Dark Arrow Ch. 01-03

All attention was firmly diverted to the seething mass of humanity as the crowd roiled around them. Even Bicormish was too preoccupied with those outside the circle of his police guardians to spare more than a cursory glance at Erillia. She rose slowly as if dazed, and moved the arrow in her grasp into position for a strike. He was slowly backing towards where his car was still parked when she made her move. With the commotion no one noticed her slide over next to him.

"Hello Nathan." She murmured. His head snapped around to stare in horror at her as understanding dawned.

"That's right," She purred, smiling broadly now, "I am the Reaper, and I've come for you."

His eyes round in terror he opened his mouth to scream, but she struck first. She drove her arrow up through his right jugular and into his spinal column, imbedding it deep between the atlas and axis she wrenched the shaft to the side and quickly stepped back as blood flowed freely. Bicormish's body collapsed backwards as she took another step back and reached into her left pocket. The body hit the pavement with a dull thump, eyes rolled up into his skull, and convulsed on the ground as his blood stained the pristine white shirt he'd worn that night. The gleaming black arrow stood out in stark contrast against the red and white. She couldn't have hoped for a more striking image, or a more prominent display of her prowess and signature. Now she just had to escape before the cops gathered their wits and gunned her down. She drew the two smoke grenades she always carried with her on a job from her pocket and popped the pins.

Dropping the first just in front of her, she turned and lobbed one away from her into the crowd on the far side of the police. She knew that screams must be coming from the crowd and that police were bellowing orders, and she could hear a buzzing of commotion in the background. For the most part however the pounding of her own heart drowned out all sound, and for a second she almost questioned the decision to use the smoke. On instinct she dropped and rolled forward, gasping as the heat of a plasma bolt caressed the skin on the back of her neck as it passed. She lurched forward towards the police at first as smoke filled the area, but as soon as her vision was obscured she spun and dashed back towards the alley where she'd left her weapons.

As she hoped the second smoke grenade convinced the police she was headed towards the outskirts rather than back into town. She almost laughed. Any sane assassin would be running like hell for the outskirts, but then any sane assassin would not have just stabbed a man in the neck with an arrow within mere feet of four police officers. She merged with the rushing crush of the crowd as they scrambled away from the area, and lost herself amongst them. Dashing quickly into the alley as they passed she quickly slung her quiver over a shoulder and sprinted away from the street.

Chancing a glance back at the street, she was pleased to see no one was chasing her and she didn't hear any shouts that would indicate her flight had been noticed or that the cops were headed in her direction. She breathed a sigh of relief and did a quick calculation. The police would spread out methodically as they were trained to do, and others would converge now that this was a murder. Soon there would be a search grid all around her and her ability to slip away would be extinguished. However the nearest station that could respond would not arrive for nearly fifteen minutes if they followed protocol.

They would come in six blocks north of her and the two groups would slowly come together starting at the outskirts and then sweeping back towards the center of town. They would also bring dogs that would scent her in a second if they had anything for the dogs to identify. She was good, but she had no doubt that the dogs could pick up her scent, simply from where she had kneeled on the ground, she'd see that done before. The dogs would be flown straight to the scene, but they wouldn't arrive for a good five or ten minutes, and it would take them some time for the dogs to find the scent and catch up with the search.

She grinned, if she was even close in her estimation she could easily out distance the search if she followed the lead officers and simply slid past on the edges of the pursuit. She was still smiling as she turned right into another alley that paralleled the route the police were taking. The smile vanished as she saw a dark shape emerge from the shadows in front of her. The movement was so fast she didn't have time to stop herself and could only try and guard herself from the flurry of blows that rained down on her.

The first punch broke her guard, but she bought enough time to dodge the second haymaker. Lashing out with a kick she was gratified to hear a startled grunt as her foot made solid contact with her opponent's ribs. That gratification was obliterated as the shadow closed the distance between them. She barely had time to register that her attacker was the Good Samaritan who had saved Bicormish from her the first time before he drove a knee into her abdomen with enough force to double her over. She didn't have time to process the ramifications of his presence here, or what would happen to her if she lost before a second knee collided with her nose.

