28. no one is truly a bad person, not even me

I know how I got here, I remember all of it. From my upbringing to my inevitable downfall, especially that last part. The day I got defeated. To be fair, I held out longer than I anticipated, life made me strong but it also made me bitter and it filled me with hatred. So the good guys, the heroes, got a hold of my location and I had no time to run so I stayed to fight. It was 7 against 1 so no, I'm still not surprised I lost, as awesome and skilled as I may be, I'm not ever able to compete with that. not without my Katana swords anyway.

Well, long story short, I got hit on the head, suffered from amnesia and they all took pity on me and offered to take care of me. Because "everyone deserves a second chance". Bullshit, but it was nice. Most of them really didn't want me close, I probably killed some of their friends and family but I couldn't even remember my own name so how was I even held accountable for those cruel crimes. I constantly asked questions like

"how do you guys know me?"

"don't I have a family?"

Or when I discovered some new scars "how did I get these?"

And I asked the one person who was always nice to me "Chloe, why does everyone hate me?" I never got answers, they knew as much about me as I did, you only know the monster I was made.

And after a while they seem to realize that I wasn't the same person as before and they start to treat me like a friend and not a monster, it's nice, I never really had friends. But I do remember. I remember all of it. I remember every single person I put down, I never took pride in the killing, it haunts me at night. They all try to get my memory back, so they'll be able to prosecute me, I don't like that idea. Isn't it weird to throw your friend under the bus like that? I don't know, like I mentioned, friendships are not my strong suit. They never asked me why I was doing whatever I was doing, I know that's not something heroes normally do, that'd be weird. Can you imagine, a hero goes up to a villain and says "yo man, why are you doing this" nah, that'd be weird.

I was never the best at what I did, hell, I was one of the lowest in rank but still the most effective, now that I'm out of the way, the real tough guys will find their way to the heroes. And they know it, they feel it. Every single one of them is spending more and more time training, or trying to convince me, their good friend, to leave. I understand but I must refuse, they think I can't fight but I know damn well what I'm doing, I got my spare gear a few weeks ago so I got that. I'm sad, the only friends I ever had will die soon and there's not much I can do about it, without them hating my guts. So either they die and I'm alone or they hate me, leave and I'm alone, but they're alive. Alright, I got no choice here but to interfere when it's necessary, cause it will happen. So the next time one of them subtly brings up the subject of leaving and starting a new life on my own, I pretend to think about it and the following day I pack what little stuff I have and say goodbye and thank you. I know Lily will follow me for at least a week or so if I stay in the city, so I take a plane to a new city, LA to be precise. There I use the money old me had, which is a lot, to buy new gear and the fastest car I could find. Then I go find my grandfather, who happens to hate me, but I know that this time he'll help me because what I'm gonna do is out of love and not hatred.

"grandfather, I need your help to protect those who I call friends" I get down on my knees and bow my head, the way to great someone who you respect. I can tell he's surprised, I used to be too much of a brat to show any of my family respect. He tells me to get up and looks me deep in my eyes, kinda like he's trying to find something he doesn't like so he can send me away, he won't find anything and he seems to realize that too. He gets up and tells me to follow him, I know where we're going, the temple. Once again I get on my knees and this time I pray, I beg my ancestors to help me. My honesty is proven when a bright light emerges from the dragon statue and from it a set of katana swords appears. The ones that were taken from me when I turned bad, the ones I now got back. I wait for my grandfather's permission and after he nods, I reach out and take the blades in my hands. The patterns on it lighting up, as if they're greeting me. I strap them to my back and turn to my grandfather, who looks proud, bow one last time and make my way to my car, I need to get back as fast as I can. I hope I'm still in time, my navigation leads me to the bug I placed on Fat Amy (figured she was the least likely to notice) and when I get there I see what I was afraid off. 5 out of 7 Bella's are down, either unconscious, hurt or both. I jump out of the car and see Aubrey get struck, fall down and now Stacie is the only one who's still standing, but she's limping already and barely able to defend herself. I sprint and throw myself in front of her just in time to take the hit that was meant for her, the force of it makes me step back but I stand my ground, without looking at her I speak to Stacie

"stand back Stacie, I got this"

"Beca?" she questions "what are you doing here"

I pull out my swords and watch them light up, a smirk plastered on my face. I pull my old mask over my face and I hear Stacie gasp for air, Aubrey shouts to her to get away from me. Stacie seems to shocked to move though and where she's standing right now she could get seriously hurt so I push her back with enough force to make sure she lands next to Aubrey. I'm sorry about that but I need to pay attention to the fuckers in front of me, those who have always been out to kill me. It's 5 against one and never have I ever been able to defeat these people, so this is another fight that's doomed but I'm gonna try anyway. They attack blindly and uncoordinated, 1 or 2 at a time. I am able to strike Donald, he falls down screaming, weak asshole. I slowly slide one katana back in its case on my back and grab the other with both hands, I close my eyes and pretend to be back in the practise room where I was trained when I was 15. I listen to footsteps and deflect the knife one of them throws at me, a blade is swung my way and I put mine in front of it. When the blades collide a white flash happens and all the men are thrown back, I open my eyes and smile, I can still do it. Bumper is the first to get up, he's a big dude, and he's angry. We get into a fight and at one point he manages to make me drop my katana, it slides out of my reach. He takes this to his absolute advantage and starts hitting me wherever he can, I try to defend myself but I was never good at being in a fist fight. He hits me in my ribs, face, everywhere really. I'm forced to the ground and he grabs his sword again, I know mine is not that far away from me so I try and grab it, only succeeding just in time to block his attempt to end me. I'm lying on my back with my katana above me, one hand on the blade to even it. The sharp edge is cutting in my hand and I can feel blood seeping down my wrist, I need to do something quick because I can't do this for much longer. I kick my leg up and it ends up between his legs, Bumper steps back in pain and I use this to roll away and get up, in one fast movement I push my blade in his chest, piercing his heart. He's dead. Now there's three of them left, and I'm hurt. One of the ones left is named Jesse, he's my ex and I hate him so I go for him first. I play dirty, attacking first, throwing sand up in his eyes, all those little tricks. But he still manages to stay standing for way too long, Jesse has one of those Arabic curved swords and he's better with it than I like to admit. I end up with a cut on my thigh but you should see the other guy, he's dead. The longer I take to take out the last 2 fuckers, the bigger the chance is that all of us will die and I can't let that happen. So I try to make quick work of them but I still end up more hurt than needed. Once they're all dead I turn back to the Bella's, Aubrey, Stacie and CR pulled everyone together and most of them are awake. I take a step towards them but Aubrey holds up her hand, silently telling me to stop. I nod and put the katana back next to its buddy, I was right. Now my only friends ever hate me, but at least they're alive. So I walk away and go back to my car, to drive away from here, as far as life takes me. The Bella's will be fine without me, so I don't look back.