Axton knocked upon the door to Daud's office. The old Knife was reading a book, a ledger filled with names. He didn't even look up as he says, "come in Axton."

The young assassin enters the room and closes the door behind him. "Where's Billie?" He asked as he made his way towards the Assassin's desk. He looked up, regarding Axton with an appraising eye before setting down his book and picking up a few letters.

"Looking into something for me... just to be sure, I have to ask. In the factories, or that orphanage you where raised in, does the name... Delilah ring a bell?"

Axton shook his head. "No, I worked in a boy's only factory and lived in a boy dominate orphanage. Sorry I couldn't help you with your search."

"It's fine." Daud replied as he frowned and flipped through the letters. "Anyways, let's talk about your search."

Axton cocked his head. "Search sir?"

Daud glanced up again, arching an eyebrow as a faint look of amusement marched across his face. "For your family. I doubt you would have come here without a summons just so you can tell me you had no idea who Delilah was. You must have uncovered a breakthrough in your very own private search. And you wouldn't have come to me with a pale look on your face and a sweaty brow if you haven't realized that you might have killed one or both of them. So tell, who was it?"

Axton remained silent, and instead gently lied the diary down on the Master Assassin's desk. Daud grabbed it and opened to the first page, then started flipping through it until he stopped dead. It was the page with Axton's birthday, and his name. He slowly glanced up at the boy before him. A few emotions flashed upon his face, the most prominent, however, was the look he always had hidden behind layers. A look that was foreign until that day, that day he had killed the Empress.

Guilt.

"Oh, how irony is a bitch sometimes." He grumbled as he closed the book. Daud was never a person who believed in fate or karma. He also didn't believe in coincidences, in Dunwall at least. He tended to describe the events in the city as "tangled up like a bag of snakes."

"The one kid who've I raised since four turned out to be the son of, not only the Empress of whom we had just assassinated, but also of her Royal Protector of whom we framed and is destined to be executed in another... about five to six months. The two full embodiments of Law and Order itself." He rubbed his face ad sighed. "Not only that, but also had kidnapped his sister, younger sister. Void, you might have also been a target if you where raised by them. Older, unable to manipulate like that little girl... like Emily..."

Axton crossed his arms and leaned against the bookshelf, his mind turning over things in his brain. Staring out the door and watching as the Assassins stood vigilantly, watching, waiting. "I would technically be heir to the throne." He then laughed and shook his head.

"Like I'd want that responsibility. *sigh* Billie warned me to drop my search, told me nothing good can come from an assassin searching for their past. I guess she was right."

"She usually always is." Daud replied.

Axton turned to Daud, his black eyebrows furrowed. "she also said that my searching is what prompted you to not trust me. Not allow me to use my powers in the base..."

The Knife stared at him. "You think I don't let you because I don't trust you?"

Axton shrugged. "I supposed that since I wasn't bound to you, you couldn't tell where I was. You could be fast asleep and I could simply blink into your room and slit your throat in your sleep. It won't effect me."

"Sounds more like Billie got into your mind. If there is anyone in this compound that I know as good as myself, it's you Axton. You'll never betray me, well, hurt me to be precise. You could disobey orders and sneak around behind my back, but you would never betray any of the Whaler's secret, especially me." As Daud spoke, he put down his letters and placed himself next to Axton, arms crossed in a similar manner as he watched the Whaler with emotionless eyes.

"Then why-"

"To teach you an important lesson Axton." His voice took a gentler tone, one that Axton had only ever heard the Assassin use three times, once with Billie, and twice with Axton when he was much younger. "Never, ever, rely too much on your powers. They can be taken just as easily as given. Fail, just when you need it most. I am trying to teach you to rely on you, and not just the supernatural. That is one thing the others don't know, or wont ever know. Yes, it's convenient, but it can be dangerous to rely upon. Magic shouldn't be a crutch, but neither a last resort. It's a tool, like any sword, wristbow, or chokedust bomb. Something not to be abused, else it will break due to wear and tear. It was never a matter of trust, it was... a teaching. Of life lessons."

Daud then did something Axton never would have suspected. He wrapped his arm around Axton's shoulder and brought him closer, like a one armed hug, tight, but not bone crushing. "She is right about something kid." Daud started. "You could succeed me as The Knife of Dunwall. I have my reasons to believe that you have already surpassed me in many fields. I don't say this to everyone here, and I'll deny it if you repeat this to anyone. But I... I lo.... I am proud of you. And I think you'd do wonders when I'm long gone."

They stayed like that for a while, Axton still processing what Daud was saying. He wants me, me, to succeed him?

"What... what about Billie?" Axton was only able to choke out.

