"What the FUCK?"

"WHAT?" 

"Nothing." 

The two guards looked on as a small, dark-skinned boy, around 5 foot in height and wrapped in chains, was escorted into the laboratory by a trio of intimidating guards. The boy's head was ducked, and his gaze fixed to the musty, cold, floor. 

"SHEESH." The first guard whistled as soon as the four briskly walked past them, and further down the dimly lit hallway. 

"What the hell do you mean sheesh? I thought it was nothing." The second guard asked. 

"IT WAS NOTHING." 

"THEN WHAT ARE YO-" 

"SSHH." The first guard put his finger to his lips and narrowed his eyes before frantically whipping his head around to make sure no one was with them in the hall. 

"What?" 

"I just don't want him to hear us!"

The second guard raised an eyebrow. "You mean those scary looking guards?" 

"No, you buffoon." 

"THEN WHO??" The second guard asked exasperatedly, and the first guard began searching the hall with his gaze again, before leaning in close. 

"That kid." He whispered, and then pulled away, searching the second guard's face for an expression...only to be greeted with a fit of laughter as the second guard held her stomach. 

"You wimp! That scrawny looking shrimp with the bad posture? Please, you are absolutely adorable!" She patted the first guard's shoulder, shaking her head side to side as she laughed. "Ah~, you know, I could go up to him and rough him up, if you wanted me too! I can protect you from the big bad little boy!" 

"Please shut up." The first guard's eyes narrowed and he crossed his arms. "That kid is definitely not just a kid. He's a monster, but for some reason they're passing him off to us." 

"Seriously, I don't get it. He just looks like a cute little kid too me. Just another guy for us to let out a bit of steam on." She shrugged her shoulders. 

"He does look rather.... harmless, but it's likely an act. Think about it, all of the subjects sent here are either political prisoners, or people that tried to speak out against the King. In any words, people who've proved themselves dangerous to the monarchy." 

"I've worked here longer than you, I know this, you newbie." She retorted, an irritated scowl slowly creeping across her face.

"Yeah, I know that you know this, but you're too DUMB to put this shit together!" He took in a deep breath. "That little boy can't be any older then 14, yet he somehow did something bad enough to get sent here?" 

"Maybe...he shat his pants and then smeared the shit on the castle walls? Plus, he's not the only kid here." She joked, and then pulled herself off the wall, and began to walk down the hallway, the first guard following a step behind her. 

"But all the other kids are political prisoners! Either royals from the lands we've conquered, or nobles who failed to recognize their own place. So that kid isn't a political prisoner yet was seen as a threat to the very monarchy." The first guard slammed his fist into his open palm. "It means he's some kind of disgusting monster." 

