Assassination Through the Netherworld

"When I was born, I was born Vera Sidorov... in 1882 at Yanovka." She began her tale while cleaning Valentine's arms, the beauty kept straddling his chest while Fayette was inside the pool, leaning forward and cleaning his legs, listening attentively.

"My mother was a prostitute... and she had me by mistake... even then, she didn't kill me, she accepted me and worked hard to sustain us but... in the end life was too difficult." 

"..."

"One day, while shopping through one of the markets, one boy set his eyes on me... he was Lev and he was the son of a wealthy family, at that time I didn't know which, he was three years older than me and he seemed to have 'fancied' me when he saw me... He was seven years old and I was three." 

"... That's a region in Ukraine, right...? It stopped calling itself like that long ago, now it's called Bereslavka" Fayette added, but her eyes were perceiving the lady's every reaction as if trying to decipher her feelings about the matter, but she seemed to be imperturbable like she didn't care at all.

"To make it simple... he and I became friends, he was going to leave to some kind of school... and that was when I was said that I could go with him to that school... I refused, I didn't want to leave my mother, but she reassured me, telling me that she would be okay... it wasn't until much later that I knew that she sold me..." 

"... sorry." That's all she could say, what a sorrowing past.

"Don't be... I don't care about her, these events don't pain me anymore, what pains me it's what happened afterwards." Vera curled up her lips with self-mockery and cleaned each of Valentine's fingers.

"Our relationship wasn't bad until he grew older... during the first years of our lives we attended a school in Odessa I was like his maid, taking care of his every need, but the more he grew up, the more obsessive he became... one time I had a lover in school and he discovered it, that day he killed that boy... and told me that I was 'his' before he abused me... that was my first time..."

"..."

"I morphed from his 'maid' to his slave... and I couldn't do anything, he told me that I belonged to him, that he 'bought' me for a hefty price... I was too shocked by my mother's betrayal back then that I didn't even defy him..."

"During the rest of the period we attended school he abused me constantly, for years, and even 'trained' me by having me swindle the school and the town authorities for him, he said that those skills would come in 'handy'. He got obsessed with the 'revolution' and together with a group WE started to disrupt whatever institution we could, it was at that time that I believed myself to be free, he met a woman called Alexandra and fell in love with her, I thought I was going to be free after that, but I was wrong... she just joined to the 'abuse' those revolutionary, they were all a bunch of bastards!" 

"V-Vera if you want to stop..." She didn't want the girl to get exalted.

"No! You wanted to know, right?! I will tell you!" But the girl is already exalted, she stood up, sat down again but this time with Valentine's head on her lap where she started to clean his hair, but one could see her eyes were bloodshot.

Her dedication to cleaning his body is impressive.

"..."

"At one time we were exiled to Siberia, during that period of time he married that bitch and I couldn't rejoice more... I managed to escape the prison together with him, but I didn't waste time, the first opportunity I had, I disappeared from his sight, I knew we had a difficult situation, the only possible way for me to have a 'peaceful' life would be to leave the country, he wanted to take me to London but I refused, I'd rather live hell in the Empire than go anywhere else with him."

"For years life was difficult, I was skilled, and thanks to the accursed things that he taught me... I managed to evade the authorities... for years I seduced wealthy men and they took care of me, whenever they see beauty, it's like their brains stop working... that was until I was captured again and exiled to Siberia once more... this time I couldn't escape... but I didn't need to, he took me out of there... that bastard came back and took me out of there, but this time, he didn't do it out of the grace of his heart... he had a mission that only 'I' could do."

"Infiltrate the royal family?"

"Yes, by then he was allied with the Bolsheviks... and they wanted someone in the royal palace... I accepted, mainly because by doing this mission, I would be away from him... my name was changed to Alexandra Tegleva as Vera Sidorov could no longer be seen... he was convinced that with my beauty I would be able to sneak in easily... and he wasn't wrong... I was sent to St Petersburgh."

