The Princess and the Captain

Chapter 5, the Black Williow

After succeeding in their mission, they were in high demand. Mary was pissed that they didn't let her and Jim work on their tech much. She had many ideas and wanted to get on with them. As the months passed, many of the missions they accomplished pushed the war closer to an end. As they accomplished more and more, the money that she earned helped her sister and her guardian settle into a much more easy life.

Ann had started in school and was doing extremely well, her guardian was leading a much more easier life now and wasn't putting his life at risk anymore. Mary was glad, she wasn't ready yet to lose him. He had taught her everything and she felt that he should retire. Mary thought that the rebellion never had a chance with all the tech that she and Jim had. No one really had a chance.

Although she hadn't been told to, Mary had used the assassin skills that her guardian had taught her. As the war went on her skills improved ten fold with each mission (the tech didn't hurt either). She became almost undetectable. After two years, the war was finally reaching a conclusion and Mary felt she was ready to start business on her own.

At the age of fifteen, only a week away from being sixteen and many missions under her belt with Jim, Mary found that killing people didn't bother her at all. Her body had toned to the point that she could move without any sound. Her reflexes had improved to the point that when she moved, she was simply invisible. Even Jim, who had trained her and had trained with her, was really no match for her, but he was still the only one who was fast enough to spar with her. At the end of the war, the department was heralded as the heroes of the effort and the Emperor had wanted to reward them each with a medal.

Mary looked at Jim with a scoffing roll of her eyes when he had told her about the ceremony. " I really have no interest in that, I don't want some damn f*****g medal. I only did this for the tech and to help you and YOU only."

"This is supposed to be a great honor" replied Jim

"Great honor my ass, he just wants to take credit for everything WE have done to help end all this shit." She sneered at the thought of meeting the Emperor. "That pompous ass wants to be the hero so the people love him more, you and I know the truth. You, he won't be afraid of, me on the other hand, he has a reason to fear. I won't go after him for the sole reason he has helped my family, but if he comes after me then all bets are off.

Jim was taken aback a bit at the venom that she was spitting about the Emperor. He knew she had issues, but he didn't think they were that bad. Thinking back for a minute, he really didn't have all that much to be grateful himself towards the empire as they had almost thrust his family into poverty. Had it not been for his father, they might have ended up on the streets. Damn, but his father had been a great statesman, the way he had convinced the ruler that he had to be kept on and that without him all would have been lost, had been a stroke of brilliance.

Mary sighed, she had grown to really like Jim in the years they had spent working together. If she had ever had a brother he was what she wished he would have been like. The thought of leaving the lab and Jim made her a little sad, but she knew when she started that it wouldn't last forever. Mary knew that her identity was safe. All but two of the agents that had worked with her had been killed in the war. Of the two that were left, one was in critical condition and the other was Jim and she knew he was way too strong to get killed that easy (he was a general pain in the ass actually, something she admired about him, but wasn't about to tell him that.)

Taking her leave of Jim and everything she had grown accustomed to, she made her way to the space port. Mary had set up a small network and had put her name as the Black Willow on it for hire, for impossible jobs and assassinations. Pulling out her comp, she opened up her network and stared at the number of job offers pouring in. She smiled at the heading she had put in bold letters at the top of it.

If you want it done, if it is impossible, leave me a message and I will show you that it is possible, you pay my price, you don't renege or you will be the next target and I do not miss. I do not go after children, but I will go after those that do, assassinations will be discussed by price as it will be my main The Black Willow

She found it funny that she had picked that name, one of the other agents she had worked with (once) had called her that after a mission. He had said that she moved graceful and swayed like a willow in the darkness hence the term black willow. She had nearly killed the asshole after that, as her reflexes were so fast she had hit him four times before he had even raised his arms to block her hits. Afterwards, she had felt bad about it, but wasn't going to show remorse for herself or her actions. Besides, after that he had trained ten times harder and had lasted til the end, as a matter of fact, he was the one that was injured.

Shaking her head from her thoughts, she scrolled though the jobs that were offered. Hmm, a few disbelievers. She would have to do something big to clear the minds of the many. Picking a high ranking duke, she knew this was a trap and had just the demonstration for him, as he seemed to be the biggest nay sayer against her. That night, she moved through the darkness soundlessly as she approached the Duke's residence. Her small, lithe body molding into the shadows, as if she were darkness itself. Stopping outside the walls around his manor, she switched on her holo imager and the image of the guard at the sentry post appeared around her. Damn, she and Jim had improved it. It lasted a whole hour now, more than enough to get the job done.

Walking up behind the guard, she injected him with the hypo after she used the paralysis wave on him. It was her own invention and she needed to fine tune it more, but that would come soon. She meant to make as much money as she could and possibly do SOME good along the way. Damn, Jim for installing that in her, she was happy being a non discrete killer. Taking who she wanted when she wanted, now, sigh, she had a damn moral code thanks to him. Walking into the court yard none of the other guards gave her a moments notice as she entered the manor though the servants entrance.

