Disclaimer: Don't own a thing of Nanoha, folks. Move along.

Chapter 5: Panic

"In other news today, a shooting has occurred right outside the train station leading into Cranagan. One man was injured, and the shooters, renowned art collectors Atenza and Mariel Polonez, have been taken into custody at this given time. There is no word if there are any fatalities."

"That sounds pretty serious," Chrono said, pausing only to drink his coffee. He had come by the library to check on Arf, who was currently handling two jobs. "Hope the guy wasn't anyone I know..."

Arf sighed as she rested her head on top of the huge amount of books. "I can only imagine the chaos going on down there. There's usually a shooting every few months to the point where it's considered normal," she said.

"Well, it's a good thing that those three are being put behind bars," Chrono said. "Fate's supposed to be meeting with the Enforcers there soon in order to ask questions about the murder of Melissa Froy."

"I still can't understand how those people could be so emotionless as to kill an innocent person," Arf said.

"I don't think she was as innocent as they claim to be. She was, in fact, a spy. Yuuno told me that she had given him some information," he said.

"How much?"

"I don't know. He didn't tell me much after I asked him," he said. "...I can't believe I'm saying this, but something about his story's not adding up."

"Usually, Yuuno never lies to people," Arf said.

"The last time I talked to him, he said that if he told me half of what he knows, he's a dead man walking," Chrono said. His face was clear of all its usual sarcasm. "We need to find him and ask him what's going on."

"Maybe it has something to do with those assassins. He did say they threatened him over the phone..."

Chrono was about to add something, but that was when the phone rang. Arf excused herself and answered the phone.

"Infinity Library." The smile on her face quickly disappeared, replaced with a look of confusion. "Uh, yes, this is one of Yuuno Scrya's associates. Is something wro-" She paused as she listened to the speaker on the other end. Her eyes widened in horror. "By the Kaiser...is he still alive?...Okay. Okay, I'll tell my friends and we'll be on our way."

The person on the other end still wasn't done, but Arf hung up the phone. Chrono gave her a look of vaguely disguised concern.

"Who was that?"

"You remember how they said a man was shot on the news?" Arf asked. "Yuuno was that man. He's in the hospital."

If Chrono had turned any faster, his head might have snapped off. "W-What?"

"Yuuno's in the hospital! He's the guy who got shot by the Polonez siblings!" Arf repeated, shouting. Her declaration could be heard from miles away, and every single head in the building swiveled in their direction, horror resonating on their faces.

"Is Mr. Scrya dead?" one man asked.

"Did they announce it on the news?" a woman asked.

"Whoa, wait! What the heck is going on?" a man shouted.

The next thing Chrono and Arf knew, they were being assaulted by a barrage of questions from nearly everyone in the library. A few more people who came in the library took one look at the crowd surrounding the Admiral and the familiar.

As they tried to placate the panicked crowd, Chrono made a mental note to get Yuuno back for this...

Yuuno awoke to the sound of beeping-very loud, annoying beeping. He looked at himself, seeing that he was currently connected to an IV pouch, and that his left side was heavily bandaged. Beside him, there was a machine that currently monitored his heart rate and blood pressure.

On one hand, he was relieved to be alive. On the other, he wasn't happy at all that he was going to be spending the next few days in the hospital.

"I hope Nanoha and the others aren't rushing here right now," he said to himself. His throat felt like someone had forced him to eat gravel. "I can only imagine how they're taking this..." He began to close his eyes again.

"You have to let us in there!" someone shouted. "We're friends of Yuuno-kun, and we need to see how he's doing!"

"The patient's currently asleep right now." Another voice, this one soothing and calm. "It would be best if you didn't disturb him."

"Who ever said we were going to disturb him?" The third voice was a female, and carried all traces of a hot temper. "You'd better let us in, or else we'll force our way inside."

Yuuno blinked, his eyes sliding over to the door. His mind must be playing tricks again. For a minute, he swore that Nanoha and Vita were outside his door yelling at the doctors-

SLAM!

Yuuno gave a yelp of fright at the unexpected action. His side burned as a result of his nearly leaping out of the bed.

"I told you he was awake."

"Yuuno-kun!"

The next thing Yuuno knew, Nanoha Takamachi was hugging him with enough force to crush a mountain. While he was trying to calm his worried friend, he caught sight of Vita, the rest of the Wolkenritter, Hayate and all of his friends coming in at once. Their faces ranged from worry to anger to relief.

Chrono, the apparent head of the pack, sighed. "What did you do now, Yuuno?"

Yuuno tried to speak, but the only thing that escaped his throat was a rattled wheeze.

"Nanoha, let Yuuno breathe!" Vita pulled Nanoha away from the injured librarian, who was trying to recover from having the air squeezed out of him. That wasn't the end of the hug fest, though, as soon Fate, Hayate, and Vivio gave him hugs-much gentler ones.

After everyone had expressed his and her relief, the news reporters tried to come into the room, only to be shoved out by Hayate. A heated argument followed as the newsmen tried to interview Yuuno, but it wasn't until Signum got involved that they quickly left, running like their worst nightmare was following them.

"Chrono told us everything, you know, about the spies, the assassins and the murders," Nanoha sniffled, wiping her eyes with a tissue. "When we heard you got shot, I decided to take my break to find you. I was shocked to see a bunch of news reporters standing outside your door..."

"Well, the shooting pretty much made me a local celebrity," Yuuno replied. "Everyone's talking about the Polonez siblings and the strange man they just shot for no reason."

"There's a reason behind you getting shot, Yuuno," Fate said. Her gaze was serious. "Maybe it's because of the information you know?"

