Chapter Text
Ash woke to the sound of someone crying.
Not quiet sobs. Not muffled sniffles. It was the kind of crying that came from someone whose world had already fallen apart.
Between every broken breath came the same words, over and over again.
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry, Ash... I'm sorry..." Something cold landed on his forehead. Another drop. Then another.
The steady dripping sent an unfamiliar chill through his body.
No...
Not unfamiliar. It was painfully familiar.
Pain. Misery.
The scent of damp stone. At first, it resembled cold rain falling onto burnt stone. Then came the sharp metallic tang of fresh blood. Crying obsidian.
The only difference now... It didn't hurt anymore.
Ash slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was a thick glass wall separating him from the person crying on the other side.
"...Haiper?" The arctic fox immediately looked up. His face was soaked with tears. His hands were pressed desperately against the glass as if he wanted to reach through it.
Ash instinctively tried to sit up but leather restraints immediately dug into his wrists and ankles.
His arms. His legs. His waist. Every part of him had been strapped tightly onto a cold metal bed.
No matter how hard he pulled... Nothing moved.
"What the fuck..." His breathing quickened. His eyes shot upward. Embedded into the ceiling were several familiar blocks.
Dark purple. Veins of glowing violet spread through them like living roots.
Every few seconds... Another drop of liquid fell from the crying obsidian onto his body. "...No." His entire body tensed.
"Haiper!" He struggled violently against the restraints.
"Haiper! Get me out of here!" The fox only cried harder. "Haiper!"
"I can't!" Haiper slammed both hands against the glass.
"I can't, Ash!" His voice cracked.
"Please... just understand me!" Ash froze as Haiper clutched at the side of his own neck with trembling fingers.
"I don't want this chip inside my body anymore." His breathing became uneven.
"I don't want to keep living with a ticking bomb! If I make one mistake..." His fingers dug into his skin. "...they'll blow my head off."
Another sob escaped him.
"I'm doing this because I want to survive. I'm sorry... So... So sorry..." Ash simply stared at him.
No. No... This couldn't be happening. One of the people he trusted the most... The one who had stood beside him... The one he considered family... Ash can’t believe it. "...You're joking."
His laugh came out hollow.
"You have to be joking."
Haiper couldn't even look him in the eyes anymore. He simply lowered his head and cried.
Ash stopped struggling. The restraints remained tight around him, but somehow, they weren't what hurt anymore.
The crying obsidian continued dripping onto his skin.
Drop.
Drop.
Drop.
Years ago...
Every single drop had felt like molten fire eating through his flesh.
Now... It felt no different from rain.
"What...?" Ash frowned. His body wasn't reacting.
No burning. No agony. Nothing.
"Good day." A calm voice echoed through the room. Ash slowly turned his head and there is someone else now stood beside Haiper. A man dressed in a pristine white lab coat.
He smiled pleasantly. Almost kindly as his glowing green eyes met Ash's purple ones through the glass.
"Welcome back..." His smile widened. "...Former Subject A."
Ash's expression hardened immediately.
"I'm not happy to be back." The glare he gave the man was sharp enough to cut steel.
The doctor only smiled.
"Cucurucho was pleased to hear you'd returned." He folded his hands behind his back.
"He personally sent me here to welcome you and of course, to help you return to your original purpose." His eyes briefly wandered toward the crying obsidian above.
"It seems your body no longer reacts to the crying obsidian." He sounded... fascinated. "That's an excellent sign."
Ash looked up at the glowing blocks. The purple liquid continued dripping onto him and there’s nothing.
No pain. No reaction. Almost as though his body had adapted. Or worse... Accepted it.
"I don't know you." Ash looked back at the man. His voice was low.
"Who are you? Were you the doctor Aldo kept talked about? Why don't I remember you?" His memories of the laboratory were fractured. Blurred. Years of experiments yet he'd never seen this man before.
The doctor gave a small laugh. "Oh. My apologies." He gave a polite nod.
