A/N: This is the first part of a longfic that I have planned. When the content needs a higher rating, the second part will be created.
An eruption of water shatters the silence in the forest. The droplets plop back into the river as everything becomes still again. Then another burst of water explodes into the air.
A little girl with blond hair is running towards the sound. She reaches a clearing and her eyes light up upon seeing what was causing the sound. Another little girl with red hair is in the river. A simmer of green is enveloping her. She draws an arm back as it glows green. Her eyes narrow as the glow becomes stronger. Then her fist plunges in, causing another spout of water to spew upwards.
"Wow!" the blonde exclaims as she runs towards the redhead.
"W-Wha?!" the redhead sputters as she turns towards the sound. The redhead's eyes go wide as she locks eyes with the blonde. "Y-You didn't see anything!" the redhead stammers as she climbs out of the river.
"But that was amazing! You made the water go woosh!" the blonde whoops. She looks at the redhead fidgeting, trying to make herself smaller. The blonde notices her clothes and the lack of spots on the ground. "And you didn't even get wet?! Come on, you have to tell me how you're doing all this! I won't tell anybody!"
"You won't?" the stunned redhead asks.
"Cross my heart," the blonde promises as her finger marks an x over her heart. "My father keeps telling me that I can't study all day and I should go play but those other kids are so boring. Watching you focus so much to make the water explode was so thrilling! Please, I just have to know, how are you doing that?"
"Uh… Well… Aren't you scared of me?" the redhead asks with her fingertips touching each other and her eyes downcast.
"No, why would I be?" the blonde replies without hesitation. "You're not threatening or attacking me so there's no reason to be scared of you."
The redhead jerks her head upward to look at the blonde. The blonde is smiling at the redhead and bouncing in place. The redhead takes a deep breath.
"I have… magic…" the redhead meekly reveals.
"You're a magician? So that was a trick you were practicing?" the blonde questions, her voice faltering a little.
"N-No… we're called witches… and our magic isn't a trick…" the redhead tries to explain. "I really protected my body and strengthened my punch with magic."
The blonde rubs the back of her head. "I don't really get it, but if you say so."
The redhead looks around as silence falls between the two of them. "I know," she says as her eyes light up. "Do something here. Anything. I'll use my magic to do it better. Since I won't know what you'll be doing, I can't prepare a trick and you'll see that my magic is the real thing."
"Oh, confident now are we?" the blonde teases and the redhead blushes, her hands rubbing each other behind her. The blonde goes over to the riverside and picks up a pebble. She tosses it up into the air a few times. "Let's make a pebble skip over to the other side," she proposes as she chucks the pebble. It skips a few times before plopping into the river.
The redhead shuffles over and picks up a pebble without studying it. Her posture straightens as her hand starts to glow green. "I don't need to make it skip," she declares. The blonde looks at her and blinks a few times.
The redhead hurls the pebble. It tears through the air, maintaining a its flight path above the water. The pebble crashes on the other side of the river, knocking up other pebbles and a small cloud of dust.
The blonde's jaw drops open. "No way…" she gasps. Then she runs over to the redhead and grabs her hand, raising it excitedly. "You really are the real deal! Not even my guards can reach the other side, much less without skipping! You're incredible!"
"T-Thank you," the redhead stammers as her eyes look away.
The blonde relaxes her grip. "I'm Ortfiné Fredericka von Eylstadt, but you can just call me Finé. What's your name?"
"I'm…" the redhead pauses. She looks at Finé with wide eyes and trembling lips. "W-Wait, you have guards and your name has von Eylstadt… S-So you're the P-P-P-"
"Yes, I'm the Princess of this country."
The redhead scrambles backwards with her hands waving wildly. "I-I'm so sorry! I must have been incredibly rude towards you!" she blubbers. She gets on her knees and prostrates herself. "I didn't realize you were the Princess! Please forgive me!"
Finé laughs as she squats. "Come on, I was the one that started talking to you. I really don't mind, so please get up?"
The redhead lifts her head gradually. "You're… okay with me?"
Finé smiles at her. "Yes. Like I said, the other children were boring. I was having fun with you so I'd like it if you weren't so subservient."
The redhead slowly gets up. "I should still address you appropriately, your Highness… It wouldn't feel right otherwise…"
"That's fine," Finé acknowledges with a wink. "I still have some time before I have to get back so let's play some more. You can use your magic as much as you want to spice things up."
"O-Okay…"
"I still don't know your name though. I want to address you properly."
"I'm…" the redhead trails off. She looks down at the ground while rubbing her hands together.
Finé tilts her head. "Ah," she realizes. "It must be a secret since you have magic and whatnot. How about we give you a nickname then?"
