Chapter 3: Wake up call

I remember a forest.

With lots of snow.

There was someone there with me.

They had a book with them.

I think...

I think their name was ______

-

Hiro shot up from his sleeping position, sweating bullets and breathing heavily, his hands cradled his head as his crazed thoughts began to flood in once again.

Please stop get out of my head please stop it hurts so much.

To put it bluntly, he was a complete mess at the moment, he couldn't remember anything from the past week, and whenever he attempted to dig for any memories he was met with walls of painful static that assaulted his head, he's been in and out of consciousness for a day or so, constantly surrounded by either snow and fog or an empty void, the only way to keep the constant waves of static away was from clawing his own skin to keep himself focused on the lesser pain, not the smartest idea by any means but anything was better than the constant assaults on his brain.

He was barely aware of his surroundings, only just now realizing he was in the garden, he wasn't stuck in that barren hellscape anymore, when did he get here?

Today was very different, aside from no longer being in the snowy wastes, the haze was lighter, the static was quieter, he remembered a forest, a person, and a book, it brought him no further to the truth but it was definitely a start, looking up he saw two familiar faces, Miku and Ichigo, Ichigo had red and puffy eyes, presumably from crying, while Miku held a concerned look, one thing he couldn't forget was that they both looked... afraid?

His throat felt like sandpaper, he tried to call out to them but only a faint gasp would escape his mouth, noticing he was having difficulty with speaking Miku wearily went off to go collect a cup of water nearby, while Ichigo slowly approached Hiro.

"Hiro... Are you okay?"

Confusion was portrayed all over his face, he didn't know what he'd been doing for the past week, he's only just now realized where he was.

Miku arrived with the water and left the cup in front of him, blatantly keeping her distance from him for whatever reason, he downed the cool liquid and sighed, intending to understand what happened.

"I can't remember anything from the past week, it's felt like my head was being split apart from the inside, I've only just realized I was here, what's been going on?"

Ichigo clasped a hand over her mouth as tears began to stream down her face, something had happened while he was trapped in his mind, the redhead wrapped her arms around the emotional girl and began to explain the previous events to Hiro:

"You've been missing for 6 days, the adults have only just brought you back, and when they did you just started screaming and never left the wall, you even hurt Mitsuru when he tried to help you!"

His eyes widened in shock, there was no way he would hurt someone, especially someone who wanted to help, and he was missing? how could he have been missing? it's not like there was any way to get outside the garden, he could barely go anywhere inside either.

"Zorome, Futoshi, and Kokoro have been stuck keeping everyone calm ever since your little outburst, they're all terrified of you now! I mean just look at your arms and legs Hiro! You've literally been tearing yourself apart!"

He glanced down and noticed his limbs were covered in gauze, many of which had large spots of blood seeping through, he quickly unravelled the wrapping despite Miku's pleas, being face to face with deep gouges lining the arms, all of which had concerning blue streaks lining the wounds, they were all in the same place he clawed himself during those 'dreams'.

"I- I did this?"

-

They didn't want me to remember.

That boy...

He taught me 3 new words, ones I could even say out loud.

"I", a way to address yourself.

"Angel", A name for me.

And...

"Darling", Something you call someone special to you.

A small red girl was currently hunched over, stuffing pages of a picture book into her mouth, despite her bodies attempts at rejecting the inedible material, the room around her was bleak, claw marks lined the walls, stuffed animals were torn apart with fluff decorating the ground, and an overturned bed lay wedged in a corner, the girls focus was the book, and only the book.

I have to keep remembering.

I can't let him go.

I am Angel

He is my Darling

I am Angel

He is my Darling

I am Angel

He is my Darling

The door to her cell hissed open, two armed guards had come to escort her off somewhere again, she quickly swallowed the page and stuffed the book under her rags and bared her fangs at the intruders, her resistance was cut short however as they each took a hold of an arm and forcefully dragged her out, uncaring for her cries and snarls.

