Chapter 18: Episode 19 — Escape the Fate

Astrid stretched and opened her eyes and look over her shoulder knowing Damien would be there staring at her, just like the many times she woke up beside him.

But to her surprise, he wasn’t there. She quickly sat up and looked around.

On her bedside table, she sees a flower taken from the vase and a note underneath it. She picks it up and read-

Angel, I would have loved to watch you the whole morning sleeping, unfortunately, I have a responsibility to fulfill and that’s to send in your breakfast-

And as if on cue there was a knock on her door and Alfred came in carrying her tray.

“Good morning mistress, have you had a good sleep?”

“Yes,” she gave him a questioned look, “yes I did.” she crossed her legs under her comforter and continued reading the note.

I hope Albert arrived on time. Also, I just need to finish something for work; I’ll see you downstairs after you have breakfast.

Love,  Damien She smiles and turned to the tray of food, quickly crawled across her bed, and checked it out. There are French toast, different styles of eggs, ham, pancake, coffee, hot choco, and tea.

Albert walks up to her and was about to ask but he raised his hand to silence her, reached for his chest pocket producing a piece of paper.

She opens it and laughed.

Angel, I don’t know which one you want, nor do I know how to prepare the Russian breakfast. So I pretty much had to cook the usual breakfast we have. I hope I at least got one right. But then again, seeing you love to eat… Bon a petit!

Love,  Damien She shakes her head and picked up the cup of coffee and added sugar and creamer.

“Beautiful morning, don’t you agree mistress?” Albert says.

“Beautiful indeed.” She smiles and starts to eat.

Right after breakfast she showered and prepared for school, walking across her bedroom and saw my blades hanging on the post of the bed for some reason she wanted to bring it.

She sighed remembering how she has been wearing it since they left for the break over the weekend. 

“Albert!” she calls as she steps out of the room putting on her coat, making sure her blades don’t peek out.

“Yes, mistress?” he turns to me.

“Have Derek arrived yet?” she asks.

“No, he has not, mistress.” He frowns, “But maybe they are driving him to school already.”

She sighed, “Thank you, Albert.”

“Do not worry so much, mistress. He’ll be home soon.” He says walking up to her with her bag.

She takes her bag and hooked it over her shoulder, “Are the others up?”

“I’m not sure, but I know master Damien is.” He gave her a knowing smile.

She smiles back and rolled her eyes, “I’ll see you later then.”

“Have a good day mistress.”

“Thanks!” she made her way to the main hall where the others were waiting.

“Good Morning!”

“There you are,” Kale says, “overslept?”

“Nope, I had breakfast sent up in my room.” She says, glancing at Damien who grins, “It was nice to have a quiet morning.”

“Hm, I should try that,” Jared says. “So have they called yet?”

They all turned to Collin, “Not yet, but according to uncle, they’ll be dropping him off to school.”

“Well, let’s wait for them there then,” Allana says.

“Oh, where’s Ash?” Astrid looks around.

“He went ahead; he said grandpa asked him to fix something up.”

“Work again?” she frowns and glances at Damien, “You boys had been busy all morning.”

“How would you know?” Dimitri asks a brow up, “You just got here.”

“Albert told me.” She says, brushing him off and walked toward the front door.

“U huh…” he smirks and glanced at Damien who just smiled and followed Astrid.

“Oh, how was your first night?” Allana asks Hera, walking beside her.

“It was good.” She tips her head sideward, “I didn’t know that security was so high here.”

Dimitri and Astrid exchanged looks, they knew their grandfather had extra guards scattered all over the dormitory, particularly near Hera’s area.

“Well, NSA is housing rich and smart kids.” Gen says, “That shouldn’t be a surprise.”

Hera nods as if thinking about it.

“Well, I hope they didn’t keep you awake all night,” Allana says, “I can ask to relocate some of the guards.”

“Oh, no need to. It’s cool, I feel… safer.” She glances at Astrid smiling, “That’s good.”

They entered the car but Astrid was pulled back by Damien, she turns to him and smiled.

“Good morning.” He whispers.

