“I’ve decided that with your stay, you’ll be training amongst the recruits. Please treat them well.”

Wenzel has the underlings throw them in a cold cell. They’re forced to wear metal bangles on their wrists, all labeled from S1-S13. “In this base, you are forbidden to call each other by your given names and only identify yourselves by your number shown on the it. Wait here until further instruction.” Wenzel informs.

“Get back he—!” Tao roughly calls but feels a stinging pain in his wrist. Wenzel smiles, “oh that’s right, I forgot about that. Every time the bangle detects a strong force coming from any of you, it will inject a pacifier serum into your bloodstream. Try not to get overworked or you might up being delirious.” Wenzel snickers and leaves their cage.

“No response from the detainees yet?” Wenzel asks a soldier who’s typing away on the computer.

“No sir, only little movements, no important information has been submitted to the logs.” Wenzel picks up a notebook from the worker’s desk and skims through it.

Day 26

A large amount of the serum was injected into the subjects, from thrashing about in the cage. Some seem to display qualities of becoming a lunatic, we have assigned appointments to bring them into the laboratory for a higher dosage. For the youngest subject, she seems to only received a few doses, and it only happens when the subject is counteracting against the other subject’s actions. By the request of the Supreme Commander, we have recorded the results of the readings and will be processing it into document for inspection.

Day 31

There was a huge uproar within the cell, when the guards arrived at the scene, the subjects were pummeling each other. They didn’t seem to recognize each other as comrades at this point. S-12 was craddling S-13 in the corner, they excluded themselves from the fighting. S-12 only had a punch to the face, the rest had to be treated in the hospital where they underwent a thorough inspection.

“Hm...Rodina won’t like this.” Wenzel folds the notebook and places it back on the table.

“What do you recommend sir?” The soldier backs away from the control board, giving full view of the surveillance camera that’s installed in their cell. Wenzel scans the small room, eyeing the ducts.

“That’s easy, cut off the air.” He pushes down a button and the metal openings close shut.

Sehun gets up, alarmed, “they cut off the air supply!”  Everyone goes into a frenzy, hallucinating from the serum. Frightened, Areum stands up and smash against the walls, “open up!” Kyungsoo stands there, numb to anything, but he realizes that she’s damaged her fists to the point that she’s bleeding. “Areum stop!” He pries the girl away from the wall, the bracelet picks up the reading that he’s exluding force, so it injects a dose. Kyungsoo fights through it and gets her into his arms. Areum gazes down at her own hands, cradling her head, she lets out a scream. “Areum, snap out of it!” He yells, but his voice comes out shaky. “We’ll get out of here…”

Wenzel watches from the screen as the scene unfolds, much to his enjoyment. “Now that’s what I call a twist,” he laughs.

“That was brilliant sir!” The soldier’s eyes gleam in amazement, so proud to be sharing the very same air that his Commander is taking in.

“Make sure to take note of today’s event soldier.”

“Yes sir!” The soldier resumes his duty and Wenzel leaves to prepare for tomorrow’s activities.

Who knows how many days had passed by, it’s pitch-black in their cell, they’re bodies clutching onto the warmth they can attain, but its lost as they cold embraces their bodies. Areum’s a bit trained in the darkness, so she navigates around, makes sure the person is still sane. Question is-- is she sane? She snuggles beside them and softly takes their hand into hers. Minseok wraps his arm around her, and they take a small nap, before they’re ed into the field.

Junmyeon is swift to dodge a punch to his face, but not enough to notice that his opponent is sending him a kick to his stomach. He coughs and falls to the floor, holding a hand to his stomach. “…” He loses consciousness and falls to the floor.

“Winner is Soldier #44!” The screams go wild, and the spectators watch the guards drag Junmyeon away.

“So what’s your goal behind this tournament farce?” Wenzel questions Rodina. They comfortably sit on their customized thrones, seated above in a balcony, having a spectacular view of the dome.

“As you can see Commander Wenzel, I don’t know much about these men and I think the best way to understand them is to observe them in live combat. As for my dear Areum, I’m having the lab do more tests on her, since I personally know the levels of her strength.”

“Is that your way of saying of that it’ll be easier to pinpoint which methods will be most useful against them?”

“Maybe, maybe not. And if anything, I have more tricks up my sleeves.”

“What a cruel woman you are.”

“But being cruel is what I do best.” She hides her giggles behind her hand, watching as each of Sele’s warriors are shamefully beaten down, raising her military's morale that brute force and technology is the way to go.

