Blood red walls with long black drapes spread around the large room, which contained a golden fountain with a dragon statue rising above it in the center, its golden wingspan stretched out high above its head. All around me were flashy dresses and suits and bizarre masks obscuring their faces from view. I never liked parties, especially masquerades. With all the extravagant outfits I despised, I felt overwhelmed with paranoia but my mission kept me focused.

I had authentic ninja armor on, not the cheap costumes available at a random Halloween shop, but the real stuff. It took me years to assemble all the right pieces. Even the gauntlets were impossible to find. I had the left one originally, but it caused me to hunt down the other for a few months.

I took a quick glance around and noted the positions of my "team." They weren't actually my friends and we hardly team up, but the man who hired us as mercenaries wanted to make sure our job was successful. He hired all of us at the same time. Unfortunately, he said that only one would get paid, the one who either brought her in, or slit her throat. They were my enemies more than my friends.

I stood by the balcony and gazed out at the sun setting over the skyline. The sun reflected off a river forming a band of gold, which lead all the way from the mountains to a waterfall not too far away. It was a long way down, if one were to trip over the ledge. I could use the ledge as a tactical advantage, when the target came near; I would 'accidentally' shove her over the edge. Then play it off, as I tripped her because of the hoard of followers. I hated playing it safe, but with so many others hoping to jump the gun so quickly, I had to take distasteful actions. I would rather take my time, and fight with my sword.

Nothing was better than the adrenalin rush of clashing blades with an opponent. I even had my sword specially made to be a carbon steel version of the Kingdom Hearts Keyblade. Yes, a ninja with a keyblade, it didn't get better than that! However, despite everything up to now, to be honest, I didn't like this particular job.

I spotted one of other others, one of those sly, overconfident, assholes. He constantly eyed a girl or two, checking every aspect of them like one of those revolting perverts. Sadly, girls found him dashing and flocked to him, only to discover that they were flies trapped in a spider web. It took me all I had not to reach for my sword and hack off his head. No, I had to keep my cover as a party member.

The man spotted me glaring from the corner and strolled over with the company of a beyond tipsy little red head. I ignored him, acting as if I didn't know who this guy really was. "I figured you would come as a ninja. I mean, doesn't that get old?"

Quickly, I assessed him, "It is way better than whatever you're supposed to be." I gave a harsh smile, "plus it takes a true genuine skill to pull off a ninja costume at a masquerade party as I do, Zeke," I sneered his name with complete utter loathing.

The man's nostrils flared in anger, but he kept his composure and forced a smile. "Well then, pardon us Ninja, but we are a little busy now, aren't we?" He roughly dragged the girl away into the crowd of dancers.

My eyes scanned the room quickly again, she had yet to make her appearance, but the crowd started to get restless. The other assassins began to fidget, antsy to be the one to kill her first. The rest of the attendants buzzed about in high hopes their leader would arrive soon.

No later than when I thought that she was never going to show, one of the higher up of the followers appeared on top of the grand stairs. She had on a white rabbit mask and wore black leggings, black shirt and a red satin jacket with a low V-cut. She honestly looked like a playboy bunny, and I had a feeling that Zeke definitely would try to get her alone with him. Her red dyed hair cut so short it barely covered her ears. I eyed her suspiciously, knowing that she knew where the target was.

The girl turned to the crowd and cleared her throat for our attention. The room hushed into an eerie silence. I shifted slightly to face her more. "Good evening ladies and gentlemen," the girl projected her voice out for all to hear. "She wished to make tonight interesting by playing a game with all of you."

The girl began to step down the stairs slowly with purpose. "A very exciting game is afoot to find out who are the true followers as opposed to those who are merely here for the refreshments."

Some of the people laughed at that. She reached the bottom of the stairs and gestured behind her, "may I present, Lady Avalon!"

My head snapped up, the target was finally here. I saw a few of my "co-workers" reach for their weapons, but hesitated. I stared in shock with the rest of them, for before us wasn't just Avalon, but four other girls of the same height, small body build, pale skin tone, and blond hair. Each wore a different outfit however. Each one was extravagant and beautiful with masks, which concealed their facial expressions. Tonight just got harder for the rest of us.

