It sure didn't seem like it, but Holly Short had a secret. For such a tiny person, it was a very big secret. A big and dark secret. A big, dark, and dangerous secret that could get everyone that she cared for killed. Only three people besides herself had known about the secret; Julius Root, who had died, Foaly's father, Columbiaroan, who hadn't even told Foaly, and Andrew Short, her deceased father.
Part of the secret had to do with the fact that Andrew Short was not only her deceased father, but her adoptive father as well. You see, when Holly had been adopted as a teenager, she had not only changed her last name; she had changed her first name and her entire life. She had buried her past, but like most buried things, it didn't remain buried for long.
A little history shall we. Holly had been born into a family that did not accept girls. Her father was proud of her twin, Fury, but in his eyes, she was nothing. He was about to kill her, as was the custom, when he saw the look on her face. She looked ready to kill. He decided to keep her. A few years later, she killed her half-brothers when they tricked her into blowing up a building with a lot of innocent people inside. From then on, she was called Disasteress Rage Fear-Striker Gunner, the only girl in the most notorious gang of assassins in all the Lower Elements.
At age twelve, she rescued a young major in trouble; Major Root. She released him, even though the LEP and the Gunners were worst enemies. She paid dearly for this act. Her father beat her so badly that she wore a second skin, so that people would not have to look at her. Not long afterward, she got sent on her first assassin mission. She went and killed Major Jake Kelp, whose family the Gunners had an age long feud with.
Finally, her father decided to get rid of her. She had been useful to him by, unwillingly, experiencing the killing of people, burnings, beatings, electrocutions, and experiments on her body, but now he was through with her. He set her up to be captured by the LEP. Disasteress Rage was sixty at the time. She got captured, and shattered her legs after agreeing to try out some of Columiaroan's newest equipment. It worked, but she ended up raging, and accidentally inflicted the pain on herself.
While she was in the hospital, her brother, Fury, got angry, and stabbed her father. Then he left to go find his sister. Gunners were sent to the hospital to kill Disasteress Rage. Trouble, who was passing by, knocked out three of them. Disasteress used her gun to kill the remaining five. Her brother came in, and thanked Trouble, calling himself, Richard, and his sister, Holly.
Once Trouble left, the twins went to Five Caverns, the Gunners' base, and prepared themselves to kill everyone. One of their half-brothers grabbed Disasteress, and when Fury got too close, he killed Fury. Then the explosions went off. A falling boulder crushed her half-brother, freeing her. Even though they greatly outnumbered her, the other Gunners drew back, sensing her rage. She exclaimed, "And the dead will burn." The remaining explosions went off, causing the dead and the living to burn.
Disasteress awoke in the hospital, knowing that no one would ever accept her, that she would be a freak to society, and that she would always have to run. Then, Major Andrew Short told her that he wished to adopt her. From then on, Disasteress Rage Fear-Striker Gunner, only female Gunner assassin, killer of hundreds, murderer of Jake Kelp (father of Trouble and Grub,) who know 100 ways to kill people with her bare hands; attempted to turn herself into Holly Lyra Short, a girl who wished to become an officer in the LEP, even though a notorious rule-breaker at heart.
This was the secret that Holly could not let anyone know; the fact that Captain Holly Lyra Short had never been, and never would be the person that she claimed to be.