I don't own anything.
An Assassin's Memories
Eleventh Shot: Business
"We have an emergency assignment." Mana looked up as her handler dropped a few folders on the table. "These are all traitors. You know what that means."
"Yes ma'am," Mana said as she opened one of the files and stared down at the picture of a grim-looking brown-haired woman. She picked up the next file. It was a woman with dirty blond hair and a bright grin.
"You have to be careful," Mana's handler continued. "We're hunting an assassin." Mana's throat tightened. She knew of only one other assassin working in Tokyo-3. Her hand was shaking so badly that she almost couldn't open the final folder. She stared at the grim-looking brown-haired man and balled her hands tightly. "Are you okay Mana?"
"Yes ma'am," Mana said as she stood up. She walked into the back room of the safe house and opened one of the boxes of weapons. She reached inside and tugged out a black pull-pup style assault rifle.
"Didn't you go through training with Thirty-Three?" Mana's handler asked.
"Yes ma'am," Mana said as she pushed a magazine into the weapon and pulled back the charging handle.
"Alright," Mana's handler said. "Do you need a ride?"
"Yes ma'am," Mana said. "That would be very helpful."
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Liana winched as the warehouse's doors exploded inwards. She looked down and Thirty-Three and brushed his hair out of his eyes. He looked so peaceful, so different then how he normal looked. She pressed her lips to his forehead and stood up. "It looks like I won't be able to talk to you later Thirty-Three." Liana walked to the container's door and pushed it open. She didn't even have a weapon. She stared at the woman moving towards her with an assault rifle.
"You betrayed SEELE."
"Yes," Liana said. "What are you waiting for?"
"Nothing," the woman said coldly. The weapon in her hands jerked to life and Liana gasped as the heavy rounds slammed into her chest. Suddenly she was falling. She could see her own blood hanging in the air in front of her. Then her world went black.
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Takumi jerked awake. "You betrayed SEELE."
"Yes." Takumi looked at the open door to the container. He recognized the voices instantly. "What are you waiting for?"
"Nothing." Takumi winched at the explosive shots that echoed that simple statement. He looked around and his eyes fell on a set of blood-stained tools. He picked up the biggest tool, a large serrated knife designed for both cutting skin and sawing bone. He put his bare back against the wall of the container and edged to the door. He could smell blood and gunpowder. He paused and looked around the container. Maybe he smelled his own blood, but he could definitely smell the gun powder. Takumi heard foot steps and readied his weapon. "Thirty-Three?" Takumi froze in shock. He had figured it was her, but what the hell was she doing calling out like that? Was she trying to make him reveal his location? "Please answer me Thirty-Three."
"What do you want?" Takumi's jaw dropped. What the hell was he thinking?
"SEELE sent me to kill you," Mana said. "Please come out Thirty-Three." Takumi took a deep breath. It was hopeless. He had a knife. She obviously had an automatic weapons judging by the rate of the gunshots. Takumi wasn't a pessimist, he was a realist. He moved away from the wall and stepped out of the container. Mana was standing a few meters away with an assault rifle in her hands. Takumi glanced to the side and saw Liana lying face up in a puddle of blood.
"Just shoot me," Takumi said flatly.
"Why did you betray them?" Mana asked.
"I don't know what I did," Takumi answered. "I was injured on a mission and then I was brought here. What part of that is betraying SEELE?"
"I want to follow orders," Mana said. Her voice sounded strange to Takumi. It sounded like she was holding back tears. Suddenly she lowered the weapon. "But I can't shoot you. Why can't I shoot you Thirty-Three?"
"Your training was faulty," Takumi said flatly. Mana looked at him and began to laugh and cry at the same time. She dropped the rifle and walked towards him. Takumi's hand tightened on the knife's handle. Mana stood less then half a meter away from him. She looked up at him with a smile and tears flowing unnoticed down her cheeks.
"I'm going to be killed for this," she said.
"Yes," Takumi said.
"I want you to do it," Mana said. "It won't be so bad if you do it Thirty-Three."
"Alright." Takumi lunged. The blade bit deep into her torso. Mana collapsed to the ground.
"Thank you," she whispered. Takumi sat down next to her with his legs crossed. He frowned for a minute and pulled her limp body into his arms. "I have a secret Thirty-Three."
"Toc," Takumi corrected. He didn't know why. Takumi was even more fake then Thirty-Three. Maybe the name was just more intimate then the number. Mana seemed to think so. She smiled up at him.
"Toc," she repeated. "I have a secret that I've kept since we met in basic."
"What is it?" Takumi asked.
"I love you," Mana said. Takumi wasn't sure, but her body seemed to relax. It was like she had dropped a weight she had been carrying for years.
"Your training was faulty," Takumi said.
"I know," Mana said, "but I love you Toc. What about you? Was your training faulty?" Takumi didn't answer. He leaned forward and kissed her. He pulled back and Mana smiled up at him. She reached up and gently touched the side of his face. "Thank you Toc." Then she stopped breathing.
