Hey everyone! So I finally managed to finish this chapter up for you all. It's my longest chapter in this story so far, but there was just so much I needed to put in here! Anyway, enjoy!

It had turned out that my training session from yesterday had exhausted me so much that I didn't even hear the pounding of the door early in the morning. I certainly got a shock after that. The guard that was sent to fetch me roughly shook me by the shoulders and shouted in my ear, "Wake up, you worthless piece of shit!" he snarled.

I let out a surprised gasp and sat up so quickly that I fell off of the edge of the bed and landed face first on the cold, stone floor. "Oomph!" I grunted, my face still flat on the ground.

"You're going to be late for training, hurry up!"

I rolled over onto my back and sat up, holding my forehead and spitting out one of my front teeth that was knocked loose from my fall. I suppose it wasn't too much of a loss, it had been a loose baby tooth for weeks now. "All right," I said quickly, adrenaline allowing me to get up and scurry after the guard, who was already halfway down the hall. Once there, I ran into the training room and bowed my head in shame of myself, fearful of the Headmaster's glare. "S-sorry," I mumbled, "I-I overslept."

"No excuses," he growled, "You need to be ready for training at all times."

"I know," I said quietly, staring at the floor in guilt. "What . . . what are we doing today?"

"We're doing all four training sessions," he said emotionlessly.

My mouth unconsciously dropped open. All four training sessions? I could handle them one at a time, but all four? I felt overwhelmed at the sheer fact of it and barely had the strength or bravery to ask, "Why are we doing all four?"

"We need to take the rest of the time preparing," he stated simply.

"Preparing for what?" I asked innocently.

"That is something you don't need to know," he snapped harshly, and I questioned him no further for fear of being slapped.

The training session itself was a living hell. I was given no breaks between the training types, moving from combat, to fire, to poison, and to stealth with no signs of stopping. By the time our rushed training session was done, I felt like I was dying, being sent straight back to my room. I expected to be out for training the next day, but I was confined to my room for days, not once being let outside of my room. Perhaps they didn't want me to get in the way of their "preparations". I paced restlessly in my room, looking out the window, summoning small, floating flames and watching them out of boredom. There was nothing else to do in my room, aside from look at my own reflection and feel slightly disgusted at my weak looking frame, the very thing I was constantly scolded for. I stopped pacing in my room when I heard faint voices outside my door. Out of curiosity, I pressed my ear to the door and listened.

"So, I heard new that you found the item, correct?" it was the all too familiar voice of the Headmaster.

"Yes. We've already started our research on it," this was a deep male voice that replied, but I couldn't recognize the accent. His way of speaking was much different from how we spoke here in Russia. Was this man from another country?

"Is it finally what we've been after?"

"Yes, everything and more."

"Good. We'll talk more about it in the conference room."

"Why the secrecy?"

"The walls have ears," the Headmaster replied slyly. I widened my eyes at this comment and stepped away from the door. Did he know that I was eavesdropping this whole time? How much trouble would I get in if he did know that I was eavesdropping? More importantly, what was this mysterious item they were talking about? What was so special about it that they had to discuss it in secret?

When their footsteps faded away, I tentatively turned the handle to my door, finding to my own delight that it was unlocked. I was too curious about this item to pass up a chance to find out more. I slowly opened the door and quietly followed the faint footsteps, keeping silent and low to the ground, as I had learned from my stealth training, and followed as quickly as I could. They soon rounded a corner and went behind a thick door, slamming it shut. I sighed as I heard the faint click of a metal lock going into place. Just as a test, I pressed my ear to the door and silently cursed. Soundproof! I wouldn't be able to hear anything from this end.

I sighed and stood up, walking around the general area of the room and looking for another way in. I looked up at the wall near the ceiling. There was a vent up there. Perhaps I could crawl up there and listen in on their secret conversation. I walked up to the base of the wall and looked up, only to have my faint glimmer of hope turn to sorrow. I wouldn't be able to get up there, it was too high up. I decided to go looking around for more of them. All of the vents I saw were too high up.

With a sigh, I trudged dejectedly to my room, giving the ceilings there a quick look. A dusty grate not too far away from the table in my room caught my attention. Yes! There was a vent in here! I struggled to push my table the small distance so that it would be underneath the vent, and then I carefully lifted up my chair and placed it on top of the table, scooting it so that it too was under the vent grate. I climbed on top of the chair and came to eye level with the vent, but there were screws in place to keep it shut. I rolled my eyes in exasperation before remembering the gift that Anya had given me on my fifth birthday. I jumped back onto the floor and pulled out a silver coin from underneath my pillow. It was a token to remember each other by. She could not afford much else for a gift, but it was perfectly fine. Her kind and caring nature towards me was gift enough in this world I was born in.

