12 Chapter 12

Garret's Point of View: Right after Jaycie leaves him in front of the guild

I walk into the guild and lean against the wall. The halls are completely empty. They cleared out when Jaycie left. She was in a completely new uniform. All her blades looked new to. I wanted to stop her. I tried to stop her. I yelled at her. She said she needed a break. But going on a mission on her own. "This could get her killed. What if she gets jumped on the way? What if I never see her again? I have really messed up." I think.

Thoughts like what if the guild from were ever she is going catches her, and what if she is to lost in finding herself that whoever the target is catches her without her even getting a chance to fight back. I am only pulled out of my thought by the sound of a voice of the one person who I thought I would never have to see again. Much less in this guild.

I step in front of the door as Zachery struggling to get out of the guards grip. They already have his blades. They step past me, but I get back in front of him. My eyes are simmering, but he doesn't seem the least bit fazed by it. In fact, he seems almost excited to see me. "What the hell are you doing in this guild. You have been told once, rather nicely to get off this property."

Zachery rolls his eyes. "I am here on business." "And what might that business be. Because I would be more than happy to show you the business end of my fist." He pales slightly. "Jaycie sent me with this letter. She also told me that if you so much as touch me, she will never give you the time of day again. And that she would make sure you can never touch anyone again." I seethe. "How dare you use her as your excuse." I take a step towards him.

"It is all in this note. All of it." He holds a paper in front of me. I attempt to grab it, but he pulls it back and only lets me see it. I read it. Jaycie wrote that he is to be let back in. At a starter level. "What did you do to her? To make her write that." I yell al him. "Nothing. I was about to walk out of her life forever when she told me to come back. She wrote this for me. I didn't even ask her to do it. She just told me that she knows how hard it was for her to be kicked out."

I feel my breath catch slightly. I look at the guards. "Take him to the boss. No stops. Don't treat him easily." They pull him off and he is still trying to get away. I head to my room and fall on to my bed, holding my head in my hands.

Flack back - Start

I was standing in Wilker's office. He was giving me the details on a new mission that I was going on with a couple of the other guys. Jaycie was going to be on this one, but word got around that she walked out of the guild. As a rule, you weren't allowed to just quit. You either die, get killed by the Assassin Master, or transferred to another guild.

Wilker had been crazy calm all day. It was scaring the crap out of me. I saw all of Jaycie's blades in the back table, laying there. Not on her were they belonged. Even the ones that she never took off. The ones that I had been the only one to notice. All the sudden I heard yelling, screaming, and screeching in the hall. The voice was all to familiar. And by the sounds of it, Jaycie was livid. There was a knock on the door.

"Come in." Wilker said. Two guards walk in, one on each side of Jaycie. She is kicking and fighting them. But worse, she is covered in blood. She has so many scrapes, scratches, and bruises on her. Her armored, reinforced suite is ripped. On her chest and legs. The guards throw her on the ground by my feet. I want to heal her. Want to make sure she is oaky. I had never wanted to help her in my life. But seeing her like this, this beaten up, but still fighting. This broken, but still cursing in a wide variety at the guards. Both of them have multiple wounds on them from her nails and feet.

This was the first time I realized I liked her. The guards left and Wilker stared down at her. She was standing now, staring at the ground. She was dripping blood. I was scared for her. No assassin left the guild, and especially came back the same day. I looked up at Wilker, wanting to leave. But he ignored me. "Jaycie, what are you doing here." He walked around the desk, to in front of her. He had popped on of his daggers out of there sheaths.

"You walked out of my guild. You left. You quite." He walked behind her, and I could tell she was tracking her movements. With movement as quick as a snake striking. He had her head back and his dagger at her throat. "You are lucky I didn't kill you then. But testing your luck and seeing if I will kill you now? Are you stupid?" She winces and her breath comes out further. I see something glint in Wilker's eyes. Like guilt or regret, but it was quickly cleared it out. Was it guilt or regret for making her wince?

