A dark skinned man was sitting behind a desk and was reading a book. He wore a heavy brown coat, tan pants, black boots, and a black fedora, which was tilted down and covered a good portion of his face.
Unlike the rest of the facility, the room was more modern, taking appearance of a typical living room. Three bookshelves occupied with books lined up on one side of the wall neatly. The titles on each book were related to monsters, humans, or anything scientific.
The floor had a blue carpet with black shapes decorating it. The black shapes were positioned on spot, which showed off the complex geometry the shapes on the carpet had.
On the man's desk, a small globe sat on the side and stacks of paper.
The door to the man's room opened, which caused him to look up to see who is entering.
John walked into the room and closed the door.
"Hello Markus," John said as he walked to the front of his desk.
"Hello John," the man, Markus, said in a deep voice as he placed the book on his desk.
John grabbed a chair which sat on the ground next to him and pulled it in front of Markus' desk, perfectly aligning with the center.
As soon as John sat down, Markus asked "So, how did the experiment on Noctis go?"
"Perfect," John answered, "Noctis had survived and did not melt away, unlike the others." Markus' lips curled into a small smirk.
"I'm glad it had finally worked out for you, John. After all, you did spend months researching on what you had planned. I commend you for your hard work," Markus said.
John smiled in response. "Thank you."
"Now, may I ask, what is the purpose of your modified determination? How will it benefit our plans?" Markus asked.
"The determination doesn't take effect right away upon injection. It will activate itself when the host needs it, such as near death, or if they're in great danger. The effectiveness was amplified greatly for max potential." John explained.
"And, how strong can this determination be?"
"The determination is estimated to boost a monster to be as strong as possessing one human soul. Maybe even stronger. I've also made more tweaks, which should hopefully prevent the monster from melting out of existence. Though it is deeply painful to maintain the current physical form, the feeling of determination will overcome the pain."
Markus reached his arm out towards John. "This is wonderful, John! Thank you very much for what you've done!" Markus praised as they exchanged a handshake.
"No problem."
Markus broke the handshake and opened a drawer in his desk. Inside, a small but complex device sat neatly. The device took shape of a small red circle. Small wires no longer than one centimeter surrounded the object. Two larger wires, one on each side, were present.
"You know what to do," Markus said as he handed the device to John.
"Come back when you have him under our control."
[...]
Noctis was unable to sleep. The dull burning sensation, which he somewhat coped with the feeling, and the events that happened in such a short span of time.
His family's death. The torture and torment he had went through. And now, the future.
Noctis had no idea what was going to happen in the future, and he was afraid. Would he die? Would he go through more torture and torment?
Noctis thought he'd be free, but he doubted that now. Noctis knew that he could still escape, but what after? His family was gone. He will have no where to go.
Noctis pulled against the restraints as an attempt to break them off. Despite his efforts to get them off, the restraints appeared to be locked in place.
"Why can't they break off," Noctis said to himself as he struggled to break the restraints. As he continued his attempt to break off the restraint, pain began to manifest in his wings. Shortly after, he ended his attempt and took a break.
Noctis let out a pained sigh.
"I need to hurry before John comes back,"
Noctis mustered up all of his remaining strength and attempted once again to tear the restraints off. As he kept trying to tear the restraints off, the pain returned in Noctis' wings. But Noctis knew he had to break them, so he persisted.
Sweat began to profusely trail down Noctis' face like a waterfall. The pain took a next level, now feeling excruciating, threatening to force Noctis to stop.
Right before the pain forced Noctis to give up, he heard a loud snap, which made him stop. He let out a sigh of relief.
The restraints on his wings were broken.
Noctis took a small break to allow the pain to die down. "I did it, thank god. Just need to get my legs free," Noctis panted.
As the pain died down, Noctis bent forward and grabbed the leather straps restraining his left leg. Since his wings were free, it only took one hard tug to break it off. Noctis repeated the process with the other strap, which was very easy to break.
Noctis got off the table and smiled. A relieving sensation filled his muscles as he was finally able to freely move them again.
Noctis walked towards the door and surprisingly, it was unlocked. "Convenient," he commented as he walked out of his room.
Noctis was greeted by a hallway with doors to different rooms on both sides. Darkness obscured the hallway except at the ending of the hallway. At the end of the hallway, moonlight shone through the glass doors.
It was the facility's exit.
Noctis walked quietly across the hallway as a precaution to not alert someone at the last minute.
When Noctis made it to the exit, he opened the door.
Fresh wind blew inside the facility, catching Noctis off guard. Despite that, he was glad to be outside.
Closing the door silently, Noctis walked outside, free from the facility once and for all.
Shadows were casted on Mt. Ebott from the tall trees which loomed above. The only source of light was from the full moon from above, casting a faint yet brilliant light to fill on the spaces not occupied by the shadows.
The only sounds that were heard is the constant crickets chirping, the occasional hooting from the owls, and the wind brushing against the leaves on the trees and bushes.
Noctis had no idea to go. All he knew was to get away from the facility and find a place to sleep.
Right when Noctis began to walk away from the facilities, the doors opened up. Noctis quickly turned around to see who it was. Then his eyes widened in horror.
Behind Noctis, his captor was standing in front of the door, grinning.
Noctis let out a hostile growl.
"It's you…"
A lot of stuff cut out from this chapter :/. But hey, the next chapter will make it up, I promise. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter.