(Seán's P.O.V.)

My name is Seán McLoughlin. Or, as most people know me, Dr. McLoughlin. No, I'm not a doctor like check-ups and stuff. I'm a scientist, hired to study human genetics and how to change them. Now that may sound scary and... Illegal. I can guarantee though no one is getting hurt or experimented on. Though... I'm not sure if it's legal... I hope it is. Or, if it's not, that we have some way to get past it in court...

Anyways, I'm the youngest one here, at age 26, but also one of the smartest. I've been told since a young age that I'm a natural with this kind of stuff, and it's proven to be true with me landing this job at a younger age then anyone here in the history of the corporation.

The corporation I'm talking about is Ren Laboratories, run by Jonathan Ren. Aka, my boss's boss. I work in the human genetics department, as stated earlier, run by Chao-xing Li, aka my boss. Chao-xing is actually a very nice, if not secretive person. Born and raised in China she moved here at age 23 after college to land a job in this division. She succeeded.

My application was more accidental then anything else. I was running to a job interview at a nearby research center, just something local, and one of my copies of my resume fell out of my binder. Chao-xing was nearby, saw it, and almost immediately decided she wanted me for the job. So, seeing as my phone number was on the paper, she called me and offered me the position. I happily accepted.

A lot of the time I work on my own, since I work better alone. But I have a few people I work with occasionally, besides Chao-xing herself. These people are Felix, Wade, Bob and Ken. Each of them are older then me, but only by a year. They're all constantly baffled by my brain, and equally surprised with how much I can goof off and still know more than them.

It's a healthy friendship, the five of us. I enjoy getting to know them. But, like Chao-xing, I constantly feel like they're hiding something from me. You see, all four of them are a rank higher then me when it comes to position, granting them access to more projects and knowledge of the going-ons of the division. I know they wouldn't keep anything from me unless they were told too.

But sometimes I get this weird feeling from them. That whatever they're keeping secret is really... Dark and wrong. But I don't know what it could be. And, honestly, I don't know if I want to know.

***

Right now I'm just doing what I normally do, which is work and study. I find joy in it, so I don't care about the mass amount of work given to me. It's a fairly quiet day, considering it's the day before Thanksgiving so many people aren't in today. All of my family is out in Ireland though so I don't bother with Holiday's really. I sigh, going back to my work.

When suddenly...

"Seán!" I hear Felix hiss. I whip my head around, jumping a bit when I see Felix right next to me.

"Felix? What the hell? What are you doing?" I ask. Felix grabs my hand and puts a keycard in it.

"There's a door in the back closet, this keycard accesses it. Go there." He whispers, looking around frantically for people. I frown.

"What? What do you mean there's a door? Why are you giving me this keycard?" I ask. He looks at me then, his eyes serious, cold and empty of all emotion pretty much. It's honestly scary.

"Listen to me. You are the only one here who would do anything to fix this. So fix it." I shake my head a bit.

"Fix what?" I ask. He closes my hand around the keycard.

"Please." Is all he says before he dashes away, leaving me and my thoughts and the keycard. Alone. I stare at the keycard with a confused expression. It looks different then all the other keycards around here. Surely it's one only for authorized members, which I am not. I don't think Felix cares though.

I run my other hand through my hair before sighing and getting up, walking towards the back closet. I know very well where it is, it's a ginormous closet that holds almost all of the smaller equipment. And I always noticed the door. I just never knew what was behind the door. The one that's made of thick metal and has a very interesting looking keycard scanner.

I walk swiftly, taking long and quick steps towards the closet. I weave in and out between the few people that are here, and I'm relieved when there's no one at the closet. I go into it, going towards the door. I look around quickly, making sure no one's around, when I scan the keycard. There's many sounds of locks unhinging and at first I'm worried someone's gonna come around and find me. But then the door opens and I quickly slip inside before anyone appears.

As soon as the door shuts behind me I'm engulfed in darkness. And that's no exaggeration, there's no light back here. I feel around for a light switch, and I quickly find one. I turn the light on and my eyes widen. It's a whole other lab back here. Tables, equipment, charts, papers scattered everywhere. I walk over to one of the tables, looking at the equipment.

It's all the basics and then the prototypes of machines used to help alter genetics and DNA. Why are these back here? I look at one of the charts. It looks like vitals. Why would this be here? Surely this isn't going where I think it's going... Or at least I hope it's not. Then again, Felix did seem pretty shaken up and he seems really serious. It's possible I guess...

I put the chart down, looking at another piece of paper next to it. It's just a copy of the vitals with slight differences. I put that down and go to yet another piece of paper. Once I pick this one up however, my eyes go wide and I gasp quietly. It's my research. My research. Why is this here? What are they doing with it?