On the far left was one in a white corset ball gown with a large ruffled skirt and flared out sleeves. Her mask was a barn owl. Next to her was the oddest of the group, her outfit was almost like armor, with spiked shoulders, a sheer skirt that was open in the front but long in the back, and knee high boots with large spikes. Her mask was of an angelic statue with a solemn expression. In the middle was a woodland fairy type girl, with large ribbon wings spanning from out of her back. Her mask was a simple white one with red lips and almost a design like cracked pottery. The next one was in a red flamenco style dress, her hair was wrapped up into a neat bun with a single flower in it. With an anonymous mask, she pulled off the look completely. Finally at the very end was a girl in a black latex leather body suit that was more like a second skin. It was sleeveless and backless, but wrapped around the neck. She wore a black dragon mask.

"Like Schrödinger's cat: neither dead nor alive," the five girls spoke in unison, their voice tones barely varying from the others. "We are all Avalon, yet we are not. She is neither real nor fake, one and yet all of us. You must be careful in who to believe, because four of us are liars." They glided down the steps with a stunning grace that nearly stopped my heart, but I remained unfazed and appeared unimpressed.

The five Avalons blended into the crowd and mingled with their guests. I knew what the other mercenaries thought I thought it too. We had five chances to get the right one. Some like Zeke already made their move against one of the five, simply asking for a dance. The girl in the leather accepted.

I watched, as the others failed to hide their panic and shied away from the girls, wanting to make sure they had the right one before they struck. I snickered at how unprofessional they acted.

"Ahem," a girl stood next to me, her eyes a green shade of hazel. Then, I noticed it was the second Avalon, the one in the armor. She eyed me up and down, I couldn't see her facial expression but it was more than likely a smirk. "I've been to many lavish parties and several masquerades, but I have yet to see someone dressed as a ninja, especially with an authentic outfit like yours."

"Hah, I made this myself! Now what are you supposed to be?"

"Eh, we had to pick words out of a grab bag and design an outfit from those words of inspiration. I had Iron and Torture. I am not one for kinky shit like that, but I immediately thought of the iron maiden. So, I based the outfit off of that. Cool right?"

"Actually it makes me think you are a kinky sadistic child for even thinking of a medieval torture device as a basis for a costume." I caught sight of her green eyes flashing a glare, but fizzled instantly like flash paper.

Instead, she stepped a little past me and stared out at the sky. The back of her skirt reached the floor and skimmed across the smooth surface, as she walked.

“Perhaps I am such a child, but what can you do. I am Avalon, I took over the world and I will reshape it into my childish dream.”

“Or you’re a fraud and the real Avalon is one of those four.”

"If that is what you believe.” She turned to look at me with those eyes, staring right into mine. I didn’t know what she saw in mine, but I could see right through hers. She truly believed she was Avalon, yet she put up a very strong front, trying to hide something, or more likely someone.

The music suddenly started and the other four pulled a guy into a dance, Zeke being one of them and was with the girl in white. The one in leather gave her a death glare before she started to dance with another.

"Well Ninja? Care for a dance?”

"I don’t dance,” I swiftly muttered and stayed in the corner.

“There is no reason to be afraid! Come on!” She tugged my arm, and I still didn’t budge. She decided to try and stomp on my foot with her heel, causing me to move my feet before she made contact. However, doing so allowed her to drag me to the center of the room.

One arm rested on my shoulder while the other took my left hand. I paused and stared at her, I knew she was trying to fool me or use me, but I went with it knowing that I had the upper hand in this facade of hers. I rested my free hand on her hip and took note that she was quite small. I felt her freezing cold hands even through her gloves.

Her heart pounded wildly, and yet she looked as calm, as a still lake in the morning. “Nervous, Lady?” I joked, trying to get past that guard of hers and have her spill who was truly Avalon.

"Me? Nervous? I doubt that. Just having a good time is all."

She pressed slightly closer and whispered in my ear, "are you having a good time Ninja?˝ She stared up at me with those eyes, eyes that struck me as odd for some reason.

I remained silent, not wanting to slip up, if it were even possible. She waited for a few moments expecting an answer, but it never came and she sighed, a little put out.

She wanted to say something too. Girls like her always had something to say. "If you want to say something, go ahead. No one’s stopping you.”

One would think that such little support like that would ease someone. Instead, I felt her go rigid and watched as she played it off as if she didn’t actually have something to say.

"Excuse me? You must be imagining things, I wasn’t about to say anything.”

