D's muscles tensed and released as he delivered what would be the last, crashing slam of the entity against the mangled wall of servers. He ripped his arms back down to his side as the tendrils loosened their grip. He backed away from the entity, catching breath, and spectating as VV exacted the conclusive strike against it; the entity melted away and dissolved.

For the time being, the fighting was over. D motioned and sounded in relief. His mouth hung open for a moment as VV approached him with comment and inquiry.

The first syllable had barely escaped him when the sound of heavy, driving footsteps carried from the far corners of the archives. In an instant, he and VV were surrounded by a squadron of heavily armed, armor-clad soldiers; D noticed they all bore the isignia of a skull and crossbone, though he had no clue what to make of it. With guns trained on him from all sides, and being unsure if he could take a hit as well as he could give one, D obliged to the order given, and dropped to the ground. In sequence, he allowed himself to be forced back to his feet, and fell in next to VV as the soldiers forced them out of the archive room.

"Call me 'D,'" he whispered to VV, unheard by the soldiers. The entourage was joined by another seeing a third captive down the hall... D assumed her to be either A or Pia, whom the woman walking next to him had spoken of.

They hadn't gotten far down the corridor when all Hell broke loose again.

This time, it was the soldiers being assailed by an unseen force. Several of the armed guards clasped their hands to their head, weapons clattering about on the ground as they were dropped. D felt a rough hand push him down, and let himself drop to the floor as a rain of gunfire and a chorus of pained groans split the silence. More soliders came under the affliction, and the sound of gunfire faded into the anguished cries of men being attacked by something they couldn't fight against.

"Run!"

The voice shouted above the noise of the agonized soliders. D spun in the direction of the voice. He pushed off from the ground, scooping up a dropped gun as he did, and began to run in the direction of the voice; he bodied his way through a solider who, despite the pain he way in, attempted to to stop the captives from escaping.

He would spin around, letting Pia and VV pass him by, and open fire in a quick spray with the stolen weapon to deter a pursuit before folliwing the others.

_{@Qia, @Silver Carrot, @Wayward}

---

VV watched with horror as the armored soldiers around her began to convulse and cry in pain. She almost, almost froze up as she heard a disembodied voice begging for them to run.

There was so much chaos in this scene, and she really didn't want to get shot-

D cleared a path. All VV had to do was follow Pia out of the ring of pained soldiers and start running down the hall. She heard a spurt of gunfire, and looked back to see D firing into the crowd.

Good. Maybe they could get away, and finally escape this mad house.

All was for naught, though. As Lieutenant Riker, collapsed on the ground, weakly held up a purple device, and pressed its trigger button. Instantly, a purple shockwave shot out. The moment it touched the escapees, they would feel a stunning sensation, like a taser. It would even affect A, who couldn't be seen.

VV felt the purple wave overtake her, and in the next second she was stunned on the floor, something in her heart thumping weakly.

Lieutenant Riker smirked, struggling to his feet. “So you really are some kind of Wild after all, huh? The fuck kinda experiments they doing here…”

“Wouldn't you like to know, Lieutenant?” Said a deep, sharp voice from further down the hallway. VV numbly craned a bit of her neck, and saw a line of uniform, black-clad soldiers, rifles raised. They were different, bearing a target as their patch instead of a skull and cross bones.

Riker didn't move at first. “Shit. I thought we cleared all of you out.”

“Hate to disappoint you, Lieutenant. Now, hand over the subjects, and I'll let your men scurry to that hole in E.5.”

The Lieutenant was silent fir a long moment, before he looked at his surviving men, and cursed quietly under his breath. “Alright, deal. They're yours.”

The men who bore the target symbol raised a larger gun high, and shot out a huge net over the hallway. Their infrared vision allowed them to see A, ensnaring her within the net, along with D, Pia and VV.

At the touch of a button, the net crackled with electricity. VV screamed, before everything faded to black.

---

An unknown length of time passed. There were voices, flashes of lights. But no dreams.

Eventually, everyone would awake in a small, living room-sized chamber. Four grey walls, a black floor, no windows, and a small steel door without a handle or a way to open. Tiny vents in the 12-feet high ceiling allowed chilled air to pass through.

VV awoke first, and immediately moved to shake D, then A, who was no longer invisible. “Hey, heyyy… You guys awake? Come on…” There was a tremble in her voice.

