Chapter Text
“Hey, are you awake?”
Nerone’s eyes flickered solemnly as she slid back to her conscience, she turned back to the person talking to her in the bed across from her, Fawn. Her eyes had changed throughout the night from her default tawny brown to an anxious purple, and her hands had grown talons similar to Nerone’s own.
Nerone wasn’t surprised, given their situation. Even after their first round of this with the lava, they still had no idea what Dream wanted with them, and they had been separated from Doris after their capture so she could be paired up with someone else.
She stretched out her limbs to wake them up again but once she reached her wings she remembered, oh right, those were tied shut to keep her on the ground. And suddenly, the memories of their capture and Fawn’s deafening screams as the lava poured on them crept to the front of her mind.
“Nerone?” Fawn asked again, her eyes widening in worry with the growing silence. Nerone rolled over in bed to face the wall, softly grumbling to herself with the realization that this hadn’t been an awful nightmare hastily impending. “It’s fine. I’m still here.” She said, waving her hand up and behind her towards Fawn. She heard Fawn give a soft sigh of relief before letting her elbow slip and flopping back onto her pillow. “How’re you feeling?” Fawn inquired.
“Like hell.” Nerone rasped, gathering the sheets that were underneath her and burying her face in them. “Everything still hurts from the lava.”
Fawn stared up at the ceiling, her mind slowly being clouded with fear. “Do…”, She pondered for a moment what she wanted to say, “Do you think we’ll find a way out of this?”
Nerone flinched at the thought of the answer to that being no, so she took a breath, turned to Fawn and gave her best smile. “Of course we will! We’ll find Doris and be out of here in no time.” She stammered, trying to preach.
But she saw the purple in Fawn’s eyes mix with blue and she knew that she knew she was faking her confidence.
The silence in the room afterwards only continued to grow as the two were consumed by their own thoughts.
That was until they heard footsteps coming to the door.
The two immediately perked up in their beds as the keypad to unlock their room was being pressed. A new sense of dread lodging itself in the girls’ throats.
“Nerone-”
“It’s gonna be okay, you know they won’t separate us.”
The blue in Fawn’s eyes blipped away and left only the purple while Nerone took to stroking the feathers on the tip of her tail. She tried to move her wings out around Fawn as well, but the attempt only left them soar and even more scrunched.
The door finally hauled open to reveal one of the researchers in this operation, a scorpion hybrid with a long, pristine white lab coat, a surgical face mask and a pair of fitted glasses. “Dr. Burrow” was on the ID badge around the researcher’s neck. He had a guard on either side of him with enchanted weapons and was looking over the paper snapped onto a clipboard in his hand. He seemed young, far too young to be wrapped up in a place like this.
“Alright, uh… 032-E and 032-F.” Burrow said, adjusting the glasses on his face in front of the paper, “Are those your names?”
Nerone looked down at the tag on her wrist, “032-E”, Fawn probably had the second name on her tag. The two stared at Dr. Burrow in anticipation, she thought about trying to lie the researcher away. But the look in the man’s eyes told her all she needed to know about the likelihood of that working.
“032-E and 032-F, are those your names?” Burrow questioned again, more demanding this time as the guards let their weapons show clearer.
“..Yes! Yes, that’s us.” Nerone blurted out, quivering.
Dr. Burrow’s eyes narrowed and then relaxed again, “Good. Now let’s get going, we have a very busy day today.”
He snapped his fingers and within seconds, the guards stepped into the room and grabbed Nerone and Fawn by their shoulders out of the beds. One of them pulled out two pairs of metal cuffs connected by a long chain and snapped them onto the girls’ wrists.
Dr. Burrow led them all out of the room and down a hall where other named rooms and researchers were about.
The screams from fellow captives in this operation were already faintly echoing behind the doors while the whispers of other researchers as they stared at Nerone became increasingly more frightening.
She could hear their conversations more clearly with the perk of her ears.
“-that one?”
“-you hear?”
“-something special-…”
“Gods bless her soul for what’s coming.”
Nerone felt her throat close as she pondered over the words’ meaning.
“Nerone?”
