Chapter Text
Arrow never wanted this. Yet here he was, strapped to a table with all kinds of machines hooked up to him. He was only a child, what did he do to deserve this? He felt so alone, despite the fact that he was surrounded by Espers in glass tubes, wires connecting them to various parts of his own body.
Arrow knew that he wasn’t the first experimental Magitek Knight, Generals Celes and Kefka also possessed magical abilities extracted from the Espers. But he’d heard rumours that the source of Kefka’s insanity was the very same experiments he was about to go through. He hated thinking about how there was a high possibility that he would end up just like him, and it was even worse because he knew that was just what Kefka wanted. Every time he was forced to watch over Arrow he would try to mold him to have similar ideals, to think the same way he did. Now Kefka was a general and he didn’t have to be stuck with babysitting anymore. That was part of the reason he’d decided to do this to Arrow.
Now that Kefka had the power to make these decisions, the first thing he did was order the creation of a new Magitek Knight. That’s how Arrow got where he was now. It was too late for him to escape, not like he could anyway. There were far too many guards for him to outrun, both inside and outside of the room he was currently in. He felt tears starting to form in his eyes and did his best to hold them back, not wanting to seem weak. After all, when he was older these soldiers would be fighting alongside him.
He heard the loud creaking of the metal door to the experimental chamber opening, and looked over to see who had entered. Just as he feared, it was Kefka and.. his father . His eyes widened as he started to struggle against the straps binding him, opening his mouth to say something, but no sound came out. Arrow started to panic, remembering a spell he’d heard of that made the target incapable of speaking. He supposed that the others in the room wouldn’t want to hear him screaming.
He watched as his father walked over to the large screen that controlled the machines that he was hooked up to, avoiding even glancing at Arrow. It hurt, not just that his father was letting Kefka do this to him, but also that he wouldn’t even look at him while doing this to him. He watched as his father turned the machines on and instantly became overwhelmed with all the different sensations.
His head was pounding, his skin was tingling, his ears were ringing, and all he could see was white. It hurt . It hurt so badly. He thought he would be put to sleep for the process, but it looked like that wouldn’t be happening. Tears were streaming down his face now, his throat getting sore as he kept trying to scream but no sound came out. The pain got worse each moment.
He saw his father arguing with Kefka, but was unable to hear what they were saying. After a bit more of them going back and forth, Kefka dramatically rolled his eyes and grabbed a syringe from a drawer, handing it to Arrow’s father. He then filled it with a strange substance and stabbed it into Arrow’s arm, making him scream noiselessly once more.
His eyes began to droop not long after the drug had been injected into him. The pain faded from sharp pangs to a dull throb as he felt himself slipping deeper into unconsciousness. He gave his father a thankful look before letting the world fade to black, knowing that when he woke up he’d be completely different.