The cold, steel hand restraints made me wince as they dug into my scales firmly, my claws held secure. Not impossible to break from; they were binded magnetically, which seemed odd given the danger of what they were trying to contain. This was InGen however - I did best not to forget their record of inconceivably poor foresight.

Regardless, it was best not to risk it. While I was confident I could break a pair of cuffs, there was no chance of dodging a dozen fifty-calibre bullets. The guy in charge had been quick to inform me of the power posed by his soldiers' weapons, clearly in some effort to intimidate me. That is, if you consider the instinct of self-preservation 'intimidation'. At this point in my... enlightening journey - both physically and emotionally - I was far past the point of being intimidated.

I looked up again through the narrow, dirty armored glass windows of the truck I was sitting in. Six white-clad figures sat next and opposite to me, their head-mounted sensors turning to stare at me every so often, any expression hidden away behind a sheet of glass and metal.

The truck bounced on its suspension vigorously as it fell into yet another pot hole. I winced and growled instinctively, the firm bench I was sitting on sending a rough jolt through my tail. Immediately the soldiers levelled their weapons at my forehead, stiffening up like meerkats spotting an approaching predator. Hm... that wasn't too distant an analogy.

"What's the matter, fellas?" I mused through my headset, non-phased by their stoicism, "Never seen a raptor before?"

At this I could practically feel the anger underneath their helmets as such fear tactics were clearly falling on deaf ears. How frustrating.

"What's going on back there?" a snappy voice blared out beyond the metal bulkhead towards the front, leading a couple of the men to look in that direction. One remained aiming - and staring - at me.

"Nothing to worry about. Just a little prick." he glared, a good deal of irritation marring his tone. I just shrugged.

"Affirmative. Just make sure he doesn't get the better of you." the voice replied in an instructing manner. I was simply flattered that such an outcome had even been considered.

My focus was quickly averted to the so far continuous droning of the truck's engine easing down. We were stopping. Probably at that god-forsaken place where this all started.

A loud squeal reverberated throughout the cabin as the weathered vehicle came to a halt, almost immediately followed by the back doors opening, allowing the bright tropical sunshine outside to burn into my eyes. Ouch... I clearly hadn't been keeping track of how long I was in there.

A blunt barrel tip jabbed into my ribs once again as I was carted out, my legs stiff as I took a breath of fresh air and surveyed my surroundings. The storm had long gone, given way to a stunning sky of blue and patchy white cumulus. A wave of fear suddenly washed over me.

Blue...

I stopped in my tracks as my attention darted quickly around. Where was she? Was she OK? If that bastard comes anywhere near her-

"Move it, scale-boy!" shouted an aggravated voice behind me as I was rudely brought back to my senses.

Don't worry girl, I'll get you out of there...

-==-

Sighing deeply, Owen sat down groggily on the chair and held his head in his hands. He had tracked down Subject Alpha and placed him safely into InGen's custody, just as they asked. He was sure they would uphold their end of the deal; from them the payout would be substantial, and for a contract like this it would easily provide for him and his family almost indefinitely. He had succeeded at all he needed to.

Yet was this really a victory?

Usual InGen immorality aside, he wasn't sure if Blue would ever forgive him. Marcus was part of her pack. To her, he was easily as important as him - a replacement in sorts for all her brothers and sisters she lost on Isla Nublar. Owen himself had always had a close relationship with her of course - they'd been through thick and thin - but he wasn't raptor. Even with the interpreter tech, there would always be a physical barrier between them that only one of her kind could surpass.

Maybe part of that was why he made this decision. Was he jealous of Marcus?

Stifling his breath and pulling himself together, he lifted and walked over to the re-enforced glass chamber where Blue had been contained for almost six hours now. At first she had understandably been aggressive, leading to the several obvious deep scratch marks visible on its closest pane and dark scuffs along the back wall. Now however, she had tired, and remained sitting on the floor, growling quietly and pacing around every now and then.

As he approached, her attention turned towards him and she began to hiss once more.

