The snow.

The vague shapes of buildings.

The bleakness of night.

The whisper of words passing by her ear.

Double-Zero was floating in the air as the flecks of white seemed to pass through and around her. The fatigue and pain she normally felt was nonexistent while her body was at ease. She tried to move but it felt like her limbs were frozen in place.

“...can we come back to this park, daddy?”

She heard one of the whispers speak behind her. Again she tried to turn but was stopped.

“Maybe dear, but now we have to go back home. I’ve got us a special dinner tonight!

Another whisper, a different voice.

She was then able to slightly turn her head to see the visages of two people standing nearby. Their bodies were covered in shadows but Double-Zero was able to tell that one of them was a man while the other seemed to be a child. The small girl was wearing an ornate dress and had a large ribbon tied in her hair. After a moment, however, the child clutched their chest and began coughing.

“What's wrong dear…”

The man knelt and looked at the child. The girls coughing seemed to get worse as her body shook more and more violently and the coughs grew louder.

“Oh no…. no... nonono hold on baby, I’ll get help, just stay with me!”

The man frantically looked around but there was no one else there. He reached into his pocket and made a call while holding onto the girl tightly. The child heaved with every cough, and what looked like blood began trickling at the sides of her mouth.

Double-Zero tried to reach out but felt powerless. She felt a knot in her stomach at the sight of the child, an unknown sense of both dread and fear swelling up within her. But the scene was oddly nostalgic in a way, almost as if she had been there before.

As the sounds of an ambulance approached in the distance, Double-Zero slowly felt herself being drawn out. Her body went from feeling light as a feather to as heavy as a boulder and her vision began to blur. The former Agent desperately tried to shrug these off and reach out to the two shadows, but her eyesight failed and everything went to black.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Slowly Double-Zero's vision began to return and she jumped out at the nearby blurry lights and objects. The aches and pains that followed, however, forced her back down the ground as everything cleared.

Double-Zero was currently laying in front of a windowsill with the afternoon sun bearing down on her, while around were various crates stacked atop each other. Streaks of blood stained the concrete wall and floors, her body and the blade that laid on the floor nearby. Looking down she noted the many gaches and bullet holes that were embedded in her armor.

“Oh right… last night…” she muttered as she tried to pull herself up. Double-Zero ground her teeth and flinched as a wave of pain clouded her senses.

Yet another containment unit sent to capture her.

Yet another containment unit was eliminated.

Yet she felt no closer to discovering what the meaning to her “freedom”.

This ‘freedom’ had only brought herself into a never ending war with one of the most powerful military forces on the planet. Almost every night she was forced to stand her ground and fight against their seemingly endless amount of soldiers. The only respite she got was during the day when The Agency had to limit their operations to avoid possible public incidents.

She sighed as she walked over and picked up her sword. After giving it a few twirls she sheathed the sword and gave her body a stretch. Double-Zero then walked up to the window and looked out to the nearby warehouse district of the city as the dream she just experienced played out in her mind again.

“Was that just a dream… or was it… was it a memory…?” pondered Double-Zero as she placed her elbows on the windowsill and laid her chin to her palms.

Double-Zero didn’t have any memories outside of her tenure at the Agency. She didn’t have much time to ponder such things. Back then she was more focused on staying alive during the Agency's brutal training and continuous experiments performed on her body, not on who she was beforehand or her mysterious origins.

But now there was time. Time to ponder such thoughts as she waited for the next fight to come.

Maybe this was the ‘freedom’ she was searching for?

The freedom to think of such… useless things?

Maybe these “memories” were the key to such “freedom”?

Whatever the case was, she owed it to whoever set her free from her shackles to find that freedom.

The voice played in her mind again

“.... leave this place, my dear. One day, you will hear from me again. But for now, go, and find your freedom…”

Maybe when she found her freedom the voice would come to her again. The voice could make sense of everything. Maybe they were the key to solving the many questions she had.

“...I will find the voice once again... I will find out the true meaning of this ‘freedom’...”