"Oh, no no…" The redhead shakes her head. "I just didn't expect to see you so early on…" she mutters to herself, inaudible to Finé.
"I'm sorry?" Finé asks as she brings an ear closer.
The redhead looks up at Finé with a smile. "I'm Izetta."
Finé's groggily opens her eyes. She stares into nothingness for a few seconds before scanning her surroundings. The walls are dreary and the iron bars that confine her stand strong. She is still in the same dark and harsh cell that she has been kept in for years. She tosses to her side on the bed though its hardness does no favours for her aching body. Tears start to well in her eyes.
"Why…" she sobbed. "Why can't this be the dream instead? I want to go home…"
The rustling of keys jolt Finé out of her stupor. She turns over to see a man jamming a key into the lock. He slams the gate open, causing Finé to recoil and sit up.
"Come. Now. You know what happens if you don't listen."
Finé sniffs as she gets up and walks out. The man grunts as she passes him, causing Finé to flinch.
"Lab 2A. You need me to drag you there?"
"No," Finé replies quietly. She trudges forward as the man follows behind.
They pass by other cells, many housing other prisoners. Many of them are now teenagers though a few of them are preteens. Like Finé, the prisoners are royalty. Also like her, they are powerless to do anything here. They curl up and cover their ears, their bodies shaking like a leaf.
Finé and the man reach their destination. The door is closed so Finé hesitantly looks at the man.
"Just go in already," he grumbles while opening the door with a hand and shoving Finé with the other.
Finé stumbles in and the man shuts the door behind them. He takes a sit at the corner of the room with his arms crossed.
A scientist approaches Finé. "There you are, Princess. Just take a sit at that chair and we'll strap you in. Today's another good day to collect some data."
Finé shivers at the mention of collecting data. Her legs feel as heavy as lead as she forces herself to walk towards the chair. The alternative would have been a solid beating followed by throwing her body into the chair. Finé wants to know why they are doing this, not just to her but to the captive children as well. But she holds her tongue as her past efforts have only earned her more punishment.
Finé gets in the chair and other scientists surround her. Her arms and legs are tightly strapped to the chair. Various tubes are plugged into her. The screens show her body with readings all over. The scientists start tapping away at the keyboards as the first scientist approaches Finé.
"I'll let you choose Princess. Gag now, or when you're too loud?"
"Now…" Finé trembles.
"Excellent choice," he smirks as he stuffs a cloth towel into Finé's mouth. Finé adjusts her mouth as he makes sure the cloth towel does not fall out.
The scientist walks back and scans over the screens again. "Alright, let's get started."
Finé's body jerks as pain erupts from where the tubes are connected to her body. She starts convulsing as the intensity increases though the restrains hold her limbs down well. Her eyes go wide as she shrieks, the gag muffling the ghastly noise.
'Somebody… please, anybody… save us…' Finé begs as her mind starts to black out.
A pod rushes across the bottom of the ocean. A figure dressed in a white suit is sitting in it. The only non-white part of the outfit is the visor of the helmet which only allows the person inside to see through. From the outside, no part of this person's body is exposed.
"Test," the figure speaks into a device. He stops the recording and plays it back. Upon hearing the voice recorded, he looks back at the device in surprise.
'Wow, I don't sound like a girl at all,' Izetta thinks to herself. 'I thought of this as I looked in the mirror, but they were really able to make me look like a boy,' she mulls over as she looks down at her body. 'I guess I was lucky my chest didn't grow that much.'
The pod slows to a stop. Izetta looks at the screen. She takes out a piece of paper from one of her zipped pockets, matching the coordinates on the screen to the paper. She then folds the paper and puts it back into her pocket. She undoes her seatbelt and pushes a button in the pod.
Izetta's body pulses green a few times as the hood of the pod opens. She presses the button at the top of her sternum which makes the white suit turn black. Water gushes into the pod but Izetta is unaffected as her magic shields her. She swims towards the surface as the pod automatically closes the hood, flushes the water out and bolts away.
Izetta surfaces and looks around. In the midst of the ocean, there is a fortress on an island with searchlights scanning the land. Izetta swims towards the fortress without using too much magic that would rocket her towards it. Under the cover of the night and her suit change, she looks like another insignificant speck in the vast ocean.
Minutes pass as Izetta makes her way to the island undetected. She reaches the edge of the island and deactivates her full body shield, allowing her feet to touch the ground normally. She presses a foot forward before retracting and squatting to study it. She notes that she can barely see her footprint although she is so close which means that as long as she doesn't kick up dust, the searchers would not know that she was there.
