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True power is not wielded nor used. It is innate like how you wished not to be born.
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Raj visits Axel in their headquarters, he means to ask about the offer if it still stands. Immediately upon arrival, he asked where he could find Axel. The front desk person told him to wait for a while because Axel was already on his way.
Raj sat at the desk, and a bundle of nerves and impatience struck him. The palm of his slippers fink as he taps her toes to the rhythm of the wall clock's ticking. He started to feel hot. Sweat drips down his back. He imagines an ant was biting under his shirt because of the sweat. Finally, he decided to kill his boredom. He would stroll around the spaces in their headquarters.
Lost on his way out he found himself at the basement of their Regulus's building. It was a restricted area, but he seemed not to notice the sign. He continues to walk recklessly inside. From a distance, he would see a light glowing on and off passing from the glass doors. It was not tinted, and he could see the shadows. Speculating enough he saw men tied and wrapped.
It is where the extraction happens. His body was trembling, and his hands were shaking as he continued to observe the events that he could see through the small door that limited his vision inside. Men were electrocuted and delivered shocks of extreme voltages that he could see the electricity flowing from the apparatus they were using. The buzzing sound was heard even from his distance that was generated by the pair of machines where it came from. His eyes even widened more when he witnessed the steaming men in their deaths. There were numerous numbers. Everyone was desperate inside, he could not hear the screaming but he felt like he could feel the strike, pain, and suffering.
Looking closely and silently he seemed to spot a familiar face. He tries to remember and think deeply and thoroughly. There it already crossed his mind it was one of the men who ganged up on him. He found the guy that robbed him. He saw tubes filled with liquid and humans in vitro-tubes. The place seemed soundproof.
The camera caught him in the act. He forgot to look up and was too immersed in the action. The personnel from the camera room already informed the people in the building.
Frightened upon seeing things. He acted the same way. He returned. Raj pretends that he does not know, and he does not see anything. He sat quietly and patiently while planning for his exit.
Out of nowhere and out of awkwardness he greeted everyone "Guys!" everyone around him seemed to act normal. There was no act of malice and suspicion.
His limbs continued to shake, and his sweat started to pour out of nowhere. The air flowing from the air-conditioned room seems to be elevating his nervousness.
Raj closes his eyes and breathes. He starts to wonder if maybe he should just go or remain waiting for Axel. "Pretend that you did not see anything, pretend that you did not see anything," he keeps repeating at the back of his mind.
Deciding within the last minute. His actions would be too obvious. Nervousness already covered him. He walks out past "Just tell Axel I passed by," faking a smile. Before he even got out of the building, he noticed that people were already staring at him.
Approaching the door there was a sign of relief. He sighs. Without him noticing that he was all caught up.
He was cut down and fell unknowingly. He was being shaken by a hand with a solid hold on his shoulder. With strenuous effort, he lifted his impossibly heavy eyelids. The world was a blur of hazy blue and sparks of bright white exploded in the periphery of his vision.
Splinters wounded him as he lay level on his back among a mix of broken metal scratches. A blanket lapped over the middle of his somewhat covered body. The corroded metal consumed the scratches and scratches covering his body. He felt like it was a dream, and he replaced the guy who robbed him of his early vision.
"Sorry Raj, it was affirmative," he recognized Axel's voice, he saw them standing outside his glass cage - Axel and his subordinates from Regulus. Raj always thought that Axel was his friend, so he came to think of a plan himself "Axel what is this? What are you doing?" his hands were strapped, and he could not move "You should have read the signs, be careful next time. I am so sorry I do not want to do this either, but I am forced to. No witnesses."
A little confusion was still running in his head "Wait, I came here to agree to the offer you gave me," Axel paused for a while "Wait stop for a while," the machine apparatus that held him stopped moving "Do you mean it? How can I assure that you are not lying?" he had nothing to prove for his claims, but it was true that his decision was made when he wanted to sign up, and it changed last minute when he discovers things. "I am not. Axel, you knew me."
