My black box was beeping noisily by the time i stopped it. I looked at the time, and noticed that it was just past 12:30. I got up and stretched, then for the third time in one morning, went to the bathroom. I washed my face wincing as the water crept into the cut. I came back out and grabbed my boots, pulled them on, and then before i put my coat on, i undid the straps I always had on over my body armour to hold my katanas. I carefully put the in the safe under my bed, and locked them, and then grabbed my coat, walked out of the room and closed the door behind me. Most people were at lunch by this time of the day, so i walked in relative comfort, out of the shadows for once. I walked past numerous training rooms, all empty, except one. I looked inside quickly and saw Wing practising with his bow and arrow. I quickly ducked past the room, and walked into the next one. Training Room 7. Raven was already there, no big surprise, and she had removed her coat and hung it by the door, on one of the available hooks. I took that as a sign to remove mine, and i placed it, hanging, a lot smaller then Ravens, on the second hook. I walked over to where Raven was standing, and the second she turned around she was attacking. Not with her katanas that were discarded on the floor about 20 metres away, but with her arms and legs. I blocked her attack with my arm, holding it up against her swinging arm, blocking her attack, but leaving myself open for another kick to my ribs. I coughed and spluttered, keeping my center of gravity low just incase Raven tried for another attack.
"Today, we're working on both your balance and speed..."

I aimed a punch at her ribs, but she rolled with it and deflected it.

"Balance not force, please," she noted and quickly took five steps back. Without further hesitation, I aimed a hook kick at her head. She dodged it though, and I had to recover quickly to avoid falling over. She launched herself in the air, her leg aiming for my head, and as I was about to block it and throw her to the ground, she changed it, and her kick changed to a sweep kick aimed at my feet. I saw her suddenly kick out at my shoulder and I axe kicked, hitting her hard in the stomach. She took a step back and smiled.

"Nice job, you did what I told you to do." I smiled proudly and that's when she attacked. She did a simple move, but I was distracted. She punched me hard in the stomach, and I sunk to one knee, gasping for breath.

"It's simple moves like that you need to watch out for. Keep alert, day and night. Even if you have deflected an attacker, they will get back up and try again. You did amazingly well though." She lifted her arm and showed me where a bruise was forming on her ribs from my axe kick. I looked down and opened my mouth to say something, and then I looked up. Raven was gone. I walked out of the training room and hung my head. I was getting too caught up in my emotions.
"Lena!" I spun around. Wing was standing in the doorway smiling. I just stood there as Wing walked straight past me into the room. What was he doing? Raven had already left.
"Wing." I called out to him. He didn't respond. I quickly yanked the door open and looked inside. There was no-one there. I saw my coat hanging on the peg, and i grabbed it off, and pulled it on. I slunk out from the room again, and walked along the busy corridor, hiding in the shadows. Once or twice, I thought someone had seen me, but by the time they had a chance to look again, i was gone. I kept this up until I got back to my quarters, but this time Raven wasn't there. I needed to talk. I was contemplating walking around until I found her, but I knew it was next to impossible to find Raven unless she wanted to be found. I sighed, and walked into the bathroom. I quickly had a warm shower to relieve the muscle pain, and then pulled my clean body amour on. I walked out of the bathroom and started thinking about what I had done wrong. I had attacked too hard, and that threw me off balance. I got distracted. I was too busy watching for sneaky attacks, and I left too much of the rest of my body easy to get to with obvious ones. I sighed again. I was about to get up and go for a run for something to do when my black box beeped. I grabbed it and flipped it open, and was greeted by Raven on the screen.
"Lena, I need you to meet me in Doctor Nero's office immediately." I nodded and flipped my black box closed. I shoved it in the pouch that I had on my belt and grabbed my coat of the door. I sprinted through the shadows and up to Nero's office.

I walked up to the door, and knocked. There was no reply. I pushed the door, but it still wouldn't open. I shoved my shoulder against the door and still it didn't budge. I gave it one last try. I kicked as hard as I could without breaking my foot, and it slammed into the door, just underneath the handle. The door moved slightly so I went back to shoving. After three shoves, I managed to get the door open just enough that I could slip through. I looked around the room I was in, it was like a reception area, but there was no receptionist. I scanned my surroundings, but there was nothing that looked out of place, so I decided that it was safe to press on. I walked slowly, half crept, half walked to the door on the other side of the room. I hoped that it was open this time. I knocked again, and again, there was no reply. I twisted the door handle, and thankfully, the door opened. I walked in slowly, once again scanning my surroundings and looking for Raven. I looked over to the far corner of the room, and saw Raven huddled over and looking rather small, and for the first time I could remember, scared. Doctor Nero was also in the corner, but he was either: unconscious, dead, or somehow sleeping. I was about to cross the room to see if they were alright, but my training kicked in. I stopped and looked around, checking for signs of disturbances, booby traps or hurried entry. I checked my surroundings for a good few minutes before slowly crossing the room. I checked Doctor Nero first; he still had a pulse, so I left him as he was. I took a step over to Raven, and she too was fine. I checked her for any injuries or concussion, but she didn't have any obvious ailments. I walked over to the desk centered at the back of the room, which had Raven's twin katanas on it. I picked them up and quickly crossed the room. I handed them to her and asked:
"Who did this? Where are they now?"…

