This story is part of the DC Mayhem continuity. Formerly a part of DC Genesis, but seceded into Mayhem.
Rated: T+
Continued from: http://www.comicvine.com/myvine/ravager4/dc-mayhem-deathstroke-ravager-3/87-85225/
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“You're getting better,” Lady Shiva said, offering a hand.
Rose stared up from the ground, chest heaving with exhaustion. A wet trail of crimson leaked down her chin, fueled by her split lip and bloody nose. Shiva did not make a habit of holding back during their training lessons, and although Rose was both enhanced and exceptionally skilled, Shiva was on an entirely different level. No matter how hard she tried, Rose could barely last a minute against this deadly woman. At the very least, she was improving... several weeks ago, she couldn't last fifteen seconds.
Taking Shiva's hand, Rose hoisted herself back to her feet, where she teetered for several moments before steadying herself. “You... you're really amazing.”
“Yes, I know,” Shiva replied, curling her lips into the slightest of smirks. “And so are you, little dove, for one so young.”
“Um... thanks, I guess.” Rose paused, leaning forward with her hands pressed against her knees. God, she felt like she was going to puke. “I just... can't figure it out.”
Lady Shiva lifted an eyebrow. “What's that?”
“Why... why you're doing this. Helping me. Training me. Offering me a way to... to take my revenge, but at the same time allowing that woman to... torment me. I don't understand it.”
“No, I suppose you wouldn't,” Shiva said, holding a hand to her chin. “And perhaps I'll tell you some day, but for right now I think it's best if you return to your chamber for the night. We've trained enough for one day.”
“No... no we haven't,” Rose muttered. She gave Lady Shiva a narrow look, widening her stance and holding her arms at the ready. “I'm never going to get to your level by slacking off, and it's not even sundown yet. Yesterday, we went to sundown.”
“Yesterday, your face wasn't a bloody mess.”
Rose's gaze grew harder. She turned her head momentarily, spitting out a glob of blood, then wiped some of the crimson from her face with her sleeve. “I don't give a damn. I've never slacked off before, I'm not going to start now. We go to sundown.”
Lady Shiva hesitated a moment, until finally shifting her body into a fighting stance. “Very well... if that's what you wish.”
---
“You know what I love best about this?” Killer Frost asked, twirling a finger around in the air. The thin, clinging layer of ice particles coating every surface of the chamber suddenly grew thicker, colder. “It's the fact that you still think you're going to get out of here.”
Rose lay on the top of her bed, curled into a ball and shivering madly. She'd fought back again, like she did every time this woman came to visit, but it wasn't enough. She still couldn't put Killer Frost down before the heat left the room, chilling her bones and nearly shutting down her body. Every time she moved, she thought she felt her bones shattering, or her joints popping. In truth, such feelings were merely an illusion, because in reality most of the feeling had abandoned her body entirely.
“But I have to say, you're getting better,” Killer Frost added, holding two fingers to her crooked nose. She tentatively gripped down on the bone and twisted it back into place, flinching only briefly before lowering her hand again. “If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were trying to make this more enjoyable for me.”
“Sh-shhh-shut-t-t up y-you b-b-bit-tch,” Rose stammered, frozen lips barely able to push out the words. She tried to uncurl herself, tried to form a fist, to make another move to attack... but she couldn't. Her body shivered too fiercely, desperate for any source of warmth whatsoever.
“Aw, don't be like that.” Killer Frost took a few steps forward, reaching an icy hand down to grip Rose's cheeks and turning the girl's head. “You'll make me sad.”
With her face now staring up at the woman's, Rose made a desperate attempt at insult, spitting. Unfortunately, her saliva went about an inch before falling back to her own face and freezing solid. At the pitiful sight, Killer Frost tilted her head back and laughed, genuinely amused.
“Oh my, that was priceless!” she exclaimed, still giggling under her breath. “Oh, do try it again. Please? For me?” When Rose did nothing, Killer Frost lowered her own face towards the girl, their mouths only inches apart. “No? Shame.” Exhaling, she sent out a frigid breath of air surging into Rose's mouth and down her throat.