“I know you weren’t, but you wanted to say something was my point.” I imagined that behind the mask was a face flushed red.

After a few moments of silence, she finally said, “well um, you see the thing is-”

The sound of fabric tearing apart cut off her voice. The music screeched to a halt, and everyone turned and stared, horrified. I swore, her eyes went from a hazel green to golden red in a split second.

She tilted her head to the side, “that wasn’t, was it.” Her voice had a low growl as she spoke the words slowly and quietly. She released my hand and turned around to face a smug faced Zeke. Beneath his boot was half of her skirt.

“You’re an arrogant one, aren’t you?” She stated trying to remain calm. Her hands shook violently at her sides.

"I am not afraid of a little girl pretending to be Avalon,” he replied with a smile.

"Boy, aren’t you a stupid one. I am Avalon, and even if I wasn’t and just an impostor, guess what, they are my personal guard, trained to be stone cold killers. So you should be groveling at my feet, begging and pleading your case as to why I should let you live.”

I noticed something metal catching the light in the palm of her hand. A dagger was at the ready, in case he tried something.

All the other Avalons seemed to fret, as she locked eyes in a death glare with Zeke. One spoke up with a superior tone that someone would expect a leader to have. “Avalon enough, this is a party not a battlefield.”

"But my dress-”

Go get into another one.”

“We’re not gonna-”

"Discuss that later.” That was the final word before the girl stepped up to Zeke, shoved him down, scooped up the remains of her skirt and stormed away.

Slowly the music started again, and I reclaimed my place by the balcony. My eyes scanned the crowd taking note of all the Avalons left, the one in white with the owl mask was the one who stopped the fight, she was my highest suspect to be the real one.

There was little lag time between her reactions to someone calling for her. At least two of the others would not respond right away, leaving an air of doubt.

They were all sharing glances; most were quick and brief, silently talking to each other with small gestures that almost seemed out of place, a secret code known between only them. I noticed it, when two of them, the fairy and the dancer stood close by.

They chatted idly about one thing or another. Upon a closer look, the one’s eyes kept darting to the stairs where their colleague disappeared. The other shrugged despite talking about how big her puppy had grown. They were concerned about the girl, probably because they didn’t want to let anyone know who the real one was, and yet their own body language betrayed that information for me.

From across the room the main suspect gave the other two a quick glare break it up you two, you’re supposed to remain inconspicuous.

They quickly parted ways and avoided each other after that.

There was a sound of rustling leaves outside on the balcony, I turned to look out, but saw nothing. I heard it again and a few leaves of ivy glided past and brushed my cheek. I looked again and walked outside to see what was going on.

There was nothing on the balcony, but the sound of twigs snapping drew my attention upward. Sure enough, there was some idiot climbing on the wall using the ivy to do so. I briefly wondered how she was able to sneak past me, when I was standing by the balcony for the majority of the night, but he or she must have gotten past when the one Avalon pulled me unwillingly into a dance.

That slightly irritated me, as I wanted to remain aware of everything going on around me. The fact anyone could easily slip past meant I was not focusing enough.

"Hey!" I called up to the person. Whoever it was, foot slipped and came plummeting down. Judging by the sharp piercing scream, I'd say it was a girl.

I bounded over to where she was. Everything slowed and suddenly she looked just like a girl I once knew. Falling into oblivion just like her, but this one won't end up like her and I caught this one before she collided with the ground.

"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God," the girl huffed with every breath as she clung to me.

"Are you okay?" She froze and struggled to get down.

"Yeah, I am fine! Don't worry, I been through worse than that! Ha! But seriously though, I'm fine." She spoke a little too quickly, as she regained her balance. "Now." she looked around to get her bearings straight. "Well that didn't work! I'll use the stairs this time."

"Don't get yourself killed, Child." The girl halted in mid stride and twirled around where I could see her better.

I caught my breath as I stared at a girl with short teal hair, black leather knee high boots and wearing a cross between a Lolita and pirate outfit. Her jacket was black with lacing and ribbons and flared out with cuffs that opened to expose a cream-colored ruffled shirt with a corset and a scarf wrapped around the waist. She wore a black pirate, almost western hat, with a large fluffy white feather, a long lavender one and a small fully blue feather sticking out. All of this was completed with a simple black mask around the eyes, with which she wore red contact lenses.