Raven said nothing, but she raised a shaky arm and pointed towards the other side of the room.

"You stay here and watch Doctor Nero. OK?" she nodded, and I crossed the room, drawing my katanas and turning them to the sharp edge at the same time. I slowed down as I got nearer to the attacker, but I still didn't fully stop. I decided that I would be better off not killing the person, just wounding them so they could be questioned later. I approached the person warily. They had a mask on, and they were tall, and looked really strong. I went to attack, but I ducked instinctively as a foot came flying towards my head. I stood up again, re gained a reasonably low center of gravity and attacked. I was a little slow though, and the person aimed a kick at my right hand, my preferred hand, and knocked the sword out of it. The force used was fairly major, and so I felt the bones in my hand crunch. I gritted my teeth and ignored the pain as best I could. I ducked another time as the person launched a foot at me. As I ducked, I noticed the person's fist arcing around aiming at my ribs, the ones that had been bruised badly yesterday. I twisted avoiding the fist and foot and at the same time, pushed myself off the floor with my hands, sideways, aiming for the persons face. I felt the person go limp as I hit them full force with both my feet, and when I heard a familiar sounding "oof!" I realized that this was all a set up. Nero wasn't really unconscious, Raven wasn't scared and the person I was fighting was Wing. I turned around to look at Raven, my left sword pointing at Wing, and I jumped when I saw Raven right in front of me. I was too busy trying to work out what was going on, that I forgot about Wing. To his credit, I got a hard kick in the back, and next thing I knew, I was lying face down on the floor, and I had an aching and bleeding nose. I got up and was about to take my temper out on Wing and throw a punch at his face when I remembered something Raven had told me.

"Never attack out of rage, but out of measured reasoning." I slowly pulled my hand down and turned to face Raven again. I faced Raven and attempted to stem the blood flow from my nose with my shoulder. That didn't work very well, so I pinched the bridge of my nose with my left hand and shook Wing's hand with my right. Raven began talking, but for some reason, i couldn't hear what she was saying. I shook my head to clear it, but then everything went all fuzzy, and I couldn't think or see straight. I started to feel really dizzy, like after you have been spinning in circles for a long time, and I couldn't keep my balance. I blinked a few more times and tried to fight gravity, but I lost the fight and collapsed on the ground. I knew I should get up, but I couldn't. All I could see was a pool of blood welling up around me, and then everything went black.

I woke up on a hard, but comfortable bed, lying on my side. I tried to pull myself up, but I was either being restrained or I was way too tired and weak to support myself. I gave up and resigned myself to lying comfortably. I saw a slight movement in the corner of my eye, but I couldn't focus on it until it was crouched down in front of me. It was Raven. I groaned as she leant over towards me. She rested her hand gently on my forehead, probably checking my temperature.

I moaned again and blinked a few times. I fully opened my eyes and saw that they were in line with Raven's. Her eyes were concerned, but mine were probably bloodshot, and droopy. I opened my mouth to ask a question, but before I could say anything, she had gently pushed my head back down onto my pillow. I let Raven put my head back on the pillow, and I groaned again. I took a deep breath and asked,
"How long was I out?" Raven sighed,
"Just a couple of days. How're you feeling now?" I chuckled briefly, but immediately wished I hadn't
"Like someone who got into a fight with a Martial Arts specialist, and came off second best."
"Ah, yeah. Well, that's probably my fault. I told Wing to take any opportunity and not to back down."
"Hmmm, well, it looks like I'll be more careful when fighting Wing now. In other words, using a sharp blade, not the blunt one." Raven smiled.
"Yeah. Sorry about that." I nodded slightly.
"You're forgiven. So what actually happened? Why did I pass out like that?" Raven shrugged.
"We don't know. It could have been from a combination of lack of sleep and loss of blood, or it could have just been a moment like that." I nodded.
"Is Wing OK?" Raven nodded.
"Fine." she said. "More then fine actually. He's pleased that he finally got you on the floor, although he's a little upset that you passed out after that. How's your hand by the way?"
"Huh? Oh yeah!" I had forgotten about my hand. I tried it out, testing each finger, then slowly clenching it into a fist. "It feels fine to me." Raven stretched her hand out to me and I opened my hand. She tested each of my knuckles, probably looking for a break or something. When she was satisfied she let my hand go, and I pulled my arm back to my side.

