aru shah fan fiction

assassins au: twenty-one

Aru would never reveal this to a single soul, but she had, admittedly, wondered how the picture of her reunion with Aiden would be painted on multiple occasions. Would the artist crafting her life stroke a happy, yellow scene on her canvas? Or would it be a dull blue, a meeting full of despair? Perhaps a glob of fiery red, the color of action. Her mind had taken her down a lot of different paths, but none of the scenarios she'd cooked up played out like this.

"Ethan!" cried Aru. She turned to the Sleeper, the pleading in her eyes both equally sincere and a mask. "Father, please. What are you doing?"

The softness that overtook his features made Aru crumble into hopeless pieces, finally broken from her torn emotions. He was holding a knife up to her friend's neck, yet his eyes held nothing but love, the compassion of a father to his daughter. What was this level of cruelty? How could a picture look so horrifically backwards?

"Aru," he said delicately and safely, as if he were coaxing a terrified animal out of its cage. She noticed his grip hadn't loosened on Ethan or the knife. "I'm doing this for us. We can be a united family once more, but these obstacles stand in the way of our happiness. Let me do this, and you'll have all that you ever wished for. We'll have everything we've ever wished for."

Aru paused. She was not so easily fooled–these were nothing but hollow promises, complete vanity. Even so, they sounded enticing. Aru loved her mother to the ends of the earth and back, but there was something very pronounced about the absence of a father. She was a puzzle who'd lost a piece of herself ten years ago, a piece so involved in completing the final picture. If she just forgave the Sleeper, her father would be returned to her. Was that such a terrible thing to wish for?

"Shah," Aiden said gently. Aru started–she'd nearly forgotten he was there. "Look at me."

Aru had looked Aiden straight in the eyes before. It always unleashed this wild cage of butterflies inside her stomach, but this was something else entirely. His eyes had always reminded her of a galaxy, but she could've sworn there actually were stars this time, constellations in Aiden's irises as he pressed his gaze into her. "Don't think about it," he said. "Please."

Her cheeks bloomed under the heat of his fiery stare. What was he doing, looking at her like that? What sort of voo-doo magic are you working on me, Acharya? But Aru didn't flit her eyes away. There was something else he wanted to tell her, something he couldn't put into words, but she couldn't decipher that mixed message hiding behind his eyes.

"Are we done here yet?" The Sleeper sounded bored, but the wood-like stiffness of his shoulders betrayed his nonchalance. "You and Bert may continue this in your next lives, after I eliminate this one." Ethan, still trapped in her father's grip, cast a fierce glance at Aru, subtly shaking his head. Don't provoke him.

Aru felt like crawling into a hole and curling up inside it for the remainder of her days. The sound of her thumping pulse was like a hammer to her skull, breaths too loud for her ears. She couldn't do this.

Why did it have to be her? Why couldn't some other girl have been the Sleeper's daughter? She couldn't kill one of her parents–it was impossible to ask anyone of that. But everyone's counting on you, a small sliver of righteousness inside her whispered. If you fail now, what will become of your cause?

Aru held her hands up in surrender, not fully aware of her movements. "Father, please," her voice cracked at the end, but she couldn't tell if it was genuine or a subconscious effort to maintain her facade. "Let him go. Let both of them go. I'll join you, just set them free. I promise."

"You had your chance, daughter," he pressed the knife deeper into Ethan's neck, the sharp line of ruby blood becoming more vivid against his pale skin. "Make a choice. It's his life–" this time, Ethan couldn't hold back a wince as the silver blade dug deeper into the surface of his throat. "Or Bert's."