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A baby's cry echoed in the halls of the laboratory it was birthed in. It was small, smaller than most humans, but it was the perfect size to begin tests with; Vladan, the head scientist leading the experiments on their behemoth of a hybrid, was in charge of taking care of the child.
The child cooed once the doctor picked it up but began crying once again as Vladan injected it with a needle connected to an intravenous drip bag. He placed the child back in its crib and left it alone for the night, uncaring if it cried itself to sleep.
11 months passed, with the child never experiencing the touch of sunlight nor gazing at the stars above the lab, yet they grew into a curious boy with blond hair and bright heterochromatic eyes; neither scientist that watched him knew if he had been born with them or if the DNA they had been feeding him with was the cause of the traits appearing.
Cerulean and amber eyes watched its newly grown tail twitch and sway; it batted at it with pudgy hands and a twitch of his ears, a remarkable adaptation to note down as they had only grown a month into the change of his crib to his nest; his arm still ached from the needle inside it and the medical tape that held it in place, it had become just as much a part of him as the room he lived in became his home.
"Experiment successful, Tabaxian STEM cells integrated successfully, proceeding with next test." His carer muttered, scratching out answers into the clipboard that was tucked into his arm more times than the child in the crib had ever been. "Sandra, prepare the obstacle course."
"But he's only one."
"Tabxians can run and jump at six months old; it's old enough to train."
"Yes, sir." Sandra picked the child up, expertly pulling the needle out of his skin even as they squirmed from the strangeness of it; he tried kicking at the assistant, but it only served to put him in more pain than before; the serum had broken and moulded his legs into cat-like limbs, sprouting fur on them at a rapid pace. It was still sore.
It hurt.
The child cried and fussed, waving his hands around himself to make little fists; Sandra huffed to herself as she kept a tight grip on the experiment in her arms. She quickly passed the room that held their lengthiest experiment yet; guilt filled her heart, but she didn't falter in pushing it away.
She hadn't noticed the experiments meeting each other's eyes, both too curious for their own good.
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The child was deposited back without fanfare; his legs ached, and his body screamed from the exertion; he drank from a bowl in the corner of the room, lapping it up with his sandpaper tongue before he remembered the strange eyes from the room across him. His exhaustion was more potent than his curiosity this time; he climbed into his nest and curled up, fussing quietly to himself as he twisted and turned, hiding away in a makeshift cave for himself as his tail curled around him.
He was still awake hours later when he heard the guards turning the lights off and bathing him in darkness; he flinched further into a ball and squeezed his eyes shut. His nails extended, and he scratched at the blankets that made up his cave. He whimpered and slapped his hands to his mouth.
The blankets were removed from his back, and he screamed, scrambling back and swiping at his attacker with tiny claws; he looked at them and found they were staring at him with red eyes, green, spotted fur covering their body in patches, his lower body was fully covered in the fur with four limbs jutting out of it clumsily as arms pulled the child close. The child started to hiss and cry as his attacker slowly picked him up and emitted a small purr from their chest. The child fussed and hit them with his tiny fist as his tail lashed.
He kept crying, hoping that this time, the guard would come to check on him and help him. It was a moot hope, and yet he still cried; he cried and cried until his room rang with reverberations of a baton hitting the metal door.
The monster hushed him and soothed him with his purrs. It calmed the child considerably, familiarity in his gaze as he hiccuped and sniffled, the forced calm he had taken on after the loudness of the room echoed into his sensitive ears had been taken over by real peace; his fussing had decreased as he turned to the warmth they emitted; the child purred quietly, a first for them, and, for another first, he slept quickly and safely.
"Sleep, Grian." A hand cupped his cheek as the child, Grian, turned his head towards it with a silent hum.
Months later, just as they settled into a new routine, the scientists woke him up with a jostle; he whined loudly, fussing a little as he was sharply woken up. "Quiet," Vladan muttered sternly. The child whimpered and froze up as the scientist held him by the back of his neck. A low growl came from the other room; a shining black eye with a red slit glared daggers at the doctor.
Vladan paid no mind to him, focusing on the child held in his hand as he pressed on to the testing facility; he strapped the boy onto a metallic cot as he squirmed against the leather of the belts.
"Stop that," He squeezed his arm until his bones creaked. "You will not be more trouble than you're worth." He forced his head still with a strap and turned to pull a lever down.
The child screamed as it was injected with an unknown substance, needles as big as his arms jabbed into him painfully as he cried and tried to struggle away; he could hear hisses and growls as minutes felt like hours to the young boy, and he quickly dehydrated himself.
The needles were pulled away as he was wrapped in bandages and sent back to his nest; he curled up and cried loudly, loud enough that the guards tried to bang out the noise with their batons, before a messier and squishier thump was heard, and the guard fell silent.
The door opened, and Grian's wailing echoed down the halls before it quietened into whimpers; the monster came back into his room; it looked different now, but the familiarity was still there; its purrs were the same as he gently tucked himself around Grian covered him with an arm.