Her voice came out small but strong. "No sir." He shoves her back down. "I am no longer your boss. You will refer to me as Mr. Wes." I see embarrassment pass through her eyes. She glances at me, then looks back at Wilker. "I want my job back." She says. He turns his back to her and walks back to his desk. "No." I can hear the relief in his voice. "Please sir." A dagger hits the floor, the blade it touching the side of her hand. It hadn't scratched her when landing though.

"I am Mr. Wes to you." I see one tear slip through her eyes. The only time I had ever seen a tear of anything other than pain on her face. "Please Mr. Wes. I tried being out there and this happened to me." She got up, but only to be siting on the back or her legs. I could see her back now. The back of her suite was shredded. Her back was in bloody ribbons. I didn't even think about how strong the men would have had to be to do that to her. Yes, men. One man wouldn't have been able to do this to her. And no other woman has the training to do this to her.

Wilker looks over her. "But you don't want to listen to my rules. You don't want to be told what to do. You don't want to have to be careful with your actions. You want to do whatever you want." She shakes her head. "No S-Mr. Wes. I am not ready to be out there on my own. I will gladly listen to you, whatever." He looks like he wants to let her back in, to heal her. To help her, but he keeps his strong face on. I had never seen him use that much emotion. "What happened."

She glances back at me then speaks, her voice lower, but I can still hear. "I was out, trying to find somewhere to stay. All my things, my room, my extra blades are here. I didn't know where to go. I was walking through an alley, and four men cornered me. I tried to get away, but they all had blades and they weren't willing to let me go. I think they were from a guild several cities over. They recognized me." She takes a deep breath.

"I tried to get one of their blades, but I couldn't. They decided they wanted a distraction from the day. I fought back, and barely escaped." She stood up and turned her back to him. I could see tears falling freely down her face. "Three of them held me down why another one of them raked their dagger down my back. I managed to get away quickly after that. I came back because I need back in. Please." She turns back to him and gets on her knees. "I am actually begging you. Please...Mr. Wes. I want back into the guild." He smirked down at her. "I am glad you learned your lesson. You will be starting back on the lowest level. You need to regain everything, your blades from me, your trust with me, even your level in this guild. Now go." "Yes Mr. Wes." She says. She gets back and walks towards the door. "Jaycie." He says. "Yes." She answers and faces him. "You were brave to come back." He walks to the table that has her weapons. He pulls his sleeve over his hands and picks up two daggers. Then he hands them to her. I look at him like he is crazy.

"Here." She gives him a small smile and takes them, quickly sheathing them. Almost to quick to follow. They are the ones that go on the sheathes right under her collar bone. I hear him say one more thing to her as she leaves. "And my assassins call my Sir. Not Mr. Wes." Her last words sound like they are part of an inside joke. "I will call you Wilker. To remind you that not only am I your assassin, but I am also my own person." Then she walks away. He walks back to his desk and continues talking to me as if the last event didn't just happen. He is visibly happier.

Flash Back – End

I am pulled out of my daze by a knock on my door. I open it and there is a guard. "Mr. Wes would like to see you." I walk out and to his office. As I walk through the halls, I see Zachery walking into his old room. I hiss at him. Then I walk to Wilker's office. I fall to a knee. I really don't want to be here. With thoughts of Jaycie, and how much I miss her. Filled with thoughts of Zachery, how much I want to hit him, but then back to Jaycie and how she threatened me, even from a distance it works.

"Yes sir." I answer. I can feel his eyes on me. "Do you know why I am called you in here?" He asks. I am worried all the sudden. It was rare for him to talk to us without letting us up. The only one I saw him keep on a lower level was Jaycie. But it was complicated between them. "No sir." He is quiet for a while. "Sit down." I stand and go to sit in the chair that Jaycie usually sat in, just because it was closest, but he says, "Were you usually sit." I sit in my usual chair. "Yes sir." When I am sitting, he looks me over carefully. "This is about Jaycie. How close you have been." My face goes pale. "What do you mean sir?"