I carefully climbed back up my stack and used the coin to unscrew the screws in the vent grate. When I was done, I slowly placed the grate on the table and crawled into the vent. I was small enough to fit in and still freely scoot around a bit on my belly in there. I looked around the snug, metal surroundings, looking at the curves and branching areas leading to other rooms. Where would I go? I decided to just follow a straight path, trying to remember the path I had taken in the hallway to find the conference room. I followed my singular direction before hearing voices echo slightly in the vent. I paused and listened before following the direction of the voices until I came to another grate, looking right into the conference room.

Through my slightly obstructed vision, I could get a small glimpse of the two people in the room and the room as a whole. The conference room itself was similar to the Headmaster's own room, except there was a large, round table in the center of the room, surrounded by chairs. The Headmaster himself was pacing around the room, checking all around, probably to make sure it was clear. "Really, are all of these precautions necessary?" the foreign man asked, his voice making me turn my attention towards him. Through the vent grate, I got a semi-good look at him. From what I could tell, he was only slightly shorter than the Headmaster and had short, black hair, also looking younger than the Headmaster.

The Headmaster looked back at him and shrugged, "You can never be too careful, especially with this information, right?"

"True. . ."

The Headmaster took a final sweep around the room before taking a seat at the table, "All right, everything's clear. So, tell me about this object you found."

The stranger nodded, but refused to take a seat himself. He took out a tan folder and set it on the table, sliding it over to the Headmaster, who opened the folder and scanned it, widening his eyes slightly. "So this is the Cosmic Cube," he said. I raised an eyebrow in confusion. Cosmic Cube? What was that?

"Yes," the foreigner replied, "An ancient relic with immense power. We've found, through our recent studies, that the Tesseract is pure energy. With that kind of power, we'll be unstoppable."

My confusion only continued to grow. At least now I somewhat knew what this "Cosmic Cube" thing was, which was also apparently called the Tesseract. Why did everything have so many names? And why was Hydra after this Tesseract? What would they do with it? More importantly, what exactly did this Tesseract do? Was it bad, dangerous, lethal even? And how the hell was Hydra managing to research pure energy? Surely, it was impossible to grasp pure energy, right? I strained my neck forward a bit to try and see into the folder that the Headmaster was reading to hopefully get more information about it, but I couldn't get a single glimpse of the file or its contents.

"This is excellent news," the Headmaster replied.

"Indeed it is. We're just now working on the prototypes," the foreigner answered, and then added, "So, tell me about your Project Z."

I stared at the two, my interest piqued even more. How did the stranger know of me? Perhaps the Headmaster had spread word about it through all of the bases. Did all of Hydra know about me? I could easily believe it at this point.

"The creation was a success, and although she is currently weak, she will grow stronger through her training," the Headmaster replied.

I clenched my fists tightly. Once again, the Headmaster was chiding about my small frame. Did he forget about the time that I had somehow managed to kick his ass out of anger? I still didn't quite know of all of the details, but it seemed to me that somehow my rage made me more violent, more aggressive, and more impulsive on drastic actions. I saw a bit of red in my vision and briefly wondered some rather morbid thoughts. I twistedly smirked as I wondered if the Headmaster would still call me weak if I took a knife or something sharp, turned it white hot with fire, and slowly pushed it into his cruel, ice cold heart until. . . I widened my eyes, my expression turning to slight fear as I scared myself with my own thoughts. Why was I thinking such things? That was treason against the people who created me! I shook my head slightly and listened to the rest of the conversation.

"Excellent," the stranger responded, "How soon can she be used?"

I widened my eyes in surprise and shock. Used? Used for what, exactly? Did I even want to know?

"In time, my friend, in time. She just needs a bit more training and then she can be of more use to us."

"And in time," the stranger answered, "We will be the most powerful force alive. But now, I think it is time that I left."

"Indeed, I think we have covered everything you needed to discuss."

Once the stranger left, I tried to process all that I had heard. What did they want to use me for? I didn't really want to find out, especially with how unpredictable the Headmaster was. I decided to try and get out of the vent as quickly as possible before I was discovered. If anyone managed to find out about my eavesdropping and snooping about, I would end up worse than dead. As I backed away from the grate, I made a clumsy mistake and accidentally banged my head against the ceiling of the vent, forgetting for a moment just how small it was. I cringed as the sound echoed into the conference room, and, to my utmost horror and despair, the Headmaster was still in there. He looked up at the grate and glared venomously into my frightened eyes, making my heart stop cold in its tracks. I had been seen.