Long before Kael appeared at the base, four souls crossed paths in the cold corridors of HelionTech.
Lyon was the first. His father, desperate for money, traded his son for ciphers. Still a child, Lyon tried to run away the same day he arrived. He was beaten so much that he learned to save his hatred for when he could use it with precision. Since then, he decided he would never cry again.
Eiko came later, sold by a mother addicted to promises of a better life. Unlike Lyon, she never tried to resist physically. She preferred to observe, understand the guards' patterns, memorize the scientists' exits and behaviors. Each punishment she received was mentally noted as a lesson for the future.
Rin, the quietest, was left at the door of the corporation without even knowing by whom. She grew up in isolation in a dark cell, where experiments were constant and her mind began to see beyond what her eyes could see. It was Eiko who took her out of her solitude, sharing the little she knew through coded knocks on the wall.
Juno arrived laughing. To this day, no one knows if it was nervousness or premature madness. Sold by his own uncles, he learned to joke about pain as a shield. He was the youngest, but also the most impulsive. He was the one who united the four with a simple phrase, which he said between laughs:
— If we are going to die here, let it be as a messy and dangerous team.
It was between bars, exams and pain sessions that they became brothers. And even when separated in different experiments, they found a way to meet again. They were children, but the promise of destroying HelionTech already burned brightly in each of their hearts.
The first escape attempt failed. The second one too. But in the third, with Lyon leading the attack, Eiko deactivating the systems, Rin confusing the sensors with her illusions and Juno blowing up one of the exits, they escaped.
They were welcomed by the resistance of Aria when they were still young. And there they promised never to be guinea pigs again, never to be used again. They became soldiers. Brothers. And when Kael arrived at the base, carrying the same mark of HelionTech in his blood, they knew that the past was not over yet. But this time, they were prepared to face it together.