“Raise the gates!” The host announces. “Finally, the event I’ve been waiting for,” Rodina chuckles to herself. As the gates raise up they drag out a cage, with a chained up Areum, wearing a mask that covers . Her hair is messy, the stench radiating from her body is putrid, a sick shade colors her body, she hisses at the sight of the sun.

They place her in the middle of the area and promptly open the cage as soon as they can. The bystanders are curious of what’s going to happen within this match, but don’t care if she’s just a child. If they get to see screaming and blood, oh how blood gave them that rush, they’ll be even more frenzied. From a distance, Sele’s warriors are warming up the bench, each wearing strait jackets. Once Jongin sees the familiar girl and goes ballistic, “Areum! Areum!” He calls out to her, Areum looks in the direction where she hears her name, she sees Jongin struggling against the guard who are forcefully putting him down, attacking his sides with tasers. She looks away, if she pays any more attention to him, he’ll get an even harsher punishment later. From the very same gate she emerged from, soldiers spill out and surround her in a circle. The army releases the constraints on her and rough throw her to the dirt. They push away her cage and into the middle of the pit.

“The event we’ve been waiting for! S-13 against the likes of fifty men!” You all know the rules, whoever survives wins! Let’s goooooo!” The host rallies up the audience with hollers and the sound of the horn signals the participants to go on a full scale attack on Areum.

Areum shakes under the pressure and begins to wail, as the crowd gets closer and closer to her. “Areum!” Jongin calls out with tears streaming down his face, he looks back at his friends, the others are still fazed by the serum instilled in their bodies. Jongin looks back to Areum, “run Areum! Run!” He tells her, he can see the knives being unsheathed and his heart is pounding. Rodina and Wenzel watch closely as their smiles get bigger and bigger.

“Areum!” Jongin yells out as a knife is about to plunge down on her.

A boom explodes from the side of the dome, accompanied with yelling. “What?!” Rodina angrily gets up from her seat. “Find the source now!” Wenzel orders with a stern voice and the army hurries to organize themselves out of the mess. From the dust cloud, clouded colors float on by pass the warriors, but quick bright lights decorate their jackets and they’re free of them. They’re all surprised but they to follow the colors that are heading towards Areum’s direction.  

Rodina grits down on her teeth, “I want people down there now!” She roars, throwing a temper tantrum.

The colors circulate above Areum, creating a spinning disk that becomes larger by the second. Jongin is first to get Areum, making sure she’s safe. She tries to spew out what she wants to say but they come out muted. "It's okay, we're here now. We're gonna be okay." Jongin hugs the small girl tighter. They all huddle together, closing the distance between them as the barrier is close to touching the floor. A whirling electrical fortress comes to life and a sparkling dust starts to heal their bodies. As the debris settles they watch from inside, as shadows appear. Rodina and Wenzel finally get to the arena floor, and she snarls. “I should’ve known that you were behind this.”

The shadows split into three and form themselves into bodies. “The most fearsome aeons of Djose Temple: Ixion, Alexander, and Yojimbo.” Rodina stops Wenzel from firing his gun. Ixion reverts his form into a horse, running amok demolishing the area with his thunder. The mighty stallion yells and sends down bolts of lighting throughout the army base. Alexander s away any enemies who dares to pick up a fight with him, he allows some of the soldiers to get past him, as they find it’s useless to attack their impenetrable forcefield. Their weapons crumble to dust and electrifies their bodies, sending them to their deaths.

“,” Wenzel mumbles underneath his breath, “fall back!”

Yojimbo points his sword at Rodina with Daigoro growling by his side. “Oh? What’s this? Are you a samurai of some sorts?” The Supreme Commander tries to maintain her composure, in front of her loyal subjects. Yojimbo points at her with his blade, his eyes sporting a deadly look.

“Reclaim the test subjects!” Rodina orders, and with just the blade, Yojimbo sends a quiet swing, and the rest of the dome is cut in half. Yojimbo catches their attention with his and takes the chance and with a snap, they escape. And when they look back to their captives, they’re nowhere in sight.

Wenzel grits down on his teeth in anger, “search the premises!” They all disperse around the facility. Wenzel approaches his superior. “What should we do Rodina? Do you want us to go after them?”

She growls, “no, let them be. We’ll get them...one day.” She turns to leave, letting the Commander take the reigns over the mess. She bites down on her nails, if word of this got out then her reputation will be at stake. A soldier spots his superior and goes to approach her “Ma’am! What should we do--,” she slams his head against the wall, blood streams down his face, his eyes blank. She walks away as if nothing happened.

“You’ll pay for this.”