Hello all!

WAIT, WHAT?! Another chapter posted so soon after the last? Yes, I have succeeded in doing what I thought was impossible, however it was done with good reason. I'm wrapping up my summer classes and until Tuesday I will be very busy writing an 8-10 page lab report for my Microbiology lab. :X So, obviously with this on my plate and the fact that the fall semester starts in less than a week and a half, I will have very little, if no time at all, to write another chapter. Do not fret! I shall still deliver Part 3 of this filler and Chapter 5 as promised, I just don't know when I could actually have them posted.

As always, thank you everyone that fav'd/followed/reviewed last chapter and those who have stayed with me this long, it means a lot to have your support and feedback.

Disclaimer: As always I do not own Hellsing. Blaze/Pyro, Terrance and the gang, and the rest of the OC are my own creations and should not be used without my permission.

Now on with the show!

The short haired girl continued to stare at the boy incredulously as she ate slowly. Troy had taken it upon himself to test the girl's sight again, this time making sure to stay at an appropriate distance. By now the red haired boy was busy writing a word on a small dry erase board as he stood in the darkened area of the along the tracks, an area that he knew she wouldn't too quickly cross into.

"What does this say and can you give me the meaning?" He called out to her. She sat along the back way of the terminal and took her time answering.

"Trepidation. It means trembling fear, alarm, or agitation." After a confirmation from Troy, yet again, the girl continued to eat as she continued to watch him. She knew what he was doing and had known for a very long time. It had been four weeks since she had tried to attack him and his interest in her was piqued drastically. Though he was still wary of her, she would often catch him watching her out the corner of her eye. He could pretend to go about his everyday routine, fiddle with his tablet, or writing in his composition notebook completely pretending to mind his own business but she knew that he was always watching. She had spent enough time with those of his kind to understand that their drive for knowledge would eventually move from bewilderment and awe to mental games then…

"Barbarity. It means brutal or inhuman conduct, cruelty; and act or instance of cruelty or inhumanity." After stating this with a faltering voice, the girl silently stood, brushed off the crumbs that rested on her hoodie and pants, and walked away.

As he watched her walk away, her face marred with a frown and hard eyes, Troy felt bad for tricking her to perform the experiment, but he just had to know. While sitting on the edge of the platform, he took the composition book by his side and flipped through it to find an open space. Pages full of theories, tests and results flew by as he flipped toward the back of the book. Once he found the blank page after his latest hypothesis and experiment procedures, he began to write his results:

Extraordinary eyesight as expected. Sight isn't at all hindered by a lack or overabundance of light. She can see objects and words clearly at approximately 24.5 meters if not further (Note: Further testing in necessary to see if there is indeed a limit to her sight. Get permission to take her outside). This, at least, leads me to confirm that she saw me rather than actually heard me coming when I attempted to sneak onto the platform. The information that I have been able to decipher from the chip in her ID bracelet has proven to be very accurate under my limited testing field and useful when dealing with the subject's disposition…

Overall, I am astounded by the subject's intelligence and learning abilities. It's been a full four weeks since she was taken in by the group and she appears to show complete mastery of the English language in not only conversation but reading and writing as well. With the group's constant interaction with her in verbal communication, she was able to understand us within a week's time though she prefers to remain silently most of time. Also, with Terrance's nearly daily reading lessons I would estimate that she reads as well as any 10th grader and her ability keeps rising. The subject has actually made it all the way through Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' one time since Terrance gave it to her two weeks ago…

Three weeks ago

G-Man let out a sigh of frustration as he sat down and buried his face into the pillow. It was well after midnight by the time the boys made it back from Dominic's office from another recovery mission that literally had them out since dawn of the previous day. It also didn't help that the weather had taken a 180° turn from a gorgeous day to an all-out thunderstorm, leaving them soaking wet by the time they made it back to the base. Once they made it into the light of the camp they found the strange girl sitting with her legs to her chest among the cots while listening intently to the weather report on the radio. Before they could even make it onto the raised area, the girl's voice rang out in greeting as she turned down the radio. After rising to her feet she grabbed the pile of clean, folded towels behind her and offered them to the boys as she knew they would be caught in the rain.

