She didn't know her name.
The woman looked up at the swirling gases outside her observation window, her only respite from her current nightmare. Her face burned as the corner of her mouth twitched. Nightmare was inadequate to explain her circumstance. So was hell.
She remembered waking up a while ago...specifics were out of the question. It could have been days, months, years ago. All she knew, felt, breathed, was pain.
Pure, unadulterated pain.
Every facet of her being was pushed to the limits, and the agony never stopped. Her eyes felt like lead. They wanted her to sleep. But she couldn't sleep. She needed to be awake. They would be here soon.
To hurt me.
She felt the familiar thrum of her Warframe around her. To others, it would have been nonexistant. But to a Tenno, a Warframe's mild vibration indicated that it was working. Her identity was in her suit, and because of those that held her now, that identity was marred, destroyed. Her past was lost to the annals of her shrouded past, never to be recovered.
The Warframe was her only link to her sanity. Without it, she would have passed on long ago.
She slowly tilted her head down, feeling her muscles scream in agony from just a simple task. She saw the metal floor, nearly a foot below where her feet hung. The restraints around her hands and feet were strong as always. She had given up on trying to free herself.
She would never leave this place, they told her. At least, not in one piece.
Her mind was in a haze, separated from her body. Her eyes trailed across the tubes and perforations that littered her Warframe. Just like her past, she didn't remember how it was before they got their hands on her. All she knew was that she wore nothing but a violated, despicable product of their experiments.
Her armour was mostly black, with segments of gray to serve as highlights. Crimson tubes ran through her torso, filling perforations that showed the heavy weave of her Warframe underneath. Scuff marks and scratches were everywhere, not a single surface free from the vile hands of her captors.
She felt a small tingle of anger, but it soon vanished into nothingness. She felt nothing anymore. Just pain.
Too much pain.
An unintentional whimper escaped her parched throat as she saw the door to her prison open with a hiss. The two pieces of metal slid into the wall smoothly, followed by the clatter of shoes on steel.
They're coming...
No!
Her body involuntarily struggled against her restraints as five people walked into the room. Four men and one woman. As per usual. The men wore blue environmental suits, their rubbery material glinting faintly from the swirling gases outside. The woman wore a red environmental suit, which hugged her curves and gave her the appearance of a huntress.
Emotionless faces looked at her, and she averted her gaze to the ground. She remembered glaring at them defiantly when they first spoke to her, but she also remembered how they had branded her. The wound on her arm had scabbed and festered, and she could do nothing to scratch the wound. Above all else, she remembered her fingers being broken. One each time she swore at them or shouted. She learnt her lesson after they had broken her seventh finger.
Don't look at them unless they tell you to.
"She's being obedient," she heard the woman mutter, her voice failing to hide her malice for being here.
"Yes, she is," a man said. She recognized his voice. He was the leader of the "operation" on her. He was the worst of the lot, only concerned with results. She hated him the most.
"Our...investment continues to provide us with knowledge, gentlemen," the leader continued, clearly talking to the people accompanying him. Her neck ached from the awkward position.
"Today, we must test our serum on it. Our purpose: to understand the effects of the serum on its psyche. Physical discomfort is to be expected, and its neural impact on the test subject will also be recorded."
It.
They referred to her as an "it". Like scum. Just an object. Meaningless. Worthless.
She heard one of them move up to her. Shiny boots entered her field of view, and she saw a reflection of herself on a particularly smooth section.
Dark eyes peered back at her, from sunken sockets. Full eyebrows crowned her dead orbs, and between them was a pointed nose, small for an ordinary person, but it framed her's perfectly. It was bent near the bridge, showing that it had been broken before. Her lips were chapped, and her skin was a ghostly gray . Her face was framed by a mat of brown hair, which hung limply. Her face was littered with scars, the smooth skin giving her face a weathered appearance. Seeing the sight almost brought tears to her eyes.
I was once pretty. I remember. But now...
She was more dead than living, and she looked like it. No wonder they referred to her as an "it".
"Look. Up."
She felt her neck sigh in relief as she raised her head autonomously to meet the gaze of the woman. Fiery orbs glared back at her, the look of disgust only augmented by her venomous voice.
"I said. Look. Up."
What do you mean...?
She grunted in agony as a hand pushed her head right up, forcing her to look up at the ceiling. Her neck was exposed to the woman, and she felt panic settle in. Her arms were renewed with energy and she struggled futilely against her restraints. She tried to stop her body, but it wouldn't listen.
Stop! Please! Otherwise they will-
A scream of agony tore through the room as the woman placed a small device by her temple. The electricity tore through her body, setting all her muscles on fire. She couldn't control her scream, and soon her lungs ran out of air. Spots of light were all she could see.
I can't breathe...
I'm going to die...
Just as soon as the pain started, it stopped. She was left faint and breathing heavily, gulping in huge quantities of air to feed her starved lungs. Her lower lip had split during the process, and she tasted the copper of blood dribble down her throat. Her head leaned against the wall that restrained her, still baring her neck to the woman.
"Stop struggling...SCUM!" the woman shouted as she felt a burning sensation on her cheek.
She slapped me, her mind told her.
"Now, now," she heard the voice of the leader, from somewhere to her left. "We don't want to cause our subject any more...distress than required do we?"
She saw as the woman gritted her teeth. "No we don't Alad."
"Good. Gentlemen, are we ready? Yes? Good. Karli, you may begin the experiment."
The woman nodded and raised a syringe to the Valkyr's throat. She whimpered again, and then gritted her teeth in preparation as she felt the pinprick of metal press against a vein on her throat. She groaned as the needle pierced her marred skin, injecting the unknown contents of the serum into her circulatory system. She relaxed as the injection was removed from her throat, and was surprised when she didn't feel anything.
"Vitals are low, but steady," she heard one of the men say.
"That will change soon," chuckled the man called Alad. She hated the man even more now. "We just need to let the serum circulate to her entire body."
Her body suddenly burned everywhere. Her muscles clenched, and she bit down on her tongue in shock. Mouth full of blood, she let loose a scream of agony as the fire burned through her body. This was too much, her body was going to explode. She felt her body disconnect from her mind, the pain nothing but a never ending nightmare. She didn't know how long she was in agony for. Her mouth was still open, but no sound came. Sweat poured down her face, and blood from her ruined tongue flowed down her throat, almost choking her.
"Results are looking good!" she heard a disembodied voice from somewhere around her. Everything was a blur of pain and darkness.
"Excellent. I believe our work here is done for today," said Alad.
"So I assume we're allowed to leave this filth be?" said the woman.
Alad laughed again, and she felt herself fading away from the agony.
"Yes, Karli. You may leave. I will send in a medical team to treat her wounds. Although, Tenno have substantial amounts of regenerative abilities due to their symbiosis with their Warframes."
"Whatever you say, Alad. I'm off."
She heard footsteps move away from her, vanishing into the haze of noise. A shadow moved into her line of sight, and she peered into evil eyes.
"I assume the serum is causing a lot of distress for you?" his acidic voice whispered to her. "That is...optimal."
He laughed again, as her pain started to pulse, nearly blinding her from the overwhelming agony.
"Tomorrow, we will try something new. I'm very close to finishing my greatest project, you see. All thanks to you and a few other of your kind. Don't worry, the serum should lose strength in a few hours. I'll send in a team to fix your tongue. We can't have you dying from your own blood now, can we?"
She vaguely saw him disappear into the haze, and her mind couldn't bear the agony anymore.
They're coming back...
I will die tomorrow...
She fainted, and her head hung limply downwards, a steady trickle of blood splattering against the floor beneath her.
I will die tomorrow...
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