I don’t know why the hell Rose has taken such a liking to Sophie. But if nothing else, it’s really interesting. It’d be even more interesting if they took her as an apprentice. They’ve only done it twice, once with me, and the other time with Livvy. Livvy’s now the highest ranking member of The Rose ever, excluding founders. I’m also the heir to their throne so, yay me.

But, if they did take Sophie in, she’d probably be able to rival Livvy or maybe even Amber. She could already beat most of our former agents in a fight. Well, I think. So, if she got better.

“Hello,” I heard Rose say, “Earth to Mattie. Earth to dumbass. Mattie, come on, turn that damn machine on.”

Oh, I must’ve been spacing out. I flipped the switch. “Hey, Rose, why did you ta-”

“Shut up.” Rose cut me off. “Pay attention, make sure she doesn’t die or anything.”

I know I act like a cunt to Rose, but they really are my parental figure. My dad never gave a shit about anything but working himself to death, and my mom was an alcoholic wreck. She was apparently caught up in a drug campaign.

Apparently she sold drugs to some of Rose’s people, and they overdosed because the amount she gave them was too much. Rose was pissed and tracked my mother down to the rich part of Albuquerque.

They killed my mom and dad, who just so happened to have just come home. Then they saw me. And looked devastated. At the time, I didn’t know why, but later I learned that it was because they didn’t want to deprive anyone of the parents they didn’t ever have.

I said something along the lines of “Oh, thanks for murdering those shitbags” but a lot more innocent given I was 9. And they took me in.

The process was done.

I flipped the radiation off. The doors opened and Sophie came out, gasping. “Mattie, what the fuck, you said I woulnd’t feel the suffacation cause I was unconsious.”

“Oh, that wasn’t Mattie’s fault,” Rose said, “That was mine, I thought it would be funny if you woke up as soon as the radiation started.”

Yup, definitely an apprentice.

Sohpie sighed, black hair ruffled, shirt burnt in places, a red mark down the right side of her upper body. She looked like she came right out of a warzone. “Alright, I’m gonna go track down Johnathan and demand him to let me take a shower.” Sophie declared. “But I need a new shirt. I don’t need his dick getting hard because he saw my bra.”

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“I need to talk to him as well, so I’ll go with you.” Rose said. I was gonna talk to them, but apparently not. That bitch. I quickly made up a shirt for Sophie, and threw it to her. She pulled the burnt one off, and put the second one on.

It was just a regular white t-shirt, but since I hadn’t taken her measurements, it was a bit big. She thanked me anyway, and she went to walk out the door with Rose.

When they opened the door, Livvy jumped out of the way before she got bitch-slapped by the door. “I heard you guys were looking for Johnny Boy. Down the hall, last right turn, first left, second door to the right. That’s where you’ll find him.” She said, and pushed past Rose, and pushed them and Sophie out the door, and closed it.

“Ah, so what did you wanna talk to Rose about?” Livvy asked. I can’t figure out why, but she is always so perceptive when it comes to me. It’s super unnerving actually.

“I was gonna ask if they were gonna take Sophie on as an apprentice.” I said, making two chairs. I slid one over to Livvy. I slumped down in the chair, and Livvy gracefully twirled the chair around, and lightly sat down. “I mean, sure.” She said thoughtfully. “It’s possible, but I’m not sure what Rose could teach her, except maybe just general skills. You and I, we came in knowing nothing, but Sophie’s coming in and knows almost everything that Rose taught us.”

I laughed, and said “You’re right, we were pretty fucking useless when we first came to Rose. Sadly, we aren’t anymore, so Rose can actually make us do things. But, you're right.” I snapped my fingers and made a lollipop for myself, unwrapped it and put it in my mouth and mumbled, “I’m not sure Rose taught us everything though? Do you?”

“Not really,” Livvy answered, “I think that they thought they taught us everything they could need to teach us. But it is possible that Rose didn’t teach us everything because we were just kids. We were really young, mostly, and I mean this very loosely, innocent little brats. Sophie’s seen some shit. Sure, we’ve seen the same stuff now, but not when Rose was teaching us.”

“I mean, I guess you're right. We’ve grown up, and in that time we’ve taught shit to ourselves.”

“Oh, speak for yourself why don’t ya. You did not grow up. If anything, you devolved into an annoying bitch that only knows how to curse in Homosapien.”

I could feel my face go red. “NO! I AM NOT!”

Livvy shrugged and getting up out of the chair and walking out of the room said, “Mattie, I used to not like you. You know that. You’re a lot smarter than you look. But there's something you need to know about Rose. Something you need to understand. Rose is not always right. You don’t always have to agree with what they do. And where we have to follow orders, you don’t. You don’t have to do anything they ask you to do. You don’t need to follow orders. Just, I-. I just don’t want you to end up regretting something. A life full of regret is a life full of suffering.”

With that, she left. I sat there, lost in thought. Did regretting something really fuck your life up that bad. Well, I guess she of all people would know.