Lore/Lilith Talon Shepard - Beginnings, new and old

**Childhood**

Shae Vizla and her parents had just moved in from America, and were living a fairly happy life outside of a military outpost, in a small fishing village. She was only four, so the entire thing was little more than an adventure for her. She lived there for three years with her parents. Her mother would homeschool her while here dad would do...other things. He never spoke what, but some days he would come back looking very sad, and would not even say a word to her, instead disappearing into his shack behind their house, reemerging the next morning, only to leave again without saying a word.

Not every day was like that though, and she sometimes enjoyed her father's company. They would fish together sometimes. Her father always caught the big ones.

Sometimes they'd enjoy what they caught as dinner. Other times his little beeping device would make the beeping noise, and his father would turn pale and walk towards the military outpost.

Life went on. She learned and grew, among the wild swamps. Sometimes she played with the other children whose parents lived in the outpost.

Her mother always told her that one thing was for certain, she would never be a mirsh'kyramud, or as they would say in the native tongue, a "brain killer", one so boring that they literally would kill brains.

One day, her father started to train her how to fight. She asked why. He replied, Ke barjurir gar'ade, jagyc'ade kot'la a dalyc'ade kotla'shya.

Train your sons to be strong, but your daughters to be stronger.

**Betrayal**

*Shae stood on top of her father's shack, staring wistfully towards the forest. Some of the memories were coming back. She used to play with military children in those swamps. She briefly wondered if some of those children were now on the receiving end of her sniper rifle...*

One day Lilith was climbing a tree in the swamps. The other day, some kid told her she could never climb it. So of course she had to prove him wrong. She reached the top and laughed triumphantly, bragging to herself, "ni mirdala dalal'ika!" What a clever little girl I am! She looked down to her house and her smile died. A large company of men were outside her house. They had their guns drawn and pointed at her father.

One of the men entered the house and reemerged a few minutes later. He shook his head and loaded his pistol. His father whispered something to the man, and the man's face softened. He barked an order to his men, and someone procured a pen and paper, giving it to her father.

She watched as her father jotted something down, then handed it to the officer. The officer read the piece of paper, then sternly nodded. The officer waved his hand and then went inside her house.

The men opened fire. Her father fell to the ground.

*She hadn't been in her house for a long time. It obviously had been looted. Even the tablecloth was gone. Still though, now she remembered. Her father must have left something for her, and she would find it, even after all these years, a full decade now. She took a step into the kitchen and the floorboard squeaked. She paused... the floorboards NEVER squeaked... her mother refused to live in a house that was not properly maintained. She grabbed her sniper and shot straight down. The floorboard collapsed to pieces, and a small compartment was revealed. There was nothing but a piece of yellowed paper in it, the writing barely legible. She read what she could... and weeped.*

**Reapers**

*Shae paused by the door, looking to her left to see a pattern of dried blood, with a little handprint in the midst. She held up her hand, comparing the size. She bowed her head in sadness, and climbed to the roof to sit... and think.*

Shae barely made it to the ground, she was shaking so much. She ran back to her house as fast as she could. She made it just in time to watch the soldiers drag her father's body away. There was still a blood spatter on the wall. She stopped, her eyes watery with tears. She held a hand up to the wall, and just as quickly pulled it off, her hand sticky with blood. She ran inside, looking for her mother.

She found her sitting in the living room, not moving. Not crying. Not saying a word. Just sitting...

She climbed in her mother's lap and asked her what was going on. She asked why this was happening.

She asked, "Where's daddy?" At this, her mother started to cry, still not a word spoken. Finally, her mother grabbed her and said, "Listen kot'la... you must run."

Shae sniffled and shook her head, "No! I want to stay with you! Tell me why this is happening!"

"Listen ad, you must run, NOW!"

"No! I won't run from you!"

"You are not running, kot'la... you are making a ba'slan shev'la. Now GO!" Her mother pushed her out the door. The lock clicked behind her.

Shae sat outside the door and cried, pleading for her mother to open the door, pleading to know what was going on.

The only sound she heard was the sound of a gun being loaded. The window opened, and a figure clothed in all black rolled out and sprinted towards the outpost. The sound of gunfire could soon be heard.

Shae ran. She ran, and ran, and ran some more. She ran until finally, she reached a village. Her red hair was unkept, and she was covered with cuts from the various plant-life she sprinted through. She had not followed any roads... her father taught her about how to keep secrecy.

She did not forget about not entering unknown settlements. She simply could not run anymore. She needed water... she needed help... and she needed answers. She practically crawled into the town, noting that it was right on the edge of a desert. There goes the whole water plan...

She saw soldiers, and froze almost immediately. She relaxed later, once she realized that they did not, or would not recognize her.

And suddenly it came flooding back. Her father... possibly her mother too, were dead. Killed by the same type of men that stood in the middle of the square, broadcasting load propaganda about some "baby" Panau.

She didn't cry. The sorrow in her was extinguished. Only one thing remained... anger.

She was not stupid however, she was smart.

She walked up to one of them, "Excuse me sir, I am lost. My father's car broke down in the middle of the desert and he collapsed. Please sir... i'm so thirsty."

The soldier looked at his fellows, then pulled out a waterskin from his belt, holding it out to her. She drunk from it gratefully, and the soldier asked, "Where did your car stall? Your father probably had a heatstroke, time is of the essence. We can still save him if we get to him in time."