---

---

Pie woke slowly, dozing at first, before sitting bolt upright when she realised where she was, and what she remembered. She covered her face with both her hands and started gasping for breath. She wasn't sure how much more of this her nerves could take. If it wasn't corpses around them, or monsters attacking them, it was warring masked forces shooting each other for the privilege of capturing them. All Pia wanted, more than her memeries, more than answers, was a moment of safety where she could catch her breath, calm down and think.

"Why is this happening to us?" She whispered qietly. "What did we do to deserve any of this?"

She remembered the flashback that had been triggered. She didn't know who she was, why she was there and what happened exactly, but she could remember the guilt. The panic. The knowledge that she'd caused the death of that boy somehow. Was this her punishment? Their punishment?

Alright. Looks like we're good. As Pia and VV sprinted past him, D dropped the then emptied gun and followed them a few paces behind. They covered an impressive distance, all things considered. D's hopes swelled in believing they were finally on their way out.

But his optimism was premature. Just as it seemed they were in the clear, with the soldiers dropped behind them, some injured by D's insurance fire, a jolt hit would-be escapees. D felt the shock drive though his flesh and bone and pulsate in his chest. Even though he held up for a second or two longer than VV, Pia, and A, he collapsed just the same. Unable to move, he lay upon the cold floor, fighting to find a shred of mobility to retaliate with. A furious scowl was the only movement he could muster as his newfound strength failed. He let out a low, soft groan.

The voices of the soldiers dulled and faded; D's vision went dark as the paralysis stole him from consciousness. He would barely feel the net entrapping him as his body numbed.

---

Sound and sight steadily returned. D shuddered and lurched when he felt a pair of hands press against and shake him. Through a blurred gaze and distorted hearing, he made out VV, making rounds to wake him and the others. He rushed to his feet, dizzying himself as he came up too fast. As his vision returned to form, he took in the space they had been left in... small, with only way viable way in and out; no comforts or amenities either. "Whatever this place is, they sure as fuck don't want us to feel at home here."

Seek me, my child.

"Ugh." D pressed against his temples as pounding feeling passed fleetingly through his head. "Experiments," he said, speaking to everyone, but looking away towards the door. "That's what I heard one of the soldiers say... Who's to say we ever did anything? Maybe there was nothing before we climbed out of those pods." He only half believed what he was saying; the flash of a memory he had had earlier crept in through the back of his mind. He walked towards the door. "We won't find out anything if we just sit here though." He wound up a fist, and slammed it into the steel door. "Shit!" He recoiled a bruised knuckle, and began shaking the pain off. Whether it was the door being stronger or him being weakened by the purple shock, he wasn't sure, but his force wasn't enough to even dent the door. "Guess that's out of the question! Anyone else got an idea?"

_{@Qia, @Silver Carrot, @Wayward}

---

---

---

---

”Where are we?”

VV gave a sympathetic look, patting A on the shoulder. “That was you who tried busting us out the first time, right? I don't know how you did that, but that was a very brave thing you did.”

VV looked around their cell. “I'm not sure, but I'd say we're still in the same facility…”

Her gaze turned to Pia, face in her hands, and grimaced.

"Why is this happening to us? What did we do to deserve any of this?"

“Do you not smell the darkness on you? …I do.”

VV stiffened, very vividly hearing a voice in her head. “What the hell?”

A chuckle. “You might have subjugated me, but I haven't disappeared into the void.”

Her forehead starting to glean with sweat, VV tried ignoring the voice in her head. She was in control here, nothing or no one else. If she was hearing the monster that cornered them in the Archives Room, she'd carry that burden. At least it couldn't hurt them now.

“I wouldn't be so sure…”

“Shut up!” VV glared at the wall, screaming in her thoughts.

A breath, and she looked back at Pia. Her face crumpled a bit, empathizing.

“None of us deserve what's going on here.” She said, but there was a lack of confidence in her words. Who was she, before she lost her memories…? Did they… really deserve this?

That's when D spoke. VV listened, finding herself nodding along. He was making a lot of sense. At least, before he tried punching out the door.

"Guess that's out of the question! Anyone else got an idea?"

Before VV could speak again, the steel slid open on its own. On the other side was a hallway, a scientist and two guards, similarly dressed to the armed soldiers they saw before. The scientist was dressed in a lab coat, clipboard in his hand. He looked down at them dispassionately, before a wide, I sincere smile spread over his face.

“Well, well. The abandoned project has been reinstated. Consider this your lucky day, A8-130, PG-414, DM-066, and VV-007. We'll be doing some minor surgeries today.”

