The previous day's training hadn't been all that bad. It had been tiring, but then again, a day packed as full as what I'd had would have been. I was about to go through the assessment though. I knew what was coming and I was prepared.

I dressed in my usual hunting attire, black jeans, white tank, black boots, and I threw on the leather jacket. I knew I wasn't going to want to wear the jacket while I was fighting, but it was slightly chilly out.

"Are you ready to take me in?" I asked, turning around to James.

"I'd much rather keep you here. You look rather enticing like that." His eyes darkened and the way that he looked at me sent a chill down my spine. That look that had once shot fear through me and made me want to flee, now looked sexy as hell.

"I don't think The Torch would like that very much. I'm sure they have a policy about tardiness and no-shows."

"Hm well maybe I don't care what they have to think."

He still hadn't been sold on the whole plan. Even after everything worked out perfectly to get me in, even after I changed my look and after I discovered that they were nothing like The Organization from back home, he still wasn't crazy about it. He respected me and my decision and I respected his view. We didn't see eye to eye, but for now it was how things were. I was happy to be working, and to actually be working with a group that tried to do something positive. They weren't just saving people from the evil creatures out there, but they were giving them a chance to be decent members of society, something I was learning to do myself.

As much as I initially started the plan to gain weapons and security, I now needed this group. I was also less willing to leave after I found out that a family member was a part of it. I hadn't yet told James about that though.

He stood up and walked toward me, that same look in his eye. I backed up slightly but bumped into the desk. James leaned in toward me and his hands came to rest on the desk beside me.

My breath caught for a moment before I pulled him closer. Fire burned hot through me and my hands found their way to his hair. Everything about him took my breath away, it reassured me that I'd made the right decision in choosing him and in running away together.

"James," I whispered.

"Can you do one thing for me?" He asked just as low. He pulled back slightly and his eyes were level with mine, staring at me intently. Looking into his eyes there was nothing I wouldn't do for him.

"Anything."

As soon as the word was out though, I was sure I was going to regret agreeing before I even knew what it was.

"Please call me Jared."

My hands slid from his hair to his chest, resting there lightly and I looked down to them. I could feel his heart pounding under my palm. It was like I could feel everything it took inside him to say it. I sighed and slowly looked back up.

"Just in here, where it matters," he pleaded.

"I just don't know if I can do that, Ja-" I cut myself off.

"I'll continue to call you Eliza if that's what you truly want, but I want what I have with you to be real. I don't want to have to hide myself behind a mask, a false name. I've hidden myself for far too long from someone who was close to me."

"You're not hiding from me, that's ridiculous. I know who you are and my feelings for you haven't changed just because of the name you go by."

"It means something to me though."

I could feel the anguish in his words, I could feel it in the way he held himself. I was aware a time would come when I may regret this, but I'd said I would do anything for him, and I meant it. This was something that he wanted and I would do it for him.

"Okay."

"Really?" His brows rose like he wasn't expecting me to give in, at least not so easily.

"Really."

He leaned in again and kissed me hard and when he pulled back he had a goofy looking smile on his face. My heart fluttered slightly at that look, that I'd been able to put that look on his face.

"Alright, Jared. Are you going to take me in now? I'm going to be late."

"Sure thing." He twirled the keys to the rental car around his finger and we headed out.

He once again dropped me off outside and I made my way around an in through the entrance I'd been instructed to take each time I enter the building. I went through the check point again, only this time I was sent straight through without having to wait for Steele or Isaac. He'd told me to meet him by the guns when I got in.

"You're late," he said as I walked through the door.

"No, I'm on time." I looked over my shoulder at the clock that said the same thing my watch had, that by some miracle, I was right on time.

"That's late in our book."

Laughing Isaac was gone. Jaeger was standing in front of me, and it appeared that in business mode, all Jaegers were alike.

He already had the gun I'd used ready and on the table with the bullets sitting beside it.

"Load it and go."

"Right now? Is this the beginning of my assessment?"

"Yes, now I suggest you get going. You're already being graded."

"By who? We're the only ones here." I looked around the room. There was no one else in sight.