Mary walked the length of the manor 'til she located the Duke, asleep in his bed chamber. His wife was asleep next to him. Damn, that was odd, the royalty usually slept in different rooms unless they were having s*x and even then they never fell asleep together. This might be harder than she thought, but Mary liked a challenge. Pulling the hypo and the paralysis wave, she first got the Duchess, as she knew that the woman was a light sleeper, then she got the Duke. Pulling a flat square from her bag, she expanded it into a cot like apparatus and slid it under the Duke to move him off the bed. Taking another holo imager from her bag and attaching it to his shirt, she activated it as the Duke appeared to be another guard.

Moving to the wall, she pressed the MTM module and walked through the wall with the Duke. Unlike the earlier models of two years ago, this was almost like walking in the open air with hardly any resistance at all. Outside the manor wall, Mary quickly moved to a waiting speeder. Racing away, she knew that the wave wouldn't last much longer and the Duchess would soon raise the alarm. She only had twenty minutes left in her imager so she wanted to be as far away as possible.

Thirty minutes later, after securing the Duke in a cabin a few miles away, she sat in another room replacing the power supply in her imager. The Duke began to stir as she walked back in after assuming the guise of the Duke. "Who the hell are you?" he demanded "Just where in the hell are we? This isn't my manor. What have you done with my wife?"

"My dear Duke I am the Black Willow," as the Duke's eyes grew large.

"You!" He glared angrily at her, "I will have your head for this!"

"For one thing, i***t," she shouted in his face. "You don't know who I am or what I look like. No one does. For another, had I wanted to, you would have been dead, in bed, next to your wife and I would have been long gone and possibly off planet, so don't piss me off, you wouldn't like me like that."

The Duke stared in amazement that anyone would speak to him like that, though he did have to admit that he was right. If he had gotten him away from the manor this easily, then he probably could have killed him just as easily. "Alright what do you want? Money? Fame?" He asked.

"I just want you to spread the word, I am as good as I said I am. You are proof of that. I do live by a code and I will not leave that code." Mary said.

"I see, so, I am not a target of yours?" He asked surprised.

"No, this was just a demonstration to prove my point," she said with a sigh. " I will leave word where you are to be found after I am gone. Don't think that you can find me. This is not my voice either," Mary laughed at her little joke as she was using the Duke's voice at the moment.

The Duke could only stare at the person before him. The Willow was right. There was no way to find him unless he made a mistake and from the look of things, he had a lot of his bases covered.

"Oh and Duke," Mary started as she was heading out the door. " If I do find out that you are looking for me, and I will, I have eyes and ears everywhere, then you WILL become a target. Is that understood?" The Duke nodded his head vigorously as Mary left the room and headed out of the cabin into her speeder. Changing her appearance again, she headed to the Duke's manor. Upon arriving, she took the note from her pocket and handed it to the sentry, turned and left. They didn't question her as she appeared as the emperor's herald, saying she was told to bring it there and return to the palace.

Mary was more tired than she had been in a while, She had been running on adrenaline for almost three days, getting everything ready and executing her plan as she had. Dumping the speeder, she walked the rest of the way to where her sister and guardian were living. The next day, after sleeping almost twelve hours, she woke refreshed. Her guardian, now having taken the name of Thomas, walked into her room as she rose from her bed.

"I hear tell of a new assassin in the city that can move through walls and appear as anyone. They call HIM the Black Willow." As he chuckled out loud. Mary smiled at the joke.

"You always taught me to hide in every way I can. I thought that this might be the ultimate disguise," she replied matter of factly. Thomas chuckled more as he leaned in to kiss Mary's cheek.

"You were the greatest assassin I have ever seen or heard of. Your skills have no equal, at least none I have seen," he stated proudly as he hugged her close. Mary didn't want to tell him that while she and Jim had been training and sparring, that she had a hard time staying ahead of him. He had pushed himself as hard, if not harder than her, she was sure if it hadn't been for the extra training she had received, she also wouldn't have made it. Damn that Jim, now she owed him two f*****g favors. s**t, if she didn't quit thinking of it, there might be more and she didn't like to owe anything to anyone. Her guardian saw the perplexed look on her face and guessed what was the matter.

"So how many favors do you owe him?" he stated as a shocked looked appeared on her face. Damn, still as good at reading people as he used to be.

Sighing she replied. "Two, but I don't want to think on it more, there might be more and I don't want to have to owe him forever"

Thomas just laughed as he thought back. He had been that way with the rat. The job with the girls had been the last favor he had to pay back and then he thought he was free. Then that i***t had gotten caught and executed, leaving him to care for the two girls he had left with him. He had to admit, at first he didn't think he could handle it, hell, he was as horny as the next guy, but getting s*x and having s*x with two little girls around him a lot of the time had been a distraction. How much his life had changed after they had entered his life.

"So when are you planning on telling him that you owe him these two favors?" He asked of Mary as she stretched into her morning exercises and he moved into them with her. He might be older, but he knew that to get docile was to invite death.

"I'm not sure, but I know that he won't collect on them unless he has to. He's a lot like you, proud and stubborn. He likes to do everything he can alone until he needs help and sometimes he even tries to keep going." She said as she remembered Jim pushing himself as hard as she had to finish the tech they had worked on, to try and perfect it so they weren't killed.

