Ella

I sat on the floor of the cell, mostly unbothered. My legs were folded criss-cross, my back leaning against the cold concrete. My eyes were fixed on the ceiling, which was just more cold concrete. Well, I assumed it was cold, I couldn't really reach up and touch the ceiling now could I? Light was streaming in through the window overhead. At least they were nice enough to put a window in this cell. I straightened out my legs and stretched my arms up in the air, leaning back to my crack back a little bit.

The cell door, which was just metal bars mixed together, opened with a creak and a groan, reminding me of my own groany house. Maybe the door was a senior citizen like the house I lived in. I giggled to myself at the ridiculousness of my thoughts and stood, grinning ear to ear as a guard entered my cell. The smile fell right off my face as the last man I ever wanted to see walked into my cell.

The freaking President.

"So nice to finally meet you. What is your name, young lady?"

I hated his smile, his perfect teeth. I hated his face, the way his nose was crooked like it had been broken. We had that in common, people always wanting to punch us in the face. I felt only one of us really deserved it.

"Charlotte," I lied. He didn't need to know who I was. He didn't need to look me up, find out who and what I was. It was all really none of his business.

"Ah, Charlotte," he said. From his tone of voice, I really couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not. I wondered if he had used facial recognition on me already. He probably already knew my name, but he was playing games. I could play them right back.

"Yes," I said, Pretending like that was my name and I was used to hearing it all the time. "So,, Mr. President, what is my fate exactly? As much as I love the Decor of the cell, it's getting rather boring to look at the same four walls over and over again."

He made a noise between a scoff and a hoarse cough. I noticed he had a way of fiddling with his hands behind his back when he was rather agitated. I could see it in the press conferences that my parents made me watch. "According to my daughter Diana, you saved her life. You not only saved her life, but you saved her from trauma before she lost her life. Is this sounding correct to you?"

I noticed multiple arm guards were waiting in the doorway behind him, standing there like I was the worst threat in the world. Granted, I was a pretty big threat. My dagger had been stolen from me, but at threat nonetheless. I have been taught many ways to kill someone. Strangulation, but his neck was rather large, and the veins didn't bulge out that easily. A few good blows maybe, in the right place, but I would be shot before blow number one. Maybe I could break his nose, or re-break it, before I lost my life. It almost would've been satisfying. But I clenched my fists by my sides. They left me unhandcuffed in the cell. Were they stupid?

He studied me, eyeing me up and down. He was wondering if an average girl, average height and average build, average everything really, could be a threat him or not. On one hand, I was a good guy who saved his precious daughter Diana, whose name I got right after all, from death and trauma worse than death. I was a savior that he should welcome into his house for a glass of tea, or was it a cup of tea, to offer his thanks. On the other hand, I brought a weapon into his party that I shouldn't have even been at with the intention to use it. But I was in the right place at the right time to stop something sinister, and he didn't know what my motive was.. He could be thinking one of two things in that respect. One, I was here to kill Diana and simply killed my opponent. Or two, I planned to cause other mischief and ended up being a good Samaritan.

Up close, I noticed one eye was hazel, more brown and green, and the other was a lot more green and brown. It was definitely a weird combination, and he used his eyes to espress himself a lot. Diana with her shifty eyes probably got that from him. Now, his eyes were slits I was sure I was going to be condemned.

" So why did you do it? And why did you sneak into my ball, because there is no Charlotte on the guest list."

I shrugged. " Why do people do things? It's such a mystery." I folded in my arms over my chest for good measure. I wanted to go out looking defiant. I wanted to go out being defiant. " AndI am a mystery. Why do I do good things sometimes. I don't know. I've never thought myself the best person, but not the worst. Do I regret helping her? No."

He seemed taken back by this answer. I was sure most people would be groveling on the ground, either begging for forgiveness for sneaking into the ball , or singing Diana's praises saying how it was such an honor to save the daughter of the president. He was more like a king, not a president. President was just an old world term.

" The truth is, Charlotte, I don't know what to make of you. On one hand, you managed to sneak into my ball, and that requires some pretty good fake tickets. And I don't know how your computer skills are, but I'm pretty sure whatever you're working on, you weren't working on alone. Security cameras have you coming in with another girl."

My heart dropped to my stomach. The real Charlotte didn't need to be involved in this. She did nothing wrong. It wasn't supposed to go this way. Assassins were never supposed to get caught. Cheryl was one mistake. I let her get away. There was a possibility that she could lead someone back to me and I could be caught. But this was different. I had actually been caught right before I was about to murder. I didn't even get to finish what I was there to do. Which I guess was kind of good, because I really didn't want to kill the girl anyway. However, I really wished I would've gone to his wife. By his now unreadable expression, I couldn't tell if his wife had been murdered or not. If security was tight enough to findme right after I stabbed my opponent, I doubted anyone would be able to get away with murdering his wife. Security was tighter than I thought.

Diana's bloody arm flashed back into my memory, and I had to ask, "How is Diana, by the way?" I lean back against the cold, cement wall. Arm still crossed. I bent one leg up and pressed my foot against the concrete. I definitely looked like a vigilante, or maybe I looked stupid, I didn't really know.

He turned to look behind him. He waved a hand, and the guns that were pointing at me were lowered. "She's okay. We have the best doctors, they took care of her. But I guess it wasn't all the doctors were, it was you. Like I said, I don't know why, I don't know why you were in the building in the first place. I want to believe you're an organization that is for my blood line, and you were intercepting an enemy plot. I know the deceased was involved with the organization that calls themselves Wildflowers, we found the name and information on his watch. That will be very helpful for us once we decipher the whole thing. I don't know if you were part of them or not, but I wanna think you would not kill one of your own. Regardless, I really don't wanna hear your answer. For once in my life, I want to see the good in people in this community. And that's why I'm gonna let you go."

