A/N: Uhm, my first RO related fanfiction ever. I was afraid it'd turn out to be a complete piece of trash, but now that I look at it and read it through, I'm actually quite pleased with how it turned out. My muse decided to be a bitch and contact me while I was at work - luckily I had my notebook and pencil with me, so I was able to write this down. I wrote a total of... 13 pages (size of a page being A5). When I typed it on my computer, my OpenOffice showed me a total of six pages, which actually makes this piece of writing the longest one I've done in a long time. Uhm, without further babbling, please read.
Disclaimer: Oh man, how I wish I owned at least Seyren and Eremes, but noooo. All the biolab monsters and other monsters belong to RO and thus to Gravity - I only own the scientists, sadly. The only thing I don't wanna own. Oh the irony.
Reviews: Yes please. I love reading reviews. I don't care if it's a short one or a long one - as long as it's a review written with all of your heart.
The hallways on the second floor were nearly empty. Most of the scientists working for the infamous Rekenber Corporation had decided to call it a night after ten o'clock in the evening. A few stayed though – perhaps they were hoping to make a huge discovery soon and naturally no one else was supposed to get the credit for that.
The life experimentation project had been going on for about a year by now. No one knew why the owner of the Rekenber Corporation wanted to play god so badly – but the paycheck, consisting of six digits, made it sure that no question were asked. Many of the scientists also wondered why did Rekenber insist on using test subjects that were still alive. Of course, if they succeeded, they could study the results immediately, but still... the way they got treated was cruel and inhuman.
"Yet another failure?" a female scientist asked as she watched how a white sheet covered one of the tables in the room where most of the experiments considering the huge project took their place.
"Yes. Ask someone to take care of that," her colleague replied, waving his hand dismissively as he left the room.
She couldn't help herself as her curiosity got the best of her. Slowly she walked over to the table and lifted the sheet covering the body of yet another unfortunate adventurer. The scientist covered her mouth in shock when her brains finally registered what she saw – blood was still trickling down from the corner of the mouth of a young, male mage and the tears on his cheeks hadn't dried.
"He's not the last one, don't worry." Her male counterpart had returned and was holding a cup of steaming tea as a small smirk danced on his lips.
"Y-you mean...?"
"Yes. I think it's time to see if our most promising test subjects have what it takes," he replied and threw six file folders on his desk. "Get me that high priestess."
The darkest corners near the entrance to the third level on second level were reserved for the test subjects of the life experimentation project. Six prison cells out of a total of 30 were currently occupied.
In one of them, a young high priestess was kneeled down as she prayed. Her prayers were interrupted as the huge steel door in the end of the hallway opened. She opened her eyes but kept staring at the wall – she didn't want to know who it was this time. Every time that steel door opened, someone had died. This time wasn't an exception, since a thick stench of death filled the hallway and the prison cells.
"NO! Not him!"
"Look away Kathryne, please. You don't have to-"
"Why him! He didn't do anything!" the high wizard screamed, squeezing the bars of her prison cell. "You have no right to do things like these! You little, cruel-"
"KATHRYNE."
The loud voice coming from the cell next to hers cut the high wizard off, silencing her efficiently in the process.
"Screaming and raging won't change a thing. You're a wise woman, Kathryne – giving room for anger in your soul won't bring that poor mage back. Right?"
The high wizard sighed, defeated. "Right," she whispered and sat down slowly.
"I will pray for him if that helps," Margaretha promised and closed her eyes again. "I'm sure that he was a good boy and that there's a place reserved for him in Valhalla."
"Such a naïve little girl," a male scientist commented as he passed by the cell where the high priestess was. Margaretha, however, ignored this comment and focused on praying.
"Not as naïve as you all – thinking that you can actually play god," Eremes snorted.
"Watch your mouth, assassin cross. It would be a shame to use you as a half dead test subject," the scientist snapped.
The blue haired man smirked. "Is that so?" he asked, sounding clearly amused.