Grian mewed at the monster; he wanted to know its name as it gently wiped his tears from the blotchy redness of his cheeks. It brought his bowl to him full of water, and the monster carefully brought it up to his lips to drink. Grian tried to lap the water up, but the beast spoke for the first time, " Grian, drink like this." The beast brought his lips to the bowl and took a gulp.
Grian mewed, and when the bowl was lifted to his lips, he drank it as he had shown him. "Good job, Grian." The monster brought his lips to his head as Grian took more gulps from his bowl.
"Come here, tuck in close to Papa, I'll keep you warm."
Papa.
Papa was a good name for him, Grian thought as he slowly drifted into sleep.
------
The monster, Doc, covered him in a scratchy blanket and rubbed his back; small bumps had started to form on the boy's back, to which Grian twitched and whined in his sleep from the pain. Doc hissed under his breath and glared at himself when he felt his brain change; he focused on the child that had been taken from him as he sang a lullaby under his breath to soothe him.
Grian purred and nuzzled deeper against the fur Doc was sprouting; he hated it, hated himself, hated what they did to him and his child, he hated how powerless he was against them, how they could hold Grian over his head if he dared make any move against them.
They knew how to keep him alive as they ran their tests and did their experiments. For what? A further understanding of genetics? For fun? Just to see what would happen?
They were monsters, and Doc had already failed as a parent in not doing enough to protect his kit. His child.
Grian was his child. He wasn't a kit.
Neither of them were animals. They were supposed to be humans.
Doc sighed and settled into sleep. He was here now; although he couldn't protect Grian from the scientists who took him and made Grian with his DNA, he could at least be there for him after every experiment and test.
He could at least promise Grian that.
Doc taught Grian the best he could from what little time they had. Lately, the scientists had been observing Grian more and more, leaving him alone as they waited for something to happen, but it gave the both of them time together during the days Grian wasn't too tired from the day.
Doc had been trying to teach him how to talk, but nothing came out besides mews and purrs as Grian climbed all over his back and paws. Doc picked him up to put him at eye level. "Papa. Say Papa."
Grian stared at him with a smile on his face and a lash of his tail before he giggled and kicked himself away again. Doc sighed and settled down to watch over him.
One moment was all it took; Grian kept playing and jumping around before he tripped and opened his mouth to scream.
Doc shot up and was by his side in an instant; Grian cried and cried as his back soaked itself in his own blood as limbs jutted out from behind him. Doc's heart ached at the sound, with each wail piercing through his heart like a dagger as he tried his best to soothe him.
Grian flinched away from him in pain; his eyes were squeezed shut as he shivered from the cold hitting his newly formed wings. Doc carefully set him on his chest as Grian buried into his fur, fisting it in tiny fists as he pulled with every jolt of pain that echoed through him.
Doc rubbed his head and felt pin feathers peaking out behind his ears as Grian reached to scratch at them. Doc kissed his head as he hummed a song under his breath; Grian's skin split and tore to make room for the wings growing in; they were tiny, a third of the size of his back, but Doc was sure they'd grow bigger as he ages.
Doc wiped the blood away from Grian using the softest part of the blanket he could feel and cleaned the wound with the water from his bowl; with every whimper and yelp, Grian made Doc's heart crack and shatter.
"I'm sorry, Gri," Doc whispered and purred into his child's hair before he settled down to sleep after hours of walking and soothing the boy.
He was jerked awake when he felt Grian's comforting weight in his arms lift and vanish; Doc hissed loudly and more animalistic than the forced hybrid had ever wanted to sound before he was forced to the ground by a metal cable around his neck and pressed against the bloody sheets from his son's wounds.
Doc struggled, but sleep deprivation and his own changes left him weak and clumsy in his attempts to get to his crying son. He could hear Vladan going on his spiel about successful results and the next phase of the avian additives to his code.
His former lab partner turned to him with a look of disgusted pride before it smoothed out into a satisfied and cruel smirk, "If you think you'll be left behind, fear not; we won't forget you. Say goodbye to your son, Doc; it'll be the last you see of him." Doc growled and tried to lunge at him, swiping at his legs as a long gash bled from his calf; Vladan screamed, music to his ears if it hadn't scared Grian.
Vladan glared and hopped around on one foot as another scientist roughly took Grian away from the bleeding human. Vladan slid his thumb across his throat before he limped away with a storm in his eyes. Doc was injected with a sedative, and the last thing he saw was Grian, trying desperately to crawl away from the scientist and towards him.
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Grian whimpered as he was placed in a bigger room than the one he had previously; he had to go through the tearing and ripping of his skin twice more as more wings grew beneath his skin, each pair smaller than the last as they settled against his back.
His fingers had started to fuse together; instead of the five fingers he was used to, three greeted him as he kept checking them. It scared him, but he already knew loud noises would only make his pain worse.
