Evan woke inside a cold, blood-stained cell. He was strapped to a chair, both his arms and legs bound tightly. His upper arm was riddled with needle wounds. Footsteps echoed through the unknown facility.
A man appeared at the bars—his head completely covered by a sack. He gripped the metal tightly, breathing heavily as spit gathered around the area where his mouth would be.
"Subject 57... Subject 57 has awoken! Oh, what a glorious day it is!" the man shouted, smashing his head into the bars.
Evan's face twisted with shock as blood began to leak through the sack. He frantically struggled against the restraints, but they wouldn't budge.
'Who is this guy? I've never seen him before! Is he a mob character?'
"Oh calm yourself child! I have no intention of killing you yet! No! First I must extract as much essence from you as possible! Only then will the moon laugh along with the crying man standing alone!!!"
The man turned away from the cell before putting his hands behind his back. He walked back and forth as blood dripped down from his head onto the concrete flooring that was riddled with cracks.
"Where is Evelyne, if you wouldn't mind me asking?" Evan asked.
"Oh, of course you would want to know where your friend is. Subject 56, Eveylne Calliste is residing in her chamber in sector D. She's unharmed so don't worry about her. Try to get some sleep since we- AAAAAAAH! Yes! Sleep young lamb for your shepherd is death! Ahahaha!"
The man's tone had suddenly changed along with his demeanor. Evan studied the man as he walked away yelling nonsense. His heart rapidly beat within his chest as Evans' breath became ragged with fear. He tried to think back to the original plans to see how things went so wrong. In H.K.U with Evans route, there was a path he had to take no matter what between the slave market or Evelyne. If you chose to work with Mr.Woods, the side quest to help Talon save Evelyn would disappear and as a result, she would die and future events would be much more difficult. If you chose Evelyne however, Mr.Woods would be killed or caught and the market would collapse no matter what. Both sides had their ups and downs but since Evan had indeed the world, he could do things that would be impossible in the game. Evans' plan to kidnap Evelyne wasn't for any bad reason, but to try and force the event where Talon saves her by keeping her locked away somewhere else.
'Everything was perfect, so why did assassins appear? Is the plot actively changing with my decisions? That would make sense but still, what changed enough to get random assassins at the Calliste family.'
He relaxed in the chair he was trapped in as he waited, unable to do anything. As he scanned the room, his eyes fell on a woman curled on the floor of a nearby cell. Her skin was pale and decayed like the undead. Most of her hair was gone. Her arms were covered in open wounds and needle scars, and her pitch-black eyes glowed faintly with bright purple irises.
'She must be another experiment. Is this what's going to happen to me too?'
The woman's quiet sobbing continued, unrelenting.
"Hey, lady, what's your name?" Evan asked.
She looked up with tearful eyes.
"Haaaah, Uaaaaahhh, Eehhuuuu," she whimpered, pressing her hands to the bars.
"Wow. Interesting name. Mine's Evan Asteria."
"Ueeeew... Asht... Eveeebn."
"Close enough. Anyway, you happen to know where we are?" he asked.
Only more groans answered him.
"I see you're not one for words. That's okay. Better than being alone."
Evan continued talking to her—about anything, about everything. He asked her questions about the world, even if she didn't seem to understand. Her random moans and murmurs, though nonsensical, made him smile.
Evan flinched in pain as needles suddenly shot into Evan's arms. They began to grow weak as a loud suction sound rumbled behind him. He bore the pain as Lady continued to give her random sounds.
Although making no sense, Evan found them soothing to his ears. A noise that sounded like shifting machinery came from behind him as instead of taking his blood, a liquid began to pump into him.. The needles quickly retracted themselves out of Evans forearms and the noise which had come from behind him ended. He took a deep breath as noticed he could barely move his body.
"Hey lady. Do you know what a video game is?"
"Graaaah Yaaehsh"
"Man… we really need to teach you how to speak.." Evan said as he closed his eyes and slept.
For three days, Evan would have his blood taken repeatedly throughout the day. His lips were dehydrated and his stomach growled loudly since he had not eaten or drank anything. He had grown to enjoy his one sided chats with Lady, which only got better as he managed to teach her to answer with head shakes.
