It was simple through your eyes, all you had seen was complete darkness, even if you were to have your eyes open the darkness would be no different. Your entire body was at rest, movement impossible for your mind was the only part of you that remained active. Hearing soft whispers increase in volume to loud cries and decrease like a crescendo to decrescendo, they had made you shudder internally, not knowing where you were or why. .. What was worst, however, was the fact that you didn't even know your own name. Where am I? The thought echoed.

"I'm telling you," a voice spoke from the distance, the tone waving like the buzzing sound of a bee passing by one's ear. "She is perfect in every way, I knew after retrieving her with her previous training would make her the perfect specimen—"

Specimen? I don't understand… Even if you couldn't move, you internally flinched, your mind screaming what your lips couldn't say, feeling discomfort spread wildly throughout your form.

You continued to listen intensely after he uttered additional nonsense, "We had enhanced what she already contained which I must mention was already above exceptional. My creation through her is now the perfect killer, an assassin with nothing below perfection; no more will we have to deal with errors during missions or other hindrances."

A.. A.. K-k-killer? The beeping of the heart monitor arose sharply, disrupting the disturbing conversation of the unknown men. You suddenly noticed that feeling returned to you, the tiny hairs of your skin becoming erect once you could feel the chill of the steel table you laid upon. The tips of your digits twitching involuntarily when you tried to move your limbs, the weight upon your lids dissipating so you could unveil your sparking [e/c] oculars, but regretted it just as fast when the shine of the luminous lights stinging them. A cry escaped from your lips, feeling hands lay upon your pallid skin and a sharp pinch following quickly after, you could feel a thick substance filling your veins.

"Project 18 is ready," the same voice muttered, responding to another which you couldn't hear, but the conversation continued. For a moment you believed that the man was simply crazy, speaking to himself until you felt a chilled hand caress your thigh, sending a heated sensation to burn within. "Prepare her for training; I doubt she'll be able to handle herself so inject the behavioral chip into her brain, also 24/7 surveillance. I want the best to guard the room until I feel she is ready and capable to follow demands, I want her ready by next week otherwise the assault at Washington will be postponed and I despise delays!" the authoritative voice demanded, his hand still scraping gently against your skin until the other man replied. "Yes sir, I will have her ready."

[Half a week later.]

Curled into the fetus position with your oculars staring blankly against the porcelain walls, your cheek rubbing against the cold wall that somehow relaxed you from the stress that had been placed upon your body after hours of rigorous training, such that would normally render a man exhausted in all measures that sanity would be shattered. Oh no, that was something that couldn't happen, especially to you, Project 18. Since awakening a few days previous, a man with deep circles beneath his eyes spoke to you. He was adorned in the typical lab coat, colored pens inside the breast pocket with a tag attached that read "Leo", and the scientist appeared to be a nice man over all. You had remembered when you tried to move, recalling the shock of how fast your movements were and ended up falling to the floor, yet you felt little to no pain. "Be careful, Project 18." Leo said, getting onto his knees to assist you, placing his gloved hands underneath the pits of your arms and lifted you upwards. You were amazed by his strength despite his fragile appearance, probably due to the fact of his occupation causing him to work nearly nonstop. After that day, he fed you, took care of you, groomed you… Almost like he would a pet.

During the time you didn't understand until now, according to Leo that recovery would take a couple of days so rest was constant after training. He hadn't agreed to the training though, he wanted you to be in top physical shape, but his orders from "Doctor Kaleman" didn't allow such. Now with the training, you couldn't even begin to wrap your mind around it, trials of evading ridiculous obstacles such as bullets, waving of swords, and other deadly methods that the trials served. Just yesterday you recalled nearly being sliced, but you had moved just in time to avoid it though it had resulted in punishment which composed of whipping. Aside from that, you were amazed of yourself, agility being increased and your senses much more acute compared to what you could recall of the previous self. Even if it did amaze you, it simultaneously terrified you to the bone because of what Leo had said about you on the day you had awakened. "…Enhanced, the perfect killer… assassin… no more errors…" The muscles of your body tensed, hugging your knees closer to your chest in an attempt to comfort yourself, what if you were no longer human? The thought made you want to cry… You quickly shut your eyes tight trying to plunge yourself into darkness.

