The Replacement Assassins
Ch. 5: A Moment of Compassion, A Lethal Betrayal
The next day after receiving his new contract, the assassin traveled to target's residence. It was a small house that lay on the beach, adjacent to a highway. On the right of this highway lay a chain of beachfront houses, to the left were steep and rugged mountains, where the assassin was currently standing holding what looked like a leather pouch. He kneeled down and rolled out the contents of the leather pouch, which were various parts for a high-powered sniper rifle. He quickly, and effortlessly assembled the parts together, and screwed on the silencer. When the gun was set-up, he locked on the clip and rested on the hard rock and aimed at the front of the cop's house waiting for his target to appear. About after 5 minutes of waiting a black car pulled up, and as the car pulled up 2 figures walked out of the house. The taller one was a woman with brown hair pulled up into a ponytail and dark blue eyes. She was wearing an apron that covered a white blouse and gray colored sweats. She seemed to be very pleased as the black car pulled up, but her happiness was nothing compared to the other person beside her.
He a small 7-year-old boy with sandy blonde hair, and bright blue eyes shining with happiness. His grin was practically from ear to ear as the car pulled up. He was fighting the urge to run to the car like having to take a piss real bad. When the car came to a complete stop and the engine stopped, Quatre stepped out of the car with a basketball. He walked up to the woman and quickly kissed her on mouth before kneeling down and holding the basketball in front of the small child. The child didn't hesitate to run up and up into Quatre's arms, ignoring the basketball. Quatre smiled in delight as he swung the small boy around.
The assassin was watching all of this through the scope of the rifle and he felt something that he never quite felt before. It wasn't completely alien to him though; he has felt this way before when he was with HIS family. He continued to watch on as Quatre was playing with the little boy that was apparently his son; he tightened his grip on the handle and released the safety. He was gritting his teeth and his mind was telling over and over in his head to pull the trigger, but his heart was telling him not to. His body was tense and seemed to be frozen in time as the events were unfolding down below. His finger inched slowly to the trigger as he had a perfect head shot, but too many thought were running through his mind. Pull the trigger, complete the contract, his obligation to Treize ends. Don't pull the trigger, get killed, and the target gets killed anyway. It was a seemingly easy choice his heart was telling him this was wrong in every way. He lowered his eyes and closed them trying to collect himself but the same thought was running through his head, 'This is wrong!'. He looked into the sight again to try and pull the trigger, but watching them playing and laughing wasn't helping. Finally the assassin lowered his head in defeat and removed his finger from the trigger and dropped the gun. He buried his head in his hands in frustration, tears practically almost coming to his eyes.
Quatre felt a strange presence in the mountains and looked back at them, only to see nothing out of the ordinary and the assassin had already departed.
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A steady rain had poured in that afternoon. After collecting himself the assassin walked into a small Buddhist shrine. Once he got inside he walked up to the giant bronze colored statue of Buddha, said a short prayer, and placed a couple incense in what appeared to be a small cauldron filled with sand. He himself wasn't a Buddhist but that didn't mean he wasn't going to show respect. He kneeled down in front of the statue and lowered his head, deep in thought. Not long after he arrived a Buddhist monk with black hair down to her waist, dark violet colored almost black eyes, dressed in a long orange robe and with prayer beads in her hand kneeled down in front of the statue next to the assassin and looked up the statue. She was a close personal friend to the assassin's family and was very good friends with his mother. She was quite pleased to see her son and even though he would never admit it nor show it in his stone cold face, he was glad to see her too. But from the moment he walked in she had sensed something troubling him.
The assassin opened his eyes and looked over at Rei Hino who had a warm smile on her face. He looked back down and spoke up.
"I went against Treize today." He brought up suddenly, in a monotone voice.
Rei's smile changed to a surprised look as her eyes went wide. He continued
"There's going to be consequences." He stated, looking up at the statue.
"What do you want me to do, Heero?" Rei asked him. The man now known as Heero kept staring straight ahead.
"I'm deeply worried about my mother and sister. I would like you to take them from the L-5 colony to someplace safe." He requested. Heero reached into his pocket and pulled out a large sum of money and placed it in Rei's hand.
"Here is some money, help me send it to them." He told her looking into her eyes there almost pleading with her. Rei looked at the money in her hand and then looked up at Heero, she nodded in approval and Heero cracked a very rare smile at her.
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"I see…" Mamoru said, as he just got word on his cell phone that the target was not taken care of. He hung up the phone and walked out to the patio area of Treize's house where he was currently sitting reading a newspaper. Mamoru walked up beside him and waited for Treize to look up at him. When he did he delivered the message.
"There's been a problem." Mamoru told him.
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"Yeah this is Max." A rather old man spoke in his cellular phone. Max, has he liked to be called was the eccentric owner of a car wash in downtown LA. He was also another contact point for Treize, as well as a weapons specialist, giving assassins the tools they need to do the job. He stood at an average 5' 11", had all gray hair. He eyes were always covered with dark sunglasses so it was impossible to tell his eye color.
"Max, it's Heero." He spoke, calling from a pay phone in Chinatown.
"Hey, what happened? The piece wasn't where I left it? I put it there myself." Max asked.
"It was there. I need a passport. Can you help me?" Heero said quickly changing subjects.
"Yeah, ill just call Andy Olmos. No problem." Max said.
"No. He works for Treize." Heero corrected. He couldn't afford to get caught by Treize's man now.
"Everybody works for Treize! What do you want?" Max exclaimed, while kicking a soda machine making it pop out a soda.
"I want someone who dosent." Heero told him. Thinking for a moment Max remembered someone.
"Um…I know this broad. I try not to use her too much because she can be a real bitch sometimes, not to mention a royal pain in the ass. You know what I mean? Her name's Usagi Tsukino." Max offered.
"Usagi Tsukino?" Heero repeated.
"Yeah, she in the Olive Building. I'll hook you up in the morning, where you gonna be?" Max said.
"Better if you don't know." Heero told him.
"All-right, Hee-man. Watch your back." Max hung up, as did Heero. Heero took a quick look around and disappeared from plain view and found a place to lay low for the night.