Project Starfall (Completed)

Chapter 22

"Is that even a real name?" Knox asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes," Pierce responded dryly. "Anyway, I used to work for an organization called COBRA. It was founded to dictate who holds power in the political sphere, and has a reputation more formidable than even Starfall. I was recruited by COBRA when I was six along with about a dozen others around the same age. The organization was founded long before I joined them, but had only just decided to begin training assassins. Their hope was to create a league of highly-skilled killers who could wipe out political rivals."

"Please don't tell me you killed people as a six-year-old," Knox said.

"No." Pierce laughed bitterly. "They trained me until I was twelve. Then I and the other trainees received our first contracts. You would think they'd go easy on us, but that ended up being one of the most difficult kills I ever made."

"Twelve years old," Elliot repeated in disbelief.

"I cannot justify what I did," Pierce continued. "I worked for them for three years after completing my first contract. During the first two months I was recognized for my skill and appointed Second in Command." She looked away. "In all I completed one-hundred-and-twenty-eight contracts." The hybrids stared at her with wide eyes. "Shortly after I turned fifteen I left them. I tried to avoid capture, but I knew they would catch up with me eventually. I was skilled, but they were too, and I was only one person. They found me within a few weeks." Pierce cringed at the memory. "They threw me into a bare prison cell without windows and left me there alone for a month, only delivering food once a day. Then they finally spoke with me. They tried to get me to work with them again, but I refused. The result may have been different if they hadn't ignored me for so long. All that free time to think only made me hate them more. They tried persuading me again and again over a period of several months before finally giving up. After that they left me alone again. Who knows why they didn't kill me...."

"You were there until Project Starfall?" Grey asked, pity in his eyes.

"Yes," Pierce answered. "I guess in the end they decided I wasn't worth keeping locked up anymore, so they sent me to the trials and certain death. Or so they thought. Then I was at the Starfall compound five years before I met all of you." Pierce smiled a genuine smile. "At first you were little more than a nuisance to me," she admitted. "But in just the past couple of weeks I've never felt more ... human."

"Aw, Pierce." Knox smirked. "You have a soft side after all."

"So, why did you betray them?" Elliot asked.

"That question has a more complex answer than you'd think." Pierce sighed. "In order to be considered for COBRA's league of assassins, you have to meet certain qualifications. A high intelligence, good physical health, and at least some promise in fighting. Along with all of that, you have to have a certain personality type. They need people who are lacking in emotion, especially empathy."

"Sociopaths, then?" Grey asked

"Pretty much." Pierce shrugged. "But a sociopath with his own agenda would be too difficult to control. That's why they take kids at such a young age; they haven't had a chance to develop their independence. The other kids and I became used to doing only what we were told, nothing more or less. By the time we were older our purpose in life was to follow commands, so that's what we did. We never considered doing what we wanted because we didn't want anything."

"What made you different, then?" Elliot asked, still sitting on the ground.

"They were wrong about me, I guess." Pierce shrugged. "It wasn't that I felt nothing, but that I could remove myself from my emotions. It was a skill I learned as a small child, and I quickly decided detaching was much easier than dealing with feelings. After removing myself from my emotions, though, it grew harder to face them again. I became stuck in a state of feeling nothing."

"So since you felt nothing, you felt no reason to embrace your emotions again." Elliot nodded like it made perfect sense.

"I guess." Pierce shrugged again. "COBRA got to me when I was well into my state of nothingness. If they hadn't come for me, I'm sure that being surrounded by other people's emotions would have brought mine back eventually. But they did take me, and I ended up being surrounded by sociopaths just as unfeeling as I was. I'm sure the constant desensitization to violence by COBRA didn't help either. I began to drift even farther from being human, though I didn't realize it at the time. Looking back I can remember all of the bloody executions I carried out without remorse."

"What finally brought you back enough to leave them?" Grey asked gently.

"I got too close to one of my victims," Pierce answered. "It was always a matter of time, really. As an assassin I was careful to eliminate my targets before they ever noticed me, and before I could learn anything about them. It kept my emotions in check. Finally, after three years I slipped up. I underestimated the person I was tailing and she noticed me. I killed her the moment we met eyes, but that instant was enough. I could see a single question in her eyes: Why? And I found I couldn't answer it, because I didn't know why. That part never came with the contracts. It was the first time since I was six that I felt something, and it hurt. I tried to repair the damage, but it was not easily done. Feeling after so long brought confusion with it that was too strong to push down. Every contract I got, I questioned. Not out loud, of course. I knew that questioning anything would immediately alert COBRA that something was wrong with me. I continued to act like they expected me to until eventually it became too much. I was obsessing over the lives of my victims to the point that I would purposefully blow my cover to talk to them; I was hoping that they might give me an answer to my question. Most times I came up empty, but completed the contracts anyway. This went on for a couple of weeks until I finally snapped. I let my victim go and ran. It was the first time I left a contract unfinished." Pierce sighed. "I doubt I will ever feel completely normal. Letting every emotion back in ... that may drive me crazy."

"I hate to break it to you, Kaiyo." Knox smirked. "But you're never going to be normal either while you've got a bunch of feathers growing out of your back."

"Shut up, Avery," Pierce retorted.

"So rude," he whispered to Madigan, who was nearest. The tiger hybrid glared at him.

"I hate to interrupt," Terra said, peering out a window. "But it's time for Darius and me to get going."

The helicopter landed at a refueling station owned by Project Starfall, where Terra and Darius bid the hybrids good luck. "Fingers crossed that all goes well and we'll be seeing each other shortly." Darius smiled grimly. In his hand was a black bundle, which he held out for Pierce to take: it was her trench coat.

"Good luck," Terra said.

"We'll be needing it." Pierce laughed humorlessly, draping the coat over her wings.