||𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟏5𝐭𝐡, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟎||

Waking felt more like a dream than reality ever did.

The white hybrid's talons clicked and twitched, two morbid red eyes burning like hidden rubies under a sleek silver sun. A reverberated hum was all she could hear -- while it helped withhold the ringing in her ears, it failed to tame her growing headache. Or any ache, for that matter -- her whole body still buzzed with the faint aftershock of battle.

A battle she lost.

The adrenaline in her system was slow to arrive, too, driving against a faint haze of fog clogging her veins. Then it would rub against her mind, persistent that she'd rise up to the world, and she did.

Slowly. She wasn't accustomed to sleeping for so long.

Indy growled and groaned, hoping primal sounds could nullify the annoyance in her head. Her vision was now just a bloom of white blurs, gray blobs, and suspicious hints of deep dark blue.

Where am I?

And she was numb all over. Even if Indy managed to muster enough energy to move her body she'd fail to react as quickly as her younger self. Every pain receptor within had shut off completely, making her limbs feel like jelly. A claw drew to the base of her neck -- the damages here were patched by something leathery and thin. Scent, taste, thought, and sound became mute to her mind, voiding her the chance to study herself, and she didn't like it one bit.

So the indominus rex pushed to all fours, trying her best to make way for her surroundings with what little effort she could give. The earth was tested first -- a thump of her tail sent vibrations to her fingertips, and put a low-level growl back in her throat. There was no need to feel when echolocation was gifted to you.

Concrete floor. Shaded Ceiling. Four lights.

She then rubbed her body against the walls, tail snaking against abiotic flesh until she struck another corner. The vibrations of the surface to her snout was enough of an indicator.

Metal walls.

Indy moved on. Pacing through her emotionless state, her nostrils bumped against an invisible wall before her, winning a confused grunt from the female.

Glass?

She rounded back and forth against the space cut off from sheer reach. Sniffing the empty pane (and ending up with nothing), her eyes began flexing in and out of focus, a single realization coming to the forefront of her mind.

Glass...

She lifted a talon, tapping against the thick fragment twice. Then she hesitated. Glass was fragile, thin, easy to break -- why give a hybrid the benefit of the doubt? Even for humans, that seemed far-fetched.

Returning to her original mission, the hybrid drew closer to the window frame, watching little puffs of steam fog up what little she could see. 

But, as she inhaled, Indy's mind began to twist fact and fiction, and no longer did she stare into the empty blackness of what stood before her. Now she looked downward, the sloped ridges of the window now rounded and marked with blue plastic. 

And, just a bit further down into that orb of glass sat two strange blobs -- humans -- staring right back up at her. Jaws agape in a silent scream. 

Terrified.

Indy's heart stopped. Her claws began to twitch, a slither of drool oozing down her maw. She didn't know why. Despite her growing anxiety, the intrusive thoughts still won. And, without even realizing it, Indy stabbed the same claw straight through the wall.

CRACK!

The instant a small spider web shot out from her incision, the entire room turned red, and a threatening growl rippled through the prison walls and into her ears. The humans before her vanished in way of a huge metal door slamming into the path of the window and scaring her back. And long before Indy could question anything, a blast of molten steam struck the hybrid head on.

It burned like hellfire.

Roaring out in despair, Indy tried to run, but whatever mist was pushed into her cage shut her down in an instant.

It wasn't poisonous. But it smelled and tasted far worse than aged blood.

Now she could barely breathe. Her lungs contracted hard; the air she breathed stopped short above each nare like dust to a table. Slumping to the adjacent wall, Indy let out a whimper of discomfort, her legs trembling against the choking strain within her throat.

Everything began to feel weak.

Everything began to fail her. Even her own weight became a burden.

Her body collapsed. The ground shook upon impact, tail flailing from behind.

And everything went dark.

◤◢◣◥◤◢◣◥◤◢◣◥◤◢◣◥

"Mrr..."

It was quiet again in the room. Scentless. Still. Too still to call natural. Too empty to call home. Everything looked just like the way it was left: an untouched window, a bright-white room, and a limp hybrid lying on the ground.

Still trapped in a never-ending nightmare.