"Just because they aren't in here doesn't mean they aren't watching. Now let's get going. You have a lot to do today."

I turned back to the gun and loaded it quickly. I slipped into huntress mode as I walked over to the lane and held up the gun. I let myself do better, getting a closer grouping that was more towards the center, but I threw one off to the side just a bit. Hopefully it would look good enough that they could work with it without any extra training, but not too good that they'd wonder how a girl who'd only shot a couple times in her life could be that good.

Isaac had me do a couple more rounds and they resulted in much the same. Closer groupings with one or two that were outliers.

"Alright, we're going to take you in for the testing now. You're going to need to know your supernatural creatures, what they are, what they do, what kills them. You'll be given a time frame for the exam portion."

I remembered everything we'd gone over the day before, and I remembered quite a bit from my times looking in the bestiary back home. I'd always been curious about the creatures we rarely saw, if ever. I hoped that it would be enough to pass me through that exam as well. My biggest worry though, was that I'd know too much and show that.

Isaac led me into a room with a table. There was a stapled set of papers there and a pencil. Only one chair in the entire room. He gestured for me to sit down, told me to begin, and then walked out of the room.

There was a code written at the top with the last name of my alias on it, I assumed it meant something to them.

I had a hard time focusing on the papers in front of me. I couldn't focus on the words, they just jumbled together. I was more concerned about the fact that there was no one else in the room, yet I felt watched. I knew there had to be cameras around. There was no way they would leave the place vulnerable, but it felt like more than that.

There weren't any mirrored walls, so I was fairly certain there weren't any places for people to look in on me, unless they had different technology that made it possible for them to see through solid walls.

I turned back to the paper and slowly started to make my way through it. There were questions about ghouls, vampires, werewolves, sirens, witches, every magical creature I'd heard of and some that I hadn't. I looked over it first to see what I knew and what I didn't, and then picked out certain places where I flubbed answers to purposefully get it wrong, or at least half wrong.

A chime went off in the room and I looked up, watching as the door opened and Isaac came through.

"Pencil down, you're done."

I set it down and stood up.

"What are we doing now?"

"You get a small break and then we'll come back with the combat."

When we left the room, I checked my watch for the first time. I couldn't believe how much time had passed just with those first two tests, it was already noon.

Isaac led me into their mess hall where we were supplied with food. They wanted people to leave as little as possible, so everything they needed, they attempted to supply inside the building. That included food.

We sat down and I could feel the shift in Isaac. He seemed much lighter and he even started joking with the people around us. I saw the girl from the night they'd found me in the alley, Lissa I believe Isaac had called her. She apparently wasn't happy that Isaac had sat anywhere near her, or that he had inserted himself into the conversation with people she'd been talking to. I didn't get the feeling anyone else minded though.

It through me off how different he seemed from the Isaac who had led me around all morning. Then again, this was the Isaac that I'd first known when coming in. When we'd finished up and we were on our way out of the room I glanced over at him.

"What?"

"Are you bi polar or something?"

He raised a brow curiously at me but didn't answer.

"I mean, you just seemed completely different earlier, and then you were back to the same Isaac I was first introduced to."

"I told you that we address each other by last name in here, remember? I'm Jaeger. I'm different out there because I have to be. I've been appointed your instructor for these introductory courses and assessments. I'm being watched just as much as you are." He'd said the words quietly, hoping not to be heard I assumed.

I just kept walking along with him, not saying anything until we walked into the room with the sparring mats. It was essentially a gym. It had everything from weights, to jump ropes, to punching bags. Anything you needed to do-workout, lift, spar-you could do it there. It was the ultimate place for everything.

"You can go change so we can get started." Isaac said.

"We're going to do this right now? Right after we ate?"

He just looked at me. I was so not ready to do anything yet.

"I don't need to change, I'm wearing this."

"You're wearing that?" His look told me he thought I was insane.

I shrugged the jacket off, tossing it to the side. I then turned back around, facing Isaac who was a few feet away. I went for a high kick, one that aligned with his head, stopping just a couple inches from his face. He didn't flinch, then again I hadn't expected him to.

