Three days had passed since the final battle at the facility. After 963 left, No.9 and I didn’t know what to do from there. The only thing we knew that we had to do was leave before Zagra came back out from the facility.

  We have no idea where 963 is, and deep down, we had the feeling that we wouldn’t see him again for a very long time. He seemed like the type to know how to keep himself hidden and was pretty determined to separate himself from us.

  I guess that’s a sign he really does care, though.

  But behind his eyes I saw an inextinguishable rage, and I think he knew it too. He knew that it would take him someplace that many would look down on, which is why he left as he did. Even someone as dumb as I am can understand that, but…. No.9, on the other hand, is not taking it so well.

  “No.5, could you grab some firewood, please? It’s rather cold in here.” No.9 said with an empty smile.

  “Yeah….of course.”

  We were resting in a cabin deep in the woods. We had been on the run ever since the fight, in fear of being chased. We don’t know if we actually were, but we didn’t want to take any chances.

  I walked out of the cabin, and the frigid air began pounding my face. It was super windy. So windy in fact that I really wished I hadn’t torn off the sleeves of the combat suit to look cooler.

  “No.5! Close the door! You’re letting all the air in! Aaaaah, it’s only August, why is it so cold?”

  “My bad!”

  I shut the door to the small abandoned cabin and rubbed my shoulders to quell my goosebumps, as I trudged toward the pile of firewood lying by a nearby tree. I accelerated the blood in my body to assist in picking them up, and carried three pieces in a stack back to the cabin.

  “Cold air incoming!” I yelled as I kicked open the door.

  I ran inside and quickly dropped the wood in the fireplace before closing the door, with both of us heaving a sigh of relief that the cold air was cut off.

  “Hey, even though I’ve brought the firewood, unless you know how to start a fire, we don’t really have a way to light it. This ain’t a gas fireplace. Unless you want….”

  We both looked at a tied-up and muffled No.8, who was looking at No.9 with utter fear as sweat began to fall down his forehead.

  “Thankfully, you tied him up with your blood No.5. He can’t burn his way out of those ropes, and now that we’ve found a temporary safe place, we can finally get the information we need.”

  “Mmmph! Mmph!”

  “Speaking of finding a safe place, are you ok? After….you know?”

  She couldn’t meet my eyes. She looked down at the table, and I saw her hands trembling.

  “That’s something I don’t really want to talk about.”

  “Nah, I understand. I’m stoked that you’ve gained the confidence you need to be able to control your ability that well, but ya have to realize that usin’ such an ability like that was a bit...”

  “I didn’t have a choice, though! I didn’t want to do that, but you were running out of energy, and I didn’t know what to do. I panicked and was worried about helping you and 963. I…. didn’t want to be useless anymore. I’m sorry you had to see me like that.” She said as she rested her head on the table.

  “Nah, nah, it’s ok. I was just worried about’cha. I know you did what you had to do. I’m not judging, I was just wondering how you were feeling after that.”

  “Terrible. I never want to use my ability like that again; it made me feel like I was imploding from the inside. Making people do that is something I would never do again. If 963 knew I did that….”

  She looked genuinely unnerved when recalling what happened, which made me feel slightly better but…..

  I don’t remember you feeling terrible after that.

  ………………………………………………………………………………………………….

  Three days prior, during the final battle

  963 gained wings and flew off to meet Zagra in battle again. He put a weird ball on my head that made me feel great!

  Unfortunately, when he left the barrier, it fell apart, making us completely defenseless to their bullets.

  “The barrier’s gone! Fire!” No.8 screamed.

  They all aimed once more and started shooting.

  “Aw, fudge!”

  Using the power boost I got from 963, I used the blood from my wounds to create a wall to slow down the bullets before they reached us. Because I was standing in front, a couple of the bullets shot through me, but I dunno if it’s because of the ball on my forehead, but I was still going strong.

  “You’re gonna run out of power eventually, No.5! Surrender, and I’ll consider sparing your lives!”

  “Eat spikes ya retards!”

  I willed parts of the wall to extend and shoot out straight spikes that pierced a couple of the facilitators and No.8. He quickly dove out of the way, but most of the facilitators weren’t able to avoid it in time. Once it went through, I had the spikes thin out and branch like a tree to hit a bunch of them in one fell swoop.

  “Really wishin’ I could control other people’s blood right about now!”

  Me attackin was great and all, but thinnin’ the wall to do it caused more and more bullets to get through.

  “No.5! Are you ok?!”

  “I’m fine, ya gotta get outta here! I took out most of them, but they keep backin up to avoid the blood!”

