Upon regaining consciousness in this new existence, I experienced a throbbing pain in my head. I observed a woman embracing me protectively, using her own body as a shield. Tears streamed down her face, yet there was an unwavering determination in her eyes that could not be subdued.
She looked frightened but it did not stop her as she kept looking at me. She had long cherry red colored hair, a pair of blue eyes, soft features which shows that she must have been pretty if it wasn't for all the dust and dirt across her face.
"It's alright Aedan, it's alright, you're ok. Daddy and mommy will take care of all those nasty men. Just keep quiet for a while, ok?" She said to me, trying to reassure me as she wiped a bit of blood off my head.
It looks like something happened and this Aedan died and that allowed me to become him. And it looks like I'm young, like no more than 5 young.
The woman In front of me took me into her arms and ran while holding me and muttering to herself, "I hope the UNSC notices what's wrong soon, because if they don't, I truly don't know what we can do."
We arrived at a staircase where a man was running towards us. He turned around the instant he heard a noise coming from the door behind him whipped his gun around and shot out a series of bullets resulting in a large holes appearing in the door and a man falling while clutching his throat.
"We have to go now my love. We can't hold them back. Everyone else are all but dead and are simply trying to drag more down with them." The man who I assume would be my father by that way he looked at both me and the woman who appears as my mother.
This whole time I've just been so confused. I wake up in an unknown house, held by some woman who is apparently my mother, and we are running around while screams and explosions just keep happening. There are bodies lying on the ground and people fighting everywhere. I keep looking at the man in front of me in the hopes of getting some kind of information.
His hair was short and brown, it must have been styled in some manner but unfortunately for him the battles made him looked completely disheveled. His hair had mud and what I presume is blood matting it, his face looked stern and serious with sharp features, a neatly trimmed mustache and strong looking chin. His brownish-grey eyes looked at the both of us tenderly, but also with a hint of sadness in them as he seemed to know that all this would not end well at all.
"Hide with Aedan, I can't let them find the both of you." He said in an authoritative tone while looking at my new mother.
"You think I'm just going to leave you to fight alone Edgar! Not a chance in hell!" She almost growled back at him with an angry look in her eyes.
"Serena please. We can't just leave Aedan alone in this world. Hide him and yourself. This way I can truly protect you both." He replied imploringly at his wife.
She looked at the man for a moment with a steely gaze before slowly nodding.
"Thank you, my love." He said with a sign of relief.
She kissed him briefly before running towards the back of the house. We came to a large room filled with bookshelves and a fireplace lit with a few reading chairs near it. She pulled on a blue book, and it opened a secret compartment behind one of the bookshelves. She put me in the room before hearing shouts and more explosions coming from the direction we came from. She bit her lip and placed me down on the bench inside before looking at me.
"Aedan, you are our beloved child and I'm so sorry for having to do this, but I simply cannot leave your father. You will have to be strong for Mommy, ok? You may break a few bones, but we will always come back stronger. We are never afraid to fight for what we believe, even when the world doesn't share that belief. So be a good boy and stay quiet for me please. Because I need to believe that what I will do will keep you safe. I love you so much, so very much and I know that in the future you will do me and your father proud." She said as her voice went from determined to unbelievably soft and gentle.
She bent down and placed a soft kiss on my forehead. That one kiss made me unable to hold back the tears I didn't know I was about to shed. I truly did not want this woman you looked at me like I was the world to her, to leave me. I felt such pure love in that one kiss that I just couldn't keep it in. I don't know if this came from me or from whatever was left of the original before he departed, but I didn't truly care.
With my blurry eyes I simply looked at her and nodded resolutely. It doesn't matter if I just came here or that I just met these people. They are protecting me as their child. They are giving their lives for this and showing what it means to truly be resolute. I decided to do as the woman asked. I will make her proud of her decision. I will be in this world which I wanted to explore and discover as Aedan. I will fight as they did, for what they believe was right. It might not be the same, but my will shall be.