They were always like this, none of them cared, it was always go here, go there, do this, do that, it never changed, it was all so... Lifeless.

It wasn't beautiful here, not like the picture book, that world was filled with color and wonder, this world was drab and boring, nothing nice existed in it.

Apart from him.

Her darling was still out there.

They had promised to see the world together.

To find something beautiful.

They had entered a room, a large spherical apparatus was suspended in the center of the room, several people were milling about, either analyzing the data on a pad or collecting some, Dr Frank stood amongst it all, his uncaring eyes only acknowledging the oni girl.

She was pushed forwards by the guards towards the doctor as he knelt down to address the girl:

"You've been awfully rebellious recently."

I wonder why, stupid old man.

"You want to see that boy again don't you?"

Her eyes lit up in recognition as she furiously nodded her head.

"I will let you see him again eventually, but first you need to help me, it would be too dangerous to let you two see each other again so soon, he could die, but if you work with me and behave, we can keep him safe. "

She didn't even need to think about the proposition, she would do anything to see him again, especially if it meant he would be kept safe.

"If you agree to the terms, then step up to the platform and enter the sphere."

"You will be beginning phase one of your parasite training."

-

Hiro had to talk to everyone, needed to explain what he could and apologize, his first focus was Mitsuru, according to Miku he had hurt him when he was first brought back, and he really didn't want Mitsuru to hate him, especially not after...

After what?

He stopped in his tracks, the fog was rolling back in, something was clouding a memory to do with Mitsuru.

Reaching the bunk bed the timid boy was assigned to he reached out to get his attention, only to be met with a hard grip on his wrist preventing any further movement, causing him to yell in pain as his nails scratched his fresh wounds.

A furious tear ridden face met his, he strengthened his grip and began to push Hiro away while working up the courage to speak:

"What are you doing? Don't you think you've done enough already?! Just stay away from me, you psycho!"

His heart sank, is he really that bad? How would he make things right now everyone was terrified of him?

"Mits-"

Hiro was pushed to the floor with a loud thud, the children around them began to notice the disturbance and looked on in awe.

"I trusted you! I looked up to you! I've been worrying all this time thing they've finally taken you away for good, only for you to turn back up and hurt me when I try to help you when you were in pain!"

Hiro was beginning to feel really frustrated, he was never even in control of his own body during the time he was apparently dumped back in here, how was he meant to know what was going on?! not to mention he's supposedly been missing for a week with no recollection of that time, what does he want him to say when even he doesn't know what happened!

"Mitsuru, I don't even know what's been going on, I've only just woken up here!, I've got no memories of the past 7 days, I understand I might of hurt you then but I swear on my life I was never even conscious during that time!"

The tearful boy scoffed, clearly not believing Hiro's explanation:

"I take back what I said, I don't even care about our promise anymore! I don't want anything to do with you, let alone want to pilot with you!"

Our Promise.

"Promise...?"

It felt like all the wind had been knocked out of him, the static was gone, he was free of the agony for a brief respite, he could clearly see something!

Our Promise.

Those words echoed in Hiro's mind, all of his senses were drowned out in a sea of nothing, he was just suspended in a void again, faint static began to creep up to his ears, infiltrating his mind, tearing him apart from the inside out.

"If I survive the Elixir Injection..."

"We'll escape together, somewhere far away."

"Will you pilot with me?"

"I will never let us be torn apart."

"Okay! It's a promise then!"

"Forever and always, Darling."

He saw himself facing a pale Mitsuru, a big grin plastered on his face as their pinkies locked, signifying their future plans of piloting.

Before he had a chance to understand what was going on the surroundings faded away, giving way to miles of dead trees and snow.

The forest.

A child in rags.

A book.

A promise.

There was another promise, with someone else... he didn't know who, but...

It was creeping back in.

The fog.

The static.

It was complete agony.

