I was on the bed. Sinking my head into the soft pillows.

  I was tired but couldn't sleep, my eyes were open. staring at the ceiling above.

  What... am I? A 35 year old man or a 12 year old girl?

  The tears... the guilt... the sorrow... that wasn't Viper.

  Viper was an instrument. He was a professional who had purged all emotion... until Lyra. And even then, he hadn't... cried. He'd just... killed. So, am I her? Am I Seraphina?

  I filter through her memories. Ponies. Tutors. Tantrums. A life of privilege, loud and empty. It was...

  It was a 12 years worth of memories against 35 years worth of trauma.

  The conclusion was simple. I am Viper.

  The girl's memories, her emotions... they're just... Residual memories from the shell I'm inhabiting. Seraphina is gone. I am what's left or at least that's what I think.

  I heard commotion from outside pulled me from my deep thought.

  A woman’s voice, sharp and cold. Helga’s.

  And a muffled, desperate sob. Elodie’s.

  I dragged this new, weak body from the bed to the locked door, still lock. but the window... the window that overlooked the main courtyard.

  I pushed aside the heavy velvet curtains. Down below, in the fading afternoon light, I saw her.

  Elodie.

  She was clutching a small bundle of her belongings. Two guards stood by the main gate. She was sobbing, her whole body shaking.

  This is my fault.

  I had done this. My... emotional outburst... my loss of composure... it had cost this girl her livelihood.

  I watched, as Elodie suddenly lunged, dropping her belongings. She... begged. She fell to her knees, grabbing the hem of Mistress Helga’s starched grey dress.

  "Please! Mistress! I... I have nowhere to go! My family will... please! I'll do anything... I promise-"

  Helga didn't even look down. She just... kicked her. sending her sprawling backwards onto the hard cobblestones. Helga then said something I couldn't hear. The guards laughed. They grabbed Elodie by the arms, hauled her to her feet, and dragged her out of the gate.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  They threw her belongings into the dirt after her. The gates then boomed shut.

  I stared at the now empty courtyard.

  It's always the same. It doesn't matter if it's a 21st-century corporate state or this 15th-century feudal farce. The weak always serve the powerful. And the powerful... they just discard whoever isn't useful anymore..

  Helga. The Duke. Director General Korrin. They were all the same.

  Subject: "Viper."

  Born: 2048, Russian Exclusion Zone.

  He was a product, not a person. One of the few successful subjects from the IDIO’s Epsilon Project, sold by his mother for unknown reasons. He was the pillar of their super soldier project genetically enhanced. To obey, hs loyalty was his primary parameter.

  He did everything he was told. And "everything" meant everything.

  Neutralizing political rivals. Pacifying restless civilian sectors. Sanitizing... "inconvenient" populations.

  He killed. Innocent civilians. Women. Even children.

  He did it without question. He was a perfect instrument. A scalpel by the IDIO used in the most important missions.

  This all changed when he met a nurse.

  The med bay nurse who treated him in one of his mission was new. She wasn't particularly pretty. She wasn't... anything that would stand out. But when she looked at him, she wasn't afraid. She just... huffed, annoyed.

  "Well, you've made a mess of this, haven't you?" As if he were a child who'd spilled a drink.

  He fell in love. Instantly.

  And so, the IDIO’s finest operator, the ghost who was rarely even seen, let alone injured, started getting... clumsy. A "misfire" during training. A "slip" during an infiltration. He kept ending up in her med bay, just to hear her voice.

  They bonded.

  He learned she that she is a dork. A nerd who loved old, paper books. Fantasy. Magic. She had a strange obsession with... "villainess" stories.

  She believed the IDIO was saving the world. She’d joined up, in her words, "to give back to the people." But Viper knew it was all a lie. He knew the IDIO were the monsters. He knew he was the monster.

  But he never told her.

  I backed away from the window.

  The memory faded, but the image of Elodie on the stones... it merged with the image of Lyra on the kitchen floor.

  I had regretted. I had grieved. I had avenged. But I had never felt... this.

  The people I'd killed. The civilians. The kids. I had been a good dog. A loyal monster. I followed orders. And I only acted, I only rebelled, when they finally took something from me.

  It wasn't justice. It was just... selfish.

  The guilt from before... it was gone. It had been burned away, replaced by a new, purer emotion.

  Anger.

  I was a pawn. My entire life. And now?

  I'm Seraphina ezra D'Arden. A girl born to be a political tool for an "Iron Duke" father. A pawn. Again.

  "No.. No more. I will not be a pawn again!"

  Not for the IDIO. Not for the "Duke." as I clenched my fist.

  Maybe this was it. The purpose. The reason I was reborn here, with these memories. To stop them. To stop all these bastards who think they can just... discard people.

  But I can't do it as Viper alone. Viper is dead. And i am... her now.

  And I can't just be the weak noble girl. I need to get stronger. Not just Viper's skills and knowledge. I need... Seraphina's powers. Her name. Her political leverage. I need both.

  A dry, harsh sound bubbled in my chest, a chuckle.

  Lyra... she would have found this hilarious. She loved those stories. The ones about the noblewoman who was cast aside, who was framed, who was meant to be a pawn... but who came back and burned the whole kingdom to the ground.

  I looked at my new, small, uncalloused hands.

  "Alright," I whispered, a cold creepy smile spreading across this new face of mine.

  "I'll become the villainess."