Archive of Our Own ^beta

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TWILIGHT:
ROLE: Spy
A spy and master of disguise serving the nation of Westalis
MISSION: Find and infiltrate Garden, and take their most skilled (and notoriously smart) assassin, the Thorn Princess, into custody.

YOR BRIAR:
ROLE: Assassin
A city hall clerk who also lives a secret life as a contract killer. Her code name is “Thorn Princess”.
MISSION: Locate the master spy Twilight and assassinate him.

ANYA BRIAR (Code Name: Ashe):
AGE: 19
ROLE: (Trainee) State Security Service Officer, Girlfriend
COVER: 13th Year Imperial Scholar at Eden Academy.
A telepath whose abilities were created in an experiment conducted by a certain organization. She can read minds.
MISSION: Detain the infamous spy Twilight (who she knows is Loid) and dangerous assassin the Thorn Princess (who she knows is Yor) both suspected of conspiring to overthrow the newly conjoined governments of Westalis and Ostania. Obtain a (fake) boyfriend along the way to shed any suspicion, even if it means dating your ex-boyfriend from High School.

BOND FORGER:
ROLE: Guard Dog
Anya’s guard dog. As a former military test subject, he can see the future.
MISSION: Accompany and safeguard Anya on her mission to locate Twilight and the Thorn Princess, offering useful preconceptions along the way.

YURI BRIAR (Code Name: Briar):
ROLE: State Security Service Sergeant
Yor’s younger brother, a secret police commander, Anya’s adoptive father
MISSION: Trying (and failing) to make sure Anya doesn’t do anything dumb after joining the State Security Service.

DAMIAN DESMOND (Code Name: Bel):
ROLE: (Trainee) Assassin, Boyfriend
COVER: 13th Year Imperial Scholar at Eden Academy.
Second son of Donovan Desmond. Training to replace the Thorn Princess after her retirement.
(Unofficial) MISSION: Track down and kill the SSS agent who is hot on his mentor's (the Thorn Princesses) trail, without letting the Thorn Princess know, of course (He doesn’t know it’s Anya). Obtain a (fake) girlfriend along the way to shed any suspicion, even if it means dating your ex-girlfriend from High School.

BECKY BLACKBELL (Code Name: Midnight):
ROLE: (Trainee) Spy
COVER: 13th Year Imperial Scholar at Eden Academy.
Anya’s friend
(Unofficial) MISSION: Track down and kill the SSS agent who is hot on her mentor’s (Twilight’s) trail, without letting Twilight know, of course (She doesn’t know it’s Anya). And get her, Anya, and Damian on BERLINT IN LOVE!

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Everyone has a secret self they don’t show to other people. Not to friends… Not to lovers… Not even to family. They hide who they are and what they want behind lies and painted smiles. And thus the world…

…Maintains its thin veneer of peace.

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Everything Loid Forger did was for the mission. He took Yor on dates for the mission. He played with Anya for the mission. Heck, he even walked Bond for the mission!

But the mission was over, wasn’t it?

But he wasn’t Loid Forger anymore, was he?

So why was he back at his old apartment, eleven years after the conclusion of Operation Strix, to visit watch his daughter Anya on her eighteenth birthday?

No. He was not being sentimental.

He just wanted to see to it that no part of his mission would be compromised by those two.

The mission that was now over?

No, no. He just had to make sure that there was no way anyone would trace them back to him. He wasn’t going back to see how Anya had grown.

Everything he did was for the mission. Nothing more, nothing less.

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Eleven years ago, Operation Strix had ended.

Plan A did not work. Anya ended up gaining four more Tonitrus Bolts and no more Stella Stars, putting her on the very edge of expulsion.

Plan B did not work. Anya and Damian’s relationship, though it had improved, was nowhere near good enough to allow for an opening for the Forgers and Desmonds to interact.

It was, impressively, Plan C that did work, although not in the exact same way they had expected.

