An Offer She Won't Refuse [CLOSED]

It was a crowded day. The sun was high in the sky and the weather was nice. The temperature was moderate, a time where people were out doing whatever they needed to do. Of course, this was the city of Grandview. It was a place for the scum of Aurora: murderers, thieves, con-artists, slavers, and manipulators of all kinds gathered here to do their business. It was the one city that was not under control of any government. Citizens were actually warned at different posts surrounding the city, about ten miles out, that if they chose to enter this place they would no longer be under the protection of the Arcadian government. Yes, it was a city that had gotten that bad. Mob bosses, crime families, and other terrible organizations controled this area and there was no law to stop it.

One of these families was the Vonnera; they are a family that is highly hated, highly feared, and wealthy enough to keep their control. Getting their money through threats, extortion, drugs, and brothels they own through out Grandview and in few spots on the outside of the city, the Vonnera have been able to keep a tight grip on many aspects of Grandview. And one of these aspects came in the from of a young woman: Maria Vonnera. She took on the family's last name when she was much younger. Now, she was given a mission, one that she thought she was given to prove herself and uphold her family's honor. Her naive nature getting the best of her though. She approached the residence that she was to infiltrate. Many people were out, but none seemed to notice her.

Actually, they were ignoring her. Maria was not someone that anyone really deemed suspicious. Her noticable white hair and bluish colored eyes were a dead give away. Beyond that, her petite nature and clumsy way of acting pretty much told everyone that she had no skill. Unfortunately for them, that wasn't entirely true. She made her way into the house without being stopped and went stealth mode. She moved fluidly through the house, keeping herself shockingly quiet. She searched room after room until she came to one that had a guard posted outside. "This has to be it." she said and pulled out a blow dart. Aiming it carefully, she shot a dart into the side of the man's neck. He went to grab it and pulled it out. Before he could do anything, his body fell to the ground.

"No, no!" Maria thought as she darted forward, trying to catch the armored man before his body would cause a loud clank. She was too slow. The clanking echoed through the halls and she winced with how loud it was. Glancing up and down the halls, no one seemed to be coming. She took a deep breath and decided she needed to hurry. She was too weak to move the body, so this needed to be done. She opened the door and looked inside, popping her head through the crack and looking around for the man she was here to kill. And as her head to turned to the right, she saw him sitting at a table, looking directly at her. Maria blinked a few times and stared at this man. "Uh..." she said as she pulled a knife from a hidden area on her body (behind the door so he couldn't see), "Hi."

Uh oh. He saw her first. Wasn't this bad? Didn't this mean the mission was a failure? No, no, no! Not her first mission! The Vonnera were going to be so mad at her. It's okay. All she had to do was kill him, then everything would still be accomplished. Who cares if he saw her first, right? Right. But this was strange... Welcoming your killer in? Interesting! Let's go along with it.

His strange greeting had thrown Maria off a bit, but hers had been just ask awkward. "Okay!" she said enthusiastically and stepped forward. Her foot got caught on the guards hand and she ended up falling in and dropping the knife into his view. Quickly picking it up and scrambling to her feet, she closed the door behind her and pointed the knife toward him as if it were some sort of challenge. "You! Mister Dragon..." she said in the most challenging tone she could muster. Her voice was high pitched, light, and rather child-like. Even though she was an adult, it was almost like her voice decided to stay in the past. "I have been sent here by the Vonnera family to assai-.. assasse... ass-... kill you!" she said, a little embarrassed by the stumble over her words, but then she blinked a bit.

"Wait... Talk again?" she said as more of a polite suggestion than anything else. She ran her way over to the chair and sat down like he had asked previously, but the expression she held was one of curiosity. She had this wide-eyed look of wonder crossing over her face and her head was tilted slightly to the side. "Oh wait." she said again, pulling up the knife and pointing it toward him as if she had almost forgot why she even came here, "I'm sorry, but the Vonnera said I have to kill you..."

