The bitter blackness is my only friend. I struggle to move, to gain control of my body, but to no avail. Every breath I take fills my lungs with stale air. My mind races with fear and confusion. My heart thumps like a jackhammer in my chest.
Where am I?
Hushed voices possess my mind, their whispers telling me to wake up. I can feel icy fingers wrap around every part of me, digging further into my skin with each word.
Shadows flash away as my sight returns, but their chilling grasps and nonsensical words remain. I am in a small white room, bereft of any detail except for a small glass window on the wall parallel to me. I try once more to move, but nothing happens. Something is pinning me firmly against the wall.
The voices go silent, giving me respite for a brief moment. My skull feels like it's going to burst open. My gaze focuses in on the window. I can feel something or someone watching me with keen intent from beyond the glass.
What do they want with me?
A woman speaks over the intercom, her tone detached and uncaring.
"Begin Entry-plug Insertion."
I try to find the speaker her voice was emanating from, but it was out of my field of view.
What did she mean by that?
A sudden sharp pain hits me hard. They're forcing something into me! It feels like a long metal pipe is being shoved through my nape down into my chest. My body writhes with a tingling heat, forcing out short breaths from my lungs. My nethers burn like needles entering my tender flesh. Bile wells up from my stomach, singeing my throat.
Stop, please!
The intercom buzzed again.
"Begin Activation Sequence."
No. I won't be a part of this anymore.
In an instant, their frozen fingers pull out of me, letting my body go limp. I could feel control returning to me.
The intercom surges with activity. "Abnormality detected in the Activation Sequence. Failure detected in the cerebral restraints."
Shut up. Just shut up!
Without realizing it, my body begins to pull away from the wall with all its might.
"Warning! Restraining bolts failing. Recommend immediate power termination."
SHUT UP!
Metal groans and fractures as one limb tears away from the restraints, and then another, and another until at last I can move freely. Something is hanging off my back, but I don't care. I'm free.
"Warning! Unit is out of control. Recommend immediate evacuation."
Whatever it was that was dangling off my back falls to the ground with a loud clang.
"Power cable detached. Sixty seconds of power remaining in internal battery."
At first, I feel excited to be free, but as I raise my hand to my face, the joy I feel melts away as quickly as it appeared. I don't feel my face, but something made of metal. I race towards the window so I could see myself.
What is this?
The only thing that greets me is a reflection of a metal face, lacking any human details save for a single crimson eye. It glistens like a marble in the light.
Where is my face?!
I stagger backwards, falling to the floor. As I try to get up, I see that the rest of my body is encased in metal. My hands grasp at the walls, desperately struggling to pull myself up. My heart sinks into the depths of despair.
They turned me into a monster!
I lose myself in anger, letting out a horrid shriek that rings throughout the room.
"Internal batteries nearing depletion. Ten. Nine. Eight…"
I smash my fists into the metallic floor repeatedly as I continue to scream.
I'M GOING TO KILL THEM ALL!
Out of the corners of my vision, the blackness returns to envelope me as my body goes numb.
As I return to the dark, I can make out the last of their words.
"Internal batteries depleted. Evangelion Unit Ten is offline."