A/N: So, this is my first Elfen Lied fanfic. I hope you'll enjoy it. I usually don't make such long chapters, but who knows? maybe I'll do it this time.

They're always putting me in this arena… I hate it. I don't like killing. I don't enjoy shedding the blood of my own kind. I'm sick of fighting. I'm sick of all this blood tainting my body… but it's better than being tested on. Much better.

I don't know who my parents are. I've been in this place for as long as I can remember. My contact with humans is limited to a woman. I don't even know her name, but I enjoy her presence. It takes away the loneliness. I trust her because I need to place my trust in someone, anyone, and she was the only one who accepted it.

~Flashback~

I was five. They were shooting at me, testing my tolerance. I couldn't hold my ground all that well back then. When they finished, they always released me and brought food. I usually cried as I ate, but they didn't care. Nobody did. I was just a lab rat. There was a woman who threw the food at me. It was a little bread, or some pills, never anything else. I had no idea how it felt to taste anything sweet or salty.

"Is there different food… outside?" I asked as she was leaving. My voice was horse from screaming in the agony of being shot.

She froze. "Yes… there is…"

"Can I get some tomorrow?" I asked hopefully. Any little pleasure brought me a soothing from the harshness I was growing up in.

"I…I'll look into t."

"Why are you so afraid of me?" I pressed. It was too obvious and they weren't even trying to hide it.

"Your species main instinct is to kill us."

I looked down sadly. "Then why are you still alive? I'm right here."

She spun around, facing me with the expression of power. "You can't reach more than 5 meters."

Her words only confused me. "What's a meter?" The word felt weird on my lips.

~End of Flashback~

She ran away without answering. The next day, she threw a box with chocolate cookies. I soon discovered I had a thing for them. I kept talking to her. To me, it felt good to talk and be listened to. To communicate in other ways than screaming. To just share thoughts and knowledge. Soon enough, she started teaching me about the outer world. Each day, she was keeping more and more distance, until I couldn't take it anymore.

~Flashback~

She was at the entrance, she had given me the food and was now waiting for me to start talking, but I had other plans. I broke my bindings, which were a lot weaker than I had expected them to be, and stood up weakly. Her eyes widened and she stepped backwards, as if afraid and in denial of what was happening. "Why are you scared?" I asked.

She was trembling, her face contorting in some sort of pain. "I…"

My arms went after her. She screamed as I pulled her towards me. I wasn't hurting her, my movements were incredibly gentle for something I had only used to defend. I wanted to prove that I could use them in non-harmful ways. I heard guns loading and she looked into my eyes. "Wh-why are you doing this? What have I done wrong?"

I leaned down and hugged her, sobbing. "Why did you think you did something wrong? What did I do? I…I simply wanted to be close to somebody." I had done nothing to those people. Why were they so scared?

I felt her hug me back, relaxing as she saw that I wasn't going to hurt her. "Humans get scared of what they don't understand. I'm sorry."

I looked up, over her shoulder, and saw many men targeting me with their guns. That was the day I discovered my killing instinct. I was itching to kill them all, to only keep the one that had showed me kindness. I was the one shaking now. My mouth had gone dry and my vision clouded as I held back my arms. "Tell them to leave me alone." I whispered. "I'll do whatever you want, but tell them I can kill everyone in this room."

She pulled back slightly, looking confused. "But… your limit…"

I grinned. "I was pretending. It's more than this room."

She stood up, her arms extended. "Drop your weapons!" She yelled. "She's harmless!"

They took her away as she kept screaming, telling them to stop. They didn't listen. That was the day I learned about authority and different types of humans. Some men had left, saying they had no reason to shoot me. Some had stayed, saying I was dangerous. And they picked their guns and fired…

~End of Flashback~

I hate it when I kill. I hate it when they simply assume what I would do. I just hate it. After that incident, I started fighting. All my opponents were going for the kill. I wasn't like that. I didn't find pleasure in the blood covering my naked body. It just simply felt wrong. I wanted to talk to them, to break the door with someone and escape into the outer world. Such a childish dream. Such a childish hope that things were better outside. I couldn't escape alone. I couldn't get out on my own. And I was the strongest Dyclonius…

"Good morning!"

I looked up to see my old friend. She held a sunny smile, maybe hoping to see one on my face as well. She was out of luck. I was anything but a morning person. "Morning…"

"Come on; is that a way to begin your day?"

I sat up, rubbing my eyes. I was 10 at the time and still too lazy to obey. "When you have my life, it is." I answered darkly. I didn't mean to whine. I was simply a little sore from the hard ground I had slept on. Therefore the bad mood.

