A large warehouse with no end in sight. Neatly arranged transparent liquid pods as far as the eye can see. Each pod has a human kid aged 5 to 10. Several wires are inserted into every kid that attach to several machines beside every pod. The machines are monitoring a variety of bodily functions. But each child is dead….except for one.

A boy, maybe 7 years old, with grey irises and black hair. He is fully submerged in yellow liquid. He is trying to scream as several people donned in black robes are experimenting on him. Once in a while, they will make a series of incisions on his body and observe him while he is healed. Sometimes they will skin him alive, sometimes they will increase the temperature of the yellow liquid to boil him alive. Throughout the day, they will send intense elemental pulses of varying elements. The same pulses, as he heard the black robes discuss previously, fry the brains of the remaining children. The liquid acted as the healing agent and also a stimulant so that the boy doesn't faint from shock. The boy was in fear for a very long time as he saw the children near him die one by one. But by the time he was the only one remaining, all he felt was rage. Boundless, immeasurable rage.

“Is this experiment ever going to be successful?” He heard one of the black robes say.

“All we have to do is follow the orders of No. 2, it’s not our place to question the orders of GOD.”

“Every other subject died after about ten different pulses. I don’t know why subject no. 7 keeps rejecting the elements but this isn’t helping in artificially increasing talent grade either.”

“We only have to wait a while now. Main branch is sending a space law pulse machine today. That is the only elemental pulse we haven’t been able to test.” They didn’t care if the boy heard them, he was inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. But he was staring them dead in their faces, never once removing his gaze.

Soon after, the boy saw a large contraption being rolled in. The black robes detached some of the wires that were connected to one of the machines beside the boy and attached them to the machine.

“First send a pulse with bone-forging intensity to test subject no. 7’s reaction.” One of the black robes said. The machine started working and the sound it made felt like it was the waking up of an ancient beast. The warehouse started shaking. This time the reaction of the boy was different. He didn’t scream in pain or twitch a little, like when he was bombarded with other elemental pulses. It’s like the space law pulse ignored the boy and directly went past him.

“Next, golden core intensity.” The results were not much different except the warehouse started shaking more vehemently. The black robes were unfazed by the shakes though.

“Next, nascent soul intensity.” The results were still not much different. The boy just stared intensely at them with primordial hate. All the other pods in the warehouse burst simultaneously. The mangled corpses of the children strewn about haphazardly. They were also abandoned by fate, same as the only surviving boy.

“Next, pinnacle nascent soul intensity.” Something changed this time. It seemed like several tears in the fabric of reality formed around the machine. The black robes retreated a few meters away from the pod. As soon as the pulse reached the boy’s brain, a huge explosion razed everything within hundreds of meters of the pod. The explosion was silent, no sound, no aftermath. It was just a matter of fact. Everything except the boy within a few hundred meters disappeared. Other pods, machines, children’s corpses, the floor, even the space law machine disappeared. The world outside and inside the explosion range were like two separate realities.

Only one black robe barely managed to escape the explosion range. His right hand was missing. He slowly got up and tried to approach the boy. Before he even took his first step, a blade separated his head from his body. A beautiful woman donned head to toe in a torn black kimono was standing behind the decapitated body of the enemy.

She saw the state of the warehouse. Thousands of children’s corpses, a scene so vile that the woman started vomiting. The woman scanned the place one last time for survivors. She felt one breath in the middle of the large hole in front of her. She traveled hundreds of meters in a split second and swung her sword.

Before the sword made contact, she saw that it was just a boy. It was too late to stop the swing. She forcefully deviated the angle of the swing by a few degrees. She had no control of the impact of this swing. An energy wave of dark elements shot towards the distance obliterating everything in its path. The boy was catatonic. She could see his eyes tracking her movements but he made no other movement. She had never seen so much rage in anyone’s eyes. But she couldn’t be the one to judge as she had just killed countless black robes to reach this place. She princess-carried him and fled the place. She was now strategically fleeing, rather than blazing through the enemies. She had to do so since she was trying to save another victim of this organization, just like her.