"Yeah," Yuuno looked down at his hands. "I'm the only person that's had contact with Melissa Froy, so that makes sense why they would attack me."

"Well, can't you share some of this information with us?" Hayate asked.

"No." Yuuno's response was firm. "I'm not telling any of you what I know."

"Why? Yuuno-kun, the more we know about those two, the faster we can catch them!" Hayate said.

"Did you forget that they killed the woman who gave me said information?" Yuuno said. "If they tried to kill me, they'll go after all of you."

"They won't try to kill any of us now, since they're in jail," Vita snapped. "So why don't you just tell use what's going on?"

Yuuno knew that she was right, but the very thought of Mariel and Atenza coming after them, waiting at just the right moment to attack...

"I'm sorry, Vita. I can't tell you. It's...I need time to sort this all out," he said.

Vita grumbled more than a few curses aimed at him and then stormed out. Everyone watched her leave and then turned to Yuuno.

"Yuuno, are you sure you can't tell us anything about these two? It would keep them in prison for a very long time," Fate asked.

"I don't even know the person who's being assassinated," Yuuno replied. "I can't offer any more information."

A series of exasperated sighs filled the air. Looking long and hard at the Librarian, Chrono tore his eyes off of Yuuno to address the other occupants.

"Come on, guys. I'm sure the doctors will be back in here to do some more tests on him," he said.

Nanoha looked ready to superglue herself to Yuuno's side. "Can I stay with him, Chrono-kun? I don't know how long he-"

"It's alright, Nanoha," Yuuno interrupted gently, smiling at his friend. "Chrono's right. I don't think we need a repeat of what happened with the reporters."

There was a small, nervous chuckle that rippled through the room. Soon, everyone started to say their goodbyes and leave, but the only person who still remained was Chrono. He stared at the floor long and hard, not even looking up when the door closed again.

Yuuno licked his lips nervously. He knew that Chrono possibly suspected something, but he really was telling the truth-at least, most of it.

Finally, the admiral spoke. "Are you sure that you're not lying about this, ferret boy?"

"I'm positive, Chrono. That's all I know. Those two just want to get me for what happened a few days ago," Yuuno replied.

Chrono sighed, and then looked up at the librarian at last. His expression was dark, making his blue eyes look black in the room. "Take care of yourself, Yuuno. See you in a couple of days," he said finally. He then left the room before Yuuno could even say a word of goodbye.

As the door banged shut, Yuuno let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. This assassination plot was getting under his skin, and he wanted nothing more than to get out of this room and find those siblings, forcing the whole thing out of them. It wasn't a smart thing to wish for, he knew, but at least it was better than having to keep this whole thing to himself.

It really tore him up to see Nanoha, Fate and Chrono concerned about him, especially since the latter two had heard about the whole thing from him. The others didn't seem to know about it as extensively as he did, but he was sure that they would all do their research on this thing sooner or later.

It then occurred to him that he should also get his research done on this assassination.

"I need to get my computer. I didn't tell those two yet, but I did in fact get another email from Mrs. Froy, sent an hour before she was murdered," he said to himself. He looked around his room, trying to see if he could spot any of his possessions anywhere. He finally found his computer sitting in the chair.

Sliding to the side of the bed, Yuuno forced himself to get on his feet and walk over to the other side to get his computer. His side ached and he nearly fell, but he finally made it over to the chair to get his laptop. He wasn't sure if they had wifi connection here, but that didn't matter. He had his hard drive still in his pants pocket, and in it was the saved emails he'd downloaded the other day.

Making his way into the chair, he opened up the computer and turned it on. After it booted up, he inserted the flash drive and opened his files. He'd saved Mrs. Froy's under the name "Top Secret Files."

"Let's see what she had to send me before she died," he muttered, clicking on the files. What he saw made him do a double take.

The first thing he'd clicked on was a layout of the Cranagan Opera House, showing the stages for the performance room, the seats, the stage, and the exits. A series of red lines had been drawn from the balcony to the exit.

So, this has to be an escape route. But, why would they go to the balcony of all places? Yuuno decided he'd learn the answer once he kept reading.

The next page pulled up a concert ticket and a playbill for an opera called 'Il sole penetra le illusioni', an opera he'd never heard of before. The cover showed a woman whose hair appeared to be made out of fire staring at her alternate self, who had shorter hair and looking shocked. The concert ticket had a section marked on top that said "Balcony Seat Reserved for..."

Yuuno's eyes went as wide as saucers. He hoped that it was just his eyes playing tricks on him, or that they had gotten the name wrong. Forcing himself to calm down, he scrolled down the rest of the document, hoping to find something else that might be useful to the case.

Pictures of a man, two women, and two small children appeared next. A huge red circle appeared on the man's picture, along with the inscription "Target". Another inscription, this one written in flowing handwriting, said "Stick to the target, but if family gets in the way, don't hesitate to pick off."

The computer slid of of Yuuno's lap, hit the rail of the bed and crashed to the floor, the flash drive snapping off and skidding across the tiles. But even that didn't deter him. He stared at the wall ahead of him, his expression akin to someone stepping over his own grave; his skin pale, his arms shaking, and his breath coming out in quick gasps.

The Polonez siblings' target was Chrono Harlaown.

Dun-dun-DUN! The big reveal! Well...for those of you who guessed, of course, it's not really a surprise. But still.

Hopefully, the next few chapters should be much longer. I plan on making this a short story-maybe about the same length as Dear Nanoha Fans with just eight chapters. And I want to cram as much action as possible.

The opera that Yuuno discovers is a reference to "Day Break Illusion", especially since the main character in the opera is a homage to Akira Taiyou.

I hope you enjoy this chapter, and read and review, please!

God bless, iheartgod175