"Oh god, he's at it again," the whitesmith groaned, shaking his head. Howard knew from previous experiences that sometimes a certain assassin cross loved to taunt the people he didn't like.
"You're lucky tonight, young man – we're not taking you with us when we're done with getting rid of this pathetic mage," the scientist snapped. "But when your time comes, I'll wipe that smirk off of your face and make sure you'll never act that cocky again."
"T-they're taking one of us?" the female sniper asked after the guards and the scientist had vanished behind the door leading to the third level.
"Laurell was the last one of the little ones," Kathryne stated in a sad voice. "I wonder though... Who will they pick?"
"Don't say things like that!" Howard snapped and stood up. "You don't want to know and the rest of us don't either!"
"Howard's right Kathryne. You'll only stir up feelings of panic and fear if you keep that up, so I'd suggest that-"
"Let's see. Ah, there you are... Margaretha Sorin!" While Howard had been arguing with Kathryne, the scientist and the guards had returned from the third level. It seemed like Margaretha was the next unfortunate target of Rekenber's inhuman tests.
Quiet beep echoed around in the hallway as the scientist flashed his identification card in front of a small card reader. Each prison cell had one of those next to the door and the doors could be opened only by the identification cards every employee of the laboratory had.
Margaretha let out a small, frightened squeak as the guards entered her cell, grabbing the high priestess roughly by her arms. "N-no! Please, don't...! Let me go," she begged in tears, trying to free herself from the bruising grasp of the guards.
"My my... You sound like we're going to kill you – pity you think like that," the scientist commented as the smile on his face widened.
"You heard the lady – let her go," Seyren said in a calm and quiet voice.
"Ah, the knight in his shining armor," the scientist snorted. "Unfortunately I don't take orders from any of you," he continued and grinned. "She's coming with us."
The guards only tightened their grip of the wriggling high priestess, causing her to yelp in pain. She felt like they were trying to break the bones in her arms. "Don't, please...! You're hurting me!"
"Well, you guys got your fair warning," Howard said in a bland voice and shrugged, before flashing a smile to the now confused scientist. As soon as the whitesmith finished talking, a sound of metal clashing against metal echoed around for a while.
"He didn't," Kathryne gasped and stood up.
"Oh yes, he did," the whitesmith replied, closing his eyes. The high wizard on the other hand witnessed how the bars of the prison cell, restraining the lord knight slowly gave in and bent.
The scientist nearly panicked, but didn't let it show. "Get the guardians here, now!" he ordered quickly, taking few steps back from Seyren's prison cell.
A quiet laughter could be heard from one of the cells. "Scared now, you waste of oxygen?" Eremes asked and glanced at the scientist, getting no response from him. "I'll take your silence as a yes," he continued and smirked. "Good, because you should be. You see, he won't give up. Those bars will eventually bend enough for him to break them and... well, since you're a well educated man and all, I think you can figure out the rest," the assassin cross chuckled.
The bars already made nasty creaking sounds and this worried the scientist. Just as they were about to break, one of the guards he had sent to fetch guardians came back with one – a sword guardian.
"What the heck is that thing?"
"One of my most successful projects – the sword guardian," the scientist introduced, grinning like a mad man. "Your little friend here won't stand a chance against it," he explained to the whitesmith, who was staring at the metallic monstrosity with wide eyes.
Right at that moment the bars finally broke and let Seyren step outside of his tiny cell. This made the scientist's grin even wider. "What a unique chance to test how powerful my creation can be," he laughed and clapped his hands in delightment. "Sword guardian! Neutralize him!"
"No!" Margaretha screamed. That pile of metal, or sword guardian – she didn't really care what the damn thing was called – seemed too dangerous. It was huge and Seyren was weaponless. It was also a widely known sad fact that the lord knight didn't listen to anyone while he was in his current state.