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"What about you? Was your training faulty?" Ari stared at the scene in front of her. Takumi was sitting Indian-style in the middle of the warehouse's filthy floor. In his arms he held a young woman with blood covering her shirt. Takumi didn't answer her question. Ari was in shock as he leaned forward and kissed her. Takumi pulled back and the woman touched his face, leaving a small smear of blood. Her next words were too quiet for Ari to hear. A moment later Takumi gently laid her on the ground and stood up.
"Toc?" she asked tentatively, stepping into the warehouse. Her eyes were drawn immediately to what she couldn't have seen from her previous position. "Liana!" She ran towards the fallen woman and rolled her over. "Liana! Please wake up!"
"She's dead," Takumi said simply. Ari bit back a sob and carefully closed her friend's eyes.
"Who's the girl Takumi?" Ari asked.
"An assassin," Takumi answered as he picked up an assault rifle from the ground. Ari turned to look at him and bit back a gasp. His bare chest and pants were covered in blood. She looked at his face and finally did gasp. "Is something wrong ma'am?"
"Your eye," Ari managed. The white part of his left eye was entirely blackish-blue and the iris had also lost some of its color. It had lost at least three shades of blue.
"I can see fine," Takumi said as he checked the rifle.
"Alright," Ari said. "Where do we go from here?"
"SEELE is now our enemy," Takumi said. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."
"NERV?" Ari asked. Takumi nodded. "No. We can run Toc. We have enough money. Let's just run away, your and me. We can go to Siberia. Even SEELE won't find us there."
"We can never run far enough," Takumi said as he slung the rifle over his shoulder.
"You just killed one of NERV's highest ranking officers!" Ari exclaimed. "Do you think they'll welcome you back with open arms?"
"We have a better chance with them then with SEELE," Takumi said.
"We're going to die," Ari said. "Aren't we Toc?"
"Of course," Takumi said. "You disobeyed orders. What did you think would happen?"
"I saved your life!"
"And what a life it is," Takumi snapped. He kneeled next to the young woman. "She was a good soldier. She followed orders and she knew the consequences of not doing so. She knew well enough to not want to live with SEELE chasing her." Ari stared at Takumi in shock as he stood up. It was the first time that he had raised his voice. "We need to be going now."
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"This is not good," Alex panted as he sprinted down another alleyway. He wasn't going to fool himself into thinking that he could outrun an assassin. Suddenly an arm stuck out of the shadows and collided with Alex's throat. The next moment Alex was lying on his back staring at the sky. "Did they teach you to clothes line people in basic?" he asked, coughing roughly.
"It's just something a picked up," the shadow said. He kneeled and pressed his knee against Alex's rib case. "Why did SEELE try to kill me?"
"They did?" Alex asked. "Why did they do that?"
"I am going to break your fingers one at a time until you answer me," Takumi hissed.
"I don't know!" Alex shrieked. "Maybe it's because you're Shinji Ikari."
"And why would they kidnap him if he was already working for a sub-division of them?" Takumi demanded.
"They don't kidnap assassins by who they are," Alex explained. "They just find kids out on the street and take them. From there on the identity doesn't matter."
"And why would myself being Shinji Ikari become a sudden death sentence?" Takumi asked.
"I don't know," Alex said. "I would think that you being under their control would be better then anything. How the hell am I supposed to know?" Takumi raised a revolver into view and pressed the muzzle against Alex's head. He pulled the hammer back and smirked evilly.
"Tell me why," he hissed.
"I don't know!" Alex screamed. Takumi pulled the trigger and Alex nearly pissed himself as the hammer fell on an empty cylinder.
"Lucky," Takumi said. "Oh I remember! I only loaded one bullet. Let's try again."
"You're one hell of a sadistic bastard," Alex said in a moment of sudden calm, collected thought.
"I know," Takumi said. "Give me one damn good reason to believe you."
"Why don't I just pull the proof out of my ass?" Alex snapped.
"Worked for Bush," Takumi said.
"Why don't you just ask Gendo Ikari?" Alex asked.
"Good idea," Takumi said. "Don't worry about anything. This is all a bad dream."
"Huh?" Takumi pulled a needle out of his pocket and plunged it into the older man's neck.
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Alex jerked awake and looked around the bar. "Where the hell am I?"
"You okay?" Larry asked. "I think you've had enough Alex."
"How did I get here?" Alex asked.
"Well I'm not too sure," Larry said. "But I'm guessing that you got in your car and started the engine and drove here."
"You mean I wasn't brought here?" Alex asked.
"Well you brought yourself here," Larry said. "I'd feel kind of bad about making you drive home, how about you stay here for the night? I don't need someone suing me for selling you drinks then you going out and killing someone."
"I won't drive," Alex said as he stood up.
"Whatever you say," Larry said as he thumbed through a rather sizable group of bills.
"Where'd you get all the money?"
"Here and there," Larry said simply.
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Yuji pushed the door to his apartment open and pulled off his heavy coat. "God I'm tired."