She frowned a little, "One) I am NOT a child. Two) you're drooling a bit."

"Who are you, lady?" I was genuinely curious to know, just in case I 'randomly' bumped into her again outside the job.

She gave a taunting smirk, "who wants to know?" She took a few steps forward to get close enough; I felt her breathing against my neck. "Are you sure you want to find out? In which case, it would force you to reveal who you are, Mr. Ninja."

She twirled around again to leave. I met plenty of girls throughout my life. She was just another diamond of dozens, each one fell away, each one not worth it, plus I had an Avalon to catch. I couldn't be bothered with some random girl who just so happened to be my type. A girl who wore almost everything I liked and had a fetish over, as if she was personally antagonizing me.

I made a decision without even thinking about it. My feet started moving in the direction she went, before my mind caught on to what it was yet. Something about her bothered me. The blue hair, the boots and a pirate costume, they were similar, too similar to her.

The day we met, she dressed as a pirate, the cutest pirate I ever saw at least. She was adorable, as she would be silent one moment, loud and obnoxious the next. Always wore boots too and I told her that blue hair was the best. Her light blond hair was perfect for the color. Her eyes however were the most dazzling feature of all. One slightly off color from a golden green, whenever she smiled, truly smiled, they lit up like fireworks.

It wasn't hard to imagine her standing here, she probably would have loved the party, but stressed about all the people crowding around. She would've attacked Zeke before the one Avalon, I danced with, could have turned around. However, she was gone, and nothing I could have done would get her back.

"Hey. Who let this asshole in this joint?" I turned to see the blue haired girl staring with harsh eyes at Zeke as he held her wrist still. Everyone stopped and stared at them. "I mean, come on people! He already ruined one of the Avalon's dresses. Someone should throw him out because of that at least. Now I don't know about all of you, but I watched him, as he jumped from girl to girl to girl to girl to girl," she pointed out in order each one he flirted with as she continued, "to girl to girl to girl! Finally, he thought he had a chance at me. I don't think so, this ENEMY of all womankind! We should have chased him out ten minutes ago!"

God this girl was amazing, calling Zeke out like that, that was how you used his own nasty tricks against him.

She snapped her arm away and scanned the crowd, locking eyes with me for a second before glancing over at some of the Avalons. "He messed with your hearts too, might I add. Anyways," she briskly added as she grabbed my arm and pulled me forward. "I'm already with somebody."

My thought process skidded to a screeching halt as I stared at the girl bewildered, we were never together, I never met this girl before. "Now, darling." she put a slight emphasis on darling and stared expectantly for me to go along. "Shall we get out of here? I know these parties aren't your thing."

She dragged me to the stairs as I glanced at Zeke, mainly because I wanted to see his face as it sneered at us, as we left. The girl noticed me staring back and peeked over her shoulder with a steely glare.

Once we were out of sight, she let my arm go and she wore a wide unconcerned smile. "Thanks, Mr. Ninja! You saved my ass a few times now!"

I smirked, "so now you owe me. So tell me who are you, and what are you doing?"

She dropped the smile slightly, and calculated an answer. "Me? I'm nobody. I am just one of the intelligence people, no wait; I am the intelligence person, one of Avalon's personal assistants."

"So you know who she is!" I finally caught a break and would get the information from her and be on my way.

"Uh, no, I actually don't." Her voice went flat as she stared at me, "but I know who YOU are! Frankly, I'm a fan." My heart stopped cold and I opened my mouth to deny it. "A mercenary, I never thought I would be talking to one before, much less walking side by side."

I rounded on her, slammed her against the wall and held her there. "Don't try me lady, I will slit your throat before you can even breathe out a warning to Avalon."

She smiled flushed red and burst out laughing, "No, you won't. Not with your no kill policy." She leaned her head out so we were only a centimeter apart. "Now, you can either join me on my little trip up stairs, or you can go back to that party and go on some wild goose hunt trying to figure out who is the real Avalon."

I didn't trust this girl, granted I didn't trust anyone, but she still bothered me.

Reluctantly, I released her and watched her walk away for a moment. She paused and turned around, waiting for me to follow. "Don't worry. The Avalons will still be there when we get back." She continued onward.

Silently, I swore to myself and stalked after her. It took no effort to catch up to her and she smiled joyously as she stared at me.