"Where are my manners? My name is Dr. Multi. I oversee a different branch of experimentation." He smiled proudly.
"You should consider yourself fortunate as Cucurucho personally handled your experiments." Something inside Ash snapped.
"...Fortunate?" He let out a bitter laugh.
Then another.
The laughter quickly dissolved into anger.
"...Fortunate?" He repeated, louder. "Fortunate?!"
His voice echoed throughout the chamber.
"Why the fuck should I feel fortunate?" The restraints rattled violently as he struggled again.
"I spent my entire childhood suffering in this goddamn place! They treated me like I wasn't even human! I don't even know how I escaped!" His breathing had become ragged, and his entire body trembled with fury.
Dr. Multi simply watched. Calm. Observant. Almost... curious.
Then he tilted his head. "If that's what you wish to know..."
His smile returned. "...perhaps you should ask your sister."
Everything stopped.
Ash stared blankly at him. “...What?"
"She remained behind." Dr. Multi spoke as casually as if discussing the weather.
"After you escaped. So if anyone remembers..." His glowing eyes narrowed slightly. "...it would be her."
Ash's head suddenly exploded with pain. A violent pulse shot through his skull.
Then... Nothing.
He squeezed his eyes shut. His breathing became erratic. The pain only grew worse.
Dr. Multi watched every second of it with quiet interest.
Then he smiled. "Would you like..." He paused deliberately. "...for me to bring you to her?"
Ash couldn't even lift his hands to hold his head. The pain kept building. It felt as though someone was forcing their fingers into his skull, digging through his memories one by one.
He gritted his teeth and strained harder against the restraints.
"Oh?" Dr. Multi observed calmly. "Does the crying obsidian hurt?"
Ash didn't answer.
He simply kept struggling, the leather straps rattling violently against the bed.
Dr. Multi glanced toward the monitor beside him.
"The way you're behaving..." he murmured. "According to your previous charts, this is exactly how you reacted whenever the obsidian tears were introduced into your system."
He looked back at Ash with a satisfied smile.
"Don't worry. Cucurucho will examine you personally. But first..." His smile widened. "I'll take you to see her. It's been years, after all. You deserve a reunion."
Several minutes passed.
With a mechanical hum, the ceiling shifted. The cluster of crying obsidian slowly disappeared into hidden compartments above, replaced by smooth white panels illuminated by sterile fluorescent lights.
The constant dripping stopped.
Ash's headache eased... Only slightly.
The pain still pulsed behind his eyes. His bed suddenly lurched forward. The entire frame had been mounted onto rails.
He was being transported.
As the bed rolled out of the room, Ash turned his head just enough to see Haiper still standing behind the glass.
The fox looked utterly broken.
His eyes were swollen from crying.
He silently mouthed two words.
I'm sorry.
Then he lowered his head, gripping the sleeves of his Regime uniform so tightly his knuckles turned white.
Ash looked away.
He couldn't bear to look at him anymore. Disappointment settled deep inside his chest.
It made sense now.
The information leaks. The Federation always being one step ahead. The Regime's operations somehow becoming known before they even acted.
Haiper...
It had been Haiper. Not because he wanted to betray them. Because he'd been forced to.
Ash's thoughts immediately drifted to North Mansion. The way Aldo had kept glancing toward Haiper during the confrontation.
At the time...
Ash thought Aldo intended to attack him. Now he understood. They weren't exchanging threats. They were exchanging confirmation. They had been working together all along.
His stomach twisted.
Tubbo.
Was Tubbo safe? Could he still trust the others? Or had someone else already been compromised?
Please...
Please let the plan succeed. Please don't let Tubbo betray me too. His thoughts spiraled until another violent pain erupted inside his head.
He winced.
Every single time he reached for the memories hidden behind the fog... It felt like his brain was being crushed into paste. He didn't remember having a sister. He remembered only fragments.
One moment...
He was inside a room.
Then...
Nothing.
The next memory was of a forest.
Cold air.