With that the woman, my mother, Serena Hel, gave me one last look with deep emotions in which I could see sadness, love, anger and determination, stepped out of the safe room and closed the door behind her.
"I love you Aedan and I'm so sorry for leaving you so soon." She said as the door finally closed with a click.
I simply couldn't help but shed tears for her and the love she tried to express before leaving. The longing to see your own child grow as you watch over them and the fact that she could no longer afford that luxury.
And so, I waited like she asked.
I waited for what seemed to be at least an hour until I felt something shake. I focused for a second and felt it shake a second time, only stronger. Then sounds like a hammer striking against the wall started until finally:
*BOOOOM*.
And the wall in front of me exploded.
A man in full black armor, wearing a mask akin to a Shinigami's face, with ornate design near the eyes and on the forehead. It made it seem as if snakes were coiling themselves on the man's face, emphasizing the madness in his eyes. Besides him was a tall woman with long, thick, shining black hair. She had thin lips, dark, heavy-lidded eyes, and a strong jaw. Her white lab coat and black boots added to her presence as someone who saw herself above others. And she truly believed she had nothing to hide since unlike the man, she did not have a mask, showing clearly the most famous or infamous and devoted insurrectionist; Dr. Angra Mainyu.
Her eyes stared into mine as I didn't budge an inch to the two insurrectionists.
"Hahaha!" She cackled with an almost insane glee. "He doesn't look scared. The little brat stares into the eyes of his better and dares not beg!" She suddenly switched to rage as if it was only at the flip of a switch.
She yelled as she shot me with her Forerunner Boltshot gun at me.
In that instant, pure pain shot through my body. I couldn't breathe, everything just stopped working like I wanted. I was simply on the floor, writhing, unable to even yell as the pain made my entire body feel like it was on fire and breaking every bone at once. This is the gun she has used to drive two UNSC Marine members to insanity and I'm getting first-hand experience as to why that is.
She pulled back her gun with an insane grin on her face as she looked at her work.
As the pain stopped, I could finally breathe. Giant breaths filled me quickly as I shivered from the leftover pain. After a few seconds I simply looked right into her eyes again and glared.
The grin on her face dimmed seeing this. She lifted her gun again and as she prepared the second shot, as an arm shot up and hit me with a tranquilizer dart in the neck.
"You dare stop me from executing my orders, Billy!" She shrieked at the man beside her in anger.
"Not at all Dr. Mainyu. I simply believe he will be useful, very useful in one of the experiments. Strong willed, has some additional genetic markers should make him perfect." Said the man, that from what Angra said should be Billy Cutter.
And that's how after an hour of being reborn I lost my new family and was put in the hands of some of the darkest insurrectionists known to mankind as Aedan Hel.
It's the second time I woke up in a strange place today, but this time there is no one around.
I look around the room I am now in, and I feel I should correct myself after doing so. This isn't a room, it's a cell. And from the looks of it, appears to be in a dungeon. But honestly, who puts a kid alone in a dungeon.
There's what appears to either a bench or a bed, can't really tell which one. Some kind of bucket assuming it's for my needs. The walls are made of stones, like the room was simply carved out of the earth. There's no window. The only light comes from the small hole in the solid steel door to let people look in the cell. It is truly an almost stereotypical dungeon.
Nothing happened on the first day. I could hear some doors opening and some people walking outside from time to time, but that's about it.
Instead of wasting time doing nothing and dwelling on losing my new family so soon, I tried to do whatever my mother had last asked of me, which is to stay strong. I decided to try and clear my mind whilst meditating to try and come up with a plan to escape this place.