"..." Fayette was anything if not awed, she didn't expect Vera's life to be so adventurous.

"Do you think I'm dirty, Faye? Throughout my entire life, I have used my body as the most efficient of weapons... I have killed people... even in their sleep I slaughtered them to take their money... do you think I'm filthy? that I shouldn't be touching him?" Vera's hands wandered and her fingers touched Valentine's lips, her filthy hands...

"... I don't think you're filthy, Vera... I think... you're one of the best women I have met."

"...?" Her words made the lady quiver slightly, suggesting her to continue.

"I have met so many women that use their body in order to get material things... insignificant things they could have gotten someway else, with opportunities yet they choose that path, filthy sluts... but I have also met a lot of women who have used their bodies... to survive... I think, in those circumstances... you have to use anything you have... and if the only thing you have in your body and your brain... you have to use it, efficiently... and I believe you did, Vera... that's why you're amazing."

Fayette summarized her words, now that she finished cleaning Valentine up, she just lay on his crotch, with her two lumps 'sheltering' the now limb shaft, much to Vera's chagrin.

"Thank you, Faye... coming from a woman like you, it means a lot" Vera's lips curled up amidst the storytelling, she felt, nice...

To her, Fayette is the peak of what a woman should be... breathtakingly beautiful, immensely strong yet also free and independent... everything she herself wasn't.

She is a beauty, yes, but her life hadn't been free at all, she was always subjected to belong to a man... for shelter, for security... for anything, and that's mostly what made her feel so disgusted by herself, it wasn't until she met these two that she realised how dependant she had been on something like that.

And as they say, if you don't change them, they change you.

She's slowly but steadily becoming strong and independent like them.

"Entering the palace... it couldn't have been any easier... paradoxically, Nicholas II was the easiest man to seduce... I'd say because of a mixture of circumstances... first off, he lacked security, he was immensely handsome, but his penis was small..." She smirked, now not feeling so shameful at her tale, even Fayette smirked at this, the presence of the object beneath becoming even more prominent, that one is not small.

"When I first entered it was as a common maid, one of the head maids, Anna Demidova had contact with one of the revolutionaries that recommended me, but she didn't know he was a revolutionary... I entered the Alexander Palace, the best place I have stayed at, though I didn't last long in there... as I said, seducing that man was easy as taking a sweet from a kid, Russia's situation wasn't good and he was being blamed by everybody, even his wife... he also didn't have confidence in his own body, his self-esteem was so bad... that mere words were enough for me to seduce him, our first time was pitiful... it was at that time that I realised that the Rasputin rumours with the Queen were likely right..."

"My work was basically to reunite information and report it to an agent every week, I did that for three years... during that time I was the Tsar's lover... his favourite and I have to confess, that I also started to fall for him slightly... a person like me, sick of abuse... didn't want to know anything that had to do with sex, and he who didn't have much confidence in that regard also didn't, so... except for some special occasions, we only drank tea together, went on lovely dates and kissed... he loved me so much that he didn't bother hiding this from the Tsarina... it was his revenge, the woman had lovers everywhere and everybody within the palace knew... except for the Grand Duchesses who were too pure to realise." As she thought of all this, she regarded Valentine's face.

She doesn't know if it was love because she's utterly sure she loves this man laying on her lap, and the feeling, although similar, can't compare in magnitude.

"Did you love him?" Fayette inquired further, she's really intrigued.

"I don't know... I caused his death, and I don't feel guilty about it but... I can't deny that he's the man that treated me the best while I lived... yeah... I think I liked him... but my fear for Lev was bigger... probably because of his lack of self-steem, even after having someone like me, Nicholas was still a coward deep inside, totally unlike Valentine..." Vera sighed, the beauty didn't even shy from making this comparison.

This is what she loves about Valentine the most, the man is fearless, he has utter confidence in himself and his skills, when the two of them believed he would likely perish against that demon, she surprised them with his unparalleled skills, her heart thumped so loudly when that demon fell, that she can hardly contain herself anymore.