"Project 18, awaken." An unfamiliar voice said, you turned your head slowly to view a dark man in a suit stare at you, his glasses gleaming from the lights shine that caused a flash, veiling his hues from sight. Good touch that gave off a much more intimidating appearance to the mysterious male. "I…" you began, until Leo's voice entered, making you indulge into a state of tranquility. You had convinced yourself that long as Leo was there that nothing wrong would occur to you, a hope that pretty much assisted you to attain your sanity. "It's okay, come with me, it's time." What he had meant by that, you wondered, retracting from your fetus position and sluggishly made your way towards Leo, avoiding the dark man at all costs. Walking down the hallway you instinctively dug yourself under Leo's arm, hiding you from the dark man's gaze that fell upon you like a pendulum swinging above your head. Without hesitation the caring scientist brought you closer to him, acknowledging the fact that you were still human after all, everyone is scared… But after this, no matter how much it pained him, the person you were before and now would transform dramatically after what would happen in a matter of minutes. This distress you could pick up on yet you refused to take it into consideration as the three of you walked through the long hallow hallway, walls spectacularly white with lights that only emphasized the brightness of this institution. A pure color it was, in reality though it was far from it, serving as a mere façade of the truth in this place. Entering a room you saw a lab, a metal table held in the middle of the room, two monitoring machines in sight with another table aside with sharp utensils. You moved backwards in response, removing yourself from Leo though you ended up backing into the dark man behind you. His hand gripped your shoulder tightly, receiving a sharp cry to escape you, Leo responded with a sneer towards the dark man. "What do you think you're doing!?" he snarled. "Your job," the dark male responded, pushing you towards the metal table. You would have fought back to remove yourself from the situation, but you knew well it would result into a beating. The dark man picked you up and firmly placed you upon the table, your expression displaying pure horror towards the man's face; his features were dark, but incredibly handsome with bright brown orbs staring down at you frostily. Gripping your arm, you couldn't help but whimper; he couldn't help to not make a comment, but out it went. "I don't know what you and Boss were thinking, a perfect killer with someone as weak as this?" he motioned his hand towards you, emphasizing the fear in your eyes to Leo who merely stared back in grief.

"She will die before setting a foot on America's soil." Weak, that word rose a sort of anger within you, your expression changing to one of indifference and hostility towards the dark man. Leo took notice of this, trying to relieve you with a reassuring smile that things would be okay, but it had ultimately failed. "You're a sorry excuse of a Project." The man uttered, shoving a needle into your arm, causing you to knock out in a matter of seconds, feeling numbness and darkness overcome you.

The next day you awoken in your solid white room, heavy bandages wrapped around your skull and the smell of chlorine strong in the air. The feeling of numbness remained heavy, nausea strong as you went to move about in your room, not sure as to what happened and why you had so many bandages on you. No memory came to mind, in fact you didn't even know where you were until you heard the electric door swish open to reveal Leo whom you couldn't recognize for a moment. Your sight was different, you didn't see colors anymore, couldn't see Leo's green eyes and messy blonde hair anymore, instead it was replaced with different shades of blue. It was as if someone removed all colors and placed a blue film in your cornea, with digits and letters coming into view, lines and circles reaching towards Leo's form that revealed his entire information. Almost like what a robot from would see.. It went like this.

Name: Leonardo Cole
Age: 38
Gender: Male
Occupation: Scientist; Bioengineer
Martial Status: Widowed
Relatives: None.

Your eyes widened in shock, grief washing over your confused countenace as you placed your hand upon your head to where the bandage laid. "No! Don't touch it!" Leo stammered, stepping forward a step with a hand outstretch towards you. "What have you done to me!?" You cried, balling your hand into a fist to refrain from attacking Leo, he was like a father to you and the last thing you wanted to do was kill him. "It wasn't my idea, Project 18." The scientist said, his features displaying sincere grief that made you feel horrible to the bone. You went to your knees, punching your hand against the porcelain floors, easily causing a dent against it leaving behind simple debris upon your fist. Leo stepped back witnessing that though he overcame his fear and ran towards you, getting to his knees as well while he wrapped his arms around you, embracing you tightly to console you the best he could. Crying into his shoulder you felt him hold you tighter, fear had consumed you and horrifying thoughts entered your mind. What had this meant? You recalled back when you first awoken which felt like years ago now in spite of the fact that It took place about a week and a half ago. You remembered when Leo referred to you as the perfect killer, so did this mean you were no longer human? This strength, these enhanced abilities, this whatever that was implanted into your head, were you nothing more than a soon to be killing machine? Nothing made sense.

The scientist took notice of your speculation, pulling you away from him to meet your eyes with his, the expression in his eyes revealing hurt and truth that would now be spoken. "When we had found you." You averted your gaze, staring off to the corner, not wanting Leo to see your bloodshot eyes with leaking tears. "—You proved to be the strongest and most reliable test sub—" he changed the word swiftly, "the most reliable person out there to carry out these missions of ours that we must carry out." Your eyes wanted to look at Leo, but they stared past him, "You were chosen by the Boss because we know you can save the world." You stiffened, surprised by what Leo had just informed you of. "The world is in ruin, it may seem fine, but it is far from it. We chose you because we were more than confident that you could bring the world to justice."