Trees.
Fit.
The man who found him.
The man who gave him somewhere to belong.
Everything before that remained shattered into pieces he couldn't reach.
The bed finally stopped.
The restraints around his body unlocked by faceless workers.
Before Ash could even move—A surge of electricity exploded around his neck. His entire body arched violently. Pain shot through every nerve as his vision went white.
The taste of blood filled his mouth. He nearly blacked out. Only sheer stubbornness kept him conscious.
When the shock finally ended, every muscle in his body had gone limp. He couldn't even lift his arms. Faceless workers approached him like emotionless dolls, they lifted him from the bed and placed him into a wheelchair.
Heavy cuffs locked both of his wrists onto the armrests with metallic clicks. There was no chance of escape.
"Come." Dr. Multi rested his hands on the wheelchair. "Let's surprise her."
He began pushing Ash through the endless hallways of the laboratory.
Every corridor...
Every white wall...
Every blinding light...
Dragged forgotten memories from somewhere deep inside him. None of them were good. Not one.
He remembered being small. Far too small. Lying helplessly beneath blocks of crying obsidian while violet tears endlessly dripped onto his body.
Back then...
He hadn't even known other dimensions existed. He hadn't known what the Nether was. To him, crying obsidian had simply been another instrument of suffering.
Only after escaping...
Only after seeing the open sky for the first time...
Did he learn what the strange purple blocks were called. He remembered overhearing researchers speaking around him.
"Recovered from unstable underground deposits..."
"Initial analysis indicates an unidentified energy signature unlike conventional Nether minerals..."
"The crystalline fluid—Obsidian Tears—appears capable of entering the bloodstream..."
"Persistent influence on cellular regeneration..."
Words he hadn't understood as a child...
Now echoed clearly inside his mind. He remembered the seizures. Violent. Uncontrollable. His tiny body convulsing against restraints while the obsidian tears continued falling without mercy.
No one stopped the experiment. No one comforted him. They simply watched. He remembered Cucurucho calmly reading from a clipboard.
"Temporary cardiac arrest."
He hadn't even known his heart had stopped. To them... It had merely been another observation. Another line on a report.
He remembered the unbearable cracking of his bones. The sensation of his skeleton twisting itself into something unnatural beneath his skin.
Again...
Cucurucho had only read from the chart.
"Abnormal skeletal remodeling observed."
"Continued mutation successful."
Years passed.
They hurt him.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Cuts.
Broken bones.
Burns.
Every injury healed faster than the last.
"Rapid tissue regeneration confirmed."
His blood slowly stopped looking human. The bright crimson gradually darkened until it became an unnatural shade of violet.
His body followed.
Little by little, he stopped looking entirely human. Every change had been carefully recorded.
Every scream...
Measured. Catalogued. Filed away.
Yet...
Among those memories... There were others.
Different ones.
He remembered sitting alone in a room. Smiling. Laughing. Feeling... Safe. Somehow, he wanted to protect.
Someone had been there.
Someone who made the laboratory feel less frightening.
Someone who gave him warmth.
Someone who made him want to keep living.
The memories felt hollow. Like entire pieces had been carved away. He couldn't remember their face. Their voice. Not even their name. Only the feeling remained.
Comfort. Happiness. Hope.
It was because of those forgotten moments that he had survived long enough to escape.
"You know..." Dr. Multi broke the silence so casually that it almost sounded like simple conversation.
"I performed experiments on your sister." Ash's body went rigid. "The same kinds of experiments Cucurucho performed on you."
For a moment... His mind stopped working.
...What?
He couldn't even form the question aloud. Dr. Multi continued walking as though he hadn't just shattered Ash's world.
"Perhaps I went a little too far." He shrugged lightly. "But I suppose it doesn't matter."
He smiled to himself. "She can't remember them anymore."
Ash's stomach twisted violently.
No. No... Anything but that.
Everything Cucurucho had done to him...
Every scream.
Every seizure.
Every scar.
