Chapter Text
Everyone in the Undercity knows about Ast but nobody knows where she came from. One day she just showed up and wormed her way to the top, replacing Sevika as Silco’s bodyguard and top fighter. She rarely talks but when she does it’s loud, she’s a fighter through and through. If anyone tries anything with her that she doesn’t approve of they’ll meet her fist. People barely know her name, just that she was a dangerous person to be around, with a temper quicker than an Enforcer’s hand.
She’s a mystery and people avoid her like she’s carrying the next sickness. If there’s one thing that’s certain about her it’s that she’s loyal to Zaun above all else. People have seen her cursing Silco out before storming out of the bar, only returning weeks later. Nobody knows why she does it when she clearly despises the man but they’re all waiting for her to snap someday. She likes kids too, she’s always been good to them and their parents are the only one she talks to.
“Why are you going to Stillwater?” the Enforcer asks, staring at the black haired woman. She’s wearing a mask over her mouth, with intercrossing wires that make it look like a muzzle. Steely gray eyes meet sky blue and the woman laughs, staring out at the sea as the Enforcer scowls. “You work for him, don’t you?” The woman ignores her, trailing her fingers over the water as the Enforcer stares impatiently.
“Tit for tat, you tell me why you’re investigating and I might answer you,” she says lazily after a few minutes. Her voice is rough and the Enforcer is left wondering if the mask really is some sort of muzzle. It certainly sounds like she hasn’t spoken in a while, her voice is just too weak and soft for her. Someone like that should scream from the rooftops in her opinion, not just sit back like this, it seems too pathetic for someone with her presence.
“I want to help both of our cities. I know that I’m privileged but I believe that I can use that for good,” she declares and the woman smiles. Lazily she offers out a hand and the Enforcer takes it, eyes alight with anticipation.
“I work for Silco and I’m here for one of his men. You’re not one of the people that we’ve bought out,” she comments and the Enforcer’s face falls, eyes wide with terror. Under her mask Ast smirks at her shock, wondering how naive one woman can be, Silco can’t be that good at keeping it hidden. The posh accent means that she’s probably from a House and it makes sense, she’d scream at the sight of a corpse, let alone her fathers…
“Tell me everything or I’ll have you arrested,” she says and Ast is embarrassed to realize that she’s afraid. It was only a few years but she’s woken up screaming because of what happened in Stillwater. It’s sick that she’s the one sent back there to pick up their convicts but he doesn’t know. Still this is the first real opportunity that Ast’s had since all of this started eight years ago.
Shakily Ast lifts her hand from the water and rewraps the bandages on her hand. “I’m only working for him so I can get the chance to kill him. Get me a way to do it and I’ll give you anything you want,” she mutters. It feels like she’s alive for the first time in years at the opportunity, this could work. Everything can be made right, she can get her revenge and maybe fix her city with this fucking Enforcer.
Ast’s apartment is small, filled with the stench of alcohol from nights drinking alone and reminiscing. The smell was comforting, it brought back memories of before, when she wasn’t so angry at the world. She used to be bright and cheerful but no one would ever believe that, it seems ridiculous. When she was a child Ast was always doing something, putting her energy into everything with a wild grin on her face. But that was fourteen years ago and so much has changed since then, so many dead.
No one remembers that cheerful girl, not after how long she’s been dead, resting with her parents. But everyone remembers Ast’s sister, the shy girl who would flounder her way through the world, clumsy and awkward. They all miss her, the light that she brought to the world without even realizing it.
None of them miss her the way that Ast does though, none of them have that hole in their chest, pushing them forward. No one can understand her because they’ll never even begin to know the two of them. Ast was her protector, her best friend and the one who got her killed, just like the rest. During the worst nights, when she’s beaten and bruised from brawl after brawl she knows the truth.
She hates Silco so much, she’s dedicated her whole life to burning his down because without that she’ll only have herself to blame. So she lays in that secret little apartment, sobbing as nightmares taunt her day and night. But none of it shows on the outside, there she’s a hardened fighter, Silco’s rabid dog.
There’s only one thing that’s even slightly personal in the whole building, a punching bag hanging off a chain. The leather wrapped around is worn, filled with small patches and covered in stains from bloody knuckles. She used to use the wall when she was in prison so she doesn’t even notice her dry skin cracking open anymore. It’s happened a thousand times before and Ast knows that it will happen a million more.
Ast looks up from the bag when someone opens the door, glaring before she recognizes the woman in front of her. She’s changed over the years but she’s still the familiar teen who was there on that first night home. There’s the same haunted anger in her eyes that there was back then and it fills Ast with dread. “He’s dead. Some Bilgerat came and killed him,” she says and everything falls down around them. Ast never thought that she would mourn Silco’s loss but now it’s ruined everything.