A call came for Axel. It seems that the higher-ups have the intelligence of the happenings "Hello, is this already you Axel?" an unknown person calls to him "Eliminate, there were no other orders, if what you say was true that he also had an embedded Zodiac we can make great use of him," Axel listens to the phone while he looks at his pity friend being tied up and helpless.
"Sorry Raj, there was nothing I could do," men with scrub suites and lab coats charged in. They were pressing buttons in a machine in the corner. It seemed like it was connected to the machine from where he was being strapped "First test. Proceed. Charge it in," everyone wears safety goggles, and before he knew the itching feeling of electricity was already flowing through him.
Raj groaned as the blood rushed to his aching head. Finally, his fuzzy vision cleared, and the full extent of the damage was ascertained before him. Nearly the entirety of their victims was caged before him, present in his view, their bodies smashed, and broken in the basement laboratory, and their detached limbs were scattered in the room. Axel did not offer any words. His problem now was how to escape.
"This is a weird one. I've never seen any Zodiac like this" said the talking scientists and doctors who were experimenting "Yeah, this is new," he was confused and did not know what they were talking about. Helpless he only listened and endured what they were doing with him.
Hours passed there was still nothing he could do but obey the said tests that were done on him "Sir Axe, we still need to study this one we can't apply the same extracting method used for the others. We might kill the host and destroy the tech" Axel witnessed how Raj struggled. They met in the eye and Raj's face spoke like it was begging for him to stop "Why not?"
"It seems that his Zodiac is linked with his body and his genes. It is the second time that I have encountered something like this. The samples that were returned from the first tests that were run… it was determined that the structural components for the sensory and nervous extractions are rather insensitive to this type," Axel's expression suddenly changed. He became a new person in an instant "JUST EXTRACT IT NOW! Our clients are waiting! This week is the agreement week, we discussed, that we can't move it anymore," Axel raised his voice mad for Raj to hear him from a distance.
They then immobilized Raj and shot him with a drug that made him fall asleep. Attached the head gears chained him and slowly passed him to the Roentgen machine - one of the machines they used for the extraction. As he slowly slid inside the Roentgen machine Raj screamed and screamed in excruciating pain "Please stop this! No! Aaaaaaahhh!" watching him lose his mind they thought he would be dead.
To the surprise of the scientists "Woah! We should keep this sir, there are still signs of life. He should be enjoying this," one of the people who wore lab coats came near him as he heard the words "in our transcript records he was the second one to survive this process."
The air was pungent with the musty smell of his burnt body and from the machine they used for this invention. Raj, still conscious of his all might try to fight back with him being tied up. Moving his arms and feet. Something unexpected happened. His body and his fist were beaming with a light of power at the very peak of his strength was the Zodiac, and his eyes throbbed as he gazed straight into its seemingly endless energy "How dare you trick me?! Why won't you listen!" With a thought, he lifted himself from the ground, and up over the bed of the machine. His fist glowed ahead of him like a light at the end of the tunnel. He needed only to escape and survive, or it would be over for him "Watch out everyone!!!" Axel warns everyone in the perimeter.
Raj spun around as if he was hunting to defend his back expecting to find an escape in the room, but it was isolated. He turned just in time to catch an eyeful of astonishment, Axel barreling down on him "Curse you!" Axel became a new man. His fierce gaze was different from before, it was not new. But it was the first time Raj saw this man. A different man. He rushed and slammed into Raj at full speed "Be on guard prepare to fight!" Axel shouted. Chris, Ken, and a dozen guards stepped into place, followed by their Zodiac wielders "Hold your fire," said Lance "wait," while his troops continue to fall in line.
Raj noticed the surroundings it was different from where he peeked previously, the doors were different on location "Hold" said Axel. Ken's eyes darted back and forth nervously "What are we waiting for?" asked Chris. It felt like they were already ready to restrain him at any moment. Chris already felt his blood rushing. After awhile…