No one...
No one deserved that.
Not another child.
Not...His sister. His sister?
"I performed amputations." Dr. Multi listed them as casually as ingredients in a recipe.
"Incisions."
"Bruising."
"Repeated tissue damage."
"I wanted to understand her limits." Ash slowly lifted his head. His mouth hung open. He couldn't believe what he was hearing.
Dr. Multi noticed the horror on his face.
To Ash's disbelief... The doctor smiled sheepishly.
"I regret it." He actually sounded sincere. "I really do."
Ash stared at him. "I only wanted to protect her. I needed to know how far her abilities could go. Later, I discovered there was already documentation regarding her power. A manual, of sorts."
He sighed.
"If I'd found it sooner... I wouldn't have needed to perform those procedures." His smile faded. Mad that he should have that before the horrifying things he did.
"I truly wish Kitty hadn't experienced them." Ash wanted to laugh. Not because it was funny. But because it was so unbelievably absurd.
This man... Was speaking as though regret erased torture. As though apologizing somehow excused what he'd done.
"...You're insane." His voice came out weak. Barely above a whisper but Dr. Multi heard it anyway.
He chuckled softly.
"I've been called worse."
The wheelchair stopped. Instead of becoming offended, Dr. Multi calmly walked around until he was kneeling in front of Ash.
He reached inside his coat.
An old leather-bound book appeared in his hands. Its edges shimmered faintly with worn gold. He held it toward Ash.
"You were very important to her." His smile returned. "You were her older brother. The only person she truly cared about."
He gently opened the book.
"Perhaps..." He flipped through several pages. "...you can read it."
Ash looked down.
The pages were covered in meaningless scribbles. Crooked symbols. Uneven lines. It looked like a toddler had drawn across every page.
He frowned. "...Who the fuck could read that?"
Silence.
Dr. Multi slowly looked down at the book. The smile disappeared from his face. His glowing green eyes dimmed. "...How disappointing."
Without another word, he closed the book and slipped it back into his coat. Then he quietly returned behind the wheelchair.
The journey resumed. Neither of them spoke again. Only the squeaking wheels echoed through the empty corridors.
Minutes later...
They stopped in front of a pink metal door. Completely out of place among the sterile white hallways. Dr. Multi swiped his identification card.
The lock beeped.
The heavy door slowly slid open. Inside... A little girl sat cross-legged on the floor. A bright lollipop rested between her lips as she quietly colored on several sheets of paper scattered around her.
She looked up at the sound of the door.
Immediately, Dr. Multi smiled warmly.
"Hello, Kitty. I brought someone to see you."
He gently pushed Ash into the room.
"See if you remember him for me." Ash's breath caught.
His eyes widened.
Her.
The little girl from the capital.
The one who had bumped into him.
The one he'd helped without thinking twice but was thrown out by a single wish.
"I remember!" Her face immediately lit up. She jumped to her feet so quickly the papers scattered across the floor.
"He's the cool guy from the capital!" She excitedly pointed straight at Ash. Then... Her excitement vanished. Her eyes widened in panic.
She quickly slapped both hands over her own mouth.
"Ow!" She yelped almost instantly. The stick of the lollipop jabbed painfully into her palm while the candy bumped awkwardly against her teeth.
She hurriedly pulled her hands away, rubbing them with a small whine. Dr. Multi only smiled.
"Besides that." He spoke gently. "Do you remember anything else?"
Kitty blinked.
"He..." Dr. Multi's glowing eyes rested quietly on her.
"He was your brother." The room fell silent.
The color drained from Kitty's face. The lollipop slipped from her fingers.
It hit the floor with a soft clack before rolling to Ash's feet.
She stared at him.
Her lips parted slightly. "...Brother?"
***
A twelve-year-old Ash huddled beside an eight-year-old Katie.
After causing a small explosion in one of the laboratories to create a distraction, Ash had managed to steal a keycard. It gave him access to his sister's room—and to several other cells holding the Federation's experiments.
