# Disembodied; feeling fearful yet awed and inspired. #

~Edited.~

Please listen to the song above...

At the start of every chapter, there will be a snippet of Nandini's past from the beginning.

~

Natasha knew what today was; everyone knew what this day would bring and how it would affect their lives. 

For the past week, before the Auction, every single girl being trained at the Academy is sent out on a manhunt. For each other. There were only meant to be ten survivors. Whoever lasted the longest won. You kill each other, out of spite. 

She had returned, of course, along with Alexandria and eight others.

"No one expects an angel to se the world on fire" That was what was whispered to her by the Leader when she was grabbing her survival kit, after being given a slight nudge, silently conveying the command that she were to return victorious. The Leader was a woman of a few words and thus, Natasha had learnt her silent commands and her expressions enough to mimic them in front of Alexandria to make her laugh.

Currently, at the tender age of nine, it was time for Natasha Irina Volkov to retire and begin a new identity under a new master. At the start, she would be nobody. A lowly, measly assassin but Natasha vowed to make her own name in the world and not the name of the naïve and sweet Russian Princess whose skin she had shed whilst being here.

Natasha was the Leader's most prized possession but now, she was being brought like a common whore, for an Assassin Leader to use at his discretion.

All that training, would go to waste if a low-life politician bought her for his agenda and revenge but Natasha refused to let that happen. She wanted to be sold to the best of the best where her training would be meaningful. As meaningful as murdering people could get.

Both Alexandria and Natasha had waited, with bated breath, their hands tight in each other's grasp as the curtain fell and they were then separated to be led to a pedestal where each of the 10 assassin trainees stood. They looked at the crowd who had auction paddles in their hands, like this was some kind of art show. Standing there in scantily clad in a leather bodysuit, she felt on display as the buyers moved around her. Her skillsets were placed on an Apple iPad in front of her for the Leaders to see. She stood in her designated place, all the other assassins behind her following her lead. Finally, the bidding was over and Natasha had to be almost dragged off the stage after she stood glaring at the people, voluntarily involved in human flesh trade. She was sold for a measly three billion dollar. Harshly, she was pulled by one of the Academy staff and pushed into her room where the minimal stuff she had brought with her was put into bags. Feeling almost dejected, she went to pick up her bags when the room opened behind her.

The Leader grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her around so that they were facing each other and noted with satisfaction that Natasha's eyes were cold and calculating, unlike the other trainees who were almost shedding tears.

"If you can learn to endure pain, you can survive anything. Some people learn to embrace it, to love it. Some endure it through drowning it in sorrow, or by making themselves forget. Turn it into anger instead." The Leader smiled down at her little protégé and Natasha's eyes widen at seeing the merriment on her face.

"Thank you." For everything is what she had meant to say but Natasha knew she would have understood either way. The Leader nodded and stood up straight, continuing to look down at her.

"Remember, everything and everyone has a price." That was the first thing Natasha had learnt; Everyone had an agenda and everyone could be bought.

She was then led to the front of the building, in front of the many cars brought to escort her. She glanced at Alexandria who also came out but they weren't allowed physical contact so she conveyed what she was feeling through the softening of her facial features and the look in her eyes. Alexandria, in turn gave her a smile and walked to the car bought in for her. She glanced back at the piece of glass architecture and thought it twisted to miss it but it was the only home she had. 

Sitting in the car, she watched as the guards got into their cars as well before driving off. Natasha let out a small sigh. How many times will she have to reboot her life and relocate with a new identity. As a child, she was hoping for some change but overall stability. However, if her life so far was anything to go by, she knew chaos was headed her way. She was in a dreamy haze as they boarded the plane to a foreign country and slept like a baby during the lone flight hours. Of course, it was a private jet but she didn't recognise the name on the plane. Dimitri Egorov.