Evan found it entertaining to explain random things with detail to her as she sat and listened before making her noises again. Her hair and body had also seemed to grow back and improve over the days. Lady's hair black and still short, but it was better than how she was looking when they first met. Evan had also noticed within the time he had been here that he felt no urge to seem superior nor wanting to spew rude nonsense towards her.
Footsteps grew close as they approached Evans' cell. It was the same man from before, yet his sack wasn't covered in blood this time. He unlocked the door and walked towards the machine behind Evan as he fidgeted with something.
"Perfect. You managed to produce enough blood. I thank you for your cooperation Mr.Asteria, however your use has met its end. D-4, kill him."
A large bulking man came from the hallway and entered the cell. His eyes were dilated and he had stitches all over his body including his head. The lining rimed the top of his skull as well as a few chunks of flesh that seemed to be heavily rotted. It lifted its hulking arms into the air and clenched its fists.
I'm really going to die aren't I? They seriously want me dead!'
Evan closed his eyes tightly, not wanting to see what happened next as a loud crash echoed through the building as a liquid splattered over Evan's face. Opening his eyes, a slim hand had pierced through D-4's chest as he came crashing down. Lady stood over D-4s corpse, her hands mangled and covered in bother her and D-4's blood. She had broken through the bars of her cell and restraints with brute force to save Evan. She gave a blank look at Evan for a moment before turning towards the sack man who swung a piece of metal which hit her across the temple of her skull. Lady collapsed on top of D-4's corpse.
"Lady!" Evan shouted as he struggled against his restraints.
"That was- GAH! Subject 16 you animal! How dare you try to attack your master! Eeek! The sound! The sounds! The shepherd must lead before his sheep get lost! Oh mother dearest, I will bring you a fine meal soon!" The sack man yelled maniacly as he walked up to Evan and began to repeatedly beat on his chest and arms with the pipe.
He locked the cell door and left with a giant canister of blood humming a small tune to himself that sounded familiar to Evan as his eyes lit up. As the hallways went quite so did Evan who stared at the ceiling with a serious face. He tapped his chair every second in rhythm as he counted down in his head.
As he finally counted down to zero, Evan stared at the roof with anticipation with eyes of desperation. After a few minutes Evan sighed as nobody had come. With the original mission to save Evelyne, it took Talon and the others three days to find their locations. Evan began to fear the idea that he had altered the story too much, and that nobody would be able to rescue them.
The sound of something dragging caught Evans eyes as he saw Lady pulling herself closer towards Evans chair. She pulled herself up onto it as she gripped the bindings that held him and ripped them off with the last bit of her strength as she fell back down towards the ground. Catching her, Evan cleared her hair out of her face as he gently placed her down onto the ground.
"Thank you lady. You did your part well, now rest up. Ill make sure that sacked bastard that hit you in the head pays." Evan said to her as she fell unconscious.
Barely managing to actually stand, he looked around his cell once more and began to feel around it when suddenly a large explosion shook the area. Rubble fell from the ceiling as a man descended from above wielding a sword. Evan smirked as he used the bars to hold himself up. Talon stood in front of him along with a few of the Calliste and Asteria soldiers. Talon walked over to the cell Evan had been inside and kicked down the door with ease, as he stood face to face with him.
"Evan are you ok?"Talon asked.
"Talon… Evelyne is in sector D. I don't think she has long before that bastards kill her." Evan mumbled to Talon.
His face filled with anger, and his body trembled as he stormed off trying to locate sector D. A solider raised his blade over the unconscious Lady as Evan raised his voice loudly.
"If anyone lays a finger on that woman, I will personally see to it that their lives are destroyed!" Evan exclaimed only to cough.
The men nodded their heads as they stood guard over the two. He walked pasted the guards who tried to stop him only to be yelled at as he ran down the opposite way where Talon had gone. The hallways were bleak and filled with other dead people, yet this didn't bother Evan as he was concentrating on locating the mans laboratory. He rushed to a door and quietly opened it to see another giant man who stared at a wall blankly with saliva running down his face. Evan hid begind a large operating bed and tried to sneak around him.
'I don't have much time left, and my body is pretty weak right now, but if I'm correct about who this guy is, then I can finally stand a chance in this bullshit world!'
Evan felt a hot breath on his neck as the giant man stood behind him.