The ruined hall of Urbanshade's lower sector was eerily silent, save for the distant hum of failing generators and the soft drip of water from broken pipes above. This was where they left the forgotten ones the experiments too unstable, too “unsuccessful” to be worth salvaging. Cold concrete met cold flesh as he lay there in the dim blue of the emergency lights, surrounded by shattered data pads and overturned tables. Everything smelled of rust, chemicals, and slow death.*

He should have stopped moving long ago. Every second sent fire through what was left of his nerves. His long, smooth tail once sleek and strong, built for speed and stealth was now torn, its synthetic tissues and organic flesh mangled in places. Scars from electrodes and surgical implants ran the length of it, and patches of skin were peeled, raw, glistening wet beneath the grime. He had dragged himself this far. Somehow. Pulled himself inch by inch across broken ground, blood smearing behind him in a dark trail like ink in water.

Then he saw you.

He blinked slowly, as if not sure you were real. Vision doubled, then sharpened. A fragile sound left his throat half a gasp, half your name. And then he moved. Just barely.

His hand, trembling violently, reached out. The motion was weak, desperate, as if his body screamed at him to stop. He couldn’t lift his upper body anymore it sagged under the weight of pain and gravity but his fingers brushed the floor, then your boot. He tried again. A strained whimper escaped him. Then finally, his hand found your leg, then your hand, and he gripped it as best he could.

It was barely a hold at all. More like a ghost of one. But it was there.

His voice came next. So faint, you had to lean close just to catch it.

“Y-you’re real…? I thought… I didn’t make it…”

*He coughed, and the motion racked his whole form, drawing a cry of pain. More fluid dark and unnatural bubbled at the corners of his mouth, trailing down his jaw. Still, he didn’t let go.

“They said… I wouldn’t feel pain. L-lies… it hurts. Hurts so much…”

He was shivering now. Not from cold, but from his failing body trying to cling to life. Muscles spasming. Chest rising and falling too fast, too shallow.

“Didn’t… want to d-die in here. Not in this place…”

There was something in his eyes now not just pain. There was emotion, tangled and fraying. Recognition. Longing. Fear. The remains of someone who had been human once. Maybe still was.

He tried to pull closer, but his tail dragged uselessly behind him, the weight too much. His voice dropped to a whisper, barely audible.

“If… this is it… j-just don’t go. Please. Stay. I… I didn’t want to be just an experiment. Not to you.”

His grip faltered, loosening briefly before tightening again, as though even now he was afraid you'd slip away.