Chapter I: The Great Escape.

0000hrs, 1 January 2014, Bloomington, Minnesota, United States

"What would happen if you loved someone, loved them with all your heart like you never thought you could, but you realized one day that they would never ever feel that way for you?" Henrietta, Gunslinger Girl.

"Been down so long, getting up didn't cross my mind, But I knew there was a better way of life that I was just trying to find…" Bobby Womack, Across 110th Street.

"Agent Serxner, they're here."

"Thank God, York, I was wondering when the hell they would get here."

Mina had been sitting in the safehouse kitchen for what seemed like forever. After falling back asleep for a couple of hours, she woke up and stared at the ceiling for another hour or so before heading out into the kitchen and eating some more food. Nothing much was said between the FBI agents and Mina. There was nothing much to say anyway.

"I can't wait to get home," Serxner griped, looking outside at the SUVs that had just pulled up.

"Whose great idea was it to put her out here?" Agent York kept his eye on the girl, but she didn't seem all that dangerous. It was more like a WITSEC operation, because the US Marshals were all so busy trying to round up pretty much thousands of escaped criminals from the various prisons that had been attacked during the terrorist event on 16 December 2013. Even two weeks later, over half of the escapee population was still at large, worrying pretty much everyone at what damage they could do. Gun sales were significantly up, to say the least.

"Didn't you already ask that question?" she said, shooting him a look.

"Whatever."

A couple of car doors slamming outside meant that judgment day was coming. A sharp knock on the door signaled that whoever was coming to take her away.

"Agent Serxner, it's Deputy Marshal Morrison, from the US Marshals Service."

Agent Serxner went to the door, but didn't open it immediately.

"Identification please," she said. It was prudent to see whoever was coming to transfer the prisoner was actually an uniformed officer and such.

Agent Morrison held up his ID card with a Marshals' badge on it; it had a very distinctive five point star, with the eagle emblazoned in the center of it.

"Come on in." Agent Serxner undid the deadlocks (lots of them) and opened the door up to reveal two Marshals; one was Deputy Marshal Morrison, who was dressed in a normal working business suit, but with a heavy winter coat to protect him from the harsh Minnesota weather. The other one was clad from head to toe in black, with black body armor, black ski mask, black AR-15, black helmet…these guys didn't fuck around. There was also a Taser strapped to his tactical vest, just in case things got hairy, but didn't warrant the use of deadly force.

"Well, you guys don't fuck around," York noted.

"We are from the Special Operations Group, and no, we do not fuck around, Agent," Morrison sneered. Inter-service rivalry at its best.

Serxner stopped them from escalating the conflict. "Boys, if you want to fight, take it outside. Otherwise, we have a prisoner for you."

Morrison and York glared at each other from across the room, but she was right. Morrison slammed the door shut and walked over to where Serxner had the paperwork.

"Is she a prisoner or a witness?" Morrison asked, looking suspiciously at the paperwork. It was all a jumble of useless and confusing notes that said nothing about the person in question.

"I think she's a witness…" Serxner replied, unsure of what to say next.

"But I thought she was a prisoner," York added. "I thought that she wasn't supposed to leave the house."

"That's for all witnesses and prisoners."

While those two were arguing, Morrison noted the hefty amount of paperwork from the military; a some blacked out combat reports, some psychological evaluations from Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany, stating that "while the subject is possibly violent, her psychological health has deteriorated to the state that she is unable to function normally or to be any threat to military personnel. Recommended use of following medications…"

Morrison noted that they hadn't been filled, nor did the agents on scene seemed to have really read anything for that matter.

"Excuse me," he said. The two agents ignored him and continued their pointless argument.

"Excuse me!" he repeated, louder and more forceful. Serxner and York shut up and turned their attention to him.

"These reports said that she's supposed to be on some sort of medication," he growled. "She was supposed to be on a sedative of some sort!"

"Yeah, I saw that, and she was cooperative," Serxner replied, handwaving his concern away. "The medication was only for use if…"

"I don't give a fuck what you think!" Morrison shouted. "Did you even know where she came from?!"

"No, not our problem anymore, now is it?" Serxner really didn't like where this was going, and she wished that the agent would just leave them alone now.

"This person was left COMPLETELY unattended and alone, without ANY sort of restraints whatsoever, and we're in here dicking around over paperwork!" Morrison threw down the clipboard while the other SOG agent readied his weapon to secure Mina, who was still sitting in the kitchen in a small wooden chair. York and Serxner just got out of the way and let those two do their thing.

