*Earth – Training Facility*

My training with Sarah went on for a few days before I was finally able to take apart the pistol and put it back together in under ten seconds, while blindfolded. I was able to perfectly recite what each part does by memory on the second day. I was still running, doing pushups, and some other exercises to keep my body strength up. My day was very busy, but that is to be expected from a training camp.

For a couple of weeks we were training on taking apart a multitude of weapons. Almost every weapon the company could get its hands on I had taken apart and memorized its parts. My memory retention was amazing for some reason. It has never been this good in my life. It’s like I all of a sudden got a photographic memory. I was confused as hell, but why question a good thing? I put the thoughts to the back of my head and continued on with my training.

In about two months I had taken apart every weapon the company uses. The reason it took so long is because I had to put them back together blind folded, in under ten seconds, twenty to thirty for the bigger weapons. Imaging trying to take apart a M240 in under ten seconds, it may be possible, but maybe that was a goal for a time in the future. I was really excited when Sarah finally said we were going to shoot at the range.

I followed her from our usual table to the range. We walked inside and stepped up to a man at the table. He looked up from his magazine and when he noticed Sarah he smiled, “Well it’s been a long time lass.” Sarah smiled back at him, “Yeah, I have been out on a couple of missions, in fact the new trainee here is a souvenir from the last one.” I shot her a glance, since when did I become a souvenir to her?

The man looked me up and down, “Not bad lad, you seem to have finished the physical training alright.” He looked back at Sarah, “How long it take him to finish all the weapons.” She held up two fingers to him. He snorted, “Two years? Jeez, why so fucking long lad?” I was about to say something, but Sarah spoke up, “No, not two years, it was two months Aaron.” Aaron raised an eyebrow and then looked me up and down again. He nodded his head a few times before he spoke again, “So I guess you guys came here to shoot some shit right?”

I nodded my head vigorously, “Hells yes! I have been waiting for this moment for the last two months.” Aaron laughed, “Why are you so excited lad? You never shot a gun before or something?” I smiled, “No, I have actually shot plenty of guns before. Though I have never had to take them apart or anything, but I have shot a lot.” It really wasn’t a lie, I had shot plenty of weapons before.

Sarah looked at me, “When did you have the chance to shoot a weapon? When we found you, you were homeless and there are no records of anything about you since before the hospital visit.” I smiled, “I was actually a military brat, I didn’t know what branch my dad served in though. All I know is that we lived in many secluded places and my dad’s missions always kept him away from home.”

She stared at me for a second, “You mean his deployments right?” I looked at her and shrugged my shoulders, “Well normally I would think so too, but don’t deployments last for months at a time, sometimes a year or so? My dad would only be gone for a few weeks. When he got home my mom would always greet him and ask if he completed his mission. Now I do know that this could have been many different things and he may not have been in the military, but he specifically told me he was in the military and I believe him.”

She thought about something for a second, “Maybe your dad was a part of some Special Forces team and only got sent out for very special missions.” I shrugged my shoulders, “Maybe, I don’t really know. He died a few years ago and my mom passed a few years before that. I have been living on my own for a long time. After my mom passed, dad really didn’t want anything to do with me. He said I reminded him to much of my mom.”

I sighed and then looked at Aaron, “Enough about that stuff, which gun are we going to shoot first?” He looked at Sarah and she just nodded her head. He looked back at me, “Let’s go with a simple M1911 first.” I smiled and nodded my head. He grabbed one from the shelf behind him and handed it to me handle first.

I grabbed the pistol and the ammo box that he stuck on the table as well. Sarah led the way to one of the shooting lanes in the next room. She pointed towards the lane and I stepped in-between the dividing walls. I removed the magazine from the pistol and sat the pistol on the table. I loaded the magazine with the rounds from the box and then put it back in the pistol.

I made sure the safety was off, racked the slide, and aimed at the target that was already set up down range. I made sure my aim was straight and then pulled the trigger. There was a loud bang followed by my bullet missing the target. I aimed the gun at the target and pulled the trigger again. My bullet flew right above the head of the target. The second shot confirmed my suspicions.