The clicked a pen, scribbling something on their clipboard, before they looked over their group of subjects. “You are free to mingle for twenty minutes. After that, you're expected at the main gate of the D-class Wing where your escorts and I will be waiting.”

The scientist began walking away. “Don't dilly-dally too much, my precious subjects.”

If they were to peek their head out of their opened cell door, they would find a small hallway with similar white walls waiting for them. In the hallway, nameplates labeled other opened doors: 2.3 across from them, 2.2 beside, and 2.4 across and adjacent to the security wing section.

2.2 appeared empty, an exact copy of their cell. They could hear muffled moaning in 2.3, and in 2.4, a haggard face poked out. They were dressed in similar prison garb, and was waving the group over with little ‘psst’s. At the end of the hall, there was an opened door that led into the D-class Wing, where guards would walk by often. The scientist was in the wing, scribbling on their clipboard as they waited for their subjects.

---

---

Pia forced a smile at VV's attempt to reassure her, but there was no mirth behind it. Then a scientist walked in and informed them there would be minor surgeries in twenty minutes. This wasn't exactly reassuring news but Pia was going to use the time they'd been given to relax. She felr like if she didn't calm down, her chest was going to burst. She sat still, and began to take deep breaths.

This time unfortunately allowed her mind to begin processing what was going on. Spirits and mosters that had tried to kill them. Unexplained powers. Guns pointed at them. And now surgeries. Nobody seemed to have the group's best interests at heart. She looked over to A, who was approaching the door where somebody was trying to beckon them closer, eemingly to share information. Pia sighed, got to her feet and followed.

---

As the muffled, staccato resonance of the steel door subsided, it swung open. D, just relieved of the blunt pain in his hand, stood closest to the door as it swung open. He came eye-to-eye with a man clad in a labcoat. Though the scientist looked through him without much attention to spare, D's heart skipped violently; his gaze filled with an unbridled rage from some deep, repressed space within his mind. He flexed his muscles, moving as to prepare to throw another punch, this time into something far more fragile than a thick steel door.

He recoiled only at the reaction of the guards flanking the scientist. As soon as he telegraphed his intent, the pair had trained their weapons into the room. Standing down and staying his hand did nothing to quell the wave of anger that had crashed upon him. If anything, it was exacerbated by the thin, twisted smile the scientist's face bore as he spoke, naming each of them by the codes that had marked their pods. Experiments... Subjects... D had heard the soldiers correctly... and he, VV, A, and Pia were part of it all; it was obvious, all things considered.

D caught a moment of calmness to bring himself down. They were, he reminded himself, seeking answers. Now there was someone right in front of them that they might be able to wrestle some clarity out of. He drew in a soothing breath. A and Pia were first out of their cell. D stepped into the doorway after them, but turned to VV before crossing the threshold. "We need to follow the guy in the labcoat," he said. "If we're gonna find out anything, we've gotta squeeze it out of him; if anyone has answers, it'll be that bastard. I'm sure of it."

The fool knows not the powers he's trifling with.

D's temples pulsed. "But I doubt he'll talk easily."

---

_{@Qia, @Silver Carrot, @Wayward}

---

”If anyone has answers, it'll be that bastard. I'm sure of it. But I doubt he'll talk easily."

VV glanced at the retreating figure of the scientist and his protection, before her gaze returned to D.

“I agree with you; he's definitely got answers. He even knew our codes.”

She hesitated a moment longer, gaze drifting between A and Pia approaching another cell mate, and the scientist, before she gestured with her head for D to follow, and she headed into the adjacent hallway.

Here the scientists were more numerous, the cellmates too. Dressed similarly to them, each with haggard eyes. She ignored it, instead focusing on their own scientist. Taking a bit of a closer look, he appeared to be middle-aged, with graying hair. He was paper thin, as if his diet subsisted on instant noodles. His eyes were the most disconcerting - just cold. He didn't care about anyone or anything except his research.

VV could barely veil the disgust she felt as she approached him and his guards, eyeing the three warily before speaking.

“You gonna explain who we are or why you're doing this?”

The scientist stared for a moment before smiling coldly. ”You're test subjects. Special ones at that, here for the Abyssal Connection Project. As for why I'm doing this…” His smile widened. “I enjoy it.”

V made a face, before turning to D, ”You want to ask ‘em anything?”