The smile vanished. "You have another fight in a few hours. This time though, you're not fighting against one of your own." She informed.

I sat down once more, eating some chocolate. The sweet taste awakened me. "But who? Or rather, what?"

She coughed smartly. "Apparently, the human DNA has now two paths of evolution: Dyclonius and Telepathicus." From the formal and forced male voice, I knew she was imitating a higher up who was too overly confident and annoying to her.

The other species' name got my attention. "Telepathicus?"

"Yeah. They've been testing them separately, but now they want to know which one will actually annihilate the other."

I didn't even blink at that. I was too used to hearing all the experiments they were doing. "What if we actually mix?"

She shrugged. "Well, that's not completely impossible… for some reason, the higher-ups ignore this possibility. But it is probable… physical aspect is similar."

"They have these as well?" I asked, gesturing to my horns.

"Yes." Then she looked at her watch. "Oh my. Your fight is in 10 minutes!"

We stood up and she led me trough several unfamiliar halls. "Where are we?"

She gulped. "For the fight to take place, they brought you to their arena."

"Oh."

"I don't know why not the other way round." She stated. "Maybe they have enhanced physical strength or something…" Making theories seemed pretty pointless to me so I tried to change the subject.

"Anyway, will you watch the fight?" I always asked, although the answer was always no.

She sighed. "Yes. They are forcing me to." I snickered. "I don't like useless bloodsheds!" she defended quickly.

"Neither do I, actually. I kill my opponents quick and painless. Sometimes I even envy them."

She looked away. "I'm trying to get you out of here. I promise that you'll be out by the time you turn 15."

I brushed her off. I didn't really feel like I had any chances of getting out. "You're just making promises in hope I'll keep my humanity."

She stopped, looking at me serious. I tilted my head to the side. "No. I'll get you out. I've been promoted as your personal supervisor. There will certainly be an opportunity… but you'll have to kill."

I gulped. "I won't. If I can help it, I'll just leave them unconscious."

She took me to my waiting room and left me alone, as per usual. I tried to gather my thoughts. I was going to fight against something I've never encountered before. On the bright side, my opponent was in a similar situation. I hoped it would end quickly. 'But maybe he's not like the others. Maybe we can get out together. Or maybe…' The door opened and I stepped into the bigger room. 'Now or never…'

A/N: On to the second protagonist. Who suffered more, I wonder.

I opened my eyes lazily, trying to adjust to the faint light coming from the door. A man wearing one of those helmets I couldn't read though motioned for me to follow him. I slowly stood up, my muscles hardly able to carry my body. I sighed, motioning for him to wait, to which he crossed his arms over his chest. I closed my eyes, using my ability to enforce my body. Then I stood up and followed him. "Today you'll fight someone new." He informed officially.

"There's someone new each time." I responded.

He shook his head, raising a finger into the air. "Nah, nah, nah. Something new. A Dyclonius."

"What the fuck is that?" I asked, opening my mind in the entire base. I found a man in suit that I didn't recognize. He was far, so I couldn't really read his files, but I picked up various stuff. Words, to be precise. Tentacles, strong, death, blood… that sorta stuff.

"To be honest, we don't really know. We received this proposal to make the strongest of you fight their strongest. It's a girl, so be a gentleman and kill her painlessly."

I yawned. "You really enjoy talking about death, huh?" I asked. "I never really saw your face, but I can say you're a sadistic bastard." I was speaking my thoughts out loud because he couldn't really hurt me or anything. My life was hellish enough as it was and I doubted there was anything he could do to make it worse.

"I won't fall to that cheap bait to take this helmet off." He hissed.

I raised my hands in mock defense. "Hey, killing someone takes a lot of energy. Do you really think I want to lose any before a fight?" I asked.

He shook his head vaguely. "Still not falling for it."

We entered my small preparation chamber and I sat down, throwing my mind out. "You can either leave or show me my first human face in 5 years. Your choice, really. But if you stay, I swear I'll kill you as a warm-up. I only need my hands to do it." My voice was casual. I wanted to be left on my own. I simply needed that before a fight. I didn't enjoy killing, but I did it in cold blood. I heard them call me the perfect assassin.

The man froze, then his arms went to his head and he pressed several buttons. There was a hissing noise, then he lifted the helmet. My eyes widened slightly. He seemed nervous, but I knew that his natural expression was a sunny smile. I read his files. He had a family. A wife, a daughter. I saw several family scenes with his daughter and that brought tears in my eyes. He seemed confused. "What the hell, kid? Do I look that bad?" There was the smile.