Her quills raised before she did, even her eyes greeted the blobs of colors long before sound and touch could even come through. Indy guessed a cycle had passed; the ground beneath her was warm and oily, and her tongue felt parched. Her mind swelled in a sea of distraught thoughts and frantic annoyance, just as she had done a time before. But now she couldn't fight them.

What happened?

Where am I?

What is this place?

What did they do to me?!

The hybrid trembled, rearranging herself back to the metal walls and back to the glass blockade she tried to break. For a second she hoped to shatter the window again; another try wouldn't hurt.

Until she thought back to her prior attempt. And the many attempts that would follow if she kept fighting fate. Because that 'did' hurt her. Enough to drive her mad and drop her like a rock in the sea. Sure, part of her mind agreed that the window gave her a fresh opening to take.

But that was the point.

Humans were smart. Even from behind a wall, Indy could tell there was a secondary safeguard waiting just meters ahead of her cage. Had she broken free of the first trap another would ensue long before she could rush to safety. Beyond that hid another. And another.

Each one chiseling away the heart of hope she carried with her.

It wasn't worth it. Not this time.

Swallowing once, Indy moved from the glass wall to study the rest of the room. The blurs of the window led her to a third wall, marked with rows and columns of thick glass squares divided by thin streaks of white concrete. Indy peered through one of the windows, struggling to see past the blur.

Only to see a flash of brown scales, and one beady yellow eye lunge into view.

"YOU!"

The walls of the prison shook as the theropod threw her entire body into the chamber, sending a terrified Indy fumbling to the ground.

"You two-eyed, murderous snake!" Rexy roared, her vicious echo vibrating the reinforced walls and Indy's petrified soul. "I will rip you to shreds!"

She wasn't kidding.

Without warning, Rexy charged head first into the wall, another tremor scaring Indy even further back to her end of the cage. But, just like her last attempt at escape, it did nothing more than leave a dent in the wall, and a wobble between each frame of glass. The room above Rexy then turned red; the tyrannosaurus backed down, cowering out of fright, and fell still.

Waiting for what happened to Indy to happen to her. But nothing did.

Just as fast as it turned, the room returned to its normal white glow. Rexy growled; her knowingness in a lack of power forced the queen of all creatures to submit to human control. And, once it became clear of her lack of intention, no damage would come to her.

So long as she and Indy both knew their place, it would remain so.

The apex predator lowered her head again, peering through one of the squares at the terrified indominus rex, and sneered. Even behind the safety of a wall, the hybrid was still prey to her predator.

"I hope... you're happy..."

Indy bared her fangs. "You attacked me!"

"With reason."

"Without reason," Indy growled back, quills rattling down her spine as she stood up. "You hunted me."

"Oh... I have every right to kill you where you stand," spat the cynical rex, tail lashing from behind. "Whether I crush your bones or rip out your throat will be just fine."

Indy's stomach fluttered. "I did nothing to you."

Rexy snarled a wordless snarl, winning another flinch from Indy's heart. Pausing mid-breath, the rex relaxed her jaws, lowered her tail, and hissed. "Hrr... Maybe not now. Maybe not yet. But you will."

"I-"

"Don't twist your wretched words to be a victim of the monster that you are, pest. It won't save you from me."

Indy fell quiet, jaws tightening to hold back the curses rolling to her tongue. Her tail dipped, eyes glossing over the molten floor in subtle regret.

"You don't even know me."

"I don't need to," the rex said, keeping one eye locked to the glowing frame of Indy's red orbs. "I see right through your scales. I smell the blood on your breath... the hunger brimming your eyes."

Indy huffed, rounding away from the window so her tail faced the burning stare of the theropod. "I may have her memories. Her scales, quills, and eyes. But I am not her."

The rex snorted. "I don't need context clues to know the difference between a cockroach and a mosquito."

"Some humans are cockroaches, too. They don't care for life."

"And you do?"

The white hybrid suddenly spun around, eyes flashing with annoyance, and stomped toward the window where the queen looked in. She bared her fangs, claws clenching tight, and eyes blazing with a fury boiling of hate.

"I said, you don't KNOW me!" Indy roared, her booming cry rattling the glass walls. "Stereotype my race for all I care, but you're dead wrong!"

"Three failures is enough to tell a pattern."

"You're only afraid I'll follow in their footsteps," Indy hissed, her throat rippling with hatred. "Killing me will not solve all your problems, and you know it."

