A promise to change.

It's been a long time since Carlos has been trapped there. It feels like years of constant experiments and torture. They do horrible things to Carlos, hurting him, taking his blood, burning his skin, breaking bones, beating him, and putting him close to death. And all of this only tears down his will to live more and more. He wants it all to end, he wants to die.

Hana walks around the facility holding a list of things that she needs to do: check on subjects, clean cells, and wash subjects. All this stuff sounds simple, but to her, it's always seeing kids or innocent people hurt. The average subject is broken down with lost limbs and usually broken bones. She's the reason they haven't gone mad; it's all because of her motherly love compared to the other workers here. But it also seems that the other workers here don't even see her as a worker.

All her hard work leads to the same thing, though. All the subjects they make her take care of end up dead. She knows this fact, and it scares her every time she walks into a room. She hopes she doesn't have to see anymore of it.

She opens Carlos's cell door and steps in, seeing the same thing. A while ago, they had started Carlos's fingers, but in the time he's been here, the time it takes to heal those types of wounds are somehow cut in half.

After maybe one year of taking care of Carlos and having to see him in that tortured state of pain and suffering with that same defeated expression, it hurts her down to her heart. She thinks it's gonna be the same and that he's just gonna end up dead like the rest of them. Seeing the injuries he has always makes her think that he's dead. And after all this time of taking care of him, she's actually been like a mom to him in a way. Cutting his hair, washing his body, brushing his teeth, keeping him clean in general, just for him and for the fact that the wounds won't get infected. All this gains her the slightest bit of reactions, but she knows those are signs of trust.

Carlos hangs in the darkroom. There's nothing to think about, there's nothing to wish for, for someone in this position like him. But when he falls asleep, before he wakes up, he always hears the faintest noise of people's voices calling to him, and it is always the same ones too. Being the little lab rat for whoever these guys are broke him more and more. But what seems to happen is every time Hana walks into the room, not just because of the light falling into the room, but when he sees her face, a spark of something warm inside him seems to get his mind to think again. It's only for a little bit, but he does wonder about some things.

It's usually if he got enough sleep or what they want from him. They are always telling him to show them something, but is there even anything to show them? What do they want from him? How long has it been? Are Hana's feelings even genuine?

Carlos opens his eyes and looks around. The pain is gone. The sense of danger is on high. The feeling of dread washes over him. The surrounding area is just like under a reflective glass, but there's clouds under and above it. They slowly start to turn grey, and a figure can be seen in the distance. Carlos is still unable to move. After he locked his eyes onto the figure, he can't move them away.

“Please, you promised me.”

The figure appears in front of him. It's his mom. Her face doesn't match the surrounding grey, dark area. It's bright like she's a light. His body instinctively leans forward. His hand lifts as his mom reaches out to his hand.

“Live for us.”

When his hand connects with his mom's, the area seems to fade to black in an instant.

“Carlos? Carlos, wake up!”

It's Hana, shaking him and patting him. His eyes widen with the most reaction she's ever seen in him in a while. But they quickly fade back to the eyes of someone who's really given up.

“Don't give me that look.”

Hana looks like she's on the verge of tears. Her hands move to his shoulders, and she puts her head down on his chest. The warmness of some liquid spills down it. It reminds him of Arabella the night she left. She's definitely crying.

“We need this to end, your only hope, Carlos. Please, I know you have it in you,” she pleads to him through sniffles.

She pulls back, wiping her eyes, and moves her hands up to unlock the chains binding him.

“You're gonna be the one to break the cycle, Carlos. You're gonna be the one to end this all. You remember them, right? Your mom, your dad, your brother, your sister. Do you really want your family's story to end like this while you're stuck in here letting your name rot?”

“I beg you, Carlos, don't lose your will to live. I can tell you wanted a normal life. Every kid here does. I know deep down you want to live. I know you don't want to die!”

She's right on all of it, and Carlos is finally realizing it all. His mom pops up in his head again. The words she said in that weird place finally hit him. The voices who were calling to him while he slept were his family's, his sisters, his brothers, his dad, all of them, and he finally catches onto it. His heart never wanted him to give up.

Hana undoes the chains and catches him before he falls. She sits him down onto the ground. After all that time, his body is weakened.

“Tell me, Carlos. I need to hear you say something, please. For my sake, for your sister's sake, for your family's sake, don't let the Raio name be forgotten with time. I want you to live. They want you to live. Don't throw away your own life when you could do so many more great things.”

“I beg you, Carlos. The only way you can end this is if you break free. The world needs YOU, Carlos. You're the one who will cure this world of its evil. It must be YOU because no one else will see it. Every civilian is a pawn on his domination. I'm a pawn for even doing this. I should've left!”

Carlos' eyes show more and more life the more she talks, and when she notices, she lets out a smile.

“Run away. Live the life you wanna live. Don't let these monsters take that chance and ruin your future. I'll help you through it. That fire you have inside you is what makes you spark, Carlos. Use that will to live and run away.”

Carlos's eyes spark a bit of a purple light, and she looks at him gratefully with tears threatening to fall more.

“Yes… yes, that's what I want to see.”

She cups his cheek and stares deep into his eyes.

“Live for your mom.”

His eyes widen, and small tears fall down his cheek. He nods while she wipes them away with her thumb.

“I don't wanna die here. After what they did to my family, I couldn't do anything to fight back. I didn't wanna try. I wanted to throw my life away because I thought I had no purpose, but…”

He touches his chest where his heart is, and sparks flow from his body from there.

“Everyone I saw suffering lit that fire back up inside me. I grew to want to give that fire back to people who were here, and… I…”

She pulls her hands back from him. The more of that life he gains into his eyes, the more he can start to focus on the surroundings and on her. Her hands are covered in blood, her cheek is bruised, and there's more blood on her shirt. And her hands were trembling on his cheek.