The force snapped her head back and lights and colors to explode through her vision. She let out a light groan and staggered back trying to maintain her balance, swaying drunkenly as she tried to clear the cobwebs. She lost track her opponent as she fought to remain standing, until she heard a chuckle from behind her.

"You're a tough one, I'll grant you that. I suppose you'd have to be to pull off what you did tonight." She spun to face the voice and her eye widened in alarm as she registered his incoming fist just a second too late. Pain exploded through her head once more, but there were no lights this time. This time everything went suddenly dark, and she pitched forward and slammed into the ground. As her mind shut down she heard a faint sigh from above her.

"Now just what am I going to do with you?" He murmured in her ear as he lifted her, and tossed her over his shoulder. Then silence engulfed her. Not a bad way for an assassin to go, she mused, considering the other options. She just prayed she didn't regain consciousness.

Some time later she woke with a start. Her eyes flew open, and she was immediately assailed by thoughts and sensations. Her head pounded, and her entire body felt swollen and bruised, but she was amazed that she had woken up at all. Part of her was sickeningly glad that her pathetic excuse of an existence wasn't over yet, but another part of her wanted to scream in frustration. If she wasn't dead yet then someone had something they wanted from her. Either that or she was going to be the centerpiece in a torture scene that would make an advocacy inquisitor loose his appetite.

Her eyes took in the dimly lit room as she attempted to regain her bearings and composure. She was resting on an old mattress, which from the smell of it had seen a few floods. Based on the broken glass, boarded up windows, brick walls, cavernous interior, and exposed steel girders she would hazard a guess that she'd been hauled almost completely to the opposite side of the town. This place gave all the signs of being one of the old industrial complexes. She tried to look around without moving enough to draw attention, but even the slightest motion caused a surge or pain and a moan slipped out before she could bite it back.

"Welcome back." She snapped her head towards the deep bass voice, but immediately regretted the move. She groaned as a wave of nausea and pain swept through her, and he chuckled.

"I wouldn't be too quick to go jerking about. You had a nasty little fight. I'm afraid I had to give you a concussion and you probably would have had a subdural if I hadn't gotten you back here and patched you up." She found the strength to grit her teeth and open her eyes to glare balefully at him.

"And just how did you patch me up," She ground out. He smiled and held up an autoject cartridge.

"Short life nanos of course. Cure just about anything." He smiled at her, and then chuckled as she furrowed her brow.

"I know these things usually leave you feeling a tad bit better than you probably are right now, but these things are expensive. The med scanner recommended two full doses to completely heal you, but only a half a dose to stabilize you. Considering the cracked rib you gave me from that kick required a quarter dose to heal I figured I'd just save some money and give what was left of my cartridge to you. I wanted to save you, but after that brawl I didn't want you up and fighting fit the instant you opened your eyes."

She narrowed her eyes, and tried to shake lose the groggy feeling that still clouded her mind. He hadn't killed her, and that was a major plus at first glance. However the sentence for attempted assassination was brutal, and the sentence for murder even worse. If the assassin failed, their fate and how their punishment was conducted was left entirely up to their intended victim. None had ever been shown mercy to date, and it was always a public spectacle as they were tortured in whatever manner the victim deemed hideous enough.

Nowadays Erillia wasn't entirely sure that some of these attempts weren't coordinated by the victims themselves. The show they put on torturing their attackers seemed more designed to strike fear into anyone stupid enough to take out a contract on them or otherwise cross them. Since her target was dead though her fate would be in the hand of the tribunal court and the sentence for murder was death by disembowelment without fail.

So had he picked her up simply to turn her in? Could there be a reward out for assassins she didn't know about? No one would save an assassin simply out of the goodness of their heart, and he'd clearly been out to thwart her. She shuddered as she felt a sudden chill was over her, but she forced her fear back and eyed him with a disparaging glare.

