Experimentation

Chapter One

Never Ending Days

Pain. Pain is all that Test Subject 1706 knew. Never ending pain.

For eleven years, the creature endured pain by the hand of a scientist. Annabelle Dawn would spend hours a day, testing her subject. Torturing it. Experimenting on it. Changing it.

Different experiments that were done to 1706 changed them from what they once were. As a child of about six, 1706 had a full head of auburn hair, with striking green eyes to contrast it. With also a large bright smile to accompany the beautiful face of a child. But after eleven years of tests and experimentations at the hands of this . . . woman . . . changed 1706.

The woman, Annabelle Dawn, was a petite, blonde haired scientist who grew fascinated by the thought of hybridation. The fusing of a human and an animal. In the early stages of her experiments, she would work on children who she hired to work around her house for money. But she always made sure the children were orphans. No one to come looking for them, if they died.

Annabelle's green eyes always lit up behind her glasses, practically gleeful at the thought of fusing people with animals. And her current project, 1706, was to be fused with a panther.

As of now, 1706 had two separate eye colors. One a golden brown of a panther, and the other was 1706's natural green. Coming off the base of her spine, 1706 also had a tail that connected to her nervous system and helped achieve a better sense of balance when running.

The tail was a recent addition. It came maybe . . . three weeks ago. And the eye experimentation? That was only from the first week 1706 was locked down in the lab.

And this week was . . .? 1706 lost count. Lost hope.

Today was no different, 1706 thought as it lays on a cold table, restrained by multiple leather and metal bindings. It's ears strains to listen. The only noise heard in the room was the rattle of the collar around its neck scraping across the table with every movement of 1706's head, the collar that read its former human name.

Annabelle never refers to her subjects by their names. Only their code number.

1706 lays on the table, waiting. Waiting to hear the all familiar click clack of Annabelle's heels. But to them, it wasn't just clicks and clacks it heard. It sounded much more like a bell. Echoing off the walls, the sound banging off its brain. For whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.

Laying on an examination table, 1706 looks up at the bright light looming over them, they're duel color eyes dilating from the bright light. The door off to its right opens.

"My, my, my . . ." Annabelle Dawn coos, looking over her experiment with wide, evil eyes. "It seems the serum worked!"

Reaching a very pale arm up to the top of 1706's head, Annabelle's hand met ears. Ears that stood erect on top of 1706's head. Cat-like ears.

Leaning down to pick up a notepad, Annabelle began writing, voicing her thoughts as she wrote. "Test Subject 1706 reacted very positively to the Panther DNA serum. Ears have erected on the top of their head. Next form of testing will be if the ears have any connection to 1706's nerve system."

1706's golden eye and green eye widen in shock. This devil couldn't be serious. Not again! She should know by the tail experiments three weeks ago!

Annabelle walks over to the table only to be met with loud hisses and growls, with the test subject's eyes slitting like a cat's.

The test subject forgot how to speak many years ago, only speaking in loud hisses and gargled growls. 1706 used to love the scientist. Love her as any child loved their mother.

"Now, now, Charlotte," Annabelle hums, reaching down to touch the creature's head. "You mustn't fight me on this, darling. It's only going to make it hurt worse. Now, lie still and let mommy test you."

1706, Charlotte Dawn, let out a guttural roar from her throat as a scalpel cuts at the base of the black panther ears on top of her head.

"Oh, how wonderful!" the sadistic scientist grins, writing down her findings. "They do attach to her nerves!"

Tears began pouring out of 1706's duel colored eyes. Tears of hatred, tears of pain, tears of betrayal. 1706's mother has turned her into a monster. A mother was supposed to love and care for her child. Not Annabelle. Never Annabelle.

*~*~EXPERIMENTATION~*~*

"So, this is the place," a young boy hums, looking over the large building on the edge of a town.

The young child was roughly around thirteen, his bluish-black hair frames around his face, but not long enough to reach his chin. He wore a black eyepatch around his right eye, leaving his left, which was a breathtaking sapphire color, free to look upon the world. Just one look at this young child, and anyone would know his name. Earl Ciel Phantomhive.

But that's not the only name he's known for. Ciel Phantomhive is also known as the Queen of England's Guard Dog. And he was here on a case from the Queen herself about some children who were send to this house to work, only to never come home again.

The man Ciel spoke too responds with a simple, "Yes, young master." This man was widely known as well. As the young Phantomhive's butler, Sebastian Michaelis.