"She... is many things to me, but you where here longer, you might be younger, but the advantage is that means I... raised you. You sometimes remind me of myself when I was younger, except I knew at least one of my parents. Billie came to me when she was sixteen, she was young, true, but she... I do not know as well as you. But she I trained personally. Remember when she first came?" He asked with a chuckle. A rare sound that never came from the Assassin unless to unnerve an opponent, and was usually always filled with malice. But not this one, pure amusement came from the old Assassin.

It was an especially dark night, the sky covered with polluted clouds made by the Whale Oil refineries. Axton liked the dark, it cleared his mind, made him feel closer to the shadows, to the Void, to the Outsider. His only friend besides Daud, who was more like a father and a teacher  than a friend really. He was feared amongst the other Whalers due to his separate marking from Daud, and at such a young age too. The Master Assassin came from the shadows, blood on his clothes that didn't seem to effect him at all. Instead, he turned to one of his Master Assassins and said, "I have a shadow, you know what needs to be done." The Assassin nodded and vanished, reappearing a few seconds later with a girl in his arms. 

She looked to be about five years older than Axton, who was still considered the youngest Whaler, being at the age of eleven. Dark skinned with brown eyes and long, black hair. He vaguely remembered seeing her face on wanted posters hung about the city. She looked unafraid and determined. Daud turned his attention down to her, a look of intrigue in his eyes as he pulled out his blade.

"So, why have you followed me back to my base? Do you have a death wish?" He asked. Axton saw her face remain neutral, no, awed. Her unchanging face was that awe, not neutrality. 

She remained silent, unrelenting. Daud crouched down and placed his blade to her neck. "I could just kill you right now. But you've done the impossible, you've gained my interest. If I where anyone else, I'd have had no Idea that I was being followed. You might make a decent Whaler. Axton, come here."

He straightened and blinked before his master, bumping his arm to his chest and giving a small bow. His dark blue outfit swishing with each movement he made. "Get her some Novice clothes, she will be joining our lessons starting tomorrow."

Axton nodded and glanced at the girl who was staring at him with a look of curiosity. For the first time he had hope of a friendship. Something he's been wanting for a while.

"How can I forget one of the most important days in my life?" Axton asked. Daud shrugged.

"Yes, she came wanting to be a killer. Wanting to be what I ended up making the Whalers what we are now. Not what I was hoping it would become when I first made it. I wanted us to be a group who cleaned the streets of Dunwall, and made a bit of profit on the side. A group of Assassins for the common good. But then... I don't know... I guess I got greedy? At the time we shifted to more cold blooded killing, that's when the Outsider lost interest in me, saying I started getting too 'generically human' for his tastes. He told me that my killings will start to add up, and then I'd be 'so deep in the depths that there'd be no way to swim back to the surface in time.' And I ignored him. Up till now, when I killed the Empress. He gained an interest in me once more. Gave me that name, Delilah. I am not searching for his attention again, but when he says something, one better damn well take it seriously. I won't make that mistake again. You have a good heart Axton. You could probably return this group of Lost Boys into what it was meant to be. A group of justice. Vigilantes, rather than assassins. That's why I want you, I've never been annoyed with your hopes and dreams, in fact, the opposite. Your motivation to find that which keeps you human is astonishing. Admirable in countless ways. Because that humanity is what we are lacking, that humanity which started this whole thing in the first place. Your only drawback would be the struggle between family vs "family." The connotative vs annotative meanings of the two words. Anyways, now it seems you even have a natural affinity to being a leader, or should at least. Ruling is in your blood." 

"I would be dead..."

Daud frowned as he glanced at Axton. "What?"

"I would be dead, you know? If my parents kept me. I'd either be a Royal Protector in training, or next in line for the throne. I'd have ended up a target... by the Outsider! You probably would have killed me along with my mother..."

Daud  glanced away, indeed, things might have gone way differently if he was raised by Corvo and Empress Jessamine. But in a way, he was glad that it ended up like this. He could never say it in words, but he loved Axton like a son.

"In two months, The Lord Regent wants us to deliver Emily to his contacts. He believes that would be the best time, for things will have died down a bit. You can keep her company until then. But know that she could never know of your relations. You have no idea how she'll react to finding out that, not only does she have a brother, but that her brother had just assisted in the assassination of their own mother. You understand don't you?"

"Yes, Daud. Thank you, for everything." Axton said as he lightly pushed himself out of Daud's grip and grabbed his mother's journal. He then turned and left.

He didn't know what he expected to feel after his talk with Daud. Angry? Depressed? Maybe confused or even relieved in some way. Instead, he felt positive, happy even. He hadn't expected Daud to make him feel better in the slightest. But he knew one thing for certain, the battle between family vs "family" is just beginning.