PROLOGUE

❝ IT'S OKAY, YOU'RE SAFE NOW. ❞

THE INCESSANT WHIRRING OF MACHINERY could be heard through the sterile halls of the research facility. Each room of the massive building was filled with scientists and their experiments, whether they be on people or inanimate objects.

Her eyes squeezed shut as the lights flickered above her, silently praying that she would wake from the nightmare that her life had become. Part of her clung to her memories as if they were a lifeline, the only thing keeping her sane. She wished that she somehow go back to those happier days, back to the girl she had once been.

That girl had died long ago. It had been years since that girl had been killed by scientists and trainers who wanted to mold her into the perfect soldier. She had been weak and pathetic, so she had to die.

It wasn't as if she fought them, not anymore. Where she used to fight them with all of her being, something had changed in her. Something inside her would take over whenever they spoke, and she would stop fighting. It was like someone else was taking control.

Part of her wished that she understood what they were doing to her, and yet she was glad she didn't know everything. Knowledge would mean that she was more than whatever they told her, and she feared those answers.

Her blonde hair fell into her eyes as she opened them, staring at the flickering lights above. It wasn't slicked back into a ponytail for once, but she knew that was subject to change the moment anyone walked through her door.

She wouldn't be surprised if one of her trainers walked through the door considering it was already well past when they would normally grab her for daily training.

Perhaps they had forgotten the time, or maybe they decided that today would be a better day for less physical training and more intelligence work. Over the past few years, she had excelled at learning different languages, which always pleased her captors.

Whenever she completed learning a language, they would reward her with a few hours in her cell with no interruptions. It was almost heavenly to just sit in her room without fear of anyone pulling her to do something she didn't want to. She wished she didn't know how to accurately fire a sniper gun or how to subdue a man twice her size in under a minute.

The door to her room slammed open, revealing an all too familiar face. Strucker. The man who was responsible for everything that was happening to her. He was a taller man, with a monocle over his right eye, which she desperately wanted to break, but something inside her kept her still.

"Soldat," he greeted, stepping into her room. His eyes looked up and down her body, momentarily stopping on her biceps, which had become more defined with all of her physical training over the past few months. "No training today, Doctor List requires some new bloodwork."

She silently stood, and two guards entered the room to escort her. If she didn't put up a fight, they wouldn't sedate her. They wouldn't try to hurt her for her disobedience if she just obeyed.

The two guards led her through the halls of the facility, keeping her close to ensure she didn't slip away, but giving her the freedom of not being restrained as a reward for her obedience.

Once they reached their destination, Doctor List welcomed them to the room with a curt nod. She knew exactly where she had to go.

Like clockwork, she walked to the chair in the center of the room and sat down, placing her arms on the armrests, where metal restraints closed around her wrists. Simultaneously, restraints locked her ankles in place, an extra precaution put in after she had given Doctor List a concussion during their first session together.

The doctor moved around the room as if floating on air. It was almost peaceful to see someone at such ease in this facility, even if it was one of the men she wanted nothing to do with. He picked up different pieces of equipment until finding a tourniquet, needle and some collection tubes before walking over to her seat.

She didn't wince as he tied the tourniquet around her bicep, nor did she flinch at the feeling of the needle gliding through her skin and into her vein. It used to scare her, the fact that Doctor List was taking her blood to do experiments on it, but it didn't anymore.

She knew she wasn't human, that much had been evident after Doctor List's first round of testing had been done years before. He had demanded to know what she was, and being barely twelve years old, she didn't have an answer to his question.

What was she supposed to say? Her mother was . . . she couldn't remember what her mother was anymore.

There were vague memories of her family, but nothing concrete. Her brother was older than her and had blue eyes. Her mother had blonde hair and a kind smile. She never had a father. She had an uncle who was around after the accident, but she didn't know who he had been.

That was all she remembered.

Doctor List pulled the needle from her arm, covering the wound with gauze and medical tape to keep it secure. Once he finished labeling the vials of blood, he released her restraints, waving her off as she stood up, resisting the urge to rub her wrists.

She walked to the door, where the guards moved to stand on either side of her before walking back to her room. After reaching the door, they opened it and she walked inside, sitting down on her bed before hearing the door slam shut.

And she was alone again.

Her room was barren, minus the bed she was sitting on and the bar they hung from the ceiling in the center of the room. Her captors had told her to use it to get rid of any frustration, so that's what she did.

She pulled her hair into a ponytail, using the hair tie she kept under her pillow to secure it before walking to the center of the room to begin.

The blonde would spend what felt like hours each day on the bar, forcing herself to pull her body up to the ceiling before letting herself down. The burning in her muscles would subside with time, but she needed to occupy her mind, so the pain would do.

Boom.

She dropped down from the bar, stopping her set at the noise.

Boom.

There were people running outside her room, shouting about an attack. Her heart began to hammer against her chest.

An attack? Who could be attacking—

Something slammed against the wall in front of her, and she stepped back, silently praying that it was the twins.

If it wasn't the twins, it could be something worse.

It could've been their newest asset getting out of her cell again. The other girl had been more aggressive and she couldn't imagine what experiments they had been doing on her.

Suddenly, the door to her room blew wide open and she prepared herself for the worst. She quickly got into a more stable stance and readied herself to fight.

A metal figure stood at her door, their armor red and gold, eyes glowing bright white.

"You're just a kid."

She didn't dare move. If she showed any sign of weakness, they could attack her.

"It's okay," the man said through his suit, raising his hands in the air. "I'm here to help."

She eyed him skeptically. No one was ever here to help.

"How old are you, thirteen?"

Again, she didn't say anything. She didn't know who he was or if he was going to kill her.

"Are you Olivia Bowman?"

Her eyes widened. It had been years since anyone called her that.

"I'm a friend of your Uncle Josh," the man explained, stepping into the room. "I'm gonna bring you home if that's okay."

Something in her softened at the mention of Uncle Josh, but she couldn't remember his face. She looked at the man in the suit once again, and his mask opened, revealing his face to her.

She relaxed a bit, but remained suspicious of the man.

How had he found her? Where did he come from? How did he know her name? How did he know her uncle?

"I'm Tony," the man said with a kind smile. "They had my daughter here too. Her name is Juliet."

The new asset.

"I'm going to get you both home with my team, okay?"

She nodded, shoulders relaxing. "Okay."

"It's okay, you're safe now."