"Wow, you've really thought hard about this...kinda nerdy of you, hm?" She yawned. "You're just like all the other new guards, anxious and stupid! How about we go beat up that kid to help you blow off some steam."

~~~ 

The boy slowly opened his dark eyes as he came too, and suddenly became aware of everything. His legs, and hands were bound, and his breathing felt restricted- probably because his neck was bound as well. The smell of dried blood, weed, rubber, and iron mixed together to create a stench strong enough to make him want to literally turn his nostrils inside out. 

He blinked slowly and raised his head, and then whipped his head around, noticing the three guards behind him. Then he focused his gaze on the old man in front of him, who was sitting on his desk and smoking pot. 

"So, kid, what's your name?"

"Name? You mean my code number?" The boy asked in a confused tone, and the man let out a chuckle, and blew some smoke into the air. 

"HAH! You've got a well-trained dog here, huh?" The man asked the guards with a grin. "It'll be fun messing with this one, yessir! Not your code boy, your name." 

"My name?" The boy looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully. "I... uh..." He rubbed his feet together as he thought, completely embarrassed. What the hell even was his name again? It had been so long since he had used his name, so long he had been called by it.

"Looks like we've got another idiot! Hey, if I told you to eat your own shit would you, do it? I bet you would." The man chuckled, and the boy stared at him blankly. 

"Are you ordering me to do so?" The boy asked, and the man stopped laughing, and looked at the boy, confused. The boy repeated himself. "Was that an order?" 

The man's eyes narrowed slightly, and he opened his mouth, exhaling a misty cloud of smoke into the boy's face. "What's your fucking name?" 

The boy stared into the man's eyes as he tried to drag his name out from the very depths of his mind..and then it suddenly came to him. "Oh, it's uh, Igil Asahav." 

"Igil Asahav." The man pulled off his glasses and started to wipe them clean, before shifting his gaze to the guards standing quietly behind Igil. "HEY! I think I deserve some sort of a fucking explanation. You three just drag this kid in here with no explanation and expect me to take him in?" 

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The guards just stared at him silently, making no attempt to converse with the man despite his protests.

"STOP. FUCKING. IGNORING ME. I'm the lead scientist in this lab, you owe me an explanation. I'm not just some nobody you can ignore. I wann`a know what that kid is, and why you want him in my lab, or else-" 

"Fine, Fine." One of the three guards, the man in front, with cold brown eyes, stepped forward. "You're just as annoying as people say, Doctor Stain. We bring this monster to you on direct orders of his majesty himself." 

Dr. Stain let out another puff of smoke, his red eyes twitching slightly. "Monster? That kid can't even say his own goddamn name without thinking so hard to the point he looks like he's about to shit!" 

The guard chuckled. "While he may not much going on for him intelligence wise, he is definitely a monster. A Zakean, to be exact." While Igil himself wasn't exactly sure what the hell a Zakean was, as soon as that word was uttered, the space suddenly became very tense and quiet. 

"You brought one of those monsters to my Lab? Y-" Dr. Stain shoved himself off his desk and slammed his pot onto the table, rushing over to the two guards, and then pulling the boy by the ear, tugging it several times. 

"If you're truly so scared, should you be tugging him by the ear like that?" The guard chuckled. "Don't worry, he's a complete and utter failure. He's failed to live up to the king's expectations, so he was sent here to spend the rest of his miserable life." The guard then patted Igil's shoulder. "Do whatever the hell you want with him. Beat him, torture him, kill him, we truly don't care." The guards chuckled and then, one after the other began to leave the room, leaving Igil with the scientest. 

Doctor Stain let go of Igil's ear, and put a hand to his chin. "So you're a Zakean, hm?" 

Igil nodded his head. "That's what I've been told, sir." 

"So, you aren't even sure? Man, you really are a failure, hm? Nothing impressive about you at all...You're completely unremarkable!" The man laughed and patted Igil's shoulder. Igil continued to stare at him with the same expression, seemingly not a single, original thought going through his brain.

"Well then, I suppose I oughta get you checked in! You have a bright future ahead of you in this Lab...not." He shifted his gaze to the window, where the two guards which had seen Igil escorted into the Laby, stood by and eavesdropped. 

Igil's eyes narrowed slightly. Although he wasn't very bright, and didn't remember much, he could remember his time in the laboratory he lived in before this one, the one known as Wolvahamptan Lab. After several, gruesome, torturous experiments, he had been suddenly let go, branded a failure, and sent here, after 13 years of non stop testing. 

"Don't get too excited, y'know. Since you're such an easy target I bet life will be hellfor you, here at this institution. You're so easy to push around, its refreshing, you know?" The scientist backed away from the window and headed towards the door, swinging it open, causing the two eavesdropping guards who were leaning on it to collapse onto the floor.