"You are a life safer, love." Terrance said gratefully as he took one and began to dry his hair. "What did you do today?" The girl shrugged her shoulders after a moment of thought. "I know you didn't just sit around all and listen to the radio," he concluded after noticing how organized everything was.

"Where are they?! I hid them so well!" G-Man called from their food storage with disappointment which quickly turned to annoyance as he peered around the shelf toward Jason who had just come from the bathroom in dry clothes. "Jason did you eat my food again?" The sleepy eyed teen snorted and fell face first onto his cot, quickly falling asleep. His gray eyes then turned to the girl as she giggled at him. "Please don't tell me you ate them. I promised you we could split it when we got back."

"'heck bottom 'helf." She stated. Though there were still certain letters and sounds she had trouble pronouncing, her English having drastically improved since she had tried to copy Terrance a week and a half ago. After eying her suspiciously, the thirteen year old did as she said and sure enough, there were his coveted container of Hobnobs.

"Good Lord," he started again as he looked toward her once more. "We need to get you out of here. You alphabetized every shelf. Who willing does that?" He cracked open the bag and poured half of the biscuits into a bowl for her before returning to his cot before munching away on the sweet treat.

"Well that answers part of the question." Terrance replied while shaking his head at his food loving brother. The girl reached up onto his cot and held out his gently used copy of Dracula.

"I read this." She replied turning to the last two chapters of the book. A week and a half ago, once the girl had finally changed from Terrance's jacket to their hand me downs, everyone had more or less settled in for the night leaving Terrance to read peacefully by the soft light of a battery powered lantern. Since he regularly suffered from insomnia, reading was the best way for him to pass the time without disturbing anyone. After what seemed like two hours after everyone had drifted off, the young man got the strongest feeling that he was being watched. Believing the thought unlikely since everyone had gone to sleep hours ago, the boy looked over his shoulder to find the orange eyed girl seated in her usual manner on the floor a few feet away from his cot.

"Shit." The boy swore quietly into the book while he used it to cover his frightened expression. How in the world did she sneak up on me? He had thought as he finally composed himself. He looked over to the booth they had converted into a room for her earlier, the light of her own lantern glowing softly through the glass screen. Her door stood open wide enough for her small frame to fit through without causing the door to make enough sound to alert anyone that she had slipped out of the room. She smiled softly as he finally looked at her.

"Can't sleep?" he asked as he sat up and faced her. She tilted her head slightly and studied his mouth as he spoke, trying to understand his words. Knowing that it would take more than one day for her to understand him, he shook his head and patted the space beside him as an invitation to join to him. Obediently, the girl sat beside him and began to study the object in his hand. Following her line of sight, he showed her the book to which she took a particular interest in the cover art showing the No Life King beginning to emerge from his standing coffin. His entire body was shrouded in shadows with only his bone white hands, gleaming red eyes, and train of his red robe showing as he undoubtedly approached his next victim. Behind him was black wrought iron twisted into an intricate Gothic design behind him, giving the reader a slight feeling of dread and darkness before they even read the first page. The youth could see a slight tremor go through her and Terrance didn't fail to notice the sparkle of mischief and delight the female had toward the story. She looked at him expectantly for him to start reading and with a small chuckle he flipped to the first page and began to read aloud in a soft voice.

Present day

"I want to read this?" He corrected only to receive a head shake.

"Today, while everyone gone, I read this. I caught up to you." She said with a smug smirk as she saw his eyes widen. Before he had started reading to her the boy was on the twenty-fifth chapter; the yesterday they had made it all the way to the eighth.

"How long did it take you to get that far?" Troy asked softly in amazement. The girl then counted the time on her fingers before replying 6 hours. He nodded in understanding before turning and reaching for his notebook.