Something clicked in Mina's head. This really wasn't the way she wanted to go out. The Glock 26 that she had earlier was tucked in the small of her back, but against the four agents in the room, and especially one pointing a high powered rifle at her, she wouldn't stand much of a chance. Plus, that would attract more attention, and she certainly didn't need that.

Mina saw the Taser on the tactical vest of the SOG Marshal.

Good times, she bitterly thought.

"Place your hands above your head," Morrison growled, his hand on the Glock 22 in his shoulder holster. He couldn't believe the amateur nature of these FBI idiots. Why had this particular person been secured by the FBI? Why hadn't she been secured by the USMS? Why the hell was a civilian law enforcement agency in charge of her when the military had a big hand in everything?! She was obviously extremely dangerous, and the two agents that had been with her for the last couple of days had been either extremely brave, or stupid. Probably just stupid.

Mina complied by putting her hands on her head, but she was still sitting down.

"Gerard, secure the prisoner." The black clad agent moved in, weapon still pointed at Mina, but with fingers off the trigger. As he approached her, he lowered the weapon to reach for flexcuffs so that she could be secured for transport.

Not a good move.

Mina suddenly jumped up and snapped the Taser off of the man's tactical vest. Time slowed down as the agents in the room slowly realized what was going on. Mina first engaged the drive stun on the Taser, shocking the black clad agent and sending him to the ground, stunned. The taser was similar to Lita's; a three shot version that would allow the user a better chance against multiple targets.

There were four targets in the room. Morrison was slowly withdrawing his firearm to open fire. Agents York and Serxner were also drawing their weapons, but Morrison was in their line of fire from where they were standing; he was in the kitchen area, with York and Serxner in the living room where the TV and paperwork was being held. A small counter with an open view of the living room was in front of York and Serxner, but Morrison was right in front of that space, with the downed agent on the kitchen floor. It was a bad spot for the agents, and a perfect one for Mina.

She snapped a shot off at the downed agent, because she couldn't exactly control him and deal with the other three hostiles at the same time. It left her short of one shot, but she figured she could deal with the other agents, no problem. Her adrenaline was pumping, breathing was deep and focused, and her objective was clear; escape.

The Taser came up from aiming at the downed agent to Morrison. His pistol was halfway up and his finger was slowly coming onto the trigger, but it was too late. The next Taser shot impacted on his neck, immediately interrupting his actions and he also flopped on the ground, stunned and out of the fight.

With Morrison out of the way, the other two agents had their line of fire clear. York was standing by the open counter, while Serxner was going toward the entrance to the kitchen. Mina fired the last Taser shot at York, which impacted dead center of his chest, and he too was out of the fight.

That left just Serxner. She entered the kitchen, gun up and ready to roll. There was no questioning it now; Mina was an armed and dangerous person, and she posed a definite threat.

Mina only had one arm free to engage Serxner; the other arm was busy with the Taser in hand, depressing the trigger so that the other agents would stay down. Serxner was just a second or so from pulling the trigger.

Mina made a gamble, and dropped the Taser. She charged at Serxner, slapping the gun away from her, then grabbed the weapon, twisting it around so that it faced her. The resulting pain and fear of shooting herself caused the agent to drop her weapon.

The house across the street from Mina's position, the SWAT team hadn't heard much.

"Alpha 2, did you hear anything from the agents inside?" the team leader asked, looking through a pair of Night Vision Goggles at the house. He couldn't really see anything, and wished he'd brought the infrared pair tonight…oh well.

Alpha 2 was in the lead SUV of the three vehicle convoy that had pulled up. The SOG team had asked for the FBI SWAT team's radio frequency, just in case something were to happen. "That's a negative. Paperwork problems?"

"I don't know, they should have called back now…" Alpha 1 team leader looked through his binoculars at the safehouse. The lights were on, but no one was home…

Inside, the struggle was getting intense. After knocking the weapon out of Agent Serxner's hand, she was trying to prevent all the other agents in the room from getting back up and engaging her as well as defeating the lone agent standing.

Mina flung herself at Serxner, body slamming her onto the ground and ramming her head back on the hard linoleum.

Agent Serxner wasn't going to go down that easily though. Serxner hit Mina several times in the face and tried to get up and to her weapon, which was hiding underneath a table.

Mina got back up again and grabbed Serxner from behind, trying to pin her back to the ground again.

In desperation, Serxner grabbed at Mina's hair, yanking on it as hard as she could. Mina had to bite her lip to prevent herself from screaming out, otherwise it might attract the attention of the people outside.

Gathering what little strength she had left, Mina picked up Serxner, who was still flaying about and grunting in pain, and tossed her onto the kitchen table.

Above the table was a free standing light; Serxner went straight through it and into the table, completely stunned and out of the fight.

