The world is hell. She thought. The world had always been hell, just different stages and different variations, all with their own unique forms of torment. When she'd been little she'd lived in an orphanage and been treated like an outcast, not only by the other orphans but the adult caretakers too. She'd been miserable and lonely. Longing for nothing more than a friend, someone who would be kind to her and honestly like her even if she was a horned freak. For a moment she thought she'd made two friends. One a little dog who she'd fed and come to love. The other was a girl at the orphanage who told her to trust her.

She's gone ahead and done it because she'd wanted so badly for the friendship she was offering to be real.

It hadn't been of course. The girl had betrayed her and she'd been forced to watch as the other orphans beat her poor little dog to death. That was the first time she really understood how evil this world was, how heartless.

Then there had been Kouta. A boy she'd met by her dog's grave. He'd seen her horns and she was about to kill him when he told her he thought her horns were cool.

He became her friend, her one real friend, if only for a little while. He'd talked to her, played with her, given her, her very first gift, and taken her to the zoo. Her days with Kouta were the only happy time in her bleak memory. His kindness and gentleness the only mercy she'd ever found. He was the only one to ever treat her decently, and for that she had loved him.

And then he'd lied to her. She'd seen him with another girl and something inside of her snapped. She couldn't stand seeing him being kind to another girl and so… she'd punished him. For his deceit, for his betrayal, she murdered his sister and father right there in front of him. She'd hurt him, made him cry and scream and beg for her to stop. And when she saw how she'd hurt the boy she loved so very much she was consumed by shame and guilt. She ran away from him crying out that she was sorry.

Then there'd been another little girl. She'd been abandoned and was living alone on the streets. Lucy had taken pity on her and actually helped her survive for a time. Then they came for her, the men with the guns and the masks. The men with Kurama. They had come for her but that poor girl got in the way. She'd been shot by mistake. Kurama had promised to save her if she surrendered. So she had, just to help that poor little girl.

A few days later Kurama had come to see her in her little, 'cage.' He'd told her the girl had died and apologized. She in turn had promised never to kill him, that she would instead take from him what he held dear.

And now she was here, in the deepest pit of all. In her cage, her hands and feet locked up, and her head trapped inside a metal helmet. She was kept naked and treated like a test subject for all sorts of sadistic experiments. She wasn't even human, but a new race called 'diclonius.' She supposed that made it a little easier for the humans to do the things they did. But then again, humans didn't seem to have much of the, 'humanity' they claimed to believe in. She'd only seen humanity from one person, the person she'd loved and then betrayed.

She'd been nine when she was first brought to this place. She didn't know how long she'd been here. Years obviously, her body had grown from a little girl's into a woman's. She didn't know what she looked like, the helmet was almost always in place, and she didn't have a mirror anyway. Sometimes during the endless hours here she through about killing herself. She imagined using one of her vectors to deliver one quick sharp blow to her own neck and bring an end to this misery. She sometimes felt very tempted.

But she didn't for one reason. She wanted to find Kouta. She wanted to apologize and beg his forgiveness. She wanted to kneel before him and confess that she still loved him and would always love him. To ask him if there was any way…

Inside her helmet she heard the faint echoes of her own laughter. It was funny. She wanted him to return her love after she'd murdered his family. How could he ever love someone like me? How could he ever even forgive me? If she ever did see him again she expected he would only hate her now. He would laugh in her face if he heard her say what was in her heart. That would be just one more kind of torture, one more version of hell to pass through. But even though she knew he would never forgive her she still needed to find him again and at least tell him. Even if it was hopeless she had to do at least that much.

So for that reason she had willed herself to endure. She'd clawed and held on to her sanity. She'd kept her secret dream and made it her only reason to survive.

And now she thought there might be a way out of this particular pit in hell.

XXXXXXXXXX

The lights in her vast room dimmed and came back on three times. It was a signal she was very familiar with. The one guard who was supposed to always be watching her laughed and got up. He pressed down on a heavy lever and the massive iron doors slid slowly open.

A few minutes later a man in a lab coat came in and handed the guard a wad of money.

