Warning: This chapter that you find yourself about to read is blatantly violent, extremely explicit and describes the dissection in vivid detail of Eve. If anyone here is squeamish, I would highly advise you not to read this chapter. Although it does somewhat further the plot, it will not be necessary for you to understand the next chapter or any chapters thereafter. I feel obligated to give you this warning because unlike most mature rated fanfictions, which are merely rated M because of some smutty scenes in them, this one actually has stuff that could probably make someone of weak constitution vomit. You have been warned.

Chapter Seven

Eve looked around cautiously, making sure that nobody was watching her. She knew exactly where she was going, and though she wasn't happy about it, she knew that she had made a promise. She wasn't one to go back on her word. Although she doubted that the doctor would, or even could do anything were she to renege on her promise, she felt like she had to do it. Also, though, she didn't want to put Train and Sven in danger if the doctor were to decide that he did want to get revenge.

A small underground laboratory that the doctor had probably had long before he had gone to prison or even joined the Apostles. That was where she was headed. Aboveground, the lab looked like a dilapidated building that had long since been abandoned. However, Eve knew better. She knew that underground, it was probably more technologically advanced than most professional hospitals. It probably had all manner of nanomachines and other gadgets that were decades ahead of their time. She couldn't completely imagine what it might be like in there, nor did she want to. It was too creepy to think about. She didn't exactly relish the idea of taking her clothes off in front of the doctor, either. He always came across as a pervert or a child molester. The doctor would probably be appalled if she actually said that to him, but she didn't plan to say anything, so it wasn't going to be a problem.

As she got outside, she turned to the left. It was a nice night for a walk. Unfortunately, she didn't have time to enjoy the view. She had to get to her "appointment" on time, or the doctor would keep her over the 24 hour time limit, and that would be bad. She started into a run, not fully paying attention ahead of her, as she was focusing on the signs that she was getting close. She didn't want to miss it. That was one thing that she didn't have time to do. That was why she was so chagrined when she ran into a hulking figure in the streets.

"Hey, watch it… Hey… Larry! We got us a real looker here!" The man exclaimed enthusiastically, grabbing Eve and beginning to pull her into the alley. Eve didn't have time for that, though, so she twisted the man's arm behind his head, snapped it at the shoulder and flipped him over her shoulder by one arm and then finished with a nanomachine hammer to the face, crushing his nose. She looked around fiercely daring anyone else to try to attack her. None did, so she quickly left, not eager to waste anymore time.

When she finally got there, she rang the bell at the building and was admitted. Immediately behind the door was the doctor, who smiled at Eve and said, "Hello, again, Eve. I wasn't sure if you would really keep up your end of the bargain."

"Unlike some people, I have some decency in me…" Eve said somewhat vainly to him. He just smirked and led her down the stairs into the lab. When she got there, she saw two people. One was Dr. Tearju, and she was chained up in the corner to the wall with duct tape over her mouth, and the other was Leon Abbott, the former Apostle of the Stars that Eve had first defeated in Eden. His face was chalk white, and she could see him trembling. He looked terrified for some reason. Maybe the doctor had forced him to be here, threatened him or something.

"Leon-kun… I-it's good to see you again, but… you look awful…" Eve said quietly. Leon nodded and then turned away, throwing up into a trash can. The doctor sighed and patted Leon on the back.

"I understand, Leon-kun. You're young, and inexperienced with being involved in hurting others. You'll grow used to it, being my assistant, and soon, it will be as natural as breathing, hehehe…"

"N-no…" Leon said softly, barely able to raise his voice above a raspy whisper. Apparently, he had thrown up more than once at the concept of dissecting someone. Eve knew that he had seen blood before, but he had probably never had such direct contact with it. Sure he had killed people with his wind Tao, but that was relatively clean, and didn't spill much blood. There was going to be a lot of blood here.

