Atlanta - Answers (NRN)

Sastre was speechless for a moment, then, surprisingly, he chuckled.

"You sound just like your mother," he said, smiling a bit. "God, she could be a spitfire at times..." Shaking his head, Sastre continued to stretch his legs and back, not saying anything else as Lily watched him, a faint smile upon her lips as well.

"You're trying to change the subject," she said, crossing her arms over her chest. "So let's try this again, alright? You're gonna tell me what I want to know, or I'm going to take you down and make you tell me, got it?"

"Is that so?" Sastre replied, still smiling. "And you think you're really up to that? I've dropped bigger, stronger things than you before."

Rather than say anything in response, Lily shot forward like lightning, dropping down to sweep Sastre's legs. The older hunter jumped aside, dodging the sweep and lifting his left arm up to block the follow-up kick that he knew was coming before Lily had even made the move. As he'd expected, his daughter assumed wrongly that her initial strike would throw him off balance, and as she spun and kicked, she grunted in disbelief as her foot struck Sastre's readied forearm.

"Done?" he asked, raising an eyebrow and grinning wryly.

Growling, Lily rushed him again, unloading a flurry of punches and kicks that Sastre easily batted aside, not once going on the offensive. In truth, it wasn't quite as easy as he made it look. Lily was fast, scary fast, and she was only holding back a little. Sastre was hard-pressed to stay on the defensive, and didn't have an opportunity to strike back until she overextended herself with jab meant for his jaw. At that moment, Sastre's hand snapped forward, delivering a slap to Lily's face that was more meant to irritate than hurt her.

"Damn it!" she shouted, taking a step back and keeping her distance as she waited for his next move. "Stop screwing around and fight me!"

"Why should I?" he asked, chuckling and lowering his guard. "You're wasting all your energy wailing away at my defenses, you know. You're going to tire out shortly, then all I have to do is run to the jeep and leave you here. Maybe a night outside, under the stars, would do you a bit of good."

"Stop trying to tell me how to fight!" Leaping forward again, Lily changed her tactics a bit, lashing out with an attack or two before withdrawing in an attempt to work Sastre into a pattern. She'd seen it happen in fights before: you lull someone into a pattern, and just when they think they know what you're going to do, you do the opposite. A few moments later, Quicksilver seemed to have fallen for just that, and Lily smiled triumphantly as she suddenly shot forward, delivering a furious knee to the older hunter's stomach.

Or, she would have, if Sastre hadn't rolled aside, coming up behind his daughter and catching her in a hold that prevented her from making any further moves. Cursing, Lily struggled agains his grip in vain, and each time she did so, Sastre tightened the hold.

"Give it up, Lily," he said calmly. "You can't win this one, not now." She growled and attempted to break the hold once more, then cried out in pain as Sastre released her and quickly delivered an open-palmed strike to her chest, knocking her to the ground. After writhing around for a bit gasping for breath, Lily finally lay still, her breathing steady and her body trembling.

"You're... a bastard," she said softly, her voice tremulous.

"Why, because I beat you?" he retorted, kneeling down beside her and offering her a hand up.

Lily ignored the proffered hand and shook her head, staggering up on her own, he legs shaking all the while. "No, you're a bastard because you won't trust me. I'm your daughter, damn it! If you can't trust me... If you won't tell me... Then I guess maybe we don't have anything after all."

Sastre scowled at this, turning his back to her, though still ready to defend himself if need be. Lily claimed to already know about their relationship with Darian, unless she was just bluffing in an attempt to get information out him. Sastre doubted that. He was pretty good at knowing when someone was lying to him, and Lily seemed to genuinely possess that knowledge, that Darian was in fact her uncle, Sastre's older brother. He didn't know how she'd discovered that, but obviously she had, somehow. If she knew that, then what would the harm be in her knowing the rest? There were some secrets, of course, that he would have to keep, but for the most part, the story of his past couldn't really do her any harm. It was as she said: she was his daughter, his family. He owed her this much...

Besides, he added silently, hiding a grin, she may not have taken me down, but she came damn close a time or two...

"You know what, forget it, its fine," Lily said, her voice harsh. "I get it. You've gotta have your secrets, and thats fine. Whatever. Let's just get the hell out of here." Picking up her backpack, Lily was just about to start off down the trail when Sastre's voice stopped her. She turned, looking at him in disbelief as he spoke softly, his voice seeming to come from far off.

"I was born fifty-three years ago in a region of rural France called le Croix de Griffon, 'Griffon's Hollow...' "

Sastre stared off into space as he went on, his voice distant.

"I remember waking up to screams, and heat," he said, furrowing his brow a bit. "Darian was shaking me, and in the doorway I could see the silhouette of Julien outlined against a riot of red and orange flames. We didn't know what was going on, only that someone was attacking the estate, burning everything and murdering everyone.

"I staggered out of bed and, with Darian, followed Julien down the hallway, toward what we knew was a secret passageway that would lead us outside, to a bolt-hole in the woods. These passageways were all over the estate, and we used to play in them all the time, so none of us hesitated to duck into the low, dark entry and hurry along in the pitch blackness.

"When we came out the other side, we stood just inside the woodline and watched the place burn. Screams still echoed through the night, only to be violently cut off... I was crying, and so was Darian. Julien was in some sort of daze, and he just kept saying, 'Blood... they were drinking their blood...' over and over again. We sat there together for a while and just wept, before Julien's sense returned and he told us we all had to get away, and quickly.

"He told us that the ones responsible for this were enemies of his family, and that they would continue to seek us out, if they knew that we'd escaped. He said that nowhere was safe... if we were sighted, or caught and turned in, it would be over for us. So we just ran, not really knowing where to go, or what to do, but trusting in Julien. Trusting that he knew the right way, and that he'd protect us.

"We were all just children at the time, you know. God, I couldn't have been older than six, and even Julien, our 'leader' was a boy of only some twelve or so years... Darian and I trusted implicitly that Julien was right, that we couldn't go to anyone for help. That the monsters who killed our families would come for us too, if they ever were able to find us.

"So we did the only thing that we could think of: the three of us made our way slowly to Paris, and began our lives on the street..."

Sastre paused for the first time, as if it had been hard for him to stop now that the words seemed to be rushing out of him. Lily still remained silent, her mind racing with questions but knowing that now wasn't the time to ask them. For the moment, she was just glad to actually be learning something about her past, about her family.

"So... what then?" she prodded lightly, praying that the old man didn't lose his nerve and clam up again.