CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

DOCTOR STEVENS ENTERS THE room with a heavy heart, gazing at his insolent son with disappointment. So much potential, so much greatness that he refuses to unleash. Why is it so? It pains the doctor to punish his most beloved, but he knows of no other way to provoke the boy. He needs his first success to be his best success.

He stands at the door, frail hands in his coat pockets, waiting for 748 to acknowledge his presence. He doesn't. He sits on the edge of the table, glaring at the wall in front of him. He broke free from his restraints, but the doctor expected as much. Had counted on it, even. 748 does not move, a silent stone. The only sign of him still living is the slight curling of his fists around the edge of the table, knuckles white.

Tread carefully, the doctor tells himself.

He clears his throat, preparing for the worst but hoping for the best. "I'm pleased you have not tried to escape, though those restraints you proved pointless." His eyes scan the counter behind the experiment. "You didn't eat the lunch I sent for you."

No answer. Expected.

"I know you are concerned about another operation, but I can put that distress at ease." With this, 748 quirks a brow. "I will not operate on you again, my boy."

748 finally looks to him, eyes full of a fool's hope.

Doctor Stevens clenches his hands in his pockets. "That is not to say I will undo what has been done."

The look in 748's eyes diminishes immediately, anger replacing it. Those red eyes turn dark, his fangs glinting against the bright overhead lights.

"Perhaps if you obeyed like you have been commanded time and time again to do, I would consider it. However, you've caused me an incredible headache, 748. I know you want nothing more than to be rid of your gifts, which is exactly why I will not remove them. Part of your punishment for your constant disobedience."

"What will the other part be this time?" 748 says in a low, dangerous tone. "Lashings? Branding? Drowning and then resuscitating me over and over?"

"I've never enjoyed doing any of those to you."

"But you've done each of them multiple times. And plenty more."

Doctor Stevens presses his lips together. "All I ever asked of you was a soldier, and instead you gave me a coward."

748 moves so quickly, he is merely a blur flashing before the doctor's dull eyes. He pushes his knuckles into the middle of the doctor's throat, and leans in close. "I never asked for any of this, so don't you dare try to make me out as the failure."

Doctor Stevens ignores his words, and cracks a smile. "Do it, 748. Kill me."

Growling, 748 shoves the doctor into the wall roughly before backing away. "I won't give you the satisfaction."

"Not yet, you mean. I know you plan to end my life, son. However, we both know now is not your opportunity."

"Quit calling me your son."

"But it's true. I made you into what you are."

"Do you need an anatomy lesson, Doctor?"

Doctor Stevens waves his hand dismissively. "Biology, in that regard, means nothing. I have told you from day one that you are mine whether you want to be or not. Isn't that what parents say, anyways?"

The experiment clenches his jaw.

"Did you know your mother once thought of putting you up for adoption?"

At that moment, Doctor Stevens can see the color drain from 748's face, and the experiment even stumbles backwards. "You're lying," he mutters through gritted teeth.

"I wish I were. When you were seven years old, before Penelope was born, she was still single and barely able to provide for herself, nonetheless for a child. She wanted to give you a better life. You know, that typical self-pity talk. But a guilty conscience had her keeping you." The doctor tilts his head in amusement. "The papers almost went through, too. It's a shame she changed her mind."

***

Harry stands there with furrowed eyebrows and an aching heart, picturing his mother's face and her countless smiles. He'd seen her cry only once when Penelope's father had threatened to steal Penny from her out of spite. She had cried and cried, and Penny had promised she wouldn't leave Mom. Never.

Then Harry begins to register the rest of the doctor's words. That smug smile as if he knows something he doesn't... No. "You," he breathes, eyes widening. "You were going to adopt me."

The doctor shrugs. "I was excited for the exchange. Your school was full of insolence, 748, but when I saw in your file that you broke a boy's nose, who was three years older than you, simply because he was harassing a young disabled girl... Well, I knew you would be the one. You had the strength and the passion, only you had too much nobility. I wasn't looking for a hero who would back down from fights."

"Then you should have realized that you had the wrong kid," Harry spits, his anger clawing up his insides, desperate for release. His palms were bleeding from his nails digging so fiercely into them.

"Don't you understand? If I could turn the greatest hero into the greatest weapon, this war would have never waged for so long. I was trying to save our country."

Harry snorts. "How does it feel to know you crumpled it instead?"

"I did not do the ruining. The world itself had already been in ruins. Our moronic president caused the war, let it drag on and on and on. I was trying to fix it." Doctor Stevens gets more and more agitated, raking his hands through his thinning hair. "Do you think I wanted to watch my country go to hell in a handbasket?"

Harry clicks his tongue mockingly. "It would seem so, considering where we stand now."

