A/N: I decided to trash my other idea, and come with a new one. Instead of updating weekly and forgetting, I'm not going to rush myself and make this better than the last one. Just reading this through is convincing of that, so I hope you enjoy.

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face

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chapter 1: escape

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“My name is Talim”

She looks up to the ceiling.

“I am 23 years old.”

She grabs her gun and points it to the skies.

“I have lived in the Facility for all my life.”

Bang.

“And I will escape and discover what the world is like.”

And then she left.

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Two weeks earlier...

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“Remarkable work Talim, as usual.” Mr. Kory Salvix, CEO of Salivx Industries and manager of The Facility, kindly remarked to Talim. He stepped into the light, revealing that he was just a mere boy of 18 years. Trying to look more adult, he was wearing a blue suit and a red tie. His black hair was long and parted on his left, bangs covering his left eye which was never seen. His right eye had a scar over it. Brown was their colour.

Talim nodded her head and acknowledged the comment. Having no emotion, that was the best she could do.

But she wasn't the only one. Many others weren't allowed emotion, it wasn't in their vocabulary. They were all born and raised there to kill.

“Good. Now go wash up and eat some dinner.” Salvix told her and walked away. In her room, Talim combed her short, messy black hair to the straight hair she knew. Parted on her right, her bangs just barely covered her bright blue eyes. Taking off the bright yellow spandex jacket she wore to train, she jumped onto her bed to rest in her black tank top. Not wanting to change her cloth pants or her brown boots, she took a deep breath and looked up at the sky. Then she looked at her hands. One was real, the other fake.

“I lost it in a fire...” Talim reminded herself, taking off the white glove over her metal hand. She sighed.

“And I lost my parents in that fire...” That's what they told her. She was only a baby, an infant even. In the aftermath, Kerry Salvix, Kory's father, found her and took her to the Facility. That's what they told her anyway.

Kerry Salivx was a kind man, but a strict one. He wanted all his “children” to train strong, so emotion was not needed. He had taken care of everyone, until he was murdered three years ago, and his only son had to take over.

Talim put her gloves back on and headed to the cafeteria. There she found her friend, Kendra Strickland, waiting for her. Sitting beside her was Landon, her other friend. The three had grown up together in the Facility, although Talim was a year older than Kendra, and two years older than Landon.

“Ah, Talim!” Kendra called out. She had short black hair, like Talim, but parted on the right. The bangs were on her left which didn't really cover her eye, like Salvix, but it was a bit hard to find those blue eyes. She had noticed that she had spilled food on her blue shirt with three quarter length sleeves. Luckily none fell on her white jeans.

Landon was yawning, being tired after training. His navy blue muscle shirt stretched as he moved his arm behind his head, scratching it. His hair was blond and his eyes were green, and his bangs were short and just covered his forehead. After scratching his head, he rested his hands on his navy blue jog pants and continued eating.

“Food's great, Kendra.” Landon remarked to his friend.

“What did you expect? Something other than that?” Talim asked, in all seriousness (no emotion meant no sarcasm ether.).

“Of course not.” Landon laughed, even though he knew Talim was serious.

“Oh stop it.” Kendra joked. Kendra was a caretaker in the facility, caring for the younger ones, and also cooking food and cleaning for everyone else. She was allowed emotion.

But how did Landon, someone who was trained, get it? Blame Kendra. She knew she was going to get around to teaching them to Talim sometime, but she was quite busy ever since, and never got around to it.

As the three were finishing their meals, a crack emerged in the ceiling, causing panic in the room.

“Hwah-!? What's going on!?” Landon exclaimed. Talim's face turned to a serious one.

“He's back again...” She muttered as she gritted her teeth.

“Who's back again?” Landon asked.

The ceiling then broke, and down fell Ken Starks, Talim's rival, as he would say.

“You keep trying, but it never works.” Talim coldly told him. Ken just smirked.

“Yeah, but all this trying will convince you sometime.” He laughed. Talim gritted her teeth, and attacked him. Easily dodging the attack (Talim knew he would; she didn't expect it to hit.), he tried countering by bouncing off the wall. Talim also dodged the attack (He knew it wasn't going to hit ether.), and the two entered hand to hand combat.

Ken was quite trained, he was in the Facility as well.

Before he left ten years before.

Ken and Talim were always rivals from the start, but were still best of friends. But then he started his wacky ideas of “you'll get killed if you're imperfect” and left, claiming he was saving his life. Ever since he was trying to get Talim to come with him, but as she told him “it'll never work.”

Ken had black, spiky hair that started on his right and ended on his left, with one large bang coming down over his nose. He had bright blue eyes which accompanied that. He wore a black muscle-like shirt, looking more like a traditional fighting gi rather than a shirt, that was yellow at the sides. Kendra noted several times his big, strong (sexy) muscles. He also wore navy blue jog pants like Landon.

“Convinced yet?” Ken jokingly asked wiping off some sweat from his brow.

“Never will.” Talim said, then lunging another attack at him, and entering hand to hand combat again.

“Why don't you just give up?” Talim asked. Ken got up, and sighed.

“I guess I'll try again next week...” He started walking past Talim to get back up his hole in the ceiling, and muttered something to her as he did.

“You have two weeks before they kill you.”

Talim turned around and looked at him. He had never said that before. He stopped in his tracks, looked back with a solemn look on his face, and left, leaving Talim with the thought.

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It was now two weeks later, on Talim's 23rd birthday. Remembering Ken's words, she had escaped, surprised that it was a success. She had asked Kendra and Landon to come with her, but they rejected the idea, claiming that she had gone crazy as well.

Now she was alone in the outside world, not knowing where to go, or what to do.

“It's getting dark...” She told herself, and began looking for some shelter. Having only her jacket for warmth, and her gun and katana for her protection, she finally found a bench that wasn't occupied by someone else. She lay down, and rested her eyes.

'Was this really a good idea?' She thought. She decided to leave the idea for the morning, and went to sleep.

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chapter 1 end

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