The guard took it and made it disappear. "Thirty minutes," he said. He stepped out and the man in the lab coat pulled the lever back up causing the vault door to slide back into place. She knew that while he was here the security cameras and microphones were all running a 'loop' and no one knew what was going on.

He approached her cage without any fear or hesitation. "Hello Lucy," his voice was filled with longing. His eyes roamed her body hungrily.

"Hello Kakuzawa dear, I've missed you." She spoke in that sweet teasing voice she knew he liked.

"Oh I've missed you too Lucy! You have no idea how much!" Without hesitation he stepped into her cage.

She longed to reach out and rip him apart. She hated him and the things he did, but he was her one and only hope for escape. Killing him now would do her no good; he was intelligent enough not to have the keys to her locks with him. But he promised he would free her so they could be together and, 'create a new race of dicloni.'

As he stood there he tossed away his toupee to expose the two small horns that marked him as a diclonius. He seemed to get some sort of perverted thrill in doing this. She really didn't understand. Before she'd come here she'd hated her damn horns and always hid them. Whenever people stared at them she would feel sick.

With his toupee off he got rid of his lab coat and did what he always did during these times. He grabbed her tits and began playing with them.

"Ohhhh, yeeees," she moaned. His feeble touchings did nothing for her, but she knew he liked it when he thought she was excited.

His mouth was soon sucking at her breasts and his hands went all over her body. He grabbed her ass, her thighs, and rubbed her pussy. That did feel a little good but not much.

"Oh Lucy! I love you! I love you!" She could feel him shaking with emotion as he cried out and touched her with even more urgency.

How pathetic, she thought with disdain. You just want my body and you think that's love. Love involves sacrifice and caring for someone without asking for anything in return. But she needed him and so she gave him what she knew he wanted. "Oh darling, oh Kakuzawa, I love you too!"

"Lucy! Please let me make love to you!" he began to unbutton his pants.

"No!" She said harshly and shoved him away with one of her vectors.

He fell to the hard floor and looked up at her with a pathetic face. "Lucy! Please let me! I love you so much I can't stand it!"

"I've already told you no," she said without compassion. "We can be lovers only after you free me! If you love me keep your promise and get me out of here." She changed her voice from harsh to gentle and sultry. "Then I'll let you do all those things you talked about. I'll be your very own private little whore."

She could see from the bulge in his pants that he was excited by her. But would he ever have the courage to do more than these little fondling sessions of his? Sooner or later someone was bound to figure out what was going on. She needed him to free her before that happened.

To her surprise he nodded as he stood. "Tomorrow, I'll free you tomorrow."

She stared at him through the lenses in her helmet. "Really?"

"I swear it, tomorrow I'm getting you out of here and then you'll be all mine." He hurried up to her and began sucking her tits again. He was desperate for every second with her he could get.

Inside her helmet Lucy smiled.

XXXXXXXXXX

The next night Chief Kurama was in his office working late as usual. His assistant Kigaragi had volunteered to stay late as well and had gone off to get him some coffee. In an idle part of his mind he wondered if she'd manage to get at least half a cup to his office.

XXXXXXXXXX

In her cage she waited, her heart pounding, wondering when eight thirty would come. There was no clock on the wall and it was not as though she could ask the solitary guard for the time. The thought she might actually be free soon was driving her mad. If he lied to me I swear I'll kill him the next time he comes to see me.

She was wondering if the time had come and gone when suddenly the lights in her room blinked off. The emergency lights came on after just a couple seconds with a sickly green glow. But along with them came four little, 'clinks.' The locks that bound her wrists and ankles came free. She fell to the ground as she was no longer suspended.

The guard who'd been calmly reading a paper suddenly jumped to his feet and whipped out his ridiculous .38. He was staring at her with sheer terror on his face. He knew what she could do. And if he didn't she gave him a demonstration as she tore open the metal bars like straw. She began to walk towards him with no rush to her steps.

"Stop!" he screamed and opened fire. He emptied all six rounds from his gun's chambers.

She caught them and kept a slow deliberate pace towards him. He pulled down the lever and was trying to squeeze out when she ripped his head off.