As for the Emperor's fall, she didn't feel bad about those occurrences, the past is the past after all... she had even forgotten all this during the time she spent in the forest with that bastard, inside that cave.

"During that time my relationship with his daughters also became excellent, this is the only thing that pains me out of this story... those girls... I loved them, especially Anastasia she was so cute and lively, yet her mother was so apathetic with her, I wished she had been my daughter, I saw myself in her... betrayed by my mother, yet I didn't know..."

"Did you ever have children?" 

"No... I don't know why, perhaps during one of his mad surges of sadism, Lev destroyed something inside me... I never used protection... so I don't know, perhaps I was just infertile." She thought that was the best... with her kind of life, having children would have been a disaster.

"The moment of the truth came too soon, in my last report... I had to make a choice, the Bolsheviks were making their revolution... and the royal family was planning to flee as Nicholas lost his power and influence... thanks to me and my reports, most of his movements to counter the revolution were dwarfed, that coward... I think that was when my feelings for him died... he told me to escape together... to leave his entire family and escape with him to another continent... that's when I decided to forget him. if he wanted to leave his slut of a wife and take his daughters and me... I might have accepted... but he wanted to leave his daughters as well, I couldn't follow up with his intentions and so, I reported it... that they planned to flee to Yekaterinburg, but then I received an order... the order was to convince Nicholas to stay in the palace while the revolution took place..."

"..."

"With a lot of disgust I had my last night with him... after what he said, I didn't want to touch even a nail of that bastard, but I had no option, if I wanted to keep him in the palace, that's the only thing I could do... luckily, that bitch was also having a 'guest' in her chambers, good riddance really, can't believe that slut got turned into a 'saint'... but I'm no to judge 'sluts' either... after I finished and he slept, I moved to the quarters of the girls, I didn't have much time... I desperately woke them up and told them that they had to leave, I prepared for this for months and knew that bastard Lennin wasn't going to let them go even if they were just teenagers, so with whatever money I could save, which was a lot considering Nicholas gave me plenty of gifts, I prepared to make them flee... I had already bought a property in another state through a proxy, I only needed to get a caravan to lead them there."

"The girls were scared, but they believed everything I did... in fact, they loved me more than they did their parents, I spent more time with them than the two of them together after all... disgusting." 

"Not surprising... I also had a better relationship with the maids than with my mother, Vera." Fayette added.

"There were a bunch of contraband caravans that were taking people out of St Petersburgh due to the impending revolution... I told one of the maids, Yekaterina, to take Maria, Tatiana and Alexei to the location that I signalled... and take care of them, that I would go in another caravan and be with them shortly, from there we would go back to Ukraine and live there with the money I had amazed... but fate wasn't on my side... I never saw them again, I never knew if they made it" That moment was when her tears rolled down and fell on Valentine's face, only then did she notice... that his silver eyes were open and glancing at her!

!!!

"V-Vale! are you-" Fayette also noticed this and was about to raise, but Valentine stopped her.

"Continue... don't stop..." The man caressed Vera's cheek, his hand still struggled to even move, he recovered his consciousness a while ago and was listening to everything.

"Y-Yes..." Her former confidence seemed to have become a dream, did he listen to everything she said?!

"The worst happened when I managed to put Tatiana and Maria in a caravan that had a lot of rubbish in it, I apologised to them, but a normal royal caravan would be too noteworthy... they cried and begged me to not let them go, but I had to do it for their own good... that caravan departed and I moved to the next location where the next one was supposed to depart from together with Olga and Anastasia... even at that moment, the girl held me tightly, she seemed to notice my nervousness and her words almost broke my heart and filled me with determination to live." Her lips contorted and sorrow filled her visage.

"Everything will be alright, mother..."

"At that moment, she called me mother... and she said those words with such a smile... but my happiness wasn't long-lasting, at that spot where the disguised caravan was taking in passengers... the place was assaulted by the revolution... it had started and we were captured, I couldn't believe it."