She felt her heart skip a beat with the sound of Fawn’s whisper.
“What were they saying?”
Nerone faltered for a moment before speaking, “…I don’t know.” She lied.
They finally made it to a large metal door with a guard on either side as well. Dr. Burrow showed his ID badge to the one on the right before he turned and typed in a password on the keypad behind him.
Immediately, Nerone and Fawn were enveloped with air fresher than they had ever breathed in what felt like forever as the door screeched open.
The area in front of them was a courtyard surrounded in a high chainlink fence with barbwire at the top, a stone pathway running through and connecting a series of closed off sections with little signs above the gates. One of the signs read Crossbow, another one further down read Anvil.
The two quickly understood why when they saw an anvil drop from above the fence and heard an affirmative crunch when it landed.
Not a single one of them breathed until Dr. Burrow led them to a section titled Fire. Nerone swallowed hard and took Fawn’s hand as Burrow opened the gate to the inside.
There was only a single wooden pole nailed in the center of the space with a pile of sticks and wood chips surrounding it, and an old looking camera on a tripod in the corner.
Dream stood right next to the camera with an old bloodstained book under his arm. Nerone could also see slight bloodstains that hadn’t washed out properly decorating his lab coat as he walked into the sunlight.
“You finally arrived, about time. You know, I would’ve had your head if you showed up late, Dr. Burrow.” Dream chuckled.
The unease in Burrow’s eyes flickered rapidly as Dream playfully slapped his back. “Of course, sir..” He stuttered.
Dream then approached the girls with a light pep in his step. “Alright, now let's see here.” He bent down to check the tags on their wrists, “032-E,” He read on Nerone’s tag, lightly lifting the piece up with his finger. “And 03-..”
Nerone felt something ignite when Dream stepped towards Fawn and her eyes shined more purple than ever.
“YOU STAY THE FUCK BACK, YOU SON OF A BITCH!” She barked, placing a foot in front of Fawn and swiping at Dream with her talons.
He stumbled back in an attempt to dodge and nearly fell to the ground while the guard next to Nerone knocked her in the back of the head with his elbow.
Dream stood straight again and checked his mask. “My, my… why the hostility here ladies?” He taunted.
“Oh. ‘Why the hostility?’, MOTHERFUCKER YOU KILLED US.” Nerone yelled. “You think I’ll let you near either of us?”
“Come on, it’s only been one time.” Dream drawled, walking back towards Dr. Burrow. “Besides, it’s not like you two are getting out of here anytime soon. Calm yourselves.”
Fawn straightened herself, “You’re wrong! People will come looking for us! They’ll come looking for everyone here.” She shouted.
Dream stopped and turned back to them for a moment, “If anyone would be looking for you, do you really think I would’ve chosen you for this in the first place?”
The girls froze in that moment while Dream’s words seeped into their minds.
“Now, let’s get this going, shall we?” Dream snapped his fingers and the guard on Nerone’s side unlocked her hand cuffs and moved her to the pole in the center.
He pulled out a separate pair of cuffs and chained her to the pole with her front side up against it.
“The hell are you doing? What is this?” Nerone questioned, although she felt she already had that answer.
The second guard pulled Fawn over to the other side of the space away from Dream and Dr. Burrow, “Wait, wait, I thought you said we’d do this together.” She said, turning to Dream for a response.
“You are, later. I just had something else I needed to work out before we really get to work with you two.” Dream sneered, walking up to the sparrow hybrid.
“Your wings.” He uttered, feeling the underside of her feathers.
Dream’s touch made her blood run cold, “What are you talking about?” She trembled, itching to scramble away from the masked man.
“It’s just… I could’ve sworn you said you were a human when you joined.” Dream leaned in behind her, “You know that I’ve banned wings on this server.”
Nerone froze.
“You… you wouldn’t.”
“I’m just trying to uphold the server’s rules.”
Nerone began to wraith and shake about in a panic as Dream stepped away from her, “No, no no, Dream you’re insane!”
“If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard that in my life,” Dream pressed his boot on her tail to keep her in place, then pulled out a flint and steel, “I don’t think I’d need to be standing here right now.”
