She is pale. Her side is bandaged up, and the white stretched fabric is stained with blood. Her eyes are closed, and her face is pale.

"Elle?" I whisper. Her eyelids flutter open, and I exhale.

"Hey Mae." She whispers weakly. "How are you going?"

"I'm... I'm fine." I stutter.

She nods. "They told me I get to miss school. They asked me some questions about what happened, but I honestly don't remember a thing." She looks around the round the room then leans in to whisper, "But I do remember where I was. I was going to get you, and I saw some Silents wearing black come up the corridor, so I stopped to say hi, but then they grabbed me and I went under."

My heart fills with fear. "Why? Why did they do it?"

She shrugs. "My guess is someone clearly didn't want us going ahead with the experiment."

I frown. "Well they got what they wanted."

She nods, then her eyes go soft. "Why didn't you go without me? After you knew I wasn't coming. You could have gone and gotten out."

I shake my head. "I could never leave you Elle."

She smiles. "I could never leave you either Mae."

I smile back.

She frowns, thinking of something. "Hey, what about the CD? Have you heard from them at all?"

I shake my head.

"Okay. Promise you won't go back without me?"

This time I nod, instead of shaking my head. "I promise I won't go back to the Silents until you are better."

She smiles. "Good. Now, leave me alone to sleep."

She doesn't formally say goodbye, just lies down again and falls asleep. I let myself out, my little nine year old brain flipping thoughts over in my head. Who didn't want us to get out of the CD?

And the more pressing question;

Who would stab Elle to ensure that?

-*-*-

Tyran is athletic and coordinated. His arms are strong and he is determined. He barely speaks. He just trains. It isn't long until he has caught up with the rest of the group. Unfortunately, Calix is no where near the same. He is hardworking but uncoordinated, not strong, and hates hurting anything.

"I'm sorry, I'm such a ditz." He says for the thousandth time one day in training. I sigh.

"You aren't a ditz. You're just strong willed." I tell him.

"Strong willed in what?" he asks curiously, taking a break from precision practice to cock his head at me. I shake my head and gesture to keep punching.

He does, and punches the dummy forcefully, almost knocking me over from holding it. He grins at me and I laugh.

"Strong. Full stop."

He nods and drapes his hands over the dummy, so we are face to face. "But really Mae. What do you mean, strong willed?"

I smirk. "You're strong willed not to punch this dummy."

He shakes his head and continues punching in silence. I watch him, as he puts strength into each punch.

Glore comes over at some point. "Hey Maedana, training is over, but I'd be happy to give you the keys to the gym if you want to keep training."

I glance at Calix who shrugs, then say to Glore, "Well, we still haven't gotten the hang of a few things. I'll take the keys and give them back to you later."

He nods and passes me the keys. "You know where I'll be."

I smile and nod. The black bar, hidden on the top level of the black block. Glore and a fair few others were pretty much nightly visitors. I had only been there once, when I first became a black, and the thick bitter liquid had burnt my throat. Glore glances at Calix for a moment, then strides out. I turn back to Calix, who's jaw is hard.

"You still hate him don't you?" It isn't a question.

He shrugs. "Sometimes you have to work with people you hate. You of all people should know that Mae."

I raise an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean bullet boy?"

He stares at me for a long time, and I hold his gaze. Those green eyes.. They were so stunning. So filled with awe. So intelligent.

Finally, he says in almost a whisper, "You are working with people you hate all the time." Then he looks around the room, breaking our gaze. His eyes dart across the floors and walls, and I search for what he is looking or, but find nothing. Then I realise he has turned back to me. "We all are. We're all working for and with people we hate and there is nothing we can do about it. Unless you want to work against them."

I sigh. "You've been talking to Tala."

He nods. "Yes. And she told me about the Silents. Honestly, the first time I heard of them. She told me what they did. What she did. I'm joining up."

Frowning, I shake my head. "You seriously don't want to get involved Calix. I know."

