The force of the shotgun shell threw Vivian across the back seat and past his corpse, straight through the window to the outside. An old but familiar pain exploded in Vivian's chest. Suddenly, she couldn't breathe properly and her body couldn't heal fast enough.

Around the car, with a smile, came her shooter, Haraka, and he wasn't finished yet. He shot her in the chest once again, and this time Vivian confirmed he wasn't using any ordinary shell. This one was the sort designed to take out specifically her kind. And she had used one like it before, so she knew it worked.

Vivian had been shot before, in the head, even in her heart. She had suffered third-degree burns that were so severe she had been able to see her bones. She knew what pain was, and had experienced it again and again. But never before had it been this bad.

Nanotechnology had been used to develop weapons that could kill F.O.X soldiers. The little bots kept on destroying tissue and they released a chemical toxin that slowed down its regeneration. The same chemical-induced levels of pain Vivian hadn't thought were possible.

 She writhed in pain and struggled hard not to scream, for that was a gift she wasn't going to give to the mercenary. A pool of blood was already forming around her, and Vivian turned away from Haraka so he wouldn't shoot her in the same place again. A headshot would have left her dead after a while if left untreated but he seemed like he wanted to savour the moment.

Haraka squatted down next to the woman whimpering in agony on the tarmac. She was rolling in a pool of her blood, and he suddenly didn't see why she had been a threat in the first place. He had been given a contract to kill whoever attempted to kill the Prussian general, and looking back at the car there was no way he could have survived. But killing V169 would make all forgiven and would give him a reputation second to none.

"You know, the last time we met I shot you, right in the head." He started. "And when you stood up as if nothing had happened I thought that my life was over. See, we assassins follow simple rules, I kill you, and you die; so imagine what I felt when you walked away from a headshot. It was unfair, and you didn't play by the rules of our game."

Haraka paused to eject the empty shell and load another into the shotgun.

"So I thought to myself, I'm gonna need a bigger gun. But then I saw as the soldiers sent a missile at you, and a tank." He paused to laugh." And you survived the missile somehow and brushed the tank aside like it was nothing. So, I changed tactics and did a little research on you. I didn't get much and it cost me a lot to get what I did. Guess what, I got a bigger gun and a better one too. Let's see you walk out of this one alive."

Vivian couldn't think through the pain, couldn't plan, and couldn't do anything but wait. So when Haraka went on his monologue she closed her eyes, hoping she had enough strength left in her to activate her other side. It helped that when her eyes were glowing Haraka couldn't see them from where he squatted. 

She wouldn't fight though, not when there was a slowly closing hole in her chest, and not when any sudden movements could get her shot again. It was after her body had repelled some of the nanobots in a swirl of green that mixed with her blood that Vivian remembered she still had one throwing knife left. She plucked it from its hidden spot on her belt and waited. She would have to make it count, even if it meant getting shot again.

She heard the sound of him reloading his gun and then waited a bit more. Waited till he was ready to fire again. He would go for the head this time of course, so the first thing she did was to raise her head to get it out of harm's way. Haraka had to adjust his aim, but he was more composed than Vivian had expected and he managed to blast the round into her left shoulder. He however didn't keep his calm when she turned to face him with her glowing eyes.

 He fumbled with the bullets and dropped them as she got on her knees, then knocked them further on when she got onto her feet. Her jacket had a large tear where he had shot her, twice, but the blood was the only remnant of any injury she had before. Her left hand hung limp at her side since he had shot her shoulder, but he knew it was only a matter of time till that healed too. In her good right hand was a small knife, and he was much too close to be able to get away in time.

Vivian looked down at Haraka. He was scared as hell, but he didn't know how scared she had been a few moments ago. He didn't know that she was stalling, hoping her body would heal faster and also not drop her unconscious due to the effort of pushing out the immensely destructive nanobots. He had shot her left shoulder, but it was a hit that had been a little too close to her heart. 

Some of the little foreign imps had made their way into her heart, and Haraka didn't know how much of an internal struggle she was going through at the moment. She was bluffing and buying time, hoping that human nature would prevail and he wouldn't do something unexpected like try and fight. She could pin him right there with her knife but she was feeling woozy and didn't think she would be able to get the accuracy right.

Her watch vibrated against her hand, three warning buzzes. Something was wrong—her body couldn't contain the invasion on her heart, at least not while she was awake. It would be sixty seconds and her body would shut down temporarily, reverting all its strength to healing.

"Go."

Haraka didn't think he had heard right. She was offering him mercy? She never showed anyone mercy, at least not when they had directly attacked her the way he had. He wanted to think it out, try and see what she was trying to do, but she said it again in a low cold voice.

"Go."

Instinct prevailed over curiosity, and Haraka dropped the gun and ran off as fast as he could, got into the last car, and drove off. Vivian could no longer feel her left arm. She used her right to put the knife away and pick up the three shells Haraka had dropped in his panic. She threw them into the rushing water below one by one and then paused before throwing the last. She tucked it into a hidden pocket on the inside of her jacket, also, just in case. She didn't know why she kept it despite the threat it posed to her, but she knew she had to.

Vivian realized she couldn't let herself fall unconscious right next to the carnage she had caused, and not when one of the dead was a high-ranking Prussian general. Her watch buzzed continuously this time as the timer was now down to ten seconds, just enough time for Vivian to walk over to the edge and jump into the fast-flowing water below.

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