The butler stands taller than the young Earl, with medium length black hair, with red eyes gazing at the large mansion in front of them. But to the eyes of others, the man looks human enough. But eyes can always be fooled.

Tapping a long, slender, and gloved finger to his chin, Sebastian thinks back over the case his young master caught from the Queen recently.

The home before them belongs to a Jensen and Annabelle Dawn. While Jensen died twelve years ago, Annabelle went on to be a very successful scientist, but lately has been seen less and less by colleagues. Even the young daughter of the two seems to have disappeared shortly after her father died. But Annabelle just told everyone she was living with Jensen's mother up far north.

"My Lord," Sebastian starts. "I sense a living being in there."

"Just one?" Ciel asks his butler.

Nodding, Sebastian continues, "Yes, but on our way here, I heard a scream from what I believe is the basement of this place. Shall we investigate?"

Ciel's single blue eye narrows as he stalks up to the front door. "Let's get to the bottom of this mess."

Mess didn't even begin to describe what Ciel and his butler saw in the basement below. Nobody should have to see that.

*~*~EXPERIMENTATION~*~*

Today was Charlotte's day. After years of trying to escape, Charlotte had a chance to run. But when she took it, Annabelle was waiting for her.

"And here I was hoping I proved to you, escape was useless . . ." the woman sighs, rubbing her eyes behind her glasses. "I guess more discipline training will make you see that. Take her back to the room. I think I'm going to work on her tail again."

The threat of another torture session, another set of long hours with this woman, it finally broke something in Charlotte. Her brown and green eyes glaze over, her mind leaving.

Falling onto all fours, Charlotte's ears sprung from her skull, and her tail slithers out from under her hospital type gown, puffing itself out. Letting out a guttural roar, Charlotte felt her teeth change, elongate. Her nails grew as well, scratching against the stone floor. Her eyes shrink zeroing in on the orderlies that her "mother" ordered to restrain her. Lunging at one of the men, Charlotte sees nothing but red.

When she finally came back to her senses, Charlotte was curling in the corner of the hallway, a thick substance sticking to her body, her gown. Glancing down, her body ran cold, seeing herself being covered in so much blood. When she seen what she had done, she lets out a loud scream, a wailing type.

Even though Annabelle put her through so much torture, that was still her mother. A mother that laid on the stone floor, her throat tore out by something. Like a set of fangs.

Slowly rising from the floor, Charlotte stood up and began walking away from the gruesome scene. She didn't want to see that any more. Didn't want to see what she done.

That's when something hit her ears. On top of her head, her black furred ears twitch as it picks up voices. Two strange voices. Was . . . Was someone here to finally help? Or were they more orderlies? Curiosity got the better of Charlotte as her bare feet strike against the stone, looking for the new voices.

*~*~EXPERIMENTATION~*~*

Ciel's sapphire eye widen at what he sees rounding a corner as he and Sebastian walk through the long corridors.

A girl, no older than seventeen, turns and looks at them. Her hospital gown hung close to her body, caked in blood. But that wasn't the strangest thing about her.

"D-DOES SHE HAVE EARS AND A TAIL?!" Ciel gasps out, looking at the strange girl. "Sebastian! Have you seen anything like this before?!"

Touching his chin in thought, the butler shakes his head. "No, young master. She's human, but . . . also not . . ."

"How the bloody hell is that possible?!"

Choosing not to answer the question, Sebastian takes a step toward the young woman, whose eyes snap at him, a low warning growl coming from her throat.

"Miss, do you know your name?" Sebastian asks, halting his advancement.

Her eyes narrow slightly, her eyebrow furrowing together. Slowly reaching a hand up, she taps to her chest twice.

"Yes, you, do you know your name?" the butler repeats again.

"N-N-Naa . . .N-Na . . ." The girl struggles to even repeat the word.

Holding his gloved hands up, Sebastian takes a cautious step closer, his red eyes moving to her neck were a collar lays.

"I am going to look at that around your neck, Miss," he announces, stepping closer again. "I promise you, no harm will fall to you. And I cannot lie to you, for my young master has forbade me to do so."

Gritting her teeth, and against her better judgement, the female lets the larger male step close, his long, slender fingers moving over the collar.

"Well, Sebastian?" Ciel asks, growing impatient. "Is she one of the children that went missing here?"

"No," Sebastian answers. "This is something much more . . . interesting." Turning his red eyes back to his master's, he grins darkly. "This collar reads as Charlotte Dawn, Annabelle's child."