"Glad you're joining me, Mr. Ninja," and she sped up her walking as if she was daring me to run. A habit she had also, always fast, always trying to get there first. Half of it was the poor ability to time things correctly; the other was from her competitive side from only living with her older brothers as she grew up. She hardly backed down from a challenge, as if she had something to prove, but she needn't do that with me. She could've been whatever she wanted and I would've followed, if it weren't my fault. Her parents didn't even allow me to see her after that, was for the best I left her.

"This way!" She hopped up a flight of stairs taking two steps at a time. By the time we reached the top, she was breathing a bit heavy, but continued quickly. Such a small girl, I expected she would slow down to rest a little.

"How did you know I was a mercenary?" I asked pointedly. She faltered in her step slightly.

"Well, we did run extreme background checks. We have that technology, because we did take over the world. We knew that there were at least eight hired mercenaries down in that party. Well, seven now." She smiled sweetly at me and gazed into my eyes.

She snapped out of whatever thought she had, blushed slightly and started to speed up again. Heh, cute, she likes me.

We passed several doors before we came to a halt in front of one. "I'll be right back, just gonna check up on the last Avalon. Tell her that I got back at the asshole for her." Before I could answer, she slipped through the door.

Upon closing, I caught sight of a huge room filled with outfits. In the middle was a blue and black Lolita dress showcased on a single mannequin. The last thing I spotted, by a mirror in the corner was a blond wig.

I imagined her wearing that dress, but my mind only pictured the blue haired girl in it. A slim figure with elegant curves in the right places. If we were anywhere else in the world I would do so many unspeakable things to that girl.

She reappeared suddenly and shut the door. However, she didn't realize that we stood so close until she turned around and had her back to the door. Her face turned red and I swore I heard her heart pounding.

"Er, um." She cleared her throat while edging around me. She was just up in my face before and now she was so self-conscious. She would be fun to tease.

"What are you thinking about?" She was back to staring as she rocked back and forth on her heels.

With a taunting smirk, "wouldn't you like to know?"

She bit her lip and turned around. "I was only curious," tried to walk away.

Quickly I grabbed her arm and spun her back around. "Why are you so curious, lady?" She poked me in the stomach, a feeble attempt to get me to back off, but I let go of her arm to block.

She left my question unanswered and continued on her quest to somewhere she foolishly kept hidden from me. I knew it was of great importance if she tried to sneak away from the party via almost killing herself for it.

I prodded for answers, "so where are we going?"

"On an adventure, idiot." As if, she would tell me. Half a beat later, "you'll see soon enough." She hushed her voice and opened a window.

Peering down, it was a long plummet down into the ravine. The balcony just outside the party was just off to the side on the left. There was a small ledge of about half a foot wide and that was what the girl stepped out on and began to climb up.

I grabbed her leg, "hey, what are you doing?" She had a death wish, I was now certain if it.

"Well, Mr. Ninja there is a secret room about two stories up from here. The only way to the room is through the balcony up there, because the door was locked, and the third floor blocked so none of the party goers tried to sneak up there and steal information."

"Steal information?" I woodenly echoed, "but aren't most of them Avalon's followers?"

The girl slid her feet over to the edge of the ledge before reaching up to grab the top of the window. "That's what everyone would like to think," she said as she hoisted herself up so that I only saw her legs dangling. I was tempted to pull one, but then I heard, "don't even think about it. Anyways, more than half of the people down there, not including the mercenaries, want to see her dead."

I stepped up onto the ledge and followed her up. She sat there waiting for me, staring out at the full moon, which had just peaked out from around the mountains. She sighed lightly and smiled adoringly at the sight. "If only they knew about this sight that they are missing, for as blind as they are, they can rot in hell for all I care."

She was back up and climbing, using the thick hanging ivy and the ledges from the windows to do so. I followed quickly and looked down suspiciously, making sure no one spotted us from below.

Her words made me wonder, if everyone wanted her dead so much, then why host a party? I mean she did just take over the world and all and she hadn't announced what she intended to do with it. She already had a huge target on the back of her head, but she must be real stupid to not be so cautious.

We finally reached the balcony that the girl specified and she waited as I pulled myself up. She gave me a wide grin and said, "Well, here we are! Through that door are what Avalon plans on doing with the world! I have been dying to find out for the longest time now!"