Meanwhile, A and Pia made their way towards the ‘psst’ing cellmate of 2.4, and he gestured for them to follow him into his little cubicle. It was well-lit, same as their own cell, save for the bloody handprints on the walls.

The cellmate, a young man with a few premature grays in his dark hair, and manically shifty eyes, ushered them in, sticking his head out in the hallway to ensure they were alone. Then he turned to them.

“You’re alive! Well, as alive as anyone can get in a p-place like this.” He said, stuttering a little over his words. He twitched every so often as he spoke, eyes shiting from the left and right.

“I don’t remember much. But I remember you. The scientists were furious, and you were escorted away after a mystery session. You know, where they just drag you away without telling you why…”

He ran a shaky hand over his hair, “There’s something different about you guys, though. The scientist actaully seemed happy this time around. I don’t know what changed, but I think they’re really gonna dive deep on you. The darkness. The d-d-dark…”

He squeezed his eyes shut, face pulling into a silent scream, hands pressing against his face.

“I…I c-c-can’t remember. The less I remember, the better it is. But I can feel it. Haunting memories, an echo, screaming at the edges of my mind, my mind!”

He seemed momentarily overcome, swaying from left and right as he held his head.

---

---

Pia listened to the old man. Just more questions. No matter where they went, wjo they met or what they heard. It was just more questions. Pia wasn't confused by the old man's fear. Maybe it was better she kept moving qithout a break. The adreneline was keeping her moving forward. Keeping her focused and sane. She *wanted* to be allowed the luxury to snap. But she knew that would be the end. This man was a cautionary tale for what could happen to any of them if they stopped for long enough to allow themselves enough time to think.

The scientists were angry with them before they lost their memories, and now they're pleased. Pia assumed because of the abilities that had awakened. That was the difference she could think of. Were the scientists the ones responsible for the memory loss in the first place? For putting them in the pods? And was the old men like them? An experiment with his memories erased. His words regarding the haunting memories struck a chord with Pia.

"And, do you know what they did to us?" Pia added to A's questions.

_@Wayward

---

"What is the Abyssal Connection Project? And what makes us 'special' to it?"

The guards standing beside the scientist immediately noticed the aggression in D's stance, and the way he spoke. Hands clenched rifles, taking half steps forward. Before the scientist raised a hand, thin lips curved into a smirk.

“Relax, gentleman. The subject is only seeking answers.”

The guards leveled a glare at D through their visors, before stepping back. The scientist just chuckled, before answering D's question with one of his own.

“You sure you want know? We’ve discontinued memory wipes for you and your fellow test mates, so anything you learn now will stay with you… And haunt you for the rest of your days.”

The scientist grinned, before tapping his chin thoughtfully. “Yes, perhaps I'll share a little something with you.”

He leaned in, speaking in a low whisper to D and VV. “Your horrors. Your nightmares. The demons that haunt you… All of this is fuel for the Abyssal Connection Project. And it's my job…” He raised a hand, plucking the air in front of them. “To pull that out of you in as many horrifying ways possible…”

He checked his watch and smiled. Five minutes left until it was time for their surgeries.

---

_{@Qia, @Silver Carrot}

---

“We need to know what you remember. Anything could help us get out of here.”

The cellmate, still gripping his head, looked on at A.

“Memories? Ah, memories. The ethereal wisp that they- th- they take from us!” He moaned, gripping his head tighter.

“What did you mean by…the darkness? What…did they do to you?”

The man grunted, before momentary clarity entered his eyes. His hands fell limp, and he stared at A with wide eyes.

“They harvest it. All the darkness a person has. It makes you… ‘special’ here. To more than one person. To more than one th-th-thing! I only remember slivers… of a Voice… a Voice in the darkness, calling out my name!”

"And, do you know what they did to us?"

“They did the same to you as they do to us, but you're special. You're back! Back from the dead! They empower the darkness in you, and bring you closer to the hellish darkness where they come from. The monsters. The demons.

“For you is a fate, I fear, is far worse than all of us…”

The man moaned and muttered, shivering as he stood there, trying his best to answer them with the shattered mind he had.

There were five minutes left until it would be time for their surgeries. It would be wise indeed to make their way over to the scientist before time ran out…

---

---

Pia had heard everything she needed to from the man in the cell. She couldn't immediately make sense of all of his words regarding darkness, but she could understand enough that what was about to happen had already happened once and they hadn't been expected to survive it the first time. She had also learned that the scientists were indeed the ones who'd been stealing their memories. Pia didn't have it in her to be patient or polite. Fear was giving way to fury. She was exhausted and anxious and just wanted the never-ending converyor belt of horrible things to stop. But more than that, she wanted some clear answers and explainations.

