A/N: I know I know… I promise I hadn't forgotten about this story! It's actually something I really think about almost everyday, I just haven't had a whole lot of time to put into it lately. For a quick synopsis of what all has happened so far:

Sora Hikari aka "Arrows" is a professional hitman, who has been learning from his mentor and agent since he was 15. His first hit was Victor Jennings, a corrupt agent in the music industry and accused smuggler of cocaine and heroin, Arrows was 17 then. He is now 23 and has made quite a life for himself as a hired gunman. His predecessor sets up the contracts for him and Arrows delivers the hits.

After killing Jennings, Arrows started unofficially "dating" Aeris Lovelace (aka Aerith Gainsborough), the daughter of the man who hired Arrows for the hit and a victim of Jennings' lies and deception. Aeris, a jazz singer at a local night club now, has just broken up with Arrows, stating that he is too unpredictable and she is marrying her longtime boyfriend, Cloud Strife.

Agent Riku Das and Leon Hart are both SIU (Special Investigations Unit) agents and are at the scene of the house fire that was supposed to have finished Lei. Das is frustrated and discouraged with the lack of law enforcement in his town, but nonetheless is a very dedicated agent. He recognizes Ansem Lei's name and has made a mental note to do some more research on him at a later time.

Dr. Kairi Hayden is a first year intern in the ER at Weston Memorial Hospital. She is a workaholic and is frequently turning down dates and working overtime in the ER. She is a very good doctor and has started making a name for herself in her profession. She and her good friend, Namine (who is the charge nurse) were working when Dr. Lei came into the ER after being rescued by a firefighter. She basically saved the Lei's life.

After leaving the jazz club, Arrows got a call from his mentor, stating his most recent hit, Dr. Ansem Lei, was unsuccessful and for the first time in his career, Arrows missed his target… Arrows is now at the hospital and as has just stolen a badge from the cleaning lady (which, BTW, I rewrote most of that part if you're interested in rereading it).

Deep breath… sorry that took so long…


When The Last Curtain Falls

Her head throbbed. She ran her fingers in circles along her temples, concentrating on easing the numbing ache behind her eyes. Her shift had carried itself long into the night and she dreaded what her head would feel like in the morning.

The young pharmacy tech sighed, annoyingly noting the deafening silence around her.

The smell of various pharmaceuticals wrinkled her nose. Yawning loudly, she stretched her arms up over head to relieve the stiffness quickly developing in her lower back, her yellow scrubs falling in wrinkles along her shoulders. Peeking up at the clock on the wall only discouraged her further. 4:00… three hours left until she could go home to her small one bedroom apartment on Maple.

She glanced around the large empty pharmacy. The other techs were making rounds and restocking, leaving her to answer the phones. She moved her eyes to the phone in front of her, suppressing another yawn. It hadn't rang since they left and she needed some caffeine if she had any hope of staying awake…


Arrows flipped the badge in his fingers, a smirk in his eyes as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, Red Cherry #9 smearing across his skin. The hallways were quiet on the 1st floor as he followed the signs directing him to the main pharmacy. His boots scuffed loudly on the freshly-polished white tile floors, echoing off the beige walls as he turned the corner.

The door was closed, as he expected, and beside it was a large sign that read, "Main Pharmacy". He took a step towards it when the door suddenly swung open. A large woman in bright yellow scrubs walked out, rubbing her eyes and muttering something about a soda. He quickly slid the badge in his pocket as he passed her smiling, though unnecessarily… she never took her eyes off the floor as she passed him. He turned to watch her round the corner, disappearing out of view. Making a quick mental note of how long it had taken him to get from the vending machines in the lobby, he pulled the name badge out of his pocket.

The monitor beside the door read "Maria Garcia" as he decided he had less than two minutes before the lady in yellow would be back, soda in hand. He silently shut the door behind him as he scanned the room with a trained eye and pulled on his black leather gloves.

In the front was a large desk that ran the width of the room. Behind it stood rows and rows of cabinets full of drawers, each labeled neatly. In a few long strides he was at the cabinets labeled "paralytics". Hoping they were in alphabetical order, he went straight to the middle row of drawers, almost grinning when he pulled open the first drawer and found all the medications to start with an "M". It took longer than he needed it to, but he finally grabbed a vial marked "mivacurium chloride 50mg/100mL".

He checked his watch. 45 seconds left.

He slammed the drawer shut and tucked the vial into his pants pocket as he knelt at the computer at the front of the room. After a few key strokes he was staring at the screen with Dr. Lei's room number and admitting diagnosis. Logging the number to memory he returned the screen to its homepage.

He grabbed a lab coat from the coat rack by the door as he darted out into the hallway with 10 seconds to spare.