She seemed excited, but something seemed false to me. She said that she knew everything that was going on, hence the job of being an intelligence person, but she didn't know the major plan for the world, so she had been lying to me the whole time, or she knew and knew everything.

She opened the door, which I held open for her as she slipped inside and turned on the lights.

All along the walls were sketches, pictures and posted notes of ideas, gardens, everything that would be Eco friendly, automatically making enemies with big name corporations and CEOs of gas and fossil fuel companies. Electric power was to replace burning fuels; solar, wind, and water power would replace nuclear power plants amongst other unnatural sources of power.

There were plans to expand out into the vast oceans, other than out into space, and create underwater cities to meet up with the growth in population. Everything would be reusable or recyclable, eliminating the amount of trash people use every day.

Even the way people lived, she wanted to alter and change. More fruit and fresher meat instead of processed junk food, encouraging homemade stuff over McDonald's. It was especially strict on school systems. Food was bought from local farms and was always fresh. The entrées were made from scratch and weren't limited to the "appropriate levels that a child should consume," and there was even an angry note in red letters, "how's this for too much protein!"

Finally on the majority of the walls were plans on restoring the forests, protecting all endangered species, outlawing poaching completely and enforcing that with electric fences around wildlife preserves (with a small sticky note: still working that out.) Then there was a 'Project Babylon' turning desert into lush green lands, and having cities covered in plants.

"This girl is a hippie."

"Isn't it wonderful?" The blue haired girl asked, leaning against a round table with a whole scale model of a city, which would be the basis for the rest to follow. Trees and hanging ivy on the top of all the buildings, flowers in windowsills, even rivers running throughout the streets and around the city. Surrounding it were two large walls, and in between them was a large garden with the river splitting it down the center, complete with trees, flowers and everything.

I stared at the girl's face and observed her reaction, but she waited for mine.

"You lied to me," I bluntly stated.

Her smile faltered as she rubbed her knuckles together embarrassed. "Well, if I had said, hey follow me; I want to show you these fantastic ideas of the future. I doubt you would follow me."

"Quit trying to hide and tell it to me straight, Avalon."

She stared like she saw a ghost. "Okay, guilty. I'm Avalon, and you didn't believe me at first too! It's just," she dropped the whole act and somewhat glared at me. "Know what never mind. You came here to kill me, so go ahead! No one else is here. No one would even know you did it."

"Wha-"

"I mean is it not obvious enough that I am trying to get something across your mind! You are impossible! How come you can see everything, catch on to all that I do so easily, and yet, even after all this time, I am still staring straight at a wall!" She huffed as her flash of anger sizzled away.

Shock didn't even come close to how I felt.

"Oh? Didn't see that coming huh? Well that's a first." Sulking she sat on the table.

"You're Avalon. I mean you are?"

"I told you I would take over the world. You replied you would stop me. Turns out we were both right."

"No, impossible. Last time I saw you, you had no idea what your own name was!"

"Well I know my name now, it's Avalon. So what, I had short-term memory loss, so what? Why weren't you there, to help me recover? You promised you would never leave, but you did! You left and I went searching for you!"

"You're parents would never allow me to see you!"

"When had anything stopped you from doing what you wanted? Huh?" I didn't answer and she continued, "We were a team. Well I thought we were! I wanted that to be us downstairs, not as a random guest and Avalon, but as we were before. I wanted it to be us to conquer the world together, and deal with the aftermath together!"

Her eyes became glassy and wet as she rubbed them to keep from breaking down. I pulled her closer and just held her. She didn't fight me either, she probably didn't have the energy. With her voice muffled through my shoulder, "even when I couldn't remember I felt hollow, when I did I realized why. I thought I could take over the world, make it pretty, and that would fill it, but it never did."

She pushed away and rubbed her face again. "So I might have stalked you for the past five years. Once I found you again, I made sure I never lost you. So, I sent out someone to trail you. Sometimes it would be some random guy who worked for me, sometimes it was one of my personal guard, hell sometimes I was there, but never close by. They would always be in a coffee shop or in the crowd, first or third class on a plane depending on which one you were in."

"Why didn't you say something?" I asked listening as she continued to rant. She wasn't as upset but I knew she could go off on a whim again.