-

Back in reality Hiro's pupils had suddenly changed to a neon blue as his eyes rolled into his head, he collapsed and his body convulsed violently as he began to let out a bloodcurdling scream.

A horrified Mitsuru looked on helplessly as blue veins began to snake up Hiro's body from his arm to his neck, Zorome pushed his way through the crowd of onlookers as he dove onto Hiro to hold him down, Goro and Ichigo followed quickly behind him, both calling out to Hiro to stay calm.

"Kokoro! Ikuno! Get a guard or an adult or something!" the shaggy haired boy ordered.

The pair ran off to the entrance of the building and began pounding on the glass calling out to the guards posted outside, one watched the struggling boy emotionlessly while the other was calmly scrolling through a data pad.

"Dammit, we don't have time for this! HE NEEDS HELP!"

"Please call a doctor down our friend is in a lot of pain!"

They each tried to hurry the nonchalant adults but their cries fell of deaf ears, they had no interest in responding quickly, looking back at the scene they could see the convulsing boy's actions become more and more violent, an arm swung up and came crashing down, leaving behind a small crater on the metallic floor beside them, Futoshi dove onto the limb before it could cause any more damage to the surroundings or any people nearby.

Many of the onlookers simply looked confused or horrified, depending on how often they interacted with Hiro, never in their time in the garden had they seen anything quite like this.

After what felt like an eternity the door opened, an old man and two nurses rushed in with a stretcher in tow, the 4 children were pushed away and a needle was stuck into Hiro's neck that slightly calmed his aggravated movements, but did not cease his outburst in the slightest, the three quickly hurried back out of the room leaving all of the children in fear and confusion.

"What the hell happened to Hiro?"

-

He had predicted the serum wouldn't be perfect, he was no miracle worker, but this was far beyond his comprehension.

Code 016 lay strung out on an operating table, in the time it took to reach a suitable room a majority of the left side of his body was being eaten away by a pulsating blue tumor, blue tendrils reached all across his body, His pupils were missing, and a jagged cobalt horn half the size of the boy's arm jutted out from the left side of his head.

Strangely enough, through his observations he had noticed the right side of his body had yet to be consumed, nor had a horn grown there, the most reasonable explanation was that the Klaxosaur DNA was quite literally eating away at 016's human-Pokemon features, but what would cause this?

Truly marvelous, he had so much to learn from him, but a rotting lump of flesh was not the best target for experiments, so he would have to think fast of a way to prevent further saurification.

There was a prototype device he was working on for 002 to regress and diminish the Klaxosaur traits, he could rework and create one suitable for the boy, but it would need to be relatively unrecognizable, he didn't want any nosy A.P.E. members sticking their heads into his work after all.

Seeing as one horn had yet to grow and the physical aspects of the saurification are not always present he couldn't create an inhibitor to lock around them, it would need to be something completely unique, perhaps some sort of external augmentation over the center of where the tumor is?

Yes, that should work.

Werner activated a holographic display and opened his most recent schematic for the inhibitor, a small headband of sorts with two locking mechanisms, by reverse engineering the basic components of the design he would be able to create a small device to latch onto the left side of the boy's torso, it would effectively prevent any further growth of the tumour, and sub sequentially snuff the rampant saurification.

A list of materials and personnel was sent off to A.P.E. HQ, he made up some excuse of needing more resources to make adjustments to a training device, the old farts in charge wouldn't bat an eye.

He gave one last look to the lifeless boy restrained on the table and grinned.

"What an interesting specimen."

-

Spinning.

Spinning.

All she did in this damned machine was spin.

How was this helping her prepare for anything? They were just wasting her time.

She had to keep remembering.

The tests were more frequent, thankfully the ones that involved torture had seemingly been postponed or maybe even discontinued, so the only real downside was having her time wasted.

That doctor promised to let her see Darling again, but that he could die.

Why would Darling die?

She saw what he was capable of, Darling was strong! Darling wouldn't die.

He said we would be together forever.

So Darling won't die.

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