Black claws jutted from them as they grew pin feathers that itched.
He whimpered at the shifting of his new limbs as they jostled with pins and needles from the movement of new blood flowing through the wings; he whined for his Papa, someone he knew could and would hold him and protect him from the pain.
Grian curled up and waited.
He waited.
Waited.
Waited.
They turned the lights off, and he still waited.
He stopped waiting when he heard a roar; he scratched at the door, and small gauges of broken metal were made as a new noise tore itself out from his throat; sharp, high-pitched chirps rose in pitch and volume every time the roar sounded as it slowly turned into a bleat of a goat, still as monstrous as the hissing and growls of a creeper.
Grian managed to scratch at the metal until his fingers bled, and a small hole opened up, big enough for him to squeeze through. His newly minted wings screamed in pain as they grazed against the broken metal; he ignored it and limped towards where his Papa was screaming from.
His back felt heavy as he pressed on; he turned his nose up to the air as his ears twitched at the sound of his Papa's screams. He let his new talons beat against the rough concrete as he ran towards him.
Papa was inside the room that looked like his; he scratched and dug at the wall before he made a hole big enough for him to fit through. He crawled in with struggling chirps and stalked forwards to the green mound in the corner of the room.
Papa had his claws on his head. It looked wet, and it dripped a viscous red around the four black growths that grew on top and on the side of his head. Grian chirped quietly and purred the way Papa would when he wanted Grian to calm down.
He tucked himself into his side as Papa jolted and reached his hand up to swipe at him. His hand fell next to him after a moment of hesitation and recognition passed through his eyes.
"Oh...Oh no..." Papa whispered; his voice was hoarse from screaming, and Grian reached to wipe tears away from his face. Papa chuckled wetly and brought him close to inspect him; he gently rubbed his fingers against itchy skin and pin feathers before giving him a hug to hold him close.
"I'm okay, , everything's okay."
Something clicked against the concrete as Papa shifted, his hind legs had been replaced by hooves as they curled around his lower body. Grian cooed and chirped softly before he spread his arms and fell into his fur.
Papa purred from his chest and brought him closer, murmuring apologies to his ear.
---------
Months passed quickly, with Grian squeezing through holes he made and Doc using his strength and smarts to trick the locking mechanisms; the two spent their days together more often than not.
Doc helped Grian walk, holding him up by his arms as he took small steps; his son's steps kept faltering as he got used to the added weight on his back, most often than not going on all fours to get around.
Grian, in turn, brought a smile to Doc's face, letting the boy pull him around the room they chose to spend the day in so he could help Doc walk as well.
There were days when the security measures increased, but Vladan was only concerned about the environmental influence it could have on Grian's development.
The scar on his leg and the cane he needed to use were reminders of the consequences of his own hubris, so as a sign of generosity, he increased the security measures to test both monsters but never made any move against them.
He had stalled enough; however, as he snapped his fingers and the guards swarmed inside Doc's enclosure, Vladan pitied the old man, clinging to a child so pathetically as if he could change what was to come; it disgusted him.
The child was around three now, and his bones wouldn't be malleable enough for much longer; he had developed a new serum to test, a new ability he thought would further improve the world's understanding of genetics.
A serum that could give the child the properties of an aquatic hybrid while in contact with water. A shiver of excitement travelled up Vladan's spine as he watched Sandra take the child away from his parent. The serum should be fast-acting, thanks to the testing he did to give Doc his horns and goat legs.
The properties he expected from the thunderbird genes had yet to show up. It frustrated him endlessly at the disappointing results, but perhaps it was a blessing in disguise; he toyed with the IV bag that contained the code that would change him into an aquatic creature.
Vladan hummed and quickened his pace with an excited step and carefully threaded the needle that would drip the solution into the boy's bloodstream. The boy, of course, whined and chirped, shrill and annoying as most children were.
But he was learning as he quietened himself and covered himself in the wings he graciously gave him. His magnum opus, he stroked the wings in an awed way before he pulled back and checked on the pond he had put in.
"Uh, Sir?" Sandra whispered as she looked at Vladan with an expression he was familiar with. "Perhaps we should put the child and his father into an enclosure?"
"Like a terrarium? With a pond?" Vladan asked, perplexed on why she would suggest such a thing.
"They need the enrichment; we won't get accurate results if we leave them inside a box for hours at a time."
Vladan hummed in interest; it had slipped his mind that Sandra was taken in after getting a degree in animal behaviour and hybrid psychology; perhaps there was some merit to doing as she said. "then you'll be in charge of it, Sandra, make sure that there's enough room for the two of them. Sandra bowed her head and left to tend to the terrarium, leaving Vladan with the child.
He hummed as he watched intensely as the solution dripped into the boy's bloodstream; he couldn't wait to see which traits were the most likely to appear, perhaps the serrated teeth of the shark or the toxins of the box jellyfish.
