Valery ran a hand through her wavy coppery red hair as she tried to hack into the system once more, but it failed again. She let out a sigh and leaned back her chair, hoping he wouldn't come back just yet. She hoped for a few extra seconds before Errol and the Baron came barging into the room demanding orders or to tell her she wasn't being quick enough.

They just didn't understand the complexities of hacking into a giant computer mainframe with so many fire walls and so much protection layered all throughout it. Even if she was the smartest guard they had, she still couldn't get through.

You could hear her fingertips typing away on her laptop, and you could see the wires that surrounded her.

As she tried to enter in another password she heard footsteps coming down the hallway and she mentally cursed in her head.

Another ACCESS DENIED popped on her screen as she heard the doors open. Her head snapped over to where the door was located. A sigh of relief left her throat as she saw Torn and not Errol. The smile she had on her face immediately left her face as soon as it appeared when she saw Torn's frown.

"Val, can you still get in?" Torn asked anxiously.

"No, no matter what I do I keep getting denied… over and over. There are thousands upon thousands of firewalls and layers upon layers of protection. I simply can't just type something and get in. It's going to take years for me to get in, I'm surprised I've gotten this far without my la—"

"Come with me." Torn cut her off.

"What?" Valery asked with a confused look on her face.

"I can't take it here anymore. The Baron has gone mad, and he's starting these… experiments. And the guard is just killing everyone, and not even caring… all because of Praxis…" Torn started to trail off, "And Val, there's something else."

"Torn, you're making me nervous… what is it?"

"If you don't watch what you're doing, or watch your back… the Baron spoke to me about capturing you and taking you for the experiments. Just, come with me… before it's too late."

"Torn, I simply can't leave. If I leave, where will I go? They'll track me down," Valery got out of her seat after getting into the system, the screen showed a downloader, "and you know Errol would be lost without his little play-thing. Torn, you don't know what he'll do to me if he finds me. And Ashelin, she'll need me, I'm the closest thing she has to a si—"

"Lt. Howlett." Valery almost jumped where she was standing when Errol made his presence noticed. She turned around and faced Errol.

"Yes?" Val said with a edge in her voice.

"The Baron wants to know if you got in yet, he is losing his patience."

Valery glanced over at Torn, and hoping what he said wasn't true. "I-I got in, just now, it's over 10 % on the download of the information we need."

"The Baron will be pleased. Come with me, you are done here for now." Errol smirked as he looked over at Torn as he put his hand on the small of Valery's back. Val shivered at the contact of Errol's gloved hand against her bare skin. As if Errol's smirk could get any bigger, he smirked ever more. Valery looked over at Torn, knowing she was going to see him one last time. She gave him a sad look, and she mouthed goodbye, because she couldn't do anything else. Torn looked away, with a sad look on his face.

That night, Torn left. That night, Valery hacked into the Eco Program and found out she was next to be in the program for Blue Eco. That night, Errol took Torn's position when Praxis found out he was gone. That night, Praxis started his experiments… on Valery.

One year later.

Now in 1st Person P.O.V.

Valery

My breathing settled as I ran from the palace, I quickly hid behind a pillar as a KG passed by. When they passed by, I quickly ran to the dead end and looked for the door I needed to find so desperately. But, all I saw at the dead end was a hole near the wall, a couple windows, a single person zoomer, and… walls. I kept looking around for something and I kept turning over and over again looking for the door.

"Maybe it's not a door…" I spoke to myself… I walked over to the left side wall closest to the opening of the dead end, When I hit this one spot in the wall, part of it went up and it had a doorway. I slowly walked down the stairs and then was met face to face with a pistol, better yet… a pistol I recognized.

"Hold it." I recognized the voice too.

"Torn…" I whispered, hoping he would lower his gun from my face.

"V-Valery?" He had a shocked look on his face and he put his gun down, "h-how did you get out?"

"When Errol finally left me alone with the door wide open, I sped off as fast as I could. No one even noticed I was missing," I looked up and down at him, he's gotten rougher, "Torn, the night you left, Errol took your position as Commander. And… and they started the Blue Eco experiments on me, did unimaginable things to me. Then a few months later, they started bringing in kids… KIDS! They started the Dark Warrior Program, and they were going to try it on me… but they already did the Blue Eco. One of the kids they brought the night they started the program, looked like he was 15 years old. It makes me think what the Baron thinks the hell he's doing?"

Torn looked at me, and I knew he saw that I was about to break. I was only 16, and I had seen stuff no one my age should've seen.

I was the only one who saw Torn's soft side, because Torn thought of me as a daughter… and he wanted me to be safe.

Torn closed the distance between us and hugged me (AN: just try to imagine Torn hugging someone, haha). I knew I would be safe here.

Almost two years later.

"Oi! You just can't do that! I could like, jump up and curbstomp you… you wouldn't like that very much, would you?" I smiled slyly to Tess and stuck my tongue at her.

"Please, like you can! I'd be way to fast for you to catch me," Tess smirked and stuck her tongue back at me. An evil grin spread across my face and I dashed her way and she started running. I didn't use my Blue Eco power; that would be cheating.

Tess ran outside and almost ran into Torn, but she skidded to a halt before she did and I slammed into her back and fell backwards.

"Tessssss," I whined, "why the hell did you sto—oohhh, that's why. Heya Tornie!"

"Ugh, Valery, how many times have I told you to not call me that?"

"Atleast one more, bud."

Torn groaned at me and I laughed at him, but then stopped when I heard the KG radio we had inside go off. "I'll go listen to what they're saying, I'll be right back," I said with a blank face. I walked inside the room and the KG radio went off and I sighed. I was too late to hear it. I turned around and walked up the steps but stopped halfway when I heard voices.

"Are you… uh, Torn?" An unknown deep voice asked, with a hesitate tone.

"Maybe he's a mute, like you used to be?" A different voice spoke, but this voice had a higher pitch to it in comparison to the deeper voice that spoke.

"New faces make me nervous," Torn now spoke with his raspy voice, "Word is you're out to join the fight for the city. You know, picking the wrong side could be… unhealthy." Cue the eye roll of my pale blue eyes.

"We want to see the shadow," the deep voice spoke again. What? No one just sees the Shadow like that; they have to earn the right.

"Uh, uh, uh. Not likely. If you want to join something, why don't you and your pet go join the circus?" Torn made a bitter chuckle and paused for a second, "Unless you've got the fur for a really tough task?" I heard his dagger slide out from behind his back.

"Steal the Baron's banner from the top of the Ruined Tower and bring it back to me. Then maybe we'll talk."