This story is written for entertainment purposes only. If you're under age, scram. And BTW, children's Internet use should be monitored by their parents, not me.

A Victim and an Innocent - Sequel to Past Present & Future which can be found at TV Shows- Beauty and the Beast, 2012

Nine Years Ago

On the day she relapsed and showed up at Carla's safe house high and disoriented, one shot from a handgun forever changed her life and the lives of many others. She had killed a cop and in the chaos, Carla, the person she counted on most had abandoned her. Nikita, a homeless and drug addicted twenty year old was arrested, tried and convicted of murder. She was sent to death row and it seemed her life was over, until one night, she was drugged and dragged from her prison cell. She woke up in a strange place with a man named Michael hovering over her. He told her she had been given a second chance at life and an opportunity to serve her country.

Division, a government organization was her second chance, but only a handful of people knew of its existence because it was created to be invisible. Housed inside an underground facility and built with funds siphoned off from the DoD's budget, a group of unscrupulous politicians kept it alive. They called themselves Oversight, and used resources they would vehemently deny doing business with, to fund it.

They turned it over to a man named Percy who they knew would do their bidding, no questions asked. But Percy was a psychotic opportunist, who took it one step further and told them lies for his own personal gain. He brought in a woman named Amanda to join their ranks, she was an expert at interrogation, manipulation and torture and together they turned the organization unencumbered by protocol, bureaucracy and scrutiny into a clandestine black ops organization.

Percy and Amanda fixed problems and eliminated threats for Oversight. There were legitimate missions that protected the nation's security and kept our enemies under control, but over time these became scarce as covert missions took their place. These were off the books and many involved innocents who became collateral damage. They lined Percy's coffers with blood-money and fed his hunger for power. It might be the assassination of foe or even a friend if they stood in his way. It might be the theft, sale or even auction of chemical and nuclear weapons. It might be the barter of government secrets and getting in bed with underworld criminals for gain or favors. Or, it might be a program developed to create an indestructible super solider by altering the DNA of a human being.

They were mercenaries and greed and power became their end game. Percy and Amanda ultimately held the best hand in this contest of deceit and corruption and he documented each dark and illegal incident on what he affectionately called his black boxes. They were computer hard drives that held information so damaging it threatened the very core of our democracy and could render us helpless against our enemies. Percy hid the menacing information in eight different places around the globe and tasked Division agents, who he named Guardians to watch over them. The black boxes were his insurance that his actions would never be questioned.

If Amanda was Percy's partner, than Michael was his lieutenant and he became Percy's right hand man and a trusted and valued member of Division. He was a dark enigma who brought in new recruits and trained them, and he believed they had the ability to save lives.

At one time Michael was optimistic, ambitious and held a promising future with Naval Intelligence. His wife was a sweet and loving woman and they had a beautiful three-year old daughter. He had goals to make something of himself, plans to buy a house and settle down and live his life as a good husband and father. But all that changed when they were stationed in the Middle East and he was assigned to counter-terrorism.

A man he considered a friend and ally betrayed Michael with a car bomb. It was meant to kill him, but mistakenly took the lives of his wife and daughter. When the car went up in an explosion of fire, he thought his life was over, his loved ones were dead, his dreams shattered. Then Percy showed up at the military hospital and offered him vengeance, the one thing he thought was worth living for. His decision to join the ranks of Division was based on hatred and retribution and both of these would blind him to what the organization would become.

Nine years ago, Nikita was a trapped and frightened prisoner who only wanted to escape her captors. Michael eventually gained her trust and became her mentor and handler, while Amanda tapped her potential and taught her valuable skills. From the first moment they both laid eyes on her, they saw underneath the rough edges and grime, she was smart and beautiful. For Michael, she was a life worth saving and for Amanda she was a tool and a means to an end. There would be adversity interwoven with her successes, but ultimately, the girl with the troubled past would find her place within the organization called Division.

She grew up in an affluent neighborhood in West Chester in the arms of a warm and loving family. Her father was an attorney, her mother a research doctor in genetics and her younger sister was everyone's ray of sunshine. She had her life planned out and felt confident and excited about her choices. Catherine was the golden child, a graduate of Princeton University with law school in her sights. Her future was filled with unlimited possibilities, until one night, she found herself outside of her workplace, with a dead car battery.

She worked evenings at a tavern called the Salty Dawg in a rural part of West Chester. It was a chilly and misty night when her mother came to rescue her with jumper cables. A car approached them and they were blinded by the glare of its headlights. The two women were taken off guard when without reason or explanation two men exited from the vehicle and pointed guns at them. They shot and killed Vanessa Chandler and they would have killed Catherine too except she ran into the woods. The men chased her and when she stumbled and fell she was left begging for her life.

Everyone told her it was post-traumatic stress and the shock of seeing her mother shot multiple times that sullied her mind. It became easier to believe this than to convince others of what she had experienced. They insisted a wild animal had rescued her, maybe a coyote or even a bear, but someplace deep inside of herself, where doubt thrives, she knew this wasn't true. A man who was a Beast appeared in the woods and saved her life.

