The Scarred Past

The More I think about it the more my life seems like a waste, I didn’t choose to be like this and I never had a choice to be something different in the first place. I am nameless and the ability to choose was taken from me long ago.

I was a pathetic human who used to live by surviving one day at a time and at the mercy of others. In the city of Jahan, I was an orphaned child. I never saw my parents or someone close to me.

My only goal in life was to have a good meal and nothing else, I never had great expectations, especially from this world that only valued ones with heavy pockets.

It was 4 years ago I remember…

“I should probably collect some food from the auto recyclers before they reach the recycling plant.”

I saw the truck, it was at a halt at the cross signal, so I tried to find some food in there. I humped inside the recycling truck and found some half-eaten doughnuts and some energy pills. “Oh well-well, that is an amazing deal and those fools just throw it away hun! I don’t know how ungrateful can one be, but thanks to them I won’t feel empty today.”

I was happy to find some food, but the truck driver noticed me through the rear camera on a screen on the truck’s dashboard. He stopped the truck and reached me from the back I was unaware that he noticed me at first but soon as he grabbed my hair I instinctively kicked him in the face. He fell back and his nose was bleeding, that scared me so I tried to run away but he had already notified the cops soon as he found me. They all were chasing me as the law in the city was to never steal anything not even if it was garbage.

“I know this area more than these fools so it will be easy to trick them.” I started running faster and grabbed a hinge of a building and started climbing, they weren’t able to follow me up there, but I was surrounded by them over the other side of this 2-story building.

“You better surrender and we will be easy on you, since you are a girl we might as well treat you with a little something, hahaha.” The police operator spoke through the handy voice expander.

“Oh yeah?! That is if you can catch me.” I jumped from the roof of this building to the other and they were shocked as I made this 10-meter jump above the street to the other side. I landed on the roof on my feet and rolled to stop the momentum.

“Hey, stop right there!!” The Police officer screamed.

“Pathetic, Like I ever will let you touch me, huh.” I kept running so that I can lose them and in the middle of this I ran into a middle-aged guy.

“Hey, watch where you going, people aren’t easy here, especially if they ran into a poor young girl like you.” He said that to me and glanced over my shoulder, he grabbed my hand and I thought he was trying to hand me over, so I tried to break out of his grip but he wasn’t budging.

“Let me go, fool. What do you want?” I yelled at him.

“You.” He replied.

“What? I don’t want to be with an old pervert and I won’t obey you so let me!” I was shouting at him yet he kept a straight face and said, “Just play along and I will help you and don’t worry I don’t want your body I want you.” At that time it didn’t make much sense to me but I played along and he managed to bribe the officers out and made me join him. He took me to a building which had scaffolding outside, but the interiors were completed.

As we entered the building anybody who passed by was wishing him, everyone seemed to respect him a lot as they were using honorifics (sama) along his name. We took the lift from the ground floor to the top where his office was, the room’s walls were dark in shade and upon entering, he placed his long coat onto a standing hanger which was beside his desk. Who wears a long coat these days. I thought.

He sat down on his chair, which looked more like a throne with spikes that were pointing outwards from the middle. He lit his cigarette and after a puff, he asked me. "What’s your name?”

“I-I don’t have any.” There was no one to name me, so I never tried naming myself. I thought it was cool not having a name. Mysterious.

Oh, that’s quite interesting. I wish I had the luxury of not having a name.” He smiled for a bit and took a puff from the cigarette he was holding in his fingers of the left hand.

“Luxury? You are the first one to say that. My life isn’t as good as you may presume.” I said.

He brushed the hair that was falling into his eyes using his right hand. Now that I look at him he doesn’t seem exactly middle age but rather quite well over forty, his hair is grey in many places and he wears old-fashioned clothes.

“I envy your kind, free-spirited and living by the day to the fullest as if there is no tomorrow.” Yes, there actually isn’t.

“Oh really, why did you save me then?”

“I am going to lend you a tomorrow but, in return, you have to remain here at The Hope forever and serve under me for the betterment of both you, me and humanity.” He said some things that never made sense to me.

Oh really? I don’t actually care about humanity and stuff. So I don’t know, find someone better than me. I tried leaving the area, but he said something that made me stop.

With his deep voice, he calmly replied. “How about food? We can get you free and nutritious food every day and a place to live as well.”

Just because of that temptation, I was here, strapped on a machine. It was like a bed and some sort of robotic arms were above me. He said we need to fix you before proceeding any further and I agreed without knowing what was to come.

Everyone left the room and I was alone there, I never felt afraid before in my life for anything but this time, my heart was beating faster than normal. The machine started, I was conscious and strapped to the machine. Two needles entered my neck from the side, it made me panic, and I tried to move but I wasn’t able to move an inch. Some fluids were injected into my body. My body started going numb but I was still conscious and aware of what was going on. Those robotic arms lowered down and chopped my limbs off, I was still aware and able to see them getting decapitated. I could feel the immense pain and my eyes were flooding with tears.

I wanted to scream but I couldn’t as my body wasn’t conscious., But I was still able to feel the pain and it made me black out.

When I woke up, he was near me. Wait a minute I never asked for his name.

“Hey, what’s your name?” I was still not fully conscious, and I was blabbering.

“Seems like you are fit & healthy, I knew you could do this.” He beamed without answering my question, and they moved me to a different room which was more lively and had a window facing west, the whole Jahan was visible from there. It was a bit relaxing environment.