"P-please don't dissect her, Doctor!!" he begged, barely able to stand now, for his quaking knees. "Please! Y-you can dissect me instead… I don't have anything t-to live for, anyway! Nobody would care if I died…" he said, trying to reason with a man who was utterly insane. Obviously, it was pointless. The doctor only wanted Eve.

"No, Leon-kun. I could never dissect my valued assistant. And besides, I have no interest in your inner workings. Eve is something different, something more or less than human, depending on how you want to look at it. Some would consider her a superior human. Some would consider her a monster, meant only to kill. Me? I see her as neither. She is merely an opportunity to learn more than I ever could on my own. You've no idea how bored I've been. After I perfected the immortality nanomachines, there was nothing left for me to do. My mind was stagnant. But that's neither here nor there. Leon, wash your hands and put your gloves on. Eve. Remove your clothes and lay down on the table. Don't worry, I have no desire to harm you sexually, although I can't vouch for Leon-kun…" the doctor said with a smirk, causing Leon to turn bright red. Eve watched as he shook his head violently.

"N-no! I-I would never d-do such a thing!!" he said a little too heatedly. Eve sighed and went over to him, putting her arms around him, waiting until he stopped shaking.

"It's alright, Leon-kun. I volunteered for this… I knew what I was doing when I agreed."

"B-but why, Eve!? Why would you let this freak cut you open and poke at your insides!?" Leon asked wildly.

"I had to… I had to do so to save the person that I love…"

The doctor didn't say anything, but merely pulled Eve over and pointed at the table. Nervously, Leon washed his hands and turned aside as Eve undressed. In the corner, Dr. Tearju looked on in horror at Eve. She couldn't believe that she was doing this. In fact, she wasn't even sure how she herself got there. She had been in her house, and then someone hit her over the head, knocking her out, and when she came to, she was in the lab, cuffed to the wall with duct tape over her mouth. Her glasses were skewed slightly, so it was hard for her to see. Apparently, the doctor noticed this, because he looked at Leon and said, "Leon-kun, before you get your gloves on, why don't you go and push the professor's glasses up her nose. It can't be easy for her to see like that. And pull the duct tape off her mouth, I would imagine it's hard for her to breathe."

Sure enough, she was having some difficulty breathing, but not so much that she would die from it. Leon hesitantly walked over and knelt down in front of Tearju, apologizing softly and pulling the duct tape off her mouth. Professor Tearju let out a painful whimper at the tape pulling away from her flesh and then he pushed her glasses up her nose. Secretly, though, he dropped something on the floor next to her and eyed it so that she would notice it. It was a file. He couldn't risk giving her the key. That would have been too obvious, but with a file, she could slowly cut away her manacles and hopefully escape. He didn't want to see her die. He didn't want anyone to die.

"Leon-kun, are you done? Please strap Miss Vollfied onto the table. We can't have her moving and messing up the procedure. That might cause damage that even her nanomachines won't be able to heal. As it is, we don't want to leave any scars. Personally, I find scars hideous, and professionally, easily noticed scars are the mark of a novice surgeon. A good surgeon should be able to cut a person open and leave no trace that they were there. Don't you agree, Professor Tearju?"

"HOW COULD YOU BE SO HEARTLESS!! EVE-CHAN IS JUST A CHILD!!" Tearju screamed at him, spitting as far as she could. The doctor merely laughed.

"My, how unladylike. It's no wonder your college sweetheart married another woman…" he said, causing Tearju to retch slightly at his words. That topic still brought up painful memories. She had graduated Harvard Medical School at age fourteen, and her boyfriend, who was also a med student, albeit an extremely bright one, was twenty years old. He ended up leaving her saying that she was too immature for him. She suspected now that it was because she wouldn't have sex with him, but back then, she couldn't understand where she had gone wrong.

"But, nonetheless, there are probably many in our field that would agree that Eve-chan as you call her is a necessary sacrifice for the sake of science."

