Chapter 4—Flashbacks

6 year old Kori was hiding in the front hall closet in her parent's mansion. Her mother had told her to hide there when she heard of the man's arrival. Through the small crack in the door, Kori could barely see what was going on outside. Her mother and father were arguing with a man. He was old, maybe in his early 50's, and he didn't look very nice.

"The deadline hasn't passed yet!" her father said.

"Yes, but you've broken the rules, Anders," the man said.

"What rules? What did we do?" her mother cried.

"You've been in contact with them," the man said. Kori could tell he was very angry. "You've been feeding them information."

Her father turned to her mother. "Why did you do it Renee? We were safe!"

"I'm sorry, Michael! I couldn't let this-this thing take her away from us!"

"Well, it was your decision. And it was wrong," the man said. He whistled and there was a loud crashing sound. Men with guns rushed into the room and surrounded her parents. The man took a gun out of his coat pocket and pointed it at her mother and father. "The deal's off Anders."

Right before he was about to shoot, Kori ran out of the closet and into her mother's arms. "No! Don't hurt mommy and daddy!" she said, crying.

"What's this Anders?" the man said.

"Kori, we told to you stay hidden. We told you not to come out!" her mother said. She was crying too.

"I'm sorry mommy."

One of the men came and grabbed Kori out of her mother's arms and took her away to another room. "Mommy!"

"Kori! You-you monster! Bring her back!" her mother yelled.

"You didn't follow the rules," the man said.

Kori heard two loud bangs. Kicking the man who was holding her in the shin, she ran out into the front hall and screamed. Her parents were lying on the floor, blood coming out from the backs of their heads. Dropping to the floor, Kori screamed and cried. The men around her walked out of the house and into a black van outside. The man who killed her parents looked at her one last time before following after them. Only one man stayed in the room. He was around 22, and he seemed to be the nicest of the group. Sighing, he picked her up and carried her out to the van with him, Kori kicking and screaming.

"I want my mommy back! I want my daddy back!"

Kori was 10 now. She was sitting in her room, meditating. She meditated so she could get the horrible memory of her parent's death out of her head. It never worked. She was disgusted with herself. She was living with the man who killed her parents, the man who took everything away from her. Well, she couldn't say everything. She opened her eyes and looked around her room. There were nice things in her room. Expensive things. Things that Mr. Slade, that was the man's name, had stolen and given to her. Kori was one of them now. She stole things. She hurt other people. But she never did what she was told. She hated Mr. Slade. He was only giving her things because he wanted her to forget. He wanted her to open up to him and serve him. She was one of the best, after all. It was amazing to think that a 10 year old girl was as good as a 25 year old man. She was an expert at what she did. It was because she hated so much. She promised that before she got out of this place, she would kill Mr. Slade. She would get revenge for her parents. Someone knocked on her door.

"Come in," she said quietly. Peter, or Mr. Smith as Mr. Slade called him, came in and sat down next to her on the floor. Peter was her best friend out of all of them. He was the one that took her from the house the night her parents were killed. She should have hated him too, but she couldn't. If it wasn't for him, she would be living in an orphanage right now.

"Hey Kori," Peter said.

"Hi," she answered.

"I brought you something," he said.

Kori's eyes lit up. Getting something new was one of the only things that made her happy anymore. She loved getting new things. Peter pulled a necklace out of his pocket. The chain was silver, and there were small star-cut emeralds hanging from it. In the middle was a big one.

"I thought it would match you eyes," Peter said.

"Oh, Peter, it's beautiful!" Kori said, going to her vanity mirror.

Peter helped her put it on. He was right, it did match her eyes. She loved it. "I'm glad I got it for you," Peter said.

"Thank you Peter," Kori said, hugging him.

Peter left her room. Kori sat down to meditate again, but she was having a hard time concentrating now. She kept opening her eyes to look at her new necklace. If she ever did get out, she would take Peter with her.

Kori was 13. She had just had her birthday two days ago. She had gotten a new leather jacket, a rare polar bear skin rug, a new chandelier to put in her bedroom, a diamond-encrusted Ipod nano, and several expensive perfumes. Kori lived the life of luxury. She never had to go to school, since she took private lessons from one of the best tutors in the world, she never had to do any chores, since that was the maid's job, and she always got what she wanted. But there was one problem. Mr. Slade was dead and she didn't kill him. He died of cancer. The one thing she always promised herself she would have, but never got, was out of her reach now. There was nothing left to do. Someone knocked on her door. She knew by now that it was Peter.

"Hey Kori," Peter said, flopping down on her bed beside her.

"Hey," she said.

"Listen, I know you're upset, but you need to come outside. You've been cooped up in your room for a week now. You need to find something else to do."

"I'm not sad that bastard died!" Kori yelled, sitting up.

"Kori," Peter warned.

"I'm glad he's dead! I'm just sad I didn't get to be the one to kill him!" Kori yelled. She ran out of the room. She needed to go to the gym. Maybe that would get her mind off of things. That day, she swore two things: one, she would learn everything that she could from these people. And two, she would get out of this place before her 17th birthday.

