Thoughts, feelings, sensations… they all came rushing back with consciousness… Was all of it a dream? The several moments of clarity, slight tinges of pain? The hushed and muffled voices that seemed to be coming from behind a wall---the words he couldn’t quite make out---was all of that a part of the dream? 

Golden eyes opened slowly with blurred vision, and eyes tired. Let’s see… the first thing that he noticed was the pace of his heart. His blood was pumping, his whole body quickly filling with energy and the desire to move. Secondly, he noticed the two women standing in front of him. They both wore expectant gazes, one looking more eager than the other… It took him a moment to realize that he recognized the both of them---their appearances having subtle changes. 

Nabris breathed in short, hurried breaths, his lungs feeling like they’d been suffocated. The back of his throat burned with what felt like bile, his nasal passage feeling a bit of the same sting. Where was he again? This… this laboratory… ah, yes--! It was slowly coming back to him, as he slowly blinked, looking down at his body and noticing the patches placed around his body, cords of varying thickness connecting him to a monitor on the outside… Oh, that’s right… This was… an experiment, right? 

Curious eyes rolled up to meet their faces again, and he opened his mouth to speak, finding that the words that came out sounded husky and slurred with sleep.

“Is it done?” Nabris rasped, his face contorting in response to the hideous crack. His dark complexion looked rather pale, like he hadn’t seen the Sun in God knows how long… “How long have I been… in here…?” Another uncertain tone. He was examining his body. Nabris’ muscle mass was exceptionally lowered, though he seemed not to be emaciated---was he being fed through this thing? And his body was dripping with what looked to him like water, and the area around him glistened with the same substance… 

It was hard to remember the exact procedure described to him before the experiment… He was sure the lab director---he looked at the raven-haired woman---with the thick accent explained it to him, and the kind one---he looked toward the nervous woman---was there for reassurance. This was her project, wasn’t it? The kind womans’? Nabris’ memory was too hazy right now, even if he felt fully alert at the moment, but he was sure that this was her experiment. What was her name again…?

Little pinches of pain littered the rest of his body that he began to notice when he tried to stand up. He had been sitting by the time the tube he was in drained---his eyes had been open for that much, at least. He felt like a real freak; an incompetent freak that couldn’t even stand on his own without his legs feeling a little weak---and these damn cords! Nabris reached for the cords on his chest, ready to rip them off, along with the needles in his arm.

“G-Get these damn things off of me--” Heart still thumping in his ears, goosebumps rolling over his skin.