"Well that happens when you don't get as much sleep as you should." Yuji's hand leapt to the Glock under him arm, but he paused when he saw the crimson dot over his heart. Then he looked back up at the gunman.
"Hey Toc."
"Hello," the young man said calmly as he stepped forward. He took Yuji's Glock and gestured the older man into a seat. Yuji sat down and stared at the other man cautiously.
"What are you doing here?"
"I wanted to speak with you," Takumi said calmly.
"Shoot," Yuji said calmly.
"Am I really Shinji Ikari?"
"What?" Yuji asked.
"Am I really Shinji Ikari?" Takumi asked. "What proof do you have of it?"
"You mean you don't know if you're Shinji Ikari?" Yuji asked. That was a possibility that he hadn't even thought of. "Start from the beginning. If you aren't Shinji Ikari, then who are you?"
"My designation is Thirty-Three," Takumi said.
"Okay," Yuji said, "but what's your name?"
"Thirty-Three is my name," Takumi said. "I am an assassin working for SEELE." Yuji gaped at the young man. "Well I was anyway. When I attacked NERV my handler was ordered to leave me to die. She didn't. Thus my employment has been terminated."
"Let me guess," Yuji cut in. "They want your life terminated too."
"But of course," Takumi said.
"So why did you come to me?" Yuji asked.
"You are heading NERV's investigation," Takumi said simply. "I have all your files."
"All of them?"
"All of them since you joined the Sayeret Duvdevan," Takumi said. Yuji whistled appreciatively. Those files were well guards. He had to give his respect to anyone that could find them.
"So now that your former employer is trying to kill you, you want to join NERV?" Yuji asked.
"Call it mutual aide," Takumi said. "NERV has resources I have information."
"What kind of resources do you want?"
"The kind that go boom," Takumi said flatly.
"I'll see what I can do," Yuji said. Takumi nodded and stood up. He glanced at the Glock in his hand.
"Mind if I keep this? I can't get to most of my weapons."
"Go ahead," Yuji said with a shrug. He slowly unclipped the pouches on his shoulder rig and laid two more seventeen round magazines on the table.
"Thanks." Takumi paused. "Did the blond die?"
"No," Yuji said. "She just broke her hip and her collar bone. It's really no worse then what you did to Colonel Katsuragi and Pilot Sohryu."
"I see."
(:::::::::::::ii::::::::::::::)
Ari looked up as the door to her new apartment opened. Takumi stepped inside and she relaxed. "How is the inventory ma'am?" Ari sighed in annoyance.
"Toc?"
"Yes ma'am?"
"I'm no longer your superior," Ari explained. "Please call me Ari."
"Yes ma'am," Takumi replied. Ari felt like she was going to cry in frustration. "How is the inventory?"
"Poor," Ari said.
"What exactly do we have ma'am?" Takumi asked.
"We have the Stechkin, the PP-2000, that really big shotgun. . ."
"The KS-23M," Takumi supplied absently.
"Whatever," Ari said. "We also have the MR-445 .40-caliber and the SAM. We're pretty bad off for ammo too. We have eighty rounds for the Stechkin, thirty for the KS-23M, one hundred and twenty for the PP-2000, and two hundred from the .40."
"What about the SAM?"
"We have two more missiles," Ari said. "What would you use that for?"
"There are also the twenty-three rounds of 5.8mm ammo that was left in the QBZ-95," Takumi said, ignoring her question.
"That's the gun you took from the other assassin?" Ari asked. Takumi nodded. He reached under his coat and drew a black pistol. "Where did you get a Glock 18?"
"Around," Takumi said as he set two more magazines on the table. "That's fifty-two rounds of plain old semi-jacketed hollow points."
"That will help," Ari said.
"How many pain pens do we have left?" Takumi asked.
"Fifty," Ari said. "At the rate you go that will last a little more then a week." She stood and moved to look at the window. She stared out at the city below. This wasn't how her life was supposed to turn out. She was only twenty-two years old for Christ's sake. She heard Takumi stand and move to stand behind her.
"Please stay away from the windows ma'am," he said. "Any good sniper could kill you there." Ari rested her head in her hands.
"You were right," she said as she finally felt herself begin to cry. "I should have just followed orders."
"I know," Takumi said. She heard him sigh. It was one of the first human things he had ever done around her. "My personal skills are lacking. I am sorry if I am the cause of your distress."
"Thanks Toc." She turned and smiled at the grim young man. "Do you have a plan?"
"Yes," Takumi said. "I am attempting to contact NERV as I previously stated."
"They aren't going to be too happy about what you've been doing Toc," Ari warned. "On that note, you don't have any problems working with the people who tried to kill you?"
"It's just business ma'am," Takumi said. "It wasn't personal."
"I get the feeling that nothing is personal to you Toc."
"You'd be surprised ma'am," Takumi said simply.
-End
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-Author's notes. Well the part that I originally did in like the third chapter now takes place in the eleventh. I'm leaving myself some room this time. Good, eh?