They were both prisoners.
Both experiments.
And they weren't the only ones.
Children.
Teenagers.
Even adults.
Every one of them had become victims of the Federation.
Ash had been kidnapped from his home in the Far Lands.
Travelers from distant nations often visited their village, so seeing unfamiliar faces wasn't unusual. But one day, the faceless workers came.
He never saw the sun again.
His first few weeks inside the laboratory were a nightmare.
They performed countless experiments on him—things no child should ever experience. Needles, restraints, strange fluids, endless tests... pain became part of his daily routine. Every morning he woke up wondering what new torture awaited him.
The worst part wasn't the pain.
It was never knowing when it would stop.
Then one day, after another experiment had finally ended, the faceless workers brought him somewhere different.
The room wasn't cold.
It wasn't white.
It was...
Pink.
The walls were painted with soft colors. Coloring books were scattered across a tiny table. Shelves were filled with stuffed toys, dolls, and blocks. Candy jars lined one side of the room as if someone had tried to build a child's paradise inside a prison.
Sitting in the middle of it all was a little girl happily sucking on a lollipop.
A pristine white unicorn horn rested proudly on her forehead.
The moment she noticed him, her face lit up.
"Hello!"
She greeted him with a wide, toothy smile, waving excitedly as though they had been friends for years.
For a brief second... Ash almost smiled back. He wanted to be happy. He finally had someone to talk to. But that happiness died almost as quickly as it appeared.
Because there was only one reason a child would be here.
She was an experiment too. There weren't any ordinary people in this place. Only silent faceless workers... And that white creature with the distorted face.
Cucurucho.
The monster who watched every experiment. The one who calmly ordered people to hurt him as if discussing tomorrow's weather.
Ash hated him more than anyone.
The little girl introduced herself only as Subject B. Unlike him, she was unbelievably cheerful. She laughed at almost everything. She asked endless questions. She somehow managed to turn the darkest place Ash had ever known into something that almost felt... normal.
Whenever his experiments ended, he would immediately search for her room. Those few hours together became the only part of the day he looked forward to.
He taught her how to draw mountains. How rivers looked beneath the morning sun. How birds sounded when they flew over the Far Lands. He told stories about forests, villages, festivals, and stars.
Katie listened with sparkling eyes.
"So... the sky is really blue?" she asked one afternoon.
Ash nodded. "The bluest thing you'll ever see."
"And clouds are real?"
"They're real."
"And grass is soft?"
"Sometimes."
"And rain doesn't hurt?"
"...No."
She gasped after every answer as if he were describing another universe.
"I never knew where I came from," she admitted one day, quietly swinging her legs from the chair.
"The doctor said I was born here... and that my mother was a unicorn." Ash's chest tightened. His heart broke.
That meant she had been trapped here far longer than he had. She had never seen the outside world. Never felt sunlight on her skin. Never run through a field. Never looked up at the stars.
Everything she knew came from these walls. Every single day after that, Ash endured the experiments for only one reason.
The girl in the pink room.
She became his reward for surviving. No matter how much his body screamed in pain. No matter how many bruises covered him. No matter how badly he wanted to collapse. He forced himself to smile before entering her room.
She was too young to carry his suffering too.
One afternoon, after an especially brutal experiment, he stumbled inside barely able to stand. His arms trembled. Fresh bandages wrapped around his wrists. Blood still stained the edge of his sleeve.
Katie looked up from her coloring book.
Her smile slowly disappeared. She quietly walked over to him. "...Are you okay?"
Ash froze.
Those three words shattered something inside him. No one had ever asked him that before. Not the workers. Not Cucurucho. Not the doctors. Not anyone.
For the first time since arriving in this place... Someone cared enough to ask.
His vision blurred. His eyes burned. The truthful answer was simple.
No.
He wasn't okay.
He hadn't been okay for a very long time.
But he looked at the little girl standing before him—her innocent eyes filled with worry—and forced the brightest smile he could manage.