He was torn away from his thoughts when he realised the solution had finished entering the boy, who had started to get up and move away from the scientist. He grinned and lifted the boy up from his pits before making his way to the aquarium.
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Grian struggled lightly in the scientist's grip; Papa hated the man; he didn't like him either because every time he took Grian away, he always hurt.
He was lifted over a big bowl of water that he couldn't hope to finish before Grian was dropped into it with a gasp. Grian flailed around, splashing the water over the rim before the bad man forced his head under; he felt something tear and change, and he kicked his feet as he felt his tail shift and move differently than before
He tried to let any sound escape, call for help, but nothing came, and the slices in his neck and sides moved to take in the water around him; he felt something under his ribs shrink and grow before it settled into something smaller, oddly enough when he breathed he got a lungful of air, Grian breathed the water around him, gradually as the boy stopped struggling.
He felt something grow on the side of his face as he took himself in; he had a pink tail in place of his cat tail, which had a see-through fin surrounding it that tapered into his spine. His arms felt heavy, and he blinked tiredly at the bad man.
The bad man's expression was a mean one; he glared at Grian as he tried to hide in the corner of the bowl, "An axolotl? Surely not." He growled, and Grian cowered; he shook his head and got up to get a bag full of water. "No. I will make you something worth it."
Grian was taken out of the water despite him trying to struggle away. He changed back again, and in the back of his mind, he noticed that his feathers grew faster and less painfully this time. A small respite.
He was poked again by the needle, and the man hung the bag again. he started to panic. Usually, it went by faster, and he got to go home to Papa; he didn't understand why there was another needle. Grian wanted his Papa, so he started to scream and shriek.
"Quiet before I muzzle you." the bad man growled and huffed a second later to strap a gag to the boy, his screams muffled enough to let him work, waiting for the solution to finish dripping as the child cried and sobbed.
The next time he was forced down into the water, he felt his teeth fall out before sharper ones replaced them and tore apart the gag when he bit it, his feathers retracted into his wings as the biggest pair attached to his arms; Grian flapped them to get them off before the bad man growled and he stopped.
He was taken out again, the feathers grew back, and his wings detached from his arms; he gasped in air and cowered from the monster.
Another round, another needle, another moment he was forced underwater; this time, the feathers on his ears retracted to make way for spiked frills; bubbles flew out of his mouth as his legs split off into seven and turned into jelly, the fur shredded as the skin turned translucent and curled inwards into himself. He felt his ears change, becoming more like flaps as they shrunk.
The bad man hummed as he watched him before he sighed and closed the door, muttering to himself as he left Grian alone.
Grian shrieked before he tried to climb out of the bowl. He tried to kick his legs and find purchase, but his legs were bound by his newly minted biology; he tried to vocalise for help but only got silence; he tried to scratch at the glass, but his wings clumsily got in the way.
He opened and closed his mouth, trying to remember how Papa had tried to teach him how to call like him, "pp ppbb mmm pppbt." he tried his best to remember and copy his Papa, to no avail.
He curled on the ground in the empty bowl and whimpered. He couldn't feel his tears flow, but he knew he was crying.
Doc, meanwhile, grew concerned, Vladan never liked spending extra time with experiments, throwing them away once they were used.
His heart pounded in fear as he pulled the door open; he had a feeling the doors were something Vladan was using to toy with him. Doc knew that Grian was caught on the cameras more times than he could count and that Doc had sometimes thrown caution to the wind to get to his son faster.
This was one of those times as he galloped down the hall like the predator he was forced to be. He skidded marks against the concrete with his hooves and claws, and he tried to listen out for his son.
He was quiet; the halls were silent as the guards pressed themselves against the wall and held their breaths as Doc passed.
The creeper-goat hybrid let out a chimeric roar; a creeper hissed, and a goat bleat was layered below the bellow. Doc paused and waited.
He waited.
Waited.
"pbbbt pa." the sound was quiet, but he could hear the strain of a voice trying to chirp but couldn't; his feet pounded towards the metal door, and he rammed it open with his head. Metal bent and pierced, breaking it open as easily as if it was made of tin. "Pa!"
Doc looked around the corners as the aquarium by the wall splashed and whatever was inside banged on the glass. "Grian?"
"Pa!' His voice came from the aquarium, and he turned to it to see Grian's face peeking out from behind the glass; he ran towards it and looked him over. Grian reached for him with a cry, but Doc hesitated in pulling him out once he saw the gills on his chest.
"You're okay, you're alright, ," Doc whispered as he submerged his arm into the tank. Grian crawled and struggled to swim to his arm, but once he did, he wrapped himself around Doc and clung to his wet fur.
Doc took him in; his wings were turned into the pectoral fins of a manta ray, and the main wings fused themselves into Grian's arms; the feathers that used to be behind Grian's ears were replaced by the venomous spines of a lionfish and on his cheeks were the external gill stalks of an axolotl.
Doc breathed out his anger as he petted his head with his other hand; he felt Grian's tentacles wrap around his arms, and from what he could feel and see, they were those of a dumbo octopus.
