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“Have you ever heard of an organization named Garden?” asks Yor in a flat tone. Whatever he had been expecting to hear her say when she caught him trying to sneak out of their apartment with his bag packed, this wasn’t it. When he found himself caught red-handed, he had readied himself to face an emotional wreck of a woman. He figured there might be some pleading for him to explain himself, to stay. After all, he was the one who had said those three words to her not two weeks ago, and now he was going to leave her to raise who she believed was his child with no explanation. But instead, the woman in front of him wouldn’t play by the script he imagined, not that she ever had. It was one of the reasons he truly loved her that she could surprise him, but he never thought he would hear the name of a legendary assassin organization leave her lips in a million years.
Twilight looks over at his, no not his, Loid’s, no not Loid’s anymore either, just Yor. She stands about six feet (2 meters) away, dressed in her red sweater and black tights. He notices that both of her hands are currently engulfed by the sleaves of the sweater. Sweat starts to form on his brow, he has a feeling similar to the one when he fought her drunken self. She is going to kill me. He had an urge to fall to his knees and beg forgiveness, but he had a duty to perform. Operation Strix was over, it was time for him to return to WISE full time. He answers her in a similar flat tone, “They are rumored to be the best assassins in Ostania, but we have never been able to confirm their existence.”
Yor leans forward slightly so that her bangs hang off her face sending it into shadow. Her eyes open into slits as they coolly look at the man who she thought she knew. Who she had been deceived into falling in love with. “Good, now let me explain what will happen if you walk out that door.” Twilight couldn’t help a shiver that went down his spine, especially when he saw glints of metal start to descend from Yor’s sleaves. “Yor…” The sound of something flying through the air reaches him and he barely doges the stiletto as it drives itself into their door.
Yor continues as if nothing happened, “If you walk out that door the following things will happen. Number one I will call up my employer and ask for a personal favor. In all the years I’ve worked for Garden I’ve never once asked for something for myself so I am guessing that my Boss will have no problem putting a contract out on the ever-elusive agent Twilight. If you are lucky they will not send me.”
Twilight’s heart was racing, his extraction plan had gone up in smoke. His cover was blown by the one person who he thought wasn’t a threat. By the woman who he had genuinely been falling in love with. The reason he was leaving was to protect her and Anya. The longer he stayed passed his mission the greater chance that he would be found out by the SSS, and he didn’t want them to be pulled in as well. He should have remembered that Yor had a reason for the sham marriage as well, they just had never talked about it. Now he knew, he married an assassin. He would laugh if his heart wasn’t breaking, something he hadn’t thought it capable of doing anymore.
Yor takes a step towards Twilight as she continues speaking, “Second, Yor Brair-Forger and Anya Forger will no longer exist. I will take a new identity, something I haven’t needed to do since I was 11, and raise her somewhere your organization can’t find us. Thus, depriving you of any way to watch from afar, for as long as you evade Garden.” She continues to walk towards him till she stands half an arm’s length away from him. Red eyes meet blue. “Depending on how you answer my next question will determine if there is a third consequence for walking out the door.”
All Twilight can do is nod his head to indicate he will at least answer her question. That’s when her eyes change the cold flat emptiness leaves, and he can see a swirl of emotions, confusion, anger, and love. He watches as tears start to form in her eyes, each one hits him hard. He has to stop himself from gathering her up in his arms and wiping her tears away, but he shouldn’t it will just make it harder for both of them. Before any tears fall Yor whispers, “was it all a lie?”
Twilight wants to tell her the truth, that it wasn’t, but it won’t change anything he still can’t stay. Instead, he cups her face and brushes his thumb over her cheek. He closes the gap and gives her a lingering kiss. Once he pulls away, he watches her tears overflow her eyes and spill down her cheeks. “Do what you have to.” Twilight turns and pries the stiletto out of the door. He hands it back to Yor after examining it thoroughly. “For what it’s worth, I am sorry. … Thorn Princess.” Then Twilight picks up his bag and walks out the door.