"Hrrr... It will solve one."

A humming sound suddenly echoed above both rooms, the lights sharply turning a dark red hue as a warning for both creatures. Rexy and Indy's eyes lit up to stare at the ceiling, awaiting the smoke to drop down and drug them to sleep. But, just like before, nothing happened. It was only a warning for what would happen if they went on like this. So Rexy decided to add her own warning to the mix.

"I'm not letting you leave here alive," she said, baring her bloodied fangs at the hybrid. "Enjoy what little time you have in your cell, pest. Because when those humans slip up -- and they will -- you're mine."

The hybrid shuddered. In just one word, the lethal snarl of the theropod became her greatest threat. She could see the blood burning in her eyes, and smell her blood lingering off Rexy's maw. Fighting the theropod would be the death of her. Submission was far-fetched, too -- she'd kill her without question. So, there was nothing left to do other than to silence herself. Hide.

And wait.

Rexy snorted, turning back to her end; Indy did the same, less confident than her counterpart. She scowled as she wandered to and fro, blinking back her growing emotions that rushed to her face. A minute was all Indy could muster before she slumped to her underbelly, and let her emotions run free.

"Seven will come for me," Indy whimpered, curling into herself in the corner. "She'll come for me, she promised..."

BZZT!

The room suddenly turned red. Confusion found both predators' eyes, their heads raising to the ceiling tiles as a blast of smoke suddenly shot down at them. Rexy's heart sank.

"Not again..."

Indy yelped with fright, squeezing her eyes and nares shut to avoid the mist. Between the folds of her eyes, she noticed the little gimmer of finely dressed humans arriving at both of their cells, sharp surgeon-like items sitting idle on their sleek rolling tables. Seeing them was all Indy needed to know what was bound to happen to them both.

And nothing was more terrifying than a nightmare made real.

They'd never hurt me, she thought frantically, shaking her head as the mist grew near. Right? They wouldn't... I-

Rexy collapsed in the cage next door, succumbing to the mist that relayed her unconscious. It was only a matter of time before Indy had to force her play and suck in a breath of ruin, the mist burning her lungs and paralyzing her heart.

Wu...

Indy never had time to fight it -- the drug hit her like a car to a runaway deer. Her head went limp upon the tiles, a flash of white clouding her eyes as the humans surrounded her.

The world went dark a second time.

◤◢◣◥◤◢◣◥◤◢◣◥◤◢◣◥

It didn't stop with two.

The world went by in flashes of dark and light; a brief minute or two of consciousness would pass before the drugs subdued them to their slumbers.

Indy would find herself on the ground, the heavy stench of alcohol, smoke, and blood a choking haze to her nares. Then the mist would drop, and her world would close. Other times she'd awaken elsewhere, latched down as needles poked and prodded her scales, her maw bound by a belt that restricted her from announcing her anguish to the world.

Not that the humans cared for her pain.

The odors became repetitive, the agony coming in waves. Dreams and nightmares became synced, until nothing in the waking world seemed to make sense.

And then one night came. A peaceful night.

A night when nothing happened.

Indy and Rexy awoke in a small puddle of their own blood. Neither creature stirred when the stench of their essence struck their nostrils, and neither had the strength to even pester it. Whatever the humans did to them felt far worse than a strike to the gut, dooming them to the earth to whimper over.

And wait.

Indy whimpered once the pain began to surface, feeling a spike of warmth coming from her abdomen and jawline. She groaned, shifting her head to and fro before tensing up once she heard her flesh tear.

"..."

She went still again. Standing up would be a struggle, and she knew it. If they were just going to drug her again it didn't really matter.

Nothing did. They'd still hurt her anyway. Whomever they were.

Indy didn't want to think about what they did. It was shocking, terrifying, and upsetting in all accords, but not even emotion was enough to cover everything. The hallucinations did that for her, already surfacing in the form of thin blobs coating her eyes, fueled by the nightmares she refused to accept.

Voices began to grow. Growls of the past echoed throughout her head.

Memories that didn't belong to her were everywhere.

The indominus rex flared her nares, sealing her eyes shut to hear her mind speak. She didn't need mist to fall unconscious, she willed her body away so she could focus on what rotted from within. Words of time.

"She's a marvel... A spectacle of science..."

