Chapter 2: Six-Two

"I didn't want to be the next AR.KI.NE., but vengeance clouded my judgement. The fires that fueled my hatred caused me to lose everything I had, and now I'm here. Stuck with a title, and a target branded to my back." - AR.KI.NE Six-Two.

Skye Santos Velasquez grew up a troubled teenager, acting like a rebel and having her opinions swayed and clouded by the wrong kind of crowd at youth. This was due to the lack of proper parenting, as her father was frequently away, and her mother was very frequently busy. Her older brother Donato, was potentially the only one she truly looked up to. However, family was extremely important to all of them. Family was what kept them together and through thick and thin. Skye's rebel phase slowly drifted away once she started hitting the age of sixteen, and recognizing just how important to her they really were. One day she was brought to one of her father's rallies, as she was his daughter, after all, and the whole family was present. When Hector had been killed, Skye immediately flung into action, running away from her family to discover who would dare lift a finger to hurt her family. Only catching the face of the killer, she memorized as much as she could of it. Eventually her brother Donato caught up to her, and pulled her back, bringing her back to her family in the midst of the chaos. After this point, Skye never made mention of the man she saw to the police, or any operatives in the area. She wanted to bring him down herself.

Later on, Hector Velasquez's funeral was held. The whole Velasquez and extended family attended the funeral, with a rather sombre tone. Skye, though, was filled with hate and anger, because she had recognized one of the members at the funeral. It was the same man who killed her father. Skye went up to him, in private, and asked why he did it. The man didn't respond. Skye pushed forward a ruse, that she hated politics and wanted to take them down just like the man had. The man seemed unmoved, until Skye pleaded with him that this was the life she truly wanted. The man saw eventual potential in this young girl, and mentioned his name was Derrek Karlovich, and that training began at an old catholic church that was no longer in operation, a few miles outside Vegas. Skye nodded, and then left the man alone after receiving instruction. She was one step closer to getting on his good side.

For years, Skye trained with AR.KI.NE. Six-One, training to become just as good of an assassin as he. Years passed where Skye would say she'd be taking up a new hobby of 'urban exploring' and then go train with Six-One for hours on end. This was several years ago. Skye reached the age of twenty three, before Six-One cut her training off. One night at the church, Six-One had descended into a form of paranoia, and was more aware. He took a guess that the new, Six-Two, was actually plotting his death. It became more obvious. The way she looked at him, with that burning hatred, it wasn't for society or the government, she grew out of that. It was also strange, that night, Skye, or, now Six-Two, came to training armed. Six-One declared that her training was over, and that she had no more to learn. Six-Two knew he was lying, and that he had only covered a majority. The resulting argument then blew up into a firefight, brought down to a hand to hand combat duel. Six-One was much better than Skye, and managed, partway through combat, to nick the front of her face with a combat knife. Miraculously, Skye moved just enough out of the way for him to miss her eye. This scar would forever be a constant reminder of just how close she was to missing her mark. It was only willpower and intuition that kept Skye going, as she was getting far too beat up to continue. It would come to pass that Skye managed to kill Six-One by utilizing a combination of a shard of glass and ripped cloth to make a shiv, and then stabbing Six-One by sheer luck, in the neck. To finish off the famed assassin, she reclaimed her handgun, but not before he had something to say.

"You're missing the big picture, Skye. This is so much bigger than you really think it is. This isn't just some amateur title that you carry, it's a several ton weight, crushing your body, little by little. It holds the blood of hundreds, maybe even thousands of people, lies, betrayal, and murder, all in the name of justice. I understand. You're angry. You miss your father. But killing me won't bring him back. Killing me will only raise the fires of hell, and you will suffer. You will lose everything in a trade off for vengeance. Trust me." - AR.KI.NE Six-One.

Upon hearing the words "trust me", Skye had pulled the trigger, and killed Six-One. She returned home, in full gear, bleeding from knife wounds, and had to explain to her brother and her mother that she had been training to avenge Hector. Her mother was angry, and her brother was disappointed. They thought she knew better. Even more so, they were shocked that she had taken upon the title of AR.KI.NE., something her father worked so hard to bring to the ground. Skye tried her hardest to explain that she only did it to take him down, and nothing else. Little did she know that the title was something of worth. Skye inevitably, had to be brought to the hospital, to get treatment for her wounds, and was played off that she was attacked by a mugger in an alley of Vegas.

After being treated, it was roughly a month or two later, and normal life had resumed. Skye was taking online courses for a college, studying away, when the Velasquez household was raided. A.T.D. Operatives broke into the house to arrest the family. Somehow, they had found out they were directly associated with the AR.KI.NE., Skye. Skye's mother was the first to be taken in, but Donato and Skye both escaped the household. Donato swore to Skye that he would protect her, no matter what the cost. Skye gave Donato a handgun, and armed herself, in an attempt to escape from Vegas. A.T.D. Operatives engaged in hot pursuit of the vehicle Skye and her brother were escaping in, before they were stopped by way of a road block. Donato promised Skye he would meet up with her later, and urged her to escape on foot while they had time. Skye, absolutely refused to have him stay behind, and broke off from the vehicle on foot to alternate cover. Donato held off the A.T.D. Operatives, killing two of them, and with Skye's marksmanship, killed off the other three. They both ran off down alleyways in different streets, just before Donato was gunned down by an A.T.D. marksman. Skye was utterly heartbroken, and the visual shocked her to the core. She couldn't stop moving, though. Skye ran away from the grisly scene, eventually, getting away. It was then a priority to save her mother. What little of her close family she had left.

In the coming months, Skye found out that her mother was going to be killed by firing squad in a secure A.T.D. facility, for direct association with the AR.KI.NE. Skye could not handle losing another family member, and pushed forward with planning how to break her mother out. By the time that the event was about to take place, though, Skye didn't have enough time to plot out a full-blown plan. It was much too complex and would take too much time to get set up. Skye instead, decided she would shoot the men who were going to kill her mother. Skye drove to Texas, of which was where the event was about to take place, after discovering the true location of the A.T.D. prison facility, and arrived with only a minute or two to spare. By the time Skye had reached the rooftop, and killed two A.T.D. operatives slowing her down, it was too late. She watched her mother, amongst other inmates, get gunned down by the firing squad. Skye dropped to her knees, hoping that her mother at least got the chance to see her before she had died. Skye left, and begun her life alone, heading back to Vegas to pack her things and equipment, and eventually, learn of the location of the AR.KI.NE. vault in Michigan, heading to that location to start her life as the new AR.KI.NE., accepting that, her life would not end without paying back the A.T.D. for what they had done to her family. One would think she had not already learned her lesson.

"Vengeance is a dangerous wild fire. If you do not control it, you risk burning everything around you." - AR.KI.NE Four-Eight.

TO BE WRITTEN . . .