(Dedicated to Memec_Daisuki

Sorry about how you're portrayed here. Hehe)

***

"Your cheeks may be red,
But my heart is a deep blue.
I have never liked you,
And I'll never love you.

But you can't accept that, can you?"
- Author.

***

Yassi stared at the pair as they slumped down on their chairs, sleeping lightly. She dreamed of holding a knife, then sticking it straight into Gwen's heart to solve all of her problems and get Chris. Nevermind the evidence, she'd deal with that.

Still, her conscience nagged at her. It didn't help that she personally knew Gwen; they were friends in the past, and even now, at least to Gwen, they were still close.

But since Chris became best friends with Gwen, Yassi had wiped their friendship with her off her mind and replaced it with a hatred for her very guts.

"Hey," her research partner said, "you fine? You look like you want to punch somebody."

Yassi stared at him in disgust. Zachary Tanaka's thin frame was no match for the thick bulk Chris had to offer. And besides, while Chris was the kind of cuddly weird, Zach was definitely weird weird. He could be described by the phrase "small but terrible". Zach was a hentai fan, and hentai fans were perverts, and therefore terrible. And as Yassi looked at him, she was sure that as long as she remained in her right mind, she would never like him. Never in a million years.

"Yassi! Hey!" Zach was shaking her shoulder. "You still there?" Then he stopped, smirked, then hissed, "Yamete kudasai!"

Finally, she glanced at him. "Shut up! I'm thinking about our paper, you dumbass."

Zach grinned. He knew she was going to respond to those two disgusting words. Yassi hated him for knowing her so well. He was probably stalking her online.

She wondered how in the world Lily found a reason to like him. Poor Lily, she thought; there was nothing likable about him. He could have been a few pounds heavier, his face could have been a bit more refined, and he could have been a little bit less perverted. Zach was that person in the classroom that made you wonder, what the heck did this guy's parents do to deserve him?

She sighed as she remembered what she really had to do today, and it had nothing to do with the research paper. "I'm going to go to the bathroom. Save my seat," she added, though everyone had their own seats. Maybe she was going paranoid.

Zach nodded, and Yassi walked over to the teacher. He immediately gave his consent, and she was off, running towards the meeting place.

She felt like she was in a maze, even though she knew where she was going. After many twists and turns, and almost as many near twists of her ankles, she arrived in a deserted alley between two buildings filled with classrooms.

The alley was dark, despite the fact that it was morning, and thousands of glass shards crunched under her black shoes. She waited until her legs itched. She didn't want to be here, and she didn't want to meet her. But she had to.

And then, finally, she appeared. Faith de Loughrey was a tall, slender woman who looked like she was prepared to face an entire army of tanks if the situation called for it. She stepped over the rough earth like a cat, walking with a serene, but deadly, grace. The only fault Yassi could find in her was her sharp chin; but besides that, she radiated a feline beauty. She probably had to, given her job as the top assassin of the private army she was part of. And the army, all of it, was owned by Yassi's own father.

"So you're Javier's kid, huh," she said, chewing a tobacco leaf without a care in the world. "He speaks highly of you."

Yassi couldn't help but point to the leaf. "Isn't chewing tobacco a bit old-fashioned?" she asked, trying her best not to offend the armed woman.

She chuckled. "My, my. Youngsters and their ignorant ways," she stepped closer and her eyes narrowed to slits. "If it satisfies you, I chew tobacco because I want to. Period."

Yassi swallowed. She didn't want to waste more of her time here, and she'd bitten off more than she could chew. "You probably know why you're here."

"Know? Young lady, all I know is that my vacation was interrupted by a quick and curt call from Javier." She paused to chew her leaf. "A pity. Javier was quite the spicy man before he had kids. He still is now, but sometimes I can't help but miss how he was before."

The last remark sent a shiver down Yassi's spine. Did her father really have an affair? With this woman? Her mother would never be able to bear the weight of knowing her husband had cheated on her.

She shook her head. She had to focus. Faith was close to getting the upper hand in this conversation, but Yassi wouldn't let that happen.

"The device. I need you to help me activate it. Again," Yassi finally said. She watched as Faith cackled, a loud, hard sound that echoed throughout the alley. She began to doubt whether this place was deserted.

"Activate it? And why would you want to do that, hmm? You can't stand seeing the failure of your carefully crafted schemes?" Faith asked in a stern voice. "You're going to risk breaking the thin fabric of time just for a single, incompetent teenage boy whose body is nothing but an overweight sack of turds? Kid, get your brain checked because I'll blow it off your head if you don't stop dreaming."

Dreaming. That was all that they thought she was doing, wasn't it? Tears formed in her eyes, and she blinked them away, shaking her head in frustration. When would she just stop caring about what other people think? She didn't need anyone to tell her what to do. All they wanted her to do was what they wanted.

She glared at Faith. No one, even-especially-this arrogant bitch, would tell her, would force her, would push her, into what they wanted to do.

"You might as well shut your mouth, woman," She retorted, never avoiding the assassin's eyes. There was no need for her to fear now. She'd passed the point of no return. "Because I'll pull all your teeth out if you talk about Chris like that again."

Faith raised an eyebrow. "Well, good for you, I guess. Seems like you're really talking 'bout some serious business here, kid. So, now what? Do I activate it now?"

Yassi was surprised at the woman's sudden change in attitude, but she didn't let the opportunity escape. "Yes."

The woman nodded, then held out her hand. Yassi hesitated for a moment, then fished the device from out of her pocket. The comforting but barely heard tick-tock of the seemingly simple machine that looked like a pocket watch turned into a noisy series of beeps and honks once it was put into Faith's hand.

Yassi nervously looked around, hoping no one was hearing it. "Can't you turn that off?"

"Silly machine," Faith muttered, ignoring her question. "Acts up when held by someone unfamiliar. A sort of security system made by Javier himself."

The alarm rang out for a few more seconds. Yassi was about to cover her ears when it disappeared as quickly as it had started.

Faith pressed a few buttons on the back of the device. It opened to reveal a complicated system of numbers and dials. There was a metallic sound as she seemed to calibrate the numerous dials inside.

Her finger hovered above a large button. "Ready?"

Yassi nodded, but for the first time since she thought about this plan, she felt more nervous that she would like to admit. "Y-yes."

Faith pressed the button, and a series of squeaks, louder than the alarm earlier, began to assault their ears.

"Wait, I don't think--"

Her words were interrupted by a blinding flash. Then she screamed in agony as she was pulled out of her body by an unseen force.