My handler stepped into her office, gaze touching on me, sitting in her office chair, and landing almost audibly on the Glock laid sideways on her desk. The iron goddess herself drew a small breath before speaking, visible testament to just how unsettled she was. "Aries, I understand it has been a trying week, but you have worked through worse than this. It can be settled in a diplomatic manner-"

"I have to kill you to get out," I said.

Lita stilled. As few rules governed our work, she knew this was no test. Her superiors, few as they may be, did not use her agents against her. For the most part, her superiors tried to avoid her agents altogether. "Who told you this?"

I savored it for a moment, her not quite able to keep her gaze from slipping to the gun, barrel gleaming in the lamplight. "It's over, Lita. Even the godless are having trouble ignoring the evidence."

"There is no evidence. You know that as well as I."

"There wasn't until I gave it to them."

The cords of her neck pulsed, and I saw it in her eyes. She knew I wasn't lying. Her lips moved soundlessly for a moment. "How could you do this? Do you not realize how many lives we have saved and conspiracies we have stopped?"

"Yes, Lita." I stood, setting both hands on the desk. "I do. But they don't haunt me like every person we've killed or lives we've destroyed."

"Sometimes there is an acceptable margin of loss-"

"No," I said. "That's where you went wrong."

Lita narrowed her eyes, and her voice lowered to a hiss. "By utilizing this philosophy, I have personally saved the lives of two presidents and four other heads of state, and you dare to call me wrong?"

"You went wrong when you believed yourself capable of defining that margin of loss."

Lita looked pointedly at the gun, and back at me. "Now you would do the same?"

I picked up the gun in my left hand, and pulled a silencer from my right pocket, never taking my eyes off her. "You took away my life and taught me to kill. You tell me."

Light glinted on the sweat tracing her hairline. "Aries-"

"Aries," I said, screwing the silencer onto the barrel, "is not my name." The cylinder clicked into place.

"Wait - surely -"

I tilted my head. "Surely what?"

"Jessica, listen to me-"

The edges of my mouth turned up, and I laughed, silently. "You think my birth name is a failsafe? It's unfortunate, really. You did your job too well. I'm not Jessica anymore either."

She sagged into the wall. "That is it, then. You're just going to kill me and leave."

I aimed and pulled the trigger three times. The movies are inaccurate. Silencers suppress the sound, true, but bullets fired at such velocities still make sound. Enough that I'd have to run.

Lita opened her eyes, slowly, and turned to the wall. She touched one of the holes torn in the wallpaper with shaking fingers.

"I'm finishing the game on my terms, not yours." I shot out the light and threw the window open as the bulbs tinkled against the desk.

Five minutes later, I stepped into the black Mercedes at the front of the building, and closed the door as the driver accelerated. "I'm done."

Chandler looked at me, head tilted. "You left her alive, didn't you?"

I handed him the gun, peeling off my gloves. "You don't sound surprised."

"I should be, but I'm not."

I blinked at the tears burning the back of my eyes. He tipped my chin up. "Why tears?"

"I can't remember the last time someone believed in me because of who I am instead of what I can do."

He pulled me across the back seat and into his arms. "You can start now. You can start over now."

The first tear broke over my eyelid. "I don't even know my name anymore."

"But you know who you are."

I drew a shaky breath. "Yes. Yes, I do."