"Clever girl," Terrance replied absently as he patted her on the back receiving an angelic smile in return. "That would explain why you were able to make this place spotless and organize everything." She nodded in the affirmative. "Well, did you at least manage to eat anything?" Her smile faded as she whispered that she only had an orange. "You know that's not enough and the biscuits don't count as a meal either." The female had failed to eat an entire meal since she had been with the group as she was a very picky eater; she had only managed to eat fruit, hot crisps, and sweets. He moved to the food storage and returned with a plastic fork and a can of spinach. The girl instantly scoffed at the can as Terrance grew closer. "Well, Little Miss Attitude, we're not going to get any further in that book until you eat this, and before you ask yes, the entire thing." She turned her nose up at the can. "Jerry, do you think you could help me convince her otherwise?" The giant quickly turned his smile into a scowl as he began to wiggle his fingers, an obvious threat to tickle her. Her eyes widened at the boy and she reluctantly took the already opened can and began to eat. She could hear G-Man's muffled laughter has she made a face of disgust until she finally made it through the entire can.

"Oh, it wasn't that bad." Terrance said as he passed her a bottle of water which she quickly opened to wash down the vile taste of the leafy green. The girl then began to babble in her native language, a string of harsh sounding words pouring from her mouth in rapid succession. "Ah, you wound me, girly!" The boy exclaimed dramatically as he threw a hand over his heart and wore an exaggerated look of disbelief. She could only glare and roll her eyes at him as he patted for her to join him on the cot. "If you redirect that attitude, you could finally come up with a name. I hate referring to you as girly." She took a deep breath to calm herself and opened up the book to the twenty-fifth chapter. He was right; she had yet to find a name she liked after the group tired and failed to think of one that would fit her and ultimately thought it would be more appropriate for her to choose her name this time around instead of clinging to Number 23.

She was a few pages shy of finishing the book when with a loud pop the power went out. With everything completely dark, the boys sighed loudly as they now faced the problem of feeling their way around to find at least on torch or lantern. However they were alerted to another problem as the girl screamed, then the sound of the book and a half full bowl of biscuits falling to the floor completely forgotten. Everyone nearly jumped out of their skins at the cry of absolute horror. The leader of the group moved to comfort her, attempting to place his hand on her back. Surprisingly, she beat him to the punch and actually initiated contact by burying her face in his arm. "Troy, do you think you going to the breaker room would actually do any go?" The group no longer used the gas generator now that Troy was able to hack into the city's power plant and route power to the abandoned section of tunnels.

"No, this has to deal directly with the plant itself and even if I could restore the power, my tablet was dead when I pulled it in 5 minutes ago." The red-head called as he fumbled around for a light source.

"Wonderful." He said aloud as the female finally released her death grip on his arm.

"Light, I need light." The girl said almost hysterically as she withdrew from Terrance completely. Fearing that she could actually get up and accidentally hurt herself in her desperate search for light, the teen blindly grabbed at the darkness for her form. Through his aimless clutching at the open air, Terrance started to call her name in near panic when he could no longer feel her weight on the cot but he could still hear her voice as her pleas had fallen to a soft prayer. As the terror began to build in his chest, the teenage dropped to all fours and began to shuffle forward cautiously in hopes for stopping the girl from hurting herself. No sooner after he began his search, he drew back quickly at the sudden appearance of a bright flame. Taking comfort in the flickering flame believing that the girl had found a lighter to serve as a temporary light source, Terrance sighed with relief and called out to her. No real reply was given as her chanting continued on unhindered. As he reached forward slowly to comfort the girl, the flame steadily began to grow in intensity and size as the seconds ticked by causing those present to become fearful that young woman had set herself on fire. Before anyone could do anything to help her, the flame grew so rapidly that their eyes didn't have enough time to adjust to the brilliant light. As they all turned away to avoid the bright light, there was a great flash which momentarily blinded the group. Noticing the stillness of the room and the fact that he hadn't burned to death as he had been so close to the fire, Terrance turned back out to curiosity to take in a sight that momentarily caused him to question his sanity.

Still curled up before them was the girl, her murmurs never ceasing or crescendoing, but her form had completely changed. Her entire body had transformed itself into what Terrance could describe as living lava. The girl's skin was a red hot color seemed to carry a life of its own, pulsating in time with what Terrance could only guess was her heartbeat. As they looked at her, they noticed that at the nape of her neck, symbols and letters of what they could only guess was part of an ancient language—or her language, began to pour out and run its course along her limbs. Within seconds the characters spread in a straight line like furious ants until they had covered every digit and limb with a line of text. Only on her back did the words ever group together in order to form a solid block of text on either side of her spine. Frozen in complete awe, they watched as the words began to lift off her back, pulling away from itself in order to make the outline of wings while her body responded by filling in the empty space of the wings with fire. Extending from her head were long tendrils of fire that softly and freely swaying in the air like the tentacles of a sea anemone.