"Something's wrong!" Alpha 1 said, watching one of the lights go out in the house. "All units, move in, move in!"

The FBI SWAT team numbered about six members and was stationed in a bland looking house across the street. They ran outside and went into tactical mode, ready for anything. Three of them were armed with M4 Carbines with opticals and foregrips; one was armed with just a Glock 22, but he had a ballistic shield that would protect against incoming fire. The other two had MP5SD5s, extremely quiet and accurate submachines guns.

At the same time, the SOG team burst out from their from vehicles; there was an oversized team of nine members, with a similar loadout to the FBI SWAT team.

"We got the back!" Alpha 1 shouted to Alpha 2 as the SOG team approached the front door.

"Roger that, we'll go in on your order," Alpha 2 replied. He readied his Glock 22, and made sure his team was ready to go in.

Mina figured she only had about ten seconds before SWAT team burst in. She took a quick mental checklist of what she needed; from what she could tell, it was cold outside with snow on the ground, so she needed a jacket. Second, she needed a gun, and that she already had. Third, she would need some sort of money in order to buy what she needed on the road.

It wouldn't matter though, if she got caught. Agent Serxner's jacket was hanging on a coat rack near the kitchen; it wasn't very heavy, but it was a start. She grabbed it, and quickly pulled out a wallet from Agent York's very limp body. Now all that was left was to leave.

Easier said than done.

Alpha 1's team charged through the snow, huffing and puffing all the while as they lugged their equipment laden bodies through the cold air. Temperatures were well below zero degrees, with the high for today maybe reaching negative ten. Maybe.

They made it back in time, and for a moment, Alpha 1 thought he could see someone moving about in the kitchen area. He wasn't quite sure, but they would soon find out.

"We're at the back, on my count!" he radioed to the other team.

Mina was out of time. There was a door at the back, leading to the kitchen, but she could see the SWAT team already lined up and ready to breach.

"One!"

She needed to interrupt them before they breached the door and got the drop on her.

"Two!"

Mina couldn't think of anything else to do. She had a gun, but that wasn't going to do much against heavily armored and armed SWAT agents. She might take out one or two, but then the rest would shoot her. And that wouldn't end very well.

"Three!"

Now or never, Mina.

Alpha 1's second entry man reached for the door handle, with the pointman covering the door with his shield up.

"Go!" Alpha 1 pointed to the door, and the SWAT agent reached for it.

He never got that chance. Mina swung the door out with all of her might, ramming it into the agent and sending him tumbling over into a snowbank. Mina then turned her attention to the agent with the ballistic shield; if she was going to have any sort of chance, she would need to get that shield away from him.

Already, the years of training that the FBI Agents had was kicking in as they saw the first man go down. Weapons went from being pointed slightly down with fingers off of triggers to being raised up to shoot at the target. The pointman was already pointing his pistol at Mina, and so he squeezed off a shot.

Mina felt the round zip by her and impact with a tree nearby. By the time the SWAT agent was about to shoot again, Mina ducked down and swept her leg across his legs, causing him to lose balance.

The SWAT agent fell down, flailing a little bit as he realized that he was not standing up anymore. Mina quite literally, pulled the ballistic shield from the agent's arm as he was falling down, wrenching it from his grasp and hastening his fall toward earth. He hit the ground with a loud thud, out of the fight.

The other agents at this time had gotten their act together, and started firing their weapons. Mina was in an odd position with the shield; the handle was on the other side, so she held it with both hands on the side. Bullets started snapping against the shield as the agents fired away from a distance of fifteen feet away. Mina felt a slight burning sensation on her hands as the fragmented bullets snapped at her digits and embedded themselves in them.

"This is Alpha 1! Suspect is in the back! Agents down!" she heard one of the agents scream into his radio. Whoever was out front, they would be back there within seconds if she didn't deal with these guys first. She charged at them, holding the shield up all the while, bullets shattering against the hardened steel and Kevlar. The agents tried to backpedal, but one of them tripped in the deep snow, letting go of his weapon and fumbling about in the cold, wet stuff, unable to do much of anything. Mina slammed into Alpha 1, sending him into the other agent that was firing behind him, and eliminating them from the fight.

In the front of house, the SOG team crashed through the door and began to clear the house, their weapons up and in the ready positions. Despite the gunfire out back, they were displaced enough to continue to clear the house before going out back.

"Morrison, are you alright?" Alpha 2 asked, looking at the downed agents on the floor.

"Yeah…yeah, I'm fine," Morrison replied, sitting gently up and clutching his chest. "It hurts a little bit though…got hit with the taser."