  “Keep shooting, he’ll run out of power eventually! Hahaha! You all made fun of me, and look what’s happening now! At the end of this, you’ll be begging for me to forgive you!”

  “Tch! Dirty bastard! We only made funna you because of how cocky you were all the time despite your sucky gift!”

  “I-It’s not sucky, it’s just a work in progress! How about I show you….right now!”

  A fireball formed in his hands, and he chucked it like he was throwing a football. It flew over the wall, and I had to jump back to avoid it, causing me to drop the wall in the process.

  “No.9, get down! They’re gonna–!”

  But she didn’t get down; in fact, she walked forward with her hands up and a blank expression. Her black eyes were dulled over, and she had a calm expression that was the complete opposite of how frantic she was seconds ago. Her eyes and ears were bleeding profusely, as she emotionlessly got on her knees and put her hands up.

  As she did, I heard her whisper something under her breath, and her hair waved for a moment.

  “Wait! Keep your guns trained on blood boy over there! Haha….No.9, can I assume you’re surrendering?”

  No.9 whispered something under her breath as she tilted her head down.

  “Huh? What was that?”

  “Shoots….”

  “What?” No.8 said as he leaned forward and put his ear near her face.

  With speeds I hadn’t even seen 963 reach, she sprang forward and ripped the loudspeaker out of his hands. She did it with such force that it cut his hand open, and he fell to the ground.

  Was that a little whisper when she knelt to buff herself? Is that why her ears were bleeding?

  With a solemn voice, devoid of any emotion at all. She spoke three words into the loudspeaker.

  “Shoot each other.”

  As if all of the facilitators were in a trance, they slowly turned their guns on one another and began firing. Wounds that should have knocked them down didn’t even affect them; they just kept firing.

  They fired until all of the ammo in their guns was depleted, and they fell to the ground dead.

  “Wha….wha…..AAAAAH!” No.8 screamed as he tried to get up and run.

  “Oh no, you don’t!”

  I ran forward and created a hammer out of blood before slamming it into the back of his head. His eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he fell to the ground with a thud.

  “No.9, I didn’t know you could–”

  I looked over at No.9 to see her staring at the carnage that her voice created, with a subtle smile taking form on her lips. It made me recall something 963 said when I was helping out of the facility.

  “Make sure that when you see her to not let No.9 use her gift too much. Only when necessary. I observe people often, so I can tell when people have changed. Her usage of her gift isn’t giving her confidence; it’s taking away empathy.”

  “No.5, what are you doing? We have to go help 963!” No.9 said while shaking my shoulders.

  “Y-Yeah, right! Sorry, I zoned out for a bit.”

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  She then ran off with the megaphone in hand to where they were fighting.

  Was it my imagination?

  …………………………………………………………………………………………………..

  Present Day

  She’s definitely been acting strange ever since then. What’s strange is that I also remember her saying that she can’t use her ability to do things like harm people, or it would rebound back to her.

  Which brings up the question that I’m too scared to ask, which is, how did she do it then? I could just chalk it up to the energy thingie 963 gave us, but I think it was more than that because she was still bleeding when she used it.

  Nothin’ I can do but just move past it. There’s no point in stayin in the past, I’m just glad she seems to be better now.

  “Anyways, nuff talking bout that. If it weren’t for you, I woulda been dead on the ground thanks to this bastard.” I said as I glared at No.8.

  “Yes…..he put us in quite the terrible situation, didn’t he?” She said, staring at him blankly.

  “Look at you, usin’ all those big words! 963 rubbed off on ya!” I chuckled.

  She didn’t respond and continued to stare at No.8.

  “A-Anyway, I was so surprised when you said to bring him along with us. You still haven’t told me why, by the way. I’ve jus’ been carryin him this whole time without any explanation!”

  She put her hands up in defense and bowed her head a couple of times.

  “I-I’m sorry! I just didn’t have time to explain!”

  “Welllll, now ya do,” I said as she stood up and started walking towards me.

  “Before that, I need to ask you something.” She said lifelessly, like in a trance.

  Is she really ok? One moment she’s all shy and nervous, and in the next she’s all menacing-like.

  “What is it?”

  “What do you want to do now? What are you hoping for in the future?” She asked, tilting her head slightly.

  “C’mon, you should already know. I wanna be the strongest in the world, obviously! Not just for me, but for….for my sister as well. We both wanted to be strong so we could be relied on, but fate just can’t stop kickin our asses, huh?”

  “….”

  But….to say that’s all I want would be a lie. I don’t wanna live my entire life on the run, I wanna be able to enjoy it. And I didn’t really get all that “changing the world” junk, but I know if I want to live my life the way I want, Zagra’s gotta be outta the picture. I can’t focus on my journey if I have to keep looking over my shoulder. I want to help him….but I’m sure he wouldn’t accept it.”