"I don't –"
"Don't think, just listen, follow boss's orders and you can save the world. You are strong; you can help bring the world back together."

You remained silent the entire time listening to Leo lecture you, inform you, tell you of what had happened outside the doors of this institution. Speaking of tragedy, wars, injustice. He kept talking till you were rendered speechless, he lifted you until the tears led you to exhaustion and placed you to sleep, pressing his lips upon your forehead and left without another one. Passing out the door and turning down the hall, a man in a black suit came into view, his bright animated cerulean eyes danced upon Leo when he placed a hand upon the scientist's shoulder. "Good work, I listened to the entire thing, you are good at lying Leonardo." The scientist flinched back in utter disgust, sneering at the man. "Don't touch me, Boss." The man who was referred to as Boss chuckled loudly, pressing his hand against his stomach to ease the ache. "Don't tell me you care, Leonardo. We both know the truth, with her I know we can take over everything, have all the Nations under our power." "I will no longer take part of this, I will only tend to her when she is wounded."

"Oh, Leonardo, we both know she won't remember anything once we activate the chip, she will be a mere marionette with I pulling on her strings. The world will be under my manipulation." Boss explained with a smug smile, looking towards the door where you were at rest. "Tomorrow, she will not know you nor anything at all, whatever memories she had after the first mind purge will be absolutely wiped clean." Leo stiffened, appearing dumbfounded for a good moment even though he had already knew this, but after what he had done he still couldn't believe he was a part of this. He had done this to countless other previous Projects, but Project 18 proved to mean something to him. You were like a daughter to him; in fact after his real daughter had died years ago, you pretty much filled her role… Leo shook his head, trying to shake these disturbing feelings engulfing his conscious and moved onwards, trying to set his mind to scientist. Cold, calculating, and relentless. No care. The Boss merely smiled wider in response to the scientist's sudden indifference, walking away towards your room and peered into the window, analyzing you as you slept with heavy breaths. He slithered his hand towards his pocket, retrieving a remote with two buttons, one read 'Activate' and the other 'Deactivate'.

"You will serve me well, Project 18." And without skipping a beat, his large thumb mashed against the Activate button. You jolted violently and remained in sleep, but in your mind so much was going at work, you would no longer understand and be manipulated by a sick man with an unknown motive.

[Back to present.]

"I-is s-s-she okay…?" a familiar young voice whispered.
"I don't know." An older voice replied.

"She is fine; I removed the chip from her head and finished the stitches pretty well. According to my calculations, she will awaken anytime soon, the anesthetic is wearing off." Another voice informed to the other two, this voice sounding rather calm and mature compared to the other two.

Your gloveless fingers twitched slightly, you heard breaths stop short in anticipation, the ivory lids that veiled your eyes had complications in opening for they were heavy with sleep. "Nngghhh…"

"She is awakening!"
"Shhhh, Raivis! We don't want to startle her now, the last thing we need is to put her into shock."
"I'm sorry…"

Your lids flashed open quick, springing yourself erect as a cry escaped your lips from pain, the trio staring at you in horror. "Miss! Please relax, cry not! Please, relax!" you saw a young man with shoulder length brown hair come into view, pressing his hands upon your shoulders. A young boy placed a hand upon your forearm and the oldest of the three went for a needle, you were scared beyond belief; this emotion so foreign yet so damn familiar. "G-g-get away from me!" you wailed, easily brushing all three without a problem, leaping off the bed you were placed in and sprawled upon the floor, still retaining your strength you were momentarily relieved, but so much was different. You twitched your head side to side, examining the area, there was a significant difference in you making you even more panicked than before. You could see color, real colors aside from that blue you had become accustomed too for so long. Trying arise to your feet and head out, the youngest of the trio jumped on you, for a young boy he caught you off guard with his strength and pinned you to the floor with your arms behind your back. The needle became inserted into your skin, feeling a pinch and a cooled sensation thriving through your veins, once again become engulfed in darkness.

