When Blossom was called back into the basement, it had looked different.

The dreaded dome had disappeared, as if it had seeped into the floor. Wooden boards covered the entire surface, as if the large glass item had never existed. Also in the space was a large desk pushed up against the far wall with a large chalkboard next to it. Book shelves lined the wall parallel to the stairs, filled with pieces of literature and unnamed chemicals. One of them was labeled though.

"'Chemical X.'" she had read that with ease, even though it was placed high above her head. She turned to see Jo hard at work at his desk and slowly approached him. "You...called me Mr. Jo."

Jo turned in his chair to look at her and grinned. "Blossom...how are you?"

He's even calling her this new nickname.

Blossom shrugged.

It was just yesterday when Clara and Mitch died. She thought she would be more sad about their deaths. But after it actually happened, she felt hollow. Empty, no feelings whatsoever. All she wanted to do now was feel something.

But it was hard and she couldn't.

She was numb.

"Fine." she answered simply.

"Good good." the man turned to the chalkboard beside him and gestured to it for the girl to focus on it. "Now, I have a very important mission for you to do in a couple of days."

He got up and pushed the board out for her to see it better. On it was a plethora of different newspaper clippings. Each one was separated into different sections of the board, some of the areas had more than one article based around it.

"Now, I stayed up all night collecting all the various threats to Townsville and put them here. The one I want you to focus on is this gentleman."

Jo pointed to a picture of a burly man with a large nose, freckles and bushy red hair. He looked seemingly irritated as he was getting his mugshot taken. A couple pictures had him holding a large hunting rifle and looking threatening.

"Flynn "Fuzzy" Lumpkins. Arrested on several murder charges but keeps escaping jail. He's been shooting anyone that steps foot on his property, that includes kids like you."

"You want me to kill him?" Blossom asked.

"Try to persuade him." Jo answered. "But if that doesn't work, kill him. Tell the police you handled the situation and leave the station. Simple as that."

"And if the police want me for questioning?"

"Don't."

She nodded.

"Originally, I was thinking about waiting until I had assembled your team before you start doing missions but...you seem perfectly capable of doing this one solo."

Blossom raised an eyebrow. "Team?"

Jo nodded.

Her brow furrowed. "If you wanted a team so badly, then what was the point of killing Clara and Mitch? They could've-"

"No no no…" He shook his head. "They don't mesh well with you. Not to mention that Mitch will hog the spotlight because he's a boy. You know how the media is."

Blossom blinked. He did bring up a...decent point.

"Plus, Clara was way too weak. I watched the fight back and Mitch shouldn't have been able to kill her so easily."

"But we all trained together!" she reasoned.

"Just because you three trained together doesn't mean you all put in your best effort. You did, the others didn't."

Blossom lowered her head and nodded. There was no point in arguing with him. What's done is done and there was no turning back.

"Is there anything else?" she asked.

Jo nodded. "While you're out, Him and I will be bringing in more kids. I want you to come in through the back, in case it's still bright outside.

"Do you want me to do it in my training uniform?"

"No, that's for training only. Though…" he tapped his chin. "This is a test to see if you can handle missions so…" he suddenly snapped his fingers. "Remember that dress you wore when you first got here?"

She nodded.

"Wear that. Lumpkins will never see it coming!" he snickered a little, turning to face his desk. "You can go now."

Blossom nodded once, turning on her heels and headed towards the stairs.

~I~I~

Blossom stared at herself in the mirror.

Jo had told her to wear her Adoption Day dress to her mission and she agreed. Once she had gotten upstairs, she turned on her bedroom lights and threw the outfit on, being careful not to drop the rest of her clothes she had on hangers.

Her white dress decorated with little pink roses. Lace graced the end of the outfit as well as the puffy sleeves. She had a big red ribbon wrapped around her midsection and a bow on her head. She stared at her reflection and realized that she was nothing like the girl who had wore this very dress months ago.

The obvious differences were her hair and eyes, them being brighter and abnormal. The other things that changed weren't physical but mental. She had seen three kids die. She had killed a fourth with her own strength. All of that ruins the mind, especially for a child like herself. But as she stared at herself, she could no longer see an innocent little girl.

All she saw was her shell.

A shell of her former self. Like a caterpillar shedding skin. She was gone. Ashley was gone. And she was replaced with what was left of her.

And that was Blossom.