He laughs slightly. "I have noticed how protective you are over her. Ever since the mission I put you two on. What is going on between you two?" I can feel a small shake go through my hand. "Umm...well...I don't know what you mean exactly." He looks at me quizzically. "I just want to know if there is anything going on between my top two assassins." I take a deep breath. "We have been getting closer. I would like to say she is starting to trust me, but I am not sure anymore." He raises his eyebrow. "Have you done anything to her? To throw her over the edge. It seems ever since you got closer, things have been getting worse for her. Especially in these last few days. Like after her getting drugged." I carefully go over his words and hear the implied ones.

"With all due respect sir, I would never drug her, hurt her, make her do anything she didn't want to, or put her into any danger. If you think I made her go over the edge, you need to get your head out of your-" "I understand the message." Wilker cuts in. "But if you don't want to heal any split lips, you will stop there." I nod. "I wanted to make sure she is okay. I want what is best for her. And if someone pushed her to this point, especially someone that is this important to the guild, and has done so much to become in my top assassins."

I nod at the implied threat. That if I ever even try and lay a hand on her, outside of sparing and called for fights, I will not live to see another day. Or at least I will wish that I didn't. But I didn't understand why he was being so protective over her. I nod, "I will not hurt her, but I don't think I am going to have a her when she gets back. I tried to talk some sense into her, but she wouldn't listen to me. I think she is pulling away. I think that assassin has thrown her over."

Wilker looks at his hands. "She is a lot of things right now. She is lost. She is mad. She is breaking. But she in not broken. This, whatever it is, has not broken her. She thinks she is at rock bottom, but that is because she has been falling for so long that she is imagining a bottom. She has made one for herself to jump back up with. Helping Zachery, which was a way to push up. Anyway, I also wanted to address the fact that Zachery is now on entrance level.

I nod slowly, wanting to hit him for letting Zachery back in. "Okay." "I thought I should tell you, don't kill him. I know Jaycie won't but you, you just might. Don't." I nod again. I stand up to leave, not waiting for him to dismiss you. When I get to the door, he says. "She will be back. It might take two days; it might take two months. The odds of her being caught are very high. I sent her on this mission telling myself that she would and that we would find her. We will work to get back if she in not back in two days. But until thing, you need to stay calm. Take a break. You aren't aloud to practice for two days. No mission, nothing. I don't need you blowing up on anyone. Okay?" "Yes sir." "Also," He adds. "Just because Jaycie walks out of here without being dismissed doesn't mean you are aloud to. Jaycie gets by with a lot more then you guys do. But she also gets punished a lot worse. Trust me when I say, you don't want to start following her habits." I nod and walk out the door.

Three days later

I am packing a bag quickly. There are four people going on this mission. It was been three days. Jaycie should have been back yesterday. We gave her the benefit of the doubt and gave her an extra day, but she still wasn't back. We were going to her last known spot and checking things out. On this mission with me was two of my most trusted buddies and Zachery. I had all but begged for him to take him off this mission, but he wouldn't, saying I needed someone who doesn't care as much as me, to think rationally.

We headed to the hotel she was to be staying at, and I ignored Zachery. When We got to the hotel, I stormed up to the receptionist. "Hello Sir, how may I help you?" I don't even bother to try and sound polite at first. "A woman checked into this hotel about three days ago. Only one small duffel bag, black hair, blue eyes. She was probably wearing a cloak." I said quickly. She looked slightly scared. "Uhh...Sir. I can't give information about others. I am sorry." I take a deep breath. "She isn't just another person. She is an assassin and she could be in trouble. I need you to tell me what room she has."

The woman looks scared out of her wits. I feel the other three walks in behind me. "Have you figured out her room?" Zachery asks. "Not yet." I say through gritted teeth. Zachery looks at my face and backs off. "Look ma'am." I start again. "I am asking nicely. Unless you want me going through every room in this hotel, I need her room now." She nods. Then she starts to look through files.

When she gives us the information, I practically fly up to her room. I see her duffel bag, unopened. The bed is slightly ruffled. She at least got some sleep. I look around the room, until Zachery calls me. "Garret, I found something." I walk up to him, mad that he found something before me. "What is it." He points to the windowsill, and there is a pen. It looks just thrown there. I look out the window to were it is pointed. The perfect spot for a pickup. Or to be cornered and caught.

