The woman sighed, looking out over the city as the wind whipped through her hair. She brought the cigarette up to her lips and took a long drag, admiring the pink and orange sky coloured by the slowly setting sun. Say what you would about Tombguard; it was truly a beautiful place, if you knew where to look. Granted, the woman had never actually been outside of the city, so she didn’t have much frame of reference. Still, after spending the first nine months of her existence locked in an underground prison, the sight of any space big enough to spread her wings in was enough to bring a tear to her eye.

Things weren’t perfect, though. She was never completely safe from Andreas’ pursuit, and that wasn’t helped by the fact that she was actively antagonising him. Still, he’d be hunting her even if she didn’t fuck him over at every possible opportunity, so it was justified. That dickhead deserved everything she threw at him.

A dark figure flickered across the rooftop of the building opposite. The woman sighed again, taking one last puff to finish her cigarette and shaking her wings out. She didn’t want to have to do this, but it was the only way to keep herself and Hex safe. There was no doubt in her mind that Andreas had already told Jordyn to kill her on sight, even before she made a mess of the first assassination attempt. In an ideal world, they could leave each other alone and Jordyn could go on her merry, naïve way being ordered around by her ‘father,’ but that just wasn’t reality. It was kill or be killed, and the woman refused to let Andreas continue to have a hold on her life. Jordyn had to die for the two of them to live.

She cracked her neck and double-checked that her pistols were fully loaded before re-holstering them on her hips. She made sure her knives were secured against her thighs. The target was in sight. She pulled the mask over her face and stomped her cigarette out on the floor.

“Sorry, little sister. I’m not gonna miss this time.”

With that, she flapped her wings and took flight.

—

Something was wrong.

The afternoon was calm, and up until a few minutes ago, I’d been enjoying my time relaxing on the rooftops as the end to my patrol grew closer. As per usual, I’d been lounging on the edge of a building, watching all the people and traffic go by, but when I got up to make my way back to the facility, I was immediately hit with the sensation that something wasn’t right. The hairs on the back of my neck rose, and I had to resist the urge to look over my shoulder as I ran from building to building.

I knew that feeling all too well. I was being watched.

I slowed down, landing on a rooftop and surveying my surroundings. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, and as far as I could see, there wasn’t anyone around that was paying any attention to me. That didn’t mean I was safe, though. For all I knew, this was another one of the Godling’s attempts to get in my head. The pain that would usually accompany that hadn’t hit yet, but still. I needed to be on my guard, just in case.

A memory flashed through my mind; one of discarded feathers, and a suspect flying away after shooting me down.

I looked up.

All I could make out was a beak-shaped mask before my instincts kicked in and I flung myself backwards, out of the way of the hammer kick coming straight for my head. It cracked the concrete as it made contact with the floor.

I fell into a roll before hopping back to my feet, dropping into a fighting stance as I analysed my opponent. Based on their figure, they were most likely a woman, dressed in a tank top and some baggy combat pants, along with a heavy-looking pair of boots. Her arms were thick with corded muscle, her tan skin nicked with countless tiny scars. A large pair of black wings flared out behind her back, spread to show off their intimidatingly huge wingspan. Behind her bird-like mask, dark, thick hair cascaded down over her shoulders. She was about the same height as me, with a similar build, and based on the way that she dropped into an identical stance to my own, she knew how to use it. This would be no easy fight.

Kill the black-winged one on sight should you see it.

Father’s months-old command pierced through my mind like an arrow. Whoever this woman was, he wanted her dead, and I had a duty to see that order through. After all, she shot me. It was completely justified. She had to die.

A large part of my mind protested against the thought, but I pushed it down. I knew Father was watching. I couldn’t fail him again. I wouldn’t fail him again. Better to get it done quickly.

I whipped my hand forward, and a spike of shadow extended from the seams of my armour, heading straight for the gap between the woman’s fourth and fifth rib. It would be over for her in an instant. Painless, for the most part. It was better this way. My gut clenched as time seemed to move in slow motion, waiting for the countdown towards the woman’s demise to hit zero.

