Focus. Steady breathing. Target approximately one hundred yards away. Approximately ten miles per hour eastward wind. Adjust aim. Shooting through glass on an angle. Adjust aim. Account for gravity and weight of arrow. Account for arrow velocity and oscillation. Adjust aim.
These thoughts all ran through the archer's head in a matter of seconds as it drew the bowstring to its cheek. All it would take was for him to release, and his target would be dead, or otherwise incapacitated. The spell on the arrow would make sure of that. Though, truth be told, it was betting on the latter, but it had learned a long time ago that anything could happen. It only had so much control over the situation.
Normally, it would have waited for its target to be alone before taking the shot, but considering the circumstances, this was the best opportunity it would have for some time. The archer was beginning to get impatient after his years of waiting. Most of them were in one place, and the others would be relatively easy to lure out once the learned their comrades were in danger.
The figure was kneeling on top of a relatively tall building across from a small restaurant, a dark, hooded cloak and metal mask concealing its face and obscuring its body, preventing anyone from determining its gender. It was evening, and the sun was setting behind him, turning the sky into an array of oranges, pinks, reds and purples, creating an admittedly beautiful backdrop to the bustling town. All the better. Even if its magic kept it hidden, it would rather not take any chances of being discovered.
It would take no pleasure in the deed it was about to commit. It would be more akin to a long-awaited sense of satisfaction. Like the feeling one gets after putting so much effort and planning into one thing and being able to put those plans into action, and tonight would only be the beginning.
All those years of training, studying, and making plans, all lead up to this moment. The lone archer finally had its chance to right the wrong done to it. It finally had a chance to gain the vengeance that evaded it for so long, dancing just out of its grasp whenever it reached for it. It finally had a chance to turn Fairy Tail into little more than a memory. To finally make them pay.
These were its thoughts as it let the arrow fly.
Erza Scarlet was worried.
She wasn't sure why Jellal hadn't simply come by the guild hall if he needed to speak with her. He wasn't unwelcome there, even if some of her guild mates were still wary of him. Perhaps we wanted to avoid their suspicious stares, though that had never really been a problem before, at least not for Jellal. It was even more worrisome that they were meeting in a public place. With Jellal's status as a fugitive, it certainly sounded foolish, but Erza was certain that he had his reasons.
The redhead looked down at the handwritten note she had found in her room at Fairy Hills. She had been gathering supplies for a job when she had found it. The words were messy, hastily scrawled, though it was Jellal's handwriting. It was probable that he had been in a hurry when he wrote it.
"Meet me at 8-Island in Hargeon Town at 8:30. There is an important matter I must discuss with you. Come alone, tell no one where you're going, and stay on your guard." –J
The train ride to Hargeon had been uneventful so far, even if it had felt like an eternity. The scenery of Fiore's countryside was quite a sight this time of year, but Erza scarcely noticed. She had spent most of the trip glancing around the train car, looking for any sign that something was going to go wrong. She wondered for a moment if this was what it felt like for Jellal on a daily basis, always on the lookout for people who meant you harm. It could certainly wear on the nerves if put in that situation for very long.
Erza took another glance around the train car as she put the note away. This particular car was nearly empty, save for a middle-aged man dozing lightly a few seats in front of her. Though Erza simply couldn't shake the uneasy feeling she had in her gut. She had had this feeling ever since she had left the guild hall, this feeling of being watched.
It was probably the tone of the message playing with her nerves, Erza had been in enough messy situations to know that this paranoid feeling wasn't always in her head, but she hadn't seen anything on her way to Hargeon that sent up any red flags. For all she knew, Natsu had seen her sneak out of the guild hall and followed her to see what she was doing. It certainly sounded like something he'd do, but considering his rather loud tendencies, Erza was sure she would have noticed by now.
"What are you playing at, Jellal?" the mage mumbled quietly to herself.