One swift swing of a sword from the guardian smashed Seyren against the prison cell which held Kathryne in it – the high wizard let out a scared scream and backed into the corner of her cell. It was clear to everyone that the lord knight got hurt, but Seyren himself didn't seem to realize that. He stood up, ignoring the fact that his armor was already badly twisted and battle had only begun. He tried again – only to get thrown against another prison cell, which to everyone else's luck was empty. The sword guardian walked towards Seyren, who was currently struggling to get up. The guardian picked him up, this time throwing the lord knight across the hallway.
"You're killing him! Make that thing stop!" Margaretha cried, squirming even more. "Please!"
The sword guardian had already made its way to the lord knight, who now seemed to be pretty badly beaten up. His armor had several cracks in it and a small brush would probably be all that was required to break it.
"Stop!" the scientist finally ordered, rushing to the lord knight to examine him. "Tsk, seems like my creation was even better than what I expected," he chuckled. "My my, you're already giving up, lord knight Windsor? Shame," the scientist grinned, observing how the lord knight desperately tried to sit up. "So much damage... I don't think that I'm able to fix that all," he continued, acting as if he was sorry for what just happened. Then he glanced at the direction of the two guards holding the high priestess, laughing. "Let go of her, she can't escape."
As soon as the guards loosened their grip, Margaretha dashed across the hallway, kneeling down next to the wounded lord knight. Worry shone in her eyes together with fear.
"I'm sorry..." Seyren's voice was hoarse and talking was painful, but he didn't care. When he was finally able to sit up, he leaned against the wall, coughing up blood.
"N-no, don't be," Margaretha squeaked, tears rolling down her cheeks. "You did nothing wrong...!"
The lord knight laughed for a bit – his lungs hurt and the laughter eventually turned into coughing, which sounded really painful. "Well, it was worth trying at least..."
"Don't talk, you need to stay still and quiet," the high priestess pleaded. She had never been this worried, but then again, she hadn't seen Seyren in this bad condition ever. It was as if the lord knight was trying to balance on a thin thread – falling off would lead to death.
"Are you done saying goodbye to your little savior here, miss Sorin?" the scientist asked, interrupting their conversation.
"I... I can heal him," Margaretha said quickly. "I just need my healing staff and-"
"I'm afraid you're wrong, my dear," the scientist huffed, crossing his arms. "Nothing can save him now – which is a shame, because if my tests would've succeeded, he would've been one damn fine prototype," he sighed.
Before Margaretha even knew it, Seyren had wrapped his arms around her, pulling the high priestess tightly against himself. "Don't worry about me," he whispered. "I'll be just fine knowing that I at least once got to tell you how I love you more than my own life..."
Margaretha's eyes widened, but she never got the chance to reply. The guards had been motioned to pull the two apart and when that had been done, the scientist stepped in front of Seyren. "Completely... utterly... useless. Sword guardian!"
"NO! DON'T!"
"And someone, shut that damn woman up!" the scientist growled, irritated by the constant cries coming from the high priestess.
The last thing Margaretha saw was the sword guardian standing in front of Seyren, lifting its sword to deliver the final blow. The guards dragging her away forced the high priestess to turn her back on that, no matter how much she squirmed. Cold metal ended up clashing against the hard concrete floor, the sound of it echoing around for a long time. Margaretha felt like something had just torn her heart and soul into two pieces no one could put back together.
Soon after that the huge steel door closed and remained closed for the next three days – with the exception of the guards that had been ordered to "clean up the mess", like the scientist had put it. When it finally opened, everyone knew who it had been this time.
Kathryne couldn't force herself to even glance towards the hallway, Howard stared at the ceiling of his prison cell, swallowing tears. Cecil tried to act like there was no one else except them. Eremes glared at the guards, silently promising that once he got out of here, he'd poison every single one them in the most brutal ways he could come up with.
The door leading to the third level was opened and closed shortly after. Everyone in their prison cells tried to comfort themselves with the thought that no matter what, at least their beloved party members were in a better place, together. A month later the last member alive, Kathryne, discovered how wrong they had been.
A/N: So, I can has reviews nao?