Hey, everyone! Sorry it took me so long to post this next chapter. I finally got my own Minecraft account and got addicted to it and, as a result, procrastinated with getting this up. Bad me. Anyway, here's the next chapter finally. XD

Once again, my dreams were filled with nightmares. The reoccurring nightmare of how a man's brains had been blown out haunted me still, only now, it was merged with the horror of being beaten to death personally by the Headmaster. I know he didn't actually beat me to death, but it terrified me that he was very much capable of such an act. I had my eyes shut tight, willing them to open and try to shake me from the terror, but they would not cooperate, forcing me to keep watching as I got pummeled. Just before he gave me the killing blow, the pounding of the black door jolted me awake with a gasp. I sat up and stared at the door, panting heavily, before calming down and realizing that I was still in the safety of my room.

I let out a groan and laid back in my bed a while longer, not quite wanting to get up. I was still dead tired from my training and my lack of sleep the previous night. When the pounding persisted, I slowly got up, my muscles screaming in protest and my whole body still aching from the bruises and cuts that had clotted now. I carefully waddled over to the door, trying to use my aching muscles as little as possible, and opened up the heavy door, trying so hard not to wince from the exertion I had to put in my arms. When the door finally opened, it revealed an average, middle-aged guard looking at me with annoyed, squinty eyes. "Took you long enough," he grumbled, "Time for training."

Again? Would I have to train every day from now on? I suppressed a growl of frustration. At this rate, I had a feeling I'd die of exhaustion or overworking myself before I ever got good enough for the Headmaster to even consider giving me a break. "Combat training?" I asked, trying to hide the fear, disdain, and dread in my voice. I didn't want to get beaten senseless again. I still hadn't quite recovered from the shock I had received yesterday with his teaching style.

"No," the man said gruffly, "He'll be teaching you something different today."

Oh, thank God. I let out a tiny sigh of relief before pressing for further information, "What will I be learning?"

"I don't know," he said stoically, "He didn't reveal too many details, only that it wasn't combat. Now, if you're ready, then follow me."

I nodded and walked after him, completely puzzled at this mystery training. What else was there to learn? I thought we only needed to learn combat around here. I wondered what else I didn't know about in this mysterious and dreadful base. As I looked ahead, following right behind the uniformed guard, I noticed that we were going a long, winding route unfamiliar to me. "Where are we going?" I asked. It certainly wasn't the way we had taken to the Training Room yesterday. Were there other ways to reach the room?

"To the laboratories."

The laboratories? What could I possibly do in there? I thought I was forbidden to go down there unless I had permission. Why would he want to train me in there? My eyes widened a bit in surprise, this would, after all, be the first time I officially visited the basement, "Oh . . . okay. . ."

We eventually reached the end of the hallway, the guard fishing out a key and opening the metal door before us, showing steep, cold, metal stairs. As we slowly descended the staircase, I clung tightly to the rail, afraid that I'd fall down them. I'd never gone down these things without Anya, and I was once again frightened for myself. Neither of us said a word, the only sound being the soft click of footsteps on the metal floor as we reached the basement and stopped in front of a large, silver, metal door with a vault-lock combination. I watched in silent wonder as the guard punched in the combo on the number pad, and then I jumped in surprise when the door unlocked with a loud clang.

He turned the wheel in the middle of the door and it slowly swung open. My eyes only widened even more at the spectacle. I had never seen a door like this, whenever I went down to the basement, I was in the east wing of the area; the west wing was always closed off to me until now. "Right in there," he said gruffly.

I nodded slowly and cautiously walked into the room, jumping once again as I heard the door slam shut behind me. I glanced briefly back at the door before inspecting the laboratory. There were black tables rowed down the center of the room, three columns total and each having at least ten tables. Each one was equipped with clear, glass test tubes and fat beakers. Some were in odd shapes like spheres with thin glass extending out from the side like arms, and some were carefully and meticulously placed in racks. Some were even bubbling with odd, colorful liquids on Bunsen burners, the small, alluring flame at the top boiling the liquid. There were only a few scientists in the room, keeping check on the tables with the liquids on them, but none of them paid any heed to my curious inspection.

