The Paladin

Chapter 1

-ElizabethDicewielder

Lucy stomped on The Paladin's chest, delighting in the way his grunt resonated off the walls, affirming her victory. Delighting in the blood pooling on his chest, drawn from the blade on her boot.

Revenge was indeed sweet.

She could almost taste it. Vengeance was perhaps the most delicious thing she had known in her life. She grinned, showing her pearly teeth, just for the hell of it.

"I suppose this is what you wanted, isn't it," The Paladin ground out, voice strained. "My death at your hands. Revenge is all there is for you. You're blind to all else."

Lucy painted a mask of indifference over her face, inspecting her nails. "Perhaps." It may have been meant as an insult, but it was true. And what did she care? She was to be rid of him forever in a moment.

The Paladin contorted his face into a snarl. "You're despicable, Blitz."

Her anger flared. She may have been despicable, but he was in no position to say so.

Lucy ground her boot harder into his chest and he cried out, more blood soaking into his leathers. "Watch your tongue, The Paladin," she mocked. "I may be despicable, but at least I'm clever. I didn't put 'the' in front of my name."

The Paladin actually had the nerve to laugh. "That's your best insult?"

Lucy shrugged. "I'm just saying that it does make addressing you rather strange. I mean, honestly, Edwin Cooper, what in the world were you thinking?"

The Paladin froze, all humor draining from his face.

Her lips twisted into a cruel smile and she leaned down over him, just to make her seem that much more menacing. "You didn't know I knew your name, did you?"

"How." He was making a demand in this situation? Conceited bastard.

"I have my sources," she said casually.

"Please, don't hurt my family."

She laughed, the sound echoing off the barren walls in a cacophony of noise. "Maybe I will, maybe I won't."

She had no real interest in harming his relatives, but he didn't need to know that. No, the only life she had any investment in was his.

"Don't. Please," he begged.

That word again. It sent tremors down her bones, made her want to move with the music of it.

"Say that again," she ordered, her hands drifting towards Faye and Ann, buckled at her hips.

"Please," he said again. His eyes flicked to her guns.

She drew the twin pistols, her cloak tickling her hands. "One. More. Time." She twisted her foot with each word.

He gasped. "Please." His voice was barely more than a whisper.

That was all she needed to hear.

She pulled the triggers, aiming for two precise spots on his head.

Gunshots. Then silence.

The bullets had hit their targets.

The Paladin's eyes were now just bloody sockets.

Lucy brought a pistol up to her face, sliding its side down her cheek in a caress. "Who's blind now?"

The Paladin didn't respond, the word 'please' still written on his mouth. Dead at last.

Lucy smiled grimly. In a series of practiced, fluid motions she slid Faye and Ann into their holsters, removed her foot from his chest and twisted a large gear on her thigh, setting off a series of smaller gears down her leg that retract the blade on her boot.

It was done.

She ran her hands through her short brown hair, smoothing it out before pulling up her hood, covering her face in shadow. Her steps echoed through the abandoned warehouse as she stalked towards the door.

The Paladin was dead. Retribution was hers.

Perhaps it didn't bring quite as much joy as she had hoped, but it was enough. And it had been a long while since anything had been enough.

But that time was over. Tonight she had bought a new life for herself.

This was not an ending, but a beginning.

There would be no more chases. No more hunts. His death had ended all that.

No. Those days were finally, finally passed.

She was free.