The large bag on her back was heavy, she was tired of running, and she needed a shower, but did that stop her? Nope. Kori was 16 now and one of the best thieves in the world. Nobody could stop her. They'd have to catch her first, and they couldn't even do that. She and Peter just robbed an expensive jewelry store, and they were making a break for it. Peter was trailing behind her. He was in his 40's now, and not quite as fast as he used to be. Kori jumped another building and landed in a roll, before getting back up and sprinting to the edge. Just before she was about to jump, a shadow came up in front of her, knocking her across the roof top.

"What the hell?" Kori said, picking herself up. Standing in front of her was a boy around her age, maybe a year or two older. He was wearing black spandex with a blue bird on his chest. He had black spiky hair and a tan, muscular body. She couldn't see his eyes since he was wearing a mask, but she could bet they were probably blue. He was hot. And he was in her way.

"What do you want?" she asked.

"You didn't pay for those," the boy said in a deep voice. Was this kid dumb or something? Of course she didn't pay for them!

"Yeah, so? What're you gonna do? Talk me to jail?" Kori said, taking off in the other direction. The boy followed after her. He was pretty good. But she was better.

"Kori!" she heard Peter yell from behind her. But she couldn't stop now. There was no way she would let that guy catch up to her. She jumped another building and flipped, landing gracefully on her feet. She turned around and watched as the boy did the same, landing in front of her.

"Who are you?" Kori asked, raising an eyebrow. She was sweating in her black leather suit, but that didn't matter much to her.

"They call me Nightwing," the boy said. "Who are you?"

"You don't know me?" she asked. Nightwing shook his head. "Well, you're either very brave, or very stupid, because coming after me was a big mistake."

Dropping her bag to the ground, she pulled two daggers out of their holsters on her hips and spun them around in her hand. Nightwing looked surprised before pulling a bo-staff out of his belt. Damn, this kid just wouldn't quit. The two teens traded blow for blow, blocking and hitting, until they backed away from each other to see the damage they had done. Kori's only injury was to her female instinct, which screamed at the fact she needed a shower badly. Nightwing had a few cuts on his arms and a small scratch on his cheek. They were both breathing heavily and their muscles were aching. Kori was about to go in for the kill when someone came and hit Nightwing over the head with the butt of their gun. Once Nightwing fell to the floor, she could see Peter looking at her in disappointment.

"What?" she asked.

"You disobeyed me. I know you heard me back there," Peter said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I had to keep going! This kid was following me!" she said, pointing to the unconscious teen lying on the rooftop.

"Well, don't do it again," Peter said. "Besides, you're making me look bad. Damn, girl, you know how to fight." He smiled and helped Kori pick up the heavy bag.

"Well, I learned from the best," Kori said. Then they both made their way home.

Kori was 17 now and it really pissed her off that she hadn't left yet. She promised herself she would have left on the night of her 17th birthday, but it had been almost two months since then. It was probably because of him. Ever since their rooftop chase, Kori couldn't get Nightwing out of her head. Just to clear her thoughts, she decided to take a walk around the mansion. No matter how much she told herself he was an annoying, goody two-shoes jerk, he just wouldn't get off her mind! As she was passing by a door, she heard people talking, and she recognized Peter's voice. This was one of those meetings that she wasn't allowed to be in. Something about her being a girl or some other worthless crap like that. She decided to listen in.

"We need to get rid of her," somebody said.

"Yes, she's starting to figure it out," another one said.

"Where are we going to send her?" she heard Peter ask.

"Does it matter? As long as she can't interfere with the plan, we could send her to the bottom of the ocean for all I care! It's not to hard! Strap some cement blocks to her feet and away she goes!" somebody said. It sounded like Slip, one of the older ones. He had never liked her anyway.

"Kori means a lot to me and I'm not just gonna get rid of her!" Peter yelled.

Kori gasped; they were getting rid of her? What did she do?

"How do we even know she's figured it out?" Peter said.

Figured out what? What the hell were they talking about?

"She saw you opening the package in your bedroom. She's seen the map. She's seen the locations. She knows too much. She could never keep her mouth shut. What we're on the verge of is one of the greatest terrorist acts this country has ever seen! No one can know about this!" Slip said.

Kori backed away from the door, her hand over her mouth and her eyes wide. She remembered now; seeing the strange vials of liquid in the package, seeing the red dots on all the major cities of the world. They were gonna do something bad; really bad. Kori ran to the suit-up and weapons room. She grabbed her suit, a couple guns and her daggers, and was about to go out of the room when she saw a filing cabinet. Her curiosity got the better of her, and looking through it, she grabbed her file out. She didn't want them anywhere near her records. She also grabbed Slip's, Peter's, Mr. Slade's, and all the leader's folders, though she didn't know why. Running into her room, she grabbed the necklace Peter gave her, her Ipod, a couple changes of clothes, and packed them all into her backpack. Then she jumped out of the window and ran off. She didn't know where she was going, but she was going to start a new life. She promised herself she was gonna break out of that place, and she finally was. Kori was free. Kori was reborn. Kori was…also gonna get the shit beat out of her when they found out what she had done.

WELL THERE IS A LONG CHAPTER, AND THAT CHAPTER WAS ABOUT FLASHBACKS KORI HAD. PLEASE SEND IN YOUR REVIEWS.

Luv, I Laugh at ur Pain