That is all it takes for me to fly out the door. They all follow me, but I am the fist one to the alley. My face goes completely pale. All over the ground is blood. There are imprints of were bodies fell and blood pooled. There are no bodies though. No way of telling if Jaycie was one of those bodies. I force myself to stay strong. I look around and footprints in the blood. One of them looks like Jaycie's boot. I hear the others let out a long string of curses. "What is going on now?" I ask spinning.

All three of them have a dagger at their throat. There is a fourth one standing in front of his men and mine. "Who are you?" The leader asks. "Who are you and give me back my men. At least give me those two, you can have than one." I say asking for my two friends. The leader laughs. "Someone is a little salty to one of his teammates." He looks me over. "Who are you and why are you in this exact alley way?" He asks. I size him up. "I am looking for someone. I am with a guild down south. That is all you need to know. Why are you watching this exact alley?" I don't bother asking who he is. Instead of answering me, he holds out a dagger. One of Jaycie's. "Do you know who this belongs to?" He asks, but I am already launching myself at him.

I have him pinned and the blade out of his hands. "How the hell did you get this blade? Where is she? What did you do to her?" He holds his hands up to show surrender. "I am not the bad guy here. I am a bystander." I look at him skeptically. "I will prove it. I will let your men go." He looks at his men and they release mine. I still glare at him, but I get off him, holding Jaycie's blade close to me. "Okay, now that we aren't attacking anymore, we meet up with here before her mission. The night before. It was on accident. After a couple munities of talking, we all went our own ways."

I am still scowling. "So, what happened here?" The leader looks slightly sad. "She got here early. We saw her make her rounds; she counted the same ten guards we did. When their boss got here, they passed around some words, and when he figured out it was only her, he decided to take her. When the boss couldn't win, the guards came. She killed off five before they got her with some sort of drug mix. They left the blades as a message. We brought them to our guild. We sent word to yours, we have no information on the ones she fought sorry."

I look at her blade. I want to yell at them for watching her fight and not helping, but I can't. They are a diffrent guild. Had they tried tonhelp, and she had gotten killed, it would have started a guild war. I sigh. "We would like to go collect her things." The leader nods and leads us to their guild. When we get there, we have to take all our weapons off, and guards still escort us. Luckily, none of then notice my swords, so I am not without weapons. We get to the room with her blades and take them back with us.

After speaking with the guild master and thanking them, we head straight back to our guild. Wilker takes her blades from us and I can see he is stressing. Even though his stone cold face, and all the mental preparing he did, he still was stressing. I just went to my room and layer there. They had Jaycie, and she could be dead. The last thing we did was fight.

Two months later

I was in Wilker's office. He was talking to me about possible places Jaycie could be. Everything came back as a no, she couldn't be there. "What about these northern mountians? In this area." I ask. "No." Wilker answers. "I meet with the group of people that live up there. Isn't them." I was starting to crack. My temper was getting shorter and shorter. Everything was going to hell, and I couldn't stop it. Nothing could stop it.

I needed to find her real soon. The whole Guild had shut down to outside missions. Everyone was focused on finding her. She had been held longer the two months before, but after a month and a half, the guild always shut down. Always went all out to find the missing person. We still hadn't found any lead to her. I was looming over a map of the continent. But at this point, she could be on at completly diffrent one. That is the thought that scared me.

We kept looking before I heard an urgent knock one the door. "Come in." Wilker said. Zachery came rushing in and feel to a knee quickly. He didn't even wait for Wilker to say anything. "I found her." In the blink of an eye, I am in front of him, holding him by the collar of his shirt. He looks scared. "Where is she? Where is Jaycie?" "Well, I am not positive, but I might be right. I saw sand in that alley, so I have been looking. The city we were in has no sandy areas. All the territories that have beackes, we know the leaders of." I drop him.

"The sand plains." I say softly. I want to smack myself, I hadn't thought of that. Zachery nods. In all of two seconds, I am running out the door. I pass my buddies and tell them to be ready in half an hour. We are leaving, and I am not coming back until I find her. Even if I die in the desert, at least I tried. Half an hour later, My buddied, Zachery, Wilker, and I are all in a carriage, heading towards the sand plains. I am getting her back.