Instantly, Rose recoiled, coughing and sputtering as she clawed her hands at her neck. For several moments, she couldn't breathe, body heaving with shock and pain. Finally, she managed to settle down and suck in deep, cold breaths, as her lone eye leaked tears that froze flat against her cheek.
“I bet that was uncomfortable, huh?” Killer Frost said, smirking wickedly. She then gently traced a finger along Rose's shoulder, across her chest, and down her midsection, all the while siphoning more heat as she went. “I have to say, I'm glad you're so much more... durable than the others. All my past pets would have been dead by now, frozen from the inside out. But you... you can take it, can't you?” Her smirk grew wider. “Yes, you can... I like that.”
When at last Killer Frost left, when she had had her fun for the night and took the frigid air with her, Rose was finally able to curl herself up in the blankets of her bed. No more frost coated the walls, no more ice or snow. Things were dry again, and she could no longer see her breath, but that did not instantly take away the chill. She lay there for what felt like hours, clutching the thick blanket tight around herself and just hoping, praying, that feeling would soon return to her body.
Rose wasn't sure what time she fell asleep, or how long she'd been out when an abrupt noise awoke her, but at least her body no longer shivered uncontrollably. For a brief moment, she remained still beneath the blankets, staring into the darkness. Then, the noise came again, the soft, shrill creak of the door opening. With it came a sudden glow of orange light, a dim candle burning away the inky blackness of night. In that light, a small silhouette appeared, one that gradually came forward into the room.
“Hello?” Rose uttered. She cringed at how weak and hoarse her voice sounded. Apparently, she had still not completely recovered from Killer Frost's most recent assault.
No response.
“Hey, who's there?” Her voice expressed no fear, no nervousness, simply curiosity. Who could be visiting her at such a late hour?
Finally, the figure holding the candle drew near enough that Rose could make out features. It was... a girl. A small girl, Asian, maybe twelve years old, short scruffy black hair, and a look of intrigue on her face.
“Uh... hi there?” Rose said, lifting an eyebrow. Well, this was definitely someone she hadn't seen around the mountain fortress before...
The girl spoke no words, merely tilting her head to the side and furrowing her brow slightly.
“Um... do you speak at all, or...?” Still no reply. “Do you have a name?”
The girl nodded.
Rose sighed, rubbing her eyes slightly. What little patience she had was already beginning to wear thin. “Are you going to tell me your name...? Or maybe what you're doing here?”
Again, nothing. The girl came a little closer, leaning in and giving a long, curious look.
“Okay, listen, I'm trying to sleep here,” Rose insisted. “If you could, I don't know, shoo, or something, that would be great.”
Before anything more could be said, however, another voice from the open doorway interrupted them. “Cassandra!”
The girl whirled around suddenly, stiffening up and holding her candle tightly against her chest. A much taller figure walked into the light: Lady Shiva, dressed in a fine, red silk robe and carrying a lantern of her own. She looked so much different, when not garbed in some sort of battle uniform... more natural, gentler. Of course, one would be foolish to allow such looks to be deceiving.
“What have I told you about wandering around at night?” Shiva asked, coming forward and taking hold of the girl's hand. “Back to bed with you.”
Rose watched, more confused than anything, as Lady Shiva urged the girl back out the door. Rather than follow, however, Shiva breathed out a long sigh and looked back.
“My apologies, little dove,” she said. “My daughter... has a habit of wandering off and exploring things. She must have found you interesting.”
“Wait... your daughter?” Rose lifted an eyebrow, sitting up a little straighter. “I didn't know you had a daughter.”
“That's because I never told you,” Shiva said, plainly.
Rose paused momentarily, bowing her head. Eventually, she worked out another question. “What's she doing here? I mean... this doesn't seem like the best place for a kid, is all I'm saying.”
“I brought her here with me, because it is far safer a place for her than where we came from.” Lady Shiva stood there calmly, placing her lantern down on the nearby table and sighing outwardly.
After another moment of quiet, Rose tilted her head and asked, “Where... where did you come from?”