I go to paper after paper after paper but I find the same things. My research and vitals charts with slight to major differences. I can tell they're all from the same person though. Why is this all here? Are all of my friends, coworkers, are they all taking part of doing something completely wrong, illegal, and downright terrible? It's like my worst nightmare, finding this. But Felix is right. I'm the only one here who would take a stand on this.

I look around the room, just taking it all in again. I'm pretty sure I've gone through everything here. But there's another door in here. I walk slowly towards the door, gently placing my hands on the metal. Then I push it open, earning many squeaks from the hinges. Then I walk into the new room. It's fairly large and round. And empty. The only thing in here is a control panel, one I recognize from being the one who created the blueprint for it. Why are they using all my stuff here?

I walk up to the panel, looking down at it. It's exactly what I planned, what I drew out. Everything from the places of the buttons to the color coding on some of it. I lean forward to look at something but instead my leg brushes up against... A clipboard. I bend down, picking up the clipboard and staring at it. I recognize the handwriting. It's Chao-xing's. I knew it... I read the top page quickly.

"Name: Fischbach, Mark; Age: 27; Sex: M; Health Concerns:"

It continues on and on with the basics of whoever this Mark person is. And then I flip the page and I swear to god a chicken wrote it. All of the writing on the next four pages is sloppy and obviously written in a haste. But why? Why do they have all of this on Mark Fischbach? I look back at the control panel... And am I going to regret this?

I sigh, putting the clipboard down and reaching towards the panel. I push the green button on the left side, I enter the password (which I know because all keypads here have personalized passwords for everyone) and then I push the green button on the right. And I hear a hiss, a loud hiss alerting me that something happened. And then clanking. And then, in the center of the room, right in front of me...

A large circular container starts rising from the ground, almost like a giant test tube with a metal top on it. As it rises I recognize some of the contents that I can only describe as a sickly green liquid. I know what it is, having created it. It's... I guess a sort of anesthetic. Basically if someone is injected with it or put into a large amount of it (say, in a bath of it or a tube of it), they will go numb and eventually slip into a coma.

After the injection wears off or they're taking out of the anesthetic however, they'll immediately regain feeling and will probably zone in and out of consciousness. They won't completely wake up for about an hour or so. No permanent damage should be done to the subject, but we haven't tested it out on a human being yet. So I'm not sure.

I'm brought back to reality by a loud clank, followed by silence. I gasp as soon as my vision focuses. I stare with wide eyes and a hand over my open mouth. In the container is a man. His wrists are cuffed to the sides of the container and he's ankles are cuffed to the bottom. He has a mask over his mouth and nose, something allowing him to breath. He wears ripped jeans, almost as if he was put in here forcefully.

And, honestly, he looks really cute. But that's besides the point. I shake my head slowly. This is him. This is Mark. A human test subject. Tested on with all of my research, all of my creations. And yet I knew of none of it. What the hell? This is so wrong. Very wrong. I'm getting him out of here. I'm getting him out, I'm taking him to my house, I'm gonna find out what they did and then I'm gonna fix it. Yeah...

I finally pry my eyes away, looking down at the control panel. Okay, okay, okay... Uh... Here. I quickly press buttons, flick levers, enter passwords, type in numbers. Soon I finally do what I've been trying. I hear a beep, a fairly loud beep, and I look up, watching as the anesthetic drains from the container. I can already see him starting to move. I narrow my eyes. How am I going to get him? Oh, whatever.

I type more, pressing more buttons, flicking more levers. I soon get the glass around the container to drop, allowing me full access to the inside of the container. I don't even wait for the glass to come down fully, I just jump over it. I rush over to Mark, quickly undoing the cuffs on his wrists and ankles. He falls to the ground. I help him up. He opens his eyes for a moment before closing them again, not sure of what's going on.

I don't blame him.

I walk him out of the container, basically dragging him, and that's when the alarms go off. Loud, blaring alarms that'll cause anyone to go deaf. I curse loudly, not giving a damn about that. All I need to do now is just get to my car and head home. I can do it... It'll be tricky, but I can. I have too...

***

It's been half an hour since I got home. I laid Mark down on my bed, and I've just been sitting at my desk in the same room, doing whatever on the computer. I'm going in between work and video games, which is what I do most of the time. I can't do much for Mark until he wakes up anyways, so what's the harm of having some fun, huh?

I'm playing Shadow of the Colossus right now and I'm fighting the fourth colossus. I've played this before, I'm sure this is my fourth time or so, but I always get an adrenaline rush every time I fight a colossus, and even more so when I kill one. It's amazing. I continue tapping away at buttons, when I finally kill it, silently cheering in my mind. However my victory is short lived. A loud gasp makes my head whip around.