I couldn't help it, my eyes widened slightly in spite of myself. I dropped my arms and leg from their position. I tried to stand straight, straighten my spine as much as it would go. I wanted to look confident in myself when I forced my lips to turn up into a semblance of a smile. I needed to look grateful. I was getting out of this. Maybe being good was going to help me for once in my life. Maybe after this, my almost brush with the death penalty, I'd be more careful. I would be able to use my assassin abilities for good only. But what I was doing was for the greater good, right? There was no way to tell the difference anymore.

" But you see, Ella, do you think I wouldn't recognize the daughter of one of my most valued scientists?"

The smile fell right off my face.

He leaned in closer, and I could smell his breath. It smelled like whiskey. "And I know what you are. And I know you're wanted, and if I wanted to kill you right now, I could. But I won't. Because I kind of adored your mother. So I wanna believe you're an assassin for one of the good organizations, right?"

I shrugged. I wasn't gonna give myself away either way.

He laughed, and it startled me. " By your attitude, I can tell you're not one of the organizations that wants to bow down to every word I say. If I dared myself to think the other way, that you're an assassin for the Wildflowerd, which I know all about, this wouldn't end so well for you. Which is why I have an offer to make you. Protect my daughter, and I won't have to kill you. I don't know why, but I guess Diana hit your soft spot."

I mean, he was right. She had hit a soft spot. I realized it would be perfect to be on the inside, this was a perfect opportunity. But when he mentioned my mother, ever since he first mentioned her at the ball, I had an idea forming in my head. Ever since I joked with the idea, what if? What if I traveled back to the past? What if I used my mothers invention? But the truth was, I wasn't really making a difference. Look at me, I had gotten caught. I had been sloppy. And I could kill as many people as I wanted, but it wouldn't change anything. The president would die, but he had more in his blood line to follow him. Innocent casualties weren't the answer. If I could really get into his good graces, get into Diana's good graces, and get into my mother's lab, I could go back. And I could make a real change. I could stop his bloodline from ever coming to power.

I smiled at my thoughts and held out my hand "Deal."

–––

A week. A week I followed Princess Diana around her pretty little Castle. I stood in the corner of the room as she had tea with her best friend who lived down the street with her wealthy mother and father. Her name was Barbara and she was really annoying. She spoke like she was trying to deliver bitter news in an exciting way. And she was over a lot. Diana was actually pretty nice. She was very grateful for everything I had done and was doing for her. She always told me so. And she would give me plenty of break opportunities throughout the day. Plenty of time to explore around the capitol building, akaher castle. I knew she wasn't a real princess, but it felt fitting enough. After all, her family was practically royalty.

The Capitol Building also housed plenty of science experiments, as Diana eagerly told me. She wanted to be a scientist. She was nineteen and already into her studies. She was one of the only people who could choose what they wanted to be. My mother didn't choose to be a scientist, but she was good at it. I didn't choose to be aProvider, and I would never know whether I was good at it or not because I was never going to do it. But Diana, she had text books among text books on top of the large mahogany desk sitting under her window. She studied for hours everyday while I sat on her enormous over king-size bed and stared at her. She's decided she didn't need me during these times when she was alone studying, but her dad I made it clear I was basically her personal bodyguard.

Late one night, Diana took me to see the time machine. She had to walk past tons of guards, but she smiled when she pointed at me and said, "She's cool", whenever someone asked. We reached the end of a long hall. We walked into a room with two double doors, It was huge. There were workbenches left and right, with materials all around. Lots of papers and books on all that many tables in the room. But at the back of the room was what took my interest. The large oval. It was completely chrome outside. You couldn't even look inside. Diana skipped on over to it and grabbed the remote off one of the work benches. She pressed a button and a door materialized by sliding opening, revealing the inside. The inside was lit by a single tiny light bulb, and when I went to go inside, Diana held out her arm to stop me. She shook her head.

" The scientists always told me it would be very dangerous to play with this machine. I shouldn't even even open the door, but it couldn't resist."

So that night, when I was sleeping in her room literally on a cot, because the president was not joking about her security, I stood up and walked out. Diana was a heavy sleeper, and a heavy snorer. She didn't notice as I booked it out the door and tried to remember all the twists and turns she had taught me to the time travel room. There was no room for doubt. There was no room to second-guess myself. The only way to avenge my parents was to go back. There was no other way. I had to stop the Great Attack from happening. I was a good assassin, but just being good wasn't going to work in my time. I had to go back and assassinate whoever started the Great Attack. And it didn't matter if I was killed in this process, but I had to do something. I mean, time travel was right at my fingertips. It would be so easy to go back.

There were still guards in front of the double doors, but they all waved at me as I passed. It was good that Diana was so chill about having me around. In the week I had worked there, everyone had come to respect me. And that's why they let me walk to the double doors. I clicked on the light inside. Too easy. I headed towards the time machine and wondered how to work it. I walked over to the workbench that Diana had grabbed a remote from and scooped it up, pressing the button to open it, watching as the door opened. I stepped inside, clutching the remote close to my chest. My heart was thumping thumping thumping loud in my chest and my breathing was coming out in small gasps. I didn't know what I was going back to. I knew I couldn't stop. I wouldn't stop until it was over. That's why I fiddled with the remote a bit, set it to a year before the Great Attack, and pressed the green button that I assumed meant go. Then I knew nothing and was nothing.