I found Dimitri.

Any sign that our previous encounter had happened was wiped from his face. He was standing in the middle of the lab, testing the equipment that was going to be used to torture, I mean, train me.

So, yeah. I found him, but he wasn't going to help me out of this one.

"Hey, Comrade. Are you going to be 'training' me today instead of Stan?" I found it easier to think of these tests as training exercises rather than torture sessions.

"Guardian Alto is not going to be training you at all. I will be administering all of your tests, as I am your main researcher."

"Could've fooled me…" I muttered under my breath. If Dimitri heard me he chose not to comment.

"We're going to start with the physical testing, starting slow and then working up to the harder stuff. After we do the physical tests, we'll move to the mental. Any questions?"

"Wait, is it just you and me? No one else is observing us?" I felt more nervous thinking about being alone with Dimitri then about completing these tests.

"Is that going to be a problem?" His intense gaze fixed on me, sending me so many messages and a silent question: "Forgive me?"

"Not at all." I nodded, answering both his questions. He visibly relaxed and released an audible sigh.

"Well then, Beautiful, let's get started." He gave me a dazzling smile and motioned me over to a treadmill. "We're going to start with endurance testing. You're going to start running, at whatever pace you feel comfortable at, and you're going to run until you can't run anymore."

I nodded along and stepped onto the treadmill. Dimitri started pulling out all sorts of wires and I eyed them with caution.

"I've got to hook these up to you so I can monitor your heartrate, blood pressure, and breathing patterns."

"Umm…alright? What do I need to do?"

"Well…umm…I need access to the spot right above your heart…" He rubbed the back of his neck nervously and a blush crept up to his cheeks. "So, umm…you're going to have to remove your shirt."

"Oh, okay. No problem." I took off my shirt to reveal my black sports bra. I smirked as Dimitri visibly and audibly gulped as he took in my attire. "See something you like, Comrade?" I said cheekily.

'Oh, I see lots that I like…' He thought as he stepped forward to start attaching me to the machine.

'You must have heard that wrong. You're imagining things.' I told myself. I felt a blush coming and I fought so hard to keep it off my face. I don't think it worked.

"Are you ready?" Dimitri asked after he'd finished with the wires.

"I was born ready." I hopped back onto the treadmill and started to jog. As I worked up to a running pace, Dimitri sat at the desk off to the right of the treadmill, pulled out a book, and started reading. "Whatcha reading there, Comrade."

"It's a book, Roza. Have you ever read one?" He replied saucily raising an eyebrow with a smirk.

"Surprisingly, I have, though not since I got to The Academy. They don't like us to be too intelligent, you know?" I replied finally setting a comfortable running speed. "What kind of book is it?"

If I was going to be running this long, at least I could talk to him. I'm going to try to steer clear of any topic that might lead to questioning what he was. I did want to know more about him, though. He spends all his time observing me and getting to know anything about me that might help his research, but I know next to nothing about him.

"It's a western." He looked sheepishly back down at the book. It seems that he might have been teased about it in the past.

"Fancy yourself a cowboy, Comrade? Do you identify more with the outlaws or the bounty hunters?"

"I like to imagine myself as an outlaw trying to escape the overbearing force of the law." Interesting.

"It seems like you're on the wrong side of that equation. You've been wrangling outlaws for the past two years. I couldn't imagine you being one yourself." I laughed. So much for steering clear of touchy topics.

"In another life, I would've been just like you." He got a faraway look in his eye. "Powerful. Fear-inducing. Extraordinary."

"Just like me? Or would you have different abilities?" I chose to ignore the adjectives he used to describe me.

"I would've had some of the same abilities and some different ones."

"What abilities would we have had in common, Comrade?" I was curious, he technically brought up this part of the conversation.

"Telepathy, telekinesis, pathokinesis, thiriokinesis, and duplication."

'Hmm…more than one Dimitri…I could get used to that.' Dimitri choked back a laugh and tried to cover it with a cough. I narrowed my eyes at him.

"What abilities would be uniquely you?" I asked, choosing to ignore his spontaneous laughter.

"Let's see…well, I'd have umbrakinesis – the ability to manipulate darkness. Potentikinesis – the ability to manipulate other's abilities. Metallokinesis – the ability to manipulate metals. And vita-mortokinesis – the ability to control life and death."

"Those are some very specific abilities. It seems that you've put a lot of thought into what it would be like to be different." I commented approaching the ten-minute mark. "If you had those, abilities you'd be Project Z, for sure." I laughed with mirth.

"Nah. Project Z is already assigned, though we don't really know where they are."

"What do you mean? How can you assign a letter if you don't have them here to know what they can do?"

"Well, it's my understanding that they were here for a time. Apparently, a few Projects managed to escape about twenty years ago. A few Projects died in the escape attempt. After that, the Guardians became a lot more strict and a lot more cautious with their Projects."

"Who were the Projects? Obviously, Project Z, but who else?"

"Project Z and Project V helped to get Project Y out and got out with him, but the previous Project X and Project W died in the process. Project O also got out. As far as I know, about two years ago, before you and I got here, they found Project V but there was no way to bring her in, so she was killed. Project Z and Project O are still missing."