“Good morning.” She stifles a laugh, “Thank you for breakfast.”

He smiles, “Anything for you angel.”

She reached for my necklace and fumbled with it. “I’m guessing you were up extra early for it?”

He chuckles, “You can say that the maids here didn’t even let me off the hook, they taught me how to make French toast and pancakes in return I had to cook breakfast with them the whole week.”

“The whole week?” she asks, bewildered, glancing over the others and sees Dimtri and Kale about to go inside, she moved toward the door, never letting go of Damien’s hand. “Would you want me to put a stop to it?”

“What?” he asks, amused, “No, of course not.”

She stood by the door, making the others wait, questioned. “Why not?”

“Cause I like making you breakfast.” He whispers, “Now go inside.”

She smiles and gave him a quick kiss before stepping inside.

“Any problems?” Collin asks as Astrid slides in to make space.

“None,” she says, “Just thinking about Derek.”

“He’ll be fine Astrid,” Kale says, “do not worry.”

They reached the school, welcomed by the usual fangirls, the gossiping buzz, and chaos of NSA. They laughed making their way to class when they hear the PA system turned on for an announcement.

“Good morning everyone, this is Headmaster Hudson, please proceed to the Assembly hall. Again, all students please proceed to the Assembly hall now. Thank you.”

With that, the chimes came noting the end of the announcement.

“An assembly?” Allana asks turning to Collin.

“Probably an emergency assembly,” Collin says.

“Maybe that’s what Ash was called in for,” Damien says.

“Is that good?” Dimitri asked.

“I’m not sure,” Collin says pulling out his phone and start scrolling.

“We should go.” Allana reached for his hand.

“I’ll see you there.” Kale says, “I need to check-in at the office first.”

“You know where to go?” Collin asks still glancing at his phone, probably scrolling for messages to know what the assembly would be about.

They turn to where the Assembly hall was still talking and laughing. Once they arrived they sat somewhere in the middle of the hall occupying almost the whole row.

“What do you usually talk during assemblies?” she asks.

“Boring stuff.” He shrugs playing with her hands. “Usually some upcoming school events or exams. Stuff like that.”

She nods and looks around. There was still no sign of Derek or Ash.

“It’ll be alright,” Damien says squeezing her hand. “They probably stopped by the mansion, Derek will be here soon.”

She took a deep breath to calm myself and nod.

Then the headmaster step up to the podium and turned on the microphone.

“Good morning,” he says looking around the hall, trying to get the attention of all the students who were still busy talking around.

She stares at him for a second and frowned. He was shaking and looking nervous, his eyes seem to be looking not at the students but around us, and as if on cue, armed men stepped out from the main entrance, guns pointing at the students who were now panicking and gasping from surprise.

“Everyone calms down!” the headmaster shouts, forgetting that he was in front of a microphone. “Everyone settle down!”

“What’s going on here?” a student shouts and was quickly hit by one of the armed men near him by hitting him with the gun and forcing him to sit down.

“Everyone shut up and no one will get hurt.”

Astrid stiffens at the sound of that familiar voice. They turned to where the voice and saw her step out from the backstage behind the headmaster, a gun on his head.

“Very good.” Lila smirks, “Now if you’ll behave like good little children then no one will get hurt.”

“What’s going on Headmaster?” another student shouts but didn’t dare to stand up. The questions from students began to break.

Lila raises her gun and fired a warning shot. “I did say shut up, didn’t I?”

She glares at her and unconsciously gripped Damien's hand. “Astrid…” he covers my hand with his other hand, calming her down but she was far from calm now.

“Now…” Lila says, “let’s make this quick. I am looking for someone, my sister, she ran away from home and we have been so worried about her. We heard she came here, how she did that, we don’t know. But let me assure you that we come to harm no one if she will step up now.”

Damien tightens his hold of me again. But Astrid was in no hurry to be found, she needed a plan.

The students were looking around now and buzzing about.

“Oh c’mon Angel, come out.” Lila says, “Sister has missed you.”

Astrid fights the urge to step up. 

“So you want to play that game, Angel…” she smirks, “So be it.” She snaps her finger and there was a struggle from behind the stage.