The uneasy silence carried on for another hour or so before the train pulled into Hargeon Station. It was already late into the afternoon when she arrived, and the sun was beginning to dip a little lower in the sky. Erza suspected that it would start to set by the time she made the trek to 8-Island on the other side of town. In fact, the restaurant would probably be making preparations to close up for the night. She would have to hurry.
With urgency in her step, Erza began making her way down the cobblestone street of Hargeon, her ever-present armor clinking faintly as she moved. Her armor made her stand out a little more than she would have liked, but she would rather be ready should anything happen.
The light breeze carried the scent of sea salt to her nose, as well as the slightly less pleasant odor of freshly caught fish. The local fisherman were probably hauling in their catches for the day. A lot of Hargeon's revenue came from trawling for the plentiful creatures, and though Happy loved the smell, Erza couldn't say she agreed with the blue feline.
It was another half hour of walking before she reached the quaint little restaurant of 8-Island. Thinking back, Erza could understand why Jellal had chosen to meet there. It was owned and run by Mr. Yajima, who had a long-standing relationship with Fairy Tail(and with whom Jellal had an understanding of sorts), and was frequently staffed by members of the same guild. In fact, if memory served, Cana, Bisca and Alzack were currently helping out there. Although it was unusual for the three of them to work together, rent at Fairy Hills was due next week and Cana kept drinking all her reward money, so the couple had agreed to let her tag along.
The small bell above the door tinkled lightly as Erza pushed the door open, alerting Cana to her presence. Bisca was a cleaning a table on the other end of the restaurant, Mr. Yajima was chatting amiably with a few customers and she suspected Alzack was in the kitchen, helping prepare the food. It was strange to see the typically half-naked Cana in a waitress's uniform, and Cana herself looked like she was ready to leave as soon as possible. Her mildly disgruntled expression shifted to one of surprise when she saw Erza at the door, picking up a menu and making her way over.
"Erza, what are you doing here?" she asked. "I thought you were leaving for a job in Shirotsume today."
"I did. Something else came up." Erza replied, subtly tilting her head to the uncanny Mystogan look-alike sitting at a table against the wall near the window, waiting patiently.
Following Erza's cue, Cana looked over at man in disguise, then back at Erza with a mischievous smirk on her face.
"Oooooohh, he finally work up the nerve to ask you out?"
"W-what? No!" Erza stammered, blushing lightly. "He only needed to speak with me about something! A-and besides, he has a fiancé!"
Cana didn't look like she believed her and handed Erza the menu.
"Heh, right. Well, just let me know if you need your dinner to go. Break a leg, girl!"
That statement made Erza's blush deepen as Cana winked at her and walked away, laughing.
"It's not like that!"
That only made Cana laugh harder.
It took Erza a moment to recover from that encounter with her alcoholic friend. She hadn't realized the rumor of her and Jellal's "complicated relationship" had spread that far within the guild, though Erza suspected Happy was responsible for that.
"I swear, when I get back, I'm going to kill that stupid cat," she grumbled as she made her way over to where Jellal was sitting, sipping from a cup of ice water with a straw.
Jellal looked up from his drink as Erza sat down in across from him. Outside, the sun was starting to set, just beginning to touch the top of one of the buildings across the street.
"I take it your friend thinks we're on a date?" He asked, the mask he wore muffling his voice slightly, though he sounded mildly amused.
Erza sighed exasperatedly. "Yes, and I suspect a certain flying cat has been spreading rumors again. I stamp them out as best I can, but they always seem to crop up."
Jellal looked like he wanted to say something else, but he apparently thought better of it and took another sip of water.
"I didn't realize this restaurant would be staffed by your guild mates." He said, looking over at Bisca and Cana, who were chatting as they cleaned other tables. "Otherwise I would have asked to meet somewhere else."
"Why should that concern you? You know they don't blame you for what happened."
Jellal's eyes looked sad for a moment before shooting a glance out the window and reaching into the folds of his cloak. Taking out several photographs, he set them on the table facing Erza.
