Finally, about time I finished this chapter! Okay, so because of how long it is, I had to separate the chapter in to 2 and make a little bit of it a bit of rushed writing. But trust me, it's really sad and powerful for this second to last chapter. So Whiteclaw won't be there (speaking) anymore until book too. And as a disclaimer, get those tissues ready....

Again :D

A tremor woke me from the long sleep.

One long skull ringing tremor.

After its vibrant outburst rambled through the earth, my glowing eyes slowly opened towards an array of blurry colors, and all four other senses marched straight back into my soul. Rocks tumbled over from my buried self after each aftershock, and as the silence drew near, I could feel my impending heart beat thunder in my chest. Pain washed all over my body when I came too, covering me from the tip of my tail to the front of my snout. My breathing was quick and terrified, for I felt even more scared when I learned more about what had happened.

Or what should've happened.

I should've died, I thought, beginning the struggle to move again, why am I alive?

I tried to move again. But alas, my whole bottom half of my body laid trapped and encased in rubble, some in which tore into my flesh. Shockwaves of pain made me tremble harder as I sent signals to my tail and legs.

But they too remained trapped.

My heart began to race, and my eyes widened as panic braced for impact.

No, no, no-

"Gah! G-" I growled, trying to push upwards from the force that restrain me, from death's claws that held me down.

No please! Not like this!

"AHH!" I cried again, tears skydiving from my red dusted eyes. I could hear the earth shake from my strength and the groans of the rocks. The pushing tore at my spine like talons and froze my joints in pain. But its weight overcame me even still, and I dropped like a rock with a trembling crash. My whole body shook and scared eyes beneath its sockets darted around.

I was so terrified.

The fear was above and beyond my wits to contain it, and in primal fear, I yelped out into the darkness.

"HELLO?!" I screeched. All that returned was a booming sound that rippled the earth and made my stomach twist inside, "Someone?!"

Another crackle hit the skies.

"PLEASE!" I was in tears as I roared out louder, "PLEASE SOMEONE! SOMEBODY HELP!!"

But in my heart, I knew nobody would even come to rescue me. I yanked at my legs and only was gifted with the feeling of agony.

I opened my mouth and roared the loudest I could, making the rocks over me quake.

Still, nothing benefited from my carnivorous call for help.

"HELP!!" I sobbed, then released yet another bellowing roar that would shake the heavens above me. My breathed raged on into hyperventilation, which in turn strained my lungs and pulled me into a darker void of what may happen to me; one in which I couldn't return, "I'M TRAPPED!! I'm here, I'M STUCK...! I CAN'T MOVE! I...."

I broke down in tears before yelling again.

"Atlas?!" I wailed, shivering hard as another rumble made the ground bounce, "Whiteclaw?!"

Nothing.

"Feather! Queen?! ANYONE?!"

But nothing dared return my calls.

"GUYS!!"

Nothing could hear my screams.

"Please...." I wept with a lifted skull, closing my eyes in the darkness, "Please somebody...please...." I strained to turn my head towards the only light from outside knocking a few more tiny rocks to the ground, "Please don't leave me here...please don't...please..."

A huge eruptive explosion shook my body and the earth itself as I laid there, followed by a blinding light that lasted a few seconds. The ground jolted again following the light path in which I closed my eyes, before dying out into nothing. In the midst of my closed eyes, I felt the tears rush down my huge face, drenching my teeth outside my jaws with salt and saliva. I laid my head onto the ground once again in defeat, sobbing silently to myself.

It's over for me, I thought, I'm alone.

My nostrils flared as my chest heaved, squeezing more tears from my sorrowful eyes. For many minutes as I laid weeping to myself, I spent admiring and feeling the earthquakes shake the valley and the land itself fall apart. I was sure that over seven fateful minutes had passed before my eyes awake from its conscious nap. I felt Dad's beady and loving eyes fall upon me suddenly within my mind, and when the realization of his early death sunk into my brain, I gritted my teeth and shook horrified.

Strange words suddenly slipped from my toothy jaws; words that were meant to prepare for my own death.