Words that, only now, seemed to enlighten the torment today.

"Oh, Indominus wasn't bred," she heard a voice say, needles being pushed into her flesh. "She was designed."

She could hear her hatchling self crying out as humans pumped vials of DNA into her bloodstream.

"The children?" another voice soon echoed her cage, an electric stick fizzing before her. "This will give the parents' nightmares."

A blast of blood suddenly struck her; a white male indominus, eyes gouged out, was dying before her feet. And she grinned at his demise. She grinned a deathly grin.

"She's killing for sport!"

"Help me!"

She heard a human voice screaming into a blood-stained radio before the vision blinked out again.

"This is my future!"

So much anger.

"That thing's part raptor."

Defiance.

"They belong to us... to mankind..."

Hate.

"You don't want to do this-"

It was never going to silence.

"My company!"

It was never going to end.

"KILL THEM!"

The sound of bones breaking echoed her ears, a weeping green raptor dropping lifelessly from her maw to the ground. She heard the screaming roars of defiance of her enemies, a few rounds of gunshot, before the whole world was swallowed up in dark blue seawater.

And indominus blood.

"I'll fix you up this time," she heard another voice whisper, her eyes blinking back through the peephole of an egg. "I promise."

No harm came to her.

"I promise."

No human broke her.

"Promise."

Revenge never crossed her mind.

"Promise me."

No memories. No history.

"Promise me, Indy?"

Until that siren went off in her cage. Until the world started repeating itself...

It's happening. It's happening again.

And then-

"They experimented on me," Rexy's voice broke the hybrid out of her hallucination. "D-Didn't they?"

Indy opened her wetted red eyes. She heard a soft gasp from the rex, then a second thud as the queen gave into her injuries. Rexy tried standing up again, only to flail back to her stomach, collapse, and hit the earth hard.

"Hrr... *cough-cough*"

Rexy growled, reeling in the waves of pain that came from her abdomen. It took a minute for it to cease, winning a puff of steam to drift out her maw and fog up the nearest wall. Both eyes blinked slowly as she fought the drug still coursing inside her, but she managed enough energy to speak.

"This seems... *cough*... to be a repetitive cycle... for me," she groaned. "Free one day, locked away the next. I just never expected to have this pain with-"

"A hybrid?"

Rexy flared her nostrils. "A pest."

"And there we go," Indy huffed from the floor. "That's the insecurity I was waiting for."

"I'm glad you've recognized who's in charge."

"Neither of us are."

"I'm still going to kill you, indominus rex."

"Yep."

Rexy's growl softened, as did Indy's. Both theropods laid in silence, listening to the hums of the fluorescent lights flickering dangerously above them. Seeing still proved useless, as did scent and touch. All they could manage was sleep. But even sleep felt overrated. And risky.

"INGEN's behind this, aren't they?" Rexy snarled.

Indy kept quiet.

Rexy lifted her head, gazing across the square pane to the limp blob of white that made up the grizzly hybrid. She thought something wrong had become of the beast, and a glint of bewilderment crossed the rex's face. And, when a minute of no response passed by, Rexy gave up, turned away, and rested her head back down.

"Rrr..." she sighed miserably. "Whatever they're doing to us-"

"I remember what he said."

Her eyes flashed, surprised to hear Indy croak. "What?"

"When I hatched. I remember now."

Rexy growled. "And that matters... how?"

Indy spoke: "He said, 'I'll fix you up this time.' That was his promise to me."

The hybrid paused again.

"Fix..." Indy whispered the word like a curse to the flesh. "I-I never knew what he meant by that..."

With a grunt, Indy rolled to her damaged underbelly, tail swishing from behind and chin resting to the concrete floor. Her crimson eyes began studying the plume of darkness oozing out of her chest, as if paint had been knocked over by a clumsy painter.

"I guess he was scared so he hid me away," she went on softly. "Tucked in a tightly-sealed box with food, water, and a forest to my discretion. And there was nothing wrong... nothing wrong at all. I-I felt like those birds I used to watch on the branches every morning... like I was meant to be here. Like I was happy. Like I was free."

She heaved another breath, her eyes fixating on the blood beneath her.

"But I'm not. Nobody is."

Rexy said nothing. So Indy inhaled a third time, eyes still looking upon her reflection in the blood.