Even with a knife pointed at him, Maria could not help but smile. The expression she held was one of curiosity. If this were any other situation, she'd be giggling her ass off. The few moments he mentioned the Vonnera betrayal, her smile did fall, but when he started talking again, it returned. It was like she was only getting half of what he was actually saying. Where the rest was going? No one would know. She kept slowly tilting her head back and forth, watching him with this goofy ass smile. After a lot of his talking and Maria only hearing half of it, he leaned in and crossed his hands on the table. With a bigger smile, Maria bit her bottom lip and giggled behind her white glove covered hands. "You talk funny!" she said as she lowered her hands and smiled brightly at him, "I like it."

It was then that a strange white dot made itself apparent on Neil's clothing. Maria recognized it and realized then that what he said was true. The white dot moved from his lower gut and up toward the middle of his chest. When it finally kept still, Maria's eyes widened and she let out a worried gasp. The dot suddenly turned read and, without really thinking, she stood up and lunged forward at him. "LOOK OUT!" she screamed at the top of her lungs as her body flew forth and tackled him out of the way. It was then that a small sound of shattering glass could be heard. A bead of compressed Arcana flew passed them both and landed about ten feet in the other direction. Not even a full second later, the room lit up. The spell began to activate and expanded to the size of a basketball.

"It's gonn-..." Maria couldn't even get off a full sentence before the spell fully went off. The expanded sphere turned into a ball of fire and exploded outwards, creating a large burst of flame with enough force behind it to knock out all of the windows and the wall it was closest to. A second later, the entire blast ended and smoke filled the room. Maria began coughing and lifted herself to look at Neil. "A-Are you okay?" she struggled to speak. She was trying not to cough anymore, but there was a lot of smoke filling the room and it wouldn't be able to fully clear just yet. "You were right..." she said, coughing a bit more, "They really didn't care..." Maria's face saddened, as if she had been completely betrayed just then. The only people she knew as her family had just tried to kill her; she was heart broken.

"Ow..." she whined a little bit. She looked up to him as he pushed away from her and copied by pushing away from him. She curled her legs beneath her, something she was used to at the Vonnera. It was something he might even recognize as her showing respect. Until allowed, she would not move. She would not stand by his side, at his back, or in front of him because she felt herself lower than he was. Those were positions of trust, one she could not hold. At least, that is what she thought and what she was used to. When he held his hand out to her, she was stunned and that showed on her face. In fact, when she took his hand, she took it with both of her own as if to show she felt it was a gift of sorts, one she should handle with care. It wasn't something you snatched up or just took.

"Okay." Maria said with a nod and a smile following right after. Maria watched him with peaked curiosity. The way he talked was so funny to her; it kept making her just smile at him! When he pulled out the cigar, she blinked a little confused as to why he didn't grab his weapon. And then when he called it a beautiful day, she raised an eyebrow and pointed at the blasted out wall. "There's a hole in your wall; Isn't that supposed to be a bad thing?" she looked at him with an eyebrow raised as the guards came busting into the room. Seeing them, she immediately jumped behind him out of her own fear. She had come here to kill him after all. Thankfully, he had named her an ally, at least for now. And even said that if she looks like she's going to kill him, she should still be considered one?

That one threw her off. Well, it would have if she had heard it. As he began doing stuff with whatever that color-coded stuff was, Maria just wanted one thing. And as he walked over to placed his hand on her shoulder, she asked for it! "Talk again!" she said with a little happy jump toward him, putting her hands together as if she were begging him to do so. She really did love the way he talked. It was his plan anyway, since he did have something to say, but hearing him made her smile even bigger. "Okay!" she agreed immediately and followed behind him as he beckoned her. She stopped for a moment though and stared at his back. Something made her feel uncomfortable. "Um..." she spoke up a little worried, "Where am I supposed to walk? I work for you now... so where do your workers go?"

Okay! Next to him, got it. Wait, next to him? She ran up beside him exactly how he motioned, but was confused. She stared at him, thinking to herself the entire time that they made their little trip to the carriage. He began speaking to everyone, so she watched him even closer! She couldn't help it! He talked so... so... cutely! Oh, he'd kill her if she ever said that out loud, that was obvious. It was true though. His accent was utterly adorable. Where ever he came from, she wanted to go there! Either that, or she wanted to stick around him for as long as possible. He suddenly turned to her, causing her to jump a bit. "I'm riding with you? Really?" she asked in surprise, blinking a couple times, but then smiling, "Okay..." It was confusing, but he was obviously much different than the Vonnera.