"I'm okay." It was the biggest lie he had ever told.
"Yeah... of course I'm okay." He stared into her black eyes, searching for something. It felt as though he was looking into an endless void that threatened to swallow him whole.
"Give me your hands." Although confused, Ash held both of his hands out. Subject B gently took them. Her tiny fingers intertwined with his scarred ones, holding them with surprising warmth. She closed her eyes and whispered words so quietly that he almost couldn't hear them.
"I wish you to be okay." Ash's heart fluttered. At first, nothing happened.
Then...
The heavy feeling inside his body disappeared.
The lingering sensation of the obsidian tears coursing through his veins faded away. The pounding in his skull vanished. The phantom pain of his bones twisting beneath his skin... the burning... the unbearable pressure...
Everything.
It was gone.
For the first time since arriving in this place...
He felt normal.
Like someone had washed away every ounce of pain inside him.
His eyes widened in disbelief.
Black eyes slowly met his again.
"What... happened?" he asked.
The girl simply smiled, letting go of his hands.
"I healed you!" she said proudly. "I can make wishes. I knew you weren't okay. You were trying to hide it from me." Ash was speechless.
A wish...
She could grant wishes?
Before he could ask another question, Subject B suddenly blinked.
Again.
And again.
Her hand rubbed at her eyes.
She kept blinking until her smile slowly disappeared. Then she quietly sat back down on the floor.
It was strange. Only seconds ago she had been happily smiling.
Now...
She had become unusually silent. Ash immediately knelt beside her.
"What happened? Are you okay?" He gently grabbed both of her shoulders.
The girl slowly lifted her head toward him. His heart skipped a beat. Her eyes weren't looking at him. They stared straight past him.
"Don't worry about it," she said with another gentle smile. "It happens a lot."
Ash's stomach twisted.
"Tell me what's happening." She hesitated. "...I'm blind right now."
His breathing stopped.
"But don't worry," she continued with a smile that was far too calm. "It always comes back."
Ash frowned in confusion.
He slowly waved his hand in front of her face.
Nothing.
She didn't react. Not even a little.
"...Why are you blind?" The question escaped his lips before he could stop himself. The little girl shrugged.
"Sometimes my wishes have side effects." Ash stared at her.
She could grant wishes, but every wish demanded a price.
Sometimes she lost her sight. Sometimes something else happened.
Her own powers hurt her.
From that day forward, Ash refused to let her heal him. But Subject B was stubborn. Every time she saw him limping into her room...
Every time she noticed new bruises...
Every time he pretended to smile...
She would quietly take his hands.
"I wish for you to be okay."
Every.
Single.
Time.
No matter how many times Ash stopped her...
She always found a way.
And every single time...
The guilt inside him grew heavier.
One afternoon, while the two of them colored side by side, Ash finally realized something.
"...What's your name?" The girl looked up from her drawing. "I'm Subject B."
She answered so naturally that it broke his heart. Not a real name. Not even something she had chosen herself.
Just... A label.
An experiment.
Ash looked away for a moment. "...I'm Ash."
She tilted her head.
"They call me Subject A here." He smiled softly. "But you can call me Ash."
The little girl repeated it to herself. "...Ash."
He nodded.
"And..." He hesitated before smiling wider. "You can call me Brother if you want."
The girl blinked.
"Brother?" She tilted her head in confusion.
"What's that?" Ash chuckled. Of course she didn't know. She had spent her whole life inside these walls.
"There are brothers by blood," he explained patiently, "and there are brothers by choice."
She listened carefully.
"A brother protects his little sister." He gently patted her head.
"And I think you're my little sister." Her black eyes widened.
"So..." He smiled. "I'll protect you like you're my own family."
"Do you like that idea... Sis?" The girl frowned, clearly trying to understand every word.
She didn't fully get it. But... She liked the way it sounded. A small smile spread across her face.
"...Okay."
From that day onward...
Subject B called Ash her brother. And Ash affectionately called her Sis.
