All right, so here's the next chapter! Again, sorry it took me a little longer than normal to get this one up, but hopefully it was worth the wait! And it only gets more intense in the future!

The missions the Headmaster sent me on continued at odd intervals whenever he felt I was needed to be used. Used . . . oh, how I hated that word. It made me feel like nothing but a tool to the people who had created me. At first, I was excited about them. I'd get to go outside, see new places, leave the boring containment of my cell, and get new disguises that I could wear later after the mission as well. However, my excitement for them diminished after each and every mission. At first, they were nothing but simple infiltration missions. I enjoyed those. It tested me against my stealth abilities, but then they turned dark. They'd send me out to raid innocent towns for precious "artifacts". They had brainwashed me into believing that each of these towns were evil, but after investigation, I learned that it was the exact opposite. The people were only protecting what was rightfully theirs. They did nothing wrong! I knew that raiding the towns was wrong, but I couldn't defy the Headmaster or else he'd torture me. I had learned that the hard way after I found out the towns were innocent. I was afraid of him. I couldn't be brave enough to stand up for what I knew was right, so I tried to find the safest way to retrieve the items. Sometimes, it was unavoidable.

My last mission had held more pain than I could possibly imagine. Hydra had sent me to a small village in a country called Norway to retrieve a piece of an otherworldly artifact. It was a part of that odd, crystalline object that I had retrieved a file about. The base in France had only been researching one piece of it, but the whole thing had been broken up into many pieces that were scattered all over the world. We located one in Norway. We had set up a small base with a bit of everything our home base had in anticipation for a long mission this time. We had nurses, scientists, and of course, the guards. The Headmaster himself even joined us on this mission; apparently the artifact was essential to Hydra's research.

The mission itself seemed rather simple, but it was much harder than I thought. I had talked to the people when Hydra wasn't looking and apparently they revered it as a sacred artifact and would only let those who were worthy touch it. They said it was a gift from their gods, and they'd watch it until a worthy being found it. According to the village, I wasn't worthy in the eyes of the gods they worshipped. Further investigation through infiltration showed that they watched the shard every day and night constantly and diligently, and I didn't want to kill these people for doing what they believed to be right. I went to talk to my Headmaster back at our temporary base and simply told him that I was unable to get the artifact. The response was ugly.

He had grinned twistedly at me, a maniacal glint in his cruel eyes. "Really now? Is that right?"

I nodded slightly, extremely wary of his expression.

"I think you're lying. You haven't tried all of the options; I can see it clearly on your face! Just kill them!"

I couldn't bring myself to kill yet another innocent town. All of those innocent people didn't deserve to die. They seemed so kind and good. "I can't, Headmaster," I said quietly. I had had enough of my line of work.

"Why not?"

"They did nothing wrong!"

"They are obstacles in our way, eliminate them."

I stared at him in shock. Did he not value life? How precious it was? Was it nothing to him? Truly, he had no heart. I clenched my fists and narrowed my eyes in defiance, growing tired of his cruelty. "No. I can't just murder these people. It's going way too far!"

"Do you not remember the last time you said that?"

I flinched slightly and looked at my arm; it was covered in scars from his sword, as was a bit of my back. "I remember it," I said softly, and then raised my voice, "It won't affect me anymore. Your technique of discipline is old and used too much on me."

He narrowed his eyes into a dangerous glare, "Is that so?"

I nodded, holding my ground, but faltering slightly at his frightening expression. Even in my earlier youth, I had never seen him like this before.

"Very well. . ." He snapped his fingers and, to my utter horror, Anya was dragged out of a nearby Medicine Tent, struggling against the strong grip of guards holding her arms. She was brought to her knees before the Headmaster, who drew his sword and pressed it against her neck, not cutting the skin, but definitely touching it. He looked at me with a look of sheer madness, "Do it or your "mother" will stand no more!" he snarled with a cruel laugh.

I stared at him with eyes as wide as an owl's. He was utterly insane! How could he have lead Hydra for so long like this?! "Y-You wouldn't!" I stuttered, "She's one of your best nurses!"

"People are disposable," he said emotionlessly.

"D-Don't hurt her!" I shouted with a trembling voice.

He pressed his swords a bit harder, closer to slicing her skin and causing Anya to shudder in fear. "Will you do as I say?"

I stopped, looking at Anya and the Headmaster. Anya would want me to do what was right, and it was completely painful to say, "I-I can't!"

The Headmaster clicked his tongue, "A pity. . ." He slowly drew his sword across Anya's neck, drawing blood out of a currently shallow cut and causing Anya to cry out and whimper in pain.

That triggered my rage. "STOP!" I screamed, my whole body catching on fire in a small explosion from my sudden burst of fury.

The Headmaster paused and looked at me, "Will you behave?"

I couldn't answer him; my vision was filling with red. Hearing Anya in pain triggered a deep anger far, far greater and more evil than my normal rage. It was as if my body had now just unlocked its true purpose. My mind filled with twisted thoughts of death and a world filled with hellish flames. Then, I moved. I didn't even remember myself willing to move, but I did, as if something else was controlling me. It was all a blur, I couldn't see or even hear what I was doing. All I knew was that I was enraged and needed to vent out my fury. By the time my rage had subsided, I stood in the middle of the village, my breathing heavy and the whole place in flames. There was no movement in the town, and I saw a charred corpse nearby. I stood there in complete confusion for a moment. I didn't remember getting to the village, or anything that had happened here. And then, suddenly, it all clicked into place. My eyes widened in horror. I . . . killed them. . . I stared at the Headmaster who seemed . . . impressed by my horrible deed. "Well then," he said, before slitting Anya's throat. She let out a scream before she started gurgling and choking on her own blood and dying.

"ANYA!" I screamed, a wave of tears running down my cheeks. I ran to her body and knelt beside her, my vision blurred by my sobbing. "No . . . no . . . you can't be dead, you can't!" I held her in my arms, hiccupping and bawling at the sight of her dead body, her eyes frozen in an open expression of fear. "Wake up," I sniffled, "please. . . I need you. . ." Warmth was already leaving her body. I buried my face in her neck, not even caring if I got blood on my face or not.

"Take her back to the base," the Headmaster said stoically.

I felt guards grab my arms and I started kicking and screaming in defiance. "No! No! NO! I'm not going back! Leave me here! Leave me with Anya! NO!" I was unwillingly dragged back to the plane and sent home to Russia. I had to be tied to a chair to keep me from trying to get off of the plane, and my tears didn't stop for the whole trip.