I looked at Sarah who was just standing there smiling at me. She spoke when I looked at her, “Hey, almost everybody misses on their first shot.” I smiled and then looked back at the target. I readjusted my aim and fired. The bullet hit the target square in the middle of the head. Once I saw that, I aimed at another spot and fired again, but this time before the bullet even hit the target I was aiming at another area and firing again.

I did this for the rest of the bullets. I hit the target in the head, heart, stomach, and knee cap. I put the safety on and then removed the magazine before setting them on the table. I turned to Sarah, who was staring at me with her mouth twitching a little. She grinned at me, “If you can shoot so go, why did you miss the first two shots?” I shrugged my shoulders, “My dad made me shoot so many weapons over the years that my aim is almost perfect. My only issue is that I have never shot at a moving target.”

She raised an eyebrow, “That still doesn’t answer my original question, why did you miss the first two shots?” I pointed at the pistol, “The sights are off on the pistol.” Sarah raised an eyebrow and knocked on the bullet proof glass behind her. Aaron came through the door after a few seconds, “You knocked lass?” She looked at him and pointed at the pistol, “Are the sights off on this pistol?” Aaron rubbed the back of his head, “You figured it out huh?”

She glared at him, “Actually he noticed it.” She was pointing at me which made him surprised. He spoke back to her, “I guess he realized why he couldn’t hit the target at all.” Sarah laughed, “Actually he only missed the first two shots, the other shots hit the areas he was aiming for.” Aaron raised both his eyebrows and looked at me, “What? How? I adjusted the sights to where it would almost be impossible to hit the target by aiming down them. Hell you can even see the sight is misaligned just by looking at them.”

I picked up the pistol and looked at the sights. Sure enough they were more crooked than most politicians. I laughed, loaded the magazine, put it back in the pistol, turned the safety off, changed the target out, and then shot every bullet in a circle pattern on the stomach. I put the pistol back on the table and looked at Aaron. The look on his face was priceless. Sarah was just smiling, but I could still see the small twitch at the corner of her mouth.

I looked at Aaron again, “The sights may be extremely of, but that doesn’t mean you can hit the target. The bullet is still traveling in a straight line out of the barrel regardless of the sights.” Aaron coughed once before saying that he needed to go back to his work. Sarah and I laughed for a few minutes before she looked at me, “Well since we know you can shoot at a standing target maybe we should move on to the moving range.”

I smiled and waved towards the door, “Lead the way madam.” She laughed again and then walked out of the door. I quickly picked up the pistol and handed it back to the “busy” Aaron before I walked out of the range. Sarah was waiting for me right outside. She smiled and then walked towards another range, this one was outside though.

We walked onto the range and I saw that there were a few people already getting ready to shoot. Sarah walked up to the weapons rack and picked up another M1911 for me to use. She handed it to me along with a box of ammo and pointed at an empty table. I walked over to the table and loaded the pistol. I racked it and aimed at the target that was moving side to side down the range. I know that I can’t aim right at the target because I would just miss. The target was moving which meant that I needed to lead it.

I may know what I need to do, but I had never put it to practice. I put the pistol in a pretty good lead compared to the target and pulled the trigger. The gun bucked a little and fire spat out. The bullet traveled down the range and missed the target. I had aimed a little too far in front of the target because the bullet hit the dirt behind the target before it passed by. I cursed and for the next few hours I shot bullets at the target. I finally managed to hit the target with every bullet by the end of the day.

I turned in excitement to Sarah who just smiled and flipped a switch. To my dismay the target actually sped up. I cursed and then spent a few more hours trying to hit the target again. After about five months of the same thing I was finally able to hit the targets at their max speed with every weapon. Granted I didn’t hit them exactly where I was aiming, but I at least hit them. Sarah nodded with satisfaction after I hit the moving target in the head with the M40A6 sniper rifle.

The target was almost a mile out and moving at the max speed. It was extremely hard to hit the damn thing, especially without a spotter to measure the wind and whatnot. The max speed of the targets was like a pro football player running the forty in four point four seconds. Granted not every person would be able to do this, but it really made the amount of people who could move faster than I could aim a lot smaller.

She smiled at me some more, “At this rate you may be able to finish the training in under a year or two tops. I smiled, “Is that fast?” She laughed, “For most of our recruits it is a little bit above average. I think the fastest to finish the training was our number one assassin in the younger ranks. She completed the training almost nine years ago at the age of sixteen. She completed the training in seven months and twenty three days.” I was shocked and my expression was most likely showing it.

