Chapter 6 – John Rowe

"Darkness Surrounds"

Darkness surrounds...always there...always waiting, Memories are there to remind you of us...of what they did to us...we will never cease to be. Azrael woke with a start, a cold sweat covering his body...he clenched his fists and spasms rocked his body for a moment, his hand flailed out for the box of pills next to his bed, knocking over a lamp and throwing the room into darkness. His hand finally met the box and he pulled his prize too him, shaking three blood red pills out of the container and slamming them into his mouth. The pills took effect and he immediately calmed down. His spasms reduced to a slight shaking and his fists uncurled...bloodied marks left on his palms from his nails.

He had been careless to not take his dosage but the excitement of the battle had left him drained...he had collapsed into his bunk without a second thought and now he was paying for it, he slowly stood and retrieved a towel from where it lay crumpled on the floor and used it to staunch the flow of blood coming from his hands. I was careless and I will not allow this to happen again...if Vega had been here, he would have known...no one can know. Azrael knew he should sleep, he needed rest for no one knew when the next fight was coming but the images kept coming to him...floating up from somewhere within his brain and tormenting him, he could never forget...never. He had only been 10 when he had been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer; it seemed that it was a new strain, a mutated and stronger version, much the same as Coordinators were to Humans...he would not live to see another year. His father was a politician and had much influence... a new radical form of therapy was offered as a last resort. It was new and untested but research promised perfect results. Azrael was carried away from his family, his friends and his old life and brought to a secret facility somewhere, there were many children of all ages, each of them suffering and soon that suffering was to be greater.

The "Cure" was in fact...true, and constant surgery over the months kept him alive, if he could of he would have let the cancer take him, to die would have been bliss...the facility in question was of military nature and the children that were brought there were subjected to new, untested experiments to create the perfect soldiers...a sort of Ultimate Coordinator...the experiments involved more than gene manipulation before birth...a constant influx of pills and injections was forced upon them. Azrael watched with horror as those he knew turned mindless at the schedule they were forced into, their eyes staring back at him with only pain and suffering in their memories...he knew he had been the same...he had barely survived.

It was at this facility that they had been trained in all forms of warfare, by the age of eleven he could dismantle and reassemble a rifle in ten seconds, he learnt

Astronavigation and his reflexes were increased to near perfect by pills they were forced to swallow. Azrael believed that his parents had been told he had died during surgery, why else would they allow him to be here...to live in this false world of injections and discipline, where a child died a day...their tiny bodies rejecting the drug therapy and seizures resulted. And then there was Kai...Kai had been the 'leader' of the group, he was 16 when Azrael had first arrived and was the one showing the most proficiency in all the tests, the scientists looked at him with pride as he reeled off ZAFT military history, planned and initiated simulated attacks on Earth and lifted triple his body weight with ease. Kai had been their perfect student...and he had been perhaps Azrael's only friend...the only thing that had kept him sane through the years of hard and constant pain.

But then...everything changed, Azrael was 15 at the time and the atmosphere of the facility changed...the talk of their guards and scientists became flushed and worried, the general panic increasing over the days. As it was ZAFT forces had discovered what had been happening and were horrified, a taskforce was sent to destroy the base and its creations...to destroy the children they had sent there themselves. The facility became frenzied, scientists destroyed tubes and computers, loading up notes and journals and preparing to escape. They believed firmly that what they were doing was right...the war did not bother them, they did what they did in the name of research...in the name of science...they had tried to create the Ultimate Coordinators, the Ultimate Life form in this universe! It was with these sentiments that they all left...leaving their experiments behind, to start anew...to create life else where...where they would be appreciated. As it turns out they fled to Earth where they were welcomed with open arms, they began working on new creatures, new opportunities to play god, they called this new experiment...Organic...CPU's.

There were perhaps 20 or more children left in the facility when the ZAFT forces arrived...Azrael and the others knew they had been left to die; only Kai had been taken. When the ZAFT forces arrived they found only a group of unstable and weak children. They were fed and taken back to PLANT...put in orphanages and allowed time to recuperate. The families that took these children in were horrified at their mentals states, they were not able to fit in with normal society and a few committed suicide to forget what had happened forever...Others, like Azrael joined the military and did what they could to get by, ZAFT forces provided him and the others with pill supplements to keep their bodies going after so much abuse. The military was the only place they could really survive, they all tried to forget...they repressed the training they had and tried to forget...but they would never succeed...they would always remember...

Azrael was snapped out of his reflection by a loud shuffle outside, jumping to his feet he hit the door release button and stepped back as it slid open noiselessly, depositing a surprised looking female pilot at his feet. She had been leaning against the door, trying to see through the cracks when it was opened and she slowly stood, her cheeks shining scarlet...she was beautiful, collar length black hair with highlights of platinum streaked through it lay curled around her neck, pale skin highlighting her large green eyes which were now directed at him, Azrael felt himself go red at the attention and tried in vain to speak "uhhh...I mean...uh...hi" The girl seemed to bristle at this and spun and walked away quickly shouting over her shoulder "Never mind then!". Azrael stared dumbly after her retreating figure before turning to enter his room again...he glanced into the dark empty room again and could almost feel the oppressive nature of his thoughts waiting to assault him, making up his mind he decided to go and see Vega in the medical ward, from what he knew of his roommate he knew Vega slept little.