"Dad," I croaked in tears, "If you could hear me up there..., I just wanted to say that I love you....I love you so much dad....." My breath shook on each abbreviated word as I squeezed my eyes closed again, feeling more tears fall, "So much. I never knew how they felt until now, and it hurts....so much when I did! How dare I be so mean and unwanted to you over mom's death..." I shook my head, "That....That was very wrong of me... I know better than to push you away like that." The ground shook again, and I curled my head away, waiting for it to stop.

More pebbles fell, and my heart shattered evermore than before, "I never wanted to lose you. But now that I do....I need you more than ever. I-I don't know what to do Dad...I'm stuck...I'm trapped and stuck. A stuck Tyrannosaurus waiting for extinction. That's all I am...." I bowed my head, planting my nose into the soil as the tears rolled down my scrunched up miserable face, "I don't know what to do anymore, I don't know what to do..."

Silence.

I laid there in the same position for a while even after the voice of my roar had died. My throat twisted and strained red from its inflammatory effects to spark a call. But thus, before it too could die out I closed my jaws and cooled its flesh.

Perhaps it was the time to sneak into my own mind for the time being.

Unless it was dark, cold and empty, like it was now.

I sighed and rolled my head to the side, feeling the rigid uncomfortability of my trapped limbs beneath the rubble. And as I lowered my eyes again, I felt no tears suppress underneath my eyelids.

Unless I had run out of tears too.

Another few heartbreaking minutes passed onwards as the earth rocked me around, and even in the sight of sorrow, grief and failure, a thought had been created in my mind.

I need to get out of here.

A horrible groan of ripping earth reverberated above me as the tremor continued, making me grit my teeth beneath my snout. I recalled many days ago, the day that an earthquake destroyed Three-Toed Caverns. When I saved Whiteclaw, but still became trapped between the friends of death.

I remembered what I bellowed, what I promised:

"I'm not giving up!!" My past self growled into a demonic roar, "No matter what stands in my WAY!"

Another shudder in the earth made me come back to my senses, and back into the reality of being trapped.

Don't give up, I breathed in and out, okay. Don't give up. I've been hiding for too long. Time to get up.

I began to reset my original movements from before, growling silently to myself as I slowly pushed up with my injured feet and bent knees.

The rubble groaned above me.

Out of nowhere, pain slashed into my gut and over my body, yet on the verge of falling back down, I ignored it the best I could, screeched in my jaws.

C'mon Shadow.

I pushed up with another splint of energy, then cried out as more pain fumbled with my muscles and tendons. Another push upwards made the boulders upon me tear at my flesh. Instantly, I began to yelp and roar in agony.

This is too much! I thought horribly, sinking back down, I can't I can't-

No....I can. I can do this! I screeched again within another push, finding my skull and a bit of my pubis above the earth.

Believe! Don't be afraid!

I growled again feeling the rocks fall off.

FEAR is for PREY! Whiteclaw's old saying somehow found its way into my mind, now it's time to be the predator Shadow!

I winced and cried in tears as the agony worsened on my spine, but the light grew brighter all around. My jaws cranked open into a scream, yet nothing came out but the horrible wheezing of my lungs.

C'mon Shadow! I thought harder, Almost there!

"GAHH!" I screamed as I extended my knees, for they were shaking in their own tremors.

One more push...

Within my last voice-shattering roar, my knees were strong enough to push through the rubble that held me down. In one strong movement, the boulders flew up into the air and broke away from my back. My whole body jerked upwards with the rocks, and as they descended, so did I. My body fell upon my chest again with a vibrating thump, and my eyes glowed cold and tired. My knees twitched and ached endlessly, but not as horrible as my spine did, for blood painted over its sharp points and sleek design. I weakly blink on the ground, sniffed away my tears and glanced up.

Everything was a mess.

There was no dead trees, no canyons, no trenches.

No water, no life, not even a desert.

It was just black and orange. Black dried lava and orange flowing madness.

The sky was made of smoke now, and despite no ash falling around us, it was way too toxic already for me. I sniffled, then hacked a painful cough as the sour and bitter scent wafted into my lungs, burning its insides out. I groaned as I laid there, staring at a murdered landscape of just rocks and lava. The mountains in the distance were also volcanoes. I don't think there was one mountain that was not a volcano.

