Shattered super-soldier

When Klara slowly woke up, the first thing that greeted her and subsequently snapped her awake was the grueling pain from her abdomen, she clenched her teeth and took slow shallow breaths for a few moments as she examined her surroundings, the room she found herself in was completely dark, as she checked her mobility the first thing she noticed was that her hands, feet and neck was shackled to the metal bed she laid on, at this point the dread slowly set in

She was injured, had been captured alive and was confined in a pitch black room, mystic knight she may be, but first and foremost she was a young woman in her early 20’s that had yet to be married

“...Damn it all”

A slow strained curse escaped her mouth, she knew the fate of a captured soldier wasn’t good, never mind the fate of a captured princess held by what she assumed was an enemy nation, being ransomed and living the rest of her life in a cloister in shame was the best option for her now, but then suddenly the room lit up blinding her momentarily, when she opened her eyes again she quickly studied the room

“Rosa!”

A familiar face laid to her right on a metal bed shackled down like her, Rosa was one of the 6 female mystic knights that had participated in the expedition, Klara’s yelled woke her up where she quickly let out a low gasp of pain as she looked around in confusion and spotted Klara

“Princess Klara!”

Upon spotting Klara Rosa immediately tried to get free from her restraints for a few moments but quickly gave up when she was painfully reminded of the gaping hole in her right shin, as raw strength hadn’t worked she quickly scanned the room around her and turned her head to her left where she saw another one of the female mystic knights, Laura which still was unconscious and called out to her

“Laura! Wake up!”

Laura didn’t respond, Rosa studied her for a few moments and saw chest move up and down in slow shallow breaths and cursed out loud

“Shit, Laura is in bad shape”

Klara felt the panic slowly set in, she could hear Rosa struggle in futility against her bindings and curse as she continued to call out to Laura, though suddenly a loud metal clang sounded out from the direction of the far wall at their foot end which silenced Rosa’s yells as she also looked at the door that steadily unlocked from the outside before it swung open, the figure that appeared in the doorway was a familiar one, it was the same person that had subdued their entire expedition force, the man confidently walked in, still only wearing a pair of black shorts he walked in on bare feet and slowly looked over the 3 women in silence, Klara felt her heart stop when his eyes passed over her but it stopped on the person furthest from her left, Laura

“...********, ***”

The man spoke something in a foreign language as he walked over to the metal bed where Laura laid until he stood besides it, from Klara’s point of view the back of the man didn’t betray a single opening, but she quickly noticed something odd about the man’s back, black vertebrae stuck out of his back along his spine

‘...Is that metal?’

“What are you doing to Laura!?”

Rosa yelled at the man that did something to Laura which Klara couldn’t see from her point of view, however she did notice metal sand flow out of his spine and down his right hand presuming onto Laura

“Hey! Answer me!”

“**** ** **** *** ****?”

The man didn’t turn around, but his sentence was clearly directed at Rosa that responded by hurling a insult back at him

“Whore son, I asked you a question! What are you doing to Laura!?”

The man didn’t answer, he let out a slow sigh before he muttered something

“***, **** ** **”

Rosa was about to yell back when her body suddenly jolted in pain as she snapped her jaw tight, a faint crackle came from the metal shackle around her neck

“Rosa!”

Klara yelled in surprise, but right after the crackle ended Rosa laid still, she had passed out, that’s when the man spoke, only this time he spoke in Dristan, the language spoken by most of the central continent, as well as the Willmir empire

“Quiet, she live, so this one will also”

While the grammar was anything but perfect, and it took Klara a few moments to even realize that he had spoken in Dristan, it was clear he could also understand them, so Klara calmed down herself for a few moments to lessen the pain in her abdomen before she asked

“...Who are you?”

The man chuckled for a few moments, Klara failed to see the humor in her question and after a moment he responded

“That don’t know, but to all you god”

The response baffled Klara and she muttered in confusion

“...God?”