"Who are you, and why don't you want me fully healed? I'd think I'd make a better spectacle getting my guts pulled out of me if I was in better shape. More ability to scream; less likely to pass out or die quickly." She had meant it to be a sarcastic comment, but even to her ears it came out bitter. He looked at her quizzically for a moment and then broke out laughing.

"I'll admit that it was my job to keep that man safe. Someone paid good money for me to stop you from doing what you did." He paused and looked her over.

"I've never lost a client before, and the fact that you managed to break my track record irks me. However I also have to admit that, after I realized you'd done the unthinkable and gone in for a hand to hand kill, I was pulling for you to get away." She cocked an eye at him, and he laughed.

"Believe me, I can understand why you think I'm just messing with your head, but I'm serious. Anyone who has the balls to do what you did," He looked her up and down and then smirked, "well figuratively at least, deserves better than what they would do if they caught you. You can call me Ren, and you lady..." He fell silent suddenly and his brow furrowed. She shrank into the mattress as he shot to his feet and paced the room. For a few minutes she could only stare at him as he stormed around the room with a murderous look on his face.

Suddenly he froze. She frowned as he remained rooted in place as seconds ticked into minutes. Suddenly he spun towards her, his face a mask of fury. She shrank into mattress as he rushed across the room, cursing as he dropped down onto the mattress. She screamed and tried to scrabble away from him, her hand clawing at the mattress as she tried to get free only to have him cease and jerk her sharply towards him. In one fluid motion he grabbed a set of cuffs from his hip and secured her wrist. Swiftly transferring his grip he snagged her other wrist and jerked her to him.

"Please don't," She gasped in a choked voice, startled at the sudden shift in his attitude and overwhelmed by the ease with which he'd subdued her.

"Don't what?" He asked scowling at her. Then he shook his head. "We don't have time for this, DO NOT MOVE!" She nodded silently, shuddering at the force and anger in his voice. He jumped to his feet and ran to a bag hung from one of the nearby pillars. Rummaging in it for a second he whipped out two packages, then glanced at her. He frowned slightly and dug back into the bag, coming up with a third box. He hurried back over and opening the boxes and spilling their contents onto the bed and grabbing items as soon as they spilled out.

His hands flew with practiced motions, but his body was in between her and whatever he was doing. She gasped as he suddenly spun around and jerked her arms out using the cuffs for leverage. The soft hiss and click of an autoject startled her and she swore as she tried to jerk her arm away from him. He tossed the cartridge away and slammed a second autoject into her deltoid.

"What the fuck, you bastard!" She screamed, lashing out at him with her legs. He pinned her down easily, kneeling on her legs.

"Hold still damn you," He hissed

"Fuck you, what the hell did you just inject me with." She tried to jerk away, but he didn't budge no matter how she twisted and pulled.

"Keep wiggling like that little one and you're going to have even more to worry about than you already do." He growled dangerously in her ear. She froze as he ground his meaning into her hip, and he chuckled.

"Yeah I figured that would make you stop. For a smart girl that was a dumb move." She glared at him, but he only snorted.

"I'm serious. If I HAD injected you with some poison or tranq you getting worked up like that and thrashing around would just have spread it faster." She frowned as she realized he was telling the truth. He smiled as he felt her settle and some of the tension left her body.

"What I injected you with was another dose of short life rapid action nanos." He pause as if weighing how much to tell her. Finally he sighed and met her eyes. "I also injected you with a dose of long life multi action nanos. He reached behind him and grabbed the two boxes, shoving them into her hands as he moved off of her and stood. He reached down and retrieved the third box and shook out another autoject which he quickly primed and then injected into his left arm. She glanced at the boxes and saw that they claimed to be exactly what he'd said they were. She frowned at that.

"Long life nanos are extremely expensive and highly regulated. How did you get your hands on one dose let alone two doses of it, and why did you give me a dose?" His face darkened and he jerked her to her feet. Hurrying her along as he grabbed a large duffle style bag off of a hook set into one of the support beams before heading towards the far side of the building with her in tow.