"Heh, if it were so easy. You were constantly on a job, and so was I. Doesn't make a difference now anyways. But when I found out that you were on the guest list, I personally approved it. I was so excited and it gave me an excuse to get close again, to be able to talk to you one on one. But not as Avalon, not when I was constantly in the spotlight."

"So you had those other four girls dress up as you too."

"But even then, I was still out in the open, and you had your doubts but when it came down to it, someone would've killed me before I had the chance to say anything. So, I was kind of glad that asshole ruined my outfit. It gave me a chance to be a party crasher at my own party."

"When you were climbing the ivy, it was down into the party, not up to try and sneak up to the higher floors?"

"I was trying to sneak up on you!"

"You still failed!" I laughed at her feeble attempts, "Impossible to sneak up on a ninja!"

She pouted and I stopped. She took a few breaths to sooth her nerves and took a step toward me. "Now there was one thing left." she quickly reached her hand up and tugged my hair. I winced but let her, just this once.

"I missed you..." she whispered and hugged me close. I returned the hug until she let go.

"So uh, hey." She smiled genuinely. "But to be honest, I thought this whole get up was a dead give away!"

"The contacts threw me off." She laughed and sat on the table again. "But I never thought you'd dye your hair blue."

She pulled at some of her hair, "do you want me to be blond again? I can go and grab the wig."

"No! Leave it!"

She threw up her hands, "okay!" She laughed again and looked around the room. "My childish dream."

She sighed, "Now back to matters at hand." She jumped up. "Now the real reason I am up here was One) to be able to talk to you without probing eyes, and Two) snipe out the threat. I want these idiots to know that they can't just hire someone to kill me. I want respect and I want them to fear me. Money cannot buy them everything."

She slid half the tabletop open to reveal an arsenal of guns. She sorted through them and pulled out an M40A1 sniper rifle. She started to check to see if it was functional and loaded up the ammo with ease. She then noticed my unwary stare. "What? Oh, so you don't like killing people. I don't have a problem because they're trying to kill me. You have your swords, let me have my big ass guns."

She kicked open a door and walked down a spiral staircase. I followed quickly wondering what she was going to do with that. Well that was false, I knew exactly what she intended to do with that, just not sure how.

Down on the third floor, she quickly readjusted the gun to her other arm, it was just heavy enough to tire her out. I grabbed the barrel to carry it for her.

"I got it." I didn't let go. "Hey I said I got this!" But I pulled it out of her hands. She glared and briskly turned her head. "Fine. Whatever."

She led the way to another balcony on the other side of the building and it just overlooked a garden similar to the ones she had planned upstairs. She grabbed the gun from me, set up the scope and started scouting through it. "How many were sent to kill me?"

"Eight including me."

"Hmmm, well there's five now." She replied after a moment searching through the scope. She looked up and pointed to two different places.

"Someone decided to eliminate some of the competition. Just makes it easier for us though," she smiled to herself and looked into the scope again.

I looked out and saw the two poorly hidden bodies. One hauled over to under a tree, a long bloodstain leading up to it. The other floated in one of the pools of water lifelessly. Whoever did it was in a rush, sloppy. If I were him, I would've waited until the target was in an easily concealable position.

I saw Avalon tense up like a cat ready to pounce. Her smile widened and she pressed a telex communicator to her ear. "Come on out, darling. We're ready to go hunting," she cooed softly to herself.

I snickered to myself and looked out and watched as two of the fake Avalons waltzed out into the clearing. The mercenaries probably thought they were quite clever to wait until they were alone with nobody else around to witness.

They tag teamed and one leaped out to pounce on the girls. With a muffled shot, Avalon took him out in midair and he landed back into the tree where he hid. The other one saw it and continued to lurk in the shadows.

He failed to remain inconspicuous and I pointed out to Avalon, "in the willow tree, closest to them."

She readjusted the gun and fired another shot where I had pointed. A body fell out onto the pavement in a crumpled heap. "That blood better come out of the pavement, or I'll be pissed," she clenched her teeth together and began her search again.

"I know you're there asshole. Just let me catch you in my sight, just once."

"You know if anyone else were here with you now, they would be frightened." She briefly flashed a smile and watched as another fraud walked out arm in arm with one of the few mercenaries left.

Eight originally, then I switched sides, two were ambushed, two more were shot. Avalon fired a few more rounds. Make that three, so six out of eight are out of the game. Two left, and one of them was Zeke.