Doc bit his lip and eyed the wet puddles coating the room; Grian tugged on his fur and tried to climb his arm like a demented monkey. Doc chewed on his lip before his need to hug his child outweighed the worry that he'd kill him; perhaps it would be a mercy to him at this point.
Doc picked him up and held him close to his chest; his spines poked his skin as he sobbed into his hair, muttering 'I'm sorry' into his hair to stem the sobs; he gave a harsher cry as Grian lived and turned back into a land-faring hybrid.
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Vladan gained a bite mark the day after when he went to check on the little tyke; Doc had attacked him like an animal; he would've bit his face in if he hadn't thrown a hand up to save himself.
It wouldn't go unpunished; it took a while, long enough that perhaps they thought that they had gotten away with it, but Vladan was patient; the child had screamed bloody murder once Doc had been incapacitated; a stubborn lot; if the two weren't as fun as they were, he would have cut his losses. But alas he was paid to do this work, this research.
As such, he watched as Doc glared at him, thick silk wrapped around him as he attached himself to a wall; the child was asleep next to him, asleep due to his incessant crying and whining.
"Don't worry, Doc." Vladan cooed. "Once you're back, you'll have a new body to explore."
Doc growled as Vladan smirked; he entered the room and took the boy from the living cocoon. He snarled at him as Vladan closed the door.
Vladan handed the boy over to Sandra as she waited for further instructions; Sandra frowned at the heat coming from the child, and they both paused when the boy started to cough.
Vladan started to curse and hit the wall while Sandra sighed and waited for him to finish, "We could take this setback as another opportunity," She suggested as Vladan glared at the child in his arms.
Vladan nodded slowly, "First, his missing abilities and now this," He waved at Sandra to place the child in his enclosure. "No matter." He growled lowly enough that Sandra had to strain to hear him, "We'll see if he'll take to potions as well as a human child would."
Sandra nodded and laid the boy in a nest of a room full of fake plants and cold spots in the concrete, "We could reach out to an alchemist," she suggested, placing a wet rag on the boy before leaving him to his devices, "We don't need to tell them where they came from," She shrugged as Vladan furrowed his eyebrows.
"And the...moral quandaries?" Vladan asked.
"Don't tell me you wouldn't like another thing to play around with." Sandra rolled her eyes as Vladan chuckled. "Betraying a stranger is easier than betraying a friend."
Vladan's lips curled as he thought of a considerable amount of alchemists who could be paid for their silence, "That hybrid..."
"The hybrid?"
Vladan nodded and smirked, "The goat hybrid, the one that joined Hermitcraft recently."
"Zedaph, was it?"
Vladan waved a hand at her, bandaged and bleeding through as it was, "Whatever his name was, he was known to accept payments for silence."
"I'll contact him." Sandra nodded.
"Excellent."
---------------
Zedaph felt excitement jitter through him as soon as he got the email to make a potion for a never-before-seen hybrid; he answered after he finished gathering his things, putting his necklace made from the quartz and gold littered throughout the nether his best friends had called home for years on and waiting for a response from both them and his admin.
His admin was the one that answered him first; Xisuma was a bit odd, caring about his hermits more than any other, even to the detriment of his health, much to the other hermits' chagrin, now was no different.
"I'm sorry, Zed, but I just don't think it's a good idea, especially with the rumours going around that the geneticist is much more sinister towards hybrids than non-hybrids," Xisuma explained, but Zedaph had already agreed to their email, and he didn't want to go back on his words.
"But Xisuma, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, a never-before-seen hybrid that I get to help. Don't you know what that means?"
Xisuma sighed and nodded, "I know that Zed, but I still think it's a terrible idea; what if it's a lie?"
"I already got his medical records! Listen to this, He was born with cat legs and ears, and he developed three sets of wings at the age of two. At the age of three, they found out that he could shift from a land-faring hybrid to an aquatic creature with who knows what? He's four now, and he's sick, so they're asking me if I could come down and see him."
"How did they get someone like this in the first place?"
"He was born in the facility and his mother named the head scientist as his sole guardian."
"I see..." Xisuma's eyes narrowed at the list. "Zed, I don't know..."
"Please, Xisuma? I could help him!" Zedaph begged and stared wide-eyed at Xisuma; his eyes always got him whatever he wanted with Impulse and Tango, unused to the power of puppy-dog eyes and a bright, excited smile as they were, and apparently, Xisuma was no different.
He watched his admin sigh and nod; Zedaph was about to run off before Xisuma dragged him back with a "Hold it!"
"Awww, X!" He whined as Xisuma huffed.
"I want regular updates; tell me when you get there and what's happening on that front; better yet, why don't you ask someone else to go with you?"
"Xisuma, I'll be fine; they want to keep this new hybrid a bit of a secret because of the increased number of hybrid hunters skulking about, so they won't be too friendly with an extra person."