"Maybe that's why he's hurting me. To remind me-"

"They hurt you because you have value to them," Rexy growled over her. "A product... The only difference is that you're his egg. His little 'monster'."

Indy whimpered. "I'm his next greatest mistake."

"You're all mistakes," Rexy hissed, rolling onto her underbelly. "Every last one of you."

Indy growled, claws curling in annoyance to the rex.

"I have yet to see a hybrid ending their story with a sense of gratitude-"

"Gratitude?" Indy snarled. "For what? Look at what they did to us!"

"Look at what you did to them!" she snarled. "A whole island is gone. Two hundred dead, fifty more missing. Another hundred at the Mansion, and thousands more yet to come through every breath you take. My kin is dead, and you expect forgiveness?!"

"Is that all you see?" Indy bared her teeth at the blurry pane. "So every crime scene is our wrongdoing?"

"Has it ever not been that?"

Indy gritted her teeth. "Of course you wouldn't understand. You weren't made in a lab and forced to be something you're not. The world idolizes you... because you lived long before they ever did. They make movies off of your rear-end, all because you are a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Not a hybrid.

The hybrid inhaled, flexed her nares once again. "All they ever wanted was another breakthrough. Another reason to feel accomplished." She wrinkled her brow. "So, while they nuzzled your little beak with flowers and fingers, they drugged us. While they fed you fresh, warm meat, they gave us the cold slabs of bone trickling out of a freezer. And, while you ran free, finding every reason under the sun to live, they threw us in a cage... and sold us for pleasure."

Rexy's eyes widened, gazing across the room to study Indy's furious face.

"What we're trapped in now barely scratches the surface of how cruel humanity is to my kin. But maybe you are right, maybe, because of what I am, I don't deserve to live. And I won't protest your reasons. But, after all they've done... to hurt me, to hurt my family and my friends, I have every right to do the same to you even if you step an inch in my way."

"I don't wish to follow in my ancestors footsteps," Indy hissed. "I'm not vengeful. I'm not... a monster. But, if they hurt her..."

"You'll kill everyone and everything in your path?" Rexy grunted. Indy looked up, shaking her head.

"I'm not a killer."

Rexy hissed, drawing her tail in a circle. "You have her blood. Her skin. Her eyes. I think we best find out, pest."

BEEP!

The lights ahead of both hybrids suddenly turned on, illuminating the darkened hallways behind the glass doors. Both theropods rose up uneasily, confused about what was happening. Rexy's eyes went wide, her head lifting to the ceiling knowing what was bound to happen.

"They're going to keep doing this," Rexy growled, cowering down in preparation for the mist. "Why?"

Indy shook her head. While the lights hadn't turned colors, seeing the lights was enough to put Indy in a state of constant anxiety. She looked around twice before returning back to the window. The lights had dimmed, but they were bright enough to see through the walls.

And peer upon the strange man standing in the shadows before Indy's cage.

Rexy's eyes flashed; she stumbled toward the window and leaned against the wall, a hideous growl escaping her jaws.

"Who is that?"

The figure didn't move.

"Wu..." Indy snarled, stepping away from the scratched window. "Did you do this?!"

The figure kept still.

"Show yourself..." she growled, stepping closer to the window. "C'mon..."

The figure didn't even hesitate when Indy gave out her warning. With two brushes of his hands, he stepped into the light for both Rexy and Indy to see.

Indy's face suddenly went slack.

She looked him up and down twice, then shook her head in sudden shock.

"You're... You're not Wu..."

The lights above Indy suddenly turned red. Bursts of mist shot out of the vents, clouding around the indominus rex long before she could react.

But Rexy was spared. The theropod watched in horror as the hybrid's cell began to swarm of the thickened fog, and heard the frantic squeal of anguish echo her own cell. Indy stumbled around, roaring helplessly -- the shadow didn't even move, smiling as fate ran its course.

Can't breathe...

Indy crashed into the wall closest to Rexy and dug her talons into its surface. The hybrid choked and gagged, struggling to stay afloat -- but she couldn't hold it for long. Both theropods shared a brief moment of intimacy, eye to eye, face to face. It was the same fear in both of them.

H-Help...

Trembling one last time, Indy collapsed before Rexy, her body falling limp in seconds.

A whimper was all she could muster before everything went dark.