The ground rumbled again, and with a painful moan I limped up to my feet. My left foot curled inwards as I stood, as if my instincts automatically made me protect my feet. I nudged my underside and licked my cut leg.

Ouch. That hurts.

My spine was cut and bloody too, but nothing fatal.

I was lucky.

I exhaled once again, then glanced upwards to the ramshackled area. And gasped.

The twisted clock was many meters away from me, laying on a burnt and ruined hillside. The cave that contained it was non-existent.

How far was I thrown by the firestorm? I wondered, beginning to limp towards the golden clock. I winced between each limp, carefully moving across the rocky landscape to not fall. As I limped around, I glanced strangely at the twisted clock, unblinking and in awe of its structure, but mainly because of its lights.

Upon the lights was one last little number under population, flashing and shaking to stay awake.

4

"4 of us are still alive?" I gasped. I turned my huge body around, glancing at the devastation and frowned.

How?

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a wailing cry jolted my heart awake. I flinched from the first cry, which followed by a sob and a silent roar.

An Indosuchus roar.

"Atlas!" I called. I almost forgot about my injury, and immediately after rushing towards the sound, I tripped and twisted my injured leg foot, smashing into the earth.

But I didn't really care.

I pushed upwards again, thundering as fast as I could to the downed carnivore. But the closer I got to him, the more he sounded heartbroken.

Or somebody else sounded broken.

"....Feather! Oh Feather!"

"Atlas!" I roared. Atlas's bruised skull lifted up from the rubble, and his face twisted with grief and yet a bit of surprise and happiness.

"Shadow?"

"Atlas I'm here!" I croaked, stumbling over to him, "I'm here, I'm here."

"Help her!" He cried, "Help her!"

"Feather?" I cocked my head. In the darkness of the rubble, I could feel the shallow breath of another female Indosuchus, who too was softly weeping in pain.

"Atlas what about you-"

"HELP HER PLEASE!!" he roared in tears. Without question, I stomped over to where the beautiful carnivore laid, grabbing pieces of rocks and rubble from the body.

"It's okay Feather," Atlas's shattered voice clicked, "It's going to be okay." His head nudged Feather's own when it arrived into the light, and shallow breaths just continued to fall from her jaws. I continued to remove the rocks from the carnivore, but paused as I reached the final one.

For there was no way I could take this one out.

"Atlas..." My jaws quaked as I dropped the last rock still in my mouth.

"What?"

"It..." I felt tears rush below my eyes, "The last rock it...." Atlas lifted his head high to see what I meant, for I was too speechless to say a word. What came back was a horrified face from Atlas, one that might've drowned his hopes into darkness.

Feather lifted her silent head calmly, glancing without a single expression at her chest.

She was impaled.

Feather suddenly coughed hard, then sank her head low as blood dribbled from her lips.

"No," Atlas shook his head, then strangely went on grabbing her noggin between his teeth, only to lay it at a softer, rock-free zone nearby. Feather coughed hard again, straining to keep awake, but locked her eyes on the own predator she loved.

"A-Atlas..." She croaked, hacking again. Atlas drew near while I stepped back, watching the two carnivores speak to one another. Thought I couldn't quite pick up what Feather had clicked to Atlas, it did seem to tear him apart mentally. Atlas was in tears as Feather's eyes began to close, and desperate to wake her, he kept bumping her cheekbone.

With the last bit of energy left inside of her, she lifted her huge skull towards the carnivore, paused by the side of his head, and gave one remorseful lick of love.

Atlas's eyes widened.

Seconds later, her head dropped like a rock to the earth. And all went still.

Atlas shook his head, "No..."

But we both knew what had happened.

Atlas pressed his head onto his one true love without shedding a tear and just quaked inside, gaping his jaws a bit open to taste the tearful salt-like saliva that grew in his mouth. He returned a bloody lick to her side and squinted his eyes to hide the tears.

"I l-love you t-too."

Immediately thereafter, the clock, now reading 3 lives remaining, sparked blue, snapped with electricity, then erupted with a circular motion of the same color.

The portal was open.