A Clandestine Meeting - 1

"If all those years were useful for one thing, it would be this," Redd muttered to herself as she stood in an abandoned alleyway behind the RimOps Headquarters. She crouched low between two bushes, completely concealed in the dead of night. No light shone on this façade of the building. Redd was nothing more than a shadow. The surveillance drones had all been rewired by Redd, using her magic. After being kicked out of RimOps, she'd promptly scared away the guards and taken refuge in this spot while the night was still young.

"You've always had such an obvious magic signature, Charybdis, for someone who prides herself over subtlety."

Smiling grimly to herself, the young wolf girl composed a message with her magic. She then compressed it down to its magical essence and transferred the mana through Charybdis' personal magic network that controlled all of her custom-made projectors. It was a message meant for the humans' eyes only.

Part of Redd knew what she was doing was wrong. Even a few days earlier she would've have shamed herself for what she was doing now. But nothing could stop her now. The hate and anger that she'd kept bottled up inside her had bubbled up to the surface the instant she lost control and transformed. She hated all of it. The trauma she'd had to endure, how quickly she'd had to mature, and that one girl's face…

Evelynn Violet.

By infecting her with lykanthropy, Redd had inflicted enough suffering to satisfy her. Her revenge had been exacted. But the hypocrisy and the callousness of RimOps and PSEF would not go unpunished. She hated both sides. They were both comprised of terrible people who had hurt her and destroyed her life. The previous Redd would bear it. She would close her heart out and do her job like a robot. But this Redd was an animal. There was no program left for her to follow.

Years of pure rational thought was thrown out the window as her heart raced and pounded on her chest. Her hands twitched and shook. Her gloves were stained red ��� she'd bitten her nails to the quick and they'd been bleeding for the past few minutes. Redd reeled from a throbbing headache and soreness all over. She licked her chapped lips, hoping nobody around would smell the stench of blood that surrounded her, permeating from the wound where she'd torn the device out in fury.

She sighed, gritting her teeth at the pain. It was making her head spin. Yet Redd hadn't been renowned as one if not the most powerful operators PSEF had to offer. Her magical prowess was just as good as Charybdis', if not more potent.

She knew that the humans had no chance of surviving. Even if they succeeded in escaping the lab, there was nowhere to run to. They were dead meat. But Redd wouldn't just sit back and watch RimTech get fat and rich off of profits from experiments. If they were willing to turn their back on Redd for a simple slip up after she'd played their precious pawn for so long, then Redd wanted to cause as much chaos as possible.

It was lucky that her outburst had also served as a thorn in their side. A human with lykanthropy would cause problems – would it count? Did Evelynn deserve to live? Was she worthless now? Redd grinned as she imagined the higher-ups panicking as the news was broadcasted to them. They'd drafted her in for her incredible magic abilities without thinking of the consequences of training a young girl to ruthlessly murder a species. The panic she'd felt when she'd received the news – it was coming back to haunt them, now.

She'd grown up in these halls and knew them all by heart. She knew exactly where to go to remain unseen. If she timed it right, and took control over Charybdis' systems at just the right time, she could help them escape. All she needed was time. She now knew that they had a month before they were going to be shipped out.

Of course, there was still the nagging problem of finding sustenance. She'd been taken care of by PSEF and RimOps. They'd provided her with food and shelter and education. Without them, she was as helpless as any child. She hadn't the slightest idea of how to cook for herself, how to find a house, how to go anywhere, really. She'd spent most of her life in that building, and while that had its benefits, she was unfamiliar with the greater part of Lachlan.

By firing her, Charybdis had effectively sentenced her to death. It would've been much more easier to just kill her out of rage, but Charybdis was too much of a coward. This was her way to killing Redd off and passing the blame to natural circumstances or "her inability to survive on her own" just so she wouldn't have to bear the guilt of turning her back on her.

But Redd had gone through this process before. If she could adapt to a life of endless war and hatred, then she could adapt to a peaceful city. After all, Redd doubted that any adult monsters would even come close to rivalling her magical power.

It was just like the Badlands. She'd been trained in basic survival skills so that when she ventured out to assassinate stranded groups of humans, she'd thrive in the wild. Now she only faced a different kind of jungle. She licked her lips. Perhaps she'd find some prey among the streets of Lachlan, who'd give her food to sustain herself on. With her bedraggled, bloody appearance, and the youthfulness of her body, there was no way a girl like her would go unnoticed. Of course, it would attract unwanted attention, too. But Redd was more than prepared to deal with those unsavory aspects of urban life.