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Few days later.

They were fleeing through a jungle as enemies pursued them. By now the boy had come back to his senses but he was still too weak to move or even say anything. But he did notice that the woman’s stomach was a little bulging. He didn’t think a being as powerful as her would have this mundane imperfection. He was piggy-backing on her. The woman tied the boy to her waist with a rope to not worry about him falling. They fled during the day and rested during the night. The night was the woman’s domain. She could move in total darkness and also predict enemy movements.

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Three years later.

The boy was 10 years old now. The experiment three years ago had turned even his pupils grey. Years of fleeing had shaped him up to be a mature kid, far beyond his peers. He had learnt to hide, move fast in uneven terrains, hunt small game, cook, sleep under the stars. Trauma can teach a person things love never can.

He got to know that the woman’s name was Alina. She was also a victim of the same organization which did the experiments on him. She never explained what happened to her while inside the facility, he never asked. Years of life and death together had forged a bond between them stronger than blood ever could. He had fully accepted her as his mother. The bulge on her stomach was significantly bigger. She wanted to gim him a name long ago but he insisted that he be given a name together with his sibling when he or she is born.

One day, Alina went into labor. Fortunately it was during the night. Unfortunately the boy couldn’t help her this time. All he could do was hold her hand tight. The contractions lasted for seven hours. The sun had already risen, that means the pursuers will also reach them soon. But Alina was absolutely drained. Finally, the baby was born. She was a beautiful girl. As soon as the baby came into being, the world went pitch black again. But this time it was darker than night. There was no sun, no moon, only the faint light from the campfire. A whirlpool of dark elements formed near the baby and drilled into Alina’s body. She recovered almost instantly. The boy felt that she was stronger than she has ever been.

Alina could feel that she had no control over the night anymore but she could still make full use of the dark. It’s like she had been given the authority to control the dark domain by her daughter.

“Kiddo, take care of the baby. I will be gone for just a while. Today the enemies don’t have control over the dark domain. Today is the last day we flee.” She blended into the dark in search of enemies. The boy cradled his sister in his arms to soothe her from crying. He was totally enamored by her. All his cells were burning with passion. They were telling him he had to protect this angel before him at any cost. He even forgot the nightmare he went through in the warehouse for a second.

A few hours later, he could see the sun in the sky again. It was almost noon. He started to worry about his mother. To his relief, he soon saw his mother returning. She was reeking with blood, blood of their enemies.

“Let’s go kiddo. We are finally free. Let’s look for a water source first. I have to get cleaned up.” There was relief in both of their faces. The torment that lasted three years was finally over. She cleaned herself up in a nearby river and wiped her placental blood off of her daughter. She finally had the chance to properly hold her daughter and feed her.

“What will be her name?” The boy asked expectantly. Since his sister was born, he was fully focussed on her. It’s like he finally had his own family. Alina was jubilant that her baby boy was happy. She had never seen him smile after rescuing him from that hell.

“Amelia. She will be a hardworking ordinary girl. Marry a decent man and live life to the fullest.” She knew that the world anomaly when her daughter was born almost made sure that her daughter’s life will never be ordinary but a mother could dream.

“And you will be Castiel. Our protector.” She cradled Amelia with her left hand and forcefully embraced him with his right hind, smothering his cheeks with kisses. For three years, this has been her strategy to cheer him up. It’s not like she has anywhere to learn from on how to be a parent.

“I am Castiel. Protector of Amelia and mom.” The boy said naively but with conviction.

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[Fade to black]

Castiel woke up in a large hospital room. He immediately jumped from his bed and called out Amelia. A second later, the events of the morning and the missing memories from before he was ten years old flashed in his mind. He lost his footing by the sudden surge of information and fell to the cold hard floor.

“Are you alright child?” He heard a strained voice from another corner of the room.