She felt groggy and almost sleepy, like she hadn't slept in a decade but that is when the realisation hit her that she had been drugged. Maybe when she closed her eyes for a few second in the car but her mind was too hyperactive to worry it. She finally broke out of her dreamy state when the car came to a halt. Her car door opened and she looked to her left to find the man who had bought her at the auction. She was dragged out of the car and onto the harsh stone road, her elbow scratching and blood pouring out profusely. He also threw a backpack next to her and it landed with a thud, suggesting that there was some heavy equipment there, possible a tent.

"Two miles," the guy who had brought her said behind her. "They will find you."

Natasha turned to ask him another question, but he had already disappeared into the car, leaving her there on her own. Cursing him, she tried to swallow but failed. Her mouth was too dry. She had to start now, or else she'd need to set up shelter to sleep out the unforgiving midday and afternoon heat.

She figured she was somewhere in the Middle East, judging from the heat and the fact that there was dessert as far as the eye could see.

Two miles. How long could that take?

Taking a sip from her unnervingly light water skin, Natasha pulled her scarf back over her mouth and nose and began walking. She had, thankfully, found these things in the backpack otherwise she would be dead within twenty minutes.

The only sound was the wind hissing through the sand.

Hours later, no one had offered her water upon her arrival, and she didn't think her current escort was inclined to do so either as he led her through the winding halls of the fortress. The two miles had felt more like twenty. She had been just about to stop and set up her tent when she'd crested a dune and the lush green trees and adobe fortress had spread before her, hidden in an oasis nestled between two monstrous sand dunes.

After all that, she was parched. But she was Natasha Volkov and she had a reputation to uphold.

She kept her senses alert as they walked farther into the fortress—taking in exits and windows, noting where guards were stationed. They passed a row of open-air training rooms in which she could see people from all kingdoms and of all ages sparring or exercising or just sitting quietly, lost in meditation. They climbed a narrow flight of steps that went up and up into a large building. The shade of the stairwell was wonderfully cool. But then they entered a long, enclosed hall, and the heat wrapped around her like a blanket.

For a fortress, the place was fairly noisy, with the clatter of weapons from the training rooms, the buzzing of insects in the many trees and bushes, the chatter of birds, the gurgle of all that crystal-clear water running through every room and hall. Natasha did not do well in heat, being from a cold country and then living in an even colder climate had made her skin thicker to adjust so she was sweating exuberantly. 

They approached an open set of doors at the end of the hallway. Her escort—a middle-aged man flecked with scars that stood out like chalk against his tan skin—said nothing to her. Beyond the doors, the interior was a mixture of shadow and light. They entered a giant chamber flanked by blue-painted wooden pillars that supported a mezzanine on either side. A glance into the darkness of the balcony informed her that there were figures lurking there—watching, waiting. There were more in the shadows of the columns. Whoever they thought she was, they certainly weren't underestimating her. Good.

A narrow mosaic of green and blue glass tiles wove through the floor toward the dais, echoing the little rivers on the lower level. Atop the dais, seated among cushions and potted palms, was a white-robed man.

Her new Master. 

She kept her chin held high as they approached him, following the tile path in the floor. She couldn't tell if the Master's skin had always been that tan or if it was from the sun. He smiled slightly—he'd probably been handsome in his youth. Sweat oozed down Natasha's spine. Though the Dimitri had no visible weapons, the two servants on his left and right were armed to the teeth. Her escort stopped a safe distance from Dmitri and bowed.

Natasha did the same, and when she raised herself, she removed the hood from over her hair. She was sure it was a mess and disgustingly greasy after two weeks in the desert with no water to bathe in, but she wasn't here to impress him with her beauty. Dmitri Erogov looked her up and down, and then nodded. Her escort nudged her with an elbow, and Natasha cleared her dry throat as she stepped forward.

She put a hand over her heart and dropped to both knees. "I am Natasha Volkov, protégée of the Leader. Thank you for granting me an audience with you." She lowered her head so the Master wouldn't see the ire on her face. "I am yours." 

