Sweat was dripping from her forehead as she lifted herself up another level on the wall, looking down briefly to see the steadily shrinking figure of Daniel below holding a stop watch and returning her gaze with an unimpressed gleam in his eyes.

"What's with the look?"

"Are you kidding? it's taken you nearly ten minutes to reach the top and you're asking why I'm looking at you funny? I think your age is starting to get to you"

A spark of annoyance ran through her as she swung herself to the side and ripped one of the grips from the wall, launching it with all her considerable strength towards her friend before shouting back down.

"It's been a while, you cheeky fuck!"

Daniel managed to step out of the firing line as the grip came crashing to the floor, the impact causing it to shatter, the floor cracking slightly with the force before sending an equally irritated expression towards the red head.

"Damn it Skye, Watch where you throw your make-shift missiles! Some of us don't have regenerative abilities!"

Skye smirked as she pulled herself up to the final level and towards the edge of the climbing wall, perching upon the top and resting her arms against her legs. She could feel the blood pumping through her veins, her heart rate easing down as she caught her breath once more after the effort of reaching the top. As much as she hated the memories of her former training, she couldn't help but feel invigorated by her return too it.

"I'm sure we can find a way around it if I actually hit you. I mean, I doubt Felix would mind giving you a little nibble to the neck after all"

Daniel's face lit up with embarrassment at the insinuation of her words, preparing to climb the wall himself and push his best friend off the edge if it would stop the gleeful laughter that passed her lips. They loved each other dearly but, like with sibling relationships, they found a fair amount of amusement in teasing the other.

"Excuse me... Are you Daniel? Can I ask if Skye Fall is with you?"

The pair let their eyes trail towards the training room entrance, Daniel removing his foot from the first level on the wall as he sent a final withered expression towards the woman at the top before addressing the new comer. A strange looking woman in his opinion with an overly neat appearance and hair cut short into a bob cut. There was something all too militarised about her. But perhaps he was simply being paranoid.

"Yeah, that's Daniel and I'm up here. What's the problem crew cut?"

The woman's eyes shot up and widened slightly as she met the sight of Skye atop the structure, registering the woman's appearance before adopting a blank expression that Daniel recognised all too well. Something about the woman had put Skye on edge also, her mask of indifference a sure sign to Daniel that his sister in arms felt no trust towards the newcomer.

Any hint of shock at Skye's position vanished from the stranger's face as she rebuilt her own mask of indifference and continued to address them.

"The masters have ordered me to inform you that your presence is required within the throne room, personal matters that need to be discussed"

Daniel nodded before turning back to look towards Skye, a look upon his face as if giving a silent order of his own as the red head gave him an incredulous look before huffing in blatant annoyance at what he was suggesting to her.

"What's your name crew cut?"

"Jessica Rydal"

Skye seemed to contemplate the name for a moment, tossing it around in her head for a moment before shrugging and moving to stand precariously upon the edge of the wall, it's 40ft drop towering above them as the red head at the top seemed to care little for the height.

"Well Jessie, how do you cope with surprise?"

"My name isn't... Hey wait! Don't do-"

Skye was free falling from the top of the structure before Jessica could complete her sentence, arms spread wide at her side and her legs stretched out towards the ground as the ground came rapidly closer and Daniel simply rolled his eyes and shook his head. That hadn't been his actual meaning when he had looked towards the other subject. He would have preferred a simply climb down rather than a death leap that would more than likely scare the young woman witless. He smirked at the notion, if Skye had any suspicions about this woman then that would be exactly what she was aiming for. Fear had always been one of Skye's easiest tools when facing an enemy or a threat.

The impact of Skye's landing was destructive as the subject projected all of her strength into a single fist, ramming the limb into the floor and grinning slightly as the ground around her impact fractured and cracked beneath her. Blood oozed from her hand as the dust settled, groaning as she realised that her leg had been broken in the process.

"You realise that isn't what I was suggesting when I looked at you"

She flicked her finger up at Daniel's words, noting the lack of sarcasm in the comment and the way his eyes seemed to gleam with pride at the frightened look within Jessica's eyes as the sound of Skye snapping her own bones back into place filled the room and the woman began to stand once more, the remnants of her own blood covering her hand the only evidence that it had ever sustained any damage at all.

"But how? That fall should have killed you... The law of averages dictates that a fall of three times your own height has a 50% of death! That fall should have been fatal!"

Skye scoffed as she stretched out the limb that had been broken only moments before, testing whether it was ready to be used again so soon. The healing part was the quick part, but that didn't mean she couldn't feel pain at all.

"You'll learn Jessie, that the 'law of averages' means jack shit to either myself or Daniel... Thanks for the message, I think we can make our own way to the throne room from here"

The pair watched as Miss Rydal exited the room, her eyes betraying her unsettled nerves at what she had just witnessed. Skye's expression was glacial as Daniel gave a concerned sigh and turned to look at her once more.

"Whilst I understand why you did it, I think you may have gone a little over board with the demonstration... How do you want to proceed with this? The old routine or should we just bide our time?"

"For now, keep your eye on her if you can. I want to know if she appears to be doing anything suspicious or out of the ordinary compared to the other secretaries. I'll speak with the brothers, I'm sure either one of Aro, Caius or Marcus can give me more information on her to ease this paranoia I have towards her... Until we have proof to say otherwise, don't trust her. There's just something not quite right about her"

The two left the room in silence, the damage their training had caused pushed from their minds for a later date as more worrying thoughts filled the space. Skye would not let the General steal away hers and Daniel's happiness so soon after it had been found. If he had sent in spies to infiltrate the Volturi, then she was not above using torture techniques to get her own useful information from them. If she remembered correctly, the General had never shown much care for the life of his 'pawns' or any that he considered below him.

Ok, so not going to lie, this chapter has been giving me an absolute nightmare of a time trying to complete it mainly because it was the introduction of a new character and also a build up to more important chapters that will be following after it. I hope you all enjoyed the latest update and will let me know what you all thought of it, if all goes well, I'll hopefully have the next update up in a week or two (instead of two months, I am so sorry about that).

A huge thank to everyone for reviewing and follow/favouriting this story so far, your support is really appreciated and I'll do my best to not let you down :)

Thanks guys,

Thecrimsondagger