No one dared to move, or even breathe as they noticed her head slowly lifting away from her hands. The being turned and looked around the area in an attempt to gauge the reaction of the group, her eyes finally resting on Terrance who gasped through his teeth when he made contact with her orbs. Gone were the white sclera and human-like orange irises he had grown accustomed to, but instead large avian eyes, the irises the same color has her glowing flesh burning in a sea of vivid scarlet. Those eyes seemed to bare into his soul as they continued contact with his, almost as if they could see everything he had ever done within his short lifetime, wishing to seek out and learn every secret he concealed in his heart. Feeling almost guilty for having her look at him in such a manner, the youth took in her face which as expected had changed as well. Running just beneath her eyes were the same singular lines of text which cast the illusion of tears streaming down her face while at the center of her forehead sat a symbol, a line over a semi-circle. After such a long pause of silence between the boys and the being, the young leader cautiously called to her, hoping that she was still in her right mind as her unblinking gaze never left his.

"I never waited any of you to see me this way," she finally stated as she turned her head to stare off into space. "I never wanted any of you to find out like this, but the darkness..." Her voice sounded so hollow and detached from her body, as if she were merely a puppet while an unseen puppeteer loomed above them and lent its voice to the girl. The youth called out to her in attempt to regain her attention, his hand moving to wave in front of her to pull her back from the recesses of her mind.

"Stay back!" She cried out as she rose to one leg, her flesh flashing a brighter shade as she quickly pulled away from him. Distress was prevalent on her face as her mind finally caught up to the situation, ordering her forward to her next course of action. However, with her all seeing eyes, the being caught movement in the corner of the room, her agony quickly turning into anger as she quickly turned to Troy. "You keep away from me!" she hissed hatefully as she stood defensively and raised her right hand which started to glow brighter and brighter as she prepared to launch a ball of fire toward him. "I've dealt with your kind for far too long and I wouldn't have any regrets about killing you were you stand." Though her words rang with the malice, her face fell ever so slightly as they parted her lips leading Troy to knowing ask, "What did they do to you?" Her stance swayed slightly at the question her eyes falling to the floor briefly before she looked toward him once again. "What they didn't do would pose a far better answer," hardness came to her eyes as she once again steeled herself to protect herself, "But I'm not dumb; I know what you're doing. The tests, the questions- it's maddening and by the way it took me two weeks, not four to master the language." His eyes widened at the realization that she hadn't actually left the platform but had probably hid around a corner and read the notebook from across the room while he wrote. "I can see that look of curiosity in your eyes when you think I don't notice you observing me. I know that look far too well and what it leads to next and I can't— I won't allow myself or anyone else to suffer for your amusement and for the sake of 'scientific advancement.'"

"We would never-,"

"Then why bother having him teach me how to fight, am I not efficient enough for your liking?" She asked while turning toward Jerry who was alert and ready to move at a moment's notice.

"That was for discipline since you tried to kill me." He said, glancing toward the fist-sized hole she left in the concrete.

"Discipline, huh? I think I gained enough of that when I was made to fight, to kill others like me for my own survival, but you already know that don't you?" A bitter smile twisted her mask of agony as she said this.

"You would honestly believe we would make you do something so barbaric?" Terrance said in disbelief, "After we risked our lives to save you?" This gave her pause to think for a moment before turning to the young leader with those piercing eyes.

"I'm not ungrateful if that's what you're trying to get saying; I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for giving me my freedom. There is nothing I could possibly do or say to accurately convey my appreciation, however, I'll be damned if this temporary freedom was given to help me ease into an even worse hell than the one prior."

"No one is forcing you to stay here against your will, love." Terrance explained in an attempt to not only calm her down and keep her attention focused on him. "You've been here for nearly a month and we've never done anything to hurt-," A thought came across his mind as his eyes narrowed at the girl. "That's why you haven't eaten anything; you think we tainted it." She neither negated nor confirmed his accusation as she slowly lowered her hand to her lap.