"Okay." Alpha 2 hit the transmit button his radio. "This is SOG unit Alpha 2, we need immediate medical assistance at the following location…" He gave the location of the house right before an agent yelled through a window to the kitchen.

"Sir, you have to come see this!"

Alpha 2 walked over to the window. What he saw stunned him.

Six highly trained FBI SWAT team members lay groaning on the ground, some with injuries that were bleeding out and staining the pure white snow.

"Jesus." This was not good at all. If this person could take down a SWAT team like that…then she was a major threat to the public and law enforcement. Alpha 2 reached for his radio again.

"This is Alpha 2 to command. Get everyone out here. We have a major situation."

Mina ran through someone's backyard, knocking over a small swingset, covered in snow and ice. They probably needed to replace that one anyway, she thought. She continued to run through the backyard and out into the street, where she heard the squealing of tires. She looked to her right and saw the hi-beams of an oncoming car.

This is it. Not even five minutes after my escape and I'm already done for.

Mina sighed and waited for the car to hit her.

Cassie Hanson wanted to be at home, since there was going to be a lot of work tomorrow, despite it being the holiday. She worked for a women's shelter, but she just liked to help people in general and if someone was in need, then dammit, she was going to help them. Sometimes she patrolled the streets of Minneapolis or St. Paul, just looking for anyone who had been left out in the open that the shelters had missed or would give them a lift to somewhere they could get a hot meal and shelter. It was a death sentence to be trapped outside in the sub-zero weather, and quite frankly, too many homeless people died because of inadequate housing and exposure to the elements. It was just wrong.

Her reliable 2006 Toyota Camry had served her well, but she was thinking about trading it for something else…maybe even a Lexus.

All of that snapped out of her mind when she saw the girl standing in the middle of the road, looking absolutely broken.

Cassie slammed on the brakes to her car, trying not to run the girl down.

"Get out of the way!" she yelled, but she was travelling too fast and the roads were slick with ice. In a moment of desperation, Cassie jerked the wheel to the left side of the road. The car slipped to the left, almost taking out a parked car, but Cassie managed to regain control and bring the car to a complete stop.

"Phew." Cassie took a look in her rearview mirror to see if the girl was alright. She was just standing there, still looking very broken, but now very confused to what had just happened.

Cassie narrowed her eyes. This wasn't good, considering that it was very cold outside and the girl was just wearing a light jacket. Something was up.

She opened the door up, the dashboard making a "ding ding ding" sound to let the driver know that the door was open.

"Hey!" she yelled to her. "Are you okay?!"

She was standing about ten feet away, and Cassie couldn't really tell what was going on with her. She was just standing there, just dazed.

"You okay?" Cassie repeated. She walked a little bit closer, the snow crunching beneath her heavy boots.

Her hands were slightly bloody, and she was now shivering uncontrollably in the frigid air.

"What are you doing out here?" Cassie gave the girl a once over, and notice that she was very pale, very thin, and looked like she had been beaten up. It didn't take much to put two and two together; she had just run away from a very bad fight.

"Oh god, come with me." There was no time to think about the situation. Cassie slowly but firmly guided the girl over to the car and put her into the backseat.

"What's your name?"

The girl didn't answer for a second, as if she was really trying to remember. She was sitting there, just staring.

"Amy," she finally replied, blinking her eyes a couple of times.

"Amy, we're going to take you to the shelter right now. Going to get you someplace safe."

"Mmm…" was the dazed response.

Cassie knew better to pry into what had happened. Experiencing a traumatic event like being beaten, raped or assaulted took the life out of most people, and forcing them to speak about it right away was not a good course of action.

"We're going to get you someplace safe," Cassie repeated, under her breath. She drove away from the street, just as several police cars screamed by, lights and siren cutting through the biting winter air.

Author's Notes:

"Agent Serxner, they're here." "Thank God, York" The two FBI agents in this chapter are named for two characters in two different series. Serxner comes from the TV series "Sleeper Cell," and York comes from the video game "Deadly Premonition."

"It was more like a WITSEC operation." WITSEC is the Witness Protection Program, run by the United States Marshals Service. Which leads us to…

United States Marshals Service- One of the oldest law enforcement agencies in the United States. They deal in many things, but prisoner transport is one of their specialties. Hence, why they're taking Mina off of the FBI's hands.

"Agent Serxner, it's Deputy Marshal Morrison, from the US Marshals Service." Morrison is based of two different character; Inspector Javert from Les Miserables, and Deputy Marshal Gerard from The Fugitive and US Marshals.

"We are from the Special Operations Group…" The SOG is an elite branch of the US Marshals, tasked with handling very dangerous operations, such as this one.

"Gerard, secure the prisoner." Again, a shout out to The Fugitive.