Sona X Draven Chapter 4

Hey again guys, I have been so far pretty good about updating this story. Sending out a chapter or two at a time to keep it out there for whoever is interested, and to not overload anyone with reading. I don't know about you guys but if someone posts a huge fanfiction all at once I just check out. But to each their own. Anyway all rambling aside, I hope you like it and please comment on how the writing is, good or bad! I love to hear any criticisms of my work so I can make it better! (not just for fanfics, but any writings.) Thanks again! By the way this is a slightly longer chapter, but more is going on so I couldn't really break it up.

IV

The safe house should’ve been called the damp, crappy cave. It was a modest hole in the side of a plateau shielded by an overhanging tree with drooping branches. Nothing too spectacular was inside the inlet, a cot with some blankets, basic medical supplies, a couple of dry rations and a jug of fresh water. Some basic blades hung neatly on the wall next to a black bow with non-poisoned arrows, probably for hunting if they weren’t drugged. On the cot lay four neatly folded, drab grey cloaks all sporting large hoods. Darius and Draven left their more recognizable weapons for more subtle ones, a basic sword for Darius, while Draven fancied the bow and a knife.
Once they reached a hillside near the wall, but still had some cover, they crouched for final preparations. Darius took the mantle of leader and spoke tactics, “This hill will suffice as a rendezvous point after the intel is collected. Urgot can see both targets from here and will serve as oversight. Draven and Kat, hit the palace. Talon, you and I will head to the army headquarters.”
“Like hell I get Kat! I’m going with Talon!”
“Draven shut up, I got Talon, you deal with the drama queen.”
“No you shut up, I always get stuck with the short straw!”
“That’s because you’re shorter than me.”
“Barely and your boots are huge.”
“Still, deal with it.”
“But she sucks and I hate her!”
Katarina edged a word in “Hey, still here.”
The brothers agreed on something for once and in unison, “no one cares Kat.”
She smacked Draven on the shoulder, hard. “You are with me Romeo, deal with it.”
“Ok don’t hit Darius then…”
“He’s wearing his armor.”
“He actually isn’t for the first time in what I assume is years.” Darius hit Draven on the other shoulder and spun him half around. “Gahhh, I hate everyone and everything so much right now!”
“You ready?”
“I swear if you knife me again,”
“One time thing I promise, let’s go!” She darted to the wall.
“Wait! Oh hell.” He checked for guards and ran to catch up.
Darius looked to Talon, “So should we go? How do you want to tackle this?”
“I don’t tackle defenses. I slice through them with the elegance and precision of a rogue blade, a dark dagger in the night slicing shadows into wisps of nothing. My skills are honed and sharp, as a knife.” He sat squinting straight ahead not turning to make eye contact with his new partner.
“Uhhhh. Ok. Strange as it is, I’m gonna side with Draven on this one. You need a room with a mirror and you’re set for life aren’t you?”
Talon shot him barely a glance before he disappeared into the night.
“Wow. Nailed him, am I right?” Darius looked to Urgot. A long uncomfortable silence ensued only broken by occasional clicks and wheezes. Darius sighed, “Really rethinking life choices about now.”
Urgot groaned into life, “Choices are, cuuurgh, overrated.”
“You know….. I don’t even know how to answer that. Goodbye Urgot, try not to die while we are gone. God forbid something actually good happens tonight….” Darius sulked as he crept to find Talon.

