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"Let's see here… If I were a group of assassins who just finished a job, where would I go to lay low at?" Rose says while perched atop a tall building. Looking around the slumbering nighttime of the capital, cloaked in darkness, she activates her ether vision to locate the assassins. "When Rex showed me the arrow, it was highlighted in a faded, lighter shade of black. So if I look for that, I should be able to… Found them!"
She pats herself down once more to ensure that she has all of her weapons and other items before jumping down to engage them in the abandoned building.
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"Throwing knives, check. Combat knife, check. String, check. Cloak, check. Everything seems good. Seems like there are three of them as Mr. Hiro thought. One of them is an archer, so in a tight, confined space like this one, I shouldn't have to worry too much about them. The one I'm worried about is the teleporter since he is probably the strongest of the three. The man with the sound ability shouldn't be too bad this time around since I know what I'm fighting and I know how to dodge it." She mumbles to herself as she enters Hyper Speed and teleports down to the abandoned building. She approaches the building still looking through it to find the black ether signature. She sees the black signature, along with two more signatures, one gray and the other white. She assumes that the archer is with their other two partners in crime. Rose takes a deep breath, and teleports inside the building.
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She teleports in, directly in front of the person with the black ether signature, throwing a hard punch at the assassin, landing directly on their chin and knocking them unconscious. As she connects, Rose realizes this assassin was a young girl not too much older than herself. "No time to think about that right now." She thinks to herself as she turns and throws a knife at one of the other two, who had now become aware of her presence. The bigger man teleports past the knife and attempts to strike with a hard straight punch. She turns to dodge it, and, using the momentum from her dodge, she counterattacks with a spinning heel kick to his head. He blocks it, but it still connects with tremendous force and sends him reeling backwards. "Elajuel! Stand down! Not here, and not now." The bigger man, Elajuel, stops in his tracks and teleports back to his remaining partner. Visibly fuming at the situation, Elajuel speaks, saying, "Her name is Vuella. You can take her, but please don't kill her."
"And if I do?"
"I don't think you want to find that out, little lady."
"Threatening me is the equivalent of threatening the Royal Family."
"And you think I wouldn’t threaten them? How about you get out of here before I lose my cool?"
Taking his advice, Rose grabs the girl and attempts to teleport out. Just before she leaves, she turns back to the remaining assassins.
"I can try to protect her, but there are some people in the palace who don't take too well to archers who shoot their king. It would be best if you made your decision quickly."
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Once she finishes speaking, she teleports back to the palace, with Vuella in tow. Upon entering, Rose looks around to see if anyone is awake before proceeding. She is met with the oh so familiar ticking clock and moonlit foyer. After a moment passes she collapses on the ground.
"'And if I do?' What the hell is wrong with me?! I could've died if I pissed them off anymore!" She screams at herself in her head.
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She then stands back up, dusting herself off. As she stands over Vuella, she looks her over, inspecting her for anything noteworthy. She's a fairly good-looking girl. Bright red hair, fair skin, at about the same height as Rose, and a good figure. Rose ponders the reason why a girl like her became an assassin as she strips her of her weapons and ties her up with a rope. "Aaaaahhhhh, haaaaa… I'm pretty beat, but if I want to sleep, I have to do something about her." She ponders, while looking at Vuella. After a few moments, Vuella begins to regain consciousness, shaking her head left and right. Making out Rose's figure in the moonlit darkness in front of her, she attempts to say something, but is cut off by Rose covering her mouth with her hand. Rose puts a finger over her mouth, signaling for her to be quiet. Rose whispers to her, "Ummm… Don't say anything just yet. We can't have anyone hearing you, because they might try to kill you. If I ask a question, answer by nodding your head 'yes' or 'no'. Do you understand?" Vuella nods her head yes and Rose proceeds with her questions. Removing her hand from Vuella's mouth, she says "I guess we can start with introductions. My name is Rose, and I'm the one who captured you. I heard from your partners that your name was Vuella." She nods her head 'yes', and Rose continues. "Good. Next thing. Do you know who Rex Azor is and what he's capable of?"
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She gives two separate 'yes' nods. "Great. He's currently awake and has a very strong urge to kill you because you shot the king and nearly killed him. Not your group, but you specifically. So if you do anything crazy in here, he'll probably hear you and come running. So do you know what that means for us?" Noticeably a bit shaken at the thought of Rex coming to kill her, Vuella nods 'no'. "That means we sit right here and wait for the king to wake up, so he can deal with Rex. If something happens before then, I'll try to protect you as best as I can, but I can't guarantee your life, let alone your safety. Understood?" Vuella, still a bit high strung, but less than before, nods 'yes'. "Excellent. We only have an hour before the king wakes up. Assuming he doesn't sleep in." Vuella gives one last 'yes' nod before putting her head down, closing her eyes presumably to fall asleep. Rose gives sleeping a thought herself, ultimately deciding against it just in case Rex were to come out.