The moment she saw who it was her eyes widened seeing Ash dragged out by two men. They positioned him in the middle of the stage and one man had a gun on his head.

“I heard this boy is very special to you,” Lila says as she ran a finger down Ash’s face. “Still not threatened enough, huh? I did expect that you wouldn’t make it easier. You leave me with no choice then…”

Astrid shifts on her seat, Lila held her hand back and slaps Ash who stumbles on the ground. She looks away angry as Ash received another slap and a kick. Lila was slowly losing her patience she moved to him and grabs him by the collar.

“Call for her!” Lila spat at him.

Ash shakes his head before Lila slaps him again.

“Can’t you see she isn’t here?” Ash snaps, in pain.

“Why do you say that?”

“Cause if she is here, she won’t let you get away with that slap.”

Lila laughs, “Is that so…” then she signals at one of the armed men who pulled Ash up and pointed a gun at him.

“Then I guess his death won’t matter much cause she’ll never know about it.”

That was the last straw, Astrid was about to stand when she felt someone stop her.

“You won’t get anywhere if you are unarmed,” Dimitri says as he discreetly passes two guns to her with a couple of ammunition. “I have your back.”

She nods and turns to Damien who was looking worriedly at her.

“Everything will be fine Damien.” She says.

“Just be careful.” He says giving her hand another squeeze.

She nods. “Dimitri guard them.”

“Got it.” I see him pull out another gun and so did Hera and Gen.

She looks back at Lila who was scanning the room, still waiting, playing her cards right. Then she turns to the gunman behind Ash and gave him the signal. I caught some students cringe and look away. 

The man positions for the kill, without a moment to lose Astrid, stood up, and took a shot. The gunman sprawled on the floor, dead. Then she turned to other guards and shot them dead as well. Behind her, she can hear Hera, Dimtri, and Gen shoot at the other guards as well almost all at the same time and quickly as to avoid any of the students getting shot.

She moves to the aisle and glares at Lila.

“Let him go, Lila.”

“Ah, there you are princess.” She smirks, “I missed you.”

“Sad I can’t say the same.” She moves to the front and up the stage, the students were starting to sit back to their chairs, looking around. “All this for me Lila? You shouldn’t have.”

“What are you doing Astrid?” Ash asks, “Go run away!”

“No.” she says firmly. “I’m finishing this now.” 

“You should have killed all of us when you had the chance, Angel.” Lila scowls.

“You don’t know how much I regretted that now, Lila.” Astrid sneers. “But I won’t be doing the same mistake this time.”

Lila and Astrid raised guns at each other and pulled another one to a guard who popped out from behind her. More armed men steps inside pointing their guns at them, she frowns. We were outnumbered, even with two guns each.

“So this is where it all ends, Lila?” Astrid says.

“No…” she smiles, “this is where it all ends.”

She looks behind Lila and sees them drag her mother out as well, “Mom…”

“I’m fine sweetheart…” she assures as she was pushed to stay beside Ash.

She glares at Lila. “I’m the one you want, let them go.”

Lila chuckles, “It isn’t that easy princess. You see, we need you dead and I doubt that you will come without a fight.”

“I will come quietly if you promise not to harm anyone here.” Astrid bargains.

Lila laughs now, “You think that is enough? After the embarrassment you left for the Duchovny house?” she spat, “Do you think that you can get away by threatening Father Charles?”

Astrid smirked, “And so he sent you while he hides behind that little castle of his?”

“I’m just second.” She grins, “The first one failed us, or is it all still a cover Dimitri?”

Astrid took a quick look at Dimitri who had his gun raised at one of the Duchovny assassins, Astrid frowns and closed her eyes pulling away from her other gun from one of the guards and pointed it at Dimitri.

To everyone’s surprise the assassin Astrid was guarding earlier dropped on the floor dead.

“There’s another one of them!” Lila snaps, “Find him!”

“Your fight is with me, Lila!” Astrid snaps.

“And with Dimitri,” Lila smirks.

