A week had passed since the agent and the assassin came to an agreement. A few hours ago he came back to take her. Now they were sitting in a black highly armored and massive Knight XV*. It came as a surprise when she had seen the massive car upon leaving the prison. Those were rare, and she had only seen them once or twice even in her line of work. She also knew of their price and their luxury, thus she was disappointed when the two entered in the passenger cabin. Two seats facing to the front, and two seats facing to the back. separating passenger and driver cabin. Otherwise there was only a metal floor with some strange depressions and a lot of places on the walls to hold weapons and ammo. The racks for weaponry were currently empty and the only ‘decoration’ was an intercom with a loud speaker function.

When he had released her he had brought her a change of clothes. A pair of combat boots, black army pants and a black tank top made up her new ensemble. With the clothes also came a temporary contract. Valid till signing the real one upon arrival. Only including transportation and secrecy obligations. The rest would be included on the full contract.

The autobahn* endlessly stretched in front of them as they kept driving on and on. ‘’I never heard your name.’’ The assassin said as she kept looking out of the window. The agent nearly jumped from the sudden interruption of the hours long silence. ‘’Judge... Just call me Judge.’’ He said softly.

What a fitting name that was. ‘’Codename I guess?’’ She was already used to hearing those, in her line of work there was never a lack of people keeping secrets. ‘’Yes, you yourself are lacking one. You never told us yours, and even in all the documents we have on you. All mentions go by Assassin.’’

A small smirk appeared on her face, but it was not one of amusement. ‘’I have no name, I am Assassin. A tool, that is what my parents made me, that is what the world used me as. Nothing more, nothing less. Tools need no name.’’ Her voice for once was drenched in contempt.

Judge kept his silence as he seemed troubled with finding out how to answer. So the silence spread again, the driver was not helping to break it either as he was contained within the front cabin. Through the small window in the wall between the cabins she could see the front, but nothing of interest was happening there either.

‘’What work will I do?’’ Once again she broke the silence. This time his response came swift, ‘’I can’t tell you here. Once we arrive at the base you will be told everything you need to know. We can also take a small detour to the orphanage if you want.’’ He looked at her but she didn’t move her eyes from the window, her head still resting on her hand. A slight nod was her answer.

Since their last talk another hour had slowly passed by, a small movement to her right made her snap out of her staring outside. ‘’Thirsty?’’ She was asked by Judge as a bottle of water was held in front of her. She observed his expression, and the bottle for a while before slowly taking it.

She unscrewed it slowly and smelled it, before taking a tiny sip. ‘’I won’t poison you.’’ The agent said, ‘’Suspicion has kept me alive this long, not trust.’’ Was her answer before she took another small sip.

The water bottle was already near empty, and her gaze had focused back on the road again. As her eyes had begun to follow the white road markings her mind slowly started to drift off into a gentle daze. White, grey, white, grey, white, grey. Endlessly they repeated helping her mind to drift further and further.

It returned back to the scene in the highrise bureau, once more she stood before the old man. Once more they spoke, her blade killed him again. Her memory began to loop, faster and faster the scene repeated in her mind. It all came crashing down at once, all the regret, all the pain. The realization that all she had done was useless, was done by her without realizing she had another choice. All those lives, they all flashed by her, those countless scenes in her memory. Screams, curses, blood, sobbing, pleading.

She snapped out of it only when a hand grabbed her shoulder, it was Judge. ‘’What happened? Are you ok?’’ He asked, his voice carrying the sound of worry. But an answer was not given. Cold sweat was dripping down her forehead, she was dizzy and her breath was shallow and fast.

With a swift motion she had to press her hand on her mouth to keep herself from throwing up right there. Those scenes kept running wild in her mind, even though her mind was focused again it did not stop. Tears were making their way to her eyes. ‘’Pull over something's wrong!’’ Judge told the driver via the intercom.

