Who are we without love?

Who are you without love?

This is a story about love and it's many forms.

Regardless of what happens.

We all desperately cling on to the concept of love….

But what does that really mean?

…..

…..

****

(Helloo~♪?

Dang it's boring in here)

The story begins on the ring known as Terra, in the place all children are born and grown, Xander labs,

(Why am I even calling out hello for? No one can hear me anyways)

The focus of our story is on a child in particular

(I really should be doing physical education right now)

In case you haven't read Eternal Requiem, here in Xander labs babies are extracted from their mothers as foetuses and placed in tubes where they are artificially grown all the while being fed years of education directly into their growing brains, the process for the average child takes at least ten years for them to learn and adults lifetime of knowledge,

(Maybe I can overload the system with thought and force it open….?)

This child however….

Bzzzzt!

The machinery overhead a tube sparks up subsequently causing said tube to open prematurely,

Splashh!

A small body slips out along with the stream of red substance from inside, it flails about like a fish out of water struggling to find it's centre of gravity,

(Who knew standing would be this difficult)

"Hel–ehhck!" The child opens it's mouth for the first time but ends up coughing the fluid

(That tastes horrible, praise the supreme leader that I was able to get out)

Ughhh…

He wobbly walks around blinking furiously in the dimly lit room, 

The other tubes containing children glow back at him

“Free at last, I’m sure  you all can’t relate,” the boy sticks his tongue at them tauntingly 

……..

“Hello~

Is anyone around?

I finished my education I’m ready for physical training

Hello?”

(Guess like I’m all alone in here)

All alone he was

The ambient humming of machines surrounding him within the cold lab walls

No sooner than he’d got out had he been wishing to be put back in….

…...

…...

“Aghh…

Why are these door switches so high up?” the boy agitatedly jumps up slapping open another door he’s been wandering around for a while now, more and more regretting his decision to leave the tube 

“Hello!

Anyone,

Someone!”

He calls desperately now

…..

“….I hear you” 

A voice suddenly echoes back making the boy almost jump out his skin,

He spins around peering sternly trying to see who or what the voice comes from

“W.where are you, I can’t see you”

“I am not near you,

But heard your calls, 

Listen to my voice, I will guide you to me”

“Who are you?”

“…” the voice does not respond right away 

....

…

“I am someone who needs help,

Will you help me?”

“….I ..

Yes I will help you” the boy replies, feeling a tinge of familiarity from the speaker 

“Good”

****

Using the mysterious voice as his guide the boy manages to navigate his way up from the lower floors of the lab in which he is situated

*Whick!*

The boy jumps slapping the switch to slide the exit doors open

“Woah…”

A burst of light and warm tropical breeze rushes greets the child

He looks up in awe of the colorful sky

“I know how the sky looked, but seeing it is something else

It’s so—wahh!?”

The boy’s body jerks forward with incredible speed, he exclaims in fearful confusion, as everything around him blurs into a mess of colors the air goes ghostly still yet it still feels like he’s being sucked into a ravenous black hole….

Though…

The boy only experiences this for a singular second 

Before he could even process what was happening, it was over, and surrounding him once more were cold steel walls,

Surgical pale lights looking down on him

(Am I back inside the lab?)

“Wah?

I don’t understand…?)

“It was me,” the mysterious voice sounds even more faint,

“What–”

“You will have to save your questions, where you are now is another lab block, it’s different from the one you were in before, turn around, you see that door?”

“Huh? Yes, a door,” replies the boy quite dazedly,

“I am in there.”

“..oh..”

…..

The boy does not hesitate to slap the panel that makes the door slide open, his curiosity now overtaken confusion,

But as the door slowly moves aside that curiosity moves with it into horror

His little legs begin to wobble at the sight,

For someone who had not ever physically seen another person before….

This was truly a traumatic first impression, 

Inside the room a body hung suspended from the ceiling, wires and cords digging into it’s spine, legs, arms, slowly pumping out it’s body in what looks to be the most agonizing way possible,

A torturous helmet covers the body head like a crown of thorns,

“I…I think I got the wrong room” the boy stutters

“Thi…this can’t be you right…?”

“It is” the voice replies but it doesn’t come from the body,

“I need you disable my helmet from the interface over there, 

Can you?”

“Why?” the boy replies cautiously now

“Who….who are you?

The education system has taught me to be weary of magic users..”

“I’m not a threat I promise”

“I…..I doubt that… they.. they wouldn’t have you locked up like this if you were not dangerous…

You were trying to lure me, a supposedly innocent child to release you from your captivity, I won’t be fooled”

“I am not the one that called out to you child, it was you who reached out to me,

I’m not a trickster trying to get free for nefarious purposes,

I just don’t want to be alone anymore,”

(…..)

It was those last words, it resonated with the boy

All this time it was because of his own power had he heard this stranger,

Because they’d shared the same feeling

…….

…….

Barrmm!!—Barrmmm!!—Barrmmmn!!

Alarms blare as the boy deactivates the murderous looking helmet covering the person,

“In a few minutes this room will be flooded with forces,” the figure rips himself out of the shackles of cords, not even flinching as his blood sprays out,

“I can take you with me, but it’s up to you, I’m certain you won’t be harmed even if you stayed,”

….

The boy steps back taking a good look at the figure, 

His lonely sapphire eyes stare back, sat into a face although pale and drained still retains a kind demeanour, 

If this man with his reddish blond hair was actually a trickster or criminal, then he’d have been able to fool the best of them with his pure aura,

(I might be naïve but I don’t care)

“My choices are either to go with you or to return to solitude,

Let’s go…

Take me with you.”

Prologue End