"Can't wait to fill your head with lead, for I am not one of the girls you commonly find in bed. They aren't even the one you wed, poor girl, lucky I will shoot you dead."

"You're adorable."

"Prove it, Ninja!" She waited a moment then hesitated.

The final one of the fake Avalons had a knife held against her throat, as the mercenary saw what fate did to the others. "All right, I know you are out there and I suggest that you don't shoot me, and I won't stain this girlie's pretty white dress red!"

Avalon turned to me with a smug smile, "how foolish, this guy doesn't get that it's hopeless." She lifted the gun up and put one foot onto the railing to lift herself higher up. "Goodbye Darlin'" She aimed and fired her last round before tossing it away.

The guy fell upon the girl while bleeding out.

"God damn Avalon, You ruined my nice white dress!" The girl called up to her.

"Actually he ruined it." She shouted back.

"You still owe me!"

"Fine! Go into Cinderella's closet and pick out a new dress!"

"What about that blue one on the mannequin?"

I saw Avalon twitch before she replied, "Fine! But I get to wear it first!"

"That's not fair!"

"But it's for a Special occasion!"

The other girl thought a moment, "and that occasion is?"

"A date," her cheek flushed. "As long as you want to, Ninja."

A sound rung out before I got to answer and it echoed into the night until it faded away. Red flew across my vision as if someone had thrown a bucket of paint onto a blank canvas. She started to fall, but in slow motion almost, and yet I was there in an instant to pull her to safety. She bled profusely from her leg, I put pressure on it to try and stop the bleeding. She cried out in agony and placed her hands on mine.

I turned around to see Zeke with a 44-caliber pistol. "So this is the face of the real Avalon. To be honest I was hoping it was you, after you tainted my reputation with the women down there. You made me look like a fool. I was going to have each of those Avalons' beg to sleep with me. After I had my way with them, they would've had a quick painless death. But you," he sneered with a rare tone of loathing, "I'll make sure it is slow and painful."

He pointed the gun at me, "So you're a hero now? That's odd."

"Back away Zeke, before I run my sword into your head."

"I would like to see you try." He laughed as I pulled out my keyblade. He laughed even harder, "haven't you heard the phrase don't bring a knife to a gun fight?" He squeezed the trigger but not before a boot came flying over and hit him in the head, causing the gun to fly out of his hand.

That allowed me an opening to kick him back into the hallway leading out to the balcony. He scrambled to get his footing and I swung my blade out to hack off his head. He ducked and came up with an uppercut. I countered with an elbow to the gut.

He grabbed my keyblade and tried to pry it from my hands. I shoved it forward and hit him in the nose, which started to bleed out. He held it and quickly snapped it back into place, but it was still a little crooked and now tarnished his good looks. I rammed the hilt of my blade onto the back of his head and he collapsed, sprawled out on the floor.

He attempted to crawl away, but I stepped down on his back and readied my sword. I raised it up and saw my own reflection before swinging it down, but he pulled out a smaller gun, shot the blade out of my hand and threw it at my face to distract me.

I blinked and a moment later I turned and he held Avalon with his arms around her neck ready to snap it. "Is this girl worth it?" He choked her a bit to cause her to cough and breathe in heavily. "Well? Is she?"

"Yes, she is."

He gave me a cold unfeeling smirk, "well that's too bad, seeing you all worked up over this little doll is a pleasure, and when I shatter her before your eyes even more so." He picked her up completely and was about to toss her off the edge. I charged and tackled him down, just catching Avalon before she hit the ground.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Ninja. He's up again." Zeke stumbled to his feet, his face seethed with rage. "Hey, remember what you said a while back?"

"What?" I asked keeping an eye on him.

"I am a weapon." She said elongated each syllable and smiled mischievously. I returned the smile and swung her around. She kicked him in the face with her good leg and I continued the spin and tripped him.

Zeke stumbled back trying to regain his balance, I stepped closer and Avalon poked him in the chest to knock him over the side. I peered over the side to see Zeke lying there on the ground as a slow black pool seeped around him like a bloody halo.

I hoisted the girl over my shoulder, "now about that date. Is there any spare bedrooms on this floor?"

"Ninja!" She cried in my ear, "just no."

"Great time to get caught up!"

"I said no!"