"I was labelled as a traitor by then... Nicholas couldn't believe it when he was told I was an agent, we were taken to Yekaterinburg, and I knew that was my last chance, I ignored his and the Tsarina's piercing gaze and while we were in the caravan, I assaulted one of the men that were escorting us... two shots resonated... one impacted my chest... the other... it impacted Olga's head." As she said those words the woman covered her eyes and sobbed, perhaps her biggest regret.

!!!

"Even during that time, that bastard, that coward! he didn't do anything! he could have helped me, but he didn't do anything!"

"..." Valentine and Fayette couldn't really say anything either, what a tragic story.

"I overpowered one of the guards and managed to take his gun, but a second bullet impacted my shoulder while those two royal bastards didn't do anything, some of their retainers, however, decided to help me, and overpowered the other guard, when I took the gun I shot him on the head."

"The commotion reached the front of the caravan and I shot some bullets through the wall to see if I scored, if I did or not, I'm not aware. The coward dared to instil me to calm down, that I would get them all killed, stupid imbecile, at this juncture he didn't know they were being moved to be executed..." 

"Seeing that the vehicle wasn't stopping, I decided to do the only possible thing, we already reached the civilisation, so with a lot of struggle and pain, I took Anastasia's hand and jumped... we fell on the cold snow and I covered her with my body, but the pain was simply too much."

"The girl cried and asked for help while my consciousness divagated... I knew I wasn't going to make it and I couldn't allow her to shout in a place where everyone could be the enemy... therefore, with my last strength I gave her my coat... to protect her from the cold... I gave her some of the coins I had in me and told her to go to Yanovka, to never surrender, that I believed she could do it, that I trusted her... and I asked her to forgive me... for being such a bad mother..." At this stage, Vera was crying disconsolately.

Valentine could only receive her tears and caress her cheek, she had worked too hard.

She shouldn't be a bronze soul... she should be a golden soul, what she did... it's astounding.

"The last memory I had was that of her tearing eyes as the cold took me over... I felt so angry... so angry that I couldn't save her, I knew the possibilities of her survival were minimal, but that's really all I could do, I felt angry with that bastard Lev, with Nicholas, with everyone... why did such a cute girl have to suffer like that?! anger took me over at my last moments, and then... I found myself falling from that red sky... naked... that's my story, I have nothing to hide anymore."

*sob*

She continued to sob even after finishing her story because her biggest regret is that she couldn't spend the rest of her life with those kids, she doesn't even know if they made it.

But a rush of reassurance came her way, in the form of Valentine's lips.

He raised his head and pulled her head, closing their lips together.

!!!

She gaped, he... kissed her... even after hearing her story, even after knowing she's filthy.

The kiss didn't last long, he had wanted to do this and couldn't hold himself back after hearing such an amazing story, his silver eyes would truly regard Vera differently after today.

Fayette clenched her hands and glared at Valentine, but she didn't say anything... because she feels that Vera deserves at least this much.

"I don't think you're filthy... I think you're an amazing woman, and we're lucky to have you with us... 'bronze' is too short to what you deserve." 

"Yes, Vera... I'm really proud of what you did." 

...

"T-Thank you, the two of you... I'm also happy that I met you." Her heart fluttered uncontrollably and although she spoke to the two of them, her infatuated eyes were staring at Valentine's eyes only.

"Now now, should I leave the bathroom?~" Her tone sounded like a joke, but her glare didn't.

!!!

*cough*

"No... let's go, I really feel like I want to sleep for a while, my body is still a little pained, Faye." a surprisingly blushed Valentine and Vera evaded each other's glances as the former coughed and extended his hand, intending for Fayette to take it and pull it up.

They left the bathroom after that, but Vera's fluttery heart couldn't be stopped for a long time.

She regarded her body, her hands... and she no longer felt as filthy.

No, she fell in love.