While Melinda and Yor had grown closer, Melinda had opened up more during therapy, and during moments of distress whilst talking about her family, she would accidentally let a word or two slip about politics and the National Unity Party. Melinda and Donovan improved their relationship ever so slightly, and Melinda invited the Forgers to join them for dinner, which was a win for all of them (except Anya and Damian).

From there, Loid Twilight had been able to learn more about the National Unity Party and their goals, as Donovan grew more comfortable with sharing things around such a “respectable man” and soon invited Twilight to join his inner circle, which was a hot pot full of information and valuable sources.

After carefully weeding his way into the National Unity Party and taking care to record select conversations between himself, Donovan, and other party members, Twilight was able to build a substantial case of evidence to convict Donovan of planning to upend foreign relations with a war against Westalis. The State Security Service arrested him, and an official peace treaty was drawn up between Westalis and Ostania.

Afterwards, there was no need for Loid Forger to stay alive, was there?

Handler thought otherwise. She had called Twilight to her office the day after the headline went public, ready with two cups of joe and an earful of advice.

At first, she just began with the normal congratulations, but afterwards, instead of granting him his next mission, she asked him what was next for him. Naturally, he said what he always did: another mission, of course.

She saw right through him. Asked what he was planning to do with his fake wife and daughter. What kind of question was that? It wasn’t like Twilight was upset or felt guilty about leaving a woman he loved didn’t love or his daughter a stupid little girl behind. Every date, every playtime, every outing, it was all just a front for the mission. Everything was for the mission.

Even Twilight, the master spy, didn’t notice the way Sylvia’s hand tightened around her mug, the way Nightfall's eyes brightened at the mention of him leaving his the family behind.

Twilight, the master spy, the one who was so adamant about everything being for the mission, was too lost in his own memories from the past four months to notice, and he was too distracted to notice what date Loid Forger was supposed to die on either.

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This was the first time Twilight had crossed the border in years, and he found himself in front of the apartment complex housing 128 Park Avenue, all the way in West Berlint, Ostania.

Again, he wasn’t trying to see Anya on her eighteenth birthday because he cared, or anything of the sort. He was trying to see her and Yor to make sure that they were alright, that Strix hadn’t harmed them in any way. After all, he had planned everything accordingly: even with the untimely death of Loid Forger, Yor’s job at City Hall should be more than enough to pay the rent for their small apartment and fund Anya’s education at Eden, with the added money that they received as pension for his death. He was just trying to make sure that none of his enemies had gotten to them, that’s all. (Even though all of them were long dead.)

Well, maybe the spy hadn’t thought this through very clearly, seeing as after wandering the perimeter of the complex for a mere ten minutes, he was able to deduce that Anya and Yor did not, in fact, live here anymore, from the obvious emptiness of said apartment and that they weren’t in the files of the apartment as residents.

He couldn’t deny it. He was disappointed. Why? He didn’t know. But alas, that was the life of a spy. He couldn’t always keep track of all of his associates. He couldn’t know everything about their lives.

But he did know that someone was watching him.

He turned around silently, and, about twenty feet to his right, a woman wrapped in a black puffer jacket was observing him, but upon the realization that he was watching her too, she slowly retracted into the darkness, her long black hair flowing in the wind.

You know, she reminds me of…

…Never mind.

And with that, Twilight left Ostania and his past behind…

…if only for another year or so.

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Eleven years ago, The Shopkeeper had passed away, and with it, the life of the Thorn Princess had changed drastically.

His death shook all of Garden, as it was so unexpected. He was in such good health! Maybe it was just from old age…

Regardless, someone needed to step up to take his role. And, quite obviously, the most qualified person would be McMahon. But then, that left McMahon’s role open, didn’t it?

Well, that role was to be taken by the Thorn Princess herself.

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She was back. Yor Forger Briar was back at 128 Park Avenue for the first time in eleven years, just in time for Anya’s eighteenth birthday.

She had never wanted to leave. Never would she, in a million years, leave this family she had found behind.

Her life had been perfect. It was more than she could have ever asked for. She had a loving husband, a wonderful daughter, an adorable dog, and got to see her beloved baby brother as often as she wanted. She had a friend, Melinda.