“Astrid, don’t listen to her.” Dimitri says, “I declined the moment it was given to me, I left and went to find you.”

“I know, but I can’t take a risk, Dimitri.” She says and took a shot. 

Dimitri flinches, as another assassin drop on the floor way back at the assembly hall.

“But I trust you with my family,” she says, “you’re guilt can make the decision.”

She turns her full attention back to Lila.

Lila smiles, “I guess domestic life hasn’t made you any less deadly.”

“I hope it didn’t because you will be paying for this.”

“I think it’s the other way around, angel.”

The last thing she hears is Damien calling her before everything went black.

Astrid lied on the ground bloody and aching before she was slapped again causing her to fall on the cold tiles of the comfort room only in her undergarments as they have now resulted in beating me up for about an hour already.

Her uniform was all over the room torn and bloody, her blades discarded in the corner. Ash screaming somewhere outside, but that just fuelled them.

The man grabs a handful of Astrid’s hair and raises her to his face, “You think you can scare Father Charles like that?”

Astrid gave her a taunting smile, “Aw, did I scare the big bad wolf?”

He glares at her and hit her on the side, making Astrid double in pain. She may have fought off the pain, but she has long surpassed that limit. He stood over her and raised his foot to kick her, she closed her eyes and preparing herself for the pain.

“Hey!” 

They looked up and saw another assassin come in and toss clothes at her. “It’s time. Get the dress.” He says, “Lila wants you out there in five minutes and one piece.”

He addressed the last part to the one who was beating her up.

The guy glares at her one last time, cuts off the ropes, and turned to leave. She watched him, seeing him with a dagger triggered a memory.

“I remember you now. Christopher, isn’t it?” she says through gritted teeth as pulling herself to stand, he stops and turned to me, “I gave you that scar.”

He points at my stab scar, “And I gave you that.”

“Probably spent more time learning how to stab people than bear hand fighting, ‘cause you suck at beating me up.” She taunts him.

He stifled a laugh, “I’m not the one who’s on the floor in pain.”

“Don’t let my brother hear you say that he wouldn’t like it.”

“He won’t care once you’re dead, princess.”

“So sure of yourself, huh, Christopher? Beating up a girl after tying her up.” He doesn’t answer this time, “You were one of the good ones, but look at you now, bending over for Lila.”

He then grabs her by the neck and slammed her on the wall. She bit back the pain again but smiles at him.

“You have always been cocky Angel,” he hissed, “I don’t care if you are the deadliest among us, but right now, you’ll be against all of us, you will die.”

“Pathetic, sending a whole house of assassins to kill one girl.” She sneered, “I bet you wouldn’t even get to touch me again…”

He tightens his grip, Astrid was on her toes, any tighter she’ll be blacking out.

“I’ll make sure of that…” she says in almost a whisper.

“Hey! The boss wants this to be over and done with.” The same guy shouts.

“You are mine angel. I don’t care what Lila says, but you are mine!” He spats before he let released her, she drops on the floor gasping for breath, and watched him pick up my blades, “you’ll get this outside.”

Astrid leans on the wall catching her breath. She checks her arms, body, and legs, flexing her knees and elbows and shoulders. He just pretty much battered her up, aside from her bleeding lip and nose, nothing was broken or open wounds.

That’s good. I thought I can deal with bruises.

She pulled herself up, flinching and fighting away the pain as she picked up the clothes and she walks up the faucets and stared in the mirror.

Cut lip, bruised cheek, swollen eye, looking good Astrid.

She sighed and washed her face with cold water, taking a deep breath she stares at her reflection, and her eyes centered on her pendant rested against her bruised neck.

Damien, she thought, I’ll be coming home. I promise.

She needed a plan, a better one this time. It’s been an hour since they’ve started to beat her up, who knows how long they’ve kept her unconscious before that. The locker room had no windows, so she had no idea what time it was outside.

She quickly dressed up, picked up her torn blouse, and tore a piece of cloth to tie her hair up. She stares at her reflection one last time, seeing the assassin side of her, she walked toward the door where Christopher was waiting. He glanced and snorted.

“Tried to look good for your death?”