Awakening sometime later, you found yourself sprawled upon a bed with soft covers, the texture smooth against your skin, you moved and felt at ease for some reason. That is until you realized where you were once more. "Don't move," a deep Russian voice warned, bright amethyst oculars staring deep into yours, for the first time since the other he could see your true eye color without the masking of your black mask. His voice was very authoritative akin to that of your Boss, so when he gave you a demand you didn't hesitate to obey, a reflex so embedded into you that it became a fault. "Good." The man went, looming over you and sitting upon the bed, looking into your [e/c] hues and analyzed the stitches upon your head. He rose a hand in order to grace it, but you tensed under him like a fearful canine when your master was about to smack you with a newspaper. Ivan, who you were able to recognize looked pleased for a moment, but his visage was filled with concern. Returning his gaze you instantly felt at ease, the recognition of that concern in his violet eyes were akin to that of someone you once knew, thus without hesitation you lifted an ivory hand towards Ivan face and caressed it. Ivan, however, pulled away from the touch, feeling confused about this girl who laid on his bed that tried to kill him last night. You of course pulled your hand back, tensing once more awaiting for a smack, but felt none coming instead of a confused stare. The tall Russian man merely turned his back to you and left without another word, speaking something incoherent which brought a servant boy to tend to you. It so happened to be the same one that tackled you to the floor, strong he seemed to be he came to you trembling like a leaf, reluctant to say anything, but "Hello, what do you need?" You shook your head in response. "I.. uh, name is Raivis," introduced he, bowing slightly to you. "What is your name, miss?"

Staring at him with confusion, this young Raivis began to become unsettled, unsure if this question offended you or not. "W-w-will you please speak, miss? Your silence isn't good for me right now…" he peered down to his shoes, shaking still. "Affirmative." The boy quickly snapped his head back to you, surprise in his face evident. "W-hat?"

"What is your question, sir?" you said robotic like,
Confused, the young Latvian didn't know what to say other than what was expected of him. "Uh…Do you need anything, miss?"

"Do I need anything, sir?" you replied. This for sure wasn't helping making the young boy's job easier.
"Uh… Please hold on a moment, I apologize…" Raivis split and went to call on the other two young men for assistance, all the while you sat there more confused than ever, you weren't used to this at all. The trio managed to come back though, all of them staring at you with calculating eyes and the oldest who introduced himself as Eduard came to you, intending to press a hand upon your brow until you flinched back with a whimper. Eduard reprimanded himself and stepped back, unsure of what happened. "Miss, what is your name?" the Estonian inquired, still looking at you with speculation. All you gave was a questioning, making him perceive that you didn't understand the question. Eduard sighed and motioned to himself. "I am called Eduard." He motioned towards the other two boys, first being the other older fellow as "He is called Toris," and the last one, the young boy as "He is called Raivis." He waved his hand back and pointed towards you, asking the same question, but differently worded. "What are you called, miss?"

With a sigh your eyes averted from the three and laid upon your hands, not being sure of how to answer that question, but if you didn't say anything maybe you'll get hurt. "I… I don't know."

The trio stared in disbelief, looking at each other with glances and back to you, they knew you were trying to kill Ivan, but you knew not your name? This predicament puzzled them beyond belief. "Of course she wouldn't know who she is, she is from a particular agency where their assassins are brainwashed and trained to kill. Their one and only objective, they are quite strict so they make sure they know nothing at all and only what they should know – to kill. Da?" Ivan's voice interjected, causing the trio to freeze up like popsicles, you of course were no exception. "My servants, why don't you prepare some food and one of you get clothes suitable for this young lady, da?" the three didn't hesitate to flee from the room and head downstairs, you could hear the panic in their breath due to your superior hearing. You looked to Ivan with a questioning look, but he waved it off as he brought a chair and brought it closer to the side of bed, sitting upon it and stared at you. "You are free to speak, dear. Say what you wish, da." "I don't remember anything, I need to go home."

"Home?" Ivan felt a little distraught at this, "You have no home, especially since you are someone not… well, in reality you have no home."

"I know I belong here not." You replied, light panic in your voice, beginning to recall Leo and your white room back to the institution you referred to as 'home'.

"You're going no where, da."

"You can't stop me," a growl vibrating in your throat.

"Just because you were engineered to kill does not mean you can take me down, I am sure you recall that I was able to render you to submission without a problem, da?"

You remained silent, recalling last night, but it was vague for some reason, possibly due to the removal of the chip that used to be in your brain. With that you began to think about it, the chip… It brought a vague but eerie memory to arise. "I thought so," the Russian smiled, the smile seeming very… uncharacteristic of the typical smile; making you suspicious. "You will stay here with me, da." On that Ivan left without another word, closing the door behind him and a soft click indicating he locked the door. You faced the doorknob in disbelief, jaw slightly open to emphasize the shock, jumping off the bed you went towards the window and examined the area. Damn it, you thought, seeing the ivory snow fall slowly from the heavens, instead this place wasn't heaven, it was a prison… Probably better than the institution, but you had your reasons why you preferred there than here. "I can get out of here, I was able to get in and I can get out." Looking towards the corner in deep contemplation, you began devising a plan to escape and while you were at it, you would kill Ivan. It was your mission after all, being the assassin were you brought up to be, it was your task to finish the job, captured or not.