Chapter 30: Nikita

A few hours earlier

I called a meeting for the ninja-assassins that I'd employed a few days ago.

"The camp's sent some people out on a quest." I informed them.

The twelve assembled ninjas nodded as if to say, "Understood."

"We need some assassinations here. Nice, quick, clean ones. No messes. Got that?"

They nodded again.

"First, for the girls. Number Six and Number Three, I trust that you can take care of two girls, right?"

Number Three and Number Six nodded. "Sir," Number Six piped up, "Can you give us some descriptions?"

"Well, the first one's the daughter of the one who made Athanasios immortal. She's wearing a black cloak and has this necklace with a shining blue light attached to it. She's calling herself Raven nowadays. I think we may have to employ someone with a bit higher expertise so I believe Number Three will be more suitable for the job."

Number Three took a pair of katanas of the wall, nodded at me, and left. The assembly watched him leave, then turned their attention back to me.

"Now for you, Number Six," I continued. I was rather liking giving orders. "The one I want you to take care of is one of Artemis's Huntresses. She's most likely wearing punk clothing. Her name's Thalia. She's currently tailing one of our operatives so I need you to go and make sure we never see her again."

"Understood." Number Six replied. He grabbed a silver gun that was hanging on the wall and he left, too.

Now there was only two more groups to take care of. "Everyone else except for Number One, Two, and Four, you are to attack the camp. The location is in the GPS."

They saluted me then left.

"Number Two and Four, you'll act as my bodyguards. Number One, I take it that you're the best of the best, right?" I asked him.

He nodded. "Indeed, sir." he replied, his voice monotonous. "I believe it is so."

"Think you can handle three teenage kids?"

"I believe you are underestimating my abilities." he said, offended. "There must be a catch."

I frowned. This guy was obviously not as smart as he looked. "Well, they're the Legendary Three..."

"Yeah?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow. "So what's the catch?"

Raven

The Elixir of Life. A 'mystical' potion that, when either injected or drank, grants one eternal life. The principles taught to her in her youth swirled around her head. There are two sides to every coin. Raven took out a crumpled scroll from the Void and allowed herself a small smile. If there are two sides to everything, then what brings life surely can also end it.

The first ingredient: Taxus Baccata, English Yew. It symbolizes not only death, but the immortality of the soul. Raven would need to take a little trip to the graveyard.

How fitting, Raven thought, that one of the most poisonous trees in the world is to be an ingredient in the Elixir of Life.

At the graveyard, Raven pulled out a pair of gloves. Taxine alkaloids, a deadly poison, was present in almost every part of the English Yew. Just as she was about to snap off a branch, a man clothed in black slid out of the shadows. He had a katana in each hand, raised in preparation to strike.

Raven dodged the first swing and sprang away, running like a deer over the gravestones. When she had put a considerable distance between them, she nocked a small tube (attached to an arrow shaft) to a rather small bow and let it fly. The tube flew through the air and embedded itself into the artery in the man's arm. Before he could scream, he was unconscious.

"Good old chloroform." Raven remarked. She tied the man up and tossed him into a portal; she would question him later. Then, Raven walked toward the English Yew and snapped off a branch.