  No.9 smiled warmly and suddenly hugged me.

  “I’m so glad you said that. I was thinking the same thing. I want to help him, but I don’t even know where he is. He wanted us to live peaceful lives, but I don’t think he considered that we don’t want to just run away forever. We have to take Zagra down, so I came up with an idea. We’re gonna sneak into his organization!”

  I had to process what she just said as she released me.

  “What?! How in the hell are we gonna do that? He knows our faces!”

  “We’re going to have to change our appearances a bit, of course, and get a new name, but we would have had to do that whether or not we planned to sneak in.”

  “I….guess that’s true.”

  “We’ll sneak in, work our way up, and gain his trust! Then, when 963 does what he needs to do, we’ll be able to pincer him!”

  “Ohhhhhh…..nice! Let’s do it!”

  “But to sneak in, we need to know stuff about Zagra’s organization. And the person who knows the most about his work is none other than…….him.”

  She walked over and ripped the muffler off of No.8’s face.

  “Tell us everything you know about Zagra’s organization!”

  “You think I’ll just let you go and ruin the place my mom and dad work at?! In your dreams, I’m not saying anything!”

  I walked over and punched him in the face. He fell on the floor, and I grabbed his hair and pulled him up.

  “Listen, none of us wants this to get ugly. So give us the info, and we’ll consider letting you walk out in one piece!”

  “Do your worst!”

  “No need.” No.9 said as she lightly touched my shoulder.

  She bent down until their faces were inches apart and brushed her hair to the side.

  “Tell us everything we want to know.”

  No.8’s eyes clouded over, and he showed no more signs of resistance.

  “Hey, are you sure it’s ok for you to–”

  “I’ll be fine. I’ve figured out a way to use it to avoid the drawback. Now, tell us everything you know about Zagra’s work.”

  “He’s the leader of an organization called World Gear. After his heroic acts in pushing back the Rust to Laeva, using the respect of the people, he formed his own organization as a peacekeeping company. They work to stop evil and the spread of Rust by putting out Agents in various locations. It is so large that it is relevant everywhere in the world, except for Laeva, of course.”

  “It makes sense how he had the money to build that facility then.”

  “How do we become a part of World Gear?”

  “You have to either go to a school where on graduation, you can become a part of it, or be scouted as a special talent. The schools are in a lot of the main cities, and they’re really hard, but getting scouted is even harder. You’d have to stop a whole gang or turn in a huge bounty to get scouted. But…..”

  “But?”

  “Those are only for the fighters. There are a whole lot of other branches of World Gear. The Strategy and Planning Division, The Energy Supply and Management Division, The Marketing Division, and The Research Division are just a few to name a couple. You can just apply for those when you’re old enough, and if you’re good, you’ll get the job.”

  “Is that all?”

  “That’s all I know. My parents work as agents because they attended classes and passed a test.”

  Once he finished talking, his eyes regained some light, and they widened in surprise.

  “W-What?! But I didn’t–!”

  I put the muffler over him again and turned my attention to No.9.

  “Well, there you have it. So which will it be? Get scouted, go to school, or get into one of those other divisions?”

  “We’ll go to school and see if we can get scouted on the way. That’s after we change our appearance, of course.” She said, twirling her hair slightly.

  No.9 then pushed her chair in and turned toward the door. “Let’s go then, we’ve rested long enough.”

  “What do we do about him?” I asked as I pointed toward No.8.

  She shrugged and opened the door.

  “Let’s just leave him here; it doesn’t really matter if he blabs or not. We’ll be changing ourselves completely before we enlist anyway.”

  I pointed at him and glared.

  “When I get outta range, my gift will come undone. You won’t have to be stuck here for long. But, you'd better not think about following us. Run back to your little master and learn from your mistakes. If you ever try to pull anything like that ever again, we’ll actually kill ya’, got that?”

  He nodded his head up and down profusely as tears fell down his face.

  No.9 and I left him there, and immediately began to run away from the cabin.

  “We’ve already spent a couple of hours here. I don’t know if we’re being followed, but I wanna get as far away from that facility as possible.”

  “Agreed, I–Ah!” No.9 suddenly stopped.

  “What? What is it?”

  “I-I left the mitts I got from the cabin.”

  “What? Haaah….do you want me to go back and get it for you?”

  “No, no, I got it! Just wait there!” She yelled as she ran back in the direction of the cabin.

  No.9... your eyes. They were....

  “Haha! I was worried for nothing, she’s still the same ditz after all. I hope this journey won’t be too hard on her.” I said, sitting in front of a tree.