I placed my hand next to me, the way it had been when I woke up, and then sighed. I heard a beeping noise somewhere to my left and turned to see what it was. Raven jumped up from the kneeling position she was in, and scooped her blackbox up from her bed. She flipped it open, and listened to a brief message.
"Yeah, she's OK, she's just woken up. No broken bones as far as I can tell right now. No. OK. Yep, I'll let her know. Bye." She snapped her blackbox closed and came back over to the side of my bed.
"That was Wing," she said as she knelt down. "He wanted to know if you were OK, and he said sorry about the nose and the shove in the back." I smiled, careful not to laugh this time.
"Tell him that's OK, and it was a good shot, so no harm, no foul. Well, there was harm, but that's not the point." I accidentally laughed and then went into a coughing fit. Raven looked concerned until I recovered and took a deep breath. I sunk back down under my covers and fell silent.
"Are you sure you're OK?" I nodded.
"Yeah. Just sore ribs." Raven nodded, and got up off the floor, still looking concerned.
"I have to go and see Doctor Nero, I'll be back within and hour though. OK?" i just nodded. "Try and get some more rest. I expect you to be ready to train again in a few days." once again, I nodded, then sighed again as Raven stalked out of the room.

Eugh, more rest...I think it has got to be a record, I've never been out of anything for more then a few hours, one day, tops. I rolled onto my back, and groaned. I was stiff from lying still for so long, so I rolled onto my side, and swung my feet onto the floor. I grunted as I nearly lost my balance, but recovered and then straightened up. I took an unsure step, and when I didn't fall, I took another one. I raised my arms above my head, and stretched. I didn't feel anything until I put my arms back down. A muscle in my back twitched and I winced as it pulled on my sore ribs. I walked into the bathroom, one hand grabbing something to support me, and I looked at myself in the mirror. My shoulder length black hair was pulled out of its usual tight ponytail, and it was sticking out in some random tufts. I grabbed my hairbrush from the overhead cupboard and yanked it through my hair a few times, then grabbed a hair lacky and pulled it back. I turned the tap on and let the cold water fall onto my hands. I cupped my hands and splashed the water onto my face, then wiped the sleep off. I sighed again, and rubbed my bright green eyes. I walked back into the sleeping area and grabbed my black box.
"H.I.V., is there anyone in pool area 4?" HIVE mind didn't respond for a minute.
"According to my security logs, there is no one around, all students and teachers are at the full school assembly." I nodded.
"OK, thank you." I snapped the lid of my Blackbox closed and I grabbed a towel and a pair of bathers. I walked out of my quarters and down a long corridor to the swimming pool. I got changed out of my leather combat gear and into the bathers. I opened a locker and put my stuff inside, then closed it, scanning my hand as I left so only I could access it again. I grabbed the towel off the bench and walked back out to the pool area. I walked down the ladder and into the cool water. I dived under the water and let it relax my sore, stiff muscles. I swum a few laps easily, then as I neared the end of the lap, and prepared to turn off the wall, a searing pain burnt through my back. I let out an involuntary groan underwater, and pushed off the bottom of the pool and took a deep breath. I pulled my hand up to the sore muscle and rubbed it. The pain was gone, so I dived down again, and continued swimming. I swum another 17 laps, finishing off the kilometer I was aiming for. I got out of the pool and dried myself down. I changed again and walked back to my quarters. I walked in and saw Raven sitting on her bed looking concerned and annoyed.
"I thought I told you to rest."
"I-" She cut me off with a menacing look.
"Go and have a shower and then you're resting for the rest of the day."
"But-" She raised an eyebrow at me.
"If I have to, I'll give HIVEmind orders not to let anyone in or out of this room except for me. I won't do that if you promise me you're going to rest." I sighed.
"Fine." Raven smiled a bone chilling smile.
"You better keep that promise." I nodded. "Now rest. You seem well enough to resume training again tomorrow." I nodded and as Raven walked towards the exit, I walked towards the bathroom. I had a long warm shower and washed the chlorine out of my hair. When I was done, I sat back down on my bed and swung my feet onto my bed and pulled the covers over me. Now that I had had a swim, I was slightly more tired then I was before, and I yawned so I decided that it was time to sleep. I put my head down on the pillow and closed my eyes. I fell asleep easily, and like the rest of the time, I didn't dream.