With that, the doctor said no more, but put on his gloves, mask, lab coat, and goggles, and ordered Leon to do the same. Leon silently did this, although he was still feeling somewhat nauseous, and when ordered to bring the needles for bloodwork, he did so without question. He couldn't question the doctor's orders. Leon had finally found a family that would take him in, and the doctor had threatened to have them all killed if he didn't obey him. Leon wasn't sure why the doctor needed his assistance, and he wasn't sure that he wanted to know, but he did know that it couldn't be anything good.

After Leon brought over the needles and tubes, the doctor took one of them and put it in Eve's arm, attached to a tube, and began to draw some blood. The blood flowed easily out of Eve's arm, probably because her heart rate was so high. As the doctor finished, he handed the tubes off to Leon, who shakily put them in a holder for later study. Leon felt like he needed to throw up again. Apparently, the doctor recognized this, because he told Leon to go outside the room to do it if he had to. Quickly running out, Eve soon heard the sound of Leon hurling and coughing violently. She couldn't believe that the doctor had dragged Leon into this as well. "How far did this man's evil go?" she wondered vaguely.

Finally, he turned around and saw Leon standing there. He told Leon to get a scalpel, which he did immediately. The doctor put his hand up to Eve's Carotid to feel her pulse. It was fast, racing in fact. The doctor sighed and pretended to look concerned.

"Miss Vollfied, would you feel better if I gave you a minor sedative for the pain? Wait, we only have 24 hours, correct?"

At this, Dr. Tearju's eyes widened. 24 whole hours?! She wondered. She wasn't even sure if Eve could last that long. After all, she was only seventeen, and a fairly slender and petite seventeen year old at that. How much blood could she stand to lose?

"I would prefer it if you lived through the procedure, now, Eve, so I'll ask that as I'm opening you up, you use your nanomachines to clot the bleeding. We don't want you bleeding to death on the table, now do we?"

Eve shook her head and prepared to use her nanomachines under the highest of stakes. As the doctor inserted the scalpel into her sternum, she felt a sharp stab of agony. However, she forced herself to focus as the doctor drew the scalpel down her chest and into her abdomen, and making an "I" shaped cut so that he could look inside. First, he looked at her regular organs and how they connected. The doctor seemed impressed to see that they were all the same as regular human organs, save that they had one more tube going through all of them that connected to the extra organ that Eve possessed that created her nanomachines. Next, he poked her heart slightly to see how it would react. It seemed as though he was having fun with this. Eve was in terrible pain, such pain that it was blinding to even be awake for the procedure. The doctor watched as Eve's breathing started going faster and faster, and her lungs began to pump harder and harder.

It took a while for Tearju to break through the shackles, but finally she did, and she shouted to distract the doctor and then kicked him in the face. One thing that she always had been fairly decent at was martial arts. Leon saw his opportunity at this, and shoved the doctor into the next room, sucked all of the air out of it and slammed the door shut. He then watched with grim satisfaction as the doctor suffocated and died in the vacuum that had been created. Tearju ran over to Eve, who was barely breathing, now. Her pulse was weak. She needed to be sewn up immediately, and have the bleeding stopped. She ordered Leon to get the stitching thread while she washed her hands and put on gloves, and together, the two of them managed to save Eve and put her back together.

Once they were done, they cleaned up slightly and found a hotel that they could stay at for the rest of the night. Eve would live, mostly because of the nanomachines still at work within her body, healing her wounds and replacing the lost blood. She probably wouldn't have any noticeable scars, but there was always a chance that something had gone wrong. The doctor had been insane, and Tearju couldn't guarantee that he had used clean instruments, though she suspected that in his vanity, he had cleaned all of his tools thoroughly before using them. She sighed and told Leon to go home, that she could take care of Eve until morning, when she could bring Eve back to Sven and Train. The two would probably be furious at Eve for disappearing from their house like that. She didn't know exactly how Eve got out, but she did know that they wouldn't have let her go if they knew what she was doing. Furthermore, from what Eve had said earlier, she was trying to save Train or Sven's life.

Tearju sat up for a while, just watching Eve, but eventually, she also fell asleep, being rather tired from all the excitement that night.