She laughed again and continued speaking, “She is by far the fastest to complete the training and our top female assassin. She hasn’t failed a mission yet.” She glanced at me quickly and muttered a few words, of what sounded like jealousy, that I could barely hear, “She is also very pretty.” I smiled at what she said, but acted like I didn’t hear it. Sarah isn’t bad looking at all, in fact she is very beautiful, but if she is jealous, of the beauty, of the other woman then she must be gorgeous.

Sarah changed the topic and continued to speak, “Now on to the second to last part of training melee weapons.” I perked up at this, because I have wanted to train in these types of weapons for years now. Dad really wouldn’t let me do it because he said it was barbaric. In some cases it may be barbaric, but in other cases it can be artistic. Hell if an apocalypse of some sort happens and guns can’t be manufactured then knowing how to use a sword would be vital.

We left the long range field, went back underground, and over to the round field I saw months ago. The only thing that this underground training base has above ground is the long range field, but it is outside of the city limits so it really doesn’t matter. They are planning to move it underground as soon as they expand the base more.

We made it to the melee training field and I saw a beautiful woman sparring with another man. The man was very agile and his moves were fast as lightning, but the woman blocked or parried his attacks without even breaking a sweat. She stood in the same place and just moved her arm to block his attacks. I was mesmerized when I saw the scene unfolding in front of my eyes.

Sarah saw my expression and laughed, “Remember the woman I was talking about earlier? The one who I said completed the training the fastest?” I nodded without looking at her. She continued speaking, “Well this is her. Her code name is “Violet Death” what her real name is no one, but our leader knows. She stopped talking and looked over at the group of men lined up along the perimeter.

She sighed, “It looks like we may not be able to use the field today. This happens every time she comes back from a mission.” I looked at her, “What happens?” She pointed at the men around the perimeter, “They are all lined up for a shot at the reward offered.” I was startled, “There is a reward for something?” She laughed and nodded, “Yeah, Violet Death said that if anyone could injure her in a spar she would give them a chance at being her man.” She sighed, “This all started because of one of our higher ranked assassins wanted to take advantage of her. She completely crippled him and then issued the challenge in front of all the spectators. The news quickly spread after that.”

I nodded my head in understanding; I mean the woman is beautiful. I looked back at her and was had to hold back a little drool. She was probably five foot eight and had an hour glass body. Her breasts were a solid E cup at minimum. How she fights properly with those I will never know, but I don’t really care. Her ass was very plump and stood out in the blue jeans she was wearing. Her black top was squeezing tightly on her chest. What really stood out was the reason for the Violet in her code name; she had bright violet colored hair.

I was staring a hole in her and she seemed to notice, because she looked back at me. I was just as surprised as the rest of the crowd. The man she was sparing with took advantage of her not looking and tried to attack. He was blocked and then kicked out of the field. The entire time she didn’t take her eyes off of me. I was starting to sweat at the intense aura coming from the stare, along with the glares of the other men.

Why the fuck is she staring at me for? All I did was stare at her like the rest of the men here. She started to walk over to me. I looked around to see if she was coming towards someone else, but the only one around me was Sarah. I looked at her and spoke, “I think she wants something from you.” Sarah smiled and shook her head, “No, she is staring at you Caelum.” I was starting to freak out a little bit inside.

I looked back at the woman in front of me. She was slowly walking her way towards me and it was a very enchanting sight. She made it right in front of me finally and stopped. They only thing separating me and her was the waist high fence surrounding the field. She looked me straight in the eyes and spoke, “Xavier is that you?”

The crowd was in a quiet uproar “Who is Xavier?” and “Who is this fucker?” were being thrown around a lot. I looked around and then looked back at her before speaking, “I think you may have me confused for someone else. The woman squinted her eyes at me; it was at this moment that I realized her eyes were violet as well. She muttered something, “Weird, why do I sense his power on you. He disappeared so long ago, but I can feel his power in this man’s body.”

All of a sudden I got a massive headache. It felt like my head was about to explode, I grabbed my head and screamed falling down to my knees. Sarah got worried and knelt beside me and Violet Death just stood where she was with a serious look on her face. I was staring at her with one eye and tried to speak through gritted teeth, “What is happening?” After that I was greeted with darkness.