Xisuma hummed as he pressed his lips into a thin line, "I do not like that."
Zed bit his lip and stomped on his feet, "Okay, okay, how about this? I'll update you and send you a message every hour so that you know I'm still alive?"
"hm, make it every half hour, and you got yourself a deal."
Zedaph pumped his fist in the air and rushed off, "Thanks, X! You won't regret this."
In the pit of Xisuma's stomach, he had a feeling he already did.
Zedaph paid him no mind as he entered the portal through to the HUB; he took his seat at a train and tapped his feet to the carriage in excitement; his tail wagged exceptionally fast as he got closer and closer to the edge of the city where the facility resides.
He rushed out of the train and looked for a car waiting for him to take him to the facility.
He was greeted by a gated, fenced-off area of the forest; despite its size, the facility loomed over it like a medieval castle overlooking its lands; it filled Zed with a sense of dread that dampened his excitement.
Before he could leave, however, a woman with a streak of grey in her hair met him as soon as he stopped, "Dr Zedaph, welcome," she smiled at him, a smile that felt more forced than he had ever seen since he joined the Hermit family.
"Pleasure to meet you...uh..." His face burned as he forgot the name of the scientists who took care of the facility.
"Dr Sandra Spiker, I'm a hybrid psychologist in behavioural and environmental procedures."
"Ah, right, I'm Dr Zedaph then, I'm an alchemist, but you already knew that because you...contacted me...for my alchemy...." Zedaph trailed off awkwardly as Sandra didn't bother to move to shake his hand, "Can I see the hybrid?"
"Yes." Sandra nodded and led him inside. She led him through twists and turns, up and down steps, and at one point, he was sure she led him to the front entrance again. Eventually, they made it to the room where they kept the toddling hybrid; throwing caution to the wind, Zedaph entered the room and frowned.
The door slammed shut just as a blur of blue, red, and yellow knocked into it with a whine and a soft cry. Zedaph gasped and leaned down to check him over, getting a hiss, and feathers hackled at him as heterochromatic eyes glared at him.
"Hey, hey," Zed raised his hands up, placatingly, slowly moving in big gestures so the young child could watch his every step, "it's okay, I'm not here to hurt you."
The young hybrid yowled quietly as Zedaph stepped back; this was going to be harder than he thought; the little boy started stepping towards the nest of ratty and dirty blankets before burrowing himself under one that had green fur covering it.
"Uh...My name's Zed. Can you say Zed?"
The young hybrid eyed him and looked at the door before looking back; he didn't answer.
"Huh... okay..." Zedaph nodded and figured he could start diagnosing with what he could see first; the child was breathing heavily as his blurred eyes glared at his soul; it would've been terrifying if the child didn't have the biggest pout that took up his lips, Zed couldn't help but coo.
The child hissed and raised his feathers again, swiping at him when he needed to get a closer look, "hey...that's not nice, come on." Zedaph looked at the door, wondering where on earth the head scientist was so he could help the child calm down. A sense of unease filled him as his comm rang from his pocket; he fumbled as the child shrieked in distress and shock.
He held a hand up to him as a universal signal for one moment before he took off his science coat to rifle through the pockets of his pyjamas.
He was in a hurry.
The child cooed as Zed pulled out his comm and answered.
"Zedaph? Zedaph, are you there?" X's voice filtered through, worry in his tone as Zed cleared his throat.
"Right here, X. What's up?" Zed asked, light in tone and hopeful that Xisuma's calm and soothing voice could calm the distressed and sick child.
"What's up? What's up, he says..." Xisuma growled out, and Zedaph flinched. "Whatever happened to an update every half hour?"
"Uhh woah woah X, please, I have a child with me." Xisuma's silence was palpable as Zedaph gulped. "Xisuma?"
"Once you're back, you'll be the one explaining to Tango and Impulse about your disappearance."
"What? Wait, X, hold on, I'm fine! I'm sorry about not answering, but please tell them I'm alright!"
"Why don't you, actually, update me, and we'll see."
Zed was about to argue more about telling Impulse and Tango, but a soft coo interrupted him; the child had crawled out from his nest of ratty, dirty blankets—Zedaph didn't want to think too much about where the stains came from—and stared at the comm in his hands.
"Hello Zed? Are you there? I was joking about not telling Impulse and Tango, you know?"
"Hello." The avian whispered as Xisuma paused. Zed covered his mouth so as to not let out a coo before Zed gained an idea. He hung up on Xisuma due to patient-doctor confidentiality and started speaking.
"Yes, see, my name is Zedaph, and I have a child with me named..." Zedaph trailed off, hoping that the child would take it as an invitation to speak again.
"Zedaph."
"No, no, see, my name is Zedaph, so you have to get your own."
"Papa...papa calls me Grian." the child, Grian, whispered as he looked towards the lab coat Zed had discarded.
"Right." Zedaph nodded, "Right, his name's Grian and Grian is about, say....a couple years old; how old are you, Grian?"