Shiva didn't answer, at first, instead folding her arms and glancing up at the ceiling. Eventually, however, she looked back to Rose, eyes softening slightly, and explained, “A place very far from here. A small village, in the jungle... a place of pain, and violence.”
Rose remained quiet, now sitting at full attention as the master assassin told her tale.
“In my village, there is a tradition,” Shiva said. “Each generation, a young girl is selected to be molded into the perfect warrior. Graceful, agile, quick, precise... deadly. That girl takes on a title, one that has been passed down for centuries: Lady Shiva, the same title I now bear. Somewhere along the way, however, the tradition grew... warped. They stopped waiting for full generations to pass before selecting a new Shiva, instead forcing the title down a single familial line, and doing so with less and less time in between.”
Shiva went silent a moment, exhaling deeply as she stared at the floor. “I was already chosen to be the next Shiva before I was even born, just like my mother before me, and her mother before her. I began training on my fifth birthday. Every day was a constant battle, a never ending struggle just to survive the training. It was difficult... but I can at least say it made me strong. Still, I never had a chance to be anything other than Lady Shiva.”
“Wait, if your mother was already Shiva...” Rose said, scratching her head slightly, “and you were training to be Shiva... when, or... how is the title officially passed on?”
“She who bears the title of Shiva is, by definition, an assassin,” she explained. “The very first target that the one in training is given... is the current Shiva.”
Rose's eyebrows lifted, eyes widening slightly. “Oh...”
“But that is not all,” Lady Shiva continued. “That very first assignment is given to the Shiva-in-training when she reaches puberty, the first time she... bleeds. Afterward, a man is selected to lie with her and create the next Shiva.”
“Wait... you mean you...”
“I was fourteen when I had Cassandra.” Shiva went quiet for a long moment, maintaining her long stare at the floor. “But by then, I already knew that I didn't want this life for her. It took a while for me to work up the audacity to break the tradition, but on the eve of Cassandra's first birthday, I fled with her. I left behind my village, my home... my entire life, all to keep Cassandra from having to go through what I had gone through. There was, however, a small problem with that. The father did not take kindly to my taking our daughter away.”
Rose folded her arms, shifting slightly in her bed. “The father?”
“A man named David Cain,” she stated, with a striking venom in her tone. “A very dangerous, very powerful man. He tracked us down within two months, ambushed me... left me for dead and abducted Cassandra for himself. I spent years looking for them, all while putting the skills I had to use in order to make money, money that I put into tracking down my daughter. I just found her last year, managed to take her back from Cain.”
She closed her eyes, bringing a tired hand to her forehead and sighing again. “The things he did to her... I took her away to keep her from becoming what I had become, but he erased any chance of that. He taught her things... how to fight, how to kill... he hurt her in ways I can't imagine, to turn her into an even greater assassin than Lady Shiva, nothing but a mere tool to use. And through all that, he never even taught her how to speak, how to communicate normally... her only language is through action, through violence.”
“Well, that's... terrible,” Rose admitted, glancing to the side. “But... I mean, she didn't really look all that... well, violent.”
“A rose is beautiful, yet its thorns can still prick, can't they?”
“Fair point...”
Lady Shiva looked back to the open doorway, staring into the darkness. “Now, I keep my daughter here with me, where Cain can't get to her.”
“Where you... what, hope she'll live a normal, quiet life away from violence?”
“If only it were that simple.” Shiva turned her attention back to Rose, flickering firelight from the lantern dancing across both their faces. “No, the people I work for, they've already seen what Cassandra can do. They're already planning how to use her for their own goals.”
Rose narrowed her eyes, confused. “So... just leave. No one's keeping you here, right? Take your daughter and just, I don't know, vanish or something.”
“I am far too invested now to simply abandon my position,” Lady Shiva insisted, shaking her head. “Besides, were I to do such a thing, they would find us, and they would kill us both.”
“Okay... never mind, then.” Rose huffed out a small breath, arms folding. Well, that was a depressing thought.
“In any case, I've spoken far too much.” Shiva grabbed the lantern and turned back towards the door. “I'll let you get your rest now, little dove. You'll need it.”
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