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					kill shot by lela kaunitz http://www.ausxip.com/fanfiction/k/killshot1.html SYNOPSIS: A hired assassin misses the kill shot for the first time in her career. Her edge is gone, her boss is insistent and the woman who was once in her firing line is haunting her thoughts. The monkey on her back needs to be shaken, to save a stranger she was once hired to kill, and to redeem her own shattered soul. EWOK: It's just plain morbid. As if hanging Xena and Gabrielle up on crosses all of fourth season wasn't twisted enough... NANCY: Well, you know, after reading enough uber hearts and flowers to make "A Comedy of Errors" look like a Shakespearian tragedy, I'm up for a little morbidity. Even I feel like killing them all off from time to time! EWOK: Aren't you giving the plot away by saying "killing them all off"? NANCY: It's called Kill Shot, not Slightly-maimed Shot or I'm-not-giving-away-the-plot Shot! Of course people already know there's some death involved...! Besides, they weren't ALL killed off. There were at least two of them left standing. EWOK: I've said it before, and I'll say it again: where did you learn to count, Nancy? She's got a real thing about folding, mutilating and spindling her characters, and this story isn't any better than "Waiting" where *that's* concerned! NANCY: Are we reading the same story? There's something strange going on here. *peers at story* EWOK: Yeah, the HTML is all over the place. NANCY: In any case, this story is a labour of love, people can see it took effort to wrench this out! I really love it, I think the writer has taken a lot of chances with tenses and characterisations in this and they've paid off. Very impressive. EWOK: Perhaps it would have been better if it hadn't been wrenched out at all? I'm not a big fan of pure gush-and-drivel, and no-editors-required pieces, but there are limits. Plus, the assassin is a prat. Do hired gunwomen really say things like this? (excerpt:) "If I'd been more sober, I might have had the sense to be concerned, as much at my foolishness as at her tenacity." NANCY: She does get a little too intellectual for her own good sometimes, especially in the internal monologues, but it all goes to setting up the fact that she's going through a lot of self-examination at this point in her life, and that stuff creates this kind of dialogue by necessity. EWOK: Stop that, Corey. You'll go blind. NANCY: *frustrated glare* Ewok, you're just not taking this seriously! EWOK: Someone's got to take this story a little less seriously, don't you think? NANCY: *grumble* I like these characters! *hugs* It's OK, Corey, she's just a mean and nasty girl choking on furballs. EWOK: I don't know about you, Nancy, but I found this a real *effort* to read. It's heavy going, boys and girls, just because of how it's written. Ughhhh. NANCY: Don't be scared off by Ewok, she's a just a wimp. 9/10. EWOK: I resent that. 7 out of 10, and it's not lunchtime reading.