I woke up, refreshed, and admittedly less sore as well. I pulled my arms above my head and stretched. There was no pain, just a bit of stiffness. I rolled over to my side and tried to see the clock that Raven always kept on her bedside table. I blinked a few times, then my eyes finally focused on the clock. It was 2:30 in the morning. I groaned, but mutedly, careful not to wake up Raven. I looked at Raven and saw that she was asleep. I closed my eyes, rubbed them and then re-opened them. I jumped,
"AH!" I turned to face Raven. "Yeesh, Raven, you've got to stop doing that to me, its really freaking me out!" She smiled.
"So you're feeling better then?" I chuckled.
"Mostly, except I'm still freaking out about your sudden change from being asleep to awake in the space of about 5 seconds." She smiled again.
"Yes, it's a skill." I nodded,
"Really, I never would have known." I said sarcastically. She smiled.
"You might want to go back to sleep now, don't forget you've got training later on today." I groaned, and Raven smiled. "Don't worry, no contact training, probably working on your balance and speed." I nodded.
"Sounds good." Raven smiled.
"Now, get back to sleep, I feel like doing the same." I smiled.
"Will do." I rolled over to turn the alarm on my black box on, and when I went to turn the small lamp on the other side of me off, Raven was asleep, and snoring lightly. I smiled, and hit the light switch. I rolled onto my back, closed my eyes and fell asleep.

When I woke up, not to my surprise, Raven was gone. I immediately checked my blackbox and discovered a message from Raven.
"Morning Lena. I had to leave early this morning; hopefully you're feeling better. Training today will be, for your benefit, back in Pool Area 4. Just make sure you're ready to do a bit of climbing in and out of pools, a few small sprints and a bit of training that will help your balance. I'm not telling you anything else, just make sure you're in Pool Area 4, and ready to swim by 1:45 this afternoon. I should be back by then." The message cut off and I flipped the lid of my blackbox closed. I rolled onto my back, and then onto the floor. I landed on my feet, and to my surprise found my boots cleaned, my swords cleaned and put back in their sheath and my coat cleaned as well and hanging on the back of the door. I shoved my feet in my boots, grabbed my swords and carefully hung each of them in their sheaths across my back, and pulled my coat on, and the collar up to hide my blades handles. I grabbed my blackbox, clipped it onto my belt and left the room. I walked towards the kitchen, intending to get some decent food, but I got distracted on the way there. I noticed Wing and his friend Otto talking mutedly, heads together and staring intently at Otto's blackbox. I shrugged and walked off, now just wandering, not aiming for anywhere in particular.

It was 1:30 when i started making my way back to my quarters. I scanned my palm, and stood back while the door opened. I wasn't watching where I was going, because I was thinking. I was too preoccupied that I misjudged the distance between the sharp corner of the bed and myself. The middle of my shin rammed into it, and I cursed, rubbing my shin. My thoughts were momentarily forgotten when I head a quiet bleeping sound from my blackbox. I flipped it open and saw Raven's head, waiting for me to respond.
"Oh, hi Raven. What's up?"
"Nothing, I'm just checking that you're OK and on your way to training." I nodded.
"Yeah, I was leaving in about a minute." Raven nodded again.
"OK."

"See you at training." I nodded, and closed my blackbox. I grabbed a towel and bathers and walked out of my quarters. I hid in the shadows near the door to my quarters, and waited for a group of Alpha's to pass me. One looked back, but before they could be sure I was there, I was gone.

I walked into the pool area, not paying attention again, and so I didn't see Raven standing there.
"Lena." She said, raising her eyebrows.
Oh! Yeah... So what exactly are we doing?" I asked, looking around.