All of a sudden, she was moving, quicker than I could possibly have anticipated. She deftly stepped to the side, dodging the spike by millimetres, and flapped her wings, using the upward force to lift herself into a frontflip over my head. I spun as she landed and ducked my head to dodge another kick. The woman pirouetted as she backed up, pulling combat knives from the straps around her thighs. There was a single moment of tense stillness before she came at me again, stabbing and spinning back and forth with those knives aimed right for the unprotected spots of my armour like she knew exactly where they all were.

She had me on the ropes, backing up as I dodged this way and that, deflecting knives with my shadows when they came too close. I was far too focused on staying out of the way of her attacks to even think about focusing the darkness in my armour into any sort of attack. Maybe if it was nighttime, and I had shadows all around me to call on, I could put her down. As it was, I’d just have to do without the full use of my power.

I grabbed her wrist as she came in for another attack and twisted, pulling her over my shoulder and aiming to slam her onto the ground. She was surprisingly heavy at first, but that quickly changed as a rush of wind hit my ears and the woman’s weight shifted behind my back. She moved with my throw, twisting in the air as she came back into view and wrapping her legs around my neck. Her movement stopped as she hit the ground with her other hand, and suddenly I felt myself lift off the ground as the woman pulled a reversal, throwing me over herself and slamming me onto the concrete with enough force to rattle my bones even through all of my armour.

In my daze, I could just about make out the woman flipping back onto her feet and rounding on me once again. Something glinted in the light of the setting sun, and my instincts kicked back in just in time to roll out of the way of the knife coming straight for my face.

It snapped as it hit the ground where my head had just been, and the woman’s fist followed through hard enough to leave another cracked dent in the concrete. Just what was this woman made of?!

I threw myself back onto my feet and conjured a whip of shadow before she could get close enough to stop me. She lifted herself, discarding the now-useless hilt as she settled back into her stance. Her head cocked to the side, and my stomach dropped as my own voice came out from behind her mask.

“Well shit, Jordyn. I thought you’d be a pushover, but you’re not half bad. Still not as good as me, though.”

My shadows flared in alarm. “How do you know my name?”

The woman didn’t reply. Instead, her arm disappeared, moving faster than I could process, and reappeared with a pistol. She pulled the trigger once, twice, three times, and I stumbled back as each shot hit me in the chestplate and knocked more and more air out of my lungs. My shadow whip turned to dust as my concentration dropped from the sudden attack.

The woman didn’t waste her opportunity, flapping her wings to kick herself off and charging at me. She spun, and the last reserves of oxygen were expelled from my body as her steel-toed boot hit my side with the force of a train.

The hit sent me flying, flipping head over heels in the air as I flew over the edge of the building we were on and onto the roof of another. I landed in a sprawling roll, desperately trying to regain control of my body and my lungs while fighting through the pain of a few definitely broken ribs. Eventually, I managed to jab a spike of shadow in the ground to stop my momentum and centre myself. I tensed my abs, sucking in as much breath as I could as I got back to my feet. There was no time to process, though. She was coming at me again.

All I caught as I looked up was a flash of wings before something hit me in the face and I was sent flying again; this time, with a brand new scrape in the viewscreen of my visor. I refused to let the hit stun me again, forcing my body into a flip that landed me back on my feet. She wasn’t the only one with a good core.

I quickly glanced around, trying to ascertain where she went. She wasn’t hard to find now that I knew where to look; swooping through the sky, gliding her way around for another hit. She lined herself up and began her dive, speeding towards me faster and faster; one knife in hand. She wasn’t going to get the drop on me again, though.

I stanced up, amassing my shadows beneath my armour, fortifying my body as she came closer and closer. This might be the only chance I had left to get out of this. I had to time it right.

There.

I dropped and spun right at the moment of impact, sending my boot launching up into her gut like a piston, powered artificially by my shadows and strengthened by her own speed. Darkness shot out of my armour as I made contact, following the hit through with dozens of tiny blades that cut into her stomach and pierced through her skin.

The woman let out a gagging cry as she flew away, crashing into the side of a building with a burst of feathers and falling into the alley between. Relief washed over me. It had worked; for now, I was safe.