Time became relative for her as the heart within her chest raced, tears now mixed with her sweat. Continuously they dropped to the floor. She was barely able to keep down what was inside her stomach as the car finally stopped at an empty rest stop hidden behind some bushes. Protected from the view of the passing by cars.

‘’I can’t let you leave the vehicle, but you can sit at the door if you want some fresh air.’’ Judge said as he opened the door and stepped out, positioning himself in a way to block the view to the door from anything coming from behind. Her body was shaking like a leaf in the wind, and the feeling in her limbs was tingling and weak from the lack of oxygen due to hyperventilating.

She barely managed to reach the door before she lost control over her stomach, painfully bringing up what was inside her. Only after a few minutes did her stomach stop contracting and calmed down. She sat back up next to the door then, wiped off the tears and sweat with her arm and then leaned her head back against the doorframe. She pulled one knee to her chest, the other stretched out in the car.

Her eyes closed, her breathing slowly started to stabilise as the fresh wind brought a nice and cool feeling. She breathed in deep and slow, exhaled just the same way for a while before her eyes opened again. Her gaze was neither dull nor fierce, maybe pained is the word one would use to describe it.

‘’What happened?’’ She was asked by Judge who was still standing there. He had not moved, nor said a word all this time, just silently looked over her. It took her awhile before she found an answer to his question.

‘’Did you kill someone before?’’ She asked. A tiny change appeared for a moment on the agent’s face before he answered her. ‘’A few...’’ These two words were all she got from him.

‘’Does it keep you awake sometimes? Do you remember those moments? Can you smell the blood? Hear their screams? Their begging? Their curses as they die by your hand?’’ Judge drew in a long breath before he gave his answer. ‘’Sometimes…’’

Her head turned and she looked him in the eyes now, then she began to speak. ‘’Before now, I never dreamed about them, I never cared or felt regret. It was normal. But now… It became different, I can hear them all the time now. Everytime I close my eyes I see their red flowers bloom, I can listen to their curses, to their screams their pain and pleading. I feel regret, there was always a choice for me. But I was blind to it and kept following this path of slaughter. Now I can hear them, I can hear them all, all three hundred and fifty three of them.’’ As her words slowly drifted away with the wind she and Judge looked silently at each other, no one spoke another word.

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They simply sat and stood there like that for a while, each following their own thoughts. There was no need for anyone to say anything either, she knew that Judge had already read her testimony. So it should not have been a surprise to hear these words. But it was still only the second time she had spoken about it.

Then the ex-assassin grabbed the bottle from her seat and took a sip of water, she moved it around in her mouth for a while before swallowing and closed the bottle again with a sigh. ‘’You feeling better? If so we will soon continue on, take your seat.’’ The moment she was moving from the door it was closed and Judge walked towards the front of the Vehicle.

She observed him from the corner of her eyes, doing what he did and awaited his return. The moment he came back and opened the door to enter the armored car she grew unusually angry. ‘’You are a really sadistic bastard, gets you going to make a girl hold it for six hours while you enjoy your freedom of movement doesn’t it?’’ She spat her angry words at him.

She herself was surprised by her sudden temper, there was no need to mention Judge’s expression. She just stared at him as he stood there unmoving, seemingly contemplating his next words very careful.

‘’Apologies, I really did not think about it. That was my mistake, please wait a moment.’’ Again she looked at him through the toned windows as he went to the front and grabbed something from the driver cabin. After a moment he came back, he opened the door and said ‘’Catch.’’ as he threw something over. Without even really looking at it she caught it, only inspecting it now. ‘’This should help, I will wait outside.’’ She heard him say as he closed the door again and turned his back to the window.

She raised her eyebrow for a moment before tearing apart the shrink wrap from the funneled bottle. The first moment she wanted to throw it across the interior, but the painful feeling in her lower body made her sigh angrily before pulling down her pants. Her furious thoughts slowly calmed down as the bottle began to fill up, she realised that she was not really angry at Judge. She was not angry at anyone at all, the whole situation was just to sudden, too much for her to handle.