“Well, I can’t have you die in my arms looking like a scarecrow, can I?” he frowns as she stood up in front of the door. 

“Open up!” Christopher shouts.

People shuffle outside before the door was unlocked, the moment it opened two guards grab her by the arm and pulled it backward making her flinch. They tied her up again before pushing her forward. She follows Christopher, she glanced outside and guessed that it was already noon.

They reached the door leading to the soccer field. The moment they opened it, Astrid had to look away closing her eyes against the light.

“Now, we don’t want you too excited now, do we?” she hears Christopher say before she felt a sting on her neck and again knocked out cold.

Coming around, she felt the heat of the sun hit her, she groans as the world to spin as she tried to open her eyes. She moves and lied on her side letting blood circulate on her arms again. But then someone hovered over her, blocking the sun causing me to only see her silhouette. Lila pushes her back on her back with her foot, lying on her numbed arms again.

“I’m glad you have finally come around,” Lila says.

“Cheater…” Astrid hisses, her throat burned as she spoke.

She stifles a laugh, “Well, we are here to kill you, princess, do you think we’ll be making it quick and painless?”

Lila stood up, making the sun hit her eyes again, blinding Astrid for a second, she rolls to her side again.

“Get her up.” Lila snaps, one of her goons grabbed Astrid by the arm and forced her on her feet. 

She could barely stand due to the drug they injected, she staggered as she looks around and sees they were in the soccer field, the students were up on the bleachers surrounded by Duchovny assassins. 

“Astrid!” Ash shouts for her, Astrid followed his voice to see one of the assassins hit him hard.

“Stop it!” Astrid screams trying to run to him but was pulled back by the chains on her ankle. “Just get it over with Lila and leave NSA!”

She laughs and moves to a table of weapons. “I told you, princess, it will take more than just shooting you. I need to have my fun and revenge you know.”

Astrid looked down Lila’s leg, remembering that she shot her before she left.

“Then leave them out of this,” Astrid says as calm as she could.

“Oh, don’t worry, we don’t have use for their deaths, the Duchovny house does have principles, Astrid.” Lila reminds her, “I just really want the audience when I kill you.”

“Then let’s get this over with.” She moves to her but then was pulled back. She looks behind her and saw her chain pinned on the ground. “Execution style? That’s your way of getting revenge? Not letting me fight you back so you can kill me? That’s lame even for you.”

“Shut up.” she snaps.

Astrid chuckled, seeing that she hit a nerve. “I guess if I wasn’t chained, the outcome of this fight is so obvious, huh?”

“Shut up!” Lila screams again, “I’m the number one now in the Duchovny house-“

“But you still aren’t me, Lila.” Astrid sneers. “Never will you be me. My name alone causes people to run and hide. What about you? Do men still beg and purr under your touch?”

She storms up at Astrid and slaps her, Astrid laughs.

“At least Christopher had the guts to beat me up in private and lie above my bounds.”

She slaps her again and moved to punch and kicking Astrid until she was a pile of heap on the ground. Astrid was getting the impression that Father Charles was asking for a sure death, that means face to face, caught and trapped.

But if Lila was fuelled by the want of revenge, Astrid can easily manipulate her.

“Well, at least, I know that you have some sense of self-preservation,” I said. “Fearing the angel of death of the assassin world is very wise.”

She glares at Astrid, out of breath, “Unchain her.” Astrid held her eyes with mine, as her men refuse to do so. “Unchain her!!!”

They quickly moved and removed the chains, Astrid dropped her arms on the side, eyes still on Lila.

“Where are they, Lila? Where’s my family” Astrid ays She smirks, “You’ll see them when Father Charles says so.”

“And here I thought you were in charge.” Astrid taunts her before turning around to leave.

“Where do you think you’re going?” she snaps.

“Looking for the one in charge,” Astrid says, “obviously, and as usual, you are just second in command, useless.”

“So excited…” Astrid stifles a laugh, something Astrid didn’t expect. “And here we thought you wanted to see us.”

Suddenly other assassins from the House of Duchovny stepped up and surrounded Astrid.