He shakes his head back. "I'm doing it Mae. She told me and I think it is a worthy cause."

"Of course it's a worthy cause but it's not worthy enough to lose your life over!" I exclaim truthfully.

He frowns. "Nothing you say is going to sway me."

I scoff but don't smile. "Are you kidding? Are you kidding me?"

"No Mae! I am not! The CD is defying the complex. The complex owns me! The complex owns you and it owns Tala and Reese and Glore and every single person inside it! I want to stop that! I want to give these people their own will." I wait for it. I know it is coming. The F word that is never used. He was going to pull it on me casually, without even realising. Sure enough, I am correct. After pausing, Calix exclaims, "I want to give them freedom!"

I am silent for a moment. Then I whisper, "It isn't worth it."

"Oh yeah Mae? How is it not worth it? How would you even know! Yeah, you're the F, but do you even know what that means?!"

"F means failure." I reply quietly.

He scoffs. "No Mae. It doesn't. F-you-means freedom. It means that you escaped and survived. If you survived, then others can."

I shake my head angrily. "No Calix! Aril didn't kill me, but not so that I could be a beacon of hope. She didn't kill me because she wanted to do the opposite." I pause. My throat clogs up. "I- I remember seeing everyone's bodies. Everyone I ever cared about. I remember their milky eyes, and I remember sobbing and screaming. I remember, Calix. That is why Aril Trey kept me alive. That's how I am here. I am not a beacon of hope. I am the F. The failure. Because I failed to obey the complex. I failed to save those I loved. I failed Calix. And despite what people think, I don't take pride in that. I don't enjoy everyone looking up to me. I am a criminal who failed."

He is silent, and I realise that tears fill my eyes. I wipe them away and frown. "Go back to punching the dummy or we will never get out of here."

He silently does as told and trains while I flip thoughts over in my head.

We finish precision practice and I tell Calix it would be enough for today. Just as we are heading out of the gym, he says, "I'm still going."

I sigh as I realise he wasn't going to listen to my debate. "Okay. Then I am going with you."

He smiles faintly at me.

I close my eyes and let out a puff of breath. "Let me just drop the keys off to Glore. Go down and wait for me in the lounge. I'll be there in a bit."

Nodding, he heads out the door before me. I lock up the gym and we go our opposite ways, me up to the bar and Calix down to the first level lounge.

The halls are filled with people chatting and - more than often - lmaking out around corners.

The noise and number of blacks increases as I get closer to the bar. The thick, vile, bitter smell of alcohol also gets stronger, until when I get to the door outside the bar, I can barely breathe. I knock twice, and a thick slurred, drunk voice comes through the door.

"What's the password?" It asks, then laughs uncontrollably.

I roll my eyes. "Let me in, I need to speak to Glore."

"No can do poppin, Tyler isn't letting poppin in until poppin tells Tyler that the password is bullsh*t!" says the drunk voice on the other side.

"Tyler, the password is bullsh*t." I tell him, annoyed.

There is uncontrollable laughing on the other side as the door opens. The 'bouncer' is a drunk ass 19 year old called Tyler who is clearly drunk-ass at this very moment.

"The F said bullsh*t!" he laughs, as if that is the funniest thing he has ever heard. "Poppin said bullsh*t!"

I roll my eyes, once again. "Where's Glore."

The room is filled with drunk people shouting and drinking, like always. The largest percentage is males, but there is the occasional woman, some drinking to forget their problems, others trying to hook up with guys. There are all types of men in here, ranging from the ages of 15 to blacks in their 50's. Not many over that age lived very longer. As you got older, you got limited more and more. That's why most blacks are teenagers or in their 20's and early 30's.

"Glory Dory McOry is over there." Tyler says, pointing in the general direction to the bar. He then proceeds to fall over and almost vomits on my boots, but misses by just.