Melinda…

It was a shame her husband had been arrested. The poor thing. If only Yor had been there to support her through it.

But the situation had called for it. If it had been her decision, she would have just quit her job at Garden, stayed with the Forgers for the rest of her goddamn life. But the Shopkeeper had clearly stated it in his final decree to his assassins:

Matthew McMahon was to take over the role of the shopkeeper, and the Thorn Princess was to take over McMahon’s role. She would need to find someone else to train to become the next protege of Garden in place of her.

So, Yor Forger had died. She had gone missing, no trace of her to be found. This always irked Yor. What would Loid have done? How could she let a small child who had already lost her mother lose one again?

But there wasn’t anything she could have done about it.

If only Yor Forger had picked a better day to disappear.

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Yor might not have been the best investigator, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out that Loid and Anya didn’t live in their apartment anymore.

Of course they didn’t. Why would they? They had no reason to stay. The apartment was much too big for only two people, and it had probably felt a bit… soulless after her “disappearance”.

She should have just left then. But, something stopped her.

Better put, someone.

Twenty steps to her left, a man, no older than her, was watching the complex with an unreadable expression on his face. She peered at him. What could someone be doing out here, especially this late at night? And what was he looking at?

But perhaps he had felt her stare burning into the back of his neck, because he turned around to gaze back. For a moment, Yor didn’t even notice. She was too entranced in the fluff of his hair, the slant of his eyes, the curve of his cheekbones, all so similar to…

But the Thorn Princess wasn’t an idiot. She retracted into the shadows, long black hair wrapping around her as she left this man behind in the dark…

…At least for another year.

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Yuri Briar was a man of many faces.

Chloe had learned that through her fifteen years of knowing him, five years of dating him, and two years of being engaged to him. But she had never seen this specific side of him as he paced up and down their living room on his niece’s eighteenth birthday.

“Chloe, Chloe, Chloe…” he muttered, pacing back and forth in their small living room as he calculated something in his head. Suddenly, as if he had detained Twilight himself, Yuri sprung back up, a fire burning in his eyes as he excitedly yelled, “CHLOE!”

“Yes, Yuri, you’ve been muttering my name for seven minutes straight. What’s wrong?”

Yuri suddenly paled. “Seven minutes? You don’t think Anya would be playing seven minutes in heaven at her party, right?”

Yuri was one of the worst over-thinkers Chloe had met, but even this was a new level for him.

“Even if she was, Yuri, we can’t baby her anymore.” Chloe bit back a laugh as she smiled gently at her fiancé. “She’s an adult. I’m sure she can make smart decisions by herself, y’know?”

Eleven years ago, Yuri’s dear sweet sister Yor and her husband, Loid, had both passed away, leaving their daughter, Anya, in his care. While Yuri acted as if he didn’t want her at first, he grew to tolerate her in that first year… and now, for the decade after, had been playing the role of loving and overprotective uncle (although he could go a tad bit overboard sometime).

“Yes, but… but…” Yuri stammered, at a loss for words, before he suddenly cleared his throat and snapped back into Commander Yuri Briar mode. “Chloe, what did you do on your eighteenth birthday?”

Chloe shrugged. “Normal teenager stuff. I got forged IDs for me and three other friends and we went clubbing together.” She laughed. “It was actually so fun, because we got all drunk and-“

Apparently this was the worst possible thing Chloe could have said, because Yuri shrieked and immediately pulled out his phone to track Anya’s location. “YOU’RE SAYING SHE COULD BE OUT CLUBBING RIGHT NOW WITH THE DESMOND BOY?” Yuri yelled, his face drained of all color.

Chloe sighed and gently lowered his phone, putting a palm on his cheek and forcing him to meet her eyes.

“First of all, babe, no clue what you got against Damian. He was such a sweet boy, and plus, he and Anya broke up two years ago. Secondly, even if Anya was out clubbing and kissing boys right now, it’s not like we didn’t do that at her age, right?”

Yuri stared at her, eyes glossing over before they rolled back in his skull and he toppled over onto the floor.

“Yuri? YURI!”