sword plays, but nothing like an assassin's quick and agile movements. A quick kick to the back of the leg or a punch to the nose was also new. Assassins don't fight with honor. Anything goes to win.
     The cut on Sky's cheek scared over. Any other small cuts that Ian gave him seemed to heal overnight. The strange healing factor was never really discussed. It just meant that Ian could throw more at him.
     Sky's teacher is quieter then Red, with a more cold-hearted disposition. Ian never showed any real affection for the boy. The rare praise meant all the more. His indifferent nature slowly rubbed off on Sky. His hot-headed rage molded into a hard and calculating gaze.
     Ian made Sky memorize every single herb in the book, and others that only assassins use. He learned how to hear and count footsteps and the seconds between to gauge distance and size of a hidden opponent. As a present, Ian bought Sky two curved short swords after a year in the manor. They hung off a belt on the boy's waist.
"And why am I dong this?", Sky grumbles, voice barely audible. The two sit in the cramped space in the roof of a chicken coop. Sky wears his short swords, and numerous daggers that he bought himself.
"To work on stealth. Plus, it amuses me", Ian answers, looking down at the chickens. The birds would be freak out if they knew the two assassins were above them. Chickens are a bit more alert then the common pedestrian.
"But why this? When will I ever need to steal eggs?", he argues again. Ian just shrugs with a smirk in response.
Sky signs, quietly shifting on the beam. He swings onto the bottom of the board and crawls a few inches towards the nest boxes. When all the chickens are busy pecking at the ground, Sky reaches out from the shadows and snatches an egg from the nest. He crawls back on the beam just before a chicken looks up at the slight creak.
Ian takes the egg from Sky, then simply smashes it against his student's face. Sky bites his tongue in time to stop himself from barking out a cuss at Ian. Egg runs down his face.
"Good job, you didn't make noise", Ian says in an extremely serous voice. He won't show any amusement at the situation. Sky just glares. The two leave the coop after gently setting a few eggs on the farmhouse's roof.
They had many of these pointless exercises, but Ian also took Sky with him on contracts. It was four years of training before he went on his first solo mission. Sky was able to get in and dispatch the target with ease, but a servant boy had chosen that moment to come into the room.
     Sky is moving and grabbing the boy within seconds, covering his mouth. The servant freezes in shock with wide eyes. There's a knife on his neck.
"Don't scream, and you'll live", Sky mumbles. That's a bluff. Sky may be holding a knife to the boy's neck, but he's seeing with Adam's eyes. The boy is only thirteen. That's the same age that Jason would of been. His hands slowly drop away. Sky can't let this kid blow his first mission. Adam can't kill a kid.
"Did you kill them?", the servant quietly mumbles. The reek of blood in the room is answer enough. Sky stays quiet. The kid seems to think of something. "You don't want to get caught, right? Would you want to compromise?". Sky can hear his voice shake.
     "What do you want?", Sky says in a harsh tone. He won't let Adam's weakness dictate how he acts now. This mission has already gone south.
      "Um, there's some cells on the other side of the manor, and, well my friend is trapped...... mister assassin", the kid stumbles over their words, his boldness not lasting very long, "If you help us get out, I won't tell anyone that I saw you".
Sky is annoyed that he has to do anything other then his contract. He became an assassin so no one could push him around anymore. Yet, here he is. Mister assassin? Dammit, that's something that Jason would of said.
"Call me Sky", the assassin grumbles, grabbing onto the kid by the back of their shirt. The shackle scars on the kid's wrists don't help to keep Adam under check. This is the last time that Sky will scum to Adam's weakness. The kid beams at his acceptance.
"I'm Ross, and my friend's name is Jerome! He's really cool", the kid rambles, thankfully not loud enough to wake anyone. Jerome, huh? This day just keeps getting better and better.

A/N
This Chapter is dedicated to @Mint_Rose