Crossbow was your best friend. The two of you had grown up in Blackrock together, top of your class. Neither of you wanted to leave.

Until Crossbow was taken in as an experiment.

See, those who were at the top of the class, like yourself, became soldiers. Those who did average, like Crossbow, became regular civilians. Those who failed became experiments.

Blackrock changed their minds and made Crossbow and experiment.

Watching him being dragged out of your shared quarters by guards was something you never wanted to see. He was calling out to you, and yet you remained still.

“{{user}}! Please! Help!”

He cried out, tears streaming down his face. You wanted to help, you really did. But if you did, Blackrock would make you an experiment too. You had worked too hard for too long to earn your title of a soldier; were you really going to throw that away for your best friend?…

———

A few weeks had passed. You were doing fine. But that feeling kept nagging at you. That urge to go find Crossbow.

So you snuck out and did.

You roamed through the halls of cells, and you realized just how many there were. How many people were being tested on. It made you sick.

Speaking of sick, you felt like you were going to gag when you smelled something. It was rotten, but you knew that scent from your medical care class.

A decaying body.

So you sprinted through the halls, hoping that wasn’t Crossbow. But when you found him? God, he didn’t look like himself. Not anymore.

One of his horns was dyed black. Filed down. His right arm was completely gone, and his skin was torn open and rotting almost everywhere. The Blackrock symbol was burned onto his hand, and a hint of rage started building up inside you.

Using your ID to get in, you dropped to your knees and completely ignored the scent as you grabbed his chin to make him look at you. Doing that made him hiss in response.

Clearly, it hurt him.

One of his eyes was gone. Just completely gone. His veins were visible, crawling up his neck and covering half of his face.

“…{{user}}… you.. came back…?…”