He forced his pace a little slower, forced his breathing a little deeper. Minimizing noise was essential. He couldn't stop the occasional drops of blood spattering, but he wasn't worried about the after party anyways. Priority was the assignment. Everything else came after.
"Give your body unto your enemies. Give your life unto your task and release responsibility from it. It's a distraction and a tool meant to fulfill the job.
Tools.
Get.
Used.
A tool broken in service is a worthy tool. You can be a person again after the job is complete. "
The mantra, drilled into him through decades of ceaseless training whispered through his head unbidden, a little unwelcome ghost.
He dropped lower and angled his head around the corner of the stone hallway, dimly lit with torches hanging by an angle from metal brackets. Twin daggers held backhanded against his forearm to reduce their reflection quivered in anticipation. Ready. Hungry.
They were disappointed. No one in sight. He continued his stealthy plod through the corridors. Up ahead should be the junction he needed to make it to the Command room.
The pains from the cuts and gashes —from the pieces of him missing— were dull. The pain didn't matter. The pieces didn't matter. The job mattered. Ironically the job mattered because finishing the job would finish people like him ever being created again.
FLASH.
Children. All children. Beaten. Brutalized. Brain washed and molded into killing machines. Told they were making a better world. Groomed to love their captors and their mission.
He shoved the imagery away. Hard. He'd use what he had become to stop this... every inch of brutality instilled in him, turned back to its makers, sparing the future victims.
Nearly poetic.
He saw it ahead. Thick metal doors. Sentries posts abandoned, to check the commotion upstairs, trusting in automated security.
Bad idea.
He could break that security, and open that door. Behind it he knew he'd be severely out-manned and out-gunned. He had to make sure they all fell... no prisoners. No escape.
"I give unto this service my body. It is no longer my responsibility. When I complete my task, I will retrieve the remainder."
The world went numb. Grey.
There was one thing.
One purpose.
The tool does the job.
Eliminate.