I knew better than to think it was over just like that. The woman was far too strong and clearly far too hell-bent on my death to be turned off just from one attack. I got lucky with that one; there was no way I’d be able to land a hit like that two times in a row, and it was becoming obvious that, as things were, I was outmatched. What I needed was a plan.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

I turned to the west, looking at the setting sun. Its light was the only reason I wasn’t able to unleash the full strength of my power. Even if I ducked into an alley, the woman would probably have no trouble corralling me back onto a street, directly in the sunlight. What I needed was the complete darkness of night. I needed time. I turned to the east and I ran.

Adrenaline still coursed through my bloodstream, providing me with the strength needed to ignore my pain as I jumped from rooftop to rooftop, pulling myself along with shadowy tendrils where necessary. Only a few more minutes until sunset. I could make it.

Sure enough, I heard the beating of the woman’s wings against the air behind me, steadily growing closer. I knew my counterattack wouldn’t hold her back for long, but I was hoping to get a full minute out of it, at least. Oh well, there was nothing for it. I’d just have to evade her until the sun went down. Easier said than done, but I would manage. I had to.

More gunshots cracked off behind me. The impact against my back threatened to throw me off balance, but I stabilised, spinning mid-sprint and flinging spears of shadow at her to hopefully keep her at bay. I could hear her swooping back and forth and I zig-zagged in turn, trying to keep my movements unpredictable.

The hair at the back of my neck rose and I instinctively dove to the ground - just in time for the woman to blur through the space I’d just been in, crashing onto the rooftop just in front of me. We both jumped to our feet, but I was just a millisecond behind her, and she used that time to launch a powerful roundhouse kick right into my cheekbone.

My head whipped to the side, and everything around me suddenly clicked into high focus. The scratch in my vision was gone. I could feel the cool air on my face and in my sweat-soaked hair. The sounds of the city became loud and sharp; no longer muted by my helmet’s audio processors.

Oh, that was it. My helmet just came off.

Time seemed to move in slow motion as I watched it spiral through the air, flying over the edge of the building and falling into the alleyway, disappearing from sight. Father was going to be so mad with me.

Time sped back up and suddenly I was moving; flying across the rooftop as the hit knocked me off my feet. I landed in a sprawling heap, tumbling over myself before managing to roll onto my back, staring up at the sky. My vision spun as pain throbbed through my skull, and my neck angrily protested any attempt to turn my head and spit out the bloody taste of whatever had come loose in my mouth. By the feel of it, it was probably a tooth.

The woman appeared in my line of sight before I could recover, planting one boot on my chest and aiming her pistol straight at my face. My heart leapt into my throat.

She wheezed, clutching at her bloody abdomen with her other hand. “That… was a nice fuckin’ hit you got earlier. You’re pretty good, Jordyn.” She straightened out, putting her finger on the trigger. “I’m sorry it’s come to this, little sis.”

“W-wait!” I pleaded. All I needed were a few more moments. This wasn’t the end. “Wait, please… Who… who are you?”

The woman hesitated. A few tense seconds passed, and she shrugged. “Yeah, why not. That’s the big question, isn’t it? Who am I? I asked myself that a lot when I was in your shoes. All you need to know is that I’m someone that daddy dearest doesn’t like very much. Though, I’m sure you already knew that.”

“B-but…”

“Who are you, Jordyn? Can you answer that? If you can, maybe your story won’t have to end here.”

That… that was a trick, right? She clearly already knew my name. If I gave her the obvious answer of ‘Jordyn de Vygon,’ I was gonna get shot. No, she was looking for something else. I racked my brains, searching for some sort of clue.

“I’m sorry it’s come to this, little sis.”

“-daddy dearest-”

“Madeline Holmes, will you marry me?”

“Are… Are you me?”

I swallowed, praying to god my hunch was right. “I… I’m y-your sister. A superhero. I-I’m M-Madeline Holmes’... wife…?”

Silence reigned over the rooftop. The woman cocked her head to the side. “Huh. What gave you that idea?”