One day, while watching her draw another picture filled with smiling lollipops, Ash grinned.
"Once we get out of here..." The little girl immediately looked at him.
"We'll find you a real name." Her smile slowly faded. Ash's own disappeared.
"W-What? Why are you sad?" He quickly pulled her into a hug. The little girl hugged him back just as tightly.
"I'm not sad." Her voice was muffled against his shirt.
"I'm happy." She smiled.
"I like the name B..." She paused. "But... if there are other names... I want one too."
Ash smiled warmly. "Then it's settled."
She tilted her head again. "And... What do you mean by 'out'? Is it like the Far Lands?"
Ash looked toward the ceiling.
Beyond it...
Beyond all the steel...
Beyond all the concrete...
Was a sky neither of them could see.
"No." His voice softened.
"The Far Lands are my home. But 'outside'..." He smiled wistfully.
"Outside is where you'll feel the warmth of the sun. You'll walk through forests. You'll touch soft grass beneath your feet. You'll hear rivers flowing. You'll smell flowers blooming. You'll watch birds fly. You'll see oceans so wide you can't find where they end. And at night..." He looked back at her.
"...I'll show you the stars." Subject B's eyes sparkled brighter than any toy in the room.
"They're really that pretty?" Ash laughed.
"They're even prettier." She grinned so brightly that, for a brief moment... The laboratory didn't feel like a prison anymore.
Ash gently held her small hand.
"I promise you." His voice was quiet." But firm.
"We're getting out of here someday. And when we do. We'll cross off every single thing on our list."
No more experiments.
No more cages.
No more being called Subject A and Subject B.
Just...
Ash.
And his little sister.
Months passed.
Then more months.
Ash's appearance slowly began to change.
His skin turned a deep violet, veins glowing faintly beneath it like cracks in crying obsidian. Every day, he looked less human than before.
It was also around that time that he stopped letting his sister use her powers on him.
He still didn't fully understand what her abilities truly were. Maybe... that was the very reason the Federation had imprisoned her.
He could only hope her experiments were different from his.
Something gentler. Something more bearable.
He was wrong.
There were days when Ash returned to their special room after another painful experiment...
Her sister wasn't there.
Sometimes she wouldn't return until hours later. Sometimes even longer. And when she finally did, she was too exhausted to do anything except collapse onto the floor or curl up in bed.
"They made you wish again... didn't they?" Ash quietly brushed his fingers through her ginger hair as she slept.
Fresh bruises stained her arms. Small cuts covered her hands. Some were still bleeding. Every new wound fueled the fire inside his heart.
He no longer wanted to simply escape.
He wanted to burn this entire place to the ground.
Months passed again.
Ash's appearance no longer resembled a human's at all. His body looked as though it had been carved from living crying obsidian, glowing purple veins stretching beneath hardened skin.
The only thing that comforted him was that B still recognized him.
Every single time.
Sometimes he wanted nothing more than to hug her.
To cry.
To hold her tightly.
But he was terrified. Terrified that whatever he had become might accidentally hurt her.
"Are you... not scared of me?" One day, Ash asked quietly. He stood in the middle of the pink room, staring at the countless drawings taped to the walls.
Most of them were drawn in childish crayons. Every single one showed the two of them together. Some showed him smiling. Others showed her holding his hand.
As the drawings became newer, Ash noticed something. His appearance changed in every picture. His skin slowly became darker. His body became less human.
Yet...
Katie always drew herself standing beside him with the same bright smile.
There was also one figure that appeared over and over again. A man wearing a white lab coat. Messy worm-like hair. Bright green eyes.
Ash never asked who he was.
He already knew. Just another monster working in this place.
Katie walked over and gently held his hand.
"Why would I be scared?" She smiled so sweetly it made his chest ache.
"We're siblings. No matter what you look like, I'll always recognize you." Ash smiled.
His eyes watered. "...Me too."
He squeezed her little hand. "I'll recognize you no matter what happens.”