One particular liquid, however, caught my eye. I stopped by the table with the beaker holding the fluid on the burner and stared at it curiously. The liquid was a beautiful, hypnotic, deep purple color. The color itself drew me to it, even more than the beautiful flame that heated it up. I looked around me; there was no one else close to this table at the moment, so I continued to stare at the liquid. After looking at its elegant appearance for a while, I started growing an odd desire to touch it. Slowly, I reached out my hand, and just as I was going to reach the glass, I heard a deep voice snarl behind me, "Don't touch that!"

I jumped in surprise and drew my hand back, whirling around towards the voice and coming face-to-face with the Headmaster. How had he snuck up behind me so quietly? The floor was metal, I should've heard him! "S-sorry!" I quickly exclaimed, looking to the floor beneath me in shame and guilt.

"Don't apologize for such a foolish act!" he hissed, "You tried to touch it and you knew that you shouldn't have. Such idiotic behavior will only endanger you and everyone around you! I expect you to know better than that next time!"

I nodded quickly, not daring to look him in the eye. "Y-yes, Headmaster. I will."

"Good. At least you didn't succeed in touching it this time, that's all that matters. Just . . . don't touch anything else in here unless I give you permission to. Now, follow me." He turned on his heel and stalked off towards a center table.

I quickly scrambled after him, and once I caught up to him I asked quietly, "What was that liquid?"

"A deadly poison that kills through contact. It seeps through the skin and kills the victim slowly and painfully within forty eight hours. So far, there is no cure for it. We've spent years trying to develop its formula, and the ingredients the poison requires makes it extremely hard to produce. That's why I didn't want you to touch it."

I gulped a bit and nodded, "O-okay." Good thing I didn't touch it, then! But I couldn't help but wonder why Hydra was trying so hard to develop such a deadly poison. What would they even use it for? I was still too ignorant to even know of the organization's true intentions, and could only question things to myself. We stopped by a table filled with clean, empty beakers and various ingredients. The plants were all weird and alien to me. They came in various shapes and sizes, some geometric, and some just completely random and strange. They were colorful, even outmatching the poison's color that I had seen earlier. I didn't have any idea why there were so many odd plants, but I didn't want to ask. I didn't want to seem dumber than I probably already appeared to the Headmaster.

"Today, you'll be learning how to make various poisons," the Headmaster proclaimed.

"What for?"

"It's good to know about the dangers of the world. Each of these plants on the table are all poisonous on their own, but combined are even more deadly. Knowing the plants that are poisonous will help you know what to not eat when you're in the wilderness. Not to mention, people can easily use poison to kill you, learning about the various types will not only prevent you from getting poisoned, but will help you learn how to get rid of the toxin should it happen to slip past your eye."

I nodded. In my mind, that actually made a bit of sense, so I no longer questioned why Hydra was making these deadly toxins. Maybe they were working on a cure for them and had to have the actual poison for testing. I watched in silent wonder as the Headmaster took two ingredients, one of them being a couple of small, bright green leaves, and mixed them together, creating a small amount of clear liquid. "Now, this liquid is the poison most used for contaminating drinks. It's clear and tasteless fluid makes it ideal. In small doses, it's perfectly harmless, but large doses will slowly kill you by paralyzing the body functions." I nodded quickly, drinking in every word and not daring to speak. "The best way to prevent getting poisoned in this way is to never accept drinks from other people. Impulsive decisions are what get people killed. Remember that."

Poison training turned out to be way more complex than I could ever imagine combat training to be. There were so many different mixtures for poisons and countless ways to administer them. Not only did I have to learn how to make the poisons, but I also had to learn ways to remove the toxins from the system should I or a comrade get poisoned. By the time I was finally able to go back to my room and sleep, my head was buzzing with so much information that it almost hurt.