*Violet Death’s POV*

The man in front of me was screaming while grabbing his head. He fell to his knees and I could feel Xavier’s power fluctuating inside of him. Why does he have his power? What happened to him? While I was thinking that he fainted while kneeling. I sighed and turned to go back to the other challengers, but when I got halfway there a voice stopped me in my tracks. “Violetta, are you going to just walk away from me after so long?”

I stiffened up and turned towards the voice. What I saw was the man from before standing inside of the ring and staring at me. I was getting a little choked up and my voice showed it, “Xavier?” The man smiled, “it is I, Violetta, though it is just a small portion of my soul that was attached to my power. It at least will allow me to speak to you one last time.” He walked over to the unconscious man I just knocked out and grabbed the sword.

He swung it a few times before looking at me again, “Let’s spar really quick first.” The crowd gasped; they didn’t know what was going on because Xavier has made it look like we weren’t talking at all just staring at each other while moving. Xavier, in the man’s body, lunged out after me with a swift sword stroke. The swing was faster than anything I have seen on this planet. It was at this moment that I could feel that domineering aura that Xavier always gave off.

I smiled and blocked his sword blow. After that we began a vicious clash of sword blows. The crowd was stunned. This was the first time that anyone was able to make me fight seriously. Sarah was standing off to the side of the ring with her jaw on the ground. She pulled out her phone and made a phone call.

We were moving fast enough that our arms started to blur a little due to the speed. After a good fifteen minutes of sparing Xavier stopped. He backed up and laughed, “It seems you have improved quite a bit.” I smiled at him and didn’t say anything. He smiled back and spoke again, “Sadly this body is not able to keep up or even show a fraction of my power yet.” He sighed and then looked at me one more time, “Violetta, my sister, I am no longer part of this universe or any for that matter. This man has obtained my power, along with that bastard’s.”

I could feel a couple of tears flowing down my face. He stepped up to me and wiped the tear from my eyes, “I know that you have to limit yourself on this planet, but please stay with this man. Protect him and be with him until he can protect you himself. He may not be much, but his morals are high. He will be a great man for you in the future.” I looked up at the man standing in front of me. He was pretty handsome and didn’t look weak at all. He wasn’t on the huge side of the scale, but he was very toned.

I nodded my head, “I will do as you wish brother.” He smiled at me, “Thank you for granting my final wish Violetta. I have wanted nothing but for you to find a man worthy of you. This man may not be there yet, but with my power, combined with that bastard’s, he will be a powerful being. More powerful than I could have ever hoped to achieve.”

He put his forehead on mine and continued to talk, “You will need to be there for him though. My power is a very dark power and he could lose control at any time. Only by having something in his heart, to come back to, will he be able to overcome the darkness. That bastard’s power can only do so much to help. It is actually because of his power that this man didn’t lose control and go on a slaughter. In times of great emotion like rage and sadness though my power will over power the other and the darkness will engulf the light.”

I was full blown crying now, “I understand brother. I will do as you ask. I will stay with him and love him. I hope I get to see the type of being that you say he will become.” Xavier smiled, “He already likes the way you look, so you will have an easy time claiming him.” I smiled and nodded my head. Xavier looked up at the sky and then back at me before speaking, “It’s time for me to go. I can feel my left over soul leaving his body.”

I started crying again and hugged him fiercely bringing a gasp from the crowd. He rubbed my hair and then spoke one last time, “Take care sister and remember I love you.” After he said that the man in my arms went limp in my arms. I moved him into a princess carry and walked towards the exit of the field. The people in the crowd were murmuring to each other.

I walked off the field and saw Sarah standing off to the side. I looked at her and spoke, “I will take care of him from here. From now on he will stay with me at my place.” Sarah was surprised, but she just nodded her head. There was someone from the crowd that yelled out, “Who is he to you?” I just looked back at the crowd and said very simply, “He is my man and the one I care about most in any of the universes.” After I said my words silence dropped like a bomb on the field. I looked down at the man in my arms, who was sleeping peacefully, and smiled. I placed a kiss on his forehead and then turned around and headed home.