"Because I was wrong," He murmured as he tugged her with him through the door and back onto the street. She glanced at him, nervous at his sudden frenetic behavior.

"My contract isn't a failure yet," He growled, dragging her along down the streets. "I was paid to make sure he lived OR to bring anyone who killed him to justice." He shot her a glare that withered her with its intensity. "Who hired you!" She stared at him for a second as her mind tried to catch up with the situation.

"I don't know," She began, but broke off in a gasp as explosions rocked the air and heat bloomed behind her. The shockwave nearly knocked her off her feet, but he gave a jerk on her cuffs to right her. She looked back for a second at his muttered oath and stood frozen staring at the building they had just exited as flames engulfed the rubble that was left after the explosions. He spun her to face him and shook her like a child.

"Does it look like we have time for any silly ethics you think you have about selling out a client of whatever nonsense you're thinking." He thundered.

"It's not that," She snarled, anger rising in her as she shoved him with her bound hands. "I truly don't know who hired me. Two weeks ago someone approached me and asked about engaging my services. They knew I'd done some work, but wasn't a big player. They said they thought I could pull this off though because I'd never had a mark get away before. I negotiated the price I wanted and received confirmation of the payment."

She shook her head, and rubbed her temples as she thought back over how she'd ended up here.

"I didn't ask them who they were, and they didn't volunteer. If things went south it wasn't like I was going to be able to hunt them down and make them pay for screwing me now was it! Besides even without the pay this was a chance to make a name for myself. I would have been able to actually make enough off my contracts to make a difference in my life." She sobbed the last out as she sagged against him.

"Then why this," He gestured to the smoking building remains behind him. "Why would someone hire me to protect Bicormish just days after you'd been hired to kill him. He hadn't done anything unusual to piss people off recently, and by all accounts he was one of the better liked moguls in this city. I thought this would be the easiest job I'd ever taken. The guy was a freaking nut about his personal space and never took risks, and as far as anyone knew it wasn't likely that he'd have a contract taken out on him." He glared at her as he spoke.

"Then out of nowhere here you come, and not only did they find some young hotshot willing to attempt a public contract, but they found someone who actually might pull it off. On top of which your weapon of choice and signature are unique, so none of the established groups would be suspected. You're the perfect storm for this, and they pitted you against me for some reason. The timing is too coincidental to believe this wasn't planned. So why pit me against you. They had to believe you had no chance of success against me, so why pick you. They had to be trying to draw me out, so whoever did this is likely one of the established assassins. It kills two birds with one stone. They get rid of me, and they take out an upstart assassin by giving her a job where she gets in over her head. By all rights you should be out of their way now."

Her head snapped up when he said that, and the picture began to coalesce in her head.

"I think you're wrong on that. They didn't pick me because I wasn't good enough to get my target with you interfering. They picked me because they knew I would be so desperate not to fail that I'd do anything to secure the kill. Even something as suicidal as a close quarters kill. On top of that they knew I used a bow, and that my weapon is one of the very few that can give you distance and still get through a personal shield." She groaned as the magnitude of her stupidity hit her.

"I'm probably the only person who could successfully get that kill the way they wanted it. If they had picked one of the normal assassins it wouldn't have made waves, because everyone's used to seeing transports get attacked or cars explode when they stop to drop off some mogul or other. There hasn't been a successful high profile public assassination that only took out the intended target for almost as long as I can remember. They knew I'd get the kill no matter what, so their target would be dead. If I pulled it off and got away clean they got the shock and police response they seem to want. Maybe they just want more police presence or maybe they were planning to take credit for it, but either way that only works if I disappear permanently." She broke off and leveled a finger at him.

"You're the key for that. They had to know you wouldn't take me killing him well and you'd feel honor and duty bound to track me down. If you did they had to know I wouldn't come along quietly, so I'd be willing to bet they were counting on you taking me out. Bicormish was a lightning rod for something. They're using him to send a message to someone and we're the packaging." He shook his head slowly, trying to wrap his head around where this had all gone wrong. Everything in his training screamed at him that there was something more going on here, but he couldn't fault her logic.