"Hmm, sounds like you have a bit of fondness for him, maybe even some respect," he blurted out as he got a worried look on his face. Jim was with the empire and Thomas didn't like that one bit at all.

Mary knew what he was afraid of and reassured him, "No, I am not in love with him and yes, I do respect him to a point, I also know that he has a few issues with the empire also. He worked like a beast to perfect our tech and ... ah s**t, Thomas, you had to open your mouth didn't you? Now I owe him three favors," as she swung and hit Thomas in the arm, him chuckling even more. He sighed, thinking that Mary was growing up and would be a woman soon, well ... actually she was now as she could kill with the best of them.

Later that day Mary looked at her network, there were a few jobs here that she could do. Nothing big, she didn't want to be off planet this month as she knew that Thomas would be doing something for her birthday. Leaving with her bag, she headed to the first job. It involved scaring a minor noble into paying another what was owed to him. Mary had thought it over, when she set up the job, then she thought, why not just take what was owed and give it to the owed party. Contacting the noble, she asked if this would be suitable, he accepted but stated that he also wanted the other noble to be afraid to do it again.

Mary sighed, when she told him it would be extra, he had complained. Then, when she mentioned the incident with the Duke, it shut him up rather quick. As she moved to the address to check everything out, she noticed how paranoid this minor noble was. He had guards everywhere, it was the most secure place she had seen outside of the royal palace and that place was almost impossible, she smiled as she remembered sneaking in there one night to look at the Emperor's plans. Had Jim and her not perfected the cloak and the MTM, she would never have made it. Again, she looked over the manor, then smiled as she saw a serving girl exiting the manor by the servants door.

The next night Mary laid in wait for the servant girl. After putting her to sleep for an hour or two, she moved into the court yard as the girl. Entering the kitchen, she moved outside the door and changed her appearance again to look like one of the top guards. The minor noble was locked in his accounting chamber with at least four guards outside the door. She smiled as she moved past them and to a door in a far wall, well out of sight. Activating the MTM, she moved through the wall towards the chamber. Upon emerging into the chamber, Mary saw she was behind the man. Pulling her paralysis wave, she shot the man and gently lowered him to the floor. Bending over him, she whispered in his ear.

"I am the Black Willow, I have been sent to collect what you owe others and to give you a warning, next time it will be your death and it will not be pleasant or quick." She then noticed that the man had soiled his pants and the wet spot was continuing to grow, "I will give you the same warning as I did the Duke, do not look for me as I will know, I have eyes and ears everywhere." Grabbing two large bags of gold, she headed for the wall the noble was facing away from, then she bent down to whisper in his ear again. "Also I am not the serving girl. You will find her asleep near the north wall, you will be able to move before she wakes up. Help her or I will be back and believe me you won't stop me." The noble's eyes grew large as she turned and left again.

With everything accomplished, she left completely through the wall to the outside of the walls of the manor, checking on the girl momentarily, then heading to the rendezvous with the other noble. Stopping for a moment, she again changed her appearance and looked at her power meter. Damn it, she only had half an hour left. She'd have to replace the power cell before she met with him. Contacting him, she told him she would meet him in an hour. Approaching the arranged meeting place she saw the guards hiding all around the place. Moving away far enough, she contacted him again, as she was pissed she held nothing back. "You f*****g little worm, I told you to be alone, two guards maximum, there are guards everywhere." Spitting daggers, she looked at his image.

He just started to laugh at her, "You ass, as if I would pay a minor player in all this"

Mary calmly stated as she held her anger in, "You have one day to contact me with the payment." She breathed in a shaking breath, "then I will visit you every night and you will lose a finger, a toe, or I just might remove your c**k and shove it up your ass."

Again the noble laughed at her, "You won't get near me"

Now it was Mary's turn to laugh, "You obviously don't know who you are dealing with, ask the Duke if I can't get to you, he was easy, you," she sneered. "You will be nothing compared to him."

Now the noble was starting to sweat, he thought that the story he had heard was just that, a story, the more he thought about it, the more he began to believe that it was true. "Okay, I will meet you where you choose," he said visibly shaken.

Mary smiled, she was glad that the incident with the Duke was impressing upon them the seriousness of her threats.

"Remember, my fee is now double unless you want me to keep these two bags of gold as payment." She said as she showed him the bags on the com, his eyes grew large as he quickly agreed to meet.

After meeting him with no further incidents, she also warned him to not try to find her, as she was everywhere and would know. Slipping around the corner, she adjusted her look and calmly walked away as the palace herald again, sure that no one would stop to question her. Heading home after thirty minutes, checking everywhere that she wasn't being followed, she finally walked in and plopped down as her guardian came out to rub her shoulders.

"Was it that bad?" He asked worried that she was alright.

"Yes, I was scared shitless, even when I had the upper hand, but I have done it before so I am getting used to it now. By the way," she tossed him a large pouch of gold, "tonight's profits."

Thomas eyes grew large as he looked at the small pile of gold. My God, it was more than he had ever made after four jobs. As he looked at Mary with a new respect, he knew she was on her way to being the greatest.