Under the mask, he still looked the same as she remembered. Wild blue eyes and a maniac grin, only that the left half of his face had been badly burned, and a few tufts of hair were missing from that side of his head. He dropped the gun and kicked it under the bed.

"That was stupid," Vivian told him. Despite the fact that F.O.X soldiers were trained in all forms of hand-to-hand combat, having a weapon was always an advantage. Long-range weapons were the most effective—guns, and arrows. And then slicing weapons, third came stabbing. Blunt weapons were way down the list. They had been taught not to drop the advantage. Especially against a formidable opponent.

"I cannot use a gun to take your head off. Isn't it obvious?"

He kicked the spinning chair at her so suddenly that if it hadn't been for her lightning reflexes she wouldn't have been able to clear it. Before she landed back on her feet he was there, and he landed a heavy forearm on the side of her face. Vivian spat blood from her mouth. If she hadn't turned her face at the last moment, she would have had a very broken nose.

He attacked again, squaring up his shoulders and blasting punches towards Vivian, who bobbed and wove with ease, being able to see them coming a mile away. But the space was a small one. One of the things that had been greatly discouraged was letting oneself get caught in a fight within a small space.

 It was one of the reasons why Vivian hated elevators. Soon enough her back was against the wall, and with nowhere to go, she had to attack. She held up a hand and blocked an oncoming blow, then pushed forward with a flurry of her own punches. There was no space to kick in the little room, not with two bunk beds on either side and a corpse on the floor. The more things between her and him, the harder it was to hit him. He dodged her blows just as well as she had done with his, so she changed her strategy.

She needed contact.

Vivian closed the space between them and placed a hand on his chest. She ignored the itch on her hands when she did so. From then on, no matter how he moved, he was unable to escape her punches and had to block with his hands to prevent his face from being battered. This was the first rule of hand-to-hand combat. If you could put a hand on your enemy, then do it. Once that contact was made, no matter how much they moved, you were able to adjust your blow even after you had thrown it. 

She had backed him against the wall now, between the beds, and was pummeling away at whatever opening she saw. Face, ribs, stomach and in a few moments he could no longer keep his hands up. He was still standing though, and that wasn't a risk Vivian was going to take. She couldn't kick him, but she could use her knees. She drove her right knee into his belly once, twice, thrice and he was forced onto his knees. The next one was to his damaged left side. He sat then, hands down, eyes unfocused. Vivian got down on one knee and put a hand on his chest, just in case. Once again the itch was there. She used the other to get the gun from under the bed.

"I was never as good as you were Vivian." He moaned.

"No, you weren't." She said.

"You are the best of us. And the worst of them. They won't stop until they've killed you."

Vivian ignored that.

"You've killed hundreds of people. Why?" She asked.

"Hundreds?" He laughed. "You should see the basement. Add a couple of zeroes to that. And that's how many you'll have to kill."

Vivian shot him in the head.

The inside of the building was still as silent as it had been before. Vivian raised her left hand closer to her mouth.

"Locate and open any electronic locks in proximity."

She then walked to the other end of the corridor, after which the watch beeped.

"I-tech lock detected."

A door which hadn't been visible to her clicked open. Vivian went down the stairs and stopped halfway. Down here, there were no lights. Someone could have easily been waiting in ambush down somewhere. She aimed straight ahead and fired a bullet. The muzzle flash gave her a split-second view of what was below.

Glass cases as far as she could see. She went down the last few steps to the nearest case. There was a human inside. A little screen on top showed signs of life. The lights came on, flickering slightly. So did a giant screen at the end of the room. The glass of the cases glowed an eerie blue too. Vivian walked to it. Her footsteps were silent as she went past all the cases. The screen asked for identification. There was a plate on the panel before her where she put her palm.

"Welcome Vivian Renault." A computer voice droned. "Codename Vixen169. Former Vanguard Land Force General,  High profile assassinations, thirty-six. Low profile assassinations, one hundred fifty-one. Calculating estimated common class kill count."

The machine whirred as images on the screen from every kill Vivian had made, at least the ones that had been recorded, were compiled. A number in the corner of the screen rose quickly with each passing moment. Vivian turned away and inspected the glass cases. She recognised them. She knew where to look, and when she did found what she was searching for.

F.O.X

The letters were engraved boldly into the side of each of the cases. They had been trying to do it again. The same experiments that made her who she was, that made her a ruthless killer. Vivian glanced back at the screen to the number that still was rising as the computer dug deep within the Vanguard database. This was i-tech. She let her watch connect to the screen, and then she could access its files. Something caught her eye.

Project Mainstream.

More than a thousand files. Prisoners were captured and tested on. Something was missing from their serum though, and the entire experiment had failed. They had been able to improve strength and speed but weren't able to achieve any of the traits she had. The people in the cases though, were still lethal. Once armed, probably unstoppable. Vivian had a decision to make.

"Download and then permanently delete all files on the server." She paused and exhaled. "Also deactivate the life support system."

"Confirmation required. Do you want to deactivate the life support system?"

"Yes."

The colours from the cases changed from blue to red in an even wave, spreading from the entrance to where she stood. Vivian turned to the screen, and the number of kills that were being compiled snapped to an unbelievable value as the system added the people in the cases to it. Finally, it stopped.

"Data available is insufficient to estimate a common class kill count. The known value stands at two-

Vivian smashed her fist through the glass.

She made her way back up and into one of the rooms. She wrenched the bars at the window out and hopped through it. There were no soldiers here. No one expected any sort of escape through the back. Vivian made her way to where she had left the helicopter, carefully hidden under a thick canopy, and flew back to Jose's mansion.

He was waiting when she walked out of the helicopter.

"Has your mother returned yet?" She asked him.

"She's upstairs, sleeping." He moved closer and cupped her face between his hands. "You look like you could use some rest. How long was it since you last slept?"

More than forty-eight hours ago.

But she didn't say it out loud. She was tired, and for some reason, she didn't want Jose to see her like this. She stepped back, away from his touch.

"Where are the lists?" She kept her eyes on the dark crashing waves of the sea.

"I have them. But you'll only get them in the morning when you are rested enough to think straight."

Her eyes shot up. "What are you trying to say?"

"You are tired," Jose said, inching closer to her. "Not just physically. Mentally, and emotionally. I can see it in your eyes, the light that's always been there is faded."

He was once more within touching distance, but this time he hugged her, and she let him.
"I cannot stop Jose. The violence, the killing, I cannot run from it." She whispered. "Wherever I go, whoever I am with. Death and destruction will follow. I chose this. It's who I am now, not who you are."

"I'll be the very devil himself if you want me to," Jose whispered back.

Vivian chuckled. "I want you to stay just the way you are Jose. I need at least one good person in my life."

"Good is not a word I would use to describe myself." Jose mused.

"Compared to my usual partners you're an angel." She countered.

"Oh, so we are partners now?" He leaned back and looked her in the eyes.

She was silent for a while as she looked up at him. It came out of her mouth softly, before she could stop herself.

"Vivian. My name is Vivian."

Jose shut his eyes and leaned away.

"As much as I would love to kiss you right now, I'll have to first scrub all that dirt and grime off of you." Be laughed. "Tomorrow, it'll just be you, me, the sand and the sea. We can discuss our questionable life choices then. We are broken, yes,  but so is the rest of the world. You're perfect to me, no matter what you've done."

"Thank you, Jose," She smiled at him. "Now be a gentleman and go ready my bath."

He shook his head and made his way back into the house. Vivian looked down at her watch. She had one more weapon in her arsenal and would use it to bury the camp.