“We thought maybe we’d like to try again with that theory of yours of not getting hurt.”

Astrid frowned, realizing that was why they had her beaten up beforehand; to lessen the chances of her being able to fight back or even to fight off the pain.

The next thing she knew they attacked, she studied them and met the first attacker and disarmed him as soon as she could. For a situation like this, there was only one way out- using one hit technique on the attacker.

Pressure points, she moved to three other attackers and hit one on the chest, then used pressure points on him, enabling him to move. She did this to several other attackers. She didn’t want to kill unless necessary, for sure, were only forced to this.

She was, after all, eyeing the big fish, Father Charles.

Fifteen minutes of chaos, Astrid had new bruises and cuts from countless attackers. She finally reached the last attacker and hit him on the gut, and kneed him knocking him out cold.

She dropped on her knees, catching my breath, then she heard clanging ahead of her and sees her blades on the ground.

I looked up and saw Lila armed with her swords as well.

“Pick it up.” she snapped.

Astrid reached for it, and the moment she had a grip on the hilts, Lila lunged. Astrid raised one of her blades and met her sword with a clash, she pushed Lila back by swinging her other blade on her torso. Not wanting to lose my momentum again, she attacked, non-stop.

But Lila had longer reach with her sword and easily got into attack mode. Five minutes of looking for weakness and sizing each other up, they separated, glaring at each other and catching their breath.

“Still feeling invincible, aren’t you angel?” Lila smirks, by now she had a cut on her cheek and her upper leg.

While Astrid had cuts on both arms, not to mention, her body was aching.

“Not invincible,” Astrid glares, “this is rage.”

Astrid raised her sword, about to attack, but then she caught Christopher’s reflection on her silver blade as he was about to drop down his blade on her from behind. Astrid turned around and blocked him, she glanced behind her and saw Lila attack as well, so she kicks Christopher on the chest, and met Lila’s swords, and pushed her back, attacking again non-stop.

But Christopher joins in on the fight, two against one, Astrid lunged at Lila, bringing down one of the sword, while the other snaked underneath her, slashing her stomach up. Astrid backs away from her, and faces Christopher, turning her blades flat on her arm.

Astrid raised one blade and met with his sword, then turned around, lined her back up his body, and pierced his stomach with her other blade. Christopher gasps and tried to grab Astrid's arm, causing her to push the blad deeper before pushing him off her.

“Move and she’s dead!”

Astrid turns and sees Lila using Hera as a shield and a blade up against her throat.

“This is between us Lila,” Astrid shouts for what felt like the hundredth time, “let her go.”

“Why do you care about her?” Lila shouts back, “She’s just an assassin and not even one of ours.”

“Cause unlike you, she treated me like family.” Astrid snapped, losing her patience. “She was more of a sister than you’ll ever be Lila, and I’m proud to say that she is my prodigy, one that is not from the Duchovny house.”

Astrid stared at Hera who gave her a weak nod. The next second she headbutts Lila, she drops on the ground, giving Astrid a clear shot of Lila and threw her blade at her and pierced Lila through and through.

Astrid relieved, fell on her knees, tired.

“Astrid!” Damien calls, but she was too tired to move even to say anything. Her body was already rebelling against her.

“Tenshi no!”

Astrid squints as she looks up and sees Hera about to drop Lila’s sword at her, Astrid uses the remaining energy she had to shield herself with her blade.

“Tenshi stop it!” Kale shouts.

“No!” our blades met with a clash Astrid’s arm was shaking with pain and stress, she had to move away before she was pushed down to a disadvantage. She rolls away from her and slowly pushed herself in all fours.

“Hera…” she tries to call her.

“You killed him…” she shouts in anger as she lunged at Astrid again, “you killed my father… you killed Mikael…”

Astrid frowned, blocking every swing she made. Astrid’s arms stiffen in pain.

“You ruin everything!” she screams, attacking non-stop fuelled with her anger, making her deadlier, and the fact that she was dead tired didn’t help.

“Tenshi stop!” Kale shouts again. Hera swung low and high, overhead, and butterfly. 