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As she waits, it dawns on her that if Rex is the one who comes out of Hiro's room first, they could both very well be killed before Hiro wakes up, or just before he manages to stop him. There's also the possibility that the other two assassins teleport back in and attack her while rescuing Vuella. Despite her lack of sleep, both of these thoughts attacked her mind, keeping her awake. And so, she sits awake on the floor in the middle of the foyer, next to a sleeping assassin, anxiously waiting for the next hour to pass.
.
.
.
After about 45 mins, Rose catches herself getting lost in thought staring at the clock in the foyer. Her lack of sleep coupled with several bursts of adrenaline are starting to wear down on her physically, mentally, and ethereally. Her ether reserves are at about 20%. If Elajuel and the other assassin really did come to take her back, she wouldn't be in any kind of shape to really fight them off. “Almost there. Hiro should be up at any moment no-” Her inner thought interrupted by the sound of a door opening. She readies her Hyper Speed, but at a lower level than normal just in case things go South. “Ah, you’re back. How did it… go?” Her rapidly beating heart sinks at the sight of Rex walking through the door, activating his ether sight once he sees Vuella. At the same moment, she notices a slight movement in Rex’s feet and she responds accordingly. Rose Boosts and dashes over about four feet in between Rex and Vuella. Her instinctual guess was correct, as Rex did indeed attack Vuella nearly instantly. Despite her quick reaction, she was barely able to get there in time to push his fist over to just graze Vuella’s face. “In the time it took me to move four feet, he was able to move several dozen. Mr. Rex really is amazing.” She thinks to herself while recovering from the attack. Grabbing Vuella and teleporting to Hiro’s now open room door, the girls appear in front of a groggy, half naked Hiro. “STOP HIM PLEA-” Rex plows through the door shoulder first, running both of them through Hiro’s bedroom wall. On impact, Rose coughs up blood trying to catch Vuella as the two of them fly through the air and tumbling into the neighboring courtyard.
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Rose attempts to sit up and guard Vuella, but she is met with difficulty breathing and significant pain in her arms. Rex gives them little time to gather themselves as he continues barreling towards them with rage in his eyes. Once she laid her eyes on him again, she thought it was over. That is until a split second later, she sees something hit his head from behind and a fog quickly envelops the courtyard and beyond, followed by Hiro’s emergence behind Rex. Hiro proceeds to grapple him and take him to the ground. “LOOK AT WHAT YOUR DOING!” Hiro shouts at him. “You are hurting your precious student!” As he continues to speak, gradually lowering his voice, Rex stops resisting and puts his hands down, staring at Rose, and more specifically the blood dripping from her mouth spreading over her clothes and begins to tear up.
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"I understand your hatred for the girl next to her, however you handled this situation horribly. Go wake Helen, and have both of you wait for me in the throne room. I’ll deal with you later.” Despite Hiro lowering his voice, Rose could still feel the intensity in his tone. Walking over to Rose, he dispels the fog and gives her a hug. “I am so very sorry you had to go through that. As you can see, he is normally not like this, but as Helen said, the three of us only care about the other two, when it comes down to me specifically, he can’t really hold himself back.” Breaking away from her and turning back towards the massive hole in the wall leading to his room. “I’ll have Helen heal you two momentarily, but aft-”, “No. I’ll be fine for now. There's something we gotta do first, and we don’t have much time to do it.”
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"If that's what you want to do, I won't stop you. But before you go do what you need to do, I need you to answer a question for me, and think carefully before you answer. Why did you protect her?
Without delay, she answers with a nervous laugh, knowing that her answer could be the wrong one. "I protected her because I was asked to by the other two assassins. It seems like they genuinely care about her safety. This next part is just a hunch, but I get the feeling that they aren't as bad of people as we think."
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Hiro takes a deep breath and sighs. "That answer will suffice for now." He says while turning back towards the hole where his bedroom wall used to be. "You two are more alike than I would've thought."
"How exactly?"
"Because you would rather act on a hunch than come up with a plan, even in a case like this when that hunch could put yourself and others in danger. But I'll respect your decision this time. Prove to me that I'm not wrong in trusting your intuition."
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"Yes Sir. One more question before you go. If there was a way to resolve this peacefully, would you be alright with that? Without anyone dying?"
"Truthfully, I would rather have them killed and be done with it, but if you can resolve it without the loss of a life, I give you full authority to handle the situation as you see fit. But if, for any reason, they cannot or will not go about it peacefully, you are to kill them immediately. Am I clear?"
"Yes Sir! I'll have it taken care of as soon as possible. Before I go, I'll be taking one of these." She says while grabbing one of Hiro's bottles of fog from what remained of his desk and goes to retrieve Vuella. "I'm assuming I can talk now since those other two freaks of nature are gone now?"
"Sure, but don't say anything too important until we're by ourselves."
"Guess I won't say anything just yet."
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