"Bart, Holly. Escort this kid too his cell." 

The first guard, Bart, pulled himself off the ground, rubbing his head. "Yes Sir. Ah, which cell?" 

"It doesn't matter which cell, just shove him any empty one." Dr.Stain replied matter-of-factly, and then headed back into his office, slamming the door behind him as he did, leaving Igil alone with the two guards. 

"Hey, so are you a monster?" Holly asked the boy, who shook his head.

"No. At least I dont think so." Igil replied, and Holly whipped around towards Bart, grasping the other guard's shoulder. 

"Pfft! Get a load of this kid. You're not that bright, huh? Barely know your own name, what you are, or even what you're doing here..." Holly reached out and patted Igil's shoulder, before grasping it tightly. "Bart!" 

"What?" Bart turned to Holly, who pointed at the kid with a smile. 

"I told you before, you're new here so you don't know how things in this lab work, Bart. People who come here are people who no one cares about. So really, it doesn't matter if we treat them like animals, beat them, or sometimes if we're feeling silly, kill them." Holly now let go of Igil's shoulder and stalked behind him, patting the back of his head. 

Igil's eyes darted from Bart and Holly, slightly nervous and not exactly sure what was happening or what to expect. Although the guards from the Wolvahamptan Lab weren't exactly the standard for good human beings, it seemed that they were much nicer when compared to the people he'd met so far at this Lab. 

"What the fuck are you talking about? Let's just drop him off at the cell and get this shit over with, I wanna eat something." 

"Alright, alright! But first, like I said, you should blow off some steam, see how we do things around here. Think about all of the things going in your life that piss you off, and then let it all out with violence!" Holly smiled. 

"Violence? You want me to punch him? Stop being a creep. I'm a guard, not a fucking sadist." Bart retorted, and then, shifted his gaze to Igil who continued to stare ahead blankly, as if he had no idea what was going on right now. 

"C'mon, just once, and then I'll stop bothering you about it. I just want you to get a taste of what it's like here, as your senior." 

Bart's eyes narrowed slightly. "...Fine. But only once, to shut you up, and then we're going." He took a step forward towards Igil, who was being held in place by Holly, pulled back his armor coated fist, and then pulled it forward, and rammed it into the boy's face. 

"Hgh!" Igil stumbled, but was locked firmly in place by Holly, who grinned at Bart, and then let go of Igil, shoving him to the side. 

"You did it! See, it's not that bad!" 

"Whatever. Let's just get him to his cell already." 

Holly grinned, walking over to Igil who was still recoiling from the punch on the floor, and dragged him too his feet, as they continued to walk down towards the corridor. As they walked, with Igil held tightly in between the two guards, Bart couldn't help but glance at the boy. 

Was it really alright to beat the prisoners here? He had heard that this laboratory, Belia Laboratory was one that barely received any funding...it didn't even produce any meaningful research anymore, it was just a place where people were dropped off to be disposed of.... which meant that no one would care what happened to them, right? 

Bart stopped in his tracks, putting a hand to his chin, and smiled slightly. So, really, he could do anything he wanted here, and nobody could complain? After all, he was just doing his job then, right? So...what if he punched the boy again? He had never punched someone like that...it felt sort of...exciting. 

Holly turned over too Bart. "Hey, why'd you-" 

Bart walked over to Igil, studying the boy's face for a moment, and then, took another brutal swing towards the boy's face. "I think...I get it." He reached down, picking up Igil by his collar, and then kneed the boy in the belly, before ramming his fist into the boy's nose, once, and then twice, and then thrice. 

"He can't do anything back to us..right?" Bart couldn't hold back the slight smile forming on his face, and Holly patted his back. 

"So you finally get it! Go wild, kid!" 

Bart took a step towards Igil again, who was on the floor, motionless, blood running down the boy's mouth like a waterfall moving at a snail's pace. Igil twitched, and then, slowly rose from the floor, wiping his mouth. 

"D-" Igil stuttered, and the two guards snickered. "Don't." He placed his hand against the wall, and rose to his feet, before raising his head so that he was looking the guard's face to face. 

"Do not touch me." The words seemed to send the guards recoiling, as if they had also just had the shit beaten out of them. "Or I'll-" Igil started to bawl up his fist, and in his eyes, the manifestation of his determination could be seen as he built up the courage to speak his mind." 

"Or I'll kill you." Igil finished. 

The eyes of the two guards widened, and unlike Bart, who stood there, stunned, Holly took a step forward, a steel baton in her hand. "Looks like you need to be disciplined." Holly pulled back the baton and swung it forward with terrifying might, and Igi frantically put his hands up in attempt to block the terrible blow.