The air was thick with smoke, reeking of molten wood and charred flesh. A young Talen knelt. Clutching his mother's blue scarf in blistered hands, misery choking him.
His eyes were in pain, every breath felt like daggers to his lungs, burning his nose and throat. His eyes locked on his mother's charred corpse.
Crunch crunch crunch.
Slow. Deliberate, Foot steps approached.
The steps stopped by Talen's side. Turning his head, he saw a shadow looming above him, the smoke too thick to see their face.
"you're the only survivor." The figure spoke. "I am truly sorry. My platoon were meant to protect your village but they failed." Looking around the scorched landscape he sighed. "Too focused on slaying the chaos monsters, forgetting to save your village." The figure crouched beside Talen. Outstretching his hands. His hand dwarfed Talen's round cheeks he tilted Talen's ashen face up, and down examining it, with his good eye, his other eye blinded by battle. 'He is merely an infant, Now he is left alone in this cruel world. Those fools.'
The figure was a man, with a sharp, chiseled, slightly wrinkled face, that seemed too young to carry his complete head of grey hair.
"You can call me Admiral Ashen." He wiped his hands with a handkerchief, his eye locked onto Talen's. "You are broken. I like broken things. They can be turned into something greater than they were." He paused ."What is next for you, child."
Talen strained his throat coughing blood, he struggled to whisper. "K-Kill.... Kill them."
Ashen smiled, he stood up. "You are far too weak for that." Raising his hands he signaled to the robots behind him. "That can be fixed. Take him"
The robots dragged Talen away. His fingers tore at the earth, leaving bloody trails, until the scarf was all he had left.
Present day
Crouching in the corner of a cell, Talen sat, a blue scarf singed at the ends tied tightly to his left wrist. Wearing black tattered robes, from 13years at 7734. Holes revealing scars, fresh and old blood stains mixing together. The walls coated in his blood.
Raising his head up, his long unruly hair parting to reveal his piercing blue eyes. They were empty. No hate. No fear. No joy. Nothing at all, just emptiness. He took a deep breath, the metallic stench of blood he has grown used to permeating the air.
"Finally it ends today." A smile that didn't reach his eyes appearing on his face. "Time to put on my mask." He stood up and walked to his broken mirror, instantly his cold emotionaless face lit up with excitement, his eyes remained lifeless
The doors to the cell hissed open releasing compressed air. Two identical robots bearing a hexagon on their chest walked in. Glancing at them, he spoke. "took you long enough, you rust buckets." A robot approached him, Talen calmly outstretched his hands, the robot clicked magnetic cuffs on them.
Turning around the robots led him out into the hall. While walking Talen took glances at the walls stained with his blood, and blood he spilled. 'killed 5 other subjects here.' He thought, remembering their death screams. 'ahh Good old times.'
They arrived in front of the elevator that Ashen used every time he visited. The door came to life with a rusty screech. 'Are you that cheap Ashen.'
They stepped in side the elevator, the robots sandwiching him. The elevator began to ascend smoothly with a hum.
Then suddenly it stopped abruptly. Talen immediately tensed up. All his senses on high alert, he was ready to go into Zone, when suddenly.
The robot in front of him turned around, facing him, it's polished visor began to glow. A hologram came to life on it
The hologram was of Ashen. He was in a spacious office, the office was made completely out of beautiful red wood. Ashen sat comfortably on the office table, he was working through information tablets.
He looked the same as he did 13 years ago.
Putting down one of the tablets, he spoke to Talen. "You managed to survive, but are you useful."
"No hello or anything." Talen said, raising his cuffed hands. Talen raised his chin, a wide smile on his face. "I did just crawl my way out of your 7734." His smile grew, still not reaching his. "Aren't I the first."
Ashen's gaze drifted off the tablets onto Talen's. "Theatrics don't suit weapons. Thirteen years of scraping you clean of emotions. Yet you fake them. Are you that desperate to be human."
Talen hesitated before replying. "Yes." He sighed looking down, his hands grazing his mother's scarf, memories of her death playing in his mind. "I survived, so now I can kill them." He said grinning.
Ashen's gaze lingered for a bit longer, before returning to the tablets. "Not yet. Hexagon holds a three stage trial known as the: Ensign trials. Passing, means becoming a member of Hexagon. Fail and you will be disposed of immediately." His word hung in the air like a test.
"So your saying if I pass and become a member of Hexagon, I can kill chaos monsters." Talen asked, his empty gaze fixed on Ashen.
"Pass and you will become a member of Hexagon, I will assign you on your missions. Personally." He paused to look at Talen. "If you prove worthy of such a privilege."
"As long as I can bathe in their blood, I'll do whatever." He spoke his tone flat, his ears filled with his mother's dying screams
"You have already been enrolled by the robots. You will be sedated, before being escorted to the first trial." Ashen spoke, his eyes still fixed on the information tablets.
Then the hologram began to blink, once and twice. Then went out. The robot behind Talen moved closer.
A faint hiss came from the robot's left wrist. Then Talen felt a prickle on his neck, cold fluid flooded into his veins. His knees buckled, his vision tunneling to the Hexagon emblem on the robot's chest. "You bastard" he cursed.
Then there was darkness.
....
Bright light stabbed through Talen's eyelids, causing his eyes to dart left and right, until they jolted open. Cold metal floors cooling his back.
Using his hands Talen stood up, with no aches surprising him, his body felt the most refreshed it had been in years. 'must have been what those scrapes of metal put in me.' He paused realising. 'You really do care Ashen.' He smiled, an empty smile.
Looking around Talen saw he was in a very spacious room. With 3 tall silver walls, with the familiar streaks of blue that flowed perpendicularly, the blue streaks scattered all over the walls. the third wall was a net of energy humming and buzzing. The room had no windows, no vents, and it seemed no door even. As Talen looked around the room observing and analysing it, a voice spoke.
"Candidate number 100/100 has gained consciousness." The voice spoke. It voice had no lips, no throat, just a hundred tiny speakers humming in unison, each syllable perfectly flat. "Choose a weapon."
'Do I say it then.' Talen thought.
He clutched his mother's scarf; His village fought with them, his mother thought him how to wield them, albeit only once. Before the night she died. So it was an easy choice for Talen, he clutched his mother's scarf harder, as he declared. "A jian sword." Immediately the ceiling spat out a jian. It hit the floor with a shing, the sound of his mother sharpening blades before dawn.
Before he could move to pick it, the wall of energy facing him screamed apart, stopping him, looking into the dark room behind it. He saw multiple shadows.
"Trial begins in 3 seconds. Survive for as long as you can. 3....2....1