The pharmacy tech in the yellow scrubs rounded the corner as Arrows ducked into a nearby men's restroom.

In the solitude of the men's room, Arrows retreated to the back stall as he slipped the knee-length lab coat over his dress shirt. Behind a closed door, he pulled the vial and a syringe he had brought with him from his pocket. With perfect accuracy he quickly drew up the amount from the vial that he needed. Carefully capping the needle, he slid the full syringe into the pocket of the lab coat. With a gloved hand, he wadded the empty vial in a roll of toilet paper and deposited it in the trash can on the side of the stall. He verified with his wristwatch it was ten after four, plenty of time left to finish the job. On his way out, he checked his reflection in the mirror, replaced his gloves in his pockets, washed his hands carefully, and ducked out the door.


Kairi Hayden couldn't remember a shift that had been as physically demanding as this one had proved to be. She wondered silently to herself if perhaps maybe she should have taken that nice man up on his offer for drinks after all instead of picking up the extra hours. But that opportunity had long since come and gone, which had inevitably led to her sitting at the nurses' station of the ER rubbing at the bridge of her nose and being very grateful for the short break in chaos.

Dr. Lei had been transferred to the ICU over an hour ago, and she knew she should make her way up to see him before she left for the night. She sighed, glancing at the clock on the wall. 4:10.

Deciding to take advantage of the lull of action, she grabbed her coffee and headed towards the double doors leading to the rest of the hospital. "Namine, I'm heading up to check on Lei's progress," she informed the charge nurse on her way out.

"We'll hold down the fort while you're gone Dr. Hayden," the blond said with a smile. "Tell the Attending we're still working on finding his family."

"Thanks Nam," Kairi nodded and pushed through the double doors.

She liked how quiet the hallways were during the late hours at Weston Memorial. Compared to the busy ER, it almost seemed that time had stood still as she sipped on her chocolate mocha and navigated the empty hallways towards the north side of the hospital. When she got to the trauma ICU on the second floor, she slid her badge through the lock that opened the double doors to the rest of the unit.

Dr. Lei's room was labeled "A" and it was the one closest to the doors, and consequently the furthest from the nurses' station. She slipped past it, taking a quick look inside. She was glad to see that Lei had been settled into his room, and was resting on the ventilator. His nurse was not at the bedside, which led Kairi to believe her to busy with paperwork at the nurses' station. Dr. Hayden made her way down the hall to get a quick updated report on Lei's condition.


"Maria Garcia" activated the locked door of the trauma ICU at precisely 4:14 am.

The ICU hall was relatively empty, save for a few nurses charting outside the rooms and one redhead in blue surgical scrubs that rounded the corner to what he presumed to be the nurse's station. Arrows pulled at the lab coat around his shoulders as he took a sharp right into the patient room marked "A".

Once inside, he drew a deep breath and took a few strides towards the bed, his eyes darting around the room and taking in his surroundings. The doctor lay in the bed quietly almost completely covered head to toe in white bandages with dark red crimson bleeding through in spots. There were so many tubes and wires protruding from the body beneath, he looked more like a lab rat than a human being.

'At this point I'd be doing the poor bastard a favor,' Arrows thought scornfully as he grabbed a few latex gloves from the cart by the bed, the syringe waiting patiently in his pocket.

Arrows took great pride in his work, and he was always looking for new inconspicuous ways to deliver a hit. His most recent research had led him to Mivacurium chloride, a drug most commonly used on critical patients on artificial life support. Therefore, it wouldn't be too suspicious if found during an autopsy. Better than that, it was quick, deadly, and accurate.

Once Arrows injects the lethal dose into Dr. Lei's body, the paralytic will travel through the bloodstream, quickly paralyzing every muscle in the man's body, including the diaphragm. As soon as the ventilator is disconnected from Dr. Lei he will no longer be able to initiate his own breaths… Inevitably, he'll suffocate.

Arrows pulled the full syringe from his pocket, glaring through bloodshot eyes at the still body on the bed. "You were almost a lucky man tonight doctor…" he muttered as he uncapped the syringe and connected it to the IV in the man's arm, "Bad news for you that I never miss a target."

As Arrow's thumb went for the plunger to deliver the final blow, the sound of shoes scuffing the floor behind him stiffened every muscle in his body.

"Oh, are you one of the new residents on Dr. Lei's case?"

Arrows sucked in a sharp breath and quickly disconnected the needle from the IV, almost throwing the syringe back in his pocket. Cursing silently at himself for not closing the door, he spun around, prepared to give the intruder a lengthy excuse for being at the doctor's bedside.