"Easy girl..." he said gently, raising his hands in an attempt to calm her. She only snapped in return, no compassion left in her eyes.

Owen sighed, looking back at the door behind him. He had to make this right... he just didn't knowhow.

-==-

"Get that thing off of it." a snappy voice commanded as I felt my interpreter being yanked off me carelessly. I growled irritably. After my recent ordeal you could say I had a few... things to get off my chest.

The soldier carrying the device handed it obediently to a man at the front, his torso bandaged up and his arm in a sling. Typically, it was Dr. Wu; I immediately took some pleasure in remembering that Blue fucked him up like she did. He looked at me and grinned sarcastically.

"I thought I'd take the liberty of removing your ability to speak. It'll make us less guilty when we run our experiments on you... and attempt to fix the royal screw up you've become."

Whatever. I'd already had my fill of painful experimentation this week.

I took a moment to survey my surroundings once again. To my surprise, I was for once not restrained. Provided my neck wasn't being trained on by four rifle-mounted lasers, I could have easily finished this asshole off before he could blink. I knew the chance would rise at some point. I just needed to find Blue first.

Dr. Wu came closer, one eye glancing back at the soldiers beside him as he brought a chair and sat down a couple feet from my face. I would have easily taken the risk to gouge his eyeballs out at this point - however, right now my other priorities took precendence. Unfortunately.

"I have to say it. You're the most stunning specimen we've ever produced." he began, still grinning with false-friendliness as he looked down the stripe of shiny silver scales on my side.

"For... well... a bad egg, that is."

I rolled my eyes as obviously as I could for the lack of my speech. If I was really such a 'bad egg', why hadn't I been done away with already? Oh right, I remember now. This guy needed time to gloat.

"Still not getting through to you, am I?" he continued, a frown emerging on his face. "Not to worry. After all, you're just an animal."

He stood up and calmly wandered over to the door behind him, pressing a button next to what looked to be an intercom.

"Okay - bring her in." he uttered, looking back at me once again with his ugly, sarcastic grin. As a slender, scaled figure much like my own emerged from the shadows, I rapdily felt relief and panic in equal measures. It was Blue. Of course...

Upon immediately recognising me, her jewel-like eyes lit up and she chirped in surprise as she instinctively bolted forward.

Or tried to.

Before she could move more than a few inches, her body had locked up like a statue, her expression becoming blank in an instant as she remained with one foot off the ground. What in the-

It didn't take me long to notice the silver remote in Wu's left hand, as he held it discretely beside him. That remote.

As if nothing, he came up beside the frozen Blue, running a hand along her scaly back and taking a moment to stare her closely in the eye. I growled with aggression, prompting the guards to quickly stiffen their rifles.

"Forgot about this little thing, did we?" he remarked sarkily, shaking it side to side. He straighted up and looked aside, gesturing as he began to explain.

"After you and Owen managed to 'capture' me, I thought it may have raised some questions. I remember clearly, in fact; Owen himself mentioned it to you at the time!"

He chuckled to himself momentarily.

"A bit of a mistake on his part, granted. But nothing I could not fix - it only took a long tangent about 'Saurians' and 'creating the best soldier', eccetera eccetera, for you to completely forget about it. After all, what could be more enticing than an explanation on how you ended up in this mess, eh?"

As I remained deadly silent, the cogs beginning to turn, he frowned again in mock surprise.

"What...? You didn't really fall for that whole story did you?" he gloated.

Whatever was happening, I just knew it was about to get a whole lot worse.

"After everything that's happened, we always leave a failsafe in our products, Marcus. Our research into neuron manipulation was unparralleled." he said, taking a second to look at the remote again and press a couple buttons.

I stared on in shock as Blue slowly came back to life, placing her lifted foot back down and facing me, a blank expression across her eyes.

"Unlike our previous ventures, the possibilities are endless." Wu said confidently, coming up close to me again and smiling. "Blue is just the beginning..."

Frowning at me for the first time, he lifted his remote and pressed something else. Blue's eyes locked onto mine and she began to growl, coiling her legs with her claws outstretched.

And I was truly powerless to stop her.