Once she was allowed in the car, Maria looked around with her mouth slightly gaped. She was in awe of all of it. She never saw anything this nice, especially from the inside of it! She made sure to sit next to Neil too. Grigori attempted to, but she sorta 'appeared' already sitting there. He merely took the seat across from her, which was even more surprising! She thought she'd get in trouble. She seemed to get away with so much more with these guys. As they began the ride, Neil decided to introduce himself and then asked her name. "Actually no." she said after he ended his questions, "They only called you the Dragon and described you with an eye-patch; I didn't know an-..." Maria suddenly seemed to notice something outside the window and crawled over Neil to look out at it.

"Eep!" she squeaked when she was pulled back in and sat down. He wasn't rough though, which caused her to puff out her cheeks in curiosity and stare at him a bit before sitting up again. She glanced out the back window, but they had gone too far for her to confirm what she saw. "Maria... Maria Vonnera." she gave him her name with a sweet smile added on, "I've never had anyone work with me before. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I usually just take orders. What does it mean to actually work with another person? Not just for them?" Her questions were odd and so obvious to other people, but to her they really needed to be answered. She had no idea how to work as a 'team'. She was always just pawn; She was someone to listen and follow the orders of those above her.

While he explained all of this, every now and then he'd confuse the ever living shit out of her with a random sentence that made absolutely no sense. She ignored it at first, but when it happened a few more times, she gave him the most worried look. She brought the back of her hand up to his forehead and then both to each of his cheeks. "Are you okay?" she asked with a worried tone, "You don't have a temperature... Did you notice you were talking so strangely? You stopped making much sense..." After that bit, they pulled up to the Vonnera household and Maria almost went up to see the people she knew, but realized quickly that it'd be a pretty stupid idea at this point. Instead, she followed beside Neil, making sure to stay at his side like he had motioned at the house before.

BOOM! The sound of a loud explosion overwhelmed the area. Many people in the streets ran, refusing to get in the middle of a war the Vonnera started with anyone. This was when Maria showed a little more fear than before. She walked a little closer to Neil and sort of half-hid behind him. She wanted to correct his silly mistake about blowing the house in, but decided he did that on purpose and left it be. She walked with him, still keeping closer and slightly behind, as they made their way through the smoke. "You! O'Cary!? What is the meaning of this?!" Gabriel Vonnera and his wife rushed into the main hall of their home, soon noticing that a frightened Maria was standing there too, "You stupid little bitch! You had your orders! Do you dare betray me!? You useless trash!"

Maria visibly winced every time that she was insulted or he yelled at her. She could take a lot of physical pain, but the verbal stuff were things she couldn't handle. It was one of the reasons she had a good talent of blocking people who were talking out. With Neil it had been different; he didn't yell at her and was actually kind of nice to her. She listened to what he was saying and especially to how he sounded when he was saying it: happy and sort of gentle, at least in her opinion. "I knew we should have gotten rid of that little whore sooner." his wife spoke harshly, standing behind her husband and pushing him forward, "Go on, dear, you sent the girl... Do your business with O'Cary." Although she stayed silent about it, she narrowed her eyes at the woman's last comment.

"Deal!" A word that Maria Vonnera would come to fear. Though ignorant of the severity of that word and it's meaning now, Maria would soon understand exactly how 'deals' work with this man. It isn't like the rest; it is his word and his law. The deals that Neil made were truly binding, not just the small promises one would make to a friend and break later because they 'forgot' or 'couldn't do it'. No. Making a deal with Neil was as valid as signing a contract in blood, or binding yourself to a demon. The small white haired woman had no idea of this and that 'deal' she just made, though seemingly small and insignificant, was about to become part of her life's creed. And with a sweet smile and cute giggle, that ignorant young woman began her journey of deals with Neil O'Cary.

Maria blocked a lot of the conversation out; she had not heard him say her name. The yelling, the insults, and the harsh nature of the conversation was something she didn't want to listen to. If she listened to things like this all the time, she wouldn't be as happy as she was. It was her way of staying innocent; it was her way of not going insane in this town of Grandview. Until Neil, she didn't like listening to things talk and only listened when she had to. But at this time three words hit her ears and her attention was pulled back to Gabriel Vonnera. Two crossbow bolts came firing out from the side halls, hitting Neil in the chest. Maria brought her hands up to her mouth in horror, her eyes widening in worry as she saw his body pierced by the two attacks. Were his guards going to help!?