XXXXXXXXXX

Kurama was reading a report when the general alarm sounded. Taken off guard he got on the phone to contact security and see what was happening.

XXXXXXXXXX

Four guards with rifles were dead at her feet. The bullets and shell cases jingled as she walked past them towards the elevator.

XXXXXXXXXX

Kigaragi was aware of the alarm going off and noticed the armed security guards running past, but didn't really worry about it too much. It had nothing to do with her. She was concentrating on getting the coffee down the hall without spilling it.

XXXXXXXXXX

Kurama had twenty armed men at a vital intersection in front of the elevator Lucy was using. He had to stop her here or she would be able to reach the exits.

The doors of the elevator opened and there was Lucy. Her face was hidden behind her steel helmet, otherwise she was naked. Her feet were coated in blood. She stepped out of the elevator and stood there a moment eyeing Kurama and his men. Kurama and the men all tensed knowing what was about to happen.

Then out of nowhere…

"Wha!" Kigaragi tripped and the coffee spilled all over the floor. "Oh no!" She wailed.

Kurama saw Lucy turn her head to idly look at the young woman. "Kigaragi get out of here! Lucy don't do it!" He saw her head turn from his assistant to look directly back at him. Suddenly Kigaragi was lifted into the air and placed right in front of Lucy, directly between her and the armed guards.

"What! What's happening?!" Kigaragi shouted in panic.

"This girl," Lucy called out. "Is she important to you Kurama?"

"Ye… yes, please don't hurt her. She's an innocent."

"You mean like the little girl who was with me?" Lucy asked. "I won't hurt her, I give you my word. Just have your men stand aside and let me go. If you do I'll spare her."

"I can't do that Lucy," Kurama choked out.

"Well then I guess you'll have to shoot through her to get to me then won't you?"

"Damn you Lucy!"

"Chi… chief, what's going on?" Kigaragi asked with tears in her eyes. She really was an innocent. All she knew about the place where she worked was that it was a medical research facility. She had never once been into the restricted areas to see just what they did here.

Kurama looked directly into her eyes. "I am so sorry Kigaragi, but I can't let that person leave here. No matter what."

Kigaragi saw the pain on his face and the sorrow in the eyes of the other men. She saw their guns were all pointed right at her. "Chief, will… will my death help you?" She asked him hopefully.

He stared at her. How could she be so brave? He nodded. "Ye… yes it will save many lives. Your sacrifice will not be for nothing."

She smiled at him through her tears. "Good! I'm glad. It's all right Chief do what you have to. I forgive you."

He stared at her. He made himself look at her, burned this moment into his heart. "Thank you," he whispered. And then he shouted. "Shoot to kill!!"

The men all fired emptying their guns into Kigaragi's body. Mercifully she was killed almost instantly. But Kurama was still forced to watch as she was torn apart and shredded by the bullets. When the men ran out of ammunition Lucy let the bloodied corpse fall discarded. She stepped forward and began killing the men with her vectors. One idiot actually tried to rush her. She tore out his heart. Seeing they would only die if they stayed the remaining guards ran away screaming.

The only ones left alive in the corridor were her and Kurama. They were only a few feet apart. She was eying him through her helmet and he was glaring at her hatefully. He knew she could kill him in an instant and he expected she would. Running never even occurred to him.

"You lied to her," Lucy said. "Her sacrifice really was for nothing. How does that make you feel?"

"Go to hell!" he screamed at her.

She chuckled. "No need, I'm already there." She looked at him. "Do you want to know how I escaped?" And in the corridor surrounded by blood and by still warm bodies she told him.

He stared at her in shock at the betrayal. "I don't believe you! You're lying!"

"Why would I lie?" She began walking past him. "You should just be glad I promised I would never kill you."

She stopped after going a couple steps past him. She then slowly turned around again. "Though I never said I wouldn't hurt you."

Kurama suddenly screamed as he felt his arms and legs being broken.

XXXXXXXXXX

About twenty minutes later he was found, mercifully unconscious. In the meantime though no one had been in charge of the defenses. No one had though to call in the sniper they had on sight with his .50 caliber anti tank gun.

Lucy was able to escape without a trace.