The lab was silent, except for the blue liquids that dropped through thin glass tubes, one drop at a time, before hitting the metal trays below with uneven taps.
On another desk, green fluid moved through narrow pipes, bubbling faintly as it passed through rusted joints and old valves.
The dim light above flickered over rows of rusted equipment that hadn't been touched in years, casting dull reflections across cracked monitors and fogged glass.
Their screens were dark and coated with dust, while others still hummed like they had never stopped working.
In the center of the room stood a tall transparent cylinder that seemed to be the only active tool in that lab.
A naked human body hung suspended inside the containment unit, held upright by metal clamps around the arms, waist, and legs.
Green gas filled the compartment around the body, clinging to skin and hair like smoke that was being trapped behind glass.
Tubes were connected to the body's chest, neck, arms, and back, disappearing into machines that hadn't been touched in a very long time.
The man in the tube hadn't moved in decades.
His eyes were closed. His body was scarred with old wounds, which had faded but were still visible beneath his pale skin.
Time had passed everywhere else in the world, but here, time had simply remained still, forced to stop for one particular soul.
Drex.
This was where Drexel MalFoy had been kept while the world moved on into ruins.
~~~~~~~
The fingers inside the tube twitched briefly. It was a small movement that one wouldn't have noticed if they didn't pay close attention.
About a minute had passed after that subtle movement. Then, his chest jerked once, then went still again.
This time, it didn't take a minute before his lungs finally dragged in air, and when they did, it burned.
Yet, his eyes remained closed, with a look of agony painted on his face, as if he were stuck in a whirlwind of a nightmare.
For a brief moment, the veins along his forearm pulsed darker beneath his skin, almost like something inside them moved before settling again.
Every muscle ached in his body, and they were stiff and slow to respond, because they hadn't been used in years.
His body was heavy, like it didn't fully belong to him anymore. And for some reason, he didn't feel the way he used to.
And then, his eyes slowly peeled open. That simple motion caused his head to throb, and for a moment nothing seemed to click in his head.
His blue eyes adjusted slowly to the dim light of the laboratory, drifting across the rusted machines and dark monitors surrounding the glass cylinder.
For a brief moment, the color shifted.
A brighter shade of blue flashed across his irises before settling again, gone quickly enough that even he seemed unaware it had happened.
His eyes took in everything he saw with confusion. He didn't know who he was, where he was, or how he got there.
There were no memories. No fragments of his being. Nothing.
Before he could comprehend a solid thought, a sharp sound cut through the room as a monitor flickered on, with a single line jumping across the screen, then another.
About ten seconds after his heart started beating, the lab reacted, and all systems and machines that had been silent moments ago began to power up all at once.
Another cracked monitor sputtered to life, its dusty screen flickering through lines of diagnostic code left behind by the laboratory's automated systems.
{REBOOTING SYSTEM...}
ERROR: DATA CORRUPTION AT SECTOR 7G
>> 01011100 01101111 01101001 11011111
{SYSTEM RECOVERY: 14% ... 32% ... ERROR}
0x000F2//STACK_OVERFLOW//&&&_SYSTEM_HALT_&&&
DREXEL_COLBERT_MALFOY
{RESTORING...RESTORING...RESTORING}
The screen spasmed, lines of code bleeding into each other before a single block of text stabilized, flickering violently against the darkness.
[SYSTEM_RESTORE_COMPLETE]
DATE: 09/ 05 / 2065
PROJECT: 2025 {DECOMMISSIONED}
---------------------------------------
SUBJECT: DREXEL COLBERT MALFOY
STATUS: UNEXPECTED REVIVAL / CRYO-THAW
---------------------------------------
PRESERVATION: NEON-CHLORO-GLYCOL [VENTING]
CORE TEMP: 12.0°C >> [WARMING]
PULSE: 12 BPM {WEAK}
O2_SATURATION: 45% {CRITICAL}
---------------------------------------
GENETIC SCAN: CANIS-TYPE {MUTATION DETECTED}
ORIGIN: UNKNOWN
READINGS: ERROR 101 — SUBJECT OUTSIDE KNOWN BIOLOGICAL PARAMETERS
WARNING: MUSCLE ATROPHY / SENSORY SHOCK
---------------------------------------
DO NOT ATTEMPT MANUAL EGRESS.
The lab's dormant security protocols suddenly snapped awake, interpreting the biological anomaly as a breach that needed to be contained.
Red lights flared across the ceiling, flashing in steady intervals like emergency sirens, with loud alarms echoing through the lab and bouncing off the walls.
The sound itself sent waves of migraines to Drex, as he gritted his teeth together with his eyes sealed shut, trying to ward off the sounds.
The green smoke that was once in the compartment with him had gotten sucked out, leaving nothing except for the man in the glass cylinder.
The tubes that were connected to all parts of his body withdrew themselves, and all shackles that suspended him in the air automatically peeled off his waist, arms, and legs.
He dropped to the floor with a dull thud, his legs weak and unresponsive beneath him.
A glass window stretched across the far wall of the laboratory, and moonlight spilled through it onto the floor.
Beyond the glass, the city had collapsed into a graveyard of concrete and twisted steel.
Buildings had fallen into each other, streets were buried beneath debris, and the silence outside carried the weight of something long abandoned by the living.
For a moment, nothing moved in the ruins.
Then something shifted far below between the broken structures, slipping through the darkness before vanishing again, leaving the empty city still and quiet once more.
The tube Drex was enclosed in slowly opened with a soft hiss, as it parted into two sections, giving a door-like way out.
Drex knelt on the floor, palming both his ears, wanting to shield them from the alarm that was still sounding.
He crawled out of the tube, each movement sending a new wave of pain to the muscles in his body.
"Password required." He suddenly heard the voice come from the walls of the room.
He flinched at the sound, his head lifting slightly as he looked around the room, trying to find where it came from.
The voice sounded mechanical, and Drex knew it was some sort of man-built system that was talking.
"2025.07.09. MalFoy-D. Authenticate." The reply came from the other side of the sealed door.
The name "MalFoy" settled into Drex's mind, and for some reason he was so sure that name was his. But aside from the name, nothing else followed.
"Step forward for biometric scan." The robotic voice sounded again, followed by a pause that lasted a few seconds. "Access granted. Welcome, President Steele."
The title echoed in his head, hollow and unfamiliar, yet heavy enough to make his temples hurt.
The door opened, and the red beeping alarm stopped immediately.
A tall man with grey streaked hair, seeming to be in his early sixties stepped in first. A panicked expression etched to his features.
Several people in white coats followed close behind him, careful not to step ahead, as if crossing that invisible line required permission.
The man's eyes moved quickly across the lab, then stopped when they met Drex's, who had a conflicted look on his face.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
The older man stared at him like he was looking at something that shouldn't be there anymore.
His eyes moved over Drex's face, his chest, the opened glass tube behind him, as if he was trying to make sense of what he was seeing.
The more Drex stared at the man, the harder his head throbbed, and he felt something pulling at the back of his mind.
The man's mouth opened slightly, but no sound came out. His hand lifted halfway, then stopped, hovering in the air, because he wasn't sure if he was allowed to touch him.
Then, a name surfaced in Drex's mind.
There was no memory, no pictures, just a name that felt familiar enough to hurt.
"Saw... yer."
The name tore out of his throat like it had been buried there for years.
~~~~~~~
{A/N: Jsyk, the gas doesn't exist.
I failed Chemistry in school.
I had like 27 marks out of a 100…}