I smirked, wiping my tears with my hand. "No… it's just… why am I here?" I asked him bluntly. "What have I done wrong when I was born? Why don't I have any memories with my parents?"

He froze, the smile fading. "You did read my mind…"

"What, you think it hurts or anything?" I mocked, my tears drying as I searched more.

"Well, yes?" he stuttered.

I started laughing. "Unless I want to, it doesn't."

He smiled. Before he could answer anything, the alarm sounded. Just a few more minutes until the fight began. "Well, good luck Rogue."

I smirked weakly. He had been the first to give me a smile. He had been the first to say my name out loud. He had been the first human face I saw in 5 years, since "the incident".

~Flashback~

I was just a 5 years old. They were trying to make some tests that would determine how much our power was evolving. I was free to walk around my room, but maybe that was their mistake. I threw my mind out, trying to read as many files about me as I could.

'He's wrong. It's just wrong to keep him alive.'

'Rogue. This child can kill us all.'

'Kill him before he kills us. It's such a simple concept. Why can't they follow it?'

Then I found a very old file. It was of someone else's first day in life. It was probably another Telepathicus'. The baby who, as soon as he woke up after his first nap, suddenly killed everyone in the hospital room: other babies, nurses and several doctors and even parents. I saw it through the eyes of a man who had managed to survive… and take another baby with him. As far as I knew, the baby had saved him. It was also a Telepathicus. Then I saw it. He had met a man in suit. That man was actually the one through whose eyes I was seeing.

The man holding the child bumped against the perfectly neat suit. "What are you doing, sir?"

He kept trembling, not letting go of the small bundle in his arms. The baby had white horns like us, Telepathicus. "I-It's horrible. Everyone is dead… I ran away. I don't know what happened. There was this baby that screamed and everyone just fell. I…I don't know how I escaped."

"Sir, please hand over the baby you're carrying."

"Wait, why?" He held it close, instinctively knowing that it was wrong. "It did nothing! The monster's over there!"

"We're sorry, but these horned children are really dangerous. It is unavoidable that they will eventually do the same thing the other one did. So, for the safety of mankind, I request you to hand over the baby." He said. He had two followers who walked over and tried to take the child.

"No! He did nothing! Leave him! He did nothing! If anything, he saved me!" he yelled, shielding the child.

They roughly shoved him away and took the baby, which had started screaming. "We're sorry, but we can't afford any risk." They injected the baby with something, which made it fall limp into their arms. One of them went to the other baby and returned with it similarly.

"Why both? Why both?" the man asked once more.

"They all turn evil eventually. That's why. But, given this one had saved you, we can probably give him a better treatment. His name?"

"R-Rogue… Please let me take him back! Please. I'll never be able to face my wife knowing I had lost our son!" he yelled.

"Sorry, but we can't have any witnesses." He took out a gun and fired… he shot mercilessly, killing in the name of his so-called justice. The one not holding a baby left to look for my mother and other survivors.

I fell onto my knees on the floor, holding my head as I saw it again and again. I did nothing. My only sin was being born. So why did I have to pay for it so much? Tears fell down my cheeks as I thought about my parents who have both died for nothing. 'No, no, no.' My killing intent was awakening and I felt the need to punish them all, to make them feel the pain I was feeling. I wanted to share it all.

'Rogue, hold it.' It was one of the others. We could communicate though our minds.

'Why? Just tell me why. Give me a solid reason why I should leave them unpunished!'

I screamed, my power emerging. Not the one I had shown them before, but my real power. The one the other child had used on his first day.

'Rogue, hold it!'

I screamed once more, this time I looked up, towards the ceiling, silently asking what I had done wrong, why I couldn't have parents like other children.

~End of Flashback~

I had killed basically everyone who was within my range, then I passed out because I had lost all my energy. It was the reason everyone had started fearing me and they had started wearing those helmets. It was the reason even the others of my kind were afraid of me. I was dangerous. They thought I was unstable. I had no regrets.

I threw my mind out again. I felt more available people now, which kinda surprised me. I just shrugged it off and read a few files. I found the man in suit once more. He was closer now so I found a whole file about them and got on reading. My eyes widened as I took in all the bloody sceneries he was displaying. People basically cut in half by those invisible tentacles. I felt fear seep into my veins, stronger than ever, close to terrify. I gulped. Then I found a woman there. However, before I could read anything, the door opened and I had to enter the arena.

A/N: Review please!