|Clementine|
|Somewhere in the city of Éclos, 4:36 AM|
The dawn of the day crept closer between the time it took for Clementine, a high class assassin, to strike his next victim and meet his deadline. He knew there was a mother harboring a child in the house across the road from where he sat, a rebel to bring the adults down. He also knew that if he failed to kill her he would have to report to the head officer and master assassin and admit his failures, or wait another day to commit his kill. These were not options.
He waited silently above a two story apartment building, a shabby looking thing with only one light flickering inside. This part of Éclos was the poor section; there were many abandoned buildings and the houses that dotted the area with small, grotty looking cottages and tired residents. These adults were often the trouble, the traitors in which Clementine was assigned to get rid of.
It wasn't the first time Clem had been assigned tasks to kill mothers, in fact he had killed quite a lot of women to make it almost shameful. But after failing the Abigail Nora case, where Clementine ended up unconscious due to unwelcome circumstances, he knew he couldn't give too much emotion towards his victims, after all, he would prefer not to report back as a failure to be mocked.
Soon enough, morning light slid over the city, covering it in a grey light that made things easier to see.
Clementine could not kill in public, he could not let anyone else see or be killed, the Adult Government did not want there to be a panic, they did not want the adults to know that the children may be a threat, that there are people trying to stand up for themselves and the children. This is the way it was and will stay, and Clementine did not question or take sides, he needed money and they gave it to him, a lot. They also gave him a name, something to live up to, and that is all that Clem wanted. He did not care for anything else until it presented an opportunity to him, in his face. It's how Clementine worked, and the Government knew that.
This assignment was a young adult, a single mother in her early twenties, who had a young child of some description. A neighbor of hers had recently spotted the child within her home and reported it to the officials, wanting the reward of money for reporting suspicious behavior, but also not wanting to be around when the Government found out in the end. They always did after all.
Eventually Clementine stood from where he sat and crawled his way down the building, his eyes not leaving the silhouette of the small house where his destination was. He made his way silently to the house and scanned the windows for one easy to break in through. One he had found one he pried it open as quietly as he could and crawled through it.
It was the woman's bedroom he had found himself in. It took Clementine a few moments to adjust his eyes to the dark, but when they had he saw the woman sitting up in her bed, staring right at him.
"You're here to kill me?" she asked shakily. She did not move from her place, but watched him intensely as he moved closer towards where she sat.
"Yeah," he answered, a ping of guilt filling his voice for only a moment. But she had noticed it and sighed, a long, drawn, sad sigh.
"Is this how you truly want to live?" the woman asked angrily, still unmoving despite Clementine's slow walk towards her. "As a heartless killer? Pah!"
"Sorry lady, but that's how the world works now. I'm only doing my job." he shrugged and got out a small syringe, flashing it for her to see.
Shaking, the woman pulled out her arm. There was no escape, she knew it, just the acceptance of death and the small relief of a quick and painless death from Clementine's poison. He handled her arm gently, about to put the needle in without a word, but she quickly pulled away in sudden realization.
"Please don't kill my daughter. She is only 4, she will be an adult one day...please don't kill her! Have mercy!"
Clementine looked at the woman in silence and lifted her arm again, causing her to sob loudly. As he pushed the syringe into her skin, letting the poison flow in slowly, he muttered "I don't kill children. Only adults. I am not a hunter, so it is not my job. They will probably put her into Project 21."
The woman, tears smothering her cheeks, smiled before death took her away, and uttered a quiet "Thank you."
***
|Training Grounds, 3:05PM|
The odd assassin walked joyfully through the training grounds, watching new recruits hastily attack and defend each other, learning new skills. After his job that morning he felt rather energetic, a skip in his step, probably at the thought of a new paycheck to come. Job's had been slow recently so it was a relief to be finally out on the field again.
He walked along the sidelines of one of the training facilities, not actually planning to train (he rarely did) but he enjoyed watching others' techniques, picking up little moves that might help him. Perhaps he should train, he thought, but it was a lost cause. He preferred to stay undercover, to not draw any unwanted attention to his techniques in case someone might find his weakness. So he just watched happily, waiting for the day to end.
As if on cue, a scream could be heard not far from where Clementine stood. His ears perked up in curiosity and he began to make his way to the direction of the sound.
He saw the strange woman Aramay, more of a creature really, catch a solider in mid air and bring him down again with a thud, a solider that had seemingly fallen due to Luther's anger.
With a childlike laugh, the gasmasked man walked casually towards Aramay and shrugged, "Poor man," he looked at the unconscious solider in amusement, "I'm surprised you caught him like that. Most people would've just let him fall."