Her quick movements were making Astrid nauseous until she tripped and fell back, she raised her blade, in case she swung it forward and closed my eyes preparing for the pain.

“She didn’t kill your father!” Dimitri shouts.

And as if a stop button was hit, Hera stopped the sword a few inches away from Astrid’s open shoulder.

“What?”

“She didn’t kill your father!” Dimitri says.

Her face was tear-stained and red of anger. “You’re lying!”

“Hera.” A familiar voice echoed in the air. “Hera Ozawa is your real name, isn’t it?”

Derek walked up to us, Astrid looked behind him and saw her dad and Uncle Rhaumwald with the others, cutting them free. She sighed and lied down the ground, resting.

“You are the eldest among the quadruplets of the Ozawa clan.” Derek continues. “The day your mother hired Astrid to kill your father, do you still remember it?”

“Yes.” She snaps, pointing the sword at me again, “she said she’d do it without pay, that she understood the situation.”

“She said if she fails to kill your father she will take you with her,” Derek says. “You knew she was referring to Hera, why did you go with her? Why take her place-“

“Cause mother lied! She lies about everything! She had a lover who cared more for her money than her!” Hera snaps, “She was finding an easy way out by killing father, I refuse that my little sister is submitted to lies with her.”

“That’s the thing, she isn’t your sister,” Derek says.

Hera lowers her sword and turned to Derek, “What do you mean?”

“She’s my sister.” Dimitri steps up. “My father was your mother’s lover. The real Hera is my sister.”

Hera looks back at Astrid, confused and shook her head, “No… it can’t… she isn’t-“

“You took her place in the assassin world.” Derek says, “You did well as a sister, but, Hera needs to be with her family…”

“What are you saying, Derek?”

“Your family needs you,” Derek says sternly, “you need to go home.”

Hera shook her head and dropped her arms on the side.

“Hera…” a man speaks up. Han.

“Papa…” she stares at him, then dropped the sword and ran to him, “Papa!”

Astrid watched her be reunited with her family, finally able to drop down her guard and let go of her blades. She closes her eyes again, resting.

“Astrid…” I felt someone pick me up, “Astrid!”

“Shh…” she mumbles, “Not too loud Damien…”

“God, you are so stubborn,” Dimitri says.

“Way to say thanks for saving your ass, Dimitri.” Astrid teased trying to push away the pain.

“This is far from over,” I hear Kale says, “There’s still Father Charles.”

“The others-“

“The Ozawa dealt with them,” Dimitri says. 

“The Golden Lion also sent some of their men with the White Tigers,” Collin says.

Astrid smiles and looked them over, “What happened to you?”

“Got caught after sniping a handful of their members.” Kale chuckled. “But compared to you, I’m as healthy as a horse.”

They laughed but Astrid wheezed in pain instead.

“Just relax, Astrid,” Allana says, “it’s over.”

“It’s over.” She repeats and taking at the moment that she had been praying for.

“Are you ok?” Damien asks.

“Tired.”

“Want to go home?”

She nods, “God, yes.”

He chuckles and helped her on her feet. When Derek walked up to me with a smile.

“Guess the storm was God’s way of helping us.” He says.

 “I guess it is.” She smiles and reached for him, hugging him. “I was so worried.”

“I’m ok Astrid, I’m home.”

“We all are,” Ash says.

Suddenly a gunshot broke the short peace that we shared. Students shrieked and we all duck for cover. More gunshot broke the silence, I look around and saw Father Charles in the middle of the field, dead no doubt. I look where the gunshot came from and saw Dimitri still had his gun up.

“I should have done that a long time ago.” He says.

Astrid smiled and turned to her family and was about to walk to them when she felt pain run through her and grabbed Damien for support. Everything was spinning, her sight darkening.

“Astrid?” she tells him not to worry but nothing came out of her lips, sleep taking over her. “Astrid!”

“Ash! Ash, she’s hit!” Damien shouts. “Astrid, come on, stay with me!”

“Damien…”

“Astrid…” this time it was Ash, “Astrid, stay with us…”

“Ash…”

There was nothing left to say.