She cocked her head and asked with a smile, "What car?"

The soldier looked to his fellows, slightly confused, "I thought you said that-" He stopped talking and checked his belt. His gun was missing. The same gun that Shae now leveled at him. She growled, "Die, mir'osik." The man's head exploded. The other two soldiers were slow to react, and one went down in a flurry of bullets. The last man brought up his submachine gun and took aim. Shae was faster, and brought her pistol around to shoot.

It clicked. Empty. Her eyes widened with fear as she looked up to the eyes of the sneering soldier, whose head promptly exploded.

A red helicopter with wheels coming from the sides landed in the square of the village, with three soldiers with red bandanas covering their faces hopping out quickly, raising assault rifles and clearing their corners. They found nobody but the one soldier their sniper eliminated, and the two that Shae killed.

Shae raised her pistol even though it was out of ammo, still unwary. "Who are you people?" She asked.

"I think the better question is, who are you. You have a strange accent... you look American, but don't sound it. And you know how to fight, yet you're no taller than my chest... hmm...." The man kneeled and lowered his bandana, revealing a smiling face. "And you obviously have no love for the government, so we understand each other."

She lowered her pistol uncertainly, still confused as to who the men were and what they wanted. But they seemed to be friendly... so that was a start. "Who are you people?" She asked again.

The man looked to his left at the other masked man, who nodded. The third got back in the helicopter and loaded a black briefcase in it, then started it up. "My name's William Shepard. My friends call me Bill, but these guys here will call me sir or captain. We're Reapers, a rebel force dedicated to taking down these men you just killed for us."

She only registered the last part, "I want to join you."

The man chuckled, "I don't think we could use a soldier of your stature. Still, we should thank you for your assistance. Where are your parents?"

She shook her head and her eyes teared up again.

"Oh... I understand. I'm sorry." He looked behind him again and said, "Y'know... we have an extra seat. You could tag along. I'm sure there's some way you could help the Reapers..."

She nodded, not saying anything else. She followed the man onto the Quapaw and they departed, stopping to pick up the sniper who saved her. The sniper was a wirey thin man, who tossed her a look as he came aboard, and took the seat farthest from her, muttering something about demon children.

"So, you never told me your name." William had his bandana covering his face again, and his voice was somewhat chocked.

She shrugged.

"You don't remember? Or you don't know?"

She shrugged again.

"Alright then. Well... I'll take you in. Sound good?"

She looked up at the man and nodded.

"Great. So... still no name?"

She shook her head.

"Alright then. Well... I'll think of a new name for ya."

The sniper called over, "How about Lilith, after the demon?" The sniper tossed the girl a dark look again, still almost scared of her.

"Hey that was rude... and not bad. What say you... Lilith Shepard?"

The girl smiled for the first time in days.

And so life went on once again. She lived with the Reapers, trained with them, and did everything except fight with them. When they assaulted Baby Panau's stronghold, she saw them off. She weeped when many didn't return. She was disheartened by the disbandment, and she continued to live at the former Reaper outpost. Until one day, she saw a few men meeting at the former desert runway of the military. She wasn't even supposed to be there, she was only there because she decided to scavenge some parts from the destroyed base if she could. She was surprised to see it intact and operational once again. She was even more surprised to see the men in Reaper outfits talking.

One year later, she celebrated her 18th birthday by joining the new revolution. She was now officially a Reaper.

**Missing in Action**

*Lilith stood on top of her childhood home, taking potshots at fish with her sniper. She didn't even know why.*

As time went on, she felt her loyalties to the Reapers wane. Nobody seemed to appreciate her... nor did they seem to care.

She had come out here because she felt that there was nothing better to do. Before, her mind was occupied by duties and circumstances. Now that she had nothing she felt she must do, she could not help it anymore.

She had to return to her home. Her past.

And so she did.

And so she decided to leave. She dropped from the roof and sat inside at her table one more time.

She read over the note, one more time. The note with only two legible sentences. "Partaylir, ni kar'tayli gar darasuum, Shae. Ni nu kyr'adyc, ni shi taab'echaaj'la."

"Remember, I will always love you Shae. I am not gone, I'm merely marching in another army, far far away."

And on that day she made her decision. She pulled out her PDA and wrote a quick email, sent to all members of the Reapers:

My ancestral people have a saying: verd ori'shya beskar'gam. A warrior is more than just his or her armor. The current elites, up to Billie West himself have built themselves on the conception that they are mighty warriors. But they are nothing but shells made of thick armor. When you take it away, what do you have? Nothing.

She paused a second, then added one more line.

I'm sorry Kane. Please forgive me. I still love you... and i will love you forever.

And so she left, grabbing her scout backpack, her sniper, and her gun. She tucked away her note into her pocked, along with her Reaper medals, a reminder of a time when the leadership recognized potential for what it was worth, not what they could make of it.

And she disappeared.

Three months passed, and a bloodied, half-dead body with tattered red hair, emotionless hazel eyes, and torn apart body armor crawled into base. The recruiter, Leo, was shocked to recognize the Captain of the Reaper Scouts, Lilith Talon Shepard.

The woman spoke in her strange accent, "My name is Shae Vizla... and I'm here to offer my services to the Enforcers."