Everything she knew, everything she was. Every feeling she ever had and every action she ever did. All of that was wrong, all of these things were gone. She always had heard the screams, the voices and the curses. But she easily ignored them, they were not able to inflict pain to her before. But her heart no longer was a still pond. Now it was a raging sea, furious and wild and full of emotions she never felt before.

She quickly finished up and sealed the bottle. When she knocked on the door Judge opened it and held out his hand. ‘’Gimme the bottle, I will empty it out so you can use it later again.’’ Another sigh escaped her, what had become of her. But she still let him do as he wanted. When he returned he gave it back and sat down. Only moments later they restarted their travel.

It took a while before the silver haired woman spoke again. ‘’Sorry.. I did not mean what I said earlier…’’ Her voice sounded sincere as she spoke, after saying what she had to say her head came to rest on her hand again, staring out of the window.

‘’I can’t understand your feelings or your situation completely, but I know that it must be hard. I have seen your report, and roughly got an idea about your life. So it is ok, no harm was done.’’ After he gave her an answer the silence returned.

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Four hours later.

The six ton vehicle came to a stop on the other side of a big gothic style building. It looked old but well maintained, it was surrounded by garden and an iron fence. Even its location was nice at the outskirts of a small town in a mountainous region of central europe.

The nameless assassin’s gaze was focused on the old building, her eyes darting around and scanning the place. ‘’Will I be able to see her?’’ She asked with a very quiet voice. It was hard to bring out a loud sound right now, her body was tense and her fingers were drumming on her leg.

‘’We made it in time, this orphanage has a schedule. And according to that the children will get to play outside in a few minutes.’’ Judge answered her question. ‘’Also if you are interested I was able to find a few more details.’’ She nodded.  

‘’Emy Brightheart, nine years of age, brown hair, brown eyes. She has already been here for two years. Our reports indicate that she had closed herself off, which is not surprising after first losing her father in an accident and then witnessing the murder of her mother. As such it seems she has denied every couple who tried to adopt her, she was and still is in psychological treatment.’’ She had listened to his words in silence up to this point.

‘’Has the protection detail begun yet?’’ She asked while actually turning her head, looking straight into Judge’s eyes. ‘’Yes, since today we have started to take steps. Tomorrow a bodyguard will be sent over, that bodyguard will work in cover as caretaker and will not leave Emy alone for a moment. We will also see to it that if she shall be adopted the guarding will continue from the shadows.’’ She slowly nodded as his voice faded into silence.

A small movement drew her eyes to that spot. The door of the big building opened and many children basically poured out, followed by a few middle aged women. ‘’The one to the far left, in the red shirt and jeans.’’ Judge pointed out for her.

Her gaze quickly flew over the crowd and near instantly found her. The moment her eyes

came to rest on the little girl, her heart was shaken. She looked nearly identical to how her sister had looked when she had seen her the last time. So many years back, now the assassin once more was seeing this appearance.

Tears were rising once again, her memories returned to her childhood. To the day her sister was forced to leave by her parents. Next her mind returned to the day her parents died, the day she decided to keep being an assassin. Only now in hindsight did she understand that she could always have searched for her sister instead. Only now that it was too late did she understand all those things.

‘’One day… One day when I made up for all my sins, I swear to come for you Emy…’’ She bitterly vowed. The second vow she had made to herself in her life, never to kill a human again being the first. She stared a moment longer at Emy before wiping her tears. ‘’Thank you…’’ She silently said.

With that Judge gave the driver the command to continue their journey again. The armored vehicles powerful V8 turbo engine roared to life and continued its journey to the mysterious base once more. The green eyed woman once more let her gaze return to the small girl before she turned to look at the front, awaiting what was to come.

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1. Conquest Knight VX. A super armored civil vehicle. google it, cause its a beast.

2. German superhighway.