Chapter 2

Occulte carefully aimed the Glock 20 he was using. He squeezed off a single round, which blew through the bull's-eye on the target two hundred yards away.

He spoke loudly towards Jeremy, as they were both wearing earplugs. "So, who do you think that this 'chosen one' is anyway? Everybody seems to be theorizing about it lately, all of them hoping it will be them."

Jeremy smirked, putting a hole in the bull's-eye of his own target. "You know I don't buy into this Prophecy shit, and last time I checked, you didn't either."

"I don't, but for the sake of argument..."

Occulte unleashed eight rounds on his target, carving a perfect square into it.

"I haven't really thought about it. I don't think I would want to be the Chosen One though. Too much responsibility for my taste." Jeremy was about to continue shooting, and put a stop to the conversation, when Occulte tapped him on his shoulder and pointed towards the entrance to the firing range.

The only non-instructor female in the entire complex had just strolled into the room, and was in the process of preparing her gun at one of the firing booths. It was too bad she was off-limits, as she was incredibly hot; but she was the Fulfiller's granddaughter. He had her attend class here because the Imperial Hierarchy's educational facilities were among the best in the world... and because he could keep an eye on her constantly.

Occulte had been keeping an eye on her for a while now as well, but in an entirely different way. After all, the only mildly-approachable female within a mile was quite an attention grabber.

Her name was Diamond. Quite an unusual name, but then again, so was Occulte. She was approximately 5'9" tall, she weighed about 120 lbs., and she was sixteen years old. Occulte would put her at a C-cup, but he had never quite understood the whole bust measurement system; it wasn't like there were a lot of people in this place that talked about that kind of thing. Judging by the way she would assault anyone daring to disrespect her, she loved fighting as much as any of the Possibles... and she was also quite adept at it. She was, as well, incredibly intelligent.

Occulte had realized a while ago that he was enamored with her, but he hadn't dared to act on his feelings. The last Possible that had asked her on a date had been flogged in public for his offense, which was a punishment which had been pretty much halted about the time they had all turned eight years old. It had caused quite a stir.

But, something had changed recently. The instructors had not been handing out punishments to any of the Possibles. Occulte figured that they didn't want to turn any of them against the staff at a time so close to the Choosing. So just maybe there was a possibility that he could get away with something he wouldn't normally be able to.

Occulte tossed down his gun and walked over to her booth, leaning against the thin wall. Jeremy groaned; he had watched his friend doom himself to trouble too many times before to attempt to stop him, and it was looking as if he was about to do it again.

"Hey Diamond. What's up?" he asked in a cool, confident voice.

She reached up and brushed a strand of her long brown hair out of the way of her sparkling blue eyes.

'God she's beautiful, ' Occulte thought to himself.

She smiled warmly in a way that left the normally calm and controlled Occulte in a daze. "Nothing much. Occulte, right?"

Occulte mentally slapped himself before responding. "Yeah. I was wondering if you might want to accompany me into town for a bite to eat this Sunday."

Her beautiful smiled faltered for a second. The effect was like having a storm suddenly appear on a sunny day. "You do know what happened to the last guy that asked me out, right?"

Occulte merely shrugged, exuding a confidence in himself that he most certainly did not feel at that moment. "Don't worry about me; I can take care of myself."

"Well," her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper and her smile returning, "it has been a while since I have been out on a date... so why not? Meet me at the gates, noon?"

"Perfect. See you then." Occulte, in a rare gesture, smiled. He never smiled. He smirked sometimes, and every once in a while his lips would curl upwards in an evil smile/grimace of sorts, but he never smiled. Occulte walked back over to Jeremy, the smile replaced with his usual smirk.