1 Three times.

Three times... three times I jumped off this cliff to see my life start again, right at the same time, at the same place.

Why? The Core made a request. I had to die for my sister, for the Core to free her and her unborn baby. I had to die, as the rules within the gang dictated that someone had to sacrifice for another's freedom.

But I came back, three times. Why? I cannot understand.

The first time I jumped, I was surrounded by a group of masked people in black clothes and rose tattoos, they were my team from the Core. They betrayed me and took my power, then they killed me by pushing me into the depths of the cliff.

The second time I jumped, I did it willingly, I discovered my team was not the one that betrayed me but my Master. He manipulated them with his power and made them hunt me and kill me. I jumped to free them since I could not change our destiny.

The third time, I found my long-lost sister, the one I thought was dead, the one I lost when she was four and I was six. I found out how she was tortured into a soulless body that killed for the Core without mercy or feelings. But I didn't have enough power at that time, I had no way to free her. I had to jump to transfer my abilities to them so they would release her.

However, I cheated, I created a big explosion to destroy everything related to the Core, I thought I would lose my spirit and stop coming back but, in the end, I returned.

This time I came back many years before anything happened. I came back when I was six and my little sister was still by my side at the orphanage.

Now everything will be different.

***

Two little girls were moving silently throughout the dense black forest behind a big old house. The gelid night covered their fragile bodies from any sight while they kept running. Their eyes could barely see through the dense woods but the moonlight guided their path, their path to a new life.

"Hannah!"

"Mia, I don't want to go."

"We should start moving or they will find us."

"But… they said they were giving us a good family, why should we leave?"

"Hannah, they are lying to us, please trust me."

They were beautifully dressed all in white highlighting their long silver hair and their stunning clear blue eyes. However, the dirt in their little faces and the mud on their white dress helped them cover from any sight. It was a shame as they wore a dress as beautiful as that for the first time in their lives.

A day before, the people from the orphanage told them that a wealthy family from the city wanted to adopt them. Mr. Dawson received the instructions as the headmaster and ordered the old housekeeper to make them look presentable as the individuals coming tomorrow were very important.

The old woman helped the little girls bathe and dress. She washed their silver hair with high-quality products to make it shinier and more beautiful, then helped them wear new clean dresses and shoes.

The little girls enjoyed so much that day, the food they gave them was delicious making their faces radiant. They even ate a lot of dishes with meat and a chocolate pudding for dessert. Hannah was smiling and laughing with bright eyes, but Mia looked at everything with an uninterested face, usually, she would enjoy the food like her sister but she was abnormally quiet that day.

Mrs. Hill, the housekeeper didn't mind at all as the kids inside the institution were orphans with awful pasts that left them scars difficult to solve for an old woman like her. However, Mia was different, she had passed more difficulties and harshness than any of the kids there, and she remembered it all. How she lived, how she died, and now that everything began again. She knew what was going to happen.

After the buyer arrives at the orphanage, the two girls will be taken to an auction house in the underworld and will be tagged as merchandise, then separated, and auctioned.

The Core will buy Mia with a batch of other little kids, those who will become her team members in the future.

However, Hannah will be bought by a gang of assassins, one of the cruelest branches of the Core. They usually inflicted inhuman torture on their members to make them senseless to any pain and gave them the harshest training never to betray their masters. And if someone tried to escape, they will be given a choice, to pay with a life or to become a puppet. The latter was for sure not the best one as they will be forced to undergo a procedure to erase their thoughts and simply follow orders blindly.

Mia will not let Hannah go through that pain again.

"Hannah, let's go this way."

Mia pushed a small trunk that covered the entrance to a water pipe. Her weak and delicate arms struggled to move the door, and her white dress was now covered in more mud and dirt.

"Come, Hannah, give me your hand."

"But… it's dark. I am scared."

"Don't worry I will protect you."

Mia extended her little hand and Hannah took it instantly. She would always trust her sister. Always. They began their journey through the pipeline for over an hour, their little legs were tired but they continued. Mia let out a slight sigh of relief when she heard the river water flow nearby.

"Hannah, I will show you something, but you have to keep it a secret, promise?

"Uh? Okay, sister!"

Mia touched Hannah's hand and a beautiful white light wrapped their body.