"Uh...nu huh...I dunno." Grian chirped sadly, "Papa would know."
"Vladan never told you how old you were? You never had birthdays or anything?" Zed asked as his heart ached.
"Uhm..." Grian shook his head and shook at the questions.
"Well...let's move on."
Grian looked at Zed for the first time, and Zed saw his eyes sparkle, "You look like my dad."
"Oh?" Zed snorted at Vladan's son, calling him a goat; he bet it drove him crazy.
"Mhm!" Grian nodded and reached to point at his ears, "He has ears like those, but they're green, and his eye is like yours."
Zedaph nodded, using Grian's rambling as an excuse to check him over, taking his temperature and explaining gently what he was doing. Grian had a slight fever and a rough rattling in his lungs; his feathers looked plucked and hadn't been preened in what looked like years.
He couldn't imagine how much that hurt.
"Grian..." Zed whispered as Grian stopped investigating his comm, "Have you ever preened your wings before?"
Grian shook his head, confusion in his gaze as he looked at Zedaph, "What's that?"
"It's something avians do to take care of your wings. If you want, I can take care of them for you." Zedaph offered; he knew that it was improper for a doctor to preen his patient, but it wasn't uncommon in hospital spaces.
"I want Papa to do it..." Grian whispered hesitatingly, pausing between each word, eyeing him carefully and tracking his movements.
Zed nodded, even if he felt as if Vladan didn't care enough about Grian to say yes.
"That's fine; I'll be sure to show him how to do it with a doll first, yeah?"
Grian nodded and sneezed into his hand. He miserably looked up at Zed with a pout as Zed hummed and gave him a tissue to blow into. Grian whined and turned his head away, but Zed gently turned his head and told him to breathe out through his nose as hard as he could.
Grian blew into the tissue and breathed easier with a hum. Zed crumpled the tissue up and looked around for somewhere to throw it before he opened the door and threw it out. Grian squeezed between his legs and dashed down the hall; Zedaph called for him before he ran after him.
The natural goat hybrid ran after Grian, hooves pounding down the concrete hallway as the avian turned corners. Zedaph didn't know how he was so fast; there were times when he almost lost him.
But he managed to keep up, just in time to see Grian's tail and legs crawl into a hole that led into another room. Zedaph frowned as he opened it; he was greeted by a silken cocoon as Grian curled in front of it, tucking his wings to his back as his tail curled around him.
Zed quietly made his way to sit next to him; they sat in silence as Grian sniffled and coughed.
Zed didn't think it was from whatever sickness Grian had developed.
Zed breathed in the stale air as he looked at Grian from the corner of his eye. "So...who's this, your friend?" Grian sniffled and rubbed his eyes.
"My Papa," Grian whispered and swiped at his eyes. "I know he is..."
Zedaph nodded, eyeing the cocoon he was leaning against, "Okay," he said slowly before the silence got to him again, and he sighed, "I need to do another test on you. Do you want to do it here in front of your Papa?"
"A test?" Grian eyed him suspiciously, if shakily, "What kind of test?"
"I need to take blood from your arm," Grian tensed, and he prepared to run, "It'll only pinch, I promise."
Grian shook his head and whispered, "No, it'll hurt."
He sounded so sure as he scratched at the scars that littered his arms. Zedaph turned away from them; kids weren't supposed to be this scared, kids weren't supposed to be curious about a ringing phone, and he didn't have any toys in his...room.
Void, he should have listened to Xisuma and never came here, but then, what would happen to Grian.
"I promise it won't hurt too much. Do you want to see the needle?"
Grian shook and tried to press against the cocoon further, "Why? I thought you were nice..." He whispered, and Zed's heart cracked.
"I am nice; I just need a little bit of blood because you're really sick, and I need to ask some questions that your blood can tell me."
Grian giggled wetly and ducked his head, "But...how can my blood tell you things when it can't speak?"
Zed gave a small smile as he held out a hand, "Well, I can show you if you really want to know."
Grian hesitated; it felt like an eternity before he whimpered and looked at the cocoon for guidance. Zed nodded in understanding, "Okay, okay, how about I also take a bit of my blood so we could look through that too?"
Grian looked at him, and apparently, his face showed him that he could be trustworthy as the young avian laid his tiny hand on Zed's, "Okay...but you go first." Zedaph nodded and smiled at the young avian, nervously watching him as he pulled out the sterile instruments. "Where's the needle?"
Zed showed him the needle; it was the smallest one he had.
"That's teeny!"
"Yeah, teeny needle for a teeny arm."
"But the needles are usually bigger," Grian whispered.
Zed felt rage burn at the doctors here; he knew he'd already be coming back. Zed would get Grian and his Papa out even if it was the last thing he did.
He doubted the one in that cocoon was the head scientist. "yeah, so me first, right?"
