CENTI

chapter 7

CH 7: THE FIRST MEMORY

The pain woke him.

It wasn’t his pain. Not the ache in his chest from the timer, not the burns on his hands from fighting VIPER.

This was deeper. Older.

Ryze was on the floor of the new safehouse. Sweating. Shaking. His hands clawed at his chest like he could rip the device out with his fingers.

"Ryze? Ryze!"

CENTI-07’s voice was far away.

He couldn’t answer.

Because he was 6 years old again.

---

White room. Blinding white lights.

The smell of disinfectant and blood and something metallic.

He was strapped to a metal table. Wrists. Ankles. Chest. Tubes ran into his arms, his neck, his spine. A breathing mask was forced over his face.

He couldn’t move.

A man’s voice came from speakers in the ceiling. Cold. Clinical. Like he was talking about a machine, not a child.

"Subject CENTI-01. Age: 6 years, 3 months. Activate sequence Alpha. Record vitals. Note: Subject shows 12% projected survival rate."

"Begin."

Pain.

Fire was injected into his veins. It felt like his blood was boiling. Like someone had poured lava into his heart. He screamed. The sound was muffled by the mask.

His body arched off the table. The straps cut into his skin.

Then ice.

Liquid nitrogen cold shot through his bones. His teeth cracked. His fingers went numb.

Fire. Ice. Fire. Ice.

His body was tearing apart and stitching itself back together. Over and over.

"Vitals unstable," the voice said. "Increase dosage by 20%."

More pain.

Ryze thought he was going to die. He wanted to die.

And then, another voice.

Soft. Young. Singing.

"Shh. It’s okay. I’m here. I’m right here. Don’t cry."

SIREN.

She was 8 years old. In the glass tube next to his table. She couldn’t reach him. Her own tubes were in her arms. But she was singing. A lullaby their mother used to hum.

"Don’t cry, little star. The night is dark but the morning comes. Don’t cry, little star..."

"Subject CENTI-02 is responding to audio stimulus," the voice said. "Note: Emotional attachment detected. Increase dosage to CENTI-01 to test pain threshold."

More pain.

Ryze screamed again. But this time, he heard SIREN’s voice over it.

"I’m here. I won’t leave you. I promise."

Hours passed. Or days. He didn’t know.

When it finally stopped, he was 18 years old in his body but only 6 in his mind.

The table released him. He fell to the floor.

A shadow stood over him. Kazuo. Younger then. 42 maybe.

"Stand up," Kazuo said.

Ryze couldn’t.

Kazuo grabbed his hair and pulled him up. "I said STAND."

Ryze stood. Shaking.

"Good," Kazuo said. "From now on, you are CENTI-01. You have no name. You have no family. You have a purpose. Do you understand?"

Ryze looked past him. To SIREN in her tube. She was watching him. She shook her head slightly.

Don’t say anything.

Ryze swallowed blood. "Yes, sir."

Kazuo smiled. "Good boy."

---

Ryze gasped and sat up.

He was back in the safehouse.

CENTI-07 was holding his shoulders. "You were screaming. Same nightmare?"

"I... I remembered," Ryze whispered. "The first day. The first experiment."

He looked at his hands. The fire and ice were flickering. Unstable. Sparking out of control.

The timer in his chest wasn’t 178 days.

It was less. Much less. He could feel it cracking. Like glass.

"How much time?" CENTI-07 asked.

Ryze touched his chest. "I don’t know. Maybe a week."

The room went silent. The other kids stopped what they were doing.

Ryze stood. His legs shook. "We need to leave. Today. Right now."

"Where to?" one of the older kids asked. "We just got here. We’re safe."

"No," Ryze said. "We’re not safe. Not until he’s dead."

"Who?"

"Kazuo."

"We can’t fight him," CENTI-07 said. "He’s too strong. He made us. He made you."

"Then we don’t fight him," Ryze said. "We end him."

He walked to the window. Snow was falling outside.

In his head, SIREN’s voice, soft and fading: "Make them remember my name."

He clenched his fists. Fire and ice.

He would.