Pia stormed away from A and the man in the cell, down the corridor. She caught up with D, VV and the scientist. She unfortunately missed the part where the scientist told them that they'd be ceasing the memory wipes. She arrived just in time, however,to hear his spiel about all the awful things thus far being fuel for their project, and the promise of more to come.

Pia was silent. She did not trust herself to open her mouth. Like D, she was angry, but far from being a violent rage, her mental state was more frayed and delicate. One wrong sentence could set off a bout of hysteria. Her eyes were both piercing and desperate. All she wanted to hear, was good news. Something. Anything.

---

D tensed. His jaw tightened, and his mouth thinned in impatience. He clenched his hands. Whoever the scientist was or thought he was, he was getting on D's last nerve; responses without an answer seemed to be his M.O. In the moment, he was more frustrated with the labcoat's vagueness than he was disturbed by his 'explanation.' At that point, he decided he was done asking questions; they wouldn't get a straight answer anyways. He took half a step back, and crossed his arms with hint of defiance.

Side-eying VV, he hoped she was on the same train of thought as he was. He looked then at the scientist, and the flanking guards, whose guns would be trained on them the moment they made any move on the labcoat-wearing piece of shit. "And what if we're not OK with having anything more done to us? He asked with an oppositional tone. "What if we refuse to follow you?"

@Wayward

---

"What if we refuse to follow you?"

The scientist's lips pulled into a sneer, staring at D with morbid curiosity. “This happened the first time we did surgeries with you as well.”

He leaned forward. “Would you like me to tell you what we did to you..?”

A small laugh. “Both guards here attempted to drag you away. You resisted. So they threw you to the ground. And they began beating you. With steel-toed combat boots, butts of their guns, their fists. Then one of the doctors sedated you, and you were dragged away helplessly…”

The scientist looked at D with evil curiosity. “Would you like to reenact that scene, or will you come along willingly?”

---

@Qia, @Silver Carrot

---

Pia was eager for good news. But alas, the cellmate only stood there, trembling, and hung his head.

"You've given us a chance to fight back against these people. We won't forget that."

The cellmates licked his dry lips, nodding feverishly. “Be safe… Be safe.”

Before two guards appeared in the doorway of cell 2.4. The cellmate immediately shrunk back, a terrified yelp leaving his throat.

“Time for your surgeries. Come with us.” One of the guards said dispassionately.

If Pia or A resisted, the guards would simply restrain them while a scientist would inject them with a sedative. It would make them go limp, and they would be dragged helplessly from the room.

---

@Wayward, @Qia, @Silver Carrot

---

Pia, A, D and VV were escorted from the D-class Wing, guards at the front and back of their group, and led by the scientist who had spoken with them before. Any resistance was met with a sedative, making saying no a tragic impossibilty.

They were marched down the hallway, where they saw a marked-off section ringed with guards at the intersection. VV’s eyes widened, recognizing it. Beyond the barrier, she recognized the hallway they had been originally captured in.

It meant not all of the facility was secured.

They turned the corner, and walked up to a sliding door marked ‘Hospital Wing’. Walking past rows of gurneys and blue curtains, some hosting moaning cellmates while others remained empty, they eventually reached the door at the end of the room. It was marked ‘Surgery Room,’ and opening it revealed a row of uncomfortable stainless steel operating tables. The guards shoved each of them onto their own separate operating table, immediately retraining them with metal cuffs attached to the side.

Under the blinding light of the operating lamp, more scientists moved forward, throwing on blue gloves above them. And, one by one, VV, Pia, A and D were given anesthesia and a drip, and the world melted into darkness.

---

In the darkness, each saw a vision from their past, unearthed by the activation of their abyssal connection.

---

@Qia

The screech of tires and the shattering of glass echoed in her ears, a cacophony of terror that seemed to stretch on forever. The world spun around her in a dizzying blur of colours and sounds. She was a teenager, full of life and laughter, sitting in the passenger seat of her best friend’s car. They had been singing along to their favourite song, the wind whipping through their hair before everything changed in an instant. The car swerved violently, tires screeching against the asphalt. Her heart pounded in her chest as she gripped the seat, her knuckles white with fear. Then, the car flipped, the force of the impact throwing them around like rag dolls. Glass shattered, spraying them with tiny, glistening shards. The world outside the windows became a whirlwind of sky and ground, indistinguishable from one another. The car landed with a sickening crunch, the sound of metal bending and breaking filling the air.