Doctor Stevens is practically steaming from his ears. "I had a family just as you did, boy," he grinds the word out angrily.

Indifferent, Harry leans against the opposite wall. "Congratulations. You killed them, too."

"You better watch that tongue of yours or--"

"Or what?" Harry stands straight, and if looks could burn, the doctor would be in a melted puddle of skin and bones. "You've done every unspeakable thing to me there is to do. I refuse to filter what I say because I do not belong to you. So go ahead. Whip me. Brand me. Electrocute me until you fry my brain completely. But you will not get a single ounce of cooperation from me to satisfy your sick amusement. I am not afraid of you, Doctor. Death does not frighten me as it used to."

Seeming a bit taken aback, the doctor clenches his jaw. After what feels like eons, the doctor dips his head slightly. "Very well."

He pushes a button on the side of the wall, speaking into it. A moment later, six guards file into the room. A couple flinch at Harry's harsh glare, but the other simply avoid eye contact. Harry knows what's coming, his fists curled tightly. He called for it, anyways.

"Remove your shirt," the doctor says, sounding bored.

Stifling a growl, Harry snatches the thin fabric over his head. One of the guards lifts the iron whip, the tips laced with blades of every size. The same whip he had once used on Edward before his family was beheaded right before his eyes. The sight of it makes Harry stiffen. This is no coincidence; the doctor asked this whip be used specifically.

The decision is easy to make.

Two guards start towards him, and Harry casually rolls his head as if he's popping his neck. However, the second the first guard is in reach, Harry lunges for him, snapping his neck faster than anyone in the room can blink. The second guard goes down immediately after Harry bashes his forehead in the wall, a dent left in the surface.

Doctor Stevens instantly calls for more guards while the other four dare to pursue on their own. Harry grins despite himself, feeling almost maniac as he easily takes down the first, then second, then third and fourth. Absolutely no blood shed. All quick, clean kills that leaves their bodies mangled beneath his bare feet. The backup has not arrived yet. He could gut Doctor Stevens once and for all.

His sensitive ears pick up on distant echoing. So they're deep in the hover, then. Not a wise time to escape when he has no idea where they even are. His opportunity has not yet arrived, unfortunately.

When about a dozen guards show up armed to the teeth, Harry raises his hands in surrender with a smile on his lips. He looks the doctor in the eyes and says, "You may have me captured, but there will come a day when I free myself from you forever. And I promise you, your death will be of no mercy. Until then, you'll be cleaning the corpses of your soldiers."

He allows two guards to pointlessly handcuff him, and when he's hauled out of the room, he catches the doctor's pale face and laughs.

He laughs until his throat aches.

***

1298's pace is quick as he mumbles, "You've witnessed the doctor's twisted mind. However, who you'll be fighting is not just another experiment of his."

Evelyn chews her bottom lip. "Spit it out already."

He pauses when a group of beasts stalk by, eyes curiously gazing upon Evelyn. She narrows her own eyes, holding each of their stares. Wisely, they avert their stares and continue onwards, murmuring to each other.

Evelyn quickens her steps to match 1298's strides, but his legs are longer than hers. She's practically jogging to keep up. She doesn't understand why he's almost sprinting to the fight while also feeding her information. Shouldn't he be taking his time? Maybe his heightened senses pick up something Evelyn's normal senses can't detect.

"You're not going to like it. Maybe you should just wait and see-"

"Tell me," she demands, stopping suddenly and grabbing his wrist to halt him as well.

His eyes dart down to her hand on him, then dart back up to her face. He can't seem to bring himself to meet her eyes. "A child," he breathes out, nearly inaudible. "You'll be fighting a child."

Evelyn stumbles back as if he'd pushed her, her back hitting the curved wall of the hover. He can't be serious. A child? No. Absolutely not. Surely the doctor is not so insane to think she would actually play along with this.

She tells 1298 exactly that, to which he replies, "That's his intention. He wants you to fight until your breaking point, where you have to decide between your survival and your humanity."

"I'll let that child kill me a thousand times over. I refuse to stoop to such a level."

"You say that now, Evelyn, but once you're there..." His face droops, his eyes full of regret.

Her eyes widen slightly in realization. "He made you do the same? And you killed an innocent child?"

"You don't understand," he whispers. "They aren't children anymore."

Even though she still has retorts in her, she falls silent. Because the devastation on his face and the shame in his eyes--you can't fake that. And she's seen firsthand what that bastard is capable of doing. Her heart constricts at the memory of Robbie being locked up within his grasp. One of these children that somehow aren't children... that could've been him.

She follows 1298 out of the hover with a heavy heart and guilt already piled on her shoulders.