Where Did You Get Those Peepers?

It was about two months after her parents' funeral, and rather than being a complete mess and crying and being in denial, Shion was angry. For a girl of only ten, the amount of rage that bubbled beneath the surface was greater than anyone could believe was contained in the small child's body.

Shion believed that anyone would change this way if they saw their parents ruthlessly executed. It was like life stood still, and Shion kept re-living the scene again and again, awake or asleep. Rather than get sad or feel helpless, Shion decided she was going to get even.

Day one after her parents' murder, Shion sought out one of the leaders of the Rebellion that had worked closely with her father. She banged on his door until blood ran down her arms from deep gashes in her fists.

The young man finally opened the door, but instead of hearing Shion out, insisted that she leave. "Shion! You need to leave. Adam would not want you involved in any of this. He wanted you to have as normal a life as possible, and I'm sure Kana would have wanted the same! Look, you can come inside but only to wash the blood off your hands".

Matthew glanced at the steel door when he noticed the giant blood smeared dent on the front of it.

"Wait a minute Shion, did you do that?" he pointed to the door.

Shion rolled her eyes, "Yes Matthew I did, who else do you think could have done it?"

Matthew looked at the brown-eyed, brown-haired little girl, and saw the same fire behind her eyes that he saw in her father's. "If I turn you away, you aren't going to leave are you?"

Shion shook her head.

Matthew let out a deep sigh before muttering some words about someone not coming back to haunt him for this and then said, "Here's the deal kid. I'll let you run through the training course, and if you can manage to get through that I'll let you join the Rebellion as a jr. agent."

Shion took a deep bow and thanked Matthew profusely. The training course was partially obstacles, weapons training, and partially hand-to-hand combat. There was no way a ten-year-old could pass that.

To everyone's surprise, Shion flew through the obstacle course with speed and efficiency, setting a course record. Afterall, Shion's mother Kana Tanaka was an olympic-level gymnast, and Shion had been training to vault, swing, and fly over things since she could walk.

As for weapons, Shion could easily disassemble and reassemble firearms in minutes, throw knives, and even fire a bow because her father had taught her these skills as a hobby.

As for hand to hand combat, her first opponent learned immediately how strong Shion was when a single strike crushed the bones in his forearms. It all made sense, because Shion's dad was the unofficial strongest person in New Japan.

When Shion passed all the tests without difficulty, there was no turning her away. The upper management of the Rebellion came up with a plan for Shion that involved an extreme amount of sacrifice and dedication and was extremely dangerous. Shion would essentially have to become an upper class citizen herself so she could steal information from them, and eventually destroy copies of the Nietzsche Protocol itself.

When Shion was told about all she would have to give up and even the horrific surgery she would have to undergo, to blend in with the Upperclass citizens, she readily agreed. Not in a ten year old way either. She fully understood what would happen and what this would mean for the rest of her life. Shion was willing to do anything to avenge her family.

Back to the present, Shion had been training the entire two months since her parents' death. She was told that there was something that she needed to see and that after this there would be no turning back.

Again Shion readily agreed, eager to begin her revenge campaign. Matthew led Shion to the research lab run by the Rebellion. It was small and cramped with lots of wires and equipment everywhere. Then, she saw it and knew immediately that IT was the reason she was there.

In a small container filled with a lime green solution, a pair of ocean blue eyes, nerves and all was floating. Shion looked at it with bewilderment because she never imagined anything like this would be possible in her wildest dreams. When they explained that her vision would be improved so much due to the gene modifications of the eyes themselves, Shion was in total disbelief. She was excited about it because she would become a better soldier, but incredulous about the dramatic changes they described.

"Say hello to your new eyes, Shion. Starting today they will be yours forever. Do you understand what this means? What we are going to have to do to you?”

Shion shook her head, "I'm not really sure."

Matt's face got serious, "Shion it means we will have to cut out your eyes, and replace them with these. You will not be able to see for at least a couple months, the pain will be excruciating and we have no meds to give you. Are you still willing to do this? You can still say no."

"I'm doing it. You can't stop me. No one can. The only people I cared about are gone because of them," replied Shion with ferocity pointing to the Uptop.

Shion was brought to the operating room which was white with nauseatingly bright lights. She was laid back onto a stretcher, then a nurse placed an IV and prepared Shion for surgery.

The surgeon entered and explained to Shion that there were currently no pain medications or medications for sedation so she would feel everything. The surgeon explained "You will feel all the cutting and stitching but I will paralyze you so no moving. If you don't want the surgery you can stop now."

"No!" cried Shion,"I will do it. You have my permission ."

The nurse began to push the paralytic and almost instantly, Shion stopped moving, she couldn't even muster a single breath. The doctor tilted her head back and forced an ET Tube down her throat. Shion immediately felt the need to gag and cough, but she couldn't. Her eyes just began to water.

Once Shion was attached to a breathing machine the surgeon grabbed a device that was specifically used to pluck out eyeballs. He lowered the device and scooped out Shion's left eye in a single, fluid motion. The amount of pain Shion felt in that moment was beyond excruciating, and Shion's heart rate climbed into the 200's.

Eventually she passed out. This cycle was repeated again and again as her new eyes were transplanted onto her optic nerves. After fainting several times for about six hours, Shion's eyes were installed. The problem was, they didn't work yet. They needed time to heal so Shion's eyelids were sewn shut.

After a few days of rest, Shion began training to rely on other senses to fight. At first, she was getting hit constantly by her instructors but soon she learned to listen to the sound of limbs traveling through air, or estimate the distance of a person based on the sound of their footsteps. Her intuition improved to the point that she didn't even have to look in the direction of an attack to block it. This training lasted weeks, so by the time Shion was finished she had become as skillful as some of the adult fighters.

One of the most horrific parts of her recovery was the pain of the dressing changes which happened frequently due to breakthrough bleeding from the vessels behind her eyes. She could feel the blood running down her face like tears. Every single touch felt like that stabbing of 1000 little knives inside of Shion's head when this happened, and peeling off the blood soaked gauze felt like they were peeling off her skin despite her eyelids remaining shut.

The pain Shion felt during surgery was enough to drive most people insane. And for a while, it did. Shion would wake up screaming, re-living each cut and stitch. Shion was changed. After that. She no longer felt sympathy for others who got hurt or reacted to any injuries that were not related to her eyes. She had become cold.

When they finally removed the stitches keeping her eyelids shut, all Shion could see was the difference between light and dark for a while, then shapes and outlines of objects. It was about two months before Shion's vision was fully restored.

The first time that Shion saw what she looked liked with her new eyes she was washing her face when suddenly she was able to see the pores in her skin at an almost microscopic level. Dust danced in beams of light, and even objects close to a 1/2 mile away were easily viewed by Shion. It was an entirely different way to see the world.

For Shion though, the most difficult thing to see was her own reflection. When she saw the ocean blue eyes staring back at her in the mirror, she instantly became nauseous and felt as though she was looking at a stranger. At one of the Upperclass. For years, Shion had severe imposter syndrome and had to pinch herself or hurt herself to convince her brain that the person she saw in the mirror was actually Shion, and not another of the Upperclass people who she considered her greatest enemies.