I stared at one of my trolls which I kept simply because that and my mixed tapes were all I had to remember my home planet by. I toyed with it in my hand. I would take another mission. I kind of had to. Even knowing that I was just avoiding an evening with Chico Dunn.

R6 knew it too. She knew it.

I'll break up with her soon. I told myself. What? Think I'm a love-killer? Trust me there is nothing about this fling that can even remotely be called love and Chico was anything but loving. Beautiful, yes but I didn't really care about her that much. This life's about breakin' hearts and breakin' bones. Deal with it.

Maybe I did care about her a bit. I think part of my unceasing attraction to chicks has to do with a fear of being alone, even if I can't stand admitting it. They just like me because 1) They think I'm attractive. 2) I think they're attractive.

Six years ago I was abducted an orphan eight year old boy. Now look where I am. Before my mom died she said I was an angel. That was a really long time ago.

But there was no use in dwelling on what I'd transformed into. When I was twelve I had made my first killing. You can't imagine. I had shot him in the head. I remembered hearing the sickening thud as his body fell to the ground. The blood had pooled around him and me. I remembered throwing up and having nightmares about it for months.

Some people have no idea.

Chico was beside me and I wasn't sure what to say. "What do you do all the time when you leave like that?" she asked.

"What I don't tell you I do for your own good." I replied quietly.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you just wouldn't . . . understand. I can't tell you everything. And as long as I can't do that I don't think we're going to work out."

Tears welled up in her eyes. "Peter . . . what are you saying?"

"I think you know."

"You want to break us up."

There was no better way to put this. I needed to break this off and do it quickly. I walked out leaving the devastated and confused girl with a broken heart. What'd I tell you? Hearts and bones.

I figured the rest of my day would be peaceful and maybe even mission-free. Stupid to think that.

Yondu showed me a hologram-image of a space ship I didn't recognize it. "What's that?"

"That, Boy is the Crossfire. It's a rival ravager crew." he answered.

"What do you expect me to do?" even though I sort of knew already.

"You're gonna pretend you're one of 'em. Then I'll tell you what you gon' do, you're gonna kill every one of them."

I felt sick and I was reeling. What do I say? What do I do?! I tell myself that it's not that bad. I'm wrong and it didn't work.

"I'm not an assassin." I answered truthfully doing all I could do to prevent my voice from shaking.

Yondu slammed a sniper rifle on the table in front of me. "There. You're an assassin."

No. Way. Out.

I slowly took the rifle. It was orange and black and sleek. All in all a beautiful weapon but it was hard to appreciate that after knowing what I'm supposed to do with it.

I couldn't stare back into R6's sympathetic-looking black eyes. He must have heard with the implants that heightened his senses embedded in his body.

I took apart the gun and put it back together several times figuring out how it worked. There was a tight ball of anxiety in the pit of my stomach. My alias was going to be Jason Maek.

I just needed to take it like I took any other mission. It should be in and out. That's if nothing goes wrong. I'll admit it's extremely risky especially if these ravagers are anything like the ones I grew up around.

I stepped onto the platform and saw a girl around my age. Oh, $#!? no. Not a girl. I promised myself that I wouldn't let myself do what I normally do. It didn't work.

"Hi are you new?" the girl asked.

"Yeah."

She held out her hand. "I'm Karlee Spriggans."

"I'm Jason Maek." I shook it. She had black hair tied up in a knot behind her head and she was wearing a gray and purple outfit of ravager leather.

Spriggans was lovely. Of course she was. I couldn't help myself. "So, are you new here too?" I leaned on my elbow in a casual but flirty position. I knew all the tricks by now.

"Oh, no I've been on here for a while." It was then when I noticed she was exactly like me.

She was taken from her home too. She had been trained first-hand as well. Yondu was testing me. Trying to see if I had the stomach to kill all these people. He had known there was someone of my own there. I couldn't kill her.

I was given two weeks to kill an entire ravager crew. Fourteen days. NOT. AN. ASSASSIN.