I took a week before I started to get on the right track and started to make some headway in my emptying to the mind. It took some time, but I was finally able to do it. I also was able to get some sort of understanding of how things worked in this dungeon: every day the insurrectionists or whoever is in charge here sends food down for what I can call breakfast, then they send some newbies to pick up the plates, give you spray down with a hose and empty the bucket. Then they don't do anything until what I'll assume is lunch time, but that's not to give us since we only get what's enough to keep us alive, so it's basically just making rounds to check if everything is still ok. Then there's supper which just works almost the same as breakfast.
It's been two months since I came down and I've been productive. I managed to make what I believe is a defense in my mind with what I can only assume to be a mind block or a mental barrier. My routine of training my mind block kept going until two and a half months in my cell door opened.
Two men wearing identical plain black armor stepped into the room. The two looked like towering mounds of either fat or muscle compared to my small stature and weak body.
"It's your turn now kid. Try to last longer than the last kids that were up there. I hate having to come down here." The insurrectionist on the right spat out. He then grabbed me while the other stunned me with a stun gun and then dragged me out of the room.
Once in the hallway I saw maybe half a dozen cells which seemed to be identical to mine. The hall seemed to have been dug out of the earth just like the cells, the only things that looked like they had been made instead of carved were the doors and the torches.
They brought me down a level, at least I now know where the stairs are, to a different hallway. This one seemed better, they at least made the walls look like bricks, but there was a bunch of weird odors on this level and most of them bad.
We went into a room which was lit properly unlike my cell. On the ground was a weird set of symbols, in what I have to presume, judging by the design of it all is forerunner symbols drawn in human or alien blood. There were pieces of what looked like a sun; blue, blue-white, yellow, orange, and red flames scattered at different points of a star within the circles, and above the center was held a constantly mutating amalgamation of mass floating in a liquid held by a glass container and bones of what looks like an ancient human. In the middle of all this was a table with what looked like straps.
All I could do was watch and try to figure a way out of this situation which did not look like it would end well for me. The problem was that I was completely stuck physically, and I don't know how to even leave this place or how many people are here. In the end, all I could do was watch in horror at what I could guess would be a ritual and one involving fire and blood.
"Try not to die too quick kid, it's annoying having to dispose of you filthy brats." Growled one of the men who as he strapped me down.
"All yours ma'am." They said to Dr. Angra Mainyu standing in the corner observing everything.
"Leave us!" she said in almost inhuman glee.
As both men left, she turned towards me and said "You will be a step on the path to create the ultimate weapon for the insurrectionists against the UNSC. Be grateful for this chance or die for his glory."
She turned around and walked to her own position just above my head. She pulled out a silver dagger and started murmuring until finally she used the dagger to slice my wrists and cuts along my body. Pain exploded through my body and my mind started going into overdrive trying to think of something, trying to stop myself from losing my mind from the torture.
"Hanc indignam corpus tibi do ut coneris vitam deo dare." said the insane doctor in an excited manner.
The blood circles started to glow as it became liquid again. It came towards my slit wrists and carved up body started to crawl its way into my body. I felt like my arms were on the verge of bursting, like every vein and artery was stretched to their breaking points. Until the blood finally made its way to my heart and spread throughout my whole body. I tried to use every little bit of willpower I possessed to focus on something else but could not help but scream out in agony until it finally started to calm itself.
"Oculi tandem intrat rapax" said the bastard holding the knife as he did something no one could truly be prepared for.
She stabbed the knife into the chest.
In that instant I froze. It just didn't compute. And then came the pain, the horrifying pain, followed with the horror of the situation and it finally made me scream. I could only feel the despair at the situation until the new sensation was felt and I started to choke as a cold liquid was poured on me. Then I felt a new sort of pain, like my entire body had been encased in molten lava. I yelled and screamed until it felt like blood was coming out of my throat.
All I could hear in response was that fucking bastard who stabbed me! And she was fucking ecstatic! It was like she got everything she asked for!
I don't know how long I was in this limbo from hell, but it finally stopped. And I could only cry with no tears coming out after I felt them untie me from the table.