Klara noticed the metal sand flow back up his arm before it entered his spine again, and as he turned around and carefully put his right palm on Rosa’s shin he spoke again

“Almighty, judge, jailer”

Klara looked into the man’s eyes for a few moments, the gaze was a mix between several she had seen before, there was the gaze of a mighty beast evaluating its prey, there was the gaze of a rabid dog that tore apart people for enjoyment in there and there was a gaze she had seen her grandfather, Duke Adam when she had wandered into his private quarters once, she had seen him sitting in a chair and gazing into the fireplace in silence with a glass of wine in his hand, he hadn’t responded the first few times she had called out to him

It was the gaze of an old soul weighed down by the past

-

Matthew looked at the young knight and waited for her response for a few moments, but even as he was done treating the noisy female survivor, she didn’t speak

[Treatment completed]

Matthew removed his hand from the healed leg of the noisy knight and moved over to the last, he remembered her, she had been the first target he had lined up, first in line and the youngest of the patrol she had clearly been eager to earn merit in the eyes of the old commander

‘...In other words, something is driving this young princess to seek glory’

Matthew walked over next to her and silently exclaimed the wound on her stomach before he placed his hand over the wound he had seared shut to stop her from bleeding out

‘Begin treatment… No anesthetic for this one’

[Orders received, deploying Trauma nanite pattern 1]

Matthew noticed she still silently looked him right into the eyes and showed a grin before he stuffed a piece of cloth into her mouth and spoke

“Clench your jaw”

The princess followed his instructions and for the first 7 seconds of the excruciatingly painful treatment she manged to keep mostly conscious before she finally let out a low scream through her clenched teeth and finally passed out a few moments later

“That, that was mean of you Matthew”

Matthew shrugged as he grabbed the young princesses jaw to free the cloth from her mouth before he pulled it out and threw it into the trash can in the corner of the room and laid her face down to the side before he explained his actions to Alina that stood in the doorway behind him

“I have a feeling that this here is a good seedling, either she will make a terrific soldier or her will breaks, which will most likely turn herself into a hollow shell of her former self”

“...Go, go on”

Matthew turned around and faced Alina as he spoke

“If option 1 is the case we bring her under our control, if option 2 is the case she will still be worth a pretty good ransom, it’s a win-win situation”

Alina nodded after a few moments and spoke

“As, as long as you don’t get, get any funny ideas”

Matthew shrugged once more before he spoke in a calm tone

“I was neurologically neutered when I was turned into a slave soldier, even before then don’t remember any particular interest in taking anyone by force”

Alina remained silent for a few moments before she nodded, Matthew walked over and stepped out of the 2nd cell block before he locked the metal bulkhead behind him, it would be furnished into a full airtight and radiation shielded seal once resources were a little less scares, But for now the solid metal bulkhead worked well as a prison block

“Let’s go back upstairs, we should still be able to catch the sunset”

Alina nodded and followed along with Matthew back up the staircase up to the now about 1 kilometer wide clearing that made up the base camp where Matthew rotated his and Alina’s laid back beach like chairs west towards the sunset and laid down in his and admired the sunset as Alina silently took her seat next to him

“You know Alina, companionship is more than just carnal instincts”

Alina was clearly caught off guard by Matthew’s blunt statement and blurted out

“I-I know, know that!”

Matthew let out a hearty laugh which earned him a punch on the shoulder from Alina which made him understand his blunt comment had missed its mark and he explained

“I enjoy your company Alina”

Alina was about to confess her own admiration for him once again when Matthew opened his mouth once again and ruined the mood

“But even if I could feel my dick, I wouldn’t screw an android”

This comment earned him another punch, this one was much harder than the last and was followed by another which was even more painful, then another which knocked him out of his seat as a crack sounded out from his shoulder

“Ouch!”

[Fracture detected, please pacify the mistress before treatment can be administered]

Realizing he had taken his joke too far Matthew quickly raised his right hand in defense as he hurriedly spoke to pacify Alina who was clearly whiling up her mystic powers going purely by her swishing knife like ears and frosty presence

“Wait, time out! I never said either of our predicaments were permanent!”

Alina’s ears stopped whirling, but she remained silent, prodding Matthew to explain further by proxy of Aea’s silence and his still broken shoulder joint

“I promised to make you a body, a real living although synthetic body… By then we’ll have the infrastructure to cure my numb dick if it is something we still want”

Alina remained silent for a few moments before Matthew felt his vision rapidly chance as he found himself back on the beach like chair before the other got violently blown to bits next to him and Alina appeared above him and fell down half a meter knocking the air out of his lungs as she laid down on his chest

[Trauma nanite pattern 1 and 2 tasked, full recovery in 45 seconds]

Matthew kept his mouth shut and watched the sunset in silence with Alina, he wasn’t dense or daring enough to ruin the slowly building subtle mood between them 3 times in a row