Not immediately dead. That was a good sign. “You… you called me ‘little sis,’ and… I had a dream, wh-where I was proposing to her.”

“Hmm. You’re not totally hopeless, I guess. Still, you’re a little confused. I’ll give you a hint: you’re not Madeline Holmes’ wife. I’ve had that dream, too.”

I frowned, trying to ignore the twinge of disappointment in my gut. “Then… I was right about the sister thing?”

“Smart cookie. Say hello to your big sister. You can call me Maggie.”

This was all way too much to take in. Was this woman serious?! “B-but, if you’re my sister, why are you trying to kill me?!”

Maggie sighed. “I don’t want to, honestly. But I gotta prioritise number one, and Andreas would have sent you after me sooner or later, regardless of what I did. So long as you were just a mindless soldier following his every command, it was safer to just put you down. Now that we’ve had the chance to chat, though… I can see that you’re not totally under his thumb. You’re asking questions, you’re thinking for yourself a bit, instead of following blindly along with whatever he tells you. I might still have to kill you - we’ll see - but it’s a promising start.”

My head felt like it was about to explode. “S-so… You know who I am? Who I really am – the person I was before my injury?”

Maggie slumped. “See, and then you go and say shit like that, and you have me worrying again.”

“Wh-what do you mean?”

“I wish I could tell you the truth, Jordie. I really, really do. You don’t deserve to live in ignorance, stuck under that bastard’s grip. But, if I tell you now, things are gonna go tits up faster than I can flap my wings, and I sure as shit don’t have the resources to help you when it does. You gotta figure it out for yourself. I’m sorry.”

…What? So, after everything, she just wasn’t going to tell me anything? I was this close to finally having some answers about myself, and she was just gonna keep them to herself?! Frustrated tears prickled in my eyes. “B-but, but why?! I don’t understand! Why can’t you tell me?!”

“I just told you why, dumbass. I get that you’re desperate for some answers, but that’s the best I can do for now. You want my advice? Don’t stop asking questions. Don’t take anything at face value. Andreas is gonna try every trick in the book to make you feel like you’re too stupid to understand anything, so why even bother wondering? Don’t let him. You’re smart, Jordyn. You’ve shown me that in this conversation, and during our fight. I know you can figure this out, just like I did.”

Maggie finally lowered her pistol, holstering it as she looked out over the city. The sound of police sirens echoed through the air, steadily getting louder. “I’ve stayed out too long,” she said. She looked back to me. “I’ll let you go this time, Jordyn. But if you come after me again, I won’t hesitate to blow a hole in your head, sister or not. Good luck.”

Her wings flexed, extending out to their full length. I realised she was about to fly away.

“Wait! What am I going to tell Father? He’s ordered me to kill you, I can’t just ignore that! He’ll… he’ll punish me.”

“Yeah, that’s a tough one. For today, the best you can tell him is the truth. I kicked your ass, and got away. If he’s in a generous mood, he’ll let you off. I can’t promise that, though. As for if he orders you after me again? Maybe that would be a good time to question why he wants you to kill your own sister so badly. Don’t actually ask him that, though. God, he’d whip you bloody for that. Just… think about it. See you later, Jordyn.”

With a gust of wind and a quick, painful burst of pressure from the boot on my chest, she was gone, disappearing into the night sky.

Oh. I’d totally forgotten. I was meant to be buying time until sunset so I could muster up the shadows for a surprise attack. Oops. In the wake of everything Maggie was saying, it just slipped my mind. I couldn’t say I was particularly upset about that, though. I had a feeling that that conversation had been more valuable than I could currently comprehend.

The sirens grew louder and I continued to lay there, contemplating what I’d learned as the pain from my injuries steadily intensified in the comedown from the adrenaline of the fight. I… had a sister. Why hadn’t Father told me about her? What else wasn’t Father telling me about? Why were things so clearly fraught between my two only family members? And why did Maggie’s voice sound exactly like mine?

