Chapter 1 Damien

Damien adjusted his hands on his wooden sword as Kacy ran towards him. Kacy had his sword raised above him as he yelled his challenge, he brought his sword down on Damien.

Damien moved into a defensive stance and met the attacking sword with his own. Kacy pulled back and was about to bring his sword back when their training session was interrupted by their commander.

"Kacy. Damien. You two are to report to the General. Now!" Major Ivan sternly told them, looking down his nose on them.

"Yes, Sir!" They squirmed under the major's gaze as they hurried to put their practice swords back. As they walked towards the exit on the other side of the courtyard, they glanced nervously at each other.

Damien used a rag to get at least some of the sweat off his soaked face and neck before they met with the general.

They walk silently inside the cool stone castle walls. Kacy shuddering from the sudden cold. They walked through the castle till they made it to the General's room.

Before they could knock, the door opened. The General seemed to have sensed their presence to get the door to open at the perfect time. He welcomed them with a smile and waved them in.

As they walked to the two chairs in front of the desk, Damien heard the soft click of the door shutting behind them and then the clicking of the General's boots against the stone floor. As the General passed by where they were sitting to get to the other side of the desk he ran his hand over the bookshelf, still smiling.

"Good day Kacy, Damien. I've seen you've had a hard day training," He chuckled. "Now, I've ask you here for something very important." He looked at each one of them for a while, still smiling the same smile only now it was starting to get on Damien's nerves.

Why was he smiling like that? The General always seem distant and not the smiling type. He dropped his gaze down to the papers on his desk.

"This is an important decision that would make or break the Arden kingdom," he slowly explained. "You've been chosen to participate in a secret plan known as Project 1 or P1 for short. If you choose to participate you will get a raise and also the other benefits of P1. No, I cannot release the information about the benefits. If you choose to participate you'll figure it out. If you choose not to participate, sadly we will have to let you go."

It's all or nothing, Damien thought, take the risk with these "benefits" or death. That smile was still on the General's face but now it was daring Damien to refuse the proposal. Damien glanced at Kacy, then drifted his eyes to the fire place behind him, then back to Kacy. Kacy seemed scared, but both, Kacy and Damien, knew that they had no other choice but to participate.

"I accept this offer," Damien said, looking directly at the General as the General's smile grew larger, more disturbing then before.

"I-I accept as well," Kacy stuttered, his eyes locked on the desk in front of him.

"Good. Now please follow Major Ivan," his smile was now painful to look at. Kacy glanced at Damien as he got up then he followed Damien out of the room.

When they exited the room Ivan was waiting for them and without saying a word he turn around and started walking in the opposite way they came.

~~~

They walked through the stone hallways to they reached a large wooden door. Ivan walked up to the door and knocked. Waited a second, then knocked again. He waited for a second time but this time for three seconds before he knocked again. Ivan took a step away from the door and then the large doors were opening. On the other side of the doors everything was bright. A man wearing a long white coat stepped out of the room.

"Damien and Kacy nice to met you. I am Professor Teller." The man said looking at them. His gaze then shifted to Ivan and he nodded his greetings to the major.

"Now we would like to begin with the experiment now. Please follow me." Professor Teller turned around and led them into the room. When they walked through the doors Damien found that the cause of the brightness wasn't coming from torches but from something he's never seen before. The light coming from it's was white instead of the fire light from torches. There was a buzzing noise coming from the things as well.

"Kacy, you got area one," Professor Teller said pointing to a bed that has sheets hanging around it for privacy. The number one was hanging on the wall over the bed. There was weird looking machines around the bed.

Kacy made his way over to area one and sat down on the bed. A girl in the same white coat as Professor Teller walked into area one behind Kacy, and moved the sheets so no one could see in. Damien and Professor Teller kept walking a little farther till they reached an area identical to the one Kacy just went in to.

"Damien, you'll be in area two," He said as he led the way inside the sheets. Once Damien was inside and sat down on the bed, he closed the sheets, blocking out the rest of the room.

"You will be working with me and when it's time for check ups you will come here at the scheduled time," the Professor explained. "Now lets get started."

The Professor hooked up all the machines to Damien. One needle here, another one there, he added something Damien has never seen before. It was attacked to a wire like the needles but this one just rest on his skin. It was small and circular. It was also very cold, at first, against Damien's skin. He wasn't sure what the machine it was hooked up to did, it's screen was faced in the opposite direction of him.

"Alright we will start soon" the Professor said as he moved to the end of the bed. "Just lay still as I go get the drug." Damien followed the Professor with his eyes as he lift the sheet up out of his way to exit the closed off space of area two.

A couple of minutes later the Professor walked backed in with a table on wheels. On the table was a needle with a clear liquid in it. Behind the Professor was four girls in a similar outfit to the Professor, but their outfits wasn't a long coat like the Professor, instead the women wore white dresses.

The women tied all four of his limbs to the bed. After they checked to make sure everything was tight enough that. he couldn't move them, they left the room leaving Damien with the Professor.

"This might hurt a bit," the Professor said as he picked up the needle. Damien watched the Professor every move as he slowly moved towards him with the needle at the ready. He watched as the needle was put in his arm and the liquid inside was ejected into him. He felt as if his veins were on fire as the liquid move throughout him. The fire got so intense that he lost consciousness.