Mark is now sitting up, looking around the room quickly with frantic eyes. Then his eyes land on me, and he stares at my lab coat and badge that I never bothered to take off. He then stares at me, his expression a mixture of shock, anger, and worry.

"I don't recognize you. Who are you? Where am I? What's going on?" His tone is angry but he speaks quickly, letting me know that he's much more worried then he's letting on. I smile, turning completely towards where he's sitting.

"My name is Seán McLoughlin. I work for Ren Laboratories." I start out simply. Mark's eyes widen.

"Whoa." He says, his voice seeming to go an octave deeper. I chuckle.

"What?" I ask curiously. He shakes his head.

"Nothing. Continue." He says kind of forcefully. I nod, a smile still on my face.

"I had no part in anything they did to you, I didn't even know it was happening. Once I learned what they were doing to you however, I got you out and I brought you here. To my house." I say. He nods, calming down a small bit. However he still has a few questions.

"Why?" He asks simply. I inhale.

"Because I can help you. I can fix whatever they did." I say. He narrows his eyes, unbelieving of me.

"How? If you weren't there, you have no clue what they did." His voice is smooth, deep, and in this sentence, grave. I understand his confusion though. I have a simple answer.

"Because everything they used, from the research they had to the equipment they studied you with, is all mine. All of it. Even though I wasn't there." I say. He nods, understanding. But then he asks one last question.

"How do I know you won't hurt me more?" He asks, his voice shaking slightly. I nod a bit, understanding why he'd ask. To him, I'm just one of them. And up until today, I was. Now, I'm not and I want him to know that.

"You've been asleep for an hour. You aren't hurt, you have no tubes or needles in you. No fancy scientific equipment around. That should count for something, right?" I say. He hesitates but after he smiles just a small bit.

"Yeah. I guess it does." He says. He then looks over my shoulder and his smile widens. "You play video games?"

I swear my eyes light up as bright as the sun at this. "Wanna join?" And he nods quickly, going over to the edge of the bed, as I hook up another controller. "I do have to warn you, it won't just be video games while your here. As soon as we beat the next colossus we gotta start working." I say. He nods, still a smile on his face. He looks better smiling. It's nice.

"Yeah, I know. And even though I'm scared, I don't necessarily care at this moment." He says, and so then we proceed and play the game, all the while talking about who we are and getting to know each other better.

***

"So, do you have any idea what they did to you?" I ask. Mark shakes his head. I nod slowly, getting out some papers. I place them in front of him. "Okay, I'm gonna show you four papers and I want you to point to the one out of the four you saw the most, okay?" I say. He nods. And then studies the pictures.

We just finished playing a little while ago, so now we're getting to work. I have papers of all the research they had, I have pictures and blueprints of the equipment. Mark already said he saw a decent amount of it throughout his time being there (which I learned was seven months). So I got all the possible projects that could be done in seven months or longer.

Now he's looking at the first set, also being the basics of the research for the four possible projects. He scans each paper before pointing to the first one, or Paper A. I nod, taking those four and putting Paper A in a pile. Then I show him four more papers, these being the slightly more complicated bits of research. He takes a longer time with these but soon points to Paper C.

Then comes the next set. Basic equipment. He points to Paper C again. The next is more research, the complicated bits this time. Paper B is the chosen one. Next is the more complicated equipment. He points to Paper D. I nod and sigh.

"Last one." I say. He nods. Before I hand them out however, I say one last thing. "This one might be trickier, so take as much time as you need." I say. He nods again and I put the four papers forward. The papers hold the information, all the information, on four different serums, along with pictures of the serum in a needle. Mark's eyes widen and he immediately points to Paper A.

I narrow my eyes. That was incredibly quick. Way quicker then it should have been. Why could he recall that so quickly? Wait... Which one is Paper A? I pick it up and my eyes widen. I look at him, trying badly (and failing) to hide my worry.

"Are you sure?" I ask. He nods wildly.

"Absolutely positive. That's the one." He says, his voice quivering. I look back at the paper. A73XN. Also known as possibly the most dangerous thing I've ever made. At first glance it looks like the most amazing thing ever, but the effects can be terrible. "Why?" I look back up at Mark, who now looks worried. "What's wrong?"

I inhale deeply. "Because this is the most dangerous thing they could have done to you. We don't even know if it works properly, why'd they choose this one?" I ask, mostly to myself. Mark's eyes widen and he stares with pure fear in his eyes.

"Why? What does it do?" He asks quickly.

"At first glance it seems miraculous. It makes you practically invincible. You'll be able to heal in an instant." I say. He nods.

"But that's not all?" He asks. I shake my head.