"He lived!! The boy lived!! He's the first to make it this far, haha!!!" Said the piece of shit like she got his dearest wish granted.
"You two idiots outside! Get him cleaned up and send him back to his cell! He is now the most important subject in this place!" She commanded as I was simply trying to get by bearings back as the pain was still assaulting me.
I heard the door opening and the sound of footsteps neared me. I felt the splash of cold water and felt the blood on my body slowly being washed off and then I was simply shocked again. I didn't know what to do anymore as I was dumped back into what I assumed was my cell and felt around for my bed. After I got my bearings, I climbed on and simply curled up and trembled at how everything just happened so quickly. I kept thinking about what these bastards will put me through next, because from what that bitch said I'm sure she has got more planned for me.
The only way I could fall asleep that night was by forcing myself to by using the mind block to shut my mind down.
I felt outrage at what they did to me! They just used me and dumped me back into my cell. Experimented on me and left me to rot again. But anger must wait, because my body needed to be taken care of. First problem is that I need to use the bucket. After searching around the pitch-black room for the bucket, I ended up finding it in the corner, I can finally take care of nature's call.
Next up was a complaining stomach. I head in the opposite direction from the bucket and try to feel for the door and by extension the tray of food which is supposed to be on the floor near it. Thankfully there was some, although not nearly enough to satisfy my massive hunger.
After I was done, I did my best to walk back towards the bed and started meditating. I needed to understand what changes and how this is going to affect me. As I tried to understand my body, I noticed that the mutated DNA was constantly feeding off of each other and helping each other grow by continuously incorporating itself onto my other DNA. This was a great piece of news, and I really needed a piece of good news to cheer myself up. Then, I heard the door open and turned my head towards the sound.
"Well, well, well. Will you look at what we have here. He's alive. The doctor will be real happy to hear about this." I heard the voice the deep and slow voice. It's sounded like the big man who brought me to that bitch last time. He closed the door and left, probably going to inform that crazy bitch. And a few minutes later he came back, stunned me and then dragged me to another room where I was put down in some kind of chair and then strapped in. I then heard steps going away and a different stepping sound came closer, it wasn't the heavy stomping, this time is was slow and light.
"Here's the little miracle boy, hehehe!" I heard the insane doctor say in an excited tone.
"You've been out for almost a week. I was starting to worry my success would actually end up killing you anyway. But no worries, no worries. You're here and alive, making it so I can't wait to go further hehe." She continued on as I kept my silence.
"Let's get started, shall we?" He finally said.
For the next hour she continually drew my blood by cutting into various parts of my body and never closing any wounds. The pain of slowly getting cut in different parts of your body whilst being unable to even know when or where the next would happen was almost maddening. Thankfully I was able to find a way to obtain a bit of a reprieve. I was able push my conscious mind into my mind block, effectively putting a barrier between me and the outside world. Now I could still feel the pain, but at least it was toned down by a good amount and causing the physical reactions to decrease as well.
After the old bitch was done with cutting me up like a Christmas turkey, she made me drink a horrible tasting concoction to help replenish my lost blood and heal some of the damage since she didn't want me to die. They bandaged me saying something about not wasting their time on fully healing me and threw me back in my cell.
The first time was the worst. My body aches and hurts every time I move. I had to try to heal the cuts by trying to will my body to heal. I had some success as I was able to move again without parts of me screaming in pain. This started happening almost every day after the first time. I was brought down cut up, fed a few different concoctions to see how they would change me or make me react, with no idea what she was looking for or hoping to do to me. A good thing that has happened for me was that during this time was some of the concoctions were changing the composition of my muscle tissue making it more resilient.
Next big news was that after some more training with my mind block, I discovered that I feel a lot stronger and faster now. Not just physically, but also with my enhanced perception having my mind work in overdrive. My training in using my will to heal the deeper cuts on me has been useful and it feels like the smaller ones heal quicker than they should. So, with a mostly working body I started to do some exercises like push-ups, sit-ups, squats and stretching. And since I still remember some martial arts from that my father taught, I've also started doing some basics to get a proper feel for it. With my experimenting and my being experimented on, and my workouts in between, time passed quite fast and soon another three months passed.
