iii.

part three
:-:-: theme; maps by maroon 5 :-:-:

Life goes on. Day in and day out, Octavia and many other children are experimented and tested on. However, besides torture, training has also been added to her schedule. Due to her new wings, the whitecoats are teaching her how to use them… mainly to see if they're usable at all. The results must have been satisfactory, because they haven't ripped them off of her yet.

Other than physical experimentation, Octavia can clearly see that the whitecoats have taken to mental torture as well. It wasn't something she had picked up on right away, but it became all too apparent when the children around her started losing their minds. Micah's words from before echoed back to her, and she knew now why he had sounded so delusional.

'How unlucky they are,' She would think, staring at a young boy who was no older than five. His eyes were dull, and though she could see his chest move up and down, Octavia knew he was already dead on the inside. 'If they had a mind like mine; would things be better… or worse?'

This helpless feeling never went away, not until she was drugged beyond belief or so tired she couldn't even move. When she fought back, she would be punished. She was too weak to break these chains and free herself. These facts scared her. She was terrified, because this couldn't be her life, right? Someone would come save her, right?

'If I can't save myself,' She looks to Micah, 'How can I save them?'

When Octavia turns seven, a part of her is extremely strong and hard— the other part is weak and soft. The whitecoats sense it, and have been working to break that weak side of her.

During the two years, they stopped treating her as a guinea pig. Instead, she was treated like a weapon. A weapon they were still making improvements on, if the experiments she still had to go through meant anything.

They teach her to fight; throwing her in pits with things that look like wolves but are actually men. When it's not those beasts, she is fighting failures that they're too tired to deal with. She wants to give in and let these fighting children live, but if she goes— so does Micah.

So, she endures it all. Not because she wants to, but because she has to. Octavia still hasn't given up on breaking free and escaping to a sweeter life with Micah by her side. Ideally, all the other children would be saved, too. Together they would be an eccentric and dysfunctional family.

Octavia knows better, but she allows herself to dream.

A few months before Octavia and Micah's eighth birthday, the brunette is introduced to a new whitecoat. He is a senior member, this much she can tell with the authority he seems to hold over everyone else, but this is the first time she has ever seen him— and she has made it a point to recognize every one of these cruel humans' faces.

She is "introduced" to him because he, quite literally, introduces himself. Never has one of the scientists spoke directly to her, as if she was anything other than a means to an end. This man had kindly helped her out of her cage when it was time for her to go to training, and smiled at her.

"Hello, my name is Jeb Batchelder."