“They made me kill one!”

She starts crying, looking at her hands.

“I'll live… I wanna live for you, for my family, for my best friend. For the others in here, I'll live for them.”

She cries harder and holds her head low to the ground. After a second, she calms down.

“I have a son… They took me away from him. I don't want to leave you with this, but… if you ever find him, tell him I love him and I'm sorry.”

She looks up at him with a pleading and grateful look.

“He probably thinks I abandoned him with them.”

“I wish I could've held him one more time. He was an adorable kid.”

She smiles at him, the memory hitting her hard.

“I see him in you a little, you know. I beg you, please find him for me.”

“A mother's love for their son, that type of love will always be pure and irreplaceable, and I wish he could have lived a life with me, happy and playing.”

“I'll find him for you, and I'll tell him everything you said. I promise.”

His eyes show a more determined look, a look that used to be completely unknown to Hana.

“Thank you. His name is Gabriel Iaomai. He's a little older than you, brown eyes like mine.”

“I'll keep that in mind. I, uhhh… Thank you for everything. You should run with me so we can look for Gabriel together.”

There is hope in his voice because, to him, it sounds like she won't leave with him.

“No, I can't. I'm sorry to put more on your shoulders, but this is something for you now. You don't need me anymore. I just trust you with that promise. That's all I ask of you, Raio.”

“But I needed you then. That doesn't mean I don't need you no—”

Heavy footsteps interrupt him. He shifts his gaze over to the door, then back at her.

“Go, Carlos. You need to leave now!”

He looks torn between taking her and leaving. He wants to take her, but with the body he has now, it's almost impossible.

“GO!”

He stumbles to stand up, but when he does, he takes one last look at Hana and rushes out. Hana watches him leave and stands up, walking outside the cell and looking at the approaching guards and other personnel.

“His eyes changed… that's weird. The blue changed to purple.”

Hana takes a deep breath and stands there, trying to block some of the guards, but one just pushes past her hard, making her stumble onto another personnel and resulting in her being apprehended.

Carlos's legs spark a familiar type of energy. It's purple, and it's moving around his body like it's alive, moving in a wave to his legs and then to his head, and this speeds him up. He rushes through the hall, having no idea where to go, but he pushes himself more than he ever has in the past year. The adrenaline really doing him wonders, but that doesn't mean he cannot feel the power radiating and growing from him.

“Someone stop him!” one of the scientists says as Carlos slips past him.

The facility is huge, white tiles. On the ceiling, there's windows there, and that's the light source. As Carlos runs, there are other cell doors with sounds of people crying, some even screaming. He wants to stop and try and help out, but he simply can't.

The power within him grows exponentially high. He feels it to his core. His muscles cannot handle that type of energy, and they start cramping and spasming. The pain from that makes him stumble, falling and skidding on the smooth floor. He remembers what his dad said about overcharging. His eyes widen with fear at the thought of exploding.

“Damnit, no.”

He tries to think of a way to use it, but nothing comes to mind. Until Carlos's eyes widen as he remembers a move his dad did. He holds out his hand, aiming it at the group approaching him.

“Please wo—”

Where Carlos's heart is, it pulses with a big spark of purple lightning coming from it, and Carlos's body brightens up.

Lightning shoots out like his dad said. It explodes, lightning booming out in a shockwave. The ceiling and wall behind him are blasted away, and that's all Carlos can remember for a moment.

Carlos falls. His vision is a blur. He looks around, and what he sees is that the area around him is almost completely gone. Only a quarter of the facility remains, but it's on fire and burning due to the energy and power of the explosion.

He realizes he's reaching out for a big piece of rubble and grabs it, pushing himself forward and aiming for a soft spot of grass.

“GAHH!”

He lands hard, rolling a bit, but he looks back at the facility and his eyes widen. The facility is gone. The remains are crumbling. The people who were once chasing him are probably burnt charred into nothing but ash, and even the trees and grass around them suffer with the chaos of everything going on. A wildfire is for sure to happen.

As Carlos lays there, he looks down at his body, his chest where the explosion originated. It's burned, and the flow of energy seems to have completely stopped for now. But something feels off. He looks at the burning rubble and winces when he sits up.

“No, no, no, no, Hana!”

He tries to move, but the pain is too much for him.

“She can't be… she got out, right? She had to have!”

He looks down, his fist clenched, and he starts to cry, tears falling down his cheek. Memories of her being the one helping him if he was hurt, feeding him, caring for him, all those were to help him relight the fire in him. He took that time for granted. He was in such a dark space that he even doubted her kindness.

“I'm sorry… thank you… thank you for opening my eyes and sparking me to come back.”

He wipes his tears and looks around at the fire growing closer to him. He pushes his body to turn as he crawls into the unknown forest.

He's crawling slowly, weakly. He groans a bit, the adrenaline wearing off, and he looks around for any type of shelter.

“Need to find home.”

He crawls for a while until he almost misses a nearby cave that's covered by some trees. He crawls over to it and turns over onto his back. The cold, hard floor is almost comforting compared to sleeping while chained up.

“Finally.”

He lays down. The feeling of being free is surreal to him. He's taking it in: no chains, not being tortured. His new life is finally gonna start.

He gets dozy, his eyes get heavy, and he starts to get sleepy and more sleepy, although the consequences of his actions are gonna play hard on him.

Carlos falls asleep, and for the first time in a long time, he's able to sleep a little peacefully.

The feeling of peace, of no one attacking him in the middle of the night, no one waking him up and roughly taking him in so they can run experiments on him. No more of that. He's finally able to have some peace after a year without it.