“Wait, wait, stop!” Fawn screamed, etching forward towards Nerone.
The guards at her sides pulled her back by the chain and caught her in a headlock.
“Let me go!” She grunted, fighting with everything she had against the guards holding her in place. “Nerone!”
“FAWN!” Nerone yelled back, still struggling against the cuffs with tears already bubbling in her eyes, “DREAM PLEASE!”
“Don’t you worry. Soon, this will all be nothing but a terrible nightmare.” Dream brought the flint and steel towards Nerone’s wings and gave one affirming nod to Dr. Burrow.
“Beginning test in three, two, one.”
Swipe.
Within seconds, Nerone’s wings burst into flame, then her shoulders, then her entire body until her and the pole were nothing but one screaming fire.
After that, she had no idea how to describe what she saw.
She just remembered a suffocating pressure all around her, and not being able to tell which way was up or down.
A rich salt engraved itself in her lungs and proceeded to burn her from the inside out. The blood from the fire still pouring from her open wounds.
That was until she felt a cold hand squeeze her shoulder.
And suddenly, she was back in the courtyard.
Instead of the liberating fresh air and the sun shining over head, it was dark again. Only the lanterns aligning the path and glowing runes on the arms that grabbed her illuminated the area.
She stumbled and crawled back when she saw the remnants of a small fire in front of her.
She reached up to see another patch of her hair had gone white and all of the senses in her body returned one-by-one, her hands, her legs, her tail.
Her wings.
She reached back desperately to feel some semblance of feathers on her back, and feel them she did.
They felt rougher and smaller than they should’ve been, but they were there, and that was enough.
“Nerone!”
She flinched at the sudden sound of Fawn’s voice in her ears again, and saw her standing in the same spot with the two guards as when the flames lit.
She was sobbing, her hair had grown longer and lost some of it’s curls.
Everything in Nerone begged for her to rush up and hold Fawn tight and never let go, but her body was still reeling from the sudden shift between life and death.
“Huh.”
Nerone’s ears flipped up in alarm when she heard that voice and inched her head towards it.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen”.
Dream bent down towards Nerone and studied her for a moment while she remained frozen. “You were supposed to lose those.”
“Yeah, well, maybe you should’ve tried harder.” Nerone hissed. She finally regained complete feeling in her wings and knew what she had to do.
She bent her knees underneath her and found herself able to completely spread her wings out again. With a new sudden surge of confidence she flapped her feathers and shot herself into the air like a silver bullet, the blast being so hard that it knocked Dream off of his balance.
And for the first time in days, she felt that liberating rush of wind against her face. She let herself hover above the courtyard for a moment and saw Dream shouting orders at the guards.
One of them ran off away from Fawn to get a better shot at her. Although the other still held a good grip on the chain, Nerone felt certain she could make it.
She shot back down towards Fawn and prepared to grab her and whisk her away into the sky.
“Fire!”
With that one call, Nerone felt a sickening splash of pain pierce her side and she landed on the ground.
Her vision went blurry, her bones felt heavy, and she could hear Fawn screaming her name while the guard that shot her pinned her wings down and locked her wrists in the chains that connected her and Fawn again.
“No no no. Nerone, speak to me, I’m here.” Fawn breathed in desperation. “Please say something.”
“Good job, boys.” Dream quipped, straightening himself again. “Now, come on. Let’s get them back to their room.”
The guard on Nerone’s side lightly tugged her up towards Dream, “What about this one?”
“Don’t worry about her for now, I’ll figure something out for her later.” Dream snapped his fingers and led them all out of the courtyard.
Her mind was still fuzzy as all hell, but she her heart was still beating rapidly in her chest and threatened to burst out of her chest. She turned her head and saw Fawn’s eyes filled to the brim with despair as they were walked through the halls. “Nerone? Can you hear me?” She whispered gently.
With those words and Fawn’s terrified eyes, Nerone knew there was nothing left for her to do. No Doris to find, no warm hugs to feel again, no dreams of hope that kept her alive while she slept. She couldn’t help it anymore.
She cried.