The swelling from my throbbing cheek was starting to spread up to my eye, forcing it shut. Worried, I reached up and gently poked it. It felt about as good as could be expected, from a kick that knocked out a tooth and took my helmet right off my head; in that doing that really, really hurt. Ow.

I gingerly sat up, trying not to move my neck too much. Speaking of my helmet, I needed to find it, and quickly. The police would no doubt be here soon, come to investigate the gunshots, and I couldn’t let any of them catch sight of my face.

It was slow, painstaking work getting myself down from the rooftop into the alleyway, but I managed. Thankfully, my helmet stood out pretty obviously against all of the trash and junk, and I was able to retrieve it with relative ease. As soon as I put it on, Father’s voice rang through my ears. Hearing from him filled me with relief, but Maggie’s words still sat heavily in the back of my mind.

“Seven, what’s your status? Did you complete your mission?”

I swallowed thickly, trying to sum up the courage to lie. “I-I… I’m sorry, Father. I failed. She got away.”

Silence stretched on for a long, tense moment. Finally, Father spoke again. “Return to the facility at once. We will discuss this more once your injuries have been seen to.”

I nervously bit my lip. “Yes, sir.”

I could already tell. Father was not in a generous mood.

—

“Three cracked ribs, a fractured cheekbone, a missing tooth, and a nasty case of whiplash,” the medic said, reading off my diagnosis. “It was good that you kept the tooth in your mouth. We can probably find someone to stick it back in, but as for the rest of your injuries, the best I can suggest is taking it easy.”

Taking it easy sounded nice, but I seriously doubted Father was going to let me take another break so soon after my last one. Sure enough, his frown immediately deepened.

“You’re dismissed,” he said to the medic. They nodded their head and left without another word. Father turned to me.

“You’ve disappointed me today, Seven. All you needed to do was follow one simple order, but clearly I expected too much from you. It’s obvious that you’ve been neglecting your combat training. From now on you will be doing double training shifts every day, as well as double patrols for the next two weeks. Oh, and forget about getting your tooth back. Maybe I will reconsider once you’ve done something to earn it.”

With that, he turned and followed the medic out. I sighed, looking up at the ceiling, running my tongue along my teeth and feeling the gap in between my upper molars. Having to work double patrols through my injuries definitely sucked, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I could survive that.

I tried to turn my head as I got up from the examination table, but a lance of pain shot through my neck and down my back. I gasped, returning to my previous position as gently as I could.

Okay, maybe this was a problem.

Double combat training every day with my neck like this?!

…Fuck. Maybe it would have been better if Maggie had just pulled the trigger.

—

Maggie landed heavily on the fire escape outside of her apartment, clutching her abdomen. Adrenaline had made it a bit easier to ignore during the conversation, but now that things had calmed down, the real damage that Jordyn’s kick had inflicted upon her was becoming clear. Every breath felt like needles stabbing into her ribs.

She lifted her shirt to check the damage. Aside from the absolutely gnarly bruise, the kick had somehow also left her with multiple bleeding lacerations. The little soldier was crafty with her shadows, that was for sure. One thing was clear, though: she needed stitches. Ugh, her favourite.

She shook out her wings, trying to work off the spare anxiety, and opened the window, slipping inside.

Diego was sitting on the couch when she entered. He turned to her, a conflicted but relieved expression on his face as he looked her up and down.

“So… Did you do it?”

Maggie shook her head. “Nah. I almost did, but…” She sighed. “Seeing her scared face looking up at me like that, it… reminded me too much of Hex, on that day back in the facility. I decided to give her a chance.”

Diego’s face relaxed into a smile. “I’m proud of you. You did the right thing.” He stood up, walking over and planting a soft kiss on her lips, one that she happily returned.

She pulled out of the kiss, resting her forehead on his shoulder instead, enjoying the warmth of his arms wrapped around her. “I wish I could believe that. I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see how it pans out. Where’s Hex?”

“In her room, playing Minecraft on my laptop. She’s been waiting for you to come back.”

Maggie closed her eyes. “I’ll go say hi later. Right now, I should probably focus on patching myself up.”

“You want my help?”

“After what happened last time, I think I’ll just do it myself.”

“Fair.”