"I have good range of motion, nothing's going to get in my way, I don't need to change."

"Suit yourself."

We walked to the mat and I looked around the room.

"So who am I going up against?" I asked.

"Me."

I stopped. I was going to face him for the assessment in combat.

"Are you ready Jacobson?"

"As I'll ever be," I mumbled. I wasn't entirely sure about going up against him. I wasn't sure why I was wary of it, but I just was. I took a deep breath and reminded myself to hold back. When we started though, there was no problem in the holding back department. Isaac was good. I shouldn't have been surprised given he was a Jaeger and had most likely been in the business longer than I had bee.

I dropped down as he tried to land a side kick. I shouldn't have gone down though. It was best to stay on your feet. It was okay for me to make a mistake though. I used the drop to my advantage and tried to kick my leg out and around to knock him off balance. It did little good, barely even a stagger, but it was enough to get me up onto my feet without a problem.

I tried to land a punch, but he blocked me and went low with a fist to my stomach. I backed up slightly shaking off the pain from the blow went for a kick myself, similar to the one that had me ducking.

Isaac grabbed my foot though and I saw the world blur as I was flipped and felt the impact as my back slammed to the ground. All the air rushed from my lungs and I gasped trying to pull some back in.

I felt like I was back in the basement of the church at the experimental training class, sparring against Durin. I had a feeling even Durin would be in the same position as me in that moment.

Isaac had assessed everything about me. He'd been able to pick out weaknesses I didn't even know I had. There was no doubt he would have been able to find Durin's weakness.

We went for a while longer, the results much the same, partially because I needed to look the part of a new fighter, and partially because Isaac was really just that good. When we were finally done, Isaac held his hand out to help me off the ground.

"Is this the point where I wave a white flag?" I asked breathlessly, putting my hands behind my head.

"Are you from Italy?"

"Not as far as I know."

"Then why would you wave a white flag?" He smiled slightly, the first smile outside of lunch.

"Because I feel like if I don't, then I might end up back down there again," I said pointing to the ground that I was pretty sure was soaked with my sweat after all the times I'd been put there.

"Well, we're done so I think you're safe."

"We're done? Really? As in I'm completely done with all of this?"

"You might be, depending on your scores. Now we go to see Steele. She's been watching, scoring and keeping track of everything today. We're going to go talk to her and see what she has to say."

"Alright."

I picked up my jacket, folding it over my arm and followed Isaac out and down a series of halls until he opened a door and let me go in.

There was a wall of screens and it had recordings of every test I'd done up there, including the written exam.

"Thank you, Jaeger. Welcome back, Eliza." Apparently I wasn't considered a member in full yet by the way she addressed me. I wasn't sure if that should have me worried, or if it was normal. I nodded and she motioned for us to have a seat at the steel table in the center of the room. We sat down so we were facing the monitors.

"Your written exam was fantastic."

"I'd learned a few things since finding out about the supernatural world. I wasn't entirely sure how much of it was true and how much of it was Hollywood, that's the dangers of the internet I suppose," I lied.

"I see, well that research served you well. You know quite a bit which is good. Your combat was about what I expected, you scored slightly higher than anticipated. I'd talked to Jaeger about when he found you in the alley, it's clear you know how to fight. I'm not worried about that score. There is something I'm concerned about though."

"What's that, ma'am?"

She turned back to the monitor where the recordings were playing. I watched as she pressed some buttons and the combat and written test both fell away and my target exam from the morning enlarged. The color dropped, turning the entirety of it into a grid pattern with angles and formulas.

"You see, we have a pretty high tech set up for these things. We like to know what's going on with our operatives so that if they are doing something wrong, we can refer to this and figure out how to correct it. The goal is to create results that are as accurate as possible. We want to make sure that our people have complete control and will hit the target their after. We don't want any accidents as you've already been told."

I nodded slightly and I felt the trickle of fear going down my spine. The entire time she'd been speaking, my eyes had been glued to the screen and I saw exactly what she must have seen.

"What I want you to tell me, Eliza, is why you threw the exam."

************

Ah snap. Steele knows what she did. That doesn't look good.

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