I noticed my limbs were still intact, and I was able to move freely without feeling any pain and there weren’t any cuts visible. Soon after, he can back with a few nurses. They all examined me and took some blood samples. One of the nurses looked at him and nodded her head. She was confirming something.

He looked toward me and said. “I think you are ready, project X.”

“What? What do you mean? What did you do to me in there?” I was still in shock.

“Your old body, even though strong, t’was quite weak. We modified your DNA a bit. In layman's terms, we upgraded you. Don’t worry our body is still stable and working fine, so there shouldn’t be anything abnormal happening with you.”

I wasn’t sure how to respond to his words. I was still confused and when I glanced past him, another man was standing there. He noticed it.

“Oh, I wanted to introduce you to someone, this is Mr Bright and he is from our security department. He is going to train you so that you’ll be able to serve us as well. But before that, here is a meal for you.”

Looking at the food presented to me made my mouth water like a river. I ate all the food, it was the first proper meal for me since I could remember. That was all it took to make my day, and I had already forgotten the pain and shady stuff that happened to me a few hours earlier.

“I think we should move, young lady.” The Bright guy lead me towards a room where we trained every day. He seemed like a nice guy, and he always used to wear a black steel mask. I never got to know what he looked like, but he was tough with his training. I got food and nice clothes to wear in return all I had to do was train myself every day. The days went by like a breeze, only until.

“Xiba!” Shin sama called me.

“Yes, Shin sama!” He named me after the experiment that was done on me, project X. I was trained every day by Bright for 1 year, and I worked for The Hope’s security during this period, I was the security in charge now.

You have a duty to attend today. Someone from our corporation stole a deadly virus. They must be stopped before it leaves the city. It contains enough viruses to wipe the whole population of Jahan. The vehicle id should be on your watch now, find them and get the box containing the virus back.

“Yes! Sure will.”

“One more thing before you leave, finish them off as well before getting the virus.” He was serious while saying that, he lit his cigarette and slowly raised his eyebrow. “Is there something, you need to ask?”

“Why don’t we hand them over to the police instead of killing them, ourselves?”

“Xiba, you know how corrupted the whole system is. You have experienced it first hand.” After taking a puff from the cigarette he stood up and came toward me. He said. “I believe in justice, do you?”

“I-I do,” I said hesitatingly.

“Then move on Xiba, and don’t forget whom you belong to.” He patted my right shoulder and left the room. I was still confused about whom I was serving. I left the place and tracked the car, as Shin sama said they were moving outside the West city. I followed them on the bike and got ahead of them so that I could set a trap. A sonic EMP burst was a simple yet effective method of stopping a maglev-type car. (derived from magnetic levitation is a system of train transportation that uses two sets of electromagnets, one set to repel and push the train up off the track, and another set to move the elevated train ahead, taking advantage of the lack of friction. But in Jahan Maglev tech is implemented in light vehicles as the roads were constructed specifically for maglev cars, generally big highways.) The EMP will make the whole system fail and the car will hit the ground without getting the time to protract the wheels.

It happened according to my plan, the car came and I pressed the button. The car fell off into the road at raging speed. It rolled multiple times before coming to a halt. Shin sama notified me that the box containing the virus was bombproof and can withstand an accident. In other words, this is what he wanted me to do.

I moved towards the car carefully while holding a sword. It was the outskirts so no one was nearby and it was quite dark. I could see the blood flowing outside the car. The smoke was thick and their faces weren’t visible in the dark. I went toward the back side of the car and pulled out the box.

“Yo-You should not take this.” The person who was bathing in his own blood said, pantingly.”

“So, you are still alive hun? I should finish-” When I tried lifting my sword towards him, he wasn’t trying to defend himself, and when I looked over to the other seat, there was a woman. The sight of it made me vomit.

“Shin got another fallen bird in his trap, I guess?” Even though he was almost on the brink of death, he was still trying to talk to me.

“What do you mean? I don’t think I should listen to a criminal.” I picked up the box and was leaving but I heard a call from behind.

“What did he offer you for your humanity?” He was breathing slowly.

“Not your concern,” I answered.

“He is a liar, the thing you are holding, do you know what it is?”

“A virus.” Soon as I said that he laughed hysterically and coughed at the end.

“Check your watch I just sent you the information you need for a wake-up call.” I glossed over the information and some images and videos of failed experiments linked as well. The smoke cleared, and I was able to see the criminal’s face. He was a doctor whom I used to see sometimes at the hope. When I got to know who he was the box and sword in my hands fell down.

“W-wait, doctor? Why are you here, I wasn’t aware of all this.” I almost broke down.

“Xiba, was it? My wife is already dead and I don’t think I will survive, ah-ha.” He was breathing slowly and he was panting. You have all the information you need in that watch and that box contains a special fluid that can make a human into a superhuman, unline the experiment done on y-you ahan-ahem, It modifies the whole DNA structure. Just find Edra, my so-son Ed- protec- him. He died in front of my eyes and I couldn’t do anything. I was their killer. I returned to Shin sama and gave him the ‘virus,’ but I never revealed the data I got from the Doctor.

I worked inside of the corp and monitored everything. The only thing that was stopping me from going against Shin sama was fear. He was the one who saved me, named me and he had control over various bodies of administration in Jahan. I wasn’t ready to take him down only until I met Edra. I told him everything except the part about his parents. Now Shin is my only target of retribution.