Warmth worse than the heat of the desert singed her cheeks. She kept her head down, her arms still upheld. Cloth rustled, then near-silent steps echoed through the chamber. At last, two bare, brown feet stopped before her.

A dry finger tilted her chin up, and Natasha found herself staring into the sea-green eyes of the Master. She didn't dare move. With one movement, the Master could snap her neck. This was a test—a test of trust, she realized.

She willed herself into stillness, focusing on the details of his face to avoid thinking about how vulnerable she was.

She braced herself as his long fingers pushed back the loose strands of her braided hair, revealing the yellowing bruises still lingering around her eyes and cheeks, and the narrow arc of the scab along her cheekbone, all from the training not even two days ago.

But the Master's eyes narrowed, his lips forming a tight line as he looked at the remnants of the bruises on the other side of her face. She was lucky that the Leader was skilled enough to keep his blows from permanently marring her.

"You're younger than I imagined you would be." His first words to her and that too about her age and hinting at her inexperience.

She calmed her thundering heart just as the Master released her face and stepped back. He motioned with a hand for her to rise, which she did, to the relief of her aching knees.

The Master gave her a crooked smile. She would have echoed the expression—but an instant later he snapped his fingers, triggering four men to charge at her.

They didn't have weapons, but their intent was clear enough. The first man, clad in the loose, layered clothing that everyone here wore, reached her, and she dodged the sweeping blow aimed at her face. His arm shot past her, and she grabbed it by the wrist and bicep, locking and twisting his arm so he grunted with pain. She whirled him around, careening him into the second attacker hard enough that the two men went tumbling to the ground.

Natasha leapt back, landing where her escort had been standing only seconds before, careful to avoid crashing into Dmitri. This was another test—a test to see at what level she might begin her training. And if she was worthy.

If she was worth the billions spent on her.

The third man pulled out two crescent-shaped daggers and slashed at her. He swiped for her face, she bent back. Her spine strained, but the two blades passed overhead, slicing through an errant strand of her hair. She dropped to the ground and lashed out with a leg, sweeping the man off his feet.

The fourth man, though, had come up behind her, a curved blade flashing in his hand as he made to plunge it through her head. She rolled, and the sword struck. By the time she got to her feet, he'd raised the sword again. She caught his feint to the left before he struck at her right. She danced aside. The man was still swinging when she drove the base of her palm straight into his nose and slammed her other fist into his gut. The man dropped to the floor, blood gushing from his nose. She panted, the air ragged in her already-burning throat. She really, really needed water.

None of the four men on the ground moved. One of them spat blood on the floor, before looking back up at her.

"Fucking bitch." She landed a kick at his stomach, making him let out another groan and turn over.

"My name is Natasha. But it makes no difference if my name is Natasha or bitch, because I'd beat you no matter what you call me." She smiled at him, cutely, before looking back at the master.

The Master began smiling, and it was then that the others gathered around the chamber stepped closer to the light. Natasha inclined her head. None of them nodded back. Natasha kept one eye on the four men before her as they got to their feet, sheathed their weapons, and stalked back to the shadows. Hopefully they wouldn't take it personally.

She scanned the shadows again, bracing herself for more assailants. Nearby, a young man watched her and had a jealous... expression on his face. Natasha tried not to look too interested, he was one of the most stunning people she'd ever beheld.

The Master clapped Natasha on the shoulder and beckoned to the man to come forward.

"This is Nikolai. He will assist you with anything you need." Nikolai gave her a not-so-interested look, already seeming to hate her guts despite not knowing who she was and where she had came from. That was one of the biggest flaws of humanity.

Jealousy. Envy. The looking at others and wishing to be them when they were perfect the way they were and just need to have confidence in themselves. So, Nikolai led her to where she would be staying. It was a beautiful room with a very dark interior. Most of the furniture was black and white along with the floor being charcoal black stone.

"If you need anything else, don't call me." He gave her a glare and walked out of the room. She ban to admire his well-shaped back. She knew he had to have the been the person who's spot she had stolen but she was too tired to care.