"What?!" Ciel gasps, running over to see for himself, but the movement was too much for the female.

Charlotte snarls at Ciel jumps back, hissing loudly. Hunching down on all fours, she backs up against a wall, a low growl emitting from her throat.

"You seem to have startled her, young master," Sebastian says, a hint of a smirk lingering on his face. "But what are we to do with her? She wasn't one of the children you were ordered to find, but she's too feral to put in society . . ."

Ciel looks over the young woman, Charlotte, who was still against the wall, but now her body began to shake. She wasn't angry with Ciel for moving close. She was terrified.

"Sebastian, she is to come with us," the young Phantomhive announced. "She is to live with us and we will show her how to live correctly."

Arching an eyebrow at the young Earl, Sebastian voices his thoughts, "Is that wise? A young master such as you, taking in a feral child like this?"

"This intrigues me," Ciel admits. "And her abilities may prove some use in the future. Unless they prove to be fake. That would be a disappointment."

"Then allow me to test them sir," Sebastian offers, reaching a calm and slow hand out to Charlotte who watches carefully. Sebastian always had a soft spot for cats, and he wasn't going to pass up this chance to touch a cat's ear.

But the second his fingers met the black ears that rest on Charlotte's head, the woman hisses loudly and lashes out quickly, sinking her teeth into Sebastian's arm.

"That settles it," Ciel announces, a dark smirk on his face. "She's definitely staying."

With her fangs still embedded in Sebastian's arms, Charlotte's green and gold eye watch Ciel closely, only to narrow in confusion when he holds a hand out to her.

"Please, Charlotte, release my butler's arm and come stay with me. Work for me. I can give you a much better home than this," Ciel offers.

Her fangs retracted from the taller man's arm, looking up at the small Earl.

". . . H-Home . . .?" she stutters out, her voice weak and raspy, reaching out and taking the young Earl's hand.

What was a home? Charlotte never knew a home after her father died, but anything would be better than this place, right?

*~*~EXPERIMENTATION~*~*

Months passed after the Dawn case, and Charlotte fit in nicely in the Phantomhive manor. Sure, it took a while for the girl to even get enough courage to walk out of her own room, but as the days passed and no experiments happened on her body, she grew happier. Braver.

Sebastian, the butler she sunk her fangs in, worked with her, showing her how to do some of her jobs around the manor, which was just cleaning stuff really. But when her duties were complete, Sebastian would help Charlotte re-learn how to speak and act like a human.

Thanks to the help of the butler, and the young Earl, Charlotte was feeling . . . more human. Even from the hybrid experiments her mother put on her.

Those parts of her still make the young woman scared that the rest of the house will hate her. Even though they've accepted them as a part of her. Charlotte hates having them. Because of the experimentations being for hybridation, Annabelle wanted something akin to a super soldier that would hide in plain sight, yet be ready to kill.

That's the one thing Charlotte was grateful of in the experiments, the ears and tail could be hidden, as they come out when Charlotte was startled, or if she is in great danger. But even then, whenever her ears appear on her head, Charlotte tries her hardest to hide them, as if ashamed.

So, as a surprise one day, Ciel walked up to her and gave her a large piece of ribbon fabric.

"I know you still hate what happened to you," he starts, glancing to the top of her head where no ears stood. "But they now make you, you."

Charlotte looks away from Ciel's sapphire gaze. "But . . . I'm a monster," she responds softly, her voice still small and timid.

Sighing, Ciel walks over and begins tying the bow in Charlotte's, now longer, hair. The midnight bow sits on top of her head, effectively hiding her ears if they ever appear.

"So, what if you are?" the young earl asks. "What's the fun of being normal anyway? This manor is full of monsters, you fit right in."

Looking at herself in the mirror in Ciel's study, Charlotte's mix-matched eyes gloss over with tears. In the short, few months of living in the Phantomhive manor, she's received more love and support than in the eleven years with Annabelle.

She was no longer Test Subject 1706. She was Charlotte Dawn, servant at the Phantomhive manor.

Author's Note

Hello everyone! And thank you for tuning into my first ever Sebastian/OC story. I will warn you right now, this will be a VERY slow burn for the romance portion of the story, but it will be very much worth it.

Also, this is the only time I will say this, but I DO NOT OWN BLACK BUTLER OR ANY OF IT'S CHARACTERS! I only own my OC's. Thank you and I hope you enjoy the story!