"I think someone might be watching your guild."
Erza picked up one the photographs. It was blurry, but she could make out an indistinct shape darting through some of the trees in the photograph. Another showed Natsu, Gray and Lucy sitting outside their favorite café in Magnolia. Looking closer, she could just make out a cloaked figure watching them from an alley in the background. All the other photographs were of a similar nature, almost all depicting one member or another being watched by an indistinct cloaked figure. There was even one of the figure watching Fairy Hills.
Erza looked up at Jellal in concern.
"When were these taken?"
"Over the course of last week."
"How were these taken?"
"Apparently, Magnolia's mayor has gotten concerned about the recent 'excitement' and has decided to start secretly installing surveillance lacrima around the city."
Erza looked at the photograph of her friends at the café again. She wasn't even going to ask how Jellal had gotten his hands on the photographs.
"Any idea who he is or what his intentions are?"
"No. But I suspect they're not good, and from what I've seen, he's a practitioner of Stealth Magic."
That was a problem. Though they could still be picked up by surveillance lacrima, Stealth Magic users were very good at staying hidden. It allowed them to erase all evidence of their presence from all human senses. Even Dragon Slayers couldn't pick them up if they didn't want them to. It was only a stroke of pure luck that the mystery man didn't seem to realize that the lacrima were being installed.
"I don't know how much it'll help, but I have Meredy watching your guild hall. If anything happens, she'll let your friends know."
Erza took one last look at the photograph in her hand before stowing it in one of the straps in her armor.
"Thank you for letting me know," she said, standing up. "I shall inform the guild immediately."
She was about to walk away when she realized something.
Turning back to Jellal, she asked. "Can you make sure my friends get home safely? I need to get back and inform the Master as soon as possible.
"Of course."
With a nod and smile of thanks, Erza started to walk away again, only for Jellal to stand and catch her by the wrist.
Surprised, she turned to face him, and saw a deadly serious look in his eyes.
"Erza, I'm sure I don't need to tell you to be careful. Whatever this person is planning can't be anything good.
"Of course not."
"I just don't know if I c-Look out!"
Barely a second before she was thrown to the floor, Erza felt a slight flash of at the edges of her magic sense. It was only there for a split second, but it vanished as quickly as it appeared. She heard the glass window nearby shatter and something whistle by her head at an alarming speed, instead striking Jellal as he pushed her out of the way. He went limp and fell to the floor. The few other customers in the restaurant cried out in alarm as everyone took cover.
Alzack, hearing the commotion, came sprinting out of the kitchen with one of his guns drawn, only to be pulled to the floor by Cana just before a wicked-looking arrow lodged itself in the door where he had been standing. Mr. Yajima was cowering behind the counter with his toque pinned to the wall. Bisca was at the broken window in a flash, her sniper rifle at the ready, only to be sent back into cover by a near miss as yet another arrow struck the floor behind.
"He's got us pinned down!" Bisca called to Erza. "Is he alright?"
In a panic, Erza turned over onto her stomach and crawled over to Jellal. The arrow had lodged itself in his shoulder, and he was still breathing, so it hadn't been a lethal wound, but for some reason he had gone completely unconscious. The arrow had gone completely through and stopped. The tip was stained red, but the wound wasn't bleeding enough to be lethal, but there were two lines of strange characters over the wound, glowing with magic. She didn't recognize the language. Erza snapped the tip off the arrow and pulled the remaining shaft back out, then tossed the broken projectile away.
"Je-Mystogan? Mystogan!" Erza shouted, taking his shirt and shaking him. He didn't even stir.
"The wound wasn't fatal, but he's not waking up!" Erza called back, pressing her hands to Jellal's shoulder to stop the bleeding.
"I've got him," Cana said, having army crawled over to where they were. "You get out there and take this guy down!"
Erza didn't need to be told twice as she stood and the glow of her magic enveloped her. Cana took Erza's place, pressing her hands to Jellal's shoulder and muttering something about needing a drink.