"Do you mind? This isn't as easy as it looks, you know."

Arrows found his words escaping his grasp as his eyes focused on a young woman in blue surgical scrubs gripping a cup of coffee in one hand and the doorknob in the other. Her dark crimson hair fell freely from the ponytail at the nap of her neck, framing her face and exaggerating the violet colored eyes that were staring back at him with cautious interest. By her tense shoulders and grim expression, he could tell that she was a workaholic and exhausted because of it. The white lab coat on her shoulders was embroidered with "Dr. Kairi Hayden" and "Emergency Services". For a reason he couldn't pin, he immediately regretted being so cross with her.

He sighed to keep his composure, "Dr. Hayden, I presume?"

The woman lifted an arched eyebrow at him. "That's what the lab coat says," she answered dryly, and quickly added, "I'm sorry, and you are…?"

Arrows stole a glance at the lab coat he had "borrowed" from the pharmacy earlier. Noting the absence of a name, he quickly made up one, "Dr. Osment."

Kairi narrowed her gaze on him, as if trying to recollect ever hearing such a name.

Arrows crossed the room, extending his greeting in a handshake. "Joel Osment, I'm one of Dr. Lei's associates from the research team," he added.

Kairi's face flushed and for the first time since she'd interrupted him, she smiled a little as she accepted his handshake, "Oh, of course. Dr. Osment." She paused as she peered around him to catch a glimpse at the still breathing Dr. Lei. "I apologize for being short with you," she said as she refocused her gaze back on him. "It's just been a really long night," she added at length.

Arrows smiled back at her, hoping to pacify her, "No apology necessary Dr. Hayden." Despite the interruption she had thrown upon him, he found himself rather enjoying her company. "And please, call me Joel," he said with an easy smile.

Kairi offered a short smile before quickly sidestepping around him and heading over to the bed. Before Arrows was aware of it, she went about her work, listening to the man's chest with her stethoscope and looking at various machinery around the room. He could tell right off the bat that Dr. Hayden took great pride in her work and was apparently very good at what she did…

"I'm afraid I'm not too familiar with Dr. Lei's work outside the hospital," Kairi said suddenly as she replaced her stethoscope around her neck and stole a glance in Arrow's direction. "What exactly do you do on the research team, Joel?"

Arrows took the conversation as an opportunity to step back towards his target at hand. He placed a hand on the bed rail and recalling what information he had recovered on the doctor during his recognizance, he answered, "I'm mainly involved in production development."

Kairi stopped what she was doing with the IV pump at looked to him curiously. When it looked as if she would ask another question he quickly added, "I'm afraid that's all I can really reveal."

He found it rather amusing when she actually chuckled a little at his response. "Let me guess," she responded with playfully narrow eyes," if you tell me anymore… you'd have to kill me."

Arrows smiled slyly, "Something like that."


The familiar jingling of a certain ring tone brought Riku out of his daze, causing him to nearly knock the stack of paper of the desk in front of him. He groaned as he reached for the silver menace at his hip, recognizing the blinking number across the screen as the forensics lab main line.

"Agent Das here," he answered coarsely. He cleared his throat to rid his voice of the obvious lack of sleep it held.

"Hey friend, how goes the research on the late great Ansem Lei?"

Riku ran a hand through his tangled hair, taking gentle note of the scattered loose papers littering his desk and the nearest floor. "It's…. going," he answered with a sigh. "You found anything yet on those tread marks?"

There a pause on the other end of the line, "It really is your lucky day, you know that right?"

Riku rolled his eyes, "I'd argue that if I had the energy."

"Well, judging by the tread and the wear on the marks, you're definitely dealing with a classic bike."

Riku didn't know why he was so surprised, for some reason he'd been expecting a newer faster bike. "Really?"

"My guess is pre Vietnam. Probably early 50s… possibly older…"

Riku paused as the information formulated in his mind. "There must be only a handful of people in this town that own that kind of bike!" he exclaimed.

"Well, whoever this guy is… He definitely has taste. I'd get working on getting a list of dealers around her that sell that kind of ride if I were you. And he'd definitely have to get tires like these specially ordered."

Riku grinned, relieved that something was finally going his way for a change, "Yuffie Kisaragi, if you were here right now I'd kiss ya!"

The young woman on the other line chuckled, "Easy cowboy, keep your head in the game. You've got work to do."

"Right, well keep it up Kisaragi. I've got a feeling this is only the start of something big."


A/N: So? I know it's been forever, but I hope the storyline still makes sense to most of you. I give extra points to anyone who can tell me where I got the idea for Arrows' cover name he told Kairi! It's pretty obvious I'd think… but anywho, thanks for reading and don't forget to review:)