And then silence.

She could hear her own ragged breathing, feel the sting of cuts on her skin, and the dull ache of bruises forming. A bolt of raw adrenaline shot through her veins, propelling her into action. She blinked rapidly, trying to clear her vision, and with every ounce of strength she had left, she crawled out of the wreckage, her body protesting with every movement.

As she emerged from the twisted metal, her eyes widened in horror. Her best friend lay motionless on the asphalt, blood pooling around her, dark and ominous, seeping into the cracks of the road. The sight sent a wave of panic through her, her heart pounding in her chest. She stumbled towards the body, her legs feeling like they could give out at any moment. “Please, wake up,” she whispered, her voice trembling. She reached out with shaking hands, desperate to find a pulse, a sign of life. The world around her seemed to fade away, leaving only the two of them in that moment of fear and uncertainty.

But there was no response, only faint, laboured breaths that grew weaker with each passing second.

As she knelt there, a strange sensation washed over her. She could feel the blood flow in her friend’s body, weak and erratic as if she had developed an almost supernatural awareness of the life force slipping away. It was a chilling realization, one that made her heart ache with a profound sense of helplessness.

Her hands trembled as she pressed them against her friend’s chest, trying to will her back to consciousness. “Stay with me,” she pleaded, her voice barely above a whisper. The world around them seemed to blur, the sounds of distant sirens and the murmur of onlookers fading into the background.

All that mattered was the fragile thread of life she was desperately trying to hold onto. The fragile thread that was being cut right before her eyes and within her body.

She could feel it slipping away, like blood through her fingers.

---

@Wayward

"What's wrong doctor --?"

"It isn't looking good; the bleeding is internal."

The voices were muffled.

His head was faded; he'd been slipping in and out of consciousness for an hour. The machines by his hospital bed, none of which he could name or understand, hummed, chimed, and alarmed in such jarring sound that he had blocked out the cacophony to a dull roar to hear the conversation outside the closed door.

A sharp, searing pain coursed through his stomach. He held against the worst of it, pressed his eight-year-old hands firmly to the spot where it hurt... the nurses had said something about keeping pressure on the wound.

"But HOW the HELL did this happen?" A third voice, male, and angrier than the first two, interjected.

"We're still looking into that." The doctor spoke calmly, attempting to ease the third person's anger.

"Will you be able to help him?" The female voice asked, holding back a stream of tears.

"We're... we're not sure... it's... it's in God's hands right now.

The boy in the hospital bed shuddered. Mom... Dad... The sounds around him faded to silence; the world went dark.

---

@Silver Carrot

"You skipped meals again, didn't you?"

She looked up to see the mathematics teacher, and her good friend, staring down at her disapprovingly. How'd she get in her house? 'Oh right,' she thought. 'I gave her a key.' She turned away from her friend and sighed.

Her friend gritted her teeth and began to raise her voice.

"Johann's death wasn't your fault! I can't believe you'd resort to some story about ghosts or physic powers just to justify rationally blaming yourself! I can't keep watching you destroy yourself like this!"

She finally stood up and confronted her friend.

"Shut up! I am so sick of nobody believing me! Everybody telling me that it'll all be okay and move on, and pretend that everything's fine! I can't put this behind me!" She began to get more hysterical as she grasped the sides of her head. "How am I supposed to go back to work with a smile on my face?! How am I supposed to deal with this?!"

Furniture began to wobble and levitate around her. Her friend looked surprised, and her mouth was moving, but she couldn't hear what her friend was saying anymore. But the fear in her friend's eyes told her everything she needed to know. It was only strenthening her own swirling chasm of negative emotions. It was getting hard to breathe. She collapsed to her knees as her friend, with blood streaming down her face from a blurry shape hitting her, fled the room. Everything was a tornado of furniture whizzing around her. She was blacking out. That's when she could feel something for the first time. Something else in her head.

---

@Estylwen

“Kill him.”

She stood there, shaking with the gun in her hand. It wasn’t hers, it was theirs, these mafia thugs that kept harassing her.