  “Night’s fallin soon….and it’s a full moon tonight.” I whispered, entranced by the outside world I had missed for so long. My eyes started to water, now that I was alone. The person I wanted to share the moonlight with the most, isn’t here anymore.

  I could still feel her lightly punching my shoulder, or convincing me to get piercings. We used to ask the Doc to let us listen to punk rock radio, and I would watch her jam away on gizmos that she tried to make into musical instruments. We even made a bet to whoever got outside first would have to howl at the moon. She was really into the werewolf and vampire stuff, so it would be a win for her, either way. And the whole time, even when I was down in the dumps, she would always be the positive one. Lifting me back up. We both imagined getting outta here would of been after we’ve proved our strength, and The Hero would take us with him. So we fought and tried to get stronger and stronger. But, I was never strong. I would always bluff to act strong, to put on a show, but my sis was the real strong one.

  “But….it’s me here tonight. Just me. What’s the point in howlin’, if you ain’t here? Sis?” I spoke slowly and softly, trying not to cry anymore. My face scrunched up, and a ball was punching the inside of my throat, but I stopped crying. She would’ve been mad if I acted all sad right after getting out.

  Still resting on the tree, I reached in my pocket and pulled out a poorly sewn together teddy bear. It was pitch black and had a lotta X’s on it. She gave it to me, but told me to never take it out or talk about it to anyone else. She went through a phase of sewing but stopped because it was too ‘girly’.

  “Sorry sis, I’m gonna have to break my promise.” I said, holding the bear up to the moon. “Once I reach top of the world, Imma make this my symbol. Just like how The Hero has that fire bird thing. You’ll hate me for it, but who knows?” I murmured, holding the bear tight. “It might make you so mad, you’ll come back.”

  I held onto it for a couple of minutes before realizing that No.9 wasn’t back yet. I got up from my seat, dusting the dirt off my pants as I began to make my way over to the cabin.

  “Did No.8 do somethin to her?” I asked aloud, starting to jog over there. But right when I reached the side of the cabin, No.9 ran out with her mittens in hand and a huge smile on her face.

  “Yo, No.9! Took ya long enough!”

  “Ah, sorry! I thought they were near the fireplace but they were behind the cushion of the chair, can you believe it?”

  “Ohhh, you musta dropped them when you first sat down.”

  “Mmhmm!”

  “Hey, I just realized! Because it’s nighttime, it’ll be way harder to track us in the darkness.” I said giddily. “We’ll be like ninjas, stickin it to the man!”

  “Yes, it’s almost comforting, isn’t it?” She said, skipping next to me. As she bounced past me, her hair parted to the side and I saw something on her face.

  “Hey, c’mere a sec.” I said, lightly grabbing her shoulder.

  “Hmm? What is it?”

  I gently pushed her hair to the side and saw a bloodstain under her eyelid. “Ah! No.9, we both really need to find a shower or somethin.”

  “Huh? Do I stink?!” She asked frantically, pushing away from me and lifting up her arms.

  “Uhh, well we both stink. But nah, you got a bloodstain on your cheek. Here!” I said, walking closer and using my sleeve to rub the bloodstain away. “ Did something happen in there? Did No.8 try something?”

  “Mmmmm, no! It’s probably from the battle a couple of hours ago, we couldn’t even wash up you know?”

  “Well….a lady can’t be walkin around with grime and blood on them. So you’re lucky I caught that!” I snickered, getting the last bits of the blood off.

  “Oh my, what a gentleman. Should we get tea and talk about the fancy schmancy stuff?” She snorted.

  I finished wiping the stain off and stepped back, but she stepped closer and tilted her head with a smile. “Wait, you got some schmuck on your face too!” She said, reaching out and touching my nose. No.9 then quickly squeezed my nose, and jumped back, proceeding to run past me while holding her hand up in the air.

  “I got your nose, Mr. Gentleman!” She laugh happily, running off towards the moon.

  “Haha! Ya better give it back or I’ll rub mud on your face!” I shouted, chasing after her.

  “Gross!”

  But I saw it, y’know?

  The blood wasn’t old.

  And she lied without even blinking. With the same smile she usually has.

  And No.9….did you know? Your eyes were….completely black. No pupils, no whites. You’re going to have to hide that when we meet other people.

  Everything will be just fine. That’s what I have to believe. We’ve got a plan now, a future! So as long as we keep running forward…..

  These thoughts took hold in my mind as I glanced back at the cabin, the snow just outside of it being stained a new color. The colors melded as the last ray of sunlight rested upon it, the woods being submerged under the veil of night.

  It’s okay to overlook some things.