Grian nodded and crawled to sit right next to Zed as he went through the motions of finding his vein, giving himself a tourniquet and sterilising the area. "okay, and take a deep breath." Grian took a deep breath with him as Zed smoothly pushed the needle through his skin.
Grian whimpered and clung to his clothes, watching intently as Zed got a vial to draw the blood into. He clicked the tourniquet, and the kid squeaked at the noise before the vial filled up; Grian settled down across Zed's lap to get a better look.
"Now we take a deep breath in," Zed whispered and heard Grian breathe deeply with him before he pulled the needle out and pressed a cotton ball to catch the blood that spilt. "And we're done." He pressed a bandaid on it and threw away the needle into his portable trash bin.
"That's it?"
"Yep, but for you, you get a prize. Here, choose between stickers and a stuffie, and you can have it after the blood draw." Zed took out a sticker page full of different birds and flowers and a stuffed plushie of a blue parrot. "here, you can choose one."
Grian hummed and pressed his hand against the soft fur of the stuffie, gasping a little bit as he brushed his hand to and from before he took it and hugged it to his chest.
"Looks like we got a winner," Zed smiled as he moved to put away the colourful stickers. "Now, are you ready for the needle? You can hug the parrot until it's over?"
Grian hesitated but nodded his head, shoving his arm into Zedaph's face as he hid his own into the bird. Zed smiled and gently went through the motions again, asking Grian to make a small fist so he could see the veins in his arm.
Soon after, Grian pulled a teary face out of the bird as Zed placed a small bandaid on his arm and threw the needle away. "and we're done. Do you want to go take a nap or go see what secrets our blood tells us?"
Grian let out a wet giggle as he hummed, "secrets?" he asked shyly as Zed smiled and nodded.
"Secrets it is."
Grian placed his stuffed bird next to the cocoon and slipped a tiny hand into Zed's hand. Zed smiled and led him to the lab. Grian moved his hand to cling to his pant leg; he felt his talons pierce the denim of his jeans and pull him close. "It's okay, I'm here. Do you want me to pick you up?"
Grian nodded against his leg, and Zedaph swopped down to prop him against his hip; the avian buried his face into Zed's neck and clung to his shirt; the older man hummed a small lullaby he was making up on the spot.
Zed quickly found Sandra walking around and smiled at her as Grian froze and burrowed further into what little fur Zed had. "You're...holding him."
"Yup, is that a problem?"
"...no...he usually fights when we hold him."
"Maybe you should stop holding him." Zed's grin turned sharp and threatening as he held Grian closer, "Can I ask where I could have the blood analysed?"
Sandra stayed quiet before she nodded and led him deeper into the lab, where a machine would do all the work for them. Zed smiled and walked up to it, "Here it is...the secret keeper."
"Secret Keeper?"
"yeah, it'll translate the secrets in our blood into writing. Can you read?"
"No, he couldn't." Sandra interrupted as Grian hid again, drawing his wings up to hide himself more and making Zed take in a bunch of dirty feathers into his mouth.
"Bleh," he spat out the feathers and turned Grian away from her, "Excuse me, lady, but I didn't ask you; in fact, I never asked you if you could come, so you should go."
Sandra huffed, and Zed waited for her to leave.
Once she did, Zed drew Grian out again and smiled at him gently. "So, do you know how to read?"
"Papa tried teaching me, but it's hard." He whispered, playing with the edge of his feathers as his tail flicked around.
Zed nodded, "Ahh, the words are grown-up words anyway, pretty boring."
"Nu-huh! Secrets!" Grian flapped his wings as he tugged on Zed's turtleneck.
"Okay, okay," Zed chuckled and watched as his results printed, "I'll tell you the secrets."
Grian nodded, happy with the not-promise promise, before he rested his head on Zed to wait.
He woke to a jostle as Zed took the results from the machine and sat on a chair with Grian on his lap; they looked it over, with Zed telling him why his results were different from Grian's and telling him why he was sick.
"Now what?"
"Now...now I get to make you a potion that would make you all better."
"Can I see?"
Zed smiled, "Of course."
---------
It took days for Zed to brew the potion until he was happy; he started telling Grian stories about the hermits and the outside world that Zed promised him he'd see one day.
Zed had given him a necklace he usually doesn't part with, a white and gold piece that he linked around Grian's neck and smiled at him; Grian rubbed his hand across his nose as he sniffled.
"Grian, listen to me, I'm going to come back. It might take a couple months, but I'll be back in time for your birthday."
Grian wiped his teary eyes and clung to his bird stuffed animal, "Why can't you stay? You're like us."
Zed smiled and petted his head, "I'll come back for you and your Papa, then we could go see the sun together."
Grian sniffled again before he nodded as he squeezed his leg in a clumsy hug; Zed leaned down further to hold him close. "You'll be okay..."
Grian pulled away first and went back to the cocoon to hold the necklace up to it. Zed smiled and gathered his things before he left for the city and the train.
On the train ride back, Zedaph started a long conversation with his admin about the child and his cocoon.