In that time a few great changes occurred. The first being the most distressing bit, and it's that I think I'm actually becoming used to the fact that I'm basically tortured everyday by being either cut up or drinking those concoctions by the insane doctor downstairs. I think I still have my morals and goals, but it's kind of hard to tell when my only companions are in my memories and the fact that I keep thinking of ways to kill those responsible for my suffering.
Second is that I'm really getting the hang of my martial arts and physical training. I can't just stay here forever and wait for someone to find me or die, I have to have an escape plan at one point.
And lastly, it's actually something I'm learning at the very moment.
"You truly are my only success. You have muscle strength and flexibility far beyond your age group, even beyond some adults. Your reflexes are almost instantaneous, and you possess an innate constitution that will adapt to all genetics transplanted with no chance of rejection. Truly a marvel of my creation." said the doctor sighing at her own work.
If you think that was my biggest surprise of the day, well you'd be wrong. Cause the next moment one of the insurrectionists burst through the door panting and spoke to the bitch next to me to say in a panic "the general is dead, he's gone!"
"Preposterous! The General was highly protected, what on earth could have happened?!" Asked Dr. Mainyu in disbelief.
"They said it was a sniper." answered the insurrectionist in a shaky voice.
"Hmph! A sniper!? You're telling me a sniper got the most well protected person in the insurrection?!" Yelled the doctor, questioning the sanity of the idiot in front of her.
"But it's true ma'am. They're capturing insurrectionists now and trying for trials. A lot of the others are going into hiding or trying to escape the planet." He replied nervously.
"Get the boy back in his cell! I'll find out what's going on immediately! No one is to do anything stupid until I get back! Understood?!" Barked the doctor.
"Yes ma'am!" Was the only reply that came out.
As soon as I was back in my cell, I thought to myself with a large smile on my face 'this truly changes things, doesn't it? Now how can I use this to get out of here?'
About two months after being taken out of my cell I've got to say it did wonders for my body. Although I'm still malnourished, I've been able to keep my body healthy enough perform physical exercise and training making it so it shouldn't be too difficult to fix any issues whenever I get out of this hell hole. And yes I say when because I'm not going to doubt myself on this: I will escape this place!
All of my free time suddenly came to stop when I suddenly heard a door slam open and footsteps stomping in this direction. I felt one of the goons run past my cell and to the others and could hear him stun someone and leave with them, without even closing the other cells door from what I could hear.
'The crazy doctor must have found something truly important for her be in such a hurry.' I thought as this was happening. Although hate isn't even close to being enough to describe what I feel for that abomination, I can't deny how meticulous the woman is regarding her experiments.
It wasn't long until the heavy man came back once more. Twice more. Thrice more. Until he left with what I believe was the last occupant aside from me in these cells.
It was at that point when I knew it was my turn. I was either going to live through this new experiment of hers or die without a grave like the rest. So, I prepared myself, with a sharp enough piece of wood broken off my bed and put myself in a corner near the door.
My cell opened and I burst into action. I pushed off the ground and bent low. The overweight goon didn't see me until I was close to him. I pointed my knife and stabbed at his gut. I was able to pierce him and felt blood on my hands. But before I could pull it out for a second stab, his big fist was a mere inch away from my face forcing me to let go and push off the man. It still connected with my face, but at least I minimized the impact by turning my head. He pointed his taser at me to take me down but I quickly dodged to the side and ran to get out of the room. He then shot a the taser at me and I fell forward with my momentum and grit my teeth for the pain. He started punching and kicking me with an enraged look on his face.
"Damn filthy brat! Fucking mongrel! You dare to attack me! You dare harm me! You're lucky you're the last one and that Dr. Mainyu wants you or I'd have killed you already!" He yelled until finally he kicked my head and I fainted.