"Were working on balance." And with that said, she pushed me gently but I was still distracted, so I fell backwards into the pool. I made a grab for Raven's hand, but she stepped to the side and avoided my last ditch attempt. I sunk to the bottom of the pool, and pushed off. I surfaced, coughing and spluttering.
"What the hell?" I screamed at Raven.
"Get out of the pool." Raven seemed as angry and frustrated as I was. I pulled myself out of the pool quickly, not wanting to have any more pain inflicted on me. Raven passed me my katana's but before I had gripped them properly, she swung, aiming for my torso. The end of her blade slammed into my ribs, and I took a step back, winded, wincing and coughing. I looked at Ravens calm, controlled face, and I got angry. We were now graceful blurs, the only the sound of our swords clashing together. I took every opportunity and lunged aiming to inflict the same pain on Raven as she had been putting me through. Raven was quicker though, and more balanced because I was fighting out of pure anger, and she was fighting with more skill then me, and she was calm too. She swung her blade again, and it hit my wrist, and once again I felt it crunching. My fingers automatically lost their grip, and I dropped my sword. She kicked it aside, and swung again. I ducked as it whistled through the air near my shoulder, and I rolled, recovered, and ran towards my sword. I picked it up, and my anger flared. I started to fight harder and more viciously. Suddenly, Raven performed an unexpected low sweep kick and swept me off my feet and onto the floor. I landed hard on my side, on my aching ribs. I rolled onto my back, and tried to get as much oxygen into my lungs as possible. She looked down at me, sprawled on the floor, panting heavily.
"New lesson. Control your emotions. Anger doesn't help. Never does, never will. Leave all thoughts but the current behind, and focus on the fight. It's not about strength but about balance." She paused briefly. "I don't know what is wrong with you today, but you would never make this kind of mistake any other time. I trained you better then that." Raven turned on her heel and walked out of the room. Her words sliced me like a knife. The anger inside me welled up and overflowed.
"Like you never made a mistake!" I shouted angrily. I had made her angry, and she yelled back just as loud as I had to her.
"When in this kind of business, a mistake can cost you your life. Many people have made that mistake and they no longer have the ability to breathe. Dismissed!" She turned and paced out of the room, muttering to herself and shaking her head.
I was shaking uncontrollably, and I just lay there on the floor, waiting for it to stop. I stayed motionless on the floor for a long time, barely noticing the time passing. The room got colder and colder, and soon I was shivering from the cool water still on my skin from the pool. I rolled onto my side, looking for my towel, but I accidentally rolled onto my sore ribs. I turned back immediately, and rolled to my other side. I saw my towel a few metres away, soaking wet because I had it in my hand when I was pushed into the pool. I didn't make any more efforts to move, even though I was still shaking and shivering. I couldn't tell if it was from coldness or anger, but I stayed still. I heard someone walk in, but I made no effort to hide myself or figure out who was there.
"Lena? Lena are you here?" I didn't respond. I heard footsteps searching around the room, and they slowly came closer. A figure walked into my line of sight, but i made no movement.
"Oh, Lena! Are you OK?" I recognised the voice, but it wasn't Raven's. I pulled myself into a sitting position, still shivering, and squinted until I focused on the person. It was Wing. I didn't know why had been searching for me He handed me a towel, and I took it, rubbing my arms, face and body down. He offered me his hand, and I grabbed it, and he pulled me up.
"Lena, you need to go back to your quarters. Warm up and get some rest." I didn't respond.
"Lena, look at me." He stopped me, and spun me around. "Raven wasn't trying to hurt you. She is trying to help you. OK?" I nodded. "Raven is in Doctor Nero's office, so now is you chance to go and calm yourself down. He let me continue walking, but picked up something off the ground.
"Your katana's." I grabbed them, and sheathed them. Wing smiled at me.
"Go and get some rest, and calm down. OK?" I nodded again. He rubbed my shoulders and then let me go. I walked slowly back to my quarters, and went in. I had a warm shower, and sat on my bed. I had stopped shivering, but I lay down on my bed and pulled my covers over me. I closed my eyes, and for the first time ever, I dreamt. I had nightmares all night about when my parents were murdered and how I could do nothing about it. That was why I had trained to become an assassin.

I was falling, into blackness, from blackness. I couldn't stop myself falling, until slowly, a picture, a memory came into view. I saw the sun; it was nearly at its peak, almost directly overhead. I looked down and saw three people, a man, a woman and a child, playing on the swing set in a park. I watched as the child smiled, and the dad was laughing from behind, pushing the small child higher and higher. Suddenly, there was a silent bang and the woman, who was off to my right collapsed, and the man yelled
"NO! SASHA!" the man left the child swinging, and ran over to the woman who was bleeding profusely from a wound in her chest. Suddenly, another bang came out of nowhere, and the man collapsed, next to the woman. The child screamed.
"Mummy! Daddy!" she tried to stop swinging, but her legs were too small to touch the ground, her body too small to reach her dying parents. She had to sit there and watch as her parents were murdered in front of her. I fell to my knees, and screamed like the child. I clutched my head, and tried to block it out, tried to get back to reality. I couldn't though, and I sunk back onto my haunches.

I had just relived the last memories I had of my mother and father before they were killed.

A/N: Yep, I'm leaving you all with a cliff hanger, just 'cause I can :) . So, I know this chapter is absurdly long, but I had to make up for not adding anything for ages :)

Hope you all liked it.

-ScottishLaura