When Neil spoke again and the bolts left no wound, Maria watched on in shock. She didn't understand what kind of power this was. It looked so dark, so demonic. It made her wonder why he was called dragon over demon. For a moment, she was truly frightened of him, but she had felt frightened many times before. As he stepped toward Gabriel, Maria kept a close eye on their surroundings and kept watch. She saw no guards coming in; there were only his carriage on the outside of the house. She continued observing as Neil began offering this pig a deal, which caused her to pout a bit. She sort of wanted this man dead; With how many horrible things they did to her, him dying would have been best for her. And as each condition of the deal was made, Maria saw a cocky smirk from Eldia.

"Wh-Whatever you want! I'll sign, I'll sign! It's a deal!" As Gabriel went to sign the contract Neil was showing, Maria nervously placed a hand on Gabriel's wrist and another on Neil's. Her hands were trembling, wondering if she would get in trouble for doing this. She did work for him now. And when she looked up to him to explain herself, that evil eye shot fear into her heart and she froze. He asked her exactly what she was doing, but she froze. "Maria." he said her name, causing her to snap into attention. "Th-This is what she wants." Maria said, motioning with her eyes over to Eldia, who glared angrily at her. Maria looked away from Eldia and then back to Neil, removing her hands from both his and Gabriel's wrist. "Silence you lying whorish child!" Eldia said as if Maria was going to listen.

"I don't work for you anymore." was all Maria said, her eyes narrowed in an angry glare at Eldia before turning back to Neil. It was then that Gabriel stood up and demanded that Maria explain herself, yelling and causing her to flinch again. "She knows that Mister Vonnera was getting bored of her and all she's been doing is using him for his money, so she sent me after you." Maria explained to Neil, ignoring the piece of shit behind her, "She knows how you work and that you're a man of your word. She knows about the deals you make and that no one dare break them... So she made up this entire plan; That's why she wanted to get rid of me too, because she knew I couldn't fight you, knew you'd come with a deal, and thought getting rid of me as a witness and her husband would get her all of the money she's been wanting this entire time. I'm sorry for stopping you, but I didn't want you to fall into her trap!"

There was a change in him that caused a strong shiver to slither it's way up Maria's spine. She stopped him from making a horrible deal and from being used, but this change didn't make him seem happier. He was scary, very scary. His tone was less relaxed and as he began speaking to Eldia in this frightening manner, Maria felt her attention fading in and out. She was trying not to do that. She was trying hard to listen, but it wasn't working. And when that gun shot rang out, Maria's entire body jumped and then stiffened. The frightening scene of blood, gore, and shattered bone that splattered through out the area was not something she could usually handle seeing. In fact, she blocked everything out at this point, beginning to think on other things that came to her mind.

As Neil spoke to Gabriel, Maria truly heard none of it. When he looked back to her, he'd see exactly how dazed she was. Her pupil was dilated, her skin pale, and her eyes looking upward toward a large window that stood at the top of the stairs they were standing near. She did not hear him, but that changed a moment later when he called out her name. "Maria." She closed her eyes for a moment and opened them to look toward Neil. He repeated his question about Gabriel and she thought for a moment. "Yes." she said. Her tone was almost ghostly as she turned toward one of the pictures hanging on the wall. "N-No. How could you ev-..." Gabriel spoke up in shock before Maria turned to him with her dead stare. "I know everything." was her only ghostly reply to him about that.

"This is the one place even Eldia did not know he held money. They always thought I wasn't listening..." Maria said as she scratched at the painting, ripping her hand through it and opening a safe, "This painting is bolted to the wall... Only way to get to what's behind it is by ripping through it... It's famous, the painting is I mean. Well, the original is. Gabriel got a forgery done to make sure that no one would ever find the safe... They'd assume this work of art was worth millions in gold, but no... He had that painting sent out to Zakat, in another safe house he has..." Maria just spilled every bit of secret information she held about Gabriel and his other deals. He was a powerful man, and things like this were why. She pulled out a large bag of platinum and walked it over to Neil, dropping it.