"I will not be afraid." She whispered herself after she had closed the door and slid down onto the cool, inviting floor, laying her face against the cold tile to sooth the burning on her face.

~

Nandini Malik knew she had to obey Manik for the time being otherwise he would be insufferable and she simply did not have the strength to waste her time on a college student who thought that the world revolved around him even though he hadn't even seen 5% of this world.

So, grudgingly, she dressed in running clothes as she wanted to jog to his house. Donning a sea-green full-sleeved belly gym top and high-wasted legging and her running shoes, Nandini headed out. Her face was clean of any make-up and she felt her skin glow in the sun and her face plump from the fresh air. She finally arrived at the gate of Manik's house and waited for someone to open the gate after she had rang the doorbell. A guard at the tower waved at her and the intercom buzzed to life. 

"Who is this?" The guard spoke from the high tower when Nandini refrained from looking at, feeling the sun's glare in her eyes, almost as a punishment for some sin she may have committed.

"Manik is expecting me." She said, hesitating slightly but watched as the guard confirmed the new and the gate opened and onto the driveway, she walked and walked until she could see the house.

Even she had to admit, it was a beautiful piece of architecture with steps leading up to a door, surrounded by grass and a few trees here and there and a cylinder-like shape sat in the middle between the door on the left-hand side and black planes reaching higher than the whole house on the other. It was black and marble and white and it was gorgeous.

Nandini hadn't even noticed when a maid opened the door and was waiting for her to get in. She smiled in thanks and stepped inside and the interior did not disappoint. It was perfectly black, filled with antique pieces with the living room situated in the centre of it.

She waves a maid over, who asks her if she wants something to drink but Nandini just wants to get this over with so she asks where Manik is and it turns out that after trying to destroy her life, the boy was swimming in peace. She hated him so much! She headed to the outdoor swimming pool and watched as Manik walked out of the pool and grabbed a towel before heading her way. She inwardly cringed as he came close to her face before telling her that she is late. Nandini rolled her eyes before telling him that it is barely a 30-second difference. 

Manik leads her up to his room and tells her to perform menial tasks like cleaning his dirty bedroom which had pizza boxes strewn across it. Nandini had never in her life cleaned anything so at first, she tries to search it on Google but giving up, she pays one of the maids who had happened to be walking by to clean it. After a few hours, Manik informs her that he is to be served dinner which makes her miss the party she was supposed to attend.

She is about to ask him if she could head home, seeing as it was getting darker and colder but she was interrupted by his phone ringing and all she heard from the other person was Dhruv and something along the lines of attack.

Manik runs out of the house without so much as a word to her, driving so rashly that Nandini began to feel worried and so she called an Uber and told him to follow the car. Nandini arrives at Dhruv's house shortly after Manik and was surprised to see that it was a normal middle-class cottage-like house but as she walks inside, she sees Dhruv's mother whom she smiles at and walks closer to Dhruv's room. It was a mess of a place with the bedding almost broken apart and things thrown onto the ground but what intrigued her was the drawing of a star on almost every wall of the room. It was the same as her friend when she was in high school but that friend had sadly passed away but the symptoms were the same. She looks at Manik who is busy consoling his friend and smiles a little sadly. Manik finally notices her and almost does a double-take at seeing her standing at the door but doesn't say anything as Dhruv finally calms down.

As both Manik and Nandini head out of the house, she hesitatingly looks at him, wondering if she should question what she saw because he was very protective of his friends and would assume that she wanted to use this information against him. Nonetheless, she asks him if Dhruv gets theses attacks often but Manik just glares at her with such hatred that she knew she had maybe asked at a wrong time. Manik grabs her by the arm and backs her against his car, pinning her arms against it to the point that she knew it would bruise the next to. 

"Mind your own goddamn business and I swear if you tell anyone this, I will make your life a living hell." His eyes turned scarily red but Nandini wasn't afraid; she knew he loved Dhruv like a brother so she nodded and he finally let her go. Pushing her aside, he opened his car door and drove off, leaving her behind to find her own way back. 