"Take a nap Tyler." I tell the drunk blonde, then walk away towards the bar, ignoring the stench of alcohol now mixed with puke.

Glore is not drunk yet. I can tell that because he isn't yet slumped over in an unapproachable stance. He nods at me as I get close. "Maedana." I nod back.

"Glore. Here, the keys." I pull them out of my pocket and hand them to him. Taking them, he takes a swig of the beer.

"So Maedana. Want to hang around for a bit?" He says it casually, but I know what he really means. 'Do you want to get drunk?'

I shake my head. "I have stuff to do."

He raises an eyebrow. "Really? What kind of things?" He stands, and his figure is menacing, towering over me.

From here, I can smell the alcohol on him. From what I could tell, I had underestimated how drunk he was.

I don't reply to his question, just turn to walk away, but he grips my arm.

"Where are you going Maedana? Stay a while." His voice is creepy and seductive.

I struggle to rip my arm away.

"Stop fighting me Maedana. You aren't going to win." I frown and push away from him. He laughs. "I taught you kid. There is no way you are going to win this fight."

He spins my and grabs me, holding me in his strong arms. Still straining against him, I try to get out of the straddle.

"Maedana why so tense? Loosen up. Enjoy yourself a little."

I try desperately to pull away from him. "I can't, I have somewhere to be you pedophile."

At that moment I somehow manage to spin my foot around and kick him in the shin, causing him to

a) let go of me

b) send me sprawling across the floor

And

c) tip up his beer and drop it all over me.

This seems to knock someu sense into his blurry drunken messed up head, and he stops for a moment, then places his empty mug on the bar beside him, standing up.

I push myself up, trying to ignore the fact that my whole upper body is drenched in thick stale smelling alcohol.

Glore looks at me expectingly. "Well Maedana. Where are we going?"

I frown at him. "What do you mean?"

He grins. "I want to see where you have to be. What's so important to you. Go on F. Let's go."

I open my mouth to debate, but what can I really say?

'No, you can't come because I am doing stuff that defies the complex in every way possible.'

I don't think that would be a smart move.

So instead I just close my mouth, nod, turn, and start walking towards the door. Someone has started cleaning up Tyler's puke, and the bouncer is now sitting down and drinking a lot of water.

Glore follows me out the door and away from the noise. Unfortunately, the smell of alcohol is still very strong because my shirt is saturated in beer.

Calix is waiting on one of the couches of the lounge when we arrive, and stands when he sees me approaching.

"Hey Mae," he pauses and takes in my beer stained shirt. "why are you wet and smell like alcohol?" He sees Glore. "And why is Glore following you like a puppy?"

I frown. "Don't ask about the alcohol. And I told Glore that I was busy, so he was curious, so I agreed that he come along with us to the market." I tell him, raising an eyebrow.

Calix picks up on the act immediently. "Does he have to? I mean, it'll be kind of annoying having to drag him along behind us while we shop." He says loudly, but not too loud to seem suspicious.

Glore smirks behind us. "Something wrong bullet lover?"

Calix rolls his eyes. "See what I mean Mae? I don't want him following us around."

"Well too bad bullet boy. Because I'm gonna follow Maedana around all day. Hey, don't you two know the markets close at 6:30?"

We both blink and I look up at the huge digital clock on the wall that pulses out the time '7:53 PM'.

Glore laughs. "Oh drop the act. I know what you two lovebirds are really doing. I would never think Maedana would fall for a bullet lover, but none the less, I'll leave you to it." He smiles at Calix creepily. "Oh, and don't f*ck her up too much. You two have training tomorrow."

He laughs and walks away. We both just stand there in a shocked silence for a moment, then in a disgusted tone I mutter. "He thinks we were gonna.."

Calix's face mirrors mine, but he just shakes his head. "Just ignore him. Let's go before he follows."

I nod and we head out the doors to the outside world. Towards the entrance to the CD.

Returning to the assassins den.