"There..." she said and looked away from both of them. "Yo-You sneaky little witch." Gabriel just began throwing insult after insult at Maria, telling her how he could have just left her on the street and let her rot. He continued on about all the 'training' he had so 'graciously' given. She ignored him completely. Instead, she stared out the front door and noticed someone familiar pointing something toward them. Seeing a straight white light flicker in the sun pointing toward Neil's back, Maria realized what it was again. "MOVE!" she screamed and pushed Neil as hard as she could. Not being in an easily knocked over chair this time, it was much harder, but it would easily be enought to allow a small bead to fly in between both of them and slam into the stairway, creating another explosion.

"Him! He's the one that attacked your house the first time! He's the one that Eldia sent!" Maria snapped out of her ghostly daze and pointed toward a smirking blonde man with a sniper-like gun that was obviously some sort of Arcane Weapon. The man stepped into the house with a hand on his hip. "Well, well... Interesting." the man spoke up, tilting himself to the side to look around Neil and Maria. He took note of the body laying on the floor and shook his head. "Well, it doesn't seem like I'm going to get paid..." he said with a sigh and rolled his eyes, rubbing the back of his head, "I actually gotta apologize then... Wouldn'ta taken that last shot if I'da known that my employer was already dead... Haha... Sorry about that." The man's name was Frankie R. Lawrence, a pretty well known hit man.

"I-I-I... I didn't mean it! I promise! I was only doing what I was told; I'm not allowed to tell anyone no, not here. They'll just hurt me more! If I had known you were Neil, I wouldn't have done it!" Odd statement, yes. The weirder part was she meant it. Well, she meant what she meant by it. It was her way of saying she would have chosen him over them any day if she would have known him previously. She just had an odd way of expressing that. Gabriel even looked at her like she was stupid. "I swear, I don't ever understand a word that comes out of your mouth." he said in a condescending tone. "You don't need too, you're not important." Maria looked away from him  with an added 'hmph' and crossed her arms, "Now that I don't have to listen to you anymore, just shut up and sit."

Before Gabriel could say anything else, Neil began speaking up to Frankie, who had been saying something Maria didn't catch because she was talking to Gabriel. When Neil held out his hand, Frankie eagerly moved forward and shook it with a goofy smile on his face. "Want me permanently, eh? I see. It'd be nice to have at least one house in this town not tryin' to cut my head off..." he said as he brought his hand back and put a hand under his chin like he was thinking, "Yeah, if you really can make up my lost salary, sure, you got a deal there." That word; that word again. Unlike Maria, Frankie knew exactly how strong that word 'deal' was with those who worked along side Neil; he wasn't stupid enough to say it just cause. And then the stage once again made a turn to Gabriel.

"I don't exactly have a choice, do I? I say yes, you get all of my stuff and I'm left with nothing. I say no, you splatter my brains all over the damn stairway..." Gabriel said angrily and stood up straight, "Fine. I will sign your damn contract and you will have everything of mine." Maria giggled, causing her to receive a glare from Gabriel. Maria lowered her gaze and went to hide behind Neil, but a hand suddenly met her shoulder. She looked up to see Frankie. "Don't you worry your pretty little head about that old bastard." Frankie said, smiling kindly down toward Maria. She blinked once and suddenly bopped the guy on the head; it wasn't enough to really hurt, but he did take a step back, "Hey! Why'd ya do that?!" Maria puffed up her cheeks, pouting, "You almost blew up us twice today!"

"Ack... Sorry!" Frankie apologized, kinda laughing about it and waving his hands in front of him. "Blew us up." Neil said in a manner that Maria could tell was a correction of what she said, "And do not hate him for it. He had a job, just like you. I am sure that if I had met Frankie face-to-face like I did you, we would have come to an agreement then and there. Business is business, and I can't hate the messenger." Maria turned toward Neil and blinked a few times, stepping away from both of them. "Blew up us, blew us up... blew us up today twice...." Maria kept repeating it to herself, trying to get what sounded right and then pointed to Gabriel so Neil could finish his contract, which Gabriel would immediately sign, "Blew us up two times... blew us up twice today... Yeah, okay. That's it."