I was woken up by talking between the crazy doctor and the overweight goon, and being strapped onto a table with the doctor again was not going to end well.
"This is the last one ma'am. The fucking mongrel tried to escape! He fucking stabbed me in the gut! He's lucky we don't have anyone else. We have to leave after he dies and start again somewhere else. After we stole those materials, the UNSC are hot on our tail and can find us at any moment." Said the goon in his heavy voice sounded quite worried and angry about the situation.
"I know! You don't have to keep telling every single time!" Snapped the doctor.
"I know it'll succeed this time. I calibrated it properly after the other trials just to get this one shot right. He's the perfect test subject for this. If this succeeds the UNSC will be done for, and the insurrectionists will be at the head of the new world order!" She continued to sound completely insane.
She was moving around and preparing the needles above my eyes.
I was going into shock, screaming at this fucking bitch in my mind. 'It wasn't enough that they took my new family and shoved me into a dungeon! It wasn't enough when this motherfucker tortured every day for months!!! Now she wants me to lose my eyes for this bullshit too!!!!'
Suddenly my eyes felt like they were on fire with a million ants biting throughout the tissue as the Occipital Capillary Reversal concoction in the needles was inserted into my eyes and started to submerge and boost blood vessel flow beneath the rods and cones of my retina. I had to escape into my mind block to try and escape the mind shattering pain that was my eyes burning through my skull.
Outside, while this was happening with Aedan's mind, was a whole another story.
As soon as the doctor finished putting the needles in the eyes, the boy's body started convulsing and resisting the concoction.
"No no no! Not this again! Why is it happening!? It should be perfect! How will I bring the insurrectionists to be the leaders of mankind?!" She shouted in a tone akin to madness.
"We have to leave now! He's going to die like the rest. And the UNSC are already taking down all the defenses and curses in the manor. It's only a matter of time before they find the entrance to this place!" Yelled out the Death Goon.
"I cannot leave until I confirm the concoction kills him! Without it we will not be able to have superhumans as soldiers!" Hissed the doctor in response.
"I'm leaving now! I'm not get sent to a mining world or shot on site just for your fucking experiment!" Yelled the goon as he stormed out of the room to escape.
"You traitor to the cause! Coward besmirching insurrection! Flee while I create the future!" The doctor shouted in a frenzy. Suddenly, her eyes widened in shock and her face was filled with mad glee as she shouted "Success!!! Hahahahaha!"
And at that moment the door burst open behind her as four men wearing a variety of damaged, bloody or dusty armored uniforms entered and were frozen at the sight of what appeared to be a boy strapped to a table being dissected. That is until the doctor turned around with utter madness on his face and yelled out an otherworldly "Nooooo!!!!"
"You shall not interfere with my work!" She yelled as grabbed her Boltshot and fired multiple times as the Aurors dodged, diving out of the way with haste.
She then began to fling shots in every direction as she needed to keep them away from the boy. The person hiding behind one of the laboratory's tables suddenly stood up and aimed with their taser and shot the doctor, resulted in her to be struck by the stunner and be bound immediately after.
After securely binding the doctor, they finally turned their attention to the boy in the center of the room. They tried to figure out what was happening until a series of hurried footsteps could be heard through the door. They turned to see the leader of this raid: Lt. Jacob Keyes.
"Hmmm, good job. Dangerous woman this is. Specializes in horrific experiments and is a devoted follower of the insurrection." He said in a calm voice.
He turned his eyes to the boy strapped to a table in the center. "Now what we were defending so desperately doctor." He murmured to himself.
It didn't take long for them to start to untie the boy and finally get a measure of the boy. The boy had crimson-red-haired boy with a brownish-grey eyes that felt like it was piercing through his soul.
"Well, I think Doctor Halsey will have another candidate soon." LT. Keyes mumbled.