Catherine was left with questions and she became obsessed with finding answers. She could never accept what happened to her mother. The police had no leads, the FBI placated her family with stories of a robbery turned homicide, and the only evidence was an unexplainable sample of crossed species DNA. Her life had been permanently changed and law school seemed irrelevant, instead she decided to become a cop.

Why had her mother been murdered and who or what saved her life? She would eventually find the answer and it would begin with a man named Vincent, whose bizarre and outrageous story was linked to hers.

He was an ER resident, a fresh doctor who wanted to save lives and help others. When 9/11 took the lives of his two brothers, it filled him with bitterness and anger. He let his rage steer his life off course and he enlisted in the army. Vincent was sent to Afghanistan where he became part of a Special Ops Unit and a member of a classified program called Operation Murifield. Murifield was an independent contractor to the DoD under the auspices of a black ops organization called Division. They developed a program to build an army of super soldiers and told Vincent and the others they had been given this opportunity to make a difference. Through a series of injections, they altered their DNA and they became indestructible and superior in every way. But eventually, the terrifying truth came out, anytime their adrenaline kicked in, they transformed into monsters, killing machines, they were out of control and unstoppable. Their strength was unmatchable, their appearance ghastly and their blood lust was unspeakable.

Division had lost control of the program and would not be held accountable for what had happened. The men on the ground had no choice, without funding or the backing of the government, they had become responsible for a platoon of monsters and one by one they killed off their human experiments. Vincent should not have survived, but he did. He would have become another casualty of war if not for a lifelong friend who helped save his life but could not save him from what he had become.

He didn't know why he was compelled to track the movements of Vanessa Chandler. He only knew she was important and it was equally important for him to be there that cold night. He heard the two women talking and the sounds of a vehicle pulling up. It was followed by the pop of gun fire and he knew the doctor had been shot in cold blood. Her daughter would be next, unless he intervened. At that moment, he found even as a Beast, he still had his humanity and the proof was in the young women he saved.

Nine years ago, Catherine reminded Vincent he was more than an aberration or a medical experiment gone awry, he was still a man with compassion who knew right from wrong. And Catherine began the search for her mother's murderer, and for whoever or whatever saved her life. She would eventually learn, a single mold for monsters did not exist.

Present Day

Her wrists were cuffed behind her back and they covered her head with a black hood. She listened intently hoping for a clue of familiarity but she had no idea where they were taking her. After a long ride in a vehicle, they escorted her down a corridor and brought her to a room. Only then was the hood removed. Her pupils contracted under the fluorescent light, but once her eyes focused, she saw she wasn't alone.

"Detective Chandler." Amanda said, stating the obvious. She sat in a large chair behind an ornately carved desk that housed a large computer monitor. Two large and grim-looking men carrying assault rifles flanked either side of her.

"My name is Amanda. May I call you Catherine? I think being on a first name basis is much more civil." When she spoke, the words dripped like honey from a hive. Her auburn hair accented her pale skin and her blood-red lips matched her long manicured nails. A chill went through Catherine, her instincts told her this woman was very dangerous. She became painfully aware of her own condition. She wore hospital scrubs, her own clothes had been taken when they removed the bullet in her thigh. Her hair hung in strings and her face was dirty and streaked with dried tears.

"Where's Vincent?" Her voice quavered with emotion and she took a deep breath to compose herself. "Why am I here?"

Amanda attempted to look at her kindly, but the evil in her eyes betrayed her. "Vincent is very special, but you already know this. We need his help and he needs yours."

Catherine eyes filled with doubt. "I want to see him... what have you done to him?"

"I know about Murifield's work and what they did to Vincent. Through no fault of his own, he is, to put it simply, unique." Amanda looked at the monitor on her desk and entered something on the keyboard.

"We have the server and the data that was used on Operation Murifield. Unfortunately, none of the original members of the team are still living, but we have an exceptionally bright scientist named Anton whose mission is to further the program. We would like to see it succeed."

"Succeed? What is that supposed to mean? Murifield altered their DNA and made a mess of the program. Are you saying you have an antidote?" Catherine's optimism hadn't completely died. She still hoped that Vincent could be helped.

"Success would mean we could control the subjects during their metamorphosis. Only then would they become useful."

"Useful?" She began to tremble with fear.

Amanda smirked and turned the computer monitor toward her.

Catherine's heart hammered in her chest and she stifled the urge to cry out. It was a video feed of the Beast, trapped inside a padded room. His features were hard and angular, they accentuated his stoney pallor and his veins broke through his skin like an irregular road map. His pupils were amber-colored and where he should have had fingernails, were sharp claws. He threw himself against the walls in a desperate attempt to escape and as he thrashed about, it was clear he was in agony and screeching in pain.