"Requip! Black Wing Armor!" she shouted.
The next moment she was out the window, high over the buildings of Hargeon with a pair of thin blades in her hands and scanning the tops of the buildings for any sign of their attacker. But there was nothing.
Another arrow suddenly whistled by her from somewhere off to her left, and she turned toward the roof of a tall brick building. There she caught a glimpse of something, but that was it. It was strange. One minute there was someone standing there, bow drawn and ready to fire, and next there wasn't. Whoever it was just kept flickering in and out of existence, sending a barrage of arrows toward Erza's quickly approaching form.
The figure's gender and build were difficult to discern, as he or she was wearing a long billowing cloak with a hood that shrouded the attacker's face in shadow. The hood itself had another series of strange letters on the rim. It also wore a strange metal mask with glowing white eyes over its face.
Realizing that Erza would soon be upon it, the half-existent figure put its bow away and ran as Erza flew after him. It was fast and agile, leaping large gaps between buildings and climbing multiple stories with minimal effort. The fact that it kept disappearing and reappearing again made the chase difficult, and it frustrated Erza to no end, but she would quickly spot him again when his form flickered into her vision again.
The chase carried on like this for several minutes, but eventually the mysterious archer seemed to realize that it wasn't going to escape Erza so easily. It revealed itself, standing in the shadow cast by the chimney of a nearby house with its arms at its sides, waiting. Erza landed and faced the cloaked figure. They stared each other down for a moment, her brown orbs meeting odd white lights, than it spoke.
"It seems your false eye was of more benefit to you than I realized," It said in a strange, garbled voice, probably distorted by the magic characters on its hood. "Not many people can see through my Stealth magic."
It wasn't surprising to Erza that the attacker new about that. Apparently, it had been watching them for some time. Raising her sword towards him, she asked, "I take it you are the one who has been watching Fairy Tail?"
"I thought that much was obvious," it replied, with a somewhat mocking tone. "Your friend certainly gave you enough evidence to my guilt."
"Why did you attack my friends?"
The figure didn't answer. It just stood there, not moving. It just stood there and stared.
"Answer me, villain!"
When it still didn't answer, Erza dashed forward with a war cry, and attempted to grab hold of its cloak, but her gauntleted hand only caught air, the figure having vanished once again. It reappeared again crouched atop the brick chimney, still staring. With another shout, she easily sliced through the brick chimney, attempting to throw the figure off balance, but it deftly leapt from its perch and landed several yards behind her. Erza turned and faced the cloaked entity again, the tall chimney falling like a tree behind her. "Fight me, you coward!" Erza shouted.
The masked figure stared at her for several more seconds, then spoke. "You should return to your guild. Your nakama need you," it said in its distorted voice.
At this, it swiftly reached for a short dagger concealed at its waist and threw it at Erza in a single movement. She easily blocked it with her sword, but the dagger exploded with a bright flash of light, throwing her off balance and blinding her for a few seconds. She quickly recovered, but by the time her vision cleared, the figure was gone.
Erza looked around frantically, trying to catch even a glimpse of the elusive archer, but to no avail. Recognizing a retreat, Erza immediately took to the air again, heading back toward 8-Island. She needed to inform her nakama of this as soon as possible.
Greetings, readers! So, I've had this idea bouncing around in my head for a while, and since it was keeping me up when I was trying to sleep, I decided to finally put it down in a Word document and post the thing. I'm not exactly sure where I'm going to take this, so it might be a while before I post again, but I have a few things worked out in my head, so we'll see how that goes. Anyway, drop a review, if you would. I'm fairly new to writing, and I'm always open to critiques or advice. Seriously, I would really appreciate it. Word of warning though, I watch Fairy Tail's English dub almost exclusively, so I will probably be using the English lingo a majority of the time(Thunder Legion as opposed to Thunder God Tribe). So if that bothers any of my readers, I apologize.
Have a good day(or night, whatever)!