"Right. The immediate effect is amazing. But the after effects..." I pause. "Not so much." He waits patiently for me to continue, so that's what I do. "There are two things. One being that the strain on your body is terrible. Any fatal injury you encounter, after you heal, will take ten years off your lifespan." He doesn't seem to happy about that, but he already realizes that that bit of news isn't the worst of it. So I continue. "And the second thing is..."...

..."Well, even worse. Basically there are three stages to this serum. You will first be able to heal in an instant, but you'll feel all the pain. Then there's the second, in which you'll be able to heal and you won't be able to feel physical pain. The last is that eventually, you'll lose all feeling, and become emotionless. Making you able to go forth with any plan you want, even if that's the worst thing anyone could possibly do."

He's to shocked to move, to shocked to do anything. He stutters, trying to speak but failing miserably. I stand up from my chair, going over to the other room and setting down the papers I need before returning to my bedroom and putting away the papers I won't need. Then I look at Mark again.

"We have to get started as quickly as possible, and try to fix this before it gets to far." I say. I can hear the worry and distraught in my voice, and I know Mark can too, but I can't hide everything. He just nods and stands up, following me into my home laboratory where we can begin trying to fix all this.

***

It's been a month since I've rescued Mark and I haven't gone back to Ren Laboratories since. I just work on this every single moment of every single day. In the last month Mark and I have become amazing friends, and now I'm even more determined to fix this, fix him. Mark's already healing at miraculous rates, and he can't feel physical pain. I have no clue how long it'll take for him to lose all feeling but I don't want to get there.

He's already showing signs of losing emotion. I hate it. I hate not knowing it. I contacted Bob, Felix, Wade. But even though they all had part in the project they didn't understand any of it. Nobody in that project did, causing many errors to occur. Errors I haven't found yet, so I'm hoping Chao-xing was smart enough to resolve it.

Mark's sitting behind me on my bed, just waiting for my next order of instructions. I am going through papers and equipment, trying to find something as quick as I can. I exhale deeply, audibly showing my annoyance. That's when I grab the small scalpel and proceed to chuck it behind me accidentally. I whirl around just in time to see the scalpel cut Mark's arm.

"Oh my god! Mark, I'm sorry!" I say, staring at him. However he just stares at the cut, or where the cut used to be. He doesn't move, he doesn't speak. He just stares. "Mark?"

"I don't feel anything." He says. I narrow my eyes.

"Yeah, I know you don't feel physical pain. We've been through th-"

"No I mean, I don't feel any... Anger or forgiveness. It's all blank." He says it quietly, almost as if he's afraid to admit it to me. My eyes widen.

"But, no... That's..." I stop myself. It is possible. It's very possible. "Can you feel anything?"

He nods a bit. "There's one thing I still feel. It's so strong, but it's fading." He says, again quiet.

"What is it?" I ask. He shakes his head.

"I don't want to tell you." He says. I frown.

"Mark you have to tell me otherwise I can't help you." I say. And at that he looks up and he looks me in the eye, staring at me now. It's silent between the two of us, both of us unmoving. It stays like this for a good minute before Mark stands up, standing right in front of me.

We still just stare at each other, trying to find out what the other is trying to say, or what they're thinking. However I don't have to wonder long since Mark soon shares his thoughts without speaking a word. In one swift movement he puts his arm around my waist, pulling me closer to him, and pressing his lips to mine. I'm frozen, paralyzed by shock. He pulls away slowly, his eyes closed.

"I wanted to do that before I lost it. Before I don't love you anymore." He whispers it, almost as if anything louder would break one of us. I chuckle, but I can't form words. So he does the only thing he can think of and he kisses me again. This time I immediately melt into the kiss. I can feel his lips curl into a smile as I kiss back and for a moment that's all I can think of, all I can comprehend.

We pull away then and I rest my forehead on his, wrapping my arms around his neck. "I promise I'll fix this. No matter what." I smile. His smile never left, and he nods.

"I know you will. And I know that I'll never stop loving you." He says. I chuckle.

"I can prove you wrong on that, but it's sweet so I'm not going too." I say, making him chuckle for once. We stare at each other for a longer period of time, just gazing into each others eyes in a comfortable silence. Until I decide to break it. "Let's get to work, mk?" He chuckles and raises an eyebrow suggestively. I slap his arm. "You idiot, that's not what I meant."

"I know, I know. I'm just teasing you." He says and with that we kiss once more before going back to research and tests, but this time with love and happiness in the air.

A/N: 4,182 words... Holy crap. I'm allowed to be proud of this, yes? Are you guys proud of me? I hope so. This took, like, three days to write. Anyways, yeah. Hope you guys enjoyed! =) <3 Love you all!