“First you want me to be a front, and now you want me to kill for you? You’re crazy.” She said, putting up token resistance. She could see the poor man on the floor in front of her, trembling on his knees. He had entered the store at the wrong time, and overheard the mafia thugs talking to her. It was enough that they had to kill him.

One of the thugs pulled her up by the collar, baring his teeth. “You either kill him, or we will, and we’ll make it agonizingly painful.”

He smirked. “Trust me, you’ll be doing him a favour.”

She stood there, staring at him, tears pricking her eyes as he stared into her. Satisfied with the fear in her eyes, he roughly let her go, and gestured to the man on his knees.

“Stop making us wait. Finish him now.”

Heavy, quick breathing. She started to hyperventilate, finger tightening on the trigger, staring at the man on the ground.

And, a tear rolling down her cheek, she pulled the trigger.

---

@Wayward, @Qia, @Silver Carrot

And, after the visions stopped, a presence was felt in Pia, A, D and VV. Dark, suffocating.

“Give me your pain. Give me your suffering. Suffer and grieve. And I will give you power…”

To describe the presence was like a thousand voices screaming in the head, earth-shattering, disorienting, and complete. The darkness took shape, and a presence seventy times higher than the tallest skyscraper was felt. The closer the presence got, the more a sense of dread swallowed them up. So close, the breath of death was upon them.

And in the next instant, it stopped, and the presence disappeared.

---

@Wayward, @Qia, @Silver Carrot

---

Pia, A, VV, and D awoke in the gurneys, side by side and across from one another, curtains back so they could see one another. Each shared stitch marks sealing the cut found in the center of their chest just below the rib cage, near the heart. Each had a metal cuff chaining their hand to the side fo the gurney.

VV raised her head a bit, feeling disorientated but not in pain. In fact, she was feeling pretty strong. Like there was extra life in her bones.

“You guys alright?” She whispered, seeing the others beginning to stir.

“Ah, you’re finally awake.” Said a voice.

VV watched a slender woman in a business dress clack her heels down the hall, stopping in front of their beds. She pushed up the glasses on her face, looking at them with sharp eyes.

“Good. I have a task for you. You’re finally ready...”

VV narrowed her eyes from where she laid. “Ready for what?”

She had a smirk on her face. “Oh, going outside. You’re going to destroy the leader of the Wilds for us.”

“Who?”

“Big guy, wears a hoodie, can’t see his face. He’s got those biting wisps swirling around him. I believe you saw him when you woke up, yes?”

VV’s mind reeled. That guy? “No way, you can’t be serious.”

“I’m afraid I couldn’t be more serious. You’re leaving in ten minutes.”

---

---

D huffed and scoffed at the scientist. His eyes darted rapidly beteen the guards. His inner voice beckoned "Try me!" Earlier, a challenge might have paid off. Whatever the goons had done to do him in the last time wouldn't work when... or if... his surge of strength rediscovered him. But for the time being, the device the soldiers had used continued to dull that power. D hoped it was just temporary; he was starting to worry that the whole thing had been a fluke caused by adrenaline or something, and the lingering throb in his fist stood in testament to that. He dropped his arms loosely to his side and nodded, first to VV and then to the scientists.

They had all, for what it was worth, survived the previous experiments done on them. There was no reason for D to suspect any different; it was evident that they meant more to the scientist alive than dead. He followed into the D-Wing, past veiled gurneys and closed operating rooms. He landed compliantly upon an operating table before the anesthesia lowered him into the dark of sleep.

---

---

D awoke upon a metal gurney, still cold despite the fact that he had seemingly been upon it for some time. His head throbbed in sharp pain as the vision returned to his eyes. The scene his eyes opened to echoed that which he had seen under anesthesia. Had he died? He knew that couldn't be it; how would he be here if he had?

He felt a single droplet running from his eye and along his cheek as he turned his head in towards the others. He made to wipe the tear from his face, finding his arm reach just short as it pulled against the chain and cuff that restrained him; his was considerably thicker than that of the other, meaning the labcoats were aware of his strength. "Fuck!" He breathed out the barely audible curse, twisting his hand into a more comfortable position.

He became aware of the nurse sitting at the center of the quad of gurneys. The nurse went on about some dark, hooded figure they were deal with. VV sounded unsure if they could, and A protested. D let out a half-chuckle. "Well," he said, waving a restrained hand. "If it gets us off these slabs, and some time out of this shithole, I say, why not?" He gazed a full circle around to VV, A, and Pia, his expression one of reassurance. He settled onto the woman between them. "I'm in."