"I liked it here." She confessed almost silently like a scared child that was forced to tell the truth after much intimidation from its parents. "Among you, even if I had to play dumb for a while, I was actually treated like I was an actual person and not a…" her voice fell, her mind unwilling to verbally admit what she was, what she felt she had always been behind those clean white walls and sterile environment of her loathsome prison. She quickly and wordlessly stood and turned to escape the group, until she saw a hand move toward her. "I said stay back!" She exclaimed reacting instinctively to rid herself of the aggressor, only to realize that it was Terrance moving to stop her departure. Her attempt to pull away from him backfired when he effortless captured her wrist. Terror consumed her as she prepared herself for the screams of pain that normally followed when anyone attempted to touch her in this state; however, she was very astonished when his face didn't contort in instant pain nor was there familiar smell of burning flesh.

The teen at her side looked toward her, this time his eyes burned intensely as he rose to stand before her, "You're not a monster. You couldn't hurt me when you had the chance." His hold on her was firm yet gentle, his voice steady as their eyes never broke contact. He had expected her pull away from him knowing that she always initiated any physical contact with the group and given her faltering mental state, Terrance was sure that she would try to claw at him to free herself. He was surprised when she seemed open herself to his touch, willing herself to take comfort from another.

"No one has the power to turn you into what you fear most, you have control over your life now. Will you spend it slowly turning into what they were out of fear and hatred or will you take a hold of your life and make it your own, make it better than what they had planned for you?" Her eyes widened at his words as she finally seemed to grasp her situation.

"I gave my word—we gave our word that we would help you and keep you safe," The group nodded in agreement at their leader's words as they all thought back to the night they found the poor creature abandoned in the overrun lab.

"Even after that stunt you pulled, I don't hate you. I had trudged up a bad memory for you and crossed a line with you," Troy stated from his corner of the platform, "I didn't mean any harm in my actions, either, as far as the tests go. You are the most incredible and brilliant person I ever met and it is sometimes hard for me not to get carried away with anything I'm interested in. I have never seen you as anything but a person, even after I was able to decrypt a majority of the files on you ID bracelet. I saw what they made you do and you only acted out of fear and your own safety, no one can fault you for that." She slowly began to sink to her knees as they spoke, their words triggering something within deep her that she thought had long since died with her fellow Numbers.

"I'm sorry that you feel threatened by me, and for what it's worth, I'm sorry for what they did to you." She nodded slowly in acknowledgement of his apology, the being's head bowed low, refusing to let them see what tears that were shed, spill and instantly evaporate.

"You're free and you can live." Terrance whispered softly as he clasped her hand now as she sat trembling.

"I can stay?" She asked finally raising her head, her eyes burning with hope. They all nodded. With their confirmation, the female slowly started to shift back to her first form, her wings beginning to recede into her back. After that the room started to grow dimmer as her skin faded back to its normal tan color until she was finally back to normal. The only light present in the space was cast from the roaring ball of fire she cradled in her hand which allowed her to see Terrance clearly as they both were entranced by the dancing flames.

"You know, you lot might live to regret this," she said to him quietly her eyes falling to his. "Having a freak force of nature like me around." The teen chuckled lightly and met her orange orbs with a smile on his face that reached his eyes.

"Well, winter is coming so we could save tons on heating," he received an exhausted yet sweet laugh from her. "But I wouldn't worry about the freak part, you're among friends who have taken a course in Survival 101," at this point his eyes became overcast as a memory tried to forced it's way to his mind, but he stopped it before the images could come to mind. "Some things that I guess would make us victims, too. At least two positive things have come from all of this."

She raised an eyebrow.

"You're a great actress," She elbowed him in the side, shame reflected on her face as she apologized for her deception. "And I think we just found a nickname for you." He added with his white smile gleaming brightly in the firelight.

Well, that's all I have for now. I really hadn't intended for this chapter to be so long but here we are 8 pages later. Anyway, Part 3 should pretty much sum up everything quite vividly and explain why things are as they are for Chapter 2 onward. Thank you so much for reading and don't forget to fav/follow/review! (Also, if someone would like to act as my beta and you meet the sites qualifications, please shoot me a PM.)

Peace and love.