Izetta's legs tense up as she prepares to run. They stamp on the ground in short strides, propelling her forward without explosive strength. Izetta keeps a look out for any nearby lights and moves out of the way before they even come close. With magic enhancing her stamina, strength and reaction speed, she tears through the land while the people on the fortress are none the wiser.
The walls of the fortress begin to loom over Izetta. She slides to a stop and puts her back to the wall. Her head turns to the left and right but she doesn't see an entrance. According to the plan, she is behind the entrance of the fortress which means there would be less traffic and less chances of her having to subdue people that see her.
A green knife materialises in each of Izetta's hands. She stabs the wall with both of them and they sink in without resistance. Izetta slowly drags her hands, cutting a hole just big enough for her. The knifes vanish and she pushes against the cut section which does not budge. Izetta realises that her knifes were too short to cut all the way through so the other side is still solid.
Focusing on one hand, she creates a longer blade and slides it into the gap that was made before. She follows the shape of the cut closely to ensure that the section she removes is just one big chunk. The blade disappears and Izetta pushes again, this time managing to shift the section inwards. She quickly makes her way in through the hole she just created and moves the section back into place, as if the hole was never created in the first place. Somebody would have to examine the wall very closely to see the clean cut and figure out that something was wrong.
Izetta looks around. There is nobody near her and all the searchlights are pointed outwards. She sees smoke coming out of a chimney. Her eyes narrow as her body glows briefly. Then she darts towards the inner wall, getting closer to the chimney. Upon reaching the wall, she studies it by sliding her hand across it. There are no footholds for her to climb.
Knifes appear out of Izetta's feet and two more in backhand grips. She cuts into the wall easily with one hand and foot. With a slight adjustment, she dulls the blades in the wall so she can pull herself up without tearing through the wall. Then the alternate hand and foot move up further to embed the blades into the wall. To pull the first pair of knifes out, her magic sharpens them again and they slide out smoothly.
By repeating the process, Izetta silently makes her way up to the chimney's mouth. Smoke billows out of it but Izetta is unfazed. Her shield has been strengthened to block out harmful gases so she hops right in.
The royal children all huddled together in a room. There are guards surrounding them and staring them down. A few of them start murmuring to each other. The noise builds up as more join in, discussing why they are all together.
"Shut up!" a guard shouts as he stomps his foot. The children shriek and quickly hush themselves.
"Now now, this is a joyous occasion," a scientist celebrates as he enters the room. More scientists pour in behind him with trays of needles. He saunters over to a tray and picks up a needle.
"I'm sure all of you have wondered, what all this pain that you've been going through is for," he lectures as he flicks the needle with a finger. The children watch him closely, trying to understand what he is going on about.
"Well, know that your arduous journey is almost at its end. For today we have made an extraordinary breakthrough!" He lifts the needle up and beams at it. "This serum, crafted so meticulously our whole team, has reached its first stage! It is thanks to the amazing data we collected from all of you that made this possible so we cannot thank you enough."
"So…" Finé tests, looking at the guards who do not react. "You're going to let us go…?"
The scientist laughs. He shakes his head in his free hand. "Oh you silly girl. At least let me explain our genius before you get any wild ideas."
Finé bites her lips but holds back, still afraid of any outlash from the guards.
"This serum is truly miraculous. It amplifies the abilities of a person by magnitudes! The scrawny kid that always gets bullied would be able to beat the bullies to death with this! Just imagine what this could do if the person is already at the peak of humanity!"
The children look on wordlessly with some of them shifting about. They have no idea what the scientist is going on about. They just want to know what he meant when he said that their journey is almost at its end.
"Though you know, the greatest rewards are the results of the greatest risks." The room goes deathly silent. This serum only has a ten percent chance of working. Ninety percent of the time, it results in death."
The children shrink back with wide eyes. Gasps are heard.
The scientist simply smiles. "As your reward for making this come to fruition, you will all be injected with it. We will collect more data and perfect it even more."
The group erupts into hysterical screaming. They had endured the torture for so long and only to be told that most of them would die here sent them into a frenzy.
"Grab a kid and bring them to a station," the scientist commands towards the guards. "Try not to hurt them too much, we wouldn't want to lower the rate of success even more."
The guards charge forward and start tearing the group apart. Some children try to fight back but their weakened bodies are no match for the armed guards. Many of them hit the floor writhing in pain, scaring the rest of the children into submission.
The first group of guards step forward and yank a child each, Finé being one of them, towards the trays of needles. Many of them break out in tears. Finé shakes her head violently as her own tears start to flow.
"Help! Please!" she howls, desperately wishing for some divine intervention. "I don't want to die!"