"They haven't found the most dangerous Project to ever exist?" I asked, baffled.

"No. He was particularly skilled in neurokinesis and invisibility, but his joy was in pyrokinesis." He told me while shaking his head. "That's how he got the Projects out."

"Neurokinesis? What's that?"

"It's basically compulsion. It's the ability to manipulate thoughts. You manipulate someone's thought into them wanting to open the gates and you pretty much have a free pass to anywhere you want. They haven't come across another Project who possess that specific ability."

"That would come in handy." His head whipped around to where I was still running. "Don't worry, Comrade, I'm having too much fun here with you to even think about escaping."

"Wait, have you been having neurokinetic tendencies?" He actually seemed hopeful that I might answer yes.

"No. But I'll let you know when I can start manipulating Stan into being nicer." I laughed. He studied me for a bit longer, determining if I was telling the truth or not. He must have seen the truth because he went back to reading, and we fell into a comfortable silence.

I'd been running for probably two hours and my legs were just starting to feel a little stiff. At this pace, I'd be here for another four hours at least. I decided to put that time to good use and test the extent of my abilities that I could while still running.

First, telepathy.

"Hey, Comrade. Don't freak out, I'm just testing stuff." Dimitri looked up at me and raised an eyebrow. I gave him a small wave and a smile.

"What are you doing, Roza?"

"I'm testing some of my abilities. I'm gonna see if I have any that I'm not aware of and if so, I'm going to practice them."

"Alright, but remember, not on me. That includes what you're doing now. Answer me out loud and not in my head, please." I gave him a sharp salute causing him to chuckle and turn back to his book.

I very gently picked his book up half an inch and turned the page. His glare came fast and intense.

"You said not to use them on you. You said nothing about not using it on your book." I pulled out his hair tie so his brown mane fell to frame his face. "Or your hair tie." His glare narrowed even more as I started laughing. I huffed, "fine."

Placing his hair tie in his hand and his book back on the desk I split myself into six different me's. I assigned each of them one of my known abilities: aerokinesis, atmokinesis, calokinesis, geokinesis, and hydrokinesis. The last one I set to self-discovery. She was going to dig deep and find any hidden abilities.

Dimitri looked warily at the multiple me's and monitored what each was doing.

"Does that not drain you?" He asked looking back to where I was still running.

"Nope. It takes a little concentration, but not a lot of energy." I answered. "However, I don't have a way to practice my thiriokinesis or my pathokinesis." We all turned to Dimitri, looking at him expectantly.

He gulped.

"Nervous, Comrade?" He turned back to the running me with wide eyes. "I already promised I wouldn't use you. Don't you guys keep rats or something to study?"

"Umm…no. We study the Projects."

"Then how am I supposed to test my abilities?"

"You could…well, you could use…me." He swallowed nervously. The other me's all turned to face me, waiting to see what I did.

"When did you all get minds of your own?" I asked them and they all rolled their eyes and started walking back to me to recombine. "Are you sure about this Dimitri?"

"Yeah." Sounding surer of himself. "Technically I'm an animal too and I do have emotions so I'll fit both criteria for testing your abilities. As long as you don't do anything inappropriate, I'm sure I'll be fine."

"Well there goes my idea of getting you naked." I laughed at his shocked expression. "I was kidding, Comrade. I promise, nothing inappropriate." I said raising my right hand.

"Then, please, proceed." He stood and came to a stop in front of me.

I found shyness and sent it coursing through his body. His eyes turned from mine as he looked down and a blush was starting to make an appearance. I giggled as he tried to fight my control. The more he fought, and lost, the more I felt his annoyance and anger growing. I grabbed ahold of his anger and spread it.

His pupils dilated and his nostrils flared. His gaze quickly returned to mine and it sounded like he was growling. I quickly pushed the anger aside and replaced it with immense sadness quickly followed by elation.

I knew from experience that such a quick change of emotions was mentally taxing and physically draining. I needed him to lower his barriers. If he was weak, he couldn't keep them up. The last emotion I used was calm, and I kept it in place.

With Dimitri calm, I could start my work with my thiriokinesis.

I started by running his hands through his hair and watching it fall back down, framing his perfect face. I tucked one side behind his ear then stretched his arms as far to his sides as they could go. His gaze was fixed on my eyes, calm and trusting, but I was concentrating on each of his limbs as I moved them. I'd never manipulated a human, just animals, it took a lot more concentration because I had an active mind fighting me.

I brought him a step closer to me. I closed his eyes so I could study his face without being watched. I continued to move his arms and hands so he wouldn't get too suspicious. I brought him another step closer, with in arms reach.

I turned off the treadmill and stopped running so I could keep my full concentration on Dimitri. I opened his eyes and stared at him. We held each other's gaze, he was still calm and trusting. I was finding to courage to get answers.

Remembering our earlier conversation, I reach deep within him and found what I was looking for.

Power.

The specific power I found was familiar to me. I had Dimitri manipulate it, and before Dimitri had a chance to realize what was happening, there were three of him.

My eyes widened in disbelief while Dimitri's widened in horror.

We stared at each other for several tense minutes before I smiled in excitement.

"You do have secrets, Comrade."