The night air was crisp as Draven silently thanked whoever made these cloaks so thick and warm. His face burned slightly, partly from the exposure to the cold for hours and partly because Katarina had managed to evade him. That pest used her knives to scale a tree and hop the wall. If he didn’t find her, Swain was going to be pissed. So now he crouched in a cluster of rocks, wallowing in self-pity while he contemplated the consequences if he couldn’t take down the two guards by the side door he was trying to enter… The options weren’t good.
With a deep breath he vaulted onto the nearest rock and fired three arrows from the dark wood bow. Two found their marks in the first guard’s neck, the third went wide. Draven cursed the bow and wished for his axes as he panned left to hit the other guard on the run. He hopped down from to rock to admire his handy work. Clean shots overall, besides the one that went wide they all hit the necks. Cut off any cry of alarm even if the target doesn’t go down immediately. Grunting curses to a certain female assassin, Draven dragged the bodies into the rock cluster he had been bunkered in. Pilfering their keys before he left, Draven’s odds of survival were seemingly improving.
It had been awhile since Draven had seen the Demacian’s home. The stone buildings seemed to radiated light and splendor even when the sun was hiding. The moon’s radiance shined from each building, each stone in the street and every window gleamed with candlelight from the families within. Draven worried that the cloak would be useless if the light shone upwards, illuminating his easily recognizable features. 
Ducking into a nearby alley he made his way towards the palace. Katarina would be headed that way too. As he walked, Draven noticed the air did not have the same qualities it did in his home. Pride and spirit ebbed from each waving banner, the winds giving life to their patriotic dance. The building’s structure and height conveyed permanence and a challenge to any force to try and bring them down. Draven thought of that obnoxious Garen and realized where he got it from. He chuckled quietly thinking of a whole town of Garens trying to function. These thoughts were interrupted by the inner palace wall. Abruptly halting his alleyway adventure, Draven scanned the wall for a nearby point of ingress.
But he was distracted. A house across the way had a ground floor window looking in on the family commons. Draven tried to stay focused, but was captivated by what he saw. A mother holding her baby close to her and singing softly by the fireplace, while her husband held a little girl in the air and swung her about while laughing. The fire’s soft glow made the motions seem slow and it all seemed like a picture of heaven caught in time for all to see. Draven felt hollow and small.
He let a few slow breaths and tried to break his gaze, but it was in vain. Then a familiar voice crept into his ear like a tick burrowing into wood. “You know, if you kill guards on the way in, that limits our time here before the alarm is raised.”
Draven moved with uncharacteristic swiftness as his rage consumed him. Katarina was a mere annoyance, the rage came from a different, deeper place. She was merely a target. Though, leaving him outside the wall was cause for anger too. His hand locked like a vice on her neck and he continued the spin to slam her into the wall as his blade glided up to her chest. Her eyes flared wide with shock at the sudden burst of emotion, normally he wasn’t this volatile. Draven’s voice was hoarse, “Before I gut you like a perch, why the hell did you leave me out there?”
His grip relaxed only slightly to allow her to speak, and she croaked, “I trusted you could find your own way in. Now if you want to kill me, do it, and tell Swain how you killed his best spy and assassin.”
He dropped her and sheathed his blade. His eyes dropped to the street as he avoided making eye contact with the family scene across the way. Kat landed with a thud and a tinking noise as dozens of small blades rattled together from the sudden impact. She stood up rubbing her throat and coughing, “Jeez Draven. I know you have family issues but maybe a warning would be nice.”
He was in no mood. “How do we get in?”
Katarina wrinkled her forehead as she assessed Draven. She looked into his eyes with that piercing gaze trying to determine how he had lost his normal demeanor and cocky attitude. The Draven Noxus knew was easily annoyed, but rage and clipped phrases were two things he was not known for… Proceeding onward, she said “I came to this alley to shunpo jump up three window ledges and reach the top.”
“Ok, take this rope and secure it to something on the other side so I can climb over.”
“Roger.”
As she began her ascent, Draven pondered the lack of snarky remarks and actual compliance from his partner. When the rope went taught, he tested his weight on it and it held. He began his ascent. She actually helped? He must have really scared her. Draven scolded himself for losing his temper, he would have to keep that in check. She may be scared for a bit, but soon enough she would use it as ammo to torture him every chance she got.
As Draven dropped to the other side and collected the rope, Kat was scouting for guards and analyzing their walking patterns. Together they crossed the gardens and ascended to the second floor by climbing the woodwork decorations on the veranda. Katarina signaled Draven to hide and wait for her to come back. He nodded and gave her the signal for five minutes then bug out. She leapt swiftly over the base of a general’s statue and flipped onto his head. Coiled like a cat, she sprang to an open window and rolled effortlessly inside. 
Katarina gazed around the vastly open hallway and searched for Jarvan III’s office. She remembered the briefing perfectly and located her target in mere minutes. After easily avoiding the guards and picking the lock, she braced herself against the huge oak doors and pushed. The doors were too heavy for stealth, but the silent and smooth gliding made her thank the gods that the Demacian royalty had properly cared for hinges. Not a squeak. Her eyes assessed the room swiftly, darting from the huge dark wood desk to the busts of previous kings and the shelves of books. Staying on her toes, Kat crept to the desk and began sifting through documents until she came upon a pile of operations reports. Jackpot! 
Scanning the troop movements and completed missions, Katarina surmised that the Demacian army was as Swain had suspected. The catacombs under the city were being used as a training ground for the soldiers to stay out of sight. This was to lull Noxus into a false sense of security then lash out if they started any conflict. After the invasion of Ionia, Demacia realized it could fight Noxus and still not be the aggressors if they simply waited for Noxus to attack someone first. Then Demacia would also have an ally in the fight under the “Enemy of my Enemy is a friend,” mantra. Clever, and sneaky by Demacian standards. She erased any trace of her entry and snuck out. Heading down a floor to end upon the veranda with Draven, Katarina saw a man sleeping in a dark bedroom.
Perplexed why she felt so tempted to open the door to the room a little wider to let the candle light in the hall illuminate the mysterious face, she indulged the new feeling. The door inched open until the flickering orange light mapped every detail of the broad face. The strong nose and rugged handsome features of Garen looked so peaceful in the night. Her mind flashed back to the battles they had and the feeling of dancing with her blades and his.
Her memory was interrupted by the voice of a guard, “Hey, who goes there?”
She was shaken up and froze for a second. As the guards approached, an arrow flew past her and struck a lantern on the wall. The glass shattered, releasing fire to cascade upon the rugs and tapestries of the hallway. Draven called out, “Move it Kat!”
Using his distraction, she ran with him out into the gardens. “You set the place on fire you dolt!”
“I had to cover your mess! You got caught daydreaming about your lover boy!”
“Hey you were staring down a family earlier!”
“Ok, one, I wasn’t in the freaking palace. Two, that family didn’t have the entire army under their command and a personal guard patrolling their house!” 
She made an exasperated groan but didn’t reply further. They ran through the gate now that they had already been spotted, simply knocking the guards out of their way as the men weren’t ready for a night attack from within their own palace. Draven and Katarina ducked into a side alleyway and calmly began to walk, no one had seen their faces thanks to the cloaks, so as long as they acted like people and didn’t run, there shouldn’t be a problem. 
Draven sighed and wondered if Darius’ mission was going just as well…