Nandini let out a sound of frustration at being stuck with a narcissistic human being whose only job seemed to be wanting to torment her but nevertheless, she turned to her Uber and headed home.

The next day, Nandini gets ready with her thoughts of Dhruv bombarding her head and the night before playing on repeat in her head. She wanted to help Dhruv but she didn't really know how; she had contacted the best neurologists that she had ever known in order to see if they knew something but only one had seen remotely what looked like attacks identical to Dhruv's so they scheduled a meeting. On her way to college, Nandini remembers that she has to go to Mr Manik Malhotra's house first and so she arrives at his house and finds the monster sleeping. In an attempt to wake him up, he backs her against the wall once again, having felt angry at being woken up even though his alarm was buzzing when she had entered. 

Manik goes to shower after telling Nandini to make his bed. Nandini, however, has never done this before and is in no mood to do so, therefore she pays the maid who immediately gets to work. As she waits, his phone starts ringing and she lets Manik know who tells her to pick it up and bring it to the bathroom. She goes in, coughing slightly from the steam and holds the phone near the glass shower case, turning the other way and letting the 'lovebirds' have some privacy. Manik, in hopes of making Nandini nervous, starts flirting with Alya and almost talking dirty to his girlfriend but Nandini had listened to and done much worse that had she let Manik know, he would start blushing.

Their romance was so pathetic that Nandini couldn't help roll her eyes. At least, her previous lovers were romantic and knew how to talk dirty.

Nandini heads outside as Manik gets ready for college and leaves before he had the chance to tell her to do another task. He leaves shortly after changing.

Nandini heads straight to the practice room where Harshad, Navya and Shahid sat, chatting among themselves about how to exploit Manik's weakness in order to destroy Fab 5. Nandini stops listening but her ears perk up at hearing Dhruv's name and how Harshad was going to go after him but Nandini attempts to stop Harshad from making Dhruv target but he pays her no heed as the rest of the group agrees and back Harshad who immediately begins to formulate a plan. How had she become the one with morals all of a sudden?

Harshad goes to Fab 5's practice room where Dhruv was sitting alone. Suddenly, a flower pot fall which distracts Dhruv who gets up and goes to the fallen pot but find no one there. Harshad picks up Dhruv's guitar and starts to tease him with it. Nandini intervenes and tries to take the guitar of off Harshad who snatches it further, breaking a string. They hear a shout from the entrance and look to see Manik looking really pissed. Harshad gave Dhruv his guitar back as Manik storms towards them but first looks down at Dhruv and asks if he is okay. Dhruv just shows him the broken string. Manik's jaw sets as his eyes turn murderous; he charges towards Harshad, throwing punch after punch, breaking Harshad's nose. No one moved for a few minutes. Nandini started to intervene and tried to separate them. Nandini is then pushed by Harshad onto Manik who tries to catch her but fails as both of them fall. 

Nandini mouths "Oh, fuck no." 

They both land on the floor with Nandini's full pink lips onto Manik's inviting ones. Everyone's eyes widen except Harshad who was smirking, believing his plan to be successful. Nandini gets up almost immediately and runs out making puking noises. Navya runs after her as Alya sits on a chair in utter disbelief even as Manik gets up from the floor and gets his guitar like it was nothing. 

Nandini rubs her lips together in shock as Navya runs up to her; this, however, gives Nandini an idea of how to break free from the contract.  Manik comes out of Fab 5's practice room after having a fight with Alya. He stops dead in his tracks as rose petals fall on him. He looks up at the sky and then down to the floor as a heel comes in his vision.

Nandini then steps in front of him and gazes at him in a fake loving expression. Alya, who had followed him out, sees this and Navya, according to the plan, tries to salt Alya wound by saying that Nandini and Manik make a gorgeous couple. Alya has a bitter expression on her face as she storms off leaving Navya laughing. 

~

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