That day...
Ash finally decided.
He couldn't wait any longer. He had spent months secretly studying the laboratory. Learning guard rotations. Finding escape in the walls.
Memorizing hidden maintenance passages.
He didn't know exactly where they led.
His plan was simple.
Cause an explosion.
Create chaos.
Steal an ID card.
Grab B.
Run to the walls.
His regeneration would keep him alive if something went wrong.
So he lit the explosives. The laboratory shook. Sirens screamed. Smoke filled the corridors. Faceless workers rushed toward the explosion. Ash sprinted through the empty halls. His stolen keycard opened door after door until he finally reached his sister’s room.
The sight before him made him freeze.
"...Sis?"
His voice cracked. She looked up at him weakly.
Her legs... Were gone.
Fresh white bandages wrapped around both stumps. Blood had already begun soaking through the cloth.
Ash's breathing became ragged.
"What..." His fists trembled violently. "...What happened to your legs?"
Katie looked away.
Ash rushed to her side.
"What did they do to you?" His voice broke.
"What the fuck did they do to you?!" He gently touched the bloodstained bandages, afraid that even the slightest pressure would hurt her.
"Sis..." His eyes filled with tears. "Wish for them to grow back."
Subject B looked exhausted. Her eyelids barely stayed open. But because it was her brother asking... She smiled. "...Okay."
She closed her eyes.
"I wish my legs would come back." Ash watched in stunned silence.
As always, her wishes were miracles. Bones stretched. Muscles knitted together. Skin formed over them. Within seconds... Her legs were whole again.
Perfect.
As though nothing had ever happened.
Yet Katie...
Could barely breathe afterward.
Every wish stole something from her. She no longer had the strength to even sit upright.
Ash quickly knelt beside her.
"Come on." He carefully lifted her into his arms.
"Brother's going to carry you. I don't want you wasting another wish just to get us outside. I already made a plan and we're getting out of here. So just listen to me, okay?"
Subject B didn't answer.
Instead... She weakly wrapped both arms around his neck. Resting her head against his shoulder.
Ash wished time would stop. Just for a little while. Just long enough for the two of them to stay like this.
No experiments.
No screaming.
No pain.
Only the warmth of his little sister. But there wasn't any time. Every second they stayed here...
The closer the faceless worker came. He didn't care what punishment waited for him.
He only prayed that Subject B wouldn't suffer because of him.
"...Ash."
He stopped thinking.
Her voice was so faint... He almost didn't hear it. He couldn't even bring himself to look at her.
She was holding him tighter than ever before.
"...Thank you." His throat tightened. "...Thank you for being nice to me."
Ash stayed silent.
"...Thank you for teaching me about things I never knew." A weak giggle escaped her.
"You know I forget everything." Ash laughed through his tears. "...Yeah."
"I know."
"...Thank you..." Her voice trembled. "...for calling me your sister. I never had a family before."
Ash's vision blurred. Purple veins beneath his skin burned hotter than ever. Then...
Behind their embrace, Subject B smiled. The brightest smile she'd ever given him.
“I wish for you to heal from that nasty experiment and never be affected with it anymore. I wish for you to escape this place safely. I wish for you to be stronger and healthy.” His heart stopped.
“I wish for you to forget me so you can live without worrying about me."
"No..." Ash whispered.
"I wish that when we meet again... you'll have grown into someone even cooler than you are now."
"No..." His voice cracked. Tears streamed uncontrollably down his face.
"I'm sorry..." She smiled through her own tears. "You know I love you...right, Brother?"
Ash immediately pulled away from the embrace.
"No..." He reached toward her. "No!"
The room around him began to shimmer. The wishes were taking effect.
His body started disappearing.
"Sis? Sis! No! Stop!" His memories blurred. The pain faded.
His body felt lighter.
Subject B only continued smiling. The last thing Ash ever saw... Was his little sister crying while smiling at him.
Then—She disappeared from his memories.
As though she had never existed at all.