Darius leaned heavily on the wall of the army headquarters. His calves were on fire from walking on his toes to lessen the impact of his stocky body on the loud stone base. Sneaking was not his forte. “Hurry up Talon, we don’t have forever.” He grumbled to himself.
“Hey slagathor, if you want to buy me some time you could do something useful like kill guards and below war chants or whatever. I don’t care.”
“That wouldn’t help us be sneaky at all….”
“Or you’re helping me sneak? I forgot. Last time I dragged a person the size of a shed around with me was definitely the height of my sneaking career.” Talon said sarcastically.
“Jackass.”
“Bite me.”
“Are you done yet?”
“Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are you done yet? What are you, a five year old on a road trip? Calm down, and keep lookout.”
“Lookout!”
“Yes that is your job…”
Darius ducked behind some boxes as the guards approached. They were coming from the wrong angle, they would see him in seconds! This is bad he thought to himself as he gripped the sword pommel and began to unsheathe it with a white knuckle grip. The guards just rounded the corner, but did such a tight turn that they managed to miss Darius completely and keep walking.  His luck almost held, but then a second group of guards rounded the other corner and began conversing with the first pair. One raise of the eye would surely reveal him to the newcomers! Before his sword was fully drawn a blur of motion flew into the midst of the guards. Their mouths hung open with unuttered sounds of surprise as silver dashes of Talon’s blades cut them from all angles. Raking and slashing, the battle was over in a second. Silent. Ruthless. Talon ran past Darius and said “We have to leave, now!”
The Noxian giant did not argue and simply followed. Running much faster now that stealth was abandoned for the moment. Those were the only guards in the area and… Talon ran headfirst into a bystander on the street.
The well recognized face of Sona looked up at Darius, then at Talon, then at the pile of dead guards meters behind them. Sona raised a hand to her mouth in shock, but Darius Swooped her up before she could do anything to alert any more guards. With the intel, and their new package, in tow, the two set off to the water outlet they had snuck in through. 
Sona struggled quite a bit for such a small woman, “Calm down” Darius tried to soothe her. “We aren’t going to hurt you, we just need to get out of the city, then you can…” A light caught his eye. Only a minute from safety, but Darius couldn’t focus on that as he gazed to the horizon. It was on fire! The entire palace was in flames! The gardens burned like one great torch to signal all of Demacia it was under attack. His blood ran cold knowing that was Draven’s target. What had that fool done?
“Darius we have to go!” Talon urged him onward with a shove.
Numb by disbelief, Darius trudged into the lukewarm water of the stream and disappeared into the forest. Two miles to the rendezvous point and a furious ass kicking for one little brother.